I jus' realized…in the last chapter I say Lightwing was in her natural form, and then later I say she morphed back to it even though she never morphed out…oops!
Sakura, a note: LUTHien TinUVIEL…see? …my friend got a scanner! Now I can scan things there and have her send them too me! Woot! 'Course, I'd still like my own to work, but…
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Janella lounged in an armchair, Michelangelo leaning over her shoulder. She had a clipboard propped across her lap, and was scribbling furiously away at a piece of printer paper clipped on it. She clicked her mechanical pencil to get more lead, and continued to add to the little scene.
On the paper, a vaguely Irken form was sitting on the seat of a bay window, staring into space. Machinery framed the window on either side. As the drawing became more defined, a sad expression etched its way onto his face. He vaguely resembled ZaiFae.
Michelangelo sat himself on the arm of the armchair.
"Who's that?" he asked.
She cocked her head, not looking at him. "Purple," she replied simply
"Who?"
Janella sighed. "He's the leader of the Irken Empire," she explained. "Well, one of two, actually. The other's Red. They're named after their eye colors, but I don't know why. Anyway, Red's evil…and Purple's nice…and I think ZaiFae loves him but I'm not sure. It's none of my business." She took a breath and began humming to herself.
"Okay…I didn't get a word of that…" Mikey said. Janella squinted at the paper, and suddenly, violently, she flipped it over and began a new drawing on the back. She was grinning evilly now, and a very different picture was making itself visible. Janella began to sing out loud. Not very loudly, but…audible. She seemed to have picked up in the middle of the song.
"Where'd your pleasure go
When the pain cut through you?
Where'd your happiness go?
This horse is running you 'round now
Getting you down now
Where's your pleasure now, Johnny?
Where has your pleasure gone…
Now?"
She snickered, and a new raptor appeared on the back of the ailing parasaur. Mikey looked afraid.
What he didn't know was that this was Janella's way of dealing with stress. She would do something else, usually with demonic single-mindedness. Anything stressful in her life and she turned her mind away, filling it with other things to crowd out any pain that she might feel. Of course, later, she'd tend to dwell over-long on it, refusing to think of anything else but what if? What if? Weirdo.
Across the room, Reno paced, not even noticing the two on the other side. If Janella's method was ignore, Reno's was dwell. Behind vacant eyes and a mechanical pacing, his mind was whirring. Where had his mother been? Where was she now? What about Lightwing? Why hadn't she called? She was reliable. Who had attacked? It must have been an attack! Who?
"Reno!" Janella's voice cut through his thoughts. "She wasn't necessarily attacked…"
"Are you a mind reader, girl?" he asked. "I was just thinking about it! But please…explain." It was times like these you could see his father coming out…
"Amembah in tha Lost World," she said, lapsing into one of her odd accents, "when Levine called Thorne an' Malcolm? They thought he was in trouble, but he was jus' frustrated 'cause his phone wasn't working? Maybe ya mom's comm. unit is screwed up, and ya only think she's in trouble."
"Perhaps…" Reno said, accepting that possibility. "And quit talking with that stupid accent!!"
"All righ' mate," she agreed amiably. "P'haps this is bet-ah?" He hissed at her and spun back to his pacing, which was a little less frantic than before. Janella watched him with a wary eye; hand paused for the moment over her drawing. She was lucky he wasn't upon the surface getting himself killed. He probably would be, but a joint argument with Leonardo had convinced him to stay. Janella wanted a call from the tall Dae-uial. Leonardo had wanted his sensei to return.
Almost on cue, her cell phone started beeping. She fished it out of a pocket (she has expansive pockets) and turned it on.
"Hello?" she sing-songed.
"Oh good! I did dial the right number," came a deep, feminine voice from the other end.
"You're annoyed, Moonstars," Janella chastised. "I can tell."
"Yeah, whatever," she replied. "Listen, where are you kids? And is Reno there?"
"I'm here!" Reno yodeled into the phone.
"Answers that question. Now answer my first."
"Alright!" Janella said. "We are in a sewer, and if you want to find us, talk to Michelangelo!" She shoved the phone into the startled turtle's face. He took it, and after Lightwing's barked command, gave her the coordinates for the nearest manhole. He handed it back to Janella rather quickly. She put it to her ear, called out "Sugar has exploded in my pocket!!" happily, and , after listening for a moment and agreeing with voice on the other end, hung up. She looked around. "Well it has…see?" She dipped a finger into a pocket and sure enough, it came up covered in sugar. She licked it off and stood.
"Well, Lightwing has called," she said invitingly. "And if we don't get to where we said we'd be, she'll kill us. And I'm not kidding." Reno nodded in agreement.
Janella, being the impatient and hyperactive fourteen-year-old that she is, was walking in circles around Reno and the four Turtles. She was, once again, singing to herself, but this time, the only one who could understand her was Reno. Yep, Janella's the only human in the world that can understand Irken!! Go her! Reno, getting exasperated, turned and snapped at her.
"Nehash teelarra!" he said. "Ayolooren taykahr, en tanhaanta ellerro!"
She hung her head. "Anakay teelonta eskanto," she said sadly. She stopped singing.
"Thank you," Reno said. Donny came up to him.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Native language," Reno explained. "I don't know it that well, neither does Janella, but we know enough."
"Hah! Are you kidding?! You two would never survive on Irk!"
Janella started, whirling toward the source of the voice, Reno mimicking her movement. In a flash, the four turtles had their weapons out and pointed towards the place where the being had spoken. The feminine voice laughed again, and an eight-foot tall being with bright magenta skin walked into the light. She fluttered her wings once before settling them to her back. Janella squealed with delight and tackled the being around the waist. She didn't even flinch, as Janella's 95-pound frame was nowhere near enough to actually affect her.
"Lightwing!!" Janella cried happily, squeezing harder. The tall Dae-uial grimaced and, grabbing her by the nape of the neck, lifted her away, dropping her out at arm's length. Reno came forward and put an arm about the girl, holding her back.
"Nice to see ya, Lightwing," he said.
As the two teenagers were greeting the Dae-uial, Leonardo turned to Michelangelo.
"That's Lightwing?!" he asked incredulously. On the way to meet her, Michelangelo had told his brothers about the phone call.
The orange bandanna-ed turtle shrugged. "I guess," he said.
"I though she'd be more…I don't know, human?"
"Dude, they never said that."
"Oh." Leonardo and Michelangelo turned back to the threesome just as Lightwing straightened up and looked at them.
"What in hell are those things?" she asked. Janella thumped a fist against Lightwing's thigh.
"That's mean!" she declared. Raphael stepped forward, looking Lightwing up and down.
"I'm sure I could ask you the same question," he said, arms crossed defensively.
"I'm sure you could," she replied mockingly, imitating his stance. "But please, answer mine first." Leonardo stepped up beside Raphael and laid a hand on his shoulder, pushing him aside very subtly.
"We are a group of mutated turtles," he explained. "We're brothers, and we live here in the sewer with our sensei, Master Splinter."
"Right then," Lightwing said disbelievingly. "And just how did you meet up with the annoying midget and the know-it-all Irken?"
Donatello stepped in here. "My brother Michelangelo and I were out that night…we found them after the…" He gestured with one hand, not sure of the best way to word it.
"Explosion," Lightwing supplied dryly. Donny nodded. "Works for me," she said with a shrug. She leaned in conspiratorially. "Couldn't you have left her there?" she asked. Donny looked shocked, and Lightwing laughed. "I'm kidding," she said. "It may not seem like it, but I love the kid. Ever tell her that though…" She trailed off threateningly.
"Don't worry, I won't," Donny said, holding his hands up defensively and taking a step back. Lightwing smiled, and turned to the others. Janella was poking Michelangelo's arm repeatedly, apparently begging for something. Reno was standing nearby, watching bemusedly. Donatello had moved off to his brother Leonardo's side, and was watching her, Leo with his arms folded. Raphael was leaning against the sewer wall, partially in shadow, arms also crossed. Lightwing smirked at him (she does that a lot), and crossed her arms also, leaning back on one leg, subtly imitating his stance, and mocking him.
"Hey," she called authoritatively. "Janella said you guys lived in a sewer, but I was expecting something a little more homey!"
Leonardo immediately stepped forward. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "Where are my manners? This isn't our home, just the closest entrance to it. If you'd follow me…" He and Donatello began walking, Reno and Michelangelo trailing behind. Lightwing wasn't really that surprised to see Janella riding on his shoulders and, also unsurprisingly, keeping up a steady stream of words. She couldn't tell if he was listening, but frankly didn't care. She looked around for the fourth turtle, and noticed him following behind them, eyeing her. She smirked (once again) to herself and continued to walk, purposely exaggerating the movement of her hips.
Little did she know, Raph was staring very intently at her as they all walked down the sewer. Her little ploy was working far better than she could have hoped.
Lightwing sprawled in the armchair Janella had occupied not long before, wings hiked up and over the top, legs straight in front of her, arms stretched along the chairs'. She tapped one foot spasmodically, face set in a skeptic expression as Leonardo and Donatello explained their presence to her. Raphael had disappeared into the kitchen and was banging around some pans (no one was sure if he was cooking of just making noise-they suspected the latter) and Janella had introduced Michelangelo to her collection of 'pocket toys,' i.e. anything small enough to fit in her pocket that she felt like taking. There were small dinosaurs and animals, some plastic and some plush, a few larger plastic models that had been in her coat, and the prize of the lot, an articulated plastic dragon two inches long. The 'pocket toys' had been made into 'pocket soldiers' and split into two armies, which Mikey and Janella were currently battling. Reno sat on a backwards chair, refereeing.
It wasn't long until the Turtles decided their sensei wouldn't be returning at a reasonable hour, and ushered their guests into their own rooms for the night (despite protests from all sides), opting to stay in the main living chamber. Even as the Irken, human, and Dae-uial slowly drifted to sleep, the four Turtles huddled together on the couch, trying to determine the best way to tell their sensei of the days events.
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WOOHOO! IT"S FINALLY FINISHED!!! YES!! I don't know why this chapter took me so long, but it did. Wait, yes I do! The interaction between Raph and Lightwing, that was problematic! *Sighs* Ah well, 'tis finished now.
*Looks at reviews* Wow…five…amazing…*Hintreviewhint*
Okay, a quick question: The Turtles seemed a little flat in this chapter. In fact, they have through this whole thing. What do you think?
Oh yes. The song above? JtHM reference!! Woot!! ((It's by Poe, called Angry Johnny, and I don't own it! Just thought you should know!!))