Remember [Book 1]

30 - Leonardo

After a few days of relaxing in the lair, the girls have trained more with their weapons and understood them better. Naomi finally found her weapon, a bo staff like Donnie. But she's already had him working on it for some reason. They all understand how the weapon is an extension of the body. Mikito and I have been training together because of the similarities. Donnie and Naomi have been doing the same. Splinter comes in to help when he can through training April and the rest of the lair.

It was exciting to see each of the girls excel and learn at rapid rates. April was even visiting a little more so that her and the mutant girls were keeping at an even pace. But since Mikito and Naomi lived with us, we all knew it was a matter of time before they surpassed April.

Now, days later, I was watching Space Heroes as I usually did before or after training. The usual was going on through the lair, I knew. Donnie was in his lab, Mikey and Mikito were playing pinball, Raph was in his room banging on his drums, and Naomi was in her room listening to music. After a while I noticed Raph's random banging turned into a steady beat with whatever Naomi was listening to. Why did they need to have something to listen to constantly?

I watched my show foot the full episode then turned the TV off. It was finally dusk and it was about time that we went out to patrol. Stretching my arms above my head, the pinball machine abruptly stopped. Mikey must have saw me stand up. Hopefully he knew what that meant...

"Pizza time!" The younger brother cheered. That answered my question and it was a deep no.

"No, Mikey," I sighed. "It's time for patrol."

Mikito was suddenly in front of me. I still wasn't used to get having a katana on her back like me. The shoulder strap was something I'd have to get used to. "Can Naomi and I go? Please?" Her big different colored eyes pleaded to me. Oh, no... Mikey's been teaching her to beg! And in his style too.

"I-I," I started. Her big yellow and green eyes were honestly more difficult to say no to at this point. Grunting in agony, I agreed, "Yes, you can come... But only because there's not been too much activity lately."

"All right!" Mikito cheered. Her fist shot straight up in the air. She bolted out from in front of me and toward her room with Naomi.

I looked at Mikey with a disappointed frown. He was smiling after Mikito. When he saw me glaring, his smile turned into an innocent one. "What?"

"No more teaching her how to use puppy eyes," I told him.

He looked offended, "What? Pssh. I didn't teach her that."

Shaking my head, I watched as Naomi and Mikito left their room. I noticed that Naomi had changed since the training session from earlier. She now wore her black crop top with the green eye, the shorts instead of leggings, and a belt. The belt was at an angle. Either way, she liked good.

I realized I was smiling as she approached and quickly fixed it. It seemed like she didn't notice. Her arms crossed and she looked between us. She was waiting for orders.

"Mikey, go get Raph and Donnie. Tell then we're going on patrol," I told my brother.

Mikey saluted me and hopped toward the lab first. I looked toward the lab entrance as Donnie yelled at Mikey to not touch something. The nunchuck user skipped out of the dojo, past the three of us waiting, and to the rooms. Raph's drumming had stopped with Naomi's music and was halfway meeting Mikey at the door. Donnie came to join us as my other two brothers joined us.

"The girls are coming?" Raph asked as he approached. "Why?"

I sighed and frowned, "Mikito used the puppy eye trick..."

From the corner of my eye I saw Mikito and Naomi high three. Well, Naomi used her tail since her arms were crossed. Maybe it was Naomi who was teaching her? Who knew, though? It could have been both her and Mikey. That was horrific thought.

Raph rolled his eyes, "They better not get in the way."

"They won't," I told Raph. "We're only doing recon tonight with the low activity. We'll simply scout TCRI tonight. Hopefully they haven't used the portal for anything yet."

"Well, let's go find out then!" Mikey grinned. "Kraang are so much better than Dogpound and Fishface any day."

I rolled my eyes and gestured for the team to follow. They followed eagerly. Each of them in their own conversation. The only one not in the talkative group was Naomi and I. It confused me as to why a person, or rather mutant, could be so addicted to music but not say a word when not around it. Didn't she want to break the silence? Then again, she was confusing...

As we reached the surface, the chatter died down. They grew into ninjas. As soon as everyone made it up the fire escapes onto the roofs, we were off. Behind me I heard an occasional whoop and "yeah" but nothing really more than that.

It didn't take long for Naomi and Mikito to fall behind. Although training constantly, their stamina isn't what it should be. We slowed down for them but continued to trek toward TCRI.

When we reached the building, we were set on just observing it. The silence stayed like that for a while. I then lead everyone around the giant building. Hopefully something new turned up there. Nothing seemed to be going on. The only thing that happened was that Mikey found a ball and Naomi a new pair of leggings, these with holes in them.

We went back to our original watching point. I took a spy glass from Donnie and looked toward the top of the building where most, if not all, of the action usually was. So far nada. Mikey and Mikito bounced the ball Mikey found back and forth for a while. The rhythmic bounce off leather to hand had me distracted for a while.

I didn't hear anyone coming up.

"Well, noting happening at TCRI, guys..." I sighed. Closing the spy glass, I handed it to my brother. Donnie took it and stashed it away in his pocket. "Let's pack it in and go home."

"So who are these two mutants?" A very familiar voice asked. I froze. It was Karai's. She jumped down and looked at us. Her eyes were on Naomi and Mikito. The two girls were standing now, their attention on Karai. Even my brother's were attentive now. "When we're you going to tell me about them?"

"You mean she never knew about them?" Donnie asked.

"Of course not!" I answered. "Why should I?"

Nobody gave an answer. Karai and the two girl's eyes locked. I had a bad feeling about this. And it was mostly to do with Shredder.