Cold Fire Rising

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

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The rest of their time in the city was a blur. They found what they needed: the city council, who knew Dr Honeycutt, also gave them several medical devices, liquids, and resins, explaining that it could speed up recovery time once their "brave young brother" was ready for physical therapy. It appeared that very few were able to fight the Alchemist one on one. Leonardo felt the muscle in his shoulders relax when one of the council members smiled and said that she was certain he would waken soon. They hadn't told the council about the so-called M'Kari stone, still tucked in Donatello's pouch; Sirra had stressed that they might be unable to leave the planet without a thorough investigation. She had given them fruits and vegetables, and said she hoped they contacted her again.

Back on the Ulixes Honeycutt had closed himself up in his lab with the M'Kari stone. April leaned against the ship's main console, nibbling her fingernails. In the three days that the turtles had been on the planet, Michelangelo's condition had slipped. So, Donatello had applied some of the Cadranian medicine, which strengthened his vitals considerably more than anything they had on the Ulixes, something that intrigued and perplexed Honeycutt when he wasn't working with the poison or the stone. Raphael, anger and somberness in his eyes, had gone off to beat things up. The very concept that they had found the homeworld of the Alchemist had still had them shaken.

There was a long discussion about staying near Cadran for a while or coming back to it later. Leonardo said that their mission was too important to stay for long, and everything would be easier once they were a full team again. Upon hearing that, Casey had quickly grabbed a very large, very heavy pillow and told Raphael to have at. After a few minutes of punching and swearing, the atmosphere had lightened up and they had had dinner while watching Space Heroes.

Two more weeks passed. Extreme restlessness was palpable. The three turtles spent more time in the dojo and space-waking, occasionally just yelling their lungs out. April and Casey began arguing about anything they could think of.

It was a very bad time for their patient to go into cardiac arrest again.

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"Code Blue!" Dr Honeycutt yelled at full volume.

"SON OF A FUCK," Donatello howled, grabbing a syringe and epinephrine as he hurtled toward the bed.

"I thought the Cadranian stuff-" Leonardo was interrupted by Donatello snarling and hissing so deeply that even Leatherhead would have been terrified.

"IT DID. IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER." Donnie was biting off each hard word as he plunged the syringe into Michelangelo's chest, growling as the heart monitor beeped twice and went flat again. He shrieked and prepared the defibrillator paddles.

Everyone jumped back in fear.

Letting out a broken, anguished cry, Donatello hit his brother with the paddles. The beeping started instantly, and it held. "Yes," Honeycutt said. "There. Normal sinus rhythm."

"Really?" Donatello hissed again. "REALLY?"

"Yes, really. Yes." Honeycutt moved so close to the angry ninja that Raph and Leo stepped forward prepared to prevent a conflict.

"You've done it, Donatello. Please breathe deeply." And Honeycutt put his robot hands on the turtle's shoulders.

Everyone else cringed.

Donnie took a deep, deep breath. He closed his eyes. Upon exhale, he hissed loudly, but that was all. He seemed to deflate completely. Then he dropped to the floor and burst into tears.