Chapter 3: Waking up in Paradise

Don't move...

Don't twitch even a single muscle...

It was like a lightswitch in my brain was flipped, and suddenly I was awake, instincts screaming at me that I wasn't at home, and I wasn't alone.

There were voices talking nearby.

Who were they? Where was I?

I was laying on my plastron, eyes still closed. If I moved, whoever was out there would realize I was awake. I needed time to figure out what was going on first. I needed to pretend to still be unconscious.

...Ow.

I realized my left shoulder and shell kinda hurt.

"Do you have any fours?"

Huh. I vaguely remembered that young man's voice talking to me while I was drugged. It was a quiet, smooth voice.

"Nope! Go Fish." a cheerful voice chirped out.

Humans. There were humans in the room with me. And they sounded like they were close. Thankfully, it didn't seem like they realized I was awake yet, and I intended to keep it that way as long as I could.

I concentrated on my surroundings, trying to learn what I could without moving and my eyes still closed.

A familiar weight was gone from my shell, so my swords were gone. Not terribly unexpected, given the circumstances. Had the bounty hunters taken them, or these new humans?

Other then my sore shoulder, I felt fairly comfortable, so I didn't think I was too badly injured. I also didn't feel any ropes or shackles, and I didn't seem to be restrained in any way, which surprised me quite a bit. I had been terrified that I was going to wake up strapped down to a medical exam table in some lab, if I ever woke up again at all. Perhaps I was in a cage? It felt like I was laying on a padded mat, and I was warm, which was a nice change from the cold chill that had been a constant for weeks now outside on the streets. There was even a pillow under my head, along with what felt like a smaller, fluffier cushion of some sort tucked under my right arm.

That puzzled me for a moment. It was my left arm that was hurting, so why did they put a cushion under my right arm? It didn't feel like a square pillow, but was rather oddly shaped, soft and lumpy and...

Wait... Was I holding a stuffed animal? Somebody had given me a stuffed toy of some sorts?

Um... Why?

"Do you have any... sixes?" The cheerful voice asked.

There was a pause.

"Dammit." a different low, gruff voice grumbled unhappily.

"Hee!" the cheerful voice beamed, and there was the sound of cards being passed.

Where were we? What did these human want with me?

And... and just what exactly did they do to me while I had been unconscious?

My stomach clenched as I suddenly recognized the sharp and unpleasant scents of disinfectants, ointments, and other medical odors on my skin. I felt my scales rise, and I struggled to keep my breathing calm.

Oh gods... just how many humans had poked and prodded me while I was drugged and asleep, pawing over my body like some medical curiosity? How many blood and tissue samples had they taken? How many scans and x rays had they run on my unconscious form, with charts and pictures of my skeletal structure and inner workings on the walls and desks for them to analyze?

"Hm? Oh!" the smooth voice suddenly perked up, apparently he took notice. "Hey... Hey guys! I think Leo's waking up!"

I inwardly cursed myself. I had started to let fear take over and lost control, and what little element of surprise I had was now gone. I couldn't afford to be so weak!

And there was the creak of metal folding chairs as the three humans quickly scrambled up to their feet.

"Wait, shit? Really? About time!" the gruff voice sounded suddenly interested.

"Oh my gosh! Yesss! Leo! Finally!"

Crap. They were going to come over here! With my cover of seeming unconsciousness blown, I let my eyes blink open to see just exactly where 'here' was while I could.

I... what?

I blinked in confusion.

Just... where was I?!

Of all the things I expected to see, finding myself in the middle of a huge, lush indoor garden was not it. There was a canopy of emerald leaves created by large, towering trees overhead, and a thick carpet of grass underfoot. It looked like I was laying on a futon in the middle of a meadow at the edge of a carefully tended for grove of trees. Flowers were everywhere, both scattered in the field and in elaborate flowerbeds, and nearby, a small artificial waterfall stirred the waters of a decent sized pond covered peacefully in floating lilies.

And yet... surrounding this large, three story tall fairy tale garden I found myself in were walls. Towering, solid walls all around me, leading up to a ceiling covered in artificial lights. Despite the trees and plants and grass, we were very obviously and very securely indoors. There were no windows, no openings, and the only door I could see, a double glass door set into a wall at the end of a pretty cobblestone walkway, looked like it was covered with secure electronic locks.

This was indeed a paradise.

And it was also a cage.

I turned my head to study my apparent captors as they eagerly approached me.

Once before I had been captured by humans. Back then, I had thought for sure that if the humans only knew that I could talk and think and reason just like them, they would realize that I was a living, breathing person and then they would treat me with more dignity and kindness.

I had been little more a child then, and hopelessly naive when it came to humans.

No, when they had learned I could talk, a nice nurse sat down and talked kindly with me for hours. I had thought I had found a friend, and opened my heart to her. And she then turned around and handed off everything she had learned to the head scientist for study. My intelligence was seen as little more then a scientific curiosity, and the more I tried to show them that I was sentient and had feelings, the more tests were run to see just how similar to humans I actually was.

No. I knew better now. The best way to survive and escape was to hide as much of myself from my captors as I could, and keep the humans as clueless as possible. If I convinced these humans that I was nothing more then a dumb, simple turtle for now, then they wouldn't be expecting a skilled, dangerous ninja to make an escape later.

I kept my face expressionless as I watched them stop a few yards away, obviously noticing that they made me nervous and thankfully willing to give me space. They were younger then I was expecting, still only teenagers. Three brothers from the look of it.

The tallest and oldest looking, dressed in a purple kimono, was tall, thin, and willowy, with long, smooth black hair pulled back in a neat ponytail and a set of fancy goggles resting on top of his head and a belt of gadgets around his waist. He looked to be about nineteen, almost an adult, but not quite. He had a gap between his front two teeth, and his mahogany eyes were sharp and intelligent.

Next to him, dressed in a red t-shirt and ripped black jeans, stood what I assumed was his younger brother, looking to be about seventeen. He was a bit shorter, but much broader and more muscular, built like a boxer. His black hair was short and spiked up, with the tips dyed as red as his clothing, and it was obvious that his nose had been broken once or twice in his life already. He moved with the certainty and sureness of a born fighter, and his hazel eyes gleamed with eagerness and confidence.

The third human was obviously the youngest, only about fifteen, and was dressed in an oversized, baggy orange long-sleeve shirt that almost fell over his hands. His messy, wild hair, unlike his brothers, was an almost white blonde, bleached, judging by the dark roots, and almost looked fluffy. He looked and moved almost like an excited puppy dog, eagerly grinning and almost bounding across the grass. His eyes, unlike his two brothers's brown eyes, were a shade of blueish grey. Almost... almost the same shade as my own.

I gently nudged aside the stuffed teddy bear that I had apparently been given to sleep with and slowly pushed myself up into a crouching position to face them, favoring my sore left shoulder. Without thinking, I instinctively reached over with my right hand to support the apparently injured limb, and was startled to feel jagged edges on my shell where it should have been smooth. Alarmed, I twisted about and a sharp wave of nausea hit me as I saw a large, ugly gouge scarring the top left of my shell.

How... My shell was broken!

"It's okay, Leonardo..." Purple spoke up soothingly, and I whipped my head quickly back around to stare at them, nostrils nervously flaring. Purple held up his hands in a calming gesture."You're going to be okay. The damage isn't severe." He sighed and looked at me apologetically. "I can't tell you how sorry I am. Unfortunately, the agency we hired to find you proved to be far more careless and forceful then we anticipated, and your shell took some damage when you fell off of a roof when they tranquilized you."

"Donnie fixed it up as best as he could though, bro." Orange tried to reassure me. "He's super good at that sort of stuff!"

"Yeah, those assholes completely screwed up everything." Red growled, and then he looked at me, and his voice suddenly became quiet and surprisingly gentle for all its gruffness. "We never meant for you to get hurt. Never! We just wanted to find you. We brought you here to take care of you and keep you safe."

I kept a blank face as I eyed these three humans, giving absolutely no sign that I was comprehending anything they were saying. They were obviously trying to gain my trust, to lower my guard, but why? What did they want with a mutant turtle?

Speaking of my turtleness...

I let my eyes shift to the side to glance at pond and then flicked back to the humans.

"I'm Michelangelo, by the way." Orange beamed an eager, friendly grin. "This meathead is Raphael," he pointed at Red, "and this is our big genius brother Donatello." Purple nodded in acknowledgment. Michelangelo put his hands behind his head and rocked on his heels playfully. "But you can call us Mikey, Raph, and Donnie if you want. That's a lot easier! Is your name still Leonardo? Can we call you Leo?"

I hesitantly took a few steps back and, when they didn't stop me, I quietly slunk over to the pond and slipped in, sending smooth ripples bouncing across the pond water. A minute later, I surfaced once more under the small wooden dock that extended a few feet into the pond, my nostrils spraying a little water as I exhaled. Keeping my whole being low and mostly submerged underwater, I kept only my eyes and nostrils above the water's surface as I watched them warily from under the deep shadows of the low wooden planks above me.

Mikey paused in his rocking and lowered his hands, looking concerned at his brothers. "Did... did I say something wrong?"

"Crap." Raph exhaled, and ran his hand over his face, then glanced at the other two.

Donnie sighed and slowly walked up to the edge of the pond with the other two close behind. "Listen, we owe you an explanation, obviously." Donnie rubbed the back of his head, before he knelt down at the muddy edge and resting on his heels. "About, well, everything. Who you are, where you are, and why we were looking for you." He rested his arms on his thighs and sighed, before looking up at where I was half hidden in the water. "Well, first off, we're in the private quarters of the main Hamato Clan complex in New York City. This is a secure location, and we're safe here. I... I don't know how much you know about your past and who you are..." He paused to study me for a moment, searching for some form of response.

I only eyed him warily from my watery hiding place.

Donnie swallowed hard at my lack of response, then shook his head. "Well, let me start at the beginning, then. Twelve years ago, our father, Hamato Yoshi, bought you from a store, intending you to be a pet for us. Unfortunately..." He paused and winced painfully. "There... there was an accident." All three brothers grew somber. "We... we never found what exactly happened to you in the aftermath. All we knew was you were gone." Donnie looked back up at me, his voice growing more steady as he continued. "But then, six years ago, we were approached by some agents from the Earth Protection Force. The EPF."

It took every ounce of my willpower not to tense up at that name, to not show any hint of recognition on my face.

"They were looking for our father." Donnie continued. "We couldn't figure out why they wanted him, but thankfully, as one of the largest ninja clans, we weren't without some means of protecting our own. We not only able to force them to abandon their attempts to take our father from us, but, in the aftermath, we managed to snag some documents to find out exactly what they were looking for." He looked up at me seriously. "And that's how we learned about you."

I didn't acknowledge his words in any way. I could not panic now. I had to keep calm. I had to keep my expression completely blank.

"What we learned from those pilfered EPF reports was actually rather startling." Donnie shifted back to his story, turning more into Fascinated Scientist mode. "You see, there's this mysterious alien chemical, known only as mutagen. I... I'm afraid I haven't quite figured out what exactly it is or where it came from, but from what I understand, when it comes in contact with an organism, it combines their original DNA with the residual DNA from the last living thing they had been in contact with. Somehow, you must have had encountered this mutagen." Donnie swallowed. "And apparently the last living thing that had touched you... was our father. That was why the EPF was interested in our father. They managed to trace the human DNA in your blood to him."

"Leonardo... do you understand what that means?" Raphael stepped forward, crouching down as well and looking at me seriously. "That means our Dad's blood runs through your veins, just as surely as it runs through our own."

Mikey spread out his hands warmly towards me. "Leo... it means that you are our brother!"