They headed down the hallway towards the stairwell as quickly as they could, their speed now severely compromised by Leo's limp and Mikey's apparently inability to stand up on his own power. Raph kept glancing nervously over his shoulder to be sure they weren't being followed.
They came up against a couple of Kraang-droids in the stairwell, their eyes glowing blue instead of their typical pink, and moving with an awkward, jerky motion unlike them.
"Halt," they said in robotic unison, "This is a restricted area."
It seemed the government had figured out how to "reprogram" them, but without a sentient being to "pilot" them, they posed little to no obstacle. Leo casually dispatched them with two swipes of his swords and had already re-sheathed them without even breaking his limp.
"One more level," Don said tersely, keeping one eye on the T-phone in his hand, and one eye on Michelangelo, who slumped over his shoulder without his usual quips and commentary.
They finally passed through the door, and paused in their tracks at the sight ahead of them.
The prison doors of the the Kraang had been removed, replaced by utilitarian steel bars. In each cell was a mutant. Most were in terrible shape, emaciated, bandaged…there was a scent of decay and neglect that hung heavy in the air. Partway down the hall, they saw April kneeling on the floor, holding a green hand. Casey stood behind her, with a hand on her shoulder, scanning the hallway anxiously. He caught their eye and gestured for them.
"Over here!" he called in a hoarse whisper.
"Dudes?" came a weak, familiar voice.
Donnie felt Mikey lean out of his grip, try to hurry down the hallway, but he held him fast as they started their way towards them. He was arrested in his progress, though, as a hand gripped him forcefully by the arm. He followed it to its origin to find -
"Dr. Rockwell?!"
"D…Donatello," he whispered, his eyes round with horror as he reached through the bars, "Kill me."
"I - what?"
"Quickly," he rasped, his voice a hoarse, hollow echo of what it used to be, "You must, before they come back."
Donatello looked in horror at Dr. Rockwell's gaunt, sunken face. His fur had fallen out in patches, and his skin was bubbled with scars and blisters at various places. Worst of all, his head was completely shaved, and protruding from some ugly sutured scars appeared to be several wires, ending with multicolored tags.
"Please," he begged, "You don't understand. You have to kill me now. I won't do it anymore! They can't make me!"
Donnie's jaw fell open, but he was distracted as Mikey finally pulled out of his grasp and limped over to where the rest were waiting.
"Stay here," he said, trying to sound reassuring, "I'll be right back. I promise."
"You have to kill me!" Rockwell hissed, his grip scrabbling as Donatello pried himself lose, "Do it now!"
He raised two fingers to his temple and Donnie realized, with horror, that he was going to try to make him do it, but as he did, he cried out in agony, and instead, clapped a hand to the side of his head. He curled into a little ball and lay on the floor, pressing his bald forehead against the bars in agony.
"D!" Leo ordered.
Not knowing what to say, Donatello hurried over to where the others knelt.
"The door," Leo ordered.
Mondo lay on the floor, hand stretched through the bars. Mikey was now holding his hand, having taken April's spot.
"I knew you wouldn't leave me hangin', dude," Mondo said, smiling weakly. He was naked - all of the mutants were. He looked strange without clothing, even smaller than usual - but his entire lower half was swathed in bandages, which ended in a bloody, reddened stump where his tail -
Don hissed through his teeth.
"The lock, Donnie," Leo said, more firmly.
Shaking his head to clear it, Donnie examined the lock. It was probably electronic, as well as physical - this was going to be harder than just hacking a keypad. And doing this one cell door at a time? Damnit. They wouldn't have time to get all of them out.
Not knowing what else to do, he got his tools out of his belt and set to work.
"I'm so sorry," Mikey said, his voice sounding thick with suppressed tears, "I'm the worst friend ever."
"What are you talking about?" Mondo grinned weakly.
"I should have known something was up way, way sooner," Mikey confessed, squeezing Mondo's hand, "I shoulda known you'd never ignore me like that, not after Dad dying. You've always been there for me when I - "
"Woah, wait," Mondo said, his eyes going round, "Your Dad died? Splinter's gone?"
Mikey brushed tears away with his free hand impatiently. "I'll fill you in later, it doesn't matter now, we gotta get you - "
"It matters," Mondo insisted, gripping Mikey's hand tight. Painfully, he scooted closer and put his other hand through the bars as well, which Mikey gripped gratefully, "Dude. Mike. I'm so, so sorry. I wish I could have been there for you."
"Well, in all fairness," Leo said, patting Mondo's wrist, "You had a pretty good excuse."
Mondo chuckled weakly, and then coughed, turning pale.
"Dude?" Mike asked anxiously.
"He's probably got an infection," Don said, through gritted teeth, as he frustratedly kept picking the lock, "He should be on antibiotics."
"There's so many," April whispered, quietly, looking up and down the hallway in horror.
"Hey. Hey, turtle people," whispered one mutant urgently, who seemed to be a duck, "You're getting us out of here, right? All of us right?"
Donnie glanced up at Leo doubtfully, then went back to attacking the lock.
"Hey!" another whispered, a Dalmatian, "Hey, you can't just leave us here!"
"Shh! Quiet!" another chastised from their cell, not visible, "Or we're all screwed!"
"What's the plan, Leo?" Casey muttered, nervously, "This is a lot of injured mutants."
"Where's Karai?" Leo added, "Did she - "
Suddenly there was a creak, a groan, and a loud "chunk" noise. Donnie felt his lock-picking tools jerk in his hand, and abruptly released them, as they fell to the ground with a metallic pinging sound. The electric hum they hadn't even noticed abruptly ceased, and all the cell doors slowly swung outwards.
"Oh crap," Leo whispered, getting to his feet hastily, "Crap."
"Isn't this a good thing?" Mikey said, releasing Mondo's hands so he could open the door.
"We don't know half of these people!" Leo whispered, "We don't know if they're friendly, or if they - "
There was a familiar kiai and the muffled sound of a body dropping from down the hall. Leo drew his swords, and they all turned to face the new sound, the inmates taking some hesitant steps back into their cells. A few moment later, Karai came running up to them, her sword red and dripping.
"We gotta go," she said, stating the obvious.
"What is - did you kill someone?" Leo snapped.
"Hello, have you seen this place?!" Karai retorted, angrily, "Of course I killed someone!"
"These are government employees, Karai! They're acting under orders. And speaking of orders, I don't recall telling anyone to - "
"Children!" Donnie interrupted caustically, "Less 'past,' more 'present,' please!"
"C'mon dude," Mikey said, hauling Mondo to his feet. The sight tugged at Donatello's heartstrings - they were both so injured.
"Here, let me," Raph said, taking Mikey's place, "I got him."
"Michelangelo?" called a weak voice, "Is that you?"
Mikey turned towards the voice, and his eyes went wide as he limped off down the hall.
Donnie followed his trajectory and saw a feline mutant with grayish, mottled fur slumped against the door to his cell, using it to steady himself. He had a red-tinted bandage over one eye, layers of gauze wrapped around it. But he seemed vaguely familiar, somehow.
"Jason?!" Mikey breathed, "What…what happened to your eye? What happened to your fur?"
"Michelangelo," the cat mutant repeated, with a vague smile, "Sprite, with cherries and a cocktail umbrella. How's tricks?"
He reached up with a paw and traced the pad of one finger over the growing bruise under Mikey's eye.
"Uh, good," Mike said leaning his head back uncomfortably, "I'm uh, out to my family now…got a boyfriend. So."
"You came out, too?" Mondo said, his voice gravelly, "Man, I missed everything."
Recognition clunked into place in Donatello's mind.
"I know you!" he cried, pointing at the cat mutant in his shock, "You're the mutant from the bus! You're Jason Hob!"
The cat smiled, the gesture looking bitter and twisted with his one eye.
"In the flesh." He gestured to his eye bandage, "What's left of it."
"But - you were on the news," Donnie insisted, "How could - how can they just get away with this? With the world watching?"
He just gave Donatello a pitying look with his one good eye. Donatello's flesh crawled with goosebumps as he looked up and down the hallway in horror. Injured mutants of all shapes and sizes were limping from their cells, helping one another. They were going to need to get out of here, and fast - but fast didn't seem to be on the menu.
They all wheeled around as one of the cell doors flew open with a loud bang, slamming against the wall, and Newtralizer staggered out into the hallway, throwing his broken shackles to the ground, his black lip curled back over his gums to bare his myriad teeth in a snarl of rage.
"RAKKA RAKKA RAKKA RAKKA!" he roared.
"Oh hell," Raph muttered, drawing his sai with his one free hand.
But before anyone could move, Leo stood, drew his sword, and banged the flat of it against a nearby cell door a few times with a loud clanging.
"LISTEN UP," he bellowed, "We're all getting out of here. Now. If you can't walk, now's the time to say something."
Leo pointed his sword directly at Newtralizer's face, stopping mere inches from his curled lip.
"You. Us."
He pointed the sword at the stairway, their way out.
"Out. And I don't want any trouble outta you. Got it?"
"He doesn't have his translator, Leo," Don said, impatiently, "he has no idea what you're - "
"He gets it," Leo said, not breaking his stare, "Don't you?"
After a moment's pause, Newtralizer snarled and pushed past Leo, breaking into a run and heading for the stairway.
"Welp, there he goes," Casey said, nervously, "Damn, he's big."
"Fine," Leo said, "Let him clear the way. Everybody else, let's move."
The rag tag party of mutants made their way forward…Donatello helped a protesting Rockwell to his feet and dragged him along.
"No! You don't understand! You have to kill me now! It's not worth the risk!"
"Yeah, maybe later, okay?" Donnie said, shaking his head in disbelief.
Their feet pounded noisily up the stairwell towards freedom, way too slow, and way too loud. They were almost to the surface level, when Rook burst through the door in a blood-spattered undershirt and trousers, pressing his bunched up dress-shirt to a head wound.
"HERE!" he hollered, pointing, "More of them, in the stairwell! Open fire, damnit!"
He ducked back into the hallway just as Karai's knife thudded, quivering, into the wall where he had been standing moments ago.
"Kusotare!" she cursed, unsheathing her sword and sprinting up the stairs.
"Attack!" Leo ordered.
Blue-eyed Kraang droids swept into the stairwell. "Halt. You are in a restricted area," they announced in canon, their robotic voices blending in counterpoint as they fired.
Leo, Karai, and Casey had worked their way to the front and were making short work of the bots, but they could hear Rook screaming their position into a walkie, presumably to call reinforcements.
"This is bad," Donnie called out, to no one in particular, trying to shield as many of the mutants as he could.
"No shit!" Raph retorted, driving his sai through a bot's chest and twisting it as he withdrew it, dragging sparking wires out with it. He pushed the bot over the rail and they heard it clang as it tumbled down the center of the stairwell.
"Go back down?" Mikey asked, frantically, "Try to find another way?"
"For all we know, this is the only way!" April cried, deflecting a stray blast with her tessen.
"I won't go back," Dr. Rockwell said, shaking in Donatello's grip, "I won't go back!"
"Nobody is going back," Donnie promised, having absolutely no way to make that kind of a claim, "We'll figure - "
"I won't go BAAAAAACK!" Dr. Rockwell roared, his eyes going round and white. Donnie yelped as he felt an electric shock go through his arm, like static electricity. With a roar of rage, Dr. Rockwell levitated off the ground, his fur standing on end, as a pulse seemed to radiate from his temples that knocked all of them to their feet - including the repurposed Kraang droids who shuddered and went still, their blue eyes fading into darkness.
Rockwell collapsed abruptly to the stairwell in a heap, twitching and frothing at the mouth, one of the wires protruding from his shaved, scarred scalp sparking and fizzing.
There wasn't even time to comment on what had just transpired.
"Everybody up!" Leo barked, "Move! Now or never!"
Donatello grabbed Dr. Rockwell's arms and tried to haul him up off the ground, but dropped him immediately as he felt a nasty shock in both hands. Rockwell continued to twitch on the ground, as every once in a while, the wire would spark again. It must have been an inhibitor, designed to prevent him from using his powers unless they allowed it.
They cut into his brain.
Donnie grit his teeth in helpless fury, as Rockwell's eyes met his.
"They can't…have this…power," he gritted through his teeth, "Too…dangerous. Anh!"
He grimaced and spasmed as the wires sparked again.
"What can I do?" Donnie asked, desperately, "How can I help you?"
"Re…member me," Rockwell gritted, and he turned his eyes to the stairwell.
"Wait," Donnie said, automatically reaching for him despite the electric shock, "Wait, DON'T - "
But with one great heave, Dr. Rockwell had lurched just far enough towards the stairwell that gravity took over, and he slipped, with horrifying ease, into the void at the center of the staircase. Donnie stared, mouth gaping open at the place where he had just been until he heard the muted thump far below.
"Don," April begged, grabbing his arm and pulling helplessly, "Don, sweetheart - we have to go."
"He…he just…" Don stammered.
"Donnie!" April begged, "Get up! Leo!"
"Donatello!" Leo roared, sticking his head back into in the stairwell, "You get your shell up here NOW!"
"Coming!" Don blurted, his body involuntarily obeying Fearless Leader, jerking him from his stupor.
Their flight from the former Kraang fortress seemed to take forever. Donnie knew that if it had just been the group that had come in, they'd have been at the surface by now, but they were hindered by unconscious, injured, frightened mutants with no ninja or combat training. Raph and Casey seemed to be enjoying the chance to vent their spleen at least, crunching through repurposed Kraang droids, and occasionally, laying a low-level security guard out with a concussion or a flesh wound. Leo kept subtly positioning himself in Karai's way every time an actual human showed up - something she clearly had noticed, as she scoffed resentfully every time he did it.
After what seemed like ages, they finally spilled into the parking garage front. Leo threw open the door, and immediately slammed it, as a light flooded the room. Bullets pinged against the heavy metal door at his back.
"Guess the back-up arrived," he gritted, through his teeth.
"Help me!" Mikey called.
With the last of the mutants cleared, they had slammed the doors shut on the elevator that descended to the Kraang fortress. Now, Mikey had his shell pressed up to the car nearest it, fingers hooked under the chassis, blood still oozing down his arms. Mondo, Jason, and the other mutants pitched in, rocking it forward and back, until with a groan and a crash, they managed to flip the car on top of the hatchway.
"This is a restricted area," came an artificially-loud voice from outside, "Exit the building immediately and you won't be harmed."
"Yeah," Raph snorted, "Nice speech."
"The gunfire sorta ruins it," Casey added.
"Don," Leo said, making eye contact. His voice was calm, but his eyes were beginning to show a little desperation. "We need another door, please."
"How?!" Donnie snapped, "With what?!"
"You're the genius!" Raph snapped.
The hatchway groaned and whined, trying to open. The overturned car creaked, and settled again. The escaped mutants edged away from it anxiously.
"You can do this, D," Mikey said, way more calmly than any of them felt, "Just think for a second."
Donatello scanned their dimly-lit surroundings for something, anything he could use. He knew there was sewer access in the alley to the side of the building, but getting there unseen? The amount of force they'd need to blow a hole in the wall would -
He shook his head, and heard Raph grunt in annoyance, punching a nearby car window out, just for something to hit.
Think of it a different way. Poke it with a stick. Shake it. Turn it upside down.
He looked up towards the rafters.
"We can't go out, and we can't go down," he said, "We've gotta go up."
"Is there a way out up there?" Casey asked, nervously.
"I'm winging it, here!" Donnie snapped.
He grabbed the controls to the car elevators, he began lowering them strategically, so that they formed something of a graduated stair case. Leo began leading the escaped mutants to the lowest one.
"Come on," he said, urgently pulling them up to join him, "Hurry."
They all scrabbled their way onto the lifts, over and through cars, until finally they had all reached the ceiling. There was the sound of a saw grinding on metal from the hatchway, and a rhythmic thumping began on the door that led to the street.
Donnie made his way to the top, and scanned the ceiling anxiously as he clambered up to Leo's side.
"Anything?" Leo asked, the whites of his eyes showing more in his desperation.
Donnie ignored him and kept looking, a sinking filling pooling in his gut, until finally -
"There," he pointed.
There were no windows, but there was a large industrial fan embedded in the wall. No light shone through it, but it was probably covered on the outside during the winter - it'd be easy enough to smash their way through. It was probably just thin sheet metal, bolted on for the season.
Donnie fished his multitool out of his belt and clambered over the nearest car to get closer.
"Two minutes," he said, unscrewing the first screw.
"We don't have two minutes!" Raph said urgently, as the banging on the door below got even louder, and sparks from the saw began showing on the hatchway.
"YOU WANTED A DOOR, I'M MAKING A DOOR!" Donnie snapped, already on the second screw.
"Raph, Casey, and Karai," Leo ordered, sounding calmer, "Ground level with me. Raph and me at the door, Casey and Karai at the hatchway. April, Mikey and Donnie, get the mutants on the roof and make a break for it."
"Nuh-uh," April objected, urgently, "We need to stay togeth - "
"GET DOWN!" Leo cried, diving on top of her.
The door below burst off its hinges, and body-armored men holding guns cautiously began to breach the room. Casey reached down, picked up a tire iron, and flung it across the room so it clanged against the wall there. As the men opened fire harmlessly in the opposite direction, Leo, Raph, Casey, and Karai leapt into the fray.
"Last screw," Donnie hissed, a bead of sweat working down his temple.
"Poor choice of words," Mikey quipped, watching the fighting below anxiously.
Finally the last screw tumbled below, along with Donnie's multitool.
"Shit," he cursed under his breath. Whatever, if they lived, he could always find another one. Thrusting his hands between the metal slats, he gripped with all his strength and pulled. He had to lean out over the the edge of the car elevator, and didn't have a good angle to pull from, but he felt it rock in its housing slightly.
"Mikey, April," he panted, "Grab my shell."
He felt their hands grip him on either side of his carapace, and he leaned out even further, grunting as he jerked the fan forcefully from its housing in the brick wall. The metal was cutting into his fingers, but the bursts of grunting and gunfire from below gave extra strength to his efforts.
Finally, the fan jerked free of the wall, and Donnie immediately felt himself falling. Having no choice, he let the fan tumble from his grip, and hastily gripped the dusty bricks with bloody, aching fingers.
The fan crashed noisily to the ground below.
"Up there!" cried a voice.
Donnie felt himself jerked backwards by Mikey and April's grip on his shell, but while they saved his life, they weren't quite quick enough to completely escape the burst of fire from below, and Donnie cried out as a bullet took a chip from his carapace and seared across his shoulder, leaving an angry graze.
"You hit?" Mike hollered, over the sound of gunfire.
"Just a scratch!" Don cried.
Suddenly, the sound of sawing abruptly ceased below, replaced by an unearthly thumping. With a screech of rent metal, the hatchway was forced open, and out emerged -
"RAKKA RAKKA RAKKA!" howled Newtralizer, smashing two Kraang heads together, and flinging the fizzing, sparking remains at the men with guns. Charging forward, he liberated a rifle from one, and opened fire, charging towards the open door. He burst into the night without waiting for them, firing indiscriminately, seemingly unphased by the retaliatory hail of bullets.
Raph hastily slammed the metal door shut again behind him.
Seizing the lull in the gunfire, Donnie set out for their newly-created exit. Clambering awkwardly into the hole he'd just created, he used his elbow as a bludgeon, and with a few forceful strikes, managed to get a corner of the exterior sheet metal to detach. Cold night air blew into his face like the sweet kiss of fortune.
"Get up here!" he called, "We've got our exit!"
"We're supposed to jump over there?!" asked a frightened, young-sounding fox mutant.
"Some of us are injured!" another called.
Donnie swallowed his annoyed retort - not everyone was a ninja. He made eye contact with Mikey.
"Turtle Bridge!" Mikey replied, "But I can't do it. My arms are shot."
Donnie glanced at his gunshot graze and his bloody hands.
"Mine too," he admitted, furiously, "Literally."
"Move!"
Clambering over cars and huddled mutant refugees, Raph made his way over. Without hesitating, he leaned out into empty space, reaching for the window. Panicking momentarily, Donnie reached out, and managed to grab one of his hands, while his other settled on the bricks by their exit.
"Gotcha, bro!" Mikey said, laying down over Raph's feet and putting all his weight on them.
"Go on!" April said, pulling the nearest mutant forward.
"No, you and Casey first, April!" Mikey insisted, "Someone's gotta get them to the roof once they cross!"
First April, then Casey painfully crawled over Michelangelo, then over Raphael's shell, then to where Donnie sat waiting in the make-shift exit. She crawled past, and stuck her head out into the night, twisting to look up at the roof, planning her path.
"Case," Donnie grunted, gripping Raph's wrist tight, "Make sure she doesn't fall!"
"Ya think?!" he retorted.
The two of them managed to clamber up onto the roof ledge, and they all started funneling mutants to the outside, pulling them up to escape, dragging them when they had to.
"The faster the better, please," Raph grunted, adjusting his grip, his arm muscles beginning to quiver.
"Go," Leo ordered, "I'll take a turn."
Mikey let go of Raph's feet, and with shaking arms, and an assist from Donnie, Raph pulled himself into the exit.
"Guess all that weight-training wasn't just showing off," Don said, patting Raph on the shell.
He turned, and reached for Leo, who flung himself forward into the void, and gripped Donnie's arms tightly, until -
"GAh!" Leo cried, "No, no, NO!"
"Fridge shoulder!" Mikey cried out. Don glanced down, and indeed, Leo's shoulder looked oddly distended. They could hear Newtralizer roar from outside - how long could he keep them busy before he either fled, or they killed him?
"GO!" Leo gritted through his teeth, involuntary tears of pain seeping into his mask, "GO NOW!"
Karai leapt up next to Mikey panting.
"She's the last," she said, shoving a little fox girl forward, "Move it, kid!"
Trembling, she crept hesitantly onto Leo's shell, whimpering in terror.
"You're doin' awesome!" Mikey said, encouragingly, "What's your name?"
"Kitara," she answered, her voice high-pitched and warbly with terrified tears.
"Look at you go!" Mikey said, "You're like a little ninja-in-training! We're gonna start callin' you Ninj-ara!"
She let out a slightly hysterical giggle between sobs and kept inching her way over Leo's shell, her whole body quivering with terror.
"You can do it, sweetie," Don said, trying to make his voice as calm and reassuring as possible, "Keep going. You climb right up onto me, okay?"
The little fox kept climbing until finally she was crawling over Donnie and towards the exit, where Casey was waiting to haul her up.
"Attagirl, Ninjara!" Mikey called, "Okay, that's it! I'm letting your feet go, Leo!"
Leo cried out in pain as he swung in Donnie's grip, and Don hauled him up.
"Stop, STOP!" Leo cried, the moment he had one arm hooked over the edge. Donnie immediately released Leo's bad arm, and started hauling him up by the shell instead until he was kneeling safely in the small space, panting. Leo retched, took a deep breath through his nose, shook his head, and pressed his good wrist to his mouth shakily.
"Y'okay?" Donnie asked, urgently.
Leo nodded slowly. "Hurts," he finally admitted, through gritted teeth.
"Dude!" Mikey called, urgently, "Escape now, puke later!"
Leo scrabbled out of the way, as Karai leapt over, and crawled in after him.
"Go," she insisted, pushing him out the hole, "They pull, I'll push."
Donnie reached for his last brother's hands, wincing as he saw the criss-crossing cuts on Mikey's arms reopen with fresh blood as he hauled him up. Mikey was grimacing against the pain, but at least his wounds were mostly superficial, calculated for pain, not lasting damage.
"Let's get the hell out of here," Mikey panted, not even having the energy to joke.
There was another clatter from below, and robotic voices began chanting, "Halt. You are in a restricted area."
"Just leaving, assholes," Mikey muttered, as he climbed out of the hole in the wall. Finally heaving a sigh of relief, Donnie followed, hauled to safety by his one good arm by Raph, Casey, and Karai.