Burning Passion: A ROTTMNT x OC Story

Episode 5: Choice

"Aaaahhhh!!! Fuck!!!!"

Carmen screamed as she latched onto Leo.

Leo's first thought was to grab Carmen and bust through the window, not his finest decision. Impulsively, he picks up Carmen and crashes through the window as hard as he can. He grabs his odachi with his free hand to create a portal before they fall to their death. Thankfully, it worked.

The portal leads back into the hotel, and they appear behind Raph, Mikey, and Donnie, who seems to have been waiting for Leo in front of the Battle Nexus gateway.

Raph sighs in exasperation, his arms crossed over his plastron, "What's taking Leo so long? He could've just portaled his way back here."

Mikey taps his chin as he wonders what Leo could be doing at the moment, "Maybe he's too busy talking to F.F. He probably has her number by now." he grinned out, nodding his head as he did so.

With Donnie, he just rolls his eyes, his hands gripping his tech-bo. "Oh, please. I find that hard to believe. In fact, it's impossible. He could never–"

Leo successfully lands on his feet with Carmen in his arms, and then he calls out to his brothers in a panicked voice.

"Guys–! We have to get out of here, now!" He commanded as he breathed heavily, his eyes filled with anxiety. They jump from the sudden appearance of Leo then turn around to look at him. Their facial expression shifts to a look of shock.

Donnie scoffs loudly and throws his hands up in the air, "Aughh!- why am I so wrong today!?" he exclaimed.

"Leo! We've been waiting for–" "Is that F.F!?" Mikey interrupted Raph with a mix of surprise and confusion on his face, pointing one of his three fingers at the pair.

Leo lets out a quick sigh and speaks in a more stern tone to persuade them, "No time to explain! Can we please go?"

Carmen grimaces and raises an eyebrow at him, "Can you let go of me? I can walk." she said with gritted teeth.

"What? Oh." He chuckles nervously and sets her down, rubbing the back of his neck in slight embarrassment. She dusts herself off then lifts her head up to look at each of the turtles with a puzzled look, unfamiliar with them, 'Huh... more turtles?" She opens her mouth to say something, but is quickly stopped by the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching them.

"Crap." Leo said under his breath as his eyes darted around the room, "It's coming from that way!" Donnie points at the hallway in front of them whilst he glances down at his tech-gauntlet.

Raph's eyes widened in panic, grabbing Leo's shoulders then shaking him back and forth, "Leo, make a portal! Quick!" Leo nods and hurriedly gets his odachi. He waves it around as he tries to concentrate on creating a portal. "Come on, portal, come on!" He grumbled while struggling.

Carmen fiddles with her hands as she watches Leo try to make a portal, starting to feel the pressure of the situation herself. She looks at each of the mutants, figuring out who they are. Out of nowhere, someone blocks her view.

Mikey steps in front of Carmen with a cheeky smile, who's oddly calm about this situation. "Hi, Carmen, was it? I'm Mikey! Can we be friends?" He clasps his hands together and bats his eyelashes at her.

Carmen raises an eyebrow and chuckles softly that has a hint of nervousness, "Well, I mean–" "Could you teach me some of your moves? You're so cool!" Mikey grins widely and his eyes twinkle with adoration.

She smiles sweetly, finding this whole interaction adorable. She puts her hands on her hips and speaks in a playful tone, "Y'know what Mikey, because you're cute, I'd love to." In addition, she pats Mikey's head.

Leo scoffs and looks over his shoulder, pouting. "Hey, no fair! What about me?"

"Just get us out of here!" Carmen sighed out, her head snapping to look back at him. Leo groans and goes back to making a portal. He's a little jealous that Mikey gets treated nicely by Carmen. He's oblivious to why.

The guards stop in the middle of the hallway as they spot the group at the Battle Nexus entrance. "There!" One of them yelled before running up to them. The five jump in surprise as their panic intensifies.

Raph huffs in frustration and readies his tonfās, Mikey whips out his kusari-fundō, and Donnie assembles his tech-bo. Extremely impressed by this, Carmen's eyes widen and her eyes sparkle in amusement. She lets out an amused chuckle and summons her own weapon, her giant mystic scissors.

"Mad Dogs, let's do this!" Raph yelled as he clenched into his tonfās. The four nod, whilst Carmen continues looking at them in awe. She has never met this kind of pack before, most of the mutants she meets are cocky, mean bastards, but these guys? They were definitely not what she was expecting.

The five charge into the guards with their weapons wielded in their grip. And so they start battling with the guards with full determination.

Leo clashes his odachi against one of the guards, quickly ducking to dodge a roundhouse kick then boosting himself up as he kicks the guard's jaw. Raph yanks one of the guards, rolling the guy towards the approaching guards like a bowling ball.

Mikey whips out his kusari-fundō, wrapping it around a pack of the guards, "Cowabunga!" then flinging them to the end of another hallway. Donnie twirls his tech-bo and his rocket pops out of the end of his tech-bo, "Fibonacci!" sending the guards flying to the ceiling.

Presently with Carmen, she's struggling to keep her focus and grip. The amount of guards is overwhelming her a lot, despite her experience as being a fighter, she has never been in this kind of situation.

"Goddammit–!" Her voice sounds strained, trying to hold back the guards from towering over her with their force. Her head starts flickering flames like an ignited burner, starting to feel frustrated at this whole thing.

Before her head can burst into flames, Raph comes into the rescue, punching the guards off of her with his strength.

Carmen's eyes shoot open and she looks at Raph. He turns to look at her and nods, giving her a friendly smirk. Feeling relieved, she nods and smiles back, her expression softening slightly. For the first time in a while, she actually feels protected and cared for, thanks to these turtles.

They all slowly get up and dust themselves off, but still keep their guards up; they're still being looked for. Leo shakes his odachi and hits it a few times, as if he's trying to fix a broken TV by punching it. He groans, "Ugh! Why isn't my odachi creating any portals!?" throwing his arms up in the air, exasperated.

Raph sighs and cocks his head, signaling for them to get a move on. "C'mon, we don't have time for that. We have to focus on getting Carmen out of here."

Later on, the group walk into the hallways with caution, and with their guards up. Carmen's extremely anxious right now, beginning to fiddle with her hands, and with her eyes darting from side to side. She feels extremely paranoid, it's hard not to look back and check.

'Alright Carmen, what the hell have you gotten yourself into? Clearly, you don't know these guys. Now you're just following them to who-knows-where.'

She groans and facepalms, 'They could be planning to give me away to Baron Draxum or something!' her thoughts yell at her in disappointment, not satisfied with the choice she has made. Now, she's feeling unsure if she should keep following them or not.

'Mmm, well... better than being forced to fight for hours a day, I guess.' Her mind finally thought of a positive say on this situation. But it still doesn't help her calm down.

Leo looks over at Carmen in worry and concern. What happened back in the hotel room lingers in his mind, and he feels the urge to check up on her. He takes a deep breath and reaches his hand out to her, placing it on Carmen's shoulder reluctantly.

"...Hey."

Her head jerks up, then turns to look at Leo. She stares at him for a few seconds, then replies.

"Hey."

Upon hearing that, Leo smiles subtly, half-expecting for her to ignore him. He pulls his hand away and lets it fall to his side.

"You okay? What happened back there was..." He trails off, unsure if he should even say it. Carmen chuckles weakly and rubs the back of her neck.

"I... I don't wanna talk about it." She says, smiling right back at him. Leo nods understandingly, then looks down for a second, thinking of how to lighten up the mood. His eyes widen as an idea pops up in his mind.

Leo looks back up at her and grins widely, "Why did the bicycle fall over?"

Carmen looks back at him with a raised eyebrow, "What?"

"No no, you say: 'Why?' " He stifles his laughter.

She rolls her eyes and sighs, "...Why?"

"Because it was two tired." He says with a straight face.

The corner of Carmen's lip twitches, trying not to laugh at that stupid joke. She looks away and pinches her nose bridge, "Oh my god..."

Leo burst into laughter and playfully nudged her arm with his elbow. "C'mon! That was a good one," he said with a wide grin.