A/N: Oh what the heck. I was looking at the prologue and it was just so short, so I thought I'd be nice and put this up today instead of tomorrow. Because I know you're all going to be good little fans and follow the story even after the prologue, right? But, now you won't get anything tomorrow, you'll have to wait until the day after.
You're welcome. ;-)
1 Week Earlier
"Come on, Raph, is that really the best you can do?!" Mikey danced around his older brother, not even bothering to put his chucks up into the ready position. They dangled at his side as he simply leapt back and forth, ducking just out of reach every time Raph took a swing at him. The murderous glares and angry snarls that his antics elicited from the older turtle would have scared anyone else off, but Mikey just grinned wider.
"Whatsa matter, Raph? Getting slow in your old age? Come on, I'm RIGHT HERE! Whoops, ya missed me again!" He laughed maddeningly as Raph's momentum from another swing carried him too far over and he lost footing.
"Mikey, I swear I'm gonna pound you into a pulp if ya don't shut your mouth!" Raph yelled, red from exertion and frustration.
"Nah, ya gotta catch me first, Raphie boy!" Mikey chuckled, still dancing back and forth. "Nyah nyah, missed again! Wow, that was the worst shot yet! How're you supposed to fight if you're gonna keep falling over like that?"
Raph slowly pushed himself up off the floor, having just taken far too wide of a swing, ending with Mikey "helping" him down to the ground. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Leo and Donny had already finished their sparring match and were watching with apparent amusement at his struggles. Narrowing his eyes, he growled low under his breath. It was time to end this.
"Raph?" Mikey stopped dancing around as Raph winced, clutching the arm he had fallen on close to his body as if it were paining him greatly. "Hey, Raph… you alright, bro?" He put his chucks back in his belt and walked over to his brother. "I'm sorry, dude, I didn't mean to- OW!"
Raph smirked down at Mikey, who was now on the ground rubbing his head where Raph had moved like lightning, hitting him as soon as he was in range. Mikey glared back at him ruefully.
"Dude, faking hurt is SO not cool! That's not fighting fair and you know it!"
Raph just chuckled and turned to bow to Master Splinter, who was watching with the other two turtles. Splinter smiled and nodded to him as Leo went to help Mikey to his feet, shaking his head at the role reversal they had just witnessed. Usually it was Mikey who feigned an injury to gain an advantage over Raph, but it seemed the red-banded turtle had learned a trick or two from the youngest.
"Mikey, you know you deserved that… and you of all turtles should've been expecting it!" Leo said with a laugh. "Besides, if we're talking about a straight up fair fight, you might want to try using your weapons more and your mouth less."
"Ah, but then Raphie doesn't get the benefit of my dazzling wit!" Mikey argued, grinning full force again, all memory of the fight already forgotten. "Dude, I'm hungry! What's for dinner?"
Donny shook his head, watching the entire scene with quiet amusement. "Do you ever stop thinking about food, Mikey?" he asked with sarcasm. Mikey just smiled even wider, looking at Donny as though he had turned into a horse.
"Why would I stop thinking about food? I love pizza almost as much as Raphy here loves that delivery girl who brings it here!"
"I do NOT!" Raph roared, turning red again. He leapt on Mikey's back, tackling him. Leo opened his mouth to tell them to stop when Mikey's flailing arm caught him in the back of the knees, knocking him over. With a mischievous grin, Donny ran in from the sidelines and jumped in on top of them, creating a huge mass of punches and kicks as they wrestled each other on the floor of the dojo.
"Boys…" Splinter started but trailed off as he realized none of them could hear him over the noise of their own brawl. He sighed. "Never mind. That's all for today." Trusting his sons not to hurt each other too badly in their wrestling match, the old rat shook his head and wandered out of the dojo. He was getting rather hungry himself, and his evening soap operas would be on soon.
oOo oOo oOo
"Knight to e6, eh, Donny?" Leo asked with a knowing smile. Donatello looked up from the chessboard in irritation.
"Do you have to comment on every move I make?" he complained, setting the knight back down where he had picked it up from. "Couldn't you at least let me make my move before you say anything about it?"
"Hey, you touched that piece, you have to move it now!" Leo grinned. "You know the rules."
"I really don't understand how you can be having any fun," Donny sighed. "If you've already played the whole game out in your head, what's the point? Why don't you just tell me how the game ends now and save us all some time?" Reluctantly, he moved the knight to the e6 square, already attempting to look ahead to see what his older brother had planned on following up with.
Leo smiled and pushed a rook that Donny had overlooked down the side of the board, taking the bishop that Don had left exposed. Donny groaned in frustration. This late night ritual of a chess game before bed that the two had started had forced him to admire his brother's ability to see sequences of moves much farther in advance than he himself could.
"The point is, I still have to figure out how I can beat you," Leo explained. "I just do that ahead of time. Besides, you aren't the easiest one to anticipate. It's tough to beat a chess player with an IQ as high as yours."
"Intelligence doesn't stand a chance against a strategist," Donny grumbled, retreating his king to a safer haven. "How do you know what I'm going to move before I do? You're cheating somehow, I just know it."
"I am not. You're my brother and I know how you think," Leo said, studying the board carefully. "If it makes you feel better, I'm wrong a lot when I play you. You're the only one who ever beats me."
"Yes, well, I'm the only one who's still willing to play you," Donny pointed out dryly. Leo smiled, nodding. His eyes lit up suddenly, apparently seeing an opening, but before he could move, a horrible scream filled the Lair. Leo and Donny froze, staring at each other.
"That was Mikey," Leo whispered.
"Another nightmare?" Donny wondered, concerned with how frequently this had been happening recently. Without hesitation, both turtles leapt to their feet and ran for Mikey's room.
"Watch out guys!" Mikey yelled. They were on the rooftops, fighting the Foot. It was practically an every-day occurrence for them, nothing new. But his brothers weren't fighting like themselves tonight. They were moving much too slowly, almost dreamily, while the Foot ninja moved with superhuman speed.
For some reason, he didn't seem to have his nunchucks. In fact, he didn't seem to have any weapons at all. Mikey looked down to find something, anything that he could fight with. That was when he realized that he was stuck. Two huge weights, attached to chains, were manacled to his ankles. He was trapped where he was, out of reach of his brothers.
Looking around in a panic, Mikey tried to call for help, but his shouts didn't carry farther than a few feet in front of him. He could only watch in fear as his brothers were being clobbered by the ninja who moved too fast to be real.
"Donny, behind you! BEHIND YOU!" Mikey tried to yell, tried to warn him, tried to make himself heard. The ninja that was sneaking up on his brother was nearly three times the size of a normal human… he should have been more than easily visible, but none of the other turtles seemed to see him at all. The monstrous ninja turned to look right at Mikey, taking off its mask to reveal a demonic, grinning skull. Mikey froze, paralyzed in fear, until the demon-ninja raised its sword and brought it crashing down.
"NOOOO!" Mikey cried as Donatello crumpled to the ground, eyes staring off into the distance as blood squirted everywhere. Even though he was far away from where Mikey stood trapped, the blood was somehow getting on the youngest turtle, filling his eyes and his mouth, choking him and suffocating him as the ninjas laughed at his predicament. Leo and Raph continued fighting as though nothing had happened, though now they were fighting off huge snakes instead of ninjas and their weapons had turned into plastic toys that were anything but comical…
"This isn't happening, this can't be happening…" Mikey moaned.
"This ISN'T happening, Mikey. You're just dreaming! Wake up!" The voice filled the air, and Mikey screamed because it was Donny's voice, who he knew was already dead.
"Mikey, calm down! MIKEY!"
Mikey shot up in bed with a yell, eyes wide and shaking uncontrollably. His frantic gaze caught sight of Leo and Donny standing beside his bed, looking down on him with concern. Mikey didn't understand. Hadn't they just been fighting? Didn't that huge ninja just kill Donny? And where were the snakes?
"Hey, hey it was just a dream," Leo said soothingly, taking Mikey's shaking hand. "You were having another nightmare. It's ok. We're right here."
"Nightmare?" Mikey repeated unfocusedly. Raph and Splinter came running in, Raph flicking the lights on as he entered so the room was filled with light. Mikey blinked against it, trying to fit the pieces together still.
"Are you alright, my son?" Splinter asked gently, coming to sit beside the youngest turtle. "What has happened?"
"He was dreaming, Master Splinter," Leo explained. "Everything's ok, it was just a dream."
"Dream," Mikey muttered, clinging to Leo's hand and waiting for his racing heart to calm down.
"Musta been one heckuva dream," Raph muttered, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "What was it, Mike?"
Mikey looked up at him, looking bewildered. The images were only too fresh on his mind, but he shook his head. "Don't remember," he lied quietly. His eyes flicked frantically to Donny as he tried to convince himself that his brother was, in fact, still alive. As though he could read his thoughts, Donny nodded comfortingly at him.
"It's ok, Mikey," he said with a soft smile. "We're all here, we're all ok."
"Told ya the pizza with jelly beans, corn flakes, and sauerkraut was a bad idea," Raph said grumpily. "No wonder you're havin' bad dreams."
"I'm fine," Mikey insisted with a shiver, remembering the terrifying feeling of being chained down and unable to help his brothers. "I'm ok, just… sorry I woke you guys up."
"Forget it, knuckle-head," Raph sighed. "Doesn't look like I'm gonna be able to sleep now. Might as well crash in here."
Mikey nodded quietly as Raph threw himself across the foot of Mikey's bed, trying to appear bored instead of highly concerned, while Leo, Donny, and Splinter bid them good night and stepped out the door, turning the lights off behind them. Donny smiled, knowing that for all of Raph's gruffness, he was a pushover when it came to being Mikey's big brother.
"Wonder what that was about," Leo sighed as they went back to his room, wishing Splinter a good night as he departed for his own quarters. Donny shrugged, sliding back into his seat. Both turtles stared at the chessboard, though neither one was completely interested in finishing the game.
Mikey had been having nightmares every night for nearly a week now. It wasn't completely unheard of, but Donatello wondered if he should be concerned. Mikey always talked in his sleep, so they all knew he was dreaming of them fighting… and losing. Donny hoped dearly that it wasn't an omen; every single night, the name that Mikey cried out for in fear had been his.