Cowabunga Girl
Disclaimer - I do not own TMNT or any of the characters therein. Some VERY rich dude does.
Rating - Teen audiences.
Story Warnings - Fighting, Anger venting, Injury (Don't like these topics? Do not read.)
Pairings - None, teacher and students. (Don't like these topics? Do not read.)
Universe -2012 series. (Don't like these topics? Do not read.)
Ages - April, Casey, and the turtles are teens / Splinter is an adult
Summary - April thought she was joining the turtles for a normal patrol. She was slightly mistaken.
Author's note - This story was written as a request from joebev910.
Cowabunga Girl
April was mad.
Raph with a broken stealth-cycle kind of mad. And with good reason.
It was doubtful anyone who had been tricked by their best friends and ended up locked in a warehouse wouldn't be mad.
It was an infuriating experience.
April paused in her pacing, which would be better defined as angry stomping, to kick at the locked door again.
Just like the last six times, all the redhead got for her effort was a throb in her foot, and another spike in her temper.
"Those pig-headed, stubborn, macho, chauvinistic, arrogant, over-protective... BOYS!" April's voice grew louder with each word until she was shouting. "When I get my hands on you, I'm making turtle soup! With a side of Casey Jones French fries!"
Her anger somewhat spent, April flopped down on one of the many crates littering the warehouse floor in an angry huff. Rage and force hadn't gotten her anywhere, so it was obviously time to calm down, and think.
April tipped her head back to rest against the wall. "Okay, this was supposed to be nothing more than a patrol run, but it obviously became something else when we came across those Purple Dragons." Not even Donnie was aware April preferred to think through her problems out loud. It helped her better organize her thoughts. "So why did they lock me in here?"
April turned her eyes to the ceiling. "Well, DUH! They obviously didn't want me to get hurt. But I've fought Purple Dragons before, even after Hun came in and took over. I mean, I'm a full kunoichi. I can handle myself in a fight."
There was her answer on how to get out of the warehouse.
April was a kunoichi.
And it was time for her to start acting like one.
"Okay, ninja girl think... How would the guys get out of this." April stared at the door. "Three locks on the door, all outside. I'm not getting out that way," she grumbled. "Okay, no one said it was going to be easy."
She scooted off the crate she was sitting on to get a better look around the room she was locked in. Standing in the middle of one of the few clear spaces on the floor, April scanned the warehouse once again, this time from a ninja's perspective.
"I could climb up the crates to reach the windows. But they're probably locked, and breaking the glass would defeat the purpose of being stealthy." Her gaze went farther up. "The skylight! I can get out through the skylight! Now I just need to figure out how to get up there?"
In one corner, April saw a ladder mounted on the wall. A grin spread across her face as her gaze followed the ladder up to a catwalk that lead directly under the open skylight. "Good, but not quite good enough, Leo. I have a way out now."
April's elation faded just a little as she approached the ladder. It was one of those that the bottom section slid up and locked onto the section above it, like a fire escape ladder. She needed something long enough to reach the bottom rung to pull it down.
She looked around finding nothing she could use. "Figures," she grumbled.
She did however notice a stack of crates close enough for her to reach the ladder if she climbed to the top of them and jumped across. All she needed to do was push a crate over to reach the lowest tier of the stack, and climb up.
"I have so got this."
April saw a two crate stack a few feet away from the stack she planned to climb. She pushed the top crate off, sending it crashing to the floor then put her shoulder against the bottom crate to push it over to her stack.
As she pushed, April's foot became tangled in spilled contents of the broken crate she had pushed to the floor. She stumbled, banging her knee on the edge of the still intact crate she was pushing.
"Clumsy..." she growled, rubbing her knee to ease the pain.
With an angry yank, April pulled the offending fabric from her foot ready to throw it as far from her as she possibly could. She paused, taking a better look at what she held in her hand.
It was a traditional ninja outfit, similar to the one the redhead now wore.
Almost.
The tag sewn in the neck of the shirt claimed the garment belonged to the Northampton Youth Theater Group.
April's wasn't a movie prop, it was the real deal.
On her first day training with Master Splinter and the turtles, April had had a great deal of difficulty preforming the required kicks and punches because of her loose clothing. This presented the ninja master with a problem he had never before encountered with his students, since the turtles wore minimal clothing.
Master Splinter suggested April wear something more form fitting.
The next day she had, but her clothes still interfered.
After five days of training, and struggling to do well regardless of her clothing, April was seriously thinking about giving up on becoming a kunoichi. On day six, she got the solution, and the boost of confidence she so desperately needed.
Classes were finally over for the day. The last thing April needed to do was drop off her books at her locker before heading down to the lair.
When she opened her locker door, April was greeted with a wonderful surprise.
Her very own ninja garb.
She couldn't wait to put it on.
The black clothing fit like a second skin, and April diligently wore it for every training session as well as every time she accompanied the turtles on patrol.
Clearing a path for her feet, April finished moving the crate, and scrambled to the top of the stack.
They were by no means as stable as they first appeared.
Taking a few minutes to find her balance, April readied herself to jump across. "I can do this," she muttered, glancing at the cement floor below. "I can so do this."
Taking a deep breath, April jumped.
The force of her leap sent the crates crashing to the floor, causing the redhead to lose her focus. She hit the metal ladder full on, banging her chin on one of the rungs.
Fighting the pain, and her own fear, April scrabbled for purchase on the rusty ladder. Her fingernails dug into the palms of her hands through her gloves, drawing blood.
Realizing she was in no danger of falling, April took in slow, deep breaths to calm her racing heart.
"I am so going to pound whoever's idea it was to lock me in here," she grumbled as she began to scale the ladder.
After that jump, and the climb up, crossing the catwalk, and wiggling her way out through the skylight was a piece of cake. April was soon running across familiar rooftops in the direction she remembered Donnie saying they needed to go in order to catch the fleeing gang members. Sure enough, in a few minutes the sounds of battle reached her ears.
Not wanting to give her presence away too soon, April crouched down near the edge of the roof to observe the fighting.
This battle was going pretty much the way they usually did. The turtles and Casey were going all out kicking the Purple Dragon's collective butts.
Until Tsoi pulled a metal pipe from behind a dumpster, hitting Mikey in the back of the head.
April's friends were now at a serious disadvantage with a man down. Donnie was kneeling beside his fallen brother checking on Mikey's condition, leaving Leo, Raph, and Casey to keep them safe.
The odds were now three to seven. Not very good in April's opinion.
"Time for me to get in on the action." April pulled her tessen and silently made her way down the fire escape to street level.
Once on the ground, April slipped behind a row of trash cans. She waited, watching for the perfect opportunity to make her presence known.
She didn't have to wait long.
Furious over the injury to his baby brother, Raph rushed in, letting his temper get the best of him. Fong easily side-stepped the red banded turtle, spinning on his foot tauntingly as Raph barreled past.
When the former gang leader stopped his pirouette, April made her move. With a flick of her wrist, the kunoichi let go her tessen, sending it sailing across the alley. She had to force herself not to cheer when the weapon hit Fong on the temple, sending him to the ground like a weighted stone.
"Ninja girl, one. Purple Dragons, zip."
"No you don't, dirt bag!"
April turned at Leo's shout. The turtle leader was chasing a fleeing Tsoi, and was several paces behind. If April didn't do something, Tsoi was going to escape.
She was determined not to let that happen. Especially not after what he had done to Mikey.
April stepped out from her hiding place several paces in front of Tsoi. Using as much force as she could muster, the redhead kicked out with her foot catching the fleeing gang member in the stomach, sending him flying backwards into Leo.
Having braced herself on the leg she had hit while locked in the warehouse, April wasn't able to enjoy her small part in the fight's victory. She fell to the ground when her knee buckled unable to withstand the stress of supporting her full weight any longer.
"Hey, April, you okay?"
April looked up to see a very concerned Mikey offering his hand to help her up.
"Mikey! You shouldn't be up walking around! You just got hit on the head with a metal pipe. Donnie, what are you thinking!? Make him sit down! He could have a concussion, or be bleeding, or who knows what!"
Mikey looked at Donnie, his eyes wide. He had just made a major mistake, and knew of only one way to fix it.
'Fess up.
"I'm okay, April. It really wasn't a metal pipe he hit me with," Mikey self consciously rubbed the back of his neck. "It just looked like a metal pipe. It was just paper mache, and foil wrap."
Are you hurt, Red?" Casey asked coming over to join the group. "It looked like you hit pretty hard when you fell."
"Yeah, I think so. I just hurt my knee getting out of that warehouse you guys locked me in." She couldn't help scowling as she mentioned the warehouse.
"How did you get hurt?" Suddenly Donnie was kneeling by her side. "There was a mattress under the window. The sewer tunnel running under the entire block was clear. And the pins on the hinges were fairly loose."
April said nothing.
"Oh... Yeah..." Donnie suddenly realized his mistake. "Umm... April..."
"Just HOW did you happen to KNOW all that, Donatello?" April asked, her voice dripping with poorly concealed anger.
"Perhaps I can be of assistance."
Everyone turned to see Master Splinter emerge from the shadows.
"Master Splinter, what..."
The ninja master held up a hand quickly silencing his female student. "Perhaps," quicker than the eye could follow, Splinter pulled his walking stick from his robe, hitting the slowly recovering Tsoi on the head, sending him back into a world of darkness. "We should continue our discussion in the safety of the lair?"
Settled on the lair's sofa, an ice pack on her knee and another on her bruised chin, April listened as Master Splinter continued his explanation.
"As I had begun to explain before being so rudely interrupted," Splinter's whiskers twitched slightly, the only visible sign of the ninja master's amusement. "You are a very accomplished student, April, but to become a full ninja, every student must be tested."
April's mouth dropped open.
Did Splinter just say what she thought he said?
This, all of this, being locked in the warehouse, the fight, Mikey's faked injury, had been nothing more than a test?
"Test, Master Splinter?"
Splinter nodded, stroking his beard. "Yes. A test to determine your readiness to move up to the next level of training."
Dozens of questions ran through April's mind, but one stood out above all the others.
"Did I pass?"
Mikey burst out laughing. Raph turned his head, snickering. Donnie and Leo were both sporting huge grins.
"Yes, April," Splinter said with a smile. "You passed. And to prove it," the ninja master pulled a small package wrapped in plain white paper from inside his robes, handing it to April. "This is for you."
April excitedly opened the package, revealing a yellow strip of fabric.
"Wow..." her face broke into a huge grin. "Sensei, this is great! Thank you!"
Splinter inclined his head. "There is no need to thank me, April. You have earned this through diligence and hard work."
"So, how does it feel having your own mask now, and being a full blown ninja, April?" Mikey asked, as she tied the mask around her eyes.
"Mikey, I have just one thing to say... COWABUNGA GIRL!"
Thanks for reading.