Chapter 36: Mama Mia!

A/N: Yep, I'm back with more of Tony's story. Sorry to keep you waiting, but I wanted to be sure this is what I wanted to do with the story. Now, as you all know, I was dreading this episode because I feared that Tony would be Pizza Face. However, my fears were unfounded as Tony wasn't made to be Pizza Face at all. And in this fic, I'm going to change it to be Vinnie since Antonio kicked the bucket. I know this episode was left open-ended so that you could pretty much choose to believe it was a dream or real. What do I think? Well, you'll find out when you read it. Thanks to all of those who have continued to stick with this story. Your encouragement means the world to me.

Disclaimer: If I owned the TMNT, this story would be an episode, and Tony would have more to do. TMNT belongs to Nickelodeon. I only own the plot.

My alarm went off, and I bolted upright and turned it off. Then I looked down and noticed I was wearing my Antonio's uniform. That was weird because I always took it off before bed. Had I been so tired that I'd just fallen asleep while wearing it? It seemed possible but definitely not like me. Shaking this off, I changed into regular clothes and got ready for another day. I went to the kitchen and found Uncle Gino in there making coffee. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and doused it in milk before digging in. Then the phone rang and Uncle Gino answered it.

"Hello? Hey, Larry, what's up? Vinnie's missing? What do you mean? Are you sure he didn't sleep in or somethin'? Okay, I'll be down there in a few minutes."

After he hung up, I asked, "What's going on, Uncle Gino?"

"Larry called and said that Vinnie's missing," Uncle Gino replied. "He looked everywhere and even called his house, but he's not answering. He said he went to the back and it's a mess with pizza stuff strewn everywhere."

"Maybe the Purple Dragons broke in and took Vinnie off and then ransacked the place," I suggested. It definitely sounded like something they'd do.

"Maybe, but I don't know," said Uncle Gino. "I'm gonna go down there. You just get to school."

"Do you want me to come in after school and work?" I asked him. I technically had the day off so that I could go to practice with April and Casey, but if Uncle Gino needed me, I was determined to help him out.

"Nah, you go to your practice," Uncle Gino told me. "You can't keep your teacher waiting. I can handle things here."

I still had a bad feeling about all of this, but I went to school and did my best to shake it off. I hung out with April and Casey since Irma was out sick with the flu.

"Something weird happened to me," April remarked. "I woke up and I was in my clothes. I never sleep in my clothes when I'm going to bed."

'That happened to me, too," I said. "Maybe we were both so tired we just fell asleep."

"That could be, but I have this feeling that I'm missing something, and I don't know what it is."

"Same here. Uncle Gino just got a call that Vinnie's missing. He never forgets to open up the shop or answer his phone. Larry said the back of the shop was totally ransacked and was a mess."

"It could be the Purple Dragons," Casey noted. "You know how they like to mess with people."

"That could be, but I don't know," I mused. I couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to this than I thought. School went on as usual and when it was over, April, Casey, and I were going to head to the Lair. I asked if we could stop by the shop first, and they decided it would be fine.

"Tony, what are you doin' here?" Uncle Gino demanded. "I told you to go to your practice."

"I just wanted to see if you needed help, Uncle Gino," I answered.

"I'm fine," Uncle Gino replied. "Just go on. I can handle things from here."

I didn't want to leave him alone, but I knew he wouldn't let me skip practice, so I left with April and Casey. We found the guys sitting in the living room watching TV.

"Hey, guys, nice to see you again," I said. "What's going on?"

"Nothing much," Leo answered. "Ready for practice?"

"Yeah, but there's something I need to tell you guys. Vinnie's missing, and they don't know where he is. Larry called this morning and said the back of the shop was a mess and that there was stuff everywhere. I wanted to help Uncle Gino out, but he told me to come here instead."

"That does sound weird," Leo remarked. "It could be the Purple Dragons."

"Um, Tony, I think I know what happened," Mikey piped up.

"Mikey, it was just a dream," Donnie said gently. "It wasn't real."

"But maybe it was!" Mikey protested.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him.

"Okay, so I was trying ot make a pizza, but the others wanted to order from Antonio's because they didn't want to try my pizza. So I went to get it, and you delivered it to me, but you were acting all weird and stuff. You talked in this zombie voice, and I kept trying to get your attention, but you raced off. Then I opened the pizza box, and the pizza was alive. I told my bros, but they didn't believe me. So then I went to investigate and saw that somethin' weird was going on. My bros and Splinter became zombies, too, and so did April. I had to figure this out, so I questioned one of the minions, and he told me that Vinnie was using mutagen in pizza. Everyone was a zombie, so I went to investigate and saw Vinnie about to make a calzone out of April. I fought off my bros and Splinter, and then I ate Vinnie, but then spared the last slice of him because he begged me to. Then he said I'd wake up along with everyone else and have no memory of what happened. I don't know what happened to Pizza Face, but that's the story."

"It was a dream, Mikey," Raph said.

"I think Mikey's got a point," I said. "I woke up in my clothes and that doesn't usually happen before I go to bed, and I just feel like I'm trying to remember stuff. This is real, guys, and it did happen."

"So what do we do?" Leo asked me.

"There's nothing we can do about it now," I said. "We'll just have to wait and see if Vinnie shows up again as a pizza. But the important thing is that we make sure no more mutagen canisters get near the shop."

"Tony, I'm really sorry, dude," Mikey apologized. "I didn't know this was gonna happen."

"Don't feel bad, Mikey," I reassured him. "This'll all blow over, and you did the right thing. You're a hero for thinking so fast like that."

"Thanks, Tony," Mikey said, giving me a hug.

After that, we went to practice, and it went well. I headed home and told Uncle Gino what Mikey told me. He said it made sense with how the shop was when he saw it and that there wasn't much we could do at the present time.

"I'm gonna make sure that if there are any of those canisters left, I'll give them to you so you can give them to the Turtles. Now that they've found a retro-mutagen, maybe we could find Vinnie and turn him back like you did for me."

"I hope so," I said. I was getting tired of all the weird things happening and really hoped the Turtles could stop all of this. In the meantime, I vowed to make sure if I found any canisters, I would tell the Turtles and give them whatever I found on my own. I knew Mikey was feeling bad about everything and made him a homemade pizza to cheer him up. He was excited and wanted to learn how to make one himself since he wasn't that good at it. So we both made one and had the others test them. They were happy to do so and thought that the pizzas were good. I was glad about that and offered to make them more or to give them frozen pizza if they didn't want Antonio's anymore.

"Nah, we can't take business away from our favorite pizza dude," Mikey said ruffling my hair. "Just make sure no more mutagen gets in there and we'll be okay."

"You got it," I said.

All in all, I was happy about how things had turned out and hoped that things would get better. But as always happens when you're friends with four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, things were about to get even more intense, and we were going to be facing some big battles soon enough. I just hoped we'd be able to get through it together and that this whole mess would be cleaned up soon.

A/N: Not much to go on, but I did the best I could. Luckily, new episodes start this Sunday, and I'm excited to see them and to bring Tony into them, too, since from the promos I've seen, things are about to get pretty intense. And as you saw, I treated the episode like it was real because I have a feeling that Pizza Face will be returning in some form. Feel free to leave a review and have a shelltastic day.