— chaos arising —

     ELOISE'S colorful shoes hit the hard concrete of the ground with a thud, and it was then that she realized based on the huge piping tunnels that she was somewhere in the sewers. She had to applaud the turtles on their creativity and how much sense it made.

Of course, reptilians would live underground in the sewers. However, it was also unnerving. Because New York City was huge, and the sewer systems it held were just as big, if not bigger. It was very easy for a person to get lost (more than likely to happen actually, because the sewers were not meant for people to play around in), not to mention if she gets lost somewhere down here, there was a very high chance that no one would ever find her.

Eloise shivered at the thought, but it was not enough to stop her from moving. On one end was that huge gaping tunnel that seemed to lead into a dark expanse of nothingness, she could only assume that was the direction from which they came.

On the other end; however, was a smaller tunnel pipe that leads into some sort of living quarters. She pouted, holding onto the straps of her backpack a bit tighter. Her backpack was a swirling array of colors with a huge unicorn on the front—its hair quipped to the side coolly.

Not to mention, there was a huge and almost 80s' centric wording of "trot along bitch" placed up top. It was in bright pink and purple with a robotic font.

Eloise thought her backpack was a good reflection of herself in some aspects. Sweet and salty with more zany qualities than any normal person would ever possess. Top it off with more energy than the sun and you might as well have Eloise Thomas.

Eloise trotted through the smaller pipe that led into the living area, the tunnel she could only assume the four turtles previously went through. She was greeted by a lab from what she could tell.

It was very similar to the garage in the sense that the aesthetic was glowing purple, except here there were far more unfinished and finished projects.

Is that a jetpack?!

Eloise all but raced over, haphazardly avoiding the random pieces of scrap metal and wires that lined the floors. Sure enough, it was a jetpack of sorts, right next to another spider-like backpiece. It took Eloise a second, but she realized these were turtle shells or at least fake ones. They must have been armor of sorts.

She vaguely remembered the purple one was wearing an armoring of sorts over his natural shell, unlike his brothers. Eloise had not been able to see exactly what it looked like, but she knew it was purple and it was there.

Taking one last glance around, just to make sure no one was there, she wasted no time in placing her hand upon the cool metal of the jetpack shell. She smiled and gave a little giggle, being wary but also examining the tech to her heart's content.

"Sick," she muttered, tilting her head.

As stated before, Eloise had never been one for school. She was not particularly smart when it came to school smarts, but she was also easily fascinated. She did not understand the schematics behind most sciences, but the overall concepts and ideas, and discoveries still intrigued her. She was more than happy to watch an hour-long documentary about space or biology or the environment even if she could not understand most of what it was talking about.

The same could be said about English or History. Except, you did not need to understand the schematics behind those subjects like science, you simply needed to listen or in terms of English—have an open mind and clever ideas.

Math was admittedly the only subject that never had and definitely never would fascinate her.

Like seriously, fuck you math.

Reluctantly, Eloise chose to start moving away from the lab and to the door that was left open. It was a double door that had a heavy latch on it; however, the door was left open with the latch dangled down.

Eloise, despite her excitement, was very cautious as she peeked her head out of the lab. She had to be careful, she was in an unfamiliar environment with potentially dangerous mutants. What met her eyes shocked her to no end.

It was the main atrium, or what appeared to be the main atrium of this whole sewer lair. Eloise's eyes went wide, her mouth dropping. The entire atrium was built into possibly the coolest and most dangerous-looking skatepark she had ever seen. It was about three stories high with winding ramps and steep drops.

Multiple skateboards of every bright color and variety hung across the walls like awards. On every level, there were smaller tunneling corridors that seemed to lead to other parts of their little hideout.

Thankfully, there was a staircase that leads to each level on the side of the skate ramp. Eloise smiled, taking the skate ramp from one level to another must've been a hell of a lot of fun though.

Realizing that she could not stay out in the open staring at the ramp for all eternity, she quickly scampered up the steps. It seemed that the only things on the first level were the ramp, the lab, and the garage.

Upon arriving at the second level, Eloise quietly wandered through one of the tunnels. It was very similar to a hallway, and she paused at the multitude of pictures that lined the walls. She nearly awwed out loud at the sight of the four turtles in what appeared to be their childhood. They could not have been older than five in this photo.

Raph stood with his arms crossed in the back, Leo and Donnie with their arms wrapped around each other, and finally little Mikey with a bright smile sitting in front. It warmed Eloise's heart. But it also brought slight sadness when she remembered her own deceased brother.

Even if they were adopted and had not met until their childhood, the bond they held was nothing less than normal siblings.

Eloise's eyes moved to the next photo, this one intrigued her more. It was the turtles looking about the same age as they were now, except this time she could actually see them clearly and in their full glory.

They were all tall, and Raph loomed over them the most. She realized that their color scheme went far beyond their masks. It went to their whole dress-up gear. Purple, red, orange, and blue. The only thing not a specific color on each turtle was the black spandex that Mikey, Leo, and Donnie apparently wore.

Raph was still wearing red spandex. She also noticed for the first time that the purple one, Donnie, adorned drawn on (also really good-looking, mind you) dark eyebrows over his purple bandana in place of actual brows. It made her smile brightly, and she found a really odd want to either have him draw in her brows one day or for her to attempt his.

However, what caught her attention next was the fifth person in the photo. To her surprise, a girl who appeared to be around her age was smack in the middle of the brothers. She was far shorter than them all, she literally only came to just below the shoulders of Leo and Donnie.

Considering Mikey is the shortest, she came just past his shoulders. But Raph—she only came to maybe his mid-section if that. It was almost comedic. Then again, she doubted that the girl was even that short, the turtles were just rather large mutants overall.

Though, it seemed all mutants were far bigger than the average person. That Hypno guy and the crazy pigman she saw on the news were hella huge—probably bigger than Raph!

Eloise tilted her head at the dark-skinned girl who wore her hair in two puffs. Her glasses were a dark red and she was leaning against Donnie's side in the photo but Leo had his arm around her while his other held up the rock symbol.

Eloise was not quite as nervous as before. It appeared that these mutants had at least one other human friend, and they did not seem all that dangerous based on the way they acted previously.

In the final picture that Eloise took her time examining, it was once again the four turtle brothers—except this time they were hugging something furry. She suspected it to be an animal of sorts at first, but upon further inspection, she realized to her astonishment that it was another mutant. Not just any mutant either, a short mutated rat is what he appeared to be, and he was wearing a traditional Japanese robe.

Wow—this place is seriously weird. And Eloise loves weird.

Shaking her head, Eloise continued on with her exploration. In seconds, she paused upon seeing an opening to another room. Peeking her head around the corner, she nearly jerked it back in surprise. It was a projector room of sorts with a large comfy looking recliner.

Sat in the recliner was that same rat mutant man she saw in the picture, except he was snoring away while the four turtles sat around the chair, their gaze intently focused on the Lou Jitsu movie currently playing.

Plates filled with pizza and other random pizza delicacies were in front of the brothers. Well, wasn't this a sight?

Eloise made sure to be extremely quiet. The boys were not talking at all, as they were too focused on the movie. However, the loud noises of the action and the snores of the rat-man were easily able to drown out any noise that Eloise might make.

Unless she went out of her way to be as loud as possible, she highly doubted any of them would notice her. She remained standing there for a few minutes, her eyes flicking from the movie to the turtles watching it.

Again, that hint of sadness washed over her as she gazed at the movie. Slowly, her lips turned from a smile into a frown, her mind moving before she could stop it. And suddenly, memories flew before her eyes unwillingly, and the turtles watching that movie were not what her attention was on.

ADHD is fun most of the time—it's like a bridge out of reality when you don't want to focus on boring stuff. It gave way to creativity and a world of imagination. But sometimes, those unfocused thoughts became so loud that it was impossible to ignore. It pulled you to places in your own head that you never wanted to discover, to memories that you never wanted to recross.

"OUCH—HEATH! Why'd you hit me?!"

"You are such a baby! That so did not hurt!"

"What the hell are you even doing in my room?"

"Gramps wants to know if you want to watch Lou Jitsu with us?"

"Uhm, no thanks, I'll pass..."

"Oh, sorry I forgot you're too busy obsessing over that guy in your Spanish class..."

"GET OUT, YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

"Ha Ha!"

Eloise shook her head, her thoughts flying out the window. Thankfully, she was unable to fall deeper into her sadness as the sight of Mikey cheering loudly and the others shushing him put a smile on her face.

Okay, so she was definitely being a hardcore stalker at this point. Like seriously, breaking into their vehicle, proceeding to stowaway into their private home, and now stand here secretly watching them. This was just creepy.

But to be fair, how often do you come across mutant turtles living in the sewers? This was something straight out of a movie or book, you had to be crazy to pass up an opportunity like this.

Choosing to move away from the projector room, Eloise made her way up to the third and final floor. She realized this floor only held a few rooms with random junk as well as what appeared to be the mutant's bedrooms.

They were only separated by curtains of their respective colors, and as nosy as Eloise is and as much she wanted to snoop through their rooms (judge all you want, but the truth is everyone is a nosy asshole behind closed doors—Eloise is no exception to this) she held off and chose to go back to the first floor. She was admiring the skate ramp once again.

Eloise was no skateboarder, she tried once and gave up after five minutes. She found it far too hard to even bother with trying.

However, rollerskating and rollerblading was a completely different story. It is important to remember that before the incident, Eloise was practically a pro-figure skater. She was looking at full-ride scholarships to multiple colleges for skating as well as possibly a place on the U.S. figure skating team to go to the Olympics.

That placement had been a huge maybe though, and now that she basically abandoned ice skating that already small chance was long gone. The scholarship thing was still there though; however, it was on the track to disappearing unless she once again picked up the sport in the next few months. She was very unlikely to do that though, just the thought of figure skating without either of her mothers in the stands to cheer her on made her sick.

Rollerskating, are could do that though. She picked up on rollerskating and rollerblading way back when she first started ice skating. Rollerblading was a good way to practice figure skating skills when there was no ice around to practice on.

In L.A., where it never snowed, then rollerblading always a figure skater's best friend.

But, it was also more than that. She found a certain love for it that was hard to come by. Eloise absolutely loved to visit the rollerskating rink just to dance around and have fun. It was not competitive like figure skating was, and she was able to excel with it as she pleased with zero pressure.

There was freedom brought about by rollerskating that would always have her heart.

Looking at this skate ramp, she found herself wanting to put on some blades and skate to her heart's content.

Eloise was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of footsteps. She looked up to the second floor, only to see the turtle in purple—Donatello—walking with a steaming cup of what she could assume to be coffee.

Within a split second, the two of them made eye contact just as Donnie brought his mug up to take a sip. Not knowing what else to do, Elle brought her hand up and casually waved to the turtle.

To her utter shock, the guy simply waved back before turning and continuing on his way.

What the hell? Did they all know she was here and just not care or something?

Eloise's rampant thoughts were suddenly cut off by the situation catching up to Donatello. The turtle in purple's eyes widened as it just occurred to him that a complete stranger (a human girl!) just waved to him.

In his own home. In the secret lair!

In the lair that was a secret because he and his brothers were supposed to be a SECRET to the human world!

Donnie was choking on his coffee before spitting the hot drink out dramatically and whirling around. He moved at the speed of light, looking back at the human girl. The HUMAN girl who was NOT April O'Neil!

Eloise awkwardly stood there with her hands behind her back, watching as the situation seemed to hit Donnie. She watched as he rushed over to the platform railing, gazing at her in unbridled shock.

"Well," she huffed, "better get going!"

And with that, Eloise attempted perhaps the most reckless of moves that she could pull. She spun around and high-tailed it back to where she first came—the garage. She could hear Donnie yelling for his brothers in the background, but she was too focused on getting out of that situation.

Eloise practically slid on the floor from how fast she was moving, but she was no mutant. One glance behind her shoulder and her heart was stopping at the sight of the huge red-coded Raph literally jumping from the second story and landing on the floor so hard it shook the atrium.

She did not dare look back after that. Sure, they were cool to admire from afar, and a part of her had wanted to interact with them, but not like this.

"Hey—it's a girl that isn't April!"

"Kinda figured that Mikey!"

"She's heading toward the garage!"

"How'd she even find our place!"

"Blue, make me some hot soup!"

"Not now Dad!"

Eloise huffed and as she passed through the lab, she did not dare to pause to look at any of the cool trinkets once again. Instead, she focused on getting through the pipe door that led to the garage. Turning around, Eloise cried out while attempting to push the huge and very heavy sliding door closed.

She groaned, but ultimately the large door started giving way much slower than she would have liked. It would not have been a problem if she was not trying to close the door in a hurry. Her eyes widened upon seeing the quartet of color-coded turtles heading straight for her with Raph leading the way.

Donnie was right behind him with the other two just inches next to him. The turtle in purple's eyes widened when he realized what that girl was trying to do.

"Hey, no—stop her!"

Alas, to the turtle's grief and to Eloise's luck, the door finally slid closed in the nick of time. She moved the huge lock lever in place, sealing the door closed (unless she chose to open it) just as Raph smashed against it.

Unfortunately, Donatello—ever the genius—had long since upgraded both his garage and the lab doors so that it took immense force to bring them down. The force of a rocket launcher, to be exact.

After too many incidents of Raph being clumsy and smashing straight through his lab doors or Leo riding his skateboard too fast and causing damage, Donnie had done something about it. He had never regretted that decision as much as he did now.

For now, a stranger had locked herself in his precious garage with his even more precious baby. The turtle tank.

Donatello wanted to weep.

Eloise sat on the other side of the door, sighing in relief when she realized she was safe for the time being. She was not sure how long that would last; however, as there was another tunnel opening on the other side of the garage.

And it had no door or covering.

That was the way they had ridden in, but she was relatively sure that it did not connect to any other part of the lair. Therefore, it would take the turtle brothers a hot second to get into the garage from that way.

She was relatively sure that the garage was soundproofed because with the door closed she could no longer hear whatever the brothers were talking about. Technically, she could not even hear them pounding on the door, she only knew they were doing it because of the vibrations she felt as she sat against the door.

"Alright, Elle," she mumbled to herself, "you might not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but we got to think of something. What do you do to get out of this situation? There is always a way out, right?"

Eloise pulled her beanie off and scraped her hands through her short locks in aggravation. She really hated when she was put in situations where she had to think. The steel door rattled against her back causing a small squeak to escape Elle.

Her backpack was starting to dig into her back uncomfortably. She huffed, desperately trying to come up with an answer.

"I would think the obvious answer would be to go through the open tunnel and head up the first sewer grate that you see—God knows New York has thousands of them..."

Elle's face paled, and slowly she turned her head to face where the familiar voice was coming from. On the backside of the garage, one of the walls had a huge screen across it. It had previously been clicked off and was dark. Elle realized at this moment that it was not any screen but rather a monitor.

However, it was no longer off. No, the turtle in purple—Donatello's face was slapped onto the screen. His drawn-on eyebrows were furrowed in an intimidating manner, and Elle could see the other three brothers wrestling from behind Donatello to also see the screen.

Elle figured that Donnie must have been using that tech bracelet she had seen him typing on previously. It would explain why it was too small for the other brothers to also see.

Donnie gave a cocky smirk at the fear written across the girl's face, it was far too often that their enemies underestimated him and his brothers. It was about time that Donnie gets the credit he was due.

"BAM, that's right—hacked my own computers, well didn't really hack but still, I'm just that good!" Donnie started, quickly losing sight of the situation to compliment himself.

"Donnie!" His brothers chorused to get him back on point making the purple-clad turtle roll his eyes.

"Ugh, you guys never appreciate my superior intellect—!"

"Donnie, if you don't cut it out with your MIDDLE CHILD NONSENSE...!"

"Grr, fine, Raph! Since you dumb-dumbs obviously don't appreciate me," Donnie mumbled sourly and Eloise did not know what to think anymore.

What the fuck? Who are these clowns?

However, she jumped when harsh brown eyes met her own through the screen. Based on the small red dot in the corner of the screen, she realized that these turtles could see her perfectly from their end as well.

"Back to my point," Eloise shrunk under his intense stare that did not let up in the least, "that would be the smart and only way out of there without confrontation," Donatello spoke about the previous suggestion he gave to her.

Eloise wondered why he was basically writing her plan on how to escape. His brothers were thinking the same thing based on the disagreement they started spouting. Donnie only held up a silencing hand.

His lips curved into such a carnivorous smile that it sent literal chills racing down Elle's spine.

"However, there is only about a 10% chance that you actually find a manhole before we go the long way and find you first—considering we are familiar with the New York sewage systems. Even if you were to escape," Donnie spoke with his hands, as though explaining this to a child, "we will find you..."

"I will find you and I will kill you," Leo spoke up in a sad impression of Liam Neeson earning a harsh shove from Raph and an overexaggerated "shush!" from Donnie.

"What," Leo was snickering at his own joke, slapping his knee and making his previous line sound anything but scary, "it was a good one!"

"Not the time, bro—just no," Mikey shook his head in disappointment at his older brother.

"Anywayyyy," Donnie ground out, his attention back on screen and to the cowering girl in his lab.

Much to his disappointment, Eloise was not cowering but rather staring at him incredulously. Well, looks like his brothers went and ruined any intimidation they previously held over her. Donnie threw an annoyed look to a still chuckling Leo.

"Instead of wasting your time on a 10% chance of immediate escape and 0% chance of overall escape, you might as well surrender now, open that lab door, and we can talkkkk," he drew out his last word.

There was a long and still moment. A moment in which Donnie and Eloise held eye contact, both trying to interpret what the other would do. However, it was a no-brainer. Eloise kind of wanted to laugh in his face, Donnie may have been trying to be intimidating, but he still gave her the script to a way out.

Find a manhole.

With that, she ditched crouching by the steel door and sprinted out of the open tunnel. She heard Donnie cursing as well as Leo slapping his head.

"Nice job giving her an idea on how to escape, genius!"

But she was already long gone. Her footsteps echoing through the sewer tunnels as she ran.