"Be there?" Belle's head was visible through the large gap in the curtains. Her eyes were hard as she stared at Hope and the wall of screens behind her. "Storm there! Sit right there in the front row so he can look you in the eyes while he practically steals your very identity!"
The curtains timidly kissed the skin of her shoulders as she swept inside and joined Hope in the semi-circle of turtles inside the lab. Raphael, no longer attempting to move unseen, also came in with a look of grim determination on his face.
"Bishop." He spat. "Why in the hell does he wanna pass off Blondie's research as 'is own?!"
"For money." Belles voice was spiteful. The other turtles in the room blinked in surprise at this new change of tone that they had never heard before. "Money and influence. That tremendous… that ignorant, slimy, corrupting serpent! Thinks he can slap pretty diagrams and charts on a PowerPoint and dazzle all those politicians into investing in his projects. Sad thing is…" She grit her teeth. "He's completely right."
Leo was mesmerised by Belle's sudden change in tone. Even though he could tell that she was a very passionate girl, the extreme ardour with which she spoke filled him with a sense of pride. She was definitely someone that he wanted to keep in his life.
He looked to Hope, who was writhing in anger at the situation. He couldn't help but feel sorry for her; after all, this was her life's work that was being presented as someone else's.
"You're coming with me, right?" Hope asked Belle, her eyes glistening with pure rage. "I need some moral support." Leo noticed that she hadn't even bothered to ask for his or his brothers' help, but he understood why. The fact that they couldn't be seen by the public notwithstanding, he was sure every one of them would like to tear Bishop apart.
Belle flashed a bright smile, which positively shone with intrigue. Leo couldn't help but grin back. When she caught his eye he coughed and turned his attention back to Hope. "So, you're going?" He asked tentatively.
"Damn right, I'm going! I'm not going to let that ignoramus change history with my findings." With that she stormed out of the lab, cursing under her breath.
Belle rifled through her wardrobe. Hope had said events like this were very formal. How formal, Belle wondered? Enough for a long, elegant dress? Or could she get off with a button-up top and dress pants?
"What do you think I should wear?"
Sighing, she decided on a teal, crisp-cut shirt and dug out her black pants. Part of gate-crashing a conference was not drawing attention to yourself. She wouldn't get away with not wearing make-up, but that was fine with her. Hope, however, had taken a lot of convincing to borrow one of her lipsticks and mascara. Hope's skin wasn't as fair as Belles, but was far clearer and less blemished. So she didn't need foundation. Belle only wished she wasn't so susceptible to scarring, or she wouldn't still have ancient spots from her acne-addled adolescence.
"Never mind, I have something." She called out. She had been speaking to the door to her bedroom bathroom for something of 15 minutes. Hope was inside, writing a Shakespearean poem on the mirror… Or something else along those lines. It could not be possible to take that long putting on simple lipstick and mascara.
"Hope?" Belle knocked on the door. "Are you okay…? Are you fixing your hair?"
"Ugh!" Hope exclaimed as she coated her under eyes with black liquid for what felt like the hundredth time. She would have to admit defeat. "No. I need help," she mumbled through the door, pulling it towards her to reveal Belle's desperate attempt at concealing her laughter.
"It's not funny!" Hope whined, "I never wear this stuff, I don't even know where to begin!"
She'd opted to arrive early at Belle's apartment for a long needed shower. After two weeks of sharing the sewer with the turtles, with primitive at best showering facilities, Hope really wanted to get the stink out of her hair and look her best for the conference.
As one of the few scientists involved in mutagen studies, she'd been able to wangle herself and Belle passes for the evening. Bishop had gone all out; after the initial press conference there was to be a reception and bar. This is where she would confront him, if possible. Nerves were building up within her, but she swatted them away.
During her shopping trip, she'd managed to pick up an acceptable suit for the evening: black with white pinstripes, a crisp white shirt peeking through the buttoned up jacket.
She held the circular tube out to Belle and grimaced. "Stop sniggering, just put the stuff on me and let's be done with it!" She snapped, clearly aggravated.
"I've never had a problem with this kind of thing." Belle said conversationally as she accepted the cosmetic from Hope and handed her a wipe to clean her eyes. "But I guess that's because I'm a visual learner. It's just like painting, really."
Hope only grunted and threw aside the blackened wipe to join an array of others beside the sink.
Belle smiled sympathetically. "I can't imagine staring at screens of diagrams or managing test tubes all day. I'd say 'I don't know how you do it', but I know it's because your brain is wired for that kind of thing… Close your eyes, I'm about to put on your eyeliner."
There came a ringing from Hope's pocket. Hope dug out her phone and put it on speaker so that Belle could continue.
"We don't have time for this, Leo," Hope snapped before he could even utter a word. His number had been popping up on her phone all day, and she'd been rejecting his calls.
"Wait… Hope! Godammit! She hung up on me again!" Leo cursed, turning his attention to Mikey, who smirked.
"They're obviously busy, dude. You know what women are like. They gotta get themselves all done up for this, you know?"
But Leo didn't know. He couldn't understand why Belle of all people would need to do anything to enhance her appearance. To him she was prefect.
"Yeah alright, but I still need to know if they want me to give them a ride to the conference," Leo argued.
"Why dude? They're grown women. They'll get the subway, or a taxi. It's cool."
Leo grimaced. Even though he knew that both women were perfectly capable of getting there on their own, he still had a deep sense of dread throbbing within him. Something told him that he needed to be around. Instead of arguing with his carefree brother any further, he formulated a plan to keep a safe distance from them, but also keep an eye on them the whole evening.
Donnie spent the evening setting up his comm-system while eating his dinner with one hand: one of the luxuries he hadn't been privileged with while in Bishop's captivity. Donatello had a personal vendetta against the dark-haired man. And stealing Hope's hard work was the tip of the ice-burg for him.
No fellow scientist deserved to have their life's work stolen from them. Don would make sure that Hope's pride was restored by the end of the night.
He twiddled his earpiece for the hundredth time while testing and re-testing the signal to the pieces he had given the girls before they left. And meanwhile, Raphael watched suspiciously as Leo hovered near the lairs exit. Fearless had been twitchy ever since that dark-blonde broad showed up. With good reason, too. Raph admitted to himself that he'd be nervous too if he had himself to outdo.
Raph knew in his gut that his older brother was threatened by him. For once in his life, Leonardo was avoiding him, keeping his distance. Too afraid of looking less than worth-while to stand in his way. And oh, did that knowledge feel good to the hot-headed turtle. And was he ever determined to make the most of it.
So while he kept close watch of his brother in his peripheral vision, he knew, at the the exact moment it occurred, when Leo finally snooped close enough to Donnie's desk drawers to slide one open and slip out one of his cell-phone tracking devices without anyone else noticing. And as the oh-so saint-like Leader slunk out the exit at last, Raph grinned like a devil and stalked after him. He wouldn't let Leo gain the upper hand. Not when the game was his for the taking.
They hadn't quite acquired front row seats as Belle had so eloquently described in her earlier speech. However the section in which they sat gave them both a perfect view of the stage. Hope was nervous about so many things: how would Bishop react when she confronted him? What if she was wrong and it wasn't her research that he was presenting? What if this was some sort of trap to get rid of her?
There was a hustle and bustle air in the large hall which housed the press conference, as people all took their seats. It was filling up quickly, with various news crews testing their equipment. Hope looked to the front section on the stage and saw an array of microphones and a large, mysterious clocked object. Anticipation began to pool in her gullet. She glanced fleetingly at Belle, who seemed to be at the opposite end of the spectrum from her, drinking in the atmosphere around them.
"Enjoying yourself?" Hope almost chuckled, infected by Belle's enthusiasm. That was one thing she could always count on her friend for: lifting her spirits and seeing the positive in almost any situation. She admired that about her.
"This is so fascinating." Belle quietly exclaimed. She shook her head at the crowd of people around them. "I don't think I've ever encountered so many close-minded and conceited people in one room before. Look there. That woman should learn to keep her hands away from her rack in public. What is she, a newswoman? Yeah, she is. There's the cameraman…"
"Kssh - Hello? Who's touching whose rack?"
"Donnie." Belle mouthed to Hope, and indicated for her to switch on her earpiece.
At first, Hope had blindly refused to wear any sort of Donatello's tech on her person. It seemed much too far-fetched and over the top, however after a long, and somewhat irritating, pep talk from her would-be rival, she had given in and inserted the device in her ear well. She opted to keep the thing turned off, but at the gesture from Belle, she clicked the thing on and was met with a fizzling static noise.
"Donnie," she whispered through gritted teeth, "I thought we'd agreed that we only use this in emergencies." Before he had a chance to answer her, or more likely argue back, Hope pushed the button in her ear and shot Belle a knowing look.
"Turn that thing off, for goodness sake. Let's just enjoy the show. Nothing is going to happen, okay?"
"No, wait, Hope! Ugh…"
Belle could hear the tech turtle's frustration at Hope in his voice and sense it in the air across the miles difference between them. She wanted to be the peacemaker, but where she was wasn't exactly a place for personal engagements at the moment.
After a seconds silence, Don spoke again. "Belle, listen, it actually is an emergency. Leo and Raph have gone missing, and I think they might try to keep a watch on the conference."
Belle gave a quiet gasp. She could have expected reckless behaviour like this from Raphael, but from Leo? Had the two finally gotten over their spat of sorts? Or was it because of their rivalry that they had both disappeared?
"Just please tell Miss Sensitive to press the button on the beeper I gave her if the mission fails. And try and keep a look out for the others, okay?"
"Got it." Belle whispered, not wanting to give away Don's interference. He didn't reply.
"The alpha's are having a battle of dominance on the rooftops or something." Belle told Hope, mocking a joking manner for the surrounding crowd. "Because… ah… they've apparently run out on the 'base of operations'…" She added in a murmur.
There was no time to dwell on Belle's findings because the lights suddenly dimmed, and a small, tubby man was introducing the man of the evening to the stage. Dozens of bright flashes from the press cameras shone around the darkened room as a familiar figure stepped onto the stage. He placed himself behind the podium and held up his hands.
"Welcome, welcome! I am Doctor Bishop and today I want to show you how I am going to change the world!" he bellowed followed by a cheer from the crowd.
Hope felt her insides tightening. What was he about to reveal?
"With my extensive research with the recently discovered substance, mutagen, hereditary diseases such as diabetes, Huntington's and even something as simple as baldness will be a thing of the past!"
"Oh my god," Hope whispered to Belle. "That's it. That's my research. He obviously got some of Donatello's blood while he had him captive. That was the missing piece. I can't believe this."
Bishop unveiled the mysterious cloaked object, which was a huge vat of pure mutagen. He paused as the reporters began eagerly snapping away at the spectacle.
"Human testing will commence in the next few months, and after that, worldwide inoculation," Bishop ended proudly. "Now we shall go on to the questions, and after that, there will be drinks in the foyer for my special guests."
Hope hung her head. This couldn't be happening. Everything she'd been working for, her entire career was being shameless stolen before her very eyes. Something had to be done.
"I'm going to confront him. I want to expose every thieving bone in his body," she promised.
"Sounds like you know what to do." Belle replied. They could talk semi-freely now that their voices were masked by the babble of scientists and press shouting out questions to Bishop.
The dark-suited man answered each query briefly and with no elaboration. "For now, I think we should act inconspicuous. Running off after him will look suspicious if we don't play it off just right. So I know you're pretty upset, but don't let it show, okay?
"And…" she added, looking towards the sides of the room. "Try to avoid bumping into our old friends…"
Stationed at every exit was one of the burly men who had destroyed Hope's lab. Belle knew that she was now at risk of being compromised. Bishop had never managed to get a look at her in his lab, but his lackeys had.
As always, Hope tried desperately to think of a nice logical solution to the problem at hand. No matter how much she racked her brain, she just couldn't come up with a plan. The fact that Bishop had stolen all her research and now was displaying it like a proud peacock, was irking her in ways she didn't think possible. But the worse part was that she felt genuinely enraged at him for hurting Donatello.
As soon as that thought popped into her head, she mulled it over and frowned. She would have done the same thing in Bishop's position, wouldn't she? She didn't really care that much for a mutant, did she? Hope bit her lip as reality began to dawn on her. She did care. Though she would never admit it.
All logic was thrown out the window and once the eloquent party of drinking and small talk began in the foyer, she excused herself from Belle, who was perched at the bar sipping on a soft drink, and hurried to the bathroom to compose herself. She needed to be presentable when she finally confronted her arch nemesis, in both her demeanour and mind.
As Belle took the last tiny sip of her drink there was a short buzz in her ear to signal that Donnie had somehow switched on her earpiece. Him and his hacking…
"Krsssh - Belle? You haven't given us an update in a while. What's happening over there? Any sign of Raph or Leo?"
If only there weren't so many people around… Belle thought. Instead of replying, she cleared her throat meaningfully.
"Belle? Oh… Are you in a crowded place right now? Can you try and find a spot where you can talk?"
"Mhm." Belle hummed in response. As she twisted to get off her seat, however, she was met with an achingly familiar black-tie suit. She looked up into the face of Bishop, whose void-black eyes glinted in a superior way.
"Good evening, my dear," Bishop greeted with a polite smile. "I'm so glad you and Miss Brevin could make it tonight. I trust you're enjoying the events of the evening?" His voice rang out in an ominous tone, one that could send chills down anyone's spine. Belle looked no different.
"From the way you've been chattering to yourself for the past few minutes, I assume there is a third party to this." The smartly dressed scientist gestured vaguely to her ear and in one swift movement whipped the earpiece from her ear canal and crushed it in his large hand. "Now," he waved his hand in a beckoning manner, and one of his burly lackeys ventured over. "Hans, is this the girl in question?"
"That she is, sir. That's the other girl that were there at Brevin's lab the night be raided it. She's got quite a tongue on her, mind," the man called Hans confirmed.
"I see. Hans, please escort, Miss… Gregors… out of here," Bishop eyed Belle as if she were some sort of vermin. "I will deal with Miss Brevin. I believe there may be some sort of plan in motion to… ahem… 'expose' me." He smirked wickedly as Hans inconspicuously flipped open a pocket knife and pressed it into the small of Belle's back.
"Come on," he grunted, manoeuvring her away from the bar and out of the foyer.
Bishop smoothly ordered a drink at the bar and swirled the ice around in the bourbon, eyes poised on the ladies bathroom, waiting for his rival to exit.
As Belle was prodded down the corridor away from the gathering, she tried to catch the eye of every face that turned her direction. A few people did seem to notice that something was amiss with her being escorted, and that seemed good enough to rouse some suspicion if she were to mysteriously disappear. Or if Hans the Sasquatch staged her death or something.
For the exiting corridor, there was a fair amount of people around. Belle smirked mischievously as an idea popped into her head.
"Hey, Mr Hans." Belle's voice was as innocent as she could muster. "You seem very well connected. Do you get paid much as a… er… 'Guard…'?"
"Never you mind." Hans grunted.
"Okay. I was just wondering. You have a very nice physique, by the way. It must be nice having a job that incorporates 'physical' fieldwork on a regular basis."
"Shut up."
"Okay. Why?"
"Shut up!"
"Yeah, but why?"
"Cause Bishop won't want me talkin' to his prisoner!"
Belle grinned triumphantly as a small gaggle of fussy reporters huddled around the ladies bathroom as she passed heard what he said. They immediately put their heads together excitedly, like bloodhounds on a scent, after they were out of his line of sight. She continued grinning until Hans lead her out the front of the building and away from the light spilling onto the pavement. He then grabbed her by the arm, put his knife to her throat, and forced her towards a sleek, black car parked in the left alleyway.
He had a perfect view of the whole charade that had been presented in the hall. Tracking the girls to this place hadn't been hard at all, and he'd breathed a sigh of relief when the conference ended, and there was no sign of negative activity.
Although he could not see into the foyer where the after party was located, Leo still stayed perched silently on the roof top. Was he being overly irresponsible here? Had his absence alerted the others at all? He ran his large hand over the dome of his head, and smoothed down his mask tails, which were blowing gently in the evening breeze.
Leo's thoughts fell once again onto Belle. She was far too smart, far too pretty to ever be interested in him in that way. Surely? He heaved another sigh and shook his head to rid himself of the recurring feelings. His eyes darted towards a sound down below. One of the back exits door had been flung open and a huge, ugly man exited holding a girl. Leo's eyes widened. Not just any girl.
"Belle," he whispered under his breath. Anger began to rise rapidly within him, as it began to dawn on him that the scene he was witnessing was, in fact, a kidnap. A low growl formed in his throat, and he briskly descended the building to rescue the woman he was falling in love with.
It had been inconceivably difficult on Raphael's patience to sit around watching his brother's shell for all of an hour. It was a mark of his dogged determination to outdo his fearless leader to have sat in complete ninja silence for what was probably the longest he had done in his life. He tried not to address the fact that Leo was in a very confused state of mind at the time, and that was mostly to blame for not being discovered.
Just when he thought he could call it a night, because it didn't look like anything at all interesting was going to happen, it did.
Following an uncoordinated sound of scuffling down below, Raph witnessed his brothers eyes turn dark from feet away, glaring down at two black figures in the alley below.
A short, unforeseen burst of cunning gave Raph the insight to do what he did next. In the millisecond that Leo's muscles coiled to leap, eyes trained on Belles kidnapper, Raph slipped in.
Out of Leo's line of sight, he flipped off the building and allowed his enormous mass to become dead weight. As Leo landed swiftly behind the kidnapper and gave him a punch that would of cracked his own skull, Raph positioned himself mid-air and landed with an almighty crash right on top of the shiny black car. It crunched and flattened as though a meteor had hit it…
…Right in front of Belle. So when her arms had been released, she did not look behind her, at Leo. She looked at Raph. And Raph looked at his brother. And he looked murderous.
Hope had exited the toilets feeling more confident about what she was going to say to Bishop. Now all she needed to do was find him. As she stepped out of the vestibule her eyes scanned the bar for Belle, but widened when she saw that her friend's seat at the bar had been replaced by the very man she intended to expose.
Her heart began hammering in her chest. Where was Belle? Had she left? Had Bishop done something to her? It wasn't like Belle to do something irrational like this, and Hope felt herself begin to panic. Bishop's eyes were trained directly on her, as if he'd been waiting for her.
She had to alert someone. Her stubborn attitude towards Donatello was pushing its boundaries as she realised that he was the only one she could turn to. Surely he wouldn't throw this back in her face?
Bishop had relieved himself of the bar stool and was aiming directly for her at an alarming pace. It was now or never. She briskly pressed her finger to the ear piece.
"Donnie! Help! I think Belle's been ki-" before she could finish her sentence, a large hand had grasped firmly around her wrist.
"I don't think so, Miss Brevin. There are some things we need to discuss." As he had done with Belle, he whipped the ear piece straight from her head and rendered it inert between two fingers. "Please, come this way," he beckoned, tightening his grip on her wrist.
She didn't want to cause a scene, although in hindsight that might have been the better option. Hope just prayed that Donnie had heard her cry for help. Before it was too late.
"Hurry up!"
"Donatello, my son, you must not be irrational!"
Donnie gave a high pitched, slightly hysterical laugh as he sarcastically replied, "Oh, I'm not supposed to be irrational? NOW I understand!" He haphazardly swept an entire side-table of contents including gadgets and throwing stars into his duffel. "Mr's 'All-Powerful-Leader-Whose-Own-Rules-Don't-Apply-To-Him 'and 'Grouchy-Teenage-Hulk-With-Inferiority-Complex' are the only ones who are allowed to be irrational!? THANK you for clearing that up!"
Mikey trailed along behind his brother, helpfully handing him random objects from every corner of the lair. So flustered was the bespectacled turtle that he did not notice his own hands stuffing a pair of rubber gloves and an action figure into his bag by Michelangelo's doing.
Splinter heaved an enormous sigh. Everything that could have gone wrong with the mission had gone even worse. He only hoped that wherever Leonardo and Raphael were, they were focused on rescuing both girls from the clutches of that evil man.
At least, The wizened rat thought, as he watched Donatello sprint out of the lab in a flush of anxiety, Mikey giving his dad a swift wink over his shoulder, One of the girls will most definitely be rescued, without a single doubt.
"Good luck, Donatello."
Had Raphael been there the whole time, Leo wondered. What was he even playing at? Leo was the one to make the decision, albeit irrational, to scope out the place for any potential threats. So why was his hot-headed brother now standing before Belle with a smug look planted upon his face? Had he really stalked Leo all the way downtown just to steal his moment of glory?
The honour-bound brother glared relentlessly at Raph, furious with him. Now Belle would think he was her rescuer, and where did that leave him? A pathetic sidekick? He could only see the back of Belle's head as she fell into Raphael's arms, clearly shell-shocked. The blood in his veins heated to boiling point, and he growled in frustration.
Then, without warning, he felt a surge of concern for his lady friend, and he dashed towards the pair. "Belle, are you okay? Did he hurt you?" he asked urgently. When she shook her head numbly against Raph's plastron, Leo breathed a sigh of relief. At least she was safe. Now he could deal with his idiot sibling.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" he chastised, blue eyes piercing into Raph's soul. "You could have jeopardised this entire mission!"
Raphael merely grunted, not even gracing him with a response. This only irked Leo further. "I am sick of your ridiculous games, Raphael. You have no regard for anyone but yourself. But we can address your rash actions later. We need to get out of here. Belle? Where is Hope?"
"In…inside…" It struck Belle, over the cacophony her pulse was making in her ears, that Bishop would be looking for Hope now that he had her out of the picture.
She felt her faint spell subside and she silently cursed her blood pressure for being at fault. She could think more clearly, and shouldered her way out of Raphael's grip to look at Leo.
"Hope went to the bathroom. Bishop will be waiting for her! He found me, he'll find her without a doubt!"
The two brothers exchanged a look. As much as they were rivals, family came first. Belle understood their implication. They couldn't rescue Hope from inside without Don's help to kill the lights or trigger an alarm. Without their stealth, they couldn't do anything to help. They would have to wait for Bishop or his minions to come out with Hope before they could free her.
Feeling disheartened but determined, Belle sat herself on the wreckage of the vehicle, despondent to Leonardo's attempts to usher her away from the area. Bishop would have found Hope by now, and she wanted to be right there in case she was needed. And even if she wasn't.
Meanwhile, Michelangelo tried not to slam into the van doors as Don raced to the building where he tracked Hopes last message to. His mind was a dull buzz, and he couldn't think past the thought of something bad happening to Hope. He wouldn't know what to think if Bishop held Hope in captivity, or hurt her, as had been done to himself not two months ago. The only thing he knew for sure was that if he arrived to find Hope injured, or worse, he would inflict much, much more damage to that dark-suited bastard than a simple kick to the face…
If only she'd paid more attention at school. If only her mind hadn't been fully occupied with becoming a scientist and trying to change the world. Then maybe, just maybe, she might have been able to determine the route in which this van was taking her. She might be able to work out where she was heading. She'd been relieved of one of her senses with a heavy cloth blindfold, however her other senses weren't much help either. A loud radio was being played with bouncy country music, which Hope figured was the deter her from listening to her surroundings.
Her hands were bound behind her back, her legs locked together with duct tape around her ankles. There was no way she was getting out of this. Not even with the small amount of training that Donnie had given her. How was he ever going to find her now? Even if he managed to track her to the conference, he'd never be able to work out what had happened next. She just prayed that he got to Belle in time.
The van broke suddenly, sending Hope flying across the back of the van and slamming hard into the driver's seat. She let out a whelp of pain and was immediately struck across the face by an unknown assailant. A trickle of blood worked its way down her cheek and into her mouth. She licked the salty substance and spat it out in disgust.
Large, strong arms lifted her and she was carried across a shoulder out of the van. She didn't bother to struggle, as she knew it could just make things worse for herself. She couldn't work out why Bishop hadn't just killed her when he'd cornered her in the foyer. But, she supposed, this way he's got a better chance of disposing of the body. A shiver of fear ran down her spine.
She was going to die tonight.