Note: Some elements in this chapter refer to Tyroth Darkstorm's one-shot fic 'Stories Between Friends' so you may wish to read that before going any further in this chapter.
Chapter Ten
Finding the Words
Meanwhile, Jake was in his allocated room, still trying to write a letter to his dad. He was running out of ideas and he knew he was running out of time too since he only had 48 hours before he and Callum were supposed to be flying back to Wisconsin.
He scribbled a few notes then screwed up the paper and threw it to the side, he was feeling so frustrated.
"Maybe I should just tell dad we're staying in New York longer?" he thought "But then he'll want to know why? But what can I tell him? Maybe I could say that Callum's still chasing Ghosts, but I can't keep lying to him forever! And I have to let work know as well!"
He grasped his hair in stress and groaned loudly.
"Shit!" he growled "What can I write? What can I tell dad?" he screwed up the last piece of paper and threw the pen down in frustration.
Unable to think any-more, he decided to go for a walk to clear his head, lifting his glasses and rubbing his eyes, he stood up from the bed and walked out of his room.
As he exited his room, he saw three male mutants, a grey wolf, a shark and a grasshopper walking ahead and were talking together.
"...I wonder how our guests are doing?" the grasshopper was asking.
"George took the Raven on a tour of our home." the wolf said "He said Callum was very quiet, but he seems calm after what happened earlier."
"Never heard such a reaction from a new mutant before." the Shark was saying "Well I don't blame the guy, yet he was rather harsh to Mona and his brother."
Jake narrowed is eyes and walked a little closer so he could hear what they were talking about.
"You got that right!" The Wolf agreed "I wonder how he is now?"
"Guess we'll find out later," the Grasshopper said, then he looked over his shoulder and almost hopped into the air when he saw Jake walking over behind him.
"Yikes! Oh hey Master Freeman! Didn't see you there!"
The Shark and Wolf looked behind him and also saw Jake.
"Oh hey Jake!" the wolf grinned in a guilty tone.
"Hey." said Jake then paused as he tried to remember the names of the mutants before him.
"How's your room?" asked The Shark, also grinning showing all his teeth, yet Jake didn't act scared as he had met the Shark before when they first arrived in Mutopia.
"It was alright thanks..." He replied "Um..."
"Sharky!" The Shark chuckled "I know what you're thinking, unoriginal, but I love it!"
"I'm Jack!" The Wolf volunteered "And that's Percy!" he gestured to the grasshopper.
"I remember you guys from the previous night." Jake said "Forgive me for not remembering your names."
"It's okay!" Jack smiled "It takes a while, but you'll soon remember everyone!"
"How you finding Mutopia?" asked Sharky.
"It's rather..." Jake hesitated "Rather...wow! If those are the right words, I never imagined there would be a village under a city! And I thought I was shocked to see the Turtles and Mona's Lair back in New York."
"We were just as surprised when we first found this place." Percy said "But we love it here! We got friends, family, and there's tones of fun to be had!" he added with a smile.
"How did you lot end up here?" asked Jake, he wanted something to take his mind off the headaches he was getting from trying to write to his father.
"Oh man, those are some stories to tell!" Jack said with a grin.
"Yeah!" Sharky said "Take hours to tell!"
"What are you doing anyways?" asked Percy "You going anywhere?"
"I'm not sure." Jake said "I was just taking a walk, I'm trying to figure out what to say to my family about Callum..."
"Oh boy!" Sharky said in a worried tone "I can see that's plaguing you!"
"You have no idea." Jake said in a low tone running his hand over his hair.
"Hey! I got an idea!" Percy piped up "You want to come with us to the Training room, we normally do our fighting practice at this time with the girls, you want to join us?"
Jake thought for a moment, he had been told about the Chicago Knights before, if only briefly and he was curious to see their fighting styles, after what he had seen with the turtles and Mona.
"Sure!" he said, "Just let me return to my room and get a couple of things!"
"Okay." said Percy "I better go and get the girls! I wonder if Kate's still romping with Michelangelo?"
"Percy!" Jack said.
"I think you should stay with Jack and wait for Jake to return." said Sharky "I'll go and get the girls!"
"Aww!" Percy sighed disappointed.
"We keep telling you about how Kate reacts if you try and interrupt her time with Mikey! You should respect their space when they want some alone time!"
"Yes boss!" Percy moaned making Jake chuckle slightly as he went back to his room.
Before long, Sharky had gathered up Heather the Dragonfly, Kate the Viper, Amber the Marine Iguana and Sarah the Cheetah to start their training.
Kate was a little annoyed she had to do training, as she had been in the rec room with Michelangelo and Donatello but she knew she had to practice training and had left her disappointed boyfriend in the rec room though Donatello cheered Michelangelo up with some video games before Kate left.
The girls were pleased to have someone joining them as they lead Jake to the Training room, throughout the journey, Jake had looked at the area around him, he been given a brief tour and he was looking forward to seeing what more he could see.
"Have you fought before?" Jack asked Jake as they walked into one of the tunnels.
"I have yes." Jake said "I took a few classes, and there have been times I've been in a few fights, as well as had to prepare myself."
"Did you learn anything from Mona?" asked Percy.
"I did yes." Jake said "I learnt some moves from her, and I still took self defence classes even after she disappeared, I never thought I would have to use them, but I did end up putting them into practice when Callum went off the rails."
The Chicago Knights went quiet for a second, they had been give a brief story by Tyroth and Sephie when the Turtles, Splinter, Mona and the Freeman brothers arrived, but were told not to talk about it unless Jake or Mona wanted to talk to them about it.
At the same time they arrived at the training room and Jack turned on the lights.
"What happened?" asked Sarah chewing her lip.
Jake sighed, he was almost sick of telling the same story over and over but he knew it had to be told, and he spoke of what had happened back at home after Mona had vanished, that Callum had gone off the rails and had gotten into fights at school and then started smoking and drinking as well as taking drugs.
When he spoke about the drugs, he saw Sharky's eyes blaze and he clenched his teeth, for the Shark hated drugs with a passion, having been on the receiving end of them in his human life he used his new form to stop people taking drugs and dealing them.
Jake then spoke of his mother's death and how Callum refused to speak to their father after he had re-married.
"Jesus!" Heather said sadly.
Percy looked down, his happy-go-lucky personality dampening as he heard the sad story.
"That's awful." Sarah said.
"I lost my mother too." Sharky said "Well, I barely knew her, I was just a kid."
"We're sorry about that Jake." said Kate comfortingly, she had been given the full story by Michelangelo, though the orange masked turtle told her not to say anything and she had kept her word.
"Losing mum was heartbreaking." Jake said sadly "But I had to keep it together, I promised dad I would make sure Callum was alright, but I feel like I've let him down, after everything that's happened..."
"You shouldn't think that way man!" Jack said "You did all you could for your brother!"
"I can't help but think maybe I could have been less hard on him, then again maybe I should have been harder on him, then maybe none of this would have happened! He wouldn't have gotten caught by the Purple Dragons, and drugged up on Meth! Maybe he hadn't have left the lair and ended up in the hands of the Foot!"
He then told the Knights of how he, Splinter and Callum had been confronted by Hun, and how he had killed the Gang Lord, but how Nile Monitor and Cobra had found them and kidnapped them leading to Callum being impaled by the Shredder and how the Well was the only thing to save him.
The Knights were indeed shocked and amazed at the fact that Jake had killed Hun, even though they never met the dangerous Purple Dragon Leader, they had been told about him, as well as horrified at the events that lead to them having to bring Callum to Mutopia.
"Tyroth and Sephie did give us the short story." Amber said "But all you've told us now, it's shocking."
Jake nodded.
"You did a good deed to New York!" Jack said "Killing a Crime Lord! Even if the Law thinks otherwise!"
"It was him or Splinter." Jake said "I had to."
"Good riddance I say!" Kate said giving Jake a wink "You did everyone a favour!"
"Agreed!" Sharky said with a nod.
"It was terrifying." Jake said "The whole ordeal! But now, it's not just Callum getting used to his mutation I have to worry about, its what I'm going to say to dad, and the rest of the family, I haven't got long now, and they think I'll be returning to Wisconsin in two days."
"Yikes!" Percy said "That's worrying."
"I haven't a clue what to tell him! I can't tell him about this place! Or the fact Callum's mutated! He'll never believe me!"
Sarah bit her lip as she looked at Jake.
"I can delay it." Jake said, his voice lightening up "I plan to email dad and say that me and Callum are staying in New York longer, but he'll soon want to know why it's taking so long for us to return home, and I'll need to think of something to say...but what?"
The Knights looked at each other in worry.
"This is a tough one!" said Jack.
The others agreed, though Sarah looked at the floor then at Jake who rubbed his eyes under his glasses.
After a few minutes, Jack looked at Jake again.
"Listen mate." he said "Why don't you join us here for a while? If there's something that can clear the head, it's training!"
"Yeah!" said Kate "Always helps me when I need to let off steam!" she eyed Percy who stepped back a little in slight worry.
"Sure." Jake said "I need something else to think about."
"Maybe you could show us a few moves too!" said Amber "I'd love to see what you've learnt before?"
"Very well." Jake said as he walked over to the side of the training room to take off his shoes and Jacket and the Chicago Knights began to get ready to do some warm ups.
As Jake removed his jacket, he revealed his holster and gun to which the Knights stared in shock.
"Holy Shit!" Heather cried "Is that...?"
Jake turned to face them and nodded.
"Yeah," he said "It's the gun I used to kill Hun." He then explained how he had purchased the gun due to Drug Dealers chasing Callum and how he had never used it until the day he killed Hun and how he had had it confiscated by Cobra but how he had managed to swipe it when they escaped the Boathouse.
"I also used it to kill some of the Foot ninja before Cobra and Nile Monitor kidnapped us." Jake continued, he ejected the mag showing them it wasn't loaded then placed it back in it's holster "Like with Hun, it was either them or me, Splinter and Callum, except there were many of them and only three of us."
"The Foot are dishonourable bastards!" Sarah said as she spun her tonfas and the others agreed.
Jack was a little worried seeing the gun since he had spent a lot of his life around gangsters, guns and other weapons before he became what he was, being a gangster himself in his human life, and he was curious to see how Jake could hold his own.
"Okay Jake." he said as he did a little jogging on the spot "Let's see what you can do!"
So Jake's hanging with the Chicago Knights for a while as he tries to think of what to write to his father, will he ever think of anything to write? And it's been revealed he managed to swipe his gun!
I wonder how he'll get on with the Chicago Knights and what moves will he show them? Well, keep checking in dear readers!