Author's Note: This chapter will be from the POV of Mikey and Leo. While Mikey's character change won't be too drastic, Leo's character change will be far more extreme, so be prepared. Enjoy.
Mikey's POV
Ever since we got our shells handed to us by that John Kasai guy, things have not been going too good for me and my bros.
While my injury wasn't too bad, my bros weren't so lucky. Raph had a broken leg, Leo had a broken arm, and Donnie had several broken ribs. Not to mention that April suffered a broken tailbone and Casey had a massive concussion. None of us were allowed to leave the lair until we all were 100% healed, which meant we all had to suffer through several months of ABSOLUTE BOREDOM. None of us were happy about that, particularly Raph, who had to use crutches to get around the lair. It didn't help that it was the winter season and as Donnie explained it to me a few years ago…
Cold-Blooded Animals + Cold Weather= Bad News For Us
And even without all of us catching the injury bug, we couldn't go outside very often. So, while my bros were doing their own thing, I spent a lot of my time watching old Nick cartoons like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Danny Phantom (My all-time favorite shows BTW). I also did what I do best whenever my bros were in the dumps. I cracked some jokes, pulled some pranks, and said the most ridiculous stuff to get a reaction out of them. Sometimes it got them to laugh, other times it led to them chasing me around the lair. No matter how it ended for me, it was better than watching them be miserable.
Once we were all healed up (thanks to the wonderful power of mutagen), we went back to the surface to fight the Kraang and the Foot, but something felt…off. That John Kasai dude was nowhere to be seen. It was like he vanished after kicking our shells into the next century. I tried asking some Foot Soldiers about him and none of them gave me a straight answer. It was always some vague crap like "He is not of your concern" or "We don't talk about him." It was really strange.
Although my bros have stopped thinking about Kasai, I haven't. The guy was so mysterious, powerful, and admittedly cool looking that I needed to know more about him. How the heck did we not know about this guy sooner? Why was this guy more powerful than an average human? Why did the Foot Clan not talk about him anymore? These were all questions that were racing through my mind and they weren't going to go away until I got some answers.
February 8, 2013
"Wake up Mikey! It's time for you to cook breakfast!" Donnie yelled from outside my room.
"Okay, I'm up." I said before stretching out my arms and putting on my signature orange bandanna. I quickly rolled out of bed and walked straight to the kitchen.
I was currently wearing some white briefs I found several months ago on one of our first patrols. A pack of these things just happened to be in a shopping bag right next to a dumpster, likely abandoned by some random person. Being the curious turtle I am, I grabbed the bag, took it to my room, and tried on a pair. And you know what, I really liked them. They were super comfortable and helped me sleep better at night. Sure, my bros thought it was weird and Raph constantly made fun of me for it, but I didn't care.
I entered the kitchen to see my favorite bros in the whole world talking about last night's patrol. It was nothing special, just our usual fights with the Kraang and the Foot Clan.
"Morning, guys." I said with a smile.
"Morning, Mikey." said Leo and Donnie.
"Morning, doofus." Raph said rudely.
"And good morning to you, dragon breath." I fired back. Raph didn't say anything and only growled at my response.
"So, what are we having today, Mikey?" asked Donnie.
"Glad you asked, D. We're having pancakes!" I said excitedly.
"At least you're cooking something normal and not another food abomination." said Raph.
"Come on, my custom recipes aren't that bad." I replied.
"Mikey, no offense, but your recipes can be pretty bad. Remember the time you attempted to make your own version of "The Luther" from The Boondocks?" said Donnie.
"I thought it looked pretty tasty." I said innocently.
"MIKEY, it got us all sick. For God's sake, I was vomiting from both ends." said Raph.
"Okay, so maybe that recipe was a bust, but you all know I'm not perfect. I'm allowed to make mistakes. Besides, it's not like you guys died from my dishes." I said.
"It certainly felt like death." said Donnie.
Leo defended me and said, "Come on guys, lay off on Mikey. He's a better cook than any of us will ever be."
"He's definitely better than you, Fearless. You're a disaster in the kitchen. You'd probably burn the kitchen down by making a salad." said Raph.
I had to laugh at Raph's sick burn because it was true. Leo was a master at ninjutsu and a trainwreck of a cook. No one trusts him with making meals. He would accidently poison us without even knowing it.
After eating breakfast, it was time for morning practice. We spent half an hour mediating, which I didn't like because I sucked at mediation. My ADHD and overactive mind made it borderline impossible for me to stay still and concentrate. And even when I was able to concentrate, all I saw were images of Kasai and his bloody face.
Once that was done, Sensei put us into sparing matches with each other. I went up against Raph, while Leo went up against Donnie. Raph and I fought for about 4 minutes, until he forced me to submit via an armbar. Donnie beat Leo in a shocking upset by making him submit via a triangle choke. Ever since Donnie told us what happened in his fight with Kasai, he was a force to be reckoned with. He earned a lot of respect from all of us, especially Raph. In fact, since the fight, Raph spent a lot of time with Donnie and now the two have basically become best friends. While I was sad that I was spending less time with Donnie, at least he would stop Raph from bullying me so much.
The rest of the day was pretty boring. Leo mediated in his room, Raph was on the phone with Casey, Donnie was on the phone with April, and I lounged around in my underwear, watching cartoons and reading comic books. Just the way I liked it.
Later That Night
I was assigned to get pizza for my bros and make sure nobody was following me. Like the awesome ninja I am, I managed to get the pizza, leave the pizza man some money, and get out with anyone seeing me.
I gracefully climbed to the nearest rooftop, looked at my surroundings, looked at the pizza, and smiled.
"And my bros say I'm the clumsy one." I said confidently.
Not one second later, I tripped on a rock that magically appeared out of nowhere and fell flat on my face, dropping the pizza.
Thankfully, the pizza was unharmed. I can't say the same about my pride though.
"Great job, Mikey. You had one job." I said to myself.
As soon as I got up, I heard a yell nearby. It sounded like a girl. I walked to the other side of the rooftop and looked below. I saw a teenage girl, no older than me, surrounded by a group of Foot Ninja.
"What the hell do you guys want?" she yelled.
"Mistress Karai wanted no witnesses. Therefore, you must be eliminated." one Foot Solider said.
"You realize that if you kill me, my father will murder every last of you in a heartbeat." she said.
"Your father walked out on us and caused half of our members to walk out with him. Besides, you're all alone and no one is going to come to your rescue." another Foot Solider said.
The girl then put on some brass knuckles and said, "You better hope this fight ends quickly then."
"That's it. I'm going in." I said before dropping down, right next to where the girl was standing.
At first, she looked at me with surprise, but then that surprise turned into a smile, when she realized I was on her side.
"Oh great. It's one of those turtle freaks." said a random Foot Solider.
"Let's get them both!" another Foot Solider said.
Me and the girl looked at each other again before we engaged the Foot Soliders. Turns out the girl was surprisingly well-trained in combat and she was able to handle her own against multiple Foot Soldiers. After a while, the fight started to become fun as the two of us cracked some jokes and took down all the Foot Soldiers.
Once the last Foot Soldier was KO'ed, me and the girl were finally able to talk to each other.
"Thanks for the help. I appreciate it." she said.
"No problem, it's all in a day's work for a ninja turtle. Wait a second, you're…you're not scared of me?" I asked.
"No, why?" she replied.
"HELLO, I'm a walking, talking mutant turtle that knows ninjutsu. Doesn't that freak you out just a little bit?" I asked.
"No, my dad's a mutant and his best friends are mutants." she said like it was nothing.
I was shell-shocked (I know, bad pun) by what she said. The only humans who know about mutants are April, Casey, April's dad, and the Foot Clan.
"Oh. Well…that makes things a lot easier. God, this is awkward. I'm Mikey by the way." I said in the most awkward tone possible while holding out my hand.
"Kate." she said as we shook hands.
"So…Kate, you want me to accompany you home, in case someone else jumps us?" I asked.
"Sure. I wouldn't mind." said Kate.
"Cool, but first I need to grab my pizzas." I said before quickly climbing up the rooftop again, grabbing the boxes filled with the greatest food in the history of ever, and dropping down to the ground again.
I checked the pizzas again and I was hit with crushing disappointment.
"Aww man. The pizzas got cold." I said with a sad tone.
"Don't worry Mikey, we can heat them back up at my place, once I let my parents know that you saved me from going to the hospital…again." said Kate.
"Again?" I asked not knowing what she was talking about.
"I'd rather not talk about it." Kate said and I immediately knew not to go further with that discussion.
After Kate talked with her parents on the phone (she did tell them that I was fact, a teenage mutant ninja turtle), we walked over to her place and BOY, it was not what I was expecting. I thought she would've lived in a simple apartment, NOT A FREAKIN' SKYSCRAPER.
"You live here?" I asked.
"Yeah, my dad bought it. He's rich. Like, stupid rich." said Kate.
We walked inside the building and entered the elevator. While listening to some good old elevator music, I took the opportunity to get a proper look at Kate. She was wearing a black and red tank top that exposed her midriff, black pants, black shoes, but the most notable feature about her was her hair. Her hair was black, but the ends of her hair were dyed red. I thought it looked really cool and I continued to look at it, until she caught me.
"Like what you see?" asked Kate.
"Um…yeah. I…I just thought your hair looked…um, pretty cool." I said.
Real smooth, Mikey. Real smooth.
"Oh, why thank you. I get a lot of compliments about my hair. And… I noticed that you have freckles." said Kate.
"Yeah, it looks pretty weird." I said, awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck.
"No, it's not weird at all. In fact, I think it looks super cute." said Kate.
"Really? Thanks." I said as we both smiled at each other.
Eventually, we got to the top floor and immediately, Kate's mom came out of nowhere to hug Kate.
"Thank God, you're okay. Did anyone follow you?" asked Kate's mom.
"No Mom, nobody followed us." said Kate.
"Good." Kate's mom said before she looked at me. "So, you're the one who came to my daughter's aid?"
"Yep, that would be me. I saw Kate surrounded by Foot Soldiers, no one was around to help her, so I jumped in and we kicked all of them into next week." I said confidently.
"Thank God for that. Most people in this city wouldn't even bat an eye at that situation." said Kate's mom.
"Yeah. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Michelangelo, but I prefer Mikey." I said, holding out my hand.
Kate's mom shook it and said, "Susan. Susan Kasai. I would prefer you call me Susan and not Mrs. Kasai or Kate's mom."
As soon as she said her last name, it was like the whole world just stopped.
"Mikey? Are you okay?" asked Kate.
It was like I couldn't breathe for a moment. If both Susan and Kate's last names were Kasai, then that must mean…
Before I could finish that thought, John suddenly teleported into the room and asked, "What happened? Who attacked you?"
"Some Foot Soldiers, Dad. Sent by Karai, apparently." said Kate.
"That bitch. When I see her again, I swear I'm going to…" John said before he stopped and saw me.
The few seconds we looked at each other felt like a lifetime. I couldn't believe it. I just saved the daughter of the man who tried to destroy my entire family. The weird thing was that John actually looked quite normal. He was wearing normal clothes and nothing that screamed he was apart of the Foot Clan.
"Um…do you two know each other?" asked Kate.
"Yeah, we do. I fought him and his brothers on a rooftop a few months back. One of his brothers, Donnie I think, caused this scar on the top of my head." John said while pointing to the somewhat noticeable scar on his forehead.
"Well, you and your two friends put us all on the shelf for weeks. Me, Leo, Donnie, Raph, April, Casey, and Splinter!" I yelled.
"Wait, you're the reason April and Casey got injured?" Kate asked John.
John sighed and said, "Yes."
Kate immediately lost it and started yelling at John. "You asshole! How could you do that?! They were my friends!"
"I know. There's no excuse for what I did. I've regretted it every day. I didn't even know those two were involved in our conflict before that day." said John.
I looked at John and all I could see was genuine remorse on his face. It didn't look fake at all and I'm very good at knowing when people are faking emotions. He definitely didn't look like he was proud of what he did that day. It made me stop being angry at him.
This caused Kate to stop and ask, "What? What are you talking about?"
"Kate…April and Casey are friends with the turtles. That's why in my psychotic rage, I saw them as enemies and brutalized them." said John.
"Really? Mikey, is he telling the truth?" asked Kate.
"Yeah, it's complete fact. We've known April and Casey for months now and they've helped us on our missions. Also, I saw John's eyes and they were black and red. That might explain why he was so vicious that night." I said.
"When the heck were you able to do that?" asked Kate.
"Recently. It only happens when I'm in an absolute rage." said John.
After the three of us talked things out, John apologized for his actions and I ultimately forgave him. He was cool with me and Kate being friends and he even offered me secret Foot Clan information that only he knew. Knowing how tired I was of fighting the Foot almost every single day, I gladly excepted the information. It turned out to be incredibly useful and I was the only one who knew about it.
For the next few weeks, my schedule worked like this. I woke up, ate breakfast, trained, relaxed, ate dinner, trained some more, and about two hours before patrol, I told my bros and Sensei that I was going to be "riding my board". That last part was a lie, as I actually spent those two hours hanging out with Kate and talking to John and Susan. It turns out that me and Kate had a lot in common. We were both huge fans of Avatar and Danny Phantom, we liked the same type of video games (although Kate's tastes were more sophisticated than mine), and we both loved internet culture. Being with Kate was a huge breath of fresh air, because although I love my bros to death, being around them 24/7 got really exhausting. Especially, since they were making fun of me most of the time.
John and Susan were probably the coolest parents I've ever met. They didn't keep Kate on a leash or acted like dictators towards her. Instead, they allowed her to live her life and were only strict when it was absolutely necessary. I loved talking to Susan because she was the mother figure I've always wanted. She was caring, smart, and wasn't afraid to speak her mind.
When talking to John, I never would've guessed how funny he was. Some of his Foot Clan stories were downright hilarious and hearing him talk about the people he had to deal with on a daily basis made me die of laughter. But at the same time, I learned a lot of valuable information from him. I learned how Bradford had a family and how Bebop and Rocksteady were actually a couple (which made me feel guilty for making gay jokes about them). I appreciated how he treated me like I had some intelligence, unlike my bros. He tested me on how smart I was by asking me stuff about history, science, math, English, etc. I managed to answer most of the questions correctly and even if I got something wrong, he didn't mock me or tease me about it. Instead, he told me the right answer, explained why it was right, and gave me some words of encouragement. Not once did he treat me like an idiot or a dumb child. It felt really nice. He also convinced me to eat less pizza, which I first thought was blasphemy. But after reading about how your metabolism decreases the more you age, eating more healthy foods would probably be for the best.
John also offered to train me in his personal fighting style. Considering how his ruthless his style was, I accepted his offer. His fighting style was a mix of ninjutsu and wrestling moves. And taking a few wrestling moves, I regret ever saying wrestling was fake because those moves can do some serious damage. The two moves I mastered were the backflip kick and the "shining wizard" (a knee strike to the back of someone's head), which I used to take down John in one of our sparing matches. When I beat him, he didn't yell or get annoyed that he lost. Instead, he smiled and told me I did a great job. Just hearing the words "Great job" made me feel so happy, since I didn't hear those words come out of my bros or Sensei very often.
John was like a second dad to me and for some strange reason, I actually felt more comfortable being around him than Sensei.
Leo's POV
The past few weeks have been very odd when it came to my brothers. Raph and Donnie were constantly on the phone with Casey and April. It was like their phones were superglued to their hands. Not to mention that those two have basically become best friends, which baffles me to no end. But what really threw me off was how Mikey was acting.
Now, Mikey has always had a reputation for acting strange, but recently, he's been taking it to a whole new level. Just a few days ago, Mikey rejected a slice of pizza. Yeah, you heard me right.
MIKEY. REJECTED. PIZZA.
Do you realize how insane that is? That's the equivalent of Donnie rejecting coffee. It doesn't make any sense.
In addition, he's been leaving the lair a lot more often, he's been acting more aggressive during training, and he actually CLEANED UP HIS ROOM, which never happens, EVER. He's also been eating healthier foods which just doesn't sit right with me. Mikey was in love with junk food and now out of the blue, he pulled a complete 180. He was still pulling pranks on us, so that didn't change. But still, something just didn't feel right, but there was a part of me that wasn't too concerned about it. I just thought he got more mature because of "The Kasai incident" (as I like to call it). Heck, everyone changed after that night, even Sensei, so I didn't think it was too much of a big deal. Besides, it was about time that Mikey stopped being so childish all the time.
It wasn't until Mikey had a sparring session with Raph, when I got concerned.
March 15, 2013
I was peacefully sleeping in my traditional Japanese bed, having a nice dream about being with Karai, until the dreaded sound of beeping ruined everything.
I opened my eyes and looked at my alarm clock, which displayed the current time of 5:00 AM.
Yep, I had to be an early riser. Just another perk of being the leader.
I turned the alarm off, got out of bed, and stretched out my limbs.
"Okay. Time for some early morning torture." I said to myself before leaving my room.
Early morning training was by far the worst aspect of becoming the team leader. I had to wake up hours before my brothers and enter the dojo, where Sensei was waiting for me. I would then spend roughly three hours performing katas, flips, flexibility exercises, and even sparring with Sensei. For some strange reason, Sensei was more intense when it came to our private lessons. He wouldn't hesitate to leave a mark or a bruise on my skin. He would only apologize afterwards and even then it was a half-hearted apology.
He kept telling me that he was only making me train this hard because I'm the leader and I have to protect my brothers and I have to defeat the Shredder, etc., etc. I really wanted to believe his words, but there's a part of me feels that he's lying to me or he's hiding something from me. I know it sounds horrible that don't trust my own father, the man who raised me, but something felt…off about Sensei. I didn't say anything about it to anyone, but I constantly thought about it on my own time, while mediating.
After early morning training was over, I decided to take a shower because I needed to feel clean after last night's encounter with the Spy-Roach. Raph puked on me after looking at the mutated cockroach's "dead" body. Yeah, it wasn't a fun time. So, I walked into the bathroom, took off all my gear, entered the shower, turned on the semi-hot water, and let the water run down my body. While showering, I took the opportunity to sing one of my favorite songs, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Ever since I was a child, I LOVED to sing. I sang songs from all types of genres. Rock, rap, metal, pop, Silly Songs With Larry, you name it. Singing was my passion, but it was a passion I hid from my entire family. My brothers would mock me to no end and Sensei would tell me "Focus on your ninja training.", "Nothing else matters.", "You have to be the leader of the Hamato Clan one day.", and a bunch of other crap. Does he actually think I want to do nothing but ninja training for the rest of my life? Am I not allowed to have other interests?
While using back brush as a microphone, a knock on the bathroom door caused me to jump up and scream.
"Leo, are you in there?" asked Mikey.
"Yeah, I'm taking a shower." I said while regaining my composure.
"Were…were you singing in there?" asked Mikey.
"NO." I said a little too quickly.
"Well, if you were, you have a great singing voice. You should use it sometime." Mikey said before leaving.
I quickly turned off the water and dried myself with a towel. I can't believe I was THAT close to getting caught. At least now I know that Mikey won't make fun of me for singing. Donnie, I'm not too sure about, but Raph, he would tease me until the end of time.
Once I put on new gear, I entered the kitchen to eat some breakfast. It's so annoying that my family thinks I have "the death touch" when it comes to the kitchen. It's not my fault the toaster hates me.
After eating breakfast, it was time for morning practice (or regular morning practice, in my case). We mediated, did some stretches, performed some katas. Nothing out of the ordinary. The first sparring match was between Raph and Mikey. Raph was doing his typical "I'm a tough guy" routine by mocking Mikey and saying he was going to make Mikey taste the floor. Mikey, on the other hand, said nothing and only had an annoyed look on his face. He didn't say a single joke, meme, quip, observation, or anything. It was bizarre.
Raph rushed towards Mikey and Mikey only dodged. This happened three more times, until Raph started to get frustrated. And when Raph got frustrated, you knew something bad was going to happen. Raph almost stabbed me in the shoulder a couple years ago because he was so frustrated. Raph started yelling at Mikey, telling him to fight like a man, but Mikey said nothing. In fact, he actually turned his back on Raph, completely shunning him. Raph was about to snap. He roughly grabbed Mikey's arm and Mikey ended up performing a backflip kick to the back of Raph's head, knocking him down.
I immediately got flashbacks to our fight with Kasai, where he took me down with the exact same kick. It almost gave me a panic attack. Both Donnie and Sensei were just as shocked as me, when Mikey delivered that kick. It took Raph a few seconds to get up and when he did, he continued to run his mouth.
"Wow, the wimp can finally fight. Only took you 15 years to grow a set. So what, you gonna do something or you gonna stand there like the retard you've always been." said Raph.
Raph definitely crossed a line there because Mikey kicked him hard in his previously injured leg, causing Raph to fall down in pain. We were taught from an early age that exploiting an injury in a fight was wrong and dishonorable. The fact that Mikey did such a low thing right in front of Sensei with zero remorse on his face made me worried. And just when I thought it couldn't get worse, Mikey ran towards Raph and rammed the side of his knee to the back of Raph's head, knocking him legitimately unconscious. Sensei immediately stopped the match and we all checked on Raph. Mikey looked at Raph for a moment before leaving the dojo. Concerned, I went after Mikey and demanded to know why he did what he did.
"Mikey, what is going on with you? Why the hell did you do that?" I asked.
"Why shouldn't I have done that?" replied Mikey.
"Why shouldn't you have…Mikey, YOU KNOCKED RAPHAEL UNCONSCIOUS. YOUR OWN BROTHER! That is not okay!" I yelled.
"He had it coming! He made 15 years of my life hell! Constantly calling me stupid, ugly, brainless, mentally handicapped, a liability! He bullied me on a regular basis and none of you did a damn thing about it! As far as Raph goes, FUCK HIM! I'm going out." Mikey said in angry tears before leaving the lair.
It seemed like Mikey was holding in a lot of rage and today was the day that things finally boiled over. I wish I'd seen it sooner, but selfish me focused more on being a good leader than being a good brother. All because Sensei wants to groom me into taking his place one day.
"God, I hate being the leader." I thought to myself.
I went back inside the dojo and told Sensei that I was going to go after Mikey. He nodded and I left the lair soon after.
After searching the rooftops for a bit, I finally spotted him walking inside a large skyscraper. I was very confused, so I took a closer look and saw that he was with a girl, who looked no older than April. He was crying and she pulled him into a hug, which calmed him down.
"Who the heck is that girl? And how does Mikey know her?" I thought to myself.
Once I saw Mikey's sad face, my heart broke into a million pieces. I wanted to go inside the building and give Mikey the biggest hug I could ever give. But I couldn't. I didn't know who that girl was and I've developed some trust issues, since going up to the surface. So, I watched from a distance and stealthily made my way back to the lair.
"He'll tell me when he's ready." I thought to myself, realizing that inserting myself into Mikey's personal business will only cause more problems.
Later That Night
I told my family that I was going on a solo mission, but in reality, I really wanted to see Karai. Yes, I know, she's the Shredder's daughter and we're going to end up like Romeo & Juliet, aka DEAD. But I didn't care. I cared about her and wanted to know more about her. So, I left the lair and went up to the surface.
If was one positive to being a ninja, it was rooftop running. It's the most exhilarating thing you can imagine. Jumping across rooftops almost makes you feel like you're flying. Anyway, I stopped at a random rooftop and I saw Karai on the opposite rooftop. She was on phone with someone, probably her Dad. Once she hung up the phone, something unexpected happened.
A guy just teleported out of thin air onto the same rooftop as Karai. I recognized him right away. It was John Kasai. He walked up to Karai with a pissed off look on his face. And their confrontation was one I will never forget.
"I warned you. I FUCKING warned you." John said intensely.
"It's not my fault she's the daughter of a QUITTER." replied Karai.
"I left on my own terms! Your dad allowed me to leave the Clan peacefully. How would he feel to know that you tried to kill his goddaughter?!" said John.
"Don't know and don't care. Besides, you know I would kill her in a heartbeat." Karai said with a devilish smile on her face.
"I dare you. I DARE YOU TO TRY SOMETHING, YOU STUPID FUCKING CUNT!" John yelled.
Karai punched John right in the jaw and John retaliated by punching her square in the face. He then pushed her to the ground, got down on one knee and started punching her in the face repeatedly. At this point, I had enough and jumped to the opposite rooftop, where I pulled John off Karai. Karai then quickly threw a smoke bomb off the ground and disappeared.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? YOU LET HER GET AWAY!" John yelled at me.
"Why the hell were you attacking her away? She's a teenager, for God's sake!" I responded.
"MOTHERFUCKER, SHE TRIED TO KILL MY DAUGHTER! ANYONE WHO TRIES THAT SHIT DESERVES DEATH!" John continued to yell.
"Okay, I can understand your anger. My father would do the same thing if any of my brothers were killed, but you need to calm down. More anger isn't going to get us anywhere." I said.
John began to calm down and he said, "You're right. It wouldn't get us anywhere. The name's John by the way."
"Leo." I said.
"Leo? Holy shit, you're Mikey's oldest brother. I remember you. I made fun of your dumb space cartoon." said John.
"And you broke my freaking arm." I said with irritated look on my face.
"Oh yeah, um, sorry about that. I was in a psychotic rage I couldn't control." John said awkwardly.
"Yeah and…wait a minute, how the heck do you know Mikey?" I asked.
"He saved my daughter from a Foot Clan attack about a month ago. Really nice kid." said John.
"So that's who Mikey was with earlier today? It all made sense now." I thought to myself.
"Um, so Leo, you want to talk more at my place? Mikey's over there right now if you want to see him. I also got snacks if you were interested." John offered.
I thought about his offer for a bit. Ignoring his rage, he seemed like a genuinely decent guy. If Mikey could trust him, why can't I? Granted, there was the "Bradford incident", but this guy looked a lot more trustworthy than Bradford ever did. Also, there was free food. I couldn't reject that, so I accepted his offer.
"Awesome." said John.
Just as I was about to run towards the direction of the skyscraper, he stopped me and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Going to the skyscraper." I responded.
"Dude, you'll waste 15 minutes getting there. I have a much quicker solution and all you have to do is hold my hand." John said before holding out his hand.
I looked at him like he was crazy and said, "What?"
"Hold my hand." said John.
"You sure?" I asked.
"Just do it." John said with a slightly annoyed tone.
Shrugging my shoulders, I grabbed his hand and he told me "I'm just going to warn you now. This is going to feel very weird, but you'll get used to it."
"Wait, what?" I asked before we suddenly teleported off the rooftop and we ended up in Kasai's living room. The feeling of teleporting from one area to another caused me to freak out and have a bit of a panic attack.
Mikey and the girl he was with earlier saw me and Mikey said, "Leo? What are you doing here?"
"I…got…teleported here… by…Kasai." I said through panicked breaths.
"Yeah, it wasn't that fun for me either. But just breathe, okay. In and out." said Mikey.
After a few seconds of breathing in and out, my panic attack was gone and John looked at me with a guilty look on his face.
"Sorry about that. Not everyone can handle the feeling of teleportation the first time. Hell, I freaked the fuck out the first time I teleported." said John.
"It's fine. I just want to know who the heck is standing next to Mikey." I said.
"That would be my daughter, Kate. Kate, this is Leonardo, Mikey's oldest brother." said John.
Kate came up to me and said, "Nice to meet you, Leo. Mikey has told me all about you and all the stress you go through. It sounds pretty awful. Makes me glad I'm an only child."
"Nice to meet you too." I said before seeing an older woman standing next to John.
"This is my wife, Susan. Susan, this is Mikey's oldest brother, Leonardo." said John.
"Well Leonardo, it's very nice to meet you. Please don't call me Mrs. Kasai or Kate's mom. It makes me feel older than I really am." Susan said.
"Okay. So, now what?" I asked.
"Well, I could tell you my story and then you tell me yours." said John.
"Alright then. Tell me your story." I said.
After listening to John's story, I was amazed by what I heard. He was with the Foot for 21 years, longer than I've been alive, or mutated. He was directly involved in our mutation, which sort of makes him our semi-creator. He's been a mutant for 8 years and had powers like teleportation and FREAKING FLIGHT and he ended up leaving the Foot because he felt awful about how he decimated my family. He even showed me an admittedly cool picture of him with the Foot Clan that was taken last year.
When I told John about the origin story our father told us for years, he unexpectedly asked me to speak with him in private. We entered John's bedroom and what he said to me changed my world forever.
"Okay Leo, I need you to make sure you keep this PRIVATE. Don't even tell Mikey what I'm about to tell you, at least not yet. He might not take it well. Got it?" said John.
"Um, okay? What's this all about?" I asked.
"It's about your origin story." said John.
"What about it?" I replied.
John took a deep breath and said, "Leo, I hate to tell you this, I really do, but…that story is a lie."
I actually laughed at John's statement and said, "You can't be serious. You have to be joking."
"Leo, I'm being dead serious. Your father is lying to you. None of those events actually happened. Saki never murdered Tang Shen and Yoshi never married Tang Shen." John said with a serious look on his face.
"What…what are you talking about? Sensei told us that Tang Shen chose him over Saki and Saki tried to kill Yoshi out of jealousy." I said.
John then walked over to a dresser and grabbed a photo. He gave it to me and said, "Explain this then."
The photo was Saki and Tang Shen kissing at a wedding ceremony and both were wearing wedding outfits. Part of me thought it was fake, maybe Photoshop or some really good editing tool. But another part me thought it looked way too real to be fake. I honestly didn't know what to think.
"They were married for 8 years. Shen became pregnant on their 8th year together and the two had Karai 9 months later. But you want to know the twisted part about it?" said John.
"What?" I asked with uncertainty.
"Saki was never the father. Yoshi was. Turns out she was sleeping with Yoshi behind Saki's back. And Yoshi NEVER TOLD SAKI THIS. When Saki found out, he went to Yoshi's house to finish him off. Their fight resulted in the whole house burning down and during their fight, Yoshi threw a knife at Saki, only for it to hit Tang Shen, killing her. Saki then grabbed Karai and left the house. That's the real story. Yoshi is responsible for this war, not Saki." said John.
I couldn't believe it. Sensei…my father…the man who raised me since my mutation, lied to me. He lied to me my whole life. I always knew he was hiding some type of secret, but I never thought it would be this. Everything he said about being an honorable ninja was bullshit. He screwed up all of our lives.
All I could do was sit on John's bed, trying to take in all the information without having a breakdown. John put his hand on my shell and comforted me.
"I know it's a lot to take in, but trust me, things will get better. All I'm going to tell you is that none of this is your fault. You and your brothers aren't guilty of anything. Your father is at fault here. He's the one who manipulated you into thinking Saki was the enemy. Okay?" said John.
"Okay." I said with tears threatening to come out of my eyes.
"Remember, you can always talk to me. My schedule is wide open." John said before giving me a hug. And I'm glad he did that because I really needed a hug from someone.
After that talk, I could never look at my father the same way again.
Over the next few weeks, I decided to make some changes. If Sensei wanted me to be "the perfect son", then I would do anything to destroy that version of myself. Since Mikey and I both knew John, we spent a lot more time together and I really enjoyed being with him. We played video games, watched crappy B-movies, and I even helped Mikey out with his pranks. It made me wish we hung out with each other a lot sooner.
Whenever we were at John's house, Mikey hung out with Kate, while I talked to John about any personal problems I was dealing with. The advice he gave stuck with me and I started to use it on a regular basis.
On a random day in the lair, Raph was in one of his moods and he was insulting Mikey. Guess that knee to the back of his head didn't change him at all. It didn't help that recently his pet turtle, Spike, fell into mutagen, turning him into Slash. Slash beat the crap out of all of us and ran away from the lair. I know it broke Raph's heart, but it didn't give him any excuse to treat Mikey like garbage. So, I got in front of Raph and told him to back off. Predictably, Raph didn't listen and started insulting me by calling me Lame-o-nardo, Boy Scout, Teacher's Pet, Mr. Perfection, and all sorts of colorful things. He continued to do it, until I thought of John's words.
"Stop letting Raph push you around. If he's going to treat you like trash, then give him a taste of his own medicine."
I decided I had enough of Raph's attitude and I slapped him across the face, to the shock of my brothers and Sensei. Even Raph was surprised. I took that moment to viciously taunt him.
"What's the matter Raph? You mad that the Boy Scout gave you what you deserve? Are you gonna cry? Are you going to cry like the weak, insecure bitch that you are?" I said.
"LEONARDO!" Sensei yelled, but I ignored him.
Raph ended up tackling me to the ground and we fought each other, until Mikey and Donnie pulled us apart from each other.
"Leonardo, what is this behavior? I expected better from you." said Sensei.
"I usually don't condone this but be as disrespectful as possible to your father. You're no longer going to be his golden child."
"Fuck off, Sensei." I said with contempt.
Everyone went silent. It was so silent you could hear a pen drop. Raph and Donnie's eyes widened because they never thought I would say that to Sensei.
"What did you say?" asked Sensei.
"You heard me. Fuck. Off." I said with a smirk on my face, before giving him the double bird and walking out of the lair.
Soon after that, I began to further antagonize Sensei. I would talk back to him, openly insult him in front of my brothers, and I even used a banned martial arts technique (the Death Dragon) against Raph in a sparring match. Once I performed the technique, I looked right in Sensei's face with a look that basically said, "Yep, I just used Shredder's move right in front of you. What are you gonna do about it?"
Eventually, I used John's advice whenever I was on the surface, fighting the Foot and the Purple Dragons. I stopped having feelings for Karai because one, she's Yoshi's daughter, and two, that technically makes her my sister, which really makes me regret every time I had a wet dream about her. Hey, don't get mad at me, I'm a teenager! My hormones are supposed to be going wild. It's not like I knew we were nonbiologically related. Anyway, during one of our usual fights with the Purple Dragons, John's words came to mind again.
"The only way this war is going to end is if you stop thinking like a hero. You need to quit letting your enemies run away. Don't slap them on the wrist, break their wrist."
When one of the Purple Dragons swung a bat at my head, I grabbed it and kicked him in the stomach, before hitting them in the face with the bat. When he fell down, I knew what I needed to do in order for the Purple Dragons to never fuck with me or my family again. I looked at the bat in my hand and began to hit the Purple Dragon in the leg with it. I hit him again and again and again, no doubt causing permanent damage to his leg. His screams fell on deaf ears as I continued to hit him.
By the time I was done, all of the other Purple Dragons looked at me like I was the devil incarnate and ran away like there was no tomorrow. I dropped the bat and looked at the fallen Purple Dragon, who had tears running down his face and it also looked like he pissed himself. I highly doubt he'll ever mess with me ever again. And if he does, he'll regret it.
Sensei would have called my actions dishonorable, but I didn't care. He's the last person who should be talking about honor. If there's one important thing that John taught me, it's this…
"In war, honor means nothing. It's worthless. You either survive or you die. MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE."
And by meeting Kasai, I knew I made the right choice.
And that's it for Chapter 7. So, how did you like my portrayals of Mikey and Leo? I didn't want to make Mikey a complete idiot, so I decided to give him a more mature side, while still keeping his fun, positive personality. When it comes to Leo, I pretty much threw his responsible Leader persona in the trash. The biggest issue I had with Leo throughout most of his incarnations is that his personability boils down to "I'm the leader. I'm the serious one." Instead of doing that, I've made him more outgoing, arrogant, and a bit of a prick. Out of all the turtles, Leo will have the closest relationship with John. The next chapter will be from the perspectives of Raph and Donnie, who have also been doing some secretive stuff. Other than that, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Bye for now and stay safe.