Michelangelo floated in the depths of the ocean for an eerie minute or two, gathering his bearings from an explosion that forced him and his brothers off of an illegal Foot Clan cargo ship. He spun in a circle to search for any signs of his brothers before starting his swim upward towards the surface. It was a long swim back to the top as the explosion had forced one of those metal cargo containers into Mikey's plastron as he sunk to the bottom of the ocean floor. Although a rib or two were cracked as well as his nose, Mikey otherwise felt okay for his one-hundred and thirtieth near death experience.

Gotta love the turtle benefits, Mikey thought to himself as he continued to swim.

His skin began to lose color as his body trembled from exhaustion and the near freezing salt water. Although Mikey was struggling to push onward, the deafening silence of the ocean was strangely comforting. If he could hold his breath for hours, Mikey would find himself lying among the ocean floor, in its sand, hiding away from his problems. There were no horns blaring from cars like on the New York City streets, no groaning pipes and shaking walls as the train traveled through the underground tunnels near the Lair, there were no brothers around to nag him about all of his responsibilities, no violence, no pain, and no worries.

It was a Utopia of a sort and Mikey almost wished he could stay down under for a few months. The New Year didn't kick off the way he'd been hoping as the young turtle found himself and his brothers on the bad side of luck for most of their patrol missions. It usually ended up with somebody injured, a brooding guilt ridden Leo, an exhausted Don from sleepless nights from treating injured brothers, and Raph. Don't even get me started on Raph, Mikey thought with an inward groan. All Mikey wanted to do once he surfaced was to go home and sleep for days if Master Splinter allowed it. He didn't want to deal with his brothers reactions after tonight which is why staying in the ocean sounded like a good idea at the current time.

I have to make sure they're alright, was Mikey's only thought that kept him swimming.

As he looked upward through the murky water the turtle could barely make out a little bit of the sun's light that broke through, silently informing him that he was reaching the ocean's surface point. Just a few more good strokes before he could haul his brothers back home and take a much needed hot shower but not before convincing Leo to grab some pizza for dinner. He'd abuse his baby brother power by using the "puppy dog look" if it came to it. He didn't realize how hungry he'd actually been. Near death experiences will knock calories off into the negative zone and that thought didn't sit well with the food loving turtle.

As Mikey continued to swim, thinking about all the delicious meat lovers' toppings he was going to order, a strange sound erupted from beneath him. Thinking he was just hearing things from being in the water for too long, he continued his journey for air until he heard the sound again that made him stop short of reaching his destination. Mikey floated there for another second, glancing below to find the source but found the dark staring back at him instead. The sound was almost voice like, wavering at a high pitch. It came every few seconds and Mikey found himself sinking slowly back to the ocean floor forgetting he was running out of time for air.

The sound was mesmerizing and it caught Mikey like a turtle in a net. There was some odd sensation about it that made him want to hear more and the lower he went back down, the more he could hear. He lost about half the distance he made up towards the surface and he could no longer see the beams of sunlight. He was back in Utopia.

As Mikey turned his head side to side to try and figure out what was happening, the sounds abruptly stopped. He stared ahead, confused and curiously until two silver dots appeared in the distance. Maybe it's just a whale or something, he thought to himself briefly. But Mikey knew whales never showed up in this part of the ocean so close to New York City. The young turtle couldn't ignore the sounds he had heard either; just like he couldn't look away from the two glistening silver eyes that were staring back at him, at a now shorter distance.

Wait, eyes?! What the shell?!

Mikey didn't feel frightened though. He felt at ease and at peace, comforted by this mysterious being. It wasn't a foot soldier coming back for last minute revenge, there was something different that he sensed about this new creature.

He heard a child's voice in his head first telling him something and then asking a question. He watched as a hand slowly reached out for him awaiting some kind of response. Mikey found it strange that he couldn't see what exactly he was trying to communicate with. He could barely see the outline of the creature, it looked human enough and he was right about hearing a child's voice. He could make out shoulder length hair that brushed this being's shoulders but couldn't quite make out any other features other than the metallic eyes and the hand. He didn't know exactly who this creature was but again found himself reaching to greet the being.

The second Mikey made contact with the mysterious floating hand, he felt himself losing consciousness and then being dragged further into the ocean's depth. Before he passed out completely, he could have sworn he heard Raph's gurgling voice trying to call out to him through the thick water.

The first thing Mikey could hear when he came to was the voices of his brothers somewhere above him. He didn't need to open his eyes to acknowledge the bright fluorescent lighting emitting from his genius brother's makeshift infirmary. The youngest turtle realized that he was sore to the bone after laying there on the padded cot for a few minutes trying to figure out what had happened.

Patrol mission…explosion…then….then what? Mikey thought to himself over Raph's concerned question of, "Are you sure he's gonna be okay Donnie?"

Mikey felt something was amiss here but couldn't quite put one of his six fingers on it.

"Yes, I'm certain. Once he wakes up Mikey should be bed ridden for a couple of days and then take a couple of weeks to recover from his cracked bones. But he'll be good as new in about a month or so," Donnie confirmed.

Mikey could hear the frustrated sigh from Raph and could almost feel Leo's frown. He knew the overprotective big brother buttons had been pushed on both of them. Last time this happened, Mikey was merely nicked by a sword from a member of the Foot Clan and Leo just lost it on the poor soul. Raph didn't let Mikey out of his sight for a couple days and Mikey just wished his brothers could keep their cool like Donnie. Not looking forward to being the target of the watchdogs again, Mikey continued to lay there silently trying to figure out what he was not remembering.

There was water, the turtle thought as flashes of memories came back to him. Water, sand…I was swimming up and then…two dots…they were eyes…OH!

Mikey's eyes shot open with a gasp from his lungs, startling his brothers. Don was the first to gently put his hands on the paled turtle's shoulders in a smoothing matter.

"Mikey! You're okay, you're safe," Don said as he rubbed the forehead of his younger brother. "Take a few deep breaths… there you go, you're okay."

As Mikey tried to regain a normal heart rate he blinked a few times to recompose himself. His ribs hurt and he could feel the pain in his nose travel up to his head.

"Mikey, hey, how do feel?" Leo asked, beyond relieved, from the opposite side of the cot from Donnie, he was leaning over, holding himself up on the bed with his hands to peer down at youngest turtle. Mikey looked back at him with a grim smile before looking over at Raph who stood at the end of the bed with his arms crossed, glaring right through him.

He cleared his throat a bit and drank some water Donnie offered him before responding.

"I'm fine, bros. Little sore here and there but nothing the Mikester can't handle."

That at least prompted an eye roll from Donnie and a smirk from Raph. Leo smiled a little before taking his turn to rub Mikey's head fondly.

"Do you remember what happened?" Don asked gently. Good thing Mikey took those few minutes before opening his eyes to figure that out.

"Yeah, there was that explosion on the ship. Got knocked into the water by one of those…boxes," Don raised his imaginary eyebrows at Mikey's description but let him continue on.

"I was swimming back towards the surface when I found something…someone…" Mikey trailed off, remembering the child with silver eyes and the dark shoulder length hair.

"What?" Leo flat out demanded, and then turned to his brother. "Raph you didn't mention about anyone else being in the water when you found him."

"Because there was no one around, Fearless. Mikey was just floating there unconscious when I grabbed his shell and pulled him up," Raph responded, and if he winced slightly at the thought of finding Mikey almost lifeless his brothers decided to ignore it. Mikey was fine now and that's all that mattered.

They all fixated their stares back to Mikey for an explanation.

"Y-you didn't see him Raph?"

"See who Mikey? All I saw was you and forgive me if I didn't care to look around too long on the account that my brother was knocked inta' lalaland!" Raph yelled out, yet concern laced his words and Mikey knew he was only worried.

Mikey then took interest in staring at his covered feet instead of his brothers eyes.

"There was this kid…" He could feel his brothers tense up assuming the worst. Was there a child on the ship?

"I think he lived down there though or something…he came out of nowhere."

"What'd he do to ya?!" Raph yelled again, clenching his fists by his sides. He was about to suck the sea dry with a vacuum cleaner if this kid was responsible for any of his youngest brother's injuries.

Mikey, recoiling from the anger thrown around took a quick glance at his hotheaded brother before turning to look at Leo. Leo looked just as upset and Mikey, for a short second thought he really should have just turned back to the patient brother.

"He didn't do anything…I don't think. He told me his name and then asked a question."

"Mikey what did he tell you?" Leo asked sternly, his grip on Mikey's shoulder tightening a bit.

The youngest turtle took a deep breath before responding with a whisper so low that his brothers weren't sure if they had heard him correctly.

"He told me his name was Aquaman…and asked if I wanted to play."

END.

Long time no write! This two-shot story was a small crossover between DC's Aquaman and the Ninja Turtles. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING. It's up to your imagination what you think Aquaman's intentions were as a child! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and let me know what you think! Thank you for reading!

I am doing these small stories, one-shots, and drabbles to help with my writing. I have paused on my other story because I felt the writing was all over the place and that I wasn't getting the character's personalities down so I am hoping to brush up on all of that here! Also I won't feel rushed to finish anything here because all these stories will be a completed one-shot or two-shot. I'm bad at making multiple continuous same story chapters and I apologize for it! Also if any small idea pops up, I can just quickly write about it instead of starting a whole new story so it'll be good! Thank for you reading and have a great day!

-A Damsel in Distresss