Earth 212

'And this is how I die. Not because of some deranged ninja overlord. Not because of some brain alien thing. Not because of alien triceratops. I die to some two bit thug.'

If she weren't scared to death April would have laughed.

It had been entirely innocent. While heading home from visiting the boys she'd seen some idiot drunk get into his card, slam into one vehicle as he tried to get out of his parking spot, and then run over a woman when he'd jumped the curb. The police had arrived quickly and the man at the wheel had ranted and raved that he hadn't done anything. And to her surprise the cops had looked ready to let him go. It was only when she'd stepped forward and said she saw the whole thing that they had slapped the cuffs on the guy and the look they'd given her when they'd done so had been… off putting. Sorrow. They had felt sorrow.

April hadn't understood till two days later, when a van had pulled up to her just a block away from her place and yanked her inside, a bag tossed over her head and zipties locked around her wrists and ankles.

The drunk had turned out to be "Angry" Timmy Falone, son of "Quiet" Sal Falone, the last of New York's old school gangsters. While the Foot Clan and the Purple Dragons had done much to drive out the old criminal organizations the Falone Family had remained and been slowly building up their power. Quiet. Doing all to avoid notice. The police and the Mayor's office knew of them, of course, but they also know of their long reach and thus did little about them. And April had just gotten Quiet Sal's son tossed behind bars.

And thus how she found herself in an old dock house near the Hudson, tied to a chair as the two goons prepared the cement that was going to encase her feet.

She tried to hold out hope that the guys would find her. They'd saved her so many times. But this was different. No chance to leave a clue. No mystery they were already following up. No boasts from the bad guys to get their attention. The gangsters didn't even care about the turtles. They just wanted her dead.

April was coming to realize that they were about to get exactly that.

'Guys… I'm sorry,' she thought, doing her best not to begin crying. It was hitting her that this was it and it was terrifying her but she refused to-

Something darted along the rafters.

"What are you staring at?" one of her kidnappers asked and April cursed herself for giving away one of the guys' location only to start when a figure in a white hooded coat suddenly leapt down, slamming his palms into two of the goons. They went down instantly, without making a sound, and April's eyes widened as she saw that whoever her savoir was… he wasn't one of the guys. "Hey!" the goon in front of her snapped, grabbing her chin and forcing her to face him. "I'm talking to-"

He went ramrod still as the hooded figure struck.

His blow was… odd. He slammed his palm into the man's face but even then it didn't fully connect. April got a brief look at a furry hand with webbing along the bottom of each finger before the figure suddenly jerked back, the goon letting out a gurgle as he fell, a hole in his throat that bubbled with something purple and sinister looking.

"Are you okay… April?"

"Yea," she said, taking more of the figure before her. His face was mostly hidden by his hood but there was no hiding his duck-like beak. He had a broad body that, judging by the tuffs she spotted along his cuffs, was covering in short brown fur. There was a beaver-like tale that stuck out of the back of his white jacket. But most startling was the long bone-blade that emerged from his wrist, which retracted back into his skin within seconds. "How… how do you-"

"April!"

She sighed in relief as she heard Raph's yell, looking up in time to see him and his brothers leap down, weapons at the ready. Realizing what was about to happen she quickly called out, "He's not the one that took me! He saved me!"

"You mean it?" Leo asked, not bothering to sheath his swords.

"Just a friend," the new mutant said. "Very confused how I ended up here and as a platypus but a friend."

And years later April would always look back at that first meeting and shake her head that it was because of a drunk that the Turtles gained an Assassin.

INTRODUCING GIORGIONE "Gio" CHAOS

The Not Quite Teenaged Mutant Assassin Platypus