A Million Miles Apart
A/N: Hi guys! Did you all like the 100th episode? 'Cause I sure did! Guess who's back from the States? That's right, this girl! And I gotta say, it was a great experience to see your beautiful country (even though I only saw Florida). It was just so beautiful and it was all just such a great experience! I hope I'll go sometime soon, it was such a wonderful time.
Anyway, I didn't get much time to write, since I've had a busy couple of weeks, with a lot of things that I've seen and done. And whenever I did have time, I was too tired to want to do anything other than relax. So now I've put together a bit of a longer chapter for you, since I haven't given you anything in two weeks.
I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!
Chapter 42, Onto Zerij We Go
Early the next morning, just as the sun was slowly rising over the forest, we were up and ready to leave Filione behind. The Chief had almost blown a gasket when Mona Lisa had gone to his tent and told him that she wanted to help us save Earth. He had pulled her aside to try and convince her to stay on Filione where she would be safe. I have no idea how tempting she found his words, but she stood strong against them and declined every single time.
"I'll be put in danger either way. And the Triceratons will be a part of my life whether I want them to or not. They'll be back, and they will try to make life miserable for the Salamandarians no matter how much we fight. I want to stop them, and the only way to do that is to nip the problem in the bud. Or, you know, go to the root of the problem. I want to do this." Eventually he had realized she wasn't gonna give up and gave her his blessing, albeit reluctantly.
In the meantime the rest of us had prepared to leave. Jhanna had packed together the things we had with us, like weapons and clothes she or Starlee weren't wearing at the moment. Starlee and the Professor had prepared the ship for takeoff and Traximus had carried barrels of fuel and provisions the Salamandarians had given us as a wish for good luck and out of generosity.
I had not been allowed to do much, due to my injured leg, so I had been given a lot of time to think. Even with everything Jhanna, Starlee and Mona had said to me last night and with my new dose of determination, I still felt doubt eat its way through that young confidence. I still had yet to accept the fact that I wasn't on Earth, deep down, and things were so different out here. And I didn't have my family to support me anymore; I was on my own. Well, not entirely, but you know what I mean. And given how well I had done in my training with Traximus and in that fight with Zog and his goons, I didn't really see how I could become the warrior I had to be. I mean, fifteen years of training hadn't helped me much, so how could a few months make any difference?
"Donnie, are you okay?" I looked up and saw Jhanna peering down at me with concern in her green eyes. I shrugged and scooted over on the log I was sitting on, giving Jhanna room to sit down beside me, and rested my chin in my hands.
"I don't know, Jhanna. I mean, I want to get strong and be able to stand against the Triceratons, but I just don't see how that's gonna happen. I've always been the weakest and in every fight I've been in since I arrived in these parts of space, I've only been lucky. Well, except for the one yesterday." Jhanna frowned at me, placed her hands on her sides and looked straight at me.
"Donnie, I thought we talked about this. You can't quit after one bad fight!" I looked up at her.
"I'm not talking about quitting anything. All I'm saying is that I don't see how I'll become the warrior I need to be in order to save Earth, let alone the leader you guys seem to think I am." I sighed and looked down at the ground, once again putting my chin in my hands. "My brothers and father would handle this situation so much better than I ever could." Jhanna hummed in thought, then placed her hand on my shoulder.
"Okay, I think I see the problem here." I looked up at her. "You seem to like to compare yourself and your surroundings with how things are back on Earth, right? Well, it seems to me that your body is here with us in space, but your head is back on Earth along with everything you miss and love." I cocked my head to the side and probably looked as confused as I felt. She noticed it.
"Don't get it? Okay, how about this: we treat you as captain and leader; you compare yourself to your brother. You talk about being a warrior; you compare yourself to your father or brothers. You want to save your world, you say your family would be able to handle it better than you." I looked down at the ground and my eyes widened slightly. Jhanna saw this and kept going.
"I really think you need to let go of all of that, and focus more on what needs to be done, rather than how everybody else would do it all so much better. It's holding you back from your full potential." I looked up at her and felt like kicked puppy. If what she said was true- which was highly likely- how would I move past this block that had formed?
"And how do I do that?" She shrugged and wrapped her arms around her knees.
"I don't know. That's up to you. But here's what I think: if you keep lingering on what is left on Earth, or if you keep thinking about who you were back home, you're never gonna get better at fighting or being a leader." I bit my lip and looked away from her, resting my elbows in my lap.
"I guess." After that we just sat quietly for a while, without looking at each other or making any attempt to say anything. I started to think over what she said, and the more I thought about it, I started to see that she was right. If I were to become the warrior I not only needed to be, but also wanted to be, I had to work through this block in my head. And that was something only I could do. My friends couldn't help me with something like that; that was my own problem to work through.
"Donatello." Jhanna and I watched Chief Patowan approach us with a small bottle in one hand and a leather pouch in the other. My first instinct was to stand up, but the jolt of pain that shot through my leg immediately reminded me why that was a bad idea and Jhanna helped me sit down again, muttering 'take it easy'. The Chief walked up to me and looked me in the eye.
"Our healers have prepared a bottle of our healing potion for you. Now, remember, you must only drink one drop, once daily. More than one drop can lead to the leg not healing properly. Or it might make you very ill. It is made from a very strong flower." I nodded and reached out to take it, but he put it down in a small pocket on the side of the pouch instead. "I would also recommend that you only use the potion when you are severely injured or ill, since you only have the one bottle." He then looked up at me.
"We have counted that your journey to Zerij and other worlds in chase of Black Hole machine will be very long. And you might need things throughout the journey that will not be given to you out of kindness or generosity. So we have gathered up some zemulacks for you, for emergencies." I looked at him, then down at the pouch and realized what was in it; money. I quickly shook my head at him. This was money that they worked hard every day of their lives to obtain- and that was probably not that much to begin with. They needed that money for resources and for weapons and protection. I raised my hands and shook my head, eyes wide.
"No. No, no, no I can't accept this. I mean, it's very kind of you, but I can't-" He placed the pouch in my hands and placed his hands over mine, gently squeezing them so I would tighten my grip.
"Take it." He smiled warmly at me. "You will come to need it more than we do." I looked down at the pouch in my hands, then up at the Chief, smiled and bowed my head in respect.
"Thank you, Chief. Thank you everything." Jhanna smiled at him and bowed her head too, albeit a little stiffly. The Chief smiled back and bowed before me, before he straightened up and looked me in the eyes with seriousness.
"Look after my granddaughter. Make sure she is kept safe, please." My smile faded and I studied him. His eyes were filled with worry, concern, and love for Mona, and I nodded at him.
"I promise." We heard the Professor's voice from the ship.
"It's time to leave now! Everyone who wants to leave Filione with the rest of us, back to the ship!" Jhanna stood up and handed me my staff, which was on the ground in front of me. I took it and tried to place most of my weight on it, but I still felt that searing pain in my leg as Jhanna and I walked towards the ship. Mona came running from the village with a small bag slung over her shoulder and her ponytail bouncing from side to side as she ran. When she saw her grandfather, she slowed down and stopped before him. And despite the fact that she had been ready to leave and had said over and over that she wanted to go with us, she now looked ready to cry when she looked at her only living relative. Patowan's face was slightly scrunched, as if he was also trying to hold back tears. He placed his hand on Mona's cheek.
"Are you sure this is what you want? Once you are out on this mission, I doubt there's going to be a way for you turn back." Mona was silent for a second and bit her lip, as if in deep thought. When she looked back up her eyes were determined, though small traces of tears were still there.
"I'm sure. I want to do this. I want to go out and make a difference, not just sit here and fight a few battles here and there. If I have to do either, I'd rather help the galaxy and possibly stop the threat altogether than just sit around and stop the threat on one planet." Patowan nodded and I could see that he wanted to force her to stay at home, but also knew that he couldn't.
"Well, just promise me that you will be careful. Promise that you will do your best to come back home again. Please." She placed her hand over his and now let her tears fall without resistance.
"I promise, Grandfather. I'll miss you." She hugged him tightly and he quickly returned the embrace and stroked his hand through her long hair. I couldn't help but feel bad for both of them. Chief Patowan had gone through almost ten years believing his granddaughter was dead, and Mona had gone through that time believing she would never see the sun again, let alone her grandfather. And now when they were finally reunited again, they had to go their separate ways again. Starlee looked at the two and though she had a small smile on her face, I saw a few tears form in her eyes. Jhanna just groaned, rolled her eyes and walked back inside the stealth ship. Though she had the decency to groan quietly and not make such a dramatic scene out of it. Traximus followed shortly after and the Professor placed his hand on my shoulder, grabbing my attention.
"I will go and start up the ship. But we really should hurry." I nodded and watched as he walked back into the ship to start up the engines. Mona and Patowan pulled away from each other and Mona placed a kiss on his cheek.
"Goodbye, Grandfather." She squeezed his hands and then pulled away from him. As she walked up to us, Starlee placed an arm around her for comfort, and Mona smiled at her through her tears.
"Come on, we have to leave now." I smiled at Chief Patowan and waved at him. "Goodbye, Chief Patowan- and thanks for everything!" He waved back, his one hand resting on his wooden cane, but his eyes were still on Mona Lisa. With that we walked up the gangway.
I put on my breathing collar as I sat down in one of the chairs, readying myself for takeoff. Jhanna had put her helmet on, and Starlee had put her own collar on. Traximus had worn his helmet the entire visit, so he didn't have to get ready in that way, and the Professor didn't breathe at all. Mona hadn't had any gear with her when we landed. She sat down in the chair beside me.
"So, what's the plan? I mean, the Triceratons have a head start. How are we gonna catch up?" I bit my lip and thought as hard as I could. I hadn't really gotten that far yet. I sighed and leaned back in my seat. Man, thinking out every single thing and planning ahead was really hard. Sure, I was something of the family strategist, but my plans always revolved around best probability, and I couldn't work too well with such little data as was available now. If I ever got back home again I would never give Leo a hard time or tease him about being a leader, 'cause it was clearly harder than I had ever thought it would be. Not that I had ever thought that it would be, but still.
"Well, I guess we'll just set the coordinates for Zerij and press the pedal to the metal. I don't really know what else we can do. It's not like there's a wormhole that'll conveniently take us to Zerij in just a few days." I said that as seriously as I could, but I had to work really hard to suppress the 'right?' that wanted to come out after that sentence. I really didn't want to go through another wormhole, but if there was a way we could get there quicker than the Triceratons, we might not have any other option. The Professor looked up from the controls when I stopped talking.
"Well, if you would like, when we get back onboard I could check for wormholes that might give us a shortcut." I felt myself grow a little cold and bit my tongue before I could yell 'NO!'. We needed to get there as quickly as possible, and if that meant that we had to go through another insane rollercoaster of death, then we had to do it. Jhanna wrinkled her nose and I could tell that it hadn't been what she wanted to hear.
"Oh, yeah, that sounds great." Mona muttered to herself and brushed some hair out of her face. She fingered a little at her long hair, then got a thoughtful look in her eyes, a look I recognized. Narrowed eyebrows, lips lightly pressed together and eyes that seem to exist in another world. When I looked over at Starlee I saw that even she didn't look that eager about another trip through a wormhole, and with her endless stream of optimism that was quite a feat.
The Professor immediately walked over to the controls to look for any shortcuts or any other useful information. The rest of us walked out into the dining and entertainment room. And I had to say that even though the ship was pretty cold and emotionless, it still felt rather good to be back onboard.
"So, now what do we do?" Starlee sat down on the couch and rested one leg over the other. Jhanna shrugged and drew her sword, eyeing it with an eagerness that almost made her look a little scary.
"Well, I'd like to get some training in. I wanna be ready for a rematch with those freaks!" Traximus snorted indignantly, but Jhanna didn't seem to notice. Mona Lisa's eyes fell on the blade of Jhanna's sword and they widened in a way that signaled that she just had an idea.
"Can I borrow that for a second?" Jhanna looked up from her sword and dreams of payback and at Mona, kinda shocked and surprised. She then looked down at the sword again, then back at Mona and then handed her the sword.
"Uh, sure. But what are you gonna-?" Before she had come close to finishing the sentence, Mona acted out on her idea. She quickly grabbed her long ponytail, held it up, raised the blade of the sword and cut through her long, thick hair, just inches away from the ribbon, in one quick gesture. Her hair, that had just reached down to her waist, now barely reached her shoulders, and the pink ribbon had fallen to the floor. She bent down and picked it up and tied it around her neck, like a scarf, before she handed the sword back to Jhanna with a quick thanks. Jhanna stared at her.
"Well, that was random." Mona shrugged and gripped the cut off hair that was still in her hand.
"I've wanted to cut it for some time, but while being imprisoned it didn't seem like an appropriate time to worry about how you looked. Besides, what's good about having long hair in a battle? The enemy could just grab it and use it against you! Everybody knows how much it hurts to have someone pull at your hair." When she saw me and Traximus look strangely at her, she shrugged and gave a wry smile. "Well, anyone with hair knows." Jhanna hummed in thought and fingered on her own almost waist-long hair.
"Hm, that's a pretty good point. I should cut my hair too. I'll do it later, though." She put her sword back in her belt. She looked over Mona and her new hairdo. "It's actually... not that bad. Pretty nice, really." Mona smiled shyly.
"Thanks." Starlee also smiled.
"Yeah, it looks really cute. It really brings out your eyes." I rolled my eyes with lighthearted smile. Girls- is there anyone who really understands them? I limped over to the Food Replicator.
"Well, I don't know what you're gonna do next, but I for one want some breakfast. I'm starving." That seemed to get everyone's attention and the girls also came over to get some food. But Traximus started to walk over to the holo-dojo.
"I will eat later. I would really like get some training right now. I will see you later."
After we had all gotten some food, we sat down at a table together and for a while, we ate in silence. I let a drop of that fire lily potion fall into my coffee before putting the pouch away on the couch. When I turned back to my food, I saw Mona stare down on my toast with ham in disgust.
"What?" She looked up and blushed a little.
"Nothing. It's just," she looked down at my toast again, "you're eating meat." My eyes darted from side to side, then back to Mona.
"Uh, yes I am. What's wrong with that?" She shuddered and swallowed. For a moment I thought she had swallowed down her own vomit. She took a bite out of her own sandwich with some sort of lettuce and something that looked like tomato on it.
"Nothing, I guess. It's just that, well, Salamandarians can't really handle meat. We are vegetarians, so we can't digest meat. We can handle fish, to a certain degree, but too much can make us sick, too. I guess I can't help but react to another reptile eating meat." I stared at her for second, shrugged and sipped some of my coffee. And even though it was only one drop, that one drop of fire lily potion made the coffee taste so much sweeter, in a good way. I usually didn't like coffee with any sugar in it, but this sort of sweetness was actually kind of nice. It gave the whole thing a nice, almost exotic flavor to it.
Even more silence followed after that. Starlee sipped on something that looked like a purple juice of some sort, and looked over at me. "So, do you miss them?" I looked up from my toast and over at her.
"Hm, what? Do I miss who?" She put her glass down and played a little with a string of her hair, biting her lower lip and looking down.
"Well... your family. " I dropped the toast down on the plate and felt myself go numb. The girls jumped slightly as the toast hit the plate with a light 'squish', which made me look down and try patch up the toast.
"Oh, uh, well, yeah, I do. I mean, they're my family. I love them and I care for them. Even though they drive me insane on a daily basis." Starlee raised an eyebrow at me, looking pretty confused.
"But, you said that they treated you unfairly. You told me that they took you for granted and treated you like a workhorse." I bit my lip in embarrassment and felt my cheeks get hotter. Yeah, I had said that, but I had also been pretty frustrated and tired at the time. I hadn't meant it, not really. I sipped down some more coffee and thought over my words.
"Well, yeah, they kinda did, but I still love them. They didn't always treat me that well, but we're still family. And it's not like they've never been there for me in the past. I still care about them, even if they probably don't." Starlee nibbled a little on one of those muffins she seemed to like for breakfast and stared out into space in thought. Jhanna popped a berry into her mouth.
"Why do you think they don't care?" I fell silent and looked down at my toast. I didn't feel like answering that question at all, so I quickly ate up my toast and grabbed my cup of coffee, standing up to walk away.
"I have to go. I just remembered I have something to do." I heard the girls call out my name, and even heard Jhanna mumble to the others 'was it something I said?' before the door to the bedrooms closed behind me. I limped all the way down to my bedroom, placed my coffee mug on the bedside table and let myself fall down on the bed, pressing a pillow over my face. I groaned loudly into the pillow in an attempt to rid myself of any frustration or pain that had been built up in me over the past two days.
Why was this so hard? Why was it so hard to let these girls in and tell them what my problem was? Well, that was both a simple and difficult question to answer. It was easy because I knew that I still didn't feel entirely comfortable around them yet. I hardly knew Mona or Starlee as it was, and even though I had gotten to know Jhanna over these past few months, it still felt weird to tell her about these personal things. I almost felt ashamed about talking about it. And that was the hard part of the question. Why did I feel like that? These girls had their rough spots, I mean, everyone does, but they were clearly good people. Uh, aliens. Ugh, whatever. And they were clearly reaching out and wanted to get to know me better, and how else to do so than by asking questions? To them I must seem like a complete basket case.
But, hey, it wasn't like this feeling was anything new. I had this feeling plenty of times before. It was the same feeling I got when... when I thought of talking to my brothers. I removed the pillow from my face and sat up. Yeah, it was the same feeling I got when I considered talking to my brothers about my problems or how I felt about things.
I never talked to the guys about how I felt, my problems or the things I went through. I had tried, but every time it was the wrong time, or no one had time to listen or I just got a mean comment or sarcastic quip thrown in my face. They probably thought I was so pathetic that they didn't want to get involved in my problems. It was always, 'Not now, Donnie!' or 'I got better things to do than listen to your whining' or 'Dude, you're interrupting my game!'. So eventually I had just given up trying to talk to them. There had been times when they, somehow, had noticed that I was feeling down and had asked me about how I felt or if something was wrong.
"Hmph, a little late by that point." I muttered to myself and stood up. Yeah, real nice of them to notice my feelings after years of just leaving me to my own business without so much as a second glance. Nowadays the only one who could get anything out of me was Master Splinter, and even that included a lot of prying from his side. Even April couldn't get much out of me, and I loved talking to her. She was a good listener and was the only one showing interest in what I had to say. That is, until Casey showed up.
I groaned and rubbed my hands over my face. What is wrong with me? Why did I have to be so unfair? I knew my brothers cared about me. I knew that they would gladly go through fire and water for my sake. And I knew there were plenty of moments when they showed that. Leo was always there by my bedside when I was sick or injured after a fight to cater to my every need. Mikey was always encouraging me to try again or push myself to become better when I was down after a failed experiment or a sparring session that didn't go especially well. And Raph was... What was he? The one to make me want to succeed even more just so I could see the look on his face when I succeeded at something he thought was impossible or a waste of time? I sighed. I didn't exactly know.
I walked over to the mirror that hung over the dresser and looked myself deep in the eyes. The scars over my face seemed to sneer and laugh at me. 'What are you doing?', they laughed at me. 'You have no idea what you are doing! You never did! In fact, if it weren't for you, none of this would ever have happened! Just give up and go home, while you still can.'
I sighed and looked over my reflection. I sighed again. Not exactly the reflection of a great hero. I was scrawny, had very little muscle that showed my years of training and I was covered with small scars and scratches from every fight I had been in ever since I arrived in space. In fact, if I looked hard enough, I could still see some of the bruise I had gotten after being hit in the head by a Kraang's laser bullet when I fell through that portal. But that was nearly gone, so it wasn't quite as visible as the scars over my face. And those three scars were the worst. There was no way I could look at those horrible marks and not think FAILURE with big letters. Zog's words were still haunting my thoughts and mocking me for my failed attempt to fight him.
'I hope you remember this moment the next time you think you'll EVER be ANYTHING more than weak, pathetic little terrapin freak!'
I growled and looked down into the dresser's surface and slammed my fists as hard against it as I could, and clenched my fists as tightly as I could. No! No, that was not true! I was not just a freak. I was a genius, I was a highly trained ninja and I never gave up. Giving up was just not an option. Sure, failure was always possible, but that was not a good enough reason to give up the battle. I was not gonna let that dinosaur-freak push me down to the bottom again.
I looked up into the mirror again. "There has to be more to me than the things they see. There just has to be more than a big brain and big heart to me." I couldn't go through my life and be 'just the guy with the big brain'. Or the guy with compassion and loved everyone he knew. That just can't be all there is to me. People had called me weak, pathetic, a coward, scrawny and freak my whole life and I was sick of it. I wanted to matter. I wanted to leave an impact on the world. I wanted to show those dino-lousers that they had messed with the wrong turtle.
But still, even if I did work hard to become better at fighting, what would change? I had given 110% in my training with Master Splinter all my life, and what did I have to show for it? Nothing. Well, except for the fact that I was a tad stronger and endured more than an average human, but still, that wasn't much. What would another teacher and even more determination do?
I pressed my lips together. I may not be able to make that big of a difference, but I still had to try. I was still scared and unsure, but I knew that couldn't let that stop me. Master Splinter wouldn't let it stop him. Leo wouldn't let it stop him. And either would Mikey or Raph. Heck, even April and Casey would keep going despite how hopeless the situation might seem. I had to do this. And that meant I had to step up and be leader for these guys, despite how hard it might be. I looked into the mirror and straight into my own eyes.
"Okay, Donnie, it's obvious what you have to do right now. You can do this. You are strong, you are intelligent and you are capable. You have the chance to prove to yourself and everyone who you are and that you can be just as much a hero and leader as Leo, as much a warrior as Raph and as much an unpredictable force as Mikey. It's time for you to leave your mark on the world. It's time to grow up. Just hold your head high and you will succeed." I nodded to myself with a confident smile before stepping back from the mirror.
"Goodbye, Donatello. It's time for a new turtle to step forward." My eyes fell on the suit on my dresser that I had yet to actually use and picked it up. I unfolded it and held it up by the shoulders, to get a good look at the whole suit. It was a nice looking suit, but didn't look like it would protect me from much. The Professor had told me these suits would protect against severe cold and extreme heat and that it was made out of a tough and resilient material that was very shockproof, but that seemed to be it. It was very unprotected and could still get ripped easily. It's not like it had any weapons or anything that could protect the valuable parts on my body.
Suddenly I felt a figurative lightbulb light up over my head. I know I didn't have much training right now, and I knew I was injured. So I would need some sort of protection for myself down on Zerij. And there was a whole lot of scrap metal and all kinds of cool gear in the room with the rest of those suits. I grinned widely as the gears turned in my head and I looked up and down the suit.
"Oh, Donatello, I love your mind." I grinned to myself and was so excited about my great idea that I didn't even feel stupid for talking to myself like this. However, I was the yanked out of my thoughts as the Professor's voice was heard throughout the ship.
"I'm sorry to interrupt any activities you might be up to, but I believe to have found us a shortcut." I grinned. Finally things seemed to be going our way. I grabbed my temporary crutch and started to make my way towards the control room. Jhanna and the others were already there and the Professor was standing over the computers and looking for wormholes. I limped up to him.
"Professor." He looked up, smiled his robot smile at me and waved me over.
"Hello, Donatello." I looked over at the computers and then out the big windows. I saw nothing but distant stars blinking at me, but I knew enough to know that wormholes wouldn't be visible to the eye. So there could still be one out there, but I was hoping like crazy that there wasn't.
"What have you found? Any shortcuts or wormholes that can get us to Zerij?" He looked down at the computers again, as if to double-check the info he had gathered for us.
"Well, it seems there is a way for us to get to Zerij by tomorrow. And we're just minutes away from it. If we go through it, we'll most definitely get there before the Triceratons. Or very close behind them in case they went through it too." His smile turned into a small frown. "Unfortunately it means we have go through a wormhole." I felt my smile fall dramatically off my face. Oh, of course it involved the worst ride I had ever been put through. I heard Mona groan loudly and slam her face against the her.
"Oh, great. You know, I really missed being shaken around like a rag doll and going so fast I was almost turned inside out." I felt a bit torn in between smiling and shaking my head at her or rolling my eyes in annoyance. I mean, Mona was not a stranger to complaining and stating how bad things were, and it both felt good 'cause it showed she had done a complete 180. But still, it didn't exactly make things better. Jhanna glanced over at her with half-shut, annoyed eyes.
"None of us like that ride at all, but stating the obvious doesn't exactly make it better." Mona looked over at her with the same annoyance in her eyes and was close to snapping at her.
"Yeah? Well, it doesn't make it worse, either." Jhanna rolled her eyes and turned away from her, folding her arms over her chest and shaking her head. Starlee also looked apprehensive, but she stood up and took a few steps in our direction.
"No, but if it makes sure we might get a head start, and the Black Hole Generator piece, before the Triceratons do, then we might have no choice." Traximus nodded.
"She speaks wisely. If we took the long way because the shorter one gives a minor inconvenience, then it might already be too late by the time we get to Zerij. What do you think, Donatello?" I bit my lip. I did not look forward to going through another wormhole, but Starlee and Traximus both made very good points. Yes it was a shaky ride to say the very least, but that shaky ride could give us the head start we needed. And if we took the long way, by the time we got to Zerij it might already be too late and the Triceratons would be gone. We really had no choice. I took a deep breath and turned to the others.
"Buckle up, girls. It's gonna be a bumpy ride." Mona and Jhanna didn't look too thrilled, but Mona and Starlee sat down in the same pod as last time and Jhanna slipped into her own and Traximus squeezed himself into his own pod. The Professor turned to me.
"You'd better go and sit down, Donatello. I've set the coordinates for the wormhole, and we'll get pulled into the gravitational pull in less than five minutes." I bit my lip, took a deep breath and then looked up at the Professor.
"Uh, actually, if it's all the same to you, Professor, I'd like to drive the ship through the wormhole." He looked surprisedly at me, and the others also looked up and stared at me. Jhanna brushed some of her bangs out of her face, which showed her surprised eyes.
"But you said that you didn't feel like you handle it. You said you weren't ready-"
"I know what I said. But I also know that I need to step out of my comfort zone and step up and actually do things if I want to save Earth. I need to do this." Before anyone could answer, the ship started shaking a little, indicating that it we were close to being pulled into the wormhole, so the Professor hurried over to the other pod and sat down beside Jhanna. I looked down at the controls in front of me and sat down. My eyes fell on the big yellow button that I needed to push in order for us to be safe throughout the whole trip. Miss it and we would get crushed.
"Take it easy, Donnie. You can do this. Just focus and don't lose your head-" I barely got to finish the sentence before it started again. The shaking intensified and the whole ship started to shake like ten earthquakes at once. And it was much worse to sit at the front of the ship than in one of the pods behind me. They at least gave you more of a chance to brace yourself and not slam your head against the metal in front of you. Here there was no real protection against the craziness inside the hole.
I reached forward to push the button, but was just slammed into the back of my seat. It was a chore to move forward at all and every time I was close to hitting the button I was thrown back again. It was just impossible to reach it without getting thrown back again.
"Ugh, D-Donnie!" Jhanna's strained cry somehow reached my ears and I gritted my teeth. Come on, Donnie! You can do this. You can do do this! Show them, show them all what you can do. I reached out my hand and grabbed the keyboard so I could pull myself forward and raised my other hand. This is it. Only a few seconds left now. My hand on the keyboard started to slip, I had to act now. I pulled myself a little further and just as my hand was about to lose its grip, I slammed my hand down on the big yellow button with all the strength I had left.
Seconds after I hit the button I was slammed against the back of the seat and hit my head against the cold metal and almost lost consciousness. The stars outside the window flew by so fast that they all looked like white blobs that went by at more than a million miles an hour. Once again I found myself unable to move or speak and colours started to flash outside the windows again. My breathing was getting more and more shallow and for second I thought I was gonna pass out again, just like last time, but then suddenly it stopped. Very suddenly. So much so that when the shaking stopped and we were flying smoothly again, I almost flew face first into the keyboard in front of me. I placed my hands in front of me and panted like a dog to try and get my head together again.
I did it. I actually did it! I drove a spaceship through a wormhole going at hyper speed! I felt like jumping up and down and squealing like a schoolgirl, and I probably would have done that if it wasn't for the fact that I was drained of energy and if I tried to jump I would most likely throw up. But still, I had pulled through. That was incredible. Ooh, if only the guys had been here to see me. Captain Donatello's first official act as captain onboard a spaceship. So awesome!
Oh, right, the guys. I turned to look over my shoulder at the others in their pods. "Guys, are you still alive?" Jhanna groaned and sat up straight in her seat, trying to push her hair out of her face. She rubbed her forehead, which gave me the idea that she had slammed her forehead against the metal in front of her, but I didn't see any bruises. She looked at me and shot me half-hearted glare.
"Hmph, you like to wait till the last second, don't you?" I rolled my eyes at her and stood up. I grabbed my crutch and walked over to others, who were starting to climb out of their respective pods. Mona looked pretty normal but both Starlee and Jhanna looked like they had just gotten out of bed. Or a giant hairdryer. I had seen what a hairdryer on the fritz could do to a girl's hair after April had lived at our place for a few weeks before that first invasion. It was not exactly pretty.
Starlee groaned nauseously and drew her fingers through her hair, pushing her bangs out of her face and up on the top of her head, to then let them fall down the sides of her face. And Jhanna just pulled out both her ponytails and re-tied them instead of trying to brush through them with her fingers like she usually did.
"So, how far until we get to Zerij from here?" Mona asked and it looked like she was trying her hardest to not throw up. The Professor, who had been helping Traximus stand up from his own pod, came over to us with his usual robot smile.
"Well, we have the coordinates set for Zerij. And thanks to the wormhole we should be there by tomorrow, like I said." He turned to me and gave a thumbs up. "Excellent driving, Donatello." I smiled, and I had to admit, it felt really good. Jhanna gave me a wry smile and a thumbs up.
"Yeah, I gotta admit, that was pretty cool. Even if the ride was a nightmare. Nice job, Captain D." Starlee hugged my arm and smiled widely at me, flashing her bright white teeth like pearls.
"I knew you could do it! See, all you needed was to believe in yourself." Traximus smacked me on the back and smirked at me and gave me a 'good job' as well. Even Mona seemed to be happy with how things had turned out, though she did look a little bashful.
"Yeah, that was a pretty good fly-through. Good job." I didn't know what to do with myself. All this praise and these guys who were more than happy to tell me how well I had flown through that wormhole, it was pretty overwhelming. I was still smiling, but now I must look like an idiot, 'cause my smile practically went from ear to ear.
"Thank you. That's really nice of you." Then I remembered my idea and looked over at the Professor. "Hey, I got an idea for something I wanted to build earlier. Do you think there are any tools on this ship that I can use? And maybe a place where I can build?" He nodded.
"There are tools in that room with spacesuits and gear. You are more than welcome to use them. But, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly do you plan on doing with them?" I adjusted my crutch a little and started to walk towards the room to grab the tools.
"You'll see. It's a surprise."
A/N: And finally it's done! To all the other writers out there, never attempt to write two chapters at the same time. You'll just overwhelm yourself. That's my writing tip of the week to you. Now, I will try to find a day to update once a week, but I can't promise anything since I've to balance out school and everything else I have to do. But I'll try to find day that will be my updating-day. I'll aim for Wednesdays or Thursdays, or maybe the weekends.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!