Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Fiction ❯ Bad Places III: Ruin ❯ Chapter 5

Part 5

When Michelangelo woke up the next morning earlier than normal because of bad dreams, he walked downstairs thinking solely of breakfast. When he reached the living room, though, he froze and stared at his older brother sitting on the couch watching the news while eating eggs, bacon and toast. Michelangelo watched silently as his brother finished and set the plate down, acting as if nothing unusual had happened. Quietly walking closer, Mike heard Raphael moving around in the kitchen and spotted him through the doorway as he dried several small bowls and put them away in the cabinet.

The lair was calm and everything seemed normal, or at least normal three years ago. The breaking point came as Leonardo finished the last of the orange juice and set it aside without his usual flinch.

"You're okay again!" Mike shouted and launched at his sibling, too overjoyed to notice the startled look on Leo's face or hear the last bowl shatter on the floor as Raphael jumped. He locked his arms around his brother and refused to let go, hoping this wasn't a dream and that he wasn't going to wake up.

Completely taken off guard, Leonardo froze for a few seconds, one hand halfway to the swords on his back, before he slowly relaxed and put an arm over his brother's shoulders. "Not really...but I'm getting there."

Mike tightened his hug briefly and then let go, heading straight for the kitchen. "Raph, I know you would've made enough for everyone if you made enough for big brother, right?"

"No one can make enough for you, you bottomless pit."

"You could try!"

Leo smiled just listening to them. No matter what, some things wouldn't change. But then... He glanced at his hands, trying to remember the claws from months ago. The memory of the tower burning only existed for him as a hazy blur of fire and snow, animal instincts and sanity. Sometimes he wondered if fighting with claws mirrored the way he fought with his swords. If his swords were simply substitutes--

"--news alert, our helicopter has live coverage of one of the creatures that killed so many New Yorkers last night. If we can go to them right now...can we get the picture?"

The image suddenly shifted from the news anchor to a blurry shot of a sunny sidewalk that he didn't recognize. As the camera swung in and out of focus, he leaned back slowly, his body tensing as the creature moved. Always in the dark game or the cover of night, he'd never seen a feeder clearly before. Grey veins ran prominently under a corpse-like white skin covered in a clear, shiny slime. Its three fingered hands ended in ragged claws that hooked at the end, much like the teeth in its wide jaws. Smooth skin covered the space where its eyes should have been. He knew the sound of feeders running through halls, and he'd always thought they ran normally, but the creature before him wobbled on stumps, as if its creator hadn't finished making its body. The feeder turned sharply at the noise of the police closing in on it, jerking its head from side to side like a broken doll.

"Leo?" Mike said, looking back in from the kitchen. He walked in when he saw his older brother sitting bolt straight, hands clenched tight on the edge of the couch, every muscle tense. When he didn't get a response, he sat down next to him and followed his look to the screen. "Holy..."

"--into that?" Leonardo whispered. "I'm turning into that?"

"No," Michelangelo said, turning towards him. "Leo, no."

"But you saw it--"

"Don stopped it," Mike insisted. "Leo, look at me--"

High-pitched electric static blasted into Leonardo's head, drowning Michelangelo's voice in a constant roar that grew louder with each second. Leo cried out in surprise and put his hands against his ears, but it didn't stop the sound. After a moment, the static changed pitch, first going lower, then going higher as if someone was tuning a dial.

Thinking this might be a twist on his brother's occasional episodes of zoning out, Michelangelo tried calling him name. Only when he felt a hand on his shoulder did he stop and look up.

"He can't hear you," Raphael said, staring not at him but at the television screens. "Look."

Mike frowned and tilted his head. The creature on the news had also put its good hand against its head and crouched down, clawing at the air as if trying to stop something invisible. "What's going on?"

"Something only they can hear." Raphael moved around them and knelt down in front of his older brother, catching his eye and then using the sign language they always resorted to when they had to stay quiet. "Leo," he said along with his hands, "what is it?"

"...static," Leonardo breathed. "It hurts."

"Like when you were fighting that demon?" Raph asked.

Leonardo nodded once, then closed his eyes and lowered his head as the sound turned painful. He felt Michelangelo's arms around him and he leaned into his brother's hold, trying to focus and meditate the sound out of his head. It only seemed to make it stronger.

"How do we stop it?" Mike asked with wide eyes. "We're already underground. How's it even getting down here?"

"I don't know," Raphael said. "I'd better wake up Splinter, he might be able to get Leo into a trance or something. And Don, too, he might--"

His voice trailed off as they both heard the sound of the stream growing louder and louder. With a sinking feeling, Raphael stood straight and looked at the gridiron spread over the stream. Swirling violently as if something lurked beneath it, the stream started to splash over the edges of the floor. His hand went to his side and his body went cold when he remembered he wasn't carrying his sais.

"Oh shit," Raphael whispered. "Mike, get upstairs and wake up Don."

"But what about--"

"Just do it!"

Water surged up into the air as something rushed the bars, slamming hard against them once. It happened again, and the iron groaned with the weight. Glancing at his brother who hadn't moved, Raphael wondered if Leonardo had heard it at all. As Michelangelo ran upstairs, Raphael briefly considered getting everyone else, but he realized that he wasn't going to have time. All he could do was run towards the center of the lair, hoping that when their intruder finally broke through, he could attract its full attention for as long as he needed.

He almost reached the bridge in time.

Smashing through steel, two white arms deformed by grotesquely huge muscles reached out of the water and sank their claws into the concrete, dragging a mass of muscle that looked like a warped version of the demon in the stairwell back in the game. With an eel's face, it opened its mouth and screamed, sending shockwaves through Raphael's chest and giving him a good view of hundreds of needle-like teeth. When it saw the turtle in front of it, barely a fifth of its own size, it didn't lunge but rather dragged itself closer.

Running to his right, away from his brothers, Raphael gave a sigh of relief when he saw the creature had no legs, just a thick tapered tail. He even started to smile when he felt a fuzzy hand on his arm, his master's reassurance that he wasn't alone.

"Arm yourself, Raphael," Splinter said, stepping in front of him with a sword held high. "I will hold its attention until you return."

"Gotcha!" Raphael turned and ran for the practice room. His best sais were in his own room, but there was no time for that. Having to settle for a good pair of practice sais, he ran back and spotted April who appeared at the garage entrance in a pair of sweatpants and a tanktop. She followed his look towards the living room, where Leonardo had fallen to his knees trying to block out the pain. She nodded back at Raphael and looked over her shoulder.

"Casey, go get Leo out of here!"

"Aw, but April--"

"Don't argue with me, dammit!"

Despite the static screaming in his head, Leonardo felt the reverberations of something heavy moving through the lair. Staggering to his feet, his eyes widened as he saw the thing slashing at his father and Raphael, who easily managed to stay out of its reach. Burdened by a body unsuited for land, it could only drag itself a few feet and swipe with one arm while holding itself up with its other. They might take a few minutes to kill it, but he didn't think it would win.

When he looked at the stream and the metal twisted up and away from the water, however, he realized that he wouldn't be able to sit this one out. Another arm, smaller and thinner this time, appeared at the surface, bringing forth a normal sized demon. As it came up onto the floor, shaking its head violently, Leonardo wondered if that was what all the demons in the game looked like. As white as the feeder, with black rimmed eyes, black gums around its teeth, with black blood running through its veins, it looked nothing like he'd imagined.

But it was as fast as he remembered. Shrugging off Casey's hand, he leaped down to the practice area and landed on all fours, sizing up the demon as it did the same. In the moment before it opened its jaws and moved towards him, the static changed its pitch. The pain receded a little and he felt himself almost eager for the fight.

On the other side of the room, Donatello and Michelangelo had finally arrived, helping distract the bigger monster while Raphael and Splinter slowly cut it apart. Each cut looked superficial, hardly annoying the demon as it pulled itself after the two turtles in front of it. Taking a moment to breathe, Raphael looked back to make sure Casey had taken Leonardo away. Instead his hands tightened on his sais as he watched his brother fight another, smaller, demon. He turned to go help him and missed the larger demon's tail as it snapped around, striking him in the back and sending him sprawling onto the floor. With a growled curse, he rolled over and snapped to his feet. Their own oversized monster was slow but demanded all of their attention.

Fighting solely through his crippled sight, Leonardo figured that the demons were suffering from the same static in their heads. Every time the sound changed in pitch or intensity, he flinched while the demon shook its head, trying to clear it. He felt awkward, used to fighting more by sound than sight, and he escaped injury less because of his agile dodging and more because of the demon's own erratic swipes. As he backed away from it, luring it farther from the other fight, he spotted Casey in his peripheral vision leaping at the thing with a hockey stick raised high, ignoring April's warning. For a moment he thought the demon would turn and sink its teeth into Casey's unprotected torso, but it never heard Casey's wild yell and only turned after he'd slammed into its side. Stumbling to one side, it whipped its head around and bit into Casey's shoulder. It tried to fling him away but didn't have the strength, so it let go and reared back for another strike.

Leonardo's sword sank deep into its snout as he dove forward, copying Casey's move, but without any of the human's power, he could only cut part of its mouth away. His strike gave April time to drag Casey out of the way of their fight, but in pain-filled fury, the demon lashed out almost blindly, catching the side of his head. The claws raked near his eyes, shredding the mask that protected him from the light.

Shutting his eyes to the white glare, he couldn't help lowering his swords in shock. Blind and deaf, he stumbled backwards, feeling the demon's approach by the shift in the air and through the reverberations in the floor. He knew April might try to distract it, but he also knew she couldn't fight one of these on her own.

"It's just a blindfold," he whispered to himself. "I can do this. I did it once before."

Raising his swords again and settling into a basic stance, he took a deep breath and waited. The darkness lifted and he felt the demon right in front of him, one arm drawn back and coming towards him. He ducked and sliced upwards, shearing off part of its claws. It snapped at him and he leaned back, twisting sideways and flipping back on one arm, standing up again a few feet away.

As they came together again, the static pitch changed again. For a moment it hovered around a single frequency, making them both cringe, and then it snapped into place, as if it had found the perfect pitch and resonated clearly. Leonardo attacked at the same time the demon did, but without part of its claws and jaws, it only bled on him while he hacked off one of its arms. He turned as fell on its side, catching a deep slice across his calf as it hit the ground, and he cut off its flailing hand before stepping in close and beheading it. Blood spurted everywhere but it gave him only a momentary satisfaction. The electric hum in his head grew louder and he wanted more.

Behind him, he felt the powerful presence of something huge finally fading away, and with it he felt a deep sense of loss. A second later when he felt something smaller come toward him, there was no hesitation.

Even after the giant demon fell and stopped moving, Raphael held one hand up, warning his family from getting too close to their oldest brother. The tilt of his head, the way he held his swords out and down, the ease with which he wore his enemy's blood, all reminded him of a year ago. With a deep breath and a good grip on his sais, he quietly approached his brother.

The attack came so fast he blocked it purely on reflex. One moment Leonardo stood absolutely still, the next moment Raphael held one of his swords above his head, trapped in the prongs of his sai. He tried to twist his sai and yank it away, but the next slash came to his face and he had to block that one, and before he could try to twist the swords from his brother's hands, Leonardo had already drawn them back, coming at him again. Raphael couldn't catch his swords again, too busy deflecting the hits at his head, his side, his legs. Leonardo became a blur, suddenly as fast as he'd been when they'd fought each other so long ago, but Raphael knew that this time there would be no mercy, no second chance if he didn't block each strike. He had no time to look around and see what his family was doing. He just hoped they didn't try to get between them.

Slowly driven backwards, Raphael nearly lost his footing on the blood pooling inside the lair's lower level. Leonardo had no such trouble, at home within the carnage, and dropped down on all fours, taking a quick breath before leaping over Raphael's head and landing behind him, falling to his knees even as Raphael turned. Raphael brought the hilt of his sai back where Leonardo's head should have been and his eyes opened wide as he saw his brother's sword drawn back, ready to take his legs off.

Time slowed. Vaguely aware of his family shouting and Donatello drawing back his staff to fling it, he knew they wouldn't reach him in time. Off balance, he jumped and drew his legs up, avoiding the strike but now completely off center. He landed flat on his back in front of his brother, arms out as his sais jolted out of his hands, and he looked up in time to see Leonardo tilt his head a little bit more, out of the way of Donatello's staff. His tip of his sword flashed at Raphael's throat as he dropped his other sword and put both hands on the hilt, bringing all of his strength to bear.

Raphael watched his brother, but as the edge hovered over him for longer and longer, he realized that not only had his brother not struck, he was trembling. Afraid to break eye contact with him, Raphael very slowly brought his hand up and touched the flat of the sword. When Leonardo didn't move, he gently pushed the tip away from his throat until it pointed harmlessly over the floor.

"Leo," he whispered. "Let go."

The sword crashed down next to his head. He winced and slid out from under his brother, sitting up and watching him as Leonardo gasped for breath, still holding the sword. Not knowing what else to do, Raphael grabbed his sibling and held him close, trapping him just in case he tried to move again. He looked up at Donatello and mouthed the word sedative, and watched him run for his lab.

"Make it stop," Leo whispered, wound so tight that Raphael thought he might tear a muscle. "Raph...make it stop..."

"Make what stop?" Raphael asked. "Leo?"

"The sound...it hurts."

Raphael looked around, feeling useless that he couldn't stop the pain. Then he noticed the televisions still on. "Mike," he called out, "turn those off."

With a quick nod, Michelangelo didn't even bother looking for the remote. He just pulled the main plug.

As the screens went black, Leonardo immediately relaxed. The sword fell from his hands and clattered on the floor, and he would have followed if Raphael hadn't pulled him close. Leonardo put his hand on Raphael's arm and turned his head towards his chest, hiding from the light.

"You okay?" Raphael whispered.

"I can still hear it," Leo said. "It's far away now. Oh God, Raphael..."

"It's not your fault," Raphael started. He paused when Donatello came back with needle in hand and watched as he gave his brother a full dose. "Just go to sleep. We'll figure it out. When you wake up--"

"Don't let me," Leo said. "Please, don't let me wake up..." His voice trailed off as he went limp in his brother's arms.

Raphael sighed and looked around. Blood completely covered the floor and ran into the stream, and more splattered the walls and his siblings. Casey groaned somewhere behind him and the huge creature they'd killed had fallen in front of the main door. It would be a long time before they cut their way through it again and until they did, the only way in or out was through the wrecked iron over the water. He tightened his hold on Leonardo and sighed again, tired of fighting so often and absolutely sick of fighting his brother.

"Rest up," he murmured. "When you wake up again, we're gonna go find the bastards who did this."

TBC...