Author's Note: Chapter two! Thank you for being my first reviewer, Goddess of Idun. I appreciate it so much. Take care!
Leo prodded at Don hastily. "Get up!" he ordered urgently.
Donatello stretched out in bed and gave a relaxed sigh. "I'll be up in afew minutes, Leo," he responded, his voice partially muffled by the pillow. "Tell Master Splinter I'll do ten backflips as soon as I'm up..." He turned over.
"Get up!" Leo said again, more urgently this time. "That... that... thing. It's awake now! Get up, Donatello!" He gave his brother a firm shove.
"It's up?" Don repeated. "Alright, alright. I'm coming." Groggily, he forced himself up and followed Leonardo out into the main room, and then toward the sofa. He was curious to see what this thing was up to now that it was awake, but he slightly envied Mikey and Raph and their peaceful slumber. Oh well. There would be time for a cat nap later. He looked around. Blue eyes peeked at him from behind the back of the sofa. It noticed him watching it and ducked out of view again. Nervousness, Don supposed. He made his way over to the sofa.
"Feeling any better?"
The little fox jumped slightly. Apparently this was the first time anyone had attempted to communicate with it since it was brought to the lair. It was trembling just a little. "I... uhm... yeah. Better than earlier." The voice was meek and young, and distinctively male. Still, he didn't attempt to make eye contact with Donatello.
Pleased that at the very least, they both spoke English, Don tried to continue conversation. "You passed out just after I encountered you," he said. "How did you hurt yourself?"
"I don't know..." The fox had his knees hugged to his chest. He still didn't dare turn to face the green monster. Now it seemed that there was more than one... This one, and the one with the swords. He could only hope at this point. Hope than neither were violent. And hope that the rat wasn't, either. This one seemed alright, though. "Where is this place?"
"Underground New York," the Ninja Turtle replied. "I take it you're not from around here. I'm sorry if you're still afraid of us. Let me tell you, though, that none of us are hostile. Raph's a bit short-tempered, but he's alright. None of us are all too sure about who you are, or---"
"Tails," the little fox cut in softly.
"What?"
"Tails," he said again. "My name. Call me Tails."
"Oh!" Don smiled at his communication success. "I'm Don."
"Don..." Tails repeated thoughtfully. "Short for Donald?"
"Donatello," the turtle corrected. "We... that is, my brothers and I, we're named after artists who were famous in this world. Once Mike and Raph get up, I'll introduce you to them, too."
There was a small nod in reply, but Tails didn't say anything else. He still looked nervous and rather small, and he was still curled up, facing away from his hosts. Leo gave Don a curious but expectant look from about ten feet behind him, as though waiting for some form of informational update.
"His name is Tails," Don relayed. "And that's about as much as I've managed to establish. I told him that we're not enemies, though."
"Well, at least he knows that much. Is he afraid of us?"
"It looks like it. He hasn't turned to look at me since I approached him. I'll try some more." He turned back to their visitor. "So..." he began again. "The blood hasn't come through those bandages yet, has it?"
"No..."
"Alright. I should change them later anyway, just for good measure."
"Who brought me here?" came the soft query. "Was it you, or that other one with the swords?"
"It was me," Donatello responded. "The other guy is Leonardo. Call him 'Leo'. The rat is Master Splinter. He's like our father, and he taught us everything we know." He watched the small and silent figure for a moment longer before deciding it would be best to leave him alone until he relaxed a little. "I'll be out of the room working on something. Feel free to look around if you want to," he offered finally. "See you." He rejoined Leonardo not far away. "I can't say I'm making much progress," he said honestly. "I suppose he's too confused and nervous to say much."
"If we leave him alone awhile, he might loosen up," Leo suggested.
"I know. That's what I think, too."
Leo unsheathed his katanas. "Wanna go a round?" he asked. "Master Splinter said we wouldn't have to practise with Mike and Raph for as long if we did."
"Sure," his brother agreed. "Let me get my bo."
Curled up on the sofa, Tails had nothing to do but recount what had happened thus far, and ways it possibly could have happened. Although he was still too nervous to face those green creatures, he was becoming increasingly interested in whatever it was they were doing down here. He could hear Don and Leo racing around doing something, but he was too busy thinking to take notice. And he was becoming decreasingly interested in staring at the same part of the floor for minutes on end. Mustering up some courage, he got up meekly and carefully walked down into what appeared to be the main room behind him. Donatello and Leonardo were now both leaning up against stone pillars, panting lightly.
"Good fight," Leo puffed. He could only tell it was Leo (and not Don) because he recognised the voice from earlier. He wore a blue bandana, but Tails didn't take note of much else.
"Yeah. Thanks. You were great, too." Don smiled and picked up his bo staff. Hmmm... he had a purple bandana. Maybe they used it as some means of identification, as they didn't appear to differ much in physical appearance, as far as he'd noticed. "Better get back to those hoverboards. Mikey's going to be bothering me all morning if I don't finish fixing his." He walked off in the direction of another room. Tails watched them curiously. They had been fighting? They practised fighting in here? Weird.
"Morning, dude!" greeted a partly casual, partly enthusiastic voice from behind him. Tails jolted in surprise, and turned partially to see another green figure. He hasn't really paid much attention to their appearances up until now, but this one was so close to him that it gave him a much better opportunity to analyze its physical attributes..
They weren't really monsters or creatures. They looked like big walking turtles. A colored bandana covered its eyes with slits cut through so it could see, just like the other two. This one had an orange bandana, however. Pads covered its knees and elbows, and there were bands around the wrists and ankles. And of course, since it was a turtle, it had a shell.
"Did you see where Donny went?" the turtle figure asked as though Tails was a regular part of his environment. "I gotta remind him to fix my hoverboard!"
"He said something about that a second ago," Tails responded in something of a shy voice. He felt slightly less intimidated by the laid back nature of this one. "Then he went somewhere else."
"Righto. Thanks, dude." The orange-bandana wearing turtle gave him a pat on the shoulder and wandered off in the direction that Donatello had gone in.
"Wait!" The little fox ran after him. The orange-bandana wearing turtle gave him a friendly smirk.
"What's up?"
"W- would you... you know... show me around a little bit?" He hesitated. "Uh, please..?"
"Heh! Sure! You got it." The turtle picked up the pace a little and Tails had to hasten himself to keep up. "This is where we train," the turtle explained, gesturing to the area around him as they walked through it. "It's big and open, and we're less likely to break stuff while training. Hehehe."
"You practise? Practise what?"
"Ninjutsu," the turtle replied with mock seriousness, mimicking his master's voice. "The art of invisibility!"
"You're ninjas?" The fox gave him a slightly surprised look. He'd never have expected that to be the case. Ninja Turtles? "I guess that explains what the other two were doing earlier. Don and Leo, I think."
"Yep." The turtle scratched at the back of his neck. "And I'm Mikey. Michelangelo. How 'bout you?"
"Tails," he answered shortly. Tails was beginning to feel better now that he'd found someone to talk to. Michelangelo just seemed approachable by nature. Maybe it was the laidback-ness that reminded him of Sonic. Now, perhaps he could find some means of an explaination of where exactly he was, and how he had come to be there. Where and what was New York, and why were they underneath it? "M.. Michelangelo?"
"Call me Mikey."
"Mikey... One of the others said that we're in 'underground New York'. What's New York?"
"A city!" Mikey replied. "New York, New York. See, we live in the city of NYC in the state of New York. Cool, eh?"
How confusing. He was assuming that states divided the different parts of countries. There were different countries where he came from, or at least, sort of, and they were segmented apart, but not with states. There were cities, though, just like here.
"It's a pretty big place. We call it 'The Big Apple'."
"If it's so big," Tails ventured, "why do you live under it? Are you notorious or something?"
"Nah," Mike replied calmly. "We're mutants. Most of the New Yorkers are humans, but we aren't. That's why we look the way we do. We were mutated by ooze. We live underground because the humans don't understand. You'd think that after we saved their butts from an alien invasion that they'd be a little nicer, but now they just think we're aliens, too. Vicious cycle, I tell yah." He chuckled. "Anyway..." They wandered into a doorway. "This is the room I share with my bros."
Tails peeked in. It was kind of a mess, but that wasn't to say that his own room back where he came from wasn't, too. It was dark, but he could make out some of the furniture. And... a hammock? Apparently, there was something in it, too.
"That ugly thing in the corner is Raph," Michelangelo jested. "It's about time he got off his shell and did something." He snuck into the room and smacked the motionless blob in the side of the head. It grunted in response.
"Go 'way, Mikey..."
"Master Splinter said you had to be up soon, or you'd have to do fifty backflips," the other teased.
The blob gave another grunt and heaved itself out of its hammock. Walking back into the light with Michelangelo, Tails realised it was another of the turtle people. This one wore a red bandana.
"This is Raphael," explained Mikey. "He's normally not this groggy and disoriented, but oh well."
"Shaddup." Raph backhanded Mikey in the head and headed for the punching back near the edge of the main room. "Where'd I put my sais?" he mumbled, looking around.
"Are there any more of you?" Tails asked.
"Nah." Mikey shrugged. "You met me, and Leo, and Donny and Raph. You just need to meet Master Splinter. Hey! I have an idea. I'll show you my comics! Everyone likes the Silver Sentry!"
"The silver who..?"
Michelangelo dashed back into the darkness of his bedroom and emerged with a thick stack of comic books. "The Silver Sentry!" he said again. "He's a super hero with super powers who saves the wolrd from ultimate destruction!" He carefully pulled an issue from the stack. "This is the coveted issue number three," he explained proudly. "The cover was drawn by a big important comic guy, and so it's one of the most popular issues."
"I see."
"Oh! Oh!" Mikey dashed excitedly back into his room, returning with a box. "And this," he stated, lowering his voice as not to be overheard. "Is stuff I 'borrowed' from Donny." He pulled out a peculiar looking gadget. "MP3 player!" He pulled out something else. "Interdimensional translator!"
Tails carefully took it out of his hands. "What can it translate?"
"Any language into any other language!"
Ah, machinery. Now this was something he liked to look at. Little electronic gadgets and the like. "Wow! Where did you get it from? Does New York sell things like these?"
Michelangelo laughed. "Nope! It's Triceraton technology. We got it from a friend. It got busted, though, so Don had to fix it." He perked up. "Speaking of Donny, I wanna see if that hoverboard is done!" He put his stuff back in his room, and ran off in the direction of the room that Donatello had dissapeared into earlier.
"Wait!" Tails cried, rushing after him, the translator still in his hand. This place still seemed too new to him. He didn't want to end up wandering around in it. It was best to stick with his only friend so far. Maybe this guy could answer some of his questions later, too. He didn't catch up with the orange bandana wearing turtle until they'd arrived in what looked like a garage. A motorcycle was leaning against one wall, and there were tools all over the place. Some he recognised, some he didn't.
"Donny!" Mikey called. "Finished yet?"
There came a sigh. "No, not yet. Give me awhile longer." Donatello poked his head out from behind a shelf. "I was looking for a part I dropped."
Tails looked at the machine in his hand. "Did you really fix this?" he asked without thinking. Don frowned at Mikey.
"So you took that. I wondered where it dissapeared to."
Mikey gave a guilty smirk. "Sorry. It's funny to use it to insult Raph." He turned to Tails. "C'mon, little dude! I can show you some other stuff, if you want."
"It's alright," Tails said softly. "I think I'm going to stay here for a minute, if that's okay."
"Oh. Sure. I'll be surfing the channels if you need me. Gotta see if anything good is on right now. Probably not during the week..." He left.
Tails turned his attention back to Donatello, who had managed to find the small piece he had dropped and was fitting it back into part of a hoverboard. He watched this curiously. Never in his whole life had he ever encountered anyone who seemed to work as diligently with anything, let along machinery. Where he came from, no one but Dr. Eggman shared that hobby in common with him.
"Did you build all this stuff?" he asked in wonder.
"Yeah," Don responded without looking up from the wires he was reconnecting. "I used Triceraton technology and blueprints, but it's a pretty do-it-yourself job. And my brothers are always breaking things, especially Mikey. I see you met him."
"Yes. I like him. He's friendly." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "But... do you do this all by yourself, this mechanic work?"
"Heh, I have to," answered the turtle. "My brothers aren't into fixing stuff like this. I mean, Raph likes his bike and all, but he won't work on anything else. I guess this is sort of my hobby. Mikey has his video games and comic books, Leo has his training and meditation, Raph has his fighting and biking... and me? I have this."
Tails smiled a little for the first time since he'd arrived. "Would you mind if I helped?"
Donatello looked at him in surprise. "'Helped'?" he repeated.
"Where I come from," the fox began, "my hobby is just the same as yours. It's something about the way things fit together, and the way a piece of machinery sounds when you get it working properly."
"It's a feeling of accomplishment, isn't it?"
"Yeah. It is. So... would you mind?"
The turtle gave a soft smile. "If you put it that way, then go ahead."
