Pain. The Pain. My body feels like a whole building has fallen on me. One of those high rise tenants. My head feels even worse. Despite the pain, I feel more powerful than ever. The burning in my veins feels strange, yet wonderful.
I look around to see where I am at. Need to find shelter.
Ugh. What? Fell over some drunk. Teach him to mess with the Shredder. Where are my weapons when I need them?
Does not matter. *CRACK* No great loss to this world you worthless bum.
There, that doorway, need to sit down for a few minutes and remember. To remember what? Think, think back. The turtles. Those damned turtles. They had something of mine.
Someone else was there, too. Who? Of course, Keno. This is his fault. And those turtles. I will get my revenge.
What is happening to me? Pain. What is this? My body.
. . it grows stronger. . . larger! Of course, the mutagen.
This is wonderful!
Revenge will be mine! Death to Keno! But most of all, death to that damned rodent, Splinter!
I hear footsteps, I turn to confront my new enemy.
Tatsu? Is that you?
He bows low, "Master Shredder, you have returned to us once again."
I nod.
He takes me to the new clan stronghold and I review those who call themselves the Foot Clan. I turn to Tatsu.
"Tatsu, anger fills me. I must seek my revenge on the turtles. They will pay with their deaths. And Keno, you will find Keno and bring him to me. He will enjoy a long, slow death at my own hands."
I feel the pain in my head, but my body feels better.
No more burning. Maybe things will be fine.
Wait. What did Tatsu say? Casey disposed of? The swords of Leonardo. . . wonderful. You make me proud to call you my son, for you have been busy, Tatsu. hmmmm.
Who is this that enters our home?
"Master," Tatsu explains, "this is the ally I told you about. This is my TGRI contact that helped us track down turtles."
I nod, "But who is this other?"
The man bows and says, "Lord Shredder, I am Jaggar Tharn, a powerful BattleMage and Emperor in my home world. I have joined forces with Vancetor to seek revenge on those turtles. In fact, we have brought one to you."
The self-proclaimed BattleMage motions with his hand and I see he speaks the truth. It is the one who dares to call himself Leonardo, the leader of the four turtles.
I laugh, "Ah, yes, I shall enjoy killing that one with his own swords!"
"But. . ." starts Vancetor, but he wisely silences himself.
"It is indeed a wonderful gift you have brought me."
I nod at Tatsu, who sees to having the creature dragged away. My head still burns, and I am tired. But I will not show that to these fools.
I turn and retire to my chambers to think, and plan.
A knock on the door disturbs me. I rise and blink.
Have I slept? I sat down to meditate, to think. My head no longer hurts and I feel strong once again. The knock comes again.
"Enter."
Tatsu enters, bows low and says, "Master, the turtle is awake."
I smile. Yes, now to see to my plan. He offers a clean set of clothing. It is only moments later that he adds the finishing touches, and I walk out of my chambers to confront my captive.
The Clan steps back from me everywhere that I walk.
They can sense that I am stronger, that I am powerful. More powerful than ever. I can hear the smallest of whispers and I can feel the fear in the room.
Tatsu bows before a door and I hear the shuffle of someone walking. I look in to see Vancetor sitting on a crate, one foot resting on a lower crate, his elbow resting on that knee. The one named Jaggar Tharn is meditating, hovering in a lotus position over four feet from the floor in mid air. The turtle is pacing slowly, almost painfully, in a make-shift cage.
I turn to the one named Vance, "Did you do as I ordered you?"
He nods and says, "Yeah, but with the other serum in him I can not guarantee the -"
"You better guarantee with your life."
The turtle looks at us, "What? What have you done?"
I look at the turtle and laugh, "I have done to you what you did to Tokka and Razar."
He grabs on the bars of his cage and looks out at me, "What. . . ?"
"Anti-mutagen," Vance says from the crates, "given to you while you were still out cold."
"Yes," I laugh, "and you will have but two choices. First, to admit defeat and die, alone. Or to run to the rat you call a master to save yourself. We will be watching you, whatever choice you make."
The turtle stares at me, as if he did not believe what I had told him. I hear the sound of glass as Vance tosses an empty vial and syringe at the turtles feet.
I wait no more, "What is your answer?"
"Now, you too can vacume-seal your leftovers at home with this easy process! One simple step, I snap the attachment onto the jar and --"
'Whaa th' ... urrmmmg,' I opened my eyes groggily. My brain felt like cottage cheese. 'Uunnngg ... this sucks!'
"-- SWISH! Perfectly preserved! No more messy bags, no more stacks of Tupperware to be burped, just --"
I swiveled my neck around and found the cause of my annoyance to be a small, wall mounted TV up in the corner. The V-hold was going, and some freakin' cheerful dude was holding up jars of fruit as he rolled up off the screen.
'A hospital room ...?' Yup, there was no mistaking it, the hospital-smell, the white, sterile room ... the hospital gown! Awww crud! 'At least I ain't in Intensive,' I thought. '... can't be messed up too bad.' From the next bed came rusty snoring, and a head of gray hair peeked out of the sheets.
I swung my bare feet onto the floor and fought the urge to puke, as the TV chattered on. My right arm felt like lead, and I inspected my new cast. Not just lead, throbbing, painful lead ... my side was completely numb, from armpit to hip, and there was a band of stiff bandages around my waist. My roommate mumbled something about the price of prunes in his sleep and rolled over onto the remote control, flipping from the info-mercial to a soap opera.
'Yeah, I'll prune you ...' Slowly, I stood up, my body complaining. 'Ok, Mr. Invincible ... ignore it, it's time to go ... ain't no way I'm staying here, being spoon-fed and sponge-bathed and fussed over while the Foot tracks me down ... I gotta ... what the hell?! NOO!! What did they do to me?!?!" I reached up and felt my hair in disbelief ... it felt oddly light and puffy. 'They ... washed my hair?! ARG! How long have I been here?! Ok, Jones, time to book it ...'
My clothes and gear, of course, were no where to be found. "TV and movies have lied to me," I mumbled, and tried to formulate plan number two for escape, when something very solid impacted with my head from behind and I hit the floor with my chin.
"Searching for this?" A man's voice asked. I turned and looked up in time to see the old man dropping a bed pan with a clatter ... only he didn't look so old up close. He shook something out of his hair, and underneath the true color was blond. Tearing off the hospital gown, he revealed black doji pants and a bare, muscular chest.
I held my head and started to get up slowly, trying to keep MY hospital gown in the right place, "So ... Stud-Muffin, you always try to pick up guys here ... UUUNNG!" His fist met my face, and let me tell you, they had an explosive introduction. I was in no condition to fight.
"It is time for Master Tatsu to have his revenge on you," he told me, gloating, "We will go there soon ... but first, you will take me to the one called Raphael!"
'Who is he? Some kind of Foot Clan --'
The door banged open, and a large man barged in and tackled the blond Foot Soldier quickly. Dunno who the dude was or how he knew what was goin' on, but I wasn't going to miss a chance to get outta here. Out the door I went, and racing down the hall, people scattering left and right in fear. I saw my chance and ducked into the men's room. After checking to make sure it was empty, I noticed that my side was bleeding again. 'Casey, you chucklehead ...' I sighed, 'This is just plain stupid ... and running away ain't exactly my style.'
The bathroom was empty, and I slid into a stall to lie in wait ... 'whoever comes in next is going to,' I chuckled a little to myself, 'be making a little donation to the "Get Well Soon Casey" foundation ... and I don't mean by signing a card either.' Breathing was starting to get difficult, but I concentrated on the task at hand. Ambushing without my mask made me feel naked, but then, so did this freakin' hospital gown. 'Ah ..' finally the door swung open, and I made my move.
I burst from the stall, hospital gown flapping, screaming, "OOGALA MOOGALA!" when I caught the petrified expression on the face of the old guy who was shuffling slowly in. 'ARG! Why couldn't it have been some punk kid? Woulda made this easier.' He grabbed his heart, panting, and looked like he was about to keel over so I grabbed his elbow. 'CRUD! Well, I guess if you're gonna have a heart attack, this is the place to do it.'
"Uh, look, uh ... kind sir ... could you ... give me your clothes?"
His eyes couldn't have gotten any wider, and with shaking hands, he stripped with difficulty, not even thinking to question me. 'Shit!! Casey Jones, you have sunk to an all-time record low. This is ... ARG!' I accepted the bundle of clothes, and asked him to stay in the stall and count to one thousand before he came out, which he nodded with a pale face to. 'I'm gonna do something to make up for this some day, I swear it ...'
I pulled on the clothes, cheap pants the color of the stuff that grows behind my toilet at home and a checked shirt to match. They were baggy and too short, but they would do. 'Ah, what a difference a day makes,' I thought bitterly, my head throbbing. I couldn't wait to get home and puke my guts up and sleep for about 20 hours and then give those armpits at The Foot some hell. 'No! I can't go home! They know where it is ...'
I hurried through the halls, trying to keep completely aware of everybody I saw. Maybe I could find my way down to the guys lair, hole up there for a while, till we're all in good enough condition to Odor-Eater-isize the Foot for good. I stumbled onto the street, and tried to get my bearings. My journey to the lair was long, slow and painful, as I was doubly cautions to make sure no scum bags were tracking me. My side went from bizarrely numb, to tingling, to shooting pains when I moved or breathed.
At last I was lowering myself down the ladder awkwardly with my new cast. It was deadly quiet. Donatello's room was the easiest to protect from an attack, so I lumbered back into there, the small room bathed in the flickering glow of some video game on the screen ... looked like the game was on autopilot, playing all by itself. At the point of no longer caring, I pushed a stack of books and papers aside, and curled up on the floor.
I awoke when the room brightened, and somebody said my name. "Hmmm?" I opened my eyes. Standing over me was a woman, glowing brightly with a pulsating light that matched the computer screen. A long, gold, shining cord attached her from abdomen to the screen.
"Woah ..." 'What a brilliant conversationalist you are, Case-meister.'
"Sir Casey ... did you not receive our note?"
"Note? Uh ... I guess that would be a 'no'."
She frowned. "It is a good thing I sensed your presence here. Now don't move."
"Ah .. ok .. no problem. But who are you?"
"I am Lady Ria, now please close your eyes, we don't have much time."
I didn't know what she had in mind but I wasn't about to argue. She spoke some foreign tongue I couldn't place, and suddenly words formed in my mind, the same words she was chanting. Weights lifted from my body, and when I opened my eyes, all pain had gone, and I was filled with energy. I was too stunned to even speak.
"Good luck to you, Sir Casey, for I am needed most urgently. May we meet again," Lady Ria spoke softly, and then the gold cord expanded over her, and pulled her into the computer screen. The room faded back into darkness, save the monitor, and I sat with my mouth open for a few minutes. Then I tested my arm, side and head for pain ... it was incredible, like I had been issued a new body. I pulled the bloody bandages off, and then except for the cast still on my arm, you'd never know anything had happened to me.
My limbs wouldn't stay still no matter how much I wanted. I was back and better than ever ... oh, and what heads would roll in the Foot Clan when Tatsu got a load of me!
'Note, note ... where's that note ...?' I tried to think like a Turtle ... kitchen ... pizza! I made my way around the clutter (which was worse than usual) on the floor of the lair, and into the kitchen. Stuck on the refrigerator was a hastily scribbled note, something about going to a Computer Arena? 'What, issat like a discount computer store?' After that I could make out the letters "TGRI."
"Hmmph ... I knew it, everybody is out having fun and nobody thought to bring ol' Casey along ... didn't even send me flowers. Ain't no way nobody is gonna steal my glory and get to ol' cue-ball first ... Tatsu is MINE!"
After a quick rummage, I found one beat up metal baseball bat, a hockey stick and a jagged half of another one, and something that looked like an old training bo. 'Not bad ... I can work with this stuff ... the clothes ... eh, well I can live with those ... the hockey mask ... dammit! Well, I guess I'll live, but that hospital is gonna be hearing from me ... I want my mask back! Now TIME TO BREAK SOME HEADS! ... and I know one bald, ugly one in particular that is way overdue for some heavy-duty crushing.'
Out of the Crystal Box, into the fire.
Michaelangelo, Donato, Master Splinter and I (and Donato's pups) burst out of a computer to find a small apartment resembling a smithy's forge. I saw Perry bravely defending April by flapping his coat while she struggled with a window to escape. It seemed he was merely fanning the flames.
"April!" Michaelangelo yelled, lunging and dodging past us and through the smoky roar toward the humans. I closed my eyes as the others backed from the flames, spit, and called out: "FLOOD."
As the Turtle formerly known as Prince would say, "Whoops." The fire WAS extinguished, but a four foot thick, room-sized slab of water descended from ceiling to floor with enough force to nearly crush us.
I received at least three glares as we rose, dripping, to stand in the rapidly draining floodwaters ('tis a good thing they drained quickly, for though they were but waist-high for Perry, they crested my shoulders!) April, at least, was kind. "Uhh...thanks for putting out the fire, Ria," she said, looking about in dismay at the soaked and blackened room. A pup swam by my nose.
Michaelangelo swept her out of the water and set her safely on a table. "There. I may not be a real prince, but I'm still terrific at rescuing beautiful damsels in distress!"
"Where...is Leonardo?" Master Splinter asked suddenly. "He was with you, was he not, April and Perry?!" He leapt from the water to the back of the sodden, ashy couch, looking distraught as a drowned rat.
"Something awful's happened, sensei!" was April's answer. She jumped down and slogged through the now knee-high (for SOME people) waters and took his hands in hers. "We were attacked, Splinter. Vance came home and fought Leon, then," (here she turned to me), "that Jaggar Tharn character came through my computer. He shot Leo with some sort of energy bolt. Then they set my apartment on fire and took Leo away!"
Splinter's face crumbled with emotion, and I had to look away. But Michaelangelo's expression was almost worse. He stood beside the bedraggled Perry with fists clenched and a cold sort of burn in his eyes. He had never looked so much the warrior.
"Where." he uttered.
April pointed.
The ninja turtle looked to me and to the others. We all nodded. I stood tall with resolution. "We go together."
We spent some hours tracking the trails of Tharn, Vance, and the brother of Michaelangelo and Donato. Eventually their trail joined with the track of a green miasma - the mark of blind evil. It followed the polluted Riverfront, which was gradually taking on a green color of its own in the dim foreshadow of dawn. I peered about the crumbling bricks and refuse with distaste. Even Skyrim's rankest alleys don't seethe with that much corruption.
"I will be glad when I may return," I muttered.
"What?" asked Donato, crouched beside me with puppies muffled beneath his long coat.
"Nothing." I squinted around the building's corner. "The evil leads to that storehouse, beyond the gates. We must strike with all our might. Tharn has allied himself with a monstrous power."
"Its name is Shredder." Splinter stood tall behind me, wind shivering his fur. I heard Michaelangelo gasp. "Once it was a man. Now it is a fog of emotion, trapped in the body it has twisted to its purpose. And now it has my son."
"We've killed it before," Michaelangelo said, his voice suddenly low with rage. "Twice. No mercy this time. We'll destroy it forever."
"Splinter, how fares it with Leonardo?" I asked.
"We have not much time, my friend."
"Then I shall rally our supporters, and we six face our enemies alone," I said reluctantly.
"We TEN," Donato corrected, setting his pups down.
I watched the guards change on the roof of the warehouse we faced. With a deep breath I sent myself out, sensing through the web of Newyore for our allies. I would rally this whole City if need be.
I sent our friends strength. In the case of the strongarm Casey, healing also. I also sent the sense of our great need for their presence. I do not remember how many lives I touched in those minutes, for I had become weary and longed for an end to the years of strange struggle with Jaggar Tharn.
At the last, I returned my gaze to the stronghold of the dark ones. Slowly I spoke my last words to those new, dear friends. "When we are within, spare nothing when ye are confronted by the foul master, Tharn. Strike fast and hard! Do not hesitate, even to wait for me. If ye have the opportunity, ye MUST cleave his very head from his shoulders."
"Ye mean - decapitation, m'lady?"
"Yes, Donato. It is the only way to destroy Tharn forever."
April chuckled. "I always KNEW there was something to that Highlander show!"
"There can be only one?" suggested Perry. The others looked at him in surprise.
"Come. Let us rescue your brother and seek an ending to these false corruptors." I bowed my head and led our paltry crew forward. The brief reassurance of Michaelangelo's hand was welcome on my arm.
APRIL 3
. . . If ye have the opportunity, ye just cleave the very head from his shoulders." Ria was saying.
Donatello . . . Donato . . . whoever said something like, "Ye mean, decapitation, m lady?"
Ria answered something about it being the only way to kill Tharn.
I fought to bring my straying thoughts back in to focus, and managed a chuckle. "I always KNEW their was something to that Highlander show."
"There can be only one," Perry said. I glanced at him in surprise, and laughed. I also just managed to suppress a rather insistent coughing fit.
Was the serum affecting me again?
I vaguely remember mentioning the thought of needing a vacation before this whole mess started. I HAVEN'T changed my mind. I DEFINITELY need a vacation. Somewhere nice and quiet and peaceful, and for God's Sake, I've got to remember to leave that damned cellular at home. That's what got me in to all this, you know . .
I've also got to remember what I'm supposed to be doing. Heading straight in to a battle with a evil villain straight out of a computer game, literally speaking, of course.
Dammit, O'Neil, get your mind back on what you're . . .
"April . . . APRIL!" It was Perry, sounding insistent, and holding my arm, tightly.
"Huh! What?" I asked, feeling dazed and . . . well . . . weird.
"Are you all right?" he asked in a deliberately slow tone which told me he must have been trying to get my attention for some time.
I could feel his worried gaze fixed intently on me. In fact, I could feel ALL their gazes on me.
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ALL STARING AT ME LIKE THAT. I'M FINE!!!" I almost shouted at them, and was barely able to stop myself in time before the words slipped out.
Well, the words never escaped my lips, but I must have been telepathically projecting like crazy because I saw, out of the corner of my suddenly watering eye, that Splinter and Ria were exchanging worried glances.
"Lady April-" Ria began.
"I'm fine," I said angrily. "Or at least I WOULD be if you people would keep your eyes and thoughts to yourself!"
A sudden burst of pure rage swept over me, and I angrily shook off Perry's grasp on my arm.
Which proved to be a HUGE MISTAKE. My knees buckled, my vision blurred, and I just knew I was gonna be kissing concrete in a matter of seconds.
The world was sliding rapidly sideways on me, and I barely noticed the supporting hands that reached for me. What I DID notice . . . no, my ears must be playing tricks on me. Why not since everything else seemed outta whack!
Someone was laughing, HARD!
Whoever it is had better hope I lose consciousness before I recognize the voice or he's gonna be a dead man!!!!!
Even as my body was being supported, I felt someone else reaching out, attempting to bolster my strength and failing senses.
It was Ria. In one horrible moment of lucidity, I realized that she MUSTN'T do that! That something was very WRONG about this whole thing. It WAS the effects of the serum, but it was also . . . something else!!!
From somewhere infinitely far away, fragments of voices came to me. "...can't . . . er! Tharn's . . . me . . . away from . . . "
And, all the while, the laughter continued until it drowned out everything! Even my waning thoughts.
"THARN!!!" I tried to scream, but their was no sound.
There was nothing . . . nothing at all . . . except the laughter.
Damn! I REALLY wanted to kick Tharn's a . . .
Go back to Part Three, Chapter Four