Part 9

Bill didn't spend any time looking for the owner of the voice, he simply addressed thin air. "Don't make trouble for yourself. We're just here to talk to the lady. She needs to move home."

"She likes it where she is."

Galatea wanted this all to stop before it escalated. "Look, I'm happy to share. This is a good place. We can all live here."

Bill picked Galatea up by the scruff of the neck and shook her. "I think what we have here is a problem in basic comprehension." He pushed her face into hers as though he was speaking to a disobedient dog. "We want you gone from here because this place is going to be occupied by someone else. This is your first and final warning. When we come back, you better not be here." He threw her across the room and then the three men left.

Galatea slowly picked herself up, crying. Raphael came out of hiding and helped her.  She had hurt her arm where she fell. Raphael shook with suppressed rage. "I should have got them. Are you ok? I should have trashed them."

She wiped the tears off her face. "No. I'm ok. I'm ok. I'm glad you didn't...you know, hit them or anything."

He glared at the mess of her house. "Look what they did."

"It's ok, really. They're gone now and there was no harm done."

"They busted your stuff, they hurt your arm, and they...upset you. That's harm."

"Doesn't matter. What matters is we got rid of them by talking them into leaving. No violence. How come you came back?"

"I figured you needed me."

"You're going to need to learn some basic first aid if you're not going to fight those guys, Raph." Raphael and Galatea spun round to see Leonardo leaning against the door grinning at them.

"Leo!"

"Raph, they haven't gone, they just..." A brick came smashing through a window, narrowly missing the three of them. "...went for reinforcements. You want to go outside and discuss the situation further?"

"Yeah, I think so, bro'.  I just remembered some really important stuff I wanted to say to them."
 

Leonardo and Raphael left the little house, closing the broken door carefully behind them. Galatea heard a surprised exclamation from the men, they had not been expecting this. Galatea tugged at the broken door, trying to unjam it and get outside so that she could talk some sense into the fighting men and turtles. It hurt her arm, pulling it like that though, and it took longer than it should have. She was egged on by panic, she could hear the sounds of serious fighting, the thumps and grunts of blows falling, and at one stage the unmistakable crack of a bone snapping. The turtles sounded as if they were laughing through it all. As she finally wrenched the door there was total silence. She crept out to have a look.

The men were gone. She could see splashes of red on the sand and the distant forms of several men, some of whom were being carried by the others. The two turtles lay motionless in the sand, giving Galatea a terrible sense of deja vu. She rushed towards them, "Oh no. I knew this would happen. Are you badly hurt?"

Raphael yawned and stretched lazily in the sand. "Thanks for the helping hand, bro'. All that peace and light stuff is okay for a change but the novelty kind of wore off."

Leonardo smiled at the sun. "Good to have you back, buddy."

"You're going to go and fight those men again, aren't you Raphae?" said Galatea sadly.

"I have to!" He got up and dusted his shell, turning cartwheels just to make sure it was all off.  "I can't let the guys down-it would be like letting myself down. It's like there's Shredder, and
there's us, we belong together, problem and solution, everything balances."

"Being here meant nothing to you, then?"

"It's like Splinter says-every event, good or bad, is an opportunity to learn. And I just learned a big one."

"Care to share?" said Leonardo.

"Ninja is Ninja. It's not something you have a choice about, I mean, it's not something you do, it's what you are. It's what I am."

Galatea nodded with resignation. "Would you mind if I came along to the building site with you?"

"You're going to fight?" said Raphael with surprise.

Galatea shook her head. "I don't fight, I am a healer. It goes against my basic nature and all that I've been taught, to fight. However, I'm not above a little monkeywrenching."

"Can I take her,Leo?"

"Ok, but you've got to take care of her."

***
 

It was neither day nor night at the construction site. The place lived in its natural underground gloom abrasively interrupted by the glare of halogen lights. This night there was something else, a tangible air of anticipation. Around the perimeter of the site the shadows were filled with movement. Galatea followed the turtles from shadow to shadow, carefully following in Raphael's footsteps. "I wish you hadn't come here," he muttered as she blundered into his shell for about the hundredth time. "Go back while there's still time."

"Look, I'm not going to fight," she said defensively, "and I'm not looking for trouble, but if I can help my way, I will, and if I can stop the fighting by talking to this Shredder person, then I will."

"Well talk to him from a distance," Leonardo advised. "Don't get too close."

They had reached a large clearing in the middle of the cavern. Cranes towered above them like looming dinosaurs. On the far edges night time crews worked in puddles of light, but the turtles paused in the darkness. They could feelthe movement about them, the gathering evil came like subtle changes in the air currents. In the quiet gloom, a dazzling array of lights suddenly come on, and as if it had been stage managed, like Mephistopholes rising from the pit of  Hell, Shredder was suddenly there. The turtles huddled under the cover of the crane they had sheltered beneath, letting their eyes adjust.

"I know you're out there, Turtles. I can smell you."

Michelangelo sniffed at his armpit. Leonardo glared at him. Mike shrugged and grinned.

Shredder had seen nothing to indicate that the turtles were there. He continued to stand on the same piece of gantry though. He would bring them out. "Now that you are here it might interest you to see my new sprinkler syster for Central Park. When I turn it on, the park will be fertilized with this." He held up a plastic tub full of what might possibly have been water. Galatea began to creep towards him. None of the turtles saw her go, they were all to intent on Shredder and any possible back ups he would have. Galatea made her way around the side of the crane and behind some earth moving equipment, getting herself well away from the turtles when she would finally break cover.

Shredder held the plastic tub high and sloshed its contents about. "It is a defoliant that makes Agent Orange look benign by comparison. I thought you mutant freaks would be interested in my little cocktail."

"The only freak around here is you, shred head," Raphael yelled.

"I'll make you regret every insult you've ever laid on me, turtle, and I'll make you all die a little for every defeat I've ever suffered at your twisted hands, mutants."

Galatea popped up from her cover, almost at Shredder's feet. "No, wait, you don't understand, let me..." but he barely acknowledged her presence, knocking her aside with about as much thought and effort as he might have put into swatting a fly. The turtles watched in horror, and it was more than Raphael could take, and he stood up, blowing their cover. "Galatea!"

Even louder than Raphael's shout was Shredder's gleeful: "There! Get them!" and the turtles were suddenly surrounded by Foot. Despite being appalingly outnumbered, the turtles' response to the situation was one of sheer joy.

"What's the plan, Leo?" said Donatello casually.

"According to the teachings of the great masters, this would be time to kick us some butt."

Michelangelo let out a booming "Cowabunga!" and leapt in with his chucks propellering about his head.

"Kick some shell!" bellowed Donatello diving into a group of Foot.

"Turtles fight with honour!" yelled Leonardo bowing graciously to the nearest Foot, who was taken off guard and bowed in return. It was a major mistake, Leonardo picked him up and threw him at three others.

"...and anything else we can lay our hands on!" roared Raphael flinging bags of cement at Foot and knocking them down like ninepins.

Galatea picked herself up from where she had fallen just in time to nearly be mown down by one of the Foot. She feinted away from him and at the last moment swung round and kicked him in the cods. Raphael appeared by her side. "You ok?"

She looked unhappily at the man who lay in front of her clutching at his groin. "No! I just did something idealogically unsound.  I committed an aggression."

They heard Donatello's yell of: "Look out!" and ducked under the airborne body of one of the Foot. He fell hard, rolled to his feet, shook himself awake, and crashed unconscious to the ground as Galatea performed another idealogically unsound act, this time with a lump of two by four.

"Bodacious move, Galatea!" crowed Michelangelo.

"Yeah. Radical," she said, unconvinced. She made her way out of the midst of the brawl, finding a secure position under some equipment. She trembled all over with fear and rage and (though she didn't like to admit it) excitement. She heard a small sound, too close beside her and swung at it, a half brick clutched in her hand. It was only at the last moment that she realised it was April O'Neill, heading for cover just as she had.

"Galatea Gaia! Raphael was with you."

"Yeah. I found him washed up on the beach. I thought he was an injured sea creature."

April laughed and ducked from a rock that went astray and nearly found its mark in the middle of her head. "So you rescued him."

"He looked really terrible. Half dead."

They both looked out at the scene before them. Raphael was single-handedly wiping the floor with three Foot warriors. He used one of them to batter two of the warriors away from Michelangelo who was happily sliding a group of them down a concrete chute.
 
"Homeopathics agree with him," said April.

"You know," said Galatea watching Leonardo and Donatello playing an involved game of leapfrog with several Foot, all of whom finished up head first in a dumpster. "I really feel relieved that you know Raph and the guys."

"Relieved?”•"

"April, I was talking to a turtle. I figured either I'd been living alone too long and one of my screws had finally come loose, or I'd been living downwind from the sewer too long and I'd, you know, imbibed something toxic."

"Yeah, it came as a shock to me when I first met them, too, but you get used to them."

"Well, anyway, speaking of toxic, I have a little monkeywrenching to do on that sprinkler system," Galatea said. She bounced out from under the cover just as Michelangelo arrived, rolling and tumbling across the floor with one of the mind-altered construcion workers. April stepped aside to allow Mike through, and bounced something heavy off his opponent.

Casey had left his array of "sports equipment" to one side, and was surveying one of the robot computer terminals. He watched Donatello battling. "How about a little robot support? Don my man?"

"Sounds like a plan to me."

As Casey reached for the keyboard it was Shredder who yelled: "No! Don't touch that." Casey fell straight for the old Briar Patch routine. His fingers hit the keypad and for a moment his eyes glazed, and his hands twitched. After that Shredder was in control. Shredder gave him the attack signal, and Casey programmed the robot to attack as well. Both he and the robot flew at Donatello.

Splinter saw the attack and yelled a warning at Donatello. The turtle was too well trained to stand around being surprised and wondering how on Earth Splinter got there. He went straight into an evasive move, coming up and over his two advesaries and knocking them flat. He mashed the robot with his Bo. But he was confused by Casey's attack for long enough. He let his guard down and Casey threw himself at the turtle.

Donatello threw him easily to one side, confused. "Casey! What's the matter? It's me!"

April arrived as Donatello parried Casey aside once more. "Casey! What happened? Did he touch one of those things?"

"He was calling up robot reenforcements," said Donatello, scuffling with Casey again, this time dumping him into a trash pile.

"Shredder's got those things wired," April warned, ducking from a wildly flung clod of earth.

Raphael rolled past with five labourers in pursuit. "Looks like Casey's the one that's wired."

"Well thanks a lot for telling us," said Donatello.

"Look, I'm sorry, I can't remember it all," said April stepping nimbly aside as Casey came flailing past her. "But this little guy that was with Shredder made me touch one of those things, and I felt like someone else was in control."

"Well who was in control?" said Donatello.

"The tooth fairy," roared Casey as he fell on top of Donatello, trying to get into his mouth with a really large pair of pliers.

Donatello prised the pliers out of his grasp, "Casey, do you (ow!) know what you're doing?"

"Yeah," said Casey who had now picked up a substantial lump of concrete and was about to drop it on the turtle's head. "I'm trashing you."

Leonardo grabbed Casey from behind and wrapped several loops of heavy cable around his arms, pinning them harmlessly to his sides and effectively weighing him down. He sat Casey very firmly on the ground.

"I thought he was on our side," said Leonardo petulantly.

"I think we can get them all on our side," said Donatello, rolling up off the ground. He grabbed his bo off the ground and used it to knock the cover off the robot workstation. "I love the subtle delicacy of electronics," he said, cautiously poking about in the insides of the computer terminal.  The other turtles came backing towards him. They were badly outnumbered, and this was beginning to look like being their Alamo.

"Ah, Donatello," said Leonardo, "if it's not too much to ask, do you think you could possibly drag yourself away from the computer and give us a little hand here?"

"Sorry, Raph, it's too much to ask. Now, let's see, the elegant solution would be to trace the programme back and wipe it."

"The only thing that's gonna get wiped around here is us," said Michelangelo, ducking away from a near scalping.

"In times like this, aren't you glad you don't have hair?" said Raphael.

Donatello surveyed the scene then looked sadly back at the guts of the terminal. "In times of conflict, art must suffer. Brother, lend me a sai." He plucked the weapon out of Raphael's hand, leaving him with only a bare fist against the labourer's lump of metal pipe. He uttered a squawk, but it was drowned out by the crackling and impressive shower of sparks that erupted from the computer terminal when Donatello poked the sharp end of the sai into the machine. The attackers stopped in their tracks, looking around vaguely.

"What happened?" said Michelangelo.

"What happened?" said a confused looking labourer.

"What did happen?" said Casey.

"Thanks, Donatello," said Donatello, preening himself. "Well done. You have just single-handedly put an end to what promised to be the blood bath of the year."

Amidst vague confusion, the whole conflict came to a grinding anti-climax. The construction workers, now no longer under the influence of Shredder's mind controlling device, wandered off. Leonardo and April untangled Casey, who looks a little dazed. It all seemed to be rather boringly over. except for Galatea's panic-stricken cry of "Help! It's Shredder!"

Galatea had secreted herself like a monkey up a tree on a bunch of pipes where she was trying to re-plumb Shredder's sprinkler system. But on the platform below her, Shredder and Splinter were facing each other and there was a look about them of most decidedly wanting to commit idealogically unsound acts upon each other's person.

Shredder loomed over the rat. "Without you to guide them, the Turtles would be at a total loss. Who knows, I may even convince them to join forces with me. So often it is the deadliest enemies who make the fiercest allies."

Splinter ducked and parried. Shredder's fist connected with the scaffolding more often than it came near the rat. "And the closest fiends who make the most brutal enemies, Saki."

"You are only an animal. You don't know the full story."

"I think I am the only one who does know the full story, Saki, and I have meditated long on what I saw. I know vengance is wrong, but there is honour to be upheld."