Following Splinter's and Karai's argument, Mikey sets out to cheer everyone up like only he knows how.

This is a Mikey chapter, so it's gotta be fun (/OvO)/

As always, a humongous thank you to our beta readers, Queequegg and Theherocomplex, who make it all so much better!

Mikey squirmed with uncontrollable curiosity, wanting nothing more than to go meet the cool ninjas setting up camp in their living room. Once Leo and Donnie had made it back with the rest of the Lotus clan, the newcomers laid down their luggage at the farthest corner of the room, unrolling their sleeping bags and going to the bathroom in turns to change into their casual clothes.

They didn't arrive with blindfolds on like they had the first time, seeing as though they would be actually living there, and Hachisu had turned out to be cool. As soon as the new ninjas entered the lair, their eyes had started flying all over the place. With a tingle of pride, Mikey noticed the younger ones seemed particularly interested in the pin-ball machine, their tire swing and their box full of old VHS tapes and vintage videogames. Their eyes flew about like they were on a tour in the Museum of Reverse Tomorrowland—Retro-morrowland! —which, honestly, they kinda were.

These people were all manners and head bows, and they kept thanking Splinter and everyone for letting them stay there. All the while, Mikey watched the bustle, each time shuffling a little closer to a group of kids. He was about to introduce himself and offer to show them all their cool stuff when Leo summoned him, and he had to walk away.

With a disgruntled sigh, Mikey joined his brothers, April and Casey by the kitchen, where they wouldn't be in the way of the other clan's activities. Leo was super keen on not bothering any of them. But the stash of mutagen was still missing, and the Lotus clan could know something about it. Mikey had no choice but to wait with the others until their mysterious leader lady was free to talk.

They'd started referring to Hachisu-no-Hana as Hachisu for short, just among them, even though Leo bitched about it at first. He thought they'd get used to the short version and it could slip out accidentally. But it ended up sticking, for the same reason that anyone ever hardly called Mikey Michelangelo besides Master Splinter, and that's just cause sensei always spoke like he was in an epic fantasy movie anyway.

After Hachisu had had her pee break—which took a while because there were like fifteen of them and only one bathroom—Leo gave a nod and they moved in. They asked her if she knew anything about the mutagen and what the Purple Dragons planned to do with it. But because nothing was ever that easy, ever, not even the badass ninja boss seemed to have much of a clue.

"We saw them leave with some crates, in a van, the night we saw you at the warehouse. But we could not follow," the Lotus leader said, and Mikey heard Leo sigh. They were still pretty much at a loss. And Mikey was so not looking forward to more running around the city like a headless chicken.

"We suspect the Shredder might be involved," Donnie added, taking a step forward to stand next to Leo. His comment seemed to get Hachisu's attention, her dark eyes suddenly alert.

"Then we will find out, no doubt. We will be watching the Foot clan closely," she said firmly after a brief pause, in that epic leader voice of hers. Mikey grinned to himself thinking Leo was probably taking mental notes. She then added, "I'm sorry we cannot be of more help," and they all agreed to keep an eye out and inform each other of any news.

Hachisu went back to her clan, which by now was settled in their own little indoor camping site, but without the tents or the campfire. And when Leo wasn't looking, Mikey hurried over to one of the younger-looking ones in the group with a big welcoming smile, determined to make some new friends if it killed him.

"Yo, watashi wa Michelangelo! Videogames shimasu ka?" he offered. The kid left his bag and turned to face him, looking at him a little weird—probably didn't expect him to know Japanese, Mikey thought proudly— but nodded when he saw the T-phone.

They got to play a bit of Bird Rage, and Mikey thought they were really hitting it off, even when the kid —Wakai, was it?— looked like he only understood half of what Mikey was saying. But then one of the elders, an old-ish guy with a big square face full of scars, called out, "Wakai! Don't be lazy, go buy the food with the others!"

Mikey threw him a sideways glare. "Man, what's with Brick-Face?" he whispered to Wakai while the man was busy grumbling to himself. He could swear the dude was talking shit about technology and T-phones too, and saying something about ninja values in his super thick Japanese.

"I have to go," Wakai replied in pretty decent English, bowing while handing him back the phone with regret in his face. Bummed that that was over so quickly, Mikey, watched the kid get up to rejoin his group, which was putting on some backpacks to go out.

Mikey then shuffled his way over to where Leo and Donnie were standing, a little worried that he may have gotten his new friend in trouble. His brothers welcomed him with looks of disapproval, which didn't help one bit.

"Dude, you speak Japanese like Google Translate," Donnie said, cringing.

"Yeah, and I told you not to bother them, Mikey. They're here for very serious business," Leo said in his Captain Party-Pooper voice.

Mikey shrugged, not really sure what he meant by that; Brick-Face seemed like a total downer, but he'd been getting along awesomely with the Lotus kid. "I was just being friendly. Oh, by the way, bros! Movie night tonight, remember?" he exclaimed, all other concerns easily put aside at the prospect.

Leo's lip quirked, unconvinced, as he looked at the guest clan. "The Lotus are taking up half the common room."

"So what's the problem? We'll just watch it in my room! I'll send a mass text to the Hamato network."

Before Leo could say anything else, Mikey pulled out his T-phone and typed.

OrAnGeCrUsH: Movie night in my room, bros and sisses! 8DDD

He made sure Karai would get the message too, hoping she wasn't too angry to watch a movie with them. She hadn't come out of her room since her fight with sensei. With all this commotion, he'd managed to forget for a while, but the new reminder twisted his insides with worry. Maybe a little movie-night fun would lift her spirits, he thought, mentally high-fiving himself for the idea.

For additional good vibes, he attached a picture of a cat lying on its back with a humongous bowl of popcorn between its legs that he'd found online earlier, and hit send.

Half an hour later, the TV set was hooked up and Mikey's room was starting to fill with people as Mikey prepped the movie. The VCR swallowed the tape with a clunky gulp. Donnie, April, Raph, Casey and he were waiting for Leo, when there was a dull thunk on the door and everyone went quiet. The knob wobbled for a bit, stopped and wobbled again, and Mikey felt his own mouth stretch wider and wider.

"No, please, don't anybody help me out," Leo said above all the laughter while his silhouette, visible through the translucent glass on the door, tried to turn the knob with a shoulder, then a foot.

"Whatever you say, chief! You're doing great," Raph hollered from his seat, not moving one inch.

The door opened before April could fully stand up to go help. But instead of Leo's foot—or elbow, or any other body parts—it was Splinter's claw on the knob.

"Thanks, sensei," Leo said, appearing through the doorway loaded with three bowls of popcorn the size of barrels and a bag of candy under his chin.

"Movie night?" Splinter asked with a friendly smile as Leo put down his load.

"Yep. Wanna join us, sensei?" Mikey said, patting the already-crowded bed. "It's a ninja movie! You might like it."

Splinter showed them his palm. "No, thank you."

Mikey would have been disappointed if he'd been expecting any different; Splinter almost never joined them on movie night. But Mikey couldn't help wondering if he was also upset over his fight with Karaiwa. He watched and listened closely, trying to tell, which was sometimes hard with sensei.

"Did you talk to Karaiwa?" he ventured.

Behind him, Raph made a sound in his throat. "Can you stop calling her that? I'm pretty sure it's a form of bullying."

"It's not, 'cause she likes it," Mikey retorted, showing him his tongue, then turned back to wait for Splinter's answer.

Splinter lowered his head, and his whiskers twitched ever so slightly. If Mikey had to guess, sensei's answer wasn't going to be all that cheerful.

"No, I have not talked to her. It is best she comes out in her own time. Do not dwell on this, my son," he added kindly. "Arguments are part of being a father; it is a tool of the trade. You boys are no walk in the park either," he added with a tiny smirk.

Mikey agreed, and glanced around the room at his brothers. Both Leo and Donnie had missed the fight between Karaiwa and sensei, and judging by their faces, they were wondering what this was all about.

"Did you invite her to your movie night?" Splinter asked.

"Of course!" Mikey said at once and showed him his T-phone, although so far there was no sign that she had even seen the text. He thought about texting her again, or even knocking on her door, but like sensei had said, maybe it was better to leave her alone. This reminded him of the beginning, when she was new at the lair and spent all that time in her room. None of them would disturb her then, and it became a kind of unwritten rule that when her door was closed, the room might as well be empty. Or radioactive. It was kinda funny how she and Raph had so much in common sometimes. Maybe that's why they didn't get along...

"Good! She can use the entertainment," Splinter replied, and Mikey was relieved to see that fatherly smile back on his face. As long as sensei was smiling, all was well. "Don't make too much noise. Our guests will want to rest."

He turned to leave, but Leo said, "Speaking of guests, sensei, I was wondering… I'm confused about something you said earlier." Splinter halted on his way out and raised his bushy eyebrows, hand on the knob, waiting for Leo's question. "...about Hachisu-no-Hana's parents."

"What about them?" Splinter grinned, and Mikey pricked up his ears, because Leo was totally fidgeting.

"Well, you said you used to know them, and that they fought like siblings… because they were siblings?" Leo asked finally in that fake casual tone he never mastered.

Splinter looked like he was thinking for a few seconds, then said, "Ah, I think I know what you mean. Yes, they were siblings—although they were also not."

Leo's brow was wrinklier than an accordion. "Uh…"

Mikey looked around at his other brothers, just to make sure he wasn't the only one not getting it. How could two people be siblings and at the same time not be siblings? And then go and marry each other? To his relief, almost everybody wore the same expression, all waiting for Splinter to go on with his story. The only one who already looked as amused as sensei was Donnie, but… Well, Donnie was Donnie.

"You see, in the more traditional Japan, it was common for a male, of any age, to be adopted into a family, when there were no males to carry on the family name. And though it is not necessary in a ninja clan, they decided to do this with Hachisu's father. He was not born in the Lotus Clan; he was of an allied clan that was decimated. After his real parents died in combat, he was taken in by Hachisu's grandparents. However, while he and Hachisu's mother carried the same family name, they were never really siblings, and deep down they never thought of each other as such. And so when they got older, they married. I will go meditate now," Splinter said, without so much as a breath between topics. "Have fun. But don't make too much noise," he repeated.

Everybody chorused, "Hai, sensei!" and just like that Splinter was gone, swinging the door closed behind him.

Mikey stared after him, racking his brains trying to figure out what part of what sensei just said was so funny that Raph, Casey and Donnie started whooing and cackling once he was out of earshot, and April's freckled cheeks were bunched up by a naughty grin. Leo's lips were pressed into a thin line as Raph elbowed him in the arm, hard.

"What?" Leo gritted out, fists tight.

"Oh, nothing…" Donnie said, leaning back towards April, and they both looked like they were just loving this.

Let's see, they were talking about siblings, and Hachisu's parents being… Oh, wait, that was it, wasn't it? The light came on, so finally Mikey could join in the wisecracking.

"Ooooh, Leo, 'cause you and Karaiwa are siblings, but not really!" he sang, wiggling his fingers.

"Shut up, you guys!" Leo shushed them, shooting nervous glances at the door. "And what was that thing about Karaiw- about Karai and sensei? What happened?"

"Yeah, did we miss something?" Donnie asked, and Leo looked relieved that his change of subject had stuck. Mikey saw Donnie turn to April to see if she knew anything about it. April obviously knew, since she had been there when it happened. But she didn't say anything and instead looked at Raph as if she didn't want to be the one telling it.

"Karai went after Splinter for not helping the Lotus defeat the Shredder," Raph explained. "She told him we should take the opportunity, Splinter didn't agree and... well, she took it badly."

"Badly? I heard it all the way from the pinball machine," Casey contributed. "Dude, she was vicious."

"Yeah, even they think so," Mikey said, pointing a thumb at the pair of hot-heads sitting shoulder to shoulder against the bed. Raph had confronted Splinter—and pretty much everybody else—many times. But even then it never got to this level of serious. Mikey thought back to the awful silence that had followed Karaiwa's words, and felt a renewed impulse to go talk to his sister.

There was a pause as Leo and Donnie looked at each other.

"What… what else did she say?" Donnie asked slowly.

Raph and Mikey told them as much as they could remember, since their brothers kept asking for the details. At the end, Leo and Donnie exchanged another look and Leo gave him a little nod.

"Listen, guys, we didn't want to be pessimistic about this, but Future Donatello said something that could, theoretically, be related," Donnie said, and his suspiciously casual tone sent another wave of concern slithering through Mikey's guts.

"What, D? What is it?" he demanded, already getting a really bad feeling about the whole thing.

"Well, he said, and I quote, 'tell Karai to stay put'."

"Stay put? The hell does that mean? Where is she going?" Raph exclaimed impatiently.

"You think they were talking about the Lotus?" April asked, her eyes worried. "She did say she wanted to go with them."

"But that would be going against Splinter's orders. She's never gone against Splinter's orders," Leo said, though it sounded more wishful than convincing. "Besides, Future Donatello did kind of… shrug it off. He just said she should be here when they came."

"To be precise, he said they 'wouldn't want her to miss it'," Donnie specified, lifting one finger.

"That's weird," April said with a frown.

"We thought so too, but there's really no reason to believe it's something serious. They wouldn't have been so vague if it was," Leo said, and glanced at Donnie. "We didn't want to worry everyone, so we thought we'd—" he motioned between Donnie and himself "—just keep an eye on her. Just in case..."

Mikey looked around the room at the sullen faces and creased brows. The atmosphere was rapidly snowballing downhill. That would not do.

Shaking off his own agitation, he took a deep breath, arming himself with mighty determination, and climbed on the bed. "Well, now we can all keep an eye out," he said to the whole room, trying to sound strong and peppy. The group was in serious need of pep. He boomed as though he was sending his troops out to war, "Nothing bad's gonna happen to our big sister, 'cause we're gonna take care of her! And we're going to be there for her!"

"Alright, Mikey!" Casey cheered from the floor, shooting his fist into the air and flashing his checkered smile.

Motivated, Mikey whipped out his nunchucks, gave them a few epic twirls and struck a pose. "Whether it's mutant squirrels from another dimension or mushroom men from beyond Venus, no one will get past us!" he exclaimed.

Raph groaned, "Okay, we get the gis-"

"Because family," Mikey continued, cutting him off, "family is precious! Like one of those rare gems in ancient tombs that are guarded by a bunch of skeleton warriors, and when you get it, you level up, and earn special abilities..." It was half way through his speech that Mikey realized the parallels between family and a gem had ended a while ago. And judging by all the crooked stares from his audience, it was probably time to stop. "Okay, bad metaphor, but you get the point, right?"

April was the first to say with a loving smile, "Sure, Mikey. We're all with ya."

Raph scoffed to the side, and Casey sniggered, but everybody was at least grinning now, which was a success by Mikey's book. He puffed his chest proudly. "Yeah, that's right," he proclaimed, and got down from the bed like he'd just leveled up from finding one of those gems. "Now, how 'bout that movie?"

"Oh, right, it's been so long I forgot that's what we were doing," Raph droned as he got to his knees and started looking around the bowls of popcorn "Leo, where's my licorice?"

Leo seemed lost for a moment, then his expression lit up. "Oh," he said, and reached into the space below his upper plastron like a pocket, scooping out the licorice and handing it out. But Raph recoiled from his offering, glowering at him with extreme repugnance. "Agh! Seriously? What the hell's it doing in there? What, did you learn that from your saloon madame? Now it's got your boob sweat all over it!"

Leo puffed righteously. "Well, then maybe you should've helped me carry all that food, Raph."

"Yeah, and there's worse places he could've carried that," Casey contributed with a sneer. Mikey covered his mouth, stifling a laugh at the delightfully horrible mental images, and joined Casey when he started taking licorice sticks out of Leo's hand.

Raph curled his lips and took a bowl of popcorn from the bed, putting it in his lap and grabbing a generous handful. "Get that stupid movie going already before Leo starts pulling candy out of his armpits."

"Shouldn't we wait a bit more for Karaiwa?" Mikey asked, still hopeful.

"I don't think she's coming, Mikey," April said a little sadly, and everybody else seemed to agree.

They were probably right, but he had to ask, right? He didn't want to linger in that place where his troubled thoughts lay. It was dark and dank down there. Remembering Splinter's words of encouragement, he pulled himself back up, dusted off his shoulders and his butt and smiled, convinced of how much better the next day would be.

"Yeah, okay. Maybe she fell asleep," he said, hitting play and scooching to sit next to Raph. "You guys are gonna love this one. It's pretty much the best ninja movie in the known Universe."

"As long as there's people beating the shit out of each other, I'm sold," Casey said, stretching his legs out on the floor, hands at the back of his head.

The tape ran, and soon they were looking at the title on screen in big bold letters pretending to be Japanese kanji.

"'Purple Ninja: Honor'?" Donnie read aloud. "Ah, well, we're off to a great start!"

"That's right, bro," Mikey said. "Can't you just smell the art?"

"I'm not sure I'm ready for such grandeur," Donnie said levelly, and Mikey twisted around to narrow his eyes at Donnie, because he knew that tone. He got treated to it on a daily basis. Donnie in turn smirked down at him like he knew something he didn't—which, okay, was often true, just not this time. But the ominous music told him the movie was starting for real now.

"Don't worry, Don. If you think a part of it's too complicated we can just rewind and watch it again." He sneered, and Donnie rolled his eyes as sole response.

Mikey was no fool; he knew the movie was "bad". But it was the kind of bad that made it really, really good. This one was a masterpiece of unintentional humor, although not everybody seemed to think so. Ten minutes in, there had already been plenty of groaning and wisecracking and puking sounds. The Purple Ninja was in a heated argument with his archenemy, Khaki Ninja, over the ethics of using the art of ninjutsu for "lucrative purposes". Of course, the heroic Purple Ninja found that highly dishonorable. Khaki Ninja was super offended, apparently, and the music escalated, and the camera zoomed in on Khaki Ninja's frowny face.

"Ooooooh, he mad!" Mikey cried in absolute joy.

Suddenly the two ninjas were engaged in the cheesiest, most embarrassing ninja fight ever put on film. And Mikey loved it. They both fought very enthusiastically and making a lot of intense faces, but Purple Ninja was eventually victorious.

Defeated, the Khaki Ninja did a kind of magical thing with his hands and disappeared in a puff of khaki smoke. At that very moment, the door to Mikey's room opened, letting in some light from outside, and in came Karai. Mikey gasped.

"Hey, I got the text," she said, sounding... sleepy, maybe. She was wearing her sweatpants and sleeping T-shirt, phone in one hand and makeup set in the other.

Mikey paused the movie and reached for the ceiling. "Karaiwa, you came!"

"Yeah!" she said in what seemed like a lazy attempt at mimicking Mikey's cheerfulness. But it was enough for Mikey that she wasn't too angry to see a movie with them. "Did you start watching long ago?"

"Not too long ago," Mikey said, overjoyed that they were all there finally. Donnie, April and Leo happily scooched over on the bed to make room for Karai. "We can rewind a little so you don't miss out on any important plot points."

All the other voices rising in protest didn't give Karai time to reply. She raised a hand and when the noise died down she said, "That's alright, Leo can sum it up for me," and sat on the bed next to the aforementioned brother.

Leo probably thought he was being all stoic and stuff, but Mikey saw the corners of his mouth trembling, trying to hold back the smile.

And they call me goofy.

The movie rolled on. Donnie and April started a game of counting errors in continuity, and at one point everybody was commenting and laughing together. The sight of Karaiwa's smile spread a wave of joy through his chest like he'd just drank a glass of warm milk.

"Don't worry, Jimmy," one of the townspeople said to the little boy lying in his lap. Supposedly the kid was dying, but the performance made it more funny than tragic. "The Purple Ninjas will avenge you!"

During the mass battle that followed, the combatants showed off a huge array of very ninja weapons: there were ninja torpedo-launching nunchakus, and ninja flame-thrower sai…

"Damn! I gotta get me some of those!" Raph said just as a Khaki Ninja back-flipped to avoid the fire.

"Yo, Don!" Mikey hollered, craning his head back to look at his brother over the edge of the bed. "You think you can make me one of them torpedo-shooting nunchucks?"

"Sure, I'll put it on the to-do list." Donnie chuckled.

"Get me in on that, please," Raph said, raising his hand.

"And a flame-thrower sai for Raph. For you, April, a thought-controlled tessen."

April sniggered at his nudge. "You read my mind."

"What do I put you down for, Leo?" Donnie asked as though taking orders from a table.

"Hmm," Leo said, pondering for a moment. "Chain-saw katana?"

Mikey guffawed. "Yo, that's no joke! What about you, big sis?"

But Karaiwa seemed distracted, painting her toenails mahogany red, and didn't respond right away.

"Karai?" said Leo, and her head shot up.

"Oh, uh… Yeah, I'll just get whatever Mikey's getting," she said with kind of a hollow smile, pointing the tip of the brush at Mikey before getting back to her toenails. The others exchanged meaningful looks.

"You okay?" Leo asked.

Karai looked up like a deer caught in the headlights, eyes darting from Leo to the TV. Finally she groaned. "This movie sucks. It's got as much ninjutsu as the last Karate Kid had karate. I can practically feel my ancestors rolling around in their graves."

"I liked that movie…" Mikey muttered, honestly a little offended. Karaiwa could be really harsh with her opinions sometimes.

"Well, she's right. That movie didn't have any Karate in it, it had Kung Fu," Donnie pointed out. "It should've been called Kung Fu Kid, really, and to be honest I don't know why it wasn't. Probably to cash in on the classic's title."

"I know right? Anyway, I'm done here," Karai said casually, starting to grab all her stuff.

"Where are you going?" Mikey asked quickly in a bit of a panic. She was leaving already? Wasn't she having fun?

"I'm gonna call it a night," she replied simply, then waved at the room. "Night!"

"Hey, uh-" Leo stammered, reaching out for Karai—kind of beating Mikey to it—and she looked at him. "Y-you forgot this one," he said, and Mikey saw him hand out the red nail polish she had been using.

"Oh." She reached out to accept the object, but Leo stalled.

"Something wrong?" he asked before letting her have it.

Karai took a glance around. Mikey realized everybody else's eyes were on her, and he tried not to stare. Not too hard at least… And the movie was still going; everybody was missing it. He hit pause, not like anyone cared.

"No, nothing," Karai replied, shrugging.

"You sure?" Leo insisted.

Karai huffed, putting her makeup case under her arm. "Yes, you pest! Look how okay I am!" With one swift flurry of the brush, a long, red blotch appeared on Leo's arm. Mikey hadn't even seen her unscrew the top!

"What the—!" Leo cried out, reeling.

"That color looks good on you." Karai sheathed her mahogany weapon and put it away in her makeup kit to Leo's sounds of aggravation. "Rub it all you want. It's quick-drying and kunoichi proof. Very expensive," she said around an evil smile which looked… pretty authentic. Ah, the memories.

And with that she was out of the room, leaving Mikey a little cold. He wasn't the only one who sighed when the door closed and they all slowly sunk back into their seats. Feeling heavy with defeat, Mikey hit play with a less than enthusiastic finger.

"You'll have to use polish remover," April said helpfully when Leo kept trying to pick the paint off his bicep.

"Fantastic," Leo replied grouchily, and crossed his arms.

Eventually the epic ninja fight scene ended, and after that, the mood pretty much plummeted. It didn't matter how loud a commentary Mikey did, and how excitedly he motioned at the screen. Sooner than later everybody was yawning and looking at their phones, and Mikey gave up. He hadn't really been feeling it anyway.

"Hey, Donnie. I change my mind," Raph said sleepily, chin tucked in against his plastron and eyes half closed. "Scratch the flame-throwing sai. I would like a neuro-flasher thingie to erase this movie from my mind."

"When you grow up," Donnie slurred, fingers drumming impatiently on his leg. Next to him, April desperately checked her phone for the jillionth time.

It didn't take long before Raph's snores started filling the room. By the time the movie ended, Casey had given in too, and the pair were leaning against each other in a way that gave Mikey an idea. A very wicked idea, which should at least cheer them up to compensate for the movie-night fail.

As the credits rolled, Dr. Prankenstein moved in, skirting around all the empty popcorn buckets and candy wrappers and using the background music as cover. They looked adorable as they were —heads leaning against each other, Casey's hand grazing Raph's—but he could make it better. Much better.

"He's gonna kill you," Donnie sang, not so much warningly as matter-of-factly. Dr. Prankenstein knew this, but there are some things in life you just gotta do.

When he was done, he whipped out his T-phone and immortalized his work.

Art.

And when everybody started moving, and the happy couple woke up and looked at each other, they lurched backwards with eyes like beach balls. Mikey spied on them through the corner of his eye while he rewound the VHS tape like he hadn't seen anything. They were totally pretending like their hands hadn't just been over each other's crotches as everybody else started walking out stifling their laughters.

Casey and April left, and everybody was getting ready to call it a night when Mikey decided to take the last step. Maybe he should have thought this through better. At least he could've chosen a safer spot to stand, further from the explosion, more hidden, instead of out in the open like this. But one doesn't make history by thinking things.

Raph was already in his room when the message went through. Mikey heard the exact moment when his own death sentence was sealed —Mikey, you asshat, you're dead!—and knew there would be nowhere to run. It didn't matter that the whole of the Lotus clan was at the other side of the room watching; Raph gave him a noogie and a shell-wedgie, and good thing Leo came to save him—and the Hamato clan's reputation—or Raph would've probably hung him head-down from the spiral staircase like a salami for all to see.

Still worth it. Ten out of ten, would do again. Even with that noogie still hurting, Mikey smiled just thinking of the look of glee on Karai's face when she saw the picture.

And he got an even better idea.

He would have to stay awake for a while longer, but if this didn't get Karai in a good mood then he didn't know what would.

So how did we fare in the Mikey POV? We had a ton of fun, as usual. And Mikey is so precious.

And sometimes a jackass.

But he means well.

Mostly.

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