That Which Prowls in the Dark of Night
Disclaimer: The TMNT belongs to Mirage and other people not me.
Chapter 16 To the Rescue
"How does it do that?" Leonardo asked Raphael as they watched the dekabor vanish and reappear a hundred yards to the left.
"You got me, Leo," Raphael said as he pulled his cleansed sai. "It was doing that the last time. It would vanish and then reappear somewhere else."
"Is Mikey still following it?" Donatello asked anxiously.
"He's trying to," Raphael said. His attention turned inward for a moment. Then suddenly he dropped to his knees as if something had hit him in the gut. To Leonardo's shock and horror Raphael began to turn transparent.
"Annie!" Leonardo shouted causing both the witch and Casey to see what was going on.
Annie knelt down at Raphael's side, and tried to grab onto his hand. At first her hand passed through Raphael's. She whispered an incantation and then was able to hold him even though he was still transparent. She began to chant something else, but Raphael was looking out at the dekabor, and said, "No Annie! I can see Mikey like this!"
"Annie what's happening to him?" Casey said growing angry.
Annie looked up at the others. "It has to be Samantha," she explained. "Sammy's taken Mike to a really deep level of the spirit world. Some level's won't affect Raphael, but the deeper ones will. Remember part of Raph is with them. If Samantha drags Mikey down into the lower levels of the spirit world Raph would have to follow."
"That's why I can see him!" Raphael said as he tried to rise to his feet. "He's trying to grab onto that dekabor thing, but it's hurting him!"
"He's grabbing it?" Annie said stunned. "That means he's on the same level as the dekabor now! It can kill him!"
Raphael was getting visibly agitated. "Raph," Leonardo tried to remind his brother, "remember that we still can't see Mikey. What can you tell us?"
"I think Mikey is trying to keep it from vanishing on him. He's pushing that thing west and . . . "Raphael broke off, and roared in anger, "Mikey no!" Without another word, he raced down the embankment not even noticing the trees and rocks he was passing through.
"Raph!" Leonardo called back, but Raphael was already fading from his vision as he stopped fighting the magic that pulled him out of phase with the world. "Annie!" Leonardo barked next. "We have to find them now!"
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Raphael saw the dekabor barreling down on Michelangelo, who was already plastered to the ground, and flung his cleansed sai towards the creature. It sailed right above Michelangelo's head, and embedded itself deep into the creature. The dekabor roared shocked to see Raphael fighting besides his brother.
"Raph!" Michelangelo said happily. "But how?"
"What did you and that cat of hers do to me?" Raphael asked teasingly. "I knew giving you that pendant was going to be a mistake."
Michelangelo knew the joke for what it was, and turned with a vicious grin back at the evil demon. "You're through now Deky. You're not escaping us!"
The dekabor chuckled evilly. If I cannot have you, I shall have your brothers, have you forgotten?
"Don't count on it!" A voice said behind them. Leonardo was there on their left, Donatello was on the right, and behind them were Casey and Annie. Around Annie was a glowing blue light.
"You can't win," Annie said. "Go back to your own world. We don't want you here!"
Michelangelo rose to his feet, and together they advanced on the dekabor step by step, herding it to a glowing hole he saw a block away. That had to be the rift that the dekabor needed to go through.
Inch by inch, step by step Michelangelo and the others managed to force the dekabor backwards until the evil creature was backed up against the porthole to it's own dimension lay. Annie was flanked by Donatello, Casey and Leonardo who were keeping the dekabor's victims from the others. She gathered her power around her making a strong wind that only seemed to affect the dekabor, Michelangelo and Raphael. It forced the creature closer and closer to the porthole "Get out of here!" Annie said. "Go back to the depths from which you came, dekabor we don't want you here!"
I will not go witch! The dekabor cried out. As the wind increased in strength it wrapped a tentacle around Raphael's leg. Raphael and Michelangelo were still on the same spiritual level as the dekabor, and it drew him closer using him as a shield against Annie and Michelangelo. I will live in this world, it said viciously. I will feast on the despair of your children and live forever on their hopelessness!
Annie and Michelangelo froze. If they forced the dekabor through the porthole it would take Raphael through with it. For a second the world was suspended in the stalemate then Michelangelo pulled Raphael's sai out of the dekabor, and sliced through the tentacle holding Raphael. He then pushed the dekabor into the hole, but the dekabor wasn't ready to give up yet.
No! No I won't go back! I won't! The dekabor twisted its tentacle's around Michelangelo, and tried to drag him into the porthole as Michelangelo tried to force it in.
"Mikey stop! It's gonna pull you in with it!" Raphael shouted, but Michelangelo continued to push the creature into the porthole, and the creature continued to pull him in with it.
"Raph! Use your will," Annie said suddenly. "Part of you is with Michelangelo. Just like what Samantha did to him affected you, what you want can affect him if you work with me. You're still connected to me. If we channel my energy through you, we can pull him back!"
Raphael considered this. Did he want to give himself completely over to the spells holding him? He had been resisting them with every fiber of his being. It was his nature to resist constraints. How could he just give in and accept what Annie had done to him?
She saved your soul you moron, his conscious nagged at him. He looked up at Michelangelo who was pushing and being dragged into that hole.
Do you wanna save Mikey or not?
Without even understanding how he was doing what he was doing, Raphael relaxed the part of his mind that had been subconsciously resisting Annie's energies. The moment his defenses had dropped he found himself filled with a power that he didn't understand, but the force behind this power knew what it had to do. He thought the energy would turn him into a puppet where he wasn't in control of his mind and body, but instead the energy around him cradled him gently and guided him with gentle nudges on what he had to do.
His mind focused on Michelangelo, and the pendant around his neck where part of Raphael's spirit was housed. He pulled on the pendant calling it back to himself. Behind him the power that was streaming from Annie pulled in that direction. Raphael remembered vaguely that this was the sensation he had before when Annie and Michelangelo had reinforced the spells on his body and spirit. This time, however, he and Annie were pulling together and they were pulling on Michelangelo's mind, body, and spirit as a physical thing to prevent him from being forced into the porthole, but the dekabor was pulling as well, and he was pulling Michelangelo in with him.
No! Raphael thought. He put everything he was, his strength, his rage, and his love for his brother into the force pulling Michelangelo away from the dekabor, and even then he was worried that it would not be enough.
Suddenly Samantha was at his side as immaterial as he was. She ran through Michelangelo and came out with something he had slung in a makeshift sheath at his back.
It was Leonardo's cleansed katana that Michelangelo had stolen.
She rematrialized at Leonardo's side with his blade. Leonardo jumped to Raphael's left. Raphael was so caught up in concentrating he didn't notice what Leonardo was doing until he saw the slicing motion out of the corner of his eye, and the howl of the dekabor as it fell back. Michelangelo suddenly fell at his feet as if he had been flung there, the dekabor's orange tentacles still burning around his wrists. In a flash Raphael knelt down and removed the tentacles from around Michelangelo's wrists and threw the remains of the demon back into its hole.
He didn't ask Annie to seal the rift. Instead he pulled power from her, and somehow managed to seal the rift himself. He didn't know how he was doing so, but he was using Annie's magic combined with his strength to make sure that the rift between their world and the dekabor's would never open again.
The dekabor was finally gone. All that remained was the crowd of people the dekabor had controlled milling around confused and frightened as the sight of Leonardo and Donatello.
Annie used her power and pulled some energy from Raphael. He let her, not resisting, knowing that in sealing the rift he had used a lot of her power. She waved her hand at the people milling about and said to them. "Go home, and sleep. Today was just a bad dream." The humans began wandering off, paying no attention to the six.
Once the last of the crowd was gone Raphael relaxed. He found that most of his energies were depleted from the battle. Michelangelo was at his feet, totally spent. His eyes were closed, and his breathing heavy with exhaustion. Raphael knelt down, and held his brother, noticing the multiple burn marks on his arms and even on his plastron, where the dekabor had touched him.
"Mikey, Mikey what were you thinking?" Raphael asked him. "That thing almost pulled you in with it."
Samantha slid up to Michelangelo, and formed a support for Michelangelo's back.
Michelangelo, weary, but still conscious, opened his eyes, and grinned at his brother. "Had to send it back, bro," Michelangelo said with effort. "Couldn't let it get away again."
"But it almost took you with it!" Raphael answered with real fear. "Do you know what that thing would have done to you in it's own world?"
Michelangelo showed the burns on his skin almost proudly. "Couldn't corrupt me."
"Maybe not, Mikey," Raphael asked, "but it would have killed you, painfully, just to get even." Suddenly he shivered with cold. Why had it gotten so suddenly cold? It was when Leonardo and Donatello knelt next to him did he realize that he and Michelangelo were visible now, and back in the real world.
"Michelangelo?" Leonardo asked. Michelangelo reached up to Leonardo. Raphael and Leonardo both grabbed onto Michelangelo's hand.
"Raph, what happened?" Donatello asked. "Leo and I couldn't see what was going on."
"Mikey pushed that thing back into its hole, but it almost pulled him in with it!" Raphael told them.
"How did he get so burned?" Leonardo asked. Worriedly.
"The dekabor couldn't corrupt him," Annie explained. "The same forces that attracted the dekabor to Raphael, make Michelangelo repulsive to it. Touching Mikey hurt it as much as it hurt him."
Annie went on to say something else, but Raphael was on his last legs, and his ears weren't quiet working. Someone helped him to his feet, but he couldn't tell who it was. He allowed himself to be guided back to the Battle shell. He greyed out for a bit and only became aware again when he realized that someone was setting him down on a couch. He tried to open his eyes, but he found that he couldn't. He was about to panic when he felt someone brush his forehead. His panic fell away and he found his grip on the world was fading again.
"Go back to sleep Raph," a soft female voice said. Raphael felt something be placed in his hand. He didn't know what it was but for some reason holding it made him feel secure, content, and at peace. It was the last thought he had before exhaustion claimed him again.
Coming Soon Chapter 17 Problems Resolved.
Leonardo helped Annie to her feet. Raphael didn't wait for help and got up himself. He was more than ready to get out of here. "I don't know about you bros but I could go for some eats. How about we go to Casey's and he can splurge for an early breakfast!"
"Great idea!" Donatello said
"Hey wait a minute!" Casey protested.
"Lets go!" Leonardo said. They all loved needling Casey.
"No, we can't go!"
They all turned and looked at Michelangelo still sitting on the mattress. He looked genuinely distressed. Before anyone could ask him what was wrong. He said, "We may have solved Raph's problem, but what about mine?"