I do not own the TMNT.

Disclaimer; I have never had the privilege to meet someone who had been caught in a cloud of ninja vanishing powder. Thus I have no idea how it smells. If anyone here has had the privilege I would love to hear the details but until then I'm just going with my imagination.

Master Splinter was worried. April O'Neil had gone down to the shop several minutes ago, plenty of time for her to have come back, or to have dispatched any of the less skilled thugs that tried to rob defenseless owners' stores. With Miss O'Neil's additional ninja training she should be able to take down most of the more talented crooks as well.

As the minutes dragged on Master Splinter grew more and more agitated. He had just decided that the situation required further investigation when something rumbled in the ceiling above him. Master Splinter looked up just in time to see a cloud of grey powder pour through the air vents. In almost no time at all the entire apartment was filled with the opaque cloud of spicy smelling powder. The consistency of this powder was unusually fine, allowing it to spread through the air more quickly and stay aloft longer than most ninja powders.

Before Master Splinter could identify the direction from which his attackers might come from a net dropped down from above.

Moments later a window scraped open and the increased airflow helped to disperse the powder. As the powder's density in the air decreased three bulky, if somewhat short, outlines appeared in the air.

"Ha! We got him!" One of the outlines crowed, pumping its fists in the air.

"How can you be so sure?" Another outline asked as it moved away from the window.

"Come on Donnie! You should be able to see him by now!" Mikey gestured towards the pointy-eared figure in the middle of the room that was steadily darkening as the powder left the room.

"Uh, Mikey that's not him." Leo said.

"Then who is it?" Mikey demanded. The powder had by now cleared enough to answer the question as the figure entrapped in the net darkened considerably more than Master Splinter's fur. "Oops."

"HMMPH!!" Kit insisted angrily, somehow including threats of a slow and painful death in her tone. Somehow the netting had snagged around her mouth just right to provide a gag which had kept her from speaking out against her predicament earlier.

"Sorry Kit, I'll have you right out of there in a second." Mikey stepped forward to help when a loud clonk! announced that Mikey had just received a walking stick to the head. "Ow!"

"Sensei?" Leo asked. His question was met with a thwack! "Ouch!"

Thwack! "Ow." Donnie took his punishment with slightly less complaint than his brothers.

Shnick. Kit felt the ropes of the net loosen. "Hey! I'm free!" clunk! "Ach!"

Clunk. "OW! Sensei you already hit me!" Mikey whined.

"The first was for attempting to capture your teacher. The second was for being incapable of differentiating between your teacher and your fellow student." Master Splinter explained calmly. Mikey continued to whine slightly and rub his head. "As for the rest of you-"

Master Splinter was interrupted by the sound of something metallic banging into something hard coming down the hallway to April's apartment. Soon the door was thrown open and the last of the powder dissipated as Raph came into the apartment covering his head with his hands while April beat on his shell with her bat.

"Hey! Hey stop it already! Cut it out Ape!"

"…How dare you sneak in like that and attack me from behind! I should be aiming for your skull instead of your shell you…" Every fourth or fifth syllable of April's rant was punctuated with a thud as the bat made contact with Raph's shell. Getting hit on the shell like that by April wouldn't be enough to hurt any of the guys, but from the color of Raph's skin the shell beating could cause some nausea.

Finally Raph had enough. He spun around and caught the bat before it made contact with his shell again. As a reward for his quick actions he received a sharp rap on the head from his master. "Ah Shell!" Another sharp tap for the curse. "S'rry Sensei." Raph mumbled, releasing the bat. April looked tempted to start swinging again but she contained herself admirably.

"Don't take it personally Raphie boy! He even hit Leo!" Mikey grinned. He flinched slightly when the walking stick twitched threateningly at him.

"I trust this will be the end of your pranking war, my students?" Master Splinter asked. The younger mutants had moved into a rough simile of a line out of habit.

"Yes sensei." They chorused humbly.

Master Splinter nodded and turned to April. "I believe it is time we returned to our home Miss O'Neil. I sincerely thank you for your hospitality and apologize for any inconvenience or fright-" he eyed Raph for a moment. The street-wise turtle cringed slightly under his father's gaze. "- we may have caused you."

April smiled, letting her bat hand loosely in her hand now that she was sure the turtle would be adequately punished. "No problem, but I do have one question for you guys."

The old rat tilted his head curiously, Donnie spoke up, "What question April?"

"How did Mikey react to my painting?" She grinned hopefully.

Donnie, Raph, Leo and Kit exchanged looks. Donnie started to tell April that Mikey had never noticed it but Mikey spoke up first. "It was great! I'm sorry I had to wash it off but Donnie threw me in some nasty stuff so I had to shower or risk banishment." He was grinning internal ear to internal ear. "You might want to try painting on walls too! Those are almost as much fun as turtle shell!" He added quickly.

After that the mutants bid their friend goodnight and began the walk back to the lair.

"So, uh, Donnie?" Kit asked as they walked through the tunnels, "Exactly how long were we stuck in the lair?"

Donatello considered for a minute. "I'm not sure." He confessed.

"Dudes it felt like forever!" Mikey put in, his tone was long-suffering and comically anguished.

"Three and a half days to be precise, Michelangelo." Master Splinter said calmly.

Five mutants stopped dead in their tracks. "Three and a half days?" Raph repeated in shock.

Their mentor stopped and turned to face his students. "Yes Raphael. Three and a half days." He confirmed.

The teenagers gaped at him for a full minute before Leo stepped forward. "And the lesson we were to learn was teamwork, right sensei?" He asked.

"Partially my son, but not mainly." Master Splinter replied.

"Then what was the main lesson we were supposed to learn?" Donnie asked.

The edge of their sensei's mouth quirked upwards slightly. "Simply this Donatello,

Do not mess with The Master."

One chapter left.

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