#you + your new turtle sons have been mutated for just a few months

[deadhearthotline]

tw: light gore + animal death under the cut

little thing i did for fun. i remember it either being implied in the fic or reading it in an ask or the comments on ao3 about Leo being the first to really gain sentience/human intelligence out of all the brothers + finding food for the gang when they were little. anyways i was thinking about that and this scenario got stuck in my head for the past few days + would not leave so i drew it.

(this also incorporates my personal hc that the old lair wasn't the first place they settled + spent the first couple years bouncing around trying to find a suitable home. that's why they're in a warehouse)

Rotten Reflections by @nicoforlifetrue

[watchforstars]

Bonding With Red- RotTMNT fanfic

@fanfic-inator795 

“For a prompt: What things did Splinter do to bond with his boys when they were turtle tots (what games/activities did he do with them, did he have something special for each of them or did he do the same thing with all of them, etc.)?”

----- 

Raphael: Martial Arts  

‘This is starting to be a problem,’ the rat mutant thought as he flipped through the pages of a six-month-old, tattered copy of ‘Parenting Today’ magazine.  

His assumed oldest son, Raphael, was getting out of hand. Out of all his sons, Red was the biggest and most aggressive—which by default at this age—made him the strongest. It didn’t help that Raphael was snapping turtle either which likely exacerbated his aggressive instincts. Sibling play always seemed to end in one of his younger sons crying or injured from a slap of his muscled tail, a scratch from his sharp claws or spiked shell, or a bite from his powerful jaw. Even if his sons where mutant turtles, this was starting to become excessive and placing a strain on the family dynamic. But the worse part was as a newly single dad, Splinter did know how to stop it.

“WAHHHHHH!”  

Splinter straightened his back as he was startled from his thoughts. A high-pitched shriek echoed throughout the tunnels from their sewer home.  The rat darted up from the couch he was sitting on, and haphazardly tossed his reading literature to the floor.  

‘They were playing fine 20 minutes ago!’ He thought as he rounded the corner to the largest space in the tunnels—likely to become the living room if they remained here permanently.  

“What’s wrong, my sons?! Are you injured?!” He practically shouted once he arrived.  

His eyes instantly fell to the blue banded turtle, Leonardo, and the aforementioned, Raphael, gnawing on the smaller one's left leg. His other sons, Donatello and Michaelangelo, huddled up next to each other a few feet away watching with wide, worried eyes at the scene before them.  

The red-banded turtle looked up expectantly and released his brother’s leg when his father entered the room. He chirped excitedly and wagged his long-spiked tail as the rat approached. Leo, now free from his confines, rolled on his shell and flailed his arms and legs around as a desperate cry for attention and comfort.      

“Red One—NO! No biting!” Splinter admonished as he darted to the two turtles and gently lifted the younger in his arms.  

He inspected the leg for any injury—luckily there wasn’t a puncture wound, and it didn’t appear it would bruise. At least Red knew to restrain some of that strength when engaging with his brothers. His right ear had been at the mercy of those powerful jaws a few months ago when Red was teething. He had taken a chunk out of the said ear, so he knew firsthand the damage Raphael could cause. Thankfully, Leo was more frightened than hurt.  

“There, there...you’re okay, Baby Blue,” he rocked the blue-banded turtle in his arms to give him comfort, “you’re okay. I’m here.” The red-eared slider’s tears slowly subsided as he snuggled closer into his father’s furry grey chest.  

Splinter let out a breath of relief he didn’t know he was holding. He kneaded his temples with his available hand. Apparently play would need to be supervised at this point.

He looked down as he felt four other hands latch on to his legs—Orange and Purple. The latter two had quickly scurried over and sought comfort from their mutant father now that the incident had calmed down. Raphael stood off the side isolated, head hanging low and hand in his mouth from being reprimanded.  

“Red, stay here,” Splinter said with a clipped tone as he scooped down to gather his other boys in his arms. Purple and Orange chirped happily while Blue slowly started nodding off, drained for an afternoon of play. “I will put your brothers down for their nap, and then we can talk about what you have done.”  

Splinter started towards the boy’s shared room but paused with he heard a weak whimper from behind.

“Pa...?”  

Looking over his shoulder, the rat noticed the tears threatening to fall from Raphael’s eyes and the tremble of his lower beak. The eldest turtle locked eyes with his father and started shuffling over to the rat and his brothers, arms outreached begging for comfort.  

“No, Red One,” Splinter said as he fully turned to the red-banded turtle, “I wish for you to stay here. Away from your brothers...for now. I—”  

Red tucked his head down and placed a fist back in his mouth. He turned away from his father and brothers guiltily. He lowered himself to the ground, hugged his knees tightly, and sobbed.  

With empathetic eyes, Splinter bowed his head and sighed, turning as he resumed his walk to the bedroom.  

He had to act now before things escalated for the worse.  

---

After tucking in the younger tots for a much needed afternoon nap, Splinter went to find Red. Perhaps if he could find a way to teach the older boy about restraint, he could learn to play with his brother without harming them. It was clear to the rat—even after several accidental injuries—that Red didn’t understand his own strength and was only wanting to play.  

But he didn’t know much about kids or turtles—let alone mutant turtles, so he was at a loss of what could be done. All he knew is acting and martial arts.  

Splinter steadied himself on the nearest wall as he made his way back to the living room.  His yellow eyes fell right to the turtle in question who was sadly looking over one of his worn teddy bears. The occasional whimper could still be heard from the tot as he tried in vain to independently soothe his loneliness.

“Red One,” Splinter calmly started as he walked over to the turtle in question. He knelt next to the boy so he could be eye level to him—as the parenting magazines had recommended, “I am—”  

The rat paused as he looked at the pitiful sight that was his son and let out a light, yet wistful sigh. He reached over and affectionally rubbed his red-banded son’s head. A calming gesture, so his son would be more receptive to his teachings and to hopefully, convey his emotions on the incident to the child.  

“I am not mad at you, my son,” he chuckled as Raphael hesitantly giggled at his antics. The rat placed his hand on Red’s shoulder. “We must learn to control your powerful strength and impulses. It is not okay for you to bite your brothers. I know it was not intentional, but—”

Raphael slowly blinked and cocked his head to the side in confusion.  

“W-what I’m trying to say,” Splinter backtracked to make the lecture easier for the tot to understand, “is that you must play gently with your brothers, so they do not cry.”

Raphael furrowed his brow as he tried to comprehend his father’s teaching.  

“...wlay nice?” He eventually wondered aloud.  

“Yes! Very good, my son,” Splinter nodded in confirmation as he stood up “We must play nice with your brothers. I want to teach you to master your strength, so I have decided during your brother’s naptime, we will have our lessons. I will teach you martial arts.”  

His son’s blank expression clearly indicated the child did not understand what his father was talking about. Perhaps a demonstration was needed.  

The rat took a few steps back and took a deep breath to center himself. It had been several months since he was able to do any heavy physical activity due to his weakened state and mutation by that warrior and psychotic scientist mutant sheep, Barum Draxum. He actually hadn’t done any martial arts—let alone katas, since his mutation. Splinter suddenly doubted he would be able to do any of his skills in this new body, but looking at his son’s question-filled eyes, steeled his resolve once more.    

“HOT SOUP!” he exclaimed as he delivered a flurry of punches and kicks to an invisible foe.  

Adrenaline rushed through his veins as each practiced move was executed as if he had never lost his human form or had an extended hiatus from the arts. An emotion Splinter hadn’t felt in a while—excitement—bubbled to the surface from his innermost being. A familiar confident grin graced his lips jumped up for a mid-air round-house kick. This was the Lou Jitsu he longed to be again! As he landed, he went for another kick but paused as he heard the gasp from his son, Raphael.  

Instantly, all the excitement died down, and he was brought back to the reality of his mutation. He could never go back. This was his life now—parenthood and sewers. He slowly placed his leg down and turned towards his son. When they locked eyes, another emotion replaced his sorrow and disappointment.  

“Ooh,” the red-banded tot shouted in amazement. “HOT SOUWP!” he emulated as he punched the air, dropping his forgotten teddy at his feet.  

Love. He felt...genuine love and happiness.

“Yes, Raphael,” he chuckled as the tot toppled over attempting the aerial combination. “Come, let us begin our first lesson before your brothers awaken. The rat held out his hand to his son as an invitation.

The red turtle pushed himself off the cold floor and scurried over to his father’s extended hand, grasping it greedily with chubby fingers. He nuzzled his head against father’s robe, releasing a happy chirp at the attention.

His initial hope was that martial arts would quell is eldest son’s instincts and teach him control; however, he didn’t anticipate the bond he would create during this one-on-one time with Red. Perhaps his other sons would be interested in learning this craft in a few years. They didn’t quite have the motor skills or dexterity yet but learning self-defense would likely be beneficial for his mutant children.  

“HOT SOUWP!” Raphael shouted again in excitement as they wandered towards the back of the lair.  

“Hot Soup!” Splinter echoed a bit softer but with no less zeal.  

Looks another trip to the surface was in his future. He’ll have to salvage some supplies for a dojo.    

---

Thoughts:  

So as I may have mentioned in an earlier post, this was supposed to be just a prompt, but I felt like writing, and it got out of hand. Story of my life. I will be writing for each turtle and will be releasing them in age order, so next up is Donatello.  

I have a head canon that Raph was a bit of a handful growing up due to his size and species of turtle. If you have never met a snapping turtle in person, they are mean little shits. I lean more towards sociological ideas—an individual’s personality is formed from environmental interactions such as with family, community, etc. But as children, we are more instinctual and follow our basic needs until we are able to be taught from our environment. Therefore, Raph was a bit more aggressive as a child until he was able to be taught otherwise.  

I literally see Raph chewing through furniture and toys while he was teething.  

So anyway, he had to learn how to control and reshape his natural instincts so he wouldn’t harm his brothers. And he very clearly has learned this as displayed in RotTMNT.  He’s so sweet.  

I also head canon the turtles started talking later in childhood that an average human child would as they are mutants—turtle and human DNA. In this case, I imagine around age 4-6 they develop the mental capacity to form words, so Raph is just learning to use his vocal cords. He has a limited vocabulary, but he is able to comprehend. The other boys can’t talk yet but are able to walk.  

Splinter was also difficult to write as we still don’t really know much about him. The boys are clearly well cared for and love their dad, but there was a shift in his character when they got older...maybe depression? Anyway, I tried to convey he is struggling to do the right thing by caring for the boys while dealing with his new mutation, etc. etc. In other words, I based him off of other Splinter’s, so yeah...

Hope you enjoyed! Reblogs and comments are always welcome and appreciated. My plan to release the next part of this prompt later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for your patience, and feel free to leave more turtle tot ideas!

[satireknight]

TMNT S02E08 - Invasion of the Punk Frogs

Admit it. That title alone makes you curious.

So it starts with Michelangelo evading lasers, trap doors, and grabby metal hands. Where the hell does Donatello get the sheer amount of equipment needed for this kind of thing?

But at the last minute he’s washed back by a flood of water. It turns out this was a timed obstacle course, which each of them are doing in turn.

And then Splinter says something really weird: “All indications are that [Shredder]’s planning to return with the Technodrome.” What indications? Did they just try to handwave foreshadowing into my face? I don’t remember that coming up before.

Not to mention you’d think Krang wouldn’t be in any hurry to return. I mean, he was pissy on Earth because he’d been banished from his home dimension, and now he’s back where he wanted to be. He seemed pretty happy about the situation at the end of last season. Why would he bring the Technodrome back to Earth?

Anyway, Shredder calls Krang up to announce that he has a new Plan O’ The Week, and this one will really work, unlike all the others, so there. His plan is to create more mutants to attack the Turtles and... second step something something, third step profit.

The problem is that the Technodrome is in the middle of an ion storm, which is presented as being just a thunderstorm. Shredder insists that this absolutely can’t wait and they have to risk sending through the mutagen... um, why? Is there a reason this plan can’t wait until tomorrow?

So we cut to a camper RV in the middle of a swamp, and a couple who are probably going to be arguing about their vacation for the next few months.

I can see why. I’d lambast any spouse o’ mine who took me on vacation to a swamp. What are you supposed to do there, attract leeches?

The couple’s son is keeping himself occupied, though, having found four frogs that he wants to keep as pets. Mom is grossed out and orders him to put them back where he found them.

Just then the canister falls out of the portal, cracks open and starts leaking into the water. Guess what the frogs come into contact with as soon as the boy drops them.

Krang informs Shredder about this fuckup due to his impatience, and Shredder decides to go to Florida. Um, how? I mean, is he going to drive, or take some form of commercial transportation? Rocksteady and Bebop are left in NYC to distract the Turtles from.... um, Shredder not being there.

The Turtles hear about giant frog-mutants, but aren’t able to investigate due to Bebop and Rocksteady generally causing mischief.

Shredder has somehow teleported to Florida, where he finds the canister completely empty and four giant talking frogs. He pretends to be a nice person to get the frogs on his side, gives them holographic clothes (?!), and claims they’re going to be battling the evil Ninja Turtles.

He recalls Rocksteady and Bebop, and introduces them to the frogs: Napoleon, Attila, Genghis and Rasputin. Only Napoleon looks kind of worried about this, ironically.

Bebop rather logically points out that as trained ninjas, the Turtles won’t have any trouble defeating the frogs. Shredder dismisses this by saying that he’s personally trained them... wait, what? This can’t be more than a day or so after he found them, and he presumably spent most of that time getting back to New York.

Are we really supposed to think that he can turn them into good fighters in the space of a single day? Because watching any iteration of TMNT requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, but that pushes me too far.

It also raises again the question of how long the Turtles have been mutants. If you remember, they mutated from tiny turtles right into their teen forms in the first episode, so... does that mean Splinter was just really fast with their training, and they’re not actually teenagers? 

The Turtles are eating again when April tips them off to a report on four green robbers described as looking like giant turtles. Um, the frogs really don’t. They really don’t. They look like frogs.

The mayor starts ranting about how the Turtles have terrorized the city, even though the only “terrorizing” I can remember was from some dorks in costumes. Then again, he IS a politician. Jump on an issue to be seen doing something, and don’t let pesky facts get in the way. So he’s created an anti-Turtle squad to hunt them down, with Max Headroom in charge.

The frogs seem awfully cheerful about the idea of taking over the city, which I guess is naivete in action. I mean, they don’t know that such things are bad, and you can frame almost anything as being good if you want.

Shredder wants more mutagen, but Krang confirms that he already sent him the last. Yes, impatience really got you a mutant army, Shredder. But Krang is apparently in a generous mood, because he will tell Shredder the recipe for making more.

The Turtles, meanwhile, are being hunted down whenever they show up on the surface. It’s funny that the most effective part of Shredder’s plan was actually the part he didn’t plan.

The Frogs show up at a chemical warehouse to steal some stuff, where they debate the morality of what they’re doing.

The Turtles are tipped off about it and somehow get to the chemical plant in the next couple minutes to stop the frogs in mid-heist. Did the frogs stop for dinner before looking for the chemicals? Space is warped and time is bendable!

But the frogs manage to escape using a flash-grenade-arrow.

“I’m insulted! How could anyone mistake those... things for turtles?” Good question. They look like frogs.

Donatello immediately figures out what the stolen chemicals are for, and says that they need another one to finish the mutagen. Don’t ask me how he knows this. He’s the designated know-it-all.

Yes, April has extensive database information on chemical shipments... on a 1988 computer. At a news TV station.

Oh, and because he’s a troll, Krang didn’t mention the last ingredient to Shredder before... just to be a dick. Seriously. 

And he also knows where the shipment of the chemical will be... even though he’s not even on the same planet. Where do people get this information?

Shredder’s also starting to lose the frogs, who want to know why they can’t try to reason with the Turtles instead of just killing them until they’re dead. Shredder obviously does NOT want that to happen.

Meanwhile, April covers the anti-Turtle squad and their giant freeze-ray-equipped tank.

“This tracking device is tuned to their biorhythms.” Wait, what? How the hell did you get those?!

The Turtles intervene when the frogs rob the chemical shipment, but before anything more serious can happen, the anti-Turtle-squad shows up and demands they all surrender. And by “surrender,” I mean stand still so they can be frozen solid.

Fortunately Raphael knocks away the nozzle, and giant chunks of ice end up falling on the tank. These soldiers are clearly the best.

Leonardo says that they have to bring the frogs with them, because they’re also mutants, and they can’t let Captain Hoffman have them. Donatello and Raphael take some convincing, but they eventually come around to his way of thinking.

So they each grab a frozen frog and head into the sewers.

Splinter says that they have to win the frogs over with a show of trust, and first by melting the ice. Apparently being frozen solid is something you can get over in a matter of seconds if someone blows steam on you.

The frogs freak out and prepare to attack, but Splinter orders the Turtles to disarm, and tells the frogs that they can leave if they want. Might have been a good idea to not actually bring them to your home before that. The frogs finally realize that Shredder has been using them, and once again Leonardo has an idea.

Which he starts whispering to nobody in particular.

So back at Shredder’s current base, the frogs say that the Turtles got the chemical shipment and are going to hide it at the closed-down Stonewall Prison, aka Alcatraz.

Of course, it’s all a trap and the Turtles are lying in wait for Shredder, who figures out immediately that the frogs were involved in this scheme.

But before any kind of fight can break out, the anti-Turtle squad shows up. No, I have no idea how they knew to come here, since there’s nobody at the prison to tip them off, and Shredder was the only one to be told where the Turtles would be. 

Oh right, the bullshit tracking device that will be inexplicably dropped after the next few scenes. Really, if it were that easy, wouldn’t Shredder have found out where they live by now?

So Shredder whips out a crystal ball and holographically projects some squad uniforms on himself and his two mutants, before running out to leave the turtles and frogs in the lurch.

The anti-Turtle Squad throws knockout gas at them as they run... which somehow doesn’t affect them despite the lack of gas masks...

and the mutants make their way into the prison laundry room. The Turtles are having trouble staying conscious, but fortunately Rasputin still has his Green Arrow quiver and is able to blast a giant hole in the floor for them all to escape through. Captain Hoffman is defeated, his bullshit tracker never comes up again, and the whole subplot just kind of fizzles out of existence.

The Turtles say goodbye to the frogs, Michelangelo offers them a pizza only to get epicly rejected, and I have to wonder when in the last few days the frogs even tried pizza in order to hate it. Also, Splinter looks like he’s plotting revenge.

VERDICT

This one goes under the listing of “pretty good, but not great.” The biggest problems are the excessively fast training of the frogs, who become a threat to the Turtles in under a day, and the go-nowhere plotline of the anti-Turtle squad. I actually really like the idea, but it’s simply brought up and then dropped, when it could have made for a good secondary antagonist force in future episodes, especially since the mayor is unlikely to just decide the Turtles aren’t a problem because the episode ended.

The story itself is a pretty straightforward one, but it does have a lot to do, including introducing the Punk Frogs and bringing about their eventual about-face. I liked that their big issue was naivete rather than just being bad or good; they literally didn’t realize that someone could lie to them if they seemed nice, sort of like small children. They could have done a bit more questioning when Shredder was acting obviously evil, but overall it was a good take on the perils that would be faced by animal-originated mutants, and it even makes you wonder how the Turtles would have turned out if they had been with someone who wasn’t good like Splinter.

And of course, the door is left open for what other mutants might come out of Florida (hint hint) since presumably other animals down there would come into contact with the mutagen.

Krang, of course, remains a wonderful troll.

GRADE: B

[gemturtle]

The Ninja Turtles and the Louds (TMNT/TLH Crossover) - Summary and Ideas

Hello everyone, this is gemturtle here saying that what I'm planning to do here is a TMNT and Loud House crossover series called "The Ninja Turtles and the Louds". Here's the summary:

In this AU, the Loud Family have moved over from Michigan to New York about 3 months ago. Lincoln Loud, who is the only boy in a family of 10 sisters, is feeling very stressed and uneasy about his new life in Manhattan and having new friends like Clyde and April. But one day while being chased by purple dragons, he was saved by 4 weird strangers who turn out to be 4 giant talking mutated turtles who can do ninjitsu! With these new friends/brothers, Lincoln, his sisters, April and the turtles will embark on living with the difficulties of normal life and going on numerous adventures and battling against ninja, mutant, alien, and mystical threats, all while remembering the importance of family. This is a crossover series that shows the bonding between 2 unusual families.

Major TMNT Characters: Leo, Mikey, Donnie, Raph, April, Casey, Hamato Yoshi/Splinter, Shredder, Irma, Karai, Kimiko, Ice Cream Kitty, Tiger Claw, Hun, Leatherhead, Old Hob, Krang, Eric Sacks, Bebop, Rocksteady, etc.

Major TLH Characters: Lincoln, Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa, Lily, Clyde, Lynn Sr., Rita, Howard, Harold, Bobby, Ronnie Anne, Mr. Grouse, Agnes Johnson, etc.

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Martial Arts, Coming-of-Age, Slice of Life, Friendship, Family.

Rating: T (For drama, dark violence, blood, etc.)

Pairings: Leo/Karai, Lincoln/Ronnie Anne, Lori/Bobby, Splinter/Tang Shen, Lucy/Rocky, Rita/Lynn Sr., Howard/Harold, onesided Lori/Clyde, onesided Lincoln/April etc.

Author's Notes:

- The idea to make this crossover series was influenced by MiniJen's Universe Falls story, which is a crossover series between Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. Just like her story, it also takes place in another universe where the 2 series co-exist with one another. I first thought of this idea when I saw the LH episode "One of the Boys" (Hated that episode btw) where the oldest brothers had the voices of the turtles and plus, they all love PIZZA! So I thought to myself, what if Lincoln and his sisters actually met the turtles? At first I wanted to be a simple one-time crossover, but I just wanted them to interact as much as possible and see how well they work off one another. I could picture Lincoln seeing the turtles as the coolest "brothers" with them being pretty much like superheroes, and they would most likely have the same interest (Reading comics, playing video games, watching cartoons, etc.), and I also picture the Loud sisters being jealous of the turtles for spending a lot of time with their only brother. But the more the sisters spend time with the turtles, the more they see that they're not so different. I want to see the Loud Siblings trying help out on the turtles' adventures in fighting evil while interacting with each other in various 'slice of life' situations, which it's a hard thing for the turtles since they have to remain in the shadows. So I thought about doing something similar to Universe Falls and came up with this idea. Plus they're both properties of NICKELODEON, so it's possible we might actually see a crossover with these 2 someday. But for now, I would like to create this series.

- I figured what's going o be different from this series between TMNT and the Loud House is that instead of Royal Woods in Michigan, the LH characters will all live in New York since it is a important setting for the TMNT characters.

- Just like Universe Falls, this series will be divided into arcs with about 10-12 stories each instead of being 26 episodes each per season like TMNT. I plan to adapt some stories from the Loud House into my series and actually re-write them so that way they would have more of an accurate continuity unlike the actual show and hope not to add so much "Lincoln Torture" since I want to make this less mean-spirited and more genuine, I also plan to reduce the amount of toilet-humor (I mostly dislike that trope). So there will be some I won't do that I mostly dislike (Such as Making the Case, The Green House, Brawl in the Family, No Such Luck, etc.). As for the TMNT side of things, what will be very interesting about this crossover I won't be using any previous TMNT incarnations (Mirage, 1987, 2003, 2012, etc.) but to make it a brand new incarnation, so I can create my own version of the TMNT characters to interact with TLH characters. Now I don't know how many arcs will be created, it all depends on how long the TLH show can go or how many TMNT stories I can adapt.

- I have a lot of ideas I want to use and some that I'm not sure of; for one, I asked a DeviantArt user LeaderinBlue84 if I could borrow some of his TMNT ideas to use for this series.

- Leo in this series will be more influenced by his 2012 counterpart, but he is also an extreme anime lover, mostly listens to classic music, creates fan art with his username LeaderInBlue84. He would kinda be like the "Star-Lord" of the TMNT series, so he and Luna would get along well. Also, he will also have a wonderful bromance with Lincoln, as he would likely look up to Leo as his personal hero and a genuine role model and Leo would look up to him for never giving up for a child his age.

- Mikey is also the same goofball prankster we all know and love, and will be the most open-minded character in the series. He would give names to new mutants and bad guys and collect stickers to put on his shell.

- Raph will be the same sarcastic hot-headed bad ass he's always been, but he does have a soft and friendlier side for Lincoln and April.

- Donnie would be the lovable nerd with a big brain. For him, I figured he would be a little smarter than Lisa but would more of a nervous wreck and a clean freak like Double D from Ed, Edd, n Eddy. I also think would could also have gynophobia (Fear of females) from a traumatic experience. While he will be used to April, it would give him a hard time with Lincoln's sisters.

- April would be a teenager like her 2012 counterpart as well, she will be at the age of 15. Unlike meeting them like in previous incarnations she would have met the turtles at the age of 10 and is an orphan girl that is taken in by Splinter. She would also have developed some training as a kunoichi. She would also have a pretty developed busty chest for her age amking her socially insecure and making some of the Loud sisters jealous, but she would still be friends with them. And instead of Cristina, I was thinking Lincoln would have a unrequited crush on April for the first few episodes, until he hooks up with Ronnie Anne.

- Casey for the beginning of the series will be a juvenile delinquent and working for the Purple Dragons like Danny from the 1990 movie, but will soon quit and become a vigilante against them.

- I'm still wondering whether to make Splinter Yoshi who was mutated into a rat or have Yoshi and his sons be reincarnated into turtles and a rat like in the IDW comics, as well as Shredder's origin. Splinter will also not just bring wisdom to the turtles, but also to Lincoln and his sisters.

- There will be some street violence, blood, and intense battles in this crossover.

- And just like most of the fandom, I hope to actually make Luna and Leni be Lincoln's closest sisters being more of motherly figures to him so it is said that they have the closest relationship.

- As the romance for this series will go, I really don't mind Anthro/Human relationships like Leo/Karai. As long as the relationship is developed like Goliath/Elisa from Gargoyles. I want to try taking a crack at having Raph/April in this series, and I figure that maybe she and Casey would date only for a while. I was also thinking of one of the turtles hook up with one of the Loud sisters, I won't say who but it might be the most ironic relationship.

- I will also have some loud siblings to have a close relationship with each turtle: Leonardo (Lincoln, Lori, Luna), Michelangelo (Luan, Lana, and Lily), Donatello (Leni and Lisa), and Raphael (Lynn, Lucy, and Lola).

- I was also thinking of having Lincoln and April keeping the turtles a secret from his sisters until the end of the first arc and the parents wouldn't find out until the second.

- I figured Lincoln would be trained by Splinter to become a ninja, and MAYBE some of his sisters, specifically Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, and Lucy.

- Like I said before, there will be some stories I will adapt from TMNT; like I plan to do the Search for Splinter arc but differently. Instead, April and the turtles will live with the Louds until they find Splinter.

- I also want to do multiple crossovers in the future as well; such as Ghostbusters, Batman, Usagi Yojimbo, etc.

So that's basically it. What are your thoughts on this? Think this might be a good idea? How do you think the Loud siblings will react to meeting the turtles? How will they're interactions be? What TMNT characters would you like to see in this crossover? Could you see Splinter giving the Louds wisdom? How will Rita and Lynn Sr. react to the turtles? What kind of stories would you like to see? Let me know in the reviews.

[lightningrooks-blog]

run for it.

five years. splinter had been held captive by the kraang for five years. in that time they'd taken him apart and sewn him back together more times than he could count. the only thing that had kept him sane was the four turtles that the kraang had put in his care, and alligator mutant in the next cell over.

but they can't live like this forever. one day the kraang are going to take the turtles from him, and splinter can't lose them. so, splinter and leatherhead cook up a plan to escape.

read on ao3 here, or down below! reblogs and reviews are always appreciated!

“breathe, leatherhead,” splinter said through the wall of their cell. he could hear his young friend struggle to get his breathing under control- the alligator mutant was, understandably, prone to fits of rage, especially after a round of experimentation or testing. he heard leatherhead’s fists pound on the floor before there was a loud thud, and splinter knew that leatherhead had worn himself out at last.

there was silence for a long time, until finally leatherhead spoke up. “we...we have to get out of here. i can’t...i can’t do this anymore. every day, the experiments get worse....i want to see earth again. i want to see the sun.”

“as do i,” splinter replied, sighing. he looked down at the child in his lap. “and we need to get out soon...we can only keep up this ruse for so long.”

the kraang allowed splinter to stay with the baby turtles, since all of the other infant mutants that the kraang had created died when tended to by just the kraang. without a warm, physical presence- without affection- the infants had died. and so the kraang assigned splinter, who already had some connection with the turtles, to raise them until the time came when the turtles would no longer depend on him for affection and care.

and in the kraang’s eyes, that time was coming up very soon.

something about the six of them- splinter and leatherhead, and the four turtles placed in splinter’s care- was special. splinter wasn’t quite sure what made them special, only that the kraang were willing to do whatever it took to keep them alive.

that didn’t mean they didn’t rip apart splinter and leatherhead, leaving them on the brink of death, only to sew them back up again. splinter had had more blood taken out of him than he thought possible, and leatherhead had more scars than the most hardened of warriors.

as he dwelled on these dark thoughts, he brought his hand up to the bandage covering his empty left eye socket. no, whatever made them special certainly didn’t mean much- they were alive, but the kraang didn’t seem concerned about what condition they were in other than ‘functioning.’

“have you heard any more about them?” leatherhead asked, and though the alligator could not see it, splinter shook his head.

“nothing new, only that a fox mutant and a cat mutant escaped together, not too long ago. most of the mutants that were around to witness the event are…” splinter trailed off. leatherhead made a pained noise. very rarely did mutants live past a few months in dimension x- it was a miracle that the six of them, all brought in around the same time, had managed to survive five years here.

“so we’re no closer to getting out of here,” leatherhead mumbled dejectedly.

“do not lose hope, my friend. we will escape,” splinter said, trying to sound confident. he mumbled to himself, “we have to escape.”

the blue eyed turtle- the taller one, that is- sat at his side silently. leonardo the turtle finally asked, “when we get out...you’ll give us names, right?”

splinter closed his eye, a pained expression flickering across his face. “of course, little one. when we get out, you will all get names.”

he hadn't given them names- of course he had the names he had given them when they were simple pets- because he couldn’t afford to get attached. not when the kraang could come in at any time and rip them out of his arms and dissect them. he couldn't lose any more children- he couldn't survive that a second time. so until they were free, he couldn’t think of them as his children.

though a part of him already did.

“have you already thought of them? because i’ve thought of some- if you didn't have any in mind,” said michelangelo the smaller blue eyed turtle. he climbed out of splinter’s lap where he had been napping, and stood in front of him, excited. he was the one who had named leatherhead- when leatherhead was trying to describe himself to the baby turtles, he said his head was kind of leathery, and the freckled turtle had dubbed him leatherhead.

splinter and leatherhead had later on joked about how he was lucky it was his leathery head that the freckled turtle had latched onto, metaphorically speaking, and not his big hands or scaly tail.

“yes, i have thought of names for you,” splinter said, making the freckled turtle frown.

“what if we don't like the names?” said raphael the hotheaded one. he frequently put up a tough front, but splinter knew it was just a facade to hide how scared he was. he had confided in splinter he was terrified of his brother and himself being tortured the way splinter was.

splinter was terrified of that too. that's why they had to get out soon.

“if you don't like the names i have chosen for you, then you may try out other names for yourselves...if i approve of them,” splinter said. he didn't want his sons the turtles going around calling themselves vulgar names...or ridiculous ones.

the hotheaded one grunted before turning back to watch his brother tinker. donatello the tinkerer was currently taking apart a kraangdroid head that splinter had swiped one day after testing. it was just a spare part- no one had missed it. and the kraang didn't pay attention enough to notice that one of the pillows was significantly heavier than normal.

splinter stood up, muscles protesting. he stretched, before walking over the back corner of the room where the tinkerer and the hothead sat. the tinkerer didn't talk, ever. or rather, he had not spoken yet- perhaps his- the tinkerer was simply a late bloomer, speech wise.

he crouched down, both boys turning to let him see what the tinkerer was doing. “have you found out anything interesting?” splinter asked the tinkerer.

the tinker gestured at the pile of nuts, bolts, circuitry, and other metal pieces that he'd collected. the head was almost completely deconstructed now, most of its parts sorted into the correct category.

“i keep telling him he should try building something, but he doesn't listen,” the hothead said, arms crossed, but he didn't appear angry.

“he will build something if he wants to,” splinter said. “for now, you seem content to simply take things apart, isn't that right?”

the tinkerer shrugged noncommittally, and turned back to his work. the tinkerer was the most distant out of the turtles, and he suspected it was because he had figured out that there was a fairly good chance of splinter being dragged away and never coming back. why get attached to someone that could so easily be taken away? splinter could understand his reasoning- it was the same reasoning he used to justify how he refused to name the turtles, but in reverse.

“can you tell us again?” the freckled turtle asked. “about what it’s like outside?”

splinter stood up and nodded. he moved back over to the bed where the two blue eyed turtles sat. “what do you want to hear about?” he asked as he sat down. even the hothead and the tinkerer stopped what they were doing and came to sit around splinter. “clean up your area first,” splinter said to the tinkerer. he huffed and got up, but cleaned up the mess just the same, filling one of the pillows with mechanical junk.

once the tinkerer had cleaned up his corner, he rejoined the rest of them and sat down next to the hothead. splinter stroked his beard thoughtfully, trying to figure out what else to tell them. the turtles had such a small world- all they had ever known was this tiny cell in dimension x. if they had any memories of their time on earth, as normal turtles, then they gave no indication of it. leatherhead, too, had few memories of before he was mutated. the memories he did have were fuzzy- leatherhead had tried to explain what it felt like to suddenly gain sapience, but he could never find the words to get it across just right.

“well...when we do get out of here, we will most likely be in a place called new york city,” he started softly.

“could you speak up?” leatherhead asked through the wall, and splinter could tell he was sitting on just the other side of the wall, listening just as eagerly as any of splinter’s- the boys. his world was only a little bit bigger than the turtles- vague memories of a kind boy, the terror of being flushed away...and then dimension x.

“of course, my friend,” splinter said, raising his voice enough for the alligator to hear. “as i was saying, the portal most likely leads to new york city. new york city is a very big place, full of people-”

“what are they like?” said the freckled turtle.

“hm?” splinter asked, confused.

“the people- what do they look like? what do they act like?” the freckled turtle asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

splinter held in a sigh- he’d tried to explain humans to the turtles before, but the idea of a species where everyone shared so many traits seemed beyond their grasp. the turtles had only seen splinter, the kraang, and themselves- and once, briefly, leatherhead- so they had no idea that they were the strange ones. they had no idea that humans had some degree of homogeneity- the closest thing splinter could think of as a point of reference was how the kraang were identical, but he never voiced this, for fear of making the turtles and leatherhead think humans and the kraang were alike in more ways than just the one.

however...humanity would never accept them. he suspected leatherhead knew, but...he had never told the turtles. he wanted to make the human world out to be a happy and pure place- like a magical world, free of strife. he wanted...he wanted to give them hope, that if they did get out, they would be in a better world.

“well, they’re all humans,” splinter finally answered. “and some of them are cruel, and some of them are kind- there are all different kinds of people.”

“are all people humans?” the freckled turtle asked. “are we people?”

“well...all humans are people,” splinter said, used to these strangely philosophical questions by now. “and though we are not humans, we are also people.”

“so what makes people people?” the taller blue eyed turtle asked.

splinter sighed, rubbing his temples. “well…” he started, trying to figure out how to explain personhood.

“splinter?” he heard leatherhead say softly. raphael and michelangelo the hothead and the freckled turtle both had crawled into splinter’s bunk, leaving splinter pressed up against the metal wall uncomfortably. it was fine, though. he knew they had nightmares.

“what is it, my friend?” splinter said, voice just loud enough for leatherhead to hear.

“i think...the next chance we get- when one of us is going for testing- we need to just go,” leatherhead said, and splinter could hear the anxiety in his voice. “just- they only bring four droid now- now that we don’t…”

“now that we have learned to bide our time,” splinter finished. he refused to believe that he had given up- to stop fighting and to give up were two completely different things. there were times when the kraang were torturing him, when it would be so much easier to just slip into oblivion- to just lay down and die, but the thought of the four baby turtles who had never known a world beyond their cell, and the alligator who had become his friend...the thought of them made him hold on.

he wanted to escape- to show them earth, and all the beauty it held. he wanted to be able to call the four little turtles his sons, to give them the names he could barely stop himself from calling them- most of all, he wanted the six of them to be safe.

so when he stopped fighting the kraang every time they came for him- that wasn’t giving up. that was simply biding his time.

“now that we’ve learned to bide our time,” leatherhead repeated. “they don’t bring a lot of kraangdroids. i think we could do it.”

splinter closed his eye. could they? could they really escape after all these years?

“i believe...we have to try,” splinter said finally. “they...they are going to take the boys away soon and i can not…”

“i know,” leatherhead said. “we’re going to get out of here. first chance we get.”

“we still need to know where the portal is,” splinter said. “that’s what’s been holding us back.”

leatherhead sighed. “i know. i wish we could talk to other mutants- they’ve probably been around it.”

splinter made a noise of agreement. whatever was special about the six of them, it kept them isolated from the other mutants that they could sometimes hear screaming in the distance. those nights, neither of them slept much.

splinter sighed. “tomorrow….tomorrow is just a routine blood draw,” splinter said, making it sound much milder than it was- in the kraang laboratories, it was as mild as it got. tomorrow, the kraang would drain away one liter of blood from him, leaving him near shock. “i can break away- try to find the portal. once i find it, i will stop and let them catch me. when i return, and they open your cell...we will run for it.”

“but...they’ll taze you! and they’ll drain you after- will you be in any condition to escape?” leatherhead asked, alarmed.

splinter considered it. he could feign weakness- collapse after just one taze, and let the kraang drag him back to their laboratory. they might even not take as much blood, if he seemed weak. could he escape after being tasered, then having blood taken out of him?

“i will be alright,” splinter said, already steeling himself for tomorrow. “we will have to carry the turtles though- or find some sort of cart to carry them in.”

“like the floating ones the kraang use?”

“exactly,” splinter said, nodding. “and...if something happens to me-”

“don’t say that,” leatherhead said gruffly. “we’re going to get out of here together.”

“if something happens to me,” splinter repeated. “i need to know that you’ll take care of the boys. and...give them their names.”

“...you have my word,” leatherhead said after a long silence. “what are their names?”

“the smallest- the one with freckles- his name is michelangelo. the taller of the blue eyed turtles is leonardo. the green eyed one with the temper- his name is raphael, and the tallest of them- the silent one- he is donatello,” splinter said, and leatherhead noted how splinter’s voice softened.

“michelangelo, leonardo, raphael, and donatello,” leatherhead repeated. “...i’ll remember.”

“thank you, my friend,” splinter said. “now try to get some rest. we have a big day tomorrow.”

sure enough, the kraang dragged splinter out of his cell early the next morning. he caught a glimpse at the turtles face as he was pulled away from them, and that cemented his decision. they were getting out of here, today. they didn’t restrain him- his last attempt to resist had been over a year ago, so they seemed to think he had finally resigned himself to this fate. how wrong they were.

the four kraangdroids that “escorted” him to the lab walked in silence, leading him down a familiar path. however, when they reached in a fork in the road, splinter bolted, taking the other path. he’d been to almost every part of the facility in his time here, but they had never once taken him down this path. he prayed that it was because the portal was down this way.

he ran down unfamiliar hallway after unfamiliar hallway, trying to find the heart of the facility, where he and leatherhead assumed the portal would be. left, right, left, left. he repeated the sequence over and over in his mind- he had to remember the path for when he had the rest of his- of them with him.

the sirens blared, but they were silent in comparison to the sound of his heart beating- for once, he was glad for the constant physical testing and trials the kraang had put him through. though he had hated running on all fours - or doing anything rat like, really-  the kraang had given him no choice, and now he was using what they had forced him to adapt to against them. he took grim satisfaction in the irony of it.

as he turned another corner- right, right, straight, left- he ran into another quartet of kraangdroids, and when he turned around, he found himself cornered. fear coursed through him- he remembered all too well the pain of the kraang’s strange, pink tasers. he bared his teeth at the droids that closed in on him before screaming in agony as one of the kraang behind him rammed the taser into his back.

it was only partially an act- the pain was intense- but he knew he could take more hits if the situation absolutely called for it. right now, though, it didn’t, so splinter collapsed on the cold, metallic floor, pink lightning dancing across his fur.

“the rat mutant known as splinter has not attempted to resist kraang in over a year,” he heard one kraang say.

“perhaps the rat mutant known as splinter has begun to ‘go feral’,” another suggested as they grabbed his arms and began dragging him back to the lab.

splinter felt his blood go cold, and he struggled to keep a passive expression on his face. go feral? could he- what did that even mean? he’d heard of other mutants- the ones whose mutations were too grotesque, too...too much for the person, and they’d gone insane- they began acting like the animal they had melded with.

could that happen to him too? no...no, he’d been a mutant for five years now- if he was going to “go feral”...surely he would have by now.

it was a long way back to the lab, and by the time they got there, splinter had mostly recovered from the taser- now he was just exhausted. the blood drain would do little to help this, usually leaving him near shock. he hoped, probably naively, that the kraang would take it easy on him today. they had taken it easy on him in his early days, when he was at his lowest point- when he tried to starve himself to death, and didn’t care about his turtles enough to stay alive yet. then they threw leatherhead in the cell next to him.

when the kraang had at last brought him to the lab, he could hear one kraang say to another of them- one who worked in the lab, “the rat mutant known as splinter resisted kraang, and made it close to the place which holds the portal.”

relief crashed over splinter like a tidal wave. he had been close to the portal! for the first time in five years, splinter felt hope bloom in his chest. they were going to get out of here. this new hope did more to help splinter recover than any curative could.

he just had to get through this. he just had to get through this, and then he and leatherhead and the turtles could escape.

“the rat mutant known as splinter seems weaker to kraang. he went down after a single taser attack from kraang,” the kraang continued. “perhaps kraang should ‘take it easy’ on the rat mutant known as splinter.”

“perhaps kraang will,” said the kraang scientist, and if splinter didn’t know any better, he’d say the droid was being downright passive aggressive.

however, he mused fifteen minutes later, the kraang did take it easy on him, only taking half of what they usually took. they wrapped a bandage around his arm, and a group of eight kraangdroids escorted him back- they didn’t want to risk him breaking away again.

when they turned down a familiar hallway, splinter saw leatherhead being removed from his cell. leatherhead was tense and practically radiating anger and rage- he’d gotten so much better about controlling himself, and he no longer fell into a blind rage when the name kraang was uttered. but this wasn’t the time for control.

when the kraang opened splinter’s cell, revealing the four turtles inside, splinter caught leatherhead’s eyes, and nodded. that was all the sign leatherhead needed- he roared, and grabbed the nearest kraangdroid by the head and smashing it into the three other robots. splinter had only seen leatherhead lash out like in this in person once- when he was first introduced to the alligator mutant, in fact. but instead of blindly struggling like before, now leatherhead moved with purpose- now they had a goal. now they had a plan, however half cooked as it may be.

the kraang surrounding splinter forgot him, running to incapacitate leatherhead over making sure the other mutant was back inside his open cell, which proved to be a fatal mistake. once they had run in front of him, splinter moved, quick as lightning, grabbing the arm of one kraangdroid and crashing the robot into the wall- the metal arm actually popped out, and landed inside the cell, at the tinkerer’s feet.

the kraang’s strength was almost purely in numbers- splinter and leatherhead made short work of the twelve kraang that were in the hallway. each of the disgusting, brain like aliens were thrown into leatherhead’s cell, before the alligator shut the door. they would have about two minutes before anyone noticed what had gone on.

“are...are we leaving now?” the freckled turtle asked, afraid. splinter nodded.

“yes- we must hurry though, if we are going to make it. don- what are you doing over there?” splinter said, nearly slipping up as the tinkerer turned around.

he held out the kraangdroid arm- he’d done something to the joint, so now the arm was little more than a metal rod, and could be used as a club. it was ingenious, actually. splinter took the arm and nodded.

“good work,” he said, before leatherhead butted his head in the door.

“let’s go,” he said impatiently, and the turtles jumped, having never seen something so massive before. splinter nodded again.

“right,” he said, picking up the closest turtle- which was the tinkerer. he looked down at the arm in his hand, and realized he couldn’t carry two of them and wield the arm at the same time. leatherhead seemed to have come to the same realization, and, in one fell swoop, scooped up the remaining three turtles in his massive arms. he put the freckled turtle and the hothead on his back, and carried the tall blue eyed turtle in his arm.

“there we go. hold on, you two,” leatherhead said, before turning to splinter and nodding. splinter nodded back, and the two of them ran out of the cell, and into the sterile, white hallways.

“this way!” splinter said, leading them down the maze of hallways, which were free of kraang for the moment- along the way, they spotted one of the floating carts that the kraang used. splinter pointed with the arm at it, and leatherhead nodded. he tipped the cart on it’s side, dumping out kraangdroid parts in the hallway before gently placing the three turtles in the cart and grabbing the thin handle- it looked almost comical in his large hands.

splinter placed donatello the tinkerer next to his brothers, then led leatherhead down the next few hallways, before they finally ran into more kraang. splinter sprinted forward, striking the kraang with the club- or he would have, if he had been close enough. once again cursing his lost eye, splinter ducked down as the kraang fired at him, before springing up and biting the droid’s head right off.

his tail lashed out, knocking two kraangdroids against the wall, and causing the squishy aliens to pop out of their chests. he turned back to see leatherhead protecting the cart- biting kraangdroids in half, smashing them to pieces...splinter was grateful to have leatherhead on his side.

“follow me!” splinter said, sprinting down the hallway. leatherhead nodded, before the alarms started blaring. splinter didn’t stop to look back- he could hear leatherhead’s heavy footsteps behind him. suddenly he stopped, confusing leatherhead.

“why are you stopping?!” he demanded.

“this was as far as i got- they said i was close, but i’m not sure where to go from here,” splinter explained, swinging his head around to look at the three other hallways. the tinkerer, who had kept his eyes on the pink, glowing energy lines on the ceiling the entire time, tapped the side of the cart to get splinter’s attention.

he pointed first at the ceiling, where the energy lines converged at the intersection, and then pointed in the direction that the energy lines seemed to be originating from. splinter raised an eyebrow.

“you want us to go that way?” he asked, to which the tinkerer nodded. leatherhead pushed past him, following the tinkerer’s direction.

“it’s better than staying here!” leatherhead said, and splinter had to agree.

donatello’s - the tinkerer’s directions led them to a door at the end of a long hallway- it was locked, and they had no way of unlocking it. splinter began to panic as he pressed helplessly at the pink screen next to it- he couldn’t understand the symbols, and he could hear kraang reinforcements get closer and closer.

“move!” leatherhead shouted, backing away from the cart. splinter did, sensing what leatherhead was about to do.

leatherhead charged at the door, and the sheer force of the gigantic mutant slamming himself against the metal was enough to break the door- sending it flying into the next room. when they entered the room- splinter steering the cart now- they saw the massive, pink, triangular portal in the center of the room.

whatever relief splinter felt at the sight of the portal was immediately destroyed by a kraangdroid’s command of, “close the portal!”

a barrage of laser shots were fired at them, and before splinter even knew what was happening, he was lifted in the air by a huge hand and tossed over leatherhead’s shoulder. splinter spluttered, the world spinning around him- he saw leatherhead nearly throw the cart containing the turtles through the portal as he charged at it, dodging blasts as he went.

“leatherhead!” splinter yelled. “what are you doing?”

“trust me!” was all the alligator said before throwing splinter himself through the shrinking portal, and back out into...into a warehouse, where countless kraangdroids- some using the same disguise as the one he had seen on that fateful day-stared at him and the cart in confusion. they quickly recovered, however, and splinter sprang into the air to avoid the blaster shots. he looked back at the portal, which was closing fast, and felt his stomach drop- where was leatherhead?!

splinter didn’t have to wait long for his answer- with a powerful roar, leatherhead burst out of the portal, barely fitting through. he took in the room, before throwing himself at the kraang in the room.

“leatherhead!” splinter said, fearing that his friend had fallen into another of his rages. “leatherhead!”

leatherhead turned to splinter with a rage in his eyes that frightened the rat mutant, but splinter stood his ground nonetheless.

“leatherhead, we need to get out of here!” he hissed, and at last the rage faded from his eyes- and the milky white film that had been covering them was retracted as well. he nodded, then looked at the wall, before charging at it.

“leatherhead, be careful!” splinter said, dodging blaster fire as he drove the cart after the alligator. “you can’t use brute force to get through every situat-”

splinter was cut off by the sound of leatherhead breaking through the wall of the warehouse and sighed, following his friend out into the sunlight- the air was fresh and warm- and if the kraang weren’t still following him, splinter could have stood there for hours, basking in the light.

“can the cart float?” leatherhead asked as they continued running- they were by water, he noted. he could smell it. splinter jumped up on the low roof of one of the warehouses, leaving the cart with leatherhead- they were on a small island- trapped. they couldn’t cross a bridge in broad daylight, and they couldn’t stay here.

“i...i don’t know,” splinter said.

“he says it can,” raphael- the hothead said, pointing at the tinkerer. the tinkerer nodded.

“even if it can’t- turtles can swim long distances, can’t they?” leatherhead said as they made their way to the water.

“well, i suppose so- but they’ve never swam before and- leatherhead, what about me?” splinter asked, leaping from roof to roof.

“i’ll carry you!” leatherhead replied when they reached the water. splinter’s eyebrows rose at this, alarmed.

“you’ll carry me?” he repeated.

“yes- i can swim across the river, and i’ll carry you on my back,” leatherhead said, gently putting the cart in the water- which did, in fact, float. leatherhead hopped in the water next, waiting for splinter to hop on his broad shoulders.

splinter did, seeing that he had little other choice. he grabbed onto the alligator’s back as leatherhead pushed the cart forward in the water, and they set off. when the six of them were far from the shore, splinter could see the kraang gather on the banks of the island, and kept his eyes on them anxiously until they were too far away to for him to be able to make out.

“i never thought any place could be so big,” michelangelo said, staring at the sunset. “there’s so much space!”

splinter nodded, taking in the view of new york city. when he first arrived here, everything seemed dull and grey- the whole world had lost its color when he lost his family. but now- now everything was shiny and new. the sun was radiant, and the sky was full of color. the skyscrapers were still grey in the distance, but everything just seemed...alive.

“can we have our names now?” leonardo asked.

“of course. i made you a promise, did i not...leonardo?” splinter said, and leonardo’s eyes widened.

“leonardo,” he repeated, his voice barely above a whisper.

“what about the rest of us!” raphael demanded.

“you,” splinter said, reaching to poke where raphael’s nose would have been, “are raphael. you are michelangelo, and you are donatello.” as he spoke, he pointed to each of them.

they were all silent for a few moments, before michelangelo spoke up.

“they’re too long,” he said. “i’m never gonna remember my name.”

leatherhead tilted his head up, trying to make eye contact with splinter. he chuckled in the water, and splinter started laughing as well. it was the first time in a long time splinter had truly laughed- and it was probably the first time in leatherhead’s life he had felt at ease enough to.

“well, we will have to think of nicknames then. how about michel?” splinter said. michelangelo’s nose scrunched up. “apparently not. how about...mike?” he offered, while thinking that the name didn’t suit the energetic turtle at all.

“what about mikey?” leatherhead said, rising above the water just enough to speak.

“i like that!” mikey said, grinning.

by the time they reached the other shore, night had fallen. they landed at the docks, and as they rushed from hiding place to hiding place something caught splinter’s eye. it was a newspaper- while newspapers littered in new york city were fairly common, this one appeared to be largely intact. if he had to guess, he’d say this was today’s newspaper. he checked the date in the corner, and felt his heart stop.

sunday, october fifth, nineteen ninety seven

there was no way. there was no way! it’d been a week?! he’d spent five years in dimension x, but here only a week had gone by?

“splinter?” he heard leatherhead say. “what’s wrong?”

“it...it’s been one week here, leatherhead. one week since i was mutated here,” splinter whispered. still holding the newspaper, he looked up, realizing that if it had only been a week then…

“follow me!” he said, sprinting in the direction of his apartment.

a good two hours later, splinter, leatherhead, and his turtles arrived at splinter’s apartment. they stood in the alleyway, leatherhead and splinter breathing heavily.

“did...we have to run...the entire way here?” leatherhead said. splinter nodded.

“stay...here,” he said. “i...there are things in there i need...if they’re still there.”

leatherhead studied him for a moment, then nodded. splinter jumped up to the bottom of the fire escape and pulled himself up. for a moment, the world spun, and splinter figured he should probably eat something soon. it had been four hours since he’d had his blood drawn, and he hadn’t eaten anything in that time. then he realized- he was on earth! he could eat real food instead of the disgusting mush that the kraang fed him!

the lock on the window into splinter’s apartment never worked, so splinter simply opened it and slipped inside. everything was just the way he had left it five years ago- not a thing had been moved. he was almost afraid to move- as if he would break the spells, and all of his belongings would be gone.

it wasn’t like there was much he truly wanted anymore-but there were a few things that he could not leave behind. he moved into his bedroom, and saw the familiar picture on his nightstand. he felt his throat tightened as he reached out and picked up the picture of his lost family with trembling hands.

tears started streaming down splinter’s face. he was ashamed to admit how much his memory of tang shen’s face had faded over the last five years in captivity. how he struggled to remember miwa’s little giggle. so much had changed- he had changed. and now he felt so disconnected from this place- a room frozen in time, while he had begun to move on, if only to survive.

after he had calmed down, he grabbed his suitcase and placed the picture inside, along with the tessen he had planned to give miwa, and another photo- a much more casual photo of him and tang shen. other things were placed inside- blankets, weapons, his favorite book on renaissance art.

he hesitated when he reached his closet. none of his old clothes would fit him...would they? splinter had been naked for the last five years- well, as naked as one could be, covered in fur- and being able to wear to clothes again would be wonderful.

he sorted through his clothes- the only thing that might fit him was his yukata. tentatively, he tried it on- it fit! he smiled, relieved to finally be wearing clothes again. he looked around his apartment for the last time, and left it, feeling out of place in it.

“leatherhead!” he whispered, searching for his friend.

“i’m here,” he said, stepping out of the shadows. “did you find what you were looking for?”

“i did,” splinter said, a small smile on his face. “may i throw something down to you?”

“of course,” leatherhead said, stepping closer to the fire escape. splinter tossed his suitcase over the side of the fire escape, which leatherhead caught easily. splinter climbed down the fire escape, and rejoined leatherhead and the turtles.

“where do we go now?” leatherhead asked. splinter was wondering the same thing himself. he stood there, deep in thought, until they heard footsteps. splinter pushed them into the shadows as a woman walked by, engrossed in a conversation on her cell phone.

“yeah, i’m not taking the subway all the way there again,” she said as she walked on by.

splinter’s ears perked up at the word subway. “i have an idea,” he said.

“well, it’s certainly big enough,” leatherhead said, looking at the abandoned subway cars and cavern like tunnel.

“it will do,” splinter said. “we’ll have to figure something out for plumbing, and electricity, and then-”

“we can do all of that in morning. i don’t know about the rest of you, but after today...i’m exhausted,” leatherhead said, only to find the turtles sleeping in the cart. “well, i guess that answers that question.”

“you are right, leatherhead. for now, we should rest,” splinter said, carefully picking up the turtles out of the cart and wrapping them in blankets. splinter found that he, too, was exhausted, and didn’t mind the idea of going to sleep at all.

they slept together in a huddle that night, safe and free.

[setoangel01-fanfiction]

Misconception

Crazy - Chapter 22 (Previous Chapters)

Rated: T

Chapter Summary: April takes off with Casey and Raphael is not prepared to confront the possibility that he was right all along…

Fanfiction.net

A03

"Hmm…that's rather peculiar…" Donnie muttered to himself; index pushing his glasses further up his snout as he stared at the alarm system near the entrance of the lair. Thick fingers rubbing the nibbled wires between his digits and staring upon the destruction that was caused.

It had been three days and the alarms within the lair had been sounding at all random times of the day and night.

Yet when the group arrived at the source, whatever had been there to cause the damage was already long gone. Simply maddening and confusing for all involved as they tried to figure out the source of the problem. Even the security cameras they had up had been glitching out during those times and these occurrences were getting more and more alarming and frequent…

"What is it, Donnie?" Leo asked, peering over the genius's shoulder.

"This is the fifth time this week; exact same scenario occurring." Donnie mumbled, eyes trailing over the damage on their security panels, "Whether it was the security panels or water heater…last week was the electricity bracket going out…I just don't understand how the blizzard, as intense as it is, could case this to happen so frequently…" his voice dissolved into mutterings as he got lost to his work and his three brothers and their rat father looked on.

"Ya can fix it though, right?" Raph asked, rubbing at his blurry eyes. His sleep schedule had been absolute hell. The situation with April was bad enough and now he had to deal with all of this shit on top of it.

"Certainly. I just need a good seven hours to redo all the wiring, electrical hookups, exchanging the paneling, and-"

"Alright. We get it…" Raph grumbled, sorry he asked.

"Yikes, bros. You think we got some huge, mutant super rats with a vendetta against us?" Mikey asked as he looked over Donnie's shoulder.

Splinter cleared his throat.

"Nah, not like you, dad. Just a huge rat infestation problem I bet! Right, Don?"

"No…" Donnie muttered. "I doubt it's any sort of rodent. I've placed multiple traps but they never alarmed and there's no feasible evidence of any sort of infestation. If it simply was a rat infestation, we could have identified corpses, traces of hair, droppings, etc. …but there's nothing to indicate anything of the sort is present."

Leo's brow ridges furrowed, "…they could have just not left evidence - couldn't they?"

"Highly improbable. They're not the cleanest creatures." Donnie shrugged almost helplessly. "If it was a rodent infestation, they would definitively left some evidence behind….but…it just doesn't make sense…"

"...So, what do we do, Donnie?" Leo asked.

"Monitor the situation as best we can." Don shrugged, "There's not much else we could do. I'll go ahead and set up more surveillance equipment and traps; perhaps they're mutated from the mutagen spill we had a few months ago. Although highly unlikely, I propose that may be the problem as little of a chance, I suppose anything is possible. Not exactly probable, but possible." Donnie let out a sigh; scratching at his mask in sheer frustration and lack of sleep that haunted all of them.

"Thank you for your tireless efforts to remedy the situation, Donatello. Your work is very much appreciated." Splinter spoke up as he approached his genius son and placed a hand on his arm.

"Thanks, dad." Donnie sighed but flashed his father a tired smile.

"I'm sure you're doing your best, and please, if there's anything your brothers or I can do to help, do not hesitate to ask - and they will do ask asked. Am I clear, my sons?"

"Hai, Sensei." Leo, Mikey, and Raph replied with a slight bow.

"Good. Run along now, there's quite a bit to do. Might as well get started." Splinter ordered; the whip of his tail had the turtles jumping into motion.

Raphael took a long, shaky breath as he exited the shower; steam licking at his scales as he wiped off the excess water that remained attached to his hide.

The day had been long and arduous by the time they finally fixed what was necessary. It was only obvious that a hot shower was in order after all the strenuous work he'd been put through today. Lifting heavy material and clearing out new areas of tunnels to add more security cameras and back-up generators. Donnie could be a bit melodramatic and panicky in situations where the electricity (especially his computer monitors) were endangered, so it was only obvious he'd put in back-ups in case there was another incident later on.

"No such thing as too prepared!" his genius brother's motto weighed in on his tired mind.

As strange as the past few days had been with the failing equipment and damage, there was one thing that was forever constant in the forefront of his mind - April. Let's face it, these past three days had been hellish for him. Dealing with his own emotions and Mikey's words still fluttering around in his mind and he was still trying to figure it all out.

Trying to understand what his next move, if any, should be.

Raph was just so damn confused by it all! Trying to explain away all of April's touching, spending time with him, bringing him food and drink, asking him over, calling and texting him, and treating him kinder than should have been necessary. Spending the better part of the past few days trying his damnedest to wrap his head around the small gestures she made. The tender caress of her hand on him when she thought he was asleep. Hugging him around his neck, brushing her nose over her, and the one time she kissed his cheek…it was all just too much to absorb at once.

Allowing his heart to calm a bit, Raphael finished wiping off his body before putting on his clean clothes and dumping the dirty ones in the overflowing hamper.

"Fuckin' Mikey." Raph growled under his breath upon seeing the mountain of dirty clothes and knowing it was his youngest brother's turn to do the laundry this week, "Always makin' me pick up after dat little shi…" he started but his voice drifted off.

Silently recalling that conversation with his youngest brother and that was there it hit him the hardest. For Michelangelo to be so forward; to say words that he would have never believed would be uttered from anybody; let alone his absent-minded little brother… A sudden pang echoed deep in his chest and he allowed a breath to escape from between his lips. Temporarily swallowing his anger, he picked up the hamper as well as a few stray clothes littered around before heading to the laundry room.

Once there, Raphael began wordlessly separating the whites and darks and placing them in different piles before dumping one set into the washer. Screwing off the top of the detergent and pouring the correct amount in, he started the machine. As he stared down into the churning motor, Raph allowed his mind to wander. To think about things he'd been putting off for days; facing facts and options he really didn't want to deal with but they flooded in anyway.

Before long, his head began to ache and he knew a full nights sleep was in order. Yeah, it was barely after 6 o'clock, but dammit, he was tired! Pushing away those thoughts he'd rather face more rested, he entered the main area of the lair and heard something he was not prepared for.

"You busy, Raph?" Donnie asked and the red-banded brother clenched his jaw. Forced to stop mid-step on his way to the bedrooms was not exactly welcomed right now.

"Nah. I was gonna patrol for awhile to get some air." Raphael lied. That was typically the easiest route; couldn't a guy just get some shut-eye without being interrogated?

"In that case, do you mind swinging by April's place and fixing her dishwasher? When she called me tonight, she sounded pretty damn desperate."

Raph froze; body in a state of limbo as Donnie's question left his throat. Thinking back these past three days, he realized now that he hadn't received a single message, text, or even missed call from the pretty brunette. Whereas she would contact him multiple times a day, she hadn't reached out to him at all since that night…and yet, Donnie spoke to her?

April called his brother - but not him…?

…his heart suddenly clogged his throat.

"You can do it, right? Or am I gonna have to go?" Donnie's sardonic voice was deadpanned as it broke through Raph's clouded mind and he immediately clenched his jaw and fists to keep from smacking the smart-ass Donatello into next week.

If there was anything Raphael hated more, it was being demeaned - something Don knew all too well and sometimes he liked to get under his shell to make him squirm. Raphael didn't exactly blame him as he took in Donnie's purple bagged and red-rimmed eyes. Ultimately chalking it up to Donnie's bad mood from lack of sleep - it always tended to make Don a little less pissy than a rabid coyote with a huge, cutting vocabulary.

"Don't fuck with me, Don." Raph growled, "Ya know I can."

The genius didn't bother a response; just shrugged and motioned to a nearby tool kit before going back to work on something or other.

Raphael left the lair in a huff.

The air, if possible, seemed further chilled than last time.

Harsh winds and sleet digging into his scales and he inwardly cursed at his predicament.

Raphael was not at all prepared to face April tonight - hell, probably not for at least a week, but here he was. Slowly moving toward her apartment as fast as the blizzard was allotting him. It didn't take him as long as he would have liked when he soon found himself atop her apartment and scaling down the fire escape.

In front of her frosted window, he peered inside. April was no where in sight when his knuckles subconsciously rapped on the pane and he waited in silent anticipation for her to open it. Silently preparing himself what to say; never could have predicted what awaited on the other side…

"Thank God you're he - Oh! Raph?! H-H-Hey." April said with wide, confused eyes; the brunette appearing apprehensive and nervous as she lifted the window for him to enter.

Raphael didn't think too much of it since April had been under a considerable amount of stress lately with her job; so ignoring the tone of her voice, he slipped in through the window. The wonderful warmth of her apartment a welcome change to the blizzard happening outside.

"Hey. How are ya?" he asked, placing the toolbox on a nearby kitchen counter as he wiped some excess sleet from his massive shoulders.

"I-I'm fine - b-but what are you doing here any -" April started but was interrupted when someone else in her apartment made their unwelcome presence known.

"Hey! Raphael! What's up, man?" Casey fuckin' Jones slipped into view and Raphael's stomach plummeted into his bowels. "Haven't seen you for awhile. How have you been?" the vigilante asked with his hand out offered for a handshake; seemingly not caring about the hostility reeking of Raphael in waves.

Raphael tried his damnedest not to show his dissatisfaction at the man's presence but it was fuckin' hard not to.

Just what the HELL was he doing here?!

Raphael knew it was stupid to ask that for Casey had been to April's on numerous occasions, even alone, but Raphael did not ponder that in fear he'd murder the man in cold blood just for breathing the same air as April. But this was strange for him to be here considering how things were going between himself and the brunette recently, at least in Mikey's opinion and perhaps his if he allowed himself to think about it further. The last person he expected to see at her place was the wannabe detective - yet, here he was.

"Nothin'." Raph grumbled out a reply, hoping one word answers would halt this unwanted conversation-in-progress.

"Aw, that's a damn shame. Haven't cracked any good skulls lately?" the charismatic Jones asked with a breathy chuckle and Raphael's fists itched to punch him in his pretty boy face with all those perfect white teeth flashin'.

"No, but I plan to..."

April butted in quick when the conversation seemed to be growing worse, "Hey, Raph, what are you doing here? I thought Donnie was going to come fix my dishwasher." April asked, probably completely unaware of how unbelievably rude she sounded.

"He was, but got caught up tryin' to fix our security systems and since I'm da only one else who could do it, I figured I'd come over for ya." he responded, surprised he wasn't grinding his teeth at just how uncomfortable all of this was.

"Wait…You can fix my dishwasher?" she asked and Raphael's heart ached at the question and her insinuation he was somehow incompetent.

"Course' I can!" he growled.

"Well, I've told you about it a half a dozen times that it was a piece of broken shit, yet you never offered to fix it before."

"Ya never asked me to!"

"Was I supposed to? I-I've told you how frustrated I've been with it and…" April voice trailed off as she sighed, dainty fingers squeezing the bridge of her nose.

Raphael was silent as the words came from her mouth. Never had April spoke to him as she was doing now; she seemed tired, stressed and angry for no apparent reason. Eyes lifting to the clueless vigilante staring nearby, he supposed that could very well be the cause and that depleted any confusion on his part.

"Look. I'm sorry, Raph. Thanks. Um... I was just on my way out, so sorry if I can't stick around to help." April muttered, brushing back her hair off her shoulders as she barely spared him a glance.

"'S fine. I got it. Yer leavin' too, right?" Raph grumbled toward the human male.

"He's the reason I'm leaving." April explained, suddenly sounding a bit more chipper, "Me and Casey are heading out but if you need me, just call me on my cell."

Raph was too shocked to speak as Casey interjected.

"Yeah, dude! Too bad you can't come too. It's my big local hockey playoff game and I'd rather not ask my poor elderly mom to come, April was kind enough to offer her support."

"Hmm. I dunno, Case. I may just be rooting for the other team." April laughed and Raphael hoped his face remained calm even as his heart staked permanent residence in his throat when Casey laughed; suddenly moving his arm around April's shoulders.

It only slightly alleviated when April promptly pushed his arm away but in that playful way she did it only intensified the growing pain in his chest.

"Heh. Yeah. But anyway, we're gonna be late if we don't get going." Casey chuckled, eyes suddenly glued to Raph's. "It was nice seeing you, Raphael. Don't be a stranger, okay?" the detective asked with his hand offered but Raph did not have any intention on shaking it.

"..." Raph was too lost in his own musings and heart being squeezed distressingly to really react to anything but the intense pain.

"Alright. Uh, anyway… I'll see you later, Raphael." Casey chuckled, moving to grab his coat by the door as Raph was suddenly left alone with April.

"Sorry for running out on you like this, Raph." April seemed like her normal self in those seconds, "If you want something to drink or eat, there's some soda and snacks in the fridge. Help yourself, alright?"

Desperately afraid to speak in fear he'd say something egregiously stupid, Raphael just stiffly nodded.

"Great. See you!" April smiled, turned around to leave but froze for a second. She turned around to face him again; a flash of something he didn't catch in her eyes as she spoke again, "Um…maybe if you're still here when I get back - we could, um…Tell you what, I-I'll just see you then. …okay?"

"Ape! I'm gonna be late!" Casey announced; voice carrying from where he'd exited her apartment and was waiting in the hall. The nickname he gave her had Raphael's intestines twisting uncomfortably.

"Coming!" She shouted back at the detective before her eyes met Raph's again. A sudden hand was gently placed on his forearm and his heart accelerated without his permission.

"Thanks, Raph. I'll see you later, okay? W-We'll catch up; just wait for me, alright?" beautiful smile lifting the edges of her pink lips. With a soft pat on his arm and a spin, she headed out the door with a wave. A click of the lock and she was gone.

The flowery scent of her long, flowing hair infiltrating his nostrils prolonged after she had already left. Heart hammering uncomfortably in his chest, he felt strangely at ease by her words. April would be back later on - she said she would. They were only attending a hockey game after all - something her and Casey were known to do together. It would be like all those other times and she'd be home within hours - that was it. Raph was certain it was.

Encouraged, he slowly got to work on her dishwasher; taking his time with multiple breaks to watch a little television or take something out of the fridge, he soon found himself watching the clock rather than the late night news or the few sporting events.

Raphael watched as the minutes and hours ticked by until it was midnight.

The dishwasher was long since fixed and he was on his fifth soda. Steeling himself with excuses of overtime and maybe they went out for a bite to eat afterward. Raph still waited even as it became after two o'clock and he'd eaten the remainder of some re-heated old Chinese take-out she had left.

Soon, he found himself pacing back and forth; steps heavy and loud. Her downstairs neighbors probably thinking she'd acquired a pet elephant but he didn't care at all right now as more time slipped through his fingers.

A strange pain building in his chest as four o'clock came and went. Nervous and full of trepidation as the sun began rising and filtering through her frosted windows…

...and still, April never came home...

[elasianstar]

the world on a turtle’s back Chapter 2

Sunday afternoon and time to head down to the lair for game night with the turtles. After the day I'd spent with Raphael I couldn't keep myself from thinking about the big guy. Yeah he was hot headed from time to time but he was really sweet. He doesn't talk much, mostly speaking through glances and body language, but I don't mind. The silences we had shared were mostly comfortable. Maybe Mikey was right, maybe Raph is just a big ol teddy bear, though an incredibly violent one.

Realizing the time, I pulled my glittery owl shirt out of my dresser and pulled it on over my fighting leathers. I obscured my wings and ran out the door. My bike Niltsi was in the building's basement garage waiting for me.

the golden feather painted on its black tank glimmered in the neon lights as we sped through the streets of New York toward the garage where the turtles kept the shell raiser. Donnie was under the garbage truck when I pulled in and heard the motor.

“Hey Casey, Raphael is down in the lair.”

“Hey Donnie, it's not Casey.”

“Elasia!”

In his surprise he accidently smacked his forehead on the exhaust, luckily it wasn't hot. When he saw me getting off my bike he whistled low and pinched the tip of his tongue between his lips in thought.

“This is Niltsi.”

“Didn't think you were into motorcycles. You have to show that thing to Raph, he's an old motorcycle junkie. You might get him to show you Raijin. Just don't mention it to Leo.”

“Will do, thanks Donnie!”

Once I was down in the lair I was quickly attacked by a flying ninja hug from Mikey, luckily I was used to it by now and the 250 pound turtle didn't knock me off my feet like he had the first few times.

“Hey Mikey.”

“Heya, Angelface! You ready for game Night? We got sorry, monopoly, clue, cards against humanity, uno….”

“Wait like board games?”

“Yeah it's family game night!”

“I thought you meant video games.”

“Nah, the last Sunday of every month Splinter sets up the board games for a family night, no training allowed, no fighting, just a good night of games and snacks!”

Dragging me off to the dining table he showed me the mismatch of salvaged games laid out. The boxes were banged up and the pieces looked to have belonged to several copies and editions of certain games but they were all complete and playable. Near the end of the table sat 5 small handmade figures not unlike those used to play dungeons and dragons. the first one was sculpted from clay and painted with ink to look like a tiny Leonardo, the next was carved wood dressed in actual cloth and made to look like Raphael, the third was a metal Donatello complete with a small solar light where his projection system usually sits, the fourth was a 3D printed Mikey painted to look like an old cartoon character, and the sixth was a small glass splinter. Each statue displayed a different medium and art style but each was masterfully made.

My thoughts were interrupted by loud barking as I was swept off my feet from behind.

“Addie’s back, how are you feeling girl!”

A large roan American Staffordshire terrier was jumping and pawing at mikey's plastron before noticing me and slobbering all over my face.

“bleck, ok ok down girl.”

A deep rough voice stopped the dog.

“ANDROMEDA.”

The happy pit ran over to her master, sitting somewhat calmly at his side as he grabbed her pink spiked collar. A blown glass galaxy hung in place of a tag.

“She isn't supposed to jump but she's kind of excited.”

Wiping the drool off my face I knelt in front of the dog at Raphael’s side and gently scratched her.

“It's alright, I get a fair share of dog drool at home, I'm used to it. She’s an absolutely gorgeous American Staffie. I've never seen one with a roan coloring before, it's a beautiful genetic anomaly, and the brown and green heterochromia in her eyes. She's a beautiful little lady, yes she is!”

“Raph rescued her as a puppy when we busted a dog fighting group in queens. She's actually been at the vet expecting a litter of her own.”

The dog showed no signs of having recently given birth and the somewhat heartbroken look on Raph’s face spoke volumes.

“What happened.”

He knelt down next to the dog who pressed her head up against him with a whimper.

“April took her in for her checkup and the vet said that she wasn't producing the hormones needed to birth and nurse the pups, more likely than not she would have reabsorbed the whole litter. They did a cesarean and managed to save two but 8 didn't make it. The two babies are going to stay with April and Casey so they can get store bought formula.”

I didn't know what to say so I just placed a reassuring hand on Raph’s where he had stilled petting Andromeda. His eyes darted over to meet my own for a second before he patted Addy and sent her off to say hi to her other uncles.

“Did they at least let you see the babies?”

“yeah, they were just as small and soft as Addy was when I found ‘er. Named the baby girl Cassiopeia, and the boy Orion. Vet says they'll be fine. Addy had to stay topside for a while to heal up but I'm glad I've got her back.”

“She’s a sweetheart that's for sure. I don't mean to sound insensitive, but have you considered having her spayed. With the two genetic anomalies of her coat and eye colors this most likely was caused by another genetic mutation, especially if she was improperly cross bred to be a fighting dog.”

“Yeah the vet already thought that would be best. Didn't really tell me the reasonin’ behind it though. That makes sense though.”

...

“Is that your cafe racer in the shop?”

“Yeah got it in ‘78, harley Davidson XCLR 1000cc, named it Niltsi after the navajo wind god. Donnie mentioned you've got your own, Raijin?”

“Yeah it's an old Indian I found in the scrap yard when I was 15. Donnie and I fixed it up and Mikey touched up the paint for me. Leo doesn't know…”

“Yeah Don already told me, my lips are sealed. Can we go see it?”

Just then splinter and Leo came in from their sanctuary.

“Ah Elasia, Michelangelo told me he had invited you. I hope you enjoy our little get together.”

“Yes I'm excited to play some games, I already told Mikey that I'd kick his butt in clue.”

Splinter laughed touching my shoulder in a fatherly way.

“I'm afraid to say that won't be too hard. My youngest son is gifted in many ways, conventional problem solving is not one of them.”

“Daaaad!”

Leo was helping Mikey move the snacks out of the kitchen, with Addy on their heels, he bumped his little brother with his elbow reassuringly.

“Don't sweat it Mikey, you know you're the king of pictionary.”

“Did someone say clue? Just let me put up my spot welding mask in the lab and I'll be right there!”

Donnie ran off to his lab, tossing the mask through the door before rejoining the group. Unable to escape now Raph grabbed my hand, leaning down to whisper in my ear.

“I'll show you the bike later, just have to get through a few hours of games.”

Nodding just enough for him to notice I made my way over to what has been dubbed my seat at the end of the table, and joined in on the debate over what game would be first.

“We can't play sorry Elasia doesn't have a lead piece.”

“Well then Donnie we can use something as a stand in, like a dice or the monopoly car or something.”

“Actually Leo I have something that will work pretty well.”

Digging into my bag I pulled out a small obsidian raven statue with golden eyes, setting it amongst the 5 figures of the hamato family.

“That's cool, did you make it?”

“No my brother Gabriel made it, he's into stone cutting. You should see the maple leaf pendant he carved out of garnet for his mate, it's gorgeous.”

…

L-“Sorry Mikey!”

M-“uuuwaaaa, chrrrrr. Leo you suck!”

E-“Uuuwaaaa, chrrrr.”

Four sets of eyes snapped on me as I covered my mouth. What did i say!?

M-“you speak turtle!?”

L-“your voice sounded exactly like mikey’s how did you do that.”

E-“I didn't mean to I just mimic sounds sometimes! I didn't….”

S-“Corvids are commonly known for their exceptional mimicry skills, it makes sense that Ms.Elasia would demonstrate that trait.”

M-“What's a corvid and what does mimicry mean.”

R-“It means that she can copy sounds and voices moron.”

S-“Corvids are birds like crows and ravens Michelangelo. Elasia seems to be a hybrid of a Raven as you are a turtle, or I am a rat

M-“Cooooool, can you do it again?”

I anxiously peeked at each of the four turtles, they seemed like they genuinely wanted to hear me mimic something else.

E-“Can you do it again?”

Mikey’s eyes went wide at the sound of his own voice leaving my throat and the other three looked mildly impressed.

M-“Do Leo, Do Leo next!”

L-“Mikey, that isnt..”

E-“Mikey, that isnt…”

M-“Awesome!!! Do Donnie.”

E-“I need a sound to focus on, Donnie?”

D-“ummm, I guess saying anything would work right?”

I tried something, “Right anything would work.”

D-“Interesting, it seems to be more than simple repetition, once you get a voice down can you say just about anything?”

Closing my eyes tight in concentration I tried to say something unique in Donatello’s voice.

E-“I've never tried that before but due to the repetitive sounds and cadences of the English language I could probably figure it out once I had enough data.”

R-“Damn, that's impressive.”

I tried to copy Raph’s voice only for a breathy croak to leave my throat.

E-“I guess Raph’s voice is out of my register, I need to expand my low range.”

M-“Awwww now my prank plans are ruined.”

E-I wasn't going to help you start a fight between Leo and Raph anyway Mikey.”

He legitimately pouted.

M-“But Elasia, think of the pranking potential!!”

S-“I am thinking of who will possibly win this game, now my sons, Ms.Elasia, if we could continue.”

ALL-“Hai sensei”

It was Splinter who eventually won but what he didn't know was that i saw him move his pieces with his tail while the brothers had been distracted.

The night was going great, Mikey and I teamed up during pictionary and kicked butt. Donnie won the game of clue, predictably playing as Professor Plum. Leo pissed everyone off in the first few rounds of monopoly when he somehow managed to get both of the high roller properties. Raph killed trivia pursuit, constantly answering every question correct except in the the entertainment sections.

Now we were playing scattegories, Mikey, Leo, and Splinter v.s Raph, Donnie, And I. Mikey kept triggering me to make noises during my turns causing me to have trouble answering my cards, in retaliation Raph had started putting him into a headlock and covering his mouth on our turns.

“Ok Elasia This is the last Round and we need 10 points to win, Oh this card is actually fitting, and a little ironic. In 60 seconds name as many biblical angels as you can. GO!”

“Cassiel, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Lailah, Xapham, Zuriel, Jophiel, Afriel…”

Mikey wrestled free and started making the most obnoxious sounds he could.

“BEEP!... Honk!...RACAAAAW!!!...”

“Five seconds!!!”

“R...RA..RAH...RAPHAEL!!!!!”

“TIME!”

Raph snatched mikey, smacking him over the back of the head while yelling at the smaller turtle. Donnie was searching for each of my answers to calculate points.

R-“You dirty lil’ fuckin cheat!”

D-“That’s ten we win!”

R-“What?”

L-“No that can't be right she only said 9 angel names, recount Donnie?”

D-“No look Leo, right here, the comprehensive list of biblically named angels…”

L-“Well dang, I wouldn't have guessed…”

M-“No she only said 9 names, I stopped her.”

D-“The tenth name was Raphael. It says here that he is the patron angel of healers in Judaism, and one of the four archangels. John 5:1–4 references him, ‘an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under.’ In the bible of Islam he is known as the burning one.”

M-“Raph’s soul heart thingy was burning when you did your magic healing stuff!”

R-“No you guys got it all wrong I ain't no angel… I...”

E-“No, you aren't an angel, but no one can deny that you’ve been touched by one. You are the best of your brothers at stitching up wounds, relating to the healing abilities of your namesake. Your soul is one of few that are somewhat stably related to the element of fire. though you demonstrate the stereotypical emotional flare ups you work quite well with the more mundane aspects of your element for someone with almost no training in the discipline. Plus the angel Raphael is the spirit most closely related to the idea of guardian angels, all four of you fit quite well into that roll for a lot of people in this city.”

Raph looked visibly uncomfortable with all of the attention so i was quick to move the subject to someone who would quickly divert the attention.

“And you Mikey, Your name Michelangelo literally translates to ‘Of the angel Michael’. Michael is known as the leader of the army of God and the divine good. It is prophesied that it will be Michael who rises against Lucifer in the time of the end. He is known as the defender and is often associated with children or those of a youthful disposition.”

“Awesome!!! I’ve got an angel too! What about Leo and Donnie?”

I noticed Raph escaping to the snack table, glad I diverted that one.

“Well Leonardo means Lion bold. It doesn't have a biblical connection but there is a link to the constellation Leo, the lion killed by Hercules during his great trials. The bright star at the chest of the lion is called Regulus, it is also known as the King star. It’s believed that all of the greatest leaders are born under the lion.”

Leo puffed at that, shooting a glance toward Raph that practically boasted his supposed celestial disposition toward leadership.

“As for Donatello, It's derived from the Latin Donatus which means “Given” in the context of being a divine gift. It is also loosely translated as ‘to pardon’ or to forgive. It speaks of a kind and charitable nature.”

Donnie blushed, fiddling with his glasses in embarrassment.

L-“Elasia, you forgot your name. What does it mean?”

“Well in my people’s tongue it means the guardian of stars. In our mythology Elasia is the name of the daughter of the moon goddess Lunis and is responsible for guiding the souls of the dead into the night sky. The name is also synonymous with night or darkness, which is why it was adopted by the survivors of the great war as the name of the unified civilization of species.”

L-“So you're named for you people's grim reaper or angel of death figure. I guess that explains the skull charms you wear.”

I nodded, fiddling with the brass Raven skull at my throat.

M-“No our Elasia IS ELASIA. Why else do you think she has all of those wicked soul powers and stuff. She said herself that she lived multiple lives!”

R-“Mikey shut yah trap, can't you see you're makin her uncomfortable?”

M-“Sorry Angelface, I didn't mean…”

I gave Mikey a small hug when he knelt in front of me.

M-“It's alright Mikey, and don't worry we're still friends and super awesome gaming buddies.”

M-“Awesome, wait how did you know i…”

I just smirked tapping my temple.

M-“Jedi… I knew it”

It was then that my alarm went off.

“Well sorry guys, if i'm going to get any sleep before work in the morning i'm going to have to head back. It was really fun, we should definitely do this again.”

“Hey Elasia, one question.”

“Yeah don?”

“This job of yours, its a human surface job right?”

“Yeah i'm internshiping with the local forensics unit, why?”

“How do you manage to hide your, physical differences?”

I dug around in my bag, pulling out a blue glass bottle with a cork.

“This, its a potion used to concentrate the natural obscurants of my people. It doesn't make my wings go away but it does make them look like something else. The effects are only temporary though and the enchantment is very easy to break if necessary.”

I took a quick swig and pulled my wings against my back where they melted into a dark tribal tattoo. with a quick shake however they became wings again and a thin opalescent blue dust fell to the floor.

“It's not the easiest stuff to make and it's a bit painful. but it’s a viable option for those who have to interact with humans on a daily basis, especially if they have features that aren't easily hidden by other means.”

“Would it work for us?”

“I'm not sure, each person who uses it has to tailor the recipe to their species and individual biology in order to get the right results. I could look into it. I really should be going though.”

“I’ll walk you up.”

“Thanks Raph.”

…

When we got to the garage Raph led me to a dark and cluttered back corner, revealing a cleverly constructed trash cave just big enough for what was hidden inside. A modified Indian “Big Base” Scout with a deep burgundy and cherry red accented paint job. It was gorgeous.

“Damn, talk about a beauty, and he’s an old classic, 1948.”

Raph grabbed the handlebars like he was handling the love of his life as he rolled it out of its cubby and parked it at my feet.

“It's not entirely original, Donnie and I had to make some modifications and figure out how to build some parts from scratch so that it’d fit me.”

I had already gotten down on the floor of the shop and was curiously poking around the mechanics of the bike.

“Yeah it looks like you lengthened and reinforced the frame, and the suspension obviously, adding in the liquid cooling system was definitely a smart move, I can hardly see your additions on the cosmetic pieces, a human would never notice. This is really well done, How does he ride?”

“It’s a little heavy on the handling, nothing i can't handle though, gets a bit rough around 80 MPH.”

“But that’s expected of older models, even my XLCR gets a little shaky at higher speeds and its what 30 years newer?”

“I could… Drive ya home, if ya want. I mean so ya can hear what the engine sounds like.”

“That would actually be pretty nice. Doubt I'll hear it over the growl of MY bike though.”

At this i cocked my hip and snapped a sharp turn, swaying as i moved to mount Niltsi. Switching it on i revved the engine hard, the roar causing a smirk to pull at my lips, especially in response to the gigantic smile on Raph’s face. Starting up his engine he quietly rolled it to meet me at the mouth of the garage. Checking that the roads were clear our eyes met, a silent nod signaling the peal of thunder caused by both bikes speeding off down the road at the same time.

At first we kept pretty equal but as i started to pull ahead a bit Raph started to speed up, pulling ahead of me and starting a race. Narrowing my eyes i shifted my position so that i was lying as flat as possible against the tank of my Harley and raised my wings into an angle, the increased aerodynamics of the position causing me to rocket past Raph as my engine roared in victory. Raph decided if he couldn't beat me in speed then he’d beat me in style, as our bikes settled in next to each other he slowly began to raise up onto the seat of his Indian until he was riding the machine like a skateboard. One of his large two toed feet controlling the handlebars while the other maintained his balance and position. I couldn't help but throw my head back with laughter, leaning back in my seat and throwing my hands up as i steered with the toes of my riding boots. Soon though we reached my apartment and pulled the bikes into the alleyway parking behind the building.

“That was so much fun! I can't believe you surfed on that thing!”

“That thing you did with your wings was pretty cool, what do you call that?”

“Its called stooping, its a position used to increase diving speeds in falcons.”

In our excitement we both jumped around the alley, burning off adrenaline until we somehow ended up nearly chest to chest, the smiles on our faces bright and open.

“Your hair is all fluffy.”

Without thinking Raph smoothed his large hand over my short hair in an attempt to right it only for it to pop right back up. I couldn't help but notice how nice the sensation felt and to laugh at his frustrated expression.

“It does that when i'm excited, it's called plumeing….its a bird thing.”

“Like a parrot. Its cute.”

Realizing what he said his face immediately fell back into its intimidation mask and he moved to get back on his bike.

“Wait Raph….”

He started the engine and drove away as quickly as he could.

“Its ok…..”

When he disappeared from sight i spread my wings and with a few flaps landed on my apartment balcony. From here i could just make out his headlight shining between the buildings. I gently ran my fingers through my hair, copying the motions he had made.

“Goodnight Raphael.”

…

Raphael's POV

How fucking stupid am I! We were having so much fun, the night was going great and I go and ruin it by being a sappy anxious jackass! She probably thinks I'm a dopey dweeb!

Pulling quietly into the shop I hid Raijin back in the pile and stormed through the lair toward the dojo. Mikey tried to ask me how it went but I just growled low in my throat and pushed him away as I stormed past.

I needed to beat my anger into something.

After about an hour of destroying another training dummy I moved to the free weights. I needed to cool off.

What if she really meant what she said tonight? I mean she said nice things about everyone but I think that might have been a distraction tactic. Couldn't have my brothers calling me angel, or for Mikey to staple wings to my shell in my sleep. She looked so happy tonight, laughing and speeding on that beaut of a Harley. And her hair did look really nice all sticking up and wild, it was soft.

Throwing the bar back on the stand I rubbed the heels of my hands down my face. It couldn't happen I needed to stop fooling myself. Staring down at my hands I imagined her own looking so small and delicate against my rough green skin. No it would never work.

…

Elasia’s POV

The next day at work all I could think of was his smile and the feel of his hand in my hair.

No he would never like me like that, we're just friends, I need to stop reading so much into it.

I wore my red flannel tank top anyway.

[thenerdytomboynewb96]

Samantha Allan Park Ch. #13

Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's.

Chapter #13

*Thursday May 29th, 9:00p.m. At the Sachs Estate*

Shredder walked into the meeting room. There was a table with swivel chairs all around it, and sitting in each one was one of Shredders students or allies. Shredder didn’t show emotion, but there were a select few that he actually cared about, and all four of them were in this room at the moment.

First was Eric Sachs who had been in hiding for a little while after he was broken out of jail. Next to him at the table was Karai, a young Asian woman who was always right by his side. She aided in training the Foot soldiers that were recruited in the U.S.

 At the other side of the table was a bald Asian man who looked to be in his mid to late thirties named Tatsu. He had the same job and rank as Karai. When Shredder could not be in Japan to lead the Foot, then Tatsu took over for the main branch, and when Shredder couldn’t be in New York, Karai took over as head master. Tatsu and Karai saw each other as brother and sister figures since they both basically had the same jobs, so there was never really a reason for them to fight or argue over who was the best since in certain senses they were basically the same person.

 The final person in the room was a tall and buff white skinned man with a blonde ponytail named Hun. Just like how Shredder had raised and taught Sachs in Japan, Shredder had basically done the same with Hun once he first arrived in New York years ago when Hun was still a young teenager. Shredder taught him how to defend himself, and once he finished his training he went out and provided for his master in his own ways. While Sachs used brains, technology, and money to help his master in whatever he needed to accomplish, Hun used his strength and intimidating personality to round up his own gang, the Purple Dragons, to take care of more petty crimes. This way he could distract the public with his gang’s crimes, and then the Foot could get away with even more devious activity. Both men did what they needed to do and used their personal strengths to work together in helping each other and in helping provide for their sensei.

Overall, all four adults saw each other as family in a way and would do their best to protect one another, and all five saw each other as their own strange unique emotionless family.

Shredder first walked over to Eric Sachs. This was the first time that he had seen his student since his arrest months ago. “Sensei,” Sachs said as he bowed, “I can’t thank you enough for sending your men to rescue me. I’ll do whatever I can to show you how thankful I truly am.” Shredder put his hand on the man’s shoulder and nodded. “Welcome back my student, we will continue our work soon.” He then walked over to Karai who also bowed toward her sensei. “We have good news sir.” He put a hand on her shoulder and nodded to her, and then walked over to the next person, Tatsu. The man bowed towards Shredder. “Thank you sir for sending your men to help me and those from the main Japanese branch have successful travels from Japan to New York. We are all awaiting your orders.” Shredder repeated his greeting. “Welcome my student, we will work together soon.” Finally, Shredder walked over to Hun, who bowed to the Shredder as well. “Like Karai said, we have plans and news that we think will make you most happy sir.” Shredder repeated his greeting for the final time and then walked over to the head of the table. “Alright, so what is this good news?” he asked. There was never any emotion displayed on his face or heard in his voice, but at the same time it was so easy to feel how tense any conversation with the man was. The four sitting at the table all looked at each other and smiled as Sachs stood up. “Please follow me Sensei, we’ll explain as we walk.” Everyone stood up and followed Sachs. Karai was the first to talk. “We searched for the scientist that we tricked into working for us before and we forced him to come back. Since he and the other’s Hun and I forced to return have been here, they’ve been using his notes to create the mutagen that he had been working on before we found the turtles.” She then nodded towards Hun. He nodded back and began to talk. “The scientist’s then made huge doses. At that point, Tatsu and I rounded up our men and had them break into both the state zoo and a local pet shop, basically wherever we knew we could go to quickly snatch a bunch of different animals.” The group then walked into a huge laboratory. All around the room were cages and containers of multiple different animals. Shredder nodded his head. This was the only way he really showed praise, but that was enough to make his students feel proud of themselves for their accomplishments. “So,” Shredder began, “we are going to create a mutant army with the man-made mutagen?” “Exactly sir” Sachs said with a smile. He then snapped his fingers and two of the soldiers in the room dragged over a terrified Jordon Perry. Shredder glared at the man. “So, you thought you could try to run from the Foot Clan did you?” he said as he clenched his fists. “I, um, well the police made me. I mean, I didn’t really have a choice-” “ENOUGH!” Tatsu shouted. “How dare you try to insult my master! Do you really think he would believe an excuse filled with such nonsense?!” “I’m…I’m sorry…” the man whimpered. “Can you mutate these animals?” Shredder asked the man who was lying on the floor. “I…I’ve created a mutagen that should be able to give them some extraordinary powers…” Shredder glared at the man. “If you can turn these animals into soldiers, then I will let you live. Is the mutagen ready?” The professor shivered in fear, as much as he hated giving such power to such a horrid person, he wasn’t ready to die yet. He nodded his head at the man towering over him. He hadn’t gotten a chance to test out the mutagen he had been working on, but he was extremely confident in his work, so he had a strong feeling that this first and only test run would be successful. Shredder nodded at Sachs, who returned the gesture. “ALRIGHT!” Sachs shouted, “Everyone in this room, get these animals set up. This is where the fun begins” he said with a wicked smile. Within twenty minutes or so, all the animals were put into cages or large spaced containers that would be able to hold them once they had mutated. Within the different cages and containers was an Akita Inu male dog and his son who was still a puppy; a larger female tortoise and her two hatchlings, one a boy and the other a girl; a male and female adult terrapins and their hatchlings, two boys and two girls making four babies total; four male frogs of various colors; two female foxes of brownish-orange colors; a lioness; a male alligator; a male gecko of yellow skin with black spots and a female gecko of blue skin with red spots; a female arctic fox; a darker purple and blue colored female salamander; and a female kitten that had some ice cream stuck to its fur.

 Professor Jordon Perry was disheartened as he prepared to inject each animal with the mutagen he had made. If he had known what all his research and hard work would lead to, then he never would have agreed to come and work for the Sachs Estate years ago. But sadly it was too late, and as he used his hand to cover his mouth to prevent himself from letting out any sobs, the mutagen had slowly started entering the bodies of each of the animals. Within a couple of minutes each and every animal began writhing around on the ground, not being able to control their bodies. Then, they each began to grow, and grow, and grow until they were either as tall as or even taller than a normal human being.

The professor looked over at the Shredder, and what he saw made him want to run for the hills. For the first time that night, Shredder was grinning from ear to ear with the most devilish smile the professor had ever seen. It was the smile of a mad man, of a psychopath, of someone who was drunk with power.

“Great, and this is the person who determines when I get to die. Not that it matters, I’m already living in hell.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Themes for what’s going on inside Sam’s head: -AKMU: Melted -Jung Yong Hwa: One Fine Day (not in a romantic sense though)

*Thursday May 29th, earlier that night around 8:15p.m. At the Lair*

Donnie heard a beeping go off and ran over to his collage of computer screens. “Guys, we have trouble!” Leo and Mikey walked over to where Donnie was and waited for details. “It looks like there’s been a security breech at two places. An alarm was set at a local pet store up the street earlier, and there was another one at the zoo. If you give me a second…aha!” Donnie said as he pulled up a few videos. “These security cameras are showing that there’s Foot and Purple Dragon activity at both locations.” “Alright,” Leo began, “let’s gear up and see if we can stop whatever it is that they’re doing. One of you go get Raph-” “I’m already here.” Leo turned around to see Raph slowly walk down to where they were all standing by Donnie’s computers. “Hey, you okay?” “Pshh, of course. A little cold isn’t going to bother me” he said as he lightly swayed side to side. “Stop moving around so much!” “Um, Raph, I haven’t moved since you entered the room.” “Oh…really?” “Yup.” “Shit.” Leo gave his brother a small smile. “As much as you want to go with us, it’s probably best you sit this one out tonight. You’ll beat yourself up a lot more if you get caught because of something silly like a cold.” Raph gave a loud sigh, hating that his brother was right. “Fine, I’ll just chill here. Don’t have too much fun kicking butt without me.” Leo nodded towards his brother and then turned to leave. Donnie was using the devices on his left arm to figure out which pathways would lead them to their destinations the quickest. To Leo’s surprise, Mikey had his phone out as well. “Andddd what are you doing?” he asked Mikey, tilting his head to the side. Mikey looked up in surprise, and then with a smile. “Just texting Sam that we’re heading out and that we’ll be back eventually so not to worry when she gets here and its super quiet.” “Okay all set!” Donnie cut in. The two brothers then stared at Mikey, waiting for him to finish his text message. “Okay! I’ve slid into her DM’s, and now I’m ready to go!” “Never say that again, please.” Donnie pleaded. “Awww, why not? That’s become my new phrase! It’s the newest trend!” “Because you over use and incorrectly and awkwardly use modern phrases. So stop now before you ruin it for everyone.” “Tch, don’t hate the player hate the game!” he shouted as all three brothers ran off down the alley ways of the sewers.

While his brothers had been talking, Raph had walked over towards the four circular openings that lead into the dojo. He climbed up to the top left opening where the hammocks were and decided he would rest there. It was rare that he could lay and sway in the hammocks without there being tons of noise from his brothers, so he decided to take advantage of this opportunity. About ten to fifteen minutes later he heard someone enter the room. “Huh, they’re back early. They just left, what, ten minutes ago? Maybe they forget something.”

Raph leaned over a little bit and was shocked that he didn’t see his brothers. Instead, he watched as Sam walked in from the entrance along the wall at the end of the kitchen. From where she was standing, there was no way she could see Raph, so he took advantage of this and spied on her. She walked over to the bottom right entrance to the dojo and kneeled down facing the left side of the wall. Raph continued to secretly stare at her, wondering what she was thinking as she just blankly stared at the weapons wall. He watched as she took a cloth and a bottle with some type of liquid out of her back pack. He then clenched his fists together when Sam picked up the lone sai she had been questioning him about from days ago and began to dust and polish it. “Are you kidding me?! I told her not to touch my stuff, and what does she do, SHE TOUCHES MY STUFF!” Raph was just about to jump down from the upper level and begin yelling at her, but he stopped when he saw her put her hand back into her bag. His jaw dropped when he saw that in Sam’s hand was an exact replica of the small sai that was hanging on their wall. He wanted to feel rage and anger towards her, but more than anything he was just curious. When he found the first sai in a dumpster one night about four years ago, he constantly looked for its partner. At the time he needed a new pair of sais that would fit his growing hands, and it had really upset him that he couldn’t find the match, so he always kept it along the weapons wall in case he ever found the second of the two. He did use it every so often to practice certain attacks, but once he finally found a new pair where both blades were present then he just continued to use the newer pair, but he still always kept this one. All four brothers had saved all the weapons that they had fought and trained with over the years. It was their equivalent to when kids mark how tall they’ve grown on the side of a wall or door frame in their house, at least that’s what he had seen kids do on t.v. His thoughts were disrupted when he heard some light sobbing. He peeked back over at the girl and noticed that she had been crying. She wasn’t loud or crying her eyes out, but she did have some tears running down her cheeks. Raph listened carefully as the girl began to talk to herself.

“*sigh* I looked EVERYWHERE for you. Like literally everywhere, and in some places I’m not proud of either” she shuddered, “and you’ve been hiding down here all this time.” “Yeah, and I never would have expected someone like you to be hiding the other half all these years either” Raph thought to himself. Tears continued to run down Sam’s face as she softly spoke to herself. “Well, I finally got a chance to reunite you two. Heh, it really threw me off when I saw you down here the other day. You brought back a lot of memories that I was finally starting to hide away. Well, you know what I mean, not hide away, but…I’m able to live life again, you know? I just wish your new owner didn’t have to be such an ass about it.” Raph rolled his eyes. “But, even if you were a bit dusty, you still seem to have a nice blade to you, and you can still see the initials, so overall it seems he did a good job at taking care of you” she said with a smile, her tears finally starting to dry up and fade away. “In a weird way, I’m glad the Hulk found you. I never knew I would find this place, but because you were taken by he who must not be named, I finally got to figure out where you’ve been hiding all these years.”

Raph wondered what she was talking about. Initials? He thought the C.A.P. on the handle had been a brand name. He tried to think of the girl’s last name and after a few seconds he remembered her mentioning it when they first met. Allan Park, that’s what the A and P must have stood for, but what did the C represent? The next thing he knew, Sam was heading into the dojo with both of the sais. He quickly laid down as flat as he could, hoping she wouldn’t see him up where he was.

“Alright bro, let’s see if I can remember all that you taught me.” Sam began quickly slicing the sais across the open space in front of her. She moved so swiftly that you could hear the swishing sounds of the blades as she moved. Again, Raph wanted to yell and scream at the girl, but he was so lost in his thoughts, just as she was lost in hers. He was lucky that she was so emotionally wrapped up in what she was doing, or else she easily would have spotted him, but because of her personal distraction, Raph was able to sit up and watch her in plain sight. As he watched her in amazement, he continued to wonder what all her comments meant. How did these sais ever end up in her possession? When did she learn how to use them? Why had she thrown one in a dumpster? What had happened four years ago? And why did she just say ‘bro’ to the weapons?

Sam then swung the sais around and then threw them at a diagonal position down by her sides, only to have them go flying behind her. Raph clapped his hand to his head. “What the heck is she thinking? Treat them with a little more respect, jeez!” He then jumped where he was sitting a bit when he heard a loud slap sound. Sam had clapped both of her hands against her face in horror. “Oh crap! I thought I was acting like him and was trying to be cool, but I don’t have holsters!” She then ran over to where the weapons had been thrown and she inspected them carefully. “Oh thank cheesus, they’re both okay. Phew, so neither of you guys have to be mad at me since they’re both still in good shape. “Guys? I’m assuming I’m one of them, but who else would be upset about my sais? Does she think Mikey would get upset? Or maybe Leo since he controls whether she gets to come down here or not?”

Both their thoughts were interrupted as they heard voices getting louder and louder as they neared the entrance over by the living room. Raph recognized his brother’s voices, and before he could even wonder if Sam had heard them or not, his thoughts had been answered when he saw her run over to the weapons wall and carefully put one of the sais back and the other in her back pack. She then ran over to the fridge, opened the door, and shoved her head inside.

As the brothers walked in, Mikey instantly recognized his friend standing across the room. “Sam! Watcha doin?” She turned around and smiled. “Looking for food. Soccer practice makes you hungry, but you guys are low on snacks.” “Oh that’s okay cause I….don’t have snacks in my room, hehe” he said nervously. He then noticed that Leo wasn’t paying attention since he was focused on contacting April. “Hey April, I have a favor to ask of you when you get a momen-” “HEY ANGEL CAKES! How have you been?! What are you up to?! Did you miss me?!” Mikey shouted over his brother’s shoulder. As Leo walked out in the alley ways of the sewers to try to talk to April on the phone with peace and quiet, Mikey continued to follow him and bombard April with questions and comments. Donnie laughed as he rolled his eyes and headed for his lab. He noticed some movement to his right in his peripheral vision, and when he looked over he smiled and waved. “Hey Raph, hope you’re feeling better” he said with a smile, assuming that his brother had been relaxing in the hammocks while the rest of them were out.

While Donnie was smiling as he walked into his lab, Sam was standing still, frozen with fear. She heard a *thud* come from behind her and she knew that the hot headed turtle was walking towards her. She took a deep breath and slowly turned to face him. All she saw was his hands on his hips and without thinking she just began blurting out whatever came to mind.

“Okay I know you hate me and all but they both were originally mine, well sort of, but they belonged to my family so I had the right to check them out and you wouldn’t answer any of my questions the other day and just I needed this okay? So hate me all you want but it’s not fair that you wouldn’t even let me clean them and-” Just as she felt tears welling up in her eyes again, she was cut off when Raph used his hand to cover her mouth. She then for the first time realized that Raph had a calm expression with some sorrow resting in his eyes. He slowly removed his hand from her face.

“So, you gonna explain what I just witnessed for the past half hour?” Sam just stood there. She didn’t want to go into full detail about what had just happened, and just thinking about it made her come close to crying again, and realizing that Raph had seen her cry earlier made her even more upset. She hadn’t even told Mikey much about her past yet, and if she needed to cry then she would rather it be in front of someone who would comfort her rather than hurt her. That’s when she realized…Raph wasn’t insulting her. He hadn’t yelled, he hadn’t gotten violent, he was actually standing there ready to listen to her.

“Why…aren’t you yelling at me?” Raph looked over to the side as his face darkened a bit. “I’ve never seen a girl cry in person…” “Oh, I get it. You’re treating me like the damsel in distress” she said in a nasty tone. This was one of the reasons she didn’t want to tell any of them about her past, because she knew they would treat her differently. “Wait, what?” Raph asked in confusion. “You’re going soft on me because you know I’m broken. So I’m not Sam anymore to you, I’m the broken girl who makes you feel guilty for being yourself. I knew this would happen-” “Stop” he said, cutting her off. “I’m not treating you like you’re broken, I’m attempting…trying to be nice and understand…and stuff.” She tilted her head at him. “Look” he began, “I’ve been treating you like shit because I thought you were just a nosy brat who couldn’t keep her hands to herself and mind her own business. But obviously there’s reasons as to why you’re the way you are.” “The way I am?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “You know, super over confident and cocky when it comes to brains and strength. Someone your age and size shouldn’t be able to do the things that you do, but you still do it. And…I’ll admit I never really let you explain why, I just insult you every time…” “…you’re scaring me…” Raph rolled his eyes. “Are you going to explain yourself or not?” “Um…” she said as her eyes wandered to the floor, “please don’t make me tell you. It’s a long story that I’ve been hiding away for a while now.” Raph gave her a small smile as he put his hands on his hips. “How bout this, you at least tell me who’s initials these are, and then I’ll refrain from kicking your butt.” She looked up at him and gave him a small smile. “C.A.P. stands for Chuck Allan Park. These belonged to my younger brother years ago.” Her eyes glistened as she remembered fighting alongside her younger brother of two years. Raph noticed this and tried to carefully ask more questions about the subject. “Did he take those self-defense classes with you to?” Sam snapped back to reality, but she continued to smile as she answered his questions. “Yeah, we were the babies of the family, so our older siblings signed us up for a variety of different classes. Man the two of us kicked major butt together! I mean he was a million times better than me when it came to using sais. I’ll honestly admit I was always jealous that I couldn’t reach his level of expertise when it came to his weapon” she said as she jokingly shook her head. “Do you mind telling me how he lost it? How does he fight with one sai?” Raph asked. Sam took a breath, paused for a moment, and decided she was ready to reveal SOME information to the turtle in front of her. “We were fighting some bad guys and it got kicked away by the enemy. I tried looking everywhere for it, but I could never find it. I guess you took it that fast” she said as she playfully glared at Raph. He returned the gesture. “Well, now you can return it to him, and maybe if Leo is nice enough, he can come show me what he’s got.” Raph was actually a bit excited to meet another ninja who used the same weapon as him, but his excitement faded as he saw Sam’s face slowly return to its soft and sullen form. “Sadly that will never happen. My brother, he’s…far away right now…” Raph tilted his head in confusion. “Okay, my entire family has been split up for a while now. That’s why it’s always just me and my older brother Jay. Everyone else has traveled somewhere else throughout the country. That’s why I’m home alone so much.” “Do they ever visit, or even call or something?” Raph was shocked at how much concern he revealed in his tone. Of course Sam caught on to this and rolled with it, not knowing when the hot headed turtle might ever talk to her this way ever again. “Well, we sort of meet up all together about once a year now. But that’s usually it” she said as she shrugged her shoulders.

Raph wasn’t sure how to reply. He knew he would be devastated if his brothers just disappeared and saw him only once a year. Family was all he had, so he couldn’t imagine how Sam felt when her huge family was scattered and so broken apart. He wished that he had learned this earlier, but then he realized that he would have done exactly what Sam didn’t want and he would have treated her as the broken girl and not as Sam Allan Park. He then began to smile again, realizing that he could still treat her as herself.

“If you want, you can take both sais home with you, or you can leave them here for safe keeping. Your call. There’s no way Mikey can train you with them, but I can always give you some pointers if you’d like.” Sam didn’t realize how much her jaw dropped when she looked back up at Raph. “Did you just offer to help train me?” “Well, let’s put it this way. I don’t want you to get your butt kicked because you don’t know how to use the weapon you’re armed with. You know, since I DON’T hate you and all.” Sam playfully squinted her eyes and glared at him. “What are you saying about my technique?” “To put it bluntly, you’re a mess. You had some good moves, but overall your technique is sloppy.” Sam put her hands up in defense. “As much as I would love to disagree with you, I know you’re right. I haven’t fought with those for a couple of years now, so I could use a few refresher courses, you know, from someone who doesn’t hate me” she said as she turned toward Raph, aiming the comment directly at him.

Just then, Mikey walked back into the room, his smiling face instantly turning into one of concern as he saw Raph standing right next to Sam. “What’s going on?” Sam smiled at her best friend. “You’re leading me to the snacks that you don’t have hidden in your room.” “Right! Don’t follow me” he winked at her as he dashed back towards his room.

As Mikey headed towards his room, Sam looked over at Raph. “I’m gonna take a rain check on that refresher course, but let’s stay in touch Dauntless” she said with a smile as she walked away.

Once she was gone, Raph headed back up towards the hammocks. As he laid down and got comfy, he continued to wonder about her past. What had happened that her family was now scattered all over the country? He hoped that maybe now that he had opened up to her a bit, maybe she would slowly do the same, for safety reasons of course since it was important to know about the person who had appeared in not the most appealing of ways into their lives. As Raph thought back to the conversations he had recently had with the girl, he didn’t realize that he now had a small smile on his face as he drifted off to sleep.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Friday May 30th around 3:00p.m.*

Once school had gotten out, Sam went straight home to gather whatever she thought she would need when hanging out with Mikey and then headed straight for the sewers. The two talked for a while about their favorite games and shows and then not long after they decided to ride around the sewers on their skate boards. As the two rode around, Sam noticed a lot of empty spaces throughout the underground passage ways.

“Hey, how come you guys don’t take advantage of all these huge open spaces?” Sam asked as the two skated by another large open space about the size of two small houses. “Honestly, we just haven’t taken the time to really look around yet. After Shredder and his guys attacked us at our old home, we instantly started looking for a new home farther away from where our old one was. We stumbled upon this place, thought that it was large enough for anything we might need, and within a few days we were all set here. We haven’t really looked around anywhere else in the nearby sewer passage ways.” “Well, maybe you and I could start looking around, if you want to. If we find any spaces we like then we can decorate them the way we want to” Sam said with a smile. Mikey gave her a quizzical look. “And how exactly would we decorate them? What would we use these rooms for?” “Go Karts” Sam stated bluntly. Mikey laughed. “Where the heck are we going to get go karts?” “You guys realize what’s above this place, right? I mean you have to know what’s above the surface of where your new home is.” “…Uh, well, I know Donnie knows…and Leo knows…and everyone but me cared to find out…hehe.” Sam stared at him with wide eyes. “Seriously? Okay follow me.” “Where are we going?” “You need to see what’s above where you guys live, you’re going to freak out when you see what’s been above you guys this entire time!”

Sam led her friend to a manhole cover that would take them straight up to the location that was right above the turtle’s home. When she lifted the manhole cover, Mikey’s jaw dropped. “We’ve been living under an abandoned amusement park this whole time?!?!” “Heh, told you that you’d freak out” Sam replied, her hands on her hips. “And there’s a bunch of go karts right over there” she said as she pointed to a further away spot. Mikey ran as soon as he saw his friends hand go up. He inspected each of the go karts and then gave his friend a huge smile…and then began to frown. “These are awesome…but where would we put them. We can’t use them up here, we would easily be heard if we got them running.” Sam replied with a cheeky grin. “Oh I know just the place. Here we’ll leave the karts up here for now, I have another surprise. Follow me!” she shouted as she turned and ran goofily back towards the manhole cover. Mikey shook his head and smiled, wondering what else she was hiding near HIS home. He followed her until they were…back by the lair? “Um, Sam. You know where we are right?” She turned around with wide eyes. “Heck. Yeah!” “….so you know that’s the Hashi and the med wing behind us, right? As in we’re right by the lair.” “Yeah, but we’re not heading towards the lair, we’re heading here” she said as she pointed to the wall in front of her. “…we’re going to walk through a wall?” “See, right now this looks like a wall, but what you guys didn’t realize was that this section of the wall was hollow. Why you might ask? Because it wasn’t meant to just be part of the wall, but rather…,” she then pushed against the wall and a bunch of bricks came crashing down, falling into an open space within the wall, “…to be an opening.” Mikey stared at the open space. How had there been an entryway right by their home that they hadn’t even discovered yet? He took a step inside and slowly spun around as he observed the large open space. It seemed to be about half the size of their new lair. “Sam…how did you find out about this?” he said as he looked back at her with wide eyes. “The other day when I was sent to the Hashi, my legs felt like Jell-O afterwards and I needed the wall for support. As soon as I made my way out of the room, I quickly dived over to lean on this section of the wall, only to have it give out on me. I noticed there were some cracks in the wall, and I tried to push on it a little more. After a few minutes, this section of the wall caved in, and now boom! Here we are!” she said as she threw her arms up in excitement. “And this isn’t the end either, come here!” she said as she started jogging over towards the left side of that wall. At the end of that wall was yet another opening. This lead to another room that was about the same size as the first, but Sam continued jogging on. There was once again another entry way, and this lead to the biggest room of the three.

Mikey couldn’t believe his eyes. “This is what you were talking about, this is the space you want to turn into a go kart track?” He turned to her and saw her running her fingers across each other in excitement. “Ohhhh I have plans for all three of these rooms” she paused. “If...you’re okay with them that is” she said with a nervous smile. He smiled back and slowly swung his arm out in front of him like a servant. “Do share m’lady.” She chuckled. “The first one could be a sports room, the second could be a skate room, and then this would be for the go karts. Thoughts, suggestions?” Mikey shook his head. “That literally sounds amazing. We already have game rooms, t.v.’s, workout spaces, so those ideas all sound amazing for these large spaces…you purposefully wanted to skate around today just so you could show me all this, didn’t you?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about” Sam replied bashfully as she turned away, trying not to make it to obvious how much she had been wanting to show Mikey what she had discovered. He laughed as he put his arm around her. “Why don’t we head back to the lair and start making plans on how to decorate our new space?” “Sounds good to me, I just need to go to Donnie’s lab and get some blue print sheets.” Mikey paused. “Donnie allowed you to go into his lab?” “Yeah, he told me a little while ago that I could go in, I just have to let him know what I’m taking before I touch anything.” “Really?” “Do I need to say yes in another language?” she chuckled. “No, just curious. Now onward to the room of things I don’t understand to get some blue paper!”

Mikey would never admit it to anyone, but he was thrilled to hear that Donnie was finally giving his new friend a chance to be herself and get to know her rather than just push her away. He was proud of his older brother, and hoped that maybe he would become friends with Sam as well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Much later that same day*

Donnie was sitting at the computers right outside where his lab was. “Foxes, a lion, an alligator…but then also household pets like a cat and a dog? Shredder, what are you up to?” Donnie was reading online articles about the robbery that had just happened the night before, trying to see if there was anything that would give away whatever plan Shredder was scheming. He couldn’t figure out why he would steal both vicious predators from the zoo while also stealing adorable animals from a pet store.

Just then, he saw something make a jolting movement in his lab and then heard heavy breathing. He looked over to see Sam breathing heavily, sweat running down the side of her lightly red face. Earlier Sam and Mikey were working on blue prints for who knows what, but after a while Mikey needed to move around some, so he kindly excused himself to go workout some with Raph, and by the time he had returned he discovered that Sam was fast asleep. With Donnie’s permission of course, Mikey moved Sam over to the small bed Donnie had in his laboratory and left her to sleep there. She had been sleeping peacefully earlier, but now her eyes were filled with terror from whatever had lead to her abrupt awakening.

Donnie quickly got up and rushed over to the girl who seemed to be having a hard time breathing. “Sam?” he said, snapping his fingers in front of her face, though this did nothing to change her condition. He then placed both his hands on the sides of her cheeks. “Sam? You okay?” Finally Sam’s breathing calmed down some as she stared in Donatello’s eyes. “What happened?” she asked. “Seriously? You’re the one who looks like they just saw a ghost.” She shrugged. “I guess you could say that.” He frowned at her. “Is everything alright?” He brought his hands back to his sides after realizing that they had still been holding her face. “I’m good, everything is good. I just have night terrors every so often. Heh, I thought I’d be able to hide that a little longer, but of course I have one the first time I fall asleep here.” “What was it about?” Sam sat quietly for a few seconds, not sure how to answer the question. “Just a typical dream where I’m falling and I wake up as soon as I’m about to hit the ground” she said with a playful smile. Donnie accepted her answer, but he had a feeling she was lying. He’d had dreams like that before and he didn’t wake up with terror in his eyes like Sam just had. “How long have you been having night terrors?” “Ummmm, since I was about eight? I want to say that’s about right.” “Do you have any idea as to what’s been causing them?” “Sorry Dr. Phil but I never really thought much about them. Usually when life got cheerier they began to go away, but even on my best days I’ve still had them. Sadly they just never go away.” Donnie could sense the pain in her voice as she spoke about her nightmares. He wished there was something he could do, but without her telling him the full truth, there was no way he could help his friend. “Friend?” he thought, “when did I start seeing her as a friend?” As he looked away, feeling a bit embarrassed and awkward because of the thought that just went through his head, he didn’t notice that Sam was looking all over the room. “Where did Mikey go? He isn’t back yet?” Donnie chuckled. “Mikey went to bed hours ago. He didn’t want to wake you, so he asked if he could let you sleep here.” “Oh, heh, sorry about that. I can leave if you want me to.” Donnie smiled as he shook his head. “Nah, I’m actually about to head to bed myself, so you can continue to sleep here if you’d like. You definitely have to spend the night here since its too late for you to head home alone, and this bed it way more comfortable than the couch.” Donnie was a bit shocked at seeing the huge smile that spread across the girl’s face. “Thanks Don, I owe you one. Hey throw me that stack of post it notes.” He stood up and reached for the pack and tossed them to her. “What are you writing down?” “How I’m going to pay you back.” “You don’t have to do that, it’s really no big-” “Well the way I’m going to pay you back is not big deal either” she said as she smiled and folded the note so that it would fit into her jacket pocket. Donnie smiled and put a hand on her shoulder as he turned to leave the lab. “Night Sam.” “Night Erudite” she said playfully as she turned over onto the bed.

Donnie walked back to his room around the corner from where the lab was. Maybe having this girl around wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.