AN: So a bit of a heads up. I'm going to be starting school next week, and updates are going to be slow. However, with that said, I should be finish with this story in mid-October. I will also be editing some of the earlier chapters to make the story more cohesive.
10. One the other end
November 30th, 2019. 3:41 am
Bang!
April O'Neil jolted awake to loud banging that resonated from her living room. She immediately jumped out of bed, grabbed the metal bat that set next her night stand, and quietly made her way through the only hallway of her apartment.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
April jumped at the noise. She gripped the bat tighter.
She peered around the corner into her living room, the sound coming from the large window that was on the far wall. She saw the familiar shadow of Donatello pacing back and forth on her fire-escape.
She turned toward the right and saw it was nearly four in the morning.
The feelings of concern and fear for her safety was soon replaced with dread. Why was Donnie banging on her window so damn early in the morning? April shook her head, and the growing panic that was bubbling inside her, and strode over to the window to let the turtle in.
Donnie stopped pacing the second he saw her. April barely got the window open, when he swiftly made it into the room, and pulled her into a tight hug.
He pulled her away from him at arm's length and looked her over. Suddenly, she was acutely aware that she was in nothing but a baggy t-shirt that barely covered her underwear. She folded her arms across her chest. But the look in his eyes told her that he was checking to see if she was hurt. "Donnie? What's going on?"
He didn't answer, instead asked, "why didn't you answer your phone?'
She hugged her arms across her chest, the early winter air caused her to shiver. "I was asleep. Donnie, tell me what's going on."
He ran his hand over his head, and resumed his pacing, "Master Splinter, and Leo are missing. We've been looking for them for nearly two hours now, we can't find a single trace of either of them. Mike, and Raph are still looking. I tried calling you, but when you didn't answer I got worried that something happened, that's when I decided to come over."
April's face twisted into confusion; he was going way too fast for her too follow, "wait, Don, slow down, and start from beginning. What do you mean, 'Master Splinter, and Leo are missing'?"
Donnie took a long breath, before explaining. "Last night, there was this outdoors Japanese festival thing. I don't know what it was. All I know is that there was going to be a kabuki play, or something, and Master Splinter really likes that stuff. And so does Leo, and he's not just going to let our elderly father go by himself, so he took Dad. But they didn't come back home last night." Donnie started to walk back and forth at a faster pace.
"Donnie," April reached up and grabbed his arm to get him to stop, "sweetie, you to sit down. Let me get dress, and we will head out and start looking again. Alright?" She rubbed his forearm, "we'll find them, Donnie."
He just nodded dumbly, but it was clear to April that Donnie didn't believe they would.
December 10th, 2019. Midnight.
Her job as chief of police came first. That's what she told her self when Leonardo and his father disappeared over a week ago. She could not just drop everything to help search for them. She wanted to, but she had other responsibilities.
But, Rebecca Vincent soon found herself spending not only her free times, but also hours on the job, looking for any information on the two mutants.
Tonight was not the exception. She had returned to where the small Japanese festival was held. It was hosted in Central Park, and it lasted for only two days. Any signs of the festival and the kabuki performers were long gong now.
The early snow that fell around the time of the festival, had completely vanish. The snow had hindered their process on finding any clues, but she hoped now that snow had melted, she'd find something.
And she wasn't the only one out tonight.
All three of the Leonardo's brothers were tailing her.
Still, she moved quickly. Central Park was not a safe place to be at night, regardless who had her back or not.
When she finally reached the area, she looked around for any signs of another human before motioning them the coast was clear.
They all jumped down around her, barely making a sound in doing so.
Rebecca got a good look at them under the street light, and she saw the same look she had seen in multiple other families. She had dealt with many missing persons cases in her career, and she always hated to look in the family members of the missing person and have no answers.
She cleared her throat, and look away. They didn't need her to talk to them as if they were just another victim's family. "As we know, April and Vern weren't able to find anything when they were here earlier. It's quite possible that they missed something as they had to work around civilians," she looked back at them, "Donatello, Michelangelo, I want you two search on the west side of the park. Any sign of trouble, you call in. Raphael, you're with me."
"Yo, Chief," Raphael questioned, "wouldn't we cover more if we split up?"
She was already shaking her head, "given the circumstances, I don't think that would be for the best."
January 21st, 2020.
Casey Jones glanced at the rear-view mirror of his car. Shadow Jones was in the back seat, sound asleep. He hoped she stayed that way when stopped by the lair before heading to his new apartment.
It had been a difficult past two months. Raphael called him early December about what happened to Master Splinter and Leonardo. Casey desperately wanted to join in the search, but he found a life in Colorado. His wife, Gabrielle, was seven months pregnant. He couldn't just leave her.
Raph said he understood.
But then, two days later after that call, Gabrielle was in a car accident.
Casey looked up again and Shadow's reflection. He gripped his steering wheel. She already looked so much like her mother.
February, 29th, 2020. Early morning
Rebecca spotted Vern flashing his key to the city to several officers to let him, April, and to her displeasure, Casey Jones, behind the yellow tape. She stalked over to three, more furious at her own officers that at them.
"This is a crime scene. You three are civilians. You're not allowed to be here."
Vern put his hands up, "now, Chief, we're here as representatives for a certain green team."
She ignored Vern and for that matter, Jones, and focused on O'Neil. "How did they find out about this so soon?"
April shrugged, "The six of us we're going to investigate the Purple Dragons when we heard about the police scanner."
"So, we figured, why not come by and see what's goin' on." Jones finished.
Rebecca turned towards him, "don't you have a daughter to take care of?"
"My ma got her for the night. 'Sides, the boys are already inside."
Rebecca sighed, "of course they are." She yelled out the lieutenant on scene, "Longer, clear out the building."
Officer Longer, being aware of the turtles and who their companions were, followed orders without question.
The building was a series of hallways, and caged up rooms.
"What the hell is this place?" Vern asked.
"It's abandoned asylum. Most people avoid this place, except for teenagers and young adults. That's who called in. A young woman and her friends were about to explore the place before they heard gunfire. They ran back to her house, which is an hour away, before calling the police." Rebecca did not hide her annoyance, "by the time anyone reached here, everything was quiet." Rebecca answered. She led them to a large double door, before she stopped. April could already smell the blood just from the other side. April returned her attention to Rebecca when she started talking again. "Now, look, I'm going to play this off as you three are my consultants. That's it. You can't touch anything in there or else. Understood?"
"Yeah, yeah, understood, Chief. Now can we go in?"
Rebecca rolled her eyes, but pushed opened the doors anyway.
The repugnant smell grew stronger the second they walked into the long hallway. Bodies littered the floor, nothing more than just giant blood-covered lumps.
"I'm going to be sick," April muttered.
"If you're going to be sick, go back outside, I can't have you contaminate the evidence. It's bad enough that you three are here." Rebecca chastised.
"Aw, but we just want to help."
The four humans jumped at the sound of Michelangelo's voice. He stood not two feet away from the group, and yet they did not notice him. He was leaning against the wall. He raised his hand, and gave a half smile, "yo."
"When did you get here?" Casey asked.
"Just now." Donnie answered. They snapped their attention toward where Donnie, and Raph were at. Raph was hunched over one of the many dead bodies on the ground, while Donnie stood above him. "You guys are just in time, I'm about to hack into the surveillance."
Mikey and the others joined his brothers. They avoided to step on any of the bodies. Most of the men on the ground were wearing military grade armor, and were holding weapons. There five people who were not. The four men, and one woman were in lab coats, and nice work clothes. They gave an impression of doctors. Casey was surprised to see one-way mirror cover most of the right wall.
"So, like, there's why more bodies than just in this hall. The way we came, there was trail leading right to here." Mikey said, taking Casey's shocked expression was because of the bodies on the floor.
"You guys have an idea who did this yet?" April asked as she slid right next to Donnie.
"A big fuckin animal," Raph answered, standing up.
Vern bent over the body Raph was just looking at, "really? You know, I spent four years in veterinary school before becoming a camera man."
"Good for you."
Vern ignored Raph's sarcasm as he bent over to get a closer look at the bite mark on the man's neck. His eyes widen. It took him seconds to recognize what animal could make such a mark. "A rodent." He whispered.
"A what?" Rebecca asked?
"A rodent," Vern said it much clearer now. He stood up, meeting everyone's gaze. "Not just any kind of rodent, but a rat."
"How do you know it was a rat?" Mikey asked.
Vern looked at all the three turtles, in disbelief, "how could you not know? Your father is a giant rat. That right there," he pointed at the dead body, "could have only been done by a rodent. And there's only one rodent I know that could do this much damage."
Before anyone could reply, Donnie projected a screen on the wall across from them. "I got into the cameras. I've been fighting with another computer expert this whole time, I'm not sure how long we have." He said this as he pulled out a small device, and began typing away. He ignored the feed.
The footage was grainy, but it was clear enough that it was of this specific hallway. Three hours ago, the people in the lab coats, and those in the armor were standing where theirs bodies were now. The people in lab coats, most likely scientists, were looking at the one-way mirror.
While the video quality was bad, the audio was not.
"Dr. Stevens, are you sure it was a good idea to give the subject an injection? We're about to transfer out." The sole female scientist questioned.
A man, Stevens, turned to face the woman, "you know how long we've been waiting to test this serum?"
"Yes, but, what if something goes wrong?"
"And? We have another of these turtles back at the home base. He's expendable. If something does go wrong, then we can test it on Slash. And besides, even if I didn't think it was a good idea, Jei gave us his orders."
"Did he just say turtle?" Mikey muttered. No one answered him.
"It's awaking up." Another one of the scientist exclaimed, grabbing the attention of everyone else.
Stevens clapped his hands together, before slipping his hand into his pocket, pulling out some sort of device. "I want all of you to take notes. This is important." He put the device to his mouth and started speaking into it. "This is Dr. Alex Stevens, and today is February, 29th, 2020. Today, we have administered serum-f39 too Subject A. If made correctly, the serum should produce intense hallucinations based on the subject's fears. As noted in the previous tests, Subject A is a male mutant turtle. It is six feet, and four inches tall. Its weight was clocked out around 255.7 lbs. Compared to the first mutant turtle we encountered, known as 'Slash', Subject A is remarkably more human. The exceptions, are of course, the subject's shell, plastron, skin, lack of ears, the number of fingers and toes—six fingers, including two deposable thumbs, and two toes on each foot—and genitalia—
Raph drowned out whatever Stevens was going to say next, "What da fuck?" Raph turned toward Donnie, who was now staring at the video wide-eyed with fear, "they're talkin about Leo!" Raph gestured at the video, "That's Leo! He was here. They're both fuckin here! We need to—
He was cut off by Leo yelling in pain.
Everyone jumped at the sound.
"What are they doing to him?" Mikey cried out!
"Donnie, turn it off!" April clung to Donnie's arm.
He shook his head, "I can't. We need to know what happen here."
"The fuck we do. We need to be out there lookin for Dad and Leo! Not listenin them get tortured!"
"Raphael, you can't just go running out there without any information," Rebecca argued.
Raph whirled around at the police chief, pointing his finger in her face. "How the fuck is sittin here doin nothing gonna help us? Fuck this, I'm leavin!" Raph stormed out the hallway and down the other.
Casey followed. "You aint goin alone. I'm comin too."
"Go ahead and leave!" Don shouted after them, "maybe we can finally hear what else is going on," and returned his attention
Mikey looked between the doors Raph left behind, and Donnie. "Shouldn't we stop them."
Donnie snorted, but didn't reply.
Mikey wasn't sure what to do, so he returned his focus on the video, as did everyone else.
When they did so, Leo had started screaming again, but it was more hysterical this time.
"Is he hallucinating? That's what causing him to scream like that, isn't it?" Vern asked.
Donnie went back to typing on his small computer, "I don't know. I can't get pass their fire walls to access any information about these people or what they were planning. Whatever was going on here, was run by some—fuck!" He cut himself off, and started typing madly at the device in his hand.
"Donnie, what's going on?" April asked, in panicked voice, but she had a good idea what was happening. The video had just cut off, leaving nothing but total silence.
Early March, 2020
Hun, leader of the Purple Dragons, declared Leonardo dead. He claimed he killed Leo.
It wasn't true, Raph told himself. Leo was alive, and Hun was full of shit. There was no proof that Leo, or Master Splinter were dead. And Hun wasn't good enough to kill either one of them. So, yeah, Hun was full of shit.
Still, when the PDs spent five days partying at some abandoned parking garage, Raph and Casey had no problem busting dragon skulls in.
June, 13th, 2020. One in the morning.
Mikey sat over the edge of an apartment complex, staring down at the moving city below him.
He hadn't been in the lair in several days. None of them have. Raph and Donnie argued nonstop for the past months, that Raph left home to move in with Casey. Then Donnie packed up all his stuff, including his lab equipment, and moved into another spacious underground lair. It was nearer April's apartment.
That just left Mikey, and he lasted a week by himself before venturing up to the surface. He refused to see either of his brothers, especially Donnie.
He sighed.
"You're not going to jump, are you?"
Mikey turned around to see a young woman behind him. She looked to be in her early twenties. She had dark skin and eyes, and her black hair had streaks of purple in it. He noticed she had on Batman pajamas on, and in her hand was an unlit cigarette. What confused Mikey, was that she didn't look terrified of him, but instead looked concerned for him.
"Who are you?" He asked, ignoring her question.
"Angel Bridge." She answered without hesitation. "So aren't going to jump?"
Mikey looked back at the ground, then back at her, "no. Why would I do that."
She sighed in relief, "oh thank God!" She lit her cigarette and let out a long drag. When she was done, turned back to Mikey and gave him a big grin, "so, is this the part where I scream?"
Mikey's grin matched hers, "bruh, you'd done miss that part already."
October 17th, 2020. 2:03 pm
April O'Neil was at work when she received Leonardo's email.