***
"Greetings, readers, and welcome to week five of Divine Eyes. We are officially at the halfway point of our story. We've lost all the humans, and are down to five turtles and a dragon. Say, hello Casey."
Casey fidgets in the chair. "Ya know, I think I had this same chair in eighth grade."
"Which time through?" Kali smirks.
"Huh?" He pauses for a few seconds. "Shut up!"
"Be nice or I won't change your hair back."
Casey reaches up to make sure all his orange hair is still under his bandanna. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"Immensely. And so are our readers. We're all having a good laugh at your expense."
"Don's right, you are evil."
Kali rolls her eyes. "I'll spare you all the 'I'm just misunderstood' speech and we'll get on with this."
***
Day Twenty One
Everyone is sitting in a circle around Leonardo, who is standing.
"Okay, it's down to the five of us and Kali's running out of ideas."
Venus holds her stomach. "I don't feel too good."
Raph punches Mike in the shoulder. "Maybe it was last night's dinner."
Mike shoves him back. "Then why isn't everyone sick, huh?"
Dragon Lord rubs his temples. "I've got a headache."
Leo crosses his arms and looks down at them. "Can I talk?"
"I don't know," Raph smirks, "can you?"
Mike and Don try very hard not to laugh.
Leo glares at Raph then continues. "As I was saying…"
Don puts his hand on Venus's forehead. "Maybe you've caught something. Hmmm, you don't have a fever."
"I'm telling you, it was food poisoning."
"It was not, Raph, or you'd be throwing up, too!" Mike yells back.
Leo gives up. He hangs his head and walks from the room.
***
Day Twenty Two
Venus walks into the kitchen for breakfast. "Can I just have toast?"
Mike frowns. "Why? I made this nice cheese and chili pepper omelet for you." He shoves the plate under her beak.
She covers her mouth and runs from the room, pushing aside Leo and Raph.
"Did you poison her again, Mike?"
Mike throws his spatula at Raph. "It's not my fault!"
***
Venus is sitting on the couch with Don watching TV. Leo comes over and sits on the edge. "Feeling better, Venus?"
She looks at him through the corner of her eye. "Yeah, that was the weirdest thing."
Don raises an eyeridge as a Fact Plus commercial came on. "Uh…nah."
Venus looks over. "What?"
"Nothing," Don says as he changes the channel.
***
Day Twenty Three
"Come on, shellback, I dare you."
Raphael stands ready to fight. Dragon Lord is in a similar stance. Mike and Don are standing off to the side.
"Why are they fighting again?"
Don shrugs. "I don't really think they need a reason."
Raphael lunges forward and Dragon Lord steps to the side. But Raph was just bluffing, and he catches the dragon off guard with a punch to the face.
"You're going to die, freak!"
Raphael laughs. "Not likely, too many people like me."
Dragon Lord swipes his claws across his plastron, leaving deep gashes. "Damn, that hurt!"
"Should we stop this?" Don asks.
Mike shrugs. "There's nothing else going on. Unless you want to meditate with Leo and Venus."
"Oh." Don blinks. "Leo and Venus are meditating?"
"Yeah."
"Together?"
"Yeah, so?"
Don shakes his head. "I can't believe she's doing this."
***
Day Twenty Four
"Where are you going Don?"
Don stops and looks over at Raph. "Oh, hey Raph. I was just going to…to…" He scratches the back of his head, clearly confused. "What was I going to do?"
Raph smirks. "Well, well, the boy genius can't remember what he was going to do."
"Shut up Raph."
Raph grins. "That's rich. You never forget. Aw man, what I wouldn't give to record that moment."
Don snaps his fingers. "Now I remember, I was going to beat the crap out of you!"
Raphael blinks in surprise. "Huh?"
Don brings his knee up to Raph's stomach and Raph doubles over. "Oh, you're paying for that, nerd."
***
Leo runs out of the dojo screaming. Mike watches for awhile before calling everyone else. "Guys, something's wrong with Leo!"
Venus and Raph walk in to see Leo walking around in circles, mumbling incoherently. "The Jell-O is going to freeze…we have to dump the sea monkeys…there's no room in the bathtub!"
Dragon Lord chuckles at the turtle. Raph glares at him. "This ain't funny."
Dragon Lord smirks back. "Yes it is. He's finally lost it. I'm surprised it wasn't sooner."
Venus watches as Leo picks carpet lint out of the rug. "We should do something."
Mike grabs Raph's arm. "Come on, you've still got Kali's straight jacket, right?"
"Yeah." Raph's eyes widen. "How do you know about that?"
"You're loud."
***
Day Twenty Five
Mike bends over to try to look at Leo, who is suspended from the ceiling wearing a white jacket. "Hey, bro, feeling better?"
Leo just stares past him.
"Okay, well, if you need anything, just holler."
***
Venus looks up from her meditation at the sound of bats flying. "Kali?"
A box falls into Venus' lap. She picks it up and reads the label. "You can't be serious."
A note is stuck to the other side of the box. "Just take the damn test, it'll be good for ratings."
***
Kali smiles from her seat on the Dragon Lord's throne.
"Well, I seemed to get over that block easily enough, though my frame of mind is…well, I think you can figure it out. Time to cast your votes. I know it'll be harder this time, because we've already gotten rid of the least popular characters, but it's important. So just do it."
***