Nalong - Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and I make no profit from this story. At least not any tangible profit, I love reviews, and I get the joy of having written this down and had a little fun with it. Please don't sue me.

A/N: Wow. There are so many of you. Wow. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the wonderful reviews!

Leonardo was the first to of the turtles return to the barracks that evening. He had spent the whole day digging ditches and was a little tired, but he wanted to be awake when his brothers got back. He hadn't seen any of them all day long and he was worried about them.

"Leo, will you please sit down?" Steve asked the pacing turtle. "How much trouble could they have possibly gotten into on their first day?"

Leo knew exactly how much trouble his brothers were capable of getting into and he knew that they could do it quickly too. Steve noticed the look on Leo's face and remembered a bit about Raph's personality, as well as some of the stories Leo had told him throughout the day. And when he thought about it a little more he realized that Mikey could probably cook up a little trouble of his own in a place like this.

"Right, never mind, you just keep pacing." With that Steve returned to his book and turned his concentration away from the worried turtle.

Though he didn't show it, Steve was beginning to get worried too, Eric and Annie weren't back yet either, and the work crews were usually in by now. The fact that neither crew was in yet told him that there had been trouble during the day. He didn't say anything though because he knew that it would just put the pacing turtle more on edge.

At long last the door opened. Eric and Mikey entered, finally home from their assignment.

"Mikey!" Leo cried out. "Eric!" He paused a moment realizing that there had been a third person sent with their workgroup. "Where's Raph?" He didn't know why he had even asked. He was fairly certain he knew exactly what had happened, and Raph had gotten himself into trouble again.

"He, uh…" Mikey started, rubbing the back of his head with one hand as he tended to do when he was unsure of how best to explain something. "He uh, got into a little trouble. He hit one of the guards."

"They took him to…" Eric started to interrupt Mikey's explanation, but he was cut off by Annie rushing in the door.

"ANNIE! Are you ok?" Steve asked worriedly. He had never seen the girl this distraught. And as he looked more closely she had a black eye and several bruises on her face. He guessed that there were more of them hidden by her clothes. Something big had gone on with her crew today.

"I'm fine, but they got Don! They took him to the Course." Leo felt a little left out when everyone else, including Mikey, reacted in horror.

"Uh, what's the course?" Leo felt like an idiot having to ask the question, especially since Mikey obviously knew what it was. He hated feeling out of the loop.

"Certain death," Eric said. "That's where they took Raph too."

"Not certain, just highly likely," Steve corrected. He noticed that it didn't seem to help the blue-banded turtle's nervousness.

"I don't know if this helps any." Annie said to Leo and Mikey when she had finally calmed down. She herself had only escaped being taken to the Course as well because Donnie had been so effective in his distraction. The guards were so focused on him that they didn't notice anyone who was attempting to help him. "But the actions that got Donnie sent to the Course allowed 179 women to cross the river and escape this place."

"Typical Donnie," Mikey quipped, "Always sticking his neck out for others when he should be pulling it back inside his shell." He was upset; it was bad enough that one brother had been sent to the Course, and now to find that two had wound up there. He sighed and plopped down on Raph's bed. His hot-headed brother wasn't going to need it for a while anyway. Face in his hands he decided that he couldn't really blame Donnie. Any one of them would have done the same thing given the opportunity. Heck, he couldn't even bring himself to blame Raph. It was typical of the hot-head, but even he had his reasons.

"It does help, Annie. Thank you." Leo said touching the scared girl's shoulder reassuringly. "Why don't you tell us what happened."

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CRASH A flying chair collided with a hapless wall and shattered upon impact. Splinter flinched at the noise and the loss of another piece of furniture to the one man cyclone.

"Where are they!" Casey raged.

"Casey, calm down, we'll find them." April reassured the rampaging man. She knew that Casey meant well, but destroying the turtles' lair wasn't going to bring them home any faster. She saw Splinter drop his head and take a deep breath. She wasn't sure if it was calming himself after Casey's outburst, or his worry finally getting the better of him. She decided that it was probably a little bit of each.

"There's no sign of 'em. There's nothin'!" Casey was still angry, but at least he had stopped throwing the lair's sparse furnishings.

"They are out there. Somewhere is a clue to where they have been taken. We just need to look in the right place." Splinter asserted. "I wish to cover the ground where they were going to do their run again." The old rat stood and made ready to leave.

"We will all look again." April added. She thought for a moment before stumbling on an idea. "Why don't we take the battle-shell? The tracker might find something."

Splinter bowed slightly to April. "I believe that is a good idea, though I would like to follow their path on foot one more time."

April nodded in understanding and before she had a chance to speak again Splinter had slipped out of the lair.

"Come on Casey. You can help me with the scanner." She couldn't believe that they hadn't thought of taking the rig out earlier.

No more than 10 minutes into the drive April had switched seats with Casey. He now drove and she was working the scanner. She knew that Donatello had trackers all over the place but had still been surprised when she picked up one of the signals.

"Casey! STOP!" She double checked the scanner and decided that this was definitely a good signal though she didn't know what the signal was for. Part of her hoped that it was one of the guys, but she also worried about what they might find. The signal was alone. If it was the turtles there should have been four of them.

She searched the battle-shell for a portable tracker pulling open anything that seemed to be a door or drawer or compartment that might open while Casey looked on with curiosity. Donatello had surely taken a tracker with him when they had disappeared, but she hoped that he had more than that. She pulled open another compartment and hit pay dirt. The tracker freed from its hidden prison, she opened the back door and let herself out of the truck.

She wasn't entirely sure how to operate the portable tracker, but Donatello had built it user-friendly enough that she was able to figure out what she needed to know. Don would have known what they were following, but she figured they would find out soon enough.

The signal led April and Casey to the roof of the building. Some sort of fight had obviously occurred here recently. They were quite a way from the path the turtles had expected to take, but it looked like they might have been here.

"April!" Casey called out. Upon arriving at the spot he indicated April spotted a smashed shell cell lying on the roof, a silent witness to the events of the previous evening.

April pulled out her own phone and called Splinter.

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Several minutes later the trio stood together on the roof top. Splinter held the crushed shell cell in his paws. Casey and April had already conducted a cursory search of the rooftop, but Splinter had not yet had the chance to take a look. He began with what looked to be the focal point of fight. It wasn't long before his search bore fruit. He discovered a small dart embedded deep in the rooftop. Carefully removing it from its resting place he ascertained that the dart had a single point and three sharp fins.

Further search of the roof revealed several more of the darts and Splinter knew that his sons had fought well before being overcome by their foes. He was careful about all contact with the darts and cautioned April and Casey similarly. The sight of the darts sent shivers up Splinter's spine. This wasn't like most of the foes they had fought in the past. His mind drifted to the crazed cult that his sons had told him about over the past couple of months and he wondered if this was their doing. He could think of no others who would wish them harm at the moment.

Gathering up as many of the darts as he dared Splinter pocketed the objects and returned to the lair with Casey and April in the battle-shell. Now they at least had a clue to go on. Right now it was just a dart that didn't mean anything to them, but hopefully a little digging would reward them with some more solid evidence of the turtles' location.

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When Donatello woke up he didn't know where he was. It certainly wasn't the barracks where he had woken up last time. When he finally remembered why he was waking up he decided that one wouldn't really expect to wake up there anyway. He sighed and shifted on the floor. Just when he started asking himself what he had been thinking the number 179 started repeating itself in his head, 179, over and over, 179. He tried desperately to recall what 179 referred to. Just when he had been about to give up he remembered.

"Well, 36 remain, including this one, and we started with 215, so… 179 inmates escaped sir."

He wondered vaguely whether Annie was one of the 179 or the 36. 35, He corrected himself. I'm number 36. It didn't matter; he had other things to worry about. He heard voices and the sound of rattling keys. He looked up and found himself face to face with the guard from earlier.

"Well, well, well. The troublemaker is about to tangle with the Course. Good Luck Turtle." The guard's tone dripped sarcasm and he had spat the last word. Donatello cringed as he realized that he had no idea what the Course was. No time to worry about it though. He would find out soon enough. "On your feet, Turtle!"

Don pushed through the remaining haze from being knocked out and struggled to stand. The guard took great pleasure in knocking him ever again.

"I said on your feet, slime. You have to do better than that."

"Hey George," another voice called out, "Let's get a move on."

"Coming," The guard called back. "Come along, turtle, I'm going to enjoy this."

Donatello met the guard's eyes and showed no fear, he even had a small knowing smile on his face, but on the inside he was trembling like a leaf.

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Raphael had been pacing in his cell for the last several hours. He had known that taking a swing at the guard had been a bad idea, but somehow that didn't stop him from doing it. The guard who now nursed a broken nose and a black eye had been picking on the poor guy next to Raphael. The slight older man had been having some trouble with the fencing that they were putting up. Though Raph had done everything he could to try to assist the man in keeping pace the guards still picked on the guy. When the shock stick came out it had been the last straw and Raphael had taken out his frustrations on the nearest guard.

During the little distraction 20 men had slipped away and as far as Raphael knew they had been successful in their escape attempt, so he figured something good had come of the incident. This though, was definitely not good. He had heard some awful things about the Course, as it was called. He pushed any concerns to the back of his mind. They were the last thing he needed now, guards could be heard a short way down the hall, it was just about time. Raph, tough guy mask firmly in place, was ready to do this, whatever this was.

Silent and much more intimidating guards than the ones earlier unlocked the door to his cell. Raphael followed them, equally silently, out of the cellblock and into the late afternoon sun. He watched as other prisoners slated for the evening's run were gathered in the courtyard before being taken to the building that housed the dreaded Course. Then he saw the last person he ever expected to be here.

A/N: I hate to do this, but it's a good place to stop for now. You all know who he sees right?

GAH! People keep asking me for some Mikey action. I admittedly have trouble writing Mikey. Just about everything he does surprises me, which makes getting inside his head difficult. Whenever I write him he always seems to come off flat, or I leave everyone thinking 'now where the shell did that come from?' There has to be some middle ground somewhere so I'll see what I can do. There are several other things that have to happen first, as they have already been written, so it might be a while but rest assured that I accept the challenge and I am working on it. The turtles are a group of four and all four will have a part in this.