Choices and Chances:
Boys Weekend (Summer 2015):
Donatello Hamato adjusted his face shield and goggles, humming a happy tune as he continued to weld new plating onto the Shellraiser. Though the former subway car was getting older Donatello strived to keep it purring. Between the dark glass protecting his vision, and the crackling of the welding torch, he never noticed the figures creeping up on him. Three figures advanced, set up and then pounced. One figure caught and shut off the welding torch, a second grabbed Donatello in a tight lock, and the final figure ripped his face shield off and forced a cloth over his mouth.
Slowly his struggles stopped, and they allowed him to slide to the floor. Two of them worked to get the tall ninja turtle into a burlap sack, occasionally cursing his height, while the other safely stored the welding gear. Soon they carried the tall turtle, only his head sticking out of the bag, from the safety of the Lair to a waiting vehicle. They had a long drive ahead of them.
When Donatello woke he found himself in the back of a van, stuffed into a burlap sack. He ignored the sense of indignation momentarily to eye his surrounding carefully. The small windows above his head showed only open sky from his view, and lots of stars meaning they were no longer in the city. He could hear the steady hum of an engine, one that sounded really familiar in fact. Now that he was thinking on that, and the fog of being knocked out was fading, this cargo area looked pretty familiar as well. He was in the back of the Party Van, and the quiet voices drifting from the front were those he'd known his whole life.
"What in the name of Einstein am I doing in a bag!" Donatello yelled and heard a happy sounding yelp from the nearest seating row. A moment later Mikey's head popped over the back of the seat and smiled at him.
"Guys! Donnie's awake!" He called toward the front.
"Yeah, I think we kinda heard that Avocado brains." Raph growled back from somewhere further toward the front.
"How ya feeling, Donnie?" Mikey asked, tilting his head a bit to one side. "Sorry we used the color foam on you."
"Chloroform, Mikey, chloroform." Donnie sighed and wished he could reach his temple as he felt a headache building. "Why did you and Raph . . ."
"Annnnnnnddddd Leo!" Mikey cut in.
"What!" Donnie nearly screeched in betrayal at that news. "Leo helped! What were you all thinking? Where are you taking me? Why, oh why would you do any of this?"
"To your bachelor party."
"I thought I told all of you that I wanted one in the Lair."
"Oh you did." Leo called from up front, most likely driving the Party Van. "But April agreed with us so we're doing a boys' weekend."
"April agreed to let you kidnap me!"
"Naaawww." Mikey waved a hand dismissively. "She just agreed that we should do something more than a normal night in the Lair. We did tell her we'd hav' ta use some force though. She said as long as we didn't break you and as long as we let her know when we get to the farm house it was allllll gooood."
"Fun fact: I wanted ta knock ya out, but Fearless said April wouldn't approve." Raph called back to him. "So we drugged ya instead."
"I can't. . . I can't. . ." Donnie seemed to drift off mentally for a second before glaring up at his younger brother. "I hate you all so much right now."
"Love ya too!" Raph yelled back before cracking into laughter.
"Why am I in a sack?" Donnie asked as he felt a vein in his head bulging.
"So you can't fight us until we get there." Mikey smiled innocently and Donnie growled in response.
Meanwhile, in the Lair:
"Should I worry about what they did to get him out of the lab?" April asked as she eyed the unfinished repairs on the Shellraiser. Karai smirked from where she leaned on the door frame and shook her head.
"It was all very humane." She assured April in an amused tone. "Leo forbid Raph from so much as bruising Donnie."
"That is a very mysterious answer." April said without turning, eyes noting the neat but slightly out of place welding gear.
"If I tell you any more than that it won't be reassuring. I helped them plan it, he'll be fine. In fact, Mikey sent a text saying he woke up a few minutes ago and that their half way to the farm house."
"Woke up?" April turned to eye the other kunoichi than held up a hand to stall her from speaking. "Don't elaborate on that, please."
"Of course, princess." Karai smirked, she knew that was a nickname April hated. Only Donnie normally got away with that one.
"Alright, so we should go train." April started moving toward the door but Karai blocked it and shook her head.
"No training this weekend, father agrees. While the boys are gone you and I are to do something fun."
"Fun?" April bit her lip and thought that over. "Like what?"
"I have a few ideas, if you think you're up for it."
"I might regret this, but let's go." April's response was met with a laugh, before Karai led the way out of the lab.
At the farm house:
The van ground to a halt and doors up front popped open. Mikey looked back over the seat again and grinned down at Donnie, who glared back. Mentally he was very thankful for his shell, they'd hit a few pot holes on the way up and he couldn't control which way he'd bounced. The cargo area door opened into the night air and a human figure stood there grinning at the trapped turtle.
"D-man!" Casey Jones laughed at his friend's predicament. "Oh, this is good. What did they do to you, man?"
"Hello Casey. How are you? How's the weather?" Donnie's voice was filled with sarcasm, then dropped to a flat vocal tone. "They kidnapped me. Someone let me out of this bag!"
"Raph buddy, we all set!" Casey called.
"Yup, let 'im go!" Raph yelled back.
"Okay, hold on a tick, D." Casey located the string thing holding the sack closed, then carefully cut the knot. He helped the intelligent turtle get his arms free than stepped back and watched him kick the sack away and jump out. Casey was the nearest to Donatello in height, but the genius still had a clear couple inches on him. The purple masked turtle looked around and for the first time Casey noticed even Mikey had vanished. It was like a game of ninja hide and seek.
"Thank you." Donnie said quickly before taking off. Casey closed the party van and then leaned against it. Mikey was the first one Donnie found, and that was slightly epic to watch. Mikey was the fastest turtle, seeming to have an endless supply of energy inside himself. Once Donnie found him though it was impossible to shake him. Mikey was not as good at stealth as his three older brothers, probably the reason he was found first. He kind of tried to dance circles about Donatello, doubling back, climbing trees, jumping to and fro. Donnie didn't follow his wild moves, but he still stayed near him. Finally, something clicked, Mikey made a mistake and did something predictable. Donnie wrestled Mikey to the ground and literally bagged him with the sack he'd been freed from. Mikey was completely inside the bag though and Casey laughed as the youngest turtle kicked, begged and apologized to his brother.
"Nice job, D-man." Casey said as Donnie dragged the bag back toward him. He smirked, clearly his annoyance was abating a bit.
"Mikey, listen to me." Donnie said as he knelt next to the bag and spoke softly. "I'm going to let you out, and you're going to help me catch Raph and Leo. Raph first if we can."
"Sure, D. Anything you want." Mikey agreed from inside the sack. Donnie let him out, they folded up the sack and each looked around. Casey just watched the two at work. Watching the brothers train was almost a sporting event in itself.
Without a word Donnie and Mikey bolted off. Casey, though he was watching them when they did it, was a bit confused about where they went. They moved swiftly and silently, though he saw a tree rustle and assumed Mikey had taken to the tree tops. For several minutes it was silent, nothing moved, nothing made any abnormal sound. A gentle wind moved leaves, a bat flew across the sky, the moon shown nearly full above them. Suddenly the night was broken by a loud thump sound, like a body hitting the ground. Somewhere Casey heard Raph curse and scuffling. For a few minutes the sounds of struggling went on, then it went quiet again. A dragging sound announced the brothers' return, Mikey dragging the sack this time.
"Dude, Raph, you should go on a diet buddy." Mikey said and received a string of colorful words from the sack. Donnie grinned and kicked the bag lightly. They left the sack with Casey and vanished again, looking for their eldest brother.
"I know you're there, Case." Raph growled. "Let me out man."
"No can do, I jus' watched D shove two trained ninjas in a sack." Casey held his hands up though Raph couldn't see it. "I am not gettin' on his shit list tonight."
"Good choice." Leo said, startling Casey. He jumped, then turned to look at the van and found the eldest brother kneeling on the roof.
"How ya get back here without them catching you?"
"Years of practice, being oldest makes you a target more often than most people think." Leo looked up toward the tree line. Somehow he seemed both amused and serious. "I'll have to let them catch me soon though, so we can go inside."
"Drop 'em both a couple times first Leo." Raph said from the sack, causing Casey and Leo to laugh.
"I can do that." Leo assured before moving away silently. Casey shook his head, having a pack of mutant ninjas for best friends was never boring.
It was less than five minutes before Mikey yelped, finding himself dangling from a tree by his own chain. Casey laughed and described that to Raph, who snorted as Donnie appeared and freed his younger brother. So that meant Leo was somewhere near the edge of the tree line. Casey looked but soon lost sight of even the two youngest Hamato boys. Long moments of silence passed again, then were broken when Mikey and Donnie flew from the tree line in a pile of limbs. It looked like Leo must have caught Mikey and thrown him at Donnie. The two got untangled and climbed to their feet as Leo's voice drifted from seemingly nowhere.
"Why don't we call a truce?"
"No way!" Mikey yelled, but Donnie reached over and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Okay Leo, you win. Truce." The intelligent turtle said and shook his head at Mikey's betrayed look.
"Let Raph out." Leo said, again from nowhere. Casey felt a chill at how good Leo was at that trick. Donnie looked over at Casey and nodded, so Casey freed Raph. The red masked turtle stepped out of the bag with a grumble and began advancing on his younger brothers.
"Now Raphy." Mikey said as he backed away. "Ya know ya kinda deserved it, and hey we were all three bagged at some point. Please don't pound me for calling you fat."
"Relax Raph." Leo finally strode out, putting himself between his three younger brothers, but his eyes were on Raph. He grabbed Raph's shoulders lightly and spoke in a calming voice. "No harm, let's all just have some fun."
"Sounds good." Raph said, suddenly smirking as he grabbed Leo by the wrist and used some sort of lock on him. "Donnie!"
"On it!" Donnie rushed to grab the sack as Leo struggled against Raph, and ran back. Mikey and Donnie helped wrestled Leo into the bag as Casey fell to the ground laughing. His ribs hurt he was laughing so hard, the expression on Leo's face in the second Raph had grabbed him revealed that he'd never seen this coming. It wasn't planned, it was just the nature of younger siblings. Leo just fit fully in the sack and kicked a few times trying to escape. Finally, he stopped fighting it and just went still.
"I deserved that." Leo stated calmly. "And now we have all been forced into the sack."
"Yup, and now we can party." Raph said, kneeling and hefting the sack full of Leo onto a shoulder. Leo protested as he felt himself being carried toward the farm house. The other four young men laughed as they all headed inside.
Hours later found the five in the Livingroom watching Raph and Casey compete at a video game. Mikey was bouncing in place calling his claim to next match. Donnie noticed one brother was missing, he slipped out back and looked around. He heard movement above and looked up, Leo's feet were dangling over the edge of the roof. A few moments later Donnie had climbed up to sit next to his oldest brother who was gazing at the stars.
"Leo." Donnie broke the silence.
"Yeah?"
"Is she staying this time?" Donnie saw Leo shift his gaze from the stars to his younger brother. "Is Karai staying or did she just come back for the wedding? How'd she even know?"
"We've been exchanging letters the whole time. I send hers to a post box, she mails mine to Kirby who hangs onto them until I drop by." Leo smirked. "I asked Kirby not to mention it to anyone, you know Raph and Mikey would have had a field day. I wrote to her when you told me you were going to propose, never doubted April would say yes."
"So that just leaves my first question." Donnie eyed his brother who was starting to smile, but was clearly fighting it. "Leo, you know don't you? I won't say a word to the guys, that's between you and Karai."
"Yes, I know." He took a breath and surrendered to the content smile. "And yes, Karai is staying after the wedding. She told me she hasn't decided if she wants to live in the Lair with us or look for a place of her own. Whatever she was looking for in Japan she found it. There is something different now, something more settled."
"She made peace with her past." Donnie grinned as well. "That's fantastic. She deserves to be happy and it will be nice to have her home."
"So, when are you going to break to Mikey and Raph that you plan to move out?" Leo laughed when Donnie kind of choked on air is his surprise. "Oh come on, Don, you didn't actually think I wouldn't catch that? Plus, those plans must be pretty well planned since you have Kirby's blessing."
"Well, Raph probably seeing it coming. . ." Donnie paused and sighed. "I'm not really sure how to tell Mikey. I mean we've planned the whole thing out so that we can get to the Lair and vice versa easily."
"Do you need help breaking it to Mikey?"
"Yeah, and maybe we should get Raph to help too."
"Considering you're his favorite brother and you two are the B Team, yeah we might need as much help as we can get." Leo smiled as Donnie protested being called the B Team. He threw an arm around his brother's shoulders and hugged him. "Don't worry, we'll break it to him together. You aren't leaving, just living a bit more independently. Let's get back inside before those three break something."
"Heehee, yeah I don't want to explain that to April."
Saturday morning:
April got off the back of Karai's motorcycle and tugged her helmet off. Once Karai did the same she grinned and nodded toward the building they had parked in front of. April read the sign and decided she was going to regret this, a little. Edwin's Skydiving School was located on a small private air strip. Wait until Donnie heard about this.
Author's Note:
Sorry, I am not going to elaborate on the skydiving adventures of April and Karai. I hope this makes up slightly for what I did to Leo in the last entry, I felt bad for writing it but felt the need to explain Karai's absence and why Mikey was so happy to see her back. Hope this makes up for making you sad memmek10k, sorry about that. Please read and review, it keeps me going.
