Chapter 21

-Rescue-

Wearing the night as ninja's are taught, the group drifted effortlessly from one rooftop to the next, casing swift shadows over the alleyways below. Leonardo came to a final perch on a building that gave him a full frontal view of the Channel Six Building. The surrounding area was a little too quiet for his liking, he expected the central command of a world-conquering alien to be decked out in the latest security measures.

Raphael and Michelangelo landed on either side of the Leonardo followed by April who came to a crouch on the other side of Michelangelo. "Are you sure this is the right place?" Raphael asked.

"Yeah, I mean it's got a pretty sweet antenna but as far as main boss headquarters it's kind of lame." Michelangelo added.

"We can't assume anything." Leonardo cautioned, "Mikey, you called the Mutanimals, where are they?"

"Said they'd be here." Michelangelo shrugged.

As if on que, Slash leapt up onto the roof behind them followed by the other members of his team and Mondo Gecko. When Slash got closer Raphael noticed a huge welt on the side of his face. His instincts as pet owner and friend kicked in and he immediately hurried to Slash's side. "What happened?" he asked.

"Just got a little sense knocked into me, is all." Slash smiled, baring all of his teeth dangerously, though Raphael's trust in the leader of the Mutanimals blinded him to that fact. "Just a team misunderstanding. It's all worked out now."

Raphael nodded, thinking nothing of it, as he had his own team skirmishes from time to time, during which he was usually the one to leave marks.

"Mondo! Leatherhead!" Michelangelo bounded over to his allies with all the enthusiasm of a child running to meet their grandparents. He wasn't greeted as warmly as he normally was, which would have been odd if the circumstances were normal, so he thought nothing of it.

"We don't know what to expect down there so we should stay together." Leonardo began, only to be cut off by Slash (he was afraid this would happen).

"We should split into teams." Slash said.

Leonardo bristled, irritated that his authority was being challenged, especially by Slash. "Normally, that would be the best strategy but that didn't work out for us last time and I won't fail again."

"You said it yourself, we don't know what to expect down there. You know it's the better play, here." Slash pressed.

Leonardo's reasons for keeping everyone together were personal rather than strategical and so he had no choice but to concede. Splitting up made him uncomfortable but he couldn't put everyone at risk just because he wanted to keep them close by. "You're right." Leonardo said and split everyone into the following teams: Raphael with Slash and Pete, Michelangelo with Leatherhead and Mondo, Rockwell and April with himself.

"Hey, where's Casey?" April asked, she'd heard that he joined the Mutanimals from Michelangelo and was excited by the prospect of seeing him again. "Shouldn't we wait for him?"

"There's no time." Leonardo said, "The longer we stay out here the better chance we have of being discovered."

"It ain't right to do this without him." Raphael said.

"I know, but we can't worry about that right now. We can make it up to him by bringing Donnie home." assured Leonardo

Inside…

Searching the underbelly of the Channel Six Building left Raphael wondering why they were being so stealthy in the first place. Because, there didn't seem to be so much as a security camera let alone security guard. "Where is the army of robots? Evixus has had plenty of time to rebuild it by now."

"Evixus isn't as dumb as our average world conqueror." Said Slash. "Trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity after all. He might have a different kind of army working for him."

"Ah-hah! Got it!" Pete shouted, causing Raphael to roll his eyes. The birdbrain had been trying to turn on his flash light for the past five minutes.

"Well, if someone is here then they know we're here, too." Raphael said, snatching the flashlight from the incompetent mutant.

The light revealed a scientific laboratory workstation that put Donnie's to shame. Sweeping the light across he assortment of scientific instruments he found Splinter's cane. Raphael's blood began to warm in that familiar way but he suppressed it in favor of keeping a level head.

He took a step closer, he could be wrong. Another step, hoped he was wrong. One more, please be wrong. Raphael put the flashlight down and grabbed up his father's cane. "That bastard has Splinter too?" Why didn't he see it before? Splinter should have been back from meditation days ago.

"Gee, maybe if you hadn't been too busy looking for clues with me, you would have realized that your father had been taken." Light flooded the room, drowning out the flashlight as it revealed the owner of the voice, though, Raphael knew them instantly as Casey Jones.

"Sup, Raph." Casey said. "We have your father. Unfortunately he's being protected by your brother so we weren't able to make him a part of our army. Maybe we'll have better luck with you."

Raphael drew his sai, "Evixus." That single utterance was the only thing Raphael had time to breathe before Pete attacked.

Pete wrestled Raphael's sai from his hands, only able to succeed because red-banded turtle was ill prepared for his surprise attack. Once Pete had the newly secured weapons in hand he turned them on Raphael. Pete swung so wildly that Raphael had no choice but to back away, the fact that the birdbrained spy didn't know how to use the weapons didn't make him any less dangerous.

"Pete! What the heck!?" Raphael backed up as Pete advanced ever closer, soon there would be nowhere to run. "Slash, make him back off before he loses more feathers than he can afford to lose."

"No can do, brother." Slash said, Mace at the ready, "See, there's been a change of plans." turned and whipped his mace at the Red banded turtle once more. Raphael jumped back, his carapace meeting with the brick wall behind him. "Slash! Buddy, what's gotten into you?"

"The Mutanimals are under new management." Casey said, finally entering the fray. "My management. You know why I ditched you to become a Mutanimal? Because, I was fed up with being a sixth wheel on a losing team."

"What are you talking about?" Raphael asked, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Oh, you still haven't figured it out? No human can escape once we have control of their minds. Casey has been working for me the entire time."

"I sense Donatello's unique energy signal coming from this direction." Rockwell said, taking the lead so that Leonardo and April could follow him. They snaked through so many stairwells and halls that it was hard for Leonardo to remember which way they had come.

"April, is any of this familiar to you?" Leonardo voiced the question his intuition was asking.

"No, I'm sorry. I spend most of my time crawling through the air vents in the dark. I wish I could remember something."

"Don't worry too much, he's close." Rockwell said, "Come." He disappeared down the next corridor.

When Leonardo and April caught up, they found themselves amidst a group of at least a hundred humans. They stood along the walls, eyes closed, in a state of sleep that made them uncomfortable. Not only that, but each person was wearing a helmet oddly similar to the one worn by Rockwell.

Before Leonardo could say anything the door behind them slammed shut and suddenly, two hundred eyes were on them. "We must say, for all the trouble you've cause us, we weren't expecting this to be so easy." Said Rockwell. "And look, you've even returned the Host."

That statement made April's skin crawl at the memory of this entity violating her own mind. Leonard sensed April's trepidation and took careful, strategic steps to shield her from the alien's view. April gladly welcomed the gesture.

"I haven't returned anything." Leonardo hissed, "in fact, it's quite the opposite, actually. I've come to take my family back."

"Oh dear." Rockwell said, "That really was the wrong thing to say. Well it doesn't matter, you'll get what you want. You and your family will be together…in the afterlife!" Rockwell focused on his helmet and the wall of humans began to respond.

April fanned out her tessen but Leonardo reached out and snapped the fan closed. "You can't." Leonardo said. "These people don't know what they are doing, we have to avoid using our blades." To emphasis his point Leonardo flipped both of his katana so that his opponents would be met by the dull edge of his blades.

"Remember our training?" Leonardo asked.

How could she forget? Leonardo as Sensei was no joke, Stretching, Running, Meditation, Katas, and Swordsmanship until her arms nearly fell off. Even if she was caught in a freak accident and lost her memory, her muscles would remember all. "Yes." Came her reply.

Then, in an act unprecedented by the leader in blue, Leonardo flipped the left katana into the air in order to hand it safely to April. "Take it."

"What?" April looked down at the magnificent weapon in disbelief. Leonardo had yet to let her use a real katana until she mastered his training with her bokken, a feat she has yet to accomplish.

"You can't use your tessen right now and you need a weapon, just knock them out." He jabbed the katana at her slightly, "Take it." he said once more.

April's hand reached out cautiously until her fingers met the leather braids that wrapped around the tsuka. She gripped the weapon on both of her hands, the braids were worn down and seemed to fit only Leonardo's unique grip. April could feel the strength of Leonardo's courage as she gripped the tsuka with both hands.

This was more than a gesture of camaraderie, it was a gesture of trust; this was Leonardo's test and April's one chance to redeem herself in his eyes.

"Leatherhead, Chill Dude! What's gotten into you guys?" Michelangelo rounded a corner and made a b-line for the closest room. His stomach and his luck never things to fail him, Michelangelo found himself in the employee break room.

"Bogus, we lost him." Michelangelo heard Mondo complain.

The pair of Mutanimals wandered past the door and Michelangelo ducked down behind the refrigerator in an effort to remain unseen. His stomach got the best of him and he carefully opened the fridge and used a blind hand to search for any delicious treat he could find. Two of his best friends were trying to kill him, sure, but there was always time for a snack.

Michelangelo grabbed hold of a plastic container and his hand retreated with its prize. Ignoring the note on the cover that said: Vernon's Lunch, Michelangelo ripped off the lid and smiled. He'd found mini pizza, what luck!

Michelangelo shoved a mini pizza into his mouth but the moment he started chewing he could tell something was off about it. He spit it out rather obnoxiously and glared at the rest of the mini pizzas in the box. Lifting one out he saw what made these mini pizza so offensive; the toppings were right, but the crust wasn't crust at all, no, it was eggplant! What a waste of cheese and pepperoni. He tossed the container to the ground in anger, pizza injustice!

"That came from the break room." Came Mondo's voice. Uh-Oh.

Michelangelo prepared his kusarigama and waited for Mondo and Leatherhead to enter before revealing himself. "I don't know what's gotten into you guys but I'm not gonna give up without a fight." At that Michelangelo released his kusarigama with the accuracy only he could conjure with such a weapon.

Leatherhead grabbed the chain just under the ball weight and gave the chain a swift yank. Michelangelo was pulled to the ground and dragged to the center of the room, where Mondo performed an ollie with his skateboard. Mondo landed on Michelangelo's plastron and grinded his board up to Michelangelo's neck. Leaning forward, Mondo proceeded to choke him.

"Stop…it… dude…" Michelangelo pushed up against the board with both hands. He was growing weak by the second and if he didn't act soon he'd be on his way to that big pet store in the sky. "I don't want… to hurt you."

Mondo let out a wild string of laughter, "Hurt me? As if."

Using the distraction Michelangelo pitched his body to the right, as Mondo fell backward, Michelangelo grabbed the skateboard and whapped across the room. The surfer gecko bounced off the ground a few times before landing, unmoving, against the far wall. "Sorry, Mondo Dude."

"You'll pay for that." Leatherhead said.

"Now, Leatherhead, calm down." Michelangelo said as he backed away from his gigantic alley as the menacing alligator advanced.

Leatherhead ignored Michelangelo's request by picking up the pace and the orange-banded turtle had no choice but to book it. Leatherhead gave chase, luckily he was much slower than his target which gave Michelangelo enough time get away.

Michelangelo bounded up a few flights of stairs before deciding it was safe to take a break. He slowed to a walk and explored the hallways of the floor on which he found himself. The walls were long and sleek like those on the Technodrome, definitely something out of an alien monster movie.

Just then, Leatherhead came smashing through the door but, Michelangelo ducked into a room before he could be spotted. "I know you're on this floor." Leatherhead said. "Just come out and, rather than kill you, I'll make you part of the army."

Then, Michelangelo finally understood that Leatherhead and Mondo were under the control of Evixus. Though, he was excited that his friends hadn't actually betrayed him, he knew there'd be no way to stop Leatherhead with words alone. He'd have to fight after all.

After the last member of Rockwell's hundred human army fell, Leonardo pointed his katana in the former scientist's direction. "Your army is defeated." Leonardo said, "I know this isn't really you Rockwell so I am giving you one chance to surrender."

"Don't get so cocky." Rockwell said. "My army is far from defeated." He added before conquering up his power to draw the humans to their feet once more, still unconscious. "Attack them."

"No, there is no honor in attacking an unconscious foe, let alone someone who is fighting against their will." Leonardo said.

"I thought you were willing to do whatever it takes to save your brother and this city." Rockwell said, "On the roof, you were so convincing." Rockwell paused. "Oh, I see, you aren't a leader, you're more like a motivational speaker."

"Don't listen to him Leonardo." April said. "This is what Evixus does. He's trying to get in your head."

"Just because that is so, doesn't mean I am not speaking the truth." Rockwell said. "You aren't as brave as everyone thinks you are, it's a front. Deep down you are a scared teenage boy."

Leonardo took a deep breath, "Yes, I'm scared." He said, taking a step toward his alien possessed friend. "But my bravery comes from the fact that I face every challenge presented to me in spite of my fear."

"You say that, yet you refuse to attack these humans for fear of killing one of them." Rockwell pointed out.

"I'd say there's more bravery in keeping from crossing a line that is so easily crossed just to win a battle."

"You're not fighting a battle, you are fighting a war!" Rockwell said. "Attack!"

Suddenly, Leatherhead came bursting through the wall, crashing into the Doctor at full speed. The army fell back to the ground as Rockwell's powers of levitation faded along with his consciousness.

Leatherhead roared in frustration and whipped back toward the direction he'd come, Michelangelo peeked his head into the room. "My bad." Michelangelo said, though to be fair, all he did was jump out of the way.

"I'm done playing games!" Leatherhead stomped toward the youngest turtle.

"Mikey!" April was too far to do anything at close range so she tossed Leonardo's Katana into the air. Then, using her tessen she hit the blade at the right angle to send the sword plummeting toward Leatherhead, Tsuka first. It pegged the large alligator in the head.

Leatherhead's claws were mere inches from scaring Michelangelo's baby face when the katana made impact. Leatherhead's eyes rolled to the back of his head and Michelangelo reached out and catch his friend. "Whoa, I gottchu, LH." Said the party-loving turtle as he set his friend on the ground gently.

"Here you all are, having fun while I do all the rescuing." Raphael said, "Anyone want to help me carry these guys home?" He gestured to the three forms behind him. There, sleeping in a row against the wall were the unconscious forms of Casey, Splinter, and Donatello.

A/N: Oh boy, this is a long one but I enjoyed writing it. I really appreciate your comments last time, really helped me out. Hope you enjoy this one. I mean, Donnie's back! Uh, sorta.