Never Thought It Was Better Than It Seemed Chapter 2, a ninja turtles fanfic

Here's the second chapter! I tried to make it as good as I could (rhyme).

Disclaimer: Can I have Donnie…PAAALLLLEEEEAAAASSSSE?

Chap. 2

"Alright, I've had enough of this," Fong growled as he dug around in his pocket, trying to find his prized weapon. Knife? No, not that- Ah ha!

He cautiously pulled out a small revolver gun, his forefinger already having a loose grip on the trigger. He aimed it straight at the redheaded girl, who this time was standing still, watching the purple banded turtle bash at Tsoi with the end of his bo.

Fong shut one eye tight so he could get a perfect target on April. His evil grin was coated with malice.

Let's see the turtle make it out with his little girlfriend dead, he thought, Say goodnight, girlie.

Donnie released his grip on the now unconscious Tsoi. He turned to the remaining Purple Dragon, and his heart almost stopped. Fong held a gun in his hands, and it only took Donnie two milliseconds to find out where the bullet's trajectory was headed towards…..April!

And with that, the Purple Dragon pulled the trigger, and the bullet went flying.

"APRIL! NO!" Donnie ran straight to her, his pace faster than a cheetah's.

April stood helplessly as everything seemed to go in slow motion. She heard the sound of a gun go off, then someone shout her name. Although, she was too stunned to register everything that happened. Her eyes could practically trace the bullet that was rocketing towards her heart….

She closed her eyes, waiting for her body to hit the floor with red all over. But it never came.

Her body did hit the floor, but in different way. Something hard slammed into her side, and she was sent flying through the air and had landed on her back. Besides the pain in her rear, she felt nothing else: no bodily fluid racing out of her, no firy metal injected in her body, no open bullet hole-nothing. She reluctantly opened her eyes.

A big green lump was lying on his front at her feet. It didn't take her long to find out it was Donnie. Something else occurred to her: He risked his life to save her. They were both saved from getting shot, because of him.

"Donnie!" She exclaimed, getting on all fours to look at her friend better. He remained in his position.

"Donnie?" She tried again to get his attention, shaking his shoulder with one hand. Donnie was still lying on his plastron, not responding.

When April pulled her hand back, she gasped. It was covered in red, drippy fluid, racing down the edges of her fingers and staining the pavement when they left as droplets. She flipped Donnie over on his back. Her eyes never left the state of being big as saucers. They filled with tears as she tried in vain to think of something to help her terrapin friend, but came to no conclusions. She knew now why he couldn't hear her, why he wouldn't respond to her, why there was so much red on her hand and on his chest:

Donatello was shot.

Earlier…

XXXXXXXX

"Donnie….Donnie…wake up….."

A familiar female voice entered Donatello's dream-filled mind. He moaned, trying hard to cling on to his last remnants of sleep, to go back to dream mode, but failed to do so. Something layed on his shoulder and began to shake him gently.

Finally, Donnie began to open his eyes.

Fuzziness accompanied his vision at first, but when he relaxed his eyes, it became clear again. April was standing over him with her hand on his shoulder, her purse under her arm. Standing next to her was Raph, who had his arms crossed while he stared at his immediate younger brother. Leonardo and Michelangelo were nowhere to be seen.

"H-how long was I out?" were Donnie's first words.

"The movie's over, Genius," Raph retorted, smirking down at him, "Leo and Mikey went to bed, and we were about to do the same with you, but April here thought better of it. She's about to leave. Apparently her aunt wants her back before 10:30."

"Yeah," April agreed, "I just wanted to say bye to you before you doze off again." She wrapped her arms around his shell, and Donatello suddenly wished he wasn't the first to fall asleep.

Though he was still drunk with sleep, he asked, "Are you going by yourself? You sure you don't need us to escort you? I mean, there's danger around-"

"Yeah, yeah, I asked her the same thing," Raphael interrupted, "But she said, 'No, I can handle myself. I'm a kunoichi, remember?' Oh, give me a break." He said his April impression in a falsetto voice.

April gave him a light smack on the back of the head. "Anyway," she continued, "I'm sure I'll be fine, Donnie. You don't have to keep worrying about me. You have to remember that I am training to be just like you, right? You don't need to stress yourself trying to save me everytime I get in trouble. My aunt's apartment isn't far from the lair, you know.

"I promise you that I won't get into any trouble. You can trust me, I'm your friend, right?" She gave him one of her most charming smiles, and Donatello found the 'no' that he was about to say to her caught in his throat, quickly replaced with a hasty 'yes', which he then said out loud. She was so beautiful, it was hard for him to think straight and believe what he thought went his way.

Then, much to both his surprise and Raphael's entertainment, Donatello began to blush something ferocious, but he gave her a gap-toothed smile. He felt like he was going to faint right then and there, and that's actually what he wanted to do.

"S—s—see ya later, April," he managed to stutter. Raph was laughing the whole time, but he immediately stopped when he felt April's lips on his cheek. His face turned a shade deeper than his mask.

"See ya later, Raph," April giggled. She gave him a playful poke on the chest and headed towards the entrance/exit of the lair. She smiled as she thought that her way of getting the red-banded turtle to shut up was pure genius.

Yeah, I've got plenty more where that came from, Raph, she thought as she made her way to the exit of the lair.

Donatello continued to stare at the spot his crush was previously standing in, worry edging his features. Raphael looked as if someone had smacked him between the eyes.

After a short while, the red turtle had finally declared, "…I'm going to bed…G'night, Donnie."

"Night, Raph," Donatello replied, watching his older brother go. After he disappeared behind the black-blue walls, Donnie sighed, closing his eyes as he rested his stiff neck from an uncomfortable position back on the back of the couch. For the first time in his life, since he was both a night person and an early bird, he actually was too tired to head back to his lab so he could work on any more of his inventions. His back, neck, and shoulders all protested at once at a failed attempt to try to hoist himself off his comfy position.

Well, I might as well sleep the rest of the night here, he said to himself mentally. Grabbing a nearby blanket and small throw pillow from the edge of the couch, he put the pillow from where he would lay and fluffed it, trying to be the most comfortable as he could.

He sighed again in comfort as his head made soft contact with the cushion. He lay on his plastron with his blanket draped across the middle section of his shell. This was his favored sleeping position. Being on his shell hurt on some occasions, especially since it didn't help his sore muscles. Just thinking about this type of dilemma made the young techno turtle feel older.

And, not wanting to think about it anymore, his mind automatically shifted to April.

How he wished her to stay for the night and curl up with him on the couch, he felt so lonely in the empty, dark living room. The crystal-blue reflection from the pool was the only indication of light.

Slowly, his hidden exhaustion was beginning to find its way back to his mind and body, and it made him yawn, revealing it's return. He closed his eyes, too tired to even open them again. It didn't take more than five seconds for sleep to finally dominate and tyrant its way over Donatello again.

April squinted her eyes in pleasure as the warm spring night winds combed their way through her hair, sending off a nice feeling. Her blue eyes never left the beautiful inky ocean dotted with crystalline shiny fish, posing as the New York night sky. She'd only seen it so clear and beautiful twice, the first time being where Donatello had taken her to her aunt's apartment rooftop just to get to know each other better because it was in the first month where she had first met the turtles.

Her eyes lit up when they landed on the familiar favorite constellation of hers, Aquila. It was very easy of her to spot it because she loved it so much. She remembered seeing it with Donatello before, and he even told her that there was a Japanese love story associated with it. She thought that showing her terrapin friend the same constellation again would light up his world.

Taking out her T-phone, she aimed the lens from the "shell" of the phone and snapped a perfect shot of the star formation, the bright flash from the lens indicating the photo's success.

She stared down at the screen of her phone, showing her the fine image of Aquila. It's so beautiful, she thought, Wait until I see the look on Donnie's face when he sees that I've found it again…

Her thoughts were suddenly cut short when she heard a peculiar sound erupt from her left.

Thanks to the kunoichi-training from Master Splinter, her now ninja-fast reflexes were able to detect a flash of racing black from the alleyway she stopped herself in front of to take the picture of Aquila. April tensed, automatically knowing that something was definitely there, and it was watching her, she felt it.

Deciding that it was beginning to get too dangerous just standing there, she took a deep, calming breath and continued to walk, but it was more of jogging desperately if anyone else were to witness her.

When she passed the next alleyway, her heart stopped. Another flash of black zipped past her into the back of a dumpster. This time, she didn't hold back on her actions and let loose with a wild sprint, making sharp corners on the streets to try to get to her aunt's as fast as she could. Yep, something was definitely chasing her…

"Hey, girlie."

Darkness physically filled April's vision as she crashed into what felt like a soft wall. She looked up, and immediately jumped back a few feet, wary of the new thing that stopped her in her tracks.

Or, person.

She had come face to face with the stockiest and biggest Purple Dragon of the regular three in the street gang, Sid. His purple lips smiled down at her as he slowly inched towards her. April was quick to take note of the small throwing knife that he held in his hand, the blade's tip at it's closest to her.

She kept her distance between the blade, making tiny but slow steps back until she couldn't go any further, and she gasped when she felt two strong arms pin her own arms behind her back. Her second attacker revealed himself from the shadows as Fong, the skinny, tall leader of the three, with Tsoi standing next to him. His signature sledgehammer weapon hung limply in his hands.

"Well, well," Fong purred, bringing his face a little downcast to see the frightened expression on April's face, "What have we here? New girl to pickpocket? Say, you look familiar…" Sid stepped closer to the redhead for his better view, and his eyes widened.

"Hey, this is the girl who's always with the turtles! We stole her phone from her too!"

"Really?" Fong replied, looking at April's face once more, "Yeah, I still ain't forget how she clocked me in the face with a van door." Bringing his face so close that the young girl could smell his gross breath, he whispered, "And I'm gonna make sure to return the favor. Only this time, we're gonna do something so horrible to her that the turtles won't even know what happened. It'll all be a trap just to lure them right into Shredder."

Tsoi stepped closer to April, wanting to get a glimpse at their old enemy's ally as well. "You got a name, dollie?" He slowly brought his forefinger up to her face, wanting to poke her as if she were some dead animal.

To April, this was his perfect mistake. That was the Purple Dragons, no smarts except streets. She smiled as his finger was just close enough, and…she bit down into the pale skin, hard.

"AHHHH!" Tsoi yelped and sucked on his stinging finger, dropping his sledgehammer in the process, which landed on Fong's foot. A loud yet hilarious screech made its way out of his throat as he released his hold on April, hopping around while he rubbed at his bruised foot. Being the possibly dumbest one in the group, Sid was laughing so hard that he didn't even know a fast blur of orange as April sprinted away from the gang as fast as she could.

Taking no time to hesitate, she took out her t-phone and immediately began dialing an all but vague number that was memory-burned in her head…

XXXXXXX

The pleasant, soothing sound of Donnie's ringtone for April was loud enough to even wake him from his peaceful REM sleep, even if it was flowery meadow sounds with chirping birds.

"Hooosyat!" he stammered, still drunk with sleep, but he was able to focus some when he figured that it was his phone ringing. Immediately recognizing it as April, as he picked it up to answer, he wondered why she was calling him at this time of night. He hated being rude, especially to April, but she knew how tired he was when she had aroused him earlier.

He pressed the answer button, and, lazily pressing the phone to his ear, he'd managed to say, "A-April…? What is it?" He'd hoped that the exhaustion sugar-coating his voice was enough to convince April that he was in no condition to have long chats about shell-knows-what.

Donatello almost just about fell off the couch when he had got his reply. "Donnie? DONNIE! Oh, thank goodness! You have to help me! I'm in trouble!"

The purple turtle was hoping that it wasn't one of those troubles where April was deciding what was the latest gossip about boys' love to girls, because he's heard enough of it from both her and Leo. Although, this time, there was no proof in her voice to cover it. She sounded…panicked, and she seemed to be running short of breath, as if she were running.

"The…The Pu-Purple, Dragons…Their chasing…me…Help!"

Donnie immediately tensed when he heard 'Purple Dragons'. He pushed himself off his plastron and sat up, all the drowsy sleep completely drained out of him. "What?!" he practically shouted, "Where? Where are you!"

"W-wait! Donnie, no! I can't tell you, it's…it's a trap…They're planning…Shredder…"

"I don't care if it's a trap. April, you're GOING to tell your location! NOW!"

Even on the other end of the line, April was startled. Of all theses times that she'd been best friends with Donatello, she'd never heard him use that tone of voice anywhere, especially on her. It was like a mix of Leo's commanding, serious, big-brother voice mixed in with Raph's edgy and threatening hotheaded voice. Donnie himself was so sweet and soft-spoken, April suddenly took a mental note that he might've been more dangerous than Raph if provoked. Taking a deep breath, the redhead continued.

"Okay, well…I'm on East Avenue, and I'm planning to take short refuge at Chinatown ahead. I'll wait for you there."

Donatello stood up and raced to his room, wanting to retrieve his trusty bo-staff and a set of shruiken right away. "Okay, you just try to make it there and be as SAFE as you can. I'm coming, April, don't worry!"

That's when Donnie had wished that his heart would never stop soaring in anxiety.

A pained cry escaped from April's end, and the line went dead.

"April! APRIL!"

XXXXXXXX

"We got her, Fong!" Sid yelled.

April was pinned down to the hard ground by Sid's muscular strength while Tsoi proceeded to tie her hands together with thick twine, following up with gagging her mouth with duct tape.

April squealed through the tape and struggled, accidently letting her t-phone slip from her loose grasp on to the ground.

Fong, who was just arriving to catch up with the gang, witnessed the discarded phone dropped at his feet and picked it up. "Must be hers," he noted. He then absently shoved it in his pocket and proclaimed, "S'mine now, girlie. Let's see your turtle friends try to get it back."

"What're we gonna do with her, Fong?" Tsoi said, gripping April's arm with a painfully tight hand.

"Simple," Fong replied, giving April a deadly grin, "I think it's time we show this girl the real rules of a friendly game of 'Pirates'." Tsoi nodded and smiled though his mustache, easily catching on. However, Sid was confused and decided to show it outwardly.

"Uhh, ya mean we're gonna throw-"

"Shut up!" Fong yelled in his face, "Let's just do already. The turtles should be coming soon. Move, girl!"

Tsoi and Sid both gave her a forceful shove into the dirty hands of Fong, who pushed her into a musty alleyway, between two apartments with fire escapes. Fong picked up April and hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes as he began to climb one of the fire escapes the slowly led to the roof, with the other two following them. April's eyes widened as she immediately knew what they were going to do to her. They were going to throw her off the tall building. The fall looked deep enough to kill a regular human.

Her heart raced as she tried to struggle out of her captor's grasp, but he just held her tighter. "Quit squirmin', or I'll make you," he threatened, his arm over her back tightened painfully.

When they finally made it to the top of the escape, Fong handed April's body to the muscular arms of Sid. "Take care of her, Sid," he said. April's heart churned. Were they about to throw her off the top already? Blindly, she began to panic and struggle again as the stockiest Purple Dragon lifted her high in the air, and thrust her out into open air. She screamed through the duct tape, waiting for the impact of the ground below to come. Only, she didn't feel like she were falling. Her body felt like it were ascending.

She opened her eyes and yelped as her body landed on it's front at the roof of the apartment building. So they didn't toss her over yet, they just gave her a frightening push up to the top. This made April sigh in relief. However, knowing that they were just going taller on buildings to finally get what they wanted, she had a higher chance of dying from the fall, and this made her scared all over again.

Suddenly, she heard something that sounded both familiar and vague at the same time, even if it was a typical noise humans do on average to keep things or people at minimal volume.

"Shhhhhh!"

She gasped muffled-like when two familiar green feet were planted in front of her face. She looked up, and her eyes sparkled with joy. There stood Donatello, his burgundy eyes returning her expression as he held his bo-staff in one hand behind his back. She relaxed and tried to smile back as he gave her his signature gap-toothed grin. Oh, how she missed that smile all this time…

Donnie put a finger to his lips and shushed her again. April rolled her eyes. As if she could speak…

"Don't worry, I'm gonna get you out," he whispered as he assured her, "I can't do it right now, it's too risky. I have to wait at the right moment. I'll be hiding right behind that roof door, okay?" he pointed to the nearby door that led people to live in that apartment building right to their desired location: the roof, of course. "Just…don't move!" He tensed as he heard the annoying voices of the Purple Dragons emerging to the roof, and he ran to his hiding position.

The redhead girl sighed as she listened to the meaningless argument the street gang were having behind her.

"Ow! Sid, you pile of dung!"

"Sorry, Fong. You're heavier than the girl."

"Then throw harder! We gonna be here all night if we don't get to the roof, just cause of you!"

"Uh, Fong, I think you're yelling too loud."

"SHUT UP! Sid, throw me already!"

After a while, April heard the sound of feet pound themselves on the asphalt right behind her. She braced herself as a pair of hands lifted her up. She was looking back into the eyes of the tall Fong, who grinned at her. She could just think how upset this was making Donnie as he watched, and this made her smile. Hopefully, the Purple Dragon didn't see the grin.

He looked around, as if waiting for someone. Tsoi, followed by Sid, made a painful and unsuccessful land on the roof behind.

"Huh, the turtles aren't here yet," Fong noted, "Too bad for you, girl." He turned to his two followers and said, "Now, we just gonna throw her off the roof, and when the turtles come back for revenge, we ambush them and turn them in to Shredder. Easy, right?" With one single-handed shove, he pushed the small girl back to Sid. He slowly picked her up over his head and began to walk slowly towards the edge of the roof. April closed her eyes tight, not looking forward to the impact if Donnie weren't there. C'mon, Donnie…

A yelp of surprise bloomed from under her, and she found her body on the ground, safe from a heavy fall. Sid wasn't holding her anymore. She later found his unconscious body laying at her feet with a long, wooden staff next to him. Wait, staff?

She squealed in glee as a warm, green pair of hands hoisted her up to her feet. Donatello undid the twine prisoning her hands together, and April herself proceeded to tear the duct tape gag off her mouth. Finally, she was free!

"Donnie!" she exclaimed happily, then hugged him quickly, "Thank you so much!"

Donatello, with his face flushed red, only gave her a quick pat on the back and turned back to the two remaining Purple Dragons. He would've given her something more, as always, but now wasn't the time. Tsoi advanced on the mutant turtle, his sledgehammer raised high above his head, ready to strike him.

With a ridiculously high-pitched battle cry, Donnie leapt straight at the Dragon member and tackled him to the ground, slapping him as hard as he could with the end of his bo.

April slowly crept up to Sid and cautiously kicked him in his side. Yep, he was down and out, fortunately… She turned back to see a crying-out Tsoi with a black eye. She even winced herself at how hard her best friend continued to hit him. However, Fong was not impressed. He was downright angry that their plans with Shredder ALWAYS fail, just because of those wretched turtles. Well, not anymore. He was planning to it, right now.