Hello all! Happy (late!) Thanksgiving! And a Happy Hanukkah to anyone else that celebrates it too!
Sorry for the lateness of the update! Between work and family, I've had little time to myself! -Le sigh-
However, I'll do my best to update more frequently! I really would like to finish this story by new years, and work on the sequel...
Yes, I've started a sequel... as my beloved friends from NICK already know!
For now though... Onward!
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"DONATELLO!?" The rage-monster had arrived. Raph stormed into the lab at full speed.
Donnie looked up from his repair work, wearing odd magnifying goggles.
"What?" He glanced at Raph and froze.
The hot-head took one deep breath, and bit out his question. "When you saw Mikey last week: Was. He. Hurt?"
"Hurt?" Don thought for a moment, and shook his head. "Not hurt per say. He was sporting an interesting bandage job on one side, but obviously wasn't that serious..." At Raph's disbelieving look, he continued, "It didn't stop him from beating Dog-Pound."
"Casey just saw him and it sounds like it WAS that serious! Casey said that he's got a scar wrappin' around half his chest!" He stated. Leo stood in the doorway, mouth hanging open, before snapping it shut. "An' you didn't think ta mention that after you saw him?!" The comment that Casey had made about Mikey 'flirting' with the girl had all but disappeared from his mind. Not that he'd thought about it much... As far as he was concerned, Mikey didn't even know that boys and girls where different...
"Raph." Leonardo finally spoke. "Don did mention it."
Raphael's eyes narrowed behind his blood-colored mask. "What are you say'in Leo?" His voice went from thundering to just above a whisper. The leader of their team didn't know which one was worse. "You say'in you knew Mike'd been hurt, but you didn't think about telling me?"
"No." Leonardo knew what was coming. "Let's talk about this in the dojo." He walked out of the lab, and into their practice room without waiting to see if Raph was coming.
The dojo door slammed, and Raph looked at his brother. "What the SHELL is go'in on, Fearless?" He demanded.
"I thought about telling you." Leo spoke honestly, carefully stepping off to the side as he saw the rage ing his brother build. "But I knew how you'd react, so..."
"So you decided to act like everything was all good, when you knew something had happened." He hissed back. "How could you do that Leo? How could Donnie?! Keep that from me?! It MIKEY, God damn it!"
"That's WHY! Don WANTED to tell you! I told him NOT to!" Leonardo lost his composure in one fell swoop, and found himself yelling back. "You didn't NEED TO KNOW! It would've just sent you into a rage, at that is the LAST thing we need! I didn't want to worry about what you'd do if we'd found them at that apartment." He braced himself for the inevitable fight, his eyes widening in confusion when it didn't come.
Raphael didn't pull his weapons, or raise a fist. All he did was stare, his eyes growing more and more distant as each second passed. Then, his face took on one of disgust and cold fury.
He finally spoke, but there was no anger in his voice, just resignation. "So it's not just Mikey you don't trust, it's me too." He straitened his back, and turned away. Without throwing or breaking anything, he walked out of the dojo, and out of the lair. He had to get away.
If not, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't go past the point of no return.
Donnie listened as well as he could for any information, but it quickly became apparent that his little brother and his friend had turned in for the morning. After hearing only silence for an hour, Don set up an alert to wake him, and layed down on the cot in his lab. He overheard some of the yelling between Leo and Raph, but ignored it. It wasn't exactly unusual for them to get into it.
He rolled over and tried to find a comfortable position. He hadn't told Raph about Mikey being injured, at Leo's request... he hadn't questioned the order. It had been second nature to him to just accept that Leo knew what he was doing.
Now though, laying in the darkness of his lab...
He questioned.
It was a few hours later that a hand shook him awake.
"Don! Don!" A voice that was attached to the hand spoke. "Your machine is talking!"
Donatello opened his eyes to Lazuli's inquisitive gaze. "Wha... huh?" He managed to get out.
"Your new thingamjig is talking!" The yellow-wearing turtle spoke brightly. "It sounds like Mikey!"
Donnie was up in a flash, fiddling with the dials and knobs untill the voices cleared up.
"... So then lead with the right arm, mid-air turn..." another voice spoke, "...and kick, left arm punch." The female voice finished.
"...Oh, so...um...like this?" Mikey's voice came through loud and clear, followed by the sound of feet moving, and the grunts and sounds associated with more complex kata's. "How was that?"
"Mike... have you learned this one before?" The female voice questioned. "Because that was far too good to be the first time you've tried it."
"Nope, I've never learned it..." There was a pause, "But Leo learned that one. I saw him do it a bunch of times."
"And you NEVER tried it yourself?" There was an almost teasing tone to her voice.
"Maybe... once or twice... until I figured out the move." Mikey was grinning, Don could practically hear it.
"And you never showed your brothers or your Sensei?" She questioned. "Mike that was incredible for it being pretty much self-taught!"
"Because it wouldn't've meant anything. It never dose." A slight laugh was heard. "You know how it go's: If I do something right, it must've been an accident!"
Don's eyes went wide at that statement.
