Chapter Text
The phone vibrated in May’s hand. Words appeared at the bottom of the screen as her friend responded.
“Pics or it didn’t happen” it read. May sent a picture of a boy dressed in apocalyptic apparel with a destroyed New York and a foreign spacecraft in the background. “FAKE!!!” her friend June accused. May sent another picture, this time of alien vines climbing around the buildings and into a bright purple sky. “NO WAY!” June replied, clearly finding this hard to believe.
“Our HEROES!” May texted, the message followed by four colored hearts: blue, yellow, purple, and red, representing the four colors that beamed from the alien spaceship to fight the invasion.
Looking up, the city was in shambles. Purple vines covered everything. Buildings were destroyed. May remembered seeing something falling off the spaceship toward Staten Island. Miraculously, May’s car had survived the invasion. On her way to the car, she scanned social media for anything she could use to pinpoint their exact location.
After crossing one of the bridges, the closest way to the island, May turned onto a road off the main highway and followed it towards a parking lot. Pulling up to the empty area, she noticed the ground torn up as if something had hit it. Hard. This has to be it, she concluded. She pulled out her phone and started a recording, the flash acting as a flashlight so she didn’t trip over some stray rubble. The sun was just barely lighting the ground, so that excuse would only last so long.
Climbing onto a pile of rubble, May found four figures holding each other close in a group hug. They were… they weren’t human, that’s for sure. A piece of rubble slipped from under May’s foot and clattered to the ground with an obvious klunk. Immediately, all of them looked directly at May.
“Human!” one whispered loudly to the others. He was larger than the rest, wearing a torn, red superhero-esk mask. “Initiate plan J!”
At this order, they all took positions as if for a play. At the attempt of standing, one, dressed in blue, hissed in pain as he fell back onto his knees. “Leo!” the others all shouted, concern swallowing whatever expressions they had previously worn. The red one placed a hand supportively on the blue one’s back… no. Was it a shell? The other two huddled closely around their hurt counterpart.
“Are you okay?” May asked, impulsively stepping closer. She wanted to help the heroes who had saved her home, and probably the entire world.
”I’m fine,” the figure claimed weakly. He looked to the others for support. The figure wearing purple pulled a pair of goggles over his eyes.
“I- I could drive you to a hospital, or…” May offered, trying to help.
“Uhh,” the one wearing an orange mask began, searching for a way to respond.
“Okay, this is an awkward conversation. Uhh… my name is May. You just saved New York, right?” An introduction was always a good place to start, followed by a question to encourage a response.
“Uhm… yes… we did.” The one in red answered, hesitant.
“And your names..?” the girl encouraged. Being friends with literal superheros was a once in a hundred lifetimes experience. She couldn't let this slip.
“I’m… Raphael,” the large one began. “These are my brothers, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo,” he gestured to each figure in turn.
“Don’t just tell that to a stranger, Raph!” The purple one, Donatello, hissed at his brother. “She’s recording us!”
“Oh, shoot!” May remembered her phone. She stopped the recording and slipped her phone into her poc… her pants didn’t have pockets. Curse you, girl pants, she thought furiously, putting her phone in her jacket pocket instead. The sun had risen enough that they could see clearly without any light sources.
“What, you had to have proof that you saw the great heroes of the world?” Leonardo said, clearly joking through the pain.
“Actually, yes. I just had this conversation with a friend of mine,” May responded.
“Speaking of friends, I need to call April,” Donatello said, turning away as a purple screen appeared over his wrist. “Keep Leo awake until we get him stabilized.”
“…You need medical attention,” May observed after a long, awkward pause.
“We can handle that ourselves,” Donatello retorted, shutting down any ideas of going to a hospital. “The public hospital system probably wouldn’t take too kindly to mutants.”
“Point taken. But you did save the world,” May shot back.
“His leg is broken,” Donatello said, completely ignoring her statement. “So are most of his other bones, as well as several other injuries. We need to get him to the lair.”
“I can drive you!” May offered.
Just then, another vehicle pulled up next to May’s. A van. Of course. They had called their friend, after all. How had she gotten here so fast? The door kicked open, and a kid in a green jacket stepped out. “April!” Michelangelo was the first to greet the girl.
“Quick, get Leo in the back,” Donatello ordered. The other two brothers picked up the injured one, who grimaced with the motion.
“I- Is there any way I can help?” May asked, sheepishly.
“No, I’m pretty sure they have this mostly covered,” the girl answered. “I’m April, by the way.”
“Uhh, May. Nice to meet you,” May introduced herself, shaking April’s hand. “Hey, that’s neat! April, May. We’re like… name soulmates.”
“That is cool! Here, what’s your number?” April pulled out her phone, and May put in her contact information.
“There. Now we can-“
“April!” Raphael’s voice echoed from the van, interrupting May’s train of thought. “Let’s go!”
“I probably shouldn’t take you to the lair,” April said. The logic was solid; the brothers clearly didn’t trust May, and they probably wouldn’t want to lead a stranger to their home base while they were in such a state.
“That’s understandable. See you around,” May closed the conversation.
“See ya!” April said running off to the van and hopping in the passenger seat. May watched the vehicle drive off into the distance, sun still rising behind her.