Mikey stared at the sky, leaning against a branch as he hugged his legs. He'd left. He'd left his brothers months ago, and he didn't even regret it, unless, this was regret, this thing he was feeling, he pushed it down inside. They didn't want him, and they didn't need him. Three was the magic number. Mikey got to his feet on the branch and stretched, leaning forward and backward with his hands above his head. Then he jumped down, might as well head as far north as possible, right? Only, north was cold, and as a reptile, that was a bad idea. so, he turned towards the sun, it was sinking lower in the sky, that was...west. Probably, he could head west a bit too, north west, didn't matter. So, Mikey rubbed his eyes as he began walking, he'd stop somewhere once he found a place to sleep, later, now he wanted to continue his quest. Heh, was this a quest now? Mikey stopped in his tracks, uncertainty filling him. What was he even doing? Was he so sure his brothers didn't need him? He shook his head, he was pretty sure they needed him, but they were positive they didn't. Mikey sighed, rubbing his temples, the thing about being alone, you had to make all the decisions. He gave a weak chuckle and stared at the sky.

"What would Leo do." he said aloud, his voice raspy from dehydration, yeah, Leo would find water, Leo was always going on and on about how water was so important, Mikey glanced around, he hadn't seen any rivers or creeks recently…oh well, he would just keep an eye out now. Mikey kept walking west, well, mostly west. He couldn't be sure as the sun sank behind the trees. As he walked, he found himself whistling a tune, it was the song he always sang with ice cream kitty, man, he missed her. Oh well, the guys would take good care of her anyway. He hopped over a narrow ditch and kept walking, then turned, a ditch? It looked more like...a dry stream bed. Suddenly, the sky flashed with lightning, followed closely by thunder, and Mikey shivered. He hated storms. Mikey scanned the surrounding area, there was a small cave in the side of the stream bed, and he hopped down. Mikey peeked into the shallow cave, seemed dry enough, and besides, maybe this storm would leave puddles in the stream bed.

"Would you look at this." Mikey murmured to himself, "my own little hole in the ground." so, he huddled down on the floor of the cave, to wait until morning.

When Mikey awoke, the first thing he noticed was wet. Wet feet, wet legs, no wet shell though. He opened his eyes, the once dusty stream bed was now a playful creek, tumbling along. And it so happened that the cave he'd chosen to sleep in was low enough that it filled a few inches with water, making a shallow pool of still water that was disturbed as he got to his feet, and yawned. How long had he been asleep? He stumbled out into the creek, the sun was high overhead,and he groaned. Good job getting a head start Mikey. He scolded himself, can't even rest without wasting time. Mikey climbed out of the creek, oh well, you did find water. Mikey scooped some up and let it fall over his dirty face, enjoying the feeling, he rubbed his forehead, and felt the now familiar bump just over his right eye, he gritted his teeth. Raph. Mikey got to his feet, and then he heard a faint rustling sound from behind him, and spun around, grabbing his nunchucks, he hadn't really needed to use them so far, most of his scares were just deer or rabbits. But he could tell that whatever this was, it was big. He watched carefully as a huge shape lumbered out of the undergrowth, was that, a bear? Mikey felt chills run up his shell. He hoped the bear wasn't hungry. But, that didn't look quite like any bears Donnie had shown him, in books and online, it stood on it's hind legs and Mikey gulped. It was a mutant.

"Hey! Furface!" he shouted, imitating raph, "wanna piece of me?" the bear mutant glared at him, regarding him, and Mikey gulped again, what was this thing? Then. as quick as lightning,. The thing slashed out a hand/paw and Mikey saw the glint of claws. He ducked neatly and stepped to the side, whipping his nun-chucks towards Furface. Furface responded by catching one in his huge tooth filled mouth. Mikey felt it be pulled out of his hands.

"Hey!" he said indignantly, wincing as a three month old memory came to mind, when he'd repeated this word for a few moments before butting in on his brothers conversation. What if they were right, and he couldn't defend himself? If they were, now was the time to find out. Furface lumbered towards him, Mikey backed up and felt his foot touch the water. He made a split second decision. Mikey jumped up and landed on top of the monster. "Ha!" apparently furface didn't like that. He reared back again, and Mikey grabbed hold of a piece of fur. He was whipped around for a few moments before his fingers slipped, and he slammed into a tree. He winced and held his arms over his head protectively.

He can't defend himself, you know that. Mikey felt rage roar in his ear and rolled to the side as furface slammed his fist down, a razor sharp claw scratched under Mikey's left eye, and he felt it begin to bleed.

"Fine!" he shouted, "you wanna fight me? Fine! Try and beat me!" he cried, holding his ground as furface turned, strangely, he felt instinct taking over. He saw things that he could use, that branch, he could catapult off it and land on the beast's head, he didn't even remember doing it, but he landed on the huge shaggy head of the thing and it fell, unconscious. Mikey picked himself up and looked at it. "Sorry furface." he said, "but you attacked me first." he picked up his nun-chucks and slid them into his belt, a drop of blood hit his hand and he frowned, how badly did that thing get him? Mikey knelt next to the creak and looked at the reflection, he jumped, surprised. The small cut under his left eye was bleeding more than he'd expected, and he took a piece of cloth from his foot wrap, and tied it over the cut. Heh, now he looked like he'd had a lobotomy again. But, that wasn't all he'd been surprised by, his freckles were almost nonexistent under the screen of dirt. And he had a few scratches on his face, more than he'd even felt. But, he felt like there was something strange about his eyes, he couldn't place it though. Mikey stood up, he'd wasted enough time today. Mikey got back to his feet. He turned his back on the mutant, on the stream, and walked away.

Raph peered through the darkness. He'd forgotten that being underground, meant that there was little light, even though he'd lived almost his entire underground. He'd entered the small entrance in the side of a mountain a few, hours, Days ago maybe? He sighed, he was a monster, he couldn't get the image of Leo's bruised and battered body, just lying there, out of his head. It'd been at least two months since he left, and he still wondered if Leo was...ok. Raph punched at the wall angrily, and fell forward, apparently the tunnel had widened out, he got to his feet, annoyed. Raph sighed, what was wrong with him? Why did he always have to mess the team up? Sure, the others could be boneheads, but he was the reason Mikey had left in the first place. Raph staggered forward until he felt the wall, and then walked slowly along it. Suddenly, the wall was gone, and raph almost face planted again, he looked around. There was another tunnel, and light at the end, raph felt relieved, he could finally get out of here. He started to jog towards the sunlight streaming in, and when he emerged from the tunnel, he could barely believe his eyes, he'd felt so sure he was going down, but at some point he must have gone up because he was almost to the top if the mountain, and he could see a city sprawling below him. It was so breathtaking, it almost took raph's breath away. Suddenly his foot slipped, and raph looked down, he was falling off the edge of a forty foot high cliff.

"Shell." he said as he plummeted down, his shell made a loud crack against the ground as he landed,and he moaned in pain, unfortunately, karma wasn't done with him yet. As he tried to get to his feet he began rolling down the mountainside, very painfully. He skidded down a rocky slope, grabbing for a handhold, sharp rocks pricked his jade green skin as he grabbed onto a large root, sticking out of the ground, he moaned softly again, and pulled himself up onto the net of roots that the one he had grabbed trailed sure he was secure, raph checked his arms for injuries. He wasn't cut very badly, but he still had a ton of bruises as he checked his plastron and shell, he was glad to find that it wasn't too badly injured. Then he focused on his legs, ok, one small cut under his knee, not too bad, and then he tried to move his left leg.

"Grargh!" he yelped, and grabbed his knee, it was dislocated, he started to hyperventilate when he saw that his toes were pointing a little too far to the right, and he tried to calm himself. Raph closed his eyes, he gripped his lower leg firmly with one hand and his upper leg with the other. He was suddenly thankful for all the times he'd been forced to sit through a lecture from Donnie about injuries. He took a deep breath and jerked his leg hard back into place. His vision fuzzed from the pain.

"Augh!" he couldn't stop the scream of pain that erupted from his lips, but as soon as the pain faded and his vision returned to normal, it felt much better, and could actually move. Raph got shakily to his feet and glanced around. He'd slid a good fifty yards from the cave entrance, and he wasn't sure he wanted to go back, yet. He needed to find food first. As he staggered to flatter ground he tried to remember what plants could be eaten.