A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews! I'm happy to be back writing finally. The problem is that at work we're at 1/5th our regular staffing, and on top of that the base decided that the TMNT is 'a threat to national security' or something, because they blocked it. As I do most of my writing during slow duty days, coupled with the workload at work and my writing won't be as frequent as it once was. I ask you to bear with me, so long as my stories stay at least somewhat interesting I suppose that will happen. With luck I can keep it up!
Chapter 9
From the Air and Water
Instantly I dashed over to Raph and grabbed his arm so hard that he cried out as my fingers dug into his muscles. I yanked him to his feet, where he immediately fell to his side with a curse as his limp leg proved useless. Swinging around to his other side, my shoulder caught him in the armpit. Half dragging him, half helping him, we started forward.
The spider monsters screeched and the clattering got to a deafening roar. I tried to block from my mind the image of Don covered in those things. I gritted my teeth as I surged forward with Raph on my shoulder. He stared ahead with wide eyes, mouth open, panting. Whipping his head around he looked over his shoulder. I could hear him hiss through his teeth.
"Mike, I think we left Don!"
I squeezed my eyes shut and urged him forward once more without a word. I just couldn't bring myself to answer him. I had killed him, how could I tell him that? That I consciously chose one brother over the other? I'd never be able to look him in the eye again. My heart felt like lead in my chest.
Considering our condition physically, we were traveling at a breakneck speed, though if physically fit this would be at the pace of a brisk walk. We were probably going too fast, but we had to keep ahead of the spiders. We couldn't let them get us too. Besides, I had to save my brother, my last brother. Especially after what I did to my last brother...
"Mike, didn't you hear me? We left Don! Turn around!"
I pressed my lips together, saying nothing. He stared at me, waiting impatiently for a response. The spider monsters screeched once again in the background. Somehow they seemed more distant, but I knew that that wasn't the case. They were probably surging to overtake me and Raph, just as I allowed them to do to Don.
Having enough of my ignoring him, Raph growled. Bracing his one functioning leg, he resisted me. Not trusting myself to speak, I tugged at him, lips pinched shut. He tightened his muscles and twisted in my arms. His good foot dragged up a dredge of gunk from the sewer floor. I struggled to deal with the struggling brother, not knowing how I forgot how difficult he could be. Two legs won over one and I dragged him skippingly across the sewer water, his foot scraping the grimy floor. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He glared at me but I avoided his gaze. Quickly I shook my head. With a snarl he wriggled in my grasp. "We have to go back!"
I shook my head again, not daring to meet his gaze. His eyes widened with understanding, that we were leaving our brother behind. Growling, he started to twist in my arms. "Let go of me..." He pumped his arms. By now I was dragging him from behind, walking backwards, arms hooked in his armpits. He threw his elbow back. It connected solidly with my stomach. I jerked to a stop as all the breath was knocked out of my lungs.
Taking advantage of my abrupt halt, he slipped from my grip and splashed in the water. With tremendous force he hauled himself to a standing position by pushing off of me, sending my careening to the floor. He tried to balance on one foot as we did during training,holding out his arms for leverage. But balancing with both legs functioning is different from one simply being dead weight. He wasn't upright for more than half a second when he was already careening to the ground once more. Furiously he thrashed at the water, cursing loudly.
Immediately after regaining a breath, I rushed to help him. With an angry shout he thrust me away so hard that I almost fell to the ground again. Eyes burning and throat aching with unshed tears, I ran at him again nonetheless. He swiped at me again, sending a long splash of sewer water in my direction. I halted as it splashed against my plastron and stared at him. My arms quivered slightly, I ached to help him, but knew in my heart that he would viciously refuse any assistance I offered.
My heart ached.
He just laid there, propped up on his elbows, staring into the water, pointedly ignoring me and breathing heavily. It seemed to echo into the tunnels, making the profound silence even more...
Wait, silence?
We both realized the quiet at the same time, both whipping our heads towards where we had just come. What I saw brought a surge of joy and a sense of loss at the same time.
Just as suddenly and mysteriously they appeared, they were gone. No monsters, no Donnie
We both stared, stunned at the sudden emptiness. I just couldn't understand how an entire wall of demonic monsters could dissappear so suddenly, without us knowing. Just as puzzling was why they dissappeared. We were both crippled. Handicapped prey ripe for the taking. So why not take?
Swinging around on his palm, Raph faced me, elbow deep in sewer water and glared with vehemence.
"YOU!"
My mouth gaped open, staring at him as he stared right back with accusing eyes. My own eyes burned even hotter. "YOU!!" He repeated.
Thrashing in the water, he swung at me. He was too far to connect, and with practically draggin his lower half, he wasn't that quick, but the blow struck deep nonetheless. Screaming at me with rage and pain he swung again, this time overdoing himself in his crippled state and flopped into the grimy water.
I swallowed hard but the tight lump in my throat wouldn't go away. Shaking so hard I was almost staggering, I ran towards him.
He swung again, teeth bared like a wild animal. "You left him behind!" I touched his shoulder and he hit my arm hard enough to make me wince. "He was are brother you coward!" I grabbed his arms and he punched my chest. The breath whooshed out of my lungs but I didn't let go. "Do you hear me? HE WAS OUR BROTHER!" He struck at me again as I tightened my grip. "HE WAS OUR BROTHER! OUR F#KING BROTHER! How could you just LEAVE him like that! Did you ever CARE for him at ALL!"
Finally I managed to crush him close, this thrashing, violent brother of mine. He had hit me, probably would've hurt me, but he was my brother. I knew it was his way of dealing, because he didn't know how. Who does know how? We had already lost two brothers and a father, who knows what we would lose by the end of the day. All we had was each other to depend on, and I'd be damned if I'd let that break. He can blame me all he wants, but he's still my brother.
That lump in my throat broke and hot tears spilled out of my eyes, running thick rivers on my cheeks. I sobbed into my brother's shoulder, my own shoulders shuddering with the depth of it. It was too much. Too much loss, too much pain, too much badness. I didn't know if I could take it.
It took me a moment to realize that he wasn't fighting me anymore, in fact his arms were wrapped around my neck as well and my own shoulder was wet with something that wasn't sewer water. The realization of his own tears only served to open my own floodgate wider as I cried. What else could we lose?
His grip around me tightened as he embraced me. He trembled slightly before the pressure was released. Raph stayed with me, leaning his head on tthe crook of my arm as he gave a shuddering sigh.
"Sorry for hitting you."
"It's alright."
"I shouldn't of yelled like that."
"No problem."
"Didn't mean to say all that."
"Say what?"
Suddenly he pulled away from me and held me at arms length, studdying me with wet eyes. I grinned under his searching gaze and cocked my head, not even bothering to wipe away the tears. "You're my brother, I wouldn't let words come between us!"
It seemed to take a moment for my words to sink in before he shook his head quickly, as though to clear out the cobwebs. He released me and quickly wiped his eyes, eager to hide the evidence of emotion. I couldn't help but grin as I watched him.
He turned around to stand up but stopped short as he apparently forgot about his dead leg. He looked down at it and cursed it soundly. Still grinning, I touched his elbow, offering my help. The red-banded stared at me for a second before grudgingly putting his hand in mine. I hoisted him up.
"So, what now?" I wondered aloud.
"Well, obviously the monsters or whatever they were didn't pass us, so they went down in that direction. That's where we're going, to find Donny."
I nodded, not offering a word in argument to his plan. After all, what else would we do?
No sooner had that thought entered my head than a piercing screech sounded from behind us. Freezing, we both slowly turned our heads.
Not another monster...
As if to answer our thoughts, something glinted at the outer end of the passageway. I couldn't do anything but freeze where I was, awaiting the fresh new horror that was so anxious to meet us. Raph growled low in his throat and I could hear his sai being slipped out his belt. I fingered my own nunchuku out of the leather.
The screech sounded again, louder this time.
I helped Raph turn around as I did the same. Tensing our muscles we both braced ourselves. After what just happened, we were in no mood to run. Besides, with his leg and my busted hand we wouldn't get very far anyway. It looks like this next monster will have a fight on it's hands.
Then it finally appeared in the light.
I can't quite think of the right way to describe this thing. It was the size and shape of a spider monkey, only turned inside out with no tail. It's ribs were plainly visible, I mean ivory bone winking at us in the light kind of visible. Hence the inside-out part. It had skinny, gangly arms and legs with the white bones portruding and long claws the shape of fishooks. It's teeth were turned inward and long an thin, like that of a cat. It sported the wings of something like a bat, but was also distinctly similar to an insect. Not sure how well you could picture that...It had no eyes to speak of, only blatantly empty eyesockets that went on forever.
With a squeaky, nails-on-chalkboard screech it spread it's claws and flew straight at us.
My good hand was moving before I even realized it. The spinning wood connected so solidly with the side of it's head the crack echoed in the walls. The thing flew to the side, crashing into the brick just as at least a dozen more came in it's wake.
I gritted my teeth and swung again, using the arm of my bad hand to support Raph's shoulder. My nunchuku connected many times, the air was littered with the sound of the wood impacting on flesh. Raph, relying on my to support him upright, freed both arms and was a mad machine with both his sai. The steel glinted in the air as the stabbed, sliced, and gouged their way through flesh and bone alike.
But it wasn't to last. I knew it wouldn't. We were two injured warriors, forced by our conditions to remain motionless while the agile enemy flitted around us. It was inevitable, I guess, that we would fall.
I was the first. Maybe they realized that I was the one supporting Raph, maybe I don't fight as well with one arm versus two, or maybe I'm just unlucky. But either way it stung when one of the creatures collided with my chest. Thank's to Raph, it was already a tad bit sore. A demonic monster crashing into it didn't help. Who would've thought?
The blow caused me to stagger back a few steps. As if on cue, there was anothe monster flying behind me and it smacked it's thick wing on the backs of my knees in the same instant. Needless to say, I fell backwards.
His support gone, Raph hardly lasted a second upright. He hadn't even hit the sewer water when one of the things was already upon him, hooking it's curved claws into the muscle of his arm. Snarling with pain Raph stabbed it's head with his sai. The tip poked out it's eye socked, turning the eyeball into a mass of oozing jelly. No sooner had the thing gone limp on his arm than another one attacked the opposite shoulder, slashing.
With a cry of rage and pain, he swung his injured arm over to punch the disgusting creature flat in it's face. He threw enough force behind it that I heard bone crunch.
For the first time I realized that I wasn't injured. My hand I caused myself, but other than that I wasn't injured. I had already had three encounters with the monsters but not one of them directly hurt me. Were they not allowed to?
Encouraged by this thought, I threw myself over to Raph. By now they had scored on him in numerous other places, and he was bleeding pretty badly. Practically sitting on his chest, I fought the monsters with my one hand, striving to keep my brother safe. Sure enough, not a single talon or tooth pierced my flesh. They seemed to content themselves with slapping and butting at my skin. I felt enormously empowered as for a moment it seemed to be working. Then a few of them apparently got an idea.
Flying behind me, four of them wrapped their talons around Raph's forearms, yanking him out from under me. As soon as they had him away from me, at least ten more joined this small team to carry him off. He twisted and screamed curses at them as they lifted him airborne.
My throat went dry as I watched the one remaining member of my family flying down the sewer. Ignoring the other monsters completely, I surged to my feet and charged them.
By now they were flying very close to the ceiling, at least five feet in the air. I sprinted after them and made a flying leap for my brother.
With an unnatural burst of speed, they zipped ahead. I felt that odd lump in my throat again as I ran after them, legs stretched out until I thought that they would split, muscles pumping until it felt as though they were about to explode. Driving furiously forward I somehow managed to keep pace with my brother. Turning their heads, the monstrous creatures seemed to assess me with their sightless gaze, before stoically turning around and going faster.
My mouth gaped as I looked at them rapidly dissappearing down the tunnel. Then, gritting my teeth so hard I'm surprised that they didn't splinter in my mouth, I somehow found it in me to go faster.
They slowed down so suddenly that I almost fell flat on my chin in an effort to stop.
It was a good thing.
This particular tunnell led to a sheer drop to a churning mass of sewer water fed by numerous pipes jutting out of the circular wall. I'd be surprised if this wasn't the exact same one I escaped from earlier. Then something moved in the white water below. It was slick and black, like a large black slug or something. Maybe the size of a large schoolbus. I saw the slippery sheen of it's back and then nothing. Several more slimy black bodies appeared in the water just as soon as they dissappeared. Then one stopped for just a moment, somehow holding itself still under the fiercly strong currents of the water.
I took one look at the blood-red eyes and the shark-like snout and suppressed a shudder. Every scene from Jaws suddenly flashed in my head.
The spidermonkey-bat-bug creatures held Raph suspended ten feet from my reach out far above the water. For the first time since they grabbed him Raph was completely still as he stared out into the water with wide eyes. The creatures in the liquid below quickened their movements and somehow the water frothed even stronger.
Slowly he turned to look at me. My brother met my eyes an instant before they let him go.
He was silent as he fell. I watched him all the way down with wide, terror filled eyes. He dissappeared beneath the froth. The huge creatures beneath the surface moved with a renewed frenzy in a way that reminded me chillingly of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.
I stared blankly at the waves below for a long second before I made my decision.
With a calm, almost serene sigh I stepped off of the piping and out to open air. Immediately gravitly pulled me down. I stared at the quickly upcoming waves and closed my eyes just as the black creature emerged fully from the water.
A/N: Yeah, I know. AWESOME place to end, huh? Well, I have a holiday coming up so hopefully I'll be able to put in the second chapter more quickly than this. With luck I'll see you guys again soon! Review and let me know what you think, you know that I love the input!