Disclaimer: Don't own them, never will, but lay a hand on my OC and DIEEE! just kidding!
CH.20: The Beginning
(Lillian's POV:)
Wheat, wheat, and oh look! More wheat.
No Leo.
"Don, can you steer this thing?" I snarled, mostly out of irritation for my goggles. They weren't registering ANYTHING! It was as if the mutants had vanished into thin air!
"Never driven before," Don said, startled by my tone. "Horse, yes- car, no." he joked, drawing some mirth out of my bubble. I giggled.
"I can dudes." Mikey offered from his lookout post in the backseat.
"No way Mikey, I am not letting you drive; not after watching you play Need for Speed!" Donnie argued, "You crashed that car fifty times!"
"Mike, take the wheel while I scout from the back. I can see more in-depth than you can." I stated, praying to any and all gods that Mike would NOT get into 'extreme-video' mode. I don't think the car could stand that, myself and Don, either.
"Sure thing, dudette!" Mike enthused, a little too happily for my harried heart and soul. "Move over Donnie, will ya?"
After a delicate game of cat and mouse over the steering and pedals, Mike was firmly planted in the driver's seat, and I was grasping the roll bar, standing erect, scanning the horizon. We went over a rough patch, nearly spilling me out the back of the convertible. Mike swore. I winced.
Please don't hurt my baby...
(Elsewhere...)
Staff Sergeant Hammer, the Entrance guard, was nervous. The higher ups in the joint weren't talking, but the fear he'd initially sensed had doubled, or tripled overnight. Maybe it had something to do with that broad they brought in last night, or maybe it had to do with the senior executive locking himself in the control room. Either way, he'd noticed a steady trickle of exec's and techs leaving in the past sixteen hours. Something was up.
"Brody," He drawled over the two-way to his junior, a Corporal of the guard, "Have you noticed anything unusual lately?"
Cpl Brody, who was returning from perimeter patrol with Sergeant Duke, pulled out his piece.
"Sure thing, Staff Sergeant," He sounded excited over the crackling radio, "We've got some trespassers in custody."
Hammer blinked, frowned, then snarled: "Brody, this is a shoot-on-sight premises." Rubbing his forehead, he bulled on, "Why, might I ask, do you have prisoners?"
"Sir, they are some pret-ty unusual prisoners. We're bringing them to the south corner of the Main Hatch." Now Cpl Brody sounded nervous," Can you meet us there?"
"You'd better have a damn good reason for me to leave my post- Johnson!" Hammer barked, causing an earsplitting squeal to sound over the comm., "Take over for a few! I've got some business to attend to outside the Hatches." Turning back to the radio, he growled low and long, "Brody, this had better be damn good, or it's your ass. Got it?"
"Aye, Staff Sergeant!"
(outside)
"Okay Brody, what the he- urk!" SSgt Hammer found himself caught in a vise grip. Reaching for his gun, he yelped as a rough hand snatched it away.
"Don't even think about it, Mac," a rough, Brooklyn-esque, voice purred in his ear, "Or I'll make sure the lights I'll put out never come on again…"
"What do you want?" He croaked, scratching futilely at the smooth, yet tough arm with both hands.
"Your cooperation." A distinctly female voice murmured from his left. Craning his neck, Sgt Hammer couldn't see nil until she stepped forward into the moonlight. "Your cronies, I assume." She smirked as two stumbling figures were shoved towards him.
"Brody!" He managed to snarl before the arm tightened again.
"I have to admit, I thought the military had improved its men," The shadowy woman mocked, "We found these two easily enough, and had them disarmed and squealing like stuck pigs before you could say 'Bob's your uncle'." She glanced disdainfully down at the hog-tied bundle that was Brody and Duke.
"However," The Brooklyn voice piped up, "We would ask for your 'assistance' in this operation."
Before he knew it, SSgt Hammer was bound, gagged, and seated on the dirt before two very imposing figures… wearing what looked like masks.
"This place is the site where the worst of human science is bred." The female began, "A place where human and animal genes are crossed to create monsters uglier, rougher, and more terrifying than anything Stephen King could possibly dream up. Now the 'masters' that created them are gone, and the science projects are loose upon the world." Hammer could feel her glare radiating through the darkness before him, and internally cowered. "We got lucky, though. They seem to be concentrated mostly in and around New York City- and don't seem to care what they take out in their quest for whatever. Mutant rights, revenge, who knows."
"What we do know is that this is the centralized location for the production of these pitiful creatures, and we are here to stop it."
"Eloquently put, Raph." The female snapped.
Brody glanced at Hammer with wide, scared eyes. "Sir, they're here to kill the boss and blow this place up! We can't let 'em!"
Hammer glared at the shadows. "We're not kept up to date on all that goes around here. All we take care of is keeping people out, and making sure nobody knows of this place. For all I know it could be a Chinese fruit factory, but I'd still do my job. You could be telling us lies in hopes of gaining access and secrets. Sorry, you foreign bastards, you're not stealing U.S. secrets on my watch! JOHNS- ack!"
Cut off from alerting the guards, Hammer felt himself propelled backwards by the throat, and slammed against the wall. With the help of the faint moonlight and glow from a panel, Hammer saw a very face from Hell, green and menacing with piercing eyes and blood-red bandanna, glowering at him.
"Do I look like a frigging foreigner to you?" The Brooklyn accent said.
Hammer gaped like a fish out of water, opening and closing his mouth, with nary a word to say.
"We were mutated too," The female voice said compassionately, stepping forward. He could see her mutated, yet still so human visage gazing back at him mournfully. "We're trying to stop these experiments before they happen to anyone else. Who knows," Morbid tones took over, "You could be next…"
(In that stupid Wheatfield; Donnie's POV)
"GOT 'EM!" Lillian cried, startling me again. "Due west Mike! Blitzing too!"
Mikey yanked the wheel around. We spun so hard I almost lost my lunch, my perch, and my girl- in one go!
"MIKE! West is the OTHER WAY!" Lillian muffled somewhere from behind us, possibly the floor.
"Gotcha babe!" Mike pulled us into a screaming one-eighty, us passengers holding on for dear life.
"Mike, please- no more crazy stunts" I whimpered. I loved my brother, but if he kept doing this, I was going to smack him one good!
We tore along through the field, raced through a deserted highway, and rammed into a chain-link fence that snapped under the impact.
"Oops, didn't see that one," Mike muttered as we all ducked from flying metallic hail.
"MIIIIKE!" Lillian roared in my ear. Sure wasn't going to hear anything after that one.
BOOM!
We smashed headlong into a low-lying brick wall, sending all of us airborne; as none, I repeat none, of us were wearing seatbelts. I heard a distant cracking sound, and the world fizzled out.
(A little while later...)
ker-sploosh
"GAH!" I cried, sitting up fast. Too fast by the way my head was pounding; the world was spinning, and everything was totally out of focus. Two blurs were hovering over me, like flies on shit. Kinda what I felt like at the moment…
"Oh, thank god," One of the blurs sighed, and embraced me. The other gently dabbed at what was likely a head wound.
"You ok bro?" A green blur, probably Mike, asked as it glided away.
"Dizzy, in a lot of pain, and the vision is blurry."
"Hon, you've likely got a concussion." Lillian said, kissing my forehead. "Mike and I are ok, we landed in a pile of leaves and brush, but you landed on a not so soft patch of moss. Thank the gods you landed on your shell instead of your neck or head or arms or…"
"Hush," I said, her blurry form coming more and more into focus. I hugged Lillian, trying to calm what looked like hysteria bubbling under her frequently calm façade.
"Oh god Don, you could have died!" She wailed into my shoulder as I stroked her hair. She pulled back to cradle my face and kissed me again. It was nice, to say the least, despite the ringing in my ears and the headache.
"Awww, nerds in love! How cute!" Mikey carried on, always the joker.
I threw a few leaves and a branch at him.
"Shut up," I proclaimed, and kissed my girl again.
(At the compound)
"Is there any way you can jam the security cameras?" Raph demanded.
"Not really, we don't actually handle the cameras, we use them. That would be the electricians and interior guard. Johnson might know." Hammer whispered.
"Well shit, is there ANY way we can get into this hell hole!" I griped, waving my arms for emphasis.
"Doll, usually people are trying to get out of hell holes."
"You are so not helping."
Brody, I noticed, had been awfully quiet for the past few minutes. The others were griping at us, Duke through a gag. Gears cranking away, I rounded on him.
"Look, I know your job is to keep people out," I said calmly, yanking him to his feet and bringing his pimply boy-face inches from mine, "but where is an entrance?"
Brody looked like he was trying real hard to keep his composure, but ended cracking when I shook him like a rag doll for a bit. "Th-there's one by the north tower! It's a ventilation shaft that leads to the control zone! H-honest!"
I dropped him, grateful to get his stinky breath out of my nostrils, and turned to Duke, "Is this true?"
Duke nodded, looking like Lillian when I blew up her lab. Pissed.
To Raph: "Let's go."
"Wait! What's gonna happen to us?" The chickenshit Brody whined as the gag went back on.
I pretended to be thoughtful. "Ionno, Raph. They did help us, but shit, they're weasely Army pukes… what do you think we oughta do?"
Raph grinned as he tied the knot of the gag. Hammer snarled behind it; we walked off, leaving them well hidden in the shadows. Looking back, I saw his eyes blaze murder, and I had a feeling I knew why.
I grinned.
"Upstaged by a Mutant, bi-yatch!"
A/N: Another update! Hooray! And a further milestone no less! Who can guess what happens in the next chapter? We'll see what my mind cooks up (as I seem to be flying by the seat of my pants) and what mayhem the 'Mutants of NYC' get themselves into!
Special thanks to all those who've kept poking, prodding, and sporking me into writing, no matter WHAT state of address I'm in.
Oh, and I promise to have those chapters to you as soon as I can Ramica!
With love,
The Spade