Chapter 8: Broken Silence

                                                Chapter Eight: Broken Silence

           It had been a quiet couple of weeks for our heroes. Not so much as one disturbance came about.

       But one night, everyone was soundly asleep in their beds. The whole place was peaceful, calm, and comfortable.

       All of a sudden, the siren went off. It blared long and loud throughout all the speakers on every floor of the complex.

      Upstairs in the attic, still sleeping in the pillow room were Lavia and Fay. They heard the siren and their eyes shot open.
      They both sat up quickly in their beds, and looked at each other.
      "Tirus!" they both said to each other. Then they leaped out of bed, and ran to the elevator.
     "Control Room Floor 7, now!" said Lavia.
     "Acknowledged." said the computer voice as the elevator went down.

     Max was so startled that he fell out of bed, and onto the floor. He quickly stood up, and put on on his glasses. Then he ran to the elevator.

      The Turtles all woke up, and also made haste to the elevator.

     Soon, everyone had been startled out bed, and had ran into the computer room.

     "What happened? What's going on?" asked Fay as Max got on the computer.
     "It's Tirus, he's preparing to attack another dimension again!" said Max.
     "After all this time?" asked Cori.
     "Something's definitely wrong." said Rita.
     "You said it." said Donatello.
     "Don't just stand there, go!" said Max to the others.
     "But be careful. Tirus is definitely cooking something up, and it's bound to be bad." said Rita.
     "Don't orry, we'll be careful." said Lavia as she grabbed a laser from the rack of charged lasers that had been sitting there for the past couple of weeks.
     "How many of us are going?" asked Cori.
     "Six. I think that's safe for the vortex, but also a good number for fighting. Oh, and it's dimension Vyta11." said Max.
     "Okay, great." said Cori.
     "I'll go this time." said Donatello.
     Rita looked over at him.
     Donny looked back. "I'll be okay." he said.
     Rita smiled weakly. She was still worried about him going.
     "Let's go people!" said Cori as she, Fay, and Lavia walked out of the room.
     The others soon followed.

    In the ships hangar, everyone got into a ship.
    "Okay now everyone, remember. We all stay as the same speed, and keep in sync at all times." said Lavia.
    "Right." the others replied.
    "We should head out at speed 9." said Donatello.
    "Sounds good to me." said Cori.
    "Let's do this." said Raph.
    The hangar door opened, and all the ships flew out.

    "Keep in contact at all times!" said Max over the communicators.
    "We will." said Lavia.
    Fay was in the lead, and she opened the vortex.
    They all went through the vortex, and into the next dimension.

    It was late at night in that dimension as they all came out of the vortex, and it closed behind them. They all looked around carefully.
     "Where are they Max?" asked Cori over the communicator.
     "Rita's trying to get a lock on them now. But they're in that dimension for sure." said Max.
     "Keep your lasers ready everyone. They could be trying to ambush us like last time." said Lavia.
     "True." said Fay.
     They all hovered over that one area, and looked around. Everything was silent; too silent.
     Just then, Mikey saw something.
    "Hey look! I just saw a shadow move." said Mikey.
    "What did it look like?" asked Max.
    "I dont know. It moved too fast." replied Mikey.
    "Are there any warrior ships in the immediate area?" asked Lavia.
    "I can't tell. The computer isn't working right." said Rita.
    Everyone began getting nervous.
    "We might just have to go out and look for them." said Donny.
    "Um, I don't think that's such a hot idea. I can't get a lock on them because they're blocking my tracking program. They're close, be ready." said Rita.
    They all looked around, and not seeing a thing, they began flying their ships at a cautious speed 1.
    Suddenly . . .
    "BANG!!" A beast warrior ship flew right into Raph's ship, pushing it backwards a good distance.
     Fay gasped.
    "Raph!" exclaimed Mikey.
    "Get this stupid thing away from me!" said Raph as he tried to push against the ship.
    "Go around it!" said Cori.
    Raph did so, and ended up on the other side of it. A light in his ship lit up that read: "Power Failure. Back-up power Initiated." He also received a pretty mean dent in front of his ship.

      Soon, a whole bunch of ships appeared. But these were bigger than last time, and the design was different as well.
      "What the . . ." Cori said.
      "My sentiments exactly." said Lavia.
      The ships began firing at them, and they took hits like never before.
      "Whoa! These lasers are supercharged!" said Fay as she received a large dent in the side of her ship.
      "Fire!" said Raph.
      The crew fired their lasers, but they were no match for the beast warriors' supercharged lasers and new ships.
      "Forget the warriors, get to the building that Tirus is in! There's a red pulse signal!" said Max.
      "But where is the building?!" asked Donny over the noise of lasers being fired.
      "We don't know! I lost the lock I had on it! Just go look for it!" said Rita.
      "Ow!" shreiked Lavia.
      "What happened?" asked Fay.
      "A ship just crashed into the side, and the metal caved in on that side! This junk don't tickle!" exclaimed Lavia.
      "We have to escape these guys!" said Donny.
      "How?!" asked Mikey as a ship fired at him, shaking his entire ship. He fired back at it, only leaving a scratch. "Geez, we can't even dent 'em!" complained Mikey.
      "Use speed 10, and run through the city. Use the portable trackers!" said Donny.
      "But . . ."
     "It's this dimension's only hope, now go!" shouted Donny. He knew what he was talking about, and with the trackers they had, he knew that the pan to leave the ships would work.

     Everyone set their ships to speed 10, and dashed off, leaving the warrior ships behind.
     "Woo hoo! They're gone!" said Raph.
     "Don't rejoice too soon, they're right on our tails!" said Cori.
     The ships fired at them some more, and hit the back of Fay's ship. It began shaking a lot, and went even faster than it was supposed to.
     "Aaahh!" screamed Fay as it dashed off.
     "Fay!" exclaimed Lavia.
     "What happened?!" asked Max, panicking like nothing else back at HQ.
    "Fay got rear-ended by one of the lasers, and she's jetting faster than speed 10!" said Cori.
    "I'm goin' after her! You all find the building!" said Lavia.
    "Hurry! The pulse is really red!" said Max, still panicking and worrying.
     "I got a lock again! Two blocks from there, hurry!" said Rita.
    Raph, Mikey, Donny, and Cori dashed off to the building.
    Lavia dashed off to save her friend. "I'm comin' Fay!" she said.
    "Hurry!" shouted Fay as she tried to regain control of the ship.

    The group of 4 finally reached the building, which was shaking.
    "If Tirus makes it blow first, we've lost. Throw the mechanical bombs now!" said Cori.
    The others quickly armed the bombs stashed in the glove compartment of the ships, and threw them down.

    Lavia was still speeding towards Fay. She went underneath of Fay's ship, and then up to the front of it.
    "Hold on Fay, this is gonna hurt the both of us." said Lavia.
    "Oh no." said Fay.
    Lavia then stood in the path of Fay's ship.
    "Lavia?! Are you nuts?!" yelled Fay.
    "This is the only way I can think of to stop it!" said Lavia.
   "And die while we're at it!" said Fay.
   "Put up your deflectors, and the impact won't hurt as much." said Lavia.
   "Goodness you're insane!" said Fay as she put up the deflectors.

    Mikey, Donny, Raph, and Cori all sped away from the scene before the place blew up. But they couldn't escape the blast.
    The wind from the explosion pushed their ships so that they went faster than before.
    "How do we stop these things?!" panicked Mikey.
    "Just change your speed Mikey. It was just a minor wind push." said Cori. "Okay, we saved this place, now we head home." said Cori.
    "You hear that girls? We're headin' home." said Raph over the communicators as Cori opened the vortex for their home dimension.

     "Don't leave us here! Lavia's cra . . ."
     "BANG!!" Then nothing was heard of the communicators from Fay and Lavia's ship except for static.
    "What the . . ." said Raph to himself.
    Cori slowed down her speed, and turned her ship around. "You guys go through the vortex. I'm gonna check up on Fay and Lavia." she said.
     "Cool." said Raph.
     So he, Donny, and Mikey went through the vortex.

     Strangely enough, the other warrior ships just vanished, and not a trace of Tirus' army or himself was there anymore.

     Lavia and Fay hovered in mid-air, their ships running on the last bits of back-up power that they had. Their ships had no lights, and their communicators were down. The front ends of both of their ships were dented into a pattern so that they would fit together.
      The girls both looked startled, and perhaps a little scared.
      Lavia mouthed "sorry" through the view window on her ship.
      Fay just looked at her and smiled weakly. She knew her friend meant well, she just had the strangest last-minute plan.
      Just then, Cori came over to them.
      "Whoa, what happened here?" she asked, but then remembered that the girls couldn't hear her, they're communicators had gone dead. So she just opened the vortex, and pointed to it so that Fay and Lavia could see.
     The girls went through it with the little bit of power that their ships still had, and they all headed back to HQ.

     Back at HQ, everyone came out of their ships in the hangar.
     "That was brutal!" exclaimed Mikey.
     Lavia came out of her ship, and held her side.
     "What happened to you?" asked Cori.
     "I told you, my ship got a side hit, and the metal hit me in the side. That junk hurts!" she complained.
     Cori got out of her ship, and closed the door to the ship, but it just fell off moments later.
     Raph looked at it. "Whoa." he said.
     Fay got out of her ship, which no longer had a door, and walked over to the group. "This is really bad." she said.
     "Tell me about it." said Lavia.
    "Come on, let's go to the computer room." said Donny.
     So they all bundled into the elevator, and were a little crowded, but proceeded to go up to Floor 7 anyway.

     Up there, the group walked in, looking surprised and tired at once.
     Max, Rita, Leo, and Venus looked at them.
     "Oh man, what happened out there?" asked Max.
     "It was awful!" said Mikey.
     "The beast warrior ships are bigger." said Cori.
     "And stronger." said Lavia as she sat down in a chair.
     "They've got these supercharged lasers too." said Donny.
     "They almost whooped our shells! Well, for those of us who have shells." said Raphael.
     Rita sighed. "I know I'm gonna regret asking this question, but, how did the ships hold up?" she asked.
     "Tuh, they didn't." said Fay.
     Max picked up a tool box. "I think I better get to work then." he said, and he left to the elevator.
     "Are you gonna be okay?" asked Fay to her friend.
     "Sure. I just need to relax for a little while. I mean, we're used to Tirus' daily attacks, this time we weren't prepared. I guess my body was a little shocked." said Lavia.
     "We were all shocked." said Cori.
     "Perhaps this Tirus guy wanted to shock you all. You know, throw you a curve." said Leo.
     "Well he sure did a fine job of it." said Lavia.
     "How's the chart look?" asked Donny as he came over to the computer where Rita was at.
     "Well, we've got an 'S', so that dimension has been saved, and Tirus has headed home. So I guess we're in the clear for now." said Rita.
     Just then, there was some movement from another dimension, and a vortex opened.
     "What's this?" Donny asked as he looked at the screen.
     "Someone is going to Tirus' dimension." said Rita.
     "Who would wanna do that?" asked Raph as he overheard the conversation.
     "I don't know. But they're going straight for his castle." said Rita as the computer automatically tracked the strange activity.
     "You think Tirus has friends?" asked Fay.
    "Hey, anything's possible with this guy." said Cori.
    They all watched the screen for a while, until nothing interesting happend anymore.

     "I think I better help Max with the ships." said Donny.
     "Yeah, good idea. Having damaged ships when Tirus attacks again definitely won't be good." said Rita.
     "Hey Raph, how 'bout helpin' out? You know how to fix your cycle, maybe you can help fix the ships." said Donny.
    "No prob." said Raph. He and Donny then left for the ships' hangar.
    Lavia, Fay, Venus, Mikey, Cori, and Rita stayed in the room.
    "He did this on purpose you know." said Rita, turning around in her spinning chair to face the others.
    "Did what on purpose?" asked Venus.
    "This whole thing of letting us have a break for the two weeks. He wanted to catch us off-guard, don't you see?" asked Rita.
     "Yeah. But he was obviously gettin' new ships too." said Mikey.
     Rita sighed, then turned around to face the computer again. She began working on tracking the medallion.
     Lavia got up and stretched; her side felt much better by now.
     "We better get back to our battle training exercises." said Fay.
     "I agree." said Lavia.
     "Yeah, we need it." said Cori. "Come on Mike, you'll need it too."
     "We'll be on floor 9, okay Rita?" said Fay.
     "Sure." said Rita.
      The four then went to their exercises.
      Leo and Venus went to the living room to do their daily meditating. (they have an exciting life, don't they?)

      Downstairs repairing the ships, Max was surprised at what he was seeing.
      "What in the world have they made their ships out of?" asked Max in disbelief. "I had been completely sure that I constructed our ships out of the strongest metal in any dimension. That is, until now."
      "Perhaps they reinforced their ships by layering more than one metal in the frame." said Donatello.
      "But what about them lasers?" asked Raphael. "They was no joke."
      "I would have to say that Tirus has found a power source with higher voltage. I suppose that if I worked hard enough on the laser power, that I could create a strong burst of energy myself." said Max.
       "Fighting back with lasers may not be the answer to winning against them." said Donatello.
       Max and Raph looked at him.
       "Why not?" asked Raph.
       "Because if you think about it, they'll always find a way to beat us, and after tonight, they probably will be able to. If we find a way to elude them, to escape them. Well, it probably could be a lot safer if we just escaped them whever we encountered them." explained Donatello.
       Max pondered over it for a moment. "Hm, quite a good idea."
       "Anyways, these babies are gonna need some major repairs, and we never knew when that Tirus guy and his beast dudes are gonna attack again." said Raphael.
      Donny sighed. "We better get to work." he said.
       They all then began using the tools that Max had with him to repair the ships.

      On one of the higher floors, Lavia, Fay, and Cori were in a special exercise room with a lot of advanced equiptment.
      "Wow, it's been a while since we've been in here." said Lavia.
      "Yeah. Some of this stuff even has dust on it." said Fay.
       "It's cool up here." said Mikey, admiring the equiptment. He knew Raph would like this room for sure.
      Cori picked up a 25lb. weight. "Well, come on everyone, we gotta work out if we wanna handle all of Tirus' new crap." she said.
       Lavia and Fay sighed, then joined Cori.
       Mikey picked up some weights.

       Later on that evening, the major repairs had been done on most of the ships, and the three upstairs had a good while to tone up with the exercise equiptment.

       At dinner that night, everyone was tired, but sort of uneasy.
      "He hasn't attacked again all day." thought Rita out loud.
      "He weakened us enough to be able to attack another dimension without our interference. Why hasn't he tried?" asked Max to no one in particular.
       "Maybe he doesn't know what he's doing." said Leo.
       "Oh he knows what he's doing very well." said Fay.
       "You weren't out there, so you don't know what we went through." said Lavia.
       "So I wasn't out there, but it doesn't take a genius to figure that Tirus is being kind of stupid not to realize his opportunity." said Leo.
       "I think that he realizes his opportunity very well. He's just constructing some kind of plan." said Rita.
       "And anyway, you act like you freakin' want him to attack another helpless dimension." said Cori, getting mad.
       "I don't, but . . . "
       "But nothin'. We should be glad that he's at least giving up the opportunity for his plan. The more time we have, the better chances we have at saving another dimension." said Cori, cutting Leo off.
        Leo just fell silent, and continued eating his dinner. Cori was almost as fiery as Raph, and he didn't want to have to mess with her.
        "We're all gonna have to spend a lot more time in battle training." said Lavia.
        "No doubt." said Fay.