Chapter 7: The Silence

                                               Chapter 7: The Silence

          The next morning, everyone woke up, and went to the kitchen for breakfast.

            While the others looked rested, or still tired, Lavia, Fay, Cori, Rita, and Max looked as if they didn't feel right.

            "An entire night's rest?" asked Max in disbelief.
           "When's the last time that happened?" asked Lavia.
            "Never." said Fay and Cori together.
             "You all should be happy. With all the fighting you do, some rest is probably welcome." said Leo.
             "Yeah, welcome, but not normal." said Max.
            "But then again, we fight evil interdimensional traveling beasts that plan on total dimensional domination. Why should anything be considered 'normal'?" asked Lavia.
            "True." said Fay.
            "Well, let's just enjoy the rest." said Cori as she sat down at the table with everyone else, eyeing Raphael with a kind of glare.
           Raphael returned the same look.
           "I don't know guys, this is just like the old saying, 'the calm before the storm'." said Lavia.
          "Yeah, well, let's just enjoy the calm shall we?" asked Max as he sat at the table.
          "Besides, there isn't like we could do anything about it. If he's quiet, he's quiet. That's just it." said Rita.
          "Yeah okay." said Fay, feeling just as skeptical as Lavia did.

          Later on in the day, Lavia, Fay, Max, and Rita were all in the control room looking at the computers. All was still, silent, and not as much as a warning signal of the beast warriors moving to another dimension.

        "Why are we all just standing here? He's obviously not going to make a move anytime soon." said Fay.
       "True, we should just get to doing some of the things that we always said we never had time to do." said Lavia.
       "Like what?" asked Max.
       "Well, you're supposed to fix the auxiliary power system on level 4. If you don't do that, we'll all be screwed next time we have an electrical storm." said Lavia.
      "True. I guess I could get to that, and to fixing some of those things wrong with the fighter ships." said Max, then he picked up a small book, and left the room.
     "And you could teach Donatello how to work the computer systems." said Fay.
     "That's a good idea. I mean, heh, what better time ay?" asked Rita.
    "Exactly." said Fay.
    "What about you two? What are gonna do?" asked Rita.
    Lavia and Fay glanced at each other.
    "Oh, we'll find something to do." said Lavia with a smile.
     "Mmhm, yeah okay. Well, I best be getting to finding Donatello." said Rita, and she got up and left.

     Lavia and Fay watched her leave.
     "Okay come on, let's go." said Fay.
      The two girls ran to the elevator, and went up to the top floor, which was Level 15.

      There, they found a bunch of old pillows that they had from their previous homes and everything.
      "Pillow fight!!" they both exclaimed as they each grabbed a pillow.
       They began a pillow fight that seemed like it would last for a long time.

      Downstairs, Rita went into the kitchen, which seemd to everyone's favorite hangout. It was by far one of the most interesting rooms in the place. It was large, had two tables in it, a fridge, a stove, microwave; the works.
       Inside the kitchen, she found Mikey and Donatello. Donny was reading a magazine (MicroBiology Monthly), and Mikey was popping some popcorn in the microwave.

      "Hey guys." said Rita as she entered the room.
     Both Turtles looked towards her.
    "Hi Rita." said Donny with a smile. He didn't know what, but something about Rita just made him smile.
    "Hey Rita!" said Mikey. His popcorn then stopped popping, and he took it out of the microwave.
    "So, what's up?" asked Donny as Rita came over and sat at the table with him.
    "Nothing at all. I must say, it's kind of nerve-wracking, but a welcome break at the same time." said Rita.
   "I guess it would be. But I gotta agree with what Max said earlier, just enjoy it." said Donny.
    "I guess so." said Rita. "But anyway, I was thinking that maybe I could teach you to fully understand a lot of the computer programs and technology around here. Once you know how to work it, the help you provide would be very much appreciated."
    "Sounds good to me. I'm always up to learn new technology." said Donny.
   "Great, we can start with the computer programs." said Rita as she got up.
   "Okay." said Donny, and the two went to the computer room.

   When they got there, all the computers had shut down.
     "What happened?" Rita asked as she looked around.
     "Looks like everything just shut down." said Donny.

     Soon, Max came into the room with black ash all over the front of his lab coat, his hair smoking and sticking up with ash all over it, his face also had ash on it, and his tool was smoking a bit. His facial expression was one of a surprised person who didn't quite know what happened.
      "Sorry guys, but I think I hit the control room line by accident." said Max.

       Rita looked at him, and put her hand over her mouth, trying to keep from laughing.

      Donny looked over at her and smiled, then turned back to Max. "Um, maybe you should be more, careful." he said, trying to supress some laughter of his own.
     "Yeah, I think so too. I'm just gonna get a new coat, and a flashlight. Those computers will be up and working soon." said Max. "I hope." he said to himself. Then he left the room.
    Rita took her hand off her mouth and burst out laughing. "That's the funniest I've ever seen Max look!" she laughed.
    Donny laughed too. "He did look pretty funny." he said.
    "Oh my goodness, his ego is gonna be shot for the longest time." Rita said, her laughter dissapating.
    "I guess with a mistake like that, it would be." said Donny.
    Rita sighed. "Well, no computer work for now. Oh well, we can check out Level 5 for now." she said.
   "What's at Level 5?" asked Donatello.
    "Just a little place I like to call, my lab." said Rita as she and Donny began walking over to the elevator.
    "You have a lab?" asked Donny.
    "Yeah, well, sort of." said Rita as she began walking towards the elevator.
    Donny followed her.
    "See, I started one when we first started setting this place up years ago. I thought that I'd have time to work on my various inventions, but alas, this fighting Tirus business came up, and I couldn't." said Rita.

     Donny and her stepped into the elevator. "Floor 5 please." said Rita to the elevator.
     "Acknowledged." said the computer voice as the elevator began moving down.
    "Did you ever get to work in there?" asked Donny.
    "No, not really. I didn't even get to finish setting it up. It probably has cobwebs and what not all over the many boxes I have up there." said Rita.
     "Maybe with this sudden, break, you can finish it." said Donny.
     "I'm hoping to." said Rita, then she turned to face Donny. "Think you might be able to help with it?" she asked.
     "Of course, I'd be glad to." said Donny with a smile.
     Rita smiled back at him. She liked the way he looked, how he acted. Something about him made him seem so sensitive, and that's what she liked about him.
    ________________________________________________________________________________

      On top of the structure, was Leonardo, Raphael, Cori, and Venus.
      Leonardo and Raphael were sparring, while Cori and Venus hung out up there watching them, and clearing some debris off the top of the building.

      "They're just sparring right? They're not really fighting are they?" asked Cori as she looked over at Raph and Leo.
      Venus sighed. "Sometimes it is difficult to tell. They harbor much anger towards each other sometimes. Leonardo feels that Raphael is reckless, and Raphael feels that Leonardo is, well, a 'control freak', as he would put it." she said.
    "So he thinks Raph is reckless huh? Heh, stubborn is more like it." said Cori as she gathered some pieces of rubber.
    "Why do you say that?" asked Venus as she picked up a piece of scrap metal and tossed it off the roof.
    "Because, he just is." said Cori, tossing the rubber off the roof.
    Venus looked at Cori for a moment. "He interests you." said Venus.
   Cori looked at her. "Huh?" she asked with a confused expression.
   "Raphael, he interests you. Intrigues you." said Venus.
    "And how would you now that?" asked Cori giving Venus a suspicious look.
   "Because, I am Shinobi. I can read minds." said Venus.
   "Shinobi? What the heck is a Shinobi?" asked Cori, giving Venus a funny look.
   "It is difficult to explain. But that is not the point. The point is, I can read your mind, and you consider Raphael to be interesting." said Venus.
   "He's, ya know, okay." said Cori, going back to gathering up pieces of rubble.
    "You think of him as more than, 'okay'." said Venus.
    Cori turned to her. "If you tell anyone, I'll . . . "
    "You do not have to worry, I will not tell anyone." said Venus.
   Cori smiled a bit. "Cool." she said.

    Just then, they heard someone shout out a curse. Cori and Venus quickly turned around to see Leo holding his wrist.

    "Watch it Raph! Geez!" shouted Leo as he held his wrist, and obviously looked in pain.
    "You're just losin' ya edge Leo." said Raph, not really thinking much of hurting Leo's wrist.
    Venus sighed. "Boys." she said.
   "Yeah, but oh well." said Cori. Then she thought to herself and smiled.
   Venus glanced over at her and smiled. "I know what you mean." she said.
   They both laughed as they went back to their work of clearing the debris from past times off the top of the structure.

     On the floor right below them, Lavia and Fay had fallen over and began laughing from their pillow fight.

      "That was fun!" said Fay.
      "I know right! We haven't done that, in like, years!" said Lavia.
      "Yeah!" said Fay.
      "We should sleep up here tonight. It has a lot of windows so we could see the stars and everything." said Lavia.
      "We should." said Fay. "Ya know, maybe our break from Tirus is actually kinda good."
      "Yeah, maybe so." said Lavia.

      On Level 5, Donatello and Rita were walking around Rita's old laboratory. There were tables with cobwebs on them, as well as unopened, and half opened boxes. There were a couple pieces of machinery that looked old and outdated. The room was big, and could house a lot of things.

     "Wow, this place is huge." said Donny.
    "Yeah, I know, it's something else." said Rita. The she sighed. "But it'll take a lot of work to fix it up." she added.
      "Well, nothing good ever comes easy. It'll take work, but it'll get fixed up." said Donny. Then he picked up a framed picture of a red-haired man in a white lab coat, with his arm around a little red-haired boy by his side in an oversized white lab coat. "Who's this?" he asked.
     Rita looked over, and came over to Donny. "Oh, that's Dr. Elliot Faxit, the man who accidentally made the ooze, or elizir as he called it, that mutated Cori and I." said Rita.
    "And who's the little boy?" asked Donny.
    "Guess. You know him." said Rita.
    "Hmm . . . Dr. Elliot Faxit . . ." then he looked at Rita. "That little boy is Max, isn't he?" he asked.
    "Yep, sure is." replied Rita. "Oh you should've seen him cry the day his dad died when Tirus took over. Dr. Faxit was a very nice man indeed, and so was his wife. Poor Max, he looked up to his father so much." she said.
    Donny looked at the picture some more, then put it down. "It's ashame what Tirus has done to families and everything." he said.
    "I know, and the worst part is, after it's all done, after Tirus is defeated, we still won't have any of the people from our past. It'll just still be the same lonely life." said Rita.
    Donatello felt bad for them all, but of course, he couldn't do anything to bring back their loved ones. He could only help defeat the evil that destroyed them. He then turned to Rita. "How's about we get started cleaning up this place?" said Donatello, changing the subject.
     "Good idea." said Rita with a smile.
     Donny picked up a rag from an open box, and began dusting off the various tables.
     Rita turned on the lights that actually worked, and used another rag to clean the walls and equiptment from cobwebs and dust.

     Mikey had gotten pretty bored just eating popcorn and reading a magazine alone in the kitchen, so he began walking around to see where everyone was.
     He went into the computer room, and found Max (who was all cleaned up by now) trying to get one of the computers to work.
      "Stupid machine." Max said to himself.
      "Hey dude, where is everyone?" asked Mikey.
      Max turned to him. "Oh, hi Michealangelo. I don't where they all are. But I do know that Raphael, Leonardo, Cori, and Venus are on the roof. Other than that, can't say I know." said Max.
      "Oh, well, ok." said Mikey, and he went to the elevator. "Um, okay, I gotta talk to the elevator." said Mikey to himself.
"The roof please." he said.
      "Unable to acknowledge term." said the computer.
      Mikey thought for a moment. "Highest Floor please." he said.
      The computer was silent for a moment. "Acknowledged." it finally said, and began moving up.
      "Trippy machine." said Mikey to himself.


      On the highest floor, Mikey stepped out of the elevator, and entered the room where Lavia and Fay were engaged in another pillow fight.
     A pillow (which felt more like a sawdust filled potato sack) hit Mikey in the head.
     "Hey!" he said.
     Lavia and Fay looked towards him, breathing hard from the pillow fight,
     "Oh, sorry Mikey." said Lavia, laughing a bit.
     "What are you doing up here?" asked Fay.
     "I was bored. I mean, there's nothing to do around here. You all don't even have a TV!" said Mikey.
     "TV? We don't need no stinkin' TV." said Lavia, impersonating an Italian mafia character she once saw.
     "Yeah, we got pillows!" said Fay, throwing another one at Mikey.
    "Wanna join the fight?" asked Lavia.
     "No way! This is a girl thing, I'm a guy." said Mikey.
     "Hey that's right!" said Lavia.
      "And you intruded on a pillow fight? Ooo, real bad Mikey." said Fay.
     "Elevator code 69!" Lavia shouted towards the elevator.
     The door to the elevator shut.
      Mikey pressed the button to open it, but it wouldn't. "Hey, what gives?" he asked.
      "Beat the boy!!" Lavia shouted as they began pommeling Mikey with pillows.
      "Hey! Wait! No!" said Mikey. He soon found this to be kinda fun, and threw pillows back at the girls. "I'll get you!" he said.
      "Time out!" said Fay.
      "Why?" asked Lavia.
      "We have to build pillow fortresess! It's the only way we can defeat enemy forces." said Fay.
      "Everyone for themselves!" said Mikey.
      They each built separate fortresesses, and hid behind them.
      "Go!" shouted Lavia, and the pillow fight continued.

     Up on the roof, now Venus and Leonardo were watching Raphael and Cori spar.
     "You don't think they'll, ya know, hurt each other will they?" asked Leonardo.
     "I doubt it. I don't think hurting each other is what's on their minds." said Venus.
     "Well, okay." said Leonardo, still kind of skeptical of letting them spar.
     "Besides, it is boring up here. Let us go to the living room." said Venus
     "Why?" asked Leo.
     Venus grabbed the ends of his bandanna, and brought them to the sides of his neck. "We must talk." she said, and pulled him off to the elevator.
      Leonardo was puzzled by Venus' behavior, as well as intrigued.

     Leonardo and Venus soon ended up in the living room, where Venus stopped and turned around to face Leo.
     "Okay, so what is it you wanna talk about?" asked Leo.
     Venus looked into his eyes for a moment, then she kissed him.
     Leonardo was nonetheless surprised, but pleasantly surprised.
     She then pulled back, and looked up at him.
     "And where did that come from?" asked Leo.
     "I don't know. I guess that it is something that I have wanted to do for a while." said Venus.
     "Same here." replied Leo. Then he leaned in and kissed Venus.
     They stood there kissing for a while, until they finally parted.
     "Mmm. . . " said Leo to himself, as he still wanted more of that.
     "What would Master Splinter say?" Venus asked, not really expecting an answer.
      "As long as we don't get too far, I don't think he'll mind." said Leo.
     Venus smiled back up at him.

      In Rita's lab, Donny and her had just finished dusting the place, so it looked a little more presentable.
       Donny had gotten the lights to stay on without flickering, but the room still looked a little strange with all of the empty tables.
      "What kinds of things are you planning to put on those tables?" asked Donny.
      "Mainly things that Dr. Faxit had on his tables. He had beakers of different types of solutions, and I wrote down the ingredients to every sort of solution he ever made." Rita then looked down at another picture. This time it was larger.
     Dr. Elliot Faxit, Max, and his mother were there. It also included Cori and Rita as growing baby mutant Turtles.
     Donny saw where Rita was looking.
     "Max made me put this up here when we first came into this place." said Rita, trying not to cry. It was her favorite picture of all. "I don't know what he'd do if he ever saw this picture again.
     "Wow, you all were like a family." said Donny as he looked at the picture.
     "We were a family. A strange one, but a family nonetheless." said Rita, a tear rolling down her cheek.
     Donny didn't know what to say about something like that. He'd never had the experience of losing a loved one, or an entire family for that matter. But he didn't want to see insensitive, so he put an arm around her shoulder.
      "Hey, at least you still have Max, and your sister. They're still here with you." said Donny.
     Rita smiled through her tears. "Yeah," she sniffled. "True." Then she looked up at Donny. "I guess I need that reminder, huh?" she asked.
     "We all need reminders now and then. Especially ones like that." said Donny.
     Rita just kept on smiling.

     Back on the roof, Raph and Cori had almost had it with sparring, which had quickly turned into fighting. It was getting them nowhere. They both seemed to be equally adept at fighting, and getting themselves out of tight situations.
    They both stood there looking at each other, and trying to catch their breath.
     "You, haven't, won." said Raph.
     "Neither, have, you." said Cori.
    Cori then took a really deep breath, and sighed. "Listen, we ain't gettin' no where like this. I'm goin' back downstairs to my room." she said, walking away from Raph.
     "Oh, and you think it's just like that?" asked Raph, following after her.
     Cori stopped and turned around. "Yeah, it's just like that. I mean, why are we trying to outdo each other anyways? It's just like Mike said, we're on the same team, why are we fighting?" reasoned Cori.
    "So what's this then? We're callin' a truce or somethin?" asked Raph.
    "If you want to. If not, I'll just not fight you anymore." said Cori.
    "So you're just gonna let me beat on you if I try?" asked Raph.
    "No, I'll take out my laser and stun you." said Cori.
    Raph looked at her funny. "You're crazy." he said.
    "Well, crazy or not, I ain't fightin' you no more. It's borin." said Cori. "I mean, it's like that dude on the television said . . . well, when we had television. But anyway, he said, 'make love, not war."
     Raphael raised a curious eyebrow (well, you know what I mean) to that expression.
     Cori caught his expression. "Not that kind of love, but peace." she said.
     Raph didn't say anything, he just stood there, and turned away from Cori.
     "I'll see ya 'round." said Cori, and she left.
      Little did she know, but she gave Raphael something to think about, as well as a very interesting idea.

      Later on that night, everyone went to the kitchen for dinner.

      "What a day!" said Max as he sat down at the table with his TV dinner, which is what they always have.
      "Yeah, fun day!" said Fay.
      "What did you all do anyway?" asked Max.
      "Pillow fight!" exclaimed Fay, Lavia, and Mikey.
     Max chuckled to himself. "Well, I see you all had a good day. I mainly fixed some things around the place." he said.
     Donny and Rita snickered to themselves, remembering how ridiculous Max looked earlier.
     "Tell me Max, how many lab coats did you go through today?" joked Rita.
      Donny could no longer supress his laugh.
    "Ha ha, very funny you guys. But no matter what happened, I still got everything done." said Max.
     No one else knew what they were talking about, and quite frankly, they didn't care.
     Lavia looked around the table. "You know, this is the happiest that we've been in a while." she said.
    "Yeah, I know. It's pretty cool." said Cori.
    "I couldn't agree more." said Max.
     They all smiled, and carried on eating their dinner, and talking.

     After dinner, everyone headed off to bed.

     Fay and Lavia took their blankets, and battery-powered lamps upstairs with them to the pillow room, where they had previously decided to sleep for the night.

     Everyone else had gone to their rooms, when Raphael spotted Cori en route to her own room.

     "Hey." he said as he came towards her.
     Cori looked towards him coming, and stopped walking. "What?" she asked.
     "I thought about what you said earlier, and ya know, that's deep." said Raph.
    "Oh yeah? Well, I'm glad you listened." said Cori.
    "So I'm not gonna try ta fight you anymore." said Raph.
   "Cool, so it's a truce?" she asked.
    "Yeah, a truce." said Raph. But instead of shaking hands, he leaned in and kissed her.
     Cori was shocked, but she actually found herself enjoying it, and closed her eyes.
    After a while, he pulled back, and looked at her.
    She had opened her eyes, and just stared at him, a surprised look on her face.
    Raph got a sly smirk on his face. "Night." he said, and walked away.
    Cori just stood there for a moment, silent as a mouse. She then looked down the hallway where Raphael had walked. "Wow." she said to herself. She finally got over the shock, and went to her room.

      In Tirus' castle in his dimension, he was at his throne as he watched his beast warriors move about, appearing very busy.
     A group of warriors approached the throne and momentarily bowed.
    "Sir, we have great news for you." said one of them.
    "Oh? And what news do you have that could be possibly be considered great to me?" asked Tirus, looking quite indifferent to their precense.
    "It is about your plans sir. The preparations have succesfully been made." said the beast that was doing all the talking.
    Tirus turned to them. "Really? So soon?" he asked in his usual calm demeanor.
    "Yes sir." said the beast.
    "And what news have you from my good friend, Razor?" asked Tirus.
    "He is scheduled to arrive very shortly sir." said the beast.
    "How soon is that?" asked Tirus.
    "In a few days sir."
     Tirus grinned a devilish grin, baring the 4 sharp canines that he had. "Excellent. You all have been very good." he said.
     "Thank you sir."
      "Go now. I will tell you when the time is right to execute our plan." said Tirus.
      "Yes sir." said the beasts all together, then they left.
     Tirus sat in his throne grinning. "Ah yes, the time has come. The worlds, will be mine."
      He chuckled an evil chuckle that would send chills up anyone's spine. His eyes glowed for a moment, and he looked out at his beast warriors. They had grown quite a bit in strength; no one would stop him now.

On to Chapter Eight

Back to Chapter Six