Ni...
Mike woke up to sounds of his brothers fighting, and abruptly sat up. Don's wooden bo landed in the doorway. Then he heard Raph hooting about his victory. They were just practicing. The turtle rolled over to check his alarm clock. Whoa, almost one in the afternoon!
Don seen Mike sitting up when he retrieved his bo. "Mikey! Wanna join us?" he waved his staff.
"You're not serious,"
Don folded his hands and put a serious look on his face. "Honestly." Mike's knee pad promptly hit him in the chest.
"Wise ass." Mike sneered.
"I get the message," Don threw it back at his brother and faced Raph again.
When Mike caught his kneepad, the pain in his shoulder made him wince. "Fetch, Klunk," he pitched the leather pad to his cat. Klunk looked at it and glared at him. Do what?!
"Heh. Just testin' yah, kitters." Mike got out of bed.
Uhh boy, why do I still feel like shit, he thought as he left the car, hell, a real turtle could move faster than me. Shaking off the sleep, he sat on the couch and stared at the table. Maybe he could get Don to put it back together.
Few minutes later, Mike noticed Don limping over to a chair next to the couch. He stood up to offer him some help. From the pain he read on his face, Don did something bad.
"What is reason now?" Splinter joined the two.
"Raph..." Don sighed and looked at his master. "A-actually, it was more my fault. I-I think I pulled a muscle in my leg."
"Hmmm," Splinter paused a moment. "Sit on the floor." He then slowly stretched out Don's left leg and palpated it.
Don braced himself as Splinter began to use some acupressure. "Eiiaah! Hurts, it...aahh--"
"No, muscle strain in calf. If you can still move it, it's not torn." Splinter sighed, looking Don's leg over. "You must remember to warm up before practice."
Splinter rubbed some liniment on the affected area and taped up the leg. "Put it on ice," he finished with a smile.
Don nodded and gingerly limped over to the couch. Mike already left to get him ice.
"Mikey, Master wants to see you next." Don took the ice from his brother.
Mike nodded and went to the car. I hope he just wants to know how I feel. He didn't need Splinter to see how bad he bruised his shoulder.
"Sit here, my son," Splinter gestured to a zabuton.
Mike kneeled in front of the calm rat, and figure to respect at times like this.
"How are you today?" Splinter touched Mike's forehead long enough to check his temperature.
"I guess I'm getting better, but I still feel like...uh, drained."
He sensed Mike's health was coming back slowly as well. "Don't feel too warm...medicine's working."
"It's knocking me out, that's what it's doing." Mike grinned.
"Yes, but I want you eating more, Michaelangelo, even though you're not hungry." Splinter insisted. For a moment, it seemed odd he had to tell Mike that.
"No, I am not gonna put the table, that you busted, back together. Not now," Don promptly refused Mike's request.
"Please?" Mike persisted. Besides the kitchen table, this was the only other table they had. It's not easy to find good, free furniture and drag it down here.
"Figure it out yourself," Don kept his eyes focused on the TV even though Mike was standing in front of him.
Mike began to say something more, but was quieted by him.
"This sounds like something, could'ja move over?" he waved his hand at Mike.
"It's just those disappearances of racehorses," Raph informed them.
Don looked over to Raph, sitting at the other end of the couch. "You heard it before?"
"Yeah, last night when I was waitin' for Arsenio to come on," Raph explained. "Right, Mike?"
"Huh?" he gave Raphael, a confused look.
"C'mon, you sat up like you were gonna leave, but you didn't after I sat down. Fell back asleep instead."
Mike still stared at him, confused. "Damn, was I ever knocked out from the Nyquil. Don't remember that."
Intrigued by the conversation, Leo stopped practicing sword katas to join them. "Why didn't you say anything about the news broadcast, Raph?"
"Well, it was the middle of the night, an' I didn't think it was a very hot subject. Think about it."
"Think about it? We haven't had anything for the longest time, and I'm starting to worry when they are going to hit again!" Leo reasoned.
"So am I Leo, but if it's not Foot related, why should we mess wit it?"
"Yeah, I can't see the Foot messin' with horses." Mike backed up Raph's reasoning. Don held them quiet so they could hear what the reporter said.
It definitely couldn't tie in with the Shredder--he's dead, Mike thought. Splinter reassured them of this. He recalled how Splinter threw Oroku Saki off the roof of a building, only for Saki to bring the building down on himself. They thought he was dead then, but something didn't feel right. The second time they encountered Saki, they made sure he was finished. While Mike and the others kept Saki's mutations busy in some stupid nightclub, Leo and a monstrous Saki had a fierce sword fight outside. He came out to watch Leo end the fight by decapitating Saki before the boardwalk came down on them all. They knew he was dead then. Mike still remembered how they located the body, and burned it on a makeshift raft in the bay. "There's definitely no way Shredder's involved," he added.
"Nevertheless, this should be interesting, with only two of you in good condition," observed Splinter, getting into the conversation. "But it'll be another test for you to try."
"But when did that stop us?" Leo asked, with a spark of determination.
Later that night, it was decided to go on with the horse excursion the next morning.
"So, how are we going to do this, oh Great Leader?"
Leo sighed and looked at Raph. "I'm thinking that tomorrow morning we head out to the Belmont Racetrack, and check up on the going on's there."
"That's simple enough."
"Sorta..." Don sat back, uninterested. "What does any of us know about horses?
"C'mon Donny, I'm still goin'." Mike nudged him.
"But, you'd do anything to be around animals."
"Computer Geek."
"Am not!"
"Are too, D2!"
"Mike!" Leo forced them back on track, again. "While we're there, we'll check out the horses, like before and after the races, and see if we can find some sort of evidence that could help us out."
"And maybe we could hide in a few stalls of horses that might be the next victims, to stop the nappers." added Mike.
"Sounds cool," said Raph, "But I'll leave that job for you."
"Or we wear people clothes to blend in," Mike tried a better option.
"Is everyone in on this?" Leo held out a hand.
They kind of agreed.
The time had come, and everyone was either getting ready to go or still waking up. Leo decided they go before the sunrise. He wanted the darkness of dawn to conceal them. "Took you guys long enough to get over here." Leo looked Mike and Raph as they sneaked into the main room.
Mike dropped his ski coat on the floor to pull his sweatshirt on. "Hey, it was harder since I had to decide what to wear."
Raph loudly yawned after sitting down on the couch. He settled simply on jeans and his trench coat attire.
"Really Leo, can I stay behind?" Don asked, leaning on his bo. His leg was really stiff this morning.
"No, Don."
"But wouldn't it be useful if I stayed here and watched TV for some updates, or check up sites on the computer? I also saw some race listings on cable..." He tried a more productive approach.
They looked at Don with mixed feelings. More than often he does stuff like this. Leo realized Don's underlying point, however. If Don didn't want to risk walking around on his sore leg, he shouldn't.
"Might as well," sighed Leo. "But, only under one condition: write down all the good info you hear, just to make sure you're doing it."
"So like, are we gonna haul shell, or not?" Raph yelled, from the subway tunnel going into the sewer system.
"Man, he must've drank some Jolt or somethin'," Mike muttered as he adjusted the collar on his coat. He and Leo picked up the pace and caught up.
"Mikey, you said you knew a way there."
He looked at Leo and hesitated. It's going to take some clever thinking later to keep one of his best kept secrets from his brothers now. "Yeah, but we can't take the sewers all the way there. Gotta take to the streets and sneak in."
"Hrmm, and how do you know?" Raph seemed to be more suspicious about his knowledge.
Mike started up the ladder to the street. "Where do you think I get money for Domino's?" Damn, gotta learn to keep my mouth shut, he realized what he'd said.
They walked the sidewalks until they found a fire escape to climb unto the roofs. It felt better for their own safety, clothes or not, to travel out of sight from humans. Running the rooftops and jumping alleys had also been a favorite workout when they were younger. But being somewhat out of shape from the flu, Mike had to stop them a couple times to catch his breath.
On one break, he saw Leo watching the gold sun peeking up from the city's horizon. "Don't get to see that too often," Mike remarked, his breath crystallizing in the cold air. Strangely enough, the sunrise also brought him some bittersweet memories of Casey's farm in North Hampton. Mike had to admit he missed that place. It was warm, comfortable, and they had a lot more freedom to do whatever they pleased. And no one was around to see them, since the farm was out in the middle of no where.
Leo took in a deep breath, marking the end of that breather. "Let's go!" he sprinted off again.
After checking for traffic, they climbed down and headed to a sidewalk close to the gate. With luck, a four-horse trailer with a thoroughbred image painted on the side drove by. Without another thought, they hitched on to the back and climbed ontop. When it drove through the gates of the racetrack, the three jumped off when they felt no one was watching.
"That was close! Sure that gate-dude didn't see us?" Mike pulled out his ball cap to wear.
Leo adjusted his stocking cap so it covered his neck more. "Eh, let's check out the place while it's still early." He started toward the barns.
"Who painted them, some color-blind puke?"
Don woke up from his nap and got around to doing what he had promised. First, he pulled out a couple of newspapers, but found nothing. Then looked to the television in search of any news reports and horse races. But, when he turned it on, an interesting movie caught his attention.
Splinter quietly walked in from behind the couch. He had thought the lair was empty. "Donate-"
"Whaa! Geez, don't do that!"
"My apologies. Thought you were with others, why here?" Splinter asked him.
Don glanced at the television. "Uhm... they let me stay and do the paper-work."
"I doubt 'Ghost-Busters' would help." Splinter struck him on the shoulder with his walking stick.
Don missed protecting himself from the stick, only to back himself with another excuse. "I was... I was goin' to switch to ESPN,"
"Your reflexes are slowing down; does not take ten minute to change channel. Or to block my strike." Splinter responded dryly to his excuse, as he left him.
Grumbling, Don soon found some races and scribbled down certain horses shown he felt would be winners. Then happened to come across an up-dated news report about one more missing horse, while waiting for the start of a race on another channel. He returned to that channel just in time for the race, and watched.
"Oh, and they don't allow visitors running lose around the barns either." Mike decided to tell them. "The last time I was here, they had barn tours set up."
"So, we should sign up for a tour?" Leo wondered.
"Yeah, and then once we get in the barn area, we could sneak away from the group. Or somethin'." Mike told them his idea.
Raph shook his head, "Mikey, there's still hope in you yet." But you aren't comin' here to do what I think you're doing.
"Let's go over to the grandstand area for information," Leo started walking in that direction.
They followed Leo into the crowds gathered by the betting booths. Mike looked around for an information area. Instead, he was attracted to a monitor listing the horses for the next races. Leo left him and Raph there to find something about the tours.
"Check it out, By Sacrifice...Thorn Dance, I've heard good stuff about them." Mike informed Raph. He's not Leo, he could care less if he knew I've been betting. "Shit, that's a opportunity I'm gonna miss!"
Is it? Raph gave Mike a sly look.
Mike didn't see that, but instead saw Leo gesture they should join him. "Look's like he found the tour, or somethin'."
The tour guide led the big group down to the barns. She informed them about the prominent racing farms that were racing today, the history of the racetrack, and the layout of the barns. The three turtles remained in the back of the crowd, as to remain inconspicuous to the rest of the visitors.
"Um, Mike, where's Raph?" Leo realized he was not in their group.
Mike looked around and shrugged. Then it dawned on him.
"Damn, it's like some kind of bad habit he has..." Leo groaned, "I hope he gets by the guards,"
The tour guide stopped in the aisle way of a barn to speak. Despite his contempt for Raph, Leo thought this was a good time to look around. Glancing into an empty stall, something strange caught his eye. It was a small paintbrush, laden with dry black paint, lying in the straw. After checking on what the tour guide was doing, he entered the stall to look at the brush - it could be something useful. But as he walked over to it, he kicked up a piece of paper from the straw. What's this, he thought, picking it up. It sort of looked like decorative stationary, but then, with the numbers, currency. Leo put it into his pocket and picked up the paintbrush.
Leaving the stall, Leo joined the group again. He saw Mike talking to a colored groom getting a horse ready for the next race.
Leo stood by Mike, "I'm no expert, but he does look like something."
"Yep. Aren't ya, Sackie?" the groom agreed. He stayed on the other side of the horse, not at all looking at Mike and Leo.
Leo decided it was good the man didn't actually see them. But he winced upon hearing the horse's nickname. Saki? Nah...
"That's thee By Sacrifice," Mike's eyes made contact with Leo's.
The groom finished and chuckled, "You bet!" Still not acknowledging the two, he led the horse out from the stall.
Leo watched them go, just when he was startled by a very familiar voice.
"'You bet' is right!"
"Raph! Where the hell were you?" Leo turned around to face him.
"Easy, Leo, you'll upset the horses." Raph mocked his soft voice. "Didn't I just tell you."
"Aww, shit," Leo crossed his arms. "How much?"
"I only put down a few dollars."
Leo continued staring at him and cleared his throat.
"Look, I just put down a couple dollars on each horse, for a trifecta."
Leo stepped closer to Raph, "What if you lose?"
"Leo, Leo," Mike stepped between them. It was clear now Leo knew nothing about race track betting. "A trifecta is when you bet on the top horse in three races. If those horses win in each race, we'll get a shit-load of cash. If we lose, we'll just lose six dollars. It's like buying a lottery ticket, Leo."
"But if any of the horses come in second or third, we'll still get something right?" Raph asked Mike.
"Yuppers!" Mike nodded.
"Y' know Splinter doesn't like us gambling." Leo reminded them. "That was six dollars we could have used on important stuff..."
"Who'dja bet on?" Mike ignored Leo, to ask Raph.
"By Sacrifice." Raph pointed to the stall.
"Alright! And Thorn Dance too?" Mike's eyes got big. "You shouldn't be totally flipped Leo, they're fast horses. Sacrifice is even the son of a Triple Crown winner."
"Straight from the horse's mouth." agreed Raph.
"Great," Leo was slowly realizing what Mike had been up to for so long. Raph too, for all he knew.
Just then, an announcement broadcasted for the next race. "Mike," ordered Leo. "Stay with the group, just in case something happens. We're going to the races."
The two found a decent spot outside the grandstand area to watch the racetrack. It was hard to tell them apart, Raph noticed, as the horses were being loaded into the starting gate. But not impossible, since there were three chestnuts among the other bays. It became clear who their chestnut was when the pack of horses rumbled to the down stretch.
Raph strained to see the results on the sign after the finish. "Alright! The fire of By Sacrifice burns them to win!" he yelled, clinging to the fence.
"We still have two races to go," Leo brought himself back to reality.
"Leo, it was my money, okay. Not Casey's, or Yoshi's." Raph sat back on the grass. When they were growing up, Splinter managed to withdrawal the rest of the savings from Hamatto Yoshi's (his human owner) account. Now April struck a deal that she would pay them cash whenever they do some work for her.
Leo was not going to give in. Gambling was gambling. "Still, if you lose, Raph, you just threw away money you could used on something better."
"Like what? Pizza and beer?"
Mike sneaked away from the tour and hid in one of the stalls reserved for hay and tack near By Sacrifice's stall. A reasonable amount of time passed until he heard the welcoming hoof beats of horses coming. Soon he saw the distinguished sweaty chestnut through the cracks of wood in the door. "Yes!" Mike whispered, sensing the beaming pride coming from the groom and horse. He quietly watched as black man held the horse while another stable hand removed the saddle. The groom covered Sackie with a blue cool-down sheet.
The turtle realized he better hide before the stable hand went into the stall to put away the saddle. With all the fuss about stolen horses, he could just as well be mistaken for a criminal. Mike spotted a stack of straw in the corner. He slid behind that and covered himself with a horse blanket in such a way it looked like the blanket was tossed there. It worked. The groom and the stable hand hardly noticed his presence, even when he let out a couple sneezes. Mike slowly crept out of his position and left the place when he was certain no one was around.
He had to see this stallion one last time. "Hi guy," he was careful to touch the soft muzzle, so that the horse wouldn't bite him. "Probably never met someone like me before, huh?" he let the red horse nuzzle his fingers. The stallion suddenly raised his head up, ears alert.
Two men in dark street clothes appeared. They acted like they did not plan to see Mike there. The younger man gave Mike a friendly nod. The other guy went to a stall across from By Sacrifice, the one that Leo had been in earlier.
Mike thought they acted rather strange. Maybe they're security guards. He overheard one of the men talking, but it wasn't even English. Could be private detectives. Maybe I should leave before I get in trouble. Sacrifice continued to watch the men, letting out an occasional snort. "Gotta go," Mike left to get to the barn where he last saw the tour group.
Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. "They...why didn't I think! No wonder Sacrifice was actin' goofy....those guys are after him! Damn..." Mike ran back to the barn as fast as he could.
It was too late. He saw the two men briskly walking with Sacrifice down the aisle. They looked like they were just walking the horse to cool it out, but Mike knew they weren't. They definitely were not the grooms he saw earlier. His blood beginning to boil, Mike ran in hot pursuit after them. He fell short after tripping on a hose coiled in the aisle. Yeah, I make out to be great ninja material, he thought as he quickly got to his feet. The turtle continued a few more steps, but the two men had disappeared with the horse in the labyrinth of barns. Mike got even more upset over the fact that there was no one around to see where they went.
His other brothers waited by the outer limits of the barn area. When Mike approached him, the look in his face already told half of the story.
"You don't look good, Mike, what happened?" Leo asked with concern.
"Uhh...they got away with By Sacrifice..." Mike turned around to look at the barns in astonishment.
"Gah... he was the horse, and you just let him get nabbed!" Raph snapped. "That was the whole reason why we were here!"
"I couldn't help it," Mike turned to face Raph. "I thought, at first, those guys were PI's. It wasn't until too late... and why they were actin' strange."
"Wait, Mikey, bring me by these guys -- did you get a good look at them?" asked Leo.
"Uh, yeah, there were two. I didn't get a good look at them, but they didn't speak English and they looked Asian."
"Hold on, that was the same place I found this stuff." Leo pulled out the paintbrush.
"A paintbrush with black paint on it, okay." Raph sighed, looking around the barn.
"And a piece of paper--"
Raph gave it a good look. "It's money from someplace, Leo."
"Right, I was going to say that," Leo reasoned with him.
Raph looked around, a little more wary. "The crowd's startin' to pick up, I say we shell the joint before we get framed for this little incident."
"Guess who left this world, again." Raph took off his hat. His topic of discussion was asleep on the couch.
Leo turned off the TV, then picked up a piece of paper from the floor. "Well, he did at least get...something. I can't read it."
"Lemme give it a shot," Mike took the paper and cleared his throat. "It's... on 'missing horse' names."
"That's a big help." Raph added his sarcasm. He sat on the armrest of the couch.
"Uh...oou're vack?" Don mumbled as he stretched out.
Raph looked down at him. "You know it's not safe falling asleep with a pen in your mouth."
The others started to laugh when they noticed that.
"Mmh... explains the odd dream that I was some racehorse, chomping at the bit." Don tossed the pen on top of the broken table and sat up.
"Donny-boy, you've been using too much Ben Gay, huh?" Mike teased him.
Leo let out a sigh, one that demanded silence. "Right now, we got worst things to be worrying about."
"Yeah, like where did those guys take By Sacrifice," agreed Mike.
"By Sacrifice? Who?" Don blinked.
Mike started to pace around the room, "Just whisked away in front of my eyes, but it won't happen again."
"I did find this stuff--"
"Stuff? Like evidence?" Don asked.
"Sure enough," replied Leo, going over to his coat to get them. He laid the brush and money on the floor (since they didn't have the table).
Mike kneeled down to study the brush. "Y' know, I remember seein' this one flick, where the bad guys covered up this horse's markings with a paint, or dye, to smuggle out the horse."
Don immediately got up from the couch to pick up the paintbrush. He fanned apart the stiff bristles.
"Hey, hey! You better clean that up!" Mike eyed the pile of dried paint and debris.
Don inspected the small mess. "Hairs to you." he punned, picking up a few horse hairs. With his fingernails, he carefully stripped the paint off of it. He held it up to the light to see a brownish color in the tiny follicle. "And this...brown hair, was the color of the horses I heard missing. I also heard this trainer raising Cain about the length of time his horse has to be missing, before it's officially missing...and needing a detective. "
"If that's a brown hair," Mike finally asked, "why's the paint black?"
"They gave it black legs? I don't know, I'm not Sherlock." Don confessed.
Mike snickered and gave him a playful punch.
Splinter had again quietly joined their conversation, and had listened a while before they noticed him. "You solve problems well."
"Not quite. Not sure what kind of money this is." Leo offered it to Splinter.
Splinter looked at it once. His eyes softened, as the money was so familiar to him. "Currency from Japan. A 100 yen note." The rat returned a disappointed look to Leo.
"Japanese money? Cool!" Mike wanted to look at it again.
"What you could be dealing with... foreigners from Japan, or people dealing with other there," Splinter concluded. "Possibly doing business with the horse."
Leo gazed upon Splinter, his eyes dead serious. "Could it be the Foot?"
Splinter gave him a somewhat uncommittal maybe.
"Hey, who's hungry for pizza?" Mike got up to look for the phone book. The other four looked at him with surprise. It's been days since they heard him mention pizza.
Later, the four further worked out more details over a couple of delivered pizzas they got with the money.
Don had thought of an idea worth mentioning. "How about looking into going to Japan?" Don didn't look up from his pizza. Then it started to sound like a really wild idea.
"Huh?"
"Are you crazy? Why do you want to go clear over to Japan?" Raph looked at him. Mike's right, he's been sniffing the Ben Gay.
"Why? Splinter's not certain if it is the Foot. Could've been anybody's money." Leo gave Don he reasoning.
"They, whom ever, could be smuggling horses to Japan anyway," Don decided to be a little more descript. "So..."
"Another little question...how?" Mike reached for another slice. "We're gonna need lots of money to just get the plane tickets. And a big N-O to time traveling too."
"With the money you got from the track," Don shrugged. "Can't believe Splinter doesn't know yet."
Mike stopped chewing. He forgot all about that. "Hey, how come you didn't say?"
"That's why Splinter doesn't know," Raph belched.
"How much?" Mike persisted.
"Six hundred," Raph didn't want to say too much, just in case Splinter was listening.
Mike's eyes grew real big. "Aww, cool!" he never got that lucky before.
"I'll check out the Internet and see if I can find some tickets cheap, or something."
Leo sighed. "I doubt that, you can't find tickets for four passengers under six hundred! Then we still have to get this past Splinter."
"What if we go there: first of all, where? Second, who do we find?" Raph was still against the whole idea.
I haven't got that far, yet, Don pushed the last of his pizza in his mouth.
Leo looked at Raph. "He's going to want to know where we got the money."
Raph resisted the idea. "C'mon, Leo..."
"Okay, okay, let's invite him over and we'll have a group meeting," Don stood up, "It is my idea."
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