Brothers

Chapter 9

"Hey Leo" Mikey called from the kitchen. "What kind of food do we need to bring?"

Leo walked into the kitchen with Tomas following behind him.

"Just bring enough food to tide us over till we get to Central America when we get there we can forage for more. Oh, and try not to bring any perishables."

"Ok. Hey, Tomas do you want to help me?" Mikey had decided that he would like to get to know the boy whose family had helped Leo get better.

Tomas looked up startled. Yesterday Leo's brothers didn't really pay him any attention. "Um... sure what do I do?"

"It's simple. I'll just hand you some stuff and you can just put it in those boxes on the table." Mikey pointed to the two small boxes on the table.

"Ok," Tomas left Leo's side and moved to the table.

"Thanks Mikey, hey have you seen Raph?"

"Uh... I think I saw him with Donny earlier."

"Ok. Are you packed?"

"Yep and Donny has my bag. He already went through it, so don't worry. I won't be bringing any spiders to scare Raph with. Why do you guys always assume I'm going to do that?" Mikey pouted.

Leo held up his hands in surrender. "I didn't say anything."

"Yeah, well you were going to..." Mikey turned away from Leo, "so, Tomas, what's your favorite kind of food?"

"Um... burritos, I guess."

"Really? My favorite is pizza!"

"What's pizza?"

"What?" Mikey turned around in surprise. "You have never had pizza?" Tomas shook his head

"Well, don't you worry. Tonight before we go, I am going to teach you how to make the most scrumptious, most awesome pizza ever! We're talking from scratch; with all kinds of toppings, like pepperoni and four kinds of cheese, oh and you can't forget peppers and...."

Leo smiled as he tuned his brother out. He was glad that Mikey was talking to Tomas.

Leo turned and walked off. Tomas had been so stressed and for good reason, but now that Mikey was talking with him he might be able to lose some of that stress. Leo's smile fell as he thought of Miguel. He hoped he was alright. Leo could still vividly remember when he was frustrated at not being able to move from his injuries and had to lay down all the time. Miguel would come and practice reading to him and Leo would help him with the words he had trouble pronouncing. Leo blew out his breath as he came to the garage. Well at least they would hopefully be able to save Miguel soon.

Leo heard a thud and a muffled curse. His eyebrows raised and looked into the garage. Don was not known for cussing so... ahh, Raph of course.

"Hey, everything ok?" Don called poking his head out of the helicopter.

"Yeah... didn't realize I still had grease on my hand when I went to pick up the stupid box. Then it slipped and landed on my foot, but I'll be ok."

"Actually, I was more worried about what you dropped," Don teased, coming over and sifting through the box. "You can take a punch from Hun, my breakers, on the other had can't."

"Thanks for the concern, Braniac!" Raph said sarcastically. "I didn't break anything, did I?" Raph asked a little more worried.

Don smiled, "Nah! Its ok."

"So why do you need all this stuff?"

"For any new plant life or insects that I find."

"Uh... I'll help ya with the plants and all but I ain't helping you collect bugs!"

"That's ok, I figured as much."

"Uh Don!" Leo called as he came in, "you do know this is a rescue mission, right?"

"Oh, I know Leo, but once that is over... well, since we don't have anything pressing back here I thought we might as well stay for a few weeks." Don used his rarely ever used puppy dog faced on Leo and because he didn't use as much as Mikey, it was usually more potent on his big brothers.

Leo chuckled. "Alright Don, I get your point. When can we leave?"

"Well, I still have to pack up the food that Mikey has yet to bring out, but I have everything else on board including medical supplies and our packs; plus the camping supplies so we will be ready to leave once I get the food. How much is there going to be?"

"Not much, just enough to tide us over until we get there. Once there, we can eat of off the land."

"Great," Raph mumbled as he picked up a box and took it to the chopper, "health food, here we come!"

His brothers ignored him. "Ok, so I will be ready to go when you are ready."

"Alright, we will leave after sunset."

"I'll be ready."

Miles away a small form lay huddled up in a corner. Two shadowed figures stood above small boy.

"Why is this still around?"

"Boss says that if the Ghost of the Jungle finds out that we were experimenting on the boy, then the mutant would not agree to our plans as easily, so for now, we're holding him for ransom."

"Why is this mutant so important?"

"Because of its blood; the blood in the mutant was the first of its kind that has responded to alien d-c2578, so we want the mutant back."

"You mean the alien that looks like a dragon?"

"Yes, the one that looks like a dragon," the scientist responded sarcastically.

"Well, it's weird that it resembles dragons."

"It doesn't resemble dragons, it is a dragon!"

"What do you mean?"

"Eons ago dragons crashed here on earth. They were eventually all caught by Bishop, but not before they had been seen and were created into fairytales."

"So the dragons in fairytales were based on the alien d-c2578?"

"Well, where are the rest of them? We only have d-c 2578."

"They all died. d-c 2578 is the last one."

The two figures walked passed a door with a clipboard on it with the word d-c 2578 from inside they could hear loud growls coming from the room."