Chapter 5

Everything's relative

"-are now related, like brother and sister!" concluded Mikey, waving his hands for dramatic effect as he explained.

He was stood in the kitchen area with April while he put Ice-cream Kitty back into the freezer. As he did so, he couldn't resist an affectionate lick of the cat's nose.

"That's, uh… Really something." April replied, hesitantly.

"April! It's not what you think!" called Donnie, rushing over and stumbling in his haste. "Well, maybe it is what you think, but…"

"Mikey!" berated Leo. "Why did you tell her?!"

Michelangelo frowned at his brothers. "Hey, if you guys didn't want it spoiling then you shouldn't have run off in the middle of the show!"

"Show?" spluttered Donatello.

Leonardo hesitated, confused. "Wait… What were you talking about?"

"Crognard, dude!" Mikey explained. "Turns out, Graah and Wizardess are long lost siblings."

"That makes no sense." Donnie stated, "For a start, they're completely different races and-"

He stopped with sudden realisation.

"Ah, yeah, Crognard." Leonardo agreed, grabbing Donatello's arm and yanking him backwards. "Well, have fun explaining that to April!"

"Don't tell her anything about Donnie." Leo hissed to Mikey.

"Why would I do that?" he asked, before beaming. "I didn't understand any of it anyway!"

"Tell me what?" asked April, curiously.

"Nothing!" Don said abruptly.

April frowned slightly, peering at him. "Donnie, what happened to your eyes?"

He stared at her for a moment, before quickly catching up with himself. "Ah, uh… That's what we were going to tell you! One of my eyes has changed colour. Neat, huh?"

"Oh, um… Yeah! Looks great." April agreed.

Mikey gave Ice-cream Kitty one last affectionate nuzzle and lick, then closed the freezer door.

"Don't go anywhere, Donnie!" he said. "Now that you've stopped being all melodramatic and shouty, I have something awesome cool to show you."

"My shouting was completely legitimate and justified." Donnie protested after him.

Followed by quizzical looks from the others, Michelangelo rushed over to pick up the item of interest. It was the black box he'd pilfered from the Turtle-bot during the battle at Stockman's laboratory.

About the size of a dictionary, it was heavy and marked with various strange codes that meant nothing to the youngest turtle. It didn't seem to have any wires coming out of it, or any slots for them to connect. Nor did it seem to have any switches or dials. However Mikey was sure that the protruding metal prongs were important and even more sure that Donnie would be able to tell him exactly what the strange and doubtless highly important device was.

Very proud of himself, he walked back over and held it out to his intellectually gifted brother.

"I got you a… Thingy!"

"A thingy." Donatello repeated, incredulously.

"Yup! It was inside the evil Turtle-bots we fought at Buzzkill's lab." Mikey explained. "I bet it's like… Their brain, or something! Without it, Stockmanfly won't be able to make any more. And, I'll bet you can use it to work out all his nefarious plans."

Donnie pressed his fingers to his brow, as if fighting the mother of all headaches. "No. No I can't."

"Sure you can. I believe in you, dude!" Mikey said, encouragingly. "You'll figure it out in no time."

"No, really, I can't!" Donatello snapped. "That's a battery. A common, every-day, run of the mill battery! Stockman probably has boxes of them lying around. I have a dozen in my lab!"

"It's not special?" clarified Michelangelo, wilting a little.

"Not at all." Donnie harshly confirmed, folding his arms.

Mikey stared for a moment at the black box, then sighed and chucked it into the corner. "Oh well."

The clatter made Raph and Casey briefly look over, from where they were having an animated discussion about whether rats or cockroaches were more disgusting. They soon went back to their argument.

"So what were these Turtle-bots?" Donatello asked, glancing between Leonardo and April for clarification.

Mikey opened his mouth to explain, but Leo beat him to it. "New robots. Like the Foot-bots, but designed to look kind of like us."

"They had a carapace protecting their inner workings." April described.

"But I totally-" Mikey started, about to explain his prowess in dismantling one of them. But before he got a chance, Leo cut him off.

"Mikey was able to separate one of them, and Raph got through the carapace of another." Leo explained. "They weren't much more of a threat than their usual bots."

"That's not what you were saying when the Donnie-bot cut your arm." Mikey pointed out, seeking revenge for his stolen thunder. "You were all 'Ow, my arm! I'm dying here! Retreat, retreat'!"

Leonardo scowled. "No I wasn't. And I was only hit because I was making sure our Donnie was ok!"

"Thanks, Leo." Donnie said, with a smile.

"I-" started Mikey, determined to regale them with his side of events.

"Mikey, will you be quiet?" Leo insisted. "We're trying to tell Donnie what happened."

"So am I!"

Leo sighed. "Yes, but you exaggerate, you make stuff up, then forget what you were explaining!"

"No I don't!" Mikey protested, before reconsidering. "Well, maybe a little. But I only add stuff to make it more interesting! And… What were we talking about, again?"

"See, this is exactly what I mean."

"Dude, fine. If you don't want my help then I'll just go someplace else." Mikey threatened, folding his arms. For a few moments he stared at the expectant faces of Leonardo and Donatello, before realising what they were waiting for.

"All right, I'm going!" Turning on his heel, he marched away.

No one tried to stop him and Mikey found his legs had carried him into the dojo. There, Master Splinter seemed to have finished his meditation and was busy changing the candles on the shrine to his former family.

Although he flicked his ears backwards as he heard Michelangelo enter, the turtle had to wait until his Sensei had finished before gaining his full attention.

"Hello, My Son." Splinter greeted, walking over. Catching Mikey's pout, he added, "Is something troubling you?"

"No-one takes me seriously." Mikey complained, sulkily.

Splinter stroked his chin thoughtfully, before choosing to go with; "When you are content to simply be yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you for who you are."

"But they don't!"

"Oh? Well, in that case, I suggest you try being someone else." Splinter replied, an edge of irony in his voice that Michelangelo completely missed.

Mikey considered Splinter's words, then grinned. "Yeah… Yeah! That's it. I'll beat them at their own game."

"Sensei, will you train me," Michelangelo asked, putting on his best puppy dog eyes. "to use their weapons?

Splinter hesitated, slightly taken aback by Mikey's request. "My Son, I don't think…"

"Pleeeaaase?"

There was a long pause while Splinter considered, before reaching a conclusion that might well have been that training, even if for the wrong reasons, was likely to be beneficial to the least serious of his children.

"Very well. Arm yourself Michelangelo and we shall begin."

With an enthusiastic grin, Mikey ran over to the weapons wall. After a moment of contemplation, he picked up a ninjaken in one hand and a sai in the other.

The Shredder sat upon the throne in the penthouse of his building. His hands gripped the edges of the seat, tight enough to whiten the knuckles, demonstrating his fury to those who knelt beneath him. To his side stood Tiger Claw, watching silently over proceedings, while above the rain was falling from the dark sky and pattering down upon the glass panels of the roof.

"They were forced to retreat, Master Shredder." Rahzar said, defensively. "We won the battle."

"They destroyed more of the robot army." The Shredder growled. "Stockman, you assured me your new creations would be unstoppable!"

"They shouzzzzld have been." Stockman wretchedly explained. "But I didn't have time to tezzzzt them firzzzzt. There were teething izzzzues."

"We did, at least, manage to obtain the samples." Fishface cut in.

Stockman nodded quickly in agreement. "Yezzzz. We can begin workzzzz immediately."

The Shredder sat back slightly, threading his fingers ominously together. "Very well. Proceed with the plan."

"Create me a monster to defeat them, once and for all!"