Into Battle

The sun was almost gone when the messenger arrived, and Leonardo decided to break his own rule about fighting in the daylight. There were enough thick shadows in the alley to obscure them from a casual glance if someone did happen to look out a window.

Although he knew he had been considering the shadows too long when it looked like they had begun to twitch and move on their own.

With a hand signal and a tilt of his head, Leo told his brothers he planned a flanking attack, and without another thought, he lept off the side of the building. Using the closely spaced fire escapes in a practiced way, he dropped noiselessly into the alley behind the man.

Right away, he knew something was wrong. This wasn't the same man that Chinowa had described. He was of fairly normal stature for a human thug, but the power emanating from him was abnormally intense, and when he turned to face Leo, his eyes flashed redly for a moment.

But it was too late now, they were already committed and Leonardo was not going to back down and lose this chance to find Luna's enemies.

He drew his katanas and stepped into the light to let the thug see him clearly, a tactic he hoped would startle and distract the guy, while his brothers struck from behind. Raphael attacked without warning using a flying kick that should have laid the guy out in the alley. Instead Raph bounced off the thug's back like it was a brick wall. Raph quickly recovered, but not fast enough to avoid a countering punch.

Leo didn't wait, he flung himself forward and into the battle, followed closely by Donnie. Weapons whirling, they managed to force the thug away from Raph, who flipped and rolled through the opening they created.

In two mighty bounds, Raphael launched himself up over his brothers, using the alley wall like a trampoline. He landed with considerable momentum, and all his massive bulk, in the middle of the thugs chest. This time the guy did go down but only for a moment. Both quickly rolled and regained their feet.

The thug backed off a few paces, shook himself and laughed, a horrible grating sound that brought to mind the crackling of broken glass under a booted foot.

"Why all this effort defending a body?" he asked mildly, while easily deflecting a tandem attack from from Don and Raph. Leo waved them back and narrowed his eyes at the thug.

"What do you know about that poor girl?" Leo demanded.

"I don't know or care about the corpse," the thug replied callously, "I just want something she had on her. Maybe you've seen it? It may have looked a bit strange, but by the look of you, maybe not that strange." He smiled evilly. "It's a small bluish flame that has the distressing tendency to fly about on it's own."

Leo's eyes widened and he exchanged glances with Don and Raph. This maniac wanted Sol?

And what was up with the calm acceptance of their appearance? Usually there was all this shouting about freaks. And something was definitely off when a Don/Raph tandem attack did nothing. Leo decided to try another approach.

He deliberately dropped his guard, letting the tips of his katanas hit the pavement in a show of nonchalance.

"I might have seen it," he said cautiously, "What's it worth to you?"

Again came the broken glass chuckle. "Quite a bit actually. My employer would pay handsomely for it, or for any information leading to it's capture, since I doubt you could catch it, even as unusual as you are."

"Oh?" Leo said acting offended, "Then how do you plan to catch it? What use is it anyway?"

Leo thought if he kept asking questions, he might be able to trick the information he wanted from the thug by playing the 'you might be able to corrupt me' ploy.

The man reached into his jacket and Leo immediately raised his weapons, but he only took a strange little sphere out of his pocket. It was about the size of a baseball, but transparent as crystal, except that it somehow reflected a slight reddish gleam from the inside.

Leo exchanged a glance with Don, who shook his head a tiny bit. He'd never seen anything like it either.

"This can hold it," the man said, shaking the sphere and watching the red move slowly from side to side.

"Alone, that little blue flame is of no use. But if you have a complete set," he laughed, jiggling the orb again, "You can join the gods!"

The thug looked past Leo, towards the mouth of the alley, and gave a strange little beckoning gesture. That moment of distraction was all Don needed. He swung his bo and knocked the sphere across the alley. With a roar, the thug leapt after it but it spun out of his hand and rolled even further away.

Then all hell broke loose.

The shadows in the alleyway had grew to enormous proportions. They twisted and moved in a way none of the brothers had ever seen before. Shades broke loose from their moorings and whirled all around, whistling and whispering.

At that same moment, a horde of wide eyed and crazed looking humans charged forward from the street side of the alley.

Luna locked eyes with Michelangelo. Her moon-glow dimmed and went out.

"I'm thinking that whatever made that noise is not so harmless." Mikey said, as another banshee wail rose from the darkness. "What are they?"

"Wraiths. They're a hybrid being, a cross between phantasms and demons, that are eternally hungry. When they feed, they drain power from unwitting mortals; and immortals if they can catch them. They are slaves to whoever summons them and are usually sent to hunt down a specific victim and drag their soul to Tartarus."

"You've been spending far too much time with Donnie. English please for us lesser mortals." Mikey drawled.

"Ghosts Mikey. Big. Scary. Ghosts. Who want to eat you, then take your soul to the underworld. Got it?"

"So... we're doomed?" Mikey asked theatrically.

"They wouldn't be a problem if I was at full strength, but right now... It usually takes a god to banish them before they find their prey, unless Hades can be persuaded to rein them in." She mused. "They're not here yet, so we still have a chance."

"Right! Let's get you out of here"

Quick as a flash, Mikey scooped her up in his arms and started for the elevator, but Luna yelled.

"Not that way Mikey! We can't escape with a physical barrier, they'll just follow us underground. They're looking for our power signature not our bodies. I can shield Sol and my own power from them, but I don't have enough energy to cover you too!"

"That's ok, dudette," He smiled, trying to keep her calm. "Other than my kick ass ninja skills, I don't have any special powers to worry about. Though I wouldn't mind a superpower or two. Maybe flying, or seeing through walls, that could be cool."

"Mikey!" she gasped, "This is serious! You may not have tapped it yet, but you've got so much power you're lit up like an orange neon sign! You might as well have 'eat me' tattooed on your forehead."

"I am? Uh-oh! What should we do then?" he said, stopping his headlong run towards the elevator.

His levity did not stop her panic about his safety. She looked frantically around the top of the building trying to think of anything that might help. Her eyes landed on the milling shades, still drifting all around them.

"I've got an idea! Get us back into the deepest shadows you can find. I'll send Sol away so there is less power to hide." she said.

"Sol?" She made the releasing gesture quickly over her forehead. "Leave me now. Go directly to Leo! Don't stop and don't get close to the wraiths. Ok?"

Before she had finished speaking, Sol had collected itself above her head, and her eyes had gone dark again. But Sol hesitated, hovering above her.

"I've got her Sol, you go!" Mikey whispered, as another howl announced a wraith getting closer.

Sol took off, leaving a small blue trail behind him.

"Ok, now what?" he whispered to Luna, as he clutched her close to his chest and slipped back into the regular shadows of some A/C units.

"Set me down here and find another spot to hide." She whispered back. "This is gonna feel weird, but just stay still and quiet ok? No matter how uncomfortable this is, no matter what happens, don't leave the shadows."

Luna closed her now useless eyes, as Mikey reluctantly left her and moved away. She focused her attention on the group of shades flowing over the rooftop and whispering all around them.

Come to me, little ones! She mentally called to them. Help me and I will deliver you to your eternal peace.

Five of the restless shades stopped their mindless whirling, and moved closer. She called again, but she couldn't seem to attract any more. She sighed,these would only be enough to shelter Mikey.

She shook her head, what was she thinking? He was the one she had to hide. She knew the wraiths were hunting her, but if they saw the beacon of power that was Michelangelo, all bets were off about who was going to be dinner.

? she felt from the curious shades gathering around her.

On my honor as a goddess, shield this one from the wraiths, and I will Send you. She said.

She felt the normally timid shades eagerly agree. The chance to cross over did not come often for these poor creatures, and though they feared the wraiths, it was merely the residue of their human fears.

Spent souls did not interest wraiths at all. They had no power to drain so the wraiths ignored them. With a little boost from Luna, though, the shades darkness would become reflective, keeping the wraiths power hungry gazes away from Michelangelo.

She felt a sudden chill from the depths of the grave, as the shades passed over her to cover Michelangelo. And she heard his sharp inhalation when they gathered around his hidden form. She threw them each a little silver thread of power to increase their reflective capability. Then steeled herself for what was to come.

There was not enough power left to truly shield herself, but she hoped she was drained enough that the wraiths would be confused. Right now her power signature was more like a humans than a goddess.

She smiled grimly. And if not, well, she had an ace so to speak. The wraiths might take her, but Hades owed her a favor.