The Casey Chronicles (2 page)

In a city of over eight million people,
April O'Neil felt totally alone.

She didn't really speak to any of her classmates at school. She avoided making small talk with her teachers. And since her father's unfortunate mutation, she had done her best to ignore her former best friends, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

April was mad at the world, so being on her own was exactly what she wanted. She walked down the street, keeping to the shadows, enjoying the silence. She didn't realize that high above her head, someone was leaping from rooftop to rooftop, tracking her every move.

April entered a dark alley and heard a loud thump behind her. She tried to shrug it off, but some insistent rustling told her she had company. She turned to look and caught a glimpse of green out of the corner of her eye.

“I know you're following me!” April shouted, whipping out her trusty
tessen.
“Come out so I can see you!”

But her mystery stalker didn't answer. April scanned the area, choosing her moment carefully. She took a breath and, just as Master Splinter had taught her, expertly launched the fan.

The war fan flew and—
wham!
—clocked her target square on the head, forcing him into the light.

It was Donatello.

April's face clouded over with anger. “Donnie?”

Donnie froze. He hadn't spoken to April since the incident: a canister of mutagen had doused Kirby O'Neil in green goo, turning him into a grotesque creature of the night. That accident had ended Donnie and April's friendship. Donnie went for his emergency plan: act as casual as possible.

“Hey, it's funny how we both happen to be passing through this shady alley at the same time,” he said, striking a not-very-relaxed pose. “So … how've you been?”

“Oh, you know, the usual,” April replied. “Homework, chess club, dealing with a father who turned into a homicidal mutant bat!”

“April, it wasn't our fault,” Donnie insisted. “I'm sorry that—”

“Not as sorry as I am! I want to be left alone, Donnie! No more talking mutants in my life. I never want to see you again!”

Donnie winced. He could tell she meant it, and that hurt.

He watched her turn and walk away. Afraid this might be the last time he ever saw her, he tried to reason with her.

“April!” he cried. “Some things are just beyond our control.”

But it was no use. April just kept walking.

Heartbroken,
Donnie wandered back to the Turtles' lair, hoping to have some quiet time in the lab. Unfortunately, his brothers had other plans for the evening. Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo were surrounding the television, settling in for a marathon of
Super Robo Mecha Force Five
, an anime show Donnie absolutely hated.

“Great,” Donnie mumbled to himself. “And I thought my night couldn't get any worse.”

Too tired to complain, Donnie sat quietly and watched: Princess, one of the best space pilots, was angry with the rest of her team for forgetting her birthday. It hurt her feelings so much that she quit the Force.

As much as he hated to relate to this show, Donnie winced. He knew exactly how it felt to see a best friend and trusted teammate slip away. He feared that things with April would never be the same.

Mikey looked up from the screen at Donnie. “Whoa, dude, this show, like, totally
paradoxes
your life! Kinda owie in the
corazón.
” He paused, then added, “By the way,
corazón
means ‘heart.'”

“You mean
parallels
, not
paradoxes
,” Donnie corrected him. “And it has nothing to do with me. It's just a cartoon.”

Leo tried to defuse the situation. “Princess has quit the team like twenty-seven times!” he explained, remembering the last few episodes they'd watched. “She
always
comes back.”

“Yeah, but let's face reality,” Raph said, realizing who they were really talking about. “April's gone for good. We'll probably never see her again.”

Donnie shuddered at the thought. He couldn't bear the idea of losing April forever.

“I'll be in my lab,” he sighed.

The moment he walked through the doors to the lab, he noticed a strange purple light blinking across the room.

“The Kraang communicator!” Donnie inspected the machine their outer-space adversaries used to transmit messages. The Turtles had recovered one from the sewers shortly before the Kraang tried to invade Earth. After weeks of radio silence, the alien device was pulsating with life once again.

“Guys!” Donnie yelled. “We have a problem!”

The Turtles patrolled the streets
in their vehicle, the
Shellraiser
, looking for signs of the Kraang. Donnie stared at a stack of papers in his lap, trying to stay focused. He needed to stop thinking about April long enough to wrap his head around these Kraang translations he'd decoded. After all, it wasn't like April was thinking about him at that exact moment.

Wait, is she? No. Stop it!
Donnie scolded himself.
Get your head out of your shell!
He zeroed in on the numbers on the page before him.

“From what I could translate from the orb,” he explained, “it seems the Kraang are building some kind of advanced heavy weaponry.”

Leo looked up from the road. “Any guess what it could be?”

In the back of the van, Mikey's hand shot up like he was trying to catch the teacher's eye in a classroom. “Oooh!” he exclaimed, convinced he had the answer. “Lasers disguised as …
burritos!
Yes! It all makes sense now.”

Mikey's “solution” was met with silence and eye-rolls.

Raph knew how to handle this. He unbuckled his seat belt and approached Mikey. “It
does
make sense,” he said, “if you have an avocado for a brain!”

“All right, guys,” Leo said from the front seat. “Let's stay focused.”

Everyone took a breath and returned to his battle station. It was time to get serious. The Kraang were out there, and that was bigger than any brotherly bickering or moping that was happening.

“We find the weapon and destroy it,” Leo told his brothers. After a brief pause, he added, “And then we get Mexican pizza.” All this talk of burritos and avocados had made him really hungry.

They all smiled. Finally, something they could agree on!