The animal wasn't human. The human wasn't animal.
Opposing the latter, a yowl charged out of its mouth- blasting, ricocheting, storming and tearing the air into shards as if it were glass. The yowl that clawed Mikey's eardrums was a something a wolf would mistake for its own. Yet, it didn't sound entirely wolf. But Mikey couldn't be sure, because the... thing was wrapped in the shadowed, black clog of mist that hovered just above the ground where April's torch didn't stray.
It was hidden. Secret. Unknown.
Admist the animal-like shouts, Michelangelo and the the team's brains were still spinning their alarmed gears, and in less than a heartbeat, his brother D was the first to extract his legs from dead stillness. His voice- like nothing Mikey had ever heard before- ripped the world apart for his little ginger princess's name: "April!"
D's sudden sprint instantly pulled the lever for the rest of the group to follow, panic burning up their throbbing hearts and eating up their minds- full of April, April, April. Mikey grit his teeth and attempted to suspend the cobwebs of his mind like Renet and Chris Bradford. What was it? Where did it come from? What exactly did it look like? Who could-
In front, April thrashed her flaming torch down to the thing with violence. The fierce illumination that blazed alongside it attacked and ate up all the darkness that was prowling under, unveiling the thing-
Holy god of pizza.
It was one of the warriors Hanzo beat- a man.
Precisely- a very ugly man. A very bloody man. A very mad man. And a very small man. It was-
"That's Tiny!" Raphael's devil-like holler was so deafening, so thunderstruck, the smaller ninja winced- wait- Tiny?
Did Raph nickname that scary guy himself? Without Mikey's permission? Nobody nicknames something without Mikey's permission. Anything. He couldn't believe Raph had violated that rule. If they didn't have permission they would end up with trash nicknames like Tiny-
Before the blondie could even think, his eyes suddenly seemed to wake up to a scorching orange ball a few metres away from where his legs were still working towards. His brothers' shouts from behind switched from April's name to his in an instant, a newfound wave of panic ramming over their fearful voices. This was not good.
Not. Good.
"Mikey, watch out!" That was Leo.
"Mikey! You're going to crash into the torch!" And that was the big stinkin' nickname-stealin' Raph.
And the redhead was right. Mikey did crash into the torch with less than a second to even blink. Red surged right up to his face. It seemed to burn his eyes off.
But only seemed.
Because the flames weren't in his face. Only close. His brothers' hands rested on his back, all hissing "Mikey!" in unison as they always had after an incident, but this time the orange-masked ninja didn't listen. Because right then, right there, were the hungry tongues of the torch.
Burning into the face of the man instead.
It was a horrible, horrible sight. A weak yet spark of gratitude fleshed inside Mikey when Leo, standing behind him, wrapped his pale blue eyes with a white-bandaged hand. Yet there was nobody to cover his ears, so the short ninja ferociously painted every corner of his thoughts with as much distractions (Bradford, pizza) as much as possible. It didn't help the hidden hole of nausea in his stomach when the screams died away, either. Because he knew it meant something else.
After about an eternity, Donnie's voice was distant, as if he was in another room against thin walls. "It's over, April. Are you okay?" His affirmation that the sight was over commanded Mikey to nudge Leo's hand out of the way and join his tall brother at poor April's side.
The ginger, her features tight, picked herself up while brushing her legs. "I'm fine." Beneath her forced confidence, her vocal tone still trembled perilously like an overfilled mug. Mikey blinked when she glared his way, and his heart sank as she continued with a newfound metallic edge. "But the man's not fine-"
A snort from Raph rang from Mikey's left. "He tried to kill you!"
"We don't know that for sure!" April snapped with fury thundering down on her face, shrinking the blondie down a notch. "It was only a bite, and he wanted to hurt me because-"
"I can treat your leg for you-" Donnie randomly cut in before crouching down to examine-
April flicked him away without a glance, her glower seeming to be nailed down with a metal lock into Mikey's agonised stare. "All I'm trying to say," she hissed," is that it was a battle. We try to hurt them, they try to hurt us. What the man did was expected." The orange ninja gulped when she stormed forward and planted a finger on his chest without warning. "I could've handled him myself. I could've defeated him. Master Splinter's training me well, you know, but all of you guys are treating me like I'm a helpless puppy." A thousand more flames flashed into existence inside her two ice-blue globes of bitterness. "And instead, you killed him."
At the exact same time Mikey felt his features droop with the cursed, stomach-wrenching sensation of crude remorse, a taller figure with a hue of red on his head pushed in front as he crossed his arms in the 'classic Raph'. "Mikey only made an accident-"
"-Accident or not, it's still murder-"
Raphael's voice burned into the solidified air like metal scraping across metal. "Who cares if it's murder when that guy was being such a jerk anyway?" Wow, redhead was direct. Mikey deterred his gaze to the wise and great leader beside him- the one who magically stopped all arguments back in the sewer. But no, Leo's expression was aloof. Distant. Like he was in another world but still alive in this one- ooh, what if that was actually a thing? What if you could travel to another dimension full of pizza and ice-cream while still living on this planet?-
"How could you say that?" April's eyes widened as she edged her neck upwards to confront Raph, hurdling Mikey out of his heavenly imagination zone. The poor girl sounded as if she were fighting emotions that nearly tore through her throat. "Killing somebody has no honour. None. I thought you guys learned that after being under the teachings of your sensei, but I guess not!"
Guilt seemed to build up inside Mikey as he switched the angles from his head from person to person, like keeping his eye on a tennis ball during a match on television.
"Well what about that guy, trying to kill me?" Raphael's voice overlaid hers, nearly shattering Mikey's eardrums. And there were emotions in there too. Real ones. "He was the one that called the first shot."
Words were tumbling Raph's of his mouth now, angry- but a different kind of angry. Different to all the times he and Leo fought, or when Mikey teased him all day, or when Donnie incessantly chattered about his new science stuff. Different to the point that the red ninja's sudden sorrow spread like a disease all around the group. Something that stretched Mikey's frown even more, if that were possible. "Tiny," Raph angled his head to the horribly burnt body, "ordered all his men to keep me still so he could rip my eyes out with his sai. Didn't you remember?"
April mimicked Raphael in terms of volume. This was definitely getting out of hand- "Well... that means you didn't have to do the same back! I'd always thought the honourable turtles of New York City would be at least better than this-"
"Not since you were the one that turned us!" God damn. "What are you blaming us for?" Raphael was literally breathing fire right now. "We're not the turtles of New York anymore because why? You turned us into... this," he signalled his hands at his body, "and found us some crazy time traveller girl and now we're here! And guess what, it was all because you had no friends! You were so lonely at school that you expelled yourself and wasted the shapeshifting thing-a-majig on us. Boo-hoo, my heart bleeds, but too bad you don't know how to keep all your emotional high school drama to yourself!"
He did it.
Raph had really crossed the line.
Well, not that he actually had never crossed the line, he actually crosses it every tantrum, which is about every day- but not by this amount.
Mikey risked to dart his vision around- April was looking enraged. Donnie was looking more enraged. Yet, Mikey couldn't believe the fact that the blistering blades of fire were melting away by a thick sheet of icy guilt solidifying in Raph's expression. Before April could throw the sharpest retaliation back, fortune could shockingly come your way as Leonardo barged forward with a domineering shout.
The black-haired leader's eyes were narrowed with stress as he pointed to the adamant teenage girl. "April." His voice was wavering with earnestness. "It was an accident. Raph." He turned to the redhead whose eyes were pinned down into the depths of the grimy, uneven ground. "You need to control your anger- and you're right about almost getting killed. If it weren't for us, you'd be dead meat."
Despite Raph's aggressive scoff that would signal the start of an volcanic eruption, Leo turned and headed back to the main path alone with a brisk wave of his hand. "Let's move, guys, we've got no time to waste."
As his white boots crunched through the scattered autumn leaves, dapples of strengthening, yet pale moonlight spotted onto his lean figure. The duet of body and light was beautiful, the black of his hair drinking up the rays that melodically poured from the endless, sleeping sky above. When Mikey decided to squint, realisation winked upon him that his brother's hair actually held a tinge of brown.
And the secret was that it was all nature's doing. Another stab of realisation, this time painful, emerged as Mikey knew it was what they took for granted. Just as one might take family, the seasons, food, and life for granted. Back then, in New York City, the shine of the moon and the sparkling white stars living beside it never shined as bright as this.
"Mikey!"
The whole world flashed and Raph's fingers pinched his ear- ow. "That hurts!" Mikey whined, and before he knew it his own two feet were dragging across the body-infested ground, averting to the same path Leo was taking. I wonder how the moonlight would look on my hair. Maybe, my hair is actually pink instead of blonde, and Raph's hair is actually blonde like mine instead of red, and maybe Donnie's hair is actually-
At the mental mention of his brother's name, Mikey glanced over his shoulder at his taller sibling. The gap-tooth was beside April, both trailing behind warily. A dark, hurt aura literally seemed to shred off of their skin. For a second, Mikey and the teenage girl's gazes met- and instantly he fell into two endless, unknown holes leading to misery and swelling regret and-
She broke his gaze.
So Mikey looked away, Raph supporting his weight with the aching leg after he fell. Nobody spoke.
The world was mute.
And the reason was so obvious Mikey could see it.
It was the first time they had ever killed a real man.
272Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUHMIY7Pkgt
