That Which Prowls in the Dark of Night

Disclaimer: The TMNT belong to Mirage and other people not me.

Chapter 2 The planning begins

He's doing it again. Mikey's predicting something again. I just know it! Back when they had been children Raphael had tried to pretend it wasn't true for the longest time, but secretly he payed very close attention every time Michelangelo had a nightmare after that day. Michelangelo went through a few days after that where he tried to stop sleeping. Of course that didn't work. Eventually Michelangelo realized as long as he told Splinter, or Leonardo his dreams, he would never have the same dream again. Much to his dismay, however his dreams did come true with startling frequency. By the time he was nine, though, the nightmares had stopped, and everyone, including Splinter had thought Michelangelo had outgrown it.

It sure didn't sound like it tonight. That sounded exactly like the dreams he used to have way back when we were kids. Man, what could have started him off like that again? Raphael wondered as he sat in the dark.

"Raph?" Leonardo's voice was directly behind him. "I thought you were going to Casey's tonight."

"Yeah I was," Raphael said, not turning around. "I changed my mind."

"You were looking forward to this for weeks," Leonardo said, starting to sound worried. He came over to the front of the couch, and looked at Raphael directly "What happened?"

"Mikey, happened," Raphael answered flatly. "I think he's starting to have those dreams again."

"You noticed," Leonardo said evenly with a grin. "He's been having them for a few months now. I've already told Master Splinter. What did he tell you?"

"That there's something big and ugly out there that's wants deep fried Raphael for dinner,"

Leonardo eyed his brother oddly. "And that was enough to make you decide to stay until morning?"

Raphael shrugged. "It was more the fact that he didn't start freaking out until I walked by his door, and...well you know what Donny used to say. He'd always have a feeling which ones would come true or not. I can't tell you why, Leo, but I got that feeling tonight." Raphael then turned around and looked squarely at Leonardo. "When did he start telling you stuff?"

"Just after we tangled with The Shredder for the first time," Leonardo said, taking a seat on the battered lounge chair "It was about two weeks afterwards, and Mikey had fallen asleep in front of the TV."

The kick boxing tournament was starting in ten minutes. Leonardo moved over to the video monolith, and glanced over at the couch. "Mikey, do you mind if I–" He stopped in mid sentence smiling, because he had seen that Michelangelo had fallen asleep on his couch. He was about to nudge his brother awake, and tell him to go to bed when suddenly his eyes flew open, and he called out, "No! Look out!"

Leonardo instantly was next to him on the couch. "Mikey! Easy! You just had a bad dream."

Michelangelo blinked sleepily. "Leo? Oh man! I thought The Shredder was going to get us!"

"It was just a dream, Mikey," Leonardo said gently. Splinter got rid of him, remember?"

Michelangelo nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know. It was just that it seemed so real."

"You aught to go to bed," Leonardo said. I napped earlier to watch the kick boxing tournament tonight.

"No!" Michelangelo said shaking his head emphatically. "I was staying up to watch it. I wanna see who's gonna win."

"If you're sure you're okay," Leonardo said. Michelangelo nodded again with more vigor. With a shrug Leonardo sat down on the floor, and grabbed the remote, leaving the couch to Michelangelo.

Two hours later, as the end credits scrolled down the screen, Leonardo smiled satisfied and shut off the TVs. Michelangelo had fallen asleep again half way through the show, but Leonardo didn't chase him to go off to bed, and he figured that he might as well leave Michelangelo sleeping where he was. He got up and was about to leave when he heard a sleepy mumble. "Mmmn Leo?"

"What is it, Mikey?" Leonardo asked. Was Michelangelo asleep or not?

"Just do me a favor," Michelangelo said. His eyes were closed his breathing even. Michelangelo had to be asleep, but he was talking. "Don't go out anywhere alone for a while. Okay?"

Leonardo smiled. It wasn't the first time that Michelangelo had carried on a conversation in his sleep. Except for Raphael they thought it was pretty cute. "Okay, Mikey," Leonardo said gently. "I promise I won't go anywhere out alone for a while. Now go back to sleep."

"Mnnn -kay," was the answer Michelangelo gave and he snuggled down into a deeper sleep.

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"And you never said anything?" Raphael said furious. How could Leonardo keep something like that from them?

"It was only two weeks after we fought The Shredder," Leonardo explained. "I thought it was an anxiety dream. He gets those all the time, and for your information I didn't go anywhere alone for at least three weeks after that. I'm not crazy enough to take chances even if he hasn't predicted the future in years. When nothing happened at the end of three weeks, I figured it was just a fluke. The Foot didn't attack me for another two months after that. Then I made it a point to tell Master Splinter in Massachusetts"

"You should have told us when The Foot started searching for us in the sewers." Raphael said sourly. To his surprise Leonardo sighed and nodded.

"I know. I should have guessed that Mickey's premonition might be related to that, but I never made the connection. You remember the old rule. If it didn't happen within two weeks it probably wasn't going to."

"Do I even want to know why you're quoting that old rule?" A new voice asked. Raphael and Leonard turned behind them to see Donatello jumping down to the lower level. "And if it's what I'm thinking it is, am I correct in presuming that Mikey's become our little fortune teller again."

"We think so," Leonardo said with a sigh. He quickly gave Donatello a recap of what they had discussed.

Donatello took the news seriously. "That makes me wonder. If Mikey predicted the Shredder's return over a month before it happened. Maybe some of the dreams he had when we were younger came true after the two week deadline. We should look back at all those old notes Master Splinter kept on Mikey's nightmares."

"You two can play with that today," Raphael said. He got to his feet, and listened by the elevator. "I'm going to at least spend some of my time with Casey today. I'll be back by midnight."

"Are you sure you want to go out there Raphael?" Leonardo asked uncertainly. "I mean if Mikey dreamed that something was out there after you, it still might be out there."

"If he doesn't holler when I get in the elevator I'm going to guess I'm safe," Raphael explained. "I don't think whatever it is will be hunting me after sunrise."

"I hope your right," Leonardo said. Just then the elevator doors opened, and Casey was there.

"Hey guys," Casey said cheerfully. When he saw at all the serious faces he asked. "Okay fess up now. What's with you guys? Why did you stay home tonight?"

"I'll tell you on the way," Raphael said flatly. Casey gave an odd look, but said nothing.

"And make sure you don't come home alone." Leonardo said firmly. Raphael sighed, but he didn't argue.

"I won't," he said instead. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Leonardo and Donatello both watched as Raphael and Casey got into the elevator to leave. As soon as they were gone, Leonardo said, "Don, I want you to start on that as soon as we can get the notebooks. Let's do it while Mikey's sleeping. I don't think we should tell him yet. You know how he got the last time."

"We were six the last time," Donatello reminded him, but still he sat down at his computer and began to type in the two incidents. "But he hasn't changed much. I remember how relieved we all were when it finally stopped. I wonder why all of a sudden he's having premonitions again?"

"I don't know Don," Leonardo said uneasily. "But a lot of the ideas we had when we were kids are already proving wrong. The future Mikey predicted for me didn't come true for over two months."

"Okay then," Donatello said as he opened a special file. "All the old rules are on hold. I'm going to go over all of those notes. I'll see if I can find some kind of pattern."

"I'm not sure you'll find a pattern, Don." Leonardo said. "We were never able to find one before. Mikey's dreams always seemed to be pretty random."

"It seems that way, but you never know," Donatello explained. "It was a long time ago and we were just kids. Maybe there was something that we were overlooking."

"What was a long time ago, Donatello?" Splinter asked. He came up the steps to the laboratory joining Leonardo and Donatello.

"I think we might have a small situation, sensei," Leonardo said respectfully. "Raph said Mikey had some kind of odd nightmare last night. It creeped him out enough that he waited until morning, and he had Casey pick him up here."

"Indeed," Splinter said, a worried expression crossed his face. "This is most troublesome. Do you believe that Michelangelo's ability to predict the future has returned on a more permanent basis? He has not seen anything for us since he predicted your ambush many months ago"

"Hold on now," Donatello said. "We still don't know if what Mikey dreamed last night is a premonition. It hasn't come true yet."

"Raphael felt it was real enough, and he was he last one to believe in it the last time." Leonardo pointed out. "He said he got that feeling we used to get when we thought a dream was going to come true." Leonardo grew quiet in thought. "Sensei, do you mind if we skipped morning practice. I'd rather us do this now, than later when Mikey might be awake, and nosey."

"You wish to keep this from Michelangelo?" Splinter asked. The question was obviously a test of some kind, but Leonardo refused to take the bait.

"Right now, yes. If he remembers what he dreamed last night I'll tell him. He remembered dreaming about The Shredder, but I don't think he remembers telling me not to go anywhere alone. Until we know something solid, I don't want to get him worried."

Splinter nodded. "Very well then. I shall shift your training to eleven, just before lunch."

"Thank you, sensei," Leonardo said with a bow. Then he turned back to Donatello, and said. "Okay, Don, lets get to work."

Two hours later after sorting through Splinter's diaries concerning Michelangelo's dreams, both Leonardo and Donatello had to agree that most of what they thought they understood about Michelangelo's dreams had been plane wrong.

"Tell me I'm not seeing this, Donny." Leonardo said as he looked through the last of the notebooks.

"I wish I could," Donatello answered as he typed in the data. "The last set of dreams Mikey had were about the old lair, and how it was going to collapse."

Leonardo sighed and picked up a slip of paper he had been writing on. "Not to mention the two dreams about the Shredder, the one he had about the Garbage-man, and the three he had about the pretty redhead."

"You really think that's April?" Donatello asked.

Leonardo nodded. "It was about the same time he had the dreams about The Shredder. If we had only known back then that all this was going to come true!"

"We were kids, Leo," Donatello reminded him gently. "How could we imagine how our lives were going to change six years from then?"

"I guess you're right," Leonardo said reluctantly.

Donatello finished entering his data. "Okay back when we were nine we thought Mikey's dreams were accurate one in every seven. With this new data and things we now know did come true years later, we've boosted that number up to one in four." Donatello sighed. "Twenty five percent of Mikey's dreams have a habit of coming true, but we don't know when it will happen."

"So what do we do, Don?" Leonardo asked. "How do we know when one of Mikey's dreams are going to come true? Anything he says could take years!"

"Not really," Donatello explained. "Most of the dreams that came true within two weeks we guessed they would. Those are the ones one of us would always have a gut feeling about. They're also the ones he'd wake up screaming or crying about, or not remember telling us about. The dreams that have come true in the last two years he was very calm about, except for the lair collapsing. He'd just tell us what he was dreaming, and go back to sleep."

"And he didn't remember the ones about the lair collapsing either," Leonardo reminded him. We're just going to have to keep an eye on him, and see what happens."

Donatello nodded, then checked the clock. It was ten thirty. "Mikey's still sleeping?"

"He usually sleeps late when he has a nightmare," Leonardo observed. "Still we'd better finish up, before Splinter wakes him."

"They hid all the notebooks, and went into the dojo to begin practice. Ten minutes later Michelangelo came in. "What happen to morning practice?" He asked as he picked up his nunchucks.

"Splinter had something to do this morning, so he pushed it up to eleven," Leonardo said as he worked at his katas.

"Oh," Michelangelo, said. He looked at them oddly, but said nothing, and got down to practice.

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Coming Soon Chapter 3 Annie:

"Annie? You was looking for us?" Casey asked.

"For him," Annie corrected Casey. "You're protected from the dekabor out there, but if you don't want your friend to end up the blue plate special you'll need my help."

She sounds almost like Mikey did yesterday. Raphael thought. "What do you mean?" Raphael said, resting his hands on his sai. "What's a dekabor?"

"More problems than you want to deal with." Annie said still striding forward. She reached out, and gently touched both of his shoulders. An electric charge seemed to flow through Raphael's body, and suddenly he was paralyzed.