The Beginning Chapter 22
Disclaimer: I do not own the TMNT or anything affilated as such. I own my OC's.
Inside Installation 12…
Drone One strode boldly down the corridors of Installation 12. Being a natural leader, he had assumed command of the group, splitting the group on a base wide search for the culprits. Two had been sent through the basement, Three through the ventilators, and Four on the topmost levels of the building.
His destination, at last. Standing in front of the great gray structures studying the wiring, he slowly unsheathed a weapon, sliced off the double-barrel hinges of the largest one, and reveled in the twinkling lights of the main power-grid for the station. Careful to hold the switch by the grips, he pushed. Muscles straining the switch stubbornly gave ground until it flipped. Sparks flew, plunging them into startling darkness.
Elsewhere…
"Great, what else can happen?" Raphael complained as the lights blew out. Mikaela shushed him, peering around a corner.
"Clear here," She murmured, stealing about. "Question. Do you have any idea where Leo might be? We find Leo, we'll likely find Ana and the jerks that kidnapped them."
Raph sighed. "Don't have a clue, doll."
"Don't call me doll- shhh!" Mikalea whispered, peering at the ceiling. Raphael leaned in close to her ear.
"You hear that?" He whispered. Mika indicated she did, slowly nodding. She pointed up, and backed away from one ventilation shaft, eyes riveted. A steady sliding/scraping noise was creeping closer to their location- possibly an ambush.
Raphael drew his sais, thought the better, then drew the taser Mika had supplied him with.
Mika grabber her taser just as sparks flew in a minor explosion, the vent shaft blasting downwards in a cloud of smoke and flying debris.
"That's her!" Mika shouted, aiming in, about to send a knockout dose of electricity through the pink-haired kidnappers body. The barb flew true, but didn't seem to affect her.
Pink-hair (a.k.a Samare Jacques) smirked and closed her eyes, drawing the juice out of the battery powering the taser. The air crackled with static, as before a lightning strike. Samare opened her eyes, a shocking pale green, no visible pupils (contrasting to her normally light blue irises), raised her arms with fingers extended, and sent a lethal bolt of white-hot lightning right at Mikaela's midsection.
Mikaela shrieked as the energy threatened to rip her body apart. Raphael took advantage of the distraction and threw a sai at the electric witch. Said sai struck home in her upper thigh, effectively distracting her, and changing the current's directional flow. Pink haired screamed in pain as the blast inverted itself upon her, screamed even more as she yanked the sai out, before collapsing in a heap. Raph grabbed the sai, snapped a shot off on her temple, effectively rendering her unconscious, and ran to the smoking pile where Mikaela lay, groaning.
"Mikaela!" Raph yelled, before checking himself. It wasn't safe here anymore, and yelling would only attract more enemies, possibly worse than the pink lookalike lying in a heap, bleeding. Mikaela groaned as he rolled her over, clothing singed badly, skin raw looking and burned in places.
"God…" She moaned, clutching her stomach. "Remind me never to piss off a super-conductor like that again." Raph gave a weak laugh, then yelped as she lifted her arms from her stomach.
The skin and underlying flesh had been burned away, revealing damaged organs beneath. The reason she'd been hold her stomach was to literally keep it in.
"Oh my god, Mika-" Raphael trailed off, at a loss of what to do for the badly injured mutant woman.
Mika hitched, laughed, made a face, then spit up blood. "No worries bro." Raphael looked confused. Mikaela closed her eyes, an intense look of concentration on her face.
Raphael looked on in awe as he could see her body healing, the burns being the first to go. The tissue took a little longer, but the knitting fascinated him with its speed; muscle growing over the hole that revealed her internal organs, followed by subcutaneous, then cutaneous tissues, and finally deeply tanned skin.
Several minutes later Mikaela rose, grimaced at her charred jumpsuit, then walked over to the unconscious woman, leaving a dazed Raphael in her wake. "Quick healer, remember?" She called back. Raphael shook his head in disbelief.
"Hey, Raph!" She called, waving him over. "Check this out," She said, nudging the woman's neck collar with a toe of her boot. "Five bucks says she's engineered." She laughed darkly, nudging at the woman until she stirred.
"Don't move." Raphael ordered menacingly, squatting down beside her, a sai at the ready. The woman looked up, frightened.
"Who are you people?" She whimpered, cringing as pain lanced through her. "What happened?"
"Well, to cut it short, you kidnapped my friend, we followed you, you attacked us, and we fought back. You lost, by the way." Mikaela snapped harshly, squatting down as well.
"Damn them," The woman moaned angrily, then her chiseled expression softened in supplication. "Help me please," She begged, shakily raising her arm to point at the collar she wore. "They use me for their dirty work with this. Is there any way you can remove it?"
The two mutants above her blinked in confusion. "How do they use you?" and" How do we know this isn't a trick?" babbled out together.
Samare closed her eyes in pain, then responded:
"The boss, whom I have never seen, made these control devices for us mutants, turning us into his slaves. I don't know the technical specifications, but I wasn't able to remove it, and I can neither remember events that take place while it is in 'on' mode." She supplicated again, "Please, help me get rid of it!"
Mikaela scratched her head, puzzled. "I suppose we can trust her. Maybe she can even lead us to the other controllees?" She asked of Raphael. Raph looked disapproving, then shrugged, as if to say 'suit yourself'.
Mikaela reached down and pulled it the collar. "Sorry if I pinch you," She said absently.
No luck. The metal wouldn't budge. Mikaela twisted harder, making frustrated noises. Raphael soled his eyes. "Move outta the way, doll." He growled, glaring that the poor woman. Taking his sai, he jabbed it down hard onto the metal control box, which sparked and sizzled in its death throes. "There."
"Or we can do it that way," Mikaela muttered, annoyed. The captive woman rose to her feet, albeit unsteadily, favoring her right leg over her left as Raphael left a deep puncture wound in her left thigh, missing her artery by inches. Limping, she walked over to and leaned on a wall.
"There's more like me here, you may know." She said. "However, please, let me introduce myself. I am Samare Jacques, also known as Sammy-Jack, or Sam. There are four of us total, and I think my cellmate is your friend. She told me about how I stole her away," She said sorrowfully. "I am thinking that if I had attacked you, the others may be about in the building, looking for us too."
"I bet." Mikaela muttered, the spoke up. "I am almost positive that Ana has our signatures locked on and will be here soon."
That's right. The once-sweet-now-ominous voice filtered down into their minds. Look out, here I come.
"And so do I." Leonardo said, stepping out from behind a door that perhaps he had snuck into while the battle had raged. He had both katanas drawn, pointing at the meddlers.
"Leo!" Mikaela cried joyously, before expressing horror. "Oh my god, Raph! He's one of them!"
Raphael glowered at the pack leader. "I'll handle this one, doll." Dropping the taser, he drew both sais and stole silently towards his brother, who crouched into a defensive stance.
Raphael lunged; parrying a swipe from Leonardo's katana aimed at his neck, then jabbed inward with his other sai. But Leonardo twisted away, taking another slice at his brother, drawing a ribbon of blood along his right thigh. Raphael gave a bellow of rage, launching into a flurry of blows, parries, and leaps, trying to get through his brother's guard and take care of the stupid collar that held Leonardo prisoner in his own mind. Raphael flipped over head as Leo tried to round kick his legs out from under him, giving a glancing blow on the shell, offbalancing the katana wielding whirlwind for a moment, giving Raphael enough time to make a fast jab at his brother's neck, disabling the control box that powered the collar.
Leonardo dropped like a stone as the power was cut off, temporarily blacking him out, as it did Samare. A moment later, he groaned, like he did after a bad practice.
"Ouch," He grumbled, rubbing his head, which was quickly supported by an overjoyed Mikaela. "Sheesh Raphael, what happened?" He asked as his brothers concerned face swam into focus. "Dude, are you okay?" Leonardo asked, now concerned. His brother didn't act this worried over him unless something bad happened.
"Leo, you dumbass!" Raph griped, pulling Leo into a brotherly embrace. Leo confusedly returned it, looking at Mikaela for an explanation when his eyes found Samare standing off to the side.
"You!" He shouted angrily, breaking the embrace and reached for his fallen swords, "What did you do?"
"No, no, Leo, she didn't do anything!" Mikaela explained, "Right Raphael?" She emphasized. Raphael nodded assent to her statement, which appeased Leonardo enough to sheathe his katanas.
"Well, then what's going on?" Leo queried warily, taking in their appearances; charred and bloody and messy.
"Well," Raphael started, but Samare cut him off, interjecting: "We were captured and turned into mindless slaves. Now we're free and looking for the ringleader, who is probably still in the building, somewhere."
"Oh." He replied. "That's it, huh?"
Elsewhere in the building, Baxter Stockmanshook in fury. Two subjects out of commission, the power gone, and no way to control what happened in his precious laboratory. Not to mention the expensive and possibly dangerous creatures roaming the city and country around the area with no leash! He idly wondered if they would try to expose him to the press. Not likely.
"Time to go." He said tonelessly, lifting a glass plate and pressing the big, shiny red button inside.
A voice crackled over the intercom: "Purging to commence in fifteen minutes. All personnel must evacuate to designated locations. Purging to commence in fifteen minutes. All…"
Baxter ignored the monotonous warning and gathered up his notes and briefcase, each containing important research for his next big project.
"This isn't over yet, turtles." He growled as he raced upstairs to the helipad. A chopper was waiting, engines warming up in preparation to depart.
Back in the building, the battle raged on.
The group of freed slaves and rescuers had been ambushed by Anastasia, who was still under the control of Stockman, and she was quickly joined by another all too familiar character.
"Saki!" Raphael bellowed, lunging at the armored man. He looked the same, yet the scars that had marred his face were missing. Leonardo noticed quickly that he also was not doing so well with his martial arts maneuvers.
"Hey Raph!" He shouted over the din the girl fight was making. "Don't finish him off! He might not really be Saki!"
"Yer kidding Fearless leader!" Raphael exclaimed in mock surprise as he swept Saki's feet out from under him. Saki snarled furiously, flipping back to his feet in a flash. "I couldn't tell, really! His technique is just so crappy, it confused me for a second." Raph shouted back sarcastically, circling the so-called Oroku Saki. Leonardo rolled his eyes and stepped back into the fray.
Meanwhile, Mikaela and Samare weren't having the best of luck getting close enough to Ana to bust the collar.
"Dammit Ana, HOLD STILL!"
Nyah, nyah! She taunted, floating out of reach before sending a blast of mental power Mikaela's way, sending her into convulsions. She was shaking so badly she had to close her eyes, for fear they would fall out.
TSSSSAP! Samare sent a small, carefully aimed bolt to the collar, while Mikaela 'distracted' Anastasia by allowing her to mentally throw her around.
Ping!
The bolt was deflected by an invisible shield surrounding the maniacally enthusiastic blonde, then fixing her evil smile on Samare, who gulped.
You want to play too? She cajoled, dropping a battered Mika in a heap of bruises.
What she didn't see was a leaping Leonardo, who klonked her on the back of the head with the butt of one sword, catching her with the other arm, and gracefully landing. He deposited her gently on the ground.
"Showoff," Raphael snorted, standing by a dazed Saki.
"Purging to commence in fifteen minutes. All personnel must evacuate to designated locations."
"What the heck is a purging?" Leonardo asked, as the message repeated itself. Abruptly a warning klaxon buzzed intermittently and lights began flashing.
"That's our cue to leave folks," Samare quipped worriedly. "We don't want to get caught in a purging."
What the hell is a purging? Ana growled, rubbing the back of her head.
"Well, it could be anything from gassing the place then sending fire through the halls, to blasting it to pieces from a remote location, with no one ever being the wiser. It also dissolves all stored files, I think."
"Well, now I wish Lillian was here." Mikaela murmured. "I wonder where the files are kept."
"I'm wondering where the brainiac and the nut are." Raphael said aloud.
"We don't have time to go looking for the servers."
"Shit."
"Let's go," Leonardo announced. "No sense in sitting around if this place is going to cave in on our heads."
"Aye sir."
"Whatever, let's get moving- and don't forget the Saki guy!"
Raph grumbled as he walked over to the dazed man. "Come on, we're leaving."
Saki didn't reply, he simply nodded, got up off the floor and followed.
"I do have one question, Mikaela." Leo asked.
"What's that babe?"
"How do we get out of here?"
"Crap- I forgot about that."
In the tunnel system…
"Whoa, what's that!" Michaelangelo yelped as a rumbling echoed fiercely though the passage they were traversing.
"I'm not sure." Lillian said, concerned. "It certainly doesn't feel like a seismic shock… maybe an explosion?"
"Look!" Michaelangelo shouted.
A wall of flames was careening it's way towards their location, writhing like forked tongues, or snakes.
"RUN!" Lillian shrilled, grabing a better hold on the poncho. Donatello stirred.
"He's awake!"
"But not well enough to get away from THAT!"
"Keep moving!"
And the flames drew closer.
A/N: Well, took me a while, but here is an actioney update! R&R please!