Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Important note before we begin:

This story was transcribed from a digital recording received 3 months ago. Some things have been changed in this transition from recording to text. In some places, some words were difficult to understand, or even completely cut out. Some portions were even in other languages besides English.

I have done my best to restore the story while staying true to its wording and intended meaning. If in some places the grammar is strange, or even incorrect, please inform me. I'll try to fix it to the best of my abilities.

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I received this recording in an email about 3 months ago with the only instructions being to share this however I could.

This is how I could.

This isn't a mistake. Not everyone can read this story.

You are one of the chosen few.

You don't know it yet, but you are much more powerful than you could ever know. Complete the story, follow our instructions.

Find the files. Uncover their secrets. Shine light on the shadows.

I believe in you.

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The day before it happened, before my life changed forever, it was our day off.

I was dreaming.

A tall, beautiful woman laughed softly. She spoke, whispering something unintelligible. A young boy, about 3, followed her as she walked away.

The boy turned his head to the left, waving at a tall man and smiling. He was filled with a deep sense of love and belonging. These people, his parents, were safe. They would protect him. They loved him.

His father stood up and began to follow his mother. Together, they walked through a doorway into a rainy afternoon…

I slowly sat up in my bed, smiling. My mother was in the kitchen, probably making a delicious breakfast. My father may be at work, but he may be joining us for breakfast.

Everything was okay.

Except… it wasn’t. I have never had a mother. I have never known my father as a human. And- well I wasn’t human!

Almost every night, I would have dreams like this. A caring mother, a busy yet loving father, both looking at me with pure love and adoration.

It almost brought me to tears, how loved I felt, simply from a dream. The fact that it was only a dream intensified the feeling.

I took some deep breaths to calm myself, before joining my brothers in their kitchen. I may not have a conventional family, but I do have a family who love me very much. I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

“Donnie! Good morning!” Mikey chirped enthusiastically, giving me a big hug as he approached our kitchen.

“Hey bud!” I greeted. “You sure are excited, huh?” I pat my younger brother on the head gently.

“Yup! I wanna do ALL the fun stuff today!” Mikey exclaimed, obviously excited.

“Alright, sure! I think I can put aside some projects for a little…” I said, half teasing my brother.

“Take a break for a day, Dee.” Leo smiled. “We all are, after all. Only work on what you want to, and when you want to. I know you’ve been neglecting your inventions in favor of monitoring the Kraang.”

I smiled back at Leo. “Alright.” I sighed playfully. “I suppose I will spend some time with you all.” I paused. “Maybe.”

Raph entered the kitchen groggily. “Are we all gonna stand around talking all morning or is someone going to get breakfast started?” He complained.

Leo laughed softly and I sighed again, turning to the fridge.

“I’ve got breakfast today. What does everyone want?” I asked.

Chapter Text

It was almost human morning. Yeah, I know, it's awkward. But until I come up with a better name, its just gonna be “Human Morning”.

The point is, it was sunrise.

…Shit, there’s the better name. Whatever. I’m a little short on time. End of creation and all.

Where was I? Right, sunrise.

So there I was. Sunrise.

I had taken a walk near some warehouses to watch the sunrise. Everything seemed quite normal, until I took a longer look at a specific warehouse. It looked… It looked almost as if it had a mansion on top of it.

I shook my head, convincing myself that the strange sight in front of me (That had now disappeared) was just an illusion.

I began to walk away but… There was something strange about that sight. I figured I should at least investigate, try to find out what caused such a strange mirage.

I approached the warehouse where I saw the mansion, careful to keep my eyes on it. If I looked away, I might lose track of which was which.

As I got closer, the mansion reappeared. I could see it clearly now, a large, beautiful house. It looked like it had a swimming pool and about 5 floors. If I looked closely, I could make out some strange words written in a foreign language, though I couldn’t make out what they said or what language it might be.

Slowly, I managed to climb my way to the top of the warehouse, and to the front of the mansion. There was a slab of stone instead of a front door, and I don’t even remember why at this point, but I assumed it was voice activated.

“Open.” I demanded, almost expecting it to reject me as a stranger, but the door opened.

I stepped inside, met with the biggest living room I had ever seen. Ever.

The ceiling was probably 20 feet high, with a giant statue of an egyptian god standing there. I wasn’t sure, but I was almost positive it was Thoth. On the base of the statue, there was a hieroglyph. An ankh, surrounded at the top by a square.

Per Ankh, if I remembered correctly. It means “The House of Life”. An ancient institution and a school.

As I stepped even further into the grand mansion, I heard a loud… screech? Of some kind. Almost like a baboon.

It was a baboon.

It was screeching madly at me, but strangely it was wearing a Lakers jersey. A man quickly stepped through a door near a TV, and looked incredibly shocked to see me.

It was then that I registered that I was a giant turtle mutant, standing in some poor, very rich man’s magic mirage mansion.

“SHIT- I’m so so so sorry please don’t scream-” I hastily tried to explain, backing away from the very shocked man. “I kind of thought this entire thing was fake- I’m so sorry- please don’t kill me-” I stumbled over myself and my words, trying desperately to escape. If I made it out of there alive, my brothers would kill me.

The man seemed to yell something about a demon and magicians and houses, but I was too far away to hear. I assumed he wasn’t able to hear me either.

He seemed to pull a staff out of thin air, and pointed it at me. He yelled something like a spell, and FIRE shot at me. I dodged quickly, and reached behind my back to pull out my staff. If I was lucky, I could manage to deflect anything else he shot at me.

When I pulled out my staff, the man seemed surprised. His face hardened into anger and threw something at me. I’m still not sure what. The point is, it knocked my staff right out of my hands. Panicking, I threw myself at a wall that seemed to be full of weapons.

I saw a small ivory stick and a long wooden staff similar to my own, so I grabbed them. The staff seemed similar to the mans, and I assumed it to be some strange rich person technology.

I was panicking okay???! I was not thinking clearly at all.

In a panic and fearing for my life, I shouted at the definitely technologically powered staff. “DO SOMETHING!!” I demanded of it, and on cue it shot out a powerful flash of lightning, deflecting the next blast of energy from the man’s staff.

I took the pause to run to a glass door that opened to the giant pool, and tried to open it.

No luck.

A hieroglyph shone on the door, and seemed to be keeping me from leaving.

The man seemed to be calmer, at least from what I could see. He slowly walked over to me, a confused expression on his face.

“What.. are you?” He finally asked when he was close enough for normal conversation.

“Uh-” I hesitated. “I call myself a mutant… I’m sort of a cross between a human and turtle…?” I explained in fear.

“How exactly did that happen?” The man asked, one eyebrow raised. I couldn’t see his eyes from behind his dark glasses, but he seemed to be… trusting me?

“You wouldn’t believe me.” I answered, still shaken from the earlier battle.

“I shot a blast of fire at you from a wooden staff.” He said. He had a point.

“Aliens.” I paused. “Sorry, aliens from another dimension.” I explained.

The man paused. “So you’re a human-turtle magician?” He asked, crossing his arms and looking skeptical.

I scoffed. “I am a man of science, not some ‘magician’.” I rolled my eyes.

The man sighed. “It seems like we both have some stories to tell.” He gestured toward the couch near them.

I was shocked. “Uh- no??? Listen dude, how about I just go home, you forget about all of this, and I never come back again!” I almost shouted.

The man just sat down on the couch. I stared at him for a while. Was this guy serious? I wasn’t just going to spill my life's story to him-

“-so THEN we see this girl being kidnapped and decide to step in. It all goes to shit so we have to go after the van.” I pause for a breath before realising I was indeed spilling my life’s story to him, and he didn’t actually seem very skeptical.
I jump off of the couch. “Hey! I didn't agree to this!” I protested angrily.

The man ignored me. “What happened next?”

I paused.

I sat back down.

“Then they took her to their hideout I guess-”

Chapter Text

I had just finished summing up my morning so far before my T-Phone blared with the emergency alert.

The man startled and I gasped.

“SHIT! My brothers have to be so worried-” I frantically took the call and was met with Raphs sleepy voice.

“Dude… where are you? It’s like midnight…” My brother groaned.

I paused. I checked the tracking app I had set up and saw that my brothers had viewed my location. It seemed innocent enough. I just appeared to be hanging around a warehouse for the majority of the night/day.

“I’ll be home soon Raph. I ran into some… trouble but I’m fine now.” I answered. “Everything okay over there?” I asked.

“Yeah…” Raph answered. “I know you said the button’s for emergencies but…” He yawned. “You weren’t answering.”

I softened at the realization that my brother was too tired to keep up his tough, strong image.

“It’s fine Raph.. Go to bed. I promise, I’ll be home ASAP.” I smiled and hung up as he mumbled a goodbye.

I turned towards the strange man once more. “What about you?” I asked, incredibly suspicious of this accepting stranger. “Whats all this about magic? And usually people are a lot less receptive to being told aliens exist.”

The man smiled. “I’ve suspected something of the sort for years, but I’ve never had confirmation till now.” He explained. “And to answer your question I’m afraid I have to ask another question. What do you know about Egyptian mythology?”
—
I’m afraid the recording cut out after this portion. It jumped immediately to another section.

I have no idea what egyptian mythology exactly has to do with this story, but I think you might know.

—

It was… a lot to take in. Magic had always been that one thing I refused to put any belief in. I could suspend my disbelief for a bit while reading or watching tv of course, I even enjoyed analyzing magic systems sometimes!

The concept that not only was magic real but I could harness it through some ancient ancestry?

It seemed… ridiculous. Yet it was true.

I couldn’t get the memory of earlier out of my head. Fire was shot at me from a wooden staff!

Heck, I’d even conjured Lightning and, albeit badly, directed it at someone.

“What… what do I do now?” I asked hesitantly, examining the staff from earlier. I hadn’t set it down yet. Amos looked at me with concern and… compassion.

“Right now, you go home. You mentioned some brothers?” He asked. I nodded slightly. “Take the wand and staff.”

I tried to protest, but he stopped me. “You’ll need them, at least to convince your family.” Amos explained. He checked his watch quickly. “I have somewhere to be. When I get back, I want to talk to you and your brothers.”

I nodded again. I was about to ask more questions, but a long yawn cut me off. Suddenly I was aware of how long it had been since I had slept.

Amos looked concerned. He thought for a moment before seeming to decide on something.

“Go back home, bring your brothers here in the morning. I could explain better than you.” Amos stood up and gestured towards the glass doors. A hieroglyph glowed again, and I could almost feel the magic lessening.

Amos turned back towards me. “Can you get home alright?” He asked, worry on his face.

I scoffed. “‘Course I can! I’ve gone home in daylight before.” I headed towards the glass doors. I was about to leave before a thought occurred to me.

“Thank you.”

Amos turned to look at me one last time. “For what?”

“For… not screaming and pulling some weapon on me. Usually people aren’t as receptive to this whole thing.” I answered.

Amos smiled.

I sighed, and turned to leave.

I was beginning to regret going topside at all.