Chapter Nine: The Great Trick

                                                   Chapter Nine: The Great Trick


         It had been a quiet week for our heroes, allowing them much rest from their last battle.
         Max had been able to make quite a few very nice additions to the ships. These included more powerful lasers, reinforced structure, stronger forcefields, and increasing the speeds so that instead of getting 375 mph at speed 8, there was 475 mph at speed 8.
        Rita was still searching for the medallion, and battle-training had been going on, so the group was more prepared for any surprises that Tirus could throw at them.

       One day, while the crew was doing things that they normally did (Rita medallion-searching, Max repairing, and others battle-training), the siren went off again.

      "Uh oh, trouble." said Fay.
      "Come on, let's go." said Lavia.
     They went to the elevator, and went down, picking up everyone else who heard the siren along the way.

     Down in the computer room, Max and Rita were at the computers.
     "Where is he going this time?" asked Cori as they all stepped into the room.
     Max turned to them. "He's taking another small army to dimension Kita5." he said.
    "Hurry up everyone, he's going really fast." said Rita, sounding a bit surprised as well.
    "All right, same group as before?" asked Lavia.
    "Yeah whatever, just go!" said Max.
    "Okay okay." said Mikey.
    The same group of 6 (Lavia, Fay, Cori, Mikey, Raph, and Donny) from last time went.

     Out in the hangar, they all got into the ships, which they hadn't seen in a while.
     "Whoa Max, good goin." said Fay as she got into one ship.
     "Yeah, thanks. But be careful with them." said Max.
     "Why?" asked Lavia.
     "Because they're . . ."
     "Whoa!" exclaimed Raph as they all zoomed out of the hangar.
     Max sighed. "They're now programmed to go faster than before." he said.
     "I'd say!" said Lavia as they sped through the air.
     The doors to the hangar had closed behind them as they went farther and farther away from the structure.
     "I'm opening the vortex now." said Lavia.
     "We're right behind ya." said Cori.
     The vortex soon opened, and they all sped through it.

     "Reduce speed. We don't wanna go too fast." said Fay.
     "Agreed. Speed 7 good?" asked Donny.
     "Just fine." said Lavia.
    As they reduced their speeds, they all exited the vortex into the other dimension.

     Once out there, they began hovering over the area they were in.
    "Okay Rita, Max, where are they?" asked Cori.
    "We're getting only faint readings here, nothing solid. I can't seem to pinpoint an exact location." said Rita.
    "Are we surrounded again or anything?" asked Raph.
    "Surprisingly enough, no." said Max.
    "So what now?" asked Donny.
    "We do what we had to do the day we found you all." said Cori.
    "We park the ships, make them invisible, then search on foot." said Lavia.
    "Why don't I like that idea?" asked Mikey.
    "Because it's very dangerous." said Fay.
    "But totally necessary." said Lavia.
    "I agree. And hurry, you can't waste any time finding that building." said Rita.
    "Will do. Come on gang, let's pick a nice little parking spot for these babies." said Cori as she began flying her ship off towards a park.


     They flew over to the very back of a park where there was no one around, and parked their ships.
     After turning the ships' cloaking devices on, they got out, and traveled around on foot, with their portable communicators, mechanical bombs, and lasers on hand.
    "I know they're here." said Lavia as she looked around.
    "Yeah, I can tell. But they're not too close." said Cori.
    "Well, we'll find 'em." said Raph.

    The group walked around for a while, feeling out where the beast warriors might be.
     Suddenly, Fay stopped.
     Everyone noticed and turned around.
     "What is it Fay?" asked Cori.
     "I hear the pulse signal. It's close, and it's red." said Fay.
     "Uh oh." said Lavia.
     Fay then dashed off, with everyone following her.
     "Keep up with her!" shouted Cori as they ran.

     They ran around many corners, and through alleyways.
     Just then, Fay stopped, and looked up.
     Everyone else did too, and saw a huge skyscraper building with a red glow coming from inside.
     "Quick! The mechanical bombs." said Donny, as he took his out.
     They all took out the small bombs, and set them to start the countdown. They threw the bombs at the building, and as they began running, the building blew up.
     The wind from the explosion picked them all up, and threw them very far away from the building.

      Quite a good distance away, the group fell hard onto wooden debris. They all groaned as they rolled over on the stuff.
      "Ow." said Mikey as he stood up.
     "That sure was painful." said Donny as he stood up.
     Everyone stood up and looked around. They had fallen onto splintered wooden boards that had a lot of rubber and metal debris strewn all over it.
    "What is this?" asked Cori.
    "Looks like a pile of junk." said Lavia.
    "It's actually like, part of a junk yard, and like, my house." said a valley girl-accented voice.
    Everyone looked around, searching for the source of the voice. They soon saw a female mutant Turtle with a yellow bandanna step out from behind a wooden board.
    "Wow." said Mikey.
    "Like, cool!" said the Turtle.
    "Who are you?" asked Cori.
    "You're all like, in my house. Who are you?" she asked.
    "Well, I'm Lavia Nieven."
    "I'm Fay Taves."
    "Donatello."
    "Mikey."
    "Raphael."
    "Cori."
   "Okay, cool. So like, I'm Shelley, and I like, live here." said the Turtle.
   "Cool! Are you the only one like you out here?" asked Mikey.
   "Yeah, it's like, almost always been that way. 'Cept when I was young and like, a mutant pidgeon lady like, raised me. Then she got run over by a like, truck when I was 10, which was like, 9 years ago. So I kinda like, live here by myself." said Shelley.
    "Gee, that's too bad." said Donny.
    "But like, anyway, you all don't look like you're from like, around here." said Shelley.
    "No we're not actually. We're from another dimension." said Lavia.
    "A dimension? What's that?" asked Shelley, looking confused.
    "It's like another world. But different." said Fay.
    "Cool." said Shelley.

    Just then, an explosion was heard, and a bunch of beast warships appeared across the sky.
    "Oh no, this can't be happening!" said Cori in disbelief.
    "Whoa! Like what are they?" asked Shelley.
    "Your worst nightmare." said Raph.
    The ships began firing down at them, making the wooden boards catch on fire as the lasers hit.
    "We gotta get back to the ships! Run!" shouted Donny.
    They all began running, that is, except for Shelley, who was trying to hide.
    "What are you doing?" asked Mikey who had noticed that she wasn't with them.
    "I can't like, leave my house!" said Shelley.
    "Well you're gonna have to!" said Mikey. Then he grabbed her hand, and pulled her along with the rest of them as they ran.

     The ships were at their backs (or shells) all the way. They ran as fast as they could, dodging the fire power that the new deluxe ships had to dish out.
     "Yow!!" exclaimed Cori, who's shell was hit by one of the lasers. It left her with a pretty mean burn spot on her shell, and she fell, wincing in pain.
     Raph stopped, and turned around. He helped her up, and pulled her along in running with them. He was about to say something when he was interrupted by Lavia.
     "Get in the ships, and hit speed 8!" she said as they got to the ships.
     "What the . . . "
     "We'll explain later." said Mikey to the baffled Shelley.
     They all got into the ships, turned off the cloaking devices, and turned the ships on.
      "Hurry everyone!" said Donny.
      Raph helped Cori into her ship, and then ran to his.
      Cori tried to ignore the pain she felt when she leaned back in her seat, but it was hard to. She just clenched her fists tightly around the controls and zoomed forward with the others.
     The warrior ships weren't making it very easy for the crew to leave, and began forming a barrier around the crew.
      "What are they doin?" asked Raph.
      "They're trying to box us in." said Donny.
      "Then we gotta break out." said Fay.
      "Fire!" ordered Lavia.
      The crew then released fire on the warrior ships, blowing up two of them.
       Then the warrior ships put their forcefields up, and the crew could no longer destroy them.
       "Put up forcefields. We're gonna make it just as hard for them to hit us." said Donny.
       The ships then began firing at the crew again, and they fired back. The ships shook and rumbled as the lasers were fired.
       "We're not gonna win like this!" said Cori, desperate to get back to HQ.
       "We're gonna have to speed past these mugs." said Fay.
       "No doubt. Set speed to 9." said Lavia.
       "I'll open the vortex." said Donny.
       The beast warrior ships continued to fire, shaking the crew up, and causing some minor damage to their ships.
       "Backup Power Engaged." said the computer voice inside Raph's ship.
       "Ah crap! I always get stuck with the lousy ship!" he said to himself. "Yo hurry up wit opening the vortex man! I don't think this thing can take much more of this!" said Raph impatiently.
       "I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying!" said Donny as he quickly punched in the right codes into the on-board computer in his ship.
       "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh . . ." is all Shelley could say as she sat in the back of Mikey's ship, looking around at these ships and things that she knew nothing of.
       "Chill babe, we'll be okay." said Mikey. Then he turned back to the front of the ship. "I hope." he said silently to himself.
       "Get ready to leave this place everyone." said Donny.
       The vortex opened a little while's away from where the crew was boxed in.
       "Go!" shouted Donny.
      They all set their ships to speed 9, and rammed through the wall of warrior ships. One of the warrior ships dug a long scratch in Raph's ship as it flew past it. A red light in his ship turned on, and a "Beep! Beep! Beep!" siren was heard.
     "Severe bodily damage." said the computer voice.
     "No duh." said Raph sarcastically to the machine.
     They all sped into the vortex, and Donny closed it behind them.
     "Yes!" said Donny, proud that he had succesfully opened and closed the vortex for the first time.
     The ships jerked a little in the vortex, as it was a bit unstable. As a result, Cori's shell hit the back of her chair.
     "CRAP!" she exclaimed in pain.
     "Whoa Cori, what's wrong?" asked Fay.
     "Freakin' laser!" she yelled.
     "A laser hit her shell." said Raph.
     "Ouch." said Donny.
     "Don't worry Cori, you'll be okay once we get you back to HQ." said Lavia.
     Cori's eyes were tearing from the intense pain she felt.

     The crew soon got through to the other side of the vortex, and to home base.
     There, they docked, and Cori got out of her ship, still looking just as pained as ever.
    "I need a pound of burn cream, right, now!" said Cori as she came out of her ship.
    "Well, Rita can take care of that once we get back up to the Control Room." said Donny.
    "What like, is this place?" asked Shelly as she looked around.
    "It's our headquarters which we affectionately call, HQ. It's where we live." said Lavia.
    "Groovy." said Shelley.
    "Come on, we tell the new Turtle chick about this place after we get up to floor 7." said Raph.
    "Hmm, someone sure is concerned about Cori." said Lavia to the side to Fay.
    "Uh huh, I know what you mean." said Fay.
    They all got into the elevator, which was quite crowded cos of having Shelley now. The elevator went up to Floor 7.

    Up there, they all went into the computer room.
    Rita, Max, Leo, and Venus turned towards them.
    "Ah, picking up more guests I see." said Max, noticing Shelley.
    "Yeah, whatever. Cori needs somethin' for her shell, and soon." said Raph, glancing over at Cori who looked pretty unsteady on her feet by now.
    "Why, what happened?" asked Rita concernedly.
    "Freakin' laser from them ships hit my shell!" said Cori, wincing in pain.
    "Oh goodness! Come, I have to take care of that right away." said Rita as she got up.
    Cori followed her into the next room, which they called the First Aid Room.

     Meanwhile, back in the computer room, Max sat down in Rita's chair.
     "So, I assume you found Tirus' complex and destroyed it." said Max.
     "Yeah, we did. But the blast blew us half across town." said Donny.
     "And that's where we found, Shelley." said Mikey.
     "Pleased to meet you, and welcome to HQ." said Max.
     Shelley smiled. "Like, thanks." she said.
     "You know guys, it was really weird how the ships began attacking us only after the building got blown up." said Lavia.
     "Yeah, I mean, they should've left by then." agreed Fay.
     Max sighed. "Listen guys, you should expect anything from Tirus and his warriors now. Rita and I are always trying to put together the pieces of this puzzle, but so far, we've got random pieces that don't quite fit together." he said.
     "Perhaps this Tirus is making this confusing on purpose." said Venus.
      "Like he's trying to throw you off his plan or something." said Leo.
      Max sat looking thoughtful. "A very good point Leonardo, a very good point." he said.
      Raph got tired of hearing the group go in circles about Tirus. "I'm gonna go see what's up with Cori." he said, and left the room.
       "Um, like, can someone please like, tell me what this Tirus stuff is all about?" asked Shelley.
       "Oh yeah! I forgot. Well, see it all started with this whole dimension being destroyed by this evil war lord guy named Tirus . . . " said Mikey as he began the explanation.

       In the next room, Cori was laying on this small bed, half-asleep from all the pain killers.
       Raph came by the bed as Rita taped the last side on the bandage on Cori's shell.
       "Why's she asleep?" asked Raph.
       Rita didn't notice that he came in, and turned to him. "Oh, well, I had give her a strong pain killer. A wound to the shell like that one is pretty painful I'd imagine." replied Rita as she got up.
       Raph just looked at her resting.
       Rita glanced at him and smiled. "I'll leave you to keep her company." she said, and walked out of the room.
       Raph took the seat by Cori's bed where Rita had been sitting, and looked at Cori. He didn't quite know why, or even how it happened, but he really liked Cori, and when she wasn't feeling well, it really bothered him.

         In the other room, Shelley had just finished getting her explanation of what happened.
         "That's like, soo weird. But I soo wanna help you guys out." said Shelley.
         "Well, we're glad to hear hat, because since you're now here at HQ, you're gonna have to help us. There's no dead weight around her." said Max. "Except for maybe, those two." he said, referring to Leo and Venus.
          "Hey!" they said together.
          "What makes us dead weight?" asked Leo.
          "You two never get out there to fly the ships and help us out." said Lavia.
          "The manuevering seems quite difficult." said Venus.
          "That's why you get out there and practice, practice, practice." said Fay.
          "Oh my goodness . . . " said Rita, her voice sounding both horrified, and disbelieving of what she saw.
          Everyone turned to her.
          "What is it Rita?" asked Fay.
          "Come here, you will never believe this." said Rita.
          They all went over to the computer where she was.
          "What happened?" asked Lavia.
          "Look, here's the dimension where you all just were." said Rita.
          "Okay . . . wait a minute, where's the 'S'? I know we saved that dimension." said Donny.
          "No you didn't." said Rita.
          "We didn't?!" exclaimed Mikey, Donny, Lavia, and Fay.
          "No, you didnt. Because it didn't need to be saved at all." said Rita.
          "Hold up, what's that supposed to mean? We saw the red pulse coming from the building and everything." said Lavia.
          "That red pulse was a decoy, just a flashing light. That's why I couldn't pick it up. It was fake. You blew up an average building with a flashing red decoy inside." said Rita.
         "What? Wait, there weren't any people inside, were there?" asked Donny.
          Rita typed around on the computer for a moment. "There were 4 people, possibly security guards." said Rita.
          The group fell silent, and felt sick. They killed 4 innocent people, and didn't even know it.
          "So like, why were all of those ships there?" asked Shelley.
          "Because they were distracting you all." said Rita.
          "From what?" asked Lavia.
          "From them taking over another dimension, which is now his." said RIta in a tone as if she didn't believe what she saying herself.
           They were all dead silent again, and shocked.
          "No, no, it can't be. Not more to suffer, like we did." said Lavia, feeling as if she could cry at any moment.
          "He, he tricked us." said Fay in disbelief.
          "The greatest trick of all." said Max.

         Off in Tirus' dimension, he was in his throne room rubbing his furry hands gleefully.
         "Ah yes, it's working perfectly. They fell for it, I knew they would." said Tirus, smiling.
         "When would you like us to make our next move sir?" asked one beast warrior standing by Tirus' throne.
         "I'll let you know when. For now, get everyone back into battle training, immediately. And don't stop or leave, unless I instruct you to. Understand?" asked Tirus.
         "Perfectly sir." said the beast warrior.
         "Very good. You are dismissed." said Tirus.
         The beast warrior walked off, along with several others who were with him.

          A little while later, anothe beast warrior walked in. "Sir, your guest has arrived." it said.
           "Excellent. Send him in." said Tirus.
           "Yes sir." the beast said, and he walked out of the room.
           Then someone came in. This someone made Tirus smile.
           "Ah yes, it has been a while my friend. We have many plans to dicuss." said Tirus.
           "Indeed." said the male voice of that "someone" who walked in. "Many plans."
                  Tirus' evil eyes glowed for a moment as he looked at his guest. He was finally sure that his plan would work, and he knew that no one could stop him now.


         That evening, everyone sat at the dinner table, which had an extra chair for their new crew member, Shelley. Cori was feeling better by now, and therefore was joining everyone. Raph had taken a seat next to her.
         Max served freshly-nooked TV dinners to everyone, then sat down at the table with everyone else.
      "Wow cool! A meal that's not like, salvaged from a dumpster." said Shelley.
      "You'll learn to hate it." said Fay as she stuck a fork into a piece of chicken.
      "Oh stop complaining, at least it's food. And speaking of food, we need to stop at some Costco really soon, we're running out." said Max.
      "Already?" asked Lavia. "We shopped only a few months ago."
      "Well, we have to remember, we have 7 extra mouths to feed around here now." said Max.
      "True." said Lavia.
      "I'm too tired to do any shopping." said Fay.
      "Same here." said Lavia.
      "Well whether you like it or not, you're coming." said Max.
      "Stupid Max." the girls mumbled together.
      "What?" asked Max, looking up at the girls.
      "Nothing." they both said with fake smiles and sing-song voices.
      Max just looked at them for a moment. "Hm." he said, then went back to his dinner. "We're going after dinner." he said, then looked at the girls. "Any objections?"
      Lavia and Fay just kept eating their dinners.
      Max then went back to his dinner.

      After dinner, and a little relaxing, Max, Lavia, and Fay went out to the elevator.
      "We'll be back soon." said Max.
      "Okay, I'll keep in contact with you once I get to the computer room." said Rita.
      "All right." said Max, then he closed the elevator doors and it went down.

       In the kitchen, Cori got up from the table and walked out of the kitchen, still looking a little in pain.
       Raph got up from the table and followed her. "You okay?" he asked as he caught up with her.
       "Yeah." said Cori, wincing a bit from the pain she still felt.
       "You sure?" asked Raph.
       Cori stopped walking and faced him. She looked at him for a moment, her painful expression softening. "Why do you care so much?" she asked.
      Raph was totally unprepared for her question and looked as if he were blushing for a moment. "Uh . . . I just, ya know, do." he said.
      Cori looked at him and just smiled. "I'm not ask you to make that any clearer. I think I already know the answer." she said, continuing on walking.
     "And what would that be?" asked Raph, walking with her.
     "I didn't make you answer my q, so don't expect me to answer yours." said Cori.
     "Heh, real slick Cori." said Raph.
     "I know." she smiled.
      Raph just chuckled to himself.

       Leonardo and Venus had since headed off to bed, and Donatello and Rita had gone off to the computer room.
       Mikey and Shelley sat in the kitchen, still relaxing after dinner.
       "So like, do you guys have TV around here?" asked Shelley.
       "No, not even a radio." said Mikey.
       "No TV? That like, really sucks. At least in my old home I could stick some old batteries in an old TV in the junkyard." said Shelley.
       "Yeah, no TV sucks. But they have a room filled with pillows on the top floor." said Mikey.
        Shelley looked at him kinda funny. "Huh?" she asked.
       "Me and the two girls pillow fight up there sometimes." said Mikey.
       "Oh that's like, so cool! I don't even know of human guys who'd actually admit to that. That's like, such a sweet thing to do, ya know, playing with like, kids and everything." said Shelley.
       Mikey smiled. "Yeah, heh, I guess it is." he said.
        Shelley just smiled at him.

        In the computer room, Rita was watching the screen, determined to not let anything elude her ever again. Donny was tracking the medallion again, although he wasn't having much luck finding it. He looked over and saw Rita nodding off. She was very tired, and hardly ever got a break from the computer.
       "Rita, don't you think you should go to bed now? It's really late." said Donny.
      "I can't. I can't let . . . " Rita dozed off for a moment, then quickly woke up. "I have to keep an eye on Tirus." she said.
      Donny sighed and got up from his chair, and went over to Rita. "You should really go to sleep. I'll keep an eye on everything." he said.
      "No, you're busy. It's okay, I'll be . . . . . fine." she said, momentarily dozing off again.
      Donny turned her spinning chair away from the computer and to face him as he squatted down a little to come face to face with her. "Rita, I know you're trying to make sure that no one ever gets hurt again, and I now that you think it's your fault for what happened today, but it isn't. Anyone could've made that mistake. It wasn't your fault at all. It's okay to feel sad over what happened, but don't wear yourself out over it. Everything will be fine." he said.
      Rita stared at him for a long time, and finally smiled. "Yeah, it will be." she said.
      Donny smiled back, then he stood up.
      Rita got out of the chair and stretched as Donny sat in her chair.
      "Now you go and get to sleep." said Donny.
      "Sure." said Rita.
      Donny turned the chair so that it faced the computer.
      Rita walked over to him, and gently wrapped her arms around his neck in a kind of hug from the back.
      Donny turned towards her a little, and Rita gave him a short, but sweet kiss. "Thanks." she said.
       Donny looked a little surprised, but smiled anyway. "No problem." he said.
      Rita then let go of him, and walked off to bed.
      Donny turned back to the computer, still smiling. "So this is what it's like to be in love." he thought to himself.

      Later on that night, Max took over the computer duties while Donny went to bed. He passed by Rita's room on the way there, smiling as he saw her peacefully sleeping in her bed through the crack of the door.