And here we are! Another chapter!

With all the horror poor Don went through, I'm sure at least some of you must have been wondering what I have in store for the others. To keep the terror going, it must be even worse, right?

So, let me tell you early on that Raph here isn't going to like what he sees…

As a recap, let me explain. Raph, back in Chapter 4, had heard a sound like glass breaking, as did Leo. Since that glass was the mirror breaking in Don's fight, this chapter takes place a few minutes after that. When the first Ardor showed up, he was just around. The second, however, happens to be the very one Donny had been fighting to begin with.

Clear? Probably not. It's a little confusing. But you guys are smart; you'll get it. And if you don't, send me a message and I'll try to explain better.

Beta read by Janajyo.

Disclaimer: For the fragile minds of younger fans, blood and gore is not shown on the TMNT, though we older fans know that it should be. Therefore, due to graphic nature/reality of my stories, I do not own them.

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New York City. November 26, 2306 AD. 11:49 AM.

As a frown started to form on his beak, Raph slowly lowered his hands to his belt, wrapping his fingers around his sais, anticipating the oncoming battle, though he was fairly unsure as to how he should wage his half.

Usually, he and his brothers fought humans, or, at least, humanoid adversaries who wielded some form of weapon. Only on rare occasions had they been put up against something of a very different nature, such as the monstrous animals they'd faced months ago that had been mutated, thanks to the cream-filling in Agent Bishop's manufactured aliens. Some had been pretty hard to handle.

And these things were another story entirely. The pair made the red-clad ninja think of a variety of animals sharing the same body.

First was a large and grotesque monkey, as their appearance reminded him of. They were even worse than some of the nastier ones he'd seen in a zoo once, when April, insisting that they come, had brought him and his brothers along in disguise. Donatello had gone on and on about their close relationship with humans and how intelligent they were; Raph hadn't been very interested and had tuned most of it out.

But now, all that was coming back to mind as he watched the two hairy creatures. Somehow, he got the impression that these things were very intelligent, much more so than the stupid monkeys, whose only display of intellect for him had been their flinging their own shit at each other.

Standing his ground, Raph watched the first one roll its red tongue out of its mouth, revealing sharp, yellowish teeth, and roll it back in. It stared up at him, unblinking, with intense green eyes.

Now, they reminded him of a tiger- maybe a wolf. Some type of bestial hunter. Contemplative. Determined. Dangerous.

Hungry.

That sudden thought made Raph blink, his grip tightening on his sais. They were hunting. They were hunting him.

He found himself on a nature channel, in the middle of a documentary on the animals of Africa, focusing on a scene involving lions, carefully stalking the gazelles, then starting after them with a burst of speed.

It usually didn't end so well for the gazelle.

Growling, Raph took out both of his weapons, raising one. He was not, under any circumstances, about to become these creatures' main course. And he wasn't going to take off like a freakin' gazelle, either.

If this had upset his opponents, now a mere fifteen feet away, they didn't show it. Rather, they looked excited by this prospect.

Raph narrowed his eyes. Oh joy.

And then, without warning, the second one shot forward at him, quicker than he could've ever imagined. Launched toward his throat, the turtle barely had enough time to duck, much less attack.

After just scarcely getting his head out of the creature's range, Raph made the mistake of turning his attention to it instead of the one that was still behind him. He was quick to remember, though, when he was suddenly shoved forward by it when it collided with his shell.

He felt the tips of its claws tapping against his carapace as it tried to find a grip. Two seconds later, they were going into his flesh, just above it. On the back of his neck, he could feel its warm breath.

Twisting himself around rapidly, Raph was eventually able to get the thing loose, though his skin suffered quite a bit for it. He'd survive; he was just happy it hadn't torn his head from his shoulders. The animal hit the ground, rolling three times before coming to a stop, righting itself as it did so.

Even before it had completed its turns, the red-banded turtle had thrown one of his sais at it. It was just about to hit it directly in the chest when the creature took three steps backward.

The sai rooted itself in the floor diagonally.

For a moment, all Raph could do was stare. These things were fast. Faster than him, or any of his brothers.

The corners of the beast's mouth flickered upwards, like a grin. It knew that he'd missed, and that he was surprised.

Hearing the slow taps of taloned feet behind them, Raph turned sharply just in time to block the other creature from attacking him in the same manner as the first one. With his remaining sai, he swiped at it, managing to cut its front left leg.

Raph couldn't help but grin at that. "Ha! Got ya, ya little bugger."

A deep and menacing growl resonated from the injured beast's throat. It looked up at him, hatred in its eyes. Turning slightly, he kept an eye on it, as well as the one behind him, which was starting to close in again.

Well, this is workin' out nicely. He thought sarcastically, starting to despise how small this hallway now appeared to him. There wasn't enough room to fight the both of them confidently while one was always behind him.

In hopes of maybe just bringing them both to his front, he darted off in the direction of his lost sai, planning on scooping it up and fighting. He got to it, but the second he did, he felt teeth close on his free arm, just below his elbow.

Crying out slightly, Raph raised his fist, aiming it for the thing's head. Just as he was about to bring it down, the animal let go and stepped back, causing him to hit his new wound instead.

Brilliant. Wincing slightly, he paid it little attention as he looked at the two.

The creature had moved back far enough to allow him some room. In the blink of an eye, Raph was back to his feet, getting ready to fight again. However, a stupid little voice of reason was going off in his head, telling him that now might not be the best time to do so; that he needed to get out in one piece and tell his brothers about this.

He hated that little voice.

Surprising the weird hairballs, he unexpectedly rushed right at them, jumping over their heads at just the right moment, avoiding any more nasty bites.

Looking behind just once to see where they were, he turned the corner, heading right, with his little friends hot on his tail.

Coming into yet another hallway, he suddenly felt one of the animal's latch onto his right thigh, just barely, though it hurt like a bitch. Yelling out, he tried shaking the thing off before pulling his sai out and getting ready to stab it to death if he needed. Now he was really ticked off. Letting out a growl of his own, he raised the sai.

Just as he was about to lower it into its flesh, however, the animal let go; Raph had to bring an abrupt halt to the descent of his weapon to avoid sticking himself through, pulling the same mistake nearly twice in under a minute.

As the thing hit the floor, Raph sent his foot into its underside, hurling it a good ten feet away, before taking it off, taking silent note that he hadn't seen its partner.

Almost immediately, he found another door. Unlike the others before it, it was metal instead of wood. Not really caring, Raph grabbed the handle and threw it open, shutting it immediately.

There was a lock. He set it and stood back, hearing the creature scratch loudly at the door. Raph found himself grinning again.

Ignoring the animal's sounds outside the door, he found, attached to the wall to his right, was a counter. Noticing that there were a few pieces of cloth-like napkins lying upon it, Raph turned to pick up a few, planning on using them to wrap at least his arm, and possibly his thigh, if there was enough material.

He'd just finished tying up the makeshift bandage for his arm and was measuring how much he'd need for his leg by eye when he thought he saw something in the center of the room, visible in the pulsing blue light.

Frowning, he took two steps forward, waiting for the light to reveal what he'd seen once more.

When it did, his confident grin disappeared.

"Holy shit…" He whispered, turning his back as soon as he'd recovered from the shock, gagging.

There were four tables in the room; metal, like the ones Bishop tied his test subjects to. One of them in here was occupied. Eviscerated, a man lay on the one closest to the door.

Raph hadn't taken everything about the scene in, and he had no desire to. But what he had perceived could not be erased from his mind.

The skin had been pale, more so due to the lighting. At least one arm had been draped off the table, several rivers of blood streaming down it. It had looked fairly wet- rather recent.

But the worst had been the stomach. Jurassic Park had always been one of Raphael's favorite books; naturally, he'd enjoyed the movies too.

On a silver screen… dinosaurs chowing down on the insides of one another and humans had been frightening, but not to the point where he'd leave the room, or even look away. It was movie magic. But here, in the flesh, it was revolting and utterly despicable.

Once his brain had quieted down a little bit, he became aware of the scratching and thumping of the creature outside. Narrowing his eyes in anger and disgust, his hands twisted into fists.

Why was he getting the feeling that this thing had something to do with this?

Wait a minute… Raph tried to make sense of this. If this thing were just an animal, why the hell would it need a table? Animals don't care about gettin' their food dirty. And how would it even get it up there?

Swallowing, the ninja turned his head back around to get another view of it, trying to ignore the carnage it supported. Sure enough, the table was at least a foot taller than the creature outside.

Table. The word rung through his head. He suddenly got the notion that that was exactly what this was. A table to eat off of, which explained the condition of the body.

That just made Raph want to vomit even more.

For some reason, his thoughts drifted back to the breakfast conversation, which now seemed to have taken place days ago. Callis had said something about those aliens having a need to kill.

Well, with these little things running about, the place sure reeked of death. But Callis hadn't said anything about a need to feed. Had he left out that part?

But why would he do that?

Raph shook the thought out of himself. He had no evidence to consider the freakin' hairballs as Ardors.

Yet… having wiped out practically all of life on the planet, he couldn't doubt that they were cannibalistic. If some sort of alien race could do that, who was he to say they wouldn't use the dead as food?

All these ideas only made Raph want to hurl, not to mention rip his brain out of his head and tell it to shut up. Deep thinking wasn't exactly his thing. He liked to go into a fight and kick the crap out of whatever was fighting against him, providing that it was a bad guy, or thing, that he was going up against.

But, he had to admit; these animals were by no means native of the planet earth. They were very alien. And Callis hadn't mentioned another evil alien species…

His mind was made up for now. They were Ardors.

That was when he heard something strange outside the door. All noise had stopped for a moment, though he hadn't really noticed until now. But then, he heard that soft little bark.

Silence.

Then, the handle slowly started to jiggle. Raph heard a pop.

The handle was turning.

Eyes wide, the red-banded turtle immediately rushed over to the door and grabbed the handle, fighting with whatever was on the other side to keep the door shut. He grit his teeth together, his hands starting to hurt. This thing was strong.

Just when he felt that it was going to win, he decided to take a risk and switch tactics. Taking a deep breath, he completed the turn and pushed the door out as hard and as fast as he could.

He heard an animal-like yelp on the other side and a nasty crunch. Breathing heavily, he slowly stepped out of the room, looking both ways to make sure he was alone. Then, he paused in front of the door, which still hid his enemy on the other side.

Figuring it was safe; he pulled the door back to see what it was. When he did, he got a surprise.

There was no doubt about it; the thing was dead. Blood was starting to leak out of its mouth and ears, eyes glazed and forever focused on the darkness death brought.

It was that stupid Ardor; he could tell by the small injury he'd dealt it, which remained on one of its legs. Yet it looked different. It was still hairy, one of the ugliest things he'd seen in his life, but it seemed taller, though that didn't make any sense.

But it was. Now, it was around his own height. Raph cocked his head. No, now it was… shrinking.

Confused, Raph still wasn't sure how it could've managed to open the damn door, even though he remembered how in Jurassic Park, the velociraptors had pulled off the same trick.

Then, he looked at its left hand. Its human hand.

Brow furrowed, he looked at it closely. Sure enough, instead of thick, black hair and two curved claws, it sported smooth skin and five fingers.

So that's how it did it… But how could it do that?

Eyes still on it, Raph watched as the hand too began to revert to its original state, until it matched the other one, and the Ardor once again came to be a mere three feet.

Just as he was about to leave, he noticed something in the thing's hair, by its head. Carefully, he reached down and snatched it up.

He examined it carefully, dread beginning to fill his belly. It was a small shard of wood. He could've been wrong, but this little piece looked a lot like the wood Don's bo staff was made of.

Shit. Raph let the piece fall to the ground. He needed to find his brothers. Before it was too late.

Taking off, going the way he'd came, Raph paused for a moment to look back in that room.

There was no way in hell that he, or his brothers, were going to end up like that.

No way in hell.

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Boy, was that a difficult chapter to write, though it was one of the first I'd ever planned. It took a lot of thinking on my part just to post the story, mainly because it conflicted with some of my morals.

Basically, so you all know, I do not, in any shape of form, like the whole cannibalism concept. It grosses me out, and makes my mind sick. But, in order to write a good horror fic, I must be scared as well.

Besides, since these are aliens, I'm not really sure if you can call it that. I mean, we eat animals like cows and chickens, though not in that manner… but you get what I mean.

Anyways, I just wanted you to know that.

Also, the next chapter might be a little late. I'm going on vacation and I'm not sure if I'll be able to find a computer where I'm at.

Please review in the meantime, though!