Chapter Fifty-Three: A Full-Blown Party
Five Days Later
Friday night
The front door alert beeped, and Don sprang up from his computer chair and hurried over to the door in time to see April step inside. Casey staggered in behind her, laden with what would be an inordinate amount of pizza for any other group of seven people.
"We got Luigi's dis time; I hope dat's okay," Casey began.
"April!" Don hugged her tightly; she hugged back. "I'm so glad you're back!" Don suddenly realized how much enthusiasm he'd shown and released April abruptly, his cheeks turning pink. He cleared his throat. "How were your flights yesterday?"
April giggled and graced him with her signature soft smile. "Good to see you too, Don. I didn't realize I was missed so much. Although I hear you guys had quite the adventure while I was gone." She looks tired… but even prettier than normal, somehow.
She waved as Don heard his brothers arrive behind him. "Hey, Leo. Hey, Mikey. Hi, Raph." She stretched out an arm and rescued the top pizza box before it slid off Casey's precarious stack. "The flights were fine, just super long. I was so exhausted and jet-lagged. Casey had to practically carry me into the apartment. And then I slept all night and all day, up til a couple hours ago."
"Welcome back, April." Leo handed her pizza box to Don and hugged her briefly before sidestepping out of Mikey's way.
"April! We missed you a lot!" The youngest turtle practically cannonballed into April. "You won't believe what you missed while you were looking for dusty old stuff! Don kept wishing you were here to help him figure out the darts and stuff! Did you find anything cool? Did you bring me anything?"
"Chill, Mikey," Raph growled, peeling his brother off their friend. "Good ta see ya, April," he said. Don could tell he didn't know what to do with his hands.
April smirked. "No one will accuse you of being a wimp for one silly little hug, Raph," she said, and hugged him.
"Welcome back to the city, Miss O'Niel." Master Splinter had appeared out of thin air, as usual, and April nodded respectfully.
"Hey, I'm here, too." The pizza boxes muffled Casey's indignance. "What am I, chopped liver?"
"Nah, Case." Raph laughed and clapped him on the back, which nearly caused a pizza avalanche. "You're more like a… bad penny. Ya just keep turnin' up."
"Let's set the food down on the table before tragedy strikes," Leo said, amusement hidden in his serious tone. He grabbed two boxes and led the way.
The group, with much playful teasing and calling of dibs of favored kinds of pizza, migrated noisily to the kitchen and then to the living room.
Once everyone was seated and started eating, Don shifted in his seat and looked to April. "So, April, how did your trip go? What antiques and prizes did you manage to get your hands on?"
April finished a bite. "No major hiccups, and I can tell you much better in a couple of days once I've processed the crates." She tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. "But no one wants to hear about that right now, Donnie. I know you're all dying to tell me about what happened, and I'm dying to hear about it. So, tell me… what happened while I was gone?"
I thought you'd never ask.
"Well, Leo, Mikey, and Master Splinter were out on an excursion, and Raph and Casey were out separately to break a few Purple Dragon noses. I was left alone, here in the Lair. I was working at my computer when I suddenly realized I was no longer alone…"
The story began. Don told April—and the others, again—about confronting a stranger who had not come through the door. He described the brief fight, her tears once disarmed, her alarm at his translator, and the broken conversation.
April leaned forward and gave the story her full attention. She seemed to forget about her jetlag as she listened, and only interrupted to ask occasional clarifying questions, such as "Wait, is the girl's name Saja or Kaiva?" after Mikey had corrected Don for the third time.
"Well, she was Saja when I met her," Don said, twisting his face, "but now she's not, but this is about the time when she was."
Leo chuckled. "Just call her Saja for the part of the story where it's accurate."
Don then told of that first night's horrible, stomach-dropping calls from Leo and the Gamer. Leo and Mikey briefly told of the ambush and getting tossed into bare penthouse apartment prisons. Don told of his reconnaissance, his worries and theories about Saja, and then his action movie hero boarding of a speeding subway train to rescue Master Splinter. The rat in question, listening silently from his worn armchair, nodded approvingly at his son.
Raph recounted his awakening in the "sleepy forest" and meeting "that annoying sciencey squirrel with a name like a sneeze." When he woke up next from "that stupid purple sleepy drug," he'd met Bren the raccoon medic, Vesuva the desert fox leader, and found himself trapped in the world of the Othila and the Da'an. April looked intrigued and then blinked in concern.
Casey, at Don's prompting, told haltingly of his introduction to Taevon the golden-eyed Jior and his brand-new ability to time travel. He reeled off a summary of places and times he'd been; April's eyes glinted with jealousy just as Don's had.
Don chose to skip over the night when Master Splinter had put him to bed and enforced it and his fruitless roof searching in favor of telling April about the next morning, when Saja had garnered a note for Raph from him and left despite his best advice. April's eyes widened when he described Saja vanishing from sight.
Raph told her next of how he'd distracted himself from his fate by joining the Da'an soldiers in a raid that led to getting drugged and tossed in a cell with a useless hedgehog and panda. April sympathized with Raph's annoyance.
Don recounted the Gamer's next invitation: an easy Windows-screensaver-themed labyrinth and the exceptionally oversized and difficult obstacle course with Mikey. The orange-masked turtle in question described the course with excitement—April couldn't help grinning at his enthusiasm—and recounted his horrible punishment collar with sadness; April's face creased in horror and anger.
The next day, as best as they could figure, was when Da'an warriors had rescued Raph and his cellmates. Raph started training some of them with a few basic ninjutsu techniques and principles, and ended up leading a second raid, which started excellently and ended terribly. April nodded, impressed at Raph taking the lead, and groaned at the fire alarm and Raph's capture.
Don summarized finding the cruel zapper in Mikey before skipping to the next night's "level" of fighting a skyscraper full of Foot, Little Brother, and Leo, who added his perspective. April covered her mouth with her hands when Don revealed the two different "bosses" and couldn't help herself from asking Don if he was okay.
Raph recounted waking up in the Da'an medbay again and the shock of meeting Don's "messenger," Saja, reading the note she'd brought from Don, his hurried convalescence, and their travel back to the Lair several hours later. April shook her head at Raph's near-death experience and cheered on Saja for her bravery in bringing him back.
Casey heard his cue to tell April about his struggles getting back to the right place and time from his travels with Taevon: his running out of teleporting power, Taevon's nervous idea, their trip to Jior berry patch, and finally their arrival back to more or less the right time in the middle of night. April suddenly realized she'd almost lost her boyfriend to time itself and hugged him.
Leo jumped in to tell of his brief rooftop reconnaissance that night, the reunion the next morning, and the unexpected freaking out of Taevon when he woke up, complete with a summary of the useful information he gave about the Jior, Saja, and Pahliak. He also mentioned that night's recon with Casey. April frowned as she digested this information.
Don took back over the storytelling to cover the next morning's discoveries about the difference between the darts that hit Raph and Casey, Saja's freaking out and their attempts to calm her down, and then that afternoon's meeting where Taevon proposed his idea and the turtles agreed. April leaned forward, eyes huge, when she realized her friends had time-traveled without her.
Mikey covered the next day's events: the breakfast he made Saja, the meeting to tell her the idea, and Operation Distraction, including a pizza and game night. April smiled and patted the orange-masked turtle on the shoulder for a job well done.
The next day, the Jior adventure had begun; Leo told of their arrival and Taevon's absence, their journey into town and the Council building, and the long night while Mikey kept Saja distracted and Don worked on The Technology. April gasped out loud when he told how Mikey and Don got captured in the morning.
Don and Mikey summarized their ironic prison experience, Mikey's exciting discovery, and Don's crazy idea. The next day, Elder Nafti had tried to punish Taevon, but Don, disguised as an invisible "Great Parvoss," had thwarted his power trip and instead declared both Taevon and Saja innocent before renaming her. April laughed at the clever charade on the simple villagers. Her mouth dropped open at Don's boldness in renaming their new friend before everyone reassured her that the girl—now Kaiva—agreed to the name and liked it.
Leo jumped in to summarize their exfiltration from the land of the Jior, their rest and preparations the next day, and the next night's time travel to a week before. They had broken into the Gamer's headquarters and barely started searching for their foe before he had captured Don and hooked him up to a deadly game. April again looked as concerned as a big sister when Leo, Raph, and Mikey described finding Don lost in a dangerous world.
April hardly breathed as Don recounted his experience inside the game, from the opening cutscene to when he realized, with Leo's help, that he was inside a game and his life was at stake, to his climactic battle with the Gamer. She remained on the edge of her seat as the turtles told her about the great beast of a man, Little Brother, or Pahliak the Jior war criminal, hidden out of sight as the Gamer's bodyguard, Shredder's unforeseen and heart-stopping appearance, and Don's quick thinking to get rid of them both.
Finally, they had caught up to their exfiltration, crashing at Casey's apartment for several days until they could return to the Lair, and the friendly departure of Taevon and Kaiva.
April sagged back against the couch. "Wow. You're right. I really did miss out on the adventure." She shook her head. "Not that I'd want to be part of it, if I got captured by that creep, too. Although, all that time travel sounds so incredibly cool…" she eyed her boyfriend.
Don smirked. I can almost see her eyes turning green.
At this, Casey jumped up from the couch. What's he doing? "I just r'membered," he mumbled as he went to the battered chest that held spare blankets. He pawed through it. "Where'd…" What's he looking for?
Leo stood. "I moved it, Case. It smelled a little… fishy. I didn't want all the blankets to absorb that smell, too." Fishy? It must really be bad for Leo to use that adjective. Six pairs of eyes tracked Leo as he moved over to the halfpipe, where he produced a tired-looking leather bag from just underneath the struts of the skateboarding halfpipe.
Casey followed him, opened it, and laughed. "Oh, yeah, I forgot. Dere's dried fish in here." Ah. Well, that explains it. The adjective was literal.
"Actual dried fish? Yuck!" Mikey shuddered.
Casey shrugged and rifled through the bag. "You take what food you can get when you're time-travelin.'" He must've found what he was looking for, because he dropped the bag and returned to the couch with something in his hand. Leo sat back down as well.
"Here, April," he said, dropping a little package wrapped in brown paper and secured with twine onto her lap, "dis is for you. A little present from my crazy trip wi' Taevon."
"The paper's gonna make it smell gross over here," Mikey said, but Raph leaned over and whacked the side of his head.
"Oh, Casey, that's so sweet," April said as she untied the twine and unwrapped the paper. Half a dozen little skeleton keys slid into her hand; she gasped. Each had a little paper tag with something written in pretentious black cursive.
"Keys!" April looked up at Casey, and back down. "Are these from…?"
"Yeah, dey're from London, in 18… something. I don't remember. But I had the guy write down stuff about each one. He thought it was real weird I wanted to buy jus' keys without locks or safes or doors. Taevon had th' right money; I gave him the twenty I had in my jeans as trade," he added, somehow managing to stuff his hands in his jeans pockets despite being in a seated position. "I dunno if you want to sell 'em in th' shop, or just, like, hold onto 'em."
"These are amazing, Casey! Look, Don! Look, Leo!" Eyes alight with wonder and delight, April examined each one before passing it to her left; everybody got a turn to admire each one.
Two of them had finely detailed heads, chiseled into looping flourishes, and prongs that looked like miniature labyrinths. One had a flat oval loop for a head, stamped with a tiny crown and two letters that might be initials, and flat, blocky prongs. Another had a simple loop head with two symmetrical prongs that folded back and forth. One had a circular head that looped into itself and one prong that turned into two. The final one had a plain oval head stamped with a number and simple prongs, but boasted a little blue tassel.
These hardly look secure, but they're really cool. Don inspected one of the cursive tags to see that some of the S's were written like F's, a true sign of the era. It's so weird to see this style of handwriting with such fresh ink and paper.
"Casey!" April threw her arms around Casey's neck. "These are perfect! No way am I gonna sell them; I'm gonna hang them on the wall in our apartment. Except maybe this one—" she picked up one especially intricate one— "I think I'll put this one on a chain and wear it as a necklace."
Casey looked as pleased as a cat. "Hey, uh, you're welcome. Glad you like 'em."
Raph leaned over and punched his friend's shoulder lightly. "Good job, knucklehead. You did somethin' good, fer once."
Don gave up trying to read the cursive for now; he looked up, met April's eyes, and saw her agreement. Later, we'll decipher the 1800s handwriting and read these little descriptions. Too many distractions right now.
More praisings and teasings followed, and then general chatter about time travel and Casey's previous, less successful gift attempts—the second-hand iron had not been well-received—but all five ninjas cut off when they sensed the sudden addition of a new presence. Someone's here.
Leo saw her first and relaxed; the other turtles absorbed his signal and relaxed before they even saw her themselves: Kaiva, wearing her beautiful flowing top, new navy pants, and the forgnathu, stood at the far side of the main floor of the Lair. That's going to startle me every time she comes, even if she visits a thousand times.
"Kaiva! Come on over! We were just talking to you!"
"Hey, Sa—I mean, Kaiva! Meet our friend April!"
"Welcome, Kaiva!"
Cheeks turning pink, the girl bowed slightly and hurried over. A grin grew on her face as she approached.
Mikey jumped up and gave her a big hug. "Kaiva! Good to see ya!"
Don stood and grinned at her. "Kaiva, this is our human friend April O'Neil. I think I mentioned her once or twice. April, this is Kaiva, the girl who invaded our home and ended up our friend."
Kaiva's gold eyes locked onto April's green ones; the Jior froze in place for half a second, then shook herself and bowed in the Japanese style. "I am Kaiva K'el," she said, in carefully enunciated English. "I am happy to meet you, April."
April looked impressed. "You learned some English, huh?" She stood up and opened her arms. "Well, the only way I can possibly begin to thank you for rescuing Raph and helping the guys is with a hug."
After a second's hesitation—Don nodded encouragingly—Kaiva stepped forward and accepted the hug. She seemed more relaxed as they parted.
"Kaiva," April said, smiling, hand on Kaiva's arm, "the guys just finished telling me about this whole adventure, how you helped bring back Raph, and how they ended up helping you in return. But I'd love to hear some things from your perspective. Are you up for that?"
Ducking her head, Kaiva couldn't hide a little grin. She nodded.
April gestured; and seats were rearranged to accommodate the Jior girl.
Hm. More storytelling might take a while. Which is fine, but there's a couple things I want to know. "Oh, before that, Kaiva, if I can ask," Don said, "how's it going in your town? If you've been back there," he added. "Do the people still believe it was really the great Parvoss talking? Is Elder Nafti causing more trouble?"
"An' how's Taevon?" Casey put in.
Kaiva laughed a little. "I can tell you all those things," she said in Jior, the forgnathu echoing her in English, "but not on an empty stomach."
"By all means, yes, help yourself." Leo picked up a spare clean paper plate.
"I'll even let ya try some of my meat lover's." Raph opened the pizza boxes still arrayed on the coffee table. Well, that's not an offer Raph gives lightly.
"Yes! Pizza is good for the soul!" Beaming, Mikey found a clean napkin.
"Do you want it warmed up?" Don asked. Wow. Kaiva asking for food without even blushing.
"Some people like pizza cold better than hot," April added with a smile.
"Wait!" Mikey scrambled upward, nearly upsetting the precarious pile on the coffee table, and shot toward the stairs like a jet, leaving a contrail of barely understandable words hovering in midair. "April'sbackandKaiva'shereandthere'spizza! Thisisa FULL BLOWN PARTY!"
In approximately three-point-five seconds, before the figurative dust had settled, Mikey reappeared with brightly colored somethings in his hands. He vaulted over the railing and landed perfectly before bringing a red object up to his face and beginning to huff mightily: a balloon.
"Mikey." Don had now recovered the power of speech. "Breathe. You're going to pass out if you blow that up right after sprinting upstairs and vaulting back down."
In answer, Mikey paused for one gasp of air and loosened his hold on the other balloons; Leo caught them.
"We don't really need…" Leo shook his head. "Never mind. Balloons it is." He took a blue one and tossed the rest to the others.
A white one fell onto Kaiva's lap; her hand hovered over her plate and a touch of alarm entered her eyes.
Don tried not to chuckle as he selected a purple balloon. "They're balloons, Kaiva. It's an Earth tradition. It's just a rubber or latex bag, filled with air, used as decorations for celebrations like birthdays. The fancy ones are filled with a gas called helium that floats."
Mikey paused on his second balloon, cheeks red, to burst in, "You don't have-any helium-in your lab-do you, Donnie?"
Don smiled. Indirect answer time. "Helium is very hard to get ahold of, Mikey."
Mikey's disappointment lasted only a second; he returned to puffing.
Within a few minutes, the balloons were done, and Mikey immediately bopped one at Casey, who swatted it back. Soon everyone was laughing or at least smiling as balloons arced from hand to hand. Mikey also produced a noisemaker, much to his delight and the dismay of everyone else, but after a few ear-piercing toots, Master Splinter confiscated it.
This too failed to deter Mikey's enthusiasm in partying. He initiated a few party games and told jokes. He even served dessert: a cake that he had somehow baked without Don's knowledge. I guess I was in my lab all day, though.
More stories were told over cake: how April and the turtles had met, the visitation of the great Parvoss from Kaiva's perspective, one of Raph and Casey's particularly epic escapades involving high-speed motorcycles and Purple Dragons, and so on. At one point, Casey tried to explain hockey to Kaiva.
Eventually, the talk circled back around to the end of the recent adventure. The turtles had returned to the apartment and everyone had crashed. After a solid fourteen hours of sleeping like the dead, those with teleporting power had had enough energy to travel again, and the whole group had time-traveled one week forward, about twenty-four hours after they had left to time travel backward.
Leaving Casey to sleep again in his now-clean apartment, everyone else had trekked down to the Lair and slept there; Raph insisted on checking Don over in the medbay before they slept, but the drug withdrawal seemed to be proceeding fine.
The next day, Kaiva had bid the turtles farewell before leaving to meet her parents at their rendezvous point. After that, several surprisingly normal days had passed as the occupants of the Lair readjusted to life without a maniacal enemy, caught up on sleep, and Don's body recovered from its abuse. And now that April had returned from her trip, life was as normal as it could get for five sewer-dwelling mutants.
Kaiva cleared her throat. "I am so pleased to hear of things here," she said. "Now, Don-" she nodded in his direction—"asked of proceedings in the land of the Jior, in which I am no longer an exile, thanks to you—and the great Parvoss, of course." She grinned a little. "For of course the great Parvoss visited us, along with the turtle guides to translate for him, and the Jior speak of it. Apparently the day afterward, Anashu—Elder—Nafti tried to discredit all that Parvoss had said, but..." She paused and spoke slower, her face thoughtful. "I see that their respect for him, their fear of him, is a little less. Especially now that his threat of The Technology is gone. The wheels of tradition yet turn, but… questions have arisen."
Don nodded slowly. "Change takes a long time, but even that little bit of questioning is great. I was really hoping to get people to start thinking about the way things are."
Leo was frowning. "Did you tell them about Pahliak? How Nafti took him out of exile to help a madman hunt us?"
Kaiva's eyebrows came together in confusion. "Tell them? My people?" She shook her head. "I may not be an exile any longer, but I'm still just a girl." At the Moon Gathering, only the men spoke publicly.
"So?" Mikey said.
Kaiva glanced at him, her shoulders tight. "I-"
"Are women not allowed to speak publicly, Kaiva?" Don asked softly.
Kaiva nodded, relieved.
Raph grunted. "What about yer dad, then? Can you tell him, an' he can tell everyone?"
Kaiva blinked at this, then shook her head slowly. "I did tell him, and my mother, and a few of my cousins and friends I used to be close with before, but I wouldn't want the Jior getting angry against my father. Besides," she added, "they would ask if he was an eyewitness, and of course he wasn't—neither was I, for that matter."
Bummer. Oh, well. At least Nafti doesn't have access to The Technology anymore. Don's eyes flicked over to his lab, which guarded a beautiful, colorful alien power source.
"I think Nafti's actions will come back to haunt him, regardless," Leo said quietly, looking Kaiva in the eye, "and it was brave of you to tell even those few people."
"Yes, definitely." Don leaned forward and touched Kaiva's knee. "I'm sure that even though your name has been cleared, it hasn't been easy going back to life among your people. You were so brave to go back home. You've… been living up to your new name." Only fourteen. I can't imagine being in her shoes.
Kaiva was looking down by this point; she sniffled and wiped at her eye. "Thank you."
April gave her a sideways hug. "You can talk to Don or me or whoever whenever you want, if you ever need to chat," she said. She pointed at the forgnathu. "Just make sure to bring that thing, 'cause we'll both need it." She smiled down at Kaiva.
Kaiva smiled back and blinked a few times. Then she cleared her throat and looked to Casey, who wasn't paying attention; Raph elbowed him. "As for Taevon, he is…" she hesitated. "We're both receiving a lot of attention in town after the great Parvoss himself pardoned us. I do not seek attention, just acceptance, but Taevon…"
Hoo boy.
"He loves it. He's getting to talk with many Jior. Some are even asking him about time travel instead of world travel. In fact…" Pink crept into her cheeks. "some of the girls his age are talking to him. I heard he even took one of them—along with her brother, of course—on a time traveling trip. She's the granddaughter of Anashu Zem." Well. Taevon's doing quite well, then. Wasn't Zem the nice elder?
Casey laughed, clapping his knee. "Heh, that sounds like Taevon. He jus' wants ta talk ta people."
"Uh, Kaiva," Raph growled suddenly, "I have a question. A favor, I guess. Now that ya can go invisible again, an' you got th'translator doohickey, can you go find out how th' Da'an are? Bren an' Vesuva an' everybody? The Othila had th' advantage in th' war, but they're th' wrong ones."
Kaiva inclined her head in his direction. "My parents may not want me to return to a land of war, but I will find out if I can."
"Er, thank ya."
April stifled a yawn.
Kaiva smiled. "It's getting late in this world, I think, and probably also in mine. My parents will be expecting me back." She rose and bowed in the Japanese style. "Thank you, friends, for your food and your kindness to me. Thank you, Mikey, for the cake and the games-" Mikey beamed—"and all of you, for your acceptance and… support of me."
Don stood too, as did Leo and Raph. "You'll come back again, right, to visit us?" This isn't a permanent goodbye, is it?
"Of course I will. Jior tend to lose track of time, though, so don't expect a regular schedule," she added with a little grin.
"Regular? Normal? We're mutant turtles. We hardly know the meaning of either of those words," Don replied, amusement in his voice.
Master Splinter climbed to his feet and offered a short bow. "Farewell for now, Miss K'el."
"Awww! Do you have to go now? You can't stay the night?" Mikey's lip stuck out for a minute, but he recovered and swallowed her up in a huge hug. "Bye, Kaiva! See you later!"
"Goodnight, Kaiva! Safe travels!"
"Bye!"
"See you soon, Kaiva!"
Farewells filled the air. After a few more parting hugs, Kaiva stepped aside, bowed again, and vanished from sight.
Don sighed and turned back just in time to see April's mouth drop open. He chuckled. "Yeah, I think that was my reaction the first time, too." Bye, Kaiva. Our new friend from another world.
