137(Just a short attempt. I am determined to make Leonardo pay for his actions, but he still needs just one or two more chances to dig his grave deeper. "Dan Wilder" and "Questbusters of the Underworld" are my creations. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the property of Nickelodeon and Viacom, and I am not.)
Stalking the Green-Eyed Monster
VII. Maneuvering
Sun Tzu says:
15. In war, practice dissimulation, and you will succeed.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
(Last time…)
"Man, that was a great show!" he could hear Raph cheering from the living room. A brief glance at the clock and he knew Sensei would be back soon.
Hurriedly he got a fresh piece of paper and began again.
"Still, I think that Sensei can't possibly discover that Leo disobeyed him," Little Devil Turtle said. "Too much interference this time, smell/wise."
"I hate to admit it, but I believe you are right," Little Angel Turtle said sadly. "Shame… he used to be the GOOD turtle… but it appears he's gotten away with it."
"Where is Leonardo?"
The voice of Splinter sounded throughout the lair, stern and demanding in its tone of immediate answer.
"Then again…."
It would be an exaggeration to say that Leo's mind nearly exploded with a million thoughts ranging from "He KNOWS" to "What did Mike do NOW?", but his brain certainly was working faster than Don's (it seemed to him, at least).
The chill that gripped his heart spread through his plastron as he managed to answer "Hai, imasu!" in a firm, non-shaky voice even as he was bounding out of his room, automatically grabbing the latest of Sensei's favorite books (and therefore one Leo had been struggling mightily to read because, you know, Future Leader!), and in those few seconds Leonardo's Fate was sealed; he'd crossed over to the Dark Side!
The studious young (Future) Leader, finger absently guiding his reading eyes along the middle section of page 134 of "Gone With the Wind" (the part where Scarlett and Rhett are married and lots of other boring stuff), entered the living room, a look of angelic innocence mixed with the regretful realization that he'd Shirked his Duty to Babysit his Brothers and was Prepared to Face the Music for What They Had Done THIS Time.
"Hai, Sensei?" he bowed, looking furtively around for any signs of flood, fire, famine (had Mike been in the kitchen again?), or pestilence but only finding two brothers on the couch and one on the floor, watching the news.
Oh, and one extremely stern-looking Rat, arms crossed, ears slightly flattened, face in a serious frown, and tail-tip twitching.
"…the host of the show, Dan Wilder, promises that the footage they managed to shoot will be the biggest find of the show's history," the reporter for Channel 6 news was reporting. "We reached out to the Director of Public Works for his comments on the claims by the cast and crew of "Quest Busters of the Underworld", but only received the following statement."
A graphic of the release was then shown on screen as the reporter provided the audio.
"Since the days of the legendary Teddy May, claims of giant rats and alligators living beneath the City have been a part of our cultural history, but we can definitely assure you, there is nothing down there but what one would normally find in a sewer."
Splinter made a motion, and Don turned off the set with the remote. His eyes, however, never left Leonardo.
Leonardo, face carefully showing what he assumed it should be showing, i.e., amazement at the news there'd been someone in the sewers with cameras, gazed back at his Sensei and Father.
"That section of the sewers is blocked off," Splinter stated.
"Hai, Sensei," Leo responded, not quite sure what to make of that comment.
"I have warned you repeatedly to never play in that area."
"And I haven't, Sensei!"
The tail-tip kept twitching, as the Rat's eyes burned into Leonardo's.
"And yet these surface dwellers seem to have managed to find this particular location."
Leo's body felt as if it wasn't his own. He had a strange sensation of actually watching this conversation rather than being a part of it.
"But, Sensei… they said nothing about what part of the sewer they were in, or that it was a large albino alligator."
"He's right, Sensei," Don chimed in. "We saw the bit just before you came in, and all that guy was raving about was legends and alligators and some book called 'The World Beneath the City' which sounds like a very interesting book. Do you have that one, Sensei? I'd like to read it."
The Rat continued to look at his eldest.
"And yet among the smells of humans I keep coming across the familiar smell of my sons," came the cold words Leonardo had feared—and yet, he still felt as if someone else were in control of his body and voice.
"But, Sensei, with all due respect, both Mike and I were in the sewers a few days ago, before you warned us to not go out again. So it would seem logical that you'd smell those scents."
The tail stopped in mid-twitch. Splinter's whiskers, however, began to take up the slack, as the Master struggled to control himself.
"And, I have to say, Sensei, I am ashamed to tell you, but before you came home I found Don and Raph outside of the lair, and I have no idea just how long they were out or how far they'd roamed-"
"The HELL?" Raph exploded off of the couch and right towards Leo. "WADDAYA MEAN, Don and Raph was outta the lair? YOU was the one we couldn't find! YOU was the one OUT of the LAIR!"
"Raphael!" Splinter snapped, but Raphael was not to be silenced, especially now that Donatello had his back in this fight.
"Leonardo says he was hiding, Sensei, but we know all the hiding places, and he certainly was NOT inside when we went out to look for him!"
Raph rolled his eyes.
"Way to go, Genius," he muttered, then turned his attention to his Sensei and Father. "Yeah, we did go out, but we didn't go OUT—as in into the sewers! Honest, Sensei, we never!"
"Yeah, Leo, and you KNOW we didn't!" Donatello added. "We spent our time on our assignments, and then we spent more pointless time looking for YOU because we needed you to settle something!"
Leo sadly shook his head as if he couldn't fathom the Depths of Deception his Brothers would descend into.
"I told you, I was practicing my hiding, and evidently I've mastered it, because you, Donatello, with your intelligence and you, Raphael, with your pissiness couldn't find me."
Now Splinter was in the midst of three arguing boys—and Mike was taking it all in, wondering if this would be a good time to grab a snack to enjoy while basking in the knowledge that HE wasn't the one in trouble.
"Enough!" Splinter commanded, and all three stopped in mid-shout (well, Raph and Don were in mid-shout; Leonardo, (future) Leader, was in mid-argument). "We will end this now. NO one is to venture out under any circumstances unless I have directly instructed otherwise!"
"Hai, Sensei," the three responded with bows, Leo's just a bit smugger than the others—indeed, to his mind it was the bow of one adult to another—and then Splinter sent everyone to bed.
"Sensei, can I have my notebook back?" Mike asked, but the Rat was not in the mood, and without waiting for what was sure to be the answer "No", Mike cheerfully bounced into the bedroom, followed more reluctantly by Leonardo, who could feel the glares of Raph and Don burning holes into his shell.
Splinter, shaking his head, sighed and then made one more visual inspection to make sure this part of the sewers was undetectable. The brief news item had him rattled, and though he was certain someone was lying to him, he still found a tiny bit of doubt nagging at his conscious. After all, though they all managed to bend the truth at times, Leonardo would never lie so boldly to him, of that he was sure!
And yet... and yet…
He secured the door, then went into the kitchen and made some much needed tea to consume before preparing for a restless night of worry.
Meanwhile, Leonardo prepared for bed in the chilly silence. He had not managed to copy the entire kata, and time was running out. He needed to replace it and soon, but with them all under lockdown until Sensei deemed the sewers safe again, it was going to be hard. Even Splinter would probably be staying home for the next few days, and eventually he would give Mike his notebook back. Leo had to (a) master that new kata and (b) replace the "borrowed" folder before anyone found out!
But how? When they were all so very little, this home seemed HUGE and spacious. One could run for miles from the kitchen to the bedroom and back again, and never bump into anyone unless it was on purpose.
But now, Leonardo was realizing that at the age of ten, they were all crowded into a very small place, one where privacy was severely restricted (even in the bathroom, as he knew from experience).
I have to work on finding a hiding place they never looked in before Sensei decides to question me again, he mentally noted, all the while making a show of buttoning up his pajama top, carefully arranging his pajama bottoms so that they fit snug but not too snug, and then nonchalantly putting away his writing tools.
Then he had to pull down the covers of his carefully-made bed, arranging the top sheet and the thin blanket into a near-perfect right angle, fluffing up his sadly worn pillow, and winding his little alarm clock…
Only the key was missing.
The KEY was MISSING!
Casually he glanced around the room, then checked under the beds, the corners, his desk, the closet, his bed, the floor, under the beds, the corners, his desk, the closet, his bed, the floor, under the beds—
"Will ya turn out the LIGHTS for crap's sake?" Raph bellowed, followed by a muffled "Sorry, Sensei" when Splinter reprimanded him for yelling (while, Raph wanted to point out, HE was yellin' at ME ta not YELL, for crap's sake).
"I can't find the key to wind my clock," Leo said, just a tiny tinge of worry to his voice.
"Big whoop, turn off the lights so's we can get some sleep 'cause I'm so gonna kick yer ass in trainin' tomorrow for lyin' to Splinter about me and Don!"
Leo was going to respond in true (Future) Leader fashion, but he found Donatello studying him from the top bunk like a bug trapped under his toy microscope. With as much dignity as he could summon, he switched off the lights, climbed carefully into bed, and tried to settle down.
At least he couldn't see Don staring at him, though he knew the brainy turtle was still in that obnoxious pose of "studying" him.
How can I get that folder back into Mike's notebook?
"Ya could set the kitchen on fire, and then while Sensei and the others are tryin' ta put it out, you could put it back then," Little Devil Turtle whispered into his left ear.
"NO FIRE!" Little Angel Turtle shouted into his right.
"Aw, gee, I was just kiddin'," laughed Little Devil Turtle. "And 'sides, he does need a way ta sneak into Splinter's room and replace that folder."
"It's bad enough that he told such LIES to his Sensei and Father! One shouldn't kid about setting fires!
Little Devil Turtle shrugged.
"Ya ask ME, he didn't actually LIE ta ANYONE."
Little Angel Turtle snorted in derisiveness.
"Naw, think about it—he DID say he an' Mike had been in the sewers, which was true. And he did say that he found Raph and Don outside the lair, which is also true…"
"What about accusing them of wandering? What about claiming he was HIDING?"
"Well, he just said he didn't KNOW how far they'd gone, and that's sorta true," Little Devil Turtle countered. "AND—he WAS hidin'—only not in the lair. So yeah, maybe he stretched it there a bit, but still, there it is: No lies!"
And with that, Leonardo, Master Ninja and Grown-up, fell asleep, secure in the knowledge that he was STILL the Good Turtle…
"Yeah, right," snorted Little Devil Turtle.
(TBC)