I believe I’ll be restarting Hatched completely and probably will be doing so with sporadic updates. I don’t like putting my other Future Saga stories on a schedule like I do everything else. I have been writing and planning the series so long I feel more limited by the update schedule than I feel in control with it. This decision will not be influencing the schedule for this story, I promise. I hope you all don’t mind all the different stories at the same time. I’m feeling really inspired lately for some reason.

Once again I would like to thank everyone reviewing. That means a whole lot to me and I would especially like to thank my beta, Effar, for putting up with my looniness. It means a lot to hear from you all!

TMNT, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, Splinter, LeatherHead, and all the Feet People © Mirage Studios
The Future Saga, original characters, story © Turtlefreak121

A Future’s Prelude, A Future Saga Story
Chapter Four: Further Frustration

Leonardo groaned in aggravation with the childish bickering kept up between Raph and Mike.

The two brothers had been at each other’s throats for nearly every moment since they had entered April’s shop. True, the nit-picking between the two of them was absolutely nothing in comparison to some of the slug outs that he had had himself with Raph. It was enough, though that it was affecting how the two were working.

Leo grunted as he hoisted the mantle back against the wall and looked over his shoulder at the two.

“Mikey, I swear that if I hear that song one more time I’ll ram my Sai up your shell!” Raph snarled in warning as they finally managed to put the hulk of armor in the place April wanted. He put his hands on his belt and narrowed his eyes.

The other batted his eyes innocently and grinned. “Oh, but, Raphie!” he countered before grinning snidely. “We are Fifteen going on Siiiiiiiiiixteeeeeen!!!”

“AGH!” Raph roared before tackling him. “That’s IT!”

In utter irritation, the blue clad turtle rolled his eyes and glanced back to where April and Don were working on the electrical issues. Don was on the ladder and leaning dangerously forward on its very top as he toyed with a chandelier.

Leo’s brow furrowed and he neared the scene.

“Don, is that completely necessary?” he asked worriedly. “You’re going to get yourself killed if you aren’t careful!”

The other laughed somewhat at his brother’s concern and continued his work. “We have to get it down and unhooked tonight, Leo,” Don assured his brother without so much as looking down. “April sold this chandelier and the guy is coming by tomorrow to pick it up.”

“I could get Casey to take it down, though, Don,” April spoke up as she flipped off the last switch on the fuse box’s left compartment. “Leo’s right, you shouldn’t be standing on it like that.”

“You need a bigger ladder or something,” Leo added before crossing his arms. “At least scoot it up some.”

“FIFTEEEN GOIINNNNGG – OWWWWWWWWWWWWWEEEE – ON SIIIXTEEEEEEEN!!!”

Don let out another laugh before defiantly shaking his head at the suggestions. He pulled down two more wires through the chain link supporting the ceiling decoration. Leo could not help but think of how Don’s behavior had changed in the past few weeks.

Now not only was he lax on his projects but what little he did and could get around to he was being stubborn and dangerous with. Leo was for certain that his brother was engineering a hazardous combination of traits for himself.

“I can do it this way just fine, guys,” he responded before waving his free hand for them to leave him be. “Don’t be so worried about me, as long as April got the last switch I’ll be fine.”

“FIFTEEEN—“

“Mike, I swear!”

April’s expression hardened and Leo suddenly could not rid himself of a twisted feeling in his stomach, like a large knot had formed itself under his chest. Something bad was about to happen and he just knew it was coming. The only issue appeared to be when it would happen.

“Last switch?” she asked obliviously before looking at the fuse box. Leo looked with her, it was completely switched off on the left from what Leo could tell, too. “What do you mean, Don? I got them all like you told me to.”

“Don,” Leo looked up, “Maybe you should get down.”

He laughed some at the suggestion again as he pulled another wire through. “I have one left,” he told his overprotective brother before he worked with the last. “You remember, April, I had to redirect the electricity down here during the black out? I had to put it on the right fuse—“

The purple clad turtle yanked the cord and in a spectacular flash of green light Leonardo felt his heart stop completely for what felt like an eternity.

April screamed as the spark filtrated through the metal chains and caused each of the bulbs in the chandelier to burst from the electric thrust. Mike and Raph looked up under the influence of Mike’s loud shriek and moved toward the fallen brother.

Leo was completely surprised, too much so to completely react and move toward his unconscious brother at first. The feeling came, however, to his numbed limbs and the brother bolted toward the gathered crowd and joined their calls.

“Don! Don!” Leo exclaimed as he shoved himself between Mike and Raph to lay a hand on his brother.

After a stiff cough, the brainy turtle’s eyes fluttered and he began to dazedly look about the room. He was visibly confused and, perhaps, not completely in his own head let alone the present. He was alive, though – wonderfully, truly alive!

“Lift him up! Get him some air!” Leo ordered before moving Mike to the side, taking Don’s shoulders and lifting him to a more erect position. He growled under his breath. “Don, what were you thinking? You shouldn’t have been on that thing to begin with!”

“Give him some peace of mind, Leo!” Raph barked from the side, glaring at Leonardo sharply.

“I’m not talking to you, Raph,” Leo hissed.

“Guys,” Mike whined, “Not now.”

“He just got electrocuted!” Raph growled lowly. “He doesn’t need you on his shell about it before he even gets his senses together!” Leo gnashed his teeth, refusing to accept that his brother was right on this occasion. “Back. Off!”

“You want me to back off Don or you, Raph?” Leo sneered in reply.

“Boys,” April said sharply, doing her best to pull them out of the argument. Leo appreciated the effort, however, he found it ineffective for the current fight.

Raph opened his mouth, gladly prepared to counterattack his brother’s accusations when he and Leo both were interrupted by Don’s sudden movements. While the turtle had been showing signs of greater consciousness in the past few minutes, he had not moved much.

At that instant, though, Donatello shoved off of his brothers and April and glared forward, toward the armor Mike and Raph had just moved. He had a dangerous, primitive look in his eyes that seemed prepared to kill at any instant. His mannerisms were surreal, unlike anything the others had seen come from the gentle turtle before.

“Don?” Leo asked curiously before Don suddenly rose to his feet. “Don, sit down! You shouldn’t move so quick!”

“Donny, you’ll hurt yourself!” April added as they rose with him, unprepared to match his speed and unexpected actions.

The purple masked ninja suddenly bolted forward to the counter where his Bo was laid and looked toward the ancient armor with a foaming, savage furiosity that the others had seldom seen on anyone. He narrowed his eyes at it.

“GO TO HELL!” he roared before throwing the Bo forward with all his might, spinning him on his heel and taking him into a tumble.

Quickly, Leonardo and Raphael both reached their brother’s side before he hit the floor again, though nothing could be done to stop the armor’s eminent doom, breaking apart as the Bo tore through the rusted metal of the chest.

April yelped at the expensive artifact’s destruction.

Mike ran up to the panting Don as he hung between Leo and Raph. Leo watched as the frantic younger brother grabbed the sides of his brother’s face and forced him to look at him, bringing him back from whatever reality he had just entered.

“Donny!” Mike whined. “Are you alright? Please be okay! Listen to me, Donny! Please! Don’t freak out, what’s it called? Don’t have brain damage?”

At his words, Don blinked wildly before the possessed features left him completely, leaving the composure of the calm, tired turtle that they knew as their brother. He did not even seem like the same person who had just destroyed the armor.

He looked worriedly at Mike as Leo and Raph hoisted him back onto his feet. “Brain damage?” he repeated in confusion. “Why would I have that?”

The others stared at him blankly.

“You just owned that armor, Don-o!” Mike laughed nervously. “Don’t you remember it? You went all Medieval on its rear!”

Looking back and forth slowly, almost tiredly, Don did not seem to compute what he was being told, almost like he was in denial. He frowned some at the broken armor but did not seem regretful or even curious about it if he was unaware of his actions at the time.

“I did?” was all he managed to produce.

“Yeah,” Raph replied as he looked to Leo, silently agreeing to let their brother stand up on his own right. They did so, hands prepared to catch hi m again if he fell. “It was like someone had possessed you or something!”

Don simply blinked, exhausted.

“Don’t worry about it, Don,” April said soothingly before stepping up to her friend, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder to assure him. “It was probably just a reaction to that shock you just had. I really shouldn’t be all that surprised considering the voltage!”

Leo scowled at the reminder. The lighting! Leo was certain that all of this could be explained by Don’s refusal to heed Leo’s warnings over the safety precautions.

“I told you to be careful, Don,” he chided his brother as sternly as possible in his current condition. “You should have never been on that thing—“

“Give it a rest, Leo!” Raph roared in reply, sharply glaring at the blue clad brother. “You already gave that speech, let it rest!”

“He almost got himself killed!” Leo snapped in return.

“We get it, Don gets it! He made a little mistake! You gonna make him hear about it for the next ten years or something?”

Gritting his teeth, Leo was recalling why he had had such a short temper as of late. Raphael’s attitude stunk and while Leo’s was not much of a winner in its own right, he could not let Raph’s win.

“You’re going to back off my shell now, Raph,” Leo said warningly. “I’m sick of you questioning every last thing I do like I’m asking you to Kamikaze for the family!”

Raphael’s eyes narrowed and he snorted in reply, truly releasing what he was thinking. “Why are you always ordering us all around, Leo? Don’t you realize that we’re all the same as you? Don’t you get that you’re not the official leader?”

Blinking somewhat in surprise, Leo shook his head before scowling at his brother on his own. His eyes narrowed just as much. “Is this what all this is about, Raph? This again? What the shell do you want from me?”

“Stop it!” April suddenly interrupted with a sharp snap of her own. She glared back and forth between her adopted brothers with an irritated mix of aggravation and exhaustion with them. “Stop it right now! Don needs to go home and you two are bickering like little children! Really!”

“I agree,” Mike muttered as he moved between Leo and Don, pulling Don’s arm over his shoulder to guide the still dazed turtle out the door. “Stop acting like children, guys!”

Leo looked after Mike in absolute surprise over his input before looking to Raph who was almost as flabbergasted by the event as Leonardo was. It was one thing to have April get onto them, but Mike had about as much maturity in his entire body as either of them had in their thumbnail at any one moment. To be told of their childish antics by Mike was simply adding injury to insult.

“Besides,” Mike turned his head to peer at them over his shoulder, “You’re not going to ruin my sixteenth birthday with your stupid fighting!” he explained truthfully. “I won’t put up with it.

They glanced at each other and huffed, looking away in slight disgust with each other.

As Leo did so, he noticed the complete destruction of both the newly sold chandelier and the medieval armor and realized that they had actually ended up destroying more finances than they had saved when they came to help April. That was almost always the case, though.

He looked regrettably to April and frowned. “I’m so sorry about all this, April,” Leo apologized for all of his brothers. “We didn’t mean to make a mess of things…”

“It’s okay, Leo,” she sighed. “These things just happen… Especially with you guys, but they happen a bit to everyone.” She looked at him with genuine concern etched on her face. “Get Don home and make sure he’s okay for me, Leo,” she requested.

He nodded. “We will, don’t worry, April,” he assured her before looking back to where his brothers had been. “Come on, let’s get Don—“

He stopped and glanced about as he realized that his brothers had already left without him, without his orders. He narrowed his eyes, irritated once more, and shook his head. Looking to April, he frowned, wrinkling his beak slightly.

“Want me to help you clean up first?” he asked, doing his absolute best to keep his composure.

She shook her head. “No, I’ll call Casey to come over and help, Leo. Thanks.” She looked at him again with greater worry. “Just take care of Don for me.”

Leo nodded. “I will.”

…

A/N: Not much else to add, I’m afraid. I will be updating Hatched soon, though, I promise ;)

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