Chapter 5 The Capture

"You've got to be kidding me," April said as she put down her sleeping bag.

"I'm afraid not," Donatello insisted, as he worked on his trap. "Tie this," he told her as he placed two ropes in her now empty hands. As she helped him finish Donatello finished his story. "Sensei feels guilty that he never told us, and he's still afraid that she's going to whistle for us, and we'll just take off. Leo's completely torn in two about it. He doesn't feel like he can trust himself anymore."

"And Raph?" April asked as she tied the last knot.

Donatello sighed. "When he encountered her she had some kind of calming affect on his temper. He liked it, and he halfway likes her. If she were to show up again, I can't say what he'll do. He might just lose it completely and follow her blindly."

"Then you don't have much of a choice," April said. "You have to find a cure for this."

"A cure?" Donatello shook his head, and sat down dejectedly on the couch. "April, these are our instincts we're talking about. We may be mutants, but we're still turtles, creatures of water. From what I found on the web a mermaid has command of all creatures of water, and that appears to include mutant turtles."

"Is why you called me?" April asked.

Donatello nodded. "Mermaids also have power over human men, but Splinter told us that he felt her power over him when she saved me from the river. According to the web, though, woman are not vulnerable to a mermaid's power, sometimes they can actually counter it, if they have strong feelings for the males involved. If she gets me, we'll need you to keep us level headed. "

April giggled. "That's funny, usually your body guarding me, but now you need me to guard your back."

Donatello shrugged and grinned. "I don't expect to confront the mermaid, and I'm certainly not stupid enough to go looking for her, but somehow Mikey always manages to get back home without any of us, including Splinter waking up. If the mermaid is doing something, you'll be immune to it, and you'll be able to catch him in the act. There's no way this time he can say he doesn't remember where he's been."

Together the surveyed the trap Donatello had built. When he had said they were going to catch Michelangelo in the act he meant it. The net trap was literally going to keep Michelangelo where they could confront him, on his secret disappearances.

"I got you Don," April said. "If Mike comes home, he's going to get a big surprise."

Once Donatello went to bed, April read. It was her job to stay awake, and wait to see if Michelangelo came home. It was getting close to dawn, and April was beginning to wonder if maybe Michelangelo had decided not to come back.

Suddenly she heard a strange sound coming from the doorway to the lair. It sounded like pan pipes with multiple melodies and voices. It was beautiful, but April felt the hair on the back of her neck stand straight up, and every muscle in her body tensed.

She moved to Donatello, who had kept her company by sleeping in the lab. "Don, Donny?" She called trying to shake him. "Don, did you hear that?"

Usually with the sole exception of Michelangelo all the turtles were relatively light sleepers. Tonight, however, Donatello's snore's increased in volume, and he batted her hand away without waking.

"Don!" April tried again, but she still had no luck in waking Donatello. She was about to go get Splinter when she heard a pair of voices, and hid where the spring for the trap was hidden.

"But what if The Foot hires more girls? Then you will have a problem."

That was Michelangelo's voice. As promised, he had returned, but he didn't come alone. A female had come with him. April peered from her hiding place. Red hair, as the guys would say fantastic body. Yeah, I'm guessing that's Mikey's mermaid."

The mermaid patted Michelangelo gently on the shell "We will swim though that tunnel when we come to it, my friend. I know you wish to help, but I do not think there is anything you can do for me right now. I will tell my agents your call signal, but protecting them is all you can do right now."

"If that," Michelangelo said dejected. "I'm gonna be in mondo trouble this time. I can't pretend that it's yesterday this time. I'm going to have to tell them everything, and even that isn't going to make them happy."

"I know," the mermaid said sadly, looking up to Leonardo's room. "I sense your brother's heart. He is troubled, and he no longer trusts himself. I have done him ill."

Michelangelo shook his head sternly. "Can it, Lil. That was my call to make, and my disaster. We should have just left Leo at the surface."

Lillian shook her head gently. "That would not have worked either, my friend. He would have allowed himself to drown rather than leave you behind."

Michelangelo sighed. "I guess your right, but I wish I didn't suggest it."

The mermaid looked at Michelangelo quizzically. "I could -" she began, but Michelangelo cut her off.
"No way, girlfriend. Making Leo forget you would just cause more trouble. I'm going to be grounded as it is. If Leo suddenly forgets how he felt they'd stew me in my own shell."

Come on.... April thought at the pair. Come on what are you waiting for? Go past the TV's for crying out loud.!

"You are right," the mermaid said, "but I do not like causing him distress."

"How is Raph doing?" Michelangelo asked her.

The mermaid closed her eyes. "He also does not know if he can trust himself, but he is not troubled by this. His heart is not balanced, but he seeks it. He wishes to see me again."

"Lil, Raph is the last turtle I want you to see again," Michelangelo said with a chuckle. "You have a way of turning our secret weapon into a mutant pussy cat. He totally chills out."

The mermaid turned, and smiled teasingly at Michelangelo. "And this is a bad thing?"

Michelangelo shrugged, and moved to his couch. "Well not really, but it's just not Raph. He was so mellow it was totally creepy."

The mermaid laughed. "In that case, Michelangelo I shall try not to encounter him again, though I dare say he would probably become use to my presence eventually."

"Maybe, but lets not test that out. As far as I'm concerned the less my bro's see you the better." Michelangelo took her hand in his and raised it to chest level, looking at her directly. "But, you keep in touch, Lil I wanna know if The Foot try to do anything."

The mermaid took her other hand, and covered his with it. "I will my friend, and I will set my watchers about you." The mermaid made to leave the lair.

No! April thought desperately. I've got to find a way to keep her in! April reached over to Donatello's console, and pushed the leaver that closed the main entrance to the lair.

"What was that?" Michelangelo instantly on alert grabbed his nunchucks.

"I heard nothing Mi-" The mermaid began, but then the doors slid closed blocking her in.

"Someone's awake!" He said. True to his training he began to put his back to the wall. That moved him into position for the trap. April hit the release.

"What the shell?" Michelangelo cried out as he found his body being hoisted up into the air trapped in a large cargo net. He struggled in his prison for a second then said. "Lil! There's someone awake here!!! Hit the escape tube in the pond!"
The moment April had sprung the trap the room became alive with lights and sirens. Donatello had rigged the security system to go off if April sprung the trap. It was that noise that began to wake them all.

"I can't leave you!" The mermaid cried out.

The moment Donatello moved to wake April was at his side. "Don! Wake up! I've got Mike, but the mermaid is still free!"

"Huh? What?" Donatello grabbed his bo, and leaped for the one figure moving about in the lair. "Stay where you are!" He ordered, and then looked up to face his opponent.

"No! DON DON'T LOOK!" Michelangelo shouted!

It was too late. Donatello had come face to face with the mermaid. He froze like a statue, staring into the mermaid's face.

"Awwww shell," Michelangelo said dejected.

The noise was waking the others.

"Donatello," the mermaid said, looking directly at him. "Please, let me go. The others should not see me again."

Donatello stood there frozen a second more. He then dropped his head, and lowered his bo staff. "Go," he whispered."

The mermaid smiled, as she ran past him. "Thank you," she said, and dove for the pond.

"No Don!" April cried out. She tried to block the mermaid's path, but Donatello stretched out his bo, and prevented April from coming forward.

"No," he said in an odd voice, as if he were struggling within himself as he spoke. "I...I have to let her go."

Raphael appeared from his room, and yawned. Behind him was Leonardo. "What's going on?" Raphael asked as he stretched.

Leonardo noticed April. "April?"

"Leo! Raph!" April called. "The mermaid was just here, she's taking the emergency exit through the pond."

Leonardo jumped from the second level to the console. "Don, Which button shuts the emergency door?"

With tears in his eyes Donatello said, "no," and crumbled to the ground. April was at his side instantly with her arms around him.

Instantly Raphael knew what was wrong. "Oh no," he muttered.

Leonardo was still trying to figure out the console. "Come on Donny. Which button?"

Sitting there shivering Donatello said, "She wanted me to let her go, Leo. I.... I couldn't stop myself."

"Leo save it," Raphael said tensing up slightly. "Donny had to let her go. He couldn't help it."

Crossly Leonardo looked up, and asked, "what do you mean he couldn't-" then the realization came to him. "Oh no!"

Still shaking, huddled in April's arms Donatello said, . "I saw her Leo, She asked me to let her go. I...I can feel it now, whatever you two have I've got it too."

"Shhh, Donny" April said soothingly. "It's all right."

Raphael was angry now. "That does it." He turned on Michelangelo in the net, and leaped for it. With a single slash of his sai the net and Michelangelo came tumbling to the ground. As Micheangelo freed himself from the net he backed away. Raphael was advancing towards him ready to pummel.

"Uh oh," Michelangelo muttered then jumped out of the way as Raphael pounced. He tried to jump Michelangelo again, but his temper wasn't letting him focus, and Michelangelo was quiet adept at keeping out of Raphael's way.

"He's probably wondering right now if maybe we should have caught the mermaid," April said wryly.

"Raph," Michelangelo said as he tried to avoid the blows of his brother. "If you would just- (swing) "let me- (swing) - explain!

Raphael swung again, and Michelangelo back flipped behind Splinter who had just came from his own rooms.

"What is going on? Raphael!"

Raphael, finding Splinter between him and his target, froze instantly.

"Raphael," Splinter said calmly. "If you pound your brother into the ground, he will not be able to answer any of our questions."
Raphael growled at Michelangelo who grinned and stuck out his tongue from behind Splinter. A second later he was biting his tongue as Splinter's walking stick came down on top of his head.

"Ow!"

"You are to go to your room, and stay there until I decide what is to be done with you!" Splinter said harshly.

Michelangelo looked up, and decided that of arguing with his sensei wasn't the best course of action at the time. "Okay," he said meekly, and ran up to his room.

"Can we lock him in forever?" Leonardo wondered as Splinter and Raphael joined Leonardo by April's side. Donatello was finally uncurling from his frozen position on the floor. "Are you back with us, Don?"

"I...I think so," Donatello said uncertainly. "Now I know how you two feel. I wanted to stop her, but.... It's like I was fighting myself."

"That's what I felt like," Leonardo said evenly. "Part of me wants to help her and the other part wants to fight the impulse, but when I do fight it, it feels wrong."

Raphael folded his arms and looked up at Michelangelo's room. "I wonder how Mikey deals with it. If Sensei is right, he's been like this for almost ten years."

"I do not think Michelangelo felt conflicted until tonight when he found himself having to choose between us and his mermaid friend," Splinter said sadly.

"He chose you guys," April said. "He tried to tell Don not to look at her." She lowered her head unhappy. "I shouldn't have tried to wake you."

"I should have stayed awake with you," Donatello said. "If I had been awake I would have thought about it before trying to stop her."

"I couldn't get you up before," April explained. "I heard something that could have been her singing, and then I couldn't wake you up. If mermaids sing like in the old stories, she must have put you all into a deep sleep."

"That must have been their system," Leonardo said thoughtfully. "She'd keep us all asleep so Mikey wouldn't wake us up leaving, or coming in."

Splinter nodded, then looked up at Michelangelo's room. "I think it is time we confronted Michelangelo about his dealings with the mermaid."

Leonardo tensed up slightly. "I agree." They left Donatello with April then climbed the stairs to the second level to face Michelangelo in his room.

Mike was lying on his mattress with his eyes closed, and his MP3 player in his ear. He didn't look very happy. Leonardo suspected he was sulking.

Leonardo and Raphael flanked Splinter as he came into the room. Michelangelo didn't notice them, or he chose not to, until Splinter lifted the headphones from Michelangelo's ears with his walking stick.

"Hey!" he cried indignantly, then he saw who had done it. "Oh, is this my judge and jury? Do I at least get a last meal before my execution?"

"Don't give me any ideas, Mikey," Raphael said sternly.

Splinter didn't intend for the conversation to deteriorate. "Why did you not tell us of the mermaid before?" Splinter demanded.

Michelangelo didn't turn to face them. Instead he kept his eyes on his ceiling. With a sigh, he said, "I didn't have to tell you, sensei, you knew. You didn't want to admit it, but you knew."

"What about us," Leonardo said.

This time Michelangelo did look at them. A sly grin on his face. "Your kidding, right, Leo? If I breathed the word mermaid around Splinter it got his tail in a knot. There was no way I could have told you guys, and besides you wouldn't have believed me."

"So when she showed herself to Raphael you had to find out why, because you both agreed to keep her secrete." Splinter said.

Michelangelo nodded. "That's why she left Raph that message for me, and when I found out The Foot were shaking her posse down?" Now he sat up and looked at them directly. "Come on guys, how could I not tell her what I know? Lillian's a mermaid, they protect, people, animals, and things! Powerful magic weapons that were used thousands of years ago. If The Foot got their hands on any of it we're talking major disaster here."

That surprised Leonardo. They protected things? They had magical weapons that they guarded? At least now he was beginning to understand why Michelangelo felt he had to help the mermaids, especially with The Foot now being involved.

"So," Splinter said, "What do you intend to do now, Michelangelo?"

With a sigh Michelangelo answered, "Whatever I have to, sensei. If you guys want me to stick around for a while, so you can ask me more questions, I will, but if Lil needs me, I have to go. "

"Because of Donatello?" Leonardo asked.
Michelangelo lay back down on his mattress, and nodded. "And you guys. She saved your lives too you know"

"What are you talking about, Mikey?" Raphael asked. "Me and Leo never saw her before this week."

Splinter however was looking at Michelangelo with recognition. "Their illness when they were seven. They did not recover on their own."

"Nope!" Michelangelo said smiling. "It was all Lil, and the reason Don and I never got sick is that when she had her hands on us when we were five she blessed both of us. Nothing that comes out of the water can hurt us now, and before you ask, as soon as she had both Leo and Raph in her hands she blessed them too. So you see," here he rolled over and gave them his famous grin of mischief, "We owe Lil' a whole lot, and I'm willing to pay up, so there really isn't anything for you guys to worry about. I'm sorry about you and Don, Leo, but you guys should have just left well enough alone."

Leonardo sighed, "So what happens to us? Are these feelings we have going to go away eventually?"

Michelangelo lay back down. "Leo, I thought you understood. It can't just go away. It's part of us, part of who we were before we mutated. If you don't see her again, it will fade a little, but it won't ever go away."

Leonardo shifted his weight growing restless and uneasy. Splinter glowered at Michelangelo and asked, "So are you determined to sneak out again without telling us to see her?"

Without getting up Michelangelo turned and looked at them, again a mischievous glint in his eyes. " Are you going to try to stop me?" Before they could answer he said, "If you don't try to stop me, I don't have to sneak out do I? But if you're all going to keep me from going to her when she needs me I'm going to do what I have to."

The three left the room, and found April with Donatello. Donatello was sound asleep, with a set of headphones on. When they came closer April looked slightly guilty. "Don said the sound of the ocean seems to calm you two down, now, so I thought it would work on him."

Splinter nodded, comforted, but it only reminded Leonardo of their current condition. "We're never gonna shake this. She's got us, we're going to be torn in two like this forever."

"Not if Mikey gets his way," Raphael said. "He's been going out of his way to keep us away from her. I don't think he's going to change that just because we know about her now."

"Agreed,." Splinter said with a sigh. "He will still endeavor to keep these two sides of his life separate."

"Should we let him, sensei?" Leonardo asked. "I mean what are we going to do if he tries to see her again."
"Hmmmm, I must meditate on this," Splinter said. "Keep a close eye on him, but do nothing to create more conflict. The next move, for good or ill, is his."

Coming soon Chapter 6 of Missions and Memories

Donatello and Leonardo ran forward. The pipe that held the river opened out into a waterfall and a set of rapids that cascaded down twelve feet. There was a ledge on the far side where Raphael was standing taking in the breathtaking sight.

"Man! I had no idea this was down here!" Raphael said. Leonardo had to admit to himself that the sight of all that water falling down was quite impressive. Mineral formations had formed on the walls and floors of the area giving the abandon pipe a more natural appearance.

"The waterfall," Donatello said weekly. Suddenly he started to tremble, and lost hold on his bo staff.

"Woah!" Raphael said, catching the bo before it fell into the water. "Don? Donny, tell us what's wrong."

Donatello backed up until his shell hit the wall. "The waterfall... I...I remember! I fell over the falls!" He closed his eyes, and looked away from the rushing tower of water.