Florida was AWESOME! Crazy (thou that's only to be expected when my cousins and I get together), but awesome. I don't know how my aunt and uncle survived policing the 5 of us for 10 days. We went to the Magic Kingdom, Sea World and spent a week on Sanibel Island. The weather was spectacular! There was this armadillo family living around our condo complex, and they were SO FREAKING CUTE! We found a ton of shells, saw a lot of these little brown lizards and went swimming a lot. Again, it was awesome!

Sorry, I'll get on with the story now. :)

I do not own TMNT.

Michelangelo bounded swiftly on all fours through the dark sewer tunnel. Around his neck was the orange strip of cloth tied into a bandanna he and his family were playing keep-away with. Mikey hadn't seen, heard or scented his brothers for the last few minutes, so he was confident that he'd lost them.

"Hehehe," he snickered cockily to himself. "I rock, oh yeah, I-AH!"

Out of the shadows of a side tunnel ahead of him sprang Leo. The oldest turtle bowled into his younger brother, pinning him in one easy movement.

"I rock, thank you," smirked Leo, pulling the orange cloth from his brother and placing it around his own neck. With that, he bounded off into the darkness of the tunnels.

"No fair!" wailed Mikey, promptly giving chase. He crashed right into Raph, who'd emerged from another side tunnel just then, attracted by the commotion.

"Watch where you go, Mikey!" snarled the hot headed mutant in irritation.

"Sorry," said the little freckled turtle sheepishly. They charged after their older brother together.

Leo sped down the tunnel, grinning to himself. He wove through the turns randomly, and steadily the sounds of his brothers pursuit faded. The blue eyed mutant turtle's grin grew triumphant. It didn't last, thou.

"GAH!" he yelped as a net flew from the darkness, tripping him up. To be specific, the same net he and his brothers had used to capture April almost a month ago.

"Aha!" yelled April. "Payback time, Leonardo."

"Oh come on," he groaned. "You really still mad about that?"

"Oh yes," April smirked evilly. She reached through the folds of the net to pluck the bandanna from a squirming Leo.

"Raph threw it," Leo protested.

"Yes, and it was your idea," replied April. "See ya." She placed the orange bandanna around her own neck and bounded off down the tunnels, leaving Leonardo to struggle from the net. He did not want to be trapped in the thing when his brothers caught up to him.

April giggled, immensely pleased with herself. But her victory wasn't destined to last long.

"Gotcha!" yelled Donnie. The chocolate eyed mutant had been following her secretly at a distance for most of the game, and now he'd chosen his moment to attack. April shrieked in surprise as she was tackled from behind.

"Cheater!" she protested.

"I am not," returned Donatello in mock indignation. Gracefully snatching the bandanna, he hopped up. "Catch me if you can!" He vanished into the darkness.

Twenty minutes later, the 5 were regrouping at their home. "Still cannot believe Donnie won," grumbled Raph as he hopped down into the Lair.

"Well believe it, Raph," called Donnie smugly, twirling the bandanna in triumph.

"I want," mumbled Mikey. "Orange pretty color." Donnie rolled his eyes and tossed the bandanna to his brother. "Thank you!" Mikey squealed, putting the bandanna back around his neck. He plopped down by April's feet and promptly curled up into a ball with a mumbled; "morning." It was almost noon, much later than they usually stayed up. Even Donnie was too tired to ask for a book reading. Leo turned off the lantern and the four turtles and human fell asleep, piled together like usual.

Dusk had fallen over the city as Casey applied the last of the paint to his face. Slipping on his hockey mask and pulling up his hood, he gave one last check to ensure he had everything he would need: hockey sticks: check. Hockey pucks: check. Aluminum baseball bat: check. Golf club: check. Sneakers/roller skates retro-fitted himself: check. Flash grenades: check. Self created taser: check.

"Alright Jones," he said to himself as he slipped down the fire escape. "Time to roll." Setting off at a march down the deserted street, he began his search for the gangsters he knew would be out at this late hour. If no one out during the daylight knew what had happened to April, maybe someone from the night world would.

Donnie was digging through a dumpster when Mikey came bounding up to him. "Pizza?"

"No, Mikey, I haven't found any discarded pizza yet," Donnie replied, more focused on his search for books than anything. The younger mutant whimpered and plopped down on his plastron. He was still wearing the orange bandanna around his neck from the game earlier that morning.

All of a sudden, Mikey perked up. A familiar humming noise had reached his ear slits; the motor of a pizza delivery scooter.

"Donnie! Donnie! Pizza hummer!" The blue eyed turtle jumped up and down excitedly. "Get pizza now!" Donatello sighed, but abandoned the dumpster he'd been searching through and followed his brother toward the sound of the scooter.

It was still and silent when they reached it. The delivery boy was just vanishing into the apartment building. Strapped to the back of the scooter were three more boxes of the heavenly disks.

"Alright Mikey, let's take this with caution and-" Donatello broke off when he realized his brother was no longer listening and was instead scurrying across the pavement, pausing briefly behind cars to check for humans before bolting to the next available cover. The chocolate eyed mutant sighed and slumped back, tipping his head up in exasperation. Then he went straight as a bean pole when he realized what he was standing beside.

It was a library. April had told him all about these, the buildings filled to their roofs with books, all there for people to enjoy. Donnie's clawed fingers twitched at the thought of all those books, sitting neatly on their shelves, just behind the infuriating brick wall. Sidling to the front of the library, he stared up at the doors with longing.

Suddenly, a poster caught his eye. Tacked to the wooden door, it held the words: Library Book Free Giveaway, all genres. Saturday. 10 am-3 pm.

A book giveaway? This library was throwing out some of its books? Like they were trash?! This distressed Donatello for several seconds, until his mind fully processed what it meant. All those books would be just sitting there for the taking! The turtle's mouth watered. All those lovely books, HIS!

Wait, he was a mutant turtle. He couldn't just walk up to a book giveaway in broad daylight! The bubble of joy he'd been floating in popped abruptly. Don whimpered in disappointment before the image of a red haired human sprang into his mind. April! April could come in his place! The bubble swelled into existence again, and Donnie turned to find Mikey so he could share his euphoria.

His only younger sibling was slicing through the straps securing the pizza boxes to the scooter with his claws. Grinning giddily, the blue eyed turtle mutant pulled the boxes from the back of the scooter just as the door to the apartment complex opened and the pizza delivery boy stepped out.

The bubble was instantly popped again, but this time by blind terror. Donatello dove for the shadowed alleyway beside the library as Mikey squeaked and ducked down behind the scooter, scrambling to hide himself behind a giant nearby car. The cumbersome pizza boxes dragged on the ground, slowing the turtle, and Donnie had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming at his sibling; just leave them! They're not as important as you!

The pizza delivery boy, who was engrossed in counting his payment, failed to notice the mutant struggling to conceal himself. Michelangelo hauled himself and the pizza boxes to safety just in the nick of time. The light haired human arrived at his bike and realized something was amiss.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "Where's my pizza?" He checked behind his scooter, then marched to the giant car beside it. Mikey was not out of the woods yet, Donnie realized. Michelangelo must've realized that too, because he snatched up the pizzas in his arms and bolted for the next car.

Keeping to the shadows, Donnie crept forward, trying to think of a way to assist his brother without being seen himself. Spotting a tossed away plastic soda bottle, he snatched it up and prepared to throw it. Mikey was almost to the alleyway, but the pizza delivery boy was still searching. Just turn away, just turn away, just turn away...Donnie though, trying to send his thoughts into the mind of the human like one of the comic book characters Mikey was so fond of. Logically, he knew that was ridiculous and impossible, but fear for his brother pushed those thoughts away.

Finally, thou, the pizza delivery boy seemed to give up. Muttering about thieves and docked paychecks, the human teen stomped back to his scooter and drove away.

Mikey scrambled into the safe darkness of the alleyway with a groan of relief. His brother tackled him in a hug.

"Too close," growled Donnie. "Way, way, way too close."

"Got pizza," said Mikey proudly. "Human never find me. Too quiet, quick. Like shadow!"

"Yeah yeah, let's just go find Leo and Raph," said Donnie. "And let's not tell them about this, okay?"

"Okay."

The turtles set off toward their usual meeting place. All was quiet in the city, besides the occasional distant siren or car horn. Until, that was, they heard a loud, meaty thud and a human cry of pain.

Donnie and Mikey froze. There came another meaty thud, and a louder cry of pain. The sounds were close. Creeping to the end of the alley, the brothers looked out into the street to see four humans. Two lay sprawled on the ground moaning, while the third was backed up against a wall by the fourth. Three of the men were dressed in ripped blue jeans and purple vests. The fourth had dark jeans and a black sweatshirt. A hockey bag with various sports equipment was strapped to his back. A giant brown glove was on one hand. His hood concealed his face.

"I'm telling you the truth! I've never seen or heard of that chick before!" pleaded the third man. The black clad human flung the third man to the ground. As he turned slightly toward the alleyway Donnie and Mikey occupied, his face was revealed. Covered by a white mask, it had the appearance of being made out of skinless bone.

A skeleton! Donnie thought in horror. Mikey began to hyperventilate. Memories were starting to slide through the chocolate eyed turtle's brain, memories so old and eroded they'd been forgotten for the most part long ago. But now they were returning, bringing with them a tide of pure fear.

Spinning on their heels, the brothers bolted. Donnie would've gone down to all fours if Mikey hadn't still been on two limbs, the three boxes of pizza half smashed against his chest. They sprinted through the New York alleys blindly, just wanting to get away from the skeleton.

Somehow, they made it to the meeting point without running into or over any humans. Leo and Raph were already there and sporting their loot, waiting impatiently for their younger siblings. Seeing his eldest brother, Mikey dropped the pizzas and launched himself into the air.

Leo yelped as Mikey nearly knocked him to the ground. "Mikey, what the heck is wrong with-" The dark blue eyed mutant stopped as he realized his brother was sobbing in terror.

"Skeleton! Skeleton!" Leo, unsure at first what this meant, went into big-brother-protection-mode and rubbed Mikey's shell, murmuring soothingly.

"What happened?" demanded Raph. Donnie tried to explain coherently.

"We-we were on o-our way back when we-we saw a h-human attacking other humans d-dressed like a-a-a skeleton. H-he was l-like the P-Pain-Bringers!"

Leo and Raph's eyes went wide. Donatello could see the memories surfacing in their minds too. The brothers huddled together, instinctively seeking the comfort that came from their closeness.

"Let's go back to the Lair," decided Leo.

"Pizza," remembered Mikey.

Raph picked the boxes up. "Just little squished," he said. The turtles hurried to the nearby manhole cover, escaping gratefully into the safety of black tunnels.