Golden Angel

The next thing Artemis saw was the familiar alien lab, but her head was still spinning from the trip.

“Not THIS place ‘gain!” Raph complained as they stood.

“WE’RE HOME!” Mikey cheered.

Artemis put a hand to her head.

“Not so LOUD…My head hurts…”

“YAHOO!! WE MADE IT!!”

He went down to start kissing the platform.

“…I don’t even want to know what’s been on this floor…”

At that moment, the three Triceraton and Federation soldiers materialized behind them.

“…Aw shell…Not a moments peace…”

“Heads up, guys! It looks like we brought along some tag-along’s!”

The soldiers aimed their blasters at each other, and the turtles tensed for battled.

“Rule number one, NEVER pick up hitch-hikers…”

“No!”

Artemis turned at the sudden voice.

“Remain stationary! Stay calm. We will return you to your native continuity.”

A laser was fired, and the gold-banded turtle brought up water to redirect it away.

“What is this madness?! Where are the rest of our warriors?!” A Triceraton demanded.

Artemis pulled the water onto her hands, making spikes across her knuckles and claws on her fingertips.

“The Fugitoid! Seize it!”

“Oh dear…”

“FIRE!”

Shots were fired, and the crimson-eyed turtle pulled Mikey away from the crossfire.

“Take cover!” Leo shouted.

“A welcome-home party! You shouldn’t have!”

A shot blasted off the tail of Mikey’s suit…

“No, I mean it! You shouldn’t have!”

“Mikey, DUCK!”

“Where?”

Tackling her youngest brother to the ground, they both managed to avoid being hit.

“I didn’t mean water fowl, shell-for-brains!”

“SORRY…SHEESH!”

SMACK!!!

“OW!!!”

Those strange aliens came to try and subdue the warring ones, but were knocked away rather easily.

“Deploy stasis beam!”

The Triceraton and Federation soldiers were frozen once hit by the strange beam, and Artemis stepped back.

Raph seemed ready to attack, but a voice stopped him.

“My children, stop!”

A familiar elderly rat stepped in, followed by two ‘guardians’.

“They are not our enemy.”

Personally, Artemis felt tears of joy burn her eyes, and the water splashed to the ground as she latched onto her father in a hug.

“My daughter?”

“I’m sorry…” She forced out, giving a watery smile.

“I just missed you so much, daddy…”

With a kind smile, he wrapped an arm around her shell.

She hadn’t called ‘daddy’ since she had talked about her nightmares not two years prior, and it meant she was troubled.

Her brothers joined in the hug, just as happy that their father was safe.

“My sons, it is good to see you, too…Please, my spine…”

The five turtles backed off, allowing Splinter to breathe.

“Here. I want you to meet some friends. I believe you have met the guardians.”

Artemis nodded.

“Sure have…”

“It was they who found me after the battle with the Shredder, and brought me here to these benevolent beings. They saved my life.”

The purple/silver-haired man stepped forward, and they turned their attention to them.

“This is my good friend, Mr. Mortu. Mortu, these are my children.”

“Thank you for saving our sensei.” Leo stated gratefully, and the five turtles bowed in gratitude.

“And sorry about the whole breaking in thing…” Artemis apologized, smiling sheepishly.

“But…who are they?” The blue-banded turtle asked their sensei.

“What are they?”

“They call themselves Utroms. And their story in inextricably interwoven with our own.”

Quirking an eye-ridge, Artemis put a hand to her head.

“Really? That’s strange…”

“The ooze that created us all was a bi-product of their experiments. With this Transmat device.”

“So the chemical make-up of the ooze is caused by the non-essential shift on subatomic particles…”

Blank looks…

“Donnie, how did you KNOW that?”

“But how were we transported?! How did we get back here?! And what-?!”

SMACK!!!

“OW!!!”

“Calm down.”

“All will be explained. But first, there’s some business to take care of.” Mortu assured.

“Beam these intruders back to their original coordinates.”

“Yes, sir.”

Once the alien soldiers were gone, Leo decided to introduce the Professor.

“Master Splinter, this is Professor Honeycutt.”

“I must apologize for my present condition.” He admitted.

As he told his story, Artemis looked around curiously, still searching the building through her feet.

“And that’s how I came to be here.”

“I see my children have gotten into their usual amount of trouble in the eight hours they were gone…”

“EIGHT HOURS!?!” Artemis exclaimed, disbelieving.

“We were gone three weeks!” Raph added.

“Perhaps I can explain…” Mortu stated.

“The inter-astringencies of inter-dimensional space travel affect not only the basic laws of three-dimensional space, but the fluidity of temporal mechanics as well.”

…

Everyone turned to Don…

“That is SO cool…”

“YEAH…if it made any sense at all!”

“My head hurts…”

“The HECK is goin’ on ‘ere?”

“My friends, let there be no more secrets between us.”

Mortu opened his shirt, revealing a strangely-slimy Utrom…

“OH GOD!”

Artemis felt bile stick in her throat at the surprise, and coughed to breathe.

“Don’t DO that! I almost had a heart attack!”

She covered her mouth.

“I feel sick…”

“Follow me. We shall begin at the beginning.”

Leo had to help her up, keeping an arm around her waist so she wouldn’t fall over and puke.

They followed the robotic body that housed an Utrom, they stepped through a doorway into a strange egg-shaped room.

“I’ve seen this movie…We’re…We’re not gonna have anything burst out of our chests, are we?”

“No…But I might do this.”

SMACK!!!

“OW!!!”

“This is the Oracle Pod Chamber, where our race reaches its highest state of communion.” Mortu explained.

Artemis nodded, looking at the pods and the room.

“Where many minds enter into oneness, and we share our life experiences. Within these pods, you’ll be able to share the story of our life.”

“You know, I can’t think of ONE science-fiction movie where a ‘pod’ is a good thing…”

“I have to agree with him on that…Small spaces make me uncomfortable…”

“All will be explained. Please, enter the pods.”

The pods opened, and the gold-banded turtle took a step back.

“No thanks. Ignorance isn’t fun, but I’ll get filled in after.”

Splinter understood her near-fear of closed spaces, and didn’t question her.

Her worst nightmares had always involved closets flooding with water, coffins buried in the ground and cracking open, and being buried in a rockslide.

Leo gave her a comforting squeeze before following the others into a pod, and the gold-banded turtle sighed as they were strapped in by the machine.

“Prepare yourselves to become one with the sacred memories of the Utroms.”

The machine was turned on, and Artemis sat down Indian-style.

“This’ll be a long wait…”

“Did you not want to join them?”

“That’s not it…”

She averted her eyes.

“I’m just…”

‘Scared…’

Breathing out, she closed her eyes, trying to meditate.

Feeling a slip as she went into ‘meditation mode’, she realized there was a presence with her in that strange void.

Looking around, she spotted a young boy, only twelve years old, with large brown eyes and arrows on his head and hands and feet.

He wore yellow and brown robes, and had a warm smile on his face.

“So, you’re the new Avatar. I was hoping it would be an Airbender.”

She quirked an eye-ridge.

“But the Avatar uses all the elements…”

“Every Avatar has a primary element, the one from the nation they were born in.”

“Really…Well, who are you?”

“I’m Avatar Aang, and I was once the last Airbender in my time.”

“Aang…But you’re younger than I am.”

“I had to master the elements at a young age in order to save the world, but you won’t have that sort of trouble.”

“How did you do it?”

“My friends taught me the elements I hadn’t already mastered. You, on the other hand, will find your teachers in a different way.”

“A different way?”

She wrinkled her beak a bit in thought.

“And what teachers?”

“You’ll see…”

He chuckled, grinning.

“Don’t push yourself too hard!”

“WAIT!”

But the boy had already disappeared, and she sighed in irritation.

“Some people hardly help...”

Another girl appeared now, with long brown hair and bright blue eyes, along with a blue anorak and boots.

“…Not another Avatar, I presume?”

“I’m Katara, a Waterbending master of the Southern Water Tribe. I suppose Aang didn’t tell you much about your teachers…”

“Not really…”

“You’re first will be a Waterbender as well. She’ll be rather good, but you’ll both learn from each other.”

“A Waterbender…”

“Be careful, though. Danger surrounds you.”

“Danger?”

Crimson eyes widened a bit.

“Leo…”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure you can handle it.”

Katara smiled reassuringly, but put a reassuring hand on the turtle’s shoulder.

“Just don’t lose your cool. It might cause more harm than good. Trust me, I know…”

Being pulled from the warm void, Artemis struggled to remain.

“Wait! I have more questions!”

“Later! There’s trouble!”

‘Trouble?’

Back in the physical world, where she felt the air and the ground, she sighed.

‘What’s going on now?’

‘Seeing’ the building, her brow furrowed when she felt a strange, small little thing moving around on ceilings and walls.

‘What in the world is that?’

“I must say, this is a most intriguing device, sir.” Honeycutt stated.

Artemis looked around as she felt something move, and her eyes narrowed.

‘What is it? Is it dangerous?’

Something sparked, and her eyes widened.

‘It’s sabotaging the machine!’

Jumping up, she ran for the source, though Mortu and Honeycutt were too busy trying to fix the controls.

There was evil laughter, and crimson eyes narrowed on a small robotic body sporting the familiar head of Baxter Stockman.

“Stockman.” She snarled.

He seemed startled, and started scuttling.

“Oh, don’t run! I won’t hurt you! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”

Jumping for him, she barely missed him, and he scuttled faster as she scrambled to her feet.

“Not so fast, you slippery little basturd!”

Chasing after him, she growled when he managed to allude her a second time.

Something was beeping, like an alarm, and she faintly heard Honeycutt’s voice before a fire roared in her ears…

“Michelangelo’s condition is critical.”

Stockman tried getting away up a wall, but she used Airbending to jump up high enough to reach the vent he was escaping through.

‘Mikey’s getting hurt! Because of this little jackass!’

Going through, she flipped out to the ground, landing in a crouch before scanning the ground.

The little spider-head went straight for SOMETHING, and seemed to hook up to it.

“Hey! Stockman!”

He cried out as she lifted him into the air.

“I’m REALLY tired of you messing with my friends stuff. Mind to tell me what you did?”

“Leave me alone, you over-grown turtle!”

“Yes, that’s technically what I am. Glad to see you can tell I’m a turtle.”

She started crushing the metal casing, eyes murderous.

“But you messed with my brothers, and I’m not in the mood to give you a cookie.”

Something stuck into her shoulder, and she flinched.

“Then I hope you’re in the mood to sleep.”

Feeling light-headed, she swayed, dropping Stockman from her loosening fingers.

The syringe came out with him, and she closed her eyes as she felt some blood seep out.

“Don’t fight the inevitable.”

She barely felt her shell hit the floor…

When did she fall?

Her eyes were fluttering closed, and her limbs felt numb…

“Nighty-Night, turtle. The Shredder will enjoy his new ‘gift’.”

She managed a soft growl before she slipped away…

“F%$* you…”

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Waking up slowly, she groaned a bit in discomfort.

Someone was carrying her, but she knew instinctively it wasn’t one of her brothers.

Artemis felt cold, uncomfortable, and wanted something warm.

A nice blanket, a good movie, and a Leo to snuggle on the couch with would have been nice…

But no.

She always has HORRIBLE luck…

HORRIBLE…

She only realized that when she opened her eyes and saw the unwelcome sight of the Shredder over her…

His gauntlet was immediately at her throat, cutting off any cry she might have uttered.

“Let’s not reveal our presence just yet.”

She glared, eyes blazing.

If she had even tried to breathe, she’d have gotten a nice nick in her neck.

“I don’t understand how the Oracle Pods malfunctioned…”

‘Aw, shell…’

“Oh, but I do…”

Artemis was on her feet now, but the sharp blades still threatened to cut her throat open.

The Elite Guard, Hun…

She had to bite her tongue to hold back a string of savage curses…

“Shredder, let her go!” Leo ordered, looking worried for her.

The pressure of the blades increased, and they tilted enough to expose her neck, and the pulsing vein giving life-blood to her.

“Now, why would I do that? She certainly is hard to catch…”

“Leave her alone!”

The tip nicked her very slightly, causing a crimson tear to slowly trail down her pulse and jade-colored skin.

“And her blood looks beautiful, doesn’t it? She has the perfect shade of skin to match…”

“How are you even alive?! I finished you off myself!! You can’t be alive…”

“You merely separated my head from my body…”

“That usually kills someone…” She muttered, wincing as the blades threatened to cut deeper.

“A courtesy I will gladly extend to you all! For none of you will leave here alive!”

Eyes widening, she almost struggled, adrenaline starting to pump into her system.

‘NO!’