After climbing up the ladder I found out just where I had been living for the past month. "We’re in a sewer?" I asked a bit disgusted.

Raphael turned to me and gave me a stern look. "Yea, where else would we live?"

"I don’t know… It depends on the city… What c…"

"New York."

"Oh," I shuddered… New York? How did I get here?

"This way!" Raphael ordered. "Hurry up." He began walking down one of the many tunnels.

I was hesitant to follow, but finally did. "Wait up!" I yelled as I ran to catch up to him.

Now I expected to see a motorcycle, but not a jeep as well: it was painted green and had a license plate with the letters ‘TRTL PWR’. "Turtle Power," I translated, as I began to take a closer look at the jeep. It had a computer in it as well. ‘Don’s work,’ I thought.

"Hey! Aeval! Come on!" Raphael was already onto his hog with a red helmet on. "Here." He tossed me a black helmet and replied, "It already fits you." I put the helmet on to see that he was right: it did fit me.

I gathered up all my strength and courage and hopped onto Raphael’s bike. I barely got on before he revved the engine. The loud sound made me jump. I quickly gripped Raphael’s shoulders. ‘If I fall off so does he,’ I assured myself as we zoomed out of the tunnel onto the night street.

It took a few minutes to get there, but I was glad when we did. The motor on Raph’s ‘hog’ was too loud for me. I could still hear it even after the engine was off.

"We’re here."

"What?" I asked as I shook the ringing from my ears. "What did you…?"

"I said ‘We’re here’!"

"Oh…" I looked around. It was a junkyard! "You found me here?" Well this was just getting better and better, wasn’t it?

"Yea… I was looking for engine parts… you were under a pile of shock absorbers…"

"Oh… If you don’t mind, I would like to look around…"

"Sure, but be careful, okay?" I mumbled in agreement and began looking around. There were cars, vans, and trucks of all kinds all over the place.

As I looked around, a small animal ran right in front of me. I yelped and fell back onto my back. The animal then began to climb up my leg toward my face. When I finally saw what it was I sighed in relief. It was just a ferret. A cute one at that: it was light brown with black ears, feet, and tail. ‘What is a black-footed ferret doing in a junkyard?’ I asked myself.

"I’ll take you home with me." Home—I thought that I would never call my stay with the others ‘home,’ especially when I wasn’t sure whether I truly trusted them or not.

"Aeval! Are you done looking around?" Raphael yelled as I walked toward him and his bike. "What’s that?" he asked, motioning to the ferret.

"She’s my pet!" I explained. "I just found her. I don’t think she’ll eat much. Do you think the others will mind?" I asked, remembering that he had a temper.

"Sure," Raphael answered with a smile. He didn’t seem so scary when he smiled; in fact, he looked kind of cute. "Go ahead." He then hopped onto his bike and motioned for me to follow. "We will find a helmet for your pet later. Just hold on to her tightly for right now." I sighed in reply. Here comes the ringing in the ears again! I put my helmet on then climbed on, one hand on Raphael and the other around the ferret.

When we got home the others were already awake and worried sick. "Where were you two?" Leonardo raged as we climbed down the ladder. I chuckled and walked over to the kitchen to find something for the ferret to eat. I didn’t find much; only thing I could find that she might like were some crackers. Lucky for me, she loved them. As I watched her eat, I listened to Leo and Raph’s argument.

"You have no control over me, Leo!" Raphael yelled angrily. "I can do what I want, when I want! Besides, all I did was take Aeval to the place I found her! I thought maybe she’d get some clues on what really happened to her!"

"Back to basics, Raph. You could have told us where you two were going. Aeval hasn’t fully recovered!"

"You were asleep; everyone was. I wanted to find out where Raph found me; I thought maybe I could find clues. And I have fully recovered, Leo. Additionally, if anyone had attacked us, Raph was there!" I clarified as the ferret climbed around my shoulders playfully. "And besides, we got back safely!"

"What is that on your shoulder, Aeval?" Venus asked, staring at the ferret.

"It’s a black-footed ferret. Ain’t she cool?" I answered.

Venus reached out and petted the ferret. "Funny, she feels quite warm to me." I decided not reply to that remark. "What will you name her?" Venus questioned as the ferret ran from my shoulders to hers. "I dunno, maybe Magia, after Raphael Santi’s mother."

Venus stared into Magia’s eyes. "Magia, I like that name."

"Santi," Donnie said. "Yeah that was his last name. How come you know so much about renaissance art?"

"Uhm… Maybe I did a report on it…" I replied. "Or maybe I used to like that kinda stuff… I dunno."