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Chapter 14Leonardo's point of view
Hun had just arrived at a holding cell. He opened the door, revealing a sparse interior with nothing more than a bed at the center, and roughly threw her onto the hard mattress. Sneering in disgust, he stared at her for a moment before uttering, "You should've quit while you had the chance."
Well, that was certainly pointless.
Just as I ducked back into the shadows, I heard a scream. All of my senses were on high alert as I bolted towards the source of the sound. As I did so, I saw Casey up ahead. He wasn't exactly one for stealth, so when I did manage to catch up with him, I approached him unnoticed and grabbed onto his arm.
He spun around quickly, intending to hit me, but I blocked his punch. Swearing under his breath, Casey relaxed a little and glared at me. "Jeez, Leo, give a guy a heart attack, why don't ya!"
Ignoring his little outburst, I wasted no time in voicing my thoughts, "Do you have any idea where that scream came from just now?"
"No, but something tells me whatever we find won't be a good thing."
I nodded in agreement with his statement, and we lapsed into silence as we both began making our way down to the fourth level.
Michelangelo's point of view
Imagine our surprise when we saw Leo and Casey coming towards us. Apparently they must have heard that scream, too. Focusing back on the task at hand, I was about to tell them about my discovery, but the expressions on their faces made me think otherwise. Deciding against telling them what I knew, we quickly ran to the fourth level.
The sight that greeted us wasn't a friendly one. Raph was holding the battered and broken body of Donnie as he sobbed heavily, his figure looking so fragile and vulnerable. There was blood all over the floor and I didn't need to ask the question that had been gnawing away in the back of my mind. Numb from shock, I could only stare at Donnie's limp body.
We'd come so far, had been through so much, and this was the reward we got for shedding our own blood, sweat and tears? Was this some sort of sick and twisted joke? If it was supposed to be funny then I definitely failed to see the humor in it.
I tried to voice my thoughts, but found that I couldn't. Instead, I couldn't suppress the tears or tremors that began to overtake me.
Running a hand over my face, I felt the beginnings of a migraine coming as the desire to curl up into a ball and die became more and more appealing. Leo, on the other hand, kept staring ahead as if nothing were wrong. He then blinked several times, taking small and hesitant breaths while he absently curled and uncurled his hands into fists.
Looking over to my left, I saw Leatherhead bow his head in sadness and Casey look away, frustration and anger written all over his face.
After a few moments of tense silence, it was Leo who slowly went to Raph and gently pried him away from Donnie's body. Not once taking his eyes off Donnie's body, Leo addressed Leatherhead in a subdued tone, "If you would be so kind, Leatherhead."
He nodded at Leo's request and slowly picked up Donnie's body, cradling him to his chest as if he were a rare porcelain doll. The answer to that question Raph asked five months ago now had an answer.
Our business with the Shredder was over. It just simply cost us the life of our brother.
Raphael's point of view
We stepped into the darkened hallway,and before I knew what I was doing, I took off. Ignoring the others as they called for me to come back, I blindly ran throughout the complex. It was as if I was running on pure rage alone, intent upon finding the Shredder and making him pay for the death of my brother.
I ended up skidding to a halt in front of two metallic doors that were slightly opened. Peering inside, I saw the Shredder standing in the room admiring these huge glass containers, the innards obscured by a thick, cloudy liquid.
Quietly, I slipped into the room and prepared to embed a sai right through his stomach. Someone took that honor away from me, though. There was a blur of movement behind one of the containers, and I ducked into the shadows just in time to see Bishop pulling a katana out of the Shredder's body.
"Bishop!"
He stood over the Shredder, smiling slightly and looking like shell. His clothes were ripped and there was blood pouring out of a wound in his side. Cuts and bruises adorned his battered body.
"You thought that a mere containment chamber would be enough to stop me, Saki? As you can see, I am clearly the victor now."
The Shredder was trying to get back up when Bishop kicked him hard and pulled the katana out of Saki's bloody back. Purple blood slowly oozed out of the wound and dripped onto the floor. His body began to quiver and then jerk uncontrollably as if he were having a seizure. Saki refused to cry out, but it didn't take a genius to know that he couldn't take much more of this.
"And do you honestly think that I did not know you would try something like this?" Saki said while pulling out a small device from within his white robes.
He pressed a red button, and my jaw almost hit the floor. The lids to the containers were opening.
Paralyzed with fear, I could do nothing but watch as duplicates of us emerged from their prisons. Their eyes were cold and unseeing, and their bodies were covered in that same strange moisture. The aura surrounding them was bone chillingly eerie as they sluggishly stumbled towards Bishop, completely surrounding him.
"Oh you have GOT to be kidding me," I choked out, my throat suddenly dry and hoarse.
It's bad enough that normal, every day people are scared shitless by our appearances. Now there's the potential of having these horrible, cheap knock off's of us running around! Could my life get any WORSE?
Mist from the chambers began to fill the room, covering the ground as Saki gleefully said, "Now who's the victor, Bishop?"
His harsh and mocking laughter rang out through the laboratory until Bishop rammed the katana into his stomach several times. As blood gushed out of the fresh wounds, his body collapsed twitching to the floor.
I couldn't believe it.
The Shredder had just been murdered before my very eyes, and I hadn't had the honor of doing the job myself.
I was so distracted by the loss, that the next thing that happened caught me totally off guard. Hissing and snarling, the replicas fell to the ground, writhing and twitching in apparent agony. Some were helplessly clawing at their eyes while others grabbed their throats.
It was almost like their throats were caught in a vice-like grip that refused to let them breathe. Some were even foaming at the mouth, bits of blood dribbling out of the corners of their lips. Crimson splotches, deep purple bruises and bluish black marks began to spread all over their bodies.
As the crimson elixir of life gushed and spurted out of them, Bishop's eyes widened as he walked to one of them. Checking for a sign of life, he cursed loudly. "I knew that turtle couldn't be trusted. Then again, he's already paid the price for his betrayal."
Watching in pure loathing and disgust as the bastard nonchalantly hunched his shoulders, my mind went completely blank as my vision filmed over with crimson. The horrifyingly nauseating stench of death, along with the metallic, tangy and coppery scent of blood, filled my senses as reason and logic deserted me.
I lunged at Bishop with all of the anger and power I could and grimly smiled when my sai managed to pierce his chest. He'd been in the process of leaving when he was introduced to my sai.
Bishop's eyes bulged as he gasped in shock upon seeing me. As I pushed the sai deeper into his chest, he grimaced painfully and then punched me. I staggered backwards from the powerful blow, which barely hurt considering I was out of mind at the moment.
Fueled by a bloodlust so strong and urgent, I quickly recovered and charged at him again, giving him very little time to react as I embedded my sai into one of his thighs. Biting his lip to refrain from crying out, Bishop tried in vain to get away from me.
Like hell! I wasn't about to let the little worm go that easily. He was going to suffer just as Donnie had suffered.
"That's for killing my brother." I said while roughly pulling out the sai. I took the other one and stabbed him in the stomach. "And that's for putting my family through shell and back."
I removed my weapon and watched as blood began seeping out of his body. As he fell to the ground his body limp and lifeless, I knew it had to be too good to be true. I bent down and checked for a pulse. When I couldn't find one, I stood up and began walking away, only to be stopped in my tracks by his strangled, gurgling and utterly pathetic voice.
"And just what makes you think that this is the end, Raphael? I've got all of your brother's plans saved on a backup file. I could easily recreate Project Apocalypse, and you'd be powerless to stop me. Or perhaps you would rather share the same fate of your brother Donatello."
Turning around slowly, I took note that he was barely managing to sit up as he glared at me in disdain. Whatever the Shredder's goons had done to him before I got my hands on him had actually proved to be useful. I couldn't help but laugh bitterly at the entire situation. "Boy,are you stupid. There are bombs planted all around this complex right now, set to go off in a little under fifteen minutes. So even if you wanted to recreate your little project, you'd have to start all over from scratch without Donnie's help."
Without warning, I suddenly turned around and threw both sais at Bishop. A sickening crunch echoed throughout the room as the sais embedded themselves into his face. I wasn't quite finished with him yet so I walked over to his prone body, removed my sais and stabbed him a few more times for good measure. Once that was done, I walked out of the room and closed the doors behind me. Both the Shredder and Bishop were going to stay dead this time around.
As I shut the doors behind me and made sure they were locked tight, I saw the others running towards me as sirens blared throughout the entire building. Catching up to them with ease, we all ran out of the complex and straight to the Battle Shell. We were going home, but Master Splinter wasn't going to like the events that had occurred during our attempt to rescue Donnie.