Part 4: Roads

New York, 07:45 am, June 30th, 1999

Mike

Sneaking on the plane was pretty easy. I guess you can say there are some advantages to being a ninja.
Now we're sitting in a cab, heading for my apartment. Brioni is sleeping with her head in my lap, like she did in the truck from Berlin.
She's definitely not much of a morning person. I laugh quietly to myself and grin as I watch her sleep.

She's pretty cute with those freckles, that little nose and that blindingly red hair. She must've coloured it. And I wonder what colour her eyes really are, if they're not yellow. She digs her nose further into my thigh and sighs happily. A little smile crosses her lips. Brioni doesn't seem to be afraid of me anymore. At least not in her sleep.

It's pouring down outside, warm summer rain, and the car stops in the middle of a puddle outside of my apartment.
I touch Brioni's cheek and nudge her to wake her up.

"Hey, babe--I mean Brioni-- wake up," I whisper.

"Are we there already?" she asks sleepily.

"Yeah, lets pay this guy and get home...I'm hungry!" I grin.

Brioni pulls out her vallet and puts a twenty dollar bill in the drivers hand, and we step out of the cab and cross the street.
Brioni stops and looks up at the apartment building.

"So, Mike...this is where you live?" she asks.

"Yeah, but I used to live in a sewer,"

She gives me a weird look and I grin. "Come on," I urge her and she follows me up the stairs, into the building, up the inner stairs and finally we're standing in my appartment.

"Uh, if I knew I was gonna have company..." I say appologetically and scratch my cheek.

The place looks like a dump. Empty pizza boxes and chocolate wrappers everywhere, comic magazines left in the most unthinkable places, empty glasses standing on every single table or shelf, and off course, my training gear is spread all around the place. There are even some cracks here and there in the walls caused by me and my brothers' previous work outs.

Brioni picks up a chocolate wrapper and makes a grimace. "This is what I call a real bachelor flat!"

New York, 08:52 am, June 30th, 1999

Leo

God...my poor head! What happened? Someone attacked me...The Foot?
Was I alone? No, there was someone...can't remember...a woman...didn't know her very well.
I shake my head and try to focus my eyes on the object before me. I hear a faint voice, but it's getting stronger by the minute.

"Leo? Leo? Wake up!" someone slaps me not too gently in my face. I gasp not from pain, but from the sudden surprise.

"So, you're awake? That's good. Now will you tell me what we're doing here?" a nervous voice asks me.

I shake my head again, and bring my hands up to my face. I can feel some dried blood on my cheek. Rubbing my eyes, I gradually get my visibility back. I look up, and see a woman with black curls and blue eyes staring down at me.

"Uh, you are..." I think hard for a second and then I recognize her. "Jade?"

"Yeah." she nods, " But why are we here? Why were those guys attacking you?"

"They are...The Foot. Ninja soldiers. Well, they hate us because we killed their master to get revenge. See, The Foot's master killed our father's master a long time ago," I answer hoarsely.

"That's understandable. But what's all this talk about "we"? Are there other turtles? Those guys mentioned it, too. They said that they had gotten the 'wrong one'." she says curiously.

I put my head in my hands. "Yeah, there are other turtles. My brothers. There's four of us."

"So, they weren't looking for you?" she says to herself.

I rise my eyes to look at the room. The floor is concrete, the walls are made of brick and there are steel bars trapping us in. Great, another dungeon. Another ghastly prison. How many of those have I seen in my lifetime? How many times have I been trapped? Me and my brothers...it's getting all too old.
If they weren't looking for me, who were they looking for? Probably Raph...he always gets in trouble.
And if they got the wrong turtle...then they're probably going to blackmail the right one. This situation...I feel like I'm in my tenth deja vu or something!

"Leo? What are we going to do?" Jade asks.

If I only knew, Jade...If I only knew...

"Don't worry, Jade. There must be a way out of here. Maybe those bars are old...or maybe we can remove some of the bricks..."

I doubt it...but we can't let our spirits drop. I'm not gonna die here, and neither is she. I'll see to that.

Paris, 13: 57 pm, July 5th, 1999

Paula

I open the door and step inside. Don's there, and so is Raph and Kylie, who's holding Sheila.

"Hey," I say brightly, "my brother, Charly, got a little suspicious, but he says he didn't mind if I stayed somewhere else--"

I stop in my tracks, and look at them. What's up? Everyone looks so serious. And they look like they've been waiting for me.

"Uh, do I have something between my teeth?" I laugh nervously.

"Paula, we have something to tell you," Don says.

Uh oh, bad news. I can feel it in the air.

"We hafta leave for New York to save our brother Leo," Raph explains.

"And we might get into...trouble." Don mumbles.

"What's happened?" I ask.

"Leo's kidnapped." Kylie says.

"By who?" I put down the bags I were holding in my hands.

"The Foot. Uh, they're like this band of ninja thieves or something. They're our enemies." Don says.

"We're gonna go pack. We have to leave as soon as possible." Raph urges Kylie and they disappear up the stairs.

I sit heavily down on an old, antique chair, and stare at the marble floor.

"This could get dangerous, right?" I say hesitantly.

He nods and sits down on the chair next to me.

"I don't think I wanna come. I'm not much use either..." I hope I'm not sounding too selfish.

I just don't want to go to New York with two ninja turtles and fight crime with them and try to save their brother...and most likely get myself killed.
It doesn't exactly sound like fun. Rather the end of me. What does two turtles have to stand up with against a pack of ninjas?
I just hope that Don doesn't get himself killed. Then I would feel very guilty. If Don got killed...

I shake that horrible thought out of my head and put a hand on Don's shoulder.

"Hey, Don, you have my phone number and...well, I just can't come. I  just don't feel like this is something I should be doing.
We should keep in touch though, what do you say?" I ask with a hint of guilt in my voice.

"Yeah, we should...listen, I have to go pack now...looks like you're gonna have to stay with your brother after all, since we're all gonna leave this place," He says, turns away and walks quickly up the stairs. I can see how tense he is.

Paris, 14: 00 pm

Raph

I don't like the idea of bringing Kylie with us to New York, but I guess she's right. I can't stop her. And besides, I'm kinda glad that she wanted to come.
She even admitted that she loves me, which is pretty unbelievable. I hope she really does love me. But she would've never bothered to come back to New York if she didn't, right?
I give the mirror a smirk as I pass it. Even if I don't like the green reflection that much, I can't help but to smile. Kylie's really boosted my confidence.

Don's throwing his luggage into the hall. That doesn't seem like him? He always arranges them neatly, even if we're in a hurry...
He flashes me a quick glance as I approach him, but he doesn't say anything. His mouth is very tight, and he seems to be preoccupied.

"Ready to go, Don?" I ask him.

He nods and puts his backpack on and picks up his other bags. He marches down the stairs.
What's eating him?

Maybe it's...it just has to be about Paula. I bet she didn't want to come. Poor Don. I bet he gathered up some more hope and courage when he saw how well everything worked out between me and Kylie...and now it's trashed.
What exactly did he say to her? Maybe he didn't need to say anything, maybe she knew he was going to ask if she would come. Knowing him, I bet he didn't actually ask her to come, he's too sensible for that, too smart....

I give myself another little smirk. Who am I to talk? I didn't want Kylie to come either, I care too much about her.
And since when did I begin to dissect my brother's thoughts, by the way? Maybe since the moment we actually got something in common. We both love a human girl...it's pretty special.

I pick up my own luggage and head down the stairs. Wonder how Leo's doing now...

Paris, 14: 05 pm

Don

Why do I have this sudden urge to scream? That's definitely not me.
Why did I expect her to come, anyway? Why did I expect her to do something I know I, or anybody else with even just a minor portion of common sence would think better of ? Well, I wouldn't have brought her along-- that's too dangerous-- but I guess I just hoped she would at least...I dunno... offer to come.
Why am I acting so nervously all the time? Why did I ever come here in the first place? Why did I go and get drunk in the middle of a field?  Why do I have so many questions? Why?

I've never been so frustrated with what I am before. Now I wish more than ever that I was a human.
But I'm a turtle, and I have to face it...move on.

Why did Leo have to get kidnapped right now? Maybe Paula would've...Oh my gawd, I'm being so selfish!!
Why did I just think that?
Why didn't I say something? Say; Paula, I like you a lot. In fact, I think I'm actually falling in-- yeah, right! And have her laugh at me again? Great...just great...

Why can't I get her out of my head? Why can't I even get my thoughts back to my research, gadgets, projects and stuff?
Those were things that used to matter so much...why not now?
Those things still matters to me, it's just...I can't concentrate. That's definitely not me, either...

I told myself to forget her, so why didn't I listen?

Why can't I forget the way she touched my hands today? Why did she do that?
Why did she kiss me on that field? Forget that one, Don! We've both already figured it out; We were drunk. Very drunk.
But she wasn't drunk today-- aww, never mind.

Why does she want us to keep in touch? Because it's safer over the telephone? That's gotta be it. She seemed to like me a lot when she didn't know I was a turtle, thought I was a great guy, and when she can't see me...she can maintain that illusion.
But, by "keep in touch", does she mean only over the phone, or does she actually want to see me again?

Why do I keep asking myself these stupid questions? Why?

New York, 10:34 am, June 30th, 1999

Brioni

I stretch and yawn as I wake up between some very colourful sheets. Where am I?
Hearing loud traffic noises and yelling coming in through the window, I frown and wonder if I'm really back in New York.
The sounds are so familiar, almost identical to the one's I've heard so many times.
Examining my "clothe condition", I discover that I'm only wearing my underwear and a very large T-shirt.
Who's T-shirt is this? It smells so...foreign. Sweet, but not that sweet...I can even smell a vague hint of somebody's sweat. Somebody else's than mine.

Someone's staring at me. I can feel it. Paranoid as I am, I quickly look up. Sitting on a chair, there's a giant turtle.
Hey, it's that Mike guy! Is this his apartment? Suddenly I quiver, as I remember what happened in my apartment...Men breaking in, Mike fighting, me shooting a man, the man falling down...blood. Blood on my floor.

That's why we ran away, back to New York.

"Hi...Mike," I say.

"Morning!" he replies cheerfully. He seems a little different...less serious...but heh, that's probably because we're not trying to run away now...

"Is this your T-shirt?" I ask and pull a little at the fabric.

"Yeah, don't you remember borrowing it this morning?" he frowns.

"Oh...yeah. Now I remember." I mumble. How could I have forgotten my pyjamas? I was wearing them when I was packing!

"Sorry, I was just so tired." I shake my head excusingly.

"Yep, you fell asleep in the truck, the cab and now," he grins.

Blushing slightly, I pull at the T-shirt again.

"Where are my clothes-- my luggage?" I raise my eyebrows.

He goes into another room, comes back with my suitcase and puts it down beside the bed.
I open the suitcase and pull out a pair of dark blue jeans, jump out of bed and put them on, the whole time having the feeling that he's watching my every tiniest movement closely.
I decide to leave the T-shirt on, cause it feels pretty comfortable, and all I've brought are tight sweaters and tops.

"What are you planning to do now, Mike?" I say sleepily.

"Have a late breakfast?" he grins and starts towards the kitchen. I follow him reluctantly, wondering if his kitchen is as messy as the rest of his apartment.

It is. Not dirty, just messy.

"What do you want?" He asks.

"What do you have?"  I reply and shrug.

"We could bake something?" he offers.

Bake with a giant turtle? Now there's a thought...

"Bake?" I giggle, "Bake what?"

"Um, uh...cupcakes?" he suggests.

I think about it for a while. "Okay..."

I can't be rude. He helped me escape, and this is his apartment, after all...Besides, I'm hungry... and it would be interesting to taste cupcakes a giant turtle made!

He grins widely and gets a big sack of flour down from the shelf. I'm already beginning to regret this...

Paris, 14:15 pm, July 5th, 1999

Kylie

Raph gets in the car and turns the key. The engine starts and the car pulls out on the road.
Now we're on our way. I'm feeling pretty nervous. What's gonna happen in New York? Will we even manage to save Leo?
I glance sideways at Raph, but he's busy watching the road and I can't see any signs to tell if he's nervous or not.

Don sits in the backseat gazing absently out the window at the scenery that whisks by. He doesn't seem to interested in the scenery, though. His mind seems to be on something else.

Paula didn't come, but I really didn't expect her to either. Sure, it would have been nice to have someone to talk to, but she was sensible not to come. We have no idea of what's waiting for us...

I just know that I'm going to follow Raph. I hope I don't bump into Will in New York...
Glancing down at my little daughter who sleeps peacefully in a baby seat attached on my lap, I begin to consider what I've really done.
Leaving the father of my daughter, going to Paris, hooking up with my old flame, who's also a turtle, then traveling to New York with my daughter, my turtle boyfriend and his brother, to save his other brother from a pack of ninjas just doesn't seem too smart anymore.

I shake my head and get angry at myself. It's not that easy...

The father of my child is a sleezeball, I went to Paris because I inherited a great mansion, and yeah, my old flame happens to be a mutant turtle, but so what? I happen to love him, and he treats me very nice, unlike Will did.
Of course I have to go with the one I love to save his brother!

The conflict inside me goes on, and I can't ignore it.
What about Sheila? She's in this too! What will her life be like if her mommy has a turtle as a boyfriend?
What if she starts telling her little friends when she grows up about it and they think she's crazy and tease her and--
Suddenly, I understand why Will gave up on me and the baby, and then I want to strangle myself for even thinking that Sheila is a burden. I care about my daughter, and she's not a burden!
I'm ready for this, and I'm not going to run away from my responsibility, and not from Raph either.

Raph turns and flashes me an incredibly cute smirk, giving me the feeling that he's been reading my mind.
I'm not going to give in to Will if I ever meet him again, I promise you that, Raph.
He strokes Sheila's little chin, and then returns his attention to the road again.

New York, 00:14  am, July 3rd, 1999

Jade

Leo and I've been looking for a way to get out for quite a while now, and we're almost giving up. At least I know I am.
Getting trapped in a dungeon with a giant turtle...This is almost unreal.

But Leo seems nice, though, and we've been talking a lot. Not much else to do in here, anyway.
He's almost like me in a way...metaphorically speaking. He's a worrier...or to put it simply; A big brother.

Sometimes I wish I could just be like my little sister, Cindy-- more careless. Maybe she's got a little more responsibility now than before, because she has a son, but I still think she's mostly the same. She doesn't even need to work, with all the bucks Jared's hauling in...

The guards come every five or three hours to check on us. They even beat Leo up a couple of times, asking for his brother Raph's phone number, and they wanted to know where he was. It was pretty horrible to see Leo lying there with a bloody beak, but decisive eyes, and refusing to tell them anything.

Then they usually kicked him around a little, and then they left.
When I got shocked over his calm reaction, he told me that this wasn't the first time anyone tortured him.
I've tried to wipe away the blood and I've looked at his bruises, but there's not so much I can do here. My leg's getting better, though, and now I can almost walk normally again. After all, it was only slightly damaged, not broken.

I look up as I hear the bars being pushed aside with a loud creak, and the guards come in.
They're probably going to torture Leo again. I wish we could get out of here...

"Hey, freak, have any info for us today, then? Have you changed your mind?"

Leo just looks at him long and hard and his mouth is as tight as a line.

"Maybe you'll talk...if we torture your little friend here?"

Shit, are they going to beat me up?

"You're not touching her," Leo suddenly says, in the calmest voice I've ever heard.

"Oh, we're not, you say? Then you better start talking!"

Leo shuts his mouth again.

Suddenly, the tallest of the guards reaches out a hand and gives me the hardest slap I've ever received, right in my face.
It sounds like a big steak getting slammed on a counter.

Leo gets up and jumps on him, but I'm already on top of the guard, punching him as hard as I can, locking him under my weight. My leg is better, I can feel that it is, or I could've never got the better of that guard. I don't think they realized that I do martial arts.

Leo sees that I can handle myself, so he tries to overpower the other guards. Luckily, there were only four of them to start with, so he doesn't have much trouble.
They have weapons, but he manages to snatch them somehow. God, he's really good...

We should've done this before, but we never got the chance. I could've never defended myself with that bad leg, let alone run away, and they always sent in at least seven or eight guards. We couldn't have overpowered all of them, especially with Leo so bruised and all. I wonder why they only sent in four guards this time? They must be getting sloppy...

We strip the guards of their weapons, and I borrow one of their uniforms, including a hood that completely covers my face. Now I can trick them to believe I'm a guard...I hope.

Leo and I carefully walk down the dark halls, and hope we don't run into someone. Where is the way out of this crazy place?

Suddenly we hear footsteps behind us, and we turn.

"Where are you taking this...thing?"

God, this is just like Star Wars, when Han and Luke disguised themselves in Storm Trooper uniforms and pretended Chewie was their captive! I almost giggle, despite the severity of the situation.

"Um, I'm going to move him to another cell. The crazy beast tried to kill that girl we brought in with him," I say as casually I can manage, trying to make my voice sound deep.

Leo gets my plan and growls at the guard just to underline my point.

"OK, you have my permission," the guard replies with a look of disgust on his face as he eyes Leo carefully.

I almost sigh out loud in relief as we change to running speed as soon as the guard is out of sight. We run light-footed and without a sound, and I have the feeling that we'll soon be out of here. At the end of the hall, there's a big double door. I put my hand on the handle and quietly push it down, wondering what's on the other side.
Hopefully, freedom.

New York, 10:44 am, June 30th, 1999

Mike

It's only ten minutes later, but the kitchen allready looks like a mess. White powder all over the floor.
Of course, the sack of flour had to burst. Luckily, we'd already taken the flour we needed, so we can still make cupcakes.

I'll clean it up later...

I  reach get the cocoa down from the shelf, and accidently drop some into Brioni's hair.
"Oops," I mumble.

Brioni touches her head. "What was that?" she asks suspiciously.

"Uh, I just dropped some cocoa in your hair," I grin innocently.
She brings her hand down from her head again, and it's totally brown. She makes a grimace. "Now I'll have to wash my hair," she grumbles.

I shrug and reach for the sugar. I yelp as I drop it into the baking bowl. It makes a big splash as it hits the milk and flour in the bowl, and it squirts up at Brioni, leaving her covered in a thick, creamy porridge all over her, or should I say my T- shirt, and all over her arms, hair and face.

She just stands there, dumbfounded for a moment.
"I didn't do that on purpose, I swear! It just slipped!" I say appologetically, " Sorry, I'll make a new portion of cupcakes if you like," I offer.

She doesn't say anything, just reaches into the bowl, grabs a big blob of milk and flour and smears it slowly and roughly in my face.
"Hey...!" I protest.
Then she takes an egg and cracks it on my head. I can feel the egg yolk running down my neck, and it feels pretty slimy.

"Now we're even," she explains calmly.

"That's what you think," I grin mischieviously, take a handful of the ruined cupcake batter and start to approach her.

She squeaks with fright and backs away, running into the livingroom.

"No, oh no you don't," she says.

"Oh, yes I will," I reply and chase her around the coach. She stops for a minute, waits to see which way I'm going, and then she runs in the opposite direction.
I understand what she's up to, so I just jump over the coach, grab a hold of her T-shirt and stuff the batter down her back.

She almost screams in surprise, but after she's got the batter out of her T-shirt, she picks up a pillow and tries to hit me with it. I quickly duck, but she swings it again, and catches me on my way up.

I get a mouth full of feathers as the pillow explodes and I violently spit them out. "Yuck,"

Brioni claps her hand in front of her mouth. "Shit, I didn't mean to ruin your pillow,"

I just grin at her and hit her in the head with another pillow. She gasps, her hair almost jumps up, and it lands in a big mess on her head.
Brioni strokes the hair out of her face, and picks up another pillow. She starts running towards me, but I quickly turn to escape. I don't get too far, though, because I stumble over my old bean bag chair, and she follows on top of me, letting out a loud "Ooumph" as she trips over something and lands on my plastron.

I try to get up, but she stuffs my mouth full of feathers again. I try to protest, but all that come out are muffled sounds.

Suddenly she giggles when I start to spit out the feathers.

"You're kind of fun, Mike," she says.

I grin widely "I know!"

She gets up from me and walks back to the kitchen, wiping herself off with her hands.

"And modest, too, huh?"

I smile and look at the livingroom. Boy, what a mess...

Aww, I'll clean it up later...

I get up and go into the kitchen to make another portion of cupcakes. If there's enough flour left, that is...

New York, 01:30 am, July 3rd, 1999

Leo

Another prison, another escape. Let's just hope this is the right door.
Jade pushes the handle down, and the door slowly opens. We both hold our breaths as we wait to see what's on the other side. The New York air greets us with it's dusty aroma, and we don't think twice, just run out of the door and further down the street. My heart is pumping like crazy and I can really feel my bruises starting to ache.

Jade is still limping slightly, but almost unoticable, and we are keeping up pretty good speed.

After almost four days... or has it been longer? I've lost track of time in that place, but I figure it to be around four days.
God, I hate being held in those places. How must Jade feel about this? I've experienced it before, but I doubt she has.

We were indeed lucky to get out of there...too lucky. Something is going on... Oh, I'm just as paranoid as ever...but on the other hand-- why shouldn't I be?
It seems like I've always been chased...me and my brothers, by that damn Foot Clan. I thought they were going to kick off after we killed The Shredder. Guess not.

"Leo, where are we heading?" Jade asks, panting for air.

Where can we go? Where are we safe? Do they know where I live? They probably do... I can't take any chances...

"Jade," I say and stop, "could we go to your place?"

"M-my place? Well, I...what if they follow us?" she stammers.

"You're right," I frown, "but where can we go, then?"

"I think I know of a place," Jade says.

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