Author's Notes: Sheesh. I JUST got my Internet back to post this. Sorry, folks! Also, the reviews are loved and SO APPRECIATED. You have no idea. :)
Raven, iPADS are trouble. LOL. And no, Kaiya isn't a mutant. She and Leo were recently experimented on by Stephens with Recro-12, remember?
Duckie, Kaiya and Leo are two peeps I look forward to writing more of in the future. 3
D'Fuentes, I don't know the meaning of easy. Just wait until you realize how many Easter Eggs are in this book. Like, four books from now. LOL
Dragon, it's okay - just got a little worried. Heh.
Luke, I did my job? Well, awesome-sauce. :D
Feather, I don't think Stephens EVER had a mind. :P
Warning: Poor Don...
Disclaimer: TMNT belongs to Nick/Eastman/Laird. Nia Anders, Hugh Reese, Melody Gray, and any other Original Characters you notice belong to me. I'm in no way making any money. Thanks.

Chapter 36 - Stuck

Alright, who dropped the elephant? Or crafted the turtle sandwich? Michelangelo couldn't quite tell in the darkness. Wait. Why was it so dark to begin with? And what stunk like sulfur?

Straining against the weight on his carapace, the mutant sought freedom against something soft. A strong tug freed an arching arm, which he placed to the side. His scratched knuckles met with a familiar warmth and when ran them lower, they met with thin fingers. A human body was beneath him, tucked between a second one and bent metal. But why?

"Donatello," a soft voice called from an unseen direction.

Mikey lifted his heavy head as he freed a second arm and found leverage to pull himself forward. His thick fingers slipped against the rough surface of something unseen, so he reached a hand behind to see what it was that kept him short of breath. A wall. Thick, too, judging by its sturdy, smooth texture. Without light, the mutant couldn't judge how far it loomed at his sides or above him; but he was quite sure the distance was great since the voice's soft tone echoed.

"Donatello, c—can you hear me?"

"Me—Melody, is that you?" Mikey cried into the darkness.

There was a faint shuffle deeper in the area, like metal scraping against stone. "Don," the voice addressed, stronger. "Dammit, wake up! I need to know if it's working." Yup; definitely Melody.

Mikey strained more under the wall, minding the limp body he occasionally hit. "Wh—where are we?"

Melody sighed in pure frustration. "Level Nine Bunker. Remember? Now shut up, I need to concentrate."

'Bunker?' the youngest Hamato thought. Flinching, he wracked his brain for memories. 'Right. There wasn't enough time to get out…The bombs.'

So who made it to the safety zone? Sven never came back for a strawberry blonde girl and Native American fellow. Mikey remembered grabbing the girl while Hugh heaved the guy over his shoulder. Raph was in charge of Leo, who barely moved on his own. He and Hugh arrived first, just before Mikey. Melody entered last with Donny because…

'Don was poisoned. That's right. By that ugly doctor. Me—Melody was trying to save him. Looked for a cure. Couldn't find…Wait.'

"M—M—Melody, he's br—breathing, right?" Michelangelo cried. The dread shook his squished form, complicating his already hindered breathing. "Melody!"

"Shut up!" Dread tainted the cyborg's tone, too. And a shuddering whimper crossed the thick air. "I had to do it. There was no choice…"

"D—do what?"

Silence.

"Do what, Melody?"

"Donny"—Melody croaked—"Please, wake up. I—It didn't kill your brother. This has to work. If it doesn't, I…I…"

The genius wasn't waking up? Michelangelo felt bile rise in his throat at the notion. It burned and regardless of its uselessness, the youngest Hamato reached for the nearest ledge in grasp and pulled until he felt his fingertips burn.

"He's breathing, right?" he asked—sterner.

"Donny, please…I—I don't want to be alone…"

"Can someone give me an answer?"

"Careful how loud you scream, Michelangelo," a low voice interjected from the side.

Mikey twisted his head towards the right, though he still couldn't see. "Hugh?"

"Y—yeah," Hugh answered in clear pain.

"Can you"—the mutant inhaled with panic—"get up? Can you find Don? Can you—?"

"I…can't, Michelangelo."

"A—are you stuck too?"

A short yet heavy pause followed, accompanied by labored breathing and a bitter chuckle. "N—nah. I—I'm away from the wall, but…I can't feel my legs. I can't—I can't move them."

Cursing, Mike's head lowered into the debris beside him. The dust in the girl's hair by his shoulder tickled his nose and forced his head back up.

"M—Mikey?" sounded a new, lower voice. He sounded farther than Hugh yet closer than Melody. Or, maybe that was the angle. "I heard yer whinin'; I know yer alive."

"Raph"—the youngest brother couldn't hide his relief—"H—how are you and Leo?"

"Leo's breathin'. I think his leg is really broken now."

"And you? Are you…trapped?"

"No. From what I can tell, our part 'a the bunker's intact." There was a short pause as Raphael's sneakers padded against the uneven ground. "Why?"

"L—let's just say I've had better days," the orange-banded mutant remarked, smiling sadly into the dark.

"Mike—"

"Find Donny. Melody stopped"—he sucked in a hard breath—"talking to me. She won't tell me if Donny's…"

"Oi, Gray"—Raphael's authoritative voice immediately resonated through the enclosed space—"What'd ya do ta my brother?"

Melody didn't reply, but her obvious movements weren't ignored. Raph followed them with his keen sense of hearing—not at all phased by the darkness. The mutant's sneakers ceased crunching when the cyborg cursed then hit something solid. Whatever it was, it creaked and she hit it a second time as Raph drew closer.

"Gray!" the sai master called. Maybe he reached for her or sought Donny's body. Mikey couldn't be sure. He just knew Melody growled and a grunt followed.

"Leave us!"

"I ain't goin' anywhere, lady! He's my brother, so tell me what ya did!"

"I did what I had to," Melody snapped, unbridled. It was a dangerous mixture to Raphael's short temper.

As expected, the red-banded mutant's shoes slid across the bunker debris as he undoubtedly reached for her. "Which was what?"

A scoff preceded a blunt slap. "You shouldn't waste air arguing; you don't know how long we'll be down here."

"Don't derail the conversation, Gray. Ya owe us an explanation; this is all yer fault!"

Long silence followed. The air's sulfur intensified under its weight and Mikey swore the cyborg shook with emotion because a subtle rattling against stone echoed. However, it faded under Melody's dark voice.

"Don't you dare."

"Dare what? Yer the one who decided ta work for these people. Yer the one who took Leo. Yer the reason Don—"

"Stop it!" the woman screamed shrilly. A sense of pleading broke through the anger, but Raph didn't acknowledge it by toning down his emotion.

"Ya don't get ta make demands," the red-banded mutant spat.

"You have no idea what you're talking about. So shut up!"

"Yeah, I got no idea because ya don't make any damn sense." Scoffing cruelly, Raph shifted against loose stone. "I don't get what Don sees in ya."

"That makes two of us," the woman countered with soft yet bitter words. She drew in a shaky breath then smacked Raphael again. "Don't touch him yet!"

"Lady, I'm about ready ta punch ya in the face," the sai master said, pointblank.

"Do what you will, but you can't touch him."

"Why?"

"Because Recro-12—"

Melody's voice was cut short by a glow. It started as a soft blip in the void then grew defined like a lantern with threads of yellow and white beneath green. In seconds Michelangelo clearly saw the busy cardiovascular system of Donatello's arched body. He writhed against the bent floor—gently at first, but then his long legs retracted towards his body and his hands twisted by his sides. In the vein's illumination, Raphael stared with one wide eye as a strangled cry left his brother's throat. But Melody kept him pushed back, her bloody face occasionally glancing at Don's plight.

"You mustn't interfere with the process," she said as if explaining it calmly would ease her own nerves.

"The hell is that?" Raph cried with an arm stretched over the cyborg's shoulder.

"It's an experimental drug made by the doctor's here. They—"

Smack! The room stilled as the cyborg's head snapped sideways with an audible sound.

"Ya put something in him from this damn place?" the mutant asked vehemently. "What's wrong wit ya?"

Slowly, Melody faced Raphael and his raised fist, carefully wiping her mouth as he tried to round her. Her robotic hand caught his bicep like he had the strength of little boy and whirled him far enough for her fist to meet his face. He stumbled backwards, into a spot where the wall began folding.

"I said don't touch him!" she bellowed. Like a protective lioness, she crouched by Donatello's whimpering form and glared when Raph stood up.

"Ya best step away from him," the mutant noted in a dangerously low tone.

"Come on, Raph," Michelangelo interjected when he noticed the hothead reach for his sais, "is fighting going to solve anything?"

"She killin' Donny, Mikey!"

"It was the only way to save him, you dumbass!" cried Melody in return. Her battered body kept close to Don. Like she told Raph, she didn't touch him—though it was obvious by the pain on her flushed face that she wanted to. "Stephens wouldn't give me the antidote. Th—the only salvageable thing in that lab was Recro-12. I had no choice."

"Wh—what is Recro-12, exactly?" Hugh asked through labored intervals.

Mikey's attention drifted towards him. With the animated light from Don's body, his trained eyes could make out a stray chunk of ceiling pinched dangerously between the length of wall that kept Mikey pinned and the detective's pelvis, which it mostly likely had hit on its violent descent. The man returned the mutant's inquisitive gaze with a fearful expression, glancing at his unmoving legs beside the concrete.

"Re—Recro-12 is a drug designed by Doctor Lombardo," Melody started, softer while studying Donatello. "It was intended to deal with a blood infection caused by the merging of soft tissue and nerve receptors with a cyborg's mechanical limbs. It succeeded in that much, but Lombardo sought to stretch its limits."

"How far?" Hugh added.

The cyborg didn't glance up from Don's increasing glow or choke back her tremble, "Far. She wanted to re-grow entire limbs, stimulate new cell growth and repair the old, damaged ones without surgery."

"So she wanted to c—cure things like…cancer?"

"Exactly."

"Where does one even get…a base formula for something…like that?"

"The Earth Protection Force."

Michelangelo caught Raphael's surprised glance in seconds, asking, "Lombardo made this drug with information from Bishop?"

Melody nodded. "She stumbled on research data from an alien half breed he captured for a time. Stole her blood-work."

"Th—this drug was made wit' her blood?" questioned Raph, stiff.

"With its Immunoglobulin R, a special anti-body."

"S—so…what is the downside?" Mikey found it hard to form the words, especially once Don's grunting escalated to light sobs then strained cries as the glow grew whiter.

"The anti-body is fickle and highly unstable," Melody answered miserably. "Outside stimuli affect it, few bodies can endure it and the worse the blood is diluted, the worse the after effects are."

"And how diluted is the stuff you gave Don?"

"I…don't know."

"Don't know?"

The cyborg sighed at the youngest brother's squeak. "If I hadn't…he would be dead. I—It's up to him now. He has to fight with it. Like Leonardo…and Kaiya. Not like the others…"

"Others? H—how many people have died from this drug?"

No reply. That always meant bad news. Donatello cried loudly as a course of light pulsed through him and Michelangelo no longer fought his tears when his brother's voice beat against his brain like screams from a horror movie. He kept quiet, watching helplessly from his pinned position as Raphael drug Leonardo into the light of the genius's contorted frame. Melody's steely glance ensured the hothead kept proper distance before she dropped to her hands and knees by Donny's side.

She looked exasperated as she eyed the purple-banded mutant. It made her look vulnerable and lost, though Mikey wouldn't mention it out loud. She leaned as close as she could without making contact with his skin and fought an obvious urge to cry.

"P—please, Donny," she whispered by his cringing face. "Please."

It's all she uttered—again and again. At one point Mikey was quite sure she forgot everyone in the room. To her, only Don existed. Guess that was love, huh? No matter how twisted it was for them, Michelangelo felt fully convinced if Donny didn't make it, Melody would break. And so would he.

'Fight, Don,' the youngest thought while laying his head against his numb arm. 'We know you're strong. W—we can't lose you after we just got Leo back. It isn't right…You can't leave us. You can't…leave her.'

By the time the light reached its peak, tears flowed down the flesh side of Melody's face. One fraction at a time the brilliance eased and Donatello's body relaxed. The last glimpse of the cyborg's face was a relieved smile before the darkness sunk in once more. Hicking followed, which led Mikey to believe Melody cried into Donatello's plastron, now free to touch him.

'Wish I could hug him,' the nunchaku master thought with a grim sigh.

"Wh—what are you doing?" Melody asked suddenly.

Rustling sounded—the soft crumble of moving concrete. Raphael grunted as something slid against the floor, but didn't answer. Mikey sensed a presence close by before it leaned down, its breath loud. A familiar body was placed next to him; the youngest recognized the texture of his arm. Donatello.

"C—careful, Raph," Mikey said when the hothead rose. "There's a girl I'm partly pinned over. She's sort've recessed in the debris, but…"

"I saw her earlier," replied Raph from father away. "Like I saw that wall on ya. I put Don ta the side 'a her head…I think."

A quick feel confirmed it, so the youngest let out a small sigh. He smiled faintly when his older brother returned toting another body—Leonardo, no doubt. Raphael placed the Jonin on Michelangelo's other side then sat close to them both. The slanted wall had to make for uncomfortable seating, but Mikey felt grateful being surrounded by family. They were comforting, even in this position, and he felt strengthened when he lifted his head.

"Don's over here, Melody…if you want to join us," he said softly.

Raph didn't approve, yet he kept it to himself when the harsh clanks of metal drew close. She kept silent when sinking at Donatello form. Still, Mikey flashed at smile at her red eye he could now spot.

"We're stuck here," the hothead noted, glum.

"And alive," added Mikey.

"Like I said earlier, air will eventually run out," Melody interjected in a monotonous voice. "We are nine levels underground."

"Rescue squads could still—oh." Hugh's sigh grew into a hiss as he chuckled hollowly.

Raph clicked his tongue, leaning onto his youngest brother's shoulder. "Right; if we don't suffocate ta death…then we sure as hell are gunna be found."

"N—Nia and Angel are still up there, though," offered Mikey. "Maybe they could—"

"Distract the whole team sent after survivors? The press?" The hothead scoffed, yet laid a hand on Michelangelo's tender carapace as he heaved a shuddering breath. "Not a chance, Bro. If we're gettin' outta this…it won't be unseen."

Author's Notes: Next up, "Hearts"!