Turtle Tots: Move Night!

ライト！ カメラ！ Dreamtime 。..?

Prologue: And So The Film Festival Begins

~(*)~

After an evening of enjoying old flicks, the Hamato children fall asleep to a variety of...rather odd dreams. Will Raph escape the clutches of his own personal nightmare? Will Mikey use the Forks? Should Don side with the reptiles, or the humans? And will Leo ever conquer 'Scary Man'?

Hi, everyone! ^^ I hope you all enjoy this. I certainly think I did. *Laughs.* Silly. I actually have never seen Star Wars or Jurassic Park, but I hope what I know about each film will suffice.

I do not own TMNT, The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, A certain movie I think many of you have seen, and (Maybe) a certain film that comes on around Christmas time...;)

Speaking of which, Takoyaki, in Japan, is fried octopus on a stick. . Onigiri is the Japanese word for 'rice ball.'

Quote:

"At night, my mind does not much care,

If what it thinks is here or there.

It tells me stories it invents,

And makes up things that don't make sense.

I don't know why it does this stuff.

The real world seems quite weird enough."

~(*)~

"Hey, Mike."

Mikey's blue eyes did not flicker from the screen. The orbs were quite glazed by this point, and, if Raph's own eyes weren't as unfocused as a murtled jar of jelly by this point, he would have wondered if Mikey had fallen asleep with his eyes open.

The four turtles continued to stare, deadpanned as the enormous blue monster on the old, secondhand TV growled, and swept its spiked tail across the Tokyo Tower, smashing several windows in its wake. People below the enormous dinosaur continued to scream and run about in restless circles, like ants whose hill had just been demolished with a shake of the foot.

At first, Mikey didn't care to answer, his eyes still glued to the Takoyaki monster stomping on several cars on the streets before deciding to bend over to a cowering human on the road, before swiping the small paper clutched in his hands, and abruptly threw it into his mouth before stomping away downtown.

The wild-eyed kid stared incredulously at the monster's retreating form, before shouting in Japanese:

"KORA! (Hey!) He ate my book report!"

A pause. The kid blinked, before a beatific smile quickly spread across his face, and he happily waved at the growling monster busy chewing on a traffic light some thirty yards away.

"Arigatou, kami-Takoyaki-sama!"

(Thank you, demon-Master-Takoyaki!)

"Mike," said Raph again, beginning to scowl. "Earth to bonehead."

The eight year old, orange clad turtle frowned from his lax position on the couch. "Bonehead to Earth, shhhh! This is the part where the monster Takoyaki-seller meets his arch nemesis, the Onigiri water dragon of Asigiri!"

Raph rolled his eyes as Don yawned from below him on the floor, chin in his hands, legs absentmindedly kicking back and forth in midair.

"Just pass the popcorn, already"

Mikey lazily extended a hand towards the bowl still on the old, three-legged table Master Splinter had retrieved from the sewers. Not bothering to get up, Mikey let out little grunting noises as he struggled to reach the ever-elusive cheese popcorn bowl.

"I...I can't! T-Too frail! Oh, if I had o-only one more token of e-energy, I'd be h-happy to get it for you, R-Raphie boy, but I...just can't go on..."

Raph scowled, and growled, knocking his fist directly into the taped-arm of the sofa. Mikey started, suddenly looking much less asleep, even as the Takoyaki monster tore off a spire off a nearby skyscraper, and proceeded to attempt to bat the roaring Onigiri monster's head off.

"Oookay. Now, I think I can," Mikey said with a shrug, passing the small plastic bowl to Raph, who was now rolling his eyes once again, and scoffing.

"Figures," Raph muttered, drawing out a handful of cheese popcorn, and munching on it.

Leo sighed from his position next to Mikey, and drew a hand over his eyes, looking drowsy.

"Guys...I've had enough of Takoyaki vs. Onigiri III, Total Annihilation," he said wearily, before slowly turning around to glance at the nearby clock. It was 8:56, ten minutes until the turtles' bedtime. The blue-clad ninja-in-training cleared his throat, and Raph groaned.

"Here we go, Splinta junior," he said mockingly, disregarding the scowl Leo shot him in return. "Gonna tell us off, now?"

Don reached for the remote control still on the floor, and turned the volume up. He was by now quite used to this.

Leo crossed his arms, looking irritated. "Master Splinter put me in charge, so-"

"So what? So what you say goes?" Raph mocked, as Don cast Mikey a nervous look. "Look you, Master Splinter SAID we could watch a few movies tonight-"

"And we DID," countered Leo, eyes still narrowed. "We DID watch a 'few' movies tonight, INCLUDING that really, really long run we weren't even SUPPOSED to watch-"

"Hey, it wasn't all...t-that scary!" Raph challenged, swallowing as he remembered the dark lord's hideous minions drag themselves out of the muck and grime. The turtles had been forced to turn that particular movie off before cowering together on the sofa in terror, until Mikey had had the good sense to put on a cheesy monster movie.

Leo shook his head.

"It was PG-13, Raph."

Mikey blinked, before turning to Don as usual for an answer, looking baffled.

"What's PG-13?"

Don glanced up from the Pizza monster from Tuscany, Italy hurling several boulders towards the Takoyaki monster.

"Mmm? Oh, PG-13 is a rating, Mike. It means you can't watch a movie marked that unless you're thirteen."

"Oh."

Raph scoffed.

"Hey, it doesn't mean 'can't.' Just 'shouldn't,' Don. I bet lotsa parents bring their kids in for dat kind of movie. In fact," Raph's voice dropped to a whisper, as if he expected Splinter to walk in on the four at any second.'I bet parents do that with kids even in da weird movies rated 'M.'"

Leo glanced at Don, who was helping himself to more cheese popcorn. In a flash, the violet-clad turtle answered:

"'M' is like PG-13, but kinda bigger. It means that you hafta be eighteen to get in!"

Mikey blanched.

"Eighteen? I'm only eight! That's a bajillion years from now!"

Leo groaned.

"I don't think Master Splinter would let us watch anythin' like that, Mikey. And you gotta work on your adding."

Mikey glared at him, holding up his now slightly orange fingertips.

"So? I run out of fingers before I can get to 'ten!'" he protested, as an enormous BOOOOMMMMM! echoed from the screen before the brothers. The orange-clad turtle turned to Raph, looking skeptical.

"Splinter says that's not right. He says 'M' probably has some really bad stuff in it!"

Raph looked at him scornfully.

"How would you know? I heard dat 'M' is for movies with 'adult situations.'" He hesitated, moving a hand to the back of his head, looking awkward.

"Uh...guys? What's an 'adult situation?'"

Leo shrugged as the Takoyaki monster began to shrink back into a man.

"I dunno. It probably means that the movie is about adults doin' what they must do every day-make breakfast, pay taxes, go to work, have the car fixed, talk to friends on the phone, clean, and fall asleep in front of a TV while the football game's goin' on. But you're gettin' me distracted. We-"

Leo broke off as the Pizza monster climbed to the top of an enormous building to roar his triumph, before being abruptly struck by lightning. Raph looked awed as the cheering Tokyoyites on the screen helped themselves to the enormous slices of pizza falling from the heavens. But he ignored that.

"Geez, dey don't kid around when they say it's for 'mature audiences.' Dat just sounds boring!"

Mikey yawned, and Don shrugged as the Onigiri monster began to stomp back into the depths of the sea.

"Guess so. I'm not sure how those movies make any money."

~(*)~

Leo turned back to Raph and his brothers, but the red clad turtle merely sighed as he stood up, stretching lightly before turning his head back to his older brother, looking bored.

"Alright, your majesty, it's over now." The turtle yawned again, drearily rubbing at an eye as he sleepily stumbled across the floor, tri-fingered hand reaching for the STOP button on the VCR. The credits disappeared, making way for a haze of blue before the screen abruptly flickered off. Raph grasped the television's cord in his hands, looking at Leo pointedly. The blue-clad threw his hands in the air, expression sardonic.

"Okay, okay, yes, I'm happy now. Let's just-"

"-hit the hay, already," Mikey said, voice thick with sleep as he wobbily made his way to his feet, narrowly avoiding knocking over Leo as he extended a hand to Don, who too was rubbing his eyes. "I'm beat. I can't take one more movie tonight."

Raph stared incredulously at him.

"What?" Mikey grumbled, as the four began to stumble off towards their bedroom.

"Either I'm dreamin' right now, or one of those Star-punks just switched o' Mikey with a clone."

"Hey!"

~(*)~

The turtles found their way to the bathroom (Mikey and Raph got into a wild dispute over whose toothbrush was whose) and, after biding each other a few garbled goodnights, made for their conjoined bedrooms.

Raph snorted to himself as he wearily climbed into his own messy bed, brushing aside a few old papers and a plastic action figure or two.

'Geez. Leo's got sucha stick in his shell,' he mentally grumbled, before tugging the covers over him, and socking his pillow into a more comfortable shape before plunking his head upon it.

Splinter had left somewhere-he hadn't said where, exactly-for the evening. After giving each of his sons a strict order for them to stay in the Lair-and had not departed until he'd heard each of his sons give a meek 'yes' in reply, he had put Leo in charge of the others, as usual, before departing, leaving the turtles mystified at the table with their tomato soup.

At least he'd given them all permission to watch movies. That part was fun. But did Leo hafta be such a wet blanket? Do this. Do that. Splinta says. Sensei says. Sensei says.

'If I were in charge, I'd run things a little...differently,' Raph thought sleepily, turning ever so slightly as his eyes began to flicker.

That was right. Things would be different. Raph would still be tough guy of the turtles-that would NEVER change-but if HE lead the others, and HE told them what to do...

Everything would be perfect. Everyone would follow HIS lead, which would be all about fun. No havin' to be told by Leo to wash your plate when ya were done with it like Master Splinta always did. No havin' Leo tell ya to keep it down, cause Master Splinta was mediating. No havin' to walk the long way around all the time instead of taking a nifty shortcut Splinter said to avoid.

A smile tugged its way up to Raph's face, and he turned once again, still smiling.

If he were the de facto leader of the four...he could solve anything, do anything. Leo didn't know what he was doing. But Raph would, and Don and Mikey would praise him for being the better, the more fun, the effective leader.

Sleep was tugging at him more insistently, and Raph did as was bidden when his eyelids drooped closed at last, and, after a few minutes, began to snore.