Strange

As they climbed up the stairs Mikey had to ask John something.

"Wouldn't it just be easier to use the elevator?"

"There are two problems with that idea, number one they would know that we were coming and we would be ambushed before we even stepped out and number two, you need an elevator key to reach the fifth floor."

"You need the exercise anyway Mikey," Raph joked.

They reached the door that leads to the fourth floor and entered.

"This place is spooky; it seems way too quiet. Shouldn't there be hordes of Black Lotuses fighting us by now?" Mikey asked warily.

"Mikey's right this is suspicious. We will probably be walking into a trap soon," Don said.

This floor was an office area full of cubicles, it was deadly quiet and no one seemed to be here. They were beginning to advance past the cubicles when the report of a machine gun forced them back behind the protection of a cubicle. Leo peeked past the cubicle to see what was happening; he saw a Lotus ninja behind a machine gun turret. That guy was ready to shoot whatever came his way. Raph tapped on Michelangelo's shoulder and pointed at the lights. Mikey used every last one of the shurikens he had brought to take out the lights and the room transformed into a shadowy battlefield. With the lights out and the gunner's vision deteriorated he began to randomly shoot at nothing.

Raph bided his time and bolted to a cubicle closer to the gunner, the gunner however was unaware of this. Raphael climbed onto a desk where he could easily see the gunner's agitated figure in the darkness. Raphael drew two shurikens and threw with deadly precision hitting him in the neck. The gunner died instantly and dropped to the floor. Raph surveyed the surroundings and motioned for the others to follow. The gunner had been guarding a door behind himself. They approached it and found it to be locked; Leonardo was able to chop off the doorknob and rammed the door down.

"They must be really close to complete domination of the city to use firearms against you," John said.

"Why do you say that?" Don asked.

"Well, because it goes against the code of conduct in ninja warfare as well as Black Lotus doctrine to use firearms. They must have planned to keep this under wraps because Japanese Black Lotus officials found out the chief officers would have to be killed. Firearms are only to be used against traitors, those who embarrass or shame the Lotus, or if the takeover must be sped up."

"I see."

They entered into the office and immediately searched the desk drawers. Donatello found the cardkey in the bottom drawer almost instantly. As the turtles were beginning to leave the fourth floor John grabbed the machine gun from its mount and returned to the group. They walked up the staircase to the door where the cardkey was needed, John slid it through the slot and it was accepted. John cracked the door open and was able to see into the hallway, there were two men guarding a door. John recognized one of them as Huan Kengo. Kengo was bald, and fairly large for a Japanese man, he was 6'2 and weighed two hundred and thirty pounds. He was an extremely muscular and hulking man. Kengo was an enforcer and the personal bodyguard of the Black Lotus number one chief officer, a man John had never seen. Kengo was a man without fear; a high threshold for pain, and some even rumored that he had no conscience.

The other guy was a complete mystery to John. He was average height and weight and the only thing that made him stand out was his long black and unruly hair. He freaked John out way more compared to Kengo. Kengo always showed his emotions; he was only surly or angry, never anything else. The longhaired guy had a face devoid of any expression whatsoever. He seemed to be staring off into space and looking intently at his surroundings at the same time. John reported all this back to the turtles and they prepared to leave.

"They are guarding the door that I think will take us to the chief officer and his number two guy. They shouldn't be too much to handle."

"Number two guy," Mikey said snickering.

"All right let's move," Leo said, rolling his eyes at Mikey.

John went first, he leapt out of the door, his gun already firing. He hit Kengo first and riddled his body full of bullets, but the other guy was quicker to react. He catapulted himself off the left wall and landed only a few feet from John, unfortunately for him John had still been firing where he first stood. The longhaired guy fell quicker than Kengo, even though he didn't sustain as much damage. However that was lucky for John because the machine gun had just ran out of ammo. John dropped his gun and the turtles followed. Although the hallway was expansive it only led to the double doors the two dead men were guarding. John turned the door handle and surprisingly it was unlocked; they entered cautiously. The door opened up into an ample office like room with a view of the city. The room had exquisite marble flooring, ancient Japanese suits of armor and weapons, a large desk and computer, bookcase, and many modern amenities.

"Wow, look at all this crap!" Mikey exclaimed.