Chapter One:
Hostage
The nightmare bleeds, the poison seeps
I hear you call
You're screaming, screaming
-Falling Sky, Red
{Leo}
Leo? Leo!
Pain, smoke—everything burning in white clouds of potent chemicals. My swords seem to hit everything—the walls, boxes, a pole, cables—but not the ones who ambushed us. I can't even see them. My muscles are on fire, uselessly swinging in every direction because now the fear has taken over, squeezing my heart and crawling up my throat, into my head, seizing my thoughts, my instincts. I can't speak or scream or anything. Every inch of me stings like poison. I breathed too much of it in, I can't get it out. My lungs are full and stuck together, sticking to my ribs, collapsing, chest heaving. It's so hard to breathe—it's so hard to do anything. All I hear is my brothers, shouting, fighting, panicking.
Leo—Leo, we need help—
I have to help them—
Where are you?!
But I can't see them-
Mikey's down!
I can't see them—
Leo!
My eyes open to the ghost of their screams. I expect panic to strike me, but my mind is slow to creep from the fog in my skull. Everything feels heavy, swollen, and numb. I can't move anything—I can't even get my fingers to twitch. All I see is darkness.
It takes a few minutes, hours, lifetimes—to realize my head is bound in some cloth. It's the only thing I can feel beyond the thick, tingling needles that prick my skin. It's so dark, so quiet, and yet so loud, as if I'm held to the clouds in the middle of a storm beneath a million miles of ocean. Like thunder rumbling, cracking, shaking the ground, my bones, the world—but the water is pouring in my ears, filling my head, my lungs—pulling me further down into the deep cold. I'm dizzy and nauseous. It's all too much, too heavy—I can't stay awake. There is no sense, there is no direction.
There is only darkness...
...
...
Leo—
Help—
LEO—
I wake up to shivers. My wrists are cold. My ankles, too. I blink hard, struggling to clear my vision. I think the cloth is gone; I can see some lights flickering around me. Colors—red, blue, green, white—like flashing stars.
I try to clear my throat, to cough the tar from my lungs, but everything is so dry. It hurts to swallow. To breathe. It hurts to do anything.
Air quivers, in and out, teeth grit against the pain that's beginning to settle in. My head aches and throbs, splitting at the seams while the memories and sounds play in fragments, echoing. When I close my eyes, I see the clouds of white, I feel the burn, the panic, the sheer terror and confusion that swallowed us whole. I hear my brothers—I hear Mikey cry out, I hear Raph, shouting at me. The waves ripple, washing over me, drowning me.
My eyes snap open, brimming with tears as it hits me. That was real. We were ambushed, separated—
I couldn't breathe, the world spun—
I don't remember anything else—
What happened—
What happened?!
I become overwhelmed. My senses are returning to me, but that only makes this all so much worse. I squirm, grunting and gasping. I'm strapped down. Metal bands secure each hand and foot. When I try to lift my head, I quickly discover my neck and forehead are held down in restraints. I'm in a dark room, save for the blinking dashboards of buttons and glowing vials. The realization that I've been taken captive is sudden and ruthless. My heart skips, my chest pulls. I can't breathe, I can't breathe—
"It's wearing off of him."
The voice startles me, but my limited range of movement makes it impossible to see who's in the room with me.
"Did you give him enough?"
Another voice comes from the shadows with a chuckle. "Enough to knock out a bull—"
"Does he look like a bull to you?"
My breath hitches, heart stumbling up against ribs. I don't recognize the voices of the men around me. They don't sound like Stockman, Bradford, or Fishface. But I know it was Shredder's goons who jumped us in that warehouse.
"Do I need to give him more, then?" A shadow moves into frame on my left. I see a glint of a needle and my eyes widen. I try to wriggle away, but parts of my body still feel like dead weight, and the rest is strapped down so tight I don't gain an inch in either direction.
I still can't see the second man, but his voice is much deeper. "No, I'll just hook him up to the EEG. I want to see his brain waves in action. Just give him some Rocuronium to keep him still."
A pitiful sound squeezes out of my throat. The man closest to me chuckles.
"You with us now, mutant?" He leans down by the side of my face, but somehow, still out of clear view. All I see is the syringe waving back and forth out of the corner of my eye. "Don't worry, you won't be much longer."
I flinch when fingers begin pressing on my scalp. Something brushes my temple—wires? A beeping starts up somewhere in the room. I don't think my heart can beat any faster. I grit my teeth and grunt when a sharp sting runs up my arm.
"IV's in and flushed—starting the Roc drip."
He steps away from me and moves back into the darkness. The man attaching the wires to my head also steps back and begins to press buttons. Clack, clack, click, clack, clack.
"EEG's up and running."
I can't get anything other than scratchy groans out from my raw throat, but the panic really takes over as a startling warmth begins to spread through my veins. I quickly lose the ability to move my hands and feet. Whatever medicine he gave me crawls up through my blood and freezes all of my muscles. I want to scream, I want to cry—I want to rip all of these wires from me and run my swords through anyone who stands in my way of leaving—
"Look at those waves go—his brain must be freaking out."
The deep voice responds. "There's a lot of activity, even after the non-depolarizing agent."
"Do I call Stockman in now?"
Stockman? What's going on?
A loud laughter erupts. "You honestly think Saki trusts that fool enough for this? Don't be ridiculous. Whatever intelligence Baxter has is ruined by his incessant god-complex and pathetic need for approval. He's an imbecile."
"Good. I hate working with that bastard."
Click, clack, click, click, clack.
"We're the only two appointed to this task. I'll let Saki know we have the set-up completed, and once I configure what electromagnetic frequency best manipulates his brain waves, we'll calibrate the worm."
The worm? What worm?
My thoughts are spiraling out of control. Shredder will be here. I can't move, I can't fight—I'm completely useless. I couldn't be anymore vulnerable than I am now. They're going to kill me—I'm going to die here. What am I supposed to do?
Another chuckle. The machine they attached to my head beeps at a higher pitch. I can't see it, but I can assume my panic is causing my "waves" to spike. The one who had the needle finally steps into my vision, but I can no longer move my eyes. Shadows conceal most of his facial features, but his eyes are gray like fog against his pale complexion. He stares right at me and shows a toothy grin.
"You hear that? Your pal Shredder is going to pay you a visit." His eyes flash, and my heart climbs into my throat. "And then, mutant…we're going to have some fun."