Aina rushed to Donnie's lab after hearing a loud crash and the yells and screams of her friends.
"My inventions were meant to do good! Not evil!" Donnie exclaims as a large shadow looms. Mikey's foot steps onto the floor.
"What have you done to my body? My perfect body!" Leo whines as Raph's hand touches the counter and knocks over the tablet. Turning around, the five finally reveal themselves...but now they're all stuck together like a ball, with glue all holding it together. Amy's head is in between all four turtles, with her hair in pigtails. Mikey's head is above Leo's, with Donnie's above Raph's. Raph and Leo each have one arm, while Donnie and Mikey each have one leg. They look like some kind of deformed monster. They fall onto the ground.
After Aina got to the lab, she had stopped dead into her tracks as she saw her friends in one circle figure.
"Oh my! What happened?" Aina questioned.
"Long story, Nani." Donnie answered.
"Why did you do this, Raph?" Mikey demands as Leo is frowning.
"You know, even for you, this feels like a poorly thought through idea."
"Is this what it feels like to have a dad bod?" Leo asks in dismay.
"Calm down," Raph tells them as they stand up, Leo's hand over his face. "This is gonna be awesome! Being stuck together is gonna force us to work together, as a team!" Raph suggested that they turn into...this, for a team building exercise. He knew that they can manage well on their own, but think about how better they could be if they worked as a team. Teamwork prevails all. They struggle to keep their balance.
"This is a team-building exercise?" Leo asks in disbelief.
"Oh yeah, sure, because being glued together and looking like Frankenstein is gonna equal teamwork," Amy deadpans, "We'll go with that."
"How are we gonna get unglued?" Donnie questions in anger.
"Relax, I'm sure you have a formula to get us unstuck, Donnie," Raph waves it off.
"Actually, I do not have a formula. My FAB spray is still in beta," Donnie explains, frowning.
"FAB?" Aina wonders.
"F-A-B. Foam agent bonding. It's state of the art," While Donnie is explaining, Leo scoffs, turning around.
"Not this again. You see, Raph, usually when Donnie is in speech mode, I could just run away, but now," Leo laughs nervously. "I'm stuck."
The ssecurity alarm beeps, alerting the turtles.
"Donnie detection. Crime is in progress. Donnie detection."
"Yes! A mission! It's go time!" Raph pumps his fist.
"You installed a crime detector in my system?" Aina wonders, turning to Donnie.
"For precaution," Donnie grins knowingly, but they're on the ground and the four turtles try to move.
"Maybe I should get this for y'all." Aina gestured to the laptop.
"No!" Raph dismissed, waving his hand. "We got this Nana, Mikey step!"
Mikey slowly gets his leg up. "Donnie, step." Slowly, they all stand up. "There we go. At least I do it better," "Teamwork!" They get to the system on the wall and a computer emerges to show that they need a password. Donnie gasps in horror, looking away.
"Donnie, what's the password?" Raph wonders.
"I am not telling you that. Just let me enter it," Donnie cringes, Raph and Leo looking up at him.
"How? You don't have any hands," Leo points out.
"Try I love my family," Mikey suggests. Raph enters it, but it's incorrect. Donnie is sweating even more. "Try I love my brothers." Like last time, it's incorrect.
"What about ‘I love Nana’?" Leo thought up.
Aina and Donnie both blushed from the guessed password, both turning away to avoid glancing at one another.
"Stop!" Donnie exclaims. "It's not that. It's...it's bootyshaker9000." Raph and Mikey are trying not to laugh as Amy and Leo smile. "Capital b and three ys." His brothers laugh and he glares at them. "What? You know I love to dance. Not gonna apologize for that."
"Hey, I'm all for it, Donnie. Maybe you could teach me some moves." Aina smirks slightly. The Softshell looks away with a bashful smile.
The computer then shows a museum. "Someone's breaking into the Museum of Art and Framing!" Raph exclaims as Mikey gasps.
"Ooo, art thieves!"
"Classeh~" Leo comments.
"Bet their after something priceless." Aina suggested, narrowing her eyes.
"Let's move!" They try to, but they all fall onto the ground. "To the Turtle Tank!" Raph points up in the air dramatically. They jump to the door to the Turtle Tank, but the ball is too big for them to fit through.
Aina waited patiently as she leaned against the huge vehicle.
"Everybody, suck in." They all take a breath, but they're simply too big to fit through, falling onto the ground. The door closes and they all think about how to get to the museum.
"This seems like a representation of what not working out is." Aina joked, smirking.
Leo chuckled at her humor.
"Let's use the Shell Hogs!" Donnie suggests, with the others cheering yes.
"What's a Shell Hog?" The four ask in confusion and Donnie sighs.
"Did none of you read the tank's instruction manual I gave you?" He looks at them and they all look away, since they used their shredder to shred the manual.
"How does it handle so much paper?"
"It's on my to-do list," Raph fibs and Donnie sighs.
"Could you push that button on the side, please?" Donnie asked Aina.
Aina nods as she reaches out and pushes it, with the Turtle Tank's wheels separating and turning into motorcycles.
"Awesome!" The three turtles exclaimed.
"Amazing!" Aina gasped in wonder.
"Why are there only two?" Raph wonders.
"I'm afraid I have not gotten around to making the rest. Maybe they'll come out during the holiday season, so you know they're special," Donnie states.
"Donnie, these are amazing," Leo looks up at his brother, who's smiling softly. "And I know everything I say sounds sarcastic, but I'm being completely genuine...this time."
"Let's ride," Raph declares and Donnie revs up the bike with his foot. The bike starts up...but then falls to the side with Aina stumbling over before landing on the ground.
An ingenious idea came to her.
-/-
Realizing that they can't ride it on their own, Aina instead have them use both bikes, one on each side, with her tagging along behind them. "We can make this work and stop those art thieves. We'll be the perfect team!"
They drive right past the museum, crashing.
Aina runs before them as they walk as fast as they can behind her.
They roll away from the explosion and walk to the entrance, sneaking inside before they fall again. "Everyone, keep your eyes open," Raph warns them. "Let me know if you see anything suspicious."
They roll slowly before Leo and Mikey notice something. "I saw something move," They both say in unison. "Over on the left/right! No, this way!"
"Great plan, Raph. Now instead of being able to investigate two leads, we are stuck together!" Donnie exclaims and Raph shushes them.
"No, this is what teamwork is," He looks at his hand which has writing on it. "We put aside our individual goals to do what's best for the team."
"Why do you sound like you're reading?" Donnie wonders.
"Let's follow Mikey's lead first," Raph points to the right, with Donnie and Leo whining.
"Oh c'mon, we don't have much a choice," Aina tells the two. Raph moves his arm so that they're crawling and then they're walking.
"Careful, don't break anything," Raph warns them and they slip, but Donnie's leg manages to stop them. They wobble over to a bust, before they bump into one from behind.
"Oh no."
"No, no, no, no, no!" Aina caught, all of them sighed jn relief. They place it back and remove their hands, turning around and bumping into it.
"Oh!"
"Oh!"
"Aw!" They break all of the statues around them, Amy dropping her head with a groan. Leo glances at it as he can smell the strawberry shampoo, and turns his attention back to the mutant silverfish.
"Mutant silverfish? They're into art?"
"This should be easy. Turtle FAB, attack!" Raph declares, pointing at them, but a purple mist appears at the railing above them. It's Hypnopotamus again.
"Flawless entry. Now to-" He then notices the turtles. "Oh, what happened to you lot? Did some creepy doctor man chop you into tiny bits and-and then sew you back together?"
"What, no! It's team-building," Raph calls out.
"Ah yes, team-building," Hypno holds up a finger. "My former hippo assistant, Doug, and I used to love to team-build."
"I'm giving you one to get out of here before-" A purple portal emerges behind them. Foot Lieutenant and Foot Brute emerge from it.
"Foot face guys?" Mikey asks in confusion.
"It's those flame face foot foes, fellas!" Donnie announced. "That little guy is a mutant?!" The trio all look shocked at the group and their situation.
"What happened to you guys? Did a doctor cut you up and-"
"No, we did not see a doctor!" Aina exclaims in annoyance.
"Is there a creepy doctor running around that we don't know about?" Raph asks as both assumed the same thing.
Hypnopotamus laughs at them.
"Looks like you've got to choose between me or them. A classic Wellington's choice!" Hypno runs through the Exhibit of Occult Devices section.
"He's getting away into that exhibit on the occult!" Donnie exclaims, "Quick, follow him!" He steps forward.
"Hurry, let's get the device while these idiots are stuck together." Donnie glares at the insult.
"It's team-building!" Raph calls out after them.
"Why are we stuck together when there are literally four villains?" Mikey asks.
"Make that five!" They turn around to see Warren Stone. "Warren Stone, the biggest, baddest of them all is here to get in on the-"
"Hey guy," Leo interrupts his speech. "Can you give us a minute? We've got a lot on our plate here."
"We need to go after the flame heads!" Mikey exclaims.
"No, Hypno," Donnie tells him.
"No, stop me!" Warren shouts, but they don't listen.
"Flame heads!" Mikey tries to go left.
"Hypno!" Donnie tries to go right.
"Flame heads!"
"Hypno!"
"Flame heads!"
"Hypno!"
"Flame heads!"
"Hypno!"
"I’ll go stop those Foot Clan guys from taking anything!" Aina pulled out her Kusarigama and chased after the Foot Clan members. "You guys stay here and don’t break apart!"
"Thanks for the advice, Nani!" Aina yelled back, sarcastically.
While they're arguing, Raph is getting more and more annoyed. This wasn't teamwork at all, more like the opposite. "Enough! We deal with the problem that's in front of us. Like the perfect...theam. Theam?" His handwriting got all smushed during the scuffle.
Ai a bit the inside of her mouth to keep a laugh from bursting out of her as she ran inside the room where the Foot men headed into.
Whatever they’re in there for, she cannot let them get to it.
She found them pulling out some sort of chest from the crypt. They hadn’t noticed her rushing towards them at the moment.
"Hey, flameheads!" She called to them.
They spun around to find her running towards them, her weapons ready for the fight.
The Foot Lieutenant smirked evilly and rushed at her. He extended his foot out in order to hit her, but she skidded underneath him and propped herself back up before hitting him from behind.
He landed on the wall and fell down to the earth.
The Foot Brute growled and charged at her.
Aina jumped up in the air, doing a backflip, before slamming in his head and kicking him off the ground.
The bigger Foot member landed on the ground on his head and groaned.
The Foot Lieutenant growled and threw two paper origami in her direction. The origami soldiers appeared and sprinted to her, letting out their battle cry.
Aina threw sent shock bolts straight towards them, who disappeared from the impacts. She smirked victoriously.
"Impressive," the Foot Lieutenant remarked, smirking. “But not good enough.”
He then tossed an origami rope in her direction. The rope transformed into real life and wrapped itself around her.
"Hey! What—" Aina gasped until her mouth was instantly gagged by the smaller version of the rope.
She landed on the ground with a ride and felt the cold ground beneath her before turning her head to face the smirking foot. He lifted her up by the waist and placed her on top of the mummy caskets. She growled at them and struggled more to get the ropes off of her.
"Looks like you're a but tied up in the moment." Foot Lieutenant said sinisterly.
The Foot Brute opened the chest to find a bronze glove inside the chest.
The Foot members shed tears of joy at the sight, while Aina ceased fighting to stare at the glove with fear and confusion.
She then realized it looked like the same one they were after back at the department store.
The buff man picked up the gauntlet and placed it on his hand, laughing like an evil villain that they are.
"Now that we’ve found what we came for…" The Foot Lieutenant turned his attention towards the female warrior and smirked darkly.
Aina's eyes narrowed.
The turtles suddenly rolled into the room and glared at the Foot Clan men.
"One set of bad guys left," Raph points at them.
"And one young lady to save?" Donnie gestured to Aina.
"Will this nightmare never end?" Leo whined.
Aina gestured to both Foot Clanners in haste.
"This is really gonna hurt ya," Foot Brute puts on the gauntlet, which looks to be like the same one that they stole from the department store. He points at it them and Raph cringes.
"That's not good," He whimpers slightly and a lightning bolt is shot at them from the hand. They crash into the wall...which breaks off the glue and sets them free!
Aina sighed in relief that they weren't hurt.....except that Raph looked a bit upset.
"Yes!" Leo cheers, pumping his fists. "We're free!"
"That's not good," Foot Brute cringes at this. The turtles were less of a threat when they were stuck, but now they may actually stop them.
"I missed you, guys," Mikey hugs himself.
"Oh, no one needs to be that close to their family," Donnie comments as Raph looks like he's about to cry. "No offense."
"You moron! Hit 'em again!" Foot Lieutenant orders and Foot Brute fires the electricity again. They all jump out of the way, hiding behind some displays.
"Oh no," Leo murmurs and Raph holds the pieces that held his team together.
"Raph! What are you doing?" Mikey asks as Raph gets hit by the electricity bolt. He crashes onto the ground, whimpering.
"Raph!" Donnie calls out as Leo glance at each other, nodding. The slider got a sharp artifact on a stand and threw near Aina so it would slice the rope. Once free, the girl acsends into the air and Leo jumps up to join her so he could hold her whole body above him. He throws her up into the air and she spins around, firing a striking electric spear at the duo.
"Raph, you okay, buddy?" Donnie asks as the two run over to help Raph.
"Yeah, man. I just really thought this would bring us together. The FAB was a stupid idea. Just do your guys' thing and split up," Raph pouts, his eyes watering.
"No, your plan worked," Leo glances at Donnie. "We're a better team now." He gives his brother a pleading look to just go with it. Aina looks down at Raph.
"Yeah, it did help you and your brothers work together better than ever." Aina said sincerely.
"Yeah," Donnie nods, "What if we...didn't split up?"
"What if we got the FAB four back together?" Mikey smiles widely. Raph sits up as he smiles fondly.
"Sure, but how?" They don't have the invention that got them stuck, and the pieces were broken. Warren sits up.
"Finally, I'm free!"
"Let's use this rope," Leo grabs Warren. Together, they grab all the pieces and use Warren to keep them all together.
"I am not a belt!" Warren yells, but they ignore him.
"Let's do this," Raph declares and they all jump into the air.
"I'm the greatest foe you'll ever face!"
Donnie's foot kicks Foot Brute in the face, Raph punching him. They knock him to the ground and he looks up to see the six rolling towards him. "Cowabunga!" They bump into him and he goes flying behind Foot Lieutenant. He makes four Origami soldiers appear, Raph narrowing his eyes at them. "Let's shred, boys." They roll into a ball again.
"This is my nightmare!" Warren shouts as they defeat the soldiers. Foot Lieutenant gives a look of shock before trying to run, but ultimately gets squished. He goes soaring towards his partner, but he's opened the portal.
"Move out of the waaaaay!" He knocks into Foot Brute, taking them through the portal. The five slip out of the statue they crashed through and see Brit trying to get away. Raph grabs him and holds him up into the air.
"No, wait, what are you do-" Leo grabs his underwear and stretches. "Aw, no! My expensive undies!" He squeals in pain and they use the underwear as a slingshot, making him fly through the portal and it closes. The glue pieces break apart, setting them free once more.
"FAB mode is awesome!" Mikey cheers and Raph stands up.
Aina cheers delightfully at the sight and hugs her red turtle companion. "Ya did it, Red!" She cooed.
Raph gave her a bright, toothy smile and slightly blushed.
"Now we are..." He looks down at his hand. "The perfect team."
"Yeah!" they all cheer, high threeing each other.
"Go team theam." They walk away, leaving Warren Stone by himself.
"Finally, I'm free!" He fixes his hair and sees the gauntlet that the Foot Clan had left behind. His eyes shine as he looks at it. "This will work nicely." He grabs it and puts on it, causing his arm to grow bigger. He laughs and a bird lands behind him, pecking him on the head. "Ow! Get-Get away, bird!" The bird opens its mouth, planning to eat him, but Warren instantly uses the gauntlet, which blasts the bird away. He laughs at the power he suddenly has before the gauntlet hits him in the face, knocking him unconscious.
-/-
Donnie and Aina glare at each other, staring at each other intensely in the eyes.
"Don't do this, Nai. You have no idea what you're dealing with."
Aina cracks her hand as her eyes narrow further. "Sorry, Don, but you..."
She raises her hand as she drops...a car to the other side of the room. "Got bankrupt!"
"Noooooo!" Donnie shouts in agony as he drops his knees to the ground. Amy smirks as she puts something back into her mouth. Aina swipes the money around the board into her lap. The two are playing Monopoly together in the lair, with Aina as the banker. "Man, every time! But I have your cake pops, so it's a win-win." He bites into the soft lollipop, the same one that Aina was eating.
"Thanks again for helping me out with the cake," Aina smiles brightly, glancing at the cake. It shines in its finished glory. The turtles had went into their rooms for the night.
"Of course, we're your friends," Donnje tells her as he sits in his chair. Aina smiles at him. Growing up, she didn't have many friends. It was nice to have some now.
Donnie looks down at all the places on the Monopoly board, playing around with one of her hotels. "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?"
"Hm?" Aina looks at him, glancing at all the properties. "I would go to...Coney Island."
Donnie raises a brow, chuckling slightly. "You do know where we're living, right? It doesn't take long to go to Coney Island from here."
"I have a reason," Aina flares up her nose. "Well...it was one of the few places that I had fond memories of my family...," She glances at a photo. Donnie at is and it reveals Aina is holding her baby brotber at the hospital. Her mother, step-father, older brother, and sister all looked happy together...
"We would ride everything and Mom and dad would get tired to eat," Aina hums slightly at the memory. "And then we would go to the hot dog place, and I would get that tiger blood snow cone," Her face turns into a bright smile. "And then we'd play the games and I won a prize sometimes..."
"...What was your favorite one?" Donnie wonders.
"The poster dart game," She giggles, closing her eyes. "So I would go to Coney Island...but, it's just my mother isn't exactly into traveling, you know? Ever since...."
Donnie's eyes soften at her. "...Does she ever.....ya know....spend time with you?"
Aina lets out a sigh. "Yeah, but she just can't handle the loud noises," She bites her lip. "It's been years and she still that her whole up till the incident was a dream..."
Donnie looks away, feeling guilty. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."
"No, it's okay."
He turns to the brown eyed girl, seeing a smile on her face. It looks genuine, she doesn't look sad or angry. "My mother has flashbacks and may have some loss of interest in things. At least..... she's not alone."
Donnie let a smile appear on his face. "You're right....she's not alone. You have us, too. Including me," Donnje gestures to himself with a soft hand to his chest.
"Come on, Donald. Let's see if you can beat me at something else," She stands up and starts cleaning the table. Donatello stares at her as he can see a small smile on her face. He grabs her hand and pulls her towards him. She gasps sharply at his strength and he looks at her.
"Donnie...?" She murmurs as he's close enough to kiss her. He sighs as he walks past her. She reaches out to her lips, her skin to dark to blusn. What just happened...? Was he about to...
She places a hand on her cheek as a look of longing is on her face. Aina turns around to see that he's already gone downstairs. Aina wanted to deny it for the past few days, but...she's come to terms with it. She likes him...she likes that adorable, dramatic idiot of a turtle. She gives a look of dismay, but walks upstairs anyway.
If only he had the courage to tell her how he felt...well, at least, for real.