An Angel's Touch
Part 1
New York city, midnight.
Five humanoid reptiles, four male turtles and one female lizard, jumped across the rooftops of the city. Unlike most nights, when they patrolled the city and dealt with any criminals they found, this night they had a much more important task. They were searching for a Purple Dragon base.
Over the last few days, reports about missing people had increased by an alarming amount. On top of that, there were rumors on the street that the Purple Dragons had started dealing in slave trading.
Needless to say, this didn't sit well with the five mutant ninja, and they started to look for clues on each patrol they went on. But they were not the only ones.
Casey Jones, a good friend of the turtles as well as a vigilante, held no love for the infamous gang, which isn't surprising considering that they cost his father his store as well as his life many years earlier. When Casey heard about the Dragons' possible slave trading, his blood boiled.
With his hockey mask and bag of trusty clubs and sticks, Casey began searching as well, though while he may be a skilled fighter, stealth is not his strongest side.
He didn't come home after the second night. Worried for her husband, April told the mutants of Casey's behavior. They didn't need any convincing to start looking for their friend.
After some 'gentle persuasion' by Raph, one of the many Purple Dragons they beat up in their search, finally spilled the beans, revealing the approximate location where Casey was being held until the gang would finish him off.
That's how the five mutants came to search the Northeast of the town, arriving at an abandoned car-factory. It was a large concrete building with large doors from which cars used to leave on lorries when it still was in use. The courtyard was lined with tall brick walls and had a large metal shed, that was used to store gas tubes.
Half a dozen Purple Dragons patrolled the courtyard, armed with Uzi machine pistols. A pretty good sign that they had something to hide.
The mutants surveyed the area from a nearby building, looking for a way to get in and out as stealthy as possible. Unfortunately, as far as they could see, the windows were blocked from the inside. Not being able to see inside the building made it a real gamble to attempt to enter it. The only other potential points of entry were the large doors, a single normal sized door and the vents.
Seeing as the gang most likely moved their loot in and out through the larger doors, they would probably be guarded. The vents would be difficult for all except Mona, who would easily fit through thanks to her slender build, but there was no guaranty that Casey would fit, he did have quite broad shoulders. And considering that there could be other people held captive as well, they had to choose a more accessible way, which left them with only one option. The small door.
"Okay, you know what to do." Leo said to the others. "We go in silently, take down the guards fast and hard before they can raise the alarm, get Casey and get out. If there are more people in there, we attack the Dragons from the shadows, reducing their numbers before we attempt to free anyone."
The four ninja nodded in agreement and all five of them readied their weapons.
Two guards stood and talked inside the tall walls, one with a dark red bandana around his bald head, brown saggy pants and a teal hoodie with the gang-sign on the chest, the other had slightly darker skin and red dreadlocks, wore a yellow T-shirt and black shorts, he also had a dragon tattoo on his left wrist.
"How long do we have to wait until we can kill that sucker?" said the one in the hoodie.
"What, were you asleep? We wait until the big boss shows up, he's got a real grudge with him."
The guy in the hoodie was about to say something else, but he never got the chance when Mona hit him straight in his chest with a jump kick from the wall. She quickly followed up with a roundhouse kick to the head, knocking out the thug before he even touched the ground.
His pal, initially shocked, pointed his Uzi at the female mutant. Donnie intervened by striking the thug's hands with his staff, knocking away the gun in the process. A quick jab with the staff to the thug's gut caused him to fall to his knees, at which point Donnie hit him in the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.
The remaining three turtles quickly joined Mona and Donnie and, using some strong fishing line and old rags, they tied up and gagged the two goons before hiding them behind an old dumpster by the wall.
After checking the door for any kind of alarms or surveillance systems, Donnie started picking the lock, while the others kept watch.
"Hurry up, bro." Raph whispered.
"Yeah, this place gives me the creeps." said Mikey.
"Just a little longer and... there!" the lock clicked and the door swung outwards a tiny bit.
Suddenly, the door swung up forcibly, hitting Donnie in the face and knocking him on his back while giving him a split lip and a black eye, mostly hidden underneath his mask. Standing in the doorway was a large thug with a yellow Mohawk, a blue T-shirt underneath a black leather vest and green army pants. He was aiming a military-grade shotgun at Donnie.
As the thug stepped out of the doorway, six more Purple Dragons exited through the door. Ten more came into view as they rounded the two corners of the factory and an additional eight came out of the shed. Most of the thugs had either Uzi's or assault rifles with a couple of them using shotguns, all of military grade, and all weapons were pointed at the mutants.
"Try anything and shell-head here will get a whole lot of lead in his brain!" the large thug said to the remaining four ninja as he kept his weapon aimed at Donnie. "Now drop those weapons!"
Leo looked at his brother with worry, then at the surrounding thugs and finally at the rest of his family. They were trapped.
"They knew that we were coming." he said.
"Took you long enough to figure that out." said a voice from within the building. Out through the door, stepped another Purple Dragon. This one was smaller than the rest, both shorter and very slim, next to skinny. Wearing a black vest and dark gray jeans, he had the gang tattoo on his chest, short brown hair and glasses, ordinary glasses.
"Also took you long enough to get here, we've been waiting for quite some time. Now do as my colleague said and drop your weapons!" the small guy continued.
Leo gritted his teeth as he reluctantly dropped his swords on the ground, the others soon did the same, with just as much displeasure as their leader.
"To think that the feared ninja turtles would fall so easily for such a simple trap, and all thanks to your vigilante friend. Had it not been for him, you would still have been free, and had it not been for me, he would have been dead already. Luckily for him, Hun agreed with me that the fool would serve excellently as bait. And it worked, just like I planned."
"A smart Purple Dragon, never thought I'd see one of those." said Mikey.
"Watch your tongue, freak, or I'll have it cut out! Tie up these green-skins and lock them in in the same room as their friend. And will someone free Leroy and Keith? Hun won't arrive for a couple of more hours and we want him to be pleased with our work."
A couple of the thugs started tying together the mutants' hands behind their backs while a few other collected their weapons. As they worked, the small guy walked up to Mona and studied her appearance thoroughly. The Lizard Lady had unpleasant chills running down her spine as he looked at her like she was a piece of meat.
"I've seen you before." he said "A couple of years ago, you attacked one of our bases, killing everyone there, setting the place on fire when you left."
Mona's blood ran cold. How did he know that it was her?
"I can see that know of what I speak of, and I bet you wonder how. I arrived at the base shortly after you began your attack and I heard the commotion inside, so I took a look and saw you. Your attire was different back then, much more black, but I still recognize you.
After that night, it didn't take long for me to put two and two together, and figure out that you were behind several similar attacks on us. And let me tell you, there are a lot of us here today who knew those that died by your hands back then, and they're itching for some payback.
Maybe I should let them have some fun with you before Hun gets here." the small guy said with an evil smirk.
Raph couldn't contain himself any longer. No one threatens his mate, least of all some spineless Purple Dragon scum. Powered by his rage and desire to protect his love, he broke free from the ropes before the thug had tied them properly.
Punching the guy in the face, Raph took a knife that the guy had in his belt. With his newly acquired weapon, Raph lunged at the small guy, ready to gut him and anyone else that stands in his way.
Seeing the hot headed turtle's actions, the small guy drew a pistol from within his vest, pointed it at Raph and pulled the trigger.
The shot went off and hit Raph's right kneecap, shattering it and causing Raph to fall on his face and wince in pain.
"Raph!"
"No! Leave him alone!"
"Shut it, freaks! He had his chance to cooperate, we were originally to wait for Hun before wasting any of you, but after this little stunt... Keith. Leroy. How about some target practice and payback in one go?"
"No! You can't do that!" Mona shouted.
"Watch me."
The two thugs that had been beaten and tied up earlier, now stood in front of Raph as the others moved away form the injured mutant. Forcing himself up on his last good leg, Raph could barely stand up at all, but he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing him grovel and plead for his life.
He looked at the two, and saw smirks across their bruised faces as they readied their weapons.
"Man, I've waited for this!" said the guy in dreadlocks.
"You said it, Keith. Time for payback, freak!" said the one in the hoodie
"Bring it, you sons of bitches!" Raph growled, ever defiant.
Keith and Leroy unleashed a swarm of bullets from their machine pistols, intent on emptying their entire clips into the poor mutant.
Raph felt how the hundreds of bullets pierced his plastron and skin, he felt how they tore through his muscles and organs and how they broke his bones. Blood seeped out of the numerous holes in his body as he collapsed onto his shell under the barrage from the two thugs.
The other mutants cried and screamed for them to stop and struggled to break free, but to no avail, the gang simply laughed and cheered at the 'show'.
After a few seconds, the gunfire stopped and Raph lied motionless in a pool of his own blood.
"That's enough fun for now, lads." said the small guy. "Now, get these four to their cell and we'll have even more fun in a few hours. Just don't forget to take out the 'trash'." he snickered as he pointed at Raph's body.
A few of the Purple Dragons helped each other as they dumped the mutilated turtle in the old dumpster, while the others forced the remaining four mutants into the factory.
However, had the goons taken the time to examine Raph's body, they would have found that he was still alive, if just barely.
He couldn't move or even speak, he just laid in the dumpster, slowly choking on his own blood as it flowed through his lungs and out through the holes in his body.
His eyes open, he could see the night sky through a gap between the dumpster and the lid. Dark and cloudy, no stars, no moon, the only trace of light was a small sphere of golden light high up in the sky, and it was moving closer...
To be continued...