Aspect Elemental: By Amanda Flowers

At some point he realized he was having no trouble breathing. For one, solid moment, he was part of the earth, of everything. This...was this what he had been sent here for? This--

Abruptly his feet hit an air pocket under the sand. Flailing around, he continued to sink, dropping in a muddy heap into a hidden room below.

Donatello coughed up a mouthful of purplish dirt, and resumed breathing the air. "This defies the laws of physics!" he exclaimed. He rose to his feet, and squinted at the unstable ceiling. "Not that I'm complaining."

The light source in this room was a purple glow ahead of him. He looked over to it, normal vision returning to his eyes, and saw that it was an interdimensional portal. Then he looked again; there was one behind him, too. And four one side of him, four on the other. The ground below him was sloppy, wet, likely a drip-off from the lake above. He had no way of telling where the portals led, nor what dangers he would face... He ought to try and use the scientific way.

   "Eenie, meenie, miney...moe." He ended up pointing at the portal behind him, and one choice was as good as another down here. Bracing himself, he entered.

Disappointingly, he ended up in the same room, on one of the four wall portals. Worse yet, he had no idea which wall he was facing anymore!

Shaking his head, he tried once more. "Eenie--"

He stopped. Taking out his bo, he made a careful mark in the clay below his last exit. That was one portal he now knew not to take.

Choosing randomly, he once again ended up doubling back on himself. He made the mark. Then, he thought of an even more logical solution. Scooping up a handful of purple mud, he lobbed it into the next consecutive portal. It flew out of one on the far wall. He marked them both, and reminded himself to duck on the next toss, just in case.

The next mudball disappeared.

Now, he knew for sure he'd found an exit to this room, but, to where? He carefully stuck in the tip of his weapon, and met no obstruction. He leaned back, and did a very impressive flying kick into the glowing doorway.

When the glow subsided and he looked around, Donatello made a startling discovery. He was back in the first room.

   "If this is one of Shredder's schemes it definitely is his weirdest!" Leonardo concluded, talking to himself under impossible circumstances.

Feeling suddenly alone, he reached for his Turtlecom...and found it gone.

In a panic he checked for his weapons--both katanas present and accounted for. But...who would take his 'Com...and not his swords?

The sloping hallway leveled out after a few yards.

Despite being underwater--and unusual water at that--Leo had the distinct impression that he had wandered into someone's house. There were doors along the wall: four of them, and, at the very end of the hall, the penultimate, a door with silver workings on it, like the entrance to a palace. Leonardo tried that one first, and found it locked. He tried to pick the lock with his blade, but it was hopeless.

   "These other doors are just as good, I guess," he sighed. Turning around, he reached over for the knob on the unadorned door to his right. It opened with no resistance. He opened it in increments, peering inside cautiously.

The room was like a small museum. Sitting on blue shelves, and protected from the water by airtight glass bubbles, was a variety of both strange and common items. Leo spotted a pot of violets, a human skull, yes, even a live squirrel, chattering soundlessly in its prison. He felt a twinge of concern, but was distracted by the presence of two very different keys in a pair of equally-sized containers.

One of the keys was shining, even glowing, silver. The other was tarnished silver, and dull. Leo looked for a way to open the bubbles, and spotted small buttons under each of them, lit with white. Suddenly, he understood.

He could only take one thing.

It was like an ancient dilemma. Choose based on looks alone--the key glowing, that seemed to fit the great door so well? Or choose the opposite, fearing some kind of trick? Or, knowing the trickster would predict his choice, back to the original...What kind of enemy was he up against?

Setting his mind straight, he chose the glowing key. Every button in the room instantly faded out. Trying for the second key was futile, and Leonardo knew it. But, hopefully, the choice was correct.

He returned to the silver door, and tried the key. A few air bubbles escaping, the tumblers loosened, and the lock opened.

   "If this is another bridge room..." Raphael opened the door in front of him with increasing frustration, and stepped...outside.

To every side an ocean of lava burned, and, above, a sky of frightening red, a huge sun burning out all other color. Before him lay nothing more than a short walkway, leading to a tall, stone labyrinth.

Raphael glared with contempt at the maze's entrance. He stomped over.

   "There's no way I'm gonna--" he laid a hand on the near wall--"Yeeeeeowwwch!!" He snapped his arm away, and blew on his hand. The walls were heated, just like that last bridge.

   "Well, too hot to handle, too high to leap..." The hallway split into three passages here, one in front of him, and one to each side. "Guess I have to do it the hard way." He took the left passage first.

Hadn't that poem said something about a white sky? At any rate, Michaelangelo was certain it hadn't said anything about fluffy, orange, cotton-candy clouds. Wow, just the thought made him hungry, but there didn't seem to be any pizza parlors in sight...any ground, for that matter. Mike stood in the left-over stump of a hallway; around him, a sphere of milky nothingness.

He knew he couldn't remain trapped here forever--somehow, he would have to find a way to proceed. In order to test the length of the drop, he pulled out one of his nunchaku. Squinting, he held it out at arm's length, and paused only momentarily before he let it go.

Only a few feet in front of him, the weapon floated in mid-air.

He reached out and snatched it back, then, with one, slow deliberate step, walked out into the emptiness. The air cushioned him, giving him complete movement. "Yes!!" He immediately dove into a triple barrel roll, shouting, "Cowabunga!!"

He laughed. "This is totally tubluar!" Checking himself in mid-flight, he turned around. "So...now what?"

A dark, floating object in the distance caught his eye, and, unsure of his next course, he approached it. Flying was great--easier than swimming, even--and he doubted he would even want to leave this place. But a sense of duty gnawed at him.

The object he had seen from afar grew larger and larger, until he could finally make out the form: it was a huge wooden door, floating stationary in space. Puzzled, he looked at it from all sides. Okay, floating he could understand, but how could a door go somewhere when there wasn't anywhere to go? Hadn't he seen this on some cartoon or something? He tried the door, and found it locked.

As he flew around and inspected it again, he heard the sound of wings in the distance. A little above him, and to the left, he saw a white creature--a bird. It looked small at first; it reminded him of a pet he used to have.

But in the sky there was no reference point, and as it neared he saw it was gigantic. Its feathers were purest white, save a tall, yellow crest on its forehead. He dropped back as the bird neared the door. It perched on top of it, and stared down at Michaelangelo with a look of obvious superiority.

Michaelangelo stared, and the bird--large, black eyes unblinking--stared back. This went on for several minutes.

Mike had a sudden notion: the bird's enormous size would make it a prime source of transportation. In fact, that was probably its purpose here. Very slowly, he rose up next to the calm animal, and sat upon its back.

The bird, thus assulted, dove to action. With a flutter and a cry it spun around, pecking directly at Michaelangelo's face. "Ow!" Mike dove away, under the door, in time to bar the next attack. "That, was most uncool," he chided, and soared straight upward to avoid the next dive.

From this advantaged point he attacked, swinging his weapon around and delivering one, great blow. He connected with the wing, and the giant bird let out a terrible squack. Michaelangelo's eyes weakened as the bird flailed the broken wing around; he hadn't meant to hurt it like that! The bird retreated, fluttering its wing pitifully.

Mike moved to follow, but as he soared forward, a piece of paper smacked him in the face, and the wake from the bird's wings pinned it there. He yanked it away, trying to get his vision back. "Yo...you dropped this!"...

The bird was completely gone.

He looked down at the note. Written in flowing script on aged paper was the message:

   "Dude... I wonder what that means?" The bird had obviously been sent to deliver this message, and he had messed it up. He looked back at the door.

It was really nice, as flying, giant doors went--this had to be one of the more expensive giant flying doors he'd seen...that was, if he had ever seen one before. The fine wood was covered with swirling brass embellishments; Mike looked for a pattern in the decorations and found none.

He pounded on the door. "Anybody home?"

No answer. He tried knocking with something harder--his weapon--to no avail.

Suddenly, a light blub went off in his head. He looked carefully at the keyhole, even inside to total darkness. He straightened himself up...

   "Open Sesame!"

Obviously that wasn't the solution, either.

It was the last possible option.

Donatello was staring into the swirling light from the only portal he hadn't yet tested, where only moments ago, his mudball had vanished. After going through all the trouble of back-tracking into this room, this had better be worth it. He took one step forward, letting the light encompass him.

His feet hit a metal floor. "The Technodrome! So Shredder is behind this!"

Indeed, the room did look like the Technodrome--machinery lined the walls, a huge viewscreen stretched out in front...but there was something odd about it. Instead of titanium and steel, the machines were cold, black iron. And though the floor was this same metal, the walls beyond were still purplish stone. "Maybe not," Donatello decided, looking over at the walls. "Unless Krang's been redecorating."

No one was in sight, and he was free to approach the console. He looked for any writing on it, and found more than enough...all of it backwards.

Now it occurred to him: the other thing wrong with this room. Though the design was the same as the portal room in the Technodrome, everything was exactly reversed! This console should be on the left! And those tunnels...

He turned around. The room had three visible exits--metal tunnels that branched out from the back. Okay, so it was slightly different. Three possible exits, but a portal would be easier if he knew how to set it.

He translated the writing on the console until he found the place to enter dimensional coordinates. He tried to type them in, but absolutely nothing happened. It was non-functional--out of power. Don started to walk away, but had second thoughts... He drew out his bo and smashed it into the console. He tore through sheets of metal and circuits, but still nothing happened. At least now no one could use it against him.

As Donatello chose a passage, it occurred to him he was leaving a lot of this "Trial" up to luck. Still, every choice seemed similar from his perspective: he chose the central tunnel. It was long and dark, and opened up...

Into the same exact room, or one very nearly like. No, it was the same--the machine was still damaged! Donatello inspected it, and saw only one major difference. It was no longer reversed. Somehow, he had corrected the mirror image! He looked back for the backwards room, but the hall was too dark for him to see it clearly. "Well...I seem to have fixed that up!" But what about getting power...or getting out?

There were still three tunnels leading from this corrected room. The left tunnel lead to a dimly lit, but gigantic factory room. It was a manufacturing plant for Foot Soldiers, as Don noted with distaste. He calmly smashed the skull of one of the finished products, but there were simply too many to destroy this way. At any rate, they were deactivated now.

Next to a long conveyor belt, there was a tall machine covered in switches and sensory meters. The largest switch read, enticingly, "Main Power".

Tentatively, he pulled down the switch.

With single, echoing clicks, lights all over the ceiling came on. The dials on the console next to him burst into life, only seconds before a buzzing alarm sounded in the room. Little whirring sounds marked the awakening of every nearby Foot Soldier. "Uh-oh..." Maybe turning on the power hadn't been such a wise move, after all.

Raph walked around a wall, and faced a division: paths going off to both his left and right, but not to his front. He tried the right turn first, and hit a dead end rather abruptly. "Auggh!" He must have been running around in this place for hours!

He spat at the near wall, enjoying the hissing sound the evaporation made.

He looked to the air, shouting. "Leonardo! This was your darned destiny idea!! If I ever get my burned little fingers around your neck, you're gonna pay!!!"

Of course, there was no reply. Grumbling to himself, Raphael stalked down the other hall.

Michaelangelo had inspected the door from all angles, and still hadn't come up with a logical solution. Well--he corrected himself--he knew plenty of logical ones. Just no working ones.

   "Your own element is the key," he mused. "Way weird." What was his own element?

Air!

Finally understanding, he leaned to the keyhole, inhaled, and blew.

Two things happened at once. The first, thankfully, was that the door began to open, swinging free from the hall beyond of its own accord. The other, not-so-thankfully, was that the air around Michaelangelo gave loose, gravity was restored, and he began to drop. He cried out.

Quickly he grabbed onto the edge of the next orange hall, and pulled himself up beyond the doorway. He shook himself off, hoping he wasn't going to go through anything else like that.

He stared down into the hall, so much like the first one. It made no sense for the hall to even exist here, but, here it was, and it looked long.

Setting his gaze he started down, and looked on into an infinite tunnel.

   "Not this again..." Yes, here it was--completely endless.

It was exactly what he had been expecting.

He spun around to face the entrance. "Ah-ha!" he exclaimed, even before viewing the familiar, ever-present wall. Confident, he turned around, and nearly ran into a matching wall on the opposite side.

He backed up, and looked again behind him. The hall had stopped its shifting, and was now a room, an orange cube only about ten feet at all sides. Michaelangelo had somehow encased himself in a brightly colored box.

   "Bummer."

Cies, the great fish, looked down once more at the short metal chain.

Imagine, she who would be an underwater queen--who should be the underwater queen--reduced to a prisoner...in her own home! At the other end of the chain swam her brother Pi...the dolting buffoon...

The look in the fish's eyes spoke volumes--he was thinking the exact same about her.

The silence of the watery room was broken by a small sound in the direction of the entrance. Cies looked at Pi in quick panic--the door was slowly opening. Pi rushed to the door, dragging Cies behind him as the chain grew taut.

   "Hello?" came a small voice from the door. It opened all the way, and, with a few slow steps, a large turtle, almost as big as they were, walked in. The turtle gave a start upon seeing the paired fish. "Huh? What are you?"

Pi ignored his request, turning to Cies and asking, "What is this?"

   "My name is Leonardo..." it began.

Cies swam closer, looking at the turtle from all angles. It was odd enough, walking more upright than most turtles she'd seen, and wearing blue bands on its--his, she decided--face, legs, and arms. "I don't know!" she admitted.

   "Are you responsible for bringing us here?" the turtle asked.

Cies looked up at Pi. "Do you suppose he's one of Aquaria's?"

   "Can't say," Pi replied confusedly.

The turtle looked a bit frustrated. "Look, I would really like some answers here..."

   "He is a sea creature of sorts," Pi decided. "Could belong."

Cies's swimming had wrapped the chain neatly around the turtle's feet. "Not as well as we do, I don't think."

The turtle stepped out of the mess of chain with a scowl. "I was only asking..."

   "Well, speak up, turtle!" Pi directed. "Are you here for Aquaria?"

   "Who is Aquaria?!" the green creature cried.

   "Well of course he is, you simpleton!" Cies answered for him, as he was obviously unable to reply properly on his own. "What else would he be here for?"

   "What, not to visit us, I suppose?" Pi remarked sarcastically.

   "I don't want to fight you if I don't have to..." the turtle began with clenched teeth.

   "Well, I don't think--" Pi was cut off in mid-sentence as the uninvited guest drew out a shining sword.

   "He's got swords on him!" Cies exclaimed suddenly.

   "Wonderful!" Pi agreed.

   "Look, if you'll just give me an explanation, I'm sure we can avoid this..."