A Rose by Any Other Name

Chapter 24 (Rose)

I watch Ryan closely as he looks at Repo and his machine confused.

"Hey sweet pea. Stay here. I need to do my job as guard dog and help my buddy Repo out ok? I'll be right back." He leaps off the car stack after the commotion.

"WAIT!" I yell after him. But he's already gone.

"This is bad." I whisper to myself. I quickly unpack my bow from my leg pouch and press the button. It pops open fast just as Donnie promised and I quickly take in the commotion below.

Raph is making himself big with his mystic weapon and he's trying to hold the giant machine still. Mikey is trying to wrap it up so it stops working and Leo is doing... Whatever it is that Leo does.

I watch Donnie zoom in on his hover shell and try to help Leo out with turning off the machine. I watch as Repo climbs out and rolls on the ground. 

I load a net arrow and take aim at Repo. He starts to to move at Leo to get him to stop grabbing the lever to turn off the machine.

I shoot at him and the arrow opens and nets Repo to the ground as I intended for it to work. 

I quickly do a celebration that it works until I see Ryan sneakily try to move around the shadows and creep up on Donnie who is now trying to stop the wheels from moving.

Donnie doesn't notice until the last second and uses his arm to block Ryan. Ryan ends up biting Donnie in the arm and Donnie screeches in pain. 

I load a sleeping gas arrow and aim it at Ryan. Ryan is rearing back ready to hit Donnie again. Donnie stands up ready to defend himself if necessary but is in obvious pain.

I quickly release the arrow and it hits right next to Ryan. He breathes in the sleeping gas and starts coughing falling to his knees. Donnie collapses on the ground after I hit Ryan. 

"DONNIE!" I scream as I climb down the car stack. I rush as fast as I can to get to Donnie. Ryan is laying on the ground breathing heavily with his eyes halfway open. He stares at me for a second until his eyes fully close.

I'm overwhelmed with this feeling of guilt. He trusted me not five minutes ago and now I've knocked him out with gas.

The feeling is replaced with panic as Leo falls to his knees next to Donnie. Mikey and Raph run over after stopping the machine.

I slowly move over to them and kneel next to Leo. 

"Show me his arm." I say calmly.

Leo lifts Donnie's limp arm up to me and I inspect the wound. Ryan bit deep into his arm and punctured it leaving his venom behind.

I rub my finger over it and take a closer look. It looks like green sludge.

I pop Donnie's goggles off his head and use them to look at the venom. I look to see for the major molecules that block your bloodstream. 

I see none.

"He should be ok. I think the venom is just a paralyzing strike nothing that will kill Donnie." I say sighing with relief.

"Good. That leaves time for me to ask you why you were conversing with the enemy." Leo says standing up.

"What?" I ask following him. "What do you mean?" 

He points to where I sat up on the car stack.

"You were talking with the mutant that hurt Donnie!" Leo says angrily. "What did you tell him?! Did you tell him to target Donnie?! Or that we were here at all?!" 

He starts yelling at my face and I start stepping back.

"I-I didn't tell him anything! He found me first and I pretended that I wanted to interview him. I have information about him and Repo-" Leo cuts me off by waving his hand in the air.

"I DON'T CARE. You were up there with him and I saw you talking to him you had to have told him something! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!" Leo snaps at me.

I freeze. Time stands still as anger starts to boil in my bones. I haven't felt this kind of anger since I found out I was made by Draxum.

Something snaps inside me. I've always tried to be a good kid no matter how many people thought I was a monster because of Draxum. But now that I've finally made friends, I would never betray them.

"For your information. His name is Ryan. He is buddies with Repo who saved his life so he's now guarding this junk yard." I start out calmly but my anger starts to rise. 

I would never hurt Donnie, or Mikey, or Raph, or even Leo and the fact that I'm being accused of that. That makes me angry.

"He has a chipped fang because there were dentists who wanted to steal his fangs and almost killed him. HE OWES REPO HIS LIFE!!" I start to yell. "And MAYBE you would get that if you actually looked out for your brothers instead of putting them in danger!! I KEPT SEEING YOU ARGUE!! YOUR JUST SO FULL OF YOURSELF." I clench my fists and lower my head.

"AT LEAST YOU HAVE A FAMILY!! YOU NEED TO HONOR THEM!" 

Leo tenses up. 

"Well. How can I do that when you've almost killed my BROTHER?!" He shouts.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! I WAS COLLECTING INFORMATION I WASN'T CONSPIRING WITH THE ENEMY!" I shout back. 

"WELL MAYBE THAT WAS A MISTAKE! JUST LIKE YOU!" Leo screams.