Chapter Forty-Six: The Reckoning

Day Thirteen/Six

Saturday night

Bo in hand, Don followed Raph into yet another empty hallway and tried not to relax. Breaking into the Gamer's headquarters hadn't been too difficult—just some camera feeds to loop, some security measures to disable, and a few guards inside to incapacitate. Once they were past that, Leo had split the turtles into two teams to clear the hallways, knock out guards, search for dangerous technology that didn't belong in the Gamer's hands, and obviously search for the Gamer himself.

What a chore it's been getting to him. First rescuing my father, brothers, and friend, then learning he'd skipped town, then having to heal Sa-Kaiva to be able to time-travel back just for the privilege of meeting him face to face. Don eased open a door to reveal nothing interesting. It'll be worth it, though, to explain to him exactly how we feel. With our fists.

The group had teleported from the land of the Jior and had arrived safely back in the Lair to discover that it was just after midnight on Saturday morning, this thirteenth day of their adventure. After initial celebrations and giving Master Slinter a brief recap of events, everyone had gone to bed for over twelve hours. After that, they'd had an oddly timed lunch and caught up with each others' halves of the story. Taevon had freely admitted that he'd gotten nervous and accidentally time-traveled himself instead of simply traveling with the others, and he'd apologized profusely multiple times. Blushing, he'd even noted the irony of his own nervousness ending up making the situation far, far worse for himself. He'd then proceeded to thank Don for using his faux power to declare him innocent.

Kaiva, too, had thanked him—and everyone else—more than once during the day. She'd been quiet, but Don had kept an eye on her and was pleased to see the glint of happiness in her golden eyes. After lunch, she'd found a quiet corner and written in the book from her personal bag: her diary, she'd explained when Don had asked. "It's not every day a Jior gets a new name," she'd said.

A few hours later, after a mish-mash supper, it was finally dark enough for mutant turtles to ascend, and everyone had been antsy to begin the final mission. The group had traveled to Casey's apartment, readied themselves, and time-traveled to one week ago. They'd been dismayed to discover that the room around them was now strewn with dirty clothes, overflowing trash cans, and general mess.

"What!" Casey had exclaimed. "We already cleaned all dis up!"

"Not yet, you didn't." Don had had to resist the urge to bang his head against a wall. "Ugh, I should've realized this when we were planning… We traveled back in time, Casey. The cleaning hasn't happened yet."

"It's equally my fault," Leo said. "I was there, too. I should've-"

"That's enough of th' blame game," Raph had growled. As predicted, he looked tired, but not utterly exhausted like Casey, Kaiva, and Taevon. "We're here now; we gotta just deal with it. We've got more important stuff ta worry about."

"For example, making sure we've arrived at the correct day," Taevon had said, his voice a little slurred. "Don't clean anything up, by the way, so we don't disturb the timeline."

After confirming the new time: Saturday evening, the sixth day of the adventure, Casey, Taevon, and Saja had excused themselves to various flat surfaces—Casey the bed, Saja the couch, and Taevon a blanket on the floor—to sleep. Then the four ninjas had slipped out into the evening, crossed roofs, and had arrived at the Gamer's headquarters.

Now, as they rounded another corner, Raph pointed, and Don nodded. I see them.

In sync, the brothers crept up on a pair of clueless Foot guards looking down the hall near doors opposite each other. In unison, they knocked them out; the Foot folded to the floor as quiet as a breath.

The turtles peered into the rooms. Don saw storage bins; a thick wire stuck out of an open one. Hmm. That might be interesting and unethical tech, or it might just be tangled HDMI cords.

"Don."

Don turned to see Raph pointing into the other room. He took one step and saw the glow of a computer monitor. Ooh. Unguarded data on who the Gamer is and what he's been up to, perhaps?

Raph didn't need to say it, but he did anyway. "You get th' computer, Donnie. I'll check those boxes."

Nodding absent mindedly, Don approached the screen and pulled up the chair. Either no password or it's already unlocked. Nice!

The programs and files lined up with that of an innocuous business machine, so Don dug deeper. In a few moments, he'd laid the computer's façade bare.

He hardly knew which tantalizing folder to click on first. There did seem to be some sort of code or veil: file names mentioned video game related things rather than direct names. On impulse, he clicked on the "Player Stats" folder and found a file titled "Terrapin 1 Stats."

Terrapin! That's not good. How much info does he have on us?

Don's mouse was hovering over the file when he heard the barest of noises behind him. Raph? Coming to check on me already? I barely started.

Something sharp pricked the back of his neck.

Don knew he shouldn't be starting this new role-playing computer game, but he couldn't remember why. I probably have to fix something… The toaster? The oven? The tv? He snorted. Knowing this family, it's probably all three. Still, nothing specific came to mind, other than his conscience whispering that he shouldn't play this game. There's always stuff to do, he finally decided, and since I can't remember what it is, it can wait. I'll at least play the tutorial and see if it's any good.

In a moment, he had created his character: a brown-haired human male wizard wielding a bow and a staff, as well as magic. On a whim, since it was an option, he chose purple eyes. The game let him choose the color of his surprisingly elegant robe, so he picked deep blue. I like blue. It's not like Leo has a trademark on the color, anyway.

Then he dove straight in. The opening cutscene began: as a camera panned across marching armies and maps, a booming, solemn voice lamented the invasion of the free kingdoms by the greedy Armies of the South, leading to war across the lands, naturally. Then the tutorial showed Don's character as one of dozens of blue-robed wizards, marching through forest.

Swarms of red goblins ambushed the wizard ranks; the game instructed Don how to fight with sword, staff, and magic; Don especially liked the ice and fire magic. He found the controls so intuitive it felt like he was in the adventure himself.

Don and his fellow wizards obliterated dozens of the nasty little goblins, but then some "grayclaws"—clearly Tolkienesque orcs—joined the battle. The wizards were overwhelmed, and in short order, Don's character collapsed, gasping, to the ground.

Whoa. This game's not holding any punches. Did I do it wrong? He knew it was just his imagination, but Don could almost feel the life ebbing out of him. I thought I was doing fine.

Then another cutscene, still from his character's perspective, accelerated time as the sun sank below the trees. Oh. I guess I was supposed to die?

The moon rose. Clouds obscured it.

A unicorn stepped out from the woods.

Don leaned forward.

The unicorn searched for survivors and found Don's character—Don mashed all the buttons until he found one that let him weakly lift a hand—barely clinging to life.

Okay, this is kinda cool, Don thought as the unicorn inspected him. I'm gonna get healed by a unicorn.

The unicorn stomped a delicate hoof and switched her tail. Uh oh.

Her horn glowed, and then a small white dragon swooped in to land on a rock above.

Apparently she lacked enough magic to heal one so far gone, so she'd called in reinforcements. The two magical beings agreed to join their magic strength to heal "the poor mortal." Hey, that's great. Maybe then I'll actually be able to play the game instead of lying here like a sack of potatoes bleeding out.

Just as the unicorn lowered her glowing horn to his chest and the dragon reached down a white claw to touch his forehead, the full moon burst out from behind the clouds, flooding him in silver light.

The unicorn and dragon exclaimed, and Don's vision turned white for a long moment.

"Well," the dragon finally rumbled, "this mortal has been triply infused by a unicorn, a moon dragon, and the moon itself. He shall wield great power…"

Cool! What kind?

The unicorn replied, but the sound faded out, and Don got the sense of time passing.

When his vision and hearing returned, Don found his character, blinking, propped up against a great tree trunk, looking toward a quaint village.

He got up, looked around at the nothing-to-sneeze-at graphics, and started the proper game: he waltzed into the village. He talked with NPCs—non-player-characters, he would've told Mikey—and told them his story, but no one believed him. Don shrugged. No big deal. They'll believe me when I use my cool super-magic.

Following the yellow exclamation points over certain NPC heads, Don accepted the obligatory beginner quests and fetched a dozen thimbleberries and rescued a kitten from a tree. He visited the general store, the potion maker, the blacksmith, and the armorer. Soon he'd generated enough gold and silver coins from the basic quests to buy a better sword than the one he'd started with, repair his armor, and buy a few health potions.

Then he left the tiny village and followed the dirt road into the forest, where he collected mushrooms and "rare" flowers, killed an alarming number of black, red-eyed rats, and even defeated some sort of evil pixie. His moon magic, or whatever it was, had yet to appear, and Don almost forgot about it. I'm doing just fine with sword, staff, and regular fireballs and lightning bolts anyway. Shell, why on earth are there so many rats in these woods?

Don jogged back to the village, told various quest-givers of his success and accepted his due rewards, leveled up some skills in magic, combat, and charisma, and followed the road to a bigger town with bigger quests. He met a mercenary NPC who gravely informed him that "These are dangerous woods" multiple times and wanted to "Fight for honor and glory!" Don rolled his eyes when the mercenary tried to join him, and tried to dismiss him, but the game must've glitched, because even after the conversation ended, the mercenary followed close behind him. Ah, whatever. He'll wander back to his coded path eventually, or die to a wolf or something. NPCs are not exactly clever. At least this particular one didn't get in his way.

A nocturnal detour through a cave, however, almost ended Don's character when a discount vampire nearly proved higher than his current level and forced him to use up all his health items. The mercenary jumped in front of him, slashed relentlessly at the monster but took heavy magical blows, and then died, giving Don a chance to finish off the monster.

Huh. Well, that was close. And I guess dying to a cave vampire—whatever he was supposed to be—is more noble than dying to a wolf or an evil rat. Don paused to collect the loot off the monster. Thankfully, the random items included three minor health potions; Don sighed with relief.

After emerging from the opposite end of the cave, Don found himself approaching the next city in short order just as the sun rose. Guards, townsfolk, merchants, and other NPCs greeted him as he trotted through the gates and explored the streets, looking for a place to offload worthless items in exchange for gold coins to buy better gear and more health potions.

"Good morn, adventurer." An average townsperson crossed in front of him.

Good morning to you, too.

"Strength and honor!" A soldier said, hand on the hilt of his sword.

Mhmm. Back atcha.

"Hello there." The blacksmith struck a nondescript length of metal on his anvil.

Hey.

"A red dawn rises." A city guard intoned.

Don looked. I suppose it does.

"Our cause is just, our purpose noble." A mercenary announced.

If you say so.

"What a fine day!" An old woman exclaimed.

Yeah, sure is.

"Well met, traveler." A vendor at a market stall said, her braid disappearing into her shoulder.

You and your magic hair, too. Don smirked to himself. It's nice to have plenty of chatter from NPCs in a game, even if it's a little random. It makes the world feel more alive. Not bad voice acting, either.

In the obligatory tavern, he collected a few side quests and then conveniently overheard rumors of the enemy grayclaws and goblins gathering a few towns over—the black-bearded dwarf described its location so precisely that it unlocked the town on Don's map—and an evil, powerful mage adding to their vicious strength with dark magic.

Sounds like a boss and a video game goal if I've ever heard one. Don grinned to himself and packed up his gear to head out.

He accidentally bumped into a city guard in the street. "Ah, traveler," he said, a threat in his voice if not in his blank expression, "the city guards are like brothers. Harm one of us, and you harm all of us."

Duly noted. The guards are touchy.

As he left the city through the opposite gate, another city guard, a clone of all the others, stood in the middle of the worn cobblestone street. "A red dawn rises," he intoned seriously.

Uh, yeah, a few minutes ago. But it's morning now. Or do you say that line at any time of the day? Don rolled his eyes and jogged around the NPC. He passed a skewed wooden sign with an arrow labeling the forest ahead and the city behind.

He heard footsteps, and lo and behold, the guard was following him.

"A red dawn rises."

That's weird. Glitchy game, I guess.

"A red dawn rises," he said again. "A red dawn rises."

Ugh. Leave me alone. Don wheeled and drew his sword but did not strike; the guard froze in his tracks. I thought so.

He started moving again. The guard followed.

With a groan, Don paused and stared at the offending character. I don't really want to kill an innocent NPC, even if he's annoying. Besides, I'm still within sight of the wall—the other guards would probably kill me or at least brand me a criminal for life, given that warning earlier. Justice systems in games can be pretty harsh.

With a sigh, Don sheathed his sword and continued his journey. The guard followed behind, doing his set-pace best to keep up with the player.