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.

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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.

It sets him off guard. For a moment, all he can think of is turning away and disappearing into the night around them. Go clear his head. Because that one little word: "Why?" is what he's been battling with since the beginning. Ever since that day by the canal, that flair of anger raging in gut the day he met his double.

Raphael has never been good with his own emotions. Most of the time, he just doesn't understand why he feels the way he does, why things set him off so bad. Sometimes they feel like a disease that slowly threatens to consume him. They're like a demon that takes control of his every sense. Makes him lose his head, makes him do things he regrets. But anger. Anger he can understand, channel outward, make other people feel the way he does. It's the only way he knows how to make other people understand.

Much as Leo doesn't want to rise to the bait, now Raph's expecting a fight, and he won't back down now. Not when fighting is so much easier than talking. Pacing the length of the fire's red halo like a tiger in a cage, he spits his words like a snarl.

"You know, just because you're all enlightened now don't make you my shrink. It doesn't matter why. So just shut your trap and leave me out of it!"

He winces. Another thing about Raph - he might not always understand how Leo works, either, but he knows just what buttons to push. Leo's armor is good, but it's far from impenetrable. Raphael can always find the weak points with his eyes closed.

This time he's gone straight for the throat from the get-go. Holding some stupid, imaginary superiority complex over his head...separating them into two islands so far away they can't even see the smoke from one another's fires. It's the biggest chink in his armor. And somehow he falls for it, every time.

"It does matter, Raph," he bites out, lowering his hands from his face. He stares into the scattering ashes, gritting his teeth and standing up. His eyes lock back onto his brother, framed by a halo of shadows at the fire's edge. "It's been months. Don't you think this has gone on long enough?"

"Am I the only one who sees how messed up this is!?" He yells, his arms flinging out to his sides, gesturing to everything. All of it. "Those posers ain't my family. They ain't us! So 'scuse the hell outta me if I don't welcome them with open arms."

Their family, what they have is sacred. Sure there were times in his life he'd wished there were more mutant turtles in the world. But after spending a lifetime learning that they'll always be alone and die alone, that loneliness, that special bond he has between his brothers... that's all he has. It's his identity. And this place has violated all of that.

None of it is his anymore, and he hates it. He hates what they are, how they look, how they talk. He hates that little wide-eyed kid with the chip in his shell is so much like him and everything he's not all at once. He hates feeling robbed, replicated, invaded. He hates how they remind him of brothers he hasn't seen in months, but they're just not his.

"It ain't right."

Leo tried avoiding the storm, but like always, it drew him in, built a fire under his skin, drenched him completely until hot steam is blasting from every pore. Raphael's answer isn't anything Leo hadn't been expecting, but it's the way he says it, the words he chooses - clear as day, Leonardo can read those tiny, dust-printed accusations settled between the words:

'So why are you pretending it is?'

"No one's asking you to roll out the red carpet!" He bites out, not quite managing to keep the growl from his voice. His hands bunch into fists at his sides, but it's an empty show of self-control. He's already entered the hurricane. "You haven't even given them a chance." Then Leo sneers; it's pure ugliness and spite, and later on, he'll hate himself for it. "Or would you rather the other Raph let us starve?"

His own accusations are there, printed in seething blood - Is that what you would have done?

Leo has a point. And for a completely logical, reasonable discussion between two completely logical and reasonable turtles, maybe that would've flied. But this is Raph, and this is Leo after too many well-placed digs. Being reasonable isn't on the table anymore.

So instead, that point pries into him, rips the lid off the temper he was barely making an effort to contain.

"We would've done just fine without him!" He snarls, lunging forward toward his brother, close enough to the fire it sets his old burns ablaze with stinging pain. "We don't need them, and I don't need you tryin' to tell me what to do!"

He wants so badly to just jump him. Duke it out with fists instead, show Leo how he really feels.

Far away, in the city that's nothing more than firefly lights winking on the horizon, the sound of screaming echoes through the night like packs of howling wolves. Nothing like the errant yelp and yell of lingering crime from before.

Raph almost misses it over his heartbeat thrumming in his ears, doesn't react until he sees something... Something like weird lightning, like silver clouds drifting over the dark shadows of buildings. Something drifting their way.

Shaken from his rage, all Raph can do is stare over Leo's shoulder at the thing flying blindingly quick in their direction.

"Uh, Leo?"

He's bracing himself for it. The moment Raph comes up snarling into his face, only the shuddering, wind-beaten fire at their feet keeping them apart, Leo is getting ready to get into a fist fight with his own brother. This is how it always is - Raph can't fight an enemy who doesn't exist, so he settles for the next best thing. And without fail, as far back their reptile-brained struggles for scraps as infants, that thing has been Leonardo.

Leo is ready to give it to Raph. He sinks his feet, preparing for the first blow...

...that doesn't come. There's an explosion of noise from a drowsy city, a series of screams that cut off at just the wrong time. It sets off an entirely different string of alarm bells in his mind.

Raph's instant change in body language seals it. The moment his gaze flits over Leo's shoulder, everything is dropped from his mind but pure, ingrained instinct. He barely registers his brother's words above the electricity jolting through his body, his brain telling him to move.

Without thinking, he strikes out hard against Raphael's chest with his palm, trying to knock him back from whatever's coming at them. Then he's turning on his heel, lunging for his swords as his eyes feverishly slash into the direction Raph was looking in - he doesn't see it, where's the threat coming from -

Then he catches it streaking towards them, like an underwater shadow in reverse. Blacker than the night itself, but shimmering in bright metallic tones when the light glosses over its form; fast and deadly like a predator, a living cloak of lighting headed straight in their direction. A perfect bolt of pure, menacing danger. Leo's heart beats once in his throat before shattering into ice.

He's not going to make it to his swords.

The thing slams into him at velocity, lifting him off his feet and pitching him clear over the fire into the fringes of darkness at the edge of the campsite. He lands hard on his plastron, banging his head against the cool earth, but he doesn't cry out - just lies there prone for several seconds, dead silent against the crackling fire and distant city echoes.

Then suddenly he gasps, sounding like he'd just surfaced from underwater. Leo dizzily makes it to his elbows and knees, clutching his head and groaning. He makes no further effort to move after that.

Edited 2013-06-05 10:42 (UTC)

"Leo!"

He can't get there fast enough, his feet skidding for purchase in the lose dirt. Leo's hurt. Leo's dying, for all he knows. His heart is pounding out of his chest.

That moment of deathly silence is filled with a blur of white-hot terror. Leo's dead. That thing killed his brother. Now he's alone. It's selfish but fuck, don't leave him alone!

What the shell was that thing!?

Raph falls to his knees at his brother's side, their argument forgotten. He grips his shoulders, pulls him up, cradles him against his chest. He has to see his brother's face. He has to be okay.

"Come on... Talk to me, bro. You gotta be okay."

At least he's groaning. Groaning is good. It's better than nothing, right? Yeah, better than nothing. His hands are shaking, his eyes blurring with panicked tears. He has to get him somewhere safe. Has to figure out what the heck is going on around here. Nobody hurts his brother and gets away with it. He'll make them pay.

He lefts himself be lifted into his brother's arms, his head limply rolling into Raph's chest. Leo is blinking rapidly, like someone just turned a bright light in his face and he can't make sense of all the spots, like he's been struck entirely stupid by whatever it was that slammed into him.

The muscles in his throat convulse as he chokes something unintelligible out, bites his tongue, enamel slicing into flesh and drawing warm blood. His fingers grip his brother's bicep with bone-splintering ferocity. For a heartbeat, he's nothing more than a frozen deer in headlights. Then suddenly his heels start kicking out against the ground, grappling for a hold in the soft dust, his spine arching as far as the shell will allow; pushing himself away like he's trying to struggle out of Raphael's arms.

He may have been as silent as a corpse moments ago, but now he's like a caged animal, a panicked beast. Trying to escape.

His gaze turns on his brother, pupils wide and dilated behind the mask. The tendons in his neck jut out from beneath his sweaty skin with every harried word. "Raph, geh...gehht...awa -"

His jaw snaps shut with an audible click, head wrenching to the side. Then he peers back up with a vicious snarl, forcibly yanks himself away from Raph's grip, rolls onto his knees with perfect capability. "Get...my swords!"

Raph doesn't want to let him go, even after Leo told him to leave. Even after something falls over his brother's expression, twisting it until he's almost unrecognizable. It's not until he sees it in his eyes; something so dark it burns through him like ice, that Leo finally bucks out of his grip.

He's strong, not dying. At least Raoh doesn't think so. But that thing did something to him. Something wrong.

The snarl in his brother's voice makes his stomach sink like a rock, lights another angry fire in his chest that burns until it dulls everything else. It doesn't scare him away. Nothing Leo says or does can make him leave now. It only makes him want to hold on tighter.

He grits his teeth, getting back to his feet and crouches next to his brother again.

What would Leo want with his swords at a time like this? He pauses, eyes flicking over to where they lay against a rock not far from reach. The word seppuku seeps into his brain like poison, makes him sick to his stomach, crushes his heart in his chest. "No," he answers through gritted teeth. "I'll hold onto them. We gotta get you someplace safe, all right?"

But they can't go home, he realizes, another wave of panic rising in his chest. The whole place's been burned out, and he can't drag him that far anyways. Maybe Mike'll help him. Maybe...

He's never felt so freakin' alone.

But it can't be that bad. It can't. He won't let it. They just need some time. He needs to think, get some help. But all he can think about is getting his hands on whoever's responsible.

When this's over, he swears he'll kill every last one of them. That's a promise.

His fingers brush his brother's shell, his voice a growl despite the tenderness of his words. "I'm not goin' anywhere."

He's breathing so heavily there has to be a lead weight sitting in his lungs. Leo hunches forward and grips the dust under his fingers as though it's the only thing tethering him to the earth, his bandana tails dangling next to his face. His muscles bunch in explosive tension when Raph's hand touches his shell.

Then he snickers. It starts deep and breathy in his gut, then trembles forward until there's wicked laughter choking out from his mouth like rolling waves at sea. He shakes his bowed head in amazement, then lifts it to angle a piercing gaze at Raphael. There is nothing quite so disgusted as the sneer on his face.

"You looked like the stupider one."

In the next heartbeat he rams into Raph with his shoulder using all of his weight, trying to shove him away. Then he leaps from all fours in the direction of the campsite, landing in a mad sprint towards the abandoned katana.

Leonardo hits him like a freight train, but it doesn't catch him completely off guard. Whoever this is, this isn't Leo. This isn't his brother. That thing's taken control of him somehow, and it wants his swords.

Ain't gonna happen.

As the thing that's not his brother makes a leap for the swords, Raph lunges forward, roaring like a savage thing. He reaches for a grip around his shell, intent on using his full weight and muscle to slam him brutally into the ground. It's not pretty, but who really gives a damn? He needs to put him out of commission. He will not let that thing take control of his brother's body. He'll beat it out of him if he has to.

Leo's smashed into the ground with enough force to rattle all the bones in his body, but it doesn't slow him down. He matches Raph's ferocious roar with one of his own as he struggles to drag himself along the dirt, mindless, primal rage shredding his vocal cords and echoing into the darkness around him. Nothing more than a savage animal wrestled to the ground.

When he realizes that he can't overpower Raph, Leo stops yelling. Instead he twists around, trying to break his arms free with barely any degree of finesse - as though the skill is still there, he can just barely touch it, but he's too clouded by fury to access the simple muscle memory. He's snarling again, this time his words dripping with absolute hate.

"You're in my way!"

Something goes wrong in the air around them; it starts to bend and tighten, static filling the atmosphere and pressing down with suffocating might. Leo's skin explodes into a sharp buzzing, like thousands of tiny invisible needles jabbing up out of his flesh, and he bares his teeth in warning.

Better let go.

Something metallic floods his mouth, the static rattling his teeth humming along with the tingling at the base of his brain. But his grip only tightens, teeth bared and feral, chest heaving with every breath. He grabs one of Leo's struggling arms and twists it behind his back, pushing him harder into the dirt.

"Let him go, you body snatchin' creep," he growls. Do your worst. He's not giving up. "C'mon, Leo, I know you're still in there! Fight it!"

His beak crunches as it's shoved harder into the dirt, staining his teeth with soil and ashes from the fire. He sucks in a shallow breath and gives a blunt, mirthless laugh that tapers off into a growl.

"Leo isn't here!"

His jaws snap together and every muscle in his body wrenches against bone. Then pent-up static explodes from his skin in a jolt of electricity, discharging from every pore of his skin, surging into the heavy air and searing from one body into the next.

Leo's skin burns like flash paper, setting Raph ablaze with agony. His muscles harden like steel traps, contorting joints and replacing the marrow of his bones with swarms of stinging bees. He can't let go. It hurts so much but he can't let go.

Everything vanishes into white.

It isn't until it's over that his vision clears and his body releases its iron grip. He rocks forward, gasping for air. Too stunned to move, his head is full of a thousand screaming voices. On the horizon, the city falls into madness.

Leo struggles in his grip until they're left grappling clumsily in the dirt. But the tingling in his limbs make them numb, leaves him with the coordination of a toddler.

When the thing that's not Leo manages to break free, Raph catches only the last streak of shadow and quicksilver before it's upon him. Faster than lightning, a second specter bursts from the dark and plunges into his chest, scorching fiery spiderweb paths through his veins. His head erupts with pain and heat, making him howl like a wounded animal as it sinks long fingers into his mind, whispering songs of the dark between the stars. Singing lullabies of conquest.

It lets itself in.

He finally manages to tear away from the stupid creature, but it leaves him stumbling onto the ground like a blind toddler. The unpleasant buzzing is fading steadily back into his bones, and even though the host's body still trembles from the first discharge, it's quickly gaining its strength back. Nice and resilient. Good choice after all.

He staggers to his feet and turns around to see the turtle on its knees, bellowing like a wounded animal. Without flinching he turns again, navigates around the fire, and picks up the swords. Now that he's not struggling with the host's kin, he's digging his roots deeper into the blue one's mind and body - the swords slide into the scabbards on his back on the first try.

He glances back towards the red-banded creature, face hard as stone. "Let's go."

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Event | Satellite | Crash Landing

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