CHAPTER FOUR
Back at the Turtles' lair, Michelangelo's absence was being noticed at the dinner table.
"Any idea where he went off to?" Raphael asked as Donatello handed him the salt shaker.
"Yeah, we prepared this pizza specially to help raise his spirits after the cookie fiasco, it's not like him to skip a meal like this" Leonardo replied.
"Maybe there's something else that's eating away at him" Donatello theorized.
"Oh please, Michelangelo's the most laid back of all of us, whatever could be weighing heavily on him?" Raphael asked as he tucked into Michelangelo's slice of pizza, having finished his own portion and not wanting good food to go to waste.
"Remember what he said one of the perks of injesting that reverse mutagen was he would get to pick up chicks? There was something in his voice that makes me think he did'nt mean that light-heartedly" said Donatello.
"You don't think that time we were laced with a love potion and went crazy for Irma stayed with him do you?" Leonardo asked
"Mikey's had a crush on someone even before then, remember Kala of the Neutrinos? These experiances, both past and recent, may have given Michelangelo hope that he could feel something similar for someone else more down to Earth" Donatello replied.
"Ok, but if Michelangelo is'nt infatuated with Irma like the rest of us were, and Kala is a whole dimension away, who else is there?" Raphael aske, before he suddenly caught himself entertaining a stirring notion in his mind.
"No...no it could'nt be" he said aloud, and went back to finishing off Michelangelo's portion.
Suddenly, the entire room was rocked with a violent explosion which knocked the Turtles off of thier chairs
"What in sam hill was that?" said Raphael as he cradled his head, having landed on the floor hard.
"It came from my lab" said Donatello.
The Turtles dashed towards the source of the disruption, finding a smouldering concotion within the trash can.
"It's the anti-mutagen. It exploded" annalyzed Donatello as he scooped up what remained of the box containing the cookies.
"So if we had taken those things, not only would we have been able to mix in with mankind, we'd also be walking time bombs?"
"It's a good thing none of us tried that stuff" said Leonardo.
"I am afraid one of you did my students" spoke Master Splinter as he joined his students, a note clutched in his hands. He lent it to Donatello, who read it aloud to the others.
''Dear dudes, if these cookies check out, I'll be a dynamic human dude, and just in time for my date. Cowabunga"
"We've got to find Michelangelo and bring him home" said Leonardo.
"Yeah, and when we do, he'll have a lot to answer for...like who he had in mind for a date?" said Raphael, though he already a growing suspicion creeping into the back of his mind.
"Do not be so impetious my students, for you must find a means of curing Michelangelo before you can reach out to him" cautioned Splinter.
"I'll get to work on one right now Master" said Donatello, swiftly putting together a collection of beakers and test tubes filled with various chemicals.
Donatello had his work cut off for him, as the process took up a great deal of his time. Much time had passed, and for Michelangelo, the eleventh hour was upon him.
Or much rather the seventh.
He checked his watch again, just to be sure he wasn't late for this most fateful of appointments.
"7 PM. As Sure as Shirley" he said to himself, almost out of breath.
Outside an apartment building well known to him, the very human Turtle found the process of clambering up the catwalk of the complex exhausting.
"Man, this was so much easier when I was part of the green team" he said.
As luck would have it, April had left her window open, making entering her room a breeze.
Below him, April and the gang had converged on the apartment, April dashed up the steps.
"You sure you know your way around this place?" Lugnut asked.
"Hey, I've been in and out of this apartment block so many times with loot, I practically live in it" April remarked.
If only he knew.
"Give me a few minutes, I'll be back with the stash" she said, and swiftly entered the building.
She made her way to her apartment, fiddled with the lock excitedly, and went inside.
As soon as she entered, Michelangelo came out from behind the freshly opened door, almost catching her off guard.
Almost.
"Yo dudedette" he said, only to be swiftly grabbed by April and violently tossed over to the other side of the room, landing with a rough and thunderous thud.
"Hey, chill out, I'm a friend" said Michelangelo as he nursed his aching sides.
"Oh yeah? Prove it" said April.
"I'm the dude who took out that hot piece of garbage Jersey Red for you" Michelangelo replied.
"So that's how I was able to 'overcome' her, I had help, that means you're also the one to tell me to duck" April realized.
Michelangelo nodded.
"So what are you doing in my apartment?" April asked, heading to her dresser to find a few items that would convince Lugnut and his gang that she had found some goods.
"I'm here to warn you about that gang, mixing in with them isn't groovy girlfriend, what if they find out you're not all you claim to be?" Michelangelo asked.
"Your concern is flattering, but I'm a reporter on a hot story, and I'm not about to let go of it. If push comes to shove, I have friends that can help me take care of any risky buisness...maybe I ought to introduce you to them"
"I've heard about your friends, it's what made me want to take the fight to gangs like yours in the first place" said Michelangelo, now getting a kick out of spinning half-truths about himself to impress April more.
April opened her dresser and took out a few pearl broaches.
"What do you think? Will they settle for some of this junk jewelry of mine, or should I try something a little more expensive?" April said, eager to hear her intruder's opinion.
Before Michelangelo could respond, his adrenlene levels kicked in and his human apperance began to destabalize. He hastily tried to excuse himself, but the suddeness of the transformation caught him off guard.
"What's happening to you?" April asked.
Michelangelo tried to make a quick exit via the open window he had climbed through earlier, but it was too late, he had reverted back to his Turtle form before a startled April's eyes.
"Michelangelo, it's you" April said with a gasp.
"I guess I'd better give you the straight scoop" Michelangelo said, asking April to take a seat on the couch.
He talked for well over ten minutes recapping his entire day, from fending off the thug and saving the 'sweet' old lady, to Donatello testing the cookies, to Michelangelo coming to a fateful decision to take them.
"Mikey, why would you risk everything like this?" said April.
"On any other day I would'nt have taken this radical risk, but today was just different I guess" he said, just as his Turtle-Com went off.
"Irma, can this wait?" Michelangelo replied as April's friend patched through
"I've been trying to reach you all day mister" Irma replied
"Yeah, sorry about that, I only remembered to turn it on when I decided to tail someone I knew, I figured if she got in over her head I could contact the others" Michelangelo explained.
"Well, whoever your friend is, she obviously meant more to you than the date you arranged. April called it off by the way, I did my best to persuade her, but she was all about finding a lead story, not a leading man...or Turtle in your case."
"Uh, Irma, now's really not the right time" said Michelangelo, feeling sweat wash over him as nerves took hold.
"Not that I ever found you guys all that attractive to women anyway...well, ok there was that one time I blushed at Donatello, but that was before he brought up the whole thing with the sattelite dish..." Irma continued, forcing Michelangelo to turn his Turtle-Com off to prevent her from rambling on further.
April, however, had heard enough.
"You...you were my 3: 30?" she realized.
Michelangelo nodded, unsure of what to say, this was the most difficult conflict he had faced yet, as either a Turtle, a human, or as a hero.