Author's note: The original City at War storyline was conceptualized not long after I started putting together "One Last Adventure," the first story in the pre-reboot HLU continuity. My notes from the time indicate that CITY AT WAR (1) [PRB] was penned by me, while the story was conceived by me, Vid Mihaljević, and Demijan Antić. The following is a 13-issue reimagining of the original 10-issue epic, adhering to the post-reboot continuity. Special thanks to Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the creators of TMNT and founders of Mirage Studios, for inspiring me to name this grand epic after one of their story arcs. —IS
On this particular Monday morning, Caldwell felt especially wrong.
Living here was already hard enough; the class divide was more obvious than ever these days, Mayor Slade is cracking down on the poor, disenfranchised and otherwise alienated, and all under the guise of making the city safer to live in.
Ever since we got rid of The Unmourned, the Caldwell crime syndicate moved underground, and different factions are now fighting for remaining territory. Whatever was left of The Unmourned, along with Slade's Private Militia (with the ever-charming and lovable mayor as their commander in chief), and Nocturne Academy's Alchemy and Science Division (NAAS) are duking it out in the middle of Downtown Caldwell like it's nobody's business.
There are tons of civilian casualties daily, and we - some of us more than others - felt personally responsible for how things were playing out. After all, we created a massive power vacuum after sticking it to The Unmourned, and now chaos and disorder are running rampant in the streets.
I felt really bad for what was going on. Danny couldn't care less. Pac and Vic were divided as well. The others were more scared than passive. The whole situation was brutal and it was weighing hard on our surrogate family. Cane made no efforts to bridge our disagreements, opting instead for adding fuel to the fire by saying we not only did the right thing, but we will continue doing the right thing by chopping everyone's heads off. "Everything that's not us is up for grabs. And even that can perhaps come into question at some point. Keep your eyes peeled and ears open for anything irregular. What you think is regular, on the other hand, probably isn't. Playtime is over."
That's how Cane thought he'd keep us in check - by making us believe we should always be on alert, no matter what. He was not wrong.
I knew we had to get involved somehow, but everything Cane and Danny were capable of coming up with seemed like it would only escalate the situation instead of actually fixing it. We've been living at Nocturne - the Academy's basement, to be exact - ever since the start of the war. Ventures to the surface were scarce and filled with uncertainty; since Nocturne itself was involved, we had no idea if we'd make it back in one piece. Every outing meant the possibility of capture by NAAS (or anyone else involved, for that matter).
"What, you're just going to sit around and act all mopey all day? All you do is flip channels and be all silent and fake mysterious."
Danny was giving me a hard time because he thought I was being passive regarding the whole thing. He didn't want to get involved, but he had this idea I was doing a disservice to myself - and by extension, the city - by not wanting to flip board by myself. It was really annoying to deal with on a daily basis; I tried explaining to him I had no interest in going in there alone, or without his direct involvement. It's always been us against the world, I wasn't going to do anything impulsive without first roundtabling it.
"Dude, give him a break," Lauren interjected, clearly fed up with our constant bickering, or with Danny's insistence on pushing my buttons. "You're not doing anything remotely productive yourself. All I see you do is dicking around with your little typewriter and bitching about others not doing something, while you're actively against it yourself. You're not making any sense. Lay off his case."
Thank you, Lauren.
She was rarely this willing to push back against something that she must be reading as mundane. The whole thing has been getting to her, too, obviously. She just didn't dare to admit it. Not at all due to fear, she just recognized that the energy of one can have a profound influence on the room.
"Since when did Mr. Leader over here need a lawyer? He can defend himself!" Danny snapped back. I didn't like seeing them fight like this; we needed to gather round and stick together. Perhaps I was a little too inactive and passive. Perhaps I should go ahead and break the ice. We were going to get involved anyway - at this point it seemed inevitable. Might as well go off, while we still had the element of surprise on our side.
"Quit your senseless yapping, for Christ's sake. We need to figure out how to slide through this without getting our heads blown off. Well, I shouldn't say 'we,' that's what I gotta do anyway. Gather round, children - we've been long overdue for some overtime training. That is, if you're not just a bunch of chickens."
Cane was ready to go out and get it, guns blazing. He wasted no time.
Everyone gathered, just as Cane desired. It's official: we are going in, head first. I had no idea what I was going to do with Danny - he and I are definitely not on the same page. Lauren seems to be, though, so that's at least something. I spoke to Matt about Danny going on my nerves lately that same morning, and he seemed to share a similar sentiment. Nevertheless, we have to put a stop to this.
It was time to leave the basement and bash some skulls.