N.Y.C Sewers: Tales of the Hidden

Chapter 1: Sound hunting

Michelangelo was resting his back against the headboard of the bed, dreamily staring at the pipes above him.

Ploc. Ploc. Ploc.

Small drops of water – or anything liquid enough to produce the sound – were falling and colliding with the edges of the hollow tubes. Creating an interesting rythm that had him quickly captivated.

He thought about his latest composition, « part of your seas ». He got hugely inspired by the Disney classic « the Little Mermaid » when playing it on his synthetiser. It was full of hope and memories of summer nights at April's farm, dozzing under the stars on the roof of the barn. Only thing missing back then was an actual sea, but the nearest lake more then made up for it, allowing for wonderful swimming sessions in and under the cool water.

Such wonderfull mental pictures, playing before his eyes while he listening carefully to the natural rythm of the sewer water. It didn't matter the color or smell of the so-called liquid ; only the sound counted.

He got up quickly and went looking for his recording device, meaning the external mic and the recorder connected to it, that Donatello had been nice enough to put together when they find it during a lucky scavenging trip – a small movie studio which had unfortunately caught fire. The mic had suffered a bit from the heat, but overall it still worked well enough for him to hunt and catch great sounds accross the sewers. Those made nice additions to his sound library for his tech-trance recordings.

The orange-masked turtle had landed himself a strange, yet exciting deal ; he would provide great music pieces under the nickname of « DJ Glasshell », be even paid for it by various nightclubs and organizers of festivals, and still be able to keep his identity a secret. Again, thanks to Donnie who provided for a fake and secured online payment account.

Useful, nice Donatello.

Michelangelo repressed a shiver when he thought about the caracteristic smirk his brother had given him, when the youngest thanked him.

« You owe me I guess », he said with a weird tone and a even more weird glance.

Nothing warm, nothing even mischievous. It was rather malicious, like in the old sense of the word, straight from an evil thought.

Everybody knew it, even Master Splinter, but no one ever talked about. It was the greatest taboo of all, and they already had quite a few.

Rumaging through his things, the young terrapin finally found what he was looking for. Checking for the battery, he smiled at the nearly full indicator and powered the device up. Then, grabbing his headset, he went back to his bed and, standing up on it, tried to put the mic as close as possible from the pipes.

Luckily, everything seemed pretty quiet in the lair. Leonardo was probably meditating with their father, while Raphael was reading in his room – or punching his worn out bag, Mickey couldn't tell for sure. He just knew that Raph wasn't lifting weights in the dojo, since it was being used for the meditation session. Anyway, the muscular turtle hadn't used it for quite a while, and again, everybody knew why.

The same reason he had to quit sleeping in his beloved hamac. Being deprived from those small pleasures had a serious impact on his mental well-being, and Leo had settled for a quest to find him one of those complex weight machines – the one allowing you to lift and work on your shoulders without having to lie down. However, those didn't come cheap and everyone was kinda saving for it, without saying it out loud of course. They just convinced themselves that it would benefit the whole family.