Chapter Eleven:

What Lies Underneath: Part Two

The old Volkswagen van sputtered out a puff of black smoke as it slowly came to a stop in front of a broken down farmhouse that sat on the river front. The five teens in the back seats pressed their noses against the windows, and tried desperately to push away the fear that was overcoming them as April killed the ignition.

"I think I'm gonna throw up," Michelangelo moaned, sinking down into his seat, and Raphael quickly scooted away from him, suddenly wishing his youngest brother had taken the front seat like he had planned to.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Donatello asked Leonardo without removing his eyes from the mold-covered white siding and the rotting shingles on the roof.

Leonardo nodded. "I'm sure, but don't ask me how I know." He then reached for the handle and shoved the sliding door open, letting Michelangelo, Raphael and Carrie out of the van first. Splinter and April also jumped out, quietly closing their doors behind them, and everyone switched on their flashlights.

"This place looks like it's been abandoned or something," Carrie stood closely behind Raphael and placed her hands on his back. "How could someone live like this?"

"He was probably too busy playin' Invasion Of the Body Snatchers to keep up house!" Michelangelo joked, bringing a smile to Carrie's face.

The group, under Splinter's direction, moved quietly across the barely visible stone walkway, which had been overrun with weeds and grass. They approached the derelict front porch, taking heed to avoid the rotting boards after Donatello fell through them a few times, and stood silently in front of the blacken door.

"Uh," Michelangelo muttered after a few moments. " Is somebody gonna knock?"

Leonardo approached the door, taking a deep breath as he lifted his closed fist, and just as his knuckles hit the door, it slowly pushed back into the house, making a loud and long creaking noise as it moved.

"Is anyone else getting a Scooby-Doo vibe from this place?" Michelangelo opened his mouth again. "The first zombie that lunges out at me, I'm leaving!"

Leonardo shook his head at his brother, then stepped into the house, his eyes wondering around the dusty interior as the others joined him. They huddled together in the center of the entrance way, and they shined the flashlights into different sections of the house.

"This can't be right!" Raphael exclaimed quietly. " This place is totally empty!" He extended his finger and moved it around. " No furniture! No knick-knacks of any kind! I think you got the wrong place, Leo."

Leonardo bravely took a few steps away from the others and moved to the base of the decrepit staircase. He slowly lifted his right foot to climb the steep steps, and a sudden flash of gray and black jumped down at him from the shadowy second floor, catching Leonardo in the chest and shoving him to the ground, and he quickly covered his face with his hands. Carrie let out a scream, which in turned scared Michelangelo even more, and he let out his own high pitched cry.

"Be calm everyone!" Splinter whispered, then reached down to the small animal that was resting on Leonardo's chest. "It is just a cat."

Leonardo removed his hands and stood up, staring at the gray and black striped tabby that now sat in Splinter's arms. "I've never heard of a cat that jumps out and attacks people."

"Sure they do! Klunk does it to Raph all the time!" Michelangelo stepped around, took the cat out of the mutant rat's grasp, and began to lovingly scratch the top of the animal's head. "Ah, what a good kitty you are! You were just protecting your home, weren't you?"

Just then, the cat let out a noise that no one expected. "WOOF WOOF!"

Michelangelo froze in place, his hand perched above the cat's head as his eyes grew with fear. "Did you just say 'woof, woof'?"

The cat jumped back to the ground and placed itself on its hind legs, pawing at the air as it panted and wagged its long tail.

Raphael leaned over to Donatello and whispered. "One of Dr. Hamilton's 'experiments', I take it."

Leonardo knelt down to the mixed-up creature, and the cat moved closer to the teen and licked his out-stretched hand. The teen rubbed behind the cats' left ear, and the animal whimpered, a look of desperation in its eyes.

" Poor guy. I know exactly how you feel." Leonardo said softly, then his attention was turned to something else that seemed out of place. "Hey, do you guys hear that?"

While everyone strained their ears and looked around, Splinter joined Leonardo and placed a large ear to the flooring.

"It sounds like a low humming noise." Splinter confirmed. "And it is very close to us."

"An electric generator, perhaps?" Donatello also knelt down and listened closely. "If that's the case, that means someone must still live here."

"Quick!" Leonardo pointed at his brothers, April and Carrie. "Find the door that leads to the basement!"

Everyone scurried around in the dark, flashlights shining in every direction. Michelangelo was the first to reach a door, and he grabbed the handle.

"Here! I found it!"

But as jerked back the door, Michelangelo was face to face with a brick wall.

"Uh, maybe not."

Carrie was next, calling out as she opened another door, but only discovered another brick wall.

"Okay, what kind of sick games is this guy playin'?" Raphael growled in anger as he, too, uncovered another wall.

"Now we know this guy is defiantly hiding something if he's blocking off everything." Donatello moved around the back of the staircase and follow his flashlight's trail to a large, square Oriental rug that sat in the middle of the living room.

"How in the shell are we supposed to get down there to find out?" Michelangelo shouted, his voice echoing off the cobweb ridden walls.

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

Michelangelo spun around, as did everyone else, and pointed his light at the spot were his brother once stood. Both Donatello and the rug were completely gone, and an orange glow shone up from the basement through the huge hole that now took their place.

"Well, I guess that's one way to do it!" Michelangelo shrugged, letting out a nervous chuckle as he moved closer to the hole.

"Donnie!" Leonardo called out as he leaned over the side. "Are you alright?"

Donatello pushed himself up with his left hand, still feeling his body shake from the hard fall. He looked back up through the hole in the decayed flooring and rubbed at his aching head.

"Uh, well, considering I just fell fifteen feet and landed on concrete flooring, 'alright' would not be the correct choice of explaining how I feel!"

"Geesh, a simple 'yes' or 'no' would have been enough." Raphael grumbled at Donatello's sarcasm.

"What do you see down their, Donnie?" Leonardo asked as he switched off his flashlight.

Donatello slowly rose to his feet and looked around. "Well, I found the generator." He pointed a finger to the noisy roar of a large metallic machine behind him. His eyes circled around the small room, taking note of the orange light bulb that sat just above a thick blue door.

"I found a door down here too!" He shouted back up over the whirring noise. "I think there might be more to this place!"

"Oh great," Michelangelo fell back onto his behind and tossed his blonde hair out of his face. "Another super-villain who has an underground laboratory."

"How are we supposed to get down there?" Carrie dropped to her knees and leaned over the side.

"Jump," Raphael stated bluntly. "How else?"

"Jump?" Leonardo repeated as he tried to swallow the lump that had suddenly gathered in his throat. Raphael noticed the panic in his brother's eyes and he couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh.

"Geez, not again! Come on, Leo! It ain't that far down!"

Leonardo pushed himself backwards toward the staircase and curled his knees up to his chest. "You guys go ahead. I'll stay up here and be the lookout."

"Jumping is not necessary!" Donatello shouted up from the basement. "There's a ladder down here!" he pulled the ladder over to the hole, and Raphael and Michelangelo held it tightly as April and Carrie climbed down.

"Are you coming or what?" Raphael shouted at Leonardo as Splinter and Michelangelo went down. Leonardo took a deep breath and crawled over to the ladder, the sweat beading on his forehead as he grasp the metal rungs.

"Don't look down." Raphael said with an evil grin on his face, laughing as his brother glared back in response. "All right, I'm sorry. Here, let me go down first, just in case you fall."

Raphael began to descend the ladder, then saw the panic grow in Leonardo's brown eyes.

"Come on, you chicken!" Raphael pulled at his brother's tennis shoe, and Leonardo turned around, his hands shaking as he closed his eyes and let Raphael guide him down. When the reach the bottom, Leonardo sat down on the cold floor and held his clammy face in his hands.

"Your brother scared of heights, by any chance?" Raphael asked Carrie as the girl knelt down next to Leonardo.

"Actually, he is." Carrie said as she stroked Leonardo's black hair. "Our father threw him from a three story window when he was seven. Broke both of his arms and one of his legs. He's been afraid ever since." She looked back at Leonardo, who seemed as if he knew what Carrie was talking about as small tears emerged from his eyes.

Splinter placed his long nose into the air and took in the atmosphere around them. "I do not care for the feeling of this environment. I sense death all around as."

"Not too mention that it's freezing down here!" Michelangelo wrapped his arms around himself, pushing the black and green wind jacket closer to his body.

"It almost feels like a morgue down here or something." April chimed in, then smiled wickedly as Michelangelo threw a dirty look her way.

"Be very silent, and move quickly." Splinter turned the door handle and looked down the shadowy hallway before waving everyone to follow. Carrie helped Leonardo to his feet and the two of them let everyone exit before them.

The temperature seemed to drop even more as they descended down the walkway, finding nothing except more bluish colored concrete walls. Their journey continued for a least a mile, and finally, at the end of the hallway, sat a small corridor, which was divided by three doors.

"Okay," Michelangelo scratched at his head. " Now what?"

Donatello took a step to the left, and peered into the tiny window that sat just at eye-level. A green light illuminated against his face, and he inhaled a deep breath before gasping.

"Oh...my...no...no! It-it can't be!"

Donatello grabbed the door handle in one lightening fast motion, his hands slipping a few times before he successfully pushed the door open.

"Donnie! What is it? What's going on?" Leonardo dashed after his panic-stricken brother, and as he joined Donatello, and the green light shone down on him, he then knew what had made Donatello upset. Raphael and Michelangelo had already seen what they were looking at after Donatello shoved the door open, and they quietly joined their brothers, and all four of them stared up in a wide-eyed wonder.

"I don't believe it," Leonardo whispered. "It's...it's us."

Standing before them were four glass and metal cylinders, that went from the ceiling to a metal base that sat a inch off of the floor. The cylinders were filled with a clear liquid, colored green by the ultraviolet lighting behind them. And in each cylinder, there was a body, each a different shade of green, each carrying a large plated shell, and they were all stripped of any apparel that might have covered them. Splinter, April and Carrie tiptoed into the room and stood by the door, not knowing what to do or say to the four brothers.

"So, that's what they really look like?" Carrie whispered to April, who only replied with a slow nod, her eyes glued to the scene in front of her.

Leonardo was the first to take a step closer, and he placed his open palm against the glass casing that held his mutant body. He bowed his head, suddenly becoming slightly dizzy, and a sick feeling beginning to course through his body, and he couldn't stop his knees from giving out. He fell to the concrete floor, grabbing at his head as a shearing pain ripped through his brain, and he could longer hold back the scream of anguish that was forcing its way up his throat. The screams grew, echoing into his ears, as if a chorus had joined in, and Leonardo felt his eyes rolling back into his head.

Then, everything went black.