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After they explained Don's plan to Master Splinter, he dismissed Leonardo and Donatello so he could talk to Raphael and Michaelangelo about the betting. Much to Raph's surprise, Mike bent the truth. Mike held back the exact history of his racetrack secret. All he told Splinter was what happened that day, and nothing more. Raph sat before them speechless, feeling as if what he could say to prove Mike wrong would backfire. Splinter would think he was trying to get out of the blame.
Mike walked out with an untold expression on his face. "Doesn't mind that we went to the racetrack. But he didn't like the betting, or goin' to Japan."
"What'd he say to you?" Don asked Raph, noticing his perplexed expression.
"I'm doomed to this place," he sighed.
"He took away all the money too." Mike groaned. "But, um, we can still do something 'bout the stolen horses problem as long as we stay in this area."
"So like, what's with the 'D-day' act, Raph?" Don continued to pry.
"I would just like to know why me, and not you too?" Raph looked at Mike.
Mike ignored his glare. "Gotta investment to keep." He left to turn on the TV.
"No television Michaelangelo and Raphael." Splinter then called out from his car.
"Damn!" Mike turned it off and left elsewhere.
"Now that's a punishment." Leo smiled at Raph.
"He didn't say anything 'bout 'sparring'," He attempted to get Leo into a headlock.
The excitement regarding the horses died down. Besides suffering from Splinter's disciplinary measures, the four were in a slump. Leo offered to go out and check the boat dock for signs of activity. Mike, however, thought it would be good to go where the horses were: the country.
"Mikey, c'mere." Don finally got his attention from the old stereo. Wafting riffs of the Grateful Dead resonated through the subway now. Great, now he's in a Deadhead mood. He wasn't against the choice music, being a fan of classic rock. It was just that Don wanted to hear Aerosmith instead.
"Hay what?" Mike looked up from the phone book. Don sat on the floor in front of his computer, the other little window to the world.
He nodded toward the screen. "Getta look at this. I found a huge listing of farms upstate. Just stallion ads though."
Mike pointed to the open phone book. "Hmm, nothing but a few stables for New York City--"
"Then check this out."
"How will we get there?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, after what Splinter told us, what chance do we have to get there." Don continued to click through the sites.
"Hey, maybe we could find out where By Sacrifice is from," Mike kneeled down by the crates on which the monitor sat. "Type in his name for a search."
"I'm still getting over the whole idea about going to Japan...about this whole insidious horse case. I'll admit, my idea was just lame. There's just no way we could do it." Don muttered, clicking a few more buttons on the screen. "So what if the Foot take a few horses. What does that have to do anything?"
"Look, Donny, it can't be that phony-- we got other ways t'do it." Mike tried to reason with him. But he was right, they'd grown accustomed to city crime and ninjutsu. The race horse black market was not in their realm.
Leo walked up behind the two of them when he came back. "What's up?"
Mike about jumped out of his shell from Leo's sudden presence. "God, give a dude an coronary, will ya!"
"So-o, what took you so long?" Don teased him. Leo wasn't gone very long it seemed.
Leo shrugged. "Nothing there, but I still want to check it out later tonight. Find anything that concerns the horses?"
"Not much in the phone book," Mike sat on the back of the couch. "But we've got all these listings of farms upstate on the 'puter."
"I'm afraid...this isn't," Don turned away from the screen. "Nothing's happening..."
"What again, Donny?" Leo was confused on what he was trying to say.
"Let's just forget the horses, nothing's gonna work out--work out good for us, even if we did interfere with what's happening to them." Don explained to Leo.
"You weren't into it from the start anyway." Mike reminded Don in a spiteful way.
"Y' know, we aren't pet detectives either, Ace Ventura." Don retorted.
Mike crossed his arms, "So you're giving up?"
Don let out a groan and turned back to the monitor. He pulled the blanket back around his shoulders and put on his headphones, a sign that meant he wanted to be left alone.
Leo looked at Don, then at Mike. What did I miss, his look questioned.
"We've hit on a topic he doesn't understand, I guess," Mike swung his leg over the back of the couch to slide down on the cushions.
The overcast sky made this cool night a rather dark one. Orange lights of New York's harbor provided enough light for those who worked there. The docks were not as busy in the middle of the night as they were during the day. That made it a good time for certain loads that don't want attention. This night, if there were any secret loadings, it wouldn't get by unnoticed.
A barely audible sneeze escaped from the shadows behind a stack of old fishing crates.
"Quiet," Leo whispered, laying his hand on Mike's mouth.
"Don't bless me then..." Mike mumbled through Leo's hand.
"Still nothing." Don about mouthed.
Mike stood up to get a better look, "Shoulda done this, this morning--hey!" Leo abruptly pulled him down by his bandana tails again.
Don peered over one of the crates to study the inactive decks. He saw something different, but not like what they set out for. "Look. Somebody...kinda drunk heading for the end of the deck." Don rose a little more. "Think he's going to..."
"Huh?" Mike looked in the direction of Don's stare. "Ut-oh...that kid does look wasted!"
"Call 911... and stay here." Leo quickly told Don.
"Cover me, Mike." he ran behind the crates in the direction of the teenager. Leo stopped and watched at the last crate to see if the boy was going to jump. He sensed it was real.
Here we go again, it's Leo the humanitarian. "What'd ya want me to do?" Mike whispered from behind him.
"Stay here, but if I hafta dive after him, help us." Leo walked out from the crates. He broke into a dead run toward the kid.
The drunken kid did not seem to hear Leonardo yelling, and stepped off the deck neatly. The turtle kept on running and dived off the deck after him. He skillfully found the sinking teenager in the dark water. After his fingers curled around the kid's clothing, he started back toward the surface. Leo started to struggle to stay at surface--the kid had lead in his pockets.
Mike recognized Leo's struggle and dived in to help.
"Get the weight...outta his pockets!"
He did just that, trying to avoid Leo's kicking legs. Mike automatically pulled out a grappling hook and caught it on a boat tie-down on the deck. This better hold, he gasped for air.
"Tie it 'round him…and pull him up." Leo shouted. He helped Mike tie the grapple's rope under the victim's arms.
Mike struggled up a cracked, rotten ladder on the deck. This brought back a memory from when they where trying to recover Shredder's body. He shook it off, to concentrate on pulling up the unconscious teenager.
"Man, I'm never going to do that again--I almost went down with him." Leo sucked in air a gulp at a time. His leg muscles still burned from treading water so long. They heard a faint siren of an ambulance in the city.
"Want me to split, while you handle this?" Mike made eye contact with his brother. Leo turned toward the city; it's buildings dominating the skyline.
He knelt by the kid and started pumping on his stomach to force the water out. "Yeah...don't want this turn into something big." Leo told him.
"Something big?" Mike wondered.
"Yea, like, 'The Ninja Turtles Now Save Lives' or something," Leo quickly explained. He really wished Mike wasn't so naive at these times. "Now go!"
Soon after, an ambulance and a couple of police cars arrived in full siren. Leonardo cringed from the racket, for they usually split when the boys in blue arrive. He stepped into the shadows to watch after the ambulance located the kid. They promptly took care of the teenager as he slipped away. Leo hoped Don told them enough information over the phone.
The three soon returned back to the subway, but not as enthusiastic as they were earlier. The emergency vehicles interrupted their intention to watch the docks. All that activity made the scene too risky for the Turtles, and very unlikely for anything else to happen. The brush with the dark side of this world slowly began to plague them too.
"But, why do those humans try to kill themselves like that?" Mike seriously asked. "It's… stupid."
"They don't have anything to live for, or they hate life…that's what I've heard." Don answered Mike, only to fulfill the opportunity to answer a question.
"Yeah," Leo considered Don's points, "I hope that kid gets some help...it's lucky for him that we happened to be there."
"Can nothing be that bad to die for." Mike went on.
"You sure?" Don checked him. "What happened to 'Turtles die with honor?', Mike?"
Mike remained silent. Honor doesn't amount to 'nothing' though. But honor…and revenge? They themselves are trained killers. Why did it seem different when they kill to avenge Splinter's honor? That seemed glorious compared to meaningless death.
"It's different when you fight and kill for something else than being able to survive...." Leo voiced his own opinion. To live…and die…by the sword. Suicide…it's similar, it's sometimes justified, "But it depends what one is using suicide for. Suicides by the 'warrior code' meant dying while there's still honor. That kid was trying to kill himself because he was giving up." Leo reached out to grip Mike's shoulder in reassurance.
"You wouldn't believe what happened," Don mentioned when he went into the diner car. "We stopped this kid from a suicidal attempt."
"Suithide victum?" Raph looked up from the refrigerator, biting into a ham sandwich. "Now that's a first," he said after swallowing.
Don nodded.
Raph took a swig from his beer can. "What did you guys do, catch him jumpin' off some building?" he asked, with a smirk.
"No. We saw him, obviously under the influence of something, walking off a deck into the water. Leo and Mikey dived after him." Don explained, looking into the fridge.
"Hmm, and you were…?"
"Calling the ambulance," Don pointed to his right leg.
"Cripple."
Time for me to exit stage right. He decided to leave the car before things got worse.
"But I wasn't just sittin' on my hands," Raph put in his last words, leaning out of the door. "Splinter had me doing better things. Saving people…humans!"
"What's your problem, bro?" Mike looked at Raph as he went into the diner car. Besides the obvious funk you're in.
Raph crushed his beer can down on the table. "Since when da hell are we protectors of humanity? The world'll never welcome us, dammit--we're freaks to them! We can't even go up there without clothes an' hats, or hidin' in da shadows, for chrissake! Can't even legally earn mucho dinero!"
Mike's eyes narrowed. Then there's Raph…his priorities in life are all messed up. "So… we should've stood by and watched that kid deep six it?"
Raph waved an arm at him as he turned away to leave the car. "Go spank yourself, Mike," he snarled behind him.
"Say what?"
The following day started out cold and rainy, very fitting for the present mood. The Turtles did not have much else to do, concerning the case or likewise. Yet, Splinter provided them with such exercises and other useful activities as usual. And as he expected, he saw a wall of spite building up between Raphael and Michaelangelo. He knew Mike had lied to him, and another part understood why. Raphael, however, placed the bets while they intended to focus on something else. Had they not left Mike alone while they watched the races, the three could have found out more on the criminals, perhaps where the men went. Often times, the hard way turned out to be the only way to teach them a lesson.
The cold war between his two brothers also bugged Don. At least it remained a cold war. Whenever those two got rowdy, he would find himself busy for weeks repairing stuff thereafter. Why hadn't Raph told Splinter about Mike? Or is he piling the guilt onto Mike until he breaks down and confesses? Leo also seemed to stay out of it. But this all resulted from something Don wasn't even a part of, so why should it concern him? ...cause I don't like the hate fights.
Gradually, he lost himself in the midst of replacing the muffler system, among other things, underneath the junk heap they called their van. As long as it could keep him and Raph amused, that old Volkswagon van April gave them was decent enough. But it was far from being driveable out on the open roads, as they still needed to rebuild the engine.
As much as Raph's cold war baffled him, those racehorses also plagued his thoughts. Maybe if he stopped ignoring the horses, and opened his mind up to that world. He also had some ideas that could get them upstate to the farms. Giving up on the van, Don finally took aside Leo and Mike to see if his ideas checked out.
"Train hopping?" Mike gasped, "Yeah, right!"
"If we're desperate enough," Don suggested, wiping some grease from his arm. The two shook their heads in disapproval.
"I did think about hitch hiking yesterday." Mike said. "But.. they don't always go where we want them to.
"What are you guys stormin' up now?" Raph leaned on the back of the couch. "Thought the trip to Japan was a bust." Splinter too joined them, interested by the outlandish topic at hand.
"No, we're thinking of a way to get to some farms upstate." Don explained. "Like sneaking onto a train in hopes of coming across equus caballus."
"In hopes of? Like there's going to be too many cows and hill jacks?" Mike avoided eye contact with Raph.
"Maybe we should have done that instead of going to Japan, way back on Saturday." Raph pointed out an obvious detail.
"I think not." Splinter shook his head. "I still don't want you to go. Now, I feel this problem will not be a good one, nor will the men be easy to deal with."
Mike turned to Don with a look of defeat and left to the diner car.
"Not like I could be of any help," Raph looked at Leo then sat on the couch.
Splinter left them with what he had now seeded in their minds.
That evening, Leo came across Don and Mike in the diner car. Yet, he wasn't quite expecting the two to be putting canned-food in a paper bag.
"What are you doing?" he finally asked Don.
Don had trouble coming up with the exact reason.
"Um, for, uh, a food drive." Mike told him.
"I didn't know we did that now?"
"Yeah, we do now. Uh-huh."
"Oh… make sure you guys save some food for us." Leo said with a grin, looking into the bag. A map of New York was visible, but just one can of corn. "Really, what are you doing?"
Mike looked at Don, then motioned Leo come over. He checked out the car door to make sure no one was within hearing range. "Tomorrow morning, be prepared to leave for Project Horse." He whispered. "Pack light, with those latex masks April's Spielburg friend left us."
"What?" Leo looked at him, but soon lowered his voice. "You mean we're sneakin' out...anyway?"
Mike nodded, with a grin. He turned up the radio, just in case Splinter, in the car next door, could hear them.
"You're hell-bent, Mikey. What did Master Splinter do to you to deserve this?" Leo remarked. "And what of Raph?"
"We'll tell him later. Considering it'll be the only way to get away from here, I don't think he'll disagree." Don explained. Yet, he noticed Leo wasn't as enthusiastic now.
"I really don't think it's a good idea." Leo spoke up. "The trip idea's okay, it's just what Master Splinter had said about the danger--theses guys could be packing some pretty hefty artillery. And we're sneaking out, behind Splinter's back!"
"Hey, we've been about through everything." Mike whispered. Deep down he felt the same way. They were trained to fight ninja and Oroku Saki, not highly armed criminals. But he liked the challenge of just slipping away from Splinter. "Like I said, be ready tomorrow...and make sure Master Splinter doesn't know - until he reads our note." He gave them a 'thumbs up' sign, then left the car.
"But Mike…"
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