Chapter Seven: The Consort of Humanity
April awoke the next morning to silence, and it was so deafening, her ears begin to throb as she strained to hear her house guests. Then the images that had flashed across her television screen the night before resurface in her memory, and April jumped right out of her bed. After tying her orange terry cloth robe over her pajamas and grabbing an outfit together, April flung open her door and stared into her living room.
Her first thought after hearing the alarming silence was that the Turtles had all left, fearing they had seen their human faces on the news as she had. April was relieved to see the four boys still there, all visibly tired and lost in their own confused thoughts. Michelangelo had placed himself on his stomach just a few inches from the television, the volume turned very low as he watched cartoons. Raphael was stretched across on the couch, wearing only his black drawstring pajama pants, his arms crossed over his bare chest and his eyes staring into the ceiling. Donatello was sitting at the computer desk, his finger tapping on the mouse, and April sucked in a deep breath as he sat a glass of water down beside the hard drive.
April moved over to the long dining table and set down her clothes, watching Leonardo lift a tea bag out of a mug of steaming water and dunk it back down, and he repeated the process several more times, all while cradling his head in his left arm on the table. His large brown eyes seemed to be worlds away, almost as if he had no clue as to where or what he was doing, and the distant in his eyes frightened April. Leonardo then suddenly blinked and looked up at her.
"Good morning," Leonardo said softly, then let out the yawn that he had been holding.
"Morning," April replied as she sat down across from him. " Did you not sleep well?"
Leonardo lifted his head up and pushed his black wispy bangs away from his eyes. "Do you ever have one of those nights when you sleep so deep that the next morning you feel like you had no rest at all?"
April wrinkled her forehead as she thought of Leonardo's question. " Can't say that I have. Is that even possible?" She then noticed Leonardo had began to massage his temples, something that she had witnessed him and his brothers doing a lot lately. " Do you want some aspirin?"
"Already tried it." Leonardo lowered his head, his fingers still going in circles. " The pain... it feels like it's deep down inside, like it can't be reached by anything."
April leaned in closer to Leonardo and lowered her voice. "Did you find out anything from Karai yesterday?"
Leonardo sat back in his chair and sighed. "A little, but not enough to get us anywhere."
A rustle of fabric caught April's attention, and she watched Raphael move past them into the kitchen, stretching his arms above his head and popping his neck. He prepared a bowl of cereal, then brought it back over to the table, and April suddenly felt a blanket of tension in the air as Leonardo narrowed his eyes at his brother.
Raphael looked up at Leonardo, milk dripping from his spoon as it sat poised at his mouth. " What?"
"Don't play stupid with me." Leonardo growled. "You know exactly 'what'!"
April leaned away from the table, her face twisted in confusion. " Uh, guys? What is going on?"
Raphael slammed his spoon down and stood up. " I told ya, I'm not messin' around with her, okay? So, just back off!"
Leonardo also rose to his feet and shoved his forefinger into Raphael's face. " Don't you dare lie to me! I know for a fact that you have been!"
"HEY!" April shouted as she jumped out of her chair and slammed her palms on the wooden surface. " What in the world is going on with you guys? Who are you talking about?" Leonardo and Raphael stared blankly back at the red hair across the table, their tense argument quickly forgotten.
"Huh?"
"What?"
The two then sat back down in their respective seats; Raphael went back to his cereal, Leonardo to his tea, and they both rubbed at the pain in their heads. April held her eyes on them for another minute, then gathered her clothes from the table and headed for the bathroom.
"I'll be in the shower." She said before shutting the door behind her.
"Looks like someone got up the wrong side of the bed this morning!" Michelangelo joked as he took April's vacated seat, then reached across the table and stole a marshmallow out of Raphael's cereal bowl.
"I don't why she yelled at us like that." Leonardo glanced at the closed door.
"Yeah, we were just sittin' here. We didn't do nothin'." Raphael said as he saw Michelangelo begin to reach across the table again, and he quickly smacked his brother's hand with his spoon.
"OW!" Michelangelo withdrew his hand, but forgot the sting as he started to talk again. "Hey, you know what? I've been doing a lot of thinking about this whole thing, and you know what I think happened?"
Leonardo and Raphael both sighed heavily and shook their heads, giving Michelangelo both a 'Here we go,' and a low annoyed moan.
Michelangelo went on, ignoring his brothers lack of enthusiasm. " I think that we got sucked into some alternate dimension or something! You know, like that time Draco and that Ultimate Ninja dude used the Time Scepter on us and we got zapped to all those different places! Do you think that could have happened again?"
His blonde hair whipped back and forth as he looked between his brothers, but found Leonardo and Raphael shared the same unamused expression on their faces.
"Mike, please," Leonardo stood up, picking the chair up with him, and moved toward the living room. " My head aches bad enough as it is. Don't make it any worse."
"But I'm just saying-,"
" Alternate dimension..." Raphael also stood, grabbing his empty bowl and headed for the kitchen sink. "Moron."
"What are you up too, Donnie?" Leonardo placed the dining room chair next to his brother and peered at the computer screen.
"I've been using the Photoshop program to clean up that journal entry page I found." Donatello responded without looking away. " I think I've got it to where its actually legible." He moved the mouse pointer to the print icon, and Leonardo grabbed for the page just as the printer spit it out.
"Yeah, it a lot more clearer now." Leonardo scanned over the sloppy handwriting, then looked up, noticing that Raphael and Michelangelo had joined them, and that all three of his brothers were growing impatient.
"Oh, did you want me to read this out loud?" Leonardo then chuckled at his own joke, not surprised that no one else found the humor in it.
"You're a riot, ya know that?" Raphael slumped down to the floor, as did Michelangelo, and they listened intently as Leonardo read the page.
"'October twenty-seventh: I feel the time has come. I must find out a way out before I, too, go insane. It is only now that I realize Stockman is only out for money and power. His greed is greater than the universe is vast, and he cares nothing for the world around him. It saddens me to have to leave. Stockman has a great scientific mind; a genius at what he can do. It is hard to believe I was once looked up him, wanting to be as great as he is. But, I must go. I must get out on my own and continue my own studies elsewhere, and I must leave my lab, my research, all of my findings behind. I don't know the exact reason why Stockman has decided to get rid of me. It might have to do with that Humanitarian Award I received just a month ago. I know Stockman had become jealous of all of the attention I got. He treated me more like an inferior instead of a colleague after that. Can I help it if the world can except kindness over madness? I just hope someone-' "
"Someone what?" Michelangelo was now propped up on his knees, leaning over the paper in Leonardo's hands.
"It cuts off," Leonardo grabbed the original copy of the journal page and turned it over. "There's nothing after that. Either he started a new page or-"
"Or that someone forced him to stop." Raphael finished, pounding his fist into his left hand.
"So, this guy, whoever he is, was Stockman's partner?" Leonardo gave Donatello a quizzical look.
"What do you think he meant by Stockman wanting to get rid of him?" Michelangelo gulped.
"Do you really want it spelled out for ya, Mikey?" Raphael warned his anxious brother. "You know evil that guy is."
"So, how can we find out who this person is?" Leonardo watched as Donatello had already answered him by hitting the icon that connected to the Internet. They waited for the sounds of the modem to kick off, then the welcome screen appeared before them.
"Okay," Donatello moved the mouse across the screen to the 'Search' button and clicked on it. "Since he talks about winning a Humanitarian award, which would obviously be in the science field, and since we also have the month and the year, I'll do this." He then typed on the search bar:
Science/Humanitarian Award/September/1999
Donatello pressed 'Enter' with the mouse, and within seconds, another page popped up, but it only dampened their spirits.
"1,407,854 pages!" Donatello exclaimed. "I didn't think it would display that many!"
"That's gonna take forever to look though!" Raphael grumbled along with his brother as he fell over onto his back and held his aching forehead.
"Is there anyway to simplify it even more, Donnie?" Leonardo pushed on, not wanting to give up so easily. Donatello leaned back in the chair, his right hand pressed against his lips as he thought.
"Well, I could try this.." He went back to the keyboard and added two more words to the search bar:
Science/Humanitarian Award/September/1999/Baxter Stockman
They waited a little longer this time, their anticipation mirrored in Michelangelo as he crossed his fingers on both hands and squeezed his eyes together, and after another nerve wracking minute, the page reappeared with a much better result.
"Ten!" Donatello smiled proudly. "I am so good!" He scrolled the page down, stopping suddenly when something caught his eye.
"Look at that," Donatello reached up and pointed at the screen as he read along with the blue text. "Young colleague of Dr. Baxter Stockman to receive award for his advancements in the field of neuroscience."
"What's neu-neur-." Michelangelo stuttered, then gave up, knowing he couldn't repeat the word. "What the shell is that?"
"Neuroscience is the study of the human brain, Mikey," Donatello plainly stated. Raphael pushed himself up and a sudden shiver travel down his spine.
"What does the rest of the article say?" Leonardo motioned for Donatello to click on the blue line. Another page opened and Donatello took the liberty of reading to everyone this time.
"' Dr. Richard Hamilton, a three year resident at the La Cosigna University of Neuroscience, has been selected out of thousands of fellow researchers to receive the honored International Humanitarian Award for his compassionate and outstanding advancements in the study of the human memory. His extraordinary accomplishments in treating Alzheimer's in senior citizens, and his work with the mentally ill have placed him high in the scientific field.'"
"The dude sounds like he's really nice!" Michelangelo interrupted.
Donatello flashed his brother an annoyed look, then continued on. "' Dr. Hamilton recently made the move from California to New York State, where he is currently working under the watchful eye of his mentor Dr. Baxter Stockman, who is himself a gifted bio-technologist.'" Donatello finished reading, then clicked the Internet off, feeling like he had enough fact finding for one day.
"So now what?" Raphael asked as he stood up.
"Do you really think this Dr. Hamilton had something to do with our turning-human thing, Donnie?" Leonardo sat back in the chair and folded his arms over his chest.
Donatello interlaced his fingers on the top of his head and blew out a long flow of air. "It might be possible, considering the information we just read. But how can we find him?"
Leonardo raised an eyebrow and gave his brothers a smug smile. "Stockman."
"What? Are ya crazy?" Raphael blurted out, his voice raising an octave. "And just how do ya expect to break into Shredder's place without our ninja skills, smart guy?"
Leonardo continued to hold his stance, and Raphael quickly caught on to what his brother was thinking.
"No way, Leo! Don't even think about!" Raphael turned around and stomped the floor.
Donatello wrinkled his forehead as he lowered his hands. "Leo, you're not suggesting we get Karai to break us in, are you?"
"Dude, that is crazy talk!" Michelangelo used the back of Leonardo's chair to pull himself up to his feet.
"'Crazy' ain't the word for it, Mikey," Raphael spun around and pointed his finger at Leonardo. "It's down right stupid!"
"Look, I know you guys haven't been able to rely on her, and I don't blame you. I still have my doubts. But she's the only one who could get us to Stockman. You guys just have to trust me on this."
"Trust you" Raphael moved closer to Leonardo. "Leo, the last time we tried to trust you is when you got us involved in that whole city wide war thing, and that freaked out ninja chick nearly took our shells apart! And how do ya know she ain't gonna be bringin' Shredder into this?"
Leonardo inhaled deeply and moved toward the windows, feeling the cool autumn breeze against his bare arms. "Karai may serve the Shredder, but she values her sense of honor. She's already given me information about our disappearance that night and I-,"
"Information!" Raphael grabbed Leonardo's shoulder and turned him around. "I knew ya were faking that whole sick thing yesterday! How in the shell could you lie ta us and sneak off like that? She coulda killed ya just like that!"
"She wouldn't do that Raph!" Leonardo knocked his brother's hands away, his self control rapidly turning into anger. "She wants to help us! Why can't you just put your proud, hotheaded thoughts to the side and let her?" He watched as Raphael's nostrils flared, almost as if they were going to push out hot steam.
"Are ya stupid, Leo! Honor or not, she works for Shredder! Can't you get that though yer thick head?" Raphael's shouting grew in volume, causing Michelangelo to coward behind Donatello.
"So, are you just going to run out on us again, Raph?" Leonardo stepped into Raphael's face, not caring if his brother made the move to attack him. " It's clockwork with you anyway. I give an order, you get mad and run away. Do you even want to find out what happened to us, or do you not care?"
Raphael growled, then stomped into April's bedroom, and after a few minutes, he reappeared fully dressed, pulling a baggy black hoodie over his head.
"Yeah, okay, see Leo?" Raphael walked toward the front door of the apartment. " This is me leavin', just like before! Nothin' ever changes with me!" He pulled the door open, then turned back to his brothers. "And by the way, Leo, I do care. But not enough that I have ta get myself into somethin' I can't get out of!" And with that, the door slammed shut, and the walls around it rattled wildly.
"What was that?" April cautiously pulled back the bathroom door and walked into the living room.
"Uh, Raph went out for a walk." Michelangelo slowly slid up into Leonardo's vacated chair and tried to hide his apparent fearfulness.
"I was hoping you guys would stay here while I was gone." April pulled her hair up into a ponytail and grabbed her coat down from its hook on the wall.
"Why? Where are you going?" Donatello asked, taking note of the distressed look on his friends' face.
April looked blankly back at the young men in front of her, almost wanting to back out of her plan. "Uh, nowhere really. I just have something I need to take care of, that's all." She let out a nervous giggle as she grabbed the door handle, pushing herself through the door before she could think of changing her mind, and leaving her friends behind in a cloud of nervous tension.
A/N: WOW! I can't believe all of the awesome reviews I've been receiving! When I started this thing, I had no clue that it would turn out this big, but I'm glad everyone is enjoying this story. I just have to say thank you for the kind words that have been sent to me(knocks on swelled head) and I just cannot say enough to everyone who had left a review, even the ones that haven't! My hit count is almost at 900! It's crazy! Thank you so much! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!