The Shadow's Secret│TMNT

13 || A Family of Mutants

He was there before I could even open my mouth to call for him.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do," I snapped.

"I know, I'm sorry I–"

"What the hell happened last night? What did you do? And how did you get into my phone?"

He blew his breath out and spoke in a rush. "I hit a pressure point on your neck that knocked you out and I took you to the lair where Donnie scanned you and checked to see if you were working for the Foot and then he got me into your phone to leave you a message I'm really sorry but I–"

"Who's Donnie!?" I demanded. "What have you not been telling me?" Leo stepped forward but I quickly moved out of reach.

"Come with me," he said. "I'll show you."

"Show me what?" I asked warily.

"My home, my family, the truth, everything, come on."

His family? I squeaked in surprise when he scooped me up and jumped right off the building and into the alley below. I held back a yell and clung tightly to his neck. This guy is insane.

I barely felt a thing when we reached solid ground.

"Raiya?" I removed my face from it's hiding spot in his shoulder and looked up at him. I punched his chest.

"Ow." He frowned, even though we both knew he barely felt it.

"A warning would've been nice," I muttered. He lowered me back to the ground and kneeled down to haul a manhole cover from its place in the pavement, then he gestured for me to go down first. I sighed and began to climb down into the damp, underground tunnel. Leo followed and moved the manhole back into place before dropping down beside me. He glanced over at me, noting my look of disgust.

"It's not a far walk," he said reassuringly and began leading me through the maze. It was actually quite a long time before Leo stopped in front of a metal porthole kind of door. Leo clicked on his transmitter and spoke into it.

"He's still gone right?"

A moment later there was a reply. "Yep, it's all clear."

I frowned. "Who is that? Who were you talking about?"

"One of my brothers, I was just making sure our Sensei was still gone before bringing you inside, don't worry." He fiddled with something on the door that I couldn't see past his huge frame, then he pushed it open effortlessly. He jumped inside, allowing me to finally see past him.

I couldn't really make out much though since I had to squint my eyes from the sudden bright light from inside the open doorway. I jumped and Leo caught me, lowering me to the ground. I watched as he reached up and locked the metal door before taking note of where I was.

It was almost like a literal man cave if you didn't focus on the unpleasant smell.

We stood in a huge octagonal room that had a raised octagonal dais in the middle of a depression in the floor. Far above us, a fan turned slowly. Three of the eight walls had big arches in them and led to other rooms. The other five walls were solid, aside from a few big, circular ports like the one we just came in from and a small upper walkway that allowed access to more ports. A bunch of weapons including daggers, nunchucks, long metal or wooden staffs and swords like Leo's hung on the wall beside where we entered. Wires and pipes ran everywhere along the walls, along with an insane amount of graffiti. Music blared and voices boomed from somewhere in the underground fortress.

It abruptly shut off and a voice called Leo's name.

"Yeah?" He yelled back.

"Is the girl with you again?"

He looked over at me with a smile. "Yeah."

"Dead, alive or comatose?"

"Alive."

There was a short pause of silence.

"Holy shit," the same voice whispered. "Noway. She's awake this time...how do I look?"

"Like you live in the sewers," another snorted.

"Guys, guys, she can hear us," a third voice warned and for a moment they went quiet again.

"Hey beautiful!" The first one shouted. The others hurriedly shushed him, one hissing 'Mikey' at him angrily.

"How about you get over here and introduce yourselves," Leo called, grinning.

"Uh, I don't know if I can–" A short, light green turtle stumbled from the shadows of an archway. He had grey-blue eyes almost exactly like my own, wore an orange mask, orange and black basketball shorts with a grey hoodie tied around his waist and a thick gold chain looped around his neck. Backpack straps tied a weird-looking skateboard to his shell, a transmitter like Leo's and a pair of big orange sunglasses was also clipped on the straps. A scar sat just above his chin. A big, black tattoo identical to Leo's covered his entire left shoulder, and another of cursive writing ran down his forearm. Lengths of thin orange and grey rope encircled his arms in random patterns, as did tape across his hands and wrists.

"Raiya, right?" He asked nervously. I nodded, feeling like I was being introduced as Leo's girlfriend to the rest of his family.

He cracked this huge, infectious grin. "I'm Michelangelo, better known as Mikey. Sorry Leo kept you away from us for so long, girl."

"It was four days," he argued.

"Ninety-six hours is like ninety-six years, bro."

Two other turtles appeared behind him, slightly obscured by darkness. Both taller than Leonardo and Mikey, the skinnier one approached me first.

"Hi, I'm Donatello, but uh, just call me Donnie. I'm glad to see you're conscious this time." Leo sighed heavily from behind me and I smiled.

"So am I."

Donatello was the tallest of the brothers and was less muscular than the rest. I assumed from his gear that he was usually the brains of the operation. He wore boots and cargo pants held up by black suspender straps, which had a transmitter clipped to it and also aided in strapping down a large ensemble of gadgets and gear on the back of his shell. Big glasses with masking tape wrapped around the bridge sat on his nose, over a purple mask. He had yellow-green eyes and high tech goggles resting on top of his head, along with a headset that propped a small microphone next to his mouth. Purple strands of cloth laced across his fingers and up his left forearm, securing what looked like a large phone to his bicep. Unlike his two other brothers, he sported no tattoos or noticeable scars.

The other turtle, the huge one, remained silent and away from the group, partly concealed in a patch of darkness. Donnie caught me looking at him.

"Oh, don't mind Raphael, he's sort of antisocial."

"Well I was planning on introducing myself but it looks like you've taken care of that for me," Raphael grumbled from the darkness.

"No! Do not enrage the hulk!" Mikey yelled desperately. Donnie nodded towards him as if he seconded the warning, then glanced over at Leo who sighed and waved his hand dismissively, a silent conversation seeming to occur among the two. I looked between them in confusion.

"Am I missing something?"

Mikey nodded. "You get used to it. Come on, I'll show you around."

AN: Apologies if I missed describing any of the turtles' gear haha.

And I'm also really sorry if I alter the turtles' personalities, it's kinda hard to keep them similar to the movie since I only have the two movies to work off of and their cartoon personalities might accidentally get in the mix, so I'm sorry if I mix them up! Though they will change later on as part of their character development.

Please vote and comment or leave a smiley face or somethin 😊