A/N Whoo... Yo, it's been a while. I was told that reviewers like being named- so the naming commences...
Thanks Red Turtle. I hadn't read any of your stories when I started this, but I'm working on it....
ZipTango- thanks a bundle. I think you're my number one fan:)
Quoth the Raven- I don;t really think that far into it, but I'm glad my story actually makes sense. I kinda feel special knowing that there's meaning to my psychobabble.
Ramica- Thanks for the correction. I'm going to change that- let there be no doubt, and as soon as things settle down, you'll get more than an earful of randomness...
Now. On to the story...
(end A/N)
"April! Where's- oh. Er. Sorry?" Leo pulled up short as the turtles' two friends quickly pulled away from each other.
"C'mon, Urib's brobably delaying Gaton, but we really don't have long. We need to move NOW." Donatello reminded him.
"Right, trust us on this one, we need to bounce, Dudes." Raph and Mike shared a conspiratal glance and took off after their brothers, trusting April and Casey to follow.
"What's going on?" Casey shot as he ran.
"If you can talk, you aren't running fast enough." a calm voice said beside him. Casey turned his head. A kid, no more than thirteen years old was running along side the group.
"Who're you?"
"Gaton Tair. Pleased to meet you, friend of Don." The kid smiled. "You're taking too long. The others are already moving to stop us. I'll get you out of here, just brace yourself."
"What? Wh-"
The kid, Gaton, closed his eyes and a strong wind picked up. It battered Casey, April and the Turtles, yet didnt seem to touch Gton at all. He whispered something to the wind and suddenly the world froze.
When Casey became aware of his own heart beating again, his surrounding were very different.
"What the..."
"Wow. They're huge." Mike stared upwards in awe.
Towering above the friends was a canopy of green. Surrounding them were trees so old that their dark brown bases had long since been covered with the green of moss. The heavy scent of natural decay hung in the air and a slight breeze rustled the leaves around them.
"Where are we? Where in the world do trees this old come from?" Leonardo asked, just as cowed by the spectacle as Michelangelo. There was a loud noise, as though something big was plowing through the trees towards them. Everyone braced themselves for a fight. It got louder and louder, until suddenly a pair of deer burst from the foliage.
"Holy pepperoni..." Leo muttered, voice fully expressing his amusement.
"Are they supposed to be that big?"
"What are they?"
"Deer, you idiot."
"Really? They look like horses to me."
"Horses don't have have antlers."
"Well that one doesn't either."
"It's female."
"How can you tell?"
"It doesn't have antlers!"
"Guys, I've seen a deer before. I've run into a deer, trust me, they're usually smaller than a Suburban."
"So. You mean they're not suposed to be this big."
"And they're suposed to run away, not walk up and let you pet them."
"Oh."
The six teenagers stared at the giant deer.
"Maybe they're malibu or reindeer or-"
"Mike, it isn't funny. Where there's deer, there's wolves, and fighting wolves is different from fighting people."
"Huh?"
"They're lower down, that forces you to fight at an uncomfortable angle and tire easily. And they travel in packs, as in, twenty to fifty wolves attacking at once. They're a lot more coordinated than humans."
"We can take 'em." Raph boasted.
"THey're also pretty rare around here so if they show up, we can't kill them. How do you plan to take them down without killing them when they're fighting for food? We need to get out of here."
"Okay. Let's go this way." Leo said.
"Why that way?"
"Because when we arrived here, we were facing the opposite direction. We go this way because this is the direction at our backs when we arrived." He answered with finality. THe others just shrugged and followed him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Gaton crouched in a tree as Leonardo led the group away. They're safe enough here, he thought. Now to the rest of the plan.
Gaton didn't bother to subdue the strong wind that swept him away. It was a side effect of his magic, every mage had one to stop them from sneaking up on other mages by using their magic. Usually Gaton toned it down, but he didn't see how it mattered. Everyone knew what he was up to now.
The world shifted around him and then he was back at the platform. Urib was there, surrounded by at least a dozen higher mages who were there to force them to abandon the mission.
Is this right? Am I making a mistake? Gaton asked himself. In his heart, the memory of a dream returned...
***** Gaton, I need you. A voice echoed through the still whiteness of Gaton's mind. Gaton, look at me.
It was hard to tell the voice from all the random thoughts in his mind, it was so faint. Deep in sleep, the universe existed only as a myriad of colors to the demon halfling. White, an eternal and infinite room of white that sucked everything up. Gaton knew that this was a remantent of his time in the vortex, it had been the same. Blinding light that sucked the darkness up, elongated it and pulled it in, completely ignoring him- or as Gaton was wont to remember, to sharpen the darkness into dark knives to cut through his mind and body, for all their immaterial qualities. It was a Hell that religion knew nothing of, trapped in a heaven of your own design. In his dreams, he was there again, a dark spot in Heaven's perfect glory, with angels shooting darts of righteousness at him, the devil's own, for intruding on their world. Even in sleep they haunted him.
Gaton, please. This is important. He stood in the bright void and watched the colors fly past him like knitting needles in a tornado, each one a thought that bore its own color depending on the emotions it invoked. Gaton, GATON.
"What?" he asked, finally hearing the voice.
Gaton, I need you to prepare the Earth. There will be visitors soon.
"What, am I your butler now?"
Gaton, please. They come from far away. THey will help bring us back t our former glory and when they return to their time, they will help change things there.
"I told you already. I'm no hero. I saved you the last time because Trae died before he could do it. I did it for him and he did it because he owed you a favor. The debt is repaid. Go find your own hero. Urib, for instance. He believes in helping people.
He is not strong enough, G-
"Why. Why do you insist on saying my name everytime you speak to me? There's no one here but us."
I like your name.
"You named me. I should think you like it. I don't. It reminds me of how I was cursed. Don't call me by my name anymore."
I'm sorry. I thought-
"You didn't think. You never think. Go away."
The Earth is dieing. Urib isn't strong enough to do what is neccessary.
"Why should I care? I'll live whether or not the world ends. That was your gift to me. You and father... Just leave me alone. Let me live alone and angry."
You have to change the world, Gaton.
"I told you not to call me that." he said, temper quickly rising. "People don't change the world. It changes them."
Oh, but you're wrong. THe world is changed. Humans did it. They poisoned it and coverd its face with humans and human things. You can change that. Get rid of the humans and all their poisonous toys, and not only will you have freed the planet, but you will also have reshaped it. Think about it, Gaton. The mages will fear your power, you will be repsected and could rule them all. The first ruler of the mages. You will be the one to bring them all together, Gaton. You.
Gaton listened as the voice droned on about how he would benefit from helping it. "You're full of it. Why would I fall for something as slovenly as that bull shit? I'm only a demon halfling. I don't have the motivations of any of my descendants. Respect, power, feeling needed. Who gives a damn? I wish there was an off button on you, you're beginning to tick me off."
Gato-
He didn't give the voice a chance to continue. Gaton concentrated on his breathing, a surefire way to wake up. When he say up in bed a few seconds later, Gaton was wide awake and mad as a hornet.
"I refuse to serve either of you." he whispered to the darkness of his room. "I plainly refuse to be your herald." *****
"Well, you've come to watch the spectacle..." Gaton said, by way of greeting. "Excellent, excellent."
"There will be no spectacle here, Gaton Tair. Can't you feel it?" Gaton smiled.
"Makton, my dear friend. Do you really think I'd let something as simple as a handful of mages stop me?" Gaton kept his voice amiable, but couldn't help himself from turning the word 'mages' into a snarl. "Just because your spell to drain magic has been undefeated doesn't mean its perfect. After all, you've never tried it on me before."
"Oh, really?" Makton swept his long blonde hair from his face. "Fine." Several large clusters of crystal thrust their way through the stage to form a semicircle between the two of them. The rest od the mages watched inpassively as the crystals retreated back into the ground just as quickly as they came forth. "If you're so great, cancel it." Makton said as he opened one of his clenched fists, revealing a small vortex. He couldn't make it any bgger, such was the short coming of his power. The vortex could only grow to be the size of a pingpong ball, but no matter the size, a vortex was a vortex and did the same thing despite its size.
Gaton took a deep breath as he felt the familiar buzz of magic leave the area. "You are a fool, unworthy of my attention. There's no magic involved in this step of the procedure. It's already begun Makton, and you're only speeding up the process."
The older man looked at Gaton suspiciously.
"I attached the spell the spell to Urib. It was set up to activate as soon as I came within 50 feet of him. That means it started before yours. THe beauty of it is that it has a delayed start. I anticipated that you'd use your magic, that vortex spell is your only one that's worth damn. You see, my spell feeds off of the magic stored in pocket dimensions like the ones that create vortexes. I call this kind of spell a catalyst spell."
Gaton began walking towards the mages, smiling broadly. "It ties onto one unchangable power source- in this case, Urib. He feeds it a certain amount of energy until the first catalyst shows up. Me. Then it automatically begins drawing power from the stronger source, which we all know is me as well. The third catalyst has to be stronger than the other two, enough to make the spell strong enough to take over the absorbtion process on its own, enough that it can seek and absorb as much magic as it needs to fulfill its purpose. Thank you, sucker. You gave my spell the boost it needed. And yes, it gets better." Gaton smiled more widely as all the mages took a step back.
"This spell releases everything inside the vortexes that isn't magic. All those fancy prisons of yours that hold the criminal mages... by the time this puppy gets rolling, they're all gone. Oops." Gaton shrugged carelessly. As he spoke, Urib disappered with a grateful smile and a puff of smoke. "Now. Do you want to know what my spell does?"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Well, looks like we're not too far from home."
"Wy hasn't anything happened yet?"
"Dunno. It's a nice view isn't it."
"Who cares. Let's go home."
"That's not really the best- did you feel that?"
"I felt something, but what?"
"Kinda like... well, I don't know. Like you had the fan on low and didn't even realize it until someone turned it off and you realized the breeze was gone."
"You have a way with words, Mike."
"THanks Raph, but the people who really need to demonstrate how art-ick-you-late they are..." Mike turned to the two humans with a swagger and let he sentence hang.
"Oh, get off it." Casey said, though he looked slightly embarassed.
There was a waft of smoke that blew right in their faces and suddenly Urib was in front of them.
"Master!" Leo exclaimed.
"Ah, good to see you again, my sons, and you too, April and Casey.
"You found him! You got him back!" Suddenly Urib found himself being crushed in a bear hug, or turtle hug if you tend to take things literally.
"Soon, Meltdown is moments away." Urib said as Raph let him go. Urib kneeled and spread his hand open, palm up as if he were holding a bowl. A small sphere appeared and began to pulse and grow brighter. Inside the ball, was a picture.
"Hey, is that..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"gaton! You will not get away with this."
"That's precisely what you think. There is no way to counter this spell and it has an unlimited amount of magic to work with. You don't even know what it does."
"What? Tell me dammit!"
There was the smell of ozone, like the air before a big storm or flash of lightening and a silver ball appeared between to two enemies.
"Meltdown." THe ball was smaller than Makton's vortex, but was fueled by the power of a trillion vortexes hundreds of times larger that had had centuries to draw magic inside their endless bellies. "It's beautiful." The ball flashed and suddenly the stage they were all standing on sagged. The air around them filled with a ghastly moaning, as if the towers surrounding them were crying for help. "Bye." Gaton said. With a furious blast of wind, he was gone.
"Meltdown?" Makton wondered aloud. He tapped his foot and looked down at the strange tone his boot made on the wood. his eyes strayed to the blacktop of the steet below, and audibly gasped. "Stone?" THere was a scream and the mages glanced around quickly to identity its location.
THey never even saw the mass of iron and glass tumbling down on them.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
From their vantage point, the turtles, April, Casey, Splinter and Urib saw the whole thing in a fantastic panoramic view. Wihin the globe, they watched the silver ball pulse and then all looked expectantly towards the city to see what happened.
THe whole city sank visibly into itself, as though the little ball was a burden too great for it to bear. The towers tottered dangerously for a split second and with a scream that shook them all to their cores, the city unceremoniously fell apart. The dust made a mushroom in the sky that all collected as a giant ball hovering above the remanants of NewYork. It pulsed, just like the little silver ball, and the next thing they knew, it exploded, hurling a wave of dust in all directions.
"INTO THE TREES!" Urib yelled as he scooped up Splinter and dove for cover.
They barely made it back before the wave blanketed them with dust.
Thanks Red Turtle. I hadn't read any of your stories when I started this, but I'm working on it....
ZipTango- thanks a bundle. I think you're my number one fan:)
Quoth the Raven- I don;t really think that far into it, but I'm glad my story actually makes sense. I kinda feel special knowing that there's meaning to my psychobabble.
Ramica- Thanks for the correction. I'm going to change that- let there be no doubt, and as soon as things settle down, you'll get more than an earful of randomness...
Now. On to the story...
(end A/N)
"April! Where's- oh. Er. Sorry?" Leo pulled up short as the turtles' two friends quickly pulled away from each other.
"C'mon, Urib's brobably delaying Gaton, but we really don't have long. We need to move NOW." Donatello reminded him.
"Right, trust us on this one, we need to bounce, Dudes." Raph and Mike shared a conspiratal glance and took off after their brothers, trusting April and Casey to follow.
"What's going on?" Casey shot as he ran.
"If you can talk, you aren't running fast enough." a calm voice said beside him. Casey turned his head. A kid, no more than thirteen years old was running along side the group.
"Who're you?"
"Gaton Tair. Pleased to meet you, friend of Don." The kid smiled. "You're taking too long. The others are already moving to stop us. I'll get you out of here, just brace yourself."
"What? Wh-"
The kid, Gaton, closed his eyes and a strong wind picked up. It battered Casey, April and the Turtles, yet didnt seem to touch Gton at all. He whispered something to the wind and suddenly the world froze.
When Casey became aware of his own heart beating again, his surrounding were very different.
"What the..."
"Wow. They're huge." Mike stared upwards in awe.
Towering above the friends was a canopy of green. Surrounding them were trees so old that their dark brown bases had long since been covered with the green of moss. The heavy scent of natural decay hung in the air and a slight breeze rustled the leaves around them.
"Where are we? Where in the world do trees this old come from?" Leonardo asked, just as cowed by the spectacle as Michelangelo. There was a loud noise, as though something big was plowing through the trees towards them. Everyone braced themselves for a fight. It got louder and louder, until suddenly a pair of deer burst from the foliage.
"Holy pepperoni..." Leo muttered, voice fully expressing his amusement.
"Are they supposed to be that big?"
"What are they?"
"Deer, you idiot."
"Really? They look like horses to me."
"Horses don't have have antlers."
"Well that one doesn't either."
"It's female."
"How can you tell?"
"It doesn't have antlers!"
"Guys, I've seen a deer before. I've run into a deer, trust me, they're usually smaller than a Suburban."
"So. You mean they're not suposed to be this big."
"And they're suposed to run away, not walk up and let you pet them."
"Oh."
The six teenagers stared at the giant deer.
"Maybe they're malibu or reindeer or-"
"Mike, it isn't funny. Where there's deer, there's wolves, and fighting wolves is different from fighting people."
"Huh?"
"They're lower down, that forces you to fight at an uncomfortable angle and tire easily. And they travel in packs, as in, twenty to fifty wolves attacking at once. They're a lot more coordinated than humans."
"We can take 'em." Raph boasted.
"THey're also pretty rare around here so if they show up, we can't kill them. How do you plan to take them down without killing them when they're fighting for food? We need to get out of here."
"Okay. Let's go this way." Leo said.
"Why that way?"
"Because when we arrived here, we were facing the opposite direction. We go this way because this is the direction at our backs when we arrived." He answered with finality. THe others just shrugged and followed him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Gaton crouched in a tree as Leonardo led the group away. They're safe enough here, he thought. Now to the rest of the plan.
Gaton didn't bother to subdue the strong wind that swept him away. It was a side effect of his magic, every mage had one to stop them from sneaking up on other mages by using their magic. Usually Gaton toned it down, but he didn't see how it mattered. Everyone knew what he was up to now.
The world shifted around him and then he was back at the platform. Urib was there, surrounded by at least a dozen higher mages who were there to force them to abandon the mission.
Is this right? Am I making a mistake? Gaton asked himself. In his heart, the memory of a dream returned...
***** Gaton, I need you. A voice echoed through the still whiteness of Gaton's mind. Gaton, look at me.
It was hard to tell the voice from all the random thoughts in his mind, it was so faint. Deep in sleep, the universe existed only as a myriad of colors to the demon halfling. White, an eternal and infinite room of white that sucked everything up. Gaton knew that this was a remantent of his time in the vortex, it had been the same. Blinding light that sucked the darkness up, elongated it and pulled it in, completely ignoring him- or as Gaton was wont to remember, to sharpen the darkness into dark knives to cut through his mind and body, for all their immaterial qualities. It was a Hell that religion knew nothing of, trapped in a heaven of your own design. In his dreams, he was there again, a dark spot in Heaven's perfect glory, with angels shooting darts of righteousness at him, the devil's own, for intruding on their world. Even in sleep they haunted him.
Gaton, please. This is important. He stood in the bright void and watched the colors fly past him like knitting needles in a tornado, each one a thought that bore its own color depending on the emotions it invoked. Gaton, GATON.
"What?" he asked, finally hearing the voice.
Gaton, I need you to prepare the Earth. There will be visitors soon.
"What, am I your butler now?"
Gaton, please. They come from far away. THey will help bring us back t our former glory and when they return to their time, they will help change things there.
"I told you already. I'm no hero. I saved you the last time because Trae died before he could do it. I did it for him and he did it because he owed you a favor. The debt is repaid. Go find your own hero. Urib, for instance. He believes in helping people.
He is not strong enough, G-
"Why. Why do you insist on saying my name everytime you speak to me? There's no one here but us."
I like your name.
"You named me. I should think you like it. I don't. It reminds me of how I was cursed. Don't call me by my name anymore."
I'm sorry. I thought-
"You didn't think. You never think. Go away."
The Earth is dieing. Urib isn't strong enough to do what is neccessary.
"Why should I care? I'll live whether or not the world ends. That was your gift to me. You and father... Just leave me alone. Let me live alone and angry."
You have to change the world, Gaton.
"I told you not to call me that." he said, temper quickly rising. "People don't change the world. It changes them."
Oh, but you're wrong. THe world is changed. Humans did it. They poisoned it and coverd its face with humans and human things. You can change that. Get rid of the humans and all their poisonous toys, and not only will you have freed the planet, but you will also have reshaped it. Think about it, Gaton. The mages will fear your power, you will be repsected and could rule them all. The first ruler of the mages. You will be the one to bring them all together, Gaton. You.
Gaton listened as the voice droned on about how he would benefit from helping it. "You're full of it. Why would I fall for something as slovenly as that bull shit? I'm only a demon halfling. I don't have the motivations of any of my descendants. Respect, power, feeling needed. Who gives a damn? I wish there was an off button on you, you're beginning to tick me off."
Gato-
He didn't give the voice a chance to continue. Gaton concentrated on his breathing, a surefire way to wake up. When he say up in bed a few seconds later, Gaton was wide awake and mad as a hornet.
"I refuse to serve either of you." he whispered to the darkness of his room. "I plainly refuse to be your herald." *****
"Well, you've come to watch the spectacle..." Gaton said, by way of greeting. "Excellent, excellent."
"There will be no spectacle here, Gaton Tair. Can't you feel it?" Gaton smiled.
"Makton, my dear friend. Do you really think I'd let something as simple as a handful of mages stop me?" Gaton kept his voice amiable, but couldn't help himself from turning the word 'mages' into a snarl. "Just because your spell to drain magic has been undefeated doesn't mean its perfect. After all, you've never tried it on me before."
"Oh, really?" Makton swept his long blonde hair from his face. "Fine." Several large clusters of crystal thrust their way through the stage to form a semicircle between the two of them. The rest od the mages watched inpassively as the crystals retreated back into the ground just as quickly as they came forth. "If you're so great, cancel it." Makton said as he opened one of his clenched fists, revealing a small vortex. He couldn't make it any bgger, such was the short coming of his power. The vortex could only grow to be the size of a pingpong ball, but no matter the size, a vortex was a vortex and did the same thing despite its size.
Gaton took a deep breath as he felt the familiar buzz of magic leave the area. "You are a fool, unworthy of my attention. There's no magic involved in this step of the procedure. It's already begun Makton, and you're only speeding up the process."
The older man looked at Gaton suspiciously.
"I attached the spell the spell to Urib. It was set up to activate as soon as I came within 50 feet of him. That means it started before yours. THe beauty of it is that it has a delayed start. I anticipated that you'd use your magic, that vortex spell is your only one that's worth damn. You see, my spell feeds off of the magic stored in pocket dimensions like the ones that create vortexes. I call this kind of spell a catalyst spell."
Gaton began walking towards the mages, smiling broadly. "It ties onto one unchangable power source- in this case, Urib. He feeds it a certain amount of energy until the first catalyst shows up. Me. Then it automatically begins drawing power from the stronger source, which we all know is me as well. The third catalyst has to be stronger than the other two, enough to make the spell strong enough to take over the absorbtion process on its own, enough that it can seek and absorb as much magic as it needs to fulfill its purpose. Thank you, sucker. You gave my spell the boost it needed. And yes, it gets better." Gaton smiled more widely as all the mages took a step back.
"This spell releases everything inside the vortexes that isn't magic. All those fancy prisons of yours that hold the criminal mages... by the time this puppy gets rolling, they're all gone. Oops." Gaton shrugged carelessly. As he spoke, Urib disappered with a grateful smile and a puff of smoke. "Now. Do you want to know what my spell does?"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Well, looks like we're not too far from home."
"Wy hasn't anything happened yet?"
"Dunno. It's a nice view isn't it."
"Who cares. Let's go home."
"That's not really the best- did you feel that?"
"I felt something, but what?"
"Kinda like... well, I don't know. Like you had the fan on low and didn't even realize it until someone turned it off and you realized the breeze was gone."
"You have a way with words, Mike."
"THanks Raph, but the people who really need to demonstrate how art-ick-you-late they are..." Mike turned to the two humans with a swagger and let he sentence hang.
"Oh, get off it." Casey said, though he looked slightly embarassed.
There was a waft of smoke that blew right in their faces and suddenly Urib was in front of them.
"Master!" Leo exclaimed.
"Ah, good to see you again, my sons, and you too, April and Casey.
"You found him! You got him back!" Suddenly Urib found himself being crushed in a bear hug, or turtle hug if you tend to take things literally.
"Soon, Meltdown is moments away." Urib said as Raph let him go. Urib kneeled and spread his hand open, palm up as if he were holding a bowl. A small sphere appeared and began to pulse and grow brighter. Inside the ball, was a picture.
"Hey, is that..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"gaton! You will not get away with this."
"That's precisely what you think. There is no way to counter this spell and it has an unlimited amount of magic to work with. You don't even know what it does."
"What? Tell me dammit!"
There was the smell of ozone, like the air before a big storm or flash of lightening and a silver ball appeared between to two enemies.
"Meltdown." THe ball was smaller than Makton's vortex, but was fueled by the power of a trillion vortexes hundreds of times larger that had had centuries to draw magic inside their endless bellies. "It's beautiful." The ball flashed and suddenly the stage they were all standing on sagged. The air around them filled with a ghastly moaning, as if the towers surrounding them were crying for help. "Bye." Gaton said. With a furious blast of wind, he was gone.
"Meltdown?" Makton wondered aloud. He tapped his foot and looked down at the strange tone his boot made on the wood. his eyes strayed to the blacktop of the steet below, and audibly gasped. "Stone?" THere was a scream and the mages glanced around quickly to identity its location.
THey never even saw the mass of iron and glass tumbling down on them.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
From their vantage point, the turtles, April, Casey, Splinter and Urib saw the whole thing in a fantastic panoramic view. Wihin the globe, they watched the silver ball pulse and then all looked expectantly towards the city to see what happened.
THe whole city sank visibly into itself, as though the little ball was a burden too great for it to bear. The towers tottered dangerously for a split second and with a scream that shook them all to their cores, the city unceremoniously fell apart. The dust made a mushroom in the sky that all collected as a giant ball hovering above the remanants of NewYork. It pulsed, just like the little silver ball, and the next thing they knew, it exploded, hurling a wave of dust in all directions.
"INTO THE TREES!" Urib yelled as he scooped up Splinter and dove for cover.
They barely made it back before the wave blanketed them with dust.