Alright, on to the next chapter. Nothing much to say, really. But as always...

Enjoy...

>>>>>>

"What the-" Mikey starred up at the round, feathered thing above him. It had to be a joke by one of his brothers. He slowly sat up in the bed, his eyes still focusing on the object. Well, when studying it… perhaps he had actually seen that before. Or, not exactly that one, but something very close to it. Carefully, he let a green finger touch one of the white feathers that was attached to it. It was Angel's. So whatever the others had been up to, the cat had participated. He stood up and was about to take the weird thing down, but decided against it. It was actually pretty, though no bigger than his hand – whatever it was…

Michelangelo skidded down the hall, until he reached the living room. Master Splinter sat quietly in his usual chair, reading a book. His keen senses weren't slow to recognize the sound of his youngest son coming close, though. His head arose as soon as he had finished the page he was currently on and looked to the ninja not far away.

"Good morning, my son," he greeted him with a sly smile on his face, "Did you sleep well?" The rat closed the book and placed it carefully in his lap, like he was finished with it. Mikey knew that wasn't the case. His Sensei did close the book without leaving anything to show what page he had reached, but he always found the exact same page the next day. He had always done that. Perhaps it was from when they were kids and constantly making trouble, Splinter had learned to just close it, take care of the problems and head right on to wherever he had gotten. An amused grin lit Mikey's face, as he thought about it. Four boys – what a task.

"Yeah, actually," Mike started, but traced off again. The nightmare hadn't returned, when he had gotten back to sleep and he hadn't even woken up, as one of his brothers had put up the round feather-thingy. "I did… By the way, where are the others?"

Splinter opened his book again and turned his gaze back to the black letters.

"Leonardo is training in the Dojo and Raphael…" Splinter looked up from his book and Mikey slowly followed his gaze, quickly eyeing Raph punching the practice dummy to a pulp.

"As for Angel," Splinter continued, "You can find her in Donatello's laboratory along with your brother." Mikey nodded to himself and bowed lightly to the rat.

"Thanks Sensei," he smiled and steered towards Raph.

The red masked turtle didn't stop his beating, as Mikey came up to him. He delivered a side kick to the dummy's "face" and planted the next kick right in the middle.

"Yo Raph?" Mikey tried to contact his brother, but he knew Raphael wouldn't stop. He never did.

"Yeah?" a fist was punched into the dummy, and another one quickly followed. Mikey looked at his brother's rapid hits.

"Are you the one who put that round feathered thing on my wall?" Suddenly, Raph stopped in the middle of a hit, looking dead serious at hit little brother. Raph's hand slowly rose to Mike's forehead, but the orange cladded turtle pushed it away.

"Cut it out," Mikey snorted, taking a step back to get out of reach of the hand again, "I'm telling you, there's a weird thing on my wall." Raph cocked an eye ridge and crossed his arms, studying Mikey for a time. They both eyed each other, until Raph broke the silence, a smirk spreading on his face.

"Ya' sure ya' sane, Mikey?" he grinned mockingly. But it was clear he didn't know anything about it. Mike let out a defeated sigh and turned away, not having a good reply.

"Fine," he simply muttered, "I'll ask someone else." After only a few steps, he could hear Raph return to the dummy. So who else could it be? Leo wouldn't just hang up such a thing just to go on his nerves and Splinter wouldn't do it without him knowing. So hat left out Angel and Don… whatever purpose Don would have for doing it. The turtle headed for the lab, and found both the feline and his brother there, just like Splinter had said.

The two of them looked up to see who entered. Donnie was sitting by the computer as usual, while Angel stood behind him to look at the screen as well. The end of her tail was moving slowly from one side to the other.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty," Don grinned, turning his head back to the computer.

"Would any of you know about that round thing in my room?" Mikey cut right to the chase. His curiosity was starting to kill him.

"It's a dream catcher," Angel smiled and stretched from standing bend over behind Donnie, "You like it?"

Mikey just stood there, a little perplexed. A dream catcher?

"When did you hang it on my wall?" Mikey asked, still with the same look on his face. Angel's smile just turned bigger, as she let a giggle out.

"Last night, of course. You fell asleep before I even turned around to leave the room."

"She's been dying to hang that thing up for days," Donnie cut in, turning away from the monitor to look at his brother, "And she's been bugging me for weeks to try and help her make it." Donnie sounded a bit irritated, but he couldn't hide the smile. The cat had seen it in one of his books, while scavenging for information in his lab. There hadn't been one second of peace, until Donnie had explained exactly what it was, how it worked and so on and so forth.

"She's just as much of a pain in the ass as you," Donnie laughed, not looking up at Angel's surprised face. She blinked a couple of times before putting her hands on her hips in a very offended way.

"I am not," she protested and stuck her tongue out, making both Mike and Don laugh. The winged cat would never have a longer tongue than Raph, but it was dangerously close, "I'm going out to practice with Leo." She gave both of them a quick wink of an eye, before turning to leave the small lab. A silence fell on the room, and Don turned back to the computer to finish whatever he was tingling with.

"I think she likes you."

Donnie slowly cocked an eye ridge at Mikey, not looking amused.

"It's no me," Donnie calmly stated. He ha no interests in Angel "liking" him like that. It would be unnatural, "She likes the books." Mikey's eyes fell on the pile of books Angel had been looking through – and apparently still weren't finished with. Mikey slowly looked over them, but was only able to see what some of them were about. It weren't the books Donnie read, at least not anymore. These were probably from when he was younger and didn't have the same knowledge that he possessed today. And there weren't that much order in them. Some were about ancient cultures, some about… well, technical stuff and so on.

"You know," Donnie's voice cut through the trance Mikey had placed himself in, looking at the books, "I don't get it. She's been locked in by the Shredder for as long as she can remember, but she can read. And on a somewhat decent level." The purple masked turtle stood up from the chair, stretching from being stuck behind the screen for probably several hours. He walked over to take some of the books, placing them on the shelves again.

"Perhaps Shredder taught her stuff," Mikey suggested, but Donnie shock his head.

"Then how come she didn't even know what a car was?" Don turned around, scratching his chin thoughtfully, "She knew basic things, like reading and writing, but nothing about common technology. She had never even seen a PlayStation." He sat down on the chair again, but his mind was still working. "And she knows martial arts…" Donatello and Angel had spent many days in the small lab. He had worked with his usual projects and she had been reading like a maniac, like she was trying to learn about all the things that had somehow slipped past her. And he had listened to her over the weeks. About how she had been treated in the small cell throughout… Angel had no idea of how long she had been there, living in the dirty room. But somehow, she had lost her memories. She could remember who she was, but not who she were. It was all an unsolved mystery, with far too many questions along the way.

And he didn't know what she was. It was clear that she had some cat DNA in her, but the wings were another matter. It would seem that she consisted of bird DNA too, but perhaps there were other animals involved. Still, Angel had refused to let him take a blood sample, though he had desperately tried to talk her into it. Heck, he even had trouble stitching her wound from when they had saved her. Of course, she was obviously afraid of needles, but she didn't know why. Another mystery.

"Not that much," Mikey grinned, "I can easily beat her." Donnie was caught a bit off guard. Oh, martial arts! Well, Mikey was right, she wasn't at their level. She still had a lot to learn, but Leo had more than gladly accepted to help her practice.

Suddenly, the light went out, leaving the two turtles in complete darkness.

"No!" Donnie's head flew towards the computer – but alas, it was dead. Hours of work, and he couldn't remember when he had saved. With a growl, he stood up and headed out, finding the rest of the lair just as black. A candle was lit not far away, and it's flame illuminated the area around their Sensei.

"It would seem there are problems with the lights again," Splinter simply stated, looking towards Donatello. It had happened a lot lately, way too often to be normal.

"I don't get it," Donnie frowned, "Something is causing the whole system to break down." And he had tried searching for whatever was causing the meltdown, without luck every time. "I'll check it out… again."

"You think our lair is haunted?" Mikey asked the rat, as Don went off to try and get the electricity back up, "I mean, weird things happen. The power dies, the bathtub fills itself…" And an omelette had exploded into his face, but he weren't going to mention it. When everybody had calmed down from hearing his girly scream and rushing to the kitchen, his brothers had been lying on the floor laughing their shells off.

"There's no such thing as ghosts," Raph rolled his eyes, as he came from behind. Leo and Angel were right behind him, "Besides who should haunt it, Shredder?"

"Don't even mention it," Angel snickered, crossing her arms. The thought alone of the Shredder coming back was scary enough, but a ghost Shredder? She could still remember the sickening crack from when Leo broke his neck.

"But-" Mikey protested, when the lights turned back to life. The young ninja's thoughts were directed towards other matters, when he could suddenly see his brother.

"Dude, what happened to you?" Mikey gestured to Leo's plastron, pointing at what would surely become a blue mark in the near future.

"It wasn't on purpose," Angel muttered, looking down at the floor. She looked like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar, as her tail started rocking from side to side and finally found rest around her legs. The eyes around them were directed at Leo and Angel, though the turtle didn't seem like he found it so bad.

"Sure it was," he grinned a bit, "You're supposed to hit your opponent when fighting." But he hadn't been focusing enough, and it was irritating him. How else would the cat have been able to get through his defence?

"It is quite a hit, Angel," Splinter studied his son and the mark.

"Yeah, it's been a hard one, huh?" Raph smirked, seeing the annoyance in Leo's eyes.

"I didn't mean to, honestly," Angel shot her head up to look at Raph, "I wasn't supposed to hurt him." Leo placed his hand on the feline's shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile.

"It's alright," he grinned, "I'm still alive. So we'll let it rest and get some lunch."

Mikey's heart skipped a beat, looking at his brother with wide eyes.

"Lunch?"

"Yeah," Raph replied, "It's 1 p.m. You've been sleepin' the whole day away…"