Aspect Elemental: By Amanda Flowers

   "This girl is not one of the turtles," Shredder insisted, irritated. "This is some kind of sympathy ploy. It won't work!" He directed this last remark to the weakening figure in the center of the cylinder. "Soon, the transfer will be complete, and I--we--" he corrected himself at once-- "will have powers undreamed of!"

Aquaria understood the threat, but Shredder could not hear her shouted reply. "You're wrong, Saki! There is nothing for you to take!" It had been her last line of defense.

Shredder, his ears duller than hers above the din of machinery, saw only the shout without hearing the message, and laughed. "Cry your pitiful cries for help. The turtles may come, but it will be too late for you!"

   "The turtles will come!" Aquaria shouted. "They're on their way!" Pain tore through her powerless body, tearing her apart. "Leonardo..."

Oh, God, how could she be this way?!

   "Hurry, Leonardo..."

The whispered cry reached an open mind, and the hero's eyes grew wide.

   "Hurry!"

Donatello nodded, facing a blank wall. The door would not open, and there was no simple way out of the arena room.

Donatello focused. These walls were solid, and they might have just enough trace of Earth Element in them...

He put his hand to the wall and closed his eyes, channeling his newfound power into the surface. The Earth inside began to weaken, and the door panel fell loose into the hall with a deafening sound.

The result frightened Donatello. He sighed, looking at the remains of the wall. "Can we be trusted with power like this?" he asked. "Can any mortal?"

Leonardo doubted, too, but shook it quickly off. "We'll talk about it later. We have to find that room with the glass cylinder!"

   "Right; I know the way."

The panel on the far wall fell apart, crashing into the room. "Turtles fight with honor!" came the cry.

   "The Turtles!" Shredder spun to face the wall as Donatello entered the room, followed by Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael. New hope surged through Aquaria's soul, then, sudden longing and despair.

   "Dude, who's that?" Michaelangelo pointed to the woman in the glass chamber.

   "Aquaria!!" Leonardo cried out, seeing her in reality for the first time, seeing the danger she was in.

   "I told you those new security measures would fail," Krang gloated.

   "Let her go, Shredder." Leo tried to regain composure, holding his sword at ready. "I'm warning you..."

   "Leonardo, is there something you're not telling us...?" Donatello wondered, jestingly. But Leonardo was in no mood for jokes.

   "Rocksteady! Bebop! Take care of them!" Shredder bellowed, concentrating on the console before him.

   "Right away, boss!" replied the rhino. Instantly lasers were blazing across the diameter of the room.

   "Raphael and Michaelangelo, handle the punks!" Leonardo directed, already charging to the head of the battle. "Donatello, we'll take care of those two."

   "No prob, dude!" Michaelangelo dove at once into Bebop, striking hand-over-hand, an assault with the speed of the wind.

   "Your number is up, Shredder!" Leonardo cried, his anger fueling him.

   You can't stop them!

Leo halted, his heart frozen cold. He looked up to the class cylinder, saw Aquaria, weakening...

Melting. Just like in the dream.

He abandoned his assault, and ran up the short stairs right up to the cylinderÕs side. "What is happening?!" he shouted to her.

   I waited for you...

She spoke directly into his mind--the last of her remaining power.

Raphael abandoned thoughts of fire for now, dodging blasts of light. Donatello stopped, watched Leonardo. What was he trying to do?

   "Waited for me to what?" Leo asked.

Aquaria gasped. Her hair dripped into ooze on the floor; she put her hand against the glass wall and watched it lose all substance.

   I've given you everything I have. They can't take it away now.

   "Leonardo!" Donatello shouted. "Who are you talking to?!"

Leonardo reached into his belt, pulled out the necklace. "How do I use it?" he pleaded.

   No. Didn't he understand? You...don't...

   "Can't you get this machine working any faster?!" Shredder demanded, taking hold of the lever and pushing it up. Still no readings! Why?

Aquaria dropped to her knees at the sudden rush of pain. You...need... Her legs vanished into liquid as her face dissolved.

Leonardo touched the necklace to the cylinder, trying desperately to understand...

   No! Not...

Her sudden scream tore through his soul.

Then, silence in his mind as her body melted away.

She was gone.

Leonardo gasped and stumbled back, his fury eating away at him. "You..." He pointed a finger at Shredder, shaking. "You miserable maggot..."

The room began to shake.

   "What went wrong?" Shredder cried. Still no energy in the machine; the girl was gone! An overload?

   "You..." The walls creaked and groaned, and a great fountain of water spurted from one side, than another.

The petty battles on the floor dispersed as the fighters scattered--Raphael running from the water that had hurt him so before. "What's going on?" he cried, sharing confusion with everyone else in the room.

   "What did you do to her?!"

The room began to flood, water rising fast. Another rift opened in the wall as Raphael sought high ground on a console of the machine.

   "Krang!" Shredder sought an explanation. "What is this contraption doing?"

   "It's washing you out, Shredder!" Donatello exclaimed triumphantly.

   "Evacuate!" Krang shouted. Bebop and Rocksteady had been waiting for that command, and ran from the room like frightened children, their superiors close behind.

   "Cowards!" Leonardo shouted. A great rush of water surged at the villains, pushing them back into the room. They struggled against the onslaught.

   "Please tell me someone can work that portal and get us outta here!" Raphael yelled, running out of ground to stand on.

Shredder pushed against the blast of water, finally making it down the hall. He looked to where his allies were doing the same; they broke free of the flood and raced into the hallway, a tidal wave rolling behind them.

Leonardo pursued them with his mind. "You cowards..."

   "Abort." The strong voice of the Eternity Element hummed in Talloc's consciousness. "Your man has failed."

Talloc looked to the hovering image before him: water rushing through the halls of his Technodrome. He stared for only a moment, then bowed at the throne of his master. "Wait. It is not over."

   "I know your plan. I know the outcome."

The silver man grimaced. Eternos knew too much: he knew everything. "Let it be complete, " he pleaded.

Eternity gave no straight answer. "I know the outcome..."

Bebop stumbled. He'd never been so battered by a turtle before--not that he could recall. There was something strange going on around here; even he could comprehend that. There was a throbbing pain in his leg. He fell to the ground.

   "Bebop!" Rocksteady cared about his friend.

   "Leave him!" Shredder commanded. "Hurry!"

   "No way!" The rhinoceros knelt down next to his ally as the tidal wave roared threateningly near. "I ain't leavin' my buddy behind."

   "Fine! You can both get killed, you morons!" Shredder was as good as gone, and the rushing water engulfed the pair.

   "Abort this," Eternity demanded. "I would have those two tested."

   "The inhumans?" Talloc was aghast. "They do not have a brain between them!"

   "But they have their loyalty, which is something I cannot say for your pupil. It would be two minors: Mud and Fog."

Eternos really did know everything; it was perfect. How many were they going to find in this world?

   "Abort the plan, Talloc, or I will assume you unable to make your own choices."

   "As you wish," the Metal Elemental muttered.

One down...

Something snapped in Leonardo's head, and he looked suddenly up. Whatever he had been chasing was gone.

   "Leonardo!" Donatello was trying to get his attention. Leo felt...odd. He had been focusing on something, but couldn't remember what.

He turned around. Aquaria!

   "Leonardo," Raphael interjected, "could you help us out with the waterworks over here? If this stuff does what it did before..."

Leo turned and saw that Raphael was standing on the console above him, nearly out of dry metal to stand on. He felt sheepish, and nodded. He raised his hands high and moved them swiftly apart, spreading all the water in the flooding room to both sides and out through the wall.

   Just like Charleton Heston, Michaelangelo silently observed.

   "Let's think about this rationally," Donatello said. He walked over to the glass cylinder and put his hand on the side. "Glass should be made of Earth, right?"

He concentrated, but something seemed to be blocking him. Finally he bored through the outer layer of the glass, but the inner layer eluded him. "It's...no good. There must be some kind of...anti-element containment field in there."

   "For lack of a better explanation," Raphael noted.

   "Just what's this thing supposed to do, anyhow?" Mike asked.

Donatello inspected the machine as carefully as he could. "I think it's supposed to drain energy of some kind," he said, noting the meters on the console.

   "Life energy?" Leo wondered.

   "I...I can't really tell for sure. One thing I do know is that it didn't work the way it was supposed to."

   "Doesn't take a genius to figure that one out," was Raph's comment.

   "Poor Aquaria..." Leonardo leaned against the cool glass.

Donatello agreed. "But why only your Elemental? Is Water more important somehow?"

There was no easy answer to that.

Leonardo regained his composure. Had to move on: had to find out what Shredder and Krang were trying. "Can you tell where in the Technodrome the Shredder and the others are?"

Donatello approached a computer, typed in a few commands.

   Raphael, you fool! Tell them this is not the way!

   "What?" Raph spun around. Who the heck was talking to him?

   "According to this, they're completely gone!"

Leonardo looked at the computer screen. "What do you mean, 'gone'?" Somehow, he'd figured that already.

   "This is not the way!" Raphael suddenly shouted. Then he yelled at the air. "Stop calling me that!"

   "Huh?" Michaelangelo and the others stared.

   "Where are you?!" Raphael screamed. He was the only one that could hear the voice. "He says we know where to go!" Raph put his hand to his head.

   "Who does?" Leo asked him.

   "We...can't..." Raph closed his eyes and wrinkled his face in sudden pain. "You don't have to yell!"

Leonardo put a hand on Raphael's shoulder. "It's your Elemental, right?"

Don had a sudden inspiration. "The separate Technodromes!"

   "Right! Get the portal ready! We'll go underground first!"

   No! The voice in Raphael's mind was so earth-shattering that he dropped to his knees.

   "What is it, Raphael?" Leonardo dropped to his knees as well, trying to understand what Raphael was receiving.

   "Fire!" Raph shouted. He was going to be set on fire if this pain didn't go away... "Helion! Says...we've got to stay together. Got to--all right! We're coming!--go..."

   "I just thought of something!" Donatello suddenly exclaimed. "In the prophecy, Fire comes after Water! Maybe we need to go to Dimension X now!"

   "That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Raphael's scream split the air. "The Technodrome in Dimension X!" He rose to his feet and leaned weakly on the console, and appended, more softly. "I think he's...dying."

The turtles leapt out of the glowing portal, and it sealed at their backs. "I hope we can get back home..." Leonardo muttered.

   "Come on!" Raphael hastened to the outer edge of the Technodrome.

   "Well I'll be..." Donatello mused. "It's here, too!"

   "Of course it is!" Raphael pried open a section of wall. "This is how I got in before!"

The turtles crawled in through the wall, stepping into an open hall.

Something struck Raphael right away. "Huh?"

   "What is it?" Leonardo asked him.

   "Uhh...yesterday, when I was here...I totaled this place!" He rubbed his finger on the wall. "Now, not a scratch anywhere! Almost as if..."

   "Uh...guys?" Mike interjected.

   "Not now, Michaelangelo," Raph insisted. "I'm trying to..."

   "You really wanna know about this..." Michaelangelo grabbed Raphael's shoulder, aiming his line of sight down the narrow hall.

A whole squadron of Foot Soldiers was approaching. The robots hefted blasters and swords, and were flanked by a pair of what seemed to be hovering robotic bats.

Raphael stepped back, then scowled. "Looks like those creeps are stealing weapons from the Dark Knight!"

Leonardo cast him his "that's not funny" look. "Flank out!" he ordered.

One of the bats opened its metal maw, sending a column of flame right in Leonardo's direction. There was no time for him to dodge, and Leonardo screamed as the fire tore through his skin.

   "Leonardo!" Mike shouted.

Raphael was already rectifying the situation. He drew back his fist and punched forward, letting a fireball fly.