Chapter Thirty-Eight: Gaboreem

Day Two in the Jior World

You're saying you don't think you can figure it out tonight.

Leo caught Raph's eye and nodded him over. "Do you think you could lead the way back home, Raph?" he said quietly, even though he thought he knew the answer.

Raph was already shaking his head. "No way. I barely know what I'm doin,' an' teleportin' really takes it outta a guy, besides. I can help, but that's it."

"What about Casey?" Don's eyes flicked to the limp black-haired human. "He's got some experience after all this."

"Casey's helpful in a brawl, but this teleporting seems to be a… delicate matter," Leo said. "And he's more tired than he cares to admit."

"Saja wouldn't be much help either—I don't think she could teleport even herself for another day at least, and she's too scared to focus well," Don sighed.

"But," Leo said, "it sounds like those berries are quite the power booster."

"Fuel for teleportin'," put in Raph.

"So… can we sneak over there and have Raph, Casey, and Saja eat as much as they can?" Don tossed his notebook from one hand to the other. "We can check by the Anchor, too, to see if Taevon's there."

"Sounds like a lotta people come by the berry bushes durin' th' day," Raph growled. "We'd have to hide further away in the woods. Dunno how far into th' woods these people go, either, like if kids play in 'em."

Let's not admit defeat just yet. "If it comes to it, we'll wake up Saja and Casey and sneak out to the berry bushes, take what we can, and hide further away," Leo said. "But it's still full dark, and Taevon certainly knows where we were heading and might catch up from wherever he went."

Raph and Don murmured assent and returned to their tasks, Raph patting Don's shell as he went. "You got this, brainiac."

Leo waited until Raph had padded out the door before taking the notebook out of Don's hand.

Don avoided Leo's eyes. "I don't got this," he whispered. "This is insane. It's a masterpiece—it must the culmination of years of work of an advanced alien race. If this thing can remove an ability that's integral to the identity of an entire race from a person, then it's hardly a wonder I can't reverse it in a couple hours. But I have to."

I wish all this pressure wasn't on Don. No matter how smart he is, he's just one turtle, after all. "Show me what you have so far."

Don sighed and flipped back a page or two in the notebook in Leo's hand. Neat columns of Don's imitation of the blocky letters covered a two-page spread alongside English descriptions beginning 'Panel 1, Switch A' and continuing on to 'Panel 6, Crank C.' "Since everything is labeled in the language of the engineers of this thing, I had this crazy idea that it could help me figure out what the functions are. Of course, I couldn't possibly hope to learn this language in one night from a tiny sample size of what's probably technical jargon, but…" He lifted his shoulders. "It was a lead, however small."

That's probably not the best use of his time, but… Leo looked over the words. "There's a few repeats."

"There are?"

"How far did you get with copying these words?"

Don pointed at the machine. "Starting with this panel, which I'm calling Panel One, through this one—Panel Six." He flipped back another page to reveal a sketch of The Technology from every side. "I drew a quick diagram of the machine to number the panels and make guesses."

"All right." Leo picked up a pen that had been forgotten on the seat of the chair. "How about if you look again under that part of the case you managed to get off, and I work on writing these down? I'll write them on just one side of the paper, so we can rip them out of the notebook and lay them on the ground to compare them afterward."

A brief look of disgust crossed his brother's face—presumably at the idea of ruining a perfectly good notebook—before he nodded. "Yeah… okay. Maybe I can test if there's a…" he trailed off as he headed for his duffel.

Leo set to work. After a few minutes, the strange letters, which ranged from a simple square to complicated characters, like a miniature labyrinth viewed from above, grew more familiar to copy, and he picked up speed.

The night flowed on.

Sometime later, a tap on the shoulder interrupted Leo as he worked on the second-to-last panel.

"Uh, Leo," Raph growled, "I think it's starting to get light."

Shell.

"Mikey's getting' restless, too."

That's annoying but understandable. It has been a long time, especially in a strange place.

Leo rolled his stiff neck and shoulders, set the pen and notebook down on the chair, and followed Raph out of the storage room and to the ajar door of the Council Building.

Mikey sprang up from his spot sitting in the doorway. "Leo! It's been forever, and Raph wouldn't let me go back in the room. Isn't Donnie done yet?"

"Shh, Michelangelo," Leo chided. "I know it's been a long time, but we're asking Don to do something really, really hard. And we really don't want to make Saja worse instead of better, do we?"

The youngest turtle's lip stuck out. "I guess not," he said, "but he is almost done, isn't he?"

"I hope so, Mikey. Now let me take a look at things."

Mikey shuffled aside, and Leo slipped out the door to see that the little red moon cheerily plowed through a sky that was definitely no longer pitch black. The huge splotched moon, meanwhile, hovered low over the forest.

Returning inside, Leo adjusted his sleeves. Stupid things. Can't wait to take off these disguises. "How many times has the red moon gone by?"

Raph snorted. "I lost count at eighteen."

"Red moon goes zoom," Mikey added. "A rocket would have to go super duper fast to catch up to it and land on it."

Leo nodded and glanced at his watch: 3:45 p.m. by New York City time. We left the Lair at 9:30 this morning, and if Saja's educated guess about the moon was right, we arrived here at about 10:00 p.m. That means that it's about… 4:15 a.m. now. Okay, that makes sense. But how long it is until dawn depends on what part of the planet we're on. And the time of year, I think. But some people get up before dawn, especially in a primitive culture like this.

"Raph, see if you can wake Casey up without waking up the whole town. Mikey, keep a close eye out there—there's still a chance Taevon is on his way." I sincerely doubt it at this point, but maybe the idea will help Mikey focus a little longer.

Brow pinched, Leo returned to Don and found him kneeling, elbow deep inside the great machine, muttering something about electromagnets and thermodynamics around the penlight clamped in his teeth. Leo crouched beside him. "Don."

After several seconds, his name sank in, and Don looked up; he immediately read Leo's body language. The excitement of scientific curiosity and discovery drained out of his eyes, replaced by dread and an overwhelmed look. "We're out of time, aren't we?"

"Just about," Leo said softly. "Dawn might come in over an hour, or it might be in twenty minutes."

Don scratched at his navy-sleeved arm harder than seemed necessary. "I'm way closer to understanding how to reverse Saja's punishment, but not enough to do it. I can't get his wrong, or I'll shrink her to two foot tall, or make her think she's a horse, or who knows what else. Or just fry her brain inside her skull."

Leo frowned. Those sound a bit exaggerated. "Are you sure a mistake would be so… extreme?"

"Well, no," Don admitted, "but, Leo, this thing has a ridiculous amount of power running through it. I'd need some powerful tools just to measure it. I haven't found the power source itself, but it's nothing like fossil fuels or electricity… if I had to guess, I'd say it's something akin to nuclear energy." He gestured broadly to illustrate. "There's no telling what it can do. Besides, I highly doubt its makers designed it with Saja's race in mind, which complicates matters further. She and Taevon look human—except for his gold eyes—but their physiology must be considerably different, given their abilities and needs."

"I wish we could give you a practice run."

"I thought of that, too." Don stared at his hands. Oh, shell, he's gotten some cuts from his work tonight. I wonder if he's noticed. "But our physiology is even more of a wildcard, since we're mutants."

Leo looked up sharply. "There's no way I'm letting you test it on yourself."

"No, no," sighed Don. "Much as experiments would objectively be the best way of discovering the purposes of each subsection of the machine." His shoulders slumped in tired defeat.

"What about testing it on an inanimate object? A crate or something?"

Don was already shaking his head. "No. All of what I do know about the machine is that it was designed for use on humanoids, not objects."

A horrible thought slipped into Leo's head. "Is—is it a torture device?"

Don smiled humorlessly. "I think it's advanced medical technology currently being used by an anti-technology culture as a random physiological change generator."

Motion caught Leo's eye, but it was just Casey yawning and stretching hugely. He glanced at the narrow window high in the outside wall to see the sky was a few shades lighter. "You've got ten minutes."

As Don dived, almost literally, back into the beast of a machine, Leo oversaw the packing up of their overnight base: no granola bars or wrappers on the floor, disguises adjusted, Mikey's bag picked up—Raph grabbed it and started rifling through for a quick snack—and Casey somewhat alert. This done, Leo started toward Saja, and then changed his mind and took a detour to Don. I suspect she's going to freak out again when she wakes up. "Final chance, Don." This would be so much easier if we could heal Saja here and now. No pressure.

The purple-masked turtle paused in replacing the square of casing. "I might be able to do it… but I can't gamble with Saja's life, or anyone else's, for that matter," he whispered. His hands started to move again. "We could… we could hole up here and in a few hours, I'd be confident in what I'm doing." His body language failed to confirm any confidence.

Leo made the call. We need rest, food, and more time. A day in the woods will give us all three. "There are too many of us to stay silent right under the nose of this Council, Donnie. Pack up—we'll hide in the forest and come back tonight." You need a break anyway. You look exhausted, Don. How much did you sleep last night?

Don's upturned face appeared very young. "Promise?"

Leo put his hands on his hips. "We made a promise to Saja, and tonight, we're going to keep that promise."

Some of the tension eased from Don's shoulders. "Thanks, Leo."

A few moments later found three turtles and one human struggling to replace the canvas cover of The Technology. Leo tugged the last corner straight and turned toward the still-sleeping Saja.

"Do you want me to wake her, Leo?" Mikey asked.

"I think," Leo said, picking up the girl as gently as he would a kitten, "that it might be easier for all parties if she sleeps through our exit." She wasn't heavy.

"You got her?" Raph growled, absent-mindedly tossing Mikey's snack bag over his shoulder, hands reaching toward her.

"I got her." Raph won't admit it, but that teleporting really did a number on him, especially right after he got over the effects of that sleepy drug.

"Suit yourself." With a surprisingly delicate touch, Raph adjusted Saja in Leo's arms.

Leo turned to see Don hesitating over his duffel. "I'll be more agile without it, and we'll be back tonight," he said, "but I hate to leave it—what if something in it is useful for the woods?"

Mikey snorted. "Bro, I don't think you're gonna need screwdrivers an' stuff in the woods."

"The whole thing will weigh you down," Leo said, "but you should take the notebook, so you can look your findings over during the day."

This decided, Don hid his duffel in a crate in the corner, put another crate atop it, and reluctantly stepped away from it, tucking the notebook in his belt.

They left, locking both sets of doors behind them.

Leo eyed his burden. Hmm. He nodded at Raph, who was watching him. "Raph, take point."

"You got it, Fearless." Raph only smirked a little.

"Casey, you next—remember to watch Raph for hand gestures—then me, then Don, then Mikey. Let's go, guys."

The string of ninjas and one human slipped across the corner of the square and into the streets; Raph stuck to the deepest shadows on the west sides of buildings as much as possible, but the lightening sky left them all feeling very exposed.

Scattered quiet noises around town had already begun, and the town itself felt more awake. Leo wished again that they could ascend to the roofs, but most of them were hardly designed to be weight-bearing—some were just thatched—much less absorb the noise of someone running across it. Traversing a settlement by its sewers, too, was of course impossible when the settlement in question lacked them.

Leo had just crossed an alleyway to duck into Casey's shadow when a shout from his right made him jump.

"Gaboreem!" A villager stood in the middle of the road, her hair still mussed from sleep, an empty wooden bucket swinging forgotten in one hand, while the other pointed at Don and Mikey in horror. "Gaboreem!"

Shell.

She turned and ran, shouting more in Jior.

"Run!"

Raph and Casey needed no further prompting. Leo made sure Don and Mikey followed before he sprinted as best as he could carrying a fourteen-year-old girl. Don't wake up. This would be a horrible time to wake up.

More shouting echoed against the stone walls.

Doors banged open.

Raph changed directions suddenly to avoid a back door opening ahead.

We're almost to the huts. Maybe those are less populated.

"Get off me!"

Mikey! Leo spun, jostling Saja. Don't wake up. Really, don't. Please don't.

Two streets back, Leo saw Mikey surrounded by a cloud of navy-clad villagers. Don was already sprinting back to help, but past him Leo could see large men grabbing Mikey's arms.

He can get out of that hold, Leo thought. Why isn't he—

The crowd shifted to reveal a small child standing right in front of Mikey. Oh. That maneuver would hit the kid.

Saja moaned and twitched just as arms grabbed Don in the very act of swinging his bo. Leo skidded to a halt in the last shadow before crowd. I can't go help without setting her down, but if I set her down, she'll wake up and freak out. The Jior will catch her while I'm helping Mikey and Don!

More shouts rang out as Mikey and Don struggled, but there were already too many people. In a moment, someone had brought rope, and a stooped white-haired man had appeared, taking control of the situation with a commanding presence.

Leo caught Don's eye as the elder approached. I'll be back, he assured his brother with his eyes and body language. We'll get you out. I promise.