DISCLAIMER – Nope, still I don't own them, though I promise to play nice. As I mentioned earlier, this is a story filled with flashbacks. I do promise to bring it up to current time, though. Eventually! It's why I'm trying to incorporate into the story what each team member is doing, thinking, or saying and having that coordinate with the nightclub scene.
Warning: To keep Raph in character, there is one swear word and one abbreviated nasty in the body of this chapter. Simply put, he's needing a bite of soap. I may have been remiss with a similar warning with previous chapters, so – here on out – this warning is for all of them. Raph can't help himself and, to honor his PP (personality profile), I have to keep him true to canon – within reason, of course.
CHAPTER 5 – From Sea to Shining Sea
Mike more than sipped at his drink; he guzzled it. Despite the herbal tea Leo made all of them drink to avoid getting drunk, he was starting to feel the slightest buzz from his beverage.
Just the same, he kept drinking.
If Leo was tired of the chase and Don wanted to retire – both amusing comments that had cloyed as the years went by – Mike was thoroughly disgusted with it. Chasing Gabby from one end of the country, if not the world, to the other end had taken its toll on his relationship with his wife. It was almost devastating in its affect. If not for currently being in Alaska, Mike Angelo would be sleeping down in the den in his Big Sur mansion, all due to the constant bickering he had to put up with from Rahab.
To make matters worse, even his music business had suffered. With a severe drop in profits, if it were not for Don's financial assistance, Mike would have been forced to sell the once-popular company. Now, instead of scouring the country and Europe for the next musical phenom, here he was in Alaska, freezing his shell off.
Consequently, as he waited with the others for the show to start, he grouched silently, "Whether she's here or not, I'm pulling out. My marriage and my business are not going to suffer because of an ungrateful niece!"
Even his relationship with his brothers had been affected, the beginnings of it occurring in Santa Fe after a week and a half of chasing Gabby from Las Vegas, Nevada to – of all places – Las Vegas, New Mexico.
He had to smile at the irony, yet in doing so, he clearly recalled the events that had occurred back then.
It had been evening, late evening in fact. They had just returned to Colorado from Las Vegas, New Mexico for a second time. After arriving at the Colorado Springs Greyhound terminal just before closing, they discovered that Gabby had purchased two tickets. One was for Montana, while the other indicated New Mexico again.
They tried to get the cashier to tell them what bus his niece might have used, but the girl shrugged and said, "How am I t'know. I just sell the tickets."
"Well, can you call the bus drivers and see if they have anyone on board that matches the description we just told you." Leo begged her, his patience ready to run out.
"Nope," the girl replied smartly, "Only the dispatch can do that and only with approval from the manager."
"Welllll," Raph had barked from behind Leo, leaning over his brother's right shoulder at the girl, "Get the manager, then!"
Equal to his ire, the girl straightened up in her chair behind her glass-encased cubicle and, taking one long sustained look at the mutant, declared indignantly, "He's off duty, as am I. Good night, 'gentlemen'," and then she closed her window on them.
Leo and Mike ended up having to drag and push Raph out of the depot office and back into the suburban, all the while having to listen to his ranting.
"Five minutes, that's all it'll take, Leo; I know I can get that girl to cooperate!" he had bellowed repeatedly.
Mike chuckled as he assisted Leo in getting Raph back into the car, "Yeah, and get us all arrested to boot. I've had only one experience in jail and I don't care to have a repeat, thank you very much!"
Although equally aggravated as his temperamental brother was, just the same Leo could not help but to admire Gabriella's tenacity. She had certainly led them on a merry chase, so far. Yet, it boggled his mind that she would be desperate enough to drag her daughter and newborn infant around the countryside as she was doing.
Now the question was, which way to go? They could split up with each group following a bus, but then they might end up finding themselves crisscrossing the nation over the next month or even longer. At least, that was what they believed, based on Gabby's method of operation.
Regardless, though, if any of them had known the details of her childhood, they would have headed north to Montana. If Don had been with them, and maybe Leo should have called him initially, he might have told them about where the Professor had raised Gabby during her first ten years.
As it was, though, they decided to stick together, taking the southern route back to New Mexico again, believing she would keep to a warmer route. Montana seemed like a distraction and nothing more. It made sense to stick to a more temperate climate, where it was certainly more hospitable to Gabby's mixed species.
After all, she had a child and a newborn to think about, now.
Beginning in Nevada, all of their traveling back and forth had taken a week and five days to do as they attempted to follow and catch up with the girl. Yet, it seemed that they were always the proverbially 'day late and a dollar short' as far as figuring out Gabby's next move.
At one point, Mike had to laugh at their situation. Here they were, all trained and experienced ninja masters, and yet this barely trained clan member was out-maneuvering them every step of the way. It was quite frustrating and humiliating for all concerned. In fact, the pressure from it became vividly obvious while they were in Santa Fe for the second time.
They had all gathered in one of the hotel rooms rented out for the night to discuss the next step in the chase. They had been arguing about the wisdom of not splitting up in Colorado and wondering if they had misjudged, yet again, the girl's intended route. Everyone was tired and exhausted, with an almost desperate anxiety creeping into each team members' very being.
Confusion and conflicting choices of what to do next came to a head.
Consequently, tempers flared.
"Damn it, Leo, she's not ninja and yet she's out-foxed us every step of the way!" Raph bellowed hotly, "Where's that 'superior ninja' sense of yours? Can't you figure out where she's going next?"
"Look, need I remind you that all of us are capable with that? I'm just as upset with her as you are!" Leo shouted back, "So stop blaming and heckling me!"
"My daughter's out there somewheres, with OUR grandchildren, and YOU'RE just f-ing around wasting time!" came Raph's loud rebuttal.
"I am NOT wasting time and don't talk to me that way, Raphael!" Leo yelled back as he narrowed his eyes threateningly. Mike knew that when Leo used his brother's full name, it meant he was really ticked off. "I may have decided on a pacifist lifestyle, but I assure you, dear bother, that I can still take you down! So back OFF!" Leo shouted.
Devon and Seth watched with rapt fascination with Leo's uncharacteristic display of emotion. Although Seth knew his father had a temper, he had never heard anything from him other than a well-chosen word or two – and a look. Yet, that look was bad enough, based on his personal experience from years earlier.
Nevertheless, it was certain that Leo's obvious exasperation was a telltale sign of weary frustration and exhaustion.
Mike, knowing his brothers as well as he did, casually began to move pieces of furniture out of harms way, all the while listening to his siblings argue. First, he removed the set of chairs, then the small conversation table and, lastly, the television.
Finally, he ushered his two adult nephews to stand in-between the twin beds, giving them a fixed glare and a verbal warning, "Whatever happens, DO NOT try to interfere. Not unless you want to go home in a pine box!"
No sooner had Mike uttered his words than Raph feigned to turn away from Leo, only to whip back around and jump him instead. He sucker punched him in the shoulder, although Mike would say later that he was aiming for Leo's jaw only that Leo ducked at the last second.
After that, all hell broke loose for about twenty seconds. How no one in the neighboring rooms heard the ruckus was a testament to the style of fighting the two brothers used. There were no grunts or shouts, no slam-dunks to the floors. It was just two very angry ninjas, upright and engulfed in silent hand-to-hand combat.
For the two younger members of the team, however, it was quite impressive!
Twenty seconds was as long as it lasted, though, but by the end of it, Leo had a black eye and Raph's snout was bleeding.
Mike, thoroughly disgusted with the two, had thrown a couple of wet towels at them and announced gruffly, "Clean your own selves up; I've had it with the both of you!"
He then pushed his two nephews out the hotel room, "Com'on, let's leave'em for a while," and went downstairs towards the hotel restaurant for a late night snack.
"Are you sure it's wise to leave them alone?" Seth asked as they rode the elevator down. It was family lore that his father and uncle used to butt heads when they were younger, but to see it live astounded him.
Consequently, he wasn't so certain that leaving them alone together in the hotel room was a wise thing to do.
"Naw, they've both drawn blood and that's usually when they quit. Of course, in the old days, it would only egg Raph on to see how much Leo could bleed!" He laughed a little at the memory, "Then again, with Splinter's walking stick pounding on him, Raph never did get to find that out too often."
As they approached the doors to the restaurant, however, they found the eating establishment closed.
Forced, now, to take in the local Santa Fe neighborhood, they found a Denny's within walking distance from the hotel. With the restaurant's boast of twenty-four hour service, they stayed a good hour there and ordered a full dinner for each of them. While they ate, they casually talked about everything other than what had happened earlier up in the hotel room.
Fortunately, the restaurant was mostly empty by that late hour, so they only had to endure stares from the servers and cooks. Just the same, Mike was his usual charming self, kidding around with the help and even joking about himself and the boys, much to their chagrin of course.
Considering that Mike's and his three brothers' discovery happened in New Mexico forty-some years earlier, the turtle was more of a minor celebrity than an oddity.
Just the same, by the time they had left the restaurant, he had the hired help laughing and thoroughly relaxed. It truly amazed Seth.
"How do you do that, Mike?" he asked in awe as the three of them walked back to the hotel. It wasn't his normal thing for him to interact with the general human population, other than in Carmel or Monterey. Therefore, to see his uncle charm complete strangers and almost having them eating out of his hand seemed rather amusing. Where they walked, the shadows were deeper, effectively allowing them to go along in peace, unmolested by anyone happening to look their way. It was rather a nice walk, too. Considering they had been doing nothing but driving like maniacs all over the southwest for the past week and then some, it was a pleasant reprieve.
"Hey, it's a gift yer born with and I was born with a lot of it," Mike said cheerfully, "Without it, I don't think my music biz would be what it is today."
Now, as Mike sat in the booth of the Alaskan nightclub, waiting for his niece to show up on stage, he thought it rather ironic to remember that statement he had made so many years earlier. "If only I had known…" he lamented sourly to himself, downing the last of his drink.
Yet, he also remembered what happened next. Returning to the hotel room, Devon and Seth were both shocked to find their fathers joking around. They were also reminiscing about 'old times', all the while poking fun at the other's injury.
"Well, I still think you'd look better with two black eyes!" Raph deadpanned with a smirk, his bleeding now stopped.
"Hey, you first!" Leo joked, laughing a little. "At least I didn't bleed all over the carpet!"
"Oops," Raph mused in embarrassment as he looked down at his feet, "I did, didn't I."
Overall, it seemed the fight had taken the edge off their attitudes, where the stress had been building up with each failed attempt to locate their wayward clan member.
The next couple of days had the team traveling south towards the Mexican border. They breezed through Albuquerque and then Truth or Consequences, finally ending up in El Paso, Texas. Aside from the bus depots, they also considered the possibility that Gabby could have hopped a train again. Yet, not one person at either modes of travel remembered seeing anyone matching her description.
Finally, on the third day out from Santa Fe and completely frustrated with their poor luck, Mike received a call from one of Don's eastern contacts. It seemed the man had spied Gabby in New York City. Even more astounding, they saw her in the general vicinity just topside of the brothers' old lair. At least, the tracker thought it was Gabby. The person he had seen had been dressed in the now all too familiar hooded coat that Gabby had been wearing since leaving Big Sur. Although it was highly doubtful that she would venture into the sewer with a child and infant, or even know where the location of the lair would be, Leo wasn't taking any chances. He knew that, years earlier, Don had given to Mike the blueprints of the New York. Therefore, it was highly possible that Gabby might have inadvertently come across them before she fled Carmel.
Just the same, considering how willingly she dragged Mindy and the newborn all over the place, Raph remarked, "Wouldn't put it past her, bros. She's running scared. Anyone running scared will do whatever it takes."
They all had to agree with him on that. Gabby had proven as much with giving birth in the motel room by herself. Both Seth and Raph knew how complicated a birthing could get. They considered it a miracle that they didn't find both Gabby and the baby dead back in Nevada!
By the time the five reached the Big Apple, four more days had passed. Along the way, Leo had called Gaele and had her join up with the search team, bringing the number to six. Where Leo wanted as many trained ninjas on the hunt as was possible, he felt even one member out of practice would be better than not having her at all.
At first, when told of their plans, Gaele refused to scale down through the manhole and into the sewers. She balked at the idea of traipsing through human sludge and discarded trash. Yet, one look from her Uncle Raphael had her scurrying into the black abyss, earning an amused chuckled from Leo and her two brothers.
As she descended into the darkness, however, and with Mike leading the way, Gaele seethed loud enough for all to hear, "If I get ANYTHING on me, I'm using your plastron, UNCLE RAPAHEL, to wipe it off!"
Raph's amused chuckles only irritated his niece even more, distracting her and causing Gaele to over step and slip off the last rung of the ladder. Before Mike could grab her, however, she had landed unceremoniously on her tail at the bottom of the shaft and into the sewer sludge.
Now, shouts of "Unfair treatment" and "So help me, I'll concoct a potion to make you all sound like Spongebob for the REST of your lives", echoed back up through the opening.
Once they were all into the tunnels, the trek through the underbelly of New York City gave the younger members of the team a new appreciation for what they had back in California.
"You lived down here for how long?" Gaele sniffed, wrinkling her nose in disgust from the variety of smells in the tunnels, her backside notwithstanding.
"Twenty-one years or thereabouts." Mike replied nonchalantly, skipping over the water-filled culvert in the center of the tunnel. As the next left came up in their walk, leading towards his old stomping grounds, he commented, "Air's improved a bit since then, too!" which only earned him gagging sounds from his daughter.
The others followed along behind, knowing that Mike had already visited the 'homestead' a few years earlier. Not that Leo or Raph would get lost, but as Raph said privately to Leo when they first started through the tunnels, "Let Mike find the mishaps. After all, it has been forty some years and a lot of debris could have built up." They sniggered a little at the thought, which piqued their younger brother's curiosity somewhat.
"Say, mind sharing the joke?" he quipped back to them as he led the way. "Would love a good laugh," Mike chuckled.
"Nothing to laugh about," Raph replied, "Yet," which had him sniggering right along with Leo.
As the group furthered their travels through the sewers, Mike looked back at his disgruntled daughter. She had finally thrown herself into the task by that point. She resigned herself to the fact that, until they reached their target location, returning to topside was not going to happen any time soon.
He smiled back at her as he said, "Hey, girlie, maybe we can do this again sometime, eh, maybe campout in the old lair?"
Gaele glared over at her father and grouched, "Believe me, after this one, I won't want to!"
It was then when Raphael sidled up to her as she walked along, saying as he sniffed, "Maybe a bath, though! Yes, I do believe you'll definitely want a bath!" However, he quickly ducked gracefully out of harms way, laughing as he did. In that moment, Gaele's tail had suddenly swung around as she tried to connect with his carapace, barely missing him in the process.
"You better be fast, Uncle! I'm in no mood to play games!"
"Ooo, a bit touchy aren't we?" Raph sing songed as he chided good-naturedly, staying just out of the reach of her lethal tail.
Leo jogged around the two and caught up with Mike as his niece and brother bantered back and forth, "Sound strangely familiar, to you, Mike?" he asked softly, smiling wide.
"Yeah, in a weird way, it does." Mike quietly replied, "Only, Raph's being a pain in the arse with a Michelangelo offspring. Should be the other way around, I think."
Looking back at the bickering two behind him, Leo mused, "Well, if Gaele has her way, she'd like to give Raph a pain in his arse!"
Leo's comment caused Mike to erupt in a fit of laughter, his loud expulsions of amusement echoing down the tunnels. His giggles reverberated against the concrete walls of the sewer system and, consequently, nostalgia seeped into Raph and Leo, causing their mood to improve as well.
Only Gaele, Seth, and Devon remained somewhat offended, the overall environment as alien to them as the moon would be.
Finally, after a few more twists and turns in the maze of tunnels, they arrived at the lair. Once initiating the lights, the three brothers found their old home in the same shambles it had been in forty-three years earlier. A broken couch and a couple of destroyed chairs littered one side of the abandoned subway station. The glass dome above had fractured, with shards of its colorful design strewn around here and there along the concrete floor. The train cars had all their windows broken out, with pieces of furniture hanging over the framework and draped with the torn remnants of the curtains. Moreover, assorted junk and collected items from that time so long ago appeared tossed about in disarray.
It definitely looked as if a battle had taken place there.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be evidence of any Foot soldiers killed during the melee back then. Although the most they would have found, anyway, would have been skeletons. As it was, the group could hear the scurry of rats as the rodents hurried under the debris and through holes in the walls. Spider webs filled every corner and upper area of the abandoned subway station, as well.
The three ninja masters stood quietly as they solemnly surveyed the scene. All three then swallowed. As the enormity of what had happened back then and what had happened since began to sink in, their emotions heightened. In one single moment, their entire lives had changed. Yet, because of the generosity of one woman, it had changed for the better.
"Well, nothing like visiting old times, but I'm certainly glad I can leave it!" Raph said softly. Both his siblings nodded in quiet agreement.
He had then deadpanned, pretty much breaking the melancholy atmosphere that threatened to overwhelm all of them, "Just the same, Mike, at least you could have straightened the place up a bit when you were last here!"
Everyone chuckled good-naturedly over the comment, yet, one thing was abundantly clear to all of them. It was obvious that other than Mike's visit a few years earlier, no one had stepped a foot inside the lair since they had left it. Therefore, they were quite certain that Gabby had not stopped in for a look-see. Not that she could have. Just getting to the lair had her brother, husband, and sister-in-law completely turned around.
With that said, one aspect to their trek under the streets of New York City gave a worrisome concern to one ninja in their group.
"Sure hope you know your way back to the surface, Uncle!" Devon grouched to Mike. "'Cuz I'd hate to spend the next twenty-one years trying to find a way out!"
COMMENTS –
LUNAR-NINJA: Yes, Gabby is trying to out-maneuver them, confuse them, the way ninja do. As it is said in The Art of War, and I'm paraphrasing here, "If you believe your enemy is far away, he is actually very close by; if you believe he is very close by , he is probably far away." Or, something like that. Anyway, Gabby has a good memory for things and I wouldn't be surprised if Leo gave her the book to read. I know I mentioned it in Yosutebito Daughter, but I can't remember if I wrote her as reading it. Either way, it's very ancient, written twenty-four-hundred ago by Sun Tsu. Here is a site that details that book – www (dot) kimsoft (dot) com (right slash) polwar4. Now that you know that Gabby and Seth are married, their reputation is good to go. Thanks for reading and reviewing. Be blessed.
PACPHYS Actually, by the time this chapter posts, I will have had the story completely written. I'm waffling on the ending though. I wanted angst, but I love happy endings; even endings where the protagonist is in a lot of hot water. I dunno…so many fics are out there that are just down right tearjerkers and – well – just thinking about this one lining up alongside of them has worn me out. I dunno. Anyway, not sure what the heck that drink is the 'bozo barkeep' makes, but it sounds like the 4th of July in a shot glass! LOL Goodness, trying to figure out bus routes, train routes, root canals – ah – no, that would be dentistry, wouldn't it? Anyway, it was confusing as heck for me, but I hope I have it where her flight to freedom is understandable. Giving her time to do things was a tough one, too. Catching Gabby might be harder than it seems, though. Thanks for thinking 'great' thoughts about this fic; I'm not so convinced, but I'm driven to explore this idea a bit so – until the finish line – thanks for reading and reviewing. Be blessed.
RAMICA: Regarding chapter three, I'm sure it's VERY aggravating for the guys. The housekeeper did help a bit, that's for sure. Had to have someone interesting. I wrestled with her southern accent a bit, not sure if it would elicit complaints or not. I loved that character, sort of the type to wrap her arms around ya and just make everything all right. Walking lizards and all:0) Poor Seth, it will be a long while before he gets to see his child, that's an obvious fact. Actually, I thought this would be three, maybe four chapters long. However, as of this comment, I have just started chapter nine and I think that will end it except for an epilogue. Or, maybe it will flow into a sequel? Not sure. I'm waffling about angst and tragedy. I've kept the genre description of drama/angst, just in case I chicken out. I'm a sap that loves happy endings, what can I say! As for your review of chapter four, yes, I am updating fast – as this one testifies. I have this story down to the last chapter with just the epi to write. So, this will be the fastest multi-chaptered story I've ever written that exceeded five chapters. When the muses are generous, one takes advantage! Gabby is smart, she has innate abilities and being around ninja has taught her a few things. Seth and she already had the experience of connecting mentally back in YD. LOL Leave it to Mike to provide an excuse to do what needs to be done, with Raph right there beside him. They make a great team, or your worse nightmare! Well, Mike is right in being concerned about the authorities finding out about them. They hid the truth of what they were in plain sight with those movies made about them. I did reach a bit with Perry's house, but then old homes often have hidden treasures in them, don't they? I was counting on that. Glad Gabby proved me right! LOL Thanks for reading and reviewing. Be blessed..