Just so you know, this whole story is illustrated on the TMNT 2012 universe. Okay! Enough blabbering! Enjoy!
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Stupid Cupid!
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Chapter 1: Catching the redhead
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It was a lovely Friday night on New York City; rivers of people invaded the avenues, happily strolling around; the city lights blazed from every skyscraper, office block, and department store around, blending harmoniously with the landscape. Perhaps, the reason why so many people still loved New York City, despite of it being plagued with delinquent gangs, constant alien's invasions, rampage mutants, evil ninja organizations, and so much more; was because the city appeared to be constantly alive, working and living, making it seem like everything was possible.
"Enough! I'm exhausted of hearing you two arguing over this!" an extremely piss off redhead yelled into her phone.
This particular New Yorker girl was the perfect example of the 'everything is possible' statement.
"Let me know when you two decide start acting your age again!" She barked closing her odd turtle shaped cellphone.
After abruptly ending the call, the blue-eyed ginger, originally called April O'Neil, resumed her path with a bad feeling in her gut and her Tessen firmly clutched in her hand.
At first sight, anyone would have believed that April was just a pretty girl with an attitude problem, and they probably would have been right. However, this moody redhead was much more than that.
She wasn't your typical 18 years old girl… well, sometimes she was. But, unlike other girls her age, April needed to add to her already busy high school senior schedule, the responsibilities of a half-human, half-alien, occasionally crime fighter, kunoichi-in-training girl.
Luckily, the ambitious redhead has always been able to successfully overcome every obstacle life decided to thrown at her. On top of that, she was a straight 'A' student, a kickass fighter, and a dutiful daughter. Although, that didn't mean April would just willingly receive any problem that came her way with a smile, fact which explained a lot her currently awful mood.
All this mess started last Friday, when she and Casey were on their way to the turtles' lair…
April has been getting a strange vibe as she walked. It was as if she was being observed. She turned her head and peered through the streets, but she found nothing. So, she just blamed it on being too tired from school, as usual. However, she didn't drop her guard; after all, master Splinter had taught her to be always alert to her surroundings.
They were just a couple of blocks away from the manhole they always used to get into the turtle's lair when, in a split of a second, she felt all her body tensing up and all her senses triggering at once.
Reacting as fast as she could, she pulled Casey by the arm and jumped to the opposite side of the sidewalk, making both of them collide against the hard pavement.
"Wow! Red, if a piece of Casey Jones is what you wanted, you only needed to ask babe. There was no need to be so rough… unless, you like it better that way" Casey smirked at their compromising position on top on each other, being completely oblivious of the situation.
After smacking Casey's head using the best Raphael's style; she got up, straightened herself, and then saw it… just on the spot she had been standing just a couple of seconds before, was now an sparkly golden arrow, laying on the ground and broken in half -probably because of the collision with the concrete- April rapidly looked around, but she didn't see anything or anyone, they were alone…
The second encounter hasn't been as 'subtle' as the first one. This time it hasn't been only one arrow coming at her, but tons on arrows, one after another, raining over her. Reason why, she was now totally sure the first time hasn't been an accident or causality, as she previously thought, someone was really going after her... again.
April didn't know who her pursuer was, and which purpose he, she or it had. The only thing she was sure about was that she has had enough of this bullshit! She was tired of being either kidnapped or attacked every time she stepped out of her house, tired of not having control over her own life, and tired of being the constant target of psychotic maniacs.
Letting out a sigh, she lifted her sight to the tall buildings surrounding the streets; she knew her mutant friends were up there, watching out for her. And of course, Casey was just a couple of blocks away as well, guarding the streets.
After that second and most aggressive attempt, just three nights ago, the turtles decided to set up a plan to stop and capture the mysterious pursuer permanently.
The plan consisted on setting a safe perimeter around April, making a square formation abode her with each turtle positioned over a different rooftop in order to cover more ground. Meanwhile, Casey would be monitoring the ground level, and April would be serving as bait in order to lure her attacker.
Reason why, they were now connected through an extremely annoying group call, because as Leo said "an effective group communication, plays a key factor in the development of a successful mission" especially on this one, since all of them were working kind of separately.
April's train of thought was suddenly interrupted as her t-phone went off in her pocket. She frowned a little at the sight of her phone's screen asking her to either answer or reject the call.
While biting her lower lip, she pondered her next course of action; she totally wasn't in the mood to listen another of Casey and Donnie's silly fights about 'who of them had failed the most to keep her safe; the one who had been together with her during both of the assaults and hadn't been able to catch the culprit, or the one who always boasted about his brilliance but still hadn't been able to find any clue about the culprit's identity'. Shell, she hated being treated like a weakling, she wasn't a frigging damsel in distress… at least not anymore.
Despite her inner conflict, she didn't want to make her friends unnecessarily worried by rejecting the call, so she opted to set aside her stubbornness for once, and take the call.
"Hello guys, It's me again…" she sourly greeted.
"April! Thank God! I was so worried! I- I mean! WE! We were so worried…all of us" Donnie stammered from his side of the line. That's right, even after two years of knowing and obviously crushing on the redhead; he still hasn't gotten rid of his overly awkward displays of affection. "Please don't disconnect from us like that again! What if something happens to you while we cannot hear you? What if that psychopath archer decides to strike in that moment?"
"Yeah Red! You cannot just leave like that! It wasn't cool!" Casey agreed from his side of the line. The hockey lover vigilante hasn't changed much over this past two years, except he was a couple of inches taller and bulkier.
April rolled her eyes "great, now they are teaming up against me" she thought. "Well, you both made me mad! And I'm already too stressed with the situation as it is guys "
"Don't worry April; I already had a serious talk with them about how they should keep their personal differences out of missions…" Leonardo's smooth but commanding voice sounded from his side of the line. Yep, he was still the fearless leader, sometimes nicknamed Splinter Jr. by his dear younger brother, Raphael.
"Thanks Leo"
" I also warned them that I would make them swallow their headsets if they didn't shut the hell up, and please don't scream like that into the phone again, I have enough headaches thanks to Mikey's new squeaky voice" Raphael's voice growled with palpable irritation. Having to hear the all the voices of their brothers yapping at the same time was really pushing him to the edge.
With the exception of April, everyone was using a headset instead of their t-phones to communicate, so they could get a better mobility in case they were suddenly attacked and for concealment purposes as well.
"Sorry, Raph…" she apologized sincerely.
"Hey! My voice is not squeaky… well, that squeaky…" Mikey protested. Apparently, the baby of the bunch had finally hit that uncomfortable stage of growing up called puberty, in which your voice starts changing, along with a couple of things more…
"Guys, please concentrate! We don't know when and where or target will show up, so we need to stay alert. Donnie, were you able to find out something more about this individual?" Leo asked.
"Not so much actually, I double checked all the security cameras that were around the both places April was assaulted at, but I wasn't able to spot anyone or anything suspicious on the recordings, meaning either this person found a perfect blind spot to hide or is invisible"
"Wait, how do you guys now it's only one person?" April asked.
"Well, I found several finger marks all over the arrows you brought me April. It took me a long time clustering all the small fragments of fingerprints that were over the arrow's shafts together, but after I did, I realized that all of them matched, meaning they belong to the same person. Unfortunately, the complete fingerprint wasn't perfect enough to provide more information about your aggressor "
"I think it's a girl, dudes!"
"Mikey!" All of them shouted.
"What!? It makes sense dudes, the arrows were all glittery and sparkly, they must belong to a girl" Mikey insisted.
Raphael snorted at his younger brother naïvetés "Not necessarily Mikey. They can also belong to a…"
"Raph!" Leo scolded.
"Oh! Guys, if the attacker ends up being a girl. I think we will be watching soon some nice catfight action!" Casey joked.
"To think I have to compete with HIM for April's attention…" Donnie muttered to himself.
Leo let out a deep sight, sometimes he wondered how the shell have they managed to survive this long "Guys, regardless of this individual's gender, we still need to intercept and stop whatever he or she is plotting… and by stopping I mean letting the suspect conscious enough so we can find out its motives Raphael…"
"Yeah, sure fearless leader count on it" At this point of the conversation nobody could tell if Raph was being serious or just sarcastic.
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Meanwhile, over the back seat of a luxurious Phantom Roll Royce…
"When's it my turn? Wouldn't I love, love to explore that shore up aboveeee?" Charlotte, aka the wacko-psychotic-archer, was singing.
"Out of the sea…" Jose, her butler, continued using a surprisingly good soprano's voice.
It seemed like, the little lady and her faithful butler, have been stuck to long in the awful city traffic. So, like all people who are bored inside a car do, they were now singing animated movie soundtracks.
"Wish I could be…" Charlotte sobbed, with both hands pressed against her chest.
"Part of that woooorld" both of them finished the song with their arms up in the air, as if trying to grasp something invisible abode them.
Yep. This is what happens when a preppy teenager and a grow Latino man spent such an unhealthy quantity of time together: they memorize the entire soundtrack of the little mermaid, including the gestures.
"Awww… we are getting better at duets Jose" Charlotte admitted, relaxing against the backrest of her seat.
"Indeed, Miss Charlotte" Jose nodded from the driver's seat.
It's been a whole month since Charlotte's bizarre encounter with Cupid, the all-powerful and totally uncute god of love, and lets juts said that working as his replacement hasn't been as bad as she originally thought it would be…It has been worse.
Not even in her wildest dreams, could have she ever imagined that the stupid-sounding-job of shooting arrows at people to make them "fall in love" would turn up to being so demanding.
Thankfully, the little miss could always count with her multitasking Brooklyn-raised butler to help her.
"Oh! Look at the time Jose" the little lady sounded excited for some reason "it's already past 11pm and I still haven't transformed…" she said while blocking Jose's view with her wrists watch.
"Miss Charlotte, I can't see the road."
"We are practically parked anyway" she shrugged "But, don't you think is strange, Jose? Usually by this time I already have changed into Cupid mode… Do you think that maybe, just maybe, he has finally lifted my punish…EEK!"
Charlotte was just in the middle of her sentence when, out of the sudden, a white and sparkly light came out of nowhere and enveloped her whole body.
"Forget it…" she frowned; as usual her little fluffy wings flapped around and tossed feathers all over her seat.
"Really… I wonder if someday I will get used to your sudden changes of appearance, Miss Charlotte. "
"I think I will never get used to it myself, Jose" She pouted and started inspecting her new cotton candy colored hair, and pink punch colored skin "How much longer do you think we will be trapped here?"
"I'm not sure miss, the traffic it's always bad in this part of the city, especially at this hour" Jose said while tapping his fingers against the car's steering wheel "I don't understand why you keep asking to come to this side of the city Miss Charlotte, we could have gone to a place nearer to home"
"Mmmh no reason… I just… like working over this part on the city… I'm able to spot a lot of couples around here and… stuff" she lied, fidgeting nervously on her seat.
Jose raised an eyebrow, obviously unconvinced "Don't tell me you're still looking for that redhead girl?" He asked incredulously.
After twelve years of being at her mistress service, he more than anyone knew how creepily obsessive Charlotte could behave sometimes, but for him this jumped the bar of ridiculousness.
"Eh? Who are you talking about, Jose?" she pretended ignorance while inspecting her nails.
"You know, that redhead girl you tried shooting at last Friday… very pretty, with freckles, always moody, dogged all your shots with the reflex of a cat"
Charlotte's body tensed at the mention of her failed shots, missing that many times had really hurt her archer's pride. Of course, she would never admit that aloud.
"Tsk…I already got over that girl…" she retorted crankily, crossing her arms over her chest "I have better things to worry about, you know? Humph… still chasing after a random girl… that's crazy! Ha ha ha" she laughed robotically while averting her eyes from Jose's judging ones.
"You have spent a whole week persecuting that poor girl; it's obvious that she doesn't need anything from you. Just move on, and find someone else who genuinely requires your help."
"But Jose! I already bumped two times with her! And by almost total coincidence! You know how difficult is to bump two times with the same person in such a big city?! It must be destiny! MY DESTINY! I- I mean! Her destiny to be shot"
Jose just sighed and shook his head in disbelief. Out of all his little mistress' odd and pointless hobbies, this new cupid job of hers was, without a doubt, the worst of them all.
After knowing she wasn't going to get Jose's approval about this, Charlotte let out a frustrated groan. It was just too hard to explain, even to her super comprehensive butler, how much hitting that slippery redhead meant to her.
"Hey Jose… Can I ask you something?"
"Of course Miss Charlotte" he replied calmly, in spite of being a little bit startled by the sudden serious tone of his mistress.
"Have you ever been in love? But I mean for REAL! I'm talking about real love! Like the one you seen on movies and read about in books, everlasting, passionate an irrational"
"hahaha, of course I have been in love before Miss Charlotte. It wasn't everlasting, but it has been the realest kind of love I had ever felt"
"Tell me about it!" she urged excitedly, and for a minute Jose could have swear he saw stars coming out of her eyes.
"Well, I meet her in one of my cousin's a parties. I remember thinking 'Oh my God! This is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen' the first time she crossed in front of me" his expression turned blissful as he narrated.
"And that was it? That sounds kind of shallow, don't you think?"
"Of course her appearance was the first thing that made me like her, but as I always said 'Beauty attracts the eye, but personality captures the heart' and she truly has been the most amazing girl I had ever met; she was kind, smart, funny, and charmingly stubborn."
"Wow… that sounds amazing" she gasped in awe, the sparklers returning to her eyes.
"Yes, Carolina was really one of a kind…" Jose said dreamily.
"Carolina…" She repeated, trying to picture in her mind the woman that had stolen the heart of her butler; but then a heavy realization hit her "HEY! Wait a minute… wasn't Angela your ex-wife's name?
" ha ha ha! Did you think I was talking about Angela? Sebastian's mother?" he laughed as if such statement was the most hilarious and absurdist thing in the world. "Of course I wasn't talking about her."
Charlotte's mouth felt half open "B-But! You married her! And you even had a child with her! Why isn't she the love of your life?"
"Oh Miss Charlotte, I was too young and naive at that time… as well as stupid enough to have unprotected intercourse, that's why I married her."
That sentence fell upon Charlotte as cold as an ice bucket challenge "I cannot believe it! So what happened with Carolina? Why didn't you marry her?"
"Umhh… I don't think it's wise to keep this conversation going, why don't we listen to what's on the radio? I wish to hear the traffic report" Her butler suddenly suggested, turning on the radio.
"Don't dare to try changing the subject!"
"You are too young to talk about these topics; we can talk about this again maybe in about… 20 years for now"
"I knew it! True love doesn't exist! It's only a mass media's invention to make people act like imbeciles!" She whined while hitting her head against her seat's window.
"Geez Miss Charlotte, you are only 17 years old, you cannot think so cynically, especially if you want to find a nice boyfriend."
"Argh" She growled, after such a heartbreaking story that was the last thing she wanted to hear.
"Oh! come on, Miss Charlotte, cheer up a little bit " he coed in an attempt to console his very distressed mistress, as well because Charlotte's frustrated expressions were only funny until a certain point. "Love can come in many shapes; romance is only one of them. And you know what else? Even though I think of my ex-wife as the helper of the anti- Christ, I still feel love for her in some sort of way; after all, she gave me my most precious treasure, my son Sebastian"
Charlotte opened her mouth ready to make an extremely sassy and smart retort. However, because the topic of Sebastian was suddenly brought to the table, the only sentence she could managed to come with was "It's true… Sebastian's amazing" she babbled, totally forgetting about her previous existentialist crisis "When is he coming back from Japan? I thought it was supposed to be only a short business trip, but it's been three weeks already. My dad is exploiting him, exploiting him I tell you!"
"I'm not sure miss, but the last time we skyped he sounded very excited about a new project they were working on over there, it seems like your father has really taken him under his wing, and you know how much he admires and respects your father"
"Aww… I think you are thousands of times better than my father Jose… even if you are a shameless womanizer" the little miss said sweetly.
"Oh Miss Charlotte, forget about Carolina, you are my one true love"
"Gezzz, you old flirt!"
"hahahaha, Miss Charlotte what about stopping for some ice cream after you finish your work, I know about a nice 24 hours ice cream parlor that serves a really good gluten free ice cream…"Jose asked cheerfully, lowering the volume of the radio "Miss?" he repeated after not hearing any answer from little mistress "MISS CHARLOTTE…!" he yelled after turning his head and not seeing the young lady on the backseat.
Unfastening his seat belt in less than a second, Jose jumped out of the car.
"MISS CHARLOTTE!?" he screamed between the loud sounds of honks coming from the cars trapped in the traffic, and the strident sound of the multitude, crossing the street and walking between the cars.
There wasn't any sign of Charlotte.
"MIERDA" he kicked his car tire. He didn't know when or how she did it, but Charlotte had just ran away alone…AGAIN!
To be continued...
