To love and to let go // Donatello x Reader

Data

 CRASH!!

A thunderous noise startles you and wakes you up, bouncing you up out of bed and sending your heart racing. You seemed to have been clutching a pillow as you slept, partly for comfort, partly out of loneliness, but nonetheless, you were clutching it much tighter now. As you waited for a moment to settle your heart rate, you hear quite the commotion outside, the clanging of both metal and voices. You leap out of bed, scrambling out the door and into the living room where you see the turtles also out of their rooms.

"Yo, what's going on? Donnie, one of your experiments didn't blow up again, did it?" Michelangelo, looking a bit disheveled but still ready for action, sped towards the fridge to check on Ice Cream Kitty and make sure she was safe.

"No, that wasn't me." Donnie had a small meter in his hands, presumably running some tests to find out the source. "I think it came from the surface!"

Leo was sliding his swords into his holsters. "Well then let's go check it out! It might be the Kraang, or Shredder!!" He and Raph started briskly towards the exit of the sewers, while Mikey was closing the door to the fridge and following them.

Donnie looked up from his meter, looking at his brothers and then to you. Not wasting a moment, he sped over to you and put a hand on your shoulder. "Stay here, okay? I'm not sure what's going on, but you need to be safe so we can figure everything out later. We can't have you getting hurt on your first day here, right?" He chuckled, but you could see he was itching to get to the surface with his brothers.

He started to move away, but then you quickly said "Wait," and he halted in his tracks. "I've seen every episode of the series at least twice. I know more things about you, Shredder, the Kraang, and every villain you've ever fought from footage that you guys weren't around for. I can help!"

He shook his head. "It's too risky. You can give us the information when we get back, when you're safe and sound and we don't have this looming over our heads. Literally." Donnie gave a small wink and then ran after his brothers. "We won't be long, promise!"

And with that, the four turtles were gone, and you were left standing in an empty sewer.

You gave a small huff. "I totally could have helped if they'd let me." You start trudging back to your room, but then get the idea that now might be a good time to explore.

Outside

The brothers hop out of the manhole, prepared and ready for anything. There haven't been any crashes since the first big one, but some commotion is heard across town, and not the usual traffic, but car horns, people yelling, and police sirens. Taking to the rooftops, the turtles keep out of sight of any humans, starting towards the noises.

They run alongside each other, Donatello still monitoring his meter and the rest with their arms behind them for speed. "Any updates Don?" Leo calls to his brother as the wind whips their mask tails behind them.

"Not yet. There doesn't seem to be any mutagen or big catastrophe that I know of, just a lot of people in one place is all I can gather." He taps the meter again, but as there is no change, he puts it in a satchel in his belt and focuses on running.

As they come to the source of the noise, the four duck down behind the lip of a particularly tall building. A large crowd of people, and in the center were two large figures. Donnie pulls out a pair of binoculars, and zooms in to see...

"It's Bebop and Rocksteady!" His brothers unsheath their weapons, and Raph lets out a chuckle.

"Oh, that was the cause of all the commotion? Talk about anticlimactic!" The four jump down to a closer roof to get a better look. "Are they looking for a fight in broad daylight? How dumb can these numbskulls be?"

Leo groans. "We can't fight them because it's broad daylight. They must be trying to lure us out, or something. Why are there so many people here anyway?"

Donnie sighs. "Bebop is dancing and drew quite a crowd. Don't know why this is so interesting to people-"

Out of the blue, another loud CRASH! The turtles whip around towards the source, trying to find what could have caused it. A demolition site, knocking down a building with a huge wrecking ball, and practically shaking the whole town. This time it was Mikey who let out a chuckle.

"Man, I thought there would be some giant robot or something stampeding the town! It's not even something fun..." He pouts and slips his nunchucks back in his holsters and turns back towards the crowd of people. "At least we can have some fun watching these dummies try to dance-"

But as Mikey turned back away from the site, he gasped, and his brothers followed his lead to see. Bebop and Rocksteady were gone, and the people were dispersing slowly. The brothers took their weapons out again and went back to back, hearts pounding and all senses primed to notice anything and everything.

"They must have seen us. We have to get away before they get to us," Leo said, his eyes darting from one noise to the next, be it a baby crying or a car honking.

"Agreed. Let's take the rooftops back to the lair-" Donnie spoke, but then was cut off by a blow to the torso, knocking the wind out of him with a grunt. Out of the shadows was a bout of snorting laughter, and the mutant warthog revealed himself.

"Did y'all enjoy the show? We drew quite a crowd there, right?" Bebop stood, nimble and full of energy, smiling at the turtles from behind his shades.

"Some show. I guess New Yorkers will watch any freak they see on the street and still be entertained." Raph growled, not taking his eyes off of the enemy.

No one moved, Bebop had one hand on his glasses, supposedly holding them in place. But something was happening among the normal noise of the city, and the ninjas' heightened senses picked up on it.

"Do you guys hear that too?" Mikey whispered to his brothers while still holding his nunchucks. It was a quiet beeping, though no one could place where it was coming from. Then, suddenly, Bebop burst into haughty laughter.

"Man, I didn't think it would be this easy! The four of you, all in one place, still enough! And I didn't even need Rock for this!" Bebop took his hand off his glasses, and the beeping stopped.

That was enough. The turtles leapt forwards, yelling and slashing at the warthog. But before any of them could make contact, he vanished with a laugh. The four, still tense, started running back towards the lair before any other encounters were made. But then they heard one last sound.

"Excellent work comrade Bebop!" The thick Russian accent came from below them. "But why were we not supposed to fight them?"

Bebop's voice was below them as well. "I dunno man. All I know is that Stockman said not to contaminate the "data", whatever that means. But we got it, with hardly a scratch!"

Rocksteady let out a growling sigh. "But it would have been so easy to destroy turtles..." Their voices started fading out, and the brothers at each other nervously.

"Data...?" Leo mumbled. "What on earth could that mean?"

They started to head back towards the lair, thinking all the way. Then suddenly Donnie let out a gasp.

"Wait...you don't think that maybe (y/n) could have some sort of traceable effect since she's here transdimensionally? Could StockmanFly or Shredder have realized that something's going on?" Donnie looked around nervously, a bit paranoid.

"That's ridiculous. What would they even want with her?" Raph kept moving, obviously annoyed at the lack of a fight that was right in front of them.

"I don't know. But if something happened that they needed to collect "data" and she hasn't even been here a day, then I need to do a lot of tests to find out what it is they're looking for." They kept running, Donnie playing out complex calculations in his head. "Something's going on here, and it's a lot deeper than we realize."