Phoenix Call

Chapter 9: Fallen

Four grim-faced turtles leapt gracefully over the rooftops of New York, full of deadly intent. Shredder and the Foot would pay for what they had witnessed tonight.

They had arrived at their uncle's quietly, looking for anything amiss. It had been dark inside, but when Donnie shined a flashlight through the window of the den, hell had broke loose. Raph shattered the window, Donnie rushed over to look at the petite blonde laying unconcious in the floor, and Mikey and Leo had swept the rest of the apartment to survey the damage. At one point, Joan had woke up, seen four giant talking turtles, and promptly passed out again. Donnie guessed it was just too much at one, since she had been at work the first time they had come over. They had agreed to drop her off in front of a neighbor's, beating on the door like Hell was coming and quickly leaping into the night before they were spotted.

Other than Joan, they had found signs of a stuggle throughout the place. Eric's kusarigama lay off to one side of the living room, bearing several new scratches and dents, and a black war fan had been imbedded into a cabinet in the kitchen. There was no signs of either Eric or Amber.

OoO

"Master Shredder, our 'guests' have arrived and been made comfortable in cell block D."

Shredder nodded, "Begin your interrogation then. Report to me when it's done."

Karai bowed. "Yes Father." She then exited the room and made her way almost lazily to her new 'friends'. Nodding to the guards to open the cell door, Karai sauntered in and met Eric's cobalt gaze.

"What do you want with me and my sister?"

Karai backhanded him, splitting his lip. "I ask the questions here. Where are the turtles hiding?"

"Like I'm telling you anything! Go screw yourself." Karai punched him in the stomach, making him double over.

Several hours later, a frustrated Karai left the siblings alone again. Eric was barely hanging onto conciousness as Amber started stirring.

"Amber, wake up."

"Waahh...Five more minutes..."

"Amber!"

"Hmmm..?"

"I just got the shit beat out of me, would you wake the fuck up?"

Amber's head shot up, making her vision swim and a groan escaped her. "The hell happened?"

"You attacked in anger, and we got captured by the Foot."

Hazel eyes held a dark fire as they met icy cobalt. "You can't fucking blame me for this. YOU called ME, knowing I have a quick temper where this kind of shit's concerned."

Eric closed his eyes. He hadn't meant to snap and lash out at his sister. "I'm sorry, Sis. I'm just worried about Joan. She wasn't moving when we got dragged away. And I was worried about you too, you got knocked out cold. Why did you have a tessen anyway instead of your favorite playthings?"

Amber shrugged as much as the chains would let her. "It would have been to much of a delay to retrieve them, so I stopped by my place and grabbed what I could. If I had known what was going down, I would have grabbed something else."

Eric tried to sit up a little better, wincing. Yeah, he was sure now he had some broken ribs. It was times like this he envied Amber. Whatever weird shit she had gone through in their teens had altered her DNA somehow and given her almost miraculous healing potential. Bones would mend in days, and minor cuts in hours. Joan had always been impressed by her speedy recovery times.

"Hey Eric?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you call a pig that does karate?" Eric glared at his sister for the double-edged joke.

"Dunno, what?"

"A pork chop!"

Eric groaned. "You crack that one because I'm a cop?"

Hazel eyes gleamed mischeviously. "No, I cracked that one because your my brother."

"Bullshit."

"I could crack a donut joke."

"I'll pass."

OoO

Raph looked out over the sparkling light of the city and sighed. Upon returning to the lair, he and Leo had gotten caught up in another argument and Raph had left the lair to cool off. It had been a while since they'd had a real blowout, but the stress of the evening had caught up to both turtles and tempers flared.

Dropping into his meditation pose, Raphael decided to try out his new skill. Amber had ran through the basics with all of them, but she had said he had the most potential, right? He took the prayer beads from his belt pouch and concentrated on them, feeling more at peace to be doing something that could be useful. He slowly let the world around him fade until it was only just at the edge of his senses. In and out, his breathing steadied as he let the energy mix with Amber's in the beads. It wrapped around his in a comforting way before pulling him deeper into meditation. He couldn't resist the pull, couldn't reason with it. He felt the world around him tumbling until it finally stood still. It showed him a small concrete cell, barely lit and filthy. He swept hazel eyes over to his left and saw Eric chained and battered, but smiling, on the floor and looking at some point behind him. Slowly, worried about what he would find, Raphael turned and there was Amber. Several cuts and bruises decorated her person, from what he could see, but her eyes held fire and hope. She had been chained down like her brother, and they seemed to be talking, joking, but Raph couldn't hear anything. He couldn't tear himself away as Karai stormed in the doorway, armed with a taser and a wicked-looking knife and began shouting. Karai then tased Eric, goading his mom into fighting against the chains that held her. He watched horror fill Amber's face as Karai started slicing the knife into her brothers flesh. Karai paused and asked a question, and returned to her gruesome work when Amber refused to answer. This only infuriated Amber, and she tried to jump at Karai again, only to recieve a vicious backhand with the knife. Raph stared with eyes wide in rage. Karai had slashed his mom across the face, and as the blood dribbled down her face and pooled in front of her in the floor, he could feel something shaking him...