I'm not what your average human girl, people call me different things when they see me walk by, but the most common name I hear is "Freak" or "Mutant". Until I was seven I thought nothing of the comments, but than my mom took me out of school on request of my home room teacher. It became harder to hide my mutation after awhile, mostly because my shell got bigger and the only thing that was close enough to clothing for me was a red sash I wear around my waist. I lived in New York City, so seeing my kind of mutation was different and at the same time normal for some odd reason. One day I asked my mom why I looked like an over grown turtle? She said that it was because of something that splashed on me as a baby when I was in the nursery at the hospital, and when she saw me the next morning I looked like a turtle/human baby hybrid. I was ten when I heard of these over grown turtles that lived in the sewers of our city. So, when I was older, bout fourteen, I would wait till my mom went to sleep, I would start looking through them hoping to find'em and hopefully find out why I look like them. One day my mom went to sleep early so that gave me some extra time to look for them. I didn't know their names, so I don't know if that would make it harder. As I continued to walk I heard grunting, and just random sounds, I kept walking because I wanted to know more.
I walked into a place that had all these things all over the place. Walking farther in I saw a giant Rat sitting in a beaten up old chair watching soap oprahs. I wanted to scream because just like my mom I absolutly hate, hate, hate, rats. I don't know why though, but I just do. I went to leave, but when I tried the rat called me back thinking I was someone named Raphael. I stopped in my tracks and waited for him to notice that I wasn't this person he addressed me as. I stood there as I heard him tell the guys who were grunting to go to their rooms. He than came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder.
"What is your name?" He asked.
"My name is Akila. It's arabic, it means wise." I said not turning.
"It is good that you know the origin of your name." He said turning me towards him.
"My mother told me." I said looking into the eyes of the rat.
"Your mother is smart." He said with a smile.
"What is your name?" I asked acctually wanting to know because I wasn't about to call him rat.
"You may call me Master Splinter." The rat said bowing his head.
"Master Splinter?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"You look like my boys, I am sorry if I offended you in any way." He said walking back to his chair.
"It's fine, but maybe you can help me with a question I've been asking myself for quite some time." I said following him.
"What question would that be?" He asked sitting in his chair.
"Why do I look like a turtle? Because both my parents are human and look at me, my mom said that the nurses found some kind of green liquid in my cradle and now look at me." I said pulling a vile of the liquid that I'd been testing every chance I got.
"The most I can think of is that there was turtle DNA within the liquid and as for the green coloring, that might be the orginal color." Splinter said taking the vile.
"You must think I'm crazy for keeping it, but I want to know more and how I can look like a normal human." I said sitting down on the couch.
When I sat down on the couch I sank into it and had the worst time trying to haul my green butt up.
"I appologize for that, two of my boys are always fighting and the couch has seen better days." He said with a smile.
"How old are they?" I asked finally getting free of the couch that was eating me.
"Fifteen." Splinter said as I took a seat on the arm.
"You called me Raphael." I said crossing my legs, "Were you refuring to the painter?"
"No, I saw the red and that is the color he wears." He said as he turned off the T.V.
"Well, my mom gets up soon, so I should be going. Thank you very much and I am sorry for intruding." I said bowing and leaving.
"It is ok, have a nice day." He said closing his eyes.
I walked out playing with my sash and when I saw the color I climbed up the ladder that led to my appartment and when I got up I went to my room and laid down after putting my sash away. I stayed there looking at the ceilling thinking if I was meant to be in that craddle when that liquid touched my skin and made me the way I am. I sat up as soon as I heard the front door open and close, my mom was leaving for work, I went to the science kit my mom had gotten me a few years ago to see if I could find some way to reverse this and become human again. I had glasses so I had to place them aside so they wouldn't brake. As I looked in the top I could see what I always saw in the liquid, but this time I took a needle and took some of my blood and put it under the lens to see if it was similar to turtle's blood. My mom got me a turtle a couple years ago and I looked at his all the time, but when I looked at mine, it was so close to my turtle's that I fell back into my seat and put my glasses back on. I looked down at my hands and I had three fingers and the nails were painted a nice black. I got up and walked into my room to grab my sash; I put on my drench coat and walked to the store to pick up some black dye. When I came home I started to put the black dye on the red sash so if I did go back tonight he wouldn't mistake me for that Raphael person again.
I washed the black out an hour later and it was perfect, I waited for it to dry till I put it on. I sat in my living room till my mom came home and kissed the top of my head as she always did.
"Hi sweetie." She said putting bags and the keys on the table.
"Hi mom." I said a little depressed.
"Is everything ok?" She asked walking over to me.
"Did dad leave because I look like a turtle?" I asked looking at her.
"Well, he's part of an organization and when he saw that you looked like a turtle he became upset with the nurses for not watching you better. So he left me when you were two." She said and when she saw the tears in my eyes she continued, "No, it's not your fault."
"Does my father hate turtles?" I asked as tears started to fall.
"In a way, yes, but he doesn't hate you. He could never hate his own daughter." My mom said wrapping me in a hug.
"What's my father's name?" I asked putting my hands on my mom's arms.
"Hun." My mom said pulling out a picture of them while she was still carrying me.
I took the picture from her hand and saw my father was a very muscular man with long blonde hair and I could see that I had his blue eyes. I also saw that me had a tattoo of a dragon on his arm, but it wasn't red like they normally are, it was purple and that's the only color he was wearing was purple. I gave my mom her picture back and went to my room.
"Honey, what'd you do to your sash?" My mom asked walking over to me.
"Oh, I uh, dyed it. I thought that I'd make it the same color as my nails." I said hiding the fact that I found something that my father hated. Me.
"Ok, well, I'll pick you up some different color sashes tomorrow so you don't have to dye them." My mom said leaving to the kitchen.
I nodded and went into my room, closing my door I leaned on it and than I saw a note sitting on my bed and the window wide open. I walked over and picked up the note. I unfolded it and began to read it, it read: Akila, please come back to my home tonight. I wish to have a word with you about your father and what he does. I can explain the tattoo. Sincerely, Master Splinter.
I was a little confused I mean how could me have gotten in here without my knowing. I guess he was just too quiet for me to hear him. After dinner and after my mom went to bed I jumped down into the sewers and went straight to the place I had gone to the night before. I knocked this time and a very tall turtle with an orange head band and nunchuks came to the door and made a joke about my height.
"Wow, hey guys, did anyone order shrimp?" He called back laughing.
"Not funny." I said crossing my arms. Ok, yes I'm short for my age and sad thing is I don't know if I'm done growing yet.
"Sorry dudett." He said stepping aside.
I rolled my eyes and walked in, I saw three others, same hieght too, but they each had different color head bands. One was blue, one was red, and one was purple, the purple one was my favorate. He was working on some sort of electronic thing and that was what I was into and I was very interrested. I walked over to him as I saw the one in blue and the one in red fighting, it was as if they thought they were ninjas and they were really good at it too. I stood over his shoulder watching in silence as he zapped some wires together and he seemed to not care that I was standing here. I took my glasses off and got a better look; he was fiddling with some kind of device that looked like a gun, but not like any I've seen. Just when I was about to point our a flaw I heard the one known as Splinter call my name and he was right behind me and I screached making the one I was watching jump.
"I said I need quiet!" He yelled catching the gun he was working with.
"I am sorry Donnatello, but our guest has been watching you and I called her here to talk." Splinter said leading me away.
I was still wearing my black sash so if he saw it, that Donnatello guy thought he was going mad. I followed Splinter away and he led me into a room with masks and weapons on the walls, he told me to sit down on a pillow on one side of a table while he sat on the other side. Sitting there, waiting, he poured himself a cup of tea and offered me one, I refused because I wanted to know what he knew of my father.
"What is it that you know about my father?" I asked sitting as if I was meditating.
"His name your mother must have told you, but his name is Hun and he is part of an organization called 'The Purple Dragons'. He is always after my boys." Splinter said looking back at a helmat.
"Is that my father's?" I asked looking at it.
"No, it is the Shreaders." He said not wanting to explain the story.
I sat there with my hands folded in my lap and my head lowered, I pushed my glasses up and let a tear fall. My father hated what I had become because he didn't want to look at his only daughter and be reminded of something he hates with all his heart. As tears fell I tried not to cry out, but Splinter must have seen the tears because he handed me a tissue to dry my eyes.
"It is not easy to find out that your father is part of something so upsetting." He said standing up and walking over to me.
"I don't remember my father, but now I know that he worked for a horrible person." I said because I knew who the shreader was and knowing that my father worked for him made it that much harder.
Letting the tears fall I wanted to run out because I didn't want to believe it, but I saw the picture and that was enough proof for me to believe that my father wasn't the one I thought. I waited for him to say something, anything, but when he called for the one named Donnatello I stood up and wanted to go home, but it was only midnight and too early to go home, doubt my mother would notice if I wasn't there. She does love me, but I'm never there when she gets up. When he came in he was still fiddling with that gun, walking past him I mumbled that he was doing it wrong and that I had delt with things like that before. I walked over to his work table and started to fix something that wasn't exactally wired right; I took my glasses off and set them aside because I could see fine without them, but I always forgot them in random places. When the re-wiring was done I handed him the device and he looked at it and shot it at a target across the room. I saw the reaction on his face because it worked and I tried to hide my own surprise that it worked because stuff I worked with rarelly ever worked correctly. Donnatello and I sat there working on random things for seven hours when my phone went off and I ran out faster than a speeding rocket and just ran home. I ignored the fact that I could barelly see and my mom would just think I put them somewhere in the house. I got into my room just as my mom was opening the door to check on me. I faked my sleep and I could hear her over the phone.
"I don't think she knows that her reserch isn't doing her condition much good." My mom said to someone who was on the other end.
"Condition?" I asked myself.
"I fear that when Akila finally sees that all this work she's been doing won't help she'll be old enough to see that she's not going to be normal." She continued.
I heard a button beep and I knew she put it on speaker.
"Well, Elizabeth, if she makes a break through than maybe we can come that much closer to finding a cure so that things like that don't happen again." I heard a man on the other end.
My mother's name is Elizabeth.
"Dr. I don't know what to do, I mean if all of a sudden one day her notes go missing. I won't be able to explain it." My mom said trying to be quiet.
"Don't worry just take copies of it and bring them to me or bring me your daughter." I heard him say.
My mom hung up the phone without another word and I heard the door shut and she left. I got up a while later and held my knees to my chest and started crying because even though I rarelly left the house I was considered a project to some doctor and a smart one at that. I let the tears fall till I heard a knocking at my window, I looked up and it was Donnatello, I crawled over and opened it letting him in. He jumped in with something in his hand and when he turned he had some sort of staff on his back; I looked at him with my eyes squinted because I think I left my glasses in their home when I left in a hurry last night. He handed me my glasses and smiled at me, I put them back on and I could see him a little better than when he walked in. My face was still stained with tears, he looked at me and started for the window.
"Thank you." I said in a scratchy voice.
"What's wrong?" He asked with one leg out the window.
"I'm a freak." I said as tears started flowing down my face again.
He walked over to me and wrapped me in a hug and told me that it was all going to be ok. I just cried and cried and cried; I didn't want to believe that I was a freak and here I was with a turtle that was probably mutated the same way I was. The reason I knew it was Donnatello without my glasses was because of the purple around his head. He held me in his arms and I could hear his heart beating, it was loud and there was part of me that didn't mind. He sat there with me for hours holding me as I cried, I've never cried so much. I looked at the clock that was sitting on my night stand and it was almost eight in the morning, but I didn't want to say anything. Than I heard someone tapping on my window. Donnatello walked over and opened the window, the one that came to get him had an orange headband, and it was the one that called me a shrimp last night.
"Donny, come on Slpinter's looking for you." He said leaning on the sill.
"Ok Mikey, I'm on my way." Donnatello said jumping out after saying he hopes to see me that night.
I smiled and I could hear the one he called Mikey making kissing sounds and than an OW after words. I was blushing and when I got up I was going to go through my sashes and picked one to wear because my mom needed to wash my black one. I found a green one and tied it on just as my mom walked through the door, I smiled at her to show that I was fine. She made some tea and went to her room and turned on some piano that she listens to often when she needs to fall asleep. I waited to hear her loud snoring over the soothing sound of the piano, as soon as I heard it I went out my window and down the fire escape and I landed right in the sewer. As I started walking I saw two green toes in the moon light, I knew it was one of the turtles and I asked him to come into the light. It was the one with the blue headband and my guess was that he had been waiting for me. I stopped and looked at him as if I were in trouble; his head twitched and we started walking. I used the sides of my sash as pockets as we walked through the sewers in silence, nothing to listen to except the splashing of water under our feet.
"So, is it time for me to learn your name or are you gonna give me the silent treatment?" I asked jokingly.
"It's Leonardo." He said putting his hands behind his back.
"Well, I'm Akila." I said as my smile faded.
He nodded in approval as we came to the entrence. I went in before him and Master Splinter was watching soap operas. I couldn't help but laugh, I let out a soft giggle, I'm guessing he must of heard me because he turned around and saw me holding my hand over my mouth. He motioned for me to come over and sit, I walked over and sat, but instead of doing such gracefully I was looking at a certain turtle and bumped into a pillar. My head hurt after that and I wasn't all that happy because I had made a fool of myself, I thought about leaving and trying it again but it would've been much worse the second time. I sat down infront of Splinter with the redest cheeks I had ever had. I was still so embarressed because I think I kind of did like Donnatello, but I wanted to focus on becoming normal and with any luck these guys were going to help me get far enough in my research. Splinter took me to another room and gave me a vile of some glowing purple liquid, he bowed his head and I went home without saying bye. I wanted to look at this a little closer and maybe it would bring me closer to becoming human again.
I sat down to my work table and started working again and writing notes, science was something I was interrested in during school and just the way it all worked and all the terms just fasinated me to no end. I mixed a bit of the purple liquid with the green liquid that I've had since I was little. I watched as the liquids mixed together and made some kind of strange color, I still can't describe it to this day. I took a deep breath as I took some of my blood and some of the liquid and mixed them. I watched as they mixed together and saw that the turtle part of my DNA had been replaced with human and it was normal. I started jumping for joy and my mom ran out and saw me jumping up and down.
"Sweet heart, what are you doing?" My mother asked walking over to me.
"Mom, I did it, I mean with help, but don't ask, I found a way to become human again." I said showing her what I had done.
"Akila, I'm so proud of you." My mom said hugging me.
"Mom, I'm going to try it, if I turn human than it will be painful I can tell, but the pain will be worth it." I said sitting down to the table and mixing the two together again, but in a bigger container.
My mom went back to bed as did I. I had taken a needle with me because I wanted to take some of my blood out just in case I had a reason to become a turtle again, but fat chance I was going to want to do that. I looked away as I took a very large amount and put it into a vile and hid it in my dresser. I went to sleep hugging my pillow. My mom had already gone to work by the time I had woken up the next morning, I had a clean needle with me and I took a good amount of the liquide. After taking the deepest breath I had ever taken I inserted the needle in my arm and injected myself and waited for it to take effect.
After only a couple minutes I felt a grusome pain and I looked down at my hands and I had five fingers, I fell to the floor with the same pain. It felt like a million needles were being pushed through my skull and my back felt almost bare, and I could feel the floor under my back. The pain wouldn't stop, it was too much, the neighbors must have called my mom because while I was in pain on the floor she came running through the door. I could hear her calling my name as my world went black.
I woke up caughing in the middle of the night and I was in a cold sweat, I looked down at my hands and I still had five fingers on each hand and I looked at my feet and saw that I had five toes on each foot. I smiled and started laughing because I was finally human again. I called my mom and stood there in the middle of my room to show her that I was, AHHHHH, I WAS NAKED! I grabbed a blanket and covered myself giggling.
"Akila, I can't believe that you're human again. Looks like we'll have to go shopping tonight." My mom said as she left my room.
I just smiled and felt the top of my head and I could feel hair, I pulled a bit forward so I could see the color and it was a blonde, a really white blonde, well almost white. I started jumping up and down with a bed sheet covering me when I heard someone tapping at my window, it was Donnatello. I took a deep breath and walked over to the window and opened it and he came in covering his eyes.
"I didn't see anything." He said moving his fingers aside.
"Hey, bit of a shock, huh?" I asked.
"Yeah, I mean I can't believe that you're human." He said with slight disappointment in his voice.
"I'll try to come back down to visit you guys and Splinter I mean if I have time because now that I'm normal again I will be going back to public school." I said trying to explain that I would never forget them.
He didn't listen and just jumped out the window and I could see something in his hand as he left. I felt tears swell up in my eyes and I couldn't believe I had been so selfish, I wasn't going to just lose my normality when I had just gotten it back. I blinked the tears back and went to my mom and asked if we could go shopping, she had been on the phone and I guessed that it was my soon-to-be principal. My mother smiled and gave me something to wear while we were shopping. As we were shopping I found quite a few dresses, jeans, and shirts. But the Bra thing, that was a challenge I won't even tell you how hard that was. When we left the store a man with a blonde pony tail and he was wearing nothing but purple. I backed away from him and my mom's jaw dropped; she called him Hun, 'Dad?' I mouthed as I walked back further because he left because of what I was.
"Elizabeth." He said looking at my mom.
"Don't you have something to say to your daughter?" She asked with hate in her voice.
"I see no turtle." He said with a snear.
"I'm right here, I found a way to become normal again." I said with as much hate in my voice as my mom had.
"I see, well, it seems that our family could be whole again." He began.
"No, you've never shown any interrest in her, so you can stay away." My mom said pulling me along.
I looked back and saw him walk away with no anger just some stride that made children cry. When we got home my mom acted as if nothing was wrong, I smiled at her and we went inside.
Two years had gone by so fast and I hadn't realized it. I had forgotten all about the turtles and I didn't keep my promise to come back and visit when I could, I mean I had been so busy and things got away from me. I never heard from my dad or Donnatello and I had forgotten what he looked like. At times when I would go through my things I would find my sashes and remember them, but they were brief memories and they didn't stick, when I was 15 I had put them in a box under my bed and not given them a second though. I had just turned 16 and I was coming home from school one day when I saw a sewer and smiled, but I had to keep walking because I had homework to tend to. I went to a private school so I was wearing a very uncomfortable uniform I walked into my room and before I flopped down I saw a note sitting on my pillow, I grabbed it and than fell onto my bed and read the note. It read: Akila, please I need to speak with you about something. Come to the sewers tonight, I will meet you there. It is very important. Splinter.
I started bitting my lip and looked at the clock, it was about 5:45, I would have to wait for my mom to go to bed before I left for the sewers. At dinner that night I asked my mom if she liked the normal me.
"Akila, I love you, Turtle or not." She said with a smile, "Why did you change anyhow?"
"I guess because I wanted to win my father back." I said looking down at my plate.
"A penny for your thoughts?" My mother asked.
"Mom, you ever heard of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" I asked.
"Yes, It's all Ms. O'Niel talks about." My mom said winking.
My mom was a news reporter and worked along side a woman named April O'Niel and she would come over from time to time and tell me things about anything I wanted to know. She was interrested in the fact that I looked like a turtle, I finished my dinner and went for a walk. I slipped into the alley, walked over to the man hole, and climbed down into it, as I was climbing down I was wishing that I still didn't have my sence of smell, I was forced to hold my nose. I saw Splinter standing in the moon light and he waved me on with his walking stick or staff or whatever you want to call it. I looked at him as if I were in trouble, we started walking and he took me to the entrance to their lair, I looked in and saw Donnatello sitting on the couch with his hand to his head as if he had a head ach, but Splinter told me he was just depressed. I felt bad I mean he was a great person and he was probably an even better friend and brother than I realized. I stood back and for some reason I could feel tears swelling up in my eyes, I looked at the old rat standing infront of me and I looked in on the sad turtle and I could see that there were tissues all over the floor and a tissue in his hand and tears running down his face.
"He has never stopped thinking of you." Splinter said getting my attention.
"Why would he keep me in mind?" I asked in a whisper.
"He believed in something called 'Love at first sight' he felt it when he first saw you, Akila." Splinter said putting his hand over his heart.
"I had no idea." I said as tears flowed down my face.
"He only wished to see you again." He said walking in.
I took a deep breath and walked in behind Splinter, I'm guessing he knew I would've followed and told them that they had a visitor. I stood there looking at them still in my uniform, I smiled at them and Donnatello stood up and looked at me as if he hadn't seen me in years, though it had only been two. I walked over to him and hugged him before walking over to the others and giving them hugs as well. I had school in the morning so I couldn't stay long, I walked out after Mikey made a joke about my height. As I walked out I felt tears fall down my face and my heart was aching and it felt as if it was breaking, I wanted to just drop to my knees and cry. There was something inside of me saying to turn around and go back to Donnatello begging for his forgivness and his love, I don't know what it was, but I think I had fallen for Donnatello, just as he had fallen for me.
I went into my room, through the fire escape, and sat on the edge of my bed trying to keep the tears back and then my eyes went to my night stand's drawer. I sat up straight and opened it and pulled out the vile of my blood before I had made the choice to contaminate my blood with the fixed liquid. I looked at my door and my mom was knocking, I pulled out a needle and took every last drop of blood from the vile and injected myself for the second time, every last drop entered my body and I could feel my shell growing back and my hair fell out of my head, I blacked out after my mom came crashing through the door. I could feel her arms around me and I could hear her calling an ambulance. After that it was a blur.
I woke up in a hospital bed and I was green again and I had only three fingers on each hand and I lifted the blanket and saw that I only two toes on each foot. I laid back down the best I could because my shell, I saw my mom sitting in a chair across the room and when she opened her eyes she saw that I was fine and that I had recovered. She walked over and hugged me.
"Akila, I don't ever want you to change and I don't want you to think that I don't love you, the day you were put in my arms was the day I loved you and I always will. Turtle or human." My mom said hugging me tighter than she ever had.
"I'm sorry mom, I was just so determined to win my father back that I didn't realize how much someone loved me just the way I was." I said hugging her back.
"Akila, I knew that you knew about the turtles since the first day you started sneaking them out." My mom said sitting on the side of the bed.
"You knew?" I asked pulling my legs up hugging them.
"Yes, I'm not stupid honey." She said handing me my black sash.
"You're the best." I said tying it on.
"Michelangelo, gave this to me this morning before I came here to keep an eye on you." My mom said handing me a small letter.
It read: Short stuff, we heard what happened and we would like to invite you back any time and if you want you can even live here. Hope we see you soon dudett, The Turtles.
I smiled and my mom nodded as if she knew what I was going to ask; she took me home just a few short hours later and I went and sat on my bed for a while. When my mom walked in again she was holding a box and she handed it to me.
"What's this mom?" I asked sitting up.
"Just a late birthday preasent." She said handing it to me.
I looked at her confused as I opened the box and saw some wrist bands, a emerald green sash, and a locket, I opened the locket and it was a picture of me and my mom. On one side was before I turned into a human and on the other side was when I was human. I smiled at her and hugged her, I didn't know what this was for I mean it was months after my birthday and than I saw Splinter outside my window. I crawled over and opened it and he just stood there.
"Splinter, What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Your mother told me to be here because you wanted to come and stay with us." Splinter said with his hand behind his back as always.
"Mom?" I said looking back at her.
"Well, one night when you were sleeping I met the turtles myself and Michelangelo told me that Donnatello has feelings for you and I just thought that it would be best for you to stay with them." My mom said standing up.
"Thank you mom." I said hugging her, "Does Donnatello know I'm coming?" I asked turning back to Splinter.
"No, he is busy with other things, seeing you will be a great surprise." Splinter said as I walked out onto the fire escape.
I said bye to my mom and Splinter took me down to the sewers and I could hear Michelanglo and Raphael arguing and I imagined that Leonardo was meditating. We walked in and he sat down in his chair and I walked over to Donnatello as he was focusing on some computer stuff. I wasn't a technical person, but I could still find my way around stuff like that. I looked over his shoulder and placed my hand on it, he didn't turn around he just kept working.
"Leo, not now, I told you that I don't want to talk about it. I mean if she wants to be human than fine she can be human. Though it breaks my heart I can handle the fact she dosen't want to be with a full blooded turtle." He said zapping the micro chip.
"You know Leo is acctually meditating and I think he quite bothering you about me a long time ago. I think I've fallen very heard for a turtle with purple on his head." I said.
He lifted his head and turned to see me smiling, he rubbed his eyes and when he saw that he wasn't dreaming he held me close to him, I wrapped my arms around him and I felt him kiss my head. It was a fairy tale ending and I wouldn't have it any other way. I mean minus the whole thing about me falling in love with a Turtle.
The End! 3