Chapter Text
In the corner of the ring, from a top down view, she already knows her next move.
The burly girl with the heavy swing, grinning merrily at her win.
Gifted brooch, shining new, can’t see what she sees him do.
And the tall girl leaves, champion belt, as the one she beat hangs around.
And out the door, past the floor, waits til she’s not there anymore.
Off the cat walk-
-out the window
-deciding she’ll stick by where she goes.
Diving down,
from snowy tops,
rocking icicles down where the girl’s not.
Subtly.
Stalking.
Glaring.
Hawking.
“GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU FIEND!” Cassandra Jones’s foot connects with the back of Ghost Bear’s head with a sickening thud, leaving the creep smashed face-first into a dumpster in the alleyway she’d been following him down. She’d watched him sneak out to follow the pretty girl with the beaming smile and snaggle tooth. The one who kicked his ass. She wouldn’t let him have revenge. His ass got beat fair and square.
A concussed groan leaks from Ghost Bear’s chipped teeth and bleeding lips, eyes rolling back as he boards the train to Sleepy Time junction. His plan on stealing his belt back from the fan he thought he could easily wreck had gone sideways so quickly. He slumps over, the freezing metal of the restaurant dumpster becoming his pillow. It was too cold to smell the signature scent of NYC piss, at least.
“Hey! What the- Ghost Bear?!” Raph spins around at the crash and the shout, now face to face with a tiny, bald, angry teenager. Someone around her age. And said girl had her foot on the back of Ghost Bear’s head. “What are you doing?!”
“Saving your life!” Cass pulls her foot back and grins at Raph, bouncing on her heels eagerly. “Cassandra Jones, at your service! But my friends call me Casey.”
Raph looks between Cass and the unconscious form of her idol on the ground. It’s then that she notices that he had a wrench in one hand. Oh. The tension in Raph’s shoulders lessens as she deflates at the sight. How’d she not notice? She was supposed to be the one aware of everything. How…
Maybe this was what the lack of sleep was really doing. Mikey had been going on about the health benefits of eight hours, but she’d waved him off. Again. And if she’d just listened…
She shoves her hands into the pockets of her red puffer jacket, the front still unzipped and revealing her WrestleMania t-shirt. A sigh crystalizes in the night air as she heaves one from deep within herself. “Thanks, Casey. I owe ya one.”
Cass beams. A friend! She’s made a friend! Oh, her senseis would be so pleased once they were healed enough to form mildly amused facial expressions again! Oh, she could not wait! But she must. Damn that worm man! Damn that hippo man! Damn her nose that had healed a little crooked! AAAAA!
She bows in the middle of her internal screaming. “It would not be honorable to allow a beautiful girl to be beaten up by a pervert.”
“A what-“
Cass plows past that. “May I have the honor of walking you home, uh, what’s your name?”
This girl was weird. Eh, who wasn’t a little weird in New York? “Raph. But pretty girls call me Raphela.” WHY’D SHE SAY THAT?!
Cass slithers her way under Raph’s puffer, shivering the entire time as she considers if she’s pretty enough. Yes! Yes she was! “Lead the way, Raphela. I will keep watch for threats.”
Raph can’t help but laugh. And blush. Oh wow. “Under Raph’s coat?”
All that can be heard is the repeated thud of Cass nodding into the downy material inside. Raph cracks another smile as she zips her coat up just enough so Cass could keep warm. She leads the way, moving slow so her new friend wouldn’t trip over anything. She could swear she hears purring but that had to be the wind. Cats don’t like her. And this was a human being.
It doesn’t take long for Raph to get lost. She consults the back of her hand. There were directions to the lair on there and oh. They were smudged. Oh no.
Where was she again? The street signs might as well be in a different language since Raph couldn’t decipher any of them. Oh. She was looking at them from the wrong angle. Oh! She was close to Ron and Warren’s apartment.
It doesn’t take long before they end up in front of the apartment complex. Takes even shorter for Cass to burst out of Raph’s jacket like some kind of alien freak. Raph screams.
“Allow me to get the door for you!” Cass, who saw nothing wrong with that, jiggles the door handle. It’s locked. She yanks hard. Still locked.
Raph’s terror is still evident on her face, pushing her braids back with her hand as she manages to calm down. She was totally fine. That wasn’t too scary. Wasn’t like Cass was a rabbit or something. Ugh.
Key. They needed a key. Was it Ron or Warren who gave her a spare for the downstairs? Ron. Where was it? Her hands dive back into her pockets, searching around before snagging on a set of keys. She fishes them out and offers them to Cass.
Cass snatches the keys up like a gremlin, quickly flipping through them before finding the one labeled ‘downstairs’. With the force in which it’s inserted into the lock, one could only assume she stripped the internal chambers in the process. That totally won’t be an expensive repair that requires the replacement of the entire lock system. Totally.
Raph’s keys fly back to her as Cass tosses them, the door finally yanked open and letting out the warm air of the stairwell out into the freezing winter night. Cass darts inside and Raph quickly follows in after her. The door does not click back to the locked position when pulled shut.
“So, uh, ya like wrestling?” Raph leads the way up the stairs, trying to make conversation.
“I enjoy the thrill of combat and relishing in the sweet taste of victory!” There’s an unhinged glint in Cass’s eyes. “So yes, I do. I must assume you feel the same.”
Raph smiles, rounding the next flight of stairs with ease. “Kinda. Helps Raph kick back and relax. Splints gave up on gettin’ me and my bros to fight, but the trainin’s still there. Got a taste for it.”
“Oh? Why give up?” Cass tilts her head at her, hopping from the stairs to Raph’s back, clinging to her shoulders. Raph grunts at the additional weight, especially since she was in human form.
“Been asking that- ow- every day.” Halfway up the last set of stairs. “Got too dangerous for my little brother. His twin don’t wanna fight if he ain’t gonna. Mikey keeps trying. And me? I need something, Casey.”
Cass nods. “I understand. Needing something to fight for. My senseis told me the world is my enemy. But I do not fight the world. I fight for them.” She shifts her weight and jumps down to the steps beside Raph. “Find people worth fighting for Raphela. And if you cannot find any, fight for yourself.”
Raph considers that for a long moment, eyeing up the apartment door. “I think I already have.”
“Good!” Cass gives Raph a hearty pat on the back, knocking Raph up a stair. “Now you can train with me!”
“Raph’ll think about it.” She smiles softly at Cass as she makes it the rest of the way up the stairs. Cass pulls the door open for her.
The interior of the apartment is wrapped in leftover holiday cheer. Ron can be heard in the living room with Leo, the two of them practicing magic tricks as Warren takes photos on a disposable camera he’d gotten as a gift. The light is warm and inviting. Gentle laughter sounds through the air.
This was a home.
“Maybe I don’t wanna fight no more.” Raph steps in past the threshold. The lair never felt like this. She misses the disappointed look on Cass’s face.
“Would you still spar?” A last shot at something. Anything.
Raph turns her head back to Cass and nods. “With you? Yeah, I’d like that.”
Saved it! Cass bounces on her heels and hangs in the doorframe as Raph walks further into the apartment. And, when the gorgeous girl isn’t looking, Cass swipes a coat from the rack. “See ya!”
Raph turns back one last time to wave goodbye. And then Cass is gone.
Down the stairs, back at the bottom, Cass realizes the door never locked. Huh. Well, at least it’d be easier to visit the girl of her dreams moving forward.
She makes a mental note of the address and rushes off, back to the pier, back to the base of the Foot Clan.
She couldn’t wait to tell her senseis everything.