I really need to get into the habit of updating this more. I've just been so busy getting a head start on 2 other stories I'm publishing after this one!
And If you have an idea for a prank that April, Leo, Mikey, Raph, Donnie, Splinter, or even Spike can pull, you can tell it to me and I might consider putting it in! I especially need pranks for Spike! Also, reviews are welcome!
The chapter below has two sections, each with a different prank attempt. I might do this more to minimize the chapter count but still have a good amount of practical jokes pulled. The best pranks will still get a chapter all to themselves.
All was silent in the Lair. Donatello had been in his lab for the last thirty minutes. Michelangelo and Raphael were watching television (or really, pretending to as they were planning pranks in their heads). Splinter had told his sons he was "cleaning the dojo" and that no one should disturb him or they should suffer his wrath, even though the dojo was still clean from when he fixed it up two weeks ago. And he had suspiciously locked the dojo door. Obviously, he was setting up a big prank there, as everyone had already figured out. So the turtles and April were planning to sluff the next training session and spend the hour when they should be in the dojo, instead in the farthest sewer tunnel so Splinter couldn't find them.
April, who had been feeling sorry for Leonardo not being able to accomplish or avoid any pranks, had decided to give him some pointers. They sat at the kitchen table, April casually reeling of tips and Leonardo writing them all down furiously. The tips included: "Never tell anyone you're pulling a prank on someone else, they'll rat you out," and "Avoid using water balloons. That's Michelangelo's thing. If you do, he'll most likely get revenge on you with a vicious, water balloon-oriented prank." Though, she didn't tell him anything that would help him avoid her unique pranks.
There was a shout from Michelangelo. April and Leonardo turned to see what had happened. Apparently, Raphael had pounced on his orange-banded brother and now had him in a choke hold. "Never call me a bloated buffalo again? You hear me?" he threatened.
"No promises, Raphie!" Michelangelo wheezed. The choke hold got tighter and Michelangelo tried to pry his brother's fingers off.
Leonardo and April rushed over to help separate the two brothers, and just as they had tugged a furious Raphael's hands off Michelangelo's neck, there was an earsplitting scream from Donatello's lab, soon muffled by a loud clank of metal.
After the noise died down, Leonardo exchanged a glance with Michelangelo, who in turn exchanged one with April. She glanced at Raphael, but he didn't make eye contact. Instead he huffed,"Are we going to just stare at eachother or are we going to go see what happened?"
"Good idea!" Leonardo said, gaining his senses. He lead the group to the door of Donatello's lab. After turning the handle, he groaned. "It's locked!"
"Here, I'll break the door down!" Raphael said, stepping forward. Before he could even attempt it, though, there was a shout from inside the room.
"No, no, don't come in!" Donatello shouted.
"Why?" Michelangelo yelled back, pressing his ear to the door. "Did something embarrassing happen? Did an experiment blow up in your face and torch your mask off?"
There was a long, awkward silence in which no one, not even Donatello, spoke. Finally, when Raphael was preparing to break the door down once again, the purple-masked turtle screamed from inside the lab,"NO, MIKEY! Why in the world would you think that happened? ...I just don't want you to see the horror!"
"Horror? What horror?" Raphael perked up, still holding his foot in the air like he was about to kick the door down any second.
"One of my prototype rays backfired on me!"
"Then what happened?" asked Leonardo worriedly, rushing up and jiggling the door knob.
"I'm not telling you! I don't want you to have the terrible image in your head. Don't come in, really, I can handle it myself!" There was another clang of metal.
April, standing in the back of the pack, rolled her eyes. "I'm not falling for it, Donnie!"
There was another sound of clanging metal in the lab, as if Donatello was surprised that April was in the vicinity. "Falling for what, April? I'm really very hurt. Just don't come in! I don't want you to see the horror, princess-APRIL! I didn't just call you a princess! Nope!...Unless you wanted me to. Did you? Then I'll definetely-"
"No, no, just call me April," she replied, backing away from the door a little bit.
Donatello plowed on. "Oh, okay, prin-April! Sorry-"
"Donnie, stop talking! We'll be in there in no time!" Leonardo shouted.
Raphael muttered,"Even when Donnie's in pain, he still makes a perfect fool out of himself." He pushed Michelangelo out of the way and prepared to kick down the door once again.
There was muttering inside the lab, and all the turtles instantly pressed their ears to the door to hear it. "...I can see the light! Miwa...is that you?"
"DON'T GO INTO THE LIGHT, DONNIE!" Michelangelo and Leonardo screamed together, the blue-banded turtle jiggling the door knob almost enough to snap it off.
"That's it! I'm in!" Raphael, with a burst of superhuman strength that people sometimes get during extreme situations (or maybe it was just his normal strengh), backed up and rammed into the door. With a satisfying thunk, it hit the ground and Raphael tumbled into the lab. The others walked over the broken door. Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael gaped at what they saw, but April sighed and helped Raphael to his feet.
Donatello, it turned out, was not harmed, disabled, disfigured, altered, or in any way different than normal. He was leaning against one of his tables, T-phone in hand like he had just been playing a game on it when his brothers and April had come in. "Oh, hello, everyone! April, could you move to the left about three feet, please?"
April raised her eyebrows, surprised, but did as she was told. The three pranked turtles were still figuring out what was happening (they're minds were still in "Donnie's dying! Panic!" mode) and stayed in the doorway.
Donatello stood up, saying,"Okay, guys, I have two words for you: April Fools!" He pressed a button on a remote that was lying on a table. Instantly, about fifty ninja smoke bombs reigned down around Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo and exploded into thick, purple smoke. Before Michelangelo could register what was going on, he screamed,"Ahh! Fire! Evacuate!" and tripped over the fallen door, pulling Raphael down with him on accident.
By then most of the smoke had cleared and Donatello snapped a picture of them with his T-phone. "Haha! Look at your faces! Mikey, that's priceless!"
Raphael was readjusted his mask that Michelangelo had grabbed as he had been falling. "Donnie. Never. Do. That. Again." He stomped away through the doorless doorway.
April, who had been about a foot away from the whole event, chuckled as she pulled the Prank War Scoresheet from her pocket and made a mark in Donatello's box. "Good one, Donnie! I saw it coming the whole time, but still, it was good!"
"Aww, thanks, April!" Donatello visibly blushed.
Leonardo looked furious that he had once again been pranked. "I'm out of here! Come on, Mikey. Let's leave April and Donnie to their mush fest."
"Mush fest? What?" April asked. "Hey, wait for me, Leo!"
Before Michelangelo left the room, he gave Donatello a thumb's up. "Now that was a master prank! You even had me fooled! But no way can you prank me again!"
"Gee, thanks. Praise from the Prank King," Donatello said. As his brother rushed out the room, the purple-masked turtle added under his breath,"I can totally prank you again. Mind over waterballoons!"
"Ooh, don't go in that door!" Michelangelo exclaimed. He stuffed a large handful of popcorn into his mouth and scooted closer to the television screen. The action music in his horror movie ramped up and suddenly there was an earsplitting scream. Michelangelo closed his eyes until he could tell the scary part was over. "Told ya."
Raphael was sitting on the musty old bean bag chair nearby, feeding lettuce to his pet turtle, Spike. He was still heated over being pranked by Donatello moments ago and decided to take some of his anger out on his orange-banded brother. "Mikey, why do you even watch horror movies if you're just going to close your eyes? It takes the point out of it!"
Michelangelo glared at his brother. "Remind me to tell you that the next time we watch 'Spider Army'. You close your eyes every time, practically for the whole movie! And I could count on my two hands the number of scary deaths in that film!"
Raphael rolled his eyes. "I doubt you could...Anyways, I only close my eyes because Spike does. I don't want him to be embarrassed that he's the only one scarred when we watch it."
"I swear, you just carry Spike around just so you can use him in your lame excuses."
Raphael was about to retort, but Michelangelo shhed him. "Quiet! The four heroes are about to save the city from a giant rampaging freak of nature!"
Gee, that scenario's awfully familiar, thought Raphael. Then it hit him that the insults that Raphael could form out of that one sentence Michelangelo had said were practically infinite. He was caught between saying "Gee, Mikey, lemme guess. Is the giant freak of nature you?" or the slightly similar "Mikey, you made a mistake. The movie is at a calm part and you are only seeing your reflection on the screen and thinking it's the monster".
Raphael did not have the chance to say either of them, however, because he was suddenly distracted. His brother Leonardo had just appeared next to him. Once again, Raphael had no chance to talk, as Leonardo quietly shhed him.
As Leonardo silently snuck closer to Michelangelo, Raphael finally grapsed what his brother was doing. Leonardo was trying to pull a prank! Leonardo pranks never ended well for the blue-masked turtle, yet he did get an"A" for effort.
Leonardo chuckled to himself, and quickly jumped into the shadows when Michelangelo turned around to see if something was behind him. When it was safe again, Leonardo sprang out of the darkness and pulled out his T-phone. He crouched directly behind his brother, quiet as a mouse.
This is so going to scare him! Leonardo cheered inside his head. He clicked on something and began to type in a phone number.
Raphael, over in the corner, had already figured out Leonardo's plan. So predictable! Another classic Leo failure, he thought. He's calling himself and thinking Mikey will get startled by the sudden ringing of the phone! So lame!
Leonardo looked as happy as a kid on Christmas morning. He punched the last number into the phone and pressed the call button. Then he pressed his hands over his ears and waited...and waited...and waited. Nothing happened. He pressed "call" again. Still nothing.
Soon he was practically slapping the "call" button and muttering some very choice words under his breath. "...These tiny buttons! Why did Donnie have to make them this size? Our fingers are huge!"
While Leonardo was so busy with his cell phone, he didn't notice Michelangelo turn around and watch him, snickering silently.
The Christmas-kid smile had gone from Leonardo's face, replaced with an expression similiar to Raphael's "I'm going to kill you!" face. Angrily, he hit the "call" button once more, and suddenly he dropped the phone, startled that it suddenly decided to work. "GAH!"
Within seconds, Raphael and Michelangelo were laughing so hysterically they could hardly even talk. "Prank..prank's on you!" Michelangelo stuttered. Donatello, hearing all the rucous, came out of his lab, and practically had a heart attack when he saw a cracked T-phone on the floor, blasting a techno song that sounded very similiar to the theme of a certain 1987 cartoon*. Before anyone could even blink, he was right in front of Leonardo, lecturing him on the proper care of his phone, and blah, blah, blah.
Leonardo began to stomp away, and Raphael called out to him,"Hey! It wasn't a very good prank anyway! We'd still be laughing at you even if it worked!"
(Scoreboard: Donnie: 4 Splinter: 2 April: 2 Mikey: 4 Raph: 2 Leo: 0 Spike: 0)
*The turtles' ring tones on their T-phone is usually a techno version of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme. And sorry I'm making Leonardo so terrible at pranks. Not everyone can be a master!
