Nalong - Chapter 15
Disclaimer: I own no adolescent, transformed, martial arts trained terrapins, nor their rodent-esque sensei. Casey and April aren't mine either. Neither is the Battle Shell. Did I miss anything? If I did, then I don't own it either. The plot is mine. The OCs are mine, and if you want to borrow them just ask. I make no money from this. Please don't sue me.
YAY! Just about everybody caught the Bebop and Rocksteady cameo! I figured that the older readers would, so congrats to all the younger readers who know their TMNT history! hehe. Also the first season of the old series is out on DVD for anyone who is interested, and that disk has the origin of the two "lovable oafs". (Thanks, Midnight Heir) Currently, this is all there is, but I might find a way to slip them in again. I'll work on it. And a HUGE THANK YOU to all you wonderful reviewers out there!
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Word passed through the camp quickly. By the next morning almost everyone was aware that an opportunity for escape was coming. It was a shame that the guards had found out too, but it was also to be expected. There was no way the information could pass through that many mouths without the guards picking up on something. What started as a rumor of the opportunity for escape had turned into a hugely complicated plan as it passed through the rumor mill. Luckily, the rumored plan was nothing like what was going to happen. While the guards took the necessary prevention steps to deal with the plan they heard they didn't realize how much they were hurting themselves.
Donatello had to laugh at all of this. He knew a little about chaos theory. Physicists have known for years that if you prevent all the little errors, prevent all the small 'corrections' in a system, then the only 'corrections' left are the big ones. Prevention strategy is a funny thing. He'd heard stories of businesses giving hour-long training sessions to lab researchers on why walking up or down stairs with a pencil is dangerous and therefore against company policy. These were the self-same researchers working with liquid nitrogen, explosive chemicals, heavy equipment and delicate machinery. When prevention strategy does its job everything becomes a big deal. The danger associated with a pencil is made equal to that of mixing pure sodium and water. Those stories always ended in disaster, disaster that could have been best prevented by allowing pencils on the stairway. This cult had just banned the pencils.
You go right ahead, guys, he thought, prevent the little things so the big one can come along and bite you in the shell!
He had been moved from throwing baskets around fields yesterday to throwing bags around a barn today. All day long he did exactly as he was told, not making trouble, not even speaking out of turn. Donatello did exactly what was expected of him without complaint. Physically he was throwing the bags, but mentally he was several hours ahead of himself.
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Raphael and Steve were the first to return from their chores and they waited patiently for everyone else's arrival. When Annie and Donatello got back Steve mentally walked the two present turtles through the evening again. He himself could never slip into that complex, even with the turtles help, so they would have to do this one on their own. The man's insistence on staying here made Donatello a little nervous, but he had relented in the end and agreed to let Steve stay behind. Mikey and Leo finally arrived and the group received a final walk through. Raphael was anxious to get underway, but Don insisted on double and triple checking everything for what seemed to be the thousandth time, and Raph had had enough.
"Come on Don. Let's go. You know everything that can go wrong. You've been walked through this a hundred times!"
Donnie looked over to his other two brothers.
"You'll be fine Don. You can do this." Leo told him.
"Yeah, and you've got me to help you out, so I don't know what you're all worried about!" Mikey added self-deprecatingly with his characteristic smile.
Don had to laugh at Mikey. He trusted all of his brothers, but if they had to be in pairs he was always most comfortable with Michelangelo. Raph and Leo were occasionally bothered by Mikey's tendency to 'freak out' in the face of danger, but the guy always seemed to rise to the challenge, and that was something Donatello had learned to trust and count on long ago. "I know. It's just…never mind. Let's go." Don hesitantly gave in and they started out the door.
Together, under the cover of darkness they slipped out the door and headed toward the main complex at the center of the camp. There was a pretty substantial standard lock on the outer door, and that was Raphael's territory. He had procured several small metal strips over the course of his work at the camp and two of the smallest ones sufficed for a lock pick. Soon the four were once again on their way. They kept to the shadows and moved silently through the building. If any of them were spotted this evening, then all was lost. This was strictly a get-in-do-damage-get-out-and-back-to-their-barracks-before-anyone-noticed mission.
A short way down the hall they heard someone coming. They separated and found hiding places, Leonardo and Raphael were side by side in a ventilation duct, and Michelangelo and Donatello slipped into a cleaning supply closet. They were lucky that it wasn't the janitor who had been coming down the hall. Don nudged Mikey and pointed to a vent shaft access point. The pair rejoined their brothers in the building's vent system. They'd be splitting up again shortly, but first they had to make it down this hall.
For the most part they should be ok in the vents, but according to Steve there was a laser grid in the system at the inner door, so they would have to break through that door before returning to the vents. If the first door had been Raphael's specialty, this one was Donatello's. This lock was released by a key card, which they didn't have, and a thumbprint, which they couldn't get. Don was going to have to break it, and he had nothing to work with. Well, almost nothing. Raphael fished a larger piece of metal out of his belt and handed it to his brother. He didn't have much time, but with a little luck the system hadn't changed since Steve had been a part of this cult, and Don had been told how to break the old system. Raph and Leo kept watch a short way down the hall and Mikey was looking over Don's shoulder, as if he could help somehow.
Mikey couldn't help but notice Don's all-business mentality. It was the one that surfaced when the turtle was nervous, scared, or angry; emotion was tucked away until a more appropriate time. They could all do it, but didn't usually need to. Mikey knew that something was bothering his brother. He had also noticed that whatever was bugging Don had Leo worried as well. Maybe worried wasn't quite the right word, but it was quite obvious that Leonardo was keeping an extra close eye on Donatello.
The digital readout on the display panel switched to a green 'ACCESS GRANTED' and the turtles slipped through the door. Michelangelo found and opened the nearest vent cover. He let his brothers enter first and closed it behind them. Leo and Raph went one way and headed for the main weapons room while Don and Mikey headed to the center of the complex and the main computer.
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A single set of headlights shattered the darkness as a vehicle roared past the empty countryside. No one else was around to see the green rig that had once been a standard armored truck. The Aurora Borealis dancing in the northern sky went entirely unnoticed by the rig's passengers.
"Montana Welcomes You." April read as she drove past the sign. "Now we're searching for a needle in a haystack instead of a needle in a field of haystacks." She muttered the last part. They hadn't found any new information since they left New York, and April was getting frustrated.
"Take heart, Miss, O'Neil." Splinter consoled. "They are still alright, and now that we are nearer we stand a better chance of finding them. Perhaps we should first try the address we received from the distributor." He suggested.
"Montana's a pretty big state," Casey interjected from the back, "place may not be easy to find."
"We will drive for a few more hours, and then find a place to get a good night's sleep. Early tomorrow morning we will complete the drive out to the town and find the address. From there we will see what happens."
Splinter gazed out the window and saw the red light dancing in the northern sky. Nature almost seemed to be mocking the pain in his heart. It's Montana, this happens here. He could only hope that the Aurora was not an omen of things to come.
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A/N: That pencil down the stairs story is true. It actually did happen, and the pure sodium and water thing, if you don't know what that does, I recommend you don't try it, and just trust me instead. The information about chaos theory is also true, and the kind of thing that gets chaos theorists thrown out of prevention strategy meetings. Oddly, they also get proven correct in the long run. It is really a fascinating subject.
Sorry, it was so short, but this just seemed to be the best place to end it. hehe. At first it was combined with the next chapter, but it just got too long.