This is the second publishing of Down the Rabbit Hole. I had published most of it a few years ago and decided there was a big plot hole where there wasn't one. After letting it all stew a bit, I came back and looked it over with fresh eyes. I like the story, even if it's a little fast paced. This was my attempt at a short story, but it drew out longer than I planned just because of the action. I'm publishing this as a whole, and it will be complete. Enjoy the read :)
Chapter One
The turtles had been cleaning up the remnants of the Foot Clan out on the docks in Lower Bay. For some reason, the Foot was still active despite Shredder and Sacks sitting in jail awaiting their day in court. Karai is the only one missing, but no one has seen her since the fight down the mountain. She may have died up there, who knows.
Tonight they had left a package of Foot Clan members all tied up in an open container for the police. This particular robbery was well out of Foot Clan territory, showing just how desperate they were getting in their death throes.
Donatello plots a course back home on his holographic interface that shines from his wrist, "Fifteen minutes and we'll be home!"
Michelangelo grins and gives his older brother a push down into the large maintenance tunnel, "Order pizza on the way then! I'm starved! Hey! Did you see how I took out those three dudes with one punch? Was I awesome or what?"
Leonardo smirks faintly at Mikey's boasting, hopping down into the tunnel after his two brothers, "Or what. Come on Mikey that was child's play! The Foot is getting pathetic and soon the cops can handle them easily! We'll be able to retire before we're twenty."
Donnie makes a few swipes on his screen, "Pizza is ordered and will be delivered in forty minutes."
Mikey glares back at Leo and he gives his oldest brother a light punch to the stomach, "But we were still totally awesome! Those guys were all over us and we just kicked their butts!"
Raphael lags behind; his eyes had caught something strange glowing faintly green in the ocean, something massive like a submarine and he hoped to see it again. Nothing surfaces, but a line of twenty-foot waves suddenly crash along the docks and shore, spraying Raph with sea water. Leo's voice drifts back through the tunnel, "Hey! Are you coming Raph? We got dinner on the way and I'm famished!"
Raph clenches his sai at his sides, biting his toothpick in half and spitting it out, "Yeah, I'm comin'." He turns and jumps down into the tunnel, sliding his sai home in their holsters. Something about the night bothers him deeply, they've never seen activity this far, and they had been out almost all night.
His shell itches like someone's sneaking up on him, and in the darkness he swears he can see that eerie glow from the ocean just around the last corner. He blinks, and then it's gone. With a shake of his head, he moves on after his brothers, still glancing back now and then and catching that green glow following them. He begins to walk backward once it goes out again, his heart starting to pound in his chest.
The tunnels here are dry and old, unused for decades and full of trash; molding boards, crumbling concrete, piles of rotten boxes, and even a few rusty bike and car parts. The turtles walk on easily, stepping around the bigger piles of debris. Raphael walks slowly with his hands by his weapons, that faint glow quickly growing brighter, and with a sudden flash, he feels the world give out from under him. He grabs for his sai, but before he can draw them the thick plywood crumbles under his weight, dropping him into blackness, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!"
A startled yell is the only warning the turtles have, the three brothers turning just in time to see Raphael disappear down a black hole. His yells echo back up the tunnel, growing fainter until they barely hear him hit the bottom. Donnie licks his lips as he calculates the time, listening to the stream of curses coming up from the hole, "That's almost a mile down guys." He pushes his glasses back up onto his nose, "We would need some kind of wire cabling to climb down that far, and I don't think it comes in five thousand foot lengths without some kind of commercial permit."
Leo groans softly and he leans down over the tunnel, trying to see if maybe Raph caught himself somewhere, but all he can see is darkness, "Raph! Are you alright?"
Raph glares at the dark yawning maw that had spit him out, the tunnel still echoing with his curses. It had angled almost twenty feet down so he slid nearly the whole way down on his shell, leaving it gouged, scratched, and sore; and leaving him somewhat dazed, "Yeah, Leo, I'm fuckin' peachy! I can't get back up!"
Mikey looks down into the blackness, "Dude! Do you see any babes? Do they really live deep in the earth?"
Raphael rolls his eyes, "No Mikey! No babes! Just rocks!"
Leo pushes Mikey out of the way, "We're going to get Master Splinter!"
Raph takes a few steps into the tunnel, about as far as he can go before it arches up into a steep slide, "Careful! There was something following us! Couldn't see what it was, but don't lead it back to the new lair!"
Silence follows his words, and he worries that they already took off, but Leo's voice drifts down with a hint of concern, "We'll be careful! Hang tight!"
Raph grumbles as he decks the wall of the tunnel out of frustration, causing a few chunks to crumble down the walls and making his knuckles bleed. He jumps back out of the shaft to avoid the rain of stones, and growls, "Sure, I'll hang tight…"
He looks around the cavern as his anger turns to curiosity. The cavern itself is about twenty feet in diameter with a fifteen-foot ceiling. He's surprised by the faint blues and purples that glow from the rough stone walls and runs his hands over it, leaving a hint of the glow on his fingers. "Donnie would love this." He scrapes some into his belt pouch, hoping they hurry back and get him out of here.
Behind him is the gaping hole in the wall and as his eyes adjust to the dimness he sees the brighter glow of maybe moonlight down a deeper tunnel. Taking in the rest of the cavern, he realizes there really is only one way to go, so impatiently he walks into another gaping hole of darkness, this one with a light at the end of the tunnel.
The floor slopes ever downward, making him mindful of his footing, "No need to take another long trip down a deep hole." He keeps his rough hands on the walls, this tunnel almost too low for him to stand up straight, and only wide enough that he could put his elbows out and feel the walls on either side. The tightness of the tunnel finally gives way to a giant of a cavern with water falling from the darkness above into a pool that dominates the cave. He stops in his tracks and soaks it all in.
The walls are covered with the faint glowing stuff, but also with large ribs of radiant red and yellow fungus, making it bright as a full moon. Hidden among the fungus are shining crystals of every color imaginable, which seem to multiply near the lake's edge. The ceiling is distant but he can see spots of light up in the darkness, reminding him of stars. The lake mirrors the ceiling, delving into deep, unfathomable depths with points of light fading into the dark waters. Even the mist from the waterfall catches the gentle light and reflects it into a softened rainbow. The cool air smells strongly of minerals and stone, and already it condenses on his skin, leaving him feeling refreshed.
Raph smirks, this place of serenity could do with a fewer colors but he's not going to argue with whatever made this. Slowly, he walks along the wall, the lake leaving a wide beach of white sand on his side, and lapping up the steep walls on the other side. He notices a few ledges hanging from the sheer stone, but nothing he can reach without proper tools. A tunnel shows that, after an investigation, it ends at a solid rock wall in only a dozen feet or so.
Seeing his surroundings as safe, Raph lets out a whoop of sudden joy and strips down completely, leaping into the cool, black waters. Another surprise comes as he swims and dives into the peaceful waters, his bleeding knuckles no longer hurt, and when he looks at them, he finds that they're healed. Even his shell and sore muscles are feeling much better. Raphael grins with unrepressed happiness, he'd found a spring of healing after falling down that damn hole.
With no one here to see him, he relaxes and swims deeply in the feeling of wholeness that the waters give him, slowly filtering out the roar of the waterfall and letting peace come to his mind. He's been angry for so long, he almost forgot what peace feels like. This is going to be a place he'll visit more often if he gets the chance; it's more than worth the trip.
After what feels like hours, a strong, sweet female voice echoes through the cavern, the tone curious, "What could such a young leviathan see in our most sacred Pool of Visions to keep him in its waters for so long?"
