An Angel's Touch
Part 2
Leo and the others hung their heads low, tears had soaked their masks, as they were led through the factory. They couldn't believe what had happened just moments earlier, they couldn't believe that Raph was dead.
Though the loss of Raph still weighed heavily on their hearts, Leo forced himself to focus on the surroundings, even though it was difficult to see through the tears in his eyes, but he had to save the rest of his family.
Scanning the surroundings, Leo saw numerous Purple Dragons, at least fifty of them, all of them cheered and shouted obscenities at them as the mutants passed.
The interior of the factory was barren, most of the machinery had been removed, either by the company when the factory closed or by looters over time. Tables with stolen jewelry, wallets, electronics and other objects were scattered across the large room.
On the other side of the room, there was a wall with glass windows, through which several people could be seen. Leo surmised that they were the people who had been kidnapped, and that the room they were being held in was the old staff room. He tried to get a good count on how many they were, he would guess that there were twenty or so prisoners, but a shove in the back from his escort caused him to loose count.
After a short walk through a corridor, they arrived at a steel door with two guards. The guards grinned at the broken mutants and opened the heavy door. Without any trace of concern for the mutants health, the thugs shoved them into the room, causing them to fall over each other.
"Enjoy your room while you can, freaks, once the boss gets here, you're history!" one of the thugs said, laughing as he closed the door.
Struggling to get back on his feet, a task that was made difficult by having ones hands tied behind ones back, Leo noticed someone else in the otherwise empty room.
"Guys! Are you okay?" said Casey. "Here, let me help you."
A few minutes later, the four mutants had been freed from their bindings. Mona sat down against the wall and pulled up her knees to her chest, wrapping her tail around her. Tears still falling from her eyes.
Mikey looked sad and empty as he almost collapsed against the wall, with only Donnie holding him up.
"Where's Raph?" Casey asked. "Ah, he's escaped and gone to get help, right?"
"Casey..." Leo started.
"What?"
"Raph... never made it. They... executed him in cold blood... right in front of us."
"What?! NO! That can't be! NO!"
Casey started hitting the door and yelling at the guards on the other side.
"You fucking scum! First you take my dad's shop, then you take my dad, and now you've taken my best friend! How many have to suffer because of you?! How much more do we have to loose?!"
Raph looked at the light as it came closer, struggling to keep his eyes open as his strength diminished. But the closer the light came, the more his eyes complained that the light was too bright and wanted to close the eyelids.
He forcibly did shut his eyes to shield them from the light, when the lid to the dumpster was opened. He could feel the warm light shining on his skin. With great effort, Raph was able to open his eyes again, only to stare in disbelief at what he saw.
Hovering in midair in front of him was a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties. She had pale but radiant skin, her hair was straight and golden blond and reached her waist without any difficulties. Her eyes were clear light blue and almost shone with kindness.
She wore a strapless white dress with cold-shoulder sleeves and gold trim, that reached just past her knees. A broad sash was tied around her waist and ended in a ribbon at her lower back, with the foot long ends moving freely in the night breeze. She also had a pair of white ballet pumps and white knee socks.
Two feathered wings of golden light emanated from her back and made slow and subtle flapping motions.
Raph met her gaze and she smiled kindly to him, making him feel at peace, though the pain still lingered and his time grew shorter by the second.
Extending her right arm at the poor turtle, her hand was enveloped in the same golden light as her wings.
"Be calm." she said with a gentle voice "Soon, your pain will be gone."
Raph wasn't sure what she meant, or what she was. Was she an angel, here to help him pass on? Was his time really up?
As he started to loose consciousness, Raph felt warm. A strange warm feeling spread throughout his body and the pain vanished. He could breath properly again, rapidly at first but then much calmer. He could feel how he regained his strength and energy, but also how stress and worry seemed to vanish.
Opening his eyes yet again, he blinked a few times to get used to the light and found to his surprise that he had no signs of injury, save for those on his belt and pads. He was completely healed, but that could not be.
Looking up he saw the woman still hovering in the air, still smiling warmly at him.
"D-did you just save me? Or am I dead?"
"You are very much alive." the woman said with a slight giggle. "But now you must hurry, your friends need you. Find them, free them and escape this place." She turned around and started to rise in the air.
"Wait!" Raph called, causing her to stop "What if there's other people trapped in there? What about them?"
"Don't worry. They will be helped very soon, until then, see to those close to you."
With that, the woman flew away into the sky and soon she was out of sight, leaving Raph quite puzzled. Letting his eyes sweep the area, he saw the puddle of blood where the thugs had shot him, so it wasn't some kind of dream.
As he got out of the dumpster, he noticed a few more bloodstains closer to the corner of the factory, quite far away from where his blood have been spilled. Worried that it might be from his brothers or Mona, Raph hurried over and tried to find clues to what had happened.
Kneeling by the stains, he found a couple of fingers, human fingers, that had been cut of by something sharp. He also found a part of an Uzi, also cut apart by something sharp. Looking closer, he noticed some drag marks that seemed to end abruptly.
Things were getting weirder by the minute, and Raph wasn't sure just how long it had been since his... near death experience, so he decided to focus on saving his family.
Checking his gear, he was still missing his two sai, but he had several shuriken inside his belt, a couple of lockpicks and his shell-cell, most of it still in working order. Not much, but it was something at least. Now all he needed was a way to get in.
Raph continuously cursed in his mind as he slowly crawled through the narrow ventilation shaft, just barely being able to fit. On top of it all, he had to move very slowly and quietly so the Purple Dragons wouldn't detect him, if they did, he wouldn't have any room to maneuver and would most likely get shot, again.
As he continued through the vent, he came to a grate. Peeking through it he saw two Purple Dragons standing beneath. One had long brown hair, a black t-shirt, leather armlets and ragged jeans. The other had spiky hair in red and blue, a leather vest, a blue t-shirt and green shorts.
Leaning forward to get a better look at the thugs, Raph's shell hit the vent's ceiling, causing a clang to echo through the shaft.
"Did you hear that?" the spiky haired one said.
Raph held his breath, pearls of sweat formed on his forehead.
"Relax, will ya? It's just da vents, they tend to shake if da intake's hit by gusts." said the long haired one.
"If you say so."
Raph sighed in relief and continued to crawl, even slower than before. After a short while, he came to another grate. Peeking through it, careful not to hit his shell against the shaft, he saw a dimly lit room that used to be used as changing room by the factory workers.
While its previous function wasn't of any interest to the turtle, what he saw in that room, however, was.
Dropped in a pile on the floor were the weapons of his family and Casey. He was indeed in luck, but aside from his sai and possibly Mikey's nunchaku and Mona's fans, he wouldn't be able to bring them with him through the vents. If he wanted the weapons, he needed to move through the corridors instead, and that meant that he could be discovered much easier.
Thinking about it for a moment, he decided to at least recover his weapons. Taking an extra look through the grate to make sure that there was no one there, he silently removed it and hoisted himself down.
Giving his sai a twirl before placing them in his belt, he heard footsteps outside the door as he was about to enter the vent again. Leaning at the door, Raph listened closely to the footsteps. They were getting closer, and there were no other sounds to be heard. Unlocking the door, Raph readied himself as he kept his focus on the person outside the room.
The person got closer and closer. Tightening his grip on the handle, Raph waited. Just a little closer.
As the footsteps passed just outside the door, Raph quickly opened the door and grabbed onto the Purple Dragon's shoulder and pulled him into the room with such speed and force, that the thug never knew what happened. He just suddenly found himself lying on his back in another room.
Swiftly locking the door, Raph didn't waste any time, pinning down the thug with a knee to the chest. At that point, the two's gazes met and their hearts skipped a beat.
It was Leroy, one of the two thugs that gunned him down earlier.
"Well, it's a small world we live in, ain't it?!" Raph snarled, moving the tip of his sai closer to Leroy's face.
"B-but... we killed you! Y-you can't be alive!" Leroy stammered, pale as a sheet and trembling out of fear.
"Yeah, that wasn't very nice, and I'm more than happy to return the favor!" said Raph with a killer look in his eyes, as the tip of his weapon pierced Leroy's skin just enough to draw blood.
"But that will have to wait, I've got more important things to do."
He withdrew his said and repositioned it right above Leroy's eye.
"Now, listen very closely, I'm gonna ask this once and once only: Where. Is. My. Family?!"
Leo and Donnie examined their room, trying to find a way to escape, but it was difficult to focus, the shock still lingered.
Whatever the room had been used as before, it had been completely stripped of any and all furniture and other objects, save for the ceiling lamps and the grates to the ventilation shafts. Unfortunately for the turtles, the vents in this room were far too small for them to even fit their heads through.
And to top things off, the smart thug had made sure that the mutants had been properly frisked before they were brought to the room, the only things they had left were their clothes, or equivalent.
Suddenly the lock on the door clicked and the handle was pulled down, causing the five captives to react and stand ready. This could be their only chance of escape before Hun arrived, if he hadn't already.
The door opened slowly, the team was ready to take out their anger on whoever that stepped through it at a second's notice. They would fight to the death if they had to.
As the door stood wide open, a lone figure stood in the doorway with a golf-bag slung over his shoulder.
"Missed me?" the figure said with a smirk on his face.
The five vigilantes couldn't but stare at the figure.
"R-raph?" Mikey stammered, not sure if his eyes were deceiving him.
Mona slowly walked up to her beloved, hesitant and careful as it could be some form of trick. Once within arms reach, she carefully placed her hand on Raph's cheek, as to make sure that it wasn't a ghost or machine. Looking into his eyes for a while, tears started to fall and she hugged him and clung to him for all she was worth.
"It's alright, babe. I'm here now."
"I though I'd lost you..." Mona said between her sobs.
"I won't lie to you, it was damn close, but I'm not abandoning you, any of you."
"Big bro!" Mikey cried and rushed over to join in on the hug, tears of happiness wetting his still damp mask. The remaining three weren't far behind as they were overjoyed to see Raph alive and well.
Unfortunately the touching reunion couldn't last very long, they were still on enemy turf.
"How did you survive, Raph? We saw how they shot you without remorse. There was no chance for you to live through that." asked Donnie.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Raph said as he placed Casey's bag with all of their gear on the floor so they could gear up.
"We've been through a lot, try us." said Mikey, as he started to regain his happy nature.
"I was rescued... by an angel. An actual angel."
Everyone stared in silence at Raph, as if he'd lost his mind.
"Yeah, you're right, we don't believe you." said Mikey after a short while.
An explosion shook the building without warning, causing dust too fall and the lights to flicker. Shortly after, screams, shouts and gunfire could be heard from the main area.
"What the shell was that?!" Leo exclaimed.
"I'm not sure, but I have a theory." said Raph. "We need to get out of here."
"But, there's still other people imprisoned here." said Mona "We can't just leave them."
"If my hunch is right, they'll get the help they need shortly. Trust me on this, okay?"
The six vigilantes swiftly made their way through the corridors, passing several unconscious or dead Purple Dragons on the way. As they passed through the main area, they saw that it had been turned into a battlefield, the large doors blown to pieces and the Purple Dragons firing from whatever form of cover they could find at someone or something outside the demolished doors, that fired back.
Keeping their distance, the six vigilantes hurried to the door where they had been ambushed earlier, with the Purple Dragons occupied with whoever that was attacking them, the door stood unguarded.
On their way there, Leo had glanced at the were the other prisoners were held, only to find that the rooms were empty, something that a few of the Purple Dragons seemed to argue about.
An explosion in the middle of the large room killed several of the thugs and knocked even more unconscious. Looking away from the carnage, Leo and the others left the old factory and climbed the walls to escape into the shadows of the alley's.
Lots of police cars had started to arrive at the scene, as the six climbed down into the sewers and hurried back to the lair.
The trip took well over an hour, and when they stepped through the entrance, they were greeted by April and Splinter, who had left the TV-area when they heard the door open.
"You had us worried, Mr Jones." said Splinter with a stern voice before turning to his students. "Now, my children, tell me what happened." he said, noticing that all but Raph looked very weary. He was quite shocked when he heard of how Raph was nearly shot to death and saved by an angel, and he could see on the faces of the others that they too found it hard to believe, but they told no lie regarding what happened before that.
"Most unusual." he said, obviously concerned about this 'angel'.
'We interrupt this program to bring you a special news report.' said a news anchor from the TV, catching everyone's attention.
'We're coming to you live from the Northeast of New York, where a special tactical operations squad from the United Nations, the USTOS, have just raided a base belonging to the infamous gang, the Purple Dragons. The gang have been suspected to have recently started dealing with human trafficking, and the reports of potential kidnappings have been many.
Just over an hour ago, the USTOS initiated an attack against the Purple Dragons' base of operation, with military weapons. The following battle between the two sides ended with several casualties for the feared gang, while the squad were unharmed, as were the gang's prisoners, who somehow where rescued either right before or during the firefight.
Though the Purple Dragons suffered loses, the majority of them survived without serious injuries, and can expect very long sentences.
The local authorities and police force remain highly critical to the squad's aggressive approach and claim that they acted outside of their jurisdiction, to which the squad-leader, who wish to remain anonymous, responded that they have jurisdiction to protect innocent people, wherever they may be and by whatever means they deem necessary.'
The image shifted, now showing a little of this special tactical operations squad, though few details could be seen. A large and mostly white armored vehicle with three pairs of wheels and a turret-mounted canon stood parked outside the factory, with two individuals just about to enter it through an open hatch at the rear.
One large, most likely male, in an urban camouflage uniform with metallic attachments covering both arms entirely, a helmet that covered the head and face completely and an army backpack filled with rifles and machine guns in a similar way to Casey's bag of clubs.
Next to him stood a smaller woman with straight black hair that just barely reached below her ears, she was dressed mostly in black and had a mask covering most of her face.
A third figure could be sighted inside the hatch, but the poor light made it impossible to see anything else.
'Regardless of the relation between the USTOS and the local authorities, a lot of people can look forward to be reunited with their friends and loved ones after tonight and the citizens of New York will be able to rest more easily knowing that the wave of kidnapping is at an end.
This is Molly Chamberlain for Chanel Six News.'
"Good to know that the people are safe as well." said Leo.
"No kidding," said Donnie "but now I have to examine Raph. This whole thing have me worried."
"You and me both, bro." said Raph. "I feel fine though."
"Never can be too careful, especially with what you've been through."
A couple of days passed, and Raph showed no signs of the brutal attack. Soon, everything was back to normal, as normal things can be for six ninja mutants.
Jumping across the rooftops, the five ninja were out on patrol as they were every night. After the attack on the Purple Dragons, most criminals had gone underground, not wanting to draw the attention of the USTOS, so the nights had been nearly ridiculously calm. But there were a few that either hoped that they would be to insignificant to be noticed, or plain out just didn't care.
As the mutants were on their way back home, they came across three common street thugs attempting to have their way with a young woman in an alley. Despite being outnumbered, the woman stood defiant, intent on defending herself.
Mona gritted her teeth in disgust, these lowlifes were just like those that attacked her when she was human. She held no love for any kind of criminals, but rapists she hated with every fiber of her being, and with good reason.
Pulling out her warfans, she was just about to jump down and cut down the thugs where they stood, but Raph beat her to it. In a matter of seconds, he had reached the ground below and attacked the thugs before they even notice that he was there. Not wanting to traumatize the woman by spilling blood all over the place, he chose to use blunt force only and to stay in the shadows.
Kicking the first in the back of his knee to bring him down a bit, Raph followed up with a punch at the base of the skull, knocking out the thug instantly. The second one fell easily to a punch in the face and the third one to a kick in the crotch with a knee to the face as a finisher.
"Thanks." said the woman. "I didn't really need your help, but I'm glad that you gave it."
Something in her voice sent chills down Raph's spine, but he couldn't place it. His curiosity made him stay, even though he knew that he should leave as quick as possible.
Clouds in the sky parted and the full moon illuminated the dark night, revealing Raph's appearance to the woman. But the one that was the most shocked was in fact Raph himself.
"You?" he said.
The woman was no other than the angel that saved him several days earlier, it had to be. She had the same long golden blond hair, lustrous skin and kind blue eyes. She wasn't wearing the dress she had back then though, instead she had white sneakers, blue jeans, a silver top and a pale blue jacket.
"Good to see you again. I guess this makes us even." she said with a smile and slight giggle. "I'd really like to stay and chat, but I have to meet up with my friends. Maybe next time we're in town."
A pair of golden energy wings manifested on her back, further brightening the alley, and she started rising up in the air.
"Hey wait!" Raph called. "Just who are you?"
"My friends call me the Healing Wish." she replied with a smile and flew up and out of the alley.
Passing the rooftop, she saw the remaining four mutants, looking at her as if they were mesmerized. Stopping for a short moment, she waved at them, before continuing on her way into the sky, the glow of her wings still visible even after she herself was out of sight.
"Told you I wasn't crazy." said Raph when he got back on the roof, snapping the others out of their stupor.
"Yeah, but what was she?" said Leo.
"An angel, one that saved the life of my love. That's all I need to know." said Mona as she pulled her mate into a caring hug.
Happy ending.
That's one crazy idea less.
Now some of you might ask some questions, like:
Who is Healing Wish? Not telling! Other than that she's an OC of mine.
Is she really an angel? Not telling!
Will we see more of her? Maybe, but not necessary in the TMNT fics.
See you around!