Chapter 6: Copycat

A/N: I know it's been a while since I've updated this story, but other stories got in the way and I hit a bit of a wall with this one. But now ideas have started coming again, and so I'm updating this with another chapter. I want to thank those who have read and reviewed thus far as it means a lot to me that you're enjoying this story. I hope that you enjoy this chapter as well.

Disclaimer: TMNT and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon. I only own the plot and Madison Kinney.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: So how's the story going, Leo?

Fearless Leader: Not so good. I had to change some of it.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Why is that?

Fearless Leader: I kind of borrowed some dialogue from Mikey's story because I was stuck on an idea. He found out and got mad at me, so I had to change it.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: I can see why he'd be mad. Plagiarism is no joke.

Fearless Leader: How was I supposed to know that? I'm new at this stuff, remember?

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Yes, but you still should have asked Mikey to borrow it instead of taking his words and using them as your own.

Fearless Leader: Okay, I was wrong, and I changed it. Does that make it better now?

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Yes, it does. But why were you so stuck on an idea?

Fearless Leader: Because I got into a fight with Donnie.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Really? What was it about?

Fearless Leader: April of all things. Here's how it went down…

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Leo sighed as he worked on his latest chapter. It was coming along well, but he was still a little stuck about what to do next. Just as he was contemplating what to do, a knock sounded at his door.

"Leo, can I talk to you?" Donnie asked him.

"Sure, just a minute," Leo answered. He stowed his notebook away and opened the door for his brainy brother. "What's up, Donnie?"

"I think we should do another scouting mission for April," Don answered. "I just think there's something we have to be missing."

Leo sighed in frustration. "Donnie, we've been all over the city. She's not here."

"Then maybe we should think about leaving the city to look for her," Don declared.

Leo stared at him incredulously. "Are you insane?!" he yelled. "Do you know how long that would take us to scour the whole country for her? And how do we know where she is anyway? It's not like you've gotten any leads on it."

"No, but I'm working on it," Don said.

"It's out of the question, Donnie," Leo said firmly. "We're not leaving the city to go chasing somebody you can't let go."

"That somebody is our friend, Leo," Don insisted. "We owe it to her to try and find her and bring her home."

"I'm sorry, Donnie, but it's not possible to leave the city. We're still wanted here, and we need to stay here. April's gone, and the sooner you accept that, the better off you will be."

"You just want to stay here for your girlfriend," Don said scathingly. "If it wasn't for her, you'd be all over trying to get April home. What happened to you, Leo? Where's the Fearless Leader who would risk his life for his family and his friends? Where's the Leo who wanted to be like Captain Ryan and wanted to be a hero, dealing out justice to all those who needed it and righting the wrongs of the world?"

"He grew up, Donnie," Leo said softly. "I'm sorry, but we just can't risk it. You have to let this go."

"Fine," Don said petulantly "But I'm going to continue to look and see if there's any hope left. I won't rest until I at least know where she is." And with that, he stormed from Leo's room, slamming the door behind him.

Leo sighed again. Why did this have to happen to him? Donnie was being unreasonable and chasing a foolish dream. Leo knew what it was like to pine for someone you loved, but you had to learn to let them go eventually. He had had the same experience with Karai, and look where that had gotten him. Shaking his head, he retrieved his notebook and continued with his task.

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MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Wow. That had to be a hard conversation to have with Donnie.

Fearless Leader: You're not kidding. It was.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: So, that's why you stole Mikey's dialogue?

Fearless Leader: Yeah, but I'm not done with my story of how that happened yet.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Okay, sorry. Continue.

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Athena gazed into Captain Ryan's eyes. She was so grateful that he had saved her from that group of Hyperbolas who had attempted to kidnap her, but she was speechless. How was she going to convey her love for Ryan and her gratefulness?

"You don't have to thank me, Athena," Captain Ryan said. "It was all in a day's work for this captain."

"But you wanted to save me, right?" Athena asked him.

"Yes, I did," Captain Ryan answered.

Leo shook his head. "No, that doesn't sound right," he muttered. "There's no passion there. How the heck am I going to do this?" Knowing that he wasn't going to get much done, Leo went on the fan fiction website and looked for other stories to give him inspiration. He remembered that he hadn't read Mikey's latest chapter, so he went and did just that. And as he read, he smiled and realized that he had an amazing idea. Grabbing his notebook, he sat and began to write feverishly, smiling as he did so. Yes, this was going to work out.

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MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Leo, you naughty Turtle! You know better than to do that to your brother!

Fearless Leader: I know. I know. Can we skip the lecture?

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: LOL. Okay, I'll stop. So what else happened?

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"Okay, bro, let's see what you got," Mikey said.

Leo gave Mikey his computer so he could look over the chapter he had completed. "I hope it's okay," he said worriedly.

Mikey said nothing as he began to read, but then he gasped as he read over one particular part.

Captain Ryan gazed into Athena's beautiful blue orbs, love filling his body. He'd longed for his alien beauty for so long, and now he finally had her.

"Oh, Captain Ryan, you are truly the bravest captain ever," Athena gushed.

"And you are the sexiest alien from Amity I have ever met," Captain Ryan answered. "I have longed to touch your beautiful red hair since I first met you on the ship. You are truly my alien honey, and I want to have alien babies with you."

"What the hell is this?" Mikey demanded.

"It's my story," Leo answered.

"Dude, you copied off of me!" Mikey yelled. "This was from my story!"

"Why would you think I copied off of you?" Leo asked innocently. He was surprised Mikey had even found out so quickly as his younger brother wasn't that adept at figuring stuff out sometimes.

Mikey minimized Leo's window and went on the Internet. He pulled up his story and pointed to the dialogue. "Because it's right here, fool," he said. "You stole from me!"

"Okay, I did borrow from you, but I figured you wouldn't mind," Leo told him.

"Are you loco, Leo?" Mikey yelled. "Did you really think you could get away with this? Plagiarism is, like, the ultimate sin in the world of writing. You can't just take dialogue from me and get away with it!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, Mikey," Leo said. "I'll go and change it. Will that make it better?"

He expected Mikey's angry expression to fade away and for him to grin and say, "Sure, bro. Just change it and all will be good." But Mikey's angry expression didn't fade. "I am SO getting you back for this," he threatened. Then he stormed from the room.

Leo sighed and decided he had better change the dialogue right away. He deleted what he'd written and started over, trying his best not to copy Mikey's dialogue. Three attempts later, he had what he wanted and decided to just beta it himself. After fixing all of the mistakes, he submitted it to the site and just hoped Mikey would forgive him.

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MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Whoa. So Mikey was pretty mad at you, huh?

Fearless Leader: You can say that again.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Did you tell him you changed the dialogue?

Fearless Leader: Yeah, but I think he's still mad at me, and he did threaten to get me back, though he hasn't done anything yet.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: What do you think he'll do to you?

Fearless Leader: Knowing Mikey, something diabolical. He's been known to pull elaborate pranks, so who knows what he'll do? I guess I better just get it over with and face the music.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Well, I'm sorry you have to deal with that, Leo. If you need to talk, I'm here.

Fearless Leader: Thanks, Maddie. I have to go. It's almost time for patrol.

MaddieLuvsSpaceHeroes: Okay. Have fun.

Fearless Leader: I'll try.

After he signed out, Leo got ready to go on patrol. Mikey hadn't gotten him back yet, and he was anxious to figure out what the youngest Turtle was planning for him. Shaking the thought from his head, he gathered his brothers for patrol. The city was quiet, and after stopping a few attempted muggings, the brothers headed back to the Lair. Leo could see that Raph was smirking at him, but when Leo asked what was going on, Raph said that nothing was going on. This made Leo suspicious, and his eyes trained on Mikey, who looked away. Yep, Mikey was up to something and had recruited Raph to be in on it. Leo looked at Donnie, but the purple-clad Turtle was on his phone and wasn't paying attention to any of them.

When they arrived home, Leo reported to Splinter and then went to his room to see if he had any reviews for his story. One was from Maddie and praised the story as well as two others who liked what he'd written. Then he noticed another post from a guest reviewer that he never saw before.

Raging Inferno (Guest)

Man, only a dork like you would do something like this. I couldn't believe it when I found out from an inside source. Nice job, bro. I didn't know you actually had a romantic side. Keep it up. Oh, and does this mean you have a crush on Captain Ryan?

Rage filled Leo as he read the review. He knew Raph had written it and he knew exactly who had told him about Leo's hobby.

Mikey had betrayed him.

He stormed out of his room and into his little brother's room first. "How could you?" he yelled. "How could you tell Raph about what I did?"

Mikey shrugged. "I said I'd get you back, and I did," he answered.

"Yeah, but I figured you'd get me back with a prank or something like you normally do," Leo told him. "Why did you have to betray my trust?"

"Because you betrayed mine when you stole from me," Mikey answered. "Trust goes both ways, bro, and since you broke mine, I had to get you back by breaking yours. Now you know how it feels."

"You had no right to do that!" Leo yelled, even though he knew Mikey was right. He HAD violated Mikey's trust in the worst way.

"And you had no right to steal from me," Mikey countered. "Now we're even."

Leo sputtered a bit before yelling in frustration as he left Mikey's room. He ran into Raph in the hallway.

"Aww, what's the matter, Leo?" Raph asked. "Your story get some bad reviews?"

"You stay out of this!" Leo yelled.

"I'm already in it, bro," Raph said. "Look, there's no shame in bein' gay, bro. You know we'll love you no matter what, right?"

Leo seethed. "I am NOT gay!" he said through gritted teeth. "And I don't appreciate you making fun of me the way you did!"

"Hey, I was just teasing you, bro," Raph said. "I think it's kind of cool that you write."

"Wait, you do?"

"Sure. Why do you think I said to keep it up? I think you're pretty talented even if you do write for that dorky Space Heroes show. Did Maddie get you into it?"

"Yeah, she did," Leo answered.

"Well, I'm just glad you have another hobby besides training and meditating to fall back on. Just don't tell anyone l like your stuff, or I'll beat the green off of you."

Leo smiled despite the fact that he was still mad. "You got it," he said. "You know, Mikey writes fan fiction too."

"I know. I haven't reviewed his stuff yet, but I will. Just don't let what happened get you down, okay?"

"Okay," Leo said. "Thanks for not being too mean about it."

"No problem. I'll see you later. I gotta go feed Spike now." He patted Leo on the shoulder before heading to his room.

Leo felt better now that Raph was on his side, but he knew he had learned a valuable lesson from all of this in that plagiarism was wrong. He was about to go to his room when Splinter called, "Leonardo, may I speak with you?"

Leo nodded and followed his father into his chambers. "What did you want to speak to me about, Master?"

"I could not help but overhear what you were fighting about with Michelangelo and Raphael," Splinter said. "Would you care to talk about it?"

Okay, this was going to be tricky, but he knew he couldn't hide the truth from Splinter no matter how hard he tried. "Well, Maddie introduced me to Space Heroes fan fiction, so I've been writing some," he answered. "I know you probably think it's foolish and I shouldn't be doing it, but it does help me forget about all that's happened lately. But if you want me to stop, I will."

Splinter smiled warmly. "On the contrary, I think it is brilliant," he said.

Leo looked up. "You do?"

"Yes, it is nice for you to have another hobby besides training and meditating, my son. There is no shame in what you are doing. You have a talent, and you should use it to your advantage."

"Thanks, Sensei," Leo said. "I'm glad you aren't mad about it."

"No, but I am mad that you were in a fight with your brothers. You know that stealing your brother's dialogue and using it as your own was wrong, do you not?"

Leo nodded. "Yeah, I do and I'll never do it again."

"Good," Splinter said. "Then the matter is resolved for now. But do you mind if I read the story you are writing my son?"

"Not at all," answered Leo. He took Splinter to his room and showed him the story he was working on. He let Splinter read it and left to get something to eat. When he came back, Splinter was gone and he noticed that there was another review that had been posted. He clicked on it, and a smile drifted over his face.

Proud Father (Guest)

This is an amazing story so far, and I'm very proud that you are so talented, Leonardo. You will go far with this talent and should continue to share it with the world. I am proud of you, my son, and I will read more later.

Leo smiled at the review, happy that Splinter was proud of him and didn't think of him as foolish. At least three of his family members were happy that he was distracting himself, though he didn't know what Donnie was going to say about it. Deciding not to dwell on it, he closed out of his computer and settled down to sleep, plotting how the next chapter was going to go.

A/N: So that turned out longer than I thought it would. I had a lot of fun writing it though I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. It will just depend on what I can come up with. This originally was going to end with Leo finding out about Mikey's betrayal and the confrontation was going to be in the next chapter, but I decided it would fit all in one. So, now three of Leo's family members know about his secret. What will Donnie's reaction be? You'll have to find out in the next chapter. In the meantime, feel free to leave a review and have a shelltastic day.