Author's Note:
Okay, so maybe I didn't update as soon as physically possible, but I wanted this chapter to be long to make up for the short ones.
Thank-you so much to "multicoloredmango" "sait4soreyes" and "Alycat3" for suggestions about what Donatello fears. They really helped, and I will update chapter two A.S.A.P. Also, a big thanks to "toolazytosignin" and "Puldoh" and everyone else who gave encouraging reviews, for the great feedback. You guys are the reason I keep writing. : )
(In case you haven't figured out the pattern by now, this is a continuation of Michelangelo's part from chapter 2)
Michelangelo froze. "H-hello?" he repeated. No response. "Shell. Okay, Mikey. Whatever you do, don't wake 'em." He sat stiffly, barely breathing. His heart was racing. He strained his ears to hear whoever was beside him. They were breathing, and sounded quite healthy, actually. Whatever had happened to him couldn't have happened to this guy. Either way, Michelangelo had no intention of waking them. He sat without moving for what must have been an hour, before deciding that he was being stupid.
He finally let loose the tension in his shoulders and leaned back against the wall. "Who cares about him…or her? I need to get out of here." He clasped his hands together. "Okay, thinking time. What are my options here, Mike?" He smirked. Raphael thought it was stupid when he talked to himself, which is why he did it so often. It was so fun getting him peeved. Michelangelo shook his head. "Focus." He told himself. He brought his right hand to the wall. It was made of stone. "Darn. Can't break stone with nunchucks. Wait…NUNCHUCKS!" He frantically brought his hand to his waist, and then to the floor. "My chucks are gone! Why didn't I notice this before?" His left shoulder throbbed suddenly and he stopped his frantic search to settle for yelling instead. "Chucks! Chucks, where are you?" He yelled. Then his eyes widened and he smacked his forehead with one hand. "And now I'm talking to my chucks." He moaned. Beside him, his fellow captive stirred. "Whoops, sorry." He whispered before shuffling away a few feet.
"Okay, concentrate!" he told himself, a bit quieter this time. "There's probably just like, a locked door or something that I can't see. Wait…a locked door? I can't pick locks! Donny and Raph can pick locks!" He imagined Raphael plunging a sai into a lock and having it open with a few twists. How did he do that? And then there was Donatello, who once picked a lock with an earring he found on the ground. "D'awwww…why can't I be the smart one?" Michelangelo was the jokester. The comic relief. The one who liked to bug people for fun. And as awesome as that was, it wasn't going to help him right now. He needed a brother.
"Man. I need a bro." he echoed his thoughts as if voicing them would help. "Or maybe a pizza. I'm starving." He was trying to navigate the topic away from his missing relatives. "Yeah, yeah. A gigundo pizza. With onions and pepperoni and a deep dish crust." He placed his right hand on his stomach and listened to it groan. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until now. "Ssshh…ssshh. Down boy." He said to his stomach. "I'll find food as soon as I can…" His mystery company stirred again. "Whoops…sorry." Michelangelo whispered once again as he shuffled away a few more feet.
"Okay. One more time. I gotta think of a way to get out of this place!" He drummed three fingers on the stone floor. "If only I could drink that stuff…and then morph into one of those guys…then I could break outta here. What was that game called again?" He twirled his bandana tails with one finger. "That's it! Rampage Total Destruction!" He smiled to himself. "That was a fun game. I bet I would've unlocked the next character if Raph hadn't "accidentally" poured lemonade on my game system." The stranger stirred again.
"SORRY!" Blindly, the orange-clad turtle shuffled away until he ran into a wall. "Darn it Michelangelo, can't you concentrate for one stupid second?" He yelled at himself. Suddenly, his shoulder spiked up again, and his gash began dripping. "Ugh." He clasped his right hand to it to try and stop it from bleeding. He had closed his eyes to try and forget the pain, when he remembered something Leonardo had said years ago. Well, not the entire thing, but he remembered something about focusing. Leonardo was so good at that. Him, not so much. So Leo always tried to help him out.
"Let go of all your thoughts, Michelangelo," He had said in his serious tone. His brothers only used his unusually long, full name when they were serious. "Focus on just one thing. Let go of all emotion except strong determination."
"Yup. Sure sounds Leo-esque." Michelangelo choked out through pain-induced clenched teeth, ending the memory. "Okay. I'll give it a try. What have I got to lose?" He winced at the thought of all of the things he had to lose. "Okay, bad wording, but whatever." He closed his eyes, and concentrated on the sound of his own breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Gradually, the pain slowly washed out of him. In. Out. In… Michelangelo opened his blind eyes and let out his breath. "Haaaaah….Okay, I'm good. Thanks, Leo."
Now that his mind was clear, Michelangelo knew what he had to do next. Scope the place out. He flipped onto his plastron and used his good arm to pull himself onto his feet. His head suddenly began spinning, and he leaned heavily against the wall. His knees left arm dangled uselessly at his side. His meditation session had stopped working. With or without good breathing, it hurt. Bad. "Owwww. Oh, come on. What was that other thing Leo said?" He paused to recall the memory.
TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT
Master Splinter had been trying to increase his sons' flexibility. "To a ninja, nearly nothing is as important." He had told them. That day, he had them go through their usual daily katas in the dojo, but when they were finished, he kept hem a little while longer. "My sons, you must build up your flexibility. Flexibility in your spine is most important. It enables easier jumps and will also increase your speed."
Raphael rolled his eyes. "Great. Just what we need. Ta build speed in Mikey." Michelangelo had just grinned at that remark. He was the fastest of the four, and they all knew it. And he loved how it annoyed Raphael.
"Quiet, Raphael." Leonardo snapped. "Continue, Master."
Splinter shot all four of his sons a look that said "smarten up" and then continued. "As I was saying…I want the four of you to learn to do a backbend."
"A backbend?" Donatello repeated, confused. "What's a-" He began, but cut himself off when he realized his Sensei was about to demonstrate.
Splinter put his walking stick gently on the floor, and loosened his robe. As his sons stared, he moved his feet shoulder width apart, bent his knees and raised both hands in the air. Then he tilted his head back, and leaned backwards, bending his back until his hands touched the floor.
"That…looks painful." Michelangelo grimaced as his Sensei pulled himself back up.
"It sometimes is, if not done with care. " Splinter said. "But if mastered, this move will greatly increase your overall flexibility. You may use a wall to help you at first, but I wish to soon see it done without support. I will be back in one hour to see how you have progressed." And with that, he was gone.
The brothers stood silently for a minute, until Leonardo broke the silence. He clapped his hands together. "All right. If that's what Splinter wants, that's what he'll get." He took off the strap that held his katanas, and tossed it beside Splinter's stick. Then he went to a wall, and began trying to lean back just far enough to not hit his head against the wall.
"Aww…this is stupid." Raphael said to his two younger brothers who had yet to move.
"I'm with Raphie." Said Michelangelo, his eyes never leaving Leonardo who had fallen flat on his shell more then once. "That looks like it hurts."
Donatello laughed. "It won't hurt if you do it right, Mikey. You see, when the spine is-"
"Hey guys! I think I've got it!" Leo suddenly shouted. His brothers watched as he walked his hands down the wall into a perfect backbend.
"Does that hurt, Leo?" Michelangelo wanted to know.
"Not really." The eldest answered, standing up. "But let's see if I can do it without the wall. Spot me, Raph." He walked to the center of the room, and proceeded to do a flawless backbend just as his Sensei had done, while Raphael's hands were on his shell incase he fell.
"Great, Leo!" Donatello cheered. He threw his bo into the growing "weapons pile" and ran to the nearest wall. "My turn!" He began to practice with the wall, while Leonardo continued to practice on his own. That left Raphael and Michelangelo watching.
"Come on you guys! We have 30 minutes left!" Leonardo reminded them.
"Aw, let's jus' get this over with." Raphael growled. "Spot me, Mikey." Michelangelo held his hands under his brother's shell while Raphael dropped into a flawless backbend without practicing once.
"Nice one, bro!" Cried Don, who had just done one without a wall at about the same time. "You're up, Mikey!"
"I dunno, dude. I still think I'll hurt myself."
"You'll be fine, Mikey. Come on! You only have 10 minutes left!" Leo said.
Michelangelo knew he couldn't get out of it, so he tried it on the wall, walking his hands down it as slowly as possible.
"Kay, great. But now ya have ta try it on your own." Raphael said. "C'mon, I'll spot you."
Hesitantly, Michelangelo moved to the center of the room. Nobody said a word as they watched him widen his stance and lean back ever so slowly. Raphael eventually got tired of holding out his hands, and just watched as his brother's hands neared the floor. Closer….closer… Suddenly, Michelangelo's right hand slipped and he immediately fell backwards, arms flailing, and his head hit the floor with an enormously loud knock.
Donatello yelped and his hands flew to his mouth. Leonardo was at his brother's side in 5 seconds. Raphael just roared with laughter. "You okay, Michelangelo?" Leonardo asked.
"Ooooh…..I think so." Michelangelo groaned. Leonardo helped him to sit up, and then Michelangelo's vision became peppered with black dots. "Wait…I don't think so." Michelangelo gripped his head with both hands until it stopped. "Okay, I'm good. It hurts like shell though." He felt the back of his head and found an enormous bump.
After realizing that his younger brother was okay, Donatello glared at Raphael. "Nice spotting, Raph!" Raphael didn't respond. He was laughing too hard.
"Ow, Leo. It hurts." Michelangelo whined. Leonardo put a hand on his shoulder.
"Physical pain only happens if your mind allows it to. Think about something else, Michelangelo."
And so he did, until his Sensei returned.
TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT-TMNT
"I remember now!" Michelangelo cheered. "Leo said pain only comes if you let it! Sort of…" He closed his eyes, and focused on his breathing once more, until his arm went numb. He continued to slowly inch his way around the room and used his right arm to fell for any openings in the wall, while still focusing on breathing. He blocked everything else out until all he could feel was his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He continued his search all the way around the room, which he now knew was very small, carefully avoiding the "unconscious one" on his way back to his original spot.
He slid down the wall and sighed as he opened his blind eyes. Not a crack. There was no way out. Or no way that he could find from the floor, anyway. His pounding heart faded from his ears as his eyes began to droop. "Now what?" he asked himself. He leaned back on the wall, and was about to drift off into a sleep caused by exhaustion when something brought him back to his senses. The guy beside him had rolled over and his hand lashed out and slapped Michelangelo's knee. Michelangelo screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Get-it-off get-it-off get-it-off!" He yelled as he smacked the hand off his leg. "Ew, ew, eww…" He whispered, eyes screwed shut. Suddenly he realized something. "Wait a sec…" He held his breath and reached down towards the hand. He lifted it as gently as physically possible, and then dropped it, shocked. His heart skipped a beat. Three fingers. It was a turtle.
Suspenseful? …Not really. But it would be for Mikey. XD Please review. Negative or positive feedback both work for me. Tell me your thoughts on my story so far!