Just another day…
If you are a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, then you're almost guaranteed a… not so normal life… even what could be considered a normal day by most people's standards.
Case in point, it was 5:50am and the ninja turtle leader himself- Leo- was already in the middle of meditation training in the dojo area of his and his brother's and sensei's/father's large cylindrical(ish) home in the sewers. Leo would always take it upon himself to be awake early and prepare himself for the training ahead… and sometimes prepare for the day as well, in which case it would be no doubt a loud day.
6:04am… so far for Leo, meditation is going by rather smoothly! Surprise! During meditation he heard Master Splinter enter the dojo from his bedroom in order to prepare himself some morning tea from the kitchen next door. Leo bows to Master Splinter in a very much practised and respected manner, and Splinter bows back in acknowledgement.
"Good morning Leonardo. Are your brothers awake yet?" Splinter asks. Even though the ninja master could very well tell that whether or not all four of his sons were awake, he always preferred to ask anyway.
"Good morning Master Splinter, I-"before Leo could answer however, a loud pop followed by the sound of splashing water could be heard from Raph's room along with Mikey's loud laughter. And then the distinctive sound of Raph's shouting along with Mikey's terrified screaming…
"MIKEY! WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YA, YA WON'T BE COMING OUTTA THAT SHELL UNTIL SPRING NEXT YEAR!" Raph's voice was definitely heard all across the lair. It was at that moment that Donnie the genius turtle casually walks into the dojo and met with Leo and Splinter standing inside.
"Donnie, what is going on?" Leo asked, though he probably already knows…
"Well last night, Mikey told me he was going to throw a prank on Raph… literally! I think he threw a water balloon at Raph's sleeping face…" Donnie's reply was met with Leo's disapproving groan, for Mikey being the smiling goofball prankster that he is and for Raph having a very short fuse and massive temper. Splinter's response was to simply face palm at their antics.
"So today is going to be one of those days…" Leo thought to himself and as he did so the very loud voices of Raph and Mikey were getting closer and closer to the dojo.
"RAPH WAIT, PUT ME DOWN!" Mikey shouted and from that, Leo, Splinter and Donnie had thoughts that Raph had picked up Mikey up and above his head. And with Raph's strength, that was very likely (and he's done it before!).
Next thing everyone knew was that a blur of green and a flash of orange came flying straight into the dojo. Raph had for some reason decided to throw Mikey into the dojo who landed flat on his shell- hard. Mikey let out painful sounding groan, with Leo standing above him with his hand offered to help Mikey up.
"Mikey, how many times has Raph done that already?" Leo asked, and after taking Leo's helping hand to help himself up, he immediately looked sheepish.
"um… once or twice?" Mikey's answer had made everyone else in the room sceptical. Splinter was definitely going to lecture them later on…
"Actually Mikey, by my count and estimate this has got to be about the… 23rd time now." Donnie corrected him as though he already had that sentenced prepared for a while now. Mikey looked even more sheepish now. But the moment that Raph entered the dojo looking vengeful, Mikey face perked up and then the next thing Leo knew, Mikey had made a mad dash behind Leo and not so subtly used Leo as a turtle shield from Raph's anger.
"Raph dude, let's just talk about this! Please?" Mikey's voice sounded almost pleading as he said this, making the others wonder why he still pranked Raph the way he does. Still it was at that point that Splinter decided enough was enough.
"ENOUGH my sons!" Master Splinter shouted as he stomped the ground with one end of his cane. At the sound of his cane stomping the hard ground of the dojo, all four of the ninja turtles immediately stood to attention and readied themselves for would no doubt be a long and brutal training session.
One Brutal training session later…
7:30am… all four turtles and their sensei had sat around the table of their kitchen eating some much needed breakfast. Leo looked slightly tired from training but looked relatively alright munching on some scrambled eggs. Same with Raph although he still looked as though he wanted another fight. Donnie looked ready to collapse into his bed if he didn't eat something 9the bowl of cereal helped in that regard). And Mikey… well his whole body was aching courtesy of Splinter's training method and Raph's (restrained) brutality. Even eating his eggs and bacon was a bit challenging because his aching body caused his hand to shake a bit. And Splinter was looking very calm sipping his morning tea (that he put off from earlier). There wasn't much tension hanging around the kitchen table and Leo was mentally thinking to himself "Definitely going to be one of those days".
10:54am… since breakfast things have been relatively quiet and for such a rare occasion Leo thought to himself that maybe things would be quiet after a morning like the one they just had. Leo himself spent hours between breakfast and now practising his katas in the dojo. This was a daily thing for him and would not stop practising until lunch. Mikey, looking more brightly coloured and happy-go-lucky, decided to relax- lying on the sofa- blissfully reading his much loved comics. Splinter decided to take a page out of Mikey's book and also relax in their makeshift living room area of the Lair watching his favourite drama's on their large TV set. Donnie meanwhile was busy tinkering away with his gadgets in his makeshift lab. It always seemed as though Donnie wanted to try something new (and sometimes blow himself up in the process). Raph had been at the other side of the Lair away from Mikey (no surprise) looking bored and staring off into thin air. He had done some weight lifting a little before but he knew too much of weight lifting for hours on end would have been counterproductive. Eventually he decided that enough was enough and marched straight toward the dojo and Leo and no doubt itching for a fight.
10:59am… Leo had felt pretty much at ease going through his practised katas. For Leo, not much else could be better… suddenly the dojo door slid abruptly open and the unmistakable sound of "Leo!" coming from Raph's mouth had completely disrupted the calm that Leo had so thought would last until the next morning.
"I've still got a lot of pent up frustration from this morning I want to dish out! And you're the only one who can take it!"…yep… Raph wanted Leo to fight him. Though if Leo, being honest with himself, knew that this was a perfectly reasonable answer… at least by Raph's standards, usually he would be too hot-headed to think straight and just brawl with Leo. Which would end with Raph lying shell first on the ground and another lecture on anger control from master Splinter. Leo resigned with…
"Fine Raph, but just so know, you really need to consider getting a hobby of sorts…" but Leo quickly stopped himself… "You know what? Never mind." At that, Leo readied himself to spar/fight/brawl with Raph. One never really knew which of the three that Raph wanted to do the most in some situations but for Leo knew a friendly sparring match would end in a semi to full contact fight. Raph in response to Leo getting into a fighting stance took the same response.
It was Raph who made the first move. He flew towards Leo with a shoulder tackle, Leo quickly reacted by jumping to one side knowing trying to block Raph would end badly for him.
Meanwhile in rest of Lair, the sounds of Leo and Raph grunting and fighting in the dojo could reach everyone else's ears. "Better Leo than me…" Mikey quietly muttered to himself before once again retreating back to his world of comic book reading. Donnie could also hear Raph and Leo from within his makeshift lab. He stopped working on his new project for a second to properly confirm what his brothers were doing in the dojo and concluded that this almost everyday occurrence wasn't going to hinder him anytime soon and muttered to himself, "Once again…" more grunts and sounds of punches and kicks connecting to whatever parts of each other's bodies could be heard after he said that, "Well at least neither of them will be bored for a while." Donnie after saying those words went to his toolbox underneath his desk to grab a screwdriver and returned to his project (which he was pretty sure no-one would realise what it was until he told them what it was). Splinter meanwhile decided to let his sons continue their sparring/fighting until they both had enough. He was happy for their almost daily routine of sparring, it just meant they would be making each other stronger even if it was just a tiny bit. There was no real problem today otherwise everyone else in the Lair would be on their case, Splinter especially.
For some odd reason, the sight of Leo and Raph wrestling with each other and trying to overpower each other was a pretty common thing for the two of them. In this instance, Leo had a firm hold on Raph's right forearm and forced it into the owner's plastron and Raph also had a very firm hold on leo's right forearm but he had it forced over Leo's head, both grunting and trying once again to overpower each other. Though for this instance, Leo got tired of this reoccurring scenario and did something a bit different; he allowed Raph to push him trapped arm forward and away from his plastron and at that moment he let of Raph's arm and using his whole body weight, Leo jumped backwards, Raph being a little slow to catch on to what Leo was going to do, Leo pressed his left foot into Raph's stomach and rolled back onto his shell, and Leo pushed his foot upwards and forced Raph's whole body to flip over Leo's body and was unceremoniously slammed onto the floor shell first. Raph inadvertently let go of Leo's arm at this moment at which Leo quickly stood back up, but did not stand ready to fight again as he recognized that Raph had let off plenty of frustration. One would think a scenario like this would take hours for Raph to cool off but really this sparring match lasted 20 minutes.
"Feel better now Raph?" there was a hint of playful banter in Leo's tone of voice as he said this, and realistically he should have known better because in an instant, Raph shot back up onto his feet ready to spar once again.
"Better? I won't feel BETTER until I've wiped the floor with your FACE!" to say Raph was more than a little irritated was a bit of an understatement as he charged at Leo with a very recognisable… "AAAAAARRRRGGGHH!"
3:49pm… to say that Leo and Raph were both a little sore after their extensive sparring was an understatement, Mikey had decided to enter the dojo at 12:03 pm to ask them both if they wanted lunch, but even though they both yes almost simultaneously, they still continued on until 15 minutes later. After everyone had their lunch, Raph had decided to relax alongside Mikey… playing whatever console game Mikey had thought of and had. Leo had joined Master Splinter in meditation and Donnie unsurprisingly retreated back into his lab with a mug of coffee to continue his work on his latest projects. This had been going on for hours until they all heard the sound of Leo's shell cell ringing its tune. Leo grabbed his shell cell and the caller ID read itself as April O'Neil and Leo answered… "Hey April! What's up?" Leo had answered casually, he knew a call from April at this hour was not unusual and it was usually just to say hi. But as April spoke up, she sounded a bit worried…
"Hi Leo… er… listen, something has me worried, it's probably nothing but the recent robberies in town has me a bit on edge and I was wandering if you guys can come over to give me a bit of reassurance?" Leo knew that disappointing April with the answer no would have her even more worried, so being the gentleman that he is replied with, "Of course April, we'll be there later on this evening."
"Ah, thank you Leo. I already feel a little better after hearing that. See you guys later!" April said and she did not lie either, she did feel better knowing that her friends were coming over for some assurance.
As Leo hung up he stood up and turned to address his brothers. "Guys, April needs us later on this evening." Leo said as he turned into what Mikey had dubbed as his 'leader mode'.
"What did she want?" Mikey said as he turned his head and also gave Raph the opportunity to beat his in their latest game of Mutant Mash-Up, and beat him he did.
"April is a bit worried about a string of robberies that have occurred recently. We're going over to her this evening to see what she wants us for."
7:45pm… after the four turtles had eaten their dinner, the four brothers had now rendezvoused with April in her apartment above her antique shop.
"I'm a little nervous about these robberies… the jewellery store that was robbed is right on my block! So that's why I asked you guys for sleepover tonight." April explained as the turtles sat to listen to her.
"Don't worry April, we gotcha covered!" Raph said thinking that tonight probably might be quiet but was hoping to fight a few burglars. And April, with relief said,
"I feel so much better having you guys here!"