I don't own TMNT or UY.

Xxxxx

"(How is Usagi?)" Jotaro asked me anxiously as we walked. "(It's been so long since I saw him, he must be terribly worried.)"

I turned to blink at him, finding it rather interesting that, despite everything he's been through, the boy was still worrying over Usagi's feelings. He stared back at me with concern.

I sighed. "(He's been... very worried.)"

Jotaro made a small understanding noise, frowning to himself. "(I wish he didn't. I'm not hurt and I knew he would find a way to come rescue me. I hope when we get to him he'll see I'm perfectly alright and he'll feel an idiot for getting so worked up!)"

I frowned lightly as I listened. It was a little tricky understanding the boy. I was fluent in Japanese even if I was a little rusty and made simple mistakes now and then, but Jotaro wasn't really speaking the Japanese I knew. He spoke real old school Japanese. It's not like its a different language or anything like that, it just meat I had to pay extra attention to what he was saying. It's kinda like when an English person reads something by Shakespeare. You can probably understand it all, but you need to focus harder.

Jotaro's light-hearted scolding of Usagi stopped and he looked concerned again, his ears dropping slightly. "(I really hope he's not worried over me too much. I didn't mean for this to happen you know.)"

I nodded, giving him a smile. "(It'll be ok. I'm sure when we find him he'll just be happy to see you. He won't worry about all that over stuff)"

Jotaro nodded again, going quiet.

We were walking the way I had first come when I found the containment area, going back to where I'd last seen Raph. I was hoping one of the side passages or doors might have a second way to that side of the base and I could meet up with him. We needed to try and find where Donny had parked the shell sub.

Not so long ago I'd been cursing the base for being so deserted and devoid of people. Now I was very grateful for it. It meant that I didn't need to be overly worried about men with guns suddenly appearing. I didn't want anything to happen to the little boy after I'd finally found and rescued him. I don't think I could take it if he got hurt. Even without the guards around I was a bundle of nerves, imagining all kinds of horrors getting the jump on us, or steel doors coming down and slamming ontop of us, or that man appearing from a side passage. I was feeling very paranoid, but I was using every fibre of my being to try and hide it.

It had taken a while, but Jotaro had finally calmed down enough for me to tell him we needed to get going and find the others. He'd agreed eagerly and we left the containment room as fast as we could. I found it a little troubling that the boy trusted me so easily as soon as I'd mentioned Usagi's name, but I reminded myself that he had no reason not to. For one thing I did break him free, and I was speaking to him in Japanese which I'm sure none of the scientists in this place had bothered to do, and most importantly, I wasn't a human. I was something closer to what he was use to seeing. The irony of it was enough to make my head spin. Jotaro was trusting me readily because I wasn't human. If I wasn't feeling so jumpy I woulda burst out laughing.

I'd sat him on the upper ridge of my shell with his legs over my shoulders. I was holding onto his legs to keep him steady while he in turn held onto my shoulders. My shell was too wide for him to ride on my back and I was marching too fast for him to keep up with me if he walked. Besides, I wasn't sure how long they'd kept him in that tube and if he'd be strong enough to walk for a long stretch of time without getting tired. He seemed pretty energetic and awake, but you never know. I didn't wanna weaken him and make him sick.

I was almost overwhelmed with relief that Jotaro was talking as I walked. He'd been very quiet for the first few minutes and I'd started to get worried about him. I was afraid Bishop might've broken him or something like that, but after a while he started to ask me questions about Usagi and how I knew him. The more I answered the more he had to ask. He still seemed very scared and badly shaken, but just hearing him talk was enough to let me know that after a hot meal and some real sleep he'll be fine.

I could feel him shivering against me as his fur dried painfully slowly. Poor little guy. I wish I could find a discarded lab coat or something for him. He was freezing. I hoped sitting on my shoulders would warm him up a little.

We were making good time. Or at least I think we were. I couldn't really figure this place out but it felt like we were making progress. We said nothing to each other for a while as I walked, Jotaro looking around skittishly. I felt him tighten his grip on me as we continued to move forward.

He shifted slightly before speaking again. "(What is your name Turtle-san?)"

I blinked, a little shocked to realise I hadn't introduced myself yet.

"(I'm Mikey.)" I said

"(That's a strange name.)" He replied rather bluntly.

I threw a pout at this. "(It's short for Michelangelo.)" I said, only realising after I'd said it that that didn't help matters at all. I didn't exactly have the most common name ever.

"(Hmm. It's still a strange name.)" Jotaro said.

"(Hey, I didn't name me!)" I whined. "(It's not my fault!)"

"(Do I call you Mikey-san or Michelangelo-san?)" He asked, ignoring my last sentence completely.

"(Mikey's fine.)" I said.

"(Alright Mikey-san.)" he said.

I rolled my eyes. "(Not Mikey-san. Just Mikey. Mikey-san makes me sound old.)"

"(I like Mikey-san better.)" He said matter-of-factly.

I gave a groan. "(Fine fine. As long as you stop calling me 'Turtle-san' I guess.)"

I felt his grip tighten slightly on me again. "(Alright.)"

I frowned at this lightly. "(Hey... I didn't mean I was angry about it. You can call me 'Turtle-san' if you like.)"

He shook his head. "(No it's ok. I like Mikey-san.)"

I pulled a slight face to myself. The kid was scared, that much was obvious. I could feel his heartbeat against the back of my head. It was fast and hard. He was still shivering and I could still feel his fur was damp against my skin.

"(When we get out of here and back to my home we should get you some food.)" I said as a way to get a conversation going and distract him. "(Are you hungry at all?)"

He was silent for a few moments, thinking it over. He then gave a nod. "(Yes. Yes I would like that.)"

I gave a nod back. "(You'll have to tell me what you like when we get there.)"

He nodded again. "(Is your home very big?)" He asked.

I gave a nod. "(It's pretty big I guess, but I like it that way. Me and my brothers all get our own space and there's lots of room to do stuff in.)"

"(How many brothers do you have?)" He asked curiously. I felt his grip on me relax slowly.

I smiled. "(I have three brothers who're all older than me.)"

"(That's a large family!)" Jotaro replied, sounding awed. "(Your parents must be wealthy to support you all!)"

I laughed at this. "(Not exactly, and it's just my father who raised us.)"

"(Oh.)" He said simply.

We walked a little further before he asked; "(What are your brothers' names?)"

We kept going like this for a while, me saying whatever I could think of to keep his attention on me and not the quiet, deserted hallways we were walking through. I told him about Raph, Leo and Don as well as Master Splinter. I think I might've even mentioned April and Casey at some stage too. He didn't tell me much about himself, he was too busy asking questions and commenting on the things I was saying. I could feel him ease up as we talked. He didn't seem as scared any more, and he was shaking less.

We soon came to a familiar archway and I was surprised to see that it had, for some reason, opened itself. The fire door had vanished back to wherever it had lowered itself from, leaving the passage clear for us. The directory reassured me that I wasn't imagining things, this was where Raph and I had been separated. I frowned, stopping in front of it as I looked around.

"(Is something wrong??)" Jotaro asked, his hands tightening again.

I winced. "(Easy, you're hurting me.)"

His hands snapped off me as if he'd touched a hot surface. "(I'm sorry!)"

I shook my head. "(It's ok, and no nothing's wrong. In fact this is actually some good luck! I know where my brother went from here. If we keep going we should be able to catch up with him.)"

His hands gripped me again but more carefully this time. "(That is good news!)"

I nodded, smiling widely to myself as I kept going straight, heading in the direction Raph had last said he was taking.

"(Which brother is this?)" Jotaro asked, he sounded a little nervous, as if afraid I'd be angry at him for gripping me too tightly.

"(It'll be Raphael.)" I said with a gentle, reassuring tone.

"(He's the one you said is very strong and brave right?)" the boy asked.

I nodded. "(Yeah. He was trying to find a way back to me after we got split up, but I don't think he could. I haven't seen him since then and I know he wouldn't abandon me.)"

"(I'd like to meet him.)" Jotaro said. "(It must be nice to have a brother like that.)"

I nodded, feeling my smile widen. "(Yep. He's the best.)"

---

We walked a long way.

The hallway seemed never ending in front of me. I wondered how many city blocks were above this thing exactly. It must be an entire neighbourhood or something. It just kept going on and on! I couldn't believe it! I kept my eyes wide open for any traces of Raph, or Leo, Don and Usagi for that matter.

Jotaro continued to ask questions about me and the others, but after a while he started getting quieter. I felt my concern grow again but relaxed when I realised he was just getting tired and was busy dozing off. Poor kid. He must be exhausted. I can't imagine how scary it must be walking around a base like this with a perfect stranger, expecting at any minute for men to appear and attack us around every corner. Not to mention I still wasn't convinced he was functioning at a 100% after being in that tube.

It'd been a week ago that we'd broken into the first base and had found he wasn't there. So if my guess was right he'd had to have been locked away like that for at least a full week give or take a day. On the one hand I was worried about what kind of side effects this could have on him. But then again, it also made me feel a tiny bit relieved. I don't think I'll tell any of the others this, but I thought it was much better for him to have been asleep that whole time. I really do. The idea of him all by himself, waiting day after day for us to show up only for no-one to come as he continued to only have Bishop's men for company ripped my heart open. I dunno if it's sick of me or not but... I just felt it was better he was spared that trauma.

Eventually I felt him lose his struggle and fall asleep, still gripping me lightly as he did so, resting his head against the back of mine. I continued onwards in silence, taking personal comfort in feeling him breathing slowly and calmly against me.

I walked further and further and still found no trace of Raph or the others. I didn't like this. I mean I knew this was a big place but somehow it seemed kinda strange to me that I couldn't find any trace of them at all. I really hoped they were ok. Oh man I hope nothing'd gone wrong! There'd been that alarm earlier hadn't there? What if it wasn't 'cause Donny, Leo and Usagi had broken the portal? What if it was something else? What if the malfunction or whatever it was had been something that'd hurt them? What if the guards had caught them or Raph?

I sped up my pace, feeling my throat tighten a little.

I kept going, turning a corner when the hallway split. I came to a stop when I saw what it'd opened up to though. The passage in front of me wasn't as brightly lit as the one I'd just come from. A few of the lights in the ceiling were broken and one of them was flickering slightly. Beyond it I could see more lights had broken, and beyond that the hallway became dark.

I gave a nervous whimper and backed up a small step. This didn't look like anywhere I wanted to be. It was dark, creepy and reminded too much of one of those Japanese Horror video games. This didn't look right. I didn't feel comfortable going in there, let alone with a little boy sleeping against my shell.

I swallowed and turned to head in the opposite direction instead. But when I turned around my breath caught in my chest as I tried to gasp and swallow at the same time, nearly choking myself.

A good few paces behind me stood a figure, his hands in his pockets casually as he stared at me. He seemed completely at ease. When he noticed I'd seen him, the small, cool smile on his face brightened a little and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He looked almost happy to see me, as if I was an old friend or something. I felt my shoulders seize up and start to shake.

The blue-suited figure removed his hands from his pockets, turning to face me head on before he started to stroll towards me, his eyes locked on mine as the smile remained on his face. I shook my head tightly, taking a good couple of steps backwards, away from him and towards the darkness behind me. I couldn't stop myself from letting out a small, tight 'no!'.

The light load on my back twitched and shifted, lifting itself off me slightly. Jotaro'd been woken up by my trembling.

"Mikey-san...?"

I took a strangled breath at this. I twisted my head around, staring wide-eyed at the small, groggy boy on my back. He blinked at me blearily. I snapped my attention back towards the approaching man. He hadn't slowed his pace at all, and even from this distance I could see his smile suddenly widen darkly as his eyes slowly rose from my face to the face of the child I was protecting. I felt the boy freeze and heard him try and force air into his lungs, his fingers turning to rock where they were gipping me as he noticed the man. I felt the heartbeat against my the back of my head go from calm to fast and erratic. The man kept coming closer towards us, his eyes sharp and gleaming.

"Leave him alone!!" I screamed at him before I turned and, without a second thought, galloped down the black hallway behind me.

I didn't look back. I just ran as fast as I could, my breath coming out in sharp, painful bursts. My face burned with the rush of blood my heart was pounding through me. I didn't stop. I didn't know where I was going, why the hallway I was in was the only one I'd found that was pitch dark or why I could feel a low rumble in the floor. It didn't matter. I just needed to run. Run away. Run far away and never look back.

"(Mikey-san! Mikey-san wait! I don't want to go this way!)" Jotaro suddenly yelped, gripping me tightly.

I didn't stop, running in a blind panic, my eyes focused straight ahead on the endless nothingness as I tried to focus on not smacking into any walls or dead-ends.

"(Mikey-san! There is something up ahead! We shouldn't go this way!!)" He said more desperately.

"(We need to get away!)" I answered, having to raise my voice over a growing noise coming from somewhere ahead of us.

"(Yes but not this way!! Please!! There is something bad up ahead!! I can hear it!!)" His voice broke as he yelled.

"(There's nowhere else to go!!)" I yelled back, not stopping. Ahead of me I saw a faint, blue light appear, enabling me to trace a doorway a bit ahead of us.

"(Mikey-san please listen to me!! We can't go this way!!)" Jotaro begged with a sob.

I sprinted forward, ignoring the deafening roar and the smell of smoke as I shot through the open doorway in front of me and into the cyan blue light.

Xxxxx

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