Hello

Hello! This is my first TMNT fic. It's been sitting in my head for the past two weeks and I've finally got around to writing it.

Disclaimer: I don't own and never will.

000

Murphy's First Law: Nothing is as easy as it looks.

000

Leo had noticed something interesting about Mikey. Out of all of his brothers, his littlest one seemed to be the most attentive to detail.

As strange as it sounded, his littlest brother was able to pick up on details and observe things that others would just pass over without much of a second thought. This was weird considering how unobservant he appeared to be most of the time, but Leo theorized it wasn't that he was incapable of focusing on things; he just simply chose not to.

He thought back to when he first really noticed. They had been eleven.

000

He and Raph had been flipping through the channels on the TV (Well, he had actually just been sitting there since it was Raph's turn with the remote.) and Mikey had been passing by the couch with his earphones blaring. Yet his offbeat skipping to the rhythm of his song stopped as he halted and back stepped to be directly behind Raph.

"Wait a minute! Raph, go back one!" He said slipping his headphones down so they rested comfortably around his neck.

"What, it's just cooking shows," Raph said changing the channel back to Food Network. A blond, tall hostess was showing how to make a meatloaf out of leftovers and ketchup.

"Something's not right," Mikey began as he squint his eyes, leaned forward, and scrutinized the hostess as she kneaded pink, ground meat with her hand. After a moment of observation something seemed to click for Michelangelo. "Dude. Her eyebrows aren't moving," he stated simply.

"Wha?" Raph looked at the woman. "Looks normal ta me."

"No! Look her eyebrows aren't moving, like, at all! See?" He pointed at the screen.

Raph stared for a moment before leaning back in surprise. "What d' ya know. You're right," he said in amazement. The hostess would look up but there wasn't so much of twitch of anything above her eyes. Not even when she made expressions.

Donny, who had been passing through, observed too. "Huh. She must have Botox or something injected in her forehead."

"Boat, what? Why would an ox ride a boat in someone's forehead?" Mikey looked to his brother in genuine confusion. Donny sighed telling his little brother not to worry about it.

"Mikey, how did you notice that?" Leo asked incredulously. She had looked normal to him until Mikey pointed out the lack of motion from her eyebrows.

Mikey shrugged. "I'm not smart. I just try to observe." and with that he flipped his earphones back up, and continued his bouncy trek through the Lair, leaving three confused ninja turtles in his wake.

000

It had truly puzzled him that day. Michelangelo's keenness had actually surprised him. However, today was apparently not one of those days where the orange clad turtle was being conscientious. Leo observed him quietly from his peripheral vision and noticed the almost lackadaisical demeanor of his brother. It was like he wasn't all there.

He was snapped back to his own training as Master Splinter ended his demonstration of a complex form.

"Now I want all of you to perform the kata I have just shown you. Ryu san!" The command was harsh and crisp.

"Ryu san!" Four voices echoed following the first. Then they began their form.

It started with a muwashigedi followed by a front stance. Two consecutive punches then drop back into nekoashidachi, cat stance, knife hand, block, block, and trap. Pull enemies arm up, under hand knife strike to the ribs…

Mikey was rolling through the kata robotically, Leo had noticed. His stances were somewhat narrower than they should have been which was bad for balance, and his punches were curving outwards to the sides some which would make them easy to block. His mind must have been elsewhere for him to make such careless mistakes.

Leo decided to push the thoughts of his brother's kata out of his mind and then he went about perfecting his own form. His side kicks were a tad bit to high near the end of the kata anyway, and that needed to be fixed.

Meanwhile the orange clad turtle's thoughts, like Leo had guessed, were elsewhere. The wheels of creativity were turning in his head clouding out any other reality.

He had been hit by a wave of inspiration that morning, but unfortunately it came the moment he stepped into the dojo. Which was bad because it was one of those waves of inspiration that demanded paper be found and drawn upon. There wasn't much he could do about it though so he kept repeating the image in his head so it was engraved there and would not be forgotten.

And even though Mikey desperately wanted to get it down on paper, he still had at least 45 minutes of afternoon practice left (normally practice was in the morning but Master Splinter let them sleep in on Wednesdays). They were just finishing a new kata their master had taught them (Ryu san was number 42 or something like that. There were like 108 and initial forms they needed to learn). They hadn't even started taijutsus yet!

He really needed to get this picture out of his head before his head exploded! He didn't want his head to explode! He needed it!

Raph would beg to differ.

"Michelangelo!"

Whap

"Ow! What?" He rubbed his head fervently where wooden cane met tender, green flesh.

"You were performing the kata backwards," Master Splinter stated with exasperation.

"Eh?" He blinked slowly and looked down at himself. He was standing in front stance with his left arm out in a punch. All of his brothers, however, where standing in a shikadachi down blocking.

Wow. How the heck did that happen?

"My Son, your mind wanders. In the heat of battle a distracted mind can be as dangerous as any weapon that can be thrown at you. You must keep your senses sharp, your mind quieted, your objectives focused. This is why we practice kata. When performing your forms, you do not simply stop at the movement's end. You must imagine that there is an actually enemy before you and you must strike as such. When you attack, attack as if you were striking through an enemy. When you block, imagine you are being attacked and deflect the enemy's' movement like your life is in danger, for this may one day save your lives. Begin the kata again. Ryusan! Ski! Begin!"

Mikey groaned. Why wasn't practice over yet? He couldn't imagine enemies! What if his imaginary enemies decided to be mean and run off with his awesome art idea?

Whap.

"Ow!" his sensei was giving him the look. No words needed to be spoken. "How many?"

"30," came the curt reply.

"Yes, Sensei." Mikey went off into the corner of the dojo and began to do his flips.

0000000000000

It was finally done. He grinned proudly.

He had managed to survive practice even though his arms were tingling from all of the flips. In the end he had done a grand total of 108 of them. Master Splinter figured that maybe a divine number incorporated into his punishment would get the lesson home. Mikey just wanted to know why the people who made martial arts were so obsessed with the number 108.

After practice he made a beeline for his room, instantly located his sketch book and his soft graphite pencils and set off to work. The picture had taken a long time to finish since so much detail had been incorporated, but it was worth it because his master piece was finally finished. It was the best thing he had ever drawn. He poured everything he had into the image; all of his skills, heart and soul.

He couldn't wait to show everyone! Happily, he grabbed his sketchbook and tore off to find his brothers.

0000000000000

So far his experiment was going smoothly, Don thought as he placed a now empty vile onto the shelf above his workspace. It was where his other chemicals were being held so they'd be in easy reach.

The liquid was beginning to cool down showing that the endothermic reaction was occurring as it should. Taking a small teaspoon, he measured out some light blue powder and gently started tapping it into the now purple liquid. With each puff of powder the liquid cleared a little more.

He had to be very careful that he didn't add too much or it would ruin the whole solution. He had to be focused on exact measurement. He slowly leaned closer and closer to the graduated cylinder so he'd get a better look at the reaction and how much powder he was using. His beak was almost touching the glass.

It took precision. It took focus. It took concentration and a keen eye.

A voice chose that moment to thunder from behind.

"HEY DONNY!" It boomed. "I've got somethi-"

"EEEE!" In shock Donny reeled back dropping the spoon into the liquid while his other hand slammed accidentally into one of the vials on his shelf. It was an oil filled glass with some kind of rock sitting on the bottom and quickly the entirety of it, and it contents went spilling into the solution below with a sickening plop. Donny could only stare at it in horror. 'No! What was that?' Frantically he picked up the empty container and read.

"Na… Sodium." He looked in horror to see the tiny chunk of the metal sitting at the bottom of the cylinder.

His mind speedily began comprehending the situation. Sodium reacts with water to form Sodium Hydroxide and Hydrogen Gas. The reaction produces a lot of heat, which is sufficient to melt the metal, and to his horror a reaction was forming between the metal and the liquid. If the reaction scaled up further the molten metal would start to boil. 'That would cause the boiling metal to break apart and thus increase its surface area, which would, in turn, speed up the reaction rate. The faster the reaction the more heat produced. That would cause the Hydrogen Gas to ignite and that would cause...' "GET DOWN!" Don dive bombed Mikey shoving him to the ground.

BOOM!!

Coughing and hacking Michelangelo and Donatello cleared out of the smoldering lab. Both of their faces were covered in soot and Mikey's eyes were watering from the smoke. "Jeez, Don (cough cough)! You've gotta' be a bit more (hack) careful." He rammed his fist into his chest a few times to assist his coughs in removing the invading black substance inside. Don was glaring at him. "You could've blown us up to Kaboom Kingdome."

"What do you (wheeze) want, Mikey? If you're asking me whether or not you can help, the answer's no. The VCR still makes toast from the last time." He wiped his face fervently with a cloth that had been tucked in his belt.

"No, that's not it. I wanna show you something," came the cheery reply.

"Is it important?"

"Well, I think it is."

"Is it life threateningly important?"

"Well… No not really."

"Then show me later. I've got a lot of work to do." He walked back into his smoke filled lab before running out again hacking. After clearing up the smoke from his lungs he gave a deep sigh. "I guess I could work on the battle shell. The oil needs to be checked and the clutch master cylinder has been acting strange. I was also meaning to modify the shell cells…" Don walked off muttering about all the things needing to be fixed in the garage.

Mikey watched him go and sighed, clutching his sketchbook dejectedly to his plastron.

"Well, that did not go as planned," Mikey mumbled. Suddenly, his eyes brightened and his face split into a grin. Any disappointment that had been there was instantly erased. "I know who I could show!" and he ran off in the direction of the living room.

0000000000000

Raph groaned, leaning over the arm of the couch. He let his unoccupied arm flop while his other arm covered his eyes.

He was so tired.

Last night he had been out all night with Casey. They busted up some hooligans, Casey went bat-happy and then they headed to Casey's place to get acquainted with a little friend named 'Jack Daniels.'

Man was he hating life.

He was surprised that he had survived through training without falling asleep. He had already gotten over the minor effects of the small hangover but he was so sleepy. He left Casey's at around three, arrived back home at 3:30 and then was wakened up by Leo at 6:00am. He had thrown his alarm clock at Leo yelling, 'what's the point of having one when I have fearless leader to personally get me up each morning?!'

Leo had dodged swiftly. His alarm smashed against the wall. Don grumbled about having to fix it, Mikey laughed at him, he had to go to training despite being borderline comatose and life continued on.

But since that was over it was time to catch up on some Z's. He would've done it earlier but the urge to replace the tires on his bike was one too strong to ignore. Still, if he slept now he would be refreshed by the time they had to go out patrolling. He began to close his heavy eyelids, slowly drifting off when suddenly footsteps came thundering in. 'Nooo. Not now!' Raph took the couch pillow and yanked it over his face in annoyance.

"Hey Raph I wanna sho-" CRACK. "EEP!" Mikey turned his head to see one of Raph's Sai embedded deeply in the wall next to his head. Raph was glaring at him. The dark purple bags under his eyes made it all that much scarier.

"Righto! I was just leaving!" He quickly changed direction, and using his infamous speed, disappeared.

Raph sighed. "Gotta nip these things in the bud sometimes…ugh." He readjusted the pillow so it was underneath his head and quickly fell asleep.

And as the older brother drifted off Mikey stood outside of the door wondering what had just happened. Raph, apparently, was not in a particularly good mood. Not that he ever really was but at least they normally bantered for a while before he started throwing sharp metal objects at his head.

His excitement was dwindling. But there was still hope! One last room to check. Off to the dojo!

000

Slowly bring hands to left side, left palm enclosing right fist. As hands move into position, bring left foot to right. Step forward with left treading step. Plant the left foot and step through with right foot behind with reinforced back fist to head.

Breathe in breath out. Focus the breath on each movement. Breathe out with hard movements, breath in with soft movements.

Pivot to opposite direction in left fore-balance with overhead block and reverse hammer fist. Shorten stance with right side block; bring left fist to chamber.

Breathe in breath out. Imagine you're striking through the enemies. Attack like someone is threatening you. Hit through them.

Pivot to opposite direction in right fore-balance with left fore arm block. Shorten stance with right side block. Bring right foot through to opposite direction in straddle stance with low hammer fist. Shorten stance and come up with back fist strike.

Breathe in breath out. Block like your evading an actual enemy's attack. Practice like your life is in danger.

Bring right foot up to cat stance with right forearm block. Bring left fist up through center with uppercut toward front. Shift left fist and drive hips into strike as it turns into hooking strike. Feet end up parallel to each other

And make sure those low kicks aren't too high this time! Concentrate!

Bring right foot back behind left, ending up in left cat stance with knife hand block. Pivot and turn left foot outward and bring left fist to chamber; right palm hand reaches across body low to trap. Bring right knee up to break; follow through with sidekick to knee. Refold kick strongly and land facing opposite direction in left cat stance with knife hand block…

"GAH!" a voice cried. Leo's hand landed a hair's width away from Mikey's clavicle.

"Uh hey there Leo! Ya mind pointing that thing somewhere else?" Michelangelo asked while pointing to Leo's outstretched knife hand.

Leo closed his eyes in frustration.

'Focus broken,' he thought bitterly. "Mikey what are you doing in here? I highly doubt it's to practice and you're breaking my concentration. What do you want?" He folded his arms.

"I wanna show you the picture I drew!" He smiled happily lifting his sketchbook into the air.

"Well, if that's it, leave me be. I'm practicing that kata Master Splinter taught us and I'm trying to perfect it, just like you should be doing. Show it to me later."

"But it'll only…"

"Later, Mikey. If you want you can stay here and train more too. You're the only one that didn't get the kata this morning."

Mikey's face fell. "I was distracted. I really wanted to finish my drawing…"

"See that's the problem Mikey… You're too unfocussed." He then began the kata once more, quickly back into deep thought, a level of profound focus. Master splinter called it one of the three minds of martial arts, Fudoshin; immobile mind (unaffected by anything external). Leo was dead to the world outside of the one he was fabricating in his kata.

"Ok then. I'll just go somewhere else." With that Mikey walked dejectedly off.

0000000000000

They all had different ways of showing disappointment.

Raph would break stuff (or people) until his steaming temper cooled and he felt better.

Don would engulf himself with work to distract him from the problem.

Leo would keep it all inside and let it breed until finally the dam broke and it was all let loose (normally through an argument with Raph)

Mikey, however, pouted and moped, wearing his misery on his sleeve.

Master Splinter had made him feel a bit better earlier by looking at his picture, but he wanted all of his family to see it.

So he continued to mope.

And he did so up until Leo wandered into his room, his other brothers close behind.

"Mikey it's time for our patrol. We have to go."

Mikey didn't budge. He just continued to wear his pathetic woes-I look on his face.

"Mikey what's wrong?" Leo asked somewhat concerned. A silent Mikey was never a good thing.

"None of you looked at my picture." He gave pitiful glare that made Raph snicker.

"You hung up about that still?" Raph was fully awake now.

Was that it? Leo gave an exasperated sigh. "Look Mikey we were all busy. It just wasn't a good time."

Mikey grumbled about it only taking five seconds.

Leo frowned. He didn't like it when Michelangelo was miffed with them. It wasn't right with the Force. "Look when we get back from our patrol we'll all look at your picture. How about that?"

Mikey's face lit up.

"Well what are we waiting for! Let's go!" He swiped up his chucks and plowed past his brothers.

Mikey bounced back fast.

Before he could get too far Donatello grabbed him by the back of his shell and yanked him back."Wait guys before we go, I made some changes to our shell cells!"

Don let go of Mikey and fished around in his bag. After finding them he handed one of the green phones to each of his brothers.

"It…doesn't look that different," Leo stated, looking at the phone.

"Flip is open." Don waved his hand.

Leo did so. "I still don't see what I'm looking…Wait, what's this blue button?"

"It's a panic signal. If any of us are in trouble all you have to do and push the button and it'll alert the others. It also sends out a signal that can be tracked," Donny explained.

"Huh. I'm impressed." Leo grinned and tucked it away in his belt.

"Come on guys!"Mikey jumped in. "Daylight's burning! I mean night lights burning. Well night doesn't have light so it can't really burn… Night's freezing then? Wait, that doesn't make sense though… Would it be…?"

"Mikey. Shuddup. Le's just go."

000

Patrol went smoothly actually. They had one little skirmish with a few Purple Dragons that went without incident. Well, almost without incident.

Raph's skull felt like it had been run over by a steamroller. Don said he didn't have a concussion or anything, but there would be a rather nasty bruise on his forehead for a while.

They had seen some Purple Dragons mugging some guy who looked like a nerdy college student. Things started normally: wimpy high school dropouts with their chains and crowbars, talking trash, and then said wimpy drop outs getting their asses handed to them. But something new happened.

Raph cornered one of the kids, one with lethally pointy blue hair (the hair probably would have been a better weapon the lame small hammer the kid had), and was gonna get him but something that usually didn't happen occurred.

The kid momentarily grew a backbone and threw a brick at him.

A freaking brick! He had been so surprised by this he actually got hit by it. Mikey knocked the kid out, went to check on Raph, and then proceeded to laugh his ass off.

The fact that Raph smacked him over the head giving him a matching mark made him feel somewhat better though.

"My head…Damn brick throwing hoodlums," Raph groussed.

"Don't worry, Raph. We'll be home soon and we can get you some ice for that. Getting back's the easy part." Leo pat his brother on the shoulder, but Raph simply shrugged him off in annoyance. So they continued their journey home.

After reaching the top of the building that was right across the street from their destination, they stopped and stood dumbstruck.

"You have got to be kiddin' me," Raph hissed in disbelief, breaking the silence.

The building next to the manhole they needed to get to was on fire.

'No!' Mikey inwardly screamed. He had been waiting all day to show his siblings the picture he worked so hard on. He couldn't wait any longer. Darn you building! Couldn't you combust somewhere else?

The four stood in awe at the rising piers of flames. They could feel the heat coming from the burning building from their positions on the roof. The building's ancient frame creaked like bones snapping, as the brick façade skin began to crumble under the extreme heats. Fire fighters were desperately trying to put the fire out with heavy jets of water to no avail. The building probably couldn't be saved.

"Umm, how did we not notice that?" Don piped up referring to the billowing acrid smoke clouds and the hot, orange glow coming from the pillars of flames.

Leo felt that something wasn't right. Something about the burning building just felt off. However, his thoughts did not linger on the matter for he had to turn his attention to a different matter.

"We can't get into the sewers from here." Leo sighed looking at all of the wide eyed people in the streets below as they stared in morbid fascination at the collapsing building.

"Well great. Everyone on the whole stupid street and their Grandma's out." Raph groaned.

"They probably are evacuating everyone just in case the fire gets out of hand. These building are kind of old. It would make sense that the fire could jump to the other apartments," Don guessed.

"You don't think that…people were in there do you." Mikey looked at the building with sad eyes as the roof collapsed.

His brothers responded with a unhappy quiet.

"We're going to have to take the scenic route and go completely around this street," Leo said breaking the silence.

"Scenic. Nice. I hear the graffiti is quite colorful around this time of year," Mikey cheerfully responded. Inside though, he just really wanted to get home, 'So my bros can see my masterful art piec.,' He split a grin at this thought.

"Isn't there something closa'? I am in dire need of an aspirin or two…Or twenty." The second oldest rubbed his throbbing temples. His headache spiked up from throb to jackhammer.

"The menu consists of two items, Raph. Take it or leave it."

Red glared at blue at this comment but didn't respond with more than a shrug. He was not in the mood for their daily Leo vs. Raph blowout.

Leo was slightly surprised at his brothers, dare say docile, attitude.

Maybe Raph needed to be hit by bricks more often.

"You know," Don started, contemplation behind his eyes, "I could come up with a way to rig one of…"

"No Don." Raph cut him off before he really had a chance to begin. "I've got a head ache and wanna go home the simple, quick and easy way. It's not like we ever understand what comes outa your mouth anyways."

"Intellect is invisible to the man who has none," Donny snapped quickly.

Silence.

"D'you jus' call me stupid?"

Mikey snickered. Leo sighed. Maybe there was an argument bubbling inside of Raph wanting to get out, but perhaps it would be directed toward someone else for a change.

"Well I don't see any of you coming up with any ideas," was the agitated reply from Donny as he sent a glare in each of their directions.

"Whoa dude. I have plenty ideas." Mikey raised his hands defensively; "They all suck though."

"Look, guys, this is a really delicate situation." Leo started heading to the other side of the building. "Be very careful. There are a lot more people out than usual. We need to be unnoticed. No commotion. No theatrics. We just need to get home."

The sooner the better too. Something did not feel right. There was a horrible feeling hanging in the air like something bad was following them. He felt something tap his shoulder and he looked in surprise to see Raph. His younger sibling was giving him a look that stated, 'Ya feelin' it too, huh?' Leo nodded. If Raph, the most instinctive of them all, could tell something was up, something was up.

It was now a matter of avoiding it and getting to safety.

0000

"Sewer sweet sewer!" Mikey yipped.

It had taken a couple more minutes then it would've had they been able to take the direct route, but the manhole cover was now in sight. The journey had been a harrowing one though. Mikey had almost got run over by a fire truck (his mind was elsewhere more than usual today), Raph's headache had elevated from dull nails being hammered into his skull to power drill, Don was still irked by the quick dismissal of his wonderful plan (it involved an intricate pulley system and catapulting), and Leo was in shock that no fights had broken out despite the odd tension.

But he wasn't in that much shock because he knew all of his brothers were on edge focusing on the strange presence hanging in the air. Besides getting home, that's where all of their attention was.

Well, most of his brothers anyway.

"Yes! Now when we get home you guys have got to see what I've been working on!" Mikey bellowed happily. Don and Raph gave apathetic sighs. Leo didn't take any notice as his senses heightened.

Something wasn't right. "Mikey hush for a sec," Leo whispered raising a hand to indicate silence as he tried to listen to his surroundings. Raph and Don both also tensed, but Michelangelo remained oblivious.

"What? Why? Is something wrong? Eh it's probably just a rat or cat. Come on guys let's get home I really want to show you this thing!"

"Mikey, shut up for a moment!" Raph said harshly, straining his hearing over Mikey's voice.

"I'm telling you guys you're being paranoid." The youngest started walking backward to the manhole cover. "Come on! I've been waiting all day! I think you'll really..."

"Mikey, stop!" Leo yelled.

"What? What fo…" He discontinued his journey as he felt a strange spike of heat behind him. It was followed by a slight uncomfortable pressure resting on his jugular. In shock he realized there were two, razor sharp Kunai crossed in an X and pressed to his throat.

"Would not move," a thick smoky voice came from behind. It was a ninja.

Leonardo looked on in horror. This ninja was dressed as a traditional Foot soldier only with extra armor on his shoulders, hips, chest, and calves. A large traditional Japanese straw hat was obscuring half of his already clothed face.

It was an elite.

'When did that happen?!' Mikey's mind screamed in disbelief. Getting over the initial shock of someone being able to sneak up on him, he realized he could not move. Both of his arms were incapacitated, a ninja holding each one with a Kunai to his wrists. Also, to his horror, both of his legs were tightly locked by two other ninjas. Both of who had sharpened knives pressed lightly but threateningly up against the pulsing arteries located on the back of his knees.

He couldn't move or he would be sliced to ribbons.

They had all noticed they were in danger. His brothers picked up on it right away. Yet his guard had been down, and that's all it took. In less than 3 seconds he was being held down by five people, all of which had lethal objects skimming five vital points on his body. If they were all cut, if any of them were cut, that would surely mean death.

His heart skipped a beat and jumped into his throat as he realized something.

'They could have just killed me. I could have been dead 30 seconds ago.'

"MICHELANGELO!" Leo screamed sliding his swords out of their scabbards ready to decapitate the offenders. Raph screamed in anger. He whipped out his Sais, ready to charge the five attackers that were risking his brothers' safety. Donatello readied his Bo staff expertly and took an aggressive stance.

"Teishi." The dark ninja said in a commanding voice, "Do not move. Kiku. Listen. Do not listen, mattaku kiku nai, and turtle shall be gutted," he said in broken English. Leo quickly evaluated the situation.

The enemies' weapons were all touching Michelangelo's skin. They were too close to important arteries to risk jostling. It would be difficult to debilitate five enemies when they had a hostage in such a situation. One wrong move or one badly executed attack would mean…

"Don't move," Leo whispered quietly to his brothers. Raph growled.

"What the hell, Leo? We can't jus' sit and do nothin'…" His angry whispers were halted quickly by a look from his older sibling.

"Shut up, Raph," he hissed. "I'm aware but there's no way to attack without Mikey getting hurt." He turned to the man behind Mikey. "What do you want!?" Leo did not need to see the man's face to know that he was probably grinning.

Mikey groaned. He was being used as freaking leverage! How could he be so stupid to get in this situation? All he wanted was to get home and show his brothers that picture. He had just been so distracted by it.

He had been distracted.

Distracted. 'Oh.' He had answered his own question.

The ninja holding the Kunais to Mikey's throat began to speak rapidly in Japanese.

"Wakari-masen. Ima, eego de hanase. (1)," Leo growled through clenched teeth. Out of the four he was the strongest in Japanese and even he was not very far past simple conversation in it.

The man stopped and seemed to ponder the translation of what he had said into English.

"Discard all your weapons to ground. Step back after." He decided upon.

Mikey's eyes snapped open. Their weapons were their most important and prized possessions! Each one had been handcrafted by master Splinter and had been given to them when they were young! There was no way his brothers would…

Thunk.

Mikey looked with wide eyes at seeing how quickly Raph had thrown his Sais onto the ground at the stranger's request.

'Raph.' a lump was forming in his throat. His eyes began to sting.

K-Kling.

'Leo's swords.'

Clatter.

'Don's Bo.'

Michelangelo wanted to tell them to stop. That their weapons weren't worth it but the words choked and died in his throat. He was too scared at the thought of dying. 'I don't want to die. Not like this.' He clenched his eyes shut.

Raph glared up to the man and spat the two phrases he knew really well in Japanese, "Kisama! Koro shite yaru! (2)," The ninja was unfazed.

One ninja with cat like grace appeared before the three and gathered their weapons carefully in a bundle. Leo stared pensively at the ninja, his eyes swirling with emotions. Raph's knuckles were turning white from him clenching his fists so hard, and his jaw was shut tightly enough to crack teeth. Donatello simply looked away, attempting to detach himself from his beloved Bo staff.

'What are they doing? Why are they…" Leo's thoughts wandered.

"We thank you for your cooperation. Arigatou- gozaimasu." The ninja gave a quick head nod from his position behind Mikey. Quickly he drew both of his kunai away from Mikey's neck and kicked him forward. And like the wind he and the other foot ninja vanished. It was as they had never been there at all.

"Jigoku ni ike!(3)" Raph screamed into the wind, his voice carrying after the ninja though he himself did not follow.

"They just took our weapons and left," Don said in disbelief.

Mikey was on all fours looking at the ground with wide eyes his mind reeling at what had happened.

His brothers' weapons had just been stolen and it was his fault. Mikey's eyes trailed down his own plastron to see both of his nunchaku were still tucked safely into his belt.

His brothers lost their weapons because of him while he still had his. Guilt was beginning to fill him.

He raised his head to look at his siblings. 'Guys I'm so sorry,' he wanted to say but he couldn't find the words in his throat.

None of them were looking at him. His gaze instantly went back to the ground.

"Guys?" His voice came out hoarse, barely above a whisper.

"DAMNIT!!" Raph roared. Mikey flinched. "You stupid idiot! We were telling ya ta shuddup but you kept runnin' you're freakin trap like a moron! How could you have gotten caught like that!? You're a NINJA for Christ's sake so GROW THE HELL UP AND ACT LIKE ONE! We lost our weapons 'cause of your stupid careless ass! I lost MY SAIS! I just wanna…AAARGH!!" Raph kicked the nearest thing (Mikey was glad it was not him), a trashcan, sending it at least five feet in the air where it landed several feet away with a large dent concaving the side, "DAMN IT!" he screamed.

Raph's words wrapped around him like a suffocating shroud seeping into his every being. Mikey had not once looked up through the berating. He couldn't face any of them.

"Raph stop," Leo muttered with little authority in his voice. "All that matters is that Mikey's safe."

Raph turned around quickly staring up at the clouded sky, his hands holding the sides of his head. His headache escalated to a full blown migraine. "I do not even wanna look at you, Mikey," He growled.

"We need to get to master Splinter and tell him what happened. Something must be up for them to just want our…weapons. They must be planning something," Leo's voice carried softly to them all. There was an underlining of some emotion Mikey could not pinpoint.

Was it disappointment? Resentment?

Both?

"Leo?" He croaked softly. His eldest brother walked right past him.

"I can't believe this happened. Why didn't they take Mikey's chucks too?" Don put his face in both of his hands as followed Leo. He could here the sound of the metal man hole being lifted and his two brothers disappearing into the sewers.

Raph dropped his hands to his sides and began to follow his brothers retreating forms. However he stopped when he got next to Mikey. "You screwed up big Mikey. I'm not gonna let this go," his voice was dripping with malice. Leaving at that sour note he continued his trek before disappearing.

Mikey merely sat there. Misery and guilt sapped him of his strength making him lethargic. For the first time he slowly looked up, and something caught his eyes.

A glint of metal? Why did his brothers not notice it?

He crawled to it and picked it up. It was a card. The foot emblem was carved into the dark metal and painted over with crimson red paint. There were words carved in as well but they were so tiny he had to squint to read. 'Warehouse 431. Dock 12.' It was an address. One of the ninjas must have dropped it.

Mikey's agony lifted slightly as a few of the unused cogs in his brain began to creak to life. A plan was forming. He grabbed the metal and headed for the sewer.

"I can fix this." 'It couldn't be that hard could it??'

Yet a voice in the back of his head was saying that nothing is ever as easy as it seems to be.

1. "I do not understand. Speak English now."

2 "Son of a bitch! I'm going to kill you!"

3 "Go to Hell!"

So how was the first chapter? Beginnings are never easy to write for some reason because you never know how to start them. But this has been really fun to write and I believe it will get better as it progresses.

So was it good bad? Constructive criticism is appreciated. Flames shall be used to roast marshmallows. Please review!

SL: