The Thing
~
Mikey stared sadly at his brother. He knew Leo would do what was right when he saw the sense in it. But Leo was really upset and Mikey had never heard his brother say anything like he had done a few minutes ago. Mikey shook his head. They would get Raph back; and destroy this monster. Mikey still couldn't believe that they had gotten away from it back in the open sewers. It was bigger than both of them put together but they had managed to get away from it. Maybe now, as Mikey thought, that was a bad thing to do. But maybe it wasn't. At least he could tell that Raph was alive. If they stayed in the open sewers and never ran they could have been killed. This thing was just caught off-guard at Mikey's sudden hit. It would have gotten over that quickly if they had stayed to beat it. Still Mikey felt bad about it. He was sure Leo did.
Leo looked up from the floor to Mikey. "Mikey . . . Donnie's wounds need to be stitched, I'm sorry, but I don't know how to do that."
Mikey nodded, knowing what Leo was asking him to do. Mikey helped April to her feet. Her legs collapsed under her but Mikey held her tight.
"I can't move my legs." April said, fearfully. She held onto Mikey, one arm around his neck for support, as he helped her to Splinter's armchair. She sat down and tired to move her legs.
Mikey disappeared back into Donnie's lab. He couldn't believe how much blood had been shed. He knew half of it was Donnie's and most likely the other half was Raph, but what made him boil inside was that none of it appeared to have come from the beast. Mikey growled, much like Raph did, and grabbed the medical kit and supplies from the cupboard. He returned to Donnie and Leo and helped show Leo how to mend and sew cuts. Leo listened to his brother quietly.
"Donnie'll be fine, Leo." Mikey said and looked at his brother. "Just your shoulder now." He cleaned Leo shoulder for him while his brother remained in silence.
They were joined only a few minutes after Donnie's fix up by April, who had managed to get the feeling back in her legs and hobbled over to them. Mikey held his hand out for her to kneel down beside them. She smiled despite herself and took his hand.
"Raph was alive when it took him." April said softly but obviously believed what she was saying. Mikey and Leo looked at her and nodded slowly. "When we get him back . . . I want to help." April said, looking Leo straight in the eyes.
Leo didn't know what to say. She obviously cares about Raph the way they do, enough to risk their lives for him, but Leo didn't know whether to say she could or she couldn't. What could she do? He didn't want her getting hurt which would most likely happen as they were dealing with a creature that even they couldn't kill back then. What if they did get Raph back and she got killed? Raph would probably never forgive his brothers for letting April stick her neck out for him. Raph might do something stupid . . .
He opened his mouth, unsure of what to say, but was saved by a stir near them. They all turned, as one, to look at Donnie. He moaned and opened his eyes, looking at them all.
"Leo . . .? Mikey? April?" Donnie blinked, trying to wake himself up again. "Am I dead?"
"No, Donnie. You're alive." Leo held his brother's hand, showing him he was alive. Donnie smiled slightly. Something had come back to him while he was unconscious. He lifted his head from the couch arm and frowned, trying to remember what it was.
"I . . . remembered something, now it's gone."
"It'll come back to you." Mikey said, smiling, glad his brother was alright.
Donnie rubbed his head with his hand and sat up, slowly. Then his head snapped back up and he looked wide-awake.
"I remember now! The tracker! The tracking device . . . I used it - I got it to work!" Donnie was surprised he could utter such excited words at this time of their lives.
Leo frowned and looked at Mikey. Then they turned back to Donnie. "What tracking device, Donnie?" Leo asked.
Donnie waved his hand, gesturing them to be quiet for a minute. He stood up, unsteadily, aided by Leo. When he felt he could walk and when the fuzzy lights had disappeared from his vision, Donnie made his way to his lab. Leo, Mikey and April followed him.
"What, Donnie? What is it?" Mikey asked, holding April's hand as he guided her incase she fell.
Donnie strode over to the devices on the floor, searching through them, on his hands and knees.
Leo knelt down next to him. "Donnie . . .?"
Donnie stood back up, along with Leo, holding one of his devices he had put together. It was about the size of a book and black. It looked heavy. It looked like an oddly shaped gameboy.
"Donnie . . . What's that?" Mikey asked, eyeing the device and then his brother.
Donnie ignored his brother's question and started to fiddle with the black device. Leo got a glance of the front and it looked like a screen on front, with little buttons surrounding it.
"I only just got this to work," Donnie said. "I don't know if it will now it's been banged around and - yes!" The device emitted a beep and the screen lit up with a dim light.
Leo, Mikey and April frowned and moved in closer.
"It was just lucky I did it." Donnie started to explain. "I just knew at some point this creature would take one of us and guessed that one might be Raph. I hooked a transmitter to his shell and programmed this thing to track his signal."
Leo and Mikey exchanged surprised glances.
"It's working! I also inserted a minute monitor into the tracker, and connected it to the underside of Raph's carapace where it was above his pulse. I had to drill a microscopic hole in his shell so I could place the receptors closer to his spinal cord, but I wasn't planning on telling him. Anyway the transmitter would send back Raph's vital signs. Look - there." He pointed to the right hand corner of the screen where tiny writing and digits were flashing in boxes. "He's alive, but only just. All we have to do is follow the signal to Raph!" He looked at his brothers and April, to see their surprised faces. They lit up with new hope.
"Donnie man, you're a - you're a genius!" Mikey exclaimed and slapped Donnie on his shoulder, careful of his brother's wounds. Donnie grinned for the first time.
"But you still haven't recovered, Donnie." Leo said quietly. "And we can't leave you here again, not even Splinter. We'll have to put him somewhere safe. And April-"
She looked meaningful at him. Telling him she wanted to help and wouldn't take no for an answer.
"Where can we take Splinter?" Mikey interrupted, looking back out the room towards the door opposite, which was their Master's.
Leo looked too, and thought. April moved forward slightly.
"We can take him to my apartment, if we can get out." She said.
Leo looked at her and nodded his head. They all paused for a second before moving out of the lab. Donnie stayed behind, gathering things into a rucksack what they would need when they find Raph. If they found him. Donnie slung the rucksack over his shell and over one shoulder, then he moved out to Splinter's room where Mikey had picked their Master into his arms.
"We'll cover you, Mikey." Leo said as they moved out of the room and into the main area, heading for the door. "You stay in the middle, but I doubt the creature will come, it's waiting for us to go in search of our brother . . . It's dubbed Raph as bait for us . . . I can feel it." He left them all shivering.
Once outside the door, they all took up positions on all sides of Mikey. April stood beside him, Leo in front and Donnie behind, who sometimes walked backwards, scanning the tunnel they had come down in case this beast had their sent and was following.
Their footsteps echoed eerily when they trod on solid ground, and their splashes of the sewer water sounded three times as louder than usual.
At last they got to the ladder that would lead them above. April felt very scared that the monster might just chose this time to jump out at them. But it didn't.
Leo climbed the ladder and opened the grate for Mikey. He jumped back down, protecting Mikey's back as he climbed the ladder as best he could while carrying Splinter. He had reached the last rung when a noise sounded below him in the darkened tunnel they had just come through. Donnie and Leo pushed April behind them and readied their weapons. The noise was recognizable as footsteps. Rapid footsteps. Leo frowned. They sounded lighter than the creatures own heavy treads.
They all tensed, Mikey did not know whether he should go up top and get Splinter to safely, or put Splinter down up top and help his brothers.
"Mikey go!" Leo called, still facing the noise.
Mikey knew not to disobey that tone from Leo and climbed the last rung to the top. Donnie pushed April back to the ladder.
"Go April!" He said.
April didn't know what to do, but like Mikey, she knew not to ignore Donnie. She turned and scrambled up the ladder as fast as she could, stopping on the last two rungs. She looked into the blackness as the noise showed itself. A man!
Leo and Donnie frowned and lowered their weapons. "What?" They both uttered.
The man stopped dead at the sight of them. His eyes bulged and leaped from Donnie, to Leo, to April and to Mikey's face peering down at him from the manhole. The man was short and skinny and was dressed in worker clothes under blue, dirty dungarees. He put his hands up in front of him as a shield and gasped, running back where he came from.
"No wait! You can't-" Leo tried but the man's footsteps had already faded. Leo stared and turned back to Donnie. "Let's hope the beast doesn't smell him." Donnie nodded silently and they all made their way up to the top.
"New York!" April threw up her hands, glad at the sight of open spaces and no monsters. Mikey, Donnie and Leo had to agree it was much better up here than down there.
April walked out of the alley they had come up to, and checked to see if it was safe for them to walk out. She came back, motioning with her hand. Leo and Donnie, again, took their places in front of and behind Mikey. They dodged and hid their way through the city to April's apartment, always keeping an eye out and waiting for April to tell them if it was safe to walk out. Once outside her apartment block, April walked inside to check if the hallways were clear, and then she motioned for them to quickly run up the stairs to her apartment door.
April fiddled around for her keys. Pulling them out of her back pocket, she unlocked the door and they all rushed in.
"Home!" April sighed as she shut the door behind Donnie. "Put Splinter on the bed in the spare room, Mikey." April called. Mikey had already opened the guest room door. He laid his Master down gently on the bed and covered him up with the soft duvet. He closed the door quietly behind him.
"You guys should eat something. Especially Donnie. You gotta get your strength up." April began taking out food from the fridge and cupboards. Mikey and Donnie accepted the food immediately. They were famished. Leo hesitated.
"Raph doesn't have food." Leo said quietly, staring out the window.
April watched him sadly. "Raph doesn't have to save himself." She said softly. She handed Leo a package of sandwiches and he took them, eating them slowly.
A bang on the front door caused them to all freeze. Someone knocked on the door again.
"Yo April! S' me, Casey! You in?"
They all sighed in relief and April went to open the door.
"Casey, hi." She said, shutting the door behind him as he moved in, looking at the turtles as they stared back at him.
"What we having, a picnic?" Casey asked, eyebrows raised. He counted only three turtles. "Only three? What happened to Mr. Hothead?"
April glared meaningfully at him, telling him to shut it.
He was confused. "What? What's going on guys?"
Leo stepped forwards. "Our home was attacked by something big, Casey. It nearly killed Donnie. And don't call Raph a 'hothead', you may never be able to call him anything again." With that Leo turned and climbed out of the kitchen window out onto the roof of April's apartment. The fact that he himself had insulted Raph with 'hothead' made him feel guiltier.
Casey stared. "What's eating him? Come on, what's wrong with you guys?"
April guided him to the couch, glancing at Mikey and Donnie. Together, April and Mikey told Casey what happened in the past two days, while Donnie went to join Leo on the roof. He didn't even turn around as his brother stood slightly behind him.
"He's alive, Leo." Donnie said quietly. "We'll get him back. Its just . . . We can't wait too long . . ."
Leo sighed silently. He was staring out across the city, arms by his sides holding his Katana.
"We haven't got long . . ." Leo repeated. "That's just it. That monster is down there, hoping we'll come and save Raph. I can't stand it no longer. That thing is just . . . too intelligent." He turned to Donnie. "I saw its face. I'll be surprised if April doesn't faint this time. I know she wants to help; she wants to save Raph, but what happens if she gets killed? Raph will never forgive us . . . me."
They stood in silence. Donnie shifted his weight onto his other leg; they were aching from pain. Leo seemed to notice this. He winced as he saw his brother was in no state to be fighting this thing.
"What about Casey?" Donnie asked, hoping to change the subject before Leo could say anything about his pain.
"Casey . . .? Casey could help I guess. Is April and Mikey explaining?"
Donnie nodded.
Leo stared back at the city. "I wish it wasn't like this. I wish we were normal. None of this would have happened. We wouldn't be hurt day and night, if not by the horrors in the sewer then by the Humans we share this world with."
Donnie stared as well, thinking about what his brother had said. With nothing else to say, Donnie said, "Well, we will get Raph back. He'll be fine. We'll get him back and kill that beast."
Leo nodded. Both brothers remained silent and stared at the buzzing city, each wishing to be a part of it.