Prologue
As days went it was a pretty normal one in the lair beside the fact that the boxes that Michelangelo had pulled out of storage were decidedly festive. Leo watched from the corner of his eye as he flipped through the pages of a comic, listening to Raphael grump over that 28th of November was far to early to even consider putting out Christmas decorations.
"Aw, c'mon Raph! Where's your festive spirit?"
"I swear these damn decorations keep getting put out earlier every year."
"I'm just sorting through them, no harm in that is there?" Mikey ventured innocently.
"Until you get bored of that and start wrapping tinsel about everythin'."
"No I don't!"
"You do Mikey," Leo answered, still thumbing through his comic. "Ever since you were seven."
Michelangelo looked mildly deflated as with folded arms Raph looked down at him triumphantly. "Ya heard him Mikey, now put the decorations away."
"There's no harm in Mikey sort through the boxes Raph, at least he's preoccupied with something."
"C'mon man! Ya know there's only gunna be one outcome if ya let Mikey continue don'tcha?"
"Yeah," Leonardo said calmly. "You're going to end up wrapped in the Christmas lights and Donnie will spend the rest of the day trying to fix them after we succeed in untangling you."
Raph was aghast. "So why don'tcha do something about it?!"
Leonardo sighed, as if he had explained it a thousand times before. "Because if you just leave Mikey alone and leave him to his own devices you won't end up as a Christmas tree."
Raphael glared from Leo to his little brother who beamed back, chuckling with undisguised mirth. "You make a great tree Raph!"
"That's it! You are toast-!"
Raph had dived at Mikey when the scream ripped through the heart of the lair, accompanied by a vicious a BANG! Every head snapped up staring at Donatello's lab, eyes wide as they recognised the feminine lilt of the startled tone. Their brainiac brother's alarmed cry instantly followed.
"April? April! NO!"
Barely half a second later Leo, Mikey and Raph had piled through the lab's door whereupon they staggered to an ungainly halt.
April was lain on the floor. She was on her side, red hair singed, her top blackened and burnt. Slender pale hands looked scolded and some untold vapours rose from her still form. Not until Donatello had raised shaking hands from her and cradled the girl to his breast, did they noticed the random scolding that touched her face as her hair slipped away from her brow.
A look of untold anguish reflected from Donnie's eyes as he stared up at the three, panic rippling through his words as spoke feverishly.
"It-it was an accident! I-I swear it was an accident!"
His glistening gaze bent back toward April's unconscious body.
Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo just stared on in a frightened frozen silence, unable to say a word.
