Soulbound (TMNT '16) ❪✓❫

First Contact

"Guys! Wake up! Sasquatch is real!" Mikey cries hugging his blankets and kicking the tent.

"Mikey! Shut up." Donnie snarls crawling out of his sleeping bag... a Donnie burrito. "It is the middle of the night and-- oh, my..." he got a look at the tent when he flashed his light on everything.

"What's going on?" Leo joins outside. "Mikey, you got in the food?!"

"I didn't! It was... um, I-- it was a bear and--and--"

"And what?" Raph growls as Casey and April see the mess in the campsite.

"A wolf and a bear. That's all I saw."

"Mikey... bears and wolves hate each other. You didn't see them both work together to steal the food." Leo sighed picking up plastic bags and feeds the fire to make more light.

"They were really here, Leo! Look at the tracks here in the dirt." Michelangelo crouched down to reveal the prints of two animals. "See? Bear and wolf. I've never seen a wolf so huge and a bear so muscular looking. Donnie, you believe me, right?"

"Well, you can't argue with tracks in the camp..." he said tracing the animal prints. "This is a grey wolf. Looks a lot larger than a regular one. And this bear who... who stole the cooler--?! Ugh! Its obviously humongous."

"I found something else." Casey says on the other side of the fire. "Two big cats."

Leonardo and April see for themselves. Both can't deny detailed tracks in the dirt.

"No way. Donnie." Leo calls him over. "Two cats with different sizes."

"Wow! This is incredible."

"How?"

"These prints belong to a king cheetah and a tiger. But that's impossible. We're in Maine, not Africa or Asia."

"No, duh..." Raph crossed his arms. "So, now what? We look for them or leave?"

"They did no harm to us. I guess these four animals were just looking for some food. I don't want to leave if that's what Leo is thinking."

"I'm thinking about looking for those pests. They do it once, they'll do it again." Said Leo. "I want them away from here."

"Leo, you can't really drive wild animals away from the area they live in." April mentions.

Leonardo sighs looking around the damaged camp. Sunscreen used up, meat consumed in the truck, eaten sandwiches, a missing cooler... "I'm gonna search for them when the sun comes up. Good night."

****

"We got caught! Now they'll be looking for us." Shado tries to hook the edge of the cooler on Griz's head with a single claw, but it wasn't budging.

"This hurts!" Griz roared. "It's no use. We're been trying to pry it off for nearly ten minutes. We don't have thumbs!"

Griz pulls away from the cheetah and starts swinging her head side to side until it got something like a tree. Even an object like a thick plant couldn't relieve her from the cooler. "My head hurts. The edges are sharp!"

"Calm down. You're too loud." Kri begins tug of war with the food box, yet it doesn't let go.

"We have no choice. Let's go back to the camp." Says Hawk.

"No! This is how I got into this mess." Griz said.

"Sorry, Griz. Can't hear you with a cooler on your head."

The bear groans.

"You're saying only the campers can take the cooler off?" Shado needed to confirm and Hawk nods.

"The cooler isn't coming off. Only thumbs and fingers can remove it."

****

April and Casey have gone into town this morning to buy more food and supplies for the rest of the camping trip. Leo, Mikey, and Raph left camp on foot to search for the animals who intruded last night. Donnie stayed behind to clean the camp up, he's completely alone.

Hawk led Griz back through the bushes and to the walls of camp and see Donnie is almost done cleaning. "Just stay calm. Walk up slowly and he should help." Hawk nods. "Go--"

"What if he kills me? Shoots, yells--"

"He won't. There's no hunting allowed up here and Donnie looks mellow. Go on."

"Okay..." the bear pushes through the thick cover until she feels dirt under her rough paws. Donnie turns around from the tent and found the large bear is sitting down with a cooler on its head.

"Oh, my gosh!" He breathed stepping back. "Oh... the cooler. It's on your head."

Griz stood up on four legs and guesses where Donnie is. She walks slow enough to where if she runs into anything, it won't hurt. She bumped into something; Donnie's legs.

"You're the bear from last night. I'm sure it hurts with this thing on you." He put both hands on the cooler. "I see you came back for help."

Hawk, Kri, and Shado watch in the bushes. If anything goes wrong, they're all ready to protect a friend. Hawk is more likely to correct the bad situations.

"Please help me." The bear mutters.

"I know, I'm try-- wait, did you... did you just talk?"

The wolf, tiger, and cheetah let their eyes widen.

"I must be going crazy." He says gently sliding the cooler off the flesh of a bear head. Griz holds back a few moans and groans from the painful container closing in of her melon, but lets Donnie pull harder. "Almost there."

"Keep going."

Donnie heard the same female voice again, but keeps telling himself he imagined it. Then a single pop made Donatello fall back on the ground, Griz felt relief when she could see again.

"There. All done. I'm sure you're thanking me on the inside."

"Thank you." Griz flees from the camp. She jumps into the bushes easily to make heavy footfalls. The other animals follow her. That's when Donnie knew the other three were with the bear... watching him help.

"I know I heard that bear talk..." he whispers looking at the cooler.

****

"He heard you talk?!"

"I guess he did." Griz snorts shaking her head. "Is that bad?"

"Bad? Griz, this could solve everything. Being able to talk to one of them could give us the answers we need." Hawk barks softly. "We need to talk to all four of these turtles."

"What about the humans?" Shado asked.

"I'm not sure about them. Something feels odd about these turtles." Hawk replied. "And I want to find out."

At a very sudden moment, everything went dark when Hawk's words were determined and pure. It was day, but it looked like it was night to the four animals. A bright blue light flashed in front of them...

A man appeared and says,

"Calm..."