Hello all! Phew, I know that this update has been a long time coming, and I apologize for taking so long to update it. I got caught up with other fics but now I am determined to finish all of my fics that I haven't updated in a while.
Thank you all for patiently waiting for this and I hope you still continue to read and enjoy this fic as much as I enjoy writing it!
Thank you to my lovely Beta Amonraphoenix for beta reading this chapter for me, Thank you so much! XD
And also a huge thank you to all of my reviewers. Your kind words of encouragement keep me going. And a special shout out to LeatherLeaf for encouraging me to keep going with this fic, thank you!
A/N there is a lot going on in this chapter so the points of view switch quite frequently, so yeah...
Now, please enjoy!
Chapter 10
Toshiro watched as his fathers and his uncles stopped on a rooftop three blocks away. He crouched down, wondering if his family had noticed that he was tailing them. He had been waiting for nearly a month for another sighting of the Wraith, following his fathers and uncles out every single night, and being disappointed when they had come up empty handed.
But he had spotted a streak of white and black and his family had given chase. Toshiro had followed at a discrete distance, adrenalin rushing through his veins in anticipation.
He took in his position, his family's and the Wraith's. He knew he needed to get closer to hear what she had to say about his mother, possibly confronting her himself since his family had stopped trying to get closer to her, and now seemed to be watching her for some reason.
He looked around searching for a way to get around his family's current position and get closer to the Wraith.
"Did I miss anything?" Sage's voice came from over his shoulder.
He nearly jumped out of his shell, but managed to reign in this impulse and quickly turned to look at his sister in annoyance. "What are you doing here?" he hissed in irritation. "You are supposed to be watching Ren and Ryu," he said as he eyed his sister who was dressed for battle. She wore her black armoured body suit, her ninjaken strapped to her back and her green headband tied across her forehead, the tails blowing back by the wind.
"We're here too, Bro," Ren piped up as he stepped out from the shadows.
Sage spun around and glowered at their younger siblings. "You two were supposed to stay at home," she bit out angrily.
Ren and Ryu were dressed for battle as well, both dressed in black, their hoods pulled up over their heads shading the masks they wore across their faces. Ren's kusari-gama was clutched in his hands, while Ryu's war fans were tucked into her belt.
"It's not like we were going to let either of you have all the fun," Ryu said smoothly as she crossed her arms over her plastron in defiance.
"It isn't 'fun', Ryu, " Toshiro snarled. "This is serious," he said as a movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Their fathers and uncles had moved slightly, but had not advanced upon their target.
"Just stay close," he bit out angrily as he motioned for his siblings to follow him. He was going around to the other side of where the Wraith was and he was going to get answers from her; one way or another.
Kismet shot a line across the street, the metal anchor biting deep into the side of the building. The building they were positioned upon was higher than the one across the street, so they had a good view of the roof, where she would be landing.
Hermes shot his own line, this one nearly to the ground. Hermes and Shai would start from the bottom and work their way up, while she would go in from the top and work her way down. They would then meet somewhere in the middle if the building was empty, if not, they would make their way to whichever position encountered any opposition.
Kismet pulled her ice pick from her belt and slung it over the line. Hermes grabbed her arm, halting her progress.
"I want you to be careful," he whispered as he used his other hand to tip her chin up. He brought his lips down upon hers and kissed her passionately before pulling away and looking at her seriously. "I would feel better if either I or Shai went with you instead of you going alone," he insisted.
"I know, but I am the one with the best 'luck' as it were. I want you two to stick together and have each other's backs. I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you…either of you," she amended quickly.
Hermes smiled, but it was a smile tinged with worry. "Be careful, Kiss." He brushed his fingers tenderly across her cheek, which was covered by the black mask she was wearing at the moment. He leaned in again, not to kiss her, but rather to place his lips close to her ear. She shivered slightly as he whispered, "I love you."
An electric charge of awareness and adrenalin burst through her at his words. She knew that Hermes had strong feelings for her, just as she had for him, and he had alluded to the fact that he wanted her to love him, but he had never actually said those three little words to her.
Now that he had she felt something shift within her. She looked over and up into his blue eyes, darkened and in the shadows of his own black mask. "I love you too," she found herself answering in a voice that shook slightly and was barely above a whisper.
His eyes widened in shock and he clutched her to him firmly pulling her in for a kiss that she wished could last forever. But it couldn't, they had work to do.
"I'll be careful," she began, "and you and Shai need to be careful as well." She turned her attention to Shai. "When is pickup?"
"Thirty minutes, on the roof. A hover chopper will pick us up," Shai told her.
Kismet nodded in understanding, reluctantly pulling away from Hermes' loving embrace and positioned themselves on their zip lines.
"Good Luck," Hermes spoke the words that would initiate radio silence, but this time, the words were not full of his usual cocky humour. Instead they were filled with worry and grim foreboding.
In unison, they launched themselves down their respective zip lines. She hit the roof and slowly pulled the other ice pick from her belt, surveying the rooftop. She already knew she was being watched, but she didn't know by who or why. The list of possibilities were endless, but she had a job to do, so stomped down her feelings of apprehension and wrongness and walked over to the roof access door, smashing the lock and kicking it in. She paused looking down the darkened stairwell, a heavy presence suddenly appearing behind her.
Hermes hit the ground with Shai following behind him.
"Let's get in and out," Shai growled, clutching his pulse gun to his chest, his finger hovering over the trigger in anticipation of violence.
"Light it up," Hermes ordered as Shai quickly complied, placing a small detonation device upon the locked and reinforced double steel doors in front of them.
Hermes and Shai turned away from the small but powerful explosion that briefly lit up the night.
Hermes kicked in the door and Shai took point, running forward and making sure the way was clear as Hermes watched Shai's back. They did a sweep through the first level, and found nothing. They found a stairwell, opening the door to ascend to the next level when something about the hallway they had just traversed gave him pause.
He noticed that the building seemed smaller on the inside than its dimensions outside. Stopping, he grabbed Shai by the shoulder causing him to pause. Shai gave him an inquiring look. Hermes motioned with his head and backtracked, looking at the blank wall that was at the end of the hallway.
Hermes walked over to a small box on the wall and flipped open the cover, revealing a card reader. Shai pushed him out of the way and dug around in the small pack he carried on his side. He pulled out an electronic code breaker and used the card to swipe through the reader. The light went from red to green and there was a buzzing sound as the wall slid to the side.
Shai and Hermes shared a look and holding their pulse rifles tightly, they slowly entered the dark hall that stretched before them.
Toshiro watched as the Wraith and her two companions slid across to an opposite rooftop. The Wraith landed on the roof, while the other two slid to the ground. He frowned in confusion, realizing that they were about to enter the building, and with this, Toshiro may lose his chance to confront the Wraith and find out if she had any information on his mother, and her subsequent death.
"Stay here," he ordered his siblings and ignored all of their protests as he ran, leaping across the roof and towards the rooftop before the Wraith disappeared. He jumped across to the opposite rooftop, running across the roof to where the Wraith had been, and then using his hook sword and her zip line, landed easily on the roof where the Wraith stood in front of him, her back turned to towards him. She lifted her ice pick, and tore it through the lock of the door, throwing it wide before turning on him, picks raised in defence.
He shifted into a defensive stance, pulling his other hook sword from his back as she looked at him, an inscrutable look on her masked face.
"I don't want to fight you," he said to her calmingly. "I just want to ask you a few questions."
She suddenly struck out with her foot, kicking him in the plastron and sending him stumbling back, pain lashing through his shoulder, just as a group of laser rifle bullets struck the ground where they had been standing.
Kismet had a moment to study the man in front of her. He was taller than she was, four to five inches at the most. He was also very broad and well muscled; being able to observe this even through the dark, baggy clothing he wore. The hood of his hoodie was pulled up over his head, obstructing much of his face, the rest of which was hidden within the shadows of the darkened night.
He held in his hand a sword of some sort, its end bent and resembling a hook. He pulled the other from a sheath of some sort on his back. Her mind wondered at the logistics of sheathing such a weapon as he slid into a stance of some sort.
The man then reassured her that he didn't want to hurt her, only ask her a few questions. By this time, she was no longer paying attention to him. Every sense she had was screaming at her that she was in danger, but not from the man who stood in front of her, instead, the danger came from elsewhere, and the man in front of her was in just as much danger, both from her and the unknown menace.
Her boot shot out, catching him by surprise in the gut. Her foot hit resistance, as if he was wearing some sort of heavy body armour, but she had managed to kick him hard enough to send him stumbling back just as a volley of laser rifle shots tore through the rooftop concrete where they had been standing only a moment before.
She tried to scramble towards the door, knowing that she could seek safety inside the building, but as she looked back at the man she had pushed out of the away and noticed that he was clutching at his shoulder in pain as he scrambled to his feet. More shots were fired upon them and Kismet knew that if she left now, the man would be gunned down and killed.
Swearing under her breath, she ran forward, dodging enemy fire as she snagged the arm of his hoodie, dragging him with her as she attempted to get back towards the door, but found she couldn't. The rifle shots were coming fast and furious now, and it was only by a hair's breadth that they managed to dive behind the rooftop entrance seeking cover.
She placed her back towards the wall and watched as the red laser beams struck in and around their position.
Grinding her teeth in frustration, she knew that she would be able to make a run for it and survive, but she knew that the man beside her wouldn't be so lucky, and apparently she had a streak of compassion that ran through her that would not allow her to watch someone die so that she could live.
She looked over at the man who was carefully peeling his hand away from his bloodied shoulder. Her eyes widened in shock, noticing that his hood had fallen back revealing a decidedly inhuman face, his green, three fingered hand stained with crimson.
Glancing back at his green face, which reminded her somewhat of a turtle, he narrowed his amber eyes at her, the top of his head and face obscured by a black mask.
Their eyes mat and she found herself stating grimly, "You aren't going to make it out of this alive." She had no interest in what he was or why he was here, because he was going to die. She didn't want him to, but if she was to live he would die, because that was just how it worked. Unlike Hermes and Shai, she could not control her luck. She was essentially absorbing all of the good luck around her, while the bad luck was being projected upon the creature beside her.
"I'll make it," he ground out, his voice laced with pain.
Kismet knew differently, but didn't make a reply and instead she asked her impromptu companion why he was following her.
"I want to know if you know anything about my mother," he said through gritted teeth.
"You're mother?" she asked completely shocked. She had at least have thought that he wanted to ask her about her operation, her mission, or her interest in Saki Corp, anything other than the question he asked.
"The Wraith. My mother was Katherine Wraith and you are impersonating her. So cut the bullshit and tell me what you know about what happened to her," he snarled, anger cutting through the pain in his voice.
Kismet blinked in confusion, so surprised that her words came out in a truthful stammer. "I-I'm not impersonating the Wraith. I don't know anything about-"
The explosion drowned out the rest of her words and she covered the body of the creature beside her with her own.
Debris from the wall they had sought shelter behind shifted as she moved, being reduced to nothing but rubble.
She swore, waiting for the next shot to take them out, only the next shot never came. Her eyes scanned the darkness, the distant sound of an approaching hover chopper reaching her ears just before more shots rang out again.
Sage glanced at the rooftop in horror as shots were fired upon her eldest brother and the new Wraith. Her eyes frantically scanned the darkness, seeking the shooter.
"Stay here!" she ordered her younger siblings, echoing her brother's earlier command as she ran, ducking and weaving through the shadows, trying to get closer to disable the person who was trying to kill her brother and the only lead they had to finding out what had happened to their mother.
Shots rang out again, the laser fire lighting up a small section of night as she realized that she was too far away. Her feet hit the damp pavement of the street as she ran towards the building, being unable to get there by rooftop and she could only hope that her brother managed to stay safe long enough for her to rescue him.
Leonardo felt frustration and anger course through him as he realized that his son, Toshiro, had blatantly disregarded his orders to stay in the lair. How he had managed to follow them he was unsure of, but it was obvious that he had been too distracted to have noticed his son tailing them.
He glanced over at Raphael just as shots rang out, forcing his attention back to the rooftop.
Watching in horror, his son staggered back, crimson blooming upon his shoulder as the new Wraith fell back, searching for cover and about to leave his son to the mercy of the shooter before seemingly changing her mind and grabbing his son, dragging him to a safer position.
Leonardo ran to catch up with Raphael who had already begun to run for the rooftop from where the shots had originated from.
They were close leaping across the expanse of the darkened alley far below them, as an explosion lit up the night sky. Leonardo froze, his heart in his throat as he quickly spun around, his eyes desperately searching the rubble, praying that his son was still alive.
There was movement from the rubble and Leonardo lead the charge, approaching the shadow clad figure that was hunched over the railing of the roof, his gun aimed at his son, about to shoot again.
Leonardo's feet hit the shooter's rooftop, the black clad masked figure turning and shooting upon them instead.
Hermes entered the final room after they had completed their initial sweep. The other rooms had contained small offices and cubicles, with work stations and computers. They had then made their way to a final door which had required the use of Shai's card reader hacking device again.
The doors had slid open revealing a darkened room. Hermes stepped over the threshold, lights illuminating the interior as his foot hit the floor.
"Whoa," Shai breathed out is awe as they looked around the completely empty white room.
Hermes frowned and walked towards the far wall which was made of some sort of thick plastic that was lit from within. He touched a strategic place upon the wall, a hidden panel sliding open revealing a keypad with a DNA scanner.
"This is some serious security," Shai murmured in awe and Hermes silently agreed.
He frowned heavily, his mind working furiously. "Why do you suppose we haven't met with any resistance?" he asked his companion.
The first floor had seemed oddly still and empty and it was either because it was empty, or because whoever had built the place wanted it to seem that way.
Shai gave a one shouldered shrug. "No idea, but whatever the reason, it can't be good," he replied.
"Nope, probably not," he agreed. "But this is the most promising lead we've gotten to Project Aether that we have come across so far."
Shai grunted as Hermes studied the combination DNA scanner and keypad. "I wonder if it could be that easy?" he asked himself out loud. The keypad had the numbers one through nine lit up in blue light. He punched in the code 238437, which was Aether spelled numerically on a number pad.
The pad blinked once and turned green, which Hermes took to be a good sign. "One down," he said with a grin. Unfortunately he knew that the keypad was the easy part, fooling the DNA scanner was so much more difficult.
He was suddenly bumped out of the way by Shai, who had a pair of pliers in his fist as he slammed it into the scanner breaking off the cover and exposing the wiring.
Shai cut a few wires twisted them together and did something that Hermes was unable to see, but whatever it was, it caused the door to slide open, revealing an elevator. Shai motioned for him to enter and Hermes did so, Shai following as the doors slid swiftly closed behind them.
"Going down?" Shai asked as Hermes pressed the only button on the panel.
The stomach in throat sensation of moving downward rapidly assaulted him and he braced himself even as the elevator slid to a gentle halt.
The doors slid open revealing a massive laboratory of some sort. Giant robotic assembly arms, computers and equipment littered the open space.
Shai whistled. "Kismet is gonna be pissed that she missed this."
Mention of Kismet brought a wave of worry mixed with love shooting through him. His heart had sung with joy when Kismet had told him that she loved him up on the rooftop, but her premonition of danger worried him. She was never wrong and the lack of security was making the small hairs on the back of his neck stand up at attention.
Shai grabbed a hold of his shoulder, stopping him from exiting the elevator. "I'm callin' this in. This is too big."
Shai opened up his Com, breaking the usual protocol, speaking quickly and succinctly into it. He waited a moment before shutting his Com off again. "Proceed with caution," Shai informed him.
Hermes nodded stepping out of the elevator, the feeling of wrongness, danger and trepidation tearing through him just as an alarm began to blare; red lights flashing through the lab.
He clutched a hand axe in each of his hands, swiftly swinging his weapons, which met the resistance of cool, sharp, deadly steel as, "Abort your mission," was suddenly ordered into his ear by a smooth, calm voice.
He was tempted to argue with his order, but considering the unforeseen complications that were currently staring at him in the face, he knew that retreat was the better option; for now. He had no doubt of his ability to defeat the creatures in front of him, but it would take time, and that was something that he was short of at the moment. His thirty minutes was up, and although he had not technically failed -his mission had been aborted- he still felt as if he had failed anyway.
Angrily, he lashed out with his foot, catching the blue masked creature in the leg. The creature cried out in pain and fell to one knee. Quickly a creature in a red mask suddenly replaced the one in blue.
Grinding his teeth together in irritation, his fist shot out, catching the red masked creature in the face, sending him tumbling away.
His axe swung to the left managing to land a glancing blow to the orange masked creature who stumbled back in pain clutching at his bloodied leg.
"Mikey!" the blue one shouted as the purple one joined the fray and ran to the orange one's side.
Using this distraction to slip into the shadows, he sheathed his axes and ran to the fire escape, quickly making his way down to the ground. He turned, his instincts clamoring at him that he was not free and clear of danger or pursuit just yet.
His axe met with another deadly sharp blade, but this one was wielded by a young, human girl wearing black body armour with a green headband tied around her pale forehead, the tails tangled within the confines of her greenish blonde hair which was tied up into a ponytail. Her rich brown eyes looked at him in determination as cupid's bow lips pulled down into a scowl.
"What do you want with the Wraith, and why are you trying to kill my brother?" she snarled threateningly.
He blinked at her, shocked and confused enough by her admission that the black masked creature he had shot at on the rooftop in his attempt to shoot the Wraith was her brother, that he let his guard down for a split second.
Catching her fist with his free hand, he could feel how very delicately human and breakable it was in his more powerful, three fingered grip.
Hermes swore as the alarms raged around them. Shai quickly grabbed him just as he was about to fully exit the elevator, pulling him back in just as the doors slid shut, nearly taking off his nose -trapping them.
Shai used the butt of his gun to smash off the cover of the control panel; quickly kneeling down and tearing out the wiring.
"Damnit!" he swore. "Hermes."
Hermes nodded, kneeling down. He ripped out the motherboard as Shai handed him the card hacker. He tore into the reader knowing that it acted much like a computer. It was a hacking device and the elevator's emergency program needed to be hacked and overridden.
He worked furiously, hooking up the motherboard to the card reader and entering override commands to try to get the security measures for the elevator deactivated.
"Self-destruct in two minutes," The electronic voice from the elevator's intercom system warned.
Hermes and Shai exchanged a grim look.
"Work faster!" Shai growled as Hermes furiously tried to override the self-destruct sequence and failed.
"I can get us out of here, but that's all I can do," Hermes warned as the elevator suddenly shot up, quickly taking them to the main floor. The doors slid open and they stumbled out, running as fast as they could through the front doors.
Hermes leapt onto the already lowered rope ladder that had been thrown from the hover chopper, Shai following close on his heels as he scaled it, quickly climbing into the chopper as it steadily rose into the inky dark sky.
Hermes spotted Kismet still standing on the rooftop, talking and motioning wildly to a dark clad figure standing next to her.
She turned and ran towards the ladder that moved past, jumping onto it the moment there was a loud rumble and sudden explosion that came from the bowels of the building.
Hermes let out a sigh of relief as Kismet clung to the ladder watching in obvious horror as the building she had just been standing on gave an ominous groan, the base collapsing on one side, the building slowly tipping over as it collapsed in on itself.
Toshiro ground his teeth together in irritation as the woman warned him to run, and then turned and ran for the edge of the building.
He swore under his breath in frustration, not having learned anything useful or important from the woman. She claimed to have no idea what he was talking about, and no knowledge of the Wraith -the original one. And her initial reaction of surprise at his question led him to believe that she was telling him the truth.
She also had no idea who was shooting at them, her reply to his prodding being, 'What make you so sure you aren't the target?' Unfortunately, she had a point. He had pissed off more than his fair share of gang lords and drug smugglers over the past couple of years.
Toshiro then watched as she leapt from the roof, snagging a passing hover chopper ladder on the way.
Suddenly, there was a deafening explosion; the sound of twisting metal and shattering glass as the ground beneath his feet suddenly shifted and his world tilted precariously to the side.
He scrambled, trying to run up the roof, but was unable to make it to the opposite edge before he felt weightless for the briefest moment, suspended in thin air before he fell. He didn't even have the chance to scream in terror as he realized that he was going to die, the air rushing past his body as he plunged to his death.
Leonardo could only watch in abject horror as his son desperately tried to get off the tilting rooftop.
"TOSHIRO!" he screamed in terrified anguish, his heart ceasing to beat, the collapsing building falling straight towards where he and his brothers stood and he wondered if he could leap the chasm and somehow catch his son before the two buildings collided.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Raphael run forward, his intention to dive for their son mirroring his own, but Raphael had put his thought into action.
Suddenly, Donatello grabbed Raphael around the neck with his bionic arm, hauling him swiftly backwards.
"You'll never reach him," Donatello bit out bleakly as Toshiro slid right off the roof and plumetted towards the pavement ten stories below.
A streak of white and black flew past them, the terrified shout of "KISMET!" able to be heard over the engines of the hover chopper that had appeared only moments before.
Leonardo ran forward, trying to get a better view as the new Wraith slammed into his son, their bodies twisting and tumbling through the air before vanishing into the thick plumes of black smoke and grey dust that billowed into the air just before the collapsing building collided with the side of the building he and his brothers were currently standing upon sending them crashing to the ground as debris rained down upon them and the concrete surface of the roof buckled and cracked under the strain.
I hope everyone enjoyed and rest assured, this fic will be updated with greater frequency from now on! Thank you all for reading! XD
