April and Lee rode down the street under the night sky. April rode her scooter while Lee sat behind her.
"So, what did your mom say about your magic?" April asked.
"She was amazed." Lee said. "My sisters and I didn't tell her that you helped us out. We're not ready for that part yet."
"I understand." April said. "And where are your sisters?"
"They're back home." Lee replied. "Mom sent me out to the market to pick up cans of soda for our family pizza night. We have one every Friday."
"I see. Sounds cool." April said. "Now that you and your sisters have mastered your powers, you four can help me on solving the Superfly and Zelena situation."
"You're still on that story?" Lee asked with a grin.
"As a future aspiring journalist, every good story must have evidential clues and connections to the root of a crime." April grinned back.
Then suddenly, a throwing star sailed over the edge of the roof and flew straight down at April's scooter helmet.
April and Lee yelped in surprise as April crashed her scooter to the trash cans. Lee looked at the throwing star that was stuck in her scooter helmet and pulled it out.
"What the heck was that?" April said with a groan.
"It's a shuriken." Lee said, examining the throwing star in her hand. "A ninja star."
April then looked up at the roof, where she caught the sight of a mysterious mutant turtle peering over the rooftop.
"Hey!" April shouted angrily, pointing the throwing star upwards in an accusing manner. "You on the roof! You hit me in the head with a ninja star!"
When Lee looked up at the roof, her eyes widened and a small gasp escaped out of her mouth. Her green eyes instantly connected with the mutant turtle's brown eyes. Their gazing eyes were sparkled with a magenta shade and their hearts were picking up speed as if time had slowed down between them. To Lee, the mysterious mutant looked handsome.
April and Lee watched as three more mutant turtles came forward on the edge of the roof and began talking among themselves.
"No, don't sidebar!" April yelled. "This is one of the most populated cities on planet Earth, all right? You can't just be running around recklessly with weapons! That's dangerous!"
While April continued yelling at the mutant turtle, Lee kept distractedly staring at them without a word. But neither of them paid attention to a hoodie man walking up from behind.
"Hey, ladies! Behind you!" An orange masked turtle shouted.
But April kept shouting at the mutant turtles.
"No! Your scooter!" The blue masked turtle shouted, pointing his finger down at the hoodie man.
At last, April and Lee turned around to see the hoodie man taking off with her scooter that had her backpack along with it.
"Hey!" April shrieked.
When April and Lee started to run after the hoodie man, a taxi car almost ran into them. The driver inside the taxi car honked his horn at them.
Lee grabbed April and ran over to the other side of the street, leading both of them into a nearby alleyway.
"That jerk took my scooter and my backpack." April said with a frustrating frown. "Can you use your magic to track him down? I can't lose my stuff. I've worked too hard on my story to give up now."
"I could try." Lee responded with a shrug. "Give me a sec."
Lee closed her eyes, levitating in front of April in a cross-legged pose. She started to focus on her magic with pure concentration and consciously sent out a ghostly wave of blue energy, identifying auras that surrounded every living thing within the city.
In quick seconds, Lee finally tracked down the hoodie man's aura.
"Found him." Lee said as she opened her eyes. "He's heading to some sort of chop shop."
Lee's eyes glowed bright blue, creating a pair of butterfly wings made of magical energy on her back. April's eyes lit up in amazement.
"Come on." Lee said as she carried April in her arms. "Let's go get your scooter and your stuff back."
With that, Lee flapped her wings and soared upwards to chase after the scooter thief.
Lee kept flying in the air above the buildings while focusing the scooter thief's aura. She halted and soared down to the dead end alley. When Lee placed April on her feet, they peeked around and spotted a large chop shop.
"This must be the place." April said. "Let's go."
"Wait a minute." Lee said, outstretching her arm in front of April. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the auras inside the chop shop before opening her eyes. "That's weird. The thief who took your scooter is knocked out to the ground along with many other people inside. Not only that, there are four strange creatures inside the building too."
"Okay, so how do we get inside?" April asked.
"Leave that to me." Lee smiled.
Lee and April ran in front of the chop shop's garage door. Lee lifted her right arm forward and covered her hands with solid water before slashing a hole on the garage door. She and April approached slowly inside the chop shop.
"Hello?" April called out. "We're unarmed noncombatants here for her scooter."
April and Lee noticed all the defeated crooks lying on the floor with surprised faces.
"Whoa. You were right. They got their butts whooped." April said.
April and Lee walked over to look at the unharmed scooter.
"This is really not how I thought this night was gonna go." April said.
"Yeah, looks like somebody kicked their butts before me." Lee said.
Then, April and Lee looked around the garage. They weren't aware that the mysterious mutant turtles were hiding into the shadows. One mutant turtle was hiding behind a tire, two other mutant turtles clenched car doors, and the last mutant turtle clutched onto a hooked-up toolbox by a small auto crane.
"Wait. Where'd you guys go?" April asked.
Before Lee could use her magic, the sound of a wrench dropping to the floor made the girls turn around and saw the mysterious mutant turtles hiding behind the vehicle parts.
"Hey, we see you in there." Lee said.
The mysterious figures blinked their eyes from the shadows. They started whispering all at once, wondering what they're supposed to do.
"I won't make a big deal about the ninja star, okay? You got my scooter back, so I feel like that's square." April urged.
The Turtles moved out of hiding from the vehicle parts, but they stayed put within the shadows.
The mutant turtles began arguing on who should approach April and Lee first. Their whispering was a little louder this time.
"I just…I get that you have to huddle. You know what I mean?" April said. "But the longer you lurk in the shadows, the more sus it gets every second."
The mutant turtles argued again on what April just said, making the girls exchange confused faces before looking back to the shadows.
"You know? Yeah, and now it's like doubly sus to be whispering about how sus you are." April said.
"Look, we're not gonna hurt you. We just wanna thank you." Lee said in a friendly tone. "I'm Leona Shiroibara. And this is my friend April O'Neil."
Freaked out, one of the mutant turtles pushed his eldest brother into the light, revealing himself right in front of April and Lee.
April gasped in shock while Lee opened her mouth with a blushed face.
"Hey." The blue-masked mutant turtle greeted shyly as three other mutant turtles stepped forward into the light.
The oldest mutant turtle has french lime green skin, brown eyes, blue ninja bandana for the eyes, a dark belt with a L initial printed in yellow on a round buckle along with some ninja stars on it, and blue cloth around his elbows, knees, and wrists. The second oldest mutant turtle has a beefy body with bright green skin, brown eyes, red ninja mask that covers his head, a dark belt with a bandaged R initial printed in yellow on a round buckle along with a brown pocket on it, and red cloth around his elbows, knees, and wrists. The second youngest mutant turtle has bitter lime green skin, brown eyes, purple ninja bandana for the eyes, a dark belt with a D initial printed in yellow on a round buckle along with a purple money belt and his phone on it, and purple cloth around his elbows, knees, and wrists. He also wore glasses and white headphones around his neck. And the youngest mutant turtle has sea green skin, brown eyes, an oval shaped head, orange ninja bandana for the eyes, a dark belt with a M initial printed in yellow on a round buckle along with a brown pocket on it, and orange cloth around his elbows, knees, and wrists. He also has braces on his teeth.
"Oh, you're crime fighters with turtle costumes." April said. She brightened up and stepped forward towards the mutant turtles. "Yeah, I'm gonna be honest. I don't think all the good animals are taken. Sharks. Uh, there's wolves up for grabs." She examined the blue masked mutant turtle's plastron, left arm, and his eyes. "Wow, the costumes are really crazy. These eyes are wet like real eyeballs." She grabbed the mutant turtle's face, stretching it with amazement. "How do you get this on and off?"
"Uh, April?" Lee said, standing over April's shoulder. "That's his skin."
"That's your skin! That's your skin!" April shouted, stepping away from the mutant turtles with Lee. "What…Like what are you? Or what could you be?"
The three mutant turtles looked unsure what to say, but the orange masked mutant turtle pondered for a minute before speaking.
"Can we explain this over some pizza?" The orange masked mutant turtle asked with a smile.
April and Lee traded calm looks on their faces before facing the mutant turtles again.
"How do you guys feel about pepperoni?" April asked.
The mutant turtles looked completely stunned by April's composed response.
A little while later, the Turtles joined April and Lee on a building rooftop that has large neon orange lights that spelled "The Laird". They all sat and enjoyed eating pizza together. Lee silently took a bite of her pizza slice as she and April listened to the Turtles talking and interrupting about their unusual origin over each other. April and Lee exchanged confused expressions before Apri stood up and gestured to the Turtles to stop talking all at once.
"Stop. Stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop." April said. She held a red notepad in one hand and a pencil in another as she started writing down information once The Turtles sat down. "Okay, you were real baby turtles who made contact with mystery ooze, and therefore started to age from mutant baby turtles to mutant-turtle-men-guys?"
"Uh, turtle boys, actually." Mikey corrected.
"I would say teens." Leo suggested.
"I would say cool teens." Raph said.
"Yeah, we're cool." Donnie agreed.
"Teenagers! Amazing. Insane." April said as she wrote this information down in her notepad. "All right, well, tell me more. Obviously, I want to know everything about you. Like, is there more of you?"
"Nope, just us." Donnie responded.
"They are alone in the world." April said out loud as she began writing more information in her notepad. She looked up from her notepad and back to the Turtles. "And nobody's ever asked you about this or talked to you about this?"
The Turtles replied no all at once.
"So, what about you? What's your story?" Leo asked Lee.
"Oh, well, I'm a ninja just like you and your brothers." Lee answered. "I lived with my mom and my sisters, who are also ninjas. Except we don't use weapons because we haven't decided on that part yet. So, instead, we used magic."
"Magic?" Mikey repeated.
"As in casting spells?" Raph questioned.
"Yup." Lee nodded.
"Yeah, right." Donnie snickered. "There's no such thing as magic."
"Oh, yeah?" Lee smirked.
Lee lifted her right arm and opened her hand, creating a sphere of water above her palm. Donnie, Raph, Mikey, and Leo gasped with awestruck faces.
"Okay, I take it back." Donnie said sheepishly. "Sorry."
"It's cool. My sisters and I didn't know we had magic until I made the soda machines explode days ago." Lee said.
Lee sent the water sphere floating above the amazed Turtles. When she snapped her fingers, the water sphere popped and spattered its drops all over them.
"Wow, that's so awesome!" Raph said with a smile.
"So dope." Mikey smiled.
"Why are you writing all this down?" Leo asked April with a curious face.
"Oh. I'm a journalist. Well, I want to be a journalist. I write for my school paper." April answered.
"Really, April? I thought you wanna be on camera. I mean, all journalists report their work on camera." Lee said.
"Nope. No. Never on camera." April said with a nervous chuckle. She changed the subject with a serious face. "Listen, that's what I'm down here, researching this story on Superfly, Zelena, and their string of super crimes. See, the police have been talking about implementing this curfew if they don't find them soon, right? It spooked the parents, and they canceled prom. I'm trying to, you know, help bring them to justice, so everyone could chill out or whatever. But this! Turtle mutant karate teens and mystic ninja girls. I mean, this is a pretty good story."
"Look, I don't know if we should." Raph said hesitantly as he stood on his feet.
"Why not? This is so…this is so good!" April said.
"We were taught that humans would try to destroy us if they ever found out we ever existed." Donnie explained as he, Mikey, and Leo stood up as well. "You know, kill us, or put us in a lab and milk us."
April and Lee looked taken back in disgust.
"Ew, that's gross." Lee said.
"We wouldn't milk you. You don't even have nipples." April said.
"Look, human women, I got a question." Mikey said. "So just be straight with me. Do you think there are more people like you two? You know, people who will accept us?"
Donnie, Raph, and Leo anxiously awaited April and Lee's answer.
Lee remained silent as she didn't know what to say to the mutant boys. The Turtles were kept hidden from the human world for a long time. She began to wonder if they would ever be accepted in a human society, but she doesn't want to be too honest to hurt their feelings.
Then, April stood back up on her feet.
"No." April answered honestly. "No, absolutely not. Um, genuinely, no. There's no way."
The Turtles all groaned in disappointment as they started to walk away off the roof. But April and Lee stepped forward and prevented the Turtles from leaving.
"Wait, wait, wait." April said. "If I'm being honest…" She picked up the pizza box towards the Turtles. "I mean, the reason we're not scared of you is, you know, you guys helped us out."
The Turtles turned back around as they each grabbed a pizza slice.
"And if you hadn't, and we had just, like, stumbled across you, yeah, I'd be very scared. I'd be really, um, freaked out and disgusted." April continued.
"What April's trying to say is that even though you're different, we'll accept you." Lee said. She placed her left hand over Leo's shoulder. "No matter who you are."
Leo looked a bit startled, but he looked up at Lee with a flushed smile that made the mystic kunoichi blush with a shy grin.
Then, April's phone vibrated, alerting her with a text message notification. She handed the empty pizza box to Raph and took her phone out of her pocket as she looked at the screen.
"Sorry, my mom is texting." April apologized.
Donnie and Lee picked up their phones.
"Dad is texting us! He's freaking out a bit." Donnie said.
"Same with my mom." Lee said.
"Well, at least all parents are the same." April grinned as she began texting her mom on the phone.
"A hundred percent." Leo agreed.
"Yeah, for sure." Mikey concurred.
"Our dad is definitely not a giant rat." Donnie assured.
"That makes me feel like he's a rat." April said with a questioning look. "Well, I'll AirDrop you my contact." She wirelessly sent her phone number to Donnie's phone. She grabbed her bag and headed to the stairs. "And if you ever feel like you want to come out into the world or whatever, just let me know. I would love to write a story about it, seriously." She opened a door and looked at the Turtles one last time. "Good night."
"Well, that's also my cue to head home." Lee replied. She looked down at the screen on her phone. "Just let me AirDrop my number real quick."
Lee wirelessly sent her phone number to Donnie's phone.
"If you boys wanna hang out, call me." Lee said with a smile. She waved at the Turtles. "See ya."
Lee sprang across the air and landed on a building rooftop. She looked back at Leo and winked at him. She then started running and jumping on each building with flexible flips and cartwheels until she was completely out of the Turtles' sight.
"She seemed cool." Leo said dreamingly, leaning his head on his left arm with infatuation.
"Here he goes again." Mikey said. "That's your type?"
"Every girl, man." Donnie said, rolling his eyes with a smile.
"I'm not even that into…Give me that contact." Leo said.
Raph and Mikey grabbed Leo at the same time, preventing him from reaching Donnie's phone.
Enjoy and review.