Part 8: Monday Massacre On A Tuesday

New York, 06:15, July 6th, 1999

Don

This is all kinda weird when you think about it. We've all sort of met somebody...
I mean, I have no idea if there's anything between Leo and Jade, and I doubt that Paula and I will ever-- well, I guess we're through, if ever there was anything to finish in the first place. But, my point is...this is all strange.
Kylie and Raph getting back together, Mike suddenly showing up with this woman, whom he's obviously involved with...and this Jade who was saved by Leo, appearing out of nowhere and saying that we have to go and save him now...and all of it happening at the same time...
Heh, almost like a plot or a conspiracy or something... a pattern...systematically built up and planned...

I shake my head and grin as thoughts of old TV-series, soaps and such flicker through my brain. This is weird...weird, but still funny in a way...it's gotta be coincidences, right?

Better get back to the task at hand: How to save two mutant turtles from a dungeon packed with ninja soldiers.

Me, Jade and Mike crouch together behind a couple of bushes, not far from one of the doors, where no one can spot us.
Or, to put it more truthfully; where we hope no one can see us.
As one of the men in a foot uniform walk by the bushes and opens the door with his key, we charge forward and knock him down, stealing his chain of keys. The odds were on our side, since we're three and he was only one.
Mike drags the unconscious man's body into the bushes, hardly without a sound, and then follows us through the door.

We sneak inside, rounding each corner with careful steps, paranoid as only two mutant turtles and a woman can be in a place like this. Now the odds are no longer on our side. If a band of ninjas should appear around the next corner, we should be able to hold them back for a while, but they can call for reinforcements, and we can't.
I sure hope that Jade is a good fighter...

Uh oh, there's some...silent, silent now...just sneak behind them, sneak by them...hold your breath...
We press our bodies against a wall the moment we've gone past the guards. They didn't see us.
If we had Raph with us, we'd probably be having a major fight, but right now we just want to come and leave here unnoticed, hopefully taking Leo and Raph with us on the way out.

These halls are kind of empty...where is everybody?
As we pass empty cells after empty cells, we're starting to wonder if they're really here at all.
But suddenly we hear something...what's that? Laughter? No, shouting...no, both.

In the end of the hall, in the heart of this horrible building, we see a flock of men gathered around something...looks like they're watching two of the cells. They're shouting and yelling and there are sudden outbursts of wicked laughter.

"Miiiaaooww,"

Everybody turns, including us, to look at the stray cat who just waltzed in and signed our death sentence.

New York, 06:37 am, July 6th, 1999

Mike

We stare dumbfounded at the cat, and then back at the pack of ninjas.
Now what are we supposed to do? As much as I love animals, I'd like to kill that cat right now for blowing our cover!
So much for the element of surprise...

Guess there's nothing else to do than to pull out the ol' chuks and start fighting.
Don is already holding his bo in front of him in a defensive pose, and Jade has managed to produce a long, lean katana blade. The guards are pulling out their weapons too, meassuring us up, grinning, shooting each other knowing glances.
They've decided that we're gonna lose, I can see that. And they're probably right. They're definitely outnumbering us.

Leaping forward, we try to do as much damage we possibly can, hitting, kicking and slicing.
I concentrate hard on fending them off, but I still catch glimpses of what Don and Jade are doing. Don just kicked some guy straight in the face, who went down on K.O, but another one is fighting him with a giant sword. Looks like Don can kiss his bo-staff goodbye anytime soon. It's getting cut to pieces!

Jade is handling that katana blade pretty well, but she's not as strong as these ninjas, so slowly but surely, she has to back away. There, finally, she got a slice in on the guy who was making her back off. She actually nearly cut his foot off, and he falls screaming to the ground. Where did she get that sword?!

I throw the chain of my chuks around a guards throat, pulling it back, putting tremendous pressure on his air pipe.
He makes wheezing noises and then goes limp in my arms.
Someone yells something I don't hear, and the second after, the hall is crowded with more men.

We're having trouble with these guys, so how are we going to keep all those from killing us too?

I toss the man's body aside, and start swinging my chuks, trying to scare them. They do back away, not wanting to get hit by the swift, swirling pieces of hard wood and metal, but I can see them eyeing something behind me.
I spin around just in time to get slashed across my arm. Crying out in pain and gripping my arm, I can hear many sounds all at once, blending with my cry. Donny shouting worriedly at me-- someone screaming, a strange, piercing scream-- and everybody's surprised voices as the lights suddenly go out.

I back against a wall, still clutching my arm, gritting my teeth in pain, and there's a lot of commotion. Screams, people hitting the ground, tearing and slashing noices...I feel someone supporting me, and I know it's Donny.

"Mike, you okay?"

"Yeah...it's just a flesh wound...stings like hell, though,"

"Where's Jade?"

"I dunno,"

"I'm here,"

"You're pretty good, Jade,"

"Thanks,"

The sounds in the darkness all die out, we hold our breaths, and after a while, the lights are slowly coming back on, one after one down the corridor.
The dead and bloody bodies of ninja soldiers lay strewn around us, leaving us staring in shock.

"Who...?" Jade whispers.

"Looks like they've been literally teared to shreds," Don widens his eyes and lets go of me, going over and silently examining the bodies. He pokes one of them with his foot.

"I can't be entirely certain without checking all the bodies, but I have a nasty suspicion that they're all dead,"

"Who did this? And why didn't they do anything to us?"

Don just shrugs at Jade's question, and I don't have any answers either.

New York, 07:12 am, July 6th, 1999

Jade

"God, we forgot about them," I rush over to the cells they were looking into, a little nervous about what I might find there.

Don and Mike follow after me to the cells, and we all look into one of them.
A turtle is lying there, but it's not Leo...it's that other one, Raph. He looks a little hurt, he's tied up with shackles, ropes and he's got a piece of rag over his mouth. His beak is bleeding. He is conscious, though, and from behind a black eye, he's peering up at us.

"Hurry and get him out," Mike urges Don, and Don starts fumbling with the keys in the lock.

Turning around to the other cell, I see Leo. He's also tied up, and I can see that the shackles are gnawing into his wrists.
He must've tried to get loose. His face is bruised, and so are his legs and arms. He's been here much longer than Raph.

"C'mon, gimme the keys,"

"Alright, just let me get Raph out first," Don says, trying to calm me down as I stand there, shifting my weight from foot to foot in anxiety.

When Raph's loose, I snatch the key chain from Don and hurry over to Leo's cell.
I get the right key on my first try, the lock opens, and I hurry over and fall down on my knees beside Leo, struggling to get him out of his shackles.
He looks slightly groggy, and even when I remove his muzzle, he doesn't say much.

"Jade...?"

"Yeah, Leo...it's me, and I'm gonna get you outta here,"

"...and just wait till' I get my hands on those freakin' bastards, I'm gonna--"

I turn my head, as Raph gets my attention with his cursing and yelling.

"Raph...they're already dead..." Don sighs, interrupting him.

"Wha'? You gotta be kiddin' me?? You coulda never killed 'em all by yourself! Where are my sais?"

"I know, Raph," Mike puts a hand on his shoulder, "it was strange...someone apparantly came to our rescue...don't ask me who or how or why,"

"As for your sais-- we have no idea," Don shrugs.

"Aww..." Raph grumbles.

"Be a little quiet, will you? Leo's been here far longer than you, he doesn't need this. Be considerate," I break them off.

"Oh, yeah? Who are you to know anything about what we've been through--"

I shoot Raph a cold, irritated glance, and he shuts his mouth, glaring at me.

"Leo," I whisper gently, "do you think you can stand up?"

"Yeah," he says. He seems to be feeling a little better now, once I got him out of his ropes and shackles. They must've been putting pressure on his blood streams.
He can stand up on his own, with just a minimum of support from me. He stretches his legs and rubs his neck, groaning a little.

"Who's this, Leo?" Raph cocks his head to one side and regards me indifferently. I guess he doesn't like me much.

"Raph, meet Jade," Leo gives a little grin.

"Jade, meet Raph," he glances at me before pushing me gently forward to shake hands with Raph.

Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, 17:30 pm, July 6th, 1999

Paula

I quickly glance at my big brother before filling my lungs with air and hearing my screams mix with the other passangers of the doomed airplane.
This just isn't happening. This is what you see in the movies-- it's not supposed to happen in your life?

My stomach almost hits my heart as we tumble downward and downward and down....
I suck in my breath when I can't scream anymore, and Charly squeazes my hand so tight that I fear the blood circulation is going to stop for good. The seat belt is digging into my skin, struggling with holding me attached to my seat.
Am I going to die today? Am I never going to see Don again?

Right out of nowhere, the plane's front evens out again, violently throwing us back into our seats, making us yelp.
The confused and shocked stuardess is crawling on the floor with bags of peanuts covering most of her.
I can hear a little child crying loudly in fright a few seats away from us.

Now what was that? Why did everything suddenly go back to normal like that?

Turning to Charly, I find that he is as surprised as I am.

"What...?"

Charly only shrugs and continues to stare wide-eyed at me.

New York, 07:25 am, July 6th, 1999

Leo

I'm aching pretty much everywhere, but it's not that bad. I am able to stand up, and I can walk.
My head is really hurting, though. I'm definitely going to be glad when this is all over.

One of the questions that's going through my mind is why Jade came and rescued me...and how did she meet up with my brothers? She didn't know any of them or where they lived--she just bumped into them or something?

Another thing...who came and helped us? They said themselves that they didn't kill those ninjas, and besides, I wouldn't have believed them if they said they did--it's kind of impossible, being so incredibly outnumbered and everything...

Do we have a secret friend or ally we're unaware of?

I'm glad to have Jade as a friend, anyway...without her, Raph and I would probably have been here until we rotted or were simply killed by the angered ninja guards...The Foot are more violent...they even have guns now, for heavens sake...
Shredder wouldn't have approved of guns...but then again, in the end he would've used every means he had to kill us...
Forget that. It's in the past...

Can't help but to be reminded of him, when tip-toeing through these corridors...they're just like the many corridors we've snuck through before, trying to reach the Shredder and his men...fearing for our lives. Just like now.

That couldn't possibly have been the entire Foot clan. There must be more people in his gigantic block of a building, of course there are!
We still have to be careful.

Jade has been supporting me, but now I let go of her and walk on my own. It's not like I'm really hurt, anyway.
I've had worse than this.
She seems to be worried about me, which is something I appreciate.
Besides from my brothers, our father and April, no one's never been particularly worried about me. I have no idea if Casey was ever concerned of me, since he rarely reflected those kind of feelings on his face when "the guys" were around. I don't think I can recall a single time that I've seen him cry.
When Splinter died, Casey went out for an entire day. We still don't know what he did, or if he cried at all, but he sure wasn't crying when he came back.

My katanas are gone, and it makes me feel unsecure. Our bodies are our weapons too, Splinter taught us that, but what good is an arm against cold steel? It would only be cut right off.
Jade has a single katana, I've noticed that, and it's quite amazing. Long, thin, balanced...the handle has an intricate gold pattern on it, the same as the silver one on the sheath... have to ask her where she got it...

We shouldn't have too much trouble with escaping, though, since we're all here now...our team. We know each others movements and we're great together. Me, Raph, Don and Mike...and Jade, she will also be an advantage.
Jade and I managed to escape, and that was just the two of us...we tricked them.

Despite the fact that we're in the middle of their fortress, and that they've appearently learned from their mistakes, we're going to get out. Their army is greatly weakened. We're going to get out.

When I can almost feel that a door is near, another troop of soldiers block our path.

"Aww, man, we're never going to get out!"

Gee, thanks for lifting our spirits, Raph...

We get ready for any attacks or defenses we must perform, and I wish more than ever that I had my katanas.
As we move forward, somebody puts something around my neck, twists it around a few times to get a better grip, and then jerks my head backwards, choking me...

New York, 07: 40 am, July 6th, 1999

Raph
 

"I'll take that,"

The sai hits him straight in the back. Bullseye! Not as good as my own, of course, but it does cause him to let go of Leo.

"Leo!"

Jade punches her elbow deep into an attacker's stomach, then connects her elbow with his back when he doubles over.
He goes down, and Jade makes her way to Leo.

We others have to keep fighting. I pull the sai out again. It's dripping with blood.

"Madre de Dios!" Jade whispers loudly,  "He's not breathing!"

What's that? Leo's not breathing?
Get away from me! Take that, and that and that and--

"Ow!" I spin around and run my newfound substitute sai through the guy who just tried to cut me.
Making a low kick, I quickly glance over to Leo. He's not moving.

I turn a somersault on the floor, ending up next to Jade. "Get him outa here. Now."

She looks up at me. "But what about y--"

"Now." I repeat, "We'll be fine."

She nods and hook her hands under his arms, lifts him slowly up and start dragging him after her. Her eyes remain on the fight as she struggles with Leo's heavy body.

"Hey, they're getting away!"

"Don't even think about it, pal," I snarl and pierce the back of a man who just tried to stop Jade. No way I'm gonna let that happen. His blood stains my toes as he hits the ground.

I turn around, and find that Jade and Leo are already gone. Hope they do alright...

Mike's arm is bleeding like hell, but he doesn't look too hurt to me. He's holding up pretty good.
Don threw away his bo a while ago, cause it was totally smashed. Now he's fighting with a long steel pipe. I have no idea where he got that from.

I can't really decide if we should run away or just keep fighting until we've cleaned this place out. If we leave, they'll follow us, and if we stay, we might get killed. On the other hand, we might get killed both ways. Are they too many for us or not?

Guess there's only one way to find out. There seems to be no end to them, though.

"Uh, Raph?"

I'm fighting to keep one of the men from cutting me to pieces when I hear Mikey's voice. I randomly flung out a kick, and fortunately it hits its goal, and the guy falls.

I allow myself to take a quick glance in Mikey's direction. His arms is bleeding even more now--if that's possible-- and blood is trickling down his temple.
He's clearly struggling just to avoid passing out. Somebody must've cracked his melon good.
That does it. Looks like we have to make like a tree and leave.

Don whacks three guys simultaneously over their heads with one blow with his steel pipe, and they're down for the count.
He doesn't look injured, but definitely tired and sweaty. I bet he wouldn't mind us scramming.
Of course I don't like this chickening out, but for my brothers-- heh, bet Leo would do the same thing, if he wasn't in Slumberland right now. Or whereever he is.

"Donny, let's do the ol' 'fade-into-the-night' rutine, huh?" I whisper as I back away, closer to him, hinting towards the door behind us.

Don sends me an exhausted smile. "Always a classic."

I grab Mike's good arm as Don throws a tiny smokebomb onto the floor, and seeing anything gets impossible when smoke fills the entire room.
Just as we are about to escape through the door, Mike is torn from my grip.
He yelps, I react, fumbling for his hand, taking it, throwing my substitute sai blindly at the enemy. It makes a sick sound when it hits someone's head.

Great. Not only have I lost my good old sais, I've lost my new one as well.

Don goes through the door, and I follow him quickly, supporting Mike. This has to be where Jade took Leo, there's no other doors around...
I wonder where it leads? Just hope that Jade isn't dragging Leo around these halls, hopelessly lost--

"Raph?"

"Yeah?"

"This is...this is actually the way out! We're in luck."

"What? Did you trace back from where you entered?"

"No, we've been walking further and further away from that one-- this is another exit."

"You mean to say we could've just opened this door and booked anytime we liked during this fight?" Mike asks, pressing the heal of his hand against his temple.

Mike, you took the words straight outa my mouth...

"Coulda saved us alotta damage..."

"Right." Don sighs and locks the door behind us. We can hear them throwing themselves at the door on the other side, trying to force it open. Better get outa here.

"Where didya get those keys from?" I ask.

"By taking use of an ancient method," Mike says mysteriously.

"And that would be...?"

"Generally it's known as The Ninja Bush Surprise," Mike chuckles, then squints in pain.

"C'mon, Mr. Comedian...time to get you home."

New York, 11: 12 am, July 6th, 1999

Don

It took us about three hours to get to Mike's apartment.
We had to take all the long ways around, so we could avoid getting noticed. Also, Mike had to stop and throw up a couple of times.
He doesn't look too hot right now either. I hate seeing my brothers in pain.

Raph gets the key while I'm struggling with keeping Mikey on his feet. He's pretty wobbly.

"Brioni's nuth gonna be heppy," Mike slurrs, tries to focus, "I told 'er I wouldn't get h-hurt..."

Raph looks at me with askance at this statement. "Mikey's got a girlfriend," I nod solemly.  Raph raises his eyebrows, then smirks at Mike. "Well, well, well..."

He tries the door handle and the door cracks opens effortlessly. "Mike," he says, on guard, "did you lock the door when you left?"

"Yes, sir," Mike jokes.

"This is serious."

Mike frowns, "I did. Brioni's probably forgot to lock it..."

Raph tears the door completely open and leaps into the room. Suddenly he goes mute and just stares at one of the walls.
Mike and I scramble into the flat and follow his gaze. The pale, yellow wall is running with blood, and we can all see clearly which word it forms, with big, deep red letters.

BYE.

When I manage to tear my eyes away from it, I see Mike crouching on the floor, looking at something. I didn't even notice it when he let go of me.
He picks it up, a long, thin, tiny object. Where have I seen it before?

Mike barely contains a shuddering sob, and Raph and I approach him in silence.

Looking over his shoulder, a small, green braid reveals itself for a few seconds in the palm of his hand before he covers it with his fingers, squeazing it tightly.

"Brioni..." he whispers breathlessly.

Now I realize where I've seen it earlier. On whom.

Raph goes over to the window and looks out onto the city, more to the fact that he can't bear to see his little brother cry than anything else. The sun has come up many hours ago, and is shining brightly, seemingly mocking the darkness of our minds.

"How about we stay here for a while," Raph says quietly, more of a statement than a question.

Mike is silent. He stands up shakily and puts the braid into his belt. He nods. Raph looks at him with a kind of understanding, and pulls the curtains fully apart so the sunlight can shine on the floor, on us, the walls, the blood...

Raph may want to hide his own problems in the darkness, but he knows that's no good when it comes Mike.

"Mike...please rest."

I don't have to ask twice, for Mike has passed out on the floor.

New York, 20:25 pm, July 6th, 1999

Mike

Feeling something itching on my forehead, I bring my fingers to it, and find that somebody's wrapped bandage around my head.
It's darker outside now.

"Hey, Mike...how you doin', pal?"

It's Raph.

"My head hurts. Are we still in my apartment?"

"Yeah. So you weren't that conked out?" he tries a smirk.

"Where's Brioni?"

"She...isn't here," Don interjects.

I sit bolt upright, head smarting like it's under a 16 ton weight, and stare at the wall. The word is still there. I bite my shivering lower lip.

"Sorry, Mikey-- we shoulda gotten rid of that for ya."

"No, it's okay. I wanna do it myself."

Don and Raph exchange worried glances.

"Uh, dunno if this is such a hot idea, but perhaps we should somehow find out if it's...if it's her blood or not. There might be a possibility that someone's just trying to scare--" Don says hesitantly.

"It's hers."

"But how do you kn--"

Don is suddenly interrupted, and my mouth goes up in a sad little smile as I am sure that he stopped because Raph kicked him in the shins.

"Alright," Donny's smile is forced.

"Look, man, I hate to bring this up at such a time, but I think I should see how Kylie's doin'-- It'll only be for a couple of hours, or I can bring her back here--"

"Kylie?" I interrupt, "When did you get back with her?"

Raph pauses, and looks at Don.

"Don't worry," says Don assuringly, "I'll tell him all about it."

Raph then looks at me.

I wave Raph's excuses off. "Yeah, Raph, you don't have to explain it. In fact, you have to go, what with all these Foot dudes runnin' around and everything..."

He nods, snatches a hat and a trench coat from the hanger near the door, and smirks at me before he leaves. "You take care of him, Donny, or I'll kick yer butt, you hear me?"

"Yes, drill seargent," Donny salutes him jokingly, but he doesn't catch the last bit, cause he's already slammed the door shut behind him.

New York, 20: 35, July 6th, 1999

Kylie

I turn my face away and hastily check it for any tears. There's none, but my cheek is stinging with his slap.

"Kylie..."

"Hope you realize a thing or two now..." I mutter.

"Yeah, I realize that now I'm sure I still love you-- I feel so jealous that I'm resulting to violence to--"

God, what's wrong with him?

"No, Will. What you should be realizing is that you haven't changed, and you're not able to either! Look at what you just did,"

"Oh, don't give me a hard time for that! I was just..." he pauses, searching for the suitable words, "overcome with emotion,
it was a reflex movement, an impulse--"

"So basically what you're saying is that you can't control yourself?"

"What?"

"You didn't see me running around and slapping you when I found out you were cheating on me,"

"Well, that's different--"

Different? That son of a bitch...

"How is that different? The only difference is that you were cheating, and I am not, so how are you any better than me?"

"I, uh..."

Finally...the smooth talker is speechless.

"And from what I've learned, Jaqueline wasn't the only one either, was she?"

"Now you're overdoing it! Jacki was the only--"

"So now it's 'Jacki', is it?"

Will ignores me-- I realize he's been sliding unoticably closer to me over the floor-- now he puts his face so close his nose almost touches mine. Damn, he better get away from me soon, or--

"Admit it, Kylie...I still bring out a reaction, don't I?"

"No," I lie.

He grabs me, firm but tender, forcing a little gasp out of me. As I try to squirm out of his grip, my fingertips brushes his back.
I touch it again. No shell, only smooth, warm, human skin lies beneath...
Will breathes softly into my ear, runs his tongue faintly down my earlobe, I tremble-- no.

"I do, don't I?" he presses, voice low and seducing.

Raphael. I try pushing the word into my mind, and bit after bit, it fortunately appears at the back. Raph...
The image doesn't quite make it, though-- there is a flash of green and red-- then it disappears...
Soon I can't remember why I am trying to resist this beautiful man who says he loves me. If I love Raph so much, why haven't I even-- I mean, we haven't even...?

Will brings his face closer, and closer still-- our lips are only a nanosecond away, already sharing each others hot breaths--
my eyes flicker open and I see his face. It's still the same beautiful face, but now it holds a new meaning that suddenly becomes quite clear to me. He's bad for me, and what's more important; I don't love him.

He presses our lips together.

I am sane again. The heat is replaced with the heat of anger. I remember-- and how!
Muffled sounds try to break out from the lock of our soft lips. Protests. I make an affort of pushing him away.

"What now?" he demands irritably, but still his voice has that bedroom tone to it.

There's an image in my mind-- a green face-- two strong arms...

"Will, stop trying to seduce me--"

"But you went along with it, you weren't-- don't even make an attempt of convincing me you don't want it too, Kylie!"

"I...Will, I..."

"You seem a little confused," he says, and I can't decide whether the concern in his voice is fake or not.

"I am! Will, you shouldn't have come ba--"

"So...perhaps..." he whispers, moving towards me, staring intently into my eyes, "just for tonight...I could show you what to do, what to choose..."

He strokes his hand over my breast, and I gasp almost soundlessly. Before I know it, he is all over me, kissing me, lowering me carefully to the floor, starting to take my sweater off.

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