Christopher IV in the Saga by Red Turtle
Crap.
This whole epic battle is one big failure after another.
The twins both sort of hide behind me, not wanting to deal with any of the ramifications our uncle might bring. I'm not sure what to do, honestly. I mean, we can't run away from him, and as hard or awkward as it is, I think the best bet is to unite with him and the whole first generation in their prime, go back and really kick Saber Khan's ass. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?
Course, problem is I have no idea what could happen if we do that. We could accidentally destroy the whole world.
Crap!
"Um, are you guys okay?" Uncle Mike asks, getting a little closure, "Who beat you up? Don't worry, I'll protect you. Look, I'm a ninja, and we turtles got to stick together, right?"
To prove this, he effortlessly takes out his nun chucks and gives us a brief demonstration of his prowess through a series of kicks, spins, and fancy maneuvers.
Wow! Young, alert, energetic, healthy, more ability with a nun chuck in one hand then I will probably ever have with my stupid useless swords that so far have done nothing in this epic battle.
So, this is what Uncle Michelangelo was like back in the day, before getting all drugged out and alcoholic. I bite my tongue to keep from giving him a 'Don't do Drugs' lecture.
"Can you guys talk at all?" he inquires, looking at us nervously, "Do you speak English? I know some Japanese, and Spanish."
"English", I sputter, because I don't want him to try and talk to us in Japanese.
"Okay, great, that's my best language. So, what are your names?"
"Uh. . .it's, um. . .Christopher", I finally say. I was trying to come up with a plausible fake name and was at a complete blank. My heart leaped as I said it, because if the world was going to be destroyed this would be what set it off. But nothing bad happened, and my pulse settled down.
"Cool", Mike replied, shaking my hand enthusiastically, "What about you guys?"
As he came nearer, Donatello and William almost drew entirely into their shells. If mutation hadn't made it almost impossible for us to withdraw like normal turtles, they probably would be all closed in by now. It was obvious they weren't about to introduce themselves, but it seemed weird to leave him hanging. Also, my desire to enlist my fathers and grandfather in this fight was fueled by the fact that they could know everything with out the world ending, and damn it we weren't going to win this with out them. So I went ahead and started introducing the twins.
"This is William and. . .uh, he's, that one, his name is. . . it's.. . ."
Oops, I hadn't taken into account exactly how awkward it would be to introduce Donatello.
"I don't have a name", Donatello interjected nervously.
Well, that's one way to solve the problem.
"Geez, really, that's harsh", Mike commented, "So what happened to you guys? You look like you need help."
"Yeah, we do", I affirmed, simultaneously with Donatello and William saying, "No, we don't", causing Mike to give us a weird look.
"Chris, what are you doing?" Donatello whispered in my right ear.
"You're fucking us up", William whispered in my left ear.
I hate it when they do that.
"Look, we need their help to defeat Saber Khan. And he's right, we're all beat up, we need to get some first aid. And its too late to avoid him anyway", I whispered back to them quietly.
"But we can't do this", they tried to protest, still quietly.
"I won't ask any questions", Mike promised, having watched our little conversation, "But I have three brothers and we have friends and stuff. If you need help we can give it. At least let me get you some food and patch you up or something."
"Yeah, we would like that", I told him, "We really need some help. They're just real shy, so ignore them."
"Uh.okay", he agreed hesitantly, "Well, I live in the sewers. Just follow me."
I grabbed my cousins' wrists and pulled them along with me. They went meekly enough into the sewers, I guess to get away from the alley and possible discovery by humans, but once down there they became very stubborn.
"Would you two come on!", I hissed, trying not to have Mike hear me scalding them, "The sooner we get to them the sooner we can get back and defeat Saber Khan."
"We don't care about defeating Saber Khan", Donatello retaliated, "And we don't care about going home either. All we care about is that we don't have to run into-"
"Hey, Mikey, What you got there?!", A new voice interrupted.
Looking over, I saw our young uncle Mike greeted by another young uncle emerging from a side tunnel. Uncle Raphael, judging by the red mask and the sais. And, emerging next to him would be the ephemeral Uncle Donatello, purple mask, staff like his son, and I could see a screwdriver and tools in his belt.
Crap!
I really hadn't taken into account what a shock it would be to see him alive, not to mention so young. I just now realized they were all probably younger than me here, and probably barely older than Donatello and William.
My shock caused me to completely loose my grip on the twins, and their shock caused them to both slip because they had been braced against me. They knocked me over in the process, and for a minute we all sat stunned in the sewer tunnel.
"Sorry", I finally managed to stammer to them, but they didn't acknowledge me.
"I found them in an alley street side", Mike was explaining to his brothers, "Someone beat them up kinda bad, so I was bringing them to the lair to heal them up."
"Hi", Donatello greeted us brightly, extending a hand to me.
He was met with blank stares, so he left his hand down.
"Not very friendly, are they", Raphael remarked.
"They're just shy", Mike snapped, "Don't be so rude."
I managed to stand up under my own power and not look at Uncle Don, but I couldn't quite talk yet. If I can't get over this shock enough to talk it's going to be really hard to explain about Saber Khan. But if we tell them about needing their help for that, how are we going to explain the whole thing with out getting into details. . .
What the fuck did I get us into?
"So", Uncle Mike continued, "Guys, these are my brothers Raphael and Donatello. They're ninja's too."
More blank stares. The twins were holding each other, probably unconsciously.
"Right, well", Mike continued, "This is Christopher, and this is William and he doesn't have a name."
I tried to find the voice to correct uncle Mike, he'd actually gotten them mixed up, but I ended up not being able to. Oh, well, they'll figure it out eventually.
"You don't have a name?" Raphael asked incredulously, "What kind of name is that?"
Boy, uncle Raphael was a bit abrasive as a youth, wasn't he? He must have really mellowed out as an adult, because I would not expect him to act like this.
"Maybe we could give you a name", Uncle Don offered.
"That's okay", I told him, "We just. . .um, you know, I think we'll be okay with out food after all. We, uh, sorry to bother you and all, but-"
"But nothing, where do you think you're going to go, kid?" Raphael interrupted, "You're obviously not from around here, you think we're going to let you run around cut up like that and starving? You'll probably get killed."
It was an embarrassing ten seconds or so in which I realized I was so shocked at his attitude towards us my mouth was hanging open. Uncle Raphael never even yelled at his own kids that way, much less ones he had never met before, besides which I was actually older than him here, how dare he call me a kid.
"Hey, Chris, don't mind him. He got dropped on his head when we were little. It's made him a bit edgy", Mike assured him.
None of us said anything, but Uncle Raphael glared at Uncle Mike.
"I'd really like you guys to come with us", Uncle Don finally spoke quietly, "And we don't have to name him if you don't want to."
Oh, Geez, that was, for lack of a better description, fucking cute. As an adult he had retained some of that mannerism, but here, being a little fifteen year old, looking all sad that we were going to leave. . .
Shit, we can't leave now. Not with him fucking asking us not to. No way, I could not turn my back on that. And I doubt the twins could either. I risked a glance down at them; they were still huddled together on the floor.
"Okay, we'll go", William said, so faintly that if we hadn't all been within five feet of each other they probably wouldn't have heard them.
I helped them up. Uncle Mike and Uncle Don hung back with us, and Uncle Raphael ran ahead to go prepare food and medical supplies. Uncle Mike chattered with us non-stop about their living conditions, about Grandfather Splinter (he didn't want us to be freaked out by a giant rat), about loving pizza, and started to get into something called the Foot but Uncle Don sort of hushed him on that. It took a minute for me to remember that Dad had told me about the Foot, they were his mortal enemies when he was my age, like Saber Khan is to us. But that was so long ago and distant to my experience, it was very strange to hear them talked about like a real threat.
We hadn't traveled too long to reach their lair, but there were a lot of turns and darkness that would have made it impossible for me to recall the way. When I realized we were standing at what passed for their front door, a wave of excitement ran through me. I had heard stories of their home in the sewers when they were younger, and I had always tried to imagine what it was like, how they set up their rooms and got heat and watched TV and all. I always sort of wanted to live like they did, with out school or human society, it was sort of romantic, I guess, like they were poor but happy, making the best they could and training themselves in martial arts with out fancy weapons or dojos.
We stepped into a large central room, lots of artificial lights and a couch and TV, and some bookcases and a rug. I was amazed that it was quite warm and dry. Also, I saw that a lot of the walls and shelves had been decorated with little painted on pictures that looked like the work of an individual artist, probably when they were younger. A pile of food sat on the table, pizza, juice, some pieces of fruit and bread recognizable within it.
"Sensei, this is Christopher, William and, uh, William Number Two", Mike announced.
Standing next to the table was an old rat whose presence commanded an aura of respect. Automatically I bowed before him, thinking what an honor to meet my grandfather in person. He returned the bow, looking surprised but impressed.
"Are you ninja?" He inquired, and no amount of my fathers stories could have recreated the experience of hearing my grandfather speak to me. Now I was glad we had come.
"I am trained in the art", I answered. I didn't feel like my abilities came anything close to being called a ninja at this point.
"I see you also wear a mask", he commented. Mine was black, but it was definetly a similar style to my father, since he had passed it on to me.
"And you two?" He asked of the twins. They had not bowed and seemed scared before him. They didn't wear masks, since they weren't into the ninja style as much. But they had their weapons.
"No, sir", they answered together, looking around nervously.
"Please do not let my appearance alarm you", he said, "I am called Master Splinter. My son tells me that you are in need of our assistance."
"Yes, we are, thank you", I answered, feeling once again confident in this mission to join forces and over throw Saber Khan, even with explaining what happens to Uncle Don.
"Don't worry, whatever it is we'll take care of it", One more new voice confidently spoke, as a forth mutant turtle emerged on the scene carrying gauze and peroxide, probably for us.
Oh, yeah, I forgot. I have a Dad in the past too. How incredibly awkward! He even has the same swords I have, in fact I think they might be the very same swords, he had given me one of his older sets as a gift. And of course, he too is younger than I am now.
"I'm Leonardo", he greeted, taking my hand after he set down the supplies and shaking it rather enthusiastically. Other than being so much obviously younger, he really didn't seem any different from my Dad now. He was probably excited both that we were mutant turtles and that we were ninja, or at least ninja-esque. He didn't shake Donatello or William's hand, but they were both sort of clinging to each other to discourage that.
"Let us mend your wounds and refresh your bodies, and then perhaps you can tell us your story", Splinter directed. It seemed like a weird way to phrase things, 'Refresh your bodies', but he is an old ninja master and I enjoy hearing him speak.
But I'm not so sure he is going to enjoy hearing what we have to say, and I am actually relieved to put it off a while longer so they can go about treating us. With all the shock of everything going on, from the fighting to the initial time travel warping, to the dealing with all of this, I hadn't even felt hurt, but as Uncle Mike sat me down I became aware of some acute pain in my chest and realized I had quite a puncture in it, even bleeding, although not profusely. I also had two small but deep slashes on my shoulder, I remember getting them from one of the fighters as I leaped into the portal. I had noted two cuts on William, a long one along his arm and another on his thigh, and Donatello had a red mark on his cheek, like he'd been hit pretty hard there. There were bound to be other wounds as well. No wonder they kept harping on getting us medical treatment, we must look like a sight to them
I pray for this time to pass slowly, because I have no idea what to do when it comes time for us to speak. Telling them everything and joining forces seems the most reasonable route, but I'm not sure I can. Physically, I'm not sure the words will come out. And I don't expect Donatello or William to be able to.
Maybe we can just stay in this state forever, with Uncle Don and Grandfather Splinter alive, and Uncle Mike all alert and conscious, and I could practice with Dad every day and not deal with humans. No pressure to have relationships. There would be no college ever. And no searching for Saber Khan either, because we could just stay here and ignore the future. It would be nice for the twins, they would have a more stable family unit right here, right now, then they'll ever have at home.
Course, back home there is Mom, and Leonardo here is not actually my Dad, so I would miss him too. And there's Katlin, poor kid, I really need to spend more time with her. She needs her Mom and Dad, and she needs me. I pay more attention to my little cousins then to her. I can't just abandon her to live here.
Course maybe she'll end up back in time, back here. She would get all the attention she needs here, with all these adults and nothing to do but stay in this lair and practice. She wouldn't be miserable in school because of course she wouldn't go. We would home school her in everything. She'd miss Mom and Dad too, but she never gets to see them anyway the way things are back home. She's not close to any of her cousins, so that wouldn't be an issue.
Yeah, man. . .if Katlin could be here, with me and Donatello and William, and we could just stay with our fathers like this forever down here. . .
That would be so nice. . .
Crap.
This whole epic battle is one big failure after another.
The twins both sort of hide behind me, not wanting to deal with any of the ramifications our uncle might bring. I'm not sure what to do, honestly. I mean, we can't run away from him, and as hard or awkward as it is, I think the best bet is to unite with him and the whole first generation in their prime, go back and really kick Saber Khan's ass. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?
Course, problem is I have no idea what could happen if we do that. We could accidentally destroy the whole world.
Crap!
"Um, are you guys okay?" Uncle Mike asks, getting a little closure, "Who beat you up? Don't worry, I'll protect you. Look, I'm a ninja, and we turtles got to stick together, right?"
To prove this, he effortlessly takes out his nun chucks and gives us a brief demonstration of his prowess through a series of kicks, spins, and fancy maneuvers.
Wow! Young, alert, energetic, healthy, more ability with a nun chuck in one hand then I will probably ever have with my stupid useless swords that so far have done nothing in this epic battle.
So, this is what Uncle Michelangelo was like back in the day, before getting all drugged out and alcoholic. I bite my tongue to keep from giving him a 'Don't do Drugs' lecture.
"Can you guys talk at all?" he inquires, looking at us nervously, "Do you speak English? I know some Japanese, and Spanish."
"English", I sputter, because I don't want him to try and talk to us in Japanese.
"Okay, great, that's my best language. So, what are your names?"
"Uh. . .it's, um. . .Christopher", I finally say. I was trying to come up with a plausible fake name and was at a complete blank. My heart leaped as I said it, because if the world was going to be destroyed this would be what set it off. But nothing bad happened, and my pulse settled down.
"Cool", Mike replied, shaking my hand enthusiastically, "What about you guys?"
As he came nearer, Donatello and William almost drew entirely into their shells. If mutation hadn't made it almost impossible for us to withdraw like normal turtles, they probably would be all closed in by now. It was obvious they weren't about to introduce themselves, but it seemed weird to leave him hanging. Also, my desire to enlist my fathers and grandfather in this fight was fueled by the fact that they could know everything with out the world ending, and damn it we weren't going to win this with out them. So I went ahead and started introducing the twins.
"This is William and. . .uh, he's, that one, his name is. . . it's.. . ."
Oops, I hadn't taken into account exactly how awkward it would be to introduce Donatello.
"I don't have a name", Donatello interjected nervously.
Well, that's one way to solve the problem.
"Geez, really, that's harsh", Mike commented, "So what happened to you guys? You look like you need help."
"Yeah, we do", I affirmed, simultaneously with Donatello and William saying, "No, we don't", causing Mike to give us a weird look.
"Chris, what are you doing?" Donatello whispered in my right ear.
"You're fucking us up", William whispered in my left ear.
I hate it when they do that.
"Look, we need their help to defeat Saber Khan. And he's right, we're all beat up, we need to get some first aid. And its too late to avoid him anyway", I whispered back to them quietly.
"But we can't do this", they tried to protest, still quietly.
"I won't ask any questions", Mike promised, having watched our little conversation, "But I have three brothers and we have friends and stuff. If you need help we can give it. At least let me get you some food and patch you up or something."
"Yeah, we would like that", I told him, "We really need some help. They're just real shy, so ignore them."
"Uh.okay", he agreed hesitantly, "Well, I live in the sewers. Just follow me."
I grabbed my cousins' wrists and pulled them along with me. They went meekly enough into the sewers, I guess to get away from the alley and possible discovery by humans, but once down there they became very stubborn.
"Would you two come on!", I hissed, trying not to have Mike hear me scalding them, "The sooner we get to them the sooner we can get back and defeat Saber Khan."
"We don't care about defeating Saber Khan", Donatello retaliated, "And we don't care about going home either. All we care about is that we don't have to run into-"
"Hey, Mikey, What you got there?!", A new voice interrupted.
Looking over, I saw our young uncle Mike greeted by another young uncle emerging from a side tunnel. Uncle Raphael, judging by the red mask and the sais. And, emerging next to him would be the ephemeral Uncle Donatello, purple mask, staff like his son, and I could see a screwdriver and tools in his belt.
Crap!
I really hadn't taken into account what a shock it would be to see him alive, not to mention so young. I just now realized they were all probably younger than me here, and probably barely older than Donatello and William.
My shock caused me to completely loose my grip on the twins, and their shock caused them to both slip because they had been braced against me. They knocked me over in the process, and for a minute we all sat stunned in the sewer tunnel.
"Sorry", I finally managed to stammer to them, but they didn't acknowledge me.
"I found them in an alley street side", Mike was explaining to his brothers, "Someone beat them up kinda bad, so I was bringing them to the lair to heal them up."
"Hi", Donatello greeted us brightly, extending a hand to me.
He was met with blank stares, so he left his hand down.
"Not very friendly, are they", Raphael remarked.
"They're just shy", Mike snapped, "Don't be so rude."
I managed to stand up under my own power and not look at Uncle Don, but I couldn't quite talk yet. If I can't get over this shock enough to talk it's going to be really hard to explain about Saber Khan. But if we tell them about needing their help for that, how are we going to explain the whole thing with out getting into details. . .
What the fuck did I get us into?
"So", Uncle Mike continued, "Guys, these are my brothers Raphael and Donatello. They're ninja's too."
More blank stares. The twins were holding each other, probably unconsciously.
"Right, well", Mike continued, "This is Christopher, and this is William and he doesn't have a name."
I tried to find the voice to correct uncle Mike, he'd actually gotten them mixed up, but I ended up not being able to. Oh, well, they'll figure it out eventually.
"You don't have a name?" Raphael asked incredulously, "What kind of name is that?"
Boy, uncle Raphael was a bit abrasive as a youth, wasn't he? He must have really mellowed out as an adult, because I would not expect him to act like this.
"Maybe we could give you a name", Uncle Don offered.
"That's okay", I told him, "We just. . .um, you know, I think we'll be okay with out food after all. We, uh, sorry to bother you and all, but-"
"But nothing, where do you think you're going to go, kid?" Raphael interrupted, "You're obviously not from around here, you think we're going to let you run around cut up like that and starving? You'll probably get killed."
It was an embarrassing ten seconds or so in which I realized I was so shocked at his attitude towards us my mouth was hanging open. Uncle Raphael never even yelled at his own kids that way, much less ones he had never met before, besides which I was actually older than him here, how dare he call me a kid.
"Hey, Chris, don't mind him. He got dropped on his head when we were little. It's made him a bit edgy", Mike assured him.
None of us said anything, but Uncle Raphael glared at Uncle Mike.
"I'd really like you guys to come with us", Uncle Don finally spoke quietly, "And we don't have to name him if you don't want to."
Oh, Geez, that was, for lack of a better description, fucking cute. As an adult he had retained some of that mannerism, but here, being a little fifteen year old, looking all sad that we were going to leave. . .
Shit, we can't leave now. Not with him fucking asking us not to. No way, I could not turn my back on that. And I doubt the twins could either. I risked a glance down at them; they were still huddled together on the floor.
"Okay, we'll go", William said, so faintly that if we hadn't all been within five feet of each other they probably wouldn't have heard them.
I helped them up. Uncle Mike and Uncle Don hung back with us, and Uncle Raphael ran ahead to go prepare food and medical supplies. Uncle Mike chattered with us non-stop about their living conditions, about Grandfather Splinter (he didn't want us to be freaked out by a giant rat), about loving pizza, and started to get into something called the Foot but Uncle Don sort of hushed him on that. It took a minute for me to remember that Dad had told me about the Foot, they were his mortal enemies when he was my age, like Saber Khan is to us. But that was so long ago and distant to my experience, it was very strange to hear them talked about like a real threat.
We hadn't traveled too long to reach their lair, but there were a lot of turns and darkness that would have made it impossible for me to recall the way. When I realized we were standing at what passed for their front door, a wave of excitement ran through me. I had heard stories of their home in the sewers when they were younger, and I had always tried to imagine what it was like, how they set up their rooms and got heat and watched TV and all. I always sort of wanted to live like they did, with out school or human society, it was sort of romantic, I guess, like they were poor but happy, making the best they could and training themselves in martial arts with out fancy weapons or dojos.
We stepped into a large central room, lots of artificial lights and a couch and TV, and some bookcases and a rug. I was amazed that it was quite warm and dry. Also, I saw that a lot of the walls and shelves had been decorated with little painted on pictures that looked like the work of an individual artist, probably when they were younger. A pile of food sat on the table, pizza, juice, some pieces of fruit and bread recognizable within it.
"Sensei, this is Christopher, William and, uh, William Number Two", Mike announced.
Standing next to the table was an old rat whose presence commanded an aura of respect. Automatically I bowed before him, thinking what an honor to meet my grandfather in person. He returned the bow, looking surprised but impressed.
"Are you ninja?" He inquired, and no amount of my fathers stories could have recreated the experience of hearing my grandfather speak to me. Now I was glad we had come.
"I am trained in the art", I answered. I didn't feel like my abilities came anything close to being called a ninja at this point.
"I see you also wear a mask", he commented. Mine was black, but it was definetly a similar style to my father, since he had passed it on to me.
"And you two?" He asked of the twins. They had not bowed and seemed scared before him. They didn't wear masks, since they weren't into the ninja style as much. But they had their weapons.
"No, sir", they answered together, looking around nervously.
"Please do not let my appearance alarm you", he said, "I am called Master Splinter. My son tells me that you are in need of our assistance."
"Yes, we are, thank you", I answered, feeling once again confident in this mission to join forces and over throw Saber Khan, even with explaining what happens to Uncle Don.
"Don't worry, whatever it is we'll take care of it", One more new voice confidently spoke, as a forth mutant turtle emerged on the scene carrying gauze and peroxide, probably for us.
Oh, yeah, I forgot. I have a Dad in the past too. How incredibly awkward! He even has the same swords I have, in fact I think they might be the very same swords, he had given me one of his older sets as a gift. And of course, he too is younger than I am now.
"I'm Leonardo", he greeted, taking my hand after he set down the supplies and shaking it rather enthusiastically. Other than being so much obviously younger, he really didn't seem any different from my Dad now. He was probably excited both that we were mutant turtles and that we were ninja, or at least ninja-esque. He didn't shake Donatello or William's hand, but they were both sort of clinging to each other to discourage that.
"Let us mend your wounds and refresh your bodies, and then perhaps you can tell us your story", Splinter directed. It seemed like a weird way to phrase things, 'Refresh your bodies', but he is an old ninja master and I enjoy hearing him speak.
But I'm not so sure he is going to enjoy hearing what we have to say, and I am actually relieved to put it off a while longer so they can go about treating us. With all the shock of everything going on, from the fighting to the initial time travel warping, to the dealing with all of this, I hadn't even felt hurt, but as Uncle Mike sat me down I became aware of some acute pain in my chest and realized I had quite a puncture in it, even bleeding, although not profusely. I also had two small but deep slashes on my shoulder, I remember getting them from one of the fighters as I leaped into the portal. I had noted two cuts on William, a long one along his arm and another on his thigh, and Donatello had a red mark on his cheek, like he'd been hit pretty hard there. There were bound to be other wounds as well. No wonder they kept harping on getting us medical treatment, we must look like a sight to them
I pray for this time to pass slowly, because I have no idea what to do when it comes time for us to speak. Telling them everything and joining forces seems the most reasonable route, but I'm not sure I can. Physically, I'm not sure the words will come out. And I don't expect Donatello or William to be able to.
Maybe we can just stay in this state forever, with Uncle Don and Grandfather Splinter alive, and Uncle Mike all alert and conscious, and I could practice with Dad every day and not deal with humans. No pressure to have relationships. There would be no college ever. And no searching for Saber Khan either, because we could just stay here and ignore the future. It would be nice for the twins, they would have a more stable family unit right here, right now, then they'll ever have at home.
Course, back home there is Mom, and Leonardo here is not actually my Dad, so I would miss him too. And there's Katlin, poor kid, I really need to spend more time with her. She needs her Mom and Dad, and she needs me. I pay more attention to my little cousins then to her. I can't just abandon her to live here.
Course maybe she'll end up back in time, back here. She would get all the attention she needs here, with all these adults and nothing to do but stay in this lair and practice. She wouldn't be miserable in school because of course she wouldn't go. We would home school her in everything. She'd miss Mom and Dad too, but she never gets to see them anyway the way things are back home. She's not close to any of her cousins, so that wouldn't be an issue.
Yeah, man. . .if Katlin could be here, with me and Donatello and William, and we could just stay with our fathers like this forever down here. . .
That would be so nice. . .