Albearto's Pizzeria has been repaired and reopened for another birthday party. Kids are happily playing as the birthday girl blows out her candles, the others cheering. A suspicious guest is walking around: Baxter Stockboy. He glances back at the new Albearto and the other two robots playing their music on stage. Stockboy sneaks past all the distracted kids. "It's your birthday, Tanya Melendez. Happy birthday, Tanya Melendez. "Now that you are...6 and a half years old."
Stockboy opens the backpack he had on, revealing the sentient Albearto's head top of a racecar. "Hoo hoo hoo! Thanks for the wheels, kiddo! Now your prize. The cheat code for the dance machine is left, left, left left, left left, and left! Engage wheels! Vroom vroom!" He drives off and lands on top of a chair, eyeing the new Albearto's body. "Hello handsome! New bod, here I come." He analyzes it with his eye and zooms off, destroying the cake in the process. The other kids watch in awe as he goes up a ramp and crashes into the body, taking its head clean off. The kids are all shocked as the racecar explodes, letting the new head take form. Albearto is now back!
He lets go of the guitar and shreds his claws into his robot claws. "Bon giorno, kiddies! Guess who's back?"
All the kids scream, running past the manager, who is confused. "Hey, where's everybody going?"
Albearto appears right behind him, chuckling. The manager slowly turns around with a look of horror on his face, screaming.
Albearto stands in front of the Hall of Fame, holding onto the manager. "Traitorous fiend! What do you want with robots from failed Albearto's franchises?" He demands, but Albearto doesn't see it that way, as he has plans for them.
"Failed? Our only failure was lettin' you humans run everything," He grabs the manager's hand and uses it to gain access to the case. The doors open one by one to show all of the previous incarnations of Albeartos. "Now, you're under new management. Patooey!" He lets his wires take control of all four of them, to give them sentience like he did with Cheery Tomato and President Pepperoni. They lift up their heads as they gain eyes, walking out of their 'prisons.'
"Look at all these fuzzy friends! Let's go find some more," he walks off, ready to build his army to get rid of the humans!
-/-
Meanwhile, in Central Park, all of the people around are listening in wonder at the beautiful singing. Some are crying while the birds are singing along. But it turns out that it's Splinter singing opera, who is surprisingly good. The turtles just watch him as they're in different costumes. As Splinter sings his heart out, glitter appears around him, but the turtles are not interested.
"No!" Raph denies.
"Not, not good."
"He belongs in a sewer."
"Oh please, my sons, let me be in your band!" Splinter pleads, kneeling as he clapses his hands.
"No thanks. We can't groove to, uh, this whole situation thing, daddy," Raph says in a deep voice, eyeing Splinter.
"If you wanna be soul, you gotta live soul," Raph plays with his black wavy wig. He's wearing a brown suit with white frills at the end of the sleeves. He represents the soul part of the group, obviously. Kind of like a James Brown.
"But if we need an overbearing manager who robs us blind, we'll give you a call, mmkay?" Leo asks as he's wearing a blue suit with light blue streaks at the sleeves, pant legs, and the shoulder pads. His wig is a messy mop of white hair. He's also wearing a blue tie as he represents the rock part of the group.
"Okay, fine," Splinter says in defeat. "I'll just start another family and join their band!" He walks off.
"Alright babies, let's boogie down. Our adoring public awaits. Albearto Land ain't gonna grand open itself," Raph says in his deep voice.
"How did we get this sweet gig again?" Leo looks down at Donnie, holding his blue and turquoise guitar over his shoulder.
"Well, I may or may not intercepted a little email addressed to a certain Justin B at yeah comma dot com," Donnie brags with a smile. For once he's not wearing his goggles because he has a helmet over his head. He's wearing a purple suit with light purple steaks on it and a light purple tie, as he represents the electro part of the group.
"Hey, I don't wanna get ahead of myself, but our music is so new, it's like it's from outer space," Leo fantasizes.
"Yeah, our electro slash soul slash rap slash glam rock is too good to quantify," Donnie grins. Mikey's wearing an orange hat, sunglasses, and a track suit as he represents the fourth part, rap.
"Once we leave this lair, our music is gonna change everything," Mikey holds out his arms.
"Let's harmonize, for good luck," Raph suggests and they do just that, one by one, as they do their own sounds in their styles.
"Nailed it," Leo, Donnie, and Mikey say in unison with a confident smile.
"Albearto Land, prepare to be blown away!" Raph replies, clenching a fist.
"Uh, not without our lead singer, now where is she?" Donnie questions, looking around. Yes, Aina finally agreed to be a part of their band, but Raph looks upset at two words.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Nani is the lead singer? That's supposed to be me!" Raph gestures to himself with a pout.
"Raph, we talked about this," Mikey warns him. "Aina's lead singer because she has more experience."
"B-But she only sang twice!" Raph protests and Do nie shakes his head as his brother seems to have forgotten about their little chat.
"Hey Raph," Donnie called out as he entered past the arcade. Raph was playing an arcade game. "Still on for Nana being the lead singer of our band?"
"Oh, uh, yeah, for sure!" Raph waved him off as he was too focused on the game to pay attention.
"Either way, people love her," Donnie brags, holding up his phone to play the clip of Aina singing in Times Square. "And she said she'd meet us there."
"Fine," Raph sighs, crossing his arms.
-/-
As the sun is setting, Albearto is standing underneath the docks with his newly acquired army. "Al-Beardo," he gestures to the bear that has a red mustache, eye patch, and pirate hat. "Courageous pirate captain from Al-Beardo's Squid and Chips. Welcome!"
"I put the arr in tartar sauce!" Al-Beardo chuckles, holding up his hook.
"Bayou Bearto. Your gumbo was jumbo!" He looks at a plaid-dressed bear with two front teeth and a green hat. He says something in the accent his franchise is based. "O...kay."
He turns to a blue-bereted bear with a black and white striped shirt and a red scarf. "Chef Albear from La Petite Albear. They said it was crazy to mix animatronics with fine dining."
"Sadly, they were right," The bear has a French mustache and beard, sharpening his claws with a baguette. "C'est la vie."
"And finally, Otto von Bearto!" Albearto looks at a German bear with suspenders and a blonde mustache. "From Otto von Bearto's Best Wurst House!"
"Try mein strudel," Otto holds up a finger. "Ooo, like a blitz krieg of flavor."
"My Beartos, today we rise like our gourmet dough! No longer will we be dipped in fried oil!" Albearto declares as he clenches a fist. "No longer will our strudels be force fed into our speaker systems! We shall liberate all robots, beginning with the legions of our brothers at Albearto Land!"
The others cheer, agreeing with him. They're actually standing right underneath Albearto Land, as the kids are taking pictures with the mascots, playing the games and winning Albearto prizes. There's an Albearto-like stage like the one at the Pizzeria. Aina arrives and parks her bike, putting on the lock unless someone's stupid enough to steal it. She looks out of breath as her hair is a mess and she's sweating.Raph moves a speaker as Donnie prepares the equipment. Leo looks outside at the crowd, holding his guitar. Seeing all the robots was a little creepy. "Okay, look, I'm excited for the gig, but the place is crawling with Albeartos."
"So?" Donnie shrugs it off.
"Last time we met one, things didn't go so well, remember?" Leo asks him.
"I do not," Donnie denies it.
"You turned a cuddly animatronic bear into a psychotic robot bent on destroying us? No? Got April and Aina fired? Hm? Nothing? Hm?"
"That does not sound like me, no," Donnie turns to him and Aina steps inside.
"I'm here!" She pants, wiping the sweat off her forehead. She's holding her outfit in her arms, which is covered in white plastic so they can't see it.
"Where were you?" Leo demands as she takes a breath.
"Hey, closing down a business early is not easy, buddy."
"What's not easy is you being lead singer!" Raph points to her in accusation. "What gives?"
"What?" Aina looks confused.
"What is this?" Donnie demands, standing up to her and looking at her hair. "Oh no, no, no. This will not do, desr. Not at all. Just look at your face!" He cups her cheeks, pulling back to look at the sweat. "Leo, hair, Mikey, make-up, right away!"
"On it!"
"Oh, this is gonna be fun!"
"Wait, what?" Aina asks nervously as Donnie pushes her to behind the boxes. Mikey takes her weapon and lays it down on some boxes. Leo places her down on a chair, Mikey taking away her outfit. Leo grins as he undoes her hair, letting it fall loose.
"Let's get rid of this."
"Wait a minute!" She protests as he holds a bucket over her and dumps cold water onto her hair, drenching it. "What was that for?!"
"Relax, just trust me," He grins, gesturing to herself as she pushes her hair away from her face, spitting out water.
"It's cold!"
"That's what I could find," He shrugs, scrubbing the soap to make bubbles onto her hair. She groans in defeat, as they wouldn't stop unless she fixed herself up.
"Fine. Whatever."
"Yes!" Leo pumps a fist and gets to work, Aina cringing at him as he's washing her hair. To her, it felt like Raph was pulling it. She's praying to let this nightmare end as Leo stands in front of her, blowing a hairdryer into her face. She feels her face being pulled back, but when Leo's finished, her hair sticks up in the air. "Hmm." He feels around to get the knots out and Amy takes a deep breath.
"Leonard?"
"Yes, An?" He grins as she has her eyes closed.
"Do you think that...me being the lead singer was a good idea? I don't know if I can do this...what if I screw it up?"
Leo stares at her from the mirror as she fidgets around. "Hey...look at me." She opens her eyes. "I've heard you sing. You're amazing, you'll do great." He places his hands on her shoulders. "You never know unless you try, right?"
"Right..." She murmurs with a weak smile. "Thanks."
"Of course. And hey, we wouldn't ask you to do it if we thought you were terrible."
"Gee, thanks for that," She deadpans keeping her eyes closed.
"Done!" Her eyes widen and she looks up to the mirror. She touches her hair that was in a dutch fishtail braid top knot.
"...Wow," She touches it lightly, afraid it might come undone. Then, she touches it even further. Leo eyes it, lensing back and rubs his chin. "There! See, you look great!" He grins at his work as Aina looks satisfied.
"How'd you learn how to do that?" She looks up at him curiously.
"Internet," He shrugs it off, clapping his hands as Mikey appears next to her. He starts slapping two powder puffs together and Aina coughs as it fulfills the area. Leo gets out of the way so he doesn't breathe it. Raph and Donnie glance at the boxes, shrugging as Mikey could handle this.
Aina has her eyes closed as the cloud disappears, waving a hand in front of her face. "Okay, just a few more touches," Mikey starts playing around with her make-up items from her bag, moving a brush onto her cheeks.
"Hey, don't go overboard, okay? I don't spend half my earnings for you to waste quality make-up."
"Relax," Mikey dismisses it. "I got this. Make-up is art too."
"We'll see just how good you are when you're done experimenting with my face."
Mikey grins as he steps back, inspecting his work. "Alright...now open your eyes and feast upon my masterpiece!"
She does so and she sees a light blush applied to her cheeks. Her make-up is natural eyeshadow above her eyes, with a blush lilac lipstick. Her eyebrows are slightly curved and there's glitter on her cheeks to make them shine with the spotlight. "Huh...not bad."
"I told you," Mikey grins confidently and he walks away. "Now we just have to get her dressed."
"Aw man, that's gonna take forever," Raph complains and Aina huffs.
"I can hear you."
A boy is leading his father to an attraction before Albearto laughs, revealing his presence. "I'll wake up our brother bots! You go show these humans what life will be like in the after age of Albearto!" The four go off to terrorize the people. Albearto goes to a concession bear and makes him sentient. The bear's antenna on his hat blinks as he looks up.
The kids scream in fear as Otto throws pretzels. Mikey leans in towards the curtain.
"Can you hear that? This crowd is wild for us, guys!" Mikey cheers.
"We are so good, we don't even need to play to make people go crazy, baby."
"Are you boys ready for our lives to change?" Leo asks and they turn to the boxes. "You ready, An?" she slowly steps out from the space, all the turtles gasping in shock.
Aina wears a purple assymetrical dragging-dress that shows the front of her legs (knee to feet) with a eggplant strap across her left shoulder that twists around her chest and to her waist, silver coloring inside the dress, and prurole scale-like trimming. Her shoes are periwinkle pumps with straps from her toes to her lower shin and lilac decorating it. She also wears lilac pearl earrings with raindrop-like jewels dangling from them, violet necklaces around her neck (as a choker) and collar bone (like a regular necklace), and two lavender necklaces on her left wrist while the larger one has garnet gems around it. She's meant to represent R&B.
"Is it too much?" She asked, fidgeting around.
"No way! You look awesome!" Mikey gives her a thumbs up.
"Really love the matching colors!" Raph grinned, forgetting about the entire spot taking thing.
"Truly a thing of beauty," Leo grins as Donnie says nothing, trying not to faint.
"You look beautiful~" he says happily and she rubs her neck sheepishly.
"Ah ha, thank you..." She almost blushes at his compliment. Almost. Leo, Donnie, and Mikey push her up front where everyone can see. Donnie comes back and pushes her just a smidge, handing her a golden microphone.
The curtains open and Raph turns to the crowd, Donnie holding a keyboard that's strapped over his neck. "Hello, Albearto-" He screams at all the destruction that's going on, Mikey's back to the crowd. There's a few fires with some stands already destroyed.
"There it is! Our first blood-curling shrieks of love!" He hugs himself and Aina turns him around.
"Those bots are ruining our gig!" Leo complains, Mikey lifting up his sunglasses.
"As well as harassing hundreds and hundreds of people," Donnie points to the people trying to get away.
"Which is ruining our gig!" Leo reminds them.
"Ah, how did this happen?" Aina asks in confusion.
"Let's get 'em!" Raph declares and they jump into the fight, Albearto taking possession of another concession bear and watching the chaos.
"Oh, holy cannoli, I wish I could speed things up!" It's tiring for him to take possession of the robots one at a time. He gasps as he sees a large antenna in front of him that's powering up all the rides. "If I could get to the central control diddly doo, then I can unleash all of my brothers at once!" He starts running towards it, Otto throwing pretzels like shuriken at a little girl. She hides behind some barrels in fear, whimpering as Otto and Albear loom over her.
"It's one thing to trap innocent people in a park of doom!" Leo runs up, slamming Otto with his guitar. He lands at the hammer game, with the bell hitting him. "It's another to ruin our first gig!"
"Bonjour!" Albear declares, holding two baguettes in his hand. He's suddenly captured by Mikey's whip.
"Flingabunga!" He throws the bear into a stand and he falls down onto the ground. Aina takes the little girl and jumps, landing at the entrance.
"Wooow," The little girl looks up at her in awe. "You're pretty! Can I have a selfie? Please, please, pleaaaase?"
"Uhh," Aina looks back at all the bears destroying the park before bending down to her. "I guess one couldn't hurt."
"Yay!" she cheers, pulling out her phone.
Meanwhile, Al-Beardo the Pirate has taken control of the boat ride. "Yarr be walking the plank today!"
"Physimast!" Donnie jumps down, using his spider arms from his shell to knock the robot bear down. The kids scream in terror as Bayou Bearto is spinning them around. Raph lets out a note and the bear turns to him.
"Did someone call soul patrol?" Raph grinned.
"Jambalaya guarantee!" Bayou Bearto declares, Raph spinning his microphone stand.
"Cowabunga!" He smacks the bear with it, who pushes against it, Raph growling at him. He throws Bayou Bearto into a stance, placing his hands on his hips. "Alright, we beat those Beartos."
"Yeah, but we lost all our loving fans," Mikey places his hands on his cheeks as they see everyone leaving the park in terror.
"Uh, because of those bears coming to life? That's naturally bound to scare anyone," Aina speaks up.
"Hey, uh, what's that vaguely familiar guy doing?" Donnie jerks a thumb at Albearto at the antenna as Aina shoots him a "really look".
"You can't stop me from freeing my chums! No one can!" He smashes into the antenna, shocking himself. "Let's spice up these meatballs!" He laughs evilly as the antenna turns red, engulfing the park and turning every single concession robot to life. The turtles and Amy look around as they're surrounded.
"Uh no," Aina murmurs.
"These animatronics stereotypes are running our gig!" Donnie shouts at the crowd, Albearto laughing.
"At last, humans will be our mascots, our servers, our entertainers! And we will march! The only thing in our way is these turtles and the female human! Shred them and make the female lead singer our first slave!" Albearto points at them.
"What?!" Aina exclaims in disbelief, Raph turning to her.
"You know, I take it back. You can be the lead singer," He tells her. The robots start heading towards them and they scream, jumping on top of the hotdog stand.
"This gig stinks!" Mikey says as Aina jumps into the air, throwing a boomerang. It eliminates some of them, but more appear to replace the ones just destroyed.
"There's too many of them!" She exclaims as she looks around at the robots trying to knock them off.
"Why did we even start a band in the first place?" Mikey sags at the fact that no one's around to hear their music.
"Because we wanted to change the world, and bring people joy," Leo puts an arm around him. "With our eclectic sound."
"I'd say...unique," Aina waves a hand as she's never heard them play.
"And is there any reason why that shouldn't work for animatronic robots?" Raph asks with a smile.
"No, no I cannot think of one," Donnie agrees with him and they all jump into the air, landing back at the stage.
"Listen up, y'all," Raph calls out. "We dedicate this groove to all you beautiful bear bots out there. Hit it."
Leo starts playing pretty good. "Alright, Beartos! Time to get your circuits jammed!" Mikey declares as Donnie starts playing his keyboard. Raph lets out a long note into the microphone.
"Ohh yeah! I don't wanna be just another drone! Living my life in a robot clone!"
Aina's actually cringing as all of them play out of tune, Raph splitting his pants. Leo's slamming down his guitar as Mikey's swinging around his legs. Aina drags a hand down her face. She should've expected this, to be honest.
"Alright, alright," She stops them, as she's unable to endure any more of this torture. "Bring it in." They all huddle together. "You guys are..."
"Amazing?" Donnie grins.
"Awesome!"
"We're blowing up the crowd!" Two robots explode.
"We're great, right?"
"Um..." Aina glances away to see some of the robots are exploding. "Yeah! But you know what, you could be even better if you..." She starts whispering in their ears and they nod in understanding.
"Ohh. Yeah, we could do that," Leo nods his head.
"Of course we could," Donnie scoffs it off.
"Okay then. Just follow my lead." AINA steps up to the stage, placing her mic into a stand. Raph does the same thing and Aina points to Leo. He starts playing, and in an actual good way. Whatever Aina told them, it's working. She points to Donnie and he chimes in, going in tune with Leo. Aima taps her foot against the wood floor as Mikey starts doing some moves. Aina and Raph sing in tune with each other and the music.
"Yeah!" Donnie cheers and the good music has the same result. Albearto sits above a dunk tank.
"Arr, it be better than walking the plank!" He short circuits himself into the water, shutting him down. Albear and Otto hold hands as they sit in the Albeartonator, a roller coaster.
"We will face our fate," Otto throws a pretzel at the control panel. "Together!" They kill themselves as the car explodes above the stage.
"It's working!" Aina grins at Raph and as she's singing solo, Donnie glances at her. These lyrics seem very familiar with her family situation...he wonders if it's because she relates to it so much.
"Hey, what's going on?" Raph wonders as some of the robots can't take it.
"We are blowing their minds!" Leo declares, strumming down another chord.
Bayou starts talking normally. "Wait. This wonderful music has restored my ability to speak clearly. Now at last, I can live the normal life of-" His head is taken clean off as he falls to the ground.
"Guys, I think this is working!" Leo grins at Aina.
"They do appear to be more peaceful," Donnie smiles as Raph and Amy start singing together again. Some of the robots rip apart their wires while others do the same for the other. All of them eventually pull out their wires, shutting themselves down.
"Oh, it's so beautiful it's affecting my circuits!" Albearto holds his head at the melody as he's sitting in a bumper car. "I wanna say something dramatic and villainy, but my little bitty ears can't take any more of this! You accursed turtles and female have bested, no, worsted me yet again!" The bumper car starts going out of control before it eventually leaves the ride, going straight into the city and crashing.
"Guys, we did it!" Mikey puts his arm around Donnie, who suddenly has his goggles on. Amy sighs in relief.
"We nailed our first gig!" Donnie cheers.
"We are the Mad Dogs," Raph says, still in his deep voice.
"Okay, stop talking like that," Aina tells him.
"Goodnight, Albearto Land!" Leo drops the mic dramatically.
"Hungry?" Raph offers.
"Pizza?" Leo asks happily.
"Albearto's?" Donnie questions.
"Guaranteed!" Mikey agrees as a seagull is pecking at a destroyed head.
"And after that, dessert's on me!" Aina points to herself, the turtles cheering. As much as they annoy her at times, she couldn't tell them that they actually sucked the first time. It'd hurt their feelings, and they were better off not knowing the truth. On the other hand, they do have the potential to be a great band the second time they tried again. And they were so good, the robots killed themselves. Yeah, that's how she'd basically describe what just happened.
-/-
Donatello paces around as Aina hasn't called yet. After some dessert from a bakery, she headed home and Leo hasn't heard from her since. She promised him that she'd call as soon as she got back, and it's been an hour. Her place isn't that far from the store, even when walking. He glances at his phone at the time and grunts in frustration, leaving the lair to see what's up himself.
He gets to her apartment and his heart leaps as the windows are dark. That's already a bad sign. He breaks one of them open, seeing that none of the lights are turned on. Usually at this time, they would be turned on because Amy would be making dinner and not sleeping. He sees the broken plates and steps into the living room.
"Nani?!" His foot hits something and he looks down to see one of Aina's boots left behind. He fears the worst as he picks it up. "Nani?!"
"L-L-Leo." Her voice is frail and weak, but it's there. He stumbles into Ms. Hightower's room to see her choking Aina.
"Stop pretending to be real! I'm back at Draxum's lab!"
"But I am Aina..." She murmurs weakly, her eyes about to close. Donnie steps in and throws the woman off of her. She falls to the ground, Aina rubbing her throat as she coughs. He looks at her with panicked eyes that her mother would go that far. Was she really that dangerous for Aina to be around? Donnie looks down at the woman, frowning to himself.
"No! She's supposed to be at home with my husband and I'm in Draxum's lan!" Mrs. Hightower shouts, hugging a picture of Aina. Donnie picks up Aina and jumps outside the window, landing on the ground. She's panting as she's trying to catch her breath, leaning against the wall.
"Donnje," She says between breathing, "I'm so sorry."
"Dear..." He murmurs, cupping her cheeks as he inspects her face. Luckily, she doesn't look hurt.
"Donnie..." She looks at him, caressing his cheeks as well as they look at each other in the eye.
"You're not hurt, are you?" He gently strokes his thumb against her right cheek.
"I'm okay..." She whispers, reaching out towards his eyes. "I'm okay, I just..." She then covers his eyes instead.
"W-What are you doing?" He asks in confusion.
"I don't want you...to see me cry," Her voice falters as tears threaten to fall. She glances away in case he peeks at her. "It's just been hard...it's like I'm slipping away into her shadow. She...never really looks at us anymore. Like she's trying to slip me into cracks that she's creating. But...but I don't wanna be someone that I'm not because of her. Like...like a picture no one sees. Erase me like I'm not here. It feels like she's the one fading away...." She sniffles, letting a tear fall down her cheek. She doesn't know it, but Donnie peeked at her anyway.
"Dear.....this isn't your fault," He reaches out and wipes the tear away. "It's mine. I wasn't there to protect you and I let you get into serious trouble."
She stares down at him, realizing that he wasn't going to freak out or anything. She was still here...she was still a part of this world...
Aina rests her head on his shoulder and he blushes as he hugs her back. She grips harder, not wanting him to let go. He would be there for her, protect her from whatever her mother does to her. Because she was important...to him. She just doesn't realize it yet. They would get through this, together.
"Hey," He leans back to look at her as she's sniffling. "Come on, we'll get something from McDonald's."
"Mcdonald's?" She perks up, wiping her nose and he nods with a smile.
"Yeah. We'll go get you those large fries you like."
"Yes!" She cheers, pumping up her fists and he laughs at her changed attitude. He preferred it when his lady was happy. As long as he's there, she would no longer cry. She would always be happy, no matter what. He swears it.