A Turtle's Journey Beyond
Chapter 13: Turtle vs Terminal
This could not be happening; he could not be dead right here, right now. Donatello tried to tell himself that, but he somehow lost the ability to connect any thoughts to his mind. Invisible to the naked eye, a powerful force arrived and carefully plucked the very soul from his helpless body. Soon, the world as he knew it no longer existed to him. With no control of which direction he was going, the turtle-turned-spirit felt himself traveling at an unbelievable speed through a spinning tunnel of radiant light. Where was he? Where was he going? Most importantly, where was his body? He attempted to walk, but there were no legs or feet to cause the act of motion. Next, he tried to lift a hand, but quickly realized he was missing all of his solid formation. This did not sit well with him in the slightest. Without hands, how could one give a really long lecture without gesturing, or how could one create some brand new invention? It became known to him that, although death is inevitable, it was going to be difficult to miss the things he did in life, and the people he loved.
As his weary essence continued onward, voices from other plains began calling out to him. He tried to call back, but no vocal cords meant his gift to speak had sadly turned mute. He felt lighter than air, a mere wisp of a soul moving forward to the next plain of existence. This couldn't be the end, not when there were tasks he still needed to finish on Earth!
At the end of the illuminated tunnel, the weightless ghost of a turtle floated out into a wide, open outer space full of glowing blue and white lights. Triangular-shaped beacons circled his spirit, beckoning him closer to the center of a large, starry sky until finally, a door appeared in the center. Before he could enter, a heavenly glow of an angel appeared and extended its arms as if trying to stop him. Donatello stared at its faceless expression, possibly feeling a great sympathy for him. The angel began to speak in a unisex tone of voice:
"Come no further, it is not yet your time to pass through. Your friend needs you, and you alone have the ability to help her. A single obstacle stands in your way. All you need is..."
The angel dropped lower and whispered a single word into what would have been the location of his ear. The word repeated itself deeply within as the form pushed him backwards through the tunnel of light and farther back down to where he first left the planet. Donatello blinked and slowly opened his eyes, staring up at the swirling fan in Roxanne's bedroom. The others must have moved him there for the time being. Was it all a dream, or did it really happen? Donatello sat up on the bed and looked to his hand, still feeling a hint of the electrical shock. Yes, it happened. An angel sent from Heaven had deemed him, of all God's creatures of the world, a second chance at life. He calmly squeezed his hand into a fist and flexed the sore muscles.
"That was trippie." He muttered to himself.
His family was not too far from him; he could hear their low voices coming from the hallway and office room. Some were sniffling while others were talking quietly about what to do next. With a painful groan, Donatello rose up from the bed and made his way over to the office, pausing when his youngest brother caught sight of him. Here comes the hurricane, he thought to himself.
"Tell me I'm not seeing a ghost." Mike whispered with eyes as wide as dinner plates.
"It's me, Mikey--"
"Don!!! You're alive!!!"
Michaelangelo ran over and rammed into his brother, squeezing his middle tightly. Donatello couldn't reprimand his brother; he perfectly understood how he felt. It wasn't long before the others heard the commotion and looked over to stare in disbelief.
"Don?" Leo squinted and swallowed a little while Raphael peeked his head from around his shoulder. Shadow had to grip the door frame for support. "How is this possible? You...you were dead!"
"Well, yeah, I was, but an angel sent me back because we have some unfinished business here and..." Don casually stated, but was cut off unexpectedly. A river effect soon took over as they came flooding out to embrace him and weep all over again, this time in tears of relief. "Whoa...guys, um...really, it's okay--"
"No, it's not." Mike leaned in to rest his head on Donatello's shoulder. "Jeez, Don, you died! It's not okay! Okay? No more dying on us and I mean it!"
"Heh...um, right." Don patted his shell and looked around to each of them. Among the sea of tears, he noticed Splinter was absent from the group. Leonardo informed him that he was downstairs in the living room, again trying to locate Roxanne. Just as those words left his mouth, the old rat appeared climbing up the staircase. "Sensei..." Splinter paused and blinked, wondering if his failing eyes were playing tricks on him.
"Donatello?"
Don shyly waved. "Yeah, it's me." Splinter reached his son, staring with a face that made Don crumble with sorrow. He watched him bow his head, say a silent prayer, and look back up with the tears shimmering in his eyes. Next, his heart nearly melted when Splinter wrapped his arms around his waist, embracing him softly. Don's lip trembled and he held in the sobs for as long as he could.
"Oh, my son...you really scared us all. I am so relieved to see you standing here..." Splinter cut off his own words and sighed with happiness. Leonardo and Raphael remained motionless while Michaelangelo and Shadow held each other, sniffing quietly. The six had to stand still for a good ten seconds of silence, just to know they were all alive and together once more. While Splinter felt his son should get some much needed rest, Donatello was more than eager to get a second crack at the computer.
"I can't rest now, not when I've got work to do."
"Work?" Raph asked as his brother stormed off to Roxanne's office, taking a seat at the computer desk. "Jeez, you're unbelievable. First, you get electrocuted, then you die on the floor, and now you're at the computer!"
"Some things never change." Mike mumbled with a smirk.
"Don, what are you doing? You don't have the..." Leo leaned in closer to the computer screen, watching him type in a single word for the password. It was all asterisk symbols, but once he hit the Enter key, Roxanne's computer was up and running. Donatello looked very pleased. "You got the password!"
"Yup." He said with a smile.
"But, how? Where--?"
"Well, it seems as though I stand corrected. After I was electrocuted, my soul left the planet and began its long journey through what is commonly known as the Tunnel of Passing." Everyone gawked at him as he lightly continued. "Before I could enter the gates of St. Peter's, an angel came to me and said it wasn't my time to go. It said I still needed to help Roxanne and it spoke of a single obstacle that is blocking our path. Even though I was nothing but a cloud of air, I heard that obstacle loud and clear, and it was the password!" He turned back to the screen and cracked his knuckles. "And now, I'm going to fight this bucket of bolts even if it kills me...again!"
Donatello ignored the looks on their faces and focused his attention to the screen, watching a blue prompt window appear. The title read AMBER v. 7.1B and the program began a series of installation checks:
Bio-Psi Technologies © 1996 . . . . . .
Checking RAM . . . . . . . . . . OK
Mouse Driver Installed
Locating Headgear Unit . . . . . . . . OK
Headgear Driver Installed BTA96.20
Initializing Psi Particle Transducer . . . . OK
"Okay, so far so good." Don mumbled to the words as they disappeared up the screen. Everyone gathered closer as the words, "Bio-Psi Technologies Paratechnology Suite" appeared with the following options to select:
BAR Scan Crisis
PeeK AMBER Exit
Please Select Desired Module or "Exit" to Quit
"Crisis?" Raph asked.
"Pick that one, Don. I'd say this is a crisis." Mike smirked.
"Wait." Don frowned as a red and white window popped up at them, blocking their view of the selection screen.
WARNING!
Psionic fragments have been
detected within the system...
Switching to Crisis
Management Module
"Looks as though we were heading for the Crisis selection anyway." Don said as he watched a loading bar turn from white to gray. The next screen featured a picture of three white star-like sparks spinning around at their own leisure. The title above read:
Fragment Stabilization
"What do we do now?" Mike watched the fragments spin in one spot.
"There's some buttons to check over here." Don pointed to the right of the screen with the mouse cursor. The buttons read as followed:
Alignment
remove constraints
Bias
apply positional bias
"Let's remove the constraints and apply positional bias." Don put a check mark for both buttons. The fragments continued to spin on the left. "Now, to control them with these other buttons..." Next, he began a series of movement using the additional buttons to switch around the spinning fragments. There were two Alignment buttons and three Bias buttons to play with. The two Alignment buttons rotated the fragment's spin cycle either clockwise or counterclockwise. The three Bias buttons made the fragments themselves alter the course of their position, such as moving the right fragment to the bottom, the bottom fragment to the left, and the left fragment to the right, or vice versa.
Mike pulled back in puzzlement. "Is anyone lost yet?"
"The object of this is to stop them from spinning, meaning they all need to be..." A ding sound emerged from the screen. "Aligned perfectly." After much spinning and pushing buttons, the fragments stopped and stood to attention. Don grinned as a blue and white window popped up. "Awesome."
STAGE ONE COMPLETE
Psionic fragments have been
successfully stabilized.
System is now ready for
re-entry algorithm.
"Algorithm?" Shadow quipped. "I've heard that word before."
"It means solving mathematical problems in a step-by-step procedure." Don clicked the 'Continue' button and watched a screen open with three columns and rows full of what appeared to be astronomical symbols. The title of this unusual window read:
ALGORITHM CONSTRUCTION
Instructions
The psion which resulted from
fragment stabilization is ready
to re-enter the host body
Please construct a continuous
algorithm for re-animation.
"Interesting." Don tapped his chin and stared at six arrow buttons, three to shuffle the symbols up, three to shuffle the symbols down. "Looks like we have to once again do some aligning, this time with these symbols."
"But, what do those symbols mean?" Raph asked with a frown. "They look like the designs of crop circles left by aliens."
Mike gave him a look. "I think you had Brice inside of you for way too long, bro!"
"Anything you want to know can be found in the manuals made by this company, Raph." Don eyed to him briefly. "Roxanne has done quite a lot of research on not just the paranormal, but also, the world of science and technology."
Raph squinted and pouted his lips. "Either you don't know the answer, or you just won't tell me."
"Oh, I know," Don said as he continued to shuffle the symbols, "I just didn't want to bore you with another long lecture."
"Mm, can't do much of anything right now, so...go ahead and bore me." Raph shrugged.
"Okay, a perfect example is the Internet. A dial-up user makes a connection by putting in a phone number and connecting to a different computer in some office building. All the data that gets transferred from one computer to the next is a bunch of codes unknown to someone who doesn't understand the language of computers. These symbols here are just like those same codes, except that they're a whole other language. We lost Roxanne within our world due to a fragmentation error from her software, and what this screen is telling us is the connection was somehow broken. Reconstructing these lines on the screen will fix the connection and quite possibly bring her back from wherever state of being she is currently dwelling." Don paused and looked up to him. "Have I bored you yet?"
"Immensely." Raph mumbled. Just as he turned away, he heard another beep sound emerge from the screen. "What'd you do now?" All six stared at the connected symbols and watched another blue and white window pop up.
STAGE TWO COMPLETE
Re-entry algorithm has been
successfully completed.
Place headgear on subject
to be reanimated, then
evacuate area immediately.
"Whoa, this is it guys," Don stared at the window, "AMBER is ready to bring back Roxanne!"
"But, evacuate the area?" Mike didn't like the sound of that, nor did anyone else.
"What's going to happen to her?" Shadow clutched her arms. "Will the headgear blow her up or something?"
"Only one way to find out is to test its real power." Don stood up and shut off the monitor, extending a hand to Shadow. She looked down to see he was holding AMBER. "Here." Shadow hesitated for a moment before taking it from him. "We can't be seen. You'll have to put it on Roxanne."
Shadow stared at it as if she was handed a time bomb. "I can't do this."
"You can do it." Don answered softly with a hand lifting her chin. "I know you can."
"Are you all right?" Mike asked in concern.
"Yeah, I just..." Shadow shrugged lightly, looking away. "I just wish none of this ever happened. I wish I never had to drive out here, lose my beloved car, and then endure all the stuff that went on at her house." Her eyes closed briefly; the nightmares were starting to return but she quickly reopened them. "I wish there was some way it would all go away, like magic--" A sudden zap of lightning flickered across the headset. Shadow squealed and dropped it to the ground with a harsh clank. "Eep! Whoa! What was that?"
"Heh, your wish being granted?" Mike smirked.
"If that's true, then why are we all still here?" Raph thwacked him. "Moron."
"AMBER can't grant wishes, Uncle Mike." Shadow said, rubbing her shaky hands. "Would be nice if it did, though." Donatello bent over to retrieve the fallen headset. Shadow edged away. "It doesn't like me, Uncle Don. Don't make me carry it."
"Come on." He slowly extended it to her. "It'll be fine. Like all creations, it probably still has a few glitches here and there."
Shadow took the headset again and gripped it tightly. She finally looked to all five of them with full confidence. "All right, fine. Let's do it."
Even though it was a very short walk, each step taken felt more agonizing then the last. Shadow led the way down the stairs, through the hallway and out the front door. Something different was going on and it wasn't good at all. Everyone paused to see the clouds swirl above in crazy patterns and those with hats had to grip them to their heads or else lose them in the fierce breezes. The wind almost had a mind of its own, trying to prevent them from reaching the garage door. Shadow held the headset close to her bosom as she stopped at the entrance to the garage. Including Donatello, no one was sure of what exactly would happen once she performed this one final task.
The inside of the garage was the same as before; the only difference now was the fierce winds shaking the walls with their powerful blows. Shadow suddenly felt as though she was on another plain of existence, a feeling as if she was no longer on solid ground. She could see the Turtles and Splinter behind her, but even they looked like distant shadows in the background. Gazing up to the loft, her heart sank a few notches. This is it, don't get scared now.
Shadow began to climb the rickety stairs, hearing them creak and groan on each step. She looked down briefly to see them watching her, nodding with encouragement to move forward. Every step she took closer to Roxanne, they took a step closer to the exit.
With AMBER clutched against her fast-beating heart, Shadow paused on the top step and gazed over at the lifeless body of her boss. Swallowing a thick chunk of saliva, she carefully knelt down and removed the old headset from her forehead, slipping the new one on with ease. She remembered she had to evacuate the area, but the headset was already working too soon. Before she could stand up, volts of electricity started to shoot out from the headset and all around Roxanne's forehead. Shadow immediately thought of when Donatello was electrocuted and went to retrieve it.
"Oh, my God, no--"
"No, don't!" A hand reached out to stop her and pull her away. Shadow looked up to see Don standing there with a slight pant from running up the stairs. She went to speak, but he grabbed her instead, pushing her forward to the stairs. "Come on, we have to get out of here!" Shadow looked all around as the garage started to shake worse than before and a strange howling sound emerged from all corners of the room. The others were already out the door and waiting safely next to the house.
Once outside, she paused to take a breath, but Donatello continued to push her as far away as possible. Shadow finally stopped next to the steps of the house and turned around, watching blue sparks shoot out from the door and then, the garage doors burst into a gigantic ball of flames. Shadow hid her face as the fire and pieces of burnt wood spewed out in every direction. She scanned around the area, noticing she was by herself...for a few seconds. Walking out from the wreckage appeared a dazed person shaking their head and looking puzzled.
"R--Roxanne?" She must have escaped another way. But, how did she survive the explosion? Shadow stared at her with eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
"Huh, that was a close call!" Roxanne said with a puff as she removed the headset, shaking her frizzed hair. "Thought I was lost that time! Those re-entry algorithms could use a bit of tweaking. Anyway, thanks for the save." Shadow smiled briefly as Roxanne glanced to the house. "Is everything here all right? Equipment seemed to work okay all and all! Seems like we made it through the trial."
"Barely, I would say." Shadow rolled her eyes. "What about the headset? Is it okay?"
"Oh!" Roxanne lifted the smoking headset with excitement. "We need to get this data to the lab as soon as possible! Where'd you park your car?" Shadow sighed and looked over to the lake. As if it wasn't before, she could see it was going to be a very long night.
"Come with me in the house, Roxy. We need to have a little talk about that."
That's it! The game is over! Yet! I still have some tricks up my sleeve to give this story an alternate ending. Stay tuned and thanks SO much for your patience!