#i can vouch for mikey hes wonderful

[taizi]

coming right on back for you

part 5 of 5

rise of the tmnt x tmnt 2k12 pairing: leo & mikey, leo & everyone word count: 4634 title borrowed from hurricane by lord huron post-movie

(previous) 

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x

According to Blue, the Hidden City, and every little place attached to it, is a pocket realm. If all of the universes in this dimension were highways running parallel to one another, he explained unremarkably, to Donnie’s mounting incredulity, then the Hidden City would be a secret subway system tucked neatly underneath with about a billion lines in and out and crazy good Wi-Fi.

“That’s what Dontron says, anyway,” Blue adds. “I can at least vouch for the Wi-Fi.”

Apparently he and his brothers spent an afternoon testing this hypothesis with some of their local yokai friends.

“Dad said we weren’t allowed to go through the portals, because he’s boring and allergic to fun, but Sunita and Usagi did the smart thing and skipped getting permission from their parents in the first place,” Blue is chattering, his energy picking up with every step closer they get to whatever random corner of Manhattan he’s leading them to. “Mikey was like ‘wait, what if you get trapped in a world full of giant man-eating coconut crabs?’ which was oddly specific, and then Usagi was like ‘then I’ll have an excuse not to go to work tomorrow,’ and I think he was only like eighty-percent joking.”

“Right,” Raph says, definitely not following.

“Usagi Miyamoto?” Leo asks. A lifetime of indulging Mikey and Donnie’s longwinded rants about comic books and copolymers has prepared him for this. He’s not even struggling to keep up with Blue. “The samurai?”

“Uhh, no? Didn’t he live like a thousand years ago?” Blue turns on his heel to walk backwards so he can give Leo a judgmental look. “Usagi Yuichi. Miyamoto’s his ancestor and personal hero, though, so unless you want to hear the entire two-hour historical biography, please don’t say his name again within a two mile radius of the Hidden City. Sagi has ears like a hawk.”

Mikey can’t help smiling to himself as they hop from one rooftop to the next. Little Blue is like a different person out here. The lair really must have felt like a box he was trapped in, and now that he’s out and actually moving, now that he’s got a plan of action and he’s seeing it through, he’s able to shake off some of that stress and anxiety, or at least outrun it. He’s able to breathe.

There was a period of time when the lair felt like a box to Mikey, too. Or a tomb. When sensei died, everything that made it feel safe and warm and inviting died with him. The dojo, and Splinter’s rooms beyond it, were like an undisturbed shrine. All the tunnels and pipes seemed empty and cavernous. The silence was like a disease, creeping around infecting everything.

Mikey’s brothers started spending more and more time away. Mikey hated being there alone, so he stayed away, too. He practically moved into Woody’s apartment for almost a full calendar year. Sometimes he didn’t see his siblings for weeks at a time. He didn’t really know how to be on their team anymore. It’s no wonder he almost died on that mission none of them will talk about.

Blue stops on a ledge so abruptly that Raph collides with him, almost sending them both over the side. It’s only a quick grab on Donnie’s part that spares them a fall.

“We’re here,” Blue says cheerfully, seemingly unbothered by the holes Raph is drilling into the back of his head with his glower.

‘Here’ is an empty alleyway with absolutely nothing of note. Little Blue jumps eagerly down the fire escape to street level, undeterred. With buzzing streetlights nearby and enough light pollution from the city at large that the night sky is more gray than black, the open alley is not as secure as Blue seems to think it is. Anyone could glance out a window and spot him.

Mikey looks sidelong at his brothers, who each meet his worried expression with something amused and tolerant on their faces. Leo kills the lights with a few well-aimed throwing stars and Donnie sets free a tiny drone that will secure a tight perimeter.

“No fun being on this end, huh, chuckles?” Raph says, rubbing the top of Mikey’s head with his knuckles. “Little brothers do whatever they want, older brothers clean up the mess.”

“Ooh, ambiance,” is all Blue says about the added darkness and the faint violet glow from the drone. “I think I can open the door, but I need a boost. Maxi-Me?”

Leo sighs, but he steps forward and presses his hands flat to the kid’s carapace anyway. Mikey can sense Leo’s qi surging and cresting, meeting with Blue’s and mingling easily, like two old friends.

Those distinct markings on Blue’s body flash once, and in the dark it’s as vivid as neon lights. He draws his katana from the borrowed hilt strapped to his shell and slashes down through empty air.

A bright portal opens up, charged and electrified and spitting sparks playfully at the edges. Blue pokes his head through it immediately—all of Mikey’s brothers react to this, not just him, thank you very much—but when Raph seizes the kid’s arm and hauls him out, Blue is grinning.

“Mr Hammond, I think we’re back in business!”

“Uh-huh,” Raph says, still holding onto his arm, because the kid is visibly swaying on his feet and Raph might be the only thing keeping him upright at the moment. “Nice light show. Hypothetically, would you be a little brat about one of us carrying you the rest of the way or nah?”

“I’ve never once in my life been a brat about anything,” Blue replies gravely.

So, feeling a sense of déjà vu, Mikey helps get the kid on Raph’s back. He keeps his casted arm tucked safely between his plastron and Raph’s carapace and then swings his sword into the air like he’s leading a cavalry charge.

“Onwards and upwards, brethren! Excelsior!”

Leo reaches over and takes the sword out of his hand.

Donnie recalls his drone with a soft whistle and Mikey lingers behind so they can go through the portal together. His purple-banded brother smiles at him automatically, and doesn’t miss a beat in stringing a long arm around Mikey’s shoulders.

“Ready for whatever’s in there?” he asks.

“After Dimension X and actual outer space?” Mikey says, elbowing him in the side. “How weird could it be?”

The answer turns out to be pretty weird.

They step through the portal into what looks like a normal restaurant. In one breath, Mikey can smell fresh dough, garlic, pepperoni—it smells exactly like Rupert’s. It could have been any other upscale pizzeria in New York City, except for the fact that there isn’t a single human being to be seen.

There are insect wings, reptilian eyes, furry faces, feathered ears, tails and snouts and scales, and not a sense of uniformity about any of it. One cute little blob-shaped person is dressed in a full suit and tie, and a handful of customers with bird heads are wearing traditional kimono.

“I thought you guys were New Yorkers,” Blue says, looking sidelong at them like they’re relatives he’s embarrassed to be seen with. “Try to look a little less like tourists or we’ll get robbed blind.”

If there was any one way to snap a Manhattan native out of a stupor, that was definitely it.

“Where to?” Raph asks impatiently, like he totally wasn’t ogling the place a second ago.

The question is answered for them, by the sudden, disbelieving voice that demands, “Pepino?”

Blue’s face lights up as an angry-looking skeleton comes charging over from the other side of the dining room. He squirms until Raph rolls his eyes and lets him hop down, and then spreads both his whole and broken arm out grandly.

“Boneman! It’s so good to see you! Business looks booming, so I take it the world didn’t end, that’s great! Can I borrow your phone?”

The angry-looking skeleton only appears more incensed by the second. He grabs the kid by the shoulder and gives him a solid shake, just hard enough to rattle him but not enough to hurt, and starts in on a livid Spanish tirade that sounds like it would flay the skin off of Blue’s bones if he actually understood more than every third word of it.

“Hey—uh, hey, Señor Hueso, I know my two-hundred-and-fifteen day streak on Duolingo is extremely impressive, but you’re going to have to slow down for me a little, amigo.”

“You will sit,” Señor Hueso snaps, pointing him to a nearby booth in a threatening manner, “and you will not move or I will curse you to the chair.”

“Um, sure, but I really need your phone,” Blue replies, not sitting. His smile is fixed, but all his manic energy is finally draining away, leaving behind a homesick kid who is very very close to the finish line of a painful sprint. “I need to—my brothers are—”

“Your brothers are tearing the city apart as we speak, yes,” the skeleton replies shortly. “No one has known peace since you disappeared. Big Mama left the state indefinitely and I had half a mind to close shop and follow her example.”

He sounds testy and fed-up, but his eye sockets don’t stray from the kid for more than a second or two at a time. When he points at the booth again, Little Blue sinks into it like his legs have turned to jelly.

Mikey sits next to him, because Blue’s expression is doing something it hurts to watch.

“I will call them,” Señor Hueso says firmly. On his way toward the back of house, he gives the older turtles a passing, cursory glance, and nothing more. For once, Mikey and his brothers aren’t the oddest thing in the room.

“What’s all this, huh?” Donnie asks, teasing gently, because Blue is starting to get a little teary as he stares restlessly at the front door.

“Oh, uh—” He rubs his eyes with his good hand, his smile a wobbly, weak-kneed thing. “Uhh, I just realized I haven’t had my phone on me for the past couple days, so I definitely broke my streak. That’s all.”

“Sure,” Leo says generously, and they leave it alone.

A server in a neat uniform comes by with a tray of glasses, one of which she puts directly in Blue’s hand. She seems willing to stand there staring at him with all seven of her eyes until he drinks it, so he takes a drink.

Mikey gets the sense that Blue is a familiar face around here, and that his presence was definitely missed, even if no one seems willing to give him the satisfaction of admitting it where he can actually hear them.

When the front door flies open hard enough that it literally comes off its hinges and damages a wall, Blue is already scrambling to his feet.

He barely makes it around the table in time to catch the blur of orange and green that hurtles into him at full speed. Mikey is suddenly looking at a very young version of himself, all soft round edges and colorful paint-splotch markings, clinging to Blue like he’s the last solid thing in the world to hold onto.

It would be cute, if his Mini-Me wasn’t sobbing his little heart out. A beat later, a third turtle with an armored shell and a purple mask slams into them both.

“Hey,” Blue says, alarmed, “Angie, it’s okay, come on. You gotta breathe, kiddo.” His hands, rubbing Angie’s shuddering carapace, move to his shoulders, attempting to peel him away so Blue can look at him properly, but Angie only makes a hurt sound and presses closer, burying his beak in the crook of Blue’s neck and shoulder. “Mikey—Tello, what—?”

Mikey and his brothers move back to give them space. Raph glares at the only occupied table on this side of the dining room until they take the hint, pick up their plates, and relocate. Then they do their ninja thing, fading into the periphery without moving a muscle.

“You guys need to talk to me,” Blue is saying, his anxiety level visibly climbing with every second his siblings cling to him and cry. “Is Raph okay? Did something—”

“We thought you were dead, you idiot,” Tello cuts him off harshly, muffled since he refuses to lift his face out of Blue’s shoulder. “It’s been days, Nardo. We thought—”

“And it was my fault,” Angie blurts, his voice warbling and miserable. The words come spilling out too fast, all on top of each other. “I opened the portal to bring you back but that monster grabbed you. I c-couldn’t let him out but I couldn’t leave you behind so I thought I could make the portal go in two directions at once. It was supposed to take you someplace safe and spit him back out into the prison dimension but I did it wrong.” His breath hitches, and he can barely speak at all for how hard he’s crying. “We couldn’t find you. We looked everywhere, Leo, I swear, we—we looked everywhere. Raphie and Donnie didn’t want me to use my mystic hands again because it hurt but I tried anyway. I really—really tried. But I couldn’t find you. You were gone and it was all my fault.”

Mikey can’t see Blue’s expression, given that he’s sandwiched fully between his brothers, but he can see it when the iron shoots through his spine, when the leader inside him steps forward and everything else falls behind.

He works himself free of Angie’s octopus-armed hug, just enough that he can frame the smaller turtle’s face with his good hand. It’s tricky business, because now Tello stubbornly refuses to be budged, but Blue gets there after a minute.

“Angelo, you did send me somewhere safe. You dropped me right in front of a guy with crazy Jedi healing powers! I was exactly where I needed to be. They took care of me, see?” He wiggles his pink arm cast for emphasis. “And that portal? Incredible. Puts every single one of mine to absolute shame. I’m so beyond proud of you.”

Mikey watches Angie’s eyes well right up again, and the little guy wails, “I missed you so much! I love you, you’re my only Leo, please don’t ever go away again!”

“You don’t have to butter me up, Michael, I’m already gonna let you draw on my cast,” Blue jokes, or tries to, because his voice breaks and gives him away.

“Swear it,” Tello says venomously. His tone is cutting and the whole of him looks like he’s on the cusp of committing an act of violence if he doesn’t get what he wants in the next couple of seconds. “Or I’ll fry every microprocessor you come into contact with from now until 2055. On god, Leon—smartphones, gaming consoles, the microwave—”

“I swear! I swear, okay? No getting rid of me!” Blue plants his cheek on the top of Angie’s head, pats whatever part of Tello he can reach around his armful of little brother. “I mean, tossing me into another universe wasn’t enough, so nothing ever could be, right? We’re stuck with each other. Promise.”

Mikey lifts a hand to feel the scar on his arm.

He doesn’t really remember how he got it, and asking about it always made his brothers look so grim and full of grief that Mikey quickly learned to stop asking. But he thinks of it, secretly, only inside the safety of his head, as a good thing. It gave them all a reason to come back home.

The day that Mikey was officially discharged from the infirmary for good, his arm wrapped up meticulously from elbow to wrist to protect the stitches, Donnie led him into the living room, where Leo, Raph, April and Casey were waiting in the pit. It looked like they’d cleared out the inventory of a local Home Depot. April was brandishing a yardstick at Raph as if it was a weapon every bit as dangerous as her precious, deadly tessen. Mikey looked around at all the paints and rollers, trays and liners, the heavy-duty canvas aprons his siblings were wearing like ninja armor, and wondered if this was another one of his weird fever-dreams.

“Well?” Casey snapped, shoving a handful of swatches at him. “We’re starting in the kitchen, so pick a stupid yellow already.”

“I think I missed a meeting,” Mikey said helplessly.

“April’s idea,” Leo told him. His eyes looked dark and tired and older than they had any right to be, but they were looking right at Mikey. It had been ages since he looked right at Mikey, all of his formidable attention turned into a warm, kind thing, like a well-loved blanket. “We’re making it ours. Taking it back from the ghosts.”

It took a long time but they reclaimed their home day by day, room by room. It got easier as they went. They got better at it. Paint went on walls more evenly, conversation graduated from polite and restrained to comfortable and familiar. Mikey’s yellow kitchen is still his pride and joy. They always eat dinner together there.

Even the most painful parts of his life were ultimately good things. Mikey knows he has an appreciation for the lair now that he didn’t have when he was growing up. As a child, it was his sprawling playground, it was the place he ran to at the end of the day, and it was a given. He took it for granted, up until it was almost gone forever. He doesn’t take it for granted anymore.

Looking at Blue and his siblings now, Mikey realizes for the first time that his philosophy is not transferable.

He never wants Blue or Angie or Tello to learn the lessons Mikey had to at their age. He wants these boys to take home for granted forever. Kids should get to do that. They shouldn’t have to second-guess it. They can appreciate what they have just fine without being terrified of losing it.

When the Raphael of this dimension shows up, it’s immediately apparent why Little Blue was so bewildered by Mikey’s Raph from the jump. This kid is huge, closer to Slash in size than any of Mikey’s brothers. He freezes in the broken doorway, taking in the tableau for a moment, chest heaving. He must have run the whole way here from wherever he was when he got the call.

There’s so much in his face that it’s impossible for Mikey to pick it all apart. His arms are big enough to hold all three of his brothers at once, and that’s exactly what he does when he gets to them.

“Hi, Bossman,” Blue whispers.

“I’m mad at you,” he announces succinctly, in a voice all thick and wet with tears. “You’re grounded forever. Pops will back me up. You’re about to live a very boring life for a very long time.”

“Sorry,” Blue replies easily enough, and then his breath catches, and then he’s bawling. It was a long time coming. Mikey’s been waiting for this to happen since that first time the kid woke up in their infirmary, half out of his mind with fear and pain.

Tello and Angie extract themselves so Blue can throw both his arms as far around his red-masked brother as they’ll go. If the broken one hurts at all, he doesn’t show it. And the bigger turtle, for all that he’s physically imposing and wildly intimidating upon first glance, seems to have the heart and soul of a teddy bear. His face crumples and he scoops Blue clean off his feet, hugging him like it’s an Olympic sport and he’s going for gold.

“Sorry, Raphie,” Blue chokes out. “I’m so sorry. I made everything so hard for you and I was such an asshole and I almost got you killed.”

“First of all, watch your mouth,” the bigger turtle says—which honestly blows Mikey’s mind more than anything else that’s happened in the last three days combined. “Second of all—Leo, you’re sixteen and you’re my little brother. It’s your legal right to make my life difficult. You think Donnie hasn’t made me want to change my name and flee the country? More than once? And we both know Mikey is a feral child only pretending to understand societal norms fifty percent of the time.”

That coaxes a weak laugh out of Blue, and all of his siblings brighten a little to hear it.

“You didn’t almost get me killed,” Big Red goes on. “It was your choice to try to fix your mistake, and it was my choice to protect you. Those were good choices. Let’s blame everything else on the ones whose fault it actually was and forget about it. Okay?”

“Okay,” Blue mumbles, sounding maybe halfway convinced.

“Back on the ship, I remember you saying that being the leader was scary,” Red adds, a little more gently. “I wasn’t really myself at the time, and then a million other things happened, so I didn’t get to tell you—but I never meant to make you feel like leading the team was something you were going to have to do alone. I’m always going to be here to help. We can do it together. Anata wa hitori janai. You don’t have to be scared.”

“Don’t be scared, Michael.”

Little Blue is a good big brother, and it’s immediately obvious exactly who he learned his moves from. The evidence in front of him warms Mikey all the way down to his bones.

“Tell him the other thing,” Angie pipes up abruptly.

“I’m recording so if he denies acknowledging it later we’ll have him for self-perjury,” Tello adds. Mikey doesn’t see a camera anywhere, but somehow he doesn’t doubt that the armored turtle has one.

“Right.” Big Red sets Blue back on his feet, puts his giant hands on Blue’s slim shoulders, dwarfing them completely, and regards him with open warmth and affection for a moment. Then he says, “If you ever try to die for us again, I will kill you myself.”

“Extenuating circumstances,” Blue says weakly, wilting under the combined weight of three glares.

“Not applicable,” Tello snaps.

“And if you think Pops, April and Casey Jr don’t also have some very strongly-worded opinions about it, boy are you in for a fun surprise,” Red goes on. “There’s going to be a PowerPoint presentation.”

“You hated it when Raph saved you that way, Leon,” Angie says firmly, amber eyes level and clear now that he’s cried himself out. He’s a tough kid. Even with his face all messy from recent tears, Mikey’s Mini-Me looks ready to tear down a mountain with his bare hands to prove his point. “We hated it, too. Find another way next time.”

Next to Mikey, Raph huffs a sardonic-sounding laugh. It’s quiet and doesn’t carry farther than his own brothers when he mutters, “Try asking him to catch the moon in a cup next. He’d probably get that done faster.”

Leo gives him a dry look. “I don’t think you’re one to talk.”

“I don’t think any of us are,” Donnie puts in, not without a sort of good humor. His eyes move to Mikey, down to the scar on his arm that his siblings all hate to think about, and he says, “We wouldn’t know how to put ourselves before each other if the fate of the world depended on it.”

Mikey says, “I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Better than the alternative.”

Raph slings an arm around the top of Mikey’s carapace, as easily as if those rough, polarizing years between sixteen and eighteen never happened. “We’re adults, so we can do what we want,” he says, smiling crookedly. “Blue’s a baby, so his acts of heroism are only good for getting himself grounded, looks like.”

“He’s better off,” Leo says, coaxed into a half-smile of his own. “Maybe he’ll learn from it.”

“Considering he can, apparently, both summon his swords out of thin-air and create portals with them, I’m not sure how effective grounding will be in this universe,” Donnie replies wryly. “It barely did anything to you and you very much couldn’t teleport, Leo. It’s good of his siblings to try, though.”

“Well, as stimulating as this conversation is, the peanut gallery behind us just reminded me of something, soooo—sidebar!” Blue says loudly. “Doesn’t anyone want to know what I’ve been up to these last couple days? You’ll never guess where Mikey stuck me for safe-keeping. Go on, guess.”

Angie looks disgruntled, and Tello looks downright mutinous. Red blows out a huge sigh, but he seems more reluctantly fond than anything else. “We’ll work on it,” he says as an aside to the other two. Blue takes this as an acquiescence and sprints with it.

“I was with our cousins!” he announces brightly, sweeping his good arm in the direction of Mikey and his brothers. “Turns out Donnie was right about alternates. That corkboard wasn’t the waste of space I always claimed it was. You win this round, twinnie.”

Mikey takes that as his cue to shake off the perception-bending trick and move forward into the kids’ collective awareness again. Immediately, Angie is staring up at him with wide brown eyes, and Mikey feels his heart do something soft.

“Alternates?” Tello demands, looking like Christmas came early just for him specifically.

“Cousins?” Mikey says to Blue, raising a brow at him.

“What of it,” Blue says with a jut of his chin that Mikey clocks as Leonardo at his absolute most stubborn. “I had a dream about Gram-gram and she said just ‘cause you’re not my brothers doesn’t mean you’re not my family. Sounds right to me. So—cousins.”

“We’ve never had cousins before!” Big Red says enthusiastically, looking at Raph like he’s the coolest thing on this side of the hemisphere. An hour ago, Mikey would never have believed the word ‘adorable’ could apply to any version of his hot-headed brother, but he has since been proven completely wrong. “Welcome to the family! You have to meet everyone before you leave! And I really mean that, April will literally never forgive us if you don’t.”

“She’ll hold it against us forever!” Angie says cheerfully. “She’s the best.”

Leo steps forward and puts out his hand. “Nice to meet you,” he says politely. “I’m Donatello.”

Big Red, who had been about to eagerly shake his hand, freezes mid-step and stares at him. Angie’s mouth drops open, and Tello develops a twitch in his eye.

It’s impossible to argue with Leo’s calm, implacable expression. The kids don’t know him well enough to know that this is an act he perfected by lying right to Splinter’s face about why he and his brothers broke curfew, or went above ground when they weren’t supposed to, or absolutely destroyed the den for the second time in a week. He’d only ever let himself be less than perfect to keep his siblings out of trouble.

Mikey thinks Splinter could usually tell, but sometimes he’d let Leo have the lie anyway, his dark eyes warm with laughter that his face never gave away.

Leo at his most mischievous is a carbon-copy of their father. It’s the only ghost he keeps.

There’s a length of silence so absolute that Mikey thinks he forgets what sound even sounds like for a second. Behind him, he can sense his brothers’ amusement, none of them willing to break rank and give the game away.  

Little Blue recovers first. He throws his head back and laughs, loud and delighted in a way that fills the room.

Mikey looks back at Leonardo in time to see him smile at the sound.

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #rottmnt movie #tmnt 2k12 #hamato leonardo #hamato michelangelo #my writing #tmnt fic #coming right on back for you #i forgot to post this on here lol

[thecomicsnexus]

TMNT #1-4 DECEMBER 2001 - JUNE 2002 BY PETER LAIRD, JIM LAWSON AND ERIC TALBOT

SYNOPSIS (FROM TURTLEPEDIA AND COMIC VINE)

A Fugitoid makes its way across the moon in leaps, passing by Tranquility Base and marveling at how it has stood the test of time. It meets up with an Utrom, and the two discuss their plans to finish completing a large craft and bring these "guests" that they have with them.

In a New York City alley, the Ninja Turtles face an all too familiar scene - carapaces against an alley wall while a street gang - this time, the Madhattan Maulitia - have them cornered. While the four of them are more of a match for the fifteen dullards in the Maulitia, the Turtles decide to take the rooftops as soon as possible to gain some distance between them and their foes. After a moment of reflection, they head on their way, only to find they are less safe than they had hoped, as the Maulitia has somehow followed them up with snowmobiles. After trouncing the Maulitia up on the rooftops and heading back down, Donatello comes across a snowmobile all on its lonesome and steals it. Michelangelo tries to get Don's attention for a ride in the treacherous snow, but his brother doesn't hear him and Mike slips and falls in the street. Moments later, he's hit by a bus, and a costumed character named Magnrok finds him, carrying him into an alley calling someone in to pick him up.

Meanwhile, Don rides the snowmobile into a subway and loses control, crashing it through a wall, where he finds an old, abandoned armored truck.

April and Casey head out to a fertility doctor, while Shadow trains with Metal Head. After their sparring session, Shadow worries about the outcome of the appointment. Splinter dismisses it as the impatience of a teenager, but Shadow has a premonition that big things are in store for the entire world.

Michelangelo wakes up in an ambulance to find paramedics working on him. He freaks out and tries to escape, but the paramedics warn him not to open the door. Mike pays no heed to them and does so anyway, instantly falling out and finding that the ambulance is flying. Michelangelo holds on to a handle to prevent himself from falling, but he is still dizzy and injured and loses his grip. Fortunately, a flying superhero, Raptarr, happens to be in the area and catches Mikey as he passes back out. Raptarr returns him to the ambulance.

Leonardo and Raphael return to the lair, with Raph complaining about how cold he is. Leo turns up the heat and offers to make Raph some hot chocolate, and discuss The Jones' decision to try for a child of their own. Leo then asks if they should look for their brothers, they haven't seen since the scuffle with the Madhattan Maulitia. Raph declines due to the weather and suggests Mikey's having the time of his life in the snow anyway.

Mikey wakes up again, this time strapped to a hospital bed. A woman on a video screen insists he stay put, but Mike just wants to get out of there. The woman says he's free to leave as long as he checks out at the front desk, and that his effects are in a nearby closet. He wonders aloud why the staff hasn't freaked out due to him being a mutant turtle. It is at this moment that Mikey sees that the patients at this hospital are a little out of the ordinary, consisting of various costumed adventurers and non-humans.

A Doctor Singh approaches Michelangelo with some orderlies and tells him he needs to return to his room. Mikey refuses and begins to fight with the orderlies, before they are interrupted by a man approaching in a wheelchair - the Turtles' old friend Pat, aka Zippy Lad of the Justice Force. Pat takes charge of Mikey and lets Singh and the orderlies be on their way, explaining to the turtle that he is in Kurtzburg Memorial Hospital, a special hospital for aliens, heroes, mutants, and other oddities, and one of only three places like it in the world. Pat happens to be on the hospital's board of directors and saw Mike come in while he was at a budget meeting, and vouched for him. Pat convinces Mike to get back in bed and rest up.

Back at the lair, Donatello rushes in, excited, and coaxes Casey and Raph to follow him to a discovery he's made. Leo stays behind so he can watch Junkyard Wars in peace. Don leads Raph and Casey to the abandoned armored truck he'd found, and the three of them examine the vehicle, taking notes of what would need to be cleaned and fixed to get it running again, and finding the moldy corpses of some apparent robbers inside, including a skeleton in the back wearing 1970s garb and still holding onto a gun. Don and Casey leave to get some batteries and cleaning supplies, leaving Raph to bemoan being stuck there with the "dead guys".

Shadow leaves for a clandestine rendezvous with her boyfriend Jay, while Splinter worries for her safety in the snow. When she meets up with Jay, she suggests that they go to the Jones Farm and warm up by the fireplace, but he reminds her that it's supposed to be abandoned and the last time they were there, someone called the police on them. Instead, he pesters her about going back to her place and meeting her "famously reclusive grandfather", which she turns down.

Meanwhile, on the moon, the Utroms accomplish another phase on their mysterious plan.

In the jungles of Venezuela, a research team discovers a strange life form. Meanwhile, in the Big Apple, Casey, Raph and Don get the abandoned armored car running, much to the dismay of the local New Yorkers. Master Splinter and Shadow are enraptured by the television coverage of an invasion of Unidentified Flying Objects.

The Utroms finally reveal themselves to the word in a very public display. Karai fantasizes facing the turtles in battle while her aid keeps her updated on the news about the alien arrival. After watching the tv coverage of the Utroms Michelangelo and Raphael decide to get a closer look when the stumble on a mysterious robot in the sewers.

REVIEW

As I mentioned before, the Archie TMNT comic was my gateway to the world of comic-books. But because of the indie nature of the Turtles, their comics were really hard to get from outside of the US.

As a result, collecting them was frustrating, and in any case, getting all of them was futile. It wasn’t until around 2005, that I started getting TMNT comics for real.

At the time I started with colored collected editions (First), and eventually this and Tales came up, as those were being published at the time. As a result, I got almost all of the issues for both series. I was really impressed, not only by the story, but also by the interaction of Peter Laird with the fans, and how he would keep us up to date with his life. Eventually I started watching the 2003 cartoon (also, not something I had access to at the time it was broadcasted) which was heavily influenced by Peter Laird, and some of its concepts would appear in Tales.

This is a very long story, that as far as I know, it’s incomplete and there is little hope for it to be ever finished. I do hope at some point Peter Laird takes advantage of that “18 issues a year” deal he made with Viacom and make it happen.

While both, Eastman and Laird were fans of Jack Kirby, it is very obvious in this run that Laird may have been even more. Case in point, the “Kurtzberg” hospital sequence. It’s not gonna be the last time we see Kirby inspired things in the book.

When the book starts, we get the idea that there was a time jump since the last time we saw these characters (1995), but when I saw Shadow so grown up, I realized how much time really passed. I mean, the turtles are technically still teenagers, compared to how much turtles live. But they are kind... 30 now?

Perhaps the most significant thing about this run is the Utrom non-invasion of Earth. Whenever I think of Laird’s writing, my mind goes back to this story. The way he looks at sci-fi is very positive (especially considering that the Alien visit happens right after 9-11). In a way, his writing is very similar to that of Jack Kirby, who would often dedicate pages to concepts and ideas that would make life cooler.

Jim Lawson is back, and luck us, he is being inked (and toned) by Laird and Talbot.

Perhaps the main problem with this title is the pacing of the story. As the book is bi-monthly, it takes forever for a ship to land on Earth (7 months). This is not unusual in indie comics, but it makes the first issue a bit uneventful.

I give these issues a score of 8.

#peter laird #michael dooney #jim lawson #mirage studios #comics #review #2001 #2002 #modern age #indie #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles

[douxreviews]

Cloak and Dagger - ‘Alignment Chart’ Review

"The next time you get mad at me for going out and doing something on my own? Remember this moment."

Cloak and Dagger's second season really starts to gel, in an episode that subverts our expectations in the best possible ways.

Pity about the framing device, though.

It's a difficult trick for a show to pull off, to have a character that the viewers are absolutely convinced is evil suddenly turn on a dime and be revealed to be good. It's an equally difficult task to do the reverse and have a character that the viewers trust completely suddenly be revealed as evil. Because in both cases you have to find ways to convince the audience enough of one thing, but not so much that it feels forced or unbelievable once you reveal that the opposite is true.  And you can't hedge your initial impressions of the character too much or everyone is going to see the reveal coming.

The good people at Cloak and Dagger managed both this week, and I never saw either of them coming for even a moment.

Well played, Cloak and Dagger writers' room. Extraordinarily well played.

At the end of the previous episode we saw Connors, the unambiguously bad, comprehensibly evil foe from season one released from the dark dimension inside of Ty Johnson. When last seen, our unrepentant villain was scrambling out of the window of the abandoned church, and enough time had been spent during that episode examining Ty's fears as to whether he'd be able to stop Connors from hurting his family again if he ever got out that we never for a moment questioned that that's what Connors would want to do. The focus was entirely on the question 'can we stop him', nicely misdirecting us from the question 'Is that what Connors is likely to do?'

Because, if you think about it for a moment, Connors has spent eight months trapped alone inside a dimension who's entire raison d'etre is to scare the holy crap out of people with their own sins. Scared straight is what Cloak's cloak does, and while I admit it hasn't been overtly presented that way to a great extent yet in the show, they certainly hinted at it enough in last week's episode for us to put the pieces together when Connors reveals his abrupt about face toward penitence here.

It was a good structural decision as well to only show him collecting all of his things without dialog for the first half of the episode. It very much read as sinister while being totally explicable once we're told that he was collecting the evidence against himself to give to Ty. Gold stars to J.D. Evermore tonight. His ability to simultaneously express that degree of fear and self loathing really sold the reveal.

My only minor quibbles with this side of the story are that Ty and his father were awfully slow to start believing that Connors repentance might be genuine. Which is totally fair and believable, given what he did to their family, but felt a little repetitive as a televised drama. Also, I understand that they're plotting an adventure story, and so the heist to get the magic file of concrete proof to get Ty's name cleared was as good a plot device as any, but even in New Orleans, Connors confession with the items of evidence that he produced to verify his story would have been sufficient.

Besides, I suspect at least part of the point to that plot thread was building up to us meeting Connors' Senator Uncle later on. I can't imagine that he'll be a good guy.

And let's be absolutely clear on one point, because the show went out of its way to be clear. Connors' remorse is absolutely genuine. When Ty shows him his greatest fear it's him putting handcuffs on himself over and over again only to have them fall off over and over again. He's afraid of not being allowed to be punished.

On the other side of the coin, Tandy gets in deep with Lea, the leader of her abuse survivors support group in what can only be charitably describes as a hail Mary attempt to get more information about who's abducting the girls by going after Lea's ex-boyfriend who apparently is untouchable because he grows an extraordinary amount of pot.

And yes, when you lay it out like that, that plot line doesn't really make a fig of sense. But the good news is that it doesn't really have to, since it only exists to set up the reveal that Lea is coordinating the abductions. Well staged, on that particular moment; the ambulance appeared in shot just long enough for the penny to begin to drop before Lea unleashed her taser. Really well structured, and the earlier reveal about Connors secretly having turned good was both a nice mirror for Lea being evil, but also had us wrong footed enough that we didn't see this reveal coming any more than we had the Connors' one. As a group counselor for abused women, Lea had been implicitly 'vouched for' as being a decent person, but of course it makes perfect sense that she would use the group to identify women that no one will miss in order to abduct them.

Which brings me to the framing device of Tandy telling an unseen group of revelers a tedious story about a farmer and a viper. It's a thinly veiled spin on the 'frog gives a scorpion a ride' anecdote, and I can't imagine that anyone was surprised with where the story went or what the moral was. That said, the subtle red/blue lighting notes were a nicely understated clue as to where she really was while she was dreaming this, and in hindsight the message 'people who you are trying to help might turn around and hurt you' was a warning about where Tandy's storyline was going, not Ty's, so that's a nice rug pull. At the end of the day, one thing that this show has difficulty with is it's tendency to experiment with theatrical framing devices that come off as a little heavy handed and forced. Still, 'try's too hard' is hardly the worst sin a show can commit.

Bits and Pieces:

-- Apparently Mayhem is still in the dark dimension, and her absence seems to be making Brigid fall apart. That tracks, if they're sharing a soul.

-- I wonder if Brigid ever wondered why her refrigerator was beaten up and laying in the stairwell when she got out of the hospital. Like, I absolutely would have asked some followup questions about that.

-- The ongoing theme of the last couple of episodes seems to be that Ty and Tandy need to stop trying to work alone and need to start teaming up.

-- Otis is making a new cloak! I love Otis.

-- Tandy is understandably worried about her mother having a couple of drinks, which is fair. But she overreacts to her mother meeting a doctor and tries to turn it into some sort of class issue as an excuse to project some more or her own survivor-anger.

-- Tandy's mom likes Ty. Ty's mom does not like Tandy.

-- Leaving someone who hurts you is not easy.

-- Very nice call back to Maman Brigitte's symbol and the way they use it to bring Ty face to face with Connors.

-- It's totally not safe to do that with bullets though. Under no circumstances try that at home.

-- Connors kept instinctively putting Billy's death in the passive voice and getting corrected on it. To his credit, he seemed to accept the correction and eventually stopped trying phrasing it that way.

-- Otis says he's making the new cloak for himself. That does not bode well for him surviving the season, does it.

-- Lea doesn't know about Tandy's powers. What on earth was she expecting to happen at the big pot warehouse?

-- Fuchs first name was apparently 'Kenneth'. I confess myself disappointed.

Quotes:

Tandy: "Apparently there's no cell reception in your hoodie."

Tandy: "Can I talk to them?" Andre: "The angel and the shadow?" Tandy: "No, the rescued girls."

Lea: "Seems like your ex brought out the worst in you, not the best." Tandy: "Is it possible someone can do both?"

Ty: "Your mom done freaking out?" Tandy: "She was. But then I freaked her out all over again."

Tandy: "In order for her to tell me more, I need to find some common ground." Ty: "So... so, who am I? Your abusive boyfriend or your pimp?" Tandy: "I mean, either one will do." Ty: "So you called your black friend." Tandy: "No, I called my best friend." Ty's right to be angry on this one, but I can't help but wonder if she'd said 'only' friend that his response might have been a little different. Because it's true.

A solid episode with just a few minor quibbles. I'm loving how this season is shaping up. 

Three out of four missing refrigerators.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

#Cloak and Dagger #Tandy Bowen #Tyrone Johnson #Brigid O'Reilly #Mayhem #Marvel #MCU #Cloak and Dagger Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

[larahonnor]

My 4 year Cancerversary... where am I now?

Tuesday 9th October 2018

Writing this doesn’t feel real. When I started this blog I didn’t know where it would lead me or if it would end prematurely. But this blog, sharing my story has opened so many doors. IT FOUND ME LOVE! I’m married to the most wonderful man because of this blog. I always felt, even if my writing only helps one person who reads this then I have achieved what I set out to do. It’s so important to help others who are going through the same experience. It’s a survivors duty I think.

I haven’t properly written for almost 2 years. Life moves on and you forget you even had the C bomb.

BUT I’M VERY MUCH ALIVE! Still in remission and hanging on to get past that 5 year cancer free milestone.

After I finished all my treatment back in June 2015, being Triple Negative, I didn’t have to have any continuous hormone treatment so that was it. Goodbye Cancer. Hello new life. Just a mammogram once a year and that’s the only thing left I have to do with Cancer.

And what has happened since then?

From London I moved to be with my love Mikey in Brighton, we got married and then moved to Somerset to be near his family, the best place to be whilst he waited for a double lung transplant due to his Cystic Fibrosis.

In August this year after waiting over 2 years and 3 false alarms our prayers were finally answered and Mikey had a double lung transplant.

Cancer taught me that miracles do happen and this next chapter in our lives has shown us again. The operation was a huge success and Mikey’s new life, our new healthy life together, is just getting started. To follow Mikey’s transplant journey have a peek below:

So what has cancer taught me?

Everything.

And.

Nothing.

At first the small trivial things just don’t matter. They get brushed aside without any hesitation. But as time goes by that wears off. I find myself getting het up over the smallest of things. Like laundry and cleaning and cooking and if my train gets cancelled, I have a full blown balling my eyes out melt down. The train conductor in Yeovil knows me quite well now.

And just because I’ve had cancer certainly doesn’t mean I’ve turned into a Saint. I get grumpy and I swear a lot when really I should be putting things into perspective and reminding myself everyday how lucky I am to be alive. Which I do try to do. After saying a few f**k offs for good measure.

Basically I’ve gone back to being the same old me. Except I have a gorgeous husband and 2 scrummy dogs.

Actually ‘normal’ life is truly wonderful. In fact I bloody love it. Hanging out with my hubbership and the dogs is pure bliss. So maybe I should view getting stressed over the little things as a gift. It means I’m alive and not ill!

Cancer you have also taught me everything.

Nature was my saviour throughout my treatment. A 20 minute walk a day with Edward round the pretty little park nearby was my happy medicine. Fresh air, trees, plants, green grass, squirrels and the birds were my daily boost. Or on sunny days I’d jump in the car and drive to the sea to recharge and energise. This feeling has stayed with me ever since and I’m having a bit of a career change in the direction of Therapeutic Horticulture. Since moving to Somerset I’ve been working in a Nursery which specialises in plants for shade.

This sounds a bit cheesy but one day at work I had what can only be described as an epiphany.

I noticed a Hosta... with drops of water on it sparkling in the sun. It was quite simply the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. More beautiful than any diamond. And it suddenly hit me.

Nature is the answer to everything.

Plants have always been my thing in the background whilst growing up. I have my parents love of gardening to thank for that. My old housemates will vouch for me, there was always something growing on our balcony and roof terrace. In fact I even scrambled across the roof to plant more flowers for the insects and Bees!

Cancer didn’t find me nature. It brought it back to me. Reconnecting with nature and surrounding myself with flowers and growing my own veg is so incredibly healing.

It’s even proven that the bacterium in soil stimulates seretonin levels. So next time you get your hands dirty remember it’s actually helping you get happy.

This September I started a Diploma in Social and Therapeutic Horticulture at Coventry University in the hope that I will get a job in this field, helping people suffering from mental and physical illness through the healing powers of plants and nature, one day maybe even starting my own project.

Life is good. I’m so very blessed to have found my darling Mikey - thank you cancer for that - and I’m so very blessed for all the amazing souls in my life who I love with all my heart. Thank you thank you thank you. You all know who you are.

I will dip in and out of this blog from time to time. It has been my friend and my lifeline reaching out to all you wonderful people. The internet and Social media can be a dark place but it can also be the most wonderful means of communication and expression.

Always know wherever you are you’re not alone. Go outside and look at the trees. Breath in the fresh air. Nature is always always there for you just like she’s always been there for me.

💛

My boys.

Our little home in Somerset.

Cheeky Edward.

My very own veg patch.