I was just starting to get a little embarrassed, by Raph gawking at me, as Donatello slipped carefully half into the room.
“Raph, keep your voice down!” he whispered urgently, before turning to see me. “A, Andrea?”
Don looked slightly perplexed, and I can’t say I really blamed him. Tugging my canvas shoes on over my slightly swollen, complaining feet, I rose to stand. Clutching the thin blanket close to me in the chill of the prematurely darkened evening, I slowly moved towards the door.
“Are we getting out of here or what?” I asked, watching as both boys mentally shook themselves and returned to the job at hand.
Don turned to check that the corridor outside my cell was clear. Raph then pushed passed Don and went out of the cell, pausing to take the keys (which I guess he acquired from the ‘Foot’ supposed to deliver my tea, who was now slumped against a nearby wall) from the lock.
“Where’s Leo?” I asked Don in a whisper.
“We haven't found him yet. He was captured after trying to find you and Mike a few days after you disappeared.”
I started to ask another question, but Don silently shook his head and taking my hand, gently led me from my imprisonment.
We all made our way down the corridor, checking all the doors to the cells lest Leo or Mike should be contained behind one of them. It wasn’t until the very last door in this particular block of cells that Raph had unlocked the door to where Leonardo was. All the other cells had been empty.
“Leo!” I heard Raph whisper loudly as he went ahead into the room.
Still holding Don’s hand, I managed to identify the urgent whispers of Raph and the mournful croaks of Leo, but I couldn’t make out any words.
It was a number of minutes later that I saw Leo carefully led from his cell. I was forced to stifle a sob as I looked upon him. Leonardo had evidently been very badly treated for the past six months. Scars of injuries covered his malnourished body and I began to feel lucky that my treatment had been fairly good.
Yet Leo’s pain and injuries would heal. What they had done to me would dramatically affect the rest of my life.
“Lets try the other block.” whispered Raph to Donatello. Noting Don’s silent reply, Raphael led everyone out into the courtyard I had been staring onto during the time of my capture. Distant rumbles of thunder could be heard, but as of yet no rain.
I was starting to see a mature, responsible side to Raph that I hadn’t previously noticed. From what I had seen before my capture, it was Leo who was the natural leader. Yet as I watched Leonardo’s eyes gently close as he was lead by Donatello, I knew that at this moment, his leadership qualities wouldn’t help him.
Upon reaching the courtyard, I discovered that April, Splinter and a man I didn’t know were waiting for us.
The stranger had his face covered by a mask and was clutching a number of sporting items like weapons. He caught sight of Raph, Don, Leo and I approaching and he walked over to meet us.
“When do we bust some skulls?” he asked, wielding a hockey stick menacingly.
“If we can find Mikey without arousing anyone, then there may not be any ‘skull busting’.” Donatello replied.
“Say what? No poundings?” the stranger responded, looking directly at Raph.
“Yeah. Live with it.” Raph pushed past and headed swiftly, yet silently, towards the other block of cell like buildings. Don followed a few seconds later.
I watched April move across to Leo and they had a rather one-sided, whispered conversation in which I guessed that April was confirming that although Leo wasn’t one hundred percent, he wasn’t going to zonk out or anything.
Splinter was staring distantly at the manifest ferociousness of the storm approaching on the horizon and I could tell he was unhappy with being in the open.
Finally I turned to look at the stranger who appeared to be known to all but me. I was slightly disturbed to find when the stranger and I made eye contact, he had previously been eyeing me up, the mask now pushed to the top of his head, revealing his face.
“The name’s Casey. Casey Jones.” he introduced. Transferring the hockey stick to his left hand, he offered me his right which I shook tentatively.
“You must be Andrea.” he paused while I nodded. “So...” he started, casually toying with the hockey stick and continuing to look me over, “Who was it that knocked you up?”
I had been following his eyes down my body, but at that question I looked up sharply.
“No-one, no, I mean... I’m not sure, I don’t know.” I stammered as it occurred to me that now I knew that Leo had been captured too, I was now unsure.
Casey gave me a weird look.
“You don’t know? Hey, it’s something most people remember, you know.”
I felt myself bristle slightly at the sneering tone Casey used. When I replied I spoke slowly, trying hard to sound emotionless.
“I was impregnated without my knowledge while I was under the influence of a sleep inducing drug.”
“Bummer.” replied Casey. Then, looking slightly bored, he turned to watch the building into which Don and Raph had disappeared, whilst casually chewing the gum in his mouth like a cow chews at cud.
I sighed quietly and stood in silence while I too awaited the return of my friends who had hopefully found my genetic brother.
Standing in silence allowed my brain to wander slightly and I jumped as I felt a hand gently touch my shoulder. Turning, I discovered that it was April.
“Hi Andrea.” she greeted in a whisper. “Good to see you.”
“Yeah.” I agreed, “I am so glad to be out of that cell and into the open.”
April’s reply was cut off by a huge flash of lightning which split the sky in two and was immediately followed by a colossal crash of thunder which made the ground shudder.
A second flash revealed the figures of Don and Raph departing from the building as fast as possible with Mikey supported between them.
As I felt the gentle patter of rain start to fall and watched the hasty approach of my friends, I saw a number of black clad figures start to swarm from the door behind them. It was fairly obvious that Don and Raph had been spotted whilst rescuing Michaelangelo.
There was a brief moment of total confusion while the three approached while the rest of us debated whether to stay and fight, or flee.
I personally knew that for me to try and fight would be foolish. For Leonardo to try and fight would also be fairly stupid as he could barely stand and there was no way that he would be able to defend himself for long.
As Raphael and Donatello got closer I could hear them shouting instructions and commands at each other. As they screeched to a halt where the rest of us were, Raph helped sling Mikey over Donatello’s shoulder and barked at April to take Leonardo and me back to the van while Casey, Splinter and himself would try to delay the Foot.
There was no time to form any other plan and the five of us disappeared as fast as possible. A number of the Foot started to try and follow us, but Casey spotted this and managed cut them off with strong, skilled swipes of his hockey stick.
Our retreating group paused for a small breather behind the corner of the building. I stuck my head back round the corner to check the situation of the fight without betraying my presence. What I saw in the distance was one of the enemy draw a gun. The gun was then aimed and screwing up my eyes I tried desperately to see who it was pointing at. I followed the line of fire with my eyes which settled on a figure I could recognize well.
“RAPH!!!!” I wailed, but I was too far away for him, or anyone else in the fight, to hear me. I watched in horror as the gun was fired and the force catapulted Raphael backwards. I saw Raph drop to the ground and lie motionless as the black clad Ninja's swarmed around him.
Blinded by my own tears, I tried to turn and go back to help. But Donatello grabbed my shoulder with one of his hands, still supporting Mikey with the other, and gently tugged me back to continue the escape to April’s news van which I could now make out behind some shrubbery about a couple of hundred metres away.
As we reached the van, April yanked the back doors open brutally and pushed Leonardo in. Then Donatello lowered Michaelangelo carefully down before he turned and headed back to the fight as fast as he could. I wanted to follow him and help, but I knew that I would only turn out to be a hindrance. Besides, I didn’t think I could travel any further. I already felt slightly dizzy and nauseous from that last exertion and I had nearly lost my balance and fallen several times for the last leg.
April quickly reached to turn on the small light which illuminated the back storage area of the news van. I stood outside and watched with my heart in my mouth as she examined Michaelangelo. The rain started to fall more heavily and was apparently reflecting my mood.
Climbing carefully past April and Mikey (knowing that I could do nothing to help), I moved the other side of the van to sit next to Leo. Before acknowledging him, I first tugged off my shoes which at one point had been too big and now were cutting off my blood circulation. I then wrapped them in the blanket which I had taken from my cell and found myself still clutching.
As I put my shoes in the blanket down next to me, I could feel Leonardo’s eyes boring into my shell.
“So they did do it.” he whispered softly. As I turned to face him I could see his eyes were slightly distant.
“Did what?” I replied, looking slightly baffled and inwardly wondering whether Leonardo was mentally all right.
“Impregnate you. They said they would.” Leo’s eyes cleared a little bit as he softly spoke that piece of information.
“So they...” I started, but never got to finish as Mikey violently sat up and pushed April blindly away from him.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!” he shrieked, before clutching his stomach and vomiting up blood and stomach acids. Fortunately this mess fell outside the back doors of the van and onto the mud that was quickly turning into a lake as the rain increased in force and volume.
Mikey then started sobbing weakly and gently fell to one side as he could no-longer support his own weight.
April gently cradled his head in her arms. “Don’t worry Mikey.” she whispered comfortingly, as if to an infant, “It’s all okay. You’re safe here.” Michaelangelo continued to cry pitifully as that was all he had the strength to do.
Aprils words, ‘You’re safe here’, brought tears to my eyes as I feared what had happened to Don, Raph, Splinter and Casey. Where they safe? Were they even alive?