“What the…?!” Diana yelps as she falls into the muck.
“A swamp. A friggin’ swamp,” Jae grumbles before laughing. “Good thing Zoi’s not here. She’d have kittens!”
Diana pictures the look that her sister-in-law would be wearing, and joins her husband in hysterics. She and Jae laugh so hard, they’re forced to sit down in the filth, helpless in each other’s arms.
“Uh, guys,” they look up at HLM’s voice, tears streaming from their eyes.
“Huh?” Jae asks intelligently, noticing that the rest are in defensive positions.
“We have company.”
The exhausted couple look up and see Ed with his arms spread and glowing.
“Oh…” Raph starts.
“…shit,” Wolvie finishes, just before Diana and HLM throw up an energy shield jointly. Ed lets loose with a massive electrical current.
Storm grasps the atmospheric forces and hurls most of the electrical attack back at the blue haired man. What she doesn’t get is absorbed into the force field.
Ed’s back stiffens with the sudden shock, and he drops into the swamp. HLM, Raph and Wolvie take off after their foe.
Jae stays with Diana, who’s weakly trying to cling to consciousness.
Storm takes to the air to watch from the sky and offer ariel support when she can.
Raph, Wolvie and HLM are attacking the power hungry monster from three different sides. He defends himself decently, but he still takes a lot of blows. When Storm sends a lightning bolt down, though, he screams in anger and frustration before disappearing.
HLM, who was about to dive at Ed, falls face-first into the grimy swamp water. She sits up, wipes as much slime off of her face as she can, and spits out what got in her mouth.
“Yuck, that stuff tastes like shit. Did we get him?” she asks, as she takes hands up from Raph and Wolvie.
Storm lands as Diana and Jae make their way over to the group.
“He is still alive, but greatly weakened,” the seemingly omniscient sword answers. “You can rest for the night.”
“Once we find someplace dry,” Wolvie adds.
“Yeah, not too fond of sleeping in water,” Raph comments.
“How’d ya ever manage to get any sleep when you were just a lil’ turtle then?” HLM asks with a grin.
Raph smirks. “Easy, I just claimed the lil’ plastic island for myself."
HLM giggles, and looks up at Storm, who had taken to the air while the two lovebirds were bantering with each other.
“See anything, Stormie?” Wolvie shouts up to his teammate.
She gestures to the east, and then gestures for the group to follow her.
After traveling for about fifteen minutes, the group bursts from the mist and grime onto a dry patch of land big enough to set up a small camp site.
“I’ll go find some fire wood with Logan, why don’t the rest of you can gather some bedding?” Storm suggests.
“No problem there,” HLM comments, and is suddenly holding enough blankets for them all.
Wolvie blinks. “How…? Never mind…” he shakes his head and follows Storm.
When they’re gone, HLM passes out the blankets, and the remaining four set up a fire-pit for when they get the firewood. HLM and Jae exchange looks, sensing that Diana and Raph have to do a little talking.
“Jae, why don’t we see if we can kill ourselves some dinner?” HLM asks, popping her claws with semi-feigned enthusiasm.
“Uh, sure, HLM. We’ll be back with food soon.”
As soon as they’re gone, Raph sits by Diana.
“So…uh…” Raph starts, not too good at this emotional stuff, “yer lookin’ kinda tired.”
Diana grins wryly, “Yeah…I am. Reality jumping takes a lot out of a person.”
Raph nods, and pulls his blanket a little tighter around his shoulders. They’re silent for a moment.
“Raph?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you happy? With HLM, I mean…”
Raph nods. “Yeah, I love ‘er. Wanna spend the rest o’ m’ life wit’ ‘er…but…I woulda been happy wit’ you, too. If things woulda been able ta work out…”
Diana smiles a little, and wipes some moisture from her eyes. There’s silence again.
This time, Raph breaks it.
“You?”
She nods. “I love Jae, and I’m glad I married him. I feel the same way you do, though…about us…”
He reaches over, and they share a hug. When they part, Wolvie and Storm show up with the firewood, and shortly after them, HLM and Jae show up with something looking like a cross between a rabbit and a dog.
They fix their dinner, set up watch, and settle in for a very long night.
Reunions Index
Chapter Five
Chapter Seven