Winter break has arrived for me! While this means no school, no evil librarians, and vacation (yay!), it also means limited computer access. But not to fear! I shall see my father sometime this break; I'll update then.
But before then, it might be wise to update this story, huh? So, I'll just get on with it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed!
Disclaimer: What? You don't own the TMNT either? Well, join the club. We got jackets!
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Different. Something was different about this. There were only twenty-two children here, instead of eighty-eight. But he wasn't worried. He'd come here knowing that the others wouldn't be with him, for they'd been separated. If only he could remember why he was so sure of this…
No time to think about that. He couldn't think at all. This time it was different. Once, he'd known about these kids in ways that were impossible: the number of them and their gender. As the dreams worsened, he'd been able to tell their ages. Then he saw their memories.
Now they were truly a part of him, these twenty-two. Ten boys, twelve girls. He knew everything about them, and they knew all there was to know about him. The youngest of the group was four; a girl named Mary. The oldest was a sixteen-year-old boy named Victor. In addition, Tom Grigsby, Stockman's mistake, was among them.
In between their screams, this lasted for a moment: him knowing them so well. Then everything started to blend together…
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Stockman couldn't wipe the grin off his face as he watched the statistics on the computer screen. "All is working out perfectly. A few more of these sessions, and they'll be connected, ready for work. Bishop we'll be quite pleased."
He turned to watch the first twenty-two, the ones who'd become the first of the new line of soldiers. With their abilities combined in the body of a ninja, they'd be perfect for Bishop's plans.
His little Slayer continued to do his job. Stockman decided to throw him a treat. "And you, my Slayer, will command them."
The boy remained fixed with his work. Power, for some reason, wasn't as big of a motivation to the boy as he thought it'd be. Sure, the young Slayer enjoyed it, but he didn't crave it. It was odd.
No matter. Stockman thought to himself, returning to his screen. The data showed the immense stress the children's, as well as Leonardo's, minds were taking.
It wouldn't take long. In a few days, they wouldn't be able to think it all; their minds would be practically useless, besides the areas that controlled certain important functions, mainly the Human Genome. When it came to that, the Slayer would be free to access that and turn them into a soldier.
And after him would come the other three.
He couldn't wait.
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"You want to do what?" Donny asked his brother, in disbelief.
Raph turned to him, frustrated. "I already told ya; and I know ya don't have a hearing problem, Don, so excuse me if I don't repeat myself."
Shaking his head, the purple-clad turtle looked from him to Leo, who was covering his ears. As of the last hour, Don knew how he felt… "Raph, maybe he can do it, but that doesn't mean you can."
Mikey joined in. "Yeah, bro. You might end up fried-"
The red-banded turtle interrupted him. "Thanks for the cheery thought, Mike, but it's worth a try. And I don't see any of you two comin' up with somethin'."
Donny exchanged a nervous look with his youngest brother. He did have a point there.
Raph continued. "Besides, you both saw me fade out with him. I should be able to do the same things then, right?"
"Should." Don interjected. "That's the key word, Raph. It doesn't mean you will. After all, if you were doing the exact same thing as Leo, you'd be right in the nightmare with him."
They just looked at each other for a moment. Then Don sighed, he and Mikey simultaneously getting down to help. Mike looked at Raph. "So how do we move him?"
Smiling for a few seconds with his victory, Raph shook his head as he looked back to Leo. "That's what I'm tryin' to figure out." He tried to move his hand again and frowned when he couldn't. "C'mon, bro. Work with me."
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Too many screams, too many thoughts; he couldn't tell which ones were his anymore. Everything was jumbling together, yet being pulled apart at the same time. It was like a roller coaster through a black hole: dark and seemingly endless.
And the something else. "C'mon, bro. Work with me."
The voice echoed, as if far away. But he felt that he knew it, as did the rest of the children. He just didn't know why.
"What…?"
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"What…?"
Raph jumped as he heard Leo. His older brother's eyes were still closed tight; he was still in the nightmare. So why could he hear him?
Beside him, Mikey and Don looked just as surprised as he did.
Turning away from them, Raph bit his lip. "Leo? Can you hear me?"
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The words echoed again. He made out what they meant.
Leo. That was his name. As happy as he was to remember this, it was short-lived, for the kids screamed again. It took a few moments for the sound to stop ringing in his ears.
He wanted them to be calm, which was the same thing they wanted for themselves. All understood the importance of outside contact.
Remembering that, as well as the inquiry he'd yet to answer, Leo nodded. "Yes."
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Raph nearly grinned ear from ear when Leo answered. Mikey could understand why. If the blue-clad turtle was at least somewhat responsive, there was a good chance that he was moveable, too.
But as far as how he came to be like this, Mike wasn't sure. Donny thought it had something to do with Raph's inability to move his hand off Leo's wrist. He'd said some other stuff too, using bigger words, but all that had gone so far over Mikey's head, he hadn't even felt the breeze.
Instead, he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. Raph was busy giving Leo a condensed, but explanatory, version of the idea he'd already explained to his younger brothers.
When he was done, Leo seemed to take it in slowly. Because of his own recent experiences in the past hour or so, Mike felt he could understand why that was, too. When you were in that nightmarish hellhole, thoughts were eaten away at like acid by the agony of those poor little kids.
You could closely guess their ages from the sounds of their voices. One of the twenty-two from his dreams sounded as young as three.
Finally, Leo responded again. "Okay." He said. "I think we can do that."
Mikey looked at Don. From the look he received, he knew he hadn't imagined the we. They'd have to figure that out later, though. Other things were more important right now.
Suddenly, a question popped into his mind. "Wait. Maybe you can get out, Raph. But what about me and Don? I mean, do ya think you can figure out Stockman's little security codes? Or is Leo like a magnet we can stick to like a bunch of paperclips?"
The thought obviously had all of the stumped.
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Vaguely, he remembered when someone else had done something like this; they'd asked the same thing of him. He couldn't do it then.
But this time, the others were going to try to help too. Maybe with enough will power, he could move.
While listening to the theory, Leo had discovered the speaker was none other that Raph. He was worried about risking his brother's life while doing this, but he felt that it would work. Hoped it would anyway.
Time passed. Even with screams sounding in his ears, disrupting his biological clock's sense of time, he felt that it was taking too long for Raph to answer. But before he could do anything, the said turtle delivered.
"Hold on a sec, bro." He said. "We need to figure out how to get Don and Mikey out, too."
Outside him, while his brothers were no doubt trying to solve that problem, within Leo's mind, someone already had. A boy named Kevin, the forty-second child to know this place, spoke.
The others were as quiet as they could possible be while he did so, listening to Kevin as Leo did. They made small gasping sounds, but were obviously trying to stop.
When Leo had heard the boy out, he related this new bit of information to his brothers.
"I can give you Stockman's code."
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To his surprise, the Slayer found that Stockman was humming. He hadn't thought this beast, or robot, of a man could be capable of such light-hearted, humanly expressions.
Under the mask that hid his face, the boy grinned. Poor Stockman. He thought happily. If you'd let me keep my gift of speech, I could tell you that they're scheming to ruin your little plan right now. And quite well, too.
As if Stockman had heard him, the humming abruptly stopped. The Slayer was afraid that he'd underestimated those telepathic abilities of his and had actually transferred that message to his… master. If Stockman had caught on to the bitterness of his voice, a punishment would probably be an order-
He was relieved to discover it was only an alert the scientist's computer had made to him.
"What's this?" Stockman asked himself, a hint of anxiety in his voice. "Hmm… the children's EEG's are changing." He watched the screen for several seconds. "They seem to be… conferring."
With a frown, Stockman pivoted towards the Slayer. "Why didn't you alert me of this?" He asked, raising his voice.
The Slayer, though terrified, kept his body calm. Showing fear meant showing you were guilty. Guilt meant you'd done something wrong. Disobedience was rewarded with painful discipline.
Stockman crossed his robotic arms. "No matter." He said. "Keep this up for a few more minutes, Slayer. I'll be right back. I just have to make a little visit…"
He opened the door, than slammed it.
Happy to take any chance he had to disobey without his creator's knowing, the young Slayer did as he was told… for two minutes, instead of three.
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"I can give you Stockman's code." Leo said.
The comment took everyone by surprise. Raph looked at him closely; thought there was nothing he could get, at the moment, from him by just that. "How?" he asked.
Leo inhaled deeply. "One of them knows. He's seen it."
Raph turned back to his other brothers. There was really no reason to distrust the kid. They knew for sure now that he existed, and why would he lie? He needed out of this place, and the four of them were his getaway drivers.
"Okay." Raph said. He turned his attention back to his blue-banded brother. "Let's get out of here."
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He was told to move to the right. It took awhile, but they did. Leo was surprised that he could feel his physical body. It seemed as heavy as led.
The option of simply rolling over and through the shield wasn't an option. Couldn't generate the strength. Instead, the twenty-three of them, Leo included, had his body scoot in that direction. That too was hard, but it worked.
When Raph told him to stop, he knew they were out. They let go of the physical effort, glad to be free of it.
Now it was his turn. Leo hoped Raph would be okay.
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The scene had flip-flopped. Now, it was Leo's left hand that was at risk of being severed, while the rest of his body was safe on the other side. Safe, as long as Stockman didn't pop in for a friendly visit.
Raph didn't think he would. The jerk was probably busy with generating Leo's nightmare.
But now that Leo was out, it was time for him to do the same. The thought of being electrocuted wasn't appealing to Raphael, but neither was staying as guinea pig for Stockman.
He raised his free hand. Slowly, he brought it to the force field before him. And then quickly, he shot it towards the glowing shield.
It went through with no resistance.
Letting out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, Raph grinned. Fully confident now, he stood and stepped through the force field; coming out the same turtle he'd appeared to be seconds before.
Turning around, he faced his two brothers on the other side. They looked relieved, but were grinning like lunatics. If they were that bad, Raph wondered what he had to look like.
Now for the tricky part. Raph looked back down at Leo, noticing that his brother seemed to be coming out of his nightmare.
That sent two thoughts through his head. First, he was glad that they hadn't been a moment too late accomplishing this; Raph valued being in one piece, as he was sure Leo did. But secondly, it made him realize that Stockman could be here any minute.
They needed to act quickly. "All right, Leo." Raph whispered, in case Stockman really was just around the corner. "What's that code?"
Leo sat still for a moment before answering. He mumbled four digits, "Four-eight-six-five."
Even as he rattled them off, Raph was keying in the numbers. When he finished, the shield instantly dissipated.
But then he could hear heavy footsteps coming down the hallway to the right.
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Once again, I made a chapter longer! (sniffs) I'm so proud.
Not really though. Was this chapter okay? Hope it didn't bore you.
Only one way to find out! Please review!
Hey, big thanks to the person (people?) who nominated this for this year's FanFiction Competition! While I have yet to figure out what for, I'm very happy!