Trans-Dimensional Encounter (a Cold Fire Rising story)

Chapter 2

Summary: Mikey's dreams are getting worse and it's having a negative affect on him. And a futuristic flashlight makes a reappearance.

The last six days have been... strange, well stranger than usual for the mutant family. While each of them have been going about their own usual routine as well as doing their best to help the youngest ninja deal with his nightmares, there have been some strange incidences that have yet to be explained.

Not long after Mikey had that horrible nightmare of Donnie being 'vaporized' by April (which led to the orange clad turtle sticking close, but not too close, to the genius turtle) he began to complain about having headaches. Really bad throbbing headaches. Donatello had theorized that it was most likely due to the lack of sleep from the nightmares and gave his baby brother some headache medication. Which did help some but for some reason the headaches didn't go away, no matter what Mikey took for the headaches they still came and, like his nightmares, they got worse.

The first occurrence was during family movie night. After debating on what type of movie to watch for movie night, they all agreed to watch Transformers: The Last Knight. About half way through the movie, Mikey started getting a headache. He thought it was due to the loud explosions from the movie but he didn't want to ruin the evening for his family, so he kept it to himself. He leaned against the armrest of the couch then a few minutes later he passed out. He was jostled awake when Klunk's claws accidentally scratched the back of the neck when she stretched herself out. He was able to watch the last 20 minutes of the movie without his family suspecting anything.

At least he hoped they didn't.

The second time was during practice. After taking some ibuprofen Mikey joined his family for training, just like before he was allowed to participate in the warm up stretches and katas then afterwards he would meditate while his brothers trained. Mikey fell into meditation quite easily but soon afterwards there was nothing but blackness. When he 'woke up' he found himself lying on his shell in the dojo with his head in his father's lap, his family peering down at him worriedly.

When Splinter asked what happened, he said he didn't know. He sat down to meditate like he'd always done the past few weeks, nothing out of the ordinary happened and then nothing.

After checking him over Donnie had theorized that it was due to exhaustion and possibly slight dehydration. Then he and Leo helped Mikey over to the living room couch while Raph handed him a Gatorade to drink.

The third time happened a few days ago when the mutant family were in the kitchen having breakfast. Mikey came staggering into the kitchen like a zombie and he looked like hell. He didn't have his pads or belt on, his orange mask hung loosely around his neck, revealing dark circles under his eyes, and his bright blue eyes were now dull and bloodshot.

Everyone was shocked by how horrible the young ninja looked. Raph even made the jibe that he looked like Donnie before he's had his coffee, which earned him a glare from Splinter and Donnie and a backhand slap on the arm from Leo.

Splinter approached his youngest son asking if he was alright even though he could clearly see that he wasn't. The orange clad turtle told his father that he didn't sleep so good last night and had a really bad throbbing headache. The old rat felt his son's forehead, finding it to be slightly warm but not feverish, then went to pour him some medicinal tea.

Mikey nodded then went to reach for the aspirin in the cupboard but when he did he began to sway a little bit before his vision turned blurry and then he lost consciousness.

Luckily Leo, who was the closest, caught the young turtle before he hit the ground. He quickly gathered his baby brother into his arms and rushed him towards Donnie's lab with his family close behind.