Chapter 10: On The Road Again
"Do you think you can find the specific area or spot in Mexico on where it might be, maybe a museum?" April asked Kana who was sitting on the floor against the wall of the Shellcharger, "Sadly no, there is no info based on it, there had to be search parties throughout the entire area for the other materials, it took months before they were found." Kana said with a sad shrug.
Leo sat at the wheel and flipped a few switches, powering on the Shellcharger and raised the ram from being lowered when Donnie got upset with the one man getting too curious. They were still parked in the car festival that was happening, Leo glanced out the window and noticed the tank he saw earlier pass by on the main street, they were still searching the area for them. Leo sighed and powered off the Shellcharger, April glanced at him confusingly, "What's wrong Leo?" She questioned worriedly, Leo put his right leg above his left and peered over his shoulder, "How do you guys feel like decorating the Shellcharger?" he asked with a small smirk as he pointed at April, Kana and Casey.
Casey was dumbfounded but excited as he would love to decorate and spray paint the vehicle, April and Kana both came to realization at the same time on why he was asking. "We're too exposed in a heavily armored vehicle, and we're the only armored weaponized vehicle that looks military here." Leo began, "Blending in!" April added excitedly, Leo nodded. Casey still looked confused, April smacked him upside the head, "Doofus, we're going to make the Shellcharger look like it's from the festival, blend in and leave looking like one of the vehicles and the Arcane's will ignore us." She explained to him.
April, Kana and Casey exited the Shellcharger and the crowd of people that surrounded the vehicle taking pictures instantly stopped and looked at them. April smirked as she got a bright idea, "How does everyone feel about helping out with decorating this baby!?" She shouted. Leo noticed this as he was watching from the window, he couldn't help but to chuckle, "Donnie is so going to be upset with me…" he stated as he leaned back in the driver seat waiting. Mikey and Raph sat next to him and watched the monitors as people rushed over with a bunch of decorations.
"Dude, someone actually drew a cock on the side." Raph said as he pointed at one of the monitors and let out a large giggle and started laughing. Leo shrugged, "Welcome to California." Mikey raised an eye, "What's a cock?" Raph was busting out laughing, "Seriously!?" He laughed. "One day, Mikey, one day…" Leo stated.
April put a hand on Kana's shoulder and bowled over laughing hard at how the Shellcharger was turning out, Kana couldn't help but to join in on the laughing, Casey was being squished in the pile of people who decorated the Shellcharger as he gradually kept yelling out, "Anyone got spray paint!?" He asked repeatedly. "Donnie is so going to murder us!" April stated as she was laughing hard, "I can't breathe…" Kana said as she hugged April laughing as well.
After a while it had finally calmed down as April and Kana had to stop and make people back off, April and Kana pretty much started laughing again and also because of Casey who looked like a puddle on the ground from be squished by all the people as he sobbed laying on the ground not being able to decorate. April giggled as she walked to Casey and helped him up, "Come on, time to go." She said, grabbing him, "Maybe Donnie will let you help him when he fixes it up." She added. Leo opened the door for them as they approached the side, "You should see it from the outside... it looks great!" April said as she and the other two entered laughing. "Goodluck explaining this to Donnie." April added as she chuckled glancing at him as he was passed out on the couch still snoring lightly, good thing he is a deep sleeper.
Leo only smirked and let out a small chuckle as he flipped the switches above him, powering the Shellcharger on and rubbing on the engine giving a very loud burst of noise for the people for their help, they all shouted happily in excitement. "Hopefully this works." Leo said as he slowly drove out as people moved out of the way slowly to capture some pictures, Leo kept the Shellcharger dark, lights were off and he made the engine quieter as he drove through the crowds of people towards the exit. Leo noticed the tank drive by again the other way, and he took advantage of this as he noticed it turn down a street as well, as soon as he reached the exit he stepped on the gas and drove down pass the street the tank turned down, the plan actually worked as they drove pass more of the scouting Arcane's.
April and Kana were sitting on the floor with the map spread out trying to figure out possible locations in Mexico City on where the final material piece could be hiding, "Do you know where the materials that are found were found before? Like the exact location, maybe they have a specific pattern?" April asked as she turned to Kana. Kana shrugged, "I've already attempted that, each material was found randomly in random locations, there was no pattern or clues on where the next would be, Like I said, the teleporter is centuries old, no one knows how long it's been hidden here and over time the pieces were found randomly by people."
April sighed and fell back angrily, "Mexico City is the eighth largest city in the world in terms of population, and It's most common language there is Spanish, so I hope you guys know some spanish." Kana said.
Leo shrugged, "We hardly know much Spanish, but mr sleep genius over there knows just about every language. And I'm sure April knows some." "Of course I know some, I didn't graduate early for nothing." April growled lowly, April sat up with another sigh, "Well atleast I get to go see Mexico for once, I've honestly wanted to go there when I was younger."
Kana chuckled lightly, "Same here, I've traveled almost all around the world researching and seeing things in person, I've never gone to Mexico though, not once. But I've researched and read a lot on it, including videos and guides. So I know how to get around it a bit, but not much. And I do know spanish myself, so no need to worry if you don't know much of it." She said, reassuring April as she looked at her and smiled.
April returned the smile with another, all these unknowns that kept coming have been frustrating her, but knowing she wasn't alone and having help made her feel relieved and like she was with her own family, including Kana who had already pretty much accepted her and the turtles. She glanced around, Raph was in the passenger seat next to Leo just relaxing and pretty much ignoring everything as he slowly jammed out to the music that was playing decently low in the vehicle, Mikey and Casey were just constantly snacking on food and playing games behind her and Kana, and of course Donnie was still passed out on the couch after being awake for just about two days.
April sighed as she looked away from Donnie and turned it to Kana, "You won't tell anyone about them...please?" Kana glanced at April and reassured her with a relieving smile, "You guys saved me, who am I to turn my back on you guys after that, you even allowed me to accompany you on this trip and help find this last teleporter piece. Who would believe me anyway? Mutants are all over the world in hiding from humans, that's why the world doesn't know about them, I won't even tell my governor."
Leo peered over his shoulder and glanced at Kana, "Wait, mutants are all over the world in hiding? I thought they were just made from a certain chemical that turns them into mutants, like us." Kana moved her look towards Leo who put his eyes back on the road, "You know what mutated us!?" Raph added as he was turned and looking at Kana, Kana returned his look with a surprised one, "You guys don't know how you became mutants? You weren't humans before?" she questioned.
Raph raised an eye giving her a confused look, "We've been turtles, always." "Our father who also got mutated said we became like this because of some weird green ooze that fell from the sky landing on him and us and turned us into intelligent creatures. He was human before mutating into a genetic animal." Leo added.
"That green ooze is called mutagen, if just a drop of that ooze touched your skin of any living creature, it mutates them into something else, considering you guys were turtles to begin with, it made you all intelligent like a human and you're growing up like a human does too. The same would go for any animal, like a dog for example, it would still be a dog but it would develop an entirely almost new bone structure and intelligence. Now a human on the other hand, if they were exposed to it, they would turn into their genetic animal. All humans have some kind of genetic animal trait in them, like your father." Kana explained.
"Mutagen? Did you guys make it!?" Raph asked angrily with a low growl, Kana shrugged, "No, we came across it. We have no idea where it came from, we researched it and found out what it does, that's how I know about mutants and the ooze, we've also found out that it's still being produced by someone or something, somewhere. We've come across more of the ooze lying around in unknown places, and more sightings of mutants, we're trying our best to keep it secret in San Jose. And if this is also an issue in New York, it could be happening anywhere regarding where this mutagen is coming from."
Raph started growling at her angrily, "Raph, knock it off." Leo snapped at him, Raph growled lowly at Leo but listened as he turned back into the seat and went back to jamming out. "So, Dragor isn't a mutant?" Leo questioned, "Not by the Mutagen considering he is from another world entirely, meaning mutants are also known to be out in space too apparently since his arrival. We knew he wasn't from here because we did get strange reading reports from NASA in the atmosphere outside of earth before it entered, like of a living creature, not of a ship or asteroid closing in." Kana said, putting her knuckles to her chin as she thought. "So It's possible there's going to be mutants even in Mexico City?" April asked, "I did say they were being sighted all over the world, so yes." Kana remarked.
Leo flipped on the headlights when they finally reached the highway, "I just hope we can get there before Dragor does…" April sobbed. April just remembered instantly and she quickly grabbed her phone from her pocket and dialed a number putting it to her ear, Kana looked at her confusingly. "Inside information." April said, giving her a smirk and an ok hand sign.
"Do you have any idea what time it is, April!?" It was Jenna who had answered, "No actually, I do not." April said unamused. "It's midnight, Midnight! And I am trying to sleep!" Jenna growled angrily, April only sighed, "That's besides the point right now, it's about Dragor." she began, Jenna sighed, "What about him?"
"Is he still in New York? We've managed to learn some more about him and the blueprint." April stated as she asked with a somewhat worried tone. "He arrived back here an hour ago after finally finding the blueprint, and went straight to bed saying he had a big busy day tomorrow. That's all I know at the moment." Jenna marked as she yawned. "Thanks, Jenna." April said gratefully as she hung up.
"Step on it Leo, Dragor will be looking for that piece starting tomorrow." April stated as she turned her look back down at the map. "Ya got it." Leo said as he stepped on the gas flying by cars.
Kana looked at April, "He's injured, isn't he?" she asked quietly as she glanced at Leo remarking who she was talking about. April already knew who she was referring too as Leo was the only one here who had a bad injury, April stopped what she was doing and her expression became a sad one, she didn't bother to look at Kana. "Yeah… how did you…?" April began, "I am a researcher… I can tell he has extra bandaging under his main on his right arm." Kana stated, "Did Dragor do it?" She asked, April sighed and looked at Kana, "No, a large Purple Dragon man did with a blade attached to his arms, Dragor did reopen it and make it a bit worse though, he protected me and Mikey and took the hit for our safety, and he also held back Dragor in the result of cracking his blade and reopening the injury to protect his two brothers." She stated as she pointed at Mikey and Donnie behind them.
Kana only gave her a somewhat confused look, April realized this and knew why, "That's right… you don't know our names still fully… that's my bad.." April began, "I'm April O'neil, And that's Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey and Casey." April said as she pointed at each of them as she remarked their names.
Kana shrugged, "You all already know mine, so no point in introducing… Wait, O'neil? Do your parents by chance live in a farmhouse a few hours out of New York?" April gave her a surprised look but nodded in agreement with her as she was correct, Kana pointed at her, "Your parents use to work for the research lab in San Jose before you were born, Your mother and father worked together, when your mother got pregnant with you, they both retired and moved to New York in an apartment and then moved out of that after a while to the farmhouse. They were big collectors for ancient materials, statues, artifacts, you name it. That's probably how you got the blueprint…"
"You worked with my parents? How old are you, you look twenty…" April asked, still with a surprised and confused look on her face. Kana chuckled, "I'm actually forty three, I've been working with the research lab for thirty years, eighteen years ago is when your parents retired, they worked almost as long as I have."
April practically was very intrigued with this, her parents never talked much about their past lives or work experience, just always talked about the future for herself. April didn't know this about them and it sorta frustrated her that they kept it secret, but she came to a sudden realization, "Do they know about mutants and the teleporter?" April questioned as her eyes were glued to Kana's. Kana nodded, "We first discovered mutants twenty years ago, I used to work with them a few times, but never really stayed in contact because of my own problems and it's true I tend to avoid people. They put it all behind them though as they wanted a normal life."
April gave a soft smile as she glanced at Leo and Raph, "What fun is there in being normal?" She remarked. Kana noticed this and only chuckled and fell onto her back on the floor, "You're one strange girl, April." April looked down at her and smirked, "Ohh, and you aren't!?" April said as she poked at Kana who only laughed.
A couple hours had passed since they left San Jose, they were approximately still about thirty hours out till Mexico City. Raph was still awake jamming to the music as Leo was still driving, considering he would drive the gang the whole way there, April and Kana passed out next to each other on the floor and Donnie was still passed out on the couch, Mikey sat back relaxing eating on snacks still and Casey was asleep on his shoulder drooling and snoring a bit, It was five am, and it was still dark out.
Leo slammed on the brakes as April and Kana instantly slid forward and woke up crashing face first upward, Raph caught and stopped himself with his legs on the dashboard but was in sudden surprise, Donnie instantly snapped awake as he went flying upward and face planted off the couch, Casey also shot awake as Mikey and him fell over and Mikey practically landed on him and the two began fighting, "Get off me man!" Casey shouted as he wiggled and tried pushing Mikey off of him.
"What the shell Leo!?" Raph yelled sitting up quickly and glaring at him. Leo shrugged slightly, "Sorry, but we got a problem…" he added as he pointed out the window and the monitors. April and Kana sat up straight quickly in shock but stood up and shook it off as they walked up behind to see what was going on, Raph joined them as they all glanced at the monitors and out the window. Casey and Mikey were just practically fighting and arguing with another and Donnie just stayed laying on the floor mumbling to himself angrily, April and the rest noticed why Leo had stopped suddenly, It was a sudden car accident that had just happened right in front of them.
A giant truck and trailer had flipped over and blocked the entire road and caused multiple cars to also crash into one another, it was a large scale accident that linked. And considering they all were in an armored vehicle, anything that crashed or hit them would have no effect, but thankfully they were a decent distance away from the accident that occured and were pretty much stopped and stuck with traffic.
"Great, now we're stuck!? For how long!?" Raph shouted angrily as he glanced at Kana who knew all the answers like Donnie did. Kana noticed this and shrugged, "Few hours maybe… This is pretty big and it's gonna take some time for cops and ambulances to arrive with this big scale of traffic being stopped and blocked." "We don't have that kind of time…" April sobbed.
"We're an hour away until we hit Los Angeles... " Kana added, Leo glanced around the vehicle, even though they weren't entirely on a highway, it still was a busy road considering the highly populated cities being close together, he stayed on West Side Freeway to get to Los Angeles, and like most busy freeways and highways, the sides were blocked by ditches or walls, or normally sticks in the ground, but not in this case. Though they still were blocked in due to the amount of cars that kept coming up behind them and pulling beside them on both sides.
None of the other cars attempted to try and bypass the accident as they all stayed parked, and mostly because none of them were off road vehicles and would go off road to get around. A few dozen people had exited their vehicles and ran past to help and make sure the people who crashed were ok.
Raph let out a large roar and just went back to sitting in the passenger seat. April sighed, she knew Leo was very patient and could wait this out, but everyone was on edge with the world being at sake because of Dragor, Leo knew this as April noticed him looking around for a way through, but it was no good, the Shellcharger was too big to get through any of the gaps and some drivers purposely blocked the gaps so people wouldn't rush through to get by and cause more of an accident.
April placed her hand on Leo's shoulder and smiled at him, "We'll just wait it out, Dragor doesn't know exactly where it is like we do just yet, so we still got some time." April said as she remembered what Kana said beforehand about Dragor being just as lost as they were when it came to finding the teleporter pieces.
"You gotta be kidding me!? We're gonna be cramped in here for god who knows how long because of this!?" Raph growled. April snapped an angry look at Raph, Raph noticed this and instantly shut up as he was somewhat scared of her when she got angry for no apparent reason, almost like being scolded by your mother as he remembered the old days with Splinter and his scolding when he gave the same angry expression. "We are NOT ramming through innocent citizens!" April shouted at him as she also pointed at him angrily, she knew what he was thinking. Raph only hesitated and raised his hands slightly innocently and turned away, putting his feet back on the dashboard.
The cops and ambulances finally arrived after two hours of sitting and waiting, Donnie had practically gone back to sleep on the couch while the others were more on edge with this incident and having to be halted. Though Mikey and Casey were minding their own busy doing their own things and not entirely paying attention at all as they munched away on snacks the entire trip and playing video games.
Though no one blamed or got angry with them, April and Kana knew the turtles were mostly stuck in the Shellcharger the entire time because of the highly populated areas they've been going to, they can't just stop and pull over for an outside stretch.
It took the cops another good two more hours before they could have someone arrive and move all the crashed vehicles off and out of the road so traffic could continue, but slowly. Workers rushed out of arrived vehicles with stop and go signs to steady the traffic, and after about five hours of waiting they were finally able to pass and be back on the road again.