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Mona was just a baby when she was turned into the test subject for the project her mom was working on. She was experimented on and watched, she grew up in the lab her mom worked at and never had a childhood, her only friends were the turtles and rat that were there and she'd watch them as they moved around their tank all day. One of the other scientists' daughters would come in and feed the turtles something called pizza. The girl would try to talk to Mona but Mona's mom would shoo her away. It wouldn't be a long conversation anyway because Mona could not speak. No one taught her, every time she was with an adult there was no talking but when she was watching the girl feed the turtles and rat she would listen and try to say their names.She was 10 when 1 of the scientists started a fire, the girl led Mona outside while she held the turtles in her arms. The girl put the turtles and rat on the ground and watched as they went into the storm drain then she sat with Mona till the firefighters came. They were looking at the lab when the firefighters came, they asked about their parents. The girl said that her dad was in the building and Mona's mom had left her there.Her mom was taken to court where she lost custody of Mona and was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Her father had been arrested the night she was born and wouldn't be let out until she was 25. This lead to Mona being put into the foster system
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Mona grew up to be your typical runaway foster kid. She'd been introduced to metal and was given an iPod that she filled with her favorite bands. By the age of 15 she had been put with the Langinstein family. A single mother with her own teenage daughter.Irma, the daughter, introduced Mona to ghost and katatonia. She gave Mona her first septum and double piercing and she helped her stop cutting. It was Irma who took her to her first concert and it was Irma who gave her a reason to keep living.By 17 she dropped out of high school and fell into a deep depression. She'd barely eat anything and would never leave the house. You see she'd recently found out that she would be forced to leave her foster home. During a visit the child services lady found mona's hidden stache of weed. She took the blame and was told that she would be sent to a new foster home and drug tested regularly.She blamed herself for messing up the only good thing she had. She'd had enough 1 night and decided to find the tallest building with roof access and end her life on a happy note. She'd just gotten back from a concert with Irma and when she knew she was asleep she left her a note saying everything she owned was hers. Mona took a cab to time square, on her way there she wrote her goodbye letter. She looked at all the billboards and sighed. When the cab stopped at a red light she paid him and got out. She picked a building and started climbing.she made her way to the ledge and looked over " I hope this is high enough" she slowly moved off the ledge just enough for her feet to hang off a little. She took a deep breath and.........Hesitated. She stepped back and took out the suicide letter she'd written " maybe I should rewrite this" she rummaged through her bag and found her mechanical pencil then she sat down and rewrote her letter. She read it again then sighed " ok Mona, time to go" she stood up and put the letter back in her pocket. She walked back to the ledge and got as far as she did the first attempt and closed her eyes " let's do this" just as she was about to step off the ledge something landed on the roof, Mona turned to look at what it was and she gasped. Forgetting where she was she took a step back and fell from the building. The lights of the city zoomed past as she fell. Mona closed her eyes and waited to hit the ground but she never did. She opened her eyes and saw a giant turtle with a red bandana. Mona chuckled then passed out. The turtle landed on the roof and sighed " of course she passed out" he sighed as he put her backpack under her head and sat down on the ledge while he waited for her to wake up.When Mona did wake up she thought she was alone. She sat up and rubbed her eyes " was it my imagination or did I see a giant turtle" she looked around and saw a giant shell in front of her sitting on the ledge she had just fallen off " cool, a giant shell...... That happens to belong to a giant turtle" the turtle turned around and saw her expression " go ahead, scream. I can't blame ya, I ain't exactly something you see everyday" Mona did exactly what the turtle had said and screamed. She grabbed her stuff and got off the roof in what she could only imagine would be record time. By the time she'd dropped off the fire escape and landed on the ground the turtle was looking over the edge, watching as Mona ran through the crowd.The turtle sighed " this is something Leo doesn't need to know" he jumped to the next building and continued to do whatever it was he was doing
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The moment Mona got home she ripped up the letter for Irma and did her best to not have an existential crisis. She tried not to think about the giant turtle but she just couldn't help it. She was saved by a giant turtle with a Brooklyn accent.....why did he have an accent and why did he not tell her not to tell anyone?'maybe he knew if I told people they'd think I'm crazy...maybe I am crazy but a figment of my mind couldn't have saved me..... fuck I'm spiraling now.... that fucking turtle is driving me crazy. He's the reason I'm gonna end up in the nut house... Maybe I'm just having a bad trip..... but I didn't smoke anything today.... why does this shit happen to me?'Mona didn't sleep a wink and by the time she was just about to fall asleep Irma was dragging her out of bed for breakfast " Jesus you look like a zombie. I thought you crashed when we got back. " Irma asked confused " I did " Mona lied " I'm just still tired, concerts are tiring Irma " Irma smiled "But it's worth it " Mona couldn't help but smile back " So worth it "Later that night Mona slept like a log. She woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and had forgotten about the giant turtle. Well almost forgotten, she couldn't help but draw his shell and come up with her own patterns. It was therapeutic in a sense. She didn't go to sleep that night until 2 in the morning, she'd spent most of the night drawing the turtle's silhouette, his shell and his bandana.She continued her drawings until her first drug test. She was still with the Langinstein's and she was glad that child services hadn't followed through with their threat just yet. By that time she'd completely forgotten why she was on that roof in the first place.4 weeks passed and Mona was still with the Langinstein's. She had stopped smoking weed and was even going to work, she told Irma what she had planned on doing and was wrapped up in a hug before she could even start crying. The next visit went great and Mona was told that she would be staying in her foster home.She sat on the roof of her house with Irma while they listened to ghost, drank monster, ate chips and looked at the stars "You know what mo, I'm glad you didn't do it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had the chance to tell you that I'm happy you're my sister " Mona sighed contently "Me too, I don't know why I thought it was a good idea but I'm happy I didn't go through with it "They would have more rooftop talks as the year went on. They'd talk about music, TV shows or they'd just look at the stars or watch the sunset. The turtle had been long forgotten by the time shredder escaped. Mona and Irma were at the nicks game when they saw a player step and slip on a slice of pizza " how'd that even happen? " Irma asked confused " I don't know but it's hella suspicious " when they got home Irma was already investigating " Irma, please tell me you're not hacking into the ... you're already watching the security footage " Mona groaned " pizza doesn't just fall out of the sky Mona. This isn't cloudy with a chance of meatballs, this is real life " Mona sighed and walked away " I'm gonna go watch something, have fun nerd " Irma flipped her off as she left the room.Mona sat in the living room with a blanket and a bowl of popcorn and was watching a very interesting episode of Scooby-Doo when the news Channel came on " oh for fuck sake they were just about to pull the mask off. Whoever got busted is an asshole " she said just as the news reporter announced that shredder had escaped police custody " shit, that can't be good " Irma came out of her room with a defeated look " I hate the fact that there are no cameras in the jumbo tron " she said as she flopped onto the couch " there there, if it makes you feel better you can hack the police records. Shredder just broke out and so did bebop and rocksteady " Irma's eyes lit up " sweet, I'll get right on it " mona laughed as she watched Irma run back to her room.Mona couldn't help but remember the giant turtle. Was he there to help shredder escape or was he trying to stop him. She knew she was about to spiral again so she just went back to watching TV to distract herself. She didn't see Irma until noon the next day " how's the hacking going? " she asked her, Irma poured herself a cup of coffee and groaned " I can't find anything that explains how shredder broke out or who could have helped bebop and rocksteady. They're bumbling idiots who have a favorite bar " Mona couldn't help but laugh " you wanna chill on the roof and talk about it " Irma nodded " to the roof then "
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The next morning Mona went for a run. She was so lost in thought that she didn't realize that she had in fact ran all the way to the upper east side. She took her earphones out and looked around " what the fuck? " she called Irma and started laughing " so funny story. I somehow ended up in the upper east side " Irma didn't reply for a solid 10 minutes " Mona, how the fuck do you end up on the upper east side when we live in Manhatten!! " Mona pulled the phone away from her ear " it was one of those moment where you just.... don't pay attention to your surroundings " she started walking as she continued " I'm heading back now so I'll send you my live location " Irma sighed " be safe ok, love you " Mona smiled " love you too sis, I'll see you later " Irma put her phone down and sighed " I swear she's gonna be the death of me " she pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes " how did she end up in the upper east? " she looked up at her screen and and scoffed " it's my sister, she can do the impossible like accidentally steal Dom mysterios backpack " she pulled up the footage from the cameras of the police van and pressed play " how did she manage that? " Irma laughed at the memory and leaned back in her chair " her and dom have the same bag, she hadn't put put her patches on yet and you honestly couldn't tell the difference" the person on the other end laughed " did you get to meet him? " they asked " we had to return it so yeah, we got to meet him and his dad. They're really nice, Mona held it together long enough to get rey's autograph. By the way D, did you have pizza last night? " she asked " possibly, were you watching the knicks last night? " she laughed " no. I was there, right behind vern " she was about to say something when the person interrupted her " crap, I gotta go. Send me the footage and I'll look at it later " she said her goodbyes and went back to analyzing the footage. Mona got home around noon and she had never regretted going for a run until now " I'm back and I am never doing that again " Irma came out of their room and handed her a bottle of water " you seriously need to pay attention to your surroundings " Mona waved her off and chugged the water " I'm serious Mona, the foot clan aren't gone. Shredder's escape proves that " Mona looked at her sister and saw her serious expression " I'll be fine Irma " Irma scoffed " you can't use wwe moves on the foot clan. They're trained ninjas and you're a 5ft4 metal head who has a bad ankle from you're Parkour phase. You won't win " Mona dropped her head and walked away " yeah, sure. Thanks for having faith in me "Irma watched her sister walk away. She looked up at the sky and groaned " I have faith in you but it's the fucking foot clan Mona. You saw what they did 2 years ago what makes you think they haven't gotten stronger. I hate to say it but you're just a person Mona! " Mona just sat on the couch and turned on the TV " I hear you Irma. I do but you're forgetting that I was a... " she stopped herself before she said anything stupid " forget I said anything... let's just watch some TV " Irma didn't say anything as she sat down, Mona pulled her knees up to her chest and refused to say anything else until their mom came home.
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After Mona and Irma's small argument, Mona went to their room to lay down and put her earphones in. She closed her eyes and was immediately hit with memories from the lab. She felt the needle going into her skin, the pain shooting through her small body and the pain in her eyes. It felt like she was back in the lab, on that cold table, strapped down so she wouldn't move. She was only 4 when the expirament started, she was 4 when she got her name. She was 4 when her life became a living hell. Mona was born with hazel eyes, her father's eyes, but her mother erased the only trace of her father. The moment that mutagen entered her body, her eyes changed from a beautiful hazel to a vibrant green that almost matched the liquid now coursing through her veins. As she got older, she started noticing changes. She was faster than the other kids, stronger than a full grown man and could heal faster than normal. Every now and then she could feel her body changing or her DNA shifting. She was taller than she should have been for her age and her iq was above average, she hated school and she hated being stuck in a class with no challenges. Irma understood her problem but she still struggled with some things in school.Mona stared up at the ceiling and took several deep breaths. Her body was aching and her eyes were burning, no matter what she did she couldn't stop the pain. She shut her eyes tight and prayed that the pain would go away but it just kept getting worse. Irma was fast asleep in her bed while Mona suffered. She didn't want to tell her the truth, it would mean that Irma would try to find a cure or something that could help her. Mona wanted to keep Irma as far away from her past as she could.Project Mona Lisa would die with the test subject, well at least it felt like dieing.
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Mona couldn’t sleep, so she just crashed on the couch and got sucked into the latest broadcast of SmackDown. The pain was still lingering, but she wrapped herself in a cozy blanket and treated herself to a chocolate bar she had stashed away a few days earlier.Wrestling had been her thing since she was seven, thanks to her first foster dad who introduced her to an old Eddie Guerrero match that lit the spark for her. She’d often argue and even scrap with the boys at school over who would win the next match. Because of all the fights, she ended up getting moved to a different family. Just before she left, her foster dad gave her a shirt he somehow scored from Eddie Guerrero himself. She didn’t even ask how he managed to get it; she was just super stoked to have it. Even now, as she huddled on the couch, that shirt hung down to her butt, bringing back memories of the good times and the love she once had for wrestling.When the show finished, Mona was still wide awake. She had started Googling wrestling schools nearby to see what it would take to apply. If she needed to, she could lie about some things but from what she could see, she just needed to go to training and hope that she got a contract. So with no hesitation, she sent in applications, closed her phone and went to bed.
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Mona's day had been swallowed by sleep. Irma's insistent prodding finally dragged her awake, a demand for a ride ringing in her ears. "Mom knows we're taking the car?" Mona mumbled, rubbing the grit from her eyes. "Yeah, I asked her at dinner. She said it was cool," Irma replied, her voice a touch too high, a flicker of unease Mona couldn't quite decipher. Exhausted and yearning for the oblivion of sleep, Mona simply nodded.A dull ache throbbed through Mona as she drove. Irma, lost in her own world, gazed out the window. "Stop! Right here!" Irma shrieked. Mona slammed on the brakes, the car lurching to a halt. Irma scrambled out, then turned, her voice a raw, panicked scream. "Get in!" Mona, confused and alarmed, followed Irma's gaze. And then she saw them. Four hulking turtles, each sporting a different colored bandana. The red one's eyes locked onto hers, and a chilling wave of disbelief washed over Mona. "I'm not fucking crazy," she whispered, her voice barely a breath."Mona, drive!" Irma's scream snapped Mona back to the present. She slammed on the gas, the tires squealing. "Are you fucking kidding me, Irma! This is why you needed a ride! I'm gonna fucking kill you!" If it weren't for the fact that this was their mother's car, Mona would have unleashed a full-blown Fast and Furious chase, but the image of a mangled vehicle stopped her cold. "By the way, Why am I playing get away driver for the fucking battle toads!" Mona looked at Irma for a split second and saw the guilt on her face "I'm sorry Mona, I'm really sorry" Mona looked at her sister again and groaned "You better have a good fucking reason for this!"