I own nothing.

Donatello stood a little taller atop the van, saying "Alright!" Splinter turned his head to watch his smartest student manipulate his remote. "Let's give these little creeps some new marching orders."

The machines began to move away, like a short, white, chomping wave, back toward the crumbling mansion on the hill. Splinter wondered where Michelangelo was. He hoped he was on his way back now having accomplished his goal.

Splinter watched and listened to the machines eat away at the walls of his foe's hideout. He'd seen and heard them do the same to April's apartment building. So, he knew what was coming. Or he thought he did. He was a bit surprised, even if he didn't show it, as he watched the mansion fall into a hole that had opened up in the earth beneath it. He might have even shown a bit of surprise, when some explosions came from it. Donatello on the other hand, spoke calmly somewhere beside him. "Hmmmm … must have hit a gas main."

Raphael spoke up. "And that's the end of the mousers!"

Splinter hoped so, but what he really wanted to know was … Leonardo spoke for him in a calm voice, but with a furrowed brow. "Yes, but what about Michelangelo?"

As his students and April O'Neil ran forward, he stayed behind. If his student had been crushed flat after going after "his" enemy due to those small machines coming after "him," he did not know if his spirit could stand it. How could he keep his calm for the rest of his students if he saw that? April O'Neil, whose home had just been destroyed due to her welcoming him into her home, helped three of his students look for his fourth. His keen ears heard them speak as they picked through the ruin.

April called out first "Michelangelo!"

Leonardo, their leader, called out next. "Where are you?!"

There was the sound of bricks sliding much as this particular adventure had started with. Raphael spoke in a quieter, tense, and remorseful voice. "If anything's happened to that little twerp …" Then his voice cut off before continuing even higher. "Oh, no!"

Splinter bowed his head. What had his most sarcastic pupil found? He heard his voice go on. "Michelangelo, say something, say something!"

Then Splinter heard Michelangelo's voice. It was far calmer than Raphael's. "I just love hide and seek, don't you?"

Splinter released a long breath. At this moment, my student … No. I do not.

There seemed to be a pause in sounds before Raphael's voice, bright, cheerful, with a tang of his usual sarcasm followed. "Well, guess what? The technodrome is long gone!"

Splinter looked up to see Donnie putting his hands on his turtle hips. His smart student frowned, "That Shredder's beginning to be a real pain in the tail."

Splinter almost chuckled at his student's words. He wished they could have found a way to keep Shredder from harming others in the future. He was very satisfied all of them were alive. Leonardo, perhaps with the energy of youth and his usual single-mindedness said, "We need some way to track him."

He turned and readied himself to open the door of the van for Miss O'Neil and his students as well. They had shown themselves quite accomplished today. Donatello was still thinking out loud about what they could do next. "That van's full of all sorts of surveillance gear. If we can rig it up somehow …"

As he opened the door for them and they filed past to get in, Michelangelo spoke. "You know what I saw in that old house?" He stopped in front of the open door.

He studied his student's face. It had that expression it got when a new horror or science fiction movie had "weirded him out." Michelangelo went on. "It was this humongous brain!"

He then got into the van and the others followed. When they had all joined him, April O'Neil getting behind the wheel, Michelangelo went on describing what he saw complete with hand gestures. First, he pointed to his open beak. "And it had a mouth …" Then his student gave himself finger-googles. "And it had eyes, and it talked to me!"

Raphael seemed to have recovered over his panic for his fellow student. His voice was full of its usual, nay even more tired and disbelieving tone. "A talking brain, huh?"

Michelangelo answered with his usual enthusiasm, which his old ears were glad to hear. "Yeah!" Then his voice lowered, and words slowed, "Weird huh?"

Donatello leaned over the backrest and said, pointing to Michelangelo. "Michelangelo, I do believe you've had one pizza too many."

Splinter thought to himself his student had never reacted so to too many pizzas, and Michelangelo over-indulged in the food very often. What might his student have really seen?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes