Biological Imperative
Chapter Nine: Captive Audience
Bradford, Xever, and their grunts returned in fewer numbers and in a much poorer state than when they had left. The turtle was obviously heavy, its body completely slack in its state of unconsciousness. Hidan observed the group of 'elite' Foot soldiers as they struggled to remove the creature from the transport van and then as they stood there in bewilderment. It was almost comical watching them gasping for air while trying to figure out the best and easiest way they would get it all the way to the holding cell that Hidan had prepared for it. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so painfully pathetic to watch.
"I was told that there was a second one," Hidan stated when Xever came limping past him, holding a bloody towel to what would have been his abdomen. Hidan took that in along with his the badly mangled left mechanical leg and raised an eyebrow at the idiotic, well, fish face.
The edges of Xever's comical underbite clenched. "Be grateful that you have the one. I have every right to gut him and make soup from his flesh."
The heated way in which he glared at the bound, still form told Hidan that the creature was responsible for Xever's current state. A moment later, when Bradford's men dragged out the heavily bleeding form of their leader, Hidan felt a mild flutter of respect for the turtle. Small though it may be compared to the other three, this one obviously had spunk. No matter. Hidan only needed one, and this little one would suit his needs perfectly.
"You may do so with whatever remains of it. Once the project is completed," Hidan stated, though he had no intention of following through on this promise. He would have rather let the turtle's carcass rot than give anything to these barbaric fools. Then again, he did not think it would be a problem; the turtle's body was too precious to waste, and Hidan had no intention of doing so at all.
Xever's eyes snapped from the turtle to glare at him, but Hidan was already moving past him. His eyes fell briefly on the bulky, shadowy form that paid no mind to the activity around him, instead focusing on cleaning blood from his hands and claws with the typical steadfastness of any feline. The lingering Foot made room for Hidan when he found his way over to the turtle.
His gaze roved over the magnificent form of the creature, taking in light, freckled green skin, elongated limbs, and a proportionally correct shell. He knew the origin story of the turtles, of how the seemingly perfect series of disasters had culminated to create the unique mix of turtle and human. The Kraang's mutagen prototype might not have been useful when used on humans, but the narrow-sighted Kraang had never appreciated that they had created the perfect transfiguring agent for non-humans. Hidan did, though.
It took the U.S. military years to create a working hybrid. And even he has his drawbacks. Oh what they would have given to know about mutagen then. How much time did they waste, I wonder? Hidan thought, eyes flickering momentarily back to dark figure.
He gave a tight, contemptuous smile as he knelt. Reaching out, Hidan ran a hand down the hairless, domed head, feeling the leathery skin that was an interesting mix of human elasticity and turtle robustness. He could almost feel the mutagen-enriched blood flowing with power and potential just underneath that skin. "Hello, my Lazarus."
She was sulking. Not wasn't. She totally WAS. Who could blame her, though? No one, that's who. So she was feeling a healthy dose of irritation that her siblings couldn't seem to understand the concept that sometimes a girl just wanted to be left alone to sulk in peace, damnit!
Ignoring yet another message from M or Ness or Athos (or one of her well-meaning but yappy cousins from the Time Corps-or Time Lords as they fashioned themselves), she tried to focus on adding the last touches to the Terran-inspired marshland habitat. Though its sudden creation had been bred from necessity, working on it and the two other unrelated habitats had served to cheer her up after the oil spill disaster on Earth.
They'll be filled all too soon. She thought, feeling sad now that the initial rage had had time to burn itself through. Death had been the one to suggest she take a break from her 'mystery case' while he and his acolytes tried to sort through the mess. For once, she'd followed his advice and retreated to her Sanctuary, the only place in the endless universe that always helped her to find her center. As if sensing her melancholy thoughts, a scaly head nuzzled itself against her hand, and a thick tail swished back and forth just behind her ankles.
"Awww, you're so freaking cute. Thanks, little guy," she cooed, running her fingers down the ruby-colored, mni dragon's neck. His multi-lidded eyes slid shut and he gave a low rumble of approval as she scratched just right under his jaw. The little whines and purrs he emitted remind her more of a feline than a fire-breathing menace from a volcanic (and sadly decimated after a massive eruption) moon. When he was appropriately tended to, he padded away, leaving her grinning despite her dark mood. Not bragging or anything, but her Sanctuary was awesome. Who could come here in a bad mood and not leave feeling at least a little lighter in spirit?
It helped. A little. She busied herself with touching up some of the other habitats, soaking up the attention of the occupants. What they said was true; time really did fly when you were having fun. She was actually beginning to enjoy herself and forget her woes when she realized that she was no longer the only Keeper in her Sanctuary.
"You know," she said conversationally, not even looking up at the 'bird' that had perched itself patiently on the nearby chair and was watching her, "even for us it's polite to knock before you just come barging in on someone's private property."
A second later, a willowy, feathered humanoid was sitting in the bird's place. Though he had a large beak that made up the bottom half of his face, she could tell that he was grinning at her by the mirth in his voice. "Whaaaat? Since when? We're family. You wound me, little sister."
She rolled her eyes, which only goaded him to continue on. He clutched at his chest dramatically (which was stupid really; an Agnarian's heart wasn't anywhere near that area of their anatomy) like humans often did to express shock. His beady round eyes were positively alight with humor. When he spoke in that ridiculous Agnarian form, his voice sounded musical, the pitch changing rapidly the way a bird did when it chirped and sang.
"Now is that any way to treat someone who comes bearing gifts?"
Some of her annoyance ebbed. Vito and she were alike in a lot of ways. They'd grown up getting in trouble side-by-side-and if not at the same time than where one erred the other was sure to follow not long after. If forced to admit such a thing, she would not have considered him her favorite sibling, but he was high up there on the list.
"It depends on what you brought," she stated, keeping her poker face until he whipped out two bottles of sweet Saurutian ale. Squealing, she snatched one out of his claw-like hand. "Okay! Permission to stay granted. Gimme!"
"Worldly delights. Gets the ladies every time," Vito smugly answered, uncapping his own bottle with a sharp pop. It fizzed and foamed at the bottle's rim while the ale itself shimmered in changing shades of blue. They clanked the necks of their ale together and both took long, deep gulps.
She smacked her lips, enjoying the taste. Sometimes, she and Vito liked to let themselves get completely immersed in their corporeal forms in order to really indulge. She thought about for a moment before deciding against it. Instead, she raised an eyebrow at her brother. "So...I'd ask what brings you here but I suspect the answer would be M."
Vito shrugged but didn't deny it. "Meh, I needed a break anyway. If I have to watch those damn birds in their negotiations any longer, I might scream. I'm tempted just to tip the scales and let them have at it. The Plan is the only thing stopping me from going through with it, if I'm honest. After four centuries of peace, it's about time to let some of that built up tension out, I'd say."
His complaining made her smile. Leave it to Vito to complain about peacetime. The 'birds in their negotiations' was the Centennial Summit of the Agnar system. It was a gigantic system with several inhabited and flourishing moons, each of which were considered independent of each other despite that fact that the tall, bird-like people had all evolved from the same species from the planet of Agnar itself. Vito had told her that after four successful century-long peace negotiations, lifelong rivalries had begun to chip away at the goodwill and camaraderie between the moonfolk. Trade talks were breaking down more and more. Small jurisdiction disputes were increasingly become hostile, armed altercations.
I suppose it is inevitable no matter what part of the universe you are in. So much avoidable death. I guess it must be some comfort for the mortals to know that they are no more stupid than any other mortal, even one from an entirely different world. She thought, taking another sip of her ale. It suddenly felt less sweet on her tongue.
"That sounds far too important for you to take a break to come drink with your little sister," she pointed out, accusing. When he tried to play it off again with some other dismissive excuse about not liking Agnarian food, she glared. "Oh enough already. I'm fine. How many times do I have to tell you all that? I was just a little upset! It's nothing new! I am ALLOWED to be upset when our charges do something like cause an environmental disaster. Seriously, you guys are so annoying."
Vito played it cool as usual, waving his hands. "Whoa whoa whoa. I'm not here to annoy. I'm here to bear gifts and amusing stories while I tactically shirk my duties! Seriously, Pris. I cannot watch another ceremonial dance. Who does that? Who negotiates through interpretive dance?"
To accentuate his point, he imitated said dance, comically raising his arms and flapping them slowly like wings while he stood on one leg and kicked the other back. The Agnar relied on these elaborate dances to get their points across. It was an unorthodox practices, but considering their respective society had not experienced a major scale war in four hundred (standard) years, they must have been doing something right.
She watched her brother do several more dance poses and, unable to help herself, giggled. "Stop it, you idiot. Look at yourself."
Vito took in her smile and then lowered his arms, looking satisfied. "Fine fine. I only want to share my marvelous experience with my littlest of sisters, and I get insulted for my troubles. Such is the great burden of mine. Such sorrow."
He made a most (over exaggerated) aggrieved sound and then clapped his hands together. "Fine then! Since my work in war and peace is uninteresting, surely yours must be the paragon of excitement."
She hesitated, eyeing the replica she'd begun to build of the Lair, and then shrugged. What could she say? The turtles had inspired her. If she had her say, it would not be in use any time soon at all. "I guess you could say that. I'm working on something on Earth, actually."
"Is it the wombat?"
"What? No, not...what?"
"Oh good. I love those little guys."
She made a face at him, thinking of how they were very like-minded indeed. "I'm working on turtles. Humanoid talking turtles."
Vito looked taken aback. "Earth has those?"
"Four of them," she replied, pleased that she'd managed to surprise him.
"That's cutting it close. Good thing you caught it before it got down to one. Or zero," Vito laughed. "Shouldn't be too difficult, correct? Turtles lay eggs. Many of them if I am thinking of the right species. Give your female one large clutch and with some help you can repopulate the Earth with lots of cute baby turtles. It must be longer than I thought since I've been to Earth. I don't remember there being any talking humanoid turtles the last time I was there."
She thought about correcting his assumptions but then realized how quickly this would spiral into a long-winded explanation about everything. She'd already said more than she would have to any other of her siblings. It didn't cross her mind to be worried about Vito blabbing her business to the others. Unlike them, he COULD keep a secret. Besides, his duties kept him nice and busy, far too occupied to worry about things like gossiping and interfering with anyone else's life. There wasn't, sadly, a shortage of war in the universe.
"It's kind of a long story. Really long. Uh, anyway. Yeah. So it IS more interesting than what you're working on," she said, adding a cheeky smile for good measure. Her brother patted her on the head, which felt more reassuring than condescending somehow when it came from him.
"I am infinitely glad to hear that then, baby girl. You good?" Vito raised an eyebrow, which looked hilarious coming from a six foot bird, but she still felt warmed by the genuine concern behind his goofy, easy manner. Maybe it's why I like Mikey so much. Like minds. Ha!
"Yeah, I'm good. Cheers," she answered just as casually as she raised her ale. They drained the last of it in one go. Vito affectionately pecked her on the forehead (no, really. PECKED) and then, citing that he needed to get back to his 'Theater of the Dancing Birds,' vanished in a flurry of feathers...some of which were now scattered all over the floor of her Sanctuary.
"Thanks!" she howled sarcastically, knowing that wherever he was that Vito would be chuckling to himself. She was smiling, however. Never (NEVER) repeat it again, but her siblings-her annoying, meddling siblings-were really the best.
A familiar yowl made her turn. "Juno, you just missed Vito. He…"
Her smile faded as she took in the restless twitching of his head antennas, of the way he was anxiously, reluctantly, bounding up to her. Dread blossomed itself in her chest, heavy like a wet towel that had been draped over her. She'd left him to watch over Earth and had told him to only disturb her if something truly critical was about to happen. Something life-ending.
"Juno, what is it? What's wrong?"
The worst part was that it hadn't even been a trap. The Kraang hadn't been expecting them, and the turtles had not had been ready to stumble upon the abandoned facility that had housed an untraceable portal from Earth to Dimension X. But somehow, as their luck would have it, they had. If the situation had not almost immediately escalated into an all-out battle, Mikey might have found it hilarious that the Kraang had been just as startled as he and his brothers in the initial stare down that had been full of What-The-Fuckery on both sides.
Then the Kraang opened fire, and the turtles scattered to find cover. They'd fought back, fighting off dozens of Kraang before a bright pink line seemed to materialize out of thin air, followed by a bright flash. No sooner had the doorway opened did more Kraang come pouring in, already opening fire before they were even completely through.
Mikey and fought back-to-back with Donnie, covering the genius while Donnie frantically tried to find a way to close the portal. Meanwhile, Leo and Raph had mowed down wave after wave of Kraang. The floor of the old factory became littered with severed metal limbs and crumpled, sparking droid bodies. Yet, more and more kept marching in from the portal.
"Come ON, genius! Today?!" Raph snapped. Mikey cut down one Kraang and then wound the chain of his kusarigama around the foot of another in the same motion. He yanked hard, bringing his weight down on the tug so that he could use the disarmed Kraang to knock over two others. They crashed to the ground in a tangled heap of metal.
"I don't know how they're generating it!" Donnie cried in frustration. He was examining a device, some sort of panel that logically should have been controlling the portal. With pink blaster fire whizzing past his arms and over his head, he was barely able to even concentrate on the confusing symbols that made up the panel's keyboard.
"D, try under the panel! The stop sign!" Mikey called out when he saw Donnie struggling. His words almost lost in a spinning jump kick that sent another Kraang flying away from them.
"Stop sign…?" Donnie felt around in a space just under the keyboard. His fingers must have brushed the edge of the eight-sided button that Mikey knew was there, the one that was built into almost every Kraang console in some way. And boy did they get clever, but nothing got past the MASTER of hiding things where people wouldn't look. With a hiss, the top of the console detached and slid up. More familiar keys appeared on the surface. "Give me a few more minutes, guys!"
Mikey turned his attention back to the battle still raging around them. He fought off a group that had finally noticed Donnie meddling with their computer. When he saw them taking aim, Mikey darted forward with a wild cry, twirling his chain. It forced the Kraang to divert their attention to meet his head-on assault, but by the time they were opening fire, he'd leapt, somersaulting over them. While mid-air, he wrapped his chain around the droids' heads, twisting it so that they were lassoed together by their necks.
Then went down with him as he landed. Before they could hit the ground, Mikey swept their legs out from under them and then slashed, severing their arms with one pass. The second slash of his kusarigama blade sent their heads rolling...literally. The actual Kraang-brains hissed at him and quickly scuttled away on their tentacle legs, fearful of being in the path of the next swipe, but Mikey was already moving to intercept the next attacker.
Leo's alarmed voice rose above the chaos. "HEAVIES!"
Mikey's eyes widened as his eyes registered the larger droids that had appeared from the portal. Unlike the common droids, these were built to withstand direct attacks and were more than prepared to dish it back. They towered over a common droid and were not as mobile, but had a ball-and-pivot joint in their waists that allowed them to twist and turn in almost any direction, to shoot around or above them. With their reinforced metallic bodies, Mikey knew that the turtles' blades had been rendered useless in a head-on attack unless they went for the limbs.
Raph wasn't intimidated by the sight of the Heavies. His older brother threw himself at the nearest one with his usual ferocity. Immediately, he was fired upon, but he dodged and weaved, flipping sideways just in time to avoid a plasma beam that melted the floor where it hit.
"Eat THIS!" Raph snarled as he slid between the Heavy's legs and stabbed one sai directly into the back of its knee. It was enough to imbalance it, but he didn't have time to dislodge his sai. The Heavy's waist swiveled and fired on him with the handcannons. Raph rolled away and fled. Boxes and walls were destroyed in his wake as the Heavy followed him with an endless flurry of pink plasma blasts.
Mikey, seeing his brother under attack, dove in to help distract the Heavies in order for Raph to get to safety. He threw a handful of shurikens, but they only hit the reinforced armor with sharp ting sounds before ricocheting off in various directions. Two of the Heavies swiveled to face him, and Mikey narrowly evaded their cannon fire. He didn't need to re-engage, instead using his momentum to pull their legs out from under them with his kusarigama. They began to fall, firing wildly on the way down.
As the Heavies stumbled, Leo use a fallen group of droids to spring upward and vault onto the top of one fallen Heavy. Using both swords, he managed to slice through one cannon, then cut half-way into the other. Just as the other Heavy tried to fire on him, Mikey aimed and threw his kusarigama. It buried itself in the cannon's opening, just enough to clog the barrel and cause it to explode in a burst of pink flames. By then, Leo was already long gone, having leapt and climbed a dangling chain to the safety of the second floor railing.
"Donnie, COME ON!" Raph howled with a rising note of desperation, but again was interrupted as yet two more Heavies marched through the portal, stepping over their fallen comrades to engage the turtles. Somehow, Mikey had been forced to fight shell-to-shell with him. They'd both been reduced to one weapon each but still managed to cover one another.
"It's not closing!" Donnie reported, much to their dismay. Even he had been forced to fight in between trying to manage the console. "I'm going to have to overload it!"
"DO IT!" Leo barely had time to get the words out. The Heavies had rallied, and suddenly the entire room was alight with flashes of pink and a deafening chorus of pingpingping.
The wall, now nearly split in two from the assault, began to crumble. The ceiling wasn't far behind. As thick chunks of concrete and shattered glass began to rain down on them, Mikey felt Raph suddenly wrap an arm around his shoulders. "Mikey!"
They went down in a heap. Mikey hit the ground so hard that the air was knocked out of him for a moment. Raph's weight was solid against his carapace, pressing him into the hard ground. He felt Raph grimace as he took the brunt of the collapsing building atop of him.
"Raph," Mikey coughed, distressed, and tried to turn them over but his brother was far too strong and heavy for him.
Amid the collapsing building, something else was happening. The fighting hadn't stopped, but now there was a strange, pulsating pink light emanating from the portal. Mikey frantically squirmed to get out from under Raph and glanced towards the console. He took in the large, jagged chunk of ceiling that had crashed into it just as Leo's scream reached him through the deafening sound of the ceiling caving in.
"Guys, get out of there! The portal's unsta-"
Mikey awoke with gasp that quickly became a scream. The electricity jolted through him in agonizing waves. His body instinctively seized as the circuit ran its course, jerking violently in the restraints that he wasn't even aware were holding him upright until the five seconds (or hours?) of white-hot pain ended. Gasping, he looked from side to side in blind panic, trying to figure out where he was and why he'd been so rudely and painfully awoken.
His arms were stretched out on both sides of him, just to keep his upper body upright, but his feet still struggled to find purchase beneath him despite being restrained as well. It was no use. They kept him suspended just high enough that he could hang off the ground by the thick, steel arm braces that encased his arms almost all the way up this shoulders. His legs, while secured, were not encased but simply held in place at the ankles by more metallic straps. He was not alone.
Breathing hard, he glared at the shadowy figures leering down at him, trying not to betray the fear that threatened to paralyze him. He couldn't see his captors clearly; they were little more than shadows, hidden behind a bright set of lights shining directly into his face to disorient him. A part of Mikey vaguely wondered if every villain had these same lights. Maybe there was an Evil Villains Supply Depot(™) somewhere that sold them. Dude, they must making some mad profits!
Focus, Mikey! Shaking his head to clear his mind, he tried to aim his glare just past the blinding light. "Hey dudes. Not cool! What gives?!"
Where's Leo? Did he get away? Mikey wondered, wanting desperately to ask but not ready to show any weakness. Instead, he looked around. The memories of the battle came flooding back. The Foot. The ambush. The dark ninja.
"Why did you bring me here if you're not going to talk?" he demanded, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice. He was in a small, pristinely cleaned room. The only objects in it was the rack that he was strapped to and a small table with a tray full of instruments that Mikey recognized. Surgical tools and needles.
His heart began to race, and he had to force himself to keep the rising sensation of panic from bubbling over. No, not again. Not again. Not again, pl-
"Are you in any pain?" a voice asked in perfect Japanese.
"What?" Mikey asked, more dumbfounded than anything.
"Do you hurt anywhere? Are you in any pain?" This time the voice was slower and more deliberate.
Mikey's bewilderment transformed into irritation. "Well, of course I'm in pain, dude! What kind of sicko are you? You ambush me and my bro, TAZE me, and now you have me tied up!"
He heard a delighted snort. Then the voice spoke again, this time in English. "Remarkable. Intelligent enough to even be bilingual. Yes, you will do nicely. I look forward to seeing what secrets you have to hide."
"Secrets? What are you talking about?" Mikey asked, something cold lodging itself in his chest at the tone he caught in the soft-spoken voice. The sicko sounded so happy.
His questions were ignored. Instead, the owner of the voice seemed to be talking to someone else that was just behind the light. "I believe we shall get started immediately. Let's take a sample for some analysis first, shall we? I have some theories that I'd like to test before we do any surgery on the subject."
Mikey's mouth went dry. His heart was beating overtime in alarm. Surgery?
He jumped when he felt the metal sleeve around his arm suddenly tighten. He felt a sharp prick and then watched through wide eyes as a clear tube he hadn't even noticed running from inside the tube and out the end of the sleeve began to turn red with his blood. It dripped steadily into a set of beakers that were automatically switched out by a mechanical device.
"Hey! HEY! Stop that!" Mikey cried, trying in vain to pull his arm away. He struggled and tugged, but the restraints didn't even move. Instead, his efforts caused them to dig further into his wrists. The sight of this did garner a reaction...but not what he'd had in mind.
"Sedate it. We can't have it damaging itself."
Mikey expected gas for some reason. He even sucked in a breath in a last-ditch desperate attempt at defiance. But no smoke or gas came, merely another sharp prick in his other arm. Within seconds, his vision began to blur. He fought it even as his limbs grew heavy and despondent. His head suddenly felt like it weighed a ton.
What do they want? Against his will, Mikey's eyes closed as his head lolled to the side.
Shortly after the creature went completely limp, the Foot scientist known as Hidan carefully scooped up the row of beakers that contained the precious blood samples. He would need to run tests to see how the Kraang's mutagen had perfectly bonded turtled and Human DNA. More importantly, he would use it to study how it stimulated the regenerative effects on the turtles' cells. Already, he saw how some of the bruising that the creature had obtained in battle were beginning to heal. Remarkable.
First, he would start with the blood. Then, he would go in deeper. If all was successful, he would go down in history as the man who made Project Lazarus a success. He would be the man who would make the dead come back to life.
