A/N: Chapter 9. Wow. At first I didn't plan on writing such a long fic. Anyways, read on!
Chapter 9
Captured!
Akasha groaned. She didn't even try to move, she ached so much. She felt cold metal beneath her, chilling her to the bone. She shivered.
Okay, she thought to herself. Don't panic. Now.What was the last thing that happened? They had defeated Touch and Go. Raph had knocked Mr. Touch out. Then all she could remember was being tired. Incredibly tired, and falling asleep.
Did someone drug me? She wondered. No, me and Raph were the only other ones in the room, apart from those two lack-wits, and they were unconsious…
She carefully extracted her arm out from under her. It was numb. Ever so carefully, Akasha began to wiggle her fingers, trying to regain the feeling in her hand.
She opened her eyes. It was dark, but she could just make out the shape of a shell in the shadows to her left: Raphael was in here, too.
"Raph," she recoiled; her voice was barely a croak, unrecognizable. She raised her voice.
"Raph!" he stirred.
Gritting her teeth, Akasha pulled herself painfully into the sitting position. She reached out her left hand and shook Raph's shoulder.
"Wha?" he mumbled.
"Raph, wake up!"
He shot up as if electrocuted.
"Akasha?"
"Duh. Who else d'you think it'd be?"
"Where are we?"
"I don't know. I just woke up, too." Akasha lurched to her feet, and looked around. Light came from the crack under a door. Akasha felt for the handle; it was locked.
Raph had stood up too. He ran his hands along his belt, searching for his sai.
"Shell!" he cursed. "They took my blades! They are so gonna pay for that…!"
"Yeah, if we knew who 'they' was," Akasha muttered.
"It wasn't Touch an' Go, was it?"
"How could it have been? We knocked 'em out."
"Yeah, but who else could it have been?"
"I don't know!"
There was a moment of tense silence, where Akasha fumed and Raph shifted his weight from foot to foot restlessly. A sudden bang from outside shattered the silence.
"Idiot! That was Master Shredder's favorite vase!" A teen male voice hissed. "Clean up this mess before – "
"What has happened?" A deeper voice interrupted.
"That's Hun!" Raphael pressed his ear to the door, all anger forgotten. "I'd recognize his voice anywhere!"
"You fool! Clean up this mess. Master Shredder has sent me to escort our guest to his chamber."
Raph lept backward as the door opened, shedding light on him and Akasha, who was looking Hun over. Her lip curled as she noticed the Purple Dragon tattoo on his upper arm, a violet serpent twisting around his bicep, it's head reared back, it's teeth bared in a snarl of defiance.
"What are you sneering at, freak?" Hun growled.
"She ain't a freak!" Raph came to Akasha's defence.
"You are not concerned in this matter, shellback," Hun said. "I am here for little Miss Andrews." He grabbed her arm and towed her to the hallway.
"Let go of me!"
Hun laughed as he closed the door.
Raph heard her muffled yells fade through the thick iron.
Hun hauled Akasha along the corridor, paying no heed to her kicking and thrashing. He forced her through a large set of double doors. She smelled incence: she identifyed sandalwood and musk. A low mahogany desk stood against the wall to her right. At it sat a man dressed in a loose-fitting suit. His eyes narrowed as she approached. Hun placed a hand the size of a garbage bin lid on her back and shoved her onto the ground, forcing her to kneel.
"Kneel before the Master," he growled in her ear.
"Now now, Hun," the man called 'Master' said. "This is our special guest."
"Special guest?" Akasha spat, sitting back on her heels. "I don't think kidnapping me and Raph and throwing us in a cell very hospitable."
"Ah, the turtle," the man walked around the desk to stand in front of her. "The turtles are not what they may seem. They fight me and my followers."
"Wait…" Akasha frowned. "Who are you?"
"My name is Oroku Saki," the man smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. They remained cold.
"Oroku Saki…" her eyes widened. "Shredder!"
"Ah, I see that they have poisened your mind with vile lies about me," Oroku Saki said, with an attempt to look regretful.
"Lies? Yeah, right!" Akasha snarled.
"Perhaps you need to be pursuaded to… see reason," Saki suggested icily. He turned and beckoned to a dark, shadowy space behind a pillar. Akasha's mother stepped out.
Akasha gasped.
"Mom? What are you doing here?"
"Your mother has been on my side for quite a while," Saki smirked. "She was kind enough to lend me the information we lacked to perfect our own breed of mutant, useful for surveillence underground. In return, we provided security from certain… outside forces that may try to interfere. But, let us start from the beginning, shall we?
"My allies and I have warred against the turtles for a long time. We decided to try to locate their underground home, and thus be rid of them quickly. But our ninjas were no match for the catacombs of sewer tunnels that lie beneath us, so I had no choice but to withdraw them.
"Then I came across Dr. Andrews here. She was looking for a supplier to sell her a certain kind of illegal substance only found on the Black Market. It was needed for the mutagen she was working on. I helped her acquire the necessary item, she in turn told me of her mutagen, and how she had perfected it. I was interested in it, and I pursuaded her to let me copy it, for my own devices. She was reluctant at first, but eventually gave me a small sample of the stuff.
"My ninjas were quick to use the sample. They used kidnapped civilians as test subjects, and soon had a large number of successfully operating mutants on regular patrol. The creatures seemingly had no memories left, and were fairly docile and easy to control."
Akasha was staring at her mother. She looked tired and pale, with dark circles under her eyes. There was something about her stance that signalled defeat, and hopelessness. She was staring at her shoes, not at her daughter, and one hand was fiddling nervously with the tie on her lab coat, which was hanging off her thin frame.
She looks tireder than the last time I saw her, Akasha realized. More… hagard, somehow. And she's lost weight. Although she could not believe her mother would hand her research over to Saki, Akasha felt a stab of guilt and pity. She tore her eyes away and looked at Shredder.
"Then something went wrong." Saki continued. "The mutants escaped from the laboritory, and ran into the catacombs. We never were able to catch them, and I shut down the operation." A sneer twisted his face.
"Months later, I finally understood the reason. We had not got all of Dr. Andrew's research. She had only given us the basic mutagen, not the kind that rendors them harmless and docile. I was furious, and sent an elite group of ninja to sort out the problem. They, however, were a failure. The security system was, as you say, 'airtight', and they were unable to get in. I told Hun" – Saki motioned to the hulking figure behind Akasha – "to deal with the issue; he has been most succesful with missions of this sort. He used a pair of assassins, Mr. Touch and Mr. Go, both with a kind of power-up capability. They got inside, but could not find the information. They did, however, find out that the information was hidden in a different location, and that it would be brought to the laboritory on a certain night for Dr. Andrews to add to her current mutagen.
"One minor glitch in my plan, it seems, is that when they went to collect the information, a certain little troublemaker and her reptilian friends were already there, nosing around as usual. Mr. Touch and Mr. Go went in to be rid of the problem and brought them – you and one of the turtles –to me, and are, as we speak, seeking out the mutagen and bringing it back here."
"But why is my mom here then?" Akasha asked, trying to understand what Saki had just told her.
"To keep her from hiding the information," Oroku Saki pointed out smoothly.
Akasha's mother continued her study of the ground, expressionless.
"What are you going to do with Raph?" Akasha finally managed to ask.
A cruel smile played around Saki's lips.
"His presence will bring his kin to his side, and I will trap and be rid of them once and for all," he said with relish. "As for you, I will think of a suitable fate for you and your mother later. Hun" – he beckened the man – "Take them away."
Akasha's mother's head snapped up.
"The deal was that you let us go!" she protested. "You gave your word!"
"And you were gullible enough to believe me," Saki replyed scornfully. Hun reached for Akasha.
A crash was heard. Hun looked up. Akasha took advantage of this and rose, spinning and kicking the man in the chest. He flew backward across the room.
"What?" Saki's eyes flew wide with rage.
"Cowabunga!" cried a figure from the doorway.
"Mikey?" Akasha never thought she would be so glad to see the orange-banded turtle.
"Hi Ash! We thought you could use a hand," Mikey said cheerfully. "We busted Raph out, he and Leo are just coming!"
"Turtle!" Oroku Saki's hands were clentched in fury, he glared at the terepin ninja with loathing.
"Shredder!" Mikey whipped out his nunchucku's, creating mini ornage cyclones in midair.
Hun had recovered. He grabbed Akasha from behind, pinning her arms to her sides.
"Grrof me!" she snarled, stamping on his feet. He howled and released her. Mikey lept into action, forcing Hun to back away from his twirling nunchucku's.
"Akasha!" Raph called from the door. She ran towards him. He and Leo had their weapons out and were looking warily at Shredder, who was readying himself to come to Hun's aid.
"Let's go," Leo quickly decided. "C'mon, Mikey!"
"Aww, c'mon, Leo," Raph groaned. "At least let me pound Shred-head!"
"No, Raph," Leo said sternly. "Flight, not fight. MICHELANGELO!" he called.
Mikey ran over, sheathing his nunchucku's.
As they turned to go, Akasha caught sight of her mother. She was staring at her daughter in surprise. Saki took a step toward Akasha, who turned and ran after the turtles. Her mother called something, but Akasha couldn't here it over Shredder's growl of fury. She sprinted after Raph's retreating shell.
The turtles contacted Don on their Shell Cells and explained what had happened. They met on April's apartment building's fire escape.
"Hey Donnie," Ash greeted the purple-clad turtle as she tried to work her fingers under the window.
"Here, lemme," Raph pryed it open with the tip of one of his newly recovered sais. He slid the window up and entered the apartment. The others followed.
"So, is your mother – ?" Don began to ask, then halted. His face grew several shades lighter green.
Casey and April were sitting on the sofa, arms around one anothers necks, kissing. April's crutches lay on the floor, forgotten. Upon hearing Don's voice, they broke apart and whipped around, both extremely red in the face.
A long awkward silence followed. Then;
"Er, hey, guys," April said nervously. She struggled to stand up. Akasha picked up the abandoned crutches and handed them to her aunt, fighting to keep her face straight.
Mikey was looking from April to Casey, his mouth hanging open slightly. Leo was busying himself closing the window so as not to have to look at anybody. Raph was, like Akasha, doing his best not to explode via laughter, and Don looked as if somebody had hit him in the face with something very heavy but he hadn't figured out what had happened yet.
April managed to right herself and asked in a falsely cheery tone; "Does anyone want some tea?"
"Yes, please," Leo answered. He nudged Mikey.
"Oh, yeah, me too," Mikey recovered.
"I'll have some," Raph shrugged. April turned to Don.
"Don?" she asked timidly.
"No, thanks, I'm okay," he mumbled, inspecting his toes. "I just need some air…" he fled up the fire escape.
April's face fell, and she shuffled into the kitchen.
Akasha said she didn't want any tea, and slunk out of the kitchen unnoticed. She descended the fire escape slowly, making plenty of noise so that Don would know she was coming.
She found him sitting cross-legged against a wall, watching the early-morning traffic below them.
"Don, are you okay?" she sat down beside him. He refused to look at her, but studied the sea of headlights intently, with narrowed eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine," his voice was higher than normal, and he was still staring at the lights. "Just… fine! Absolutely fine!" he began to giggle hysterically, muffling the sound with his fist.
"Why did she have to do that?" he suddenly burst out. "Why Casey? He's about as clever as a house brick! What does she see in him?" he said this as if he didn't expect an answer, and Akasha didn't have one. A few moments passed quietly, save the honking of the horns below.
"Do you want to come down?" Akasha finally asked.
"No, I'm going to meditate," he replied absently.
"Okay," Akasha got up. She went down and entered through the window. Casey and Raph were seated on the sofa, sipping tea, and talking. They shut up the moment Akasha appeared. She sighed and went to find April.
April was in her room, flicking through her journal. Her crutches were propped up against the wall nearby. Akasha leaned on the doorframe and cleared her throat. April jumped and looked up.
"Oh, Akasha," she mumbled. "Where's Don? Is he… okay?"
"You really upset him," Akasha said slowly. "But he'll live."
"I can't believe I did that," April muttered distractedly.
"You mean being caught in a liplock with Casey?" Akasha smiled wryly. "What were you thinking?"
"I don't know," April shook her head. "It just sort of…"
"Happened." Akasha supplied helpfully, coming into the room and sitting on the bed.
"Yes." April rubbed her temples.
Akasha looked at the open journal in her aunt's lap, and noticed that it was open to the detailed sketch of Donatello.
"You like him, don't you?" she asked, pointing to the picture.
"Well, I know he likes me, but…" April threw up her hands and flopped backward onto the bed. "I don't know. I like him, but…what could happen? He's a mutant turtle, Asha! And I'm a human. Although…" April grinned mischieviously. "You and Raph…"
"Oh, shush," Akasha grumbled good-naturedly.
"What happened to your mother, anyway?" April changed the subject, turning serious. "Raph told me some, but he wasn't there for all of it."
Akasha told her aunt all of what Saki had revealed and what had happened in the laboritory, and finally about how hopeless her mother looked.
"I think we should break her out," Akasha finished, clenching her fists on her knees. "And we have to get that information out of Shredder's hands!"
"I wish I could help," April sighed, glaring at her bandaged foot. "But I can barely move as it is."
"Here, lemme," Akasha reached forward, a strange irredescent light flaring around her hands.
"No," April drew back. "What am I gonna tell the others? My foot healed itself suddenly?"
"I can at least take the hurt away," Akasha argued. "Help it get better a bit quicker."
April winced as her foot throbbed. "Oh, all right then."
Akasha held a hand over the injured foot, letting waves of healing roll into it.
"Thanks Ash, that feels much better," April rotated her foot experimentally, and smiled.
"I'm glad there's something good about it," Akasha muttered, looking at her hands, a scowl on her face.
"Let's go and see what the guys think," April suggested, getting up and retrieving her crutches. She closed her journal and put it back on the bookshelf. "We have to get Lilly out of there."
They found the turtles and Casey seated in the living area, talking. Don didn't look at April, who did likewise. Akasha resolved to fix the problem, once they had saved her mother and the information from Saki. April took a seat on a chair far away from both Casey and Don. Akasha sat on the couch next to Leo.
"We were just saying that we have to get that information from Shredder," Leo explained, breaking the uneasy silence. "And your mother, of course," he added, motioning to Akasha.
"How're we gonna do that?" Raph wanted to know. "Just break in an' demand to he hand 'em over?"
"We'll have to sneak in," Leo said matter-of-factly. "But just to get Dr. Andrew's and the information, no more."
"I wish I could come," April said, shamefaced. "But I can't even walk properly, let alone fight."
"You can stay here with Casey." Don did his best not to sound bitter. "I'm sure we can handle things without you."
"Hey, you ain't ditchin' me!" Casey informed them. "I'm gonna come and give Mr. Spiky-Pants a piece o' my mind!"
"Fine," Leonardo shrugged. "We'll all go. April, I'm afraid you'll have to stay here…"
"I don't mind," she said softly. But she was looking at Don, not Leo. The purple-banded turtle was staring at the floor again, is thoughts obviously elsewhere.
"Let's go, then." Leo got up and exited the house via the fire escape.
"Yeah, finally some action!" Casey whooped, following Leo. Mikey, Raph and Don trailed after them. Akasha turned to April.
"I'll call you if we need you," she told her aunt. "You're foot should be okay now. Keep your Shell Cell on." She turned and hopped out of the window after the turtles.
A/N: Reviews would be nice. :)