The elevator was even smaller than the first: Mikey spent the ride with his feet on one wall and his palms on the other, hanging above everyone, and Casey had to hold his hockey bag above his head. Don and Splinter worried over Leo and Raph, though there were minimal injuries. They'd both sustained bruises and slight cuts where the guards' beat-sticks had opened the skin. Raph's eye still twitched from the taser, but other than that, he was fit and ready to fight.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid slowly open- Mikey propelled himself out, landing in a somersault before flipping to a fighting pose, nunchucks out. Raph snorted, limping out. "Nice move, bonehead."
Mikey grinned back at him. "Thanks. I've been practicing."
Leo helped Master Splinter out, roving his gaze over the expansive room. "What now, Don?"
Donatello adjusted his glasses, pulling out his gadgets and GPS. "This was supposed to be their electrical base, where all the computers route to."
Casey glanced around the room- a storage room, it seemed, boxes piled high. "And this ain't it?"
"No. If it was the base, there would be a bunch of electronics and screens and, and stuff like that."
"Stuff like blinking lights?" Mikey piped up.
Donnie gave a long-suffering sigh. "Yes, Mikey like blinking lights."
"Well, then." Mikey flipped onto Raph's shoulders, locking his legs under his brother's chin so he wouldn't be thrown off.
Raph growled, grabbing his youngest brother's ankles. "Mikey, what the shell are you-"
"Hold still! I see a blinking light!" the youngest brother hissed. As soon as Raph was standing steady again, Mikey rapped his knuckles on the ceiling. It echoed hollowly before giving way. "Well well well, what have we here?"
Before anyone could stop him, the youngster launched off Raph's shoulders and into the hole. The brothers gathered under the hole, gazing anxiously up. "Mikey, what do you see?"
"Don! I found the base!"
Raph and Leo managed to shove a heavy conference-room table in front of the elevator, blocking off the entrance. Then they found a ladder in the storage room rubbish and set it up beneath the hole. Then everyone was up into the false ceiling. It creaked and groaned beneath their feet, but held solid. The hidden room was dark, dimly lit by the enormous computer base- taller than any of them, as wide as the four brothers standing with arms spread out. Covered in switches, screens- and yes, blinking lights- it looked like a mad genius' greatest dream. Donnie approached it first, flicking a few switches and typing a few codes. A screen blinked on, showing the live security camera footage. Guards were packed into the elevator and on their way up, and more were stampeding up the stairs. Leo took out his katanas, the leather in his grip a grounding comfort. "Hurry, Don."
Donnie scrambled from one screen to the other, searching. "Mikey, Raph, I need some help. We need to find the hard drive. It's about the size of a Chinese take out box, and it's going to be attached to some sort of wiring."
Raph slid his sai into the base's plastic cover, flipping it up like the hood of a car. Mikey pointed into the mess of wires and sparking gadgets. "Like that?"
Donnie sighed. "Yes, like that."
He pulled out a pair of electrical pliers, warning, "Step back."
Neither of his brothers obeyed, watching him with careful eyes. Don smiled at their loyalty, then leaned down to clip the wires surrounding the hard drive; once that was done, he used a pair of tweezers to lift it out and away. "Got it, Leo!"
"Good, because I think company just arrived below."
"What's the gameplan?"
"We can't fight all of them."
"But we can't stay up here."
Casey leaned forward into the huddle. "Could we go up? That one guy mentioned a twelfth floor, and this is only the tenth or eleventh. There has to be some way up."
Leo nodded. "Don?"
"The GPS cut out, but the blueprints say there's a stairwell on the back wall of the storage room. Doesn't say where it goes to, exactly, but it's there."
"And if it isn't, we can fight our way back to the freight elevator," Raph interjected. "We can either fight the guards on the stairwell, or retake the elevator."
Leo glanced at Splinter, who nodded his consent. "Then we'll go down and look for a stairway. But we'd better be quick about it."
They dropped back down to the storage room, and took off running through the rubbish. Leo thought he saw a silhouetted something on the other side of the dirty windows, but Don flashed on the floodlights on his backpack, illuminating the space, whatever it was flit away. The back wall was just that- a wall. The six of them spread out, thumping the wall. Casey was the first to find an echo- he stepped to the side as Raph rammed into it, opening a hole in the drywall.
Mikey coughed in the dust. "One-turtle demolition team."
Then there was shouting from the opposite stairwell, and pounding on the elevator. The brothers swung around to see TCRI guards storming towards them, beat sticks ready and tasers sparking. They pulled their own weapons, ready to fight. But Donnie pulled something out of his bag and threw it on the ground between the two opposing forces, yelling, "Run!"
Whatever it was shattered on impact, and flames roared upwards, devouring the cluttered room. Again, Leo saw the black figure, come flying into the room, shattering the window before landing on the other side of the roaring fires. He shook himself, pushing Splinter, Casey, and his three brothers up the stairs before thundering up after them.
The stairs stopped on the eleventh floor. Leo was the last up, quickly gazing over the empty floor. No walls, no cubicles, no people. Only three broken glass tanks, a home gym with weights and bench press- and a weightlifting device he'd never seen before, and a table of computers and machines like he'd never seen before. Nearly everything came in threes- three oddly-shaped chairs, three cots, three glass tanks.
MIkey gulped at an array of needles and tubes on one of the three wheeled tables. "I don't even want to know what those are for."
"Whatever it it, it doesn't have anything to do with Maria," Don said. When Raph shot him a look, he explained further. "The equipment's either too old or too new to have been part of her time here."
"What is our escape plan, my sons?" Splinter asked, redrawing their attention.
"We're only about five floors above the roof of the parking garage," Don offered.
"Are you suggesting that we jump, genius?" Casey snorted.
"We don't have to jump," Don snorted back.
Mikey grinned, grabbing onto Don's backpack. "You finally made those stick-pad things that spies use to climb walls. didn't you! See, I told you they'd be useful!"
Don shook him off, reaching into his bag of tricks. "No, Mikey. The science behind those is impossible. I have rappelling gear."
Leo and Raph shared a grin. Boy scout Donnie; always prepared.
It only took a moment for Raph to knock out a tall glass window, and another for Donnie to set up the gear, tying Leo and Splinter into it first. After double-checking the knots, Leo stepped out of the empty window, into the open air. Wind whipped at the tails of his mask, stinging his eyes. Strapped to his carapace, Master Splinter closed his eyes against the chill, holding tight to his walking stick. Leo carefully made his way down to the parking garage roof. He was only a few yards away when something dark swooped high above, twanging the rope as it went by.
Leo lost his grip and swung away from the building as the rope whipped. As they swung back toward the building, Leo felt them turning, and instantly shifted Splinter away from the impact. They hit broadside- Leo heard a crack and felt fire lace up his arm. His face twisted in pain, and he quickly lowered them to the roof.
Splinter untied himself and turned to untie his son, casting the ropes aside- they zipped away, pulled up by the other brothers. "What is broken, Leonardo?"
"Wrist," Leo replied, forcing the words between his gritted teeth. With his other hand, he pulled off his mask and handed it to his father. "We'll use this to tie it off."
While Splinter administered to the broken appendage, Leo distracted himself by watching his brothers descend. Next came Mikey; he, too, was nearly halfway down when another black thing swooped by with impossible speed, snatching at the rope. Mikey managed to hold on, smacking into the building. Another airborne assailant- smaller than the first- flew by, scarcely seen, matching the dark of the night too well. Raph roared and something glinted in the city lights- a ninja star. It lodged in the shadow: the creature screeched like a banshee and swept away.
Leo rose to intercept Mikey; the youngster was cradling his ribs, taking shallow breaths. "I'm fine, Leo. What was that thing?"
Leo shook his head, watching the skies. "I don't know. But I don't think it'll come back."
