Trial

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The following night, the brothers went out on their normal patrol, looking out for any suspicious activity in the lively city. They stalked out on one of the local rooftops, contemplating the plan for the night. Donnie sat playing around on his scanner, listening in to some of the reports being sent out. Nothing past pulled over cars and small robberies that were caught within minutes of the report.

"How long do we gotta be standing up here for?" Raph asked with mild irritation.

"Patience Raph. Its not the first time we've had to wait out for a while." Leo pointed out. Raphael but his lip before huffing in frustration. Leonardo took note in the lack of argument coming from his brother. He also took note of the seemingly silent youngest brother tonight as well. Leo looked over at the old air conditioning where he saw Mikey sat with his eyes looking down at the ground.

"Mikey." Leo called. On instant command, Mikey looked up.
"yes?" He asked. Leo didn't like that response.

"You feeling okay? You've been pretty quiet since we left." He watched his brothers movements carefully, keeping a mental note of every crease, twitch, and lift in his face. Suddenly, as if being known he was being watched his face instantly lit up.

"Yeah bro! Just waiting to see what were doing. I thought id leave all the whining to Raph." He shot playfully but Raphael didn't respond. In fact, he didn't even look in his direction.

Raphaels skin crawled when is younger brother spoke. More of the fact he knew deep down, whether his family saw it or not, this was not Mikey. Sure, he was rehearsed to sound like him, walk like him, even be as annoying as him. But, it was the little moments like this, where it was not an instant instinct to act the way he was suppose to and yet he was suppose to be reminded of who he was. It was when he knew it wasn't him.

On top of that was the dark figure that still lingered. Raphael couldn't see it now, but he could still feel it. He saw it in his dreams, behind closed doors, in every crevice of darkness in this world was that thing watching him, staring at him. His paranoia has made it so he himself has not been able to sleep since the incident in the kitchen, since he had that vision. Raphael shook, trying to get the memory out of his head.

Leo did not allow his discomfort to go unnoticed. He eyed his hotheaded brother as well as his promiscuous brother, both of which were acting unusually odd. He had been trying to figure out the nature of this weird twist in energy but couldn't seem to figure out what. When he meditated and sensed what was around him, he couldn't seem to pin it. It was denser than other energies around but that can easily be mistaken as one of his brothers being stressed. It truly was becoming an annoyance to Leo that he couldn't seem to figure this out, and his brothers were suffering for it.

He was quickly brought out of his thoughts when he heard the ding from scanner go off, seeing Donnie popping his head up.

" Call reporting a loud boom coming from the east side. Abandon warehouse." He said looking over his brothers.

"Think it's our friends in the cloaks again?" Leo asked, putting some supplies away in his belt.

"Sounds like it. We should probably see what they're blowing up." Donnie said, standing up and putting away the scanner.

"Mēcum venī" A whisper went through Mikey's ear. He quickly shook it off before his other brothers could notice the sudden twitch he had.

"We should probably go." Mikey chirped up, catching their attention. "I don't want anymore kids getting hurt." Leo laid a hand on shoulder.

"Don't worry Mikey. Well take care of them." That was the last bit of advice that was given till they took off across the rooftops.

They finally made it to the east side of Manhattan with minutes to spare before the police showed and just as they thought, it was the satanic cult they dealt with few nights before. But it wasn't just a boom they heard, they set the entire church to flame. The brothers stood on the next building over, watching as the fire danced with color. Leonardo couldn't help but to watch for a few moments, eyes fixated on the Christ statue standing tall in the middle of the flame. What an Irony.

"Shit, these guys are nuts." Raphael mentioned, stepping closer to feel the heat against his skin. Donnie scanned the grounds to see some of the hooded figures running across the street.

"Well how about we go down and ask them what's the big idea?" He suggested. With a grin, Leo hopped down with Donnie and Raph. But, without them noticing, Michelangelo stayed on the roof and stared as the house of Christ burned to the ground.

Down below, the cult members ran across the street as fast as they could to avoid being touched by the fire. They stopped at the end of the road to watch from the distance their victory.

"The master will be pleased." One spoke.

"Most pleased indeed." Said the other.

"Well now." Both had turned to find the three turtles they have encountered before standing behind them. "Mind explaining what made you have the need to burn down a building?" Leo asked in a calm voice. The two cloaked figures took a step back but in no need had attempted to run away.

"Ya better spill real quick. My patience is runn'n real low today." Raph growled stepping closer to the cloaked beings, not prepared for one of them to reach out a hand. With that movement, he could see the faces of the cult followers to see they were nothing more than teenagers. Young, novice at most. The young mans hand was inches from his face. A wild smile spread across the boys face.

"Connection. Connection. Connection." He chanted in a shrill voice that was all too excited. He reached out farther only to have Raphael swat his hand away.

"The fuck are you saying?" He shouted, moving back in formation with his brothers. The man looked at the three before looking up at the roof where they had descended from.

"Vessel." He whispered, catching the interest of Donnie. He remembered when Mikey first got bit, the word Vessel was spoken of.

"He will come. He will." The other cloaked being spoke. Reaching behind him, his partner followed suite, both of which had pulled out hand guns.

"Woah!" Raph yelled pulling out his sais, Donnie and Leo taking a stance and ready to grab their weapons.

"He" they clicked the gun

"Will" They brought it up to the sides of their temples.

"Come!" And pulled the trigger.

"Jesus Christ!" Raphael immediately pulled back, running into Donnie and Leo. The sudden shot was enough to wake up the entire neighborhood, and enough to paint the sidewalk with blood and brain matter. They all stood there dumbfounded and lost for words.

"What just…What just happened?" Donnie was out breath and wide eyed. Leonardo collected himself and well as he could and took a look around.

"Where's Mikey?"

"Mēcum venī, Mēcum venī, Mēcum venī." The voice was repeating over and over again in his head, immobilizing him in place.

"Come to me. Come to me. Come to me." Mikey repeated back in a muttering tone. His stare was blank, almost absent in a sense. His mind being cluttered by the multiple of voices that were invading him. He didn't even notice as his brothers came back on the roof.

"Mikey where did you go?" Leo asked immediately walking straight up to his little brother, still tense from the previous action. Michelangelo didn't respond to him, still muttering to himself. Leo leaned down slightly to be eye level, both hands on his shoulders, shaking him slightly.

"Mike? Mikey? Answer me!" Leo felt a strange form of aggression coming over him. Was it because he was in shock? Or was it he just about had it with the weird shit going on around him. He felt his body suddenly get jittery and impatient waiting for Mikey to pay attention. When Mikey didn't turn to him, Leo roughly grabbed his chin and turn him to look.

"Michelangelo listen to me!" He demanded. When he finally made clear eye contact with his brother, it was not what he was expecting.

His eyes were watering, not from crying but from looking for too long. His attention was grabbed by the sudden nosebleed his brother suddenly got. His skin looked clammy and chilled.

"Mikey?" Leo suddenly was no longer angry but instead concerned as he started to feel his brother shake. In a mere instance, Mikeys eyes rolled and he went slack. Leo quickly caught his body, going down with him.

"Don!" he called laying his brother down. Donnie ran quickly over, sliding to his knees. He watched his brothers body convulse, his head twitching to the side and eyes still rolled back.

"Hes having a seizure. What happened Leo?" Donnie said looking at him. Suddenly Leonardo was feeling guilt, as if he started this. Suddenly Mikeys convulsions and body went slack.

"Don? Donnie what's happening?" Leo said in a frantic tone. He didn't know what had suddenly come over him. He was feeling frantic, unimaginable for some reason. Then, in just a brief instant he felt it. That dense aura. It wasn't as slight now but instead it was invading his senses. He almost didn't hear Donnie explain to him that everything would be okay but they needed to leave. Leonardo shook off and refocused as he lowered himself to pick up his brother. Once he had Mikey secured in his arms he looked over to see Raphael standing there with doe eyes.

"Raph lets go!" He hollered already hopping down to the next rooftop with Donnie hot on his trails. Raphael couldn't move for a moment but was coming back into focus as he was hearing the ambulances and fire trucks finally making their way to the fire.

He saw it again, that black beast only this time, it was on Leo.

They made it back to the lair in a haste with Master Splinter at the door asking a million questions and the main one being why was Michelangelo unconscious. Leo took the time to explain to Master Splinter what had happened out in the other room while Donnie continued to keep tabs on Mikey, keeping him hooked up in the lab so he would be immediately notified if something changed.

Donatello sat at his desk, taking a few minutes just to himself to gather his thoughts. Today was a much more wilder ride than he was expecting it to be. It was one thing with the weird tension between Mikey and Raph but Leos irrationalities was a new one. He looked back at his youngest brother and truly questioned what was going on in his head.

A soft knock caught his attention to see Raphael standing in the doorway.

"Hey Don." He said quietly, not wanting to wake Mikey.

"Hey." He said simply back. Raph but his lip looking at Mikey then back at Don.

"Can you come out here for a second?" He knew that Mikey was knocked out for the rest of the night but he still didn't want to say anything in front of him.

"Yeah sure." Donnie complied, taking a step out of his lab. Raph closed the door behind him and leaned up against him. Donnie let out a puff of air.

"Boy, this sure wasn't an average patrol." He tried to joke.

"Yeah." Was all Raph could think of saying.

"Whats on your mind then?" Donnie asked, sensing that light humor wasn't going to work.

"Have you found any new information on that cult at all?" He asked. Donnie hummed for a moment.

"Not recently but I'm sure after tonight I will look more into it."
"Well I was thinking about going ta' the source." Raph countered quickly.

"What do you mean?"

"Those kids. The ones the police picked up. They all went to ta' hospital right?"

"Yeah?" Donnie questioned not really following what Raph was getting at.

"I say we go in a talk to some of those kids. They probably know something." Raph tried to explain.

"Do you just expect us to just walk in and talk to these kids?" Donnie ask with doubt in his voice.

"Well ask April." Leo suddenly appeared beside them. "She owes us anyways for getting her and Casey up on the good seats from the basketball game." Donnie looked at him with awe.

"You want to do this?" He asked.

"Donnie you cant sit there and say something isn't right. What ever is happening has to do with that group and any information on them would be helpful and I think the best to ask is probably to source." He explained. Donnie wanted to argue but knew he couldn't. He hasn't experienced any weird phenomenon and was not his place to judge how his other brothers were feeling.

"Ill call April." Was all he said before he walked into the kitchen to call their human friend. Leo folded his arms, looking at Raph.

"You think something weird is going on too?" Raph asked. Leo nodded.

"I'm not sure what exactly is going on but were going to get to the bottom of it." Leo cracked the door open just slightly to see Mikey's sleeping form. Content his brother wasn't going to stir, he closed the door and continued on with his plans. But what Leo didn't see, was Mikey awake during their entire conversation and hearing every single word.

A:N/ Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone! Hope you all have a good holiday break and enjoy some more creepy stories! Till next time!

-F