AUTHOR'S NOTE- Okay long time no see, blah blah hope you can forgive yadee yaddee, hope this chapter makes up for all.
DISCLAIMER- I own no turtles of any kind.
Leo managed a quick, swift run even though his brother was completely hanging from him. What Leo couldn't manage was the knowledge of where he was going. He was at the complete mercy of what lay on the other side of whatever wall passed. So far it had been another short hall with another sharp corner and whenever he came upon this he became more and more nervous.
To make matters worse Mikey and Raph were racing behind him, convinced he knew what he was doing and that he would deliver them all to safety.
So this is not time to doubt what your doing, he thought to himself as he turned another corner and came across another empty hall. But this one was different. Leo tried to skid to a halt but his relentless speed prevented him from doing so and he tumbled all over himself and fell to the floor.
Just before were fiery explosions of combustion and smoke so thick they made a wall blocking the continuing halls. They were destructive and unconstrained and Leo barely managed to keep from sliding right into them. He was stopped mere feet away from the fire and could feel his skin already burning form the immense heat.
It was no ordinary fire, the destruction of the inner systems of the ships had released the poisonous gases form the fuel cells, and the destruction of those lit a gas fire throughout the west side of the ship. Like an animal the combustion ate through the weak remaining structures of the Titan and were expanding from it.
Leo scrambled up to his feet and resisted breathing the toxic fums. He scooped up Donatello once more over his shoulders when Mikey and Raph rounded the corner behind him.
"Other way!" Leo screamed viciously.
Mikey's and Raph's eyes widened in horror as they twisted their bodies and sped off to where they just came.
Since Mikey was last before he found himself leading now, but like Leo had no clue where to go. Wherever there was a place where they wouldn't die sounded good to him.
However the smoke on right ahead of him told him that there was no such a place on the ship. He skidded to a halt and gave a desperate look to his brothers closely behind him.
On both sides of them combustion was consuming the oaths of escape of the ship, it was eating up their oxygen even faster then it was growing. If they stayed there any longer it would be a race between suffocation and burning alive to see what could kill them first.
Leo scoped his perimeters until he found a ventilation shaft near the floor. He dropped down to it and began unscrewing the screw that stubbornly held it in place.
Raph and Mikey cornered next to him as the combustion began overcoming them. Soon they were taken over by the gases and fell to the floor coughing. Leo found some breath to hold and finally broke the resistance of the screws and yanked the bars open.
There was barley enough space for them to crawl through it one at a time. He stuffed Don's body in the small dark pathway and yanked Raph and Mikey to the floor to do the same.
Once they relaized their new objective Raph grabbed Don best he could and speedily crawled threw the vents, quickly followed by Mikey and finally Leo.
Once they had crawled a safe distance away from the main halls Raph stopped and looked back. He could wouldn't have been able to see the others had it not been for a dim light ahead of them
"What now?" he asked, knowing this was definably not the direction to the launching stations.
"Keep going, don't stop." Leo demanded.
Raph did as told best and deciding heading toward the light was their best option. After a few minutes they finally came close enough to identify it as an opening. However the light emitting from it was not that of day, or even the lights from the ship, but bright and blinding revealing itself in flashes.
The opening was completely uncovered and Raph bravely settled down Don to go check it out.
The sight before him was sickening, and it took all of his aggressive instinct to stiffen and not show fear. The opening was many feet, Raph guessed, above ground. They were in a cylinder shaped room stretching hundreds of feet above and below their central point. Below them there was a sea of fire and combustion with black smoke giving it a cover as black as the night sky. The only light was that of the explosions it tried to conceal.
Raph stumbled backwards and looked almost helplessly to Leo and Mikey, "We're trapped." he whispered.
Leo shoved past him to take a look for himself and them looked back towards his brothers. Mikey swore he could see a very foreign sense of fear in his eyes which made his heart jump into his mouth and a lump clogged his throat.
"So whats the plan Leo?" he barely manged to whimper out in a shaky voice.
Leo's lost expression became even more terrifying when he said," Wake up Don."
Mikey gulped, in other words he didn't know.
Since he was the closest Mikey tried to shake Don awake, but that didn't work since he was shaking so much himself he couldn't form a good grip. Impatiently Raph aggressively shoved Mikey out of the way, gripped Don's shoulders and yanked him side to side.
"Come on sleeping beauty! Wake up! We need your big brain here!" he yelled but Don remained motionless.
Mikey separated them before Raph made the situation worse. Leo frowned and gripped his katana, realizing they were desperate and out of time.
"Sorry Don," he mumbled as he swiped the blade across his brother's arm making a nice clean cut.
Don immediately yelped and woke up clutching his arm.
Before Leo could approach him Mikey yelled, "Don we have a situation here and we need your help!"
Don could barely make out his words, or figure for that matter. His body was in swelling pain, and h had never encountered a worse headache. Mikey had minus well hit him with a mace instead of shouting. All he could identify was blinking lights and pain in his arm.
Leo's firm grip on his shoulders helped come back into somewhat of a reality.
"Don I need you here with us, we need you focused." he said in a balanced voice of urgency but gentleness.
Don weakly shook out of his grip and took a sweeping look of his surroundings, "What happened?" he muttered.
"We're trapped like rats here!" Raph exclaimed, "On one side of us there's a fiery death, and on the other side there an even bigger fiery death!"
Disbelieving Don crawled towards the opening and found out Raph's description was a mere understatement to what was at hand. He looked up and down and then back to the others.
"So I take it there's no going back the other way?" he asked.
His brothers simultaneously shook their heads in a definite no.
Don looked back down and studied the outside chamber.
"This must be the fuel generator chamber, fresh oxygen comes through this shaft to balance out the toxic fumes to keep that," he pointed to the sea of fire below, "From happening"
"And?" Mikey urged.
"And just bringing oxygen in here isn't enough, they also must have to release the fumes in order to keep them from over heating the entire system." He once again pointed below, "So there must be a ventilation system that goes out as well, and it must be near the fuel generators."
"Where are you going with this Don?" Leo asked.
"The ventilation system will eventually lead the fumes out of the ship into space, as it will all the carbon dioxide on this ship, so the two systems will meet some where right before the exit and all be pushed out together. That meeting place will be near the exit of the ship passengers get out as well."
"So in other words the launching rooms." Leo continued.
"Exactly, so in order to get to that ventilation system we're going to have to jump and..."
"I'm sorry did you say jump, down there?" Mikey interrupted.
Don nodded.
"Dude I think you need more air to get in that big brain of yours. There's no way we can just jump down there."
"Its the only possible way out of here Mikey." Don said.
Mikey's jaw dropped and he protested, "But..."
"Are you sure Don?" Leo asked.
"Well," Don sheepishly put his arms behind his head, "I'm not really familiar with these new models, and their always upgrading to ensure better efficiency and.."
"Answer the question!" Raph yelled.
Don bit his lip and shook his head.
Raph and Mikey gave one another uneasy glances.
"But guys its a chance, and we usually have some luck with these unlikely chances." Don said trying to reassure them.
Fear only deepened in Mikey and Raph's expressions so Don looked to Leo. "Leo?" he asked holding out his hand.
Leo gave an uneasy look down to the pit of black smoke and fire that would probably burn them alive before they even reached the ground. It was like jumping into a volcano, but at least then you would know how far the ground is.
Nevertheless Leo tightly held Don's hand and asked, "Where do we jump?"
Don gave him a small smile and pointed to an area on the opposite side if them that wasn't so condensed with smoke. "See that area over there? It probably has less smoke because the vent's right next to it."
Leo squinted and tried to envision it. Even if Don was right, it was a very far jump, one of the farthest he'd ever been faced with in his life of being a ninja. There was a good chance they could miss it.
Leo blocked these thoughts from his head, there was always a great possibility of death right behind them, and it never stopped them before.
"Once we get down there I'll signal you with my katana then its your turn." he told Mikey and Raph.
"And of you don't!" Mikey cried.
Leo didn't answer. He turned around and prepared for the jump. Don was squeezing his hand so hard it was nearly blue. Even though they had a plan it still felt as if they were jumping straight into hell.
Leo gave him a reassuring nod and together edged near the corner and took the jump. The flew into the air for a brief moment and disappeared into the smoke.
Mikey and Raph held their breathes as they desperately searched into the darkness for some kind of sign, anything. For a few terrorizing moments they stared down into the blackness like hawks searching for the slightest thing out of place.
"There!" Raph shouted "I saw a flash lets go!"
"How can you be so sure that was Leo?" Mikey cried, "It could have been a flash from an explosion!"
"You're just gonna have to trust me on this one Mikey." he said inched toward the edge and prepared to jump.
Mikey's whole body was shaking now and his stomach was twisting every which way. If anything had been in it, it was surely gone now.
Once Mikey joined Raph, Raph turned to him, "Ready?" he asked.
Mikey shook his head, now on the verge of tears.
Raph apparently didn't care or notice when he screamed, "Go!"
The whole world suddenly plunged into slow motion as Raph flung himself into the air and fell down into the smoke. However every single working cell in Mikey's body prevented him from doing so too and he gripped the edges of the vent hard to keep the moment from pushing him straight out of the shaft.
He regained ground in the vents and desperately looked below him, his brothers had committed suicide he knew it and all jumping to the other side would do was give him a burning death as well.
He no longer had control of himself and tears spilled out of him, tears of shame, fear and helplessness. He wasn't ready to die. That morning so long ago when he was late for training, wasn't supposed to be his last on Earth. That couldn't have been the last time he's ever see his father, or April.
He looked behind him and could already smell the deadly smoke approaching. Don was right this was the only way out. He knew the vents would collapse in minutes, but somehow jumping into the unknown below seemed a lot scarier.
And for a moment it seemed that was his biggest fear in his life,the unknown, but then he looked around and relaized it wasn't. His brothers were gone and he was all by himself, and he was reminded at once that was his biggest fear. Being alone. Suddenly the dark pit of smoke below seemed like an escape, and it wasn't unknown because his brothers were down there. Alive or dead it didn't matter. Mikey inched his way to the edge, and took a deep breath.
A new thought over took all the others, the memory of that now precious morning of him taking the risk in that repulsive pipe. Where he had nothing to lose but everything to gain. This is just like that, he tried to tell himself and then leaped off the edge.
Not even seconds after he had jumped Mikey knew that he didn't have nearly enough momentum to make it to the other side. The light before him only lasted a second before he was plunged into darkness and heat. He tried everything he could to control the fall and make it to the other side but could only inch himself so far.
The heat surrounding him suddenly emphasized and then his skin caught a flame. At first it was just his feet, but then the fire lightened his entire body, and soon the whole world was consumed in flames. He screeched desperately, his lungs depleted but still felt it necessary to let the world know what pain the rest of his body was in. His skin was boiling and then melting off him exposing immense heat to pink areas that had never seen light before.
Before Mikey lost consciousness and life to the darkness something caught him and raised him up into a place with a ground. He tried to remain awake and alive but that was nearly impossible with numerous hard blows beating his body mercilessly.
His screams of pain formatted into a signal cry, "Stop!"and for a moment they did until a tight hand grip his arm and savagely dragged him into more heat and more pain.
For the next few minutes nothing made sense. He couldn't see, breathe, or hear anything besides frantic shuffling through the metal shafts.
The only thing keeping him conscious, well at least he thought, was the harsh command, "Stay awake Mikey, Stay awake!"
And then they were falling and the hit knocked the air out of his entire body. This time Mikey hardly issued a fight over the coming darkness and was ready for a peaceful nap when relentless shaking started moving him again. It was just hard enough to keep him from losing it but giving him pain as well. Fury, a new kind of energy finally gave him a grip as he snatched whatever was shaking him and gave it a glare.
Raph. His whole body finally recognized his brother's relived face, surrounded by his brothers as well. One thought came over him, they made it.
The launching deck was in a complete chaos. If workers were overwhelmed before, they were nearly helpless now. Most had been beaten to death by masses of desperate lives, and only the strongest remained, becoming weaker by the second. Chaos was over powering order, and with the death of order all chances of escape faded as well.
Leo, Don and Raph were too preoccupied to notice however, having their full attention on Mikey. It was scary enough that Mikey didn't come down with Raph, but he was basically a burning fire ball himself when his finally did jump. Leo nearly had to throw himself completely out of the shaft to save him.
Don and Raph worked relentlessly to keep him awake now, "Come on Mikey, you can't leave us now, we're almost out we just need you here." Don coaxed.
However Mikey was weak and barely able to sit up, his body was still shaking and it was easy to see he was no where near his right mind.
Leo's whole heart and sympathies had gone to the youngest when a terrifying announcement echoed across the ship.
"Last escape pod now boarding, last escape pod now boarding."
Leo had just climbed onto his feet when he saw their last chance of survival flying out of sight. All air left him and he stood there silently speechless.
However not a second was wasted in Don's mind. "The trash!" he cried.
Leo and Raph shot him a confused look.
"They've got to rid of their trash somehow and not everything can be burned, the trash room should be close by and they should have a ship that transports it away." he explained.
Leo's features lightened up, "Okay lets hurry and.."
He then heard a rumbling below and saw a stamped pf the unlucky people trampling towards them, as if they all heard Don's plan.
"Run!" he screamed.
The three took off and luckily managed a few feet of a head start. Mikey picked himself up and attempted to run forward but was soon overcome by the crowd and pushed the rest of the way.
It wasn't until after Leo, Don and Raph had found and boarded the ship that they realized Mikey was no longer with them. They looked back desperately to search for Mikey but all they saw was the crowds of people lunging for them.
Mikey pulled himself out of the crowd and looked ahead helplessly, they'll destroy them. He thought then noticed the launching button right next to him.
Maybe it was out of love, maybe fear, or maybe because his brain had not completely started functioning again. Whatever the reason Mikey punched the button, causing the door of the trash pod to close before anyone else could get to it and launch into outer space.
Leo, Raph and Don barely had time to scream before they were pushed to the side of the ship. They desperately looked out the window to see their little brother's figure getting smaller and smaller and they flew further and further into the distance.
AUTHOR'S NOTE- Worth the wait, or waste or time, you tell me but it took three hours to write so consider that when you REVIEW!