I've always had a love/hate relationship with writing multi-chapter stories. I love reading them, but writing them is just so stressful! I want to be able to write good ones, though, or at least fairly decent ones, so I thought I'd try again. I've been working ahead, so I actually have everything planned out! This chapter is here just to set the stage, so nothing major happens in it. It's also kinda short-ish, but don't worry! The chapters will get longer. This isn't just me spouting off nonsense (ok...maybe some of it is, but that's against the point!); they really do get longer - if only by a couple hundred words. Anyway, please enjoy the story! :D

Warnings: Honestly, none! There is no slash or cussing, and the violence is like a kiddie cartoon. I think, at least. Oh, wait! There is a warning: Raph uses bad grammar. I'm sorry; I couldn't stop it! Please forgive me... XD

Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, Transformers, or any of the copyrighted or trademarked material I have used in this story.

In the bleak midwinter months, there isn't much to do, especially when you live underground in an old, abandoned part of the New York sewers. It's enough of a struggle to just keep yourself warm, let alone worry about your family's heating problems; and the Hamato family definitely had more than enough of those. Since the family was mainly comprised of turtles, things were especially difficult. Turtles, like all other reptiles, were very susceptible to the cold. Even though the four brothers were larger than most turtles, they were still affected by the harsh winter weather.

Donatello had been working very hard to make things more comfortable for everyone, though. He had labored for months in advance to fix their heating appliances and provide ways of keeping them all warm. His work had paid off, and his family was fairly comfortable this winter. It made him shudder to think of the previous winters when they didn't have such advanced technology.

This winter was especially harsh, and because of it none of the turtles had gone to the surface in a good while. They knew well enough by now not to take their weakness to the low temperatures lightly; such actions had blown up in their faces more than once. They still conducted their daily training sessions, but they did not monitor crime above ground as they usually did. The news channel was on more often than not, though.

That is, until Michelangelo took control over the television, like he had just a few moments ago. Not all of his brothers appreciated the sheer awesomeness of cartoons, so he had to be fast when he saw that the TV was unoccupied, which was a very small time slot indeed. So he lounged on the couch, watching TV, eating potato chips, reading comics, and simply enjoying the glorious pastime know as "doing nothing."

Raphael was not as easy to please. He hated being stuck in the sewers for such a long period of time. In fact, he hated being stuck anywhere at all for even a small amount of time. To be honest, not much entertained Raph. The list was short enough that you could count it on your hands, but only a fraction of it was allowed in the Hamato household. At the moment, he was taking his frustration out on his punching bag, his ever faithful companion; but he had done this for the past hour. He had also done the same yesterday and the day before that. Quite frankly, he was getting sick of it. Out of all his brothers, he was the one who had the most trouble being stuck underground.

Leonardo was not as irritable as Raph. That wasn't saying much, but it was still a fact. He was generally happy simply practicing kata or meditating with his father. If asked, though, Leo would have to admit that even he was getting pretty bored with the current circumstances. It was like every day was a routine. He would get up, do the same things he had done the previous day, and go to bed. Then he'd do it all over again. It wasn't like he was asking for a major showdown with the Foot or anything really crazy; he just wanted a little bit of excitement, that's all.

Donatello was perhaps the only one who was even remotely pleased with the still calm that had descended upon the lair. It meant that he could get more done. In his usually eventful and unpredictable life, he didn't have as much time as he would like to simply work on his machines and invent new things. That's not to say that he didn't have to spend time doing other activities, like fixing things that his brothers had broken, because he did, but he personally enjoyed the downtime that the winter weather had brought.

It didn't take long for Raphael to finally tire of his punching bag. As loyal as it was to him, he could leave it whenever he wanted. It was a relationship where only one benefited, and it wasn't the punching bag.

Walking to the TV room, Raphael spotted his lazy younger brother on the couch. It never ceased to amaze (and disgust) him how many potato chips Mikey could eat while spilling the same amount all over the floor. Not only was it a waste of their precious food, but it also made things worse when it was his turn to clean up the living room. A lot worse.

Mikey finally turned his attention away from his entertainment sources long enough to discover that Raphael was there. He smiled up at his brother. "Whatcha doin', Raphie?" he asked.

"Nothin', just watchin' your disgustin' eating habits," Raph replied.

"Hey, I'm multitasking! I'd like to see you watch TV and read comics at the same time. Besides, I'm bored...and hungry."

"You're still hungry after eatin' all those chips?"

"Well, yeah."

"I don't know why I'm surprised."

"Neither do I," Leo commented as he walked into the room.

"Hey, Leo. Can we get a pizza?" Mikey asked. "I'm so hungry!"

"I don't know if the pizza guy will deliver it since the weather's so bad," Leo replied.

"But he has to! We pay him an extra five bucks," Mikey whined.

"Alright, I'll call him, but I can't make any guarantees," Leo said.

True to his word, Leo called the pizza place. It turned out that the pizza man could deliver the much desired food to the usual drop off point: the nearest manhole. Leo ordered three pizzas; there was never any way to tell how much his brothers would eat. Then he left to wait for it.

Waiting for Leo to come back to the lair was extremely boring; Michelangelo and Raphael would attest to that, though Raph wouldn't say so as eagerly as his younger brother. Even worse, however, were Mikey's propositions as to what they should do while they waited for him to return. At first, the two had settled with just playing their own rendition of two-player Uno, but they had both gotten bored of that soon after they had started. Now Mikey was coming up with new ideas for games that were less than appealing to Raphael.

"I shall read your fortune," Mikey said in an ominous tone, a devilish smile on his face.

Raph was unsettled at the creepy face that his brother was making, but he didn't show it; well, at least he tried. "Um, no."

"Oh, come on, Raphie! Just pick three cards, any three cards," Mikey pleaded as he fanned out as many Uno cards as he could hold in his hand.

Raph sighed. It couldn't be that bad, could it? However bad it was, it couldn't be any worse than listening to Mikey whine about it. "Alright, read my stupid fortune," Raph said as he picked three cards and set them out in front of his brother. He had picked a green six, a yellow seven, and a blue skip card.

"Cool!" Mikey exclaimed. "Ok, um...uh...um..."

Raph stared at his brother with a deadpan expression. "I thought you were gonna read my fortune."

"I know! I'm trying, but for some weird reason, when I look at the green six, I keep on thinking about bananas."

"...So when ya see a green six, you jus' think about bananas?"

Mikey snickered. When he listened to Raph say it, it sounded so much more ridiculous. "Um, yeah?"

"Ugh, this is just stupid. Alright, do the next card."

"Uh, ok. The yellow seven means that you...value yellow objects? And you're seven years old? No, that doesn't make any sense! You're not seven."

Raph chuckled a bit; his brother had missed his calling. "And the last one?"

"Ok, the blue means that you go with the flow, but the skip means that...you won't today?"

Raph just shook his head a snickered. "Mikey, you should never be a fortune teller. Ever."

"Aw, it was that bad?"

"Yup."

"Darn! Ok, you do mine!"

"No!"

It took the pizza man a while to get there (far too long, in Raph's opinion), and when he did, Leo stealthily gave him his money and took the pizzas. It was almost like a routine they had worked out, except it still freaked the pizza man out more than he liked to admit.

When Leo returned with the pizzas, he set them down on the table so that everyone could help themselves. Though he had only been out of the lair for a little while, the cold had already taken its toll on him. "Man, it's freezing out there!" he exclaimed to his brothers, who were eagerly piling slices of pizza onto their plates.

"No kidding," Mikey said as he took his fourth piece of pizza before finally sitting down at the table.

"Where's Don?" asked Leo.

"I dunno. He's probably in his lab," Mikey answered with a mouth full of food.

Leo grimaced. "Thanks. Shouldn't someone go tell him that we got dinner?"

No one answered; they were too busy gorging themselves on pizza.

"Don't everybody get up at once," Leo said sarcastically. He left the kitchen and made his way to Don's laboratory. He knocked on the door a few times before opening it and entering the room. When there was no response from his brother, Leo thought that he had interrupted an important experiment. Upon further examination, though, he found that Donatello was simply staring off into space with a strange expression on his face. Leo walked over to his younger brother and waved his hand in front of his face. "Donnie? You in there?"

Don came back to reality when he heard his eldest brother's voice. "Hey, Leo! Sorry about that. I spaced out for a while there," Don apologized as he smiled sheepishly. "Is there something you wanted?"

"No, I just came to tell you that we got pizza. You should come and get some."

"Oh, ok," Don said as he stood up. He followed his older brother to the kitchen, where his two other brothers had already finished off one of the pizzas.

Leo and Don sat down at the table. Leo reached for a slice, but Don just sat there silently. Leo noticed and asked, "Aren't you going to have some?"

Don smiled back at him. "No, I'm not really hungry right now."

Leo looked uncertain. "Are you sure? Do you feel alright?"

"Yeah. Never better," Don replied.

Leo wasn't convinced, but he let it slide for the moment. He knew that if something was really bothering Don, he would tell him when he was ready.

It didn't take long for everyone to eat their fill. Once they were all done and had put up their plates, Mikey suggested that they watch a movie.

"What kind of movie?" asked Raph.

"Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus!" Mikey exclaimed.

Everyone groaned.

"No?" Mikey asked, inferring from his brothers' less than positive responses that the movie wouldn't be a good one to watch. "What about Mega Python vs. Gatoroid?"

"No!" Raph snapped. "I ain't watchin' none of that."

"Fine. What about Transformers? You know, to celebrate the greatness of Michael Bay?"

"I'm not sure if I'd call it greatness, but whatever," said Raph. "Transformers sounds good to me."

"Yeah, we can watch that. What do you think, Donnie?" Leo asked.

"I don't care," Don replied tiredly.

"Alright, Transformers it is then!"

The turtles all made their way to the living room and sat down on the couch. It was then that they realized that the movie was not in and the television remote was about ten feet away.

"Ok, who wants to set up the movie?" Raph asked, clearly implying that he wasn't going to do it.

"Not I!" Leo called.

"Not me!" Mikey exclaimed. "Ok, Don, that means that you have to do it."

Don just sat there.

"Come on, don't be lazy."

"Wow, that's amazin' comin' from you," Raph quipped. "Why don't you just set it up? It was your idea to watch a movie anyway."

"Fine, be that way." Mikey stuck out his tongue but stood up from the couch. In his family it always fell to him, the youngest, to set up the movie. Why? The world may never know, but Mikey had his own fair share of theories about unfair hierarchies.

After the movie was set up, the turtles watched the events play out on the screen. After about a hundred explosions had been witnessed, the movie was over and Mikey turned off the TV.

"Ah, there's nothing like a good late-night movie," he said as he stretched.

"Yup," Raph said.

"Well, I'm ready to go to bed. What about you, Don?" Leo asked as he looked down at his younger brother. He got his answer, but not in the way he was expecting; Don had fallen fast asleep.

Mikey looked over too and saw Don sleeping. "Oh, this is perfect! Raph, go get the markers. I have an awesome idea of what to draw on his face!" he exclaimed, positively giddy.

Raph groaned. "No. Why can't ya ever let anyone sleep in peace?"

"Because that's just no fun. How did he fall asleep anyway?" Mikey asked. "I mean, how can you fall asleep during a movie with explosions? Explosions, Raph!"

"He was prob'ly jus' so tired from stayin' up late on his projects or somethin'," Raph suggested.

"Yeah, probably," Leo muttered under his breath, but he wasn't sure. He just didn't have a good feeling about it.

And when Leo didn't have a good feeling, that meant trouble.

The next chapter should be up in a couple of days, so stay tuned, 'kay? Thank you for reading!

P.S. Sorry, I couldn't help putting in that comment about Michael Bay! XD