A Million Miles Apart
A/N: Quick update! Horray! Okay, I'm not so pleased with the last part of this chapter, It's feels pretty rushed, but I really wanted to get this while 'prison-arc' done so I could get on with other stuff I have in mind. So, sorry if it's a little rushed, but I hope you'll like it anyway!
Hope you'll like this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!
Chapter 20, Escaping the Prison
I was lying, wide awake, on my shell and staring up at the ceiling with empty eyes. We were all in sleeping in the big room instead of our individual cells tonight. I felt butterflies dancing around in my stomach and nothing I tried helped me fall asleep. Tomorrow was our one chance to escape, and if we didn't, the Triceratons would leave this place, go look for that Black Hole Generator-thingy, and by the time we managed to escape -if we even did manage to escape- it might already be too late for Earth. And boy, was I nervous. I knew that my friends and I had tried our best to come up with a strategy, but it didn't help my anxiety in any way that counted.
My mind went back to my family, and a person I hadn't thought about for some time. April. So much had happened, and I thought so much about my brothers and my father that I hadn't found much time to think about her. It felt strange, because before I was a prisoner in an alien prison, I thought about her a lot. April was the first human we'd ever met since our mutation- Master Splinter mutated right along with us, so his formerly human form doesn't quite count- and she was also my first love. My brothers go on and on about how it would never work out, what with her being a human- mystical, untouchable, normal- and me being a freak of nature that she probably didn't care that much about. At least, now in the way I cared about her. Not to mention the endless teasing and humiliation that I received as a consequence of confiding in my brothers. But I don't care. What do they know? They've never been in love before –save, maybe, Leo- and they didn't understand how it felt. If me being stuck as her little lapdog, helping her with everything would make her happy, then I'd gladly do it.
While I admit that there have been times when I feel like she's taking advantage of me, she's still been a really good friend. And I had hoped that, eventually, we would become something more than friends. That is, until Casey came along and ruined things. Okay, maybe I'm being a bit harsh; I mean, it's not exactly Casey's fault for falling for a girl when I had done the same thing. But why did he have to fall for the exact same girl that I had? For him, getting another girl was easy; he could go to parties- heck, he could go out in public- and meet his soul mate, he could go on social media and dating websites. I can't do that, nor will I ever be able to, and any girls I meet will be victims of crimes that I've stopped and will never want to see my hideous face again after they're saved. My cynical awareness of this kinda ruined things between April and I. She doesn't understand. She could sit and talk with him for hours about a lot of things that I would never understand, like how school was, or about going to see a movie at the Argosy, or just stuff- human stuff- in general. Stuff she never talked with me about, sometimes mentioning this right in front of me. I know she has a life outside of the smelly lair in the sewers, and that she wants to be as normal as possible, and that would result in her trying to make some human friends… But still, it kinda hurt when she would reject me or not talk to me about what bothered her and then- seconds later, when I'm right there- talk to Casey about it.
Man, Leo was right. Relationships are complicated. Still, it was worth it. Every beating my heart had taken the past year was worth it, if it meant April would be happy.
I looked to my right and saw Jhanna lying there, sound asleep with her long blue ponytails almost wrapped around her head. Both she and I were covered in dirt and a little dry blood, but she looked a little worse than I did. Her clothes were so tattered and torn that it looked like they were ready to fall off. Her hair was a tousled mess and there was straw stuck in there, too. But, then again, I didn't look that much better, so I couldn't really fault her for it.
I looked down at myself and, well, it wasn't pretty. My plastron was covered in varying scratches, some slightly bigger wounds littered my arms and legs, and I also appeared to have bathed in a lot of dirt. And then there was the raw gash on my arm that still stung painfully. I really hate to complain so much, but I also felt a slightly feverish. Hopefully I wasn't about to get sick, as that would really hold me back for quite some time. Although, considering the filth we were being kept in, I figured I should probably plan for myself getting sick; that way our strategy wouldn't be ruined and I could think ahead of time for ways to work around the effects of , back to the subject: The Professor, Traximus, Jhanna and I had come up with a pretty good plan. Or, at least, as good a plan as we could think up. The Professor would use the photon canons that were built into his arms to create a way out while Jhanna, Traximus and I created a distraction. Sure, it sounded easy, but we only had one shot at this. If we screwed this up, or if something messed itself up for us, we'd never get out of here. Hopefully the other aliens would help us, but that chance was pretty was pretty slim, and so I wasn't holding my breath.
"What're you thinking about, Donatello?" I looked up and to my left and saw the Professor gazing at me from where he was lying in the straw. Well, the Professor didn't exactly need sleep, but he was still lying here in the dirty, smelly straw with the rest of us. I propped myself up on my elbow and looked over at the robot.
"Oh, nothing Professor. It's just... Well, we only get one shot at this. If we don't succeed, well, then I don't see how I'm ever going to be able to save Earth." I heard some rustling in the straw to my right and when I turned to look, I saw Jhanna sitting up, straw sticking out of her hair, with newly woken eyes, but still with a small smile and a raised eyebrow.
"You mean we're gonna save Earth, right? We're gonna help you with this, Donnie. You're not in this mess all alone. Remember that." I couldn't help but smile. This was a new feeling. For so many years I've had to do a lot of things on my own, since nobody at home knew much about science- which meant they had very little interest, which led to me doing a lot of stuff on my own. And now, three aliens who knew very little about me wanted to help me save my planet because we were friends. They had also said that they were willing to risk their necks to stop the Triceratons because they had gone too far, but the sentiment was still there. It made me feel pretty warm throughout my whole body, and not because of the small fever I was sporting.
"Right. we're going to save Earth." Jhanna grinned genuinely and tossed some straw at me.
"Good, now go to sleep! You'll need all the energy you can for tomorrow. Especially seeing as how we're not gonna get any food tomorrow." I nodded. She was right. I had to get some rest, and I realized just then how tired I actually was. I really needed some sleep, and with any luck, I might be able to sleep off my fever, too. I said a quick 'good night' to the both of them before I lay back down in the straw and closed my eyes, falling asleep almost instantly.
The really bad thing about sleep, though, is that it seems that you're only asleep for a few minutes before you have to wake up again. And what's worse is when you have an alarm clock named Gruel who's mighty ticked off at you for punching him in the face yesterday and intends to make you suffer for it, starting with a horrible wake up call for everyone in the room.
"WAKE UP, LAZYBONES! THE FIGHT STARTS IN FIVE MINUTES!" I woke with a start and flew up from the straw, wide-eyed and gasping as the loud voice reached my ears, yanking me out of my sleep with a small yelp of surprise and fear. The other aliens around me woke with a similar reaction, except for Traximus, who seemed used to his kind of abuse, and we hurried to get up. Gruel glared at me the entire time as everybody got ready and took weapons from the weapons rack. I hurried to grab the closest thing to a bo staff that I could find: a long staff made out some kind of metal with a long blade on end- more like a guandao than a naginata. I could work with that; it wasn't that different. Traximus had grabbed his axe from yesterday's fight and Jhanna wielded a long sword with a wickedly sharp edge. The Professor didn't have a weapon, but he probably couldn't use one, anyway; besides, he had told me he had a few weapons built into his robot-body, so I guess he was fine.
Gruel gathered us all up inside of the ring. I quickly noticed that while some of us had weapons, some did not. I guess that was a bit unfair, but I had other things to think of. Soon… soon, we had to put our plan into motion, or we would be stuck here forever. Possibly longer. Gruel still had his whip in hand and I was tempted to use it to strangle him, if just to get him to stop grinning that stupid grin that I never wanted to see again for the rest of my life. But I resisted. He wasn't worth the effort. Besides, I knew I wouldn't be able to do it since I had already made it clear I'd never kill anyone.
"Alright, meatheads! This'll be fun for which lucky ones of you that will come back down here alive; and as for the poor unfortunate souls who'll fall today in the ring, it'll be absolute hell. It's a fight against everyone in that ring, so I want to see some bloody slaughter." He glared at me. "Especially for some of you." I glared back and folded my arms over my chest, showing that I was still standing and as long as I was, I would fight back against any threat that they threw at me. I also noticed in the very back of my racing mind that Mona Lisa was looking at me strangely. Oh, well; what did it matter? Wouldn't be the first time since I got here that she's looked at me like that.
"Well, time to go up and fight. Have fun killing each other! I hope as many of you as possible will be out of my misery." He chuckled to himself, and suddenly the ring we stood on started to move upwards. I gathered Jhanna, Traximus and Professor close to me and whispered, so that no one else would be able to hear us.
"Okay, this is it, guys. Remember, these guys have massive strength and enough intelligence to be a threat. We have to fight smart, be quick, and always be on the move. Everybody remember the plan?" They all nodded and Traximus leaned in closer to me.
"Donatello, no matter what happens in that ring today, I want you to know that I am grateful that I met you. I've never felt so hopeful in all of my years inside these walls. So, thank you." I smiled and felt a small blush cover my cheeks. Then, suddenly, I realized something. Who died and made me the leader here? I said yesterday that I had tried to act as all three of my brothers, as well as myself, but I hadn't realized that I had taken the roll of leader as well. Could I handle that? I'd never led anyone in my life, I didn't know how to lead; Leo was my leader. Leo and Master Splinter. I was always content to be a follower. I sighed. A turtle's gotta do what a turtle's gotta do, I guess.
I adjusted the breathing apparatus on my belt and checked the tube that fed into the side of my mouth, getting myself ready for the fight. Come what may, today I would show the world that Donatello Hamato is not a weakling, but a warrior and a fighter, through and through. I had the martial arts teachings of a Grandmaster of Ninjutsu in my blood, and the spirits of three other turtles in my own. I had Leonardo's wisdom and bravery, Raphael's strength and passion, and Michelangelo's optimism and energy, as well as my own knowledge, my spirit and my drive to never, ever give up. I could handle anything these Triceratons threw at me and come out on top.
We came up through the ground and into a large arena, filled with all kinds of different aliens mixed with a lot Triceratons, cheering and yelling with excitement, stomping their feet and clapping their hands. Traximus, Jhanna and I placed ourselves in a circle around the Professor to protect him from any harm. I looked over at Traximus.
"Okay, Traximus, you have the stronger set of lungs, so when you're ready, you say that we refuse to die for the amusement of these cowards. Whenever you're ready, we start." He nodded and gripped the battle-axe tighter in his hands. The Prime Leader appeared on a big screen, smiling with pride; he was clearly celebrating too early.
"Off-worlders and fellow Triceratons, hear me! Welcome to this day's fight and this day's chosen few who will fight for the ultimate price! Their lives!" The cheering broke out again and I had put one finger over my ear, just to make sure my eardrums wouldn't implode. Geez, and people say teenagers are too loud with their music and games. Most of these aliens were clearly adults, at the very least. The Prime Leader continued.
"Today is a day of celebration for us Triceratons! For I have discovered, with my intelligent mind and superior leadership, where our lifelong enemies, the Kraang, are hiding!" There was a mix of cheering and booing; booing at the Kraang and cheering for their 'oh-so-great' leader. And I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Intelligent mind and superior leadership? Yeah, right; this guy couldn't lead a blind person, and if it wasn't for me he wouldn't know where they were hiding. But then again, that wouldn't exactly be a bad thing.
"Now, I can't hog all the praise to myself. I had help, and as the humble and grateful leader that I am," I rolled my eyes at his words. How could anyone take this guy seriously as a leader? He was clearly making things up. "I will share your gratitude with him." Suddenly a spotlight attacked my eyes and I almost dropped the staff in my hand from shock and slight pain.
"This boy told me about his planet and how the Kraang have used it to hide from us. Now that we know where they are hiding, we can gather up the pieces of the Black Hole Generator and destroy that Kraang-infested planet! And it's thanks to this boy that it's possible!" A new round of cheering broke out and I felt the guilt wash over me again. These guys really seemed to like rubbing salt in my wounds. Jhanna looked up at me with shocked, slightly angry eyes.
"You actually told them that the Kraang were on your planet?!" I glared back at her and for a second I forgot about the fact that a fight was about to start.
"It was an accident! A slip of the tongue!" She just rolled her eyes at me and gripped her sword a little tighter. Prime Leader Zanramon smirked down at us, though I had a feeling that he was more or less smirking at me.
"So, without any further ado, I will let these aliens fight for their lives! In fact, let's start with something interesting: every alien in the ring against this turtle creature! May the worst alien win!" Even more cheering and clapping rang out across the Arena. I looked over at the other aliens nervously, and I was actually kinda scared that they were going to attack me. But they all looked at me confusedly, except for Mona Lisa, who looked conflicted and almost ready to drop her arm-long knife. Suddenly Traximus raised his axe over his head and it looked like he was ready to chop my head off; I couldn't help but scream, close my eyes in fear and raise my staff defensively, mostly out of instinct.
But nothing happened. And when I opened my eyes I saw that the axe had been thrown into the ground, stuck in the dirt. I looked up at Traximus, who smiled and winked at me, before he turned towards the screen where Zanramon's face was still shown.
"We will not fight! We will no longer fight and die for the amusement of the Prime Leader and his cowardly people!" A loud gasp was heard throughout the room and a low murmur started to spread. The Prime Leader gasped in anger and shock, searching for whoever had spoken.
"W-what? Who said that?!" Traximus pulled the axe out of the ground and turned to the other aliens. He raised it over his head in an inspirational way and looked kinda like a big hero, or at least some kind of victor.
"Come on, everyone! Let's stand up and fight against these tyrants! Everyone who's sick and tired of being treated like a doormat: let's stand up and fight against the true monsters!" But none of the other aliens made any moves to do anything; they just stood there and stared at us and each other. Sighing in exasperation, I walked up to the group, gripped my staff and raised it over my head, trying to look just as inspiring as Traximus had.
"Come on, guys! We have our chance to fight back! Don't just stand there and let yourselves get pushed around by these guys! You have a choice- choose to fight back!" But that didn't seem to work. No one did anything, and I heard Zanramon laughing in the background.
"Oh, that is rich! You actually thought that some well-chosen words would get that garbage to fight against us? These creatures lost hope and their drive to live years ago! Nothing you can say or do will make them fight against us, so just give it up." I lowered my staff again and was entirely paralyzed. How would we manage to get out of here now? I don't think our plan would work now. I heard Zanramon order some Triceratons to go in and grab us, but at the same time, I didn't hear it. I didn't care. But then, suddenly, a flash of green and brown flew towards one of the Triceratons and attacked. Mona Lisa.
"No! I will not let you hurt them!" Seeing the girl fight back against these big aliens somehow made the others react and grab at their weapons a little. Then, Jhanna and Traximus ran towards the Triceratons and attacked. I turned to the other aliens and smirked cockily at them.
"These guys want to live- not just survive. What'll you do?" I turned to the Professor and placed my hand on his shoulders. "Okay, I'll keep the Triceratons away from you. Get your canons ready!" He nodded, but before I could run towards the others and join the fight, a loud explosion was heard and one of the walls was destroyed. Screams filled the Arena and all the spectators started to flee the building. Through the hole in the wall came a battalion of Federation soldiers- and in the lead was Moriah, gun in hand and eyes scanning the area calculatingly.
I grabbed the Professor and ran up to Jhanna and Traximus, and hiding the Professor behind Trax before holding my staff up, ready to attack if I need be. Triceratons ran in through the doors with weapons in their hands, not one of them paying us any attention. They had forgotten about us entirely in favor of the attack.
"Come on, here's our chance! We can escape through the hole in the wall while they're busy! Come on!" I ran towards the hole in the wall the others following. Traximus had the Professor by the arm, almost dragging him when the robot failed to gain proper footing. All of the other prisoners seemed to be likeminded, making a collective beeline for the breach and escaping through it.
"The prisoners! They're escaping! Stop them- stop them now!" Zanramon yelled after us- but by that time we had already escaped through the hole and were running for our lives. Mona Lisa sprinted to catch up with me and frowned at me in concern as she ran by my side. Jhanna was on my other side, and Traximus and the bumbling Professor were hot on our heels.
"Now what do we do?" I shook my head in response, taking my gaze away from her to look for somewhere we could possibly hide. That was when I saw a bunch of ships about twenty feet ahead. I guess it was their 'parking lot', though it wasn't very smart, in my opinion. I mean, who parks their ships just outside of a prison, inviting anyone to steal them? I pointed at it and placed my temporary weapon in the holster on my shell.
"There! Let's go and get on of those ships!" We all sucked in a huge breath before increasing our speed as much as we possibly could, probably looking like the Devil himself was after us. My abused, malnourished muscles screamed in protest and a feverish sweat was coating every inch of my skin. My lungs were burning and the pain in my desperately pumping arm was enough to make my vision go dark along the very edges. But we were almost there. That was all that mattered, all that kept us going and pushing past our bodily limits.
We were a few mere feet away from our salvation when a big white ship appeared in front of us. The surprise of it didn't quite register in my adrenaline-addled brain, but thankfully Jhanna, who appeared to be thinking more clearly than me, shot an arm out in front of me, beckoning me to stop beside her. The rest of the group halted when we did, and then we were just standing there, panting and on the verge of collapse, not knowing what to say or do. Then a white ramp with orange lighting appeared from its side as a door opened. I could see the silhouette of a young girl, waving at us to hurry up and get in.
"Hurry! We have to get out of here- now!" Jhanna squinted at her suspiciously before her eyes widened in shock; if I hadn't placed a questioning hand on her forearm, she surely would have dropped her sword.
"…Starlee?!" I looked back at the ships that I assumed were the Triceratons'. They would most likely go to these after they had defeated the Federation, whenever that would happen. I looked at some barrels that were relatively close to us, then felt my belt and realized with a smile that I still had a few shuriken left. I ran up to the barrels, tipped one of them over and started to roll it towards the ships.
"You guys get inside! I'll come in two seconds!" I heard the Professor and Jhanna call my name, but I had gotten an idea and wasn't about to waste this golden opportunity. The process lasted about twenty seconds, but was agonizingly slow to me; I would have done it in four, had I not been exhausted and feverish, with the addition of several pulled muscles, oxygen-starved lungs and a re-opened gash on my arm bleeding freely and making my head spin a little. Once I got close enough, I kicked the barrel towards the first and closest ship and threw a shuriken at it before running back to 'Starlee' and the rest of my friends. Just as I had hoped, a big explosion was heard seconds later, and when I looked over my shoulder, I saw that ship after ship was exploding due to the domino effect. I sighed in relief and jogged up the ramp and through the doors of that Starlee-person's ship just before the doors closed and the ship took off and flew away from the Triceraton Prison, where chaos still ensued.
I was now in a big room, which I guess was the control room or something, and saw the others there. At the controls was a young girl who couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen years old, who was currently steering the ship away from the prison and the Triceraton ships.
I could finally sigh in relief. It had worked. We were free.
I quickly examined the others, who were either sitting or standing, and tried to spot any injuries.
"Is everybody okay?" Jhanna walked up to me with a small smirk on her face, looking a little impressed. She had a few abrasions and a small gash on her cheek, but other than that, she looked fine.
"Yeah, we're okay. Some bruises and maybe some bigger wounds, but we're fine." I smiled and nodded at her and then turned to the girl at the controls, who had turned away from the control panels and towards us instead.
"Thank you for saving us… but who are you?" She stood, walked up to me and smiled. She was, in a way, pretty similar to Jhanna and Moriah, but also pretty different at the same time. She too had blue skin and pointy ears, but she had purple hair- instead of blue or red- tied into a ponytail, and matching purple eyes. She was dressed in the same kinds of clothes that Moriah and Jhanna had worn ever since I first saw them. She also had freckled cheeks and nose, goggles on top of her head (which I guess worked as her glasses) and a headset, making her look like a rather technical and smart girl.
"My name is Starlee, and I am Jhanna's sister. I am here to bring Jhanna back to D'hoonib."
A/N: Okay, I honestly couldn't think of a better way to end this chapter, so I decided to end it on some sort of cliffhanger. Although I'm not sure if it's very suspenseful. I hope it's good enough for you! Now, here we come to the fun part, cause now I'll get use my imagination to create new planets and characters, while also coming up with new story arcs for the characters.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!