The Spark

Chapter 5: Erudition or Tradition?

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Fox had a love-hate relationship with their ninjitsu training. The young turtle understood the practicality of it, and that it was a familial tradition of some sort. He knew that training kept their bodies young, agile, and lethal, and that if anything were to happen, they could take care of business. However, training also meant that he had to endure hours of not being as physically gifted as his other three brothers. Training also meant that he couldn't spend time alone doing whatever he wanted to do in his quiet crawl space.

Today was no different.

As he attempted a new aerial kick that their father had just taught them, he fell unceremoniously onto his shell for the fourth time in a row. Laughter from two of his three other brothers filled the dojo, echoing off the walls like a the metallic balls inside of a pinball machine. Looking over to the sidelines where his brothers and father were sitting, he felt a familiar warm sensation creep up on his face as he sat there in shame. Mikey was on his back rolling with laughter while tears of joy streamed down his young face. Skull tried to hold back his giggles, but he was failing miserably. He didn't blame those two for laughing, his attempts were too pathetic for their sympathy. Leo sat in silence, with a look that combined both disappointment and amusement.

The reaction of his father made him the most uncomfortable and insecure. His father sat in silence, his face blank, eyes emotionless. If Fox didn't know any better, he could have sworn that his father was staring through him, probably looking for a son that could perform as well as the other three. After minutes of enduring the embarrassment, his father finally stood.

"Boys," he yelled, facing the three young turtles on the sidelines, "enough!"

His loud voice chocked the laughter immediately, making everything fall silent. The world seemed to stop in that moment. They all knew that their father meant business. Mikey slowly moved into a seated position, and Leo quickly straightened up his already perfect posture. Skull tried to look unfazed, but even he still shifted uncomfortably under their fathers firm gaze. Slowly, their father moved away from the sideline to the center of the dojo where Fox sat, still in the same awkward position that he landed in.

His father stood above him, looking down at the tangled mess that was his son. Closing his eyes and shaking his head, he silently motioned for the young boy to move to the chair that rested off of the mat.

Sighing, Fox pushed himself into a standing position and bowed to his father. Walking towards the edge of the mat, he turned and bowed again. Sitting down the the chair, he pulled his knees up to his chest, and rested his chin on his knees.

He was in the chair of shame, as his brother Mikey liked to call it, and he was done for the days session.

He watched as his father motioned for the other three to attempt the kicks again. Fox couldn't help but feel jealousy, they were all remarkable. Mikey was the first one to attempt the kick and he got it perfectly on his first try. He was a natural athlete, and really thrived when it came to physical feats. His agility, speed, and, and grace made everything he did seem effortless. If he was more disciplined and focused in practice, he would be an even more phenomenal ninja.

Leo was the second one to master the kick. It took him a couple of tries. He is a perfectionist, and always had been. He thinks about every move to is last detail, even the most simplest. Once he mastered the kick, the beauty and power in his form was unmatchable. As he landed after another perfect execution, he slowly bowed to Master Splinter who returned a bow to Leo.

Skull was the last to execute the kick perfectly, and there was a fierceness about it. It was still slightly sloppy, and did not have as much finesse as his other two brothers, but making things look pretty was never his first concern. Like their robberies and looting, Skull was always about making things quick and effective.

As he sat, and watched his brothers succeed at every task their father threw at them within their first attempts, the image of the book that he checked out from Ed at the library worked its way into his thoughts. He remembered every detail about the outward appearance of the book, down to every scuff or mark, even the smell.

Closing his eyes, he smiled and mentally thumbed through the pages that he already read. He felt his heart race as he remembered the chapter on electricity word for word. He loved learning about how electricity is measured in amperes, but when there is potential electric energy the measurement is converted to volts. He hugged his legs tighter as he recalled one fact about electricity that surprised even him. In the book, there was an image of the world taken from space. Under the image were facts about the speed of electricity.

Supposedly, electricity travels 186,000 miles per second, which was pretty dang fast!

He smiled, while letting one of his legs dangle off of the chair. Looking at his foot, he was yet again lost in deep thought. If I could travel that fast, Fox thought, calculating to himself, in theory I could go possibly run around the world 8 times in the same time it takes to flip a light switch. Smiling as his mind buzzed with information, he didn't notice that his father was steadily moving towards him. He had already dismissed his other three sons for the day.

It took his father shouting his name five times before Fox realized he was being spoken to. Sheepishly, he looked up at his father straightening himself up.

"Donatello," his father spoke softly, "this is exactly why I wanted to talk to you. You have been awfully distracted lately, and I am afraid that it is starting to make itself apparent in all aspects of your life. You are missing at most meals, you daydream during your lessons, and today," his fathered sighed, closing his eyes and resting his hand on his furry temple, "you came no where near executing the kick."

Looking away, Fox muttered under his breath, annoyance slowly working its way into his mind.

"Did you have something to add, my son?" his father questioned.

"Maybe I just suck, father" Fox spat, heated. He didn't want to be reminded of his shortcomings, he was already aware of them. If this was going to turn into a laundry list of ways he could improve sort of discussion, he wanted no part of it.

He just wanted to get back to his book.

He wanted to go back to his crawl space and read until his eyes gave up on him. He wanted to learn. His mind was a well that was nowhere being filled. This book, as well as the others in the library offered him gallons of information that could quench his everlasting thirst.

"My son," the rat exhaled clearly exhausted, "you are not as bad as you think you may be. I feel as if you compare yourself to your brothers a little too much. You all have your strengths as well as areas that need improvement."

Fox looked away as his father placed a gentle hand on his tense shoulder, "please try to make tomorrow a better day. Be attentive in everything you do so that you can unlock the potential that I know is within you. You are dismissed"

Stiffly standing up, Fox gave his father a quick bow, and hurried out of the dojo. He raced past his fathers disapproving glance. He wanted to put as much distance between himself and the lurking guilt that clung to the air. He ran past Skull who quickly reminded him of their plan for tonight. Stiffly, he nodded towards his brother and told him he would be ready. Moving again, he didn't even look over his shoulder when Leo and Mikey asked him to join them on the couch for a movie. He kept moving, fleeing from everything with one destination in his mind.

Once he reached his crawl space, he quickly pushed the rock aside and crawled in. Hastily, he set it back in its place. Flipping on the flashlight, he hurriedly crawled to the farthest corner of the small room. Laying on the pile of blankets, he silently grabbed the book that Ed let him borrow from his library, and opened it to the chapter that he had yet to begin. Looking at the page, he became disheartened. The words written on the page were not making sense, and the frustration that had been building up in his body for years decided to make its debut. Biting down on his quivering lip until he tasted a thick coppery liquid, he fought to breath. The air felt dense and scarce, his chest felt heavy. Focusing on understanding the words, he began to slowly make out the title between his bouts of gasping.

This chapter was entitled Nuclear Energy. He heard about nuclear energy once or twice before, and fought hard to begin the first paragraph. Tears welled up in his eyes and freely crashed into the thin pages. The pitter patter of his tears raining down on the book and his short gasp filled the small room in a pathetic melody.

As he read and fought to breathe, he felt incredibly alone and cold. An irrelevant speck in a desolated wasteland. An individual who couldn't relate, with no real purpose in life to accomplish. His efforts were fruitless, and the execution of every task that he tried to complete left disappointment and destruction in its wake.

Pulling his knees closer to his chest, and bringing the book closer to his wet face, Fox dove head first into the words that filled its pages. Letting go of everything, he let his mind immerse itself in the bountiful information. The facts surrounded him, lifting him up to a realm of complexity that needed to be understood. He felt reality slipping as he desperately tried to absorb every word the book had to offer him.

He could do this, this was easy. This was his life, hidden even further from the world than his family. His life alone, tucked away in a corner where the mysteries of the world could be explored in depth.

Fox woke up to the sound of his small alarm beeping. Rolling to his side, his face smacked into the cold wall. He forgot that he had fallen asleep in his crawl space. Picking up the book that rested in his hand, he carefully marked his place, and placed it gently to the side. Crawling out of the small room, he quietly tiptoed to his bedroom. Throwing on his pants, shoes, trench coat, and hat, he slowly made his way to the entrance of their home. It was the middle of the night and everyone was sleeping. Skull thought it would be better for them to leave without anyone knowing because it would cause less of a commotion. He was tired of Splinter questioning their actions.

Once he exited their lair, he saw Skull sitting on a pile of discarded crates off to the side. He was playing with a lighter. Opening the small metallic machine, and having it fall shut with a loud metallic click. Once he saw Fox emerge from the shadows, he smiled.

"For a second there, I thought you chickened out," he said with a smirk.

"Sorry, I overslept."

"Thats fine," Skull said patting him on the shell, "you ready?"

"Yes."

"Alright, then what are we doing here standing with our thumbs up our asses, lets go!"

The two boys ran. They knew that time was never on their side. Their father and oldest brother were early risers, and they had to be back in the lair before they awoke. The sounds of their footsteps bounced off the walls of the sewer, echoing into the seemingly endless darkness. As they reached the ladder that would take them to their destination, the two young turtles climbed up to the surface world in silence.

The streets of New York city were dead, which was ironic because it was supposedly the city that doesn't sleep. As Skull looked around, Fox watched him and waited for his instructions. Noticing a large billboard that was anchored to a building, Skull whistled and pointed. Fox nodded and obediently followed behind his elder brother as they carefully scaled the building. Wordlessly, they arrived to the landing and were within arms reach of the blank canvas.

Skull reached into his deep pockets and pulled out two cans of spray paint that he looted from the convenience store where they blew their cover. Tossing one of the cans to Fox, he smiled that mischievous smile that had been appearing more and more lately.

"You remember what you're supposed to do?" Skull questioned.

"Yeah, I do," Fox replied flashing a small smile.

"Remember, this one is the practice for the real big one later."

The sounds of hissing and shaking spray cans filled the air. The boys worked without speaking a word. After a few moments, Skull called Fox over to admire his masterpiece. Finishing up his tag, Fox stepped away smiling. He drew a Fox which was in a running pose with his name inside the tail. A fox is a quick animal, and that is how he thought of himself; quick. After he finished observing his work, he headed over to his brother's side. His brother spray painted an evil rendition of the Jolly Rogers skull with a crack running through the frontal part of the cranial bone, and his codename off to the side.

"It looks okay," Fox said admiring the work.

"What do you mean by okay?" shouted Skull crossing his arms, "I say it looks pretty fucking amazing!"

"Well, it would be amazing, but you spelled your codename wrong."

"Wrong, what do you mean I spelled it wrong," Skull spat, clearly annoyed.

"You wrote S-C-U-L-E; its S-K-U-L-L."

Skull glared at his little brother for what seemed like hours, and for the first time, Fox felt a little uneasy at his brother's rage.

"How do you know, huh?"

"I dunno," Fox said shrugging his shoulders, "I just know that is not how you spell it."

"Well if you don't know how you know, then how do you know that what you know is right?"

"I read it in a book."

"What?"

"I said I know because I read it is a book. If you don't believe me, you can go look for yourself," Fox stated throwing his empty can over the edge of the building.

"I aint reading no book," huffed Skull, "once they see this they are going to have to change the spelling anyway because this is the better way. It is my way."

"Whatever, suit yourself."

"Why are you reading books?"

"I dunno, I like 'em," said Fox, trying to hurry the conversation along. He hated being on the receiving end of his brothers interrogation.

"Well its stupid, and a waste of time."

"Yeah, I know."

"Then why do you do it?"

"Just because," Fox said while turning around and facing his brother, "shouldn't we start getting back now?"

Looking at the sky, Skull nodded in agreement, and threw his can as far as his arm would let him. He quickly climbed down the building, Fox following. The two boy admired their tag from the street and quietly entered the sewers without a trace. They were silent on the way to the lair, each lost in their own thoughts. Once they reached their home, they said goodnight, and went their separate ways. Skull headed to his room in an attempt to get some last minute sleep, and Fox headed to his crawl space where he opened his book. He was nearly finished, and a painful empty feeling was beginning to form in the pit of his stomach. He didn't want this book to ever end. In the middle of reading a paragraph on thermal energy, he quickly shut the book and crawled over to the pile of his own personal books. Digging through the stack, he pulled out an anatomy text book, and flipped to the section about the human skeletal structure. Smiling to himself, he closed the book and returned to the one that Ed let him borrow.

He was right, It was "Skull" not "Scule".

Giggling in the quiet comfortable room, he continued his personal quest for knowledge. Tugging on the tail end of his purple mask, he sighed as he slipped steadily into his world of pure knowledge.

He loved it when he was right.

(A/N) Here was chapter five of The Spark. I hope you all are enjoying it! This is a fun little story to write, and at times, even I don't know what is bound to happen.