Don stood over Mike in the medical ward. Raph sat on the other side of Mike, quietly waiting for Don to finish his examination. Don finally sighed and looked up from Mike.
“Well, how is he?” Raph asked.
“He’s got some severe burns, but I treated them and set him on an excelerated recovery. He should be up and around in a week or so, with only some slight scarring to show for it,” Don looked up at Raph. “So, are any of the reports in yet?”
Raph nodded. “At the moment they estimate several hundred thousand dead, but there are a lot of people still unaccounted for. But the warning did save some people. . .”
“But still not all,” Don said quietly. “C’mon, we have to talk.”
The walked out of the infirmary, and Don quietly closed the door behind them. They started walking back to the living area of the complex. “You have to tell me,” Don started. “You have to tell me everything that happened to you. On the way back I was looking at the data that we’ve managed to gather already, and. . . well, it just doesn’t add up.”
“What doesn’t?”
“I’ll explain as soon as you tell me what happened back there.”
Raph took a deep breath, and started his story. “Well, it was like this. We split up, you know, and Leo and I were walking down the tunnel. But then that tunnel divided too. So Leo decided that we should split up again. So we separated, and I kept walking. I went for a ways, and then my tunnel just ended. Alright, I figure I’d start back and catch up with Leo. But on the way back, Don, man. . .” Raph looked at Don with tortured eyes. “I heard him scream, man. It almost ripped my heart out of my chest to hear that. He screamed for Splinter. . .” Raph steadied himself and went on. “I knew he was in trouble, so I started running. I got around this corner, and there was Null, looking worse than ever. And Leo was behind him, but it was only kind of Leo, he was on fire, blue fire, and when he looked at me. . .” Raph gripped Don’s shoulder. “Don, even I have never looked like that. He wanted to rip out my heart and eat it raw. He hated me more than. . . well, I don’t know. Then Null told him to put the bomb into the lava, and then Null was talking to me, and I just wanted to get out of there, and . . . Don. . . I was so . . . scared.”
Don looked at his brother, and realized that Raphael was on the verge of weeping. It must have been terrible, Don thought. For Raph, of all of them, to be like this. . . he embraced his brother. “It’s okay, Raph.”
Raph took a deep breath and pulled away from Don. “Yeah, yeah, don’t go and get all mushy on me,” he said gruffly.
Don smiled, but then his look turned serious. “Raph, I hate to ask you this, but I need to know what all Null said to you. It could be very important.”
Raph thought for a moment. “There was stuff about the bomb, and then he showed me Leo. Um, then he said he wanted to show me something . . .”
Don sighed. “And that’s all?”
Raph thought a moment longer. “No. He told me, soothing me like, that it didn’t matter, it was already too late.”
This made Don nod as he sunk back in his chair. “Well. Hmm. Raph, something’s very wrong in all this. I’ve been monitoring the emissions from the volcano, and they won’t even get close to the critical level Null would need for an ice age. And unless he’s planning to blow up alot more volcanoes -- which I wouldn’t put past him -- he’s playing a much different game than we thought.”
“Oh, that’s just great, Don. Just what IS his plan then?”
“I don’t know yet.”
*************************
Time passed at turtle headquarters. Mike improved, and was soon practicing with his brothers again. The presence of their leader was sorely missed. No suspicious activity was reported on or near any dormant or active volcanoes. It was quiet.
A little too quiet.
With no new activity in the volcanoes, Don turned his eyes to the skies.
*************************
“CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!” Don’s yell echoed through the headquarters. It brought Raph and Mike running.
“What’s the hubbub, bub?” Mike asked as he came in.
“We’ve got a big problem on our hands,” Don said. “Giant, in fact.”
“And that would be. . . ?” Raph queried.
Don punched a few keys on his board and a very large rock appeared in the monitor. “Null’s plan. Sit down.” Mike and Raph perched themselves between lab equipment. Don began “This is a very large asteroid, on collision course with earth. Three weeks ago it wasn’t.”
“Null?” Mike squeaked.
“Who else?”
“But. . . how do you know?” Raph asked.
“You wouldn’t believe it,” said Don, almost sheepishly. He hands flew over the controls, and the were looking at a close up taken of the asteroid as is spun towards earth. Incredibly, there was a word carved, or melted rather, into the rock.
“Null,” read Raph. “His friggin signature. He signed it, like he created the thing. What an arrogant. . .”
“I’ve run some computations,” Don interuppted, “and it looks like he did make it. Normally there would be slight deviations in it’s path. . . but that thing is dead on and not budging at all. It’s dead on. It’s a lot more solid than your usual nickel-iron meteor, too. It won’t burn up in the atmosphere. When this thing hits, it’s going to make Null’s volcano plan look like a joke. The world will end in fire and ice. And now the worst part. . .”
“You’ve GOT to be kidding!” groaned Mike.
“It’s too late to turn it, or blow it up, or anything. The only things on earth that can stop it are either a miracle or Superman, and as miracles don’t seem to happen that often anymore, and Superman is a comic book character, I’m not counting on either one.”
Rapheal began to laugh. “Oh, is that all? Just the end of the world and there’s not a darn thing we can do about it? Don, you called this a giant problem. Well, my friend, you have a brilliant gift of understatement!”
“Fortunately, I have a plan.”
Mike smiled. “I knew you would, Don.”
Raph instantly became suspicious. “I thought you said there was nothing on earth that could stop it?”
Don smiled and fell into his lecturer mode. “Well, that’s true. But the fact that this thing is coming straight at us gave me an idea. It must have some kind of guidance correction, otherwise it would be going off course, at least a little. So wherever this thing was created they probably have a way of controlling it, at least a backup system. Even if the systems for controlling the trajectory are only on the asteroid, the way to stop this thing is definitely not on earth.” Mike and Raph both groaned appreciatively.
“Alright, so we go into outer space, find the control place, and change the path of the thing. Now, Mr. Wizard, how are we going to get into space and find the place this giant hunk of rock came from? Exactly?” Raph seemed a little more chipper now that he knew things weren’t totally hopeless.
“Um. . . well. . . um. . you see, there’s this interdimentional cowlick I know. . .”