Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

(Venus’s POV)

Green.  That’s the first thing I see when my eyes open.  A green filter over everything.  Everything’s sore and achy, I don’t like it.  Where-  Is this?  Where am I?  I blink and breathe in, then hiccup and choke.  Whatever bitter liquid this is, it tastes awful , ugh, I want water!  Water.

Blue, clear water, where it’s safe, and familiar, and-

I blink.  Others.  There were others before.  Before?  Before what?

It hurts to think about.  But if there were others, where are they now?  Why am I…alone in this thing?

Thud .  the muffled sound vibrates through the water.  I shiver.  Chirp.

Crash.   I curl up, hugging myself and peering through the green at the blurred movement outside.  I chirp again, even as my throat closes up.  Scared.

Alone.

Help.

Crash!

Suddenly the liquid is moving.  I gasp as air enters my lungs, so different from the liquid.  Fresh.  Clear.

I open my mouth in a silent scream as I fly through the air.  Pain spikes up my back when I land on the ground.  I chirp and whine, trying to roll over onto my stomach, where it doesn’t hurt.

Hurt.

Help.

Scared.

My chirp is echoed back to me.  The liquid streaming from my eyes pauses as I sniff, look up.  There it is again.  Like mine but… not .

It’s…familiar.

The others.

Chirp!

Family?

Safe?

Scared!

Help!

Where?

Help!

Sibling?

I squeeze my eyes shut against the flashing lights and booming noises, trying to hear the chirps.  Where?  Where?   I whimper and call out again.  Please.

A touch.

I peek.

Red lowers into my vision, the chirp piercing my ears.

Sibling?

Sister?

I hiccup on a sob and return the chirp, reaching for the outstretched hand-

BOOM.

The hand is ripped away.  My heart seizes through the sudden cries rising from where the others are.  Fear fear, scared, not safe, danger danger HELP-

A shadow.

“There you are, little on- NO-”

Raging blue and green slice between me and the shadow, cut off the chirps, the calls.  I reach out, chirping desperately, then break off in a screech when the blue and green burn .

Hurt hurt pain hurt pain -

Another shadow falls over me.  I curl around my hand and cry, staring up at it through blurry eyes.

“A…turtle?” a lilting voice washes over me, wraps around me.  Something lifts me off the ground.  I blink away the tears and curl up tighter, trying to hide my face.

“What was that Draxxy doing with my fuzzy cuddleupigus and a little turtley-boo?”

I’m shifted around.  The overwhelming heat lessens, but the instincts screaming DANGERDANGERDANGER don’t.  I chirp, hoping, hoping, please.  Family?  Where?   But no answering chirps come.

A soft inhale.  “You have Lou’s eyes…”  Something presses against me gently, uncurling me.  I latch onto it when I start to slip and stare up at the shadow, shivering now that the heat is gone.

“We’re going to see your new home, my pretty little sea-pumpkin.”

Chapter Text

(Venus’s POV)

My name is Venus de Milo.  No, not the statue, although I was unironically named after it.  My ‘mother’ gave me the name Venus because of the Roman goddess of beauty and victory.  She always praised me for the pretty white spots I have, sprinkled across my navy skin like stars in the sky, and the cute pink mark on my forehead.  Overall she considered me the pinnacle of yokai beauty, and would parade my younger self around in the most fashionable things money could buy (or thieves could steal).  The ‘de Milo’ bit got tacked on the end when she found out about the famous statue, to serve as my last name since she didn’t have one to give me.  Well, not one she wanted to be traced back to her anyways.

See, my mother is Big Mama.  Mob boss, crimelady extraordinaire.  Dabbles in deception, mystics, gladiator-style fight rings, things like that.  She’s a Jorogumo yokai.

You may be wondering about the sarcasm layered on ‘mother’ when I refer to her as such.  See, she’s not actually my mother.  Sure, the lady raised me, and I’ve never had any other parental figure in my life, but she hardly passes for a mother.  I was always more something like a prize or trophy she liked to parade around.  First as her little golden child, then as her all-time Battle Nexus champion-

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that.  She took that little trophy child and trained her up with all the best warriors money could buy.  I know nearly every martial art taught in the Hidden City.  So both a walking jewel and a lethal weapon.  Two in one package deal.

So there I was, age thirteen and already at the top of the Battle Nexus ranks.

Goddess of victory indeed.

Did I mention those fights were all to the death?  Yeah, very kid friendly.

Well.  It didn’t last too long anyways.  There was an…incident, so Big Mama withdrew me from the Nexus in favor of having me constantly at her side as her personal assistant and bodyguard.

So I rank highest in her whole criminal empire besides Big Mama herself, and yet I’m a slave in my own home.  I’m never allowed to go anywhere she hasn’t authorized.  Never allowed to experience what a real life could entail.  Never shown anything but that fake love she pours all over me at all times of the day.  Not that it matters to me or anything.  Who needs to experience a life outside of a crime monopoly anyways?

Mother knows best after all.

Big Mama peers at the security cameras curiously, “Oh, well this is fascinating.”

“What is, Big Mama?” I ask, sorting through the papers on her desk.

She pauses, “Oh, nothing much, my dear sea-bumpkin, just the people who’ve come to get rid of those nasty bugs in the hotel foyer.”

I…don’t remember calling for any yet.  I was going to after I finished organizing these papers, but…I glance up at the screens curiously.  Four people in weirdly designed hazard suits run around the foyer, chaotically crashing into nearly everything with poor Stanley running behind them to keep things from breaking.  I blink and squint at them.  Is that…green skin?  Must be yokai…

One of the mosquitoes bites Stanley, and suddenly he screams, body growing and shifting out of proportions, sprouting hair, tearing his clothes, growing horns and a tail, and oh wow, he’s a bull…

“So that’s how it happens…” Big Mama murmurs.  “Oh, his love of beef jerky was his downfall.”  Stanley screams and runs out of the hotel, crashing into everything in sight and leaving just the four workers stuck in one of their balls that were supposed to be for the mosquitoes.

Big Mama eyes the mess, then turns to me with a bright smile, “Why don’t you take those to my rooms and hire a newsie bellhop, Veenie dear?  I have some business to attend to.”

“Of course, Big Mama,” I gather up the papers and bow, then start toward the door.

“Oh, and Venus...” I freeze, blood turning cold.

I look at her, “...Yes?”

“Do take your sweet time,” she smiles.

“...Of course.”  I quickly step out the door and promptly resolve to do my task as fast as possible.

I dash back to the office and slip into the shadows after confirming she’s still gone, hiding in a nook.  A second later she comes in, leading the four yokai from the hotel foyer, but without their hazard suits.

“So this Draxum’s oozequitoes are causing quite a tissle-tassle.  Creating all these new…mutants.”  Draxum?  Mutants?  I blink.  I haven’t heard those words for about two years, when I eavesdropped on Big Mama’s meeting with the baron.  It had gotten…very messy very quickly.  Pretty much all I’d gleaned from that was that, contrary to what Big Mama always tells me, I’m actually a mutant Draxum created years ago, and she’d stolen me from him.  Not that she’d ever admit it out loud.

“Oh so troubling,” she sits at her desk, all fake smiles and friendliness, “give us yokai a bad name.”  I huff, You give yokai a bad name…  “I prefer a low profile.”  Ha.  That’s why you run a criminal empire.  “Excuse me while I slip into something a little more comfortable.”  Tapping her cloaking brooch, she turns back into her true form, that of a Jorogumo.

The yokai wearing blue punches the air, “Oh, I knew it!  Not that specifically, but there had to be something!”

“I see my true form shocks you,” she pretends to pout.

The yokai in red gives the other a hard look, “You would hurt a nice spider lady’s feelings, wouldn’t you, Leo?”

“Boo!” the one in orange adds.

“You know,” Big Mama taps her cheek thoughtfully, “come to think of it, perhaps my webs could be of use in catching the bugs.  I have no means to splort them around town, but surely a genius like you-” she gestures to the purple one, “can create a clever device to use them to capture the bugs.”

He sits in the chair and rolls up to her, “Okay, I know what you’re doing.  You’re just trying to flatter me with the truth, and I love it!”  I raise an eyebrow.

“Well then, allow me.”  She tosses him a bucket and promptly spews webbing at him.  Some gets in the bucket but…  The kappa yelps, thrown back and pinned to the wall.

He holds in a violent gag, “As fascinating as it is- Hideous- Oh, I hate it-”  He peels off the wall and crashes on the floor.  The other three struggle to mask their rather disgusted expressions.  For once they’re actually facing somewhat in my direction, and I pause because…why do they look like me?

Big Mama always insisted I was just a special breed of kappa, but that never matched with my research.  It made sense once I overheard the whole ‘mutant’ thing, but then, why do they look like me?  Their plastrons are the same shape as mine, in general, just more tan than white (or they would be, if Big Mama hadn’t insisted I paint my plastron tan to avoid recognition…).  None of them have webbing between their fingers and toes, and their markings and skin colors are different than mine, but the overall body and shell shape is…it’s essentially the same.  Especially with what-was-his-name-Leo and the purple one.

Big Mama dabs at her mouth daintily with a handkerchief, “Once you catch the oozequitoes, bring them to me, and I’ll safely return them to the Hidden City.”  Liar…

“You got yourself a deal,” the red one grins and starts toward the door.

Leo stops him, hissing low enough that Big Mama can’t hear (but I, hiding considerably closer, can), “Raph, what are we getting into?  In case you haven’t noticed, these mystic types have a nasty habit of trying to kill us.”

“You’re being crazy,” Raph dismisses.  “She’s helping us catch the oozequitoes.  Don’t look a gift spider in the mouth.”

The purple one takes this moment to sit up, shaking, “Never look her in the m-mouth…”

They all get out of the room.  I sink back in my hiding spot, prepared to wait until Big Mama leaves to get out.  In the meantime, I let this interaction play out in my mind on repeat.  ‘Mystic types’?  ‘Oozequitoes’?  That’s not even touching the whole Baron and mutant topic.  What is going on?  And why do they look like me?

It’s just a couple days later that Big Mama makes a show of giving me a list of things to fetch from the Hidden City, assuring me to take as long as I need, even perhaps stay out for a bit ‘your complexion is…well, it’s not very keen, lately, lovie’.  Oh, I’m sure wearing a mask 24/7 has nothing to do with that at all.  I take the offer though; rarely do I get a real chance to spend time outside of the Nexus, and a part of me hopes that maybe.  Maybe.  I might bump into the yokai/mutants? from before.  Maybe I can finally start getting more pieces to this puzzle.

The free time is such a welcome relief, getting to simply stroll around the Hidden City.  Of course, this is her kicking me out so I don’t stick my nose in her business, and not actually her giving me unconditional freedom.  Nope, not thinking about that.  Right now is a chance to just breathe for a second and leave problems for future Venus.  Right now is a breath of freedom.  Is it really freedom when you have no choice in the matter?

Just.

Please.

Let me have this.

(Mikey’s POV)

“DAAAAAAAAAAAAD!” I call cheerily.  “We’re heading oouuut!!!”

I start to the garage to join my brothers in the turtle tank, not really expecting a response-

“Out?”

I blink, freezing in place as Dad appears, brow furrowed ever so slightly, “Out where?”

“Uhh.  Just running some errands, pops!” I flash him a grin.

He hums, “Could you bring back some fruit?

“...Sure!”

He nods, turning toward the room.

The room with the shrine.

Suddenly the request for fruit makes sense.

I open my mouth.

“Miguel~!” Leo sings from the garage.  “Are we going or what?  Donnie’s impatient to test his new doohicke- OW.”

I snort, imagining Donnie slapping his twin on the back of his head, expression sour.  “Coming!”

I glance toward Dad one more time as he vanishes into the shrine room.  …Later.  With a smile and skip in my step, I join my brothers.

(Venus’s POV)

Nothing.  The turtles Big Mama saw the other day are nowhere to be found in the Hidden City.  Go figure.  I guess I never really actually thought I’d run into them.  The Hidden City is a huge place, and they may not even be there.  There’s any number of places they could’ve been.  But I’d hoped.

And I’d thought I’d grown out of hoping.  Clearly I didn’t learn my lesson.

I get within view of the Nexus Hotel.  Pause.  There was not a hole in Big Mama’s office last time I was here.  With that, I rush the rest of the way in and up; not a single person stops me on the way.  Bursting into the office, my eyes lock onto Big Mama.  She freezes where she was talking to several bellhops and guards.  For anyone other than me, the flicker of ‘you shouldn’t be here’ would be imperceptible.

Whatever happened here, she’d hoped to cover it up before I got back.  Thanking my lucky star for the mask that not merely hides my identity but also my expressions, I feign all the obliviousness and worry of a naive, devoted daughter in her mother’s employ until Big Mama retires for the night.

Then I make my move.

Slipping out of my quarters, I make my way to security.  Perks that come with being Big Mama’s personal assistant.  No one dares to question you at any hour or in any place.  No one but Big Mama herself.

Hopefully, she’ll never find out about my poking my nose into the security feeds of today.

The guards let me in without a fuss.  I exhale quietly once the doors close behind me, then get to work.  Back, back-  After Big Mama sent me out.  C’mon…

There!  I stop fast forwarding.  The yokai/mutants from before stroll into the lobby because of course they were here.  Of course that’s who Big Mama was trying to keep me from seeing again.

Not suspicious at all, Mom…I huff and turn the volume up just a tad as the doors open.  The four stare at the giant owl yokai inside.

‘So other guy’s day off?’ Blue quips.

I switch to the camera in Big Mama’s office, where they should come out.  It’s dark, an abnormal amount of cobwebs strung around it.  A shaft of golden light shines out of the elevator doors as they open.

What’s-his-name-Raph and the orange and purple turtles step out.  When a light turns on, the three jump, startled.  A crowd of bellhops surrounds the three from the shadows and elevator.

“Greenie-boos!” Big Mama coos, crawling down from the ceiling in her natural form.  “Gifts for Big Mama?”

Raph holds up a jar of glowing oozequitoes with a grin, “Oozesquitoes!  But we’re almost out of web goo.”

“Fantamptuous,” she claps her hands together, peering at the purple device hovering next to Purple.  “And look at that marvelous device you’ve built me.”

“Oh, glad you like it, but, uh,” he deactivates it into its collapsed form and holds it tight to his chest, “actually, it-it’s mine, and why are your extra-large bellhops standing so close to us all of a sudden?”  Waelfwulf snatches the jar of oozequitoes from Raph.

“Oh, they’ll just be taking those bugs and your device,” she waves a claw, grinning sweetly.  “My Battle Nexus thanks you.”

“Wait a minute,” Raph stares at her.  “You run that barbaric Battle Nexus?!”

“Yeees,” she coos.  “Big Mama’s kind of the bees’ knees down in the Hidden City.”  Pulling herself up near the ceiling with her webs, she gestures to the security monitors as they flicker on, showing footage of the then-current fight.  ‘Fight’ being a generous term for the slap fest occurring between the squid and fish yokai.  “You see, the pickings have gotten a little slim lately, and with these oozesquitoes, I’ll be creating wondrous warrior mutants who will be more exciting than ever!  And I’ll be putting you boys to work in my Battle Nexus as well!”

“No way,” Orange waves his hands.  “We are not fighting for you.”

“HA!  Heavens no,” she giggles.  “You’ll be my bumbling arena clowns.”

“No, we won’t!” Orange insists, stepping toward her.  And maybe his statement would’ve held weight!  If he didn’t immediately slip on a banana peel that…who even knows how it got there, and brings Raph and Purple tumbling down right with him, groaning in pain.  Big Mama laughs.

“Okay, Leo,” Raph says.  “I admit it: you were right.  You were right!  Leo?...Hey, where’s Leo?”

“I’m sure wherever he is, he’s trying to save us,” Orange nods.  And that’s when the elevator finally closes.  Ah.

Smart guy.

“Find the blue one!” Big Mama shrieks.  Most of the bellhops run to do her bidding, the rest pouncing on the three turtles and handcuffing them.

“Hey!”

“Wait!” Big Mama stops the bellhops going to search for Leo.  “I’ve got a better idea.”  Adopting a sweet, sing-songy tone, she calls out, “Guuus~!”  Aw you gotta be kidding me…

That explains the tightness in my eyes and throat earlier in the office and halls.

“Gus?” Purple asks incredulously.  “What kind of mutant is named Gus?”

When Gus comes into the light, the three’s apprehensive looks fall, clearly not expecting his rather average appearance the majority of the time.

“Yep, that’s a Gus,” Raph mutters.

“Whoa, dude, is this about me chewing all those slippers?” Gus clasps his hands, bowing his head.  “I totally didn’t do it.”  I narrow my eyes at him, Aha.  Evidence.  F i n a l l y.  Big Mama’s been after me to figure that out for weeks.

“Never mind the stupid slippers!” she snaps.  “Get their scent and find the missing turtle.”

Gus howls, “On it, brah!”

Sniffing the three, he singles out the common scent and activates his more demonic form, eyes turning green and spikes growing from his limbs and back.  With a howl, he charges out of the office.

Big Mama hands Purple’s device to Fokisi, “Put this splendiferously ingenious device contraption in my safe.”

“I’m flattered,” Purple pouts, “but also betrayed…”

Big Mama smiles at them, “Take these charming young clowns to the Battle Nexus gateway.”  Two of the bellhops drag the three out of the office.  I blink.  That can’t be all.  Her office was completely trashed earlier.

Fokisi puts the oozesquitoes and device in her safe without any issues, so what happened?  And when?  I think of twin red crescents and blue gear and have the mystic recognition scan the feeds for him.  A brief feed pops up in the laundry room.  After Dobi sticks the dirty clothes into the chute and leaves, one of the vents pops open.  Leo slips out and opens the chute, then promptly recoils in disgust, gagging violently.

Covering his nose, he mutters, “Oh boy.  Dirty yokai laundry is not gonna be fun.  Those guys are gonna owe me.”  Then he dives in.

I cringe.  As someone who’s occasionally had to fill for Dobi, I feel that.  That laundry is revolting.  I click to the basement security cam and match the timestamp.  Sure enough, after a second or two, he comes tumbling out into the giant bin of dirty clothes.

Poking his head out, he grimaces at the particular piece of clothing stuck on his head.  “I’m just gonna tell myself this is a t-shirt…”  It snaps back onto his face.  He yelps, falling out of the bin.

I hum in sympathy.  Now that I know what he was up to, I switch over to the cameras in the hallway by the Battle Nexus gateway.  Sure enough, there they are.

“I can’t believe we’re gonna end up being rodeo clowns,” Purple grumbles.

“And you laughed at me for taking that class,” Orange scoffs.  “Who’s gonna be laughing when I’m miming up a storm?”  He freezes when they approach the gateway.  “Ohmigosh.”

“Here we are,” Noah says, “gateway to the Battle Nexus.  Say goodbye to New York, turtles.”  They’re pushed forward.

A laundry bin rolls into their path.  I blink; tilt my head.  Interesting.

Oliver stops them, “Alright, hold up.  Laundry bin in the middle of the hallway?”

“Classic trap,” Noah sneers, shoving past Raph and Orange and stalking toward it.  “I shall investigate.”  He lifts the clothes out, but there’s nothing.  “Oh, it’s empty.  Well, I guess we can let our guard down then.”

Oliver joins him, “Sounds right.”

And then, with both their backs turned, is when the blade of an odachi slips through the vents and clumsily maneuvers in a circle.  Blue light sparks behind it, and a portal opens on the ground.  The vent creaks.  Groans.

Then Leo crashes through with a startled scream, going through the portal, and the other three jump right after him.  The portal snaps closed before the bellhops can follow.  Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.  I use the mystic recognition to find the next bit of footage with the four.

Which is them falling into a bathroom.

Before they even land, Leo’s made a second portal to get them somewhere else.  I blink, then swipe to the next bit of footage.  Guess that wasn’t his original plan.

The four land in another, emptier hallway.  Well, land is being gracious.  More like collapsed into a tangled pile of limbs in the middle of the floor.

“You’re welcome for saving you,” Leo huffs as they untangle themselves.  He slashes the cuffs off the three.

“If you hadn’t left us, we all could have saved ourselves together,” Raph grumbles.

Leo gives him an incredulous stare, “What?”

And then there’s that awful howl.  I sigh, only grateful that it’s a recording.  Gus comes careening around the corner and charges.

Raph, Leo, and Purple yelp, scrambling for cover.  “WELLWEHADAGOODRUN-”

Orange slips under Raph’s legs and stands in front of the three, holding out a-

Tennis ball.

A disbelieving snort escapes my guard.  Huh.

“Hey, boy, what’s this?”

Puppy-mode: activate.

Gus skids to a stop, captivated at the sight, “Whoaaa!  What is that?!”  Orange waves it around, and Gus follows the ball with every move, “Ohoh!  Oh man!”  He throws it.  “Igottagetthatthingandbringitback! EPIIIIIC!”

Dogs.  I shake my head.

“I’m sorry, who was that?” Leo asks.

“Gus was sent to eat you,” Purple says.

“In that case, maybe it’s time to blow this balloon factory,” he clicks the elevator button and steps in.  The other three go in after him.

Okay at this point, they’ve got to have gone back to the office.

I move to the office’s cams and move the timestamp forward untilllllllllll THERE!  The four slip into the office quietly and start poking around.  Leo goes straight to the mystic painting and pokes two fingers in, revealing the safe.  How did he…?

Purple shoves him out of the way, pulling out some contraption with a very loud spinny knife that he digs into the door.  I jump at the ear-bleeding screech of metal, frantically slapping down on the volume button.  Good heavens-

“This calls for the delicate touch of a genius.”  Are you sure about that?

“I’LL COVER THE SOUND FOR YOU!” Orange yells over the noise, pushing off a vase.  The shatter is pathetically quiet beneath the screaming blade.

“WE SHOULD BE THROUGH IN A COUPLE OF HOURS!”

“OOOR we could do this,” Leo finishes putting in the code to the vault.  I sigh.  Big Mama really should come up with a more complicated one than that.  The vault pops open with no effort.

“Whoa, that’s awesome!” Raph says as they jump in to retrieve their stuff.  A green ball bumps Orange’s foot.

“Hey, my ball.”

I sigh at the snarl, Gus slipping into view.

“Don’t start a game of fetch you can’t finish.”

“Oh no no no no no, dears,” Big Mama croons from her chair, turning around to reveal her human form, “this simply will not do.  If there’s one rule Big Mama has-”

“Is it forgive and forget?”

“Is it don’t chew on the guest slippers?”  Don’t what-

“Is it no using Raph’s toothbrush?” Do I even want t-

“Is it Ohm’s Law?”

“NO!” she transforms into her true form and webs them all into cocoons before they can spit out any more nonsense.

“My rule is: No stealing from Big Mama!”

A circle cuts into the window.

Ah.

Vines explode through the window and wall–hence the gigantic, jagged hole from earlier–and Baron Draxum glides through.  “And my rule is: No stealing from me!”

“Mr. Sheep to the rescue!” Orange cheers.

“And that’s a good thing?” Purple inquires.  “He tried to destroy us last time we saw him.”

“Scrumulent to see you again, Baron Draxum,” Big Mama’s voice drips in honey, “but you really must learn to use the dimbally door.”

“You must learn to use real words!”

“Huh, they know each other,” Leo drawls sarcastically.  “If only one of us had seen that coming.”

“You,” Raph grouches, “are a poor winner, Leo.”

Draxum points at the oozesquitoes, “Those are my property.  Fetch them, my pets!”  The gargoyles on his shoulders jump off, laughing.  Gus pounces on them, and the laughing turns to screaming.

“I need these bimbly bugs for all those tasty victims,” Big Mama says.  “They will mutate for my Battle Nexus.”

“Those were made for something much greater than your silly Battle Nexus,” Draxum growls.  “It will eliminate the human threat forever.  I will have every last one on the surface!”  The two crash together in a brawl that shakes the camera violently.

I blink as purple and white streak across the room before Draxum finally sends Big Mama to the ground, dazed, and slaps Gus off his gargoyles.  They grab the oozesquitoes and make a break for it through the ceiling.  Hole number two, got it.  The turtles get themselves out of the webs.

“Leo!  Portal to the roof, now!”

“There you go, telling me what to do again.  Well actually-” blink, “No, that’s a plan I can get behind.”  He drags his odachi in a circle on the floor.  Blue light sparks and blossoms open.

“YES!” they cheer.

“Can we rename today Leo Day?” he grins as Raph drags them both into the portal.  Purple and Orange dive for it too, but it closes before they can go through.

“What are we supposed to do?!”  Big Mama throws the rubble off of herself and screeches in fury.  “Ohhh, right….”

“This’ll teach you to compliment my work and give me my FIRST POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT FROM A PARENT-AGED ADULT, EVER!” Purple activates his device and jumps on.

Orange hops on behind him, unbothered, “Cowabunga!”

I blink.  I’ll just.

Not.

Look into that for now.

Yeah.

Moving on.

The two fly erratically around the room, dodging Big Mama’s webbing.  She finally gets her mark just as they dart out the space.

Big Mama grasps the edges of the hole, straining for a moment.  Something comes through, smacking her in the face and sending her flying back into her own vault.  It slides closed behind her.

I watch for a second, but yeah, they’re not coming back.

I click off the screen and do what I can to bury any signs of my snooping.  Inhale…exhale.

I leave, going back to my quarters.  Then, throwing my mask to the side and tearing off the suffocating uniform, I collapse onto the bed and groan into the mattress.  H o w am I supposed to even START unpacking all that?!?!