april o'neil x reader 💀 (ROTTMNT)

4

You cover your mouth, coughing loudly after inhaling a lungful of dust. The shaking comes to a stop, but your legs still feel weak. You collapse to the floor to make it easier for yourself, joining April. 

Your eyes sting from the smoke and other sudden events, but you manage to squint them open as you look up to see what has just happened. A large creature, bigger than anyone else in the room, stood at the newly made entryway. The smoke begins to clear, and the group can now see it. Leonardo and Donatello are closest to it. They've begun to back away, but pause for a moment.

"Oh, it's... A giant stuffed toy," Donatello comments. And he would be right. Somehow held by strings attached to the ceiling, the monster seems to be plush. It's light pink, almost not noticeable in the dim lighting. It has rosy cheeks and a bright nose stitched onto it's face, along with large baby blue wings sticking out from its back. It's head is round, and the rest of it is covered in a deep purple cloak. It's eyes and mouth are strikingly human, which is slightly disturbing.

"A puppet yokai?" Raphael questions, "I've never seen one of those before," Everyone in the room is very confused, probably you most of all. But it doesn't seem like any answers would be coming any time soon.

"Turtles," The creature starts by hissing one word, completely ignoring everything else that had been said, "It's great to see you all together above the surface."

Michelangelo finally peaks their head out from their shell, "We go above the surface all the time," They counter. Raph gives a stern look, signalling for them to not converse with this creature. It giggles in response, "Oh, I know. I've seen you quite often. I just mean, alone, in the middle of the night, in a place where no one ever comes to. Where no one would find you."

"Okay, that's... creepy," Leonardo decides. You silently agree. You stand to your feet and reach a hand out to help April, but she's frozen, staring at the puppet. But you don't move your helping hand.

"What do you want? You're ruining our friend's birthday!" Raph snaps, not at all pleased with this interruption. The creature waves its hand in dismissal, the strings moving along with its arm, "If it's not your birthday, then I don't care," Its eyes search the area, "I'm not ruining anything, you're just not being very welcoming."

"Oh," Raphael murmurs, "I'm sorry, you're right. Would you like some cake?" Donatello facepalms.

"I just need a few of you," The puppet decides. She begins to slide closer, "What- What are you doing?" Michelangelo fully pops out their shell, pushing themself out of Raph's hands. Leonardo and Donatello start taking quick steps backward, trying to get away from the creature as she nears the group. April finally grabs onto your hand, slightly startling you, leaping to her feet. 

April looks at you in confusion, but it's not like you would have any answer to who this is, "Uhh..." The puppet trails, "How about the big one and the purple one," She finally declares. The turtles share several glances with each other. Raph looks at her strangely, "You want us to come with you?" He asks.

The creature rolls her eyes, "Not a want, it's a need. And I have everything set up to start tonight, so I was hoping that you could do it fast. Come on, let's go," She commands. Everyone looks at her with a dazed expression. Does she think you all know who she is, or...

When the demands aren't immediately fulfilled, she snaps forward, "Well? Let's get a move on!" It seems like the others can notice the hostility in her voice, because Leo pipes in, "No way, lady," He counters, "None of us are going with you," The others all loudly murmur their agreement, April also joining in.

The puppet looks slightly taken aback, "What?" She questions loudly, seemingly as if no one has ever turned her down before, "You guys don't want to... hang out and be friends?" She turns it. But no one else is having it, "You aren't being very friendly, so we aren't willing to do so towards you," Donnie explains.

"Then I'll have to convince you in other ways," She mutters. You're confused as to what that could mean, but the answer soon arrives. Metallic-looking wires suddenly snap out from under the puppet's long cloak, stretching oddly in several different directions before reaching their target, Michelangelo. They shriek in surprise and duck away, completely dodging the newly revealed weapons. The cables instead wrap around Raphael before he even realizes what's happening.

"Raph!" Mikey yells in alarm, resuming their original spot. They desperately try to pry the wires off, but Raphael is lifted into the air, out of reach. Leo leaps back, trying to also grab onto Raph. Donatello pays a quick look at the puppet creature before joining his brothers. 

"We left our weapons at home!" Leo complains, "Oh, yes, I think I can remember who came up with that idea," Donnie responds sarcastically, even with one of his brothers currently being kidnapped, "Bringing weapons to the party meant we thought something bad could happen!" He defends himself.

It appears that something bad was happening, anyway. April continues to look between the turtles and the creature. You follow her frantic gaze, seeing that more strings were coiling towards the group, "Just do something!" Mikey yelps in a panic, finding their way darting off of the wall to reach Raph's height.

"Back up weapons coming right up," Donatello informs, knowing that his point of needing their original weapons was proven. Their battle shell extends from three different spots, dropping off specific weapons to the three free turtles. 

You watch as Leo uses a sword to block off the new flying strings. Mikey has reached Raph and is now trying to find a way to free him. Raphael also struggles, but he can be distantly heard whispering reassuring words. Donatello has a few things sticking from their back as they race away from the main group, making their way to confront the main source.

April grabs your wrist, "Come on, they've got this! Let's get you to safety!" She yanks you away, quickly dragging you outside of the warehouse. The two of you zoom across the docks, the darkness covering you both. Each time you see a place that looks safe to hide, April passes it up and keeps moving forward. 

The wooden planks stretched on for a while. April finally comes to a stop at an area that is not much different from any other spot. Everything looks the same, the same trash and dirty water. You lean forward, trying to catch your breath. You can also hear April breathing in and out beside you.

"Sorry, I just wanted to make sure we got far enough away," She apologizes in between breaths. You look up at her general direction, giving her a reassuring smile, even though you're pretty sure she can't see you. 

You hear April let out a sigh, and then her footsteps as she walks a few feet away. You stand up straight and stare off towards where she walked, "Sorry," She apologizes again, "I think I halfway thought that the curse would break this year."

She sounds sad, and that makes you sad. But she's right, that was definitely a bad thing, and it happened on her birthday. Still on-going, probably. You rethink it over. You were getting comfortable with a bunch of mutant turtles, and then a scary puppet monster broke a wall and snatched one of them up, and one of your new friends grabbed you and made you run away. Why weren't you more scared? You didn't feel all that worried.

"It's alright," You try to comfort April, "It was fun at first, and your friends seem like they know what they're doing..." A moment passes, "I know," She quietly agrees. You hear her feet brush across the planks, you assume she's turned towards you, "We'll just resume the party like nothing ever happened whenever the others get back, sound good?" She asks you.

It sounds more like something you should be saying to her, not the other way around, but you grin, anyway, "Yeah, nothing ever happened."