Chapter I
Disclaimer: I do not own The Gargoyles, The TMNT or any characters there in. Nor do I own anyone's opinions or takes on these characters. This is simply my view on certain characters, and any semblance to other fanfics is completely unintentional.
Note: Forever Alone is the third fic in my gargoyles/TMNT series which will soon split into a co-authored fic world (run in fear!). This happens 5/97, after 'The Logic of Dreams' and 'Alone'. I'd suggest reading those two fics before diving into this one. I hope you enjoy;) This fic will be going up slowly, as I managed to loose my original draft of this fic and have to re-write it and still make sure I stay true to my 'timeline'.
Please also note that I am writing the Wyvern clan and their allies slightly out of character on purpose, it's vital for the next series of fics that I've planned to follow this saga;) No kill! No kill!! Also, I LOVE April and Donatello, but find them both almost impossible to write, hence their low level of appearances. For more info, read the Author's Notes at the end of each chapter, I often hide important tidbits in there;)
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Leonardo slowly opened his eyes and blinked dazedly at the ceiling a few times. Where was he? What had happened? The blue-masked turtle closed his eyes, trying to recall the events that had lead up to him lying in bed, pain wracking through his body... Again... oO(You know... I REALLY don't like this, someone remind me why this keeps happening after fights with the Foot...)
...He'd gone on a supply run with Raphael and Master Splinter, but on the way, they'd run into a large group of the Foot. One with reinforcements. As was the norm when the two rival ninja groups met, battle had begun, ending up splint into two groups.
Leonardo frowned, trying to recall what had happened next.
"Leo?" A hand suddenly rested on his shoulder, giving the voice more substance in reality. "'Ey, bro... Ya alright?"
Leonardo groaned slightly as he tried to move and settled on simply opening his eyes and looking in the direction of the voice. "Raph?" he rasped, his voice sounding like it'd been dragged through gravel for two days, even to his own ears. He coughed, swallowed once or twice, then tried again. "Raph, what happened? Are you and Splinter alright?" Leo asked, trying to sit up.
Tried being the operative word.
"Stay still, bro, Ya got yerself slashed up pretty good. Splinter wants ya ta stay in bed till yer recovered."
Leonardo pulled a face. "How long is that?" he rasped.
"Till ya can walk wit'out wobblin'. ...Tea? Splinter said it'd 'elp wit' da pain."
Leo nodded and then grinned ruefully as he tried and failed yet again to sit up.
Raphael sighed in a long suffering manner as he rolled his eyes, then helped Leo sit up, shoving some pillows behind the injured turtles back to help support him, then Raph held out the cup of tea, watching cautiously as Leo took a sip of the contents, insuring that he wasn't about to accidentally drop it.
"What happened to your arm?"
"Eh, one of dem ninja-freaks managed to connect once, nothin' big."
"Uh-huh."
Raph snorted and poured himself a cup of tea, grabbing a slice of pizza as he went. "Want some?" he asked around a mouthful. At Leo's nod, Raph passed a slice to him. "So," Raph asked as he munched. "Whut do ya want a recap on?"
Leo rubbed his eyes. "Last thing I remember clearly is a big, red oni landing in the middle of the fight. Everything's foggy after that." Leo paused suddenly, "Granted, the whole 'oni' part doesn't-"
"'Is name is Brooklyn 'f all things."
Leo blinked at his brother, then settled back, munching on his slice of pizza and sipping his tea, awaiting an explanation.
"Well, 'e's not an oni, fer starters. 'E's a gargoyle. He saw da rather one sided fight goin' down wit' da foot, so 'e decided ta drop in an' 'elp us... by kickin' serious Foot ninja ass. When da fight was over, you passed out fr'm blood loss..."
Leonardo nodded, glancing at the arm where the throwing star responsible for the blood loss had hit. oO(Must have hit one of the primarily veins or the like.)
"Well, wit' da gash I'd gotten on m' arm, I couldn't carry yer shelled butt back 'ome, and yer too 'eavy fer Mastah Splinter ta carry. So Brooklyn picked ya up an carried ya as we beat feet back ta da lair."
"Wait... Are you telling me that he knows where we LIVE?!" Leonardo demanded. "But we'd JUST met him! Or... you'd just met him... or he met us... Or... Never mind, you know what I meant!"
Raphael shrugged. "It wus dat 'r let ya die. Anyway, Mastah Splinter trusted 'im. An' Brooklyn ended up staying till da next night, cause 'e kinda turned ta stone-"
Leo choked on his tea, and Raphael helpfully pounded him on the back. "He *coughcough* he what?!"
"Turned ta stone. Shocked us too. 'Cept Splinter, but 'e don't count. Gargoyles turn ta stone at sunrise it seems, an' change back at sunset."
Leonardo was silent for a few moments while he sipped his tea. "How long was I out?"
"Twenty-four 'ours, give er take."
"Oh..." Leo handed Raph the empty teacup, struggling to keep his eyes open as he stifled a yawn. "Anything else?"
"Yeah. Look... Leo... I know we don't always... mesh. But... yer still m' bro, an... I care about ya. So don't get dead, clear?"
Leo smiled and grasped Raph's wrist. "I'll do my best, but don't YOU die on me either."
Raphael pulled Leonardo into a fierce hug. "Deal. Now... get some sleep fearless leadah. Ye'll need it when I start whoopin' yer shell in spars."
Leo laughed as he released Raph. The red-masked turtle took away the pillows that had been holding Leo in a sitting position, then got to his feet as the leader of the turtle 'clan' faded back into sleep. Raphael turned towards the door less threshold, then froze as he saw Michelangelo standing there, smirking.
"Whut?!" Raphael demanded.
In answer, Mikey held up a digital camera. "So, what d'ya say, bro... this blackmail worth somethin' to ya?"
"MIKE!! GET BACK HERE WIT' DAT!!!!!!"
Splinter sighed as he listened to the yells, crashes and various other sounds associated with running teenagers and sighed.
"...Kids."
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Brooklyn caught an updraft and climbed higher into the air. Time had broken the storm's hold on the city while he'd been locked in stone slumber, and the moon and stars hung low, freshly washed and prepared to dry in the sweet breeze blowing off the sea. Even the smog and smell of the city were faint.
The second in command of the Manhattan clan glanced down as he reached Central Park, then swooped lower, following the map he'd memorized from the note he'd found on his perch last night. The stream, the fallen oak, the twisted pine. As he followed the landmarks, his mind drifted, trying to sort out why he was here, and why he hadn't told the rest of the clan about the letter, his plans to find it's source, or how much the words had effected him.
He felt a stab to his heart as he recalled the opening phrase of 'to be alone is a terrible curse', and felt his muscles involuntarily tense in an attempt to keep him fro falling out of control into the black, gaping hole that seemed to have recently grown to frightening proportions within him. Without thinking his mind began to skip along subjects without even attempting to delve in deeper, anything to distract him from the hollow space within.
Brooklyn was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he failed to see or hear the deep blue helicopter as it reluctantly left the seductive hold of the buildings that bordered the park and headed towards him, the blue masked me with their distinctive Q insignia checking their weapons.
The Quarrymen were on the hunt.
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"So let me get this straight. Leo woke up. You enlightened him ta what he missed. Mike took a picture of you actually bein' nice. You, understandably, gave chase. An' Splinter had YOU leave?" Casey Jones of East Side, New York, New York leaned against the brick wall of the alley. "How'd that happen?"
Raphael shrugged. "Eh, I think 'e wus tryin' ta be nice, actually. 'E knows dat I like topside time." The red-masked turtle looked at the punks he and Casey had just finished trussing up for the police. "An' is it just me, or are dere more of dese Purple Dragons out 'ere lately?"
Casey frowned beneath his hockey mask. "It ain't just you. Even the news has finally caught on to this stuff and started mentioning it. They're callin' it tha 'Silent Crime Wave'."
Raph glanced at Casey, then looked back to the unconscious punks. "Silent Crime Wave? 'Ow'd it get dat name?"
Casey shrugged. "Not sure. Ya know how that press likes ta name things. Far as I can tell, there's a pick-pocketing crime wave goin' on, things vanishing outta stores wit' no evidence of how people got in, stuff like that."
"An' dere's... whut evidence connectin' all o' dis together?"
Casey shrugged and began climbing up the fire escape. "I don't know. B'tween my patrols, my job and my sis getting so sick, I haven't paid enough attention ta figure that out yet, maybe April has, though she's still job huntin."
"Yer sister?" Raphael paused and looked sharply at Casey as his friend clambered up onto the roof. The red-masked turtle leapt up after him. "Ya never mentioned 'er before..." Raphael frowned slightly. "actually, ya've never mentioned any o' yer family, 'cept fer yer Grandma an' Dad, and I know dat dey're both dead..."
Casey simply shrugged and took off running across the rooftops, leaping the gaps between the multistory monoliths. With a frown, Raph took off after the black-haired human. "Yo! Casey, wait up!"
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oO(How could I have been so STUPID?!) Brooklyn berated himself as he dug his talons into the tree bark and wound his tail around the trunk for more stability, the sharp smell of pine sap filling his nostrils as he tried to catch his breath. oO(Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID! Not only did you fail to notice the friggin' HELICOPTOR, you didn't even notice the net they fired until you were caught in it and half way to the smeggin' ground!) Brooklyn caught the tip of his tongue in his fangs and breathed as shallowly as possible as a cadre of masked humans slowly made their way by under the tree he was hiding in. oO(At least they landed the damned helicopter. Prob'bly so they wouldn't draw in the cops. Don't look up... Don't look up...)
The blue-garbed humans stalked past, never once looking more then ten feet off the ground, and never looking directly up. The humans lack of 'look up' instinct working in the brown-red gargoyle's favor.
oO(Okay, Brook... You've got breathing room now. So the question becomes... what do you do now? There's... one, two, that guy there, the one with the fancier headpiece, fifteen... twenty of these guys, and you're not even sure who they are or why they're hunting you...) As Brooklyn calmed down, he looked around for something to help even the odds a bit. oO(Plan, plan, I need a pl... He-llllllllooooooo) Brooklyn stared at the rope net that had originally taken him down from the air. The gargoyle's black eyes narrowed and he rubbed his chin as he studied it, a plan forming in his mind. "Hmmmmmmmm..."
Author's Notes Okay, I hope I haven't confused anyone TOO badly. This stuff will actually be mentioned in the stories as it goes on, but I'm keeping this here so people can get a quick summery of the history in 'my' realm. The year is currently 1997. The Goliath Chronicles did NOT occur here. The gargoyles portion of this fic-series goes off on a parallel course after Hunter's Moon. The And yes, Splinter STILL kicks ass;)
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For those of you that came in late; Demona is telling the truth, both about the dream, her past and her intentions. Or at least, recalling Demona's past via the few episodes of it that we've seen, she's telling the truth;) I never saw City of Stone, but I've found several reviews of it, as well as a 'play by play' on the gargoyles-fans site, so I hope 'm accurate! Also, yes, the clan is acting a bit odd towards Brooklyn, but I did that on purpose;). Pay close attention to how the clan, Fox, David, Owen, Elisa and the Mutates treat Brook... again, it's going to be vital in the Exile saga...
I'm using the new TMNT TV series for this crossover (primarily because it's following the comics, but I like the gadgets and tone of it a bit better then the comics... Never thought I'd say that) Since the show isn't over yet, I'm using what has occurred so far in the series and mixing it up with the comic book history, first and second movie and my own imagination. The new series seems to be taking place in 1995 (cell phones, DVDs, etc) The Purple Dragons are a bit more like the gang we see in the first NT movie. There's a silent crime wave going on as the Purple Dragons recruit teenagers and teach them the basics of breaking and entering, pick-pocketing, etc. The better fighters in the Purple Dragons are being taken in to be taught ninjitsu. Tatsu (yes, the grunting guy from the movie;) is in charge of training the foot, while Hun is in charge of their deployment. The Purple Dragons aren't aware of who they're working for, so even if the police break them up, there's no way of connecting the crimes to Oroko Saki, the respected business man.
No, the gargs and turtles aren't really aware of each other. In the comics and new series, most of the turtles actions are happening very quickly topside, inside buildings, or underground, while the 'Gargoyles' action occurs in hard to reach places, on top of secluded buildings, or in midair. The odds of the gargoyles or police realizing that there is a 'Foot' clan are somewhere between very low and flat out impossible.
In the year since Hunter's Moon and Logic of Dreams/Alone, Demona has gone seemingly MIA and has done nothing illegal or genocidish, so though Elisa, Matt and the others are watching Nightstone Inc, there's nothing for them to find. Leo and Raph have been getting a bit more aggressive towards each other, but it has yet to reach a head. Goliath is following the route he seemed to be taking in the Goliath Chronicles and is pushing for the clan to take on more human customs and let the public know about their presence. Meanwhile, also following his GC 'path' Brooklyn seems to be resisting the changes, and openly disagreeing with Goliath about revealing their presence. Or at least, that's my take on the circumstances;)