The lair is peaceful, far more serene than it's been in a while. The other teens have spread out to do their own activities, completely content with spending a day not fighting off evil for once. The dojo is alive with the sounds of training and other parts of the lair, like Donatello's lab, buzz with a calm energy.
Michelangelo lets out a loud groan as he rolls over on his bed. Ice Cream Kitty meows happily at him as they watch Crognard destroy spikes with only his pectorals.
"I can't believe I'm watching Crognard bend spikes with his chest," Michelangelo whines, "and I'm still so bored!"
"Mew?" Ice Cream Kitty meows.
"Ugh, my boredom is becoming a serious medical condition. I need help!"
The orange-masked turtle drags himself from his room, heading off to the dojo. When he gets inside, he's greeted by Leonardo, Destiny, and April practicing katas. Every now and then, Leonardo glances over at Destiny and nods, letting her know that she's doing well. She returns with a smile as she fixes her footing and twists on her heel like a ballerina. He does the same for April, correcting her posture with a gentle tap to her spine.
"Anyone wanna hang out?" Michelangelo asks.
"Hang out?" Leonardo echoes. "We're practicing our katas. Wanna jump in?"
In response, Michelangelo exhales heavily and stomps out of the dojo with his shoulders hunched over like a gorilla. Leonardo shrugs and looks back to the kunoichis in training.
"Poor guy must be bored," Destiny comments as Leonardo adjusts the way she's moving her arms.
April shrugs. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Maybe he can hang out with one of the other guys."
"Perhaps," Leonardo mumbles. "April, twist to the left, not the right. Destiny, arms straight."
April giggles. "Oops. Sorry." Destiny adjusts her arms.
----------
Michelangelo peers into Raphael's room. His brother's shell is turned to the door and a rhythmic squeaking is the only sound. Michelangelo mumbles out a "huh", making Raphael spin around, arms raised and his hands occupied by action figures.
"Mikey?!" he exclaims. He chucks Action-Kick Unicorn Man across the room and earns a terrified squeak from Michelangelo. "Get out! OUT!"
He clutches the Chris Bradford action figure to his plastron and turns away, cheeks flushed. Michelangelo wanders away, en route for the lab. Maybe Donatello will want to hang out.
Unfortunately, the intelligent turtle is far too occupied.
"I'm too busy to hang out, Mikey," he says, tapping away at his computer keys with hardly a glance. "I'm still looking for a retro-mutagen for Karai." His dark eyes narrow and he leans towards the screen, his words gaining the speed of his typing. "You see, if I can reverse engineer the main chemical sequence, I think I can ignite the kind of reaction needed to rewrite the deoxyribonucleic acid of—"
He doesn't even notice that his brother has already left the room, thoroughly uninterested.
Casey lets out a long sigh as he plays pinball in the living room, the machine beeping and dinging. Diaval leans against the machine with his regular blank-faced expression plastered across his features, his pupils darting to follow the pinball.
"Eh, high score," Casey says, monotone. "Again."
Diaval bobs his head once. "Yay."
Michelangelo tromps into the room. Casey perks up and turns away from pinball, waving at the orange-masked turtle. "Yo, Mikey! Wanna hang out?" he asks.
YOU ARE READING
Forest Mutation (Book Two)
Fanfiction"In Saskatchewan, when I couldn't fall asleep, I'd watch the moon and think about how across the country and over the border, you were probably out on a rooftop beneath the same moon. You were the first person I enjoyed the moon with. Every other ti...
