The Oroku Saki Empire
Chapter 4: Audi & Traffic Lights
Once again the TMNT characters are no creation of mine.
(DONATELLO)
I felt so thrown off when I pulled the door open and saw dark shadows emerge from a vehicle that was parked alongside our van. They moved discretely and would have been missed by the average person, but we've been dealing with these guys for so long that it's almost impossible to miss them. 'Shit,' I shut the door immediately and turned to the others.
Mikey was already on alert and gave me a questionable look. "Donny, what's the big idea?"
I shook my head at my younger sibling. "Bad news guys, we need to take a detour." I told them, trying to revise the image of the building's floor plan in my mind to determine the next route out.
I was still wearing my night-vision goggles and I could see the confused expressions etched across the five women's faces, which we were trying to save from the Foot. Michelangelo, who was clearly dissatisfied with my answer, pushed past the four young women and came forward.
"A detour, detour to where?" He asked anxiously.
"The Foot, I think the others just arrived for the party," I said solemnly. Not only were we blocked in, but we had not transport to get away. "Is there another way out of here, April?"
I asked the question after considering the basement garage and discarding it when I remembered that the power was cut. It'd just be another trap down there with those automated doors. However, I quickly learned that that was our way out, and we had to make the best of it.
After being joined by Leonardo and Raphael, we found ourselves being led into the garage basement, where April and the girl called Mya brought us to two vehicles. In relief, I smiled to myself as she and her sister unlocked their respective vehicles; an Audi A8 and a Benz S550. There's always a way out.
I watched as each girl surrendered their keys to my two elder brothers, under the persuasion of April, and climb into the passenger seats of their cars. Raphael had the weirdest smirk on his face as he climbed into the yellow Audi, excited to get the car on the road. Leonardo, who was driving the Mercedes, appeared calm but alert and Mikey wore all the anxiety on his face for him. I shook my head at them and closed the door as I got in.
The engines of both vehicles revved simultaneously as if Raph and Leo were operating on the same mind frequency. The red-masked ninja looked across at the other vehicle and grinned.
"You think Leo could take me in that?" He asked, directing the question at me.
"I don't think he's thinking about that right about now," I replied, glancing at both girls who sat nervously in the vehicle. Mya was sitting next to Raph in the passenger seat, and Keiko was next to me in the back. "We need to get out of here, and fast, with minimum damage of course," I was referring to Mya who was sitting in the front seat.
Crashing through anything with her in the front had it drawbacks. "Do you think you can do it in this car, I mean it's not exactly the battle-shell, maybe she and I should switch," I suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds like a better idea," Raph replied and he turned his head to Mya. "Hey, kid, you need to get in the back," he told her.
I couldn't see the girl's face at the moment, but judging from the expression on Keiko's face, I could tell that she knew that we weren't getting her cousin to budge.
"But it's my car," Mya protested. "I'm not moving, if he wants to sit up front, then he's gonna have to sit on me," she stated adamantly.
Wow, talk about stubborn, I sighed shaking my head.
Raph snorted, "Hmm… whatever, have it your way, how thick do you think those doors are, Don?"
"They're about..." I started but was interrupted by a gasp.
"You can't crash my car into that, I'll open it," Mya quickly interjected. Raph and I looked at the young human girl in surprise.
I wondered how she planned on doing that when there was no power in the entire building, but she was already digging around in the glove compartment for something, and flung various items out of her way.
"Do you need some light to see?" Raph asked skeptically.
She shook her head, "No, I keep the remote right here...I just need to feel around all this junk." She sighed and pulled out a mass of paper unto her lap, "Gosh, I should really keep my stuff organized."
"You do know that your remote won't work right, there's no electricity, in case you haven't noticed," I stated.
She stopped to respond when the garage doors suddenly started and began sliding upwards.
"Did you do that, how?" I asked in disbelief.
"I didn't...Nicole probably found hers before I did...it's a safety feature. When the power's cut, it trips a switch in the battery generator, and that allows it to open and close with the remote. So during a power outage, no one gets trapped in or locked out." she explained.
"You know I never thought of that," I admitted.
"Great, now that the Geniuses are acquainted, I think we can go now," Raph stated, mashing down on the gas.
Keiko and I were forced into the back of the seat as Raph sped out of the garage, and took the car into the full light of the street. When the lights hit the goggles, I had to shut my eyes before it blinded me, and tear the thing off my head. I looked back for the Benz, and sure enough Leo and the others were following behind.
"Heh, Leo didn't expect that now; did he?" Raph said playfully roguish, glancing in the rearview mirror. He had completely forgotten about the spot we were in and reveled in the fact that he had an opportunity to race.
"Raphael, focus, this is not the time!" I chided him impatiently; not quite in the mood for Raph's male ego fancies.
Then, in the polar opposite to my brother's voice, an ear splitting scream filled the car. Oh just great. I rolled my eyes as both girls recoiled in fear after seeing us fully in the light. Raphael scowled as he focused his eyes on the road and I palmed my face.
"Hey, it's okay. We're not going to hurt you," I said softly, trying to plead with the one in the back seat with me, hoping that she would see some civility in us rather than just judge and fear us by our appearance. Humans can be so shallow. "Don't be afraid. It's alright...we're friends of April, remember?" As if they could hear a word I was saying over all that noise. I sighed inwardly.
By the grace of some merciful force; Keiko's scream lessened to a small squeal, but Mya's was still murder; and Raph occasionally swerved the vehicle in irritation.
"Arrrrggggghhhhh! Shut your freakin' mouths already!" Raphael yelled, causing all the other noises to end abruptly. "As long as I'm driving, there will be no screaming or I'll give you something to really scream about, got it?" Raph threatened menacingly.
The red-masked turtle was dead serious, and even I was intimidated by his outburst. "Okay, not my choice of action, but effective," I said laughing at my hot-headed brother and the women.
"Anata wa nanidesu ka?" Keiko asked from her seat beside me. She was still in shock, but managed to get the words out of her mouth.
"Is she speaking Japanese, what'd she say?" Raphael asked, hearing the familiar tongue spoken in the back.
I opened my mouth to reply, but Mya beat me to it.
"What are you?" Mya gazed at Raphael in wonder from her seat, and then she looked back at me. "Are those masks?"
"Masks?" I raised my eye ridge at the eighteen year old.
"Yes, mine's red and his is purple," Raphael stated nonchalantly, ignoring the true meaning behind her words.
She frowned at the turtle certainly perplexed.
"No, these are our real faces," I chuckled.
Keiko tilted her head to one side. "You are...kame...turtles," she said after a brief moment.
I smiled at her. At least their shock isn't too bad, I thought. "Yes, mutant turtles to be exact," I corrected.
She and her cousin looked at each other and then at us. Raph flashed a grin at Mya.
"What's the matter, kid, haven't you seen a mutant turtle before?"
She blinked in surprise, "I guess not, or I would have remembered..." her voice dropped off at the end. I guessed she was still trying to wrap her thoughts around us and figure out what to say next. "I'm talking to a mutant turtle that's driving my car and he's calling me a kid," Mya sounded like she was talking to herself rather than to us.
Raph shook his head, "Well, you're a kid aren't you?"
Mya's chocolate eyes turned back on him, "I'm eighteen and I have a name you know, it's Mya."
Raph snorted in mirth. She wasn't aware that I already knew their names, but in the case of Raphael; I wasn't quite sure.
"Okay, Mya. I'm Raphael and Genius back there is Donatello."
I smirked at my brother who glanced at me through the rearview mirror. He was enjoying this. The last time we had an encounter like this with a human was with April. She freaked out so much that Raph and Mikey thought that the episode deserved to be put into some hall of fame and entitled 'Priceless'.
"Raphael and Donatello," Mya repeated the words as if they were a foreign language on her tongue.
"Yeah, don't wear them out," Raph stated.
"My name is Keiko," the other said hesitantly.
I nodded, and she was still staring at me in wonder or shock. "How did you come to be?" she asked.
"Well..." I began explaining but cut off my words when the vehicle took a sharp turn at the corner.
"Sorry guys, looks like we've got company," Raph's voice had gone flat. His face was set in stone and his eyes darted from the rearview mirrors to the road. I looked back as well and saw a black van gaining on us from behind.
Now the Foot was chasing us, and we're not even in the battle-shell. Whatever it was that these girls found, the Shredder was sure going to the extreme to retrieve it. I swore under my breath, and looked through the window in the back.
"What's he doing?" I absent-mindedly asked, staring at the dark blue vehicle that kept pulling in front of the van to prevent it from over taking.
"Looks like Fearless is playing hero," Raph said with a smirk on his face.
Mya and Keiko were looking back as well.
"Those...ninjas...they're not going to give up until they get us are they?" Mya's voice was steeped in worry.
I looked back at her and shook my head. "No, they will do whatever it takes."
Her gaze was still fixed on me, deep in thought.
"All of this has to do with that code; doesn't it?" Keiko broke her silence.
"Yes."
She shuddered lightly as she inhaled, then her gaze traveled to her cousin's eyes. "We got it from a man called Oroku Saki yesterday...he wanted Nicole to decipher it, and I helped, even though I knew he couldn't be trusted," she admitted regrettably, pausing to look at Mya. The eighteen year old continued to watch her cousin in silence from her seat.
"Was it something he took from these shinobi? Is that why they're after us?"
'Interesting, she knew that Saki wasn't a man to be trusted, yet she didn't know about the connection between him and these Foot ninjas.'
"No, he didn't take anything from them...they work for him," I clarified for them. Mya frowned at us and turned her head back towards the front.
I wondered what it was I had said to upset her. Maybe she knew more than we initially thought. "What's wrong with her?" I nodded at Mya.
Keiko opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Raph.
"Hang on, guys, here we go," the car took a sudden turn off from the road we were traveling on, and we found ourselves going west.
"Raph, what are you doing," I was looking back at the blue Mercedes that sped by, missing the turn-off completely, but the van took the turn. "Shell, Leo missed it, but those guys are still on our tails," I growled.
"Yeah, yeah... I got an idea... you got a watch on you?" The red-masked turtle asked urgently.
I was confused by the question, but answered anyway, "Yeah, but how's that gonna help, I didn't know that you could suddenly stop time."
He didn't react to my sarcasm and asked, "What time is it?"
"10:45..." I stared at my brother for a while, wondering if this was how they felt when I came up with my ideas and requested strange things. The red-clad turtle grinned.
"Great, we're...right...on...time," he said each word on count, and it only took me a second to realize what he was doing.
We reached a traffic light intersection within that millisecond, and Raph pulled on the steering causing the Audi to lurch sideways spinning, and then it came to a sudden stop at the lights.
The van that was chasing us however, swerved to avoid hitting us, and it crossed the lights just after it turned red; sending the other oncoming vehicles squealing across the pitch to avoid colliding with it.
Police sirens were immediately heard, and the unmistakable red and blue lights flashed across the scene as a police car took off behind the van that sped uncontrollably down the stretch.
We didn't even notice that the Benz was behind us until screeching tires were heard, and the vehicle pulled up alongside us.
"I love this car," Raph piped, smiling to himself.
Keiko's chest rapidly rose and fell as she breathed, and she sat wide-eyed, frozen to the seat.
Mya turned her face to Raphael slowly, whilst detaching her hands from the dashboard.
"Are you crazy, you almost got us killed," she hissed angrily.
"Hey, you're alive and we lost them, what more do you want?" Raph stated frankly. I believe he thought that it was the most natural thing in the world. He was looking for a 'thank you' instead of that.
"Raphael, what the hell is wrong with you?" another voice demanded from outside. All our heads snapped towards the other vehicle.
Leo had his window rolled down and was glaring at Raph. I shook my head. That turtle was never going to get the thanks he was owed.
"What? I lost them, didn't I?" His flippant remark earned nothing but an overheated look that could cause the meltdown of a nuclear reactor, and he waited calmly for Leonardo's reaction to the challenge, which in my case wasn't one at all if you think about it.
However, in our world, deliberately not acknowledging correction from your clan leader was a sign of disrespect, but not one that should warrant rebuttal because of the mere fact that it wasn't the same as disobedience - which was Raphael's primary quota. I could argue this case all night with my brothers, but I don't think an irritated master and or leader would agree with me. Leonardo was already at the tip of the iceberg as far as I could tell, thanks to Raph and more so Shredder's resurrection, so he would react in the least favorable manner in this situation. Why, Raph, why?
"We almost crashed into you, what you did was reckless!" Leo reprimanded the younger turtle sternly.
"Shell, Leo, chill," Raph retorted. "Why do you always have a stick up your ass?"
I glanced nervously at the small number of spectators that came out onto the streets to aid the few vehicles that were scattered haphazardly across the intersection. Two of them looked across at our vehicles and were slowly advancing towards us.
"Guys, knock it off, we gotta move."
Leo pressed his lips into a tight line and glanced at the people moving towards us. He rolled up his window, reversed in the street, and sped off in the opposite direction.
Raph snorted, rolled his window up, and pulled off behind the Benz. I sighed heavily and rubbed the back of my neck.
"Where are you taking us?" Keiko asked softly, her voice was almost a whisper.
"To somewhere safe," I replied instantly. Then after a brief moment of hesitation, I added, "Our home."
The words sounded strange coming from my mouth. It wasn't something that we had planned, but that was where we were headed at the moment. I wasn't sure how Master Splinter would react to this amount of guests in our home, but I had a feeling he wasn't going to be pleased. Raph had a permanent scowl scrawled on his face as he followed the other car.
Keiko regarded me thoughtfully before she nodded.
"You okay in the front there?" I asked studying the girl who had gone quiet again.
"I'm fine," she mumbled.
I looked at my brother, "Raph?" I wanted to distract him from his spat with Leo.
Although their rivalry had decreased over the years, sometimes it would rear its ugly head when we go out on missions like this. What causes it, I have no idea, but I want to believe that Raph gets some odd sense of satisfaction when Leo is ticked off at the end of it all.
Whilst Leo on the other hand, just likes to be in control; and when things change, it's like the world was been flipped over on its back and can't get back up.
"What?" Raph replied harshly.
I smirked. "After pulling that stunt back there, I'm pretty sure Mike's disappointed that he went along with Leo instead of you," I looked for his eyes in the rearview mirror.
I saw them squint as he smiled.
"Heh, that knuckle-head, serves him right," the elder chuckled, shaking his head.
"Serves him right? How so?"
"You'll find out when we get home," he replied smiling.
(RAPHAEL)
I was enjoying the feel of this car as I followed Leonardo home, but immediately felt depressed when I got off the open road and entered the dark tunnel. The tunnel went for half a mile before it terminated inside another section of our garage.
When we pulled up to park, Leo and the others were already climbing out of their car. He stood with his feet apart and folded his arms across his chest as soon as he saw me. He was still mad at me. I glared back at him, but it was a shame he couldn't see me through the tinted glass.
"He looks mad," Don pointed out from his seat in the back.
"Yeah, well he wouldn't be Leonardo if he wasn't," I smirked.
When we got out, the two girls from the other car rushed to embrace their respective sisters, Mya and Keiko.
Don and I walked over to Leo, Mike and April.
"Something wrong, Leonardo?" I asked sardonically. I hated it when he goes all righteous on me. It's like I'm not supposed to do anything wrong or anything against his pre-designed plans or whatever. Sometimes he acts as though I could read his mind or something, and do whatever he thinks is the right way to handle certain situations. Unfortunately I can't, so whatever I chose to do; would never sit right with him. He acts as if he's never made any mistakes in his life. I'd be glad to remind him of some of them.
The blue-masked ninja took a deep breath before speaking. "No."
That's a shame, what are you thinking Fearless? I raised my eye ridge at him uncertain of his thoughts. "You sure, 'cause back there it looked like you had something to say to me about my driving."
"Don't tempt me," he said shortly.
"Guys, could you save it for later," Mikey interjected moving between us.
"I think we should head in, Master Splinter's probably worried," Donatello added looking at each of us.
"And we need to get the girls inside. We've got a lot of explaining to do," April noted on the side.
"Ehem," one of the girls cleared her throat to grab our attention. She was wearing a cream business suit with fine black piping, and had her arm laced in Mya's. She had the other arm wrapped tightly across her stomach area. "I don't mean to intrude on your little meeting over there, but now that we're here...wherever here is...what do we do now?"
Nicole looked a bit nervous, but stood strong probably fighting every nerve in her body just not to run. Her younger sister on the other hand, looked calm and deep in thought. She was wearing a white t-shirt with a 'blink 182' logo on it and a pair of navy blue slacks.
Their cousins Keiko and Ayame were looking around them with puzzled looks on their faces. Keiko was wearing a pantsuit as well, but it was grey with white pinstripes, and she wore a light blue shirt beneath the jacket. While her sister Ayame was dressed in a fuchsia spaghetti strap tank top, and black slacks.
They looked like a bunch of stuck up executives that just came home from some excruciatingly boring meeting, and two of them couldn't wait to rid themselves of their formal clothes. Who could blame them, why would you want to keep on restricting clothes like that?
"Is this your home?" Keiko asked focusing her eyes on us.
"Nope, just the garage, come on we'll take you in," Mikey supplied, and he led the way towards the entrance to the lair; excited for the new guests.
"What is this place?" Ayame asked gazing at the walls and snaking, moldy pipes that surrounded us.
"It's what we call home," I stated frankly. I wasn't in the mood for explaining our living conditions to these girls. April's friends or not, we saved their shells, we brought them to our home, end of story. Now all we gotta do is get rid of the Shredder, and send them on their way.
She flinched a bit and turned to April for assurance.
"Ignore him, Raphael's the resident grouch," April said narrowing her eyes at me. "These are my friends, Leonardo, Donatello and this one's Michelangelo," April pointed to each of my brothers.
Leo nodded, Donny waved and Mikey smirked. I just stared.
April regarded the four of us with an air of uncertainty, "Um... well I guess you guys know their names by now, but for the sake of formality, this is Ayame, her sister Keiko, Nicole and her sister Mya... Hamato clan, meet the Takahashi clan."
Ayame tilted her head to the left, "Hamato clan?"
"Yeah...long story," Mikey whistled. Normally I would have smacked him upside the head, but I agreed with him. I didn't enjoy the 'how we became what we are' story any more than he did.
"What about those shinobi? Can they find us down here?" Keiko asked changing the topic to something that was more current.
"Shinobi?" Nicole repeated the word slowly.
"Ninjas, Nicole," Mya explained joining the conversation for the first time.
"I know what it means; I just want to know why they wanted the code."
"I think you guys should sit down," Donny gestured to the couch. He scanned the room for someone as the four young women sat and frowned when his eyes couldn't find the person he was looking for.
"Those ninjas that came after you tonight, they're called the Foot," Don began, "and they work for a man that likes to call himself the Shredder, like an underground name for a 'crime lord'. You see... that coded piece of paper you got from Oroku Saki, it's actually from the Shredder, they're both one and the same...and we believe he's up to something, and whatever it is, it has everything to do with that code."
Donny paused as if he was allowing the girls time to soak in everything, and then he went on. "His Foot ninja were spying on you and waiting for you to crack the code, so that in the event you didn't deliver the answer to him, he would just have to send in his ninjas to retrieve it...and that's why they attacked."
Nicole eyed Donny suspiciously, "And you know all this because?"
"Because of me, I told them everything. They were actually waiting outside for me," April said. "The Shredder is, how would you say, a long time enemy of ours, that's why I didn't want you to tell Oroku Saki what you found. I know what he's capable of."
Nicole laughed, "Just what I need, giant talking turtles telling us tales about feet and paper shredders, what do we look like to you? I feel like I just fell through the looking glass and ended up in a twisted world, overthrown by the Tortoise who wanted revenge on the Hare." She finished darkly.
The other three girls flinched, and Leonardo broke his silence. "This is not some kind of joke, you almost got yourself killed tonight and we saved you, so I'd suggest you just sit back and listen. It's best you know what you got yourselves into and what we're dealing with," Leo finished calmly. "And for the record, we're mutant turtles; nothing else."
I folded my arms and looked at my brother with admiration. He was actually threatening the girl, but in a subtle manner.
Nicole's eyes narrowed, "Fine, but we could've called the cops instead."
I started, "Why you little ungrateful...," but was cut off by another voice.
"You're such a bitch, they just saved our lives and you're here playing the skeptic," Mya snapped. "You know you're piece of work Nicole. They just save our necks, literally, and they're standing in the flesh, living and breathing before us and you doubt them? Heck, I'm probably as shocked as you are, but the truth is, they didn't have to step in our behalf. They only did it because April's their... friend. We wouldn't've been in this position if you hadn't taken that damned piece of paper from that man. We owe them our lives, and I think you owe them an apology." Mya stated glaring at her sister.
Nicole wasn't the slightest bit deterred by the younger, but she mumbled something that sounded like sorry to Donatello. Mya scowled, and to me it felt as if she still had a lot more to say to her elder sibling.
A moment of awkward silence passed by as everyone was lost for words, until Donny spoke up. "So um... speaking of codes, where is it?"
Keiko looked up, "It's gone. Nicole wiped the hard drive clean."
Donatello looked like he was about to have a stroke, "What?"
Mikey and I forced to keep our smiles hidden and Leonardo's face was set in stone.
"I guess that was wise to do, but where's the sheet of paper?" he asked Nicole in a worried tone.
"I have it," April said pulling the sheet from her pocket. "I grabbed it off the table as soon as the lights went out." She handed it to Don.
Don sighed in relief as he browsed over the sheet with his eyes. "It would have been nice to see how you cracked this code...this is wicked. I've never seen anything like this...but you said that it's gone, so I guess we'll have to start from scratch."
Donatello had obviously forgotten everyone in the room and was already unraveling the puzzle in that huge mind of his. Mikey rolled his eyes at him, and Keiko was watching him with curiosity.
"It's not gone... I wiped the hard drive clean, but only after I downloaded the program unto my USB...the one that came up right after we deciphered the code," Nicole said.
Then she pulled out an iPad that was tucked beneath her jacket in the waist of her belt. "I have the deciphering program on this... but the code is on the USB... I think one of you has it," she glanced at the four of us.
Mikey smiled sheepishly and pulled a small USB drive from his pocket. "See I told you it was safe," he handed it to Nicole.
She gave him a forced smile.
"Why did you do that?" Don asked.
Nicole still looked uncomfortable talking to us, but she made the effort. She explained to us about the program and how they managed to crack the code. I can't say I understood what she was talking about, but in the end I had to admit that this girl was not someone you'd want to underestimate. From what I gathered, she figured out that the code was written by their father, and that was the reason she removed it from his office computer and made it seem as though she had wiped it clean.
"My father apparently wanted it to remain a secret, so that's why it was written in a code he invented. I would have never thought that anyone would go to such ends just to get their hands on some prototype program... " Nicole explained letting her voice drop off at the end.
"A what?" I asked not catching the last word.
"A prototype program, it's some kind of program... but we didn't get chance to get it working... all it said was 'He, who is laid to rest, finds his piece.'" Keiko explained.
"Yeah, and piece as in e," April spelt out the last word.
"Uh?" Mikey frowned.
I was beginning to get tired. "Look, I don't know about you guys, but all this talk about prototypes and programs is giving me a headache... you geniuses go figure out whatever it is Shredder's going all crazy about, and you'll catch me up later," I stated.
"Yeah, I'm with Raph," Mikey said folding his arms across his plastron.
"Alright, Don, you guys go ahead and figure that thing out, the rest of us will organize the rooms for the girls to sleep okay." Leo said.
"What about Splinter?" Mikey asked noticing that our father was yet to be seen.
Leo shook his head, "It's rather late, so I guess he's probably sleeping."
Either sleeping or meditating and listening to us at the same time. Sensei never seems to miss much even when he's locked away in his room. I can't wait to see these women's reaction towards him. Tomorrow's gonna be an interesting day.
April, Nicole and Keiko got up and followed Don to his computer, while Mya and Ayame followed Leo and I towards the rooms.
Mikey turned on the television and was in the process of launching one of his video games. I hope he realizes that that wasn't going to last too long, since I had already planned on claiming the couch for myself tonight.
Leo walked inside of his room and placed his katanas on his wall rack before turning to Ayame. "You and your sister could use this room I guess... there are clean sheets in the drawers, and if you need anything else just let us know," he said taking up a coupled of folded sheets from his bed.
His room was annoyingly clean.
"Thank you Leonardo-san, and thank you for saving our lives," Ayame replied.
"You're welcome, and as for Mya, you guys can have the other room next door," Leo led the way to Mikey's room, which was relatively clean for a change, but not as clean as Leo's.
We were still walking through wrappers on the floor.
"And this is...?" Mya turned to both of us for an answer.
"Michelangelo's room," I said with a laugh. "Don't worry, kid; it's not as bad as it was before."
She wrinkled her nose at the term, and Ayame tried to hide her amusement.
"How old are you anyway?" she asked eyeing me from head to toe.
"None of your business," I retorted.
Leo jabbed me in the side with his elbow. "What my brother here means is that he's twenty."
Mya and Ayame's eyebrows arched.
"Twenty?" they both said in unison.
"We're the same age," Ayame pointed out.
No doubt.
"You're only two years older than me, so stop calling me kid, you sound like a senior citizen," Mya stated.
Leo chuckled, "He is a senior citizen."
"Actually, I'm three years older than you, I'll be twenty-one soon,...and by the way, I can call you whatever I want," I stated smugly.
The girl folded her arms across her chest as if she was daring me. What could you possibly do to me you little half-pint? I laughed to myself.
"Now, a word of caution, see those things on those shelves over there," I pointed to the shelves that were packed with various action figures and comic books, all sealed inside of air-tight packages.
"Don't touch those or else my brother out there will turn into a psychotic killer, and I won't be able to save your asses... okay," I smiled at the girl with the curly hair.
"Sure... no problem. I've had to live with a neat freak that was on the verge of storing everything in plastic wrap down to the toilet seat, all my life," Mya responded casually.
I and Leo left the girls to themselves and we ventured towards the dojo.
"Thought you said that he'd be sleeping?" I asked my blue-masked brother.
He shrugged, "Yes, but I just got this feeling..." he left off at the end.
I knew what he was getting at. Master Splinter was in the dojo, and he had just come out of a long period of meditation. We knelt down before the wise 'ancient' rodent.
Splinter pulled down on his whiskers and tilted his head to one side. "I see we have company... what happened to the 'let Mrs. Jones retrieve the document, and return to home safely with her' plan?"
Uh? Sometimes Master Splinter's play on humor catches me off guard. I couldn't tell whether he was being serious or not.
"Sorry, Sensei, April didn't have time to get it and get out, the Foot were already waiting there. They attacked the girls and we had no choice but to get them out of there, I didn't know where else to take them. April's place is too high risk, now that Oroku Saki knows that she's connected with them," Leonardo explained.
Splinter closed his eyes for a moment and then reopened them before he spoke. "Hmmm, I see. This is most unfortunate. Mrs. Jones cannot afford to lose another place at the hands of those ninjas again."
"We know, that's why they're here, but it won't be for long. I'm not sure I can stand so many females under the same roof with us four... April was okay, but five of them," I shuddered at the thought.
Images of pink walls and tidal waves of flowers flashed across my mind, as well as an image of my bike being stripped down to its basic parts just to be filled with dirt for kitchen gardens.
"Hell no." We have to get rid of Shredder and his clan once and for all. It was a matter of urgency.
Splinter and Leo were watching me as if I had lost it.
"What?"
"Nothing," Splinter replied shaking his head. "Tomorrow, I will meet your new friends. I am going to meditate some more and then I'll retire. Good night, my sons."
"Good night, Sensei," we quickly replied bowing.
Stay tuned. R :-D