[Dark Elite_H2]

Ok, I'm-a have to do this a bit at a time, 'cause this part's kind'a long. It'll all be on the same page.

PERILOUS JOURNEY
The journey to Boontown (cont.)

"AH-OW!" Umi screamed, holding tightly on her upper leg.
Her leg was smashed between a heavy tree branch and the soft swampland, slowly causing pain.
"Odd...DAMN IT!" Umi cried a scream, flinging her head up in the air.
"Umi!" Stranger's voice called from up in a tree.
He appeared quickly, holding on to a trunk of a tree, and gazing down at Umi.
She glanced up to him with tear-stricken eyes.
"Get this thing off me!" she cried.
He jumped from the trunk, landing beside her, and lifting the branch off, rolling it to a side from her.
"Anything broken?" he assessed quickly.
Umi rubbed up and down her shin, not feeling anything out of place.
She shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes.
Stranger knelt down by her, a concerned pain crushing his heart.
He wiped her cheek of the blood-crusted cut. The holes where the tentacles had entered were caked with blood and a clear fluid, making a ring around her throat.
"Oh, Umi...what did it do to yer?" his lip quivered, gathering her near his body, and hugging her securly.
Umi sighed heavily, resting her head on his arm, and closing her eyes.
"Can we sleep now?" she asked wearily, fluttering her eyes to him.
Stranger knelt down on the ground, staring ahead to where the Shredder last was.
He nodded back down to her.
"Yeah. We'll rest..." he purred.
He leaned his back against a half-bent trunk of a tree, tipping his hat over his eyes to shield the buzzing fireflies from his face.
Umi rested her head upon his chest, and crossed her legs upon his. She was already fast asleep before Stranger could say otherwise.
Stranger smiled gently, taking another glance at her cut.
It pained to see Umi hurt, or being in pain. It wretched his heart from his chest so badly. Even though he swore to protect her, he failed in some wrong way.
He gave a glare around, his lip dropping down from his teeth, then lowered his head down over Umi's closing his eyes.
I'm waitin' fer yeh... he thought, knowing the Shredder would hear him from afar.
He fell asleep, not knowing what the dangers lie ahead...

-**-

The Shredder lay distilled in the same poise he last kept in, chuckling maliciously, while a blood-red eye stuck out from the marsh grass.
"Don't try to defy me, Steef. I'll make you see...I will make you see..."
Through his mind, red-hot flashes passed through telepathically, darting to find his target; Stranager and Umi.

His mind grew restless, along with the wrestling human on his lap, groaning in annoyance from the same dreams, combined, and replaying in her mind.
Stranger could see what Umi was talking about; what nightmares that came to view.
He saw himself, outside his dream self, fighting through a hoard of black-suited creatures piling upon himself, ramming towards a female Steef that was gunned down.
Stranger blinked, as he hovered over the bloody battle, crucifying the Steef all around.
Where the hell am I? he thought, gazing around in disbelief.
His ears suddenly perked up to a familiar scream. A scream that he would always answer to.
He shot to the mass pile of creatures, on top of a human, pleading for him, who was ignoring her, and paying more attention to get to the female Steef.
He saw himself turn around for a brief moment, and just shot a demeaning glance to her, then went back around, pounding through the creatures massing up.
He shook his head, his lip drooping from his teeth.
Not even his pleads would turn his dream self around.
“Odd-damn it! TURN AROUND!” he roared, feeling a depression of defeat stabbing his stomach.
His lip quivered in frustration, spinning around back to the pile of creatures holding her down on her chest.
He soared down to her, but a creature blocked him off, its back turned to Umi, devilishly orange eyes glaring heinously through a black mask down at her.
Stranger stopped, staring at the back of this creature’s head.
It held a rifle tightly in two black shiny gloves, ignoring the calling voice far behind it.
Stranger snapped back, a male Steef, probably in its young adult stage, called over the swarming mass of black creatures.
He went back to the terrified human versus the creature, retracting its long, tentacle-like mouth through an evil chuckle.
Umi’s eyes were glued upon the creature, tear-stricken, wide with fear.
It shook its head in pity, holstering its gun up to her forehead, and gave a buzzing drone to her.
The others piled on her laughed at her demise, nodding their head to the gunman pressing the tip of its barrel to her forehead.
A cock of the trigger, and a crashing gunshot made Stranger’s mind spin out of control.
“NO!” Stranger roared up, dropping to his knees, as the pile of creatures got off the body, which lie completely still, eyes still open of shocking fear, and blood dripping down her face through a bloody hole in the head.
Tears streaked down his furry jaw, staring painfully at his daughter’s face, still wide of fear.
But what he feared the most is that would he ever do that to her?
Leave her behind to die?
Never… he growled shallowly.
His hands curled slowly in to a fist, shaking from the tension growing in his arms.
“Why…” he groaned, blinking up to the suddenly changed atmosphere, surrounded in black.
“Why didn’t you turn around…”
His face dropped from a hardened anger, to a somber, saddened guilt. It was his fault that he didn’t turn around to save Umi.
He clenched his teeth angrily again, his fists cringing up to his face.
“Damn you, Shredder…” he growled, his face hidden under the shadows of his arms.
His eyes shot open, glittering brightly a neon green, and blood-shot veins crawling from the corners of his eyes.
“DAMN YOU!” he roared, flinging his arms and head up.
A familiar feeling came around him again, as he dropped his arms down before his knees.
His head hung low, opening to whiteness to his feet.
He snapped up in surprise, noticing what was coming back to him just a day ago.
Veins of red colored through the snow, a large body of red pooled on a pile of snow.
No…not again…
The body dissolved before his eyes again, shattered and torn of bullets through her body.
Tears came painfully up again, turning away tightly from the body that had reappeared again.
“Stop…” he growled.
“I’ve had enough,”
The eyes Umi had explained had come as well, surrounding him in a circle, voices taunting him.
His head snapped up, a defensive scrunch glared at the eyes.
“You hear me, Shredder?” he said darkly, his head going back down under his arms.
A roar built up in his throat, his upper lip parted widely from his clamped teeth.
“I’LL KILL YOU!” he bellowed above the hateful voices circling around him.
The eyes disappeared slowly, leaving a pierced glare in his mind, as he lowered his head down.
He exhausted a sigh from his roar, not able to breathe back in. His breath was lost, as he stared down in shock…
His body jolted awake, gasping sharply of his implied fear. His eyes stung from the moist air and the mix of tears drying over his eyes.
He began to feel the wrestling of Umi, rubbing against his stomach in a groan of terror.
His lip quivered from the pain she had to endure mentally, wrapping his arms tightly around her, and shoving his nose deep in her hair.
“Oh Umi…I didn’t know how bad these dreams were…” he cried gently, his face scrunching from the power of his feelings.
He heard her gasp sharply awake, her eyes rounded in shock.
Her hand clawed deep on his poncho, leaning her cheek on his shoulder.
“It happened again…” she cried mournfully.
“I know…I know…” he said in a soothing purr.
He calmed her down, stroking the back of her head down to her back.
She cried her fear off on his shoulder, fearing the worst that will come.
Then the fact came to her that Stranger knew about her dreams, and she looked up to him, with a despirate question on her tongue.
"Stranger?" she asked gently.
"Hmm?" he mumbled deep in his throat.
"D'you..." she looked down for a second, hesistating to ask.
Stranger looked down on Umi's head, his eyes glowing gently to her.
"D'you think...that...what you saw...will come true?" she snapped back up.
Stranger put on a hurtful face, frowning upon Umi.
"Umi," he said astoundedly.
"Of course not,"
He kissed her forehead, then hugged her head to his shoulder, gently rocking himself and her.
"Of course not...I would never leave you, baby," he told.
Umi sniffed, rubbing her eyes.
"I thought...since the Shredder-"
"Forget the Shredder," he growled out towards the swamps.
"He ain't gonna give us no more grief like 'dis anymore,"
Umi looked up to Stranger, a fierce look veiled on his face.
"You mean-"
"Uh-huh," he nodded, moving back down to her.
"We's gonna kill that giant son-of-a-bitch,"
He stood up, unlocking his bow, and keeping in front of Umi, while stalking forward in search of the Shredder.
What pain, and what damage it has caused, would be hitting it back even harder that it had struck.

-**-

Umi stopped abruptly, leaving Stranger to go on by himself.
She snapped up to him.
"Wait," she said quickly, then focused outside on the environmental noises.
Stranger stopped, and turned to Umi, with a curious brow up.
She closed her eyes, listening hard outside beyond the trees.
Far out was the near-silent murky stomps of a heavy creature, breaking through the trees forcefully.
Umi opened again, moving up to Stranger.
"It's not that far from us. If we are to rid of the Shredder, we need heavy firepower," she told urgently.
"What'cha get'n at, kid?" Stranger asked.
"Boom-bats, prolly?" Umi raised a brow.
Stranger sorted through his ammunition sack, then coming back up with a disgruntled frown.
"Not that many left. 'bout six left," he shrugged.
"Good enough," she nodded.
"Get high in the trees. I'll lead the bastard down through the broken lane, and you can strike it on the head,"
But as Umi began to run away, Stranger grabbed her shoulder, and brough her back to him.
He knelt down to her face, keeping his hands on her shoulders, and a stern look staring in to her eyes.
"I ain't lettin' you on yer own again, Umi," he gruffly said.
"And this time, I mean it,"
Umi stumbled with her words.
"B-but...we need to get rid of the Shred-"
"Is up ter me," he interrupted.
"I'm not riskin' yer life again. I won't allow you to get hurt. Not again,"
Umi looked out of frustration with his stubborness.
"Stranger, I-"
She dodged his look once, then came back up.
"I understand you're trying to protect me. I really do. But...you can't just follow me like I'm some toddler that doesn't know better, all the rest of your life," she said gently, looking down from him.
"I know I don't age much on this world, but my mind continues to grow. Sooner or later, you'll have to let me on my own, to fend for myself,"
Stranger frowned, his hand growing tighter on her shoulder.
"I know I should, but yer not ready yet," he purred.
"Yer not ready fer the dangers of this world, Umi. I'm the only one who can show you. The only one to help you through. If you didn't have me, you'd prolly be dead somewhere where no one would know if you were human,"
Umi's face was down, but her eyes were on him.
"I just...can't let you go, Umi...I mean...it'll be hard to, but...yer the only one I've truely loved so much fer...and it'll be hard to see the kid I've raised leave out to the real world..."
Umi frowned, she feeling his hurt pinch his mind.
"I love you...too much...to ever see you get hurt," his arms rolled around her back, bringing her on his lap.
Umi rubbed his arm comfortingly, wincing down from his pained frown.
An eery howl screeched far beyond the swamps.
The Shredder was still at bay.
Umi moved her head up as best she could to look to Stranger.
"Please, Stranger..." she spoke in a pleadful voice.
Stranger adjusted his neck to look down to her.
"Trust me, this last time. I'll get the Shredder. You just need to shoot it,"
Stranger averted her stare, searching his mind for the right decision.
His head moved away, only showing her a side of his face.
"I've always trusted you Umi..." he said.
Umi felt hope come to her.
Stranger looked back to her, his eyes pleadingful.
"but, if you trust in your judgement, I'll let yer go..."
Umi stood up in front of Stranger.
"But please, Umi," his eyes fell hurt again.
"be careful,"
Umi nodded confidentally, a grin of pride strung on her lips.
"Don't worry about me too much, Stranger," Umi said.
"it'll cause yeh to shed a lot,"
Stranger chuckled.
"Then let every strand of hair fall out, 'til I'm a bare jackrabbit,"
The screech of the Shredder was closer than before.
Umi felt her heart jump, suddenly turning urgent.
"Ok. We need to move, now. Hide high up in the canvas. When the Shredder gets directly under you, shoot your remaining Seekers,"
Stranger didn't make a comment, but leaped on to the trunk of a tree, and grappled up, until he was completely camouflaged under the thick covering of leaves.
Umi began cautiously down the broken lane of trees and flattened marsh grass.
The trees spoke to one another, rustling gently throughout the rows of trunks blocking the lane.
She felt herself lose hope in finding this enormous creature, but then grinned achievingly.
Hello-o-o-o? Where are ya, Shreddy? Umi called through her thoughts, darting her eyes around for a quick response, knowing to come within a second.
A piercing shriek of anger echoed off the trees.
'Pathetic human!" the Shredder's voice filled her mind loudly.
'How dare you and that thing of a Steef intrude my swamps! I should've killed you when I had the chance to!'
Umi stopped, staring straight ahead of the evolving mass stomping slowly forward to her.
The Shredder revealed out of the shadows that engulfed it, its eyes glowing hatefully down at the human standing before it.
"Well! If you want to kill me, here I am!" she opened her arms.
"but you've got'a catch me!"
The Shredder roared, bringing down a sickle claw right by her arm.
She jumped, and turned back around, jumping over the uprooted trunks of the trees.
The Shredder shrieked a warcry, then pursued after the human, faster than she.
But it may have been faster.
Umi was dodgy and smaller, leaving the Shredder with a poor accuracy.
But even with all the dodging Umi pulled off, it was gradually not paying off quick enough.
Umi gave a nervous stare ahead.
At this rate, she'd be killed before she reached Stranger.
The Shredder chuckled behind her.
'Give up, human! You're too slow for me!'
It swung its tail around and in front of Umi, blocking her path forward on.
She skidded to a stop, swallowing down her pride. She spun around to the Shredder, closing in with its nose almost touching her face.
'Now I'm going to do what I should've done...' it snarled, tripping her flat on her back.
It raised its tail high above her head, then brought back down, letting out one last victorious scream.
His ears flicked up in alert, as he sat in the most uncomfortable position in the canvas covering.
Not only did he hear the Shredder brawl, but he could hear the shriek of Umi's as well.
"Odd-damn..." he griped, swinging down from the branches, and landing on the muddy floor.
Far ahead he could see the Shredder bringing its tail down near the ground.
But what was under the tail made his anger build steam.
Flashes of the dreams he had seeing Umi killed exploded in his mind.
His head shook defiantly, his lip twitching uncontrollably.
No... he thought.
Not my Umi...
"NO!" Stranger roared, running forward towards the Shredder on his four limbs.
The Shredder darted its eyes forward to the Steef charging after it.
It chuckled deviously, its eyes dilating towards the Steef.
A hot pain ripped in Stranger's mind, the Shredder's voice coming thorugh an echo.
"Don't even come closer, Steef," it spoke threateningly.
Stranger growled back to it.
"Don't even try ter threaten me," Stranger said through his clenched teeth.
"you over-grown son-of-a-bitch...I'LL KILL YOU 'FORE YOU KILL MY KID!"
Stranger loped up a slant tree root, and leaped off over the arch high.
Feeling as if time had slown, his arm reached straigh out, both launchers loaded with quad-'bats.
The Shredder's eyes suddenly gleamed in fear, backing away nervously from the flying Steef.
'No...' it told.
'Don't come any closer, Steef...I'm warning you!'
Stranger only scowled vitriolically, his bow bursting off with the sextuplets of Boom-bat Seekers flying in a doubled cluster of drones and timebombs.
The Shredder snorted, its head moving away from the homing 'bats fluttering closer slowly through its eyes.
"NO!" the Shredder shrieked loudly, feeling the rush of defeat run over him before the Boom-bats impacted in an entire cluster at its face.
A shuddering explosion bursted off the Shredder's head, and a smokey smog covering what was left of its head.
It swayed gently for a moment, its headless body then jerking down to the muddy floor.
The ground quaked from the heavy drop of the Shredder's decapitated body, smoke smoldering from its chewed-off spine.
Stranger felt his burning anger drown with relief.
Relief that he had saved Umi from what he thought was the end.
And that the guardian of the Swamps, the Shredder creature, would no longer be a problem.
Umi stood up, wiping the dry mud off her stomach.
Stranger quickly came up, popping her up in his arms.
She looked at him with shocked surprise, but then smiled gently to him.
"Good work, Stranger," she looked back to the Shredder, then back to him.
Stranger sighed, nudging her with his nose deep in her hair.
"I'm just glad yer still in one piece..." he purred, a tickling sensation bothering through her nerves in her leg.
"Jeez..." she pushed his nose away.
"If yer that worried, put a choke collar on me,"
Stranger chuckled.
"Maybe that's what I'll do..."
Both of them looked over to the smoldering neck of the Shredder, relief flooding all over them again.
Umi shrugged.
"I guess you did a good number on 'im," she said.
"Better than that," he nodded.
Small creatures emerged from the trees, yips of glee crying in their minds, as they nourished themselves up to the Shredder, and bit off the smoked meat from its bones.
A feast was unraveled to the creatures who feared the Shredder, now no longer living.
And that Umi and Stranger would be left of these terrible feats it had given off to them.