Chapter 2
One Heck of a Birthday Part 1
It was the night of the Hamato quadruplets' fifteenth birthday, and the four boys had begged their parents to let them and their sister stay out late in order to play ninja tag on the rooftops. Their parents had agreed on the condition that the teens conceal their faces with masks (it would not do for their identities to be broadcast all over New York), and that they all be home before midnight.
And so, if one looked up on that particular night, as New Yorkers so rarely do, there was a chance they would see five teens in dark clothing and various brightly colored masks leaping from building to building.
The five ninja teens had been having the time of their lives up on the rooftops. Already they'd each had a chance to be it, and Raphael managed to spook a pizza boy into dropping his delivery, meaning free pizza for them (much to Mikey's delight).
But what started as a fun and peaceful night changed abruptly when Donatello suddenly skidded to a stop on one of the rooftops.
"Hey guys, look at that!" he said pointing to the street below.
His four siblings gathered at the edge to see what had him so excited.
Below them, a pretty red haired girl in a yellow t-shirt was walking along with an older, balding, but equally red haired man, who was no doubt her father.
Raph turned to his brother with a smirk on his face. "Isn't that that April girl from school that you have a crush on, Donnie?"
"The one who has no idea you even exist?" added Michelangelo with a teasing grin.
Miwa looked down and examined the girl. "For good reason," she teased. "April O'Neil is way out of your league, little brother."
Donnie, who had been gazing at April dreamily, snapped out of his daze and began stammering excuses (though he didn't deny his crush on her).
Mikey, Raph, and Miwa exchanged glances at the sight, and burst out snickering, causing Donnie's blush to deepen.
Leonardo rolled his eyes behind his blue mask at his siblings' antics and looked back down towards Donnie's crush. His eyes widened as he saw a van drive up, and several men get out of it and surround the two on the street in a way that did not look friendly.
"Uh, guys," Leo called, drawing their attention back to the scene.
As they watched, Mr. O'Neil tried to defend his daughter, only for one of the men to knock him out with a solid punch.
April shrieked in fear at the sight.
Miwa punched Donnie on the shoulder. "You want April to notice you, saving her would be a good start," she said.
"Hold on, guys," said Leo cautiously, stopping them from jumping straight off the building. "Father said we shouldn't let people see us."
"No, he said not to let people identify us," Raph said back sarcastically. "That's what the masks are for, genius."
"Well I'm going," said Donnie with conviction, before leaping from the roof.
His siblings exchanged a quick look, before following after him.
April wondered how such a nice night could go so wrong.
She and her father had just gone out for an ice cream run at the parlor a few blocks away. But on their way home four creepy weirdoes in suits, and one unwashed and shifty looking man decided to show up and attack them.
Her father had shoved her behind him, and demanded they tell him what they wanted. But they remained silent, and one of the suited men hit her father so hard he was knocked unconscious.
April screamed at the sight, and hoped that someone would hear it and call the cops.
But that hope seemed in vain, as another of the suits and the unwashed creep grabbed her arms and began dragging her towards the van.
The one that had had knocked her father out, reached down and carelessly threw him into the back of the van. His body hit the metal inside with a painful sounding thunk.
Realizing that these people weren't just mugging them, they were planning to kidnap them (and were succeeding so far), April began struggling furiously and crying for help at the top of her lungs.
As uncaring as people in New York tended to be, there had to be someone out there that would hear her and help.
"Hey!" came a shout.
April looked up just in time to see one of the suits get knocked back from a strong hit.
Apparently someone in New York did care.
Multiple some ones it seems, as April became aware of the sound of fighting was coming from all around her now. But before she could get a good look at her rescuers, the suit that had been holding her arm swung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and again began carrying her towards the van. The unwashed man ran ahead to start the van for a quick get-away.
"Let me GO!" April screeched, as she beat her fists against the back of the man carrying her, regardless of how it felt like she was beating against a brick wall.
But the man didn't appear to feel a thing, and he just kept walking her towards the van that held her father.
April couldn't help but think that if he got her in that van, there would be no saving for the either of them.
Suddenly, something seemed to fly towards them and knock the suit off balance. And as he went flying forward, she got tossed into the air before gravity started to take effect and brought her down.
April only had time to let out a scream as she fell, and she braced herself for impact on the hard concrete.
But the impact never came, and she found herself getting caught in midair by a pair of strong arms.
"You okay?" asked whoever had caught her in a semi-familiar voice.
April looked up at who caught her, and once again let out a yelp of fear.
She had been expecting some good Samaritans had stepped in to help her and her father. But good Samaritans typically didn't wear dark, hooded, ninja clothes and purple masks over their eyes. This guy looked like he was on his way to rob a bank.
At her yelp, the masked person dropped her in surprise.
From her new (painful) seat on the ground, April got a better look at her rescuer. She realized that he couldn't be any older than her, and despite the ninja bank robber clothes, he didn't look all that threatening.
Recovering from his surprise, the robber kid waved his hands and said in a reassuring, if slightly panicked voice, "No, no, no! Don't worry, we're the good guys!"
He then held out his hand to her, and smiled warmly. Waiting for her to make the first move.
April took his hand without hesitation, and allowed him to pull her to her feet. Even if this kid was a bank robber, he at least seemed better than getting kidnapped by the suits. Getting robbed was something she could handle, kidnapping was not.
The robber kid beamed at her, revealing a gap toothed smile that was also strangely familiar.
But before she could comment on it, another, shorter kid also dressed in a black ninja outfit and mask (though his was orange) jumped beside Robber Kid, and accidentally smacked him on the head with his weapon.
When he did so, Robber Kid's hood fell off and he glared at the other teen, who quickly said, "Whoops, sorry."
But now that he was left with just the purple eye mask on, as the shadows hiding his face and hair were gone, revealing an Asian kid with floppy black hair and an oval face. That was when it suddenly clicked where April had seen him before.
"Donnie Hamato from Advanced Chem. class?!" she asked in shock, recognizing the boy from her school.
Donnie flinched at the sound of his name, all but confirming his identity. "Um, no…" he said too quickly to be honest.
"Watch Out!" shouted the other hooded teen in orange (who was no doubt one of Donnie's brothers, probably the youngest judging by his short height, freckles, and the black curls that were poking out of his hood).
They turned to see another of the suits coming towards them, only to be kicked away by the only female of the masked group.
'Miwa,' April thought, recalling the girl with cropped and dyed hair, and multiple ear piercings, 'Donnie's older sister, it had to be.'
The girl glared at them, and April saw that instead of an eye mask, she wore a green scarf that covered her nose and mouth with her sleeveless, hooded ninja garb, and her eyes had heavy makeup on them.
"We're not here to socialize!" she snapped at the other two. "Get her out of here! And watch your backs!"
With that said, she darted back into the fight, swinging her short sword at her enemies.
"R-right," said Donnie, who grabbed April's wrist, and pulled her towards a nearby alley. Once there he motioned for her to hide behind a dumpster. "Stay here," he whispered, "We'll go get your father. I promise."
With that he pulled his hood back over his head, and hurried back to join the fight, leaving April to huddle in the alley and wonder when her world had gone completely crazy.
The fight was not going well.
Mikey had thought it wouldn't be too hard. Do the good deed, and get out of there. Maybe April would come to school next Monday talking about how masked superheroes had saved her, but that was the end of it.
He had not been expecting the men in suits to be so strong, nor had he known how hard it would be to get them to take a hit.
Raph had started off by punching one of the suits with all his strength. The fact that the guy hadn't been knocked flat should have been warning enough that this fight wouldn't be as easy as he'd first predicted. Mikey couldn't remember the last time someone was still standing after one of Raph's power punches.
But even with how tough the guys in suits were, that wasn't the worst part of how the fight was going.
No, the worst part was the fact that none of them seemed able to make a move without tripping over each other. It was so bad that at one point, Leo had nearly accidentally stabbed Raph in the back with his swords, causing the hothead to glare at him furiously, and not notice his real opponent till he'd been sucker punched down the street.
To say nothing of the fact that his own nunchuck had clocked Donnie over the head while he was saving his crush. That was embarrassing, and it may have completely blown their cover.
At least Donnie had managed to get April out of there, and he could focus more on finishing the fight (hopefully without any of his siblings accidentally killing each other).
He got distracted for a second when he saw Donnie rejoin the fight, and as such didn't see when one of the suits grabbed him, and threw him into his genius brother. They both landed in a heap in a pile of trash.
Suddenly, the sound of screeching tires made Mikey look up in alarm.
Donnie shoved his little brother off, and rushed after the van, which was now speeding down the street. "They're getting away, they've got her Dad!" Donnie yelled, prompting Miwa, Leo, and Raph to run after it with him (Raph berating Leo for nearly stabbing him as they ran).
Mikey climbed to his feet, and dusted himself off. 'That could have gone better,' he thought to himself.
He started to go after his brothers and sister, when he noticed one of the suits was still there, staring at him with an expressionless face.
Mikey quickly pulled out his nunchaku, and glared at the man. "You think you're Tough! Huh?!" he demanded. "You think you're tough enough to stand up to my HOT NUNCHUCK FURY!"
Spinning his nunchucks expertly, Mikey swung and hit the man in the suit several times, but the guy didn't even flinch from the blows. When Mikey tried for a blow to the head, the man caught his weapon in midair, yanked it away from him, and tossed it aside.
"I see," said Mikey in a tiny voice. "Well then-" he let out a scream, and bolted away from the man.
Looking back he could see the suited man following him, his face still expressionless as he ran. The sight only made Mikey run faster, but he couldn't shake the guy.
Trying to loose him, Mikey ducked into an alley. But then to his horror, he realized the alley he'd run into was a dead end.
Turning, Mikey saw the man was still there and getting closer by the second.
With a whimper, Mikey pulled out his second nunchuck, and converted it into a kusarigama.
He swung the sickle end at the man as a warning, but it did nothing to stop the man from advancing.
In a panic, Mikey threw all his strength into one final slash of weapon with a yell of "STAY BACK!"
His heart nearly stopped when he felt the sickle connect, and cut through the man's face. The man reached up and clutched at his eyes, before stumbling away and collapsing on the ground in a boneless heap.
The sound of a feminine shriek to his left had him whipping around, and drawing his attention away from the man.
Hiding behind the dumpster in the alley was a pale and horrified looking April. It was then Mikey realized that this is where Donnie had taken her to hide.
He'd nearly just led her kidnappers back to her…
But Mikey had more important things to worry about, as he turned his gaze back to the man he'd just sliced.
"Oh man," he said in a panicked voice. "Did I kill him? Please tell me I didn't kill him! I didn't mean it! I really didn't mean it!"
April slowly crawled out of her hiding place, and approached him nervously, though still maintaining a safe distance. "It-it was selfdefense," she said in an equally freaked out voice. "It wasn't your fault, uh, Mickey, right?"
"Mikey," he corrected, remembering too late that they weren't supposed to give out their identities. But to his defense, he was close to hyperventilating over the fact he may have just freakin' killed someone! He had bigger things to worry about than his secret identity.
"May-maybe he's not dead," said April desperately as she started digging in her pocket for a cell phone. "W-we can call an ambulance…"
Desperately hoping that she was right (he really didn't want to be responsible for murder), Mikey crouched down next to the man, and carefully rolled him over onto his back.
"What The!" he gasped as he got a look at the man's face. He quickly scrambled away on all fours, trying to put as much distance from him and the body as he could, stopping only when his back hit a wall.
April looked up from her phone search, and gaped at the sight as well, before letting out a frightened squeak and quickly joining the ninja at the dead end of the alley.
Instead of any blood or other gross stuff one would expect to see from a man who's face had been slashed open, the teens instead were staring at a blue robotic face with glowing pink eyes peeking out from where Mikey had cut him.
"That is all kinds of wrong!" Mikey declared, shrinking as far back against the wall as he could.
April wordlessly nodded in agreement.
The robotic face gave off some sparks before the glow in the eyes died, and the robot man's chest opened up beneath his suit.
Out of his chest popped a pink, brain-like creature with yellow and green eyes, tentacles, and a mouth full of fangs.
The creature turned and snarled at the two of them, and they screamed back as they clutched each other in terror.
Before either of them could react, the creature darted forward and launched itself at Mikey's face, and his screaming became muffled as the creature hugged his head in a death grip.
After several minutes of fruitless tugging, April and Mikey were finally able to fling the brain creature off of Mikey. It hit the alley wall with a disgusting splat, before picking itself up and scuttling away, squealing as it went.
Mikey and April sat panting for a minute, before they exchanged a wide-eyed look and got the heck out of there.
They exited the alley just in time to see Mikey's siblings coming back after failing to catch up to the van.
"Guys! Guys! You're never going to believe this!" Mikey gasped breathlessly as he and April reached them. "That dude- he-he had a BRAIN!"
"We all have brains, Mi-my little brother," Leo deadpanned, catching himself before he revealed Mikey's name.
"Not all of us," muttered Donnie.
Mikey gave them a disbelieving look. "In our chests?" he said incredulously.
"No, little brother, not in our chests," Leo said in the same deadpan tone.
Mikey scowled at them. "YOU'RE NOT LISTENING TO ME!" he yelled furiously.
An abrupt smack to the face had the youngest ninja drawing up his hands in defense. "Did you just slap me?" he asked in a low tone.
"I was calming you down," said Leo in a matter of fact tone.
"WHY WOULD THAT CALM ME DOWN?!" Mikey bellowed. Couldn't his siblings see he was terrified? He didn't need to calm down, he needed them to help him make sense of all this.
"I think we need to cut down on Leo's Space Heroes intake," Miwa whispered to Raph, having recognized Leo's 'calming technique' from the show's main hero.
"No arguments here," Raph muttered back.
"I think he's delusional," said Donnie, as he looked his brother over for injuries.
"No-no Mikey's right," said April, having finally caught her breath enough to speak. "L-l-look."
April held out the shard of the man's face that Mikey had cut off in his panic. The four older ninjas stared at the shard in disbelief.
Mikey, however, looked at it in revulsion. "Ew, you picked it up?!"
"Well if that brain thing didn't let go of your face, I was going to try stabbing it with it," April explained. "It's sharp. It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Wait, what's going on?" asked Raph, wondering when this night had taken the left turn to crazy town.
"Jus-just come here," said Mikey gesturing for them to follow him as he headed back to the alley.
He and April explained everything as best they could as they headed back to the alley. Only to find it empty. No robot man, and no alien brain pilot.
"B-but it was right here!" shouted Mikey, pointing at the spot the body had been.
"He's right, it was!" insisted April.
Seeing the two's helpless expressions, and having no clue what to believe, Donnie took the shard from April and examined it closely in hopes it would yield some answers.
On one side of the jagged piece was clearly the face of one of the men who'd attacked April and her father. Flipping it over, he saw bits of technology worked into it that was more advanced than anything he had ever seen before. He said as much to the others.
"So you're saying our attempt to stop a kidnapping has just turned into a Sci-Fi freak fest?" Miwa asked incredulously.
"Looks like it," Leo said. Then something occurred to him. "Wait a minute," he said, and turned to glare at Mikey. "How did April know who you were?" he asked, remembering that the redhead had called him by name.
Now all the other Hamatos were glaring at their youngest brother.
Mikey shrunk in on himself and stammered to find an excuse, but April came to his defense.
"I guessed," she said. "After I realized who Donnie was, it wasn't hard to figure out who the rest of you were."
Everyone turned their glares to Donnie, but he paid them no mind, as he was looking at April with hopeful eyes.
"You know about me?" he asked shyly, Mikey's previous statement about April not knowing he existed hadn't seemed to be far off the mark before.
April looked embarrassed. "Yeah, kinda. I've heard about all you guys, uh, through school gossip at least. Quadruplets, even ones who aren't identical, are pretty rare, so I know all you guys' names. Plus, you're always getting the really tough questions in Chemistry class."
Donnie felt like he was on cloud nine, but the rest of his family looked like they couldn't have heard worse news. Their one big rule of anonymity had been blown in the course of one night.
"Father and Mother are going to kill us," said Raph, summing up what they all were thinking.
A/N Well what do you think? As you can see, things are already going a bit differently than they did before. But is it a good different, or a bad different?
Disclaimer: I own nothing.