Chapter 10
Junktopia
"That's Garbageman?! Didn't you say he was dead?!" Monalisa exclaimed, looking at the sickly obese man that was one of the turtles' old foes, one that was indeed thought to be dead.
"I told you he was back!" said Michelangelo.
"Last we saw you, your sub was sinking into that crevasse!" said Donatello. "You should have been crushed by the intense pressure down there!"
"Well as you can see, I'm clearly alive. No thanks to you two." Garbageman said, his eyes moving from Donatello to Michelangelo. "And you underestimated my mechanical genius, once I had stopped tumbling down, I could easily repair the damage enough to make the sub operable again. Enough to take me… here, where I had to rebuild my base from scratch, scavenging all that was left of my former base that you ruined. It's taken some time, but I'm finally back in business again. In this, my new base of Junktopia."
"And people say my naming skills needs work." Michelangelo muttered.
"Let me guess, you're stealing all you can get your fat hands on again?" Raphael said.
"I don't steal!" Garbageman snapped, walking over and grabbing on to Raphael's head. "I reuse what others throw away! Things that would otherwise go to waste!"
"And that includes kidnapping people?!" Leonardo snapped back. "You should have stayed dead!"
"Unfortunately for you four, and your new friend, it is you who soon will follow that advice. For I have learned from our past encounters, and if you get so much as the tiniest opportunity, you will escape and ruin everything for me again." Garbageman then turned to the pilots of the mechs. "We'll bring them with us to the lab. We'll secure them there so that I can dissect them all once I'm done with my current project."
"Not that again." Michelangelo complained, remembering how the Garbageman wanted to dissect him and Donatello the last time.
Garbageman's mechanical throne carried him through the base, followed closely by the mechs carrying the trapped mutants, and after a short while, they all arrived at a smaller dome-like structure. Being carried inside, the mutants were brought to a large chamber in the middle, containing several metallic tables.
The mechs cooperated in placing the mutants on the tables, one keeping a firm grip on a mutant as another positioned their arms and legs on certain areas of the tables, where powerful metal bands locked them in place automatically. The grip of the metal bands were strong and hugged the wrists and ankles so tightly that even the slightest movement was close to impossible and caused the mutants pain as the metal cut into their skin.
"Hey, hands off, bub! I'm gonna miss my date tonight because of you! Just you wait until I find a can-opener!" Michelangelo yelled at the mech pilots.
"Now I remember you, you're that one that can never shut up." Garbageman groaned.
"Trust me, we all know." said Raphael.
"Well, that won't be problem for very long. Once I'm done with you all, none of you will talk again."
"I wouldn't count on it." said Leonardo. "We've stopped you before, and we will stop you again."
"You really think so, freak? I've learned a thing or two since last time, and I've had time to prepare. And should you somehow escape, well, there are things worse than me down here. Allow me to show you."
Walking over to a computer, the Garbageman pressed a few buttons and the tables tilted slightly, enough for the mutants to see what laid on another table across the room, and they were shocked. Laying there was the corpse of the zergling that had been captured, its sides and stomach was cut open, and its blood covered most of the surface of the table.
"What the shell is that?!" Raphael exclaimed.
"It looks both reptilian and insectoid at the same time, and look at those claws! They're just like the one we found!" said Donatello.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Garbageman asked. "My men caught this critter in the deeper parts of this cave not long ago. Dug straight through the bedrock with those claws, and there are more of them. Now, I ask you, does this look like a predator to you?"
"Donnie?" Leonardo asked, feeling very uncomfortable with where the dialogue was going.
"Well… um… it certainly have the traits of a carnivore. And if it isn't the top of the food-chain of whatever ecosystem it's part of, whatever is must be far more dangerous than any known predator."
"I knew you were the smart one." Garbageman said with a smirk. "And since you don't know where these creatures live down here, if you somehow manage to escape, it's only a matter of time before you run into them. So I would think twice before trying anything if I were you. But now I must leave you, for I got other things that needs my attention."
As Garbageman tilted the tables back into their original position, he left the lab together with his men, but stopped in the doorway and turned to the mutants with a wicked smile.
"Next time we meet… hehe… will be the last."
"His stench certainly hasn't gotten any better after all this time." said Michelangelo as soon as the doors had closed.
"Any ideas on how we're getting out of this mess, Donnie?" Raphael asked, pulling on his restraints, but to no avail.
"Let me see… can't get out of these binds by pulling… everything seemed to be controlled from the computer terminal… but we can't reach it from here… and our hands are secured in such a position that we can't reach anything…"
"Well…? We're waiting."
"Um, I'm sorry, guys, but I don't see a way out of this."
"You can't be serious! There must be a way to escape!"
"Not that I can see, not without outside help."
"We'll be saved!" said Michelangelo. "Kate will notice that I'm not on Skype on time, and tell the others, then they will fly here and save us!"
"He's right, we're not without allies." said Leonardo.
"If it only was that simple." said Donatello. "First Kate will wonder why Mikey is late, after that she will try calling or texting you, and you can't answer her like this. Then she will probably call master Splinter, who will try the same thing, after which he will call back and ask for help. Only at that point will they travel to New York to search for us, but this deep down under the surface I don't think that they would be able to track our shell-cells, and even if they could, they would still need a way to get down here. At the very minimum, provided that they get lucky, it would take them at least two and a half hour, and I don't think we got that much time."
"So we're as good as dead? It can't end like this! Who's gonna spoil our little Geisha?!" said Michelangelo.
"We're still alive, Mikey. And there must be some way to escape, we just don't see it yet." said Leonardo. "Mona, your tail isn't restrained, is it?"
"No, but I don't know what I could do with it."
"Neither do I, but at least it's an option. Come on, guys, think."
"Not my best skill, but I'll try." said Michelangelo.
As the turtles were busy thinking out a plan of escape, Monalisa focused on other things, namely her swarm. As soon as they had been captured, she sent commands to her hive cluster in preparation for a potential rescue, she just didn't think it would be needed so badly. Despite that, she wanted to hold off on using the Zerg until the last possible moment, not wanting to reveal her connection to them yet, while thinking of a way to explain their existence if needed.
She also tried to figure out how to free herself and the turtles, but she wasn't having any luck. The bindings were indeed impossible to open with out the computer and too strong to tear off. Granted, with her new Zerg adaptability, she could become strong enough to break free if she kept pulling on the bonds, but she would also be injured by it, and her body would then regenerate and adapt to be more durable in those areas first, and that would just take too long time.
Another option was to pull so hard that she would tear off her hands and feet, freeing herself that way. After that, she would either have to reattach her severed parts or let new grow out. The former would be the quicker way, but both would be painful, messy and far from discrete, and most definitely nothing she would be able to explain.
With no other options, she had to call for her swarm to war against the Garbageman and his cohorts, but she also needed some other way to protect herself and the turtles in case of an emergency, and luckily, she had it right there in the lab with them.
The zergling might have been dead, and its soul separated from the body, but all hope wasn't lost. Even as the corpse was slowly decaying, the majority of the cells still contained undamaged DNA, and with a more powerful thought pulse from Monalisa, that DNA sparked to life again, infecting and repairing, consuming and replacing that which was dead with new living matter. For death was irrelevant, only essence mattered to the Zerg. It would take a little while but the zergling would live again, and then it could help them, she just hoped it would be before it was too late.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm only drawing blanks!" Michelangelo half whimpered.
"There's gotta be a way out of here, but no matter how hard I pull, I can't get free!" said Raphael, and looking at his wrists, he saw that they had been rather injured from his attempts.
"Stainless steel, or an even stronger alloy. Doubtful if even Tyroth could break free with strength alone." said Donatello, his mind still looking for other options.
The doors to the lab opened, and Garbageman walked back in, followed by six men, two of which wearing white robes and surgical masks, and the other four were dressed in the usual attire, wielding two-pronged spears and one pushing a small cart with various medical tools, crude and viscous looking.
"Time's up, freaks." Garbageman said with a smirk.
"Already? It's only been like fifteen minutes." said Michelangelo. "You wouldn't consider giving us another fifteen minutes, or better yet, a week?"
"Don't count on it, loud mouth. But don't worry, this won't take long." said the Garbageman, looking at Michelangelo and picking up a small motorised medical saw. "But it might get... messy. And we're starting with you."
"Don't you dare touch him!" Leonardo yelled.
"Or what? You're all at my mercy, or rather, the lack thereof."
The two white-dressed men picked up various tools, and the saw that the Garbageman held, and stood on either side of Michelangelo's table, one of them starting up the saw. The high pitched, whirring noise filled the lab, and the blade was brought down towards the turtle's plastron.
"Boss! We got a problem!" another guard shouted as he burst into the lab. Garbageman signalled for the others to stop, to which Michelangelo sighed heavily in relief as the tool was turned off and pulled back.
"Problem? What kind of problem?"
"More of those strange beasts just poured out from the tunnel they dug, and have gathered less than a hundred feet away! And there are a lot of them! Fifty at least! They seem really agitated, boss!"
"Curses! Show me where they are!"
"This way, boss!"
"Alright, you two, keep working on these creatures! I want the one in orange at least partially dissected, and silenced, by the time I get back." Garbageman said to his surgeons, then he turned to one of the four guards. "You stay here! The rest of you follow me!"
"Well, no more time for you then." the surgeon with the saw said shortly after the doors closed, starting it again to resume the work.
A shrill roar echoed in the lab, causing the surgeons and guard to quickly turn around, and to their horror, discover that the zergling was alive again. Having risen to its feet, the wounds now healed, it glared at the humans and mutants, roaring again before leaping off the table and swiftly rushing at them.
The guard tried to intercept the zergling, jabbing his spear against it, but the zergling easily sidestepped the attack, and with a single slice from its shoulder claws, cut the weapon in two without any difficulties. The claws then dug into the chest of the guard as the zergling pounced on him, pushing him onto his back as more claws and teeth started tearing him apart.
The both surgeons screamed and ran for the doors, but the zergling was fast enough to reach them before them and prevent their escape. With blood still dripping from its claws, tusks and teeth, it stared down the two men as they tried to back away.
"Stay back!" one of the surgeons yelled, but the zergling only shrilled and roared in return before leaping onto him, the sickle-like claws easily decapitating him with a single swipe.
The last survivor tried to once again make a break for it, but the results didn't changed, and the zergling pounced him and drove its back claws into the back and out through the chest, killing the man instantly. With all the humans dead, the zergling began eating from its latest kill, using the biomass to further repair its old injuries and recover.
That left only it and the five mutants, who hadn't been able to see everything, but there was no mistaking what had happened, and they all feared for their lives as they were still restrained. But Monalisa wasn't afraid, even if she pretended to be, for she knew that the zergling wouldn't harm a hair on anyone if she didn't allow it.
The rest of the turtles, however, had no idea, which caused Donatello to yelp quite loudly when the zergling jumped up on his table, looking into his eyes and brandishing its bloody claws as if it readied itself to strike again. And when the claws fell, Donatello expected the worst, only to hear metal getting sliced apart, and looking down, he saw that the metal bands around his wrists had been severed, and the zergling quickly moved to repeat the process with those around his ankles as well.
"What the shell?" Donatello said in confusion.
"Donnie! Are you okay?!" Leonardo asked frantically.
"I think so… this thing just freed me. Cut off the bands."
"Then might I suggest that you get the rest of us out of our bonds as well!?" said Raphael. But before Donatello could do anything, the zergling jumped up on Raphael's table and cut off the metal bands just as before, and continued with the others' as well. "Actually, never mind."
"I've heard about unlikely allies, but this takes the cake." said Leonardo, rubbing his aching wrists.
"I'll say." said Michelangelo. "But doesn't the saying go not to look a gift horse… er bug… in the mouth, or something?"
"Whatever the case, we're free, and I suggest that we do something about Garbageman." said Monalisa, giving the zergling a mental thank you while she was at it. "And if we have to kill him, then let's make sure that he's really dead."
"Agreed. He is far too dangerous to just leave down here to his own devices." said Leonardo. "Donnie, get us out of here before he returns!"
"On it, Leo!"
From imprisoned to free in one and the same chapter, not bad for our mutant heroes. But now they know of the Zerg, if only a little, but more is going to be revealed soon.
And Garbageman clearly hasn't forgotten his previous encounters with the turtles. Too bad for him that he has never fought the Zerg, 'cause he has quite the fight ahead if he intends to defend Junktopia.
Also, as you might imagine, references to Garbageman's previous appearances in the chapter.
Also also, Monalisa belongs to my good friend and fellow writer, Bloodrayne666. Find her and her stories in my favorites tabs. Our stories are so interconnected that they're basically a single series. Check her out, she's really good.