Part 3: In Which Piglet Is Entirely Surrounded By Water

Mike woke on the couch, after a bad dream. He was sweating and breathing heavily. He'd dreamt that he was going to drown. He even thought he could hear the sound of trickling water. Guess that's what fever does to you...,he thought before he drifted back off to sleep.

Don felt his feet getting cold, and slowly pulled them up on the recliner. Geez...I've fallen asleep in the livingroom, in a chair...this is going to kill my back. He brought his hand down to his feet and distantly noticed that they were wet.

Raph awoke with a start. He sat bolt upright in his bed and lifted his beak in the air. Why does the sewer smell ten times worse than ever?

Leo tossed and turned in his bed, due to his fever, unable to find a comfortable position, and before he knew it, he'd rolled over the edge. He got a mouthful of sewer water, and coughed violently. "Raph," he spluttered loudly, disoriented," if you've put me in the bathtub again--"

"I ain't done nuthin',"  came the muffled answer from the other room.

Lola lay awake in Mikey's bed. She'd been drifting in and out from sleep all night, and she'd given up trying to sleep at last. She could hear some weird sounds, and she didn't recognize them at first. All she knew was that they made her wanna pee. She stepped out of the bed as silently as possible, but her silence was wasted by the loud yelp she gave when her feet hit the cold, dirty sewer water. It reached her a few inches over her ankles, and it was still raising.

As she sloshed through the hall and to the livingroom, the water line was working it's way up above her knees.

"Leo?" Lola shouted, " Raph? Where are you? Don? Hey, you guys? Mike? What's happening?"

Raph tumbled into the hallway, almost hitting her, and Leo came stalking out from his room, the left side of his face and the rest of his body as wet as a fish.

"What's going on?" Lola asked them.

"We're bein' flooded here, lady, that's what's happening-- what did you think, that we decided to take a midnight swim?"

Lola suppressed the urge to throw Raph a snappy comment, and just rolled her eyes instead. Despite the cold sewer water irking her legs, making her freeze, distracting her, she caught the sudden change in his accent. It wasn't as rough. Why does he do that? Is he trying to scare me with those heavy 'street gangsta' tones?

"What I mean...is this common to you or what? Does this happen a lot, or is somebody trying to drive you out of here?"

"Well, not since I fixed the plumbing a long way back,"

Lola, Raph and Leo turned around and saw Donny standing in the doorway to the livingroom, scratching his chin thoughfully, frowning at the water. "So this isn't supposed to happen,"

"Yeah, well it did, brain ch--"

"Can it, Raph," Leo snapped, "let us figure this out instead of argueing, okay?" He shot Raph a dirty look.

"Leo, you--" Raph began, but suddenly his angry face smoothed out and was replaced with a questioning look.
"Where's Mike?"

Everybody turned around, but the youngest of the turtles hadn't joined them in the hall.

They waded into the livingroom, the water now waste-high, and found Mike sleeping happily on the couch.
The water was only one inch away from his nostrils, and Lola reached out to wake him up.

"Wait," Raph whispered, and held her back. Lola frowned at Don and Leo, who nodded.

Mike gave a deep breath, evidently found out that his nose was filled with water and that he was unable to breath, jumped up abruptly, spitting the sewer water out of his mouth, coughing and wheezing, astounded to find their home under water.

"You awake now?" Raph smirked and didn't bother to hold back his hearty laugh.

Splinter wasn't happy, of course. He wasn't angry at them, cause he never considered the option that it was Donatello's plumbing that had gone wrong. But being much shorter than the turtles, the waterline was now floating around his shoulders.

He gathered whatever things he thought he might need, placed them on his head, the only place he could keep them dry, and moved in almost slow motion it seemed, towards the hall. The water was greatly affecting his ability to move swiftly.

He met his sons and Lola, mumbled something in Japanese, made sure they had their weapons, and then let them go past him, taking the end of the line. I cannot go first, I am moving to slowly...I must go behind them and keep a watch.

One edge of his mouth went up in a little half-smile when he saw the Raphael handpuppet Lola was clutching behind her back, walking in front of him. It's legs was dipped in the water, and the green head and arms were bobbing up and down.
The silly smile that covered its face made Splinter wish that the real Raphael would be as happy and smiling more often.
Too many arguments...thought Splinter, strangling a gulp as the water reached his chin.

Lola was worrying. Who the hell was flooding them out? The odds were good for guessing it was The Foot.
Man, they must be tired of this, Lola thought, I just don't believe, and I won't believe that they like fighting! Well, maybe Raph does, but in his heart I know he really just wants peace. We all do-- right?
I wish The Foot would just back off...I feel sorry for these guys...and I admire their resistance highly. I mean, they're so amazing, they way they fight-- Lola stopped her train of thoughts just as she realized she had never actually seen them fight before. Sure, she had heard a lot of interesting, loud sounds from the dojo when she was sick, but she never felt up to going out of bed to watch them. And when she did, they got sick.
So, she had never seen their fighting techniques. Lola guessed that they would be similar to what she was used to from her TMNT universes, but she couldn't really be sure.
She grabbed the handpuppet tighter, and gathered all her strenght to manage to move on. It was getting difficult now, kind of like wading in half-done jelly.
She praised herself for going to bed in her, or make that April's, full clothes, and not putting on a T-shirt or a nighty or anything. She would never have had time to change if she had, and then she'd be a living Wet T-shirt Competion when they got out of this mess.
She shook her head. Why would they be interested in me? I'm not exactly a "hot mama", she grinned bitterly to herself.
They'd have to be really desperate for female company to-- Lola swallowed a lump in her throat and quivered slightly as she remembered that perhaps they were.
But they would never dream of doing anything to me...would they? I mean, they're my heroes, I admire them, they would never...?
Lola shivered repeatedly as she thought about how weak she was, and the situation she was in.
I'm a great fan of them, I love them...they could really take advantage of that...!

Splinter had to tilt his head back now, to keep his nose and mouth over water. Still, he was thinking of the others before him.
"You're trembling so, my child," he struggled to say, "do you think the water to be that cold? Are you getting a cramp?"

"No, I'm not, thank you for asking," Lola mumbled with a guilty voice. Here they were concerned about her, and all she could do was be afraid of what they might do to her. She was ashamed. They're not gonna do anything! Stop thinking like that...!
She turned around and suppressed a gasp as she saw Splinter having trouble with going on, almost drowning, but still looking determined.
"Splinter, is there anything I can do?"
"Yes, child, you can take this packet," Splinter handed her the things he had on his head.
He knows he needs help, but he's so stubborn.

"Guys, come over here!" Lola shouted to the turtles, who hadn't noticed them slowing down.
Leo turned and hurried over to them.
"Come on, Splinter, let Leo carry you,"
Splinter opened his mouth to protest, but saw the worried look on Lola's young face.
"Very well,"
Leo picked him up and they sped up, needing to get out of the sewer quickly now-- the level of the water was increasing rapidly.
Lola hung a little behind though, and so she was the first to get hit by the wave.
Grappling desperatly on to the handpuppet, she was thrown against the turtles, yelling for them to watch out.

At one point, everybody was under, unable to see through the dirty water. They were a big mess of arms and legs that were making attempts at swimming, and Lola wondered in a fleeting moment if the turtles really were as natural in water as in the comics.

Mike was trying to locate her in the dark depths, as were the others, even Raph. They scanned the area with their eyes, but as good a vision as they had, they could not see her.
Mike fumbled around him, trying to latch on to something, an arm a leg-- anything!

Don was swimming systematically around in patterns, looking in a decisive area of ca. 7 square metres about him, but didn't have any luck, couldn't find Splinter either. He would very soon run out of air.

Raph was angry. He knew that the damn Foot probably were behind this, and he cursed them in his mind as he surveyed the floor of the sewer, the bottom. Maybe she, Splinter or anyone else was stuck down there.

Leo was worried to the bone. What if Master Splinter drowned? He wasn't really worried about his brothers, he knew they could handle this. He couldn't let Splinter or Lola drown. He would never ever forgive himself.
Leo told himself to stay calm, but the expression 'drowned rat' kept grinding away in the back of his mind.

Four turtles bobbed to the surface at the same time, wiping the filthy water of their mouths, but had nothing else than concerned looks to give each other.
"Lola!" Mike's voice echoed through the vast passages of the sewer and ended up like an eerie ghostlike voice some place far away, discouraging them, "Splinter!" Mike cried again.

Two feminine, suntanned legs dangled down from a pipe straight above Don's head, making him lose his balance and make a big splash, which landed on Mike's face. Mike didn't get annoyed though, he was just staring up at the girl sitting over them, and the others followed his gaze.
Her eyes were a little bloodshot, her clothes were dripping wet, and her hair was sticking to her face like white on rice, but it was Lola.
Lola brushed her soaked hair away, and looked down at them.

"There's a grate up here," she said, "when he water level is high enough, you'll reach it, or you can just climb up now, right?"

"Have you seen Master Splinter?" Leo said, his eyes shining with panic.

Lola lifted the still form that was lying next to her, out of the dark and into a sitting position. It was Splinter.

"Don't ask me how he got up here," Lola said sadly, "and I don't know if he's--"

"Just don't say it, okay?" Mike interrupted her.

Lola looked at him for a second, and then at the others, but found out she had nothing to say.
The turtles silently swam over to the wall and starting climbing up the rough wall with high accuracy and strength.

Don removed the grate after Raph picked loose the screws with his sai, and they went up from the sewers, Mike and Leo carrying Splinter between them.
"I don't know what to say," Lola whispered.

"So don't," came Raph's short answer.

Lola didn't answer that one either.

Leonardo opened Splinter's mouth with his fingers, and cleared out some slimy water.
He put his crossed hands on his chest and pressed them down in rythmical movements, once, twice, three times.
One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...
One...two...three...four...one... two...three...four....

Come on...come on now...! Master, wake up--I know you're not dead.

Outwardly, Leonardo remained calm. Calm and gathered, taking responsibility as always. Doing what had to be done.
Inside, he was a bundle of fright. He was terrified that his master would leave him-- would leave them!

Lola was shocked at how calm he was, how unaffected he seemed. She knew him, she knew what he was like, but still--
She was astounded. She felt tears pricking the back of her eyes, threatening to come out.
What the hell good will it do them if I start to cry now? Lola scolded herself, That's probably why Leo doesn't cry.
He knows that it will only upset the situation further.

Lola focused her gaze at the sky instead. She hadn't seen much of it lately, being down in the sewer.
She felt another sudden sting of sadness when she thought, not about their dying sensei, but merely the fact that they almost never got to see the brilliant blue of the sky in daylight.
They had to hide, and they were hiding this very moment, trying desperately to revive their father in a stinking alley, on a cold and hard asphaltcovered ground. They should've had doctor's doing that instead. Splinter should've been breathing normally by now, lying in a comfortable hospital bed, tired maybe, but still safe.
Yeah, in a perfect world...Lola sighed.

As she watched Mike pushing Leo aside in the end, asking Leo to let him have a try, she couldn't help but to compare it to the comics again. It was exciting to read about them, and many times she'd wished that she could be be a part of their adventures, but now...it was something else to experience it herself.
Today they had got flushed out of their home, putting everything they owned under water, nearly drowned, and now they were perhaps about to lose their sensei. Could things get any worse? She didn't dare to ask.
There was also the fact that they still had the flu. Almost drowning in filthy, an probably toxic, sewer water certainly wasn't the proper cure for it...

Mike filled his lungs with air once more and put his mouth on Splinters, trying to give him enough oxygen just to wake up...!
Lola and the turtles stood there watching Mike and Splinter in painful anticipation, hoping to hear a cough, see a movement-- even the faintest little breath would do.
Lola folded her hands absently, and even though she wasn't at all religious, and didn't believe, she found her self silently and inwardly asking, no, begging, for someone to help him. She wasn't speaking to God-- in fact she had no idea who she was speaking to...she just had to do something, and somehow she felt it would help.
Maybe I'm just speaking to Hope...the very Will to Live...maybe I'm talking to Splinter...Splinter's will to live...and the turtles's hope...

"I know he'll pull through," Lola encouraged them, instantly regreting her words. She couldn't promise them that.

"Of course he'll pull through," Raph's voice was somewhat shaky, but persistant, and he was still giving her that same old indifferent look.

She wanted to hug him, like she had wanted so many times before in her past, even when she thought they weren't real.
Whenever there was a moment when he was hurting, and pretended not to be, she wanted to hug him.
But she knew his reaction would be reluctance, he wouldn't let anyone come near him. He had to play Mr. Tough Guy down the entire line.

Don was looking wide-eyed down at Splinter, holding on to his bo-staff so hard as if that's what was going to wake up Splinter. She wanted to take his hand, only she was afraid that his knuckles would become as white around her hand as they were around his bo. He is too nervous, she decided.

Now Raph started pacing up and down the alley. A string of obscenities was pouring out of his mouth as he walked.
For a second, Lola feared that he would start to yell again, but she came to her senses and figured that he wouldn't do that when they were as exposed as this.

As the seemingly endless minutes grimly went by, Leo's calm exterior was falling to pieces, and his eyes were glacing over. His posture was drooping, and he looked like he was going to cry if something wasn't done.

"Leo," Lola said with the softest tones she could manage, "come here,"

She opened her arms, and when he hesitated, she just went over to him and hugged him, rocking him gently, stroking the top of his head. He really needs this, she realized, needs to be taken care of for once.
Eitherway, she felt kind of stupid holding the great leader like that, it kind of felt out of place. But she didn't care right then.
As Mikey stopped pumping Splinter's chest, pausing to catch his breath, he looked up at Leo and Lola. Don and Raph were also silently watching them, wondering again why she wasn't afraid of them, why she was so nice.

"It's okay, Leo...he'll come around...you did everything you could, trust me," Lola said, knowing what she said was true.
He really was too hard on himself. He had done everything in his power to help Splinter. He wasn't a doctor-- there wasn't much more he could do. But Lola swallowed down a lump in her throat as she heard herself once more making those uncertain promises about Splinter waking up.

There were some tiny, hoarse coughs fluttering through the air, and everybody turned around, fixing their eyes on Splinter, who was covering his mouth with his hand, getting rid of whatever sewer water there was left inside of him.

When they said they were going to April's, Lola got a mental image of a tall, red-haired woman with a yellow pantsuit, white boots and an eighties haircut.
The cartoon version of April would always be the one she pictured when she heard her name, just like Bill Clinton would be the one she pictured when someone mentioned the word "president", for all eternity.

They directed Lola to a grocery store, and told her to go there and wait for her, while they slipped through the alley and into the shadows, not wanting to draw any attention.
Lola wringed her sweater, making nasty sewer slime drip on the pavement, ran a hand over her hair and stepped into the street. Self-consciously, she walked with her head down, not wanting to see all the people who frowned at this dripping wet and stinking, odd girl.
I must look like a homeless person or a drug addict. Lola thought, then darkly added, Right now I am a homeless person.

She walked a little faster-- knowing how quickly the turtles would move, despite that they were still sick and had to support their sensei-- because she didn't want to keep them waiting.
She brought her hands around her waist, hugging herself to keep the warmth, as she stood in front of the store, scanning the area with her eyes for the turtles.
Lola's facial expression resembled that of a little girl scout who was lost from her group, and had just crawled out of a river.
She suppressed the childish urge to reach out her tongue to the shoop keeper who was glaring in her direction. He obviously didn't like her standing there.

Something hit the back of her head with a snap, and she knew she'd been hit by a rubber band. She spun around, caught sight of Mike and Raph behind a dumpster, and quickly hurried over to them. Raph eyed the handpuppet in Lola's hands with malice.

"So," Lola whispered, "where does April live?"

"Don't you know? You seem to know everythin' else 'bout us?" Raph said, enjoying her irritated expression.

"No," she said slowly, trying hard to act like Leo, "I don't know,"

"Give it up, Raph," Mike jabbed his shoulder and smiled, "tell her."

"She lives right here, the third door to the left on the second floor," Raph tilted his head towards the building they were crouching next to, "we'll go up on the fire escape,  but you can go in through the door like a normal person," Raph added, with a little more venom than he intended.

"Fine," she shrugged, not about to be provoked.

As Lola slipped out of the alley, headed for the double doors leading into the apartment building, she heard their muffled voices as they were climbing up the fire escape ladder, and she stopped to listen.

"Sure she oughta be comin' with us to April's?" Raph said, "I still don't trust her,"

"Naw, she's cool, Raph, I don't see what you're worrying about--"

"It would be just like the Foot to send a innocent, young girl like that, tryin' to pull one over us, get us off our guard...I bet she ain't as sweet as she seems," Raph muttered.

"Well..." Mike said hesitantly, "I don't know, Raph. I don't think there's anything wrong with her...she's nice. She's been waiting on us all week, trying to make us better-- and either way, she already knows where April lives now,"

"Whatever," Raph said, and entered April's window.

"So sorry about your clothes,"

"Never mind that, it's okay,"

April certainly wasn't wearing a yellow pantsuit. She wasn't red-haired either.
Her curly and kind of frizzy hair was a very dark tone of brown, tipping over to black. She did have green eyes, though.

She looks kinda like in the Mirage comics...

"Come on, honey, let's get you out of these clothes and into a shower, huh?" April said cheerfully, trying hard to ignore the smell that arose from the young girl, not to mention from the turtles and Splinter, and the fact that the sewer water that dripped from them was staining her beautiful carpet.

"Can we watch?" Raph said, grinning mischieviously, making Lola blush with embarassment and agitation. Couldn't he just stop irking her all the time?

April whacked the back of his head playfully in passing as she lead the wet girl in direction of her bathroom.
I wonder where they got her from, April wondered, who still hadn't heard the entire story, just some exhausting snippets from Mike, about a portal.
She suddenly became aware of the object dangling from Lola's hand and narrowed her eyes, trying to identify it.

"What's this?" she said and lifted Lola's arm, bringing the thing into clear sight. She got a puzzled expression on her face, and then her shoulders started shaking with a mild laugh that grew stronger.
"Is this..." she gasped for air, "is this who I think it is?"
Lola nodded, and April went on laughing. Finally, she sobered. "Did you make this, honey?"

"No, I didn't...it's from another dimension," Lola shrugged, ignoring April's critical expression, and disappeared into the bathroom.

"How come she gets to go first?"Raph complained, throwing out his arms, glancing down his body, as if to illustrate how much more he needed a shower.

"Come on, Raph," April sighed, "she had to get out of those clothes, it's pretty uncomfortable...besides, you guys are sort of used to this stuff,"
She smiled and stuffed her hand up the puppet, making it nod it's head. "Right, Raph?" she asked, pretending to be the puppet.

Raph grunted something and hid behind a newspaper as he felt his cheeks grow flushed.

Don sat under a blanket, turning the miniatyre version of Raph around, examining it from every angle.

"You've seen that she managed to rescue little Raph here from the flood, right?" he teased Raph mildly.

"Hmmph," Raph mumbled.

Mikey snatched the doll out of Don's hands. "Aww, Raph, you're not angry, are you?" he said in a silly voice.

"Grrmmph,"

"Cause Raph junior doesn't like it when you're angry," Mike went on, ignoring the fact that the edges of the newspaper Raph was holding was being slowly crushed in his grip.

"Mike..." Raph warned him.

Splinters ears twitched slightly where he was laying on the couch, but he didn't seem to be awake.

"What are you gonna do?" Mike tried to be a ventriloquist, but anyone could see his lips were moving, "you can't pick on someone that's smaller than you," he made the doll say.

"Mike...button it,"

"Oh, are you making scaaary threats to me, daddy?" Mike continued, gleefully, making Don chuckle, "Mommy, mommy, daddy's being mean to me!" Mike said in an annoyingly high-pitched voice.

Raph wriggled uneasily in his chair.

"So, tell me, daddy-- who's is mommy?"

Raph threw the newspaper aside, got up, grabbed the doll violently from Mike before he could react, pulled out a sai, and shish-kebab'ed it, ripped it apart, bit it's arm off, tore out it's stuffing and then, as for a finale, he dropped it on the floor and crushed it with his foot, like you would crush a sigarette on the ground.

Raph was whistling when he went into the kitchen.

Part 4: The Lemon Phrase

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