33This tale takes place in my AU of the TMNT, sometime during the storyline of "Love Is Shell"(Spoiler alert! It comes after Mikey and Orlene's escape from the Technodrome and Raph's party, for those who are interested- so there may be some details here that will not be seen in that tale yet...)
"A Tale of Two Clans"
It was night in the city. Leonardo gazed out over the rooftop, scanning the streets below for signs of trouble. Beside him, Raphael leaned against a chimney stack, boredly twirling one of his sais. Donatello sighed as he paced back and forth; Michelangelo was sitting on the ledge, dangling his feet over the side and making a cat's-cradle from a bit of yellow yarn from Klunk's yarn ball.
"Can we go home, Leo? It's a pretty slow night. I'm BORED!" Mikey complained in frustration. "No Foot, no Purple Dragons, not even a robbery to bust!"
"Ya' got THAT right. I still say we should'a gone over to the Bowery instead of hangin' out here." Raph growled in agreement. "Startin' ta think I should'a gone wit' Casey instead of you guys."
"I'm with Raph and Mikey on this one, Leo. Maybe we should call it a night?" I said, sighing. I was just as bored as they were, sitting next to Mikey with legs crossed on the casement. I absently flipped
"It's still early. Give it a little longer. Something will turn up." The blue-banded leader replied. I tapped my fingers idly on my knee, wishing SOMETHING would happen to make our nightly patrol worthwhile. Almost as if on cue, we suddenly heard the sound of an alarm about a block down on the street below. Leo turned to us and grinned. "See? Patience is a virtue. I TOLD you something would come up! Now let's go, team." He said. I wanted to punch him in his smug beak.
We raced across the rooftops to the source of the sound, and quickly spotted four men- judging from the number of figures inside the jewelry store below us- smashing cases and scooping up baubles like kids in a candy store. I looked down and scowled in disappointment. "Well, poo- looks like there aren't enough playmates to go around. Guess I'll have to sit this one out, guys." I said sourly. I might be spending too much time patrolling with Raph and Casey. But then, how ELSE am I supposed to get experience?
Donatello shook his head and chuckled. "You can have mine if you want. This is more your kind of game than mine anyway." He waved gallantly down at the street. "Ladies first, after all!" I laughed, and patted his arm.
"Thanks, Donnie, don't mind if I DO! Better luck next time!" I replied, and followed Leo and the others down while he waited on the roof to play look-out. If he spotted trouble- which would probably come in the form of NYPD squad cars- he would signal us on our shell-cells.
It was a quick and easy battle, so much so that I almost wished I'd let Don go instead. I'm not even sure I could call something that one-sided a battle, since the thieves gave up as soon as they realized their shadowy opposition had them outmatched. In little more than a minute, we had them trussed up like a Christmas turkey. Leo and Raph left them hanging from a lamp-post outside, just in time for the police to arrive. We vanished like smoke in the wind back up to the roof across the street.
"Well, THAT was a fun way to kill five minutes," Raph muttered in disappointment. "Anybody got any ideas how to spend the REST of the evenin'?"
"I say we pack it in," Donnie said with a sigh. "It HAS been kind of a slow night. I could be home working on those new tracer shuriken. I upgraded the design."
"And I could be hittin' the next level on my new game!" Mikey agreed emphatically. I stifled a laugh at his latest gaming obsession. He glanced over and shrugged. "What?! At least it's more entertaining than watching traffic!"
"Face it, bros- crime just ain't what it used to be in this town," Raph growled roughly. Leo chuckled at his hot-headed sibling's frustration.
"Let's head over to Soho and see if there's anything going on there," he said at last, realizing the natives were restless. The last thing we needed was a bored and annoyed Raphael on our hands- it tends to lead to mayhem and destruction….
Several blocks later, we finally ran into some excitement in the form of a group of armed men attempting to kidnap a woman dressed in a fancy evening gown and fur stole from a high-class hotel. They were holding a gun to her head as they dragged her into a waiting car and took off. Raph let out a shout of elation and bounded off across the rooftops after the car. Donnie just shook his head, resigned to his brother's rash tendencies, and pulled a throwing star from his belt pouch.
"Well, now's as good a time to test the new model out as any!" He said with a gleam in his eyes from the edge of the roof. He chucked the star forcefully down at the back of the car as it screeched away, and nodded in satisfaction when it stuck in the back bumper. Then he and Leo took off after their brother, and I followed close behind
I paused when I realized Mikey wasn't with us; I glanced back to find him standing on the edge of the rooftop, looking over at the clock tower atop the police station across the street with a puzzled expression. I leapt back across to rejoin him, wondering what held his attention. He seemed to be contemplating something, and the oddly intent look in his eyes told me that something was amiss, even if nothing appeared out of the ordinary.
"Mike? What's wrong?" I asked curiously, following his gaze. I didn't see anything of interest, but with Mikey, one never knew what might catch his eye.
"There's somethin' funny about that tower," he said after a moment, scratching his head. "We came by here last week, and there were a bunch of gargoyle statues on that casement in front of the clock. Now they're gone. And this isn't the FIRST time I've noticed 'em missin', either."
"Maybe you're thinking of a different building, Mikey, There must be dozens of buildings with gargoyle statues on them in this city!" I said, shrugging. I wondered why he was so concerned with a bunch of "missing" statues- but then, he was known to be easily distracted by even the most minor of oddities, and knowing Mikey, I wouldn't have put it past him to have cooked up some new prank.
"No way. It was right THERE, I'm SURE of it! I know, 'cause I've been wantin' to come up here and draw 'em. They're not like any others in the whole city! These are the most life-like ones I've ever seen, and I could almost SWEAR they change position. I think- well, don't laugh, but I think maybe they're alive!"
I gave him a skeptical stare, but decided to humor him. After all, I'd seen enough weirdness since meeting the brothers to realize that almost ANYTHING was possible. "Maybe they've just been removed for repairs or something. Maybe someone just got tired of having them there, or wanted to put them somewhere safe, away from the weather and the pigeons."
"Nope- don't think so. Every time we patrol this part of town, I see 'em sittin' over there, but sometimes they just- look different. It's hard to explain, y'know? Like when you feel like someone's watchin' you, even though you don't see anyone there? It's like that, only the statues look like they're not in exactly the same pose every time, or sometimes a couple of them are switched. And then a few times, they've been just- gone. Like tonight. It's just plain fishy, if ya' ask me."
"Okay, but can you PROVE it?" I asked pointedly.
Michelangelo frowned, deep in thought for a few moments, then suddenly snapped his fingers with a look of inspiration. "I got it! You have your phone on you?" He asked, and gestured impatiently at me to hand it to him when I nodded. After a few seconds spent futilely trying to press buttons, he handed it back to me with an annoyed sigh. "Here, YOU do it. These buttons are too darn small for my fat fingers!" He said, exasperated. "Look up photos of the station. Those gargoyles are bound to be in 'em!"
"Hey, good thinking!" I replied, then swiftly searched the web on my phone.. In seconds, I had pulled up dozens of photos of the tower. It didn't take long to notice a glaring inconsistency; in all of the daytime shots, there were several gargoyle statues. The older images showed six, but the latest ones had added a seventh- and that one was clearly female, while the others- with the exception of one dog-like one that was different from the rest- were all apparently male.
What was more interesting was that they did indeed seem to change poses slightly in some of the photos. It was subtle; an arm shifted, a tail curled one way in one image, and held out behind in another, or a change in the expressions of their stony faces. But the most glaring detail was the conspicuous absence of any statues in the photos taken at night. It was as if the statues simply disappeared from the casement once the sun went down. And it was the same in EVERY ONE.
I also noticed that the statues had only been there for a little over two years. Further searching revealed that they had previously been part of an ancient Scottish castle that was transported stone by stone and reassembled here in the city- at the top of one of the tallest and most well-known buildings in Manhattan- the Xanacorp tower. Somehow the statues had been moved from the castle to the clock tower above the police station. I was beginning to think that the gargoyles themselves had decided to move.
Mikey gazed down over my shoulder curiously, his eyes lighting up when he saw the images on the small screen. "See? I KNEW it! I'm NOT crazy!" He exclaimed, and I shot a sideways glance at him, wondering if he was saying it to convince ME, or if he had begun to doubt his own mind. Knowing Mikey, maybe a bit of both.
"Okay, so now what?" I asked. "Should we tell the others?"
He shook his head, and grinned. "Nope. I say we do a little recon- NINJA-style! If those things ARE alive, I want to see 'em close up!" He pulled out his grapple and gave me an impish look. "Care to join in a bit of sleuthing, mademoiselle?" He said, holding out his elbow gallantly. I laughed, and stepped close with a nod of excitement.
"Sure, why not! I'm always up for a little fun with my favorite mutant hero!" I chuckled; he swung his line out across the street to anchor on the casement of the police station.
"Heh, just call me the Turtle Titan," he replied smugly, as he bent down for me to hop on his back. "Teen Turtle Titan, GO!" He shouted, and leapt off to swing across.