Chapter Eight – The True Explanation
"Come ON! We gotta hurry or we will be late! Carmen yelled up the stairs at her sister, Ruby. She waited at the bottom of the steps as her sister got ready for the meeting with Jasmine at Muracami's. Carmen is wearing her favorite red blouse and a pair of black dress pants with a pair of red flats that have a small white bow on the top.
"Alright, I'm coming! Can you remind me why are we going again?" Ruby said.
"Because Jasmine just returned earlier, wherever she was, after being gone for more than three months and she wanted us to meet her at Muracami's around eight but if you keep going like this we never make it on time!" Carmen yelled.
"Sorry…I'm trying to go as fast as I can…" her sister said with a little annoyance. She continued to get ready to go, after a couple of minutes she sighed and rushed down the stairs while Carmen gave her the "look" as she got to the bottom. Ruby was wearing an orange undershirt with a black shawl and a pair of blue jean capris, along with her favorite bright orange converse. "Okay, I'm ready…"
"About time…What were you doing anyway?" Carmen asked her.
"I was just freshening up," Ruby said with a toothy smile. "If you really want to know I can go into detail if you wan-" Ruby said.
"NO!...noo…I think I'm good, we got to get going anyways," Carmen interrupted her sister. The two sisters left the house while grabbing their coats on the way and started walking towards Muracami's. It was a little chilly that night making the two girls wrap their coats even tighter and lean into the cold wind.
Jasmine limped down the street towards Muracami's where she was going to meet up with her closest friend, Carmen, and her younger sister, Ruby. She wanted to tell them where she was for the past three months but she promised the turtles and Splinter that she would never tell anybody before Splinter let her go top-side. It's been about a week since the recent incident that happened in the dojo to Jasmine; during that week her leg has gotten better, faster than it has in the past month. Now she can walk around without any help from her turtle friends, ever since she could she has been wanting to get out of the lair after being stuck in it for a while. She finally got the permission from Splinter to go above, even though it took a lot of talking, puppy dog eyes and persuasion from her and his sons until he finally gave in.
April was walking a little bit ahead of her making Jasmine walk a little faster than she wanted to since she hasn't walked on her right leg for a while. Suddenly, April turned around causing Jasmine to come to a sudden halt, "Are you guys gonna speed it up a little!?" April asked the shadows. Jasmine looked around with a confused look on her face until she saw small movements in the shadows that triggered her memory. She remembered the only way Splinter would agree for Jasmine to go top-side was if his sons followed her to Muracami's within the shadows watching her to make sure she wouldn't get hurt. As they were leaving the lair, April entered and asked where they were going, as soon as she heard the plan she wanted to come along as well.
"Are you saying that turtles are slow?" Donnie asked April while appearing out of nowhere surprising both Jasmine and April.
"That's a hurtful stereotype…." Mikey said.
"Trust us April, we are better off keeping a looow profile…we find people treat us better when they don't know we exist…." Leo pointed out to April.
"Sorry, I'm just so excited since we all finally got out of the sewers for a change," April replied.
"What are you talking about, we go out all the time," Raph told her.
"Yeah, but tonight you're going to do something besides hitting people," April pointed out.
"Awwww…." Raph whined while slumping a little bit.
"Don't worry, you're gonna love this noodle place I found earlier today," April said.
"And you're sure we're going to be welcome?" Donnie asked April while tapping his fingers nervously.
"Oh yeah, the guy that runs the noodle shop won't even know what you look like," April added.
"Why is that?" Leo asked April.
"It's because he's blind," April told them.
"And I seriously doubt you're going have to worry about Carmen freaking out since she's an odd ball herself…" Jasmine added while smiling. "And her sister isn't exactly normal either…."
"Wait a second, you invited your friends to meet you there!?" Raph yelled while freaking out. "I thought Splinter told you to never tell anyone about our existence!"
"Yeah, he did, but later on after he said I could go up top, I asked him if I could tell them about you guys…at first he wanted me to keep it a secret but then I told them him how stubborn Carmen can get and she will most likely try to find out the truth for herself if I didn't tell her…." Jasmine told him.
"And he agreed to that?" Raph continued.
"Well...he meditated on it for a little bit then he asked me if I trusted these people and I told him I trust her with my life and I would step in front of a flying bullet if it came to that and Carmen would do the same for me if she was in the same situation…." Jasmine said. "After I told him everything, he said it was alright as long as they don't reveal your secret too…."
"Huh…and you think they aren't going to freak out?" Leo asked her.
"Yeah but I can't guarantee she won't start throwing a billion questions to you guys," Jasmine warned them.
They started to walk again towards their destination except this time Jasmine walked even slower with her head filled with worries. Leo watched Jasmine walk behind April with her head down and her hands in her pockets. He looked around to make sure if anyone was coming down the street and walked out of the shadows towards Jasmine.
"Are you okay?" Leo asked her.
"Yeah…yeah I'm fine, I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to tell them about my disappearance and you guys…." Jasmine sighed.
"Hmmm…that's a tough one…but I'm sure the answer will come once we get there…" Leo said.
"Yeah, you're probably right…" Jasmine sighed.
Carmen and Ruby enter the noodle shop and found it empty except for the owner. Muracami was his name according to a new friend of Jasmine's, he wore a blue colored apron with a white shirt and he wore kaki's; he also wore a pair of black glasses that covered his eyes.
"Welcome," Muracami said as the two young girls as they walked through the door.
"Hi, we like a seat for two please," Carmen requested.
"Since you are the only customers here, you can choose any seat you like," he said while turning around to get the ingredients he will need for their entrees.
"Really!? AWESOME!" Ruby squealed as she walked around looking for a seat for her and her sister. She kept walking around completely unsure on what seat they would sit at.
"Will you just pick one already…." Carmen said impatiently.
"Okay…let's sit here…no, here…." Ruby said while trying to find the right seat.
"Ugh…how about we just sit here," Carmen said while pointing at the two stools that were beside the entrance.
"Okay…." Ruby agreed reluctantly.
They both sat down as Muracami came and asked them what they wanted to eat. They ordered two bowls of chicken ramen with a side of small dumplings. Muracami turned around and started to make their dish as fast as he could.
"So what do you think Jasmine wants to talk about?" Ruby asked Carmen.
"I'm not sure…in fact I'm kinda angry at her because she just up and left without telling me anything!" Carmen said with a hint of anger in her voice.
"Whoa…calm down there sis…I'm sure Jasmine has an explanation but who knows what that will be…." Ruby said while trying to calm down her sister.
"Speaking of, what's taking her so long and to think I thought we were gonna be late…." Carmen said to no one in particular.
Just as Carmen said that, a group of guys with purple on their clothing slammed opened the door and walked up to the counter where Muracami was standing.
"Hey, old man, you got the payment or what?" the guy with two scars on his chest asked Muracami while holding out his gloved hand.
"No, I don't," Muracami said while wiping his hands on a towel.
"You say you don't, ehh? Well I think your lying…." The one with the gloved hand said while leaning over the counter. "Hey, guys, I think this old man needs to learn a little lesson on how he needs to pay his payment, don't you think?"
"Hehe…yeah, he does…." The one with the purple bandana said while cracking his knuckles. He was about to throw a punch when a small hand caught his wrist halfway through his punch. "Hey! What gives!?"
"I think you guys had enough fun for now, why don't you get your sorry butts out of here before I smear them across the pavement…." Carmen said with annoyance in her voice.
"Ohh, looky what we have here…a little girl who thinks she the hero of this town," the leader with the gloved hand said while pushing his companion away from Carmen.
"Hero!? HA! More like you worst nightmare," Carmen said while crossing her arms across her chest. "Now you either get your sorry butts out of here now or you might not get to see your next birthday, got it!"
"Uhh…Carmen…" Ruby said nervously while backing away from one of the gang members that were coming after her.
"Not now, Ruby…." Carmen whispered to her sister.
"Um…I don't think it can wait!" Ruby yelled as she dodged a right hook that came from the gang member. "CARMEN!"
"Geesh…" Carmen said while walking over to the guy with the mustache that was trying to hurt her sister. She threw her arm back and gave a super punch to the guys face causing him to fall back several feet. He pulled his hand away from his mouth where she punched him; he looked down and saw that there were several dots of blood on his fingertips. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size!" Carmen said to him while walking back towards her sister.
"Why you!" the mustache guy yelled while picking up his sledge hammer he brought in earlier. "You're gonna pay for that!"
"Oh yeah! I like to see you try!" Carmen yelled back.
Carmen and the mustache guy started to go at it, throwing punches at each other and avoiding the sledge hammer from contacting her skin. While that was going on Ruby ran behind the counter to get Muracami out of the line of fire. She guided him about halfway to the door when Jasmine came running in with a couple of new friends behind her. But her friends weren't exactly normal in fact they were turtles with masks and ninja weapons strapped to their shells. Ruby stopped walking and just stared at Jasmine and the turtles, she looked back and forth between them trying to figure out how this happened. While she was doing that the turtles ran around fighting the gang members while trying not to destroy the place.
"RUBY!" Jasmine yelled across the room as she ran over to help her. "What happened?" Ruby just kept staring at Jasmine completely shocked by everything that was going on. April came up beside Muracami and took him from Ruby's grasp and walked outside while avoiding flying objects on the way.
"Jasmine!? A little help here…." Carmen yelled at Jasmine while she was trying to hold off two of the three guys. Jasmine strolled over to where Carmen was, where the two guys had Carmen pinned in a corner completely defenseless. She stopped behind one of the guys who was completely clueless on who was behind him. She tapped the guy with the purple bandana and crossed her arms. He turned around quickly ready to punch the stuffing out of whoever was behind him. But once he saw the girl that was standing with her arms crossed across her chest, he laughed. Jasmine just kept staring at the guy soon making him feel uncomfortable.
"What are you looking at, little girl?" the bandana guy asked her.
"Mmm…nothing, only you who's making a complete fool of himself," Jasmine replied calmly.
"What did you just say!?" he asked while holding his clenched fist up by his chest.
"What are you deaf?" Jasmine said with a sneer knowing she was getting under this guy's skin making him lose control. "I know you heard me." Once she said that the guy lost it and pulled his arm back getting ready for a punch that would connect with Jasmine's face. His fist came down fast but Jasmine knew exactly what he was going to do, she dodged the punch and pulled her own arm back and punched him in the gut. He coughed from the sudden force to his stomach, next thing they knew he was on the floor groaning in pain.
"Next time you decide to pick on a blind man and my friends you will be answering to me, got it!" Jasmine sternly said to the group of guys that was now bruised up from the fight against the turtles, Jasmine, and Carmen. "Now, get out of here!"
They all picked themselves up and ran out of the door but the leader turned back around at the last second and said, "This ain't over, greeny!" And ran off with the rest of his gang.
"Greeny!? Really? I wonder how many brain cells it took for him to come up with that one?" Donnie said while everyone around him settled down from the fight.
April came back into the shop with Muracami and said excitingly, "Wow…that was great you guys!"
"Who were those guys, anyway?" Jasmine asked Muracami as April walked him over to the counter.
"They call themselves the Purple Dragons," Muracami said. "They were here to collect the protection money that they were trying to make me pay…."
"Okay, but if I may interrupt your "little" investigation,…ahem….WHO THE HECK ARE YOU GUYS?" Carmen yelled completely shocked while pointing a shaky finger at the turtles.
"Weell…I can explain Carmen, will you just calm do-" Jasmine told Carmen.
"NO! I will not calm down and I am sick and tired of you leaving and not telling me anything!" Carmen yelled in Jasmine face.
"O-Okay…I promise I tell you everything in a minute, I just need you to sit down and try to calm down cause' I really can't tell you anything if I have to yell over your bickering…." Jasmine said calmly while holding her hands up in defense.
"Hmph…fine, but you better tell me everything…and I mean everything!" Carmen said while crossing her arms and went to go sit down by Ruby that has her head down on the table with her eyes closed.
"Sounds like someone else we know, huh?" Mikey whispered to Donnie.
"Yeah…." Donnie said as he looked at Raph, who was standing beside Leo behind Jasmine.
"Phew…that went better than I thought…."Jasmine said to no one in particular while wiping some sweat from her forehead. She walked over to the two girls and sat down in a stool that was right beside Carmen. "Okay…where should I begin…?"
"How about the beginning….?" Ruby suggested quietly and slowly while keeping her eyes shut.
"Oh…yeah, right…" Jasmine said while still trying to find the right place to start her explanation.
Jasmine started to explain how everything that happened, from the attack in the school to the incident that happened in the dojo. She also tried to explain the best that she could to them about how the turtles came to how they are now and how the Kraang were involved with a lot of crimes lately, unfortunately Carmen wasn't grasping the idea.
"Wait a minute…so you're saying that these guys are being trained by a giant mouse-" Carmen asked Jasmine.
"Rat, actually…" Donnie corrected Carmen.
"Right…and he's training them to be ninjitsu masters in the sewers!?" Carmen continued. "And you have been living with them since you got attacked by your sister in the sewers!?"
"Yeah…that pretty much sums it all up….a little…." Jasmine replied.
"Wow…I didn't think you were much an adventure girl…" Carmen said while slumping down a little suddenly realizing how much she missed.
"…Gee, thanks…" Jasmine said sarcastically while pushing Carmen lightly.
"Ha-ha, no problem," Carmen chuckled. "You're just too easy to pick on, you know that right?"
"Yeah…and I wonder why…hmm…." Jasmine said sarcastically while leaning towards Carmen.
"Hey! Do you think you could hurry it up a little….?" Raph asked impatiently.
"Huh?…oh, yeah, right," Jasmine said. She started to stand up from where she was sitting when Ruby suddenly slumped down and fell off of the stool and hit the floor with a loud thud, not moving an inch.
"Ruby!" Carmen screamed while running to her side. She gently laid her hand onto Ruby's side and turned her onto her back. Ruby's face was a sickly green color and she was sweating a lot like she just ran a marathon. Carmen put her hand onto Ruby's forehead and sighed. "Her forehead is burning up….and not too long ago she was feeling fine from what I could tell…." Donnie leaned down next to Carmen and Ruby, he check Ruby temperature again and started looking for any signs of injuries or symptoms.
"Just as I thought, we are gonna have to take her down to the lair because mostly likely this isn't something normal doctors can cure…."Donnie said slowly.
"Are you sure Donnie?" Leo asked him.
"Yeah, in fact I'm positive." Donnie replied.
"Alright…." Leo sighed. "Let's get going so we can help her as soon as possible."
"Hey! What wrong with her…do you know yet? Can you help her?" Carmen asked nervously.
"Yeah I can but I'm not exactly sure what's wrong with her but I do know that somehow she was poisoned and it now just got into her system…." Donnie replied gently. "If you want to help your sister we have to get her down to the lair, quickly."
Carmen just stared at her sister's limp body and sighed while wiping some of the tears that started to pool around her eyes. She slowly stood up with Ruby on her back and started to walk towards the door with her head down in despair. April went after Carmen and went to go help her if she needed it to carry her sister. They all left and walked towards a manhole cover that was secluded in a dark alley and silently jumped down into the sewers. The whole trip towards the lair was dead silent, Carmen was still in shock by what happened to her sister in the noodle shop. April was walking behind Carmen with Donnie right by her side in case she needed his help. Mikey and Raph were silently walking behind them not sure on what to do in the awkward silence. Leo and Jasmine took up the rear, walking side by side in complete silence like everybody else. Finally Carmen broke the silence and said, "So now what am I going to do? I mean I can't leave my sister down here, it would tear me to pieces if I had to leave…." Carmen started to say but she trailed off.
"I know, but unfortunately we are going to have to ask sensei about it first before you can stay down here with your sister…." Raph said gently as he walked towards the front of the pack so he could walk beside Carmen.
Jasmine was completely taken by surprise by the way Raph was treating Carmen. He was treating her with respect and sincerity almost like she was part of the family already. She was immediately lost in her thoughts when someone lightly nudged her back into reality. She turned towards the person who nudged her out of her own little world. Leo looked at her with worried eyes and a slight frown on his face. At the sight of this Jasmine smiled half-heartedly towards him trying to get across to him that she was okay but he didn't by it. He slowly took her hand and squeezed it a little trying to comfort her without disturbing everybody else that was around them. Jasmine gently squeezed his hand back and went back to her thoughts. For some reason something has been nagging at the back of her mind ever since she walked into the noodle shop. At first, she thought it wasn't anything important until she saw Ruby's body slamming into the floor. She didn't want to believe it was true but unfortunately it was, the thing that was nagging her was a small memory of a grown man.
From what she could remember he had bleach white hair and black eyes and if you stared into them for too long you might actually get sucked into them like they were two black holes boring into to you that wanted the very essence of your entire soul. Every single piece of clothing that he was wearing was pure white except for the red cloak that wrapped around his neck and that flowed down onto the ground and a thick gold belt that wrapped around his waist. There were two strange diamonds that went around his left eye making it look like he was wearing a very strange eye patch, he also wore two crystal diamond shaped earrings that looked too heavy for his ears to handle causing them to sag a little. But the most disturbing thing of all she felt absolute hatred towards this guy like she would try or do anything to him if he ever stepped over the line again. She didn't want to believe that it was true but she has a hunch that this guy has something to do with Ruby's sudden illness and she wanted him to pay for what he has done. Jasmine gasped at the violent and sickening thoughts that were going through her mind, what was she thinking!? Why does this guy want to make her do dangerous and violent things? And most importantly why does she remember him so well when she can't even remember her childhood when she was with her real parents? It's as if he was grinded into her mind so that she wouldn't forget his face and something else that was terribly important to her but she couldn't remember what that was. Jasmine suddenly returned back to reality and turned towards Leo, he was walking silently beside her still holding her hand gently making sure not to let her go. As if he knew she was looking at him he suddenly turned his head towards Jasmine and looked into her eyes, at that moment she knew she was ready, she couldn't wait any longer, she has to tell Leo what happened to her when she blacked out in the dojo and what she just thought about two seconds ago, she has to.
BOOYAKASHA! XD I'm finally done and I'm sorry for the delay again for some reason the chapters keep getting longer and longer causing me to submit it late ^^; but whatcha gonna do lol anyways, I really hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I do even though I had to re-write some of it so it wouldn't be too long :3 so if you would please comment and/or favorite! :happybouce: