Chapter Eight

Ninja's Day Out

Muffled beeps escaped the pillow and a pair of blue eyes snapped open. Fumbling hands finally found the switch and turned the alarm clock off. Picking the pillow up he looked at the glowing red numbers: 6:00AM.

I can't believe I'm doing this… where the only words that went through his mind as he slowly crawled out of the bed, pressing his lips together to hold back a yelp when he stood on an action figure from his preteens.

Being more careful this time, he felt along the floor with his feet until he reached a chair he had put to the side the day before and got dressed in the dark. Grabbing a flashlight that was also placed on the chair he looked at himself in the farthest corner from the door so no light could leak out.

Not bad for a first time… he thought after finding out his shirt was on backwards, his pants were inside out (so that's why I couldn't button them…) and his socks were on the wrong feet. That's when he realized how tired he must have been when he realized that socks couldn't be on the wrong feet.

After correcting his clothing he looked at himself again. It was his favorite… set of clothes (it's not an outfit!): a brown T-shirt that had green longer sleeves sewed on so it looked like he was wearing a second shirt, comfortable, worn jeans with a ripped knee from the time when he was ambushed by the Foot a few months ago, now that he looked at the rip he kind of liked the look. After combing his hair with fingers he put his orange mask on like how he used to wear it when he was five with the cloth completely covering most of his blond hair, though he rolled the front up so the eye holes didn't show.

After flexing in the mirror he walked out of the room, only to turn back and grabbed a wallet stashed inside his pillowcase. It had a few hundred bucks that he had been saving from the time his genius-of-a-brother suggest he get a day job. It wasn't really hard for someone of seventeen, especially at restaurants, though he went through a few of them. Each job lasted for a few good paychecks, but then something happened. Like the time he worked at the Pizza Pit. It wasn't his fault when he tripped on his shoelace, fell back and hit the pot of cooking sauce. It toppled to the floor and made a mess. His family had assured him he was lucky not to get burned, but his boss hadn't been so caring. Or the time where he worked register for Game Stop. It wasn't his fault he got confused sometimes on counting back change. That boss was strict too and he was fired after his drawer came up short for the twenty-fourth time, or was it the forty-second?

Shaking his head he thought, I'm just not all that great with responsibility… With a sigh he shook his head again, determined not to let anything ruin this day. It started as an idea after he stayed up long enough to see Raph come walking in from a night off by himself. He still found it suspicious that whenever Raph went out something about the Nightwatcher appeared on the news the next morning.

What a minute… He looked at the ceiling as he thought it over. Realization suddenly hit him. "They must be friends!" he whispered. "Cool."

He shook his head again, figuring he needed to get going before Donnie woke up. If anyone woke up his plans wouldn't work. Taking the flashlight out with him, he tiptoed past the couch, which held two sleeping forms, the little five-year-old body refusing to sleep anywhere else, and the teen entered the kitchen. He tore a paper from the pad usually used for grocerie lists, wincing at the sound that seemed to be magnified by the silence of everyone else sleeping, and scribbled something that could be translated into words if one squinted and tilted their head just so.

After leaving the note in front of the coffee maker the teen hurried back into his room, grabbed a skateboard, and headed out of the lair. He returned five minutes later realizing he wasn't wearing shoes.

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Don woke up around 8:30. It was almost a month since the robot bird attack. When they were sure nothing was going to hunt them down at the moment they had returned to the lair and introduced Master Splinter to their new friend. Of course, upon introduction Jack had cowered behind Razor's back. But after some time he got used to everyone around him and didn't seem so on edge, though he still jumped at any unexpected event.

Things had started to return to normal - or as normal as they could get anyway. With the help of Gorf, Don managed to create a solution to Alex and Razor's tranquilizer problem and they were happy to reclaim the ability to walk.

Don had also found how fun it was to be able to share thoughts and ideas that were closely related to his interests with ones that were on his intellectual level - not that he thought his family wasn't smart by any means, but it was common knowledge that he was the electrical brain of the family and he liked talking to the 'brainy experiments' over the internet on the site Gorf had found with Doc's help.

With a yawn he went to the kitchen to start his morning coffee. As always, Razor woke up when the lights turned on. It had passed through Don's mind before that maybe what Razor's eyes appeared to be were true: maybe he didn't have any irises, just large pupils. Since the iris is connected to the muscles that cause the pupil to grow and contract depending on the surrounding light, the absence of irises would explain why Razor was so sensitive to sudden changes of light, especially fast blinking like that of a strobe light.

The topic was interesting as he waited for the coffee to brew, but he figured not to ask Razor as he got off the couch, the experiment becoming skilled in getting up without rousing Jack. In truth, Don wasn't sure if Razor even knew the point behind the iris, other than giving a person an 'eye color'.

Giving a wide yawn, Razor stretched and opened the fridge. "You know Don," he said, reaching in and withdrawing a rather large metal bowl, the opening covered with a layer of tinfoil. "You're becoming a really reliable alarm clock. God forbid I sleep in just once," he said jokingly while jumping up to sit on the counter, the bowl in his lap.

"What's that?" Don asked.

Razor pulled the tinfoil off to reveal a mass of tan, sticky paste dotted with black lumps. The shark scooped some of it up with a finger. "Cookie dough," he said simply and stuck the finger in his mouth.

"Cookie dough, when'd you make cookie dough- wait, you can't have that for breakfast!"

"Too late," Razor said happily and was about to stick his finger back in the uncooked sweets when he stopped. "Oh wait," he reached down beside his leg and pulled a spoon from a drawer "no double dips. Kind of gross I guess." After the first couple of spoonfuls he caught Don's disappointed look. He held the bowl out with the spoon hanging out of his mouth. "Want some?"

"No thanks," Don sighed and commenced pouring himself a cup of coffee. "You do know though, that all the raw eggs in uncooked dough give you a risk of catching Salmonellosis."

Razor faltered a moment, looking down at the possible the unhealthiest breakfast, perhaps reconsidering. But then he simply shrugged, said "I think I'll risk it," and stuck the spoon back in his mouth.

With another sigh Don grabbed a newspaper from the counter in one hand, his coffee cup in the other hand, and sat down at the table.

There were a few moments of silence before Razor jumped down from the counter, hugging his so-called-breakfast, and headed out of the kitchen with an extra spoon. "I bet Mikey will appreciate my fine dining."

After rolling his eyes, Don saw Leo walk into the kitchen over the top of the headlines. Moments later Razor reentered the kitchen.

"What's that?" Leo asked.

"Uncooked chocolate chip cookies," Razor said and held out the extra spoon. "Want some?"

"Uh- no thanks," Leo said.

Razor shrugged. "More for me, then. Hey, have you guys seen Mikey?"

"No, why?" Leo asked.

"He's usually asleep until later, unless it's Saturday of course," Don said.

Razor pointed over his shoulder at said turtle's room. "I was just there to see if he wanted any. He's not in bed."

"I don't know where he'd be," Leo shrugged and turned to the cupboards to start a box of morning tea when he noticed a paper by the coffee maker. He picked it up.

"What's that?" Razor asked.

Leo easily read through it, used to the messy handwriting:

Don-

Went out in the city for the day, if your reading this I'm already gone. Don't tell Leo if he's in a bad mood for some reason (probably because of Raph), and keep Alex and Razor on the couch, I'm sure I can handle myself for a couple hours. And put the Shell Cell down, I don't need you telling Gorf to hunt me down, I'm not a baby anymore. I got the to fend for myself on food, I've thought this through. Oh, and don't let Leo or sinsay blame Raph either, I thought of this on my own!

I'll be back tonight, no worries, right? (hey, that kind of rhymed!)

Anyway, see ya later,

Mikey

P.S. say morning to Jack for me!

"Lemme see," Razor said through his spoon and grabbed at the note. "Ah, our 'il Mikey's growin' up," he said when he read through it and passed it to Don.

"Are we really that predictable?" Don wondered aloud when he put the paper down.

"What's goin' on?" a tired mumble said as a tail dragged sleepily across the floor. Without even looking at him she grabbed the bowl from Razor, took the clean spoon and plopped down at the table.

"Mikey's gone," Don informed.

"Huh," Alex mumbled and stuck some dough in her mouth. It took a few more spoonfuls for it to actually hit her. "What?"

"Mikey. Is. Now. Gone," Razor said slowly, sticking his own spoon into the dough. "He. Left. Before. We. Got. Up. Under. Stand?"

"Here," Don said, handing her the note.

"You okay?" Leo asked.

"Didn't sleep too well - now I'll never trust a clown with apples in rainbow pants," Alex sighed and had to blink a couple times before her eyes could focus on the writing while the three guys in the room looked at each other, wondering just what the dream had been about. "Ooooooooooooohhhhhh…" Alex said after a moment.

"What do you mean, 'oh'?" Leo asked.

"He said something a few months ago about goin' out on his own for a day."

Leo and Don shared a look. "He did?" they asked together.

Alex swallowed more dough. "Yeah," she said with a heavy nod and looked at their bewildered faces. "Uh- he told me anyway."

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Michelangelo was having fun as he shredded down the sidewalk on his trusty skateboard, music blaring in his ears. The day was young and he thought he had gotten a pretty good start. The beginning was kind of boring since nowhere was open that was worth going to, but it was cool to watch the sunrise. Now, after having a good breakfast of pancakes that were as big as his plate, scrambled eggs, a blueberry muffin, bacon, sausage, and milk he was headed to Central Park. His waitress didn't think he could eat it all, he showed her.

Even though it was early morning on a Friday, and he had been human and going topside openly for a while, it amazed him how many people that were in the streets. He didn't know how the school systems worked, and judging by the amount of people his age and younger, he guessed school was out today. He swerved through pedestrians, getting a couple angry glares at his back though he never actually hit anyone.

After cruising through the sidewalks for a while it was almost 10:00 when he reached the park. There were people scattered across the grass and walkways. Though it was early Mikey felt compelled to get an ice cream. When he was almost done with it he was walking across the grass when someone yelled "Look out!"

He turned his head just in time to see a purple blur coming right for his head. He leaned back and grabbed at it, catching the Frisbee as it passed. Directly after there was a bark, a yellow blur knocked him on his back and he was attacked by something wet.

"Goldy, no!" the same voice yelled and a pair of people came running over. "I'm so sorry, she usually doesn't jump on people," the person said when the Golden Retriever was pulled off of him. It was a couple of young adults, a guy and a young woman, probably still in college. "Bad girl," the guy scolded the dog.

"It's okay," Mikey said laughingly, rubbing his cheek on his sleeve. "Uh, this yours?" he asked, holding up the purple Frisbee.

"Are you okay?" the young woman asked, holding a hand out to help him up.

He took it and got to his feet. "I'm fine, really. She was just congratulating me on catching it, weren't you?" Mikey asked the energetic dog, scratching it behind the ears. When he straightened the dog barked at him, jumping up onto its hind legs. Realizing he was still holding the Frisbee, he let it fly. After plenty of ninja training, and though he never used them, he had somewhat mastered the air of star throwing, which was like throwing the plastic disk, the Frisbee went straight and low. With a delighted bark the dog chased after it without a care in the world.

"Sorry again," the young man said before the pair chased after the large dog before it knocked someone else over.

With an amused smile Mikey continued on his way, leaving the ice cream that he had dropped on the ground charitably to the ants. As he walked across the grass he thought through the list of things he wanted to do for the day. At the moment all he knew he wanted to do was go to the skate park and get lunch. Those plans sounded good.

When he was almost out of the park he passed a couple kids standing around a tree. The oldest one was maybe twelve, who was a tugging on a string, the group's faces full of disappointment as they looked at the tree branches.

"You're gonna rip it!" one of the younger ones exclaimed.

Mikey went over to them. "What happened?" he asked.

The oldest pointed up at the tree. "Our kite got stuck and we can't get it down."

Mikey turned his gaze upwards and sure enough found a bright red kite trapped in the taller branches. Looking at the trunk of the tree, most of the lower branches had been cut off to prevent people from climbing up them. Like that was going to stop this ninja. "I can get that," he said.

"Really?" a few of them asked like they finally found a ray of hope.

"Yeah," Mikey said, slipping off his shoes. Since throughout most his life he went without wearing shoes, he found climbing trees easier shoeless. "Just leave it to the Mike-ster!" he said, pointing a thumb at his chest and turned to the kite stealing tree. He jumped at the trunk and started climbing up it. The bark scratched at his feet and palms but he kept his grip, and the scratchiness wasn't exactly painful. When he reached the lowest branch he pulled himself up onto it and looked down. Little faces peered up at him hopefully. With a confident smile he turned his eyes upward and searched for the patch of red. The kite was a ways up, at the end of some of the smaller branches, but he was sure he could get it.

Keeping his eyes locked on the kite so he didn't lose sight of it he started up the tree. At some points he had to twist at hard angles so he could reach the next branch, but he finally neared the same level as the kite. From where he was he could see what the problem was: the string had wrapped around the branch. He was forced to inch out onto the end of the branch underneath the kite so he could free the string.

It was stuck tight. How do things like this happen on accident anyway? he wondered. Its like knots that make themselves are always the hardest to undo.

After some very slow moments he was starting to get the string away from the branch.

CRACK!

The sudden sound almost made him lose his balance. Grabbing onto the branch above him he looked around for the source. Following the sound of small, quieter crackles he located the sound to the tree trunk, and noticed his narrow ground was starting to tilt - the branch was breaking.

"Uh-oh…"

With a final crack the branch fell out from under him. He barely saved himself by grabbing onto the branch overhead. There were a few moments of him dangling there when there was another CRACK!

"Really?" he asked the branch before that one, too, snapped and gravity ruled.

The fall was a blur of green and brown until he started to hit the thicker branches, he seemed to hit every branch on the way down until finally the last branch to the ground snagged on his pants and he was stuck hanging upside down. Soon after the branch that had snapped fell to the ground with the kite still tied to it, incredibly the kite was unscathed whereas the body was going to have some sore spots in the morning.

"See?" Mikey said, already feeling the bruises start on his battered body. "Told'ja I'd get it."

"Are you okay?" one of the kids asked.

Mikey opened his mouth to answer when his pants ripped and he fell the rest of the way to the ground, landing on his head. He sprang to his feet before anyone could say anything. "I'm okay!" he said, even though he was a little off balanced.

Two of the kids picked the fallen branch up and finished untangling the kite.

"Thanks mister!" one of them exclaimed before running off and the other quickly followed.

Rubbing his head Mikey smiled at his helpfulness and continued on his way to the skate park.

...--...

"Hey you!" a voice called through the distinct sound of plastic wheels rolling across cement. "You with the orange bandana!"

Mikey stopped at the top of a half pipe looking around. He caught sight of someone standing beside the half pipe. It was a guy around sixteen wearing a dark blue ball cap backwards over dark hair, a pair of headphones hung around his neck while a jacket clung to his waist. After looking for anyone else that could be wearing orange Mikey pointed to himself.

"Yeah you, come here!"

Picking his skateboard up, Mikey slid down the half pipe and jumped to the ground curious on what this person wanted. "Yeah?" he asked when he was standing in front of the one that called him.

The guy turned around and started walking away. "Follow me," he said simply over his shoulder.

With a shrug Mikey followed, though he brushed a hand against his side to feel the familiar mix of pole and chain sitting within the waistband of his pants when he saw he was being led across the street from the skate park and into a shaded alley. He was wearing a backpack that he picked up before he left home - not sure why he would need it exactly but decided the extra big pocket could come in handy - but he preferred his weapons be closer to his body.

When he got to where he was going he was glad for his weapons being at his sides because as soon as he was led past a dumpster he was grabbed from behind. Reflex took over as he thrust an elbow back to push the air out of whoever it was so he was let go, then whipped around and put an arm up to deflect a punch. Turning to the side he delivered a kick to the gut knocking what little air was left out of the lungs causing the attacker to fall to the ground.

See bros? I can take care of myself… he pushed the thought out to his family.

"Whoa," the guy that led him into the alley said, lifting a hand to clasp the ninja's shoulder, but must have thought better of it as he hesitated. It could have been the sudden reflexes, or the look of sudden mistrust Mikey was sending him. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?" the guy asked, putting his hand back down.

It may have been a fluke, or planned. Don't take that kind of risk with a stranger, especially while alone. Get out of there, Mikey could practically here Leonardo's voice tell him and started to back up from him. "I take classes," he said truthfully, heading back for the street, the sunlight, the open public. "Hey dude, I'm late for lunch, I gotta go." That wasn't exactly a lie either, it was nearing noon and he was getting hungry.

"I just have a few guys that want to meet you, I don't even know this guy," the skater kid assured. "It's nothing bad. We were really impressed with how you can shred the pipes. Come on, the hideout's just in here," he said, walking a few more feet down the alley and opened the side door to a building.

Mikey hesitated a moment. Nothing sounded relatively threatening, though he was being invited into an unknown building by an unknown person.

The guy didn't look like an undercover Foot ninja.

As he thought about it he sensed an attack coming up behind him. Ducking down he was able to dodge a metal pipe. Thrusting a leg up, he jumped and spun, kicking the same one that attacked him across the face. The kick spun the man around where he landed on the ground. Conscious or not, he didn't move to get back up.

"Down boy," he said, pointing at the attacker's back. "Now stay."

"Come on," the skater boy urged encouragingly. "I know they'll really be glad to meet you after those awesome moves you pulled."

He stood there another moment, then, against Leo's distinct voice inside his head, took a step towards the door. But the wanting to show his family that he could take care of himself while by himself made him hesitate when he noticed how dark it was inside the building.

Deciding the Leo that had somehow got planted inside his brain was right, Mikey was about to finally say no to the skater, but before he could even get the words up his throat he received a hard shove from behind making him stumble into darkness. There was the sound of the door slamming shut behind him as he tripped and landed on his hands and knees in total darkness. There was the sound of his skateboard clattering across the cement floor.

Smooth… he thought sarcastically to himself when a dim light was turned on.

"Now this is a sight I like to see," an agonizingly familiar voice said.

Michelangelo stiffened when he found a pair of huge shoes standing in front of him. Raising his gaze he found non other than Hun stepping out of the shadows.

Aw shell…

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"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnhhhhhhhh…"

"You two deserve it."

"But it hurrrrrtsssss…" Alex whimpered pathetically as she and Razor lay on the couch gripping their stomachs, their empty bowl lay on the floor from where it had been dropped.

"Aren't you supposed to be the sympathetic brother?" Razor asked in a similar whimper.

"Not for this," Don said with a shake of the head. Not only did the two have stomachaches from having nothing but cookie dough for breakfast, but the amount they had eaten was what really stole the family's sympathy. It turned out that the quantity of dough in the bowl had been a quadruple batch. Divided between the two experiments they had eaten two complete batches of uncooked cookies. Even Raph had agreed that was a lot.

With the unhealthiest breakfast in the world now gone, the two had been sitting on the couch moaning and groaning in pain for the past couple hours. The moans only increased when Leo came to inform them that when they could bare the pain they had a lot of exercising to do in order to work all that dough off. At the moment it was just a matter of deciding when the groaning of pain ended, and the moaning of procrastination began.

"Donniiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…" the two voices pleaded, but the turtle just walked away, knowing that if he stayed exposed to their begging for comfort any longer he was going to cave.

While practicing techniques in his room Leo shook his head yet again at the sounds of pain wafting in through the door. Blocking the voices out a sudden feeling of anxiety hit him. Just like the youngest had predicted, he wasn't very happy about Mike's sudden plan of becoming completely independent, even it was just for the day. He could just see Mikey becoming a well tempered Raph Jr with the constant need to be out on his own. Bad feelings of what could happen had already passed over him earlier that morning, but now the feeling spiked.

Against his brother's wishes he had thought about ways to track Mikey down but with Alex and Razor rendered useless with stomachaches on the couch he knew no one in the lair could go look for the youngest in broad daylight. Jack would be able to blend in perfectly except for the unexplained scar on his face, but he couldn't possibly ask the little kid to go into the city alone, experiment or not, Jack was only a three-year-old. Leo had also thought about calling Gorf, but knew that was a bust because Gorf had told them ahead of time that he would be at the junkyard looking for anything he could salvage to help built his latest invention, including getting a few more cupboards. April and Casey were possibilities, but then he realized he really didn't know where they could start looking, and with Mikey, as old as he was with the money he claimed to have, along with the training of climbing and sneaking into practically any location of his choosing, and the fact that it was a Friday, Mike could literally be anywhere in the city. He had already tried calling Mikey's Shell Cell multiple times, but each time Mike picked up and, before Leo could even draw a breath to say something, said "No" and hung up.

At least he's answering in some way to say nothing's wrong…

After a few minutes of continued practice, he finally lowered his swords and looked at the Shell Cell sitting on a shelf.

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"Talk,"

"No." All the practice of not exactly listening to his elders was starting to pay off. Though when he was little Splinter wouldn't tie his hands behind his back, pick him up by the shirt, and smash his back into a brick wall.

"I said talk."

"And I said no," Mikey refused and again was shoved into the wall, this time receiving a few pops from his spine while crushing his left hand.

"Listen you piece of genetically altered shit," Hun said threateningly, pulling Mikey away from the wall by the front of his shirt, holding him up, feet off the ground, so they were somewhat eye to eye. "Tell me where the other turtles along with the damned experiments are before I rip you open and choke you with your own intestines." A threat that Mikey was sure Hun could pull off. The location of the lair was almost shaken out of him when a thought struck him from nowhere.

"I-if you kill me," he said, trying to keep the shake from his voice. "Wouldn't you just throw away you're chance of finding the others?"

Hun became angered at the obvious logic being pointed out and threw the smaller body across the room where he hit the wall head first. He crumpled to the floor, pretty sure a few brain cells hadn't survived the impact - it was probably the fact he couldn't remember his own name for three whole seconds.

Before he could remember how to stand a large hand grabbed him by the shirt once again and lifted him up, pressing him against the wall. With a nasty scowl, Hun lifted his other cinder block of a fist up looking ready to not only knock Mike's lights out but shatter the bulb with it.

Bracing himself Mikey closed his eyes and waited – but nothing came. Cracking an eye open to see what was going on, he heard what everyone else in the room had: the clatter of plastic vibrating across cement.

Eyes turned to a corner where Mikey's backpack, skateboard and nunchucks had been thrown out of reach. When the backpack hit the wall one of the pockets hadn't been closed and the only content was now shaking across the floor. After a moment the Shell Cell stopped moving and started ringing.

One of the Foot ninja that lined the walls, who where the ones that held him down and tied his hands, picked the device up and quickly handed it to Hun, who in turn shoved it in Mikey's face with the simple command "Answer it."

Mikey looked at the man with the face of plain resistance, but knew if he didn't answer his family would probably start to worry about his safety and he was determined not to pull his family into the clutches of the Foot, especially Hun. "My hands," he reminded them after deciding to answer.

Hun reluctantly let him go while the ninja that had retrieved the Shell Cell cut the rope with a concealed blade.

Catching the Shell Cell when it was thrown at his head, Mikey answered it.

"Don't hang up," Leo's voice said through the speaker before Mike could suck in a breath.

Mikey eyed Hun as he turned slightly away like any person would when on the phone. Working to push his voice into a casual tone, Mikey said "Whatever would make you say that?"

"Only the fact that I've called at least twenty-five times today and you haven't said anything more than 'no' every time." There was a sigh on the other end of the line. "With the appearance of a human or not, Mike, the city's dangerous."

"I know," Mikey replied with more meaning behind the two words than his brother knew.

"Sometimes I wonder if you do. Even in the middle of the day… I just don't want you getting hurt."

"I'm happy you care, but you worry too much," Mikey said, watching Hun out of the corner of his eye. The breathing brick wall wasn't looking too happy noticing that his little captive wasn't going to beg for saving from his fellow freaks. "At the rate you're going bro," he continued. "You'll drown in your worry and die younger than you're meant to."

Starting to get angrier about the phone call leading to nowhere Hun started to reach forward.

"Uh- I gotta go – in a theater," Mikey quickly lied and ended the call. He ducked underneath the hands that grabbed for him and jumped between Hun's legs. The Foot ninjas immediately closed in but this time Mikey was ready.

It was already made up in his mind that he wasn't going to stick around and knock each ninja out. Instead he was going to grab his 'chucks and run out the door – it wasn't locked, just hard to get to.

When he got as far as the nunchucks he turned to complete the second half of his extremely vague plan. Fighting solely on defense by blocking and dodging blows Mikey inched his way for the door, making sure to know where Hun was at all times and keep at least two ninjas between the leader and him. The walking wall wasn't hard to keep track of since he was over a head taller than most in the room.

When he was close to the door he knew it was just a matter of getting back into the sunlight. Mikey hadn't thought something like this would have happened during the day, ninjas were 'creatures of the night', they weren't meant to be seen in public. But some of that thinking might have come from the idea that he and his brothers (who were ninjas too obviously) where not allowed topside during the day, and couldn't be in very crowded areas even at night.

Then one of the ninjas decided to accidentally help him. He was standing in front of the door and was trying to figure out how to get through it when a foot suddenly connected with his chest, throwing him backwards and through the door. It burst open and fell into the alley.

At the sound of Hun's yell of anger and frustration Mikey scrambled to his feet and made a mad dash for it. Skidding onto the sidewalk he sped down the street, dodging around the people around him before they had enough time to jump out of the way.

He didn't stop until a good number of blocks away, bursting through the main entrance of a mall. Even then he continued to run until his chest, lungs, and legs ached and he stood slumped against a wall surrounded by people. His head was pounding, his body was bruising from the escape on top of the bruises from climbing that tree, he had lost his skateboard, and he felt stupid and wanted to go home.

After a few minutes of getting his breathing back under control he tried to walk without stumbling through the mall until he reached the food court. Not feeling very hungry for once he just got a bottle of water and sat slumped at a table trying to gather his still scrambled thoughts, keeping his eyes open for anyone that seemed even the least bit dangerous to his health.

After half an hour he decided he might as well stick the rest of the day out. For a few minutes he had watched a mental movie on the possibility of telling his family about getting tricked into meeting Hun. He could see Don checking to see if he had any injuries, Raph wanting revenge (especially on the punk that lured him to the alley), Alex and Razor would probably be on Raph's side, while Leo would team up with Master Splinter saying how foolish it was to go off on his own just like that and say how they should not go looking for fights that would lead to nothing but destruction - all-in-all, Mikey thought it would be less of a headache just to keep the ambush to himself.

Looking around the food court he heard a group of teens talking about some movie. With a little consideration, and checking that he still had his wallet, Mikey stood up, through his empty water bottle away and headed for the theater on the other side of the mall, making sure to stay near large groups of people, but not make it obvious that he was hiding.

When he reached the theater he was just in time for one of the movies. Getting the standard popcorn and soda he went through the film without any life threatening interruptions, except at the end when he thought his bladder was going to explode from the large drink he downed halfway through a two hour movie.

When he walked back out he was feeling better about recent events and looked around for something else to do. Not really trusting to go back outside he headed for an arcade. Some wasted hours, eighty bucks and a Guitar Hero contest later he walked out of the arcade with a bag of candy he got from the numerous tickets he'd collected along with a plastic sword that came up to his waist as a peace offering to Leo. Starting to think it was time for dinner and then the sewers, all before the sun set he started for a restaurant.

Feeling okay to go outside again, and wanting to end his day with something worth while, he headed for Applebee's. When he left after having buffalo wings, a burger bigger than his fist with French fries, and topped off with a Mudslide (not paying attention to the small amount of chocolate alcohol in it) he walked out the door with a stomach about to burst.

With the sun starting to sink, he was on his way to a familiar manhole cover when he was sidetracked by a Game Stop. An hour and a half later he finally dropped down into the sewers with a wireless guitar under his arm, complete with game in the combo deal. He hurried through the tunnels, trying to keep his steps quiet so he would be able to tell the difference between his footsteps and those of others if they happened to appear. Thankfully though, he made it to the lair without any unexpected encounters, but there was still the matter of the expected encounters.


I'll just say right off the bat, this chapter was spur of the moment, not in the original planning of the story - or lack there of... Anyway, I could say this is mostly dedicated to Puldoh, becuase, well... on the last comment she left she told me she'd comment on anything with Mikey in it, and she wanted more Mikey action and that got me thinking since he IS human and all, and when I start thinking... well that's when plotlines start popping up, and I was sort of in an open spot in the story. So here's to you Puldoh! hope ya like it.

...blank mind.