A/N: Well I hope everyone had a great Easter. I sure did! (my twin brothers' birthday landed over the Easter break, so I had something extra to celebrate!). Though it's my favourite holiday in the year… I still haven't figured out how a magical rabbit handing out chocolate came about, and it's relation (if any!!) to the original purpose of the Easter celebration. o_0!
Rene: In Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Shredder was defeated, not decapitated or crushed by a garbage truck, wharf, [insert heavy object here] etc like in some other versions. Then later on in the series, Splinter actually did invite Shredder back to the turtle's lair for rehabilitation, and they did sort of work together in the end but… they still had their differences!
Ellie ET: Hmmm…. Kill Raph off? Nah, already done that. It'll be another character… Be afraid. Be very afraid!!
Chapter 21: This Cell Is Haunted.
Dr Aquel's eyes darted worriedly around the cell, trying to see where the little red male was. She tried her best not to show her anxiousness in front of the tourists. As she tentatively reached for her walkie-talkie, Dr Aquel stepped to the side of the room, not wanting anyone else to hear what she was about to say. Pressing a button on the side, she spoke into it. "This is Dr Aquel. One of the Yesmal's Turtles is missing. I'm here in the observation room with the Night Life program visitors, so I'll need someone to take over the group. Over," the female scientist said softly. She waited nervously for a response.
"Claire should be down there in about three minutes to help out. Over," the person on the switchboard replied. Dr Aquel sighed and bit her lip, desperately wanting to find out what had happened to the young turtle. Just as the coordinator said, Claire arrived within three minutes.
"I'd just finished washing up the dinner plates when I was told to come down here. I came as soon as I could, though I think I saw the little male in the enclosure outside," Claire admitted worriedly; the zoo keeper assigned to help Dr Aquel out that night with the visitor program.
"Thanks. I haven't told them anything about the turtles or the Yeti yet. Just say that I had to leave as I found one of the turtles needed to be medically seen to," Dr Aquel said quickly, wanting to go. Before the zoo keeper could protest that she didn't know anything about the creatures, Dr Aquel was already gone.
The female scientist nervously fingered the keys to the enclosure as she walked. Curious to what she had heard from Claire, Dr Aquel ascended the stairs to the top-viewing platform to see if she could find Raphael. He wasn't hard to spot. She could easily hear his screams of pain and anguish from where she was standing. With no time to lose, Dr Aquel ran back down the stairs and rushed to the staff entrance to the enclosure. She considered getting a tranquilizer gun first, but thought against it when she felt she didn't have enough time. The female fumbled with the keys, scrambling to try and unlock the enclosure door in the flashlight's soft glow.
With a simple click, the door swung open and she immediately ran in. She stopped to look at the creature a few feet from where he was lying. With her flashlight, she scanned the turtle's little body to see what the problem was. Her face scrunched up with emphatic pain when she saw his wound. She winced when she observed the broken bone sticking through the flesh of his left arm. No one could blame him for screaming.
Taking action, Dr Aquel spoke urgently into her walkie-talkie, saying that she needed assistance from Dr Yesmal tonight. Raphael desperately needed an operation. When she had finished saying what needed to be said, all she could do was wait until help arrived. Dr Aquel stared at the boy from a distance, realising that he was starting to calm down… or rather starting to go into shock. She stepped forward and Raph flinched as a reaction to her hasty advance; not too sure of what she was going to do to him. Raphael's heart rate increased as his breathing became shallower, and soon it wasn't long till he realised that it would be safer to trust her than to fight.
"It hurts," the turtle managed to whisper through his pain. The scientist was taken aback for a moment when she heard his British accent. She had noticed it before when he had first arrived at the zoo, but after reading Sarah's report, she began to wonder how much humans had influenced and affected them. She could have sworn that when she heard the turtle's parents talking eight years ago, they each had American accents…
Dr Aquel shined the flashlight into his eyes and then to his wound, discovering that his skin had grown paler. Cautiously, she bent down to touch his clammy forehead and felt his rapid heart beat through his neck. Dr Aquel knew he was definitely going into shock and possibly unconsciousness from the pain, in which she needed to keep him awake to ensure he was going to make it through the night.
"You're going to be okay. Help is on the way," Dr Aquel reassured him nonetheless. Looking at his face, she could tell he was slowly slipping away. She held onto both of his legs and elevated them, hoping that the blood would return to his brain so he could stay conscious. Dr Aquel really wanted to compress his wound so that he would stop losing blood, but she feared that it would be too painful to do that.
"My dad's gonna be angry," Raphael said. The boy shuddered. "I feel cold," he complained softly as his body shook once again.
"Why is he going to be angry?" Dr Aquel asked in an attempt to distract him from the pain by getting him to talk.
"'Cause I hurt myself," Raphael stated as tears started to come to his eyes. "It really hurts…" he whispered and complained once again.
"I know it does," Dr Aquel answered while wondering when help was going to arrive.
"Will I be able to fight?" Raphael asked worriedly. Dr Aquel furrowed her eyebrows, curious as to why the child wanted to know if he could fight or not. Either way, she didn't really feel like encouraging him, as she was worried that any aggressive behaviour might injure the others.
"You'll need an operation to put the bone back in, and then you'll have your arm in plaster. It should heal, don't worry," Dr Aquel assured him, though she didn't really answer his question. The turtle accepted what she had said for the moment and wiped his teary eyes with his movable right arm. Dr Aquel spotted Raphael's gash on his hand and grazed knuckles while he was wiping his face. "How did you cut your hand?" the scientist asked. Raphael didn't answer. "What were you doing? How did you get out here?" she asked calmly. Raphael didn't say a word. Although he was somewhat light headed, he still had enough sense to know not to destroy his family's plans for escape. The female scientist sighed, knowing that this turtle was just as stubborn as any human child around his age.
Just at that moment, two other zoo keepers who usually worked in the reptile sector arrived. They both hurried over to the injured turtle, carrying with them a specialised stretcher. "Dr Yesmal's gonna here in five minutes. He's stuck in traffic," the zoo keeper reported, causing Dr Aquel to roll her eyes. They placed the stretcher beside Raphael, and on a count of three, he was lifted and transferred onto it. The turtle groaned in pain as his broken arm was placed neatly on his plastron so that they could carry him to the operating theatre safely.
Raphael closed his eyes after being blinded by the strong lights in the staff building. "You're gonna be okay," Dr Aquel reassured him once again as she walked beside him. Before the turtle knew it, he was in the operating theatre. Raphael was quickly placed on some scales so that Dr Aquel could calculate the proper amount of anesthetic that would be needed, before he was placed on the operating table.
"What happened?" Dr Yesmal asked when he finally arrived. Dr Aquel shrugged in response while she taped the gas mask to Raphael's face in preparation for the operation. All of a sudden Raphael began to freak out and panic, causing everyone to hold him down to the table in order to control him. "Turn the gas on!" Dr Yesmal ordered.
Raphael could feel his mind slip away when he began to breathe in the weird smelling fumes. His eyes fluttered and closed as he waited to peacefully fall unconscious. "Damn that's a bad break," was the last thing the turtle heard before he was knocked out cold by the gas.
*****
At the zoo, glass prison room. 3am.
It was cold and pitch black in the glass cell. No one was getting any sleep due to the fact that they knew something horribly wrong had happened with the escape plan. They hadn't heard from Raphael for hours…
The lights suddenly switched on. The turtles were disorientated for a few seconds, but when their eyes finally adjusted, they saw Dr Aquel standing beside the control panel. She pushed a button and the door to their cell opened, revealing Raphael in a portable cage. Everyone gasped when they saw Raph's plastered left arm in a sling, and his right hand bandaged up. The boy walked forward and the door to the cell closed once again. They thought Dr Aquel would turn the lights off soon after, but instead she approached their cell to observe them, obviously worried about Raph's well being.
"What happened?" Leo asked; his voice filled with worry and shock.
"I didn't make the jump," Raphael said solemnly with his eyes looking at the ground. "I failed… I failed my first real mission," the turtle added softly.
"Raph, it's okay. I'm just glad to have you back. I was so worried about you," Venus whispered compassionately as she brought her son into a hug, being careful not to touch his arm.
"Don't worry too much about it Raph. Maybe next time you-"
"There won't be a next time Leo!" Venus said to her husband angrily. "I knew this was a bad plan! Raphael's now badly injured and already you're thinking of making him do it all over again!" Venus accused.
"What happened to your arm and hand?" Leo asked softly after a moment of silence.
"I grazed my knuckles while punching the grate and I tore my palm on the barb wire fence… I broke my arm and… and I could see the bone…" Raphael mumbled slowly.
"An open fracture," Leo muttered to himself, realising the full extent of his injuries. "Do you know how long they said it would take to heal?" Leo asked.
"Why? So you can force him to jump from the tree again!?" Venus accused once again.
"I didn't mean it like that!" Leonardo replied angrily. "Look, we all know that Raphael is our key to getting out of here and-"
"Well he's not going to be anymore! And your certainly not going to try out your ludicrous plans on Diana either!" Venus interrupted Leo yet again with another angry response.
"FINE! We'll just stay in this cell till the end of our lives! How do you like that plan?!" Leo argued back sarcastically.
"Come here," Mike whispered to Raphael when the argument continued.
"Mum and dad are really angry with me, aren't they?" Raph asked timidly, trying his best to ignore the angry comments being passed back and forth behind him. Mike shook his head.
"They're frustrated, not angry. Trust me, they're just upset that somebody who they love dearly got badly injured tonight. They'll work through this, don't worry," Mike told the boy calmly before giving him a hug of his own. Diana hugged Raph around the waist, relieved that her brother had returned safely.
Without any of them realising Dr Aquel's retreat, the lights were suddenly turned off and once again they were cast into total darkness. The arguing between Venus and Leo ceased for a few seconds, before it started once again.
"I just don't want Raphael to be hurt any further, regardless of whether or not he's the only one who can get us out of here," Venus tried to reason with him.
"I understand that, but what other option do we have?!" Leo argued. In the dark, everyone heard the sound of the toilet flush.
"We have the option of not putting him in danger! That's the obligation we have as parents!" Venus said angrily back. The toilet flushed once again. Leo sighed.
"Well I don't know what other choice we have. It's too risky and unfair on Sarah's part if she comes to our rescue. And I don't even know if Donatello knows of our predicament!" Leo continued to argue in frustration.
"That's if Donatello even exists…" Raphael murmured. Leo and Venus fell silent, wondering how the boy could even suggest that. Leo was about to say something but the flushing of the toilet disrupted him.
"Diana will you stop mucking around with that toilet!" Leo barked. There was total silence.
"Leo… Diana's sitting beside me…" Mike said carefully from the other side of the room from where the toilet was. Everyone was silent for a moment.
"…Then who keeps flushing it?" Leo asked only to have no response. Everyone jumped in surprise when the toilet flushed once again. All of a sudden, the cell's food tray abruptly slid into the prison. The food tray then slid out again, while at the same time the toilet flushed. "…Mike… Please tell me that's you…" Leo said, starting to become slightly freaked, especially when he couldn't see anything but darkness.
"No… I think it's Raphael," Mike said shakily.
"Raph, will you cut it out!" Leo said irritably.
"But it's not me!" Raph protested.
"I meant the other Raphael!" Mike suggested fearfully. Silence was heard once again.
"Mike, don't start," Venus warned him.
"I swear Venus! I've seen him! He's here!" Mike exclaimed.
"My father?" Raphael asked, feeling confused.
"Mike! Drop it!" Venus said seriously. The toilet flushed and the food tray slid in towards the cell with a jolt. "Whoever is doing that, stop it!" Venus yelled to no one in particular. The food tray shook and the toilet seat flapped up and down. Suddenly the toilet flushed and the food tray slid shut before opening again. The toilet seat continued to make a nose whilst the toilet flushed. The food tray then continuously slid in and out, each time becoming louder and louder than the last; building up and up with the noise being emitted from the toilet to form a crescendo of unexplained deafening sounds. Diana screamed in terror, having no clue as to what was happening.
Then, it stopped. Total silence. Soon Diana's sobs of confusion and terror started to be heard. "Hey… It's okay. It's okay," Raphael said to her, trying to calm her down. The boy could feel his little sister's tiny arms make their way around his shell; hugging onto him to feel some sort of comfort in the pitch black room.
"This place is haunted," Mike suggested fearfully.
"Mike…" Leo warned him not to start.
"Haven't you ever seen a ghost movie? Ghosts only stay on earth if they have some reason to stay; something that's preventing them from moving on. And the longer it takes for the problem to be solved, the more and more pissed off the ghost becomes!" Mike worried, scaring himself.
"Mike, will you just stop it!" Venus cried.
"Raph's still here and he's here for a reason!" Mike analysed fearfully, ignoring Venus' pleas to make him stop.
"Mike, you're scaring the children," Leonardo said, also wanting him to stop; though he wouldn't admit that he was slightly scared as well.
"I know that I can't be the only one who's seen him! I bet Silver has!" Mike exclaimed, wanting someone to believe his theory.
"Mike, shut up!" Venus called out angrily before breaking down into sobs. She knew that what Mike had said could be true, yet she only wanted what was best for her son. Raph didn't need to hear this about his father. He had already been through enough for one night.
Without another word, everyone slowly closed their tired eyes and went to sleep, wanting to forget what had occurred that night.