Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.
Summary: 'Thick smoke poured from both front and back tyres and he stared gape-jawed at the horrifying sight. Donnie was so going to kill him!' Story inspired by a picture Sampsonknight drew. 2k3
Comments, thoughts and concrit are always welcome.
A/N: Cover created by Sampsonknight. Go check out her profile on Deviant Art to see the full sized/complete picture
Wasn't Me!
Donnie was so going to kill him!
Mikey stared down at the shredded tyre in horror.
It'd been raining that night so naturally he'd taken the van out to pick up the pizza, and turtle luck be damned, had run into trouble resulting in a brief car chase and the right rear tyre shot out. Still, he'd quickly managed to stop the bad guys before making the choice to limp home with the van (after all, a mutant turtle couldn't be seen changing a tyre on the side of New York City street) before the food could get cold.
Panicking and knowing he'd be in it deep for taking the Battleshell without asking, Mikey glanced toward the elevator, hoping like shell no one would come up before he could cover his tracks. Wracking his memory desperately, he recalled how Donnie and Raph had changed the tyres on the Battleshell before and smiled; he could do this.
Before long, Mikey had the van jacked up and wrench in hand as he carefully undid the nuts holding the wrecked tyre in place. Pulling it off the axle, Mikey glanced around for the spare tyre and groaned, realising he'd forgotten to get it from the back of the van. Jumping to his feet, Mikey absentmindedly wiped his head with his hand, leaving a small smear of grease behind. Dashing to the back of the van, Mikey threw the door open and searched through the junk until he found the spare and pulled it out. Then he rolled the new tyre to the rear passenger side axel, whistling happily as he worked.
Minutes later and feeling exceedingly proud of himself for a job well done, Mikey had the new tyre secured and the van back on the ground. Then he climbed back into the driver's seat and turned on the engine, preparing to drive it back into its proper parking place so no one would be the wiser.
As he shifted the gear into first and pressed the accelerator, the van made an unnerving noise. Disturbed, Mikey slammed on the brakes. The van began to shake alarmingly as if in warning and he jumped out, wondering if he'd somehow screwed up putting the new tyre on. Running around the van, Mikey reached the new tyre as suddenly an almighty bang rang out, followed by a dense cloud of smoke and wires raining down around him.
"No!" Mikey cried in horror, looking down at the van as thick smoke flowed from around the new tyre. In fact, Mikey noticed smoke pouring from both front and back tyres and he stared gape-jawed at the horrifying sight. He was so dead! Hurriedly picking up the wrench once more, Mikey prepared to pull off the nearest tyre again to see what went wrong when the elevator dinged from behind and he turned in panic to see his brothers running out. "It wasn't me!" Mikey yelped, dropping the wrench before anyone could say a word.
"What happened?" Leonardo demanded, all but screeching to a halt directly in front of him and looking him all over as only a concerned big brother could.
"It just... exploded?" Mikey asked, stealing a look at Donatello. To his terror, Donnie's face was expressionless as he stared from the Battleshell to Mikey and back.
"What did you do, shell-for-brains?" Raph asked angrily. He took a step closer as if to grab Mikey by the shell and start shaking him. Violently.
"Nothing! I swear! All I did was change a tyre and then the Battleshell exploded!" Mikey blurted in a panic.
Donnie began to shake.
"I'm so sorry, Donnie! I didn't mean to break your baby! I was just trying to fix it! I promise."
Suddenly, Donnie could contain himself no longer and he broke out into full out laughter. Three pairs of perplexed eyes settled on him.
"Donnie, you're scaring me, bro."
"Relax Mikey, you just set off the anti-tamper feature," Donnie laughed, doubling over at the sight of the soot and wire covered Michelangelo.
Leonardo rounded on Donatello, his eye twitching. "You rigged the Battleshell to explode if someone tampered with it? Don, I know you love explosions, but isn't this a bit... obsessive?"
Donnie straightened with effort and shook his head as he wiped tears from his eyes. "I rigged it to look like it exploded and set it to not be able to move afterwards without having a hidden switch activated. If anyone makes any kind of change to the van, wiring, tyres, anything, without then flicking that switch, this happens, making it seem useless to any would-be thieves."
Mikey's jaw dropped in shock as he stared at his demented genius brother.
Raph's mouth qivered in amusement. "I remember you sayin' you were thinkin' of doin' something like that, bro, but you never said you'd actually gone and done it."
Donnie turned a bright grin onto Raph, his eyes glinting in the dim light of the garage. "I only finished it last night, Raph. I haven't had the chance to thoroughly test it out yet," he explained. "I guess we now know it works. Thanks, Mikey!"
"Uh... you're welcome, bro?" Mikey offered, still shocked by the realisation he hadn't really done anything after all.
Relaxing at the news, Leo turned back to Mikey, his expression stern. "And just what reason did you have to change the tyre anyway, Michelangelo?"
Mikey twitched and grinning nervously, pointed towards the nearby shredded tyre. As his brothers turned to look, shock written all over their faces, Mikey took his chance to run.
"Michelangelo!"
-:-
Owari
* If you ever see my stories posted anywhere other than under the name Zelgadis55 at Deviant Art, FFNet, AO3 or Live Journal, then they have been stolen. Please report them.