Wow it's been so long since I've talked to you all! I'm so sa boy about my poor updating skills, they're very suckish I know. Anyway I've been VERY busy with school (Tenshii777 and Sapphire316 know this) and this is probably the suckiest chapter I've ever written! Enjoy it anyway! *I don't own TMNT and all that other stuff*
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"To seize the moment and don't squander it, cause you never know when it could be all over tomorrow."
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The Monster
Chapter 8: Blinded By Stargaze
"Donnie I don't think we're going to find anything else down here. You have enough for you to eat but I guess I'll just have to starve." April grumbled from where she rested on the beast's back.
"You mean you don't like mauled sewer rat?" Monstertello joked with a hint of coldness in his voice.
"Not particularly." The girl winced, all she could think of was Splinter, a sewer rat.
For two hours April and Donatello had been trudging through the tunnels searching for anything to satisfy their hunger. Unfortunately for April, Donnie had a larger array of options to choose from. The monster had already mauled and killed two rats, a squirrel, and a raccoon that he had caught by waiting at a manhole and grabbing it as it ran across the street. Every time he made a kill, his crush looked away. April had never been a fan of gory horror movies, but she knew that she had to adapt considering the fact that she was practically living in one. Kidnapped by a deranged mutant creature and supposedly being forced to live in the sewers with that creature wasn't exactly her idea of a perfect fairytale ending like in the Disney movies she used to watch with her mother. After her mom's passing, she found it too painful to dig out the films and watch them again so she tucked them all away in a box under her bed, never to be touched again.
"I can't send you up to the surface on your own, you may run away from me, but maybe I could manage to grab you something from the supermarket." Don's tone was mysterious and he chuckled a bit.
"Too risky." The blue eyed girl shot back. "They'd find you and kill you."
"Well you can't just not eat! It's night now, around 9:30 PM, maybe I can venture out unseen."
"I can't allow you to do that."
"Your not the boss of me April, this isn't a partner decision, I'm going and you can't stop me." Monstertello stated.
"I just don't want you to get hurt..." April huffed as she rested her head on Donnie's shifting shoulder blades.
"You can come with me if you want. I'll protect you if they try to harm me, they won't take you away from me." The monster was quiet but his voice echoed around the tunnel.
He was met by the sound of water dropping from the pipes above, the sound created an interesting melody, but nothing could compare to April's voice.
"You don't want to stay, do you? You want to be free and see the world again like you were able to this morning. See Abigail and your aunt...see Casey."
"Are you going to allow me to go?" The auburn haired beauty asked.
"Not a chance." A low throated growl escaped Monstertello's throat as he picked up his speed, walking a little faster through the uncharted parts of the sewer.
"I expected as much." April replied while rolling her eyes.
"Do I detect sarcasm, young lady?" Donatello growled again.
"Young lady? I'm older than you." His captive replied rigidly, not at all in the joking way that she once had.
April had become a bit bolder when it came to conversing with the monster. She added hints of annoyance to her voice, rolled her eyes often, cracked witty remarks, and gave him the cold shoulder when she felt it was necessary. Sometimes when she was about to take her comments over the line, she would feel a sharp pain in her chest from where she was cut earlier and would instantly clam up. Donatello never planned on hurting her ever again, it broke his heart, but Monstertello was an entirely different story. If the girl stepped out of line or got out of hand, Monstertello was ready to put her back in her place as his captive, his property.
"Your 16 and I'm a 15 year old giant monster that could demolish half a city in a matter of minuets. There's not much of a difference..." Donnie could play this bantering game too.
"Are we going up to the city to get me some food oh wise monster?"
"I think we will! Right now!"
No sooner than Monstertello announced this, he used his powerful hind legs to launch himself upwards and grab a ladder. April screamed at the sudden movement and hugged Donnie's neck like her life depended on it. The ladder rattled and shook under Donatello's great weight and power, but stayed put. The bars were wet with sewage and mildew and April was glad she had the beast's neck to dangle from, the beast himself didn't mind the thick coatings on the ladder as long as he didn't fall off. He grunted loudly and gritted his fangs together as he attempted to stay on and move the manhole above at the same time and with the combined moisture of the sewage, mildew, and sweat that now formed in the creature's palms, he began to slip. April tried not to thrash around as she witnessed his already giant muscles tense and grow larger. With a final punch, the manhole flew off its spot and Donnie launched himself out into an alleyway and landed hard on his side. He breathed heavily as April was thrown to the ground next to him, she couldn't have held on any longer if she tried.
Monstertello rolled over and made his way into a crouching position with all four legs bent, claws sticking outwards and tail flicking angrily in the smoky New York air.
"Hop on, don't hesitate, quickly now." Don poked at April gently.
The girl followed the orders and slipped back up into her original position. She looked up at the sky in wonder, even though she had just seen it today, it felt like forever ago. The stars shone brightly and she could see the constellations as Donnie contemplated on the best way to get her food. There was the Little Dipper, Big Dipper, and her favorite: Ophiuchus. Donnie had showed her Ophiuchus back in the summer when things were right. She remembered it as clear as day.
"Donnie do you think I could grab some takeout from Mr. Murakami's?" April asked lightly.
"Of course. I'll be waiting in the alleyway behind the shop for you. Try to slip away through the front though, and I'll notice. Got it?" Don relayed like a drill sergeant.
"Got it."
"Okay good. Let's go." Donatello began to walk out of the alley but a strong pull on his purple mask that lurched his head backwards made him stop.
"What are you doing?!" April hissed. "Your going to get caught! Take the rooftops!"
With a sigh, the monster bounded for and then slickly slinked up the fire escape on the nearest building. Instead of jumping again and taking the risk that April may fall, the mutant dug his powerful claws into the brickwork and made his way up to the roof. Crawling around cautiously, Don surveyed the area to make sure there weren't any enemies or people around that could spot him but at this point, everyone other than April was an enemy that posed the threat of taking the girl away from him.
"Do you see the stars?" A fragile voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Yes, April, I do." The mutant replied as he walked and jumped across the roofs. "I see the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper and-"
"Amateur constellations my friend." April cut him off with another fake British accent, this time with the accent of a scholar.
"I see the rare and astonishing Ophiuchus gazing down upon us."
Donatello felt his heart and cheeks grow warm as he remembered the summer night when he informed her about his favorite star formation. He was surprised yet enchanted that she remembered it and the way her blue eyes lit up against the stars when she told him, like she was proud of her new knowledge that he taught her some time ago. He could feel a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth and decided to let it show.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, professor." The mutant joked. April's sweet laugh was music to his ears.
With a final jump, Donatello landed rather gracefully in the darkened alleyway behind Murakami's shop. April happily slid off his back and and over his tail like Fred Flinstone used to do in the Flinstones, one of her favorite old shows. Upon landing on the hard asphalt, she smoothed out her dress and pushed her ring farther back on her finger so it wouldn't fall off.
"I'll be right back, don't you worry." She smiled as wrapped her fingers around the back door's handle.
"I'll be right here. Waiting for you." Donnie smiled and April gasped. She swore for another second, as the monster sat in the alleyway like a giant puppy, that she could see another flash of chocolatey brown in his bloody eyes. A flash of old Donnie.
Without thinking, April ran over and planted a kiss on the monster's nose causing those eyes to fly open wide.
"I know." She murmured before running inside of the restaurant. Donatello sat there in shock, but a pleasant and dreamlike kind of shock that he never wanted to leave. Unfortunately he was pulled from his dream a little too early for his liking.
"Hey look it's one of dem turtles!" A familiar, heavy accented voice rung out.
Monstertello spun around quickly and his eyes narrowed.
Purple Dragons.
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"Raph you can't say she wasn't of some form of help." Leonardo sighed as he lead his team across the New York cityscape by rooftop.
"I'm just saying that she was an old creep who didn't give us much information!" Raphael responded as he helped Casey across the gaps.
The four boys were trying to figure out what to do next. Madame Estelvoya had showed them what had happened between Donnie and April but not where they were. Leo and Mikey wanted to report back to Splinter in the sewers but Casey and Raph wanted to continue searching the city, maybe have the human hockey player ask around the area for any sightings of the large beast and the auburn haired girl.
"Should we go back to Estelvoya and demand more info?" Casey asked.
"Maybe tomorrow, if it's necessary. I don't want to seem pushy." The leader in blue answered.
"Pushy? Dude we're talking about saving our brother from a second mutation here, how could we possibly think about how incredibly pushy we are?!" The hothead hollered.
"Raph's got a point, dudes." Michelangelo spoke up.
The youngest turtle had become noticeably quieter after his first encounter with Monstertello. His purple clad brother had been the one he could've always gone to no matter what his problem was, even if he wasn't always wanted in the lab, and Don's mutation had taken quite a toll on Mikey's mind.
He thought about serious things like battling, injuries, and even death more often and it worried his two older brothers. They had to find Donnie soon.
"Which way are you leaning Mikey?" Leo said gently.
"I wanna see Sensei still...I miss him."
"You just saw him earlier, Mike." Casey stated.
"That wasn't Sensei, he was crying and scared. Sensei is never scared, at least not ever when I'm around. I want him to be happy again."
The other three boys were taken aback by Michelangelo's heartache, it was prominent in his eyes when he talked about Splinter. As Mikey missed happy Splinter, his brothers and Casey missed happy Mikey.
"We all have to be strong for him, Mikey." Leonardo walked over to his youngest brother and took him in his arms.
"Yeah, we have to remember that it's normal for him to be sad considering he's basically lost a son." Raph followed suit.
"Your bro's are right but I bet if the four of us band together we can find April and Donnie. We'll search all their favorite places, check up on Splinter and Abigail as they recuperate in case they've been payed any visits, infiltrate any part of the sewer that we can find, help with clean up around the city, and listen to what citizens have to say because there's bound to be news on Don. It's as simple as passing around a puck on the rink."
The turtles stared wide eyed at Casey Jones who was heroically silhouetted by the moonlight during and after his speech.
"I also like dramatically looking off into the distance while the moon shines on me it the background." The black haired boy chuckled, sitting with his friends on the edge of the rooftop.
"Tonight we'll stay and look around the city." Leonardo began. "If we don't find Donnie and April by daybreak we'll report back to Master Splinter and give him the play-by-play on what's happened so far. Then we'll go back to Estelvoya and see what new information she has for us. Sound like a plan?"
"Plan!" Casey cheered, sticking his hand out on Leo's.
"Plan." Raph smirked as he placed his hand over Casey's
The three boys looked at Mikey who was staring off into the night sky, eyes amidst the stars and mind whirring with questions. The intensity of his gaze made the trio try and imagine what he saw other than the little twinkling lights above, but nothing of any sense came to mind.
"Do you dudes ever notice that the stars can tell a story?" He piped up.
"What do you mean?" Leo inquired.
"So there's a little jumble of stars over there, caught up in messiness of all the scattered stars that seem to be afraid.
That little group is all of us, including Abigail and Sensei, among the frightened peeps who live around here. Then there's a large and towering star blocking off one other star from the rest of them. They seem to be drifting farther and farther away from the rest of the group maybe because that one is too big. Those two represent Donnie and April, it's our life in the sky..."
For a moment they all sat, waist deep in awe, taking in the story that seemed to be coming to life right in front of them.
"Maybe if we look up at the sky more often, we'll find Donnie."
"Mikey...why does this make sense?" Raph mumbled.
"Because it's the truth." Leo cut in. "Donnie would be proud of you, Mikey. Did he teach you about stars?"
"Every single one he could think of." The youngest turtle smiled brightly upwards at the nighttime.
"That's amazing. Your smarter than your record shows!" Casey chortled excitedly.
"So are you man!" Mikey laughed. He gazed down at the other three hands piled on top of each other and with a wide smile and a willing attitude. Michelangelo laid his hand down on top of Raphael's.
"Plan! Let's save Donnie and April!"
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UGH THAT CHAPTER ERMERGERSH IT SUCKS. Anyway, I'm gonna try and update more stuff this weekend, so watch my profile for updates! Don't forget to REVIEW! ~PurpleKittyFangirl