A/N: Hello everybody! Once again I have found a small amount of time to type you all the next chapter. I hope you all aren't going to riot or anything anytime soon. Here is the next chapter, all ready for you to read and enjoy. I hopefully can get started on typing the nextchapter soon, if school and work don't get in the way that is. And by the way, thanks for all those who caught those typos on my last chapter. I, once again, was typing in the Quickedit box instead of in word and missed up on quite a few words. Sorry about that, and I hope this chapter is better. Love you all and I hope you keep reviewing!
Chapter Eight: Competitor
Michelangelo slowly paced his room, trying to find the heart and courage to call Delaney about Splinter's passing. He knew that she would want to know that it had happened, but he wasn't so sure if she should hear about it over the phone. On the other hand, he needed to be with his brothers and in all honesty he really needed them now too. Even Raphael. They were each other's comfort and normalcy. But if he didn't call her, she more than likely will hear it from Amity, Callista or Eros. He wanted to be the one to tell her, and be there for her when the time came.
He shook his head to clear the confusing options and took a deep breath, "Okay Mike. Get it together. She deserves to know and you know it."
Taking a few steps to the payphone in the main portion of the lair, he couldn't help but listen in on what was happening in his brother's rooms. He heard his brothers either still crying or talking to themselves. He could hear the shifting of feet on the floors of their bedrooms. They were all pacing just like he was. More than likely trying to find the courage to make the call to the girls, or to find a way to drag themselves out of their rooms to open area of the lair. They all knew that they would eventually have to come out to talk about it. They always did. Sometimes they would try to push it off until they couldn't avoid the topic anymore. But not this time. This time they couldn't push it off much longer. This time they will talk about it as soon as possible. Because this time… they had to.
No one really notices much on the busy streets of New York City these days. People are so distracted on their way to or from work, or trying to plan the next event in their lives. They have their minds on other things and other problems in their lives when walking down the streets or trying to catch a cab from the curb. Traffic races by creating its own wind and noise that just adds to the already complex commotion of the crowds. Every one of these people all ready so confident that they have 'seen it all' won't even think to look at a small shot of bright color just on the outside of their peripheral vision. Of course, through all of this uproar, not one of these busy people would think to notice the orange cat running from alleyway to alleyway with a small note attached to his collar.
Klunk tried to keep a fast pace toward his master's underground home. As he rushed through the streets, cars sped past him, throwing water from the puddles on the asphalt onto the sidewalk where people tried to avoid the water from getting on their suits and dresses. As hard as the cat tried not to get hit with water as well, Klunk could not completely dodge a large wave created by a huge truck speeding past. He jumped in response and managed to escape most of the moister. Although he didn't know that Delaney's note took most of the moisture, smearing most of the words.
He shook off the water that clung to his fur and continued toward the lair. He knew that something was wrong. Something was very off. And only his master can fix it.
The phone receiver felt a little warmer than what it should. One of his brothers may have used it to call April and Casey. It was more than likely Leonardo that did so, if anyone. Donatello was still pretty shook up and Raphael could punch a hole through another wall at any time. Michelangelo doubted that either one of them had the strength to tell anyone the news. Because of the call April and Casey may come down later with Shadow for dinner or just to talk. The turtles may be twenty-six years old now, but April still saw them as the teenagers that saved her from those thugs that night outside the television studio. She still tries to take care of them the best she could and uphold her role as their older sister in the missed up world. At times Michelangelo really appreciated the thought. It shows that someone cares for them up there on the surface other than the girls.
It was the first time, at least from what he could remember, where he was at a loss for words. He dialed her number into the telephone slowly, hoping to prolong the inevitable. He felt tears begin to come back to his eyes and in his throat after the first couple of rings. Although, by the fifth ring he was starting to get worried. She must not be home. He hung up the phone and tried her cell phone. She may have decided to go out with the girls to dinner since he didn't come to the apartment, and if that were the case she wouldn't have her shell cell with her. He glanced at the wall clock and saw that it was two-thirty am. It was a lot later than he thought. She couldn't be out this late, could she? Especially not with a huge case to work on.
Another six rings and the message service came on and he left a message, "Hey hon… I think we need to talk- well, I know we need to talk. It's… it's Splinter. Um… go ahead and call my shell cell. I hope you're okay. You're not answering your phone and I know that you're home by now. Call me back soon, okay? I love you… later."
As soon as he set down the phone he saw Klunk strolling down the tunnel up to him. Klunk meowed as he entered the room, as if he was announcing his arrival to all those who didn't know. Michelangelo took his cat up in his arms and squeezed him gently. But there was something off. Klunk was… crinkling a bit and squishing in other places. Michelangelo held him at arms length and saw the piece of paper on his collar. He also recognized Delaney's handwriting on the outside flap.
"Whatcha' got there, Klunk?" he tore the piece of paper off of his collar and noticed that water still clung to the paper, "Now how did this get so wet? Let's open this up and see what Delaney's got up her sleeve…"
He tried desperately not to tear the damp paper and watched as some of the water smeared most of the words together.
"Let's see what we can salvage… Mikey, 8-3-1… smear… something came up… smear… case… smear… I'll see you tomorrow… smear… more smears… hopefully…. smear… Delaney."
Klunk meowed up at his owner and pawed at his leg. Michelangelo looked down at him, "What did she mean by 'hopefully'?"
"Whatcha' got, Mikey?" Raphael asked as he made his way down the lair's stairs, surprising his younger brother.
"It's a note from Delaney," he said with a sigh, "It sounds like she's pulling all an all nighter for a case or something. Don't know if it's the Karten one or not. Apparently Klunk's not the best or most reliable message service."
Raphael read over his brother's shoulder, "It's soaked. Why don't you just call her?"
"Like I said, she's pulling an all nighter, I don't want to disturb her."
"You've all ready tried, haven't you?" he crossed his arms over his plastron while looking at Michelangelo with a smirk.
"Yeah… she's not answering."
"It might be better that way for now," he took a deep breath and looked down at the floor, "It may be better that the girl's don't know about Splinter until we can be there for them, you know."
"I guess you're right," he nodded, "I'd much rather that she heard about it from me face to face instead of over the phone anyway."
Raphael leaned against the wall and tried to change to subject, "What the heck does Eight- thirty-one mean anyway?"
"It's a code that we have," Michelangelo smiled to himself.
"You two would have a code," Raphael smirked and leaned against the couch, "What does it mean?"
"Eight letters, three words… one meaning."
"What?"
"It means 'I love you'," Donatello commented as he came down to join his brothers, "It's a kind of play on numbers."
"It makes me miss Delaney, you know," Michelangelo rubbed the back his head.
"I think it makes us miss all of them," Raphael nodded and sighed, closing his eyes, "I could really go for some insults from Callista right now."
"You two have the strangest relationship I have ever known," Donatello looked at Raphael with a confused look on his face.
"Yeah, but before we could go and tell them, we got to deal with more unpleasantries," Leonardo stood at the top of the stairs with his eyes cast down at his feet.
"We all know the drill," Raphael nodded and pushed off of the wall.
"I'll get the lights," Donatello added.
"And I'll get the tissues," Michelangelo ended the conversation walking toward the couch with Klunk at his heels.
'God, I hate chloroform,' Delaney felt herself become aware of her surroundings. She moaned as she moved her head and upper body to get a good feel of what hurt and what was still numb.
"D?" Callista's voice emerged from the silence, "Hey, I think she's coming around, you guys."
"Thank God," that sounded like Amity. So it was true. He did take all of her friends. Who ever he was.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and tried to take a look around her immediate area. She still didn't have a complete control of her neck and couldn't move her head all too much. She was on some kind of cement floor. Her ears were still clogged as bad as her head was fogged up, but she could make out her friend's voices and other vague noises in the background. She couldn't quite identify what was making the noises in the far background, but that would change once she got her wits about her again. Before she could say anything, her friends were around her, making sure that she was okay. Callista and Eros pulled her from the floor and brought her to her feet in an attempt to get her talking and fully awake.
"Slow down guys…" she grumbled and held her head in one of her hands, "One step at a time here."
"Sorry D," Eros apologized and released the grip on her friend's arm a bit, "Just wanted to make sure that you can still talk and communicate."
"What the Hell happened?" Delaney rubbed her forehead a bit and then leaned against the wall next to some bars.
"They put you out with chloroform, girl," Eros stated.
"Yes, thank you for clearing that up for us all, Bulls eye," Callista nodded in sarcasm.
"Do you guys have any idea where we are?" Delaney clenched her eyes a few times to clear her foggy state of mind, "Any clues that you can give me here?"
"You tell us, Miss detective," Callista rolled her eyes.
"If I had a guess, I would say that we are in a very state of the art, experimental facility, equipped with some of the most unparalleled equipment and testing supplies," Amity took a look over her own shoulder and through the set of bars they were behind.
Delaney lifted her head and started to take in the setting beyond the bars. There were several, long, marble tables. Some had built in sinks and eye wash stations, while others had microscopes and Bunsen burners decorating the top of the tables. What looked like various chemicals and petri dishes cluttered the remaining space on the tables. She also caught sight of smaller cages at the other side of the room. She heard growling and other small noises from the cages. After some of her vision cleared she found small animals, kittens and puppies at the end of the room. Some of the smaller animals even included wild species, like the lynx, bush babies, foxes and even some birds. Next to that wall of cages there was another room, but the doorway was partially covered with a heavy cloth.
'What the Hell are they up to in here?' Delaney looked at the walls and tried to find some kind of clue to which scientific facility they were at. Although, she already have a good idea of where they were and who brought them there. Giving up on the walls, Delaney moved on to the tables, hoping to find maybe a small insignia or mark on the vials or lab equipment.
"What do you think, Delaney?" Eros asked looking at the room from beside her.
"I'm not sure yet, Eros. But I'm trying to figure it out," Delaney shook her head a little to shake off the rest of the chloroform. She lifted her head once again to the tables and started from the closest tables to the back of the room. At one end of one of the far tables Delaney caught sight of a bright green canister. She narrowed her eyes to focus a bit more and let her jaw drop as she realized what it was.
"Amity, tell me that isn't what I think it is," Delaney kept her eyes glued to the canister and didn't dare to blink in case it decided to disappear on her.
"What is it?" Amity took Eros's place next to Delaney and tried to follow her friend's line of sight. She looked around the object for a few moments, but then her eyes too locked on the bright canister.
"Please tell me it's my imagination that it's green," Callista joined into the canister gazing.
"You're not seeing things. I… I think… it's more…more…" Amity fought to find her speech.
"Mutagin," Professor Kanin came into the room, "It is mutagin. My mutagin."
"Come now, Kanin," another voice came from behind her, "Let's not take responsibility for other people's accomplishments."
Delaney knew that voice. It was his voice. She struggled to grab the bars and looked at the man as he walked into the light. It was Kanin's assistant, Grinford. He's the one who called her and threatened her friends. No wonder she didn't recognize his voice. He didn't say one word when they met. A grimace came to her face as she felt like spitting on the man's face. No one threatens her family. No one.
"What do you mean?" Kanin crossed her arms over her chest and pouted as if it was a game, "This is my mutagin."
"Actually Kanin, I believe the original credit goes to one Professor Jordan Perry. He created the ooze," Delaney sneered at the two, "And I don't believe for one minute that you would be able to recreate it."
"Why recreate it, when I can improve it?" she sneered back.
"Not many people could even create the ooze to begin with," Delaney watched as Kanin began to walk toward the ooze canister on the table, "Not unless you actually had Professor Perry next to you. The molecular structure was too detailed. No one could understand it unless they took lessons with the guy himself."
"You've done your research, haven't you? I'm very impressed detective. Not many people even know of the original ooze or its creator," she smirked, "But I didn't need him. I had something just as good."
"And just what was that?" Amity asked.
"Now, why spoil the fun in having you girls hear it from me? If you're so smart and clever… figure it out yourself," she chuckled and picked up the canister looking into the contents.
"How about you come in here and I can beat it out of you instead?" Callista shook her fist at the woman.
"Now, now Miss Jenas. Violence will get you no where here," Kanin shook her head.
"This coming from a woman who has kidnapped her associate and competition," Delaney glared at the woman, "What have you done with Sandra, Kanin?"
"Me?" she pointed at herself with a feigned innocent look, "I didn't do anything to her. She did it to herself. Pity… she was the smartest one in the building."
"You can say that again," Eros whispered to herself.
"What did she do to herself then?" Delaney asked, trying to get the professor to talk a little more.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
"For Christ's sake!" Callista rushed toward the bars, "This isn't a damn game we're playing here lady! She has a fiancée sitting worried for her safety! Not to mention she had a life!"
"You're right," she shrugged, "She did have a life."
"You bitch," Callista pushed off the bars and started to pace toward the back of the confinement they were in, "Just give me the chance at you and I swear…"
"You'll do what, Miss Jenas?" Kanin asked from a good distance, "You'll send that fine mutated specimen you were talking to at your office after me?"
That caught Callista's attention and made her stop in the middle of the room. She looked at the ground with wide eyes and started to feel her breath quicken and grow heavy. Her eyes raked over the surface of the cage's floor in thought.
"What? So quiet now?" Grinford chuckled, "We hit a nerve? You did seem close to the mutant."
Callista couldn't move. They knew about Raphael… they knew about her and Raphael.
Delaney saw the surprised look on all of her friend's faces and turned to the two scientists, "What do you know about them?"
"Them?" Grinford looked down at Kanin, "You hear that?"
"There's more than one, is there?" she chuckled.
Delaney shut her eyes and cursed herself, 'Stupid, stupid, stupid!'
"And here I thought you were going to be a challenge, detective," Kanin smiled and set the canister in a case off to the side of the table, "If you all will excuse me and Grinford, we have some experiments to run on a few more specimens. Then we can continue this discussion later. Believe me when I say that you have peeked my interest."
Kanin tilted her head to one of the smaller cages where what looked like a small Border collie puppy was locked away. Grinford unlocked the cage and pulled out the cream-colored puppy and put it under his arm as if it was another in animate object.
"Goodbye girls," Grinford winked at the four of them and led Kanin into the other room with the puppy under his arm.
"You won't get away with this!" Delaney shouted after her, "My partner will figure it out! It's only a matter of time!"
Delaney watched them leave and turned her back to the bars once they were out of sight. She threw her head back into the bars and slid down to the floor with her eyes tightly closed.
'How could I be so idiotic? I put them all at risk…' she put her face in her hands and tried to think of a way out of this. A few moments later she looked up to find Eros and Amity sitting on a small crate looking straight at the ground. Callista on the other hand was still frozen in her spot. Surprised that someone actually knew. Someone saw him.
"I wasn't careful enough," she said in a deadpan voice.
"What?" Delaney asked from the floor.
"I didn't think to park my car away from a light. I can protect myself, I don't need a freaking light to protect me…" she took a few steps and leaned her forearm and forehead against the wall, "I didn't even think to conceal him in the dark. Maybe then… they wouldn't have seen…"
"It wasn't your fault," Amity looked at Callista, "It wasn't anyone's fault. And Delaney, I don't want you to think about what you said. You just came out from under chloroform. You weren't thinking straight. And besides, it was only a matter of time before they found out about all of the guys."
"They were following them…" Eros said from beside Amity.
"What are you talking about?" Callista turned her head toward her.
"Donnie said that he felt like some one had followed him from the mobster meeting that the guys broke up the night that Delaney and Michelangelo took down Burgand."
"That's right," Callista snapped her fingers, "Raphael was saying something about that too that night. I just thought he was being paranoid again."
"I just wonder how they followed them without getting spotted," Amity thought over the options for a moment.
"Well, at least we know how they saw you and Raphael," Delaney said.
Callista turned around and leaned her back against the wall, "Well, now what? We wait here until they take us behind the mysterious cloth to get screwed around with?"
"Maybe not," Delaney reached in the pocket of the coat she was wearing in search of something.
"Don't even look, D. They took all our cell phones and communications out of our clothes and pockets," Eros said pouting.
"I'm not looking in my pockets," she smiled as she felt something on her fingertip. She quickly took off her jacket and started to tear at a loose seam.
"Delaney! I gave you that jacket!" Eros used a hushed tone at her.
"It was all ready torn, Eros," Delaney rolled her eyes as she fought with the thin stuffing in the coat. Her eyes lit up as she finally grabbed what she was looking for and pulled it out. The other girls gasped as their eyes feel upon a shell cell.
"Tricky, tricky," Amity shook her head.
"Yeah, but it worked. You would think that scientist would scan our clothing or something like that," Delaney opened it up and pushed a few on the buttons. Soon her smile faded and she looked at Amity, "We got a technical problem."
"What now?" Callista grumbled.
"Apparently the signal can't get through these walls."
"Then put it through the bars, damn it. We got to warn them and get the hell out of here."
"It's not that easy," Amity shook her head and took the communicator from Delaney.
"Why the hell not, may I ask?"
"This hole facility was made to block all signals going out… I'm guessing just for this occasion," she looked up at Delaney, "They had this planned from the beginning."
"Do you think you can do something about it, brain?" Delaney looked at her hopefully.
"I can try to recalibrate the outgoing signal, but I'm not promising immediate results," she sat down and tried to pry open a portion of the cell.
"Well, try your best," Eros looked at the room outside the bars, "Because I'm not looking forward to that talk with Kanin and Grinford."
"I don't think any of us are," Delaney turned her head around toward the cages at the other side of the room and stared at the empty cage that once held the puppy, "And we got to get a hold of the guys before it's too late."
