Raph narrates this first section but I'm going to only use his accent in his dialogue because I don't want it to interrupt the flow of the story. I'll still use "yah" instead of "you" but I won't do say "countin" instead of "counting" because it will ruin the narration and….yeah I just made that sound really complicated but you get the idea lol. ON WITH THE SHOW. This show...BTW…is 1,000 words longer!
: Chapter 9: (Raph's POV)
What do yah get when you cross Donatello and a really stupid idea? You guessed it, Erasmus unconscious, on the floor of the sewers. We just finished lugging his 180 pound body all the way down here just because Donatello had this bright idea of letting him wake up to where this all began, in the dark, smelly sewers at the exact cross section where the Shredder beat the snot out of Master Splinter.
"Holy crap he's fat! I'm ganna go die now." MIkey dropped Erasmus's legs and collapsed into the green tinted water. "Alright Don, knocking him out wasn't one of your brightest ideas."
"I panicked ok! JUST LET IT GO!" Don crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. Yes, our all-powerful, fearless leader was pouting. "I have a better plan to make up for it though. When he first wakes up…"
"If he doesn't kill us…" Mike frowned and bit his lip.
"When he first wakes up, and doesn't kill us, we will hide in these cross tunnels and let him do the rest."
"Oh so you mean let him escape?" I sassed him. I swear, Don had most of the time had really good idea's but today, he was just out of it.
"No, I'm going to run back to the lair and grab a few things. You guys stay here and guard the…body." He nodded at us.
"Wait! What if he wakes up and kills us?!" Mikey cried out.
"If he's killin anyone its ganna be you bonehead." I chuckled. "Don't worry, I think Don hit him hard enough that he'll be out till next Christmas."
"Oh you're so funny Raphael. Stay here, I'll be right back." Don took off down one of the tunnels, leaving Mikey and I alone in the darkness of the sewers.
"You think we should take the bag off his head?" Mikey asked.
"No, we don't want him waking up and passing out again once he sees your hideous face."
"If I was allowed to swear I would be showering you with curses!" He pointed a big, ugly green finger in my face. "But I won't…because I'm an angel."
"Shutup and guard the body." I ordered him.
"Oh what's it ganna do? Get up and walk away? He's out cold Raph!" Just then, Erasmus moaned and started to shift positions making Mikey squeal as loud as he could and send his creams of terror echoing all throughout the sewers.
"MIKEY!" I drop kicked him into the water and stood over his trembling body. "Would yah shut the hell up for 5 seconds!"
"Don really needs to hurry! I don't wanna be Foot food!"
About 5 minutes later, Don finally came back into the small dome shaped room we were in with his large, brown duffel bag that he carries around all the time.
"Alright, Raph, put these on him." He chucked a pair of metal handcuffs over to me. As much as I wanted to ask what they were, I was desperate to get our Foot brother under control before he woke up and caused harm to us, or even himself. I pulled off the rope that we had tied to his hands and replaced them with the chilled cuffs. They made a few clicking noises and then a tiny bit of blood started to fall down his hands.
"Don what are these things?" I couldn't help but ask, sorry.
"They're ganna let me send an electrical current through his body if he tries to escape. Those needles that just went into his wrist will help it feel more real, that way he doesn't resist as much." He responded.
"Someone needs to stop watching midnight horror films." Mike snickered.
"Alright, I talked a bit with Splinter again before I came back. He said the best way to help Eras…Leonardo remember his past, is if he learns it on his own. See those scratch marks on the wall?" He pointed behind himself where four gashes were running across the brick tiles. "Those are Splinters marks from his battle with the Shredder. If we can give him some hints as to where he is but not tell him exactly where he is, maybe we could get his memory to start kicking in more efficiently." Don ripped the back off Erasmus head and put it into his bag. For a moment we just stared down at him like a pack of hungry wolves. We examined him, his body structure, his face, even his plastron. "He's definitely mutated form the same canister that mutated us. The patterns on his carapace are almost identical to ours."
"Freaky man." Mikey whispered.
"I got a question. How are we supposed to convince him that what where telling him is the truth? Like yah said, how can we convince him he's from the same canister?" I asked.
"That's for him to figure out on his own. If Splinter is right, and Leo has prior knowledge of us, then hopefully his memory will trigger some kind of reaction that can either help him believe what the Shredder told him was false, or that we're right and he needs to figure out the Shredder is false."
"Dude, my brain hurts." Mikey grasped ahold of his head and started spinning in small circles.
"I hope this works Donnie boy." I took a step back away from them and faded into the shadows of the sewers. "Two failures in a row aint good for you."
:: (Erasmus's POV)
"Mikey now, wake him up."
"Leonardo…Leonardo…wakey wakey…ERASMUS!"
My eyes shot open and immediately all of my senses went on high alert as I examined my surroundings. After turning my head around as far as it could go, my eyes finally met with Raphael's. I growled and went to reach for my swords but my hands were stuck behind my back by something cold and metal. My first instincts were to use my arms like a jump rope and pull my chained arms out front of me but when I tried; I received a small electric shock throughout my entire body. I crashed to the ground and splattered water in every direction around me.
"Raph! Let me go and I won't murder you for hitting me in the head!" I maneuvered up out of the shallow water and planted myself on my knees.
"First of all, I didn't hit yah. Second of all, you aint goin nowhere Foot boy." Raph walked over to me and reached his hand behind my back. He lifted me off the ground and planted me on my feet. "I'm askin for ten minutes of your time."
"Ten minutes for what?!" I hissed.
"…to turn your life around." He slowly stepped back into the shadows and disappeared out of my vision. I stood alone in the dark with nothing but the harsh smell of garbage and the small trickle of water that was running across my toes. Suddenly, several bright lights turned on and my location was revealed to me. I was in what looked like the sewers and judging by the smell, they were New York City sewers. I turned around the small circled shaped area where four other tunnels were leading out.
"Where am I?!" I called out but no one answered. "Show yourselves and fight like a true warrior!" Seeing that I was left alone, I tried to make a break out of one of the passages but only to be stopped by a sudden flush of electricity. I staggered back but kept standing. "What do you want from me?!" I looked around to try and find another exit but there was nothing, I was boxed in.
"Stop and think." A soft voice said that I couldn't pinpoint but it sounded like it was coming from one of the tunnels. "What happened here Leo? What happened?"
"Who the hell is Leo and I have no…" My eyes quit wondering and stopped on a small point of interest on the wall. They looked like gash marks but not any that I recognized and they were definitely too small to be the Shredders. I walked towards the wall and got a close look at the indents.
"How am I supposed to know?!" I said to no one in particular.
"Those are claw marks that you're looking at, why are they there?" I heard Raphael's voice come from one of the tunnels.
"Who do I look like Sherlock Holmes?" I sighed when I didn't receive a response. For some reason, I became interested in the gashes and examined them the best I could. Something in the back of my head didn't feel right but I guessed it was just from the crazy blow that knocked me out. "I don't know…a fight or something?"
"Yes, how long ago?" A surfer accent spoke. Dating things was something I was good at so this question I would be able to answer.
"I guess…13, 14 years ago?" I figured from the deepness of the impression. My head started to hurt again in the same spot but I shoved it off and ignored it.
"How about…15?" He responded.
"Alright, so 15 years ago there was a fight here. Am I right so far?" I smiled and decided to go along with Raph's little game. For now…
"Correct! Ding ding ding! Someone give this mutant a prize!" The same person spoke but then squealed after a smacking sound echoed through the tunnels.
"So now what?" I asked.
"Who was there?" The soft voice spoke up again.
"Someone with claws…" The electricity went through my body again but not as intensely as it had been the first two times. "Would you stop that!" Still, it was enough to set me on edge.
"You're thinking with your mind, think with your heart." It said.
"So this is personal for me…" I walked around the small dome and started to look at everything more specifically. "Why can't you just tell me where I am so I can go home already?" I cringed again from the pain that now seemed to be making my stomach become upset.
"Home aint where you think it is Leo." Raph said. "Home aint with the Shredder."
"Then where is home?!" I started to get frustrated but the questions I began asking them seemed to be coming from deep within myself rather then up in my head. I truly wanted to know where I belonged; I knew the Shredder wasn't telling me the whole truth ever since he freaked out when I met Raphael. I knew there must have been some missing information but I wasn't ready to let myself admit it. The pain came again, but this time it was in my upper stomach.
"Home is closer than you think Erasmus."
"Leo, Erasmus, pick one!" I cried out.
"Who was here 15 years ago?" The softer voice began to sound irritated.
"Who was here?!" Raph yelled.
"Who?" The surfer accent demanded.
"I was!" I suddenly said without even thinking. There was complete silence as I stood still and tried to steady my heavy breathing. "I was…" As I began to clear my mind and let everything else except what was happening now, out of my memory, the only thing I was focused on was what was going on in the present. The stomach pain was now directly on my heart and the palms of my hands were drenched with sweat.
What was happening to me? What are these freaks trying to do to me?!
"How do you know…?" The surfer boy spoke.
"Why else would you bring me here?" I responded in a serious tone. "I know the Shredder lied to me! I know my past isn't what he told me it was!" I felt like someone had reached their hand into my plastron and was trying to pull my heart out from the inside. I tried to hold back the cries of pain that began to collect in my throat.
"Good." All at once, three out of four tunnels were now housing three mutant turtles. I crashed onto my knees and let the spray of water drip down my tacky face. "You alright?" Raph patted my shell.
"Who are you people…?"
"That's for us to know, and you to find out." He lifted me up out of the water but I refused to make eye contact with any of them.
"We're obviously related." I said, out of breath.
"Yah?" The little orange guy smiled. "That could be true…because 15 years ago…we were here with you."
"Those your claw marks then?" I asked him with a grin.
"Those are our Sensei's; he made those while trying to defend us from the Shredder." Raph crossed his arms over his chest.
"You just said I was there with you." I wished these freaks would make up their minds, I guess I can't call them freaks anymore since we're distantly related in some way.
"You were." The tall one said.
"The Shredder wouldn't attack me."
"He did 15 years ago."
"Why are you playing mind games with me!" I lunged for him but he pulled out a small remote and pointed it at me. "So you're the one who's trying to fry me?"
"Yes, and as of now I'm quite enjoying it."
I "tskd" and backup away from him. "So we were all here fighting the Shredder."
"Our Sensei was fighting the Shredder." The little lime green turtle held a finger in the air.
"You're mistaken, I already have a Sensei and I'm pretty sure he wasn't fighting himself." I said while watching the purple clad turtle reach into a bag he had slung on his shoulder and pull out a broken glass canister.
"Maybe this will clear things up." He held it up to me so I could look at it. "As of now, everything the Shredder has told you about yourself…is a lie and you know that don't you?"
"How do you know he's lying?!" I spat.
"Because Erasmus, we're your brothers."
I staggered back at his remark. I'll be honest; I was not expecting him to say that at all. I know I figured we were related to each other but I was thinking more like distant cousins, not something as close as brothers.
"I don't have any sibling except my step-sister Karai." I could feel myself beginning to be pulled in by his statements, like something in the back of my head was telling me to shut up and believe it. Things I had never seen or thought before began to jump into my head and bounce around like a bullet as his words started to make sense. If everything the Shredder told me was a lie, then I absolutely could have three brothers, but was I ready or even willing to believe that? If what he was saying was true, my entire life could change on an extremely dramatic scale.
"What did I just tell you? Forget everything the Shredder told you and listen to the truth."
"How can I trust you?" My voice dropped to a low pitch.
"Once I tell you you're origin story, you will." He placed the canister on the ground and reached back into his bag and pulled out a small, blue bandana.
"Your name isn't Erasmus, your name is Leonardo and 17 years ago, you, Raph, Mikey and I were all hatched inside a local pet shop."
"So…I wasn't created in a lab?"
"No. We were purchased by a young boy but on his way home, there was an accident. A truck carrying radioactive material, A.K.A ooze, collided with another car and spilt these canisters all over the place. The boy who was carrying us home was nearly killed in the struggle and dropped us down a grate when someone pushed him out of the way of the vehicles path. Down we went into the sewers along with the remains of the broken canisters of ooze and the terrible compounds they carried inside them." I could see he was the smart one of this family considering no one else stepped in to share information.
So everything you just heard him say was my whole birth story and somehow, deep in my heart, I knew it was true which baffled me greatly. What was even more bizarre was I actually remembered, my thoughts were fuzzy and unorganized, but a small picture was forming in my mind. I could remember dumb parts but they were completely insignificant. I remembered things like the truck that was carrying the ooze was labeled TCRI. Still, my mind refused to believe it even when my aching heart (literally) was telling me something else.
"We were rescued by a generous rat who adopted us into his family. Do you think you know what his name is?" He asked me.
"I…I don't know. What you're saying makes since but that doesn't explain why I have no idea who you guys are."
"Why do yah think we're here?" Raph opened his arms and gestured to the dome. "Two years later splinter took the four of us out for a stroll through these exact sewers. Shredder met us halfway and Splinter risked his life to keep us safe. Unfortunately, he not only lost his honor in the process, but lost you too." Raph growled.
"The Shredder abducted me?"
"Yup, and he renamed you in order to keep your from every knowing we existed." The one known as "Mikey" frowned. "Well, that's what we think anyway."
"Then what took you guys so long to find me?!"
"We didn't know yah existed until two days ago bonehead." Raph hit me in the back of my head, making me twitch and find the need to smack him back if it weren't for my cuffed hands.
"So…do you believe us?" Mikey put his hands up to his chin and walked over to me with his head pulled back.
"Part of me wants to believe it, but the other part of me wants to rip all your heads off." I grinned.
"Well, at least we're making some progress." The tall one sighed.
"So if you three are my brothers, I guess I'm entitled to some names and ages." I smiled. "I'll go first. I'm Erasmus and I really don't want to call myself Leonardo since I'm still on the fence about all this. I'm 18 years old and…I'll leave my criminal record out of the equation."
Raph looked surprised yet extremely pleased. "I'd like to hear it sometime. I'm Raphael, yah already know me as the one who kicked your sorry shell, twice." He grinned. "I'm 18 too and everyone calls me the temperamental one although I have no idea why."
"Oh yeah we have nooo idea why. I'm Michelangelo! But everyone calls me Mikey for short mainly because no one knows how to spell my name correctly so they just call me Mikey, or Mike if you're really lazy." He jumped up and down with a grin on his face. "I think I'm 17...but I never keep track so who cares!"
"You must be the talkative one?"
"You kiddin? I'm the life of the party!" He clapped his hands together, making Raphael growl and roll his eyes.
"I'm Donatello, I was supposed to be the leader of this team but now that your here…I can go back to being the smart one again." His cheeks turned a bright red.
"Wo wo, I'm a one man show here."
"Oh yeah, and how did that work out for yah?" Raph leaned his elbow on my shoulder. "You're I handcuffs and being held against your will."
"You don't have to lead yet, but once we prove to you who we are, hopefully you'll understand." Don smiled.
"Wait, you're not expecting me to join you are you?" I asked. "You're my enemy! You kidnapped me for crying out loud!"
"Let's see if we can change your mind about the Shredder." Don put the glass canister back in his bag along with the blue bandana. "Let's take a little field trip shall we?"
"Fine, but could you at least unhand cuff me? I feel too vulnerable in these things." I wiggled my wrists around.
"We'll unhand cuff you once we can trust you." Don smiled but then suddenly looked to Raphael with questioning eyes. "Why do I feel like I've said that before?"
