𝑨 𝑴𝒖𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕'𝒔 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 (TMNT '16) 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝟏 **UNDER REVISION**❪✘❫

4 || 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐂𝐑𝐈 𝐋𝐀𝐁

The greatest time to go snoop around was later in the day when the sun was setting. In order to learn what Stockman had been up to, April was en route to TCRI. She invited Y/n to accompany her in case there was a problem. "Ready?" The reporter asked the younger girl standing next to her below the building, the night getting older by the minute.

Y/n sighed and nodded and watched April go into a very beautiful building. She looks down at the locket Donnie gave her and smirked at it as she held it in her fingertips. At least if something went wrong, Donnie would be there to Y/n's rescue as well as the rest of the Brothers. Y/n follows April into TCRI, already feeling the atmosphere of this place gives her the chills. As soon as the friends were just about to make their way up to the very top level of TCRI to Baxter's lab, April groaned aloud. "Dang it!"

"What's going on?" Y/n asked, concerned for the reporter who had been stressed all week.

April takes a glance at her cell phone and rolled her eyes at the notification. She shoved it back into her pocket. "My job needs me for a few minutes."

"What? We need to see what Stockman is up to!" Y/n exclaimed at her, beginning to stress herself out with this mission. "Can't your job wait?"

"Unfortunately, no. If I don't go they might threaten to fire me." April didn't want to risk losing her job for the second time. When she lost it the first time, she told her boss, Bernadette she had seen four talking turtles that fight crime. Since that happened, April became cautious of the things she does and says.

Y/n sighed, having to accept that she is solo on this mission. "Go on. I'll take care of this." She pats April's shoulder.

"Thanks." April instantly brought Y/n into a quick hug. "Be careful." April ran back out of the TCRI doors and disappeared into the city's traffic and crowds.

Y/n gulped, nervous about what she might find on the top floor. She climbed the stairs and constantly thought about Donnie while she got closer to the top of the tower. He was her mental support even though he wasn't there in person to help her. "Okay... I got this."

He is present when he can, of course, but he is also present via technology. Back in the lair, Donatello checked the tracking app on his iPad to make sure Y/n was where she was supposed to be. He hoped that nothing would go wrong during this brief expedition. His pulse raced when he realized she had been alone herself throughout the entire Baxter ordeal. "Please be okay..." He muttered, watching the blinking red light go higher into the TCRI building.

****

Finally reaching the top level, Y/n heard male voices ramble on and on which nearly made her head hurt. She took this time to be extra quiet, sneaking around the lab until she came up on a window with some closed blinds. As soon as she found the source of the voices, she had seen that man... "Shredder." She said faintly, watching the vile man fire two darts into the childish men dressed in unique attire. 

"That stings and not in a good way!" One of the men with purple hair complained, clutching his neck.

From there, Y/n is witnessing this entire plan take place. Whatever it is, it is going to get worse and create a problem for this city. She watched these men transform from humans into mutants of their own; a rhino and a warthog. Luckily, one of the mutants yanked the dart from his neck and threw it across the room, landing on the other side of the window. Y/n believes it will be a great piece of evidence for the Brothers.

Thankfully, without having to sneak into the lab full of raging mutants, an oxygen tank was disturbed and rammed right into the air vent she stood by, causing enough damage so Y/n could sneak inside and grab the stray dart. Her eyes meet with the two men, amazed and mortified by this kind of technology and biology. She has never seen anything like this before. Y/n thought only these things could happen in movies. 

She needed to come up with a plan quickly, and she did. Y/n dashed from her spot on the floor and aimed for a canister of purple ooze sitting in one of Baxter's machines. Without taking a second guess, Y/n takes it into her grasp. After that, she pressed an 'EMERGENCY SHUTOFF' button to slow down Shredder and the Foot Clan, who are angry at the sight of her.

The girl gained enough speed to dodge each closing door and slid underneath one of the barricaded doors to escape the menacing Foot Clan and Shredder. When she was free from danger for half a moment, she took the time to smile at Karai through the window, waving the vile of purple ooze to tease her. "It's mine now, sweetheart."

Before the Foot Clan could catch up with Y/n, she ran to the elevator and somehow managed to beat the Clan to the main lobby. She bolted through the glass doors, nearly breaking them off their hinges, and running through the city. Y/n heard a commotion going on behind her and caught a glimpse of Foot soldiers jumping on top of car, running past civilians, and causing a ruckus through the streets. 

She ran like it was a marathon and did what she could to get away from the men with tantos and high skills in martial arts. Then she was trapped in an alleyway which she thought would bring her great cover. Unfortunately, she is met by a few soldiers that circle her like a lion and a gazelle.

 "Whoa, okay, okay." She raised her hands high, the ooze in her left hand, laughing nervously. "You guys seriously don't need to do this. We can just go on our way like nothing happened--"

"Give us the ooze!" One of them yelled, stopping her in her sentence.

Y/n shook her head and held the necklace around her neck, hoping Donnie could see she was in danger from a satellite. All she could do right now was stall the soldiers until they arrived at her aid. Just when she thought she wasn't going to get away with this, Y/n watched the soldiers get taken out by mysterious hockey pucks. She was interested in the hero coming to save her but she was more focused on the purple ooze that escaped her hands when she was grabbed by one of the opponents.

Then, she saw him. A man sporting a hockey mask, holding a hockey stick with both hands. While the new vigilante fought off the men, Y/n went for the ooze on the ground but is thrown into a pile of garbage by a soldier when she nearly grabbed it. Responding to the physical activity, Y/n rammed her attacker hard enough into the brick wall, causing him to hit his head.

But Y/n was unable to get the ooze because it was knocked from her multiple times until the police arrived. She fled the alleyway where all the chaos was and found another that was blocked. Y/n turned around and saw a Foot soldier had followed her and began to close in. "Okay, man... The guy in the other alley, I don't know that wannabe Michael Myers. A hideous costume, really... hehe..."

He got too closer for comfort and just when Y/n thought this soldier was going to get a hold of her, the same masked man from the other alley appeared. He wasn't shy to force the uniformed man into a dumpster and knock him out cold. "Geez." Y/n says aloud, looking at the man with his hockey stick sitting on his shoulder. "Thank you, sir." Y/n said to him, relieved of Shredder's goons. "So, what's your name?"

"Casey Jones." He said to her right away.

"Huh? Take off the mask, man. I can't hear your piehole" Y/n said to him.

The man takes off his mask and revealed a young face, smiling at her widely and proudly. "Casey Jones."

Y/n isn't at all attracted to him. But before she could even talk to him further, there was a sudden threat from a sai getting stuck in a lamp post. "Hey!" A voice bellowed from the shadows. "Step away from her!" Raphael landed perfectly into the alley with his three other brothers behind him.

Y/n's eyes lit up when she saw the four turtle brothers and she ran up to Donatello to get a fresh hug from him. "Don."

The six-foot-eight mutant didn't hesitate to embrace her in return. When he pulled away, he looked over Y/n to ensure she was not badly injured. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He asked, checking her hands, arms, face, head, and eyes.

Y/n shook her head with a cheerful smile. "I'm okay, Donnie. I really am, I promise."

Don sighed in relief when he saw she was untouched with no marks or scrapes. He can't imagine what he would do with himself if she had gotten hurt while being associated with Shredder and his awful crowd.