A Million Miles Apart
A/N: Pop quiz! What's got two thumbs and just graduated from high school? This girl! Yes, that's right, I've finally graduated high school and I'm done with twelve years of school! What a big relief. And I'm taking a few weeks for vacation and to just get away from all the stress I got from school before I start looking for a job. So hopefully I'll get more time to write, because the Ypsagon-arc is one I have been looking forward to writing for some time, since my beta and I have been talking about ideas for this story, and this arc has quite a bit of action, emotion and darkness. Hopefully you'll enjoy this arc, starting today.
I hope you'll like this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!
Chapter 54, No Reptiles Allowed!
"Now remember, Donatello, the average Triceraton relies solely on his strength. And we, as a species, have very small brains. So most Triceratons have nothing but brute strength." I nodded and looked up at Traximus, who stood in front of me in the holo-dojo and had his 'serious trainer look', as I had come to recognize it as. Traximus had a certain seriousness about him that reminded me so much of Master Splinter, but without any of the dry wit and snarky sense of humor, which at first had made training a bit tough to get through, but I was starting to get used to by now. Though it didn't help that I usually had kneel down in front of him when he was talking or doing demonstrations.
We had been training almost nonstop for the last few days, and I'm happy to report that I was finally starting to show some progress. Not much, to be sure, but I was able to stay on my feet for the most part when we sparred, and that was enough for both him and me. Traximus had been very pleased when I had finished his test, so when he had come into the dining and entertainment room where the girls and I ate breakfast, he had told me to finish quickly so we could start as soon as possible. Which had made me incredibly ecstatic.
And now Traximus was talking about the best ways to fight Triceratons, and he had my full attention. He looked me in the eyes with serious and honest eyes of his own. "I'm going to be honest with you, Donatello; you will never be as strong as a Triceraton. But you can be smarter, and use your size and brain to your advantage. You can work on your agility and speed, as well as your physical strength, and thus learn to defeat them in ways they won't see coming." I nodded and gripped at my kneepads.
"Okay, but do Triceratons have any weak spots? I mean, I know all warriors have their own unique strengths and weaknesses, but still, are there any specific weak spots I should know of?" Traximus smirked lightly and gripped his hands behind his back.
"Yes, you might say that. Even though we have very compact bodies and strong bones, there are certain parts you should aim your attacks for, if you want them to be effective. We have rather weak joints; our skin is weaker and the armor is not as strong in those places. But I really think you need to focus on training your speed and agility. Zanramon's men have brute strength- that's all they have. Even strength has to bow before intelligence every once in a while." His smirk turned into a gentle smile and he leaned down slightly so he could look me in the eyes. "And you have more than enough intelligence, don't you?" I blushed lightly and looked away.
"W-well, y-yeah, I-I guess." He smiled a little wider, then straightened up again and got into a fighting stance.
"I will now show you a technique that might be a little tricky, but once you get it right it will be most useful in a fight. I learned this from a fight with the Federation in my youth. It did not translate well into my own fighting style, but I think you will have an easier time doing it. It does seem to work better for smaller beings, such as yourself." I nodded and jumped to my feet, ready to soak in everything I could.
Traximus got into a rather basic stance, his left foot slightly to his left in front of him and the right foot slightly behind him. He also placed his arms in a familiar manner, looking ready to defend himself. He looked over at me for a second.
"Now, observe carefully." He ran forward a few steps, did a small jump and landed with his feet in the same position, twisted his upper body and reached his right arm forward and then reached up his left arm in a motion that made it look like he was throwing someone over his shoulder. He looked back at me.
"Now, I will show you again- slower. Observe carefully." I nodded and he got back into position. He did the move again, only in virtual slow motion this time. But when he got to the part where he reached out his right arm, he turned to look at me.
"When you do this," he moved his right arm in the same motion a few times to show what he meant, "you have to aim slightly below the kneecap." He showed the point on his own knee and made the move all the way through, moving on to the next part with his left arm.
"And when your opponent falls forward, you place the your hand here." He placed his other hand on his chest, slightly below his solar plexus. "It will give you an advantage, as your opponent's weight needs to be on your side, or you will more than likely break your wrist or entire arm. You should probably practice this move on lighter opponents until you get it right. No need for you to hurt another body part so soon after your knee healed, correct?" I smirked and shook my head.
The fact that my knee had healed as quickly as it had was something that really puzzled everyone on the ship. Mona in particular was incredibly confused with how well the fire lily potion had worked, claiming it worked well, but not that well. I had been confused at first, but eventually chalked it up the fire lily potion being stronger than we had thought. I mean, what other explanation could there be? There was no other logical explanation for the quick healing. But then again, nothing had felt logical for the last few months. But, either way, I had used this new development to train as much as I had energy for. If I was going to lead these guys into a war with the Triceratons, I needed to go from The Inventor to Captain/Leader.
I got to my feet and into the same position as Traximus and clenched my fists lightly. "I'm gonna try the move. I think I get it." I narrowed my eyes in determination and ran the movements through my head a few times before I took a few steps forward, ready to try the move. I jumped, twisted my upper body and tried to move my arms in the same motions Traximus had showed before I turned to look at him. He smiled lightly and walked up to me.
"Almost." He grabbed my right arm and gently moved the it the correct way. "Your arm needs to be straight, or you might risk injuring it. And your left arm was too low. A little higher, or you might end up having your opponent land on you. And remember, keep your back straight." He let go of my arm and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Try again." I closed my eyes, took a deep breath through my nose and let it out of my mouth, nodded to myself and narrowed my eyes again, ready to try again.
But before I could do anything, a loud crash was heard and the ship jolted so sharply that I completely lost balance and I would most likely have hit the ground if Traximus hadn't grabbed me and steadied me. But even he had a hard time keeping his balance. The floor seemed to move under us, and the ship suddenly turned upside down, making both of us fall to the floor. Traximus wrapped his arms protectively around me to make sure I didn't hit my head. Thankfully the ship's jet rockets evened it out again and it turned rightside up rather quickly. I drew the conclusion that the ship had hit something and that that something must've been really big and had quite the orbital velocity. But why had we hit anything to begin with? I mean, the Professor had mentioned something about us going through an asteroid belt today before arriving at Ypsagon, but hadn't he programmed for the ship to avoid the asteroids?
Once the ship was flying normally again Traximus removed his arms and looked down at me. "Are you alright, Donatello?" I nodded and drew a shaky breath.
"Y-yeah, I- I think so. Thanks." I drew another breath and stood up on shaky legs, with Traximus following my example. "What happened?" The Triceraton looked back out the window, towards the control room.
"I believe the ship hit something. We should go and check, just to be safe." I nodded and we both headed out of the holo-dojo, the new kata completely forgotten.
In the control room the Professor was already working on the computers as Traximus and I came in through the doors, with the girls hot on our heels. But before I could say anything, Jhanna took the initiative and started shouting angrily.
"What the heck happened, Zayton?! I thought you programmed for the ship to avoid the asteroids!" I winced at her loud voice and placed one finger over my left ear to avoid any damage to my tympanic membrane. Jhanna rarely yelled at the that loudly anymore, so I knew she was really angry- and an angry Jhanna could be either really productive (less likely) or really dangerous (exceedingly likely) depending on the situation, so somebody needed to calm her down before she broke something. Starlee seemed to realize this and placed a steady hand on her sister's shoulder to try and calm her down while I stepped up to the Professor as he started to explain himself.
"I did! And I highly doubt that my calculations were off. According to the ship's computes the route was safe, until a sudden change. My best guess is that one of the asteroids hit another one, which resulted in it hitting our ship. It's incredibly difficult to factor ricochet into the calculations as it's hard to foresee and predict the amount of force." I looked over his shoulder at the computer screens and saw that he was right. I glanced over at the other screens as well to try and gauge how bad the damage was, but couldn't find any, so I turned to the Professor.
"How bad is the damage to the ship?" The Professor pressed another button and the screen showed the whole ship, a few red circles pulsating on the roof, slightly above the right wing. He groaned and clutched at his head.
"Ugh, wonderful. It seems we've received some heavy damage to the ship's fuel containers. I can easily fix the hole in the ship, but the roof has been severely damaged and we don't have the tools to fix that. Plus, we are going to need to make sure there's nothing else broken that we can't see." I nodded and in the corner of my eye I saw Starlee come up to us, still wearing her roller-skates, to look over the damage. Mona also started speaking.
"Will we be able to get to Ypsagon?" I checked the damage and then how far away we were from the planet. I nodded and turned to look at her.
"We should be. Ypsagon is less than an hour away, and if we speed up a little bit we should get there in thirty minutes. We should be fine." Both Jhanna and Mona let out a sigh of relief and Traximus also seemed a bit relieved.
"I don't think we have much of a choice. We need to there before the ship receives more damage or the fuel containers give up. I say we go for it." The Professor nodded and started to speed up the ship.
"Well then, let us go forward!" Starlee and I looked at each other, nodded and left him to make those changes on his own. It would probably go quicker that way, anyway. Jhanna leaned on one leg, slightly tilted her head to the side and rested her hand on her hip.
"So… what do we do now? We'll be there in thirty, but what do we do until then?" I shrugged, but before I could answer, Traximus opened his mouth and rested one hand on Jhanna's shoulder and one on mine.
"We should pack a small bag of essentials for the night. It's late and by the time we arrive it should be dinnertime. We should find a hotel or an inn to stay at while the ship gets repaired. It would be too hazardous to stay in the ship while the work is done. So I suggest you pack a bag with clothes and whatever you need for the night." We all looked at each other. That sounded like a good idea, so we all headed off in our own directions to pack.
I didn't have much to pack other than my weapon, T-Phone and the leather pouch Chief Patowan had given us that contained the money he'd generously donated, plus the two thousand zemulacks that crazy native guy had given us on Zerij. I also grabbed the tracker-amulet from my drawer and placed it around my neck so I could keep an eye on the Black Matter inside. There really wasn't much else to pack, and I didn't have any bag to put it in anyway, so I was pretty much ready to go.
I ran back to the dining room to wait for the others and found Traximus already there. He had his axe in hand and nothing else, but he didn't seem to need anything else. I eyed him from the door and then slowly walked over to sit on the couch. I had been training with Traximus for some time now and we had shared the same living space for the last few months, but I still knew so little about him. I knew he had been a soldier in the Triceraton Army once upon a time, he had tried to overthrow Zanramon at one point and had ended up in prison for twenty-something years, and he seemed very wise and compassionate. But that was pretty much it; I knew nothing else about him. But I was still scared to ask him about things, because I didn't want to touch any nerves. Still, I couldn't help being curious.
Jhanna and Starlee came in through the doors with one bag each thrown over their shoulders. Jhanna had a relatively small bag, probably with her nightclothes and some other necessities she thought she might need- she wasn't one to bring things she wouldn't need. Starlee had a slightly bigger bag, probably to contain her tech, some clothes and whatever else young girls on the run to save a planet carried with them.
Mona didn't bring anything other than the bottle with the healing potion, her weapon in her belt and the pink ribbon she currently had tied around her neck. Nothing else seemed to be needed. Jhanna walked up to me and adjusted the bag over her shoulder.
"So, we're all ready, right?"
I nodded and leaned back on the couch. "Yeah. I guess all we can do is wait." She nodded and sat down beside me, rested her feet on the coffee table and laid her head on the couch's backrest. Starlee came up and sat down on the opposite couch, waving at Mona to join her, to which Mona agreed with a soft smile.
No one knew what to say so I leaned my head back, closed my eyes and dreamed myself away. It wasn't something I did too often, since I found it hard to turn off the scientific part of my brain, but sometimes I managed to do it. And right now, I dreamed myself back to Earth, but not to New York, as you might believe. No, I found myself in a small town in the state of Maine. A little town named Chamberlain, where a young, tortured girl with telekinetic powers lived. Not in real life of course, but in the Stephen King realm of fiction known as Carrie.
Yeah, I didn't think too much of Mr. King, but when I found that book in the sewers and read it for the first time, it really spoke to me and it quickly became one of my favorite books. I had seen myself in Carrie White's character and found myself wishing death and destruction on the people who hurt her, which was quite the achievement as I didn't wish death upon that many people. Not even my worst enemies. But Carrie's plight made me identify with her and I had found myself wishing for the same kind of powers that she had so I could punish people who wronged me and hurt me. Then I woke up and realized that I could never kill anyone, not even on my worst days. Especially not the people I cared about, like my friends or family. Yes, my brothers and I didn't always get along. Yes, I had a hard time talking to my father. And yes, Casey and I had our disagreements and arguments. But I could never bring myself to severely to hurt them, let alone kill them. Carrie managed to kill her mother with her powers (never mind that she actually deserved it) but she had been devastated afterwards, despite the situation and what her mother had tried to do to her.
I clutched the amulet around my neck and it felt like something was pulsating inside the metal- it made something inside me feel warm. I was starting to feel strange about this amulet, since it had acted really strange around me. My heartbeat got faster and my whole body seemed to react when the lights started flickering like they sometimes did. It hadn't made me feel sick, quite the opposite really, but it still felt wrong for some reason. I would need to talk to the Professor about it later.
"Everybody, we're here! Get ready to land." I jerked from my thoughts and opened my eyes. Starlee was quick to get up on her feet and quickly skated to the other room- that was going to be a common occurrence now, wasn't it? Jhanna and Mona also got up and ran after her. I was still clutching my amulet and it almost felt hard to pull my hand away from the thing. I looked down at it, as if I expected it to attack me or something, and I found it a little hard to tear my eyes away from it once they made contact. When I finally managed to look away, I found myself alone in the room, so I hurried into the control room, hoping I hadn't missed too much.
Once I got into the room, the first thing I saw was the planet outside of the window. Out of all the planets I had seen so far, this had to be the one most unique-looking and quite literally out of my world. Though I understand that's not really saying much, considering I hadn't seen that many yet, but still. It looked like something I could see in a Star Wars movie, or any sci-fi movie, really. The planet was bright red, nothing at all like Mars, and it almost looked like a ginormous colored lamp. It also had a thin asteroid belt around its circumference. It was much smaller than the ones on Saturn and it wasn't as solid, but still, it was very much there. It was also much bigger than both Zerij and Filione had been. I couldn't help but smile at the sight and walked up between Mona and Starlee to get a better view.
"It's so beautiful." Starlee looked up at me and smiled widely, letting her pearly white teeth show.
"Yeah, isn't it? I can't wait to go down there and see what they've got to offer." Mona looked over at her with a small smile, but a serious look in her eyes.
"This isn't a vacation, Starlee. We're here to find Pluto Khan, take whatever info he's got for us and then leave. Nothing else." Starlee rolled her eyes and brushed her bangs out of her face.
"Yes, I know that! But we might still be able to have at least a little fun before we leave. It's been so long since we've been able to enjoy anything! I mean, there's not that much to do on this ship that's fun." Jhanna looked over at her sister with a teasing smirk.
"Speak for yourself, sis. I always manage to keep myself entertained." Starlee just groaned and rolled her eyes again, only this time without any smile or sign of tolerance and kept her eyes locked on the planet ahead. Jhanna noticed this and her smirk faded into a hurt frown. Mona and I eyed each other, silently asking each other whether one of us should say anything, but before we could the Professor looked up from his computers with his usual cheerful smile.
"We are on our way down now- we should land in two minutes. Please sit down in the pods and keep your arms and legs inside the pod at all times until we have landed safely." We all hurried down to the pods and sat down as the ship started to fly downwards. It went by pretty fast and before I knew it, we had flown through the planet's atmosphere and landed by what looked like some form of workshop for spaceships. Once the ship had landed, I got up and looked over at the Professor.
"Professor, we're gonna go and try to find a hotel or inn to sleep in. Are you coming?" He looked up and shook his head.
"No, I think I should stay here. I will stay and help with the repairs and make sure it all goes well. Besides, I don't need sleep. I'm a cyborg, remember?" We looked at each other, nodded, said a quick goodbye and wished him luck before heading towards the doors.
The first impression I got from Ypsagon was hot. There were two burning suns in the sky that were both setting, and the temperature must've been over 104° Fahrenheit. I had only been outside for a minute and I was already starting to sweat.
Next I noticed that it was big, loud and pretty crowded. Sure, most people seemed to be going inside clubs, pubs or other places, but there were still a lot of different kinds of aliens running around. But one thing that really hit me was the color of most of the houses: a bright green. Oh, sure there was a lot of color here and there; really it was like one big color palette. But there seemed to be a whole lot of green in there, too. Though, like I said, not everything was green. Most of the people were wearing different colored clothes, the houses had splashes of color here and there and ahead of us, in the town square, was a huge water fountain- the blue water really stood out against all the green. The road also had a nice hue of yellow, and in the dying sunlight it looked like gold. It all reminded me of the images of The Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz when Splinter had read it to us when we were kids. And it knocked all the air out of my lungs and I couldn't look away.
"It's… it's so beautiful." Starlee nodded with a wide smile and sunlight gleamed in her eyes. She looked just as blown away as I was.
"I know, right? It looks like we stepped into paradise!" Jhanna also looked impressed, but she looked a tad more skeptical, with a raised eyebrow and a small frown on her face.
"It looks like we stepped into expensive-town. How the heck are we gonna afford a room at any of these places?" Mona looked over at her and pushed her bangs out of her face.
"Well, we could just ask anyone if they know of any less expensive inns around here, or any other place. There has to be some place in this city we can afford." I nodded slowly and bit my lip. Both Jhanna and Mona had a solid point. This city looked extremely expensive, but there had to be some place that was less pricey around here. At least I hoped there was, or I had no idea what we would do. I took a deep breath through my nose, let it out through my mouth and hastened my steps.
"Come on, let's try to find a good place." We walked up the street and kept an eye out for anything that might look like a hotel or inn. But every one we came across was way out of our price range. Traximus took the lead and thankfully he had placed his axe on his back and covered it up a little so no one would see it was a weapon. Sure, Jhanna, Mona and I also had weapons, but they were not as conspicuous as Traximus' axe, so we hadn't bothered covering them up.
But as we kept walking, my eyes jumped around from place to place and I almost forgot what we were doing. Everything was so beautiful, bright green, and the sun's light in the green stone made it all look like actual emerald. It was absolutely breathtaking and it was hard to look away. This whole part of the city was mostly made up of skyscrapers, palaces, mansions, tall apartment buildings and all kinds of other buildings. Loud music was pumping out from almost every building, and there were a lot of big signs that I assumed would light up after night fell. It all looked like a bigger and fancier version of Las Vegas.
I suddenly bumped into someone and we both fell to the ground with a shared yelp of surprise. I hit my head against the golden pavement and quickly sat up, rubbing my head to try and quell the throbbing pain. The other guy didn't seem to be feeling much better, groaning miserably off to the side. He was also a sort of reptilian creature, though he was more dragon-like than lizard-like, his skin an almost pure black and a long tail with stubby spikes protruding from the base of his spine, dark red spots blotched under his green eyes. He was rubbing his head as well.
I gasped and reached out, placing my hand on his arm. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
He looked up at me then smiled a wide, toothy smile, patting me on the shell. "No worries, man; it happens. It ain't like I'm made of glass or somethin'. 'Sides, I've been drinkin' a bit more than I should, anyway." I frowned slightly and just from a slight sniff I could confirm his drink of choice. Very potent alcohol- quite a bit, too, from the looks of his body language and the way his eyes couldn't seem to quite focus on any one thing. I wasn't overly personally familiar with the mannerisms of the inebriated, but even I could tell that that kind of glaze over his hazy eyes meant he'd be suffering quite a hangover later. I quickly got to my feet and helped him up.
"I'm really sorry, man. I just didn't look where I was going and-" The guy just waved it off and shook his head with a smile and a soft chuckle.
"Relax, dude. 's cool. Ain't one to hold a grudge and 'sides, we're here to have fun, ain't we?"
I nodded stiffly and tried to smile, though I'm sure it didn't look very convincing… Not that he could probably register that in the first place. Regardless, I extended my hand for him to shake. "Uh, my name's Donatello, by the way."
He smiled and reached out his own hand, but instead of shaking my hand, he smacked it in a kind of high five. "M'name's Kaiden. Cool to meet another reptile 'round here." He patted my arm and jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the building behind him.
"Hey, wanna go inside? We could grab a drink and meet up with my pals." I was about to politely shake my head and decline when I heard Jhanna calling for me.
"Donnie? Come on, what are you hanging around there for?" She wove through the crowd with Mona and Starlee right behind her, Traximus hanging back- probably so he wouldn't scare the poor guy to death. However, Kaiden didn't seem too scared by the sight of a Triceraton and just grinned brightly at all of us; it was the oblivious kind of cheer that I often saw on Mikey. I shrugged and looked over at the others.
"Guys, this is Kaiden. I accidently bumped into him, so I just wanted to make sure he's okay." I turned back to him. "Kaiden, these are my friends: Jhanna, Starlee, Mona Lisa and Traximus. We're traveling together."
He beamed at my friends and spread out his arms as a drunken greeting. "'ey, th'more the merrier! 'Ya new?"
Starlee, bless her, nodded and smiled politely as though he was behaving completely normally. "Yeah, we're staying for the night while our ship is getting repaired. But none of us have ever been here before." Kaiden laughed enthusiastically (and perhaps a bit exaggeratedly) and lightly nudged her shoulder.
"Yeah? Well boy, 'dju pick the right place to be! Ypsagon's the best planet t'be if you wanna have fun. There's parties, casinos…" He trailed off for a second, either losing his train of thought or trying to think of more attractions, "oh, and beaches… and casinos... and, and amusement parks! Lots to do while ya wait!"
Mona smiled a bit awkwardly and took a step forward. "Right now we would be glad to find a place to stay for the night. You wouldn't happen to know of a good place, would you?"
When Kaiden's eyes fell on Mona he seemed to freeze, and he just stared at her for a while. Eventually he snapped out of it and took a step toward her, taking her hand and trying his darnedest to be charming. "I'll gladly help a fellow reptile out. 'specially when she's a pretty Sal'mandarian." I expected Mona to frown in disgust and push him away, but instead her cheeks flushed and she placed her hand over her mouth, trying to hold back a giggle. It was kinda weird to see her suddenly so easily swayed, especially since she usually didn't let others this close to her (I mean, just look at how long it took for her to get used to me and the others). But I suppose most girls will be receptive to a charming and- I guess? - handsome guy. Especially if he's complimenting her looks; most people like being told they're attractive.
Jhanna rolled her eyes and tapped him hard on the shoulder. "Yeah? Then you might wanna answer the question."
He looked from Mona to Jhanna, swallowed nervously and quickly let go of her hand. He cleared his throat and his cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment. "Oh, uh, right. 'course, Miss-" Jhanna cut him off, her arms folded over her chest, leaning on one leg and tilting her head to the side. The look in her eyes made him shrink back in terror.
"Don't call me 'Miss', mister. Just answer the question so we can-" Starlee glared up at her sister and sharply elbowed her in the side, and while the older girl cried out in pain and rubbed the injured area, the younger stepped forward and smiled her usual compassionate and friendly smile.
"Please forgive my sister, kind sir; she has very little practice in good manners." She spared a moment to pointedly glare at her sister, who shot her a three-fingered salute that I assumed was their equivalent of the middle finger, before the friendly smile was back and aimed at our new 'friend'. "Please, if you know how to help us, we would be most grateful." She looked slightly up and batted her eyes to warm the guy back up again, and it seemed to work, as Kaiden's warm smile returned and his body relaxed again.
"'course I'll help ya. It'd be my pleasure to help such polite young ladies-" he took a second to look disapprovingly at Jhanna before his gaze rested on me, "-and another r'spectable reptile. What's yer price range?" I reached into my belt to grab the pouch of money, but my hand was stilled by Mona's resting on top of it. She seemed to have woken up from her flattered, flirty state and was back to her normal, somewhat cautious self.
"Let's not tell him too much. We don't know who he is or what his motives are. Besides, we can't spend all our money on a hotel room, right?" I nodded and smiled reassuringly at her.
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing. If he tries to steal our money, we have four warriors on our side and he's one guy. We'll be fine." Seriously, growing up watching the interactions in the seedier parts of New York from afar had taught me quite a few helpful things in regards to handling your money safely.
Mona didn't seem entirely convinced, but let me pull the leather pouch from my belt and give it to Kaiden. He opened it with clumsy fingers and quickly counted through the coins and bills (having to restart a few times when he lost count, which didn't help Jhanna's dwindling patience much) before he gave it back to me.
"Well, ya seem to have quite a bit. Though I take it yer not gonna look at the luxurious places, yeah?"
Mona shook her head and rested her hands on her hips. "No, we were given the money to complete a task, so we need to save as much as possible. I think we should try to just spend a few hundred zemulacks."
Kaiden winced, hissing lightly through his teeth and shaking his head. "Then you might have a problem there, Miss." My smile fell slightly and I was little worried for a second. What did he mean, 'problem'? Mona grimaced and Starlee tilted her head curiously.
"What do you mean? Are there no hotels that are that cheap?" Kaiden shook his head and raised his hands to calm her.
"No, not 't all- there're quite a few. The problem's that most of 'em are in a neighborhood that isn't exactly, uh... how should I say this? Uh, let's jus' say that they ain't very fond of us reptiles. Most likely won't letcha in." He pointed at me, Mona and Traximus. He shrugged apologetically with a wry smile. "Sorry, nothing I can do." We all shared a deeply concerned look. Jhanna sighed and rested one hand on her hip, looking completely done with this planet already. I was starting to share the sentiment.
"So what do we do now? Try anyway or go back to the ship?" Traximus shook his head and opened his mouth for the first time during our conversation.
"We can't do that, remember? The ship is being repaired and it would be too dangerous to stay the night in it. I say we go and see if there are any places we can stay in, and if we can't find any, we'll have to go one of the more expensive ones. I don't see what else we can do." Kaiden had been listening to us the whole time, then perked up.
"Oh, or you could camp out in the woods." Everyone turned to look at him. His smile widened and he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Yeah, a lot of people come here from all over the galaxy just t' see the night skies here. You can just join 'em, buy some food and camp out. It won't be that expensive and it's easy!" Traximus hummed thoughtfully and looked to me and Mona.
"Would that be alright for you, if it turns out we have to do that?" Mona and I looked at each other and shrugged. It didn't look like we had any other options, so what could we really do?
Jhanna and Starlee shared a look and shook their heads. "Hey, we don't have to split up! We can all go out in the woods if you have to do that!" Starlee grabbed onto Mona's arm frantically. Jhanna nodded her agreement and made eye contact with me.
"Donnie, you know what happened last time we split up! Is it really such a smart thing to do right now?" I shrugged and pressed my lips together.
"Well, the circumstances aren't exactly the same and we don't have many other options right now. So what can we really do?" Mona nodded and folded her arms over her chest.
"Besides, we can always communicate with each other if something goes wrong. It'll be fine." Jhanna and Starlee didn't look convinced, but Traximus calmed them by placing one hand each on their shoulders and smiling.
"You don't have to worry, girls. We'll meet up back at the ship tomorrow and figure out our next move there. And if something happens, like Mona Lisa said, we can always contact each other through comm link. Everything will be fine." Starlee and Jhanna looked at each other, seeming conflicted, before they sighed and nodded in unison. Seriously, they were so different and had difficulties getting along, but any outsider could see that they were freakishly in tune with each other.
"Okay, if you say so. But let's go see if there is any place we can stay at before we split up, alright?" We all agreed on that, asked Kaiden for directions for the neighborhood he had mentioned, thanked him for his help and made our way down the street.
It wasn't that hard to find the correct neighborhood, really. At the town square with the huge fountain, the road split itself up into four different roads, and the one Kaiden had mentioned looked a lot less grandiose and maintained in comparison to the rest of the city.
As we walked down the street, Mona, Traximus and I picked up a lot more hostility. All kinds of aliens started to look at us in disgust, anger or fear and closed the doors to their clubs, pubs and hotels. But it all was nothing compared to the more physical stuff that happened.
For example, as we passed one pub, where a couple of older guys sat on bench outside, I got a can thrown at me, and Mona got a plastic club thrown at her head. Traximus didn't get anything thrown at him, but I guess even the dumbest, most small-minded bigots aren't stupid enough to tick off a Triceraton. Especially since this one carried a weapon on his back. They weren't smart enough to keep their mouths shut, though.
"Hey! Go back to the forest, you dirty reptiles! This city wasn't built so you could come and wreck it!"
"Yeah, isn't it bad enough to harass the entire galaxy with your pointless wars? Why do you have to drag them to our fun, too?"
I pressed my lips together and tried to ignore them. I knew these kinds of guys weren't going to listen to anything we had to say, so I tried to not listen. It was hard, though- partly because they were extremely loud, but also because of their hurtful words. Like all reptiles had joined the Triceratons in their wars! Like all of us backed the Triceratons!
But still, I knew they weren't worth getting angry over, so I tried even harder to ignore them. Traximus didn't show any emotion at all, almost as if he hadn't heard or seen them, and Mona just brushed them off like it was nothing.
But Jhanna was not about to let the insults go unanswered and stopped dead in her tracks, turned towards them and yelled back so loudly that her cheeks started to turn purple. "Hey! Why don't you mind your own business, losers! We're not bothering anyone, we're just walking here!" If she scared the guys at all, they didn't show it. They just laughed and pointed at her. Starlee grabbed at Jhanna's arm and tried to drag her away from them.
"Come on, Jhanna, let's go. Just leave them be- they're not worth the time or effort," she whispered, but Jhanna just yanked her arm free and glared over at the jerks, still lounging on their bench. One of the guys, a huge yellow alien with a potbelly, pointed at me and then at Mona with a clawed finger, smirking.
"Hey, you spineless do-nothings don't got the guts to defend yourselves? You need a humanoid little girl to stand up for you?" Jhanna's whole face turned purple with rage and she grabbed at the sword in her belt, about to stomp over to them when Traximus grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her off the ground. She kicked and squirmed while screaming at them and flailed with her arms to try and get Traximus to put her down.
"Shut up, fatso! You don't get to smack talk my friends- only I get to do that!" Traximus rolled his eyes and gestured at us to keep walking. As we started to walk, we heard the guys on the bench mocking us until they were out of earshot. Only then did Traximus put Jhanna back down on the ground. She was still brimming with anger and turned to him, nearly frothing at the mouth. "What did you do that for?! I would've made them regret insulting any reptiles for the rest of their lives!"
Traximus growled slightly and shoved her a little to make her quiet down. "Jhanna, stop screaming; you're just attracting more bad attention. By attacking prejudiced people, you're not making yourself look any better- or the parties you're defending." Jhanna's anger start cool down slightly, but she was still quite angry and glared up at Traximus.
"How can you say that? You mean you don't want to make those guys stop talking trash about reptiles and how they're all evil monsters? You know it's not true, so why shouldn't we call them out on it?!" Mona rolled her eyes and whacked Jhanna over the head.
"Newsflash, Jhanna, those kinds of guys are everywhere. You can't make them stop thinking stupid thoughts just by yelling at them. If anything, you only make it worse. They get to see the satisfaction of seeing you angry and 'weak' so to say. Besides, you only do the same thing as they do: yell insults and be a jerk. Why stoop to their level?"
Jhanna stared at both of them with a wide mouth and disbelief in her eyes. She then turned to me, closed the few feet between us and grabbed my arm desperately. "Donnie, you see my point, right? We have to call these guys out on beings bigots, right? They can't just say these things and not get retribution for them!"
I shook my head and held my hands up placatingly. "Of course they can't- but yelling and screaming and threatening to attack people just because they say or do dumb or bigoted things isn't the way to do it. My father told me that people are afraid of what they don't understand, and scared people usually want to have something to blame for how bad things are. For example, if there's a war going on, it's much easier to put all the blame on one group of people rather than try to see things from every perspective. Especially if they don't have all the answers, or if someone tells them that it's that group of people's fault."
Jhanna bit her lip and took in what I said, but I started talking before she could answer. "Also, I've come to learn that it's important to let mean words and nasty comments just wash over me. Words are just words until I decide to take offense and turn them into weapons. And yes, sometimes we need to fight back and stand up for ourselves- but not against people who obviously aren't worth the effort. Now, come on, let's keep moving." I didn't wait for an answer from her and we started to trudge down the street again.
Eventually we made it to a small hotel with a two-headed doorman posted outside, and both of their heads, with four eyes on each, were focused on us.
Starlee smiled and pointed to the door. "Come on, let's try here!" She ran up to the doorman and smiled her angelic smile. I guess she was hoping to warm them up so they would let us all in. But this guy didn't seem to be quite as easy to sway as Kaiden had been.
"Hi! My friends and I are looking for a place to stay for the night. Do you have any rooms available?" She batted her eyes, smiled sweetly and folded her hands behind her back. The doorman's left head looked to the right one, then they both shook their heads and said:
"No reptiles allowed." Starlee jumped back at his (their?) loud voice and lost her smile. Her eyes darted left, then right, and then back at the doorman. She laughed nervously and put on her cute smile again, though this time it looked a bit forced.
"Uh, heh, but our ship is out of commission and we can't afford any of the other hotels. So maybe if you could overlook your policy just this once, we would be very grateful-" she'd barely finished the sentence before the guy interrupted and pointed to his left.
"Look, kid, this hotel doesn't harbor war criminals. Find some other place and beat it." Jhanna went up to her sister, lightly shoved her behind herself and glared up at the guy. She still seemed a bit unwilling to talk after what had happened before, but her eyes said more than enough: 'Don't start yelling at my sister.' Mona and I came up and I pulled the pouch from my belt.
"We're not asking for charity, man. We'll pay for it." The left head narrowed its eyes at me, leaned down to my eye level and his many eyes seemed to try and stare into my soul.
"Money you've earned, or stolen? Because we don't let thieves stay here, either. Get out of here." Mona narrowed her eyes and took a step forward.
"Hey, this isn't off-limits. The hotel doesn't let reptiles in, but we can stand here as much as we want." Apparently loitering wasn't illegal on this planet, as that statement wasn't contested by the creature. Instead the doorman's right head looked over at her and he lowered his voice threateningly.
"If you don't leave this place in five minutes, I'll call the cops."
I placed my hands on my hips and glared up at him. "On what charges?"
He seemed stumped and started thinking for about a minute, but then he seemed to get an idea and looked back at us. "Harassment and unlawful threats." Both Mona and I looked up at him in disbelief. My jaw hit the ground and Mona's eyes were dinner plates. We looked at each other, then we looked back at him and it took a whole lot of effort to not start yelling at him.
"Unlawful threat- when did we threaten you?" I felt the anger rise in me and I had to remind myself of my own advice and not start upbraiding him. Mona nodded and from the looks of it she also had a hard time fighting back her emotions.
"Yeah, and how are we harassing you? We haven't done anything. We're just looking for a place to sleep at for the night, nothing else. We're not looking for a fight." The doorman groaned in annoyance and grabbed a sign that stood close to him.
"Look, you two probably can't read, but this sign clearly says 'NO REPTILES ALLOWED!', so beat it. You're scaring away other guests." Traximus came up to us and gently ushered us away.
"Come on, now. It's clear we're not wanted here." He placed one arm around me and the other around Mona and led us down the stairs that led up to the doors to the hotel. Jhanna and Starlee looked after us as we got back on the street, and Jhanna's anger was starting to burn in her eyes again.
"Hey, that's not fair! They haven't done anything wrong!" His right head glanced over at her for a second with eerie calm and even a small smile.
"Calm yourself, Miss. Let me handle these troublemakers; I'll help you two in a minute." His voice was a lot nicer and calmer than it had been just a second ago, which made it clear that he wanted Jhanna and Starlee to check in, but not us. I just rolled my eyes and looked over at the sisters.
"Come on, girls. It's not worth it." But before either one of them could answer, the doorman turned to me, all of his eyes turning cold and harsh in less than a millisecond, and he pointed threateningly at me.
"Shut up, freak! Don't order the young ladies around!" Starlee was now also starting to look more and more angry and she took a step forward, lightly pushing him and glaring up at him.
"Hey! Sexist pig! I can stand up for myself perfectly fine, thank you very much!" The guy looked down at her, obviously trying to remain calm, and somehow managed to look apologetic. Before he could apologize, she continued somewhat smugly, "But that's the least of your issues, buddy. As a young lady, I'm quite appalled at the language you're using towards my friends. You should be ashamed of yourself." She was going to say more, I could tell, but Traximus gently called the girls over and they both came without another word to the doorman. Traximus looked down at them and gestured with his head at the guy.
"Ask him much they take for a room for two." Starlee's eyes widened, Jhanna shook her head and both of them started to protest loudly. But he placed a hand on Jhanna's shoulder and looked down at Starlee.
"You two have to stay somewhere for the night, and we are obviously not welcome here. We will do as Kaiden suggested and camp out in the woods."
The girls' protests were hard to deny, and normally I would have agreed that they could just camp with us, but Ypsagon was a hot, muggy planet, and apparently it stayed so even at night. For the reptiles of our group, this wasn't much of a problem- I much preferred higher temperatures because, even though I was technically warm-blooded, I still had a very low tolerance to cold and found that I'm quite turtle-y when it comes to enjoying basking in warmth. We'd talked this over earlier and found that for Mona and Trax, it was the same- but Jhanna and Starlee were much more humanoid, and their core body temperatures would cause them to be completely uncomfortable with sleeping in high temperatures. They needed air conditioning.
Mona nodded and brushed some hair out of her face with a forced smile. "Yeah, we'll buy ourselves some food and find a good place to sleep. We'll be fine."
Jhanna frowned and folded her arms over her chest and Starlee shook her head. "But-" I held up a hand to stop her and looked back to the guy.
"You have to ask him. He won't answer to us and we need the money to buy food. Ask him." Both sisters looked at each other, sighed and Jhanna turned back to the doorman.
"How much do you want for a room for two?" He gave a disgustingly nice smile and tried to act like the hostility from two minutes ago hadn't happened at all.
"Four hundred zemulacks, Miss. And that includes dinner and breakfast." I rifled through the pouch, eventually found four one-hundred bills and gave them to Jhanna.
"You guys go. Stay here for the night, and we'll meet back up at the ship tomorrow after breakfast, okay?" Jhanna clearly didn't want to say okay, but she knew there were no other way to do this, so she nodded and she and Starlee headed up the stairs again. But she looked up at the doorman with narrowed eyes and showed as much resentment as she could.
"Don't expect any tip from us." That was all she said before she dragged Starlee in through the doors and disappeared from view. Traximus sighed and led us back up the street.
"Come now. It will be dark be soon." Mona and I looked at each other, sighed and followed him. But we kept eye contact for while and we were both thinking the same thing: Ypsagon had not been a very pleasant 'paradise' so far.
A/N: Boy, this turned out longer than I had expected it to be. But I really wanted to give some action, and show some good from Ypsagon and not just the bigoted jerks. Also, it's nice to finally show some of the reptilian-racism I introduced back on Filione. Well, okay, not NICE nice, but you get my point. But this starts out my Ypsagon-arc, and I hope you have fastened your seatbelts. It's gonna be a bumpy ride from here on out.
I hope enjoyed this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!