Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT
A/N: I'm SO glad that you guys enjoyed that chapter. I think that that's the worst one I cranked out to date! I've already gotten beaten about six different ways for thinking that, too! LOLAnd just so you know, that nasogastric tube (NG Tube)is real. I have helped put them in, cleaned out the stuff (bile smells nasty!) and assisted in taking it out. The mask, I just modified that one from the ones that are existing.
Chapter 21
Seeing Green
That stuff was embarrassing as hell! Can you believe that they did that! Well, I can't! You can bet your top dollar that I'll have my revenge on those snakes! Those witches! I mean, why the hell does this stuff happen to me anyway! All I did, was go topside after fighting with Leo, I do it all the time! And the next thing you know I'm knocked up, on another planet, being hunted, and I have a tube up my nose! ARGH! (he leaves the room. You hear things being tossed around, something shatters, the wall vibrates. He comes back in looking slightly less peeved.) Yeah, well, who cares, right! Well, listen to what happens next why dontcha! Yeeeeesh!
I woke up slowly. Like trying to get through a cloud of cotton balls. Everything was fogged up, my mind wasn't thinking at 100percent. It was like being at the peak of drunkeness. Really drowsy. Really confusing.
I opened my eyes slowly into little slits. The liquid that engulfed them didn't bother me at all. Then I became aware of the mask covering my mouth, and that my throat was incredibly dry. Irritated. Itchy. It continued to my right nostril. That was dry and itchy too. Really uncomfortable. Then I realized that not only was this funny liquid on my eyes, it was everywhere. I was floating in the stuff. My arm twitched. I could feel the liquid swirling around my arm at the movement.
My eyes opened completely. I saw that the liquid was bluish-red. I could see the things beyond the liquid. Beyond? Slowly I raised my hand and tried to touch this beyond. All that I touched was glass. Glass? Why would there be glass there?
Shapes moved beyond this glass. Vaguely, in the back of my mind, I knew this to be fighting. Fighting for what? Honestly, at this moment I was in no condition to decipher it. There was a small group, and a larger group. The smaller group was having a tougher time.
Tougher? Tuffer? Which is it? I don't know. Oh well.
I think that I need to go poop. My tummy feels wierd. I definetly need to go poop.
Suddenly one of the smaller party members got thrown against my glass container. He thudded hard against it. Slowly my container rocked back and forth, then it tipped on it's edge, balancing on a dangerously small point. Before I could comprehend what was happening, it gave up it's fight with gravity and fell.
Glass shattered and the odd colored liquid spilled everywhere like a wave upon the sand and splashed against the various instruments on the wall. I flopped on the ground on top of the fallen glass like a lost fish. My mask jarred loose and some of this liquid splashed against my mouth. Actually, quite a bit of it splashed in, because the first thing I did when I hit the ground was take a deep breath. Which is unfortunate, you see, because the room floor was at an angle, and this liquid stayed at least a few inches covering my face. So you must understand when I say that my throat hurt a little more than normal. Almost gurgly. For a moment I just lay there, limp, while I concentrated on breathing. For some reason it was getting more difficult with each attempt. More gurgly, gurgly was blocking my throat. To breath...
The fighting continued. In the back of my sluggish mind I could hear it going on. Now there were cries of exclamation. They were yelling something, it sounded like 'Raph! Raph!' Raph? At first I didn't recognize the word. Then a little bell in the back of my mind jingled and I realized that I did recognize it, I just didn't quite yet know what it meant.
Suddenly the fighting stopped with one final crash and I could hear someone approaching. One of them reached me and put a gentle hand on my shoulder. They shook it. I flopped like a rag doll.
"Raph? Raph! RAPH!"
They pulled me on my back. Immediately all the water that was in my mouth and throat trickled further and I choked. I could feel the pressure in my face building from the lack of oxygen. I couldn't breath.
The strangers around me panicked. "What do we do! What do we do! HELP!"
"Raph! Don't you dare die on me! I haven't had a chance to talk to you yet!" Someone shook my shoulders. Now I couldn't get in a single gasp.
"MOVE!" Someone shoved both of them out of the way and yanked the mask off my face. I felt someone pushing on my chest. It stung and bruised at the same time, I could feel it bending my ribs. They did it again, and then again. I coughed. Water sputtered up between my lips and trickled down my face. He pushed again. More water was pumped out. I coughed again. This time, I was able to inhale a breath of sweet air. Immediately he swung me to my side and patted my shell hard, positioning my face with his hands so all excess water would drain out. I took a deep shuddering breath. I didn't know that that could feel so good.
"What's wrong with him! Why isn't he moving?" Someone said frantically.
My purple wearing rescuer ignored him."Raph, do you know who we are? Who are we?" They helped me sit up. I looked around, dazed. My limbs felt like jelly. Man, was I sleepy. I tried to hold my head up and succeeded somewhat. What I saw in front of me was something that I don't think I've seen in some time.
I saw green.
Lazily I opened my eyes wider. My eyelids were so heavy...
"Don! Don! He's looking at me! Does he recognize us?" I could see him more clearly now. I did a little grin. My brothers. It was my brothers.
Mikey squealed and leapt on me, embracing me tightly. I still didn't have the best muscle-control. I patted his shell weakly. He let out a strangled sob and clung to me tighter. Leo wasn't quite sure how to respond at first, but then I felt him embracing me from the other end. He kept on patting my shell, as though he didn't believe that I was actually solid. Don grinned widely. That moment seemed to last forever. I could hardly move, but for the first time in a long, difficult time, my family was here. My brothers. I began to feel myself get a little choked up myself, but managed to swallow it. A few tears still squeezed out, though, and were mixed in with the liquid shining on my skin.
"We thought you were dead!" Mikey muffled. I could hear his voice choke. My mind was orientating itself more and more each second. Dead? Why did he think I was dead?
Suddenly Don knelt beside me with a tube of something. "Hold still, bro." With that he dipped it in the nostril that I had that tube in.
"Feels dry, itchy." I muttered.
He nodded. "That's because it probably was in there for a long time, they never switched it out and they never lubricated it. Your throat is very dry and it's stickingto the tubein some places." With that he squeezed the bottle and the stuff poured down my throat. It felt kinda like when your swimming and you accidently inhale some water through your nose and you have no choice but to wait for it to trickle to your throat so that you can spit it out. It felt bad, but at the same time it felt nice. My sinuses were getting their first bit of moisture in who knows how long.
Wait. How long?
Before I had a chance to think of it again, he pulled the tube out in one fluid motion. That felt even more wierd than the lube did going down. What startled me even more is when he gathered all the wires and yanked all the sensors sticking to my skin clean off in one good yank. I admit I gave a little yelp at that. If any one of you had ever had tape yanked off you then you know what I mean.
I don't know how long we sat there. Then slowly they heaved me to my feet. My mind was getting a bit more orientated. My muscles were also beginning to realize that they needed to obey my mental commands. I had never seen my brothers like this. They were like attentive mother hens. They helped me up as though I were made of glass, and if they took there eye off of me for one second I would shatter. It was kinda cool.
And kinda annoying as hell.
"I have a present for you!" Mikey chirped, and slipped my sai into my belt.
Then something happened. I happened to look down to see the sais. What I saw surprised me so badly that I involuntarily jerked out of their grasp with a strangled cry and landed on my ass. (Yeah, you can tell I'm getting my mental awares back on line, huh?)
My belly was huge.
It literally looked like I'd swallowed a friggin beach ball!
My brothers didn't rush to my aid, they saw exactly what made me upset. I was staring at my belly with my mouth agape. Once again my previous question ran through my head: how long was I under? I touched it. It was tighter than a bowling ball. Really tight.
I snapped my head back at my brothers, furious at them for not telling me. Those little punks! All brotherly feelings immediately vanished with a spur of hormone changes.
Mikey gave me a shaky grin. "Uh, it looks slimming on you?"
I gnashed my teeth. Snatching the first thing that I could lay my fingers on, a pair of surgical scissors, I lobbed them at him furiously. Luckily, compared to my previous skills my aim was horribly off. He still had to dodge it a bit with a little 'eep!'
Leo immediately approached me, his palms open indicating 'peace.' "Listen, Raph. We just didn't want to upset you, alright? It's just that since we knew how long you were under we knew that it might be, uh, somewhat of a shock..."
"A shock! Naw, ya think?"I shook my head. It still had some clouds in there. "How long!" I snapped, interrupting him.
He gave me a nervous smile. Suffice to say, this didn't improve my mood any. Don stepped forward, switching automatically to 'science' mode. "Ah, well you were gone from Earth precisely eight months, three weeks, and five days. You've been asleep for exactly eight months, two weeks and six days."
Mikey grinned. "Yeah, trust you to get captured in the first eight days of staying on a planet!"
I snarled at him again and snatched another neavy object. This time it was a pair of hemostats. I lobbed these at him as well. This time, though, my muscle control was improving and managed to nail him on the top of the head with the handles. He clapped his hands on his head with another little 'eep!' Don and Leo ignored him.
Looking increasingly nervous, Leo reached over to help me up. Don rushed over to assist. I growled at the thought of needing assistance, but I still noticed my not-quite-yet-up-to-par muscles and I definetely noticed the sudden weight gain I had in my belly. Friggin b!t#hes! So I stomached it.
I found out exactly why Leo was looking nervous. "Ah, look, Raphael...we heard the news broadcasts and the rumors when we were trying to bust in here to find you. And we, uh. Um. Ah, we see how you, uh, look right now. But Something that we want to, um, clarify...aw to hell with it. Are you really pregnant?"
I froze. It's not exactly something that I envisioned telling my family. Me. The rebel. The tough guy. The hothead. Got knocked up. Didn't knock someone else up, I got knocked up. Wow. Won't that look great on my 'Mr. Macho' resume.
Instead of answering I glared at them. All three of them, which basically made the answer obvious.
"Ya know, none of this would've happend if y'all didn't believe that I was a friggin nutcase! Now, would it?" Yeah. I remember. And now that I remember I was royally pissed off. Again.
All three of them shrank at the question, so I continued. "I mean, if I coulda counted on my family instead of counting on a stranger, things would be different, now, wouldn't they?"
"Look, Raph. That's something that we've been meaning to, um, talk about." Leo stepped forward, looking increasingly uncomfortable. I've never seen him look this out-of-place. I was loving every minute of it. I also knew that there was a direct apology coming from it. That was another thing to look forward to.
Donny interrupted. Stupid Braniac. "Listen, guys, I know that this is important, but we've really got to meet Vivid. We're running out of time!"
All thought processes stopped immediately. Vivid! Immediately I swerved on my heel, nearly losing balance and grabbed Donny by the shoulders. "What about Vivid! How do you know her!"
"She found us. A few months ago, when we first found this place. Apparently she knows you?..." he looked at me questioningly but I didn't say a thing. He continued. "She explained the whole 'The One' thing, to us, plus she gave me enough information so that I could design these." He pointed to his head.
It was then that I noticed that each of them were wearing something on their heads. It looked like three probes, one at each temple and a third at the center of the forehead, interconnected by a thin wire that led to the back of their head. No one had to tell me that these simple looking devices probably kept the elentials from controlling their minds.
Don continued: "It took us a while to plan our way into here. Apparently the last time she tried you got captured. She was really guilty about it." He paused and silently my heart leapt out for her. It was my fault, obviously. If I had waited she would have appeared again. "We both managed to infiltrate the system.Apparently, there are two science labs capable of holding you in this place, so we decided to split up; not knowing which one that you'd be in. Amuke refused to leave Vivid and Heartfelt, so he followed her. We need to meet with her so that we can get out of here. Our shell cells get no signal in here, so it's the only way we can contact her."
I listened and nodded. Leo straightened out. "Alright guys, let's go. Raph, are you steady on your feet yet?"
I glared at him. "Yes, fearless leader!" I had no idea why I was so touchy! It was like mood swings or something!
Instead of getting upset at the quip like he normally did he actually grinned at me. "You know, I'm surprised I really missed that."
"You confuse the Hell out of me sometimes." I muttered. Mike snickered.
I glared at him as well. "What?"
"Do you really have super powers!" He squealed, clasping his hands together and dancing on his toes like a happy schoolgirl.
Don shook his head. "Mikey. We've been over this. Scientifically, it is impossible that one of us could of had unknown abilties and not known about it! I would have seen it when I studied our DNA. The ooze mutated us but only physically. He can't have powers! Think rationally."
"Donny, remember who you're talking to." I said. He looked at me and grinned. Mikey stared at me with big sorrowful brown eyes, probably desperately wishing for Donny to be wrong for once. I chuckled at the thought. Technically, he was wrong! But I wasn't about to burst his bubble.
Mikey whined. "Mikey! Stop whining. Listen to what Don says." Leo stated matter-of-factly. Damn I missed these guys. Even Leo's cockyness.
We traveled through several hallways (which were enormous!), Don using a little map he had on a screen so tiny I couldn't make it out. Apparently it can't detect warm bodies. Cause we sure ran into some.
It was kinda a surprise. We were going down yet another hallway when Mikey bounded ahead of us to open some doors. He burst on a large group of elential soldiers, apparently searching for yours truly. It was pretty funny seeing them meet face to face like that. They stared at each other, then Mikey let out an 'eep!' and ran back to us as the soldiers screamed and charged.
Immediately I flipped my sai into my hands, ready for some long overdue action. But Leo pushed me against a wall. Still coping with the change and place of my weight, I lost balance and followed his push. "What's the big idea!" I snarled at him.
Leo just shook his head. "Your not in, uh, condition to fight right now." I had no time to argue. He spun away before I could get a word in edgewise.
I was furious. Nonetheless I stood there and wondered what help I would really be. My muscles weren't at 100 percent just yet, and plus I wasn't used to having a 'who-knows-how-freaking-heavy-this-thing-is' weight on my belly. It was only on one spot and it threw off my usual balance. Besides, my bros were getting their asses kicked and it was amusing me for the moment. They were way outnumbered and obviously hadn't yet had the opportunity to master the 'catch the misting elential' thing. Couple that with the elentials superior strength and speed; well lets just say thatI realized that in ninja skill, my short time on this planet had helped me enormously.
But I had more than ninja skill at my disposal.
Don was battering away at the soldiers with his bostaff. He was working amazingly fast, but the fact remained tht there was simply too many, plus they were too crowded in for him to use his long-reach weapon effectively. The same went for Leo. He would've done better with some knives instead. He was already using purely kicks, punches and the like realizing this already. Mikey was doing the best off, he was a whirling fury. Dancing around in that way he has, he was using his nunchucku to full advantage.But my broswere still recieving their fair number of blows, and it was increasing.
Besides, they were about to reach me.
Taking in a deep breath, I purposely channeled my fury (wonder if Sensei is having a hear attack right now, hearing that!) deep into my core. A warm ball of fire warmed my insides and I felt the firey energy zap to my limbs and immediately all my muscles tensed. With a roar of anger I clapped my hands together and brought my clasped fists down jerkily.
As soon as I did that, I felt the energy pour out of my fists and the ground reacted just the way I wanted it to. It rippled as though it were as fluid as water. Immediately everyone was knocked off their feet at the radically moving floor. Taking in a deep breath, I blew the air out of my nostrils and moved my hands in a smooth, dancing motion. The air that I was directing sped up to a fierce wind in a split second.
Whistling by, it scooped up each and every elential and hurled them against the wall. My messing with the floor the way I did, I also thinned out the wall, somehow knowing what lay behind it. Nothing. I have no idea what floor we were on but when the elential crashed through the wall I didn't see her again. With this tsunami wind I popped all the soldiers in the hallway out that hole. Most of them probably misted and brought themselves down slowly but I didn't care. They were out of my way.
Within a matter of seconds me and my bros were the only ones in the hallway. The floor we were standing on trembled then relaxed with what I could only describe as a sigh, then everything was silent.
Slowly I continued walking down the hallway, my path impeded slightly by the now uneven hallway floor. I passed my brothers who were staring at me, thier jaws scraping the floor. Abruptly their mouths snapped shut and they scrambled to their feet and scampered after me in stunned silence. Except forMikey, whowas squealing like a girl the entire time, squeaking out "COOL!" again and again and again.
Somehow my mood had cooled and I was able to ignore it. Sure, I shouldn't have done that; letting my bros get bapped around a little like that. But I was still kinda ticked for them thinking that I'm a nutcase. Besides, they weren't too bad off at all. It was fine.
That didn't stop making me feel any better. Obviously I'd gained much control over my powers. I snickered. Honor'd better look out!
I was ready to kiss my girl!
I was ready to kick some huge ass!
And, as I'd just proved to my bros, I was feeling mean!
A/N: Was that chapter alright for you guys! I know that I've complained about the other end a lot, but this is the first time that I think that I may have gone too fast.I'm not really sure what to say concerning this chapter, only that I hope that you enjoyed it.
Remember, ifyou Read it, Review it!
Toodles!
