Some of this is from the 2012 TMNT show, some of this is from me, and some of this is from LONE RANGER 97.

I'm not making any money by posting my and LONE RANGER 97's work here. Please enjoy for free.

Maverick falls to his knees with his hands still clinging to my shoulders, but his face turns down to the murky water around my ankles. "After I found out, I couldn't stop asking myself 'Did you know?!' 'Did my teachers know!? Who knew and why didn't they tell me!" I don't even know if my teachers actually cared about me and my training brother!"

Then his voice becomes quieter. "You, you're the only one I thought could answer those questions … I needed you … But I was afraid of the answers. So, I waited for you to find me. But you didn't." He pulls me down toward his face by the shoulders he holds and stares straight into my face. His breath fills my nostrils. It stinks to high heaven, but I don't even let myself blink as I stare back into his eyes as he continues. "I went looking for you, but, by the time I did, you were dead. So, I wanted them to hurt, to feel the agony I did … to feel just like me."

I let out a breath before responding, "Maverick. I shared with you everything Sensei told me about you back then. You know how secretive she was. It was amazing she admitted she thought you were sent to kill us. I couldn't have answered any of your questions without us breaking into the Association myself, and I wanted to be far, far away from them. Now, I want us both far, far away from the Kraang. And if you want to beat me up later, we should concentrate now on getting you somewhere I can get you well."

I grab him by the arms he was holding onto me by and prop him up. I also wrap an arm around his middle to help him walk through the murky waters. I can't ask myself "why" they are murky or "what" they are murky with at this moment. That scares me, and I have to spend all my willpower on getting my brother to safety especially since right after we turn into a dry tunnel, he faints on me.

Well, at least that didn't happen while we were still in the murky water. I manage to lower him down against a side of the tunnel rather than dropping him or dropping under him. It's a close thing though. My brother's a big boy.

I get him down and stare at him. There is no way I can carry or drag him all the way to the safe place. I think through the possibilities.

Do the Kraang know what escape route we've taken? If they do, they'll probably walk up and down the tunnel through its murky water unless they know something about I don't. Then Maverick and I might already be doomed.

We hadn't gone down the first dry tunnel on either side of the murky-water one, though I'd wanted to. I didn't think Maverick could take all the steps necessary to get to the Safe Place a more round about way. Apparently, I was right. As long as Maverick is, he should stay quiet, hopefully, and not alert any pursuers to his presence in this tunnel. We've already been going pretty slow though.

I sigh. I can stay till he wakes up on his own and try to defend us both or go and leave him alone. But if he's already fainted, he's really bad off health-wise. He needs supplies from the nearest Safe Place. I have to go get them now.

God, keep my brother safe. Be with him while I am not. Amen.

I take off and get to the place barely waiting to listen and make sure I hear and feel no eyes watching or ear listening for my movements before opening the door to Safe Place 28. I go in and look around. Our Safe Places are set up with a need for a temporary shelter that can keep us breathing, drinking, eating, and sleeping enough not to die, but live together as a family for a few days: Splinter, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and me. Amount of space inside and the shape of them are pretty dependent on the space we are converting. While we want plenty within walking distance of wherever we happen to be, when faced with whatever trouble befalls us, I also try to not spend supplies, time, and energy on converting a space we'll go insane in while hiding together in only a few hours.

This one isn't our, otherwise, abandoned train station, but nor is it the closets you sometimes find down here either. I think it was a tunnel begun and abandoned for lack of funds or a change of plans. Donnie and I decided to add a wall where the ones already up ended to reveal dug out earth and rock. Then we put in the cabinets to hold water, food, and medical supplies. I later filled them with those things.

I grab some of these and stuff them into a backpack, one of six sitting and waiting for my family and I to have to abandon Safe Place 28 and take off with some of its supplies. I never thought I'd need mine for this reason. I pack a few energy drinks, energy bars, and bottles of antiseptic with bandages tucked in between all the bottles. I need to be careful not to mix the antiseptic and energy drinks up in the dark. Antiseptic left, energy right. Then I look up while zipping my bag and see … jump ropes, a fake cowboy lasso, and a huge, iron skateboard …

I've brought my kids quite a few second-hand toys over the years. Not every one of them met with Splinter's and my ultimate approval. Mikey loved jumping rope and playing cowboy, when he was little. He and ropes at that age had proven a dangerous mix though. He's gotten much better in recent years, but those toys were gone within weeks.

Donnie had begged for them before we threw them away. Splinter and I had let him have them with his guarantees that Mikey wouldn't find and play with them, and they would never enter our lair again. Even by that time, we'd let Donnie have a separate space for a lab some ways from our actual lair. Maybe this was too much freedom to have let a five-year-old have, but he did let Splinter and I set up surveillance so we could watch there from afar. He also wore a lot of protective gear even on his small body.

The truth is, even while directly watching him, we often couldn't foresee which of his experiments would end up producing something beneficial and which could kill us all. Even when he explained himself, the several-syllable, Latin words spoken in his baby-lisp made it difficult for us to understand him. So, we reinforced his lab for explosions and made certain he always wore heavy gloves, aprons, and an oxygen supplied mask inside that room and watched him work there from afar. We did have to carry out a few rescues over the ensuing years. Perhaps it's no surprise then that some of Donnie's inventions had shared the same fate as many of Mikey's toys. Not everything our genius dreamt up and made reality was then welcomed by our whole family or even him for very long.

I never knew later whose idea it had originally been. Mikey and Donnie had pointed fingers at each other. They'd both agreed the train-tracks that ran by our home, skateboards, and magnets mentioned in the same conversation between them had first sparked the notion. Our younger sons had also admitted, it had seemed like a good idea to both of them at the time. Splinter and I were not amused. Our boys got mild concussions, and the invention responsible was going to receive the ire we had felt like giving them instead.

Come to think of it, we'd said we never wanted to see these things "in the lair" again, or them with these things. A metaphorical lightbulb blazed to life above my head. They've been hiding all their forbidden toys here? Or, maybe not "all" "here!" How many toys had Splinter and I exiled over the years, and how many Safe Places had I not thoroughly checked in a while leaving them to Donnie, or even Leo to check over by themselves? But would Leo … How far and deep did this particular conspiracy stretch?

I'd been thinking I'll have to wake my brother to transport him here, but looking at the iron board, its width, length, and strength … the wheels in my mind begin turning now. The ones on the board seem to be in good shape too. I smiled feeling some Mikey-level mischievousness bubbling up in my heart.

"God works in mysterious ways …"

What do you think?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes