They approached the large round door carefully. Donnie slowly pushed it open. Ming peeked over Raph's shell to see. The lair was dark. It... looked empty...
"Is he here?" Raph asked hesitantly.
"I don't see him..." Leo muttered, looking around. "Donnie?"
Donnie had already pulled his high-tech goggles on and was scanning the dark room. "My thermal scans indicate that there's a 74% variable that there's a 61% chance that he's not-"
"He's not here guys! Not here!" Mikey whispered loudly, cutting Donnie off. The others shushed him.
"Okay... Fall in, quietly." Leo ordered, before jumping down from the tunnel they were in to the floor, a good eight or nine feet at least. Raph and Donnie followed, all of them landing as quietly as they possibly could, restraining grunts upon landing. When Ming jumped, she made virtually no sound, a small advantage of being the lightest. Mikey, on the other hand, landed hard, not even bothering to quiet his grunt of effort, making the others tense.
"You tryna get us caught?!" Ming hissed, and got shushed by the others, Donnie lightly cuffing her head.
"So... guys..." Mikey whispered a bit loudly as they made their way along the wall to the weapon's wall. "If it wasn't already obvious with that girl... Diiiiibs."
Leo and Raph turned around to glare at Mikey as they shushed him. "If Master Splinter catches us, he'll send us back to the Hashi." Leo warned.
"I ain't going back to the Hashi." Raph grumbled, placing his sai in their spot upon the weapon's wall.
"Every time we're in the Hashi, it's because of you!" Leo hissed at Raph, shoving his shoulder.
"Well, bro, you won't have to worry about me dragging you down anymore." Raph grumbled, shoving Leo's face.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Mikey asked, leaning over in front of Raph to listen in to the conversation. Ming stopped putting away her remaining kunai and ninja stars to stare at Raph as well.
"I'm going out on my own. First chance I get." Raph growled, shouldering Mikey.
"What?!" Ming gasped.
"How we gonna finish our hip-hop Christmas album, bro? You're the hype man!" Mikey replied, in a whisper that was a little too loud.
Leo leaned over to hush them both, followed by Mikey hissing back, "You shush!" Raph, Donnie and Ming quickly shushed the other two, Raph shoved Mikey out of the way to shush Donnie, and growled that Mike had spit in his eye, leading to Ming elbowing his side and shushing him.
Leo got in the final shush, grabbing Raph from retaliating against Ming. "He's not going anywhere! We all stick together."
Raph glared at Leo, and turned to start shushing Mikey again when Mike apologized for spitting in his eye, when Ming heard a footstep behind them.
Uh-oh...
"Uhhh guys. Guys!" Donnie piped up. "We got a bogey."
They all froze as a flashlight behind them was suddenly turned on.
For a few seconds, nobody moved. Ming didn't even dare to breathe, as though if they stayed completely still, Splinter wouldn't see them and would go back to bed.
That was, unfortunately, wistful thinking, as Splinter lashed his tail out at Leo's ankle and yanked, making him fall hard to the ground. Ming winced, as they turned around, unable to hide the guilty looks on their faces.
"Where have you been?!" Splinter demanded.
"W-w-we- weren't-" Raph tried to stutter out an excuse, only for Splinter to cut him off by throwing him to the ground, too.
"I forgot to soak my retainer!" Donnie tried, attempting to flee, but the tail whipped at his leg and tripped him.
Ming slowly tried inching along the wall to her room, hoping maybe she wouldn't be noticed, but Splinter's tail grabbed her leg and drug her back, tossing her to the ground next to Raph.
"I'm totally sleep-walking!" Mikey held his arms out in front of him like a zombie, trying to slowly walk away. "Look, Mikey's sleeping! And walking! He's totally innocent!"
Master Splinter shook his head before whipping Mikey's legs and knocking him over too.
"Enough." Splinter growled. "You disobeyed a direct order! Why did you go above ground?! What happened?!" He demanded, shining the light on Raph and Leo, then Ming and Mikey, and then Donnie. Nobody said a word.
"Very well. If that's how it's going to be... To the Hashi!"
Ming and her brothers groaned. Great. Not the Hashi.
"This is all your fault." Raph grumbled, bumping his shoulder into Ming as they got up to follow Splinter.
"My fault?!" Ming growled.
"Yeah. It is your fault." Leo whacked Ming's shoulder lightly as he passed her.
"Yeah, thanks a lot, Ming." Donnie agreed, shoving past her.
Ming glared at them, then glanced at Mikey. "Hey, you don't think it's my fault, right, Mike?"
He didn't answer her, just hung his head as he lightly pushed past Ming.
"Mike?" Ming followed her brothers. "Hey, come on. Guys, that's not fair!" She called. "Guys!"