I refuse to call the rabbit Mrs. (cause that would imply she's married and...just no.)
Kara was being given a tour of the turtle's home with April along for the chuckles who adjusted her backpack strap on her shoulder.
"And this is the arcade/gameroom/gentlemen's club. Everything in here was built from scratch and/or repaired by yours truly." Donnie held his arm out his smirk oozing with pride while she took a look around at all the retro videogames in awe. "Wow, you really did all of this?" She asked with a crooked smile and a raised brow wondering just how much of a genius he really was. "Why, yes, I did, my dear friend, you see it's quite simple all I did was-" The more he seemed to 'humble' brag about his intelligence her smile would lower til it was gone and turned away while his monologue went in one ear and out the other, he not noticing he was losing her til she was in front of their Dance Dance game which happened to be her favorite.
"Not only do you have class but taste as well. Be warned, though, my high score is tough to beat." Leo stepped beside her, grinning her way. Kara glanced up at him with a grin of her own, "Oh? Is that a challenge I hear, Mister Leonardo?"
"Hey! I almost beat it..if it wasn't for dad getting sick..which ended with all of us getting sick.." Raph sulked at the last part making Kara feel sorry for him and pat his arm. "Wait a minute, you guys get sick?"
"Well, yeah, we get sick, hurt, have emotions," Mikey counted the list with his fingers, "-Fall in love." Donnie muttered the last part under his breath so no one could hear him.
"Yeah, we're not monsters you know." Leo looked at her with a shrug.
"Hmm, yeah, you have a point. On with the tour!"
The tour ended in their living room which had a single recliner, few pieces of furniture here and there, and a projector with a tripod hanging from the wall though she was more curious at the mutant sitting in the recliner, openly staring at the rather short, grey rat mutant wearing a worn down, brown Japanese style robe.
"Oh, Kara, this is our pops; Master Splinter. Master Splinter, this is Kara, she's a new friend we made." Raph introduced them.
Master Splinter and her had a staring contest, the whole room growing quiet wondering if the two will get along. "Why do you look so familiar?" Master Splinter asked with a suspicious tone, rubbing at his chin.
Kara shrugged, "I have one of those faces, I guess."
April came into view without her backpack with a coy smile on her face. "Now, for the real reason why we're all here; I got some good news: I got a new job!" April clapped her hands together her smile growing.
"Wow, that's great April, congrats." Kara smiled, proud of how fast she was able to find another job.
"Yeah, it's about to start, actually." April snatched the remote from Master Splinter, not giving him time to protest, and changed the channel while everyone gathered to find a comfortable spot to sit and watch it.
"Congrats on the acting job, April, I'm so happy for you I could punch a rainbow!" Raph emphasized by swinging his fist.
"It's just a tiny, basic cable show." April smiled at his enthusiasm but tried to play it off.
"It's still something to be proud of, huge step from working as Party Captain at Albearto's." Kara smiled her way, crossing her arms.
"Not so tiny, it knocks Scorpion Treadmill out of it's time slot!" Master Splinter threw his fist on to the arm of his recliner.
"Saay, how'd you like to sit in the front row, Raph?" Leo appeared behind him, his hands in Raph's shoulders with a coy smirk on his face.
"Ok!" Raph said, walking with Leo still on his back.
Hearing April let out a chuckle Kara glanced towards her with a raised brow. When April noticed her expression she placed a finger to her lips with a wink, "You'll see in a moment." She whispered before going back to the show. Kara shrugged, doing the same watching his brothers sit behind him.
When the show finally came on April was in front of the camera, doing the shows introduction, this making Kara smile.
"Hey kids! It's time for the laughing fun time hour with Ms. Cuddles!" April moved back from the camera, showing her wearing a bunny costume with ears on a headband, her arms stretched out towards a display with stuffed animals on it, the one in the center a grey rabbit wearing a yellow bow on top of it's head with rainbow striped ears, large plastic eyes, and it's front buck teeth sticking out from it's mouth. "Let's be friends forever."
"A kid's show? Man, you must like kids Ap.." She suddenly heard Raph scream and blinked when he dove over the recliner towards her, knocking her over in the process. She hissed in pain while he curled up behind the recliner til he noticed he had hurt her. "I-I'm sorry, Kara!" He went to reach out for her but glanced behind him to see Ms. Cuddles still on the TV and huddled back against the recliner. "You guys know I can't watch this!"
Donnie walked over to her and held out his hand, chuckling. "Haha gets 'em every time. You alright?"
"Yeah, what's going on?" With his help she was brought to her feet while rubbing the back of her head.
"Is my acting that bad?" April leaned down to Raph sounding worried.
"N-no, it ain't you, April, it's-" Raph turns around to see Ms. up close in front of the camera making him scream and run in to the wall, flopping down on his back.
Kara watched this and began to feel bad for him, wondering why his own brothers would expose him to, what she interpreted to be, his biggest fear. "Is this normal for siblings?"
"Heheheheh Raph's fear flops make me laugh every time." Master Splinter continued to laugh with his sons smiling wide around him.
"What? You think I'm afraid of Ms. Cuddles?" Raph towered over them, brows furrowed. "Uh I'm just upset about s-something else which I'll think of what that is later." Raph crossed his arms, looking away.
"It's ok, Raph, everyone has a fear of something. No need to feel ashamed about that." Kara smiled his way trying to cheer him up.
"Unless that fear happens to be a plush toy." Leo remarked behind her, making Donnie and Mikey snicker.
"Be nice, guys, you know, I bet a sandwich will make you feel better, Raph." April said with a raised brow but before anyone could say anything Raph ran away, leaving them all behind.
"I guess I'll follow to get an ice pack for my head." It didn't take long for her to find the kitchen, following Raph's whimpers. She made herself an ice pack while Raph was working on his sandwich, muttering to himself. "Hey, Raphael, calm down, look at me." She turned to face him, holding the ice pack to her head. "I'm afraid of spiders. Some people say it's a common fear and others don't get it but the fact is just because you're scared doesn't make you any less of a man.. mutant. You're more than strong and capable enough to face your fear and conquer it." She placed her hand on his arm, giving him a sheepish grin, he returning with one of his own.
"Still, wish I had sandwiches for brothers instead of those jerks." He went back to making his sandwich while Kara turned to leave, thinking of visiting their arcade.
"AHHH! IT'S IN THE LAIIIIIR!"
Kara froze, hearing him yell, and turned around in time to see pots and pans hitting Raph on the head with a Ms. Cuddles on a spring that was inside a cabinet. "Oh, that had to hurt.."
His brothers and April gather around him, snickering with small comments here and there.
"Hahahah. The guys told me Ms. Cuddles totally freaks you out so I brought her over in her trunk for a sweet prank."
"No hard feelings, ok, big brother? Wets be fwiends forever." Donnie mimicked Ms. Cuddles voice before laughing in his real voice.
Kara crossed her arms, eyes narrowed, watching Raph try to hide his fear to the point of tears. "Maybe they took it too far..poor guy. Do you guys do that all the time?" She asked, walking with them.
"From time to time. It's just harmless, sibling fun." Leo smiled down at her.
"You must pull pranks like this with your sister all the time." Mikey chimed in thinking about what sort of pranks she has done with a famous sibling.
Kara looked away rubbing at her arm. "Um..not exactly. We don't see each other a lot..often..at all." She sighed unaware they were noticing her downed look but before they could comment on it they all heard Raph screaming, "You guys! Ms. Cuddles is real!"
Everyone poked their heads in to the kitchen to see Ms. Cuddles on the table.
"Did he move it?" Kara questioned with a raised brow.
"Scaredy pants say wha?" Leo said in a baby voice.
"What?" Kara coughed trying to hide her giggle. "Ok, fine, you were right, I am afraid of Ms. Cuddles but it turns out she's really real!" Raph held out his arm to show the toy.
"Ok, we get it, we took the joke too far." April clearly wasn't amused with Raph's reaction.
Raph sighed and turned around. "Watch!" He slammed his hands on to the table in front of Ms. Cuddles. "Ok, Demon, reveal yourself!" Ms. Cuddles fell over with a squeak.
Kara looked at her and the brothers. "Your prank made Raphael crazy. I hope you're happy with the results." A small grin crossed her face when April's expression dropped in a 'not helping' look.
"When you're ready to grow up and be an adult, Raphael, we'll be in the arcade." Mikey said to him before following the others.
Donnie somehow managed to convince Kara to follow him to his lab. She stared in awe at his gadgets and what not. A light chuckle escaped her lips, "I can see your favorite color is purple."
"Well, it is the color of intelligence, which there isn't a lack of."
"It's actually my favorite color too." She went to move her hair behind her ear only to realize she didn't have to anymore. She froze for a second thinking she heard scurrying and looked where she heard the noise.
"You knoooow..you don't have to cover your eye around us. You could, I don't know.." He reached out and gently moved her bangs out of her face, this getting Kara to blush, a smile crossing her face. "Oh uh thanks. It feels nice to actually see out of both eyes." She scratched her cheek while looking away shyly. "So, what else have you made?"
Donnie internally squealed, his face feeling like it was on fire, coughed and put his arm around her shoulder, leading her further inside. "Let me show you my latest projects that I'm working on: Self cleaning toothpick and a titanium bust of myself. Which one should I pick? Like I need to ask." Donnie chuckled to himself looking towards his bust.
Kara raised a brow at him before letting out a laugh."You really are full of yourself, huh?" She sat down facing him. "Yet, for some reason, you're interesting. I don't get to hang out with a lot of people because of school and work but now that my schedule has somewhat cleared up would it be ok to hang out with you and your brothers more often?"
"This is the best day of my life. I don't see why not. It'll be nice to show someone who actually likes my inventions." He smiled at her trying to act casual but blinked when she wasn't looking at him and turned to see her staring at Ms. Cuddles. He rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping in his voice, "Oh dear me, Gasp, it is Ms. Cuddles. Nice try, Raph, come on out."
"How did she get here?" She went to reach out for the rabbit when it suddenly spoke. "No, Raphie, just wittle ol' me." The eyelids on the rabbit lowered showing an expression of anger. Kara froze, blinking down at it. "Oh geez." She let out a sound when Donnie grabbed her arm, dragging her behind him, grabbing his bust as well, shouting, "Oh my banana pancakes!" only to stumble and fall over.
"Woah, you ok?" She asked, moving to help him up.
"I don't know which is crazier, a talking puppet or Raph actually being right about something?" He went to reach out for her hand when Ms. Cuddles stood up, staring at them.
"Hehe, you're cooky, now give me a scream."
Kara wasn't liking the look on Ms. Cuddles squishy face.
"A scream? But you're so cute why would I.." Donnie hugged his bust when Ms. Cuddles grabbed his staff and activated the chainsaw.
"Woah!" Kara shouted, bringing out her own staff, blocking Ms. Cuddles attack. "Why does this thing know how to use your staff? Thought it was advanced tech?"
"I don't know!" He was now clinging to his bust.
"Ha! I knew you didn't know everyth-oh geez!" She was bending backwards trying to hold off Ms. Cuddles. "Why are you strong? You're made of cotton!"
"The big, red one gave me quite a few screams as well as the one from work. The more screams I get the bigger and stronger I get. Now, scream for me!" Ms. Cuddles raised the chainsaw but when she went to strike Kara rolled out of the way, ending up slicing the head off Donnie's bust in the process.
"I'm not entirely trained to fight you so..goodbye!" Kara grabbed Donnie's hand, dragging him behind her to flee, Donnie letting out a scream in the process. "Help! Help! Help!"
"Thank you for my screeeam~" Ms. Cuddles giggled, already growing, chasing after them.
Kara did her best to protect herself and Donnie but with lack of experience and proper training it was only a matter of time before they were caught and tied up with April, though Kara was tied up by herself. It wasn't long til Mikey and Leo joined them, Ms. Cuddles now the size of a tower. "Geez, you guys sure do scream a lot."
"So, when she kept growing, that wasn't a clue to stop screaming?" Leo stared at his little brother.
"Sorry, but hopefully Raph heard me." Mikey pouted.
"ASTRONAUTS heard you!" Leo rolled his head, mouthing his words for emphasis.
"And they were such lovely screams too." Ms. Cuddles had to hunch over, being taller than the room they were in. "But there's one more person I need to scream for me to be complete." She tilted her head towards Kara, her eyes glowing red and staticy before moving to stare at her.
Kara stared at her with wide eyes feeling one of her ears slither around her body like a snake. "Now scream." She was jerked forward staring into the lifeless eyes of the possessed toy. She bit her lip to keep herself from making any noise, shaking her head. It wasn't til she began throwing her around the room and causing her pain that it was becoming a challenge.
"Why can't we just scream for help now? Oh. Right. We scream, she grows, not smart. Got it but we have to help Kara somehow." They watched helplessly as Kara was slammed on the ground, letting out a gasp as the wind was knocked out of her all of them now starting to struggle against their bondage.
"I'm really starting to think this prank was a bad idea.." Mikey said with worry in his voice watching Kara get hurt.
"Hold off a little longer, Kara, we'll help you as soon as we can!" Donnie said trying to keep his voice level.
"Ready to scream yet?" Ms. Cuddles brought her limp body close to her, letting out a giggle.
"Knock...k-knock.." Kara muttered, letting out a cough once she was finally able to breath, blood dripping down from the side of her mouth from how hard she bit down.
"What? Whose there?"
"Me."
"Me who?"
"You'll never get a scream from little ol' me." Kara tilted her head upwards, one of her eyes closed in pain but began to chuckle making Ms. Cuddles eyes widen. "No! I hate giggling!" She threw Kara out of the room, flying into the center of their home landing onto the top of the half pike and slid down right at Raph's feet.
"Kara? Kara! What happened to you?" He bent down, bringing her into his arms noticing there was bruising on her arms, legs, and blood coming from her bottom lip. He placed his hand over her mouth and was relieved to feel her still breathing. It wasn't til he heard something large land behind him that he tensed up.
"Hehe, you're such a silly billy." Ms. Cuddles gave him a wide, creepy smile, giggling like a maniac.
Raph stared up at the massive Ms. Cuddles. "Woah, you're huge. Uh I see you met Mikey. Wait, where is everyone?" Raph kept Kara close while looking around the room, worried.
"Hehehe don't you worry about them."
"Look, sure y-you scared me at first but now, now I see you're just an average, everyday, ginormous bully! And Raph ain't afraid of bullies!" Raph grinned at Ms. Cuddles.
"We'll see about that!" Ms. Cuddles began her attack, Raph clutching Kara close to his plastron as he jumped up to dodge only to see her flying at him, butt first. "Uh-oh." He curled around Kara to protect her as he was thrown against the half pike. "Gotta find somewhere to keep you safe.." He didn't have time to think though for Ms. Cuddles ripped the pipe off the wall and aimed at them, spewing the water at them. Raph started flailing around trying to keep his footing that he was running up the half pike only to fall forward, landing on his side to not hurt Kara and flew up in the air, landing inside the basketball basket. With the momentum Raph flew Kara floated out of his arms and was free falling towards the ground. He struggled to get free but was tangled in the net. He squeezed his eyes shut thinking this was the end of her but when he didn't hear anything he looked over to see his dad with Kara in his arms.
"Hahaha! Look at you, Red!" Splinter laughed.
"No! No giggles! I hate giggles! Stop giggling!" Ms. Cuddles glared at him aiming the water at him but he jumped out of the way, landing on top of Raph. "No one roughs up my family or interrupts my TV regime. You made a powerful enemy, rabbit." Splinter narrowed his eyes down at the plush toy.
Ms. Cuddles jumped at them, kicking at Splinter, who jumped into the air and out of the way but Ms. Cuddles grabbed his tail and threw him at the wall. Looking down at the unconscious teen in his arms he rolled midair so his feet would plant on the wall and pushed himself off, towards Ms. Cuddles making contact with a powerful kick to it's face then slammed his foot down onto it's stomach, sending it down to the ground but not before it landed on Raph, freeing him, both dropping on to the floor. Raph had part of Ms. Cuddles tail in his mouth and he immediately spat it out while wiping away at his tongue, going, "Whhhyyyy?"
"Oooo, someone has a case of cotton mouth." Splinter said beside Raph, Kara down, laughing.
Raph noticed Ms. Cuddles beginning to shrink from Splinter's laughing. "Wait, she's getting smaller."
"Stoooop! You're just like those kids on my show! Their giggles steal my power!" Ms. Cuddles was getting angry, launching herself at them and throwing punches only for Raph to use a skateboard to hold her back. "Keep at it, pops! Laughing shrinks her!"
"How can I laugh when that bunny is so ferocious!" Splinter only laughed louder which caused her to shrink more. "I'm sorry I couldn't say that with a straight face."
Ms. Cuddles glanced over at Kara noticing she was moving slightly and threw herself towards her. "I can still get a scream from you!"
"Oh, no you don't!" Raph slammed the skateboard into her, throwing her at the half pike, now her normal size, she dropping down at their feet with a squeak.
"Oh, just don't put me back in my trunk and send me back to the kids." Ms. Cuddles backed up, cowering away.
"Heh-heh, hey, that's a great idea. So great I wanna scream about how great it is." Splinter bonked Raph on the head. "But I won't. So long, pal," Raph tossed the puppet back in her trunk, locking it, "Let's be friends for-never." Both of them chuckled at his play on words. Hearing his brothers and April call for help he and his dad looked at each other before going to find them.
Once they were all free Donnie immediately ran out the room in search of Kara, the others right behind him, all of them gathered around her.
When Kara started coming to the first thing she felt the feeling of her body moving. Blinking her eyes open the first thing she saw was green before fully opening them to adjust her sight. She lifted her head some to see she was outside and indeed moving, the city scene from rooftop passing her by. "Wha.."
"Hey, guys, she's awake." Leo said before stopping, everyone gathering around him.
"What's going on?" She winced when she tried to move and looked down to see she was piggy-backing on Leo noticing there was bruising on her body and instantly remembered Ms. Cuddles. "I guess you guys beat her?"
"It was all Raph and Splinter." April said, pointing at the big guy.
"Eh, it wasn't that big of a deal once I realized she was nothing but a bully." Raph rubbed the back of his head but blinked when Kara gave him a smile. "I knew you could do it. I'm proud of you, Raphael." Raph's cheeks were almost as red as his mask when Donnie floated into view with April on his back, "We should get you home and in bed. The meds we gave you should be kicking in soon."
Kara nodded, leaning her head on Leo's shoulder. "So that's why I feel so tired." She said at almost a whisper, her body not hurting as much.
Leo glanced at her and smiled, then nodded to his brothers all of them heading back to her place. Finding her keys in her pocket, Leo and Mikey entered first then the others, all of them getting a good look at her home.
"Huh, it feels cozy in here." Mikey said with a smile walking over to her wall of pictures. "Aw, she's so cute as a kid." He noticed there were a lot of her as a child with a rather tall, muscled lady in dirty overalls and with farm animals.
"Weird, you'd think there'd be some of her mom, dad, and sister." April commented, standing beside him.
Donnie and Leo helped the now sleeping Kara into bed, making sure not to disturb her. Donnie placed the covers over her and smiled, remembering how brave she was trying to protect him only for it to drop when he realized he missed the opportunity to show what he was capable of.
"Come on, bro, she's safe now." Leo patted him on the shoulder, walking away to join his brothers. Donnie sighed and soon followed behind him, locking the door behind Leo then climbing out the window