A/N: - Ok; now this chapter is not a pleasant one – not in the slightest. It's not as bad as it could be – but it's pretty dreadful and I didn't like ending it where I did. But hey, I'm the author and I'm getting ready with an assortment of weapons and barricading myself in the shed – heh heh, read and review!
"Stupid Shredder and his stupid relatives," Mikey grumbled as he sat where Leo had been only half an hour beforehand, gazing out of the window. His breath misted up on the glass, which was already grimy, and he let out several long sighs, partly because he was fed-up but also partly because he liked what effect it had on the glass. He had only been on watch for ten minutes and already he was bored and more exhausted than he'd been before he got some sleep, though he figured that was probably because he wasn't fully awake yet. Rain started to fall outside in a thick drizzle, sliding down the window panes and seeping through cracks in the glass. Hearing a soft dripping sound behind him, Mikey noticed a leak in the roof, a bucket already placed under it, and he was mesmerised by it, although he was unable to explain why. His mind wandered to happier subjects and he thought of what they would do after they'd got rid of Shredder's brothers; they could go on a vacation to the farmhouse, they could go on a road trip with April and Casey or they could just have a little bit of a break at home. Before he knew it, Mikey had lost track of time and snapped back to reality twenty minutes after Donnie's watch was supposed to begin. Hauling himself to his feet, he shuffled over to where Donnie was sleeping and woke his brother gently, prodding him in the stomach when the purple turtle refused to get up.
"Just five more minutes," he mumbled in his sleep.
"C'mon, Donnie, it's your turn to watch now – you've had twenty minutes extra already!" Mikey whispered. At that, Donnie's eyes fluttered open and he sat bolt upright, getting up.
"Sorry," he laughed sheepishly, "forgot where we were for a minute,"
"Wish I could do that," Muttered Mikey uncharacteristically darkly.
"Don't worry, Mikey; soon this will all be over and we can have a break."
"That's what we said the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that, and---" he was stopped as Donnie clamped a hand over his mouth.
"I get the idea. Look, you just get some rest, okay? Things will seem better in the morning, you'll see."
"I hope so," Mikey smiled, lying down on the sofa and stretching out, dropping off almost instantly.
Donnie watched his brother sleep for a while and then moved so that he was sat in the middle of the room and could see everything around him. He looked over to where Raph and Leo were asleep on a sofa and smiled – the only time they ever got on with each other was when they were asleep.
"Huh, wish that was more often," he found himself saying aloud. Standing up, he decided to explore the ground floor a little. Making his way into the kitchen, he inspected the cooking facilities and the plumbing, finding that they were actually in perfect working order, much to his disappointment as he wanted something to set his mind to that was a little more of a challenge. Glancing round curiously, he saw an old television in the corner, along with a battered remote controlled car. Grinning to himself, he gathered the electronic stuff up in his arms and happily went back to the lounge, plonking himself in the middle of the room once more and setting about fixing the T.V. and toy car. Not really a challenge in normal circumstances but in such a dimly lit room with only kitchen utensils for improvised tools; it became a sort of game for the brainy turtle. He even felt a stab of disappointment and resentment when his watch was over and it was time to wake Raph. Moving his stuff to the corner of the room that Leo had collapsed in earlier, unbeknownst to him, he then woke Raph with a great deal of difficulty. The first time he tried, the hot-head just grunted and turned over, continuing to snore softly; the second time, he lashed out and hit Donnie while kicking the sleeping Leo at the same time. The leader's eyes snapped open and he glowered at the still slumbering Raphael and a vengeful grin passed over his features. He motioned for Donnie to stand back, which the purple-clad turtle did, albeit apprehensively, and leant forward to get his hands behind Raph's shell, the proceeding to mouth counting to three before pushing his brother off of the sofa and onto the floor with a dull 'thud'. Letting out a low and ominous growl, Raph got up and brushed himself off, but when he looked back at Leo the leader seemed to be asleep. Donnie led down facing away from his red-clad brother – it was all he could do to conceal a smile – and then prodded Leo, waiting for his older brother to respond.
"What?" Leo asked, opening one eye.
"Crafty," Don replied, grinning. Casting a look over to the sofa opposite them, where Mikey was 'asleep', he chuckled quietly at the look of amusement on their baby brother's face. He had clearly been awake and watching the whole run of events leading up to Raph's falling off the sofa.
Two hours later, a frustrated Raph scrabbled to his feet to wake his brothers. He had spent almost all of his watch time doing nothing but using a kitchen knife to play noughts and crosses with himself on the wooden floor, his mind subconsciously fixed on the drawings of their ultimate fates if the human brothers got their way. From what he was doing, it would seem obvious that Donnie's picture had stuck most clearly in his mind, but if someone were to look closely around the room then they would find the remote of the remote controlled car smashed in the middle of the room, a box of burnt-out matches floating in the bucket that was catching the water that leaked through the roof, and the shapes of lightning bolts drawn in the condensation on the window. These were all pictures he couldn't get out of his head; but he had become so absorbed in playing noughts and crosses that he had forgotten all else for a short, nearing blissful, time. He dipped his cupped hands into the bucket and then flicked the water at Mikey to wake him. The youngest turtle yelped but woke without fuss. Next he moved to wake Leo, shaking him roughly, but the oldest turtle was reluctant to wake. Raph gave up for a moment, pulled the cushion out from under Donnie's head and then went back to Leo, shaking him again. This time the older turtle stirred and opened his eyes, which were oddly glazed over. Raph frowned and led a hand on his brother's forehead before he could protest, leaping back with a cry of alarm.
"What's going on?" Donnie jumped off the sofa and pulled out his Bo with lightning speed reactions.
"Nothing," Raph replied hurriedly, not breaking eye contact with Leo, whose urgent stare warned him not to say anything. But that stare suddenly turned to stifled amusement and Raph slowly looked round, turning just in time to see Mikey tip the bucket of leak water over his head.
"That'll teach ya to use my own tricks to wake me! Ah, Raphy-boy, when will you ever learn not to mess with Mikey, king of the Pranks!" Mikey mock bowed, receiving a round of applause from Donnie and Leo while Raph glared daggers at him. Coughing dismissively, he looked up at the clock, "eight a.m.?"
"Yeah, a little later than intended," Leo wrinkled his beak, "but it will have to do – let's go and hunt down this hideout – and guys, you might want to keep an eye out for beetles that may be lurking in the shadows."
Forty minutes later and the turtles were well and truly lost in the forest to the, as you stand in front of it, left hand side of the forest outside the Foot Headquarters. They had found nothing; no clues, no traps, no Baxter Stockman, no secret hideout and no human brothers. They had devised a system to make sure that they didn't wind up in the same situation as last time with them all going missing, being split up, and captured. Each of them had not only their shell cells at the ready but also a rope Donnie had packed tied around each of their waists with about two metres between each of them. Leo was at the front, Raph next in line, Donnie third and Mikey heading up the rear and keeping a lookout for any possible scouts. Without warning, Leo stopped and the others walked into each other, ending up in a pile on the floor. Laughing nervously in an effort to relieve some of the anxiety in the atmosphere, they picked themselves up – all except Leo who remained on the floor, shaking, cursing and clawing at the right hand side of his chest.
"Blackout," Donnie analysed the situation instantly, "Mikey, you keep on watch. Raph, you can help me out here," he knelt beside his eldest brother.
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Raph asked as he helplessly saw the pain passing in waves over his brother's face.
"No," Don answered shortly, "if we could do anything to stop or slow it then I would have done it a long time ago. All we can do for him now is in the form of finding and getting that controlling device; the sooner we get it, the quicker the antidote goes in. And the faster that happens, the faster he will recover." He led a hand on his brother's forehead.
"He's burning up," Raph said before Don's hand had even reached its destination.
"What? How do you know?" he felt Leo's head and his concerned eyes met those of Raph, "for how long?"
"I've known since the time I woke him up earlier. I don't know if it happened before that or not..."
"Then this is worse than I thought," Donnie sighed as Leo passed out.
"Whaddaya mean?" Raph looked a little horrified.
"I mean that it has progressed further than I thought it would have done by now. So we have to get moving, or we'll never find the hideout in time."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Raph gathered the unconscious and feverish Leo up into his arms, "Christmas? Because it sure as shell ain't gonna get here for Leo if we don't get this antidote!"
"He has a point," Mikey grimaced to Donnie as they followed Raph, still joined by the rope.
"I know," Donnie sighed in response, "and that's what's worrying me,"
"Whoa, way out on the creep-o-meter there, Donnie!" Mikey gulped, "and we don't even need to be thinking like that because it won't come to it!"
"I hope your right, Mikey – I hope your right."
"When am I not?" Mikey grinned, "Uh…on second thoughts, don't answer that!"
"Hey, guys, look!" Raph gasped, utterly exhausted, three hours later. Leo was still out cold and Donnie deduced that it must have been the tranquiliser coming into effect.
"What? I don't see anything," Mikey craned his neck excitedly, peering into the trees.
"Not in the forest – above it!" Raph tried to point with his one half-free arm but almost dropped Leo so he gave up; hoping Mikey had got an idea of which direction he was referring to.
"Smoke? That must be where the hideout is…" Mikey grinned, trailing off when he saw Donnie's doubtful face.
"Or it could be a trap," he pointed out, looking highly sceptical.
"Alternatively, it could be both," a sinister voice spoke, and Roshiri emerged with Ramakha from the bushes, "I believe you are looking for this, am I right?" he held up the remote controlling device for the poison and Raph let out a vicious snarl, "a-a-ah," Roshiri scolded mockingly, "you can't have it."
"You'll pay for what you did to our brother," Ramakha's normally gentle voice had turned to one of menace.
"And you'll pay for what you're doing to ours," Raph retorted sourly.
"Ah, so the poison it quick to work, I see," Roshiri smiled, satisfied glee on his face, and he looked to Ramakha, who seemed to hesitate before agreeing.
"Just what we hoped," he seemed to be rather half-hearted about the issue.
"Now, young ones - are you going to behave and come with us quietly or are we going to have to speed up the process of your precious leader's demise?" Roshiri sniggered. Donnie and Mikey both looked helplessly to Raph, who seemed to have adopted a temporary position as leader. He glanced down at the brother in his arms and then back at his other brothers and then to the two human brothers.
"How can you speed it up?" he challenged them, "there's only two buttons on that device and I assume that's poison and antidote."
"Correct, Raphael, and I commend you on your observance," Ramakha sighed, not by any means giving his all to the evil that should have been clear in his tone, "but we can simply shoot him with another dart – perhaps a dissolving poison dart – as I believe he has had an unpleasant encounter with one of those before."
"Raph, what do we do?" Mikey whispered into his older brother's ear.
"We go with them," Raph finally answered, going against all the instincts that were telling him to kick up a fuss.
"Whoa," Mikey muttered under his breath to Donnie as they were led to the hideout.
"I know," Donnie bit his lip, "Raph not kicking up a fuss? That's just not right,"
"Maybe he's in contact with Master Splinter telepathically or something," Mikey searched for reasoning.
"Possibly," Donnie shrugged.
Reaching the hideout, they found it was a dilapidated wooden hut of reasonable size but in disgusting condition. The once white paint was grey and flaking off in large pieces; the windows had no glass in them and the door was missing a hinge and so hung at an odd angle and was awkward to open.
"You are only in your first day and you already found us; I'm impressed," Reginald's greeting was not one to be desired as the turtles entered the hut. Donnie was beaten almost instantly over the head with a club, knocking him unconscious, following which he was tied to and old-age torture rack. Mikey yelped but before he could do anything else he was tacked by Ronald and, not expecting the attack, fell to the floor, where Ronald and Roshiri tied him up roughly, and then used a small step ladder to lift him and tie him to the rafters. Reginald made his way over to Raph and stood opposite the turtle, sneering at him.
"These images look familiar?" he asked casually.
"Too familiar," Raph barked back, barely keeping his temper in check.
"You gonna hand over your brother?"
"What do you think?" the red-clad turtle snapped sarcastically.
"I think you will…"
"Then you ain't thinking straight!" Raph growled.
"What is this?" Ramakha intervened, "a battle of the wits? Reginald, we're supposed to be chaining him to the wall here, not talking with him! Now, Raphael, hand over your brother or Michelangelo here will find himself losing his feet a little early in our torture schedule – we hadn't planned for him to lose them until a little later."
"Raph, don't do anything," Mikey called in a strained voice while he struggled against his bonds. Ramakha clicked his fingers in Roshiri's direction; Roshiri picked up the chainsaw that had been leaning up against the wall in the corner and handed it to his brother, who started it up,
"Don't make me do this," he seemed to almost be pleading, as if he didn't want to hurt Mikey. Donnie, who had just arrived back in consciousness, watched the unfolding of events in total shock. They couldn't cut his baby brother's feet off – they just couldn't – that was beyond inhuman, it was abominable and simply wrong! However, a moan from Raph's arms caused the whole scenario to come to a brief standstill. Raph put his brother down and stood defensively in front of him, Sais drawn and ready for combat. But he was helpless to do anything as Ramakha darted over to Mikey and drew his arm back, readying himself to do the dirty deed. The human had his eyes shut, Mikey noticed, but the turtle was still powerless to stop him as Ronald was holding his feet, which were bound together, in place. All Ramakha had to do was swing the saw round; and he did it with deadly accuracy.
A/N: - See what I mean? Not nice…please review for me and here are the shout-outs from the last chappie: -
Lioness Goddess: - I made your night? I feel special! And don't poke me! Lol, I figured that the whole threatening Mikey thing would get Leo going!
Chibi Rose Angel: - Big trouble? Understatement of the millennium! Hope you liked this chapter – and keep restraining yourself from doing something stupid gulps although I was flattered by your comment!
BlueRaven: - Wow! Have fun in Spain! I've never been – I really want to though – and it's such a short flight from England – but still my parents won't take me! Pfft, ah well – thanks for your review!
Cynlee: - Thank you so much for reviewing – and I agree – the brothers playing off each other is so much fun to read and write – I love it!
