Author's note: Well here's the next one significantly longer then the last chapter. It took a while to get done (especially because the prequel is still in progress...) Enjoy! ^.^
Disclaimer: I don't own the turtles & company but I own the villian OCs in Mikey's dreams! Mwahahaha! And the plot...
Leo and Donny quickly made their way over to Raph as he picked Mikey up. "Is he alright?" Leo asked as the Foot ninjas slowly faded into the night.
"Don't know," Raph asked. "All I know is dat he's alive, but he ain't wakin' up."
"We'll have to get back to the lair so I can look at him." Donny said. He shook his head, roughly, with his eyes closed as if to shake a thought away.
"Whatcha thinkin', Don?" Raph asked.
"Nothing," Donny lied, "Let's just go." Raph continued to eye Donny, but decided not to press the point…for now and instead worried about carrying Mikey back to the lair.
&&&&&&&
I'm really starting to think these dreams I'm having must have some importance. It's almost like the television screen in my mind is playing back an old memory, continuing where it left off until it's complete. Waking up from it this time seems to be even harder for me for some reason. It's like it doesn't want to let me go. Like I need to know what comes next. Like it's really important I know. I don't open my eyes immediately as I try to manage my thoughts. What happened again? I remember fighting Foot ninjas, but I don't understand what happened next. I hope I'm not were I think I am. If I'm in the infirmary again I swear I'm gonna do something about it! I open my eyes just enough look at my surroundings. I am in the infirmary, again! I let out a groan as I let my eyes close again.
"Mikey?" I hear Leo ask me. I open my eyes and turn to look at him. He's sitting in a chair nearby the bed.
"Yes, Leo?" I ask.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine." I say, I look around again and sigh, "I hate waking up in this room." I hear Leo chuckle at that and I turn back to him.
"Yeah, I know," Leo says, "You say it often enough. How 'bout next time I convince Don to take you to your room instead?"
"I'd very much appreciate that." I say, unable to hold back a wide grin.
"Do you know what happened, Mikey?" Leo asks me.
"Uh…not really," I say, "I wish I did but I never remember that part."
"What part do you remember?" He asks.
"The dream," I say, "I always have a continuing dream after. Leo? Do you remember a time where I got captured when I was twelve?"
"No, why?" He says.
"Cuz that's what the dream's about." I say as I look towards the ceiling, "It's the guy 'bout ready to do experiments on me. If I could only see his face!" I grind my teeth together as I start to rub hard against the arm that always burns before the dream comes. I want to see that dream again. I want to see that dude's face!
"It's just a dream though." Leo says in that calming way of his that's just making me madder.
"I don't think it is." I say, "Why else would I only dream it after my arm starts burning?"
"Your arm burns when you have those attacks?" Leo asks with his eyes wide. I obviously just told him something he didn't know.
"Maybe…" I say, slowly.
"Don't clam up on me now, Mikey. Where does it burn exactly?"
"Don't get all paranoid." I say, refusing to answer.
"Why won't you tell me?" He says and if I know my brother, I can tell he's starting to get annoyed with me. "What are you so afraid of?"
"Nothing," I say, "I just don't want you fussing over me over something I can handle."
"Please Mikey?"
"It's not even that serious." I say, "It goes away before I wake up again." I have to turn my head away from Leo so I can't see that look in his eyes. The only problem is that turning away doesn't help. I can still feel it and I wince. "Fine. It's my shoulder." I move so he could have a clear view of where I'm pointing, but I don't meet his eyes. "It starts here. It always starts here." Leo grabs hold of my arm and I can tell he's really looking at it.
"This is the same arm you were complaining about before, right?" Leo asks.
"…Yes…" I answer.
"I think during that battle you could have gotten stabbed with a syringe. Whatever's ailing you was most likely administered by the Foot." Leo released my arm before standing up. "I'm going to talk to Don about this. He could tell us more."
"No." I say, "Donny fusses even more then you do."
"Well, then you can stay here at the lair when we do our nightly patrol…" Leo says with a wave of his hand over his shoulder as he begins to walk away. "…Every night."
"Leo!" I whine, "That's not fair!"
"I need to know if you'll be alright and that you won't pass out on us again if we get into another fight." He says, "Until then, you will not be going top-side; period." When he gets to the door, he pauses, obviously expecting me to forfeit…or at least giving me time to…but I remain silent. He is not gonna win this time. I'm perfectly fine. I don't need Donny checking on me and I'll prove it! Let's see who breaks first.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Leo doesn't know what he started. Ever since that day we talked, I've been as annoying as I can be. There's no way Leo can keep up denying me my freedom. He'd have to give up eventually and surrender to my power! I will win this little game of mine eventually!
Of course, I thought all this before Leo somehow managed to disappear. I look everywhere for him and have to surrender after awhile to my eldest brother's ability to hide so well. I check the dojo for what feels like the hundredth time (though it's probably only the second or third) only to find Raph going at the punching bag like it's done him a major wrong as usual. Briefly, I wonder what the punching bag did to deserve such abuse before walking inside the room and positioning myself right beside him with a completely innocent expression. I don't say anything for a while as I clasp my fingers behind my shell and just wait.
Eventually, Raph stops abusing the bag and instead holds it still without looking at me. "Waddaya want?" He growls at me.
"Where's Leo?" I ask.
"How m'I s'posed ta know?" He asks, "I ain't his keeper 'r nu'thin'."
"I can't find him anywhere." I say with my eyes almost pleading.
"Waddaya want me ta do 'bout it?" He asks as he finally looks at me.
"Couldja help me, big bro?" I ask, smiling.
"If Leo's takin' ta avoidin' ya as I bet he is ya ain't gonna find him, Mike." He says, any anger he might have had before completely gone from his voice now.
"I know…" I say, sighing as I look down at the ground.
"Hey, why don'tcha find sum'thin' betta then waitin' 'round like dis for 'im to pop up." He says, "It jus' ain't gonna happen." I know he's trying to help, but instead he only gives me an idea I know he's not going to like very much. He did bring this on himself. Heh, yeah Leo won't be showing up anytime soon but that doesn't mean he can't give in to peer pressure. All I have to do is annoy Raph – and maybe even Donny, just for fun – and then they will be pleading with Leo to give up this stubborn act.
"So, Raph-?" I begin before Raph catches on before I can even begin to form my sentence and cuts me off.
"No." He says firmly. "Go away, Mikey. Annoy someone else."
"But Raph!" I say, "I'm starting to get physically sick of being down here all the time! You gotta help me! Come on, bro!" I grab for Raph's wrist to force him to listen to me, but the look in his eyes tells me he didn't appreciate that at all.
"I said, no!" He says as he roughly pulls his arm out of my grasp. "When I said 'find sum'thin' better' ta do, I didn't mean annoy me! Why don'tcha go bother Don!"
"But you're my favorite brother!" I say with my trademark cheesy smile, "You must save me from dying from lack of clear air-filled exercise!"
"I don't gotta do nu'thin'." He says as he turns away from me to avoid the look I know he can still feel piercing through him. It's one of my super powers, you know? No one can resist the look – not even big brawny stubborn trying-to-be-resistant brothers.
"You can't do this to me!" I say as I again grab his wrist and collapse backwards towards the ground in a very good interpretation of complete torture if I do say so myself – which I will – again and again. "Think of your poor, desperate baby brother left to cope here all alone every night with only Master Splinter to keep me company! You know what it's like; I know you do! How can you stand there and let me die of boredom and inactivity while you're out having fun with Leo and Donny? It's not fair! You gotta save me!"
"Mikey…" Raph growls, but I can tell his guard is weakening to my power. He will fall soon enough.
"I'm going to die!" I say as I dramatically lay the arm not still holding Raph's wrist over my eyes, "One of these nights you'll come home to a dead brother all because you didn't help me when you could and took away this unfairness. No more Mikey; just silent rooms and mourning brothers, cuz one had no heart to save me from the boredom of an almost empty lair. There's no hope left! This is it!" With that, I finally release Raph's wrist and fall all the way backwards so I'm lying back on my carapace. I close my eyes in another dramatic rendition of dying just to emphasize my point.
"Finally some peace and quiet!" Raph says, smirking as he returns to his punching bag and ignores me. I worked hard on that little speech! I grumpily stand back up and shot my brother a glare.
"Fine!" I say, "Maybe Donny will be nicer than you and actually help me!"
"Go ahead." He says, "No one's stopin' ya."
"Fine!" I repeat before stomping out of the dojo and stopping just outside to glare back at the door. I hope Donny will be easier to fall. Raph's easy, but sometimes it's hard to figure out what will get ya Raph the bull and what will get ya Raph the sympathetic (which is rare but I know is hidden there somewhere).
After a minute of just staring at the door, I finally turn around and walk with a little more bounce in my step towards Don's lab. Even if he isn't in there, just my presence within could set him off which is good for me. I peek inside the door and happily spot Donny almost hidden among the pile of equipment scattered around the lab. Without so much as a warning, I walk right in confidently and stop directly behind my brother. With a smirk as I realize he doesn't even know of my presence, I turn to view the countertop directly beside me. I quickly spot a few delicate objects, pick up a nice – for now – whole glass vial, and purposefully loosen my grasp so it makes a nice crashing sound on the hard concrete floor. Glass shards scatter across the ground just as Donny practically jumps a foot in the air before swiveling his chair around towards the source: me.
"MIKEY!" Donny says in a mixture of a yell and a growl, "What do you think you're doing in here!" Perfect, he's already mad; now for the annoying part.
"Nothing," I say innocently with a simple shrug of my shoulders, "Just wondering what my brainy brother was up to."
"You BROKE something already and you've haven't even been in here that long!" He yells again, noticing the broken shards of glass on the ground between us before he stands to his feet. "Get OUT!"
"You don't even know how long I've been in here." I say with a smug smile, "You were too busy to notice. What are you doing anyway? Is it something cool?" I try to look past my brother without stepping on the glass.
"It's none of your business!" Donny says, "You probably wouldn't be able to understand half of it!" I turn away from Donny, instead spot some suspiciously delicate looking mechanical whats-it, and pick it up.
"What's this then?" I ask holding it up for inspection. It had a lot of dials, buttons, and strange doohickeys that probably did some pretty cool stuff if I knew how to work it. I lingered one finger above one of the many colorful buttons before Donny's voice froze me.
"Don't touch that!" He snaps almost hysterically with his hands reaching out as if ready to stop me if I didn't obey.
"What's it do?" I ask, again as I look back over at Don to really look at him.
"It's a highly sensitive prototype of a new idea I recently thought up and if you don't leave it alone – like the rest of my stuff – you might just end up paying for it." He says, dangerously, his hands still reaching. I put the 'prototype' down and turned to something else to pick up but again, Don's voice stopped me.
"Don't touch anything, you hear me!" He says, "NOTHING! And GET. OUT!"
"Donny," I say instead as I pick up another electrical mechanism. "Do you think this is breakable?" I barely look at it before it slips from grasp and crashes to the ground. It starts sparking sinisterly and I back away with a hidden smile on my face. "Looks like it is."
"Out NOW!" Donny says. He ignores the glass between us and begins pushing me out through the door. I wince in sympathy every time I hear the glass crush beneath Donny's feet but from the way he looks, I don't think he cares so much. Wow, he must really be mad at me. When I'm finally outside his lab, he slams the door in my face and a few seconds later, I hear the lock click. Okay, that's not an option anymore. Now what?
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
After a whole week of this, Raph just couldn't handle it anymore. Mikey had already retreated to his room by this time. "Leo!" Raph growled.
"What?" Leo said from behind him. Raph turned and glared at his older brother.
"Ya gotta quit this." He said with his eyes narrowed. "I don't think I can stand anotha day with that thing you turned our brother into."
"He'll get over it soon." He quickly said, "He can't keep this up for long."
"This is Mikey we're talkin' about." He said with a disbelieving look, "He can outlast anyone prob'bly."
"Not me." Leo said, proudly.
"Only because you are hiding from 'im." Raph told him, "You know Mikey can twist all our legs into doin' anythin' fer 'im. So instead of facin' 'im you've taken ta cowerin'."
"It's for his own good." Leo said; his smile wiped off his face.
"I don't see a problem," Raph said, "We'll jus' hafta keep a betta watch on 'im."
"It can't be that bad anyway." Donny said as he made his appearance. "He'll be fine." The way he said that, told the other two that Donny knew something he wasn't telling them. Both Leo and Raph looked at Donny for a few minutes before Raph turned back to Leo.
"Just give up, Leo," Raph said, "It's now three against one."
"Fine." Leo said, slightly annoyed by this change in events, "If anything happens to him, it won't be my fault."
Author's end note: Please review as always.