A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews. All questions will be answered shortly. I will say that this is a highly original take on how April meets the turtles and their relationship in general. Also, besides the bros themselves, I'm taking some real artistic liberties with these characters – yet – I'm trying my hardest to make them essentially the same at heart. Thanks again, and please continue to review!
April sat on the subway. High heels in hand, mascara smudged around her eyes, and only one thought circling her mind: "what would Anderson Cooper do?"
The vlogger was ashamed, heart broken, and terrified. Her worst fear was once again confirmed: she was only a pretty face. Her looks had always been a burden. She felt as though her piercing eyes and sharp features again and again caused her more grief than anything else. She was beautiful. It pained those who got more than a passing glance or small amount of eye contact to notice: her looks could put a bust of some Egyptian queen to shame.
She never tried to conceal her effortless attributes, but she naturally didn't go out of her way to bring them out. She hardly wore makeup and often couldn't be bothered to do her hair or stick in contacts. She felt confident in her glasses and naturally tousled hair.
Tonight was a ware occasion where she saw it only fitting that she put her cosmetics she used for YouTube tutorials to use. Her eyes lined with velvet ink and her lips painted a reddish hue could have been enough to inspire a cover of Vogue. Although, now as she rocked back and forth on the subway her blown out hair had deflated and her eye makeup had smudged off. She was wrapped in a long black peacoat hiding her modest darkly colored dress.
She hated being seen for only her looks. And it wasn't easy. Women saw her stoic features and quiet personality as sings of a frigid bitch. Men were standoffish. And she swore she felt a great disappointment and uninterestedness in their voices when she spoke of anything other than sex.
Of course, she wasn't generalizing either gender. She had plenty of girlfriends who loved her as the true April.
But men, she wasn't ready to lift any stereotypes she had on that breed, tonight anyway.
She sighed looking to the few other occupants on the subway.
"Excuse me," she asked of an older woman a few seats away from her. "Do you happen to have the time?"
"Of course, dear. It's-"
She was just about to check her watch when the lights went out. They had just entered a tunnel and the train was cloaked in pitch black.
Rustling was heard followed by a few agonizing sharp gasps. April panicked searching the area as if she could see a thing.
She was only met with a bleak blackness and the sounds of thuds and moans.
Following a fight of flight response, she hit the floor and cowered under the seat.
She saw flashes of light, fading in and out, once they had emerged from the tunnel. She saw shadows swiftly moving past her.
Were they being mugged by a poltergeist?
With the flashing dull light streaming in from the outer subway walls, she caught a glimpse of a black shadow grabbing a passenger and quickly running him through with a long blade.
Her mouth fell open in horror of the sickening wet gurgling noise that emitted from the man's mouth.
She desperately tried to move further under the seat, as if somehow she could escape from the horror.
The subway emerged from the dark coming into the brightly lit station. Light streamed in and she searched the scene her wide-eyed.
Crimson smears and spatters patterned the walls and flooded the floor.
All passengers had been injured, and most were no longer groaning in pain.
"My god," she whispered before screaming in terror as a black-gloved pair of hands roughly grabbed her. She struggled against the assailant but was powerless as he grabbed her hair and pulled her into the light.
As she struggled with the man, another presented herself before her. A tall, lean, figure dressed in all back including a black plastic mask of a man's face was staring down to her.
Meanwhile, a third identically dressed figure grabbed her purse and rifled through her possessions.
"This time... blood was spilled... and your city will know what we are capable of," said the man before her as he pulled a katana from his belt.
Her head was jerked back.
The clan, she thought inwardly, this has to be the Foot Clan.
The soft flesh of her throat was exposed as the man in front of her began to raise his bloodied blade to her neck. She closed her eyes tightly crying for his mercy. If only she could see, there was a twisted smile under the mask as he brought the blade down. Just then, they heard a whistle. The weapon was stopped an inch before her skin.
They looked back to the member who held her wallet. He raised up her company ID to the others.
"Channel 6 news."
The man in front of her glared down to the quivering young woman as he put his blade away.
"Hostage," he whispered.
The subway came to its next stop and the awaiting crowd erupted in fear, pushing back, as the clan (that had grown to about 15 black figures) exited, dragging a gagged and bound April along with them.
"Citizens!" Called the same man who had almost slit April's throat. "To the floor! Or we will blow this tunnel above ground!" He said as his men placed small box-like contraptions around the area.
The crowd quieted and lowered carefully to the floor.
April breathed heavily underneath the gag glaring daggers to the man who confronted the crowd.
"New York," He droned with a low laugh, "we are here! The Foot Clan is here!"
He glanced down to April who struggled against the man who held her back.
"She's a strong one, sir," he admitted, struggling with the woman.
The man looked to another member. With a small jerk of his head, the figure strolled over to her before producing a steel nightstick and knocking April hard to the side of her head. She instantly slumped forward as a stream of blood trickled down her cheek.
It was then that a nearby light burst, then another, and another, until the area was lit by sharp flickering lights.
The trapped people looked around confused, as did the Clan.
April's limp body was tossed carelessly to the ground.
"The vigilante," cried a Clan member.
"The dark's trickery," answered the lead man.
"NYPD!" Yelled an intimidating voice followed by an exuberant; "Cowabunga!"
An unseen force assaulted the Clan. They were plucked away one by one as nunchucks swung, ninja stars flew, and blades thrashed. Member of the Foot Clan were quickly tied up and thrown to the side.
The crowd had dispersed in a frenzied mass exodus heading for the streets above.
Donatello grabbed a bomb from the wall and quickly defused it from the shadows.
"Leave the girl!" Called the leader to another member before slipping away as the others were captured.
Soon, the scene quieted and the brothers were left standing before rows of tired up black clad men.
"Are the surveillance cameras out, Donnie?" questioned Leonardo.
"We're in the clear."
Raphael looked over the tied up unconscious figures.
"This is the Clan? Looks like a buncha punks trick or treating."
He plucked a mask off one face revealing a young white male.
"What a fucking joke."
Leonardo surveyed the area before his eye landed on an out of place shadow.
"Oh, shit."
The others followed his gaze and soon saw April sprawled on the floor.
They stood in silence knowing an inevitable argument was coming.
Raphael looked back at Leonardo.
"Well?" he asked as if his brother should have already barked orders.
"Well, what?!"
"Are we going to address the roofie'd chick passed out like we're at some frat party?"
"The police will be here any minute, Raph," Leo concluded, "We'll leave her to them!"
"We don't know that!" He answered. "And some got away! They could be comin' back!"
"We don't have time for this!" Said Leonardo walking away.
"Then do something now!" Retorted Raphael.
"I am," he answered coldly.
The other brothers looked between the two torn.
Raphael seemed to take a deep breath before running back to April and lifting her lithe body into his arms. He turned back to his brothers who stared on dumb founded
"Dude," concluded Michelangelo.
"Oh c'mon!" Cried Leonardo exasperated watching Raphael dash past him as the others quickly followed. Raphael tossed April over his shoulder as he looked back to Leonardo.
It wasn't a look he often saw from the hard-scaled turtle. He seemed scared, unsure, and sincerely concerned. He realized he wasn't saving her to be a hero. He was doing it simply because it was right, and it terrified him.
Leonardo blinked before running topside with his brothers.
The boys gathered around as Raphael laid April gently before them on a worn-in couch in their living room lair.
Leonardo knelt beside her cutting away her gag and freeing her arms.
"Is she- y'know breathing?" Asked Michelangelo just as Donatello dropped to his knees and hovered an ear above her chest, then her mouth.
"Okayyy," stated Michelangelo perturbed, "next time, I call dibs."
"She's breathing. She's alive, but it looks like she took a hard knock to the head. I'll need the disinfectant and gauze.
Michelangelo jumped to the order as Leonardo and Raphael looked on somberly.
"Well, what do we do with her?" asked Leonardo.
Raphael's eyes fell over her body.
"She ain't even wearin' shoes."
Leonardo raised a hand to his head, "Let me just think this over for a second…"
The boys watched as he paced. Raphael crossed his arms and glared at Leonardo. Donatello knelt besides April taking her wrist in his hand and recording her heartbeat. Michelangelo quickly returned and found himself struck by her looks as his brother raised her head to get a better look at her wound. The youngest turtle deliberated inwardly if she was truly more beautiful than Taylor Swift.
"Did we even bother to think why she was being kidnapped by those foot people?" spat Leonardo. "I mean- what if she's a ploy? Some spy to find our location?"
"Is that why they beat her over the head? Well, that makes perfect sense then!" quipped Raphael.
Donatello's eyes nervously flickered to her face, and he regarded her for the first time. He frowned staring intently.
"Woah, guys! Leo!"
"What?!"
"This is April O'Neil!"
"Who?!" they asked in unison.
"Leo, she wrote that article I was reading this morning. She's one of the only people reporting on the Foot Clan. That's why she was their next hostage - or it could be why. I mean, just working for the news is probably enough."
"Wow, beauty and brains," crooned Michelangelo, "I might be in love."
"A news reporter?!" Cried Leonardo. "We have to bring her back now!"
The turtles protested. Donatello with logic, Raphael with sarcastic anger, and Michelangelo with love struck reasoning.
"Leo, she's knocked out."
"Which dumpster do you suggest we toss her in?"
"Are you guys even seeing what I'm seeing? A beautiful woman on our couch?!"
"Will you grow up, fuckboy?" cursed Raphael to the dazed young turtle.
April blinked open her eyes to find herself in the middle of an escalating fight.
"Well, It's a great time for you to grow a bleeding heart!" came Leonardo eyeing the turtle in red. Raphael faced him, his eyes becoming slits.
"And what is that s'posed to mean?"
"Your heart's gushing like her forehead."
"And you'd rather just have the blood of the innocent stain your shell?"
"You know damn well that's not with this's about."
The brothers were practically butting foreheads before Michelangelo sprung between them.
"You guys can't leave my future girlfriend out there like this!"
"Shut up, Mikey!" Cried the boys as one before April shot up from the couch.
She sat up still reeling from the head injury. She had expected to see homeless men fighting over who would drag her back to their newspaper tent when, instead, she was met with four mutant turtles looking blankly down to her.
She leapt back onto the couch as she was jolted into foggy reality.
"Ah crap," muttered Leonardo.
She screamed looking at their nonhuman faces, green skin, and visible weapons.
"Shhh! April, we won't hurt you! You're okay!" Leonardo said in a calm voice slowly stepping forward, his arms extended to her.
She stood up on the couch, climbing the back, and still screeching in pure horror.
"Shoulda kept the gag on her," mumbled Raphael.
"What are you? Where am I? What's going on?"
"April, you've been rescued from the Foot Clan. By us. We're... um..."
"Mutant turtles," spat Raphael.
April blinked glancing over their faces.
No. They aren't real. They can't be real.
She couldn't seem to catch her breath as she stood on the couch.
"Mutant... Turtles..." she repeated in just above a whisper.
Donatello pushed his glasses over his nose as he worriedly observed her, "She needs to regulate her breathing or she's gonna-"
April fainted falling behind the couch.
"Gonna faint?" Asked Leonardo.