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 HEY, KID, YOU'RE 
 A LONG WAY 
 FROM NICKTOONS! 

Some TMNT stuff was always meant for grownups.

A special one-shot set in the Ronin-verse!
After the Last Ronin defeated Oroku Hiroto, Master of the Foot Clan, New York City was free for the first time in more than a decade. But along with the newfound freedom comes a dangerous power vacuum waiting to be filled, and without a common enemy in the Foot Clan, various factions are vying to take control. Longtime resistance leader April O'Neil finds herself and her loved ones-including four small mutant turtles she and her daughter, Casey Marie Jones, are raising and training together-once again caught up in the battle for the soul of the city.

When April takes the young mutant turtles with her on a supply run into the city, they become lost and must find their way back to the sewer lair or risk becoming collateral damage in the newest power struggle overtaking the streets. Old memories mix with new realities as April and her four small charges race to get back home before it's too late.

Appearing in Lost Day Special[]

Major characters[]

Minor characters[]

Synopsis[]

April recounts her 60+ years in New York City and how resilient it, and by proxy, she and the people and her life have been. She recounts living in New York with her mother, and watching as the World Trade Center's Twin Towers fell with her, but also the building of One World Trade Center years later as a testament to the city's strength. When she later lost her mother to cancer, the city made sure that she was still not alone, giving her four brothers and a husband to lend her strength. Then, when she lost most of her second family, fate continued to give her someone so that she would still not be alone.

And now, years later, she has even more in her life, with four grandchildren... who are all, at the moment, causing a ruckus. Moja has found some of Donnie's old cassette tapes and wants to check them out, but Uno keeps pestering her to train in kendō, as he says she's the only one who can "almost" keep up with him. April tells Uno to use all that pent-up energy on something he can do solo, like one-hundred push-ups. Uno likes this idea and so does Moja, as she can now explore her treasures in peace.

But then, they are interrupted by Yi being exasperated at Odyn playing chess "wrong", by wanting them to do "gallops together" instead of going by the rules. Odyn objects that he doesn't want them on "different sides", it's more fun when they're friends, to which April has a hard time arguing against that. Giving Yi something to do that doesn't involve getting frustrated at her brother, April asks her to fix her coffee machine again.

Just as April thinks she's handled the day's interruptions, her own daughter comes in finding her dress for her date with Jiro Watanabe ludicrous. April tells her that Casey's supposed to be going on a first date, not the prom. Odyn thinks she looks nice for her "hero" and Uno finds that line corny, but Yi insist that as a police officer, Jiro is a kind of a hero. April's advice is to just be herself and not worry about it. Casey thanks her mother for watching the kids instead of doing her black market run like she normally does on that day, and then leaves. No sooner than seconds after she's gone, Odyn already misses her, but April has other plans, as she intends on taking the kids on her black market run anyway.

April writes in her journal describing how the black market works in present day. When Oroku Hiroto took over New York, currency was replaced by a digital social credit-based system. Unfortunately, the resistance and pretty much anybody who wasn't insanely pro-Foot Clan were basically left with a social credit rating worth nothing. Since then, the resistance developed a black market barter system, where if you brought the right person the right good, they would give or get you what you wanted.

Nobody was better at getting what you wanted than a man known as Tinker Smith, Senior Like April, he was a single parent to a daughter, one Tinker Smith II, known better just as "Tinker 2". Tinker Senior has hoarded tons of goods, but the prices were always what most would think is fair - anything he could get to make Tinker 2 happy. Unfortunately, Tinker Senior was killed in what has since been known as the "Foot Flood" when the resistance knocked out all of Baxter Stockman's tech on Roosevelt Island with a flood - and much of his enterprise was lost. Thus, even though she took over her father's operations, Tinker 2 was driven more than a little mad, and held a grudge against April, blaming her for her father's death.

April and the Turtles approach Tinker 2's security system, and Tinker asks who's with her. April replies that they're her grandbabies, and Tinker becomes intrigued. When they arrive, Yi is fascinated by Tinker's wares. Tinker asks if Casey Marie "married a lizard" and April says no, they're Turtles, and introduces them to her. Upon hearing one is named Uno, Tinker says they can call her "Tinker Dos", which Uno doesn't think is funny but it causes his sisters to laugh.

Despite her animosity towards April, Tinker takes a shine to her grandkids. Then April produces her part of the barter - a VHS copy of Tommy Boy - Tinker's favorite movie, which her previous copy was washed out in the flood that took her father, too. Tinker begins to reenact the movie's "Fat guy in a little coat" scene, but April stops her, saying that Odyn's a little sensitive to the word "fat", since Uno uses it to tease him. Tinker says he looks more like a "cuddly little tank" to her, brightening his spirits.

Tinker hands over her half of the barter, then asks Moja if she wants to watch it with her. Moja excitedly accepts, but April says she and the kids are on a schedule, leaving Tinker to watch the movie on her lonesome....

April details the subject of her next stop, the Purple Dragons. The Dragons had always been a nuisance to the Turtles, but once Raphael was killed and the truce with the Foot was completely severed, Splinter knew he had to make a bargain that would recruit in a steady stream of soldiers, and thus a deal was made with the Dragons. However, after Hiroto's death, the Dragons went back to their own ways, and their dangerous new leader Scuzball made things tough to keep cordial.

As they approach the Dragons' hideout, April tells the Turtles not to be scared. When the girls seem to have no problem with breaching the surface, April guesses that they've been secretly sneaking out. Moja goes to explain, but April stops her, telling her that she can get the story another time, and is glad they're good at keeping secrets since what they're doing today would infuriate Casey.

Just as April pokes her head out of the sewer, she has a gun pointed at her face. Chachi, Bonzo, and Monarch stop her and tell her that Scuzball's no longer in charge, breaking their black market bargain. April tries calm the tension, but Chachi thinks that since she brought ninja, she's ready for a fight. Uno suddenly pops out of the sewer and attacks Chachi, and Odyn stops Monarch and Bonzo from retaliating by bowling them over. As Bonzo goes to get up, Moja knocks him back down, and April stomps on Monarch's blade before she can get it, breaking it with her prosthetic foot.

The Dragons' new leader, Jigsaw suddenly arrives, and based on his demeanor, April deduces that he's a former soldier. He dismisses the goons that the Turtles beat, and says he knows all about April and Casey Marie. Casey thinks they've been spying on her, but Jigsaw says that it's just that her reputation proceeds her, and notes that the ninja are something new to him. Jigsaw leads April and the Turtles into their compound, where Jigsaw decides to honor the barter she had set with Scuzball, despite the fact that the latter had lost their "special election" to him. The parcel she got from Tinker turns out to be a record player needle. Jigsaw can't figure out how to properly attach it to the player, but Yi steps in and does it for him. He gives April the Dragons' end of the barter, and warns that even if they were cordial today, he can't promise it in the future with their clan. April notes that the Dragons had always been easier to deal with than most of their adversaries because they were uncoordinated and sloppy, but if they have a military man leading them now, they might become a bigger threat...

April and the Turtles make their last bartering stop, to crooked NYPD detectives Dick Miller and Frank Corbin. They were swindlers of the highest order back before Hiroto took over, and had their fingers in everybody's pies, which is why the Turtles couldn't really make a move on getting them taken out, because that meant they were also prime sources for intel. During Hiroto's reign, they couldn't operate as freely, so they took security jobs at a speakeasy, where they continued their grift. After Hiroto was disposed of, the NYPD was taking pretty much anybody they could with experience, and so Miller and Corbin returned, back to their old tricks.

When April and the Turtles roll up to Dick and Frank, she chastises Corbin for drinking on the job, then Uno complains about his breath. She introduces her grandkids to the detectives, and Corbin drops that he knows that Casey Marie's out on a date with officer Watanabe, demonstrating just how well-connected the two still are. Yi starts gagging on Miller's cigarette smoke, and tells him smoking's bad for him; Miller just shoots back that the "whole city" is bad for them.

Miller then brings up to April that Joe Hades, an old mob boss that she and the Turtles had clashed with before the Foot took him out, seemed to be back in charge. April tells them that the Purple Dragons have the same thing going on with their new leader, and Corbin says they know about Jigsaw, but as much of a threat as he is, Hades and the mafia are by far something bigger to look out for. Miller demands their "stash" for the barter, and she gives him a box of doughnuts that are supposed to be "the best in town". Corben complains about there not being any chocolate glazed ones like he wanted, but April says he gets what she gets. Miller hands over the last box for the barter chain and warns April about the contents. As the Turtles and April walk off, Moja says that Yi had said police officers were "heroes" and those two men were anything but. April says that cops are only human, and with being human comes all the foibles of good and bad. Odyn also removes his mask, revealing that he ate the chocolate doughnuts.

The endgame of April's barter chain approaches; she is attending the retirement party of resistance Commander Avallone, who was the one who helped her get back on her feet and trained and led the resistance alongside her after she was rescued from the explosion that claimed Leo and Casey's lives. This man was her closest ally, friend, and mentor since she lost her second family, and she needed something special to commemorate him.

She introduces the Turtles to Avallone, who is familiar with them by April's stories but is meeting them for the first time. The Turtles marvel over the party, while the new onboarding Commander, Zaragoza, arrives with his wife, Lieutenant "Doc".

Odyn tries to secure a taste of some "special punch", but April diverts him to one more appropriate for a child. Uno impresses some of the party-goers with his pull-up prowess, and another digs Moja's taste in music. Avallone says he's tired of combat boots and he's ready for a lot of "reading and slipper wearing". He suggests that April should probably be on her way to a retirement destination soon, herself, but she says she can't slow down when she's got grandkids to worry about. She opens the package she got from Miller, and it contains scores of fireworks, telling her friend that she intends to send his career off with a bang.

Elsewhere, Casey and Jiro are walking around on their date. Parts of April's journal talk about that this has been what Casey Senior used to call a "lost day" - a day where you can get away from the violence, the hectic life, and be normal, happy even. She misses Casey greatly and hopes that she can honor him with days like today. Jiro says that he'd like to hang out with Casey Marie more, and she says she'd like that, and in the distance, they spy some fireworks lighting up the sky.

Trivia[]

  • This comic reveals that April is in her 60s and the new Ninja Turtles are 13.

See also[]

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