quick ecap: everyone has made it to the center of the volcano to meet jeff's step-brother George, the head scientist of the Labs' eastern branch. Not seeming to put up much of a fight in ways of saving his life from everyone that wants to kill him (Jeff included) George offers that they play three rounds of videogames, best two out of three wins. After Mikey wins the first game half the gang is thrown into a virtual reality world to play the second game.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Death Race

"Dude, head rush…" Mikey groaned as he slowly got to his feet holding his head. He didn't remember much except for a bright green flash that had nearly blinded him then waking up to nothing. Looking around he found himself in a world of black. It was so dark that he couldn't see his hand an inch from his nose.

Wait, what if I really am blind? What if that green light had actually blinded me?! "I'M BLIND!!!" he cried out into oblivion, falling to his knees when something suddenly wrapped around his ankle and yanked down.

Before he knew it he was surrounded by light that was a little painful on the eyes. Blinking the pain away he looked around to find that he was sitting in someone's arms. "Hi Raph!"

Without a word Raph dropped Mikey.

"So what just happened?" Razor asked.

"Game glitch," Jeff said casually pointing up to a small seam in the air above their heads.

Mikey stood up and brushed himself off before actually looking down at himself. He was in what seemed to be some type of hi-tech body armor that covered most of his body and looked pretty much awesome. At his sides he pulled off a pair of metal poles and pushed a button on the sides. The poles cut in half and the top halves hung down, linked to the bottom by an orange beam of light. "Dude, laser-chucks!" Looking up with a smile he discovered that everyone else was wearing similar armor as him though each one was altered to match the person's physique. He also noticed something else "Jeff, you got your arm back!"

Jeff looked down at his right hand, one that was completely identical to his left. "No I didn't, not really. It's this game, it reconstructed us using our genetic coding and according to my DNA I still have two arms."

"So what you're saying is we're in a video game?" Don asked.

"George always did want the perfect virtual reality experience…" Jeff sighed when a digital window popped up before them. It read:

Capture thee Flag

Instructions

Objective: find and collect the flag before your opponent does.

The flag is marked on the map. To access the map hold down the R1 button. Any weapons/traps found in game can be used to slow your opponent down. To load a firearm or collect gas for any vehicles simply pick up/run over the ammo box/gas canister. Each player has five lives, when you run out of lives you are ejected from the game. If you are the last player standing you win by default.

"Sounds simple enough," Razor and Sharp said together.

"Where's R1?" Mikey asked looking over himself.

"It's on your wrist," Leo said pressing a blue rectangular button on his right wrist. A green hologram popped up showing a map to the land and where their location. They were in a forest at the bottom of the map while the flag was in a mountain at the top.

"It looks like we have three terrains to cross," Don observed bringing up his own map. "We need to get out of this forest, make it across a desert and scale a mountain."

"Fun…" Alex huffed.

"Come on, we might as well get started," Jeff said walking out of the small clearing that they had been standing in. Because of the graphics of the game they were forced to go down a single trail, the rest of the trees were so dense that they might as well have been brown and green walls.

It wasn't long before they came upon a cross section. They hesitated.

"Why don't we split up?" Mikey suggested. "Only one of us needs to actually get to the flag, right?"

"No need, the exit's this way," Jeff said heading right.

"How do you know?" Sharp asked as he followed.

"I grew up with George, he doesn't change much so he's a little predictable," Jeff explained over his shoulder. "I remember when he was taking this summer game programmer course and he said that in every game he made he was going to have at least one maze where the exit would always be in the right turns, just to screw with people. That and to have a giant, frozen fish be the ultimate weapon in a fight scene… and he wondered why our parents wanted him on medication. For a while they thought he was clinically insane."

"I heard that," a voice said as a digital window popped up in front of Jeff. "I was not insane, they just couldn't appreciate individuality."

"You poured acid on the keys of the piano!"

"Wasn't my fault that I was carrying a beaker of highly dangerous chemicals across the house and tripped over your toy car. You never did clean up your messes."

"Oh, and it's just coincidence that that acid landed on the piano making it useless just as mom and dad were about to force you into taking lessons?"

"Yes."

"And what about the poor neighbor's dog?"

"Hey, they were told multiple times to put that thing on a leash. It's not my fault it ran in front of me while I was testing my first flamethrower."

"What do you want George?"

"Nothing," George said sounding a little too innocent. "Just figured now would be a good time to ask why you hate me so much all of a sudden."

"If you had gone through half the crap I have you'd understand."

"No I wouldn't. We're brothers, come on. Sure not by blood, but we burned our lab coats the day you left in the same flame, that's practically a blood pact!"

"Shared flame or not George, I can't just stand by and let you continue what you've been doing. These labs aren't a good place. There's no justification behind them and almost everyone I know would agree."

George was frowning, hurt, when a light seemed to click on in his head. "Oh, I also was going to tell you about-" Suddenly the ground gave way beneath their feet. Everyone except Alex, Leo, Sharp and Razor fell to the bottom of a fifty foot hole. Alex saved herself with her wings and managed to grab Razor, while reflex let Leo and Sharp reach out fast enough to grab the edges of the gap. "-the hole trap," George finished. "See ya at the finish line!" he exclaimed happily and the window disappeared.

"Guys?" Leo called down after he climbed back onto solid ground. "You okay? Say something!"

At the bottom of the hole bodies lay as pain filled masses. Ghostly green 5's hovered over the corpses. The 5's changed to 4's and disappeared.

Don painfully sat up. "Bad news: we can feel pain," he groaned. "And this armor doesn't appear to help against great falls, though as light weight as it is I shouldn't have expected as much anyway."

Raph shoved Mikey off of him and staggeringly got to his feet, popping his knuckles, wrists, elbows, knees and neck as he did. He looked up at the long drop. "Damn."

"Oh sure, save Razor!" Mikey called up when he managed to get to his feet.

"Don't even Mike, I'm always saving your butt!" Alex called down as she landed.

"Why that little, distracting piece of…" Jeff grumbled as he sat up, popping his spine.

"So 'ow we gonna get out of here?" Raph asked putting his hands on the wall of the hole. The bad graphics made the wall too smooth to try and find hand and footholds.

Leo looked at Alex.

"Yeah I got 'em," Alex huffed and jumped down, expanded wings slowing her fall so that she could touch bottom without a lost life. To make it quick she tried to lift two bodies at a time, though it was an accident trying to take Raph and Jeff together. When the four fallen were back on the surface it was decided that they needed to hurry.

They ran down the paths, taking all the right turns as Jeff suggested. Finally they came upon a river. Mikey ran ahead and skidded to a stop at the water's edge. Turning he held out his hands to make everyone else stop. "Wait! There's nothing to say that we can survive water. In some games water down right kills you."

They looked at the river. It had to have been at least twenty feet wide.

"Well, who wants to jump in first?" Alex asked.

With a quick flick of the arm Raph pushed Razor forward. "Hey does." Razor hit the water's surface and disappeared.

"Razor!" Sharp exclaimed.

"Raphael!" Leo said sharply as Razor flickered into existence beside them with a ghostly four hovering over his head before he solidified and it disappeared.

"What? He's fine," Raph said and held Razor at bay with one hand as the shark tried to push him in.

"Okay, water's bad," Mikey summed up. "How do we get across?"

"Can we jump it?" Sharp asked.

"It looks like a long shot," Leo said.

Jeff nodded in agreement. "Who wants to try first?"

Raph reached for Razor.

"Hey!" Razor yelled jumping back. "I only have four lives left! Why don't you throw Alex!"

"Hey I saved one of your lives you ungrateful little…"

Don shook his head at the arguments that started and noticed something about the wall of trees to his left. A stick seemed to be sticking out of one of the trunks. Now that he noticed it the stick seemed to be a little obvious and looked a lot like a lever. Going up to it he grabbed it and pulled down. There was a rumble from the ground followed by rocks gurgling up from the river to create stepping stones.

"That works," Jeff said. "Nice job Don."

They crossed the river and continued through the forest terrain, having to dodge traps such as rolling boulders, falling digital branches, and giant killer mushrooms that kept appearing out of nowhere. By the time they finally got out of the forest the only ones that still had all five lives were Alex and Leo.

"I knew there was a reason why I hate mushrooms…" Razor muttered as they looked out unto what they had to face next. Stretched out before them was a sandy desert under an orange, dusty sky.

Alex's ears dropped as her shoulders sagged. "I hate heat."

"It's not that hot," Mikey said.

"And you're not the one in all black," Alex pointed out when there was a ground shaking explosion, followed by a yell from above that was steadily getting louder until a falling object hit the ground with a plum of flying sand so big winces were drawn from the audience. When the grains settled there was a ghostly green three hovering over a pair of kicking legs sticking up out of the sand.

The group watched as muffled grunts came from underneath the legs. There was much wiggling before the body started to pull itself from the ground. George finally fully appeared sitting on his knees, spitting sand from his mouth. He began to dust sand from his hair and body armor when he froze and slowly looked behind him. Seeing the others standing there he made a nervous smile. He raised a hand in a half wave before scrambling to his feet and jumping over the next sand dune.

"After him!" Leo exclaimed. No one needed telling twice. They ran up the dune and jumped over the top, sliding down the slope to see George peeling out on a four wheeler, kicking up sand behind him.

George twisted around as he moved forward to make a childish face at them, complete with crossed eyes and exposed tongue.

At the bottom of the sand dune was a line of different vehicles.

"Dibs on the bike!" Raph exclaimed at seeing a motorcycle.

"That shouldn't be able to drive on sand," Don said.

"It's a game Einstein!" Mikey exclaimed as he clambered onto the back of what looked like a topless jeep with a machine gun attachment instead of a backseat. "Yo Jeff, wanna drive?"

On the way down the slope Razor tripped. After getting a mouthful of sand he turned back to see what he tripped over and found a black bump sticking out of the dune. Pulling on it a large object lifted from the sand. "Whoa. Hey Sharp, look what I found!"

"A bazooka?!"

"I think it's a grenade launcher too!" Sharp ran back and helped Razor carry it to a four wheeler.

Raph was the first one to move forward while Don and Leo claimed a second four wheeler that had two seats.

Everyone peeled out with sand flying out behind them when they had their rides, Alex watching from above as she flew over the dunes. She would let the guys handle George on the ground; she was going for the flag. Once they won this game she would have that scientist in her sharp claws. A smirk pulled at her mouth. Then after that, Ambrose is the next in line.

From her aerial perspective she could clearly see what was in store for her friends. An entire obstacle course was set up in the sand, a place that would need some precision driving to survive. If anyone happened to make it through there it was a straight shot up a narrow winding path into the mountain where the flag was waiting.

Concentration focused on getting to the flag and just how she was going to take down Ambrose she didn't notice an object flying up to her until the explosion went off. There was a moment of nothingness before she flickered back to life, a green five hovering over her head turning into a four. A moment of disorientation left room for a second explosion to repeat the last one, though this time the four turned into a three.

Shaking her head with a growl Alex looked around in time to dodge an object that exploded in the air. Looking down she saw that George was looking up at her with some kind of gun on his shoulder while he sat within the obstacle course.

The feeling for revenge was overwhelming causing Alex to dive down.

Seeing that he was in trouble George dropped the grenade launcher and cranked the accelerator to shoot forward. Even though he was trying to go as fast as he could, trying not to crash was holding him back allowing him to go slow enough for Alex to easily target. When she was directly above the scientist she flipped in the air, the turn causing the blade of her tail to slice through George's head.

His image flickered and the three over his head turned into a two. "Seriously?!" he yelled.

Alex stuck her tongue out at him and continued her flight, only to run into one of the walls that made up the obstacle course. She fell to the ground where she sat on a buried mine. When the explosion cleared she was left in the sand with a green two over her head.

"Watch where you're going!" George yelled as he passed her with a laugh.

Other explosions began to fill the air stating that the guys weren't far behind. Raph was the first one to pass by.

Already experienced on a motorcycle driving around the obstacles wasn't that hard, in fact he was quite confident that he was going to be first to the flag – or George, whichever was within reach first.

In any other time Raph would have held back some because of all the explosions he heard behind him to make sure everyone was staying alive. But this wasn't any other time, this was a game, there was no point in being worried which gave his mind full range to concentrate on catching up to the scientist.

It didn't take long for him to clear the obstacle course and he quickly zoomed across the sand that was flattening into nothing. Raph could see George up ahead, both of the racing for the mountain that stuck up from the ground to pierce the sky. A visible trail snaked around the giant rock, spiraling from the ground to the peak.

George was able to see the approaching turtle in a side mirror. With a flip of a switch the back of his ride opened up to allow a whole trail of mines to fall out onto the sand.

Raph tried to swerve to miss them but there were too many. His bike wound up hitting on the bombs. The next thing he knew he was sitting in the sand with a green one hanging over his head and no ride.

Just as he started to swear something rammed into his shoulder and he was lifted from the ground to see that George had already made it to the beginning of the mountain trail. Looking up he found a rather mad Alex that was taking him near the top of the mountain. She set him down in the middle of a clearing that branched off of the trail. "I'll go for the flag, you hold George back." Raph nodded as Alex took off again but suddenly there was a loud crack and Alex fell to the ground in a blinking form. Standing up a green one floated over her head. "Lightning cloud," she explained dazedly pointing at the sky before jumping back into the air.

Shaking his head, muttering how much he hated this game, Raph looked around him to find a couple toys sitting on the surrounding rocks.

…---…

George's little game was starting to become an embarrassment. By the time everyone made it out of the annoying obstacle course only Leo, Don, Mikey, and Jeff were left. Feeling of hopelessness to winning began to grow but all of them refused to give up.

They cranked their accelerators to try and close the gap and paid the price for it. Leo managed to swerve around the leftover mines that sat on the sand but Jeff hadn't been so quick and he and Mikey flickered out of their last life.

The pair's vision went black before they got a sensation of falling and suddenly landed on a hard floor. Looking around they found that they were back in George's control room though it wasn't exactly how they had left it. The ones they had left behind were strewn about the room surrounded by a mess of candy wrappers, chip bags, soda cans, and empty jars of peanut butter.

Everyone except Sharp, Razor and Psych were passed out in junk food comas. The twins were surveying the scene with a look of disappointment and utter disbelief.

Jeff shook his head at the lack of self control while Mikey walked towards the vending machines with one sentence: "I hope they didn't eat it all."

...---... ...---... ...---... ...---... ...---... ...---... ...---...

At the top of the digital mountain Alex landed in the mouth of a cave. After looking around outside to make sure no one was coming up the trail she went into the depths of the cave. After a short while the cave opened up into a cavern, the floor abruptly dropping into a dark abyss. Extremely narrow trails snaked out around the cavern to lead to a rock pillar that acted as the base to a flagpole that held a limp red flag.

Ready to get out of this stupid game, Alex flexed her wings and jumped over the void. However, she wasn't expecting something to be waiting within the darkness below.

A tentacle lashed out and wrapped around her legs before she could dodge.

"You have got to be kidding," she growled as she beat her wings against the pull and tried to slice the tentacle with her tail but to no avail. "Ah crap…" was all she could mutter before the tentacle sucked her into the darkness and out of the game.

...---...

"How far ahead do you think George is?" Leo asked as he sharply turned onto the mountain trail.

"It's hard to tell," Don replied from behind his brother as he looked up the mountain. As they drove, needing to swerve around rocks and large holes in the ground, something troubled Don in the back of his mind. "Hey Leo, if we win these games, are we really going to kill George? I know that Alex, Razor, Sharp, all the experiments want to, we ourselves don't really have a good history with scientists, but still. George seems more…"

"Different than dangerous," Leo finished. "I've thought about that too. We were all standing in the main control room, and George didn't even try to attack us with anything, isn't that odd for the top scientist? And didn't it seem like he wasn't trying very hard to keep us out."

"I don't know, the way I see it is the only reason George is dangerous is because of the size of his toys. He doesn't seem very prone on world domination, or even killing us." Don was about to say more when their riding was suddenly jerked and momentum sent the pair flying over the handlebars where they rolled across the ground.

"What was that?" Don asked dazedly once they stopped, surprisingly not losing a life at the crash.

"We must have caught on something," Leo said as he got to his feet. Don stood as well. As they walked towards the four wheeler the ground suddenly buckled and before they knew it they were caught dangling inside a net. "Okay, this game is starting to get on my nerves," Leo grumbled.

"Wow, I didn't think that it'd actually work!" a voice exclaimed with a laugh and George emerged from a near invisible seam in the air – a glitch in the game. "I wonder who's all left," he muttered when a rough, mechanical scream split the air.

"Oi! Scientist!" Raph yelled, jumping down from an overhead ridge, a giant chainsaw growling in his hands and a big smirk on his face. "I'm gonna enjoy this."

"Oh shit," George muttered as he turned and ran up the trail. Raph chased after him.

"Hey, you could get us down!" Don called after their brother but it was too late.

It was obvious that George didn't have any hope in outrunning Raph so he did the obvious thing and began to climb up the mountain rather than run along the trails. Though Raph would probably still be faster he'd be unable to use the chainsaw.

It wasn't a surprise when Raph nearly grabbed George's ankle when they reached a cave opening in the mountain. Pulling himself in George ran down the tunnel as fast as he could.

The tunnel wasn't long and opened up into the large cavern with the flag in the middle. Without faltering George ran across the narrow strip of land towards the flag, Raph right behind him.

In a final attempt to stop the scientist Raph reached for his sides and found that the game had given him sias. Trusting his aim even while moving Raph jumped up and threw the sharp pointy objects, the right one went wide, but the left one was right on target, hitting the adult in the back.

George's figure stopped and flickered giving Raph just enough time to pass him. By the time George's form solidified with a ghostly one over his head Raph had already reached the flag and grabbed the pole. Raph looked back in triumph and was annoyed to see George smiling.

The loser lifted two thumbs up and said "Kudos," before everything went black.

What's this?! I'm ALIVE?!!!? AND YOU'RE STILL READING?!?!?!?!? I know its been forever and a day since I've updated but I made a vow to never leave a story hanging, it just took me forever to continue!

And please review to say you don't completely hate me, or say you do hate me, either way: SAY SOMETHING!