[Open]

[the_dancing_dork]

Who| Leonardo and anyone else
What| Dealing with the first day
Where| Training Center, District 9 suite
When| 10/2 in the first part, anytime in the other part
Warnings/Notes| None

[A] [District 9 Suite]

This was wrong. Very, very wrong. One minute Leonardo had been cut down by the Shredder and completely blacked out, the next he wakes up in some weird place and thrust into some weird area. Well maybe not weird, it looked suitable enough. But the terrapin really didn't care at the moment, the only thing on his mind was what the shell was going on and how did he get out of it?

He only stepped in a little bit before he felt his knees shake and he had to grasp them. He was still shaky and in pain in various areas. His throat was the worst, he wasn't sure if he could even fully talk yet. He took in a breath, which caused a harsh cough to go through him, as he straightened back up.

He couldn't afford to let his injuries plague him right now. He needed to know what was happening. Find anyone who can help him understand why exactly he was here and what he was going to be thrown into. Because whatever it was, it wasn't good.

And he didn't like it one bit, he was pretty sure of that.

[B] [Training Center]

He was right, He did not like it. At all. This was... bad. Especially with how he was now. How was he going to survive this? Get back to his family like this when he could hardly throw a punch without feeling pain somewhere?

Eventually Leo tired of being in the suite and decided to go check the rest of the place. As he observed, things definitely seemed off. He didn't like how there were so many... Peacekeepers, was it? He definitely felt like he was being kept prisoner. Being forced to fight in some games... it was disgusting. He'd really like to just fight back against these guys and make a break for it now...

Just as he nearly collapsed and had to catch himself on a wall, Yeah, that would work out so well right now.

He groaned as he leaned fully against the wall, now feeling the strain from pushing himself too much. He cursed his horrible luck. As if worrying that the Kraang were invading his home and about his family's safety was bad enough, now he had to worry about being a captive by someone else entirely and fight various people just for these idiots sick amusement. Just...

"Can anything ever go right. Ever?"

Well... he didn't cough this time, though it still sounded raspy. But he meant what he mumbled to himself. His luck stinks. So he just crossed his arms and stood there for a while, trying to think of what the best course of action was to now take.

Comments

A

[earthborn]

If Shepard had one really reliable friend in this, aside from her crew, it was Donatello Hamato, lately of district nine. You didn't often see a guy go from fragile to strong like that, and...

Alright, he was a good kid, and he had a lot going for him, if only he could sort himself out. She could admit it, at least to herself. Besides, what had happened in the arena had been intense. More than usual; not combat and blood, that was always true. This time, it had had significance.

Now another thing is true of Turtles: they have shells. And whether it's the species or the familial relationship, Donatello and Leonardo are fairly indistinguishable, at least from behind.

So, when Shepard slid through the door of the D9 suite and saw a turtleshell, she didn't hesitate to walk right up and thump Leo right on the back, "Hey welcome back, Don. So much for Victory, huh?"

[the_dancing_dork]

He hadn't really payed attention to someone coming in... but he did react when he heard that name.

"Don?"

He turned around, coming face to face with Shepard. There was a pretty good mix of shock and concern on hos face right now. He had no idea who Shepard was, but that wasn't his concern right now.

"...you know my brother?"

[earthborn]

As soon as Leo turned, it became obvious that this was not Donatello. Shit.

"Uh...Shit," He'd mentioned brothers, but she fumbled for the memory, "Yeah. I'm Commander Shepard, with the Alliance Navy. You haven't seen him? He was assigned to this floor."

She pointed at the door that had been Don's. Probably belonged to this guy, now.

[the_dancing_dork]

"No, I just got pretty much shoved here a few minutes ago. I haven't seen anyone really."

But... how the shell could Donnie have been here? Did he get here some time before him? Did that mean that Raph and Mikey were stuck in this too? Oh shell that was the last thing that he needed.

He looked at the door. Something didn't feel right. He put a hand to his throat to rub at it a little, to get his voice to cooperate so that eh could get answers.

"How... how long has he been in this place?"

[earthborn]

"I think he holds the record."

The response was immediate, blunt and unsoftened. Donatello had been here longer than anyone left alive, so far as they knew, and he had survived it all. Not without trouble, but nobody came so far through the jungle without some kind of damage.

"Look, I know he has brothers, so how about you start with your name so I know which one you are, and we go from there," Although she had some idea, based on his behavior. Christ, was his voice cracking? The kid looked like hell, "You need to get cleaned up, and you need information. Buy me a sandwich and I'll help you with both. Deal?"

Where Donnie was and what else had happened, would come later.

[the_dancing_dork]

The record? Okay he was really not liking the sound of this. Was this like the differential in Dimension X? Time moved faster here? If so... boy did this whole situation stink.

It took him a second to answer, both because he needed a second to clear his sore throat and because he wanted to ask every possible question about Donnie that he could think of. But Shepard had a point, he needed information and in his state right now... yeah...

"Alright, deal. My name's Leonardo, or Leo. I'm Donnie's older brother."

[earthborn]

"Okay, Leo. Nice to meet you," it was not, as a matter of fact nice to meet him. Shepard would rather have done almost anything in the world other than to meet the kidnapped brother of a possibly-dead friend.

...one thing at a time. Step one, deal with Leonardo's injuries.

"Sit down and I'll get the first aid kit. You can see a doctor if you want, but I wouldn't deliberately trust a Capitol doctor unless my life depended on it."

[the_dancing_dork]

"Yeah, I think I already understand that part..."

No way was he trusting a bunch of people who kidnapped him and took him away form his home. Hopefully he wouldn't be forced to do so either.

He nodded and went to go sit down. When he got to the nearest chair, his shaky knee gave out and he stumbled. He grabbed the arm of the chair as he fell hard on his knees, causing him to let out a startled noise, which provoked a series of coughs. He remained bent down for a second before slowly pulling himself up into the chair.

B

[gothen]

Jake had actually been keeping his eye out for Susannah's so called man-sized turtle friend. He was sure that she wouldn't joke around in the middle of the murder games or whatever and it wasn't even that far fetched of a concept when he knew the taheen existed. But man, that was a concept the inspired biology questions in even him, and he wasn't a science minded kind of person at all.

He'd been looking for the other people mentioned also, of course. He still hadn't seen mister perfect hair or either of the girls that were supposed to be around his age. It was amazing how many people they'd brought here- and how many Peacekeepers had popped up since the blackout.

He had just gotten done trying a couple of melee weapons half-heartedly (nothing like guns at all) and had resolved to come back later and look into the edible plant and bug station when he noticed poor Leo.

"Excuse me, are you...Donatello?" The boy asked after thinking for a moment, sounding slightly concerned. Of course, he didn't know that Donnie was supposedly just as permadead as Susuannah was.

[the_dancing_dork]

Leo turned when he heard someone talking to him. That was the second time in a row that he'd been mistaken for his genius brother... and that brought back the worry or him. Great.

He straightened up, clearing his throat really quick to try and talk.

"Sorry, but no. I'm his brother, Leonardo."

B - Training Centre

[darkvigilante]

“Love the whining. Great quality in a leader.”

… not that he hadn’t spent the entire day so far doing exactly the same thing, but pfff. Leo didn’t have to know that, right?

Right.

It seemed like the smartest place to go right now—somewhere he’d be able to pound the crap out of a dummy, maybe, or at the very least, learn new and exciting ways to pound the crap out of everything else. Raph had heard more than he needed to about the Training Centre to know it was likely the best location for him in the here and now. With the recent info-dump and … well… straight out kidnapping this whole Capitol thing entailed, he was nowhere near being in a healthy mindset. Not in the slightest.

For a moment, he was dismayed to see someone else already there, leaned lethargically against a wall. He’d hoped to have the place to himself, even if just for a half hour or so, and had just started to turn back when he noticed the familiarity of the shape. Either it was a green human with a perfectly round body and kneepads, or he wasn’t as alone as he thought he was.

Raphael stood a little taller than normal – a habit he’d unconsciously adopted long ago when in the presence of his elder sibling – and approached him like they were back home, suddenly feeling much better.

“You got a cold or somethin’?”

A

[hit_girl_mindy]

Talk about news going from bad to worse. She knew she'd lost Riley, and that sucked, but after a few days she realized who ELSE was no longer in her District: Donatello. This put Mindy right in a pissed off mood, as Donatello had been someone she had a relatively good bond with. His loss actually cut her deep, enough so that she took out her aggression on the poor unsuspecting punching bag in the training room, and came back, still a little pissed off about it.

Only...was she wrong? Because she was totally seeing a turtle in her suite now, and she was about to open her mouth and exclaim how happy she was when she saw the bandanna.

"Do-oh, Leonardo."

Her heart sunk a little here, and then she felt pissed off. SERIOUSLY?!

[the_dancing_dork]

The voice didn't register to Leo... but the familiar attitude did. he turned around, his eyes widening when he saw who it was. he straightened up. It didn't... quite look like the turtle he knew. Where the shell did the shell crack go? Still he knew exactly who it was.

"...Raph?"

[the_dancing_dork]

Leo turned around to see... someone he did not know. Well duh, of course it was. But apparently she knew who he was. Which, considering the circumstances, could range from another person that Donnie apparently knew to really bad for him.

"Umm... yes, I'm Leonardo. And how exactly do you know that?"

Excuse him for the look of suspicion and caution, he's not trusting anyone right now.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Of course he would wonder that. Best to cover it up too, that she knew about him from comics and tv.

"You have a brother, and he's mentioned you," she said. "He's...well, he used to be in this District. He's not here anymore."

Something she was still dealing with.

"I'm one of the mentors of District nine, Mindy Macready." She stuck out her hand. She was ALSO dealing with being only one of two mentors now.

[the_dancing_dork]

That response got an alarmed look from him. He out a hand to his throat as he tried to speak.

"What... what do you mean he's not here anymore? Is he okay?"

He got the feeling that whatever the answer was going to be, he wasn't going to be happy about it.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Before I answer that, you have to answer something foe me: how much do you know about what goes on here?"

Man, didn't even ask anything about mentors or districts. Hopefully that meant he was up to snuff on that.

[the_dancing_dork]

There was a brief look of irritation on his face and his fists clenched. But he took in a breath, followed by a cough, as he tried to calm himself down.

"I only know that I got dragged from where I'm from for some kind of fighting to the death. I don't know exactly why and right now I don't care. I just want to know if my brother is okay."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"There's your first mistake," Mindy said, sighing. Yup, he knew nothing, just single focused. "You better learn about what's going on. That fighting to the death stuff happens every time you go into the Arena, and I MEAN every time. You can die, and they just bring you back. Don was in her a long time, longer than me even, and it, well, it did things to him, but he survived. I was just with him in the last Arena."

She paused. "They didn't bring him back this time."

[the_dancing_dork]

He was following along... at least until that last sentence. That's when he felt his seriousness turn into cold hard shock and his expression changed to fit it. Didn't come back? Then... did that mean...?

"So then he... he might be... dead?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

"It means he's not here anymore," Mindy said, "but yeah, it might mean that. I've had to lose a few good people while I've been here, and Don leaving I only found out about yesterday. Fact is, he isn't here anymore. You are."

Never mind he could have killed her when she was weakened. Never mind she and him huddled on the train to keep warm right before seeing the people in her district, or that she wound up worrying about him.

[the_dancing_dork]

He felt sick. Donnie... Donnie might be... no, he couldn't be. Donnie couldn't be...!

His wide eyes stared at the ground, his entire body feeling numb as the past few hours back home went through his mind. How they had argued over how to handle the Kraang invasion. How they watched the Kraang blast apart their home. How even when running for their lives they argued over what to do. How Donnie got shot in the arm and was down on the cold, wet sewer floor the last time he ever saw him...

Little did he know that the Donnie here was not his world's Donnie, but even then it wouldn't matter. His brother... his brother was...

"Donnie..."

He didn't even notice that he fell onto his knees at this point. He was just... in complete shock right now.

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Worst thing is sometimes? They DO bring them back, just because they feel like. The Capitol is very fickle like that: like one person one day, get rid of them the next. I'm surprised it took them so long to bring you here, actually. Kind of insane."

She did, however, pat his shell. "It doesn't get easier. You have to concentrate on you right now though. Get adjusted to this place. There are a lot of things to consider."

[the_dancing_dork]

Bring them back? They killed people and resurrected them? To make them do it all over again?! That... how could they do that to people?! Who were these sickos?!

He looked up at Mindy, as if he were about to argue. But he caught himself before any words could come out. His fist clenched. His brother was possibly dead. he was more or less being forced into taking his little brother's place. And she expected him to worry about himself?!

But how could he find Donnie right now? When he could barely stand? When he wouldn't last a minute against his captors? Especially with his limited knowledge of any of this.

"...fine. What do I need to know about this whole thing then?"

[hit_girl_mindy]

Well DUH, he was going to have to worry about himself. What good could he do for his brother, who wasn't here? It may have sounded heartless and self serving.

"A lot. For starters, you missed the current one, so you at least have some time to prepare. There will be other people in our suite, they're in our district. You'll meet them soon enough. We're all here just like you, meaning against our will, so if you wanted to help them out I won't be averse to that. We have a training room where you sharpen your skills, or when you just have to fuck up some dummies so you can feel better. Review the old game so you know what you're up against. The arena is always different but the principal stays the same: be smart, be resourceful, and kill when you need to. Not everyone who was brought here is against killing, after all."