CHAPTER FOUR: CONVERSATION OVERRIDE
A few days passed and the unrest in the lair was still strongly present. Leo had relayed to April what had happened and she treated it with shock and, well, disgust. This, of course, only worsened Raph's mood. He was still insanely hostile. Only Master Splinter talked to him and even then he chose his words carefully. Leo was still spending a lot of time with April while Raph kept to the room and Donnie and Mikey were just hanging around the house, trying to justify the reason for doing meaningless household chores over and over again.
Little did they know, Master Splinter was frequently leaving the lair, in the dead of night, moving in mysterious ways. The first door, or rather window, he knocked on belonged to Casey Jones. Casey opened the window with a surprise as he let the rat slunk into his apartment. "Mr. Jones," Splinter said in a serious tone, "Do you know what Mss O'Neil admires most?
Casey looked perplexed for a moment, thinking it was a trick question. Finally, he piped up with "uh… yeah… chocolates. And…um… flowers… I think. Yeah, chocolates and flowers.
"I thank you deeply" said the mutated rat with a bow.
"Uh… no problem"
About an hour later, the owner of a small chocolate stall on 42nd street got a rude awakening from his dazed state when a man, his face covered in shadow, dropped a twenty dollar bill on the table and ran off with what looked like a box of chocolates. An hour later, April rose sleepily from her bed to see a rat in her doorway clutching a box of chocolates and what looked like some flowers he picked from Central Park. "Master Splinter, what, what is this?"
"Don't you see, it is my blessing" said Splinter. He watched as a wide grin slowly crept around April face. She jumped on him, squeezing him tightly in her arms. It was then that Master Splinter realized that April was not getting fat.
Later that day, in the morning, the boys sat down to their breakfast seeing their father happier than he had been in months. This only meant one thing to the turtles. Training day. The day was filled with drills but even so, everyone felt a general lightening up of each other, even Raphael. All day that inevitable cloud of everyone's favorite activity was gradually building, until those oh so special words rained down upon them, surface trip.
The shadows melted into the darkness as they replaced the manhole cover. No one could hear them as they climbed up to the rooftops of New York. They flipped and ran all the while having a glorious time. It didn't take long for Raph's thoughts to deviate. His thoughts became of her. In the middle of a large leap, he spoke; "Leo, um, how did it feel?"
"Enough Raph, just drop it ok man." said Leo with the slightest hint of agitation in his voice.
"Hey man, get off my back!"
"You're on my back"
It was then that they broke into fighting. Among the scuffle there were words of "you idiot!" and "I hate you!" Donnie and Mikey broke u the fight, resulting in the orange clad turtle yelling "Stop! This is destroying us!"
After hearing all he needed to hear, the foot ninja who had been tailing them disappeared as silently as he had approached.
The boys returned to their beds later that night, full of adrenaline but never prepared for what was to come in the following days….
In the twilight, deep under New York, in an abandoned subway station lit by crude torches, the major gangs of the city gathered. On to a makeshift podium stepped Karai. "Ladies and Gentleman", she announced to the mass of people, "the Turtles have been a thorn in our sides for too long. It has come about recently, news of their weakness. If we attack now, united, we will wipe them out, we will own this city. We will rule! Our plan shall begin in the coming days. Join with the Foot, brothers and sisters, and have a revolution!" This was met with a great applause from the sea of violent, angry, vengeful faces.