Chapter 21: The Beginning (soon to be re-titled)

The car was now utterly useless. Michaelangelo had not only smashed the engine block in, thus preventing any immediate use, but had also upended the entire Mustang GT into the well.

How do you explain that to your insurance company without sounding like a Bellevue patient?

Only Mikey could do something that impossible> Donatello mused wryly. Lillian was positively fuming over the loss of her beloved car, and was giving Mike the silent treatment while they scanned the horizon for Leonardo and his captors.

They finally decided to begin walking in the last known direction the blob-things had been traveling in, due west. Every so often slime tracks would appear, depressions where a blob had rolled over, and on one awful occasion, droplets of blood. Don and Lil had to convince Mike that Leo wasn't dead or dying, he'd simply been fighting his captors. Though they themselves weren't sure, and did not want to acknowledge that possibility.

Not Leo.

So far the search had yielded zilch, zip, nada- and the trio were growing more and more disjointed, disgruntled, and discouraged with the way things were slipping along.

"You know, you'd think those big ugly puddings would be more like Jabba the Hutt. SLOW." Mike griped, stomping along behind 'Miss-mouse and her pet turtle'. Donnie rolled his eyes.

"Mike, has anything we've come across thus far made any sense?"

"No, but it oughta!" The orange-bandanna wearer moaned.

"Hush both of you…" Lillian cautioned, stopping so suddenly as to cause a three-man pileup. (Mayhem ensues: Get your foot out of my ear! Ow, my beak! You're stepping on my hair!)

After the three had untangled themselves, hair and beaks nursed and back in proper place, a low rumble and tremor rippled through the rocky dirt beneath them.

"Is it me, or do you guys hear something?" Donnie ventured, giving voice to the sudden fear, tilting his ear towards the ground that trembled more and more violently under their feet.

With a riotous slide of earth and a thunderous roar, the ground beneath them gave way to a gaping maw. In a drenching spray of mud, sand, and rock, its prey was coated in the mixture and tumbled into the abyss of absolute darkness.

In Earth's newest pockmark…

cough wheeze

"Duh….duh-" AACHOO! "-Donnie?" A filthy Lillian wheezed, choking on the cloying mist of dust and dirt, feeling her way through the darkness for the familiarity.

"Over here," Mikey called, voice muffled by the pressing blackness. He sounded anxious, and rightly so; "Donnie's out like a light again."

"Mumble mumble," Lillian snarled, crawling in the direction of the voice, her daypack dragging behind by a strap. "Did you check his vitals?" She asked, worried- less so than before- but still worried.

"Everything seems okay, as far as I can tell," Mikey replied, adding, "But all I can really check for in the dark is a pulse!"

"Which he's got, I assume?"

"Yeah, strong and steady."

Lil sighed, pulling her bangs from her face with a grimace. She felt dirty and disgusting in this oversized pothole, covered from head to foot in god knew what. She could also feel a slow trickle from her cheek, leading her to believe she bled some. "Are you okay?" She asked of Mike, praying that she didn't have two turtles out of commission.

"I feel great!" Mike replied, an audible grin touching his features, "Itwas like sliding down that awesome tunnel-pipe that leads to the treatment center!"

"Yuck." Lil decreed of that, as she swung the daypack around in front of her, unzipped a pouch and fished around. "Yes!" She exulted, bringing a flashlight out and on to bear. "Now we can make sure he's just out."

Lillian, an experienced animal doctor, had little trouble evaluating Donatello's condition, checking his eyes, ears, feeling his windpipe for blockage, pulse and all those things that doctors' love doing to us, regardless of the comfort level. Her diagnosis was that Donatello was sufficiently stable to be picked up and hauled off to wherever they were going, as he was simply unconscious,yet likely to wake up soon.

Glancing the flashlight off the walls of the cave, no, turns out they were in a tunnel. Lillian and Mike groaned simultaneously in annoyance. The hole from which they'd been pitched through was at least fifteen feet from the ground Donnie was laying upon, and about ten feet from either wall of the abnormally large, and distinctly not man-made tunnel.

"Well," Lillian said, snapping off the light to conserve batteries, donned a pair of Infrared goggles, and handed Mikey a pair. Upon realizing that he had no clue about how to operate them, Lillian gave him a quick lesson and switched them on for him.

"Dude, these are awesome!" Mike exclaimed, waving his hands around, reveling in the absurd colors his body happened to read as. Lillian giggled at this display before silencing him with an attention grabbing clearing of the throat.

"We have two options, Michaelangelo. First, we can waste our energy trying to figure out a way to climb back out of the hole in this tunnel, or second, we can follow it to the end, since…" Her eyes gleamed orange through Michaelangelo's IR Specs; "…this tunnel leads in the direction we were heading, and, according to the nav-pad, right to Installation 12 Headquarters!" Lillian crowed.

"Sounds fun, but what are we gonna do about Donnie?" Mike asked, sounding abnormally reasonable. "We can't just leave him here, alone in the dark… who knows if those things that have Leo won't come back for him?"

"Well, in solution to that problem, it's a darn good thing that I packed a poncho," She said glancing at Mike, who sort of looked curious. Who knew what expression he had with those goggles on!

She continued explaining as the poncho was unpacked and unfurled, "A poncho has many more uses than to keep you from getting rained on. It makes a good tent, a warm liner for a bed of moss or whatever is nearby in the woods, a-and," She trailed, rolling Donnie onto his side, pulling the poncho under his frame, "Hey, gimme a hand here quick!"

Mike dodged forward to steady Donnie from falling hard onto his shell again. Lillian continued, "Okay, and another use of ponchos are for a good buddy-drag sheet. Clothes only work for so long," She stated with a grin that shone red on white through his goggles.

After adjusting Donnie's body on the green-brown digital patterned poncho, Lillian grabbed a fistful of the end near Don's head, motioning Mike to do the same. Once both had his head safely off the hard packed earth, they began a slow buddy-drag down into the forbearing darkness.

"So what if we run into those things again?" Mike asked, switching his grip on the poncho from left fist to right.

"We do what we've been trained to do!" Lillian chuckled, "You fight 'em; I'll dissect 'em!"

Their playful banter continued down the darkness towards the hateful Installation 12.

In the air ducts of Installation 12…

"I can't believe the only lousy entrance was a miserable air shaft that's ('Thank God', Mika interjected) not even guarded! Come on, where's the fight!" Raphael griped irritably as they inched through the dusty narrow crawlspace. Mikaela rolled her eyes, punching his foot lightly in response. A shower of dust, kicked up by Raphael's feet choked her nostrils and mouth, causing a coughing riot to echo up and down the shaft.

"Quiet, will ya?" Raph growled, scooting forward over a ventilation shaft. Mikaela glared at him as she brought her coughing under control.

"Asshole," She wheezed, slipping over the ventilation shaft with ease. Using a penlight, Mikaela checked the crude map she'd drawn before they braved the labyrinth of the airshafts in the hellhole. "Next drop point is ours. We'll be in Giuseppe's lab. It's a safe place, he used to be a friend, and he's been our contact during our infiltrations."

"Gotcha," Raph cheered softly, delighted at the prospect of a brawl. The two inched to a T-junction in the vents, where their drop point supposedly was. Raph peeked through the slats, once-overing the room. Feeling something poke him in the foot, he glared back at Mikaela who grinned and slid a small mirror attached to a stick to him. Grunting a thank you, he used the mirror to thoroughly inspect the premises they were about to invade.

"Clear," He murmured, using his sai to unscrew the pieces holding the slats in place. Once done, he passed the slats back to Mika who drew a stun gun, just in case there was any trouble.

Dropping stone quick through the opening and to the floor, Raph rolled to a desk, staying low since the lab had a window in the main door. Mikaela peered cautiously over into the room before flipping down as well. Assured that neither had been seen, Raph boosted Mika up so she could wedge the slat back into place. "Wouldn't want to attract attention, would we?" She joked.

"This is weird. Normally Giuseppe would be around here somewhere." Mikaela frowned, scanning over the spilled contents of beakers, jars and other unmentionables lying broken about the place. Horrified, Mikaela commented on the stains on the wall resembling something like blood.

"Looks like someone decided it was time to go nuts, or something worse than I thought is going on around here." She gagged, stepping towards the door. "Come on, we'd better be gone before whatever did this comes back for more…"

Stealthy as cats, the two erred on the side of caution. Mikaela used her blending powers to turn wall-white and slip out the door undetected. Motioning through the window to Raph, he slid out as well, and the two stole down the empty halls towards the area that announced Ana's telepathic signature strongest.

"You know, I'm getting a weird feeling," Mikaela said softly, darting around a corner.

"Me too," Raph agreed, following along behind. "Where are all the guards? The techs? All those other nerds that work here?"

"Good question." Mika responded darkly, "Hopefully there won't be any nasty surprises."

BLORSH-SPLISH…

"Spoke too soon, doll," Raph announced, wheeling around withhis sais ready.

"Crap!" Mikaela hollered, drawing the stun gun. Powering it to max voltage, she zapped at a large blob of what looked like… barf pudding with eyes. "Yeek!" She screeched, dodging a nasty, ugly, gross looking yellow and brown tentacle that shot out at her. "Man, that's disgusting!"

Zapping the blob again, she focused her attention on Raphael's efforts. Apparently the turtle was noworse off than she was. Long yellow and brown whipcords of blob material oozed itself around his left bicep, and the blob worried him like a dog does a bone. Raph gritted his teeth as he tried to saw at the ropey flesh with his available sai. Slashing and poking at them hadn't done much more than release an odiferous smell and make them more agitated. More fleshy, ropelike material began to ooze its way around his legs and torso, constricting him in similar fashion to an anaconda. Gasping, he futilely continued to saw away at the cords on his arm. Stars began dancing at the edge of his vision as the Blob drew him closer to its hide. A saw-tooth edged canyon was revealed as two fleshier bits parted.

I'm gonna be eaten! Oh HELL no!> He thought muzzily, weakly hacking at the thing.

Abruptly, a bright flash entered his vision, followed by the crackling, reeking scent of burning flesh. The cords loosened and he collapsed under their weight, gasping for oxygen.

"Raph!" Mikaela yelled, shaking his shoulders gently, "Are you ok!"

"…Pissed off..." Was his succinct reply. He rubbed his sore neck and arm, grimacing. "What got 'im?"

"Taser." Mikaela quipped, dropping said object into his lap. "You can have one, since your weapons don't seem to work on them." She said, adding as an afterthought, "Whatever the hell they are. I had it on a low setting so I wouldn't hurt you."

Raph held up the taser, appreciating its shapely ovalesque design, and the wicked barb at the end. It was about as long as a nightstick, a little weighty, due to the large battery pack required to charge it and the spring to launch the barb into unsuspecting persons.

"Nice." He approved, testing it in the hulk of charred flesh that was the burned and unconscious (assumed, of course) blob-creature. The barb buried itself in the pliant flesh, sizzled and sparked as the line attached to it activated. The blob creature convulsed horribly, and then went still, sagging out of its roundish appearance into a shapeless, murky puddle of brown-yellow goop.

"I think you killed it." Mikaela whispered. Raph's eyes hardened.

"Doll, this thing tried to kill us!" He snarled, turning his face away from Mikaela, staring down the hall. "There's gonna be more of these I'm sure, and we need to take 'em down!"

"Fine. Short bursts only." Mikaela snapped, "We're here to rescue Ana from whatever bastard that took her, not to kill. Stun only."

Raph grunted assent.

"Now, since this place seems abandoned, I think we don't need to worry that much about human interference. Let's go." With that Mikaela took off running down the hall, taser in hand.

Raph shook his head. "Women." He muttered, sprinting after the hotheaded little mutant.

In the executive center…

The blackness of a conference lounge, lightened only by the eerie luminescence of LCD and CRT monitors, swathed a control console and a large luxurious swivel chair.

"Abandoned you say?" A nasal voice purred, sounding whiney yet dark at the same time. The owner pushed a small orange button glowing on the panel. "Fear not little ones, for you'll soon meet my ultimate fighters." The chair swiveled noiselessly, revealing nothing save for the outline of a figure, as a hidden door opened.

Four figures marched out single file.

"Prototype 1, 2, 3, and 4 reporting sir." The lead remarked tonelessly, eyes vacant. The collar around its neck blinked as input flashed over the wireless conduit.

"See the screen, dears?" The voice chuckled, merry and scary at the same time. All four pairs of blank eyes glanced at the frozen images of Mikaela and Raphael. "Those are the ones that need to be punished. They've broken the law and trespassed." Voice hardened. "Go get them."

"Yes sir," Drone one replied in the same toneless voice, marching out the entrance with the other three controlees in tow. A slivery gleam reflected off the top of one as they passed into the corridor, leaving little to the imagination for what its purpose was.

As they traveled from dark unto light the 'Controller' laughed evilly. "My greatest invention yet, and these nasty turtles had to interfere once again! After all these years of research and patience, I shall finally have my revenge!"

Pushing his glasses up further on the bridge of his nose, Baxter Stockman leaned back patiently (patience was a practiced art of his) waiting for the fun to begin.

A/N: Woo hoo! Chapter 21 of my series! Sorry it's taken so long for me to update, but work is slave driving me. My imagination was finally refueled and I was able to crank this one out. Oh and don't hate me for using Baxter. I couldn't think of an evil enough genius that actually existed in the movie-verse, or the new series. Besides, old-school rocks! cheers