Chapter 6:
(Donnie's POV)
After Leo finally spilt off from our group to find Mikey, I had to stop for a few seconds to catch my breath. It still felt like I'd been hit with a wrecking ball and was willing to bet I had been attacked by the turtle they called Slash.
"Are you okay?" Zira asked as she laid a hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah." I answered breathlessly. The nano-bots in my system had already healed the damage so I wasn't in any danger but the pain was still making my life miserable. However I realized that too was slowly becoming more bearable as I activated my gantlet again to instigate another healing, but unfortunately I didn't have the time to let it complete the process just yet.
"We need to find Raph." I insisted after a second looking back down at the screen on my wrist again in an attempt to locate my brother's shell-cell. He was so full of rage and anger at the moment that I couldn't even sense where he was, which meant that he was likely still in full on battle-mode with Slash and if the behemoth had threatened Mikey he would stop at nothing to bring the beast down.
Even if it killed him
"You know – I'm starting to understand why you wanted to come back so bad." Zira suddenly admitted and I turned to look at her as she stared off into the distance. "Your brothers are probably some of the best people I've ever met."
"Is that what you saw?" I had to ask knowing that she would understand that I was talking about our soul gaze earlier.
"It was part of it." She revealed with a smile as she turned to look at me again. "It's almost like they're – a part of you." I nodded in agreement to that and was about to ask what else she had seen in the recesses of my spirit when a wall exploded a few streets over.
"But honestly, what do you guys have against walls?" Zira asked sarcastically in response but I didn't answer as I bolted for the spot to find that this time it had thankfully been Slash on the receiving end of the attack.
"Donnie!" Raph proclaimed in shock when he saw me. "Are ya –" He started to ask before he seemed to lose his balance and fell to one knee where he attempted to get some more air to his lungs.
I found myself at his side instantly where my concern and fear actually had me shaking as I tried to find out where he was hurt.
"Raph, don't move!" I ordered when he attempted to get back to his feet and continue the fight. He was bruised and bloody and couldn't move his right arm; there was no way he'd last through another round.
But thankfully it didn't appear that another round would be necessary as I looked up to find Zira had turned to face Slash herself while the creature meandered into a standing position again.
Thankfully the large turtle didn't look like he was in any better shape as he just continued to stand in the place where he had fallen, taking in one deep breath after another and even though I couldn't see much of his body through the suit, judging from the condition of his face he wasn't going to get up again once Zira was through with him.
"Wait –" Raph started to complain as I tired to get him to safety, but he continued to fight me until he was interrupted by Zira.
"I've got this." She declared in a tone of voice that left no doubt in my mind that she could handle it and I quickly used my brother's shock to maneuver him off the edge of the building where he landed on another down below it.
"Donnie!" He argued again as I carefully threw his arm over my shoulder. "We can't just run away."
"We can and we are Raph." I informed him sternly before forcing him to run across the rooftop in order to jump to the next one. I'd just been forced to watch my lost brother dying over and over before my eyes – I refused to do it again.
…
"Damn it ta hell Donnie!" Raph screamed in agony as I dabbed at the many bruises and cuts on his body. "Ya use any more alcohol I'll need a designated walker."
"Well if you'd stop moving it wouldn't hurt so much." I informed him sourly, determined to check the injuries before they healed over. We'd had our share of problems in the past from our skin reforming around an infected wound and the result had never been pretty.
"Well maybe if yu'd – OW!" He interrupted himself as I applied a generous amount of disinfectant to a rather nasty cut on his shoulder before turning to shuffle through my bag, leaving him to grumble miserably.
"Drink!" I ordered causing his to shun away from the little bottle I trust into his face before glaring at me evilly as he took the thing and pulled the top off with his teeth. However before he could take a drink movement alerted us to the fact that someone was at the window and we turned to find Zira crouched on the sill like a cat.
"You realize I could hear you about 3 blocks away right?" She proclaimed as she gracefully maneuvered herself onto the floor.
"Where's Slash?" Raph quickly demanded but I just reached out to push the bottle into his face again, reminding him that he should be drinking not talking.
"I had him on the ropes, but the chicken-shit threw a smoke bomb in my face and ran off." She grumbled sourly as she folded her arms to glare at a wall.
"Let me see." I ordered leaving Raph for a minute so the medicine could take affect and gently pointed a light into her eyes to insure that smoke had been all that it was made of. "They're a little irritated." I announced as I returned to my bag and handed her a little bottle of eyewash.
"So how's the big baby?" She quailed before dropping some into her eyes.
"Ya know what; ya –" Raph began to complain as I forced him to sit down again so I could correct his arm.
"Hold still!" I ordered but he was determined to be difficult about it.
"Donnie, we need ta –" He started again when I looked up to glare at him.
"Don't make me knock you out." I threatened before promptly forcing his arm back into place causing him to scream in agony.
"Damn it!" He swore loudly as I quickly used the distraction to look over his hands as well and started popping his fingers back into their joins earning another yelp for every one.
"You're the one that won't take the pain medication, so you'll just have to live with what you get." I proclaimed truthfully before correcting his wrist as well which finally caused him to jump to his feet so he could waltz around the room in discomfort as he continued to curse me under his breath.
"I swear Donnie ya find way too much pleasure in this." He informed me as I recollected the little bottle of medication he thought he'd managed to hide from my view before turning to glare at him again.
"What happened to your gloves?" I countered off topic causing him to start in shock before looking down at his hands which now featured a pair of tattered and damaged gloves which housed the circuitry for the very difficult to produce surface adapters that I had been kind enough to make for him.
"What's the big deal?" He asked as if talking of the weather. "Ya can fix it right?"
"Fix it?" I repeated as I calmly got to my feet while continuing to look at the ruined things as I walked up to him. "Yeah – I can fix that." I agreed simply before pulling out my staff and started hitting him over the head without even lengthening the weapon.
"Ow! Donnie!" He complained loudly as I swung at him again. "Don – ow!" He proclaimed before I took aim one more time but he quickly caught the end of my weapon before it made contact. "That hurts!"
"I noticed." I told him smugly before twisting the end I had in my hand and a second later he had one of the hidden blades at his throat. "How many times have I told you," I growled cruelly as he backed up into the wall. "If you keep breaking your toys I'm not gonna make you new ones."
"Okay, okay." He muttered with a sheepish little grin though it was by no means my weapon that he was so afraid of.
"You know it's hard to tell if you two love or hate each other." Zira piped up where she sat watching us with a high level of amusement.
"It's a mystery isn't it?" I agreed sourly as Raph attempt to use the distraction to move the sword away from his face but I promptly moved it back.
"What's the big deal?" He grumbled darkly.
"The 'big deal' is that I don't have the suit anymore Raph." I informed him sternly. "I gave it to Bishop remember?" I added loudly getting up close and personal with my brother.
"Oh yeah." He remembered with a sheepish little grin.
"You gave it to Bishop?" Zira butt in disbelievingly. "Why?" She demanded and I slowly turned to glare at her again.
"Do you mind?" I proclaimed in announce. "I'm trying to have an argument over here?"
"Sorry." She stated with a grin waving her question away before putting her chin in her hand as she continued to watch us. "Carry on."
With that I promptly turned back to Raph once more who quickly dropped his hand as he had been trying to push my blade away again.
"Okay, I'm sorry." He finally relented genuinely. "I promise – if ya decide ta fix 'em – and I wouldn't blame ya if ya didn't –" He added quickly. "I will keep 'em safe."
That was probably the best I was going to get out of him so I sighed and finally removed my weapon from his face to sheath it again before returning the thing to my back and stormed over to one of the beds to meditate before I murdered something.
"Don!" Raph asked again after a minute and I opened my eyes to find him slowly inching over. "What's wrong?"
"What makes you think something's wrong?" I countered without considering my words as he sat down next to me.
"Because ya don't usually get so worked up about little things." He admitted truthfully. "And – yur my brother." He added with a smile but I didn't return it which made his quickly vanish again. "Ya okay?" He asked in a whisper.
"No." I told him with a little shake of my head looking at the ground as I spoke.
"What happened?" He requested in concern.
"Shredder had a – mental defense in Irma's mind and I – I saw – him – again." I informed my brother quietly causing him to wince before gently putting his arm around my shoulders.
"No wonder yur so mad at me." He stated a little off topic but in complete understanding. "I'm sorry, I – I didn't mean ta scare ya."
"I don't want to lose another brother Raph." I told him quietly as I curled up a little more into my lotus position.
"Ya won't!" He informed me sternly, pulling me into the hug a little more. "I promise!"
…
I opened my eyes again as I came out of my meditation and looked around to find Zira curled up behind me on the bed while Raph was laying on the other one in the thralls of a power nap, leaving me to sigh as I turned to look out the window, finding that my session hadn't helped to dissolve my exhaustion.
I knew I needed to rest, I was gonna start losing it soon if I didn't, but I couldn't sleep. Every time I tired the memory assaulted me again and again to the point that I would find myself jumping back into conciseness before so much as a few minutes had passed.
I had to wonder if this was actually apart of Shredder's attack, to fill a person with so much fear that they couldn't sleep and therefore slowly exhaust themselves. Even Zira had been forced to push herself into slumber through her ability, even though she tried to hide the fact that she was doing it.
Deciding that I could at the very least perform a proper watch during my burst of insomnia I got to my feet again and quietly made my way out the window where I started up the outside of the building to the roof.
As I made it to the top of the abandoned hotel; situated somewhere at the very edge of the dome I quietly looked around in an attempt to spot the safe area we had chosen as the rendezvous point in case of separation.
Leo had had some concerns about the female ninja's possible ability to hone in on our connection, so I knew that my brothers were only blocking me for that reason, but not being able to sense him or Mikey still had me worried.
Thankfully the safe house didn't appear to have been damaged which was a good sign that they hadn't been attacked. But unfortunately we couldn't join them just yet as Slash and the others were likely still searching for us.
After a few minutes of searching the area for movement I was about to head back down when my attention was quickly brought to a blur across the way and my heart stopped.
'When had they gotten so close?'
They obviously hadn't found us yet as the movement of the blurs were uncoordinated as if they were still searching. But it wouldn't take them much longer to find our hiding spot.
It was going to take at least another hour for Raph to completely recover; the fact that the nano-bots in his body had put him to sleep was proof of that, and Zira hadn't slept for a couple of days. She hadn't been trained like us and though she was trying not to show it, it was obvious that she was exhausted.
We were in no condition for another battle right now and that was exactly what our enemy was counting on.
So before I really realized what I was doing, I booked it to the building next door, making sure to stay as visible as possible so no ninja in their right mind would be able to miss me.
And they didn't
It wasn't long before I had at least two invisible creatures behind me and judging from the noise, one was Slash. Thankfully this section of the city was still undergoing construction so people could safely live here, which gave me plenty of ideas for the scaffolding, cranes and other such equipment as I continued to lead them through the abandoned part of town.
When I finally made it to a large construction sight in the process of designing another skyscraper, I quickly bolted for the far corner of a nearby roof to land on a large I-beam hanging from a crane. Using its momentum I then swung over to the skeleton of a tower across from it, where I was able to safely land on one of the top floors.
Looking back I found that the two other ninja had been right behind me, and realized that for such a big guy Slash was ridiculously fast.
'And now I know why.' I thought to myself when said turtle pressed something on his wrist and promptly dissolved into a picture of orange particles before reappearing right behind me a second later.
I swore under my breath as I jumped to avoid the attack, causing his weapon to crush the boards under our feet, which forced me to back-peddle again in an attempt to get to safe ground before I was pulled into the abyss.
However just when I thought I had made it Slash materialized in my path once again and swung his morning star at my chest like he was playing a ridiculously violent game of baseball.
I just barely managed to avoid the attack as I moved my body around his weapon, however in doing so I ended up over the hollowed-out center of the building, where I found myself promptly falling until I reached out and adhered the surface adapter on my hand to another metal beam a few stories down.
Quickly getting my footing again I looked up to discover Slash was none to happy that I had something up my sleeve as well and promptly jumped down to land on the beam with more grace than someone his size had any right to display.
In seconds his weapon was pounding the metal into dented shapes as I maneuvered around and under the small patchwork of walkways, doing my damndest to stay ahead of him as he continued to use his transporter to try and throw me off track.
Unfortunately my smaller size was only going to help me for so long and on top of that I was still forced to block out my brothers so Slash wouldn't find them, which meant no one was coming to my aid. I had to find a way to get rid of this guy before he got rid of me.
Deciding that my best bet was to knock him into the void and hope the fall would take away at least a little of his power, I quickly maneuvered into a position where I could allow him to attempt another attack, before swinging up onto the beam behind him, brought out my staff and used it to grab onto the protruding edge of his shell causing him to thrash around in an attempt to dislodge me.
Though I tried to steer him toward the abyss, he wasn't having any of it and promptly backed up intending to crush me against a wall, forcing me to jump over his shoulder where he quickly made a grab for my neck but I managed to hold my staff up in time to intercept.
Clearly he thought at this point that he would just crush my supposedly wooden weapon in his grip, but the metal core saw to it that I had enough time to change my grip so my left hand was in the center allowing me to go for the tanto on my belt which made a soft *shing* as it cut through the air and struck his face.
He bellowed at the unexpected hit, allowing me to once again jump onto his shoulder where I brought my dagger up and into his side where I knew the bridge of his shell would be softer and easer to piece.
Slash continued to roar with pain and anger as I sustained my assault, repeatedly stabbing him over and over, desperate to take him out as I knew I wouldn't survive to try again.
But before I could make it through his armor a large hand wrapped around my chest forcing the attack to stop as I was brought back around to stare him down. It was clear that he was furious by this point, obviously he wasn't accustomed to being outmatched, and it was this rage that gave me the opening I needed to kick off against his plastron and free myself from his grip.
Unfortunately for me this sent me out over the hole I had been trying to send him into, but I instinctively reached around to protect my head and let my shell take the hit as I crashed through at least three floors before finally reaching one that held.
"Ow!" I proclaimed sourly before flipping over backwards to avoid Slash as he attempted to crush me by dropping down on top of my position. However he wasted no time with the unsuccessful attack and immediately bore down with his weapon once again.
While I was able to back flip out-of-the-way he expertly adjusted his course and sent the large iron ball flying back into my direction, but thankfully I was able to raise my arm in time and used the energy from my surface adapter to form a shield.
However even though I caught the physical weapon somehow the force behind the attack still hit my body to the point that I nearly collapsed, which shouldn't have happened as my shield was designed to cut the force of a physical attack in half.
Clearly Slash was not your average, run-of-the-mill muscle-head, if he was using that kind of strength all the time the pressure that he exerted with every swing should have destroyed his body by now. But somehow he was able to ignore the laws of motion and put all that power into his attack, even the force that should have been directed at him.
Needless to say I wasn't prepared for that and was also not ready from another attack so soon after the first, but it came anyway and a second later my shied shattered like a sheet of glass leaving him to maneuver again and take another fast swing that I didn't have the energy to avoid and could only bare it as it hit directly in the center of my chest.
I tried to ignore the pain as a hit a wall on the other side of the room, but when I lifted a hand to test the damaged done to my plastron I realized that wasn't going to be an option, for my chest had literally caved in and I was now loosing blood faster than my body could produce it.
It didn't take long before I was gasping for air and found myself collapsing back against the wall when I no longer had the strength to hold myself up, which left me to just helplessly watch as Slash walked up with a low laugh emitting from his malicious little grin.
However just when I was starting to think that this might be it, Slash stopped in his tracks as another swirl of orange flecks danced around the area leaving me with the immediate notion that another presence was standing at my side, but I didn't have the strength to see who it was before I felt a hand touch my shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Slash demanded angrily before charging again. But I didn't hear what else he had to say for everything promptly disappeared into a flash of orange light, leaving the faded edges of my vision to swallow the world a moment later.
