ʀɪsᴇ ᴜᴘ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ sʜᴀᴅᴏᴡs!

"De Milo"

      The forest outside New York is peacefully rustling from small streams of wind, clouds are floating steadily, covering some stars, gradually dissolving, allowing the yellow moon to reach the celestial zenith. She's just beginning to illuminate everything with her cold, mysterious light, but you can already make out at least something in the dark. From a bird's-eye view, you can see the river and how it falls down a few meters. There is almost no one here, because it is difficult to get to this place, and it is dangerous in some ways: the water breaks against the powerful stones at the foot and flows in a rapid whirlpool further between the massive boulders. It's better not to go into the water for the next few kilometers, otherwise you'll end up in a bag of meat and bones. The shore is also rocky and overgrown in places. It would never have occurred to anyone that a house built like a castle could be disguised here, the roof of which seemed to divide the river from above into two channels that flowed down along the edges of the fortress overgrown with flowers, and the solid stream of water was only an illusion hiding the presence of a ghost castle standing on boulders.       This castle was a helper soul and showed its appearance only to the owners and their children, with the exception of those who were allowed to enter.       The road to it was from two sides through shallow rivers formed from a stream divided above, which joined into one after a couple of hundred meters, and paths lined with thin, sometimes cracked, tiles led to the castle door, through which flowers made their way, and after a few steps entwined with ivy — it had such a harmless appearance. a dangerous, repulsive illusion, and for good reason, because there was someone to hide in this castle.…

"Hamato"

      Six years have passed since the portal to the monster dimension was closed, at the time of the portal's closure and the turtles dispersed each to their own business and path, only Mikey and Master Splinter remained in the lair. How did you come to this decision? Through a quarrel, and obviously whose. After all, the older the boys got, the less space there was for each of them in the den, creating an even more intense atmosphere of competition for space. Donnie got mixed up with his inventions, which were literally everywhere; Raphael, although he moved away from his secret identity of the "Nightwatcher," still sometimes broke down and attended a new fun - fights without rules, from which the jackpot went to the pharmacy to heal wounds, and since this activity was mostly at night, then During the day, he was annoyed by Mikey playing video games behind the wall almost day and night. And Leo was getting deeper into training and less able to control his maturing brothers. In general, he thought and imagined that the day would come when they would break up, despite the fact that they promised to always be together, and they would gather only for the holidays. And now, it's here:       Leonardo was the first to move out, announcing this right at the dinner table. To the surprised questions about where he would go, he answered briefly: "Within New York. No one forbade correspondence and messages. See you on your birthday, Mikey." The day before, he talked to his father and told him that he didn't know what to do, because he was so tired of his brothers' presence that he wanted to throw up, but at the same time, he couldn't fall asleep without being sure that everyone was asleep, that everything was fine, or that someone was messing around downstairs in the kitchen or dojo, and also that he is burdened by the role of leader. Splinter seemed ready for this. No, Not ready... he WAS WAITING for this from the leader, because his phrase: "You can always come back here, my son. I've taught you a lot, and you've learned a lot on your own, Leonardo, so I'm letting you go, but on the condition that you continue to train and visit your sensei." It's almost made the katana master burst into tears, because... he didn't tell him something.       The second who left was Donnie, because he literally became cramped in the laboratory, and there was nowhere to put his technical masterpieces, and there was nowhere to even redo them, because the safest place was the laboratory, which had become small. He decided to do this because he found an abandoned spacious place on the outskirts of New York, deep underground, where he could live in peace and do not just mechanical devices, but also biological experiments without fear of explosions. He visited Sensei and his younger brother more often than Leonardo, although sometimes he and April moved out of town or even abroad for a long time, taking Mike with him.       After some time, Raphael decided to take such a step, but he had motives related to Sensei and the desire to try something new (and a little bit of guilt for Leo's departure from the lair). Therefore, now he went to Central America, which shocked the brothers, especially the eldest, because the question: "Are you sure...?" was the sarcastic and annoying response: "Well, yes, I just wanted to be in your shoes. Tell me where your den is, I'll redo it and send you pictures of the debacle, phah."       Because of this, Leo accompanied his brother until the very departure, hoping somewhere in his soul that Raf was just joking VERY BADLY, but he, taking only weapons, food and Internet access with him to communicate with his brothers and Sensei, set off into the night. Leo stood for a long time and stared at the plane moving further and further away, trying to comprehend what had happened.       In fact, living separately, they began to communicate and understand each other even better, although disagreements still remained, they began to treat it more gently...       But.       About a year ago, a little anxiety appeared in each of the Hamato, deep in their souls. It feels like danger is lurking nearby and, like a predator, waiting for the right moment to bite into the neck. Everyone felt it, sometimes very acutely.       And nothing happened. Even the TV has never broken down and the light bulb has not burned out.       Therefore, everyone kept silent and suppressed anxiety, referring either to the echoes of previous years, when almost every day was filled with danger, or to the habit of being on the alert. And the occasional flickering shadow, in poor light, was simply pointed out with the phrase:       "It seemed..."       And so on until…

she spoke.

That's when they realized...

THEY WEREN'T IMAGINING IT AT ALL.