Disclaimer: I don't own the Ninja Turtles, they belong to cool, awesome people who don't mind if I borrow them for fanfiction every now and then, right, cool, awesome people? (cute blinky eyes)
The Mirror Point
Chapter 1: Switch
"Donnie, come play me at NASCAR," whined Michelangelo. The orange-wearing turtle was draped over the top of his brother's desktop PC, his arms dangling down to frame the computer screen like overgrown clumps of ivy. "I'll even let you win." Light brown eyes pouted uselessly as Donatello pointedly ignored him.
"I really don't want to," Donnie said, continuing to type without looking up.
"But Donnie-"
"No," Donatello said curtly, "It has to be one of the dullest Xbox games you have, Mikey, and trust me, you have a lot of boring games over there." He casually waved his hand towards the basket full of thin boxes that was nestled beside their TV. Taking a sip from his Dr. Pepper, he turned his exasperated gaze up at Mikey. "NASCAR consists of you and me sitting on the couch watching our advertisement-specified cars making a left turn, making a left turn, making a left turn." He made circles in the air with his finger to illustrate his point.
"Dude, it's not that bad," exclaimed Mikey, rolling his eyes at the exaggeration. He peeled himself off of the computer and dropped down on his knees next to Donnie's computer chair, hands clasped together in front of him. He did not care if Donatello despised every game he had, he just wanted somebody to play with. "Please, Donnie, pretty please, pretty please with lots of cherries and whipped cream and pepperonis on top…"
"Go sucker Raph into playing with you or something," Donatello advised, returning his attention to the computer program he was working on. If provoked in the right way, Raphael was the most likely one to play X-box with Mikey. One correctly tossed taunt could have Raph determinedly playing NASCAR until either he won or his hands started bleeding.
"But Raphael already said no," Mikey complained, his lower lip jutting out in a perfected pitiful expression. He noticed the computer codes racing across the screen and grinned at his brother. "You're not messing with the Matrix again, are you, Donnie?"
"And what if I am?" Donnie asked with a quiet seriousness. He started laughing when his younger brother leaned away cautiously. "It's just a program, Mikey. I'm trying to fix a glitch that keeps shutting down one of my games."
"Oh." Mikey was about as interested in the inner workings of the computer as Donnie was with NASCAR racing.
"Want me to tell you all about it?" Donnie asked with a wave of enthusiasm, spinning his chair around to face Mikey. "You see, first you have to start with the underlying layer of nanocodes and carefully reprogram-"
"I'm gonna, uh, go find Raph," Mikey said, skittering backwards away from Donatello. Donnie smirked and went back to work as Mikey fled from the lecture.
Mikey wandered through the lair, wondering where his red-wearing brother had gotten off to. Raphael was not training in their expansive dojo and Mikey was pretty sure that he had not gone Up Top to visit Casey or anything. He decided to start his search in the likeliest of places; Raphael's bedroom.
The door to Raphael's bedroom was closed and locked but that was only a small hindrance to Michelangelo. Besides, since it was locked, it automatically meant Raph was in there. Mikey had learned early in life that kicking down a door was A, not appreciated at all, B, rather painful to your foot, and C, hard to fix if you weren't Donatello the Handyturtle. So, he had developed a skill from the dark side of ninjitsu: lock picking.
Mikey took a long, slender metal pick from the side of one of his nunchuku holders. Grinning, he got down on his knees and inserted it in the lock. While humming 'The Song That Never Ends', he toyed with the lock, messing with the tumblers and whatever else was in there. He might have known how to get it open, but he did not know what made it open. The lock made that sharp clicking noise and Mikey pumped his fist in the air, his mouth opened in a silent victory shout. He had pulled out the pick and was reaching up to turn the handle when the door unexpectedly opened.
"Mikey," Raphael growled, his sleepy eyes dark and annoyed. He put on hand on the doorway and rubbed the side of his face with the other. So much for a nap…
"Oh, hey, Raph!" Mikey exclaimed with a rookie reporter's energy as he jumped to his feet, inconspicuously shoving the lock pick back into its place. He went straight to the heart of the matter. "You have to come play NASCAR with me! Donnie said so."
"Yeah, right," Raphael mumbled, leaning against the doorway with his eyes closed. God, he was tired; he had stayed out all night busting lowlife skulls with Casey Jones. "Maybe when Leonardo gets a life." He moved away from the doorway, sinking back into the inviting shadows of his room. "Now get lost. And don't try to pick my lock again or I'll take your fingers off."
Michelangelo started to panic; he could see his chances to play Xbox with a person slipping away. Leonardo was too busy reading The Tale of Two Cities for what had to be the fifty gazillionth time, and asking Master Splinter was just…awkward. If he was desperate enough, Mikey supposed he could do that, but he had a hard time imagining his venerable ninja sensei with an Xbox controller in his hands while they competed at car-racing. Mikey had to get Raphael to play with him!
"Wait! Wait, wait, wait!" Mikey shouted, darting past his brother and blocking the way with his body. "I, Michelangelo, great and terrible," he declared, going with the first idea that came to mind, "demand that you play me on the Xbox. And if you refuse, I will do something so horrible," he waved his hands back and forth in front of his brother's face, "that you will never be the same again! Whee-yow!"
Mikey watched as Raphael just stood there for a moment, staring. He smiled, certain he had made his point. That was when Raph's fist came flying at his head.
"Whoa!" Mikey shouted as he ducked and rolled out of the way of immediate danger. He chuckled as he sprung to his feet again. "Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." He jumped out of the way again as Raphael launched a well-aimed flying kick.
"When I get a hold of you, you won't be able to get up in the morning," snarled Raphael as he thundered after the speedier turtle. He clawed the air in a wild attempt to snatch Mikey's trailing bandanna tails.
"Aw, Raph, it was just a joke!" Mikey said, throwing a grin back at his brother. "Not that I expected you to get it…" He dove off of the ladder and onto the ground floor as Raphael lunged for him, trying to take him down with a football tackle. Mikey was glad that Raphael's sai had been left in his bedroom; if they hadn't been, Mikey was not sure if he would be turtle-kabob or not by now. He noticed Donatello was still at his computer as the chase took him by the purple-wearing turtle's work station.
"Hey, Don, give a dude some help?" Mikey asked as he dashed by, Raphael right behind him. Donatello glanced up from his computer and gazed on his brother with a considering look.
"Well, this is a kind of racing," Donatello said, leaning back in his computer chair to watch the event. "And you even get more exercise this way. Good thinking, Mikey."
"Donnie!" cried Mikey as he leapt over the couch in an attempt to lose Raphael. The move proved to be useless since Raphael just copied it. The older turtle gave a barking laugh, ascertained of his victory now that he knew no one was coming to Michelangelo's aid. His vicious, adrenaline-fueled attacks finally pushed his brother into a corner.
"You're mine," Raphael said, a murderous grin on his face. He loved it when he was winning.
Mikey looked around frantically, trying to find a path of escape. Raphael kept blocking his attempts to run.
"Can't we talk this over like civilized turtles? I mean, c'mon, Raph, you'll make everyone cry if you kill me." Mikey pointed an accusing finger at Raphael. "Their ginormous sorrow will be on your shoulders, dude! Can you deal with that?"
"Yeah."
Mikey could see that his mouth was getting him no where; he decided to try a drastic measure.
Letting out one of his patented, high-pitched girly screams, Mikey charged at Raphael, catching him in the chest and hurling him backwards onto his shell. Raphael was unprepared for the surprise attack and went down easily. Mikey was already up and running again by the time his sleep-deprived brain figured out what had happened.
"Later!" Mikey shouted as he skidded out the door that led into the sewers. If Raphael chose to follow him, he could easily lose his furious brother in the tricky twists and turns of the sewer pipes. Maybe this whole fiasco could turn into a really cool game of hide and seek or something. Not that Raphael was going to be much fun in a game at the moment. Even though he had not gotten to play the Xbox, at least Mikey was not bored anymore!
"Get back here!"
Mikey put on another burst of speed as his brother's enraged yell echoed like a giant's voice in the sewer. Oh well, so much for Raph just giving up! His bare feet splashed through the lukewarm, nasty sewer water at accelerated speeds and he just laughed, enjoying the chase to its fullest.
As he rounded the corner at the end of the pipe, a cold chill went through his body, like he had momentarily stepped into a freezer. Mikey stumbled for a second, startled by the sudden freezing temperature. The feeling passed quickly though and he could still hear Raphael's footsteps in the distance. Grinning, he continued on his dash, heading towards one of his many hiding places where he doubted even Raphael's advanced tracking skills could find him.
Brigantia, better known as Bri, grinned as the microwave gave a cheerful ding, meaning that her popcorn was done. She hissed as the hot bag singed her fingers when she pulled it out of the microwave by the edges. She flung the steaming bag into the blue plastic bowl she had set out on the counter and picked up the cup of butter she prepared. Setting the microwave again, Bri put the butter inside and hit the start button.
"Who's the best cook in this family?" she asked proudly, tossing her yellow bandanna tails behind her shoulders. The slim orange cat that was lounging on the kitchen table gave a jaw-breaking yawn before putting its head back down between its paws.
Bri smirked and gave a firm nod before petting the cat, her light green skin standing out against the orange fur. "Yep, you're right, that'd be me."
"You made popcorn, great achievement," a sarcastic voice teased. A taller, jungle green female turtle followed the voice into the kitchen and leaned against the doorway. "Maybe one day you'll figure out how to work the toaster oven."
"Aw, Morgan, you're just annoyed because you can't cook at all," Bri said, giving her older sister a mock pitying look. A favorite pastime of Brigantia's was taunting Morgan, who could whip out quick-witted comments as fast as Cerridwen, their brainy middle sister. Rhiannon, the oldest out of the four sisters, spent a lot of her time acting as referee between whoever was arguing.
"Ha, you say that like you can." Morgan moved over to one of the chairs at the kitchen table.
"Better than you, Lady Burns-A-lot, like, everything," Bri retorted before the microwave dinged again. She twirled around to retrieve her now-melted butter.
"Oh, now that was a good one," Morgan said as she rolled her eyes. She let the quarrel drop, seeing that Bri probably had the higher ground on this subject since she really was an okay cook. Noticing the cat on the table, Morgan took a swipe at it with her hand. "Get off the table, you little furball."
"Don't hit Sassy!" exclaimed Bri, frowning as her cat lazily stood up and moved out of Morgan's reach. "She didn't do anything to you."
"She exists," mumbled Morgan, giving the cat the stink eye. "It sheds everywhere. If I find one more orange hair on my pillow, Bri, there won't be anything you can do to protect it."
Bri smiled at the ornery turtle while she poured the melted butter over her popcorn. "C'mon, you know you love her."
"No, I don't," Morgan said with a stubborn expression on her face. She stood up from the table and snagged a handful of popcorn from her sister's bowl.
"Hey! Get your own," admonished Bri, swatting at Morgan who easily avoided her. Morgan smiled and grabbed the entire bowl, causing a few of the kernels to fall to the floor. "Morgan!"
"Look, don't annoy Anna today," warned Morgan as Bri kept trying to hit her. She deflected a wooden spoon that the younger turtle threw at her.
"I'm not the one that annoys her." Bri reached for the popcorn bowl and missed as Morgan lifted it out of her reach. "No fair, you're fighting dirty."
"Using my natural height advantage isn't cheating." Curling one arm around the bowl, Morgan snatched Bri's yellow bandanna tails and yanked them violently to the side.
"Gah! I'm blind!"
Morgan smirked as Bri squealed, quickly trying to right her askew bandanna so she could see again.
"Now that's fighting dirty." After she put the bowl back on the counter, she took another two handfuls and slipped silently out of the kitchen.
Eventually Bri fixed her bandanna. She was dismayed to find that her bowl of popcorn was only half-full but that was easily remedied by making another bag. When she had a satisfactory amount of popcorn, she left the kitchen, entering the main area of the lair.
Brigantia noticed that her oldest sister, Rhiannon, was stretched out on the couch, the remote in her hand as she flipped through the channels. She was watching one of those cheesy romance movies on the AMC channel, the ones that Bri found dreadfully boring. Morgan had told Bri not to bother Anna, probably because earlier that day during practice, Anna had sprained her wrist. Bri picked a large kernel from the bowl and tossed it at Rhiannon's head.
Sighing, Rhiannon ignored it, hoping the nuisance would go away. Another popcorn kernel hit her, this time pinging off her cream-colored bandanna tails.
"Did you want something?" she asked, pushing herself up on her elbow so she could get a better look at her family's source on unending energy, Brigantia.
"No." Bri gave her a bright grin. "Just wanted to see how you were holding up." She rounded the side of the couch and sat down at Anna's feet. She pulled her legs up under her and sat the popcorn bowl between her and Anna, subtly offering to share her food.
Rhiannon shrugged and held up her arm that had been injured. "It's fine. Cerrie wrapped it up for me."
"She's good for that sort of stuff," said Bri, throwing a piece of popcorn into the air. She caught it in her mouth as it fell back down then beamed at Anna. "Point for me." Anna rolled her eyes and went back to watching her movie.
About five minutes later, Bri gave a huge sigh and flopped back further into the couch. "I can tell you exactly what's gonna happen."
"Don't," said Anna, flicking her dark brown eyes at Bri.
"Don't what?" someone asked from behind them. Cerridwen, the third sister out of the four, walked over to them wearing a frustrated frown. She had something that looked similar to the TV remote in one hand and a small screwdriver in the other.
"I was just gonna tell Anna the ending of her movie," Bri said, giving the strange remote a curious glance. "So she wouldn't have to watch it all."
"Ah." Cerrie started messing with her project again, trusting that her sisters would settle this discussion themselves.
"I don't want to know the end," Anna said sternly. "I would just like to finish the movie in peace, if you don't mind."
"Fine, bore yourself to death," exclaimed Bri with a pitying sigh. She pointed over at the remote that Cerrie was fiddling with. "What that?"
"An all-purpose remote," Cerrie said, holding it up so Bri could see it better. She had been working on it for a few weeks now, ever since she had seen the movie Click. The idea of being able to control all of the various appliances around the lair was intriguing and presented a challenge. "And, no, you can't hold it."
"I'll be careful with it!" exclaimed Bri, her lips pursing into a sulk. She could not help it that everything seemed to break when she touched it! Cerrie shook her head and glanced back down at the remote uncertainly.
"I haven't got all the kinks out, but I think it might work now."
"Try it out!" Bri urged excitedly, bouncing off of the couch and rushing over to her sister. "What all can it do?"
"Well, it's connected with quite a few things…" Cerridwen started to explain, reaching up to brush one of her lilac bandanna tails back behind her shoulder. Bri leaned over and pointed at the buttons.
"Press one!" she pleaded, giving Cerrie a perfect version of the puppy dog eyes. "Or all of them, that could be fun, too!"
"Please," Rhiannon said, rubbing the aching spot between her eyes with a finger, "I'll repeat myself, please, do not blow up the lair, Cerridwen."
Cerrie's hand tightened around the screwdriver as she replied defensively, "Hey, my stuff hasn't exploded in a really long time!"
"Like last week," chimed in Bri, trying to help her sister. Cerrie shot her a quieting look but Anna had already sat up and turned towards the two of them.
"You said that wasn't you," accused Anna.
"Not intentionally me," said Cerrie with an innocent smile. She held up her hands before Anna could start complaining. "It didn't injure anybody and it was last week, so no problem, right?"
Anna just groaned and went back to watching the movie, determined not to let her sisters ruin the quiet afternoon. "Just don't mess with the TV."
"Yes, m'am!" both of them said. They were deceptively quiet for a few minutes. Way up on the ceiling, the overheard fan started to speed up. Anna turned her attention to the ceiling as it went faster and faster, beginning to shake on its holder. The DVD-player on top of their TV started to open and close on its own while the lights flickered on and off. Anna closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"You guys…"
The stereo system in the corner turned on and a Red Hot Chili Peppers song started to blare out, conflicting with the sappy music from the movie. As the disposal in the kitchen turned on, Morgan appeared on the platform on the upper floor, leaning over the railing.
"Do I even wanna know?" she shouted down at them, a scowl on her face.
"Turn it off, turn it off!" yelled Bri, her hands pressed to the sides of her heads as the stereo's volume started to rise. Cerrie stood up and started pointing her remote at certain things, trying to get them to stop again. The TV shut off.
"Cerrie, make it stop," Rhiannon demanded, joining her younger sisters in the middle of their living area. Cerrie gave the remote a desperate look and started pounding on the buttons.
"I can't!" she said, shaking her head furiously. Morgan, who had come downstairs, put her hands on her hips.
"Give it to me, I'll make it quit," she growled over all the noise. She made a grab for the remote but Cerrie pulled it away quickly.
"Are you crazy? I spent forever on this thing!" Cerrie exclaimed, knowing that Morgan would probably hurl it at the wall or spear it on her kama.
"Well, then, fix it!"
"I'm trying," snapped Cerrie back, bending over the remote while her sisters all stared at her expectantly. She tried the built-in power down feature but it did not work. She grinned sheepishly at the others. "I guess it could use a little work."
"Watch out!" cried Rhiannon as the ceiling fan holder snapped from the strain. All four turtles leapt or flipped out of the way as it came crashing to the floor, shattering as it hit. Everything else seemed to stop as pieces of the fan scattered about the room, chinking off of furniture and turtle shells.
"Nice going, Cerrie!" said Morgan as she got up from the floor, brushing bits of fan off of her arms. "Way to bust the fan."
"It was an accident," said Cerrie, an embarrassed blush creeping into her cheeks.
The sound of a foot tapping impatiently against the floor caught the girls' attention. They looked over to find their sensei, Mistress Thorn, standing at the entrance to her room, her arms folded over her chest. Her tail whipped about in agitation as her daughters gave each other commiserating glances as they bowed to her in respect.
"Would anyone care to explain this…situation?" she asked, looking to her most responsible daughter, Rhiannon. Anna rose up from her bow, her fingers playing anxiously against the leather ninjaken sheathes at her side.
"Well, you see, Sensei-"
Bri grinned and interrupted her, "Cerrie messed up the wiring in the lair!" Cerrie gave her younger sister a murderous look while Morgan bapped the yellow-wearing turtle upside the head for talking out of turn.
"Shut up and let Anna tell her, motormouth!"
"I can talk if I wanna! Sensei likes my voice, unlike yours."
Mistress Thorn sighed as her daughters started bickering between each other. When Cerridwen got into it, trying to tell her mistress what had gone wrong, and Rhiannon started laying down the leader law to call them all to order, Thorn became fed up. With movements quicker than her students could keep up with, she used her walking staff to hit each of them, effectively breaking up the fight.
"Yowch!" whined Brigantia, grabbing her beak. She whined to herself as Mistress Thorn addressed the girls, shaking her head back and forth.
"I am disappointed in your behavior, my daughters," she said. "I believe a two mile silent jog around the sewers will cool your tempers and give you time to think upon how you can fix what you have broken."
"Hai, Sensei," the four of them chorused grudgingly.
As they left the lair and began their jog, Cerrie felt her sisters glaring at her.
"Oh, come on, like I knew it'd go haywire," she snapped, throwing her hands up in the air.
"This is supposed to be a silent exercise," stated Anna.
"Stuff it, Anna, it's never silent," said Morgan, taking the lead position. Anna frowned and caught up with her so that they were jogging neck and neck. Bri grinned, seizing the opportunity to make this run a little more adventurous.
"Hey, guys, let's race!" she proposed, speeding up even before they agreed. Faster than her sisters, she easily scampered past Anna and Morgan.
"Don't go too far!" Anna shouted, rolling her eyes at her little sister's energy.
Bri raced ahead, enjoying being able to run after staying in the lair all morning. She liked jogging more than the others did. She stepped it up until she was running full speed down the sewer, muck flying up from her feet.
A gasp escaped her when a heat wave hit her like a wall. She felt like she had entered a burning building for a second, the heat seeping into her skin. Bri skidded to a stop, wondering what the weird feeling had been.
Bri is pronounced Bree.
Cerrie is pronounced Ka-rey.
Any questions? Just ask. ;o) And please review, I would really appreciate.
