tushanshu_logs | Event | Satellite

Event | Satellite | Crash Landing

Characters: Any and all!
Date: May 21, 2013
Location: In and around the city of Keeliai
Situation: The early morning hour brings unexpected devastation to Keeliai and the outlying areas. Emergency response and damage control follows!
Warnings/Rating: Fires, minor violence; please put CW in your subject lines

Satellite Crash Event

Crash Landing | Salvage Party | Shocking Spectres

Questions | Fire Sector | Earth Sector | Metal Sector | Water Sector | Wood Sector | Outlying Areas

The early morning hours of May 21st are broken by the sound of a low lying explosion and a veritable rain of fiery bits and bobs such as molten hot metal and space debris. Those out and about in the very early morning (three hours before dawn) see a meteoric shape streaking overhead and leaving a debris trail. Those interested in following it may find themselves distracted by the debris raining down across Tu Vishan, starting fires and damaging buildings turtlewide. Tu Vishan certainly is, for the great turtle grinds to a halt amidst all this and a trace of concern for the little ones on his shell can be felt in the minds of many.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Through the billowing smoke, Leo just manages to catch Raph's form disappearing up the stairs. For a split moment he wishes he had gone up instead - he weighs less, he's a better option when the floor could just give out underfoot - but he doesn't have time to dwell on it, so instead he trusts his brother to be okay, to make sure the two innocents upstairs will be okay too.

The kedan and her children are stumbling down the last few steps, linked together by their hands. The woman staggers down the final one, her soot-covered hand flying up to mask a choked cough, and the two kids are wracked by wheezes that sound like they don't quite fill up their lungs. She looks up and sees Leo, her cracked lips forming around a soundless plea - save them save them save them

Without hesitation, Leo swoops down and grabs a kedan child in each arm, ignoring their disoriented cries of alarm as he lifts and hugs them against his plastron. They're young and light; he can easily carry more weight. He turns to shout at the woman to climb onto his shell - but then a flaming beam crashes down from the ceiling, erecting a pillar of fire between them, and the woman is flinging her scorched arm towards the window and screaming 'Go, go, go!'

So he goes. The children begin squirming and wailing for their mother, but Leo sharply turns on his heels and sprints for the nearest exit, dodging flames and raining clumps of plaster and wood. When he finally makes it to the window, he hugs the children tightly against his chest and hurls himself through, the glass shattering and cutting shallow gashes into his shoulder.

He hits the soft, cool grass rolling. When he straightens up and lets go of the kids, they're still wailing, still alive, and he pushes them beneath a large tree.

"Stay here," he grits out, roughly wiping a smudge of ash off of one's cheek with his thumb. "Watch the sky. I'll be right back."

The child cries, but his older sister pulls him into her chest and presses her cheek against his smooth scalp. In the next moment, Leo turns and jumps back through the window into the raging fire.

In the narrow upstairs hallway, Raph spots the man and the third kid emerging from one of the bedrooms. Then, the whole house groans on its foundation, the ceiling shuddering above them as the scorching hunk of metal drops loose from where it was lodged in the roof. Ash and debris choke the air as the thing crashes through the floor, rocking it like an earthquake beneath his feet. Below, he can hear screaming and shattering glass, and can only hope Leo's got it handled. But he has faith in his brother, because it's Leo.

He's the one in real trouble, here, with the the smoldering remains of the roof sagging above him, and the fire damaged floor groaning ominously below. The gaping hole in the ceiling sucks flame and smoke upward like a bellows, and the air is so thick with it it scorches his throat and burns his eyes.

Up ahead, there's a four foot gap in the floor where the hunk of burning metal fell through. On the other side, the kedan man stares at him with his back against the wall, eyes wide, black with ash and bewildered. The baby is shrieking in his arms.

Raph weighs his options. The guy can't jump with the baby, and he can't run the risk of asking him to throw the kid to him. Much as that might be the easier option, he can't count on the guy to be a good throw. Then there's the splintered floor. Doesn't really look like it could stand almost two hundred pounds of turtle landing on it. But it's the only option he's got.

He tells the guy to step back in case the floor collapses, and jumps.

Landing lightly as possible, the floor squeals and bucks beneath his feet. A piece of floorboard fractures off under his heel, and he lurches forward as it falls to the ground below.

"You gotta give me the kid!" He yells over the roar of the building fire scorching its way up from the living room. But the man only shakes his head, clutching the baby closer. "You're both gonna die if you don't give me the kid! I can make it, trust me!"

For a moment of precious slow-motion time, the man hesitates. Then, shaking and teary-eyed, hands over the kid. Raph holds him close to his plastron and makes the leap back to the other side. Then he turns, shouting at the man, "Now you!"

Then, the house shudders on its foundation and gives one last, dying moan. The world collapses around them. Before he can think, Raph hunches over the baby and plummets to the lower floor in a heart-stopping torrent of flaming debris.

When he goes crashing back into the fire-swept living room, the first thing Leonardo does is glance towards the pillar of fire, the last place he saw the kedan woman before she sent him away. The entire house is now glowing with violent, orange light, raging flames and thick smoke obscuring his vision, but he can see her shadow still writhing along the far wall.

He can't hear her screaming anymore. Whether because she's drowned out by the roaring flames or because her lungs have filled with black smoke, he isn't sure. It doesn't matter. He has to get to her now.

It's easier said than done - the fire has closed in even further, and from this angle he can see that the entire middle section of the stairs collapsed while he was getting the children to safety. She can't run back upstairs, not even to buy time. He allows a heartbeat's glance towards the upper level - be safe, Raph - before springing forward onto a glass-top table.

It feels like solid lava underfoot, but the table is only a springboard, a platform he uses to vault over the flames like an Olympic gymnast. He lands on the other side of the fire on all fours, hastily shoving the pain of the burns from his mind. The woman is still there, staring at him with squinted, tear-filled eyes. She chokes out something indecipherable and lurches towards him.

"Get behind me," he tells her quickly as he stands to intercept her. She seems disoriented, struck stupid by panic and fear; Leonardo hurriedly pushes her behind his shell, backing the both of them up against the wall, away from the approaching flame. His eyes - starting to sting, and he's biting down on a cough now - flicker rapidly across the room, looking for a way out. There has to be -

A moan shudders through the house, so low and sick that it makes him freeze in his tracks. Then suddenly the ceiling is caving in with a shower of plaster and scorched wood. The kedan woman screams as Leo swerves sharply and slams her up against the wall, trying to shield her from falling debris. He feels plaster and bits of furniture bouncing off his shell, but the caustic burn of fire never comes.

After what feels like hours, the creaking and shaking finally stops. Carefully, Leonardo lifts his head and turns around to find that the top level has almost completely collapsed into the living room, caking it in smoldering debris. The fire is still raging elsewhere, but the wall of flame blocking their escape has been completely smothered.

That's when he realizes what just happened. Something drops in his gut, so cold he can't even feel the heat anymore.

"Raph!"

Edited 2013-05-30 08:43 (UTC)

He falls with a crash-bang of crumbling floorboards, vision skipping with the slam of sudden impact. Everything goes dark.

Somewhere beneath the rubble, Raphael squeezes his eyes shut under the crushing weight of fallen debris. Holds his breath. The kedan infant, a soft, warm presence in his arms, stirs and begins to cry again. Alive.

He pushes through the wreckage like a drowning man breaking the surface, stumbling out ash-covered and bruised, but whole. Next thing he knows the baby's being lifted from his arms by its mother, and the rest of his senses come flooding back along with the roaring of the fire.

The kedan man's still down there somewhere. Frantically, he starts pawing through the remains of the second floor, hoping he's not looking for a body. Nothing else matters--the choking air, the heat, the crumbling skeletal remains of the roof shivering precariously overhead, nothing. He has to find this guy. Those kids need their dad. He has to be alive.

The moment his brother comes rising out of the pile of rubble, Leo is almost knocked over by the force of the woman trying to shove past. He lets her slip by him without a word, says nothing as she extricates her child from Raphael's arms.

She looks at Raph, hugging the baby close to her body, her jaw trembling - as though she wants to thank him but her brain is overloaded, and the wailing bundle in her arms is the only thing tethering her to a semblance of sanity.

But then Raph is turning around and digging into the rubble with fevered purpose. It seems to snap on in the kedan's head like a light - she looks up into the open sky, and then back down at the rubble. Something broken chokes out of her throat and she begins staggering forward.

Leo rushes forward to grab her arm. She swings around to look at him with wild eyes, her lifeline clutched against her chest. "Tian," she whispers, her voice like gravel in her throat. She looks back at the gnarled pile of debris.

"We'll find him," Leo promises breathlessly. He glances towards the door and the cleared pathway leading to the exit. He shoves her that way, urgently squeezing her arm. "Your children are safe. Go!"

She whimpers, stepping back slowly, her eyes sweeping from the debris to the raging fire and back again. Then, hugging her child closer, she turns and runs.

Wordlessly, Leo runs to his brother's side and drops to his knees to start digging.

Sweat pours down his face as the heat inside the flaming shell of the house builds to almost intolerable levels. But Raph's not ready to give up yet. He made it his job to get this family to safety, and that's all he cares about right now. They made it this far. There's no way in hell he's gonna turn back now.

As he sifts through the scorching rubble, cutting his hands on broken glass, he still can't help thinking how much the kedan hate them, the so-called "Foreigners". Why is he doing them any favors? Why is he risking his own shell for someone who would probably rather let him burn if the situation was flipped. But he knows better than to let that stop him. Maybe he doesn't exactly believe in going out and fighting the good fight for any other reason but the thrill of busting some heads. But he's still got enough in the way of a conscience to keep looking.

Grunting in exertion, he flips over a heavy piece of floor, sending it crashing back down in a plume of ash. It uncovers a recess in the debris, and inside that recess, the soot-covered body of the man.

"Over here!" He yells to his brother. Without taking the time to check if he's alive or dead, Raph slings the body over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. "We're blowin' this popsicle stand!"

And there he is. No sooner does Raph pull the body from the rubble than Leonardo steps back, chalky dust falling from his hands as he looks wildly around for their escape route. The first option is the exit he'd sent the woman towards, but it only takes one glance to see that it isn't a viable optionm nor are any of the ground level windows. The fire that survived the cave-in has regrouped and is pushing towards them with force, closing in like a predator. They're almost out of time.

Leo looks towards the skylight, obscured by slowly rising puffs of thick smoke. He traces their path from the roof downwards - the hill of rubble falls just short of the ceiling, but they can make it if he gives Raph a boost. They have to. There's no other option.

"That's our way out," he shouts, scrambling up the first few chunks of solid concrete. He stops to glance at the twisted pile of metal smoldering next to the hill; he can feel the heat even from here. What the hell is that thing -

Not the time. He turns back to keep climbing, carefully but urgently testing the path of debris for his brother to follow. "Let's move!"

Leo was right about one thing. Raph is the heavier turtle by a good dozen pounds, and the added weight of his new hitchhiker makes their climb even more precarious. But a lifetime of ninja training meant that despite his bulk, Raph is decently light on his feet. Still, he has to focus hard on the upward climb, scrambling for footing when it buckles underfoot or slides beneath him.

He doesn't take time to study the source of the destruction. He already got a good enough look up on the roof, and right now, that isn't their problem. Worry about that once they get out of there in one piece.

In a minute's time, they're at the top of the heap, twisted hot metal and smoldering wood scorching the soles of his feet. His eyes water and his lungs burn, but above he can see clean air and sunlight. Though they're not out of the woods yet.

The hole in the roof is too much of a vertical leap from their position, and Raph can't swing it with this guy on his shoulders. Reflexively, he looks to his brother for a plan. You're the problem solver here, Fearless. Better think of something and make it quick.

Edited 2013-05-31 06:18 (UTC)

He miscalculated.

Halfway up, Leonardo realizes his mistake. The smoke had thrown off his sight more than he'd thought. From here he can see it plain as day: it's too high. He can't give Raph a boost that far up, not when his brother has the added weight and one arm occupied keeping it there. He doesn't let it break his climbing stride, but his mind is furiously working. Need a way out.

He still doesn't have one when they get to the top. He's aware of his brother looking at him, but he ignores the gaze, stares up at the hole in the roof with calculated intensity. Then his eyes tear away to sweep the upper level, taking in every rapid-fire detail - there's absolutely no solid ground left, save for a single ledge jutting out from the wall where the floor crumbled away. They could easily sidle along it, but there's no windows along the wall. Just another dead -

Wait.

A thick metal support beam, jutting out horizontally from the wall on the far side of the room. Useless as vertical as it is now, but if they can just get it to straighten out a bit - they could use it as a stepping stone to get to the roof.

His gaze swings back to Raph. "Give me your sai!"

Raph has no idea what his brother has in mind, but he reaches for the sai without question, offering it pommel-first. This better be good. Even though they're so close to the open air, the smoke and heat have only gotten worse as they climbed. And like before, the hole only acts like a vacuum, pulling it all upward and feeding the growing pillars of flame. He grits his teeth against the pain in his chest, the heat singeing his skin, and just lets Leo do his thing.

"This better be good, Leo," he says, his voice grating like sandpaper in his throat. "'Cause in about two seconds we're gonna be turtles flambe."

If he loses his sai, he'll be pretty cheesed off. But if they die, he's gonna be pissed.

"Might need a bit longer than that," he says as he grabs the sai, shooting a wry grin at Raph even as he punctuates the statement with a cough. He spins it in his hand and turns, leaping towards the ledge. "Come on!"

He lands on the outcropping of cement, his heart shuddering in relief when it remains solid underfoot. Then he's navigating across the ledge with nearly effortless grace, making his way to the protruding rafter. His eyes sting with tears and his chest is starting to feel like it's closing in on itself, but they're so close. They can do this.

When he finally makes it to the beam, Leonardo signals for Raph to stay back. Then he swings his left arm around metal bar to hug it close to his side and lets his weight drop from the ledge, leaving him hanging from the beam like some kind of insane acrobat. A low hiss escapes from his throat at the mere heat of the metal - feels like his skin is being cooked - but he ignores it and swings his right leg up, slamming his foot flat against the wall. Gritting his teeth, Leo starts pulling hard at the beam, leaning all of his weight away from wall while keeping his foot firmly planted, exerting as much pressure as he can on the point it goes into the plaster.

Then, with his right hand, he viciously stabs the sai into the wall over and over, trying to dig around the beam enough for it to loosen and shift away, to bend, to give, to straighten out, anything. Come on...

Come on!

Edited 2013-05-31 10:59 (UTC)

There are moments in every hothead's life where he has to push his temper aside or risk kissing his shell goodbye. Even if something is really pissing him off. Watching his brother use his sai like a pickaxe is definitely one of those moments.

"Easy...," he growls, mostly out of earshot from where Leo's perched monkey-like on the beam. The warning's mostly for himself, anyways.

Okay, so maybe he's still a little pissed. He never was any good at any of that zen crud, but the potential of being burned alive is too great to lose it right now. Those flames aren't getting any smaller, and the kedan draped across his shoulders isn't getting any lighter. The man is still nothing but dead weight, hasn't given him so much as a sign of life since he dug him out of the rubble. Adjusting his grip, Raph can only hope he's not standing here risking his shell for a corpse.

Below, he can hear the groan of warping metal, the crackle of burning wood. The pile of debris is getting more precarious by the second. Something near the ground explodes, belching an eruption of heat and fire that is way too hot for comfort.

"Any day would be good!" He yells, like that would make it any better.

Much as he hates to think it, he's getting to the point where he might need to ditch this guy or they'll both be killed.

Suddenly the beam gives a shuddering moan, and Leo barely has time to swing both arms around it before it goes sliding away from the wall. He cries out, half from surprise and half from the pain of the scorching hot metal against his skin - and for a dizzying moment, the bar seems to slide and slide and he's positive that it's going to come clean out of the wall, send him spiraling into the molten pit of fire below.

Then, with another wrenching jerk that rattles his teeth, the beam catches again, stuttering to a complete stop. Leo coughs, trying to regain his bearings; he's hanging precariously over the ground level, now completely washed in flames, but he's alive and the beam is supporting his weight. He glances up to see the other end held sturdily in place by a bent section that refuses to jam through the hole he'd dug.

"Go!" he shouts hoarsely as he swings backwards, already building the momentum to launch himself up after Raph.

The second the beam settles in a cloud of dust and smoke, Raph's on it, booking it toward the promise of freedom and fresh air. It only takes seconds to get up onto the roof, but even here it isn't safe. Still, he's going nowhere without Leo.

On the ground below, a huge group of kedan have gathered, working methodically at putting out the fire. Some point and shout at him, some gasp in fear and panic. He can see the rest of the family huddled under a tree. When the woman spots him, she rushes forward toward the burning building, wildly screaming his name. Two more kedan come to hold her back.

"You better be alive up there, pal," he grumbles, shifting the man's weight again. "Your family's waitin' for ya."

Edited 2013-06-02 04:10 (UTC)

Leo joins his brother on the roof not a moment later, covered in soot and looking a bit flambéed, but otherwise no worse for the wear. He coughs loudly, inhaling the fresh air like he'd been drowning. But they're not home free yet.

He doesn't stop to look at the ground or chat with his brother. The second he's got enough oxygen in his system, Leo is sprinting towards the roof's edge, trusting his brother to be right behind him. The building groans and shudders underfoot. They might only have seconds before the whole thing collapses in on itself.

No trees in close range; only one way down he can think of. If he were Don, he could run a few quick tests in his head about velocity generated from this height versus the depth of the water. But he isn't, and all he can remember is that they're pretty damn deep. It'll have to do. A broken bone or two can be risked when the other, more guaranteed outcome is burning alive.

"Canal!"

He jumps. The force of his fall makes the water feel like breaking through concrete. It jars his bones to the core, tearing the man from his grip. No, no, no! He screams in his mind, thrashing around to find him in the murky half-light near the muddy bottom. He can't see anything.

Digging his feet into the soft canal bed, he launches his way back to the surface. The first breath of real, clean air rakes his smoke-singed lungs, making him cough as he swims his way back to the grassy bank. He lies there hacking for a moment on his hands and knees, a string of spittle hanging from his mouth and a sense of failure burning in his chest.

If the guy wasn't dead already, he sure is dead now.

It's then he notices the group of kedan fishing something out of the water. Another few are running in his direction. In his gut, his first reaction is to run away from the screaming mob. But before he can completely catch his breath, they're helping him up, thanking him. And he just stands there stunned. All these people who just yesterday hated his guts are actually grateful for what he's done. It's kinda nice, actually.

When he asks about the man, they tell him he's still alive. Exactly how alive, he doesn't even want to know. He can't be all that well-off after what he's been through, but he doesn't even want to think about the details.

He just wants to find Leo and figure out what the hell that metal thing was that started this whole freakin' mess.

The water shatters louder than glass over his head, sending Leo spiraling through the water, tossed about like a ragdoll by his own momentum. He fights viciously against the current for control, his head spinning. There are stars in his eyes by the time his limbs generate enough drag through the water to stop his mad tumbling.

He can barely tell up from down, but he kicks off blindly through a haze of bubbles in the direction of dappled light. When his head suddenly breaks the surface, Leo gulps down a breath of air - it's cleaner than the smoke-tinged air up on the roof, making his lungs wrench inside his chest, like there's not enough room. He hacks several times, bobbing up and down in the water. Through tear-filled eyes he spots his brother being helped to his feet at the canal's edge.

Where's Tian?

The question sends a jolt of electricity through his spine. Leo clamps down on his coughing fit and barrels forward, ignoring the feeling of thousands of needles piercing into his arms with every stroke. Already the skin is starting to blister in the beginnings of what look like second-degree burns, but he doesn't care. Not right now.

A few more kedan cluster at the water's edge, ready to help him up. They grab at his elbows and shell, carefully avoiding his damaged skin; whispering words of awe and praise at him. His pride aches worse than his wounds at the attention, but to push them away would be an insult, so he surrenders himself to their care.

"Raph," he calls out as they half-guide him up the canal's slope, "where is he?"

They guide Raph to a low wall further up the bank, telling him to sit, offering him clean water and asking him questions he answers with gruff, one-word answers. Much as he enjoys the thanks, all these strangers crowding him, trying to help him all at once is overwhelming. He knows they're just trying to be nice, and he doesn't want to be completely rude, but he doesn't want them trying to put his hands all over him either. And he's got better things to do than sit there chatting about what happened.

It gets worse when one of the medics breaks free from tending to the family and jogs over in his direction with a case of medical supplies. Raph's already flinching away before the guy even gets all the way over.

"I'm fine," he grits out as the guy gets too close for comfort trying to examine a burn on his arm. He wrenches the assaulted limb out of his grasp, giving the medic a sour look. "Look. I know you're tryin' to help, but I said I'm fine."

Thankfully he can see Leo coming up the bank toward him with his own entourage. Hopefully they can slip out of here before he really snaps at someone. He's getting really sick of all these weirdos trying to touch him.

"Over there," he answers, nodding to the larger group gathered farther down the bank. "They said he's still alive."

Edited 2013-06-02 05:33 (UTC)

Leo's gaze immediately turns to the group, where he can pick out the entire family crouched in a huddle over what he assumes is Tian's unconscious body. He slumps in relief at the sight; the kedan seem to mistake this as him losing his balance and he's grappled at from all sides. Promptly, Leonardo decides that he's had enough.

"Thank you," he murmurs politely, tugging his limbs gently back to his side. "I can walk now." He could walk from the start, but he's trying to be nice.

The kedan step away from him, though they're still hovering a few feet behind as he makes his way towards his brother. The medic Raph shooed away tries to come at him too, and this time Leo at least lets him take one arm and stretch it out for a look. Without the cool bite of canal water against his skin or the adrenaline pumping through his veins, it's getting progressively harder to ignore the sizzling pain running up and down his arms.

"Good," he sighs, a bit belatedly. He closes his eyes and breathes a slow, careful breath of clean air.

A sob of delight pierces through the dawn sky. Leo's eyes fly open and swerve to the source - the group surrounding the family has broken away, and from here he can see Tian sitting half-up with the help of his medic, disoriented and bewildered by his wife throwing her arms around his neck and sobbing into his chest. At his sides, his daughter holds the baby with shining eyes, and his son drops to his knees to bury himself in his father's side.

Huh. Tougher than he looks.

Leonardo takes an incognito glance around. Everyone around them is watching the scene, even the medic still poking at his arm. He tilts his head towards Raph with a grin.

That's our cue.

There was a point in Raph's life when he really wished they could be recognized for all the good they do for people. Just as much as a simple thanks for returning a stolen purse, or even just someone to not run screaming when they rescued them from being mugged. But after a while of traveling through space and time, meeting a ton of people who weren't afraid, and would gush their praise and gratitude at them for whatever. (Mainly the Utroms. They were really happy about them doing away with the Shredder to the point where it got kinda annoying.) And after all that, he learned something.

It wasn't that he didn't like people for their lack of gratitude. It wasn't even because they always screamed in his face. He just didn't like people in general.

There were a few exceptions, of course. But the kedan aren't one of them. Sure, they may be all smiles and gratitude now. Try waiting a week and seeing where they all stand then. No matter what, they were Foreigners, and the kedan hated them for being there.

Raph doesn't smile as he slips his way past the crowd. It's not that he isn't happy about what just happened. The guy lived and that's great. But there's something fishy about those things falling from the sky, and they're gonna get to the bottom of it.

He and Leo stick to the rooftops on their tour around the burning chaos of Keeliai. They pull more people to safety from crumbling buildings in Fire, sit crouched in the growing shadows watching people sift through the rubble in Earth. And that night, they hunker down in an alleyway and catch a few restless hours of sleep.

On day two, it's in Metal that he has the real fun. People taking advantage of the chaos start looting stores, starting riots in the streets. And though Raph isn't completely against the idea of stealing, he has no problem getting involved with those wackbags, prattling on about research and stolen work. It's like listening to a whole bunch of caffeinated Dons after a thirty-six hour long lab work marathon. Calling it "annoying" wouldn't even be the half of it.

After a long couple days of fighting, they stop and make a small camp on the outskirts of town to rest and regroup. Burned, bruised and exhausted, Raph picks at the small fire, roasting some kind of weird animal they'd been given earlier by a grateful shop owner.

He knows Leo wants to get in contact with the other turtles. They haven't talked about it at any great length yet, but he can feel the conversation creeping in like an unwelcome house guest.

The next days pass by in sequences - rolling waves of fire that distort the air into shivering mirages, scorched, crumpled bodies pulled from hills of concrete and plaster. They're always on the move. At night, the city whispers to them with low, distant cries of chaos and an army of sleepless survivors. The words are too delicate, too muted to remind him of home. New York never whispered to them; it screamed and rumbled and laughed in their ears, always teasing them with something fallible just beyond their reach.

But a city in chaos is familiar, no matter how it speaks. Leonardo and Raphael are a two-turtle rescue squad, a vigilante force, a pair of silent lookouts, whatever Keeliai needs them to be within the rapidly changing hours. For the first time in a while, Leonardo feels like the limbs to a well-oiled machine are missing, and it places a heavy block of sick guilt in his stomach - will the time come when he and Raphael don't even feel the missing presences, the empty shadows where their brothers should be at their side?

The leader says yes: compensate. Adapt. The turtle says: never.

It's something on the periphery of his mind, but Leonardo doesn't allow it to swallow his thoughts. Not while the city speaks. It's only when they take a pause to collect themselves on the outskirts of the city does he allow himself time to reflect.

His resolution is surprisingly simple. There's nothing wrong with adapting - only with forgetting. And that, at least, will never be a problem.

But then his thoughts turn to the other turtles that are here...their interdimensional cousins, as he's come to rationalize them. Leo and Raph haven't had time to check if their own suites are still standing, let alone stop in and use the console functions to try and hail someone. Their alternate doppelgangers are completely off the radar.

It's worrying. Leo's fully confident that they can take care of themselves, but it's been over two solid days of radio silence. They can't let it sit any longer.

He stops cleaning his swords to stare over the fire at his brother. "We need to touch base with them."

Raph just frowns into the fire, the flames playing with the shadows on his face. For a long moment, he doesn't answer. Far away, he can still hear people screaming in the night. Punks and nutjobs making trouble. And even though he was pretty content just a second ago, knowing people are still out there looting and rioting makes his blood boil until he can barely stand being in his own skin. He wants to get out there and bust some heads. Now.

There's a flash of teeth as he digs the stick into the hot coals a little more violently than necessary. It loosens a smoldering log, collapsing the flaming pile in a burst of firefly pieces of ash.

Getting mad, thinking about going back out there and putting the beat-down on more dumb thugs is easier than thinking about the real issue here. Because that... that's the proverbial can of worms. A livewire bundle of emotions he still hasn't been able to make sense of after so many months. It's just been long cycles of avoidance until he gets their presence forced down his throat again. Over and over.

All he knows is it just doesn't feel right. Every time he thinks of them being out there, there's a tight, hot feeling in his stomach that just makes him want to hurt something. He just doesn't want anything to do with them if he can avoid it. So he decides not to answer with anything more than brooding silence.

This is an answer Leonardo is all too familiar with. He knows his brother, the way Raphael copes with things too close to home but just left of understood. In a way, he thinks he can sympathize, now - meeting his own alternate self was an...enlightening experience. A piece of him existing in another body, something that feels far too personal to share with anyone else.

But as it turns out, maybe Leo's soul was never his to share. For him, perhaps understanding that is all it ever took. But Raphael...

Leo knows his brother, but their minds work so differently. Even since childhood, it was obvious that they'd never be able to fully grasp how the other processes information - if Leo did things one way, Raph did something entirely different, and even if the result was the same, no amount of yelling would make their methods clear to one another. Leo was precise, methodical, inventive; Raphael was efficient, intuitive, direct.

When he was a kid, Leo just thought Raph was stupid. Stupid and lucky. It pains him now to think about how little he understood his brother.

He understands now, though. He understands that his solution cannot be his brother's. And he understands that he will never be able to grasp the way Raph's mind works well enough to do anything but push and hope he comes to one himself. Because Raphael is anything but stupid.

Leo lets the silence stew for nearly a full minute. Finally, he lifts the swords from his lap, sets them upright against the rock, and leans forward, steepling his fingers in front of his face. He fixes Raph with his full attention, gaze piercing through the embers swirling above the fire.

"Raphael."

He glances up, his expression hardening into a glare as he reads his brother's body language. The calculating look, his hands folded in front of his face. It's a challenge. He's picking him apart, pushing him. And Raphael never likes to be pushed.

Or at least that's how it comes across in Raph's mind. Everything about the situation makes him feel uncomfortable, violated. But instead of shedding some light on exactly what the problem is, he only reacts like he's being threatened and pushes back.

"What?" He snaps, dropping his stick into the fire and restlessly climbs to his feet. "You wanna check on the little pipsqueaks, go right ahead. Just leave me out of it."

They're gearing up for a storm all their own. Leo sees it rapidly unrolling over his brother's tight expression, barreling towards them like a tidal wave. He wishes it wouldn't; there are bigger things on his mind than weathering it. But this is such an old storm, and it's always set in just when he feels like they don't have the time. A pattern as ancient and predictable as rainfall itself.

Tonight, he'll try and skirt past. He inclines his head questioningly, keeping his voice carefully neutral. "Why?"

He may not exactly understand how the cogs turn in that head of Raph's, but over the years he's learned how to insert the coins. Sometimes the most straightforward questions dispense the fullest answers.

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