tushanshu | [TEXT] Leo to Team, COME IN TEAM

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[TEXT] Leo to Team, COME IN TEAM

[The cart ride into Keeliai is long, exhausting and stressful. Leo presses himself into the furthest corner to hide (which still leaves him painfully visible) even as his sharp blue eyes peer through the slats, taking in as much of the alien city as possible.

On one hand, this is the most amazing thing Leo's ever experienced, an exhilarating adventure straight out of Space Heroes. On the other, he's never felt so alone, out of control and exposed in his life. Sure, he always wanted adventure, but not without the guys - and not hauled down a city road in broad daylight, surrounded by people turning their heads in curiosity.

At least the few kedan on the street who take a close enough look into the open-backed cart to spy him out don't scream or run. But there are some stares, and he can feel the undercurrent of hostility like a flame inches from his skin. There's a tension in the air in some parts of the city they go through, a hard look to some of the kedan when they see someone not like them...

Leo slips into his appointed building like - well, like a ninja, or as close as possible while lacking the cover of darkness. When he gets to his temporary quarters he leans his shell against the door and sighs wearily; alien robots and plant monsters are one thing, but this? This is an entirely new level of crazy.

Water had seemed a natural choice when the kedan gave him options. He's glad of his choice now as he splashes some from the room's small fountain over his head, then winces as he does the same to the burn mark forming on his shoulder. It's not serious, but Leo's entire arm aches and tingles from channeling Justin's electrical shock through his katana. He's certainly pulled smarter moves.

Hopefully whatever jerked him "sideways" during that explosion also took his brothers through in slightly different places, and he can link up with them again once they all get their bearings. He knows the team can handle this situation, but first? They have to be together.

He'll start canvassing the city come dusk, one Sector at a time if he has to. But until nightfall, Leonardo has time to kill, and he isn’t about to sit around doing nothing.

Settling in at the console, Leo sets it up for a text message - and pauses, considering his options. This is a public network; he has to get a message out that his brothers will understand if they're listening, but that won't arouse too much civilian curiosity or alert any enemies.

There is one thing... He'd batted around an idea for a code word with Donnie. The problem being, it was never official - Leo just hadn't anticipated a realistic situation where it would be useful. The idea was just idle talk.

He hopes that if Mikey or Raph are alone out there, they'll recognize his reference. Donnie will catch on at least, if he's listening. One way or the other it's the best Leo's got until he can search the rooftops.]

ANy New Yorkers out here? if you know the 2nd Time About shop on Bleeker, contact me ASAP

[Ryan to Dauntless, come in Dauntless...]

Aalso. Look, I got the story from the kidan ans I know i can;t be the first person to ask. But Im looking for any leads on how t get back to my own world... stories, rumuors, anything. Thankyou.

[Please don't let him be alone out here. Leo presses Return.]

[ tl;dr Enter one cagey ninja turtle boy with delusions of being a Great Hero! Leo v.2012 is here and super worried about his bros ;A; ]

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OOF!

[Raph connects hard - and shell or no, when Leo gets kicked by one of his brothers he FEELS it. Those huge feet give the lot of them some truly impressive calf muscles. (Whereas, some human Foot ninja have practically bounced off his carapace. Suckers.)

Thanks to the angle of his brother's kick, Leo smacks his shoulder hard into the ground on his way to an ignominious landing. It would take more than this to injure him any further, but the impact does startle a bark of pain out of the blue-clad turtle and his katana hits the roof with a clatter before Leo skids to a halt on his plastron.

Even Leonardo's not pigheaded enough to try and scrabble for his weapon after that display and attempt to pretend he's got a shot at coming out on top. He's a significant cut below his best right now, and the sooner he admits that the less humiliating it'll be.

Also, that kick made him realize something. He's sore. Leo didn't notice earlier, riding high on adrenalin and new challenges and an overwhelming influx of new situations and information, but now...

Groaning under his breath, Leo holds his right shoulder as he sits up. The gaze that meets Raphael's is appropriately chagrined. Leo knows he earned that take-down.]

... Alright.

Maybe I am a little tired.

[Also bro you seriously caught him off-guard. He will be all over that strategy choice in half a second. Just give his pride a moment to pick itself up off the roof.]

Edited (grammar & repetitive vocab) 2013-04-30 05:40 (UTC)

[This test drive of what Iorveth's been teaching him has yielded decent results. Even if Leo's tired and apparently injured, Raph has never put his brother down even remotely that fast. Maybe there's some merit to what that dumb jerk is saying after all.

Raph grins when Leo looks at him all embarrassed; his victory makes him feel good enough that he even offers Leo a hand up. C'mon you sore, tired loser. The winner has energy to spare so he can help you to your weak little feet.

Heh.]

Yeah, I guess you should probably rest up, huh? Maybe you'll actually give me a challenge next time.

[That's very polite of you. Leo recovers with good humor and accepts the hand up. That's called losing gracefully, you know. Leo's pretty good at it - which has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the fact that he contends with Raphael beating him a good share of the time. Shhhhh.]

Oh, next time will be different all right.

[But he doesn't elaborate or boast further. There's something far more pressing on his mind than fluffing up a future spar.]

So, where did you get the idea to open with a move like that?

[Leo NEEDS to know what his brother has been doing that's given him such an edge. C'mon c'mon tell tell]

Oh sorry Leo, a master can't reveal his secrets. [Did you hear that? He's not sharing this new strategy with you.

...which is a first, now that he thinks about it. Then again, Raphael receiving instruction from someone other than Splinter is also a first, and he's feeling a little greedy. He likes having this upper hand over Leonardo. Makes him feel less like he's needed Leo here (which he has) and a little more independent.

Okay and also he likes to be better than Leo, so sue him.

He'll share eventually, he reasons. He just wants to make sure it's cool to bring a playmate to his and Iorveth's regular skirmishes, that's all.]

Master? Oh-ho, I don't think so.

[Leo objects in a mixture of brotherly ribbing and stiff pride - okay less stiff than usual, he just got his shell handed to him after all. But it's going to drive him nuts until he knows where Raphael picked up that kind of strategy, because that was a far cry from his brother's usual approach. It must have come from somewhere... a somewhere very interesting from which Leo might benefit.

See, Leo's skill and strategy are often what give him the edge on his tank of a brother when a spar results in the way he prefers. He has a handicap fighting Raphael; sai were designed to take down swords, and Raph's short range and heavyweight strength give him a huge advantage should he slip inside Leo's reach - which he's gotten quite good at doing. Fighting Raphael is a constant challenge and reward; Leo knows that in order to beat this brother, his kenjutsu must be top-notch.

So if Raph obtains a smart technique that gives him an edge - oh no, this simply cannot stand. That's Leo's gig.]

It'll be a different story when I haven't just fought a twenty-foot mutant octo-jellyfish... cobra... thing.

[Yeah that line wasn't quite as come-back-y as he wanted it to be when Justin defies categorization. It sounds far less impressive than it actually was. And as glad as Leo is that his brother doesn't recall the moment when Karai left them in the lurch - or that moment where Leo stepped between Raph and Karai, and not to defend his brother - he hadn't seen that really cool move, either.

Aw maaaan.]

Oh yeah, definitely; I'm sure you'll have a new excuse for when I kick your butt then, too. [Man Raph is really milking this victory. Someone better get all Splinter on his ass before he gets too full of himself.

Or maybe next time Leo should knock him down, that'll work.]

[Leo snorts. Raph is just being obnoxious (because hush Leo NEVER gets full of himself), and now? Now Leo's going to pull out the stops next time they spar. And even though will pretend that he's too mature to keep this argument going, there's a concrete determination in his eyes that says he WILL win their next round. You can bet on it. He's not going to boast, he's just going to Do. (THEN he'll preen.)

Also? He might just stalk you to find out if you're still Learning Stuff from Places, bro. Leo's on the trail now and he knows he can out-ninja his brother, provided he's not distracted by trying to keep the team in line. Leo mollifies his stung pride with the confidence that next time, it'll be different; he knows he's capable of it if he tries hard enough.]

Uh huh. [You could cut the sarcasm with a tanto.] We'll just see about that.

[IN THE MEANTIME.]

Where's Donnie, anyway? [Figures he would hole up and let Raph fetch Leo. But Leo wants Donnie's intel, and he wants to do it tonight. Enough playtime.]

[don't you dare stalk him you motherfucker

At the mention of Donnie, Raph scowls and folds his arms tightly over his plastron, which could mean any number of things.]

I dunno. [Which could mean either Raphael doesn't care, doesn't know, or doesn't care to know. Donatello always spends a lot of time apart from his brothers, holed up in his lab and working on God-knows-what. He'd poked his head in once or twice, but Donnie had been so absorbed in his work that they'd barely exchanged hellos. Raph doesn't go there much anymore, mostly just...creepily sits outside the window and peeks in to make sure Don's still alive and eating.] He's seriously obsessed with figuring this place out, Leo. Ever since I told him what that guy told me, about this being like a- a dreamworld.

[GONNA HAPPEN

Leo frowns. This dreamworld stuff was the line the kedan fed him. Why would Donnie buy the tale because someone else swallowed it? There must be more to this.

Of course, it's such a BAD story, you'd think if they were going to come up with something they'd make it a little more plausible. Maybe... maybe they're just telling the truth.

But if that's true Leo has no idea what to do with it. He'll want some serious confirmation before buying this dream-world stuff. Because as far as he can tell, it's a really good way to convince people to stop trying to get home.]

What guy.

["This old guy I met in prison" sounded so much cooler in his head. Raphael realizes this probably won't go over too well with Leo -especially if he finds out he was in prison because of his own failure to ninja properly- and decides to leave this out.]

This guy I met who said he's been here for a while. I don't believe him, but everybody's saying the same thing.

[Raphael, your life will be SO much easier if Leo never learns you were in prison. Don't ever mention it.]

Yeah, especially the people who seem to want us to "settle down" here. [And get jobs and stuff. Ew.

Leo's Thinky Leader Hat comes on. He can ask Donnie when they get there, of course, but Leo rarely passes up an opportunity to figure out the big picture when opportunity presents.]

Why would it make a difference when this "guy you met" said the same thing? Who is this guy?

[Why did his words carry enough weight for Donnie to feel this story warranted research? Leo has a LOT of respect for Donnie's intelligence, and if Leo's genius brother thinks there's something to this "you're in a dream" stuff then maybe Leonardo should take it a little more seriously.]

[Leo greatly overestimates Don's ability to determine what is and what isn't important enough to investigate. The guy analyzes sewage in his spare time.

Raph stares hard at Leo, then sighs and looks away, folding his arms. Fine, looks like he'd better spill. Not like Leo wasn't going to find out from Donnie anyway.]

A while ago, when Donnie first showed up, there was stuff going on with the turtle. It was injured and they had work crews and stuff all over the place, so me and Donnie went to take a look.

We uh, we got caught. And got a few days jailtime for our trouble. The guy I talked to was in there, for the same reason we were.

[Yes, but incredibly useful things result from Donnie's compulsive research. And this is on the track of How To Get Home; Leo at least wants to know why the smartest of the group got a bug up his shell about this particular theory.

But that's only before Leo's brother lays out a handful of words that leave him utterly scandalized. Jail? Ninjas do not get sent to jail. Are you kidding, Raphael got himself caught by the police - how could he possibly have gotten that careless?!

Leo had been joking when he'd teased Raph about going soft when he got here. Now he sees that his brother might not have gotten soft, but lazy? Careless? Leo will go with those.]

A "few days' JAILTIME?!"

[Yeah uh phrasing it casually really did not help at all in the slightest man]

How could you be so careless?!

It was Donnie's fault!

[actually it was both their faults but donnie accepted his blame so now he gets all of it

congrats don]

[SURE it was all Donnie's fault, Raph. Leo knows the both of you too well for that. Of course if Leo had been there he very well may have raised his voice in frustration and gotten them caught himself (and wouldn't Leo in jail have been the most spectacularly sulky thing you've ever seen)... but since he wasn't there, Leo will run with the internal dialogue that his leadership could have averted such an outcome.

However. It's over and done with. They were caught, but they're both free now. Leo would be angrier if jailtime had put them on the map where before they were anonymous, but since the Emperor brought them here the authorities know about them anyway.

Leo sighs heavily, runs a hand over his face and lets the outrage roll away. Now he can think, and now he realizes that his brothers' encounter with the local penal system could yield information.]

Fine.

Tell me about the prison, then. What did you see - does this "guy" you met have a name?

[Leo hopes that HE will never need to know, but better knowledge than ignorance. It's extraordinarily unlikely that prisoners would have been allowed to see anything truly useful about the palace, but Raph knows more than Leo and this is a situation that must be rectified.]

[Raphael folds his arms and glares. He's really not digging this bossy tone Leo's pulling with him.] The prison was pretty much carved right into this guy's shell. [He taps his foot against the ground for emphasis.] And it was weird. Apparently this guy affects people with his feelings or whatever; if he was freaked out, I was feeling freaked out. So did everyone else.

[That's OK bro, Leo's bossiness dissipates in the face of your intel. The idea of any sort of carving hollowing out space inside a turtle's carapace makes Leo's stomach clench.]

If I had an entire prison carved into my shell, I think I would be a little unhappy too.

[So Big Turtle is psychic. Like Rockwell in reverse, projecting emotions instead of reading them. Very good to know.]

How long did they keep you? [Just questions now, so he can know how things are run. Leo's done being cranky about this. Maybe. He'll bring it up at some opportune moment though, you better believe he will.]

[Yeah, big Spike's psychic. Which would be cooler if he like, didn't emote all over the place and could actually make words and whatnot. It's more annoying than anything.]

Just a couple days. More like they were trying to keep us out of the way, but some kid said his pals went down into the sewer tunnels all inside of the shell and...saw stuff.

[Still, that piece of info will help Leo figure out that Asti the dream-visitor is actually Tu Vishan. Well done, bro.]

What sort of... "stuff."

[Somehow Leo knows he's going to wish he hadn't asked.

Also, the sewers are carved into this guy's shell too?! Are the kedan insane?? It's no wonder he's sick!]

[Yeah you can imagine how his stomach turned when Raph found out that he was being held prison inside the poor guy's shell. He was not pleased.

Raph shifts his weight, then sighs and folds his arms tight.]

They said they found tanks, and clones of people who were brought here.

[Another shift of his weight. This part bothers him the most.]

And after they found that, the people who showed up stopped getting picked out of the ocean. That's how I got here; they pulled me out of the water. Now people show up in the palace.

Clones.

[Of course. Clones. This day can stop getting progressively weirder ANY TIME NOW. It's just aggravating at this point, the number of factors he has to contend with. Didn't he say he was done for today? Why couldn't he have stuck with that?

Okay then, clones. Leo furrows his brow and rolls that around in his head for a few moments.]

I don't know what they're doing with those things, but - I remember Donnie talking about cloning once. [Leo doesn't listen in detail to Donnie's science babble any more than the rest of them, unless of course it's useful to the team in some way - though he does like the time with his brother that humoring the resident geek provides - but Donnie went off on an episode of Space Heroes once that had clones in it. So Leo remembers this bit, at least.]

If you clone something, it's just a body. I mean, they wouldn't have our memories, our minds, or - or our scars or injuries. [Leo himself came through with a shoulder burn from the Justin explosion. It still stings. Quite a lot, actually. And what about Raph's plastron scar? How would they duplicae that?]

We've got to find out what they're for.

[Something in Raph's shoulders unbunches when Leo says that. No, he hadn't known that; his hand reaches up to the chip in his plastron absently, finger against the jagged edge. So clones wouldn't have their scars or memories, right. Of course.

Not that he'd been worried.]

Yeah, good luck with that. I've tried getting down there a million times; everything's been closed up and I can't hold my breath long enough to get down where they said it was.

[Yeah, you were worried bro. But Leo finds the prospect disturbing too. Thank goodness he remembers Donnie's rant so he has solid reasoning to back up a denial of this particular existential crisis.

Considering how huge Tu Vishan seems to be, and the fact that he's in salt water, Leo isn't surprised Raph can't make it all the way down there. They put up with a lot of polluted freshwater in the sewers, but saltwater is particularly unpleasant to swim in. As Donatello has said, there's no doubt the four of them are freshwater turtles.]

We'll find a way, we just have to be patient. Maybe Donnie can build something.

[It's always worked for them before. Why not here?]

Dunno if you noticed Leo, but there's kind of a lack of junkyards around here. [There's trash, but when Raphael went looking for large, industrial dumps, there weren't very many even in the Metal Sector. It's like they dump all the trash into the ocean or something.] Donnie's good, but even he can't make something out of nothing.

[Bro, he just got here, he knows crap about the junkyards. Leo knew they would have to find other resources, but that news is harsh. Still, he refuses to be defeated by a lack of junkyards.]

Then I guess we'll have to save our juulan. How much do you guys have left? [Please say you haven't spent it all on food when there must be perfectly good dumpsters around here.]

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seriouslytwisted - 2013-06-07 06:37 (UTC) - Expand

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[TEXT] Leo to Team, COME IN TEAM

i'mma judge your butt

gurl u no u liek it

That which is known as judging is not a thing that shall be done by the one known as EGGPANTS

THAT WHICH IS KNOWN AS JUDGING IS EXACTLY THE THING THAT- OH JUST SHUT UP

haha i win

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