Chapter 4
At sunrise Leo, Raph, and Mike took the kids out for a run in the forest. It was late August and they were having a bit of a heatwave that week. The weather was pleasant early in the morning, so the adults decided it was best that the kids got some fresh air and exercise before the unbearable midday heat. Aphrodite was still a bit sleepy from her rough night, but she was feeling pretty good in spite of it all. Her father had dressed and bandaged her wounded left hand the night before, and had promised her that he would find out what was going on in those tunnels. That put her troubled mind at ease. She couldn't help thinking about that fuzzy girl though. She was small and cute like a plushie, not scary at all once Lovie finally got a good look at her. She also looked so scared. The young mutant wondered where she came from and what had her so frightened.
As most of the children ran on the ground with Leo and Raph, Mike and his twins took the more difficult path through the thick canopy of trees. Gidget was having so much fun leaping from bough to branch, it looked as if her face would split in half from the huge grin on her face. So far Milan was in the lead. Veronica picked up the pace on the ground to catch up with her agile brother-cousin above. Rowan sped up too. He was determined not to let either one of him beat him. In spite of all their efforts to catch up, Michelangelo was the winner of this race. Milan landed right behind his father in a close second, followed by Veronica. Soon most of the ninja clan was gathered in a familiar clearing. When Raphael dropped the pack off of his back in an in-ceremonious heap the kids knew what was coming.
"Uh, oh. Is that what I think it is?"
"It sure is, Gidge," Raphael replied as he pulled out a hand full of shuriken. "Target practice!" Ronnie and Toki cheered while the others moaned. Tokio and Veronica had the best aim after all. "Ok, since you complained the most, you go first, Gidget."
"Why don't you just kill me now," the yellow clad genin muttered as she prepared to make a complete fool of herself. She had the worst aim of all of them so far. Leonardo had placed targets on a number of trees with some senbon (large needles).
"All right, little lady, it's show time!" Raphael gave his niece a good natured bump on the shoulder, to which Gidget laughed weakly in response. With shuriken in hand the genin took aim at the target closest to her and let the throwing star fly. Not only did she miss the target, she missed the tree. With a shake of his head Leonardo retrieved the shuriken wedged in the soil. As if Gidget wasn't embarrassed enough, Veronica made it worse by laughing at her. Gidget ground her teeth as she whipped around to glare at Ronnie.
"I'd like to see you do better!" she growled in annoyance.
"Oh, I can't help but do better, sweetheart, cuz I'm the BEST!" Ronnie picked up three shuriken then quickly, and casually, threw them north, east, then west. She didn't even look to see that she had hit all three targets in the center. She put her hand in Gidget's face as she swaggered over to Raph to give her dad a high-three.
"Now Ronnie, you should be humble," Leonardo scolded with a smile as he retrieved the small, sharp weapons. "And don't you encourage her inflated ego, Raph."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatevah, Fearless," the proud father scoffed as he hugged his daughter from behind.
Michelangelo thumped his moping daughter on the back of the head while they stood to the side. Tokio was taking his turn. Since he was in competitive mode he prepared to break Ronnie's record with four shuriken at once. Mikey got his daughter in a gentle headlock as he poked one of her chubby cheeks. He was trying to get her to smile, but she was too busy being embarrassed by her terrible performance.
"Cheer up, Baby Girl. You'll get better. You just have to keep practicing. None of us were born being good at things."
"Looks like Ronnie was," Mike's daughter replied with a pout.
"That's not true. Ronnie just trains with weapons more than you do. Kind of how you train at spying on us grown-ups when we have meetings in the dojo." Gidget slouched even more as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "I can't believe you thought we didn't notice, Gidge. Anyway, each of us is good at something. Some are better than others, but that's ok. When we work together as a team all our strengths outshine our weaknesses. So don't hate, celebrate! Try showing some support for the others and you just might learn from them. They could learn a thing or two from you as well."
The young ninja let her father's word's marinate momentarily before walking over to Veronica. Gidget watched her twin brother practice for a few seconds before nudging Ronnie with her elbow.
"Hey...uh...you did really great with those shuriken. Maybe you could show me how to improve my technique."
Veronica turned to her sister-cousin to stare at her as if she had grown a third eyeball. Gidget never complimented anybody but Tokio. And she certainly never asked anyone but her father for training advice. Ronnie just knew her sister-cousin had to be up to something.
"What are you trying to say, Midget?"
"I'm not trying to say anything. I'm saying plain and clear...I'd like you to show me how to get better. That's all."
"For reals?"
"Yeah."
"No foolin'?"
"Yes, Ronnie! Don't make me have to beg, okay!" Gidget didn't think she could handle any more embarrassment.
"All righty! I'll show ya. The secret to good aim is all in the wrist, baby!" The pink clad turtle began her quickie lesson as she retrieved a handful of shuriken from Raphael's weapon's pack. As Gidget paid close attention to Ronnie's advice she realized that she liked getting along with her rival better than butting heads with her.
While the kids trained with the other adults, Venus and Donatello were in the underground tunnels investigating Aphrodite's claims. Venus shone a large flashlight along the walls and floor a Don took readings from his EMF (electro-magnetic field) meter.
"Hmm...this is interesting."
"What is it, Donnie?"
"Well, the readings jump exponentially when we get to certain spots in the tunnels. There's pockets of activity here and there, but the increase is the greatest in the areas where Lovie said she saw something."
"I see. Donnie, I want to try something. Hold the flashlight for a moment." Donatello did so as Venus pulled a stack of paper sheets from a pouch around her waist. She then spoke a brief chant in Mandarin before pressing one of the slips of paper against the wall. "Check the meter now." Don did just that and cocked a brow at the new reading.
"It's the same as the surrounding areas. Isn't that...?"
"A shinobi talisman...for sealing evil spirits."
"Oh...I don't know how it worked but it's clearly stabilized the magnetic field in that area. I guess that means we should move on to the next spot."
Altogether the pair found seven areas of increased electro-magnetic activity. The last was in the alcove where the wind scroll had been. That's where the EMF readings were the highest. Donatello could tell by Venus' demeanor that she was suddenly very uncomfortable.
"There's clearly a foreign presence here. This chi I sense is like nothing I've ever felt before. I'll even go as far to say that it's...alien."
Without hesitation Venus pulled out more talisman's and got to work on her sealing spell. It took seven talismans to get normal readings on the EMF.
"Ok, looks like everything's normal here. Good job, V." Donatello kissed her cheek in celebration of her success, yet Venus couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps she had done something wrong. She could have sworn that right before she placed the final seal she heard a child's voice begging her to stop.
In the following few weeks the atmosphere in the Hamato household was a little different. There was much less squabbling among the children and the adults could tell that they were taking their training much more seriously. It was decided that now would be a good time to expose the youngsters to their family roots. After years of planning the mutant parents were taking their offspring back to New York. The three younger children (Aphrodite, Rowan, and Veronica) had never been in the abandoned subway tunnels. The older three (Tokio, Milan, and Gidget) were born there but were too young to remember it before their family moved into the farmhouse.
The kids were very excited about the trip. They spent the next few days trying to decide what they would take with them. Leonardo told them to only take what they could carry in their utility pouches, besides their weapons of course. That left very little room for frivolous objects. So they each decided to take one precious item with them. Tokio packed his Gold Ranger from Power Ranger's Samurai. It was precious to him because his father gave it to him years ago for his fifth birthday. It looked a bit faded and worn, but that was from all the hours of playtime he had with it. Milan packed a replica of Mikey's talisman from the Ninja Tribunal. He loved hearing his dad tell him about his adventures with his uncles and the other acolytes. Gidget brought along a little pink journal Ronnie had given to her when they were seven years old. She and Veronica had drawn a picture of the two of them playing together on the first page. Gidget quickly stuffed the journal in her pouch before anyone else could see it.
Aphrodite packed a pretty purple butterfly clip her mother had given to her to clip to her lavender mask. She thought it was too pretty to wear and she was afraid that if she wore it she would lose it. She liked to look at it every once in a while though. Veronica packed her current favorite shade of nail polish. Smokin' Hot Pink was the color of the month for now. Rowan snuck his favorite novel, David Copperfield, into his pouch. He was looking forward to reading it for the twelfth time whenever he got the chance.
A few days later the time had finally come for their three hour trip to New York City. Fueled by excitement, the children helped the packing of supplies in the van go quickly and smoothly. Soon the Hamato Clan was on the road with Raphael taking the lead on his Shell Cycle. As expected they traveled under cover of night. Raph had on his Night Watcher gear, but the others had decided to go au natural. It was more comfortable for them that way. Donatello was pleased to see that their opener to their secret garage was still functioning, all thanks to Leatherhead, who had been maintaining and temporarily occupying the Turtles' old lair.
In fact, the aforementioned mutant gator was right there waiting with warm greetings for all. His old terrapin friends seemed overjoyed to see him, but the children didn't look to ohappy. He figured it was because they hadn't seen him face to face for a couple years. The gentle giant gator knelt down to speak to the turtle children.
"You guys look so troubled. What's wrong?"
"It's stinks down here," Tokio replied. "Now I think I know why I forgot this place."
"Aww, c'mon! It's not that bad!" Michelangelo piped in. "Besides, all the stinkiness is out in the sewage tunnels, not in here." All the kids gave the energetic ninja a funny look. "Well, most of the stinkiness." More stares. "Eh, gotta admit it doesn't smell as good as the farmhouse. Anyway...LH, my mutant! Love what you've done with the place!"
As Leonardo and Venus helped the children get settled a familiar voice was heard coming from down one of the hallways.
"LH, I finished flushing the system in the basking area. Have the others gotten...? Oh, you're here!"
In a flash all the kid's faces brightened as they rushed toward their good friend with shouts of "Dr. O!" Aphrodite made it to Atima first and squeezed the human woman around the waist.
"Lovie, it's good to see you!" Soon five other children were tugging at her and hugging her. "It's great to see all of you! I missed you too!" It wasn't long before the little ones were bombarding her with questions.
"When did you get back from Kenya? Did you get to see Mr. Faraji? Where's Cleo? Did you bring us souvenirs?" The herpetologist couldn't help but laugh at the lively interrogation. Soon Donatello had to rescue her from the veritable avalanche of childish enthusiasm.
"C'mon, kids. Don't smother the good doctor. You'll have plenty of time to catch up. Now go help unload the supplies from the van." There was a collective groan as the children obeyed. "So, Atima, what brings you here to the mysterious underground?" Donatello inquired in a slightly teasing tone.
"Well you had told me you guys planned on coming back here someday so I've been helping LH now and then to help maintain the comfortable environment you had set up. It wasn't that hard. It's pretty much the same as maintaining the reptile habitat at the aquarium, just on a larger scale."
"Wow. You really didn't have to do all that, Atima."
"Oh, it's no problem at all. Besides, I had to come up with some kind of excuse to see you." The human gently pulled her mutant friend into a warm hug. "I really missed you."
"We all missed you, Atima," Don responded with a smile as he rested his head on her shoulder. He noticed the woman's bosom heave slightly with a sigh.
"Yeah, I missed you all too...but I really, really missed you, Donnie." A now wide eyed Donatello's heart leaped as the brown skinned woman hugged him just a little closer. Donatello stood up straight, breaking their embrace, and gently pushed Atima back by her shoulders. His breath caught in his throat as she tilted her head coyly with a sweet little smile on her full lips.
"Atima...I...uh..." Donnie stammered until his jumbled thoughts were interrupted by a thick Brooklyn accent.
"Ey, Donnie! Why don't you save da geek speak for latah and help us unload dese supplies!"
"Right! I hear ya Raph. I'm on my way!" Atima offered to help but Don insisted that she had done enough and should relax. He didn't admit it out loud, but he really wanted to wrap his mind around the weird territory he and his fellow scientist were now dancing around.
Later that night the children had settled down for bed in the many alcoves on the Lair. Aphrodite lay awake. The new environment was going to take her some getting used to. As she listened to all the strange hissing, rumbling, and dripping noises her mind wandered to that odd little girl she had seen on her bed. It had been a while since she had heard from her or even seen any signs of her. She couldn't forget that terrified look in her eyes right before she vanished. Lovie didn't understand it but she wanted so badly to find that girl and help her somehow. She frowned at the realization that she had no idea where to start.
Next Chapter: The Hamato children train and learn about some of their family history pertaining to the Battle Nexus. Also, Don and the good doctor have a little private talk.