Michelangelo already missed pizza.
Hands of vivid, beautiful, yet perilous flame ambitiously stretched out higher and higher into the intricate art of the night sky. Its aura of heat trickled through Mikey's whole body in a comforting manner as he hovered his marshmallow stick over the campfire Hanzo had crafted. Sure, ancient Japan was pretty, but there was nothing to eat except for dry, dingy husked rice and flavourless cucumbers from Hanzo's dusty grey pockets.
"I see you brought your own food from New York City," the grey-clothed ninja divulged, sitting on the log beside him. Renet was on Mikey's other side, and the rest of the team were chatting investingly on the other wooden logs sprinkled around the pirouetting hooks of flame. As the ancient, white-haired boy twirled his own stick close, peeled down his mask for a split second and took a bite, his sparrow-like eyes pulsed with pleasure.
If somebody had never tasted these three things: pizza, marshmallow, or ice-cream, their life was a failed experiment. And Mikey chose that as his life quote. The orange and black ninja nudged Hanzo's shoulder- both of them were on good terms now after a few hours of walking together, and besides, Hanzo's cool dark outfit and white hair had some drip.
"When Renet takes us back home, you can come back with us, my dude," he pictured, a warm gallery of future possible images of his new friends all came down in a spiralling flock. "Hanzo, New York doesn't only have just marshmallows, it has pizza, ice-cream, chinese buns, sphaghetti, moss and slime, fried chicken, gyoza," he drank up the thoughts with exhilaration. "You and I can also watch late night movies with the bros, and we can stop crime together too! There's also road trips, stargazing, snagging food for us at buffets, fishing, sewer parties, skateboarding..." The possibilities were endless.
A pretty, female voice chimed on the left. "Unfortunately, you guys can't do that." Renet's tone was disappointed, but as Mikey faced her, her eyes were twinkling and her red lips curled into a stunning smile. That was exactly what he loved this girl- she was always happy even when it came to bad news. Besides, she and Hanzo said they were just good friends, which left Renet all to Mikey. "Hanzo is needed in the Hamato Clan. He's one of the best ninjas of the Sengoku period."
A lanky figure with a pony-tailed girl leaning against him was poised on the logs opposite of Mikey and his friends, and he was stroking her shouldering with gentle sympathy. "And besides," he added, his voice quiet, "we can't mess with time. I'm pretty sure everybody knows that to some degree."
Irritation pricked up Mikey's short, shell-free spine like brambles. Geez, why did everything have to be so complicated? Hanzo was a great friend, but small stuff like the duty of a ninja and messing with time always barricaded the way. Why couldn't the world just be simple?
At that, Mikey dared to take a risk at April, whose ginger hue of hair danced in a duet between the flashing flame's hands straight ahead. Even through the fire, he caught her freckled face still shadowed with discontent about the incident that literally happened decades ago. Bummer.
Just as soon as he acted on instinct, ready to walk over and apologise, Leo stalked into the clearing as if a storm cloud was thundering onto his head. The blue-masked ninja raked his gaze over the whole team, provoking waves of bewilderment and apprehension among them. "Why are we waiting here beside a campfire?" His demand sent an immense ripple through the fragile clearing and rolled out into the cavity of woods beyond, sounding with anxiety, frustration, and regret. "We're supposed to be saving Master Splinter! What if Savanti Romero's got him by now?"
Raphael vaporated out of the eerie shadows after apathetically leaning against a tree. His red hair, originally slicked effortlessly back, was now ruffled, and underneath, his green eyes were wild. "Yeah, Leo's right." He halted beside his slightly taller brother. "We can't sleep. Splinter's life is on our hands right now-"
Yes, Master Splinter did matter. A lot. If it weren't for Master Splinter, they'd all still be normal pet turtles who got fed disgusting leaves instead of pizza every day. Mikey cared. But it appeared that his legs were too tired to.
Shame on the legs.
"But I'm tired," Mikey reasoned, lifting his elbows behind his no-shell back to stretch- ah. That felt good Oh- and stretch the other way- yes, that hit the spot.
"There's no time to feel tired, Mikey." Leo was storming toward him now. Surprise clawed the blondie as he felt himself flinch backwards. Was his brother usually always this scary? Because-
"Our sensei means so much to us. And I thought you knew that." It all happened in a flash when all of a sudden Mikey's shoulders were being grasped while his brother was staring at him dead in the eye. And damn, he really looked like he could've used some jelly been anchovy pizza right then.
"Master Splinter raised us!' Leonardo's shouting was so deafening, so furious right then that the words charged and hit Mikey's face like a rocket, and he swore that he felt thundering spit right then. "He raised you! And now you say you're tired? When he's about to die? Some son you are, Michelangelo! I bet you'd choose pizza over sensei. Without him, you wouldn't have been able to even eat any-"
It took a few heartbeats when it dawned on them that Renet's voice was hitting through the raging air, calling Leo's name and heaving him away on his right arm, Hanzo clutching the other.
The burning pain tingling all over Mikey's shoulders were slowly leeching away while Leonardo was forced backward, stumbling on his white boots. Renet's urgent voice was still firing into their ears- indistinguishable through all of the scuffling, though when the clamour died away, her words shone radiant.
"We still have time!" That was what the angel had said- wait, wait? Time?
Silence.
Renet was standing there now, still, hauling in dense breaths on the side of a paralysed Leonardo. "We still have time," she repeated. It was just then that petals of faith showed themselves all of Mikey's head in a gorgeous flurry. "We still have it!" She raised her sceptre in her petite hand upward. "My time sceptre is more advanced than Savanti Romero's time gauntlet-"
"Time gauntlet?" Donnie echoed, a representative for probably the whole group's bemusement.
The assistant time master nodded vigorously. "Yes- it's a gauntlet that allows him to time travel, like my sceptre, but it'll at least take him about..."
"About what?"
"Six days..." she confirmed- wow, that girl was just a life saver. "six days, since the speed he travels with his gauntlet is slower than the speed we travel with my sceptre." After the shocked block of silence squashing the entire atmosphere flat, she grinned sheepishly. "Sorry... I forgot to tell you guys before."
Footsteps that battered the forest leaves, seeming to vibrate with pure hostility, rocketed up in volume as Raph halted in front of her, leaning forward with an accusing finger pointed forward. Mikey reflected with his brother's anger in an instant. He was so rude to Renet, and for what? She was helping them.
"You always forget to tell us before you screw something up," the redhead lashed out. Mikey bit back his automatic gasp as his brother's gruesome red gash streaking from his forehead to his eyebrow unveiled itself under the lonely blue light. "You are literally the worst time master of all time."
At the same time of Renet's surprised gasp. an unrelenting, thunderstruck ocean crashed over Mikey, whole, coursing with turbulence at Raph's insult. Mikey's mouth opened wide for the most offending, mean, and serious comeback of all time-
"She's still a time master in training." Hanzo stood up. His eyes narrowed over his black scarf-like mask. Tell him, Hanzo, you rule! "Being in training means that mistakes and forgetful actions are normal, training as a time master even less." As much as Mikey absolutely loved Hanzo for standing up for the beautiful navy-suited girl, he couldn't help but feel that the atmosphere had gotten worse. A hundred times worse. "When you were still a ninja in training," the ancient Japanese continued, "I doubt you were perfect, yes, Raphael?"
The two ninjas- Mikey noticed Hanzo was slightly taller than Raph- literally looked worse than Raph and Leo fighting. And that was not good. It was Mikey's duty to stick the two bros together as they were always meant to be, so he hurdled his arms over both their necks while an instinctive smile flew onto his face. "Come on, bros, why can't we all just be friends? You know, discuss our favourite things, laugh?"
Michelangelo had thought what he said had worked, as it always did. Until Raphael drove his arm to the side. The grumpy teenager's body turned around to strut away, yet his hateful orbs didn't move an inch of the poor ancient ninja. "Be friends with this guy? Good one, little brother."
That was when his eyes finally decided to budge, abandoning the brittle air of the argument. Hanzo only lowered himself down back to the log, as calm as a lake, not stifling a sigh or mutter or anything as Raphael leaned on his tree again on the other side of the camp.
Mikey leaned over. "Sorry.. so you aren't mad, or anything?" Living with Raph all his life, the smaller boy couldn't get used to somebody not giving two Hawaiian pizzas after bickering with the red beast. That somebody was the white-haired boy right next to him. "You just let it slide?"
Hanzo threw his white hair back- and gulped down his wooden water bottle which he had shared with the others alongside their arduous journey. Mikey just realised how much he didn't know about this guy, except for that he was a friend of Renet's and a member of the Hamato Clan, and how much phenomenal memories they would make in the exciting future. Even thinking about it made him euphoric.
"Sometimes," the Japanese replied placidly, "people don't always click the moment they meet." He then went on chugging down water again as if he was challenging himself to drink the whole hourglass-shaped bottle in one go. Actually, that would be a great challenge. As soon as Mikey poised his wooden bolt up for a full swig, his eyesight was bombarded by a perfectly-burnt, perfectly brown-pink marshmallow that was pierced through a perfectly straight stick.
Mikey lost control when he snatched it right to his own hands. It was... beautiful. Perfect. The god of pizza's creation.
Mikey swerved around to let out a big. hearty thanks but was suddenly faced to two upturned yet unusually round eyes. Leo. In his 'nice mode'. His eyes were suddenly a lot more blue. As blue as sapphires- gleaming as he spoke with a downcast tone: "Mikey, I'm sorry."
The blonde boy blinked.
"I... overreacted. I shouldn't have." Despite Leonardo's shrug, everything about him was apologetic. "And you're right. We are tried. Everyone's tired." His voice thankfully brightened. "We still have six days left. Looks like there's still hope."
Mikey gazed off into the distance, this time without his colourful imagination of cupcake-trees, pizza men, and talking geckos bursting into his mind. Because there was still hope for his one and only sensei. A myriad of memories, bright like dozens of lanterns, floated down to his faithful thoughts of his rat master- a memory where Mikey blocked his punch, eyes closed and ears taken with music as they practiced fighting without thinking. A memory where a pizza party took place and Splinter left him three whole boxes. A memory where they gazed out into the night sky as a family out on the tallest building of New York at exactly twelve PM.
"There is still hope," Mikey murmured, meeting Leo with brotherly affection in the eye. "But if you're really sorry, when we get back you have to always buy me two more pizza boxes every day-"
"Mikey!" But Leonardo's voice was soft as he turned away, stretching his arms. "Don't make me regret saying sorry." The loveable leader curled up on one of the sleeping mats Hanzo had brought in his pockets- seriously, how big were they? With a swift yet meaningful glance, the blue-eyed ninja announced, "good night, guys."
An offhand chorus of 'goodnight' flitted around the small camp. As though Leo's action were a command, one by one April, Donnie, Raph, Hanzo, and Renet trudged to their mats as if they were sleepwalking cats (which was a thing Mikey encountered in his dream last night.)
So still with April's grudge against Mikey and Raph, Raph's boulder between Hanzo and Renet, Donnie's hostility toward Raph and six more days left, they all tried to receive the best sleep they could.
Oh, and also, with the lonely, flickering fire cornered by the starving and snapping hands of ominous darkness, always seeming to hide something. Mikey shuddered while his back greeted the soft cloak of the brown mat. "What if there's Japanese monsters in this forest that slowly suck us up with their huge tongues while we're sleeping?" The orange-masked ninja pondered aloud, his eyes probably looking terrified but too heavy to open just then.
"Mikey..." Raph and Donnie scolded in unison, except that their voices were too small and sleepy now. The inevitable black hole of exhaustion slowly and steadily sucked Mikey in too, Renet's voice skimming into his ears halfway.
Her voice was mellow. "Good night," she whispered, both of the teenagers peering lazily at each other through the moonlit autumn leaves. "And don't let the bedbugs bite."
Or that's what he thought she'd said. Mikey was too tired- who cared if he had just thought if that was what she said? Renet was the most awesome person in his life and all, yet it would be so much easier when he let himself fall into the vast epiphany of sleep and dreams. And it felt brilliant.
***
Suddenly, Mikey's eyes twitched.
Dark blue sky. Black silhouettes of gnarly, towering trees. Whisks of birdsong gliding through the awakening forest. Only the slightest hints of purple tracing the bottom lines of the great atmosphere. Dawn, most likely.
It was just dawn.
Out of the blue, a bullet of anger struck through his chest and a multitude of thoughts burst in from nowhere to his groggy mind, mainly wondering what the hell woke him up from his awesome dream of dancing ice-cream cats, and why he wasn't waking up in his normal sewer room.
"Help... me..."
Mikey felt his eyes twitched again and suddenly his head shot up. What even was that?
"Help..."
The blondie picked himself up, seeming to torture all what strength was left inside him, stumbling over the weird and sudden sleeping bodies of Renet, Leo, Donnie, April and a weird white-haired guy.
"Help... me..."
It was closer now. Mikey could find the source of the sound, and happiness flurried within his chest as he picked his two brown-booted feet forward, curiously peering over a tree as thick as a sewer pipe against where the emitting voice was.
"Help... me..."
The whole world flashed with realisation.
It was Raph.
Pinned down by a man who was already dead.
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