A Million Miles Apart

A/N: Hi! This week I am early with a new chapter, since I am on a short break from school, and I am taking full advantage of that. So this week I hope to bring this chapter and then a one-shot I have been working on for a while. And this one-shot takes places in the A Million Miles Apart universe, so if you like this story, hopefully you'll like that one too.

One a side note, who else is happy that Zootopia won an Oscar? 'Cause I sure am! Go, Zootopia, I will love you forever!

Hope you'll enjoy this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!

Chapter 49, What do we do now?

Three hours had gone by and we had not heard from the girls since they left- it was really starting to eat at me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm certain the girls can take care of themselves and get out without many problems, but...

I had tried to follow Traximus and the Professor's advice to relax a little. I took a shower, drank some tea and had even tried to meditate to calm my nerves. And anyone who knows me knows that meditation and 'being one with the universe' and all that spiritual stuff Master Splinter taught us was not exactly something I willingly did. I wasn't even that good at it. I blame my brain for that, since it never seems to be able to shut up! I guess that's why meditating hadn't exactly calmed my nerves.

I was currently sitting in the control room and sipping my third cup of tea- quite the feat, considering I hated tea. Especially Splinter's 'calming' herbal teas. But if they could help me relax even the slightest bit, I would take it. If Leo could see me right now, drinking tea like this, he would never let me hear the end of it since I always went on and on about how herbal tea tasted like puke.

"Why are you drinking herbal tea, Donnie? Don't you always say that you wouldn't be caught dead drinking that stuff?" I mumbled to myself mockingly in my brother's voice and sipped some more tea, grimacing at the taste, and straining the muscles in my whole body so I'd swallow it without it making a reappearance. I groaned and put the cup aside. This wasn't working. I needed to get out of here. I needed to get out and stretch my legs a little. I knew that Traximus and the Professor would never let me go outside alone on a planet like this, but I really needed some time alone with my thoughts right now. And yes, I could get that inside here, too, but I needed to get out of the ship and be completely alone for a bit.

I stood up from my seat and headed towards the doors that led outside, using every ounce of stealth that Splinter had infused into me and carried my bō-crutch under my arm so it wouldn't give me away. Traximus was still training and the Professor was looking over the computers and trying to find any info on the other two pieces of the Black Hole Generator- without any success, it seemed. I reached the other room without any problems and started to put my suit back on. It was a little tricky, partly because of my injured leg and partly because I had to make as little noise as possible. But I managed, though the metal on the legs and feet of the suit sometimes hit the ground, making a bit of noise, but thankfully not enough to garner any unwanted attention.

I grabbed my helmet and was about to head outside when I felt a strong hand land on my shoulder, halting my exit. "Going outside alone is not a very wise idea, Donatello." I groaned, leaning my head slightly backwards, and my shoulders slumped in defeat. I turned around to face Traximus, who seemed to have finished training at some point and had taken a shower, seeing how he was dripping wet. I sighed and fingered the helmet in my hands.

"Don't try to stop me, Traximus. I really need to get out of this sardine can and air out my thoughts and-" Traximus removed his hand from my shoulder. His face was hard to read, but he didn't seem either angry at me or like he was trying to play the leader card with me, like Leo sometimes did back at home.

"I won't." I stopped talking and did a double take. What? He wasn't going to stop me from possibly putting myself in danger? Huh, that was new. My arms dropped to my sides; the helmet bounced slightly against my leg.

"You're not?"

Traximus shook his head and put his hand back on my shoulder. "Donatello, I have come to learn that sometimes children need to learn the hard way, and the more you tell them no, the more they're going to want to disobey the orders given to them. Besides, I am not- nor do I intend to take the place of- your father, and I believe you are old enough to make decisions for yourself. So if you're willing to go outside and face the dangers this planet may throw at you, then I won't stop you. Go on."

He stepped out of my way and made a gesture at the door. I stared up at him for a while, then looked at the door that led outside. I looked up at Traximus again and then shrugged lightly.

"Oh, well, um... thank you, Traximus." I grabbed my staff, which I still held under my arm, put it in the holster on my back. I was about to walk outside when Traximus grabbed my arm, making me look over my shoulder at him.

"But, should you need help, know that we are right here if you need us." I nodded with a small smile on my face.

"Duly noted; thank you." I gently pulled my arm from his grip and opened the doors to the ship, swiftly making my exit. I heard the doors slide shut behind me, and I decided to study the glen I was standing in. Or, glen might not be the right word- it was more of a clearing, where no trees grew. The forest seemed to grow in a half-circle around the ship and the opening to the mountain.

I sat down on a boulder and rested my chin in my hands, sighing heavily. You would think that after spending three months in space, the feeling of homesickness would eventually become less prominent after experiencing it for so long; that you eventually grow used to it being there and would find ways to ignore it. But no, of course not. I missed home just as much as I had when I woke up in the Professor's cave on D'hoonib.

In a way, I wanted to be angry at my family. I wanted to stay mad at how they had treated me and not forgive them so easily. And I had my moments of being angry or a little bitter at them, but I still managed to find myself missing them more than I resented them. After being with them for almost sixteen years, I felt like a huge part of me was gone. Like half of me was missing. It felt completely wrong to be out on a mission on my own, without them to back me up.

A sudden prickling feeling on the back of my neck and the sound of rustling leaves made me snap out of my thoughts and I quickly got back up on my feet, pulling the bō staff out of its holster on my back. I looked around the glen and started to make my way to the tree line- I didn't even pay attention to the fact that I was getting further and further away from the ship and started to make my way into the woods. The sound of rustling leaves got louder and was joined by the sound of a few twigs snapping under someone's feet. I couldn't see anyone or anything yet because of the sky getting darker and the moon's light not being strong enough to give much illumination- it was too far away. It seemed that Zerij was so toxic that even its own moon wanted nothing to do with it.

But then, I saw something. A few feet into the foliage on my left, something was making its way through the forest. It seemed to be almost as big as the trees around me, at least ten feet tall, and it had skinny upper arms, almost like bones and branches. Something stuck out of its head, something that looked like antlers, but I couldn't see very well. But the scariest part was the pair of glowing yellow eyes that stared directly at me, making me freeze in my tracks and stare back at the being in front of me. That was all I really saw, and I didn't get a long look before it turned its head and started to walk away, making the ground shudder with every step it took. For a long time all I could do was stare in the direction in which it had walked off. Then the prickling in my neck returned and I turned around. Just in time, too, as a figure with fiery red hair and a raised sword came flying at me from behind, screaming out a battle cry.

I raised my bō staff and easily blocked her attack, trying to stay calm, and smirked at her as her face scrunched up in fury. "You know, Moriah, if you really want a sneak attack to be effective, maybe a battle cry isn't the smartest thing to do. Just a little tip for the future." I gathered all of my strength and pushed Moriah away; she stumbled into a tree and dropped her sword, which made her yelp in pain. But she recovered quickly and growled at me, picked up her sword again and swung it at my head. I tried to dodge her attacks and block them with my staff as best as I could, but it's not easy to jump around and block attacks at the same time when you have a wonky patella. I gritted my teeth and did my best to hide the pain, swinging my staff at her legs. She blocked and kicked me in the chest, sending me into a bush. I'm certain I crushed the bush quite a bit, and it took some time for me get back up again, but she seemed to be kind enough to at least let me get back up before she started to fight me again. Huh. How polite.

She pointed her sword at me and her green eyes were burning with anger. "Where are my sisters? And where is the Fugitoid?" She spat, her fiery hair hanging in front of her eyes, making her look even wilder than she had any other time I had seen her. I narrowed my eyes and gripped my bō tighter.

"What's it to you, princess?" I made sure to spit out the word like it was something foul. "You're not their boss." She grit her teeth and swung her sword at my neck, then aimed a kick at my chest.

"No, I'm their older sister!" Her kick made me stumble back, but I didn't lose my balance and blocked her second attack, aimed at my head. "I have the right to know where they are! And the Fugitoid is Federation property- he belongs to my father!" I held back a growl and launched my foot into her gut. She grunted in pain and gripped at her abdomen, dropping her sword in the process, which gave me enough time to grab her arms in a tight grip, twisting one up against her back and locking a grip on the other arm with my elbow. She sucked in a breath and tried to make me lose my grip on her by smashing the back of her head against my face, to no avail.

"Professor Honeycutt is a grown man and humanoid. He is not property of anyone or anything, especially not the likes of your despicable father, Moriah!"

She snarled at me and managed to land a painful kick on my knee. My bad knee. I cried out in agony and lost my grip on her, dropping to my other knee. She immediately took advantage of that and punched me in the temple, making me fall to the ground. Before I could get back up on my feet again, she placed her boot against my face, right on my scar, and pushed me down, keeping me pinned on the ground and placing her sword against my throat.

"Don't you dare talk about our general like that! He is a true leader and a strong warrior. Not like you, a cowering, disgusting, spineless little reptilian guttersnipe! You know nothing about honor." She then held back a laugh. "What am I saying? You're a reptile! You don't know anything at all! Everything you are is a lowlife, worthless little street rat, and that's all you will ever be!" She kicked me in the face and seemed to believe it knocked me out, but I was still awake. I just couldn't get my body to obey my commands. My brain was a jumble, but my thoughts were as loud as church bells in my head.

'Call for help! Call for Traximus, he can help you take care of her', the rational part of my brain yelled at me, angry that I was stupid enough to think I could handle anything on my own with a busted kneecap. But other voices started to call out to me as well, drowning out the sound of my rational brain.

'She's right, you know. You are worthless. You are nothing but a worthless street rat, and that will never change. It's what you were, are and always will be. You will never be like the son Master Splinter wants you to be', the other part of my brain taunted at me, and Moriah's words echoed in my head. They were then suddenly joined by other voices. Very familiar voices.

"They're aliens from another dimension! What did you expect!? A big round ball with a lit fuse that says BOMB!?"

"Wait, do you still think you have a shot with her?"

"No, not the pizza guy! Take Donnie!"

"You've done nothing but mess up and have almost killed us more than once!"

"No, Donnie! Right now, all you need to think of is making sure that the Shellraiser is ready for tonight. Nothing else matters right now."

"Whatever! All I care about is that you fulfill your duty to this team. If you can't do that, what the heck are you good for, then?"

"I hope you remember this moment the next time you think you'll ever be anything more than weak, pathetic little terrapin freak!"

I gritted my teeth as the insults and berating in my head got louder and louder, and no matter how much I tried blocking it out, it wouldn't go away. I felt Moriah press her sword against my throat, ready to slice.

"And now you will tell me what I need to know, reptilian scum! Or I will cut off limb after limb until you beg for death." I couldn't answer. The voices inside grew louder and louder until it felt like they were screaming at me. But this time, I didn't feel like less of a turtle when I heard them. I got angry. Angry at them, at everyone who had looked at me and told me that I was worthless or only good for being smart or the butt of everyone's jokes. I gritted my teeth until it felt like they would shatter, my eyes flew open and I gripped the sword that was still pressed against my neck.

"No."

Moriah's smirk turned into a slightly surprised and slightly annoyed frown and stared down at me with a raised eyebrow. "What did you say, scum?" I glared up at her, letting loose a growl, and gripped the sword tighter. I didn't care about the fact that the sharp blade was now imbedded in the flesh of my palm, and in a calculated move I gripped the flat sides of the blade with my fingertips to better distribute the weight and avoid cutting my hand in half and wrenched the sword from her grip, simultaneously jerking her closer so I could solidly kick her in the chest, sending her flying away from me and into a tree. I got back to my feet, ignored the searing pain in my leg, and snarled down at her as she rubbed her head and moaned. My knee was screaming in agony and begging me to sit down again, but I clenched my teeth to try and ignore it and looked down at her with fury burning in my eyes.

"I said NO!" I tried to breathe calmly through my teeth; the anger in my blood made me ignore the pain in my hand and my knee and kept my eyes locked on Moriah, who was now on her hands and knees. The still rational part of my brain told me to contact the Professor or Traximus and call for help, but that part was quickly being overshadowed by my anger and frustration. No. I was not gonna back down and call for help. Not this time! This time I was going to stand tall and fight for myself and show this wannabe princess who she was messing with. I took a deep breath, clenched my fists and stood up, strong, tall and proud.

"You're wrong, you're all wrong! I am not a worthless street rat! I am Hamato Donatello, son of Hamato Yoshi, grandmaster of Ninjutsu and the last-born heir of the Hamato Clan! I was born and raised on planet Earth, I am a genius in mathematics and engineering and a trained ninja warrior! I am on this journey to save my planet from a crazed alien species and the weapon known as the Black Hole Generator! And I am not going down at the hands of the likes of you!" I pointed at her face and Moriah looked up from the ground, suddenly looking at me in a twisted sense of awe. Clearly this was not something she had expected from someone like me. A reptile. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"You want a piece of me? Come and get it." I beckoned her with my hand, trying to look as tough as I possibly could- as tough as I felt. I had had just about enough of people telling me I was nothing, and I was not gonna take it from some 'Daddy's Little Angel' like Moriah.

Her face scrunched up in anger once more, she gripped her sword with both hands, and came flying towards me with an angry screech flying off her lips. I clenched my fists and braced myself for a fight. She swung her sword at my head, I dodged and punched her in the stomach again. She leaned forward and grabbed at it for a split second, then got back up and aimed kick at my face. I raised an arm to block it and swung my leg out, knocking her off her feet. She quickly got up again, though, and jumped into the air with her blade raised over her head, yet another yell of determination escaping her. I smirked lightly, braced myself, raised my good leg and landed another kick on her chest. Moriah flew backwards, dropping the sword, and flew straight into a tree. It almost knocked her out, but she was still- somehow- conscious. But she'd also hit her head when she hit the tree and was obviously very dazed, so I walked up to her, cool as a cucumber, knelt down in front of her and pressed my finger on the spot in her neck where I knew there was a pressure point.

"Good night," I whispered and pressed against her neck, making her jerk in surprise, and then knocked her out completely, "and good riddance." I stood up straight and looked down on her. The wind blew through my mask's tails and I let the feeling wash over me. I had won. I had actually beaten Moriah! Even with a bad leg, I had still won against her, even after she had kicked me to the ground. And this time, she hadn't escaped in the last second. I had actually beaten her. Hah! Take that, Warrior Princess. I took a deep breath and let out a snort of disdain at her.

"How's that for a worthless street rat?" I snapped as a sudden beeping was heard from my gauntlet. I looked down in surprise at my arm, then brought it up to my face so I could see on display who was calling me. A quick look told me that it was Jhanna, so I pressed the button to answer the call.

"Hello? Jhanna?"

"Come on, move it! Starlee was a few feet ahead of us, showing us where to go with my flashlight and lighting her own way with hers. Mona and I were going very slowly since we had to carry a heavy piece of technology on our shoulders which was slowing us down immensely. The only reason I wasn't snapping at Starlee for yelling at us was because I was too tired and sore from carrying this piece up the steep slope for this long. I heard Mona mutter something to herself, but she didn't answer Starlee either. I tried to heave the piece further up on my back and shoulders, feeling my knees wobble under me, and I almost fell to the ground.

"We're going as fast as we can, Star! You try carrying a huge hunk of metal on your shoulders- 's not easy!" I didn't have the energy to make it a fully scathing remark, but it was still loud and sharp enough for Starlee to take the hint. She started to look around the tunnel, but then we all froze in our tracks when we heard a loud explosion from behind us. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, we heard Zog's loud voice echo throughout the cave system.

"Hurry, men- find them! Find them and take the fragment! Destroy anything that gets in your way!" Mona whimpered lightly under the weight of the piece and bit her lip.

"Ugh, we'll never beat them and keep their hands off this thing! They'll catch up in no time!" I bit my lip so hard it started to bleed and looked around the tunnel, trying to think of what we should do. Then we both looked up when we heard Starlee's voice call out, a few feet ahead of us.

"Guys, come on! In here!" She had disappeared into a smaller cave and stuck her head out of the opening, waving at us frantically. Mona and I eyed each other, heaved the piece up on our shoulders and walked as fast as we could through the small opening, dropping the Black Hole Generator piece on the ground with a loud *SLAM*. But we weren't quite done yet. Starlee stood at a big boulder and pushed at it with all of her weight pressed against it.

"Hurry, help me move this!" Mona and I ran over to her and pushed the boulder with her. At first it felt like nothing happened at all, but then after a while the boulder started to move and we eventually moved it so it covered the opening completely. Once we were done, both Mona Lisa and I sank down to the ground and started to pant in complete and utter exhaustion. Starlee was still up and had her ear pressed against the wall, listening for the Triceratons. A few minutes of complete silence followed, then she looked down at us with a finger over her mouth to tell us to be quiet. Not a second later, we heard the Triceratons run past the cave, yelling and shouting at the top of their lungs to find us and instructing where the troops should head. I guess they were in such a hurry, they didn't see the boulder that covered the opening to the tiny cave.

As we waited for the Triceratons to pass us by, I looked around the cave we were currently trapped in- although calling it a cave was being very, very generous. We were sitting on a ledge, about thirty feet long and ten feet wide, and in front of us was huge abyss, taking up more than two thirds of the entire space. Our little platform was like one fifth of the whole area. Starlee, who still had her ear pressed against the wall, eventually sighed in relief and pulled away from the rock.

"Okay, they're gone now. I think we're safe." I snapped my head up, stood and went up to her, my tiredness and frustration bubbling up to the surface.

"Safe? Girl, we're trapped inside a giant cave!" I honestly didn't mean to snap at her, but right now I couldn't help it. I was tired and sore from carrying that thing on my shoulders up a steep slope with dangerous creatures and possibly an underground monster on my heels, so excuse me if I was a little cranky. Mona stood and stretched out her back and rolled her shoulders in circles to ease the soreness in them. She leaned her head to each side and her neck cracked slightly.

"Well, at least the Triceratons can't find us here. For now, anyway."

Starlee, always trying to be optimistic, tried to put on her usual smile and clapped her hands together. "Okay... don't worry, we can still fix this. We just need to find another way out of here." Mona rolled her eyes and leaned back against the wall, folding her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, but how? There's no way out except for that opening." I got close as I dared to the edge of the abyss, took a rock from the ground and dropped it down the hole. For a long time we heard nothing, but eventually we heard a very, very small thud as the rock hit the ground. Starlee winced a little when she heard the faint sound, and I stood up and stared down into the dark nothingness.

"And I guess climbing down isn't exactly an option, either," I muttered and walked over to the others. Mona rolled her eyes again and sat down on a smaller boulder, resting her chin in her hands.

"Ugh, great! So we're stuck here." I let out a heavy breath and brushed my fingers through my hair, pushing my bangs up on my head, then letting them fall back down over my forehead.

"Yes, thank you, Captain Obvious, for stating that. Very clarifying." Mona ignored me and leaned her head back against the wall.

"You know, they really should be more open about the dangers on their planet. 'Come to Zerij and enjoy or desolate planet's nature and wonderfully dangerous cave systems where you have the opportunity to get lost, break your necks or be attacked by monsters!'" She talked like someone from one of those annoying advertisements for other planets, and Starlee snickered a little and lightly punched Mona in the shoulder.

"You sound like a displeased tourist, Mona." Mona half-glared at her and stood up.

"Well, don't I have the right to be? What are we gonna do now?" Starlee didn't have an answer for that question, and even if she did no one had the time to answer anything anyway, because seconds after Mona had finished her question a low roar echoed throughout the abyss and we all froze in surprise and fear. Our eyes fell on the darkness a few feet away and looked down into the dark. We saw nothing, but we could still hear the soft rumbling from something moving down there. We backed away as far from the edge as we could and huddled close together. Nothing happened for a long time, but we still felt uneasy and scared.

"What was that!?" Mona eventually managed to whisper out, unable to tear her eyes away from the gaping hole in front of us. Neither Starlee nor I could answer that, but it wasn't hard to assume it was that monster we had seen before, down in the underground lake. But suddenly Starlee got a strange look in her eyes and looked up at us.

"Wait a minute, I just thought of something. If that monster down in that lake had tentacles and crab claws," she left her sentence unfinished, as if waiting for us to catch on, and I held back a groan and looked down at her with tired eyes.

"Yeah?"

Starlee continued, and she seemed to get more and more uneasy and grabbed onto our arms. "And if my guess is correct, it needs to stay down in the water to stay alive..." Both Mona and I looked at each other. None of us had thought of why that monster had lived in the water, but now that Starlee mentioned that, it probably DID need to stay down there. Suddenly the idea of that same monster being down in there didn't seem as likely anymore. Especially since the rock had obviously hit the ground, and not water.

"...Yeah?" Mona answered this time, and she was also starting to look a little more uneasy. Fear was more prominent her eyes now.

Starlee seemed to be counting every sentence on her fingers, as she placed one finger on another one for every sentence she had spoken so far, and now pressed her index finger on her ring finger. "...And it doesn't have claws..."

"...Yeah?" Mona and I answered in unison this time, our eyes glued to Starlee, waiting to hear her get to her point. And even she, at this point, seemed scared of what she was gonna say next. She looked at us and her eyes were drained of her usual optimism.

"...Then what made those claw marks in the cave wall?" The silence that followed was enough to make us all think about what could be down there. Our eyes eventually made their way back to the abyss and once again something could be heard moving around down there. Then we looked back at each other. I gulped and took a deep breath.

"We gotta get out of here- now!" Mona glared at me with half-shut eyes and put both hands on her sides.

"I ask again: how?" We all stopped to think. We couldn't go back, because there were Triceratons running around in the caves and we couldn't both battle them and keep the piece of the Black Hole Generator safe at the same time. We couldn't climb down, because there was a monster down there that could easily kill us since we had to keep an eye on the fragment. And even if there wasn't a monster down there, it would be damn near impossible to climb down with the Black Hole Generator too.

"Can't go back, can't go down..." Starlee mumbled quietly to herself. Then she looked up at the ceiling, and gasped lightly with a smile forming on her face. "Maybe we can go up!" Mona and I looked up at the ceiling and saw a big hole there, where we could see the moon shining faintly through and lighting up a fraction of this huge cave.

"Climb through that hole? Um, how exactly are we gonna do that?" Starlee rolled her eyes and looked at me with slight annoyance.

"By climbing- duh! Come on, Jhanna. You have a brain, use it!" I rolled my eyes too and shoved her slightly.

"Yeah, but how are we gonna carry that thing," Mona pointed at the Black Hole Generator piece that was still lying near the entrance to the cave, "all the way up there?" She pointed up to the hole. It wasn't that high, maybe twenty feet, and the wall seemed easy to climb on, so that was not the issue at all. It was that stupid machine. Starlee bit her lip and looked away.

"Right." Then her face lit up again. "How about if one of us climbs up and ties a rope to a strong tree or boulder, and then we tie the other end to the Black Hole Generator, and then we pull it up and out of the hole with us!" I folded my arms over my chest.

"One, we have no rope that's long enough to reach that far. And two, no rope we have is strong enough to be able to carry that thing out of a hole- and neither are we, for that matter." Starlee glared at me and folded her arms over her chest.

"Well then, why don't you come up with something better, miss 'I know best'? I'm trying to come up with ideas here, but if you know better than me, why don't you give us a plan?" I narrowed my eyes at her and leaned my face closer to hers.

"Well, if you got your head out of the clouds and used your brains for something for logical, then maybe I wouldn't have to!" She gritted her teeth and her hands dropped to her sides, but she clenched her hands into fists as if to contain her anger.

"Oh, so I'm the illogical one here, huh? At least I've actually learned some real facts! All you know is things thieves and crooks taught, which you don't even know if it's true!"

"Well, if you're so smart, how come you don't use that knowledge to help us instead of coming up with stupid, impossible ideas?" The fight would most likely have gone on for a great deal longer if it wasn't for Mona Lisa. She had placed her lightly clenched fist against her face as she tried to ignore us, but eventually decided she had had enough and walked up beside us and pushed us both away from each other.

"Hello, we don't have time to fight! Triceratons and monsters lurking in the caves, remember? We don't how long it will take for them to track the piece to here, and Donnie's counting on us to bring this piece back to the ship. He's put his trust in us, so you have to stop fighting, and we need to think of something, now!" Starlee and I looked at Mona, who never raised her voice, in surprise and then turned away from each other.

"Right, so what do we do, then?" Starlee snapped her fingers with a smile on her face.

"I've got it!" She reached into her belt and took a small gun from its holster. Mona quickly reacted, even quicker than me, and placed a hand on Starlee's arm before she could do anything with the gun.

"W-w-wait! Are you gonna shoot the monster?" Starlee's eyebrows narrowed and her face scrunched up in deliberation.

"I didn't even think of that." Then she shook her head wildly and looked at both of us. "N-no, no! This is a signal gun. I'm gonna use it to signal the others! We'll contact them, say that we need help, fire the gun through the hole and then they'll see the explosion in the sky and know where we are." Mona frowned a little and looked up at the hole, then back at us.

"Then why don't we just contact them and tell them we need help? I mean, firing off a gun that explodes like a firework? That can't be hard to miss. We might attract someone or something even more dangerous. If not other Triceratons, that is." I looked over at her and put my hands on my hips.

"Well, that's not really gonna help us much if they don't know where we are, is it? I mean, I for sure can't tell where we are, and if they try to go in through the tunnels like we did, they might just run into Triceratons and no one will be able to help anyone. I say we have to take the risk." Mona placed a hand against her mouth and bit down on one of her fingers. Then she took a breath and looked up at us again.

"Point taken. Okay, so who should we contact?" I raised my arm to about breast level and pressed on a few buttons on my gauntlet.

"I'll contact Donnie. He'll know what to do." The gauntlet beeped as it searched for Donnie's gauntlet, and it felt like it took forever for any response to come. Then, finally, Donnie answered.

"Hello? Jhanna?" I let out a breath of relief, but barely let him finish saying my name before I started to talk. And I had to hold myself back so I wouldn't start yelling at him.

"Donnie! We need help! We're trapped in a cave and there's no way out!" I usually hated to admit when I needed any help and would rather be caught dead than say I needed it, but in this case it didn't seem like I had much of a choice. Better a little humiliation than being killed by a monster. Donnie was quiet for second, and when he spoke again it was easy to tell that he was worried.

"What? Where are you? I'll get help!" Mona and Starlee came up to me and Mona leaned closer to my gauntlet so he could hear her.

"We had to hide from the Triceratons, so we hid in this cave we found. But we can't go through the entrance we came from, or they might find us. There's a hole in the roof but we can't climb through. We need you to come, and bring Traximus and the Professor with you! We're gonna need as much muscle as we can find." Donnie hummed a little and then spoke again.

"Well, I guess I can contact and tell them where to find us when I get to you. Might spare a little bit of time. But where are you? And why would we need muscle to climb out of a hole?" Starlee bit her lip and had a small smile of excitement on her face.

"We found it, Donnie. The Black Hole Generator piece. We have it right here!" Donnie was quiet for about a full minute. And when he finally spoke again I could practically see him smiling like an idiot.

"Y-you did? That's awesome, girls! I knew you could do it! Don't you worry, we'll have you outta there in no time. Just tell me where you are!" Starlee gripped her signal gun a little tighter.

"Okay, can you see the caves right now?"

"Uhh... hang on!" Donnie was quiet for a minute but we could hear him run and pant as he did. Eventually we could hear him talk again. "Okay, I see them now." Starlee smiled and aimed the gun at the hole in the ceiling.

"Good." She fired and a flare of fire and sparks flew up and out, and then exploded in the night sky. She turned back to the gauntlet. "Did you see that?" Donnie hummed again, this time in confirmation.

"Yeah, I saw it. I'll find you, just sit tight." His gauntlet disconnected from mine and we were left alone to our thoughts. But not even thirty seconds after the call was over, we heard another growl from the abyss in front of us. Mona backed away from the edge and Starlee grabbed onto her arm.

"Uh, you think we should have told Donnie about the monster down there?" I shook my head, but got closer to the others, my one hand resting on my gun.

"Nah, no need to put more pressure on him. We can handle it, should we have to." Another growl was heard and we huddled closer to each other again. Mona placed a protective arm around Starlee and held her hand on the handle of her knife.

"Hurry, Donnie, will ya?"

A/N: Ooh, and the suspense is rising. I'm sorry if Moriah showing up was a bit out of nowhere, since I haven't really mentioned her in a while, but there will be more of her on this planet, and not just this one fight, I promise.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!