me: hello readers! Sorry this new chapter took so long (and in fact, i'm not even sure if it's that good), but here it is! I blame my lack of social skills for this one...
May 3rd… 7:46pm… New York City… April's Apartment and Antique Shop…
Being alone in an Antique shop had definitely given April cause for concern for her own safety, her Aunt had promised her that she wouldn't be long when she said she had to leave for little while to arrange some business deals for the shop. Although that was only an hour ago, April wondered when her business deals were going to be finished. She got her answer when her Aunt called her via the home phone to apologise for taking too long and to announce that she may be stuck doing the deals until late. After that phone call, April made one of her own to call for some reinforcements.
8:19pm…
Thanks to Donnie's tinkering with gadgets, he learned how to create a homemade cell phone earlier on in the day and when he announced it to his family, he proudly called the 'T-Phone'. Much to Mikey's chagrin who said he would've called the 'Shell Cell'. But it was Donnie's invention so he felt the need to name it first. Anyhow, it was this invention that Donnie felt the need to visit April earlier than usual (6:30pm to be precise) to trade phone numbers (eagerly). He was of course accompanied by his brothers at this time and was still accompanied by them on a random rooftop when April called him for the first time and inadvertently caused him to be gobsmacked that she called so soon. When she asked for help, the turtles responded and on the way to April's temporary home, they spotted Casey looking for trouble and decided to stop him from whatever fight he was looking for and invite him along to meet their other human friend.
*Ding-Dong*
The sound of the shop's backdoor bell ringing brought some relief to April as she was not alone and that her bad-guy fighting mutant friends were here. Her relief was all but cemented when he she opened the door and saw Donnie on the other side.
"Hey, you guys!" April said, glad that her call was answered,
"Hey, April!" Donnie just stood there outside the door, smiling goofily, waving slowly and after those two words, he suddenly couldn't find anymore.
"Would you… like to come in?" April suddenly asked and rather than wait for Donnie embarrass himself in front of her (even though it would have funny), Raph simply pushed him forward and inside,
"Come on, Donnie, before you take until midnight to get inside!" Raph said as he was pushing Donnie inside, and a second later, Mikey and Leo also entered behind them. Leo then thanked April and then said,
"April, I hope you don't mind but, we also brought along a friend." Leo then used his thumb to point to the door and when Casey stepped in and saw April, the two couldn't believe their eyes.
"April?"
"Casey?"
To find out that the two humans somehow knew each other was a bit surprising for the four turtles who just stared at the two, as the two humans also stared at each other. Seconds ticked by and wanting to break the tension, Casey suddenly broke eye contact with April and walked further into the shop and then April shut the door.
"So… er… nice place you got here, Red." Even though he just called her 'Red'. Donnie knew that although they somehow knew each other, Casey had somehow was on a nickname basis with her, and that ignited the feeling of jealousy inside him.
"It's my Aunt's, and don't call me 'Red' either!" April then realised why he was here; he was with the turtles. "But… that's besides the point. How do you guys know each other?" April asked which made Casey slightly downcast, but not so much that he wouldn't be able to tell his tale.
"It's a bit of a roller coaster ride, Red." Casey said as he looked down, and the turtles looked towards each other as they knew his story. April saw all five of their reactions and decided to lighten the mood.
"Well… maybe you can tell it over pizza?" April said and Mikey beamed at the idea,
"Good idea! Pizza's good comfort food after all" Mikey said as he smiled from ear to ear,
"Mikey, you would eat pizza at the drop of a hat!" Donnie said but then Mikey just looked confused,
"But we don't wear hats." This just caused Donnie to facepalm and April just managed to stifle a laugh but it also helped Casey lighten up a little,
"Ya know… pizza does sound good… I say let's do it." Casey said,
"Great, I'll call for a delivery, and we can wait for it upstairs. You guys can make yourselves at home!" April said as she brought out her cell phone,
"Are you sure that's alright April?" Leo asked and before April hit the dial button on her phone, she answered Leo,
"Yeah, of course it is. My Aunt says that since my Dad's disappearance, I need to socialise a bit so that I don't start obsessing over it." April said and she was right; socialising would help in the long run and taking this as a good answer, the other five then walked from the Antique shop to the apartment upstairs.
When they exited the shop to the flight of stairs, and therefore leaving behind a bit of sad tension, Donnie felt the need to ask something that was going to be asked eventually,
"So… you and April know each other." He said which also peeked the interests of his three brothers. But it didn't stop the five of them from walking up the stairs
"Yeah… before it all… went to hell on me… April and I went to the same school. Roosevelt High. But we barely knew each other, we hung out for lunchbreak once, and well, that was it." Although it sounded legit to Leo, he still noticed something,
"And yet you feel the need to call her 'Red'?" at this, the feeling of jealousy rose up again within Donnie but Casey just chuckled at Leo's question,
"Well, she didn't like me calling her 'babe'!" it was safe to assume that Donnie's skin colour went from green to red. And they called Raph a hot-head. Leo and Raph then surmised that Casey was and maybe still is flirty around girls, and before Donnie blew up at him, the five boys found themselves in front of the upstairs door and opening it to enter April's temporary home.
The apartment had a very lived in feel to it, like many a home it had a couch up against a wall and had a reasonably sized table with another living room chair next to it and a TV on another smaller table on the opposite wall, the surrounding windows had red curtains as cover, and just a few steps away from the small living area, there was also a kitchen counter, with everything any other person would find in a kitchen; sink, fridge, oven, cabinets of food and drink. And across from the kitchen there were two doors, one that led to the guest room that April was using and the other door led to her Aunt's room.
The boys had entered through a door that stood next to the couch, and April did say to 'make themselves at home', so they did. When April entered the room, she saw that Casey and Raph were sitting on the couch and chuckling, something about Donnie's chances with something, Mikey was sat on the other chair, looking fully relaxed, Leo was leaning on the kitchen counter with Donnie next to him, and Leo was trying to listen to whatever it was Donnie was saying but all he could hear was scientific jibber-jabber. It would have a very normal scene, if four of her friends weren't giant green humanoid turtles.
"Okay, guys. I've just ordered two pizzas for delivery." April said as she walked in and Mikey grinned at the mention of two pizzas,
"Sweet! Two pizzas! You da best, April!" Mikey announced and April got the meaning behind Mikey's mentioning of two pizzas,
"One pizza for half the people in here, Mikey. In other words, for three people each." April said almost nonchalantly but inwardly chuckled at the mental image of barfing down two large pizzas.
"And also, you're not gonna scoff down one whole pizza just because ya can! I swear, if you do that, I'll beat the green of ya!" Raph announced whilst shaking his fist at Mikey to emphasise his point.
"How many times has he done that?" Casey asked and when Donnie answered him, his face was a mix between amusement and disgust,
"Since we discovered pizza, he's done that twice. I still don't know how he is able to stomach an entire pizza…" Donnie said and he was right, most human beings can't handle eating one entire pizza by themselves and usually keep the rest in a ridge as leftovers, but not Mikey. Perhaps it was just another part of being a humanoid turtle. Or as Raph pointed out,
"Maybe it's cuz his stomach is actually a black hole!" Mikey took mock offense to this,
"Hey! My stomach is not a black hole. My stomach is awesome!" Mikey said as he stood up from the chair and patted is stomach, to which April held back a small laugh and the others just grinned and smiled.
It was moments like this that despite the obvious differences between the four turtles and the two humans, all six in the room were still kids. Teenagers that can spend moments like this together.
8:35pm…
*Ding-Dong*
It didn't take too long for the sound of the doorbell to interrupt the friendly bantering, but when it did, Mikey almost jumped through the ceiling with excitement that (in his mind) the most delicious food on the planet had arrived. When April collected the pizzas, and paid the delivery boy and returned to the upstairs apartment, she was greeted by the amusing sight of Mikey being held back by Raph and Leo (both of whom were struggling) with his own kusarigama chain, and Mikey vibrating intensely like at any moment, he would launch off at the food like a rocket. The sight made Donnie sweat-drop and Casey tried to keep from laughing.
"So, is this how Mikey is around pizza?" Casey asked when he stopped giggling,
"He is around pizza, and it has been a while since the last time we ate pizza." Donnie answered and judging by the way Mikey was giving Leo and Raph a hard time and with pizza in his sights, April and Casey wondered what would happen if the hyperactive turtles got loose… pizza disaster probably.
"Alright, Mikey. You know what the idea is, right? You SHARE with two of your brothers." April said and seeing that Mikey had only stopped vibrating ever so slightly, she increased the ante, "Or you get no pizza at all!" those words made Mikey stop dead in his tracks before he made them. The thought of not having pizza when it was right in front of him whilst everyone else ate them, filled Mikey with a sense of comical dread. And when that happened, Leo and Raph loosened the chains as he was no longer trying to go for the pizzas.
"NO! NO, YOU CAN'T! I'll be good! I swear!" at this he was practically on his knees and begging for it not to happen. The sight of which made everybody sweat-drop minus Raph. And yet despite this, April put on a smile for Mikey,
"That's good. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Now then, without further ado… let's eat!" April announced and Mikey responded with a very loud "BOOYAKASHA!". One of the pizzas was shared between Leo, Raph and Mikey whilst the other was shared between Donnie, Casey and April. Whilst they ate, April felt the need to bring up a previous topic regarding Casey,
"So… we agreed Casey. Now that the pizza is here, you said you would talk about how you guys met." April said but even though Casey agreed that he talk over pizza, he was still pretty much uncomfortable with it. But he was a man of his word, and after a few seconds of silence (minus the sounds of chewing), Casey made the first sentence,
"Well, it's kind of a wild story, Red." When Casey said this, April made the link that whatever meeting with the turtles was going to be a wild one. Hers first meeting was no exception. "I'm pretty sure you've heard of a fire at a local sports shop?" when Casey asked and April nodded her head in agreement,
"Yeah… I heard about that. Not through the news but from word of mouth. Why?" Casey looked down toward the floor, avoiding eye contact,
"That was my home." April gasped when those words left Casey's mouth, "A group of Purple Dragons did more than that… they… my… Dad, he…" April got the general idea when Casey was struggling with his words,
"Oh! Oh, Casey… I'm so sorry…" April felt for him. Her father was kidnapped by aliens but there a glimmer of hope for her to be reunited with him, she dreaded what would happen if her father wound up dead. The other turtles looked a little sad at hearing this again,
"After that, child services tried to put me in an orphanage. But… I couldn't let that happen." April got the meaning of this and looked a little forlorn,
"You ran away?" April said and Casey nodded in agreement,
"So now I'm homeless. A homeless person with a lot of… issues with the Purple Dragons. And that's how we met. I was in the middle of bashing in the heads of some scumbags, when Raph here thought to get in on the action." April was saddened to hear that someone she knew (if only a little) had become a homeless person but her face then took a look of a sudden realisation at the other part of Casey's story,
"Wait… YOU'RE the vigilante that's all over the news!?" April said as she pointed towards Casey, who then responded with a peace hand sign and grinned at April. "So Raph helped you take out some thugs?" April expected some sort of a yes but Casey's response made her a bit deadpan.
"Actually, Raph decided he wanted to fight me instead!" it was then that Mikey chimed in with a teasing tone in his voice,
"Yeah, dude! He made like ten mistakes then!" Raph glared at Mikey for this,
"I did not!" Raph said but it was Leo who supported Mikey's claim,
"He's not wrong, Raph." Leo said and Raph glared at the two of them while Mikey chuckled,
"Dudes! You should have seen what Master Splinter did to Raph as punishment! You could've farted in his face and he wouldn't have been allowed to move!" Mikey all but laughed when he finished and it caused Leo and Donnie to lightly chuckle at the statement, and seeing as he wasn't joking per se, Casey and April also joined in chuckling, but then Casey continued once he stopped laughing,
"Long story short, I didn't win. And the next time we saw each other was when I was laying the smack-down on some more thugs. We fought again… and… I… lost again." Casey was reluctant to admit that he lost twice but April encouraged him to continue, "And then after that, we got ambushed by like a dozen of thugs! And we totally teamed up and beat them all black and blue! It was awesome!" April thought that Casey's description of the story was a little lacklustre, but she also got the gist of their first meeting.
"Wow, that's sounds like a very exciting first meeting." April said but was taken aback when Casey grinned towards her,
"It gets even more exciting from there, Red! Cause after that, on our way home, we ran into some aliens!" although Casey was excited as he announced their encounter, April looked to the turtles in confirmation,
"He's right, April. In fact, there the same aliens that took your Dad." Leo said in confirmation and April was stunned upon hearing this, and Casey looked towards April also feeling a little stunned when he heard 'same aliens',
"Really, Red? You've encountered those aliens before?" Casey asked,
"Yeah, these guys saved me from them once before but… they couldn't save my Dad… he's still out there…" when April said this, Casey couldn't help but feel supportive. He had already lost his Dad to violence but if there was a chance that he might've survived, Casey would do anything to save him.
"You know, that reminds me, April." Donnie suddenly said which brought April's attention to him, "We've learned a little bit more about those aliens. For starters, we overheard those aliens talking to one another and they were calling themselves 'Kraang'." When Donnie finished talking, April repeated the name of the aliens,
"The Kraang…" she mumbled. She would now never forget the name of the aliens that caused her a fair share of her torment.
"We also saw what their Mutagen can do to a person first hand." Donnie said,
"Yeah, it was like… totally weird. I still say that one guy would've turned into a snake!" when Mikey said this, his three brothers just groaned,
"Mikey, we've been over this. Just because that guy's name was Snake doesn't he was actually going to turn into one." Leo said and Mikey's response made everyone deadpan,
"You know, you're just like Raph, Leo. Neither of you understand science!" Mikey's statement was followed by several seconds of stunned silence,
"…anyway…" Donnie said to broke the ice and brought everyone back to earth, "For whatever reason, the Mutagen altered their appearances, not like our own where we just got bigger. It looked as though it altered their DNA. As to why they mutated into a weed and a spider, I don't know." Donnie said and although April took Donnie's description more seriously, it also made her very unnerved to hear what the Kraang's ooze can do to a person. But she didn't have time to be unnerved as Casey picked up on the story,
"More than that, Donnie. They turned on us when we were trying to rescue them. And even though we won, one of them still tried to drop part of the building on us. But of course, that didn't work. And now here we are!" Casey finished the story in rather lacklustre way but April didn't hold it against him.
"So, Red." Casey then said, "These guys saved from those aliens as well then…" Casey said and then on cue, April gave her side of the story,
"Yeah, so, me and my Dad were on our way home when we were ambushed by the Kraang. I screamed, we made noises, but no-one was around. Save for you guys." April said as she pointed towards the turtles, "I still don't understand how no-one heard us all out in the open like that…" now that April said it, the four brothers could open and close their mouths as they tried to come up with an explanation but couldn't. No matter how many times they replayed the events in their heads, they always came to the same outcome; there was no attention gained.
"Well anyway… it wasn't a very good first attempt at a rescue, you know?" April said as they pondered how they didn't attract attention, which peeked Casey's interest,
"Really? How so?" Casey's question was answered by a highly amused Raph,
"Well, we weren't really a good team then, so we ended up hitting each other instead of the Kraang, getting in each other's way, trying to kill each other instead of the Kraang and April screamed at Donnie's horrifying face!" Casey looked at Raph waiting for some kind of punchline but after a few seconds of not getting a punchline, Casey looked towards April, then Raph and once again between the two before he burst out laughing at the scene. Raph laughed with him, and although Mikey didn't really find it too funny, he got caught up in the laughter and joined in. Leo and April weren't laughing however for different reasons of their own (April was trying to hide a blush of embarrassment) and Donnie wasn't laughing for obvious reasons. It was moments like this that made April wish it would last forever. But like all good things, it must come to end at some point.
9:29pm…
*RING RING*
For kids like April and Casey, moments like these would be pretty common. Sharing pizza, laughs and moments together. However, for mutant teenagers like the four turtles, moments like these would most likely be rare and so, they treasured this moment right up to the point when April's home phone rang. April answered the phone and of course it was her Aunt telling that she finally got things sorted out and that she was on her way home. The moment between the six teenagers was nice while it lasted and maybe they will have more? Who knows.
"Was that your Aunt, April?" Leo asked and when she nodded in confirmation everyone in the room knew that it would be time to call it a night. They had a pleasant night so no-one was complaining about it.
"She's on her way home now, so I guess this means that… you guys will have to leave now." April said. Donnie and Mikey wanted to protest a bit (Mikey wanted more pizza), while Leo, Raph and Casey were already prepared to leave from April's room and outside balcony. But within a moment, all five boys were on the balcony and exchanging 'goodbyes' and 'see ya soons' before jumping onto the roof and racing off into the night.
For the turtles, moments like the one they had with their human friends would be with them forever, especially since it was their first one and they hoped that when they got home, they would have more moments like that in the future. Given the lives they were currently living, they would have to be strong enough to see it through, which they will no doubt make sure of.
me: hey there! just a little bonding session between the teens. this may seem pointless to a lot of people, and it may seem like useless fluff to a lot, but I felt like not putting the characters through only dangerous situations. In others words, I did this to help lighten the mood a little since i felt that the previous chapters were lacking a little in terms of lighthearted moments. But that's what i felt anyway. Anyway, in this next chapter we see the debut of Bradford. See you then!