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Of Hearts and Shells: 50 Shades of Green	By : prplraven Category: +S through Z > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Views: 2973 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: TMNT and all associated characters are property of their original creators. This fic is for entertainment only, and I receive no monies from this publication.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Donnie peered through the microscope and nodded to himself, satisfied that he had indeed precisely replicated the original lightning-altered mutagen. He transferred small amounts of it to a number of test tubes, stoppered them, and set them in the centrifuge to spin. And there it was, the beginning of April’s return to humanity.
He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel… The last few weeks, having April as a turtle at his side, in his mind, as his lover—they’d been the best weeks of his life. And when he developed this retro-mutagen for her… that was it. She would go back to being a human, and they would go back to being incompatible. Would they even be able to synergize as different species? The thought that they wouldn’t be able to connect anymore killed him… to lose the special bond, the intimate understanding they’d found of each other… to never again feel what she was feeling, what they felt together… That was more devastating than the fact he’d never be able to have sex with her again.
There was, he supposed, the off-chance than she would want to stay a turtle. But she had a life as a human to return to topside. Her school, her father… Casey. Ah, Christ… he was going to lose her to Casey after all. He could see it now, Jones picking her up on the rebound, so to speak. What you really need, Red, is a man with the right equipment, he would say, silhouetted by the setting sun in a way that the blade of his hockey stick stuck upward from his pelvis suggestively. Ugh, Donnie felt like he needed to run bleach through his brain after that one. He hoped he could bury the thought down far enough that April wouldn’t pick up on it the next time they merged minds.
Still, asking her to remain a mutant… he couldn’t do that. It wasn’t responsible, and it wasn’t fair. Her former life had been taken from her, and it was up to him to restore it to her. Part of him screamed at him to be more selfish, keep her down in the dark with him… it would be easy; just lie about being able to make the retro-mutagen. But he pushed that thought away as well. It was stupid anyway… an obvious lie like that would stick out like a sore thumb when she saw his thoughts, more than Jones’s hockey stick… Stop, thought… go away.
He stared at the centrifuge spinning. That was it, then… the end was coming, and time was of the essence from here on out.
April exited Splinter’s study, looking a bit forlorn. She caught Donnie’s eye and came to sit next to him in his lab. “So,” he said, “I guess no more soul-smooching for us.”
She sighed. “No. I suppose Splinter has a point… we have no way to guarantee our safety when we’re that deep, and with no way to know when to pull out of it.. yeah, it’s dangerous. Which is a real shame, because that… wow.”
“I know, right?” He shifted her onto his lap, embracing her tightly. “How is this ever going to be enough again?”
She set her forehead against his, eyes closed. “This is so ridiculous… I can’t hardly feel you at all!”
He reached a hand up to stroke her cheek, wiping a tear from her eye with his thumb. “Hey…” She opened her eyes and a comforting wave of togetherness spilled over them. Better now? he asked mentally. She nodded, reaching a hand up to stroke his head. She touched one of the cuts left from Shredder’s tekko-gaki, winced and drew her hand back to her own head as the stab of pain from it struck her as well.
We share the pleasure, we share the pain… she reasoned.   Donnie nodded. He hadn’t had time to feel a thing when Shredder had knocked him out; she wouldn’t have felt anything in the way that he’d felt the wind knocked out of her. Splinter’s right, then... it’s an extra liability to use it in a fight if we both get hurt, synergy breaking aside. She hopped off his lap and walked behind him to examine the wounds. I wish I’d’ve felt these sooner; I could have cleaned them. She regarded the twin slashes critically. Donnie saw through her eyes that they ran nearly from his right temple to the crown of his head, and were still dull red, only partially scabbed over since the battle. These probably needed stitches… it might be too late now, but I can at least try to butterfly them together…
Donnie found himself perplexed at her first-aid abilities, first with Baxter and now with himself, and sought gently through her mind, like flipping through the pages of a book—ah, there. She’d taken a first-aid course for extra credit in a health class a couple years earlier… she hadn’t really needed the extra credit, overachiever as she was, so much as she’d had the feeling it would be a handy skill to know. And boy is it paying off now, she thought at him as she fetched a bowl of water and a clean cloth and started carefully dabbing at the wounds.
She was exceedingly gentle, especially since she felt the same pain he did if she blotted too hard at the long rents in the flesh. She once dabbed upon a very sensitive area. He grit his teeth against it, but she hissed in empathetic pain. Sorry!
You don’t have to be in synergy for this… you can step out again and save yourself the pain, he insisted. No point in both of us feeling this…
It’s not bad, and I don’t want to be alone out there… it’s so cold!
He understood. He didn’t want to be without her, either. It wasn’t as intense as the emotional warmth of the spiritual plane, but at least they could feel some of those calming, warm emotions from each other through their bond. Even the memory of that place and their souls’ touch brought some of the comfort of it back to them, a balm to the loss of their access to it.
I’m going to have Dad bring us some more medical supplies… you guys are really running low. April finished cleaning Don’s gashes and carefully pushed the flesh together as she applied medical tape to hold them shut. I hope they don’t scar…
And? he jabbed at her, If I’m horribly mutilated for life?
She giggled a little. You’ll look like someone to be reckoned with… My brave warrior! She traced the burn mark on his shell. He looked at it through her vision… it was remarkable how close to the Hamato crest it was, just on pure chance, the way he’d fused the mutagen containers together, resembling a five-petaled flower. It was still off by a few details… It was kind of a pity…
Well, now that you’re all patched up, April suggested, maybe you could help me with—
“DONNIE!! APRIL!!” The two of them blinked at Raph’s angry shout, and they both came quickly to the same conclusion.
“—cleaning,” they finished aloud simultaneously.
“Sorry, Raph!” April called, packing the medical supplies back in their box.
“We’re on it!” Donnie added. They looked back at each other, sharing an embarrassed giggle, and she followed him out of his lab.
The train car was, as they’d left it, a disastrous mess. The furniture was turned over, some of it looking decidedly worse for wear. The mattress was folded over on itself, sheets torn off and draped over the upended couch and wadded up on the floor, cushions strewn everywhere. A rank, hormonal smell hung in the air. April wrinkled her nose at it as they entered. “Ohmigod, what the hell were we doing?!” she wondered again.
Donnie looked around, setting down their bucket of clean water, and wilted. Everything was filthy. The task ahead of them was daunting. And for having had sex for 15 hours, he was a bit jealous that he hadn’t gotten to feel any of the pleasure from it. True, the soul-touch was much more fulfilling, but nonetheless, he felt a bit cheated.
“Okay, this one, I think I get…” April said, leaning tauntingly over the overturned armchair, exposing her backside openly to him. He felt something swelling in his nether-regions, but tried to put it out of his mind as she stood again and pointed at a splotch on the arched ceiling. “…but how did you manage that?!”
Donnie stared at the stain, perplexed despite being kind of grossed out. It seemed to defy physics. “What the fuck…? How…?”
“That one’s all yours , tall guy,” April smirked, clapping him on the shoulder congratulatorily. She herself grabbed the wadded sheets, grimaced, and took them out onto the platform to shake them out over the tracks. They shed a plethora of crusty white crumbs.
It took them nearly three hours, but for their efforts, the abandoned subway car was absolutely shining and spotless. April was still looking things over critically. “I wonder if we could scrape up some fabric somewhere for curtains… and maybe some throw pillows…”
“Curtains? Why?!” Donnie scoffed. “Not like there’s that much light down here to block out…”
April rolled her eyes. “Just for comfort. You know, to make the place feel more… homey.”
“Homey? It’s a subway car. That we have sex in. Granted, kind of a lot.”
“Exactly! There’s no reason we shouldn’t make it comfortable, as long as we’re in here so much.”
Don looked at her through narrowed eyes. “This is one of those ‘girl things’ I keep hearing about, isn’t it?”
She stuck her beak in the air at him. “You’ll like it when I’m done.”
“I’m not the one that has to like it—this is Raph’s place, remember, for as much as we use it... Anything too foofy, he’ll tear it out, I promise you that.”
“I’m not saying it needs lace trimmings and doilies… just, ya know, some touches to make it less… subway car.”
Donnie sighed. “You’re wasting your time…”
“And you are gonna be eating those words. Now c’mere and help me with this.” She bent as if to pick up the green plush armchair.
“Wh—what’re you doing now?” he chuckled at her. “You want to wreck the place again and start over?”
“Well, I figure we’ve earned a break, and this did look fun…”
“Fine, once.” He rolled his eyes bending to help her turn the chair over.
As they returned to the lair, Donnie swung by his lab to rotate out the mutagen, but stopped when he pulled the first test tube out of the centrifuge. It hadn’t separated at all. “What the…” he said looking around, and declaring, “Agghh,” as he found the plug lying on the floor. He breathed an annoyed sigh… there was a few hours wasted. Either he or April must have caught the cord on their foot or something as they were leaving. He stuck it back in the outlet, and the centrifuge began humming merrily again.
Leo approached as Don was on his way out of the lab. “Hey… You guys coming on patrol tonight?”
“Yeah, of course… why?” Leo pointed to the tape across Don’s head. “Oh… ‘s fine.”
“Good. We still have mutagen around the city we need to track down, now that we’re not fighting the Kraang or Shredder. Seems like a nice, relaxing change, actually…”
Donnie gave a little laugh. “I know, right? Just roaming around looking for mutagen after all this is like a vacation!”
“By the way… Casey’s coming. You might want to thank him.”
Donnie looked at him questioningly. “What? What for?”
“You guys were a little too involved with each other to thank him for taking care of the mutagen the other night. You were pretty much ignoring everyone at that point…”
“Oh. Right… I guess he does deserve some credit. I gotta admit, the catnip bombs of his were pretty ingenious…” Even so, the fact didn’t keep Donnie from stewing about Jones even being along… Yes, he retrieved the mutagen while the rest of them were busy fighting, and he did great against the Foot-bots and TigerClaw… but Don had to wonder if he would have done any of it had April’s restoration not been on the line. After all, Casey probably had the most to gain from April’s restored humanity… or maybe Donnie was just being jealous of his rival again. He didn’t care. He was allowed some vices, wasn’t he? After all, the shining star of his world would run right into Casey’s arms as soon as she was human again.
God, he hadn’t even refined the first batch of the mutagen yet, and it felt like he’d lost her. Were she and Casey really fated to be together instead? And how could that be, when he and April were similar enough in soul to create a synergy? Or maybe it was all owing to April’s psychic abilities—maybe she could synergize with Jones if she tried. That would mean there was nothing special between them… that it was just luck that they’d synergized. Surely not… but the thought of it broke his heart into a million pieces, and then took those pieces and stomped on them.
He wished she wasn’t in training with Splinter at the moment. The touch of her mind would have been such a comfort…
He plunked down beside Leo on the bench before the TV, pensive.
“By the way, you ‘considered’ what we discussed earlier?” Leo interrupted his thoughts… and thanks, Leonardo, for throwing acid on that wound…
“Yeah,” Donnie replied simply.
“…and?”
Don let out a wearied sigh. “Leave it alone, man… We’ve only got a few weeks left together, and then it’ll be a non-issue.”
“It’s gotten worse, hasn’t it?”
“Not that much,” he said optimistically. “Maybe it’s ebbing off. Maybe she’s getting a handle on it.”
Leo stared him down. “Really, Donnie? Fifteen hours?”
Donnie glared at his brother. “Don’t talk like you have any idea what happened there. Until you ascend two states of being with someone, Leo, you don’t have the right.”
“So, you weren’t having sex…?”
He made a number of choked-off syllables. “I am so done talking to you right now.” He rose and stalked off in a fouler mood than before.
Figuring it would help him blow off some steam, he headed for the dojo to practice his kata. It did seem to help, a little bit anyway, to burn off some of the venom percolating through his system. His moves were powerful and accurate, fueled by channeled rage and frustration. He aimed a spin-jab at their training dummy, stabbing it with brutal force. He had every right to be upset, didn’t he? With April all but guaranteed to leave him, and Leo nettling him about her so-called aggression. He struck the dummy again with the butt of his staff, and gave it a swinging kick for good measure. And then there was the fact that when April left, she would probably go right back to dating motherfucking Casey. He rammed the dummy with an over-powered jab to its face, coupled with a mighty, wrathful yell. The blow was so strong, the metal ring holding it up broke. The dummy was sent airborne across the dojo, landing with a flump. Donnie groaned; now he’d have to weld the ring back together. Could this day possibly get any shittier?!
April emerged from Splinter’s study as Donatello was hanging the dummy back on its hook, ring restored. He felt instantly warmed by her smile. Finally… He sought to sink into her comforting mental embrace, opened the door between them and… felt it shut in his face. He blinked and tried again, but couldn’t seem to make a connection with her. He looked querulously over at her. “Are you blocking me?!”
“Sorry, Donnie… it’s just… Casey’s going to be here soon, and you know… it’d be kind of rude of us to be in synergy again when he gets here. I think it weirds him out.”
“April…” he started, visibly hurt by the sudden rejection just when he needed her to be receptive.
She opened a bit to him, giving him a mental caress. After the patrol, okay? Besides, I’ve got homework I need to get done. Then she shut him out again.
He gawped after her as she went to lay on the tire swing and read. He grumbled and dragged himself off to poke at something or other in his lab. “This day is so fired…”
Donatello sat on the steps. There was surprisingly little to do in his lab for the time being, and not enough time to start on anything else, and now he was just flat-out bored. Casey arrived, doing a hand-plant and swinging himself over the gates. “ ’sup, Donnie?” he said cordially.
“Eh, ya know. Stuff,” Donnie said downheartedly. “Oh, and, uh.. good job the other day with the fight and getting the mutagen and all.”
“No prob. Hey, April!” he called to the turtle on the tire swing.
“One sec… almost done here,” she hailed in return.
Donnie stared at her, head in his hand. He did his best not to sigh, but Casey picked up on his mood anyway. “Seriously, what’s with you today?” he said lowly. “You look like someone ran over your cat.”
He kept staring at April.   Casey followed his gaze. “You’ll take care of her, won’t you, Jones? Once she’s human again?”
“ ‘Course I will! Not that April needs taking care of… I mean, it’s more like her pulling my ass out of the fire most of the time! …Don’t tell her I said that. But what… “ His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. “Are you giving up on her?!”
Donnie looked at him forlornly. “We don’t have much time left together. If I can make her retro-mutagen with no complications, maybe a few weeks. Then she goes back to her normal life on the surface. I just want to be sure there’s someone there to watch her back, ya know? Someone to be there for her, make her happy, keep her safe from the Kraang…”
“And why aren’t you gonna be there for that?!” A shocked look came to his eyes, and he dropped his voice below a whisper. “You’re not planning on…?!”
Don blinked. “Huh? OH. Nonono… I’ll be around, just not… as close.” He gave April another mournful but loving look. “She’s a flower. She deserves a life in the sun. Not the sewer.”
April closed her book at last and ambled over to join them. “So, what’re you guys talking about?”
“Erm… uh…” started Donnie brilliantly.
”We were just talking about what I could do to improve Donnie’s new shell-brand. My aunt got me a wood-burning kit for my birthday, thinks a new hobby will keep me out of trouble. Should work like a champ on turtle-shell. I figure a detail here and there, and I can make it look just like Splinter’s house symbol, right? Totally hot.” He held his hand out expectantly. April, fan me.”
“What??!” April snapped, utterly offended.
“What?!” Donnie echoed.
“Your fan, little miss genius; it has the design on it! I need to see it!”
April blushed a little beneath her green skin. “Ohhh. Right.” She handed her tessen over to Casey.
Jones compared the burn mark on Donnie’s shell and the Hamato Clan sigil. “Yep, just need to fill this bit in a little more, and draw in the points and half circles at the top… Maybe do the circle bordering it, but I don’t know if it’ll all fit… I need one of those circle-drawing things…”
“A compass?” April volunteered.
“No, compasses are for pointing direction. I need a thing to draw a circle with!”
“That’s also called a compass, Casey, you dimwit!”
“Am I seriously considering letting you do this?” Donnie pondered. “How do I know you won’t just screw it up? Or write ‘Dorkatello’ across my shell?”
Casey gave him a winning gapped grin. “Trust me. If school has been good for anything, it’s given me plenty of time to doodle on my notebooks.”
April backed him up. “This is true… granted, most of it is band logos and skulls and hockey gear…”
“I can line it out in pencil first. And April can watch and make sure I’m not screwing you up.”
Donnie stopped to think it over. Shredder had already mistaken the scorch mark for the Hamato no kamon, it may as well actually be the crest in full. April would be supervising, and wouldn’t approve of any nonsense on Jones’s part. And of course, the mark would shed away after a while. He actually couldn’t find any point to object to. “All right, you’re on.”
“Sweet! How’s Saturday?”
Donnie looked to April. She nodded approval. “Saturday it is.” He paused. “Should I be apprehensive at how eager you are do to this?”
Casey gave a chuckle. “I never turn down a chance to burn stuff.” April rolled her eyes.
“Guys,” Leo called, approaching the steps out, “patrol time. Get a move on!”
The three of them rose. Donnie snagged the mutagen detector from his lab and joined the rest of the group on the way out, catching up with Raph and Casey. “Nice cover,” he whispered to Casey.
“I got your back, man. Besides, I was gonna bring it up anyway. Never miss a chance to burn stuff.”
The group trekked east across the rooftops. Casey, though he was getting better at making roof-to-roof jumps, opted to stay on the ground and follow on his skates. Though Donnie had managed to make a map to predict the general area the mutagen containers had fallen on, given the flight path of the Kraang ship and the scatter plot of the containers they had found so far, the swath of city to be covered was still miles wide. Donnie insisted on working the margins inward, as this would provide less interference for his mutagen Geiger-counter. Leo had wanted to attack the bull’s-eye of the targeted area first in hopes of picking up a greater quantity of the flasks faster, but he’d assented to the more logical, methodical approach in the end, as the confusion often netted them nothing but evenings of frustration.
On top of that, twice now, a blip they had been unable to pin down one night had simply gone off the radar the next. “Maybe it‘s just Donnie’s hunk-of-junk tracker flipping out,” Raph suggested.
“It’s not the tracker… it’s still picking up the radiation signatures just fine,” Donnie replied. “Someone else could be picking them up.”
Leo looked concerned. “Like who?”
“The Kraang?” Mikey guessed, but Donnie shook his head.
“The Kraang don’t seem to care about the lost mutagen, and they’re pretty free with it… they can just harvest more from the kraathatragons. Plus, the more mutagen out there, the more potential mutations,” Don explained, crossing the rooftop, looking only at the tracker. “It’s this way…”
“Casey, hang a left at the next corner,” Leo relayed over the phone.
“Left turn, check,” the tinny voice on the other end copied.
“So… bored…” Mikey complained.
Raph chimed in, “I’m with Mikey. This is the worst scavenger hunt ever. Are we even getting close yet?”
The blips on the mutagen tracker increased their speed and pitch as Donnie approached the opposite side of the building. “Yes, matter of fact. There should be one right around here!”
“South side of the building; Donnie thinks he’s got something,” Leo directed Casey.
Casey turned the corner. It led to what looked like a lowly-trafficked side-street. He looked around, not spotting it immediately, but then seeing a slight greenish glow coming from the curb. He knelt and pulled the cylinder of mutagen out of the storm drain. He was about to notify Leo that he’d found it when an alarm sounded from a small grocery shop on the main street. Casey reached back and drew his hockey stick. “Well! Maybe tonight’s gonna see some action after all!” He skidded around the corner, mutagen under his arm, in time to see something furry retreating around the following corner.

“What’s he doing?!” Raph hollered, looking over the ledge.
April appeared next to him. “Casey, you idiot!”
“What is it?!” Leo ran up next to her.
“He just went chasing someone around the corner, carrying a container of mutagen!”
“And if it breaks, he’ll be mutated!” Mikey reasoned.
“Let’s—“ Leo started, breaking off his order as a lanky, furred figure appeared on the roof two buildings ahead of them. It appeared to be carrying a number of bags, and judging by the green gleam in its eyes, it had spotted them. Surprisingly, it raised an arm in a greeting wave.
“Oh, no! We’re too late!” Mikey fretted, but April interrupted his panic.
“No… that’s not Casey!”
Raph shot her a look. “How can you tell?”
She pointed as the mutant put a foot up on the ledge of the building it stood on. “For one thing, Casey doesn’t wear gum boots!”
“Come on,” Leo yelled, throwing his grappling hook at a billboard across the street.
Casey rounded the corner. He didn’t know what he was expecting, exactly, but a seven-and-a-half foot seagull wasn’t it. He swallowed, then dropped into a fighting stance. “Freeze, creep!” The gull regarded him with one eye. Casey swung his stick, one armed. The giant bird mutant caught it in a ham-sized fist, yanked it out of his hand, and threw it down the street. Completely nonplussed, the gull began climbing the fire escape behind it, revealing a large duffel bag slung over each shoulder.
“Rock, Frito, hurry it up!” a voice hollered from the rooftop as the sound of approaching sirens reached them.
Casey furrowed his brow and slammed his mask down. “Okay, if that’s the way you wanna pl—wha..?” He felt a tug at the container under his arm. He grabbed the end of the container before it was pulled away. He turned to see the furry, black-masked face of a very short mutant. “Drop it, pipsqueak!” Casey demanded.
The little raccoon yanked firmly on the container. “You shouldn’t have that!” it said in the high-pitched voice of a young boy. “It’s dangerous!”
Casey lifted the canister high in the air with both hands. The raccoon came off the ground with it, hanging off the other metal cap and looking shocked about it. He kicked at Casey, not managing to reach him. Casey shook the canister around, the little mutant flopping around like a rag doll, but refusing to give up. Letting go with one hand, the hockey player reached behind him for his baseball bat. The raccoon boy looked threatened and flinched, but didn’t relinquish his hold on the container.
“Frito, drop it and get up here!” called the voice from the rooftop.
“You too, Jones,” Leo echoed.
Casey looked up incredulously. “Wh—seriously?”
“Come on, the police are gonna be here any second.”
Grudgingly, Casey retrieved his hockey stick and followed the raccoon kid up the nearest fire escape. No sooner than he had cleared the roof than two patrol cars skidded to a stop outside the grocery store. He looked around to see a total of eight mutants on the roof. It was a decidedly awkward feeling.
“Love to talk with you all, but we gotta ditch the heat first… Can you meet us there in a few?” The scrawny cat mutant, wearing gum boots and blue jeans pointed, to an apartment complex that stuck out from the rest of the surrounding area.
“Not a problem,” Leo smirked. “Guys, move out.”
“Aww yea!” Mikey was on the move immediately, leaping to the next roof. “Finally something to do!” The rest of the group was off after him moments later.
As they ran, the huge white shape of the seagull flapped effortlessly past them, the mutant cat and Frito clutching its legs.
“Damn,” Raph commented, rather awed, “I didn’t think that guy would even get in the air…”
The route was naturally shorter as the gull flew, but it didn’t take long for the ninja crew to reach the building. Even Casey was keeping up, managing the leaps from roof to roof on his skates admirably, though when it came to the tall business building, with its lack of external fire escape, he had to call for an assist, much to his shame. He clung, chagrinned, to Raph’s shell as the turtle hoisted them up the side of the building. “Jones… you weigh… a fucking ton!” Raphael panted.
“This isn’t exactly a picnic for me either, ya know, being strapped to you like this… it’s embarrassing. Can’t you go any faster?”
“Yeah, hurry up, slowpokes!” Mikey jeered, swinging past them.
“Come on, Raph, you’re always last!” Donnie added, running along the side of the building, April following on his heels with a giggle.
Raph growled aggressively. “Enough is enough!” He grabbed Casey by his shoulder padding and bodily threw him the last few yards to the top of the building.
Casey didn’t have time to react outside of, “What the f—WHOA!!” as he was pitched onto the roof. “Ooomph! Goddammit, Raph!”
Raphael smirked as he hauled himself over the side. “You wanted faster.”
“Warn a guy when you’re gonna do that!” Casey seethed at him.
“Raph!” Leo chided, heaping on the patronization for show. “What did I tell you about throwing team members?!”
The cat approached them, the seagull following him. The little raccoon hung back. “Holy shit, you guys are fast! And the jumping…! I kinda thought turtles were… ya know…”
“…awesome?” Raph finished.
“…intimidating?” tried Leo
“…incredibly handsome?” Mikey added charmingly.
The cat chuckled. “And what’s with all the weapons?” He stopped himself. “I’m sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself and forgetting my manners. You can call me Cav. The big one there is Rock.”
“His name is ‘Rock?’” Leo queried.
“RAWK!” screeched Rock. “RAWK! RAWK!”
Cav gave a noncommittal gesture with his head. “ ‘s all he can say. Writing’s also kind of out for him. Seems pretty intelligent, though, and doesn’t mind being our mode of transportation most of the time. And the kid back there is Frito.”
“And I’m Leonardo. My brothers, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello, and our friends April and Casey.”
“And you’re all, what, samurai, then?” Cav queried.
“Ninjas. Samurai wear armor,” Donnie corrected.
“Huh. Well, whatever… Are you hungry? We’d be happy to share with our new-found mutant brethren.” He nodded charmingly toward April. “Er... and sistren.” Rock dropped the duffel bags from his shoulders and Cav began rooting through them. “Let’s see what we got here… Chili, beans, peaches, cereal… What do ninja turtles eat, anyway?”
“Pizza, mostly,” Mikey volunteered.
“Pizza?!” Cav snorted derisively. “What lap of luxury do you live in?!”
Casey cut in. “Are we all just ignoring the fact that these guys just robbed that supermarket?!”
“You do what you have to do to live, kid,” Cav told him flatly, popping the top off a tin of catfood. “Ahh, salmon…” He licked at it. “Even if we had money, you think we could just walk through the front doors without everyone running and screaming? Even when you’re as cute as Frito, people freak out at mutants. It’s not like a mutant can show up at a soup kitchen. Especially three days in a row, trust me, I tried that one… barely escaped with my life.“
“It’s still stealing… just because you need it doesn’t make it right… Leo, back me up, man,” Casey begged.
Leo looked back at him with a tight-lipped expression. “It may not be the most honorable course, but sometimes, there just aren’t better options. We’re lucky enough to have Master Splinter’s benefits… others aren’t so fortunate.”
The whiskers on one side of Cav’s face rose as he chuckled. “Kafka’s gonna love you!” He turned back to the one human on the roof. “If it’s any consolation to you… Casey, was it?... we only take what we need, and we never hit the same place twice. And these places aren’t going to be bankrupted by losing a couple hundred dollars in canned goods. They have insurance for that. They don’t lose a thing.”
“Hey, runt! Get off!” Raph’s voice sounded angrily as Frito attempted to pull the mutagen away from him. Frito skittered backward as the turtle bent down, baring his teeth at the young mutant.
Cav rolled his eyes. “Frito, leave it alone! It’s theirs.”
“It’s dangerous! We gotta get rid of all that stuff!”
Cav only replied with a nonchalant “Heh” from one raised lip.
Donnie half-knelt beside the raccoon. “We know it’s dangerous, Frito. That’s why we’re out here, picking it all up. Then I take it to my lab and make a retro-mutagen out of it.”
Frito wrinkled his forehead. “What’s that?”
“It’s … a medicine that turns mutants back into people,” he tried to explain in simple terms. “…or whatever else they were before.”
Frito’s eyes lit up. “Can I have some?”
Donnie gave him a sad look. “We don’t have any more right now, and it takes a lot of mutagen to make the medicine, and it takes a really long time. And right now, I’m making a special kind to fix April.”
“Because she’s your girlfriend,” Frito deduced. “Then are you gonna make some to make you a person again too? So you can go get married?”
Donnie sighed and looked away. The kid was cute, but boy, did he hit on a sensitive subject. “No… the rest of us were turtles to start with.”
“Maybe if she kisses you, you’ll turn into a prince!” he said in a conspiratorially loud stage-whisper.
Don whispered back, “I think that only works with frogs.” They both looked over at April, who was sitting against the building ledge. She looked back amusedly and stood. “Should I go for it?” The little raccoon nodded fervently, smiling ear to ear.
Donnie stood and sidled his way toward her, making a big show of being a ball of nerves. April obligingly leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He blinked. “I don’t think it worked!” he reported. “Maybe you better try the other side.” He turned his head, and April planted a kiss on that cheek as well. “No? Oh well… I guess we’re gonna have to—“ He turned to face her and pressed his beak into hers as she did the same and they kissed deeply. April lifted one leg at the knee, and Donnie dipped her low before setting her back on her feet. Frito was in hysterics, laughs mixed with the occasional raccoon chitter. Rock, watching, also emitted a loud laugh-like cry. Donatello shrugged, sighing. “Sorry, kid… I tried.”
April swatted at him playfully. “You can’t turn into something you are already, silly turtle!” She added to Frito, “He’s always been a prince to me!”
Mikey clasped his hands under his chin. “That was so adorable!” he fawned. Raph motioned putting a finger down his throat.
Leo grinned flatly. “Okay, you two… if you’re done, it’s getting late; we need to head home.”
“Which way are you guys headed?” Cav asked.
“A bit south, mostly west,” Leo said, not revealing any specific details about the lair.
“Well, as long as we’re headed in the same direction, there’s someone along the way I’d like to introduce you to.” He discarded the empty catfood can on a corner of the roof, zipped the duffel bags again and helped Rock shoulder them, then picked up his own bags. “Follow us.” Cav and Frito grabbed onto the mutant gull’s legs again, and Rock took to the air.
Rock touched down on top of a long bank of row-houses in a residential neighborhood. Cav and Frito took the duffel bags from his shoulders. Rock made no indication that he was coming along. Casey arrived minutes later, having had to take an alternative route as soon as they’d run out of flat rooftops for him to skate on.
The cat mutant made some impressive leaps to the railing of a small balcony and then to a hedge. Frito, however, had no such catlike grace. He tossed the duffel down into the hedge and climbed down slowly, picking out footholds with his clawed toes and clinging for dear life as he reached for the next. In the next moment, though, he lost his footing and fell.
A turtle exploded out of the bushes, intercepting Frito’s fall and catching the raccoon kid in his arms. Raphael set the boy back on his feet. “What the fuck, Cav… letting the kid climb down a building by himself?! He’s gonna get himself killed!” Raph scolded as the other turtles emerged from their camouflaged hiding spots on roof-peaks, in trees, behind bushes.
Cav looked nonplussed. “I keep telling him he needs to learn to jump. He needs to be more independent.”
“So, you don’t actually care if he independently falls to his death… That’s assuring…”
“We learn by doing. He’ll learn by making mistakes.”
“Yeah, unless his mistakes kill him first… then he doesn’t learn a damn thing!” Raph snapped.
“It’s a rough world. He needs to learn to take care of himself, and as soon as possible,” Cav replied with a cool look. He pressed the doorbell twice, paused a moment, then pressed it again.
“At that, why didn’t you just have the gull land on the lawn?” Casey criticized. “Then he wouldn’t have had to climb down at all!”
“Rock… isn’t comfortable here. You’ll understand momentarily, I think.”
“Isn’t it late to visit someone?” Leo expressed a bit of concern.
“Ms. Nora’s become a bit of a night owl… she doesn’t mind the late-night visits, circumstances as they are. Ah,” he said as the door unlocked and swung partway open. Two cats dashed out. A third remained, arching and rubbing against the doorframe.
A hooded figure appeared in the low light. “Well! Hello, Macavity! I was hoping you’d visit again soon… we’re running out of the Tuna Vittles…” The voice was that of an aged woman.
“Hi, Mom,” Cav greeted, stepping through the door with his duffel and motioning for the others to come in as well. “I’ve brought some new friends for you to meet.”
The woman tsked. “I wish you had warned me… I could have cleaned!” She shut the door once everyone was inside (nudging the indecisive cat in with a foot), turned on a light that barely lit the small entryway, and drew the hood of her robe back, revealing a cat’s face. Her fur was a gray mackerel pattern, similar to Cav’s, and her eyes likewise yellow. “Now, look at you all! A whole turn of turtles!” She bent down as Frito scampered over to her. “Hello, Frito, darling. There’s fresh cookies in the cookie jar,” she smiled down to him, returning his eager hug. “Why don’t you bring them out so we can all have some?”
“You bet, Mrs. Jorginson!” The little raccoon immediately headed for the kitchen.
“Everyone, this is my mom, Nora.” Cav made introductions of the rest of the group rather hastily and then excused himself to the kitchen to unload one of the duffel bags into the cupboards.
Nora made herding motions at the group. “Well, come in, come in! Sit down! Macavity, would you put the kettle on?” Nora ushered everyone into her living room, which was furnished with a sofa and two chairs, and two large cat-palaces. Half a dozen cats occupied the two climbers, the top of the old television, and a bureau behind the couch. She instructed Casey and Mikey to pull chairs in from the dining set in the next room. Raph opted to sit on the stairs, as the place was quite cramped with all the company. His lap was instantly occupied by a calico cat.
“It’s always a pleasure to meet other mutants!“ Nora bubbled. “It’s difficult to find company when we’re forced to be recluses. You’re lucky to have a human friend.”
“Eh, Casey’s not bad, as allies go,” Leo replied. “Though if only we’d had the same pleasant experiences as you with mutants… about every other mutant we’ve encountered has had it in for us, with few notable exceptions.” He sought to change the subject. “So… Cav is your son?”
Nora laughed musically. “I’m ‘Mommy’ to all of my kitties. Macavity, or ‘Cav’ as he likes to call himself, is one of the many strays I took in. About, oh, sixteen years ago, I was taking him to the vet’s.   I had just taken him out of his cat carrier when something above us on the rooftops shattered, and we were splashed with this green glop…”
“Mutagen,” Donatello noted. “And judging by the time scheme, from the same batch that created us and Master Splinter.”
Nora nodded and continued. “I became… rather catlike, and he became rather humanlike. He’s an independent one… would rather be out on his own, of course… typical tomcat. But he does take care of us… me and his non-mutant brothers and sisters, that is. And he’s taken the other mutants under his wing… Frito and Rock and Kafka… Has he taken you to meet Kafka yet? He’s quite the character. Very intellectual fellow…”
Frito came around with the cookie jar, one already stuffed in his own mouth, as Cav brought around cups and saucers and a large kettle of tea. As Raph was last to get a cookie, Frito set the jar on the stairs and sat a couple steps up from the turtle. Raph regarded him out of the corner of his eye.
“Grizabella likes you,” Frito observed. “She doesn’t like anybody.” He reached down toward the elderly cat. The cat put her ears back and swatted at his hand.
“Yeah, well…” Raph replied, mollifying the cat with a scratch behind the ears, “that makes two of us.” After a moment of stony silence, he looked askance at the raccoon mutant and asked, “What kind of dumb name is ‘Frito’ anyway?”
Frito looked amused rather than insulted. “That’s not my real name anyway.”
“So what’s your real name?”
“It’s Jamal,” he said, bobbing his head for emphasis.
“Why ‘Frito’, then? D’you eat a lot of corn chips?”
“No… Cav says it’s because I’m a raccoon, so I have a bandit mask on.”
Raph stared at him for a long time. “I don’t get it.”
“Me neither,” Frito-Jamal said, shaking his head.
Raphael reached into his belt. “Look, the next time Cav tries to make you climb something, use these.” He handed over his climbing claws to the kid. “They’re a little big for a nine year-old, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Whoa…” Jamal marveled, slipping the claw onto his hand. It slid down to his wrist.
“Keep your weight against the wall. Then you jam this part into the wall, and pull yourself up or lower yourself down.”
“Cool!” The raccoon kid was instantly engrossed with the new equipment, clearly itching to get to a wall as soon as possible. Raph saw that he wasn’t going to get a thank you, though nor did he want the empty words of one. He stood, catching the cat and setting it on the floor as the others finished their conversation with Cav and Nora. Hands were shaken at the door again as everyone prepared to leave. April spoke aside with the elderly cat mutant for a moment, and the latter looked enchanted and motioned April to follow her up the stairs.
Cav opened the door and checked the street for movement before exiting, Frito tagging along and starting to use his new gift to scale the wall. He was up it in no time, despite struggling with the size of the grips. “Where’d he get those?!” the alley cat marveled.
Donatello looked to Raph. “You gave him your shuko spikes?”
“Don’t worry, you can make me more,” he said, clapping Donnie on the shoulder. “The kid needs ‘em more than I do.”
“Thanks… because I needed more work, you know…” Donnie grumbled.
“Aw, you’re welcome, man, anytime!” Raph teased.
Cav was talking to Leonardo again. “You know the bank on 32^nd street?”
“Yeah, we go by there a lot,” Leo nodded.
“If you wanna meet us there tomorrow, I’d like to take you to our home.”
Leo thought it over. On one hand, they had a mission. On the other, how many mutant allies did they have? In the end, he figured strengthening relations with new friends was the best option. “I think we can arrange that. See you there, about 9:00?”
“Nine it is! See you then, my friends!” With that, he scaled the building with a series of well-balanced leaps, though the gum boots did nothing for his stealth. He joined Rock and Frito. Rock crowed “RAWK!” down at them once and took off.
Donnie waited for April to emerge from the house, concealing himself in the shadow of the hedge. She appeared a couple minutes later, hugging Nora warmly in the doorway as she left. She picked Donnie out almost immediately, despite his excellent camouflage, and the two of them took to the roofs with the others.
“So what were you and Nora doing?” he asked.
April grinned excitedly. “She let me raid her scrap-basket!”
“Her what?” They jumped a roof together effortlessly.
“She quilts… didn’t you notice the one on the sofa, and the one on the wall?”
“…no?” Donnie wasn’t prepared for a pop quiz on Ms Jorginson’s décor..
“Well, she does… and she let me raid her scraps to make the curtains with.”
“You’re still planning that, are you? I’m telling you Raph’s just going to tear them out…”
“He won’t.”
“You’re gonna be upset.
“I am not!”
The two of them bickered about April’s little project nearly the whole way home, to the point where Raph snapped at them about it. “Blah blah BLAH! Do you guys ever shut up?! Jeez… I wish I had external ears so I could stick my fingers in ‘em…”
“Sorry, Raph!” They both apologized at the same time, without intending to.
Raph flinched. “And cut that out!!”
“That one was just an accident!” Donnie hollered back, somewhat apologetically.
It was nearly 2:00 before they reached the lair, having bid farewell to Casey at the turn to his apartment. Splinter appeared as he heard them return. “You are late! Where were you?”
“Sorry, Sensei,” Leo apologized for them all. “We met some new mutants who, I think, could be allies potentially, and we were getting to know them a bit.”
“More mutants… interesting. At least you did not bring them home with you this time.”
“No, Sensei… I don’t think you’d like meeting Cav or Nora in person… since… they’re cats.”
Splinter bristled reflexively, as Leo had predicted he would. “And you would be right!”
“…and there’s Rock, who’s a big seagull, but he’s non-verbal, and Frito, who’s a nine-year-old who’s been turned into a raccoon. We’re supposed to meet up with them tomorrow and meet some other mutant named Kafka.”
The giant rat nodded. “You must find out all you can about these new acquaintances. There are times when knowing your friend can be more critical than knowing your foe. But now… you have all had a very long day. Let us sleep.”
Donnie sought April out as she was laying out her futon in the dojo space. She gave him a weary look, but smiled. “Not tonight, dear one…”
Donnie sat beside her with a disappointed expression. “But you said when we got back from patrol…”
She rolled her eyes. “That was before we unexpectedly ended up spending a couple hours with other mutants. I’m so exhausted, I can barely keep my eyes open… and you know how dangerous that is…” Nonetheless, she stared into his eyes for a moment, giving him a mental cuddle, rubbing beaks with him before pulling away. Donnie also caught the thought that in the morning, she wanted her wonderful prince to fuck her brains out. It aroused him, but he also became apprehensive. But, she’d done fine today… only once. Maybe her little distraction with decorating the subway car was a good thing, in fact… keeping her mind off the continual need for sex.
See? he convinced himself, She’s holding it back. She can manage.
Her eyes closed, and her breathing became more relaxed. He kissed her beak gently and made to get up, but the touch of her hand stopped him. “Donnie… stay with me?” He was about to ask why, but before he could , she said, “I don’t really have a reason… I just want you near me now.”
“All right,” he said, giving her a soft grin, and then a kiss. He lay his head on the edge of her futon and let his eyes fall closed, sleep beckoning. She shifted, draping a leg over his, then she stroked his head (avoiding his wounds) until he fell asleep.
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Of Hearts and Shells: 50 Shades of Green