Lost in Space
Casey gritted his teeth. He hadn't been hurt in his fall; he was too used to falls of all kinds to be hurt by something as menial as a staircase. The cuts and bruises didn't count.
The Kraang stealth ship had reappeared in the sky. The farmhouse was the size of a stamp now, so jumping from the ship wasn't an option.
Casey wondered whether he should curse or bless his luck. He had landed on the stealth ship right before it disappeared; one more second and there would have been nothing more in the basement than a teenage boy and his hurt pride.
Nothing more, that was: no Kraang ship and no Donatello.
Casey was cleverer than most people gave him credit for, and he had no doubt that Donatello was in trouble. After all, it wasn't the first time that they tinkered with that particular ship, and it had never shown any will to disappear before.
And who was the last Kraang they had the displeasure to meet? That was right, Kraang Subprime. He had exploded the turtles' lair, almost blown up Casey's best friend and made Donatello very, very sick.
Well, if Kraang Subprime was inside that ship, he would learn how good Casey Jones was at fighting for the ones he cared about.
Crawling to the ship entrance, Casey tried to remember how to open it. It had something to do with the shiny pink buttons on the side… He hesitated. Would he get noticed? Probably. It wasn't a very good plan, but it was the only one he had. Shrugging, he pushed one button at random. The ship's door slid open and Casey entered it, hand firmly grabbing the hockey stick that never left him.
The first thing that Casey noticed was the noise. The whistling was so loud that nobody had heard him enter, which was made obvious by the fact the enemy was casually turning his back to him.
The enemy, namely Irma.
I knew it, Casey thought ferociously.
The second thing he noticed was Donatello's shape on the ground. Irma was busy pushing him inside a giant chamber, and Casey remembered that it was where April's false mother had been.
She wants to deep freeze Donnie? The mere idea was disgusting.
"Get away from him, you stupid Kraang!" Casey threw himself at Irma and hit her with all his might.
The hockey stick broke and Casey briefly regretted the loss of yet another of his faithful sticks.
Irma turned around and gave him a disdainful glance. "Too bad you decided to join us, human. I have no need for you!"
Casey pointed at Donatello with one arm while the other threw one of his handmade exploding pucks. "What do you want him for anyways? You already have an army."
The puck exploded next to Irma's head, which left Irma's shoulders to scamper to Casey.
"I want the final results of my little experiment," Irma said with Kraang Subprime's voice. "And I need to keep him in good shape for my scientists."
Casey stifled a sigh of relief. At least Irma hadn't killed Donatello. The teenager slid on his rollerblades and kicked Irma's head out of the ship through the still opened window.
At the same time, Irma became Hulk-Irma, quadrupling her size and enabling Casey to admire her full weaponry. However, the ship's size didn't allow her to move nimbly. Even without her head, she still had to crouch.
But Casey could move freely, and he slid between her legs to reach Donatello. "What do you want from him?" he shouted, hoping to distract Irma. Boasting was one of Kraang Subprime's most blatant weaknesses, and Casey was hoping to buy time.
"I want to know what damage my vial did to his internal organs," Kraang Subprime explained. "What's the point of a toxicity experiment if you don't collect the results? Although I must say that he looks in better shape than I expected."
He found a cure, you sick brain. Casey glanced at Donatello and noticed that he was stirring.
Irma moved an arm and fired. Casey threw himself to the floor to avoid it. He crawled under the crouched robot and on an impulse, he jumped to try and pull Kraang Subprime out of his shelter. The Kraang clung to the robot with his tentacles and bit Casey's arm. Casey yelled in pain, but he didn't let go.
Now Irma was pointing her cannons towards Casey and Kraang Subprime, and Casey wondered if she would be crazy enough to fire at herself. But maybe the absence of her head had downgraded the Artificial Intelligence inside, and Kraang Subprime was too busy to take the commands back.
"Watch out!" Donatello's voice shouted.
Casey felt someone push him backwards.
"Donnie! You're awake!" he beamed, still holding Kraang Subprime.
At the same time, Irma fired and exploded in metallic pieces that would have shredded Casey and Kraang Subprime - who had finally let go of the robot and was now trying to bite Casey's head - if Donatello hadn't used his shell to shield them all.
As soon as pieces of metal had stopped flying in and out of the ship, Donatello took his bō staff and used it to knock Kraang Subprime out.
Casey sighed in relief. "Thanks, Donnie."
"You're welcome."
Donatello kicked the unconscious alien inside the chamber and closed it before running to the control panel.
It was becoming colder, and Casey realized that they were now in the upper atmosphere.
"Close the door!" Donatello shouted. "The controls aren't working, the explosion must have damaged the ship!"
"And how am I supposed to do that?" Casey shouted back as he ran to said door and tried to put it back into place with brute strength.
If you asked him, it could have been automated. But maybe the ship was of a model too ancient for that, or maybe it hadn't been in its prime even before Irma blow herself up.
Luckily, it worked. Casey grinned and turned to Donatello. His smile died on his lips when he realized that Donatello was panting and leaning against the wall.
"Donnie? Are you alright?"
Donatello closed his eyes briefly before straightening up and nodding. "Yes. Irma injected me with something to anesthetize me, apparently." He made a pause. "I'm surprised she didn't kill me."
"I think she needed you alive." Casey watched the chamber where Kraang Subprime was now imprisoned. "That crazy alien talked about a toxicity experiment, and that he wanted to give you to his scientists to look at… uh… your internal organs or something."
Donatello winced. "Well, I'm glad you were here to thwart his evil plans." He took another look at the control panel. "I'll try to repair it so we can go back to the farmhouse." He waved at the remnants of Irma's body. "At least we won't be short of spare parts."
Casey nodded and began examining them, looking for something that could replace a hockey stick. He had just found the perfect piece - a part of Irma's robotic left leg - when Donatello exclaimed.
"Oh no!"
Casey winced. "Do I want to know how bad an 'Oh no!' it is?"
Donatello grabbed Casey's shoulders. "This ship is accumulating energy! Do you know what it means?"
"No, but you're going to tell me." Casey's voice sounded resigned.
"It's preparing itself to leave this dimension!"
Casey paled. "Can you stop it? Please?"
Donatello shook his head. "If I had got hours? Maybe. But we're going to jump in…"
A series of symbols appeared on the ship's screen and began disappearing, one after the other. It looked suspiciously like a countdown.
"… Ten seconds."
On Earth, the mood was pretty grim.
It hadn't taken the others more than fifteen seconds to run to the basement, but the ship was long gone.
"What happened?" Leonardo shouted.
"The ship… it… it disappeared," April whispered. "With Donnie and Casey."
"What?" the others yelled.
April sat down and took her head in her hands. "I wasn't expecting danger," she whispered. "I never thought that the ship would still work after all this time…"
"Did Donnie make it work?" Michelangelo asked.
April looked at him, her face desperate. "I don't believe so, Mikey. I had the time to feel another presence in the room. Guys… I think Irma found him."
Raphael clenched his fists. "And where are they now?"
April bowed her head. "I don't know."
Donatello and Casey had patched the bite on Casey's arm and were now looking morosely at the ship's screen. It was displaying a view of a planet that they knew all too well.
"Why did it have to be Dimension X?" Casey complained. "I hate Dimension X. It's worse than the countryside."
"This is because I chose our destination before you decided to board this ship," a well-known albeit muffled voice said behind them.
Both Donatello and Casey turned around to watch a very awake Kraang Subprime.
"You should have hit him harder," Casey muttered.
Donatello paid him no attention. "And what would that destination be?" he asked.
Subprime wagged. "You would like to know, wouldn't you, turtle? Too bad I won't tell you."
Casey lifted the metallic piece he had chosen as a temporary replacement for his hockey stick, ready to hit the chamber in the hope of stunning its occupant.
"No!" Donatello quickly said. "We don't want to risk damaging the chamber. It's a good prison for him."
Kraang Subprime glared at him and turned around, pouting.
Casey lowered his weapon. "Then what do you suggest?"
Donatello's smile was devilish. "I have another idea."
Taking one of the many metallic pieces scattered across the ship, he came closer to the chamber and used the piece against the window pane. It grated.
The sound, already extremely unpleasant to Casey's ears, seemed way worse to the Kraang, who withered.
"Oh, I see." Casey grinned and decided that he could as well give Donatello a hand.
Their grating concerto was finally too much for Kraang Subprime.
"Stop it! Stop it!" he yelled.
"Then let's chat," Donatello said casually.
Subprime glared daggers at them both. "What do you want to know?"
To Casey's surprise, Donatello didn't answer immediately. He seemed hesitant for some reason.
"First, where are we going?" the turtle finally said.
"To my headquarters, where my Kraang will capture and dissect you and kill the boy," Kraang Subprime answered, grinning a toothy grin.
Casey frowned and grated some more against the window pane. Kraang Subprime yelled.
"Casey, if you would be so kind, I'm trying to question the enemy," Donatello said, sounding annoyed.
Casey took a step back. "He began it," he accused.
"And where exactly are your headquarters?" Donatello went on.
"They're in the middle of Dimension X," Kraang Subprime answered, glaring at Casey.
Donatello didn't seem very happy with this answer. Casey assumed that considering how different the laws of physics were in Dimension X, its middle could be anywhere.
"What is this war you told me about?" the turtle went on, choosing a different line of questioning. "Do you really believe that you can invade Earth again, so soon after we utterly defeated you? It sounds a little too crazy, even for you. I bet your supply of mutagen is still very low."
Kraang Subprime shrugged. "We're going to destroy once and for all the traitors to our race. They have been a thorn in our side for way too long. See? Not everything revolves around you and your stupid little planet."
"Then what about me? Why this…" Donatello glanced at Casey. "… toxicity experiment?"
Kraang Subprime beamed. "I wanted to make a poison that would kill, but not immediately, you see? It's less fun if your enemies don't suffer. You were a great test subject."
"You're disgusting," Casey spat.
Kraang Subprime bowed as if this was a compliment. "My pleasure, human."
Then he watched Donatello, his eyes narrowed to slits and a dangerous grin on his lips. "Is this all you want to know, turtle? I would have thought that you would be more curious about, you know…"
Donatello paled, increasing Casey's curiosity as well as his suspicions. Had his friend been hiding something from them again?
"April's mother," Kraang Subprime finished.
Casey's eyes widened. "April's mo… Donnie! What is he talking about?"
"I… I was going to tell you," Donatello stammered. "But I needed to make sure that he wasn't trying to mislead me, you know?"
"I wasn't." Kraang Subprime was still grinning. "I followed every experiment on the O'Neil family, you see."
Casey couldn't believe his ears. "How could you not tell April? Dude! She has the right to know!"
"I was going to!" Donatello yelled. "I just needed more than, 'By the way, April, the crazy alien mentioned your mother. I don't know anything else. Let's go get dinner'!"
Casey crossed his arms. "Well, this is the perfect opportunity, right?" He turned to Kraang Subprime. "So what happened to April's mother?"
Kraang Subprime let out a heavy sigh. "Sadly, she was still alive when she escaped."
"She escaped?" Donatello and Casey both exclaimed.
Was it possible that April's mother was still alive somewhere? April was going to be overjoyed.
"She did," Subprime admitted.
His cunning look rang an alarm bell in Casey's stomach, and the teenager felt Donatello tense next to him.
"Luckily, we found her three months later," the alien went on. "You should have seen her, she looked so surprised when we shot her in the heart! Of course, torturing her would have been so much better, but you know. Instant death has its charms."
"You monster!" Casey yelled, and Donatello had to physically restrain him before he could smash the chamber to pieces.
Kraang Subprime merely laughed.
April, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Splinter were gathered in the kitchen. None of them was in the mood for talking.
April knew they were all dwelling on the same thoughts.
How could they have lost Donatello's track so soon after they had managed to save him? What had happened to Casey?
And more importantly, were they still alive?
Everybody was itching to do something, anything; and still they were powerless.
The silence was so heavy that they could have heard a pin drop. That's why nobody missed the loud bump from below the house, and they all ran to the basement.
The foolish hope that maybe Donatello and Casey had found a way to come back filled April's heart as she rushed down the stairs, but she was soon disappointed. The ship wasn't there.
There was, however, a Kraang in costume sitting on the ground. He stood up and dusted himself.
"Greetings, inhabitants of Earth," the Kraang said. "I'm looking for a ship. Have you seen it?"
April frowned. This Kraang had a different aura from the Kraang she was used to. Before she could put her finger on it, though, a green and red blur jumped down the Kraang's throat, all sai out.
"What have you done to my brother?"
