By Kali Gargoyle
Chapter One: Lost and Found
***
"Now look what you've done, Raven."
"I'm sorry, Indigo. It just slipped."
"You are such a klutz."
Three girls stood on a dark street; a street where no one else dared venture, except those with malicious intents. However, if they were there, they weren't making themselves known at the moment. A breeze tossed drying leaves and bits of litter up into a tiny whirlwind that zigzagged across the empty street.
One girl, the tallest of the three, dropped to her knees and reached down into the gutter beside them. She pushed her arm down into the drain and felt around.
"Goddess, Indigo!" another girl cried, smacking her forehead. "It's just a book."
Indigo jumped up and poked the girl in the chest. "It's not 'just a book', Morgan. That was my Book of Shadows! I've had it for three cycles."
Morgan blinked. "By Luna, Indigo, why would you go and drop something like that in the sewers?"
Indigo screamed in frustration. "It's not like I did it on purpose!" She whirled around to face the third girl. "You dropped it."
Raven squeaked and jumped back. "It was an accident!"
Indigo closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She relaxed and reverted back into her usual calm, casual self. "I know, Raven. But we still have to get it back." She looked down at the drainage grate thoughtfully.
Morgan rolled her eyes. "Why not just buy a new one?"
Indigo smacked the heel of her hand against her forehead. "Why didn't I think of that? I'll just go down to the shop and buy another record of the last three months!" She glared at Morgan with those same intense eyes that had been her namesake. Morgan gulped, then quickly recovered and shrugged in her usual I-don't-care manner. Indigo turned and looked around.
"Maybe we can find another way in?" she said, more to herself than her friends.
Raven dropped the curl of dark hair she'd been playing with as her jaw dropped. "We? Into the sewers?"
Indigo held her gaze. "You have a better idea? I need that book back."
"But…but…into the sewers? I mean, ewwwwwwwwwww." She shivered.
Morgan rolled her eyes. "Holy stars, Raven, you are such a chicken."
"I am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
Indigo tuned out her friends with practiced ease and searched around. She didn't want to risk the manhole cover in front of them, smack in the middle of the street. She really didn't feel like becoming street pizza tonight, even if the road was abandoned of all life, save for them.
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
Ah. Indigo kicked aside a cardboard box and grinned down at the metal circle. She turned back to her friends. "Hey, guys!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
Indigo sighed and squatted down to try and open the cover herself. She slipped her thin fingers into the holes and pulled.
No good, damn.
The sound of an aluminum can hitting brick caught her attention. She stood quickly.
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
Indigo smacked them quickly across the shoulders and they looked at her as if she'd just taken away their favorite toy. Well, she had stopped their fun.
"What'd you do that for?" Morgan snapped.
"That hurt," Raven whined.
"Shh," Indigo hissed. "I thought I heard something. Someone's here."
Raven clutched onto Indigo's leather jacket. "Let's go then."
Indigo nodded. Raven smiled and let go of her sleeve.
"As soon as we find my book."
***
The sewers of New York were dark, damp, cold, and dirty.
Home, sweet, home, Raphael thought as he and his brother tromped down the tunnel.
Michaelangelo walked ahead, humming to himself. His cheeriness was beginning to get on Raph's nerves. And that stupid song! It bugged Raph that he couldn't place it, although he was sure he'd heard it before.
All this, and the fact that the pizza parlor had been out of his favorite topping, made Raphael very irritable. More so than usual. In fact, he was two seconds away from punching Mike in the beak if he didn't lay off the humming.
"Hey, what's this?"
Mike balanced the two pizzas in one hand and bent down the pick up something. It looked like a book, deep red with a silver symbol on the front, some sort of star.
"Whatcha got there, Mike?" Raph walked up and tried to take the book, but Mike turned and he got the pizzas instead.
"It looks like some sort of book." Mike opened it and flipped through. Some pages were lined, others were blank, and about a fourth of the book was filled with writing and drawings.
"It looks like a diary," Raph said. "Don't read it." He made another grab for it, but Mike evaded yet again.
"Hold on, maybe there's a name, so we can return it. 'This Book of Shadows is the property of Indigo Tarot, ranking member of Silver Circle Coven'," Mike read.
"Coven? Crap, Mikey, shut the damn book!"
Mike rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you believe in witches?"
"We've seen weirder."
Mike pondered this for a second. "Gotcha." He grinned. "But doesn't Indigo Tarot sound like a hot name? Very exotic."
Raph groaned and finally snatched the book away, handing the pizzas back to his brother. He stuck the book in his coat. "You take these back to the lair. I'll go topside and see if I can find the owner."
Mike pouted. "You just want first shot at that Indigo chick."
Raph growled and Mike jumped.
"I'm going, I'm going!"
***
Morgan caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. "Indigo…"
"Yeah, I see 'em."
Raven tightened her grip around Indigo's arm. "Please, let's leave."
Indigo smiled down at her. "Now aren't you glad we dragged you to our self-defense class?"
"I distinctly remember the first defense involving running."
Morgan snorted a small laugh. Her gaze caught a tall man walking towards them. Hardly a man, more like a boy, about the same age as them, eighteen. She recognized him from school but couldn't remember his name.
Five friends joined him, and they surrounded the girls.
"Well, hello there ladies," the leader said smoothly. "Young lovely things such as yourselves shouldn't be out alone at this time of night." Some of the boys snickered.
Indigo met his gaze. "Go away, Brad."
Morgan mentally snapped her fingers. Brad Crenshaw, that's his name. Captain of the wrestling team. The wrestling team that wouldn't let Morgan join. This would be fun.
Indigo put a hand on her shoulder, as if reading her mind and forbidding the action.
Brad chuckled. "I don't think so, witch. See, I know what you three did to Karen."
Raven gasped. "We did nothing! It's not our fault she got suspended."
An ugly sneer invaded Brad's handsome features. "Spare me, we’re here to make sure you get punished."
The boys laughed as they closed their circle.
***
Raphael pulled himself out of the hole and looked around. He was in a part of town he and his brother's didn't venture into often. And with good reason. It used to be Foot territory, and still housed small groups who refused to die. Not even a ninja would walk these streets, armed or not, unless absolutely necessary.
Just my luck. He retraced his steps and found the spot above where Mike had found the book. He pulled the crimson book out from his coat and shivered. Just holding the damn thing freaked him out. He wanted nothing more that to throw it away and head back home.
But no, he couldn't do that, it would be wrong, he could hear Leo say. He opened the cover and scanned. Up in the upper left corner of the inside cover was an address. But it was to a place way across town.
Raph groaned, "Why me?" At least he could travel by sewer and he could leave this god-forsaken neighborhood.
A scream interrupted his thought and he ran towards the sound before his mind could argue.
"Hold it, freak!"
He skidded to a stop and tensed up; ready to teach a lesson to whomever had said that. It took him a confused moment to realize that the insult was not directed at him for once.
The full moon illuminated the scene before him perfectly. Six boys surrounded three girls, all dressed in somewhat gothic clothing. The two taller girls stood ready to fight while the shorter girl looked ready to bawl.
Raphael reached for his sai and gripped them, his two fingers curling around the familiar metal.
Cowards, he thought. Pickin' on girls.
Just as one of the boys made a grab of the blonde girl he was pulled back into the shadows. The other boys stopped and stared into the shadow that had swallowed their friend.
"Daniel!" one of the boys cried.
Something moved. It stepped towards them, too short and too bulky to be their friend.
Raven hid behind Morgan and Indigo stood ready to defend them both. The five remaining boys forgot about the girls for the moment.
A fist flew forward and flattened the nose of an oriental boy, sending him to the ground. Another boy got kicked in the gut before something slammed down on his shoulders. Two of the remaining boys fled, leaving Brad Crenshaw, the girls, and Raphael.
"Leave them alone," Raphael growled.
Brad tried to mask his fear. Instead, he turned to the girls. "This isn't over." He followed his friends, the fallen three bringing up the rear.
"Coward!" Morgan yelled after them.
Indigo relaxed and straightened her jacket. "Thanks."
Raphael started. "Uh, yer welcome. Those jerks needed to be taught a lesson."
Raven finally let the tears flow. "I wanna go now, Indigo!"
Indigo turned her head towards the small girl. "Yeah, I guess I'll just have to get another book."
The book! Raphael dug into his jacket. "Wait a sec…ah ha!" He held out the book Mike had found in the sewers.
Indigo let out a cry of joy. "My Book of Shadows!" She grabbed the book and clasped it to her chest. "You found it! Thank you!" She leaned forward and kissed his cheek.
Raphael blushed, then shied back. "Well, my brother found it and I figured I oughta return it."
Indigo brushed a strand of blonde hair away from her eyes. "You didn't read anything, did you?" Her voice held worry, not accusation.
"Only to get your name and address, Indigo." He turned back into the shadows. Mike was right…hot.
He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, you know my name, what's yours?"
Raphael raised an eyeridge. This encounter was unlike any other he'd had with humans. "Uh, Raphael."
Indigo smiled. "How angelic."
Raph snorted. Angelic? Me? Right. And Mike does Calculus.
"That's Raven," she pointed to the small girl with thick black hair, "and that's Morgan," she pointed to another girl with an unnatural red pixie cut. "Nice to meet ya, Raphael."
"Yeah." He suddenly became very uncomfortable. "I gotta go. Maybe I'll see you around." Why'd I say that?
"'Kay," Indigo waved as he left.
Raphael paused just above the open manhole cover to make sure he wasn't followed. He thought for a second that he should follow the girls in case they ran into more trouble, but then he caught sight of them getting on a bus. He climbed down the ladder and pulled the cover back into place.
He leaned against the ladder and gently touched his cheek. It still tingled. He walked home slowly, breathing in the memory of her lavender perfume until the real scent of pizza invaded his senses.
"Hey!" Mike greeted with a mouthful of pizza. "How'd it go?"
Leonardo swallowed. "Don't talk with your mouth full, Mike."
Mike swallowed and rolled his eyes at the same time. "So, did you find the Indian chick?"
"Indigo, Mike, and yeah, I returned the book."
"Well?"
Raph hung up his coat and fedora. "Well, what?"
"What about her? Geez! Come on, I want details!"
Raph grabbed a slice of pizza. "She's like every other human girl, Mike, out of our league. She and her friends were getting bullied by some punks, but I took care of 'em."
"Were you seen?"
Raphael spun around to see their sensei, Splinter, standing in the doorway of one of the subway cars. "Uh, ummm…I had to return the book. I had my coat on, I don't think they noticed I was a turtle. The punks never saw me."
Splinter twitched his whiskers. "For all our sakes, I hope not."
Leo squinted. "Raph…is that lipstick?"
Raph's hand went up and covered his cheek. Damn.
Mike nearly choked on his pizza. "cough cough Lipstick? cough"
***