"L-Leo!" April gasped. Casey could be heard running over to her side and his face appeared suddenly.
"Dude! You're all… winged!"
"Yes, thank you," Leo said, stroking his wing absently. "Listen, I'll tell you all about it later, but we have a bit of a problem. No, it's not that I'm winged," he interrupted as Case was about to speak. "We are currently on a plane that was recently on fire with several injured humans. We've bandaged them up and are about to leave, but thought we might contact you first. We're quite a ways from the farm. Could you come on up?"
"Sure thing, Leo!" Casey cried. "I wanna see ya, bro! Where's Raph?"
"Somewhere pummeling Mikey," Leo said dryly. "Listen, I gotta go. Meet us near the highway near the airport. I want to make sure they land okay. Oh, and please don't be frightened. Nothing's happened to me, really, except for a few minor – okay, major – changes. Don'll tell you all about it."
"Okay!" April said enthusiastically. "See you there in a few hours."
"Yes. Bye." Leo hung up and disconnected the line. Don was standing to his side, leaning in closely to listen in on the conversation. He was also wrapped in one of Leo's wings. They shared a glance before hearing Mikey come up the stairs quickly, followed by Raph's angry footsteps.
Mikey hid under Leo's wing again and Raph huffed at him. "Are we leaving, O Winged One?" Raph asked loosely. "And did you get Casey on the phone?"
"Yep. He said that you were to treat Mikey like gold." Raph snorted disbelievingly. "Alright, maybe not. But we're gonna make sure these people land safely and then we'll meet them by the highway." Leo turned to the humans, who watched him fearfully, but relaxed as well. Suddenly, a young girl of about ten ran forward and hugged Leo around the arm.
"Thanks for saving us, Mister!" she said quickly. "And you guys, too!"
"No problem, kiddo!" Mikey said, rubbing her hair. She giggled and looked at his harness and nunchucks warily.
"Are you ninjas?" she asked, petting Leo's rough skin on his arms.
"Yes," Leonardo answered. "We're teenage mutant ninja turtles!"
"And the Winged One," Raph sniggered. Leo shot him a glare but smiled just the same, listening as the girl chattered away with half an ear hole.
"Don, can you help the woman up front?" Leo asked. "Raph, Mikey, you can help me block this hole up a bit more. We'll leave by the emergency exits this time; the currents around that hole are too messy for me to stay close to the plane long enough to clip into the sled."
"Right, Leo." Raph looked behind him at the cargo hold. "There's some thick tarps down there that'd be perfect for it. Mike, let's grab those while Leo dislodges himself."
"Okay," Mikey accepted. Leo turned back to the young girl who was actually asleep in his wing, snuggled against it like it was her own bedding. He turned a pleading eye on the adults; he knew nothing about children!
"Here," a middle-aged woman said, coming forward. "Emily, time to wake up!" The young girl blinked sleepily and looked around, then smiled at Leo, who grinned back.
"Mister, why do you have a black and blue mask?" she asked suddenly. Her mother was about to reprimand her but Leo waved her apologies away.
"Because I am different, even for a mutant," Leo answered, reaching up and untying the mask. He let it fall away and opened his eyes so the girl could see the red slits that had once been black pupils in a sea of blue. She gasped and lightly touched his cheek.
"You look like a dragon-turtle," she giggled.
"I am," he answered, putting the mask back on. "See?" He wrapped his tail around his ankles and tickled her with it. She grabbed it, laughing, and stroked the scales.
"You're a guardian angel," she whispered, nuzzling his wing joint with her forehead.
Leo merely smiled and gave her a gentle push so she'd get off of his wing, which was starting to ache from holding everything he had up in the past hour or so.
Emily returned to her mother and Leo tightened his mask as his brothers came up the stairs, lugging a couple of thick tarps and bickering.
"Enough," Leo said calmly. "Let's get those secured."
"Fine, O Winged One."
"What's with the nickname?" Leo asked, shaking out one tarp and putting it up to the hole. Mike came in and stapled it down securely.
"Well, Fearless doesn't work because you're a dragon-turtle, so you can't be expected to not be fearless. I said that right, right?"
"Yeah," Mikey laughed. "Which just so happens to be a first. If only I had a camera!"
"Watch it, Dragonet," Raph growled.
"So, now I'm being called a baby dragon?" Mikey teased. "What does that make you? A cave troll, that's what!"
"I oughta!"
"Do what? Kill me?"
"Sure! Great idea!" and they set off back down into the cargo hold, Mikey running from an angry Raph. Leo chuckled and shook his head, holding up the next tarp. However, he didn't have Mikey to staple it.
Well, let's see if this tail can do anything.
Leo picked up the stapler and squeezed the trigger. It sent a staple into the tarp and through to the metal. Silently congratulating himself, Leo kept stapling until it was firm and secure to his liking.
Then he turned back to the humans. "Okay, this'll hold for now. Remember, don't hit or lean on it; it's only a tarp held down by staples. How are the injured doing?"
"Good," the teenager in charge said. "I… uh… I didn't properly introduce myself."
"You're forgiven. We don't meet many humans, really, but hardly any groups we have come across actually listen to us."
"Well, my name's Steve Martin. Nice to meet you. Thanks for saving our skin!" they shook hands, and Steve, to his credit, didn't flinch when he came in contact with the cool reptilian scales that covered Leo now.
"I, as I told you, am happy to help, as are my brothers."
"So, where do you base from? You mentioned something like that."
"That I can't tell you. We've got enemies, as you can probably understand."
"Yeah, I can. I was hoping to be a biologist when I grow up. Your brother, Donatello, was it? He's really smart, and that scanner I saw looks very high-tech."
"That's Donnie; a turtle centuries ahead of his time," Mike chuckled, coming up. "Leo, Raph's been cornered by a spider. He doesn't want me to kill it, though, said you oughta see it. It's a nasty little bugger."
"Alright. Check on Don, and I'll be right back."
"Can you make the spider bite him?" Raph growled when Leo came down to the cargo hold. Indeed, he was sitting on a crate far from the little white spider that seemed to watch him.
Leo knew of Raph's intense fear of bugs, and sympathized. Leonardo himself hated, as Raph put it, heights. He'd been trained out of it, but Raph didn't let anyone know about his phobia.
"Here." Leo picked the spider up, Raph wincing behind him, and deposited it gently on another place. Sighing, Raph jumped down and strutted by Leo, heading upstairs. Emily was waiting, giggling furiously.
"What?" Leonardo asked, glancing at Raph.
"He's a turtle scared of bugs!" she said laughingly. "I thought turtles ate bugs!"
"Well, non-humanoid ones do sometimes, but we don't. We eat normal stuff, like pizza and salads and stuff." Leo bent down and hugged the little girl. "But we rarely eat meat. Now, you'll be landing soon. Why don't you sit down and buckle in? Where's your mother?"
"She's up front, with the nice lady who gave me a apple juice," burbled Emily. "Whatcha doin'?"
Leo was currently looking around, scanning the door outside for breaks or tears. "I'm making sure you're safe," he answered, opening his wings slightly. The girl jumped into the open folds.
"Snuggly-wuggly." Emily looked up at Leonardo. "Mister, are you a Guardian Angel?"
Now Leo was in a bind. How to answer that one? Thankfully, Mikey came to his rescue. Well, said something, anyway.
"No way, little dudette. He's too ugly to be a Guardian Angel," Mike laughed. "He's just a turtle with a big heart."
"And you're a turtle with a big mouth," Raph growled at Mike, swatting their brother over the head.