Just a friendly reminder that I don't own anyone but Mask! And now for Chapter 4!
In a murky side tunnel, a complaining whisper hissed in the darkness. "Ugh, I still can't sleep. Why did we have to spend the night in this dark hole?"
The noise woke Mask, who swung out at the air bad-temperedly. "Shut up! We had to bed down here because you idiots didn't find anything last night! Now get up; it's time to move, and keep your wits about you, eh?"
"Lead on, Mask," answered a surly voice, laden with exaggerated respect. While their terrapin leader was apparently comfortable in the sewers, the human Foot ninja were just hoping they'd find their quarry so they could leave.
They made their way down the dripping tunnel, light splashes the only sound they made. Without warning, a voice echoed from up ahead. "Man, I sure am lucky! Thought I was gonna get my shell kicked today."
A deeper growl of a voice replied, "An' you still might get it kicked if you don't shut up, Mikey."
Mask held out a hand to halt the others. He strung his bow and readied an arrow, sighting down the long tunnel toward the noise. It was especially dark in this section of the sewer - the only light came from a storm drain about fifty yards ahead. He bent his bow and waited.
"Watch the light, guys." Another voice, this one tinged with authority. The Foot turtle watched four green creatures slip through the light, but he couldn't tell exactly what they were. All Saki had disclosed about their nature lay in his frequent comments about their similarities to Mask, and how it would help him in the eventual conflict. Not that it mattered exactly what they were, until they'd been neutralized. The brown turtle sighted on one of the backlit silhouettes and let fly.
Donatello had felt oddly uneasy during the entire patrol - so uneasy that he'd taken out his bo after only a few minutes of walking. After skirting the light beam, he brought his bo back up, walking quickly and holding it at the ready. The staff suddenly vibrated violently in his hands, and he nearly dropped it. Don squinted at what the light at his back revealed in the semi-gloom… an arrow, lodged in the wood! "We're being sniped, guys!" He dove to the side as another shaft whistled by, where his head had been a second earlier.
Leonardo looked up - his eyes were readjusting to the darkness and he could tell there were dark shapes ahead. "Don't present yourself as a target! They're up ahead; take 'em down!"
Mask had the tail of another arrow in his fingers, but his opponents were charging too fast for him to get off a shot and be able to fight when they arrived. The turtle cast his bow aside and drew his wakizashi. "They're too close. Attack!" The Foot ninja leapt forward to attack, driving their four enemies back - almost to the beam of surface light.
Mask ducked a bo strike and slipped behind the four creatures. The brown turtle spun, slashed, and felt his blade catch on something. His eyes traveled slowly up the body of his opponent. It was a humanoid turtle with dark green skin, wearing a red mask across his face and holding the sai that had stopped his wakizashi. He studied his adversary in disbelief. "You're a… turtle!"
"Darn straight!" replied Raphael as he twisted the sai, forcing Mask to let go of his wakizashi. Must be a new recruit, he thought. While the red-masked turtle could tell that his enemy wasn't human, he hadn't yet guessed that he was fighting a fellow turtle; the light was behind Mask and he was only visible as a darkened silhouette. Not that Raph was particularly interested in what he was fighting at the moment.
Mask backed away slowly. So these were Saki's great enemies? Turtles like him? He'd never considered that he wasn't the only one of his kind… even if they were as vicious as Saki had said… The wind left Mask as another turtle floored him with a tackle, kneeling on his chest to keep him down. The Foot turtle couldn't fight back; the shock of his realization was paralyzing - and he was still gasping for air.
The Foot ninja were not at home in the sewers, and were almost useless in the sudden confrontation. Don struck out with the butt of his staff and knocked the last one unconscious. "We'll drag 'em to the surface, I guess," he sighed, shouldering his bo.
"Wrong," countered Raph. They've seen us in this tunnel. It gives 'em a place to resume their search… we can't allow that." He spun one of his sai meaningfully.
"We'll worry about that later - I've got a conscious prisoner!" announced Mikey.
"A what? Mikey, get him on his feet and bring him into the light. We'll get to the bottom of this," commanded Leo with a businesslike air.
Mask was silent as Michelangelo forced him to stand and shoved him against the wall in the beam of light. Even Leonardo gasped.
"Is he what I think he is?"
"Saki was wrong," Mask said quietly, mostly to himself. He inspected the features of his four captors. "I see no brutality in their eyes. Even after we try to assassinate them… they only consider killing us because we know dangerous information." He sighed heavily and stared at his submerged feet. "They're not monsters, after all…"
Mikey turned to glance at Raph. The red-masked turtle scoffed at the soft look in his brother's eyes. "Heh. 'S prob'ly an act. Wouldn't put it past one of Shredder's goons."
"The Shredder? I don't know any 'Shredder,'…" The brown turtle looked confused. "I served one called Master Saki."
"No way of knowin' that's true," growled Raph, interrupting Mikey as he started to speak. "We don't know, Mikey! He could be perfectly aware that Saki and the Shredder are the same guy!"
Leo sighed. "Maybe Master Splinter can make some sense out of this. Don and I will take him back to the lair. Raph, you and Mikey take care of these Foot ninja. I don't really care what you do with them."
Don grabbed the tails of the brown turtle's skull mask so the holes no longer lined up with his eyes. "Move, you."
Mask felt like his entire world had been turned on its head. His enemies might as well be his own cousins, and it appeared that Saki had deceived him…at the moment, he didn't really care whether or not death waited at the end of his journey down the sewer tunnel. He walked silently, numbly, with two fellow turtles holding his arms and roughly escorting him along.