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It was just like any other nights, but this one was special.
Because they get to go to the surface of New York City without their dad.
And to be fair it is illegal to do that. But Splinter had already trust the body’s with a task that they can’t refuse.
And that task is to return a book back to the library before midnight or else he will be fined for it.
Donnie knew that this task would be a piece of cake. As thanks to his navigation and map reading skills, they should be at the library no problem.
Heck, he even knows what book their taking back to the library too. And it was called Hana’s suitcase. It’s a true story based on a Japanese woman trying to find out what happened to a Jewish orphan girl during WW2.
And Ben though it’s a bit dark and scary, he enjoys reading it with Dad.
But now’s not the time to focus on what the book’s about, as right now he needs to deal with his brothers.
Who are scared.
As once it’s nighttime then the streets of New York City becomes empty and might be filled with criminals and dangerous thugs.
Even his twin brother Leo is afraid of how empty the city is.
“Uh Donnie? Are you sure this is safe? This is seriously giving me the Heebie Jeebies.” Leo asked Donnie.
“Nardo, we were tasked by dad to bring this book back to the library. We can’t just give up and go home now.” Donnie replied.
“Actually, I’m with Leo here Donnie. Everyone knows that New York can be dangerous at night. What if a thug finds us a kills us?” Raph said to Donnie.
Great. Guess like he’ll have to deal with his dumb dumb brothers again.
“{sigh} Raph, look. See the watch on my arm. {points to the Atomic Lass watch on his right arm} The time is now 9:30pm. Meaning that we have about 2 hours and 30 minute to get to the library before it closes. So nobody goes home until we have completed our tasks like true ninjas.” Donnie said to his brothers.
“But I’m scared Dee.” Mikey said with tears in his eyes.
“What did I just say right now Mikey? No one bgoes home until we bring the book back into the library!” Donnie yelled at Mikey.
So the brothers keeps their mouth shut, much to Donnie’s delight.
And so just like that they continue with their task.
But what Donnie doesn’t know is that while walking down the road to where the library is, his brothers gets stopped by a lot of speeding cars.
And they just lost sight of Donnie.
“What do we do guys? I can’t see Dee anywhere? Mikey asked.
“Maybe we should go back home and tell dad what happened.” Leo replied as he runs off.
“No Leo! {grabs leo by the arm} Donnie told us that we can’t go home until the task is done. And even if we did tell dad, he will get mad and ground us for like a week or something. Besides I’m sure Donnie’s ok. And I’m sure he will be able to find us.” Raph said.
But oh boy were they wrong.
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He had finally made it to the library. Now to deposit the book and tell his brothers that they can go home now.
But when he put the book in the return pile, he noticed that his brothers are not with him.
And it was the same thing when he goes outside and sees that they are not here.
Then he notices the two bushes near the library and gets an idea where his brothers are with a smirk.
“Ok guys, nice prank. I know you’ll are going to pop out of the bush and scare me. But thi time I came prepared.” Donnie said.
But when he checked the bushes, he sees that they are not in them.
Did he proved himself wrong?
No, no, no. That’s impossible.
Donnie’s sure that he could find where his brothers are, and tell them that they can go home now.
So he walks through the empty streets of New York City in hopes of finding his brothers.
But it would be impossible. Since his phone died meaning that he can navigate where they are and he lost his map to the strong winds. But he still moves forward.
But while doing so he starts to have this thought in his mind.
“That’s strange. I always find my brother in like 10 or 15 minutes. Maybe it’s like they ran away from me.” Donnie thought to himself.
Until he stops walking. And realisesthat because of him being a nosy bot and stuff. His dumb dumb brothers have ran away from him.
Even his twin brother Leo.
So after a few minutes of just standing there, the spiny softshell turtle starts to cry.
And then he sits next to a brick wall of a building.
This was all his fault.
He didn’t realise that like them, he was scared to of the empty streets of New York too. But he acted tough because.
Who would like a brother who is really scared and sad?
All his life, he wasn't that very emotional.
So he was just emotionless.
But the pressure of disappointing dad and losing his brothers, made him break down into tears.
Oh how pathetic, he was of losing his brothers by bossing them around.
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But then he hears a noise.
{smash}
It sounded like a bottle breaking.
His mind was panicking now.
Maybe it could be a thug who had founded him and is ready to kill him with a broken glass bottle?
Or it could be a drunk person who would mistake him for a girl and would start to do some questionable things to him?
Or it could be-
“Get away from me, you brutes!”
Was that a voice of someone crying for help?
If it was then, someone might save them from whats going on. Like a hero.
Like a ninja.
So Donnie wipes away his tears, pulls out his Bo Staff and runs to where the voice is coming from.
After a bit of searching because the whole dang alleyway is like a maze. He was able to find the source of the voice who cried for help.
And what he saw that day, really shocked him.
It was a black skinned girl getting harassed and bullied by 3 racist boys who appears to be in the 6th grade.
“Just leave me alone ok? My mum told me to buys something from the supermarket and go straight back home. And she’s going to be mad at what you guys do to me!” The girl said angrily.
“Whatever monkey? Why don’t you go back to the zoo where monkeys live.” One of the boys with blonde hair said.
“Yeah, and we’ll wear black makeup to tease you.” One of the boys with black hair said.
“Hey I’m not a monkey! And besides you can’t put black makeup on. That’s racist!” The girl said still being angry.
“Well let’s just see about that monkey girl. As you will never be friends with us. Because why? We’re white and your black.” One of the boy with brown hair said.
And so just when the brown haired boy {who is also the leader of the racist group} was about to punch the girl in the face, suddenly he gets hit by Donnie and his Bo-Staff.
“You stay away from the girl!” Donnie yelled at him and the 2 boys.
“Well, well, well. Look what we have here? A little Shrek who wants us to stop to stop bullying the monkey.” The leader said.
“What are you doing? Get out of here. Their gonna beat you up too.” The girl said to Donnie.
“Don’t worry I have everything under controlled.” Donnie said to the girl.
Donnie didn’t know what he was doing, but it was all worth it to protect her.
Even if he gets grabbed by the leader and has his clothes partially removed.
“Hey look you two. Shrek Junior has a weird hump on his back.” The leader said to the other boys.
“What should we do boss?” The black haired boy asked
“Let’s go beat it up.” The leader replied.
What? Is he serious? Donnie is a Spiny Softshell Turtle. And it might really hurt if it gets beaten up.
But hte boys proceeds to do it anyways.
And this hurts him really bad. As he starts screaming for them to stop this because it bloody hurts like hell. While the girl did nothing but watch as she’s scared of what’s going on.
Plus a few good hits to it was enough to cause Donnie to pass out.
“Now then, let’s dump the body.” The leader said while grabbing a rope out of his bag.
After the boy ties the purple banded turtle’s hands with rope and even attaching a cinderblock to it. They then leave with the turtle to somewhere that is dangerous.
And seeing that the boy who protected her from those racists 12 year olds makes the girl decides to follow them.
Hopefully things won’t go wrong, right?
Right?
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He didn’t know where he was after he was knocked unconscious.
All he could remember was waking up with his hands tied up and the 3 boys who beaten him up looking at him with an evil grin on their face.
“Rise and shine Shrek. How are you feeling after that knockout?” The leader asked.
Donnie realsied that the boys had taken him to one of the bridges in New York. And that they are planning on drowning him.
This scares him as he doesn’t want to die.
“You guys put me down right now! Can’t you guys see that I’m not good with holding my breathe?” Donnie angrily said to the boys.
“Oh whatever. You stopped us from bullying the monkey and now it’s time for you to die.” The blonde boy said.
“Yeah, bon voyage Kemit The Frog.” The black haired boy said.
And what the leader did caused his heart to stopped.
As the kid throws a bottle of alcohol onto the cinderblock and this causes it to fall of the bridge with him following afterwards.
“No, no, no, no, no! Please I don’t want to die please! Aaaaaaah!” Donnie said as he’s falling down the bridge.
Seeing that he has no choice left, he holds his breathe and plummets into the water.
He didn’t know how deep the water was. All he knows is that he’s underwater and is about to die.
And that clarifies how much death scares him when the cinderblock hits the bottom of the water.
Now he has only two choices.
Just accept his fate and die or try and find a way to escape.
And both these choices are difficult to make.
As even though he doesn’t want to die, Donnie can’t find a solution in time to free his hands from the rope.
Actually, why does this feel familiar to him?
Of course he was in the same predicament as one of the heroes was.
He remembered watching a movie called Aladdin with his family. And the scene where the main character nearly dies from drowning really scared him and maybe Mikey too.
But before he could think more of it, suddenly he starts to feel his chest spasms and his lungs being on fire.
Until he suddenly releases all of the air he had left and starts to inhale water.
He’s screwed now. He’s dead. He’s never gonna go home to his dad and his brothers.
Wait a minute. His brothers!
All this time between being in a underwater peril and saving a girl. He had forgotten that he also needed to find his brothers.
And even though they are dumb dumbs, they still cared for him and loved him.
But because of what happened tonight, he drove them away with how bossy he was to them.
And now he was going to die with the regret of not being so bossy to his brothers.
So after one last inhale, he loses conscious.
With the only thing he sees before he blacks out, was a shadow figure looking like a human being swimming towards him.
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She had witnessed the bullies send the boy who protected her from into the water, and this scared her.
But she doesn’t want to be seen by them, so she hides behind a tree until they leave.
“Alright guys, let’s go to an abandoned building a dance to it.” The leader said.
And once their gone, the girl hen rushes over to the bridge.
She knew that this would be bad as Donnie was tied up to a cinderblock.
So she decides to return the favour and save him.
By grabbing a pair of scissors from her bag and diving into the water.
The water was too deep but that didn’t stop her from trying to find the boy.
And when she did, the girl saw that the boy was losing conscious, even after being in the water for 1 minutes.
So she swims faster towards him. And once she does, she proceeds to use the scissors and starts cutting on the rope.
It only took about 45 seconds until she was able to both snip the rope in half and untie Donnie’s hands.
So once that’s done she takes him to the surface, praying that he’s not dead.
Once they get to the surface, she gasps for air and swims the two of them back to the shore, where she attempts to wake him up.
But he looked dead, which worries her.
But luckily she checks his pulse and heartbeat and is relieved to hear that he still has them.
Meaning that he’s still alive.
After that however, Donnie wakes up and starts to cough up water, much to the girl’s relief as she proceeds to help him by hitting his back a bunch of times.
Until eventually, he lies back down and starts breathing heavily with his eyes closed.
She could tell that he has been through a lot tonight and this makes her feel bad for him.
“It’s ok kid. I’m gonna take you back to where me and my mum lives. Hopefully we can find out where your from and if we can contact your family.” The girl said to Donnie.
And so she picks the Spiny Softshell Turtle up and runs back to the city where she was able to find the apartment where she and her mum lives.
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Meanwhile.
Leo, Mikey and Raph were still trying to find where Donnie is.
Which is impossible considering that New York City is like a maze to them.
“What do we do Raph? Donnie’s the only one who can navigate the entire city.” Mikey asked Raph.
“It’s ok Mikey. I’m sure he’s right around here somewhere.” Raph replied.
But while the two were talking, Lee’s twin sense starts to tingle and he realises where Donnie might be.
“Guys. I think something bad might’ve happened to Donnie. But it’s ok now since I think I can sense him in one of these apartment buildings.” Leo said to Raph and Mikey while he points at a building.
“Leo, you’re a genius. Never knew that twin sense of yours would come handy.” Raph said to Leo.
“Aw, thanks Raph. Now come on, let’s go find where Donnie really is.” Leo said while being heroic.
And so they continue their search for their brother.
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Also Meanwhile.
The girl was able to make it back home, where her mum is waiting for her.
“April. What happened to you? Did you get hurt? And why are you carrying an unconscious kid?” Her mum asked revealing that the girl’s name is indeed April.
“It’s a long story Mum. You see, I was walking home from the supermarket when suddenly a bunch of racist boys from a different elementary school appeared and started being racist to me. Calling me monkey and attempting to beat me up. But then this kid appeared and save me, but almost drowned because of it, so I rescued him.” April replied.
“Oh my sweet angel. I’m glad your ok, but will the kid be ok too?” Her mum asked again.
“He’s going to be find but we need to find his family. So please mum. Let him stay here for the night? And get him undressed since he’s really wet and cold.” April replied.
“Alright sweetie.” Her mum said.
So they place Donnie on the dining room table and starts to undress him.
But while doing this, they discovered that Donnie’s not really human after all and is just a Turtle Mutant.
But because of how much he did with protecting April and nearly drowned by the bullies. They decided to not panic and continue on with drying him up and putting him on the couch with a pillow and blanket.
So while her mum tries to figure out who his family is, April stays with him and sees that he is having a bit of a nightmare.
And this causes him to panickly wake up. And seeing him like this makes her feel bad for him.
“Hey, hey. It’s ok, it’s ok. Your’e safe, your’e safe. I’m here.” April said to Donnie while comforting him.
And after he’s calmed down, he realises that he’s in a different place.
Last thing he remembered was that he was in the water drowning painfully. But now he’s a warm and cozy house.
“Where am I?” Donnie asked.
“This here is where we, the O’Neils live.” April replied.
“Oh, well thanks for saving me, uh. What’s your name?” Donnie asked again.
“April. April O’Neil. And you?” April replied.
“Oh it’s Donatello. But sometimes my brothers calls me Donnie and our dad calls me Purple. But I prefer the name Donnie.” The Spiny Softshell Turtle replied.
“So based on your shell. Your a mutant Spiny Softshell Turtle right?” April asked again.
“Yeah. My dad it really worried about it so I had to have a pillow on me to protect it. But it seems like I have forgotten about it tonight.” Donnie replied.
“Well there’s this question I have been wondering. Why did you drowned after 1 minutes? Because according to Wikipedia, Softshell turtles can breathe underwater for so many days like 30 or 20 days.” April asked.
“Actually, that was a disability I was born with. And this isnt the first time that I drowned because of it.” Donnie replied.
“Really? What happened the first time?” April asked.
“You see, 3 months ago, we decided to have a breath holding contest in the sewers to see who can hold their breathe the longest. And I came 4th for being able to hold my breathe for 1 minute. And I wasn’t able to get to the surface in time, so I drowned. Raph and Leo were the only ones who saved me. Raph tried to calm Mikey down while Leo performed CPR on me. And even though I’m still alive, it was still scary. And till this day, I haven’t been confident with being underwater for more then a minute. I hope you understand.” Donnie replied.
April realises that Donnie despite being really smart, hasn’t been able to do much on his own.
So she puts her hand on his shoulders.
“Oh poor you. I didn’t know how much you suffered. But like you said, your brothers saved you and it means that they will always be with you.” April said.
“Yeah I guess your right. And is it because you have siblings on your own?” Donnie asked.
“I’m an only child. But seeing how much you talk about your brothers, really makes me happy to hear.” April replied.
“Thanks April.” Donnie said.
“Hey you two, remember that it’s 10:30pm, so get some sleep ok?” April’s mum said.
“Ok.” April and Donnie replied.
And so just like that the two of them go to sleep.
With Donnie being glad that there’s a human who actually isn’t afraid of him and his family.
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The next day.
Donnie woken up to see that April is not with him. The only things he sees was that his brothers are actually here.
“Morning Donnie.” Leo said.
He was surprised. They’re actually here. He thought that they had ran away because of him. But they still love him to do that.
“Guys. Your here. I thought you all ran away because of me being a bossy bot.” Donnie said.
“Actually we lost sight of you when we were stopped by some speeding cars. It made all of us panic.” Raph said.
“Yeah and we couldn’t have done it without Leo’s love for you as a twin.” Mikey said.
This makes him happy. His brothers were actually looking for him all this time. When he thought that they left him.
And seeing that their actually here, it was now time for him to say something to him.
“I’m sorry for what happened last night you guys. Turns out that I’m actually like you all too, scared and wanting to go home. But I drove it away because I thought you guys might hate me for being too emotional.” Donnie said.
“Your never too emotional for us Dontron. We still love you as who you are.” Leo said.
“Yeah, your our smart brother, who also cares for us.” Raph said.
“I love you Donnie.” Mikey said.
“I love you guys too.” Donnie said.
And so the 4 brothers hug each other. And during the hug Donnie sees that April and her mom are watching this scene where happy tears in their eyes.
He wonders why they aren’t shocked at his brothers being turtle mutant too.
“Oh and if your wondering that Donnie? Don’t worry, April and her mum told us everything that happened to you and the young girl last night after we came here. Never knew you would be a hero Dontron, but I appreciate you trying to save her.” Leo replied.
And this gives him an idea.
“Hey April. Want to join in on this group hug?’ Donnie asked her.
“Mum, can I?” April asked her mum.
“Well considering that Donnie is now happy with his brothers, I guess you can my sweet angel.” She replies.
So April also joins in on the group hug.
And even though things will never be the same after this. Donnie smiles at it.
As it has always been the turtles’s dream of hanging out with a human who appreciates who they are actually are. And now they got one.
And so after that, the turtles decides that it’s now time to go back home to their dad.
But before they leave, Donnie talks to April for a bit.
“So does this mean that we classify as friends now?” Donnie asked.
“Yeah, best friends forever.” April replied.
“Well I‘ e been thinking? Do you want to hang out with us after we told Dad how our task go?” Donnie asked.
“Sure. I would love to hang out with you guys.” April replied.
“Thanks.”
And so with one last hug. Donnie and his brothers leave the apartment and head back home to the sewers.
Happy that they will hang out with a human girl.
And this friendship between a human and 4 turtles will go on like this for many years.