I'm so sorry this one took so long to write!
The past two weeks have been BUSY. Between planning my husband's birthday weekend, helping organize a big church conference, being a part of said conference, my job exploding, and everything else….its been a lot.
Im glad everyone enjoyed the last chapter! I'm working on the next one as we speak, and planning the final few arcs that will tie up this Drabble series!
Thank you for your patience with me!
The snow fall that started on Leo's date quickly turned into a blizzard blanketing the city.
Winter was an interesting time for the turtles. They didn't brumate like their feral cousins, but they got sluggish. In seasons past, the brothers would often find themselves taking long naps in the living room, piled on top of each other in one giant snoring lump made up of blankets and pillows. Light training would be conducted in the morning, all before the siblings would be released to spend the day how they wished. This was one of Leonardo's favorites times of the year. Before the caves, he loved it because the malaise made Raph less volatile, meaning their fights became few and far between. Now that they'd come through so much though, and had so many conversations resolving past misunderstandings, the winter season now made their brawler downright cuddly. A new development that no one in the family minded or complained about, especially since Raphael was the family's resident hot water bottle. So, if the crimson turtle stumbled over to the couch, yawning and scrubbing at his eyes, only to plop down and immediately pull one of his brothers into an uncompromising embrace, snuggling them into his warmth, they gladly returned the affection tenfold.
It made for some wonderful cuddle sessions, and Leo was more than ready to spend this winter as close to his siblings as physically possible. A sentiment that his brothers shared. More often than not, Michelangelo would be playing his video games propped up against one or more of his older sibling's shells. Or Donnie would fall asleep sprawled across Leo or Raph's plastron, his book slowly slipping from lax fingers. For Leo himself, he'd cuddle up against any brother that was stationary for the moment, or a new habit he'd discovered and now enjoyed, sitting next to Splinter's armchair, head pillowed against the armrest, while the aged rat stroked his scalp. Even Casey, April and Anthony weren't exempt, as they'd find themselves the host of a clingy turtle or two any time they came to visit. This new practice began to lend the lair an extra layer of comfort, and Leonardo soaked it in the way a turtle soaked in sunlight.
Whether it was their turtle DNA that made them seek each other out, or the fact that their bonds had improved by leaps and bounds since Splinter called their break from ninjutsu, either way, the eldest was grateful and was enjoying the respite. Those couple of weeks were a veritable cocoon of familial warmth, softened further by the layer of fluffy snow covering their city.
Despite their general malaise, though, every once in a while the boys would go topside to run and exercise. Which was what they were doing now. The weather radar showed a particularly nasty blizzard coming their way, so Leonardo suggested a game of ninja rooftop hide and seek before they were stuck inside for days on end. He didn't order his brothers, nor claim it as a training run. He still hadn't reclaimed his place as leader, and wasn't ready to make a decision, however, the eldest could feel that the decision was coming soon. Maybe not in the immediate future, but his heart and spirit were healing to the point that he found himself beginning to seriously ponder what his choice should be. Leo didn't want to make the wrong choice, and so he was considering his options carefully, but also quietly. Not wishing to burden anyone with the strain of asking whether he should become leader again. Besides, this was one battle that he truly needed to fight on his own, he couldn't let anyone else make such an important choice.
"Leo!" the voice of Michelangelo broke the eldest out of his reverie, "Leo-narrr-do! I'm coming to find you!"
The eldest grinned, shuffling further into the shadows. Instinctively, he slowed down his breathing, making every movement as silent as a ghost. Technically, they weren't supposed to move, but during ninja hide and seek, the point was to catch the ones hiding. Which, of course, made the game more fun.
Darting across the roof, flitting from shadow to shadow, Leonardo had to stifle his snickering as he flicked a couple rocks on the other side of Mikey, watching as the youngest startled at the sound and turned to peer around, "Very funny, bro," Michelangelo sighed with a disappointed shake of his head, "if I were hunting anyone else, that might've worked, but I'm not and we both know you don't make that much noise."
Leo gave a silent scoff of disbelief, well, he always did forget that Mikey was better at critical thinking than they gave him credit for. Fine then, he'll just have to make the game more interesting. If sound nixed him from being a target, maybe he needed to make some? Releasing the muscles he'd held in control, Leonardo scrabbled across the roof, jumping onto a fire escape and leaping across it, his footsteps thudding and screeching as he skid over the metal grating in his rubber soled winter boots. The confusion in Michelangelo's eyes was apparent, the youngest pausing as he listened, head turning between the noise Leo was making and the rock he'd heard earlier. Baby blue eyes blinked in indecision, his body swaying as he tried to decide which direction to go.
After the flurry of sound, Leo stilled again, going perfectly quiet, watching around the corner as Mikey deliberated. "Okay," he murmured, "that was too much noise to be anyone other than Leo, but…he'd never give himself away like that, would he?"
Maybe in the past, but they weren't ninja right now. They were teenage boys, and he wasn't a leader. He could be a tad more inconsistent if he wanted to be. Chucking another rock to Mikey's right, Leo could barely hold back a giggle when the youngest jumped, turning towards the new sound, frustration coming through his playful features, "Okay, dude, not fair."
"All's fair in ninja hide and seek," Raph's baritone broke in, obviously having been found already and choosing to join the chase of the eldest.
"Yeah, Mike!" It seemed Donnie had also been compromised-er, found, "Besides, I'm still annoyed at you for those water balloons you pelted me with last time."
"Not ta mention the dancin'," the brawler grumbled.
"Aw," The youngest groaned playfully, "but you looked so pretty, Raphie!"
"I'll show ya pretty!" The brawler snarled, lunging at Michelangelo, eliciting a shriek from the orange clad teen.
"Why don't we use this energy to get Leo, guys?" The scientist said with a long-suffering sigh, "I'd rather get home before the next blizzard hits."
That was his cue to skedaddle. Pursing his lips, Leo considered his options back in his hiding place. While not impossible, his other brothers being present did make things a tad more difficult. He could make a break for it, but he knew that their baby brother was the fastest out of the four of them, and once Mikey set his crosshairs on him, it would be over. Add in Raph and Donnie helping, and Leo didn't have a prayer of escape. The kid would be on him faster than he could blink, and the other two would have him pinned to the ground in under a minute. It might work if he got a reasonable head start, though. He just needed to keep redirecting their attention. With a smirk, Leonardo reached into his belt pouch, pulling out something he had been keeping for just such an occasion. He and his brothers had never seen them before, but upon finding this particular item in Mississippi at a fireworks booth, the eldest had immediately realized their potential.
Snap and pops. Small little white packages filled with gun powder and God knows what else. What made them fun, was that if you threw them with just the right amount of force, they would explode with a sharp pop, or even louder if they hit the ground or a solid object hard enough. The brothers had had a blast using them on each other at the cabin, lining the underside of a toilet seat with them, or throwing them right when a sibling walked into the room or out a door. Raphael was a particular favorite victim, as his throaty shrieks were hilarious. Anthony had cracked up laughing every time he heard the brawler's startled yelp echo through the house. Needless to say, they'd definitely brought a touch of youth back to the elderly veterinarian, and the human had even helped in crafting the more elaborate pranks, a boyish grin on the wrinkled features.
This time, though, Leo was using it to make his brothers look the other way.
With a flick of the wrist, the eldest snickered when the snap and pop erupted on a brick wall behind the younger turtles with an impressive burst of sound, startling his brothers and causing them to whirl around, turning their shells to Leo. A silent grin, then soundless feet flew over the rooftop as the eldest darted behind them and leapt to the next building. If he could just get another roof or two over, he'd have enough of a head start to-!
"After him!"
Welp, that didn't work. Leo merely shrugged, it was more fun this way, anyhow. Looking over his shoulder, the turtle grinned at his siblings, "Catch me if you can!"
Whoops of excitement echoed behind the eldest as the younger brothers gave chase, prompting Leonardo to add an extra burst of speed to his feet. The eldest winced when he stumbled slightly, the boots he wore hampering his usual grace. He wasn't a fan of running the rooftops in human clothes, however, the temperature of the current season was even colder than usual, and the turtles were already at a disadvantage due to their cold-blooded natures. So, with great reluctance, the brothers were dressed warmly despite the inconvenience. As the younger turtle teens made short work of the space separating them from their big brother, Leonardo hopped across the alleyway, aiming for the ledge of the next building over. What happened next was almost too quick to follow and would prove a pivotal moment in the boys' lives. Black ice coated the brick edge, and when Leo's weight met the slick substance, it immediately sent him reeling. He slipped, arms windmilling as he was flung backwards into the open air of the alley way, sapphire eyes blown wide as he watched the unforgiving pavement hurtle up at him.
"LEO!" Three voices screamed in unison, mindless terror shattering the night air.
Muscled forearms folded in front of the eldest's face, a pitiful attempt to protect his head, and as Leo fell. Instincts from many years of training gave Leo the presence of mind to desperately wish that he was just fifty feet more to the left so he could fall into the overwhelmingly large pile of garbage bags. Not an ideal landing spot, but less likely to kill him than hard asphalt. As he pondered this in the milliseconds he had before impact, an odd tingling crawled up his shell, enveloping him in an itchy cocoon, like the skittering of thousands of bugs scrambling over his skin and under his carapace. Leo shuddered but that was nothing to the shock he felt when suddenly the pavement disappeared, only to be replaced by the garbage pile. A squawk of surprise, coupled by a yelp of pain upon impact, erupted from Leonardo's mouth, cut short when he was dumped headfirst into the mountain of trash.
The eldest struggled among the many plastic bags, desperately trying to swim back to the top, only to break through with a gasp in the cold night air. Shoulders heaved as he pulled in disbelieving breaths, eyes wide and confused.
What the shell just happened?!
…
Donatello stared gobsmacked at where Leo had disappeared, and then ultimately reappeared.
What the shell?!
Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that the engineer's heart was still racing from watching his brother nearly become street pizza, he'd be giggling at the inane sound the eldest had made. Leonardo sounded like a cross between a yipping puppy and a strangled duck, he was sure that they'd have a good laugh over it later, but right now he needed to calm down or Leo wouldn't be the only turtle with heart problems. Flanked by an equally disturbed Michelangelo and Raphael, Donnie scrambled down the building's fire escape, dropping down to land on the garbage pile near where Leo had just resurfaced, the eldest's face a cloud of shocked confusion.
"Aniki!" Donatello shouted, dropping to his knees so to help dig the eldest out of the garbage bags, "Are you okay?!"
"Did you see-?!" Leonardo gasped, eyes wild, "Did I just-?! How did I-?! What just happened?!"
"You tell me!" The scientist practically shrieked, reaching under the eldest's shoulders and pulling him up by the armpits, "One second, you're about to be a turtle pancake, and the next, you teleport over fifty feet to the left! That's physically impossible, Leo!"
"You think I don't know that?!" Leonardo bellowed back.
"Guys, calm down!" Mikey's voice entered the conversation, the youngest grimacing as he tried to help the engineer pull Leo out of the trash pile, "Is teleportation really so weird?" the orange clad teen grunted, "I mean, think about our lives. I would think that teleportation would rank a little low on our top ten list of weird things that we've done."
"Well, sure," Donnie shrugged, panting as Raph continued to dig, and they finally hauled Leo out of the garbage and up onto the top of the pile, "but it's still kind of a shock when your brother is the one doing the teleporting."
"Hasn't he been healin' and crap since he got back, though?" Raphael queried, leaning back on his haunches with a tired sigh, "I think Leo doin' weird stuff is kinda the norm, now."
"Gee, thanks guys," Leonardo remarked dryly, grimacing at the stink he could already smell leeching into his clothes.
"Just sayin', bro," the brawler shrugged with an unrepentant grin, "between ya healin' Mike, and trashin' the Eater in that lab, ya gotta admit that normal is kinda relative. Especially fer us."
"Don't remind me," the eldest groaned, standing on shaky legs so to begin the trek off the trash pile, "I just wish I knew how it happened."
"You don't remember?" Donnie asked, arms windmilling as he clambered down all the garbage bags.
"I mean, I remember a weird sensation like bugs crawling all over me before everything went sideways…"
"Literally," Mikey snickered.
"But other than that, no." Leo shrugged.
"I saw a sudden influx of energy," Donatello explained as the brothers finally made it back to solid ground, turning so to address his oldest brother better, "it seemed to concentrate along your arms and across your shell, before it condensed and then erupted like a starburst, and you just…disappeared!"
"If ya ask me," Raph murmured thoughtfully, "it looked just like the energy Fearless used ta kill the Eater."
"You're right!" Mikey nodded, baby blue eyes brightening in revelation, "It did look just like that!"
Donnie leaned forward, shining a pen light into the eldest's eyes, and checking his pulse, "What's the last thing you remember right before you teleported?"
"Wishing I was fifty to the left, so I wouldn't become street pizza," Leo replied drily.
"Literally?" The engineer asked, features serious as he considered this new piece of information, "As in, those exact words?"
The eldest paused, sapphire eyes growing dull as he searched his memory, "Actually," he stated slowly, features growing slack with realization, "yeah."
"You remember coherently thinking 'if only I were fifty feet to the left'?" Donatello pressed.
"Yes," Leo nodded, getting a little irritated with the interrogation, "what's that got to do with anything?"
"Only that this may not be an isolated incident," the scientist hummed ponderously, tapping his chin with a green finger, "I mean, it's just like Raph said, you have been doing some pretty amazing things lately. When you were healing Mikey, I saw the sparks of blue starbursts around his wound as you closed it up, the same energy we just saw now. If you can heal a wound of that severity, then it stands to reason that you may be capable of other abilities."
"Like that fox spirit, Kitsune, said," Mikey broke in, playful features uncharacteristically serious, "she said that Leo was awakening the ability to manipulate the threads of reality."
"That's right," Donnie's eyes brightened as he remembered, "she called him a world walker!"
"A what walker?" This was the first Leo had heard of any of this, "And when did you guys talk to the fox spirit? I thought she possessed Karai and ran away?"
The younger brothers grimaced, realizing belatedly that they had never actually told Leo what had happened while he was possessed by the Shredder. "Well," Mikey chuckled, tapping two index fingers together sheepishly, "when you were, uh, otherwise occupied…the fox spirit took over Karai and before I went in to get you and that's when she introduced herself."
"That's also when she called ya a world walker," Raph supplied, turning liquid gold eyes to his older brother, "said somethin' about how ya had a rare aura essence that she hadn't seen in decades. That's why she targeted ya, because she wanted the power that ya had growin' inside."
"What?!" Leonardo looked utterly shocked. Sapphire eyes wide as he absorbed the words of his siblings, appearing suddenly overwhelmed at the prospects that these things implied, "I thought…" he stammered, strong features looking lost and confused as he puzzled his way through the new information, "I thought she attacked because my weakness made me an easy target?"
"No, aniki," Donnie smiled gently, reaching up to rub the eldest's unmasked head, "she came after you because you're special, and even Father said that your spiritual aura is one that evil spirits crave because it's so rare."
"Oh," the soft exclamation of surprise stung the younger brothers, reminding the, that they still had plenty of work to do in rebuilding their brother's confidence, however, they didn't get to ponder that when sapphire eyes immediately widened as raw fear infected their cerulean depths, "Does that mean that other spirits are going to attack us? Am I putting you guys in danger?"
Of course, Leo would focus on that.
"And what about Kitsune," the eldest continued, "is she going to come back?"
Green hands rose to drag up the maskless face, gripping his scalp hard enough to leave fingerprints, "Shell!" Leo swore, features horrified as countless nightmarish scenarios played before his mind's eye, "we aren't ready, I'm not ready, we can't fight them off as we are!"
The unmasked turtle's shoulders slowly began to tremble as Leo's breathing hitched, terror swirling in his brilliant blue orbs. The scientist leaned forward, gripping the eldest by the shoulders, giving him a soft shake, "Breathe, aniki," he commanded gently, "this isn't bad news. Sure, you may have a target on your back, but when is that different from any other time? We all have our personal enemies, and every single one of us have a bounty on our head in some form or fashion. Let's focus on the blessings that your new abilities bring, yeah?"
"Blessings?" Leo asked incredulously, his terror mixing bitter anger, "What blessings? I don't consider becoming a target for homicidal spirits something to be grateful for!"
"Maybe not," Donnie shrugged, "but I for one can say I'm pretty grateful that you're alive tonight, instead of a smear on the pavement."
"No kidding," Michelangelo grinned, "and I can personally say I appreciate that you got super cool healing powers after I got shishkabobbed."
Leonardo slumped, no doubt remembering the night the baby brother had almost died in his arms, guilt shadowing his features, "I'm sorry about that, Mike," he mumbled, his previous ire dying down, "I should never have let that happen to you."
The youngest frowned, then flung his hand forward to flick his brother's nose, "Stop that!" Mikey demanded, "You're not allowed to beat yourself up over something you've done for us more times than I can count!"
"That's different," the eldest shook his head, denying the statement, "that's my job."
"It's our job, too!" Michelangelo countered, then an impish gleam lit the youngest's eyes, "Unless you don't trust us to have your back?"
Leo's jaw dropped as horror refilled his eyes, "Never!" He spluttered, desperately trying to prove the youngest wrong, "Of course I trust you!"
"Then let us cover your six," Mikey stated, crossing his arms with a decisive nod, utterly immovable in his stance, "I get you want to protect us, but last I checked, we're a team, or we were at least. Things happen, and yeah, I got hurt, but you saved my life. As far as I'm concerned, we're even. I saved you, you saved me, end of story. So, get over it!"
The eldest gaped, backed into a metaphorical corner by the baby's logic, unable to argue, until Leonardo found he could only laugh. A short exhale of breath, relief and sheer amazement being expelled from his lungs that grew into a soft chuckle, "I guess I don't have any choice?"
"Nope!"
Leonardo's chuckle gained strength and as he shook his head, the eldest could only marvel at the youngest's audacity, "Then, I guess that settles that," he sighed, features brightening once again,
"Now," Donatello broke in, "since that extremely necessary conversation is over, why don't we focus on something else that really needs attention."
"Such as?" Leo asked, raising one eye ridge.
The scientist brightened, brown eyes practically glowing, "Cataloguing each of your new abilities!" He gushed, "I want to see just what your capable of!"
The eldest grimaced, a different kind of terror roiling in his stomach as Donatello shifted into his 'mad scientist' mode, "This is going to hurt, isn't it?"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Donnie consoled.
However, the maniacal grin stretching the engineer's face was far from comforting.
….
"Do-on!" Leo whined, pleading sapphire eyes glaring balefully at the scientist, "I'm tired and we've been at this for hours!"
It might not hurt, but it was still annoying.
Leonardo sat in Donnie's lab, ensconced by countless machines, and covered in sensors. His head was haloed by a metal crown with various electrodes stuck on his scalp, and his arms and shell were dotted with dozens more.
"Aw, come on, aniki," Donatello begged, "just one more reading?"
"But I'm hungry," The eldest groaned, casting aside his usual façade of mature grace as his stomach gave another embittered grumble, "and I've used my powers to put everything back together from April's flower vase to the toaster. What more can I possibly do?"
"Glad you asked!"
Without any warning, Donnie grabbed a shuriken and neatly sliced his palm open, his features a slight grimace of pain. Leonardo jumped up, blue eyes wide and mouth open in a silent scream. The eldest snatched his younger sibling's hand, lips working as he struggled to piece together a coherent sentence, but only managed garbled squeaks. Crimson quickly pooled in Donnie's palm, and that shock of color against the scientist's olive skin, galvanized Leonardo into speech, "Donatello Hamato!" The older brother shrieked, "What did you do?!"
"Don't heal it yet!" The younger sibling exclaimed, "let me tune my machines so they can record the energy output!"
"Are you crazy?!" Leo bellowed.
The eldest was summarily ignored as Donatello flicked on a bunch of switches and turned various knobs, gleefully watching as his screens burst to life as they measured the current energy flowing through Leonardo's body, "Okay, I'm ready!"
Hopeful brown eyes turned to the maskless turtle, the chocolate orbs sparkling with excitement. Leonardo gaped at his younger sibling, shock at the injury battling against sheer baffled astonishment at Donnie's dedication to his craft, "You're insane," Leo breathed, eyes wide, "you've officially gone clinically insane."
"Insanity, unbridled genius, it's all really an issue of semantics," Donnie waved away, "now can you please heal my hand? It's really starting to hurt."
The eldest's jaw dropped even further, and incredulous snort exploding from his nostrils, "I ought to just leave your hand like this!" He scolded, "You can't just hurt yourself, Donnie! I don't care how much you love science! Working yourself to the point of injury, especially self inflicted, isn't healthy!"
"That's really funny coming from you," the engineer replied drily.
Sapphire eyes narrowed, and pure righteous indignation, the kind only a big brother can have for a younger sibling, rolled off Leonardo in waves. "That's it," he stated, grabbing the first aid kit instead, "I'm leaving it like this. I'll patch you up, but you'll have to heal the old-fashioned way."
"Aw, come on, Leo!" Donnie pleaded, a pout pushing his bottom lip out endearingly, "I need this energy reading, for science! Please?!"
Leo's features soured further as he realized that Donatello didn't even care that he was having to wait for his hand to heal. Not that it truly mattered, anyway. Injuries like this weren't an issue while they were benched from being ninja. So, Donnie had all the time in the world to wait as his hand recovered. However, that doesn't mean that he should endanger himself like that just over a stupid experiment! He may not be leader right now, but he was still the eldest brother, and apparently his genius younger sibling was capable of stupidity even he couldn't fathom!
"Look, I promise," Donnie wheedled, a nervous grin lightening his face, "if you heal my hand, then we'll be done. I'll take the sensors off and release you."
Hm…that was tempting.
Granted Leo could leave whenever he wanted to, but then he'd have to take all the electrodes off by himself, and there were a few on his shell that he couldn't reach on his own. God forbid, he asks Raph or Mikey for help, they'd probably crack up laughing and say he'd caught the latest mutation of chicken pox. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed Donnie's help.
"Fine," Leo finally growled, "but I'm still upset at you for hurting yourself like this."
"I promise, I'll never do it again," the scientist replied, raising his right hand as if swearing in court.
Leonardo could only give his sibling a baleful glare, one eye ridge raising in incredulous silence. To which, Donatello replied with a saucy grin.
Giving a healthy roll to his sapphire eyes, Leo focused on his power, gathering the invisible threads up with his fingertips, and then worked on closing the wound, "For your own good, I'm not healing it all the way," the eldest snapped, "the worst of the damage will be taken care of, and you won't have to worry about physical therapy, thankfully you didn't knick a tendon or a nerve, but it's still going to be sore for a few days. Let that be a lesson to remind you that I don't want you pulling a stunt like this ever again."
"Yes, aniki," Donnie wasn't really listening, he was too busy watching the energy readings with unrepressed joy.
Ugh….little brothers.
The process of healing didn't take long, and Leo didn't even feel lightheaded as he grabbed up a cotton swab and some alcohol to clean the blood off the olive green scales, "Of all the stupid," he grumbled, "ridiculous things we've been through, this ranks in my top ten of worst Donatello moments. What would possess you to do this?"
"Honestly, aniki," Donnie replied absently, his free hand tapping on a keyboard, "I never would have done it before, but since you can heal now, it doesn't seem that big a deal."
That comment earned a flick on the nose, an irritated whine coming from the scientist in protest, "And what if I lose that ability?" Leo asked succinctly, "What if we get zapped to God knows where, and we find out I can't use it? I'm not going to let my brothers put themselves in harms way due to overconfidence in an ability we don't even know is permanent! We're a team, Donnie, you can't endanger yourself like that!"
"Team, huh?" The purple ninja smirked, turning away from his computer screens, "Are you saying you'll step in as leader again?"
The eldest balked, blinking furiously as he tried to come up with an answer, "I haven't made a decision, yet," he finally spoke, "and don't try to change the subject. We're talking about you slicing open your hand without a second thought."
"Look, it's fine," Donnie shrugged off, annoyed that his distraction failed, "I'll admit you made some very valid points and now that you healed it, the injury is taken care of. I promise not to do anything like that ever again, deal?"
Leo held Donatello's hand tighter, the strength of his grip silently conveying how serious the eldest was in this very moment, "Promise?"
"Cross my heart," the scientist nodded, crossing his left plastron for good measure.
With that, Leonardo allowed himself to release a breath, choosing to believe his brother despite the nagging anxiety in his gut. For all his brothers give him a hard time about self sacrificing behavior, Donatello was just as guilty. The purple turtle held just as much stress on his shoulders as the eldest, refusing to care for his own body's needs to frightening levels. It was something that caused Leonardo no end of anxiety over the years. The arguments between scientist and leader having reached rather epic levels in the past, as Leo desperately tried to convince the engineer to get some decent sleep. However, they'd all changed a lot, particularly over the last few weeks since his return. Leo could attempt taking Donnie at his word, though, hoping against hope with his indomitable optimism concerning his brother's capabilities. Surely, this time would be different. Hopefully.
"Alright, let's get this gear off you."
Leo snapped back to reality as Donatello began peeling the many sensors off the eldest, happily submitting to the purple turtle's ministrations, "Yes, please!"
"Try not to sound too excited," the scientist grumbled, though with a teasing grin.
The older brother merely shrugged, "I love you, Don, but I'm tired and I'm certain my stomach is digesting my spine at this point."
Donatello broke into a gale of laughter, shaking his head fondly, "Then let's get you fed, shall we?"
Leo gave an enthusiastic nod, bowing his head so the scientific terrapin could wrangle the halo off the eldest's scalp. "Now, if only I could figure out how you teleport."
"I think that's something we save for another day," the eldest stated, voice monotone as he imagined having to be tediously put in the electrodes again, "because I still don't even know how to make it happen again."
"You said that you made a wish that you were fifty feet to the left," Donatello murmured, eyes narrowing as he struggled to peel off one of the sensors on the eldest's shell, "meaning it must be connected somehow to your emotional state, maybe your intense fear, coupled with the need to escape, triggered it?"
That made sense. Leo hadn't been in any dangerous situations since he'd left his family at the top of the Foot headquarters. Certainly nothing that would provoke such a visceral response to survive like falling off the roof of a building, "True," the older sibling nodded, "maybe if I focus on that feeling, I can try to trigger it again?"
"Or," the maniacal grin was back, and suddenly Leo felt very uneasy, "we can try to recreate the feeling organically?"
The eldest leapt to his feet, backing away from the scientist and towards the lab door, "Donnie….put the shuriken down."
"I mean, we won't know if we don't try, right?" Donatello's voice was sweet, belying the glinting steel held between green fingertips, "Come on, aniki, for science?"
"Donatello Hamato!" Leo attempted to put every ounce of authority he held into his voice, but a little voice in the back of his head reminded him that he wasn't leader anymore, so in reality, he held very little, "Don't you dare! We just talked about this!"
"We talked about me hurting myself for the sake of science," the purple ninja scoffed, "not about using my brothers as guinea pigs, besides," if the scientist's smile hit an all time new level of creepy, "we all know you can dodge them!"
Sapphire eyes flooded with unrestrained terror, and Leo knew there was no escaping his brother. Devoid of his authority as leader, reduced to just your average teenager, the eldest had no chance. So, as he turned around to pelt into the lair, features awash with panic, Leo yelled for the only person capable of taming the insanity running rampant through his younger brother.
"DA-AD! Donnie's trying to kill me!"
I know it's short, but I hope it makes up for my absence.
And yes, I am basing this off the Rise Leo's powers, because I figure, if that Leo can teleport then it can happen in other dimensions.
Thank you for reading, and please leave a review!
