Little Talks

Author's Notes:

So here's another chapter. There's mostly just conversation in this chapter but it's all leading up to what follows so...

~Enjoy

Mikey stood at one end of Shredder's portal room with the doors at his back. The portal in the center of the room was turned on, the pink light swirling to the center and causing the lights above to flicker as tools and items of the room were being sucked inside its gaping mouth. Shredder stood in front of its light, with one hand clenched around Donatello's neck as he held him high off his feet. Both of Donnie's hands were clasped around his grip as he tried to break his hold.

The portal started making a freighting sound as it flickered a white light, causing Donnie's pleading eyes to meet Mikey's.

"I have control of New York City. I have control over the world. I have control over all of the dimensions! You think you can stop me now?" Shredder exclaimed.

Another blinding flicker of light illuminated the portal before Donnie was standing before him, both his hands holding on to his shoulders.

"Do something, Mikey!"

Mikey eye's shot open as he awoke with a gasp. His body laid stiff with fear.

He hadn't a dream like that since…

"What the hell?" Mikey cursed to himself as he ripped the sheets from his body and walked out of his room. At the dead of night, the HQ was silent with the occasional sounds of the walls resting into the earth. Only a few lights were still on to serve as emergency lights, giving the hallway an eerie glow.

He opened the double doors that led to the deserted cafeteria. Only the center lights were on so the room's perimeter was completely dark as he sat at one of the tables. Images from his nightmare flashed in his head, causing his throat to close up. He closed his eyes with a heavy sigh as he ran his hand down his face.

"Michelangelo?" With a jump Mikey spun to where he heard his name to be faced with a startled Angel. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to frighten you." She held up her hands in surrender.

"No, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so jumpy." Mikey apologized, feeling embarrassed for his lack of awareness.

"It's fine." She gave him a small smile as she sat in the chair across from him. "So, what brings you here in the middle of the night? You know breakfast isn't served till 7 right?"

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep so I thought… well I thought I'd sit in an empty cafeteria." Mikey shrugged.

"I understand. There's not much to do around here off schedule except lay in bed and pray that you'll be able to fall asleep that night." Angel sighed looking down at her hands rested on the table.

"I feel as though you have nights like these a lot." Mikey pointed out.

"Yeah." She nodded her head. "So, how are you settling in? It must not be too difficult for you considering that you guys lived underground for most of your life anyway."

"Aw, yeah, but it was never this controlling and organized. I mean daily schedules? Specific eating times? There's even three different kinds of training per day!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Well we have to train your body, mind, and your ability to shoot a gun." Angel stated.

"What ever happened to just training sessions that taught you both? I never imagined we'd be living in a world where everyone's on their toes with a gun pointed at their heads. Although, being here does kind of give me a sense of life before all this." Mikey replied.

There was a pause between them before Angel finally asked, "What was Donatello like?"

"What?"

"Donatello, you're brother. April never really goes into detail about him. What was he like?"

"Donnie…" Mikey sighed a laugh. "Donatello was amazing. Never in my life have I met someone who could be as great as he was. He was kind and generous, selfless, a smartalic, and extremely smart." He listed. "He could do anything! He could turn plain garbage into just amazing inventions- like a robot! For example. And he was a whizz with technology, he could hack into any computer and he was always the go to guy to fix things even when it was us that needed fixed. He probably could've cured the common cold eventually! He always knew just exactly what to do to fix anything and make it better." Mikey sighed before his tone began to change. "And then he was taken from us and everything just began to fall apart. Our family, our friends, the lair, the world. It was like he was the one holding everything together. Leo and Raph were always fighting and Splinter was just too depressed to do anything to stop them; always meditating and resting. April's visits to the lair became less common and for a while it just seemed like I was alone. Donnie was my best friend. The person I could go to to get away from it all."

A flood of memories came to Mikey's mind: How he would sit in Donnie's lab and watch him work, how they'd just talk until one in the morning when he'd fall asleep with his head on Donnie's desk, how he'd create an alibi for him when his pranks on Raph backfired on him, his bright smile when his inventions worked as well as he wanted them to.

His clenched shut eyes when Shredder pierced his blades into his torso.

"What about April and Donnie's relationship?" Angel asked pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, gez." Mikey laughed at the thought of trying to sum up two lovesick teenagers whose whole universe revolved around the other.

"Donnie had fell in love with her from the moment he first saw her and it only manifested the longer we've known her. Eventually he worked up the nerve to ask her out and thankfully she agreed which led up to them finally becoming a thing, which was only a matter of time considering that he was always starring dreamingly at her and she was always sneaking kisses to him when they thought no one was paying attention."

"They must've really loved each other." Angel stated.

"Yeah. Yeah, they did. They had been together for a about year and a half before he died. April was so devastated for a while. I can tell it left some scars." Mikey sighed.

"It did. She doesn't talk about him that much, I guess it still hurts, but we all know she still cares about him." The two had another moment of silence before Mikey cleared his throat.

"So what about you?" He asked. "What's your tragic backstory?"

"Oh where do I begin?" She shook her head. "Before all this I used to live with my dad, my grandma, and my older brother in a small apartment. I was 10 at the time Shredder dropped the first bombs. My brother and I were able to escape the falling buildings but the others didn't." She sighed. "Then for a while it was just my brother and me while the city was going to shit. We were put in a factory that assembled weapons for the Foot soldiers when one day our factory was attacked by the resistance. Us workers and the resistance tried to fight against the soldiers but the building caught fire according to the Foot's plan. My brother and I escaped but there were still some workers trapped inside so he went back in to save them but the building collapsed before he could get out." Angel paused. "April and Casey toke me in and brought me here. April trained me and made sure I was taken care of even after Casey's passing and soon enough I was promoted up to Commander. I assembled a team of some of the best soldiers of my class and now I'm rescuing slaves who are willing to stand up against the Foot clan like you saw this afternoon." Angel nodded.

"Man, I'm sorry to hear that about your brother. He sounds like he was cool dude." Mikey replied.

"He was." Angel sighed. "Always trying to be the hero and was always looking after me."

"Sounds like Leo." The comment popped into Mikey's head without warning. "Or what Leo used to be like." He quickly reminded himself.

"Well we should probably try to get some sleep. You'll have a big day tomorrow as first day part of the resistance." Angel stated standing up.

"Yeah, who knows what kind of crazy task you'll throw me into next."

"Cleaning duty." April held up a bucket and sponge up to him.

"What?" Mikey asked.

"I know you're a highly trained ninja and all that, but if I don't treat you like the other soldiers and start you from the bottom, there'll probably be problem." April gave him a smile. "It's only temporarily, maybe it will give you a chance to get to know the place a little better." She encouraged. Mikey toke the bucket from her hand and headed the opposite direction towards the garages.

Filling his bucket with soapy water, he plated himself beside the first white van and started scrubbing the dirt and grim off the side.

The opening of the door behind him made him jump as he turned around. Stockman walked inside, carrying a toolbox under his left arm. He turned around, making eye contact with Mikey.

"Well, fancy seeing you here, Michelangelo." A devilish grin spreading across his face.

Mikey let out a long sigh as he rolled his eyes

He set his toolbox down next to the vehicles on the other side of the garage and began taking out his tools. "So I see they downgraded you too?" Mikey kept silent, continuing to scrub the side of the van.

"I'm sure it won't be for long, though." Stockman continued. "I have a feeling they'll promote you faster than they'll promote me."

He let the room stay silent for a few seconds longer before continuing to start a conversation again. "So, are you enjoying your time here?"

"Is there something you want from me?" Mikey finally responded.

"An attempt at conversation would be nice." Stockman replied.

"Ok, here's a conversation starter: how the hell were you able to convince April that you, a loyal servant to the shredder, is a better man now? That you've had some revelation and made the switch of good? Especially after all the hell you gave us before? How all this madness if because of your wrong doing?"

"Ah, excellent question!" Stockman replied. "The persistent, short-tempered, red-haired woman approached me, actually. She came rambling on about some big and classified project that she didn't want any of her own scientist to put together."

"What kind of project?" Mikey interrogated.

"Like I said it's classified, even to you. And I'm not taking orders from Shredder anymore. Not after he tossed me away like moldy bread."

"Why would Shredder kick you out? Aren't you like his personal repair man?"

"Was his personal repair man until after… an accident which left me on the streets with a constant reminder of Shredder's hatred." Stockman answered, his hand brushing down his blind eye. "After believing that this was just the end of the road for me, Ms. O'Neil found me and locked me down here."

"Why agree to be a slave for one person when you were finally free from another?" Mikey asked.

"You've seen what the world is like up there. I barely escaped Shredder alive and look at the shape I am now. Unless you know how to shoot a gun and survive by eating once a week, you don't stand a chance on the surface." Stockman declared. "I'd rather be trapped down here with that infernal red haired woman than be up there where death awaits me."

"So what happens to you after you finish this project?"

"Not sure, and don't care at the moment. I have much more to think about now then what lies ahead for me later. Besides, this project is going to take me a long time to finish."

Mikey finished cleaning the van and began moving on to the next.

"So how are the others in the reptilian quartet?" Stockman asked.

"Don't know. Don't care." He replied flatly.

"Oh, that's right I guess it's more of a trio now?" Mikey's hand stopped mid-way from wiping across the hood of the van. "It's a shame what happened to your brother. You were all skilled in your individual ways, what with Leonardo being the whiny leader, Raphael, the buff jock, and you, well, you were always there for creative input, right? Now Donatello, on the other hand that was a kid who could've gone places other than six feet in the ground. I mean he was amazing! All of those inventions that he created for you all to use in the field were more advanced than any technology I could've created. And it was all made from garbage! That kid he truly had a gift. "

"Don't talk about Donatello. Don't you ever speak of my brother." Mikey narrowed his gaze at him as his hand tightened to a fist.

"Apologies. I didn't know it was still a touchy subject." Stockman replied in defense.

"It's not, I'd just appreciate it if his name wasn't spoken of by scum like you. You never knew him. You knew nothing about him! So don't pretend that you weren't rejoicing with Shredder when he pronounced dead." Mikey stood up with his bucket in hand as he stomped towards the door.

"And I don't care how much you have everyone else fooled with your 'revelation', to me, you'll always be that pathetic, selfish madman who damned us all." Mikey slammed the door behind him, leaving Stockman alone in the garage.

Sorry if Baxter Stockman seems OOC. There's just so much potential for his character and I don't like the way the 2012 write him off. I like the IDW comics one personally. Leave a review with your thoughts!