Chapter 16- Muted

"Where did you disappear to? I found Mikey here in the middle of the day and he muttered something about the lair being empty."

I hear April talking to somebody. Pins and needles line my arms. It takes more effort to move than usual.

"I had some thinking to do. I came to get Mikey. Could you call Casey and tell him that we'll be back soon?"

I roll over too far and halfway fall off the sofa.

"Ugh. Leo? Is that you, bro? I had a really weird dream-"

His scowl is the first thing I see, frozen on his face.

"Oh. Never mind... The mask suits you."

He pulls me to my feet. April pulls out her phone and walks into her room. Leo doesn't look at me when he talks.

"We need to return to the lair, Mikey. All of us. We can't go on being so disorganized as we are right now."

I feel myself sinking back into the cold.

'He doesn't have any warmth to spare.'

Leo leans out April's window, checking the streets for curious passersby.

"You head back to the lair. I'll find Raph and get Don and we'll meet you at home."

"NO!"

My shell rattles. Leo turns to face me with his permanent, brooding scowl.

"Uh, I mean, no need to do everything, Leo. I'll look for Raphie and you grab Donnie."

"Fine. I was tracking him until the truck he was in passed through Soho-"

I push past him and call to April over my shoulder.

"Okay great see you bye April!"

I flip upward from the window frame to the roof before Leo can stop me. I breathe in the city's polluted air. I'm alone again, but the approaching night is less cold.

"Okay, Raph, ready or not here I come!"

I head for Soho, ignoring the instinct to freeze when Leo yells something after me. A minute of roof-hopping, and I'm really alone.

'Just me and all eight million crooks, innocents and ninjas running around New York.'

I start falling back in the cold. The city and its sounds don't shout loud enough. I run. A cloud of pigeons rest on the phone wires parallel to the rooftops. I zoom past them, and they flutter as one. Some drift back down while others scatter. I run faster.

'WOO-HOO!'

My head's empty. Action roars over thought. I leap down from a roof onto a ledge and rush past the dark windows of some apartment building. One of them has lights on. I laugh in my head as I throttle past it. I flip onto a flagpole, perch, and bound off. I roll into a landing and jump up to my feet. I raise my fists over my head.

'Oh yeah! So ninja! So fast I'm already gone before you even know I was there!'

I stand still an instant too long. The cold catches up to me. Sensei's voice chastises me for being reckless. I bow my head down, one fist open to palm the back of my neck.

"Sorry, Sensei."

The chills settle in deeper. My new reality barges into my mind and takes over the furnishing that makes it cozy for me. Tears hit my face, but the sky is crying instead of me. I shiver at the old image of my warm bed that comes to mind.

'Can't do it. Gotta find Raph first.'

I listen to the rain lower the volume of the threats, whispers and banter that defines life in NYC as an action flick. Soon, the whole movie is mute, and the monotone dark colors broken only by headlights and street lamps turns it into one of those weird foreign films that only come on at 3 AM. Only difference now is I don't get any loose subtitles to give me an idea of where the story's going. I'm left to wander in hopes of stumbling over some clue.

'Man, I've been around this block already!'

I hear Sensei's voice again.

"My son, your predisposition to impulsiveness is certainly one of your most debilitating characteristics as a ninja. You must learn to recognize when to act, and when to practice patience and allow your target to come to you, in whatever form it may."

"Hai, Sensei."

I kneel down on the roof overlooking an empty intersection. I wait for a sign. Before the cold makes my shell any heavier, thunder rips across the city like a shotgun blast in an old Western.

'That was quick.'

I run away from the fading echo of the roar, and spot Raph grimacing at the sky on an alleyway fire escape. I tag his shoulder and he flinches, turning his glare onto me. The clouds roar again. The cold doesn't leave, but my shell stops shivering.

'I'd rather have him mad at me than go home to an empty lair.'