Sequel: Angel's Child ›
Golden Angel
Chapter 73
The group looked up at the wire fencing and the desert-style buildings beyond.
Some were a bit broken-down, missing glass or some parts of the walls.
Artemis sighed, putting a hand on her stomach…
She hadn’t started showing, so Don deemed it safe for her to continue training with them until her baby bump got too big.
“Is this place perfect or what? I used ta take the train ‘ere after school an’ raise some…”
Casey caught the looks from the group of teens…
“Uh…ya know…ta get ‘way from it all.”
“I didn’t know there were any places like this left in the burrows…it’s huge…shadows everywhere to hide in…” Don mused.
“It’s like a ninja playground!” Mikey exclaimed.
“What do you think, Leo?” Mizu wondered.
“…We’re losing daylight. Let’s get to training.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Sunshine sir!” Raph joked.
The turtles flipped over the metal wiring, and the three human girls shared a glance before Chi started ripping through the fragile barrier.
Casey tried jumping over it…
He landed flat on his face, but at least he made it…
“…Ya couldn’t wait?”
“Apparently not.” Kasai giggled out.
“Alright, you ready to play?”
Everyone nodded as Casey stood up.
“What’s this game called ‘gain?” The vigilante wondered as the group headed through the abandoned buildings.
“It’s called Stealth Hunters. Yours truly…OW!!!”
Mikey rubbed his head, pouting at his sister.
“You’re not the master of the game.”
“AWWWW…Can’t we NOT share something?”
“Nope.”
“Ya two should be teamed up this time, then.” Chi decided.
“Agreed.”
“Fine! We get a thirty second head start!”
“…Do I HAVE to?” Artemis whined.
“It’s bad enough I LIVE with him…”
“It’s like the ‘capture the flag’ ninja style.” Don explained to the four humans.
“They’ll be wearing bandanas that we need to take from them. So far, none of us have been able to protect the bandana for more than fifteen minutes…except Artie.”
“What can I say? I’m GOOD at this!”
She grinned.
“It was midnight by the time we had to go home, so I think my record is almost eighteen hours.”
“Well, kiss yer record goodbye!” Chi warned playfully.
“Ya got an Earthbender after ya now!”
“Good thing I’m an Airbender then, huh?”
Leo frowned a bit.
“Don’t push yourself, Artemis.”
“I won’t. I know my limits.”
“Just don’t ignore them.”
“AWWW…”
“None of you are MICHELANGELO, BATTLE NEXUS CHAMPION! THAT is why I rock!”
Raph reached for him…
“He moves like the shadow…”
“Hey, shadow. Catch this.”
WHIP!!!
“OW!!! RAPH…”
Artemis took the yellow bandana.
“Don’t be so rough, tough guy. Besides, shadows don’t talk.”
“One-Two-Three-GO!!”
Mikey started running, yellow bandana on his arm, and Artemis bled into the shadows…
She easily used a soft gust of wind to keep herself off the ground, and she moved through the shadows.
Rooftops and shadows and the open sky always made her feel free, and it was all she’d ever want.
The sun was giving her strength, much like the moon, though she slid out of the light easily enough.
A sound, a soft rustle, and the crimson-eyed turtle spun around.
‘What was that?’
Hearing heightening out of familiar paranoia, she soon spotted the culprit…
‘Just a rat...’
Relaxing a bit, though something kept nagging at her, she turned and kept on her way.
She heard the others below, knew when Chi was covering her boyfriend’s shell, when she saw something out of the corner of her eye…
Turning sharply, she spotted a shadow in a dark building…
Her skin prickled at the feeling of eyes on her…
A crash of glass, and Artemis realized Leo had jumped through the glass.
The shadow seemed to have disappeared, and her eyes narrowed as she kept moving…
She’d learned that it was best to keep moving when playing this game before finding a nice place to wait it out.
The gold-banded turtle almost skidded to a halt when she saw a pile of rocks…
Normally, this wouldn’t catch her attention, but this pile of rocks was MOVING…
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if that was Mikey…’
Raph kicked the top right off, and a horde of rats poured out…
Kasai yelped, startled, and fire burst out of her skin to keep the creatures at bay.
‘Well…If Mikey’s not there…’
Risking touching the ground, Artemis quickly located her brother before flying through the air towards him on her large wings.
Slipping into a large room, she folded her wings and looked around for him.
“Mike?”
“ARTIE!”
He clung to her side, and the gold-banded turtle rolled her eyes.
“You know, you’ll have to stop doing that…”
“Why?”
“Because once I start showing, you’ll eventually knock me over…genius…”
A shadow, faster than she expected, and her wings flexed, spreading.
Mikey was freaking out, hiding behind her as she scanned the darkness.
“PLEASE tell me that’s Raph…I’d LOVE for it to be Raph…”
Wood snapped, and a fireball dissipated on the wall…
“It had BETTER be him…And if it is, I’m going to have a FIELD DAY ripping off his shell…”
“Are we in trouble, Artie?” Mikey asked, sounding like a child…
She didn’t have the heart to tell him that something might be after them…
“Just get out your ‘chucks and watch your shell…”
No sooner did she hear the whir of his weapons then the sound of wood striking something ring through her head…
Whipping around, she caught her brother in her feathery wing.
“HEY-!”
She ducked under a metal beam, but the shadow packed one SHELL of a punch…
When her head stopped ringing and that strange fog left her brain, Artemis was able to determine that she’d fallen unconscious.
One big hint was that she was now tied to a large table…
‘GREAT…Just GREAT…’
Pulling on the makeshift bindings, the she-turtle judged if she could free herself…
‘Easy…’
“ARTIE…”
Eyes snapping up at her youngest brother’s voice, the irises widened…
“Whoa…”
A possibly-mangled man-creature, covered almost completely in dirty white bandages…
He had murderous, crazed eyes, an evil laugh hoarsely escaping his throat…
‘Psychopath…Just my luck…’
Mikey was across from her, tied to what seemed to be a broken-down door.
“What the shell ARE you?”
The laughter got loud enough to echo, and Mikey tried easing the tension by nervously laughing along…
“Mikey, don’t encourage him…”
Wood splintered next to her lower plastron, right beside the she-turtle’s stomach, and she instinctively flinched away…
Glaring now, eyes fiery, she nearly snarled.
“Watch it!”
A moment of tension, and Mikey fidgeted, worried his sister would be struck…
Instead, the shadowy figure began to depart…
As the sound of scratching and rats screeched into their ears…
“ARTIE…”
The little black bodies scurried on the floor towards them, on the walls…
Spreading her wings as far as she could, she flapped powerfully, sending most of the vermin flying away as the jade-skinned turtle pulled on her restraints as hard as she could manage.
They snapped open as Mikey managed to free himself, and the orange-masked turtle jumped in order to cling to his sister as she took off.
Swerving around jumping rodents and holding her brother close, Artemis managed to stay in the air.
A cellar door came into view, and the gold-banded turtle rammed straight through.
Wood splintered, and both tumbled through the air before hitting ground.
“OW…”
“What ‘appened ta ya two?”
The pair of siblings looked up to see the others looking at them with confused worry…
“Oh, don’t mind us….we just escaped a horde of turtle-eating rats…”
“TURTLE-EATING RATS!”
“…And their psycho master…”
“…What?” A confused Waterbender questioned.
“You heard right…”
The crimson-eyed turtle blinked…
“Where’s Leo?”
Everyone turned to see said blue-banded turtle heading for a dilapidated, cylindrical-shaped tower, evil laughter echoing from deep within as the turtle disappeared into the shadows…
“LOVE?!”
The winged she-turtle started running after him, the others following right behind.
The interior was dark and gloomy, and Chi’s eyes narrowed when she sensed the many rodents in the walls.
The laughter was coming from above, and everyone looked up to see a figure silhouetted by moonlight in the broken-down hole of the roof.
“Not HIM again…” Mikey whined, hiding behind his girlfriend.
“’Gain?”
“He was the one that tried feeding us to the rats.” Artemis explained, feathers bristling…
The door shut behind them soundly, making Kasai jump, as the rats came out of hiding…
Leo seemed ready to lunge up at the shadow when the vermin pounced…
A wall of earth halted the assault momentarily, though the little creatures climbed over it rather speedily.
The Firebender yelped when one jumped for her face, and threw fireballs in her haste to stop them.
Mizu was using water to wash the little monsters back, whipping them through the air or drowning them in a wave.
Artemis just flapped her wings, blowing them back, and blasted fire when necessary.
“EASY rodents…NICE rodents…” Mikey muttered, backing up.
“Have I mentioned my sensei was a rat? Master Splinter? Any relatives with us today?”
“There must be hundreds! We’ll never take them all out at this rate!” Don shouted, knocking a rat out of the air with his Bo.
“We don’t have to!” Leo replied, katana singing through the air.
“We just have to show that we’re one meal that’s not worth the trouble!”
Once the rats began to retreat, there was a snarl and an echoing scream…
“NO!!!”
Chi was surprised by a jump from above, but Mikey jumped in to save her from more than a few scratches.
“Thanks, baby…”
“No prob, babe…”
Kasai shot flame at the fast-footed humanoid monster, though she was kicked back by a powerful blow.
Raph managed to catch her, and his hands were full making sure her ribs were still okay.
Artemis was helping up Chi and Mikey…
Until she saw the monster start pounding on Leo…
“SHELL no!”
The walls shot out, striking the enemy away.
The crimson-eyed turtle was positively SEETHING…
“Why not mess with someone who can mess back?”
A lightning-fast strike, but she easily side-stepped the attack…
Another kick aimed for the lower plastron, but the she-turtle jumped over his foot…
Eyes snapping up, she delivered a hard hurricane kick to his face, knocking her opponent back.
The rats rushed from their hiding places, finding the weak point in their prey’s defense, and were met with flames.
Artemis was practically dancing around her opponent, as if knowing what he was going to do before he did it…
She still kept an ear on her family, and decided a little help was in order…
Switching to Earthbending, the jade-skinned turtle blasted a wall to weaken it before she had to shield herself from a barrage of blows.
Raph, using his thick head, busted a way to freedom as she distracted the quickly-enraged psychopathic monster.
“ARTEMIS!!”
“COMING!!”
Spreading her massive angel’s wings, the gold-banded turtle took to the air in order to zoom through the jagged opening.
Unfortunately, the hunter wasn’t about to let her get away that easily…
He jumped on her shell, the sudden weight causing her to crash.
Artemis managed to protect her stomach, but skidded harshly on her side and arm.
Once she stopped, the crimson-eyed turtle tried to lash out as her shell fully hit the ground…
She froze, however, when he bit her neck…
Artemis felt the skin give, warm blood gush free…
She was going to be sick…
“ARTEMIS!!!”
Suddenly, the weight was gone, and two katana flashed above her…
“L-Leo…”
He was enraged, even as Mizu kneeled at the she-turtle’s side and healed the bite-mark away.
It was like that MONSTER had tried to mark HIS MATE, drank her blood like it was HIS to take…
Artemis was hardly regaining her breath when Leo turned to see their enemy on a rooftop across the dirt-packed road.
It was like he was being LAUGHED AT…
“Leo…”
The winged turtle almost swallowed nervously when faced with fiery brown eyes…
“…Be careful…”
“I will be.”
Shuriken cut through the air, but only two out of five found any hold…
One in the ‘man’s’ shoulder, the other in the roof ledge beneath his feet…
Concrete rumbled, giving out, wood splintered under the force…
No one could survive being crushed like that…
‘I win…’
The blue-banded turtle turned back towards them, lifting his pregnant lover into his arms.
“It’s over…Let’s get out of here.”
She nodded, tucking her head under his chin as she started to relax, when Chi tensed…
The wall beside them seemed to blow open, though the debris was stopped in midair by the blind Earthbender, and a familiar figure walked out through the dust.
They’d been knocked down, though Leo remained on his knees, shielding his mate from the force.
“Leo?”
“Stay here, love.”
“Leo?!”
He put her down gently, and faced off with the crazed monster.
The blue-banded turtle’s unnatural ferocity forced his opponent to flee through a large window and into another warehouse-like building.
Leo followed after him, and everyone was getting to their feet as Artemis desperately tried to catch up…
“LEO!!!”
She busted inside, the other turtles not far behind, followed up by the four humans.
“LEO!!!”
“Stay back!!” He warned, still fighting fiercely.
“He’s mine!!”
She flinched at every blow that landed, every graze that COULD HAVE, even at her own weakness…
She’d lost too much blood to continue fighting and keep conscious…
“What if he can’t handle it?”
“If ‘e can’t, I’m gonna be the secon’ one in there...But fer now…”
The crimson-eyed turtle flinched in sympathy at Leo’s merciless beating…
“It looks like ‘e’s got more than one monster ta work outta ‘is system…”
Mizu nodded.
“Raph’s right. We’ll be right here if he needs us.”
The psychopath began to fight back harder, and the jade-skinned turtle bit her lip.
“Right…”
“He’ll be fine. He’s Leo!” Mikey assured.
Something crumbled, cracking, and Chi was looking around in confusion…
“Babe?”
Unseeing eyes widened…
“MOVE!!!”
A building fell through the already-weak roof, filling the room with dust though the Earthbender was struggling to keep large rocks in the air and not on the group.
“LEO!!” Mikey called.
“Watch your step!!” Don warned.
“Whoa! It’s rat central!” Chi exclaimed once the rocks were safely thrown away.
The blue-banded turtle and the ‘man’ were on a raised concrete island amid a sea of rat-infested ground, and worry twisted Artemis’s heart…
‘They’ll eat him alive…’
“Leo, let’s go!” Kasai called.
“Come on, Fearless!”
Leo sheathed his katana before jumping across to them, when the ‘island’ behind him gave out and the monster jumped to save himself.
He landed on the turtle’s back with a desperate hold, seeming intent on dragging him down to the rats…
The crimson-eyed turtle grabbed hold of her mate’s hand, pulling back as hard as she could.
The others immediately jumped to help, and Artemis’s muscles began to shake with tension…
“I thought you said you’d be careful…” She joked weakly.
Both bodies were tugged up, causing the gold-banded turtle to fall back on her shell before Leo kicked his opponent back into the pit.
Artemis closed her eyes as he was swallowed by the horde, still feeling dizzy…
His screams died down, and she covered her ears as they continued to ring.
“Come on, love…”
Leo picked her up gently, and she buried her face into his shoulder.
They headed back to the wire fence, walking through the hole Chi had made earlier, when Mikey noticed something…
“Hey, we still have our bandanas on! It’s been like forty-five minutes, easy!”
…
“…What?”
SMACK!!!
BONK!!!
WHIP!!!
SLAP!!!
“OWWWWWWWWWW…”
Artemis then took the chance to take off his bandana and whip him with it…
“OW!”
“Let’s just go home…”
Everyone agreed, climbing into the Battle Shell…
‘There’s no place like home…’
Some were a bit broken-down, missing glass or some parts of the walls.
Artemis sighed, putting a hand on her stomach…
She hadn’t started showing, so Don deemed it safe for her to continue training with them until her baby bump got too big.
“Is this place perfect or what? I used ta take the train ‘ere after school an’ raise some…”
Casey caught the looks from the group of teens…
“Uh…ya know…ta get ‘way from it all.”
“I didn’t know there were any places like this left in the burrows…it’s huge…shadows everywhere to hide in…” Don mused.
“It’s like a ninja playground!” Mikey exclaimed.
“What do you think, Leo?” Mizu wondered.
“…We’re losing daylight. Let’s get to training.”
“Yes sir, Mr. Sunshine sir!” Raph joked.
The turtles flipped over the metal wiring, and the three human girls shared a glance before Chi started ripping through the fragile barrier.
Casey tried jumping over it…
He landed flat on his face, but at least he made it…
“…Ya couldn’t wait?”
“Apparently not.” Kasai giggled out.
“Alright, you ready to play?”
Everyone nodded as Casey stood up.
“What’s this game called ‘gain?” The vigilante wondered as the group headed through the abandoned buildings.
“It’s called Stealth Hunters. Yours truly…OW!!!”
Mikey rubbed his head, pouting at his sister.
“You’re not the master of the game.”
“AWWWW…Can’t we NOT share something?”
“Nope.”
“Ya two should be teamed up this time, then.” Chi decided.
“Agreed.”
“Fine! We get a thirty second head start!”
“…Do I HAVE to?” Artemis whined.
“It’s bad enough I LIVE with him…”
“It’s like the ‘capture the flag’ ninja style.” Don explained to the four humans.
“They’ll be wearing bandanas that we need to take from them. So far, none of us have been able to protect the bandana for more than fifteen minutes…except Artie.”
“What can I say? I’m GOOD at this!”
She grinned.
“It was midnight by the time we had to go home, so I think my record is almost eighteen hours.”
“Well, kiss yer record goodbye!” Chi warned playfully.
“Ya got an Earthbender after ya now!”
“Good thing I’m an Airbender then, huh?”
Leo frowned a bit.
“Don’t push yourself, Artemis.”
“I won’t. I know my limits.”
“Just don’t ignore them.”
“AWWW…”
“None of you are MICHELANGELO, BATTLE NEXUS CHAMPION! THAT is why I rock!”
Raph reached for him…
“He moves like the shadow…”
“Hey, shadow. Catch this.”
WHIP!!!
“OW!!! RAPH…”
Artemis took the yellow bandana.
“Don’t be so rough, tough guy. Besides, shadows don’t talk.”
“One-Two-Three-GO!!”
Mikey started running, yellow bandana on his arm, and Artemis bled into the shadows…
She easily used a soft gust of wind to keep herself off the ground, and she moved through the shadows.
Rooftops and shadows and the open sky always made her feel free, and it was all she’d ever want.
The sun was giving her strength, much like the moon, though she slid out of the light easily enough.
A sound, a soft rustle, and the crimson-eyed turtle spun around.
‘What was that?’
Hearing heightening out of familiar paranoia, she soon spotted the culprit…
‘Just a rat...’
Relaxing a bit, though something kept nagging at her, she turned and kept on her way.
She heard the others below, knew when Chi was covering her boyfriend’s shell, when she saw something out of the corner of her eye…
Turning sharply, she spotted a shadow in a dark building…
Her skin prickled at the feeling of eyes on her…
A crash of glass, and Artemis realized Leo had jumped through the glass.
The shadow seemed to have disappeared, and her eyes narrowed as she kept moving…
She’d learned that it was best to keep moving when playing this game before finding a nice place to wait it out.
The gold-banded turtle almost skidded to a halt when she saw a pile of rocks…
Normally, this wouldn’t catch her attention, but this pile of rocks was MOVING…
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if that was Mikey…’
Raph kicked the top right off, and a horde of rats poured out…
Kasai yelped, startled, and fire burst out of her skin to keep the creatures at bay.
‘Well…If Mikey’s not there…’
Risking touching the ground, Artemis quickly located her brother before flying through the air towards him on her large wings.
Slipping into a large room, she folded her wings and looked around for him.
“Mike?”
“ARTIE!”
He clung to her side, and the gold-banded turtle rolled her eyes.
“You know, you’ll have to stop doing that…”
“Why?”
“Because once I start showing, you’ll eventually knock me over…genius…”
A shadow, faster than she expected, and her wings flexed, spreading.
Mikey was freaking out, hiding behind her as she scanned the darkness.
“PLEASE tell me that’s Raph…I’d LOVE for it to be Raph…”
Wood snapped, and a fireball dissipated on the wall…
“It had BETTER be him…And if it is, I’m going to have a FIELD DAY ripping off his shell…”
“Are we in trouble, Artie?” Mikey asked, sounding like a child…
She didn’t have the heart to tell him that something might be after them…
“Just get out your ‘chucks and watch your shell…”
No sooner did she hear the whir of his weapons then the sound of wood striking something ring through her head…
Whipping around, she caught her brother in her feathery wing.
“HEY-!”
She ducked under a metal beam, but the shadow packed one SHELL of a punch…
When her head stopped ringing and that strange fog left her brain, Artemis was able to determine that she’d fallen unconscious.
One big hint was that she was now tied to a large table…
‘GREAT…Just GREAT…’
Pulling on the makeshift bindings, the she-turtle judged if she could free herself…
‘Easy…’
“ARTIE…”
Eyes snapping up at her youngest brother’s voice, the irises widened…
“Whoa…”
A possibly-mangled man-creature, covered almost completely in dirty white bandages…
He had murderous, crazed eyes, an evil laugh hoarsely escaping his throat…
‘Psychopath…Just my luck…’
Mikey was across from her, tied to what seemed to be a broken-down door.
“What the shell ARE you?”
The laughter got loud enough to echo, and Mikey tried easing the tension by nervously laughing along…
“Mikey, don’t encourage him…”
Wood splintered next to her lower plastron, right beside the she-turtle’s stomach, and she instinctively flinched away…
Glaring now, eyes fiery, she nearly snarled.
“Watch it!”
A moment of tension, and Mikey fidgeted, worried his sister would be struck…
Instead, the shadowy figure began to depart…
As the sound of scratching and rats screeched into their ears…
“ARTIE…”
The little black bodies scurried on the floor towards them, on the walls…
Spreading her wings as far as she could, she flapped powerfully, sending most of the vermin flying away as the jade-skinned turtle pulled on her restraints as hard as she could manage.
They snapped open as Mikey managed to free himself, and the orange-masked turtle jumped in order to cling to his sister as she took off.
Swerving around jumping rodents and holding her brother close, Artemis managed to stay in the air.
A cellar door came into view, and the gold-banded turtle rammed straight through.
Wood splintered, and both tumbled through the air before hitting ground.
“OW…”
“What ‘appened ta ya two?”
The pair of siblings looked up to see the others looking at them with confused worry…
“Oh, don’t mind us….we just escaped a horde of turtle-eating rats…”
“TURTLE-EATING RATS!”
“…And their psycho master…”
“…What?” A confused Waterbender questioned.
“You heard right…”
The crimson-eyed turtle blinked…
“Where’s Leo?”
Everyone turned to see said blue-banded turtle heading for a dilapidated, cylindrical-shaped tower, evil laughter echoing from deep within as the turtle disappeared into the shadows…
“LOVE?!”
The winged she-turtle started running after him, the others following right behind.
The interior was dark and gloomy, and Chi’s eyes narrowed when she sensed the many rodents in the walls.
The laughter was coming from above, and everyone looked up to see a figure silhouetted by moonlight in the broken-down hole of the roof.
“Not HIM again…” Mikey whined, hiding behind his girlfriend.
“’Gain?”
“He was the one that tried feeding us to the rats.” Artemis explained, feathers bristling…
The door shut behind them soundly, making Kasai jump, as the rats came out of hiding…
Leo seemed ready to lunge up at the shadow when the vermin pounced…
A wall of earth halted the assault momentarily, though the little creatures climbed over it rather speedily.
The Firebender yelped when one jumped for her face, and threw fireballs in her haste to stop them.
Mizu was using water to wash the little monsters back, whipping them through the air or drowning them in a wave.
Artemis just flapped her wings, blowing them back, and blasted fire when necessary.
“EASY rodents…NICE rodents…” Mikey muttered, backing up.
“Have I mentioned my sensei was a rat? Master Splinter? Any relatives with us today?”
“There must be hundreds! We’ll never take them all out at this rate!” Don shouted, knocking a rat out of the air with his Bo.
“We don’t have to!” Leo replied, katana singing through the air.
“We just have to show that we’re one meal that’s not worth the trouble!”
Once the rats began to retreat, there was a snarl and an echoing scream…
“NO!!!”
Chi was surprised by a jump from above, but Mikey jumped in to save her from more than a few scratches.
“Thanks, baby…”
“No prob, babe…”
Kasai shot flame at the fast-footed humanoid monster, though she was kicked back by a powerful blow.
Raph managed to catch her, and his hands were full making sure her ribs were still okay.
Artemis was helping up Chi and Mikey…
Until she saw the monster start pounding on Leo…
“SHELL no!”
The walls shot out, striking the enemy away.
The crimson-eyed turtle was positively SEETHING…
“Why not mess with someone who can mess back?”
A lightning-fast strike, but she easily side-stepped the attack…
Another kick aimed for the lower plastron, but the she-turtle jumped over his foot…
Eyes snapping up, she delivered a hard hurricane kick to his face, knocking her opponent back.
The rats rushed from their hiding places, finding the weak point in their prey’s defense, and were met with flames.
Artemis was practically dancing around her opponent, as if knowing what he was going to do before he did it…
She still kept an ear on her family, and decided a little help was in order…
Switching to Earthbending, the jade-skinned turtle blasted a wall to weaken it before she had to shield herself from a barrage of blows.
Raph, using his thick head, busted a way to freedom as she distracted the quickly-enraged psychopathic monster.
“ARTEMIS!!”
“COMING!!”
Spreading her massive angel’s wings, the gold-banded turtle took to the air in order to zoom through the jagged opening.
Unfortunately, the hunter wasn’t about to let her get away that easily…
He jumped on her shell, the sudden weight causing her to crash.
Artemis managed to protect her stomach, but skidded harshly on her side and arm.
Once she stopped, the crimson-eyed turtle tried to lash out as her shell fully hit the ground…
She froze, however, when he bit her neck…
Artemis felt the skin give, warm blood gush free…
She was going to be sick…
“ARTEMIS!!!”
Suddenly, the weight was gone, and two katana flashed above her…
“L-Leo…”
He was enraged, even as Mizu kneeled at the she-turtle’s side and healed the bite-mark away.
It was like that MONSTER had tried to mark HIS MATE, drank her blood like it was HIS to take…
Artemis was hardly regaining her breath when Leo turned to see their enemy on a rooftop across the dirt-packed road.
It was like he was being LAUGHED AT…
“Leo…”
The winged turtle almost swallowed nervously when faced with fiery brown eyes…
“…Be careful…”
“I will be.”
Shuriken cut through the air, but only two out of five found any hold…
One in the ‘man’s’ shoulder, the other in the roof ledge beneath his feet…
Concrete rumbled, giving out, wood splintered under the force…
No one could survive being crushed like that…
‘I win…’
The blue-banded turtle turned back towards them, lifting his pregnant lover into his arms.
“It’s over…Let’s get out of here.”
She nodded, tucking her head under his chin as she started to relax, when Chi tensed…
The wall beside them seemed to blow open, though the debris was stopped in midair by the blind Earthbender, and a familiar figure walked out through the dust.
They’d been knocked down, though Leo remained on his knees, shielding his mate from the force.
“Leo?”
“Stay here, love.”
“Leo?!”
He put her down gently, and faced off with the crazed monster.
The blue-banded turtle’s unnatural ferocity forced his opponent to flee through a large window and into another warehouse-like building.
Leo followed after him, and everyone was getting to their feet as Artemis desperately tried to catch up…
“LEO!!!”
She busted inside, the other turtles not far behind, followed up by the four humans.
“LEO!!!”
“Stay back!!” He warned, still fighting fiercely.
“He’s mine!!”
She flinched at every blow that landed, every graze that COULD HAVE, even at her own weakness…
She’d lost too much blood to continue fighting and keep conscious…
“What if he can’t handle it?”
“If ‘e can’t, I’m gonna be the secon’ one in there...But fer now…”
The crimson-eyed turtle flinched in sympathy at Leo’s merciless beating…
“It looks like ‘e’s got more than one monster ta work outta ‘is system…”
Mizu nodded.
“Raph’s right. We’ll be right here if he needs us.”
The psychopath began to fight back harder, and the jade-skinned turtle bit her lip.
“Right…”
“He’ll be fine. He’s Leo!” Mikey assured.
Something crumbled, cracking, and Chi was looking around in confusion…
“Babe?”
Unseeing eyes widened…
“MOVE!!!”
A building fell through the already-weak roof, filling the room with dust though the Earthbender was struggling to keep large rocks in the air and not on the group.
“LEO!!” Mikey called.
“Watch your step!!” Don warned.
“Whoa! It’s rat central!” Chi exclaimed once the rocks were safely thrown away.
The blue-banded turtle and the ‘man’ were on a raised concrete island amid a sea of rat-infested ground, and worry twisted Artemis’s heart…
‘They’ll eat him alive…’
“Leo, let’s go!” Kasai called.
“Come on, Fearless!”
Leo sheathed his katana before jumping across to them, when the ‘island’ behind him gave out and the monster jumped to save himself.
He landed on the turtle’s back with a desperate hold, seeming intent on dragging him down to the rats…
The crimson-eyed turtle grabbed hold of her mate’s hand, pulling back as hard as she could.
The others immediately jumped to help, and Artemis’s muscles began to shake with tension…
“I thought you said you’d be careful…” She joked weakly.
Both bodies were tugged up, causing the gold-banded turtle to fall back on her shell before Leo kicked his opponent back into the pit.
Artemis closed her eyes as he was swallowed by the horde, still feeling dizzy…
His screams died down, and she covered her ears as they continued to ring.
“Come on, love…”
Leo picked her up gently, and she buried her face into his shoulder.
They headed back to the wire fence, walking through the hole Chi had made earlier, when Mikey noticed something…
“Hey, we still have our bandanas on! It’s been like forty-five minutes, easy!”
…
“…What?”
SMACK!!!
BONK!!!
WHIP!!!
SLAP!!!
“OWWWWWWWWWW…”
Artemis then took the chance to take off his bandana and whip him with it…
“OW!”
“Let’s just go home…”
Everyone agreed, climbing into the Battle Shell…
‘There’s no place like home…’