Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Next Generation

Chapter 12

*Athena's POV*

I knew something was wrong as soon as I woke up at 9 in the morning instead of the crack of dawn like we usually do. I usually wake up when I hear Val (attempt and mostly fail to quietly) walk through the hallway. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my katana and sprinted into the dojo. As I feared, no one was there, not even Valerie. This was freaky.

I stopped for a minute. I took a deep breath. Relax, I told myself. We all had a big night last night, I wouldn't blame anyone if they overslept. I'll just go wake them up now. I walked over to Val's room first. I knocked. Nothing. I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, Val, I know you'd never sleep in this late. You can't fool me. I'm coming in!" I called. I opened the door. I gasped. Valerie's bed was unmade, her T-phone still on the bedside table. And her staff wasn't leaning against the wall by her bed where she usually keeps it.

Just to be sure, I checked all the other rooms first. Kitchen? No. Family room? Negatory. Dojo? Not even close.

"Okay," I said to myself, "time to panic."

I started to run down the hallway again when I ran smack into Val's dad.

"Donnie!" I yelped in surprise.

He looked at me. "What are you doing sprinting down the hallway at 9 in the morning? Where are the others?"

I bit my lip, then sighed. There was only one logical thing to do.

"Valerie's missing!" I yelled, and then turned and sprinted away as fast as I could.

I turned a corner and jumped into my room. I slammed my door shut and plugged my ears. Even with all these precautions, Donnie still sounded like a bomb going off.

"WHAT?!?!?!?" He shrieked in panic.

 I heard doors sliding open, and footsteps running down the hallway.

"Donnie, what's wrong?" I heard Raph demand. Man, even when Raph's trying to act concerned his tone of voice still sounds like he's going to strangle someone.

"At-At-Athena...." I heard Donnie stammer, and then a flopping sound told me he probably fainted.

I heard footsteps approaching my door, and I opened it. Raph, Mikey, and Leo were all staring at me.

"What happened?" They asked in unison.

I sighed and adjusted my glasses. "You guys might want to sit down."

*Taylor's POV*

Being a cat, I'm a very light sleeper, so it's no surprise that I woke up with a start to Donnie's screams of terror. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my sai. (You've probably noticed that it's a habit of ours to make our weapons the first thing we grab when we get out of bed, so don't ever try to sneak up on us while we're sleeping. You've been warned.) I started to run down the hall, but stopped to drag Tawny out of bed. Honestly, that girl will sleep through anything!!!

*Tawny's POV*

In my defense, I had my headphones in, so excuse me if I can't hear someone's shriek of panic when I'm blasting the 2013 Rap on loop!

*Taylor's POV*

Anyway, once I had Tawny up, we both ran down the hall and almost tripped over Donnie laying passed out on the floor. I looked at Tawny.

"If someone's passed out, then it must be really bad." I said. "Come on."

"Uh, shouldn't we wake up Donnie?" Tawny asked.

I sighed. "Yeah, we probably should."

I knelt down beside Donnie and looked him over.

"I've seen Raph do this a bunch of times." I said. I reached out and slapped Donnie as hard as I could.

Nothing happened. Tawny looked at me.

"What did you do THAT for??" She asked me.

I shrugged. "It usually works. He must be in real shock. Here, we can carry him."

Unfortunately, Donnie was heavier than I thought, so it was more of a drag. We dragged him down the hallway and into Athena's room.

"A little help here?" I said to the guys, who were sitting on the floor. They got up and helped us set Donnie down on the bed.

"So what happened?" I demanded.

"Yeah! I mean seriously, Taylor hears Donnie shriek in terror, then drags me out of bed, and then we have to drag Donnie down the hallway??" Tawny said. "This morning is freaky even for us."

Athena sighed. "You know, you really should've come in about two minutes ago. Now I have to explain again!"

I crossed my arms. "Well, Athena, unless I suddenly gain some sort of new mutant mind-reading power, you better start explaining."

Athena ran her hand through her hair and adjusted her glasses. "Well, I woke up at around 9 this morning, which was suspicious all on its own. I checked the dojo and nobody was in there. Then when I went into Val's room her bed was messed up and her staff was gone. I sort of ran into Donnie in the hallway and told him that Val was missing, and, well-" she gestured to Donnie passed out on her bed.

"Well, we don't know if we really have a reason to panic." Leo said calmly; trust him to be the reasonable one. "Val is probably up on the surface somewhere, and she's more than capable of taking care of herself."

"But Val's never gone up to the surface alone before." Raph argued. "And we know that there's a crazy pink-haired chick after all of us, who has the entire Foot Clan at her disposal."

"But you know if we freak out and start a search party she's probably gonna just stroll in later and be all annoyed with us." Mikey added.

"I guess that is a possibility." Athena nodded. "But there's every chance she could be ambushed, and we wouldn't know about it because she left her T-phone here."

All of a sudden, Athena and the guys were talking over each other all at once. Tawny and I looked at each other. I rolled my eyes. I banged my fist on the wall. Everybody shut up and looked at me.

"Look, you guys all have good points, but Val is up there somewhere, and capable or not she has no way of contacting us if she does get in trouble." I said.

"We're her friends and family; what kind of people would we be if we knew she was missing and did nothing?" Tawny added.

Leo, Raph and Mikey looked at each other.

"Taylor and Tawny are right. We should be doing something instead of arguing about it." Leo said. He looked at me, Tawny, and Athena. "You three go look for Val; we'll stay here and keep an eye on Donnie when he comes to. We don't need him freaking out."

I grinned. "Great. We'll call when we find her." I replied. "Come on girls."

We ran out of the room, out of the lair and jumped to the surface.

*      *      *

So, I bet you're all dying for the next chapter so you can see what happens to Val!!! I hope I did a sufficient job of putting an agonizing chapter in between the cliff hanger and the relief chapter!! (my name for chapters that continue from cliff hangers) At least I didn't put like 3 or 4 chapters in between like some show makers I know... *glare at Nickelodeon*

Chapter 13 coming soon!

Don't forget to add, vote, comment!

~PT86 :D