RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
I suppose I deserved the interruption for forsaking sleep for so long. Normally I'm pretty nocturnal; the only thing that'd deter me from my work was Leo or Sensei telling me to get out of the lab and get some rest. On my own now, nothing stopped me from working into the morning, at least for a day or two at a time. I had been at work for almost forty-eight hours, happy to finally find some comfort in between the sheets, when the phone stirred me from my slumber.
"Karai?" I mumbled, rubbing the crust from my eyes. "What's going on?"
"The lab on Baxter Street, it's up in smoke." She said curtly.
"Are you serious? This is the third one!"
"I wanted to make sure you weren't there when it happened."
"No, I…I needed a break. I'm safe in my apartment. We've been getting really close to breaking down the formula, so I shut the place down for the night. Why…you don't think I shut it down incorrectly, do you?"
"Not at all, Donatello. This is beyond accidents. Someone clearly doesn't want us cracking the secret to Mr. Winter's immortality. Two boats from Central America have been hijacked, and three labs have been sabotaged. It must be enemy action."
"Well, the experimental phase is practically done, and all the data is backed up on my flash drive. With the proper equipment, it'll only take three or four days to get back to where we were."
"That is good news, but I'm afraid our organization's budget is only getting tighter. It may take weeks to replace the equipment lost in this fire. Plus, we need to find a new source for the stone material; sending more ships to Mexico just isn't economically possible."
"Understandable. There may be some things I can retrieve from my old lab that'll cut down your costs."
"I appreciate it. You don't need to come into work tomorrow; I'll let you know where our new facilities will be soon."
"Thanks, Karai." I clicked the phone shut.
As much as my body craved to go back to sleep, I had a feeling it wasn't possible anymore. The place I was working just five hours ago was no more, and if I had gone for another cup of coffee and not left, I would be too. I'd been close to the face of death before, but it didn't stop me from feeling shaken. Trying to focus that energy into something productive, I rolled out of bed and grabbed a flashlight and the hologram projector on my desk. Clipping it onto my belt, the small box powered on and cloaked me in my disguise. Whenever I wasn't in the safety of my own apartment or alone in the lab, I was Dr. Betto Bardi, complete with a nametag on my lab coat and a contrived Italian accent. The only one of my coworkers who knew I wasn't actually the rotund, redheaded human I saw in the mirror was Karai.
Making sure to lock the door behind me, I strolled to the elevator and clicked the button for the ground floor. Living aboveground was by far the best perk of my employment situation. The apartment wasn't anything spectacular, but just to see the sun and live like a human every day was exhilarating, a taste of childhood dreams about what it'd be like to be normal. Typically, I'd take the subway to get all the way to Midtown, but a subway is no place for any civilized person past midnight, and it'd been too long since I'd walked the sewers. Making sure no cameras or pedestrians could spot me, I darted into the alley behind my building and jostled the manhole cover loose, sliding down the ladder before anyone could see.
I deactivated the hologram projector and flicked the flashlight on, feeling right back at home after months away from the dark, dank tunnels. The last time I'd been here, I'd have never imagined I'd work for the Foot Clan. Technically, I didn't; my position was a "consulting private contractor", but that quickly turned into taking over Karai's whole pet project. Truthfully, I'd been curious about how Max Winters and the stone generals could live so long ever since we first contended with them, and Karai's invitation to come aboard her investigation into the matter presented me with the opportunity to escape the loneliness of the lair. Accepting our former enemy's offer was humbling, for sure, but once Mikey took up the Justice Force's offer to join their team, I felt useless just toying around in my lab all day. Working with Karai gave me purpose, however dubious the purpose was.
Being left all alone made me feel a little betrayed, but I couldn't blame Mikey for leaving. Becoming a superhero had been his dream ever since he could pick up a comic book, and he deserved an opportunity to lift himself out of the depressive funk we were all in after Splinter's passing. As for Raph…I can't say I didn't expect him to leave either. Hell, he'd probably have left even if Master Splinter were still around. When Leo was training abroad, Raph all but disappeared anyways, spending every day holed up in his room and every night God knows where. No, the move that really left me feeling so betrayed was Leo disappearing practically the day after Splinter passed. For all his talk of being our leader, he disappeared when we needed him the most…when I needed him the most.
Like with almost everything else that goes wrong in the world, I could tell Leo blamed himself for what happened. Always playing the part of the martyr. But why? Splinter went silently and peacefully, and there's only so much one can do to treat cardiac arrest. What were we supposed to do, walk into a hospital with a giant mutant rat on a stretcher? As hard as it was to know my father wouldn't be with us anymore, over time, I'd accepted that he was old and was due to pass soon enough. A rat rarely lives past five years, even in captivity, and though I've theorized the mutagen brought our lifespans closer to that of a human, no man or beast is immune to time and fatigue. He'd lived a long and full life, devoted himself to training us and teaching us how to live. So where did Leo get off, thinking he could ignore all that and run off into the night?
I had my theories, but still couldn't justify it. Just when he and I were getting closer than ever, he panicked and threw everything we had away. Abandoned me with stone-cold Raph and sorrow-drowned Mikey, thinking I could get along fine without him. It was unfair…but if the last four months had taught me anything, it's that there's no use complaining about the cards life's dealt. Finally approaching the familiar sewer junction, I opened the rusted control box and entered the passcode. The tunnel echoed with gears grinding and the wall sliding aside to reveal what, for so long, I had called home. Making sure to rearm the security system behind me, I flicked the lights on and took in what the lair looked like after months of disuse, covered in dust and empty of all sound and life. It washed me with simultaneous nostalgia and gloom. Every pipe and pizza box reminded me of countless moments with my brothers and father. I attempted to shake it off; sentimentality wouldn't help me with my research.
Powering up the computers in my lab, I plugged my flash drive into the main port and opened a few programs. When the research started, I was using a molecular scanner and GPS map application to find out where, if anywhere, there was matter matching the makeup of the stone shards Karai and I had retrieved from Mr. Winters and his generals. However, the actual harvesting of its "immortality" properties wouldn't be possible until he had more of the stone, and a new lab's worth of technology that I didn't have down there in the lair. That meant I had ample time on my hands, which in my recent frame of mind, wasn't a good thing. Heeding Karai's message that I could take some time off, I opened Google Chrome and browsed around aimlessly for the first time in what felt like ages.
Everyone has certain things they do to distract themselves when there's too much on their mind. Leo dove straight into what bothered him with meditation, Raph tuned it out by abusing his punching bag, Mikey (though it was rare when he had too much going on mentally) plunged into his world of comics and video games, and I buried myself in the lab. Combine my tendency to handle stress in that way with the stress I'd been under from the family falling apart, and you can imagine why I'd been working so hard as of late. Even though I was still sitting in front of the computer, it felt like a vacation to simply read some news articles and scroll through art archives. One headline caught my eye: "Rare Pond Bacteria Turns CO2 Into Biofuel". Sustainable energy had always been moderately interesting to me, but never took priority over my other research.
With a spark of ingenuity, I searched the web for the sequenced genome of the bacteria from the article, wrote a quick script to convert the genetic code into a sequence that could be read by my GPS locator map from work, and hit "search". In a few moments, a faint smattering of red was cast over the tundra of Siberia, Canada, and a few pockets of New Zealand. The prospect of eliminating the world's dependence on fossil fuel with something as simple as pond scum was exhilarating, in both scientific and economic ways. Maybe it was just the lack of sleep getting to me, but seeing the potential to change the world laid out in front of me made me excited for what felt like the first time in years.
Zooming in on various locations across the map, I began to consider my work with Karai. Sure, the science captivated me and distracted me, but wasn't there something better I could be using my intellect for? With the app on my screen that her scientists programmed, I could be changing the world for the better…not finding some way to make Foot soldiers invincible. Sure, she had lured me in by saying the research would be for medicine, but in my gut I knew that was a stretch. She was probably just pulling the wool over my eyes, trying to persuade me to come aboard her team so I could have a chance at bringing my dad back to life. From the research we'd completed so far, there was very little chance it could bring the dead back to life, but would certainly have the potential to make some strong armor or thick skin. Realistically, I ignored the implications so I could do science for science's sake. But how irresponsible was that?
Piecing my actions over the past months together, I sighed deeply and dragged the cursor to send the world spinning. Was I working for the Foot to get back at my family? What would happen to the world if I let this research continue? What ever made me think I could trust Karai?
Feeling a bit mischievous, I opened my phone and sent her a text.
"Found traces of the stone specimen in Northern Canada. Advise sending an expedition crew immediately."
Thanks for reading!
I know it was subtle, but there are definitely some Tcestual themes that will play a part in the story (nothing horribly explicit; I wouldn't deceive you with the T-rating) so if you're not a fan, you may not enjoy the next few chapters.
Please review, and if you're a Spyro fan, check out my novel-length story "The Legend of Spyro: Daybreak"!
