Ch.7: As The Flame Dims

Wolf had led the turtles as far as she dared to Foot Headquarters. Quickly removing her Foot garb Wolf gave the turtles the specific layout of the situation they were about to encounter. Soliders endlessly roamed the halls both day and night so sticking to the shadows was dead important. Not to mention that every solider had been moved up Karia's level of expertise when it came to martial arts.

Opening up one of the air vents Wolf signaled for the turtles to climb in and everyone started crawling through the narrow metal shaft. Leo was in the lead when a couple of voices caught his ear. Putting a finger to his lips as a signal for the others to be silent he strianed to hear what the two were saying.

"Everything seems to be going as planned Mistress" said a voice which Leo imedately recongized as Chapman's, Karia's right hand man " soon will have everything ready for the Summoning Ceremony,"

"Good" answered Karia " tell Rapheal to prepare, for when Sakavu appears I want to make sure Rapheal stays mine,"

Chapman nodded to Karia and went off to tell Rapheal about his 'girlfriend's' news. Leo was wondering who the heck Sakavu was, it didn't sound japanese, yet something about the name rang a bell somewhere in the back of Leo's mind.

"It's now or never" said Leo to the others " we have to get Raph out of here. But first we need a distraction,"

"I'll do it" volunteered Wolf "you guys go find your brother I got some unfinished business to check on anyway,"

With that Wolf jumped out of the air vent and encountered Karia. Karia was surprised by Wolf's appearnce. Wolf thought that she might be since Karia had never seen Wolf out of her Foot garb.

"Hey Karia think you can take down a werewolf like me with that sword of yours go ahead and try," said Wolf.

Karia was instantly infurriated and started coming at Wolf with her sword raised, Wolf in turn ran away from Karia. Leo was watching what Wolf was doing through one of the shafts and had to admit that when it came to the word 'distraction' Wolf could pull it off.

Unfortunately that praise was sort lived as soon as Raph burst through the door. For a moment Raph's eyes just stared at Wolf and Karia and his eyes seemed to lose thier sight for a minute. But suddenly they refueled with burning fire and angrilly Raph pounced on Wolf sais raised.

"Now!" yelled Leo and all at once he and his brothers burst through the air vent and landed in between the little rumble.

Everything seemed to stand still for a minute as one party turned to look at the other. Karia was shocked to see Leo, Mikey and Don there and Raph's attention was directed away from Wolf as he eyed the threesome that had just entered the ring.

"What are you doing here?" yelled Karia.

"We're here to get our brother back" said Leo and looked at Raph "Rapheal, come on, let's get out of here,"

"I don't even know you guys," said Raph.

Wolf, not to mention the other three turtles were shocked when Raph said this. Rapheal didn't remember them? Karia was smiling and shouted to Rapheal.

"These are the triators I told you about" she said "destroy them!"

"With pleasure," said Raph.

Wolf struggled free from Raph's grasp and joined Leo and the others.

"What's the plan now Fearless Leader?" Wolf whispered to Leonardo.

"We'll deal with Raph and Karia" said Leo "you just find out what's behind that door,"

Agreeing to the plan Wolf dashed toward the mysterious dragon door. Karia seeing Wolf flee instantly called a squad of Foot ninjas to pursue her. Raph was circling Leo and the others now his eyes fastened on them just in case they decided to move.

Mikey gulped. There wasn't just any reason he had nicknamed Raph 'Secret Weapon'. Whenever Raph got that look in his eyes it meant doom for any opponent he was put up againist. Of course that anger was also Raph's greatest weakness. Get Raph to angry and he loses all focus, but if that focus stays in tack while he's angry...let's just say it's been nice knowing ya.

Right now Raph's focus was definetly in tack and the fire in eyes were slowly burning with anger. Leo looked closely at Rapheal's eyes and saw that the fire within was begining to dim away. But Leo had an uneasy feeling about that as soon as he saw it. It was like he was seeing into Raph's soul.

The fire within Raph was fading away only to be replaced by a dark, lonely void of nothingness. Meanwhile Wolf had reached the mysterious door but before she even had a chance to look for a way in the dragon on the door came to life and sprang straight towards her.

By now the Foot soliders Karia had signaled reached where Wolf stood in terror before the fearsome looking dragon. Apparently it was not impossible for the Foot soliders to share Wolf's fear as well. Thing's like this had never happened before.

Quickly weighing her options Wolf concluded that if she wanted to get through she would have beat the dragon gaurding the way and then deal with all the Foot soliders before entering. The odds definetly weren't in her favor and by the way things were going everything was only about to get worse.

While all the commotion was going on the upper levels of the building Dr. Chapman was busy working in the rooms below. For months the professor had slaved hard hours in the lab translating an ancient tablet and now all his hard work was fixing to pay off. The computer buzzed and lights flashed making Dr. Chapman shout "I did it! I finally did it!"

Excited at his sucess Chapman began to read the translated text. It read as follows:

Fire burns as Water churns, oppisites become one.

Earth and Wind a painful end meets all but one.

As the Fire dims the Water swims to save him before he falls.

Meanwhile Shadows grasp the Earth with it's claws.

Wind yells and Water fails and Fire is lost to all.

To save those loved,oh turtle dove, Fire has to fall.

Little did anyone know how true that poem from the tablet was about to become.