Chapter Four: One Unexpected Finding Leads to Another
Donatello swung his small black flashlight around the inside of the once distinguished underground lab of Dr. Baxter Stockman, inhaling the scents of burnt wiring and melted hardware. He always thought it was a disappointing shame that he and his brothers had to destroy the lab, but fortunately there was still a lot of scientific equipment left over for Donatello to salvage and use for his own purposes. He knew that he also took a huge risk coming back to the lab, knowing that the Foot had also been down here taking equipment on Dr. Stockman's request, and with his knowledge of ninjutsu now complete gone, Donatello did all he could to be quiet, for the most part.
"OW!" He turned around and his forehead collided with a large sheet of metal that hung down from the ceiling. He immediately covered the sore spot with his black gloved hand, and held back the long line of curse words that wanted to find their way out of his mouth.
After shaking off the throbbing ache in his head, Donatello continued to make his way through the dark lab. As he ducked out of the way as a few sparks that flew down from a light fixture, Donatello's black boot tangled in a twisted mess of wiring and he lost his balance, tumbling into a broken control panel, which in turn fell apart and crashed into the wall behind it.
"Not . . . again . . . ," Donatello moaned, grabbing his forehead, with both hands this time, and he laid in a fetal position for a few minutes longer as the noises calmed down around him.
"I've never been this big of a klutz before. That's usually Mikey's department!"
Donatello pushed himself up to his knees and brushed the dust out of his short brown hair, looking back through the gapping hole in the wall where he now sat. A sudden flicker of fluorescent lighting from behind made him turn back around toward the newly discovered room, and Donatello could not think any anything else to do but let his bottom jaw drop in shock
"Okay, it's all clear."
Leonardo waved his hand, allowing Raphael and Michelangelo to move out from the shadows, and the three continued to look around as they began to inspect the alley that loomed before them.
"Just what exactly are we looking for?" Michelangelo lifted up the top of a trash dumpster, then quickly shut as the smell burned his nose.
"I'm not sure." Leonardo lifted his eyes to the rooftops above them. "We have no memories of what happened that night."
"Which means we ain't got nothin' to go on!" Raphael growled, slamming his black boot into the dumpster that Michelangelo had opened. "And I'm feeling really uncomfortable in this stuff!"
Leonardo looked back down to his brothers and scanned over the all black outfits that they were all wearing.
"Yeah, we look more like the Foot now!" Michelangelo pulled the hood off of his head, his hair flying everywhere. "I'm getting sweaty!"
"Would you guys just please stop complaining? We have work to do!" Leonardo began to walk down the alley, raking his black-gloved finger tips along the rough bricks of the building, and he scanned the dirty ground. Something suddenly crunched under his boot, and he quickly knelt down to find the source.
"Mikey, hand me the flashlight." Leonardo held out his palm, and Michelangelo slowly placed the flashlight into his palm.
"What did you find?" He asked as he leaned over his brother, his curiosity getting the best of him.
Leonardo said nothing, but instead held up the object he had crushed with his boot. Michelangelo raised a blonde eyebrow at the crisscross pattern that covered the transparent fragment while Raphael turned his nose up at it.
"So?" Raphael grumbled as he tossed aside a few trash bags. "We're in a trash-covered alley, Leo. It's not like we ain't gonna find broken glass around here."
Leo sighed as he stood up, holding the flashlight closer to the shard. " It's not glass, Raph. It's plastic. It's a piece of a turning signal cover from a truck."
"Like the one we saw before the lights went out?" Michelangelo said, half-jokingly.
Raphael moved closer to the yellow plastic and grabbed it out of Leonardo's hand. "Do ya think we were tryin' to fight off whatever it was that took us?"
"That's what I'm guessing." Leonardo then looked back to the brick wall and noticed something else. He moved over to wall and ran his fingers over the long white slash marks that were permanently imbedded into the side of the building. "There was defiantly some sort of battle in this alley. These marks could have only been made by a sword, several, in fact, by the way it looks."
"Uh, Leo?"
Leonardo felt Michelangelo tug on the back of his long sleeve black shirt, and before he could say anything to his brother, he noticed several shadows looming on the ground from around the corner of the building, and they all froze as a deep, husky voice called out into the darkness.
"Search everywhere! Do not disappoint our master!"
Michelangelo gasped, then lowered his voice. "That sounded like Hun!"
"Oh, that's just great!" Raphael also spoke very low. "We got no weapons, no ninja skills, and our good buddies the Foot just happen to show up! This keeps gettin' better and better!"
"Quick!" Leonardo whispered as he pointed up. "The fire escape!"
Raphael quietly climbed onto the trash dumpster and started to scale the metal ladder, and Leonardo waited patiently as Michelangelo followed after Raphael. The shadows grew closer as Leonardo leaped into the air, grabbing onto the bottom rung tightly, and he began to ascend the ladder.
"Here, Leo. Grab my hand, and I'll pull ya up." Raphael leaned over the high roof ledge and flexed his gloved fingers.
Leonardo paused as Hun called out again, and he couldn't help but look down as the Foot ninjas scattered into the alley, but he soon realized he had made a huge mistake by doing so.
"Uh, guys?"
Michelangelo joined Raphael at the roof's edge, and they watched as Leonardo's eyes grew wide through the slits in his black face mask.
"Leo, are you okay?" Michelangelo asked slowly as his oldest brother's body began to shake and his fingers tighten their grip on the fire escape ladder.
"Come on, Leo!" Raphael stretched his arm down farther. "Stop goofin' around and grab my hand!"
Leonardo reluctantly let one hand go from the ladder rung and began to reach for Raphael, but then felt his other hand start to slip as the glove became wet from his sweaty palm.
"No! I can't do it!" Leonardo pulled back, and his brothers look at each other as he pushed himself against the ladder and whimpered.
Raphael growled again and shook his head. " Our fearless leader sure did pick a shell of a time to chicken out on us!"
Michelangelo then did as Raphael and stretched his hands down to his brother. "Come on, Leo! Just grab onto us and don't look down, okay? On my count, ready? One."
"No! I can't!" Leonardo buried his face into his hands.
"Two . . . "
Raphael then pushed his entire body over the side of the building, grabbed Leonardo's shoulders and jerked both of their bodies over the top. He sat Leonardo up against the bricks and pulled the black hood from his head. He could see all of the coloring had disappeared from Leonardo's face, and his smooth skin was dripping wet with sweat.
"What the heck happened to ya down there!" Raphael wiped Leonardo's forehead with the face mask. "I thought ya got over that whole fear of heights thing years ago!"
"I. . . don't know . . . Raph . . . " Leonardo answered as he tired to regain his breath. He then felt a pain go through his temple, exactly like the one he had experienced earlier that morning, and he buried his face into his palms.
"You! What are you doing up here?"
Leonardo's hands flew back down from his face, and his eyes met with an all-too-familiar set of emerald green ones.
"Karai . . . "
Leonardo then heard a deep rumble in Raphael throat, and he knew right away his brother was not at all happy to see her.
"I gave all of you explicit instructions to follow!" The tall Japanese woman moved closer to them, her short and neatly trimmed black hair shining in the moonlight as the tendrils of her red headband blew in the breeze. Karai then noticed that the three black clad ninjas in front of her where not ninjas at all, but three teenage boys dressed in black, and to Karai, they were interfering with her work. She quickly drew her sword out of the sheath on her back and pointed the blade at the young men.
"What are you doing up here? Tell me now before I slay you all!"
"Geesh, calm down!" Michelangelo called out as he raised his arms above his head.
"Your girlfriend's a little pushy, Leo." Raphael joked, sharing a hearty laugh with Michelangelo. Leonardo, who had heard enough of the various wisecracks about the unspoken attraction he and Karai shared, stood up and silenced his brothers by narrowing his eyes at them.
He then turned back to Karai, watching the light bounce off of her sword, and after taking a deep breath, Leonardo spoke.
"Please, Karai, don't attack us. We are defenseless against you, and you hold us at your mercy."
Karai lowered her sword as the black-haired boy knelt down and bowed his head, and her green eyes grew in shock as the recognition of the boy's voice registered in her head.
"Leonardo," She said almost breathlessly, and as the former mutant stood back up, her wide eyes scanned every inch of his appearance.
"Yes." He nodded back, then noticed that Raphael and Michelangelo had also stood up and they joined him.
"Your . . . brothers?" Karai asked as she looked them over, then frowned when she realized one was gone. "Where is the fourth one?"
"He is. . . elsewhere at the moment."
Karai returned her sword then walked over to the edge of the building, watching as Hun and the large group of Foot ninjas continued to scour the alley below.
"You are taking a great risk coming back to this place." Karai said without looking back.
"No kiddin'." Raphael replied coldly.
"We had no choice, Karai," Leonardo moved over to where the female ninja stood, choosing to stay behind her in case one of her followers looked up. "As you can see, we have a lot of questions that need to be answered."
"Yes, I know of what you speak of."
Leonardo quietly gasped. "You do?"
Karai spun back around and walked right by Leonardo and his brothers, stopping when she reached the opposite side of the building, and after checking the street below, she motioned for the boys to join her.
"It is too dangerous for us to be talking about this now. My Master has sent us looking for the four of you, for he has questions of his own that need to be answered."
"About us?" Michelangelo jumped in. " Aw, I didn't know Old Tin Butt cared so much!"
"He believes you to be dead, and he wishes to keep you that way." Karai broke into Michelangelo's laughter and broke the young boy's spirit.
"So how do we know you ain't gonna do it yerself?" Raphael grumbled, finally removing his sweaty face mask and retying his shoulder length hair.
"Raph!" Leonardo snapped.
Karai held up her palm and Leonardo released his tensions. " It is all right, Leonardo. Your brother has the right to not trust me. Due to my loyalty to Master Shredder, I have given him many reasons not too. But now is not the time to speak. You must leave immediately."
A loud ring from the Shell Cell in Leonardo's pocket suddenly pierced the night air and he quickly answered it to avoid drawing attention from the ninjas below them.
"Hello?" His ear was then greeted by a high-strung and anxious voice that was normally quiet.
"Leo! You guys need to get down here! You are not going to believe what I found!"
"Okay, Don. We'll be there shortly." Leonardo waited for Donatello to hang up before returning the phone to his pocket. " We have to leave."
"Sounds good to me! I'm gettin' hungry!" Michelangelo then started to climb off the edge of the building when he remembered how high up they were. "Maybe we should take the stairs?"
Raphael sighed heavily, pushing his way between Leonardo and Karai as he and Michelangelo headed for the enclosed stairwell that descended down into the building.
"Are ya comin' or what?" He called out to Leonardo as he pulled the door open and let Michelangelo go down the stairs first. Karai moved a little closer to Leonardo and whispered into his ear as she passed by him.
"Meet me tomorrow night, Leonardo, and I will help you find the answers you seek."
And with that, the warrior flipped over the edge of the building and rejoined her small ninja army, leaving Leonardo a little bewildered and very worried.