A/N: So, since the pilot went well – here's the first real chapter – and I'll be updating as regularly as I can (with work, summer classes and social life sometimes it's a little difficult to maintain a specific routine). However, since this one is only 15 chapter and a lot simpler than Fixing Donnie I hope to get on it as soon as possible!
Also, a note – one of my best friends Hamato Michelangelo has released a human AU called Double Helix and I thought I'd recommend it because I'm her editor and it's a great story – it features many characters from the TMNT universe, family angst and a mystery theme – I suggest you check it out!
I didn't mention it last time, but this story is dedicated to my girls – or, "best bitches" – Katie, Liv, Red, Emily and Amy – I love you all.
"Oh my god."
There are some sort of situations that are so absolutely breathtaking to experience that it seems physically impossible to form the words that would even remotely fit the initial feeling that such an event may cause. Whether it be unlimited joy, such as when the love of your life finally proposes or you learn that you aced that one final exam, or extreme sadness, or boiling anger and fear all together, such a strong wave is too powerful for the larynx to properly function.
For these girls, they were paralyzed by the punch of three out of four, and happiness was certainly not one of them.
"Splinter," April is the first to react, whining the nickname in a vulnerable cry of lament. She desperately searches for a pulse, even when the sight of gore erased that possibility at first glance. She grabs his cheeks and presses her forehead against him, about to grieve when her eyes shoot open at horrid realization. "Wait, the guys! Where are the guys?!"
She springs from his chest and sprints to the kitchen, pulling a kitchen knife and holding it behind her back to safely search the house in case the killer was still present. Mona instantly follows her lead, her protective and fiery instinct kicking in but slightly tainted by worry for Raphael. Karai follows them but is a bit hesitant, her face white as snow and her eyes a bit dazed, all because she definitely recognized that style of nefarious craftmanship.
And she could definitely guess why it had been done. At this rate, who knows what could have happened to Leo.
Shini walked to Renet, grabbing a plant in a bottle and sprinkling the water on Renet's forehead. She dizzily opens her eyes and sits up, curling her body in a ball and trembling instantly.
"Come on, a psychopath may still be in here!" Shini whispers to her, handing the younger girl one of her own butterfly knives and gesturing for her to follow. Without verbally responding, she pretends to know how to work the weapon and follows closely behind just in case.
"I can't find them," April panics, frantically searching each of the bedrooms. Mona slides down against the wall and surrenders in frustration, for there is no single trace of the boys left to be found.
"They're not in the attic for sure, we were just in there," Shini confirms.
"You," Mona stands up and accuses, starting to jaunt towards a startled Karai who was leaning against the staircase. "You were already here! You saw the body and did nothing, how are we supposed to trust you? Where are the guys, huh?"
"I don't fucking know!" she defends, "I didn't hear anything, I swear to God. I thought they went to the market or something, no one was here! I don't even know if it happened here, it couldn't have. My instincts would have picked it up."
"Then why do you look so nervous?" Mona questions, getting closer to Karai's face.
"Because I recognize something, you idiot. You of all people should know that, ever occur to you? Ain't you Newt's daughter? You know about the damn Foot Clan just as much as I do, admit it," she raises her voice, "And get the hell out of my face before I fuck up yours, street rat."
"Yeah, I happened to recognize it, just when I remembered who exactly trained you. How do you kill, Karai? Don't try acting like you haven't before, princess of the foot," she responds.
"Are we forgetting about witch girl over here? She was here too, was she not? Some satanic ritual or something is always a damn option," April spits.
"STOP IT!" Renet interrupts, her cross expression taking them by surprise. "What is wrong with you people? Someone's been murdered in cold blood, the guys are nowhere to be found and all you can think about is tearing each other apart? Have some decency!"
"The kid has a point," Mona says, "This isn't doing anyone any good."
"Damn right," Renet scoffs, "The boys aren't here. They were taken, taken by some men in suits. I don't know about what happened to the others, but I was facetiming Mikey and some man in a suit popped up behind him, knocked him out, and cut off the call. I couldn't get to him in time and no one would answer me, so I came here to help." A single tear drops from her disturbed eyes. "I thought there would be somebody that could help."
"So they're taken," April contemplates, "Who would take them? They're good kids, they aren't involved in anything that would make someone want to take them."
Karai considers speaking up, but she decides to keep quiet. She could solve this without bringing what has been happening into it. As long as that bottom feeder Mona doesn't run her mouth-
Too late.
"I haven't been involved with my father in almost a year, and he's the lead of the only gang around here with the capability to do something like this. They're the puppets of Saki's little Foot Clan deal, and all I know is that guy and Hamato Yoshi had some major beef. That could be the cause of it," she pauses and turns to Karai, "Or is there some other cause we should know about?"
"Guys," Shini interrupts, who had found her way back downstairs after wandering aimlessly, "I think there's something you should see.
The girls quickly make their way back down, forcing their heads with all their might to not turn anywhere near the corpse of a man that they once knew. Shini looking up and five little notecards, all which formed the shape of a star on the floor near the placemat.
"I swear these weren't here when we walked in," April observes, kneeing down to look at them.
"What kind of sick joke is this?" Mona wonders, picking one up to read. "This one says 'Albany, New York, a man with gold teeth'. What is that supposed to mean?"
"They all have different locations on them, with a weird string of words under them," Karai says quietly. "This isn't something that Saki would do."
"Maybe they're where the guys are? It could be telling us where they are?" Shini wonders.
"Alright, that's it," April says, yanking her phone from her back pocket. "This kind of whack isn't to be messed around with. I'm calling 911."
"No!" Karai panics, reaching to smack the phone out of her hand and resulting in April's appalled expression. "Don't bring the police into it, that's only going to make things worse."
"Are you insane! Someone has been murdered and you expect me to not call the police? The hospital? The people that actually know how to deal with this?" April responds, securing her phone into her grasp.
"She's right," Renet says, "The only reason someone wouldn't want to call the police is if they had something to hide."
"God, I don't have something to hide!" Karai groans in frustration. "I just know deep shit when I'm in it, deep shit that you two sheltered children have never known in your lives. As much as I despise that, I know my father and I know how gross things get when authorities are involved, and unless you want to end up like poor Yoshi here you're going to have to trust me. Don't stick your nose into something that you don't understand, and if you aren't able to handle this just go home and let me deal with it."
"I am not abandoning my boys, no matter what," April firmly states, "Might as well get used to me because I am not moving."
The girls all jump from the sound of a ringtone, one of the generic ones that come with the phone settings, but when you find yourself in such a dire situation even the simplest of things can be questioned as a potential enemy. Mona pulls her phone from her pocket, seeing that there was a call from a strange private number.
"That's just great," she scoffs, feeling the demand for a listen and responding by answering the call and putting it on speaker.
"Hello, my princess, long time no see," a macabre voice speaks, "Hang up on me and your little boy toy gets his throat slit."
"Newt," she whispers in horror. "I swear to Christ I'll find you and I'll ring your neck around my fist until you are begging for just a grasp of air-
"Awe, seems that you haven't changed a bit, Mona Lisa. You know what they say, like father like daughter," he snickers maliciously.
"I don't even have time to roast you right now, not until you're roasting in the crematorium I've built under my house just for you," she hisses.
"Absolutely adorable. I know you're with that spoiled brat Karai Oroku right now. Put that bitch on the phone too, I have a message for the two of you," he says.
"I'm right here, asshole!" Karai shouts, storming as close to the phone as she can. "Come and bite me."
"Seems that you girlies have been naughty as of late. Is that anyway to treat your fathers? It was only the responsible choice to punish you," he tells them.
"Tell that tin foil burnt toast that I'm not a child anymore, and I will make the only responsible choice of taking his life if he comes near me again. Directly from yours truly," Karai threatens.
"Your disrespect has come back to make you pay. Since you two have been relying on these little boys as a statement to laugh in the face of your family, we decided to take that away from you. Instead of killing them like their pathetic father, they're going to rot away in places that you'll never find them. However, they do have a chance. Surrender yourselves in, and no one is going to get hurt," he informs.
"I will not surrender, even in death. You've under estimated what I've become – I'll handle you and your posse on my own. If you think that my boyfriend is the reason I've left your abuse, you're just as stupid as that self-inflicted scar on your face," Mona laughs.
"Why can't that snake Saki talk to me, huh? Too much of a pussy to say anything to my face? I dare him to come up to me, I fucking dare him," Karai says.
"As entertaining as this conversation may be, seems that it's time for me to get going. It's about time to eat my supper in front of your starving little baby. Have fun guessing which one, or maybe it's all of them since they haven't all yet been placed in their individual locations. Don't bother calling back. Toodeloo, my dearest children – and by the way, we took that missing tooth kid too just for the kick of it," he says, the phone call cutting abruptly.
"I fucking knew it was that fucker's fault. As long as he's alive, I'll never be free I guess," Karai mutters, her eyebrows arched in anger.
"HELL!" Mona yells, impulsively punching the wall, fat bruises forming as soon as the boards crack. She hangs her head and lets out a sob in frustration. Once again, she had finally found something good until it was ripped away from her and she couldn't do anything to defend him.
"Listen, art hoe," Karai says, "I know it's a bit hypocritical for a psycho bitch like me to be saying this, but you should really calm down. We may have our differences and you've probably wanted to sock me in the face for the past few years, but I guess this is a fight we share. I guess, maybe, that we should work together. We fight different, but we share strength, and if we join forces we have a chance at bringing the boys back. We succeed and we'll never have to talk again."
"Okay. You're right," Mona says, bringing herself to taking deep breaths. "We'll have to do this. We won't let them win."
"I can help," offers Shinigami, "I have some skills that can help me find them, and I know some healing mantras too. You may not believe in what I do, but my help is worth a shot."
"I'm coming too," April adds. "Donnie, his brothers, Casey – they're family to me. They've done so much to protect me and now it's my turn to protect them. I'm coming no matter what."
"Me too," Renet says sadly, "I have to find my best friend too."
"Alright," Karai says, "Since you three are already this deep I guess it's safest to let you come along. But that's it, alright? We aren't telling any other soul what's going on."
"I have to find a way to tell my Dad I'm okay, his heart wouldn't be able to take it if he thought something happened to me," Renet panics.
"We'll find a way to let our families know that we're safe, I'm in the same situation. But other than that Karai is right, getting anyone else involved will get them into danger," Mona says.
"How are we going to know where to find them? Are we going to trust these cards?" April points out.
"The aura they give off tells me that they have significance," Shini says. "Besides, they're our only chance at finding them. We haven't got anything else to go off of."
"What if they're a trick of some sort? They could be leading us in the opposite direction of where we need to be and wasting our time and resources so that they can get us off their backs," Renet worries.
"I guess sometimes, taking a risk is the only means possible to make it somewhere. I guess we'll have to trust them," Karai decides.
"We're going to have to come to one agreement, if we're going to become a team. No matter what, we will have to go to any measure possible to bring the boys home. We will have to do anything it takes to bring justice, no matter what it takes to do so. If you don't agree with that, now is the moment to get up and go home," Mona says.
The other girls nod in agreement.
"Okay then. For now on, no matter what kind of problems we have with each other, we are going to be a team. And we are to behave in the way that a strong team should," she continues, putting her hand into the center. "Are you with me?"
April instantly puts her hand over Mona's, followed by Renet, Shini and finally Karai.
The five girls, who didn't know each other and led five very different lives, would for now on fight as one.
"Now is the time to send your families a letter or something. After that, we have to cut off connection to everyone else," Karai says.
"We can text them a video of ourselves explaining that we are safe and gone on a mission. Then, we will have to leave our phones behind," April says.
"We have to call someone for Yoshi. We can't just leave him like this, and if we call the police. Leave our phones and split they won't be able to question us. They'll just do what they have to do with the body," Renet suggests.
"Okay. I have an old flip phone upstairs that we can take with us in case we need it," Karai advises.
"There's no one in the place I stay, no one ever. We can bounce there and figure out a plan. I'll call 911 and you guys message your families," Shini tells them.
"Renet, you go first," Mona says. "April, you go next and I'll go last. You two have anybody?" Mona asks, turning to Shini and Karai.
"I have no one," Karai states. "It's okay," Shinigami says, "I don't either."
"Alright then, Mona says, turning on the camera on her phone. "Let's do this."
"Okay. Hey daddy," Renet starts, "I know I promised I'd only be three hours but this time you're going to have to make an exception. You totally have the right to ground me when I'm back, I won't even protest. I promise that I'm safe, and I'm with people who will keep me safe too. I sadly can't tell you much, but I'm going to do something super-superheroey. My best friend is in trouble, and I'm going to save him, but right now no one needs to be saving me so don't worry at all. I won't be too long, I swear it. I love you daddy. I'll be home soon."
"Hey Dad," continues April, "You're not even home right now so you're probably gonna be discombobulated to find me not there. I swear I haven't been kidnapped, in fact it's quite the contrary. I'll be home soon, and I am as safe as I could be. I love you."
"Sal, I won't blame you if you never let me out again, but I swear I can explain. It has something to do with my past, but not in the way you would think. I am safe, just fighting my own battle, but I need you not to worry about it. I'll be home soon, I just need you to take care of the place and wait for me. I love you."
911, What's your emergency?
"There has been a murder on 1897 61st street. A middle-aged man is dead. You might want to come check it out," Shini says, hanging up and grabbing her stuff urgently.
"Come on, follow me to my place," Shini says, the girls following her to the upper window in the attic. "We'll figure out a plan over there where it's safer."
And with that, only two hours after they had all left home to have fun on a Friday night, they were off and away to embark on the biggest mission they would ever come across.