The Cat.

In answer to pretender fantastic, and this will sound very sad indeed but I'm just like that, when April and the guys are up at Casey's Gran's house, April does call Splinter 'Master Splinter', so I just wanted to show some continuity, but we haven't seen past the 'search for Splinter' episodes here in good old England yet (although when they're out over there on DVD in the states I'll be getting them!) so she might call him something different.

Chapter Five: A Party to Remember.

Mikey woke up a little groggy the next morning, he remembered every detail of the dream he'd had the night before and had a vague recollection of someone holding him as he wept into their shoulder. The very thought of seeing his brother being torn to pieces made him shudder, no matter how many pranks he pulled he still loved them and hated seeing them hurt no matter how minor or serious it was. He sighed and got up, limping towards the shower and making sure Donny wasn't up, he turned on the water and turned the heating to low so he could have a cold one to wake him up, he sighed as he relished in the feeling of the cool water soaking his body.

Raph also woke up groggy but only because it was the third today which meant he'd be accompanying Nikki to her fancy dress party. He'd been fighting with himself as to whether or not he should go and coupled with Mikey's bad dream he'd had very little sleep. His heart told him to go, but a nagging voice in his head that sounded a lot like Leo kept saying it was a bad idea and that he'd probably be found out. In the end he'd decided that he'd go to her place and see her and decide there. Plus he couldn't get the Cat out of his head, she was gorgeous, not like those stick like super models you saw on TV but she was perfectly formed and her muscle tone gave away the warrior that she was, he sighed and got up to have a shower and found a damp Mikey limping back to his room.

"He bro, you okay this mornin'?" Raph asked, concern in his voice.

"Sure Raph, I'm fine!" Mikey said way too quickly and he quickened his pace in case Raph decided in would be fun to yell for Donny.

"You take it easy Mike, okay? I don't want ya cashin' out on us anytime soon all right Mikey." Mikey stopped at that as an image of a dead Raphael lying on a cold metal floor flashed into his mind and he shuddered, then his leg hurt and buckled. Raph saw just in time and grabbed his brother, "Come on bro, you should be in bed." Mikey felt Raph place his right arm over his shoulder and help him to his room and over to his bed, all the while Mikey couldn't look at him.

"Raph?"

"Yeah Mikey?"

"Will you do something for me?"

"Sure Mike what is it?" Raph folded his arms and watched his brother get comfortable in bed, "If you ever meet a really big cat guy, beat him, okay?" Raph raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

"You sure are an oddball, but okay Mikey I'll beat him for ya." Raph shot Michaelangelo a reassuring smile and left turning the light off as he did so and went join Leo and Donny on morning practice.

It was Five o'clock now and Raph was getting fidgety, he wanted to just sneak out without anyone noticing but Leonardo had noticed him acting weirdly and had been watching him like a hawk, then it dawned on him that if he could spark a fight then he could use his usual walking out routine as a perfect excuse to 'get some air'.

"What are you up to?" Leonardo asked.

"What's it ta you Splinter junior?" Leo's eyes flashed at the nick name and Raph smiled inwardly, "what's the matter you such a control freak you gotta know what we're all doin' 24/7?!" He yelled a little louder.

"No but you've been acting really weird all day and I would like to know why Raph!" Leo yelled back at him.

"Oh yeah, well it's no o you're business!" Raph yelled at the top of his lungs and spun around and ran to the elevator.

"Where are you going?!" Donny, April and Splinter had appeared now wondering what was up.

"Weren't you listenin' Leo it's NONE OF YOU'RE BUSINESS!" Raph slammed on the button and the doors closed and in no time at all they opened again to show the warehouse, he grabbed his helmet and straddled his bike. Just as he heard the elevator arriving at ground level for a second time and Donny's voice calling for him he revved the engine and sped out of the building and taking the opposite direction to Nikki's place to back track after he was out of sight, he didn't want anyone following him and he'd make sure of that when he left the bike in an alley three blocks from the Robert's building.

He scaled the other buildings easily and leapt over to the roof of the one he was aiming for then shimmied down to the pent house balcony. Wally was dressed up in his hat and tails, a girl about Nikki's age was there as well dressed as Xena, or at least that's what it looked like anyway but there was no Nikki in sight. Wally turned and smiled as did the girl whom he assumed must be Tia waved.

"Nik's in her room, she'll be a while it always takes her an age to get ready," the girl said pointing to a nearby door, "I'm Tia by the way and you already know my father."

"Hi." He said waving slightly.

"Nikki you're date's here girl!" Tia yelled suddenly causing Raph to blush, his skin color almost matching his bandana and Tia grinned evilly at him and then the door.

"Tia, will you grow up!" Yelled a voice from the other side of the door Tia had pointed to. Behind said door Nicole Roberts was putting the finishing touches to her costume and make up. She took a deep breath hoping that the normal her would spark an interest as well as the other her did. She stood up and grabbed a long cloak that she would drape over her shoulders and clasp around her neck to go outside, and walked out of her room. Raph's look was priceless and Tia was wishing she had had a camera on her to catch it before he recovered. Raphael looked the red headed girl up and down, she was wearing a medieval style gown made out of silk, the corset style bodice gave her the perfect hour glass figure that he'd always admired from old black and white movies, the sleeves were long, flared and reached down to the floor, her hair was pinned loosely at the back and hung in cascading curls around her face and her make up was minimal and accentuated her eyes perfectly. She blushed a little under his intense stare and walked over to him.

"Ready to go Raph?" He nodded and followed her towards the door, not even caring that anyone could and would see him, but then to them he'd just be a kid in fancy dress wearing a costume. What really kept him quiet though was the fact that although he'd decided that he was obviously attracted to the Cat, he seemed to be experiencing the exact same feeling for Nikki at this very moment? He always thought that if you loved two people it would be different but it was as if he loved the same person, but they weren't, "heh," he thought to himself, "there's no way someone as gentle as Nikki could be the Cat, no way!"

There had been photographers at the door of the hotel so Wally took a detour and they entered through a staff entrance, Nikki saw that Raph was feeling a little uncomfortable around so many people at once so she took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as they walked along a hallway to the party. Wally opened the door for them and the three walked inside leaving Wally to go off and do his own thing for the duration of the party. Raph gapped at all the kids in the room, there must have been at least sixty of them and they were all around his age give or take a year or two. The music was already blaring out at full volume. A short Japanese girl, dressed in a cave girl out fit, her short hair in pig tails and the tips died electric blue, raced up to the group at the door and flung her arms around Nikki.

"NIKKI!" she squealed.

"Hi Kim," Kim let go and then looked at Raph, then back at Nikki and the back at Nikki again, "uh, This is my friend Raphael, Raph this is Kimieko, She's a really old friend of mine, older than you!" Kim shook his hand and gave Tia an all knowing look.

"Hi, I'll be going to school with her too, in a few days," she said, "so anyway LETS PARTY!!!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs and raced into the crowds reminding him a little of Mikey when he'd had too much sugar.

"Sorry about that, she and her twin were friends of mine from when I was little, her sister's touring Europe, Asia and the Orient at the moment so she's a little bored, plus she's got to get home by eleven so she's probably trying to get as much partying in before hand." Raph's brow furrowed.

"Why's she gotta leave so early?"

"She was grounded," Nikki smiled at the memory of Kim's over exaggerated telling of the events, "you see she's a martial artist like you guys and well she occasionally gets a little short of cash so she enters professional street fights for money and her mom found out one day and all hell broke loose!" Raph laughed and watched as a tall black guy went up to Tia and asked her to dance and the two got onto the dance floor, Nikki had been watching too.

"You wanna dance?"

"Huh?!" Raph replied suddenly nervous, he'd never let anyone see him dance before outside of the lair.

"Dance, you know where you have some music and you move you're body to the beat?" Nikki said playfully.

"Ha ha very funny, I'm not all that good." He admitted.

"Oh please neither is a third of the male population," Nikki said sarcastically as she dragged him to the throng of people, "now come on I'm the birthday girl here and I want a dance with my best friend, so there's no choice in the matter." Raph gulped and obediently started to dance, Nikki noticed he was really nervous at first but after a while he got into it and was just letting himself go with the music, in fact a bunch of her girl friends joined them and they were dancing together in a group and he really hit it off with them and they him, he was really having fun. Soon it was time for Kim to go home so Nikki left Raph to dance with the girls a little longer as she went to see her off. They got to the front door and said their good byes, the photographer's had given up by now so Nikki watched to make sure her friend got a taxi all right, not that she couldn't take care of herself, but it was just habit, after the car had driven off she heard a few helicopters over head and looked up, there were three of them, one was huge and looked like an army chopper so she paid it no mind and went back to her party. They danced for a while longer before getting some drinks and sitting down for a short rest. Raph had no idea that dancing could be so energetic.

Both jumped up from instinct when they heard the blast that came from the far wall, another was heard and Raph grabbed Nikki and flung her behind a table, pulling it over to protect them from the flying debris, Nikki saw her guests running for the nearest exit, screaming and they peered over the rim of the table and saw a bunch of men wearing visors and holding guns, Raph saw a sickeningly familiar three pronged logo intertwined with another he didn't recognize on the lapel of their silver outfits, Nikki's stomach lurched as she saw the thorny rose logo of Justin Powers intertwined with a logo she didn't recognize.

"They're after me!" they said in unison, then looked at each other in shock, "they're after you?!" they said together again. One of the men threw something at them and a gas exploded from it the two tried to get away but they collapsed on the floor. One of the men walked up to the still forms.

"Sir we have the target, but one of the guests stayed with her."

"Who?" asked a southern accent from the communicator.

"A male in a turtle costume of all things."

"Bring him too."

"But sir, it's just some kid!"

"If I'm right then it's not just some kid, and if not then I'm sure he'll be a good appetizer for me pet!"

BA BA BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Okay I'm not going to restrict my self to Mikey's dream that would be too boring and predictable, thanks for all the great reviews, and I hope you're all still enjoying the story, I hope to have the next chapter up soon so please be patient, and always feel free to review, until then Toodles, Luv Angel. XXX