Chapter 9:

An hour and a half later, I sat with Splinter, Casey and April drinking green tea and playing Chute & Parcheesi Land, the rules of which I still didn't fully understand. It appeared to be cobbled together from several incomplete board games. So much for going to save Kade.

When I'd assumed I was going with them, there was that awkward, pitying silence before Raph bluntly informed me that I would be in the way. At least my game piece was about to slide down to the Lollipop Woods. I think that was a good thing. Once again, still not clear on the rules.

A clang at the back of the room drew everyone's attention. One of the sides of the cage was down and Kade hopped about daintily, free of his cage. Uh oh.

I just sat there at the table as the other three leapt into action. April whipped out a metal fan and I couldn't help but wonder where she'd been keeping it. Casey grabbed a hockey stick and some pucks from a bag, leaning against the couch. Splinter's cane suddenly became a weapon.

April flung her fan like a boomerang hitting Kade in the head at the same time that Casey clocked him with a hockey puck on the other side while Splinter charged up the middle. Kade squawked angrily and opened his beak, spewing out a wide spray of black liquid. Splinter gracefully and rapidly flipped out of the way of it, but Casey and April were caught, dropping like rocks and left twitching on the floor.

I could hear Splinter call out their names and found myself staggering towards the fight. Well, there was one thing I could do.

Grabbing a bat from Casey's bag, I screamed and charged in, getting splattered with another gush of black liquid. Man it smelled awful, like rancid bacon grease mixed with motor oil. But it didn't faze me.

I just kept running and swung the bat at Kade's head as hard as I could, connecting with a sickening crack. Kade did not drop as expected. Instead, he slowly turned to glare at me and I knew that this was gonna hurt. A lot.

Suddenly Splinter was there behind him, using the distraction that I'd created and cracked the back of Kade's neck with the blade of his hand. Now Kade collapsed to the ground unconscious.

Splinter was moving check on Casey and April, when I called out, struck by a rare moment of realization. "Wait! Don't touch them! They're covered in that stuff."

He hesitated only for a moment, before yanking off his robe, wrapping it around April and lifting her up, leaving me gawking at a giant rat in a loincloth.

"There is an emergency shower in Donatello's lab for chemical accidents. Bring Casey. Quickly."

Oh. So that's what I was dumped in earlier.

He was already off while I struggled to pick up Casey in a fireman's carry, staggering towards the lab. Why didn't I get to carry the pretty girl? Casey was clammy, where he wasn't slimed, and his pulse felt really slow.

Inside the lab, April, in Splinter's robe, had already been placed on the shower floor grate and Splinter was pulling on a chain that started the water. I lugged Casey over and dumped us both in, actively scrubbing the sludge off all three of us and Splinter's robe. When the water timed out, we were frigid and soaked but clean.

They were unconscious. Their breathing was rapid, shallow and worsening fast.

Clearly worried, Splinter knelt next to them. "It's poisoning them too quickly. I don't know if I can stop it in time."

How could he possibly stop poison? He started a series of hand gestures while chanting, like that was gonna do anything. The look on his face told me he knew what he was doing wasn't going to work. They were just fading so fast.

At that moment, a memory hit me like a physical blow. Earlier, when I still thought I was going to help save Kade, I joined the turtles in Donnie's lab to see where they'd decided to go.

They were all poring over the files on Donnie's desk and I didn't want to interrupt, so I just began wandering around and found myself at some cages with pigeons in them, labeled subject A through D.

Next to the cages was a rack of sealed test tubes, labeled 'Distilled Eli' in messy scrawl with three syringes full of the same substance and a fourth waiting to be filled.

Suddenly Donnie was standing next to me. "I haven't figured out exactly how you work." His tone indicated that it was just a matter of time. "But something about your cellular fluid completely neutralizes all other chemicals on contact. I managed to extract a good amount of the fluid from the samples you gave me, though I'd like more."

Yup. Knew that was coming.

"It even disperses throughout other organisms when injected." Oh, the pigeons. "It's completely sterilized every substance that I've tried on the test subjects, although there are still a few more that I want to test out."

"Donnie! Enough science! It's mission time." Raph's voice had interrupted both the conversation and my memory which had probably passed through my head in milliseconds.

The syringes! Running to the table, I grabbed them up and hurried back to Casey and April. I really hoped this worked.

Two fisting the syringes, I simultaneously jammed them into Casey and April's upper arms and depressed the plungers, forcing the stuff that I refused to refer to as 'Distilled Eli' into them.

I waited anxiously for a few minutes while Splinter kept chanting. I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, but it kind of looked like he was glowing. April and Casey's stiff forms relaxed and their pallor improved. I let out a relieved breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

Splinter sighed. "They will be fine with some rest." He looked at me curiously. "Whatever you gave them stopped the poison and gave me time to heal the damage."

He'd healed them. With chanting and hand gestures? No way.

"It was just some stuff Donnie made with my blood."

He stroked his long beard. "Interesting."

All of a sudden I was aware that he wasn't wearing anything but a loin cloth. Feeling acutely uncomfortable, I handed him his sopping robe. He seemed to find my discomfort amusing. Wringing it out and hanging it on one of the hooks for Donnie's aprons, some of which were the plastic kind I'd seen earlier while others looked like protection for welding.

"Bring Casey and April to the dojo and lay them under the tree where they can rest."

Dojo? Tree? In a subway station? He left before I could ask. How hard could a dojo with a tree in a subway station be to find? At least I finally got to carry April. Compared to Casey she was light and soft and smelled nice.

I brought her out of the lab and found that Splinter had hauled Kade back to his cage and was currently putting the door back on. Seeing that I appeared lost, he pointed towards some stairs up to an area with arches covered by homemade dividers, which I assumed was the dojo. I eventually managed to slide the divider open while balancing April and my jaw fell open.

It really was a dojo, with weapon lined walls and old rugs for mats. And yes there really was a large tree in the middle with light streaming down on it from a grate in the ceiling. Wow. I had just gently set April down at the base of the tree when Splinter appeared behind me causing me to jump.

"Bring Casey and I will see that they are comfortable."

It took longer to drag Casey over. By the time I got back, Splinter had put on a dry robe, much to my relief, placed April on a long cushion with a pillow and had wrapped her in a blanket. There was another set, ready and waiting for Casey. Splinter tucked him in after I set him down.

"I will watch over them."

"What should I do?" I was feeling pretty confident after saving the day.

"Given your unique abilities…" Yes! I was finally going to get some recognition. "…you should probably be the one to clean up the toxin your friend left on the floor out there."

He gestured to a mop and bucket in the corner as he spoke. Oh well.