The Other Side Of The City--Chapter 20

A/N:  It occurred to me that there must be many off screen mutants in TMNT2012, those whose stories will never be told.  I wanted to write something about some of them, and what their lives and cultures might be like.  Therefore, there are no Turtles or Turtle friends in this story (yet).

~~

The four of them were on their way home in the darkness, their arms laden with plastic bags filled with food.  The night had been productive, one of the grocery stores had culled its produce.  Much of it was still fine, except for the very top layers, and Phoebe, Arcos, Aries, and Medusa were going to enjoy it for the next few days.

Wait here, the unbidden thought was strong in her head.

"Wait," she held up a hand to halt her children.  

"What is it?" Medusa asked quietly, as all three of the mutants moved into the shadows.

Wait here, it said again.

"I don't know," her mother answered.  "We need to wait here."

They waited in the dark, for at least ten minutes.  Whenever she moved to leave, the unbidden voice told her, Wait here.  The unbidden thought came to her often now,  after her encounter with  the old man at the Asian shop who wasn't really there and the great fiery bird that had engulfed her.  She liked to think of it as one of them speaking to her, even though the voice was her own, yet not her own.  

Her heart beat a little faster, trepidation creeping up her spine with the eerie quiet.  She still got afraid, but it wasn't like it was before.  It was no longer accompanied by despair or desperation. It was only fear by itself, and tonight it was only a little.

"How long are we gonna wait here," Aries complained.

"As long as we need to," Phoebe replied.

Aries gave an annoyed huff.

Her children had seen the change in her behavior.  She was back to her joyous, playful self, but they had noticed something else, something different about her.  She cocked her head to the side often, as if listening to something far away and then she would make a statement or command that she would not allow any of them to veer from.

Eventually, out of the shadows, came a roach man.  His head was a cockroach, with large faceted eyes and antennae sprouting out of his head.  His body was a round inhuman shape, but the flesh was obviously human.  He had arms like a man, but had two extra ones underneath them that were like a roach.  "You help-woman," he said in a strange, crackling way.  "You help me?"

A mutant had never come up to her anywhere before, save one of Chategris' people, but the appearance of this mutant didn't seem to surprise her.  "Yes," she said.  "I will help you.  Come out."  She motioned him to her.  Her own children came out of the shadows, and the roach hesitated.  "Don't worry," she assured him.  "They won't hurt you.  They're with me."

The roach came to her, holding out one of its extra arms.  A large piece of it just hung limply.  

"We can take care of that," she said gently, "Can you find me something to splint this with please?" she asked her children.  They spread out and came back with a wooden dowel and wire coat hanger.  She splinted the roach's arm and then she bandaged it with a plastic bag.  Before she took her hands off his arm, however, she felt a tingling in the palms of her hands.  The tingling grew until it was almost a painful pins and needles.  She shook them.

In him, the unbidden voice said.

She didn't understand, but listened closely.

In him.

Then she understood.  She had placed her hands on his leg where the wound was, and the tingling in them swam out of her palms, and into his leg, like tiny ants running from the underside of her palms.  She no longer saw everything glowing without glowing unless she worked at it, but as she held the roach man's carapaced arm, she could see her hands surrounded by a light that reminded her very much of the fiery bird that burned away her pain.  When she felt the tingling stop, she took her hands away, and stood up.  "There," she said.  "that should do it."

The roach moved his leg, "Help," he said.  "You help-woman, you help me."  

"Yes, have I helped you?"

"Better."

"Good."  She smiled at the atrocious looking mutant.  "What is your name?"

"Shhhzzz," it sounded like he said.

"Shuzz?" she tried to copy his sound.  He moved his head in what she took to be a nod.  "Well, Shuzz, most mutants call me The Phoenix, but you can call me whatever you like, as long as it's respectful."  She had a playful smile on her mouth.

"Help-woman Phoenix," Shuzz said.

"That works," she put her accoutrements back in her bag.  "Be easy on that arm for a while.  If it begins to hurt again, come here to this place next week, and I will be here waiting for you."

Shuzz made that movement with his head again.

A thought occurred to her, "And if someone else needs help, send them here also," she told him.

***

After her encounter with the old man by the Asian shop who wasn't really there, she had gone to check on Toaster.  The world still glowed without glowing, and on Toaster's body, she could see that his glow was slashed in the places where his physical body was slashed.  Some of the glowing slashes were thicker or longer than others, and she noted those were the spots that been deeper and had more damage than the others.  She would tend to them first.

Dezi, as always, was by her side, and Chategris was soon there also.  He cocked his head to the side, and regarded her.   "You have done something different..." he said.

"No," she said with a smile.  "I haven't done anything different."

"You have changed your hair color?" he guessed, furrowing his brow.

"No," she shook her head.  "Nothing."

"You do look different," Dezi said, "but it isn't your hair."  She looked at her closely.  "Are you wearing make up?"

Phoebe got down on the floor to see to Toaster and giggled.  "No, I'm not wearing make up."  She turned to Toaster.  "How is my patient doing today?"

"Good," he struggled to sit up, wincing.  "I'm a little sore, but good."

"That's what we want to hear," she began removing his bandages to check his wounds.

"Dezi and I have been reading a book," Toaster said, "and it says in it that phoenix  tears will heal anything."

"Are you reading Harry Potter," she asked dubiously.

"You've read it?" Dezi asked, surprised.

"No," she said, "but I was forced to watch the movies."

"It said in it that phoenix tears heal anything," Dezi said in a rush.  "I told Toaster that you were like a phoenix that night you saved him, that you brought him up out of the ashes of death."

Hadn't she already described what a phoenix was Dezi?

"But then you told me that phoenixes didn't raise other people from the ashes."

Oh, the woman had been listening.

"But I know you must have cried on his cuts," Dezi continued.

She didn't remember crying at all that night, but then, she'd cried so much, she could have very well cried the entire time she was stitching Toaster up.  

"You're the Healing Phoenix," Toaster said reverently, "not just the Medicienne."

"That is quite a mouthful," she said with a smile.  "The Healing Phoenix.  It is much easier to just say the Medicienne."

"You are The Phoenix," Dezi said.

Chategris chuckled scoffing , "You have a new name, eh, ma chere?"

An image of the fiery bird that had swept her up in its flames only a few days before came to her mind.  She had resisted Chategris' title of La Medicienne for years, but still it had become hers.  This, she could claim on her own.

"Yes," she said to him.  "It appears that I do."