Chapter Three
A Frog's Factory
The sound of splashing echoed down the sewers. Breath coming so hard he could taste the foul smell of the sewage. His heart pounded in his ears as it beat against his ribcage in a mix of physical activity and fear.
A wet, green streak zoomed into the liar as Leo walked out of Splinter's room. It was a collision course that knocked both bodies to the ground. Everyone came to inspect the crash, even Mikey who stumbled his way out of his room.
"Ugh, Gorf what was that for?" Leo asked as he sat on the floor.
The boy didn't respond, just laid on the floor breathing like he had just run ten miles.
"Gorf you okay?" Alex asked as the boy sat up.
"Sci… sci…" he tried to say but was breathing too hard get more than a syllable out. "Sci…"
"Sci- what?" Leo asked.
"Psycho?" Mikey asked.
Gorf shook his head.
"Den spit it out," Raph commanded.
Gorf looked like he was trying to but he couldn't catch his breath. Finally after a few moments he took a big breath and exclaimed "Scientists!"
"What do you mean scientists?" Don asked.
"Scien… tist… up on… streets… from… God I can't breathe," he gasped falling over to lie on his back.
"Perhaps we should give him time to calm down and catch his breath," Splinter suggested.
A minute later Gorf was still breathing hard but could at least talk. "I saw… a scientist up top, he was from the labs, I know it!"
"What!?" Alex and Razor exclaimed.
Don shook his head. "But that's impossible. The labs were completely destroyed, we were all there. We all heard the explosions and everything."
"I agree with Donnie," Alex said.
"Maybe you were just seeing things," Leo said.
Gorf shook his fists up and down like a toddler not getting his way. "I know what I saw!" he yelled. "If you had spent twenty consecutive years inside that electronic hell you would know one of the devils when you saw him, dammit!" Immediately after the exclamation Gorf slapped his hands over his mouth, looking just as taken aback as everyone else did about the outburst.
Mikey slowly raised a hand. "I believe you."
"Okay, so say you did see a scientist," Leo said slowly.
"Which one?" Razor quickly asked.
Gorf removed his hands, looking at his feet as he thought. "I… I can't remember his name, but I know he worked in DNA fusions."
"Crap," Alex said and received a warning glare from Splinter. "Oh, sorry."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mikey asked.
"'DNA fusions' is the earliest department for us," Alex said. "They fuse the DNA of animals with humans to create what we are."
"And if one from that department is still alive then…" Razor started.
"Then the labs can be reconstructed," Don finished with a dreading realization.
"Th-that's not all," Gorf said.
"There's more?" Razor groaned.
"Well that was the bed news."
"S'there good news?" Raph asked.
Gorf grimly shook his head. "The worst news is that… uh- I think he has a sample of Mike's DNA."
"How?" Leo asked.
Gorf scratched his head, not liking to be the bearer of bad news. "Well I saw him at the court, where Mike was shot. So naturally he left some blood behind, and the scientist was posing as a police officer so it was really easy for him to get a sample without suspicion."
"Great," Raph huffed "the last thing we need is a Mikey clone."
Alex shook her head, the three experiments sharing the same look of growing sickness. "No, you gotta know how these guys think. They can get a DNA sample from any ol' place for cloning."
Razor stood up from the couch and started walking back and forth behind it. "These bast- uh buttheads," he quickly changed the word looking at Splinter. "Are the kind that examine. No doubt that they have identified the bonds between everyone in contact with Mike when we were all at the labs. And anyone could guess that Mike isn't the type of guy to live by himself."
"So…" Raph said impatient for where this was going.
"So," Razor said, kicking the back of the couch. "With DNA trackers not uncommon, Mikey might as well be a homing beacon."
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Dev stared at the gun in his hands as he sat on the edge of the hospital bed, his right leg going into a muscle spasm for no reason and started hopping up and down. It had taken thirty minutes for the doctors to allow him to have his laser gun. Within those thirty minutes he had flat out refused to come back inside the window until they gave it to him, threatened to jump to his obvious death four times, and promised not to use it a million times.
Since his stunt of somehow getting out of the window to sit on the outside ledge, he was now under constant 24/7 watch. There was to be a person inside his room at all times with him, and the window was to remain firmly locked with a key. They couldn't give him a shirt since it wouldn't fit around his splinted wing so he was stuck with wrapping a blanket around his shoulders, over a folded wing, though it still left half his back bare.
He had talked to Doc over the internet a while ago. During that time he was told he was so cold because of all the lost blood and it was taking some time for his body to heat itself back up without it. Also during the time of Doc on the computer the doctors went into a heated discussion with the girl. It was decided it would be best if they got someone to donate blood. The closest winged experiment that qualified for donation was Double D. After he was notified it was said he wouldn't get to the hospital until tomorrow.
When Dev finally got his computer back from the doctors he told Doc how it all happened. The robot attack was all over the news, though it wasn't revealed who they attacked, Dev thankful for the privacy. The only thing he could do at the moment was to go through all the experiments online and warn them about the robots. Some of them had laughed at him for being exposed, especially the ones with non-feathered wings, but the point got across all the same.
Now he had nothing to do and his good wing was itching to get into the sky. Feel the wind in his feathers. See the world stretched out below him. Watch cars race along roads like motor powered bugs. See life from a bird's view. The freedom of flying in open skies…
He started looking at the lock on the window, knowing how easy it would be to blast through the glass, the person that was 'watching' him was in the bathroom... His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.
Instead of giving a worded answer he just let out a loud moan of boredom to say he was awake. The door opened and Wesley walked in, accompanied by half the baseball team. They all jumped seeing Dev aim his gun at the doorway.
"What? You think I'm going to actually shoot it?" Dev asked dryly as he lowered the weapon into his lap and looked down at it again. Playing with it he wound up pointing the barrel at his own head.
"Can you?" one of them asked.
"What? Use it?" Dev asked giving them a sideways glance. Without looking down he pulled the trigger. A single blue laser blasted out from the gun, the shot angled just slightly so that it missed Dev's ear and burned a hole in the ceiling tiles. "Nope."
The intern that was watching him walked out of the bathroom just in time to see the laser miss the teen's head. "You're not supposed to shoot that!" he exclaimed.
"You're right, I'm not," Dev sighed and lifted the gun, aiming it at the young man's chest. He couldn't be more than twenty-four, he was still younger then the restless experiment. "You gonna tell on me? Force the gun out of my hand with my finger on the trigger?"
No one in the room moved. All of them looked nervous.
Dev huffed. "You've probably never even been at gunpoint." He lowered the weapon and stood up, setting the gun on top of his closed laptop. "I'll tell you what. I've been locked inside this room seventy-two hours straight, and counting. Get whoever's in charge to let me out - at least for a couple hours a day - and I promise not to have target practice."
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A single question was swirling inside everyone's mind: What do we do with Mike? They couldn't kick the youngest out to get caught by the scientists. They couldn't keep him in the lair for fear of their home getting found and then destroyed.
While the others pondered about what to do before time ran out, Mikey sat curled on his bed feeling like a problem. Like one big, living, breathing problem. It had passed through his mind a few times to just go ahead and leave for the protection of his family. He was the one that was being hunted, so maybe he could be the only one to get caught. But as these thoughts passed through his mind he couldn't help remember what the labs were like. That white room he was held in for who knew how long. What if felt like to be changed into a human body, the confusion and pains in the beginning as his body morphed. The electric net from when he was escaping with everyone else in the end. Oh yeah, he couldn't forget about the net.
So he didn't want to go back to those scientists, especially not alone, but he couldn't stay and get everyone else caught with him.
Mikey held his head in his hands with a groan. Oh what do I do?
It had taken an hour for someone to finally think up a decent plan. "He could stay with me," Gorf piped up.
"But wouldn't that just mean both of you get caught?" Razor asked skeptically.
"Nonecessarily…" Gorf mumbled bummed at his plan getting shot down.
"Well…" Leo said more to himself. "Maybe we could all go, just to see what's after us. We could destroy what's being used to track Mike and come back here, leaving the lair hidden. But that would mean you would have to give up your home," he told Gorf.
The frog boy shrugged. "My place is disposable, uh, no offense Alex. It is your old place after all."
"Dock thirteen was a rundown warehouse," Alex said nonchalantly. "I'm surprised it hasn't been scheduled for demolition by now."
After the plan was relayed to Master Splinter, and the aging father reluctantly nodding and telling them to be careful, Gorf gleefully led the way. He had never had anyone stay the night with him before. As they ran through the sewers, and eventually the allies, Mikey stayed close to Raph. So close that the older brother was constantly pushing him away.
When they reached the docks Gorf went to the warehouse with a big 13 over the closed double doors. Feeling along the metal where the two doors met he found a small hatch and pulled a tiny door out. Behind the door was a keypad along with a line of six, lettered keys. He typed in a series of numbers on the pad, and then pressed only four of the six keys, spelling out 'HOME'. The two passwords were accepted and the doors opened by themselves to allow passage.
The group walked into the dark building and Gorf hurried to the side to hit a lever that turned on the lights, and another lever that closed the doors behind them.
Dim, scattered, naked bulbs buzzed into life overhead to reveal what their friend called home. The windows were boarded shut and the roof had been fixed – or at least patched to keep the rain out. Bits and pieces of machinery were scattered everywhere across the floor. It looked like the boy had dragged in half a junkyard and stuffed it into the building. A work station was set up against one of the walls, this also covered in dissected machinery. A power generator hummed to itself in a corner, a homemade computer system sitting beside it waiting to be turned on. In the very back of the room it looked like a living space was crammed in. A beat up old couch and some patched car seats sitting in front of a repaired TV set (Don could imagine a homemade satellite dish sitting on the roof). A mattress sat on a rusting bed frame. A refrigerator hummed off to the side, along with a salvaged electric stove. Two cabinets sat beside the stove probably holding food, or utensils. An old card table sat in front of the 'kitchen area' with mix matched seats.
"Uh, Gorf," Razor asked as they stood almost in awe at what the boy had managed by himself. None of them had ever thought to visit Gorf at his place, the boy always seemed to find his way to the lair when he wanted to be with friends (whether they wanted him there or not). "How many times have you been to the dump?"
"More times than you can imagine," Gorf said. "And sorry about my projects everywhere," he apologized, pushing what looked like a miniature tank to the side to allow easier crossing of the room. "I rarely have- actually I never have company, hehe."
"Have you… done all this by yourself?" Don asked.
"By 'done' I'm guessing you mean make, build, repair, create – some of those are probably the same thing – but yes," Gorf nodded with a smile. "I'm a technician. I as built to build… and eat bugs. It's amazing how many spiders find their way in here. The flies they catch are great. Spiders themselves are okay, but I'm not a fan for the hair. But their webs… now that's gross."
"The webs are gross…" Mikey muttered. The thought of living on insects had always made him a little queasy.
"Sorry if you have to lose all this," Don said.
"Nah, this is more of a factory then a home," Gorf said shaking his head. "But what you guys have… The lair's a whole lot more valuable than this electrical trash heap."
Alex looked around. She didn't want to say it, but Gorf was right, the place was a trash heap. "What's up stairs?" she asked curiously.
Gorf glanced up to where the railed ledge stuck out from the wall, bordering the upper part of the large room. "Storage mostly. Not enough room to put anything else up there."
There was one thing bothering Alex as she examined what Gorf had done with the place. "Uh, this might just be me, but… is this room smaller?"
"More than likely," Gorf said with a confirming nod. "I had to put new walls up to hide the… hide the… hide… the…" his voice trailed off as his eyes started to follow a rather large moth that had slipped inside to play with one of the light bulbs. It looked like the boy had slipped into a trance as he followed the insect's every movement.
"Oh God kid, not in fronta-" Raph tried to say as he realized what was on Gorf's mind. But it was too late. With a flash of his long tongue the moth's wings twitched bent and dying between the frog's lips. "Us…" Raph uselessly finished as Gorf pulled the rest of the bug in his mouth, bit down, and swallowed, licking his lips afterward.
It wasn't until after he suppressed a burp did Gorf notice the looks of disgust on his friends' faces. "Oh, sorry," he said sheepishly. "I've been trying not to do it in front of people, but you have to eat 'em when you see 'em, especially during the winter. Now what was I saying?" he muttered to himself as he went to the 'living space' of the warehouse. "Oh yeah, I had to put up some new walls to hide the machinery so nothing got caught in the gears."
Beside the bed was a control panel with numerous buttons and levers sticking out of the wall. With a pull of one lever a screen twisted around from the wall and lowered down to eye sight. It showed a number of security cameras staring at the perimeter of the building. Flipping a switch on the panel a green light turned on.
"What's that?" Don asked, happy to know another inventor.
"Security system," Gorf said. "I don't care how many times they come to 'hang out and play' I'm not sharing with a bunch of Purple Dragons. Now then," he pulled another lever and an entire section of the wall flipped over to reveal a rack of fire arms. "If Alex can remember how to shoot a gun these might come in use, because I have no idea what's coming after Mike."
Mikey looked nervously at the door, his comic-cartoon fueled imagination kicking into overdrive. He could see practically anything imaginable and beyond coming through those doors.
"But whatever it is," Gorf continued "it's not getting in without a fight."
Gorf's a busy little expirement when he's not annoying/disgusting his friends, don't ya think? And Dev's getting a bit touchy from his confinment inside the hospital. Dev: Hey, I didn't ask for anyone's help!
...gah, I hate it when my mind goes blank like this! I swear last night I knew what I wanted to say, and now I can't think of it! Though I gotta wrap this up pretty quick sense I'm going to a concert with my sister in a few hours. Country Stampede, the place is going to be muddy with the rain we've had lately, but I got hiking boots that can take it. And I'm a kid that's not afraid of getting dirty. So yeah, I'm gonna go. Enjoy the chapter until I get the next one up, and I'll leave you guys to wallow in the state of knowing I'm gonna do something to the characters, but not knowing what... (evil smirk)
Oh and, once again, Puldoh, ChibiLover123: you guys rock for actually reviewing. I feel appreciated for my writing.
And, as always... REVIEW! please?
