I do not own the TMNT or Godzilla or the special-guest star of Star Trek appearing in this chapter. Sorry guys!
I'll try to get a couple of chapters up at a time, but I couldn't resist leaving you with this one!
Enjoy!
"You guys are sure about this?"
"Don, you've been waiting for a chance like this for a long time. We're not going to hold you back from it," Leo said.
"I'm sure we can save the city at least twice while you're gone," Michelangelo grinned.
"I won't be long. The island's only about a day out from here at the speeds the boat goes, which is pretty impressive," Donnie said slowly. "So I should be back inside of a week."
Still, Donatello hesitated. It was pretty rare for any of the turtles to strike off on their own like this. Sure, they'd broken into pairs at times, and Leo had gone off to Japan for a while, but Donatello was very, very rarely without at least one brother for back-up. It wasn't fear or worry that kept them so close all the time. They were a team, born and raised that way. Every one of the turtles knew they'd be at each other's sides for the rest of their lives, which, according to Don's calculations, would be pretty long indeed. What if something came up while he was away and they needed him?
"Don't worry, brainiac. We got April and LH if somethin' goes wrong," Raphael said, as though reading his brother's mind. "You get goin'. We got it covered. City'll be fine when you get back, and we'll keep Mikey out of your lab. Go do the science nerd thing."
The other three grinned at their brother. If he didn't move his shell onto the boat in another few moments, they were planning to toss him on-board regardless. Besides giving him the chance to study whatever it was that so interested him, it would hopefully get him clear of the city for a while. The truth was that Leo, Mikey, and Raph were not entirely comfortable with their proximity to Bishop, given the recent encounter. They wanted Donatello as far out of harm's way as possible, just in case. And this was the perfect opportunity.
"All right. Well, the Shell Cells will still reach me, so you can call if you need anything. And if anything happens, let me know. I'll have my laptop and I can tap into all our systems from there if you need support."
"We'll be fine," Leonardo assured him. A loud horn sounded from the HEAT-Seeker, and Nick leaned over the railing, waving. "Looks like that's your cue, Donnie."
"All right. Take care," Donatello said, eagerness creeping into his voice. His brothers could see his mind already turning to the situation at hand, away from his concerns. The four did a high-five (well, high-three given the number of digits they each had), and the purple-clad turtle executed a perfect flip onto the bow of the boat.
"Show off!" Randy called out the window.
"See you later!"
As the boat made a hasty exit from the harbor and out to the sea, Michelangelo looked over to Leonardo.
"You really think he'll be okay?"
"Sure. Between Monique, Nick, and Godzilla he'll probably be safer wherever he is than we are here in the city. And besides," and Leo's eyes narrowed, "as long as Bishop's here, I'd rather Donnie wasn't."
"You don't think he's gunning for Don do ya?" Raph asked.
"I'm not sure, but if I had to guess I'd say yes. Bishop never does anything on accident. What if he always intended for that vial of stuff to hit Don instead of you? Just because it didn't hurt him doesn't mean he wasn't aiming for Donnie all along, you know?"
"But then why'd we send him off alone? Don't you watch movies? That's ALWAYS when the hero gets attacked by the villain!" Mikey exclaimed.
"Good thing this ain't a movie, then," Raph said, though there was a darkness in his voice that belied some doubt.
"We know Bishop's here. Maybe this will give us the chance to do something about him before Don gets back," Leo suggested. "At any rate, it's just us for now. Let's return to the lair and make some plans."
"Last one home came from a rotten egg!" Michelangelo shouted. Though he hesitated a moment himself, he seemed to decide to trust Leo's judgment and jumped to the nearest rooftop. The eldest turtle followed him, but Raphael hung back one more moment.
"Take care of yourself, Donnie. And if you need us, we'll be there."
-==OOO==-
"Look out!"
"It's over there!"
"It's fast – watch yourself!"
"I got it," Donatello said confidently, leaping from his place on the deck with the precision of a cutting instrument. He struck hard and fast, and raised his hands in triumph, trophy flopping wildly.
"Okay, being a ninja is cheating," Elsie complained. "We don't stand a chance on our own."
"Chill out," Randy said, relaxing. "If he does all the fishing, we don't have to."
"We're supposed to be here on a scientific investigation, not a pleasure trip," Mendel criticized, "and part of that is collecting samples. Just because you couldn't catch a fish if your life depended on it doesn't get you out of the work."
"Dude, they're fish. And after you eliminate them as 'samples,'" Randy retorted, "they become something way more interesting – dinner."
"Thanks for lending a hand, Don," Nick said as the turtle swam back to the side and pulled himself out of the water, catch still wriggling as it dangled from one hand. "We've got plenty of smaller specimens, but it's important for us to get some larger ones, too. Better data."
"No problem," Donatello put the significant fish in the ready tank and made his way back to his perch on the deck. The turtle didn't quite know where HEAT had gotten the tip that something was out here – they mentioned the military and he didn't ask any further – but so far they had come up empty-handed. Over the last few days, he had fallen into a comfortable rhythm. After arriving at a sizeable sandbar in the middle of the Atlantic, the team had spent a few hours each day catching fish and collecting local plants. The mornings were largely spent fishing, the afternoons testing, and the evenings theorizing, though with no results yet. Dr Craven had even permitted Don to tinker with NIGEL, once he'd promised not to reprogram him significantly. Donatello leaned against the railing and closed his eyes, the warm sun extremely soothing. For a cold-blooded creature, he definitely didn't get enough sunlight. The purple-clad turtle felt like he could just spend forever sunning like this, surrounded by intelligent friends with similar interests. If his brothers were here, it would be absolutely perfect. But then, they might also have driven him crazy; sometimes it was nice to indulge his intellect on his own.
"Hey, take a look at this," Elsie called him out of his reverie. "Something's coming up in the results." She scooted her chair to the side so Donatello could join her at the card-table that was her workstation on the deck. As the turtle read over her findings, she stole a sideways glance at him. He was still amazing to her, not quite in Godzilla's awe-inspiring way, but amazing nonetheless. Though Donatello had never revealed exactly how he and his brothers had been created, saying that it would put other friends at potential risk, it must have been something incredible. Four turtles with the full range of human emotion, expression, social tendencies, not to mention intelligence, were the study of a lifetime. Learning Donatello was practically a genius himself had been a shock – learning he was as gentle as he was bright was a greater one. "He's more human than some people I can think of," she considered.
"Definitely something unnatural here," Donatello murmured to himself. "It reminds me of…" he trailed off, and an uncharacteristic tenseness crept into his posture. "Can I run a few tests on this?"
"Sure. What do you need?"
"I think NIGEL will suffice, if Dr Craven will let me borrow him," Donatello smiled tightly. Even in the middle of the ocean, apparently his demons refused to give up.
"You're not Randy, so I guess it's all right," Mendel called absently from where he was tinkering with the fishing net apparatus. "NIGEL's inside."
As Donatello made his way below-deck, he nearly bumped into a silent figure, so lost was he in his thoughts.
"Oh! Sorry!"
Monique looked at the turtle as though he were a dangerous insect, one she wished to squash as soon as possible. Her eyes narrowed as she passed him. Donatello sighed. It seemed nothing he could do would convince her that he was not a threat. Four out of five members of HEAT on his side was good, no doubt, but the animosity from Monique was not abating at all, and it was starting to grate on everybody.
While Don continued to where NIGEL was plugged into the more advanced laboratory below, Nick moved from his corner. It wasn't the first time he'd witnessed such an exchange, but he was definitely ready for it to be the last.
"Monique, we need to talk," he said to her, closing the door so they could speak in the privacy of the pilot house. "This is getting ridiculous."
"I do not know to what you are referring," she replied nonchalantly, checking the instruments with a casual glance.
"You and Donatello. Look, I'm sorry you don't like him. But he's a friend and he's trusting us with his life, and you need to trust him in return."
"You are incorrect. I do not need to trust anyone. I do, however, have to follow the orders I am given."
"And what are they?" Nick pressed.
"To protect this team, to watch Godzilla and ensure he causes no harm to the world, and to report everything I learn to my superiors." Monique faced Nick coldly.
"And have you reported the turtles to Roache yet?" Nick held his breath. If Monique had told her boss at the French Secret Service about his friends, the consequences were hard to guess. Sometimes Roache had been a friend and ally, even agreeing with Nick to defend Godzilla and use him to protect people from other mutations. But Roache had also ordered Monique to terminate Godzilla twice, only relenting at the last minute.
"Non. I have not." Monique turned, unwilling to meet Nick's eyes. "I have reported that we have made allies of a group that includes specialties in combat and scientific pursuits, and he has not yet asked for details."
"And when he does, what will you tell him?"
"I believe that depends on them. I will not disobey my superiors, even for you, but Philippe knows there are some things better not learned by governments. If the turtle proves itself to be trustworthy, that will enter into the situation. If it is a threat, however, I will expose it and its family in full."
"Donatello is not an 'it,' Monique! He's a friend," Nick corrected her with some heat. He moved so he was looking her in the face again. "He's a brilliant student of various sciences, worlds ahead of where any other normal human would be at that age, and he has invaluable experience with alternative technologies and biological agents. He's younger than Randy in chronological years, but I think you can at least agree he's more mature. And yet you keep this up. I want to know why."
They glared at each other for a few heartbeats before Monique relented.
"I have studied each case worked by this team extensively. There are few constants. The creatures we deal with range from those like Godzilla, created by human activity, radiation, and natural forces, to those that evolved independently and remained hidden, to those from other worlds entirely. We have fought mutations beyond imagining, and human projects with frightening intelligence and resourcefulness."
"And?"
"And," Monique said sharply, "the one constant in all our interactions has been that not one of these creatures has been friendly. Never has a mutation been an ally. Not once have we encountered something that was not eventually a threat, not only to our lives, but to many, many others. This turtle is also a mutation, and one skilled in deadly combat arts, as are its brothers. What prevents it from turning these arts against us?"
"Donatello is different," Nick sighed. Though he hadn't known the turtle in person for very long, weeks of emails had told him plenty. And more to the point, Nick had learned from his own charge how to read emotion where it was not obvious; in Don's case, he could see a gentle spirit and a surprising passion for helping others. "He's got something beyond intelligence that none of the others had. And I'm not talking about his skills or his ability to speak," he headed off her arched eyebrow. "Donatello has a heart."
"Perhaps. And this is one of the rare times I hope you are right," Monique said quietly. "But until I know for certain whether or not you are, I will continue my vigilance and treat it like a threat. If Donatello has a 'heart' as you say, it will forgive my hesitation, no?"
Nick was about to reply when he heard an exclamation from below. Turning, he spotted Donatello racing from the lab to the deck, Shell Cell in hand as he dialed rapidly.
"Dr Chapman, Dr Craven, Nick!" Donnie called in a rush. "We've got a problem!"
"What is it?" Randy asked, turning eagerly from the boring work of fishing.
At the same time, a voice sounded over the phone, and Donatello answered both at once.
"It's Bishop. He's here!"
-==OOO==-
"We're coming," Leonardo said tersely. Snapping the Shell Cell closed, he shouted across the lair, "Emergency guys! Bishop's out in Don's area. We've got to go!"
"I TOLD you this would happen! That rat! Oh, sorry Master Splinter," Mikey winced. "What's Bishop doing way out in the middle of the ocean anyway?"
"Don't matter," Raph snarled. "Donnie's out there too. So how're we gettin' there?"
"Well, we've got the helicopter, and you can fly it," Michelangelo pointed at the eldest turtle.
"I will accompany you as well," Splinter stated, rising from his position of meditation. "Where Bishop is, great danger is always near."
"Let's move," Leo ordered. "It's going to take us hours to get to them as it is."
"They better still be there when we get there," Raphael said darkly.
-==OOO==-
Donatello took a breath and tried to calm himself. What he'd seen on Dr Chapman's sample had been a very similar compound to the outbreak virus, and NIGEL's highly-sensitive equipment could confirm it. It was only a trace, but according to NIGEL, a recent one. Very recent. Shaking himself, and registering that his brothers had gotten his message, the turtle turned to HEAT.
"The chemicals you're picking up are from one of Bishop's experiments, the one with the 'aliens' that attacked New York a while back."
"That was right before there were a rash of sightings all over the city, right?" Nick asked. "We were in the middle of something in Africa and couldn't get back until it had mostly died down."
"Died down nothing," Donnie disputed. "My brothers and I went hunting night after night until the cure was released into the environment. But the point is that this stuff is bad news. And if it's here, and recently…"
"Then Bishop has been here, too," Mendel finished.
"But I thought you said he was government?" Elsie raised an eyebrow. "I know the bureaucracy is a little nuts, but generally, the government are the good guys. The military for sure; we've got a friend in there. There's been a lot of times he's bailed us out or took the heat to protect Godzilla."
"I hate to break it to you, but this particular part of the government is definitely not the good guys, not to me," the terrapin countered. "He's already kidnapped and attempted to dissect my family and friends. And he hasn't been shy about breaking as many laws as he feels like. This is the guy who engineered the aliens that attacked the city when the president was at the UN, and a lot of people got hurt that day. He's bad news."
"Pack up your equipment immediately," Monique ordered. "There is truth to the fact that not all government agencies are the same, and not all will be friendly. We are not well-enough equipped to handle a confrontation, if that is a possible or likely outcome."
"Hate to break it to you," Randy pointed, "but I think it's too late for that."
Everyone turned to see a small boat bearing down on them at high speed. Donatello felt his stomach grow cold. Not again. He would have given anything not to face Bishop, and his arsenal of dangers, again. Especially without his brothers to back him up. Suddenly the ocean felt enormous, the distance between him and the others nearly eternal.
"Elsie, Mendel, get everything below deck now! Randy, you and Monique get inside and see if you can steer us out of here or jam them up or something. Donnie, what can we expect here?" Nick asked as the rest of his team scrambled to follow his leadership.
"I don't even know. Bishop always wants to experiment on me…us," he corrected himself. This was not the moment for his own paranoid demons to cloud his thinking. "So he could be coming just for me if he knows I'm on my own – one turtle is easier to bag than four. Or he could be after your information about Godzilla, since he seems pretty interested."
"But then why the compound in the environment?" Nick wondered, feeling the HEAT-Seeker begin to lurch beneath them.
"I don't know. I think we're out of time to speculate, though!" Don gestured to the boat which was now almost on top of them. It was a trifle bigger than the Seeker, and where HEAT's vessel had scientific equipment everywhere, this one had guns.
"Monique! Get us out of here!"
An explosion filled the air and the HEAT-Seeker rocked violently to one side. Nick and Donatello both managed to hold onto the railing, and they could hear Elsie grunt from nearby while Mendel shrieked.
"Damage report!" Nick shouted.
"Nothing serious!" Randy called back, "but she cannae take much more o' this, captain!"
"Star Trek. We're fighting for our lives and he's quoting Star Trek," Mendel muttered.
"What's the plan?" Elsie asked, joining Nick and Don.
"Personally, I vote for running!" The purple-clad turtle had grabbed his own bag of equipment and held it protectively against his plastron. "We're no match for Bishop."
"He is only one guy," Mendel said. "Right?"
"He's not a normal guy," Don replied.
"Neither is Monique," Elsie quipped.
"Never mind. If Don says run, I vote we run too," Nick said, looking over his shoulder to the pilot house. Inside, Monique nodded and revved the engine. She began moving the Seeker away from the shallows of the island they had been anchored at, while Randy typed busily at the console.
Nick's mind suddenly dipped into darkness and he felt Godzilla wrap around his consciousness. His enormous charge felt the fear of his parent and was demanding an explanation. But the images Nick had to share were not comforting. Bellowing challenge, the creature began to move with speed, confirming as he did so that he was very near. And that whatever thing, mutant or human or object, was threatening Nick was going to be in for a fight.
"Godzilla's coming," Nick said as he shook himself clear again. He noticed absently that Elsie had taken his hand to help him return to himself. "Think he can take Bishop?"
"No! That's just what he wants!" Donatello realized with a sinking sense of dread.
"You sure?" Mendel asked. Donnie nodded wordlessly.
"Can you keep him away?" Elsie asked, her grip on Nick's hand tightening.
"I don't think so. He's too angry." Nick tried not to meet the turtle's questioning eyes – this was not the moment to confirm any of Donatello's theories.
"Watch out!" Mendel shouted. Another blast and the HEAT-Seeker lunged sideways as an alarm in the pilot house began to sound.
"Jefe, we're in trouble!" Randy yelled. "We're hit – Monique says bad!"
"Get us onto the sandbar!" Nick replied. "We'll try to wait it out until help gets here."
"Waitin' for the G-man to save the day!" the hacker crowed with glee.
A primal roar sounded and Godzilla, furious in all his reptilian glory, emerged from the sea in a spray of foam. The giant's tail lashed angrily, creating enormous waves with every strike as he set his sights on Bishop's significantly smaller boat. Another shot rang out from the boat, and a missile, aimed still at the HEAT-Seeker, launched into the air. Godzilla turned and put his scaly body between it and its stranded target, letting out a groan at the impact.
"Godzilla!" Nick called worriedly. But his charge shook himself after the blast and again faced the little boat.
Suddenly another sound began to fill the air, a strangely concussive thrumming. Godzilla shrieked and clapped his enormous claws to his head, as though trying to shake the uncomfortable noise from himself. At the same time, Donatello felt his knees turn to jelly and he gripped the rail to keep himself upright, his bag sliding from him. He was pretty good at enduring pain, since it came with the ninja training, but this seemed to arrest his very coping skills. He fought it.
"Are you okay?" Mendel asked, putting a hand on the turtle's shoulder. To his surprise, Don's skin had gone very, very cold to the touch.
"Whatever that noise is, it's hurting them!" Elsie realized. She turned to say something to Nick, but his eyes were blank – Godzilla's pain was beginning to touch his mind. She could tell he was fighting to remain independent, but it was a struggle.
"We must cease it immediately," Monique said, stepping up close. "But we have lost the capacity to move under our own power."
"I think the G-man has it covered," Randy pointed out. Indeed, Godzilla was angrily spitting fire at Bishop's boat, but between his continued discomfort and Bishop's dodging, he couldn't seem to hit. The noise became even louder and even the humans began to feel pain pounding just behind their ears. Godzilla roared in fury, thrashing in the water.
"Monique, can we get over there?" Nick asked, breathing hard as he broke from the pain that was not his own.
"Not unless you want to swim," she said, nodding at Godzilla's violent churnings in the water.
The volume increased again, and Donatello whimpered. Godzilla crashed into the water, writhing. A wave from his bulk hit the Seeker hard, like a tsunami. The members of HEAT braced for the impact, and the water pulled at them like iron-cold claws. The mini-tsunami washed away every other concern, and it was a breathless moment later before anyone could open their eyes to register the wave's retreat.
"Craven!" Elsie's voice brought Nick out of the bond and the shock of the water. He looked to see the robotics expert, having fallen overboard with the wave, being pulled towards where Godzilla was still thrashing in the ocean. A tail that had destroyed cities could strike the water with the force of a bomb. The lizard would crush him without meaning to, without even knowing he was there.
"Godzilla!" Nick shouted, both vocally and with his mind. But breaking through the pain was going to be difficult, let alone explaining the trouble in the heat of the moment.
A blur to the left and a splash was all the evidence HEAT had of Donatello diving into the water. He was thankful that swimming was one serious benefit of being reptilian, as it meant he could always swim far better than the average human, even hindered as he was by the throbbing pain in his skull from Bishop's sonic weapon. With strong, even strokes, the turtle barreled straight towards Mendel, who was doing his level best to avoid Godzilla's claws and tail. Another shot rang out and shells exploded everywhere. The giant mutation bellowed in anger and pain, spitting green fire in the direction of Bishop's boat but again not hitting it. A much softer cry of pain echoed from the water nearby.
"They're going to get killed!" Randy shouted, pointing at where there was a trickle of blood in the water and Donatello now favoring his left side a little. At the same time, Godzilla's tail came crashing down.
Right onto Mendel. Right onto Donatello, who had almost reached him.
"No!"
The force of the cry shook Nick's body to the core. For a moment, he felt all of Godzilla's pain, and Godzilla felt all of his worry. But the tail was already crashing down against diamond-hard water.
"I'm sorry, Nick." It wasn't words, but the feeling slammed home into his heart as clear as day. And somewhere in the air was the crack of scales meeting ocean with enough force to knock over buildings.