revivalproject | You're in My World Now

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You're in My World Now

WHO: Donnie et tu?
WHERE: Temb...a?
WHAT: Just when you thought you knew a place...
WHEN: During the earlier part of the storm
WARNINGS: Blood, things trying to eat people, grabby plants and all the potential danger that comes with the aforementioned

i. a little parlor trick
Ohhhh he had not meant to come here.

His curiosity about the strange vines had been his undoing, and before he knew it, Donnie had found himself being dragged through one of the creepy tears in whatever dimensional fabric there was.

It's concerning enough to see his breath freeze in front of him when he's hardly dressed for such a chill, but then he's almost choking as he finds out the hard way that this place hasn't the freshest of air. Thankfully the latter is one thing he does find himself prepared for as he pulls his breathing mask into place, one problem solved, but oh so much more to deal with. It's hard to focus when you're right on the verge of panicking.

His surroundings are familiar enough for him to figure out what's going on, or at least to construct some rough theories. An alternate space within Temba? But what did that have to do with a storm? For surely there was one, or at least he could only assume for the more obvious points, but those were all prior to...whatever this is.

...it is so cold here. Mind-numbingly so, and it makes him feel sluggish. The opening- right, he should probably try to find that and get out of here. Which way was it though..?

The flutter of wings grabs his attention if belatedly, and he cries out as several of the batlike creatures descend upon him. He smacks one with his hand, turning to run as adrenaline helps to get him moving again, but in his panic he forgets all about looking for the exit. He's got other priorities at the moment, especially as he catches a glimpse of something else moving in the dingy light. That's...not a human, is it...

ii. friends on the other side
Maybe you'd seen him duck in here some time earlier, maybe you just happen upon him by chance. A ruined building but it's got enough walls that Donnie feels fairly secure, and even then, barely.

He's practically wedged himself into a corner, hands locked around the length of his tech-bō, knees pulled in with his arms around them as though to make himself as small as possible. It's also an ill attempt at trying to stay warm as his hoodie isn't really doing it for him. Being cold-blooded sucks sometimes.

It might be easy to miss him, as still as he is, but in the quiet it's not hard to make out his breathing, quick and slightly amplified for the breathing mask he wears, sometimes just that, other times whispered words trying to psyche himself up, trying to keep himself awake.

Maybe you come upon the kid when he's threatening to doze off.

Or maybe you make enough noise that he jerks himself into alertness, an almost wild look in his eyes as he swings the pointed end of his staff in your direction with a gasp.

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Maybe choosing a location where neither party could see wasn't ideal, especially as Tony tried to feel around for bandages without disturbing anything else enough to make a sound. Doing this at all wasn't ideal, it was a distraction when they should have been focused on getting Donnie out of here, but so far Tony's plans had only drawn blood and gotten them as far as a few measly feet, and he would have snarled at himself for thinking he deserved to flinch when he snatched a bandage too tightly around his hand if he wasn't already biting his tongue. He must have made a noise despite himself, because that increasingly familiar flapping had swooped closer, close enough that it echoed around the barren walls of the of the empty building. It wasn't just recursion that he was hearing, though--all of that noise, that was plenty of wings, all struggling to navigate around each other.

Donnie eased himself into a crouch, feeling all sorts of stiff and hating every step of the short distance he crabwalked to get beside Tony. While the man worked on his bandages, the turtle rubbed at the bare skin between his purple kneepads and anklewraps, but cold hands made little difference in warming him up.

He froze at the sounds, eyes flicking back towards the way they'd come and anxiously towards the shadowy ceiling. Did those things find them?

Whatever Tony had done to his hand was going to have to be good enough, and he'd find out what it was when it mattered and they were back in the light. Donnie was a shadow, ringed with the softest light from the glow of the moon that managed to creep this far into the building, the edge of him watery and flickering as the bats swarmed around the doorway. Still feeling his way around, Tony had to reach for him to get his attention, only for his hand to immediately spring away when it finally touched Donnie's, thinking he had been misdirected in the moving shadows and felt some new, unfamiliar threat in the dead cold of it. He leaned in closer, feeling through the dark to find the kid's arm this time, and search his way down to that unnervingly numb skin to reorient himself, then squeeze, hard and demanding with a question he couldn't vocalize.

Donnie's gasp sounded much too loud in his own ears, probably only because of the way it seemed to echo within his mask, cutting through the silence. It was like he'd just remembered to breathe, just barely feeling Tony's hand around his. He turned his head back towards Tony before daring to scoot a little closer, trying to keep his teeth together to keep them from chattering as he listened for further movement from the bats.

Hiding was all well and good but it was like sitting in a meat locker, and not moving was doing him no favors.

It was very easy to forget that Donnie was a turtle with some human attributes, and not the other way around. One of the attributes he did not adopt was that mammalian circulatory system, which was barely keeping Tony warm in these conditions. It was fine, just another problem to solve, just as soon as Tony bought them some time by blindly grabbing from the first aid kit still on the ground and chucking whatever he found back the way they had come, to send a flurry of bats chasing after the sound. Meanwhile, he felt his way back up Donnie's arm to coax his head closer, tucking it into the warm crook of his neck, trying to at least keep Donnie's brain warm with a restless patting while his eyes darted in the dark like he could spot the obvious solution. The only thing that caught his focus was the doorway, now cleared of bats, revealing a larger, lower creature slinking in between them and the moonlight, facing them with such a clear intent that Tony's pulse must have been a trill by Donnie's ear.

It was little better than sitting by himself, that was for sure. Donnie shivered slightly, tucking against Tony as though to absorb whatever warmth he could. Unfortunately it wasn't doing much to dissuade him from wanting to just nap, but the lingering threats kept his attention just enough. He watched as the entryway became less cluttered with moving, flapping bodies, but the only thing suggesting that he wasn't merely imagining movement beyond was the heartbeat that was definitely drumming faster than his own. It helped pick his own pace up a bit, his eyes widening.

Bigger than the bat things, not quite the same as...Seymour. Donnie moved his head a little, trying to get feeling back in his limbs.

Donnie was clearly incapable of functioning, and maybe he hadn't even noticed exactly how much danger they were staring down, so all Tony had to do was get them out of here and they could focus on the heat problem. Easy. He would come up with a good excuse later for the abrupt way his hold around the kid shifted, arms around him so Tony was poised to heft him up against his shoulder at the first twitch of muscle from the thing in the doorway. Then there could be no more hesitation; the creature leapt, and Tony was throwing himself forward, as much to get out of the way as it was to get back onto his feet, a clatter ringing behind him where something struck what was left of the first aid kit. The creature landed; the bats burst into the air. Tony was running blindly back toward the door, trying to keep Donnie as close as possible with his head down under Tony's arm so none of the flying things could get a claw into him. Tony's shoulder struck the doorframe, making him bounce and stumble his last few steps before the grenade he had dropped for the snarling creature to pounce on was erupting in flame.

Hardly in a position to argue about Tony's sudden clinginess, Donnie had absolutely no idea what the man's plan was here, already mentally falling several steps behind. That he offered no complaint at suddenly being hauled about for a rough retreat was surely no good sign. The easiest thing to respond to was being that this close to Tony made him a little less chilled.

The sounds around them were not at all promising, probably more terrible for what they implied, but they could have been happening miles away.

Was Donnie already dead? Had Tony not noticed that he was freezing to death for long enough that he was already sprinting down the street carrying a body? The creatures poured out of the building in his wake, half of them on fire and screeching against their deaths as they were rapidly consumed, the others shoving those aside coldly to continue their pursuit. Tony just had to get behind a closed door, he just needed some space, one of these buildings had to be intact enough for him to put a wall between himself and finding out what it was like to be eaten by bats.

That's where he knew that pattern from, he knew someone that had been eaten by bats.

Not the time. Tony threw his already bleeding, now bruised shoulder into the next door that he saw, whirling around to kick it closed and brace the weight of himself and whatever was left of Donnie against it, only to hear glass shatter as the bats flung themselves carelessly through the windows.

Processing, processing- it was a fine line between shutting down and waking up. The only thing that had been keeping him from staving off whatever sort of brumation mutant turtles might succumb ever since he'd gotten pulled into this weird alter-Temba was to keep on the move, but it hadn't gotten any warmer, and resting had just seemed the more natural response than anything else. Somewhere in the back of his mind, his teenager self wanted to rebel.

The bloom of heat behind them was almost welcoming, prompting a weak hand to reach out after it, but it was getting farther away again, and he retracted it back to where he could try grasping onto Tony's shirt. Donnie opened his eyes (when had he closed them?), the angry screeching behind them demanding attention. It took so much effort to claw himself out of that mental darkness, and while reality was not inviting in the least, the more he managed to focus on, the better grip he had on consciousness. That all too familiar, sharp, coppery scent, the staccato breaths that likely matched Tony's rapid pulse, breaking glass-

He sucked in a ragged breath of air as though he'd just come up from under water, pushing weakly against Tony as he dragged his head up. His movements were stiff, he felt like his blood had frozen in his veins but it didn't stop him from trying to get his feet under him, barely able to feel the floor beneath his toes. For the most part he was still relying on Tony heavily for support as he brought his staff around, his fingers having more or less locked around it.

That feeling when just waking from a nap? This was it but several times worse because you had absolutely no idea what was going on and were reacting blearily out of panic because suddenly there are things with teeth flying at you. Turns out, when one was feeling half-frozen and still trying to wake up, they aren't the best at using a staff to its full potential. High-grade titanium was still pretty effective when it hit something, but it was also at the moment about the same as waving a stick at mosquitos.

Oh, thank god, he wasn't dead, although a celebration would have to wait and letting him down was probably a mistake. Tony kept one arm around his chest, fairly dragging him across the open ground just as something heavy collided with the door behind them. Deeper into the building, more layers, more armor between them and the animals in pursuit, there had to be another door to hide behind, far enough away that they couldn't be heard anymore, and Donnie was safe. The door that Tony approached had already rotted, or been torn from its hinges, but it wasn't entirely useless; Tony warned, "Hang on!," as though he wasn't already squeezing Donnie to his side and giving him very little choice when Tony flung them down onto the door itself, sending it sliding across the ground and tipping over the first step into the yawning darkness below.

They're moving again, okay- Donnie tried to put some effort into keeping up, although not by very much. Tony was still doing much of the heavy lifting, but at least Donnie could slightly feel the difference when his toes did touch the ground.

He collapsed the tech-bō before he could accidentally brain himself or trip up Tony, clinging to it and the man's arm as they went further in. The warning was almost pointless, but then being thrown onto a broken door to sled downstairs was hardly a plan he would have expected. He hadn't meant to swallow a scream as they went skidding downwards into the darkness, but perhaps that was all for the best.

The journey down the stairs was rough and shook Tony's bones, then the slide across the floor as they hit the bottom smooth with only a final impact for Tony to brace for with Donnie held close so the kid wouldn't take the brunt of it. When it did come, Tony didn't have time to think about what they hit or how hard; he was already tearing off his own sweater to pull over Donnie's head, careless of where his arms ended up in the meantime until Tony had him bundled in it and the scarf draped back over him and looped around his neck. They might not have had much time before those creatures caught up with them again.

Donnie'd gone down stairs by illy-suited means before. The result was very much as jarring and painful, but the fresh panic was helping to get his heart and blood pumping, and by the end of it he was clinging onto Tony with a shudder.

There wasn't any argument from him as he found himself being practically swaddled by Tony's sweater, relishing whatever residual warmth it provided. He'd be more concerned about the human's own warmth once his own brain was fully awake. Actual arm mobility was probably ideal but Donnie wasn't in any particular hurry in finding where to stick his hands to find the armholes, although something at the back of his mind nagged him that he should probably do that sooner than later.

Pulling Donnie close let Tony try to wrap him in body heat as he rubbed at Donnie's shoulder anxiously, and also whisper close to his ear, "Can you run?" The plan so far was unsustainable. "I'm going to distract them. You run. Get to the fountain, there's a door there. You know where the fountain is? This place is just like Temba, you've got the whole thing mapped out, I know you know where it is. You run."

More running? Donnie was hating this plan and wasn't sure that it was any better than hiding. Still, he began to nod, at least until Tony began to go over the rest of the plan.

"What, no-" he started, and it was a bit of a struggle to get his hands through the armholes of the sweater but as soon as be had one through, he was grasping at Tony desperately.

"N-no, not without you," he insisted, dreading the thought of going out there alone again.

"Sweetheart," Tony tried to reassure, patting his head now to keep him calm as much as keep him warm, "We've got to get these things off your back so you can get out of here. The faster we do that, the better. I go one way, you go the other, it's a classic, if you've iterated on the design I'm all ears."

His hands felt only slightly less stiff but he still tried grasping Tony's arm as tightly as he could. Donnie shook his head, not liking this idea but not having any better to offer. He was a deadweight here, that much he wasn't going to deny, as much as he hated it. But leaving Tony here was something he disagreed with, the man was already hurt and now he was with less layers to keep him warm and even mammals needed some protection from this wretched cold.

If the mask hadn't been so specifically fitted to his own face, Donnie would have offered it. He had nothing and Tony was practically giving him everything, and they were probably running out of time if those things made it inside and found out where they were.

Swallowing, he coaxed his fingers loose, tugging at the scarf Tony had once again wound around him, pushing it back at the man because he had to have something. Donnie wasn't waiting for some argument because he was throwing himself into a hug like he was attempting to sap some last bit of warmth from him but really, really hoped Tony had some kind of alternative option to offer, only reluctantly letting go if there was none to be found.

While that wasn't a very effective plan, it was a pretty illustrative counterargument, and the most Donnie had moved in some time. Tony returned the hug with a tight squeeze, eyes darting in the dark over Donnie's shoulder like he might be able to see a better idea in the air, to be able to assure him better than, "Hey, you're going to be fine, I'm going to be right behind you." He did hope at least most of that was true. "Time to finally show me your ninja moves, huh? No more teasing, now's the real deal."

Don't be a lying liar, Anthony Stark. Donnie wasn't willing to believe otherwise however, so he only nodded, trying to look way braver than he actually felt. "You better be," he said, almost petulant, hoping maybe it'd be more incentive for Tony to take better care of himself.

Stick to the shadows, move light as a feather, blend with your surroundings... Dad wasn't here to make him proud but Tony was quickly filling in for a close second. Donnie sucked in a careful breath as he flexed his toes, hoping to thaw them out enough for once he had to move.

Tony's answer was a playfully condescending pat to Donnie's cheek, easier to sense than a too self-confidence smirk in the dark, of course he would be, he was invincible. "As soon as you get to the other side," he said as he found his footing, both hands on Donnie's arms to help him up as well, trying to sound sure that there wasn't any other outcome but Donnie making it through the door, "you call Jon. He'll see you."

Not a promising response, but Donnie knew he wasn't going to get any better, and the longer they waited, the colder he'd get again.

He got to his feet, taking it as a positive sign he could tell where the floor was as he stood. Anxiously he looked back towards the stairs, listening before he nodded back at Tony.

The sooner he got out of here the sooner he could work on something to make here easier to deal with and hopefully it wouldn't have to be a rescue mission. Donnie placed a cold hand over Tony's, fingers tightening around it before he let go, mentally psyching himself to be ready to move.

The journey up the stairs was much less physically painful, but drawing it out to try to keep quiet meant every step felt like a winch on Tony's chest until it was painfully tight as he finally stood in the faint pool of moonlight. He could hear the beat of wings still, and the distant screeching of hungry animals, all out of sight, and searching around where they had come from. At least, Tony hoped, because he was gesturing for Donnie inquisitively, pointing deeper into the building, where there might have been another exit. With a tap on his own chest, he pointed back toward the door that had come through.

The longer they took to get back up the stairs, the less sure Donnie felt about going through with this escape plan. He came up behind Tony once they were back on the main level, the sounds beyond their sight not doing much to reassure him, and he was about to shake his head with renewed rejection of this idea.

It probably showed at least a little on his face, but he cast a look back, seeking out other passages, not really finding much offered by a glance. But surely there had to be something. ...and if not, then he'd just have to double back. Donnie looked back at Tony with a hesitant nod before forcing himself to start heading deeper in before he could change his mind.

Tony watched him go a few steps with his own clench of anxiety, reluctant to turn away, like maybe this could have been enough, to watch Donnie make his escape and keep himself between the creatures and the kid until he made it to the fountain. There was more screeching overhead, though, the sound of the bats circling the building, searching for the first sign of their prey. Tony glanced up, then tugged his scarf tightly around his face so no loose ends could be easily snagged before he started back toward the door, sweeping down to pick up a handful of broken concrete to help make some noise as he went.

You're in My World Now

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