Author's Note: To the guest reviewer from the previous chapter, Donnie is a few minutes older than Mikey.
Never Meet Your Idols
In the dark, lone muscular male ninja was sitting in a meditative like position. His outfit was red with no sleeves and spikes on the shoulders, and on his head was a mask that covered his whole head and face except for his eyes. While he made hand signs, a ninja in black snuck up on him quietly with his sword drawn. The ninja in black jumped at the big ninja in red and attempted to strike him, but the red ninja sensed him and blocked him in time to send him flying. Others joined in, but they were all easily defeated by the ninja in red.
Suddenly, the sliding door of the dojo opened to reveal a dark skinned man with black hair. Along with him was a familiar man wearing a helmet with horns, the Shredder.
The ninja in red bowed down on one knee and said, "Master Shredder."
"I trust that my greatest pupil is using their time wisely," said Shredder.
"I have assembled and army of ninjas," said the ninja in red, "The Foot Clan await your orders."
"Excellent," said Shredder, "Because I have discovered an old enemy in New York. Hamato Yoshi."
After Shredder said the name "Hamato Yoshi" the dark skinned man threw a piece of paper at the red ninja's feet. It was a picture of Yoshi and the Shredder from years ago.
The ninja in red looked shocked as he asked, "Hamato Yoshi alive?"
"And he is training ninjas of his own in New York," said Shredder, "It is also possible that Tang Shen is alive as well along with the twins, Miwa and Leonardo. Finally, I can finish what I started all those years ago. I want Shen and her children found and Hamato Yoshi and his pupils wiped out."
"I will not fail you, Master," said the ninja in red.
"I know," said Shredder, "But to be certain, you will work alongside Xever."
In response, the dark skinned man, Xever, spun his pocket knife around and them grinned. The ninja in red did not look pleased with the idea at all.
The ninja in red stood up and snapped, "I don't need any help! Especially from this, street rat!"
Never smirked and said, "Are you sure, Rich Boy?"
The ninja in red got in Xever's face and snapped, "Anytime you wanna test me...!"
"I am not interested in your petty rivalry!" yelled Shredder, "Xever is familiar with the dark underbelly of the city. You will work together."
The ninja in red wanted to argue, but knew he could not. So instead he simply said, "Don't worry, we will find and destroy Hamato Yoshi and his disciples. We will also track down Tang Shen and her children."
"Good," said Shredder.
Xever laughed a little about his new partner being forced to work with him. The ninja in red angrily stormed out of the dojo, stomping on and already down ninja on the way.
Meanwhile in New York city, five certain teens were having fun goofing around and jumping from roof to roof. They had just finished their patrol of the city and decided to have some fun while at the same time practicing their ninja skills.
At a particularly wide gap between two buildings, they each decided to take turns jumping across and see who could do better stunts. Donnie, Mikey, Leo, and Miwa all did very impressive flips across the building, but Raph decided to charge ahead and ram into his siblings, resulting in them being knocked over like bowling pins.
His siblings glared at him and Leo and Miwa got ready to beat him up until they heard Mikey scream, "No way! How did I not hear about this?!"
His siblings grabbed their weapons and prepared for and attacked. "What is it, Mikey?" Leo asked.
Mikey had a shocked expression as he pointed ahead and said, "Check it out."
Miwa, Leo, Raph, and Donnie looked where their youngest brother was pointing and saw a billboard displaying an ad about a brunette man in a martial arts pose. They then looked annoyed because they recognized him as their baby brother's idol, Chris Bradford.
"Are you serious?" Raph asked in an annoyed tone.
Mikey grinned with excitement and said, "Heck yeah, I'm serious! He's awesome!"
"He doesn't look that awesome to me," said Miwa.
"Ah, you wouldn't understand," Mikey said with a shrug. And then he smiled happily and added, "I can't wait to meet him! We have so much in common!"
Mikey then struck a pose identical to the one Chris Bradford was doing on the billboard. His siblings looked even more annoyed with their brother for doing that.
"What if you stop standing like that?" Donnie asked.
Mikey's smile fell and he answered, "We'd have a little less in common." he then beamed once again and said, "But still a lot! We're already online friends. And since he's in town for a martial arts expo, we can finally meet and become friends in real life! Maybe he'll show me his secret kata, the Death Dragon! And I'll show him my secret kata, the Secret Kata!"
"Catchy," said Donnie, sarcastically.
Mikey did not seem to pick up on the sarcasm because the next thing he said was, "Check this out." He then did a few random body movements that did not look at all like martial arts. When finished, Mikey whispered to his siblings, "Don't tell anyone you saw that."
"We weren't planning to," Leo whispered back.
Suddenly, several ninjas in black jumped out of nowhere and surrounded the siblings. The new ninjas unsheathed their weapons and the Hamato teens did the same as they all prepared for an attack.
"Ninjas in New York?" Donnie asked out loud, "Other than us?"
Both teams examined each other for a moment, and then the new ninjas attacked. One of them started by throwing a shuriken at Donnie, who blocked it with his staff. And then, like lightning, the ninjas charged forward and started attacking the teens left and right. Raph dealt several devastating blows with the hilts of his sai, and Donnie did the same with his staff. Miwa blocked many shuriken with her tessen, struck her opponents with it, and even occasionally threw it like a disk. Leo used his swords and Mikey his nun chucks.
At one point, Raph caught Leo smiling and asked while blocking attacks, "Why are you so happy?"
"It's just nice to finally be fighting people," said Leo, while blocking attacks, "Instead of aliens, robots, or mutant monsters."
After all of the ninjas were defeated, the muscular ninja in red jumped in and faced the teens with a serious looked on his face. He punched Leo and knocked him back and then dealt a roundhouse kick to Raph, who tried to block but wound up being knocked back anyway. Miwa threw her tessen at him, but he caught it easily and threw the weapon away. He then charged forward to attack her, Donnie tried to defend her with his staff, but the red ninja grabbed it and used it to smack both Donnie and Miwa into a nearby wall. Finally, Mikey converted his nun chucks into a kasurigama attempted to use the chain to attack the ninja with the bladed end. Unfortunately, the ninja caught the chain and pulled Mikey forward.
As he looked closely at Mikey, the ninja said, "Are there more of you, or is it just you kids?"
Mikey did not answer; he only back flipped away from him. They had a bit of a tug-a-war battle with the chain until Leo sliced the chain with his sword, forced the red ninja to stumble backward. He glared as the teens retrieved their fallen weapons and got into defensive stances. They would have fought more, had it not been for the sirens of the police cars that were coming their way. Not wanting to be caught by the police, both ninja teams fled the scene and headed for their own secret lairs.
After returning home from their evening patrol, Leo went to the kitchen and told Yoshi all about what had happened.
"Their leader was crazy good!" said Leo, "And by that I mean he was good and seemed a little crazy. Besides, he had all these guys with him. It wasn't a fair fight."
"What do you mean a 'fair fight'?" Yoshi asked out of curiosity.
"You know, 'a fair fight' where either side could win," said Leo, sounding like his answer should be obvious.
"So a fair fight is a fight you could lose?" Yoshi asked, walking over to his eldest son.
"Yes. I mean no. That's not quite what I said," Leo tried to explain.
"So, you don't want to assure your team's victory?" Yoshi asked.
"I think you might be misunderstanding me," said Leo.
While Leo tried to explain what he meant by 'fair fight' Yoshi knocked him to the floor and pinned him down. Leo tried to get his father off of him while at the same time trying to figure out what he was trying to prove.
"Was that fair?" Yoshi asked.
"No," said Leo.
"Did I win?" Yoshi asked.
"I see your point," said Leo.
Yoshi then got off of Leo and helped him back to his feet. And then he told him, "Seek victory not fairness."
Meanwhile in the living room, Shen had just finished treating her children's injuries and they were all relaxing and hanging out with April, who came over to hang out with them. Mikey was currently into a magazine with Chris Bradford on the cover.
Mikey had a huge smile on his face as he said, "Man, I can't wait to meet Chris Bradford in person. He's so awesome. I bet we could be great friends."
Mikey chomped on the magazine a couple of times and then fell on his back laughing. April looked confused about what Mikey was doing while Miwa, Raph, and Donnie looked annoyed.
"Is he alright?" April asked.
"He's alright. He always gets like this when it comes to Chris Bradford," said Miwa.
"Really?" April asked.
"Yup," said Donnie while he typed on his laptop.
"He's been a fan of this guy for a long time now," said Raph, in an annoyed tone of voice while he did pushups on the floor. "For some reason he seems to think the guy's the greatest thing since sliced bread."
Mikey shot up and said, "What do mean 'for some reason'? Chris Bradford is a martial arts super star and owns a chain of dojos all over the country!"
Miwa sat back in the couch and said, "Seems like a show off to me."
Mikey frowned at his sister's comment and said, "Like you would know anything about him."
"Need I remind you, Mikey, that you don't actually know him either," said Donnie, "How can you be sure that you two will even get along?"
Mikey smiled and said, "I'm sure we'll get along. We're already online friends."
"Really?" April asked in surprise.
Mikey smiled proudly and said, "You betcha. I'll show you." He then turned to his older twin and asked, "Donnie, can I see your laptop for a minute?"
"Sure. Just a second," said Donnie, who changed his wallpaper from a picture of April to a display of their family crest.
Donnie then handed the computer over to Mikey, who brought up a website called MyFace. He logged in and showed April his friends list. On it were several people, some of whom April recognized as kids she had seen Mikey hang out with at school, and among them was Chris Bradford.
"Cool," said April.
"Not really," said Raph, "The guy's really into how cool he thinks he is."
"Excuse me?"' April asked.
"Mikey showed us his profile," said Donnie, "He's got more pictures of himself on there than, literally, anything else."
"For real?" April asked.
"Yeah," said Miwa, "That guy seems to feel the need to gloat about his popularity online."
"You know, just because he posts a lot of pictures of himself online doesn't mean he's a bad guy," said Mikey, pouting.
"I guarantee you mom and dad aren't gonna let you meet him," said Raph.
"Oh yeah?" said Mikey, "We'll see about that."
Mikey returned the laptop to Donnie and went down to the antique store where Shen was. Shen was getting ready to close shop when came down to talk to her.
"Mom, can I ask you something?" Mikey asked.
"Of course, Sweetie," said Shen, "What is it?"
"Chris Bradford's in the city this week for a martial arts expo," Mikey explained, "Can I go?"
Shen contemplated the idea for a bit, and then told him, "I'll have to talk with your father about that, but I see no reason why not."
With that, Shen locked the shop door and changed the sign to 'closed' before heading back up to the living space. After she left, Mikey started doing a little victory dance, happy that he was closer to getting his chance to meet Chris Bradford in person.
After Shen closed shop, she took Yoshi into their bedroom so that they could talk in private. Mikey waited in the living room with April and his siblings to hear what Shen and Yoshi would say about him going to the expo. He was hoping that they would say yes. He was tempted to listen eavesdrop their door, but was stopped by Leo.
"I really hope they say yes," said Mikey, pacing back and forth nervously, "I don't know what I'll do if I don't get to meet Chris Bradford."
"Mikey, relax," said April, "I'm sure they'll say yes."
"And if they say no, it's not the end of the world," said Raph, who was secretly hoping that they would say no.
Mikey was about to yell at Raph when their parents came out into the living room. Mikey walked over to them and waited to hear their decision.
"You're mother and I talked it over and we've made up our minds," said Yoshi, "If you promise to do your homework first, be home in time for dinner, and take someone with you, you may go."
Mikey's eyes lit up and his smile grew wider than they had ever seen before. He then jumped up and cheered, and then hugged his parents and said, "Thank you, so much! I love guys so much! This is gonna be so awesome!"
Mikey then did a victory dance, while his siblings wondered if their parents had made the right decision.
"Mom, dad, are you sure about that?" asked Raph, "I mean, this guy might not be a very good influence on Mikey."
"That is why we said for him to take someone with him," said Shen, "He's less likely to pick up any bad things if he's not alone."
"I hope you're right," said Miwa.
The next day, Mikey stayed true to his word and did his homework right when he got home from school; with Donnie helping him with what he could not understand of course. Mikey was so grateful to Donnie for helping him that he decided to invite him to go with him to the Chris Bradford expo, which Donnie accepted knowing that Mikey needed someone to go with him.
After both their homework was finished, Donnie and Mikey caught a bus to St. Mark's Civic Auditorium for the expo. They were very impressed with all of Bradford's new moves that he was showcasing. Donnie was starting to understand a little better why Mikey liked him so much.
"Okay, Mikey, I admit it, he's pretty impressive," said Donnie.
Mikey turned to his older twin and said, "I think you mean totally awesome!"
Donnie laughed a little at his brother's excitement and said, "Alright, he's awesome."
"Maybe, after the show we can try to talk to him," said Mikey.
"I don't know, Mikey," said Donnie, "This guy's famous. You guys might be online friends, but so are possibly thousands of other people."
"If you don't try how are you gonna find out?" Mikey asked.
Donnie crossed his arms and said, "As good a point as that is, that's not the point I was making."
"Look, D, I'm just gonna say 'hi' to the guy and then he'll see that I'm just a normal dude. Then, the next thing you know, we'll be best buds irl," said Mikey.
"Are you sure about that?" Donnie asked.
Mickey cocked his head at Donnie and asked, "What do you mean?"
"I didn't want to tell you this, but people lie a lot on the internet about what they're really like or who they really are," said Donnie, "I'm just a little worried that Chris might be one of those people."
Mikey looked upset at Donnie and said, "Chris isn't like that, I'm sure of it. We'll meet him later and you'll see."
Seeing that Mikey was not going to give up, Donnie let outfit a breath and said, "Okay, little brother, you win. We'll meet him."
Mikey smiled and said, "Sweet. Thanks, Donnie."
After the showcase was over for the night, Donnie and Mikey snuck to the backdoor of the auditorium to avoid having to push through the crowd of fans. Once outside, they waited for Chris to exit. Donnie did not want to tell Mikey, but he was starting to feel like a stalker. As they waited for Chris, Donnie and Mikey heard a small sound and looked up to see what was there.
Donnie caught a glimpse of Leo's blue mask and asked, "Guys, what are you doing here?"
Knowing that their cover had been blown, Leo, Miwa, and Raph jumped down from their hiding place and landed in front of Donnie and Mikey.
"We were patrolling this area so we decided to check on you two," said Miwa.
"And what do we find?" said Raph, "Our two younger brothers acting like stalkers."
Mikey shot his second oldest brother an angry look and snapped, "We're not being stalkers!"
"Could've fooled me," said Raph
"Look, guys, as long as I'm with Mikey, nothing's gonna happen to him," said Donnie, "You can just get back to your patrol. Don't worry about anything, okay?"
"We will once you two get home like you promised," said Leo.
"We will just as soon as I meet Chris Bradford," said Mikey.
"I don't think that's such a good idea," said Miwa, "There's an old saying: Never meet your heroes."
"Well, whoever first said that obviously didn't know Chris Bradford," said Mikey.
"Mikey, all we're saying is that we don't want you to be disappointed if he turns out to not be like you imagined," said Leo.
Mikey was about to say something back when Raph yelled, "Look out!" and pushed his younger brothers to the ground just in time to avoid an oncoming shuriken.
The teens all looked up and saw Chris Bradford standing a few feet away from them and holding more stars in his hands.
"We're being attacked by Chris Bradford!" Donnie screamed.
"This is so cool," said Mikey. Another star almost got them and caused Mikey to scream, "Or it would be if weren't the ones being attacked!"
Chris Bradford continued to throw shuriken at the teens. Donnie and Mikey did not have any weapons or ninja gear of any kind with them, so they had to allow their brothers and sister to protect them or else risk revealing themselves as ninjas. The attacked lasted for a full minute, and then Mikey found a way to make it stop.
"Stop! The ninjas come in peace! We all come in peace!" Mikey yelled, holding his hands up in a peaceful manner. "We're friends, you have to believe me!"
"What?" Bradford asked in surprise as he stopped attacking.
Mikey stepped forward, despite his siblings protests, and said, "I'm Mikey, we're online friends. This is my brother Donnie and these guys are harmless. They won't hurt you or any of us. They only fought back because they thought you were a threat. And I'm willing to bet that you attacked them because you thought they were gonna attack you or us. I'm right aren't I?"
Bradford listened to Mikey's words and watched closely as the ninjas seemed to be positioned around Donnie and Mikey. It was as though they were trying to protect them. This seemed to peek the martial artist's interest because he smiled at them and lowered his weapons.
"Oh, that's right, Mikey," he said in a friendly voice, "Of course I remember you. I'm sorry for attacking you, your brother, and your friends. I just didn't know what to expect when I saw three ninjas appear out of nowhere standing in front of two other kids."
"That's alright," said Leo, "And we're sorry too, for attacking back instead of explaining ourselves."
"We just got worried that you might hurt these two during the fight," said Miwa, "Believe me, Mr. Bradford, we have no desire to harm the innocent."
"So, you've heard of me?" said Bradford, feeling impressed that the ninja girl knew of him.
"Only through gossip," said Miwa, "But yes, I have."
"We all have," said Raph, "Now I think it might be a good idea to take these two back to their home and then we can start our patrol of the city."
"Aww, come on," Mikey whined, "I wanted to hang with Chris some more."
"You're going home and that's final," said Raph.
"Why don't you three start your patrol now," said Donnie, "We'll catch the next bus and head home ourselves. Don't put off your patrol just because of us."
"Alright," said Leo, "If you see our other two teammates, tell them to meet at the site of our most recent fight. They'll know what that mean."
"Okay," said Donnie.
With that, the three disguised teens climbed up to the roof and jumped across others until they were out of sight. Once they were gone, Donnie and Mikey started walking out of the alley to head for the bus stop. They did not get far before Bradford stopped them.
"The next bus isn't gonna be here for at least a half hour," said Bradford, "My dojo is pretty close to the bus stop, If you two want you can hang out there until the bus shows up."
Donnie was about to decline the offer when got in the way and said, "You bet we'll go! I've always wanted to see the inside of a Bradford dojo!"
Bradford smiled at Mikey's enthusiasm and said, "Great. Let's go."
Mikey happily followed Bradford, while Donnie looked unsure about the idea. The whole point of him going was to make sure Mikey did not do anything foolish, and now they going with Chris Bradford, a complete stranger to them, to a dojo he owned.
Donnie leaned closer to Mikey and whispered to him, "Mikey, I don't think this is such a good idea. I mean, we barely know this guy."
Mikey patted Donnie on the back and said, "Donnie, you watch too many crime shows. Just stick with your big brother Mikey and everything's gonna be fine."
Donnie frowned at that last statement and said, "I'm three minutes and fourteen seconds older than you."
Mikey simply shrugged and said, "Whatever."
And with that, the teens followed the martial artist to his dojo to wait for the bus. The whole time, Bradford taught them some moves he knew.
Later, after Donnie and Mikey caught up, Leo looked at the roof of the building he and his siblings were on when they were ambushed by the ninjas from the roof of a building across from there. Donnie stood next to him as he went over the events of the previous battle.
"They probably waited for us here," said Leo, "It's the perfect place to stage an ambush."
"That wasn't very fair," said Donnie.
"It's not about being fair," Leo snapped, "It's about victory."
Donnie held up his hands in defense and said, "Okay, sorry."
Leo was about to say more when he heard still going on about the moves he learned from Chris Bradford. Raph and Miwa were starting to become more and more annoyed by the minute hearing all of this.
"And then, he let me take a picture of us together!" said Mikey, "Just wait till Jason sees it; he's gonna be so jealous. I've got it on my phone if you wanna see it."
"Enough already!" said Raph, "You've been going on about the guy ever since you and Donnie got here!"
"Oh, somebody sounds jealous," said Mikey, smirking smugly, "Just couldn't handle the fact that you guys were wrong about him."
"We're not wrong about him," said Miwa.
"That's what you think," said Mikey, "But I think Donnie and I are better qualified to judge him than you guys. Because, you know, we actually met him."
Leo turned to Donnie and asked, "What's he like?"
Donnie rubbed the back of his neck and said, "I only just met him tonight, so I don't really know what to say about him."
"You could tell them that before we left to catch the bus, Chris Bradford invited us to go back to the dojo after school tomorrow for private lessons!" said Mikey.
"What?!" Miwa, Leo, and Raph asked in surprise.
"It's true," said Donnie, "Bradford said we have potential and wanted to train us."
"There is no way you two are going!" Raph snapped.
"Will you relax?" said Mikey, "Chris is cool. And Donnie and I learned a couple of really cool moves from him. Imagine how much more we could learn that could help in our fights against the Kraang?"
Raph was about say something back when Miwa put her on his shoulder and shook her head. And then Leo stepped forward to talk to them.
"Alright, we'll let you two go," said Leo, "But you have to share whatever you learned with the rest us."
Donnie and Mikey put their left hands on their hearts, held up their right hands, and said, "We promise."
"Good," said Leo.
The next day, after school was over for the day, Donnie and Mikey headed straight for the Bradford dojo stopping only to get a pizza from Antonio's and a six pack of soda from a mini-mart. When they arrived at the dojo, Donnie and Mikey went to the upper level and found Chris punching and kicking a punching bag.
Mikey smiled brightly at Chris and said, "There's my best buddy in the whole world!"
Donnie could have sworn he heard Chris groan before he turned around with a smile and said, "Michelangelo. Mikey. The big 'M'. And I see you brought your brother with you. How are you two doing?"
"We are stupendous, Chris," said Mikey, "Chrisy B. I've gotta work on your nickname. Oh wait, I've got it. How Rad Brad?"
"Yeah, that's nice," said Chris, "You know, I was just thinking about how we're such close friends, yet I know so little about you."
Donnie raised an eyebrow and asked, "You think you and Mikey close friends?"
"Of course. You too, Donnie," said Bradford, "Now tell me everything about you. Both of you."
Donnie had a bad feeling about this situation, so he kept silent. Mikey on the other hand did not have the same feeling as Donnie and decided to answer Chris's question.
"Where do begin?" said Mikey.
"Mikey, don't!" Donnie whispered.
Mikey then smiled and said, "I've named all ten of my toes!"
Donnie looked like he was about to throw up and Chris pretended to be interested and said, "That's fascinating."
"I think you mean too much information," said Donnie.
Mikey ignored Donnie and Chris started listing his toes in order by name, "The left big toe is Stubby, and the second one is Joey Nails..."
Chris stopped him in mid-sentence and, "Actually, I was thinking more about those ninjas. You seemed to be very well acquainted with them."
"Oh, you could say that," said Mikey, and then went back to his toes introduction, "Next are the stinky triplets. Their names are..."
"Mikey, please stop!" said Donnie, "That's enough."
Mikey looked ashamed and said, "Sorry, Donnie."
Before either teen could say anything else, Bradford cleared his throat and said, "So, who's hungry?"
Mikey's head shot up and he said, "Me! We brought a pizza with us! Do you like pizza?"
"Yeah, sure," said Bradford.
"Awesome!" Mickey cheered, and then he hugged Bradford and said, "We have so much in common."
Mikey did not notice, but Bradford gulped and looked uncomfortable. Donnie noticed that, but remained silent about it.
While the trio ate lunch together, Bradford decided to try to find out more about the kids. The way he saw it, there must be some kind of connection between them and the ninjas and he wanted to know what it was. If only the kid he was asking could be a little more helpful.
"This is the life," said Mikey, "Just three dudes hanging out and eating pizza together."
"Yeah, really cool," said Bradford, sarcastically. He then turned to Donnie and asked, "So, Donnie, what exactly can you tell about those ninjas?"
Donnie got a bad feeling about Bradford and said, "Not much. Only that they protect the city in secret."
"Oh, that's brilliant," said Bradford, disappointed that he could not get any information from Donnie.
Just as Mikey was getting ready to devour another slice of pizza, he noticed a katana on display on Bradford's mental. Fascinated by the sword Mikey walked away from the pizza, straight for the sword, and looked closely at it.
"Wow," said Mikey, "Donnie, check out this katana. It looks old."
Donnie went over to look at the sword as well while Bradford explained, "Yes, it's over four-hundred years old. Now, getting back to the ninjas. How do you two know them really?"
Donnie was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the questions and wanted to get Mikey and go home before Mikey accidentally said something he should not. Luckily, Mikey had enough sense to not reveal the truth.
"Look, Rad Brad, I'd love to tell you," Mikey said, taking down the katana, "But there are some things that I have to keep secret. Donnie's the same."
Mikey unsheathed the sword, much to Bradford's shock, and started swinging it around. Donnie laughed a little as Bradford tried to get the sword out of his hands. Finally, Bradford caught Mikey's wrist and took the sword from him.
"But we're friends," said Bradford, "And friends share each other's secrets."
Donnie looked curiously at Bradford, while Mikey smiled and asked, "Does this mean you'll show us your secret kata, the Death Dragon?"
Bradford put the katana back on the mantel and said, "Tell you what, as a sign of trust and friendship, I will teach you both the Death Dragon."
Mikey's smile grew and he asked, "Really?"
Bradford turned around to face the boys and added, "But you have to swear not to show it to anyone."
Mikey held up his right hand and said, "I promise, I won't show a soul."
"Good," said Bradford, and then he turned to Donnie and asked, "And you?"
Donnie raised his right hand and said, "I promise too."
Later at the lair, Mikey and Donnie decided to show the Death Dragon to Leo, Raph, and Miwa even though they promised Bradford that they would not. As much as Mikey wanted to keep his promise to Bradford, he also remembered the promise he made to Leo about teaching the others what he and Donnie learned.
Once Mikey finished giving his demonstration, he stood proudly and smiled at his siblings.
"What do you think?" Mikey asked.
"That was amazing!" said Miwa, "I don't think I've ever seen a move like that before!"
"I think I see why Bradford keeps it a secret," said Leo, "That's a very effective and complex move."
"And yet even Mikey could learn it," said Raph, in a mocking tone.
"Thank you," said Mikey, and then he caught on to the insult, "Hey!"
Leo realized that Donnie seemed lost in thought and asked, "You okay, Donnie?"
Donnie let out a sigh and said, "I don't know, Leo. While Mikey and I were at the Bradford Dojo, Bradford kept asking all kinds of questions about you guys; your ninja selves I mean."
"Really?" Raph asked, "Like what?"
"Like who you were or how we know you," said Donnie, "Neither of us gave specific answers, but the questions made me feel really uncomfortable."
"Why do you think he wanted to know that?" Miwa asked.
Mikey simply shrugged and said, "It's a reasonable question. Who wouldn't question why three ninjas were protecting the two of us?"
Donnie sighed and said, "I guess that makes sense."
Suddenly, Mikey heard an alarm and reached into his pocket for his cell phone. He looked at his messages and smiled.
"It's Rad Brad!" said Mikey, "That's my little nickname for him. He wants to get together for a little B-Ball. Hey, Donnie, you wanna come with?"
Donnie thought for a second and then answered, "I think I should."
"Great!" said Mikey, and then he started texting and said, "I'll let him know!"
Mikey started to swiftly text Bradford a reply. When he was finished, he put his phone back in his pocket, grabbed Donnie by his arm and started pulling him away.
"Later, dudes and dudette!" said Mikey as he pulled Donnie along with him and headed for the exit.
"Wait, you two are going now?" Leo asked.
"Sorry, guys, celebrity friend stuff. You know how it is," said Mikey, "Oh, no, you don't."
Mikey laughed triumphantly and left the dojo. Donnie looked back at his older siblings and told them, "I'll watch over him." And then he followed Mikey.
After Mikey and Donnie left, Yoshi and Shen arrived at the lair to watch their children train. Upon entering the dojo, Yoshi and Shen found Miwa standing by while Leo and Raph trained together. Shen was about to ask what type of kata the boys were practicing when suddenly, Leo kicked, twisted, and swept his leg under Raph's feet, causing him to fall to the floor. Yoshi and Shen were shocked at the sight, for they recognized the technique.
"Where did you learn that?!" Yoshi furiously asked.
Leo helped Raph back up to his feet and said, "Mikey and Donnie learned it from Chris Bradford."
"He said it was a show of trust and friendship," said Miwa.
"That man is no friend of theirs or ours," said Shen, "That technique comes from the Shredder."
"What?!" Miwa asked.
"The Shredder?!" Raph added.
"Are saying that Bradford is one of his students?" Leo asked.
"He must be," said Yoshi.
"That explains why he was asking Donnie and Mikey all those questions about our ninja identities," said Miwa, "This whole time he was just pretending to be their friend in order to get to us and you, dad."
Raph growled and said, "We were right not to trust him!" and then he realized the real problem at hand, "Mikey and Donnie are in trouble! They went to go see him before you got here!"
Yoshi's eyes narrowed and he said, "Then you must go save them!"
"Way ahead of you, dad," said Leo, and then he, Miwa, and Raph ran to get their gear.
While their siblings were getting ready to come save them, Donnie and Mikey had just arrived at the Bradford dojo and were going up the stairs to meet up with Bradford. According to the message, Bradford had wanted them to meet him at the dojo and they would all go to the basketball court together.
As they went up the stairs, Donnie was starting to get a bad feeling. "Does any of this seem a little strange to you?"
"What do you mean?" Mikey asked.
"Well, he said he wanted us to meet him here, but it doesn't look like anyone's even here," said Donnie, "It just seems strange."
Mikey grinned and said, "Maybe, he planned us a surprise party!"
Mikey was about to rush ahead when Donnie stopped him and said, "I'm serious. Something about this doesn't feel right."
Finally getting what Donnie meant, Mikey looked worried and asked, "You think something happened to Rad Brad?"
Donnie looked up to the top of the stairs and said, "I don't know. But there's only one way to find out. Wait here. I'll go up first, and if it's safe, I'll signal you. If you hear anything like screaming or yelling, I want you to run away as fast as you can and find help."
"Okay," said Mikey, "Be careful, Donnie."
Donnie nodded and then snuck quietly up the stairs to the upper level. Mikey waited quietly for Donnie to give him a signal that everything was fine. He started to worry about his brother until he heard a knocking sound coming from above. He figured that this must be Donnie's signal and went up the stairs to meet up with him.
Once he reached the upper level of the dojo, Mikey called out, "Donnie, you here? Is Rad Brad alright?"
Unbeknownst to Mikey, a dark skinned man was hiding in the shadows holding Donnie back and had his hand over Donnie's mouth so he could not scream. Not only that but a large muscular figure crept up behind him and got ready to grab him. Before that could happen, Mikey heard Donnie's voice yell, "Mikey, run!"
Mikey looked behind him and saw the muscular man just in time to dodge him. He looked to the left and saw the dark skinned man holding a struggling Donnie tightly.
Mikey glared at both men and snapped, "Let my brother go! And tell me what you did with Chris!"
"Be a good boy and surrender, and your brother won't be hurt," said the muscular man, in a strangely familiar voice.
"Don't listen to him!" Donnie screamed, "Just get out of here!"
"Quiet, brat!" the muscular man snapped at Donnie. He looked back at Mikey and asked, "So, what's it gonna be?"
"No, Mikey! Don't worry about me!" Donnie screamed, "Escape while you still can!"
Mikey stood in silence and thought over the choices. If he obeyed these guys, who knows what they would do to him and Donnie. On the other hand, if he listened to Donnie and fled, then he could be leaving his brother for dead. Seeing no other way, Mikey held up his hands in surrender and allowed the muscular man to tie him up.
The dark skinned man brought Donnie over to be tied next to Mikey when Mikey asked, "Who are you?"
The muscular man laughed at Mikey and then turned to him and asked, "Haven't you figured it out yet?"
"Should I have?" Mikey asked.
"We have already met face to face," said the muscular man, "And before that, we met online. I believe I even taught you and your brother here a new move today."
Donnie and Mikey's eyes widened in shock. "No way. It can't be," said Mikey, "Rad Brad?"
The muscular man removed his helmet and revealed himself to... Chris Bradford. Bradford himself smirked and said, "I don't care for that nickname."
Mikey stared in shock at his idol. He was on the verge of tears as he said, "I thought we were friends. I shared pizza with you. We took a picture together. I even introduced you to my brother."
Bradford looked coldly at Mikey and said, "Did you really think that someone like me could ever be friends with you? You annoy me to no end! I only put up with you because I thought you might have some helpful information on those ninjas. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a waste of time because you never gave me anything useful."
Donnie glared at Bradford and snapped, "I knew you couldn't be trusted!"
Bradford turned around to face Donnie and said, "You weren't any better. Your information was vague at best." His face changed to and evil smile and he added, "But luckily, I have a backup plan."
Donnie continued to glare at Bradford and asked, "What's that?"
Bradford walked up to Donnie, got in his face, and said, "You two of course. You're going to act as bait to lure the ninjas."
"Don't stand that close to me, I can smell your breath," said Donnie, "And it smells like onions."
Bradford's partner started laughing at that statement, earning him a glare from Bradford.
"Clam it, Xever!" Bradford snapped.
"How can I not laugh?" the other man, Xever, asked, "That was hilarious!"
"I'm warning you, right now, Dirt Clod!" Bradford snapped, "If you don't shut up, I'll make you shut up!"
"Oh yeah?" Xever asked, tossing Donnie aside, "And just how do you plan to do that, Snob?"
While Bradford and Xever were bickering, Donnie decided to use this as his chance to free himself and Mikey. He untied his own ropes and then quietly snuck over to Mikey and untied him; Bradford and Xever were so focused on their own fight that they did not notice what was going on. After Donnie untied Mikey, they started to sneak away quietly to the staircase. By the time Xever noticed that the boys were escaping, they had already started going down the stairs.
The brothers ran out of the dojo as fast as they could and made to the streets. Donnie led the way to an alley where they went down a manhole into the sewers. What they had failed to realize was that Bradford and Xever had been following them and saw them go underground. Donnie and Mikey ran through the sewers together until Donnie heard footsteps coming from ahead of them. They quickly hid in a side tunnel and waited to see who it was. To their relief, it was their older brothers and sister. Donnie assumed that they were heading to the dojo to help him and Mikey.
"Guys, we're here!" Donnie called.
The three ninjas looked back and saw Donnie and Mikey standing not far away. Donnie waved at them while Mikey smiled happily. Leo, Miwa, and Raph ran to them and started looking them over.
"Are you two okay?" Leo asked in concern, "Bradford didn't hurt you, did he?"
Donnie shook his head and said, "No, we're okay. But finding out his true colors did do a number on Mikey."
Mikey frowned and said, "He told me that he never really thought of me as a friend. He was only hanging out with me and Donnie to get info from us. But when we didn't give him anything useful, he decided to hold us hostage to lure you into a trap."
"But, luckily, he and his partner, Xever, didn't seem to get along," said Donnie, "I was able to use their fighting as a distraction from Mikey and me escaping."
Raph smiled at his little brother and said, "Nice thinking."
Donnie smiled and said, "It's what I do best."
"But wait," said Miwa, "There might be a chance that they noticed you two escaped and went looking for you."
"If that's the case, then they may already know we're down here," said Donnie.
Leo grinned at the knowledge and said, "But they don't know these tunnels like we do. So, I'd say we have the upper hand."
Raph smiled and said, "And we have two more ninjas with us this time than we did the last time we met him."
Realizing what Raph was implying, Miwa laughed and led her two youngest brothers to the place where they had stashed extra ninja gear. Donnie and Mikey changed into the gear and listened to Leo's plan of attack.
Meanwhile, Bradford and Xever, along with several Foot ninjas, were walking through the sewers trying to find any signs of Donnie and Mikey; if they did not find the kids, then their trap would fail. Unfortunately, the sewers were full of several tunnels, so they kept on losing their way or forgetting where they had been and gone around in circles.
They did not seem to notice that their Foot ninjas were disappearing into the shadows one by one. The reason for that was because the ninja teens grabbed them and pulled them away. This kept up until it was down to just Bradford and Xever.
Bradford and Xever eventually found themselves at a waterfall and noticed that their ninjas were gone. Xever lit up a torch and saw the Foot ninjas unconscious and hanging from the ceiling.
"Show your faces!" Xever shouted.
Right after Xever shouted, Miwa and Raph came up from the water, followed by Donnie and Mikey from the shadows. Finally, Leo appeared from above and stood in front of Xever and Bradford.
The ninja teens unsheathed their weapons and Leo said to Bradford and Xever, "You two have got a lot of nerve trying to hold two kids hostage just to trap us."
"And to think one of them actually idolized you!" Mikey snapped at Bradford.
"I'm guessing the brats told you about that," said Bradford.
"That's correct," said Miwa, "So, if it's a fight you want, that's what you'll get."
"Sounds good to me," said Xever.
With that, Bradford and Xever charged at the ninja teens and the teens charged at them. Bradford fought Leo and Raph, while Xever's opponents were Miwa, Donnie and, Mikey. Leo and Raph had a hard time matching Bradford's speed and strength and their attacks were blocked and deflected back to them. Miwa, Donnie and, Mikey were not having an easier time fighting Xever since he was agile and it did not help that he at one point used Donnie as a weapon. Seeing their problem, the ninjas tricked Xever and Bradford into following them so that the two teams could switch opponents. Leo and Raph over powered Xever and Miwa, Donnie, and Mikey outsmarted Bradford.
To finish them, Mikey used the Death Dragon on Bradford and Raph punched Xever in the face. The two evil ninjas were back to back sitting in front of a waterfall, but did not realize it until they saw Leo and Donnie turn a valve. The next thing they knew, they were screaming their heads off while being swept away by raw sewage. The ninja teens watched the whole thing with smiles on their faces.
"Well, that wasn't very fair," said Raph.
"No it wasn't," said Leo, and then they all laughed and high-fived each other.
Later after they got home, the teens changed out of their ninja garb and celebrated their victory with a pizza. Donnie noticed that his parents were not eating and looked troubled by something.
"Mom, dad, aren't you guys hungry?" he asked.
"I fear we may be celebrating too soon," said Yoshi.
"What're you talking about?" Raph asked, "The bad guys got swept away in river of raw sewage. I'd say now's the perfect time to celebrate."
Shen shook her head and said, "You don't understand. The Shredder knows that we are here in the city."
"Worse than that, if he knows that Miwa, Leonardo, your mother and I are here, then it is only a matter of time before he finds out about you, Donatello, and Michelangelo," said Yoshi, "It is my worst fear come true."
Leo looked worried and asked, "So, it's not over?"
"No," said Yoshi, "I fear this is only the beginning."
"For right now, I believe we have another problem to fix," said Shen, gesturing to Donnie and Mikey's room.
Knowing that Shen was referring to Mikey, the family went to his room to check on him. They found him lying on his stomach on his bed and looking at Chris Bradford's myface page on Donnie's computer. He was visibly sad as he stared at the screen.
Shen sat down next to Mikey and asked him, "How are feeling, Michelangelo?"
Mikey looked up at his mother and said, "This was all my fault. I never should've thought Bradford could be my friend."
"Oh, Sweetie, come here," Shen said and then pulled her youngest son into a hug, "It's alright, what happened was not your fault. Bradford was the one who took advantage of you."
"Yeah, but I was the one who believed him," said Mikey.
"Only because he told you things that you wanted to hear," said Miwa, "It's easy to misread a person's true nature when you want something to be true."
"I still can't believe he called me annoying right to my face," said Mikey.
"Come on, Mikey, don't worry about what he thinks," said Raph, "He's a psychotic killing machine. You're an awesome guy."
"If Bradford can't see that, then that's his problem," said Leo.
"You have a lot of friends, Mikey," said Donnie, "Online and in real life. And they're all much better than Bradford."
Mikey smiled at what his family told him and came to a realization. "You're right guys," said Mikey, "I think it's time to do something that I should've done a long time ago."
Mikey turned back to the computer and pressed some keys. Once he pretty the left mouse key, the word 'unfriend' appeared in front of Chris Bradford's picture. Mikey then turned back to his family and joined them for pizza. Even though they knew they would have to face the Foot Clan eventually, tonight the Hamato family was happy to be together for pizza.