After Mikey's win of the Nexus, he did have some good bruises from his mortal fight with Kluh. Don did examine him for broken ribs, as hard as he had been hit several times. His plastron could protect his bones a bit, but not from everything.
Luckily, no ribs were broken, just bruised. Mikey hadn't let on at the party or anything, but now that they were back home in safety, Mikey began to feel the pain of those bruises. Don said he should have a week off of training real hard to let his middle heal.
Leo was serious about keeping his brother in training, but he could see why, when Don had said Mikey needed some time to heal, as bad as he had been punched.
Mikey had the next week off. His brothers continued to train hard however, with Leo pushing them the way he did. And a week later, Mikey felt a lot better.
Randall had come over and hang out for video games with Mikey while he was healing. And Leo also put Randall through some katas as well. Even he was getting fed up with Leo's ridiculous hard training sessions. He was making them train too hard.
After that week was over, the turtles went up top one night for a training session. Randall decided to come over this evening and he had just missed them. Oh well. Splinter was still there though, and he and Randall sat down to a cup of tea in the living room.
"So, what's your perspective on Leonardo's behavior, Splinter?" Randall asked the rat.
"His behavior is very disturbing. It just is not like him to be this way for so long. It worries me more each day that he is becoming his own worst enemy on the inside. He aims to do everything for himself when he gets hurt in some way. I know the Foot harmed him and I don't know how to help him get through it in that way, but this has been going on for too long." Splinter explained.
"Tell me about it. I've never known him to be this way either, and I've been through some tough times with him too." Randall said.
They finished their tea and started watching some TV, one of Splinter's soaps, when an hour later, the turtles came back with an unconscious guest.
They all helped to carry this weird looking human creature into the living room. Splinter turned off the TV and he and Randall got off the couch as the boys laid the winged man on the couch.
"Who is this, my sons?" Splinter asked.
Randall had never seen a human with wings before. He had light blonde hair and black clothes on. His wings were white.
"We don't know who he is, but he did save Mikey from another flyer." Don replied.
"I just know he's called the Guardian Angel in the newspaper." Mikey said, holding up the paper he had bought, even though Leo had sliced it.
"That's fitting for him." Randall said, looking down at the man with wings.
Then there came a moan. They all turned to their guest. He was waking up.
"He is regaining consciousness." Splinter said.
The winged man looked around. "Where am I? This… is an Y'Lyntian stronghold." he said in a worried manner.
"Yeah, well, that's kind of a long story." Raph replied.
"You're the Guardian Angel. I got all the clippings! You're famous!" Mikey exclaimed excitedly.
When the man tried to sit up, he felt his wing hurt and didn't get up, but Splinter had noticed why. "You have damaged one of your wings. Do not move." The rat said. He pressed on his shoulder and pulled the wing a bit, making a crunching sound.
That move even surprised Randall.
The winged man then sat up. "It feels… much better." He rubbed at it.
"I simply manipulated pressure points in your shoulder to redirect the flow of chi to your wing." Splinter explained.
"Thank you." The man said, rubbing his wing, then he got a panicked look and rubbed his head. "Mephos. The diadem. Where is it?"
"If you mean your headband, the guy with the metal wings took it." Don stepped forward.
"NO!" He shouted in distress. "It will spell the downfall of my people. It will spark a new civil war! Many countless lives will suffer!"
No one would want to hear this.
"Don't sweat it, Angel dude. We'll just kick old Tin Wing's butt and get the headband back." Mikey said.
"I cannot ask you to help. I am already in your debt. And where I come from, that is no small feat." The man said.
"And you saved Mikey. We take that pretty seriously too." Leo said. "We'll help you, but we need to know everything."
"Very well. My name is Raptar. I am an Avian." The man said.
"I knew it!" Don exclaimed.
Raptar went to explain the Y'Lyntian story. The turtles had heard it before long ago, and still remembered it. This was the first time Randall and Splinter were hearing it though. Randall remembered one time he had heard the word avian as well that meant bird. Well, this guy did have wings like a bird, with feathers.
Don then knew how they were going to get there, even though he was unsure if it would work entirely. "I'm sure we could follow you, Raptar, with my new inventions." Don said. "Come with me."
Everyone followed him to his lab.
"Donny, are we going or what?" Mikey asked.
Randall wasn't too sure he wanted to go to deal with this, but he was welcome to let his friends go. He wasn't too sure about the effect air travel would have on him.
"We're going. Be prepared to be amazed." Don said, then he pulled a cloth off of four flying tech packs.
"Tech pack thingies?" Mikey stated.
"What's so great about that, Hotshot?" Raph asked. He crossed his arms, along with Raptar.
"Well how kind of you to ask. Just watch, and be amazed." Don said, and picked one up and let it spread out.
"Cool!" Mikey said.
"I've been working on an upgraded version of the tech packs that can fly." Don explained.
"We still have a problem. Without a crystal diadem, we won't be able to find the city." Leo said.
"But, your home is an Y'Lyntian outpost. Surely, there are power crystals here." Raptar stated.
"We kinda used them all to help some of our friends." Mikey explained.
"It's a long story." Don added.
"What of the Memory Crystal?" Raptar asked.
None of them knew what he was talking about. Then they watched as he stepped over to a pillar with a hieroglyph on it, and he traced it. "Let us see." Then something sparked and went up the wall to the ceiling. That was really amazing.
"It is still here." Raptar said proudly. His new friends were being real helpful and useful in his time of need. He flew over to the big batch of crystals that had come down from the ceiling. He picked up two crystals. "These will do."
"Wow! I thought I scanned the lair from top to bottom for crystals." Don said. "How?" He wanted to know more.
"It's… an Avian thing." Raptar simply said.
All the turtles picked up the tech packs and they all went topside, eager to get going to the Avian city. They had them snapped on by the time they reached a good-sized building.
Raptar and the turtles got on the edge, ready to go. Splinter and Randall approached them.
"Your hospitality has been generous. Thank you, Splinter." The Avian said, then he got into the air.
"Be careful, my sons." Splinter said.
"Piece of cake. You've tested them, right Donny?" Mikey asked his brainy brother.
"Not exactly." Don said.
"Then this will have to be the test flight." Leo said seriously. He made his take off first.
"Leo, wait up." Raph said and took off second. Mike and Don took off last.
"I hope they return in good health." Splinter said. "I think Donatello had designed one for you too, Randall."
"I don't think so. I don't think flying would agree with me." Randall stated. "Well, if I'm not needed here, I'm going back home."
The two of them went back to the sewers and would await the turtles' return.
…
Many hours later, after visiting the Avian city, they had defeated the one with the metal wings and he was imprisoned up there now, to never cause harm again, hopefully. The turtles all returned home safely, and Mikey had a new souvenir: a picture of himself with Raptor, the Guardian Angel. Mikey added the picture to his scrapbook.
They were glad to know him and would be happy to help take down bad guys with him too if he needed their help in the future.
…..
Randall knew of monsters in the world of humans, which were usually banished monsters, but he had experienced a lot of weird and awesome new creatures even he had never heard of before since he had met the mutant family. It seems that this new life definitely had a lot to offer; it was anything but boring.
It was still just very disturbing though how much time had passed since Leo's incident with the rogue Foot soldiers, five months now, and he was still being angry all the time, it seemed at the world. Sometimes a small part of his former self would come out, but that was rare now. They were lucky to ever catch him smiling anymore.
Lately, the turtles let the lair get a little messy. The living room and Don's study areas were messy.
One night, Splinter had all his sons sit down for some meditation with him. He wanted to have them steady their minds, especially Leo.
"Why is it all minds, all the time?" Mikey asked. "I'm hungry."
"Because you have not been using them enough. What does the state of our home say about its occupants right now?" Splinter asked. The place was quite messy around the living room and Don's lab area.
"Um, we really like casual Fridays." Mikey joked.
"It's a reflection of unfocused minds." Splinter reminded them. Your behavior has become sloppy. You all roam the city as if no threat existed. And Leonardo," the rat looked at his eldest, "Your behavior is the most troubling of all. There is a new hardness to you that strays from the true path of Ninjitsu."
"I do what I have to to protect this family." Leo responded harshly. His brothers gasped.
Splinter glared at him. "As do I. Back to meditation." he ordered.
His sons did as they were told. This had been going on for hours and Mikey for sure was ready to go eat dinner. Don was wanting to get back to his projects. Raph wanted to watch a wrestling match on TV, and Leo just wanted to do some more training.
But, shortly after they started meditating again, something started happening in the back of their minds, a strange dream from the astral plane.
After what had seemed like the real world was attacking them, Splinter got the enemies to reveal themselves: the Foot Mystics! They hadn't dealt with them in a long time. But Splinter got his sons to focus and beat the Foot Mystics.
When they all came out of their trances, they saw that it was just like a dream. It wasn't real.
"So, none of that was real?" Don asked.
"No. They wanted to destroy us from within. If it will make you more at ease, go call our friends." Splinter advised. Don went to call April and Casey, and Randall to make sure they were okay.
"Are you sure you're okay, April? And Casey and Randall are there too?" Don asked when he called.
"Why? Is there something wrong?" April asked.
"No. I just had a bad dream that something had happened." Don said. "I was just making sure you're okay."
"Okay then." April said.
Mikey was also worried for his cat, then there was a cat's meow from above. "Klunk!" Mikey said happily. He went to go get his cat.
After that, Splinter let his sons go back to what they wanted to do. They all needed time to calm down after what had just happened.
The Foot Mystics were still watching them from their pool of water in the temple. They had attacked them of their own free will. Karai had not demanded it, but the Mystics still wanted to take the turtles out. They were just biding their time until the next time. They wanted out of the Foot's service, once and for all.