Stealth was pointless at this point, so we didn't even bother to try being stealthy. We charged through the place following Marina as she guided us through this maze. Uncle Raph had told us as we ran that they had been hit hard with a hard electric shock after they had fell through the chute. Father had been instantly knocked out with a direct hit, but Uncle Raph managed to dodge most of the blast but it still downed him for awhile. After arriving here he had managed to get away from his robot captors shortly after regaining his full senses in that hall way. He had been looking for Father ever since.
"I don't get it." Ari asked confused. She had been quiet for the most part since we found Uncle Raph. But something was obviously bothering her. "If Aunt Marina, Aunt Vicky and the scanners couldn't find you before, Uncle Raph, why all of a sudden can they now?"
That was enough to make him stop so fast his feet slid along the smooth metal floor for a few feet, and make Uncle Mikey crash into him. The rest of us managed to stop without crashing into anyone. Annoyed he pushed his little brother away as he looked at his youngest niece. "Girl, I don't know how Mikey managed to father a kid with brains inside of that head instead of air. Must get it from your mother."
Ok, now I was confused too. And from the befuddled look on my twin, so was he. Mother was however giving Ari that same thoughtful look Uncle Raph was. "Did it again didn't we?"
"Yup. Blundered right into a trap." Uncle Raph told her.
"Well it's not a trap if we know it's a trap." Uncle Mikey grinned.
Ok I was understanding nothing. "Someone want to explain for us not so bright turtles?"
Dante had a wry expression on his face as he looked at me. "Simple. It's obvious that there was something blocking any means to track them. Whoever it was must have realized there were only two turtles caught instead of four, so in an attempt to get the other two-"
"They turned the blocker off to try and lure them in." Ty finished and Dante nodded. "Great. Well, I think they are going to get more turtles than they bargained for."
"Be careful." Uncle Raph told us as we moved out again. "And keep your eyes peeled."
"Peeled eyeballs, now there is a mental image." Uncle Mikey said.
"Eeww, your disgusting." Ari giggled.
"I try." He grinned back at her as we ran on.
Suddenly cursing Aunt Marina came to a stop, once again causing a crash behind her. The sound of Uncle Raph's smack and a "Will you stop that!" rang out before she turned to us. "I lost him." She snapped out, obviously furious.
"They figured out something went wrong and turned whatever it is back on." Mother said, "Now what?"
Dante however was playing around with his father's gear. "I'm close enough now to where I can pick up a reading on where it's coming from. They can block it from a long way off, but when we are practically under their noses it's not so easy. But it's coming from back the way we came."
The adults exchanged quick glances. "Split up?" Mother asked.
"Two adults per team." Uncle Raph agreed. "Mikey, Dante and Ty with me. We'll go shut that thing down. It might be guarded."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "While you leave us girls to go find a possibly equally guarded Leo."
"Yeah, but your team has you. I'd hate to be that sorry ass who decides to get into your way while you try to get to him." He grinned at her. "Vic, you and Leo can take on a whole fucking army by yourselves when the other is in danger."
"Point taken." She grinned back. "Each group then tracks the other so we can meet back up."
He nodded. "I'm sending Thane with you. I have no idea what condition Leo is in and he might need help. He's a strong kid, he'll be able to handle it."
"Then let's move." And we did. Once again our now smaller group followed Aunt Marina as she went towards the last direction that she knew for sure Father was. Luckily for us the hallway didn't branch off in any other directions, yet.
Suddenly Aunt Marina slowed to a walk, her eyes narrowing. "We must be getting close. I can feel him again, it's muffled but there."
"How far?" Mother asked her.
"Just up the hallway. Careful now." She addressed us teenagers. "Don't want to let them know we are here until the last minute."
"This is where Leo would drop his infamous 'We need to be quiet' line." Mother muttered and Aunt Marina shot her a tight grin.
We slowly walked up to the door Aunt Marina led us to and the two mothers looked over the door. "Of course they wouldn't make it easy." Mother whispered. There wasn't anything there to get the door open. No handle nothing. The only there was some kind of panel on one side. "Anyone want to take a guess on how to open this thing?"
"My guess is on eye scan." Aunt Marina answered as she scanned the hallway, her eye stopped at a small vent. "Ari, come here." The small blonde haired teen walked over to her. "You think you can fit in that?"
"I guess I better find out." Thane lifted her up and she scurried into the vent. "I'll see if I can find a way in."
"I hope she don't have any trouble getting to that door." Mother said. "Mikey will kill us if something happens to her."
"She's the only one that can fit." Aunt Marina told her.
"I know that, doesn't mean he won't snap."
We waited, hoping nothing would surprise us. "Is it just me or is this place a little to quiet." Thane spoke up. "You think there would be something going on right now. They obviously know we are here."
Suddenly more of those robot things came around the opposite corner than we came through. I glared at my cousin as they meandered down the hallway. "You and your big mouth!"
"Sorry." He mumbled as he pulled out his blades. However, before they could reach us the door opened behind us and Ari popped her head out.
"Door's open." She said with a grin then got out of the way as we rushed through behind her, slamming the door shut behind us. We ended up in some kind of control room, it was obvious on how she got the door open with an unconsious man on the floor under the panel on this side. A red mark on his face matching the same size and shape. It looked like she just rammed his face into the thing to get the eye scan she needed. "Sorry, I tried to get to him before he hit the alarm button but he was to quick."
"Don't worry about it." Aunt Marina told her. "Let's just find Leo and get out of here."
She led the way to another door and this one opened easily. She pulled it open and Mother quickly popped her head in to look around. "Leo..." She charged into the room without another thought with the rest of us following her. Father was there, hanging by his wrists and ankles against the far wall by some kind of metal cuffs, his head slumped forward and he wasn't moving. Mother and I both got to him first and I began to try and figure out how to open the cuffs. "Leo, wake up." Mother told him, raising his head up. "Shit!" She snapped when he didn't respond.
Thane had walked over to a table on the other side where his weapons were placed and gathered up the katanas and various shurikan and kunai Father always kept on him. "Where does he hide all this stuff? Lord he carries more throwing stuff on him than Mom does."
Aunt Marina was looking at the cuffs I was still trying to pry open. "Careful, Lavi. Those things are electrified." She warned me. "Probably how they have been keeping him subdued."
"How do we get them off?" I didn't know how to open them and I was getting frustrated. It hurt seeing my Father hanging like that, like some kind of lab experiment. Damn it, why did humans always have to do this to things that were different than them? All Father has ever done was risk his neck to help them and this was the thanks he gets? I looked around and saw three more sets of those cuffs on the wall, obviously meant for my uncles. I was furious.
"There is probably a switch on the control panel in the other room. It might not be a good idea to go randomly pushing buttons to find it though."
"I'm glad we didn't bring Casey then." Mother muttered as she still kept trying to wake Father up. "He'd be banging on the stupid thing with a golf club again."
Aunt Marina flashed a quick smile at that. "Let me try something while he is still out." She pulled out her knives and carefully wedged them inside the cuffs around his ankles, then switched them on. She was rewarded by them popping open. "Thane, come here and hold him." My large cousin came over and placed his shoulder under an arm and wrapped his own arms around my Father the best he could. Then Aunt Marina repeated the process with the wrist cuffs and again they popped open and Father slid down and Thane caught him. Quickly he laid Father on the floor and Mother knelt next to him.
"Come on, Leo. Wake up." She whispered to him, her voice full of concern.
She laid a hand on his cheek then closed her eyes for a moment. I felt something ripple in my head, almost like a shout that I heard from very far away and I looked at her curiously. She took a deep breath and tried again and again I felt it in my head. This time his eyes slowly opened. He still looked a bit rough, but he was awake. His eyes quickly scanned around him before he even made an attempt to move, then locked onto Mother's. "You scream pretty loud." He smiled gently up at her.
"I have to when I live with stubborn turtles."
"I see some faces that I thought I told to stay in the van. Someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?" He asked as he struggled to sit up. Once he was up he put a hand on his head and grimaced with pain. "I don't know what's worse, the shocks they gave me or you screaming in my head."
Suddenly he was buried under mother as she wrapped him in a fierce hug, barely beating me to it as I latched onto the other side. I felt his arm wrap around me pulling me close. "Daddy..." I choked out, emotion overcoming me as I finally processed that we had found him and was able to see he was alive. I didn't realize how scared I actually was.
"It's alright." He told us softly as he still held us close. "I'm fine." He held us for a moment longer, obviously just as happy to see us as we were to see him, despite his earlier gripe about me and my cousins being here. "Come on, we need to find Raph." He let us go and struggled to get his feet as we helped him up, he was a little wobbly but he was up. Thane was next to him in an instant to support him.
"We already found him. We split up so he could take care of whatever was blocking us from finding you." Mother told him.
"What?" He looked a little stunned, then turned to Aunt Marina. "You mean they were able to block you out?"
She nodded as Mother spoke up. "Not just her, I couldn't feel you either."
He frowned as he processed that. Then his eyes got wide. "Donnie and Mikey!"
"They are fine." Aunt Marina told him. "Mikey is with Raph and the boys, and Donnie is probably back at the lair right now. We had Cris, Dennis and Amy take him home. He hurt his leg, possibly broke it, but he's safe."
He closed his eyes in relief for a moment. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready to get out of here."
"No argument there." Mother told him and led the way back the way we came.
I went to Father's other side and helped Thane with him. He was obviously hurting and for him to accept the help meant that he really needed it.
Mother stopped at the door that had the eye scanner on it. "This is going to be interesting." She murmured. "I'm willing to bet that our metal friends are still out there."
Father looked down at me. "Lavi, take my katanas. They will be more useful than your tonfas." I was shocked. I couldn't take his swords! They were his. He smiled at my stunned face. "Just take them. Now is not the moment to get possessive over my weapons. You know how to use them and they will serve you better than me right now."
Thane took a moment to hand Mother his hook swords. This time she took them without complaint, she knew just as well as Father did that her asps would do no good against robots and we were now a smaller group, not to mention burdened with an injured member of the family. We couldn't afford the luxury of being weapons picky. Quickly she passed one to Ari as Thane handed me the katanas and I slipped out from under Father's arm so I could tuck the sheathes in my belt then drew the swords and placed myself by the door. Aunt Marina picked up the still form of the man on the floor and Ari pried his eye open before she positioned it it front of the scanner. With a click the door opened and we rushed out, right into the middle of the group of robots waiting for us. This bunch seemed a little more...aggressive I could say. They actually put up more of a fight.
I rushed out, ducking under a grabbing arm then spun and sliced the borrowed katana across the midsection of the thing. I was impressed on how smooth Father's katanas cut into the thing as sparks came from the now damaged robot. He always did keep his blades sharp, very sharp. He could split an already split hair with these things.
Ari was having to much fun with her robot. She took an arm off then spun around it and did the same thing to the other arm. Then laughed as the stupid thing kept trying to come after her before she took it's head off and kicked it across the hall. "Heads up!" She giggled.
"Lord, she's as bad as Mikey." Father sighed from right behind me.
"It's to be expected." Mother smiled as she dodged around her own robot, leaving behind a shower of falling robot parts.
Aunt Marina had just dismembered her own pair and she paused as they lay sparking at her feet. Then her head snapped around. "They did it. What ever was blocking me, it's gone."
"Good, it should make meeting up with them easier." Mother replied as the last of this group fell under our blades.
I again moved over to Father's other side and once again slipped under his arm to support him. Mother shot him a quick, worried look as he struggled to walk and again I felt that strange flitter in my head. And again as he returned her look. I could almost, but not quite, hear them. Again curiosity took over but was suppressed as we followed Aunt Marina down the hall.
"So does anyone know where these robodorks came from?" Thane asked as we slowly made our way down the halls.
Father sighed. "I don't know." He answered as he stumbled. Thane and I steadied him as he lost his balance, frustration was now taking hold of him as he whispered a curse under his breath. Then he frowned at the contraptions that littered the hallway. "These aren't the same type that caught me however."
"Oh great." Aunt Marina muttered as we walked along. "You mean there are different kinds?"
"So why aren't sending the dangerous ones?" Thane asked. "Why keep sending us these robot pushovers?"
"They are testing us." Ari said quietly as she was still thinking it through. "They didn't expect humans and more turtles to come into the mix, so they don't know how good we actually are. So they are sending them out in batches. I'm thinking the first batch we came across was the mark one version, these were mark two. They will increasingly get harder the longer we stay until we work our way up to the ones who caught Uncle Leo and Uncle Raph."
"This is creepy." Aunt Marina said, still leading us. "That mix of Caitlin and Mikey in her head is a strange combination."
"Then why don't they just send the tough robots out for us?" Thane asked the smaller turtle.
"Because they are either busy somewhere else, or someone has a twisted sense of entertainment. Sending them out to test us to see how we respond. Or maybe a combination of both." She calmly replied. We all instantly knew what the 'busy somewhere else' likely meant.
Father was regarding the blonde girl intently, then actually shuddered. "That is creepy." He mumbled just loud enough for Thane and I to hear and we shot him a grin. "How much farther?" He asked Marina.
Before she could answer there was a crash ahead of us as a door was kicked outwards, followed by my missing male relatives. They skidded on the slick metal floor as they made a sharp turn towards us as they shot out of the door. "Not that way!" Uncle Mikey yelled as they ran towards us, the hallway behind them filling up with what looked like small bolts of lightning. "Big bad robots with zappy guns back there!"
We all looked at Ari, a little stunned. "Told you so." She smiled. Then she ducked as a blast came towards her.
Uncle Raph almost crashed into us and he shoved me out of the way as he took up my position. I didn't complain one bit, just got out of the way. Between him and his almost as strong son they easily carried Father along as we turned tail and ran. "When I find out who made those things, I'm going to rearrange his face." Uncle Raph muttered.
"How about you quit trying to improve your cosmetic surgery skills and worry about getting out of here." Father told him.
"Yeah, we were kinda lacking on the escape plan." Mikey grinned and Father sighed.
"Dante!" Father called to my cousin and he moved forward to run alongside us. "Can you find us a way out of here?"
The yellow banded turtle began scanning even as we kept moving. It's a good thing those things didn't have a good aim. A shot missed me close enough for me to feel the electric charge. They were rapidly getting better.
Dante was mumbling, frustrated, as he was looking over his readings. "We are on the wrong side of the complex. The only exit I can find is on the other side."
"Yay for us." Ty sighed.
"It could be worse." Thane said, just as we were cut off in the front by more of those shockerbots. We all skidded to a stop as they took aim at us. "That could happen."
I looked at him in irritation. "You have a knack for jinxing us, you know that?" He just shrugged.
"Down!" Father snapped and we all dropped to the floor as both sets of robots opened fire again, the results being them taking each other out. The hallway was starting to fill up with smoke from all the explosions coming from the robotcidale things as the barrage continued.
"We need to get out of here!" Ari screeched.
"Why does someone always have to say that?" Father muttered. "We all know we need to get out of here but yet someone always has to say that."
"It's about as annoying as your 'Be quiet!'s." Uncle Raph grinned at him.
"Oh shut up."
"I hate to interrupt the bonding moment, but there are more coming!" Mother snapped at them.
Father took a quick look around as those robots started moving in again, keeping us pinned as they kept firing. He then exchanged a grim look with Uncle Raph and Uncle Mikey. "We need to get them out." He said softly, I was sure I wasn't supposed to hear him, but I did.
"Leo, it's us they want." Uncle Mikey said just as quiet. "Not the kids."
Uncle Raph was looking around us, his face grim. "We need to open them up a way out, and keep it open."
"We won't make it out of here." Father told him.
"Then so be it." Uncle Raph reached over and took the katanas back from me and handed them to Father. I was looking at them all with a combination of shock and fear. I did not want to leave them here. I wanted to go home as a family, all of us, together. I felt my anger rising at them even hinting about sacrificing themselves just so we could get out. I also knew any protest I made would fall on deaf ears.
Father's eyes met mine and I knew then that he knew that I had heard everything. He reached across Uncle Raph and took my hand. "It'll be ok." He told me as Uncle Raph also took in my shocked face.
"No it won't!" I snapped back at him. "It won't be ok! I don't want to leave you here!"
He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "Lavi, please. It's the-"
He was suddenly cut off as the wall in front of us suddenly just disappeared in a bright flash of orange and red flames, consuming the metal forms slowly closing in on us, and the sound was deafening as it shook the hallway. If we hadn't already be on the floor we would've been knocked down. Heat washed over us as we covered our heads and the lights flickered and went out leaving us in darkness. Behind us, from the area where the other group was, there was another ear shattering blast as once again flames ripped into the hallway, lighting it up as bright as day for a moment, and heat flew over us. Stunned, and now also coughing because of the smoke from burning internal robot parts now scattered everywhere that filled the hallway a moment before it started drift outside, we looked up.
"Holy mother of god." Uncle Raph whispered in shocked disbelief at the total destruction around us.
We all got shakily to our feet, Thane and Ty helping Father up, as a figure came walking through the smoke filled hallway, more than likely coming in through the hole in the wall in front of us. Not being able to clearly see through the smoke and darkness on who it was we readied our weapons. "You stupid, careless, idiotic, son of a bitch!" Came a familiar voice out of the smoke and we lowered our weapons. "I should beat your ass so hard you won't be able to sit down for a week! How dare you scare me like that!"
"Oh lord..." Uncle Raph muttered a moment before a figure slammed into him, and ignoring everyone around her Aunt Cris wrapped her arms around his neck and locked her lips to his in a fierce kiss.
Father looked on with a raised eyeridge. "We are fine too, thanks for asking." Mother nudged her elbow into his side. Smiling he wrapped an arm around her. "If you two are done, it might not be a bad idea to get out of here."
Aunt Cris pulled back from Uncle Raph and looked around a little embarrassed. He had a goofy look on his face, right until she smacked him on the arm. "Don't do that shit again." She told him.
"Yes ma'am." He replied as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Hey! You guys having a damn picnic in here or what?" Amy hollered through the hole in the wall behind us. "Dennis is picking up more of those things coming and Cris used up all of Donnie's explosives!"
"Donnie had explosives?" Mother asked incredulously as she gently led Father towards the hole. Ty was still on his other side.
"I told you before, he's a closet pyro." Father told her.
"Not anymore. Cris cleaned him out, he wasn't to happy about that." Amy grinned.
"A little over kill don't you think?" Aunt Marina asked Aunt Cris with a raised eyebrow.
"Not under these circumstances. They had my baby and I wanted him back."
"It's so nice to be loved." Uncle Raph grinned.
"How did you get his fireworks away from him?" Uncle Mikey asked her.
"I threatened to break his other leg."
Uncle Raph facepalmed as we made our way to the van. "I'm never going to hear the end of this."
"Probably not." Father grinned at him.
"Dude...remind me never to piss your mother off." Dante quietly told Thane, who swallowed hard and nodded in agreement.
As we approached the van the door opened and Dennis stepped out to help Father up. "We need to go. That blast set off all kinds of alarms in the area. This place is going to be swarming with cops and fire department soon." Father just wearily nodded as he sat down in a seat. Dennis went to the driver's seat as Ari closed the doors behind her and got the thing moving.
I wearily sat down next to Father on the bench seat, not ready to let him out of my sight just yet. The scare of almost loosing him was still fresh in me and I needed his closeness right now. He seemed to feel that need in me and wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close to him and I wrapped my arms around him again. I was glad he was here but I also felt bitter, so bitter. Why was this even done to him? And who did it? But what bothered me the most was his willingness to stay behind so we could get out.
"You ok?" Uncle Raph came and sat across from us, Aunt Cris sliding into the bench next to him. She wormed her way around him in a similar hold that I had Father in.
"I'm not sure." Father honestly told him. "I'm having problems with my legs." He sighed in frustration. Again anger flashed in me. How dare they? How dare they!
Father looked down at me a moment with a small frown on his face but kept quiet before he turned his attention back to my uncle. "What was the whole point of this whole set up tonight?" Uncle Raph wondered out loud. "None of it makes any sense."
"Wouldn't be the first time we've stumbled into something we didn't understand." Father replied.
Uncle Mikey leaned on the chair Uncle Raph was sitting in, easily keeping his balance in the moving vehicle. "Donnie made us gather up what was left of that thing that exploded, I'm pretty sure he is playing with them now."
"Why? It was just a bomb, wasn't it?"
Uncle Mikey shook his head. "Donnie doesn't think so, Leo."
"So...Who set us up? Dragons or Rouges?" Mother asked from where she stood behind Father.
"I bet Dragons." Uncle Mikey said. "They've been acting funny the last few weeks."
"No way to know right now. Hell it could even be a third party pulling the strings from behind the scenes. This could have been an elaborate setup just for us or it could be someone who just seized the opportunity." Father sighed. "We just don't have enough information."
The three brothers exchanged determined looks. "Well then, I guess we need to gather it." Uncle Raph said and Father nodded.
"Not until Donnie and Cait have looked you over." Mother said firmly to Father.
"I'm sure I'll be fine in a little bit." He protested. "We need to move now while the leads are fresh."
She was having none of it as she marched around the bench seat, put her hands on her hips and glared down at him. "No. We are going home, you will get looked over or I swear to god I'll put your leg in the same condition Donnie's is in!" She almost yelled at him. The van was deathly quiet as they all looked at her in shock.
Father watched her, his eyes narrowing a little before they softened. "All right, home it is." He said quietly as he took in Mother's determined face, that almost hid the tears in her eyes. Obviously she had been just as scared for him as I was and she didn't want him going back out right now.
"See what happens when you threaten them with bodily harm?" Aunt Cris grinned. "They actually listen."
