#jonathanellis

Here’s your day-after-Thanksgiving dose of reality: A major report by 13 fed agencies predicts that if significant steps are not taken to rein in global warming, the damage will knock as much as 10% off the size of the American economy by century’s end. https://t.co/xYzjOdoSek

“I mean it, lets rock-n-roll!” The leader in blue shouted by the sewer hatch in the dojo. He was accompanied by Venus and Donatello, who eagerly stood next to him, ready to go. Coming in from the jam room, Mikey stopped under the arch that connected it to the dojo.

“Brah, no. Ya gotta do it like this.” He turned his body towards their bedroom and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Raph, you ‘bout to get left!” he shouted loudly with the deepest voice he could possibly create in hopes to make his bigger brother jump. Almost immediately, Raphael appeared in the jam room. His feet hastily plodded on the cement as he walked and slumped his shoulders.

“I don’t like running!” he whined, pushing past his little brother. Leonardo rolled his eyes routinely.

“It’s not running, Raph. It’s jogging!” He knew all too well that someone was going to whine about jogging. Raphael came around the dojo with Michelangelo shuffling behind him.

“I’m too big to be running around anyways.”

“An active turtle is a healthy turtle.” Donatello added as he opened the hatch. Raphael looked at the ladder irritably. He then rushed to grab the hatch with a good leap and pulled himself up. Before letting anyone else jump after him, he stayed crouched by the entrance. He kept a finger up and plastered on a serious face that stared at each turtles’.

“Don’t people say slow and steady wins the race? If I’m right, imma walk!” The rest whined for him to get out of the way. Clearly outvoted, he grunted and walked away to let everyone else jump up. Donatello followed behind him, then Mikey. As a gentleman, Leonardo insisted Venus would go before him. She took the gesture kindly, but before jumping, she caught sight of her sister. Mona came out of the bathroom and was trying to head to the living room unnoticed. Leonardo noticed her too.

“Mona,” He called. Her head lifted up slightly, but she didn’t turn her back from him. “ya wanna go jogging with us?”

“No.” she mumbled softly enough for him to just barely hear. Green, scaly arms grasped onto her elbows as she walked away silently into the living room.

“Well, she’s still bummed.” Mikey commented when she sat on the couch and turned on the TV.

“Maybe if we get a move on, it will give her some quality alone time.” Donatello insisted. Venus nodded in agreement, but hated the fact that Mona was still broken up from the day earlier.

“Not too long tho’.” Raphael put a toothpick in-between his jaws. “I don’t wanna come back with the pad crashed and Master Splinter missing.” Donatello bumped his arm into Raph’s, who felt nothing about it. Leonardo only shook his head for his insensitivity towards Venus and Mona. He leaped onto the ledge and slowly closed up the hatch.

“Load up in the van guys.” He called out as they treaded through the sewer.

“What reason do we have to leave the sewers and drive to another to go jogging?” Venus asked. The four looked at her incredulously. Donatello was the only one capable to clue her in.

“Easy. Different scenery.”

“I still don’t understand.” Raphael slowed down from the front to walk beside her and Donatello. He leaned only slightly, and his large shoulder was already bumping against hers as he explained.

“Hey, if you grew up in these sewers, you’ll wanna go see other ones.”

“I don’t know what I’ve been told!”

“Leo’s act is getting old!” The three brothers shouted after Leonardo, who jogged against all of them. Unsure how to follow along with their chants, Venus kept her laughter to herself and kept up with a steady jog between Leo and Mikey.

“Hide in the dark, stay out of sight!”

“I definitely earned some pizza tonight.” Mikey whined. His jogging stature easily slumped forward, trying to prove how tired he was so it would end.

“Sound off!”

“This is lame!” Answered Donatello.

“Sound off!”

“Can we stop?!” Raphael asked from behind.

“Sound off!”

“Seriously, can we stop?!” Immediately, Mikey gave up the jog and plopped forward on his face as protest. Thankful, Raphael caught up to him and his breath. The three leaders stopped and came back to their fallen comrade.

“Leo, can we go home now?” The tallest brother asked to the still moving Leonardo. He checked his watch. “We’ve jogged approximately 7.4 miles.” Leo stopped his movements and slowly paced up and back the distance between his crew to cool off.

“Y’know, thousands of people run 27 mile marathons by choice. Why can’t I get you to jog at least 10 miles a week?” The leader’s comment earned moans from his ninjas.

“Yeah? I wanna see them runnin’ with the extra 100 lbs on their backs.” Raphael wanted to laugh, but a cramp in his side stopped him from doing so. This was one of the reasons he hated running. He always gets stomach cramps for some reason.

“Well, I for one am thoroughly enjoying the workout.” Venus said with a smile as she stretch one of her legs out by pulling one behind her. Raphael laughed, but only shortly.

“Great. Lady Leo enjoys running”

“No fair! You’re like half our body weight!” Mikey complained his face no longer on the floor. Venus sassily put her hands on her hips.

“Not my fault I have a petite, feminine shape.” She argued.

“And with you, yo shape is ‘pear’ baby!” The baby exclaimed, using his hands to demonstrate the concept of a curvy female body.

“Pear?” She asked, totally unsure why he was comparing her to a fruit. Still hunched over next to him, Raph made sure he gave him a good warning kick while he was still on the ground.

“Hey Raph, what’dya mean ‘Lady Leo’?” Raphael straightened himself out as his older brother approached him. He saw it awkwardly how concerned Leo looked at him.

“Her mask is blue.” He stated plainly, unsure why it was so hard for Leo to see it in the first place. The leader’s eyes were slightly surprised as he back off from his brother’s bubble.

“Oh.”

“I-got-a-pain-in-my-chest-and-I-can’t-breathe!” The orange turtle was still down on the floor, holding his chest with one arm and breathing overdramatically. Unhappy about it, Leonardo gave in to their wishes.

“Okay Mikey. I’m callin’ off the jog.” Instanteously, the young turtle leaped off the ground and planted a kiss on the oldest’s cheek.

“I love you, man!” he exclaimed. Leo peeled him off abruptly. Raphael applauded.

“That’s what I call leadership.”

“I could go for another zap!” The female turtle proposed.

“Uh, it’s ‘lap’.” Donatello corrected her. Venus acknowledged it and nodded.

“And no, you don’t.” Raphael insisted as he pushed her the way back to the van that Donatello was summoning with its remote.

“Do we get to come out yet? I’ve been stuck in here for a month!”

“Calm down my friend. They’ll let us out soon.” Jonathan Ellis assured his partner in the pod beside him. Over a course of time, his friend wasn’t the same. Yes, he sounded like Jazz, he acted like Jazz, but he no longer looked like Jazz. His human features were contorted into the form of a humanoid pig. He was far larger and taller than he was before. His clothing ripped off of him as he grew, so their clothes were replaced with the robes doctors would give their patients. Jonathan was no longer himself either. While Jazz only grew so much, Jonathan grew even bigger than him as he took on the looks of the magnificent white rhino. His head was large, and his horn seemed even larger, even though it wasn’t nearly as large as the ratio of a normal rhino in attention to his ability to get around.

“And you’ve only been cooking for a week.” Baxter Stockman was sitting before them as the only one on the computer, analyzing their bodies. “We need to make sure that you will function properly after we let you out of the pod.”

“Why should I believe what you have to say anyways?” Jazz wagged his head, still unfamiliar with the drag of his snout. Stockman looked up from the screen. Jazz was staring down his soul when he did.

“I’ll get you out soon, Jazz.” He promised.

“Naw, man. I ain’t Jazz no more. Jazz don’t look like this. I’m a d*mn pig!”

“Warthog. Much more ruthless and cunning than a pig.”

“Call me Pumbaa!” the thug cried out. Immoral, he let his head drop as he tried to patiently wait to get out.

Moments later, Stockman gave to OK to release them. A team of female scientists waited equally in from of both of their pods with a contraption made up of metal bars. The pod doors opened, blasting a short burst of air into their faces. Jazz admired the feeling of it going through his still maintained hair, unlike Ellis who had lost his.

“Alright, Mr. Rollins, just make your best effort to make it to the walker. You aren’t used to your form and your legs will feel shaky after their days of unuse.” One of the scientists instructed as she pushed the overly huge walker towards him.

“Pumbaa knows how to walk. Get that crutch outta my way.” He waved his arm to get them back, which felt good from not being held into those cylinders. He took in a deep breath. “One small step and-.” Attempting his first step, Jazz failed miserably once he found out he was on the floor.

“Your crutch Mr. Rollins.” The female scientist offered again. Already using his own crutch, Ellis coached him as he tried to walk over.

“Come on my friend. I’m using my crutch too. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“A’ight, a’ight, hand it over.” Jazz hastily picked himself off of the ground. He felt the wetness of his nose peel off the floor as he slowly climbed up the bars of the walker and tried to stand. His feet shuffled a little. “Whew. Them hooves don’t feel like feet.”

“My feet are gone. They are pads now.” Jazz looked down as Jonathan’s feet. They looked alien for they were a concoction of toeless, grey feet.

“Well, look at that.” They really just grossed him out, but now the man had a sharp horn on his face. It was too early to start. “That’s pretty cool Unicorn man.”

“I am a rhino.” He corrected him matter-of-factly.

“My bad, you got the one horn so I assumed.” Jazz’s words slurred into a grumble and quickly hand gestures trying to dismiss him.

“I forgive you.”

“How do you guys feel?” Stockman approached them with his clipboard, pencil in hand.

“Betrayed, fooled, punked.” Stockman rolled his eyes at Jazz’s answer.

“My legs hurt, but other than that, I feel good.” Jonathan’s response brought Stockman back to his content outer shell.

“Can you guys do anything native to your given animal?”

“Given? I was forced.” The pig announced.

“Ellis, can you grunt?”

“Let me see.” Seeing he no longer had to reach into the back of his throat, Jonathan Ellis easily gave Stockman a worthy grunt.

“Very impressive, authentic.” Stockman commented as he wrote it down on his side of the paper. Ellis smiled with his new rhino face.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Could you also toss your head around comfortably? With the massive size of your head and horn, we need to make sure your neck is accumulated for it.” Before he finished his sentence, Ellis began to shake his head in a random pattern.

“Okay, okay, okay, stop now. Please stop.”

“Sorry.” He apologized sadly.

“Seems your neck is good. How about you Rollins?”

“I’m a pig, I can squeal.” He quickly gave him a quick squeal before Stockman could say anything else. “My head tossing is in line. Look,” then he shook his head three times. “My tail’s flailing around.” Jazz slowly turned around for him to see so he could hurry along this checkup and continue being a pout.

“Hey, mine too.” Ellis turned around, watching his new switch tail flail about.

“You boys are looking good.” Stockman assured as he wrote more on the clipboard.

“They sure do.” A man placed a hand on Stockman’s shoulder.

“Evening Mr. Sacks.” Stockman acknowledged him, not taking his head away from the board in his hands.

“Stockman. You’re work shines as always.” He commented as he stared down his two new specimens. Jazz glared at Sacks, but earned nothing but a smile from him. ” Please, take them away to get reacquainted with themselves.” He asked the female scientists. They all followed his orders and ushered the two to another room. As they were being pushed out, Jazz never stopped staring at Sacks, who returned his stare.

“They’re very healthy and their abnormalities are not interfering with any of the motion or thinking processes.” Stockman’s findings brought Sacks back to their conversation.

“Exactly what I wanted to hear. I’ve been talking with the Master and he has come up with a plan that he would like to put into action immediately unless those two are ready.” Stockman pointed out his findings to him with the eraser on his pencil.

“Shouldn’t be long at all as long as they’re walking and interacting.”

“Good. I want all hands on deck to help those two build up their strength to go against those teenagers.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate those teens after the last time.”

“True, but we will guarantee that next time will be their last time.”

Meanwhile, Jazz and Jonathan were taken into a small room with bins of large clothing that the Foot could find that could possibly fit the two. The scientists had left them and were finally together by themselves.

“Oooh, this vest looks tight. Maybe if I put this chain her’- I guess the only perks in this job are the free clothes.” Jazz had ransacked the bins on one side of the room, leaving Jonathan to search on the other side. The new pig had already disrobed out of his hospital robe and traded it for a pair of black, distressed jeans.

“Look what I picked out.” Jazz turned around to see Jonathan. The rhino had a pair of tan cargo pants with a belt, followed by combat boots, and old styled pilot hat and goggles with an ill fitting tank top. Jazz couldn’t help but snort.

“Man that shirt looks like it came from Baby GAP.” Jonathan shrugged.

“If you think so.” Jazz’s laughter stopped, but the smile on his face stayed. Now, he was ready to start making fun of him.

“Maybe it’s not the shirt; it’s probably that rhino belly on you.” He pointed out with a cloven finger, which was now one of four on each hand. Ellis looked down at his showing stomach. It was a large grey mass with creases on the side, not associated with fat content, but through a rhino’s characteristics.

“Yeah, it’s pretty big.” He smiled. Jazz’s face dropped. He leaned on the wall beside him.

“Man, I’m making fun of you and you ain’t gonna fire back?”

“Nope.”

“You ain’t mad at all?”

“No. I think you’re really funny.” Something wasn’t right about this Rhino.

“Ok. I got stuck in this for not following orders and bashing a prison guard on the head. What you get in this for?” Jazz asked, trying to comprehend this madness.

“I volunteered. Remember?”

“Naw, man. Like, how did you get in the Foot in the first place? Imma thug, a real thug, y’know. What can you do? You a decoy or somethin’.” Jazz asked.

“I think they let me in because of this.” Jonathan grabbed the bag that they had given him. It was probably a bag of his belongings like how they gave Jazz’s back. The bag was large, but it was explainable as he grabbed straps of ammo out of it and pulled the two across his chest like Rambo. He reached back in and pulled out small explosives, such as grenades and stuffed them into the pockets of his cargo pants. Lastly, he took out a machine gun and put the strap over his shoulder. Jazz squealed in disbelief.