Possible spoiler alert! If you haven't seen the new Hellboy movie, try to ignore most of what the very begining of the chapter says. You have been warned.

Chapter Ten

Exposure

"Okay, I admit it," Razor said holding his hands up as they exited the movie theater after seeing Hellboy II: The Golden Army. They had already seen the first one a while ago. Mikey had it in his vast collection of DVDs since it was based off a comic book that he had found only a few years ago. "That was pretty good."

Gorf had begged them to come with him. Alex and Razor hadn't wanted to leave the lair with their stomachs still a little upset, but they caved just to get the frog to shut up. They had slipped out of the lair, taking Mikey's method by leaving a note and leaving before anyone could catch them sneaking out the door.

"Told ya you'd like it," Gorf said happily.

"Gotta admit, even our robots aren't that bad," Alex commented.

"I say the graphics were a little too good," Jack said while they walked down the sidewalk.

Alex chuckled quietly to himself. "Tooth fairies…"

"Yeah," Razor said to Jack's comment. "If you ever go to another action movie with us you're not allowed to have any drinks and you'll be sitting with Alex."

"Oh come on Razor," Gorf said, putting arm around the shark's shoulders. "Don't be mean, even if he did almost wet himself in your lap."

"Fine, he can sit on your legs next time."

"I… think I'm good, thanks."

"Hey, what's that?" Jack asked, pointing ahead of them.

The three adults looked ahead of them. They were entering Time's Square and saw a large crowd huddled in the middle of Times Square. Traffic seemed to have stopped in the large intersection as the crowd steadily grew larger. At the center of the crowd was what seemed to be a stage of some kind, on the stage was the reason for the crowd: a large object covered by a red sheet.

Though they were continuously warned to keep a distance from overly populated crowds, Alex walked towards the large group of humans. Razor and Gorf were quick to follow, Jack just tagging along.

"What's going on?" Gorf voiced loudly for anyone to answer when they started mixing with the crowd. Jack was squeezing both Razor and Gorf's hands so he wouldn't disappear in the ocean of legs.

"Don't know," someone said. "The thing appeared almost an hour ago, carried by some robots."

"Police tried to make them move," someone else said. "But some guy talked to the one in charge. The cops are still here, but they're not doing anything."

"Curious, probably," Gorf guessed.

Alex stood on her toes to try and get a better view but there were a lot of people taller than her fourteen-year-old body.

Just as curious as everyone else, the next twenty minutes were spent of the small group waiting around with Alex squeezing and pushing her way through the crowd to get a better view, the other three close behind.

Right as Razor noticed the news crews dotted all around them something finally happened: all the electronic ads hanging all over the building walls around them suddenly went blank. After a few seconds they all turned on together and showed the stage so everyone could see no matter where they were placed in the crowd. Climbing onto the stage, and in turn stepping into view on the screens, was the scientific Satan himself. The very sight of him started to boil Alex's blood.

Razor put a hand on the girl's shoulder to tell her to stay put after seeing her hands clench into fists that started to grow and sharpen. Alex glanced at him and tried to control herself for a few more minutes. Might as well stand still and see what was going on, and then kill her creator.

"Citizens of New York!" Ambrose called out, his voice amplified by a set of speakers standing up from the stage like he was giving a presidential speech. "I am sure you are all wondering just what is going on at the moment. And I can assure you all that you will find out very soon. But first I must tell you that at this very moment the entire Earth's population is in danger."

"What's he talking about?" Gorf muttered as questioning voices broke out among the crowd in a din.

"I'll say right now it's not good for us," Alex growled.

"And it's being broadcasted to national television," Razor added.

Ambrose waited a moment for the voices to quiet down some. "Within every country there are tales of creatures and demons dotting the lands. Of course these are nothing but legends, fairy tales, children's stories, whatever you want to call it. But what if I was to say that there are creatures living among us? Clever, devious creatures have mixed within our population without anyone noticing by taking on the appearance of teenagers and innocent children." He gestured toward the red curtain. "Under this curtain if proof that what I say is true." With a mighty, yet graceful, tug Ambrose pulled the curtain right off and showed just what he said. Inside a large cube big enough to be a room pulled from a house made of bulletproof glass were two teenager boys. One was sixteen and would look average enough if it weren't for the hard-to-not-notice pair of dark feathered wings sprouting from his back. The other was only thirteen but had a more muscular build than the first, and was equally strange with four arms instead of the natural two. The sight of the two wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact they looked like they were in the middle of a death match, complete with obvious bruises and some of the blood smears on the glass that had already happened before the curtain was pulled.

"No way…" Gorf whispered. What would get them to do this?

"Shit," was all Razor could come up with as Jack hid from the violence behind Razor's leg.

Alex couldn't say anything, all she wanted to do was sink her claws, tail blade, and maybe even fangs into the scientist. She would already be on the stage if it wasn't for Razor discreetly holding her back.

Bomber grabbed Dev's ready punch with his lower left hand and grabbed the next punch coming from Dev's free hand. With his top right hand Bomber punched Dev across the face. A few more punches were thrown before Dev pulled his bleeding head back and smashed his forehead against Bomber's. The blow knocked the younger one down. Without a moment to get past the pain given to both their skulls, Dev came jumped forward and would have landed both feet in Bomber's chest if the latter hadn't rolled to the side. On a second try Dev jumped up, using his wings to get high enough, and planted a kick to Bomber's face. This wasn't acting; the two were actually trying to cause some real damage.

"This is just the beginning," Ambrose proclaimed. "There are hundreds more spread across the globe. All of them look different, but let me promise you all are equally dangerous and none of them are human no matter how they may look or act."

Speak for yourself! Razor wanted to yell.

"We gotta stop them," Gorf whispered low enough for only his friends to hear as Dev was thrown against the wall of the glass box. "What's making them do this?"

As she watched the fighting Alex had a sudden flashback from two years ago. She had been forced to turn and fight her friends like she didn't even know them, completely against her will. She still felt grossed out at the very thought of the robotic insect that burrowed into her skin and lodged itself into her brain. When she got over the flashback she wondered If that was how Bomber and Dev were being controlled.

"I can also say that I have the right equipment to hold these creatures so they won't be as big of a threat. Me and my team of scientists and inventors have crafted weapons and containers to capture these creatures to remove them from the public. We are more than willing to give such weapons and things to the police and army for peace of not only the US but the Earth as a whole."

"We gotta stop this before everyone's in danger of exposure," Gorf muttered.

"More like before they kill each other," Razor whispered back as he watched their fellow experiments continue to maul each other with pounding fists and kicking feet, along with any other way they could hurt one another without the use of weapons.

Finally Alex spotted it. Another scientist was close by, but not near the stage. He was standing unnoticed by a building playing with a little device in his hand. At first glance it looked like he was fiddling with a cell phone the device was so small, but Alex knew a scientist when she saw one and that was no average guy trying to get a hold of a friend.

Looking back at the glass cube she noticed a small opening that acted as a doorway. The doorway was filled in with a solid white laser that would probably fry anything that touched it. Sitting beside the doorway was a device that probably controlled the laser.

A plan quickly formed in her head.

"Jack, is your shoe untied again?" Alex suddenly asked, bending down. Jack looked at her funny after seeing his shoelace was tightly tied, then noticed she was gesturing for him to bend down also. "Jack, I need you to trust me," she whispered seriously. "We're going to rescue these guys, they're friends of ours, and I need you to trust me not to drop you because I'm going to attract all these people's attention and I'll be carrying you. Okay?"

Jack gave her a questioning look but finally nodded.

"Dang it, Ray could you help me with this knot?" Alex said louder.

Razor bent down, him and Alex huddled around the small shoe.

"There's a scientist by the wall directly west of us," Alex informed him in a hiss. "He's holding a mind control device; it's what's making those two fight. Grab it and turn it off. Frog!"

"Hey a quarter!" Gorf exclaimed and bent down.

"There's a lock-thing on the side of the box, it's beside a door. Get that door open, I'm sure you know how to do it without any gear."

Gorf straightened up and looked for the device. "Dang it, dropped the quarter…" He bent back down. "Are you kidding? I used to build those things, it'll be easy. But how do I get up there without getting noticed?"

"Leave that to me," Alex said. "Razor will be fixing their fighting; when they aren't trying to kill each other get them out of there. Go ahead and lead them back to the lair, just don't be followed, okay?"

Gorf nodded and straightened, as did Alex. Razor hesitated a moment, like he was finishing the tying of Jack's shoe. After a moment Razor said something with the word "bathroom" in it and walked to the west. Alex nodded a Gorf and he walked off too, pushing his way deeper into the crowd.

"And when they are captured I will see to it that they are handled in an appropriate manner to ensure everyone's safety," Ambrose was saying.

Alex looked down at Jack, who looked up at her with more questions then they had time for. She gave him a reassuring smile. "Trust me, and whatever you do don't teleport," she whispered at him and turned back to the stage, taking her sweatshirt off. After tying it around her waist she took a deep breath she yelled "Is that it?!"

It was silent for a second as people looked around for the source of the voice.

"Are those two the threat?!" she yelled as eyes turned on her. Oh Splinter's going to kill me - I'm gonna kill me. "They're nothing, just two teenagers with extra body parts. These 'creatures' you talk about, only a small number of them are dangerous." Most of the crowd was paying attention to her, so it was hardly noticeable that the two teens in the cube had stopped fighting and were just standing there dazed and beat up. Gotta make sure Gorf doesn't get caught; time to make my move… With a breath, knowing she would never be able to show her face in sunlight again, she clenched her fists and when she released them her hands were sharp claws. A sigh of relief later her tail uncurled itself and swung out from underneath her sweatshirt, blades glinting in the sun. People closest to her quickly stumbled back. To top it off, with a dramatic snap, she let her wings out. That got the gasps.

Knowing there were not only news cameras on her, but also cell phone cameras, digital cameras, and even camcorders pointed right at her. Even more proof that she would never be able to freely show herself topside again.

Up on stage she noticed Gorf jumping up onto the platform and started to tinker with the locking device. He would probably only need a few more seconds.

Alex pointed a claw up at the scientist. "Just let it be known why this man knows about such creatures, and how he has already created weapons to use against us. He's the one that created us, right out of his laboratories. He's only exposing us now because we escaped and he wants The People to round us up because he can't do so himself. We're only dangerous because we defend ourselves in self defense, he attacks us first!"

As she spoke the policemen that were positioned close to the stage came forward, their guns ready. Alex scowled at the weapons pointed towards her. Of course no one got that she wasn't posing as a threat at the moment, and the real enemy was standing right behind them. But that could just be her opinion, and who would listen to a low, escaped science experiment?

"Fine, if that's how you want it," she said and in a swift, smooth move grabbed Jack and jumped into the air, easily lifting up well over their heads, the little body clinging onto her for dear life, trying to do as told and not teleport. "Just remember," she called down before leaving the scene over the rooftops. "You'll never be able to catch all of us!"

...--... ...--... ...--... ...--... ...--... ...--... ...--...

"You're not done yet?" a voice hissed.

Gorf quickly glanced over his shoulder as he crouched down on the stage trying to stay out of sight. "It's complicated!" he hissed back.

Razor clambered up onto the stage, staying crouched down as he crawled over to Gorf. He had easily wrestled the mind control device from the scientist, and, after turning it off, took a nice big chunk out of it to keep it off.

Everyone's attention was focused on a girl. Personally, Razor still couldn't believe Alex was risking public exposure like this. Not only was she going to become forever forced to stay in the sewers, but Splinter - and even Leo - were going to kill her or willingly showing off what she was. But it was for a good cause.

"Move," Razor said and shoved Gorf out of the way. It was an awkward angle, but when shark-boy was done the laser door disappeared.

"You have no respect for technology," Gorf said shaking his head when Razor spat the locking device out of his mouth.

"But my method always works in the shortest time," Razor said as they quickly entered the glass cube.

"Gorf…?" Dev muttered confusedly.

"Move now, talk later," Gorf said as he and Razor quickly shoved the beat up experiments out into the open. There weren't any people behind the stage and that's where they took their leave. But even with no one to slow them down the going wasn't easy. Dev could barely stand on his own let alone run in a straight line, whereas Bomber could at least run but wasn't exactly the fastest runner out there.

Razor and Gorf had to practically drag their comrades down an alley, knowing they had to stay out of the streets.

People back at Time's Square must have realized that the absence of the experiments because sirens blared very close by.

"Great…" Razor huffed.

"Come on," Gorf said. "Alex said to take these guys to the lair. Let's get in the sewers before anyone finds us."

"Right."

...--... ...--... ...--... ...--... ...--... ...--... ...--...

"Man, there's nothing on!" Mikey exclaimed in a whine as he lay face down on the couch staring at the numerous TV screens, head resting on the arm not holding the remote.

"There's obviously something on or else the numerous stations wouldn't work," Don said coming up to the couch and handed him a tube of lotion. "Here, courtesy of April."

Mikey took the lotion and looked at it. He stuck his tongue out. "This stuff smells like Razor's breath or something."

"Even so, it'll help heal your bruises faster," Don said.

"But it stinks, and feels weird!"

"Put it on."

"Fine," Mikey huffed and sat up.

When his brother accepted the ointment Don glanced at the TVs. It was stopped on some kiddy show where everything had eyes, was smiling, and there was happiness all around. He reached down and grabbed the remote. He was all for learning and education for children, but he disagreed with the reality the writers created for kids - especially that Dora the Explorer show, having a child run around the country, through forests over mountains and such with a blue talking monkey without an adult. And he highly doubted if you saw someone trying to take your things and said "Thief no stealing!" three times they would go away just like that. And he wasn't even going to get started with Blues Clues.

Flipping through the channels he realized there really wasn't anything good to watch. He turned the TVs off and was about to walk away when Raph emerged from the depths of his room.

"Damn, what died in here?"

"See!" Mikey exclaimed looking disgusted as he rubbed the odd colored lotion on his arms.

"Raph…" Don said.

"What?" Raph asked innocently and grabbed the remote. Turning the TVs back on they found the news. Raph was about to change it when a statement popped out at them: "Inhuman creatures running loose in the city." The three glanced at each other then back to the screens. The scene had changed to footage of just a few minutes ago of a dark haired girl with pale skin and black hands showing off a tail and batwings.

"Alex is on TV!" Mikey exclaimed happily.

"Hey for once I'm not going to be in trouble," Raph said.

"I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation," Don said, though he sounded concerned.

The three continued to watch the news. All they got out of it was the anchors stressing how dangerous these 'creatures' could be after watching two of them go at it, and the other one with large blades and claws attached to 'it's' body. The news even added the footage of the two fighting, though only for a few moments. Then it was explained how police will be looking through the streets and encourage people to stay indoors until more information is gathered.

As they stared at the screens Leo appeared a few minutes in the 'breaking news'.

When the story ended there was a moment of silence. The four were trying to figure out just what was going through their friend's mind. She had exposed herself for a good cause, but there had to have been a better way. But what's done is done; now it was a matter of hoping Alex would ever walk back into the lair.

...--... ...--... ...--... ...--... ...--... ...--... ...--...

"I only have one question… what the hell happened?!" Razor exclaimed as he stood in front of the kitchen table. Ten minutes ago he and Gorf had stumbled into the lair supporting the beaten bodies. There was some silence as Don tried to stop bleeding noses, shoved frozen peas and ice packs against black eyes and fat lips, and Mikey was happy to donate his funky smelling bruise lotion out of 'the kindness of his heart' - AKA there was less for him to wear.

"Don't yell at me," Bomber said sharply and pointed at Dev. "Bird brain here almost broke my freak'n nose!"

"You? I swear you knocked some teeth loose," Dev said as he held an ice pack to his cheek.

"What about my eye?"

"You yanked feathers out! It's not like I already have a molting problem!"

"You pulled my hair and almost broke my arm!"

"Like you don't have three others."

"I'm sure you don't need those wings either," Bomber said threateningly, but it didn't give out a very menacing effect since his nose was basically plugged by the bloodied rag held to his nostrils.

"Hey, I've already been through one broken wing, I don't need to go through it again."

"Okay guys that's enough," Leo said. "How about just explaining what happened?"

Bomber and Dev looked at each other for a moment, and then turned to the others that stood around the kitchen sitting in chairs and leaning on counters and walls. The two shrugged.

"We don't get very much freedom anymore," Dev said.

"Like we got any before," Gorf muttered.

"It's worse," Bomber said.

"I'll say," Dev agreed, leaning back in his chair. "Kept in pitch black rooms by yourself, shackled around the wrist to the wall, so tightly your hands go numb. My wings were duct taped to my back, then ripped off taking yet more feathers - god it's a good thing I grow them faster than any bird would."

"Anyway," Bomber continued. "I can't really say when it happened, but at some point Dev was moved into where I was being kept. Some time after that we heard buzzing."

"Never a good sign," Gorf commented.

"No a bad sign is when something bites ya on the neck," Bomber said pointing to the side of his neck.

"Course we couldn't see what it was," Dev said. "But we couldn't do anything about it with our hands tied down."

"Then there was a sharp pain in my head," Bomber remembered. "Like something digging through my skull. The next thing I know Razor's pushing me down some alley. Everything between those times was like some weird dream. Only you don't wake up when you get hurt." He looked at Dev pointedly.

"That's just life," Alex said. Everyone turned to the voice to see the girl sitting on the couch's armrest. When did she come in?

Suddenly Jack appeared with his arms wrapped around Razor's waist, face dug into his side. The little boy pointed a finger back at Alex. "She dropped me!"

"I said I was sorry!" Alex exclaimed and crossed her arms. "I've never carried cargo longer than a few seconds before," she said as an explanation at the looks she got.

"Amateur…" Dev muttered.

"Like you've ever carried a body before," Alex told him sharply and pointed at Jack. "Besides he slipped out of his shirt and I caught him before he fell five feet, and we were a good forty feet in the air, he wasn't even close to the ground."

"Beside the point," Razor said protectively and caught himself. "God damn it he's growing on me…"

Splinter cleared his throat.

"Oh- uh- sorry."

"Anyway," Alex said to move things along before anyone pointed out that she had willingly shown herself to the public. Personally she hoped they would forget about it before she could get in trouble. "The pain in your head was a small robot about the size of a half dollar drilling through your skull and implanting itself in your brain. It's a way of mind control."

"Say what?" Dev said in a deadpan voice.

"I turned them off," Razor said.

Dev adjusted the bag of peas to find a colder spot to hold over his eye. "Well that's just great; I have a damned robot in my head and a hole in my skull. Can you guys get it out?"

Don shook his head. "I don't have anywhere near the right equipment."

"Al has one in her head too," Mikey said.

"Great, we can't start a damned club," Bomber grumbled, his lower arms crossed.

Splinter quietly shook his head. No matter how old the experiments actually were, they acted like their looks and the youth of this generation was so lost to swearing it had become part of their natural vocabulary. He tried to keep his own sons from cursing but it was inevitable.

"What's your problem?" Raph asked the experiment non too nicely.

"Psych and Eli…" Bomber muttered, his free hand tightening into a fist until his knuckles started to crack.

"Oh yeah, how're they doing?" Mikey asked and received a look with misdirected anger.

"They're caught," Bomber muttered.

"What?" Alex, Razor, Gorf, Don, Mikey, and Leo managed to say together.

Bomber huffed. "We settled down in Tennessee, it was where we were caught by surprise by those freak'n bird-things. There were three of 'em - I took one out with a bomb igniting the cabin with it, the second one I took out with my gun. The third one got away with Eli. Me and Psych didn't know where to look, so we came to New York - might as well I thought, it's where everything began. We looked around a couple days when we got here. The fourth day we're heading back to the hotel and the freak'n robot appears out of nowhere. It's pretty obvious what happened after that."

Alex stood up and stepped forward. "We can't let this happen. Not again."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"But you can't be the leader, or the planner," Razor said. "Your plans always backfire, and, I'm sorry, but I can't trust you with my life if you can't even beat me at chess."

Alex gave him a resentful glare, but had to agree.

"Can you guys tell us where the scientists have set up?" Leo asked.

Dev and Bomber shook their heads.

"You're unconscious going in or coming out," Dev said. "And I bet you rarely come out anyway. We were only let out so we could put on a show."

"Well you guys made a great first impression," Gorf said. "It was just putting us in a bad light. It's gonna be just like the movies," he said worriedly.

"Do you think they'll really use the army?" Mikey asked.

"I'll say they'll use everything they got after seeing genius's built on weapon," Raph directed at Alex.

"It was the only thing I could think of to get attention off of them," Alex said before she could get scolded. "And I bet that bastard would have seen me anyway. And I knowI can no longer show my face in public again."

"We will talk about that later," Splinter said giving Alex a sense of dread.

"Going back to the problem at hand," Gorf said. "What're we gonna do?"

"I can't leave them stranded there," Bomber said.

"And you don't have to," Leo said. "We just need to think of something that won't get us all captured."

Mikey rubbed the shoulder that had recovered from the gunshot wound. "What about a tracker?"

"What?" Gorf asked.

"A tracker," Mikey repeated. "They did it to me. You know, hide a tracker on one of us. The one with it goes out at night and… well… sits there waiting to be found."

"And what, when they're caught everyone else follows the signal?" Razor asked.

"Basically," Mikey said.

"That's suicide," Dev said.

"I'll do it."

Oh who could have said that?

Finally finished this one. And I admit, I personally love writing cliffhangers when I can, and when I wrote the last sentenced I figured it was a great way to stop. And I've noticed my chapters seem to be getting longer and longer. But that might just be me.

Anyway, in real life I can only imagine how much writing I'll be getting done with school starting a week from tomorrow. I can't believe how early in the month its starting! And I can say that I'm not really excited about becoming a Freshman. I know a lot of people are like "OMG first year of highschool!!" but that's not me. to me its just another year of school to get by before I got to even more school for college. But I'll move this along before this chapter becomes my blog.

I'll leave you to wonder who's willing to be the live bait with a final word:

REVIEW!!