Chapter Text
"Okay. Let's go over this one more time.” The slider heard his brother groan out dramatically and then watched him run a hand down an emotionally tired face. He snickered a bit at Donatello’s distressed as he viewed his lined up color clad brothers with about the same amount of patients an elementary school teacher had with their pupils at the end of the week.
“Maybe this time you dumb-dumbs will finally remember all the rules.” He continued, the soft shell taking extra care to look Leonardo over with the face of a disappointed parent. Leo felt like when Donnie was looking at him like that he thought his IQ was dropping every second.
Just to antagonize him he made sure to put his best thousand-yard stare he could muster on his face. Making sure to really put emphasis on the pupils drifting in opposite directions. It seemed to work because he saw one of Donnie’s eyebrows twitch paired with a supercilious side-eye.
“No splitting up, no touching the anything, that means no LICKING them Leonardo,-" he looked directly at him again
"Hey!" Not fair. He wasn’t planning on licking them. Well, maybe NOW he was considering it. But again only to antagonize him.
"no running, no climbing, no loud noises over 70 decibels. Mikey, no getting distracted. Which means no video games, no texting, and NO-"
The softshell pauses his rant snatching the skateboard out of his hands and out of his grip. gaining another 'hey!' from Leo.
"-Skateboarding in the tunnels." He finishes glaring at his brother and Leonardo just rolls his eyes, crosses his arms over his chest, and starts tapping his foot impatiently. If he had gloves and red sneakers he probably looks like a video game character,
“So can we go now?!” Mikey asked excited hopping from one foot to the other excitedly looking from Donnie to Raph and then back to Donnie. Leonardo could understand Mikey's inpatients. They had only been standing here realistically for 10 minutes going over cave exploration safety protocol, but when Donnie was explaining it, it felt more like a million years.
Mayyyyybe they would have been done by now and we'll down the cave system If Leo hadn't raised his hand and asked the viability of skateboarding in a cave that led them to another five-minute rant about safety.
“Yeah Dee, we have been over this a few times. I think we are ready to start moving” when Raph speaks to the other three looking to their leader ready to listen. Including Leo. Apparently, even Raph was done just standing there.
It still looked like Donatello wasn’t ready to release them yet and Leo knows how to faintly get the crew moving.
Leonardo leaned against his odachi and made a big show of his fake yawn. Hook
“I think Donnie is just chicken.” Line.
“What?” Annnnnd sinker.
Leo casually swings his odachi around, doing some practice swings with his Leonardo brand of disinterest.
“It’s okay Donnie. If you're afraid of whatever is making the tunnels under New York you can stay behind. I, Mikey, and Raph got this one.” He makes sure to wave Donnie off over his shoulder and he can practically feel the eyebrow twitch radiating off of the softshell.
Mikey seems to catch onto the game with a big smile. He wraps an arm around Leonardo’s shoulder hanging off the taller turtle with a wide grin.
“Yeah Leo, he’s probably scared of the crazy mindless monster That's been robbing the hidden city left and right. It’s okay Donnie, we can protect you.”
Leo’s smug shit-eating grin grows with every second of Donnies’ irritation. He sees Donnie pinch the place where his brow and nose would meet (if he had one) and let out a long-suffering sigh.
“No. It’s not some mindless monster...” he pulls up a holo screen on his wrist displaying a few newspaper articles. Ones Leo had familiarize himself with and was already bored over.
”the tunnels have been connected to several robberies all over Newyork and in the hidden city. They are organized. and DIGG was performing those nights had an alibi….” he trails off tapping away on his communicator.
“Still don’t see you denying your scaaarrred” the cheeky bastard slider sings. Donatello puffs up his chest, brows furrowed. Mikey and Leo share a snicker.
“Alright. If the clowns think they are ready then we can get moving. Everyone suit up. Raph. You can take it from here.” Donatello steps to the side, fully exposing the gaping maw of a hole that was intercepting a sewer.
It existed like it was a mistake, probably was, like someone took a left turn when they should have taken a right, or maybe down? And they crashed through the sewer walls like a dump truck backing up into a fire hydrant only to guilty pull away and hope no one noticed the spewing water.
"Okay team!" Raph declares as he puts his hands on his hips confidently effectively pulling Leo out of his musing of wet garbage trucks
"We stick together like Donnie said and walk down the tunnel created by this thing until we find the yokai. Once we find it, if it's friendly we kindly ask it to stop tunneling so close to the surface."
He grins widely his snaffle tooth displayed proudly at his seemingly simple plan. It was straight forward enough that even Leonardo could follow it.
Still… something about this whole situation concerned him.
Leonardo took note of the cobbled bricks of the sewer that gave away to fresh dirt and stone. Leonardo tried to picture the mutant that did this.
Something large no doubt judging by the size of the tunnels carved out of the earth. But it was smart too. It never dug its way close to the surface where it would risk getting caught by humans and it easily avoided water pipes and gas lines buried under New York.
He rubbed his chin thinking to himself. Probably not a misguided yokai then. They wouldn't know what a gas line or water pipes were. A mutated human, however...
A small hand shoots up "And what if the yokai is not friendly?" Mikey asked looking to his three brothers.
"Oh, that's easy. We smash it!" Raph declares with a fist in the air.
"I don't think it's a yokai that did this" Leo interjects leaning on his sword casually. The three brothers’ attention is now on him and he now regrets opening his mouth. How does Raph deal with that all the time?
He swallowed feeling the pressure but refusing to let it show. "I think it's a mutant doing this."
"Mmm and pray tell why you think that Leonardo?" A skeptic Donatello asked. Leo just shrugs casually already done with this kind of attention.
"Ah, no reason. Just hoping we get to fight something with mystic powers for once." He puts on his award-winning smile gaining a fond look from Mikey and Raph but an agitated one from Donnie. Ah, whatever. It was much easier to pretend to be the group clown than to explain his thought process to his brother's.
"Well , whatever it is, we need to stop it. And that means to quit standing around and actually moving."
That seems to be the end of the conversations because now everyone is moving to attach their harnesses provided by Donnie around their shells and shouldering their Donnie issued backpacks.
Leonardo does an extra step and attaches his Jupiter Jim fanny pack around his waist double-checking the strap to make sure it’s secure.
"I'm sorry, is that contraband. I see?" Donnie is at his side now and pointing to his bag around his waist. Leonardo puts a hand on it protectively.
"Relax bro, it's nothing that is on your contraband list. Everything in here is necessary." He claims with a smile.
"I would believe you if I hadn't already issued a backpack with everything we will need." Leo rolls his eyes already feeling another lecture.
"Flashlight, glow sticks, two water bottles, protein packs, extra batteries-" he lists off on his hands but the soft she paused scratching his head thinking.
"No...I'm not forgetting anything" he mutters to himself. Leonardo slings an arm over his brother's neck while Raph is helping Mikey get untangled from the gear that he has somehow already got caught in.
" Yeah yeah I read the email chain. But Think again." He taps Donnie's forehead watching his flinch at the motion before pushing him away
"Your gear was forgetting one important nothing. But not to worry dear brother. I Leonardo took care of it" he unzips the bag to display the metaphorical treasure.
Inside the colorful space-themed fanny pack was a first aid kit put together by the slider himself. Normally he would keep everything they needed in his small pack that hung off his belt.
However, with them going much deeper he thought it prudent to beef up his normal supplies. In doing so it quickly outgrew the space of his one pack and he decides to transfer everything to his Jupiter Jim bag. It had slightly more room and gave him better access to everything.
Plus he looked amazing in it.
Donatello peered into the unzipped bag with a scrutinizing eye and seeing nothing that was on the banned list pulled away rubbing his chin thinking.
"Hmm yes...I suppose I may have overlooked one small detail." His shoulder sagged slightly brows furrowed slightly and Leonardo recognized it as Donnie's version of shame. Leo was quick to recover patting Donnie on the side of his shoulder.
"No man, you didn't forget anything. You told me to get the med-pack together remember?" A lie. Not even a good one. But Leonardo didn't want his brother to feel bad like he forgot something. Sure he liked to tease Donnie, get under his shell a bit but he never took it far enough to make his brother genuinely sad. Or at least he tried to. Donnie raises an eyebrow seeming unconvinced and Leonardo answers it with a smile.
"Yeah Dee, you said that putting all the tech and supplies together for today's mission was a bit too much so your big smart brain decided to delicate. Remember?" A little flattery wedged in there never hurt and he hoped Donnie would go for it.
"Mmm y-yes! Of course, I remember! Good job me" he boasts buying into Leonardo's bullshit easily.
Crisis adverted.
At this point, Mikey and Raph are now all tangled up in their harnesses and geat and THAT takes another five minutes to untangle them.
After that, they don their headlamps and descend into the cave.
Donnie pauses once again rubbing his chin thinking in place.
"You good Dee?" Leonardo asked again?
"Yeah just going over everything in my head to make sure I didn't forget anything…I feel like I'm forgetting something important."
"Don't worry about it, Dee. I'm sure we covered everything."
But Donatello didn't look so convinced. He eventually shrugged letting it go.
"How come we are listening to Donnie today?" Asked Mikey tilting his head to the right with his inquiry.
Leonardo puts his arms over his head and stretches.
"I don't know. Raph put him in charge of safety for this mission or something" he mutters
Mikey's cheeks puff up with a pout.
"How come I'm never put in charge of anything important? I want to be in charge!" He shouts with indignation that makes Leo smile chucking.
"Don't worry Mikey being in charge is waaaaasy overrated trust me." he draws out rolling his eyes a bit to add to the dramatic flair.
"But it's not faiiiirr. It feels like Raph doesn't trust me." He pouted again crossing his arms over his chest in front of Leo.
Leo patted the box turtles she'll twice to comfort him.
"Awww it's okay Mikey. Raph trusts you, and I'm sure he'll put you in charge of something important once he knows your ready for it." Leonardo reassures with a confident smile that seems to be contagious because his younger brother is grinning back at him with twice the charisma.
"Yeah! And when Raph does he's gonna put me in charge of something SUPER important. And I can't WAIT for that day to come" Leonardo could count at least ten stars in Mikey's eyes as he spoke.
"That's the spirit!"
He smiles brightly watching the backs of his brothers as they walk down the newly formed tunnel.
Leo took note of how the walls around them were dirt and not stone, it felt differently against the pads of his feet compared to the harsh concrete he used to.
That's not what was interesting though what fascinated him was now the earth was almost perfectly smooth like whoever was making these tunnels wasn't digging through but pushing through.
He rubs his chin glancing around thinking. It's as if the tunnels were made by making the dirt disappear rather than moving it. But that would require either yokai level of magic or some seriously intense machinery.
Maybe it wasn't mutants. Because the only person he knew that could pull off making something that ingenious was two turtles in front of him.
His hand rest I'm the wall, feeling the smooth packed dirt beneath it.
Well whatever it is...his brother's and him would be alright.