Ooh, it's getting exciting!
New verse, same as the first, twice as fast and no less crass.
Enjoy!
Within half an hour, every Godzilla clone on the dock was dead or dying, and most of their bodies had been piled together in one of the other warehouses HEAT used for extra storage. The corpses would have to be destroyed at some point, but this was not the moment for it – both teams knew that they had won the fight only on a technicality and were already anticipating another. Inside the lab, everyone sat or leaned in a rough circle, working according to their nature. Don was tinkering with the remains of his sonic device. Michelangelo was bouncing, with Raph trying to contain him and mostly succeeding. Leo was thinking, and pacing a little restlessly, his eyes sliding across the room and resting on each member of his family one at a time, as though he could peer through them to the worries or injuries they hid.
At the same time, HEAT was not idle. Monique was working on restocking the weaponry, reloading what ammunition had been spent and repairing any damage. Elsie and Mendel had returned to their lab tables, reproducing as much toxin as they had expended against the clones. Randy, nursing a nasty gash to the head from a bad combination of loss-of-balance and Godzilla-clone feet, was keeping himself busy hacking every camera and security network he could find, trying to patch together a complete picture of the area surrounding the lab so he could visually identify any returning threats.
Only two forms remained motionless – Splinter and Nick. The former was still deep in a trance meditation, beyond where even the turtles could call him out of the astral plane. Even so, they did not try too hard to dislodge him, knowing that the moment they did, his return to wakefulness would cost Donatello his own mind when the embryo within regained control. Comparing notes after the battle with Bishop, everyone except possibly Nick and Leonardo had been surprised by the reason the purple-clad turtle was able to function, but there was no time to explain it in detail to the inquiring scientific minds. Additionally, there was no denying that at this point they needed Don's brain on their side if they intended to see their situation through. If they were not watchful, there would not be time later to examine the phenomenon at work.
Nick, on the other hand, was ensconced in the couch, his eyes closed. Don had bandaged him up well, and he was not in the same kind of pain, but there was a clamoring in his mind he could not ignore.
"Godzilla. I'm here, big guy. It's okay."
It almost broke the doctor's heart to feel how tentative and fearful his charge was, meeting his mental presence with as much gentleness as desperate need for comfort. If Godzilla had been a dog, he'd have been piled in Nick's lap, whining and nuzzling and burying his head in the safety of his parent's arms. For a giant, fire-breathing lizard, he was incredibly bruised, not physically, but emotionally and mentally, and he turned for help to the only force stronger than himself in his mind – Nick.
"Are you still in pain?"
Denial, tinged with the memory of pain flowed across the bond, and Nick dug deeper. He could see that Godzilla, like himself, was relieved not to feel that he was dying again and again anymore. Now that the clones were eliminated, there was nothing transmitting the physical sensations across the psychic link anymore, but the memory of it remained. And aside from all that, there was still a far-off sense of still more alien thoughts pushing against the edges. Nick could sense it too, and he knew what it meant: the clones they had fought were not all Bishop had, and those that remained were still connected to Godzilla and still under the agent's control.
"I'm glad you're all right, Godzilla. I know exactly how you feel, but it's over now. I hope."
Even as he sent the comforting thought to the presence in his mind, he knew the truth was a little more nuanced than that. It was true that the battle was over, but if Bishop had more clones, there had to be another one on the horizon. And this encounter had only proved exactly how dangerous the clones could be, not only to those who were psychically bound to them, but to those who might have to meet them in combat as well. Other than Nick's wound from Bishop and Randy's head-wound, everyone who had faced off against the clones had bruises, cuts, and a few slight burns, although the turtles brushed off their injuries as minor and nothing out of the ordinary. As much as Nick wanted this to have been the end, it simply wasn't.
"Parent?" came across the bond.
"I'm here, Godzilla."
There were no words for the sensation that suddenly filled Nick's heart to the brim, but it was so full of unquestioning, unconditional love and trust and protectiveness and loyalty and worry and thankfulness and courage it brought tears springing to the doctor's eyes. He returned the feeling as much as his human heart could, and promised them both he would live up to the faith Godzilla had in him. One way or another, even if another fight was waiting for them, they would emerge and they would end this torment for Godzilla, himself, and the clones, or die trying.
"Guys, I think we need a plan," Nick said, returning to himself and addressing the room at large.
"Um, duh," Mikey put in before anyone could stop him. "Even I know that!"
"Knock it off, shell-for-brains," Raph said, smacking him. "Adults are talking here."
"Bishop has more clones," Nick continued. "We've got to get rid of them, all of them, or we're going to be in big trouble."
"How do you know?" Mendel asked. Nick glared at him and the blond visibly back-tracked. "Oh. Right. Sorry. Never mind."
"Well," Elsie put in, "if he does have more, he's got to be keeping them somewhere. You can't hide an army of mini-lizards in a brownstone or something. Maybe that's where we start."
"Agreed. We can plan nothing until we know the obstacles we may meet," Monique added, not even looking up.
"On it!" Randy announced, spinning a circle in his chair before settling back to his desk with renewed fervor. "I'll ferret out his location and see what I can pull on it."
"Just don't get caught," Craven called over his shoulder. "The last thing we need is for him to have a heads-up that we're still, you know, up and fighting."
"Oh, ye of little faith."
"More like me of no faith at all."
"Getting back to the point," Nick interrupted the sparring match that was brewing, "when we do know what we're up against, what are we going to do about it?"
"If you ask me, I'm all for stormin' the place and takin' it out, top to bottom!" Raphael's grin was downright wicked.
"What, take on the entire government office by yourselves?" Elsie asked incredulously.
"Wouldn't be the first time!" Mikey shrugged cheerfully. "We've dealt with monsters, aliens, corporate goons, street gangs, bad guys from other dimensions – you name it!"
"Well, except for the alternate dimensions, so have we!" Randy called over his shoulder a little defensively.
"Alternate dimensions are only theoretically possible," Mendel corrected with a superior tone. "There's no poof they exist."
"Nope. Chalk those up to proven," Donatello finally spoke from where he was working. "Been there, experienced that. I'll tell you the details sometime, but believe me, there's proof all right."
"You mentioned aliens," Monique cut in before the conversation turned to matters less relevant. "We, too, have had our encounters, not all of which have been publicly known."
"All right, so where were you guys when the Triceratons came and invaded?" Raph found himself interested. Truth be told, outside his own little family, until this minute he hadn't thought much about what their exploits had meant for the rest of the world.
"Antarctica, dealing with, if you can believe this, a giant mutant penguin. What about when the Tachyons invaded and turned all the mutants against humanity?" Nick returned.
"Actually, the call they put out drew us, too – it was only by dropping into a deep meditation while locked in a room by our closest friends that we didn't get involved ourselves." Donatello shuddered. "Pretty scary to have your mind compelled like that, although at least we knew enough to fight against it at the time. We only found out later that it had turned all the giant-sized mutants into ravaging monsters."
"And when the first Godzilla was tearing up the city?" Elsie wanted to know.
"Dude, we live in the sewers. It's not like the army was going to evacuate us! So we just stayed home and watched the chaos on TV. Way better than any monster movie!" Mikey grinned.
"All right, enough of the memories. We've got work to do." Leo crossed his arms. "Sounds like a frontal assault is the only plan on the table so far. Which means we need other options."
"Give me about an hour and I'll see what I can do," Randy didn't even look up from the screen.
"In the meantime," Mendel stood up, "what about our original problem?" At a half-dozen confused looks, he sighed. "Don. The thing in his head. Hello?"
"I already thought of that," the turtle in question said slowly, looking around but mostly meeting his brothers' eyes. "And the truth is that this isn't as important as dealing with Bishop right now."
"Yeah it is, Donnie!" Raph argued angrily, but the gentlest turtle raised a hand and stopped him.
"I appreciate that you think so, but you're wrong. The thing in my head, thanks to Master Splinter, is only a threat to me in the long-term. I mean, yeah, it's not very long-term. We're probably talking days before there's irreparable damage. But with Bishop, we're talking about hours."
"What do you mean?" Leonardo asked, looking closely at his younger brother. He had a terrible feeling he knew what Don was about to say, and that he would have no choice but to agree with it, but he did not have to like it.
"If Nick's right, and we have to believe he is, Bishop has more of those clones. And I'd have to agree – the presence in my mind seemed a lot bigger than just the ones we saw today. The problem isn't that he has them, since we can slow them down with this," he held up the gadget that was starting to look less like it had taken a bullet, "and Bishop knows it. He knows now that he can't use them as effectively as he wanted, but that won't stop him from trying. The real problem is Godzilla."
"What does he mean?" Craven turned to Nick.
"Godzilla is still struggling against whatever form of programming or mind-control Bishop is using on the clones. He's holding out, but the longer this goes, the weaker he gets. At some point, he won't be able to fight it off anymore and he'll be just as much under Bishop's control as the clones. That's the problem."
"So if we thought Bishop was a problem with dozens of mini-Godzillas, that's nothing to the kind of problem he would be with one giant one. I get it," Michelangelo perched on a chair, surprisingly still.
"Bishop doesn't know he could be controlling Godzilla, since he still doesn't know that they're interconnected, and we have to stop him before he figures it out," Don continued, nodding. "We need to get rid of all the clones before Bishop even knows what sort of weapon he actually has, so we have to do it before Godzilla loses himself. If we strike now, Bishop'll lose the rest of his clones that we've already proven can be beaten with sound, never knowing that they open a door to a much larger asset, namely Godzilla. That can't wait."
"Neither can you, bro," Raph said darkly.
"Yes, I can. Compared to this, I can." He sighed heavily, absently rubbing his temple, then catching himself and looking up. "Yes, it's still there, and yes, it's still putting pressure on my brain from within my skull, which does cause headaches even now, and yes, it will kill me or incapacitate me eventually. But if we don't stop Bishop first, what chance do any of us have to fix it in time anyway? Not to mention what he might accidentally do before he figures out how to control Godzilla. I don't think the city can take another attack like that."
"You're right."
"Leo!" Raph's fists curled tightly and he turned on his brother. "How can you say that?"
"Because it's true," he replied heavily. "If we don't take Bishop down, we'll never have the chance to save Donnie. And a lot of innocent people could get hurt in the process. Godzilla is too big a risk to let run under Bishop's control, no matter how much we want to take care of our own first."
"For what it's worth," Nick spoke into the tension, "I'm sorry. If you weren't worrying about Godzilla turning against your family and the city, you could focus on Don. But because you're helping us, we have to make Don wait."
"Don't be sorry," the purple-banded turtle said gently. "We've been through this. We might not have known all the risks when we started this, but we chose this path. Now we've got to follow it through."
"You are correct," Monique said, striding into the center of the conversation. "First we eliminate the risk to our security. Then and only then can we operate in safety. All else is of no consequence."
"Then it's settled," Leonardo fixed everyone who was looking at him in a blazing gaze. "We take Bishop down first. And he is going to pay for making Donnie wait. I swear it."
-==OOO==-
"I don't like this plan," Raph grumbled as he shifted in the shadows.
"Which part?" Mikey wanted to know.
"All of it! Which part am I supposed to like?"
"Guys, keep it down," Don admonished. "Does 'the way of silence' ring any bells?"
"Don't you go all Leo-junior on me," Raph threatened, albeit in a much lower voice.
"I heard that." Leo appeared beside the three. "It's time to focus now. We're only going to get one shot at this."
"And that means you're up, bro!" Raphael put an all-too-enjoying-himself arm around his younger brother, grinning.
"Short end of stick, meet Mikey." Michelangelo sighed long-sufferingly
"Long end of stick, beat Mikey," Raph suggested. Donatello grinned and pulled his bo.
"Never mind! Never mind!" Obediently, as much egged on by the threat of violence as by the stern expression in Leo's eyes, the orange-banded turtle moved forward. "Why is it the cute one who always has to be the distraction, anyway?" he muttered.
Leaving the safety of the shadows across the way, Michelangelo crept towards the warehouse. It was sure useful that Randy had been able to pinpoint Bishop's location at the east end of Lairdman Island. This area was not too heavily populated, which was Don's polite way of saying nobody not up to something uber-secret and/or illegal would be anywhere nearby. This particular warehouse was pretty sizable, with what, to an experienced eye could discern, could only be several levels below ground as well as above.
Mikey suppressed a grin as he crept forward. This plan was so cool!
As he looked at one of the entrances to the building, an old coal chute, he spotted the tell-tale wire that was almost invisible – he'd never have seen it without Don telling him to look for it. As expected, Bishop was not only waiting for them with open arms, but had anticipated their movements. Which was, as Leo had suggested, the perfect time to try a new tactic. Since the government agent was expecting them to sneak into his facility, what better way to confuse him than to walk in the front door?
Now, why Michelangelo was the one to do so, that was the one part of the plan he didn't get.
In a pocket of his belt, he felt his Shell Cell vibrate silently. That was the cue from Leo. At once, Mikey took a deep breath and barreled forward towards one of the main entrances, a set of double-doors that, from what they could tell, was probably closest to Bishop's actual lab given its position in relation to the water and to being out of sight from the city across the river. A few steps before he reached them, a razor-sharp shuriken blurred ahead of him, hitting the electronic lock to one side and causing it to spark and die. So when the turtle hit the doors, they gave to his weight and buckled inward, the lock no longer able to hold.
"Honey! I'm home!" Mikey shouted into the space. At once a buzzing alarm sounded and he could see that, indeed, he had appeared in a large area that was probably right next to the lab itself. A whole crowd of Godzilla clones were gathered at the far end, and at his appearance, they turned and charged, instinctively protecting their turf.
"I can see you're busy now! I'll come back later!" the turtle yelped, bouncing in place. When the nearest clones were almost on top of him, he bolted, leading them outside. "Nobody said there'd be this many of them!" he wailed to the cold night.
After a few yards of sprinting, Mikey spared a glance backward, enough to see that the sea of clones following him had finally ebbed in its spill from the doors. He banked hard to the left, seeing the whole crowd turn like some bizarre flock of birds. Huge, killer, lizard birds that could breathe fire. Whose idea was this stupid plan anyway?
"Now!" The crack of the order shot though the night and three nearly-invisible shapes leapt from their place for the open and unguarded doors. At the same signal, Michelangelo finished his arc and raced back towards the building.
"Get ready," Leo's steady voice in the face of two dozen monsters chasing his youngest brother surprised nobody but himself. "Almost…"
Mikey reached the very stoop of the door and flung himself inside.
"Now!" the leader repeated. As one, Raphael and Donatello each swung one door shut and, with the help of Don's knowledge of electronic locks and Raph's knowledge of how to haul heavy stuff, they secured the entrance completely. Now they were inside Bishop's lair, and at least part of his force was outside. The turtles knew it wouldn't stay that way for long, but it bought them a few minutes.
"Nice job," Leo commended the exhausted orange-clad turtle who was panting.
"No prob," Mikey replied between gulps of air. "All in…a day's work…for the Battle…" But before he could get all the way through the phrase Raph was pulling him by his mask-tails deeper into the room. He didn't have the breath even to squawk as the four advanced.
"Clever," came a familiar and hated voice from everywhere. "But your divide-and-conquer tactics will not work for long."
"Looks like time for phase two," Don murmured under his breath. From his duffel bag he pulled out a control box and started to work. "Buy me the time."
But as the three turtles settled around him, they were more than a little surprised by a new sea of clones appearing from a large room beyond them, at least as many as they'd already locked outside. Behind the horde Bishop strode, his red and black battle suit bright in the sudden lights that came on at the same time.
"Um, Leo?" Raph asked quietly. "Were THIS many clones in the plan?"
"Not really," he whispered back.
"And this is not the end of my army," Bishop crowed.
Raph smacked his forehead with his hand, managing not to poke himself in the eye with his sai.
"Oh, crud."
-==OOO==-
Somewhere outside, a flock of mutated lizards milled around aimlessly. They clawed at doors and walls somewhat ineffectively, finding that the exterior of the building hid a reinforced skeleton that was largely impervious to their underdeveloped strength. Just as they began to lose interest and wander off at random, a low pitch sounded in the night air, drawing their attention. In concert, the creatures turned towards the origin of the sound, a speaker-box mounted over a partially-hidden coal chute entrance off to one side. An opening was visible there, through which the mutants passed in almost straight lines, following the order given by the sound.
And behind them, oddly yellow in the dim light, rolled a robot.
"You were right," Mendel whispered as he steered. "They don't even appear to notice NIGEL since he's not a threat."
"If NIGEL could talk," Randy whispered back, "I have the oddest feeling he'd be saying something about chibi Godzilla right about now."
"Which is exactly why we disconnected the audio," Nick put in, not cracking a smile. "NIGEL announcing his presence, in any way, is sort of counter to this plan."
"So far, so good, then." Elsie looked at her watch. "The guys have been in there about 20 minutes. Do you think they're okay?"
"Oh, probably. This is their plan, and they seem to know what they're doing," Mendel rubbed his nose awkwardly.
"Look!" Monique cut into the conversation. As she pointed, they could see NIGEL passing through the tiny entrance and vanishing within. "It is time to go."
"Wait. Aren't we supposed to…?" Randy began.
"No." Nick's voice was decisive. "We go in now."
"But we told the guys…" Elsie tried.
"It matters not. We must go." Monique stood from her place in their hidden spot and began moving silently towards the opening.
"Nick?" Mendel asked, more than a little terror squeaking in his voice.
"I know what we agreed on, but we've got to do this. Stay here if you want, but I think Monique's got the right idea. I'm going in."
Watching Nick set off for the waiting basement entrance, knowing that the plan didn't include what was probably about to happen, the remaining three members of HEAT exchanged glances. They had but a few seconds to decide if they were going off with the other two or stay put. But, after each took a deep, nervous breath, Elsie and Randy rose simultaneously and followed. A moment later, Mendel scrambled after them, more afraid to be left behind than to go on.
Even before their eyes could adjust to the darker dark of the inside of the building, the three late-arrivals felt themselves pulled backwards and pushed against a wall. It was only the whispered "Shh!" that kept them from giving away their position. In the shadows ahead of them, glowing red eyes milled about, intent on whatever was at the other end of the room. Elsie felt a shiver run down her spine, but she held still. Her heart was pounding loud enough to be heard in New Jersey, and she could feel Mendel beside her quaking where he stood, pushing himself against the wall as though he could melt into it.
On her other side, she felt Randy tense suddenly, then reach down and grab her wrist. He gave a gentle tug and she realized they were moving. Echoing Randy, Elsie shifted until she could find Mendel's arm and pulled. The blond bit back the startled gasp with an effort, and they fell into line, connected only by touch in this darkness, following blindly wherever they were being led.
"In here," the words were whispered so quietly they might have floated unnoticed in the air. Even so, Nick's voice was quietly confident. A hand touched Elsie's shoulder and pushed down, and she realized she was being asked to crawl. She suppressed a shudder and moved forward gingerly, finding herself in what could only be some kind of old heating duct.
The tunnel was narrow enough that it brushed her shoulder if she strayed even a little to either side, and the air felt suddenly dense and hard to breathe. Elsie moved forward, not thinking about what she couldn't see, not thinking about what might lurk in here with her and the dark. The slope suddenly changed from level to somewhat steep, and it took all her strength to keep moving upward without sliding backwards. Ahead, she could hear Randy grunt, and though she braced herself for impact, he didn't land on her. Behind her, there was a quiet "Eep!" as Mendel lost his grip, but the thump was muffled, and the sound of Nick straining to push the roboticist upwards made her almost giggle. But the seriousness of their situation sobered her at once, and the feel of the walls closing in on her made her sweat even more as she tried to focus on climbing and not on being trapped in the walls of a building that even now NIGEL was rigging to explode.
When the slope abruptly ended, Elsie was so caught off-guard she almost missed her handhold, but before she could even think of sliding backwards there was an iron-strong grip on her arm as Monique pulled her up. A glimmer of light was visible ahead, and by it, she could make out Randy crouched ahead, taking up as little space as possible. It was amazing they fit into this tunnel at all – the turtles would never have been able to creep through the narrow space with their shells, and how Monique had managed with the massive backpack she was toting was anyone's guess.
Without waiting for Elsie to get her bearings, Monique pushed the redhead down the duct, reaching for Mendel who was obviously struggling. Elsie took the opportunity to crawl over Randy towards the light. It was the end of the vent, likely where it had once met some sort of unit or junction with several other ducts, but instead had been simply cut off in the recent reorganization. There was a box shoved against the opening, but it was a little shorter than the duct, so she could see over the top of it. The view of light and space was almost too much for her – Elsie just barely stopped herself from throwing the box out of her way and standing up, fighting down her claustrophobia with the knowledge that she had no idea what was waiting out there.
A tug on her ankle was enough to bring Elsie back to herself; Monique was impatiently trying to get her out of the way. With the enormous backpack, it took quite a bit of wiggling for the women to switch places in the narrow space, but at last Elsie found herself back with the others, Monique cutting off all the light for a long, tense moment of silence. Then there was an extremely odd sound that it took Elsie more than a moment to identify as a trademark Mendel Craven sneezing fit, muffled by probably more than one set of arms.
"Come," came Monique's curt order. At the same moment, she pushed the box that had barred her way and exited the duct smoothly, sliding off to one side. The remaining members of HEAT tried not to rush the tiny opening, mostly succeeding, though they spilled out of the tunnel as though it had been upended.
"Where are we?" Nick asked softly, the first to get his composure back as he moved to a crouch.
"It appears we are on a level between that on which we entered and the one on which the turtles likely remain. This is good," Monique drew a flashlight as though it were a weapon and moved it around their immediate vicinity. "This area is not under surveillance, and it appears this is the electrical and mechanical hub of the lab."
Indeed, the shadowy space was lit not by a central bulb or an exit sign, but by thousands of little glowing green and yellow and blue and red lights from dozens of computer components and other pieces of equipment. The room felt large, almost the width of the whole building. It appeared that whatever had been here previously had been removed, every unnecessary wall taken out so that all the massive banks of computers and servers and hydraulics and everything else could be placed on this level. Everything stretched to the ceiling and, in many cases, wires and whole sections of machine punched through to the next floor for some purpose or another. HEAT had emerged at one end, sheltered from any prying eyes by an enormous tank of something – it sounded like water but was not transparent so it was impossible to know.
Leading the way, Monique began a steady advance, ducking through the labyrinthine passages and corridors made by the components, making note of all the cameras and other surveillance devices as she found them. When she had established the precise location of each, she turned to Mendel, who had followed with the others in relieved silence. Anything was better than that narrow duct full of spiders and dust and darkness.
"Can NIGEL disable the security on this level?" she asked.
"Um…maybe," he ran a hand through his hair, thinking quickly. "Donatello has primary control, since he's the one having NIGEL lay the explosives below us. We didn't really plan for me to have any access to his functions after he got inside, but…maybe."
Pulling out his own remote control, familiar enough in his hands he could have done this in pitch-blackness, he ran his fingers across the buttons. He'd shut off his signal to the robot after directing it inside, knowing the robot would just get confused if it were taking orders from two separate places. But Donatello had not yet accessed NIGEL except to acknowledge that it was in place, so there was a moment of time if he acted fast. Mendel quickly called up the visual display, spotting a nearby set of computer cables running along the wall. It was the work of a moment to connect NIGEL directly to the security feed and take it over – for all he complained about Randy, he had certainly learned a few tricks from him!
"I got it," he reported. "I've taken a snapshot of the security video from just before we came in. I'll put it on loop so they won't see us in here unless somebody comes to look."
"Good." Nick relaxed minutely. "While Donnie's moving NIGEL around downstairs, we'll go ahead and put up our own surprise on this level. That way we've got some double-insurance, just in case the turtles' plan doesn't work."
"I thought we were waiting outside until they signaled that it was safe," Randy said suspiciously. "What happened to that plan?"
"Why miss the opportunity to seek our own retribution?" Monique returned, a determined gleam in her eye.
"You planned this all along!" Elsie accused. "You knew you'd come in anyway!"
"We have trusted the turtles to do what they felt best to deal with the situation, knowing they would have to improvise on the spot," she replied easily. "They, in turn, trusted us to do the same. That is all I am doing."
"Besides, if we're on hand here, maybe we can help them out if things go wrong," Nick said. "Anyway, we're here now, so we may as well repay Bishop for his visit to our lab!"
There was a fierce light in Nick's face as he knelt beside Monique, who was already pulling things out of her backpack. Wanton destruction was not usually HEAT's style, but it was certainly Godzilla's, so they were just preempting the situation as far as Nick cared to consider. Besides, anything he could do to make sure the turtles' plan worked was worth any risk.
For all their sakes.