Hey, all. Here's the next installment of TMNT, and on time this time, I might add. :D Thank you loyal readers for the reviews. Much appreciated. I hope you enjoy my humble offering. On with the fic!
Disclaimer: One! Living by the code of the martial arts! Two! Never fight unless someone else starts! Three! Always stick together no matter what! Four! If all else fails then it's time to kick butt!
"How can you be so calm, Leo? Those whackbags took our brothers!"
"I know Raph," Leo answered, his patience wearing thin, "but we can't do anything about it yet. We have no idea who those guys were. We don't even have any leads to follow!"
Raph just growled in response, pacing around the living room of The Lair like a caged animal. He and Leo had searched for hours. The second they'd realized Don and Mikey were gone, they'd rushed from the apartment. They'd scoured the area, searching for any sign of a trail, anything they could use to track the strange enemy ninjas. And they'd come up empty. There was nothing to follow, no footprints, no cars, not even a cheesy scrap of fabric like they always found in movie scenes. Their brothers were just gone.
After the hours of frustrating dead ends, the two older brothers had returned home. Leo had called Agent Splinter straight off the bat, and the agent put together an immediate response team that was attempting to find the missing teens as well.
"Maybe Splinter's had better luck than we did," Leo suggested.
"You know he would've called by now if he found anything," Raph answered sharply.
"Yeah," Leo sunk down into the couch, "Yeah, I know. I just, I can't believe this. How could I let them be taken? It's my job to keep you guys safe, and I messed up. I really messed up."
"Leo," Raph tried, crouching down in front of his brother and placing his hands on his knees. "You did everything you could. There's no way you could've stopped them. They caught us by surprise."
Leo stared at him, unconvinced. "It's my job, Raph, as team leader to make sure we're never caught by surprise. I'm the idiot who went to open the door without even checking who it was first. I was completely careless. In this job, we can't afford to make mistakes like that. I can't afford to make mistakes like that… I just hate that it's not me that has to pay the price," he finished softly.
Raph sighed, knowing there was nothing he could do to change his brother's mind. He wouldn't even begin to see sense until Mikey and Donny were back safe. He settled for patting Leo's knee and straightening up.
"I don't know about all that Leo, seein' as how I'm only the second in command, and I don't try to worry about every little thing at once, but I do know this: we are going to find these guys, and when we do, they are going to be in a world of hurt."
Mikey slowly cracked his eyes open, wincing at the light that suddenly seemed to be everywhere. He gingerly reached behind his head and felt the giant lump swelling there. He pulled his fingers back and was pleasantly surprised to find they didn't have any blood on them. That was one thing at least.
Next he attempted to sit up, which after a few tries and failed attempts, he managed. He set his back against the white wall and took in his surroundings. There wasn't much to see. White wall. White wall. White wall. And he looked slowly, left to right, yep, white wall. How did I even get in here? he thought.
There was no door, no windows, no trapdoors or moveable ceiling tiles that he could see. It was just one big white box…until it wasn't. The wall Mikey was leaning against suddenly disappeared. One second it was there, the next it wasn't.
Mikey fell backward with a yelp, smacking his already bruised head on the hard floor. He groaned, curling up into a ball and holding his head. He jerked when he felt hands on him and scuttled around like a turtle on its back trying to get away from whoever was touching him. This of course only made his headache worse and made him quite dizzy as well.
"Mikey. Mikey! MIKEY!"
Michelangelo finally realized that someone was shouting at him, and not just any someone. "Donny!" Mikey cried. "What are you doing here?" He uncurled himself and slowly tried to sit up again.
Donny shifted around him and helped him sit up. "I was about to ask you the same question. One minute I was in this cell alone, the next thing I know one of the walls faded out, and you popped up, or fell over, I suppose."
"Oh, so you saw that too? Good. I was starting to think I hit my head harder than I thought."
"You hit your head? Here let me see." Donny carefully examined Mikey's head and pronounced it nothing more than a bump. "You'll be fine as soon as the swelling goes down."
"Just great," Mikey grumbled. "Now I can add giant lump on my head to my list of injuries, which include weird, hand-shaped bruise on my chest and slowly-turning-green bruise on my face."
Donny laughed, "Don't get hurt so much then."
Mikey just stuck his tongue out at him, "Easy for you to say. You're not everyone's favorite punching bag."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Donny answered dryly. He slowly drew up his dark purple shirt to reveal a darkening bruise across his side. "I took a few knocks too."
"Oh god, Donny, I'm sorry. I didn't even ask." Mikey scrambled around to get a better look at the injury. "Are you ok? Do any of your ribs feel broken?"
"I'm fine, Mikey," Donny said, amused by his brother's concern. "I know getting hurt is your thing…and Leo's…and Raph's, now that I think about it…Urgh, ok. I know I don't get hurt as often as you guys do, but that doesn't mean I can't handle it."
"I know, Don. I didn't mean it like that. It's just you're the one always fixing people. It's weird to think that you need fixing sometimes too."
Donny chuckled and wrapped his arm around Mikey's shoulders, "We all need fixing sometimes, little brother."
Mikey let loose a burst of laughter, "How corny are you right now, dude? That sounds like something Master Splinter would say."
"Hey! I can sound wise and you know, sage and stuff."
"Yeah, whatever dude."
They were both silent for a moment, before Donny said, "Here let's scoot back against this wall. Hopefully it won't disappear like the other one."
They settled back against the wall and got comfortable. Don kept his arm around Mikey's shoulders and let Mikey lean against him. He rested his own cheek against Mikey's unruly hair, taking comfort in the fact that he had at least one person with him he could trust.
"Do you know what happened to us, Don?" Mikey asked quietly. "I don't remember anything after getting up this morning."
"I don't remember much past that. Someone attacked us. It wasn't The Foot, but I don't know who else would be gunning for us."
"Do you think they got Raph and Leo too?"
"I don't know, Mikey. I really don't know."
Fin! So ends another glorious installment in the story that you know has everyone at the edge of their seats. What will next day's chapter bring? What will become of our dashing heroes? Did anyone else notice that the review button changed? All this and more in the next exciting chapter of TMNT!