Age before youth

Front...

Back...

Left...

Right...

They had him surrounded, and by the determination flowing out of them, Splinter knew he was in for a difficult fight. A part of him could not help but feeling proud that they had heeded his lessons. Out of the four of them, Leonardo was the closest to his level, despite the remaining length he needed to travel. That was why he took the position directly in front of his master, drawing his attention. He knew his blue clad son had no illusion about distracting his own sensei, that Splinter was well aware of the movement from his other sons. Nonetheless, Leonardo deserved his praise for devising such formation.

To his left, Michelangelo took a deep inhale, edging along to maintain the circle. When the youngest focus, he was a force to be reckoned with. Right this moment, Splinter doubt anything could deter his concentration. One more trait that made up his Michelangelo was the unpredictability in each move. Following the slightest signal from the leader was one thing, hiding some tricks of his own up his sleeve made the youngest a formidable opponent. The humor phrase that all fair in love and war seemed to be fitting, since Michelangelo would not hesitated to use Splinter's injured left foot to his advantage. Adding agility and speed into account, the old rat felt a bit uneasy going up against the youngest.

Splinter picked up Donatello's movement from the corner of his right eye. The gentle nature of his intellectual son would not allow him to aim for his crippled leg, but he did more than compensate with his observation skill. It was not exaggerating to assume that Donatello's eyes could keep track every strand of hair on his fur. Quite frightening, if Splinter had to say so himself. One slight shift, and he would alert his brothers before he could make another move. His only weakness, unfortunately, was his own calculative mind. There was always too much thoughts in Donatello that set him afar from his instinct, therefore hindered his reaction. If the wise rodent must aim for one first, he should go for him. However, they all knew that, and a trap would definitely be there waiting.

That explained where his last son was. Flicked his ears back, Splinter did not need to see to sense how excited Raphael was. Possessing the strength no member in the family could rival, plus the blind spot behind his back, he had the absolute upper hand. Should Splinter allowed himself be caught within those muscles, it would be the end for him. In normal circumstance, it would be easy to agitate his short tempered son, turning his strength against him, but this was not the case. When all four acted together, they were one well oiled machine, and Raphael knew his role only all too well to let his anger get the better of him. The moment Leonardo gave his signal, Raphael would follow without question.

The stage was set. All combatants were accounted for. The only element to victory was luck. Yet Splinter had no intention of relying on just that.

"Are you really going to do this, my sons? I am very disappointed." He said, though his confident smile never falter.

"We all agreed on this, master Splinter. No hard feeling." Michelangelo spoke for the first time.

"I had to give it to you four, though. This is a good formation."

"We learnt from the best. If we can't do at least this much, we ain't qualify ta be yer students." Raphael rumbled. Splinter was sure that there was a smirk somewhere behind him.

"Flatter will get your face flattened, my son. Donatello, I thought you were the one with a level head. You should already know the outcome."

"I did make a thorough calculation. We have at least 34% chance of winning. Not much, but we'll take it."

"I think we waste enough time measuring each other up." Leonardo concluded, shifting his stance. "GO!"

Splinter thought that he was fully prepared. But apparently, even he could be wrong. As all four charged at him, each dishing out their own strike, he realized that this haphazard method had Michelangelo's name written all over it and could actually work...

... should the opponent be someone else.

Swiftly crouched to evade the clutch of emerald green arms, Splinter spun his cane, without looking he knew that Michelangelo was struck from underneath the chin. Flattening his right palm to the ground. his coiled leg sprung back with deadly precision, kicking Raphael with enough force to send him through the wall. It was a shame to know that his plastron would absorb part of the shock, and his carapace would reduce the impact tremendously, saving him from immediate harm. No time to dwell on it, though. Splinter used the momentum to flip in mid air, sending his tail toward Leonardo like a whip and avoiding olive's feet sweeping across at the same time. A sudden stop without sound indicated that the leader had caught it, too bad he missed the heel followed after. Thrusting the cane to the ground, the old rat spun to rock it on the genius's head, and by the yell he knew some stars just exploded inside it.

One could see the entire action in slow motion. In reality, it all happened in one blink of an eye. As Splinter took in the sight of his sons grunting in pain around him, he slowly made his way toward the couch to pick up the remote:

"You are fortunate that my soap is not aired yet. Joanna is going to regain her memory today, and I will not miss it."

"Noooo!" Michelangelo wailed "It's three hours marathon of Kung-fu Neptune Alien! We've been waiting for ages! You can't do this!"

"I won this fair and square, thus I have every right to the remote control." Splinter chuckled "As you use to say, my sons: Suck it up!"

As they groaned taking in their utter defeat, the wise rodent added:

"You had convinced Donatello to join you, surely you can ask him to help recording it elsewhere."

All eyes immediately darted for the genius. He sheepishly smiled:

"I can rig up the cable to watch it from my laptop. I even have a projector so we can watch it on big screen. You guys just never asked."

Both the bright color clad turtles stared at him in disbelief. They slowly stood up and marched toward their intelligent brother.

"You have a lot of nerves pulling our leg, Donnie." Michelangelo fumed "You could have said it in the first place!"

"But ya just had ta 'ignore' it and went with goofball's plan over here." Raphael cracked his knuckles "Do ya have any idea how bored the readers were when Splinter analyzed us? I can hear some of them snoring already."

"Hey, it was good training anyway." Donatello justified himself "Ok, I'll go set it up right away, and I'll do chores for you guys... guys? Wait, no! Don't! Leo, a little help here!"

"Sorry, you're on your own on this one."

Tuning out the epic chase and the antic that surely followed after that, Splinter turned on the television. As the music from the intro drowned the crashing noise behind him, he chuckled:

"Teenagers."

Joanna may very well confess her feelings to her brother-in-law today, or this would be a very short episode...