"Ohhhhh..." Leary mumbled. "My head."
"Runt got a hang over?" Burroughs asked, his head looking down at the still intoxicated younger brother.
"What time is it?" Leary asked, glancing about the room with barely open eyes.
"Half past six. Time to train. Yon's left instructions as usual." Burroughs answered, noticing Kubrick already set up for the session.
"Go to hell." Leary said, rolling over and covering his green head.
Burroughs bent down and pulled at the blanket. "Come on Leary, you know the rules."
A quick foot sweep was Burroughs only answer, his shell smacking the ground hard. Rolling to his side, Leary reached over and pinched a side nerve quickly. Burroughs got the hint. Leary wasn't quite ready to get up yet.
"Damn, someone woke up on the wrong side of the cot this morning." The brainy turtle said, limping away.
It was his constant cheerful voice that annoyed Leary the most.
*******
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: IFS #2 (of 3)
"A Glimmer of a Plot"
Written By Alex 'BioHaz' Cook
Proof-Read By Jac Milnestein
*******
It was the way the light radiated off their feathers that annoyed him the most. It seemed to fall down, almost as if the particles of light were rushing past a cliff, forming energy based waterfall around the majestic figure in front of him. The light continued its shimmering dance as the creature continued to shake as well.
While its being was the ultimate creation of beauty, seeing her eyes scrunched up and her forehead criss-crossed with wrinkles of fear did little to drive home such a concept. 'Pitiful' leapt to the man's mind. The wings of feathers only furthered infuriated him. Add the recent discovery of a security breach and you had one pissed of individual.
"You're charged with the duty of maintaining Reality itself, yet keeping one BOY imprisoned was too great a task for you to complete!" The light brown skinned man screamed finally, his anger getting the best of him.
Most mortals would have died where they stood if they even dared to speak to an Angel in such a tone. The Wrath of God was, after all, on the Angels side. The man in the middle of his tirade had his own Gods backing him. He had little to fear from the flying monkey cowering before him.
Questioning her further existence, Daphine mumbled one final piece of news. "The database was compromised as well."
The man's eyebrow raised in response. "What?"
"Our Planetary database was compromised. One of the rebels attacking the Tower accessed a few level four files." Daphine continued.
"Which files." He demanded.
Daphine handed him the datapad containing a list of all the files accessed and copied not 36 hours ago.
"Damn." Was all Anista Chung said as Daphine grimaced as well.
*******
The grimace hadn't left his face for 6 hours. Sure, a celebration of a successful mission was great for team moral. The Rebellion was overjoyed at CJ's return, but a day and half of non-stop drinking and carrying on seemed a little much. They were fighting the Japanese government, not asking it to dance.
"Damn." Jones breathed again as he scrolled through one of the newly acquired files for the thousandth time. The information still amazed him.
"If I hear you say 'Damn' one more time tonight Chow, I will make sure your bed ridden with a nasty virus for the next week."
CJ looked up from the scrolling lines of revelations, Michelle's sarcastic smirk greeting him. By the look in her eyes she was just about drunk enough to go through with her threat. "Enjoying yourself Michelle?" CJ asked finally.
"Sure! You rebellion types know how to party!!" She said, her hands reaching skyward as she twirled on one foot to prove her point.
"You've been with us for two years now. This is not the first 'party'," CJ said, fingers curling to make invisible quotation marks in the air, "you've been privy too."
"You sound way too uptight for someone who just got rescued from the den of those winged bastards, CJ. Did your family forget to teach you humility or gratitude?" Michelle asked, the saki clearing slightly in her head.
"They taught me those things and more Michelle. However, I reached my limit twelve hours ago. I went to sleep, they were partying. I woke up, they were partying. And now, now they are still partying! Enough already!" CJ exclaimed.
"Ungrateful bastard." Was all Michelle said.
"American bitch." CJ said as he stood to leave. "Read this. See if I have a right to cry at my own party." He finished, placing the datapad on the table.
Michelle skimmed the contents for a few seconds until its meaning caught her attention. Then she reread it thoroughly, her feet peddling after CJ's retreating form.
'This changes everything', she thought.
*******
"Changes? What kind of changes?" The driver asked, the horn protruding from his scaled nose reflecting the setting sun briefly as he turned to look at his passenger. The cobra's head turned and glanced at the rhino, a smirk on his lips as his forked tongue tasted the air.
"It's the little things. For example, Albion doesn't use the metric system. You know what they use? Some screwed up system from Heaven. Measures meat and shit on this scale of Sin. Tells you how long your gonna burn in Hell if you eat it."
The rhino continued to look at his friend with bewilderment.
"Example, McDonalds has the quarter pounder with cheese right? Well, in Albion, they call it the 'You're as Bad as Woody Allen with Cheese'."
"HAHAHA! Bebop, you're shitting me!" The rhino challenged.
"No, my friend, I am not. Rocksteady, I'm telling you, its your type of town."
Rocksteady grinned at that. "Sure it is. That's what you say after every overseas hit." Rocksteady said.
"Well, this time I mean it."
"Whatever. You know the score on this one?"
"Not yet. The Man just called us in. Information to be delivered."
"Damn. I hate not knowing what we're getting into before getting to his 'temple' as he calls it."
"Rocksteady, the thing is built from pure jade! I think its safe to say the architect was going for that palace feel when designing it."
"Whatever, the place bugs me."
*******
"Well, sorry to bug you, but we need to talk." CJ said.
Rat's mask hid his frustration at being disturbed while meditating.
"What can I do for you CJ?" Rat asked, old bones cracking as he peeled himself out of a complicated lotus position.
"Read this." Was all CJ said.
Rat's mask slid down his face slightly as he ingested the lines of information in front of him. Fixing the mask, Rat turned to look at CJ and Michelle, the fear noticeable in his eyes. "Where did you get these?" He asked.
"Remember the terminal in Rijushini Tower? Seems it was a portal to a Planetary database. Those were just the files I was able to access." CJ commented looking up at the stars, the grimace permanently affixed to his face. Nothing was gonna cheer this boy up, Michelle thought. She then considered the information he had shared with her, and now Rat. There was little room for joy now.
"This can't be right." Rat finally said.
"That's what I said." Michelle replied, looking at CJ.
"It is." CJ said, putting an end to that argument. "The Planetary IDs check out. Its real."
Rat looked at his pupil one last time before turning on his heel. "Follow me. Its time you learned the rest of it." He said, picking up his walking stick as he exited the room.
Michelle and CJ quickly caught up; both a little perplexed as to where Rat was taking them.
"What do you mean the rest of it, Rat? Where are you taking us?" CJ asked.
"To the sewers." Was all the masked man said as he opened a secluded hatch in the ground. The darkness enveloped him as he jumped in feet first.
*******
The darkness released them quickly, the torches of fire illuminating the pure jade walkway before them. Statues and columns of the same material covered the room, obviously a throne room of some sort. The large chair in the center didn't give it away or anything.
"Alright boss, enough cloak and dagger shit. Give us the details so we can get to it." Bebop asked, his head weaving side to side as each eye looked an opposite direction for his employer. Rocksteady stood behind him, playing the quiet tough guy role perfectly.
"Ah yes, Bebop and Rocksteady. How are you both this fine day?" Anista Chung asked, stepping out from behind one of the columns off to the corner of the room.
"Same old same old, sir." Rocksteady answered.
"Short and sweet, as always Rocksteady. I'm sure you're both anxious for your next assignment."
"Didn't I just say that?" Bebop asked.
"Watch it, snake." Anista replied, his smile never wavering. "Here," he finally said, placing a datachip in his employees hands. "This has all the information you'll need on it. This is a multiple target job, and I cannot stress enough how important it is that ALL those people are dead before you return here."
"Yes sir." Rocksteady said, watching as Bebop took the datachip and inserted it into the reader at his hip.
Bebop whistled as he read the dossier. "Wait, didn't you just have this guy in lock up?"
"Yes, well, certain events outside my realm of control changed that situation."
"Ah. So the kid busted out." Rocksteady finished.
Anista just glared at the two. If they weren't so damn good, he would have killed them both a long time ago.
"Wait a minute. Turtles?" Bebop asked suddenly.
*******
"Yes Turtles." Rat said.
CJ continued to look at his teacher in shock.
"You've been harboring three adult sized Turtles in these sewers for how long now?" He finally asked.
"5 years now. They've grown at an amazing rate. The mutation.."
"Wait! Why didn't you tell me about this??" CJ challenged.
"That's a story that will take some explaining. And the turtles have as much a right to hear it as you do." Rat said softly, leading the two Rebellion members further down the interconnected pipes and cement caverns making up the Japanese Sewer network. It was as elaborate as the skyscraper network above it.
"I hate it when he gets cryptic." Michelle commented, wiping something ugly and gooey from her fingers.
"This coming from the American spy who just came out of no where." Rat replied.
"I didn't come from no where. You just don't have the clearance to know where I came from."
"I'm incomplete without such information. How will I continue to breathe, much less live." Rat intoned flatly.
The sarcasm wasn't lost on Michelle.
CJ snapped. He had had enough. "Will you two stop bitching like you're married for two seconds! The Gods themselves are planning an invasion of Japan and your bickering over your point of origin!" He screamed, spittle raining down on the slick sewer floor.
"We don't know if they are true Gods, CJ." Michelle said after a momentary pause of disbelief after seeing such a display.
"These are Planetary files Michelle! These things don't lie! If there is one constant in this fucked up world, Planetary knows the score more then ANY one else. Hell, the fact Rijushini Tower had access to these Planetary files are reason enough to be scared shitless by their implications! And now, our fearless mentor here has just told us he has been teaching three of these very foot soldiers!!" Chow Jones was the picture of rage. Pulsing veins, large eyes, eyebrows raised in exclamation.
Rat was the image of peace however, the outburst doing little to phase him.
"I had no idea of their true connection to the Foot." The masked man said.
"The Foot? Wait, they're dead. Wiped out at the turn of the millennium." Michelle answered; surely the rodent was mistaken.
"No, they are very much alive." A voice replied, its sound echoing off the empty sewer walls. "In fact, they're pretty damn pissed at you."
The three turned in unison to see a horn burst through the wall, bricks and cement showering into the tunnel. The large brown body of Rocksteady followed closely behind; the fine tailored suit wrapped around his frame showing little wear and tear after plowing through a cement barrier. Slithering through the crack followed Bebop, carrying a rather impressive arsenal on his small body.
"Time to get paid." Bebop said, dropping a pair of sight goggles onto his reptilian eyes. Logging into the gun computer allowed Bebop to accurately target anyone with just a look. Deadly, to say the least.
Rat wasted little time moving sure Michelle had been properly trained to do the same. He didn't have to even consider what CJ's next move was going to be. The boy had already connected his foot with the sight goggles thin glass exterior, cracking the left eyepiece. The snake was at a disadvantage now, next the rhino. Vaulting over Bebop's head, CJ slammed both fists, wrapped together, against the soft underside of Rocksteady's jaw. By the look on his face, that had to hurt. Somersaulting back through the air, CJ ran quickly to catch up with Rat and Michelle. He just hoped he had bought them enough time.
Rat read his thoughts. "Don't worry. They heard the commotion. We'll have reinforcements soon enough."
"Oh great. Now I'm relaying on a bunch of mutants to save my ass." CJ answered the burn in his muscles growing with each hurried step.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEXT ISSUE: Okay, so I said you'd get some answers this issue. Well, you got a glimmer of an answer, just like this issue has a glimmer of a plot. I swear I'm going somewhere with this, but its taking me a little longer then I thought. It will wrap up next issue, and you will know quite a bit about the origins of the Turtles and how they fit into Anista's plans. Also don't miss the next issue, as well as the Millennium Special coming out Jan 1st, 00!!
MUTATIONS
You know what, I was shocked to find I actually got a letter for the last issue of TMNT. However, my comp decided to die, so I lost Tommy Hancock's, the IFS' newest member, letter of praise. Damn...
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