Yayyy, chapter ten! I'm finally in the double digits! This chapter takes place at the same time that chapter nine is, by the way, so It'll explain just what was up last chapter. Sorry if I made you impatient to know how the whole scene on chapter eight turned out, but suspense is just so much fun! ^3^ Anyway, here's the next chapter, please enjoy!
Don walked out of his lab with his head hanging. It was all gone. The whole entire room had practically burned to a crisp. All of his inventions, all of his experiments, all of his journals.
Gone.
One thing that was fortunate was that the lab had thick walls that could pretty much hold anything out of them. If this had not been true, the whole lair might have burnt down. And they might have burnt down with it. Donnie felt slightly sickened by the idea. What had happened was bad enough, especially with Gracie being hurt the way she was. But if Donnie had lost his brothers, too, and Master Splinter... It was not a pleasant thought. Donnie looked up, finding small relief despite it all when he saw his three brothers idling around the living room.
Leo was on the floor in front of the TV, watching Space Heroes. His eyes were fixed onto the screen, but it was obvious that his mind was elsewhere. He, for what seemed like the first time in his life, was ignoring his favorite TV show.
Raphael was slouching on the couch was his nose shoved into a comic book. He, too, held a look that portrayed his wandering thoughts.
Mikey seemed like the best off of all of them. He was laying upside-down on the end of the couch with his eyes closed and his headphones in his ears. He occasionally bopped his foot in the air as he hummed along to the beat. Donnie knew that Mikey was upset, too. He had learned why Mikey always seemed to be happy at a time that seemed like ages ago. Donnie couldn't remember what age they had been.
Donnie had been in a foul mood, and as he walked out to see Mikey singing happily as he skipped around the living room, he had been jealous that Mikey seemed to never get upset. "It's not fair!" Donnie had cried. "Why do you always get to be so happy?" Mikey had stopped suddenly, turning to Donnie with a face that seemed more serious than Mikey would ever be able to handle. "I'm not." He said simply. "But when I get sad, I just try my hardest to seem happy, and most of the time I can trick myself into thinking it's true." Then he had grinned and danced away, leaving Donnie feeling slightly dumbfounded. Mikey made it seem so easy. Donnie wished he could obtain the optimistic traits of his younger brother.
Again, Donnie found himself wishing he could learn to keep himself happy, but he knew it would never work for him. He headed towards his room. The one he hadn't used in years. Donnie regretted the decision to move his bedroom into his lab that he had made so long ago. Now he had no other room to go to, no other items that could have possibly been saved. Even his bo staff was gone. It had snapped into two clean halves when he had bashed into Metalhead and prevented the robot from probably killing Gracie.
Donnie was disappointed that Metalhead was destroyed, though he knew that even if Metalhead had survived, Donnie would have been too angry at the robot to fix it for a long time. Donnie knew it wasn't the robot's fault, but it helped his mind to be able to direct the blame to something. To something that wasn't himself.
Donnie sighed as he entered the room at the end of the hallway that had been his a long time ago and closed the door behind him. It was completely empty, literally not a single thing was in the room besides the bleak walls and the thin, purposeless carpet covering the floor. The room's misuse had made it dreary. Donnie went to a wall and sagged onto it, sitting on the floor heavily. The guilt weighed down on Donatello as he leaned his head back against the cold wall and closed his eyes with a deep, sorrowful sigh.
He wanted to see April. He opened his eyes and pulled out his T-phone, dialing up her name. His finger hovered above the call button, but then he dropped his hand with another sigh. She was at school, anyway. He once again leaned his head back, this time staring at the bleak ceiling.
It was his fault.
The accusation rang through his head. Of course it was his fault. There was no way for him to dodge the blame. He was the one who had left her in the lab. He was the one who had ignored the fact that Metalhead needed fixing. He had hurt her. He had been foolish and had become to distracted. While he had been trying to make a good impression on Gracie, he had almost blew her up. Almost killed her.
Donnie felt disgusted at himself when he thought of what had happened to Gracie. What he had done to Gracie. Her whole entire body was covered completely in an array of terrible cuts, bruises, and burns. One of the worst of those was a large four-inch gash on her right calf. It had been caused by a flying piece of debris. It was extremely deep and needed stitches badly, but since the lab was destroyed, Donnie could only wrap it tightly in some towels from their bathroom. The worst part was a deep gash on her forehead that had been caused when she had fainted and her head had smashed into some rubble. The wound also needed medical attention, but couldn't be cared for properly with their limited supplies.
In so little time, it had all gone wrong. Now the lab is destroyed, Gracie is badly injured, and top it all off, the Foot Clan are searching for her, and now that they knew that they are hiding in the sewers, there is sure to be more foot coming soon. They had a couple more days, Donnie was sure, before the foot clan would be crawling through the sewers. By then, they'll have something figured out. But for now, all Donnie desired was a break from it all. All he wanted was to be able to fall asleep and forget about it.
Unfortunately, Donatello could not find enough peace in himself to rest. He kept thinking about the fire. How it had so easily destroyed everything. As Donnie thought this, he noticed a faint orange glow flickering across the ceiling. His brow furrowed as he watched it. With every second it seemed to grow stronger, brighter. A bright light caught Donnie's eye, and he looked over to see that the orange glow was coming from beneath his door. It was almost blinding as whatever it was that was behind his door continued to grow stronger, until Don could look at it no longer. Donatello also noticed how hot it was getting as the thing grew brighter.
Then, suddenly Donnie knew what it was as the thing emerged from beneath the door. Fire. Donnie leapt up with fright as the fire began crawling it's way up the door, consuming it. The flame continued across the floor at an impossible speed, making it's way toward Donatello as it swallowed the rest of his bedroom. Its endless flickering reminded Donnie of a monster, licking its lips in preparation for its next meal. It backed him into a corner, inching closer, closer to his toes, singeing them and making Don cry out with pain and fear. He screamed, hoping one of his brothers would hear his desperate cries. Tears ran out of Donnie's eyes at the unbearable pain of the fire, the excruciating heat that it ensued. It jumped onto him like a child with a new present, leaping with excitement across his body, the crackling of the fire like its sinister giggling.
Then, Raphael suddenly burst into the room. Donnie felt the relief surge through him. He was saved.
But Raphael did not go to him, he instead turned to a wall, crouching down and placing his hands on the shoulders of another Donatello, who was sleeping against the wall. Raph began shaking him, yelling into his face. "Donnie!" He screamed. It was the wrong Donnie. The Donatello that was being consumed by flames fell to the ground in despair, the wall being the only thing holding him up. He could barely keep his eyes open. Then in a flash Raphael was over top of him, shaking him hard. "DONNIE!" Raphael screamed with all of his might. Donatello's eyes widened in surprise to find the flames had disappeared, he was the only Donatello in the room. Raph still stood above him, clutching his shoulders tightly.
It had been a dream.
Donnie jumped to his feet. "Raph, what's wrong?" Raphael's eyes were wide and Donatello noticed he was shaking slightly.
"They found us." Raph said. "They found the lair. They're here." Donnie didn't need to ask, because then Raph said in a panicked whisper. "The Foot are here. There's got to be a thousand of them at least."
"Go." Donnie said. Raph ran from the room with Donnie following him. Donnie stopped as he saw Mikey in his bedroom, desperately shoving things from his room into a giant duffel bag that lay on top of his bed.
"Mikey." Donnie said. Mikey looked up at Donnie with huge blue eyes, he looked even more frightened than Raphael was. "Mikey, come on. We don't have time." Donnie said. Mikey's eyes looked from Donnie to the large bag he had stuffed full of his random belongings. Mostly junk, Donnie was sure. Than Mikey looked back up at Don and nodded solemnly with a miserable sigh. It was almost heartbreaking for Donnie to see Mikey sad. Mikey was never sad. Sure, he could pout and whine like a two-year-old, but he rarely was ever truly sad. When Donnie saw Mikey, probably the happiest, most cheerful person or thing he would ever meet, sad, he could swear that there was no happiness left in the world. Mikey hefted the huge bag over his shoulder, leaving the remaining pile of junk where it had been, and walked to where Donnie stood in the doorway. Donnie put a hand on Mikey's shoulder. Mikey looked up at him and gave him a small smile, then Mikey dashed away towards the living room. Donnie followed.
"My sons." Splinter said as they were all with him in the room. Raph also had a small box of stuff he was saving. Leo had nothing of his own, as he was instead holding Gracie with a firm look on his face. Gracie was barely awake, still trying to figure out what was going on. "We have little time. Come, follow me." Splinter said. He headed off in the direction of his room. His sons followed him.
"Leo... what...?" Gracie said groggily from in Leo's arms. Leo looked down at her bandaged face.
"Gracie, we're leaving. It's not safe here." Leo explained. Gracie looked confused.
"But what about all your stuff?" Gracie said quietly. Leo's face showed sadness at this question.
"We don't need it." He said shortly, looking away from Gracie. Her eyes rolled off of his face and looked down at one of his arms that was wrapped around her.
"This is my fault, isn't it?" She whispered. Leo didn't hear it, because at that moment there was an eruption of noise from somewhere behind them. Leo looked back just as he was ducking into his Sensei's room, and he saw waves of Foot soldiers surging into their home. Karai was leading them. Her sharp eyes studied the home with interest, before turning back to her army.
"Find them!" She yelled. The soldiers obeyed, scattering through the house. Leo winced as he heard crashing and breaking from behind him. Him and his family continued.
Suddenly, Gracie harshly wrenched herself from Leo's arms. Leo, because he was not expecting it at all, dropped her. She limped as fast as she could out of Splinter's room, gritting her teeth and trying to ignore the pain. She ran across the hallway and wrenched open one of the lab's side doors. "Gracie!" Leo gasped as she went in and shut the door behind her. He turned and ran after her. He yanked open the door and flung himself inside. She was running across the destroyed room as fast as she possibly could with her swollen, injured leg. She was almost to the other side just as the doors in the center of the room opened and a group of Foot entered. Gracie noticed as well and ducked behind a pile of rubble.
Leo crouched low to the ground, hiding behind what seemed like the remnants of one of Donatello's desks. He watched as the group spread out through the room. Once the group had moved away from Gracie's side of the room, she made a mad dash for the exit on her side of the room. No! Leo thought. The bots had seen her. They were heading towards her now with their weapons drawn.
Leo jumped out, running straight towards the group with his swords ready. As he attacked the robots and successfully get them away from Gracie, he saw Gracie make it to the other side of the lab safely and shove the doors open. He only saw her through the crack between the doors as they closed, but she dashed straight into his room.
There were no Foot soldiers in the room. It was already trashed. Gracie was relieved with the thought that the room had already been searched. Hopefully they would not come back. She hurriedly scooped what she had come for out of a pile of Leo's stuff, and into her hands just as someone else entered the room. Gracie jumped, turning around and fearing the worst.
It was Leo. When he saw her kneeling on the ground with her hands clasped together, holding whatever it was that she had as if her life depended on it and looking at him as if he was some kind of serial killer, he didn't know what to think. "Gracie...what are you-" He was cut off as he heard the familiar whirring of a Kraang gun preparing to fire from directly outside of the doorway. He immediately jumped towards Gracie, covering her body with his own.
"I got him." Karai said to the Foot that had began to run towards the room they had seen Leonardo dash into. She grabbed a large gun from one of the Kraang droids beside her. "Go find the others." She commanded, and the robots vanished. She snuck towards the room, then pointed the gun directly as the door and fired it. The door and the surrounding wall immediately blew up, crumbling to pieces around her.
It took a moment for the dust to clear, but once it had, she immediately spotted Leonardo crouching amid the mess. He turned to her and stood up. Her eyes locked onto the frail creature he held in his arms. When Leo saw her looking, he moved in front of Gracie, protecting her with his body. "What's that you got there?" Karai asked. Her voice was not mocking as she asked, as she found that she was actually curious as to what the female turtle really was. Leo gave her a hard stare.
"You can't have her." Leo said. "She's mine." Karai stopped trying to see behind Leo's back and looked back up at his face. He gazed at her sternly, trying to look nonchalant to her presence. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. She found herself almost ignoring Leo. She kept trying to get a look at who he was hiding. She could not figure out why, but the fragile-looking female behind him was hard to keep her eyes off of. She wanted to see more.
She plucked one of her shuriken from her belt with the hand that was not holding the gun, the one that Leo could not see properly. With her eyes, she aimed, then before Leo could see her planning, she threw it. Her aim was perfect. It struck the female turtle on the back of her leg, slicing into it. It wasn't deep enough to hurt her, but as the female was already disoriented, it was enough to make her flinch with pain, which in turn caused her to stumble and fall. She cried out as she fell away from Leo, allowing Karai to see her more clearly.
Karai noted the state the turtle was in, already injured from something that had happened previously, before she had arrived with her army. The girl was thin, but pretty tall. Maybe the same height as Karai. Obviously the girl was not a kunoichi like Karai. She didn't even look tough. There was slight muscles in her arms and her long legs, but they were not enough to do any damage on someone like Karai. Karai observed this all in seconds, before Leo automatically stooped down and scooped the girl off of the floor. She was crying, still clutching something to her chest, as Leo cradled her in his arms, trying to get her as close to him as possible. He did not like the way Karai looked at her.
Karai looked at his face, and was almost surprised to see the misery it held. He looked defeated, tired. He shifted the girl so that she was clinging to his neck as he held her back firmly with one hand. With the other he drew his katana, then he threw them to the ground. "Karai, Please." He said, pleading. "Take me. Don't hurt my family. Don't hurt Gracie. You can have me, just please don't harm them." This shocked her even more. Leonardo, the leader of her enemies, the turtle that no matter how hard she tried, always managed to defeat her. He was begging her. Pleading with her. Giving up.
Karai walked towards him. His gaze remained stern as he set Gracie down. She shook her head, crying, refusing to let go of him. "Gracie. Go." Leo said. Once his order was through, Gracie collapsed as though his words had the power to shut her down completely. He set her off to the side, where she continued to cry silently, refusing to leave.
Karai stopped before Leo, still cautious, suspecting a trick. Leo knelt, bowing his head in surrender. Karai stared at the top of his head. It was so simple. He was foolish, trusting in her, believing that she would take only him. She looked to the turtle girl. Gracie was huddled against the wall as tears rolled down her face. Karai looked away, ignoring the eyes of the girl as she bent and picked up one of Leo's blades. Leo shut his eyes.
With one swift movement, Karai swung the katana above her head. "No!" Gracie cried, springing forward, as Karai's hand came down. Gracie stopped, staring at Karai as Karai looked down at what she had done.
The blade hit the ground with a 'klang'. Leo's eyes opened, confused. Karai knelt down, placing her lips beside Leo's ear. "Go." She whispered. "Take the girl, take your family, and go, before I change my mind." Then she stood, and she was gone.
Gracie stumbled over to Leo, wrapping her arms around his neck in relief. Leo let out the breath he had been holding as he returned the embrace.
"I thought she was going to kill you." Gracie whispered, crying again, this time out of relief.
"So did I." Leo said. They sat like this for a moment, stunned by what had just taken place. Finally, they let go. "Come on." Leo said. He grabbed Gracie and lifted her, as she was still unable to walk because of her injuries. When he walked out of his room, there was no Foot. He continued down the hallway towards the living room. They were gone. Karai had actually left. He still couldn't believe it. The room was completely ravaged. Everything was destroyed. He walked to his Sensei's room, than found the trapdoor that was only to be used during emergencies. He slid in, following the trail of cramped pipes until they came into a small room. Everyone else was there, waiting.
Mikey jumped up, narrowly missing hitting his head on the ceiling. He ran to them and wrapped both of them in his arms tightly. It was an awkward hug because Leo was still holding Gracie, but it was one they all needed.
"Sorry, guys, I-" Leo was cut off as a huge BOOM shook their small room. Followed by another, and another. Leo got on the ground, pulling Mikey down with him. The explosions went on for a couple of minutes, one after the other. Finally they stopped.
"Bombs." Donnie breathed.
Leo didn't know if Karai had done this before or after she let him go, but he still knew that she had given him and his family time to escape. Leo doubted he would ever be able to fully understand Karai. He doubted that he wanted to.
"Come, my sons." Splinter said then, as he stood and unhooked a latch from above him. Another trapdoor opened and they all climbed out of it one by one. Mikey had stolen Gracie from Leo, allowing her to cling to his shell as he climbed, and Leo didn't argue.
After a long time, they made it to the surface, Sensei lifted the sewer cover and climbed out into the air. He breathed it in, having been in the sewers for so long. Leo felt bad that the only time their father seemed to get to go into the city was in a time of crisis.
"Donatello, message April. Tell her we might need a place to stay for the night." Splinter said. Donnie nodded somberly. Everyone was silent.
"I miss it already." Mikey said miserably as he allowed Gracie to stand while he supported her. Everyone nodded.
"Oh, my sons." Splinter said, his face sad. "As long as we have each other, we will be okay." There was small smiles all around. Gracie felt out of place in their family-bonding moment. "And you too, Gracie Hamilton." He added, seeming to know what she was thinking. "I am afraid that you are stuck in this trouble with us." Gracie gave him a small smile, suddenly feeling dizzy, like she was going to faint. Then, she did just that.
How'd you like it, eh? I couldn't stop writing this once I had gotten it started so I am sick of typing right now, so you better have enjoyed it! What are they going to do now? What's going to happen to Gracie? What's going to happen to Karai? You'll find out soon enough! Thanks for reading! Please review and tell me what you think!