Chapter 19

-Hybrids-

Under hooded cloak, Splinter made his way through the hollow streets of New York, he took sure and careful steps toward the lair. He'd successfully given his missing pupils all the aid he was able to offer and now the rest was up to them.

A car passed, its headlights slicing through the thickness of night and Splinter clutched his cloak at the base of his neck, shielding his face beneath its safety. The sound of his clawed paws echoed down the alley but the dull sound that returned caused Splinter to pause, something wasn't right about his echo's return.

Splinter tapped his cane against the ground with more force than was necessary and again, the echo that returned was dull. Splinter stood completely still, his stance saying nothing about his intentions yet leaving no opening for a potential attack. "Reveal yourself, alien." Ordered Splinter with his signature air of authority.

The shadow of the alley spread toward Splinter like black ink on a white page. A wall of pressure closed in on him, but if Splinter was uncomfortable it didn't show on his face. The pressure and shadow swirled together, becoming a solid entity.

Evixus in his true form. Galaxies swirled through the alein's inky body, trapped beneath a layer of skin that resembled glass. Several black tentacles sprouted from the being's back swirling around like wisps of hair sweapt up by a spring breeze.

"Impressive, Hamato, Yoshi." The alien hissed, "Seems you know more of me than I was prepared to give you credit. It's only fair, I suppose, given that I've learned so much about you from the Host. How she respects and adores you, I don't see why? You are just another hideous abomination." it said.

"Outward appearance has no bearing on whether or not a being is an abomination." Splinter said. "You're proof of that."

"We?" One of the tentacles stretched out toward Splinter giving of violet charges as it did. Splinter didn't need to be told to avoid them and so the ninja master leapt into the air, catching hold of a nearby fire escape in order to pull himself to Safety.

"We offer world peace." the alien said, "You know as well as we do that a world of peace is only possible in the absence of free will. Human nature is so primitive, you see. "

"The road to true peace must be made in the presence of free will, I have no doubt that we will eventually get there." Splinter said. "Your brand of peace is slavery. To have mankind bend to your will."

"You want to talk about bending peoples' will? What about you and your sons? You took away any chance they had to experience normalcy by training them to suit your vendetta against your mortal enemy, Saki."

"You are wrong." Splinter said, his voice resonating through the alley. "I trained them for self-preservation."

"There is no need to lie to us. We see all." Evixus said. "I know that your selfish need for revenge against the man who destroyed your family is what drove you to force your sons to fight."

"Perhaps that was true once, but no longer." Splinter said. "They are my family now and I won't let any harm befall them."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter." Evixus said. "Your sons have become quite the thorn in our side. And now it's time to throw some thorns in their direction."

The alien whipped a tentacle toward Splinter once more, this time, when Splinter dodged it, Evixus was ready with five more tentacles, one of which managed to wrap around Splinters leg and shock him. Splinter could feel all of the hatred, pain, and suffering the creature had caused others. Every ounce of it swirled through his body.

Ever connected to the spiritual realm as he was, Splinter could hear their calls for help as they clung to his light seeing refuge. Splinter felt himself suffocating, his sprit couldn't accommodate all of the lives that consumed him.

Just as Splinter was about to succumb to the cacophony of stolen lives, a ribbon of purple light wrapped around him, shielding his spirit from the onslaught of voices.

Splinter knew this warmth, it belonged to Donatello, and in that moment he knew that his clan would be victorious. And with that thought to comfort him, Splinter lost consciousness.

Raphael stormed through the turnstiles and jumped down into the conversation pit on his way to meet with Leonardo, who was patiently waiting. Michelangelo was already seated on the couch, holding onto his favorite teddy bear for all it was worth. "Leo, what's going on? Did you find Donnie?"

Michelangelo threw a warning glance in Raphael's direction, he had the same question but was weary about voicing it for fear of the answer being no. Raphael sat down, placing a reassuring hand on his baby brother's his bicep. It's alright.

"No." Leonardo said, prompting Michelangelo to squeeze his teddy bear a little tighter, the heartbreak in his baby blues was undeniable. Leonardo felt a cluster of sadness well up at the base of his throat. "But," he continued, swallowing down his sadness as leaders were want to do. "April's tied up in the dojo."

Raphael was on his feet in an instant. "I'm sorry, I think I'm having a stroke, did you just say April's in the dojo?"

"I did." Confirmed the leader in blue. "She claims to have escaped and that she doesn't know where she and Donnie were being held."

Raphael retrieved his sai, giving them both a spin, "Oh Yeah? Well, maybe a few rounds with my sai will jog her memory."

"Hold it, Raph." Leonardo said. "Before you go in there halfcocked, I think we should hear her out."

"You gotta be kidding me." Raphael was fuming now, "She strapped a bomb to master Splinter, Leo. She kidnapped Donnie and, oh yeah, she gave the entire world over to an alien. She's turned traitor, I wouldn't trust her as far as I can throw her."

"I'm not saying that a trust her, I am saying that I believe her story about not knowing where Donnie is." Leonardo said. "Aside from that, she's the only lead we have."

"I'm tired of waiting around. There's only one move here, Leo." Raphael jabbed out his sai for emphasis.

"Real nice, Raph. What are you going to do? Torture her? We don't torture people."

"Yeah well, how bad do things have to get before we change things, Leo." Raphael fanned out April's tessen between them, the blade glistening in the light. "Casey and I found this inside April's getaway van. It looked like Donnie knew she was a lost cause, he tried to kill her by flipping the van on purpose."

While Raphael and Leonardo argued, Michelangelo slipped away to the dojo and sat, seiza style, in front of April.

April looked up at him, normally the orange clad turtle gave off a jovial air that had everyone gravitating toward him. This time, however, his air was cold and flat, thick with loneliness.

A simple question bubbled up from the youngest turtle's mouth, "Why?" Michelangelo's voice was calm, focused, and it put April on edge. It was in moments like this that Michelangelo surpassed his brothers in every way.

The question lingered in the air far too long for Michelangelo's tastes and something snapped between them, Michelangelo slammed both of this palms on the ground, his anger bubbling to the surface. "Why?!" he reiterated, his voice cracking, he wasn't used to raising his voice in such a manner.

"Calm down, Mikey."

"Don't tell me to calm down...we trusted you!" he lunged for April but Leonardo quickly wrapped his arms around Michelangelo's middle, drawing him back before he could attack. April's eyes landed on Leonardo's, he was as surprised as she was; they both expected this behavior from Raphael.

Leonardo passed his baby brother off to Raphael and took Michelangelo's place on the carpeted floor. "Answer the question, April."

A shaft of light cut through the blackness of the darkened alley, revealing little about Pete's whereabouts. The spy was supposed to check in hours ago and when he failed to do so Slash formed a search party consisting of himself, Leatherhead and Rockwell. "Are you sure this is the right place?" Leatherhead asked while sweeping his flashlight along the graffiti decorated walls of the lonely alley.

"As sure as I can be." Rockwell said. "I tracked his two-way radio to these coordinates."

A small wooden shack sat at the back of the alley, inside a soft blue glow whispered for attention. Slash made his way toward the shack and took a tentative step inside. A set of six monitors sat mounted on the back wall, five of which pictured white noise while the last one depicted a screen of solid blue. There were various items on the desk, but it was the broken flash drive that caught his attention. It was easily recognizable as Pete's because of the novelty of its design, a loaf of bread.

Slash scooped up the remains of the drive and cradled them in his hands, if something happened to that birdbrain, he'd never forgive himself. "I think we're too late, gents." Rockwell said, drawing Slash's attention to his teammates.

On the ground beneath Rockwell's feet were drops of blood and clusters of Pete's feathers. Fear rolled down Slash's spine but he didn't let it show, he couldn't. "This proves nothing," Slash said, more so to reassure himself of that fact. "Pete loses feathers all the time."

"Not like this." Leatherhead added, "Look." He used his flashlight to show his team a path of feathers and blood that lead to a sidewalk cellar door. "This has trap written all over it."

"Maybe, but we aren't going to leave Pete behind." Slash said. "We're already down too many members, we can't afford to lose anyone else."

"I agree." Rockwell said.

"I wasn't suggesting we leave him, I'm just saying that we should keep our guards up. Like you said, we can't afford to lose more members, and that includes ourselves." Leatherhead said.

"Yeah, well just in case, I left a note for Casey, telling him where we went and to let the turtles know if we don't come back by morning." Slash said.

The group of wayward mutants entered the cellar with Slash in the lead, the advantage in Slash's eyes being that he could shield the others with his massive body should he need to.

As they wondered deeper into the darkness, Slash felt a drop of thick liquid hit his beak, the coppery smell of it churned his stomach; it was blood.

Leatherhead illuminated the space above Slash, bathing Pete in the flashlight's glow. The spy was suspended upside-down in the air by a rope wrapped around his ankle to secure him in place. Following the rope, the large alligator found a revolving lever and gently lowered his friend into Slash's waiting arms.

Slash set the Pete on the ground carefully in order to assess the damage. There were clumps of feathers in Pete's hands that coincided with the patches of naked skin on his head. "He was in so much pain, he ripped out his own feathers." Rockwell exclaimed as he connected the dots.

With the click of a pull chain, the room was bathed in glorious light, revealing the place in which they found themselves to be storage for the apartments above. Hundreds of lives condensed into several chain-link fence lockers. "Sure took you jerks long enough to show up."

Mondo sat in an open locker, his body draped horizontally over an armchair while a long pull chain swung back and forth, forgotten now that it had served its purpose. "I was starting to think you weren't gonna show up. Poor Pete's been hanging there for hours."

"You did this to him." Slash said, drawing the conclusion from the fact that Mondo didn't appear to be a prisoner, nor did he appear to be injured. Not only that, Mondo's voice was wrong. It held an underlying eerie sound that pulled involuntary goosebumps from Slash's skin (part of the human side of his DNA).

"I did this for him." Mondo corrected. "To make him stronger. Just like I'm going to do you."

That was the only warning they got before Mondo fired his dart gun, pegging both Leatherhead and Rockwell in the chest in rapid succession. Being that the darts landed so close to their respective hearts, the spread of the virus was nearly instant, fast enough to drop the infected to their knees.

Slash glanced at his fallen comrades and then back up at Mondo who just smiled, and before Slash could wonder what that was about, Pete stirred. With a feathered hand, Pete jammed a dart into Slash's thick neck. The tortoise stood up and backed away from Pete before yanking the dart from his rough skin and tossing it to the floor.

Glancing around he noticed that Leatherhead and Rockwell were unconscious and that he was now outnumbered two to one. But these were his friends, mutants he could never bring himself to attack. His only option was to escape. His body was growing heavy and it was hard to move but he had to try.

Slash reached into his pocket and retrieved a smoke bomb egg, one of Donatello's inventions. Slash smiled, even now the brainy turtle was doing his part. He tossed the bomb down and hurried back toward the exit.

After a few feet, Slash began to notice that his legs felt like lead. He held onto the wall for support. A sharp pain squeezed his heart like a fist closing around it. Slash stumbled and clutched at the front of his plastron in an effort to ease the pain but there was no relief to be found in the action. And As Slash began to succumb to the pain, the cellar doors flew open revealing Casey Jones.

"Kid, Run!" The young teen was holding a bat with both hands, ready for a fight. Unfortunately for Slash it wasn't for the side he was thinking and so he didn't have enough time to react before Casey's metal bat connected with the side of his head.

"Stop calling me, Kid." Casey said, standing above his unconscious friend.

"You see that, little spy? You see that your efforts to stop us are useless?" Evixus said. "Even your ill-gotten effort to join the Mutanimals in order to keep the Turtles safe from yourself was futile. In fact, it only aided our plans to destroy them because you will lead the Hybrids and bring me those turtles' shells."

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update, thanks for the reviews and all that jazz. Watched the new TMNT and I gotta say it's pretty good, I can get behind the way they ended up with new weapons. The voice actors a really great, so's the music. The art style reminds me of Oh Yeah, Cartoons. It's different for sure but worth the watch or at least a chance.

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