Dude, This is No Vacation (A Sonic-TMNT Crossover)

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

No one in their right mind should have been waking up this early.

Kay had dragged herself out of bed, changed, freshened up, gone downstairs, and met the taxi driver outside of the hotel with sleepy eyes. He took her luggage and tossed it in the trunk effortlessly and, she noticed, a bit impatiently, but she couldn’t blame him. It was too early for any human to be awake. She held her backpack close to her and looked around again, squinting in the bright lights of Times Square. This really was an amazing place. She was sad she had to say goodbye.

The taxi driver climbed in and shut the driver’s side door loudly, jolting her back to her senses. She climbed in the rear passenger side and had no sooner closed the door than they were on their way. Probably trying to beat traffic, Kay thought to herself as she hurried to get her seatbelt on.

It would be about a twenty-five minute drive, if she had done her research correctly. Kay settled back in her seat and leaned her head against the window, trying hard to stay awake and take it all in. Once she was in the airport, there would be no more ground-view admiring. She would see the city from the sky for just a moment, and that was it. She’d be on her way home.

The Queens-Midtown tunnel was extremely long. Kay kind of liked going into the tunnel, though she noticed that the radio went out upon entry. The taxi driver switched it off completely, and the silence was intense. She was so used to city noise by now that having none was a foreign concept to her senses. Well, she figured, she’d better get used to it. Where she was from, there was no such thing as traffic.

The taxi turned off shortly after leaving the tunnel, catching Kay’s attention. She sat up a little and frowned. She’d looked at a map of the route last night, and she was pretty sure the turn they’d just taken wasn’t on it.

“Um, you’re taking me to LaGuardia, right?” she asked the man up front.

He lifted his head so his voice could carry back to her. “This is a shortcut, lady. Beats traffic.”

“Oh.” Kay’s brow wrinkled in confusion, but she decided not to press the issue. This guy certainly knew the city better than she did. Still, she couldn’t shake the sudden uneasiness that came over her.

The next left turn was definitely wrong. They pulled onto a dirt road and came to a stop. Kay’s stomach clenched. She was in trouble. Before the driver had put the taxi in park, she unbuckled herself and hurried out of the cab.

“Whoa, whoa, where are you going?” someone asked. Kay stopped short when she saw the man on the other side of the car who hadn’t been there before. The taxi driver took his time getting out, leaning against the vehicle without a care in the world and smirking at her. She just now noticed the tattoos on his arms. Were they dragons or snakes? It was too dark to tell.

She risked a quick glance over her shoulder and noticed another man approaching from behind. He didn’t have any weapons, but that could change real quick if she wasn’t careful. Kay looked back at the man who had spoken to her and slowly put her hands up. “What’s going on? What do you want?”

“Take it easy, sweetheart,” the man answered in a gentle Jersey accent. “We don’t want no trouble. We hear you got something valuable with ya. A Chaos Emerald, is it?”

She went cold. Her heart began to race. “How do you know about that?”

“Don’t matter.” He shrugged one shoulder lazily. “We want it. Hand it over, and we’ll let you get on your way. You got a plane to catch, don’t ya?”

How do these guys know all this? She wondered. Then she surprised even herself by bravely saying, “No.”

The man blinked. “No, what?”

“You can’t have it,” Kay said.

“You sure about that, sweetheart?”

Kay suddenly became aware of the man behind her getting closer, reaching for her. Before anyone knew what was happening, she spun around and delivered a flawless roundhouse kick to his side, followed quickly by a punch that caused him to fall to the ground, unconscious. She whirled back around to face the others, in full fight mode now. Thank goodness for karate lessons. And you, Shadow.

To the man, she grumbled, “Don’t call me that.”

The taxi driver jogged around the front of the cab to where she stood. He reached for her, but she snatched up his arm and twisted it back, forcing him to the ground. She then kicked his ribs so that the wind was knocked out of him.

In the few seconds she had bought for herself, Kay looked back at the Jersey man and noticed that he was making his way toward her as well. Thinking quickly, she snatched up her backpack from the backseat of the taxi and bolted in the opposite direction, leaping over the driver, who was writhing on the ground.

The first guy shouted at her, but she booked it, darting across the street without looking and then just running. There was a triangle of roads ahead. She got onto the largest road – the one with sidewalks – and hurried down the way, not daring to look behind her.

Kay passed closed businesses and darkened residential homes, crossing first one street and then another, hoping there would be an alley or something she could duck into. There was a large building ahead that looked like it had a space between it and the building behind it. If nothing else, she could cut through there, circle back around, and hopefully lose these guys. She didn’t have to turn around to know that they were following her.

There! She darted to the right, skidding to a stop when she realized she’d just run into a very unorganized employee’s parking lot. Only one car was there right now, and behind it was a dumpster, and behind that was an open stretch of space she could use to execute her escape plan. Normally she wouldn’t willfully hop onto someone’s car, but drastic times called for drastic measures.

Kay hurried forward again, jumping up onto the hood of the car and then scrambling to the roof. She was about to make the jump to the top of the dumpster when a strong grip wrapped around her leg and jerked, causing her to lose balance and fall. She was pulled off of the car and thrown to the ground roughly, her backpack landing a few feet from her.

She groaned and hurried to a sitting position, looking up to face her attacker, expecting to see the Jersey guy. Instead, she saw a human hulk of a man – tall, muscled, and with a scowl that said he meant business. Kay couldn’t believe her eyes. She knew this guy. It was the leader of the Purple Dragons.

Hun.

~

*Author’s Note* Hey, readers! Welcome to a brand-new adventure featuring Kay as a human! It is so weird to write about her when she’s not on Mobius. Anyway, I just wanted to post a quick thank you again for all the support you guys give me. It truly means a lot! New chapters for this story every Wednesday afternoon, assuming my school schedule doesn’t eat up all my time. Hope you guys enjoyed this double feature, so to speak. See you back here next week for Chapter Three! :D