A/N: Okay gang, last update for the night. Currently watching The Hangover, so thought I'd give you one last chapter. I am still unable to upload anything, which is really annoying, I might say, so I'm done with dealing with this for the night. If the fates are with me tomorrow, I'll get another one to you, but if not, you all will have to tied yourself with this cliffhanger! Ha!
In case you don't know, The Enchanted Dragon is US chain (I believe) tattoo shop. They have a great many designs and many people that I know with tats have gotten theirs there. I myself nearly got my Scooby one there, but alas they didn't have the Scooby I wanted.
Chapter Three
In which there are hi-jinks
Leo was, by far, more panicked and concerned than he let on. He just couldn't believe Raph and Donnie were so non-chalant about everything that was happening, but really, he should have expected that. It always fell to his shoulders to make sure things ran smoothly, that his brothers stayed out of trouble, and when they did manage to find trouble, he could form a plan to get them out of it.
This…was beyond trouble.
And Leo couldn't remember one thing, not one single damn thing. He knew the others felt the same way and while he had never been drunk the way he felt now, he didn't think they had all blacked out. If that wasn't enough, he had literally searched the entire hotel, from top to bottom and could not find his brother. Anywhere. He checked the most likeliest places – the buffet, the pool, the locker rooms – nothing. He had asked people that worked there and nothing.
Where could he be?
Clearly agitated, he walked back to the table where he had left Raph, Donnie, and their baby friend. "I've checked everywhere and asked everyone," he began. "No one's seen Mikey. At all."
Raph sat back against his chair and let out a breath. "I don't think I have ever been this hung over before," he stated. "And why can't any of us remember?"
"Things aren't so simple now, are they Raph?" sneered Leo.
"Guys, c'mon," Donnie soothed. "Arguing now isn't going to help. What we need to do is try to remember or look for clues in helping us remember. What's the last thing any of us can remember?"
"First," Raph said. "We were on the roof."
"Right," seconded Leo. "And then we went to dinner. I think."
"I don't even remember going to dinner," Donnie replied, shaking his head.
"There's gotta be something," muttered Raph, going through the pockets of the pants he hadn't removed. Pulling out his hand from one pocket, he held up with looked like a small white cube. "What the hell is this?"
"My tooth!" Donnie cried, excitedly, before frowning. "Why do you have my tooth?" Raph just shrugged, handing the tooth to his brother.
"What is that on your arm?" Leo asked, grabbing Raph's arm and turning it over. On the underside of his forearm, all three were shocked to find a tattoo. "Is that a cow?"
"On a tricycle?" asked Donnie.
"What the fuck!?" Raph exclaimed, causing a few of those outside to look their way.
"Raph!" Donnie chastised. "Watch your language around Isaac!"
Leo gave him a sharp look. "You went ahead and named someone else's baby Isaac?"
"You don't think he looks like an Isaac?"
"Donnie, it's not our baby!"
"Hey!" Raph interrupted. "More important things here, like why the hell do I have a tattoo of a cow on a tricycle?"
Donnie groaned. "Okay," he grunted. "Raph had a good idea. Everyone go through your pockets, look for anything that might be important."
The three went through their pants pockets, pulling out various items like receipts and coins. Leo ended up pulling out a matchbook with the name 'Hot Rockets' printed across the front; Donnie found at least three small empty bottles of alcohol; Raph found the receipt for his tattoo, which apparently was done at the Enchanted Dragon. "Huh," he said, looking at the receipt. "When the Utroms say they're gonna bring species together, they don't fuck around."
"That's a clue," Leo said, taking the small bit of paper. "The time stamped on here is 2:39am."
"Let's see," Donnie murmured, getting a pen from his pocket and grabbing a napkin. "We got here around, what? 6pm? So, let's say, we took thirty minutes to get ready, that puts us on the roof around seven…say we stayed there for about ten, fifteen minutes, went to dinner around…7:15p. Let's suppose we took an hour, so about eight…that's six hours from dinner to when Raph got that lovely tattoo. Does anyone remember if Mikey was with us?"
"Donnie, we don't remember anything!" growled the red branded turtle.
"Let's assume he was," Leo suggested. "That still means from about three am to now, that's five hours. All together, that's eleven hours that Mike could have been missing. Not good, definitely not good."
"Will you calm down?" asked Raph, getting annoyed with the way Leo was acting, though it was nothing new.
"Calm down, he says," Leo muttered, angrily. "Our baby brother is missing and he wants me to calm down."
"Yeah," Raph mentioned. "Cause we have clue, okay? We just go down to this place and find out if they know anything. I bet you anything Mikey's up to what he does best and that's annoy the shit outta us. We'll spend all our time looking for him and he'll be all cozy in bed, watching TV or something."
"Didn't you say his mattress was missing?" asked Donnie.
"Shut up."
"He has a point, Leo," the brainy turtle replied, shooting at look at the turtle in red. "If anything, we can at least find out what happened. I'm sure Mikey's fine and we're just missing running into him. For now, Raph's right. If Mikey is missing, we need to find out where we were last night; if Mike was with us, that'll narrow our timeline down."
Leo sighed. Donnie always did have a way of soothing him when he started to worry too much. He was right, they both were. They couldn't begin to discover where Mikey had taken off to if they themselves couldn't remember anything past dinner or in Don's case, anything past being on the roof. Horrible thoughts and images were filling his mind, but he did his best to push them away. He needed to be calm and thinking clearly. "You're right, Don," he whispered. "As always. Let's head back upstairs , get ready, and head to this tattoo parlor."
The trio was ready within a few minutes, temporarily forgetting the bear in their bathroom. Luckily, being the size of room they were in, they were afforded with two bathrooms, though waiting for the others was a hassle, but they were used to that. They lived together after all. Leo felt free just dressed in his normal garb of protective pads, his mask, and his swords, even if Raph told him to leave them at home. He had been lucky no one thought to check their bags, as it was the only way he'd get his beloved weapons to the room.
Walking out of his room and into the living room, he was surprised to see that Raph still seemed to be wearing what he had last night and even Donnie had changed into cargo pants and a polo, though both were wearing their signature masks. "Really?" Raph asked, seeing Leo dressed the way he was.
"Hey," the turtle in blue countered. "I'm ready to go."
"So you think people will just let you walk around with two swords strapped to yer back?"
"So you just want to walk around this planet, with no protection what so ever!?"
"Leo," Donnie interrupted, knowing a fight when he heard one. "Raph's right. While we don't have to stick to the shadows on this planet, let's try and be as inconspicuous as possible. We want people to trust us enough to give us some idea as to what may have happened. Can't really do that if you have a weapon at their throats."
"Hey bro," Raph amended. "I am all for good turtle, bad turtle, but Brainiac here has a point. For the first time in our lives, we can walk around like…like…we belong. Let's not go ruining that, yeah?"
"Fine," Leo huffed, removing his swords and placing them on the couch. "But when we get attacked, don't come crying to me."
"Please," Raph said, rolling his eyes. "You think we don't pack?" He lifted one side of his shirt and sure enough, one of his sai handles were visible from the waist line. "Donnie's got a keibo in his pocket. We're solid, ok? If you really need to feel secure without your security blankies, I'm sure Don Don's got extras in his bag or pocket or wherever he keeps spare parts."
"I'm a turtle," Don groused. "Not a robot." None the less, he reached into a side cargo pocket, pulling out something that looked like a small night stick, before tossing it to his elder brother.
"Are we ready?" Raph asked, impatiently. Receiving nods from both his brothers, he headed towards the door. "Why do you have that baby?" he asked, seeing Donnie carrying it in a little baby carrier around his plastron.
"Oh yeah, Raph," replied the brainy turtle, sarcastically. "I'm just gonna leave it in the hotel room by itself."
"It's not our baby," Raph countered.
"It must be the bear's then," Donnie intoned. "I'd ask, but you know. It's a bear."
"The baby comes with us," Leo decided. "The least we can do is maybe head for a police station or hotel security and say we…we found it or something."
"Fine."
The three headed down to the lobby, Leo heading towards the front desk in order to ask about the baby. Raph and Donnie made their way outside, to valet and waited for their elder brother. When he joined them, there was the all too familiar frown on his face. "Front desk said they haven't heard of anyone missing a baby," he sighed. "I told them if anyone is looking for him to leave a message with them or to give us a call." The elder turtle was dismayed to find that his younger brothers hadn't been paying any attention to what he had just said. They were too busy looking up at something.
"Guys?"
"Give a look up."
Looking up, Leo was surprised to see a large mattress dangling over the side of the hotel's roof and several strange creatures were hovering around it, trying to get it down. "What the…?"
"Hey," Raph asked, tapping a tall red striped alien that stood packing his things into a taxi. "What happened up there?"
"Some morons threw their mattress out the window," he intoned, glaring at the workers and their burden.
"Huh."
"Some people just can't handle this planet," the alien said, shaking his head. He motioned to the driver that he was ready, before getting in and driving off.
"Isn't that the mattress for Mikey's room?" Donnie whispered.
"This is insane," Leo muttered.
"Just chill," Raph whispered. "we'll get to the bottom of this."
"Here's your car, officers."
The three looked over, finding that the young valet was indeed speaking to them and they were indeed being presented with a three wheeled police car. They were speechless for the moment, until Raph said, "Thank you." to the valet.
"What're you doing?" asked Leo.
"Get in the car."
"Raph…"
"Get. In. The. Car," Raph strained. "Keep cool and get in the car." They all got in – Raph and Leo up front, with Donnie and the baby in the back behind a plate glass window with a small speaker on the bottom-and tried their best to not give anything away. Raph started the car and zipped through the streets, their destination the tattoo parlor. "Now," he said. "Isn't this fun?"
"Fun!?" Leo exclaimed. "you call this fun? What part of this is fun to you, exactly? The stolen police car that is in our possession or the stolen baby back there with Don? Or perhaps it's the missing brother that's got you all pumped."
"Can't you see the fun in anything?" Raph asked, exasperated. "Is that stick shoved so far up your ass you can't even see fun when it bites you? Fuck, just let things happen."
"Let things happen!?" the turtle in blue shouted. "Letting things happen is how we lost Mikey!"
"We haven't lost him," Raph responded. "He's probably playing a joke on us. Probably realized you weren't having any fun and 'disappeared' on his own and we're just doing one big goose chase."
"I have a bad feeling about this."
"You worry too fucking much, you know that?"
"How can I forget when you remind me all the time?"
"Don't worry, Isaac," Donnie cooed, tickling the baby next him. "They're like this all the time. You'll get used to it."
The Enchanted Dragon, which was a staple in Earthen cities, had only begun on the planet of Onde a year ago. Being the kind of open minded folk that they were, having the chance to expand their business to the far off galaxies seemed like a no brainer. As humans usually didn't live on other planets, this shop was manned entirely by gifted and talented alien species native to this part of the solar system. They had undergone a tough regiment of training in order to call themselves Dragon Handlers, but they were doing very well on a system known as the solor system's Las Vegas.
It was here that three turtles and a baby now sat, each talking to the tattoo artist by the name of Zen as he worked on one of his customers. "Yeah," he grunted. "You were here, though there was four of ya and no baby."
"So there was a fourth turtle with us?" Donnie asked.
"Yeah," the alien replied. "You guys were so ziffed, it was crazy."
"Ziffed?"
"Drunk, high, whatever you guys say in your language." He stopped his work and looked at them. "You ain't from around here are you?"
"Tourists," Raph smirked. "That obvious, huh?"
Zen rolled his eyes and went back to drawing. "It is when you ask to have a tattoo on your dongle."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Yeah," he continued. "Came in here and demanded you wanted a cow riding a tri-something on your dongle. I finally had to convince you to move it your arm instead. It took us like an hour to find out what the blazaar a cow was and when we did, I asked if you meant a steer on a cycle and you were like, 'nah man! I love me cow on a bun with a tri…' whatever."
"So…" Raph asked, a bit confused. "This is your work then?" He showed Zen his arm and the alien nodded, pleased.
"Yeah," he snorted. "Turned out pretty good."
"Yeah…" Raph said, looking at the drawing. "Can I have this removed?"
"Priorities, Raphael," Leo growled. Turning to the alien, he asked, "Is there anything else you can remember about when we were here? Did we say something?"
Zen sighed, wishing these three would take their baby and go. "You mentioned something about a wedding."
"No shit, Sherlock," Raph said, sarcastically. "Our brother's getting married tomorrow."
"No, donkle," Zen sneered. "You were talking about some wedding you just came from, over at the Blue Oyster Cult."
"Isn't that the name of a band?" asked Donnie.
"Donnie." Leo commanded, shutting the turtle up. "What was that place called?"
"Blue Oyster Cult," Raph replied. "You know, the group that did 'Don't Fear the Reaper'?"
Leo glared at both of his brothers. "I'm starting to think Donnie isn't the only one channeling Mikey right now," he said. "Where can we find this place?"
"Up the street a little ways," Zen replied. "Can't miss it. Chick that runs the place is hotter than a Belnar."
"Right."
The three were off, heading down the street as the tattoo artist instructed and easily came across a row of different types of chapels. "Geez," Donnie whispered, in awe as they passed several. "This place is like Vegas. What was that, the tenth chapel we passed?"
The two in front ignored him, finally spotting the Blue Oyster Cult, which apparently dubbed as a wedding chapel and bar. All three walked in, little Isaac strapped to Donnie's chest, and began looking for some help. A plump gray- blue alien stood at the front of the alter, putting up decorations and the like. "Excuse me, miss?" Donnie called, causing the little alien to turn and smile widely at them.
"Well," she said, sauntering over them. "Back for more, huh?" She gripped Raph, then Donnie in big hugs, then began cooing over Isaac. "You missed me, didn't you?" she continued. Looking Leo up and down appreciatively, she stated, "I have met many a fine specimen in my time, but this guy, this guy right here sure put all the others to rest. Oh! The things you said and did last night, you bad, bad boy!"
"This guy?" Raph asked, jerking a thumb towards Leo.
"Did you miss me?" she purred, rubbing her hands up and down Leo's plastron. "Hmm? Did you miss Sophie?"
While Raph and Donnie were obviously having the time of their lives, giggling next to him like little school girls, Leo was literally mortified to the spot. "Sophie?" Raph choked, before clearing his throat. Oh God, this was like Christmas come early. "You…obviously remember us, but um…maybe you could help us out."
"We don't remember anything from last night," Donnie said.
"You're kidding."
"Nope," Raph said. "Seriously."
"Really?" Sophie asked, a little surprised. "You don't remember anything?"
"Not a God damn thing."
"Huh."
"You don't by change remember if there was another turtle with us, do you?" asked Don.
"The little monkey?"
"Yeah, that sounds like him," Raph responded. "We can't seem to find him."
Sophie looked at each of them, clearly seeing they didn't know her or had any idea what happened the night before. Shrugging her broad shoulders, she said, "Follow me." She lead them to the wedding counter that stood to the left and removed a wedding album before opening it. There, on the first page, gave all the answers they really needed, causing Don's jaw to drop, Leo to gasp in surprise, and Raph to chuckle.
"Well, I'll be damned," he said, turning to look at his brother. "Congratulations on your wedding, Leo."