TMNT are owned by Mirage. I own the Turtle Tot figures, and they are sooooo cute!

Mikey-Power

"Mikey! Leave me alone!"

"Mikey! I tol' ya ta get outta here!"

"I'm trying to read, Mikey! Go bother Don!"

"Don't you dare! I'm busy working on my project, and you already broke it two times! Go play with Raph!"

"He ain't playin' with me! He's already lost half of my soldiers, and he's painted the best one pink! Leo can play with him!"

"No! I'm reading! Don!"

"NO!"

Mikey, sighing, quietly made his way out of the Lair, unnoticed by the quarreling brothers who kept tossing him around like a hot potato.

Briefly he wondered what a hot potato was- he'd heard the expression on the TV that Don had managed to get working- MAN! That thing was GREAT! Cartoons were so cool! And cartoon superheroes were even cooler! Superman! Spiderman! The Fantastic Four! Batman!

In fact, it was those cartoons that had gotten him into the position of a hot potato today. Nobody wanted to play "Super Mikey", and he just couldn't figure out why.

"It's stupid! I ain't being some tied up victim for you to rescue!"

"I don't want to be a villain, Mikey! I'm reading a book!"

"Superheroes aren't real, Mikey! And you don't have super powers- Watch out! You almost broke my invention!"

"The only super power you have is ta piss me off!"

"Language, Raph!"

"Stuff it, Leo! He pisses you off as well, ya know!"

Mikey stood outside the door to the Lair. It was dark as usual, lit only by a weak bulb just to the left and across the way. It gave enough light for the occasional worker who had to come this way, but fortunately it was faint enough that it didn't reveal the secret entrance to their home.

Not that the city workers came down this way that much anyway, but still, better safe than sorry.

It was chilly out here. It was dark and chilly and damp. The ever-present stream of water running just outside the door was lower than usual. Probably it hadn't been raining enough topside, Sensei had said.

"Stay out of it all the same," he had warned them. "The surface dwellers wash all sorts of toxins and garbage into the storm drains, and some of it may be in this water. Remember, my sons, it is not safe to play in this stream!"

They remembered- now.

The first time he told them how dangerous it was, they swore that they would stay out of it, on their words of honor they would stay out of the nasty water! You could trust them, Sensei!

Then, naturally, they had played in it the first chance they got. And they'd all gotten violently sick, throwing up until they couldn't stand; diarrhea so bad they couldn't make it to the potty sometimes. Mikey, indeed, worried that they were going to die. He wasn't the only one- they all thought that they were going to Turtle Heaven for disobeying their father, and they were all sorry they'd been naughty.

But Splinter, though worried himself, had been calm and reassuring and just a little bit of "I told you so" with them, and they'd slowly recovered, none the worse for wear.

Mike sat on the edge, careful not to let any of that water get on his feet, and sighed again.

Splinter was out foraging, and Mikey had offered to go along- but Sensei had kindly (and quickly) refused his help, citing the need to go topside, and that Mike was not ready for such a trip. Leo was in charge, as usual. Raph was playing with his soldiers, as usual, and Don was building something interesting and easily breakable, as usual.

And that had led to the realization that his brothers were not interested in Super Mikey.

Or rather, Mikey period.

"I wonder how many times I can sigh?" he said to himself, sighing again. No one wanted to play with him, nothing good was on TV, and there was nothing to do.

He shifted over onto his plastron, propped his head up on his arms, and stared into the water. Even in the dim light his reflection was easy to see. It stared up at him, shivery and puzzled.

"Why don't anyone want to play with me?" he asked the reflection. "I'm not so bad, am I?"

"Nope," the reflection answered back- Mikey smiled at the voice he'd made for the reflection, it sounded almost like a superhero voice, like on the cartoons. The reflection grinned as well. It liked the voice Mikey had made for it, too. "Nope! They just don't know about your secret identity. If they knew who you really really was, they'd be begging to play with you!"

"You think so?"

"Naturally! After all, you are the greatest superhero in the whole entire complete world!"

"Better than Batman? Better than Superman?"

The reflection nodded wisely.

"The greatest of the greatest! And if your brothers knew, they'd be on their knees saying 'play with me, Super Mikey!' 'No, don't play with him, play with me!'"

"Yeah!" Mikey agreed fiercely, letting his imagination take control. "Yeah! They would be like- Raph would be wanting me to bend steel with my bare hands, and telling me how he wished he could be as strong as me, and would I like to have all his toy soldiers for keeps!"

The reflection nodded in eager agreement. Mikey needed little encouragement.

"Yes! And Don would want me to repair all his gadgets 'cause he would be so excited by my Utility belt and my secret lab, and he would want to be my assistant 'cause I'm so much more smarter than him!"

The reflection grinned a huge grin at Mikey.

"And don't forget Leo," it reminded him again, in that superhero voice. "He would insist that you be in charge whenever Splinter went foraging. Of course, you would tell him to do it 'cause you'd be too busy helping Splinter forage topside, keeping him safe from the scary surface dwellers, and fighting crime, and bringing Raphie new toy soldiers and Don new gadget junk and Leo new books and-"

A soft sound faintly echoed up the tunnel, startling him out of his conversation with the reflection. He froze, silent and alert- and scared!

Had one of the workers come down here? And here he was, outside of the Lair, making noise!

Belatedly he remembered something else Sensei had said- as he had always said:

"Stay in the Lair while I am gone!"

Oh, no! They was gonna get caught 'cause of him!

He strained his eyes and ears, but the sound didn't repeat itself.

If I had super hearing and super seeing, I would know who was there, he desperately thought.

"Psst..." he heard the reflection whisper in his head. "Psst... hey, Super Mikey! You are a superhero! You can do this!"

"I'm not a superhero," he whispered back, trying to unfreeze his body so he could get inside the Lair. The soft faint sound had once again echoed up the tunnel, only it had sounded a bit louder- closer! "I'm not a superhero!"

"Oh... but you are a ninja..."

And the voice in his head fell silent.

A ninja.

Well not really- not yet- but still-

Mikey found himself moving slowly, silently, stealthily toward the direction of the sound, blending into the shadows, breathing so quietly that even he didn't seem to hear it. He had to find out if this thing was real, was a threat to his family. He couldn't let them get caught 'cause he had been dumb enough to go out of the Lair. He would save his family from this noise! He would make sure that whoever it was didn't find the door, didn't find the brothers who didn't want to play with him!

As these thoughts raced through his brain, he became bolder, and skillfully moved just a few feet further into the tunnel, completely surrounded by the dark. The light from the dim bulb could not reach this far.

Carefully he peered into the darkness, eyes adjusting to the lack of light, ears waiting for any stray sound, any bit of noise-

A shape was in the distance- dim, vague, and carrying something. As Mikey watched, debating how to distract this intruder, the dim shape seemed to stop, putting down the whatever it had, bending over to do something unseen, and then hefting up with a soft grunt the whatever back over its shoulder.

At the sound of that soft grunt, Mikey sighed and sagged with relief- it was Splinter.

Then he froze with fear: it was Splinter!

And he was out of the Lair!

Ninja training forgotten, he turned to run-

- tripped-

-SPLASH!-

GAGSPUTTERCOUGHCOUGHGAGCOUGHCOUGHCHOKEGASPCOUGHGAGCOUGHCOUGH

Strong hands pulled him up and out before he could stand on his own. He continued gasping and coughing up the water he'd accidentally managed to gulp in , all the while being quickly examined by Master Splinter for any injuries.

Standing there, shivering from the chilly water and the fear, he finally opened his stinging eyes to see his father sternly looking at him.

"Ummm... I can explain?" he said hopefully, trying a small grin. But Splinter, that stern look still on his face, merely shook his head, hefted up the huge bag of supplies he had dropped, and with a firm hand on Michelangelo's shoulder, escorted him into the Lair.

The three others looked up in expectation- and, seeing Mikey coming in with Sensei, tensed with surprise and sudden worry- especially Leo!

"Raphael, Donatello, put these supplies in the kitchen for me," Splinter calmly said, lowering the bag to the floor while keeping a hand on Michelangelo and guiding him to the bathroom. "Leonardo, follow me please."

Leo slowly trailed after Splinter, refusing to look at the faces of his brothers. He didn't see the combined looks of amusement at Leo's probably being in trouble and the worry that they might be sharing in that trouble as well- after all, they hadn't noticed Mikey leaving either.

In the bathroom, Splinter went about the task of filling the tub, watched by a nervous Leonardo and a still coughing Michelangelo. He didn't dare offer any explanation until Sensei spoke- but Sensei was ignoring him, as he picked up Michelangelo, placed him in the steaming tub, and began to scrub the apparently clean turtle with much soap, stopping at one point to hand his son a glass of something he'd mixed at the sink.

"Drink it all down, my son," he said, ignoring the look of disgust and the hacking sounds Michelangelo made as the foul, bitter-tasting stuff slid down his throat.

"What was that-" he couldn't finish. Suddenly the overwhelming desire to throw up was upon him, and he was vomiting before he registered the fact that Sensei was already holding a bucket in front of his mouth to collect the contents.

Leonardo's eyes grew large at this scene. What the heck had Mikey done?

"I am sorry, my son, to have to make you do that," Splinter comforted the now crying turtle, as he continued to bathe Michelangelo. "But I do not want you to be ill again, and you swallowed much of that sewer water. I am sorry, my son. Do not cry."

"Uh, Master Splinter?" Leo finally got up his nerve, but Splinter still paid him no attention.

"Why were you out of the Lair, Michelangelo?" he asked, as his son's tears finally slowed.

"No one wanted to play Super Mikey with me," he sniffled, being honest, but not wanting to get his brothers in trouble. "And I was bored and I just- well- I just went out."

"I am sure it was more then than, my son," Splinter replied in a firm tone. Mikey looked at Leo, then looked away.

"Nope, I just went out."

"No, Sensei," Leo said, sighing. "We was arguing over who should play with him. None of us wanted to play Super Mikey with him it's true- but we- well, we started arguing about it- I guess-"

Splinter, his eyes still on Michelangelo, nevertheless addressed himself to Leonardo.

"Yes, I guess as well. I depended upon you all to stay in the Lair. I depended upon you to keep an eye on your brothers. And I depend upon you all to look out for each other." He pulled the plug to drain the tub, and wrapped this youngest son in a towel, briskly drying him. Then, still avoiding looking at Leo, he wrapped another towel around Michelangelo and carried him into the bedroom, putting him to bed, well-covered.

"Your punishment, my son, is to stay in bed for the next few hours," he said, tucking the covers in tightly. "I am doing this because you disobeyed me about staying in the Lair, and I want to be sure that you do not become sick as you did the last time you were in that water. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sensei," Michelangelo replied. He hated to be grounded, but at the moment, bed seemed the best idea- his muscles ached from the enforced vomiting, and the warm bath had made him sleepy.

Maybe he would dream of his secret identity, he thought, smiling as he closed his eyes. Yeah- boy the guys were gonna be so jealous of his powers! He was better than Superman...

... yeah!

He was asleep in no time.

Splinter turned to Leonardo.

"Let us go into the other room and discuss yours and your brothers' punishments, my son."

Leo hung his head and sighed, following his father to the living room, wondering how many flips they'd be doing.

No flips for anyone.

Also: No television, no books, no gadgets, and no toy soldiers for now or the next three days.

Later that evening:

"I'll save you from the evil villain!" Super Mikey, voice deep, towel cape flapping behind him, came leaping over the couch and landed in front of his father, where Leo, a towel tied around his own neck as a cape, stood over Raph and Don. They were seated on the floor, tied up with some old socks Splinter kept on hand to warm the feet of turtle tots in winter. "Beware, Evil Villain! I am here to rescue your victims!"

"Say it!" urged Don in a whisper after a moment of silence. Raph, looking as if he'd been asked to take nasty medicine, sighed in resignation.

"Look! It's Super Mikey the greatest of the greatest heroes," he said quickly, trying to keep the tone of his voice sincere, since Sensei was sitting so close.

"Hurray!" Don tried to sound more enthusiastic while secretly wishing they'd been given a million flips each. "He is my hero!"

"Curse you, Super Mikey!" Leo sighed, and once again he was "flown" to jail to be locked away for a million years. For the third time since supper.

Then Super Mikey flew back and untied the victims, bowing to the applause of his Sensei.

"Well done," he approved. Michelangelo flew into the lap of his father, grinning from ear to ear. "You did very well. Your stories are very creative. Perhaps you will be a writer some day."

"Naw, I'm gonna be a Ninja," he laughed, as Splinter removed the towel from his neck. "But I do got another story about Super Mikey!"

"We will save it for tomorrow," Splinter smiled, eyeing the faces of his other three sons, who were desperately trying to keep the disappointment off of their features. "After all, we must have entertainment for the next three days as well. And, as I have managed to bring back enough supplies, I shall have plenty of time to enjoy all of your stories."

Leo, Don, and Raph sighed.

Mikey may not be a superhero, but he certainly had a superpower; the power to make them wish that Sensei had just spanked them all as their punishment.