And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more,
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs,
That voices never share
No one dares,
Disturb the sound of silence.
--Simon and Garfunkel, "Sound of Silence"

To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; someone else may be especially good at studying and teaching, and this is his gift from the same Spirit.
He gives special faith to another, and to someone else the power to heal the sick.
He gives power for doing miracles to some, and to others power to prophesy and preach. He gives someone else the power to know whether evil spirits are speaking through those who claim to be giving God's messages-or whether it is really the Spirit of God who is speaking. Still another person is able to speak in languages he never learned; and others, who do not know the language either, are given power to understand what he is saying.
--1 Corinthians 12:8-10

Sometimes I give myself the creeps.
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me.
It all keeps adding up,
I think I'm cracking up...
--Green Day, "Basketcase"

For months now, almost since Luna's Fanfic Land was created, I have claimed to be working on a "psi story," which I hinted involved Leonardo, Raphael, and elements of parapsychology. Notice my use of the word "claimed." In truth, I wrote the first chapter and a half and left it alone. Whenever I sat down to write the story, it just didn't feel right. I had a common writer's problem: I knew where I wanted to go, but I wasn't sure how to get there.

Recently I was discussing fanfiction with Joanna Capello. We were talking about my psi story and about her "Cold Fire." If you've read ZEROHOUR you've had a hint of the Raphael-Leonardo connection. And you also know that Donatello has a gift for predicting the future through dreams. But Joanna mentioned to me that it seemed to her that Mike (her fave turtle) was getting the short end of the psychic stick in my stories. I agreed that I hadn't focused on Mike as much as I could have. And then, in a fit of inspiration, I suggested an ability for Mike.

Later, I thought about my already-planned psi story, which I had been planning to put online very soon. And I had the idea to do a story to explain Don's precognition. And another story for Mike. Trilogies are always so much cooler than just one book. And if it was a trilogy, I could give it a snappy name, like "Awakening." In another fit of inspiration, I sat down and wrote the first three chapters of the Donatello story.

Then I was hideously embarassed because I had written more in a single day on this story than in a year on the original story. I decided to shuffle chronology so that the Donatello story came first. And I decided it would be better to wait on the Mike story.

So anyway, here's what I've got. You may think I've given away the whole plot by telling you about the parapsychology factor. But you're wrong. The parapsychology stuff is obvious, but later on there'll be some very...interesting plot developments. Ones that I hope you won't begin to expect.

Oh, and one final note! You'll remember that I have a contest going to find names for the psi story and its chapters. This contest is still going on, and will go on until I finish the story, since I'm not sure how many chapters I'll have. I would like to thank Joanna Capello for the overall title "MindWalkers"! The contest only applies to "MindWalkers"; "Prophesy" has no chapter titles. And the Michaelangelo story isn't even in the works yet.

Enjoy!

*Thanks to Joanna Capello for the title of MindWalkers.*

The Awakening Trilogy is copyright 1999 to Luna Azul.