Kayla ran out of her room and grabbed her skateboard. "I finished five assignments so I'm going out!"
"Kayla!" Don shouted, stopping her just as she reached the entrance. "Remember, I need to check it off first. And besides, dinner's ready."
Kayla turned and looked up at the clock on the wall. It was already 6:30?! Kayla groaned loudly.
"I'm gonna be wasting what's left of my childhood doing homework!" she shouted angrily as she dropped her board and walked into the kitchen. She noticed the only places left to sit were between Don and Leo, and between Splinter and Don; since she was still uncomfortable around Leo she obviously chose to sit between Splinter and Don.
As Kayla placed a few slices of pizza on her plate she looked around. "Raph hasn't come back yet?" she asked.
Don shook his head. "Nope, not once; and who knows what he could be getting up to."
"Cut him some slack, Donny. He's not that bad." Kayla defended as she took a bite of pizza.
"Even though he should be back by now." Leo muttered heatedly.
The rest of dinner was mostly awkward, but Mikey seemed to be the only one immune to the tension, telling stories and joking around as everyone ate. Kayla had to admit, his happy mood was starting to rub off on her by the time dinner was nearly over.
When everyone was done eating Mikey sat back and rubbed his tummy. "Mmm. My compliments to Ze chef." he joked in an Italian accent. Then he leaned forward and let out a long, loud belch. Master Splinter, who was sitting next to him, looked disgusted; but Kayla was pursing her lips, trying not to laugh. When he finished burping Mikey looked around the table. "Anyone for dessert?"
As everyone at the table voiced their agreement Kayla let out her own burp, which came close to Mikey's in volume. Everyone looked at her, their eyes wide in mild shock. They were really surprised she burped, her and Mikey used to have burping contests all the time when they were younger, they were more shocked because she hadn't done it in a long time.
Kayla smiled embarrassedly. "Excuse me." she said quietly. Everyone chuckled as Mikey got up to get dessert and the phone rang. Don got up to answer it. Kayla mostly tuned him out as she watched Mikey get a bunch of cake slices from the fridge.
"-Whoa, whoa. Slow down April. What happened to Raph?" Kayla's head whipped around to catch what Don had just said. Leo and Splinter did the same. Don sighed into the phone. "We'll be right there." he told April quietly before hanging up the phone and looking worriedly over at his family.
Leo stood up and looked at his father. "Sensei?" he checked.
Splinter nodded. "Go."
The four siblings immediately got up and raced out of the lair.
After about ten minutes of jumping over the rooftops they all landed on the fire escape outside Casey and April's apartment window. Mikey opened it and lead the way in, followed by Kayla, Donny, and finally Leo.
In the center of the living room on the floor in front of the sofa laid an unconscious Raph, April was bending over him to check him over. She looked up and as soon as her eyes fell on Leo she smiled and stood up.
"Leo! You came back!"
"Leo!" Casey shouted a greeting from where he was sitting backwards on a chair.
"Sorry the reunion isn't under better circumstances." Leo grimaced as he stepped into the small apartment.
Mikey and Kayla were both looking around the apartment; they hadn't seen it since April had it renovated; while Don walked over to Raph to check him out.
"Whoa, nice pad, kids," Mikey complimented as he gazed around. When his gaze landed on Raph he added in a dull voice, "Oh, hey Raph."
Don placed two of his fingers on Raph's throat where his pulse would be. "Well, his vital signs seem to be okay." Don then opened Raph's eye to check his pupil, "Pupil dilation is normal. Whoa!" Don rolled Raph towards him slightly as he noticed a sharp stone sticking out of Raph's shell.
"Whoa." Leo and Mikey repeated in unison while Kayla remained silent, though her eyes widened in shock.
Don used tweezers to pull the stone out of Raph's shell. It was round and resembled a sun, with sharp blades around the edges; one edge was chipped off and it had symbols all over it.
"Some sort of stone," Don murmured just loud enough for everyone to hear, "Probably obsidian I think."
Leo approached and knelt down by his brothers. "Well, is he gonna be alright?" he asked as he rested his hand on Raph's shoulder.
Raph opened his eyes and groaned as he pushed Leo's hand away. "You're still here? Go back ta your jungle."
Leo looked over his shoulder at Mikey and Kayla. "Well, at least his personality's still intact." he joked.
Kayla narrowed her eyes. This was no time to joke around.
"And there's an engraving on it…looks…South American." Don murmured thoughtfully, "That's your department, April."
Leo got up and moved back as April knelt down in his place to examine the stone Don held.
Casey leaned forward, still sitting backwards on his chair. "Would it help things if I told you that those statues you collected for that Winters guy were shooting these things at me and Raph?" he asked as he held up a dart.
April took the stone out of Don's hand thoughtfully as she began talking to herself. "The legend…of Yaotl. It can't be. I-it was just a myth. A-a scary story locals told kids around a campfire."
"Whoa, what are you talking about?" Leo interrupted, clearly as confused as everyone else.
April stood up as she began to talk, "They say…three thousand years ago, some great warrior actually found a portal to another dimension. And when the portal opened the energy from it gave the warrior eternal life, but it also turned his generals to stone. What if this warrior just kept living forever? He would spend the rest of his days in regret. Spending all of his riches and all of his power to find a way to revive his stone generals. Maybe, just maybe he's built a new empire. But hey, like I said it's just a myth." April finished her story sitting on the sofa, with Casey sitting beside her and Mikey sitting on the arm of the couch. Leo and Kayla were standing behind them.
Don spoke from where he was examining the dart at the dining room table. "Hmm, if you ask me guys, this has Winters' name written all over it."
"How do you figure that, Donny?" Leo asked.
"Yeah." Mikey and Casey agreed from the couch.
"Cause this has Winters name written all over it." Don smiled as he held up the dart, showing that 'Winters' was actually printed on the side.
Raph walked in from the kitchen where he'd been patching up his arm. "Now I know who ta thank for the shot in the arm. So where da we find dis guy, an' his stone jokers?" he asked as he sat in the chair Casey had previously been sitting in.
"We're not going anywhere until we get Splinter's blessing." Leo announced from his spot behind the sofa. Kayla took a step away from him as everyone else turned to look at him.
Raph stood straight up, pointing at Leo. "You're gonna stand here an' quote a rule book ta me that you ain't been followin' for a year?!"
"Look Raph, if you got something ya wanna get off your shell, now's the time. But I'm not gonna stand here and debate Splinter's direct orders with you!" Leo shouted back.
There were a few moments of tense silence, Raph and Leo glaring at each other. Finally, Raph broke it. "Fine. I quit."
Kayla's mouth dropped and her blood went cold as Raph walked right past Leo and opened the window. She didn't know how to react. She saw Casey go up and put a hand on Raph's shoulder, but she didn't hear what he said.
She only heard Raph mutter, "Whateva." before he climbed out the window and up the fire escape.
There was an awkward silence before Leo sighed. "We should head to the lair. Try and find out when this is going to happen and see if there's anything we can do."
As the brothers headed for the window Kayla stayed where she was. Leo stopped at the window and looked back, noticing that she wasn't coming.
"Kayla?" when she didn't respond Leo went back to stand in front of her. "Kayla?" he repeated. Kayla slowly looked up at him, her face blank.
"How could you do that to him?" she whispered. Leo blinked in confusion. Kayla spoke a little louder. "He's your brother. How could you just let him walk out like that?!" she asked, her voice getting louder.
"Kayla…" April stepped up but Leo raised his hand, silently telling her to let him handle this.
"There was nothing I could've said or done to change his mind, you know that. And anyway, I didn't see you try and stop him."
Kayla shook her head. "You don't even care. You don't know what any of us went through when you were gone. You don't care about us. We're just a team to you, now. Not a family-"
"Don't say that, Kayla. You know that's not true-"
"It is, though!" Kayla shouted. "You think you can just show up after being gone for a year and a half! You think everything can just go back to the way things were before! You don't know what happened while you were gone! You don't know what I've been through! You were supposed to be there for me! You promised me, not even a day before you left, that you'd always be there for me! But you weren't. You abandoned me when I needed you! I had to figure things out by myself! Out of all the promises you made to me in my life you had to choose the most important one to break! And you wonder why I wasn't exactly happy about your return." she finished with a quiet, quavering voice.
The whole room was silent. No one knew what to say.
Kayla turned slightly to her left, towards the open window. "Congratulations, Leo. You lost a brother, and now you've just lost your sister." And with that Kayla leapt out the window and climbed up the fire escape to the rooftop.
The three turtles, Casey, and April all exchanged shocked looks, no one entirely sure what just happened.
Finally, Mikey broke the silence. "Uh…am I missing something?" he asked awkwardly.
"Leo?" Don asked in concern.
Leo sighed. "She's right. I promised her I'd be there for her. And during the hardest time of her life I left." Leo put his hands on his hips as he stared at the ground. Finally he seemed to shake himself free of the guilt temporarily. "Come on. We should all head to the lair and find out what exactly is going on."