Ok, there were five quick responses for that last chapter. So here's the six-page chapter I promised.
Oh a quick anecdote before I begin this chapter. I was asked the other day if I had an accent. Well, ok, yes I DO have an accent. What is it? Well, I think a few people I've messaged already know but I think I'll tell everyone anyways. I have a central/northern New Jersey accent. How? I don't know. Ironically, I've never even been to New Jersey in my life. I don't understand how some people detect it because I don't speak in it. I had to explain to that guy that if I talked in my New Jersey accent, then I would never be taken seriously. Yeah, Raph's Brooklyn accent is cool, but for some reason the New Jersey accent has been grouped with the southern accent. It's like, you got one of them, BAM! Ok, you're dumb.
I ha-well I shouldn't really say that. I despise that. I tried talking in it a few times but people stared at me then walked away. So, I try to keep my accent hidden.
I'm sure a lot people can empathize with this. Well anyways, to the story! Oh, and this goes out to Jenihenpen, thanks for the pep talk earlier, this chapter's dedicated to you!
*Author is currently too tired to attempt catching the turtles.*
"Here's some tea Aniki," Mikey said, holding up a metal tin cup to the pale, blue banded turtle.
The blue clad turtle took the drink with a thankful nod before taking a sip. He held back his grimace and forced a smile onto his face, "Thank you Michelangelo."
The orange banded turtle tot grinned and ran out of the room again, giving Leo the freedom to share his grimace with the surrounding, stale air. Michelangelo had always been the worst when it came to making tea, and apparently this had not changed after their return to their toddler selves. Releasing an exasperated sigh Leo took a second drink of the tea, grimacing once again at the bile taste. He usually preferred his tea bitter and sometimes added a small amount of honey for sweetness but this was something else. He nevertheless didn't want to upset his youngest brother and the warmth was helping him to relax. He finished off the cup and set it aside. He stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds before he blew out the candle beside the mattress and turned onto to his side, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the three, thin pillows his brothers had stacked up for him.
Raph lightly closed the door of the train car, "Aniki's asleep."
"Donny," Mikey said, "Maybe you shouldn't."
The red clad turtle glanced over to see Donatello slipping on a large and thin jacket.
"I have to, Aniki's getting sicker and needs medicine. Our old home should still have some of the medicine he gave to us when we sick."
Unbeknownst to the tots, you always had to get worse before you got better. They took the pale color of Leo's skin as a worsening condition although it wasn't necessarily true.
"You sure one of shouldn't go with you Donny?" Raph asked, tilting his head to the side as his blue eyes caught the shine of the lights.
"I'm sure," Don said proudly, "You two take care of Aniki until I come back."
The others nodded in agreement although Raph glanced at a shadowed corner with some feeling of foreboding.
"Now, I'll be back as soon as I can," the purple clad turtle tot said as he walked out the door, he had spent most of the night up with Leatherhead, asking about his security system so any obstacles that were in way were easily avoided.
Donatello was an intelligent child, unfortunately, he was a four year old turtle toddler. How he ended up in a tunnel he didn't recognize was beyond his mental capacity. Of course, the cool headed Donatello didn't exactly loss his patience or sanity quite easily so it took him about ten minutes of being lost in the sewer tunnels before the situation really donned (A/N: No pun intended.) on him that he was lost.
This would be a perfect time for Mikey to appear and decree that they weren't lost; that they were simply location-ally challenged.
Don bit his lip in a show of fear or uncertainty as his eyes scanned the darkness, "Of course, Mikey's at Leatherhead's still with Raph and…Aniki."
A look of determination flashed across his eyes, he had to find their old home, there was no debate about it! His big brother needed that medicine! Gathering all of that determination he huffed and continued walking down the tunnels, his right hand raised to trail a light, curved line down the side of the tunnel. The little scurrying of rats and mice didn't bother him and the occasional running of an insect across his outstretched hands was always solved with a flick of his fingers. He continued on like this for a few hours until he began recognizing the familiar sounds and smells of what used to be his home.
Then, in the distance, he recognized the shape of a familiar doorway, although the door was laying on the ground within.
He had finally made it.
At least…
He thought he had, before something below him sucked him down underneath the water.
Ohhhhhh my! What have I done to poor little, innocent, four year old Donny?
Hmm…*Shuffles through tools of torture.*
Hey my hacksaw! ^_^
O_O
O_o
JK. ^_^ now back to where we left off.
Don landed into a gushing puddle of water as the rainfall of water continued to fall onto his skull. When he crawled away from the waterfall, elbow deep in the pool, he glanced around to find himself in a dark chasm.
"Ok, time to start panicking again," he thought, rushing to climb to his feet.
The toddler started walking forward until his hands found some kind of door. He quickly searched for a handle of some kind, releasing a relieved breath when his hands pushed down on a lever and the door creaked open. He quickly ran through and shut the door behind him. Ok, now to figure out where he currently was. Although he was sniffling and shaking from fear of being alone he forced himself to find a wall and feel along it, then a part of the wall collapse under his hand and bright lights above flashed on. When he glanced around at the lighted room his eyes shined and he smiled.
"Do you think Donny's ok?" Mikey asked.
"Of course," Raph said where they were sitting again the outer wall of the train car where Leo was still resting.
"If Aniki finds out, he's gonna be mad," Mikey said, leaning to the side and pressing his ear to the door to try to hear something in the train car.
Why couldn't Leo snore like Raph instead of sleeping quietly? At least then Mikey would know he was ok! Leo had to sleep so silently. Heck, even Don made a little noise when sleeping. Overall, Mikey didn't not like the silence. Normally, the kids would be up and running around because of restlessness but Leatherhead and Leo had told them not to touch anything. Well Leatherhead had, technically, Leo had said not to go within a 20 foot radius of anything. Only Donatello seemed to understand what he was talking about then, but the tots understood that that meant they shouldn't go near anything. Back home they had managed to break objects on the opposite side of their house. They spent the time playing with a few toy cars that Casey had given them before they parted from the humans.
"What are you thinking about?" Raph said, staring over at Mikey, who was just watching the cars sitting between them.
"About the humans," Mikey replied truthfully, "Casey's funny and Donny says April's really smart."
"I don't know," Raph said with a sideways glance.
"Aniki trusts them and he and Casey saved me from that robot."
Mikey smiled, remembering the way that Casey had managed to bang his head against the top of the BattleShell as he climbed into the back when they had gotten topside again, after running away from Stockman's lab.
"Hey Leatherhead said Aniki aged because of the stuff in that vial," Raph said.
Mikey nodded, remembering the scene clearly as Leo smashed the vial at his feet.
"How old do think he is now?"
"He doesn't look much different," Mikey observed, leaning to the side to crack open and peak inside the train car again.
"Does that mean you and Casey will be older too?"
"I don't think so," Mikey said, closing the door and turning back to his red banded brother, "Aniki smashed it right at his feet, Casey and I weren't close enough to inhale any va-well whatever it is they're called."
"Vapors?"
"Where'd you learn that word?"
"Leatherhead," Raph said with a smile.
"Well, we were too far away. Besides, I already got two annoying older brothers, I don't need two even more annoying little brothers."
"Hey!"
That's when the front door opened and the toddler turtles jumped to their feet, half in hope that it was Donatello and half in fear of it being Leatherhead.
"Guys!" a familiar voice yelled as he ran into their home.
"Donny!"
The red and orange masked turtles ran forward to greet their purple masked and dripping brother with a tight hug.
"Why are you wet?" Raph demanded, his hands already pulling off the dripping jacket.
"I'll tell you guys later."
Raph turned to his youngest brother, "Mikey go get a towel."
The orange masked turtle shot off towards a hook on the wall where a large brown towel was hanging. He yanked it down, almost pulling out the hook it was hung on. He ran back and handed the towel to Donatello, who began drying off, thanking fate that the towel hadn't seemed to be used previously.
"Thanks Mikey," Don said, handing him back the towel.
The orange clad turtle just stared at the received damp cloth like he wasn't sure what to do with it.
"Did you get the medicine?" Raph asked.
"Yep," Donny said, "Now come on, let's give it to Aniki."
"Then he'll get all better right?" Mikey asked.
"Yeah, we always got better after taking it."
After folding up the towel, an unusual characteristic Mikey had developed, and setting it on a table nearby, the three tots made their way into the dark train car.
"Yes?" a sudden voice from within asked.
The three tots jumped and then looked at each other as Leo sat up from the mattress and lit the candle once again.
The young turtles just stared at each other with the same unspoken question, "How does he do that!"
"Are you three ok?" Leo asked, his voice weak and scratchy.
"Uh Leatherhead told us that this would help you get better," Donny said, walking up to Leo and presenting the bottle to him.
Leo raised an eye ridge at the bottle, it was cheap brand of cold medicine. He recognized that it was same kind he gave to the others when they had gotten sick. Although Donatello wouldn't have walked back to their old home to get it. After all, the bottle back home had been half used and this one was almost full. Although, Leo had never seen Leatherhead sick he supposed the mutant crocodile DID get sick occasionally and if the genius, Leatherhead said for him to take it well…who was he to say no.
"Wait a minute, I thought Leatherhead left earlier," Leo said, raising a suspicious gaze at the turtle toddlers.
"He did," Raph said, "But he came by a few minutes ago. We told him you weren't much better so he told us to give you this."
"Well ok," Leo said, taking a small amount from the bottle.
The only thing he didn't like was that the medicine made him drowsy. He'd have to advise that Leatherhead try to get another brand this medicine was awfully thin and watery. Hmm…well his brain started to feel as numb as the bad taste in his throat so he handed the bottle back to Donatello, who was smiling widely along with the others.
"Arigato," Leo whispered before leaning back and closing his eyes.
"Ie ie ," Mikey mumbled as he blew out the candle.
Leo smiled before he felt his mind slip back into unconsciousness.
"Now when he wakes up he'll be all better," Mikey said.
"He'll be asleep for a long time, come on I want to show you guys what I found," Donny said, grabbing onto his brothers' arms and dragging them out of Leatherhead's home, carefully maneuvering around the sensors Leatherhead had set up.
"Donny, where are we going?" Raph and Mikey asked in unison.
"Just wait and you'll see."
It was a short and wet ten minutes later that the tots found themselves in a brightly lit underground empty room.
"Wow, how'd you find this place?" Mikey said, looking around at the brick walls and walking up to a piece of broken down machinery in the corner.
"I kind of dropped in," Donny said, "I would've been trapped down here if wasn't for the ladder that we used to climb down here. I ended up falling in through a waterfall out there," he explained pointing towards the large room's single door.
Raph opened it up and saw the rancid waterfall, quickly shutting the door as some tried to splash onto him and into the room.
"So what are we going to do with this place?" Mikey asked.
"It'll be our new home," Donny said, spreading his arms in the air with glee, "We lost our old one to those Foot ninja and Aniki said he was going to find us a new one."
"We can fix this place up so Aniki doesn't have to," Raph said with a smile.
"Then let's do it!" Mikey shouted as he jumped around excitedly.
"Yeah, let's get started," Donny said, "Aniki will be asleep for a few more hours and Leatherhead's going to be gone until later tonight."
So that's how, minutes later, the toddler turtle found themselves scouring the sewers for anything they could use. Old boxes became tables, hard crates became stools, old torn up clothes and blankets were hung up to dry, cans were used to store and cool clean water for drinking and they used some crates for carrying in old broken toys they could play with. When Raph and Mikey carried in some pipes and wooden boards, Don took them and built a kind of lopsided bookshelf and placed a few, slightly water damaged books on it.
When a few hours had passed Don called a halt to the work and said that they should get back to Leatherhead's before Aniki woke up or the mutant crocodile returned.
"But can't we fix it up more? I was going to paint the walls," Mikey said, holding a an old and mostly washed out set of paints and a toothbrush, since he couldn't find a paint brush.
"Come on," Don said stoutly, "Aniki will be up soon and Leatherhead may come home to update his security system early."
They all sighed at the feelings of disappointment washing over them.
"Don't worry Mikey," Raph said, slinging an arm over his youngest brother's shoulders, "We'll come back tomorrow and fix it up more. We can work on it every day until it's done and then we can surprise Aniki."
"Yay! A surprise!" Mikey said as he clapped.
The three turtle tots turned to head for the ladder that stood through an opening on the opposite side of the room from the door with the waterfall behind it when…
"So this is where you have been hiding."
Oh! I wonder who it is? Oh wait I already know and you don't. HA! HA!
O_O I was joking. I promised a six page chapter and at this point it's only five. Now moving on. Let's see who it is!
"AH!" the three tots yelled as a shadow fell over them and they were snatched up from the ground.
They all trembled until Donny found the courage to open his eyes and gasped, "Leatherhead!"
Raph and Mikey opened their eyes and sighed in relief at the sight of their friend.
"Please, explain what you are doing down here my friends," Leatherhead asked as he set the turtles back on the ground.
"This is going to be our new home!" Mikey said with an excited yell.
"Yeah we're going to fix it up as a surprise for our brother," Don explained, "We can get it done while Aniki rests and then he won't have to do any work."
"Ah but my friends, you will need much more accommodations before this place can be deemed livable," Leatherhead explained.
"We know it'll take a long time," Donny explained.
"But we want to do this for our big brother," Raph added.
"Very well then…allow me to be of assistance," Leatherhead said with a smile.
"How did you know we were here?" Mikey asked.
The large mutant crocodile pointed to a small gray object on the back of Donatello's shell, "I had a feeling you might run off, children often do. I have been watching over all of you."
"Won't Aniki be up soon? We should go back," Don said.
"Leonardo will sleep for a few more hours, according to that cold medicine you gave him although the affects might vary considering it was watered down."
After this sentence he glanced pointedly at Donatello, who rubbed his head sheepishly, "Well Aniki might have recognized it if it was only half full."
"Come along little ones, I left a note back at my home explaining that I was watching over you three while you played."
"But we're not playing, we're working," Mikey said confidently, jutting out his chest while putting his hands on his hips.
"Yes, you are," Leatherhead said with a smile.
Then they all jumped at another voice from the hole where the ladder was," Is this the place?"
"That's what Leatherhead told me-CASEY LOOK OUT!"
"Huh. AHHH!"
Thump!
"Uh, babe, I found it and them."
"For a vigilante, you're really a klutz," said April as she climbed down the ladder.
"APRIL!" Donny yelled and ran to hug the red headed human, who almost fell back in shock.
"FUNNY MAN! I mean CASEY!" Mikey cheered and ran over to the tall human, begging to be picked up.
"I assumed what you three were doing and-" Leatherhead was cut off.
"Called in reinforcements!" Mikey shouted in glee as he climbed up onto Casey's shoulders, stood up and threw his arms up in the air to attempt to touch the ceiling.
An old habit of his was discovered as Mikey stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth to try to reach the ceiling. Casey laughed and stood on his toes, smiling as the orange banded turtle cried out in victory. April on the other hand was so relieved that the turtle toddlers finally seemed to accept them as family. Also, she could finally quell her motherish or feminine instincts, slightly at least. She pulled the purple clad turtle close and started loading him down with cuddles and kisses. Donny responded by laughing. The laughter gave Casey an idea, he swung Mikey down into his arms and started ticking him. In response, Mikey roared with laughter.
Leatherhead watched this all with a certain self-doubting look. He applauded the humans, and even more he applauded Leonardo, who had taken care of them by himself most days.
"Well what are we waiting for?" Raph said as he stepped in the middle of the scene, "Let's go!"
"We brought some stuff that could help," Casey said.
It became quite a battle to get furniture down the later and into the home but with Leatherhead's strength this became highly possible. Hours later, all seemed to be in order. The tots though, agreed that they were missing a few things. There were no beds. Leatherhead responded to this by saying they could use the mattress he had lent them at his home. The turtles also decreed that there wasn't a space marked off for a 'forbidden room'.
This made the two humans and crocodile look at them questioningly.
"What's a forbidden room?" Casey asked and got whacked on the head with a long plastic pole by Donny, "You uncompleted baffling lacking intelligence organism, it's a room no one but Aniki can go into."
"What did he just call me?" Casey asked.
Leatherhead and April chuckled while Raph and Mikey shrugged their shoulders at one another in hopeless understanding.
"You mean the dojo?" April guessed.
It would make sense, four-year-olds and sharp, pointy objects didn't mix well.
"Aniki just called it 'forbidden'," Raph said with a shrug.
"Well, there'll be a few more challenges here, but you guys have some food stored in here now and clean running water. Hot and cold even," April said point over to a small dent in the floor were two closed off pipes were dripping a bit of water into the hallowed out basin there.
"Thanks for helping guys!" Donny said.
When April reached down to scoop up Donny, he unfortunately still had the long pole in his hand, which ended up whacking Casey again.
"Hey! Alright! That's it! Come here you!"
Casey grabbed Donny from April's arms and began tickling him as April smiled and turned to pick up Raph and Mikey. Both stiffened before relaxing, although Raphael didn't allow himself to relax much, he was still wary of humans; Even if they were friends with his older brother.
Obviously, when it came to humans, Raphael still had a lot of trust to be earned.
"So who's going to go get Leo?" Casey asked as Donny began regaining his lost breath.
"I will!" all three tots shouted at once.
They all started a match why they should go and the other two should stay. Finally though, Mikey and Donny found themselves unable to speak after Raph said that they couldn't go because he said so and they had to listen to him since they were his 'little brothers' They pouted for a few minutes after Raph left until April decreed that they should all find hiding spots behind random pieces of furniture. The tots were so excited to jump out and say surprise that they forgot about their disappointment about not being able to fetch their oldest brother.
It was an agonizing ten minutes later that a small turtle ran into the room and hid behind one of the wooden tables Casey had sanded down for them to use. A voice followed as a large form climbed down the ladder and walked into the room.
"Raph where did you go? Raph?"
A cough followed making the form mutter, "I can't believe that I slept fort ten hours!"
"Raph? Where did you go?"
When the form stood in the middle of the room, the lights flashed on and everyone jumped from their hiding places at Leo with cries of, "SURPRISE!"
The blue clad turtle leapt back in shock and ended up almost falling, just managing to catch himself before plummeting onto the stones below, of course this was all for naught when he was tackled by three blurs. One orange, one red and one purple.
"SURPRISE ANIKI!"
All Leo could do was stare in shock at the room around him and at the three tots bouncing around him in joy.
"You guys did all this?" Leo asked, staring wide eyed around the room.
"Oh, it was their idea," Casey said, pointing to the three turtle tots, who were standing a few feet from them
Leo felt a large smile grow across his face before he bent down and scooped them up. He pulled them close and allowed them to snuggle into his plastron before he bent and nuzzled their heads with his beak.
"You three are the best little brothers in the world, thank you all."
"We wanted to help Aniki," Mikey said with a smile.
Leo shook his head and smiled affectionately before walking over to an old, torn up couch that Casey had brought down and settling down with the three toddlers in his lap.
"Hey Leo?"
"Yes Casey?" Leo asked, looking up from his little brothers.
"So how old are-OW!"
Casey was cut off as April grabbed his ear and began pulling him towards the exit, "Come on, we've over stayed our welcome. Bye guys!"
"Bye April!" they all shouted after the humans.
"Leatherhead?" Leo asked, "I'm am curious, it's probably better I don't know but-"
Leatherhead smiled, "It is the nature of a scientist's mind to question everything. Now, your animal species, the red eared slider, technically can grow until death while your human side averagely reaches maturity at the age of 25. I ran the tests while you were sleeping. Congratulations, you're 29."
"Great, so I'm nearly middle-aged?" Leo asked with irritation dripping from his voice.
Leatherhead chuckled, "Hardly my friend, though now your age surpasses mine."
"Great," Leo said while rolling his eyes.
"Try not to let it get to you my friend," Leatherhead said humorously, "I will be on my way. Call me if you need any help. I will drop off that mattress later tonight."
"Thank you Leatherhead, for everything," Leo said with a bow of his head.
Leatherhead waved away the praise and exited the turtles' new home.
Leo sighed in relief and turned back to his little brothers in his lap but before anyone could utter a word, a bright light filled the room. Leo looked back up at the center of the room to see a familiar face.
"Renet?" he asked in shock.
"Leo! Oh my, what happened to-"
Leo shook his head, "It's a long story."
"Leo, it's terrible, someone stole the Time Scepter!"
Ding! Ding! Ding!
We have our winner:
Arighter
Congratulations! You've won the one-shot gift. I'll try to work on it after I finish this story. Alright, 7 chapters left.
Anyways, should all the turtles be returned their 16 year old selves in the end or not? This question will be in a poll on my profile. Make sure to vote! ^_^
Oh and review please.
~Moonsetta