"Well, we've got a lot of work to do, so lets get to it."
"Mmm." She downed the rest of the glass. bonk. "Ow!" Leonardo turned back and watched as a blue crystal ball rolled out of the glass and into Lita's lap, after rolling into her nose. "What the hell?"
"It's the element crystal." She picked it up.
"Oh yeah, I was wondering if it was going to show up." She laughed and scratched the back of her neck. "Neato."
"Come on." Leonardo turned back and walked out through the living room. Lita followed him out and to the dojo, holding the crystal to any light source.
"It's so pretty." She chirped.
"Mmm."
"Makes my fingers all tingly." She giggled.
"Leo dude, you ok?" Donatello was waiting by the door with a bag of food as they came in and put his hand on Leonardos shell.
"Yeah, I'm ready. Don't worry about it." Donatello patted his shell and walked him into the pitch black dojo where the others waited.
"Leo, you don't want to wait?" Noriko asked.
"Time is of the essense, Noriko. I appreciate your concern though. Let's get this done with." Leonardo lead her in with the others and greeted Maddie and Erika. Lita came and herded them all off into the center of the dojo while Don gave him a hasty briefing on what they were about to attempt, and the procedure for it. The four of them organized themselves into a square, settling down onto their knees. By the speed and angle precision they executed it with it was evident that they had been practicing at some point. Lita looked over her shoulder to the turtles and they all broke from their huddle around Leonardo, and took their places in the center of the square, kneeling in front of their respective elementals. Leonardo followed suit, settling onto his knees as Lita set her glass beside her.
"Uno." Lita said, responded by the girls each setting their crystals in front of them, equally spaced between themselves and the turtles. "Dos." The turtles reached out and cupped the crystals in their hands. Lita directed Leonardo what to do for that, the only part he really needed to be there for. "Tres."
Noriko fished a handful of dirt from her pocket and held it out over the dark green crystal. She let it sift through her fingers onto a small cone atop the crystal. Maddie palmed a book of matches, ripping out a match. She lit a small flame into her hand, letting it flare up before she lowered it down onto the crystal. The top fired up with the small flame and managed to maintained it after she took her hands back. Erika leaned down and blew on the air crystal. A small whirlwind circled over it slowly, she leaned back up. Lita took the glass of water and poured it over her crystal. The dojo brightened slightly, the air turned wavy as if it was filled with natural gas. The girls lowered their heads and closed their eyes, talking inaudibly to themselves.
The crystals began to glow and spin, picking up speed slowly. The light spheres began to expand exponentially till it encompassed the eight of them, then froze. It felt as if gravity had no hold on them, only their conscienceness kept them from disipating into the light.
"The only exclusive factor shared with none of the four elements is light, where each element is equal amunst the others, and where each together may travel in equilibrium." A voice came from the center of the sphere, which only Leonardo recognized. King Artimus. Although now it sounded kind of like Splinter.
Leonardo looked down at the crystal in his hands, holding it steady. It seemed now to be a globe of water, swirling frantically in his hands. He couldn't feel the same tingle Lita had. For some reason he wanted to. So many things to think about. He gave the crystal a small squeeze and it bounced right back, like a toy. A very dangerous toy. He decided to try not to kill them all and left it alone.
Shards of light broke out of the surface out of the crystal, like several knives punching out from within. The splices seemed more frequent, and to speed up as time space slowed down. Leonardo forced his eyes closed and turned his head away as the light became too intense, like hundreds of tiny bright fireworks going off in his head with astonishing speed. He struggled to keep hold of the sphere as time slowed to a stop. It shivered with unstable energy, threatening to burst out if he didn't keep it under wraps. His wrists ached, and the joints in his fingers felt like they were breaking apart. But he wouldn't let go.
Leonardo locked his hands in place and looked up to check his surroundings, wondering if he was the only one of them in need of help. But there was no need to wonder any longer. When he looked up he found that his surroundings had changed... much. The familiar musty smelling dojo was replaced with a stone floor, chipped, cracked, and demolished statues cluttered the ground here and there. There was no ceiling, they were outside somewhere. It looked like an outdoor courtyard, colluseum like structures made the buildings of a maze like cenrtiole they sat in. It was dark out, strange shadows cast by purple torches revealed the results of what appeared to be the aftereffects of a dynamic earthquake. Ravines remained where they had split the ground, stone slabs of the ground teetering inwards. Others jutted upwards in waves, where the ground had crumpled in on itself. Huge stone pillars lay on their sides apathetically, cracking and chipping through the wear of age. The only signs of life here were the torches left burning. The sad thing was to him,
This used to be home.
Leonardo looked back as the crystal was lifted from his hands. Lita stood up and began an investagation of the surroundings.
"Wow." Mike gave the crystal back to Erika and stood up. Donatello followed him to the ravine and they both looked in, like children exploring the fun they could have with a trickle of water through dirt. "....Hello down there!" He called down, hearing his voice echo back. He snickered.
"Quit goofin'." Raph climbed back to his feet. "We're not here to fuck around."
"Yeah Mike," Don took his arm to pull him back. "Let's go-awaaa!" His foot slid on the tilted stone slab he stood on, taking his balance and sliding the both of them down the canyon.
"Don!" Leonardo barked.
A green vine shot out, winding around the brothers arms like a whip and stopping the both of them short. Their feet fell from under them and they hit their shells on the stone. The vine retracted and pulled them back up the slide toward solid ground, a series of the stones making a loud cracking descent into the canyon from the uproar.
Noriko recall the vine back to her wrist, disapearing back again to oblivion with a modest 'Shoop'. Mike and Don laid on the ground for a second before jumping back up and moving away from the ravine. They were at least 50 yards away from where Noriko stood.
"Amazing. That's at least 100 feet farther then usual." Donatello dusted himself off. Noriko looked at the crystal.
"It's the crystal. I can feel the power." She held it in both hands, gentle green light emanating through her fingers. White air swirled around Erika as she held the crystal up, swaying her hair around her like feathers.
"Yes." She agreed. "It's so beautiful."
"Handy too." Mike mumbled, rubbing a sore spot on his arm. Maddie stood up and smoothed down her skirt, taking her crystal up. She joined Raphael and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Something wrong?" She whispered into his shoulder. "Naw." He looked down at her as she rested the side of her head on her hand, her hair trailing down his arm. She had these beautiful blue eyes, little flecks of green speckling here and there. He felt in the mood to get lost in them for awhile. "This place creeps the hell outa me. Just wanna get Splinter and get the fuck outa here." She smiled and gave his shoulder a little squeeze.
"Let's start moving." Leonardo called, taking one of the torches down from the pillars. Michelangelo turned around in a circle as Leo rejoined the group.
"Where are we moving?" He asked.
"There." Lita pointed above the horizon of the pillar tops, to tall columns broken into steeples, far far away, that jutted up where a great fortess once stood.
Jimmy carefully lifted Splinters head, placing his balled up tee shirt under his neck. The bloodflow from his chest had stopped, leaving a mat of black sticky fur around the hole. Splinter lowered his head down and closed his eyes, his dry nose itching and flaking.
"Thank you, child." Jimmy sat back. "You comfort this old mans bones."
"Um.,,, you better not talk. Conserve your energy and stuff." Splinter shook his head and opened his eyes.
"No, Jimmy. My time is growing shorter. There is something I must tell you before the creatures return."
"....yeah?"
"It is,,, why we've been brought here *cough cough*" Splinter turned his head to the side and coughed into his palm. Flash went to help him, but his furry hand took his arm and urged him back. Flash settled down on the cold stone floor, setting his wounded leg out since it had been aching while he sat on it.
"Your sister is not the only one of your family who holds the blood of royalty. For you, Jim-san. You are a prince, sent to Earth with the elementals to live. I am much assured that you, are the son of the king..... And the future heir to the throne of Selphi.
You see why you have been brought here." Splinter motioned to the dark stone ceilingless room, the top of the spire appeared to have been snapped off like a twig. "You will one day rule.... a great kingdom...." He lowered his hand. "The turtles will rule beside you... with the elemental princesses.... your sister.... dependent on your escape of this fortress." Erika? A princess?!
"Master Splinter! I'm no Prince, really! I, I can't rule Erika's kingdom! I, I can't do nothing like th-"
"Shhhhh." Splinter hissed quietly. "The future, Jim-san. You will rule in the future." He chuckled quietly. He was doing a lot of things quietly. "There is much for you to learn, much for you to adventure before.... before you cede any throne." Flash slumped his shoulders and looked at his knee. What was he supposed to say then? "....There was much I hoped to teach you, before my time. So much to show you."
"Splinter. Don't talk like that." Flash whispered, as if someone outside might hear and get some idea.
"....I was once your father, Flash."
"What was that?" Donatello jerked his head to the right, straining his eyes for light. Mike laughed.
"You're anal."
"Shut up, Mike. I hear it too." Leonardo put his hand on Michelangelos chest and stopped him from walking. The rest stopped and looked around.
"There it is." Donatello jerked his head around the other way. The eight stood in the middle of a cobblestone road, Leonardos' torch throwing strange shadows over their faces. Short dank colluseums trapped them in from the sides, and fallen columns and statues made an obstical course to exit the scene. "Sounds like... a broken faucet."
"What the hell is that?" Raphael took a step towards one of the statues. The stone was changing form, the outermost extremities turning to clear water, and dripping off the stones onto the ground. The only statue the phenomenom effected was one of a young woman, with long hair, and clothes that draped off her arms. There was something foreboding about the puddle of clear liquid that formed beneath her. Something threatening almost. "Shit, that's-"
"Let's keep moving." Leonardo motioned his arm forward, away from the statue.
"Hey, wait." Lita walked up to it. "It's that chick, remember?" She turned her head back to Leonardo. "The one from the ocean."
"Lita, wait-" She reached out and touched the dripping fingers.
"It's her." As soon as their fingers touched the rest of the statue transformed completely to water, dropping to the ground in a splatter. Lita yelped and jumped back.
The water spread out on contact, like a water balloon hitting the ground. As soon as it reached it maximum diameter however it immediately began pulling itself back together. In the course of thirty seconds or so the form reshaped, erecting out of the puddle. But she was still water. Tall, statuesque... water. Lita backed up next to Donatello.
"Mmmmmm," The woman closed her eyes and stretched her arms out, arching her chest forward. "That feels nice." She sighed without opening her eyes.
"Who is she." Noriko whispered to Donatello. Not entirely soft enough.
"Who am I?" The woman opened her eyes, breaking out of the stretch. "Why, I am Naiya of the water." She raised her chin up and her hair fell down her back ina water fall, being absorbed back again through her feet. "The great-"
"Water sorceress." Lita finished. Naiya looked at her and cocked her head contestingly. "The sixth sorceress of the ancients."
"Your memory serves you well." Lita smiled with forced graciousness and stepped back closer to Donatello. "Now it is the time of water." A few spurts of water shot up from the ground. Lita looked down at them and frowned, taking it now as some insulting against herself. She looked up at Naiya and was glared at.
"I remember when I put you in that stone you old witch," Lita glared back. "I have half a mind to do it again!" She began taking the water crystal out. Naiya threw her hands up, and a column of water flew out from the ground towards the sky. The turtles and the girls were thrown apart, blasted far from their grounds. Naiya laughed as they flew through the air, particularly when Lita landed on her stomach. "Oof ...Maddie, get off me!" Lita said, trying to sit up.
"Oh, sorry." Maddie climbed up onto her knees and stood up quickly. "Here." She took Lita's hand and pulled her up.
"Fucking bitch." Raphael got back to his feet, glowering at the sorcoress. Off in the distance he could see Leo, Mike, Noriko and Erika climbing back to their feet.
"That whore is so dead!" Lita started back for their point of origin when Donatello grabbed her arm.
"Wait a minute, Lita."
"What?!" He took his hand back. She looked pissed.
"If we're going to fight we should at least cross the elements." He backed up. "You know?"
"Whateva' yer dreamin' up, better spit it out soon. She's comin' back for seconds." Raphael commented. Water began seeping through the cracks of the stone slabs they stood on as they spoke, bubbling up and spitting ocassionally.
"Why fight water against water, when we can use fire, get it?" Donatello spoke quickly as the water continued to bubble up. "Crossing the elements."
"I get it." Maddie started in a jog back for the sorceress, taking out her crystal. Water splashed up from her heels, splishing back down in time with her footsteps. This chick is mine. "Hey, Bi-otch!" She called.
"Well excuse me?" Naiya looked around at stopped to face her. "Do you challenge the water era?"
"Damn fucking straight- Take a bite of this, Whore!" Maddie held the crystal to her chest. She closed her eyes and waited for the transformation. Red sparks began freckling out. Nothing impressive in particular.
"Aw shit." Raphael rolled his eyes. Naiya crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow.
What the hell is wrong with this? Why can't I transform? Maddie looked down at the crystal. Come on, you. Work
"You're power isn't pure enough for the crystal. It's useless with you." Maddie looked up at Naiya. "You haven't trained your elementals well." She laughed and looked back at Leo and Mike, then around to Don and Raph. Maddie looked back at Raphael. ...I'm sorry Raph. I can't do it. He looked pretty pissed off. Maddie swallowed her pride and looked down at the crystal. are my powers really unpure? She looked back at Raphael. His face had softened just so, and he gave her a sad wink. She smiled.
"...You're wrong." Maddie looked back up at Naiya. "My power is pure." She held the crystal back to her chest, and Naiya's silly laughter was soon drowned out. The freckling of sparks swiftly grew into long streams of fire, flying out from the center of the crystal. They curved around her in long dives, blowing her hair and skirt behind her. Streams of fire surrounded her body like ribbons, and she tilted her chin up.
Raphael mumbled some obscenities and took a tentative step forward. A blinding light flashed, and for a brief second the asteroid was illuminated with an ethereal white light. Raphael squinted his eyes, trying to keep track of Maddie....For a moment it looked like two feathered angel wings extended from her back, with a majestic wingspan. But when the light receded they weren't there.
Maddie looked down at herself after the fire streams had disapeared. She still hadn't transformed. Instead she was dressed in a ragged gauzy red dress, coming scandelously high on her legs. Her hair felt wild and untamed, tosled about boisterously. It even felt redder. The crystal itself had turned to a red choker necklace, with a crystal halved sphere embedded to the center. Well... whatever works.
"You do wish to fight me?" Naiya drifted a little farther away from the heat. Maddie looked up at her.
"Bring it on." The floor began to rumble again, shaking the puddles of water with bitty tremors. Maddie suddenly flew up into the air, narrowly missing the column of water which burst forth by a few inches. "Oo, that's new." Maddie looked down at the ground. There wasn't anymore time to admire her height, when the water suddenly changed directions, heading straight for her. "Yeeeek!" She dodged out of the way again, curving around and away. The water continued to follow her, like an ever lengthening piece of string tied to her ankle, not ceasing to let her escape.
Maddie eventually curved around into a circle, spiraling downwards like a corkscrew. Every few seconds when she made the turn she could see Naiya laughing at her. Bitch. Hey, what the hell am I doing? She zipped up through the center of the spirals of and looked below, jabbing her hands out. "See how ya like some fire, Bi-otch!" A thick stream of flames burst out of her hands, meeting the end of the water column with a crackle. Clouds of vapor billowed up on contact, Lita cheered from below. Naiya howled as the water was swiftly and effeciantly evaporated away, bits of herself steaming off as well. "Hee hee!"
Fire sparks singed at Raphaels feet, pieces blown aside during the battle. Naiya had gone airborne as well, and the two fought in midair. Blasts of fire and water zipped about trying to catch up with their target before they were destroyed, and stray stones vaulted into the air from water below bursting forth and breaking through the ground landed with impressive thuds. Raphael side stepped as a block came hurling down, shaking the ground beneath them. Maddie's hair and skirt fluttered far above him and he smirked. Kick her ass.
Maddie huffed and shot a series of fire balls from her palms, countering dozens of water spirals and turning them into puffs of vapor. She felt wasted, and was beginging to wonder if maybe she really didn't have pure enough power to control the crystal. She could go for a nap. An infinately long nap... Naiya fired off another round and Maddie had to zip off to take them all on. The sorcoress spent the time charging energy, soft blue light growing around her clasped hands.
"You... may have the stamina of a young sun..... but I have the force of a hundred planets of oceans." She raised her hands up, a tiny droplett of water hovering in the cup of her palms. "Bow before my fell power elemental!" A low monotonous tone whispered in from far away. Within a fraction of a second a tall tsunami of a wave came in from each direction like a dilating circle, narrowing in on one pinpoint. Maddie.
The speed slowed down dramatically after that, as the height and pressure began building again. Maddie flew upwards, above the rim of the wave. But it rose as she rose, shrinking in on her with astonishing speed again. In a second she was swallowed up with a modest 'whoosh.', and a little blip of water above the surface. A flickering light glowed out, like a light going down in a sinking ship, and fluttered out softly, a few bubbles drifting up to the surface.
"Maddie!" Naiya laughed at their cries of protest. Raphael, Donatello, and Lita had been washed into the others, and into a big heap. The water started draining down, through the cracks in the stone slabs. Crumblings of stone washed away into the crevices, rinsing the ground clean. A stray body was left laid on the stone, like a drowned cat. Maddies clothes and hair stuck to her, and to the ground where she lay, dripping still with liquid.
"You all are¼" Naiya spoke softly, yet her voice reached them all. "Mortals. Hee hee, mortals." She put a hand over her mouth the quiet her giggles. "That was the best you could do? Hee hee. Foolish, silly mortals... Your new forms have given your soft skins. But at least, hee hee, you won't have to to suffer them any longer. Tee hee, I'll see to that!"
Yes ...-my king.
"You old hag." She coughed. With a push she rocked herself back onto her haunches, and a brief puff of fire from the stone dried her off. "You want to see what I could do?"
Naiya snorted and clenched her fists, the glow of charging energy reappearing. "It's been awhile since I've had a fun fight." Maddie rose back up into the air, the red crystal in her necklace glowing.
"I will incinerate your soul, Naiya. You should've stayed in the stone." She touched her finger to the stone gently, sparks flickering out again. The flickers began to grow in number, like a sparkler. Naiya raised her hands again, with the little water droplett hovering in the cup of her palms. Another tidal wave came in at a desperate speed, swallowing up Maddie before she had a chance to open her eyes. "You're afraid? What happened to a fun fight?"
"Impossible!" Naiya whispered. Light began growing, like watching spikes of light punch out from inside a darkened room. Tiny bubbles appeared at the surface of the water, making quiet blips. With a cry from Maddie it turned to a rolling boil, frothing up furiously.
The turtles and the girls swam off and down into one of the hidden crevices, where water didn't inhabit. Giving them reprieve from the boiling water for the time.
For ten minutes or so the water was flash fried, boiling off tonnes of liquid. Naiya screetched and writhed as her power was vaporized, leaving a thin film of dark crystals on the ground. The turtles climbed out and back onto the ground before they missed anything else. Puffs of dark dust flew up under their feet like fine powder now.
A huge Pheonix crested into the air with a loud crow, wild dry flames flaring everywhere. It was many times larger then it had ever been, nearly the size of a football field, far above the ground.
"Super Nova Blast!" The wings folded in on itself, and the twisty tail wrapped up and around. From there the ball of fire shrunk in on itself, cutting it's size in half, and turning an intense white. With an ear shattering booom it erupted outwards.
Where water was swept the stones, now fire seared the ground and stone and Naiya. A small suns explosion coursed over the land, breaking down rock to dust. Dust to gas. And gas to a strange smell. Micheangelo flinched as the wall of fire flew down on him , like a falling building. Whiny whimpers escaped his throat, and he hid himslf behind Donatellos shoulder. He could feel the heat itching in his skin.
2 hippopatomous
3 hippopatomous
4 hippopatomous
5 mississippi
6........
A black ghostly spirit of Naiya drifted listlessly where it had stood, and uncerimoniously dispersed into the air, leaving no material remains. The sixth sorcoress was dead. A sigh of proud relief sounded unanimously, like having just climbed the top of a high mountain. With a bag of lead shot on your back.
".....Maddie." Raphael's eyes gravitiated themselves toward the only thing still in the arena. A still body which lay strewn on the stone.
He walked out towards her at a slow pace. She had changed back again to street clothes, now torn and ragged edges. The elemental crystal rested beside her dimly, without the sparkle it once held. Raphael walked up to her blankly and knelt, picking up her wrist for a pulse. He patted her cheek gently to rouse her. "Maddie... Maddie..." Her head rested to the side when he took his hand away. He took his hand away and tightened his fingers. Somehow he knew she was dead already. There was just that infathomable hope that his intuition was grossy wrong.
Of all the times he had to be right.
It was one of those sites not to forget. The once lively body lying dead, her skin now pale and cold to sight. As if not only had she lost her life, but the last shreds of life that leave a body right after it dies.
The crystal ball flickered beside Raphael, and he felt his eyes closing. Almost as if reacting to the feeling of falling, when going down a rollercoaster, he opened his eyes. White spots of light flashed out from everywhere, and he squinted until it all focused itself.
Maddie stood behind the counter at Uncle Joey's bar, wiping out a glass with a discolored rag. She smiled when she saw Raph and walked up to her side of the bar.
"Maddie! You're alive!" Raphael stepped quickly to the counter and reached out to touch her. She leaned back away from his hand, but he still reached her, his hand passing right through her chin. It hovered in air, and they both looked at it.
"......" He took his hand back. "No, Raph. I'm not." He looked at his hand for a moment, then sat down.
"Then you are dead." She put the glass down and smiled.
"Yep." He didn't look her in the eyes. "Looks like." She laughed.
"Not funny."
"Oh, I know hon. I know this is hard." She put her hand over his, even though it just hovered in mid air. "And we don't have a lot of time here. So whatever you need to say, say it."
"Hmph."
"...Maybe this'll make you feel better... at least you know I loved you. And you know you loved me... if that makes much sense."
"It does." She patted his hand. "Will I see you again. When we get home?"
"No. This is the end for us." She smiled.
"Foreva'?"
"Forever." He changed directions and looked in the other direction away from her. "But I know you're going to go out, and find someone else to love you after me... Maybe even someone who'll still be alive after four months." He shook his head.
"...There's no one else, Maddie." He said quietly. "Ever again... not like with you.... not like you...."
"...oh..." She wiped away a tear, trying to make it look like she was brushing away a piece of hair. "Come on, Raph. You're freakin' me."
"I love you." He could almost feel heat from her hand. Then the white lights came back to distort his vision, and take him away from Maddie.
" –ve you too...." He clenched his eyes as the lights made it through his eyelids. They filled his senses, then faded out again as they had before no matter how much he fought them. When he dared to look again, he was back with the corpse. He could feel the numb part of his heart sag with deadweight. The part he had forgotten, felt like the part he needed most right then.
A low growl began to grow up from the pit of his stomach, growing up into a painful bellow, feeding off the hot tears trapped behind his eyes, and flowing down his beak.