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

 

Part Three

A Moment Ago…

            Craig figured there was no harm in sidetracking the search for Thomas in favor of a quick pizza break. Anton’s looked as enticing as Rania made it sound; he couldn’t wait to try a slice from a pizza parlor in another dimension. Any food he tried in the different worlds he had been to was something worth trying, even if some foods didn’t taste all that different from the ones in his reality.

            As he was scarfing down the best pepperoni and cheese he ever had, he noticed that Rania barely touched the personal pan serving she ordered for herself; instead, she was just looking and smiling at Craig. He stopped for a moment between bites to ask her, “What is it?”

            “Nothing,” she giggled with amusement. After a deep sigh, she added, “I’m just enjoying this.”

            “Our pizza?” Craig figured.

            “No, this.” She motioned between herself and him. “Just two best friends, sitting here and doing a normal thing that best friends do. No monsters, no megalomaniacs from Earth or space…nothing to distract us from having—” Her cordial demeanor suddenly shifted into a hardened scowl, just as her hazel-brown eyes looked away from Craig. “Hold up for a sec, sweetheart. I’ll be right back.”

            And just like that, right in the middle of their dinner conversation, Rania got up from their booth and walked off.

            To where, Craig had no clue.

            Taking another bite of his pizza, he watched Rania move to the nearest booth and talk to some guy in a denim jacket and jeans with a brown emo hairstyle. Craig assumed that, because the fellow was so young and handsome, Rania was flirting with him. He couldn’t quite make out what she was saying, since her back was faced towards him. The handsome stranger seemed embarrassed, hiding one side of his face by brushing down a few locks of it; the guy had long hair, but not too long.

            Craig’s assumption of flirtation was confirmed once he saw Rania sit down at the guy’s booth. I knew it, he thought proudly, only to feel downtrodden afterwards. Had Rania completely forgotten why they were in that dimension in the first place? She acted so affably in their exchange a while ago, speaking of normalcy as if their objective of finding Thomas had lost its priority.

            Suddenly, Craig wasn’t so hungry anymore – his slice only half consumed.

            He wanted to head back to the TARDIS and leave Rania to her spontaneous date.

            Before he could have left his booth, however, two big identical twins walked into the pizzeria. They were dressed like those gangsters in the old black-and-white movies that his grandparents liked to watch. He didn’t find them all that scary, but many in the restaurant did well enough to leave posthaste. The only ones left – other than Craig himself – were Rania, the handsome guy, a blind man sitting at another booth, and an old lady who the gangsters harassed.

            “Time’s up, lady,” one of them said to her. “Mr. Alpo wants his dough!”

            The old lady clutched her purse on her lap. “I…I-I don’t know what else to tell you boys. My grandson…He…He tried to get your money in time…but his boss…he can’t give him the raise that he asked for…and…”

            “Excuses, excuses, excuses!” The other gangster groaned furiously, knocking over the table in front of the old lady. All of its contents were spread over the floor, including the meal she had half eaten. “Mr. Alpo wants his money, ya old hag!”

            “And if ya don’t have it?” The first gangster teased. “We’ll just have to pay a lil’ visit to yer dear ol’ grandson and break his legs as collateral.”

            The old lady fearfully trembled. “P-Please…g-g-give us m-more time…”

            Craig’s hands began to ball into fists. Nothing about this felt right to him.

            “HEY!” he shouted without hesitation. He got up from his booth, firmly gripping his staff (which had been sitting beside him while he was eating) and boldly glaring at the two gangsters. “LEAVE HER ALONE!”

            The two gangsters were more entertained than intimidated, both laughing wildly.

            “Yo, Bigsy! Get a load of lil’ Gandalf over ‘ere! Thinks he’s gonna wave his magic lil’ staff and make us disappear!”

            The gangster called Bigsy wiped a hysterical tear that escaped from the corner of his right eye. “Kids and their stupid trends these days. Whaddya say we help ‘im grow outta it, eh, Milo?”

            Milo and Bigsy began to advance on Craig, who braced himself for a fight.

            Then two individuals came into view, shielding him from the gangsters.

            Rania and her new boyfriend.

            “You idiots wanna talk about stupid trends?” Rania belittled Milo and Bigsy. “How about you two dressing like James Cagney wannabes?”

            Surprisingly, that innocent insult was enough to press the twins’ buttons.

            “No one besmirches the great name of Cagney!” Bigsy roared, right before he charged at Rania.

            Tyler was prepared to step in-between Rania and the raging bull that was Bigsy. He knew these behemoths were ruthless, but he didn’t count on them displaying violent intentions towards the fairer sex.

            But, all of the sudden, Rania reacted with a series of swift attacks on several of Bigsy’s pressure points, like something out of Kill Bill. Afterwards, Bigsy stood as stiff as a board with an agonized look frozen on his face. Milo regarded his twin brother in concern, “Bro? Ya good? What she do to ya?” He gave Bigsy a shake on the shoulder, which only caused him to fall to the floor, still petrified. Seeing his brother in such a state infuriated Milo. “WHAT DID YOUSE DO TO MY BROTHER, YOU—!”

            POW! POW!

            While Milo’s attention was on Rania, Tyler sucker-punched him in the stomach and finished him off with an uppercut to the face. Down Milo went to the floor, lying right beside his immobile brother.

            Once he was able to catch his breath, Tyler curiously asked Rania, “What did you do to his brother?”

            “Martian neijin,” Rania said with an air of egotism. “It’s not so different from Venusian aikido, but it’s far more lethal…in the wrong hands.”

            Tyler frowned. “Martian? As in ‘Mars’?”

            “Yes, and Venusian as in ‘Venus’,” Rania said, matter-of-factly.

            He couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not, nor did he have the time to figure it out. “We should call the police,” he suggested. Immediately after he made that suggestion, the NYPD swarmed into the pizzeria and placed Milo and Bigsy under arrest. Tyler was as surprised as he was confused. “Whoa! That was fast!”

            “Someone must’ve called them before things got ugly,” Rania surmised.

            “That ‘someone’ would be me,” said one of the other remaining patrons – the blind man. He had kept himself sitting calmly and quietly at his booth, during the tense scene. He finally stood up and walked with the aid of a cane to where Rania and Tyler stood. “Ms. Rivers and I tipped the police on the illegal dealings Alpo’s thugs were committing in this establishment. The other patrons that left earlier, when Milo and Bigsy arrived, were undercover police. We arranged for this meeting with the twins as a sting op…but we didn’t take into account a few good Samaritans like yourselves.”

            Tyler felt really ashamed. “A sting op? Oh, man. I hope we didn’t ruin your one shot at taking Alpo down, Mister…?”

            “Murdock. Matt Murdock. And don’t worry. We got all we need.”

            Rania couldn’t help but to hang on one detail she learned of the blind man. “What did you say your name was again?”

            “Matt Murdock,” he repeated.

            “You wouldn’t happen to be a lawyer, would you, Mr. Murdock?”

            Murdock briefly froze in surprise, as if Rania hit him with some ‘Martian neijin’. “That’s…correct,” he verified tentatively. “Are you one of my clients? I don’t think we’ve met before, Miss…?”

            “Rania. And, no, I’ve never hired you.”

            “Then, may I ask how you know of me? I haven’t exactly been in practice in this city for very long – only a month, in fact.”

            Tyler watched them go back-and-forth with deep interest, wondering himself how Rania knew of this random New York City lawyer, who he only heard about five seconds ago. Unfortunately, the intriguing exchange was disrupted once a grateful Ms. Rivers approached Murdock and said, “Bless you, my dear! I was afraid they were gonna hurt me there for a sec.”

            “We wouldn’t have allowed it to go that far, Ms. Rivers,” Murdock reassured.

            “I know you wouldn’t have. Thankfully, Tyler and his lovely young date stepped in when they did…” Ms. Rivers acknowledged him and Rania with the same ounce of gratitude. “…and neither of them had no earthly idea about the sting to begin with. It just goes to show their generation still knows to be chivalrous when it counts.”

            Tyler blushed. “Thanks, Ms. Rivers. But, just so you know, Rania’s not my—”

            “Where is that little fella with the staff?” Ms. Rivers’ elderly turquoise eyes darted about in correspondence with the turn of her head, searching for the one she mentioned. “I wanna thank him, too, for his brave little soul sticking up to those twin meatheads.”

            Rania knew she was referring to Craig. Last she saw of him, he was standing behind her and Tyler. However, when she turned to look for him there, he had disappeared. Now Rania joined Ms. Rivers, as well as Tyler, in looking for the missing Craig.

            That’s when Tyler alerted, “He’s outside…with April O’Neil?”

            “What?” Rania muttered, looking out the window that Tyler was pointing at and seeing her 10-year-old companion with the Channel Six reporter. “What the…?! Is he doing what I think he’s doing?!” To her shock, there was a cameraman filming Craig and O’Neil in the middle of what looked to be an interview. She rushed out of the pizzeria, with Tyler following; unfortunately, they reached Craig just as the interview had concluded.

            Seeing Rania, an excited Craig told her, “Hey, Rania, guess what! I found a faster way we can look for Thomas!”

            “By putting yourself on television?” Rania surmised.

            “Well…yeah,” Craig admitted. “Thomas sees me on TV, he’ll know that we’re here looking for him, and he’ll come to us instead of us coming to him.”

            “And so will Mr. Alpo – whoever he is – and more of those thugs he sent,” Rania forewarned. “Craig, I appreciate you taking the initiative on this, but you really have to think ahead with your plans – or at least talk with me first, O.K.? You might’ve put yourself in serious danger.”

            Craig scowled, crossing his arms angrily. “Well, I would’ve told you, if you weren’t busy flirting with that guy!” He pointed directly at Tyler.

            “Me?!” Tyler exclaimed.

            “Flirting?!” Rania scoffed. “Craig, that’s not what—”

            “And I won’t be in any danger,” Craig continued. “Miss O’Neil is gonna take me to those Ninja Turtles you were talking about. So, I’ll see you later when I’ve caught up to Thomas.” He then cynically added, “Have fun with your new boyfriend!” On that note, he joined up with April and her cameraman in their news van, riding away with them.

            Rania was left standing in stunned silence.

            Tyler gave her a moment before he spoke up, “So…crazy night, right?”

            “I guess so,” Rania huffed, her voice shaky. “I suppose I deserve what just happened. I have neglected the reason Craig and I are here in the first place.”

            “Looking for this ‘Thomas’ dude?” Tyler caught on. “Who is he?”

            “He’s my so—someone who we care about a lot.”

            “Well, maybe I can help. It’s the least I can do, after messing things up.”

            Rania snickered, smiling at him. “You didn’t mess anything up.”

            “Oh, no?” Tyler contradicted. “If my nosy butt hadn’t been following you two, you’d probably be back on track by now.”

            “Sure…but we also still would’ve run into those twins in Anton’s.”

            “Yeah, that was unavoidable.” Tyler glanced back at the pizzeria – Bigsy was carted out on a stretcher while a dazed Milo was moved out in handcuffs. It was when Tyler spotted Murdock shaking hands with the police and saying goodbye to Ms. Rivers that he was reminded of something that still irked his curiosity. “Hey, how did you know Mr. Murdock was a lawyer when you two never even met?”

            Rania fidgeted with an explanation. “Well, you see…I…uh…oh, man…”

            Tyler noticed how weird she acted over a simple answer. “If you can’t or don’t wanna tell me, I understand. It’s just…” He gathered some courage to come out and tell her, “Since the moment I saw you, there’s just been this…connection…I don’t know if you’ve felt it, too, but…oh, what am I even saying?!” He brushed his hair over the side of his face again. “You’re probably just waiting for me to leave you alone, aren’t you?”

            Alone.

            “No!” Rania cried out with more force than she intended. “I mean…I…” It was just as hard for her to say as well. So, she opted to tell him something else: the truth. “You remember what you were telling me about in Anton’s? About hearing something on the roof of your apartment?”

            Tyler snapped his fingers in recollection. “Oh, right! I was gonna mention it before things got insane, but there’s this thing I saw up there that looked like a…”

            “A giant black domino without the lines or pips?” Rania finished for him.

            “Y-Yeah,” stammered Tyler, who was surprised by how familiar she was with the object in question. “You saw it, too?”

            Rania shrugged and smirked. “I, uh, actually own it.”