"But we can't talk here. C'mon!" For once, Michelangelo was the one giving the orders. Donatello followed his younger brother…who was now older than him. "This is so strange," thought Donnie. Mikey walked on in silence, not once looking back to acknowledge his brother. Don sensed that his brother was tense- which he rarely was- so he didn't dare do anything except follow him down into the sewers. He wondered what had happened to the playful, goofy, energetic Michelangelo he had grown up with.
After about 10 minutes of walking to nothing but the sound of footsteps in sewer water and on concrete, the turtles reached their destination: the lair. Abandoned for years, no one would think to look for them there.
Mikey checked the perimeter just to be safe. In this time, there was definitely no such thing as being "too safe." When he had finished searching the grounds, he came back to the pile of rubble in the middle and sat down. "You got a lot of explaining to do, Donnie. Still wondering how the shell you decided to show up at a time like this. Where were you when we needed you thirty years ago?"
"Like I told you, Mikey, the last thing I remember was fighting Drako and the Daimyo's son in the lair with you guys. I yelled, 'Someone, quick! Grab the-' And then everything stopped. Next thing I knew, I was lying in that pile of rubble you're sitting on."
"Hm…seems like that time scepter had something to do with it."
"What happened when I left?"
Michelangelo stared at the ground for a moment. He sighed, "Haven't thought about that in years. I remember something happened with Draco and the Daimyo's son…like the time scepter failed or something. Anyway, we were all released from whatever hold that thing had on us and were able to take them down. I managed to grab the scepter and send them…somewhere. I still don't know where. Then, when they were gone, we noticed you were, too."
"Did you think you sent me away with them?"
"No, we would've seen that. We just couldn't figure out what happened to you. We searched the lair, the sewers, the surface- we couldn't find you anywhere. Weeks went by…then months…then years…We never saw any sign of you. We thought you were dead."
"So why did you think I abandoned you guys?"
"Ugh…tension. We all blamed ourselves for what happened, and thought maybe you ran away to get away from all the arguing. Splinter tried to keep us together, but nothing was the same after that. The Shredder's army advanced too quickly for us to work on being a team again."
"Army?"
"Yea. Shredder had Stockman upgrade the Karai bots; we didn't stand a chance without you; you were the only one who could figure out how to take them down, or at least build something that could stop them."
"So what happened?"
"The bots took over. First New York, then the east coast, then the rest of the country. The world fell soon after. When the utroms learned the Shredder had taken over, they came back to try to stop them. But Shredder defeated them, too, then made them his slaves. He made everyone his slaves soon after that-"
Mikey stopped and looked straight ahead, past his brother. Donatello turned to see what he was looking at. There was a sound of robotic footsteps coming toward the lair. "Shell!" said Mikey angrily. "We gotta move, Don. This way." He sprang up and ran towards the west side of the lair. Donatello followed after him. Then ran into the tunnel when they heard more footsteps coming toward them, this time mixed with human voices. They stopped. "O great, more Foot police, too," said Mikey. Footsteps were heard in every direction; they were surrounded. Mikey looked around him until he spied a ladder leading up to the surface; there was a manhole cover just above them. "Up there, Donnie," he said in a harsh whisper and walked to the ladder. "It's not safe down here. But I know someplace I can take you, at least for a little while."
"Okay. Lead on," Donnie whispered in reply. He followed Mikey up the ladder, thinking of what to ask next.
