Shadows

Shadows part 1

The trip to the junkyard had been both challenging and tedious but had also been well worth their efforts. Donatello and Raphael had nearly filled the moving van with items they could salvage for use in their new home, or repair well enough to be sold in April's shop.

With the extra cash they received from those sales, the small mutant family could purchase the things they could not scrounge. It was a big step up from their existence pre-April O'Neil.

Of course with Karai still on the warpath, despite being warned off by Leonardo, leaving the lair to go on any sort of supply run was more dangerous. Hence the reason for trying to pack something into every spare inch of the van.

Leo and Michelangelo were waiting for them when Don and Raph pulled into the service bay of their newly acquired reservoir pump station home. The bay was not as convenient to reach as the garage at their Y'Lyntian lair had been, but it was definitely more secluded and more spacious.

When they had decided to begin their new salvage enterprise, Don had been able to block off some of that extra space into a large storage room, which their father had greatly appreciated. Before that, the junk they collected tended to spill over into the living area of the lair, leaving it much too cluttered.

As Don set the parking brake and shut off the engine, Raph leaped out of the van and ran around to open the back.

"Wow!" Mikey followed that utterance with a whistle as he surveyed the van's contents. "You guys made a haul."

"We hit two different junkyards," Raph said. "The Professor sends his greetings."

"Are the Foot staying away from him?" Leo asked.

"He hasn't seen a patrol in two weeks," Don said as he joined them. He passed a small bundle of comics over to Mikey. "The Professor said these are to help you get your collection started again."

"Sweet!" Mikey exclaimed, pulling the twine off of the stack of comic books.

Leo reached over and set his hand on top of the comics. "Work first, comics second. We need to unload the van and get this stuff sorted out."

"Okay," Mikey said agreeably and set his comics to the side. "Find anything good?"

"A few things actually," Don said. "There's a lot of stuff here I can use for parts. I even found a shredder that April could use in her office."

"Dude, don't even say that word," Mikey said.

"What word?" Don asked.

"Shredder," Mikey replied with a wink.

"Get to work chucklehead," Raph said as he began hauling things out of the back of the van.

A couple of hours later the van was unloaded and the items they'd collected were sorted out. Some went into the storage area, some things were moved to Don's work area, and a few items were taken into the lair.

One such item was a large rectangular mirror in perfect condition. The mirror's frame was made of wood, etched in an elaborate pattern and covered in what looked like gold sheeting. The top sported an array of flourishes surrounding a cherubic face crested by a stylized fleur-de-lis.

There were no nicks or scratches on any surface of the mirror or its frame, nor was there any discoloration. Other than some dust, it looked as though it could have come directly from the showroom floor.