Rating: T for occasional language and body horror.
Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.
Summary: "Has anyone seen April?" The Kraang are defeated, New York is safe and all is finally well. Or so everyone thought. When Kirby bursts into the lair looking for April, the Turtles quickly discover otherwise and the nightmare begins anew. Set after S3E13. 2k12 Canon divergence.
What it Means (to be Human)
Ch 2
Awareness dawned slowly, like a cozy, rainy Sunday where she was so comfy and warm that getting out of bed was the last thought on her mind. Smiling, she thought of her father, kind, loving and thoughtful, making a breakfast of fresh waffles for when she finally crawled out of bed. He was always up early, even on such days, even when he was suffering and she told him not to worry about her.
She frowned. It felt like so long since she'd last seen him and that's when it all came rushing back.
The attack on the streets.
Snatched up by the Kraang.
Meeting the turtles when they came to save her yet failed to save her father as well.
Months of desperate searching for leads. Getting to know and become part of the strangest but most welcoming family ever.
Attacked by a strange pigeon mutant carrying a message from her father. Saving the city at the cost of his freedom.
The Shredder. More mutants. Karai.
Her father rescued. The Technodrome. Her father mutated...
Unfairly blaming Donnie and his brothers...
More mutants.
Saving her father and falling into a vat of mutagen on the same day.
She'd been so terrified of mutating into a monster and losing her mind like her dad but thankfully, they'd discovered she was immune to the mutagen.
Then the second invasion, this one successful. They'd lost almost everything! Master Splinter, her father (again), the city... Leo... or so they'd thought. It had come so, so close!
They'd left then. Left the city to heal and regroup before coming back and discovering not all was lost after all.
They'd been able to find Splinter and save him, then found the Mighty Mutanimals. A desperate plan had been hatched to finally save the city and everyone who'd been mutated and spirited away into slavery.
She'd been left behind again. Along with Casey and...
[Casey, don't! It's me!] she cried out sharply, desperately, her eyes snapping open in terror as an unholy and painful squealing filled her hearing.
She looked wildly about, her stomach churning furiously as she remembered the way one of her best friends had gazed down at her in disgust and hatred. The way he sneered and yelled as he slammed his hockey stick viciously into her side and face.
The way the blood had discoloured her vision to a weird purplish, pink hue.
The way it was still discoloured even now.
April swallowed in fear as she gazed about surreptitiously, shrinking back slightly as Kraang worked about her, zipping around the room on small, anti-gravity sleds. It looked like she was in some sort of lab or medical bay. Wires and tubes ran from various machines surrounding her and... into her body, she realised in rapidly rising terror.
How... how the hell did she get here? Had Casey gone mad? Is that why he attacked her? Had he simply left her for the Kraang to find her or had he... No! She shook her head wildly. Casey would never give her over to the Kraang, no matter what the circumstances.
But then... how and why was she here?
Casey was hotheaded and violent, quick to lash out at injustice and those committing crime but he was actually quite sweet when it came to her. Always flirting and complimenting, trying to convince her to agree to a date with him, flexing and posing for attention in a way that made her laugh... She couldn't understand why he'd suddenly attacked her the way he did. He only ever acted that way when trying to protect the people he cared about...
She glanced around again to see that none of the Kraang had noticed she was awake yet and she intended to keep it that way until she could find a chance to escape.
Her gaze, her still weirdly purple-hued gaze, slid down towards the legs she couldn't feel, hoping to see what kind of restraints she had but then her heart skipped a beat and she frowned, unable to see anything. Neither her legs nor her body and she licked her lips fearfully.
[Ow!] she cried, tasting - was that even blood? - as sharp teeth cut into her strangely swollen tongue.
Did Casey break her teeth when he hit her?
She raged silently, swearing to kill him for it!
Suddenly, she froze in terror as two Kraang appeared in her face. Squealing that god-awful sound at her.
She shrank back as far as she could and one of them turned to question the other beside it, perplexed. The second Kraang answered with what April assumed to be the Kraang equivalent of a shrug. Then both Kraang faced her again, the first reaching out with a slimy, pink tentacle and patting at her.
April recoiled at the touch. [Get away from me!] she spat as the ever-persistent squealing overwhelmed her and her hearing. Damn, but Casey must have seriously hit her too hard. She was definitely going to have to have a little talk with him when she escaped from this mess.
The expression on the alien's face deepened and it opened its mouth, squealing insistently at her again.
[I can't understand you,] April snapped, shaking her head adamantly. [Get one of your Kraang droid bodies and then talk to me!] she demanded, the festering anger at Casey and her situation finally starting to displace her fear. [How did I get here anyway and what are you going to do to me?]
The Kraang before her looked at her in confusion again before closing its eyes. Abruptly, April felt something cold and alien touch her mind and her powers exploded into being. Suddenly, a cacophony of telepathic voices bombarded her from all around, making her reel in place as they too quickly became louder, clearer and more overwhelming than ever before.
April wanted to be sick.
Suddenly, a third Kraang zoomed in on an anti-grav sled to stop beside the other two. It opened its mouth and spoke with the same high-pitched squeal as the others and while she still couldn't understand its speech, she understood the meaning perfectly in her mind as it asked how she felt and April stared in confusion and disbelief.
Before, while April felt their voices teasing at the edge of her consciousness, she could never actually understand them. The only time she had was when Kraang Prime was speaking and channelling the thoughts of the rest through it. Now she could hear and understand everything. Every. Single. Kraang. Around her!
The six in this room.
The nine on the other side of the wall.
The hundreds... no thousands all around her and it was all too much.
Her head was swimming and she felt dizzy and sick. There were far too many voices to pick out individual thoughts and words and the constant bombardment was just too much...
Still, she could 'hear' the conversation between the trio before her.
{Kraang sees Kraang is awake at last. How has Kraang healed?}
{Kraang has not healed well, Kraang. Kraang is talking in what is known as gibberish.}
{Perhaps Kraang is still affected by Kraang's concussion. Even though Kraang has been under treatment for the measurement of time known as two months.}
Two months? April freaked out. Then, it hit her that they'd called her Kraang and terrified and thinking that she (or they) had gone mad, lifted a hand to prove to herself that she was still normal.
That she was still herself.
It was difficult and her impulses to move her hand felt like they were moving through molasses but finally, she managed. Only to see a wrinkled pink tentacle where her hand and arm ought to be.
April dry reached. There was nothing in her stomach – if Kraang even had stomachs, she thought manically – to throw up with.
Two of the Kraang turned to face her again.
[What happened to me?] she screeched in utter terror. [What did you do to me?]
Suddenly, she felt one of them probing at her mind again as they tried to understand her and repulsed and terrified at the thought of the cruel aliens in her mind, reading her private thoughts and memories, of them using her to find where her family was holed up, she pushed back, shoving them from her powerful mind violently.
But the effort was too much. Her eyes rolled back in her head and everything went dark again.
-:-
"April? Where are you?" a frantic voice called, shattering the quiet of the sleeping lair. "Are you here? Please tell me you're here!"
Sitting up groggily, Mikey rubbe the sleep from his eyes as the panicked cries of a stricken father tore him from a nightmare about April strapped to a table with machines attached to her and surrounded by Kraang.
"April's not here, Mr. O'Neil," Leonardo replied worriedly as he pulled himself to his feet and stepped towards their friend. "Didn't she go home yesterday?"
"No, she didn't! I can't find her anywhere!" Kirby replied despairingly, eyes fixed pleadingly on Leonardo. "I waited home all night hoping she'd return but she never did! I-I can't even call her because none of the phones are working!"
"W-wait, they're not?" Donnie cut in anxiously, snatching at his T-phone sitting just in front of the mattress.
"No, they aren't. The city's in chaos. Most areas still don't have power, the cellular network is out and from what I can tell, so are most of the landlines. The ones that are left, that is and that's not even accounting for all of the property and structural damage leftover from the invasion," Kirby explained, wringing his hands fretfully. "How long did it go for anyway? H-how long were we g-gone?"
"A little over seven months, sir," Leo replied shamefully.
"Seven months, eighteen days and..." Despite knowing Mr. O'Neil would appreciate the accuracy, Donnie shut his mouth at the glare from Raph and the 'Really?' look from Leo.
"Th-that long?" Kirby asked faintly, sounding sick as he wobbled dangerously where he stood. Mikey shot to his feet and across the lair to prop the human up before leading him to the pit to help him sit.
"I am afraid so," Splinter admitted contritely. Then he asked kindly, "Would you like some water, Kirby?" At the man's shaken nod, he instructed Raphael to go get a glass.
"What happened these past seven months?" Kirby asked apprehensively before shaking his head. "No, I do want to know b-but I need to find April first. Was she with you? When did you last see her? What happened?"
"April and Casey were both with us until yesterday," Leo replied, a small frown marring his smoothly scaled features. "When we joined with the Mighty Mutanimals to take down the Kraang and send them packing back to Dimension X, they stayed behind with Master Splinter at our base."
Kirby turned his fretful expression on Splinter as Raphael returned and handed a cup of water to the shaking human.
Splinter bowed his head apologetically. "We were taking care of an injured ally and once he was out of danger, April went into the kitchen to be alone for a time as she was quite upset about being left out of the final battle."
Donnie frowned as Mikey rubbed gently against Mr. O'Neil's back, trying to soothe him as best he could. He'd known April was angry at being left behind and so was Casey and they'd argued bitterly about it the first time they left that day. After returning with the Mutanimals and the injured Jack Kurtzman, April's anger seemingly dissipated and she'd turned her attention to helping Splinter take care of Jack.
"After she left for the kitchen, I continued healing Jack Kurtzman with a secret technique I know that speeds up healing so I was unaware of what happened after that. However, Casey said April left just minutes before the Kraang were defeated. She intended to head home to find you the moment everything was over so that is what we thought happened."
Kirby groaned and slumped in despair, his forehead hitting his knees.
"April will be okay, Mr. O'Neil," Mikey spoke up brightly, trying to reassure him. "She's a great fighter and knows how to look after herself! She probably just ran into a bit of trouble on the way home, that's all!"
"April..." Kirby sobbed brokenly as Donnie, Leo and Raph glared daggers at Mikey.
"Mikey!"
"What?" Mikey defended himself in confusion. "Antonio's is a long way from their place!"
"It's not that far!" Donnie muttered in disgust.
"When you consider the crowds and confusion of the entire population of New York suddenly being teleported back, it may be," Leo spoke up thoughtfully. "Isn't 'Second Time Around' closer to Antonio's than your apartment, Mr. O'Neil?"
Kirby looked up at Leonardo in hope. "Yes, it is."
"Have you checked in with your sister?"
"No, I haven't. I figured this was the most likely place April would be when she didn't come home," Kirby replied with a reluctant shake of his head. "May... maybe I should go do that. And check with her friends, Casey and Irma."
"The T-phones are working so we can call Casey right now but uh... don't bother trying Irma," Donnie said with a pained wince. "She was a plant."
"D, D, D..." Mikey sighed loudly in secondhand shame for his brother as he continued the soothing motions against the miserable and worried father's back. "I thought you knew the difference between a Kraang and a plant," he chided gently.
Donnie shot a withering glare at Mikey. "Plant means a fake, Mikey, an impostor who infiltrates!"
Mikey frowned in confusion. "Really? Are you sure?" he asked doubtfully. "Because I thought a plant was..."
"Enough!" Splinter cut in firmly, interrupting him. He then turned back to Kirby. "Casey was the last of us to speak with April before she left. Perhaps he may remember more if asked."
Kirby nodded numbly.
"M-maybe we should go back to Antonio's to see if there are any clues there," Donnie suggested nervously, fidgeting with his T-phone as he frowned.
"It's daylight, Donnie!" Leo choked out in disbelief. "The humans are back!"
"So what?" Donnie immediately retorted. "We're ninja! I'm sure we can manage to stay out of sight!"
"Speak for yourself," Raph snorted, stealing an obvious glance Mikey's way.
Mikey ignored him. "Aw man!" he whined, staring at his arguing brothers in rising horror as realisation dawned. His hand stopped moving against Mr. O'Neil's back. All those months of freedom gone now that they'd won at last. He was still happy they'd won and returned things to normal but he hadn't realised the personal cost until now. "Does this mean we can't go out in daylight again?" he pouted. He'd enjoyed the sun way more than he'd expected to and the thought of never seeing or feeling it on his scales and shell again...
All three of his brothers glared at him again. Then Donnie turned back to Leonardo to convince him. "It's still early in the day. We should be able to sneak in from the alleyway to get a look. We know all the hiding places and routes in and out. After all, we did live there for the last month."
"That's true," Leo agreed with a reluctant sigh. He glanced up at Splinter as if seeking permission and their father nodded wearily, also worried about April.
"Just be careful, my sons. Find April and bring her home but do not be seen. No matter the circumstances."
-:-
"April's T-phone signal is coming from the restaurant," Donatello confirmed as they reached the closest sewer exit to Antonio's.
Leo nodded as he climbed the ladder, carefully lifting the cover just enough to peek out. There was no one in the immediate vicinity so he slid it aside and climbed out, Mikey, Donnie and finally Raph, following. They quickly headed for cover, edging their way towards the pizzeria that had been their home since returning to New York, then froze in the shadows as the back door flew open. A dark-haired, middle-aged man stalked out, full-to-bursting garbage bag in hand and fuming all the while as he made his way to the full dumpster nearby.
"I swear to god, it's like a bunch of wild animals moved in while I was gone!" he snarled, reeling in disgust at the overly ripe stench from the dumpster as he lifted the lid to throw the bag in.
Raph turned and glared at Mikey who grinned back sheepishly. It wasn't his fault that they hadn't had time to clean up after the invasion ended and anyway, he wasn't the only one who'd made the mess.
Coughing and choking, the human turned and stomped back to the restaurant, effectively ending their chance of getting back inside to look around.
Leo and Raph looked at each other helplessly as Mikey looked down at the map Donnie studied on the T-phone. As far as he could tell, April's signal seemed to be coming from...
"The signal is coming from the dumpster," Donnie suddenly spoke up, voice tight with worry.
Mikey glanced up into Donnie's troubled eyes, then turned and began for the dumpster, only to be yanked back by his bandanna tails as the back door flew open again, the human storming out in rising anger as he carried yet more rubbish.
"And where the hell do you think you're going, idiot?" Raphael hissed in a low voice, dragging Mikey back to the shadows. "This is no time to be thinking about your damn stomach!"
"But!" Mikey tried to protest, he wasn't!
"But nothing!" Raph spat, cutting him off. "We need to find April and she's not here!"
Mikey glared back at Raph, not that Raph noticed or cared. Finding April was what he was trying to do! She was their friend, so close and so ingrained into their family that she was like what he imagined a big sister to be and finding her was the most important thing, even over food. He glanced helplessly at Donnie again to see fear and worry filling his features.
"It's daylight and there're humans about," Leo pointed out, reluctantly reminding them of Splinter's instructions not to be seen under any circumstances. "We'll send Casey or Jack in to ask questions, to see if there's any sign of her."
Mikey turned back to gaze longingly at the dumpster again, sure that answers were somehow in there, only to be pulled along by Raph as the brothers headed back underground.
"Where else could she have gone?" Mikey asked plaintively once they were safely back in the sewers. As he spoke, Raph pulled out his T-phone and stepped away.
"I don't know," Donnie answered glumly. "It's not like April to leave her phone behind." He sighed miserably. "I really wish I'd called last night like I wanted to. M-maybe we would've known she was missing sooner if I had..."
"Don't blame yourself for not calling, Donnie," Leo soothed in a calm, collected voice. "If..."
"I don't!" Donnie snapped irritably, cutting his brother off. "I blame you for convincing me not to call!"
Leonardo instantly baulked as if slapped and Donnie immediately paled.
"I-I'm sorry, Leo, that was uncalled for," he said contritely, head slightly hanging in shame. "I didn't mean it, I'm just worried."
"I know, Donnie," Leo said softly. "We all are."
Mikey stepped forward and reached out a hand, resting it on Donnie to get his attention. "Don't worry, bro, we'll find her, okay?" he said with a hopeful smile. "April's a kunoichi and tough. She knows how to look after herself."
Donnie swallowed and nodded gratefully. "Th-thanks, Mikey," he replied quietly.
Leo spoke up again, his voice confidant and authoritative, "I promise you that we won't give up until we find her. Though unfortunately, we will have to wait until sundown before we look any further. In the meantime," he turned to gaze at Raphael who was just hanging up his T-phone. "What did Casey say? Can he go scout Antonio's for us?"
Raph shook his head. "Nope. His father won't let him out of his sight."
"Seriously?" Donnie groaned in disbelief.
"Yeah," Raph replied with a grimace and a disgusted sound. "Apparently, it's bad enough coming back to chaos and destruction with half-remembered nightmares of being mutated and enslaved in another dimension but then Mr. O'Neil came around to question Casey about April since he was the last person to see her."
"So?" Donnie countered in disbelief. Casey hadn't picked up the T-phone earlier so Kirby had decided to just go around before heading to his sister's. "They're friends. It's perfectly reasonable to assume they were together before the invasion."
"Yeah, only Mr. Jones overheard more than he should've and realised Casey was involved and got caught up in dangerous shit. He's grounded and being watched. He was even told to hang up on me or his phone would be taken away," Raph growled unhappily.
Mikey, Donnie and Leo collectively groaned.
"But... Casey's like a hero, dude! Doesn't Mr. Jones realise that?" Mikey asked, eyes fixed on Raph worriedly. They may not have known Casey as long as April but he was just as much family as she, especially after the last seven months or so. "What if we never see him again? Maybe we can go tell Mr. Jones what happened."
"If we do that, then we really will never see him again," Donnie muttered petulantly. Then he brightened slightly. "Oh! Maybe we actually should go talk to Casey's dad!"
Raph shot Donnie a dark glare, piercing green eyes boring into him. "Yeah, no. Besides, Casey'll rebel and get away in a few days or so and you know he'll come back us up if we really need it."
Leo nodded and took charge again, "In that case, we'll have to call Jack Kurtzman and ask him to go check instead."
"If he's well enough," Donnie cut in pointedly, reminding everyone that the man had been injured just the day before.
"If he's well enough," Leo agreed reluctantly.
And if he wasn't, Mikey had no idea who else they could ask to help.
"You have Jack's number, don't you, Don?"
-:-
Donnie didn't have a currently working number for Jack Kurtzman but he did have a line to Dr. Rockwell and called him on the way home. Dr. Rockwell promised to call Jack and get back to Donnie ASAP. In the meantime, they headed home to report to Splinter and find out if Kirby had returned with any news, good or otherwise, but he hadn't been back yet. Unfortunately, Donnie hadn't had any spare, intact T-phones to give him and with most communications still out, they had no way of calling to ask for themselves. All they could do was wait until dark or Kirby came back down.
In the meantime, Splinter set them all back to cleaning, pointing out there was little else they could do until nightfall, at which point, he promised that if April hadn't turned up by then, he would help search too.
It was mid-afternoon when Leatherhead and Slash dropped by with supplies for the Hamatos and news from Jack, none of it good. Not only had the manager of Antonio's not seen April but he'd been adversarial, refusing to engage with Jack beyond the snapped, "There was no one here when I got to my store but whoever was squatting here ate all the fucking food and left the place trashed!"
Jack had tried to appeal to the man's better nature, pointing out how the few survivors of the invasion had no choice but to take and use what supplies they could find to survive. Especially given that New York had been cut off from the rest of the country while they fought back. Then he added and emphasised that it was a sixteen-year-old girl who was missing and last seen in the vicinity of the pizzeria just prior to the victory against the invaders.
It hadn't done any good. The manager had raged and threatened to report Jack to the cops for trespassing and theft before manhandling him out the store and telling him to stay away.
After Leatherhead and Slash left, Mikey took charge of the supplies and set about making a late lunch while everyone else continued cleaning and considering their next move.
Once sundown arrived, the turtles and Splinter went topside again, splitting into two groups. Leo and Donnie headed first to April's apartment and then to 'Second Time Around' where they found a distraught Kirby pacing anxiously around the dim living room, his sister in a nearby armchair and trying unsuccessfully to calm him.
Seeing the room lit only by candlelight, Donnie knocked at the window.
"What are you doing?" Leo hissed in disbelief as the two humans whipped their heads around to stare in fright at the window. "April's Aunt is in there!"
Donnie turned a slightly scathing look upon Leo. "There is no power inside or out. She won't see us."
Kirby inched his way over to the window and seeing Donnie's silhouette, relaxed and opened it.
"What are you doing, Kirby?" April's Aunt called fearfully as she shot to her feet. "Who's out there? How are they out there? We're two floors up!"
"It's okay, Judith, they're friends," Kirby replied nervously over his shoulder. "Stay back there, okay?"
"Why should I?" Judith snapped. "There are strangers at my window! Who does that besides burglars?"
"Burglars don't normally knock," Kirby said dryly, glancing out the window to confirm who was there. "I promise you, Donatello and Leonardo are friends, practically family and they have been out looking for April."
"Then why haven't I met them if they're 'practically family',?" Judith scoffed in disbelief, torn between edging closer and running to the kitchen for a makeshift weapon.
"They are shy," Kirby explained, deadpan. He stepped closer to completely block the window from her view.
Leo and Donnie exchanged glances. If they hadn't been so worried about April, they would've been slightly amused. After all, they may have been inclined to stick to the shadows for good reason but they were anything but shy.
Kirby turned back towards them anxiously. "Have you found anything?"
Donnie shook his head sadly even as Leo answered.
"I'm afraid not, Mr. O'Neil. We were hoping that maybe you'd heard something since leaving us."
Kirby O'Neil visibly deflated, making a keening sound and Donnie started, thinking the man about to collapse. However, he caught himself, grasping at the side of the window.
"I... I found time this afternoon to make you a T-phone so that we can stay in contact. It's not as good as ours as I didn't have all the parts I needed to make a proper one on hand but it should be good enough for calling. At least until the cellular network is back in operation," Donnie offered quietly. He reached into his bag to pull out the bare-bones device he'd been able to cobble together with the few intact parts he'd found and handed it over to an appreciative Kirby. "So far our leads have led to dead ends..." Leo elbowed him for the poor choice of words and Donnie winced, chagrined, "but I promise you, sir, we won't give up. We will find April, no matter what it takes."
Kirby smiled gratefully. "If anyone can find April, it's the four of you." He then hesitated a moment. "I'm staying here for the time being. We both need the company right now and Judith insisted. I left a note for April telling her to come here or to go your place back at the apartment in case she comes home."
Leonardo nodded solemnly. "After everything that's happened, staying with your sister is a good idea."
Nodding sadly, Kirby fingered his new T-phone.
"Our numbers are pre-programmed," Donnie offered helpfully, nodding at the device. "Call us if you need to or if you get news. We'll do the same."
"Thank you, Donatello."
Donnie swallowed uncomfortably, wishing he could do more. "Anytime, Mr. O'Neil."
"We should get going," Leo spoke up, breaking the awkwardness. "We need to check in with Master Splinter and our brothers to see if they've found anything, then continue our search."
Kirby nodded gratefully. "Thank you tur... er boys."
-:-
Michelangelo, Raphael and Splinter exited the manhole near Antonio's and crept through the shadows towards the back entrance, Splinter carefully scenting the air for any sign of April with every step and it was all Mikey could do to stifle his laughter at the image of his father running around on all fours, tail wagging excitedly like a sniffer dog on the hunt that popped into his head. As it was, he was still elbowed hard by Raph who didn't appreciate how Mikey could find levity in almost every situation, no matter how serious it was or how worried they were. Shooting him a betrayed look, Mikey pouted a moment only to get shoved forward. He stumbled momentarily then stopped as their father did.
Splinter straightened and shook his head, ears drooping ever so slightly in misery. "I can pick up no sign of recent passage," he admitted dejectedly at Raph's question. His head turned to the back door of the pizzeria. The lights inside were off – there was at least electricity here thanks to Donatello's efforts – suggesting the man they'd seen that morning had left for the day. Splinter crept forward and reached for the handle, only to find it locked. He stepped aside, looking expectantly at his sons.
A glint brightened in Raph's green eyes as he gleefully pulled out a sai to force the lock with. At least until Splinter admonished him.
"I thought I taught you better than that, Raphael," Splinter chided quietly in disappointment. "We are ninja and therefore must leave no trace of our presence. Did leaving that shuriken for Shredder's forces to find teach you nothing? If you force the lock, our presence will be noticed and someone will begin looking for us."
Raph winced at the logic. "Well, I don't have any lockpicks," he admitted. "Leo or Donnie usually does that sh... uh, stuff." He didn't mention how often he pushed his brothers aside and just destroyed the locks in his impatience instead.
Mikey grinned brightly, barely hiding his small snicker at his brother being in trouble. "Don't worry, Raph, I gotcha!" he boasted a tad too loudly and earning his own look of reproach from their father as he pulled his picks from a pouch on his belt.
Raph shoved at him again, trying to snatch the lockpicks. "Well, give them here! You're too slow and will only mess it up!"
Mikey swallowed back his annoyance and hurt as he clutched his picks protectively. What would Raph know? In fact, what would any of his brothers know when they never let him even try? "Nuh-uh, Raph, no way! These are mine and you don't even carry your own," he said, sticking out his tongue.
Raphael growled loudly but before he could push the point, Splinter shut him down with a look.
"Go ahead, Michelangelo," he encouraged quietly. "If you have trouble, I can do it for you."
Mikey tossed his father a quick smile, hiding the ache he felt at the obvious lack of confidence Splinter had in his ability. Honestly, though, he had to admit that when they were learning to pick locks, he'd always had the most trouble with it and was often mocked for it by his brothers. However, that only made him more determined. He'd gone and begged for a couple of private lessons from Donnie, then practised hard on his own, making a game out of seeing how many locks he could pick in thirty minutes and he'd gotten good. Especially after they'd started going topside and he'd been able to try many different kinds of locks on the sly. A couple of times, he'd tried to get a chance to prove himself to his brothers but they'd always laughed gently, patted his shell and done it themselves.
Brightening his smile, Mikey sidled up to the door and slid the picks in, feeling for the tumblers. A moment later, he popped the lock and his smile turned real as he pushed the door open and stepped back with a flourish, motioning his father and Raph ahead of him.
Splinter blinked a moment before hiding his surprise. Raph didn't even bother trying.
"When the hell did you learn to pick locks?" he scoffed as he pushed past Mikey, deliberately but lightly bumping him.
Mikey shrugged and followed them in, putting away his picks. "Master Splinter taught us, remember, bro?" he teased.
"Yeah," Raph grunted, "but you were always cra..."
"Enough. Search this place for any clues to April's whereabouts," Splinter cut in, looking pained as he wrinkled his snout.
Raphael immediately peeled off but Mikey hesitated, looking up at his father in concern.
"Are you okay, Master Splinter?"
Splinter gave Michelangelo a strained smile. "I will be once we leave this place," he promised. "The chemicals they have used for cleaning are... strong."
Mikey's eyes widened in realisation. Splinter's sense of smell was so powerful that they used to have to use the cleaning chemicals sparingly at home or dilute them far more than recommended. If they didn't, the chemicals would burn the inside of Splinter's nose and cause him discomfort or even pain. Though he always tried not to show how badly it affected him, they'd all noticed so they'd worked to stagger the cleaning with chemicals until Donnie was able to come up with a solution more mutant rat friendly.
"Any remaining scent of April is long gone," Splinter said before smiling comfortingly at Michelangelo. "Do not worry about me, my son, I will be alright. Help Raphael search so that we may leave."
Mikey nodded and turned to go search for clues.
"Oh and Michelangelo?"
Mikey looked up at his father curiously to see his smile shift from one of discomfort to warmth. "You did well, my son."
-:-
Having found no trace of April and Splinter's sense of smell shot for the night, the five mutants began searching the city, Leonardo and Donatello going in one direction, Raphael and Michelangelo in another and Splinter on his own. Casey even snuck out to join them to help once his father was finally asleep. They searched desperately but methodically for hours but could find nothing. Then finally, at Splinter's insistence, returned home at about three-thirty where they ate a small meal and went to bed.
Tossing and turning for nearly an hour, Mikey couldn't sleep. In fact, the longer he lay there, the more awake and twitchy he felt. Finally, he groaned dramatically and pushed his covers away to get up and dressed.
He bit his lip, quietly slipping his 'chucks back into their holsters as his mind raced. They'd looked everywhere they could in the hours they'd had but could find no trace of April anywhere. No sign she'd even been there, except for in that dumpster his brothers wouldn't let him check in. Even that night while at Antonio's, he'd tried to go back, only for Raphael to hit him upside the head and roughly drag him away again.
The dumpster had been full even before the final day of the invasion, Raph had pointed out. Overfull once the manager had added to it. There was no room for a body if she was dead and they all refused to believe that.
Mikey and his brothers didn't have the same spiritual bond with April as they had with each other and their father, however, he felt certain they'd know if she was dead anyway. After all, April had mind powers and Splinter had been training her to use them. Leo had taken over helping her when Splinter had been missing and presumed dead. At least, he had once he woke up from his three-month coma. Their resulting bond was not as strong as the one between April and Splinter but it was there. It still existed and since it had never shattered, she had to still be alive somewhere. Of this, Mikey was certain.
Listening for any movement within his home, he reached for his best pranking stealth and crept past the turnstiles and out of the lair.
There was a clue to what happened to April inside that dumpster. He just knew it.
And that clue had to be found before the city pulled itself back together enough to start emptying the garbage again.
-:-
[text = translated verbal Kraang] {text = telepathy}
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