He pointed a long, black-gloved finger at Raph. Only Raph. Only Raph when the figure had shot all the men surrounding him. Only Raph as if he was the only living thing in the world, a patch of sky in a world of black. Only Raph when the rest of his friends needed to be saved, you peculiar squirrel dimwit.
"Stop doing that and save my family!" The moment he snapped with irritation at the tree-climbing dork, Raph's whole body, from top to bottom, was bathed in consolation. Being freed from the soldiers' grip was like taking a single, deep breath after swimming underwater.
It felt wonderful.
Raph revelled in the newfound power soothing up his pumping veins, before racing to help Mikey who was cornered by a total of six men on all sides.
Just as the redhead was planning to pummel his sai into a shoulders back, he realised the losers were all facing him with a relentless tide of fear storming in their two globes. Then, Raph realised with a pang that they were looking behind him. What the? The moment the teenager took a glimpse over his shoulder, his heart surged with panic which was hopelessly uncontrollable.
Arrow after arrow, shot from the eerie figure above, the darts were all surging towards Raphael himself.
The ginger's gaze met the luminescent glimmer of the figure's. They shared distant looks and at that moment, the universal song of time seemed to freeze. Raph nearly had the chance to feel disbelief, or even crude despair in that instant of stupefaction. Why? The figure helped him one second, so how did it make sense for him to kill him the next?
In an instant, the inevitable wheel of time spun once again and as Raphael was ready for the sharp agony of the piercing arrows, he blinked in confusion when it didn't arrive. Then he raised his eyebrows.
The six soldiers in front of him- arrows planted in their fragile backs. Thrown onto the moonlit forest ground. Not dead, but squirming. And also cussing in Japanese.
"Mikey, you okay?" Raph lent out a blistered, bruised hand to assist his brother up.
As the short blondie took it and staggered to his two small feet, yet barely with a straight posture, his pale blue eyes widened at the shadowed trees above. "Woah, who was that guy?"
"Some sort of vigilante psycho." Raph flitted his eyes to the rest of his perilously outnumbered teammates- the orange blaze of the torch that unravelled April and Donnie cornered against a colossal tree, Renet still attempting to pull the stupid sceptre back, and 'Nardo with soldiers caving closer like walls all around him. "I'll help Leo, and you-"
"I'll help Renet!" Mikey yipped. Raphael would've reluctantly argued at that, but there wasn't any time to lose. Leo needed his help, and Raph needed a chance to return his favour. His re-energized legs thundered the leaf-strewn floor, bolting toward his brother with sai up and ready for an oh-so-sweet...
...Vengeance?
Except there wasn't any vengeance to take. All of the eggshells, all damn thirty of them, Tiny's whole crew, were somehow fallen. About eight of them at every single second slumped their ugly faces onto the ground, then another eight, then another. The soldiers surrounding Leo-gone. Surrounding April, Donnie, Renet- gone. All the while, that same ominous figure blurred from group to group in miraculous flashes, until he finally stopped.
The silhouette shone perspicuous at the centre of the small moonlit clearing. His voice was nonchalant as he spoke in Japanese: "The name's Hanzo."
***
"The name's Hanzo."
The unravelled silhouette, standing like a statue in the centre of the uncanny combination of the moonlight and the blood-kissed clearing, was obviously looking... unique. A flash of pure white hair- wasn't he Japanese?- almost masked his black portals which seemed to be inevitably endless with depth. The white hair was a dynamic, effulgent contrast to the dull, rugged hue of black which obtained his enclosed ninja clothing. It climbed from the bottom of his feet to just under his eyes. Raphael couldn't help but feel that the skilful stranger's covered nose and mouth fuelled his ominous aura even more.
"I don't trust him," the cross-armed redhead whispered in Donnie's, who had only now gotten up and reassembled himself's, ear, but was blatantly cut off by the egghead's sudden hooting that attracted all eyes.
"I knew it!" Donatello was jumping up and down like an excited toddler who had just gotten his first toy. "He was the guy I told you guys about! He was the-"
Freaking egghead.
Too much mountains of blabber were tumbling out of his brother's big mouth, so maybe a big, hard ol' slap would do it. There- Donnie's switch turned off as Raph brought the satisfying action to life. His brotherly pleasure failed to diminish as the brunette snapped his head around for an oh-so-intimidating glare. Big soft nerd.
"What was that for?" Donatello was full-on fuming at him, so much that fire would've bolted out of his nose. Mikey and Leo cast irritably gazed their way.
Despite the stone-hard glowers, only the presence of laughter churned the ginger's stomach. "Your voice just annoying to listen to."
It was disappointing that the anger dissipated like vapour out of Donnie's glare, only drips of annoyance left behind. "Yeah, but at least I was right," the big brat stated. "You were the one that didn't listen to me and just stormed off like a big old baby."
Shame provoked heat to poison Raph's cheeks, chaining rage alongside it. No. Nobody calls him a 'big baby' right in front of his face. "Well, if you might've explained clearer, cave mouth-" he started.
It was just the pleasant second when fury debuted in the brunette's eyes when Leo and Mikey rudely barged in to their civilised argument, no permission given. "Let's not argue-" 'Nardo was cut off by his taller brother's abrupt retaliation.
"I was already being clear, dim-"
Oh, no, Donnie was not about to call him that.
"-wit!"
Red-hot colours awakened in Raphael's unstable mind once again. Donatello was literally asking for it. "Dimwit? Look who's talking!" he shot back. "You trusted a random weird silver-hatted time traveller girl and now we're here, on the wrong side of her map, with random barbarians running around trying to kill us everywhere." Just saying the stupid fact provoked a new wave of enraged sentiments to pour in, butting his head against Donnie's. I had been right all along. I warned everyone not to trust strangers. I should've been leading the team. But look where we are now, bruised and battered like a bunch of homeless losers.
Mikey, the blonde little brat, attempted to peel them apart from one another as if they were a clump of sticky cheese. "We can trust Renet!" Beyond all of the exhausted panting between pulls, his voice still held a defensive metal tone- very un-Mikey. "We can trust Renet! She needs us!" Oh, of course, the only reason was that he cared for his girlfriend who wasn't even born yet. At the mention of her name, Raph rotated his head around to catch her reaction with the others.
He was unsure whether to believe it or not.
At the centre of the knocked-out bodies, Renet had her hands all over him- the stranger. They were embracing each other, as if they were long-lost lovers that hadn't seen each other in a billion years or something. As if they were soulmates.
Which, of course, Mikey wouldn't be very happy about.
Raph's little brother was basically a walking, raging fireball- seethingly flying to the two huggers, jealous and flooded with indignation. Just like a guy finding out his girl was cheating on him with another guy. Stupid and all that- love is basically stupid. Raph meant- he could tolerate family love, but not romance. It's a big hole of misery you'll subconsciously fall into, full of lies and resentment and whatnot. He had learned that the hard way many years ago-
"Who is this?" Mikey's blue glower punctured into the newcomer's, so whetted it was enough to blind him. The black and orange-outlined ninja then averted his gaze to Renet, softening to mild fear. Fear that his idiotic future girl would be taken from him by some strange-looking skank anyway. "How do you know him?"
At that question, Raphael's interest peaked. He leaned in closer, sensing his brothers copy.
Strangely, the navy-suited girl was... joyous? What could she possibly be happy for? She was supposed to be guilty that Mikey caught her being all snuggly like a teddy bear to another guy- or were they just friends? Renet didn't break Mikey's gaze as an earnest smile twined onto her slender face. "Mikey, Hanzo and I know each other-"
"How?"
The blaze of blue condensed in the blondie's eyes again.
"Well," Renet paused, as if she and the stranger shared long, long history that she didn't know where to start from. What a snake. She probably knew Mikey had feelings for her and took it for granted. "I was time-travel training with my master, Lord Simultaneous..." The cheer was drained from her voice as she mentioned him. Raph only felt the smallest ounce of pity. He recalled when she had explained who Simultaneous was when she met Raph and his brothers not too far away from their sewer lair, and that was the moment when Mikey fell head over heels for anyone for the first time. Raphael's pity shrunk into nothing when his mind reminded him of Renet's trickery once again. "I was training with Lord Simultaneous. We traveled through a portal here, learning about the history of Japan in full action. And then, we met Hanzo. He was friendly! We visited him many times-" oh god, Mikey was getting dangerously madder by the second- "and we taught him English-"
"He can speak English?" Leo confirmed dubiously, yet at the same time was taken aback.
Renet nodded like an eager bunny. "Yes, yes he can-"
At once, Donnie stepped forward with a half-sneer, one of his brown eyebrows raised. His voice was unsavoury. "Well, if he can speak English, can he kindly explain why he was randomly pointing a finger at me this morning?"
The instant sentiment of familiarity flared up inside Raphael in unison. "Yeah," he immediately urged, not letting his eyes off the white-haired freak. "He was pointing at me too! He was pointing-"
The stranger, somehow, summoned Raphael's instinct to quiet down with an aimless wave of his black-gloved hand, like as if Raph was a goddamn dog. I'm no dog. I'm no dog. Are you seriously treating me like a stupid dog-
"I can speak English fluently, to answer your question." At his no-accent, normal American-sounding voice, Raph's pumping blood ran cold. Oh, great, wow. This guy was a total package, wasn't he? First, he fought off thirty men and saved Raph and his friends single-handedly, and now he can speak Japanese and English with no damn errors. "And, well, the reason I was pointing at you two was because when I point, my fingers align up with my vision and it enhances my eyesight to see clearer-"
"Ha!" The ginger thrust himself to burn his glare at the stranger's, dead in the eye. There was nothing to trust in those two black holes of nothing. The stranger was too perfectly weird for his own good. "What a truckload of sewer apples that is. Just how can we trust you, ugly white-haired stranger?" April, Leo, and Renet's gasps of astonishment were banished from Raphael's two ears. He was Raph, and Raph says what he likes.
Just a couple inches in front of him, the stranger's eyes glinted with something unreadable- something that Raph couldn't figure out like the last piece of a puzzle. Something that made fury narrow the bottoms of his eyes and tighten his white-knuckled fists. "If Renet can trust me," the stranger affirmed, "you can trust me, all right. And please, you may call me Hanzo, not stranger."
Raphael didn't dare break his gaze, powering as much hate as possible into them to bore down on the stranger's unblinking eyes. I don't trust Renet, I don't trust you, he muttered inwardly. Both of those freaks surely didn't deserve to be counted on. And I'm never going to call you 'Hanzo.' You're just a stranger to me.
***
Mikey stared. Stared at his brother staring at Hanzo and Hanzo staring at his brother. Were they having a secret staring competition? Elation flurried in the short ninja's chest. Cool. But why were they both looking so serious? Especially Raph, it was like he was doing his laser-beam eye attack again. Oh- that means he's mad. But what about?
All of a sudden, the glee evaporated into nothing but a subtle mist, blown away by a thick wind of suspicion. If Raphael was mad at Hanzo, that means he's jealous of him! And if he's jealous of him, that means he must like Renet! Just like me! Just as Mikey was planning to break the two lovestruck bros apart, Leo beat him to it.
"Raph," the leader in blue hissed, shooting a warning glower at the redhead while placing a bandaged hand on his chest. "Hanzo saved us. We'd all be toast if it weren't for him-"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Damn, Raph's voice was downright rude. "When strangers save you out of nowhere, it's usually for a price." Leonardo frustratedly bit back his reply as Raph went on, voice turning as slick as a snake. "For example, guilt-tripping us into doing anything they want."
Guilt-tripping? Mikey didn't even have any idea what that meant, but it sounded bad. His train of thoughts crashed as Renet's wonderful voice, each word snippets of a harmony, danced into the intimidating wall of air and shattered it into pieces. "Raph," she laughed- god, her voice was angelic. "You don't have to be so uptight! Hanzo's here to help us." The girl straightened herself up, blessing everyone with that mystical grin of hers. Her looks were angelic, her voice was angelic, she might've just been an angel gifted from the heavens above. "And the best part is, he's from the Hamato Clan-"
What?
"-And he can lead us to it!"
Mikey blinked- the first stage of pure shock fizzled his brain, blinding him from the possibilities of what she had said. Then, the second stage crashed over him- an unrelenting tide of jubilation imploded all his thoughts, even his theories of Super Robot Mech force hidden in the corners of his mind. He didn't even hear his own voice through the joyful sentiments. "That means..."
Donnie continued, his voice acutely on the same level of relief. "That means... we don't have to follow Renet-"
"-And we can save Master Splinter as soon as possible!" That was Leo, hands on his black hair and eyes literally sparkling.
Renet pouted like a cute little penguin, eyebrows furrowed as she darted her gaze around. "Hey, why does nobody want to follow me?"
Uh oh. Unease stirred like an awakening worm inside Michelangelo's stomach, and he instinctively rested his five-fingered hands on Renet's back where her vast cape lay. "It's not that we think you don't know how to use a map, Renet-"
"It's exactly that." Anger bristled Mikey's hair as at Raph's blatant statement from the right. "I see a half-broken tree with a beehive every two hours we walk."
"Yeah, we're pretty sure we don't know how to read a map, Renet," Leo added with a blunt edge. Seriously? Leo too? Why did all Mikey's brothers hate the gorgeous and magical Renet? They really know how to make a girl feel welcome.
Renet's gaze was apologetic, melting Mikey's heart into a glimmering pool tinged with guilt. How could he dare to agree with his brothers when Renet feels pain from their hurtful comments? Mikey was pretty sure she was doing just fine leading them to the Hamato Clan. The extending blossom of sympathy revelled in his heart as soon as the blondie hugged Renet- a meaningful jab at Hanzo, and-
Holy chalupa.
Mikey didn't know girls could be this warm. Without a single slithering doubt in his mind, the ninja revelled in the heat that radiated from her body and cuddled affectionately, as if they were in the centre of their own divine vortex. Wow, just, wow. The ever so heavenly sensation blanketed him with sleepy comfort, yet sent an oddly satisfying shiver up and down his spine. He hugged her. He hugged a time master (in training, yet still on the same level of awesome). He hugged the girl of his dreams. He hugged Renet. Now, in the midst of welding sparks, he knew this day wouldn't have the chance to get any better-
The sparks died.
April- how the heck was she quiet all this time?- shot open her mouth and charged out an air-shattering screech from behind, slashing Mikey's eardrums without mercy, seeming to rattle his genius pizza-filled brain. The sound broadcasted an electrifying, automatic jolt that stifled a gasp as he thrashed around to the ginger girl's way.
Beneath the blazing roar of light licking the bark on the two-faced, ominous trees facing her, beneath the starving darkness and stretching out and unsheathing their claws with depravity, beneath her features swallowed into the fiery deaths of fear that would set your heart aflame, were teeth. Teeth- almost an animal's? Mikey hesitated with the exception of certainty. It was uncanny, something, D (Donatello), had informed him about- a creature's appearance on the edge of humanity but not so much that it seemed creepy on a whim-
The teeth sank into the raw depths of April's right leg.
Her scream was the kind that bypassed Mikey's ear and sent horror blasting right to his heart.
236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGizRfyRNzp
