Chapter 7 - Gravity
Doctor Tsuneo frowned at the odd reply by the co-pilot, but had no time to process what the flippant comment might mean. He focused on taking Karai's vitals. Her rapid heartbeat drummed beneath his fingertips where he pressed them at her throat and wrist. He murmured questions, firing them rapidly without seeming to actually hear her replies, which were given through gritted teeth while his hands fluttered from her throat to her wrist to the black bag at his side. He rummaged within it, producing a stethoscope.
Leonardo sat back on his heels, but still hovering just over her supine form, wiping the sweat from his chin with one shoulder and doing his best to remain calm. His hands were wrapped around Karai's left, covering it and squeezing now and then to offer the limited amount of comfort he could. His eyes darted from the scissors in the doctor's hands to the men surrounding him. Calculating. There were six, no, seven. Not counting the pilot and the co-pilot. There were no weapons where he could see them, but that meant nothing. Karai's fingers clawed at his hand and he snapped back to focusing on her.
"It's," she panted, "okay. They're . . . with us. Trust -"
He nodded rapidly, trying to put a reassuring expression on his face to hide the fear and doubt. "Shh, don't speak," he said under his breath to her, leaning closer on his knees.
She jerked suddenly and gasped. Karai writhed on the platform, throwing her head back as Tsuneo cut through the clothing. Leonardo stiffened and his face shot to the doctor then to her pant leg where he was cutting through with the scissors. A strangled cry broke from her throat and Leonardo jumped, frightened that the doctor had hurt her. But then he saw the spreading dampness. The dark color of it. Smelled the coppery ozone of the blood. It took everything he had not to cry out in mingled terror for his wife's suffering and his own.
"Please," he whispered through his teeth, under his breath, staring at Tsuneo; a plea, desperate and sincere. "Help her. Please."
Dr. Tsuneo's bloodshot eyes rose, a flash of something like cold rage behind the circular glasses. "I will do what I can," Tsuneo bit out. His eyes bore into Leonardo's; full of recrimination; hatred. The doctor's voice harsh and remindful of another authority figure to which he'd bend his knee to and break his back to obey, whatever the cost. Communicating that which Leonardo did not need to hear, for he understood it better than anyone. Felt the weight of it more keenly.
"You," he spat, "are responsible for this."
Leonardo nodded briefly, choking on his guilt. Owning his culpability. Ready to accept the cost of his fool's actions. Willing to pay anything, anything at all, but her life.
"For whatever comes of it." Tsuneo, one hand poised atop Karai's head, the other upon her heaving stomach, round with his unborn child. "And if anything happens to her as a result," he took a short breath and hissed, "I will see to it myself that you regret ever meeting her."
There was a weighted shift behind him and Leonardo tensed. Eyes wide. Alert.
As Karai's voice, ringing with pain, cut through the repeating whoosh of the rotors, the grinding thrum of the engine, Leo was suddenly attacked; grabbed from behind. Toned arms wove under his shoulders, around his neck. His struggling and growls were drowned out by another of Karai's pitched groans. Unable to stop due to the cramped space, his knees slid and knocked into her as he struggled. She moaned. He fell still instantly, despite his instincts roaring inside him to fight back. To get free. He remained frozen, chest heaving as he panted from the struggle to restrain himself; muscles coiled; veins extended from his panic and fury.
Tsuneo straightened up, shocked as his eyes shot around at the soldiers. "Men, stand down. I gave no order to constrain him! Release him, now!" When the men ignored his orders, the doctor glanced about and shouted, "Do as I say! You are Foot! Who do you obey?"
The co-pilot of the copter twisted in her seat. The visor obscured the top-half of her face, gleaming and giving her an insect-like appearance. Her mouth was a smiling slit of red. Teeth, white and perfectly aligned, flashed as she said, "That would be me."
Tsuneo's face darted from the woman who spoke to Leonardo to Karai and back again. The color drained from his face. But his mouth became a hard line. A tic jumped in one cheek beneath his eye. The engine rumbled and the rotors spun as the tense tableau held.
Tsuneo ground out, "My men . . . they were hand-picked . . . how?"
"Oh, I think you know the answer to that, dear doctor." She grinned her alien smile, slick and ugly and continued, "In a word: Infiltration. To take apart an organization, the most efficient way to disassemble is to work from the inside out. The more we integrated into your clan – still such an easy thing to do since word got out about Karai and this creature - the more intelligence we gained." She shrugged, "It was only a matter of time before someone led us to our prize."
Her head tipped slightly towards Karai, panting and laying between him and the terrified and furious creature held back by three men. Karai's head moved from side to side, but she was too withdrawn into her own personal world of pain to realize that something was going wrong around her. Leonardo glowered at the woman next to the pilot. He shook his shoulders, trying to get some leverage, but the men held him in place. A deep growl issued from the back of his throat as his lip curled up and back.
"Sophia Brokker," Doctor Tsuneo breathed out, sounding more defeated than he intended. Daughter of Johann Courser, head of Venom. Elder sister to Marcus Brokker, the young man that Saki had sent into a life of sex slave because he'd wronged Karai when she was a teenager. The seeds of revenge sown so diligently supplied them all with an extended harvest.
The woman chuckled, but kept her attention trained on Tsuneo. "Don't look so surprised, Dr. Tsuneo. We've known of your connection to the Oroku family for a long time. When you took your leave, we were quite intrigued. With Oroku Saki in New York, it could only mean one thing." Her grin widened and became predatory. "The trusted family doctor can only be so far from his exclusive patients, after all."
Time slowed. He closed his eyes as his stomach clenched. He'd led them straight to Karai. And the Shredder had no idea of where she was. He cursed himself for not confiding the situation to his superior. He'd been foolish and naïve. The doctor's temples tickled with tendrils of sweat working down the sides of his face. His heartbeat crashed against his ribs in a slow painful burst. They had him. They'd had him all along. All the tedious effort at concealing his tracks. Of his involvement with the Foot. It had all been an illusion after all. His eyes opened. He blinked as tears welled.
Karai reached up for him and he took her hand. Her eyes were shut tight and she grimaced. He shushed her, gently.
The woman pressed an earpiece, "Yes," she said. Her voice lit with a delighted tone, "The operation was a success. We have our girl. And there's quite an added bonus, dear." She paused and hung one arm over the back of the seat. "Oh no, I'm not going to spoil it. I want to see your face when you find out. Oh," she added, "And we've got one of Saki's mutants, too. Have Carlisle ready the recruitment cell for special cases."
She paused, taking a quick breath. "No," her lips turned down. She turned around to sit fully in her seat. "I'm not trying to tell you how to . . . yes, I know. The entire program is your idea. And it's a wonderful, lucrative . . . I'm sorry, Marcus. Of course you are. Always." She nodded. "Yes. You can do it yourself if you would like. But I think you may want to see the surprise first. He'd fetch a high price if what I suspect he's capable of is true and I have a feeling I'm not wrong."
She said something to the pilot and turned to speak to Dr. Tsuneo over her shoulder. "Your services will no longer be needed, dear doctor."
He tuned her out as one of the men crept closer. All the sounds muted and faded into the roar of his blood rushing in his ears. He didn't need to hear the words to know she'd just ordered his execution. From the corner of his vision, he saw the mutant boy struggling.
Doctor Tsuneo's eyes blurred. He thought of his precious Aki. His ginger root. Of her waiting in the luxurious suite for him. Of the rushed goodbye, or rather, the complete lack of parting words. Knowing what he faced; that this may be his last stand. To fight for the man who was like a son to him, to protect and do what he could to rescue the man's daughter. The foolish, stubborn girl who was like a granddaughter to him. It would cost him his life, no doubt. His hand upon his thigh shook and he balled it into a fist. Feeling the tendons stretch, the muscles knit and bunch between the delicate bones. Fear stung the back of his eyes, but he blinked the temptation to despair away.
There was no time for regret. For bitterness. There was no time to wish for things that were not ever meant to be. He'd made this life. He'd committed himself to his ideals; loyalty to a person who, he felt, needed more than anything else, the steadfast support of an elder figure who would not judge him; only love unconditionally. And to his death he would defend them, if no one else in all the world would.
He would defend his family.
Tsuneo moved in a blur of motion, turning to one side to strike the ninja nearest him with the heel of his hand; knocking the man backwards into the wall. A short blade clattered and skittered to fall from the opening just behind the doctor. Spinning as it descended into the thick canopy below.
His elbow snapped back, striking the oncoming attacker behind him in the chest. He wheeled around and jabbed his knuckles into the soldier's throat as the man rallied and moved to grab him. The ninja sputtered and reached for his neck as he tumbled over Karai and rolled to the back of the pilots' seats.
Karai took the impact of his body. She writhed and screamed, her cries muffling to a string of curse words with a broken gasp as she twisted from one side to another.
Leo started at the sound of her distress. With a burst of adrenaline, he braced his splayed thighs and lurched hard to the side. The force causing the ninja holding his right arm to flip around and crash into the man at his left. Another grabbed his arm just as he'd liberated it; yanking him back even as the man behind him tightened his grip across Leo's windpipe. He released a strangled growl and thrashed in their grasp. He unfolded one leg and kicked up and out at the solider who scrambled over Karai's feet, coming straight at him.
The Foot soldier fell back. Karai's heel lashed out. It knocked his head hard in the temple, making him slump to the rear of the interior in a crumpled pile just past Tsuneo wrestling with a ninja near her feet. Her face, pale and dripping with perspiration, shot up over one shoulder.
"Ha! Take that, Fucker!"
But her triumph was short-lived. She shuddered suddenly. She groaned and held her stomach, rolling to one side. She slumped and laid still.
"Karai!" Leo screamed, voice strained from the chokehold on him. "Karai!"
He thrashed with renewed vigor. Straining and struggling against the three soldiers. The silver gleam of a blade appeared before his blurred vision. He snarled and snapped his jaws like a raging animal. His only impulse to get to his wife, laying so silent and frightfully still only inches away from his reach. He barely felt the blows to his head and chest, legs and face. Eyes trained on Karai who remained unmoving despite the disjointed, fierce battle raging around her. He threw his head back and connected with the ninja's face. He heard a crack and a gurgle and one less set of arms held him. The blade was at his throat, biting into the delicate flesh.
"Do not kill the mutant!" Sophia hollered over the back of the seat. "We want the girl and mutant alive! Kill the old man!"
Opposite from them, Tsuneo dodged a fist, knocking it away as he blocked. He ducked as the solider came at him again. With a few jabs, Tsuneo struck at the man, but he was too slow and the young man too quick. The blows were deflected smoothly. Tsuneo's breath came in broken pants as his chest tightened. Adrenaline rushed through his system, but was quickly waning. He was not the young fighter he once was. He dipped aside and felt the clip of the soldier's blow along his jaw. Stars exploded in his vision. He struck out and fortune graced him with a direct blow. The ninja stumbled back and tripped over the black physician's bag. He tumbled out the open door of the side of the helicopter, making no sound as he vanished into the canopy below.
Tsuneo lunged forward. Taking his advantage.
He grabbed at Sophia's helmet and shoulders. Tugging her head back at an angle, attempting to break her neck. She snarled and her fingers shot out, clawing towards his face. He lurched back, but not far enough, not fast enough. His glasses were knocked from his face. A set of deep parallel lines of red bled between his eyes and down his left cheek. His left eye flooded with blood. A pain like a bolt of bright agony ripped through the tattered socket. He reeled and gripped the pilot's seat with fumbling fingers as he tried to compose himself past the throbbing pain.
The helicopter dipped suddenly. Tsuneo's hold on the seat slipped. He held his face and felt the blood mingling with the fluids of his ruined eye. He twisted to grope for his bag.
As Tsuneo turned, Sophia scrambled over the back of her seat, lunging into the old man's back. Knocking him forward with one shoulder. His body tumbled over Karai's head in a sloppy somersault. He skittered to the edge. Wind whipped at the thin strands of hair on his head. His hands sought something to hold onto as Sophia loomed suddenly above him.
"Goodbye, dear doctor."
She kicked him, striking his jaw. His head snapped back. His hands released their hold. He teetered only a second before gravity swept him from the edge of the helicopter's cabin. Launching him into the blue void between Heaven and Earth.
A/N: Hiya readers! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and wish you all the best in the new year! Woo!
Hopefully, I can get back to updating my stories on a more regular (and frequent) basis now that the craziness is behind me. I'm starting my practicum (like an internship) this week, so I'm adding a few hours to my work-week - but it shouldn't be too bad as far as cutting into my writing time.
Gosh - It just feels so great to have gotten this chapter done and posted. Fight scenes are not something that I'm terribly comfortable with, so I hope it turned out okay. Big things are coming in this story and so I thank you all for your patience and kind support in sticking with it and with me!
xo
