Chapter 10

-Frequency-

"Casey, I'm sorry." Leonardo said, then tried to place a reassuring hand on Casey's shoulder which was promptly rejected when the boy ducked out of its way. Casey grabbed April's tablet, ripping it away from the cord that bound it to Donatello's computer and bolted from the lab.

As much as it hurt Leonardo to see Casey in such a broken state over forcing the truth of April's betrayal on him, it was necessary. After all, the leader in blue understood, all too well, the hurt Casey was going through. There weren't too many humans in the city that Leonardo was willing consider to be part of the family. Losing April meant that he'd lost his sister.

Leonardo's attention was pulled away from Casey's departure when he noticed Rockwell shift uncomfortably in his chair, in a move that was so often attributed to Donatello. Leonardo knew it meant that the scientist had discovered something interesting. "What did you find?"

Rockwell was slightly startled at being addressed so suddenly, though he wasn't surprised by Leonardo's intuition. "The frequency Casey just heard has stopped. Fortunately, the computer was set up to continually record the sound pressure levels in the atmosphere and so I managed to capture those sound waves."

"And?" Leonardo pressed.

Rockwell motioned for Leonardo to take a look at the monitor before he maximized a tab on the screen to reveal a spectrogram. "This tells me that the frequency Casey just heard was about twenty-thousand hertz, which is the highest a human can hear. The odd thing is, unlike the other frequencies, this one wasn't carrying a subliminal message."

"That is odd. Why would Evixus send out a frequency that is so different from the others? He must be hiding something else."

"Precisely," Rockwell said, opening another tab in order to display another spectrogram. "I surmise that the last frequency was a red herring." The doctor said as he gestured to the new spectrogram, "Meant to keep our focus off of this infrasound."

"What is an Infrasound?"

"It's a frequency below twenty hertz that humans cannot hear but, baring more research, is said to have negative effects on humans."

"Wait a moment, this means that Evixus knows about our ability to monitor his original frequencies." Leonardo said. Then it dawned on him, the earbuds weren't designed to stop infrasound.

Casey was in danger.

Upon reaching the dojo, Casey fell to his knees and glanced at the tablet in his hands. The face he saw reflected back at him was one he didn't recognize. He saw the face of a boy: helpless, defeated and heartbroken. He hated it. He'd only felt this way once before and that was when his mom left.

Anger.

Anger, so thick it threatened to suffocate him, filled his entire being.

Casey gripped the edges of the tablet so hard that it made sounds of protest under the pressure. The urge to smash the delicate piece of tech trickled through his body, taking control of his arm. He hurled the tablet as hard as he could, it flew across the dojo before hitting the weapons wall only to fall to the ground with an unsatisfying THUMP.

Casey walked over to the tablet and discovered that, due to the yellow case, it was still in pristine condition. This added fuel to the fire of his rage and Casey glanced up at the weapons and found the hockey stick he used for practice. Plucking it from its hanging place, he loomed over the tablet with malice in his eyes.

Casey brought the hockey stick down onto the screen of the helpless device and it cracked slightly. It still wasn't enough to satiate his wrath. He brought the stick up into the air again and, using all the power he could muster, brought the stick down again and again until the tablet was no longer recognizable.

"AAGHH!" Casey fell to his knees, scooping up the pieces, the only parts of April he had left. He balled his hands into tight fists embedding the tiny shards of glass he'd been holding into his palms.

This pain feels good, doesn't it?

There's a reason for that.

I think you know what it is.

You should've seen this.

You knew something was wrong with her

It's all your fault

Donatello would still be here, if not for you.

You let your team down.

There's only one thing you can do now.

Casey's hand, of its own accord, removed a tanto knife from the weapons wall. Casey was familiar with the history of such a weapon and nodded in agreement with the feeling in his mind. The only way he could keep his honor in the face of such a defeat was to perform Seppuku.

Turning the blade in his hands to test the weight, he caught his reflection in the blade. This time he recognized the person looking back at him. Indeed, it was his true self. A weak child, only playing at being the hero when in reality he was worthless, ordinary, and a burden on his team.

Casey began to wonder, as he studied the fine edge of the blade, what it would feel like to die. To end all the pain, all the helplessness, all of his suffering. Would it be freeing? Casey turned the blade inward and gripped the handle with both hands, then, closing his eyes, he drew the blade toward his abdomen but stopped abruptly.

"Casey Jones." Evixus said, his presence probing at Casey's vulnerable mind. "It would be so easy for us to kill you right now." And to get his point across, quite literally, Evixus made Casey poke himself with the tip of the tanto knife.

"Lucky for you, it would be foolish of us to waste this opportunity. We know your little friends have been spying on us. It is only fair that we have a spy of our own. Wouldn't you agree?" Casey nodded. "Good." Evixus said.

With his mind released, and the conversation with Evixus forgotten, Casey was left staring down at the tanto knife in his hands. He felt his stomach churn painfully at what he'd almost done. He half dropped, half threw the dangerous weapon away from himself. His hands began shaking and his chest tightened as he fought for breath. He held back the wave of panic just as Leonardo walked in.

"Casey, are you okay?" Leonardo asked tentatively.

"Huh? Yeah." Casey took a shallow breath, squashing any chance of a panic attack. "I think so. I just got a little carried away…"

Leonardo made his way over to the teen to see just what he'd gotten carried away doing. The first thing he noticed were the shattered remains of what was once April's tablet computer. The second, and most immediate call for his attention, were Casey's bloodied and glass embedded palms.

"A little carried away?" Leonardo glanced up at Casey's shame-filled eyes and decided that a lecture wasn't necessary. "Wait here." He said before crossing the room to retrieve the med kit that was kept in the dojo. He returned in a matter of seconds and knelt down in front of Casey and proceeded to tend to Casey's hands, first with a pair of tweezers.

Casey winced as Leonardo painstakingly plucked each fine shard of glass from his hands, not a word shared between them. What could Casey even say? Should he tell Leonardo that he'd almost ended his life? No. it was a fleeting moment of weakness and if Leonardo knew about it, he would surely have him sent to the hospital to be watched. No, he needed to stay and be a part of this fight.

"I'm sorry." Leonardo said after a moment.

"For what?" Casey asked.

"You did this because I forced the truth about April's betrayal on you."

"I can see why you did it; I wasn't going to believe it without proof. 'Sides, I would have figured out a way to translate it myself, if you hadn't." Casey said and fell silent.

Leonardo nodded, then cocked his head to the side as he studied Casey's face. It seemed that the infrasound wasn't effecting him at all and it was unnerving. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm sure." he asked a slight edge to his voice as he was getting annoyed by the repeated question.

"Alright." Leonardo said and as much as he wanted to push the matter, he decided against it because Casey did, indeed, look okay. "By the way, you can take out those earbuds, they are useless now." Casey removed them and felt instantly better, he hated having things in his ears.

"Does that way have anything to do with you asking if I'm okay?"

"Yes, but it doesn't seem to be effecting you." Leonardo said and quickly filled Casey in on their current situation.

"Maybe the infrasound just doesn't work on me. Did you check on the city?" Casey asked.

"I told Mickey and Leatherhead to check it out as I made my way here." Leonardo said as he finished wrapping Casey's hands. "Done. I'd like to tell you to keep the fighting to a minimum but, as it stands now, I don't think I can ask you to do that. Just be careful."

"I'll try." Casey said, then watched as Leonardo cleaned up the remains of the tablet with a small broom and dustpan. "Um, thanks." He said sheepishly.

Leonardo shook his head as if to say that thanks weren't necessary and helped Casey to his feet before the pair exited the dojo.

"What happened to your hands, kid?" Slash asked with such genuine concern that Casey decided to let the kid comment slide.

"Just had a Raph moment." He said.

"Hey, just what is that supposed to mean?" Raphael called from his place on the couch. "Man, whatever, if he can make jokes then he's fine."

At that moment, Michelangelo and Leatherhead returned with good news, "Everything's fine topside." Michelangelo said.

"It is true," Leatherhead added. "For the most part it is a quiet night in the city, and those few people who are awake this late don't seem to be effected by the infrasound."

"Good, that'll make the extraction easier." Leonardo said.

"Extraction?" Michelangelo asked, "Sweet."

"You mean we are gonna get Donnie back?" Raphael asked, finally joining everyone near the entrance of the dojo.

"That's right." Leonardo said.

"How are we gonna do that? We don't even know where he is." Casey said.

"Maybe not but the only lead we have to go on is that this infrasound is being transmitted, the only way Evixus could have accomplished that is through Donnie. So the best place to start is back at the academy." Leonardo explained. "Slash, I can't ask you to come with us, it's going to be dangerous."

"Hey, this is our investigation, too. 'sides, you guys are our allies, we are in this together." Slash said, much to the agreement to the rest of his team.

Leonardo nodded, "let's do this."

Leonardo, with Slash's direction, led the group to the academy via the sewer tunnels as it would give them the element of surprise. If Evixus knew as much about them as Leonardo feared, then they would need every advantage they could get.

"There." Slash said, as they had finally reached their destination. "That exit will give us the best view of the school without being discovered," he added, pointing to a ladder, leading to the surface.

Leonardo made his way to the top of the ladder and gave pause, he wasn't quite sure what to expect on the surface. Though, Michelangelo and Leatherhead had reported that all was well, his mind still went to the worst case scenario: a city in utter chaos.

Leonardo lifted the manhole cover with minimal effort, as usual, and assessed the area outside. After a few moments, when it was clear that nothing out of the ordinary was going to happen, he shoved the manhole cover to the side and stepped out, into the alley.

The cold November night air swept over him as he beaconed the others to follow. The group spilled into the alley while Leonardo made his way to the end of the edge of a nearby building in order to get a look at their ultimate destination.

The academy, surrounded by an intricately designed rod iron fence, sat at the end of the street. It wasn't until Leonardo really had a good look that he learned that the school was far from what it seemed. Leonardo focused on the fence and counted at least a dozen sentries posted along the top of the fence. Through the bars he could see two robots just like Overkill, standing guard around the main entrance, while search lights danced elegantly around them.

Tactical Nightmare was the only phrase to come to Leonardo's mind but it did give him hope that they would find Donatello inside.

Raphael crept closer toward Leonardo, not only because he was tired of waiting for the signal, but because he could tell that his brother was uneasy. The red clad turtle peered over at the academy and nodded, with new-found understanding of what lay ahead. "What now, fearless leader?" Raphael asked, his voice a mix of sarcasm and genuine curiosity.

AN:

I am so sorry that it took me so long to update. I had a lot of trouble with this chapter, I knew where I wanted it to go but it took three revisions and two complete rewrites and ultimately I had to split it into two chapters. Hopefully, you guys can forgive me.

I would also like to thank some of the writers who've inspired me to keep going during my first TMNT adventure. I strongly encourage people to check out these authors and read their fics as they are filled with action and feels.

Techno Dawn and their story Homecoming

AussieDino who is a new writer and their story TMNT retold

Nutella Swirl wrote a wonderful poem called Not Anymore

I would also like to thank all of my reviewers, I know writing should be done for oneself but knowing you guys are out there waiting makes me want to keep going.

Okay this speech is way too long, the next chapter will be up shortly, I promise.

Have a wonderful day and feed me reviews if you are so inclined. Thanks for stopping by.