"Half Shell Heroes of Hell's Kitchen" - Part One

 

 

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My name is Rania. I was born under the name of Aznavorian to my people, the Deltans, on the planet of Gallifrey. As a child, I experienced an event that changed me...turned me into a Time Lord and gifted me with the superior intelligence to invent unimaginable machines, including TARDISes that can travel beyond space, time, and reality itself. It earned me the title of "Tinkerer," but it also made me an outcast...from Deltans and Time Lords alike. I have no place to call home, except for the Infinite DC. My only friend is a wonderful 10-year-old boy named Craig Williams. Together, we explore worlds that are familiar and foreign, making new friends and overcoming terrifying threats. And, one day, we hope to find the true protector of the Infinite DC: my child - Neas, the Gladiator of Gallifrey!

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Part One

            Dimension X. Centuries ago.

            On a planet void of sentient life, there was one that struggled to survive every day of its unnatural life. A brain-like creature, born with two eyes and a mouth that continuously struggled to get whatever air it could.

            Why do I exist? What is my purpose? What am I?

            These were just a few of the questions always weighing on its conscience. And yet, there was no one and nothing there to help put it at ease…or out of its misery. It would just crawl from one desolate terrain to the next, under an orange twilight sky. Every now and then, it would look up at the stars and the moons, wondering what it was like somewhere else…somewhere that was better than this wasteful world.

            And then, one day, there came another…

            …another being…

            …one that had other parts of itself that it used to do things the brain couldn’t.

            It had a pair of eyes and mouth as well, but it was all sheathed within a gray fleshy covering of some kind.

            “Ah! There you are, my little friend.” It spoke! The words came through those flaps in the coating where its mouth was. Something moved them to help articulate what it wanted to say. “I figured that I would find you here in this endless wasteland. You look different from your other variants, Lord Krang.”

            Lord Krang? Why did this creature call me that? Is that what I am? A…Krang?

            “Wh…at…you?” The Krang gurgled. Never had it spoken before. It never had reason to speak to anything before.

            The other being shook its head pitifully. “You poor, poor thing. All your other versions had an entire race of themselves, whereas you are one of your own kind. Incapable of speech, lacking any sort of intelligence, and struggling just to live. You probably wonder what force of nature made you this way, don’t you?”

            Yes! YES! I DO! Finally…someone who understands!

            “I…al…one…” Again, the Krang gurgled.

            “Yes, you are…without a body to call your own,” the visitor concurred. “But I will help you rectify that situation, my lord.”

            “Bod…deee?”

            “Yes, my lord. Much like the one I have – only this one will be strong and formidable with legs to help you get to wherever you wish and arms to bend anyone to your will. Until then, I can merely offer you a temporary robot chassis that’s meager compared to your counterparts, but it will offer the mobility you desire.”

            “Why…help…me?”

            “Because there’s a force in this multiverse with a mind – a brilliant mind – that offers endless possibilities. The creature who owns that mind also has the body that I can give to you, as long as I can keep its brain.”

            “Wh…at…it…name?”

            “It goes by many, my lord. But many of us aware of its existence know it as ‘Tinkerer’.”

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            Los Angeles, 1984.

            Rania could have taken Craig to many beaches across the Infinite DC. But the one she ultimately decided on for their next trip was close to an old friend of hers – Nariyoshi Miyagi. She knew he was busy training his new pupil, Daniel LaRusso, for an upcoming karate tournament. That was part of the reason for why she and Craig killed some time at the beach – Craig working on his sandcastles and Rania on her tan.

            You spent so much time in that dang TARDIS, you’re pastier than Mr. Stay Puft!

            Her tanning session was going rather well – her shades were on, the sun was perfectly aimed her way, she applied a reasonable amount of sunscreen on her white skin, and Bananarama’s ‘Cruel Summer’ played on the radio. Every few minutes, she’d glance over at Craig to see how his little sandcastle was going; the details on it were beyond impressive, which shouldn’t have been any surprise, considering its gifted sculptor.

            “Hey, babe.”

            And, with those two words, her session derailed.

            She sensed something blocking the sun before she opened her eyes to see what it was: a couple of white boys who looked no younger than seventeen, both blond and muscled with stupid grins on their faces. They wore swim trunks with designs that would’ve been too retro in the 21st century – one being turquoise with pink polka dots, the other lime-green with yellow perpendicular stripes.

            “My friend and I were just wondering if you would be—” Stripes began to say.

            “No,” Rania answered without hesitation.

            Obviously, the muscleheads couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. “You didn’t let us finish,” Dots protested.

            “You don’t have to,” Rania negated. “I’m too old for you boys.”

            Stripes hesitated to ask, “H-How old are you, miss?”

            Rania momentarily raised her shades, her hazel-brown eyes judgmentally glaring at the youths standing over her. “Now you should know better than to ask a lady such a question, little boy.”

            Dots surrendered with his hands up lightheartedly. “Message received.”

            He and his friend walked away on that embarrassing note.

            Fun as it was to give them such a hard time, Rania was just glad to have her ‘me time’ back. Unfortunately, the muscleheads had to go and disrupt it again when Stripes decided it would be fun to kick over Craig’s sandcastle for their own sadistic pleasure. “HEY!” Craig shouted at them. “I worked really hard on that!”

            “Well, keep workin’ on it, kid,” Dots cackled.

            Rania’s blood boiled as soon as she saw it happen. Immediately, she stood right up from her spot and yelled, “Gentlemen!” The muscleheads turned and stood in attention, as if Rania were their drill sergeant. They looked even more intimidated when they saw how she was much more fit than them. “I know I didn’t just see you knock down my lil’ friend’s castle like a couple of rogues, did I?”

            “N-No, ma’am,” Stripes stammered again.

            “We didn’t know this kid was with you,” Dots confessed. “We’ll build it right back the way it was.” And that they did, both of them down on their knees, rebuilding Craig’s demolished sandcastle.

            Craig stood back, right alongside Rania, and watched the teenaged boys poorly recreate his masterpiece. “Thanks for the help,” he told his Time Lord friend.

            “No prob,” Rania returned. “I saw the way you stood up to them.”

            Craig huffed. “I was mad. Sorry.”

            Rania giggled at his unnecessary apology. “For what?”

            “They’re bigger than me,” Craig said. “I know I can’t really fight them.”

            “Craig, you’ve seen me fight monsters that’re bigger than I am,” Rania reminded him. “That never once stopped me from defending myself.”

            “So…you’re saying that I should always fight?”

            Rania tapped one side of her head. “Only with your mind. Think smarter than your opponent and you don’t ever have to worry about their size or whether they are the one who choose to fight.”

            Her wisdom was profound to Craig’s young ears. “Whoa. Who taught you that?”

            Rania smiled. “I’ve had many teachers, but it was Mr. Miyagi who told me that.”

            “The karate master we’re here to see?” Craig recalled.

            “Oh! Thanks for reminding me!” Rania exclaimed, checking the time on her wristwatch. “The tournament should be over by now – Daniel won, of course.”

            “How do you know?”

            Rania once again lifted her shades, winking. “I’ll tell ya later. For now, let’s head back to the TARDIS.” She led him away from the muscleheads who continued in their struggle to restructure his sandcastle, not stopping even after the two travelers departed.

            Rania and Craig walked along the far reaches of the Californian beachfront, heading to the direct location where Rania had dematerialized her Type-X TARDIS, when she and Craig suddenly stopped in their tracks. “Look!” Craig pointed straight ahead of them, and Rania could hardly believe what she was seeing: the familiar black, rectangular shape of the Type-Z model TARDIS – another vessel of her personal design, built on Gallifrey, possessing the same interdimensional capabilities as the Type-X.

            It was a ship that was commonly operated by Neas, the Gladiator of Gallifrey and Rania’s own child. Of course, seeing it there, Rania and Craig knew better than to assume one of Neas’s incarnations was there in Mr. Miyagi’s dimension, especially not the one they knew as ‘Thomas,’ the Gladiator’s tall African-American regeneration – their only male (as far as they knew).

            “Could it really be him this time?” Craig consulted with Rania.

            She saw the hope in his little eyes, sympathizing with him. “Let’s not get our hopes up, sweetheart,” she advised him. “But, at the same time, it wouldn’t hurt to find out if Neas is here.”

            They walked straight up to the monolith. Rania placed the palm of her right hand on the front side of its sleek, marbled surface, allowing the DNA identifier that she programmed into the machine to permit entry for herself and Craig. They entered the ship, and the first thing they noticed was how dark and cold the much larger interior was. “It’s freezing!” Craig shivered.

            “Yeah,” Rania indicated, seeing her own breath as she spoke. “It’s not supposed to be that way.” She moved to the central console, switching on the lights, as well as the heating system. While doing so, she analyzed the readouts on the console that verified to which Neas incarnation the Type-X belonged. “Well, one thing’s for sure, this is Thomas’s TARDIS.”

            Craig beamed at this news. “Really?! That means he’s here somewhere!”

            “I’m not so sure about that, Craig.” Rania’s eyes were still looking over the readout. She removed her sunglasses, showing the deep concern registered in her gaze. “I’m not picking up his signature anywhere aboard this ship.”

            “Well…maybe he’s just somewhere out there, taking a walk?” Craig surmised.

            “Honey, he’s not in this dimension either,” Rania clarified.

            That glimmer of hope in Craig was snuffed out. “Then…where is he?”

            Rania ran through all the stored bits of information in the Type-Z’s database. “I think I’ve got something – the ship’s previous destination.”

            “And where’s that?”

            “New York City, 3 a.m., in one of the Ninja Turtle realms.”

            Craig frowned. “What’s a ‘Ninja Turtle’?”

            A big, excitable smile formed on Rania’s flawless face. “Oh, sweetie…you’re gonna be in for a huge surprise!”