Disturbing Recollection
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Summary: Bizarre happenings are suddenly occurring in New York, things that some people are claiming to be alien activity, and that they have seen UFOs in the night's sky. The TMNT witness one sighting themselves, but at the same time, terrifying emotions and memories overcome Leonardo, but he can not see what is causing it until Splinter regrettably tells Leo of an event that he was not sure happened, when the turtle was only 5. The sudden random appearances over New York trigger some memories that Leo never knew he had, and wished he didn't know . . .
~
Present Day"How many's that then?" Mikey asked his brother, Donny, while chewing on a mouthful of a cheeseburger. Mikey had just joined his brother on the couch, where he flopped down, cross-legged. Donny was intently watching the early news on TV, leant forward leaning his elbow on his lab, head in his hand.
Donny sat back and pushed the power button on the remote controls, and the screen faded to black with an electric click.
"Five," he replied, giving Mikey's a sidelong glance and tilt of his head. "Three last night, two the other night."
Mikey gave a small snort through the burger that was in his mouth.
"This looks like an X Files case," he said in a tense tone with a smirk on his face. "Maybe on patrol tonight we might see a UFO sighting too."
Donny gave a snorted chuckle through his nostrils, and, shaking his head at Mikey, stretched his arms out across the top of the back of the couch as Leo and Raph dropped down from the ladder entrance, and hung their trench coats and fedoras on the rack that was fixed to the wall.
"Ape's apartment was a complete mess," Raph said casually as he walked past the couch his two brothers were sat on, and stopped at the dojo doorway. "Every valuable was taken, every window was smashed, all the food eaten, and worst of all, the ugliest thug of them all was sat burping on the couch, waiting to ambush us when we walked in."
Leo shook his head with a faint smile on his face as he listened to his brother. Donny and Mikey looked back at Leo, waiting for a proper report.
"The apartment was fine," Leo told them, glancing at Raph, who smiled and disappeared into the dojo. "And Casey was not waiting to ambush us, he was checking her apartment too."
April had taken a vacation to Florida and had handed her apartment keys to the guys, and the spare cut to Casey so they could keep an eye on the place while she was gone for two weeks. She had been gone that time already, and was due back tomorrow. Leo and Raph had gone to check on the apartment since Donny and Mikey had checked up on it two days ago, and another two days before that.
"But he HAD eaten all the food!" Came Raph's voice from the dojo.
Leo chuckled as Donny and Mikey's head returned to Leo once again after turning to Raph's voice.
"Well, he hadn't eaten it ALL, but a good amount," he said, walking around to the armchair opposite Splinter's, and lowering himself down onto the worn cushion. "He's gonna replace it all before she comes back tomorrow."
Donny and Mikey laughed as Leo sat back with a smile. The sounds of a punching bag being unmercifully beaten from the dojo met their ears, before the soft, steady sound of a door being rolled back made them glance up to their Sensei's car.
Splinter smiled at his sons, acknowledging Leo's presence, and the sounds of his other son in the next room.
"Hey, Sensei have ya heard about these weird sightings of UFOs?" Mikey asked conversationally. "Been sighted only around New York since two days ago."
Splinter, stood at the end of the couch next to Donny, seemed to stare, frozen, at his son in orange a second before he blinked, and with no change of expression or posture, he said, "I have not heard, my son, until now. Strange it is."
"Yeah," Mike carried on, examining his second finger. "They were all sighted at night, so it could be possible if there is a UFO, that we might see something tonight on our patrol."
"You don't believe in those things, do you?" Leo asked as thought he thought Mike was about to say 'yes'; an opened-mouthed amused smile on his face.
"No," Mike replied, a trace of uncertainty in his tone. "But if it's just someone pulling a prank then we'll know for sure if we see something."
Splinter started to make his way around the couch to the steps leading up to the ladder as his sons conversed.
"Sensei, where ya going?" Mikey asked curiously, no longer cross-legged, but now with one leg crossed across the chair arm he was perched on with his other dangling, toes brushing the floor.
"Only for a short walk, Michelangelo," the old rat replied, and disappeared, not up the ladder, but to the back of it, through a door they do not often use because the network of sewer tunnels down there did not lead to a manhole for some time. Splinter often takes walks through them when he wants to stretch his legs, or to seek out quiet air when his sons were blasting music through Donny's hi fi system when they felt hyper, as teenagers do sometimes. It did not annoy him; on the contrary, he found it quiet pleasing to see his sons behaving exactly like human teenagers. He often enjoyed the endless, untamed energy from Michelangelo, whose mischievousness was shared by Donatello, Raphael, and to some extent Leonardo. Splinter found it highly enjoyable to experience that happiness that ran through him when he saw his children, ignoring the fact they were different, enjoy the jokes and activities they not so often shared.
Blinking back to reality, Splinter found himself in a familiar tunnel ten minutes away from the lair. Thinking about his sons was something of a hobby. He loved them so much he found thinking about them the perfect remedy to lonely moments, or depressed feelings, not that he ever much got these, but when he did, the thought of his fortune to have the as sons made him feel, in a fatherly way, the luckiest soul. They brought him happiness upon happiness, and he could not ask for more.
Tearing himself once more from his deep thoughts, he focused on the news that had just been told to him, news that, strangely, seemed to freeze his heart for a millisecond. He had never given any proper thought into believing things such as Extra Terrestrials, therefore he had no opinion on the matter, positive or negative. There was a time, which he vaguely remembers, that something paranormal had happened right in his home, but he had later dismissed it as a strange dream his imagination should not have created; yet he did not forget it, but stashed the memory to the back of his mind, where, right now, it was focused upon. But Splinter shook his head, and with a sigh, looked up at the damp walls he was passing. His brain adopted a new subject to think about, and the rat smiled slightly as he looked forward to seeing April tomorrow, probably tanned from her vacation in Orlando. He stopped his walking and stood for a few seconds before turning and tracing the route he had used to get there, home.
()()()()
"Clear sky," Donny observed with a half smile, as he knew what Mikey's response would be to this:
"Perfect conditions for spotting something strange in the sky tonight," his brother in orange said wryly with a sidelong look at him.
"The only strange thing out tonight is you," Raph said under his fedora, which was pulled further down over his eyes than his brothers' were.
They were walking through a street that opened out into central park, having only just come up topside. Their last patrol had been three days ago, so they were all glad of the fresh night air, and the hope of some action tonight.
"I doubt too much would have surfaced after three days," Leo said, gazing at the small alleyway they were walking towards. He was referring to the scum they usually fought. "We've practically swept the town clean of criminals."
"Great, let's go see a movie," Mikey suggested.
Leo rolled his eyes. "No, Mike."
"You wouldn't get to see anything strange if you went inside," Donny pointed out, leaning towards his brother as he walked.
"Well at least let's eat while we're out here."
"You had a full pizza to yourself earlier," Leo said, eye ridges raised to find his brother still thinking about food. "Beside nowhere 'll be open. It's too late."
They walked around the streets that ran along the edge of the park for a while, meeting nothing and no one. They were beginning to feel restless, and soon Raph suggested the take a stroll in the park. Maybe they might find some drug dealers or something. They made their way onto the green grass, around the trees and followed the paths, but they found nothing after fifteen minutes, and Mikey sat down on a bench, saying he had something in his foot.
"Ow," he said, picking his foot up and pulling it onto his knee, examining the sole of his foot. There was a small wound, but it was oozing blood. Mike clicked his tongue.
Leo bent his back and looked at it. "Maybe we should get back so you can get that treated in case it catches an infection."
Mikey nodded, but tried to see if he could spot any glass in the wound.
"Don is this a glass wound?" He asked, and waited a second for his brother to decide what caused it. But his brother did not answer, and both he and Leo looked up to Donny at the same time as Raph, who has also been looking at Mike's foot turned to his left.
Donny was staring at something over the trees Mikey was sat with his shell to, with his mouth open and his eyes unblinking. His eye ridges were slowly rising, and as they were doing so, his eyes were moving, as though whatever they were locked onto was moving closer or higher. A low rumbling reached their ears, and the very ground started vibrating as lights started to shine and move through the trees. They all watched as three lights moved as one, in formation, over them, slowing down as the large triangular object they were fixed to, hovered directly above them. In the brief second it hummed in mid air, they managed to squint past the bright light to see what the thing was: it was about the size of a cargo truck, in the shape of a blunt-edged triangle; there were no sharp edges, it was all smooth, oil-like metal, with patterned indentations lacing the hull. It was so close, that they could have touched it if they dared to jump. But they were all transfixed to it, and after that second of slow motion it glided away so fast it and the noise had gone in two seconds flat.
Donny, Raph and Mikey were left, open-mouthed as they stared at the point in the sky where it had disappeared, but they were pulled back from oblivion by a noise, and they turned around to see Leo huddled on the ground, shell pressed against a tree next to the bench. His arms were pressed together and his hands were gripping his head as though he were a frightened child against an abuser. He was trembling, and let out a choked cough of fear. As his three brothers recovered from their shock and started to move towards their brother, he began to jerk his head from side to side.
"Leo," Donny breathed, stunned to see his brother like this. He bent down quickly to grab Leo, but Leo cried "No!" and Don flinched for a split second before grabbing his brother. "Leo," he called forcefully, hoping to snap whatever Leo had fallen into, out. "Leo!" He shouted in a sharp tone. He was dimly aware of his other two brothers, shocked to do anything, behind him; but he turned around to them. "We've got to get him home!" He told them, his voice oddly formal. He turned back to Leo as Mike bent down on one of his sides and Raph the other. Leo had now stopped everything except trembling, but he did seem breathless. He looked up at Donny, lowering his arms.
"Don?" He whispered in a voice that seemed weak.
"S'ok Leo," Donny said, his normal voice returning. He helped Raph and Mikey lift their brother to his feet.
"What happened?" Leo breathed as Donny draped one of his arms over his shoulders for support while Raph held the other. Mikey put his hands on Leo's shell, a worried frown creased his brow.
"I dunno, buddy, but we gotta get you home," Raph said, watching his brother's face. He and Donny helped their exhausted brother away from the bench, towards the manhole.
Before he followed, Mikey glanced back up at the dark sky, wondering whether he should believe what he had just seen.