"Mikey, how many times do I have to tell you, literally licking your wounds won't do anything. Do you have any idea how many kinds of bacteria are in your mouth?" Donatello chided from his place on the couch, watching his little brother lap at a cut on his arm.
"Says you. It's worked for me so far!" the orange wearing turtle stated. Honestly he knew perfectly well it didn't actually work, but who could pass up the opportunity to troll their genius sibling?
It had been at least a week since the incident, leaving the four brothers to recover in hiding within the safety of their sewer. Leonardo, Splinter, and even Raphael, agreed that it was best to lay as low as possible, especially with the extent of Donnie's injury.
Speaking of their older brother, Raph had noticed something off about Leo ever since coming back that night. The blue-favoring mutant was much more recluse and thoughtful. Usually, that meant whatever had happened had knocked the young leader for a loop. Considering the events of that night, Raphael caught on quickly to a common link.
Standing from his seat the heavy terrapin left his bickering siblings and made his way to the dojo. Sure enough, there he was. Five bamboo polls stood upright, at least seven feet from the ground, with Leonardo perched at the top of one in obvious meditation.
"She really has your shell in a twist this time doesn't she fearless?" Raph said in his approach, picking up the pace enough to flip onto the last pole across from Leo. Unfortunately, the only response he received was the slightest of twitches in the other turtle's lip.
Ok, that confirmed it. Definitely Eva.
"What'd she do now? Tell ya t'fuck off? Kick ya out?" the younger male began to list off, crossing his arms, "Or'ed you finally break the ice between you two?"
The red masked turtle watched now as Leo drew in a deep breath, his lips thinning with tension. Raphael's eye ridges rose.
"Oh boy, I'm guessing that went over well"
"Actually, she was the one who confessed to me..." Leo corrected, relaxing from his stance to look at his brother. Rarely did the leader confide in someone over such a personal issue, but this time was an exception considering meditation wasn't giving any answers.
"Did you say anything back?" Raph asked, shifting to his other foot on the pole.
"I...told her I felt the same way" the eldest replied, rubbing the back of his neck. Was it getting warmer? Raph, however, was much too invested in the conversation to leave it. His brother had apparently returned Eva's feelings but what was bugging him so much? Why was Leonardo being so apprehensive?
"Then what's the deal? Shouldn't you be happy?"
"I am, or at least, I want to be" Leo sighed, squatting down on the pole, casually teetering it left and right, "I just don't really know how I should go about this. We're mutants Raph. I can't go for casual walks on the street or provide a normal relationship"
Raphael stood listening to his brother patiently, arms crossed and eyebrow ridges knitted together.
"Leo, I think you're overthinkin' this a little"
The older sibling paused and starred at him skeptically.
"Look, yea, ya can't do any of that, but I don't think you've quite grasped onto what this chick is about. I don't talk to'er much, but I've seen enough to know the last thing she probably wants is a borin 'ole normal relationship"
Leonardo sat in silence for a few moments. Perhaps what his younger brother was saying was true.
"Maybe. What do I do from here though? It's not like I have much experience with women" the oldest fretted, hopping down from her perch.
"I mean, if you're not sure what to do you could always just let her take the lead" Raph shrugged, grunting when his feet hit the floor. He was still extremely sore from their beating the week prior. Even with the mutagen in their veins it seemed like their injuries were taking forever to heal.
"That's true..." Leo stated thoughtfully, strolling with his brother back to the living area.
"Besides, it couldn't be any worse than that shitty relationship you had goin' with Karai"
Leonardo felt every muscle in his body cringe, halting mid-step through the doorway into the living room about to retort sharply at his younger.
"Leo, I need your opinion on something" Donatello called from the recliner where he sat with his extravagant laptop setup.
"Sure, what's up Don?"
He would deal with Raph's comment later.
"So, I've been working on recovering footage from the right we were rescued. Unfortunately I was a little too efficient with scrambling their feed so the quality isn't the best" the genius turtle stated while tapping away on the keyboard. Leonardo leaned on the recliner while the screen flashed and buzzed recognizably for a few moments before a semi-clear picture came into view.
From what he could make out, the scene took place right as what looked like Eva fumbling with a bat in the crimson lit hallway. There was some amount of static in the video, but Leonardo could see enough as it shifted further down the corridor where four androids had lifted their weapons.
The leader felt his heart clench in his chest. He had thought Eva's injuries had been from something else, like a scuffle with some guards. To have actually gone against the androids could have gotten her killed. Leo watched Evangeline dodge through a storm of bullets, sheer luck letting her get close enough to hit one of the robots in the knee joint. Much to his own horror, due to her small size, it hardly did anything but knock it off balance. Leonardo sucked in a sharp breath as she was slammed against the hallway.
Donnie grumbled as the picture quality suddenly degraded, his fingers tapping furiously to retrieve what he could. Leo leaned down to get a closer look, Mikey and Raph coming around to take a peek. It was static-y at best, and the red lighting definitely didn't help, but the boys could make out a slumped shape staggering up after the androids had started walking toward the stairway.
"What is that?" Mikey asked, leaning down.
"Not sure, but watch, the quality is pretty bad, but…." Donatello halfway mumbled, switching the camera view to focus on the mechanical enemy. Out of nowhere the shape they had seen came sprinting down the hall, dropping something as it leaped onto one of the android's backs where it grabbed onto the unsuspecting victim's cranium. The boys watched whatever it was wrench the mechanical head violently until it was detached. What was left of the robot fell forward just as its comrades turned to the disturbance, the stranger using the opportunity to grab what it had dropped, coming up to slam underneath the enemy's chin. From there the video could hardly be made out at all.
"What the hell did we just watch?" Raphael asked, leaning onto the recliner for support.
"It looked like something from a Sci-Fi creature film. You know, when the experiment escapes and goes on a killing spree until the only one left-" Mikey started, however several looks from his brothers cut the youngest off, "-or, something like that"
"I just don't understand how it was possible for something like that to successfully destroy the androids" Donnie thought out loud, looking up at their leader.
"Wait, where's Eva through all this?" Mikey asked, more concerned wit his adopted sister's well being.
"Since the video is so blurry, I couldn't quite make out where, but I presumed that more that likely she'd taken cover somewhere before jumping out the window" Don replied, pulling up a simulation on the computer, "I made this to try and better understand how this creature could have done so much damage"
"Adrenaline maybe?" Leo commented, crossing his arms.
"It could have played a part but not that much. Take Eva for example, because of her weight, height and all around body mass, obviously she could barely scratch them" Donatello explained, two small 2D images popping up on the screen, "Now, looking at this other thing, mutant or not, I don't have enough data to make 100 percent predictions, but if I take some estimations into account, its still highly unlikely that, because of this thing's proportions, it could have caused this much extensive damage"
"So...should we look for this thing? Maybe we'll be able to find out more" Raphael asked, plopping back down on the couch.
"It's not like we have a great streak of not running into trouble" Leo sighed, settling into the cushions.
"Very true" Don commented, shutting the laptop. An air of slight unease floated over the brothers even as they immersed themselves in television. The last time something like this happened they ended up in the middle of an all out alien war. Hopefully, with some luck, history wouldn't repeat itself.
