The Thing Part 15
"Um soup! Yummy!" Mikey said as Leo announced to everyone what was in the box after he and Frakly entered the room.
"Sorry, that's all we could get that wasn't mouldy or at least fifty years old." Leo joked.
"Don't worry, I packed as much as I could from home," April said. She had even brought with her half her utensils.
"Okay, Everyone get something to eat and rest. There's a microwave in the back room," Frakly told everyone.
Mikey didn't need telling twice. Within a few minutes he had warmed his soup up in the little microwave in the room with the bathroom and was happily slurping on it.
"What's wrong with Raph?" Leo looked down at his brother, who was laid on his side on a bed, asleep.
"Just tired," Donnie said, and yawned.
"Yeah, looks like someone else is as well." Mikey grinned.
After they had eaten, Leo and Frakly disappeared again to scout about the place. Leo wanted to know where the best lookout post was. Frakly showed him into a dark room on the seventh floor. It was small and looked as though a bomb had been dropped on it. But it did have a window and the view was perfect from it. Leo looked out of it and knew what Frakly meant when he said it over looks a certain area. It showed all and every alleyway within the surrounding neighbour hood.
"Perfect," Leo said. "But I don't think we need to keep a lookout until night time. That's when the Foot' are mostly active."
Frakly nodded and looked around the place, remembering every room he had been in, and this was used for paperwork, keeping files of everything. Most of the papers had been cleared out, but there were a few that had been left and now littered the floor.
"Any other rooms of interest?" Leo asked, noticing Frakly looking at everything.
"Just the room where I made M'reagro. And the things I used."
"Let's have a look," Leo said, walking to the door, and waiting for Frakly to follow as he had the torch.
They walked down a network of hallways, Leo trying to remember everyone he went down to get back but it was impossible. Frakly seemed to know where he was going. After a few minutes of walking and descending stairs, they came to a small dead end corridor. Frakly opened a door on the left and went in. Leo, who stayed out in the corridor to look about saw light from the room Frakly had just taken. Leo walked in and looked at the room. It was small and square. There was a lot of glass on the floor, and Leo had to stand in the doorway as not to get any in his foot. Frakly bent down next to a large, cylinder tube. It stood in the corner, supported between two clawed, mechanical hands.
"This is what I used to create him in," Frakly said, almost to himself. "This was filled with liquid. Special liquid, similar to the liquid inside of a female womb when the baby is growing. He grew in there."
Leo nodded, unnoticed by Frakly. ¦Donnie's more into this stuff¦
Frakly got up and moved over to something sat on a small black table. It was square and had a glass window to into. Wires ran over the whole thing.
"This is the incubator I kept him in when I took him out of the tube."
The professor got up and looked at Leo, who stared back. Frakly shrugged.
"Let's head back." Frakly made for the door, turning off the light as he walked out. Leo stepped back and immediately jumped back in pain. He looked at the bottom of his foot and found he had trod in a very large piece of glass. Blood trickled onto the flood.
"Ow," he said.
"Um, Ow indeed." Frakly said.
Leo limped over to a chair that was still standing in the corridor and sat down.
"I'm gunna need to get that out," the professor said.
Leo nodded and braced himself as Frakly, as gently as he could, grabbed the slippery glass and slid it out.
"Whoa, lucky it was whole."
"Youch."
//
Mikey taped his two fingers on his arm, mouth shut, eyes on April and Casey and his brother. Splinter was at the very back in the dark, meditating as best he could.
"Okay, one syllable," April said, watching Mikey. So far they had got it as a film, two words and Mikey had gone straight onto the second word.
Mikey started to flap is arms and pretend to sore.
"A bird?" Casey guessed. "Bird?"
Mikey slapped his head and continued to flap his hands and fly around. He started to peck at something.
"Chicken!" Casey yelled.
"Chickens don't fly, Casey." Donnie snickered.
"Alright then, let's see know-it-all have a guess."
Donnie shrugged. "It's your turn not mine. Any way, I know what it is."
Casey smirked. "What is it then? You don't know!"
Donnie shrugged again. "It's The Crow."
Mikey flew up his hands in defeat. "Damn! He got it!"
Casey sat back, no longer smirking. April laughed at him. Donnie smirked at Casey this time.
"Okay, who's turn is it now?" Mikey asked.
"Have another go, Mikey." April said.
"Okay!"
Mikey stood back where he was, facing the rest of them. He pulled one of the beds over so that when he sat he was still facing them. He did the motion for a game (Mikey chooses anything he wants) and held up two fingers.
"Two words . . ." April said.
Mikey nodded and now held up one finger.
"First word, three syllables."
That was funny as Mikey had to tap his two fingers and thumb to say that it was three. He pretended to go to sleep. Then he got up and pretended to carry out a normal day; washing teeth, face, eating, reading the paper . . .
April, Casey and Donnie frowned. They hadn't said anything.
Mikey sighed and threw up his hands. He decided to go to the second word. Two syllables. He put his first fingers to either side of his head, imitation of the devil.
"Um, Satan?" Casey guessed.
"Devil?" April said.
Mikey slapped his head and carried on looking like he was evil or something. He put on a evil grin.
"Barbie!"
"Casey!"
"What? She's evil."
Mikey suddenly pointed at Casey then. He started to imaginarily hold and point something.
"Barbie? Barbie . . . What?"
Mikey slapped his head again and did the horns on the head.
"Resident Evil."
Mikey stopped to point out the winner, but they were looking at each other. Then they all turned around as one.
Raph was sat up, watching the whole thing with a smile on his face.
"Too easy." He said.
"Yeah, well, you - it was just a lucky guess!" Mikey said, folding his arms.
"Easy? I would never have got the resident bit. That WAS a bit odd, Mikey." April said, smiling.
Mikey grinned and bowed. "Okay, Raph, your turn."
"Don't think so."
"Fine, Donnie?"
Donnie was just about to shake his head when they heard a noise from the door. They all looked up to see Leo limping in, Frakly following.
Mikey jumped up and helped Leo. "What's wrong?"
"Ah, nothing. Just stood in a piece of glass." Leo winced as he put pressure on it.
Frakly rummaged over a counter and came back with a few bandages and cream.
"It's quite deep. I dunno if it needs stitches." Frakly told him. He began to clean the wound while Leo sat back on a bed, feeling foolish for getting attention for a cut.
"There was broken glass everywhere. I should have been more careful," Leo said, watching the professor clean the wound.
"What was you doing?" April asked.
"We were exploring the place, and Frakly found the room he had used to create M'reagro."
Donnie looked around. "Speaking of which, where is he?"
"Ah, he must have gone exploring himself." Frakly looked up. "He probably remembers this place." He finished bandaging Leo's foot and went back to put the rest of the unused things away.
Leo tested his foot by gently apply pressure. He winced.
"We did find a good, high place to spy from. A good lookout point," Leo said. "It covers the entire surrounding neighbourhood. We'll be able to see any Foot activity."
"But we should be looking at out home. I mean, that's where they're heading." Mikey said.
"Yeah, but according to reports and from what I've seen, they always seem to come and head off towards the neighbourhood down there. I figure their hideout is somewhere nearby, and I wanna go check it out when I can."
"We'll be going in twos, right?" Mikey asked.
"Well, yeah. Tonight, I wanna go down, so you and Me, Mike. Casey can take up the lookout. Next night can be -"
"Hey, what about us?" Donnie asked, frowning at Leo. "We're not exactly still suffering from wounds here. I'm fine. I can handle it."
Leo turned to him. "Yeah, fine. Okay, but Raph can't-" He turned to point out Raph, who waved at him, grinning. April chuckled.
"Ah, Raphael is awake." Frakly said and went over to check him out.
"Hey, will you freakin' well stop bugging me!?"
"Raphael!" Splinter warned. He had long stopped meditating when he couldn't concentrate with the noise Mikey and his fellow game players were making.
"Okay, so Donnie, you and Raph can do tomorrow nights patrol," Leo continued. He looked at Frakly. "Will Raph be alright by then?"
"Yeah, should be fine." Frakly sat down.
"I'm fine now," Raph growled. "And I hate it when people take about me when I'm in the ROOM!"
Everyone stared. Raph shook his head in frustration and got up. He headed to the door, grabbing the torch Frakly had laid down.
"Where are you going?" Leo asked.
"Anywhere not here. Out the room. That way you can at least talk about me while I'm not there." He disappeared.
Leo started to limp after him.
"Leonardo." Splinter warned.
Leo looked at his Master, then back at the dark corridor. He could hear the distance noises of Raph kicking things as he walked further and further away.
Leo turned back. "He'll get lost."
"Raphael will be fine. Let him go."
Leo sighed and limped back into the room. He sat down on the bed. Everyone was quiet. Then Mikey sat up.
"Anyone wanna play Charades . . . Again?"
//
Raph directed the torch onto the ground in front of him. He wasn't paying attention to what was on the floor and what he might tread on. He was busy thinking of what they would be doing right now if that thing had never come into the lair and sliced his shoulder. He put a hand to the scar that had stayed on his skin. It was small now it had healed but there was still a mark. He growled and dropped his hand away. He continued down the corridor and up a set of stairs, where he sat on the very top one and just let his thoughts drift about in his head. ¦They'd be most likely be talking about how I can't even look after myself in this dump. They think I'm useless. All because of that THING!¦ He dropped his head and closed his eyes. A sudden sound behind him made him open them quickly and freeze. A low growl sounded right behind him. Raph jumped to his feet and whipped out his Sais. M'reagro stared at him, calmly.
"Stupid thing . . . Go on, get outta here. Go back to Master Frankenstein." Raph ignored the beast and sat back down again, head in his hands. The torch dropped at his feet, shedding its light.
M'reagro watched the turtle sit back down again, now realising no danger. The beast walked slowly round the turtle, who didn't even look up as his tail brushed his shell. M'reagro stared for a second at Raph, before disappearing into the darkness of the staircase.
Raph didn't move for a few minutes after it had gone. In fact, he had nearly dropped off to sleep. ¦Maybe I am getting useless . . . All I do is sleep and throw . . .¦ The turtle in red got up and walked off in the way it sounded as though M'reagro had come. This corridor was even messier than then rest. Glass, paper, wood, everything littered the floor. Raph trudged through them all; the flashlight dangled from his hand. There was a small, boarded up window at the end of the corridor, and only let in the smallest amount of light a boarded up window could give. Raph was about to walk up to it and pull the board off to get a look outside. He would have done if something behind him hadn't have hit him hard on the head and knocked him out.
//
M'reagro stopped. He sensed danger. It was the turtle he had just passed. His animal mind told him to go straight to the scene, even though there was a chance his Master and the rest could be in danger. The danger the turtle faced had many more around the building. M'reagro could now sense them all. The beats turned amazingly agile for his size, and sped back the way he had come. He galloped through the messes on the floors on the corridors he went through, and finally came to the set of stairs he left the turtle in red at. M'reagro took the steps five at a time and reached the top. The top step was bare. M'reagro went into silent mode. He stalked the sent of Raph and found himself in a corridor with a every big mess on the floor. M'reagro kept to the walls, listening. He could hear something very far away from this corridor. He took a careful step and drew back his clawed hand as it touched something cold and hard. M'reagro turned his small eyes down to a small, pointed fork thing, with three prongs. He recognised it immediately. The other was not far away, across the corridor. M'reagro growled angrily but quietly and took off, silently after the sent. He could smell another. A Human smell. The beast turned a corner in the messy corridor and found it leading down a shorter one, with a turning at the end. In the mess on the floor, M'reagro could only just see a trail of something that was dragged, making a parting in all the litter. The beast followed it, as well as his smell trail. The noises were getting closer. They were voices. He could see a flash of a ray of dim light coming from the next corridor. It went. M'reagro rounded the next corner and could see the flashlight clearly. The light from it flickered on about six human forms. Piece of cake to get rid of. As long as they didn't have a gun. M'reagro watched two of them drop a still figure to the floor, by which they were holding it by the arms. The turtle was knocked out, hands bound. The human figures were now recognisable as the same as those that had shot M'reagro with the gun. The anger rose in the beast. He stalked closer. The shadows hiding him perfectly. He was a silent as a mouse, which is amazing for his size and weight. He moved closer still. Now only about nine meters away. He moved another two closer. The men were arguing so they didn't pay any attention to their surroundings. If they did they would have seen a small empty food packet roll into view as M'reagro's six-inch claw brushed against it. The turtle on the floor groaned and the men stopped talking and looked down at him. One of them kicked Raph and carried on talking. That was the last straw for M'reagro: With one almighty growl he leapt from the shadows and took off two heads before they had turned around. The bodies fell to the floor, gushing blood everywhere.
Raph groaned and winced as something hit his aching head. He looked at what hit and stared back at a pair of dead eyes, which belonged to a bodiless head. Raph's eyes widen and he shuffled away from it, staring at it in horror and disgust. Raph looked up when he heard a roar and saw something big knock down two more of the men. Raph immediately realised what had happened. He had been knocked out and these men were taking him somewhere but M'reagro knew and came back. Raph watched as one man's insides spewed over the floor as the body impacted with it. Another roar and a crack and everything was quiet. Raph looked up and saw M'reagro standing over him. The turtle stared and then shook himself mentally. He got up, shakily, and started to pull at the ropes on his wrists. They were too tight, but a quick slash from M'reagro's claws sliced them. Raph didn't even realised they had undone until he was about to pull at the again and they fell to the floor.
"Right . . ." Raph whispered. The cleared his throat and said it again, trying to get his throat to work. His head was banding and for some reason made his throat sore.
M'reagro stared and galloped off the way they had both come, and dragged. Raph frowned and started to walk after him; but a few seconds later the beast cantered back and dropped something metal on the floor. They gave out a CLANG as they hit the floor. Raph looked down and picked up his Sais.
"Huh . . . Er, thanks."
M'reagro just stared, as still as a statue.
Raph looked at him then turned around as a sound echoed down the corridor. Raph ducked into the shadows as well as M'reagro. The flashlight was still on the floor and lit up only the middle of the corridor. It soon lit up a lone Ninja. He looked down at the bloody mess on the floor, nearly peed himself and ran off. Raph put out his arm as M'reagro moved.
"No, I'm gunna follow him . . ." Raph silently trotted after the Foot member, who was moving really slow for someone who has just seen their fellow Foot member's insides. M'reagro followed Raph, trusting the turtle to make the right decision and not go back and kill this one. They followed the man down five sets of stairs, the ground floor; but didn't stop there. The man took off down another set of basement stairs, then another after that. They were seven floors away from the rest of the group and the man stopped on this level. It was quite lighter down here. Many battery powered lights hung on the walls, and candles as well. The man came to a long corridor and turned left down some stairs. Raph and M'reagro followed not to close. They got to the stairs, but on the other side of the opening to the stairs there was no wall. Instead a railing. Raph and M'reagro looked down into the huge basement, big enough to hold two blue whales! There were crates and boxed of all sizes, and in big groups, there were many Foot men.
"Whoa . . ." Raph breathed.
They both spotted the small man who they had been following. He was running in and out of the boxes, and around Foot soldiers. He finally stopped at a tall, cloaked, thickly built figure. Raph's eyes widened as far as they could as he recognised the familiar man. Their worst enemy. Their dead enemy. The Shredder! Or even worse: The Super Shredder! Raph gasped. The small man started to explain something, no doubt what he had just seen.
¦We're in trouble now, guys¦ Raph thought. His gaze lifted from the Shredder to a crate which was being unloaded behind them. The crate was full of guns. Shredder turned to a figure on his right. One that wasn't good to see either. Tatsu. ¦Great! Just great! That guy just told Shred Head about the ripped up corpses. He gunna know now!¦ Raph motion for M'reagro to follow and they started to run back to upper levels. One Foot member came out of a door and turned to see Raph and M'reagro charging at him. Raph knocked him out before the guy could take a breath and they ran on, up the second lot of basement stairs and up the first lot. They didn't slow down until then. Then Raph turned to M'reagro.
"Where's the guys? Master? You know! The group! Can you take me back? To Master? Hey look, I'm sorry I called you stupid! Take me back now!"
M'reagro seemed to recognise an apology, and a crisis, and galloped off down the corridor to their right. Raph right behind him. M'reagro was pulling ahead slightly at the third level, and Raph could sometimes only just see his tail whip around a corner. Once up five sets of stairs, M'reagro galloped faster and Raph just saw the tip od his tail disappeared into the room he had stormed out of. He was meters behind the beast and he could hear Frakly alarmed voice as his pet jumped into the room. A few seconds later so did Raph.
Leo jumped up from the bed, but winced and took the pressure off his foot.
"Raph. What is it?" He said.
Raph stopped a foot or so in the room. "You guys, we're in trouble -" But before he could say anything else, his body seemed to have remembered something and poor Raph realised too late that he was still suffering after effects. He clutched his stomach and dived into the bathroom, only just making it.
They all stared.
"Um, yeah, in trouble of Raph spewing over us." Mikey said.
M'reagro roared. Frakly listened.
"M'reagro says there are a lot of men in the basement. The same men who shot him."
"The Foot?!" Leo jumped back to his feet; a second later regretted that he did.
Everyone else got to their feet as well.
M'reagro continued to growl at Frakly.
"There are many men, he says. They have a very big base below this building."
"Yeah," Raph came out from the bathroom. "Leo, Shredder's back! I saw him. Man, is he ugly - and big! He's still big from that vile of ooze he got hold of!"
"Shredder! Back? Oh man, we have to check it out and see what we're up against -" Leo started.
"Leo, they know we're here!"
Everyone stared at Raph now.
"What?!" Mikey yelled.
"How do you know?" Leo asked, crossing his arms.
"I - Well - Fine, I got knocked out by one of 'em. M'reagro ripped 'em apart and this lone guy saw the bodies. We followed him to this base and he told Shredder . . . You can't fight them all Leo, they've got guns. Lot'sa guns . . ."
"We have to get out of here then," Leo said.
"We can't."
They all looked at Frakly.
"M'reagro says they've blocked all exits. He knows . . ."
(man my eyes have gone funny. Et hem, well, still going, I'll get more up soon.)
"Um soup! Yummy!" Mikey said as Leo announced to everyone what was in the box after he and Frakly entered the room.
"Sorry, that's all we could get that wasn't mouldy or at least fifty years old." Leo joked.
"Don't worry, I packed as much as I could from home," April said. She had even brought with her half her utensils.
"Okay, Everyone get something to eat and rest. There's a microwave in the back room," Frakly told everyone.
Mikey didn't need telling twice. Within a few minutes he had warmed his soup up in the little microwave in the room with the bathroom and was happily slurping on it.
"What's wrong with Raph?" Leo looked down at his brother, who was laid on his side on a bed, asleep.
"Just tired," Donnie said, and yawned.
"Yeah, looks like someone else is as well." Mikey grinned.
After they had eaten, Leo and Frakly disappeared again to scout about the place. Leo wanted to know where the best lookout post was. Frakly showed him into a dark room on the seventh floor. It was small and looked as though a bomb had been dropped on it. But it did have a window and the view was perfect from it. Leo looked out of it and knew what Frakly meant when he said it over looks a certain area. It showed all and every alleyway within the surrounding neighbour hood.
"Perfect," Leo said. "But I don't think we need to keep a lookout until night time. That's when the Foot' are mostly active."
Frakly nodded and looked around the place, remembering every room he had been in, and this was used for paperwork, keeping files of everything. Most of the papers had been cleared out, but there were a few that had been left and now littered the floor.
"Any other rooms of interest?" Leo asked, noticing Frakly looking at everything.
"Just the room where I made M'reagro. And the things I used."
"Let's have a look," Leo said, walking to the door, and waiting for Frakly to follow as he had the torch.
They walked down a network of hallways, Leo trying to remember everyone he went down to get back but it was impossible. Frakly seemed to know where he was going. After a few minutes of walking and descending stairs, they came to a small dead end corridor. Frakly opened a door on the left and went in. Leo, who stayed out in the corridor to look about saw light from the room Frakly had just taken. Leo walked in and looked at the room. It was small and square. There was a lot of glass on the floor, and Leo had to stand in the doorway as not to get any in his foot. Frakly bent down next to a large, cylinder tube. It stood in the corner, supported between two clawed, mechanical hands.
"This is what I used to create him in," Frakly said, almost to himself. "This was filled with liquid. Special liquid, similar to the liquid inside of a female womb when the baby is growing. He grew in there."
Leo nodded, unnoticed by Frakly. ¦Donnie's more into this stuff¦
Frakly got up and moved over to something sat on a small black table. It was square and had a glass window to into. Wires ran over the whole thing.
"This is the incubator I kept him in when I took him out of the tube."
The professor got up and looked at Leo, who stared back. Frakly shrugged.
"Let's head back." Frakly made for the door, turning off the light as he walked out. Leo stepped back and immediately jumped back in pain. He looked at the bottom of his foot and found he had trod in a very large piece of glass. Blood trickled onto the flood.
"Ow," he said.
"Um, Ow indeed." Frakly said.
Leo limped over to a chair that was still standing in the corridor and sat down.
"I'm gunna need to get that out," the professor said.
Leo nodded and braced himself as Frakly, as gently as he could, grabbed the slippery glass and slid it out.
"Whoa, lucky it was whole."
"Youch."
//
Mikey taped his two fingers on his arm, mouth shut, eyes on April and Casey and his brother. Splinter was at the very back in the dark, meditating as best he could.
"Okay, one syllable," April said, watching Mikey. So far they had got it as a film, two words and Mikey had gone straight onto the second word.
Mikey started to flap is arms and pretend to sore.
"A bird?" Casey guessed. "Bird?"
Mikey slapped his head and continued to flap his hands and fly around. He started to peck at something.
"Chicken!" Casey yelled.
"Chickens don't fly, Casey." Donnie snickered.
"Alright then, let's see know-it-all have a guess."
Donnie shrugged. "It's your turn not mine. Any way, I know what it is."
Casey smirked. "What is it then? You don't know!"
Donnie shrugged again. "It's The Crow."
Mikey flew up his hands in defeat. "Damn! He got it!"
Casey sat back, no longer smirking. April laughed at him. Donnie smirked at Casey this time.
"Okay, who's turn is it now?" Mikey asked.
"Have another go, Mikey." April said.
"Okay!"
Mikey stood back where he was, facing the rest of them. He pulled one of the beds over so that when he sat he was still facing them. He did the motion for a game (Mikey chooses anything he wants) and held up two fingers.
"Two words . . ." April said.
Mikey nodded and now held up one finger.
"First word, three syllables."
That was funny as Mikey had to tap his two fingers and thumb to say that it was three. He pretended to go to sleep. Then he got up and pretended to carry out a normal day; washing teeth, face, eating, reading the paper . . .
April, Casey and Donnie frowned. They hadn't said anything.
Mikey sighed and threw up his hands. He decided to go to the second word. Two syllables. He put his first fingers to either side of his head, imitation of the devil.
"Um, Satan?" Casey guessed.
"Devil?" April said.
Mikey slapped his head and carried on looking like he was evil or something. He put on a evil grin.
"Barbie!"
"Casey!"
"What? She's evil."
Mikey suddenly pointed at Casey then. He started to imaginarily hold and point something.
"Barbie? Barbie . . . What?"
Mikey slapped his head again and did the horns on the head.
"Resident Evil."
Mikey stopped to point out the winner, but they were looking at each other. Then they all turned around as one.
Raph was sat up, watching the whole thing with a smile on his face.
"Too easy." He said.
"Yeah, well, you - it was just a lucky guess!" Mikey said, folding his arms.
"Easy? I would never have got the resident bit. That WAS a bit odd, Mikey." April said, smiling.
Mikey grinned and bowed. "Okay, Raph, your turn."
"Don't think so."
"Fine, Donnie?"
Donnie was just about to shake his head when they heard a noise from the door. They all looked up to see Leo limping in, Frakly following.
Mikey jumped up and helped Leo. "What's wrong?"
"Ah, nothing. Just stood in a piece of glass." Leo winced as he put pressure on it.
Frakly rummaged over a counter and came back with a few bandages and cream.
"It's quite deep. I dunno if it needs stitches." Frakly told him. He began to clean the wound while Leo sat back on a bed, feeling foolish for getting attention for a cut.
"There was broken glass everywhere. I should have been more careful," Leo said, watching the professor clean the wound.
"What was you doing?" April asked.
"We were exploring the place, and Frakly found the room he had used to create M'reagro."
Donnie looked around. "Speaking of which, where is he?"
"Ah, he must have gone exploring himself." Frakly looked up. "He probably remembers this place." He finished bandaging Leo's foot and went back to put the rest of the unused things away.
Leo tested his foot by gently apply pressure. He winced.
"We did find a good, high place to spy from. A good lookout point," Leo said. "It covers the entire surrounding neighbourhood. We'll be able to see any Foot activity."
"But we should be looking at out home. I mean, that's where they're heading." Mikey said.
"Yeah, but according to reports and from what I've seen, they always seem to come and head off towards the neighbourhood down there. I figure their hideout is somewhere nearby, and I wanna go check it out when I can."
"We'll be going in twos, right?" Mikey asked.
"Well, yeah. Tonight, I wanna go down, so you and Me, Mike. Casey can take up the lookout. Next night can be -"
"Hey, what about us?" Donnie asked, frowning at Leo. "We're not exactly still suffering from wounds here. I'm fine. I can handle it."
Leo turned to him. "Yeah, fine. Okay, but Raph can't-" He turned to point out Raph, who waved at him, grinning. April chuckled.
"Ah, Raphael is awake." Frakly said and went over to check him out.
"Hey, will you freakin' well stop bugging me!?"
"Raphael!" Splinter warned. He had long stopped meditating when he couldn't concentrate with the noise Mikey and his fellow game players were making.
"Okay, so Donnie, you and Raph can do tomorrow nights patrol," Leo continued. He looked at Frakly. "Will Raph be alright by then?"
"Yeah, should be fine." Frakly sat down.
"I'm fine now," Raph growled. "And I hate it when people take about me when I'm in the ROOM!"
Everyone stared. Raph shook his head in frustration and got up. He headed to the door, grabbing the torch Frakly had laid down.
"Where are you going?" Leo asked.
"Anywhere not here. Out the room. That way you can at least talk about me while I'm not there." He disappeared.
Leo started to limp after him.
"Leonardo." Splinter warned.
Leo looked at his Master, then back at the dark corridor. He could hear the distance noises of Raph kicking things as he walked further and further away.
Leo turned back. "He'll get lost."
"Raphael will be fine. Let him go."
Leo sighed and limped back into the room. He sat down on the bed. Everyone was quiet. Then Mikey sat up.
"Anyone wanna play Charades . . . Again?"
//
Raph directed the torch onto the ground in front of him. He wasn't paying attention to what was on the floor and what he might tread on. He was busy thinking of what they would be doing right now if that thing had never come into the lair and sliced his shoulder. He put a hand to the scar that had stayed on his skin. It was small now it had healed but there was still a mark. He growled and dropped his hand away. He continued down the corridor and up a set of stairs, where he sat on the very top one and just let his thoughts drift about in his head. ¦They'd be most likely be talking about how I can't even look after myself in this dump. They think I'm useless. All because of that THING!¦ He dropped his head and closed his eyes. A sudden sound behind him made him open them quickly and freeze. A low growl sounded right behind him. Raph jumped to his feet and whipped out his Sais. M'reagro stared at him, calmly.
"Stupid thing . . . Go on, get outta here. Go back to Master Frankenstein." Raph ignored the beast and sat back down again, head in his hands. The torch dropped at his feet, shedding its light.
M'reagro watched the turtle sit back down again, now realising no danger. The beast walked slowly round the turtle, who didn't even look up as his tail brushed his shell. M'reagro stared for a second at Raph, before disappearing into the darkness of the staircase.
Raph didn't move for a few minutes after it had gone. In fact, he had nearly dropped off to sleep. ¦Maybe I am getting useless . . . All I do is sleep and throw . . .¦ The turtle in red got up and walked off in the way it sounded as though M'reagro had come. This corridor was even messier than then rest. Glass, paper, wood, everything littered the floor. Raph trudged through them all; the flashlight dangled from his hand. There was a small, boarded up window at the end of the corridor, and only let in the smallest amount of light a boarded up window could give. Raph was about to walk up to it and pull the board off to get a look outside. He would have done if something behind him hadn't have hit him hard on the head and knocked him out.
//
M'reagro stopped. He sensed danger. It was the turtle he had just passed. His animal mind told him to go straight to the scene, even though there was a chance his Master and the rest could be in danger. The danger the turtle faced had many more around the building. M'reagro could now sense them all. The beats turned amazingly agile for his size, and sped back the way he had come. He galloped through the messes on the floors on the corridors he went through, and finally came to the set of stairs he left the turtle in red at. M'reagro took the steps five at a time and reached the top. The top step was bare. M'reagro went into silent mode. He stalked the sent of Raph and found himself in a corridor with a every big mess on the floor. M'reagro kept to the walls, listening. He could hear something very far away from this corridor. He took a careful step and drew back his clawed hand as it touched something cold and hard. M'reagro turned his small eyes down to a small, pointed fork thing, with three prongs. He recognised it immediately. The other was not far away, across the corridor. M'reagro growled angrily but quietly and took off, silently after the sent. He could smell another. A Human smell. The beast turned a corner in the messy corridor and found it leading down a shorter one, with a turning at the end. In the mess on the floor, M'reagro could only just see a trail of something that was dragged, making a parting in all the litter. The beast followed it, as well as his smell trail. The noises were getting closer. They were voices. He could see a flash of a ray of dim light coming from the next corridor. It went. M'reagro rounded the next corner and could see the flashlight clearly. The light from it flickered on about six human forms. Piece of cake to get rid of. As long as they didn't have a gun. M'reagro watched two of them drop a still figure to the floor, by which they were holding it by the arms. The turtle was knocked out, hands bound. The human figures were now recognisable as the same as those that had shot M'reagro with the gun. The anger rose in the beast. He stalked closer. The shadows hiding him perfectly. He was a silent as a mouse, which is amazing for his size and weight. He moved closer still. Now only about nine meters away. He moved another two closer. The men were arguing so they didn't pay any attention to their surroundings. If they did they would have seen a small empty food packet roll into view as M'reagro's six-inch claw brushed against it. The turtle on the floor groaned and the men stopped talking and looked down at him. One of them kicked Raph and carried on talking. That was the last straw for M'reagro: With one almighty growl he leapt from the shadows and took off two heads before they had turned around. The bodies fell to the floor, gushing blood everywhere.
Raph groaned and winced as something hit his aching head. He looked at what hit and stared back at a pair of dead eyes, which belonged to a bodiless head. Raph's eyes widen and he shuffled away from it, staring at it in horror and disgust. Raph looked up when he heard a roar and saw something big knock down two more of the men. Raph immediately realised what had happened. He had been knocked out and these men were taking him somewhere but M'reagro knew and came back. Raph watched as one man's insides spewed over the floor as the body impacted with it. Another roar and a crack and everything was quiet. Raph looked up and saw M'reagro standing over him. The turtle stared and then shook himself mentally. He got up, shakily, and started to pull at the ropes on his wrists. They were too tight, but a quick slash from M'reagro's claws sliced them. Raph didn't even realised they had undone until he was about to pull at the again and they fell to the floor.
"Right . . ." Raph whispered. The cleared his throat and said it again, trying to get his throat to work. His head was banding and for some reason made his throat sore.
M'reagro stared and galloped off the way they had both come, and dragged. Raph frowned and started to walk after him; but a few seconds later the beast cantered back and dropped something metal on the floor. They gave out a CLANG as they hit the floor. Raph looked down and picked up his Sais.
"Huh . . . Er, thanks."
M'reagro just stared, as still as a statue.
Raph looked at him then turned around as a sound echoed down the corridor. Raph ducked into the shadows as well as M'reagro. The flashlight was still on the floor and lit up only the middle of the corridor. It soon lit up a lone Ninja. He looked down at the bloody mess on the floor, nearly peed himself and ran off. Raph put out his arm as M'reagro moved.
"No, I'm gunna follow him . . ." Raph silently trotted after the Foot member, who was moving really slow for someone who has just seen their fellow Foot member's insides. M'reagro followed Raph, trusting the turtle to make the right decision and not go back and kill this one. They followed the man down five sets of stairs, the ground floor; but didn't stop there. The man took off down another set of basement stairs, then another after that. They were seven floors away from the rest of the group and the man stopped on this level. It was quite lighter down here. Many battery powered lights hung on the walls, and candles as well. The man came to a long corridor and turned left down some stairs. Raph and M'reagro followed not to close. They got to the stairs, but on the other side of the opening to the stairs there was no wall. Instead a railing. Raph and M'reagro looked down into the huge basement, big enough to hold two blue whales! There were crates and boxed of all sizes, and in big groups, there were many Foot men.
"Whoa . . ." Raph breathed.
They both spotted the small man who they had been following. He was running in and out of the boxes, and around Foot soldiers. He finally stopped at a tall, cloaked, thickly built figure. Raph's eyes widened as far as they could as he recognised the familiar man. Their worst enemy. Their dead enemy. The Shredder! Or even worse: The Super Shredder! Raph gasped. The small man started to explain something, no doubt what he had just seen.
¦We're in trouble now, guys¦ Raph thought. His gaze lifted from the Shredder to a crate which was being unloaded behind them. The crate was full of guns. Shredder turned to a figure on his right. One that wasn't good to see either. Tatsu. ¦Great! Just great! That guy just told Shred Head about the ripped up corpses. He gunna know now!¦ Raph motion for M'reagro to follow and they started to run back to upper levels. One Foot member came out of a door and turned to see Raph and M'reagro charging at him. Raph knocked him out before the guy could take a breath and they ran on, up the second lot of basement stairs and up the first lot. They didn't slow down until then. Then Raph turned to M'reagro.
"Where's the guys? Master? You know! The group! Can you take me back? To Master? Hey look, I'm sorry I called you stupid! Take me back now!"
M'reagro seemed to recognise an apology, and a crisis, and galloped off down the corridor to their right. Raph right behind him. M'reagro was pulling ahead slightly at the third level, and Raph could sometimes only just see his tail whip around a corner. Once up five sets of stairs, M'reagro galloped faster and Raph just saw the tip od his tail disappeared into the room he had stormed out of. He was meters behind the beast and he could hear Frakly alarmed voice as his pet jumped into the room. A few seconds later so did Raph.
Leo jumped up from the bed, but winced and took the pressure off his foot.
"Raph. What is it?" He said.
Raph stopped a foot or so in the room. "You guys, we're in trouble -" But before he could say anything else, his body seemed to have remembered something and poor Raph realised too late that he was still suffering after effects. He clutched his stomach and dived into the bathroom, only just making it.
They all stared.
"Um, yeah, in trouble of Raph spewing over us." Mikey said.
M'reagro roared. Frakly listened.
"M'reagro says there are a lot of men in the basement. The same men who shot him."
"The Foot?!" Leo jumped back to his feet; a second later regretted that he did.
Everyone else got to their feet as well.
M'reagro continued to growl at Frakly.
"There are many men, he says. They have a very big base below this building."
"Yeah," Raph came out from the bathroom. "Leo, Shredder's back! I saw him. Man, is he ugly - and big! He's still big from that vile of ooze he got hold of!"
"Shredder! Back? Oh man, we have to check it out and see what we're up against -" Leo started.
"Leo, they know we're here!"
Everyone stared at Raph now.
"What?!" Mikey yelled.
"How do you know?" Leo asked, crossing his arms.
"I - Well - Fine, I got knocked out by one of 'em. M'reagro ripped 'em apart and this lone guy saw the bodies. We followed him to this base and he told Shredder . . . You can't fight them all Leo, they've got guns. Lot'sa guns . . ."
"We have to get out of here then," Leo said.
"We can't."
They all looked at Frakly.
"M'reagro says they've blocked all exits. He knows . . ."
(man my eyes have gone funny. Et hem, well, still going, I'll get more up soon.)