A/N: Yay! I now have cover art! This gorgeous picture was done by my friend, the amazingly talented WinterHeath. Her artwork was actually what inspired me to write this story in the first place and she has since created several fantastic illustrations for it. You can (and should!) check out her gallery on DeviantArt.
Chapter 5
"Yeah! This is going to be epic!" shouted Mikey as he and his brothers raced toward the turnstiles, feet shod and pockets stuffed with their allowance money.
"Where are you going!?"
The four boys halted at the sound of their father's stern voice. Frozen in mid stride, they turned to look at Splinter.
"Well, Sensei," began Leo nervously, "We were just going . . . shopping."
"You are going into a human store, during the day?" Splinter said, with one eyebrow raised.
"Yes," answered Donnie, "because we can now, can't we, Sensei?"
The rat looked over his sons thoughtfully before replying, "Yes, you may." A loud cheer erupted from the four boys and they immediately resumed heading for the exit. "But," continued Splinter, and his sons froze again, "You must leave your weapons behind."
"What?" they cried in unison, "Why?"
"Because you will be arrested if you attempt to enter a store wearing swords or nunchaku!" the rat shouted sharply. This had apparently not occurred to the four ninjas.
"But, Sensei," protested Raph, "What if we run into the Foot, or the Kraang?"
"That is unlikely to happen in the middle of the day. And even if you do, I have trained you to fight, even without weapons."
"Well, yeah," Leo said, betraying his uncertainty, "but that doesn't get us very far if the other guys are armed!"
"Then you can do what every other human would do."
"What's that?"
"Run away."
A loud humph from Raph communicated his contempt of this plan.
"I will hear no more arguing!" Splinter's eyes were blazing and the boys knew it would be best to obey. "Leave your weapons behind, or you do not go!"
Hastily the boys handed their weapons to their father and headed for the exit once more, somewhat more slowly this time, some of their enthusiasm having been dampened.
Once in the sewer tunnels, however, their excitement picked up again, and Mikey bounded ahead of the group, crying, "Man, I can't wait to see what the city looks like in the day time! This is gonna be so cool!"
Even Raph was smiling a little, for the first time since their new mutation.
Leo turned to Donnie. "So, Donnie, have you told April yet?"
Donnie rubbed the back of his head nervously as he replied, "Ah, no. . . It's not exactly something you can put in a text message. But she was planning on coming over after school today, so I guess she'll find out then."
As they rounded a corner, Mikey suddenly stumbled, and then began hopping around on one foot as if the other wasn't working properly. "Aaugh, guys, my foot's asleep!" he cried, shaking it around. "Aaaa! My whole leg's asleep! Oh, it tingles! It tingles!" He continued to dance around for a few seconds, then suddenly giving his leg one last shake, began walking normally again. "Oh wait, never mind, dudes, it's all good!" He flashed them a winning smile and bounded on ahead again.
"What was that about?" asked Raph, confused, as the three of them followed Mikey down the familiar tunnel.
"Temporary loss of nerve sensation and motor function in the extremities is a predictable side effect of an unstable mutation," Donatello explained.
Raph's look of confusion only increased. "Seriously, bro, sometimes I swear you aren't speaking English."
Donnie only glared at him, so Leo took over the explanation and recounted to Raphael the conversation they had had in the lab earlier.
"So, you mean, this isn't permanent?" Raph asked, gesturing to himself. "Oh thank God!"
"Not unless we want it to be," replied Leo hesitantly.
"Why would we want it to be?" asked Raph with disdain.
Leo didn't answer, but glanced at Mikey who was nearing the manhole cover they planned to exit by, and was too far ahead to hear their conversation. Raph followed his gaze and understood.
"Mikey wants to stay human, doesn't he?" he asked in a low voice.
Leo nodded. "Can you really blame him, Raph? He's always wanted a chance at a normal life. And anyway, he's afraid of going through the mutation process again."
Raph shrugged. "Well, I guess I can't blame him for that, but I still don't think it's worth it." He noticed the sad look on Leo's face. "You're siding with him, aren't you?"
Leo sighed. "Just think about it, Raph, OK?"
"Dudes, come on! What's takin' you so long?" called Mikey from the top of a ladder a few yards ahead of them.
With one more glance at Raph, Leo led the way to join him, leaving his brother frowning behind him in the semi-darkness.
The sun shone brightly and the September air was warm as the former turtles emerged from the dank dampness of the sewers, blinking in the dazzling light. They were in a familiar alley way, where, as they had anticipated, no one had seen them climb through the manhole. Cautiously they approached the busy street in front of them, which was crowded with passersby and bustling with the thousands of noises that together made up the hum of the city. After peering around the corner for a moment, the four boys stepped out of the alley and joined the throng walking down the sidewalk. All the while they stared at everything around them. The city was so different in the daytime! So alive, so full of people!
"It's so weird," Raph said to Donnie, who was walking next to him. "We're right in the middle of a crowd of people, and no one's staring at us!"
Donnie grinned at him. A few steps ahead of them, Mikey started waving at everyone who passed by, and greeting them loudly. "Hi! I'm Mikey! How are you? Hey, what's your name? Mine's Michelangelo! Hey, where are you going today? I'm going shopping with my bros!"
"OK, now everyone's staring at us," grumbled Raph as he stepped ahead a few paces to silence Mikey.
Before Raph could reach him, though, Mikey lost interest in his one-sided conversations and, as he reached an intersection, turned around to talk to his brothers. "Hey, guys, isn't this the coolest? Look! I've always wanted to try one of these!"
He rushed up to the pole of the traffic light and pressed the red button for the walk signal. Then he rocked impatiently on the balls of his feet as the cars zipped by in front of him, concentrating on the glowing red hand across the street. Suddenly it turned into the symbol of a man walking and Mikey grabbed his brothers excitedly, pulling them across the street amid a small crowd of other pedestrians.
"So, what store should we try?" asked Leo, after Mikey's little street-crossing adventure was over.
The boys looked around. "There's one," said Donnie, pointing to an impressive looking department store a little further down the road. They headed in that direction, Mikey bouncing in his excitement.
"Guys!" he cried, "This is so awesome! We can finally do all the human stuff I've always wanted to do!"
"Like what?" asked Raph, who had never really given much thought to the things humans did.
"You know, like make a friend, ride a bus, go to the zoo, eat ice cream at an ice cream shop, swing on a swing, get a haircut, take a taxi somewhere, go to a baseball game, hang out with friends, eat at a restaurant, go to school, ride a roller coaster, play football, fly in an airplane, build a snowman, get a driver's license, swim in the ocean, go to the movies, go Christmas shopping. . ."
His three brothers stared at him as Mikey continued to rattle off his long mental list without hesitation. Raph was surprised. Mikey had never talked much about wishing to be part of the human world, but apparently he had spent a lot of time thinking about it. Raph recalled what Leo had said earlier about their little brother's desire to remain human, and he frowned as he listened to Mikey, beginning to comprehend how much it meant to him.
Their freckle-faced brother was rambling on about carnivals and all the different kinds of food he wanted to try when they reached the large glass doors of the department store. He finally fell silent as they stepped inside and were met with an overwhelming display of merchandise. Racks and racks of clothes, shelves of shoes, entire aisles devoted to toys of every description, whole sets of brand new dishes and kitchen appliances. Brightly printed signs hanging from the vaulted ceiling directed them to yet more sections of the store, bedroom supplies, hardware, and cosmetics among them.
The four boys stood agape for a moment before wandering off to look in awe at the vast amount of items for sale around them. Before they had gone far, their wide-eyed meandering was stopped by a friendly looking woman who appeared before them. Smartly dressed in a blue pencil skirt and matching jacket, the woman smiled through pink lipstick and asked brightly, "Hello, boys! Can I help you find anything today?"
Raph and Donnie just stared at her, not sure how to respond to a friendly human talking to them, well, normally. Mikey was distracted by a display across the aisle and hadn't noticed the sales clerk. Leo glanced quickly at his unresponsive brothers before taking a breath and answering tentatively, "Um, no, thank you. I think we're fine."
"OK. Well if you need anything, you just let me know!" With one more smile, she turned and walked down the aisle, her high heels clicking on the tile floor.
"Pajamas!" Mikey suddenly called out, breaking the other boys out of their shell of shyness. "That's what humans wear to bed! Now I remember!" He picked up a pair of pajama bottoms with Captain Ryan printed all over them. "Hey, Leo, these would be perfect for you! Want me to buy you some Space Heroes pajamas?"
Leo laughed, but Donnie, inspecting the merchandise in question, said, "I don't know, Mikey. How much money do you have? These cost thirty dollars."
"Thirty dollars?!" cried Mikey, hastily hanging the pajamas back on the rack. "I only have six." Mikey looked crestfallen, but Leo assured him he didn't mind.
"What happened to the rest of your money, Mikey? How come you only have six dollars?" he asked.
"Spent it all on pizza, of course. What else was I going to do with it?"
Donnie slipped his hand in his pocket and fingered the cash he had stashed there. He had more than thirty dollars, but he wasn't going to spend it on pajamas. He had other plans for his money.
Raph, meanwhile, had selected a black leather jacket off a nearby rack. "Check out this cool jacket," he said, holding it up.
"Oh, Raph, you would look totally awesome in that!" cried Mikey. "You should buy it!"
But once more their excitement was quelled by the size of the price tag.
"Two hundred dollars!" cried Raph, disgusted. "Man, shopping isn't as fun as dumpster diving. At least then, if you find something cool you can keep it."
"Yeah," agreed Mikey. "I didn't realize being human would be so expensive!"
"Come on, guys," said Leo. "We can't afford anything in this store. Let's go somewhere else."
As they stepped back onto the sunny street, Leo suddenly felt a prickle on the back of his neck. He glanced cautiously around to find the source of his uneasiness. There were hundreds of people milling about along the street, walking in and out of shops, and glancing in windows, but none of them seemed to be looking in their direction.
Mikey, who had noticed his brother's behavior, placed a hand on his shoulder. "Leo, do you feel like someone's watching us?"
Leo turned to his brother. "You feel it, too?"
Mikey nodded, but still they didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"It must just be that we're not used to being around so many people," Leo suggested, trying to explain away the strange feeling. Mikey still looked unsure, but shrugged it off as he noticed a hot dog stand across the street.
"Look, guys, hot dogs! And they're only $3.50! Let's get some; I'm starving!"
A few minutes later the boys, hot dogs in hand, continued down the street, talking, laughing, and generally enjoying themselves.
"This is the best day ever!" Mikey exclaimed, scarfing the last of his hot dog and letting out a large belch. Before his brothers even had the chance to agree with him, Mikey's mind had already jumped to another topic. He pointed down the street crying out, "Ooh, ooh! Ice cream! I want to get ice cream from an ice cream shop! You guys want some?"
"Actually," said Raph, "I'd rather check out that store over there." He pointed across the street to a martial arts store with Japanese posters hanging in the windows and an elegant katana on display. "You coming, Leo?"
As their red and blue clad brothers began crossing the street, Mikey grabbed Donnie's arm and pleaded, "You'll come with me to get some ice cream, won't you? Please?"
"I don't know," said Donnie, watching Raph and Leo disappear into the store. "Maybe we shouldn't split up."
"Oh, come on, Donnie, they know where we're going. And we all have our T-phones. We'll be fine. Come on!"
"OK, fine," Donnie gave in, "but I want to visit an electronics store after this."
"Sure thing, D. Now let's get some ice cream!"
Before they reached the shop, however, Mikey was once again distracted, this time by a brown and orange striped cat that began rubbing against his ankles.
"Aaawww! What a cute little kitty!" he cried with enthusiasm, kneeling down to pet it. The cat began to purr and Mikey grinned. "Look, it likes me! Aw, can I keep it, Donnie, please?"
"No, Mikey, you know how Master Splinter feels about cats. And anyway, it might already have an owner."
"Nah, it doesn't have a collar. Which means it doesn't have a name! I have to at least give it a name. Let's see," he thought out loud as he watched the cat try to tear open a discarded juice box. "It's orange, and it looks like it likes juice. . . Orange Juice! It's the perfect name!"
Donnie rolled his eyes. "Come on, Mikey, I thought you wanted ice cream."
"Oh yeah!" Mikey leaped up and followed Donnie toward the ice cream shop. "Bye, Orange Juice!"
Halfway through the door, Mikey paused and scanned the street. That uneasy feeling had come over him again. He glanced around but still didn't see anyone suspicious. Shrugging, he turned his attention to the glass topped counter inside the shop, below which were tubs upon tubs of more flavors of ice cream than he had ever seen before.
"Whoa!" he breathed, pressing his nose to the glass. "I can choose any of these flavors?" The lady behind the counter gave him a strange look and nodded. He scanned the labels. Mint chocolate chip, fudge brownie, butter pecan, vanilla. . . In the end he settled on strawberry, having remembered the time April had brought some of the delicious fruit down to the lair for them to try. If the ice cream tasted anything like that. . . Mikey's mouth began to water in anticipation.
"I'll have a double, no, a triple scoop!" he announced, and watched eagerly as the pink ice cream was piled higher and higher into the cone.
"What kind are you having, Donnie?" he asked, turning to his brother, who looked deep in thought about something completely not ice cream related.
"What? Oh, I'm not having any."
"What? All these flavors and you're not even going to try one?" Mikey could not comprehend his brother's decision.
"That'll be $5.75," said the cashier in a bored voice, holding Mikey's giant ice cream cone.
"Oh, uh, heheh," said Mikey nervously, pulling the remainder of his change out of his pocket. "I've only got two dollars and . . . twenty-nine cents."
The cashier raised an eyebrow at him. "It's $5.75," she said, unamused.
"Hey, D, could you loan me a few dollars, please?" He gave his brother his pleading puppy dog eyes, but it had no effect.
"No, Mikey, I'm not spending my money on ice cream."
Disappointed, Mikey turned back to the lady behind the counter. "How much can I get for $2.29?"
Without a word, she knocked two-thirds of the ice cream back into the tub and handed him the remainder. The single scoop looked rather pitiful after the tantalizing mountain he had been staring at, but still, he was getting ice cream from an ice cream shop, and that was something.
A moment later, he settled on a stool at a counter top with Donnie beside him. His brother still seemed distracted and had pulled out some paper and a marker.
"Watcha writin', Donnie?" Mikey asked, his mouth full of delicious strawberry goodness.
"I'm just going over some of the equations I was working on earlier regarding the stability of our current mutation. I'm afraid I may have initially overestimated the amount of time we have until we inevitably revert back to our previous forms."
Math stuff. Michelangelo was instantly bored and changed the subject. "So, how come you didn't want to spend your money on ice cream?"
"I'm saving it," his brother answered simply, not looking up from his equations.
"Saving it for what?"
Donatello did not answer, but the slight color that rose to his cheeks did not go unnoticed by his little brother, whose intuition could be uncanny sometimes.
"Ah, you're going to ask April out on a date, aren't you?!" asked Mikey with a mischievous grin.
Donnie's head instantly shot up, his cheeks flushed a deep crimson.
"Haha! Totally called it, bro!" sang Mikey triumphantly. "Dude, if she says yes, then you'll have to admit she's your girlfriend!" Mikey loved teasing Donnie about April, but actually, this time, he was happy for his brother. After all, he knew that Donnie, too, had a list of human things he wanted to do, and this was definitely at the top.
Before Donnie could think of something to say in response, Mikey's mind had been pulled in another direction by a soft meow at his feet. Glancing down, he cried out, "Aw, look! Orange Juice followed me in here! I guess she really does like me! Are you hungry my little kitty?"
He picked up the cat and sat her on the counter in front of him, letting her take a lick from his ice cream cone. Donnie gave him a disgusted look.
"That's not sanitary, Mikey."
Mikey snorted. "Come on, bro, we live in a sewer. A few cat germs isn't going to hurt me."
Donnie wasn't the only one who found the cat's presence offensive, however, for at that moment the manager of the shop, a large, bald man with a red mustache stepped out of the back room. His eyes locked instantly on the dirty animal defiling his counter and his face turned a shade of red to rival his mustache.
"Get that filthy animal out of my shop!" he screamed at a startled Mikey, who nearly dropped his ice cream.
"Why?" asked Mikey innocently.
"No pets allowed!" the man bellowed, pointing to a sign in the window that stated the rule in clear red letters.
"Oh, well, she's not really my pet – " Michelangelo started to explain, but an angry shout from the now purple-faced manager startled the feline in question who leaped off the counter and streaked out the door as another customer was entering.
"Orange Juice! Wait!" called Mikey, shooting the manager an angry glare for frightening the cat and dashing out the door after her, while being careful not to spill his treat.
Across the street, Raph and Leo were emerging from the martial arts store. Raph had marveled at the display of antique weapons while Leo chatted with the owner in Japanese about his home in Okinawa, and where he had studied Ninjitsu. At last they had decided it was time to find Mikey and Donnie, and as the door swung shut behind them with the tinkle of a bell, Leo once more tensed. The uneasy feeling of danger near at hand was stronger than ever. He could tell Raph sensed it, too, and together they looked around the street, taking in the details of every person who passed by.
"There!" Raph suddenly shouted, pointing across the street.
It didn't take Leo long to recognize the figure passing by a newspaper stand. The thin man had short black hair, a blank face, and was dressed in a nondescript black suit and tie. A Kraang bot in disguise.
"What's it doing?" asked Leo aloud. The Kraang was holding some sort of electronic device in its hands and was staring down at it as it walked, as if the device was leading it where to go. "It looks like it's tracking something. . ."
Suddenly, as the Kraang neared the ice cream shop where their brothers had gone, the door burst open and Mikey came barreling out in pursuit of an orange cat that shot around a corner and disappeared into the crowd. They could see Mikey calling after it, but couldn't distinguish his voice among the myriad of other sounds assailing their ears. The Kraang bot, however, had turned his tracking device directly at Mikey and began walking purposefully toward him.
"MIKEY!" shouted Raph, but Mikey's back was facing both them and the Kraang bot, and he neither heard Raph's warning, nor saw his pursuer approaching.