Radical Transformation
~
"You think they'll be okay?" April asked quietly. She was sat against the wall on one of the hospital's chairs next to Raph, who was watching the activity in the room to the right.
Casey pulled a chair over to her. "They'll be fine, you know those guys." He reassured her. "And besides, the Foot are messing with their chick, so I'm pretty sure they'll be extra ticked off."
April gave him a look, and sighed, running her hand over her face. "I don't think they should have gone so quickly after the fight." She said. "I mean, think how many of those guys there are in that factory. And Leo, Don and Mike were only against fifteen of them."
"Hey, c'mon, there's a damsel in distress here, it always works out for the good guys," Casey joked, putting an arm around April and hugging her close to him. "They'll be back . . . . they might be back in pieces but they'll be back."
April raised her eyes to Casey's; her head was leaning on his shoulder. She gave him a look that said his joking wasn't making her feel any better.
"Look," he said, wrapping his other arm around her and leaning his chin on her head. "They will be FINE." He started to rock her very gently, and she closed her eyes. She was so worried, she just hoped they wouldn't do anything too daring and get themselves caught.
//
"No way in apart from the front door!" Donny whispered, as he, Leo and Mikey crouched in the shadows, behind the corner of the factory from the large, wooden doors guarded by two Foot soldiers. "Every window is boarded up and there's no way we can remove those planks of wood without causing some kind of noise."
"Well then, the only way is through the front door," Leo said, glancing at his brothers, trying desperately to ignore his throbbing headache. Mikey frowned at him. "We won't reach Prida anyway without being seen or caught."
"So we're just gonna storm through the front door?" Mikey asked.
Leo didn't look at him; instead he stood up carefully and started to head over to the two guards and the only door into the factory. Mikey and Donny scrambled after him.
The two guards made a startled throaty sound and rushed at Leo. They were greeted by the teenager's fist in the face, while Donny and Mikey downed the other.
Leo tilted his head at his bros with a very small, cocky grin. "Let's go in."
"Leo - there's gonna be a LOT more in there than two Foot soldiers!" Donny said. "We CAN'T just go barging in without a plan or something."
"Yeah, the plan is to do whatever it takes to get us and Prida outta there," Leo said, still facing the door, back to his brothers not wanting them to see him trying to stay in focus because of his aching head. He walked up to the heavy wooden doors and pushed them open.
//
"Hey, hey - where you going?" April said, food tray in her hand. She had just walked through the door to Room 113 where Raph was just standing up from the bed. Casey was looking purposely at the wall, pretending he didn't see anything.
"Me?" Raph looked innocent. "I'm just stretching my legs." He demonstrated but it appeared too painful so he gave a small, quick, meek smile and sat on the bed.
"Nice try," April said, and handed him the food tray. She slapped Casey on the arm with the back of her hand. "You can't just let him get up and go."
Casey looked away from the wall. "I din't know he was going."
April turned back to Raph, crossed her arms and stared at him, a growing realization expression on her face.
"Why are you so calm about this?" She asked. "You're usually arguing about staying here or trying to get out."
"First time he actually settles down and she questions it," Casey muttered to himself, then pretended to shield himself against the oncoming hit that April was bound to throw at him. She only gave him a look and turned back to Raph.
"I get it," she said. "Yeah, you think that we'll eventually leave you because you're not persistent about taking off, and then you can walk outta here." She folded her arms again and looked down at Raph.
He stared at her for a second, then his eyes moved to the floor and back to her. He smiled.
"Ya got me," he said, shrugging. Then he said, "you guys can't stop me, the fight that's probably going on right now is my fight."
"Hey, clever April," Casey said, leaning back in her chair and propping his feet against the wall.
April turned around and glared softly at him. Then she turned back to Raph.
"You'll get yourself killed," she said.
"No I won't."
"You really think you're up to fighting don't you?" She asked, head tilted to one side. Raph stared. "You probably wouldn't make it out of this room even if Casey was holding you back."
"Hey, is that supposed to mean something?" Casey asked, taking his feet off the wall.
"Thanks," Raph muttered, looking up at the ceiling.
"I'm just trying to make a point," April said to Casey. "Sorry . . ."
Casey took her hand and gently pulled her on to his knee. He lifted her chin with his finger. "Your problem is, you worry too much." Their faces were about an inch apart.
"No I don't," April said softly, staring into Casey's eyes. Behind them Raph's nose was screwed up in disgust.
"Yes you do," Casey said back in the same tone of voice.
"Well your problem is you just don't care," April retorted softly.
"Of course I do. I care about you," he said, and attempted to kiss her, but she placed her finger on his lips.
Raph gave a final grossed-out look, and started to make his way silently to the door.
"Well if you care about me, then you should care about what I care about," April smiled. "And that's making sure a certain somebody sneaking towards the door stays here."
Raph stopped; he could almost hear the record player screeching to a stop as his triumphant music was broken through.
"Yeah, yeah, sure I do," Casey said, rolling his eyes. "Raph, get back in bed."
"Hey, what's going on?" Hera said as she walked through the door.
"He's just stretching his legs," Casey said, meaning Raph. April moved apart from Casey and stood up.
Hera studied Raph. "It's surprising you CAN stretch your legs, your recovery over the sedative is amazingly fast, but that doesn't mean you're free to go. Get back into bed." She walked with him back to the bed, but he only sat on it.
"Don't you guys sleep around here?" Casey asked the doctor.
Hera chuckled. "When we have to." She looked at her watch. "Now it's time to go check on the other three. I'm worried about Leo's concussion. He should be fine if he stays laying down, but I ought to check it regularly." She walked back out.
April, Casey and Raph all looked at each other.
"She's worried now, and she thinks he's laying down; asleep," April said, worry showing on her tired face. "He's running around New York with a concussion, and he's about to walk straight into a battle."
Casey wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her back onto his knee.
"He's gonna be fine, he'll make it outta there," he comforted her. He wanted to promise it to her but even he wasn't too sure.
Raph realized he was still staring at the doorway where Hera had disappeared. He looked back at Casey and April.
"If the doc was worried then, wait 'til she finds out none of 'em are in their beds," he said.
April and Casey looked up.
"They'll probably keep an eye on you so you don't disappear," April said, laying her head on Casey's chest.
"Nah, they'll probably be too busy looking for the other three," Casey said.
Raph slowly smiled, eyes glinting.
//
"Okay - a lot more than FIFTEEN!" Donny grunted as he bent back to avoid a fist to the face.
All three had entered through the wooden doors to be greeted in a wide room by a whole group of the Foot, all looking mean and ugly. And for the first time, Mikey and Donny had pretty much had to defeat Leo's opponents for him, because after the first twenty seconds he had been down twice, and wasn't sure which way was left when Donny was calling directions to him where his attackers were coming from.
"Don - I don't think Leo can keep this up!" Mikey yelled past a soldier. He and Donny had their backs to Leo, stopping as many as they could from beating up their brother. Leo was holding off pretty well to say he should have been knocked out on the floor by now.
"Well they can't kill us now!" Donny yelled back. "We haven't even seen who it is who wants us dead!"
Behind them Leo used what felt like the last of his strength to punch a Foot in the face. For a split second he froze still, then it seemed his body realized there was no more strength, and he fell to the floor, landing on his stomach. Donny almost trod on his hand as he was pushed back.
Mikey kicked one last dude in the gut and then turned and dropped next to his fallen brother. Donny stood protectively over them, teeth gritted angrily at these guys, watching them.
The Foot stopped their attacks and stood facing towards the three brothers. Then from the left the mass of black-clothed soldiers parted and a very familiar, ugly face appeared through them. Tatsu walked up to them, seeming almost amused by their positions from the floor. The fact that they were beaten at this point made his eyes light up evilly.
From the floor, Mikey looked up into the face of their enemy. So it was Tatsu who was leading the Foot. He could almost feel Donny thinking the same thing.
Tatsu made a motion with his arm, and four Foot soldiers moved into flanking positions around Leo, Don and Mikey, one roughly grabbed Mikey's arm and tied to pull him up. Mikey jerked him off, and took hold of Leo's arm, who was only just conscious. Mikey pulled his brother up and held him steady as Leo tried to regain his sight.
Tatsu grunted and made another sweep of the arm motion, turned and started to walk back through the Foot. All three brothers were pushed, forced to follow. Leo gave a weak cough and tried his best to walk. He had never felt his head spin so much. He was totally dizzy, he felt sick, and he could feel his heartbeat thudding irritably in his temples. His vision blurred and darkened as soon as he was upright, but as they started to walk it started to fade, and he could see where they were heading. They passed through a large, old, wooden door into a huge room, with large crates stacked around near to the walls. It was a very place. Everything was made from wood, the floor, the walls, the crates and the very high ceiling, even if it wasn't visible in the darkness of the factory. At first Leo thought it was his eyesight that was playing up, but after a few seconds of waiting for everything to go light he realized it must be the huge room.
They were brought into the middle of the room, and stopped in front of a high platform that, as far as they could see, led back to another part of the factory. It was more like a balcony platform used to overlook the work being done in the room, when the factory was up and running. The Foot that had been flanking them backed up to the crates, where, what looked like, the whole clan of Foot soldiers was lined up along the crates in the room. Leo, Don and Mikey were surrounded.
All three of them looked expectantly at the platform after having a good look at their surroundings. They didn't see much except for the outlines of the Foot because of the darkness; but the only light in there was dim, and it seemed to shine right on the platform above them. Nothing in the room made a sound. Leo's arm was still draped around Mikey's neck, and he could feel Donny on his other side, close to him.
"Again we meet."
The sudden voice echoed off the old wooden walls, making it seem twice as threatening and twice as cold. The deep voice that had broken the silence was not something the guys ever wanted to hear again.
Leo, Don and Mikey stopped looking around for the source of the voice, and fixed their eyes back on the platform, where a shape was emerging from the darkness. The cape that flowed behind the large, muscular figure made the slightest whooshing sound as it waved ghost-like. It fell softly onto the back of the shadow that had now moved into the dim light. The razor sharp, metal spikes gleamed from the arms and the helmet; the helmet that they had thought they'd seen the last of. From underneath the helmet were the two glinting eyes; that was all that could bee seen of the face, but that was enough. The figure stood at the edge of the platform, towering above the three teenagers.
Leo, Don and Mikey stared, horrified.
"Shredder . . ." Donny whispered in disbelief.
~
I'm gonna be cruel and end this chapter here, a nice short-ish chapter ( yay! I hope I can get the next chapter up soon. Thanks for the 'gonna' TMNT fan, I'll keep to that. Sorry - but I think I got Raph totally out of character, and I dunno how well I did with April and Casey - I need to work on my soft mushy scenes if I'm eva gunna be a pro! Cya guys, Turtle Power!
~
"You think they'll be okay?" April asked quietly. She was sat against the wall on one of the hospital's chairs next to Raph, who was watching the activity in the room to the right.
Casey pulled a chair over to her. "They'll be fine, you know those guys." He reassured her. "And besides, the Foot are messing with their chick, so I'm pretty sure they'll be extra ticked off."
April gave him a look, and sighed, running her hand over her face. "I don't think they should have gone so quickly after the fight." She said. "I mean, think how many of those guys there are in that factory. And Leo, Don and Mike were only against fifteen of them."
"Hey, c'mon, there's a damsel in distress here, it always works out for the good guys," Casey joked, putting an arm around April and hugging her close to him. "They'll be back . . . . they might be back in pieces but they'll be back."
April raised her eyes to Casey's; her head was leaning on his shoulder. She gave him a look that said his joking wasn't making her feel any better.
"Look," he said, wrapping his other arm around her and leaning his chin on her head. "They will be FINE." He started to rock her very gently, and she closed her eyes. She was so worried, she just hoped they wouldn't do anything too daring and get themselves caught.
//
"No way in apart from the front door!" Donny whispered, as he, Leo and Mikey crouched in the shadows, behind the corner of the factory from the large, wooden doors guarded by two Foot soldiers. "Every window is boarded up and there's no way we can remove those planks of wood without causing some kind of noise."
"Well then, the only way is through the front door," Leo said, glancing at his brothers, trying desperately to ignore his throbbing headache. Mikey frowned at him. "We won't reach Prida anyway without being seen or caught."
"So we're just gonna storm through the front door?" Mikey asked.
Leo didn't look at him; instead he stood up carefully and started to head over to the two guards and the only door into the factory. Mikey and Donny scrambled after him.
The two guards made a startled throaty sound and rushed at Leo. They were greeted by the teenager's fist in the face, while Donny and Mikey downed the other.
Leo tilted his head at his bros with a very small, cocky grin. "Let's go in."
"Leo - there's gonna be a LOT more in there than two Foot soldiers!" Donny said. "We CAN'T just go barging in without a plan or something."
"Yeah, the plan is to do whatever it takes to get us and Prida outta there," Leo said, still facing the door, back to his brothers not wanting them to see him trying to stay in focus because of his aching head. He walked up to the heavy wooden doors and pushed them open.
//
"Hey, hey - where you going?" April said, food tray in her hand. She had just walked through the door to Room 113 where Raph was just standing up from the bed. Casey was looking purposely at the wall, pretending he didn't see anything.
"Me?" Raph looked innocent. "I'm just stretching my legs." He demonstrated but it appeared too painful so he gave a small, quick, meek smile and sat on the bed.
"Nice try," April said, and handed him the food tray. She slapped Casey on the arm with the back of her hand. "You can't just let him get up and go."
Casey looked away from the wall. "I din't know he was going."
April turned back to Raph, crossed her arms and stared at him, a growing realization expression on her face.
"Why are you so calm about this?" She asked. "You're usually arguing about staying here or trying to get out."
"First time he actually settles down and she questions it," Casey muttered to himself, then pretended to shield himself against the oncoming hit that April was bound to throw at him. She only gave him a look and turned back to Raph.
"I get it," she said. "Yeah, you think that we'll eventually leave you because you're not persistent about taking off, and then you can walk outta here." She folded her arms again and looked down at Raph.
He stared at her for a second, then his eyes moved to the floor and back to her. He smiled.
"Ya got me," he said, shrugging. Then he said, "you guys can't stop me, the fight that's probably going on right now is my fight."
"Hey, clever April," Casey said, leaning back in her chair and propping his feet against the wall.
April turned around and glared softly at him. Then she turned back to Raph.
"You'll get yourself killed," she said.
"No I won't."
"You really think you're up to fighting don't you?" She asked, head tilted to one side. Raph stared. "You probably wouldn't make it out of this room even if Casey was holding you back."
"Hey, is that supposed to mean something?" Casey asked, taking his feet off the wall.
"Thanks," Raph muttered, looking up at the ceiling.
"I'm just trying to make a point," April said to Casey. "Sorry . . ."
Casey took her hand and gently pulled her on to his knee. He lifted her chin with his finger. "Your problem is, you worry too much." Their faces were about an inch apart.
"No I don't," April said softly, staring into Casey's eyes. Behind them Raph's nose was screwed up in disgust.
"Yes you do," Casey said back in the same tone of voice.
"Well your problem is you just don't care," April retorted softly.
"Of course I do. I care about you," he said, and attempted to kiss her, but she placed her finger on his lips.
Raph gave a final grossed-out look, and started to make his way silently to the door.
"Well if you care about me, then you should care about what I care about," April smiled. "And that's making sure a certain somebody sneaking towards the door stays here."
Raph stopped; he could almost hear the record player screeching to a stop as his triumphant music was broken through.
"Yeah, yeah, sure I do," Casey said, rolling his eyes. "Raph, get back in bed."
"Hey, what's going on?" Hera said as she walked through the door.
"He's just stretching his legs," Casey said, meaning Raph. April moved apart from Casey and stood up.
Hera studied Raph. "It's surprising you CAN stretch your legs, your recovery over the sedative is amazingly fast, but that doesn't mean you're free to go. Get back into bed." She walked with him back to the bed, but he only sat on it.
"Don't you guys sleep around here?" Casey asked the doctor.
Hera chuckled. "When we have to." She looked at her watch. "Now it's time to go check on the other three. I'm worried about Leo's concussion. He should be fine if he stays laying down, but I ought to check it regularly." She walked back out.
April, Casey and Raph all looked at each other.
"She's worried now, and she thinks he's laying down; asleep," April said, worry showing on her tired face. "He's running around New York with a concussion, and he's about to walk straight into a battle."
Casey wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her back onto his knee.
"He's gonna be fine, he'll make it outta there," he comforted her. He wanted to promise it to her but even he wasn't too sure.
Raph realized he was still staring at the doorway where Hera had disappeared. He looked back at Casey and April.
"If the doc was worried then, wait 'til she finds out none of 'em are in their beds," he said.
April and Casey looked up.
"They'll probably keep an eye on you so you don't disappear," April said, laying her head on Casey's chest.
"Nah, they'll probably be too busy looking for the other three," Casey said.
Raph slowly smiled, eyes glinting.
//
"Okay - a lot more than FIFTEEN!" Donny grunted as he bent back to avoid a fist to the face.
All three had entered through the wooden doors to be greeted in a wide room by a whole group of the Foot, all looking mean and ugly. And for the first time, Mikey and Donny had pretty much had to defeat Leo's opponents for him, because after the first twenty seconds he had been down twice, and wasn't sure which way was left when Donny was calling directions to him where his attackers were coming from.
"Don - I don't think Leo can keep this up!" Mikey yelled past a soldier. He and Donny had their backs to Leo, stopping as many as they could from beating up their brother. Leo was holding off pretty well to say he should have been knocked out on the floor by now.
"Well they can't kill us now!" Donny yelled back. "We haven't even seen who it is who wants us dead!"
Behind them Leo used what felt like the last of his strength to punch a Foot in the face. For a split second he froze still, then it seemed his body realized there was no more strength, and he fell to the floor, landing on his stomach. Donny almost trod on his hand as he was pushed back.
Mikey kicked one last dude in the gut and then turned and dropped next to his fallen brother. Donny stood protectively over them, teeth gritted angrily at these guys, watching them.
The Foot stopped their attacks and stood facing towards the three brothers. Then from the left the mass of black-clothed soldiers parted and a very familiar, ugly face appeared through them. Tatsu walked up to them, seeming almost amused by their positions from the floor. The fact that they were beaten at this point made his eyes light up evilly.
From the floor, Mikey looked up into the face of their enemy. So it was Tatsu who was leading the Foot. He could almost feel Donny thinking the same thing.
Tatsu made a motion with his arm, and four Foot soldiers moved into flanking positions around Leo, Don and Mikey, one roughly grabbed Mikey's arm and tied to pull him up. Mikey jerked him off, and took hold of Leo's arm, who was only just conscious. Mikey pulled his brother up and held him steady as Leo tried to regain his sight.
Tatsu grunted and made another sweep of the arm motion, turned and started to walk back through the Foot. All three brothers were pushed, forced to follow. Leo gave a weak cough and tried his best to walk. He had never felt his head spin so much. He was totally dizzy, he felt sick, and he could feel his heartbeat thudding irritably in his temples. His vision blurred and darkened as soon as he was upright, but as they started to walk it started to fade, and he could see where they were heading. They passed through a large, old, wooden door into a huge room, with large crates stacked around near to the walls. It was a very place. Everything was made from wood, the floor, the walls, the crates and the very high ceiling, even if it wasn't visible in the darkness of the factory. At first Leo thought it was his eyesight that was playing up, but after a few seconds of waiting for everything to go light he realized it must be the huge room.
They were brought into the middle of the room, and stopped in front of a high platform that, as far as they could see, led back to another part of the factory. It was more like a balcony platform used to overlook the work being done in the room, when the factory was up and running. The Foot that had been flanking them backed up to the crates, where, what looked like, the whole clan of Foot soldiers was lined up along the crates in the room. Leo, Don and Mikey were surrounded.
All three of them looked expectantly at the platform after having a good look at their surroundings. They didn't see much except for the outlines of the Foot because of the darkness; but the only light in there was dim, and it seemed to shine right on the platform above them. Nothing in the room made a sound. Leo's arm was still draped around Mikey's neck, and he could feel Donny on his other side, close to him.
"Again we meet."
The sudden voice echoed off the old wooden walls, making it seem twice as threatening and twice as cold. The deep voice that had broken the silence was not something the guys ever wanted to hear again.
Leo, Don and Mikey stopped looking around for the source of the voice, and fixed their eyes back on the platform, where a shape was emerging from the darkness. The cape that flowed behind the large, muscular figure made the slightest whooshing sound as it waved ghost-like. It fell softly onto the back of the shadow that had now moved into the dim light. The razor sharp, metal spikes gleamed from the arms and the helmet; the helmet that they had thought they'd seen the last of. From underneath the helmet were the two glinting eyes; that was all that could bee seen of the face, but that was enough. The figure stood at the edge of the platform, towering above the three teenagers.
Leo, Don and Mikey stared, horrified.
"Shredder . . ." Donny whispered in disbelief.
~
I'm gonna be cruel and end this chapter here, a nice short-ish chapter ( yay! I hope I can get the next chapter up soon. Thanks for the 'gonna' TMNT fan, I'll keep to that. Sorry - but I think I got Raph totally out of character, and I dunno how well I did with April and Casey - I need to work on my soft mushy scenes if I'm eva gunna be a pro! Cya guys, Turtle Power!