Chapter Twelve:
What Lies Underneath: Part Three
In time, all of you will understand what I have done. I just wanted to help them. I just wanted to help . . .
"Leo! Hey! Wake up!"
The young teen forced open his brown eyes, shielding out the light that poured into them with his arm.
"What happened?" He asked, feeling very disoriented. He slowly lowered his arm and found three teenager boys sitting on the concrete floor next to him.
"We all had another black out episode, Leo," The boy with the short and spiked brown hair said to him. "A really bad one. We've been out for about an hour or more."
Leonardo looked at his surroundings, finally noticing they were in a different room. It was much warmer and much more homelike. A fire burned and popped under a carved marble mantel, and the light from its flames flickered across the red and brown wallpaper and the many tall bookshelves. A suit of Medieval armor complete with a brightly colored jousting pole stood in the far corner, and in the middle of the room sat two red velvet couches, one of which was occupied by April, Splinter and Carrie.
"Where are we?" Leonardo asked, his dizzy spell lingering.
"You are about twenty miles underground, Leo." A soft, yet deep male voice called out from the other red sofa. "I hope the fire is enough warmth for all of you. I could put more wood on it-,"
"We are fine, Dr. Hamilton." Leonardo heard Splinter reply in a cold and tense tone of voice. "Now that all of my sons are awake, you must begin explaining yourself."
Leonardo leaned over to the side, just catching a head full of salt and pepper colored hair before the body it belonged to stood up and went to the fireplace. Donatello offered his hand to Leonardo, and he pulled his brother to his feet, and the four of them slowly moved to the couches.
"It never seems warm enough down here!" The man said excitedly as he hunched over the fire and threw in two more small cut logs. "Never warm enough. Not warm like the sun. The sun was always warm."
"This guy's a few cards short of a full deck!" Raphael whispered into Michelangelo's ear, and his brother nodded and spun his finger around in a circle and whistled.
The man returned to his feet, which were bare, and he brushed his hands across the tops of his baggy blue and white striped pajama pants. His large hands then tried to smooth out the many wrinkles in his gray T-shirt before going through his thick, shaggy bush of graying hair, which drastically contradicted the youthful glow that radiated on his smiling face. Dr. Richard Hamilton placed his palms together, his smiling growing by the minute, and he looked lovingly at the four teens that now stood before him.
"It is so good to you guys again!" Richard's voice chirped happily. "It gets awfully lonely down here sometimes. Howard doesn't like it. Scares him, I guess."
"Who's Howard?" Raphael asked, wrinkling his nose. A loud bark made the boys turn around, and they found the gray and black-striped tabby sitting in Carrie's lap, panting heavily from the heat of the fire.
"Isn't that incredible? When Howard, the real Howard, passed away a few years ago," Richard waved his hands wildly as he spoke. "I got an idea! Transfer all of Howard's memories into another animal! This cat just happened to stray into my house, and POOF! My dog lives on! Cats tend to live longer than dogs, you know!"
"Fascinatin'," Raphael growled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Does yer little idea apply to mutant turtles too, or did your level of insanity just happen to go up that day?"
"Raphael!"" Splinter snapped and slammed the end of his stick into the red and brown rug under his feet. " I am sorry for my son's harsh words, Dr. Hamilton."
"Oh, no, no, no! It's all right!" Richard waved his hands again. " I know everyone is confused and in need of an explanation! Anger is to be expected! I'd be scared if no one was!" His fidgety hands excitably motioned for the boys to sit down on the empty couch. "Please! Seeing people stand around makes me nervous!"
"Apparently," Donatello added his own smart remark as he sat down between Michelangelo and Raphael, Leonardo taking the arm of the couch so not to crowd his brothers.
Dr. Hamilton smacked his palms together again and placed his finger tips to his full bottom lip."Oh, where to begin! Where to begin!" He raised his youthful blue eyes, which shone with the eagerness of a child on Christmas Day.
"Wait a minute," Leonardo held up his hand to stop Dr. Hamilton, then looked over at April, Splinter and Carrie. "I'm curious about something. How did we end up in here, in this room?"
"You simply walked into my study, Leo!" Richard answered with a laugh. "You knocked on my door, and I let you in! Don't you remember?"
"Can't say that I do." Leonardo narrowed his eyes and scowled. Dr. Hamilton scratched at the stubble on his face and cocked a bushy brown eyebrow.
"Hmmm, that's odd." His eyes went skyward, and he mumbled incoherently under his breath.
"We've been having a lot of problems with that lately," Donatello pointed out, copying Leonardo cold tone. " Do you happen to know why?"
Richard shrugged and gave the frustrated teens a goofy grin. " Well, it could just than,"
"Hold on a second here!" Raphael jumped to his feet, causing all eyes to look upon him. "We're gettin' way too far ahead of ourselves! I wanna know who the shell this guy is, how he found us, and why he did this ta us!"
"Whoa, calm down, son!" Richard again waved his hands wildly and took a few steps back, inhaling a deep breath as he dropped to the floor and sat cross-legged. "Now, I'm guessing you already know a little about my background."
"Baxter Stockman told us some things, yes," Leonardo sighed, his impatience growing by the second.
"Baxter?" Richard's eyes grew. "That old, greedy coot! What is he up to these days?"
"Not much besides living in a glass jar!" Michelangelo snickered, and his brothers couldn't help from laughing themselves. Richard also tried to join in, but found he was lost in their personal joke.
"Uh, okay. Well, anyway, yes, dear Dr. Baxter Stockman! The guy I had admired so much turned out to be the one to destroy my good scientific rep! And why, may you ask?"
"He's greedy!" Michelangelo shouted as he threw his hand into the air.
" He's jealous." Leonardo stated blankly.
"He's insane!" Donatello joined in.
"He's a greedy, jealous, insane freak!" Raphael finished.
Richard blinked his blue eyes a few times. "Uh, yeah. Boy, you guys really do know him!"
"We've crossed paths a few times," Raphael said through his gritted teeth. "Now, start talking!"
Richard blew out a long breath, his long bangs flying up and back down to his forehead, and he began his story.
"Well, after Stockman disgraced me and threw me out into the streets, I had no where to go. No family around. Nothing. I became just like the rest of the homeless, sleeping under a box, or in a dumpster. Scrounging for food, collecting cans to recycle. I made friends with the abandoned animals, too. I'm kind of a sucker for animals!" Richard smiled in his youthful mannerism. "That's where I found Howard!"
The cat, upon hearing its former canine name, jumped from Carrie's hands and settled in Dr. Hamilton's lap, where it received a loving scratch behind his ears.
"I was actually happy living on the streets! I got to experience a different side of life! To see how these people survive from day to day was amazing! You grow a thicker layer of skin when you live a life like that!"
"Just get to part where we come in!" Raphael snapped, his impatience running a close race with Leonardo.
"Raphael!" Splinter shouted. "Calm yourself!"
'No! It's okay!" Richard interfered with another goofy smile. "I tend to get a little windy when I talk! I just love talking! What can I say?"
"No wonder your brother and his friends adored him," April whispered to Carrie. " He's completely charming!"
"Okay, on to phase two!" Richard suddenly jumped to his feet, striking a dramatic pose, and Howard scattered across the carpet. "Now, while I was living on the streets, there suddenly came a whisper, a whisper of a strange name. A name that was muttered with a trembling fear. The name belonged to a sinister man, who would search the streets in the dead of night, taking the homeless captive in his great machine, and then dumping them into a fiery pit to do his bidding. His name was-,"
"The Garbageman?"The four teens exclaimed in confusion.
"Yes!" Richard threw his arms into the air and laughed. "You remembered! Yes! I was one of those captives! The four of you came to save us, and you gave us back our freedom!" He lowered his arms and moved a few steps closer to the teens, placing his left hand over his heart.
"You see, I was so grateful for your rescue, I had to give you something back! I was so fascinated by your forms, but yet, I knew that none of you could experience life to its fullest as I could, and it saddened me."
"So you repaid us by doing this?" Leonardo couldn't hold back his anger any longer and he jumped to his feet.
"Dude, a thank you card would have been enough!" Michelangelo tried to lighten the mood, but found no one laughing.
"But, haven't you ever wanted to see the world in the sunlight?" Richard grabbed Leonardo's shoulders and looked deep into his brown eyes. "Haven't you ever wanted to experience the change of the seasons? The sights, smells and sounds of the busy city? Or the quiet countryside?"
"We do get chances," Leonardo pulled back. "We've been able to see all of those things, even if our surface time was limited."
"What about love?" Richard asked as the childish gleam returned to his eyes. "A first kiss? A family? All of the emotions that humans experience that you, as a mutant, hidden from the world, could never have?"
Leonardo turned his eyes away and took a deep breath. " I-this . . . this is just not how it's meant to be, Dr. Hamilton. We were meant to live as mutants. We were meant to live underground. If a human life was meant for us, it would have happened differently."
"My son is right, Dr. Hamilton." Splinter stood up, clutching his walking stick for support as he neared the scientist and placed a hand on his shoulder. " I know that you have meant well with your experiment, but this is not the life for my sons. They were given a greater purpose, as difficult as it may seem, and they have worked tirelessly to live this great life they were handed to the fullest."
"What about my brother? And my friends? They have families too, you know!" Carrie also stood, the tears streaming down her face. "Why them? Why, out of all of your students, why did you take them away from me?"
"Yeah, how did you become a teacher anyway?" Raphael pulled Carrie close to him and comforted her.
"After the Garbageman had been overthrown, I had the opportunity to start my life over again." Richard moved back to the fireplace and leaned against the mantel. "Some of the others chose to stay on the island, but I had to get out. My credentials were looked over by the local school board, and the superintendent offered me a job teaching science course at a downtown Manhattan highschool, and I gladly accepted. Kids are another thing that pull at my heartstrings."
Richard turned around and the smile was back on his face as his memories flooded back.
"My first day, I was introduced to four amazing young boys, all the age of fifteen, all freshmen, and they were so close, almost like brothers. There was Jonathan, the quiet one, who always carried this brooding look about him, as if the world was out to get him and he wasn't going to back down. James was the goofy one, and he wasn't very bright and a bit of a clutz, but he always made me smile with his Saturday Night Live bits. Alexander was a smart kid, a musical genius, who knew his composers like nobody's business! Then, there was Damon, the one who would get in trouble just for the attention, and acted like a tough guy but who was really shy and sad underneath. I became so close to them, they became like the sons I never had."
"I soon found out the dark side to their lives one day when Jon showed up for school supporting a black eye. He tried to brush it off, saying he got in a fight with someone, but he later opened up and said his father regularly abused him and his sister. I later found out about James' parents, who tragically died just days before school started in a car crash. I loathed Alex's mother, who would come in and ask to excuse her son from class just so she could enter him into another competition, stating that music would make him richer than anything I could teach him! And poor Damon, who had no one at home except a drugged out mom who spent all of their welfare money on her next high. Oh, it made it sick to hear that these four wonderful kids had lives like these!"
The silence in the room was deafening, no one knowing what to say as the tears came down Dr. Hamilton's face, but Richard quickly wiped his tears aside and started again.
"Then it came to me. I could help the boys out and return the favor to those wonderful mutant turtles who had helped me! I could give those turtles a life where they could live in the sun, and take those kids away from a life that no one deserves! It would be the most fantastic, the most beautiful accomplishment in my entire scientific career!"
"How did you know where to find us?" Leonardo asked, his temper dampened and his curiosity increased.
"Well, that was merely an accident!" Richard laughed. "You see, I had taken that huge black garbage truck that had belonged to the Garbageman, and hid in the woods behind this house. I had made some adjustments on the instrument paneling and I was taking it out for a test drive when suddenly I turn a corner and there you are! Fighting in an alley with some guys in black pajamas!"
"That was the Garbageman's truck that we were trying to fight off?" Michelangelo thought for a second, then nodded. "Yeah, it did smell kinda familiar!"
"Yes, you did attack me, and I'm sorry for the surprise, but, well, you surprised me!" Dr. Hamilton moved from the fireplace nudged Leonardo in the side as he laughed.
"What about that flash of light we all saw?" Donatello leaned forward and clasped his hands together.
"Oh that?" Richard waved off Donatello's question. "That was just some stun ray, but that was already on the truck. I pushed the button by mistake as I tried to use those monstrous claws to collect you. And after that, it was a matter of time before I could lure those boys into coming here so I complete my task."
Leonardo sighed deeply, his head bowed as he moved away from the fireplace.
"Is everything okay?" Richard called out to him, his nerves on edge as he watched the grimacing look of the teen's face.
"You took these eight beings, ripped them from their lives, the lives they were meant to have. You dissected them, violated the inner workings of their minds, then mashed them back together, hoping that no one would remember or find out what had happened." Leonardo spun back around and narrowed his eyes, his fists clenched as an unfamiliar rage boiled inside of him.
"You thought that this would make everything better for everyone. All you wanted to do was help us, help those kids."
"Yes, " Richard's voice went to a low hush as he backed down from the fury in Leonardo's eyes. "All I wanted to do was help. I wanted to give you a better life."
Leonardo suddenly pounced onto Dr. Hamilton, sending him to the ground and knocking the breath out of him.
"Don't you get it? None of us wanted this!" Leonardo screamed into Richard's face. "We never asked for this! Do you think any of us like living this way? You've ripped all of our lives apart!"
"Leonardo!" Splinter was the first to reach for the angry teen and pulled him back. "You must calm yourself. Do not let this anger and hatred control you!"
"Back offa him, Leo!" Raphael helped Splinter hold his brother back. "You'll be sorry if you don't!"
"No!" Leonardo pulled away from them and stepped away from the shocked group, his brown eyes filling with tears as he spoke. "I want my life back! And I know all of you feel the same way!" He moved closer to Richard again, and the teacher sunk back down to the floor, clutching his face in his hands.
"That's not Leo, you guys!" Carrie pushed Raphael and Splinter back. "That's my brother trying to come back out. Don't hurt him!"
"Please! I beg you!" Richard cried out. "All I wanted to do was help! I just wanted to help!"
"Reverse what you did!" The black-haired teen yelled.
"I...I don't . . . " Dr. Hamilton whimpered, then cried out again as Leonardo used all of his strength to pull the doctor to his knees.
"You don't what?"
Richard lowered his hands just past his wide, frightened eyes and he gulped loudly before he spoke quietly.
"I don't know if I can."
The teen's brown eyes burned as he threw Dr. Hamilton to the ground and headed for the door, stopping to speak before he left the room
"Fine. You know what? I'll do it myself!" and with that, the door slammed shut.
"No!" Dr. Hamilton leaped to his feet and hurried out the door, his shouts echoing behind him. "You don't know what you are doing! You'll destroy everything!"
"I think we better go after them." Carrie said to Splinter and April, then turned to the remaining teen boys. "Are you guys still feeling like yourselves, so to speak?"
"I don't even remember who exactly I am anymore!" The brown haired boy spoke in a dumbfounded fashion. "I've got two people up here and it's like their fighting with each other!"
"I'm feeling really tired," The blonde boy said with a yawn as he laid across the empty couch. "My head hurts so bad, I just wanna sleep!"
"No, Michelangelo! Get up!" April forced the teen to his feet and his rubbed at his eyes.
"Michelangelo? Isn't he the guy who painted the inside of the Sistine Chapel?"
"How would you know that?' The auburn haired boy wrinkled his nose. " You weren't even in school that day cause your mom pulled ya out again!"
"Uh, I take that as a 'no'." Carrie announced as she pulled Alex and Damon with her.
"Holy cow!" Alex shrieked into Damon's ear. "There's that giant rat thing again! It's gonna eat me!"
"Hey, Carebear," Damon smirked. "I must be dreamin' about you again."
"Yeah that's it!" Carrie smiled back, growing an idea inside of her head. " All of you are having a really freaky dream, and now we have to go stop Jon from taking over our brains."
"All I ever dream about are monkeys swimming in ice cream," James remarked as April pushed him through the door behind Carrie. " This one sounds very intriguing." James then lit
up and smiled. " Hey! I even talk smarter in this dream!"
They moved quickly back up the twisting narrow hallway, stopping at the corridor that contained the three doors as they heard voices shouting.
"Change us back now or I'll break them!"
"No! Please! Jonathan! I beg you!"
They rushed into the room that contained the floating mutant turtle bodies in the glass cylinders. Jonathan was standing in front of the containers; a long piece of metal piping in one hand and the other was stretched out to Dr. Hamilton, taunting him to make a move.
"Whoa," James gasped, not knowing what to make of the scene in front of him.
"Reverse it! Change us back!" Jonathan shouted again.
"I don't know it that's even possible!" Richard cried. "The stem cell procedure is supposed to be permanent! It could take years to reverse the effects!"
Jonathan smiled wickedly as he raised the piping and grabbed it tightly with both hands. "Say you'll do it or break them. I'll destroy everything."
"Jon!" Carrie shouted, breaking her brother's concentration as she ran to him. "Please, Jon. Don't do this. We'll find a way to change all of you back. Just, please, don't do this."
"All I wanted to do was help all of you!" Richard fell to his knees and placed his face into his hands. "I never meant to hurt anyone!"
"Uh, guys?"
Splinter and April looked over to their left as they heard Michelangelo's voice, and they watched as the teen his grabbed his head and swayed slightly.
"I-I don't . . . feel so . . . good . . . " Michelangelo then collapsed to the floor and Splinter quickly dropped down to the teen's limp body, placing a caring hand on his forehead.
"Is he okay?" Carrie left her brother's side and joined Splinter, pulling Michelangelo's blonde head into her lap. Splinter nodded, his words lost in a cloud of worry.
"Oh, man! My head!" Raphael was next to regain himself, and he fiercely rubbed at the pounding pain that pulsed in his head. He looked up to see one of his brothers threatening Dr. Hamilton and another brother lying unconscious on the ground.
"What the shell is goin' on around here?" But before Raphael could get in another word, the pain in his head had reached its breaking point, and his body joined Michelangelo on the ground.
"What's happening to them?" Carrie cried out as April caught Donatello as he also passed out and slumped into her arms.
"It's just like Donnie said," April softly lowered Donatello to the ground next to his brothers. "Their mutant cells are being destroyed! If we don't hurry up and do something, they'll be gone forever!"
Dr. Hamilton dropped his hands, watching with surprised amazement as the piece of metal piping dropped out of Leonardo's hand, and the teen fell to his knees, his fingers intertwining in his black hair as he clenched his teeth together to bite back the pain.
"Mr. Hamilton! Do something! You have to help them!" Carrie gently placed Michelangelo's head into Splinter's lap and crawled over to where the scientist sat. "There has to be something you can do!"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to be this way!" Richard cried out again, his thoughts lost as he continued to watch Leonardo scream in pain.
"Mr. Hamilton!" Carrie grabbed Richard's T-shirt and violently shook him. "We're running out of time! You need to figure out a way to save them!"
"Please, Dr. Hamilton, I beg you," Splinter's voice trembled as he spoke. "Please save my sons."
"Okay, okay, uh, uh, I'm thinking. Thinking." Richard jumped to his feet and nervously tugged at his pajama pants. "Okay, there should be a way to do this. There has to be! Oh, god, I don't do well under pressure!" Richard's pacing increased as his hands moved to his hair and scratched at his scalp. His face suddenly lit up, and as Richard spoke, the words that escaped from his mouth came out in a jumbled mess, but it was clear enough for the girls and the mutant rat to understand.
"I think I have a solution, but we must act fast!" Richard pointed to April and Splinter.
" Grab them and follow me!"
Richard helped them by picking up Raphael's limp body while Splinter grabbed Michelangelo and April dragged Donatello. Carrie moved over to Leonardo, who was curled into a fetal position, his head still cradled in his hands.
"We're going to have to move now." She lightly whispered. "Do you think you can do it?" The black-haired teen nodded, and Carrie slung one of his arms over her shoulder and slowly pulled the boy to his feet. As they followed Dr. Hamilton through his lab, Carrie stared into the face of her brother, watching fearfully as his expressions changed as the two personalities inside fought to win control, and Carrie knew it wouldn't be long before one would triumph, and one would be gone forever.
"Here! Lay them down on the tables!" Dr. Hamilton placed Raphael down and whipped around to his elaborate computer station. "I hope there is time. I hope I'm not too late"
The humming of the computer filled the room and the lights above the tables flickered on, displaying an overhead rig that held four sets of eight computerized robotic arms, each one set with a very long, very thin drill bit and two microscopes. Richard punched in a few more buttons just as Carrie help her brother onto the table, her eyes filled with tears as she watched his brown eyes close after brushing his bangs out of his face.
"Everything is going to be okay," Carrie whispered, then placed a kiss on his forehead. The boy smiled back at her, then it faded away.
"All right," Richard pulled out four sets of green scrubs and passed them out. He dressed quickly, then moved back to the computer. He typed in a set of commands, and the drills fired up. Dr. Hamilton took in a deep breath as he turned back to the four bodies laying unconscious before him, and he couldn't help the feeling that suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks.
"I'm sorry." Dr. Hamilton bowed his head and spoke quietly. " All I wanted to do was thank you. All I wanted to do was help. But, I failed all of you instead. I only hope . . . I only hope that I'm not too late."