MUTANTS ARE PEOPLE TOO!

“Yeah all we ever do is help the humans and all we get is rejection”-Donatello (Cry Havoc)

By: Felicia McFurry

 

 

 

 

 

     Almost a year had passed since Donatello was given Sango but for many months that followed her arrival, he had April take care of her. Just by looking at his daughter made Donatello want to cry for the loss of Felicia. He had a hard time trying to get over her and everyone including himself knew that he wasn’t ready to take care of his child yet. He really wasn’t planning on having a child with Felicia, it just sort of happened one night and that was the only time that they were ever close like that. But he began to think that the child was a blessing to him from Felicia to remind him of her and it did more than he would like. Even though Sango showed no feline characteristics in her appearance he knew that she would probably take after her mother in many forms later on in her life.  April had gladly volunteered to adopt Sango for a few months to help Donatello’s pain till finally Donatello took care of Sango in the morning while April was at work and he became quite fond of her. On her one-year birthday April had given her a small yellow bear outfit with pink ears that buttoned down in the front and didn’t cover her legs to wear, which kept her quite warm in the damp sewers along with orange gloves and pink booties.  With April’s help, the turtles began to learn on how to take care of her, they often would go to the grocery store to buy her baby food and milk; a task that Michelangelo protested since he believed that all turtles should eat pizza. Sango even began to pronounce some words out of her babbling along with the titles which she called Splinter “Gwanpa Splinta.” She first called Michelangelo “dadda” since he began to grow quite attached to her since he loved children but Donatello corrected her, but she still called Michelangelo “dadda” since she realized how it seemed to annoy her father and giggled every time he would sigh.

     One day in the month of March, even though Don disagreed with the idea, he finally allowed Michelangelo to take Sango out in her stroller that he bought from a yard sale for a few dollars to the zoo to see the animals.  Michelangelo wore a pair of blue pants with a long sleeved orange shirt and a blue cap with no mask on. He stopped the stroller in front of the monkey house. “See all those monkeys in there, dudette?” he grinned as he leaned down in front of her and pointed to them. Sango cheered and clapped. “Now it’s off to see my feather friends. You’ll love them.” He rolled the stroller towards the direction of the bird sanctuary.

     A biologist named Doctor Gary Gibbs watched Michelangelo walk by with the baby and his eyes became wide. He was aware of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but never seen a baby mutant turtle with albinism! It was a rare event and he knew for a fact that his boss would love to have her for an experiment to figure out what caused the albinism and just see her DNA code. He withdrew a camera from his backpack and quietly walked ahead of Mike to get in front. Then he stopped almost in front of him about twenty feet away. He pretend he was taking a picture of one of the animal cages next to where Mike and Sango stopped but he actually snapped a picture of the white turtle. Then he looked around and casually walked off towards the zoo’s exit.

Leo and Raph sighed as they leaned against the wall of the living room, watching Donatello pacing back and forth with a worried look on his face. “Stop worrying, Donatello. I am sure that Mike just decided to stay a little longer with her.” Leo said

“I can’t help it, Leonardo. I don’t like the idea of having her out there. For one thing she can’t be in the bright light due to her albinism and also what if someone sees her?” Don asked as he stopped pacing for a minute and looked at them.

“Well face it, Daddy Donnie, you’re the one who let Michelangelo take her out to the zoo with him all alone. Let’s just hope that Mike can remember to take her home with him, you know how he always forgets his keys somewhere. If he didn’t have his brain attached, he would leave it somewhere as well,” Raph grinned a little as he crossed his arms. Don gave Raphael a sharp look and then sighed, returning to his pacing.

“We’re home, compadres!” Michelangelo announced as he wheeled Sango into the lair with him. “Sango must take after yours truly here, she loved the furry animals!”

“You were supposed to be back a hour ago, Michelangelo! What took you so long?!” Donatello demanded angrily as he reached into the stroller to retrieve Sango.

     “I decided to go sewer skateboardin with the micro dudette for awhile since we had such an awesome time,” Michelangelo grinned, walking over to the closet to take off his disguise.

     Donatello’s jaw almost hit the ground. “You did what?! Sango is just a baby, Michelangelo! They can’t do that! It’s dangerous ! That was very foolish of you!,” Don said as he hugged Sango closer to him, his heart racing for the very thought of Sango falling off the cheapskate into the water.

     “Chill out, bro! I brought her back didn’t I? A turtle is meant to have fun and party, dude!,” Mike said as he closed the closet door, getting kind of insulted by Donatello’s attitude towards him.

     “But she is a BABY!!,” Don screamed louder. “Do you have any responsibility what so ever?!” Sango started to cry from the voices rising. Don sighed. “Oh great look what you did.” He walked to his room, carrying Sango close to him and trying to calm her.

     Michelangelo bawled his fists. “What a creepazoid! I was trying to be helpful! That’s gratitude for you.”

     Donatello placed Sango into her cradle that he had placed in his room and pulled the covers over her, she began to settle calmly as she suckled her thumb and began to doze off. He sighed with relief and couldn’t help but to smile but he didn’t for too long when he overheard Michelangelo’s next comment, “I don’t have any responsibility? He IS the one who has the kid now!” With that, Don growled out in immense anger as he stormed back into the lair. Leo and Raph looked over at Don and saw the daggers in his eyes and their eyes went wide with fright. They looked at each other and then Raph stood in front of Michelangelo while Leo went up to Donatello.

     “You shouldn’t have said that,” Raph said as he gulped as he saw Donatello look right over at Michelangelo.

     “YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH! I LOVED HER! SO DON’T EVEN START TO BLAME HER OR ME FOR THIS! AND I LOVE SANGO!” Donatello screamed as tears came from his eyes from the hurt. Leo used his hands to keep Donatello back, he had never seen Donatello this mad or angry except when Shredder killed Felicia but never towards his brothers.

     “Michelangelo, why did you have to start this?” Leonardo sighed as he saw the hurt in Don and looked back at Michelangelo.

     “Me? He’s the one who started to yell at me as soon as I walked in,” Mike protested. “Just forget it. Guess I shouldn’t try to be even helpful! I am out of here!!” He stormed out of the lair to go get his cheapskate from outside the lair.

     Donatello sighed as he took a deep breath and then turned and walked back towards his room to go check on his daughter, wiping his eyes with his finger as he walked.

     Leonardo sighed as he looked over at Raphael. “There was the highlight of my day,” Raph stated as he walked towards the couch to watch some television.

Becoming bummed on what just happened between him and his brother, Don took Sango carefully out of her cradle, making sure not to wake her up and carried her to his workshop and placed her down in a playpen gently to allow her to sleep still. He sighed as he looked down at her, letting tears flow down from his eyes. “I’m sorry, Felicia…I’m trying my best to do this. I wish you were with me.” Donatello sniffed and wiped his eyes, walking over and sitting near his worktable on the stool. He looked down at one of his inventions sadly, taking his finger and caressing the sides of the motherboard that he had there to use for one of his inventions later on.  He was so confused about everything, the whole idea about having a daughter was new to him and somewhat scary. Course when he and his brothers took care of a Neutrino baby it was simple but somehow this was harder and he didn’t know why. Sango didn’t have any psychokinetic abilities or anything. He felt like he was failing Felicia. “Dadda?,” a small voice said. He turned around and looked down at the playpen to discover Sango on all fours, looking at him, her hands resting on the screen of the playpen. She was smiling so brightly at him. He couldn’t help but smile himself, for it was the first time that she actually called him “dadda.”

Astonished, Donatello walked over to the playpen and picked her up, looking into her eyes. Still not sure if he heard her right, he asked, “Who am I, sweetie?”

She smiled at him and said, “Dada!” She giggled and then leaned in and kissed him on the nose. Don couldn’t help but chuckle himself as he kissed her on the cheek. “Yeah you’re just like your mother, Sango. You know how to cheer me up.”

Sango then looked at him with a confused look on her face. “Unco Mikeey?”

     “Dr. Gibbs, your idea better be damn better than your last one. The government is about to suspend its funding,” Dr. Miller replied as he leaned back in his chair looking up at Dr. Gibbs who held a folder in his hand.  Miller was around the age of fifty; he had short curly hair, and was heavy looking with glasses. He was the head of the Miller Mutagen Laboratory, which was set up by the government to do analysis on mutants and find a way to change them.

     “I did sir, I found a mutant turtle,” Gibbs announced as he smiled, clutching the folder tighter with enthusiasm.

     “A MUTANT TURTLE?!,” Miller screamed. “Where have you been?! We have always been trying to study the ninja turtles, there is no need to now.”

     “But sir, this is different. I found a baby mutant turtle and with albinism!,” Gibbs protested as he flopped the folder onto Miller’s desk.

     That following evening, Donatello had Sango out of her disguise but wearing a diaper in his workshop. She was sitting on his worktable as he pointed different things out to her. “See this is a computer monitor and that down there is a CPU: Central Processing Unit,” he said as he pointed to his computer and then he picked up a motherboard. “This is a motherboard, Sango, and the little bits here are called chips.” Sango just giggled and clapped.

     “You’re going to corrupt the child,” Raph said as he walked into the workshop. “Donatello, you do realize that she has no clue what you’re saying to her.”

     “Well I guess having her sit on the couch with you watching comedy shows isn’t going to corrupt her?,” Don said as he looked up at Raph, getting kind of annoyed. “She’s my child, Raphael.”

     “Whoa, easy there, Donatello. I was just picking. I think it’s kind of cute,” Raphael snickered.

     “Chwill out doood,” Sango said as she started to giggle loudly and clap her hands.

     Donatello’s eyes went wide and looked back at his daughter, he couldn’t believe what she just said! Neither could Raphael who fell on the floor howling with laughter.  “Michelangelo!!,” Donatello screamed.

     Mike walked into the workshop wearing his apron, holding a mixing bowl in his hands. “Yeah compadre?”

     “I just wish I would she could have some intelligence in her,” Don stated as he settled back against the edge of the table, calming himself down. He hated to be so strict with his brothers but he just wanted to bring up Sango right and not fail Felicia.

     “Hey, bro, you have to have a little fun in your life,” Mike said as he stopped mixing his ingredients and looked over at Sango. “Yo, dudette!”

     “Yo doood,” Sango replied, giggling again.

     “I just don’t want her to be another one of you,” Don said as he picked up Sango and placed her on his lap.

     “Hey, I think another one of me would be totally tubulioso!,” Michelangelo smiled over at his frustrated brother.

     “For sure, dude. For sure!,” Leo teased as he walked in to join in on the conversation. He started to chuckle a little himself seeing the look of frustration on his face. Leonardo loved his brother a lot and knew he was having a tough time but he also knew how to play with him in order to ease him.

     Donatello sighed as he placed Sango back on the table and then plopped his head on the table, looking at her. She giggled once again and leaned down and kissed his head, which he couldn’t help but to smile himself.

     Leonardo looked over at the clock on the wall. “Um, Donatello. Aren’t you supposed to be taking Sango over to April’s now so we could go out tonight?”

     “Yipes! I nearly forgot!,” Donatello said as he got up from the stool. “Sango, I need to put your outfit back on.” He walked over and picked her up to put on the bear outfit again, she squirmed a little. Leonardo walked over to get Don’s child carrier, which resembled a backpack except it had a place to set the child in instead of a pouch. Don set Sango on the table and slipped on the carrier and then Leonardo placed Sango in it, strapping her to it. “Thanks, Leo. I’ll meet you guys at Vinnie’s in about thirty minutes.”

     “Thirty minutes? But I have the mega munchies, Donatello. I can’t wait that long,” Michelangelo whined as he watched Don walk out of the workshop towards the entrance of the lair. “What am I suppose to do till that time?”

     “Eat your dough,” Raph grinned as he shoved the spoon that was in the mixing bowl into Mike’s mouth.

     “Donatello, what about your disguise?,” Leonardo asked as he followed Donatello to the entrance.

     Donatello shivered from the cold rain as he stood against one of the alley walls. He was about two blocks from April’s apartment and so far so good. He could hear Sango cooing with happiness from the raindrops. With some relief to know that she was okay, he looked around at the street in front of him making sure no one was in sight and ran quickly over to the next alley. Feeling a bit more confident and at ease, he started to walk towards the other side of the alley. But then his heart almost stopped as he heard footsteps behind him and to make it worse, he could hear Sango whimpering some. He turned around and there stood two large men in military uniforms that resembled to S.W.A.T. “Um, can I help you guys?” he asked, trying to remain brave.

     “Just give us the baby, mutant,” one of them said looking right at Donatello.

     “And what if I don’t?!” Donatello said as he bawled his hands into fists, wishing that he brought his bo staff with him. Keeping his attention on his surroundings, making sure that there weren’t any more of the men behind him to grab Sango. He rested his hand on one of the crate boxes beside him.

     “If you don’t, then we’ll kill you and take her anyways,” the second guy replied as he pulled out a handgun. “I am not going to tell you twice, turtle. So you better listen now. We are from the government and you are under a federal order to release the baby to us and any action will be taking against you if you refrain.”

     April was sitting on the couch in her pink pajamas, watching television when she heard a loud knocking on her window. She looked over and saw Donatello looking at her. “Donatello?” she asked as she walked over to the window and opened it. “Why didn’t you come in through the front? I told you no one would see you tonight.” She stepped back some to allow him to crawl in after taking Sango from his arms.

     “April, listen very carefully. I can’t stay long. Some men from the government are after Sango and they have been chasing me down. You must put Sango in a room with no windows and make sure you don’t tell anyone about having her okay?” he said.

     “My bedroom doesn’t have a window, we can put her in there,” April replied as she quickly carried Sango towards her room with Donatello following. She gently placed Sango on the bed but as soon as she did, Sango started to cry.

     “Shh, calm down sweetheart,” Don said as he looked down at her sadly, her tears almost bringing tears to his eyes as well.

     “Dadda!,” she screamed as she lifted her arms up towards him, wanting him to pick her up.

     “Listen, Daddy will be gone for a little bit. But I’ll be back for you,” Don said as he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “I can’t linger here any longer, April. I’ll be back for her later.” He walked quickly towards the living room, to the window.

     “I’ll watch to make sure you get out okay,” April said quickly.

     “Right and if you see anything suspicious, contact the turtles immediately,” Don also added as he lifted up the window.

     “Right,” April replied as she bit her lip watching him walk down the stairwell; so far so good.

     Little did they know that there was a squad of the government officials watching Donatello come out of the apartment. “He’s coming out right now,” one of them said as they stood against the alley to make sure they wouldn’t be seen.

     “Roger, get ready to get him,” another said as he got a rope ready.

     Donatello stepped off the last step onto the ground and looked around but all of a sudden he felt a rope go around his neck, choking him!  He coughed as he gripped at the robe, feeling it cut off his airways.

     “I got him!,” an official cried out as he held the rope tightly.  Donatello looked in front of him and saw about seven more military guys approaching him.

     “Okay, freak! Where did you put the child?,” one of them demanded as he approached Donatello. Don kicked the guy swiftly in the stomach as he kept pulling at the rope to help him breathe. In return the guy got mad and slapped Don hard across the face and then kicked him hard in the chest, making Don topple over and collapse to the ground.

     April gasped as she saw what was going on. “Donatello!!”

     The men looked up and saw her at the window. “She must have her! Get her! Two of you go in through the front! Another go up the stairwell!,” one of them ordered, leaving four down there still with Donatello.

     “April! Call the others!,” Donatello managed to say as he tried to get back up onto his feet.

     April fumbled for her communicator and pushed the talk button, “Guys come in!!!”

     Leonardo was sitting at the table at Vinnie’s with the rest of his brothers, all of them wearing their trench coat disguises. They were waiting on Donatello when he heard the communicator going off. “Yes, April?” he answered.

     “Handcuff her to the stairwell outside!,” one of the men ordered in April’s apartment as he and the other walked through the apartment to find Sango.

     The man handcuffed April outside and then walked back into the apartment to help out his teammates. April looked down saw that the men who had Donatello, now had him standing up right, with one of them holding him while the others punched him. She clearly saw that Donatello was losing conscious as his body became severely bruised from the beatings. “Come on, ninja. Fight us!,” they taunted. Then she heard Sango crying as the other men brought her out of the apartments towards the others.

     Donatello looked up at Sango with great pain from the beatings, he just looked at her sadly. The man who was holding her took off her outfit and threw it at Don. “Here you can have this if you want.”

     “What about the ninja here?” one who was holding Don’s rope asked.

     “Leave him here, we have what we want,” one replied as he and three others took off towards their vehicles that were about two blocks away.

Sango cried loudly as she tried to reach around towards her father. “DADDA!!”

     As soon as the Turtle Van pulled up to April’s apartment, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo ran over to the alley side of the building. “Turtles, up here!” April cried out from the top of the stairwell, still trying to pull out at her restraints.

     “April! Where’s Donatello?” Leonardo shouted back at her.

     “He’s over there by the fence,” she said.

     “I am coming for you, dudette,” Michelangelo called out to her as he climbed up the stairwell while Leonardo and Raphael ran to the fence. To their horror, there was Donatello on his stomach, severely bruised from the beating and the rope still tightly around his neck.

     “Donatello!” Leo cried out as he rushed down to his brother, gently lifting the rope off his neck.

     Raphael felt his limp arms with his hand softly, actually feeling tears coming to his eyes. “He’s out cold.” They looked back and saw Michelangelo and April walking towards them.

     When Michelangelo saw Donatello’s state, he ran towards him, his heart pounding like crazy. “Amigo, speak to me!!!”

     April couldn’t help but to shed tears too for their brother, she looked down and below at her feet was Sango’s outfit that she bought her. She reached down and picked it up, caressing it softly. “Guys!” she called out to them as she ran towards them to show them her finding.

     Leonardo sighed when he saw the outfit, knowing that the men had managed to get away with Sango. He looked around, wondering if they were being watched at that very moment or not.  “I don’t like this, guys. Let’s head back to the lair. We’ve got to get him out of here!” He bent down to lift up his brother’s feet, Michelangelo walked over to lift up the upper part of Don’s body and to support his head.

     Hours passed, Donatello was in his bed, still somewhat weak and tired from the fight. Splinter kept watch on him constantly, treating his bruises.  Don held the small bear outfit tightly in his hand, his mind filled with thoughts on what could be happening to her at that moment. Many times since he regained consciousness he wanted to go out and look for her but Splinter’s protests kept him in the lair.  The only thing he could do was to mourn for her.

     Several days later, Don finally recovered from the beating and was able to walk around in the lair once again and practice with his brothers. But his brothers noticed that his fighting was becoming quite aggressive probably due to the immense anger inside of him. But they would soon notice that not only his fighting style had changed but also his attitude.

     Leonardo walked towards the entrance part of his lair and placed his katana sword back into its sheath on the back of his shell. “You ready, turtles?” he asked as he waited. He decided that they should go out that evening to patrol the streets.

     “Yah, I am coming. Keep your shell on,” Raph grumbled as he placed his sais in their holders on his belt, Michelangelo followed behind him. But Donatello lagged behind and casually leaned back against the wall and stood there.

     “Hurry up, Raphael,” Michelangelo said as he trailed Raphael, wanting to hurry up and get back to watch his sci-fi movie that was suppose to come on in two hours.

     “Hey, I am a tortoise not a hare,” Raphael replied, he looked back to Donatello. “You coming, Donatello?”

     “Nah, I don’t think so,” Don replied coolly.

     “Huh? Why not, Donatello?,” Leonardo asked as he looked over at his brother, bit surprised on his reply.

     “Why should we help the humans? We can’t trust them anymore,” Don said in a low voice.

     “Aww, Don. I know you’re going through a lot but you shouldn’t judge an entire group of people on just one small group,” Leo replied gently.

     “You don’t know what I am going through! And they probably don’t even care! Now if it was a human child that these people took then you bet it would be wrong. I mean I can understand for Felicia since it was Shredder’s doing. But Sango didn’t do anything, she’s just a baby! They didn’t have to take her! But to them, we don’t count!,” Don shouted back, getting tensed up. “All we ever do anymore is help the humans and all we get is rejection!”

     “Look, I am not going to stop doing what I think is right just because it isn’t appreciated!,” Leonardo yelled back, getting kind of frustrated.

     “Well right now, I don’t think they deserve it! At least not from me!,” Donatello yelled back as he walked off to his room.

 

To be continued….