49Hi! Me again! Thanks for the reviews and the helpful comments- they are TRULY appreciated! Oh, TMNT, Master Splinter, Casey, April, the lair, the tunnels and sewers, and pretty much a good chunk MA are owned by Mirage Publishing- wish they owned ME...sigh...
"Well, let us get to work," Splinter says again, and he escorts the three brothers out of the room, while April and Casey prepare to make Leo more comfortable and start helping him recover.
"Man, what a lot of stuff to deal with!" Mikey complains two hours later. He is just getting the last of the training equipment stored- rather messily- into the small chamber, when Splinter shows up to see his work.
"Very well, my son," he approves, looking around- then he spies one item left out. He picks it up. "We must not forget this."
He opens the door-
Michelangelo digs him out of the avalanche of equipment.
"I know, I know- I'm getting right on it, Sensei," he says in response to the stern look of his Master.
"Then the entire amount buried Master Splinter!" Don tells Leo a little later. "It was great! He's still at it."
"Still, I should go help," Leo worries, trying to get up. "You know it's not really fair, Mikey's never had to put it all away before by himself- ow!"
The ow comes from the combined effects of his head, his back, and April pushing him back down.
"Try to get up again, Leo, and I will tie you to the bed," she warns him, then places a nice, cool compress on his aching head.
Mikey: Man, it took forever, but I finally got everything neatly stored away.
"Whew! At last! And now, for some downtime!" and he heads for the video games- and is intercepted by Master Splinter.
"Good, now you need to check the outer perimeter wards, my son," he says, handing him the map, "while I will inspect the inner perimeter ones. Since you've rarely gone with Leonardo to do this, I have marked the locations and order in which to travel in red on this map. It would be a great disaster to this entire family if you were to lose this somewhere in the tunnels, my son."
"Yes, Sensei," Mikey sighs.
Raph: Halfway through the "inspection", Mikey decided that nothing was wrong with the rest of them.
"After all, Leo is hardly gone when he checks them- I'm sure they are still working well, and I can't believe he checks them all."
After a pause:
"Knowing Leo, he does. I'll jump ahead and check every other one!"
Don: He did this, and made it home just in time for his favorite show- one of the many, that is.
"And I didn't lose the map!" he chuckles, handing it to Don since Master Splinter isn't back yet.
Don: Just as he'd settled down on the couch, remote in hand- The inner perimeter alarm went off.
Raph: Everyone came running- except Leo, who had to be physically restrained by Casey from getting out of the bed, in spite of his back.
"Come on, Casey! It's an emergency!"
"Gee, and there are only three Ninja Turtles and Master Splinter to handle it!"
"You know, Casey, sarcasm doesn't suit you."
Don has it up on screen at once.
"Outer perimeter didn't catch this!" he worries to Raph. "This signal is from the ward just near our main entrance! And Master Splinter isn't back yet."
"Let's get out there!" Raph says, but Mikey cut him off.
"Excuse me, bro, but I believe I'm in charge at the moment," he snootily reminds them.
"Well, 'leader', what should we do?" Raph sarcastically asks.
"Grab your weapons and let's get out there!"
"Count to ten, Raph," Don advises.
"Won't help- it'll just make me want to hit him all the harder."
Raph: We decided to follow Mikey- if he wanted to lead, we were going to let him lead. Naturally, we stood back and watched as Mikey was jumped by Master Splinter.
Don: Mikey did well, but not well enough- the scream was funny.
Mike: Aww, guys, come on! How was it fair? Didn't Master Splinter ever hear the one about the boy who cried "wolf"?
"So, you checked all the outer perimeters, my son?"
"Well- that is-"
"Donatello, give me the map. Go to this one," he points out. "I think the wiring has come lose. Raphael, I would appreciate a cup of green tea. Michelangelo, come with me. You still have a few more of Leonardo's chores to perform."
"It was pretty," Raph tells Leo later, as he lay on his stomach, a heat pack burning into his shell.
"Too bad for Mikey- it's really not fair-" Leo begins, starting to move, only to be shoved down again by Casey.
"Leo, you said the heat pack works for the pain. So stop squirming and let it work!"
Leo looks at Raph and sighs.
"April and Casey are killing me," he whispers. "You've got to save me!"
"Nothing doing, bro. You've only been in bed since after breakfast," Raph grins. "You're not ready to get up, and you know it."
"Man! I thought you were my brother," he frowns, and a few minutes later he is asleep in spite of his determination to stay awake.
Don: The rest of Mike's tenure as Leo's replacement went no worse than expected. By the time he finally was allowed to go to bed, he was wishing he'd never left that stupid car in the way.
"I wish I'd never even seen that thing," he mutters just before he falls asleep.
Raph: Meanwhile, Leo, noticing that Casey and April were gone, and that it appeared everyone was in bed, thought he saw his chance to make sure things were going well without him.
In the middle of the night Leo wakes up to find his prison guards all gone. He painfully gets up and slowly goes down to check on what Mikey had been supposed to do.
"First, the training equipment," he says to himself.
He starts to open the door, pauses as he remembers what happened to Master Splinter, stands back, and throws the door open, jumping out of the way- and making his back and head hurt.
He manages to look in the storage closet without being killed by anything falling out.
"Well- it certainly isn't neat, but it is organized. Now for the perimeter alarms," he says, making his way as stealthily as his back will allow him towards the his freedom.
Unfortunately for him, April is outside the door leading out of the Lair, preparing to come in with some late-night supplies.
"Sleepwalking, Leo?"
"Aww, come on, April! Aside from a headache I'm fine."
"Really? How many fingers am I holding up?" she replies, pointing in the direction of his room.
He sighs and painfully begins to make his way back to his room, mumbling about not being a baby- and hates the fact that halfway there he has a dizzy spell and nearly collapses, only to be caught by Casey, who's coming out of the kitchen with some coffee for himself as well as another heat pack ready for Leo, just in case he needs it.
"Whoops!" Casey says, nearly spilling the coffee as he keeps Leo from falling to the floor. "Sorry, April, my fault. I thought he was asleep."
"No problem," she replies, putting down the supplies to take the coffee and heat pack from him so he can-
"Carry me?" Leo's shout can be heard all over the lair. "I'm not a baby! I can walk!"
"Yeah, you can walk- slow, like a turtle," Casey smirks, and then laughs at his own joke. "That's why you nearly fell. Tell you what, I'll let you walk, but I'll be holding you up. But get out of bed again, and I will carry you- right into Master Splinter's room!"
"Okay," he sighs, feeling the pain even more as Casey allows him back on his feet. Judging from the weakness of his legs and the pain in his back, he realizes that he needs Casey's and April's help getting back to his room and back to bed.
But I'm definitely getting out of here tomorrow, he vows to himself. They can't watch me all the time! After all, I'm a ninja!