Kat and Greg didn't wait for the men to recover from the concussion blasts - they took off running again, aiming for the way out. They were within a couple of yards of the exit, when a massive familiar figure stepped out of the shadows, brandishing his gun directly at them. Neither Agent was in the mood to simply surrender, their own hands resting upon the firearms at their sides.
"Don't be ridiculous," Williams scoffed. "You ain't gettin' out of here. Lay down your weapons, nice and slow like. First one of you to move is gonna get your partner killed."
They hesitated a beat longer, as the man pointed his weapon directly at Kat's head.
"I seriously hope you don't think I'm kidding. Do it!" He ordered.
Slowly, they withdrew their guns as in a single motion, and put them down on the floor.
"Now kick 'em away." Williams ordered, and waited for them to comply. Then the smirking man approached Katherine, keeping his gun level on her chest.
Greg eyed the man warily for about three seconds, before launching himself in between the two of them, and sending a shattering blow to the weapon itself. Williams recovered quickly from losing the gun, and struck Greg viciously in the eye as hard as he could. The instant Greg went down, Katherine planted herself firmly in front of him before Williams could do anything else.
"Really sweetheart?" Williams laughed, "You wanna fight me as God intended? I would say I'd go easy on you, but it's not exactly my style."
Katherine never liked to waste words, and she wasn't about to start right now. She evened out her breathing, not so much as flinching when Williams drew closer to her. She raised both arms into a defensive stance, eclipsing her left one across her chest, so that her elbow was facing the thug. Before he could blink she struck him in the chin with the back of her left fist, drew it sharply back to her body, and followed it with a straight blow from her right.
Before he could remotely recover, she brought her knee up swiftly, and drove her foot into Williams' chest, following it with a pointed jab directly to his solar plexus.
He grunted in pain as he tried to find his breath again, and when an expletive leaped to his tongue, Katherine couldn't help smiling.
Time to finish this.
The woman spun around quickly, leaping forward so that her momentum would carry her other leg forcefully into William's forehead. It was a perfect Tornado Kick combination, which she'd never once used outside of sparring. The man crumbled as if in slow motion, and hit the floor like a load of bricks.
Kat gave him a once over to be sure that he was actually out, and then rushed to Greg's side. "Partner?" She said a little nervously, and he jolted when he felt her hand on his shoulder.
"James?"
"That might not have been the smartest thing you could have done." She couldn't help saying.
"Tell me about it." He replied, and allowed her hand to pull him upright a little further.
"Are you okay? Can you walk?"
"I think so, just give me a second." He replied.
She helped steady him as got his balance back, and then he glanced over at Williams with a whistle.
"Dang it James. How many of those Tai Kwon Do courses have you been through?"
"Only about eighteen years worth Greg. I told you it would be worth checking out."
"What, so you can kick my tail all over the ring? I don't think so."
"You're not the only one who doesn't appreciate his technology being screwed with Donatello." Stolle said pointedly. "You should know that all of this was for you, every last bit of research and months of planning."
Panic was seizing the turtles' mind for more than one reason. This lunatic is gonna get us both killed!
"Stolle," He managed with some difficulty, "You've got to--"
"I don't really want to hear from you right now Donatello, I just want to savor the moment. You didn't play my way, but in the end, you still lost." The man laughed.
Donatello had some slight feeling in his right leg, and tried to lash out at the man. Stolle caught the limb easily, there had been no true force behind the blow. Stolle held onto it without letting go, curiously running his fingers over the surgical scar on his right knee.
"Ah, so this is the leg you've had so many issues with. You know Donatello, I believe that a little demonstration is in order. You'll have a much longer turn later, but I think you've certainly earned a small preview of what's to come. Raphael lasted almost an hour and a half of it last night, I'm curious to see how long you can endure it."
Stolle had the cauterizer in hand, and took a moment to increase the wattage output. His focus this time would not be on nerve receptors, but the reconstructed ligaments that he'd heard Donatello and Luke discussing in some detail only three weeks previously.
Leonardo carefully handed Timothy off to the two doctors, after they'd gotten Raphael to the van.
"Where's Donatello?" Luke demanded, even as Leonardo was looking back up at the fire escape.
"He was supposed to be behind us! Take care of the others Doc, I'm going after him!" Leonardo proclaimed, and dashed back in the direction of the fire escape.
He started climbing the flights, taking about three stairs at a time, his feet resounding loudly over the metal of the escape. He had just made it to the fourth level when he heard a terrible sound that he knew was Donatello - and the last time he'd heard it, it had been his own fault. Another surge of adrenaline pushed the turtle forward, and he literally dove through the window to get back into the room.
Leonardo leaped upright out of the somersault, and saw Stolle nearly on top of Donatello across the room. Without taking a second to think about it, he hurled one of his katana directly at the man with all the strength that he had. The blade impaled all the way through the man's shoulder, effectively burying into the floor with Stolle trapped under it.
The turtle wanted to do more, but was more concerned with getting to Donatello at that moment. "Donnie, are you okay?"
His brother only gasped in return, and Leonardo quickly realized that he wasn't going to be able to move on his own. As he started to lift him, he noticed Donatello's hand was grazing something that had fallen on the floor, desperately trying to grasp hold of it.
"What is that?" Leo asked him.
"Don't know." Donatello answered breathlessly. "Hurts, real bad...he used it on Raph a bunch. We gotta know what it does."
Leonardo picked it up to satisfy him, and then jerked to look overhead at the sound of something distinctly mechanical.
"What was that?"
"Back up generators." Donatello said with a surge of life. "They're starting to come on! Leo, you've gotta get out!"
"I'm sorry if this hurts bro, but I'm not leaving you!" Leonardo answered, and swiftly yanked Donatello over his shoulder off the floor.
Donnie clenched his jaw for a moment, trying to fight down the wave of sickness and pain that struck in that instant. Leonardo had only made it a couple of steps with him when Donatello called him to stop.
"Leo, your blade!"
His katana was still pinning a writhing Stolle to the floor.
"Forget it!" Leonardo said without stopping. "We're going now!"
They heard the distinct hum overhead signaling that the generator was warming up - the last thing that either of them wanted to hear in that moment. Mike popped up by the window a second later, and Leonardo sighed in relief.
"Take him Mike, and get moving!" He ordered.
Leonardo helped force Donatello through much less carefully than he would have like to, and crawled out after him as Mike started down the stairs as swiftly as he safely could. Leonardo caught up quickly, and urged him to keep going. They'd barely made it to the third floor, when an explosion rocked the fire escape, and nearly knocked them down with it. All they could see overhead was flames.
"Mike GO!" Leonardo yelled again, helping the turtle to snap out of his daze.
Luke and Marcus were waiting at the bottom, ready to receive Donatello from him.
"Donnie, are you alright?" Luke asked anxiously, the second he saw how fast the turtle was breathing. He'd known Donatello long enough to distinguish the difference between adrenaline and pain.
"Don't worry...about me." He insisted between breathes. "We gotta go, we gotta go now!"
While Leo helped Luke get Donnie into the van, Marcus ran back over to Timothy.
"Mike, can you help me get him to my car?" He requested.
"No, leave me." Tim told them, to their great confusion. "EMS will be by soon because of that fire - these guys need you more than I do!"
Marcus stared him down for a moment. "You're not gonna tell--"
"Not if my life depended on it!" Tim interrupted him with such conviction that even Mike believed him. "But how can I find you?"
Marcus cast Michelangelo as questioning glance, and then slowly drew his wallet out. "Here, this card has my number on it. I suppose you deserve some type of explanation, but if you say anything--"
"Not gonna happen!" Tim insisted. "They saved my life, and they didn't have to!"
Marcus released the card into his grip, and gave him a lingering glance.
"You're sure you don't want me to take you to the hospital myself?"
"Take care of your boys - just get them outta here!" Tim told him.
Inside the back of the van shortly after they'd started driving, something very odd was taking place inside of Donatello. The pain in his knee had never left, but now it was increasing with a fervent intensity that was worse than when Stolle actually had the instrument on him. His breathing seemed to quit almost entirely for a moment, as the worst pain he'd experienced yet traveling through the ligament.
"Donnie, what is it?" Luke asked with some alarm.
The turtle grabbed Luke's wrist so firmly that it could have left imprints.
"Make...it....STOP."
Luke scrambled through various epi-pens until he found the sedative, and immediately injected the turtle in the shoulder. Within a couple of seconds his breathing actually deepened, and he passed out on the seat.