Chapter Text
After Raph pulled the turtle tank into the garage and all four of them had gathered their collected ingredients, he had been hoping to see teen-pops and April hanging out in the atrium or at the very least hear the t.v. playing. Instead, a withered grey vine lined the hallway leading out to the common room. Several more hung limply from the third floor, looking a lot like grungy tinsel.
“Dibs on not cleaning that up.” Leo said, hopping over one of the shriveled vines.
“Hey Barry!” Mikey’s voice echoed through the open area. To Raph’s relief, an answer came in an aggravated shout.
“Finally!”
The sheep Yokai walked out of the kitchen tunnel, peering down at the four of them from atop the ledge. A deep frown etched on his face.
“You get everything I asked for?”
“Yep,” Raph said, lifting his sack of goodies. “So uh...” He lowered it and waved a hand at the surrounding mess. “What happened here?”
Draxum scowled. Shelldon popped out from behind the Yokai.
“It was Teen gramps and April!” he said, wiggling his rotors. He zipped down to them and circled around a few times before nuzzling Donnie. “those two made a fool out of Barry!”
“Silence machine!”
“Sorry I missed it,” Leo said, leaning against his ōdachi. He gave Draxum a lazy smile. “So did’cha catch where they were heading, or was this a complete failure on your part?”
Draxum growled.
“Hey now, I’m sure he did his best!” Mikey gave his brother a disapproving frown. “Pops and April are wily, he had no chance with them working together!”
“I helped too!”
“And Shelldon helped. he was outnumbered!”
Leo and Donnie stifled their snickering as Draxum groaned.
“And to think, I’m still going to help this ungrateful family. Now hurry, the sooner we start, the sooner this entire ordeal can be done with!”
Once they all entered the kitchen and laid out all of their ingredients out onto the counter, Raph just had to ask.
“So, uh, is this really gonna work?”
“Of course!” Draxum puffed out his chest. He swept a hand over the assortment of... rather unique ingredients. Some of which were still twitching. “With these and, of course, the Time Sand, I’ll be able to create an antidote for your father.” He turned on the burner. “Now leave me. I’ll call you when I’m done concocting.”
Leo shrugged, turning on his heel. “Sounds good to me.”
“Hey Leo, you wanna play Race Party?” Mikey said, running ahead of his blue-banded brother.
“Yo, I’m down with that.”
“Hey Dee, you wanna play the winner?”
Donnie shrugged, his eyes already glued to his phone.
“Cool, c’mon, I’ll set it up.”
“You coming, big guy?” Leo asked, looking over his shoulder at Raph.
“In a sec,” he said, “I wanna call April and let her know we’re home.”
“Ooh, that’s a good idea. Don’t go chatting up a storm now. I’m gonna need some competition after I whoop Mikey’s and Donnie’s butts at Race Party.”
Donnie shoved Leo as he passed him, causing the slider to flail and nearly fall over.
“Oh, real mature!”
Donnie looked away from his phone and smirked. Leo matched it with his own, and suddenly they were racing out of the kitchen. Raph shook his head. those twos relationship flipped on a dime and sometimes it was a headache to keep up with them.
He left the kitchen and pulled out his phone, scrolling to April’s name. He paused when he heard a crash come from the t.v. room but relaxed when he heard Mikey laugh.
He dialed April.
***
Raph stared down at his phone. It had been half an hour since he had first called and since then; he had received no call back, no text, no nothing. The three missed calls sent to April disturbed him. Not because she had taken kid-pops out of the Lair or nothing. Nah, they probably would have gotten stir crazy waiting for them, anyway.
No, the thing that had him worried was the nasty twisting in his gut that something was wrong. He felt it the moment April didn’t pick up the first time, but he had brushed it aside. His gut feelings have been wrong before. It was sometimes hard to tell the difference between his instincts and his general overprotectiveness. Something he really is trying to work on, for the sake of his brothers and teammates, but... something about this situation had him leaning hard on this being an instinct call.
But was it? Was he just worrying too much?
Raph pushed himself off of his bed, striding back out into the atrium.
No, he had to trust himself. If he’s wrong, he’ll just apologize to April and kid-pops. Easy.
“Hey guys!” He called out. He waited for a few moments and rolled his eyes when he received no answer. Figures. He first checked out his brother’s room before checking out Donnie’s lab. He said hi to a charging Shelldon. The sleepy drone happily greeted the snapper and when Raph asked him if he knew where April had planned to go, he had shaken his head no. Next up, he went to the kitchen. Draxum had already incorporated most of the ingredients gathered and was stirring a foul smelling sludge in one of Mikey’s pots. Raph left the stench as quickly as possible, covering his nose as he fled. The last place he went to was, of course, exactly where all three of his younger brothers were. In the tv room. Raph stopped at the tunnel entrance, taking in the scene in front of him.
Mikey and Leo were playing the race car game on the projector screen. Both intensely focused on it while Donnie was lounging on a beanbag chair, scrolling through his phone looking at who knows what.
“I’m so gonna win!” Leo declared as his race car battered against some NPC’s, putting him in the lead. Mikey didn’t respond to the taunt and instead veered his virtual car out of the way of the careening digital vehicle, earning him second place. The finish line fast approaching. “Prepare to call me champ of the race track cuz I got this in the bag!” the little braggart crowed, leaning forward as he guided his car to victory.
From his bean bag, Donnie scoffed, actually looking up from his phone to the tv screen. Raph saw the wicked grin form on his tech-genius brother’s face but could do nothing as Donnie kicked out with one of his long legs, successfully knocking Leo to the ground. The controller flew out of the slider’s hands as he braced himself against the grated floor.
“Wha-! Hey!”
“I won!” Mikey cheered, shooting up to his feet and raising his arms in victory. The screen flashing with confetti as it named the small turtle the winner.
“Wait, a minute!” Leo yelled, pushing himself up to his feet. “That doesn’t count.”
“Uh, yeah it does.” Mikey looked up at Leo, placing his hands on his sides.
“No, it doesn’t. Donnie kicked me!”
“No, I didn’t.” the accused said with a straight face, looking directly at his phone screen.
Leo whirled around and pointed an accusing finger at his twin. “Yes, you did!”
“Your delusion.”
“Mikey, back me up here.”
“I didn’t see anything.” Mikey crossed his arms and pouted. “You’re just trying to make excuses!”
“Mikey!”
“Exactly, take your defeat with grace, Nardo. It’s the mature thing to do.”
Leo made a noise that sounded like it was supposed to be a word but came out as a high-pitched screech. Which Raph recognized as his cue to break up the argument before it devolved into something nasty. He did not hide his approach, letting his full weight strain and creak the metal below him. Three heads turned towards him.
“Raph!” Leo yelled, putting on his best kicked puppy dog impression. “Help, I’m being ganged up on by our cruel, mean, victory stealing brothers!”
“Don’t believe him.” Donnie said, “He’s being his usual dramatic self.”
“Yeah, he just doesn’t want to admit defeat.” Mikey nodded.
“See!” Leo waved his arms between the two of them.
Raph sighed and gave Donnie his best “that so?” look. Donnie met it with his very own impassive stare. He ditched the mind games and just was direct. He preferred that method anyway.
“Donnie.”
“Yes, dear brother?”
“I saw you kick Leo.”
“Hah,” Leo raised his arms up in victory, “suck it Donnie, you jerk!”
“Aw man.” Mikey whined, flopping down into his beanbag chair.
“Hmm, do you have proof of that? Cuz if you don’t, I’m afraid that will not hold up in a court of law.”
“We ain’t in a court and we ain’t got time for this anyways. Didn’t you guys hear me?”
At that, all three brothers looked away from Raph. He groaned. Figures.
“We’re going back out.”
“What!” a chorus of three chimed.
“But we just got back!”
“I just got comfortable!”
“We’re waiting for April and Dad to get back, hermano. We kinda don’t want to miss them.”
“Nah, you see, that’s just it.” Raph pulled out his phone. “April hasn’t been answering her phone, and it’s been hours since Draxum said they left. Don’tcha think something’s up?”
“Eh,” Donnie shrugged, “probably just having some fun or whatever. No big deal.”
“Yeah, big bro, no need to worry.” Leo leaned against Raph’s arm. “I’ll betcha they’ll get here just as Draxum gets done making the potion. You’ll see.”
“And maybe April was just busy when you called her,” Mikey added, pulling out his own phone. He pulled up his contacts and pressed April’s number. Putting his phone on speaker for Raph’s benefit. “you’ll see, everything is completely-“
“Heya, you’ve reached Aprrriiilll O’Neil’s voice mail! I’m busy at the moment, so go ahead and leave a message. I’ll get right back with ya as soon as I can!”
“-fine...” Mikey stared down at his phone as it beeped. He ended the call.
“Well, that... that could mean anything.” Leo chuckled, whipping out his phone as well. He didn’t even look at the screen as he dialed up April’s phone. He brought it up to his ear, an easy smile on his face. An easy smile that stiffened only a few seconds later. He brought his phone away from his ear. He looked down at his twin. “Hey Donnie?”
“Already on it.” he said, pushing himself up to his feet. All four huddled around the phone and waited in tense silence as it rang and rang... and rang. When it finally stopped and April’s voice came over the line, all four boys relaxed, but that was soon replaced with something chilling when it ended up just being her prerecorded message. Donnie ended the call.
“Fellas,” Raph said, looking at each of his brothers. “Let’s roll out.”
He knew he should have trusted his gut.
***
Yoshi had found the other captives. All separated in closets or lockers, far enough away from each other that even if they called out for help or simply to know if there was more than just the dark and two monsters keeping them company, no one could hear them. This was defiantly very, very, very different from typical ninja training. The first person he had broken out had cowered and begged him not to hurt her. From what little light there was and judging by her voice, she seemed to be young. At least younger than Yoshi. It had taken a bit to calm her down enough to let her know he wasn’t with the kidnappers. It had taken an even more to convince her to follow him through the dark building. All of it had slowed him down considerably, but her clinging to the back of his jacket kept her calm as he liberated victim after victim. Some were teenagers like him, most were adults, and there were even a few kids. The ones that had been here the longest needed to lean on others, too hungry and weak to walk themselves. Others were jumpy and frantic, trying Yoshi’s patience as he calmed and convinced each one to follow him out of here, together. By the time the group had grown into the double digits, the dark pit in Yoshi’s stomach had dispelled any ounce of denial he had clung to since waking up in the pitch dark closet.
No, this was not typical training at all. These people had suffered. Whatever was going on right now, it was real.
This realization made his mind reel. He wanted answers: he wanted to know how he ended up here; he wanted to know why he didn’t remember anything from this morning. Because whatever had happened to him, it had to have happened this morning or maybe last night. Maybe he was taken from his room in the middle of the night and put here.
Without waking him or his Jiji up.
Yeah right.
And for some reason, his kidnappers had deigned to dress him in some very stylish clothes while he was out, which was... unsettling. Not to mention, it had taken him an embarrassing amount of time to realize, but he was pretty sure that everybody here with him wasn’t Japanese. Did that mean he wasn’t in Japan right now? But the wildest thing was that he hadn’t even realized that he was speaking English or that he didn’t even need to stop and translate what his fellow captives were saying when he talked to them. All very confusing circumstances. He honestly didn’t have the chance to figure out right now.
Stifling his bubbling panic, he gently guided the girl clinging to him around a discarded piece of junk littering the floor. The people behind them followed his example, just as he told them to do. In front of him, a young couple who seemed just as fresh to this place as him were leading their chain of people. Being the only ones whose phones still had enough charge to act as flashlights. They had tried calling the police earlier, but neither had service. Yoshi wasn’t sure what that was, but he gathered it wasn’t a good thing based on the dejected look that came over their faces when everybody realized it.
Regardless, they all continued making their way through the winding halls of the abandoned building when the boyfriend gasped. Yoshi tensed, getting into a stance. Was it the monsters?
“Look!”
He pointed his phone up, spotlighting a sign that hung by one chain from the ceiling. Although it was faded and dust covered, Yoshi could still read the sign.
“It’s an exit!” the girlfriend said. A murmur ran through the crowd behind Yoshi, their excitement and relief palpable. They followed the sign and soon enough they came to a rusted door. It didn’t want to open, no matter how much pushing they did or how much colorful cursing was thrown at it. But Yoshi found that a good kick was just as good as any key could be. The rusted piece of junk screamed opened, announcing to everybody that freedom was just a step away.
Everybody poured out. Some fell to their knees and began to weep, while others fiddled with their restraints. Apparently, they were called zip-ties.
“Hey, I got bars again!” the girlfriend said. She squinted at her phone and raised it above her head.
“Then call 911 already!”
“What are you waiting for?”
“Okay, okay, jeez!”
Seeing that everything was settled, Yoshi made his way back inside. He was stopped by a solid grip. That’s right, he almost forgot. He turned to face the girl he had found first. Now that they were outside, even with the limited light the moon and stars gave, he could clearly see that the girl before him was indeed younger than himself. Thirteen, maybe fourteen, if he had to guess. Her eyes were huge and full of terror as she violently shook her head.
He really didn’t want to draw any attention to himself, especially from one of the adults. So he did the only thing he could think of. He patted her on the head, the same way his mother used to, and spoke to her in a whisper.
“I have to go back inside. There are still people in there. They need my help.”
“Y-you don’t have to go, though.” She said. Her voice was shaky, but thankfully she kept her voice low as well. “Let someone else do it.”
He could, couldn’t he? It was tempting. This wasn’t his mess to deal with. Yoshi did more than enough. He found everybody; he helped get them out. That was enough, right?
...no, he wasn’t going to wait for someone else to do a job that he could do. Those three needed his help, and they needed it now.
He shook his head, and before she could protest, he gave her his best smile and winked.
“A hero doesn’t wait for someone else to do his job for him.” He said, shrugging and infusing as much charm in his words as he could. “And unfortunately, I’m on duty tonight.”
She blinked at him and starred, but to Yoshi’s satisfaction, she cracked a smile and giggled.
“You’re a really good Lou Jitsu role-player, y’know? You got the smile down and everything.”
He had no idea what that meant, but it seemed to make her happier, so he took it. He gave her a thumbs up and then ninja dashed his way back into the building.
***
If there’s one thing April never wanted a repeat of, it was being thrown into a window by an animatronic bear. If there was a second thing April never wanted a repeat of, it was being kidnapped by said bear animatronic and a scream loving yokai doll. April winced as the two in question yelled at one another again. It was actually what had woken her up in the first place. Thankfully, Sunita noticed right away and made sure that their kidnappers didn’t notice. So there she laid, eyes closed, and trying very hard not to talk too loudly less she drew attention to herself. She wasn’t entirely confident if Mrs. Cuddles’ ears were just as good as a rabbit’s or not, but she didn’t want to risk it.
“Do you see an exit?”
“There are a few doors, but I’m not sure where they lead.” Sunita said, “there are windows above us but they’re kinda far up. I don’t know how we’ll get up there.”
“How long have I been out?”
“Um, half an hour, give or take. I don’t know for sure, sorry.”
“No, no, that’s okay.”
In the background, something broke.
“We’ll be fine Albi! They can’t find her here.”
“Yes, they can! I just know it. I feel it in my circuitry.”
“Not with that signal blocker you installed. They can’t track her phone here.”
“She’s not supposed to be getting calls in the first place! I bet the Purple one did something to her phone!”
“You’re just being paranoid and we’re not leaving. That’s final!”
“What are they arguing about?” April asked, fighting the temptation to peek.
“Just a little while ago, your phone went off like crazy. Albearto took your phone away and turns out it was the boys trying to call. I, uh, I think they’re a little worried.”
April snorted.
“Yeah, just a bit.”
“How soon do you think it’ll take them to find us?”
“Donnie, put a tracker in all of our phones. Something I’ll choose not to be upset about considering how crazy our lives get. I’ll give them fifteen minutes, twenty minutes tops.”
Sunita poked April on her forehead, her words laced with a smile.
“Then do we want them to find us just sitting around waiting for a rescue?”
“I don’t know,” April smiled, opening up her eyes and looking up at her friend. “it might be relaxing playing the damsel in distress for a bit. What’chu think?”
Both girls starred at one another before both broke out into smiles.
“Nah.”
“That ain’t us.”
April rolled up onto her feet, bracing herself for a fight. The zip-tied hands were not great, but she dealt with worse. At least her hands were in front of her. Sunita stood up behind her, a brief flash of light signaling her cloak dropping.
It also drew the attention of the two bickering villains.
April wasted no time. She dashed straight towards them, using her momentum to jump and land a solid kick to Mrs. Cuddles’ face. Both went crashing down to the ground, with April using the Yokai’s squishy head as a cushion and as a springboard to help her into a roll. Before Albearto could help his villainous cohort, Sunita had launched her own attack.
“Happy Birthday!”
The explosion knocked him off his feet, giving April the chance to roll over to him and use one of his outstretched claws to break her restraints. She cheered as they snapped apart, but her joy was short-lived as she started to be dragged across the floor. She spotted her phone and nabbed it before she was dangled upside down. April stuffed the thing in her pocket before Mrs. Cuddles noticed.
“Yoooou are being a nuisance!” Mrs. Cuddles seethed, her beady eyes narrowed down at April.
“Better than a fishy smelling hand-me-down. Seriously, when was the last time you got washed?”
Sunita, who was still only half-formed, giggled.
Mrs. Cuddles shrieked as she shrank in size. Going from lumbering giant to a slightly shorter giant. She whipped around and screamed at Sunita.
“Quit that, quit it!”
“Or else what?” April said. “you’ll hug us to death? Actually, please don’t do that. I don’t know where you’ve been and I really like this jacket.”
Sunita snorted and then placed her hands on her hips.
“That was mean April. Didn’t you see how hopping mad she got when you brought it up?”
“Ppft! Ooh, wait, wait, I got one-!”
“Enough!” Mrs. Cuddles tossed April straight at Sunita, who yelped but didn’t move out of the way. They smashed to the ground, with Sunita absorbing most of the shock.
“Oof,” Sunita said, “Someone’s cranky. I think she needs to go back in her toy box.”
Albearto snorted, and then immediately slapped a mechanical claw over his mouth. Mrs. Cuddles whipped her head towards him, shrinking down to the size of a beefy quarterback. She said nothing, but it was very clear to all present that she was seething beneath all that plush. The animatronic held up his claws and shrunk back.
“Oopsies.”
“That’s all you have to say!”
“I’m sorry!”
“You better be, you-!” She snapped her mouth shut and took a deep breath. She released it with a sharp exhale. “That doesn’t matter. Let’s just grab these two and call it a night, shall we?”
“Sounds good to me!”
The two villains turned towards the girls. While April was sure that they could stall long enough until the boys could find them, she really rather not play that long game. They also still needed them to tell them where they kept their victims. She still needed to find Splinter. Preferably before the boys got here, she wanted to find him herself. But this fight wasn’t going to end soon, with the two hulking mascots running about. Thinking quick, April took her phone from out of her pocket and rapidly searched through her video files. She knew exactly which one she wanted. It was only a few days old, after all.
“Ah ha!” she cheered, pressing play just as Sunita pulled her out of the way of Albearto’s claw swipe.
“Alright, alright, I got another one for you.” Leo said. Mikey groaned.
“What are you up to?” Mrs. Cuddles said, punching the ground where Sunita and April once were. Both girls jumping out of the way. April kept her phone held up, turning her volume up as high as she could.
“Is it gonna be good this time, or is it gonna be another stinker?”
“Uh, baby bro, it’s gonna be great. Now, listen-.”
“You said that about the last one, Leo.” Mikey whined.
“I mean it this time, now, what do you-?”
“Sorry Leo, I gotta side with Mikey on this one,” April’s voice came through. “You’ve had nothing but duds all day. Are you sure you don’t want to try this another time?”
“Hey, uh, April,” Sunita dodged another swipe from Albearto. “can you fast forward a bit?”
“Not much longer!” April called back, sliding out of the way of a bunny kick.
“Okay, now you guys are just making me feel dumb. Is that what you want?”
“Why are we making Nardo feel dumb and can I get in on it?” Donnie said.
“Hey Dee,” April.
“Leo’s trying to win a joke competition,” Mikey said. He sighed. “But his mojo’s off today.”
“My mojo isn’t off.” Leo said defensively, “you guys just lost your sense of humor.”
“Really?” Mikey said dryly.
“That the best excuse you got?” April added.
Leo huffed indignantly.
“Now I’m curious,” Donnie sounded amused, “C’mon Nardo, tell a joke.”
“You just gonna make fun of me like these two traitors.”
“Naturally, are you really going to rob me of that pleasure?”
“Jerks, you’re all jerks. But that’s okay! This next one is gonna be the winner.” Leo cleared his throat. “You see, the thing about Atoms is, you can’t trust those little things,” he paused. Letting the silence build for a few seconds before loudly revealing the punchline. “cuz they make everything up!”
Another bout of silence followed the reveal. It was broken by Donnie, who made a strangled noise, followed by another groan from Mikey.
April sighed, “Leo, that was terri-”
Donnie bursted into a loud, obnoxious fit of laughter.
“No!” Mrs. Cuddles wailed. She tried swiping at April again but the human girl was too quick for the rapidly shrinking doll.
“Victory!” Leo yelled, almost drowned out by his twin.
“Albearto, do something!” the now child sized rabbit screamed.
“On it!”
Albearto pivoted and charged at April. Making the fatal mistake of exposing his back to Sunita, who took full advantage of that to hop on him. She seeped into the exposed exoskeleton on the side of his face, disappearing into him before he could register what had happened. He stumbled, halting his charge, and shivered.
“Nope, I do not like that at all.”
“I’m not much of a fan, either.” Sunita said, her voice muffled by the mechanical body and fur suit. “I think it’s time for a new look.”
“Wha-? Oh, no.” Albearto looked down at Mrs. Cuddles, who was now the size of a regular teddy bear and trying desperately to crawl up April’s leg. She looked back up at him. “Arrivederci, my pal.”
April took that as a cue to hide and dove to the side, Mrs. Cuddles still clinging to her leg as she slid to safety behind one of the dozens of abandoned boxes in the room.
Then Sunita exploded herself.
A blast of metal, faux fur, and slime splattered across the room, causing quite a loud bang and clatter that it drowned out April’s video. After the initial wave of adrenaline washed over April, she peaked out of her hiding spot to see what carnage was wrought. While she was distracted, her phone was swiped out of her hand and muted. But before she could freak out, it was thrown back into her face. She fumbled it in her hands, juggling it a couple of times before grabbing it firmly between her hands. She sighed in relief.
“Albi!” Mrs. Cuddles cried. She waddled her way towards the wreckage. The living doll was now the size of a chihuahua. So it wasn’t that hard for April to pick her up by her ears. The small Yokai yelped, flailing her stubby limbs in the air. “H-hey, put me down!”
“Not until you tell me where you’re keeping the rest of your captives!”
Mrs. Cuddles went still.
“What captives, you guys are the only ones here.” She said, ramping up the cutesy act. April snorted.
“I know you have more people here. You kidnapped him literally, like, an hour ago!”
“We didn’t kidnap any of the turtles.” Mrs. Cuddles said. She twisted her body, so she was looking back at April. “I think we would have noticed if we did.”
“It’s not the boys,” April said, rolling her eyes. “He’s a... well, right now he looks human. About my age. Was wearing some sick glasses and a red jacket. Ringing any bells?”
Mrs. Cuddles starred up at her with a blank stare.
“Nope!” she said cheerfully. “Sorry, doesn’t ring any bells. He must have just ditched you.”
“Don’t make me send you back to the network. I’ll do it too. They’ll be more than happy to get their star puppet back.”
“Lies!” the Yokai doll hissed. “They already replaced me weeks ago. I’m as free as can be now.”
“You got a point there. Oh well, some help you are.”
The little Yokai smiled smugly to herself.
It immediately flew off her face as soon as April spun her by her ears, faster and faster, until she was just a blur of blue. April ignored her cries of terror.
“Hey Sunita,” she said to the now fully reformed slime Yokai. the girl in question turned towards April, holding the severed head of Albearto. “any luck on your end.”
She beamed.
“They’re all in this building, and Yoshi’s in a room not so far from here!”
“Yesss,” April cheered, pumping her fist in the air. “Let’s wrap up this rescue mission and get out of here!”
“Yo, honestly, I feel the same way.”
Both girls gasped and turned towards where the voice was coming from. Standing by one of the doors leading out of the room stood Yoshi. He looked like he had a fight with a dust cloud, his freshly bought clothes filthy. His hands were bound in front of him with zip ties, several chew marks evident even from a distance. He gave both girls a cheesy grin.
“Although I already beat you two to the punch on the whole rescue mission thing. Everybody’s outside, except for us, of course.”
“Why aren’t you with them now?” Sunita asked. He looked at her, opening his mouth to answer, but the words never came out of his mouth. Instead, he gaped, wide-eyed, at her.
“Excuse me,” he finally said, “what are you?” his brow furrowed. “Wait, or should I say, who are you?” He thought about it for a second before shrugging to himself.
It took April a second to process the question before the obvious answer smacked her in the face.
“Sunita, your brooch!”
“Huh?” she said, then her eyes widened. “Oh!”
The girl fumbled the heavy mechanical bear’s head between her hands before finally getting to her brooch. With a single tap, her form shifted from that of a green slime girl to that of a human girl. Yoshi’s eyes widened further.
“Woah... that still doesn’t answer my question.”
“We got more important issues!” April said. She quit spinning Mrs. Cuddles, who was too woozy to say anything at the moment. “We have to, uh, um,” her eyes landed on the only other person in the room. The sick looking guy that Mrs. Cuddles and Albearto were tormenting earlier, at some point he had fainted or maybe his body simply crashed from exhaustion. Whatever the reason, she felt a pinprick of guilt at realizing that she had completely forgotten about the dude as soon as the fighting began. April pointed a finger at him, jabbing in his direction to get her point across.
“We gotta get him out of here! He needs medical attention stat!” she yelled, exaggerating... well, she hoped she was exaggerating it.
Yoshi stopped staring at Sunita, following April’s finger before finally sprinting over to the unconscious man. He knelt down beside the man and tried to lift him with his bound hands.
“Hold on,” Sunita bent down and grabbed one of the miscellaneous sharp objects that were created from the exploded remains of Albearto’s body. While she was at it, she tossed Albearto’s head aside. He yelped when his head hit the cement floor with a crack, his misshapen face making him wobble in place. Yoshi couldn’t help but stare.
She jogged over to him and knelt down next to him, gently taking his bound hands and cutting off the plastic restrains once and for all. Yoshi flexed his hands and rubbed at his wrists, the indents in his skin a stark red and very deep.
“Thank you.” He said, he then turned back to the man. He draped the man’s arm over his shoulder with one hand and grabbed the back of the man’s pants with the other. With ease, he pushed himself up and made his way back to the door. It was actually really impressive. The sickly man was at least half a foot taller than Yoshi and twice as thick as the teenager, but still he walked on as if the man didn’t weigh anymore than a bag of flour.
“Follow me,” he said, not looking back at them. “And be careful. It gets pretty dark in some places.”
April and Sunita shared a look.
“Hold on,” April said. She searched the room for a bit, finally finding her prize in a small container not far from where she had woken up. She opened it up and pulled out a few of the plastic strips from the inside.
“What are you doing?” Mrs. Cuddles hissed, kicking her little feet. She squawked when April grabbed her legs and bound them with a zip tie. “No!” She tried to fight back, but the little Yokai couldn’t do anything as her arms were bound as well. April dropped her onto the ground and walked away.
“No! Get back here this instance and untie me!” She shrieked. April looked down at her and waved goodbye as she followed the others out of the room.
“See ya next week, you two or not, we’ll see.”
“April!” Mrs. Cuddles yelled, flailing her tiny body on the ground. “April, come back here!”
The only thing to answer her demand was the sound of metal doors slamming shut. Mrs. Cuddles stared at them, dumbfounded.
“Whelp,” Albearto said from somewhere Mrs. Cuddles couldn’t see at the moment. “That could have gone better.”
“Shut up Albi.”
***
Today has been... wild. Yoshi thought so at least, as he handed off an unconscious man over to some paramedics.
He and the two other girls were ushered towards another set of medics, who asked them questions and checked for any wounds or signs of shock and when they had found none, still insisted that they sit down and wait until they could contact their parents. Which, in Yoshi’s case, would be quite a feat.
Once they were left alone, he side-eyed the two of them. Out of everything today, the wildest thing he saw today was these girls, April and Sunita, take on those massive monsters. He totally meant to jump in and help them out, maybe get a sneak attack in, but he was too blown away by it all. Watching the two of them take on their opponents single handedly was just to...to...
To awesome!
And the fact one of them was some slime monster that was even more wicked! Wherever he was kidnapped, too, he wasn’t sure he wanted to leave just yet. Not until he saw more, his Jiji could wait a little longer.
Wiggling in his seat, he opened his mouth to introduce himself to the girls when one of their phones went off. It was April’s. Her phone was decorated like a cat and a cute little jingle was playing. He didn’t get to hear much of it, though, before April answered it.
“Hey Raph.” She said, “Yes, yes, yes Raph, we’re fine. I’m sorry for freaking ya out.” She went quiet, listening to whoever was on the other end. Her eyebrows scrunched up, back straightening as she peered out into the darkness of the night. “You’re where now?”
“Are they here?” Sunita asked.
Yoshi wanted to ask who they were but kept his mouth shut. Watching April nod her head, eyes still scanning the surrounding docks.
“Yeah, we can meet up, but we gotta ditch the meds and cops, so just wait a lit-wait, Leo don’t!”
Yoshi quirked an eyebrow at the turn in conversation, but didn’t get much of a chance to really think it over. In one moment they were sitting on the back end of an ambulance truck. The only light illuminating them was the vehicle’s harsh white overhead light and in the next a blue light overtook it, washing them in the very same color.
For the second time that day, Yoshi could only watch in awe as a circular rift of blue light appeared beneath them. He didn’t get much time to marvel at it, though; he didn’t get much time to do anything really, before he sank through the blue circle and plummeted out of the other end.
Air rushed past his ears as the ground below him came rushing up to meet him. Several facts became obvious to him; if he hit the ground from this height, he’d break something; there was nothing he could do to stop that from happening; and down below, looking back up at them, were four green skinned people.
He thought so anyway. It was hard to make out between the wind and tears in his eyes.
“Leeeeeeooooo!” April screamed.
Yoshi closed his eyes and ran through his options. If he tucked and rolled, he could avoid any major breaks. If he landed right, that is. And if... well, that was all he could really think of at the moment. Shit.
Tuck and roll it was.
Before Yoshi could follow through on his plan, he got distracted by a flaming ball. It flew past his head and circled around him and the girls like a fiery bee buzzing around a flower. Suddenly, Yoshi felt something constrict around his body, pulling the free falling teens together. He struggled against the restraints, but they didn’t budge at all, and before he could put an honest effort into it, the three of them were yanked out of the air.
Despite all of his training, Yoshi screamed just as loud as his fellow captives as they were whipped through the air, towards the dark water surrounding the docks. They hit the ocean with a loud slap, and it hurt just as bad as one. Yoshi had enough presence of mind to feel themselves being tugged through the water. Just like a fish caught on a line.
As soon as they broke through the surface, Yoshi took a greedy breath. He was aware of movement, noise, and hands grabbing him, but he was more concerned with spewing the mouthful of water he had swallowed. Once he was breathing normally again, he looked up at his saviors.
Four large turtle...men were huddled around them. This... this wasn’t the weirdest thing that has happened today... he thinks.
“Look at that. They’re fine. No harm done!”
“Leo, you absolute dumb-dumb!”
“Couldn’t you have portalled them closer to the ground?”
“I, well, um, you see dear Miguel, I-”
“Seriously, Leo, they were this close to getting really hurt!”
“I know that! But they didn’t, so get off my case!”
“Guys,” the largest turtle said. He shoved the two arguing turtles aside before taking their spot and kneeling down in front of April. Yoshi was no expert when it came to reptiles, but the face the large creature was making came across to him as concern. This feeling was confirmed when the turtle’s voice came out a lot softer than Yoshi had been expecting. “Hey now, you hanging in there, April?”
The girl in question snorted, taking her jacket off and wringing it out. “Wasn’t expecting to go swimming today, or to get kidnapped, or anything that happened today, really.” She took off her glasses next, shaking the droplets off. “But that’s just a typical April O’Neil day, ain’t it?”
The huge turtle smiled, revealing some insanely sharp teeth, but April didn’t flinch at all, instead returning a smile of her own. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up to her feet. He didn’t even need to stand up himself to do it either. The turtle then looked at Yoshi and Sunita.
“How about you guys?”
“All good, Raph!” Sunita said. She gave the turtle a radiant smile and a thumbs up. She looked up at the turtle in blue. “And don’t worry Leo, today’s been a blast and that free fall was a perfect cherry on top!”
He blinked at her before letting a smug grin spread across his face, puffing his chest out. “Glad someone here knows how to have a good time.”
The two other turtles next to him side-eyed him, clearly not amused.
The large turtle was still looking at Yoshi. It took him a second to realize that he had never answered the turtle.
“Oh, um, been better. Honestly, it’s been kind of a wild night.”
The large turtle snorted. “Yeah, it’s been a little crazy.” He pushed himself back up to his full height and offered his hand out to Yoshi and Sunita. The slime girl took the offered hand right away and with a shrug, Yoshi grabbed it too. He was pulled to his feet in seconds.
Now that his heart was no longer racing and the wet clothes were clinging to him. Yoshi finally was hit with the realization that he had absolutely no idea how to get back home.
The panic that threatened to bubble up was quickly squashed. All he had to do was get back to the paramedics and police. He’d tell them what’s up and he’ll make a quick phone call and then he’ll let everybody else take care of it. By the end of the week, he’ll be back home and he’ll go back to the mundane training and lectures, sneaking out when he can and aggravating his Jiji.
He was almost looking forward to it.
“Well,” He said. Pushing some of his hair out of his face. “it’s been fun, but I’m gonna head back to the others now. It was cool meeting you all.”
He wasn’t sure how to take the weird looks he got from all of them. But he shrugged it off and walked away, waving goodbye.
“Um, where are you going?” The turtle wearing purple asked.
“To the others,” Yoshi said. “I’m gonna see if they can help me get back home.”
For whatever reason, the entire group stiffened. He... wasn’t sure how to interpret that, but he noticed that the air had changed. It had grown tense. Yoshi took a good look at the turtle men and mentally kicked himself in the butt when he noticed that all four of them had weapons on them. How’d he miss that?
“So...” Yoshi jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, backing away slowly. He kept a smile on his face, though. “I’m gonna go now.”
“Oh boy,” the turtle named Leo said, rubbing the back of his head. “This is gonna get real awkward real quick.”
Yoshi had a pretty good idea what he meant by that, and man, he didn’t like it.
“Is there anyway we can convince you stay?”
Yeah, he wasn’t going to do that. Instead, he laughed and gave them all a winning smile, adding a wink just to be cheeky.
“If you can catch me.”
With that, Yoshi pivoted on his heel and sprinted away from them.
“Wha-! After him guys!” Raph said.
Yoshi heard footsteps behind him. No matter, he had a decent head start, anyway.
“Hold on, I think I can get one him with one of my por-”
“Leo, not now! We need something else-”
“Hamato Yoshi, you get your butt back here this instance!” the smallest turtle, Yoshi never caught his name, yelled. It was a little weird that he knew his name, but whatever. He had more important things to think about. Like whether to turn down the dark, narrow alley coming up on his left or scale the building to his right and travel by roof top? Choices, choices, and both coming up quick. Blood thumping and pursuers closing in, he made his choice.
He turned right.
Just as he was taught, he jumped from the ground and used his momentum to carry him forward, running straight up the building’s side. But while scaling, he noticed a glint in the distance. And despite how often he was warned about getting distracted while mid battle by his Jiji, he couldn’t help but let his eyes wander and see what exactly the shiny thing was.
The fourth turtle, the one in purple, had stayed behind. He had something long and thin over his shoulder and it looked like it was pointed at Yoshi. The moonlight glinted off whatever it was. The only possible thing he could think of would be the metal staff Yoshi saw him with, but he couldn’t think of a reason the turtle would point it at him instead of-
Something stung his side.
He stumbled, lost his footing, and fell. He heard yelling beneath him, but it quickly grew muffled. Just as his vision started to tunnel and darken around the edges. He didn’t feel himself get caught, but he must have because he numbly felt himself being held by some very large arms. His head lolled to the side, fighting the numbing sensations taking over his mind and body. His eyelids felt like lead and his body didn’t feel like his own, but still he struggled to stay awake.
Someone moved his head. He knew this cause what little of the world he could see changed. Although, all he could see now were just blobs of color, so, when his point of view changed, the only thing his eyes could make out in the dim moonlight was the muted color of red.
Yoshi heard himself gasp. His raging mind finally slowing down and all he could see was red.
His mother enjoyed wearing red. She always liked adding a hint of it to anything she wore. Even now that he was in his late teens, Yoshi still found it a soothing color. Which is how he ended up closing his eyes and finally succumbing to unconsciousness.
***
Raph looked down at his arms, the limp body of his father in his arms. A large dart stuck out of his side and Raph delicately pulled it out.
That explained why the teen dropped like a rock.
He sighed and shifted Yoshi to just one arm, still easily cradling him, and looked down at his brothers and the two girls who had come running after Yoshi.
“Let’s head back team, maybe Draxum is done making that antidote already.”
“Aye aye captain.”
“Is Pops gonna be alright?” Mikey asked, leaning in and poking their sleeping father’s cheek. “One of those things can drop you and me pretty easily.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine. Donnie wouldn’t mess up on something like this. I’m sure he knew what he was doing.” Raph said with far more confidence than he had. He made a mental note to ask Donnie what the hell he was thinking later. But for now, he waved over his tech genius brother. He turned to the girls.
“You two wanna ride? Or y’know, you two can crash at the Lair if you want.”
“I’ll definitely take that ride,” April said, stretching her arms up into the sky. “but I think I’ll go home. I’m expected back.” She took her phone out and cringed. “Hmm... y’know, on second thought, crashing at the Lair doesn’t seem so bad.”
“We could totally sneak you back into your room, no probbles.” Donnie said, finally joining everybody.
“Ya sure? I’m not sure I wanna risk a lecture after the day I had.”
“Pfft, between Don and I, how would you fail?” Leo said, sidling up to April. She quirked an eyebrow and gestured to Sunita and herself. Their clothes were still soaked. Leo pointedly didn’t look.
“C’mon now, how ‘bout this?” he slashed the air, opening a portal and gestured to it. “just give it a shot. I promise, the Hamato brothers will see you two at home in no time. Without getting caught.”
“And if you do,” Donnie said, ushering the girls towards the portal. “Leo’ll will owe you guys. I’m thinking of a shopping spree or maybe a meal at Run of The Mill.”
Sunita and April laughed.
“Sounds like a deal.”
“I’m good with that.”
“Then it’s a deal.” Donnie said, just as the two girls passed through the portal.
“What, hey, why am I the only one who has to pay?”
“Because, dear brother, you weren’t quick enough with a counteroffer.” Donnie said, a smug smile on his face. Leo huffed and shoved his twin through the portal. He turned to Raph and Mikey just before jumping in himself.
“See ya guys back home.”
Once the portal blinked out, Raph sighed and looked down at Mikey.
“Can you call Draxum and tell him we’re coming back?”
Mikey nodded and whipped out his phone, dialing up the former warring warrior scientist as the two brothers and their unconscious teen father made their way back to the hidden turtle tank.
Raph looked down at in his arms again. His human and very young father laid limply and quietly. He couldn’t help but note that despite being bigger as a human, his father barely felt any heavier than when he was a rat.
Man, today has been wild.
And Raph hoped it would be all over by tomorrow. They can return to their normal and laugh about this later. Just another misadventure to chalk up on their leaderboard of weird things that happen to the Hamato family.
Raph ignored the nasty, twisted feeling in his gut that told him otherwise.
Man.
He can’t wait to get home.