#we were robbed of more donny screen time

[castle-rook]

Was reading the IB screenplay again and inspiration struck. The lines are from when he buys the bat at Mr. Goorowitz's shop!

[taleeater]

Fragile Part 6

😈😈😈

(This chapter got too long- I had to cut it short,,,, :]]] Enjoy!)

Generation: Bayverse TMNT

Tmnt x Reader Fanfic

Pronouns: Gender Neutral (except ‘dudette’, 'miss', and ‘princess’)

Warnings: injury, blood, electrocution, graphic depictions of torture, not proof read

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

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Today you were spending time with Donnie while he worked in front of his monitors. You liked it there much better than in his lab. He had a map of the city up with little marks indicating spots where the Foot had been spotted. But that wasn’t what he was working on right now.

No, you and Donnie were doing much more important things at the moment.

Like playing the new update in Stardew Valley.

“Fishing mods are cheating.” 

You gawked at him in mock offense. “But you can’t pause in a multiplayer farm, there’s no time to play the fishing mini game!!”

“That’s why it’s more of a challenge!” He stuck his tongue out while he clicked his mouse rapidly to fight off a slime in the mines.

You pouted, adjusting the laptop in your lap. “I don’t need my cozy farming sim to be challenging…” 

Donnie did not miss the cute grin that graced your face after, his heart fluttering in his chest. 

These past few days you found yourself smiling more and more easily. Whether it was Mikey getting covered in flour while you baked cookies together, or Raph teaching you how to purl stitch, or Leo showing you how to wield a sword. You were enjoying spending more personal time with the turtles as you got to know them better.

Your toes curled where you were perched in the chair beside Donnie, glancing up at the map again. Your eyes always drawn to the blinking red dot marking the location of the lab you escaped only weeks before. The police had raided it and found it empty, which only increased your unease as to where Dr Stockman might be hiding. It already felt like a lifetime ago, that night when the turtles first found you. 

You owed them your life.

“Hey (y/n), you almost ready for afternoon training?” Leo came over, snapping you out of your thoughts. Leo leaned against the back on Donnie’s chair, earning a dismissive swat from his younger brother.

“We’ll stop after we finish up this day, Leo.” Donnie said not even taking his eyes off the screen. You giggled and got back to fishing on the beach.

You were two hours into your training session with Leo. 

“Okay, good. Now when you kick, focus on your balance. Stay firmly planted and your leg should have more power.” Leo coached you. 

Master Splinter was supervising while sipping his tea. It had barely been 5 days since your mutant abilities had manifested. But you were already making astounding progress in unlocking its potential. Leonardo had played a big part in the process, being the one who had helped you work through your fears of using your mutant reflexes, so the abilities came more easily to you when training. He trained with you every day, while Master Splinter provided guidance. Everyone was doing their best to support you through all the changes.

Casey suddenly jogged in through the entrance of the lair. 

“Guys! Just got word, the Foot are planning to rob a warehouse full of high tech weapons tonight. We gotta go intercept it.” He said waving around his cellphone.

“What? Where? Their communication frequency has been quiet since they moved those chemicals to the old Sacks building!” Donnie spun around in his chair to face Casey, you and Leo walking into the living room with Raph and Mikey close behind.

“Queens. Our contact in the Foot Clan leaked the info to us just half an hour ago.”

“Huh, that’s strange. That’s all the way on the other side of town. Aside from Sacks Tower, they’ve only really been active around the East Village and ChinaTown this past week. Maybe they changed their frequency again to throw us off track.” Donnie was quickly typing up info on his keyboard. 

“Well, regardless, we better go check it out.” Leo sighed. He wanted to keep training with you, but it would have to wait.

“Heck yeah! I’m bringin’ the steak-out snacks. Who wants Doritos?” Mikey grabbed his ratty old Jansport backpack and started shoving cans of Orange Crush into it. 

“(Y/n), you stay here and keep an eye on Donnie’s computer. The Foot might try to communicate about their raid tonight. Donnie’s program will intercept it. April will be here in about an hour, so just tell her if anything suspicious comes up.” Leo asked you.

“Right!” You said standing to attention and giving a military salute with a silly little grin on your face. 

It made Leo’s heart melt in his chest and his expression turned soft. 

“Just, stay safe, okay?” He patted you on the head then headed for the exit. 

As the rest of the boys filed out of the lair, they each stopped by you. Mikey getting a high five, you quickly cleaned Donnie’s glasses for him, and Raph, always last, ducked down for a quick hug when his brothers weren’t looking. Casey rushed ahead of them.

Master Splinter waved goodbye to his sons next to you. Once the boys had left, he informed you he was going to go meditate, and to come find him if you needed anything.

About 45 minutes later, you were casually watching YouTube videos on Donnie’s computer when a flashing red light appeared on the screen. It was indicating that Donnie’s program was intercepting a message from the Foot’s closed communication server. A message popped up on the screen, and you gasped.

“We have captured the turtles. Continue with the plan.” 

Then a video feed loaded up on the main screen. 

Your blood ran cold.

It looked like the feed from a security camera, depicting Leo, Mikey, and Donnie all locked in glass cages, restrained with thin tubes of red connected to their arms. They looked weak, they looked bad.

“What….? No… No, not this… please no…!”

Where was Raphael? He was nowhere to be seen. How did they get captured so fast…? They had barely been gone an hour!

Your mind was racing. You recognized those machines. Dr Stockman used them to take blood samples from Bebop and Rocksteady. If that was the case, there was no time to lose.

You made up your mind.

You snuck past the dojo and muttered a quick apology to Master Splinter. You knew Master Splinter wouldn’t let you go, so you kept quiet. Then you grabbed the handheld GPS device Donnie left on his work table. You entered the location on the map where the message was sent from. 

The old Sacks Tower. 

Time to move.

April arrived at the lair much later than expected. She and Casey had just finished speaking to the commissioner about police activities being leaked to the Foot. When they entered the living room, they were confused to only see Master Splinter waiting for them. The old rat was pacing and anxiously stroking his beard. 

“Splinter? Where’s (y/n)?” April asked, confused.

Splinter shook his head. 

“You don’t know where they are?” April became concerned, walking further into the lair. 

“It appears, that our greatest fears have been realized.” His expression deeply troubled. Before April could ask, she noticed what Splinter was looking at. 

Playing in a loop on Donatello’s monitor was old CCTV footage from when the turtles had been captured 10 years ago by Shredder and Mr Sacks. April breathed a sigh of relief, immediately recognizing the scene.

“Splinter, the turtles are safe. I spoke to Leo on the phone only 10 minutes ago. They’re staking out a warehouse in Queens. This is old footage.” 

Splinter’s eyes widened and looked back to the screen. His expression turned contemplative. 

“If that is so, then perhaps Miss (y/n) has made the same mistake.” He spoke gravely.

April had a look of shock. She quickly pulled out her phone and speed dialed Leo’s number.

Leo thankfully answered quickly. “Hey April, anything new?”

“Leo, is (y/n) with you?”

Leo paused a long moment and sent a look over to his brothers, getting their attention. “No…. Aren’t they at the lair?” All of his brother's eyes were suddenly on him. Leo turned the phone on speaker.

“No!! They’re gone. And there’s a video playing on Donnie’s computer. It’s a recording of you Mikey and Donnie locked up at Sacks’ estate from over 10 years ago… I think this is what (y/n) saw before they left.”

“They left?” Leo felt his heart drop into his stomach. “To go where, Sacks’ estate?” His brothers immediately started packing up their stakeout equipment to leave. 

“No I don’t think so, the sender’s location was tracked, it’s still on the screen. It says it was sent from Sack Tower in Times Square.”

Donnie came over and joined in the call, typing furiously at the keyboard on his wrist. “Sacks Tower. That’s where they were spotted smuggling those stolen chemicals into the other day…! From my notifications, it appears that the message was sent through an older Foot Clan communication frequency approximately 43 minutes ago.”

“Donnie, how long will it take (y/n) to get to Sacks Tower.”

“From my calculations, if (y/n) left the lair heading to the Sacks building about 40 minutes ago, going by subway, they should arrive in about uhhh, approximately 8 minutes.”

“And how long will it take us to get there.” Raph asked.

“From where we are now, if we manage to hitch a ride on the next nonstop train to Times Square…… about 1 and a half hours.”

“Shit!” 

Raph cursed loudly and turned away frustrated, and Mikey put his hands on his head. Donnie was typing away at the keypad on his arm, trying to find any kind of faster route and muttering about how stupid he was for not making you a shellcell.

“We don’t have a minute to waste. Let’s move out.”

That’s all they needed to hear. Everyone sprung into action and booked it for the closest subway station manhole cover.

“April, we are headed to Sacks Tower as fast as we can. And get ahold of the police commissioner again. Whoever gave us the information to come to this warehouse tonight was intentionally planted with misinformation. There was no sign of the Foot at the warehouse. …..It was most likely a diversion.”

“Right. I’ll get back to you soon.”

Leo hung up the phone and jumped off the apartment building and dove down towards the street’s manhole cover.

Leo grit his teeth.

“Hold on (y/n).”

The halls of the building were eerily empty. This place made your skin crawl. The laboratory felt all too similar to the one you had been trapped in before. But this one had clearly been abandoned for a long time. Broken glass, graffiti, turned over chairs, scattered paper. But strangely the power was still on. You didn’t dare try to use the elevator in fear of giving away your position. But you were confused as to why you had yet to see any guards. This is where the message was sent from, the turtles had to be here, right?

You climbed the steps to another floor, but paused as you creaked open the door exiting the stairwell. This floor felt like a world apart from the previous ones. It was clean.

And the lights were on.

You kept low, and hyper vigilant. Steadying your breathing like Leo had taught you, you crept into the sterile white hallway. There were glass windows along the hall looking into different labs. One held chemistry equipment, another held big bulky medical equipment that clicked and beeped. Finally, the last room at the end of the hall, a room with no windows. You had a sinking feeling in your gut, but still you crept towards the door. Slowly and quietly you pulled open the heavy door, and revealed a large lit room with a high ceiling, and there you saw it.

“Guys….!”

There along the back wall were 4 glass boxes with 3 of the turtles strung up and being drained of blood. You had found them! Seeing no one else in the room, you rushed in. 

“I’m going to get you out of here, just you wait!” You went to the first machine in front of Donnie and reached out to touch the screen-

Your hand passed right through.

“What…?” You tried to touch it again but there was nothing there.

The hologram distorted, and then the turtles disappeared. You gasped.

It was a trap.

You turned around to book it towards the exit, but the door was opening again. Bebop and Rocksteady squeezed through the small door one at a time, and blocked your exit. Then over an intercom you heard the familiar laugh that sent a shiver down your spine.

Stockman chuckled darkly. “Just how I planned it! Like catching a fly with honey. So predictable!”

You backed up slowly as Bebop and Rocksteady approached you. 

“Did you miss us, little kitty?” Rocksteady sneered.

The intercom buzzed as Stockman spoke again. “Bebop, Rocksteady, keep them occupied until I arrive. I will be there momentarily. And let’s not have a repeat of last time, please!” There was a clicking sound and the intercom went quiet.

Bebop chuckled. “Hell yeah! It’s been so long since we last played! Let’s make the most of it.” 

“That’s right! And we gotta pay you back for all the trouble you caused us! We missed you so much after you left. You wanna go first Beebs?”

“My man!” Bebop smiled at Rocksteady and clasped his hand, they both laughed. 

You tried your best to steady your breathing like Leo taught you. Your hands were trembling. But you needed a way out. Bebop and Rocksteady were not fast, if you timed it right, maybe you can get past them to the door.

Bebop approached you. You stayed still and waited. Then when he got close enough, you ran right towards him, surprising Bebop. He reached out to grab you but you slid right between his legs, then jumped up behind him and tried to run past Rocksteady before he could react. He was still too close to you and managed to grab you from behind, but you were ready for him. Just like in training, you reached up and grabbed him around his neck, and taking a deep breath, you threw all your strength forward and down and managed to flip Rocksteady onto his back- stunning him. You quickly jumped over him and ran for the door, slamming into it fast and wretched the handle to pull it open. 

Locked. (Warning for graphic depictions of torture ahead.)

“No…!” You felt a bruising grip close around your arm, and you were torn away from the door. “NO!!” You cried out as you were thrown hard onto the floor between the two oversized mutants. 

“See? Now that’s your problem. You gotta go makin’ our job harder than it needs to be!” Bebop complained. 

Rocksteady was picking himself back up, rubbing the back of his head tenderly. “Don’t let them get to ya Beebs, we’ll sort them out quick before Stockman gets here.” Bebop then reached into his pocket and pulled out an all too familiar black taser. 

Rocksteady took the taser and chuckled. “Little kitty needs a check-up!” 

You tried to get up and run, but Rocksteady stomped down hard on your left arm. There was a sickening snap and you screamed, writhing in pain. You were pinned. 

“Tsk, tsk. You know what happens when kitty gets naughty!” The taser was flicked on, all you could do was close your eyes before a strong surge of electricity was shot into your ribcage and throughout your body. You convulsed as the shocks seized you, your shoulder getting dislocated from the spasms, then collapsed back on the floor. 

“Just like good ol’ times!” Rocksteady passed the taser to Bebop.

Rocksteady laughed and removed his foot from your arm, then Bebop tased you in the ribs again. You yelped and rolled onto your stomach, tucking your very broken arm underneath you and tried to crawl away. 

“Hey, where ya goin? We’re just getting STARTED!” Rocksteady punctuated his sentence by kicking you in the stomach hard enough to throw you across the room. You hit the ground and your body rolled another few feet until you stopped on your side and curled in on yourself, the air knocked out of your lungs.

Bebop took his time strolling over to you, and grabbed you by the hair to lift you up. You coughed and gasped for air, grabbing at his hand and tried to pry his fingers off of his grip. 

“Think you can just up and leave whenever you want, do ya?” He growled in your ear, then dropped you down haphazardly to the floor. You were on your knees, buckled forward and holding your left shoulder, when suddenly Bebop’s foot stomped down on your right ankle and you heard a loud crunch. 

You shrieked. 

Exhausted and riddled with unbearable pain, you crippled to the floor. It took everything you had just to pull breath. 

“Alright, I’m back! How is our lovely patient doing?” Came the cheerful sing-song voice of Dr Stockman entering the room through the locked door, Karai tailing behind him. 

“Hey boss! Uhhh, we were just warming them up for ya! See? They can’t run away no more.” Bebop nudged your side with his foot, knocking you onto your side so Stockman could see the pain riddled on your face. You were barely conscious by this point. 

“Excellent! Bring them to me.” Stockman ordered.

Bebop picked you up by your good arm and carried you over to where Dr Stockman was walking to in the back of the room. Karai stepped in Bebop’s way for a moment, taking in your beaten appearance, and back-handed your face hard for good measure, leaving a shiny bruise and angry red gash across your cheek. That woke you up a bit. 

Just enough to retaliate.

You took a deep breath and tore your arm out of Bebop’s grasp and punched Karai in the stomach, hard enough to throw her into a large display screen next to where Stockman was standing. Stockman squawked in surprise. She rolled onto the floor, and pushed herself up onto her side. Spitting a bit of blood onto the ground and wiping away at her lip. 

You tried to stand on your good leg but you were too weak and collapsed back to the floor. Bebop and Rocksteady grabbed you by each of your arms and brought you in front of Stockman.

He was looking at you in awe, and reached out tentatively to swipe at the blood on your cheek. He rushed over to his desk, jumping a bit in excitement. He put a drop of your blood onto a slide, and observed it under his microscope.

“Ha…! HA HA…! YES!!” Stockman shouted in excitement and did a little dance. Bebop and Rocksteady exchanged a confused look and Karai stood up and walked over to Stockman, eyeing you angrily and rolling her shoulder.

“What does this mean?” She questioned him. 

“It means that the mutation was a SUCCESS!!! Those stupid turtles must have triggered it somehow. And now we can finally proceed with the plan!!!” He grabbed something off his desk and skipped over to the stairs leading up to the circular titanium base in the middle of the room. “Bring them here!!” He called over, waving his hand to Bebop and Rocksteady.

They dragged you over to Stockman, and were deposited on the round podium that sat under a large glass tube. Stockman started to pull down long rubber tubes from above, and attached large thick needles to the ends. You tried once again to crawl away with your good arm, as Bebop and Rocksteady retreated. 

But Stockman approached you from behind. In a quick jab, he stabbed the two needled tubes deep into your back. You grunted and groaned in pain, but could do nothing, collapsing on the podium. Beaten, bruised, and bleeding.

When Dr Stockman was finished, he descended the stairs and rushed over to his computer, giggling excitedly he typed in a command and the glass tube descended over you until it clicked into place at the sturdy titanium base. Locking you inside.

“They’ll be placed in suspended animation. Once the tank is completely filled with the preservation fluid, they’ll become nothing more than a convenient blood bag, supplying an endless supply of mutagen for our mutant army.” Stockman rubbed his hands together evilly.

“And what about the turtles?” Karai asked. 

“It is already too late for them to stop us. Even if they manage to get through your guards, they will be unable to free them from this tank. Once I start the filtration process, I will delete the programmed command to empty or release the containment cylinder. They won’t be able to free them without my help!” Stockman typed away quickly at his computer. 

One of the tubes connected to your back began to pull blood from your body, leading up through a small opening in the top of the cylinder then down into a canister at the base. Then from the second tube, a white milky substance full of liquid nutrients began to filter through and down into your body. It did nothing to numb the pain you felt as you laid there in a state of half consciousness. 

Suddenly, the loud banging of gunshots could be heard somewhere outside the door. 

“We’re not ready yet! Hold them back!” Stockman ordered Bebop and Rocksteady, who positioned themselves between Stockman and the door. 

The door suddenly blew wide open, and the four turtles rushed into the room, angry and weapons at the ready.

“Where’s (y/n).”

Part 7

@itsberrydreemurstuff @thecreat0r64 @eli-chris @kurlyfrasier @autisticnutcase @drenix004 @donniesgirlie @cherryp-op @foggyturtleknightangel @blackrockshooter780 @l-n-g-t @peachesdabunny @silverwatergalaxy @willy-the-witch @caeliasaida @veri-varily @xnorthstar3x 

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[crackedpumpkin]

ᴄʜᴇʀʀʏ ʙʟᴏꜱꜱᴏᴍꜱ ɪɴ ᴀ ᴅɪꜰꜰᴇʀᴇɴᴛ ᴅɪᴍᴇɴꜱɪᴏɴ || ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏɴᴇ

2k12! Leonardo x Waterbender! reader

“MIKEY!!” 

Raph’s yell echoes throughout the lair, causing Leo to look up from his show and Donnie to pause his tinkering momentarily, glancing towards the kitchen. 

The hot-tempered turtle storms out of the kitchen, holding up an empty pizza box. “What’s up, bro?” Mikey bounds towards him cheerfully, holding a delicate white sphere that reminded Donnie of Kraang tech.

“You took the last slice of pizza. Again!” Raph growls, his eyes narrowed.

“Did I? My bad...” Mikey glances away sheepishly, though his tone gave away that he was in fact, not at all apologetic. Something in Raph snaps.

“That’s it.” He advances towards Mikey, clenching his fist and pounding it into his hand, a clear sign of what was to come for his brother. 

“Wait, before you beat up Mikey again, what’s that in your hand?” Donnie reaches out to Mikey expectantly, the latter grinning widely at the prospect of escaping a potential beating from Raph. 

“This? Aw, it’s nothing much. I found it while I was on my way back from patrol. It was stuck in a dumpster or something. Looked cool though, so I grabbed it!” Mikey holds it out towards Donnie. He takes it gently, turning around in the direction of his lab, excited at the prospect of something new they could potentially take down the Kraang with. 

“Don’t think that you’ve escaped so easy, Michaelangelo.” The threat is loud and clear. Mikey steps behind Leo, who calmly crosses his arms. “Listen, I know that you’re pent up from being stuck in the lair, but we can’t have a repeat of what happened last time you lost control.”

It had happened a few nights ago when they were taking down some Purple Dragon members who were trying to rob a store. One of them said something that rubbed Raph the wrong way, and he quickly lost control of his temper. 

It had resulted in a lot of broken bones and a near reveal of their existence. It was also a risk that Leo knew he had to be punished for, however momentary it was.

Raph huffs, turning around reluctantly and heading toward his room. He wanted to smack Mikey in the shell, but he wanted to be up on the surface again even more. 

“Thanks bro.” Mikey tries to sneak away, only to freeze when Leo’s hand lands on his shoulder. “And you, don’t piss Raph off more than he already is,” Leo says, a stern yet gentle reminder for the youngest before letting his hand fall to his side.

Mikey nods sheepishly. 

“Just another one here...” Donnie murmurs to himself, connecting one last wire on the white sphere Mikey had found. It lit up with a hum, purple rings going in a continuous spiral. Visible proof that it was indeed Kraang tech.

Donnie sits down at his desk, the low hum emitting from the sphere acting as fuel for his curiosity. 

He begins attempting to hack into the tech, his eyes trained on his screen. Nothing could disturb him from cracking this.

Until Mikey came into his lab brandishing some unknown concoction he had made for their dinner on a plate he had reserved for Donnie. 

“Time to eat up bro. You’ve been in here for ages.” Mikey places the dish in front of his brother, frowning when he doesn’t react in the slightest. With fingers tapping away on his keyboard, Donnie barely gives a nod to Mikey. “Uh-huh. Just put it down over there.” He gestures to a space near the orb he was working on hacking.

Mikey nods and sets it down, only to step towards the Kraang tech he had found. “So... did you figure out what it is yet?” He taps the orb gently. It reacts to his touch, emitting a slightly louder hum. “Don’t touch it!” Donnie scolds, reaching over and slapping Mikey’s hand away from it. 

Mikey chuckles sheepishly. He was bored, and there was nothing to keep him entertained in the lair. 

“For your information, I’m still in the middle of trying to figure out what it’s for. I’ve been working at it for ages, and I still haven’t even come close to figuring out what its purpose is.” Donnie sighs, resting his head in his hands momentarily before cracking his knuckles in a stretch, his fingers resuming their constant tapping on his keyboard.

“What if it’s a bomb?” Mikey suggests, realization hitting him. “It’s a bomb, isn’t it!!” He quickly steps back a few meters, before feeling Donnie’s deadpan stare.

“If it really was a bomb Mikey,” He resumes typing, ”It would’ve exploded the second you grabbed it out of the dumpster, or when you tried bouncing it on the floor.” 

“You saw that?” Mikey scratches the back of his neck, averting his eyes from Donnie in an embarrassed manner. His brother nods.

Mikey then lights up. He sneakily grabs the orb gently, starting to spin it like he would a basketball. “Mikey, what are you doing!” Donnie yells in a panic, trying to grab the orb from Mikey who made a game of dodging him.

“I’m the best ninja, you can’t catch me!” Mikey gloats, disconnecting all the wires Donnie had placed on it, doing more spinning tricks, and juggling the orb with other objects that he had picked up without Donnie noticing.

“Mikey, that’s not funny. Put it down, now.” Donnie’s eyes stay on the orb, his tone firm. “You’re no fun.” Mikey pouts.

“Wait, why is it still spinning? You stopped, didn’t you??”

“Yeah, I did! I swear!” 

The orb is now on the table, Mikey having placed it down obediently after Donnie’s worry. It continues to spin, and the hum increased in both volume and intensity. The orb starts to float in midair, making Donnie’s eyes widen and Mikey’s gaze fill with awe.

“Mikey, duck!” Donnie grabs his brother, dragging him beneath his desk in an attempt to shield him from whatever was happening.

Then, the orb started to emit an earsplitting screech throughout the lab. Donnie winces, his hands on both sides of his head in an attempt to block it out.

“Donnie, what’s happening?” Raph yells as he enters the lab, his hands in a similar position on his head. Leo enters after him, wincing at the sound.

“I don’t know!” Donnie yells. “Just get away from it for now!”

He spots the orb starting to react again. 

There was just enough time for him to grab his brothers and desperately flatten themselves against the ground. The cloud of debris had swept over him before he even heard the explosion. He kept his head low, his hands shielding his neck, and tried to understand what was happening.

“Guys, you okay?” Donnie looks up slowly, eyes landing on the cause of the explosion. Or what used to be the cause. Broken pieces of Kraang tech were on the ground, along with various other gadgets Donnie had been experimenting with.

Leo groans in response, Raph holding his head as they both sit up. 

“What happened...” Mikey’s voice is slightly raspy, blinking a few times to clear his vision.

“I don’t know. Maybe it really was a bomb.” Donnie squats down, picking up the broken shards gingerly. “Whatever it was, let’s never go through that again. Leo says, his eyes landing on the state of Donnie’s lab.

“Hopefully nothing else happened.” Raph says, standing up and brushing the dust off of his body.

“Hopefully.” Donnie agrees. “You, however, will have to help me clean up the lab.” He turns to a nervous Mikey who nods in agreement.

Leo starts to help out too. Raph heads to the kitchen to grab some rags and a bucket from the bathroom.

“Sorry Donnie..” Mikey starts to sweep, while Donnie drops the broken shards of the orb into a ziplock bag. “Be more careful next time.” He responds curtly before heaving a sigh. “I didn’t even get to figure out what it was for...”

Yet after a few days, they soon found out exactly what the orb’s purpose was.

“Guys, I need your help. There’s some girl in weird clothes attacking the Purple Dragon gang.” April’s voice is hushed, but a hint of desperation holds the turtles’ attention.

“We’re on our way. Where are you now?” Leo grabs his katanas from where they were resting against the couch.

“Near Murakami’s. You better get here fast, someone just called the cops!”

“We’re on our-” Donnie’s words are interrupted by a scream from April’s end of the call. 

“We gotta go. Now.” Donnie turns off his T-Phone. The rest of his brothers nod in agreement. Raph smirks, cracking his knuckles. 

“Raph..” Leo warns.

“I know, I’m just excited! Grounding’s over and I get to beat up some Purple Dragons.” Raph follows Donnie as Leo sighs. They had no time to waste. He’d just keep an eye on him.

They arrive at Murakami’s restaurant, incoherent yelling overlapping each other. The turtles skid to a stop, staring at the alleyway next to the restaurant in wonder.

It was completely covered in ice, beautiful yet deadly shards glinting under the moonlight. Familiar faces of Purple Dragon members were beaten black and blue, unanimous scowls and they attempt to get out of the icy cocoon they were stuck in. 

A column of ice blocked their view, only to reveal behind it a struggling April being held to the ground in a tent of ice. It encased her entire lower body up to her forearms.

She continues to struggle, grunting as she grapples for some sort of weapon, any weapon, to get her out of her restraints. 

“What happened here?” April looks up, relief in her eyes once she recognised the turtles.

“Woah... this is so. cool.” Mikey breathes, shivering slightly when he pokes one of the spikes sticking out of the wall.

“Oh my god, April, are you okay?” Donnie rushes over worriedly, working on breaking April out. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” She replies, glancing over to a smirking Raph who was admiring the handiwork of whoever beat up the gang members, “You guys... Be careful. The girl... She has weird abilities. She was the one that caused all of this. She was speaking in a different language too. One I couldn’t understand.” April explains, gesturing to the ice around them.

“Got it. Which way did she go?” Leo questions. April turns the best she can to the direction of a nearby convenience store.

“Donnie, you stay here and help April. Raph, you stay here and make sure the Purple Dragons don’t escape. Mikey, you’re with me.” Leo uses the fire escape on the side of the building to pull himself up onto the roof.

“I dunno guys... maybe we’re in over our heads.” Mikey says before Raph smacks the back of his head, the former letting out a yelp of pain. “We’re always in over our heads.” Raph points out, rolling his eyes.

“Fine. I’ll go with Leo.” Mikey says grumpily, leaving them to follow Leo who was waiting impatiently for him at the top of the building.

April stares at the two. “I hope they’ll be okay...” She mumbles.

From what she just encountered, this really might be more than they could handle. 

[verobatto]

My last SPN SPEC COMPENDIUM

Destiel endgame spec. TFW. And how I stick to the happy ending.

Hello gorgeous people, I know a lot of you are mad with the world because where is our beloved Destiel? Or because you are feeling EVERYONE IS GONNA DIE! Or just because STOP MAKING OUR ANGEL BE SO SAD and all.

I know I know...

But here I bring to you my last spec compendium, I hope I can convey all the craziness in my head...

Destiel Spec

Okay you all know about my "Hands and Foreshadow", I which I based my Destiel holding hand and kiss spec, but if you didn't read it, here you have the links:

Hands and foreshadow

Destiel addition

So, yes, I'm still clowning, sue me, I won't lose my hopes until the end graphic is on the screen. So.

1) I'm confused about the Destiel talk, and the moves, I thought would happen in this season because this Good Omens scene here...

Is like we had been robbed heheheh. But also this...

Could be taken as a talk? Dean using his own words? But preserving the I LOVE YOU for later, because is gonna be VERY MEANINGFUL.

2) With the incoming Sacrifice of Castiel in episode 15x18, we are all asking, who's gonna say the priceless three words? Is not the place I would put Dean's I LOVE YOU to Castiel, because it has to be more, more meaningful. So, I assume maybe is Cas the one confessing his feelings before go to the Empty. And this...

(last gif credit is for @agusvedder )

Gah Berens, he likes to play with mixing scenes, and I knew something bad will happen when the scene was jumping between Sam/Rowena and Destiel, the horrible foreshadow, if you don't believe me , go read the meta here. Just let me place the Destiel Kiss here, a because my kissing good bye spec is burning my ears... So yes. I would put it here, but I will love it in the Rescue from the Empty heheheheh. Oh Boy, I'm a huge 🤡.

The Sacrifice for the son again? And for everyone...

But but... If Cas goes to the Empty, and Dean won't be able (again) to respond to that I LOVE YOU with words...

3) The I Love You could be said to find Castiel in the Empty, following the profound bond, as Dean followed by intinction in Purgatory 2.0, or when Amara made use of it in season 11 to find Dean, or how the Nougat Boy woke up Castiel in the Empty helped by Dean's longing... Dean will find Cas in the dark, and will wake him up, it will be a MIRACLE, just like Cas was told when he woke up Donnie and saved that kid in the woods in 15x05.

But could be Amara the one in revealing Dean the truth about the profound bond? And the one coming out with the idea? Because... She was dressed in pink in 15x15...

4) So the second villain will be THE EMPTY (the big Impostor who will take Billie's shape) and Dean will defeat him, just as he did with the monsters in episode 14x16 and 15x16, both of them maybe, foreshadowing Dean rescuing Castiel from the Empty.

5) What about Castiel's vessel? You know about my spec based on @emblue-sparks insights about a Destiel sharing vessel? You can read the spec here. But mostly, because Cas won't have a body once out the Empty, so... Dean would say yes to share his for the rest of the eternity with the love of his life.

TFW spec

1) I talked extensively about the second chance they were foreshadowing these lasts episodes, you can read the spec here and here. But basically, this is how I think is gonna happen:

Cas will Sacrifice himself to defeat Chuck, instead Jack, but that's not gonna work as they expected. So, they will have a second chance...

In this second chance, Dean and Jack will reset time to get another opportunity against Chuck. Maybe they will come back time until the previous minutes before their failure.

Who's gonna defeat Chuck? I don't know my fellows, because at first I thought CAS WAS THE KEY, because he was the one Chuck was avoiding and the one Chuck couldn't write because Castiel's unexpected decisions, as you had read in plenty of my metas. Maybe his self Sacrifice won't be in vain, and will give the key to defeat Chuck with the reset button. IDK. Let's see.

2) The balance is given by Jack, the new god, the one who brings Darkness and Light. He's the perfect balance between humanity, heaven and Hell. So, they don't need to kill Amara, but I'm feeling part of her arc will be giving her life in Sacrifice, because color pink, and all the people.in pink dying this season too. Let's see.

Jack is Shiva. The god that brings a new world.

3) Death is there to put everything in it's place.

Angels in heaven, demons in hell, entities in their places. Defeating Chuck, Everything will work again as it should, with a new world without monsters (maybe?) In which Sam will live with Eileen his peaceful life, Dean and Cas together for the eternity and Jack ruling the new world.

To Conclude:

We will get Becky's fics ending, Destiel happiness and normal life for Sam, because that's what fans want. As she said in episode 15x04. That's the ending I'm expecting. And I hope that 4 episode could be enough.

Love you all! We are together in this last countdown! Hugs!

Tagging @metafest @gneisscastiel @emblue-sparks @magnificent-winged-beast @weird-dorky-little-deana @michyribeiro @whyjm @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @dea-stiel @mybonsai1976 @anarchiana @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @destielshipper221b @mishtho @dancingtuesdaymorning @feathered-castiel @bre95611 @zoerayne2426 @justmeand-myinsight @that-one-fandom-chick @proccastinate @studio-hatter @pepevons @poorreputation @mrsaquaman187 @dizzypinwheel @jawnlockwinchester @dwstiel @thislunarkiss @ladygon @shippsblog @la-random-fangirl @lets-try-this-again-please @mychemicalobsession514 @destiel-shipper-11

@asphodelesauvage @2musiclover2 @spnsmile

Buenos Aires, October 26th 2020, 3:23 PM

[we-rate-tmnt]

Give us the Donatellos!

Donnie is my favorite so Imma be super biased on this one. Maybe I like smart guys or maybe purple is my favorite color, you’ll never know!

Up first, the og ‘hehe turgle’

Donatello (1987)

Yeah I’m sorry for making this 

First of all, not the biggest fan of his voice. It has a bit of a whiny quality to it, and I’m not about all that jazz. His gismo’s look pretty lame a lot of the times, either it’s a grey box with some buttons, dials and flashing lights or looks like it was pulled directly from Lost in Space. Still a cute design but he felt pretty bland and seemed to be used for plot convenience most of the time. To put it simply, he was cute and essential but kinda bland. I’m always really harsh on this version because it’s so painfully dated and cheesy, which ain’t my cup of tea, but what can I say be hehe turgle.

5/10

I had a crush on this Donnie so you know that this is not remotely close to a fair rating but eh, I love him and yall do too

Don (2003)

His voice, such a huge improvement. I’m really sound-oriented and I often like to play a game of ‘I’ve heard the VA before, but which role?’ when I watch cartoons and I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty good at it. So when I heard that soft, caring voice, ten year old me was head over heels. Which is one quality I love about him. His heart is so huge, like I can think back to a bunch of side characters and most of them were introduced through Don helping or knowing them. The Atlantians and the homeless in the show owe so much to Don, but he goes out of his way to make sure that they are alright. In the last season (which everyone hated but I actually really liked so fuck me I guess), Splinter is lost into tiny pieces across the web and Don blames himself and goes without sleep and food for days to bring him back. It broke my heart, and I’m pretty sure a lot of others, to see him like that.

On a lighter note, I vaguely remember this one scene where the triceration dude is like ‘you did this!’ and Don’s like ‘I did? Good for me then.’ and had a very pleased grin on his face right after. I don’t know why, but that killed me. Bless Don and his rare, but excellent, comebacks.

He really does so much and there were quite a few episodes focused on him. He also had quite a bit of character development, not as much as Leo, but whoever gets any more development whatsoever besides Leo?

I love him he’s amazing protect him/10

Next up is the Donnie that helped me love my old gap tooth.

Donnie (2012)

Voiced by the very talented Rob Paulson, this Donnie goes back and forth from really great character to eh. The whole April thing was just kinda strange to me and I don’t really think it added anything other than some interesting Casey and Donnie banter. His crush was really strong the first two seasons and came off as stalkerish almost. Although I’m guilty of having a picture of a crush as my lock screen once as well, so I can’t judge that much. I really liked that they actually addressed this when Bigfoot had a crush on Donnie and he realized how April felt. Yeah, that episode was weird and just didn’t make any sense, but it really helped Donnie gain a new perspective and made him go from super crush to (mostly) hidden pining. He has a nice design as well, especially with the gap tooth. I used to have one and was really embarrassed of it but whenever I saw that Donnie had one, I thought it looked neat and I started to see myself in a more positive light. It’s closed up now, but I can still spray water between the little bit that’s left as a parlor trick. But seriously, what the FUCK was up with Don visiososoos whatever tf his name I I don’t understnad my tiny brain don’t understand why my purple boy tried to kill this dude who looked like he should’ve been wearing a red jumpsuit in the background of a pixar robot love story. Anyway, my tall gap tooth son, ily.

7/10

Then, the barely changed but fantastic

Donnie (Heroes in a Half Shell: Blast to the Past)

Baby but Bastard at the same time purely because of the ‘Anyone who bothers me, ejector seat button’s right there’ line. 

10/10

Now this version has one of my favorite designs out of all the Donatello’s!

Donatello (2014/2016)

They put a lot of thought into his design psychically, the long body, the near-constant look of surprise and curiosity in his features, the gadgets made of common objects, the wraps on his arms, I would love to be able to think of and make those kinds of details! It was all really well thought out and he stood out since he wasn’t as bulky as the rest of the turtles. I really like the little lines and the actor did a fantastic job on the delivery and really made the character come to life. Some favorites: ‘Ohmygod, they have guns’, the little awed, snorty chuckle when he flips a car over with his bo staff, ‘doitdoitoitdoit im not gonna stop til you do it doditdoit’ and when he straight up yeets himself out of a plane. He has a genuine curiosity in everything he does and I think he might be my favorite version. It’s hard to choose when it comes to Donnie because he varies so wildly. But for detail, voice and writing alone, definitely the 2014 Donnie.

8.5/10

Next up is God himself

Donnie (2018)

Chaotic as all hell, like I can’t think of a more chaotic character from ANY of the versions other than this Donnie. I have a lot of thoughts about his character in general, from design, to psychology and complexes. First and foremost, Donnie is a softshell turtle, meaning he has a DOPE battle shell and overall looks pretty damn neat. Although, I think that just the fact he’s biologically weaker has caused him to put up a lot of boundaries between him and his family and friends. He can’t be incredibly strong like Raph, agile like Leo or fast like Mikey and even though he brags about being smart, he feels almost beneath his brothers and strives to outdo them in any way he can. He wants to show them that he’s just as, if not more so, talented and feels overlooked because his inventions become ‘too smart’ or ‘too over the top’ and even the ones that work out incredibly well are written off for flashier projects. 

He depends on technology and feels like that's all he has, and (ironically enough) he’s built up a shield around him. He acts confident and narcissistic and has an almost nihilistic outlook, but he’s frustrated and feels inferior and wants validation more than anything. I came up with this theory when I saw the episode Turtle Dega Nights. I know that the scene was meant for Donnie to express how he feels about Splinter lying about the event and believe that he didn’t genuinely want to hang out with his sons, but that kind of thing feels like it’s been built up over time, like he’s been lied to before about the true meaning behind something. Something like, oh idk, how great his inventions are? Or how helpful he really is? Or how talented he is? Just sayin. Also ngl I might be self projecting a bit, but mmm. Also he has so much purple on him and it’s wayyy more accurate compared to just a purple bandanna bc people who like purple GO ALL OUT. A friend told me this and I thought ‘nah thats not true I like purple’ but then I looked down to find my dyed purple jeans, purple vans and my favorite hoodie, also purple. A really chaotic version but he seriously needs a hug.

9/10

Storytime: One time my friend dressed up as Donnie the same year I was dressing as April O’ Neal and we didn’t even plan it. It was fantastic.

Thank you so much for sending this in! Sorry it’s taking me so long to get around to these! I’m so glad you guys are liking my blog and my opinions!

[speirtons]

some highlights/thoughts during the bob actors podcast (reunion ep 2):

imagine having to march in formation to set that’s insane.

they keep complaining about the night shoots, take a shot every time they complain about filming at night ajfkdsj.

“we’re gonna have to dirty up that wall” my mind went to the gutter i hate myself.

can’t believe michael cudlitz doesn’t have a southern accent i feel robbed.

they imported trees??? imagine signing that customs form ooof.

oh god no they actually had a stuntman get rolled over by the tank that’s terrifying.

love the cast calling themselves dickheads.

robin/babe being accepted easier bc of guarnere?? amazing.

��babe’s here!! babe’s here!!” me when i see babe on screen in ep4.

push up gate?? 20 push ups??? i cannot do one push up, i’d be kicked off this set.

they gave colin hanks jr shit akdskfj ok ok.

james mcavoy making “your mum” jokes to rick gomez????? the content i didn’t know i needed.

the mention of tom hardy makes me wild i love him sm.

matt (settle) plucking tom hardy’s mole hair?? his lucky mole hair??? excuse me???? i hate him.

they’re all saying that everyone got along so well and they were all selfless i want to know them.

“it was a band of brothers on set” wow how sappy i love it.

- emotional interlude - they’re all saying they felt like something bigger than themselves, honestly that’s similar to the feeling i have in this fandom. i really do love being here.

sHANE TAYLOR WAS SLEEPING ON BART (TIPPER)’S SOFA DURING THIS??? when i thought the man couldn’t get any more wild.

scott grimes/speight going to the other’s daughters bday?? wholesome.

they played new kids on the block in front of donnie on purpose akjfakgakj AMAZING (i was today years old when i found out donnie was in new kids on the block).

listen ok us brits know how to play baseball, we play rounders which is superior anyway.

yes, believe me, the audience connected enough to grant for his story of being shot to hit home. believe me. we’re still not over it.

these behind the scene stories are actually amazing, i’d thought this podcast would be cursed like the photos, but so far it’s wonderful.

someone screaming at matt settle for shooting too close to them???? if anything, i’m shocked by how absolutely fuckin chaotic and raging this man is.

[myhauntedsalem]

Ghostly warning: Dead gangster Ma Barker doesn’t want her house moved

He called the newsroom with a warning: They can’t move that house.

“I’m worried something terrible is going to happen,” the man said in a thick New York accent. “I have to warn somebody.”

Then he told me a ghost story.

His name is Donald J. Weiss. He’s a 62-year-old retired police patrolman from upstate New York. He had moved to Ocala several years ago and visited the house where gangster Ma Barker had been killed. He had wanted to see the site of the longest shootout in FBI history: four hours, more than 2,000 bullets.

But when he wandered beneath the live oaks, a voice growled, “Get outta here, lawman!”

And when he took a photo of the front porch, a shadowy figure appeared.

“That woman is still in that house,” he told me. “And she’s pissed.”

He gave the photo to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office because he wanted to enter it into evidence. And because bad things started happening as soon as he had blown up the print. “I had a heart attack,” he said. “You think that’s a coincidence?”

The property has been sold, he told me. County officials want to move the house.

“They have no idea who or what is in there,” Weiss said. “That woman has the power to do a lot of things. We are dealing with the afterworld here.”

I thanked the caller for his concern.

“When are they moving it?” I asked.

He paused, as if to make a point, then said gravely, “By Halloween.”

Reporters get a lot of crazy calls. Many might have dismissed this one. But I knew this house, and so did my photographer friend John Pendygraft.

“Hey John,” I called across the cubicle wall. “Do you remember that story we did on the Ma Barker house?”

John’s eyes got big. “Do you remember what happened?”

Our story four years ago had been about real estate: historic home for sale on nine waterfront acres, eight miles north of the Villages, two hours from Tampa. And about the gangsters who hid out there until the end.

We had toured the four-bedroom house with a Realtor, whose assistant shivered and said, “I get the weirdest feeling when I’m in here.” We had reported rumors about flickering lights and an unsuccessful exorcism.

But we hadn’t written about what had happened to John. Or what he saw when he enlarged one of his pictures.

John has worked in war zones in Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip. He has photographed the dead from an Asian tsunami, a Mexican assassination and Hurricane Katrina. If he ever is scared, he won’t show it.

That fall day in 2012, in the Ma Barker house, he had gone alone into the front bedroom to take pictures through the window, looking out toward the lake where the FBI agents had crouched behind trees.

All of a sudden, John rushed out, cameras, lights, tripod flapping over his shoulders, nearly sliding down the 13 stairs. “I don’t know what happened, or what that was,” he panted. He heard the mattress fall, then saw it, dangling through the bed frame. “I didn’t touch it,” he insisted.

We left that afternoon, as dusk began to descend. From beneath the Spanish moss, John shot a few final frames. The next day, when he zoomed in on his laptop, he saw a strange figure on the screened porch: The silhouette of a stout woman with a bun, who looked like she was holding a machine gun.

Her story starts in Missouri, in 1873. Her parents named her Arizona Donnie Clark. She and a farmhand, George Barker, had four sons. As soon as the boys were grown, her husband left.

Legends vary about Ma Barker’s role in her boys’ gang. Some say she just cooked and cleaned. Others say she was the mastermind.

They began by robbing banks, then murdered a policeman. From 1910 through 1930, they are said to have stolen $2 million. And killed at least 10 people.

The FBI’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, called them “the worst criminals in the entire country.” Ma Barker became the only woman to top the most wanted list.

In 1934, the gang split and went into hiding. One son fled to Chicago. Ma and her favorite son, baby Freddie, moved to Miami where, posing as a wealthy widow, she asked if anyone knew a secluded spot where she could spend the winter.

Someone introduced her to Carson Bradford, whose family had a lovely home in the center of Florida, on Lake Weir.

The house sounded perfect: fully furnished, set back from the road, with a boat tethered to a dock out back. Ma paid the full season’s rent in cash. Just before Thanksgiving, she moved in with Freddie and a couple of his friends.

In a letter to her son Arthur in Chicago, she drew a map of the lake and circled the closest town, Ocala. She mailed it from Ocklawaha’s little post office.

FBI agents found Arthur the following January, and with him, the letter, which led them to Ma’s hideout.

In the predawn darkness on Jan. 16, 1935, a dozen officers pointed their guns at the upstairs windows. “This is the FBI,” an officer shouted, according to an agency report. “You are surrounded.”

Some say the gun battle lasted as long as six hours.

When it was over, they found Freddie, 32, shot in the back of his head. Ma, 63, was curled on the floor, cradling her Tommy gun. That day, Hoover said, marked “the end of an era of violence.”

For nine months, the corpses lay unclaimed. Finally, a relative moved them closer to home.

But some say Ma still inhabits that two-story, cream-colored house with forest green shutters. The cop on the phone, my friend the photographer, the former and current owner all saw, heard or felt … something.

But how do you report a ghost story?

I started with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and that “evidence” photo the retired cop mentioned on the phone.

Lt. Dave Redmond remembered some man bringing in the photo, but the deputy hadn’t seen anything in it.

Records only go back to 1990, said department spokeswoman Lauren Lettelier. “But since then, there have been no reports of hauntings at that house.”

I talked to Carson Good, 47, the great-grandson of the man who built the house. He has memories of swimming and sailing in the lake. And of countless sleepless nights, cringing in the dark. “I’m not a big believer of ghosts, but I heard a lot of sounds in that house,” he said. “Voices. Furniture moving. People walking up and down the wooden stairs.”

His grandmother didn’t like to talk about it, but she often heard spirits stirring. Years ago, he said, a psychic from Cassadaga held a seance at the house and convinced the ghost of Freddie Barker to move on. But the medium said Ma refused to move.

Good and his family sold the property for $750,000 and donated the house to the county, which hired a contractor to lift the home off its foundation and float it across Lake Weir to a park called Carney Island. County commissioners allocated $270,000 for the move. Private donations and fundraising will finance the museum.

County tax collector George Albright, who grew up next to the storied house, envisions an homage to the early days of the FBI, as agents set out to capture notorious gangsters like “Baby Face” Nelson, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde and, of course, the infamous Barker gang.

“We’ve already had calls from people asking about ghost tours. If they want something like that, or to hold seances, we’ll look into that,” said the tax collector, “as a revenue source.”

Some say the gang buried Mason jars filled with cash along the lake. Local children used to spend summers digging for the treasure, but came up with shovels full of sand.

As soon as the home is removed, before the new owner closes on the land, the tax collector plans to bring in a team with ground-penetrating radar to scan the soil.

“Let’s hope she’s a friendly ghost,” he said.

On a gray Wednesday in October, more than 81 years after the shootout, John and I returned to the scene. The house already had been lifted on jacks. The screened porch was gone; workers were carrying out lamps. A true-crime novelist was parked in an SUV, taking pictures.

Like John, he swore he had seen a face in a window.

“I think whatever’s in there doesn’t want us to come in,” said Tony Stewart, who had driven from Indiana to see the house in its original setting. “And it won’t come out.”

We had told the retired cop that we would meet him later. The tax collector didn’t want anyone else at the construction site. But Weiss pulled up in his white Cadillac, quaking in his tassled loafers.

“This is where their bodies were. They dragged ‘em right down this driveway,” said Weiss, clasping his arms across his chest. “She’s not at rest. She will never leave this property.”

He has felt this before, he said. “I sense spirits.”

The first time was in 1992, just before Christmas. He was on patrol in White Plains, N.Y., resting in his car between calls, when he had a vision of a sad teenage boy: long hair, pale, with a pug nose. Two days later, he was sent to a home where a teenage boy had hanged himself. “The same boy I’d seen.”

[calliecat93]

Callie Reviews: TMNT 2012 Season One (Part Three)

(Part One) (Part Two)

Here is where we look at the season as a whole. For this, I will be looking at four things: Animation, Voice Acting, Characters (Heroes, Villains), and Story. I’ll be going more into depths about some stuff I skimmed over here as well. So lets dig in!

Animation

This is the Turtles first CGI show... okay yeah the 2007 movie was CGI, but that was a movie. When I first heard this, I was reluctant as I felt like 2D was becoming more and more of a lost out. But the CGI was really good! Mind you it looks a tad bit dated now as every season they pushed more and more to improve it. But still, it’s very well done. I can’t recall any point where I thought it looked bad or cringy...aside form when they wanted you to cringe anyways. What helps is that the show does add in some 2D elements, There’s the comic-style flashbacks of course, but even past that. They use these anime-like quirks like the sweatdrop, blushing, wide blank eyes when reacting in shock, vein burst when a character is angry, all these tiny little things that give it a more cartoony feel. I can’t recall any other Nickelodeon CGI shows that were doing this prior, so it helped it stand out among the other shows.

Another plus side? The character designs. Aside from a few background characters they re-colored, none of the important characters look the same. Like I know that some don’t like April’s design, but at least they gave her and Karai their own distinct character designs. Then there are the Turtles. Something I don’t like about the upcoming show is how much.. accessorizing they add in to make the Turtles look distinctive. 2k12 kept it very simple. Different heights, eye color, shade of green, and of course body build. For example Donnie, the genius who is mroe invested with machines than training, is both the tallest and most slender. Raph, the strongest, is the most buff and Mikey, the youngest, has larger eyes and freckles to show his child-like nature.And even with Raph,a ll four boys have kind of high school athlete-like builds. Nothing over the top like say... the Michael Bay films. Basically, I can believe that these guys can do the ninja-like agility more than I can with the overly buff, giant versions that have been used.

When ti comes to the mutants, the animators get creative. There are so many unique mutant sin the show. Snakeweed, Spyder Bytez, Dogpound, Fishface, Splinter, Leatherhead, all the mutants have their own unique design that work for them. They also know when to get creepy, like with the mish-mash... thing... from The Alien Agenda. That was disturbing as heck, and it’s not even the creepiest one they come up with! Oh just wait for next season, haha... but yeah, mutant designs are great!

Now the settings are kinda... meh. I mean The Lair is cool, but it’s mostly just either the the Lair, the New York landscape, Shredder’s lair, or an empty warehouse most of the time. It’s nothing really... creative I guess is the right word. We also don’t explore new York much, mainly settling on skyscrapers as the setting. It’s understandable why since New York is the setting, but still it juts gets kind of boring after awhile. But for what it’s worth, they do try to do creative stuff when they can like in Baxter’s Gambit with the black and white screens.

And of course, there is the fight choreography. As I said before, it’s fantastic. All the fights in the series are fluid, well-paced, and fun to watch. If I had to give some examples off the top of my head, there’s New Friend, Old Enemy when the Turtles rise form the water. The mix of black and red is absolutely perfect. There’s the first fight against Shredder in The Gauntlet which despite the boys getting constantly knocked down by Shredder, they give it everything they have. It looks freakin’ badass. Then there is any Splinter fight scene. There’s not many, only about three in this season (It Came From the Depths, I, Monster, The Showdown two-parter) but they are excellent. I said that the Splinter vs Shredder fight was the best and nothing after ever topped it, right?

So yeah, if I was going to rate the animation on a 1-5 scale...

Rating: 4.5

Voice Acting

The series was voice directed by veteran Andrea Romano, so you know that the performances are gonna be solid. As far as casting goes, they got in a LOT of big names both in the voice acting industry and out. There’s of course Greg Cipes (Mikey), Mae Whitman (April), Nolan North (The Kraang), Kevin Michael Richardson (Shredder), Phil Lamar (Stockman), Clancy Brown (Dogpound) and of course Rob Paulsen (Donnie). Rob’s casting was actually a pretty big deal as along with being a veteran with nearly 30 years of experience, he was also the voice of Raph in the original 80′s show. So getting him back even as a different Turtle? Yeah... that’s pretty big!

Then you have more well-known on-screen actors, like Sean Astin (Raph) and Kelly Hu (Karai). Now they both actually have very solid VA-ing careers and still do voice work to this day, but if you’re say... a Lord of the Rings fan and known Sean only for that, this may entice you. The newcomers to voice acting are Jason Biggs (Leo), Christian Lanz (Fishface) and Hoon Lee (Splinter). There’s also guest actors like Jeffrey Combs (The Rat King) and Roseanne Barr (Kraang Prime), so a solid mix of professional voice actors and a few newcomers. The result?

The voice acting is fantastic. Like even as the show goes on and you see more and more mixed reception, the acting is NEVER one of the things you see go down. If anything, it is one aspect that continues to improve episode by episode. All four Turtle actors do an amazing job conveying their characters, able to go from comedic to dramatic in a split second. I’d say that out of everyone, Hoon Lee impressed me the most since he’s the only one aside from Biggs (and... e’ll talk more about him next season) I hadn’t heard of. And he gave a very solid performance. Everyone did. Even for just minor characters like Pulverizer (Roger Craig Smith... yes Pulverizer is Sonic the Hedgehog) or some of the villains like Snake (Danny Jacob who voices King Julian outside the Madacgascar films) or Spyder Byte (Lewis Black), they convey their characters perfectly. Like Black’s character is a rude slob you want to punch, and he does such a great job in making you feel that way!

So yeah, you got a strong cast, a veteran voice director, and a crazy group of characters for them to voice. All of them nail it. And just wait, this is only the S1 cast. Wait until you see who they bring in for future seasons!

Rating: 5

Characters

As I said in Part One, this is the best part of the show. I know a lot of people who fell off TMNT as it went on, but still kept interest because of the characters. To me, this is always the most important part of storytelling. Yes having a good story itself is important, but a good story will be nothing without likeable characters to move it. A cliched story may be annoying, but if the characters are likeable and strongly written, people are usually more forgiving because they care about the cast. This show is no different. To this day, the thing that kept me attracted to the show was the Turtles, April, and Splinter and what they’d get into next. All of them have strong personalities that get you to care about them, or at least see where they’re coming from. I could gush about each of them one by one... so on we go!

Lets start with Mikey because he is the least developed this season... and most of the show sadly. I’d even say that his focus episodes dropped massively in quality after this season as he was forced mroe and mroe into the comedy relief/designated victim/little brother role. It’s a shame too because this season did an excellent job in balancing out both the comedy relief and the more innocent side of the character. Mikey is the most naive of the brothers and the least serious among them. It’s not to say that he can’t take situations seriously, it’s just that he’s more easy-going and fun-seeking than the other three. His biggest problem is his inability to focus and goof around, which has caused several instances of accidentally setting off alarms. 

While not the best of the four, Mikey is a talented ninja and the best at going off just raw talent. He doesn’t think through fighting moves, he can just go with the flow and be perfectly fine. His strongest skill hpwever is his empathy and desire to make friends. While this has backfired on him before, like in New Friend, Old Enemy, where Bradford used and then kidnapped him for a trap, Mikey is incredibly non-judgemental and open-minded. It’s why he could befriend Leatherhead so easily in It Came From the Depths. He saw that the Kraang were attacking him and decided to simply talk to him like he would anyone else, even pointing out that maybe LH only acts like a monster because that’s how he was treated for so long. Mikey may not be book smart, but he’s very emotionally smart. As I said, Mikey’s character sadly devolves into annoying comedy relief as it goes, but for this season he had a strong start. No meaningful development aside form slow progression on paying attention (Parasitica being the final payoff... also if you’re afraid of wasps then avoid that one), but his character is strong enough to carry him through.

Raph is the brawler of the group and the quickest to anger. Hie’s the strongest fighter and incredibly confident... unless he has to deal with bugs. His biggest flaws are his both his anger and his jealous towards Leo. The first half of the season has Raph frequently back-talks and argue with Leo all because he got made the leader over him. For example, in Never Say Xever he is unhappy with Leo using mercy because bad guys don’t deserve it. Leo does eventually use the more Raph-like approach when kidnapping Bradford... and it fails miserably. What saves them? Leo’s act of mercy causing the Purple Dragon to repay the favor sand saving their shells. While he does slowly get a better grip on his temper once Splinter tells him of how dangerous it can be (Turtle Temper), it takes until New Girl in Town for him to overcome his jealousy once and for all. It’s very well done too by having Leo finally get fed up and give Raph what he wanted. Ultimately Raph can’t handle the pressure once things get rough and comes to understand both what Leo deals with essentially every day and how his own actions made it worst.

After that, Raph becomes the perfect example of a follower. While he’s still question Leo, he has good reasons for it, like everything involving Karai for instance. But he actively looks out for him more and stops mocking him outside just brotherly messing around. And even during that point, while Raph could be an insensitive jerk, he does love his family and will make amends when he goes too far. When he mocked Mikey wanting friends in New Friend, Old Enemy, at the end he comforted him after the fallout with Bradford and assured him that he’s a good person. When he mocked Donnie’s crush in Operation: Break-Out and led to Donnie going on a mission solo, Raph was worried about him, realized that he way too harsh, and tried to make amends by giving Donnie all the credit once back home. While Raph doesn’t conquer his temper completely, over the season he does get a better grip on it, can admit when he goes to far, became overall nicer, and by the end is a much better person. It was good stuff!

Donnie is probably the most... divisive of the four. Not because he’s badly written per say. He’s intelligent, but also high-strung and prone to stress. He’s not a bad ninja, but because of his focus on machinery, he’s the least skilled. The two episodes that focus on this are Metalhead and Monkey Brains. Metalhead has an admittedly meh plot where he gets sick of his bo staff and therefore creates the robot Metalhead to act as his weapon. The ‘meh’ plot is IDT it addresses the message of ‘the weapon doesn't make you a good fighter, you do’ very well, ut still Monkey Brains does a much better job, demonstrating Donnie’s tendency to over-think everything and how that is detrimental in a fight. By the climax, he’s able to get himself to rely on his instincts against a mind-reading villain (we’ll get to him later) and kick his ass.

Then there’s The Pulverizer episodes, which are the most interesting but sadly don’t go anywhere after this season. It has Donnie accept Pulverizer as an apprentice of sort, mainly so the kid can have some form of self-defense if he’s going to put himself into danger. It’s ultimately ineffective, but mainly because of Pulverizer wanting to rush and not listening properly. The most important part though is Splinter telling Donnie that by doing this, anything that happens involving him after will be his responsibility. Which we see in The Pulverizer Returns where Pulverizer decides ot let the Foot mutate him to gain awesome mutant powers. Donnie tries to save him, but sadly he fails and Pulverier.. it’s not pretty. While Donnie does still save him after, he’s left with the guilt of ultimately failing his student. I’ll go into mroe about how horribly the writers wasted this next season, but here? It was interesting to give Donnie this plot since you’d expect t to go to say... Leo. I think it really worked for what it was worth and let us see a side of Donnie outside just being the smart one.

So with that said, why is he divisive? Well... it’s because another major part of his character is his crush on April. He doe snot... manage it well, to say the least. He is rather, well... stupid and kinda creepy with it. But I do want to point this out. Yes, it is annoying but I think there’s a good reason for it: he’s an awkward teenager. Yeah him asking her to feel his goosebumps (Metalhead), accidentally calling her ‘his April (The Gauntlet), accidentally saying awkward things when she acknowledges him (pick any episode) are incredibly facepalm worthy at best. And yeah, they should have done better setup than have him just find her pretty when seeing her once. However he does genuinely care about her and int he premiere, he was driven more because he saw an innocent girl scared and was unable to help than his newfound crush. The feelings are genuine and Donnie being awkward about is because... well, Donnie is awkward in general and he does slowly improve. Honestly I’ll have mroe to discuss about this next season cause haha... boy is THAT a clusterfuck. But ultimately while Donnie can be annoying, overall it’s pretty bearable and he has plenty of positive traits to balance it out.

Finally, we get Leo. He’s the group leader, but unlike the past series where he pretty much grew up with that role, here he gets the role halfway through the first episode. He starts as a goody-two-shoes with a mischievous side who had a very basic view of leadership. He see sit as a position of authority, greatness, and unstoppable. That’s not to say that he doesn’t take the role seriously, he does. He devises plans, does his best to keep his brothers focused, and frequently asks Splinter for advice on how to best do things. But he also frequently uses cheesy one-liners and does his best to be as over the top with his heroics as possible, thinking it’s cool when it isn’t. It gives Leo a more naive feel to him, someone who is serious but also is still a teenaged kid who has a lot of learning to do.

The pressures of leadership are Leo’s primary focus as a character. While he has some doubts, the biggest blow to his confident comes in The Gauntlet after there massive defeat against Shredder. The following episode has him unsure of if he can properly lead the team and feeling guilty when things go wrong. But the ultimate meltdown comes in New Girl in Town where Raph finally pushes him too hard and he quits. He’s realized at this point that leadership is not like it is on TV. it’s unforgiving, stressful, and you’re gonna be the one facing the consequences when things go wrong. His difficulty dealing with this is what attracts him to Karai. She’s fun, does whatever she wants, and doesn’t care about the rules. She offers him a form of freedom that he hasn’t had before. It’s why he tries to get her to change sides, he doesn’t want her to be an enemy. Unfortunately things end badly between them this season, but you can see where Leo is coming form no matter how naive he was about it.

Leo evolved a lot over the season. He went from a naive teenager who quoted old TV episodes to a serious, determined leader who was willing to do whatever it took to get his team through. He never quit being optimistic and he does still have his stress with leadership later down the road. But the season is about him easing not the role an understanding the weight of that role. It’s very easy to feel bad for Leo because he tries incredibly hard, but he doesn’t receive a lot of gratitude or payoff, and he just has to accept that. By the finale, he’s willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure both success and his family's safety... something that becomes a bit of an issue in later seasons (looking at you Space Arc). I’d say that because we got to see Leo actually having to come to terms with the role, it makes this imo the best version of the character. We actually have to see him accept the role and how he hate show it limits his free time, something IDT the past versions really did. And all while having this dorky, idealistic side that keeps him likable and all the mroe relateable. Overall, I’d say that the leader in blue was handeled very well here!

April is my favorite character in the show, but her writing this season has some issues. Now as a character herself, she’s perfectly fine. She’s an independent sixteen year old and incredibly proactive. Whenever she finds info on the Kraang or about her dad, she looks into it. When everyone is ready to quit in Panic in the Sewers, she’s the only one who actively tries to do something and get everyone else to not give up. When Splinter offers to train her, she accepts it and we see bits and pieces of her progressing. But it’s done realistically as demonstrated in Karai’s Vendetta where it’s very clear that April is nowhere near her level. But it also demonstrates her determination and how she never gives up, getting back up after every blow and at east trying to put up a fight. While she’s forced to sit most things out and does on occasion get kidnapped, she still tries to be an asset and does very well as an intel gatherer. She’s also incredibly stubborn and can get in over her head without thinking things through, like in Metalhead and the finale episodes. But ultimately her proactiveness and need to take action are her strongest traits and what makes her a useful ally.

The issues with April are in the writing of the plot. I already mentioned how the early episodes could have done mroe in having her ease into the group. There’s also after Karai’s Vendetta where despite living with the guys, we don’t see her until the penultimate episode. We see her express hating it in that episode, but we don’t get to explore the fallout of her losing her normal life. In fact we...d on’t see April’s life outside Turtle stuff until next season, and even then not by much. Now of course the show is about the Turtles and you gotta keep the focus on them, but still we get a bunch of ‘show, don’t tell’ problems with April. We’re told things like she’s living with her aunt, but we never see them interact. Hell, IDT April’s aunt is ever mentioned outside the pilot. We also find out that April is the Kraang’s target... and we never see how she feels about it. If she’s scared, if she’s worried. We can assume that she has some stress about it, as indicated when she vents in Karai’s Vendetta, but little to no showcase of how she feels about it. Mind you we don’t with the Turtles either, but still. Still, overall April is a solid character imo.

That brings us to Master Splinter, the best written character by far. Splinter is the perfect balance of a mentor and a father. He’s firm, strict, and not afraid to dish out punishment when it’s necessary. But he’s also gentle, patient, knows how to give his sons proper guidance, and when to let them figure things out for themselves. He’s also snarky as Hell, so it’s good that he has a sense of humor. He’s also a flawed person. He lost his wife and daughter because of hat is essentially a sibling rivalry that went WAAAY too far and his own inability to control himself worsened things. He lost his family and then his humanity, ending his life as Hamato Yoshi. Since then, he’s hidden int he sewers and tried to focus his energy on raising and protecting his sons. It makes letting them go topside difficult, as it is for any parent whose children are growing up. He can make mistakes, like letting his fear control him and press his sons far too hard in Panic in the Sewers, but he can admit those mistakes.

Splintr’s largest plot in the season, outside mentoring the boys and April, is accepting his mutant status and overcoming his fears. Many epsiodes such as the premiere, Turtle Temper, Monkey Brains, Panic in the Sewers and the finale show how much pain the rat master carries and while he’s move don to a new life, it still haunts him. The episode that best displays this however is a filler episode called I, Monster. In it we get this version of the Rat King, the mind reading villain from Monkey Brains, who uses his power to swarm New York. When he senses Splinter, he proceeds to try and brainwash him too. The episode does an amazing job at showcasing all of Splinter’s fears. The boys outgrowing him, his past tragedies, ending up alone, and the Rat King slowly uses all of it to break him down. Splinter fights back, but the thought of the boys moving on without him is ultimately what defeats him until the boys remind him of who he is. He is Hamato Yoshi, Master Splinter, but most of all their father. They need him and always will. Which lets Splinter overcome the mind control and essentially Airbend Rat King through a wall. It was awesome~

Despite that episode being filler, it’s one of the season's best. It is a strong character exploration piece about a father who has gone through Hell and is faced with the fear of his kids not needing him. It is very relatable and makes Splinter all the mroe sympathetic. And we see Splinter truly embody who he is now when faced with the Shredder again and upon learning that his daughter had survived. He went into full rat mode and gave Shredder the beating that we all wanted. And the season ends on a perfect lead in for the next one. Splinter now knows that Karai is his daughter while she was raised to hate him. It’s any parent’s worst nightmare. He now has to deal with that revelation as well as how he’s going to break it to his students. Splinter has some solid growth int he season, something that a lot of mentor figures in cartoons don’t get, and it’s done perfectly. He has his flaws, but is still a strong father figure to his sons. Add that to Hoon Lee’s absolute perfect performance and you have what is in my opinion the best incarnation of Master Splinter in any TMNT series.

While the main cast is strong, the supporting cast and villains are... not so much. There isn’t really a supporting cast honestly. The best we have is Leatherhead, who is awesome. He’s a damaged character. One treated like a monster and tortured for who knows how long. It left him damaged and prone to trauma-induced outbursts. But he is a good person who knows that what happened to him was wrong and can be quite sweet when given the chance. He didn’t have to save humanity, especially since most would scream and run if they saw him, but he didn’t want anyone else to endure what he did. It’s best exemplified with his sacrifice in TCRI, going back to Dimension X and knowing fully well what’ll await him there. But he does so to save his friends and give them the chance to save the Earth. LH is freakin’ badass and I love him!

The villains though are... kinda boring. Most of the mutants, while the designs are cool, are incredibly one-note. Not all of them, like the Rat King is so dramatic and twisted and his VA does such a great job with the delivery that you both love him and want to strangle him. But others like Snakeweed or Spyder Bytez are just... well, evil for the heck of it. The Kraang are the worst though since at least the mutants are only in like one or two episodes. The Kraang are annoying as HELL. They can be dangerous but the redundant speech pattern and all fo them having essentially the same personality (aka none) is so... boring. Min you in Season 4 we kind of get an explanation to why, but it doesn't change how grating they can get. That being said in large groups they can be dangerous and with things like the Technodrome, they’re not to be taken lightly. Still, GAH I HATE THEM!!!

The Foot are somewhat better. Stockman is pathetic and remains pathetic throughout the entire series. Bradford is a pompous asshole. Xever is a little more interesting in that he kidn of was forced to work for Shredder or go to jail... but sadly after that reveal, he reverts to typical henchman status sadly. Shredder is the Big Bad and a no-nonsense leader. He has no empathy and is more than willing to inflict physical violence on his troops if they fail him. He even threatens to harm Karai, his daughter (kinda...) if she questions him. He is a very single minded perosn, his only goal beign to kill Splinter and his students by any means necessary. Hell. he only starts caring about the Kraang when he realizes that they can advance his goal, but has zero issues letting humanity fall to them. Oh, and there’s his glee when Karai tries to kill Splinter. WOrst? THis isn’t even the worst that he does int he show. Oh just wait for next season. JUST WAIT. Otherwise though, while a powerful fighter, he just mopes in his throne for most of the season, but Richardson’s badass voice acting was nice to hear.

The most interesting villain by far is Karai, and Thank God for it. While Leo is a good-good, Karai is a bad girl. She’s laid-back, does what she wants her way, and doesn’t play by the rules. She’s introduced as a competent fighter, but unlike the other Foot she’s more interesting in talking to the Turtles than killing them. I think she did become genuinely fond of Leo, but ultimately she’s going to be loyal to what she thinks is her family. She also started off realizing that there were bugger problems, like the Kraang, that required more attention over the vendetta until the Turtles betrayed her. Then she pretty much went ‘screw it’ and decided to go with the vendetta, which only got worst when she met Splinter for the first time. Still, ti was nice to have someone actually question Shredder and try to be sensible. She’s definite the most well-written of the villains, and the revelation about her being Splinter’s daughter means that there is MUCH more to come for her. Like I said, just wait for Season 2!

Okay, this section was a LOOOT longer than I thought. So I’ll just finish by saying that the villains aren't all that interesting, but the main characters are very well written. They have strong personalities, plenty of room for growth, and their interactions always gel really well. Very well done!

Rating: 4.5

Story

The main plot threads are the Turtles against the Foot, and the Turtles feud against the Kraang. All with some subplots, like Pulverizer and the mutant of the week stuff, and filler episodes thrown in. I say that the plots are handled very well. For example well go with... say two or three Kraang-centric episodes. Then we may or may not get a filler episode before shifting over to the Foot Clan for awhile. It never felt like we got smothered with one faction over the other, which is good. The plots also slowly intertwined and it felt like they came together at just the right time during the last six or so episodes. Hence hwy the finale worked so well, giving some kind of payoff on both ends.

Many of the episodes were very basic and outright bizarre. Like Cockroach Terminator having a mutant cockroach tr to murder Raph... it’s kinda gross, but entertaining! Every episode normally has at least something small that’ll carry over as the story goes along. For example, Donnie built Metalhead in... well, Metalhead and brought him back in the finale, plus it helped him learn mroe about Kraang tech. In Baxter’s Gambit, April finally gets her own weapon and she attempts to use it in Karai’s Vendetta. The episodes all play a part, even if just minor, in the larger narrative and I feel some of the later seasons kind of slacked on that. This season had a perfect balance.

That’s not to say that it was perfect. Like at the end of TCRI, we find out that April is the Kraang’s true target which makes us wonder why... and the next episode is about Raph’s fear of bugs! So TCRI was episode 17, we don’t even mention this fact again until Karai’s Vendetta, which is episode 21. Five episodes later, and even then we get one tiny hint (April doesn't get damaged by mutagen-laced water) and... that’s it. The.show has a bit of an issue with not exploring fallout, which is weird because Panic in the Sewers did and id it excellently. Maybe it’s because they have to make episodes to sell toys, IDK. It doesn't do too much damage, but it makes it feel like they both wasted character opportunities and like there’s something missing. But at the very least the episodes remain entertaining, so there’s that.

Rating: 4

Final Thoughts

You know what I like about this series and why I ran it above the other ones? Well it does something that I feel that the previous incarnations lacked: The Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles felt like teenagers. They felt like a bunch of kids truly entering the world for the first time. They screw up, they have problems to overcome, and they don’t always learn it immideatly. Like their cockiness is a frequent pain in the shell for example. But the reason that I like pretty much all of the episodes aside form Episode 11 is because it feels like we’re watching a group of kids truly starting to grow up and learn about how rough life can be. How they have to change, how they have to fix their mistakes, and just become better people. As a nineteen year old who was just staring to figure my life out, when I started the show, that drew me in. I related to these characters so much. I felt like I was growing with them and coming to understand who I was due to it.

It felt really nostalgic to go back over this season. Imo, it still holds up big time. It’s funny, action-heavy, well animated, and the characters are just as enjoyable as I remember. Would I call this the best season? Hmm... maybe. I still have three more to look over. But it was a really fun ride and it got TMNT 2012 off on the right track. Can they stay on it during Season 2? Come back next week, and we shall see!

[riancraigjohnson-blog]

would you be willing to share some of the issues that you had with tlj as a woman of color? I was telling some friends about issues people were having with the film's treatment of PoC and I figured it would be better to share an actual PoC's perspective.

thank you so much for asking!!!! now, full disclosure i’m a super white-passing latina. or hispanic. ( i’ve referred to myself as both, so ) i’m puerto rican on my mom’s side. so i haven’t personally experienced the racism that my mom has, or my grandfather ( popi ) has, or my aunts or my mom’s cousins or, well, that entire side of my family.

as such, i can’t speak from a woman of color’s perspective because i’m white-passing, just because that hasn’t happened to me. i can be outraged about it, certainly, because i see my family in someone like oscar, or benecio who is actually puerto rican, and yeah, their treatment pisses me off.

now, that being said, let’s continue: ( note: i’m going to focus more on poe in regards to personal experience, as he’s the one i most closely relate to in terms of racial-themed questions )

what is the narrative that is being fed to us today, politically? one of harsh anti-immigration, one of an us vs them mentality-- you don’t have to be a poc to realize that, but it’s the reality that’s facing us. ( we’re particularly seeing a strong anti-latinx/hispanic, anti-black, and anti-muslim sentiment, but that’ll come in later. )

in tfa, we have our main trio-- a white girl, a young black man, and a latino man-- our heroes. in contrast, we have our villain trio-- a white woman and two white men. to me, that sets the tone-- we’re offered a movie that allows two main non-white characters the chance to shine and break free from racial stereotypes, and they do so spectacularly. i look at poe, and that’s my family, that’s a positive representation for other latinxs/hispanics, something we sorely do not get enough of in big-budget films. ( usually we’re portrayed as either hot-tempered, hyper-sexualized exotics, or stupid comic relief. ) imagine how awesome it was to see poe be none of these things?

he’s sharp-witted, funny, intelligent, quick on his feet, resourceful, and above all, kind. he’s sweet and clearly loves both what he does and the people he works with, and even without the background the books and other media provide, poe is obviously shown as someone who both respects leia and she respects in turn, someone who is well-deserving of his high-rank in the resistance, especially when you consider just how quickly this man came back after being both physically and mentally tortured by the first order/kyle. poe is, at the core of it, a gentle soul compared to the many brash and/or stupid ‘latinx/hispanic’ representations we’ve been fed in the past, so this was such a nice change of pace. he doesn’t yell or get violent, even at his most frustrated-- he’s level-headed and demonstrates all the needed qualities for a leader.

now.

the poe we get in tlj is painted as if he’s none of those things-- in the beginning, he’s shown as being in it just for the glory, the thrill of taking down a dreadnought instead of the guilt that might have plagued him over the excessive deaths in that scene-- that seems more in line with his character in tfa. he’s disobedient, petulant, impulsive-- and then he gets slapped by leia. ( here’s a hint, rian: white people slapping poc is never cool, even if you think it’s ‘empowering’ just because it’s a woman slapping. )  he then gets demoted from commander to captain, placed under the charge of holdo with the rest of the crew, and then denied even the slightest of answers when he, quite reasonably, asked for what the hell the plan was. however, the whole movie stands to paint poe’s mutiny as childish. his mission that he sent rose and finn on as a failure. that he’s going to learn the lesson of ‘sacrificing oneself for the greater good’ from a white woman, when poe has CLEARLY demonstrated in the past that he’s more likely to put himself in danger than let others do it for him.

we supposedly get this great character arc showing poe grow as a character from an impatient, hot-headed man-child who throws a literal tantrum ( hmmmmmmmmmmm sound like a certain white 30-year old we know? ) into this seasoned, war-tested officer who now knows the value of hope because he should have just blindly trusted this woman who gave him no reason to.

that’s regression, and that’s harmful, and that’s why we’re getting people talking about not liking poe, or downright hating him, or in buzzfeed’s instance, calling him worse than jar jar binks.

when i came out of tfa, when other people i know came out of tfa, poe was a role model for non-whites and whites alike. he was likeable across the board, and now, there’s not even that.

the same goes for finn, but like i said before, i can’t speak as personally about the regression in finn’s character other than we were given this selfless, brave character with so much heart and emotion in the first film, someone who saw the evil of the first order and before he could even fire a shot at a helpless villager, he said no. in tfa, there’s this whole theme of him ‘running away’-- running away from the order, from jakku, from takodana-- but we see his progression through the movie, and by the end, no one would dare call finn a coward. he risked his life for rey, helped the resistance destroy starkiller; he’s a hero, which is what ties into rose’s hero-worship of him at the very beginning.

however, in tlj, we see the exact same story-- finn is branded as selfish and cowardly by rose, who never even bothered to listen to his story-- we’re given the notion that he was leaving the ship to go get as far away from the order as possible so that when she does return from ahch-to, she’s not walking into a first order trap. before finn can even explain to rose why he’s doing this, she tasers him without a second thought, and that’s the groundwork for their relationship. ( note: rey also hit finn when they first met, doing so because bb-8 said finn stole poe’s jacket-- this doesn’t make it okay, but the fact that rey trusts finn after that, never calling him a coward or traitor or selfish, even after he told her the truth of his past and still tried to leave takodana-- she never once called him any of those things. ) the rest of the movie has its tone set from that first interaction-- finn is played as the butt of all the jokes in their scenes, continuously called selfish or cowardly by rose, or treated as if he’s somehow stupid-- we, again like with poe, see no actual character development within him. we already saw all this in the first movie, only guess what? it worked that time because one: it was the first time seeing this character and two: rey never belittled finn or tore him down.

finally, let’s touch on rose. ( and by extension, paige. ) listen...... we got fucking robbed. before i read spoilers for the movie, ( and i did so because i didn’t trust rian johnson further than i could punt him, and i still don’t, ) i was so excited to see ntv as paige, i was so excited to see the tico sisters onscreen together and interact and like? we had great interaction with hong kong donnie yen and chinese jiang wen-- and that was men. to have two vietnamese women on screen? in a star wars film? color me fucking stoked! but.... we didn’t. paige doesn’t even get to say her own sister’s name, she gets one line saying the guy who was supposed to drop the payload’s name, and she dies. instead of manpain, we get to see the aftermath of ‘sisterpain’-- as if paige’s death is supposed to positively affect rose, who we can see is OBVIOUSLY affected by the loss of her from when we first see rose on screen? that first moment seeing rose, devastated by the loss of her sister, i was honestly willing to forgive the killing of paige-- here we had another chance to break boundaries, by showing a soft, warm, loving person in rose from the get-go....... and instead they have her tase finn and treat him like shit the whole movie. have her talk down to him as if he’s an idiot and all he’s ever done is run away his whole life, when that is clearly not what finn is about at all. as a result, i feel like her own story for personal growth is grossly surrounding insulting finn, up until the very end in one of those ‘twists’ johnson seems to be fond of-- overall, what should be a positive experience by having a lead non-white female added to the mix feels more like it was written by a white feminist where it’s the idea of ‘female > any male’ as opposed to, y’know, intersectional feminism, where things like race are taken into consideration.

overall, the treatment of the three leading non-white characters is overall poor, cruel, generally racist ( particularly in terms of the ‘white women putting the latino hothead man in his place’ ) narrative that johnson seems so desperate for us to chug down, and also misleading-- it seemed pointless to include paige in the movie when her whole purpose was to die. ( because killing off poc, particularly woc, is considered ‘good writing’ in johnson’s book. )

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

Easter Evil: 10 Movies With Bunnies Gone Bad

The Easter weekend obviously has its religious meaning but to the more secular among us, it’s really more about marking the beginning of Spring, sunnier weather, warmer temperatures and longer days. Sure, you could get outside more, but seriously, why not just do what you always do and stay inside to watch a movie?

But there are no scary Easter movies, you say. We beg to differ. Easter-approriate movies are out there beyond The Greatest Story Ever Told and Easter Parade, you need only look as far as the 10 scary rabbits and evil bunnies below.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

Let’s start off with something tame, Nick Park’s classic stop-motion animation duo who take a walk on the wild side with this outing that’s part Wolfman, part The Fly, and full of the characteristic British charm of the renowned Aardman Animation studio. When Wallace’s own mad science turns him into a vegetable hungry were-rabbit, Gromit must protect his human companion from the hunter Lord Quartermaine, who’s trying to bag the were-rabbit to impress Lady Tottington. It’s not exactly a scary movie, but like any good horror, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit offers sympathy for the monster, and is a reminder that short cuts to achieve difficult goals – like losing weight by eating more veggies – can have some unintended consequences.

  The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

There’s nothing in the hat. – Uncle Walt’s magic trick is not exactly what you expect in Joe Dante’s portion of the 1983 anthology film based on the classic Twilight Zone series created by Rod Serling. Borrowing from the series’ well-known Nightmare as a Child episode, Dante’s outing sees the affable Helen drawn into a family home where everything’s off kilter. Little does Helen know that this is not young Anthony’s real family, but surrogates he forcefully recruited after killing his own family with his near infinite, God-like powers. As the coup de grace after dinner, Uncle Walt pulls a rabbit from the hat. But not just any old fluffy bunny, he pulls out a zany, Looney Tunes-esque stop-motion concoction from hell. It scares poor Helen enough to make Anthony start thinking that maybe he’s gone too far…

  Fatal Attraction (1987)

Such flagrant bunny abuse will not be ignored. Fatal Attraction is about a successful New York lawyer named Dan who decides to celebrate having the house to himself for the weekend by having an affair. Unfortunately for him, the object of his limited desire was Alex, who can’t accept that Dan was in it for a good time, and not a long time. As part of an escalating series of violent outbursts, Alex targets Dan’s family, and in one of the film’s most memorable scenes, Dan’s wife Beth comes home to find a boiling pot on the stove. As Beth cautious approaches the pot we see her daughter Ellen run up to the coupe that houses her beloved rabbit. As Ellen cries to Dan that her bunny is missing, Beth takes the lid off the pot and finds *ahem* rabbit stew. Hollywood lore suggests a real dead rabbit was used in the scene, but it’s worth noting that aside from Alex in the film’s finale, the bunny is the only casualty in Fatal Attraction.

  Watership Down (1978)

While not scary in a conventional sense, try not and be disturbed by this animated adaption of the classic Richard Adams novel. The story follows a group of rabbits that try to find a new home for themselves when the seer, Fiver, has a vision of their warren in the English countryside suffering an apocalypse. The rabbits’ quest to find a new sanctuary forces them to go through cats, dogs, hawks, hunters, farmers, death traps, and even other more vicious rabbits, which all adds up to something that looks like Disney version of the Donner Party. Heck, there’s even a rabbit Grim Reaper that appears to our heroes at a couple of key points in the film, including the end when leader Hazel, (voiced by John Hurt by the way), is ushered into the rabbit afterlife. Try not thinking about that when you take the kids to see Peter Rabbit!

  Donnie Darko (2001)

This would not be a complete list of scary rabbits without the most famous imaginary “leporidae” sidekick since Harvey. Or is Frank imaginary? Filled with signs and portents, weird science and teenage angst, a likely imaginary man named Frank in an ill-formed black rabbit costume isn’t the weirdest thing in Donnie Darko. The vision of Frank not only gives Donnie a warning about the end of the world (sort of), but he bolsters in Donnie a new found attitude about exploring the mysteries of time, and casting off the latent hypocrisies of 1980s suburbia. Was Frank ever real? It’s an interesting question, for he might have been a manifestation of Donnie’s new found ability to see through time, or an alter that allowed Donnie to overcome his own shyness. On the other hand, maybe Donnie had a thing for messed up looking rabbit people.

  Sexy Beast (2000)

Some people like hunting rabbits, but in Sexy Beast the rabbit hunts you. Well, sort of. In what might be described as Elmer Fudd’s worst nightmare, ex-convict Gary Dove, played by Ray Winstone, has a vision of a demonic rabbit man riding up to him on horseback, dismounting, and pointing a machine gun at him while he eats a nice meal. It’s like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly with a long-eared Grinch carrying an uzi, and while Ben Kingsley gets all due credit for his truly intimidating (and profanity-laden) performance as a London gangster, try and shake the image of that creepy looking rabbit with a killer instinct.

  The Witch (2015)

When if comes to evil animals in Robert Eggers’ “conventional” (according to him) horror movie, The Witch, a lot of people focus on the goat Black Phillip, but what about the black hare? Young Caleb spots the bunny while out on an early morning hunt with his big sister Thomasin and he chases it even after the horse throws Thomasin off. When Caleb gets lost alone in the woods, he stumbles on a hovel and a young woman that lures him to come inside, which seems like the 17th century equivalent of eating Tide pods, an obvious danger, and you should probably know better, but you just can’t help yourself. But whose fault is it really that Caleb became prey to a witch? The black rabbit, of course!

  Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

While Monty Python is not exactly synonymous with horror, it’s hard to find a rabbit scene more gory then the one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The titular quest leads Arthur and his knights to a cave guarded by the Rabbit of Caerbannog. Despite the somewhat vague but emphatic warnings by Tim the Enchanter, the Round Table knights are thoroughly unimpressed with their latest challenge, at least until Sir Bors is attacked and decapitated. The Rabbit of Caerbannog proves himself more than a match for the knights, and only the “Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch” is able to deal with the rabbit permanently. There’s a lesson here about not underestimating your opponent. There’s also a lesson that bunnies are bloodsuckers and killers, but that seems to get overlooked.

  Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! (2006)

There is a small, but surprising subgenre of slasher movies about people in bunny suits, but one of the better ones is Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! It is of a Rob Zombie mold, about hideous low lives who get their proper comeuppance and the one delivering it here is a killer in a bunny mask. It’s highly violent, highly disturbing, and will likely shade every future experience you have with contractors and power tools, but it does have a delightful twist in the end, not to mention a delightfully twisted ending. Not all killers in rabbit costumes are made in the same vein, but if you’re looking for a low-budget horror delight to counteract all those typically bright and cheerful Easter feelings, this is your remedy.

  Night of the Lepus (1972)

A forgotten classic in the science creates big animals horror subgenre, but one that’s fascinating if for nothing else then being about giant mutant rabbits overrunning a small ranching town. In fact, Night of the Lepus makes a nice bookend with Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit because they’re both about using science to find a humane way to reduce the rabbit population, but they’re also about that process going horribly wrong. If you can’t buy the ludicrous concept, that’s fine because the pre-CG effects do nothing to help the suspension of disbelief. The effect of the over running horde of giant rabbits is achieved through a combination of close-ups, miniatures, green screen, and yes, humans in rabbit costumes. Unbelievable? Certainly! A terribly good time on an Easter weekend? Absolutely!

The post Easter Evil: 10 Movies With Bunnies Gone Bad appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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[bartsugsy]

Which period of relationship has been your favourite and which has been your least favourite? Boyfriends, fiances, just marrieds or exesbutclearlystillinlove? and why.. For whenever you next have spare time to answer, I always enjoy reading your insightful Robron posts :)

ooohh ajsksk this is sO HARD BECAUSE THERE ARE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES IN EACH OF THE ERAS AND LIKE… THEY’RE HARDCORE POSITIVES AND HARDCORE NEGATIVES BUT OK I’M GONNA DO THIS

So my brain roughly sort of splits it all up as:

Pre-affair era

Affair era 

First and Second Break up era

Abuse era

Boyfriend era 

Fiancé era

Husband era

Third break up era 

U KNO IM JUST GONNA SIT HERE AND RANK THEM BECAUSE I LOVE AND HATE THEM ALL OK LETS GO

also happy long post day, this shit is going under a cut

ROBRON ERAS RANKED FROM WORSTEST TO BESTEST

7. FIRST / SECOND BREAK UP ERA

Now on the one hand... OK THIS IS WHY THIS IS HARD BECAUSE THIS ERA HAS MY FAVOURITE STRING OF EPISODES BUT ALSO MY LEAST FAVOURITE STRING OF EPISODES -. Ultimately the "least favourite" string lasts way way longer than the good stuff, which is why it's sitting pretty at the bottom. But like. The good stuff is real damn good.

CRYIN IN A GOOD WAY OVER: Cain vs Robert, Aaron to the rescue, FLIRTY! FARMING! FUN!, the portacabin, THE GOD DAMNED LODGE, some of who shot robert, some of the affair reveal, everything about robert getting aaron out of prison

CRYIN IN A END IT ALL HERE WAY OVER: most of who shot robert, most of the affair reveal, ☠️Donny☠️

IN CONCLUSION: ok ok oK DONT GET ME WRONG. THE GOOD STUFF IS FUCKIN INCREDIBLE AND MONUMENTAL AND WHAT ULTIMATELY MADE ME THE HARDCORE SHIPPER I AM TODAY. SO. I HELLA WOULD NOT BE HERE WITHOUT IT. I ACTUALLY WOULDN’T THAT WHOLE LITTLE BIT OF TIME IS EMOTIONALLY WHAT LED ME HERE. IT SHOULD BE HIGHER TBQH.

I JUST HATE THE DONNY PERIOD THAT MUCH.

6. AFFAIR ERA

WHERE IT ALL STARTED. ICONIC. GREAT. ENJOYED IT ALL BUT… IT NEVER QUITE REACHES THE HEIGHTS OF ANY OTHER ERA IMO. THERE’S A LOT OF GOOD BUT NONE OF IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE ME THROW IN EVERYTHING I OWNED AND COMMIT MYSELF TO THEM FOREVER.

THE GOOD SHIT CELEBS ARE BUYIN: HOOOOME FAAARRRRM WEEEEEEEK, that time rob killed katie and had to go to his own wedding immediately afterwards, christmas, the barn, the hotels, just… all the sexin’, rob telling aaron he pushed katie, high! drama! everywhere also the fact that they literally jumped straight into a relationship after two bones is incredible.

THE STUFF THE RANDO IN THE TOILETS IS TRYING TO SHIFT ON U: rmr how we never actually knew whether rob was being sincere at any point, aaron ending up in hospital and everything being terrible, their relationship was just pretty awful as a whole tbh lbr

IN CONCLUSION: GET READY FOR THIS CONTROVERSIAL OPINION BUT LIKE… everything in this era was reaching highs of 7 where every other era has stuff that, to me, hits highs of 52? On the other hand, the lows are much higher than every other era - this is the one era where you can say that as much as nothing soars quite as high as SSW, but equally, nothing is hitting the lows of rebecca. I look back on this era a lot more fondly than I felt about it originally and I'm trying not to rely too heavily on my hindsighty feelings because that's unfair to more recent eras. So. NO RISK NO REWARD KIDS. THIS BAD BOY IS GETTIN PLACED DOWN LOW AF SORRY SON

5. BOYFRIEND ERA

OH MAN THEY!!!! ARE!!!! BOYFRIENDS!!!! AND THERE’S NUTHIN BUT DRAMA AND PAIN. COOL.

LIVIN MY LIFE AND LOVIN MY TIME: REUNION BABYYYYY, Rob basically moving in immediately, Rob actually moving in, Rob and Liv bonding, ~Get stuck in~, slowly understanding that DOMESTICITY WOULD BE THE WAY FORWARD FOR A BIT AND GETTING A HELL OF A LOT OF IT

HATIN THE WORLD AND BEING SAD AT MY SCREEN: The Chill™ was a thing. Memories.

IN CONCLUSION: IT WAS GREAT ONCE THEY WORKED OUT WHAT THEY WERE DOING BUT THEN IT WAS A LITTLE BORING AND ALSO CHRANDY

4. HUSBAND ERA

THE ERA OF BIG! FUCKIN! INCREDIBLE! EPISODES! AND PRECIOUS FUCK ALL IN BETWEEN.

TOLD ME THEY LOVED ME AND ONLY ME: THE WEDDING, THE GOODBYE EP, THE FIRST PRISON VISIT, THE ROBLIVION EP, THE ONS YEAH ITS IN HERE I FUCKIN SAID IT WELCOME TO CONTROVERSY LAND STARRING ME IT’S FASCINATING ROBERT CHARACTER WORK IMO, CHAS FINDING OUT, THE REUNION, THE REVEAL, MY BEAUTIFUL HUSBAND WHO I LOVE AND THE EPISODES EITHER SIDE, THE WEED HEIST PLUS THE MIIIIIIILL

KNOCKED UP THEIR EX: well… rob knocked up his ex didn't he

IN CONCLUSION: if I were to rank these eras by how much fun I had in fandom this would be at both the top and the bottom and lbr…. lbr that about sums up this era in general, doesn't it? Horrendous, horrible, terrible pacing - everything post-incident pre-Aaron getting out and everything before the reveal and urgjejd why…. BUT but but the good stuff was just… legendary. that’s why this shit is bang fuckin in the middle.

3. THIRD BREAK UP ERA

CURRENT DAY TIMES THIS IS IT THIS IS WHERE WE ARE. And I’m sure this will change when the era is over but like. My current rn feelings are all for it.

PARTY ALL NIGHT: THE BREAK UP! EVERY SINGLE ROBRON SCENE SINCE THEN. EVERY SINGLE ONE IM NOT JOKING THEYRE ALL ICONIC! THE FESTIVAL AND FUCKIN JASON COMING BACK AND BEING HORRIBLE AND WORRIED AARON AND WORRIED ROBERT AND THE BARTSY AND BARTSUGSY AND THE TWO OF THEM GOING OFF THE RAILS IN THEIR OWN SPECIAL WAYS AND JUST. THEYRE SO FUCKING IN LOVE. PLUS ROB IS GETTING A NUTTY #WILD STORYLINE AND THEY MADE ME INVESTED IN THE STUPID PLOT BABY FROM THE SHEER LOLS OF IT ALL AND THE ROB/LARRY MESS AND JUST AARON AND ROBERT GUYS THEYRE IN LOOOOOVEEEEEEEEEEEEE AND ITS JUST SOMEHOW SO MUCH EASIER THAN BEFORE LIKE THEY NEEDED THIS STUPID BREAK UP GUYS I WILL DEFEND IT WITH MY LIFE AND MY SOUL

DISCONNECT MY INTERNET AND CRY: where's my make outs. also it's painful and sad. also we all have to come to terms with plot baby. did i mention it's sad af? the lead up to the break up was the worst too like murder me right here why

IN CONCLUSION: IM RIDE OR DIE ABOUT IT ALL UNTIL THEY FUCK IT UP BUT ITS STILL SAD AS HELL

2. ABUSE ERA

Can u believe this time was real no me neither

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES: THE SMITTEN KITTEN DATE, rob being ride or die aaron and aaron slowly growing to trust rob again because of it, ILL WAIT FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!, the whole best friends who are totally in love but not in the right place to do anything about it vibe,

IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES: it was hardcore A Lot because of the subject matter but mostly they knocked it out of the damn park and so idk what the bad would be honestly it was just… real good

IN CONCLUSION: just real real good and like… as a redemption storyline for rob and a vehicle for danny to do his thing and fuckin kill it and liv’s entrance… oh i just love it my dudes (but i can't rank it right at the top purely because it's TOO MUCH to rewatch on the reg for me because it is so big and heavy and dramatic)

1. FIANCE ERA

THIS COVERS EVERYTHING FROM JUST BEFORE ROBERT PROPOSES TO JUST BEFORE THE WEDDING. IT WAS… PRETTY BIG. Pretty… big….

‘GOLD.MP3′: SSW. There’s other stuff but like. Who cares. That’s enough of an explanation. Tbh.

THE FUTURE POP ONE HIT WONDER ‘POOP EMOJI.WMA’: Rob and Rebecca kissing that one time (hilarious but pointless). Rob and Rebecca kissing that second time (less hilarious slightly less pointless). The general Aaron being jealous at all times and prevalence of Rob/Rebecca and just… the absence of fun things… outside of a few key episodes. The whole initial weirdness over buying the Mill that I still hate bc it completely ignored Robert’s presence.

IN CONCLUSION: THE LOWS ARE REAL FUCKIN LOW KIDS LIKE IT GETS BORING AF TOWARDS THE END OF THE YEAR. ALSO ALL OF NOVEMBER UP UNTIL MAXINE’S EPISODE WAS WANK. T B Q H. THE GOOD STUFF THOUGH… THE GOOD STUFF IS THE STUFF THAT I REWATCH AS OFTEN AS A HUMAN BEING CAN. EVERY BIG ARGUMENT. THE!!! JANUARY!!!!! ARGUMENT!!!!!!!!!! AARON’S BIRTHDAY! AARON ROBBING HOME FARM, THE PUB QUIZ, ALL THE BARTSUGSY, CHRISTMAS. AND. YOU KNOW. SSW. WAS. OK. I GUESS. YEAH. NO RISK NO REWAAAAARD!!!!

HON. MENTION: PRE-AFFAIR ERA

LITERALLY PERFECT IN EVERY WAY BUT I CANNOT JUSTIFIABLY RANK IT ALONGSIDE ALL THESE OTHER MUCH MEATIER ERAS, GIVEN THAT IT LASTED ABOUT 3 EPISODES BC THEY COULDN’T ACTUALLY KEEP IT IN THEIR PANTS IF THEY TRIED

AND ROBERT SURE DID TRY

DURING THAT… ONE HOUR… WHEN HE WAS BANGING CHRISSIE… uh.

~~~~ THE END FOR NOW ~~~~

[lookbackmachine]

Brink! Oral History

[music]

00:06 Speaker 1: What up, Cinema? It's Chad Goes Deep reporting live. Dudes, when I'm scooting the S walks, I'm often mistaken for one dude, Erik von Detten, or as I call him, The Bear. And guess what guys? I'm never insulted. He has great hair, and from the movie I'm convinced he uses a leave-in condish, which is a good move. The Bear, Erik von Detten, also known as The Bear, inspired me to rollerblade, which I mastered in six months culminating my career in a sick Royale grind. The whole school saw it. He also taught me the importance of soul skating and full lettuce underneath your helmet. Or as it is also known, flow. His 1998 masterpiece Brink! Served as a benchmark for my development as an alpha male with heart from the tricks to the sick burns.

00:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to win, but no matter what, win or lose, at the end of the day, I'm not you. So it's still a good day.

01:02 Speaker 1: I loved everything about this movie. My favorite part being when he chucks a chocolate shake in Val's grill. I copied that move when I was beefing with Dillon. It's over now. Alright, dudes. Now let's get down to Jake's script, which I've been told I have to read word for word. So this is going to be like a quasi-Chad Masterpiece Theater of sorts. Hope you guys enjoy.

[music]

01:55 Speaker 1: The Disney Channel began in 1983 like this. Goofy and Donald Duck costume characters were decked out in crisp white lab coats with their good friend, Donny Osmond, Beast. The ragtag crew was manning mission control to launch the signal to cable boxes around the country. The cost for the channel was less than $10 a month, and in six months they had 500,000 subscribers. Whoa, that's a lot.

[music]

02:19 Donny Osmond: And that as they say is just the beginning. In the months ahead you'll see more great movies for the whole family, more new shows that are fun to watch, easy on the eyes, and packed with the things that you want to know. The people at the Disney Channel want you to know that that's a promise, a commitment to bringing you and your family the kind of quality television you'll be glad to welcome into your home.

02:37 Speaker 4: All personnel, one minute to Disney Channel programming. Donny, will you start the audible count down, please?

02:45 Donny Osmond: Oh, you want me to start the countdown? Geez, this is an honor. [chuckle] Okay, we all set? All systems ready to go? Okay, you ready to roll programs in there? . Great, okay, here we go. Mickey Mouse, Earth station Mickey. Stand by to commence countdown.

03:04 Speaker 5: Mouse control, this is Earth station Mickey, you are cleared to commence countdown, Donny.

03:09 Donny Osmond: Here we go. Ready?

03:12 Speaker 1: The Disney Channel followed up their launch with their first made-for-TV movie, Tiger Town, starring Roy Scheider from Jaws. Not to be confused with Rob who was a gigolo.

03:23 Speaker 6: Roy Scheider, Justin Henry. In a special encore performance of Tiger Town.

03:31 Speaker 1: Dude, since then the Disney Channel has produced countless films for cable, but according to its official history, the first Disney Channel original movie or DCOM began with Under Wraps directed by Greg Beeman in 1997. Legend.

03:45 Speaker 7: The spirit of the mummy may be freed by the purity of the full moon and loosened to walk the earth.

03:51 Speaker 8: And he's walking your way on Disney.

03:54 Speaker 9: That's a mummy, cool!

03:56 Speaker 10: What are we going to call him?

03:57 Speaker 11: How about Harold?

03:58 Speaker 8: And it's up to these three kids to help him find his way back home.

04:02 Speaker 11: We don't have much time, right, Harold?

04:03 Speaker 8: Under Wraps tonight at eight-seven-central only on Disney Channel.

04:09 Speaker 1: Beeman would go on to direct a string of six Disney Channel Originals, but his most famous was On the Horizon. Hell yeah. In the '90s Disney had just purchased ESPN, and ESPN had just launched the X-Games, and inline skating was hip. Well, skating was much cooler but inline skating for Disney was pretty rad. And so, with its unique brand of synergy, the Disney Channel wanted an aggressive inline skating movie based on a children's story from 1865. I didn't know they had skating back then. And there's just one man to write it, Jeff Schechter. Not to be confused with Ryan Sheckler who skates.

04:46 Jeff Schechter: I always knew that I wanted to be a writer and thought I wanted to be a director too, and so I actually directed something and said, "This is way too much like real work." [chuckle] So I was like, "Yeah, I'm kind of happy to sit home in my pajamas and write something and be paid disproportionately well. I started working in editing in New York. I started for an apprentice sound editor and did it for about two years or so and read at that time a book by William Goldman. He's the guy who wrote Butch Cassidy, and Sundance Kid, and Marathon Man, and Princess Bride, and he wrote a book called Adventures in the Screen Trade, where he had all these different chapters. And there's a chapter on producers and a chapter on directors. And there was a chapter on LA. And the chapter began, and I'm paraphrasing, something along the lines of, "I find Los Angeles to be a dangerous and potentially very harmful place in which to live. And I recommend that anyone seriously considering a career as a screenwriter move there as soon as possible." [chuckle] So I read that and went, "I guess I'm going to LA." I threw everything I owned fit comfortably into a vehicle Sabre.

06:02 Jeff Schechter: And the big break came with the infamous Bloodsport II. It was a open writing assignment, I had written an action movie, the un-spec that the producer read and liked and he wanted to meet me to see if I was good for Bloodsport II. Basically, I quit my job about six months earlier, so I could just focus on writing. I had heard this principle that if you want full-time results, you have to do something full-time. If you do something part-time, you'll get part-time results. And it was true, I was writing part-time and working part-time, 'cause I needed the money. And I was getting, what I would consider, really good part-time results. Somebody would be interested in a script, they adapted it for a dollar. It was like part-time results. So embracing this, if you want full-time results, you got to do something full-time, I said, "Okay, I've got enough money for six months, and I'm just going to focus on writing for those six months."

07:00 Jeff Schechter: Worse case, I'm single, renting a cheap place. It's like, if it doesn't work, okay so I'll get another job. So literally, I was in month five and out of money, and I get a call from my agent saying, "This producer wants to meet with you." So I met with him, and it was just, there was no way I was not going to get that job. [chuckle] I was like, "I will do whatever it takes to get this job." I didn't say that to him, I didn't want to come off as desperate. I wanted to come off as confident, I guess. I had this good fortune. I'm from Brooklyn, and I've been in LA long enough for my broken accent to have diminished a little bit, so it comes out in bad ways [laughter] sometimes. But you put me in the room with people from New York and New Jersey, and it's like my old accent just bubbles up to the surface. As I go in to meet this guy, and then he's from New Jersey. He starts talking to me like this, and I immediately start talking to him back like this, and he was like, "Yeah, I really like your script, and we're talking." And every time he would say something like, "Yeah, well, I'm meeting with other writers." And I go, "No, no, there are no other writers." [chuckle] I turned into that guy. And then that happened two or three times in the meeting, and he wasn't put off by it, he actually liked it, because my people.

08:20 Jeff Schechter: So as soon as the interview was over, one of the jobs that I had been doing was I'd been working at a martial arts studio. And I had helped the Ester at the studio with a book on karate forms and stuff like that. So he had put a nice big picture of me in the front of the book thanking me for my help, and this is a picture of me doing this 12:00 side kick, which is something that I was able to do back then. [chuckle] If I do it now, I think I could do it one time, and then somebody has to carry me to the hospital. So I go, I race away from this producer's office, I go to the martial arts studio and say, "Master Cho, can I have a copy of that book?" So he gives me a copy of the book, and this is going to sound worse than it is, but it was really the only place where in the picture where there was room for me to write this. But basically, a 12:00 sidekick is one leg is on the floor and the other one is high over your head. And in that gap between my legs, [chuckle] oh my God, why am I telling you this. In that gap between my legs, I wrote, "There are no other writers." And I ran it back to his office and gave it to his assistant who gave it to him, and I got the job.

[laughter]

09:33 Jeff Schechter: I don't think I got the job solely because of my aggressive attitude, or [chuckle] my controversial autographing of that picture for him, but the action script that he read was a martial arts script, and it was a good sample. So I had at least the material to back up my Brooklyn attitude. And then the writing of Bloodsport II was actually very easy, because I didn't have to write out... It's a gajillion fights, this person versus this person, and set this match, and this round. And basically, I just wrote X fights Y, as much as you need, which was an old trick from, I think there was this writer, Lee Bracket, who used to direct Westerns. And I remember reading somewhere that Lee was notorious for when you have this cowboys chasing other cowboys battle going on. It would be like, "Cowboy chase, as much as you need," because what's the point of writing it, if you're just going to get stunt coordinators, and production concerns, and where it's going to be shot. So why you putting in all these things that everyone's going to just toss out anyway? So for all these fights, there's these 20 fights or whatever, in Bloodsport II, I just wrote, basically, this person fights this person as much as you need. These movies are not dialogue heavy, [chuckle] so it was easy in a way.

[music]

11:04 Speaker 13: The Kumite fought like the world's most awesome fighters. The prize, a ceremonial sword. A sword that one man will steal.

11:18 Speaker 14: Steal from James, it'll be suicide!

11:21 Speaker 15: Don't tell me my business.

11:24 Speaker 13: Now, sentenced to a life in hell.

11:27 Speaker 16: Why are you in this prison?

11:28 Speaker 17: Sold at a value beyond riches. It was to have been awarded to the greatest fighter on earth.

11:35 Speaker 13: His sword is rescued.

11:38 Speaker 18: If you wish to learn the Iron Hand...

11:40 Speaker 13: The ultimate lesson.

11:42 Speaker 19: I will show you.

11:43 Speaker 13: Is about to begin.

11:45 Speaker 19: Force is not the answer. It will break inside of you. Wear it as inside, it will never break. It is not about winning. It is about finding oneself.

12:00 Speaker 13: Because what he has stolen is a chance.

12:03 S?: What do you think all this is going to cost me to have the sword returned?

12:07 S?: One million American dollars.

12:08 S?: That's your price for your freedom.

12:10 Speaker 13: The prison that holds him is a path.

12:12 S?: It is a spiritual event.

12:15 S?: The Kumite.

12:16 Speaker 13: And the challenge that faces him is a war.

12:28 S?: You and me, soon just me.

12:33 S?: His arms are like cement.

12:35 Speaker 13: The world's greatest martial arts masters are facing the ultimate challenge. Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite.

12:52 Jeff Schechter: So I started off writing these action movies. I was just newly married, and we didn't have a kid, and I'm wanted to do something more family film friendly, so I wrote a spec script about a kid and a baby elephant, an action-adventure comedy family thing, and it attracted the attention of Warner Brothers, which hired me to do a production polish on a kid and baby panda movie called Amazing Panda Adventure. Right around that time I sold a big spec screenplay, so now I was on the Disney radar a bit, and they had another rewrite for a movie called I'll Be Home For Christmas with Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I did my work on that script, and then just one day I was on the lot, so I just stopped in at the office of the producer who was working on I'll Be Home For Christmas. And we're just talking, I said, "Hey, so what have you got going on?" He said, "Oh, we've got this thing, a TV movie for the Disney channel, I don't know if that's something you'd be interested in." I said, "Yeah, sure, why not? I'm between jobs right now." That was Brink! It was an adaptation of the Hans Brinker story.

14:04 Speaker 1: Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates, was written by Mary Mapes Dodge, an American author who became obsessed with Dutch culture to the point where she would ask everyone she knew for them to recall anything they knew about the land. With Motley's history of the Netherlands as her load star, she wrote Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates as a way of ridding American children of their prejudices against the Dutch, who I'm guessing were very anti-Dutch. Weird. The book was a massive hit and is still considered a classic. The book was a massive hit then, and is still considered a classic. For sure. For this piece, I've gone ahead and hired my British friend Buttersworth, my dog. He's going to read this brief section to give you guys a feel for the novel. Please enjoy.

14:47 Buttersworth: Thank you, Chad. Meanwhile, with many a vigorous puff and pull, the brother and sister, for which they were, seemed to be fastening something to their feet. Not skates, certainly, but clumsy pieces of wood, narrowed and smoothed at their lower edge and pierced with holes, through which there were threaded strings of raw hide. These queer-looking affairs had been made by the boy Hans. His mother was a poor peasant woman, too poor to even think of such a thing as buying skates for her little ones. Rough as they were, they had afforded the children many a happy hour upon the ice, and now, as with cold red fingers, our young Hollanders tugged at the strings, their solemn faces bending closely over their knees. No vision of impossible iron runners came to dull the satisfaction glowing within. Chad, I just want to thank you for having me here today. It's been one of the great honours of my life. Good luck and goodnight.

15:58 Speaker 1: Alright, thank you, Butters. So guys, that's the gist of the story, and almost 80 years after it was written, The Walt Disney Company adapted it into a television movie for The Wonderful World of Disney, in 1962.

[music]

16:31 Speaker 21: Hans Brinker was a Dutch boy who lived in a small village by the Zuiderzee. His story takes place about a hundred years ago. In those days, Holland had all the quaint characteristics we have come to think of as typically Dutch. All the charm and the beauty captured and passed on to us in the paintings of the great Dutch Masters, such as Vermeer, Ruisdael, and Rembrandt. Here in the fishing village of our story, the men pursued their livelihood on the sea for six hard-working days each week. But on the seventh, they took their folks to church. And that is where they'd been on a particular Sunday in Spring when our story begins. Among the good burghers on their way home from Sunday Mass was a humble family of fisher folk, called Brinker.

17:25 Speaker 22: What a wonderful day for a sail.

17:28 Speaker 23: On Sunday?

17:29 Speaker 22: Why not? We've been to church.

17:30 Speaker 24: We can go to the coast and have a picnic.

17:32 Speaker 25: Please, mother.

17:34 Speaker 23: Alright, I'll take a basket lunch.

17:36 S?: May I invite Inga Landgre?

17:38 S?: Of course.

17:42 S?: Do you think the burger master will approve?

17:44 S?: Why shouldn't he?

17:48 Speaker 1: Fast forward 36 years and we arrive at Andy 'Brink' Brinker played with glorious glee by Eric von Detten, The Bear. He is a bear. In the updated version of Hans Brinker, Brink and Team Pup-N-Suds are in the junior X-Games against the dastardly sponsored team X-Bladz headed by Val. A quintessential douche. It's a battle between soul skating and corporate greed. Something I struggle with daily.

18:14 Jeff Schechter: I looked at the book, the source material and said, "Okay, what are these elements that I think were going to make a compelling contemporary drama?" Sort of the hook was it's the Hanz Brinker story but with roller-blades, so that much we knew, so I said okay, what's the world today? There's skating, there's competition, it's X-Games, you know, what's the family dynamic? Well, Hanz Brinker had an injured father, so we gave Brink an injured father, so I said okay, what does that look like? Well, there's going to be obviously stress in the family, and there's probably money problems, of course, the father's going to have to get well at the end because it's Disney. And we know Brink is going to win the event, so it's probably some sort of tournament. So it's like just looking at the source material and saying what's still resonating today? And then saying where would that fall in to the structure of a well told story? Everything just laid itself out pretty nicely. As I recall, it was a pretty easy process writing the script. The internet hadn't quite exploded then. I guess I wrote this in '97 or so, so I had internet. It was really slow and pokey and very text based, so there wasn't a lot to research online, but there were a bunch of skinny magazines and skate shops who were all selling these videos that people were making of aggressive inline skating, so I bought a bunch of the videos and did my research that way.

19:50 S?: Hey check it out. Jerk weeds at 2 o'clock.

19:53 S?: Hi ya, children.

19:55 S?: Excuse me, but I believe we out-skated your sorry butts yesterday, old man.

20:00 S?: Anytime you want to go at it again...

20:02 S?: Cut it out.

20:02 S?: Guess you heard about Boomer?

20:08 S?: Yeah. How long's he got to be out?

20:10 S?: A couple of weeks. For sure he's out of the invitational. Means there's an open spot on the team.

20:19 S?: Yeah right. Like we're going to try out for Team X-Bladz.

20:22 S?: Like any of you have the talent. I'm telling you so that you garments know you're not invited.

20:29 S?: Good you told us. Now beat it.

20:33 S?: You don't get it do you? Being a sponsored skater is cool. I get all the newest gear whenever I need it. I get my picture in every skating magazine on the planet.

20:44 S?: Oh, now I'm nauseous.

20:47 S?: And I make a lot of money. Just think about that. Being known as the best, but the pay at the same time. What could be sweeter?

21:04 S?: Hey, look. We don't care about any of that stuff. We skate for fun. We're soul skaters, right Brink?

21:15 S?: Right.

21:16 S?: Yeah, right. Why is it that the losers always say they're in it for fun? Come on.

21:25 S?: Could you believe that guy?

21:29 S?: Skating for money.

21:31 S?: Sell out.

21:33 S?: Okay guys, we did it. We came this far, and I'm not going to let you guys down, you hear me? Just remember one thing, win or lose, skating is what we do, not who we are.

21:47 S?: Man, that was like deep.

21:48 Jeff Schechter: There was a couple... There were a couple of moments that I really responded to, and there was one line that kind of changed at the last minute, and it was a little... I'm kind of happy it changed. I'll tell you, it was when Brink is talking to Gabriella after she's injured, she goes over to the house and she's all mad at him, and he says, "Look, I'm really sorry, I was just doing it for the money. I needed the money." She was like, "We all need money," and then she goes, "And that's how it starts. First you do something you love, then you do it for money, and then you're an adult like everybody else." But then, the line got changed to you do something for love, and do it for money, and then you're just a sell-out, right? But there was something kind of pointed about by trying to hold on to your youth by don't worry about the money dude, just do those things that are exciting to you and that you love to do, and don't grow up too soon Brink, was really kind of the message. But I changed that... I don't know, I felt like I was slamming adults or something like that. I don't remember if I took it upon myself to change it or if that was a note.

22:57 S?: Gabby, I'm really sorry. I honestly didn't think anyone would get a hurt.

23:15 S?: And I guess for once, you didn't think of everything.

23:19 S?: But Gab, you got to understand.

23:22 S?: You were the one who told me about soul skating, about skating from the heart, and only skating for the love of it. And I believed you because you were my friend.

23:36 S?: But it was only going to be for a little while. My family really needed the money.

23:42 S?: We all need the money, Brink. What does that have to do with it? That's how it starts, you know? First, you do something that you really love, and then you start doing it for the money, and before you know it, you're just another sell-out.

24:17 Jeff Schechter: So, I really liked that line, and then I had this other line delivered by Brink's father to Brink. Which is, you know, when he tells Brink that the measure of a person is who your friends are and how well you keep them.

24:35 S?: I didn't listen to you, dad. I tried out for the sponsor team.

24:42 S?: When I told you no?

24:46 S?: We needed the money.

24:57 S?: Not so bad buddy, that we needed you to disobey us.

25:03 S?: I know. I guess it wasn't just for the money either. I wanted to be a part of Team X-Bladz. I wanted to have my picture in every magazine. I wanted to be a somebody. I don't know if you get that.

25:31 S?: You know, you and me, we're a lot alike. I used to love being a construction foreman. [chuckle] "Hi, how you doing? I'm Ralph Brinker, I'm the construction foreman." I used to love saying that. People looked up to me. Then I got injured. Suddenly, no more construction foreman. You want to know the worst part about being on disability? I didn't know who I was anymore. I used to define myself by my job title. But you want to know something? After being laid off for six months, I finally figured out that construction foreman is what I do, not who I am. Andy, you are defined by the company you keep and how well you keep it, not by what you just happen to do. And kids who skate, come on, California, they're filthy with them. You, you are Andy Brinker. You are a good son, and you are a good friend, who just happens to skate. And tomorrow, if you never skate again, you're still Andy Brinker.

27:23 Jeff Schechter: The script was just a lot of fun. I don't want to sound immodest, I've written plenty of stuff where you read it and you scratch your head and you go, "This guy's a professional? [chuckle] The story's too convoluted," or whatever. But Brink was just... It was just a good, fun read. It was fun kids with welcoming personalities, and occasionally they would say something fun and the family dynamic was fun. It just was a painless, whatever 100 pages. And I remember before I turned anything in, it's always like you would proofread it three to four times. And I remember going back through Brink and after like the third or fourth time reading it, going, "Even though I wrote this, I'm still not tired of reading it." So I was like, "Okay, I hope... Maybe people won't like it, maybe it won't get approved by the studio. If it is, it's for some other reason, because this is a fine read." And they were very welcoming to the script, they really liked it, and yeah, went into production really, really quickly. The director, Greg Beeman, was very faithful to the script. Greg was my hero, he was really respectful of the written word and did the absolute utmost to make sure that that was reflected on the screen.

28:46 Speaker 1: The film had its writer, now all we needed was a director. Greg Beeman, director of Brink!

28:55 Greg Beeman: I originally wanted to be a comic book artist, that was my dream when I was like 15. And then a movie called Star Wars came out, and kind of the night that I saw it in the theatres, I didn't know what a director was, but I knew that I had to do that. Then, mostly through naivete, and not realizing that what I wanted to do was hard, I found out where George Lucas went to college and went to film school, and I was like, "I got to go there," so I went to USC film school and sort of like ever since I was 15 years old, I've been focused on being a director. So I went to USC and I made some student films, and one of them won some awards. And it wasn't instantaneous, it was like a long, slow, slugging away, but I have never had any other idea, ultimately, that's my big secret. So I'm stuck with being a filmmaker and being a director. So coming right out of film school, I got a few writing jobs, and then I also directed a couple of music videos. But then the first thing I ever did, I think I was just like 22 years old, I directed a, at that time they had something called the Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. So I directed two two-hour movies. And then the first movie I ever did was called 'License to Drive' with Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, and I think I was like 26 years old when I directed that.

30:08 Greg Beeman: At that time in the early '80s, and Michael Eisner had just come over and been the president of Disney, and Jeffrey Katzenberg was his second-in-command, they were newly there. So I think at that moment in history, they were looking for... The industry was kind of looking for film students, because I think the other thing that was happening in the world was the teen comedies were really big, and John Hughes' movies were really big, and I think there was a sense in the industry that if we get young filmmakers, they'll have more connection to teen material. So I think in some ways, that was my big break. In retrospect, I was exceedingly naive, but I wasn't also overly confident, but I just felt like it was normal to be doing this. I don't remember feeling incredibly nervous, even when I got relatively big opportunities, I just felt like this is what I wanted to be doing, and this is what I was going to do. It takes a little bit of a couple failures, which happened later before you actually can lose your confidence, which did eventually happen to me. The big one was Mom and Dad Save the World. So that movie took a long... It was held up from release for a couple of years, and then when it came out, it was a dismal failure.

31:14 S?: Finally, in motion pictures, that asks the age-old question, "Is there intelligent life in the universe?"

31:21 S?: You're welcome.

31:22 S?: The answer, is no.

31:26 S?: Doors.

31:28 S?: Teri Garr, Jeffrey Jones, Jon Lovitz, Kathy Ireland, and Eric Idle. Mom and Dad Save the World.

31:36 S?: You're a cute little fella.

31:39 S?: Directed by Greg Beeman. 'Mom and Dad Save the World', the film which opened nationwide on over 1,000 screens. The film the daily news said had broader laughs than Bill and Teds, and called it funny family fair like "Honey I Blew Up the Kid". Mom and Dad Save the World, now being released on home video with special foil packaging, and with each three bag you order, get 100 Mom and Dad Save the World recycle plastic bags to give out to your best rental customers. Mom and Dad Save the World.

32:15 Greg Beeman: And then I was kind of like out of the business, no one would hire me, my agents wouldn't return my phone calls. I think in the life lesson, if I've done anything right, which is the same as I had no better ideas as I just never quit. A handful of people that I went to film school with are still in the business and slugging it away, and still working and doing good with their own ups and downs. But I would say the bulk of people that I graduated with, in 1983 or '84, most of them are not around anymore. I didn't quit, which would have been the reasonable thing to do, so I eventually got a chance to direct TV, and I got a chance to direct a TV show called "The Wonder Years". That was the beginning of doing TV, which is almost exclusively what I've stuck with ever since then, and TV's been a good medium for me. I ended up having, for about seven or eight years, a very happy relationship with the Disney Channel. I got a chance to direct a Disney Channel movie called Under Wraps.

[pause]

33:30 Greg Beeman: Once I proved myself with Under Wraps, and once Under Wraps was a movie that they were really happy with, they started to just give me an enormous amount of freedom. It came onto my radar as basically a finished script. They had, I think Jeff Scheckter had originally pitched a version that was based on Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, and I think he originally wrote a draft that was much closer to the original Dutch story, that I'm not that familiar with. X-Games and inline roller skating was just coming into the culture at that moment in history, and I think they had him kind of re-tool it. You know, the Disney Channel movies are a little more like how features are, once the script is finished, the director comes on board. And I think things were pushed pretty tight, I don't remember... I kind of remember I got the script and we went and made the script. I didn't do a significant amount of re-writing on it, there was a few things. Mostly we just went and made it.

34:21 Greg Beeman: It's one of the few experiences in my life where I just felt like I had an adequate amount of time to make the show. I think we shot for 24 days, which is an enormous amount of time for an hour and a half movie of the week. Usually, these days you might get 14 days or 15 days. It was hard. It was set in Los Angeles, and we filmed all up and down the coast, and mostly in Venice Beach and I also had my world record for most set-ups in a day. Every time you do a separate shot, and move on and then you move on to do another shot. I don't count how many set ups I do a day, as necessarily whether I'm doing well or not, but there was one day that I did 107 set-ups up in one day. A normal amount is like 30, 25 or 30.

[chuckle]

35:03 Greg Beeman: So that's the thing. There was another one of the competitions. I just remember going like... There was a big competition and we set up all these different ramps and stuff on the beach in Venice, north of Venice. I just remember about two thirds of the way through the day, I just kind of finished the acting scenes, but there was no way I was ever going to finish all the action, and I remember just being in dismay, like, "We're never going to make this day, we're never going to make this day." And my VP, who was from New Zealand, goes, "Yeah, give me your camera, mate. I'll go get some shots for you." This guy named Ernie Orsatti, who was the stunt coordinator, was like, "Give me your camera, I'll go get some shots." And I was like, "Okay, I'll go get some shots." So I grabbed five skaters, Ernie grabbed five skaters, and Rodney Charters grabbed like five skaters, and we just went off. [chuckle] And we had like six cameras and we just started doing shots, like, "Okay, you skate, go, roll, and jump, and do a twist and back spin, do a 180." So we just started getting shots, and shots, and shots, and shots, and shots, and at the end of the night, I had done 107 set-ups, which is still my personal best.

35:57 Greg Beeman: First off, let me talk about how the team I put together. So I mentioned that there was Bernie Caulfield. She was given to me by the Disney Channel. Did she do Under Wraps? Yeah, she'd done Under Wraps, so it was my second time working with her. And she brought the production designer on, who was great. I brought a cinematographer named Rodney Charters, who I'd worked with on Nash Bridges, and he was great. And in some ways, I think the secret weapon was there was a woman that I was friends with in film school named Lee Haxall. She'd been a post-production supervisor, but she was just transitioning into editor, and I knew how talented she was. So I kind of think Lee was the secret weapon of that show, because I shot a lot of film, just by nature. You know, there was just so much action, so many scenes and so many competitions, and Lee masterfully cut that show... And I will say in the course of... I told you I've had a 35-year career, I would say in my whole life, maybe there's four occasions and only two editors who ever show me the first cut, and I think, "Oh my God, that's better than I imagined."

36:53 Greg Beeman: Billy Wilder's famous quote is, "Your movie is never as good as your dailies, and it's never as bad as your first cut." Usually, the first cut that the editor gives you is like this disappointment where you go like, "Oh my God, I thought I knew what I was doing. Oh no, I'm in trouble." Like there... It's almost always a disappointment. But Lee's first cut of Brink was like on point, she just killed it. The way she put that film together and the way she cut all the music. The other thing about that movie, and you can hear I'm getting excited talking about it, it was a movie that I stayed with it from beginning to end. The kind of the way you do with a feature film, but which most people don't do in TV. You know, like I said, the script was pretty much 90% of the way there by the time I was given it, but I stayed all the way through post, like I stayed all the way through music, I was at the music recording sessions. In fact, it was the very early days of electronic and music, and there was a piece of music that we were trying to copy, and there was a part where I kind of imitate an old, southern preacher and I go, "You got to know yourself." So, in this downhill race, there's this throbbing beat with this guitar solo, and my voice is in there like as a kind of old southern preacher, and...

38:02 S?: Most skaters just flying down the course, neck-and-neck. This is the section in the course where the top speeds will be reached. Both totally in a tuck, whoever can be the most aerodynamic is going to start to pull away. 42,5 miles per hour. That is a new course record.

[music]

38:46 Greg Beeman: I really feel that Brink was very directed from beginning to end, because I was there from the minute I got the script to the time that we delivered it to air. I was involved in the color timing, I was involved in the music, I was involved in the sound effects mixing, and I really cared about that movie, and I put everything into it. In a weird way, as much as it was a Disney channel movie, I think we were doing some innovative stuff. And again, I got to credit the Disney channel people who didn't come at me with a lot of, "It has to be this. It has to fit into that box." They knew that it was kind of... They knew that the subject matter was kind of cutting edge at the moment. Like I said, rollerblading, and I think the X-Games had occurred twice, I think that there had been two X-Games, and it was a brand new thing. I don't know that I even consciously thought of it, but my approach, artistically, was to make it very raw, relatively raw, for a Disney channel movie. And they supported that. It didn't need to be presentationally too sedate.

39:38 Greg Beeman: And then the other thing that I think really happened... So besides the fact that I just got kind of a dream crew that worked in great harmony with each other, we also got the best skaters in the world. Because the X-Games was a brand new thing, and because at least rollerbladers at that moment in time had not got a lot of commercial promotions or sponsorships, we got literally the best skaters in the world as our stunt doubles, right? The people who were stunt doubling the cast were like world class X-Games skaters, and the stuff those guys could do was just crazy. I will say another funny thing that I always remember about the skaters. They were a different breed, right? Because the stuntmen have their own aesthetic, and I work with the stuntmen all the time, but when the stuntmen... If a stuntman wrecks or wipes out or gets hurt, God forbid, but it does happen, all the other stuntmen circle them, and the medic comes over, and everyone there is very quiet. And then when they get up, it's kind of like on a football game, and then everyone applauds... [chuckle]

40:38 Greg Beeman: Well, when the X-Blade guys, when they would wreck, like if someone went flying off the edge of a ramp and just crashed 15 feet to the ground, all the other guys would just look the other way, like it didn't happen, and the person would pick themselves up as best they could and run around the corner and hide. [chuckle] That was their aesthetic. If they got injured, they had to go off by themselves and suffer and work it out. The rest of their team just pretended like it never happened. And I just thought that was pretty funny.

41:07 Speaker 1: So, they cast The Bear, which if you didn't know, is Erik von Detten's nickname. Nice. Erik told Romper that he asked his mom what would happen if he got into acting. She said, "You wouldn't be able to go to school anymore." And then he said, "Sign me up." Good story. Von Detten became a Disney mainstay, appearing in Toy Story as Sid, Lawson on Recess, and Escape to Witch Mountain in 1995. But now, he was taking on his iconic turn as Andy 'Brink' Brinker, The Bear. Which is his nickname.

41:38 Greg Beeman: And Erik was someone who was kind of a star at the time, from the Disney Channel point of view, so I think he did audition but he kind of, the job was his to screw up, basically. Everyone at Disney Channel was excited for him. But I would say that the rest of the cast was pretty much brand new people. And after Erik, though, it was all a bunch of new people, right, who didn't have a lot of credits, and so it was just the vibe of people who came in and auditioned and felt right for the part, right.

42:07 Jeff Schechter: It's funny, I had some reservations 'cause the production company showed me the casting. Yeah, when I saw Erik von Detten, I was... I'd always imagined the kids in Brink seemed younger. I thought they were like, 13-14, and this was more like 15-16. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but yeah, but if you look at Eric von Detten and Sam Horrigan, they look like they are older teens, and I was thinking that, "Oh, God, we're going to get into the Jay North syndrome here," which is, Jay North played Dennis the Menace on television. And he had all his, "Gosh, Mr. Wilson," like his annoying kid stuff. And so, but Dennis the Menace ran too long. So when Jay North was 10 and doing that and saying those lines, it was cute. When he's 15 and saying those lines, you're going, "Ooh, this kid needs help." [laughter] It's not cute anymore, it's disturbing. So I was concerned that because I wrote it feeling very young and enthusiastic, that casting these older kids would be like, "Uh, this is just creepy." But it did not come to pass. The cast delivered the lines, and they turned what would have been awkward in the chore stuff into just useful exuberance.

43:29 S?: Hey, Gabriella. Ever get arrested for impersonating a boy?

43:34 S?: No. You?

[laughter]

43:36 S?: Yo, guys. What up?

43:39 S?: Uh... Lateness?

43:39 S?: Dude, choreness! My mom made me clean my room before I could leave.

43:43 S?: Fine, but we missed the bus. Now we're going to be late and have to wait to use the pit.

43:46 S?: I don't think so! Haha!

43:51 S?: Wait, wait, wait. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're not thinking about skating to the beach, are you?

43:55 S?: Why not, Jordy?

43:56 S?: Well, guys, it's like a million miles away!

44:00 S?: Ah, Jordy, Jordy, Jordy! When you woke up this morning, did you say to yourself, "Today I'm going to talk or today I'm going to skate?"

44:07 S?: Yo, what's up, fam?

44:09 S?: It's just not normal, that's all.

44:11 S?: Ralph, please.

44:13 S?: No one should be that happy all the time.

44:15 S?: What's the matter with being happy? He's a great kid!

44:18 S?: It's just not normal.

44:19 S?: Yo, let the games begin!

44:21 S?: Then why don't you wear something that doesn't look like somebody just let the air out of it?

44:25 S?: Dad, kids at school are down with this style.

44:27 S?: What's for lunch today, dad?

44:28 S?: What's your least favorite?

44:30 S?: Bologna on white with extra mayo.

44:32 S?: That's what I made for you!

44:33 S?: Oh, yeah. Peace out!

44:37 S?: No, that's not it.

44:38 S?: You know what your problem is? You're just no fun to skate with. You got beef with me, you take it up with me Sunday at the championship.

44:48 S?: Oh, we'll get it on for sure.

44:53 S?: Did you really throw that vanilla shake in Val's face?

44:57 S?: Chocolate.

45:01 S?: How did it feel?

45:02 S?: It was cool. And it was so [45:04] ____. [chuckle]

45:09 Greg Beeman: I guess I like that one where he goes, "What are you doing in the bathroom?" "Noneya!" "Noneya? What is noneya?" "Noneya business!" I thought that was so stupid. I don't know. I know. Noneya business. I know, it's so lame. It starts like a dad joke.

45:25 S?: We got more stuff now than when you left. What's in the bag?

45:31 S?: Noneya.

45:33 S?: Noneya?

45:35 S?: Noneya business.

[chuckle]

45:41 Greg Beeman: You know, ironically, Schechter and I didn't spend a ton of time together. We had a couple of meetings. And he was on set a few days. But as I said, the script was mostly finished. I think, I maybe gave one or two rounds of notes. And actually, I do have... It's kind of like, I'll be teasing him, but I think it's okay. [laughter] He wrote this one thing, that to me, is like still this famous story in my personal history, where there was a scene that was about... I think it took up about one-third of a page. And the one-third of a page effectively said this, "They show up at the competition. It is the biggest thing they've ever seen in their lives. They're overwhelmed, but they skate their hearts out against the fiercest competition they've ever met and win the day."

46:26 Greg Beeman: And then I remember, just like Schechter going like, "Dude, that's a minimum of one day of filming. You can't write a third of a page that's going to take me a day to film. Whatever you do, I don't care, you don't have to add any extra words. You just have to space this out, so it takes up at least a page, or a page and a half." [laughter] You can't just go, "They faced the stiffest competition of their life and win the day." [chuckle] That was the competition in the middle when Brink is skating for the X-Bladders and his friends turn on him. I was fine that that's all he wrote, but the film business is gauged on how many pages you shoot per day. [laughter] So if you only write a third of a page, and it takes me two days to shoot it, I need you to write more pages. Take the same amount of words and put more spaces. [laughter] It's funny.

47:15 Greg Beeman: All my memories of that show are good. I remember it being very hard. It was just hard to get all the shots we needed. There was a lot of pretty cool shots in that movie too, just in terms of set-ups and camera work. We were on a motorcycle. We just had a low mount on the front of the motorcycle. And the thing that I did, which I actually kind of ran and personally placed, I placed all these orange cones in the foreground. And then there were two skaters, Chris Sayer and Laura Lee Connery were going down this hill in Long Beach. And I think they were going about 40 miles an hour. They just tucked, and they went so fricking fast. And then at the bottom of the hill, there was this gigantic pit, like a balloon pit that we laid out.

47:51 Greg Beeman: So they just went 40 miles an hour down the hill, and then their only option was just to bail out into this giant balloon. And the camera was just going so fast. And they were going so fast. And then the orange cones are just blurring through the foreground. It's one of my favorite shots I've ever done. And then the other shot that I remember just loving, it's when Brink and Val stare off at each other before the race. They just had a couple lines of dialogue, and the camera's circling them on a super low Steadicam. The camera was super low, and I just circled them, and circled them, and circled them. And then, I did it again going in the other direction. It was always my intention to kind of jump cut that. But the way the camera is circling them and the jump cuts that happened... And after, Brink was like a, from their point of view, a big mega hit.

48:33 Greg Beeman: Because I know that 10 years later, I got a residual check, that was a check for about $5.45. But it was for the 600th re-run of Brink. And I was like, "Holy sheesh, Brink re-ran 600 times!" That movie used to play in the '90s over, and over, and over, and over, again. It was literally on, I think every day for a long time on the Disney Channel. Once Brink happened, the people at the Disney Channel just gave me a lot of... A lot of freedom. They would offer me all the scripts that they felt were their best scripts. And they would kind of like... I did have an enormous amount of freedom to make them the way I wanted to make them. And it was really fun. And I really got along with that group of people. I think it was just a really good relationship.

49:12 Greg Beeman: There was a women named Carol Rubin. There was a guy named Gary Marsh, who I think is still there. And then there was a guy named Michael Healy. Those were the three top executives. And I just really liked them, they liked me. After Brink they just gave me a lot... It's true that they didn't give everyone that kind of freedom, but they did give it to me. So that was great, it was a really great relationship. I used to do six or eight TV episodes every year, and then I'd do a Disney Channel movie every summer. That went on for six or seven years. I eventually made that movie called, "Miracle in Lane 2" for them, where I won the Directors Guild Award. That was another very successful movie. It was a really great time in my life where... Also at that time in my life, I had little kids. So my little kids were watching my movies and going to the sets of my movies. I felt really happy at that time in my life that I was making film that my kids could watch, and that I could be proud of.

50:05 Jeff Schechter: A couple of years later, they wanted to do "Brink 2" and that, there was some thought that that might go as a feature. But it neither went as a feature nor as a TV movie. The project just kind of went away. Because it was going to be a feature, they wanted to pitch it before writing the script. So we had worked out a whole pitch for what the story would be. And we went in and we pitched it to the executives at Disney Features. And then it kind of just dragged on as I recall, for a while. And then eventually, it just faded away as a project. I think, because what I heard, and I don't know if this is true, that they were developing at that time, something in the aggressive sports world, so I think they felt that they didn't want to have too many projects in that same familiar...

51:07 Jeff Schechter: No, I really don't remember. It's just probably, 18 years ago, 18 years and several hundreds of hours of film and TV writing behind it. I remember an idea got floated early on that Peter, Brink's friend, was hurt in a skating accident, and so something was like, they were skating to raise money to get him the operation that he needed. But I don't remember if that actually ended up in our finished... Here's what our story is.

51:43 Speaker 1: So guys, the Disney channel had a run of original movies that became cultural touchstones, like Johnny Tsunami, yes. Alley Cats Strike, [chuckle] nice. And Halloweentown, whoa, scary. And then the eclectic schedule seemed to fade away. Bummer.

51:58 Greg Beeman: I think it was just kind of happening. There was this woman that, as I said, named Carol Rubin, she was very passionate, and Michael Healy and Gary Marsh, they just were very passionate, and they started taking risks. I think they also felt the sort of sense of freedom to just take risks and not feel like they had to fit into a certain formula. You know then later came the monolith called High School Musical, and that broke the mold. After High School Musical, I was kind of not doing Disney Channel Movies anymore, but then I think I kind of look back in my own observation, is then suddenly there was a feeling of obligation to always repeat High School Musical. Before that, during the '90s when I was there, there was just a sense of like, "Do we have a great story?" Although it always had to be positive. They always had to be kind of colorful. There was certain obligations, but for the most part, I think they felt a certain freedom to just find a great story as long as it revolved around positive family values.

52:57 Greg Beeman: So I did a lot of different kinds of movies, like the Miracle in Lane 2 was like another... It was just a great script. Again, it was a script that was given to me kind of whole-cloth, it was finished. And when I read that, I was like, "This is one of the best scripts I've ever read." And it was written on spec by two Mennonites in Indiana about a kid with spina bifida who won the national soap box derby race. It was crazy. Who thought that would be a great script? But I loved that script. Yeah, and don't get me wrong, High School Musical is a great movie. I love it. All I'm saying is, I think, subsequent to High School Musical was the first time I think that suddenly there was a need to catch that lightning in a bottle again and again and again, whereas in the '90s, I don't think that was the driving force. The driving force was, "Is this a great story? Is this a unique story?" And so I just happened to be... I happened to be doing those movies at a time that suited me for sure.

[music]

54:23 Greg Beeman: You know what's been a really nice experience for me is that what's happening to me now is that young people who are coming into the film business, people who were like 22, 24, 26 year-old, 28-year-old PAs or assistants or actors, like, they loved that movie. It's funny. That movie was very, very important to... If you were 6-12, maybe to 14 years old, in 1997, you watched that movie a whole ton of times. And I was just working on a show called The Rookie, and there's an actor... I got to look up his name, Titus Makin. When he found out I directed that movie, he literally went like... He started shaking. He goes, "I saw that movie everyday of my life. It's the reason I skateboard. It's the reason I have a skateboard in my backpack right now." So that's kind of my new experiences that the people who are young people in the film business now, that it was a very important movie to them. And that makes me feel really good. Brink was, and continues to be one of the happiest experiences I've ever have. It was a really, that was just something where everything came together. Brink brought nothing but good into the world.

[thenerdytomboynewb96]

Samantha Allan Park Ch. #16

Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's.

Chapter #16

*The next night, Friday June 13th*

“Whoa! What was that?!” Mikey shouted. “I don’t know, it looks like a metal tiger, but man that thing is creepy” Sam said as she looked up at the t.v. screen for a few seconds before looking back down at her notepad.   The two were sitting on the couch together. While Mikey was breaking in his new copy of Wolfenstein the New Order, Sam was sketching and jotting down notes and ideas about a new device that she wanted to work on. “According to Fergus it’s called a Hell Beast. Why aren’t you playing again?” he asked while still facing the screen, absorbed in the game. “Because I’m distracted.” “Aren’t video games supposed to be the distraction?” “Usually yes, but my mind is already wrapped up in something else, and once I reach a certain level of progress, then I can play. It’s like my own mental homework” she said with a smile. “So what’s the assignment teach?” “To find a way to be as strong as you guys without actually being as strong as you guys.”

“Can you explain that in English?” “I’ll try” she said with a laugh. “Obviously I can never actually be as physically strong as you and your brothers. Even if I became one of those super female body builders, there’s certain things that you guys both as mutants and as turtles can withstand that I as a regular human being cannot. Exhibit A. being what happened the other night.” “You mean when Donnie totally saved your ass?” he teased. “Psh, of course everyone saw him save me, but no one was around when I saved him. But yes I’m talking about that situation.” “How are your knees?” he asked, actually peeling his face away from the screen to show his concern. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing more than some cuts and bruises” she reassured. Mikey smiled and went back to playing his game. “Anyway,” Sam continued, “the point is, there’s nothing that I alone as a human being can do to obtain the same skills that you guys have, but if I’m successful in building this device, then maybe I can be a little more helpful than before.” “But you’re already helpful” he said with sincerity, and out of the corner of his eye he could see a smile creeping up on his friend’s face. “Thanks, but there’s always room for improvement.” “So what exactly is this new device?” “Pause the game and I’ll show you.” Mikey paused the game and leaned over to look at his friend’s notepad. “A glove? That’s it?” “Not just any type of glove” Sam said as she rolled her eyes, “it would be electronic. If I can create a perfect design and can find the right materials, I can use a tube within the glove to produce huge gusts of wind that could deflect or even move objects.” “Dude, that sounds awesome! But how would that even work?” Mikey asked in excitement. “Well, I would need some strong metal to form the sleeve, and I’d have to find a way to make it powerful enough to work. I might be able to program something more so with the wiring that if I throw a punch the battery then intensifies how much wind is pushed forward. I’d have to play around with different concepts to see what would and wouldn’t work.” “I guess you’ll be really busy then…” Mikey pouted. “Yeah and so will you” she responded, her face back in her notebook. “What?” he asked as he faced her, shock exposed in his expression. “Well I’m already working with you on fixing up our underground spaces, and I’m helping Donnie with the med wing and with the truck AND he’s helping me with the other vehicle that we don’t name out loud so the secret isn’t exposed. Basically I have a ton of projects that I’m already working on, so I’m going to need my best friend to help me out so that I can get this job done quicker” she said as she put her fist out for a fist bump. Mikey returned the gesture with a huge smile forming on his face. He loved that no matter what Sam did, she always found a way to include him IF he was interested, which the majority of the time he was since everything Sam did was usually either super cool or super fun. It was more so the things she did with his other brothers, like working out with Raph or meditating with Leo, where they went their separate ways for a bit and then eventually met back up to hangout again later. He really enjoyed the friendship they had formed over the past few months and not once did he ever regret meeting back up with her the night that they first hung out back in April.

 The two stayed the way they were on the couch for a while longer before Raph and Leo came over and joined them on the couch. “Alright Mikey, save your game now or I’m pulling the plug” Raph stated. “Aww c’mon bro! It’s up to me whether Fergus or Wyatt dies right now!” “5 minutes!” “Okay, okay, okay!” Sam chuckled and looked up at Raph. “Why the rush?” “The Knicks game is gonna be on t.v. soon and I’m not missing it. We missed the last game because there was a call on the police scanner about a robbery and we had to go take care of the huge group of idiots who decided to rob stores in the mall.” Sam gave him a confused look. “Wait, so you guys watch the game here?” Raph and Leo gave each other a funny look. “Yeah…why?” Leo asked. “I just assumed you guys watched from a cooler spot, you know, being ninjas in the shadows and all” she teased. Leo narrowed his eyes at her. “Please, enlighten us as to where a much cooler spot would be.” “Ohhhh the super totally awesome cool spot? You’re talking about THAT spot, right?” Mikey asked. “That one” she replied as she snapped and pointed her fingers at him. Mikey had finished saving his spot in the game and stood up once he got everything settled. “Leo we should totally go to Sam’s spot! It’s way better than watching the game on the couch I swear!” Leo looked back at Raph. The two shrugged at each other and looked back at Mikey. “Eh, why not” said Leo. “Seriously?” Sam asked in surprise. “Well, we do kind of owe you a thanks for saving our younger brother yesterday” Leo said. “Heh, but you can go have the fun of breaking him away from his nerd lab” Raph teased. “Psh, that’s easy.” Sam walked over towards Donnie’s lab and within thirty seconds he was walking through the door and over towards his brothers. “Hey guys, where we going?” The eldest two brothers both threw their hands up. “Aw come on!” Raph shouted. “How’d you do that?” Leo asked loudly. “I got connections to modern technology thanks to my brother and his nerd friends” Sam said as she gave the boy’s two thumbs up. “Figures” they both mumbled under their breath. “Guys the game starts soon so let’s gooooooooo!” Mikey shouted halfway down the hallway through the lair exit nearest to the t.v. “Um, we’re going to the Knick’s game?” Donnie asked in confusion. “Apparently Sam knows of this ‘super totally awesome cool’ spot” Raph said, mocking how his youngest brother made it sound. Mikey heard all of this of course, even though he was standing so far away. “You can mock me all you want but you’re going to flip when you see it!” “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

The group then followed Sam as they left through the exit of the lair that was closest to the t.v. and the rest of the living room area. While they all talked and joked around as they walked throughout different pathways of the sewers, Donnie was curious as to where Sam was leading all of them, so he used a small handheld GPS system to track where they were as they all walked and talked. Once they arrived at their destination, Donnie decided it was time to speak up. “Okay, I’m not heading any further until I get an explanation.” Sam turned towards him and gave him a fake smile. “What’s the problem now?” “Do you realize where we are?” “Yeah.” “Where are we?” “Close to Madison Square Garden’s Arena” she said with an innocent smile. “Yay!” Mikey cheered. “No not yay,” Leo cut in, “you know we can’t go the actual arena.” “Dude, where else can you get a better view of the game than from the actual arena?” Mikey asked. “I assumed maybe there was a place where they broadcasted the game on a larger screen, like near a park or something where we could still hide.” “If you would trust me then you’d know that you can still hide at the spot that I’m taking you to” Sam stated as she rolled her eyes. “I’m not stupid, I wouldn’t bring you guys here if you wouldn’t be able to hide and stay unseen.” Raph sighed. “We’re trusting you on this one kid, so don’t screw it up” he said as he flicked her forehead. She stood there and pursed her lips together. “Gee Raph, I’ve never heard words of encouragement quite like yours.” “Let’s go!” he shouted. “Okay, so here are the ground rules. When you reach the surface, move quickly and whoeverreachesthetopfirstwins!!!” she shouted with one breath as she swiftly pulled her board out, Mikey doing the same with his board, and the two rocketed off towards the surface. Mikey pushed open the manhole cover and within seconds the two were out of sight. “*sigh* why did we agree to go with them again?” Raph asked. “Because we’re proving we trust her…and we owe her for helping save Donnie” Leo muttered under his breath as he started climbing up the ladder to the surface. “Ahh, so this is all Donnie’s fault. You just needed to be saved, didn’t you?” Raph teased as he followed his brother up to the surface. “HE GRABBED ME BY THE FACE! So yes I needed saving!” Donnie called out as he then climbed up. When the three got to the surface, they realized they were in an alley behind a tall apartment building. They each quickly swung themselves up higher and higher along the railways along the side of the building. Sam and Mikey were standing there, pretending to look bored. “Took you long enough” Mikey mocked as Sam nodded beside him. Leo looked around and saw that they were on top of an apartment building that was a bit taller and wasn’t that far away in distance from the top of the arena. He then paused as he realized that the distance didn’t seem that far away FOR HIM to run and leap onto the arena’s roof, but there’s no way that Sam could have made that jump, even for her. “Don’t worry Fearless, I only recently started sneaking in this way” she said. “Wait, how did you know-” “There’s this thing called facial expressions, and yours are extremely obvious and totally give away what you’re thinking” she smirked. “So what was your old method?” “Fake I.D.’s that said I was backstage staff.” “Backstage?” Raph asked. “Isn’t that term used for concerts?” “Yeah, why else would I come here?” She asked. “To watch the basketball game, you know, the reason we’re here now.” Sam stopped and stared at him. “Oh hey, funny thing, I don’t know shit about basketball.” “WHAT?!” the three oldest brothers shouted. “Why are you even here then?” Raph asked. Sam then pulled on Mikey’ arm so that he was now standing in a tilted stance and leaning towards her. He smiled while Sam gave Raph a look that said ‘duh.’ “We’re moving!” Donnie shouted. Leo and Donnie ran across the rooftop and leaped and rolled onto the rooftop of the arena. Raph soon followed with Mikey and Sam running and then leaping onto their boards which they used to travel down onto the rooftop. Mikey then lead the way as he ran over and opened up a curved vent. “Come on guys! We’re going to miss the beginning of the game!” Sam took the lead as she ran forward and leaped into the opening with Mikey right behind her, and then the rest of the brothers behind him. Leo, Raph, and Donnie looked around at the room they were in. They were surrounded by metal beams above them, and tons of different grated walkways below them. They looked forward to see Sam and Mikey racing forward along the walkways until the two jumped and as they traveled downwards, the two vanished. The three brothers then ran after them and stopped when they reached the hole that the other two had jumped through. As they looked down the hole with fear and concern their expressions soon switched from these feelings to confusion. All they could see was the game getting set up down below. It wasn’t until the saw Mikey waving his hands that they knew all was alright. They each carefully jumped down and their jaws dropped when they realized where they were. “Whoaaa!” Donnie shouted. “No way!” Leo exclaimed with a smile. “The jumbo tron?!” Raph shouted.” How did you find out about this?” “Sam said she would sneak up here for different concerts, so when I said that I would love to see a basketball game in person, we worked together to figure out how to get us both in here. That’s when we found that building we were just at and coordinated how to get from there to here and vice versa.” “I have to admit, this is pretty incredible” Leo said as he smiled at the duo. “THE GAME’S STARTING!” Donnie shouted.

Sam thought it was interesting that all four of the brothers were so absorbed in the game and fans of the sport. She was more so shocked that they were all fans of the exact same sport. She could easily see Raph and Mikey being fans of basketball, but she was a tiny bit surprised that Leo was so engaged as well. He seemed to like working out and at times he would playfully get rough with his brothers, but overall he usually seemed to prefer activities that were much calmer where he was alone, so it was a bit surprising to Sam when Leo was cheering just as loud as his crazy younger two brothers. She was even more shocked to hear Donnie cheering and act more energetic then any of them. Sam knew better than to judge a book by its cover, but Donnie never talked about sports, unless he did so when she just wasn’t around. He was always working on a project or jotting things down wherever he could, (there were a few times she caught him writing on the walls because something came to his mind and he had nothing to write on) or playing videogames like the techy nerd that he was, so she found this new behavior of his at the arena both shocking and amusing. She enjoyed seeing all four of the brothers let loose and have fun, especially since she was so used to seeing them act super serious because they were either training or preparing to go on patrol. She was so used to seeing them act so serious and quiet, so she loved seeing them now act so crazy and loud.

Sam looked back to the game and saw one of the players from the Knicks team run up to the 3 point line, dribble and dodge around the opposing player, and shoot the ball. The crowd went wild when the ball swished straight through the net. “Sam who’s that?” Mikey asked, quizzing the girl. She paused for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders. “Ughhh Sam! His last name is Smith. Based on where he threw the ball, which Smith is he? And don’t tell me you forgot there’s two!” “Ummmmm, let’s see. He took a shot near the 3 point line which means he’s probably a shooting guard, so he’s…J.R. Smith!” she said, raising her eye brows in hope that she was right. “Before I can congratulate you…who’s the other Smith and what does he play?” Mikey asked as he crossed him arms. Sam closed her eyes as she tried to think of the player she was asked about. “Jason Smith…and he plays on the 5 spot on the diagram… so he plays center.” “Aye!!!” the four said, congratulating her. “That’s my girl!” Mikey said as he pat her on the back. “I knew you could do it.” Sam laughed. “I never said I couldn’t do it, I just said that I have a ton of stuff I’m working on so forgive me if it takes longer than usual for me to pick up facts and stats on the sport.” “So what kept you away from basketball?” Leo asked. “Nothing kept me away, I just never got into it. My parents always watched soccer, so my siblings and I started watching soccer, and then when I was in 5th grade I started playing for the first time and I got hooked and I started taking it seriously.” “Well, welcome to the club” Raph said with a smile as he playfully nudged her.

The group of five continued to watch and cheer as the game went on. None of them would ever admit it, but something as simple as watching the game slowly began bringing the group even closer together. This combined with the mix of how Sam had all of their backs the night previous and vice versa really strengthened the trusting bond that each of them was slowly building with Sam. This didn’t mean that the oldest three trusted the girl 110% just yet though. In fact, there were still a few things that they wanted to know about her that they had yet to learn about. But because their youngest brother seemed to be learning a lot more about her, specifically her past, much quicker than the rest of them were, they decided to continue using the more peaceful approach and hoped that she would start opening up to them as they also slowly began opening up to her, even though they would never admit it.

*Wednesday June 18th, nighttime in the sewers*

*Sam POV*

She couldn’t believe it. It had been a little over two weeks but the motorcycle was almost complete. Luckily Donnie had been a huge help, and Mikey had actually been much more helpful than she expected. Mikey enjoyed scavenging for parts that she needed as much as Donnie enjoyed helping put the pieces where they belonged. Now that all the hard work was done, Sam just needed to finish putting a fresh coat of paint on the vehicle so that no one could ever tell that it had been purchased so cheaply and full of dents. She was so busy at work that she didn’t realize that the other brothers had left the lair until she went to and ask Mikey and Donnie for their opinions on the paint job. When she had walked back from their hiding spot in one of the smaller open areas throughout the sewer and had arrived back at the lair, she was confused when she didn’t see anyone but Splinter meditating on the raised circular piece near the living room.

“Hey Sensei, where did everybody go?” she asked as she walked over towards him. “Ah Samantha, I didn’t realize you were here” he said with a smile on his face. “Yeah, I was working on something in another space in the sewer, so technically I was and wasn’t here, hehe.” “I see. You and the boys have all been busy lately. I appreciate you looking after them in ways that only you can.” She tilted her head to the side. “Huh?” He chuckled. “You’ve been teaching Leonardo to cook, and now even Raphael has been showing interest in the activity. You’ve given Donatello a lending hand in projects that no one else knows how to help him with. You’re able to keep up with the duration of Raphael’s workout routines whereas everyone else gets bored of doing the same thing day in and day out, and when the others are occupied or even just want some relaxing time, you enjoy participating in the same activities as Michelangelo.” Sam rubbed the back of her head. She was embarrassed, but in a good way. “Gee Sensei, I hadn’t really noticed any of that.” He shook his head at her. “Sam, do you really think you can lie like that to a wise old rat?” She responded while rocking back and forth on her feet. “Leeeeeetttt’s just keep it to ourselves that I’ve noticed the same things you have, okay? Okay!” she said as she gave him two thumbs up, leading the rat to laugh at her goofiness. “Anyway, did you happen to see where they all went?” “Ah, right! There was an alert on the police scanner saying that a gang was robbing an electronics store downtown, so the boys went on their way.” “WITHOUT ME?!” she shouted. “I’m sorry my child, but they didn’t know where you were. Well Michelangelo did, but Donatello said that there wasn’t time to reach you and that they needed to move quickly in order to catch the robbers.” “Hmph, well lucky for me I have a new set of wheels” she said as she rubbed her hands together. “Should I be concerned?” Splinter asked as he gave the girl a serious look. “Don’t worry Sensei, it’s nothing to worry about. I just have a surprise for Raph that he’ll be receiving sooner than expected.”

And with that she ran back towards where she was working on the motorcycle, threw on a helmet and elbow and knee pads, and rode away down the alley ways of the sewers.

*Turtles POV*

He felt bad about having to leave her behind, but if it meant possibly saving a life or putting a criminal behind bars, then they needed to move fast. Donnie knew where Sam was, and he knew that his younger brother was upset that they couldn’t go chase after her, but time was of the essence and they needed to leave now. The four brothers quickly gathered whatever they thought they might need and they jumped into the somewhat empty truck that Donnie was still working on and they sped away out of the sewers.

“So what’s the situation?” Raph asked as he walked around the back of the van. “An electronics store was robbed downtown” Donnie replied. “So this shouldn’t be too tough then, right?” “I’m not sure, since this gang didn’t just rob any ordinary electronics store.” “I don’t get it” Mikey chimed in while he sat on a couch against a wall in the van. “It’s not like this is just an Apple store where it’s filled with phones and computers. This building is also used for building and testing new technological devices that can be used for a variety of different situations. They’re currently working on a new hand held heart rate monitor, and I’m sure that’s what the thieves are aiming to take.” “Why would they want a heart rate monitor?” Leo asked from the passenger’s seat. “Devices like that are used by a variety of people. Not only can they help protect athletes from over working themselves, but they can also help weight loss patients maintain regular exercise and a sustainable dietary regimen, and they can also help injury rehabilitation patients recovering from an injury or an illness, or a cardiac incident, ensure that their gradual return to full strength and endurance proceeds safely and steadily. Basically, it can help many people that seriously need to monitor their heart rate by allowing them to constantly check it and make sure that they’re alright, and these gang members probably know how expensive they are, especially since this is the latest prototype.”

Just as those final words left his lips, they turned down a corner and saw a few cars start speeding away from the electronics store. Donnie put his foot on the gas and tried to catch up to them, trying his best to watch out for any other traffic nearby. Luckily, this store happened to be on a street with more local shops which meant that by this time of night, most were all closed and the streets around this area were empty. “Is it only these two cars?” Raph asked as he walked up and now stood behind the space between the driver and passenger seat. “It looks like it” Donnie replied. “Alright Leo, let’s take these two out” Raph said as he turned his head towards his older brother. Leo smiled and nodded as he stood up. “You take care of the car closest to us. Mikey will help me with the one that’s further ahead.” Raph nodded as Leo turned towards Mikey. “Alright Mikey, you’ve been practicing with that dart device, right?” “You know it bro! My aim has improved a lot!” “I’m going to go get it set up on top the van, so make sure that you’re ready to fire, got it?” “Let’s do this!” “That device is in a box on the bottom shelf in the back” Donnie cut in as he nodded his head towards the back of the van. “You’re good to go Raph, keep your phone on you so we can communicate” Leo said. “Don’t worry, I got this. Be back soon.” Raph said as he made sure his shell cell was safely fastened in the pouch on his chest strap. He then walked towards the back of the van, threw open the doors, and swung himself onto the top of the van. Once he was able to maintain his balance, he ran across the top of the van and leaped off of it and onto the car in front of him. His weight caused the roof of the car to cave in some and made the car swerve a bit. Raph waited another minute or so until the car was close to an alley. He then shoved his arm through the roof and grabbed ahold of the steering wheel, turning the car into the alley where it crashed into a dumpster.

Meanwhile, Leo and Mikey were getting ready for their chance to attack as well. Leo was starting up a device that was about the height of a 29 inch flat screen television, but it was thicker like a microwave. At the front of the device was a nozzle that could be moved with a controller as to where to aim the darts that were inside the device. Donnie had made the device in case they would ever need to attack an enemy from a far off distance (he had been working on it ever since he was a kid, but he could only find so many materials). Leo would get the device in position, and Mikey had been practicing how to use the controller to set up the nozzle in the perfect direction to shoot the darts. “You ready?” Leo asked as he turned towards Mikey. “Let’s do this bro!” Mikey cheered. And with that, Leo swung himself up onto the roof of the car the same way Raph recently had. Once he was able to maintain his balance, he called down to Mikey, who then helped swing and toss the device up to Leo on the roof. Leo crouched down and laid on his chest as he slowly crawled forward on the top of the truck, trying to get as close as he could to the front of the vehicle so that the nozzle would have a clear shot when it needed to be fired. “Alright Mikey, whenever you’re ready” Leo said into his shell cell which was fastened to a holder on his chest strap. “Just a few more seconds…” Mikey said as he looked down at the controller. On the controller were a few joy sticks that controlled the direction and things of that such for the nozzle’s aim, and also a screen that was connected to a camera on the device that allowed Mikey to see what direction and also what object he would be shooting at. He tried his best to get a clear and solid aim and then *schwoop.* Mikey pressed the button and a dart came flying out from the nozzle and pierced its way into the enemy cars tire. The car swerved some and then crashed into a wall.

Donnie slowed the truck down as they creeped up to where the car had crashed. “We need to start picking up the pace guys. I’m sure that someone will have called the cops by now. Let’s start tying them up Mikey” Leo said after he had returned to the inside of the car and was now putting the device and its controller back where he had found them. “Wait!” Donnie called out. “There’s movement behind us!” “Wait, what? We took out both cars!” Mikey called as he and Leo both looked out the open back doors. “Raph, where are you?” Leo said as he spoke into his shell cell. “I’m up on a rooftop about a street away from where you are. I see some guys getting onto motorcycles!” “They must have hid back while we chased their men in the cars, I’m sure those guys are hiding whatever they went to steal” Leo said with a serious and intense tone. “Wait…whoa no way!” “Raph what’s wrong?” “Where the hell did she get that?!” “No way…” Donnie mumbled. “She’s not riding it…” “WHAT?!” Leo hollered. Before anyone could answer him, he heard the revving of the motorcycles from way down the other end of the street. There were three motorcycles driving away from them, but there was one coming down the street that was heading in their direction. He couldn’t see the face of the person who was heading in their direction because they had a helmet on, but he knew that body size and the slim yet muscular figure that was riding the bike, that and he had seen the same navy blue form fitting track pants and navy blue and maroon sweatshirt earlier that day. “How did Sam get that?” Leo groaned. “No time to talk! Hold on tight!” Donnie called out as he hit the gas and made a U-turn as quickly as he could. As they sped down the roadway, they saw Sam on her motorcycle as she sped towards the robbers. She grabbed what looked like one of her tonfa from the pocket on the side of the backpack she was wearing and swung in out to hit the driver of the opposing motorcycle head on. One of the other two motorcycles (the driver seemed to have a small suitcase tucked in front of him) turned around and sped down a separate roadway, but the other one still drove towards Sam. This time she would be attacking with her left arm, but in this position it was a bit difficult, especially since she had never driven a motorcycle before and barely knew how to maintain control of the vehicle alone. She knew she wouldn’t be able to land a solid hit, so instead she tilted the bike back as both she and it slid forward. She was able to angle the vehicle so that it would slide diagonally some and then collide with the oncoming motorcycle, and as it did, she continued to slide forward. She smiled under her helmet as she mentally thanked herself for wearing the gloves, knee pads, and elbow pads that she was wearing. She didn’t care what teasing might come from the others later, right now these protections were really helping her out, even though the slide was still very uncomfortable and put an incredible amount of pressure on her knees and arms.  

Once she had come to a complete stop, she heard a thud come from behind her and she quickly turned over, but it was just Raph who had climbed down and leaped off at the midway point of the building behind her. “Slick, very slick” he teased as he held his hand out to her. “Yeah whatever, I did what I had to…plus that’s also all I could really do” she said as she was pulled off the ground. “Regardless, it worked” Raph said with a smile as he turned away. Sam looked in the same direction that Raph had and to her surprise Leo and Mikey had somehow run past her and were already tying and piling up the robbers they had just stopped. “Where’s Donnie?” she asked. “Chasing the last guy, hopefully the last” Leo responded. “Heh, did you have a nice trip?” Mikey asked as he walked back over. Sam squinted her eyes at him. “I didn’t trip…I thought the ground needed a hug...” “And how did that go?” “Not well, our relationship is really rocky” she replied as the two laughed at how stupid their jokes were. “Guys,” Leo cut in, “Donnie said the guy is circling around, so he’ll be passing by soon.” “I’m using the new ride” Raph said as he walked the motorcycle over to where they were standing. “Fine. Mikey, Sam, let’s go.” Sam shrugged her shoulders. “Lead the way fearless leader.” Raph walked the vehicle back some so that it was hiding in the shadows along the side of the building. This way, if he needed to move quickly, the other biker wouldn’t see him coming. Leo led the way up the building by grabbing onto the beams of the metal stairways along the outside of the building and swinging himself up to the next set above until within a few seconds he reached the roof of the building. He sensed movement behind him and assumed that it was Mikey who was trailing behind, and he also assumed that Sam was probably on his back and holding onto his shoulders, but it was both of them that had moved up the side of the building the same way that he had. He was a bit shocked and wondered if there was anything that Sam couldn’t do. She continued to prove that she could do pretty much anything when she ran over to the opposite ledge and said “I see the truck, let’s go!” and then ran along the ledge of the roof, dived forward, and tucked and rolled onto the top of the truck. Mikey wasn’t far behind her since he wanted to make sure he was close by in case something were to go wrong. Then, Leo followed behind the other two, and once he safely landed on the top of the truck, he crawled over to pull open the doors. He then made sure that everyone was safely inside before slamming them shut behind him. “Leo!” Donnie called out, “while chasing this guy I was able to connect to whatever station he’s using with whatever device he has up there to communicate with an outside source. A helicopter will be here any minute to pick him up. He has a suitcase with the latest prototypes of the new heart rate monitors. We need to act quickly.” Leo paused as he tried to come up with a quick plan. “Mikey, you think you can take another shot?” “What if he drops them?” Sam asked. “Some people might really need those devices to monitor whatever heart condition they may have…” “What are you thinking?” Leo asked. “I’ve seen you guys practice with that device back there, you aim and Mikey shoots. That means you need someone to run up and catch that suitcase. Once that dart kicks in, and depending on which type of darts Donnie supplied, those chemicals will knock that guy out fast.” “What do you have to say about that Raph?” Leo asked as he looked down at his shell cell on his chest strap. “Whatever you do, I got your back down here Sam.” Everyone else in the truck nodded towards one another, and they quickly worked together to form a plan. Minutes later, Leo pushed open the back doors and helped Sam get settled on the roof of the vehicle, and then he also climbed up with the device tucked under his arm. He turned his head to confirm that the revving he heard behind him was Raph. Once he saw that it was his brother who was trailing behind them, he then crawled forward and started to get the device set up in place. He then turned to make sure that Sam was still alright. He saw that her platform was still suctioned cupped to the roof and that the thick lanyard was connected by the snap hooks to both her nylon webbing chest harness and the suction cupped platform. As Leo continued to get the device set up, he heard a helicopter get closer and closer to where they were driving. The next thing he knew, it was over top of the biker, and a harness was being lowered by a thick lanyard cable. The motorcyclist carefully stood up on his bike and jumped, hooking his right arm through one of the two loops of the harness, and he clung on to this lanyard cable as best as he could as he was slowly lifted off the ground, the suitcase tucked under his left arm. “Mikey, you have one shot! Raph, get ready on the side!” Leo called out. Within a couple seconds, a dart was shot from the device, and it pierced the shoulder of the man in the air. Just like Sam predicted, the suitcase slowly started to slip out from under the man’s arm. Sam stood up and took a few steps back. Once she saw that Raph was beside the truck, she then ran forward (making sure to unhook her harness of course) and leaped as far forward as she could. Donnie slammed on the breaks so that the sudden motion would send Sam flying even further forward. This plan worked, and Sam was able to grab onto the falling suitcase. As she then fell back down to the earth, Raph sped up as fast as he could so that he could try to catch her. This sort of worked, but Sam only had one arm available to try and grab onto Raph, so she slipped a bit and fell to his right some. Luckily she was wearing her knee pads and used them to skid across the concrete for a few seconds, her left arm around Raph and her right clinging onto the suitcase. Raph was able to grab onto her and quickly pulled her back up. As she was pulled up, she swung her left leg around so that she was now sitting behind Raph.

The helicopter flew off with the man still dangling in the air, and everyone could finally catch their breath. Raph turned the motorcycle around and rode back towards where the truck had stopped. He parked the vehicle and helped Sam off. “You both okay?” Leo asked as he walked around from the back of the truck. “Ugh, that put butterflies in my stomach” Mikey complained. “You been eating caterpillars?” Sam teased. Mikey playfully shoved her shoulder. “Jerk, don’t make fun of me for being worried.” “What were you worried about? Raph had my back!” she said as she faced Raph with a huge smile. He gave her a more serious look in return. “I’d agree, if you knew how to fall correctly.” “I’m sorry, but what bullshit is this?” she asked. “You fell to the side, how do you fall to the side? How did you not fall straight down?” “I did fall straight down! I only had one free arm! So I couldn’t hold on very well and then slid to the slide!” “Then you need to learn how to grab onto people better” he mocked as Sam rolled her eyes in return. “So,” he began, “how much longer until you were going to let me see this?” he asked as he looked back at the motorcycle behind him. “A few more days. I was painting it today…and of course I let it slide across the ground…” “How long have you had it?” “I dunno, hey Donnie! When did I first show this to you?” Donnie walked past the front of the truck after exiting from the driver’s seat. “Umm, it’s been a little more than a couple of weeks I believe.” “Wait, you did this?” Leo asked as he looked at Sam. “Well, I mean Donnie and Mikey-” “NOPE!” Mikey said as he wrapped his arm around Sam’s shoulder and covered her mouth with his hand. “She’ll never admit it, but this was all her idea and she did 99% of the work!” Donnie nodded with a smile. “He’s right, she helped find a lot of the parts and she’s been working hard on it. I was just an aide on this one.” Raph nodded and raised his eyebrows in surprise, while Leo shook his head and smiled. “Is there anything you can’t do? Anything you’re afraid of?” Leo asked. Sam finally was able to rip Mikey’s hand from her mouth. “NOTHING-” “Heights, bugs, the dark-” “I’m not afraid of the dark!...I get nervous when I hear creepy noises when it’s pitch black…or if the lights go out and I don’t know why…” “So you’re afraid of heights?” Donnie asked in a mocking tone. “Only when it’s a straight drop down, as in there’s nothing ANYWHERE to land on or grab onto. Whatever I’m walking on or hanging from also determines how scared I am.” “Ahh, got it. And bugs?” “AS LONG AS THEY’RE NOWHERE NEAR ME THEN I’M GOOD! I’LL BE CALM!” “Secrets out! We know how to mess with Sam now” Raph said as he nudged Leo’s shoulder. The two brother’s laughed as they walked towards the motorcycle and towards the passenger’s seat of the truck. “Wait, what do you mean?” Sam asked, failing to stay calm as she feared of what those two might do now that they knew what freaked her out more than anything. “Tell me what that means!” she shouted as she climbed up the side and hung onto the door handle on the outside of the passenger door. “Nothing Sam, nothing at all” Leo replied as he locked the door and Donnie slowly began to pull away. Sam heard the motorcycle start up and as she jumped down from the side door she stood and turned toward Raph. “What does that mean?!” “Nothing Sam” Raph replied as he rode past her and ahead of the truck. The truck then followed behind the motorcycle, and Mikey threw open the back doors and held his hand out. “Come on Sam!” Sam quickly jogged over and grabbed his hand as he pulled her into the back of the truck. After he closed the doors, Mikey pulled Sam back and whispered in her ear. She hoped to hear something like ‘don’t worry, they would never do anything like that to you,’ but it made her even happier when he whispered “don’t worry, do you think I’d ever let them do something like that to you?” Sam turned towards him and put her fist out. “Cowabunga” she whispered. He returned the gesture and whispered “Booyakasha.”

 *Friday June 20th, Later in the Evening*

“We got here earlier than expected” Donnie said as he led the way across the walkways hidden within the ceiling. “She said that depending on how many or if any stoppages occur that it can change the starting time of their games, so I wanted to make sure we got here a few minutes earlier in case the game started sooner than expected” Leo said as he followed behind. “You see her team yet Mikey?” “I’m looking, but I don’t see anyone that matches the team pictures.”

All day Sam had been practicing with her soccer team for a club tournament game that they would be playing that night. It was a smaller tournament that only included local club teams, which meant that the location was much closer to home than most of the teams tournaments. Tonight was the last night for this tournament, (the tournament had gone on for a few weekends rather than having multiple games in one day) and knowing this, the guys decided that they would surprise her by watching her play. The night before Mikey had asked about where the game was being played, but Sam never would have guessed that they’d come and watch her. Once he had the info he needed, Mikey talked to Donnie who then coordinated the best underground route that would allow them to sneak into the arena. Though the tournament was small, the indoor arena was not. There were tons and tons of rooms that could be used for games and practices for multiple different sports, so it was difficult for the guys to figure out which field Sam was playing on.

“Hey, I see some teams over here, any of them look familiar?” Raph asked as he looked down at a field where two female teams were about to play each other. Mikey took a quick glance and snickered. “Nope, not them” he said as he quickly turned away. “Dude you didn’t even look!” Raph snapped. “Trust me I know.” Mikey walked further down the walkway they were on when finally he spotted Sam. “Found her!” The other three brother’s walked over towards Mikey and looked at the field below. “Mikey, these are boy’s teams! Why would Sam be down there?” Raph barked. “Because I have the coolest best friend ever” Mikey replied with a cunning smile. “He’s right, there she is Raph!” Donnie said as he pointed to a person in the bottom right corner of the field. Raph was astonished, but also curious as he stared at the girl in her new look. Her hair was pulled back in a pony-tail and her bangs were pushed back with a headband as she wore her black and red uniform, a zig zag going down the entire outfit so that one entire half of the outfit was red and the other black.

Just then, a whistle tweeted, and the game began. Sam slowly started moving forward towards the yellow and blue bearing players on the opposing team. Even though she was on defense she was constantly moving around to different parts of the field. A few minutes after the game started, one of her teammates dropped the ball back down the field to the halfway line on her side of the field. Sam ran to the ball and slowly but steadily started to dribble the ball, looking for any open teammates. She saw that no one was open, but with one quick chop she could run down the middle. She ran up to the opposing player, quickly chopped the ball, and dribbled down towards the goal. Within seconds there was someone running right next to her, so she quickly pulled the ball back and passed to some open space near the right wing. As soon as the ball left her foot, her teammate darted towards the open space and took a shot. The ball was shot just a little too high and it bounced off the top of the board. “Ahhh, just a little lower and she would have had another assist!” Mikey cried. Just then the goalie threw the ball back down the field and Sam sprinted to get back. There was already someone covering her position, but Sam went to aide him. She helped corner in the opposing player until he lost his footing on the ball. The red and black bearing player quickly passed the ball to Sam ran back a few steps, and when Sam got the ball she quickly bounced it off the wall around the opposing player and back to her teammate who ran the ball back up field. “She’s fast, I’m surprised she’s a defender” Leo said. “There’s a few reasons,” Mikey replied, “one of the original reasons was that no one ever wanted to play defense because that’s not the scoring position, so she got tons of playing time in the position that no one wanted. The other reason is because of something her coach told her.” “And that something would be?” “He said that scouts don’t always look for the players that score the goals, but rather they look for the players who are able to set up the people who do score. They look for people who can get the ball to that perfect spot so that the forwards can get their goals. He told her that you truly look your best when you’re making someone else look good.” “Heh, so she’s looking for the best strategy even when it comes to sports” Donnie chuckled.

At the 20 minute mark, the opposing team scored a goal, and at the 40 minute mark, Sam’s team scored a goal. By half time the game was still tied at 1-1. The fast pace of the game continued as soon as the second half started. Sam kept pushing up more and more. There were multiple times where she had to sprint back in order to mark her opposing player and prevent them from scoring, but she always made it back just in time to block their shot, or to stick with them long enough to make them drop the ball back down to the other half of the field. Around the 25 minute mark of the second half, Sam blocked a shot taken from an opposing player, sending the ball into the air above the two of them. They both crouched down, but Sam was able to jumper higher than the boy, and she won the head ball and was able to send it to one of her teammates nearby. “Dang, she sure can keep up with these guys” Raph said in amazement. “She has to, she’s not allowed to play on the girls team” Mikey responded. “Wait, what?” “Yeah, apparently she started getting to rough when playing other girls, and she showed me video clips of other club teams around the country. Girls teams can have some tough and rude players, but she was going overboard even with them, so they recommended her play for a boys team.”

Just then, Sam was moving around from open space to open space on the field. She waited for her teammate to take a shot on goal, and continued to run forward even after he did so. The shot was just a hair to high, but after the ball had quickly bounced off the top board of the goal, Sam was already sprinting towards the goal. She quickly ran up and kicked the ball towards the bottom left corner of the goal while the goalie was still in the air from trying to block that last shot. The buzzard sounded from her scoring the goal and people cheered from the stands. “THAT’S MY BEST FRIEND!” Mikey shouted. “Geez she’s fast!” Donnie exclaimed with a smile on his face. The game continued on, and the boys were constantly amazed at how Sam was able to hold her all. She was able to sprint to the ball and catch up with anyone on the field, and not only that, but she had incredible speed when it came to her footwork with the ball as well. She was great at improvising in the moment and just moving the ball around in whatever way she needed to. She was also very aggressive and anytime a boy pushed her, she would push back twice as hard. She wasn’t perfect of course and there were times where she was beat to the ball or when the opposing person was able to cut around her, but the majority of the time the plays were in her favor. By the 40 minute mark the other team had scored once again and the score was tied 2-2. By this point in the game, Sam was playing the sweeper position rather than a defensive wing like she had been the rest of the game. “Why are they keeping her so far back? She should be up by the other goal!” Raph complained. “I agree, she’s fast enough to dribble around these guys, and she’s been making great short and quick passes when enclosed in crowded spaces like the opposing team’s penalty box is right now” Leo added. “Yeah but you have to remember, her mindset is to do whatever it takes to make sure that the ball is staying down at the other end of the field. So while her other 4 teammates are up at the other half of the field, if the ball gets pushed back to her, she can quickly just get it back up to the other half of the field. They constantly practice scenarios like this, especially her and that guy up their named Thomas” Mikey replied as he pointed to a tall boy with brown eyes and short brown hair. “He’s usually the main forward who always stays on the upper half of the field unless a penalty kick is being taken against his team.” Right after Mikey said this, an opposing player had cut around the upper defender who was much further up the field and was quickly dribbling towards the goal. Sam ran at an angle so that it would be harder for him to cut around her. As he kept trying to move the ball in a different direction, Sam was bouncing on her feet and moving quickly so that every time he went to move to the side or diagonally, she was always there to block the shot. She did this long enough for the second defender to come over and aide her in the same way that she had earlier, except this time she was about two steps ahead and closer towards the other goal. She carefully made a short pass off the wall to her assisting defender, who then made another short diagonal pass to some open space beside her. She quickly got the ball, made one quick cut around the offender who had raced back to her spot, and then kicked the ball high into the air. It soared all the way down to the other end of the field to where Thomas was standing. It bounced once and Thomas took a shot. The kick was hard and solid and the ball moved so quickly that those watching could barely even see it. Within that split second, the ball slammed against the wall and the third and final goal was made. The stands roared with applause at the incredible goal that was scored, but the players on both teams were quickly getting back in position. Just as quickly as the goal was scored, the blue and yellow team were sprinting down towards the red and black bearing team’s goal. All 5 players from both teams were right on top of each other in the small space. Sam was marking the player who currently had the ball, and it was obvious that he was not happy that his team was losing. Full of anger and frustration, he got his elbow and jabbed Sam in the stomach. She took a step back and held her stomach, but quickly tried to get back in position after realizing what this one step had just done. The boy took a shot, but luckily the ball went flying into the net above. People were booing since the ref hadn’t blown his whistle, but Sam was able to get her revenge. As soon as that same player got the ball seconds later, she tailed him. She nodded to her other teammates and they understood what she was doing with that simple gesture. One of the offensive players began playing more defensively, and Sam continued to tail the opposing player. Even when he didn’t have the ball, she continued to mark him all over the field. Every time one of his teammates went to pass to him, she was right there to block his shots or to kick the ball away from him. With 30 seconds left, she intercepted another pass sent to him and began to dribble the ball towards the opposing goal. Once again, the male player attacked her, only this time he obviously pushed her down. Sam slid across the turf and once again there were tons of boo’s coming from the stands. “OH COME ON!” Leo shouted! “GEEZ REF! DO YOUR JOB!” Raph exclaimed. “Mikey, is this happening because of why I think it is?” Donnie asked. “If it’s a gender thing then yes. She told me that this happens at least once a game, since the refs know they’ll get criticized if they constantly give her pk’s because people will assume it’s because she’s a girl. So even if guys purposefully push her or trip her, the ref’s won’t do a thing about it. She said that one time, there was this guy who looked at the ref to make sure he wasn’t looking, and then he elbowed her in the nose.” “SERIOUSLY?!” Raph shouted. He paused afterward, realizing how defensive he sounded and realizing how concerned he had grown for the girl’s safety and well-being.  

Just then the final buzzard sounded and the game was over. Player’s wearing black and red ran over to Sam and started circling around her. They patted her on the back and her gave daps, treating her like she was one of the guys. “THAT’S MY SISTER! WOO!” shouted a voice from the stands. The turtles looked over at the Asian man standing and cheering from the stands. “Who’s that?” Leo asked. “Jay, Sam’s older adopted brother” Mikey replied. Jay exited the stands and waited for Sam to walk over. He was standing with some other young teens as he waited for his sister to arrive from the other side of the building. “Are they siblings?” Raph asked in confusion. “Yes, but not Sam’s. They’re all related to other players on the team. They’re with Jay because they’re all the younger siblings of people who have older siblings that Jay is also friends with.” “She sure does tell you everything, doesn’t she Mikey?” Donnie asked with a laugh. “Well duh, that’s why we’re best friend’s bruh! I know almost all the main details of her home life.” “Almost? Why Michelangelo, I thought you would know everything by now. You know, since you’re her BEST FRIEND and all,” Leo mocked as he smiled at his younger brother. Mikey smiled back at his brother, but his expression had softened. “She tells me a lot, and I do the same to her, but I can tell that there are still some serious details she hasn’t told me yet.” “Like how she only talks about Jay in the present tense?” Donnie asked. “What?” “You haven’t noticed that? Whenever she talks about her parents or her other siblings, she always uses the past tense, but she uses the present tense when talking about Jay.” The other three brother’s took a moment to stop and think about what Donnie had just said, and the more they thought about it, the more they realized he was right. “Regardless, I don’t want her to feel like she has to explain herself. I want her to talk about her personal life when she’s ready” Mikey said with a sincere smile. “Awww, well aren’t you the perfect gentleman?” Raph said as he threw an arm around Mikey’s shoulder. The youngest rolled his eyes as all four of them laughed. “Hey, what’s April doing here?” Leo asked. Off in the distance, Sam and some of the other boys had caught up to Jay and the other teens, and next to them was April who was chatting away with the group. “Huh, I wonder if there’s going to be a news segment about the soccer team” Donnie added. “Either way, I’m taking a picture and sending it to Sam!” Mikey said. He took the picture, sent the message, and waited. A few seconds later, he saw Sam’s shocked face as she turned towards where they were hiding. Mikey crouched down and quickly waved his hand in a spot where it would momentarily be seen. A large smile grew on his face when he saw that Sam had the exact same expression on her face after seeing that he was there. Her smile then grew even larger when she saw three more hands quickly wave to her, letting her know that all four of the brother’s had come and watched her play. “Alright, let’s go. Until Donnie finishes fixing the small police scanner, we don’t know if the city needs us or not” Leo stated. The brother’s began to head out, wondering what it was that Sam and April were talking about, but knowing that they would eventually know once the two joined back up with them the next day.

*Sam POV after the Game*

“I told you all those practice plays would be worth it!” Thomas exclaimed as he walked next to Sam. The two walked with their group as the team dispersed and walked around the field and over towards where their family members were waiting for them. “Oh I knew they would! You’re telling this to the wrong person, Kyle is the one wanted to keep ending our practices early!” she said as she playfully glared at the boy she was accusing. “HEY! I only wanted to end practices early when I knew we could get free food! I swear every time there was a restaurant with some type of free give away, you two wanted to extend our practice time.” “God all you think about is food” Ken chuckled as he threw his arm around his friends shoulder, playfully wrestling with him as they walked. “Well, now you should be happy that we didn’t stop to eat” she said as she shot the two dorks a huge smile. “See, what we should really be talking about is how amazing my first goal was, which lead to our increase in stamina” Ryan said. Ryan was mixed and had light brown skin with a short haircut and brown eyes. “Oh my god, I’ve never met someone as cocky as you” Nathan said as he rolled his eyes. Nathan had short brown hair and brown eyes. He had some light facial hair and had visible muscles even through his uniform. “It’s called confidence! And I need it if I want scouts to look at me!” “Then in that case, I’ve never met someone as confident as you” Aaron said with a smirk. He was the cousin to Nathan and had similar physical features. “Are you kidding me? We just won another tournament! We’re going to have scouts all over us!” Key said with a huge smile. “Psh, easy for you to say that. If you don’t get scouted for this sport then you have a million other sports you can be scouted for” Ryan said, rolling his eyes.   “Dude, I only play a few” Key said. “Let’s count,” Sam cut in, “there’s soccer, basketball, lacrosse, football, and baseball.” “Don’t forget wrestling!” Kris added. “Oh right, and wrestling” she said as she gave Key a mocking smile. “Okay, okay. But you guys know soccer is my favorite out of all of them. So I want to impress the soccer scouts as much as you guys.” “Don’t worry. As long as we all play the way we did tonight, then we’re all going to be living the dream as professional athletes” Kris ey, what’s April  said.

By then, they had made their way over to where Jay was standing. “Hey Jay, I totally didn’t know you were here and screaming the whole time” Sam teased as she gave her older brother a hug. “Does anything hurt? Are you alright?” “Yes Jay, I’m not crying and I’m walking on my own. I’m perfectly fine.” “Once again you were incredible out their Sam, way to show that girls can keep up with the guys” said Grace. “That’s why you should join the track team. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge” said Clay. Thomas, Clay, and Grace were triplets and born in that order. Each of them had the same short brown colored haircut, but Thomas and Grace both had brown eyes while Clay had blue. “Oh hush up! How about you do something besides just run!” Thomas teased. “I do more than run…I also do long jump” Clay said, followed by his brother playfully hitting him. “So, did my stupid brother steal your spotlight again?” Angel asked. “I said it was confidence! Stop making me sound like a bad person!” Ryan exclaimed. Angel was the year younger sister to Ryan, meaning she was the same age as Sam. Angel had the same light brown skin as Ryan, and also had black and brown hair with brown eyes.

“Excuse me,” a voice cut in, “but you guys are players from the winning team right?” “April! What’s up?” Sam said with a smile. “You know her?” Jay asked. “Oh yeah. I don’t know if you two have met, but she works with Irma. Not too long ago Kris and I walked to their work building and April was kind enough to give me a ride to a friend’s house. They were actually friends of hers as well.” “Oh…really?” Jay asked. At that time, Sam had gotten a text message, so she didn’t notice the worry in her brother’s voice, or that her friends were all faking their calm and collected expressions at hearing that Sam was friends with friends of April’s. Jay lent his hand out to April. “Jay Allan Park, nice to meet you” he said, fixing his expression so that April didn’t sense his distrust in her. “April O’Neil, news reporter for Channel 6 News. It’s nice to meet you.” “Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to act so clueless. I’ve seen you on t.v. before. I’m surprised to see you here though, since you’re usually covering the latest and most serious news stories.” “Well I do that, and I’m doing that now. I don’t know if any of you know this, but tons of people are talking about this team and are excited to see you in the tournament coming up this summer to see if you’ll be the team to represent New York in the states cup.” “We know” Sam cut in. “And we’re hoping to impress tons of scouts when we fight for our state spot” she said with a huge smile. April gave her a funny look. “You’re much cheerier than you were a second ago.” “Haha, it’s nothing. I just found out that our friends were here tonight” Sam said, a huge smile still on her face. “Really? Were they in the stands?” Jay asked, masking his concern. “Yeah, but they had to leave quickly, so I didn’t get a chance to see where they were sitting. Anyway, is there any way we can help you out April?” “Yes! If you guys are okay, would you mind if I interviewed any or possibly all of you? I’d love to ask you some questions about both this game and the summer tournament.” Sam turned towards the group standing behind her. Each of them smiled and nodded, resulting in a very happy April. “Thank you so much to all of you! Please just give me one minute to get my cameraman and we’ll start getting everything set up!” April walked off, and her and another man (Sam recognized that the man was Vern) began setting up a camera.

Throughout the entire interview, Sam was never able to detect that Jay and their friends were fighting to keep their cool in front of April. They were all shocked to hear that Sam was friends with people that April knew, and they really wanted to ask Sam questions about this friendship. After the interview, they all walked with Jay to the nearest bus stop, thoughts circling through their minds about who exactly it was that Sam was friends with all this time. By now, through word of mouth from different friends and siblings, they knew that Sam was starting to go back to how she used to be and that this was because she had made a new friend. Now it had come out that she had made new friends, which was news to everyone, and they so badly wanted to ask her who these friends were and how she met them. However, they knew there would be consequences if they tried to dive deeper into the subject, especially if she was friends with who they feared she might be, so for now they all stayed calm and collected and acted like they all normally would, hopping that word of this wouldn’t reach ‘him.’

[myhauntedsalem]

Dead gangster Ma Barker doesn’t want her house moved

He called the newsroom with a warning: They can’t move that house.

“I’m worried something terrible is going to happen,” the man said in a thick New York accent. “I have to warn somebody.”

Then he told me a ghost story.

His name is Donald J. Weiss. He’s a 62-year-old retired police patrolman from upstate New York. He had moved to Ocala several years ago and visited the house where gangster Ma Barker had been killed. He had wanted to see the site of the longest shootout in FBI history: four hours, more than 2,000 bullets.

But when he wandered beneath the live oaks, a voice growled, “Get outta here, lawman!”

And when he took a photo of the front porch, a shadowy figure appeared.

“That woman is still in that house,” he told me. “And she’s pissed.”

He gave the photo to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office because he wanted to enter it into evidence. And because bad things started happening as soon as he had blown up the print. “I had a heart attack,” he said. “You think that’s a coincidence?”

The property has been sold, he told me. County officials want to move the house.

“They have no idea who or what is in there,” Weiss said. “That woman has the power to do a lot of things. We are dealing with the afterworld here.”

I thanked the caller for his concern.

“When are they moving it?” I asked.

He paused, as if to make a point, then said gravely, “By Halloween.”

Reporters get a lot of crazy calls. Many might have dismissed this one. But I knew this house, and so did my photographer friend John Pendygraft.

“Hey John,” I called across the cubicle wall. “Do you remember that story we did on the Ma Barker house?”

John’s eyes got big. “Do you remember what happened?”

Our story four years ago had been about real estate: historic home for sale on nine waterfront acres, eight miles north of the Villages, two hours from Tampa. And about the gangsters who hid out there until the end.

We had toured the four-bedroom house with a Realtor, whose assistant shivered and said, “I get the weirdest feeling when I’m in here.” We had reported rumors about flickering lights and an unsuccessful exorcism.

But we hadn’t written about what had happened to John. Or what he saw when he enlarged one of his pictures.

John has worked in war zones in Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip. He has photographed the dead from an Asian tsunami, a Mexican assassination and Hurricane Katrina. If he ever is scared, he won’t show it.

That fall day in 2012, in the Ma Barker house, he had gone alone into the front bedroom to take pictures through the window, looking out toward the lake where the FBI agents had crouched behind trees.

All of a sudden, John rushed out, cameras, lights, tripod flapping over his shoulders, nearly sliding down the 13 stairs. “I don’t know what happened, or what that was,” he panted. He heard the mattress fall, then saw it, dangling through the bed frame. “I didn’t touch it,” he insisted.

We left that afternoon, as dusk began to descend. From beneath the Spanish moss, John shot a few final frames. The next day, when he zoomed in on his laptop, he saw a strange figure on the screened porch: The silhouette of a stout woman with a bun, who looked like she was holding a machine gun.

Her story starts in Missouri, in 1873. Her parents named her Arizona Donnie Clark. She and a farmhand, George Barker, had four sons. As soon as the boys were grown, her husband left.

Legends vary about Ma Barker’s role in her boys’ gang. Some say she just cooked and cleaned. Others say she was the mastermind.

They began by robbing banks, then murdered a policeman. From 1910 through 1930, they are said to have stolen $2 million. And killed at least 10 people.

The FBI’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, called them “the worst criminals in the entire country.” Ma Barker became the only woman to top the most wanted list.

In 1934, the gang split and went into hiding. One son fled to Chicago. Ma and her favorite son, baby Freddie, moved to Miami where, posing as a wealthy widow, she asked if anyone knew a secluded spot where she could spend the winter.

Someone introduced her to Carson Bradford, whose family had a lovely home in the center of Florida, on Lake Weir.

The house sounded perfect: fully furnished, set back from the road, with a boat tethered to a dock out back. Ma paid the full season’s rent in cash. Just before Thanksgiving, she moved in with Freddie and a couple of his friends.

In a letter to her son Arthur in Chicago, she drew a map of the lake and circled the closest town, Ocala. She mailed it from Ocklawaha’s little post office.

FBI agents found Arthur the following January, and with him, the letter, which led them to Ma’s hideout.

In the predawn darkness on Jan. 16, 1935, a dozen officers pointed their guns at the upstairs windows. “This is the FBI,” an officer shouted, according to an agency report. “You are surrounded.”

Some say the gun battle lasted as long as six hours.

When it was over, they found Freddie, 32, shot in the back of his head. Ma, 63, was curled on the floor, cradling her Tommy gun. That day, Hoover said, marked “the end of an era of violence.”

For nine months, the corpses lay unclaimed. Finally, a relative moved them closer to home.

But some say Ma still inhabits that two-story, cream-colored house with forest green shutters. The cop on the phone, my friend the photographer, the former and current owner all saw, heard or felt … something.

But how do you report a ghost story?

I started with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and that “evidence” photo the retired cop mentioned on the phone.

Lt. Dave Redmond remembered some man bringing in the photo, but the deputy hadn’t seen anything in it.

Records only go back to 1990, said department spokeswoman Lauren Lettelier. “But since then, there have been no reports of hauntings at that house.”

I talked to Carson Good, 47, the great-grandson of the man who built the house. He has memories of swimming and sailing in the lake. And of countless sleepless nights, cringing in the dark. “I’m not a big believer of ghosts, but I heard a lot of sounds in that house,” he said. “Voices. Furniture moving. People walking up and down the wooden stairs.”

His grandmother didn’t like to talk about it, but she often heard spirits stirring. Years ago, he said, a psychic from Cassadaga held a seance at the house and convinced the ghost of Freddie Barker to move on. But the medium said Ma refused to move.

Good and his family sold the property for $750,000 and donated the house to the county, which hired a contractor to lift the home off its foundation and float it across Lake Weir to a park called Carney Island. County commissioners allocated $270,000 for the move. Private donations and fundraising will finance the museum.

County tax collector George Albright, who grew up next to the storied house, envisions an homage to the early days of the FBI, as agents set out to capture notorious gangsters like “Baby Face” Nelson, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde and, of course, the infamous Barker gang.

“We’ve already had calls from people asking about ghost tours. If they want something like that, or to hold seances, we’ll look into that,” said the tax collector, “as a revenue source.”

Some say the gang buried Mason jars filled with cash along the lake. Local children used to spend summers digging for the treasure, but came up with shovels full of sand.

As soon as the home is removed, before the new owner closes on the land, the tax collector plans to bring in a team with ground-penetrating radar to scan the soil.

“Let’s hope she’s a friendly ghost,” he said.

On a gray Wednesday in October, more than 81 years after the shootout, John and I returned to the scene. The house already had been lifted on jacks. The screened porch was gone; workers were carrying out lamps. A true-crime novelist was parked in an SUV, taking pictures.

Like John, he swore he had seen a face in a window.

“I think whatever’s in there doesn’t want us to come in,” said Tony Stewart, who had driven from Indiana to see the house in its original setting. “And it won’t come out.”

We had told the retired cop that we would meet him later. The tax collector didn’t want anyone else at the construction site. But Weiss pulled up in his white Cadillac, quaking in his tassled loafers.

“This is where their bodies were. They dragged ‘em right down this driveway,” said Weiss, clasping his arms across his chest. “She’s not at rest. She will never leave this property.”

He has felt this before, he said. “I sense spirits.”

The first time was in 1992, just before Christmas. He was on patrol in White Plains, N.Y., resting in his car between calls, when he had a vision of a sad teenage boy: long hair, pale, with a pug nose. Two days later, he was sent to a home where a teenage boy had hanged himself. “The same boy I’d seen.”

[myhauntedsalem]

Ghostly warning: Dead gangster Ma Barker doesn’t want her house moved

He called the newsroom with a warning: They can’t move that house.

“I’m worried something terrible is going to happen,” the man said in a thick New York accent. “I have to warn somebody.”

Then he told me a ghost story.

His name is Donald J. Weiss. He’s a 62-year-old retired police patrolman from upstate New York. He had moved to Ocala several years ago and visited the house where gangster Ma Barker had been killed. He had wanted to see the site of the longest shootout in FBI history: four hours, more than 2,000 bullets.

But when he wandered beneath the live oaks, a voice growled, “Get outta here, lawman!”

And when he took a photo of the front porch, a shadowy figure appeared.

“That woman is still in that house,” he told me. “And she’s pissed.”

He gave the photo to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office because he wanted to enter it into evidence. And because bad things started happening as soon as he had blown up the print. “I had a heart attack,” he said. “You think that’s a coincidence?”

The property has been sold, he told me. County officials want to move the house.

“They have no idea who or what is in there,” Weiss said. “That woman has the power to do a lot of things. We are dealing with the afterworld here.”

I thanked the caller for his concern.

“When are they moving it?” I asked.

He paused, as if to make a point, then said gravely, “By Halloween.”

Reporters get a lot of crazy calls. Many might have dismissed this one. But I knew this house, and so did my photographer friend John Pendygraft.

“Hey John,” I called across the cubicle wall. “Do you remember that story we did on the Ma Barker house?”

John’s eyes got big. “Do you remember what happened?”

Our story four years ago had been about real estate: historic home for sale on nine waterfront acres, eight miles north of the Villages, two hours from Tampa. And about the gangsters who hid out there until the end.

We had toured the four-bedroom house with a Realtor, whose assistant shivered and said, “I get the weirdest feeling when I’m in here.” We had reported rumors about flickering lights and an unsuccessful exorcism.

But we hadn’t written about what had happened to John. Or what he saw when he enlarged one of his pictures.

John has worked in war zones in Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip. He has photographed the dead from an Asian tsunami, a Mexican assassination and Hurricane Katrina. If he ever is scared, he won’t show it.

That fall day in 2012, in the Ma Barker house, he had gone alone into the front bedroom to take pictures through the window, looking out toward the lake where the FBI agents had crouched behind trees.

All of a sudden, John rushed out, cameras, lights, tripod flapping over his shoulders, nearly sliding down the 13 stairs. “I don’t know what happened, or what that was,” he panted. He heard the mattress fall, then saw it, dangling through the bed frame. “I didn’t touch it,” he insisted.

We left that afternoon, as dusk began to descend. From beneath the Spanish moss, John shot a few final frames. The next day, when he zoomed in on his laptop, he saw a strange figure on the screened porch: The silhouette of a stout woman with a bun, who looked like she was holding a machine gun.

Her story starts in Missouri, in 1873. Her parents named her Arizona Donnie Clark. She and a farmhand, George Barker, had four sons. As soon as the boys were grown, her husband left.

Legends vary about Ma Barker’s role in her boys’ gang. Some say she just cooked and cleaned. Others say she was the mastermind.

They began by robbing banks, then murdered a policeman. From 1910 through 1930, they are said to have stolen $2 million. And killed at least 10 people.

The FBI’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, called them “the worst criminals in the entire country.” Ma Barker became the only woman to top the most wanted list.

In 1934, the gang split and went into hiding. One son fled to Chicago. Ma and her favorite son, baby Freddie, moved to Miami where, posing as a wealthy widow, she asked if anyone knew a secluded spot where she could spend the winter.

Someone introduced her to Carson Bradford, whose family had a lovely home in the center of Florida, on Lake Weir.

The house sounded perfect: fully furnished, set back from the road, with a boat tethered to a dock out back. Ma paid the full season’s rent in cash. Just before Thanksgiving, she moved in with Freddie and a couple of his friends.

In a letter to her son Arthur in Chicago, she drew a map of the lake and circled the closest town, Ocala. She mailed it from Ocklawaha’s little post office.

FBI agents found Arthur the following January, and with him, the letter, which led them to Ma’s hideout.

In the predawn darkness on Jan. 16, 1935, a dozen officers pointed their guns at the upstairs windows. “This is the FBI,” an officer shouted, according to an agency report. “You are surrounded.”

Some say the gun battle lasted as long as six hours.

When it was over, they found Freddie, 32, shot in the back of his head. Ma, 63, was curled on the floor, cradling her Tommy gun. That day, Hoover said, marked “the end of an era of violence.”

For nine months, the corpses lay unclaimed. Finally, a relative moved them closer to home.

But some say Ma still inhabits that two-story, cream-colored house with forest green shutters. The cop on the phone, my friend the photographer, the former and current owner all saw, heard or felt … something.

But how do you report a ghost story?

I started with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and that “evidence” photo the retired cop mentioned on the phone.

Lt. Dave Redmond remembered some man bringing in the photo, but the deputy hadn’t seen anything in it.

Records only go back to 1990, said department spokeswoman Lauren Lettelier. “But since then, there have been no reports of hauntings at that house.”

I talked to Carson Good, 47, the great-grandson of the man who built the house. He has memories of swimming and sailing in the lake. And of countless sleepless nights, cringing in the dark. “I’m not a big believer of ghosts, but I heard a lot of sounds in that house,” he said. “Voices. Furniture moving. People walking up and down the wooden stairs.”

His grandmother didn’t like to talk about it, but she often heard spirits stirring. Years ago, he said, a psychic from Cassadaga held a seance at the house and convinced the ghost of Freddie Barker to move on. But the medium said Ma refused to move.

Good and his family sold the property for $750,000 and donated the house to the county, which hired a contractor to lift the home off its foundation and float it across Lake Weir to a park called Carney Island. County commissioners allocated $270,000 for the move. Private donations and fundraising will finance the museum.

County tax collector George Albright, who grew up next to the storied house, envisions an homage to the early days of the FBI, as agents set out to capture notorious gangsters like “Baby Face” Nelson, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde and, of course, the infamous Barker gang.

“We’ve already had calls from people asking about ghost tours. If they want something like that, or to hold seances, we’ll look into that,” said the tax collector, “as a revenue source.”

Some say the gang buried Mason jars filled with cash along the lake. Local children used to spend summers digging for the treasure, but came up with shovels full of sand.

As soon as the home is removed, before the new owner closes on the land, the tax collector plans to bring in a team with ground-penetrating radar to scan the soil.

“Let’s hope she’s a friendly ghost,” he said.

On a gray Wednesday in October, more than 81 years after the shootout, John and I returned to the scene. The house already had been lifted on jacks. The screened porch was gone; workers were carrying out lamps. A true-crime novelist was parked in an SUV, taking pictures.

Like John, he swore he had seen a face in a window.

“I think whatever’s in there doesn’t want us to come in,” said Tony Stewart, who had driven from Indiana to see the house in its original setting. “And it won’t come out.”

We had told the retired cop that we would meet him later. The tax collector didn’t want anyone else at the construction site. But Weiss pulled up in his white Cadillac, quaking in his tassled loafers.

“This is where their bodies were. They dragged ‘em right down this driveway,” said Weiss, clasping his arms across his chest. “She’s not at rest. She will never leave this property.”

He has felt this before, he said. “I sense spirits.”

The first time was in 1992, just before Christmas. He was on patrol in White Plains, N.Y., resting in his car between calls, when he had a vision of a sad teenage boy: long hair, pale, with a pug nose. Two days later, he was sent to a home where a teenage boy had hanged himself. “The same boy I’d seen.”

[myhauntedsalem]

Ghostly warning: Dead gangster Ma Barker doesn’t want her house moved

He called the newsroom with a warning: They can’t move that house.

“I’m worried something terrible is going to happen,” the man said in a thick New York accent. “I have to warn somebody.”

Then he told me a ghost story.

His name is Donald J. Weiss. He’s a 62-year-old retired police patrolman from upstate New York. He had moved to Ocala several years ago and visited the house where gangster Ma Barker had been killed. He had wanted to see the site of the longest shootout in FBI history: four hours, more than 2,000 bullets.

But when he wandered beneath the live oaks, a voice growled, “Get outta here, lawman!”

And when he took a photo of the front porch, a shadowy figure appeared.

“That woman is still in that house,” he told me. “And she’s pissed.”

He gave the photo to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office because he wanted to enter it into evidence. And because bad things started happening as soon as he had blown up the print. “I had a heart attack,” he said. “You think that’s a coincidence?”

The property has been sold, he told me. County officials want to move the house.

“They have no idea who or what is in there,” Weiss said. “That woman has the power to do a lot of things. We are dealing with the afterworld here.”

I thanked the caller for his concern.

“When are they moving it?” I asked.

He paused, as if to make a point, then said gravely, “By Halloween.”

Reporters get a lot of crazy calls. Many might have dismissed this one. But I knew this house, and so did my photographer friend John Pendygraft.

“Hey John,” I called across the cubicle wall. “Do you remember that story we did on the Ma Barker house?”

John’s eyes got big. “Do you remember what happened?”

Our story four years ago had been about real estate: historic home for sale on nine waterfront acres, eight miles north of the Villages, two hours from Tampa. And about the gangsters who hid out there until the end.

We had toured the four-bedroom house with a Realtor, whose assistant shivered and said, “I get the weirdest feeling when I’m in here.” We had reported rumors about flickering lights and an unsuccessful exorcism.

But we hadn’t written about what had happened to John. Or what he saw when he enlarged one of his pictures.

John has worked in war zones in Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip. He has photographed the dead from an Asian tsunami, a Mexican assassination and Hurricane Katrina. If he ever is scared, he won’t show it.

That fall day in 2012, in the Ma Barker house, he had gone alone into the front bedroom to take pictures through the window, looking out toward the lake where the FBI agents had crouched behind trees.

All of a sudden, John rushed out, cameras, lights, tripod flapping over his shoulders, nearly sliding down the 13 stairs. “I don’t know what happened, or what that was,” he panted. He heard the mattress fall, then saw it, dangling through the bed frame. “I didn’t touch it,” he insisted.

We left that afternoon, as dusk began to descend. From beneath the Spanish moss, John shot a few final frames. The next day, when he zoomed in on his laptop, he saw a strange figure on the screened porch: The silhouette of a stout woman with a bun, who looked like she was holding a machine gun.

Her story starts in Missouri, in 1873. Her parents named her Arizona Donnie Clark. She and a farmhand, George Barker, had four sons. As soon as the boys were grown, her husband left.

Legends vary about Ma Barker’s role in her boys’ gang. Some say she just cooked and cleaned. Others say she was the mastermind.

They began by robbing banks, then murdered a policeman. From 1910 through 1930, they are said to have stolen $2 million. And killed at least 10 people.

The FBI’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, called them “the worst criminals in the entire country.” Ma Barker became the only woman to top the most wanted list.

In 1934, the gang split and went into hiding. One son fled to Chicago. Ma and her favorite son, baby Freddie, moved to Miami where, posing as a wealthy widow, she asked if anyone knew a secluded spot where she could spend the winter.

Someone introduced her to Carson Bradford, whose family had a lovely home in the center of Florida, on Lake Weir.

The house sounded perfect: fully furnished, set back from the road, with a boat tethered to a dock out back. Ma paid the full season’s rent in cash. Just before Thanksgiving, she moved in with Freddie and a couple of his friends.

In a letter to her son Arthur in Chicago, she drew a map of the lake and circled the closest town, Ocala. She mailed it from Ocklawaha’s little post office.

FBI agents found Arthur the following January, and with him, the letter, which led them to Ma’s hideout.

In the predawn darkness on Jan. 16, 1935, a dozen officers pointed their guns at the upstairs windows. “This is the FBI,” an officer shouted, according to an agency report. “You are surrounded.”

Some say the gun battle lasted as long as six hours.

When it was over, they found Freddie, 32, shot in the back of his head. Ma, 63, was curled on the floor, cradling her Tommy gun. That day, Hoover said, marked “the end of an era of violence.”

For nine months, the corpses lay unclaimed. Finally, a relative moved them closer to home.

But some say Ma still inhabits that two-story, cream-colored house with forest green shutters. The cop on the phone, my friend the photographer, the former and current owner all saw, heard or felt … something.

But how do you report a ghost story?

I started with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and that “evidence” photo the retired cop mentioned on the phone.

Lt. Dave Redmond remembered some man bringing in the photo, but the deputy hadn’t seen anything in it.

Records only go back to 1990, said department spokeswoman Lauren Lettelier. “But since then, there have been no reports of hauntings at that house.”

I talked to Carson Good, 47, the great-grandson of the man who built the house. He has memories of swimming and sailing in the lake. And of countless sleepless nights, cringing in the dark. “I’m not a big believer of ghosts, but I heard a lot of sounds in that house,” he said. “Voices. Furniture moving. People walking up and down the wooden stairs.”

His grandmother didn’t like to talk about it, but she often heard spirits stirring. Years ago, he said, a psychic from Cassadaga held a seance at the house and convinced the ghost of Freddie Barker to move on. But the medium said Ma refused to move.

Good and his family sold the property for $750,000 and donated the house to the county, which hired a contractor to lift the home off its foundation and float it across Lake Weir to a park called Carney Island. County commissioners allocated $270,000 for the move. Private donations and fundraising will finance the museum.

County tax collector George Albright, who grew up next to the storied house, envisions an homage to the early days of the FBI, as agents set out to capture notorious gangsters like “Baby Face” Nelson, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde and, of course, the infamous Barker gang.

“We’ve already had calls from people asking about ghost tours. If they want something like that, or to hold seances, we’ll look into that,” said the tax collector, “as a revenue source.”

Some say the gang buried Mason jars filled with cash along the lake. Local children used to spend summers digging for the treasure, but came up with shovels full of sand.

As soon as the home is removed, before the new owner closes on the land, the tax collector plans to bring in a team with ground-penetrating radar to scan the soil.

“Let’s hope she’s a friendly ghost,” he said.

On a gray Wednesday in October, more than 81 years after the shootout, John and I returned to the scene. The house already had been lifted on jacks. The screened porch was gone; workers were carrying out lamps. A true-crime novelist was parked in an SUV, taking pictures.

Like John, he swore he had seen a face in a window.

“I think whatever’s in there doesn’t want us to come in,” said Tony Stewart, who had driven from Indiana to see the house in its original setting. “And it won’t come out.”

We had told the retired cop that we would meet him later. The tax collector didn’t want anyone else at the construction site. But Weiss pulled up in his white Cadillac, quaking in his tassled loafers.

“This is where their bodies were. They dragged ‘em right down this driveway,” said Weiss, clasping his arms across his chest. “She’s not at rest. She will never leave this property.”

He has felt this before, he said. “I sense spirits.”

The first time was in 1992, just before Christmas. He was on patrol in White Plains, N.Y., resting in his car between calls, when he had a vision of a sad teenage boy: long hair, pale, with a pug nose. Two days later, he was sent to a home where a teenage boy had hanged himself. “The same boy I’d seen.”