Edited April 2020

As the next few days passed I took a break from thinking. Thinking about my situation that is. I had used up my one day off visiting Christina and celebrating my birthday and I was getting a little behind with my school work. That combined with classes was a welcome distraction. I was so focused I went from being behind to being well ahead by the time the weekend rolled around. It was no longer something I could use to avoid the world.

Christina had been released from the hospital at this point and I had invited her over to talk. My mom had dropped off a couple boxes the day after we had talked. She had wanted to talk to me more but I had made an excuse about schoolwork and office hours I needed to rush to. I felt a little guilty, but I wasn't ready to let go just yet. I had glanced at the boxes and had them prepared for Christina to look at with me.

"So, what do you think?" I asked hesitantly after blurting out everything I knew. We sat on my bed, boxes sitting between us.

Christina was still browsing though the newspaper articles. She flipped a strand of long blonde hair out of her face before looking up at me. "Let me recap," she said. "Your dad was a superhero?"

I fiddled my fingers and nodded. I pulled out another article that showed a shadowy silhouette. "Not a very big one. He and my mom were together for about a year, but he disappeared before I was born. He never even found out that she was pregnant."

"And he left all this behind?" Christina asked, now looking through the next box.

"I guess so. A couple of the newspaper clippings were from my mom, but most of it's from him. What's in that box anyways? I've only had time to look through the first one." I leaned over to look inside. There had been quite a bit of clinking and clanking coming from the box as Christina was rummaging through it.

She started pulling the items out as she inventoried them. "Let's see...This looks like a journal maybe. Some metal wristbands. Huh, this kind of looks like a necklace. A mask...and I think this might be a costume," she said as she pulled out the clothing at the bottom of the box.

"You seem to be taking this surprisingly well," I said as I picked up the black mask. It was your typical domino mask and I wondered if it would actually fit me.

"It's not like it's that unusual," Christina responded, narrowing her eye as she held up and examined the costume. "You know what I mean," she said after she saw my incredulous look. "You know there're superheroes around here. You see it in the news all the time. You just happen to be closer to it this time." She put the costume down and gave me her full attention. "But are you okay with all this?"

I pulled another item out of the box. I focused on untangling the mess of straps, buckles, and metal embellishments as I responded. "I think so. It's really crazy, but it kind of makes sense to me. There's absolutely no reason for it to, but it feels right. But I'm not really sure what to do next." I succeeded in untangling everything, but I still wasn't sure what I was looking at.

"I think you should go for it. Take a chance. Have an adventure. You can be incognito, explore just exactly what kind of power you have, and maybe figure some things out about all this." She shrugged. "I think you can do it."

"Maybe..." I mumbled. I felt nervous, but also a little giddy. Her words struck a familiar chord. Michelangelo had said almost the same thing. Of course, he had thought it was for some made up character. Still, maybe he was right. "Will you help?"

She grinned. "Try and stop me." Christina looked back and forth between me and the costume. "I have some ideas for you too. You'll have to give me a day to get everything together, but I think I can come up with something useable until I make the final result."

Her smiled worried me a little now and I felt a faint sense of apprehension. But it paled in comparison to the overwhelming feeling of support.

"Try on the mask," she ordered, handing it over to me.

I sighed heavily and over dramatically. "I guess it's pointless to resist," I sighed. I tried to give Christina my best puppy dog eyes, but couldn't do it without breaking into a smile and giggling. To my surprise it fit perfectly around my eyes. I shook my head experimentally, but it refused to budge.

Christina stared. "That makes you look really different. Seriously, I don't know if I would recognize you. We are definitely keeping that." She examined the wristbands more closely. They, like all the metal pieces, were blackened with age. "Do you have some rags?" she asked as she rubbed at the metal. "I think these are just a little dirty. They look like they might be in good condition."

After I returned with some rags and polish we both worked on cleaning up the pieces. Everything actually looked like it was in perfect condition. The blackness slowly gave way to a dark gold band set with a red stone. "These are way too big for me," I said as I looked at the cleaned up wristbands.

Christina nodded reluctantly. It was easy to see that the bands would dwarf my wrists. "Yeah, but try them on anyways, I want to see how the colors look."

I unclasped the band and closed it around my wrist. The fit was perfect. I removed it to see that it now looked perfectly sized to fit me. It was a bit of a relief to see that Christina looked just as surprised as I felt.

"That's...a little weird," Christina admitted. "But I'm sure this all fits together somehow. I'm just going to take some measurements, borrow this box of stuff, and I'll be back tomorrow."

Life in the lair had not gotten any easier over the past couple of days. Master Splinter has wanted them to lay low for a while, something which Leo was heavily enforcing. Sparing had become a little more extreme, especially between Raph and Leo, which just left Mikey to stay as far from the crossfire as he could. Donnie's arm was still out of commission which he used to his advantage to avoid the tension. And although Mikey also tried to avoid it, Donnie was able to hide out in his lab and be relatively undisturbed. Mikey would escape there too from time to time (taking the chance to use the computer during those times), but it wasn't the same sort of sanctuary for him.

Mikey's personal advice to his brothers ("Chillax bros!) was only met with unappreciative sighs.

They weren't quite on "house arrest", but apparently someone forgot to tell Leo that. Mikey had a full week as Cowabunga Carl so he was in and out of the lair often. Leo was always there to check on his estimated return time. It felt more like an interrogation. The orange masked turtle usually let such things roll off his back, but today his weak grin faded as soon as he was out of Leo's sight.

He let out an audible sigh as he exited into the cool outside air. It struck him that if he was feeling this way, Raph must be on the verge of an explosion. His hotheaded brother never reacted well to these sort of orders. Although it looked like Raph might be out anyways. There must be something going on because lately Raph had been more sneaky about his comings and goings instead of defiantly shoving it in Leo's face. Mikey didn't want to cause anymore trouble with either of them right now so he certainly wouldn't be snitching to Leo.

He sighed. Heading back to the lair right away was an unappealing thought. Maybe he would stay out a little longer tonight.

Oops, it's Tuesday. :O Early update!

Slowly getting longer chapters. :) Hope this chapter was alright. Let me know if you have any questions or if anything was unclear. There's a fair bit of description in this chapter and the next, but I'm just trying to write out what I see in my head.

Luckily I'm steadily getting further ahead with future chapters and once I get a couple more chapter ahead I might be able to do two chapters a week a couple times. :) (Reviews are incredibly inspiring by the way, hint hint XD )

(I didn't really want to leave it on a overly dramatic note, but if I did... the last sentence would be: Little did he know what consequences would arise... DUH NUH)