Chapter Four – Putting the Pieces Together
"Jasmine…"
"Jasmine…Wake up…"said a soothing, female voice.
"It's time to find out who you really are….."it said.
"W-Wha….who's there!? Show Yourself!" Jasmine yelled out into the dark oblivion. She did a complete 360 degree turn, trying to figure out where she was. All around her was nothing but pitch black darkness that could swallow her whole if she didn't focus on the small light that was floating above her head. The small, golden orb was just floating, silently, giving off a small ring of light that drove away the darkness that is trying to take her down. "…Huh…what is….that?"
"…Come on, Jasmine…..your friends are waiting for you to wake up….." the small orb whispered into her head.
"How do-o you know my name…?" Jasmine said in a small voice. "W-What do you want from me?"
"If you wake up….you will find out in time what your true potential is…." It replied. "But….I'm warning you that the information you will seek in the future….is not the information you will want to hear….so be careful with what you wish for….or someone might pay the consequences for that one desire…."The orb started to fade away.
"H-H-Hey….WAIT! What do you mean by 'who I actually am' and what 'information' are you talking about?" Jasmine yelled at the orb as it was fading away.
"Just remember who your true friends are and you will be just fine…." The orb whispered back completely disregarding Jasmine's questions. "You are truly your father's daughter….take care, my young one…."After it whispered the last word it completely vanished leaving Jasmine in the cold darkness, not sure on what just happened.
"…It almost sounded like…my mom when it said the last sentence….but why would she come back….as an orb…" Jasmine thought. But her thoughts were interrupted by the loud screech that sounded like metal scraping against metal. She heard it coming from somewhere in the vast darkness. "W-W-What was t-that…?" she whimpered. Jasmine was trying to find out where the noise was coming from but before she could figure it out she heard it again but this time it was closer than before. She started to freak out even more making it so that she couldn't think straight; all she could think about was if she was going to make it out alive or not.
She started to run in the other direction trying to get away from whatever was trying to find her. But no matter how hard or fast she was running the thing was always behind her, never slowing down or speeding up. She could feel it's warm breath on her neck, sending waves of shivers down her spine. She could feel her legs giving out from the excessive running making her stumble but she kept her footing. But after a few minutes of this her left knee finally gave out sending her face first toward the ground. Jasmine let out a cry of pain when her body slammed and hit the ground hard, leaving her winded. Regarding the pain and lack of oxygen she quickly turned around, finally seeing the creature for the first time. The creature was nothing to laugh at, it was about 10 feet tall with full body armor covering most of its body preventing anything from piercing its flesh. It gave off a strong stench of rotting flesh making Jasmine gag whenever it took a step closer to her.
As it took another step forward, something gave off a quick flash of light from behind the creature making Jasmine look past it. She started to scoot further back from it when she realized what it was, a double-headed ax. The weapon was no ordinary weapon; as the creature stumbled forward, green slime would fall off of the ax and splatter onto the ground leaving a trail of holes behind it like it was some form of acid. Jasmine whimpered at the sight of it and tried to flee, but she couldn't move a muscle. She started to panic, she kicked and pulled at whatever was holding her down to the ground but it was no use.
Next thing she knew the creature was right in front of her, looming over her, casting its shadow across her body. As it swung its ax around getting ready to strike she could see red, bloody stains splattered all over it. She couldn't breathe; whenever she tried to her lungs wouldn't respond leaving her light headed and breathless. "This is it…." She thought. "…I'm going to die…." As she thought of this, her life literally flashed before her eyes. She remembered her family getting together for parties and hanging out with her best friends on the weekends back in Indiana; wishing she had just a little more time so she could see them one last time, but she knew it was already too late.
She waited for the blow to come but the deadly strike didn't come. She slowly opened her eyes, revealing that she was no longer in the dark abyss but was now in a brightly lit throne room, or what was left of it anyways. She couldn't believe her eyes, a minute ago she was literally on her death bed waiting to be sliced in half by a half-dead medieval knight and next thing she knew…POOF!...the dark abyss was replaced by these beautiful ancient ruins. Still fazed by the change of events, she slowly walked down the steps leading into the middle of the room. Even though it was in ruins she could tell where certain things went like the two chairs on the other side had to have been the King and Queen's throne. And there were at least five pillars that stood in a row on each side making a tunnel effect as you walked down the stairs. But the most intriguing thing of all was the giant mural that was carved into the floor in the middle of the room.
Jasmine walked up to it, totally speechless by the detail of the writing and pictures that was painted or carved into the marble floor. Although there were missing chunks from it, she got the basic idea of what was going on in the pictures. The mural showed the history of the ancient civilization and how it came to rule over this part of the land. Not only that but it also showed a very disturbing "dooms day" prophecy but she could only get the first part of the prophecy leaving her very confused. At the very top there was also an ancient text stating, "When the four main elements have been untied and have been given to the rightful heir then and only then can the 'four sword' return to its rightful place in our dimension…but be warned when the sword is taken out of its shrine not only will our most sacred power will finally be free but the most feared man alive will rise and …." All of the sudden the text was cut off because a huge chunk was taken out of the mural and was lost in time.
"What!? That's it…what happen to the rest of the prophecy? And who is this man…? Why does this sound a little familiar to me?" Jasmine said while trying to find the rest of the mural. All of the sudden there was a loud boom, startling Jasmine out of her thought process along with a small flock of birds that flew off into the sky. Jasmine, still remembered the earlier incident, went to hide behind the two throne chairs that were sitting behind the magnificent mural. There was another loud crash but this time it was coming from the top of the stairs where Jasmine had just entered a moment ago. Next thing she knew there was a blinding, bright white flash that left several black dots dancing in Jasmine's vision. She blinked away the dots and peeked around the Queen's chair, she gasped and couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was turtle, not the normal sized but a human sized walking on two legs turtle! She wasn't sure on how long she was staring at this turtle but when she did stop she noticed peculiar things that normal people wouldn't have seen, but then again this wasn't a normal situation. Judging by the way he walks, Jasmine could tell he held some type of authority and would do anything to help someone if they were in danger. Not only that but he also had two swords strapped to his back; even from a distance Jasmine could tell they were katanas, the traditional Japanese sword. He also had a bright blue bandana tightly wrapped around his eyes making it hard to see his eyes within the folds of the fabric.
The turtle started to walk towards the center of the room where the mural was located. Still amazed by her discovery Jasmine leaned forward a little but she didn't realize that the chair wasn't very heavy, resulting the chair to make a loud scraping noise against the floor making Jasmine silently inhale. She peeked around the corner of the chair again to see if he was still standing there but the spot where the turtle was standing was empty. She silently cursed herself for making such a racket, giving her location away. When she thought she was in the clear she heard metal scraping against fabric before the cold, sharp blade was pointed at her face. Jasmine jumped at the sudden hostility coming from the turtle, she started to walk backwards away from him towards the stairs but on the way she accidently fell into a large crater in the floor. She screamed from the sudden jolt of movement, while she was falling she thought she could hear the turtle yell "NOO!" but at the moment she didn't care about him. She tried to control her body but she ended up flipping through the cold air. At one moment or another the scene around her started to change first it was the same stone that was also in the throne room but about a fourth of the way down it got too hard for her to see her surroundings. She couldn't even see her owns hands that were in front of her face. Her throat started to hurt from all of the screaming she was doing. But before she could find out where she was, she saw the ground rising up towards her, fast. She didn't know what to do so she just kept screaming her head off. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for her final breath.
"WAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Jasmine jolted up from her warm bed, while she kept screaming until she realized that she wasn't falling anymore. She frantically put her hands onto her face, forehead, and other parts of her body to make sure that she was still alive and breathing. When she was finally convinced that she was perfectly fine, Jasmine sighed with relief. Suddenly, she heard someone quietly snoring coming from opposite side of the room, still foggy from her dream, Jasmine shook the blankets off of her body and tried to stand up but ended up falling back down on the bed. That's when she saw her right leg; the whole bottom part of her leg was wrapped up in white bandages. She still couldn't believe that her injury she received from her sister was that bad. She just kept staring at her leg, completely forgetting about the vision she just had, until the quiet snoring snapped her out of her trance. She groaned from the slight pain coming from her calf as she stretched out her leg, trying to stand up again. Halfway up she stumbled over herself from the sudden sift of weight. When she could finally stand up straight, she looked around the room and realized that she had no clue what so ever on earth where she was at.
She could tell that this room wasn't originally designed for someone to sleep in; in fact it barely gave her enough room to lie down. There were several boxes pushed up against the wall, stacked dangerously too high, waiting for someone to fall down onto the floor or to hit the wall too hard making an avalanche of boxes. Her attention was drawn towards the shadowy part of the room, she thought she could hear the snoring coming from that area but she wasn't entirely sure. She silently crept half limped towards that part of the room making sure the floor didn't creek too much under her weight. But unfortunately, when she was just about to enter the shadows her right leg decided to give away under her weight. She yelped as her knee hit the floor hard causing several shockwaves of pain shooting up and down her leg making her shrink to the ground cradling her right leg to her chest. "Ow…O-owww..." she groaned while lying on the floor waiting for the pain to go away. She laid there for a couple of minutes, while realizing that the snoring had stopped and now the room was dead silent. Jasmine could literally get a knife and slice the tension in the air or was it awkwardness. Anyways, Jasmine stood back up and said, "W-Who's there? If you come any closer you will regret it because I know some martial arts and I will kick your butt…" she looks down at her leg and adds, "well I'll try to…but that's not the point!"
"C-Calm down! I'm not going to hurt you…" the voice from the shadows said.
"Okay…but then if that's the case, why are you still in the shadows?" Jasmine asked the unknown person. "And where am I?"
"W-well let just say you might not like what you see once I step out of the shadows…and for the second question you're in the 'guest' room in our lair that is located in the sewers…" the person said with little or no confidence.
"WHAT! In the sewers, how did I get here?" Jasmine asked.
"W-well how about we go out into the kitchen and I will try to tell you everything." The ominous person replied.
"Alright…but doesn't that require for you to leave the shadows?" Jasmine asked with a hint of confusion.
"U-Uh…yeah it does…soo…when I do step out please don't freak out by my appearance…promise?" he said.
"…Y-yeah I promise…" Jasmine said while trying to figure out why he was acting this way.
A couple of minutes have passed by while Jasmine waited for the person in the shadows to revel himself. Just as Jasmine was going to give up, she heard some rustling noises coming from within the shadows. The rustling died down and then there was nothing. "U-umm can you turn around…" he said.
"Sure…" Jasmine said as she started to turn around. "But if I may ask…is this necessary and why?"
"Uhhh…yeah sure…" he replied to her question. "I'll tell you when to turn around, ok?"
"Yeah…"Jasmine said while waiting some more until he said he was ready for her to turn around. She heard some more rustling noises until they completely stopped giving her a kind of a heads up for what's coming next.
He sighs and says, "Ok you can turn around now…" Jasmine slowly turned around keeping her head down, not sure on what she was going to see. She first looked at the ground still keeping her head down until two large green feet come into view. Confused, Jasmine started to raise her gaze and found out that the two feet were connected to two green legs and so on. She raised her gaze even more stopping at the top of the newcomer's face. Her jaw dropped pretty much all the way to the floor; she couldn't believe what she was seeing, she just couldn't. It was like her mind was just literally blown up into tiny little fragments. At first, Jasmine was just standing there staring at him as if she stared at him long enough he might just disappear into thin air but he didn't. The next thing she knew, she was backing up slowly and yelled, "OH…MY…GOSH! This cannot be happening, it just can't! I mean, you are…"
"A turtle…yeah, I know…" he sighed, interrupting Jasmine.
"…impossible…" Jasmine finished her sentence while pointing at the newcomer with a shaky hand. "How can this be!? I'm pretty sure I'm not dreaming right now soo…how can he be here when I just saw you literally two minutes ago in my dream!?"
"W-wait…WHAT!?" he said now a little confused by her comment. "What did you just say?" Jasmine didn't hear him this time, she just kept rambling on how this was impossible and how that she's got to be dreaming but she didn't feel like she was dreaming at all. "Hellooo?" She still didn't hear him and this time she was on the floor, flaying her arms about in absolute defeat. While she was doing that, the newcomer decided to sit down onto the floor and waited on Jasmine until she was ready to talk. "Well this didn't turn out the way I thought it would…" he thought to himself.
"Ok..Ok…" Jasmine sighs and smooths down her ruffled hair and clothes. "I'm good now…I think…"
"Now that's been settled would you like to explain to me on what just happened," he said while folding his arms.
"Yeah…yeah…I explain everything but first things first, you still haven't told me your name yet!" Jasmine said with a smile. "Oh…and mine is Jasmine Misaki, I'm a transfer student from Indiana so I'm still new to this place."
"…I'm Leonardo Hamato…but most people call me Leo…" Leo said after some thought.
"Ohhh…soo that's your name, well it's a pleasure to meet you, Leo," Jasmine said while holding out her hand.
"Likewise…so could you please tell me what just happen just ten seconds ago, and why was I in your dream?" Leo asked Jasmine while he shook her hand and was still trying to figure out why she didn't freak out like most people in New York City usually do."
"Ok…first of all, I'm not exactly sure why you were in my dream I just remember you being there," Jasmine replied. "Except in my dream you had two katana blades strapped to your back until you were holding one in your hand, point first, at my face. To be honest I'm not even sure why you appeared there too. But if you have any clues on this please fill me in cause' I am sooo confused."
"…Huh…that's weird now that you mention that, I do distinctly remember something that was simi-" Leo said but was loudly interrupted by his youngest brother, Mikey; when he slammed the door open as he entered the room.
"HEY GUYS, SHE'S FINALLY AWAKE!" Mikey yelled behind his back.
Both Jasmine and Leo jumped from the sudden commotion that came from Mikey. "What are you doing here, Mikey? And why aren't you training with Raphael?" Leo asked his brother with a stern voice.
"I was just checking up on you guys, since you haven't really left this room since we put her in here. Oh and I kind of made Raph mad by catching him talking to his pet turtle again," Mikey responded to Leo's questions. Just as Mikey was finishing his sentence three more people came into the room making it even more cramped than it was before.
"So this is the girl that kept everyone up late at night, trying to wake you up so we could finally get some answers," the turtle with the red mask said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"Cut her some slack Raph, she just got her leg cut up by some evil person," the taller, purple masked turtle said to his brother.
"You know what would cheer this girl up right away!" the one with the orange mask that barged into the room first said. "PEPPERONI PIZZA!"
"MIKEY!" all three turtles said at the same time making the one called Mikey smile awkwardly and slowly walked out of the room.
"This is not the time for pizza, Mikey!" Leo said sternly while turning towards Jasmine. "Oh and if you were wondering who these guys are well…they are my brothers, the one with a hot-headed temper is Raphael or Raph, the taller one with the purple mask is Donatello or Donnie, he is also the brains of this group, and lastly there's Michelangelo or Mikey in the orange mask and he is not the brightest person you met either," Leo said making sure that she knew who she was dealing with.
"Thanks and it nice to meet you guys! And since you mentioned food can we get something to eat cause' I'm starving over here…" Jasmine said shyly.
"OH YEAH! Told you guys she would be hungry after that lonnggg nap!" Mikey said with triumph. "Soo Pepperoni pizza it is…"
"Umm…can you get a pineapple pizza too, please-" Jasmine said. All four turtles turned around and looked at her funny. "W-What!? You never had pineapple pizza before? Man…and I thought I lived under a rock…err…no offense…" She said while blushing slightly from all of the attention she was getting.
"OK…one pineapple pizza coming up…" Mikey said still unsure of this new pizza flavor. As Mikey was going to the kitchen to order some pizza, Leo helped Jasmine hobble over into the main area that held the TV and all of the other fun games that they have. As Leo helped Jasmine sit down, he noticed the necklace that she was wearing. It had three pendants, the one in the middle was blue and kind of looked like a tear, the one on the right side was green and looked like a spiral, and lastly the one on the left was red that kind of looked like a flame. All of the pendants had little bit of gold wire twirled around them and the pendants were also made of glass. Leo sat down next to Jasmine and began to wonder why she had a dream about him and for some reason that necklace she was wearing started to look really familiar to him as well. At the thought of this, Leo started to realize that this might just be the beginning of a whole new adventure not only for him and Jasmine but for the rest of his family as well.
**YAY! I'm done…well sort of ^^; anyways I hope you enjoyed this new chapter that I made cause' I know I did =D lol well…if you have any corrections for me please just tell me cause' I would love to fix them ^^ so Please COMMENT! XD