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How long they've been walking around? He doesn't know. Everywhere the two have been going, there was only mist. Mist here, mist there, mist back, mist in front, mist everywhere! It was giving the skeleton a headache, and Leo's babbling wasn't doing much help- or any help at all in that matter.
Senor Hueso peered through the thin fog, but there was nothing! Sometimes he'd catch a glimpse of something that would tell them they're close, only for his hopes to be squashed on with no mercy at the disappointing, blank view that surrounded them.
"And, so, Mikey told me: 'No. Leo, that's wrong!' And I was all confused, like it didn't make sense. Any other person would recognize that there really was no difference-" Goodness, he didn't even know what Leonardo was talking about. He was to blame for not listening but really, he just needed to find his son, not listen to some story about some silly debate Leo and his brothers had.
Senor Hueso rubbed his temples as he stretched out his eyes till it made his face sore, getting more agitated with every second of no sign that their session with hell was over. "Wait, wait," he waved his hand at Leo, gesturing for the slider to stop talking. "I have definitely seen this floating speck before and that means that we've been going in circles.."
"Actually, Senor, the floating speck I believe you're talking about is everywhere..?"
Senor Hueso growled, his head throbbing with frustration as he clutched the tip of his hat. "And if we're going in circles, that means we're not going straight AND THAT MEANS WE AREN'T MAKING ANY PROGRESS AND WE'RE LOSING OUR MINDS." The skeleton began panicking, "JUNIOR HUESO IS IN TROUBLE AND I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND HIM-" He began hyperventilating, swiveling in every direction frantically, his thoughts wildly swirling in a tornado.
"Senor-"
"WE'RE WASTING PRECIOUS TIME. PRECIOUS TIME LEO!" Hueso exclaimed, his eyes restlessly darting everywhere.
"Wait Senor!"
"WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!! THIS IS USELESS!"
"SENOR HUESO!" Leo's voice finally broke through. Hueso spun around, his breathing still unsteady but beginning to return to a normal pace. Leonardo firmly placed two hands on the older one's shoulder, staring intensely in his eyes. "Look at me. Breath." He instructed.
Hueso mustered his sanity, following after the teenager. "Deep breath in..deep breath out." It didn't do much but Hueso definitely felt only the slightest bit 'okay'.
"Maybe I should use my sword!" Leonardo suggested, reaching for the hilt on his back.
"NO!" Hueso cried out, startling the turtle. He took a deep breath. "Pepino." He spoke stiffly, trying to not sound critical. "I know you mean well but your portals still are out of control. The last time you poratled us, you nearly portaled us into New Jersey."
Leo sucked his teeth as he bit his lip. "Ooh, yeah. That would've been bad." He made a 'tsk-tsk' sound, shaking his head.
Hueso exhaled through his nose, pinching in between his eyes. "The problem is, we have no idea where Sydney is." He hissed.
"Theeeeen, we'll ask!"
"What?"
"We'll ask for directions! Don't act like your age has affected your hearing." Leonardo chuckled.
"Okay. First of all, I'm not that old. Second of all, who are we going to ask? The speck?!" He grouched. Leonardo scoffed lightly, an airy smirk on his face.
"Well, somebody has to be here. We're not the only ones in the world, y'know." Leo winked as he nudged Hueso on the arm.
"WOAH! THAT'S MINDBLOWING PEPINO!" Hueso cried out sarcastically. Leo smirked, putting his hands on his head and blowing through his mouth as he slowly retracted his hands back.
"K! Keep your eyes open, we might find someone soon."
Hueso suppressed a growl. "What do you think I've been doing for the past 5 minutes?" He grumbled.
"Okay..no one there.." Leo scanned the area with squinted eyes as he scratched his chin. "Nope, nada, no.." Suddenly his eyes darted back and he perked up.
"Ooh! Over there!" He made a small little clap. Hueso hastily looked at where Leo was looking, hope sparking within his void of desperation.
"He's nearly as small as Mikey!" Leo let out a light laugh. Hueso didn't get it. He was certain that Mikey was the big turtle with red. Leo cleared his throat, fixing his face into a hardly serious one. "Don't tell him I said that. I'm not about to face Dr. Delicate Touch."
Hueso merely blinked, not understanding the references Leo was making. He didn't question it though, it was probably an inside joke in the family.
"Hey! Hey! Excuse me!" Leo yelled as he waved at the person. It was hard to tell exactly who it was as they were only a blurry silhouette. Hueso squinted, trying to make out the odd shapes- not that he was body shaming, heck he had a brother made entirely out of skin, so who was he to judge?
"Don't be rude, say hi." Leo elbowed Hueso out of his thoughts.
"Uh...hello?" Hueso awkwardly called out, giving a shy wave. Was that..a tail? And were they floating?!
"His son Junior Hueso-"
"Just say Junior."
"Junior! Was kidnapped and taken to Sydney!" Hueso was kind of weirded out on how Leo was explaining how his son was abducted so calmly. It was almost as if he was talking about the weather.
"And we got kinda lost..so, do you think you can help us out and give us directions, please?" Leo asked. Hueso did his best to not look at the turtle because he would've got a concussion on all the gestures he made in simply one minute.
"Come on little fella, mutant for mutant?" Leo grinned. Slowly, Hueso was able to define most of the silhouette's figure. They were certainly small- probably as big as them if they were up close, they had fins and yes, they were in fact levitating and they had a very, very long tail. They..looked...like someone not trustworthy.
"Leo.." Hueso started, having only one guess on who that could be, "I don't think that's a little fella.."
Suddenly, they let out a low, mellow bellowing sound that echoed throughout the area. "Oh- OH big fella!" Leo blurted out as the stranger shifted a little, their change of angle making it clearer that they were a whale. Hueso blew a sigh of relief, all the tension in his body becoming loose.
"Okay..uhm..Maybe he only speaks whale?" Leo guessed.
"Speaks whale?" Hueso repeated in confusion.
Leo nodded. "Don't worry, I got this." He cracked his knuckles. "I'm born bilingual."
"Pepino, I don't think 'whale' is an actual language, my son sometimes tells me he can speak whatever language cats speak and he the only thing that comes out of his mouth is gibberish when he tries to prove it." Hueso replied skeptically.
"Confia en mi." Leo perfectly pronounced unexpectedly before clearing his throat.
"HoOoOOOOOoOOOOO wEEEeEEEEEeEEEEE mEEEEEeEEe nEEEeEEEeEEEd-"
"Leo-?"
"tOOOOOoOOOoOo fIIiIIIiIIInD, hiS sOOoOOOOOOOOon."
"What the heck are you doing?" Hueso hissed through his teeth. That didn't even sound anything like a whale! It sounded like those weird slow motion scenes in movies but triple more drunk or something!
Leo continued sing offkey, almost everything that lolled out of his mouth was incomprehensible, his voice ranging from low to high.
"Are you sure you speak whale?" Hueso said incredulously.
Surprisingly, the whale cooed back, only they were actually turning away as Leo continued to prattle and howl.
"Leo!" Hueso raised his voice. "Te pasas, NOBODY KNOWS WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!"
"H-He's swimming away."
The whale then disappeared into the mist, vanishing from sight. "COOMMMMMMMMEEEEE BaaAAaAAaAAAAaAAcKKkKKKKKKkk!!!!" Leo groaned. Huseo pinched the bridge of his nose, forgetting the reason he trusted the loco tortuga in the first place.
"He's not coming back Leo, you offended him! That was like saying everyone who speaks Spanish is automatically from Mexico and not possibly every other 20 or so other countries that speak Spanish." Hueso chastised.
"Okay, well maybe another dialect." Leo shrugged, causing Hueso to facepalm.
"Leo I am begging you do not-" but it had already started.
Leo was trying to..talk or "ooOOoOH" (hell you think Hueso can find an accurate word for it) in soprano. Hueso inhaled deeply, he could feel the last grains of his sanity shifting with every second he had to listen to Leo's 'whale'.
"Leo. This is not whale, you're speaking like..upset stomach."
"Maybe I should try humpback."
"NO DON'T TRY HUMPBACK-"
Leo roared, his throat sounding like it was being torn apart as he sounded like someone horribly mimicking a Rockstar.
"LEO YOU SOUND SICK!"
"Perhaps more fuerte?" Leo mused before suddenly bursting out cracky, horrid, raptor noises that actually almost made Hueso fall down.
"Pepino-"
"No, wait that sounded more like an orca. Didn't that sound more orca-ish?"
"IT DIDN'T SOUND LIKE ORCA IT SOUNDED LIKE NOTHING I'VE EVER HEARD!" Hueso snapped as he straightened himself.
Leo didn't pay attention to Hueso's remark, as he began to hoot again in that earraping offkey voice. Hueso sighed exasperatedly. "Estoy que exploto," he mumbled, "this whale might as well just be hungry."
"Pfft, Hueso," Leo cocked his head at the skeleton (who internally rejoiced when Leo stopped 'oOooOOoH'-ing), "whales don't eat mutants. They'd eat something like krill."
"What if they were krill mutants?"
"I guess that'd be an exception." Leo held his hips as he hummed. Out of nowhere, a swarm of tiny, pink krills dashed past them all screaming in unison: "SWIM AWAY" in chipmunk voices.
"Ooh! Mutant krill! Isn't that a coincidence?" Leo piped up. Hueso then felt a sense of foreboding that something was approaching them from behind. Three words played in his head: Whale. Mutant. Krill.
"...Pepino, do you feel..strange?" He asked. Leo pursed his lips as he thought.
"Noooo...why?" He asked slowly.
Hueso turned around and gasped with horror as a whale was literally a foot away from them, their open mouth an abyss that was coming for them.
"RUN LEO!!!!" He screamed. Leo was quick to react. His face widened with panic and he frantically grabbed for his sword.
Gravity, however, was against the pair and no matter how much the two tried to move, it was like they were trying to run in thick snow. The whale's breath pulled the two back.
"MY SWORD!!" Leo yelped as he lost his grip, his odachi tumbling to the ground as the two were sucked in like a vaccum.
Then darkness.
...
And a mossy stench along with a bumpy, slimy texture underneath them.
The two were frozen is dismay, trying to grasp the reality that they were inside a whale's mouth. It was ridiculous and it was horrifying. They were going to be eaten alive, and Hueso had failed. He failed to save his son. Heaven knows he didn't mean for things to go this way. What was about to become of his son? How much longer did Junior have? And how much did they have before being digested?
Leo took a deep breath. "Mission failed. We'll try again next time."
Hueso slapped Leo on the arm for the what kids nowadays call a "meme" reference.