2932/TMNT: Past, Present, Future

TMNT: Past, Present, Future
Date of Scene:	15 August 2020
Location:	Turtle Lair
Synopsis:	The turtles deal with Michelangelo's desire to get out and see more of the world above, discussing how it might impact their lives and safety relative to potential friends and foes on the surface. April provides her own perspective and is left to consider some ninja training of her own.
Cast of Characters:	Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, April O'Neil

---

Michelangelo has posed:
It's not quite a 'Knights Of The Round Table' setup, but it's not far off. The kitchen table, often used as nothing more than a prop to stack pizza boxes on top of each other, has been astonishingly cleared. Well, mostly, anyway. There's still pizza boxes on it mind you, but they're at least full - each of them containing the piping hot deliciousness that is the favourite food of the turtles. Michelangelo is trying to make an impression, after all. And he knew the best way to get into the hearts and minds of his brothers.

The 'town hall' or 'family meeting' or whatever it is had been called by the baby brother sometime during the week. There didn't appear to be a great deal of urgency to it, but given the way Mikey fidgets with a few things on the table, such as soda placement and cups, one can tell he's just a liiiitttttllleee bit nervous about the upcoming proceedings. A nervous smile graces his features as he takes a seat at one of the available chairs at the table, leaning back and taking a slice of pizza to chew on.

Naturally, April and the others affiliated with the turtles had been invited to this too. Not only are they practically part of family, but their perspectives on their specific localities could really offer some insight.

Taking a can of orange crush, the orange-branded humanoid takes a quick mouthful, before chewing down once again on the doughy, cheesy delight.

Raphael has posed:
Raphael stands, does not sit, for he's got his arms crossed with his shell resting against the door of the fridge. Bandana in place, there's an expression of skepticism, a general look of annoyance that's all too commonplace for him. It's not that he's grumpy /all/ the time, but that state of mind does take up a lot of residence in the turtle who favors the sai.

"Bro, I ain't gonna complain about extra pizza, but if you're just wasting all of our time 'cause you want a new skateboard or something, just go get one. We don't need, like, a campaign speech first," he tells Michelangelo, expecting this to be some trivial matter. They often are.

Only, once in a while, Mikey surprises them all. Is this to be one of /those/ times, or will it leave Raph wanting to bop their little brother yet again? His eyes shift from face to face, pausing on April who gets an upward nod of the chin.

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo quietly munches a single slice of the pizza. Mikey has been known to be frivilous. But there are also times when he is not, and when he is not, he is probably the single biggest change agent around. He would have to monitor this carefully, in case it isn't just a new skateboard.

"...Out with it."

Leo is already going through some excercises in his head to clear it...clear it in the event of the headache he's going to have if Raph bonks Mikey again and he has to break it up, or the much longer discussion that could occur if it's something else.

Donatello has posed:
    In the area of the lair carved out for Donatello's projects, the purple turtle sits with his legs propped up on a workbench. His attention has been captured by something decidedly unscientific: a handheld Sega Game Gear that recently appeared in the sewer lair. At the mention of a new skateboard, Donatello's eyes move from the glowing screen to Michelangelo and his pizza party. The mono blips and bloops of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse stop abruptly as Donatello stands and sets the video game on his workbench.

    "If this is about the skateboard, Mikey, I told you -- I'll get you another one. At least be proud that your skateboard put a couple of Foot dudes in the hospital," he explains as he walks over. Donatello finds a spot at the table and looks from Mikey, to Raph, and then finally to Leo.

April O'Neil has posed:
April had arrived just a few minutes ago, wandering through the sewers on her specific route and always making sure nobody was following her just as she'd been trained. She had brought some food supplies for this, along with some extras, as always, carrying three different backpacks with her loaded with stuff to give to the guys.

Now, she was helping Mikey where, and how, he'd allow her to until she justs steps back as the others start to get antsy about all of this. She glances to each of them, Raph getting a nod and a little smile back before she just places her hands on the back of her hips with her fingertips going into the back pockets of her jeans, one of which has her cell phone in it that she even turned off to make sure she wouldn't whip it out and rudely stare at it while here.

"I hope this isn't about me. An intervention, or something." April quietly comments, to be silly. "I promise I'll stop watching so much anime!" She adds in, with an awkward little laugh afterward.

Michelangelo has posed:
"Na, you're good April. Besides, who am I gonna watch that with if you stop?! Leo? Psh." A bemused chuckle goes to the leader of the group. "And dude, come on," Mikey whines to Raph, leaning back in his chair even more and rolling his head back. "I did that like ONE time." Yeah, he did buy everyone in the family pizza and threw a fancy event once to try and get a skateboard. "...and I'd do it again too. Heh heh heh." With Leo and Donny now also present, Michelangelo purses his lips.

"Okay, okay, so hear me out, okay? Uh," Mikey stands from his chair to try and grant himself some more authority. But he sort of just 'ahms' and 'uhs' a little bit as he tries to gather his thoughts. "Alright, so look. Over the past few weeks topside, I've been doing a stack of stuff. I even managed to help bring Mutant Town back the other week. And then, the week before? I stumbled into this beach party that a heap of mutants were at. These guys aren't hiding like we are. When I told them we were living in the sewers? The look they gave me, man..." Mikey's face falls a little. "It sucked, bros. It was embarrassing. They all live in some sort of school, top side. So I was thinking, if THEY have no problem being out and about in the open, why can't we? The Titans and Avengers are totally cool with being friends with us, y'know? We can be heroes! So why don't we start going topside more?" The baby blue eyes of Michelangelo linger on each of his brothers as he chews on his bottom lip. "I'm not saying we ditch the Lair. I sorta dig this place. But we can't just stay in the shadows forever. It sucks."

Raphael has posed:
Noting everyone's positions, Raphael moves a few feet to grab a plain cheese slice, dropping it into his mouth without pause. It's a side benefit of being what they are - big mouths make chowing down faster and easier.

As soon as the word 'topside' is heard, Raph mutters to himself, "Here we go..." Following a recent encounter over, naturally, pizza, this probably shouldn't be a big surprise. To his credit, he doesn't interrupt, giving Michelangelo a chance to speak his mind. He does, however, begin to rub at the front of his face with a hand.

Count to five. Count to ten. Count to numbers previously unthought of. Stay calm. Breathe in. Breathe out. Just wait.

Leonardo has posed:
Upon hearing that, Leo now wishes this was about a skateboard. At least that would be easily dealt with and they'd be on their way. This, though...this was a big damn deal. "...They saw you?" Leo is less than pleased about this, but it's also water under the bridge at this point. "...Stay in the shadow...stray from it reluctantly, for when you do, you must strike hard..."

"Were you followed? Or traced? ...Donnie, check him for tracers. We could've been comprimised." Donnie should be able to find all the mechanical kinds easily enough.

Donatello has posed:
    As Michelangelo makes his case, Donatello watches his other brothers for their reactions. Raphael gets a quiet nod of approval from the purple turtle, who seems impressed with his brother's restraint. This moment is cut short, however, by Leonardo's request. Donnie exhales a full lung of air and reaches for a slice.

    "Leo..." he begins, with a touch of annoyance in his voice. Donatello doesn't finish, but it sounds like it could've been the beginning of a 'leave him alone!'

    After taking a bite of the slice, Donatello turns to the youngest turtle. "Mikey," he starts, softly. "We're different from those other mutants. You know that." Donatello's tone is soft, sensitive, and difficult to read. It's unclear what side of this coin he's favoring.

April O'Neil has posed:
April flashes a quick smile in Mikey's direction. "We have to finish the last few episodes of Dawson's Creek sometime too." She quietly replies to him before the orange adorned turtle begins his crusade for above ground freedom.

"Uh oh." April quietly says, after Raph, and she steps toward the table now to pull a chair out from under it, flopping down into it there-after. April reaches out for one of the drinks of orange crush, not one to delve in to soday too much, but the bubbles are desired at the moment!

April's eyes are down on the table while she listens to the brothers discuss this already, and she sits up a little like she's about to say something, but then stops herself and just exhales through her nose. She sets her drink down on her lap and crosses her legs at the knee, then raises a hand to brush her dark hair out of her face. "He's not... entirely wrong." April finally speaks up as she glances her own blue eyes around at the others. "There /are/ Mutants 'up there' that don't look human, and though they do face hardships, there are people fighting for them to be treated equally as everyone else." She argues for Mikey, but then looks at said Mikey-one.

"The /problem/ though, is that the four of you defeated a very influential Crime Lord who came to this country to make a big dent. You all stopped that, but his ... followers, yet exist. And they still want to harm you all for it."

Michelangelo has posed:
"Bro, they're mutants. Like us!" Donny's earlier point that they are definitely NOT like them is seemingly overlooked as Mikey protests to Leo, who seems less than thrilled that he was 'seen' at the beach party.

"I may've been seen." Oy vey.

"But come on, Leo. You can't actually THINK like the teachings that Father tells us all the time. Right? You can't definitely tell me that you're okay with that sort of life forever." Mikey's expression falls to a pleading sort at that, staring at the leader of the group in a near-hopeless fashion. "This world that we're hiding from? There are people up there that want to help us, man. They're good people. There's a dude I met from the Titans. You guys know Beast Boy? He's super green as well. I mean, his shade is a bit light for my tastes, but he just cruises around no problem. He has enemies too, y'know. But does he stay locked up? No way Jose. He just struts around without a care. If we help guys like him and the Titans, they'll definitely help us." Mikey's argument starts to fall apart a little as his thoughts begin to scatter and become more spontaneous. Fortunately, April's timely intervention prevents any further ramblings.

"I say we do what Beast Boy does, and just kick the butt of any remaining Foot ninjas if they wana spring somethin' on us." Michelangelo ends that with a punch of his right hand into an open fist. "We can beat those guys. And if we struggle doing it on our own, then we get the Justice League or something to shoot their giant laser from their moon base on their FACES. Heh heh heh heh." Pause. "...they have a giant moon laser, right, Donny?"

Sitting back down on his chair, Mikey takes a slice of pizza. "Can't we at least visit the mutant school or something? Maybe the teachers there, the grown-ups, have some advice on how to live topside or something. I dunno."

Raphael has posed:
"Yeah, well, I ain't scared of those m....losers," Raphael begins, catching himself before finishing a line that made Bernie Mac famous on Def Comedy Jam. "Whoever's leading the Foot now, they still got the same old pushovers running around. They're more annoying than anything else."

His reaction is more to what April says first, but everything is going through his mind right now. He has his own vigilante side he's kept secret from them, with only Splinter aware, trusting the turtle to be responsible about it. But if he went too far...

Leonardo's response is no surprise, but he says, "Leo, obviously we don't want others finding our home, but we're all ninja. I'm pretty sure Mikey ain't got any tracers on him or someone woulda been here by now."

"And Donnie's right. Mikey, we ain't like these other mutants or whatever they call themselves. Most of them look normal. I know you ain't brushing 'cause I've been around your sewer breath, but in case you ain't looked in the mirror lately, we don't fit in with them, even these Titans people. How do you know they're all just gonna accept us? You don't."

April gets a brief glare, the reason for it soon clear. "Part of this is the fault of that cat cousin of yours, filling Mikey's head with junk. Do I wanna live down here forever? Hell no, but we don't know anything about anyone accepting us. They could try to send us off to some lab for all we know."

Leonardo has posed:
...Well, there's that. This 'event' he says he went to was not a recent one, so evidently he must not have been traced.

"It was still unnecessarily risky. And...people are people. For every hero up there that would want to help, there's another Pro Humana type who wants to kill all mutants. From what I've read, the Pro Humana crowd even wants to kill mutants that look perfectly human, let alone us."

The scientist thing is also a valid point. "...and yeah, we could get caged in a lab and studied. Even if we're ninja enough to get out of it later, that's a heck of a lot of trauma to go through between the experiments and the escape."

Donatello has posed:
    "Mikey, those mutants you're talking about are humans with mutations. The world knows how to tolerate that," Donatello explains. "We're turtles."

    Donatello sighs quietly and leans back in his seat. April's point about the Shredder earns a thoughtful nod from the purple one.

    "I know the surface world seems great to you, Mikey. Don't think you're the only one who wants to be topside. We all go up there," Donatello adds, his eyes lingering on Leonardo as he makes his admission.

    Raphael's suggestion that the Foot aren't a threat gets a look from Donatello, who still has two strips of duck tape covering up the spots where he took a couple of throwing stars to the shell.

    "We need to smart about this. We can't un-ring this bell. And this isn't just about us. We have friends who also have to worry about the Foot. Maybe even more than we do."

April O'Neil has posed:
April takes another sip of her fizzy drink while she listens to each of their responses to Mikey. She nods slightly to all of it. "I hear about Mutant kidnappings all the time from my sources on the Podcast." She quietly adds in. "It's hard to know if they're actually targeting mutants, or if it's just ... your standard every day kidnappings." She frowns a little at this notion before she continues. "I've also heard word of a man named Tatsu who is operating the Foot Clan now. It's unverified, but from a source I trust."

She sits up a little higher in her seat and uncrosses her legs to lean forward and put the soda cup back on the table. "I fully believe the Justice League, the Avengers, even the Titans would help you -- as much as they can help you -- because hey, these groups are really busy."

A pointed look goes to Raph. She smiles at him softly. "Terry means well, and if he's already helping Mikey then Mikey isn't wrong about the Titans. They very well might let some of you, or all of you, join with them. You'd be safe with them too, they have a huge facility with all kinds of resources."

April exhales and motions toward Splinter's private area across the room. "You'd be going against everything he's asked of you all to remain as, because lets face it, a group like the Titans is anything BUT 'in the shadows'."

Michelangelo has posed:
Mikey opens his mouth to answer Raph, but nothing comes out. In a surprising turn of events, he just says nothing. Mostly because his angry brother raised a good point: he didn't really //know// these people. And he didn't know what their true intentions were. "...what if we just gifted them some pizza vouchers? They might be friends with us then, hm?" It's a lame suggestion, evidenced by the soft tone it's said with. "So you don't wana live down here forever, but you're not gonna do anything about it?" Michelangelo frowns, but it's hard to tell if he's being serious not. "That's weak sauce, bro. That's like half-baked pizza dough weak. You gotta work with me, man."

Rubbing his face as Leo concurs with the arguments against, Michelangelo rapidly tries to think of something. "Okay, how can I PROVE to you guys that some of these people are legit? Maybe I can stake out the school? Show you that they're up to no good? Donnie, you can maybe hack their computers?" Looking to the purtle-branded turtle, he shakes his head a bit. "I dunno, Donnie. The world doesn't care what the differences are, right? Different is different, no matter on whether or not you're a kick ass turtle or a boring old human. Uh," A quick, sheepish look goes to April. "...present company excepted. Heh." Anyway, I think we could make some good friends at that mutant school. Or at the Titans. But after we scope it out." At least he's being a bit more diplomatic.

Honestly, the thought of being kidnapped and stuck in a lab does freak him out a bit. April's sobering reminder of the kidnappings being a real threat is met with a grimace. Her further reminders really ram home the guilt that suddenly wells up inside. A quick glance is made towards Splinter, or rather, his private area.

"I don't wana throw out everything we got, fam." The honest admission is made as he takes another slice of pizza. "I like who we are. Working from the shadows is pretty sick. But... man, I dunno. I dunno what I even want anymore. I just think we could be getting more outta life. I definitely don't wana just go live with the Titans."

Confused. Frustrated. Conflicted. It's hard being a teenager!

Raphael has posed:
Raphael answers with nothing more than a grunt of dismissal of Tatsu and the Foot. Yes, they can be trouble, but Splinter has trained the turtles more than capably enough. With the Shredder gone, they just aren't the same.

"I'm just saying, look at what that ooze has done. It turned a dog into a mutant, the fox got turned into one too, you got that lion chick, and there's even a dinosaur running around now. Who knows what else is out there?"

He's back to crossing his arms, then he grabs a sai from his belt and uses it to pick at something between a couple teeth. "I know you wanna trust anyone who acts friendly, little bro, but you gotta be more careful. You got your head in the clouds half the time, and I get it. You're like an optimus." That would be 'optimist,' Ricky from Trailer Park Boys. "But there's a lot of people out there who would hurt us if they could. I ain't saying we should hide all the time, but you guys are my family. You guys are what matters to me, and I ain't putting that or Splinter in danger just for some dumb party or hanging out somewhere with new people. We don't need them."

Leonardo has posed:
"Heroes are there...and most of them are good hearted people. They may well be able to look past appearances and to the core of who we are. But heroes make up about 1 person for every million, and we can't base decisions on those 1 in a million people that would help us just because they're...better thinkers, I guess."

"...There probably is a middle ground...a group of heroes who operate in the shadows like we do, but the Titans aren't it. We must choose carefully who, and where, we're going to trust."

"But...as it stands, we must follow Splinter's instruction, and remain hidden. The time will come when we find the right people to ask for help, and when that time comes, we can expand our circle...a little. But there's a lot of stages in between living in Hollywood lights and the true Shadow we dwell in now."

Leo says all that, but he doesn't have anyone particularly in mind who truly operates in Shadow they way they do. "...We do not have a valid place to go at this time. So for now, the Shadows it is."

Donatello has posed:
    "Mikey, I think that the people up there would have a harder time with us. If one person could mutate, another one could, so they have a certain capacity for compassion with each other," Donatello explains, looking down at his pizza slice as he does. He takes a small bite from the crust and abandons the remainder of the slice by putting it back down on his plate.

    Donnie reaches for one of the soda cans and pulls back the tab. "I'm just saying, this isn't a decision that affects only us. We should talk about this with the others. Alopex...Sally..." he adds before taking a gulp of his soda. "Kai." His voice adds that last one in, quickly and quietly, as if he's trying to sneak a soccer ball past a goalie.

    But, Donatello's sneakiness is cut short by Leonardo's declaration. Donnie takes a large gulp of his soda and then places it back down on the table. "So, I guess that's that, then," he comments, a touch of annoyance in his voice. His insubordination tends to be subtle, especially when compared to Raphael's.

April O'Neil has posed:
April leans forward to grab one of the boxes of Chinese food she'd brought, she opens it up to peer inside to see that it is the orange chicken box, which then leads to her grabbing a set of chopsticks off of the table as well. She just lets the boys talk this all out as she indulges in a bit of dinner before it goes cold!

As she sits back in her chair holding the box of food in her left hand and poking at it with her chopsticks in her right, she eyes them all, as they speak. "I'm just here to help you guys how you think I can. If you need information, scouting done, or super spy work... you know you can count on me." She smiles softly then before glancing down at her food. "And if you need me to make Terry stop ... doing Terry things, I can do that too, though it'll break his heart. If he's gotten to know Mikey, or any of the rest of you, it likely means he loves you already."

She looks back down at her food at snags a pice of chicken, then raises it up and pops it in her mouth. Whilst chewing, she looks up and speaks with a full mouth. "There's a dinosaurf walkingf aroundf?" That thought was slow to register with the Reporter, apparently.

Michelangelo has posed:
Once again, the idea of putting Splinter into danger is what really hits Mikey hard. Donatello's rattling of the names of close friends certainly raises the ante, but it's the mention of Splinter again that has him slouching. A slow nod is made agreeance. "I don't want to put Father in danger."

Leo's finality upon it all seems to seal it. Spoken in true leader-y fashion, Michelangelo just nods a little bit. This was the second time he had tried this, and the second time it didn't work. Maybe he needed to change the variety of the pizza he got? "Well, the mutants at the school were super nice. I got to speak to Iron Man when I brought helped bring back Mutant Town, too. Seems cool if you're into all the gizmos and tech." Donnie would probably get more out of him than Mikey would.

"Okay, so second item on the agenda," Michelangelo starts, finishing off a slice of pizza and drinking some more drink. "What do you guys think about building and piloting a cool Jaeger? I watched Pacific Rim the other day and it's SO COOL. The science seems pretty real. I dunno how to build it, but Donnie? I have faith. But shotgun driving that thing around. And if we're in a giant robot, then we don't have to worry about being seen either!" A smug expression is made as he folds arms across his chest. "You guys are pretty lucky I'm such an ideas guy."

"Wait, what?" Michelangelo shoots April a look as she chews on the Chinese. "Dinosaur?! Where?!"

Raphael has posed:
Whether Leonardo speaks from a position of authority to end the discussion or not, Raphael pushes away from the fridge to approach Michelangelo, considering Donatello and April as well. He motions toward the orange-banded turtle. "Look at me for a minute, bro." Making sure he has Mikey's attention, he says, "None of us want to have to live in shadow all the time, but we gotta be careful about how we do it. We ain't just gonna walk down the street without it causing problems. Maybe we find some allies up there, maybe not, but we gotta do this as a group."

Even if the disguises aren't the best, just going topside for pizza, Raph is always putting something on. "I hate feeling like we gotta hide, but we don't know where we fit in up there yet." Maybe they never will. He's already been testing some limits with his solo excursions the others don't know about yet, but how long will that charade last before it's exposed?

"Just look at April here. This coulda all been real different if we never saw her, but she could find some stuff out for us without us having to be seen. You're good at that, Ape. And don't worry about your cousin. I know he meant well."

He merely nods to her about the dino, and while the others are aware of the distrust he has for Ballista, Raphael keeps it to himself thanks to grabbing a container of fried rice to dump much of it in his gaping maw. After that, he just squints at Michelangelo's question to Donatello.

Leonardo has posed:
"I agree. We should continue looking for appropriate allies. It's practically inevitable we'll need them. The problem is, appropriate allies also dwell in Shadow, and if they're good at it, they're hard to find, like we are." That's the trick of ninja looking, esssentially, for other ninja...everyone's a grandmaster of hiding, and it's tough to find people who spend their lives being really damn good at hiding.

"...A giant...robot? That's...gonna get noticed." Unless there's really good cloaking technology on it or something.

The dinosaur he can shed enlightenment on. "That would be Ballista, I think. Kinda looks like one of those velociraptors from the Jurassic Park movies."

Donatello has posed:
    Donatello could also be caught squinting at Michelangelo's question about building a full-sized Jaeger. He glances back at Raphael and answers the question by silently shaking his head.

    But then...Donatello's brain finally releases him from that absurdity and truly consider something else that Mikey mentioned. "Wait, wait, Tony Stark?" he asks, suddenly sitting up straight. "He's a genius!" For just a moment, Donatello rides alongside Michelangelo, fully bummed that they have to remain in the shadows. The disappointment dances across his features for just a second or two before he comes back to his senses. Despite sitting on the fence for this issue, Donatello leans in favor of secrecy.

    "Leo's right," Donatello admits, softly, before his voice returns to a normal volume. "Except for the bit about Jurassic Park. The ones from the movie were Utahraptors."

    Donatello takes a smug gulp of his soda.

April O'Neil has posed:
April's eyes are just down on her food, she hasn't eaten in over a day, so she's got the ungries. She does look up at what Mikey says about a Jaeger and it just makes her smile at his nerdiness, but she doesn't comment on it because well... that's really for Donny to flip out on.

Instead, April smiles at Raph. "I'm the best at spy work. Did I tell you that I broke in to a gift shop that was smuggling diamonds inside of snow globes, and a bunch of gangsters found me, then we -- with my friend -- fought them off all heroic, until they crashed a truck through the back door and ran away?" She's totally humble bragging about this event, and maybe embellishing a bit...

Her stare goes back to Mikey then, as she slowly raises another piece of orange chicken up to her mouth. "But I'm just a boring human..." She says all 'oh yeah?' in a loud whisper at him before popping the chicken bite into her mouth.

At the Raptor-talk, she just smirks, and nods to it, taking a second to chew before saying. "Well, at least it's not like the ones that escaped in the dockyards a couple weeks ago."

Michelangelo has posed:
"Coooooooooooool." Mikey drawls in response to the revelation of Ballista. He does look to Raphael when he tries to be a bit more diplomatic, but the response is made with a half hearted shrug and not much else.

"He is?" Mikey questions Donnie with an honest thought. "I know he's got a pretty cool 'stach. But he looked cool in his flying armour. Told me to get some of the civilians out of the crater before the magically beamed the 'hood back into reality. We're practically best bros." Tony probably didn't even know Mikey's name.

Attempting to stifle his laughter when Donnie corrects the naming of the dinosaur, Michelangelo widens his eyes when he hears about April's latest adventure. "Dude, we should totally teach you ninjutsu or something. Can you imagine April with our sweet shadow dragon skills?" The question is made to Leo, the one most likely to be good at teaching. "She'd be the baddest chick on the planet, man. Heh." The tacked on note from her about being a 'boring human' is met with some green-fingered finger-guns firing at her in response, followed by a big toothy grin.

"Aight, I'm gonna go play some Smash." Standing up from his chair, the teen begins to swagger off to the far more comfortable couch. Halfway across however he stops, pivots and comes back to the table. With a huff he moves to take //all of the pizza boxes//. Despite the fact that there is still pizza in them. "...this is all mine now since you guys suck with your guilt trips." And THEN he goes to the couch, placing the boxes down so he has easy access to the food as he plays some games.

Raphael has posed:
Raphael rolls his eyes. Velociraptor, Utahraptor, whatever. After Donatello's correction, the red-masked grumpy turtle clears his throat. "If you didn't see me calling you a nerd after that, nerd, then you ain't been keeping up."

He cuts off following April getting into talk about spy work and diamond smuggling and snow globes and gangs and he just asks, "Which friend is this?"

There's another near-facepalm as Donatello briefly shows the kind of enthusiasm Michelangelo does, toward Tony Stark in this case, and he shakes his head. At the least, it's keeping them off the trail of his own excursions. The longer that works out, the better. Downing more of the fried rice, he raises a brow as Mikey absconds with the rest of the pizza. This results in the mostly empty container of rice being flung toward the back of his head before he turns away.

"Yeah, I got some stuff to take care of for a while. Nice seeing you again, Ape. Don't be a stranger."

Leonardo has posed:
Leo considers..."...That is up to you, April. If you'd like to take the time to learn what we've been taught, I'm fairly certain Splinter will clear it. You've earned the right to learn the secrets, if you wish to dedicate yourself to doing so. It's a lot of hard work, though."

That's actually one of the easiest okays he's had to give recently. He's confident Splinter will back this one.

Donatello has posed:
    "Yeah, he's a super-genius," Donatello explains to Michelangelo with a grin. "He's one of the brightest minds on the planet." Donatello opens his mouth, ready to unleash a deluge of accomplishments belonging to Tony Stark, but then Raphael calls him a nerd. The purple turtle shakes his head at his brother and stands up, collecting his paper plate and empty soda can.

    "You know, you might have something there, Mikey," Donatello calls out as he walks towards the trash can. "April is already stealthy. She'd make a pretty good ninja." The turtle glances over his shoulder for a brief chance to catch April's reaction to that.

    Meanwhile, Donatello has already started moving back to the workbench and the Game Gear he left there earlier. "Do we have any double-a batteries?" he wonders loudly. That's sixteen in the last week.

April O'Neil has posed:
April smiles back to Mikey, then to Raph as he starts to leave too. "It wasn't Harley." She says to him as he goes. "It was ... well she has a disguice, it's complicated!" She adds as he gets furhter away.

Her stare then goes down to her food, but bounces back up to Leo when he addresses her. She grins lightly at him. "The desire is there. It really is. I'd love to be able to do what the lot of you do, with the punches, and the kicks, and the 'Hi-yahs!' but..." She leans forward to get a napkin from the table, when Donnie adds in his opinion on the idea. "Awww, thank you." She says to the violet adorned Turtle. "But... yeah, between the TV gig, and the podcast... I don't know if I have enough time to pull it off."

She frowns for a quick second. "I'd hate to disappoint you guys, by doing a bad job of it."

Raphael has posed:
Raphael calls back, from behind a partition, "At least someone still tries to keep up a disguise!"

Then comes the clanking of some weights. It's workout time!

Leonardo has posed:
Leo smiles, "...And did you think we were masters after one day? ...Splinter's been training us since we could walk, more or less, and despite our youth, we're over a decade into this. Nobody expects you to be able to do what we do. Still...every bit of training you learn makes you a little bit safer out there in the world, and the training alone is worth it for that. ...We definitely want you to be safe."

Leo pauses, and adds, "...It's your decision of course. But I'd like you to try."

April O'Neil has posed:
April glances over to Donnie as he calls out for batteries, but she has no idea if they have batteries down here or not... though she has bought them for them in the past when they needed them for their game controllers.

She looks back to Leonardo and smiles at him. "Maybe. I mean, it'd save money on the gym if I did that kind of work out instead, right?" She grins at the blue adorned Turtle Man. "We'll see, I'll have to move a few things around, maybe be able to stop by in the mornings for your sessions then? I dunno."

Leonardo has posed:
Leo nods. "...Do that. We'll begin tommorrow." Leo's already starting to put a lesson plan together in his head, thinking back on the way Splinter trained them when they were barely toddlers...yes, this is an adult woman, but she's starting from scratch in many ways, and he'll have to account for that...

Splinter always told him you were never truly a master till you pass on what you've learned. Leo is getting excited at getting such a chance...