Chapter Thirty-Five

Dungeon Master

Like mice faced against a cat, they the group scattered, giant mechanical clamps chasing after them, directed by the cameras built into joints between the clamps. At first it seemed like nothing could be done. It was déjà vu of the time in the forest with the blood sucking trees. The only thing they could do was run around and keep from getting grabbed.

At one point Razor did manage to get all the way to the other side of the room and was faced with the metal bars barricading the door. He tried to sink his teeth into them, but before he could get anywhere he was shoved from the side, Alex jumping back as the robotic clamp hit the wall.

"Can you bite through?" Alex asked.

"Maybe if I had a few minutes without interruption," Razor said. "And even then I'm not sure, this stuff tastes tough!"

Leo, who had overheard, didn't like the sound of that. "Jeff!" he called. "How do we open the door?"

Jeff ducked underneath a metal clamp. "We could try to override the mechanics manually," he suggested. "But someone would have to make it to the control panel in order to do that."

Leo looked around. The room was a jungle gym of moving conveyer belts that entered and exited the room to places unknown. "Don, can you make it to the catwalk and get to the control panel?"

Don looked up as he dodged the growing annoying mechanical arms. No point in not trying, he started up the belts. It was tricky going from one moving platform to the next, usually platforms that were moving in opposite directions and at different speeds, while dodging robotic arms that appeared from every direction, but he was a scientific teenage mutant ninja turtle! Tricky was practically his middle name.

However, just as he was about to jump to the catwalk he was grabbed by the ankle and was hanging upside down before he knew it.

Down below Psych narrowly dodged one of the clamps only to find that he jumped right into the forceful grip of another arm. Kicking his legs and wriggling showed to be of no help as the arm lifted him up. He tried to pry it open with his mind but before he could succeed he was dropped onto a conveyer belt where straps appeared to hold him in place, going over his shoulders, middle and legs.

"You have got to be kidding," he muttered when he heard a loud thumping noise slowly growing louder. Lifting his head he looked down the belt and paled. Coming towards him was a giant block that was smacking down onto the belt in timed intervals, behind the block was a hole in the wall that had a red glow lighting the darkness. Above the hole was a sign that read "recycling center". SERIOUSLY?!

On the floor Raph was getting very fed up with the arms. "Ain't there any way to stop these damned things?!" he yelled.

Jeff's eyes went to the sphere on the floor in the center of room. The best way to get rid of something is to take it out at the source; he thought logically and moved for the sphere.

Looking over the metal exterior Jeff had to think a moment. "I knew I should have made that blade upgrade…" he muttered and looked around the room. "Leo! Throw me a sword!" Leo threw down a katana and Jeff caught it by the blade with his metal hand. He managed to make a slice in the metal big enough to fit his fake fingers in and pull a section back.

Inside the sphere he found the usual stuff: circuits and gears but no obvious off switch. Thinking fast his eyes slipped to his arm. "Damn it," he huffed, flattened his hand, and shoved the artificial limb into the gears.

The sound of metal grinding on metal made Jeff clentch his teeth but it was a small consequence as the metal arms shut down.

Jeff tried to pull back but his arm was hopelessly jammed. With a huff he reached for the clasps that connected the arm to a base set in his shoulder.

When the arms stopped Don managed to slip free of the metal clamp around him and fell down onto a moving conveyer belt. Now only needing to concentrate on timing he reached the catwalk and moved for the control panel that was littered with unlabeled knobs, levers, switches and buttons.

"Little help here!" Psych yelled, still moving for the block that was getting ready to squash him flat. Alex appeared next to him pulling, and slicing at the restraints but they wouldn't be cut.

The conveyer belt underneath them suddenly jerked and sped up, going faster to the ancient experiment's doom.

Always knew I'd die in a lab, Psych thought to himself but I was expecting a disection table. Getting crushed under a giant block on a recycling conveyer belt… didn't see that coming.

With another jerk the conveyer belt slowed. Then it started going in reverse only to jerk again and was back moving forward.

"Don what're you doing up there?!" Alex shouted up.

"I'm working on it!" Don called down.

Finally the belts completely stopped with Psych right underneath the crushing block that was still moving!

With a mind shattering impact the block dropped down and Psych just barely managed to catch it with a mental barrier. The block lifted up and struck down again. On the third strike Psych was turning pale with clenched teeth.

"DON!" Alex yelled.

"Sorry!"

The sixth mental hit with the block started the nosebleed. The eighth time passed and he knew he wasn't going to hold out until ten. On nine the conveyer belt jerked and they moved though the block still smacked against the barrier. The tenth time line stopped and the block hit an inch above Psych's head as the restraints retracted.

There was a moment of silence as the machines stopped and the door to the core room opened.

"That wasn't so bad," Mikey commented brightly and received a smack from Raph and Dev.

Alex helped Psych to the ground while Gorf appeared and both of them became leaning posts for Psych who was trying not to pass out.

Jeff finally managed to pull free of the machine that had controlled the mechanical arms, leaving his destroyed artificial limb in the gears.

Don climbed down from the catwalk. "Sorry," he said again to Psych.

It's fine… the mental voice groaned as Psych held his head in one hand, the other hand holding steady on Alex's shoulder. Let's just get out of here. Everyone agreed to that and headed for the core room.

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"Wow, they handled that better than I thought they would," George commented as he glanced up at the camera feeds that were projected on the wall. There was a growl from underneath him and he went back to what he was doing.

It had taken him by complete surprise when Sharp had tackled him off the couch. From there they had wrestled across the floor while Mr. Puppet shouted encouragements from the sidelines.

Finally George managed to pin Sharp to the floor face down with only minor bites in addition to his already bitten hand and leg. He grabbed an extra pair of handcuffs out from under the couch and cuffed Sharp's left wrist to his right ankle.

"Hey!" Sharp yelled in protest when he figured out what happened. "Son of a-"

"Hey no bringing mom into this," George interrupted. "And why do you hate me so much anyway?"

"Why do you think?!"

"I don't know! This is the first time I've met you face-to-face!" George pointed out truthfully. "You've been terrorizing the Labs before I got the top chair. So what's your beef with me?"

"You're a filthy scientist that shouldn't even be allowed to breathe," Sharp spat as he struggled against the cuffs.

"That's racism- or is it career-ism?...what?"

"Ugh."

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The core room was the heart of the Labs. A spider web of catwalks reached out through the hollow ball of a room. Fifty feet beneath the catwalks was a sea of what looked like black tar. In the very center of the room was the core; a humongous glass orb filled with a glowing red energy.

"Whoa…" Mikey said as they came forward. "It's a light bulb- ow!" he suddenly exclaimed and rubbed the back of his head.

"You deserved that one and you know it."

"It's the main power source," Jeff said.

"So, theoretically, what would happen if it happened to shut off?" Gorf asked.

"Slash get ultimately destroyed?" Alex added.

"Worse case scenario: the doors would no longer work and we'd be stuck in here in complete darkness," Jeff answered.

"What about the floor suddenly becoming alive and growing tentacles of tar?" Mikey asked looking over the railing of the catwalks. Everyone else looked down to find that Mikey spoke the truth.

"This place isn't going to cut us any slack, is it?" Dev muttered as the tar shot up in a black pillar and slammed down onto the catwalk. The group barely had time to jump out of the way.

"Let me guess, this is the security system," Raph said.

"Basically, something's gotta protect the core," Jeff said. "Come on, we gotta get out of here." They ran after him towards one of the exits jumping over and sliding under thrashing pillars of tar.

One of the pillars managed to crash down onto Dev. He yelled out as it tried to drag him off the catwalk. He barely managed to grab the edge of the walk as it pulled down on his legs. He tried to pull himself up, flapping his wings, but the tar was pulling down too hard.

Gorf grabbed his wrists only to get pulled down himself. Alex caught his ankle in one hand and grabbed the railing with the other hand.

"Stop sliming, Gorf!" Alex growled feeling the ankle slip through her grasp.

"I can't!" Gorf cried.

Leo ran forward to help but before he reached them Alex lost her grip. Before anyone could react Dev and Gorf were shot down and swallowed by the tar in the blink of an eye.

Alex sat there frozen for a second in disbelief before Leo was pulling her by the arm toward the exit. The door slid shut behind them and Alex kicked it.

A flash of concern went across Jeff's face; he didn't know where the tar went, if anywhere at all.

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"This must be very uncomfortable for you," George commented as he watched Sharp wiggle and thrash. After a short while the experiment finally started to get it and he stopped moving, hitting his forehead on the metal floor. "Look, I'm a reasonable guy," George began. "Abnormal, yes, I admit, but reasonable all the same. I mean, I wouldn't like it if I was stuck in your position so I'll make you a deal: you stop trying to bite-slash-kill me and I won't restrain you."

"And you'd trust me just like that?"

George nodded.

"On my word?"

"I'm a trusting guy."

Trusting or stupid? Sharp thought but hid it with a look of interest mixed with defeat. "Okay," he said quietly.

George smiled a sincere smile and came forward with a small key. He undid the handcuffs and stepped back as Sharp stood up. The shark brushed himself off and suddenly whipped out a fist hitting George in the stomach, forcing him to bend over on impact. Bringing his knee up Sharp hit him in the face, twisted and kicked him in the side of the head with his heel. George hit the floor with groan and was knocked out by a second kick to the face.

"You know, for being a scientific genius, you're an idiot," Sharp said and heard a click. Looking to the side he saw the little robotic puppet holding a gun. It tried to shoot but the gun bucked, the aim went wide and Sharp had enough time to run over to it, grab it, pull the gun from it's hands and duct tape it to the floor from the roll on the desk. "Now then," he said looking around. "How can I shut this place down?"

After a moment he realized that there was no actual control panel in the room. So, with all logic, he went to the wireless keyboard that was still on the couch. He tried to play with it but no matter what he pressed nothing happened.

After a moment he was fed up, grabbed the puppet's gun and headed for the door only to find that it wouldn't open. He tried to ram it but bounced off. He shot it multiple times but not even a dent appeared. There was a hand scanner to the side but of course it wouldn't read his prints. So, he went back to George's body, dragged the unconscious man to the scanner and struggled to press the human's hand to the scanner. It scanned the prints but again the door didn't move.

He started to realize something after some time. "I'm locked in?"

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Alex was clearly angry with herself with bristling fur. Jeff seemed a bit lost even though he was leading the way. Psych was still recovering from the mishap with the block that had tried to squash him flat. Don still kind of felt guilty about Psych's pain while Mikey suddenly realized something.

"We're all that's left. Down to seven people. What's gonna happen now? This is usually the most crucial part in any kind of search party."

"We're going to keep heading forward," Leo said calmly. "Jeff, can we reach the main control room from where we are?"

"Yeah, it should be at the end of this hall," he said as they turned into an intersection and went down a corridor that at first seemed like it was a dead end. Upon closer inspection, however one could see a crease in the wall. "Hopefully I'm still in the system," Jeff muttered and put a hand on the middle of the door. A blue square lit up and scanned his hand. The blue turned to green and the door opened up. "Huh, that was easy."

"Yeah, too easy," Leo commented.

"Maybe not," Don said as they cautiously moved into the room and found George knocked out on the floor.

"Who is that supposed to be?" Raph asked.

"Well considering that this is the top chair's room," Jeff said as he headed over to the vending machines against the wall. "That's the head scientist."

"He doesn't look it," Mikey observed when Razor exclaimed,

"Sharp!"

Sharp slid off the desk he had been sitting on and met Razor in his embrace.

"What happened?" Mikey asked, nudging George with the toe of his shoe.

"I knocked him out," Sharp said simply when Razor released him. "But when I did it seemed like everything stopped working."

"There's probably a reason for that," Jeff said as he grabbed two bottles of water from the vending machines and swore when he realized he only had one hand.

"What happened to you?" Sharp asked.

"Machine mishap," Jeff replied. "Would someone open these and dump them on his head?"

Leo and Don took the bottles.

"Why should we wake him up?" Alex asked. "We should kill him now for the scientist he is."

"Because if we ever hope to get out of here we'll need his cooperation," Jeff answered as Don and Leo emptied the bottles out.

Gradually George woke with a groan. He sat up with a hand to his head and had to use the couch for support in order to stand up. It wasn't until after he was standing and trying to remember what happened when he noticed who all were in the room. With a startled jump he tripped on couch, flipped over backwards, somehow landed on his feet, stumbled and hit the floor. He stumbled back to standing with his hands up. "'Ey guys…" he tried innocently and ducked under a laser that had almost gone through his head. Straightening he glared at Sharp and was unaware that Jeff had moved until he was grabbed by the shoulder and was pinned to the wall before he knew it. "Hi Jeff! Long time no see, heh heh."

"Don't 'long time no see' me you bastard," Jeff growled.

"Ow, that really hurts," George said pathetically. "After all these years thought you'd be happy to see me…"

"You poisoned me!"

"No I didn't," George protested coolly. "You see, even though those fruit were in fact my design I'm not the one that poisoned you. You ate it yourself, it's not like I physically stuffed it down your throat." He saw the muscles in Jeff's right shoulder try to move. "Ha, yeah, try to punch me. Oh wait; you don't have that arm anymore. Pity."

With a scowl Jeff threw George sideways into the waiting claws of Alex who easily held him in place. Jeff came forward with a balled up fist.

"Wait, come on man, this is no way to treat family!"

"Family?" Leo repeated looking at the obvious differences in appearance between the two.

"We're brothers!" George said with a wide, pleading smile.

"Step-brothers," Jeff repeated.

"Oh come on, that didn't mean anything to you before now," George said. Jeff was still coming forward with his fist. "Wait, wait, wait, uh- if you don't hit me I'll… I'll tell you where your friends are!"

Jeff faltered. "Where?"

"They're somewhere," George said. "If you'd let me go I could show you."

"I don't think so," Alex said, grip tightening.

"Ow, hey, I bruise easy! And I already have a headache... Seriously though, if you'd let me get to my keyboard I could show you."

"It doesn't work," Sharp said.

"Not for you maybe," George said annoyingly. "I made some changes to the keys. It only responds to my touch. So if you'd be so kind as to let me go… uh… Alex. Come on, you can trust me, I ain't got any weapons and I don't have a death wish! And even if I did I'm completly out matched," he admitted. "I mean look at this. You got strong- ehm, really strong Alex here, those two," he pointed over at Sharp and Razor "both have shark teeth and he stole my gun, I don't even wanna mess with those four," he jerked a thumb towards the turtles and Mikey "you've always been able to kick my butt," he directed at Jeff "and I don't even wanna think about what you could do," he told Psych.

Jeff huffed. "Fine, Alex let him go."

Without a word Alex released the scientist, though her tail was scraping the ground as she did.

George straightened his sleeves out and went to the couch. Putting his back to the wall he messed with the keyboard and the screen projected on the wall as a video feed popped up to show an empty room that held everyone that had disappeared during their progress to the main room. They all looked fine except Stripes who was babying a bloodied hand while Dev and Gorf were pulling black tair from their hair.

"There see?" George said. "All accounted for."

"Bring them here," Sharp demanded.

"What are you crazy? I know for sure Nick's gonna kill me, and if he doesn't Tyler will!"

"And if you don't I will," Alex growled.

"Fine…" George sighed and hit a few buttons on the keyboard. A section of the wall beside the vending machines jerked and slid to the side to reveal the room that was holding the other experiments. Before anyone said anything George was ducking underneath a flying arrow. He quickly held down the Ctrl and Alt buttons and hovered a finger over Tab. "Hey!" he exclaimed as Tyler reloaded and tried to shoot again when Gorf grabbed his arm ready to listen knowing that a scientist with any form of control panel was bad news. "I push this key and a super magnet in this wall turns on. And yes, I'm looking at you Mr. Metal-Pinned grenade belt."

Nick scowled.

"You wouldn't do that. The blast would kill you too," Don reasoned.

"So?" George shrugged. "You know I was voted most likely to kill myself in high school."

"You gotta be bluffing," Mikey said with a nervous smile.

George looked Jeff in the eye.

"Weapons down," Jeff reluctantly ordered.

"But-"

"Down Tyler."

Grumbling Tyler lowered the crossbow.

"You're actually going to listen to this nut?" Sharp asked.

"I have to because he's a nut."

George smiled when the keyboard in his hands jerked and flew from his grasp. Psych caught it with a smug smirk.

"Right, forgot about the telekinesis… Wait, wait, wait!" the outnumbered scientist exclaimed when there were numerous threatening moves towards him. "Look, it's like- what? Thirteen to one? Can't you give a guy a fighting chance?"

"After what you've done?" Sharp said. "Not likely!"

"Oh come on, what have I done exactly?" George challenged.

"All the other experiments held prisoner here," Stripes started off.

"They were here before I got head chair."

"The poison fruit!" Nick accused. "Marko and Ruth!"

"Hardly," George replied. "Yes I made the fruit and put the seeds in the forest but you're the ones that ate it, I have nothing to do with that."

"The monsters," Dev said.

"Gotta keep the ecosystem on this island going," George shrugged innocently. "Not my fault you became part of the food chain."

"Those vampire trees in the forest," Mikey brought up.

"Again, the ecosystem, and I didn't make you go through those trees. You could have easily gone around them; they were only in a single section of the island."

"What about Psych and Alex!" Gorf exclaimed.

George opened his mouth but faltered with an 'oh crap' expression. Trying to recover he said "So… you're not happy being bigger?" to Psych. "I mean come on; I've seen your file. You've been five-years-old for how long? I thought you'd be happy being taller, stronger, faster, able to eat, and telekinesis to boot? That's a pretty awesome trade if you ask me."

"And me?" Alex growled.

"That was honestly a mistake. The spider was only supposed to have enough mutagens for one shot not two, and it was on auto-pilot. Its orders were to find Psych over here, after that I guess it went rogue. It would have bitten anything it came into contact after its orders were through. It could have been you just as easily as anyone else. Not my fault you picked it up instead of squashing it. So there" George crossed his arms in triumph "you can only pin me for one thing."

"Good enough for me," Raph said grabbing his sias. The others nodded.

George put his hands up with a small look of panic. "Seriously, come on! Can you at least give me a chance for my life? A few games that's all I ask. Best two out of three. You win I die, no fight. I win… we'll see, alright?"

"You'll cheat," Mikey accused. "They always do."

George quickly shook his head. "I'm not that stupid, and unlike someone," he glared at Sharp "I'm a man of my word."

There was silence.

George turned to Jeff with clasped hands. "Bro?"

Prolonged seconds ticked by before Jeff huffed. "A dead man's last wish." Leo and Psych weren't as trusting but they eventually agreed all the same, the others following their decisions with much grumbling.

George smiled like a little kid that was getting his way. "And so none of us can accuse each other of cheating, the games will be luck of the draw." He cautiously skirted around Alex and moved to his desk. From a drawer he pulled out and unwrapped a sucker, which he popped in his mouth before withdrawing a rolled up, rubber keyboard that he splayed onto the desk. After a couple strokes of the keys a window popped up on the projected screen with two labels marked Game and Players. "There," George said. "The computer will randomize a list of games that I have set up out of boredom; it will also pick who all will be playing in each game. Fair enough?"

"You already have our names in the system?" Don asked.

George shrugged. "I already figured that at least some of you will wind up in here pointing some guns at me, because honestly, if you can take down Ambrose's place then you'd have no problem storming my little volcano. So I figured that if I only got one wish before one of you killed me would be to die playing games. I don't like final battles to the death; it's so messy and very cliché if I might add. Oh and also, you guys" he pointed at the four ninjas "do you have any idea how hard it is to spell your names? But anyway, here goes." He pushed the enter key, game titles and names started to flicker on the screen before finally stopping and jaws dropped at what appeared.

Game: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Players: George VS Michelangelo

"Awesome!" Mikey exclaimed as hands slapped faces in disbelief.

"You cannot be serious," Raph said.

George grabbed a pair of wireless Gamecube controllers from his desk as a Gamecube lifted up from the floor in front of the couch. It turned itself on and the projected screen on the wall changed into the start up of the game.

"I want the black one," Mikey said as he jumped the back of the couch like it was just another day back home in New York.

"Pf, I always get the black one," George said as he sat down and tossed Mikey the purple controller as they chose their characters. "Toon Link? How could you pick Toon Link?"

"What? Oh like Sonic's any better," Mikey said.

"Fine, you know what? How 'bout a good battle. Here we go, Toon Link against the real Link."

"They're both real."

"Toon Link, that one's obviously fake, duh."

"Not true! Besides, being 'real' doesn't make him better."

"Oh please, the one from the newer game is so much better. Look at him, his graphics are so much more badass."

"Yeah the newer game was pretty cool, though it was kind of confusing in Gorgon cave when you walked on the ceiling. Cool but confusing."

"I know, right? And those creatures of darkness that you have to fight within that fenced in area. They're so freaking annoying when there's more than one. I could never get the last two to die at the same time."

"It wasn't that har-"

"Would you two just play the game!" Raph cut across them making both of them jump.

"Fine, geez," George said.

"Grouch…" Mikey mumbled and received a smack to the back of the head.

The fight started and lasted for a full ten minutes. It was almost funny how George and Mike zoned out as they stared at the wall with such concentration as their thumbs attacked the buttons. In the game the two dueled it out, throwing every combo move and item they could get, knocking each other off the stage until finally the last life was lost, and Toon Link stood victorious.

"Aw dude, seriously!" George exclaimed. "I died because of a fire flower?! What kind of dignity do you have left from dying from a fire flower?!"

"And you guys say that my video games are for nothing," Mikey said behind him with a wide smile.

"Yes because you knew that one day you'd be inside a volcano, on an uncharted island, in the middle of the pacific, fighting it out with a scientist on a Gamecube," Raph stated sarcastically.

"Exactly!"

George spat his used sucker stick onto the floor in defeat, turned the Gamecube off so it could sink back into the floor and slunk off to hit the enter button. Again game titles and names started to flicker on the screen before stopping.

Game: Capture Thee Flag

Players: George VS Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, Alex, Razor, Sharp, Jeff

"Capture the Flag?" Razor read.

"No, not 'the' flag 'thee' flag," George corrected.

"What's the difference?" Sharp asked.

"Thee, meaning one," George said as a small swarm of flying disks came from an open slot in the wall. "It's an obstacle course game; you'll read about it in the in-game instructions."

Jeff, watching the disks and knowing to take George by his exact words asked "What do you mean 'in-game'?"

George had an untrustworthy smile on. "You'll see."

Before anyone could say anything else there was a bright green flash before everything went black.

I LIVE!!!!

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