Author's Note: Hello one and all! Welcome to chapter 11 and as always, I would like to thank you all for the amazing support which you guys keep giving.
Also, for those who do not know and in reference to this chapter, the card game 'Memory' involves a deck of cards being placed in a random order facing down. You play by selecting two cards at a time and turning them over. If they match then you keep the pair and receive a point. If they do not match, you replace the cards face down again in the same position. You continue this process, taking turns with the other players to try and remember which cards are where, until there are no cards left. The person with the most points wins.
The game seems pretty simple huh? Well, maybe not. Let's find out how this comes into play in chapter 11 :P. Enjoy!
Warning: There's some disgusting descriptions. Torture warning. Really bad language as well.
Disclaimer: Narrrrr, I do not own the turtles of the concepts of the show. I also do not own or claim to be the writer of the play, Macbeth.
Chapter 11: Below the Blue
Leo's POV:
Day 191
Leo tried his best in the agility test.
He jumped the hurdles, crawled under the spiked beams and flew over the climbing walls.
He tried to imagine that he was back at home, doing tricks in the Lair with his brothers.
But there was only so much a turtle could handle and after four hours of the test, Leo collapsed and listened to the yells of the scientists as they threatened him with electrocution.
What came next, Leo would rather forget.
Day 192
The machine placed over his head was heavy and the lights that shone into his eyes made them water. Leo squinted, trying to see through the mechanical goggles covering his eyes to make out the lab around him. This was the vision test.
His supposed 'Master's' voice boomed through the speaker. "This is your last warning. READ THE CHART!"
Leo tried and failed as the scientists had moved the reading chart too far away. They had been systematically doing this for the past hour, moving the chart further and further away, whilst his 'Master' asked him to locate and read different parts of the passage printed on the chart, but after the last move the words had become a blur.
In the sterile lab, Leo attempted to raise his head to look above him at the one way mirrors where he knew his apparent 'Master' was watching, but struggled due to the machine attached to him. "I can't read it! I don't have super sight or anything, I'm just like you."
"You are nothing like us. Read the chart! NOW!"
Leo squinted and made out a few words. "When shall we three meet again, in…thunder, lightning or rain." Leo paused in his reading as he recognised the style of writing.
They can't be serious?
Leo continued. "When the hur-hurlyburly's done."
Wait, what's a hurlybury? This isn't even English!
Leo tried again. "When the…the…umm…rattle is lost and umm…son." Leo squinted at the chart, but everything had blurred together. "No, it's ummm when the battle is lost and…."
He stumbled over the words, struggling to make much of anything out of the chart. He shook his head and addressed the mirrors. "This is William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. Reading this is impossible…"
A surgical bone chisel was driven through his right hand and protruded the other side.
Day 193
Leo felt like a measuring scale; the old style of scale which tilted one way or another on its arm according to the weight placed on the plates on either side.
He was standing in the middle of the main lab, arms raised and holding the weights which the scientists were continuously attaching to the bar, testing his strength.
His muscles burned and everything ached.
His legs were shackled to the ground so there was no way of escape.
Another 15 kilo weight was added to the right side of the bar and Leo shifted left, trying to maintain his balance and core.
He was holding 45 kilos on the right and 30 on the left.
Sweat dampened his bandanna and his limbs began to shake.
Soon, he reached 100 kilos on either side and crumpled to the ground whilst the bar and weights crashed down on top of him.
Day 194
Leo had always hated the card game called 'Memory.'
He found it infuriating whilst trying to remember the position of each card and Donnie had won every game by at least 5 points when they played at home.
253 cards were laid face down before Leo.
He sat a steel table in a small room with his hands chained to the top, trying to remember which cards were in what position in order to select the right pairs. He already had discovered 47 matches and had them placed to his right. However, his hands were slowly becoming unusable due to the needles protruding them, as every time he selected a wrong card or was unsuccessful in finding a match, a silver needle was inserted into his already damaged hands, to stick from his green skin and create tiny patterns of red.
The stinging pushed his mind into an ultra-alert state but moving his hands at all had become painful.
On his left hand, 31 needles protruded the top whilst on his right 19 snuck down his fingers due to the small bandage wrapped around the hole in the centre of his palm where a bone chisel had been pushed through two days prior.
The man doing the inserting – a chubby short male with some stubble and a very obvious tomato sauce stain on the front of his white lab coat – was the only other person in the tiny room, although Leo noted that one camera also observed them from above.
Leo had been watching the camera and knew by now that someone was controlling the device from a different location due to its tracking movements and he vaguely remembered his briefing that morning being about the day's test being in a private sitting, as the test required his full attention.
Leo intensely stared at the male scientist, trying to unnerve him, as the chubby 40 or so year old looked as though he was about to wet himself in fear, constantly shifting his weight whilst he was looking everywhere but at Leo in the middle of the room.
And that was exactly what Leo had been waiting for - an opportunity to strike when those around him were weak.
"Hey! Chubby."
The man flinched and Leo continued. "Yeah, you. How is this stupid game supposed to test my intelligence if I can barely move my hands?"
The scientist stole a glance towards Leo and then quickly looked away again. "I am not authorised to engage in conversation with you."
"Oh, well that's too bad."
The man glanced towards the camera which was still fixed on Leonardo, so Leo persisted, knowing that he needed the camera to turn away from him so he could make his move. "You know, when I get out of here, and I will, I'm going to come back. And I never forget a face."
The man started ringing his hands and the bag of needles he held began to shake.
Leo continued in his torment. "I just thought it'd be nice to give you some warning, seeming that the first person I'm going to find is the fat scientist who couldn't bear to look me in the eye. Then, once I've found him, I'm going to run my blade through his stomach so that all the jelly flops out."
Leo added a smile, trying to push the man over the edge, although his threats were completely empty. Really, he could never actually hunt down a man and run a Katana through his stomach.
But, the scientist didn't need to know and his last threat was all it took.
The man's face suddenly dropped and an insane fear flooded into his eyes. The man yelled at the camera. "I WANT OUT!"
The camera turned towards him.
Leo took his chance and with a grimace he gripped a needle with his left hand, pulled it out and quickly hid it under the bandage on his opposite hand.
The man continued to bellow at the camera, screaming to let him out until the door to the room opened and he fled in an awkward hobble, his sides wobbling. He disappeared out the door and from Leo's line of sight.
The door remained open and a bulky figure entered and blocked out the light.
Leo knew him instantly as 'Dumb-ass Truck-man.'
Dumb-ass moved forward. He was wearing his usual black slacks and leather jacket but underneath he had swapped his usual blue top for a white one which was coupled and completed with a denim vest. It wasn't an improvement.
"Think ya'self clever freak?" Dumb-ass Truck-man asked as came to a halt in front of Leo.
Leo pulled his best smug expression. "I do actually."
A brutal punch collided with Leo's face and snapped his neck back. He felt a side tooth come loose and could taste blood in his mouth.
But he just smiled at Dumb-ass and on the inside he was the happiest turtle alive, as after one hundred and ninety four days, he finally had a weapon and it was secretly tucked away in the bandage of his hand.
After the test, Leonardo was handcuffed and led back to his cell with his hands in front of him as Dumb-ass yanked on the chain with one hand whilst he held the remote to Leo's electric collar in the other.
Reaching the end of the hallway, the wooden door of Leo's cell was unlocked and opened by Dumb-ass.
Leo was shoved inside.
He stumbled forward but held his balance to remain on his feet. He turned around and offered forward his cuffed and bleeding hands. "Are you going to take these off?"He shook the chain for emphasis. "You don't know what I could get up to."
Leo's voice was level although only half of his mind was calm. Okay, just focus and remember the plan.
He looked up at Dumb-ass who was frowning at the handcuffs, creating more creases in his face than a 95 year old woman. Leo watched as Dumb-ass made up his mind and the hulk of a man stepped forward into the cell.
His voice was deep and rumbled across the walls, "Don't try anything, freak."
I can't count on it, Leo thought to himself as he held his chained hands out to Dumb-ass. He counted. One…
Dumb-ass attached the electric collar remote to his belt. Two…
The handcuffs were removed with a jingle of the keys.
Leo skipped three.
He reached out and gripped Dumb-ass by the wrists with his needle pricked and bloody hands. Leo pulled him forward.
Dumb-ass yelled in outrage and fought against him, but Leo was too fast for the bulky man and countered with a perfect roundhouse kick which sent Dumb-ass stumbling to the corner of his cell.
Dumb-ass recovered quickly and his hand went to the electric collar's remote on his side as he surged towards Leo like a gigantic tidal wave.
Leo whipped his own weapon out from under his bandage and barrelled towards the man who had been his tormentor for so very long.
They met half way and Leo felt an electric shock seize through his system as Dumb-ass pressed the button.
Leo screamed but jumped high enough to grab Dumb-ass' shoulder before he pulled himself up and plunged the needle straight into Dumb-ass' right eye.
The electric shock ended and Dumb-ass screamed.
Leo pushed the needle further and some kind of juice squirted onto his face, sticky and warm.
The smell was vile and Leo reeled back, ripping the remote from Dumb-ass' hands and pushing off the man as he screamed with the needle rolling around in his eye.
Dumb-ass clawed at his face but Leo broke his desperate struggle as he sent several punches towards him, targeting soft areas and pressure points.
Soon the man was on the ground, heaving and gasping for breath.
Leo raised his voice and towered over the man crumpled on the ground. "Not so tough now, huh?"
Leo looked at the remote in his hand and pressed the large red button in the top right corner, hoping to shell that his hunch was right and he wasn't about to stupidly give himself an electric shock.
His gamble payed off though when the collar around his neck became loose, its hinges expanding and allowing Leo for the first time to lift the collar off his neck.
He stretched his neck to each side and looked at the collar, about to abandon the thing on the ground, but instead he hesitated and looked back down at Dumb-ass.
Leo smiled and knelt down next to the man.
What he was doing wasn't right. Leo knew that, but at the same time, he didn't care and he attached the collar to Dumb-ass, clenching it tight over the man's neck.
Leo stood and observed his work.
Even in Dumb-ass' half-conscious state, Leo could see the fear in his eyes.
Leo's finger hovered over the button on the remote control which he knew would give the man an electric shock, sending him into utter agony.
But no matter how much he wanted to give back some of the pain Dumb-ass, his captors and the scientists had shovelled out, Leonardo couldn't bring himself to pressing the button.
Torturing someone for the sake of proving a point was something he could never do, no matter who they were or what they had done to him.
He remembered Master Splinter once saying: "The first rule of being a ninja is 'do no harm.' Unless you need to do harm, then do lots of harm!"
The first rule was important and Leo thanked his Master for teaching it to him as he knew that there was a time for violence but there was also a time for mercy.
Leonardo removed his finger from its position over the device and instead turned the device off with the flick of a switch. "This torture has ended."
Leo dropped the remote and crushed the device under his foot.
He turned away and started to walk towards the door but stopped short when a chuckle came from behind him, low and menacing.
"What, don't you have the guts?" Dumb-ass asked as he stirred.
Leo spun around and delivered a perfect punch to the man's temple, knocking him unconscious. "I have what it takes but you're just not worth it."
And with that, Leo ran.
Leonardo ran down the hallways which he had memorised, taking sharp left and right turns, tearing around silver corners and sprinting down the immaculate halls. His feet had mostly healed with the human skin grafts and so Leo ran as fast as he could.
Find a way out. C'mon, get to the elevator.
So far he had encountered no one, but Leo knew not to rely on his good luck streak and as if on cue, the building's alarm system went off.
Alarms wailed and lights flashed.
There was a voice overhead: "This is not a drill. A prisoner has escaped. Follow emergency protocol 9146. I repeat, this is not a drill."
Leo rounded a corner and further behind him an automatic door clenched shut with a loud mechanic slam.
Leo's eyes widened at the sound and he turned his head around, only to see fail safe doors raining down from the ceiling, systematically advancing towards him.
One such door crunched down upon a portable steel bench and snapped the item in half. To Leo, these things were deadly and if he was caught underneath, his body would end up being in two pieces.
Leo sped up but the doors gained ground. That so isn't good, he thought.
A door shut so close behind him that Leo felt the ripple of air it created against his legs.
The end of the hallway was in sight, only a few meters away where it ended in an elevator door – his ticket to freedom. His ticket down to the floor level where he could stealth his way out, straight through the front door.
His bandanna flapped behind him and Leo sprinted on, although in front of him the last mechanic door began to slide down, quick and menacing.
He hadn't come this far for nothing.
Leo made his decision and damned the consequences to hell as he dived under it and went into a roll.
The door came down and slammed next to his head, deafening him.
But…he was through.
Leonardo stood and went to the elevator to press the down arrow several times, barely able to believe that he had made it, as he knew that the rest of his escape would be easy.
The hard part, the difficulties, the torture, the tests – they were all over.
Leo could have laughed in pure joy when the elevator doors opened with a 'ding.'
But he was never given the chance as several gas suited figures emerged from the elevator. They raised their guns and gas flooded the chamber.
Leo chocked and backed up but had nowhere to go. His shell hit the mechanical door behind him.
Through the gas, the suited figures advanced.
Leo coughed and gasped, trying to take in air.
He fell to the ground, his hands were pulled back and tied.
….and then there was nothing.
What? Where?
Leo opened his eyes. He was assaulted with a blur and he groggily shut them again. Uhggg, my head.
"Wakey, wakey. Nap time is over."
Leo lifted his head slightly and his eyes opened to slits. "No Mikey, leave me alone."
A gruff voice replied. "Who the fuck is Mikey?"
Leo's eyes snapped open and suddenly his body screamed. There was no ground beneath his feet and he was hit with a bout of dizziness. Leo panicked and wildly craned his neck to see that his hands and feet were fastened to the wall in large steel vices. They were brutally tight.
His limbs were stretched out so that he was chained to the wall in a star like fashion and his body sagged in the middle. His body's weight pulled on his arms, threatening to pop them out of their sockets.
The room around him was like his old cell. Cement walls. Cement floor. The only difference was that a dead Krang was lying in the corner. Its tentacles were shrivelled and its guts were spilling out onto the ground. Dried puss layered the corners of its unseeing eyes.
Leo only then realised the gravity of his situation as a different cell meant that his work to memorise the corridors and his previous whereabouts had been wasted.
Leo tore his gaze to the front of him and found Dumb-ass, bandage over one eye and staring at him like he wanted nothing more than to watch him burn. Behind him, stood three scientists holding their gas guns prone and ready.
Dumb-ass' hand flew out, gripped Leo's bandanna tales and pulled his head forward.
Leo reacted just as quickly by spitting blood into Dumb-ass' face. The red flecks splashed across his rough skin.
Dumb-ass growled and massaged the fabric of Leo's bandanna. "Dunno why you still have this," he said. "Ya not worthy of clothing, even if it is just a dirty rag."
Leo tried to pull some of his weight up and off his shoulders, but the feet manacles stopped him dead. His voice was strained. "It's…n-not a rag. You wouldn't understand."
"Is that so? Well, if ya not gonna explain it, we'll just call it a day."
Leo's heart thumped in his chest. When did Dumb-ass ever just call it a day?
Leo tensed and barely had time to recognise the flip sound of a flick knife being opened before Dumb-ass swiped at his face and set it alight with a sheer pain. Warm blood ran down Leo's face from the top right of his forehead, across his beak and through to his chin. The deep gash narrowly missed his eyes.
His bandanna loosened around his eyes and fell to the ground at his feet, cut cleanly in half.
Leo yelled, "NOOOO!"
He struggled against his binds, trying to lash out against the man who had taken his last tangible connection to his family.
Leo hissed as the tear in his face stretched and pulled. His voice was seething. "I'll kill you, I swear to God. I will hunt you down and end you, even if it's-" Leo hesitated for a second. He had never threatened someone and truly meant it, but then the second ended and Leo remembered everything that Dumb-ass had ever done to him. "-even if it's the last thing I ever do."
There was a time for mercy and there was definitely a time for violence.
Dumb-ass laughed in his face, low and patronising. "See, now we get to the animal. Below that rag, that's all ya are, isn't it? Below the blue, you're just a beast who needs to be broken."
Leo yelled but his cry of rage was strangled off as Dumb-ass slaughtered into his frail frame with punches. First the wind was knocked out of him as a fist sailed into his plastron but then his face was repetitively smashed against the wall.
Leo squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to moan as his left shoulder was ruthlessly pulled from its socket.
His strong silence didn't last long though, as Dumb-ass' fist came down on his collar bone and Leo let out a scream when he felt a distinct snap. Then there was pain and the world around Leo swam.
The flick knife came into the slaughter at some point and left bloody gashes across his legs. Again, a cry was pulled from Leo as Dumb-ass stabbed the knife into his bicep before he twisted it out again and stood back, finally satisfied.
Leo tried to raise his head but his vision darkened at the movement.
Through the haze, he half recognised the back of Dumb-ass as the man and scientists in tow left the cell.
The steel door was slammed shut. Mechanisms worked and Leo was locked inside.
Leo tried to think. His vision bobbed.
Steel door. Dead..Krang. Chained...wall. All different...
Leo blinked and his breathing turned to small rasps.
Steel. Not wood. Nothing looks...right. Don't know...where I've been..moved to. Don't…I…moved….it's over…..done.
His Master would take precautions and even whilst barley conscious, Leo knew that he would never again be granted sight whilst walking through the passageways.
He would never be able to memorise his way out and he would always be chained. In short he wouldn't ever be returning home.
It was over.
He had lost.
Leo let his head drop and he closed his eyes, letting in bliss unconsciousness, unable to even care enough to hold on.
Below him, the blood from his face dripped onto his destroyed bandanna and slowly tainted the blue.
Raph's POV:
*Hours later*
Raphael was upstate, sitting atop a rooftop with his meat-lovers pizza, having a quick break from his usual crawl through the crime heavy parts of good old New York.
It was just on dusk and his muscular frame casted a lazy shadow across the rooftop as he munched on his dinner. His legs were dangled over the side of the building and with his head, Raph pulled the melted cheese away from his pizza as the stingy yellow cheese fought to stay connected to the toppings.
Chewing, he looked out on the city, watching for any disturbances.
But the city was quiet although Raph felt as though something very bad had happened that day.
Raphael shook the feeling off and chuckled. "Bet Mikey would say that it's too quiet."
Raph sighed. Although he was never one for family bonding sessions, eating pizza alone really sucked.
Six months ago, going out alone to fight crime hadn't been his usual gig, but in six months a lot had changed and cleaning up the streets was something he was actually good at.
It was simple. There were the bad guys, the good guys and then there were his fists shovelling out the justice that some people deserved, although he had learnt the hard way to never go too far. Plus, there was no harm in watching for Leo in what Raph believed was a possible vain but honest hope.
Raph went to pick up another piece of pizza but jolted when his T-phone started to vibrate in his belt. He groaned. "It's probably Donnie again."
He pulled it out but was startled to see the face of April lighting up the screen as the phone buzzed in his hand.
He hesitated for a second but then accepted the call and put the device to the side of his head. "Hey April, it's not the best t-"
April's voice cut him off before he could finish and came through hurried and slightly panicked. "Raph! Oh thank god! Are you alright? Are Donnie and Mike with you?"
Raphael tensed. "Yeah, I'm fine but no; the guys ain't here. April, tell me what's wrong."
Her reply was immediate. "They aren't answering my calls. I tried Donnie and then Mikey a couple times but-"
Raph stood up from his pizza. "April! Stop and slow down. Ya know, they could just be busy."
There was no hesitancy in April's voice as she replied. "Donnie always answers or calls me back. I even called the cheese phone at the Lair. It's disconnected Raph."
Raphael started to pace, worry beginning to encroach into his mind. The cheese phone was never disconnected – it was their emergency line. "Okay ummm alright. I'll see if I can get a hold of them. Ap, what were you calling about in the first place? If I can get through, I'll pass on the message."
April breathed into the phone and her reply made Raphael stop dead. His knuckles whitened and his face dropped slightly.
"Raph, I think I've found something…"
To be Continued…
BOOYAKASHA! The following chapters are going to be intense quite like this one and I can't wait for you to read them. Please leave a review if you liked chapter 11 :).
You are all awesome! Seriously, lova ya'll.
