Rene – There actually is a Steve Irwin/TMNT crossover! It's written by Kali Gargoyle and it's called 'The Ninja Turtle Hunter'.
A/N: Sorry this chapter's been so late. I've had the usual computer problems, final school assignments, brothers and sisters hogging the keyboard etc. Anyway, I'm on school holidays now so there should be a new chapter soon… Is it just me or are these chapters getting longer? o_0 Also I'd like to wish you all a Happy Easter, and even if you don't celebrate it, just hoard all the Cadbury Bunnies (or bilbies in Australia!) while they're still available! Yum! Chocolate!
Chapter 20: Old Enemies.
Sydney, Australia
Donatello sat on his beanbag chair while he flicked through the television channels, hoping to find something to watch that would spark his interest. Sighing, he reluctantly stopped searching to watch the weather report on the news. It seemed that on every second day of the week it would be raining, which was both good and bad for the turtle; good because there were less people on the streets and it wasn't as suspicious to be seen wearing a trench coat, while it was also bad as the storm drains would begin to flood. As the weather report concluded, the minor and short news stories were aired, and one in particular definitely sparked Donatello's interest.
Don leaped forward and pressed a button on the VCR to start recording the program. After a couple of establishing shots of the New York Zoo, a voice over was heard soon after. "After years of chasing and waiting, the newly named Yesmal's Turtle have arrived back at New York Zoo, including two more additions," the reporter said as Raphael and Diana were shown on the screen. "The turtles are now in a combined exhibit with the exclusive Yeti in hopes that it will raise both interest and tourism to the zoo community. Now that the turtles have been released back into the public eye, there are hopes that the plan to breed these extraordinary reptiles can continue," the reporter concluded the brief news story.
Donatello sighed and stopped the videotape, not wanting to record the rest of the news. Not bothering to see the rest of the program, the turtle changed channels so he could watch the short segment again. He paused the video when the camera zoomed in on the two children. Don curiously observed the young turtle wearing a red bandanna. The boy had a lean frame, as he wasn't old enough to really start building up his muscles yet. When pictured next to Leo, his head came up to about his chest height, giving Don a clear indication that this indeed was Raph's son as the girl was almost twice as short. Along with that, the red bandanna was almost a direct clue. Staring at his face for a little while longer, Donatello began to recognise the similar facial features with his genetic father… In fact, the more Don thought about it, the more the boy resembled his father.
Donatello played the tape forward before pausing it once again. This time he had a clear picture of the little girl. Taking into account her size and slightly scared expression, Don figured that the child was only a few years old, possibly three or four. 'Poor kid,' Don thought when he realised that the glass prison was no place for a youngster to grow. He examined her frightened dark amber eyes behind her white mask, trying to figure out who Diana's father was, but her appearance resembled her mother too much to tell. Donatello sighed once again.
He turned off the television and sat in silence for a few moments. Just seeing the two children's scared expressions gave Donatello enough motivation to try and figure out another plan. Itching to write, Donatello picked up a pen and sat at his table, but a heavy rumbling and splattering sound from the surface destroyed his focus. The droning noise grew even louder.
Immediately Donatello stood up and grabbed a few sandbags that he had created over the years. It hadn't rained for weeks, but when it finally did, it poured. With any soil being too dry and cracked to soak up any water, the rain traveled straight into the drains, and on really bad nights, flash flooding occurred. With his arms chock-full with heavy bags, Donatello ran down a few pipes before dumping his load onto the ground. If he didn't do this, then there was a risk that his underground lair might be submerged with an inch deep layer of water by the time morning came.
Satisfied with his first load, Donatello ran back to his home to grab some more bags. Although he desperately just wanted to write a plan to rescue his family, he unfortunately had to attend to other matters first.
*****
New York, 7:30 am. At the zoo…
"Box," Raphael said simply.
"Crate," Michelangelo replied with a bored tone.
"Box," Raphael stated again.
"Crate," Mike repeated.
"Box."
"Crate."
"Box."
"Crate."
"Box."
"What are they doing?" Venus asked Leo, while looking at Mike and her son weirdly.
"Crate," Mike continued.
"They're playing a word association game," Leonardo answered Venus' question.
"Box," Raphael continued. Diana observed the scene and started to giggle at their repetition.
"Crate."
"Oh… why?" Venus asked, still giving the two turtles weird looks.
"Well you two said that you needed some time alone to work things out," Mike stopped playing and informed her.
"We're just keeping ourselves occupied," Raphael said with a cheeky tone like a smart-ass. Venus and Leo frowned.
"Yeah but… that game is just really, really, distracting… and monotonous," Leo told them off. Mike only gave him a charismatic grin. Silence unexpectedly filled the room.
"So, like… how come Mum is pregnant with Uncle Mikey's baby?" Raphael asked slowly, still horribly confused.
"Mummy, where do babies come from?" Diana whined, as she had wanted to know the answer since the previous night. Venus and Leo looked to each other and sighed, knowing that they weren't going to drop the subject. They were way too inquisitive for that. With a heavy heart, Leonardo decided that he should inform the boy about the scientists' meddling as Venus would become too emotional. While he was at it, he explained the more cellular part of how babies were made, though the adults were thankful that Diana became too confused and bored to understand everything that was said and thus maintained some innocence. Raphael, on the other hand, suddenly knew the enormity of everything that had occurred and the situation their species was in.
"So… will I have children?" Raphael asked quietly when Leo answered everything that he possibly could. The turtle in blue let out a sigh.
"You can, but…" he trailed off and began to stare at his bored daughter. Raphael followed his gaze.
"Oh…" was all the boy said when he realised what Leo was hinting at. Raphael blushed and looked away, embarrassed that he asked the question and at the suggestion that was made. The silence was so thick that not even breathing could be heard.
"So… how do you plan on raising, um… the two children?" Mike curiously and carefully asked Venus.
"Well… I was thinking that maybe Leo and I could raise them as twins so that they would never know…" Venus answered slowly. Mike bit his lip and shook his head in disagreement.
"Venus… This child is partly my fault as well. I know that it'd be a lot easier to raise them together in ignorance but… you know… I've seen both of you raise two really great kids but I can't help but feel… left out. This is my child as well and… I guess I just want to be a major part of their life… I'll raise the child by myself if you like," Mike finally offered.
"We should raise them as a family… " Leo said simply, hinting to Mike that it shouldn't be completely his responsibility. Michelangelo nodded his head knowing what Leo meant. It was the way Raphael was raised. Although Raph called Leo his father, the whole clan put in equal effort in his upbringing; Leo trained him, Venus guided and cared for him, while Mike entertained and played with the boy. The deafening silence returned. During the tense stillness, Leonardo noticed that the power light for the video camera turned off. "Well, would you look at that! Silver was telling the truth after all. The video camera turns off at eight o'clock in the morning and at night," Leonardo exclaimed.
"How do you know it turns off at night?" Mike asked.
"I saw it turn off on the first day we arrived here," Leo informed him. The leader looked around the room; his mind was going in overdrive to try and discover a way to get out. His eyes rested on the grate built into the steel wall where the sleeping gas was usually pumped out. Leo stood up and walked over to it, only to notice that he could see a bit of light being emitted from the outside enclosure. On a closer inspection, he saw a fan with large blades behind the grate, obviously used for making the room temperature colder and for spreading the sleeping gas evenly around the cell. He stepped back and observed the size of the grate.
During their first visit to the glass prison, using the grate in the wall wasn't an option as they were simply too large to fit through. But now that they had Raphael and Diana who could successfully fit, circumstances quickly began to change. "Hey Raph, do you think you'd be able to squeeze in here?" Leo asked as he fiddled and loosened some of the screws that held the grate to the wall. The boy stared at the small space.
"Maybe," he said. "Probably, yeah," Raph assured Leo more confidently.
"Have you thought of something Leo?" Mike questioned curiously.
"I think that either Raph or Diana could squeeze in here and crawl to the enclosure outside. They could jam the fan by blocking the blades with an apple or something. They don't spin that fast all the time anyway. Well they're not spinning fast right now," Leo rambled his thoughts that were speeding through his mind a mile a minute.
"One problem," Mike said simply. "We've got parental supervision," Mike reminded him, pointing to the security cameras. "As soon as we're seen escaping, they'll just alert the zoo keepers with the tranquils," Mike shrugged. Leonardo stared at the security cameras. All of a sudden, as if on cue, the red power light began to glow once again. Leo smiled to himself.
"Four minutes…" Leo murmured. "We've got a four minute window of opportunity. Silver had the right idea! At night, as soon as the security cameras are turned off, we'll detach this grate from the wall and we'll get Raphael to climb in. He'll then crawl into the enclosure, then head around through the staff area to free the rest of us," Leo explained excitedly. Mike held a thoughtful expression while Venus became worried about Raphael's well being considering the child's father executed the same basic plan format.
Yet before much more could be discussed amongst the group, Dr Yesmal entered the outside room and pressed a button on the control panel as a sign for both the turtles and Silver to move out into the daytime enclosure. All of the reptilian family stepped out of the cell and onto the fresh grass in a calmly fashion, relieved that they still had approximately one hour before the public would arrive.
"Did you think of something?" Silver abruptly called out as he came out of his cell. Leonardo warily nodded his head, still not completely used to Silver's presence. The turtles cautiously told Silver their plan, causing the ape to frown in confusion.
"Wait, wait…" Silver stopped Leo's explanation. "How will Raphael get out of the enclosure once he's crawled through the air duct?" Silver nit-picked. Leonardo almost blushed in embarrassment for being so excited to forget to figure out such an important part of the plan. The turtle in blue sighed and looked around. That's when he found the answer.
"The tree!" Leo said out of nowhere. "The tree is tall enough that Raphael can leap from the branch to the overlooking walkway," Leonardo explained further. Curious at his suggestion, everyone moved closer to the tree for an accurate examination. "You'd be able to make that jump, right?" Leo asked the boy rhetorically. Raphael nodded and agreed, not wanting to disappoint anyone.
"What about the barbed wire?" Venus asked worriedly.
"The tree's considerably taller than the fence, so it'll be easier to jump. He'll definitely clear it, don't worry," Leo conjectured. With every piece of the plan worked out, the entire group sat down to discuss the little details of the escape. Wanting to leave as soon as possible, everyone agreed that they should try the next night. By the time everything had been worked out, the public had started to gather around the enclosure and once again their ignorant comments disrupted normal conversation. Leonardo and Venus looked at each other and agreed to move somewhere else so that they could talk over some problems in private. While walking over to the concrete area of the enclosure, a particular person in the audience caught their eye. Mike also noticed this person and stared at him just like Venus and Leo.
He was tall, had jet-black hair and looked as though he had a Japanese descent. Yet that wasn't what set him apart from the crowd. This particular man had a scar across his cheek from being scratched by a rat many, many years ago. He was Oroku Saki.
Leonardo continued to stare at his old enemy formally known as the Shredder. The man must have been nearing his fifties now, as his hair was really starting to recede and a few small wrinkles could be seen near the eyes and mouth. A woman in her early forties also of Japanese descent was standing near him. Leo noticed the golden ring on both Saki and the woman's finger, causing the turtle to suspect that she was the ninja master's wife. A young boy with similar black hair was standing near the couple. Leo wasn't sure at first, but when the Japanese woman held his hand, the turtle knew that Saki had started a family.
It had been a good while since the turtles had seen Saki; eleven years to be exact. The last time they had seen him was when he was reduced to a crazy beggar due to his sudden internal collapse brought on by Venus a few weeks earlier. Venus, on the other hand, had only met Saki twice in her life; the first time was when she defeated him by bringing forth his old self to meet the new, allowing an inner conflict of the soul which later led to Shredder's demise, while the second time she met him was when Splinter brought Saki into their own home for rehabilitation to occur. He was still slightly mad and dysfunctional the last time Leo saw him, but now after seeing that he had gained a wife and child, Leo assumed that Saki managed to get his life back on track for the better.
As Leo stared at his old archenemy, he couldn't decide what emotion Saki was feeling at that particular moment. The man held a small smile, though it wasn't a smirk or a sneer like one would expect, but rather a peaceful and reflective expression, and, quite possibly a hint of sadness and despair. It was as though Saki was sorrowful that such a proficient group of ninjas were being disregarded as simple-minded animals. He knew that the turtles were so much more than that, and to him, them being trapped in a basic zoo was a great disappointment for him. Saki had underestimated the turtles so often, that the man had learnt that these creatures were highly capable and honourable warriors and opponents, yet his displeasure was in the fact that the turtle weren't utilizing their skills to their full capacity like they should.
As Leo continued to look at Saki and try to figure out why the man was visiting them, the more he became slightly annoyed at the fact that the wrong person was behind bars. Saki's life over the years had improved significantly, and while Leo, like him, had also started a family, their own quality of life had reduced drastically when compared to his old enemy, even though Saki had committed some of the evilest of deeds when he was known as the Shredder. The turtle sighed when Saki's son tugged on his mother's arm as signal for them to leave and move on to another exhibit. With a simple nod of his head, Saki agreed and left the enclosure and the turtle's lives for the last time…
"Who's he?" Silver asked Michelangelo when he followed the reptile's gaze.
"Never mind," Mike shrugged. Silver frowned.
"You know, considering that you want to be allies with me, you keep leaving me out of the loop," Silver said figuratively. Mike sighed.
"That guy you just saw then was our old enemy, Oroku Saki. See, a long time ago, Saki and Splinter's ninjitsu master had… a, uh… disagreement and-"
"You lost me," Silver interrupted his explanation. Mike gave him a confused look.
"Where?" Mike asked with a baffled tone.
"Who or what is Splinter?" Silver asked. Mike just gave him a blank stare.
"How can you not know who Splinter is?!" Mike wondered out loud. It was Silver's turn to deliver a blank expression. Mike sighed after realising that Silver had never met Splinter and therefore wouldn't know of his existence. "Splinter was the person who taught us ninjitsu… well he wasn't exactly a person… He was a mutant rat. He died eight years ago from the flu," Mike summarised.
"Uh huh," Silver uttered with a raised eyebrow.
"Anyway, basically Oroku Saki, otherwise known as the Shredder, was the leader of the Foot Clan; this group of ninjas who conducted a number of heists and other crimes throughout New York," Mike summarised very, very briefly. Silver had a small grin on his face.
"So you were the ones who made the Foot crumble!" Silver exclaimed.
"Why? Have you heard of them?" Mike wondered innocently. Silver almost scoffed at his ignorance.
"The Foot was the biggest crime organisation in the city! Of course I've heard of them. They kept stealing all the stuff I wanted! Though naturally when they suddenly stepped out of the picture, I quickly became the leader of the number one crime syndicate in New York," Silver boasted.
"Congratulations," Mike said rather flatly.
"Though it's rather ironic, isn't it? Years ago you inadvertently helped me, then we became enemies, and now you're helping me again?" Silver explained with a glint in his eye.
"Yeah… ironic," Mike said simply with caution, still thinking about what the ape had said. Both Mike and Silver fell silent. Not knowing what to say next, Silver stared at the concrete area of the enclosure knowing that Venus and Leo were in there.
"So what happened yesterday?" Silver asked invasively.
"What do you mean?" the turtle questioned with an unsure tone.
"I saw that you and Leo, I mean Greenie, had a fight," Silver quickly corrected himself. A smile emerged on Mike's face.
"You called him Leo," Mike grinned.
"Oh shut up!" Silver grunted. "Well are you gonna tell me or not?" Silver asked impatiently. Mike looked away, knowing full well that Silver was trying to pry information from him. Why, he did not know. The turtle sighed.
"Well… It's really none of your business and, well, it's kinda personal between Leo and Venus…" Mike stated uncomfortably. Silver crossed his arms in stubbornness.
"Do you want to be allies with me or not?" Silver blackmailed. Michelangelo sighed again, knowing that if he didn't tell the ape then he could jeopardize any possible attempt to escape if the plan had to change.
"Venus is um, pregnant. The scientists used artificial insemination so… she's gonna have my child. She's also pregnant with Leo's child since um, female turtles can get pregnant from multiple partners," Mike completed slowly. When Silver said nothing he continued. "So obviously Leo and Venus need to work a few things out between them. Also, with Venus being pregnant, this means that we want to get out of here before the eggs have to be incubated," Mike informed the ape more fully. Silver simply nodded and said nothing, not expecting the turtle to say that.
"The boy, Raphael, he's not Le-Greenie's child, is he?" Silver asked carefully with a more serious tone, almost calling the blue wearing turtle by his proper name once again.
"No… he's not," Mike said simply with a hint of sadness.
"Oh…" Silver uttered. "I heard about what happened to your brother… I'm uh… sorry for what happened," Silver murmured awkwardly. A small smile emerged on Mike's face; grateful for those tiny words the ape had spoken and admitted.
"Thank you… That meant a lot to me," Mike said honestly. Silver just grunted in response.
"Hey… whatever happened to uh…" The ape clicked his fingers while he tried to remember the name. "Don… Donatello?" Silver finally finished. Mike just sighed.
"During the first time we were captured, Don was separated from us and taken to Washington DC under Government control… he escaped from there eight years ago… Never heard anything else about him since," Mike explained sadly. Silver just nodded. The ape and turtle watched Raphael and Diana play around the pond from afar. Mike gasped slightly when Diana suddenly fell over and skinned her knee on a rock.
"Are you okay?" Raphael asked worriedly, quickly moving to Diana's side. Diana sat down on the grass and blankly stared at her graze. As soon as she saw her wound, she began to cry. "Hey, hey, it's okay. It's not that bad…" Raph tried to soothe her. Diana sniffled.
"It hurts," she pouted before sniffling once again. Raphael bit his lip while he thought of a way to make his sister feel better.
"Maybe you should put some magic potion on it?" Raph suggested. Diana gave him a hopeful look.
"Ma-Magic potion?" she repeated, wondering what it was.
"Yeah, magic potion will make the pain go away," Raph said. The boy moved towards the pond, and without letting Diana see, he dipped his hands into the water. "See! I've got some magic potion!" Raphael falsely claimed. The boy dabbed Diana's wound with the water. "Feel better?" he asked. Diana nodded and sniffled before she dried her eyes and smiled. Raphael smiled back, knowing that his little sister had just fallen victim to the placebo effect. Raphael gave a grin to Mikey, while Mike simply chuckled as a response.
"Heh, kids," Mike shook his head and smiled. "Hey Silver? Did you ever have any brothers or sisters?" Mike asked. Silver looked away and sighed. Without saying a word, the ape walked to the other end of the enclosure, leaving Mike to wonder what had occurred in Silver's long lost past.
*****
The next day at the zoo…
Dr Aquel was sitting in the staff room reading Sarah's old research paper, when Dr Yesmal abruptly entered the room. Looking up from her reading material, she could see that Yesmal had just come back from a rather busy interview with the media gathered by how frazzled he looked. "How'd it go?" she asked as she tried to sneakily hide the paper away without him noticing.
"Okay. Just did the basic run down speech. It was only for a children's educational program, so it was just the simple questions like 'what do the turtles eat' and things," Dr Yesmal sighed before sitting down on the chair opposite her. He stared at the newspaper sitting forlornly in the middle of the table. "Anything good on TV tonight?" he asked, gesturing towards it.
"Not really… Just the usual reality television shows that have taken over the world," Dr Aquel exaggerated and rolled her eyes. Dr Yesmal just smiled.
"Any good movies?" He followed up.
"Nup… Oh, but there is one on the foreign movie channel called 'The Experiment', or 'Das Experiment'. Dunno what it is about though," Dr Aquel said simply.
"I've seen that one. It's about how in Germany, they did an experiment where they used ordinary citizens to replicate a prison or jail cell environment. Like they got two-thirds of the men to be prisoners and the other one-third to be guards… the experiment didn't last long… It's based on a true story. Quite scary really that something like that actually happened," Dr Yesmal explained with his usual know-it-all tone.
"Well… what happened?" Dr Aquel curiously asked.
"You'll just have to see it for yourself tonight on television," Dr Yesmal teased her.
"I can't. I've got to do that Night Life/Behind the Scenes tour tonight. I've got a bunch of kids this time as well…" Dr Aquel groaned. Dr Yesmal simply chuckled at her misfortune. None of the zoo keepers liked to spend the night at the zoo along with a bunch of tourists.
"What were you reading?" Dr Yesmal asked, remembering that she had a small booklet in her hand when he first entered the room.
"Oh, nothing much," Dr Aquel tried to answer casually, yet it still wasn't enough to fool Yesmal. The man lifted up the newspaper where his partner had stashed the thesis, only to have Dr Aquel reach out for it and snatch it away from his gaze.
"What is it?" he asked again.
"It's private… Women's stuff," Dr Aquel made up an excuse. Dr Yesmal simply frowned, not really believing her lie. With a sudden blur of movement and a playful smile, Yesmal's right arm lunged forward and detached the paper from Aquel's stunned grip. He quickly read the title and author while the female scientist swiftly tried to get the paper back.
"Sarah Watson!?" Dr Yesmal read out, quite stunned yet angry. Dr Aquel gave up trying to get the thesis back, knowing it might be easier to just come clean. "What is this?" the man asked, wanting answers.
"She wrote it a few years back when the turtles were first here. Apparently she was doing an assignment about them. I've read the first couple of pages and she's included a number of observations that we could use-"
"But Sarah Watson's a lunatic and nearly cost us our jobs!" Dr Yesmal yelled. Dr Aquel was quiet a few seconds.
"But observations are observations. You know that we don't watch the turtles all day while they're in the enclosure," Dr Aquel tried to reason with him though it wasn't working.
"But what are you trying to learn from her?!" Dr Yesmal yelled once again.
"Well, we already know that the turtles are smart and how they function on the inside physically, but what we haven't started studying yet is the family or group dynamics," Dr Aquel rebutted.
"Total rubbish!" Dr Yesmal said through gritted teeth, not wanting to hear anymore about the matter. With no warning at all, he threw the thesis in the waster paper basket that was situated in the corner of the room. A slam of the door later followed, signaling his immediate departure. Dr Aquel sighed, knowing that she had just made her workplace tens times more difficult, now that she had to deal with an angry scientist on top of everything else.
She slowly trudged over to where Dr Yesmal had disposed of the reading material. Unexpectedly, the waste paper basket tipped over and the thesis slid out and across the floor with not a crease or tear seen on it. Dr Aquel stood where she was; frozen. She felt an ethereal presence like no other, yet it was gone as soon as it was noticed. The woman shuddered, not having the slightest clue on what had just occurred. Her body shook once again when she realised there was no draft or breeze in the room, therefore eliminating a reasonable explanation of why the basket fell over. Cautiously she bent down and retrieved the thesis off the floor, before she swiftly and nervously vacated the eerie room.
*****
Later that night. Around 8pm.
Dr Aquel smiled falsely at the crowd in front of her. With a flashlight in hand, the group including numerous annoying youngsters had been shown around the zoo at night as part of the Night Life program supplied to tourists. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening, various people from different communities would gather together to spend the night at the zoo, hoping to gain a worthwhile experience. It was a simple program really. The zoo keepers would start off with a welcoming speech and then would bring out a few reptiles for the audience to get up close and personal with the animals. Dinner would then be served which was usually a barbecue, and then a two and a half-hour trek around the dimly lighted zoo would begin. When the tourists would return to the education center, they would get ready to sleep in the tents that the zoo supplied, located on a lawn of grass. The next morning would start with an early breakfast, before another walk around the zoo was started; though this time the tourists would see more behind the scenes and would listen to lectures from various zoo staff.
Dr Aquel put a finger to her lips, wanting to gain control of the group. She groaned inwardly, saddened by the fact that it was her turn to spend the night with the obnoxious tourists. No zoo keeper was particularly thrilled with that aspect of the program, but it brought in good money and advertisement. 'But tonight would be different', she kept thinking to herself. Tonight would be the first night that the turtles would be included into the program. Silver was sometimes visited at night, however he hadn't over the past few days and weeks due to the fact that the zoo keepers wanted the mutant turtles to settle into their 'new' home.
The female scientist cleared her throat, getting ready to speak. "Alright. Behind this door is where we observe the Yeti and uh… Yesmal's Turtle," she murmured the last part. "Now this will be the first time the turtles have been visited at night so even I don't know how they will react. The Yeti however is more used to our visits and has been known to even 'stalk' Night Life tourists. Now when we enter this room, you are not to touch the control panel, tap on the glass or pull out their food trays as this will disturb the animals," Dr Aquel said firmly. She waited till her last words had an effect before giving another smile. "Okay, let's go in!" she said happily, whipping the flashlight around so she could see where the door handle was. With a creak of the door, the whole group entered the room. Dr Aquel quietly scanned the turtle's clear cell with her flashlight and immediately she knew that something was wrong… The little red male was missing…
*****
Two minutes earlier.
The whole turtle family patiently stared at the security cameras, waiting for the right moment to make their move. There it was; the red power light went out, signaling the tape had stopped recording and was currently being switched. They now had four minutes. Leo was up off the floor in an instant. Heart pounding against his plastron, he anxiously twisted the screws holding the grate loose. Their air duct to freedom had been created. "Raphael, quick!" Leonardo ordered. The turtle in blue hoisted the boy up and pushed him into the metal tunnel. Mike quickly gave Raph a left over apple.
"Good luck!" Venus wished him worriedly from behind, not being completely sure about Leo's plan of escape. Leo replaced the grate once Raph was in far enough.
Nervous, Raphael crawled forward and timidly pushed the fruit closer and closer towards the slowly spinning large fan in front of him. With a jolt, the fan collided with the apple and became stuck in its rotation. Raph let out a sigh of relief in knowing that one of the scarier parts of his mission had been successful. Cautiously, Raphael crawled through the gap between the blades, keeping in mind that he was on a timed assignment. Further along, the air duct went down a slight slope causing Raphael to slide unstoppably on his plastron. Soon his little fingers grasped onto the grate that led into the enclosure outside. Hands shaking from the nervousness and tension, he punched the flimsy metal bars to break free, badly grazing his knuckles in the process.
He wiggled his toes on the moist grass once he climbed into the enclosure outside; an action that become somewhat of a ritual. He watched in awe as the leaves of the foreboding tree in front of him glistened in the silver moonlight. It definitely was a new and gorgeous sight to him, yet he gulped in fear as his heart continued to thump to the tune of the quickly ticking time. He ran over to the tree and gripped one of it's low lying branches with his nimble fingers. Raph hoisted himself up in what seemed no time at all. He climbed higher and higher knowing that every second counted. His shell scraped against the bark, his skin wiped across the cold, wet leaves as he ascended; though that wasn't what bothered him. It was the distance; the distance between the tree and the barb wire fence. He gulped as he stood as far up as he could, seriously wondering if he would make the jump. Raph bit his lip and his cheeks heated up with indecision when he wasted thirty seconds just simply staring at the gap he had to cross.
With a deep and brave breath, Raph prepared himself both physically and mentally for the foreboding challenge ahead. With a giant bend in the knees, he took off and leaped like an acrobat into the wind. He strained and stretched his arms as far as they would go whilst in midair… but it wasn't enough. Raphael grunted in pain as his small right hand gripped the sharp barbed wire fence in a last minute effort to save himself from falling. He clenched his teeth as the flesh from his palm was torn badly from a spike, though he had to keep holding on. Raph bellowed with effort as he tried to grab onto the fence with his other hand, yet he only succeeded in losing his grip altogether. As he plummeted towards the earth, he outstretched his left arm, once again in hopes of protecting and saving himself.
Raphael groaned as he hit the ground. His head ached and pounded while the rest of his body felt numb from the adrenaline rush he experienced. Breathing hard in panic, Raphael looked over his body to see if anything was wrong. An overwhelming feeling of pain bombarded him when he first caught glance of his left arm. He screamed in agony when he realised he had an open fracture of the ulna.