Ch 22 They're Coming!
Raph looked from Donnie to Rockwell as Leatherhead drove the Shellraiser. "Who is this Dr. Victor Falco?" He demanded. "What does he want with Leo?"
"Falco was an old colleague of mine."Rockwell began. "We were trying to find cures for certain diseases and at one point Falco decided to try using mutant DNA. As you know, we mutants don't get sick very easily and we heal much faster then humans. At first I was all for it, thinking we'd just advertise for mutants to donate if we paid them but Falco didn't want to pay nor did he want to ask mutants to come forward and donate. He wanted to use DNA from...children."
"Just like Saki did." Raph mused.
"Yes, just like Saki did." Rockwell confirmed. "I told him I would never go along with that. Children are innocent and I do not believe in experimenting on them. At first I thought he agreed with me. I then later found out he was going from orphanage to orphanage giving free exams and taking blood samples from children."
"What's wrong with that?" Raph wondered, his eyes roamed from Rockwell to Donnie. "Couldn't he use their blood to help them if they were sick?"
"If he had decent intentions, The problem was he would only take mutant DNA while also giving them injections with various steroids to see if the blood from the mutant children could be manipulated." Rockwell told him. "While the blood from the human children were disposed of the mutant children were becoming sick." Rockwell's voice suddenly dropped down to a whisper. "Some even died." He took a deep breath. "When I realized what he was doing, I went to the research facility that was giving us the funding and they put a stop to him; had him arrested and kicked him out of the scientific community."
"But Falco continued experimenting by working with the mob and other underworld criminals." Donnie now took up the explanation. "We believe it was through them he found out about Saki's experiments and we're thinking he found about Leo through them as well." Donnie looked at Raph expectantly. "After all, Saki was an underworld criminal himself. "
Raph nodded as he listened. "That makes sense I guess." His eyes narrowed in consternation as a thought came to him. "But the drug isn't working in Leo like Saki wanted it to." He mused. "What's going to happen to Leo when they realize he can't give them what they want?"
Now Donnie, Rockwell and Leatherhead all seemed to look at each other with a growing concern on their faces. "What?" Raph watched them closely. "What is it?" He looked from one to the other. "What are you not telling me?!" He demanded.
"Uh Raph." Donnie suddenly refused to look at his bother. "We don't think he's after Leo."
Raph's stared at his brother with a look of growing anger. "What do mean Donnie!?" His voice began to grow in irritation. "What's he after?"
"We think he wants the eggs." Rockwell told him
Raph's mouth slacked open, he began to take deep breath and put his hands to his head as a multitude of harrowing thoughts ran through his head. "He wants our babies?" Raph's green eyes were filled with fear. "What will he do with them?" He wondered out loud. Suddenly he looked up at the others and his face twisted in anger. "Wait a minute." He whispered. "How would you know all this."
"Because we think we have a spy in our facility." Leatherhead told him. "And we believe we know who it is."
"Well who is it?!" Raph yelled.
"One of our interns who was passed over after Stockman was arrested." Rockwell told him. "A Dr. Chaplin." He explained. "Chaplin was furious with me and did not hesitate to let me know. I managed to calm him down but I could tell he still harbored a lot of resent toward being passed over. Later, I saw him at a restaurant speaking with someone who I am sure is associated with Falco."
"But why didn't you tell us?" Raph demanded.
"We didn't want to say anything in case we were mistaken and if we were not, we didn't want to accidentally let on to Chaplin that we knew." Leatherhead now explained. "We needed to catch him actually being with Falco. So far all we had were suspicions, no concrete evidence."
"So you used Leo and I as decoys to get your evidence?!" Raph couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"It's not like that Raph." Donnie told him. "We were expecting to catch them before Leo was to give birth, but with everything that was happening to Leo, we had to jump ahead and Chaplin obviously found out and took him before we could stop him."
Raph was dumbfounded "Because of you, he's got Leo!" He yelled furiously. "And he's got our eggs! What the hell is he going to do with them Donnie!"
"We think he is going to take up where Saki left off using newborn mutants." Leatherhead said as he pulled into the Hamato driveway.
Raph's clenched his fist and teeth together. "THEY'RE GOING TO EXPERIMENT ON MY CHILDREN!" He screamed out, grabbing Donnie by the collar and pulled him from his seat.
"I promise Raph." Donnie said looking intently at him. "I won't let anything happen to my nieces, my nephews or my brother-in-law."
Raph glared at him with a threatening gaze. "Better hope not Don or you and I." He pushed Donnie back into his seat. "Will no longer be brothers." With that said, Raph turned and jumped out of the Shellraiser. Donnie looked from LH to Rockwell and gulped as he ran a hand down his face. He then followed Raph and ran to the house with Leatherhead and Rockwell following close behind.
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"Wouldn't a c-section be faster and easier?" Karai asked.
"No. We're not sure where the eggs are exactly with in the womb and it will take too long to do an x-ray and even longer for the surgery." Chaplin explained, holding up a needle and walking over to where Leo laid.
"Please Karai." Leo looked over to the young girl who continued to stare at him with a look of pure hate. "Don't let them do this." He watched as Chaplin came closer to him with the needle, ready to plunge it into his arm. He struggled desperately but to avail. Chaplin smiled as he shoved the needle hard into him making the turtle wince and hiss in pain.
"In less then an hour." Falco told him, still caressing Leo's swollen belly. "You will begin to lay your eggs and then I will continue my research." He looked down at Leo's stomach, his eyes filled with a look of strange hunger that caused a chill of fear to spike up and down Leo's spine.
"You can't take them!" Leo pulled at his restraints "Please, why would you want to hurt innocent babies?"
"They are not babies." Falco laughed. "You creatures are nothing more then mere freaks. Freaks to study and test on." He turned away from Leo and looked from Karai to the large tiger. "Go get two incubators. I'm going to want to begin testing on at least one egg as soon as it comes out, the other two we'll keep aside till they hatch, then we can test on them."
"NO PLEASE!" Leo cried in horror. "Why Karia? Why are you letting him do this?!"
"BECAUSE YOU KILLED MY FATHER!" She suddenly screamed angrily storming over to him.
Leo looked at her in confusion. "I've never killed anyone's father except mine and….."His eyes widen and a look of dawning crossed his face. He shook his head at her. "It can't be…you can't be…his…his daughter!"
"He adopted me after he came back to Japan, and I was proud to take his last name." Karai told him. "Got me off the streets and took me in. Made me part of his foot clan and I became his second in command." She sounded as though she was bragging about it. "But it was always you he thought about. You his pet project." She hissed in his ear. "You he wanted to get back to and continue to do research on and it was YOU WHO KILLED HIM!"
"AND I WOULD DO IT AGAIN!" Leo screamed back. He suddenly hissed in pain as he felt his stomach cramp up and a pain shot down his middle. "AGH."
"Forget about him." Falco told Karai. "The contractions are starting." He smiled in anticipation. "Go with Tiger Claw and get the incubators." He turned toward Chaplin. "Chaplin, come with me, we have some equipment to get."
Leo watched them walk out the room leaving him completely alone. "No, no please." Leo prayed silently. "Please don't let them hurt my babies." The hot tears that fell down his cheeks soaked the pillow beneath him. "Raph….where are you."
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Raphael was now in the shell raiser with Donnie, Mikey, Leatherhead, Rockwell and Splinter. They had gotten to the house and ran inside, happy to see Mikey had already arrived. Upon disrupting Splitner's class by running in and grabbing weapons, Splinter decided to cancel the rest of the class as well as any others he had for the rest of the day due to…as he told the parents…a family emergency, which he decided, was as close to the truth as he wanted to give.
He followed his sons and the other mutants to the strange vehicle demanding to know what was happening. After a full explanation, Splinter let Donnie, as well as the others, know his disappointment in their decision to place Leo and Raph in such a dangerous position.
"How could you do that D…?" Mikey asked dumbfounded.
"It wasn't like we wanted them to take Leo." Donnie defended.
"We just weren't prepared for everything to happen as quickly as it did." Rockwell explained. "I don't think they were either."
"It doesn't matter." Raph told them angrily. "We trusted you and you used us."
"It wasn't like that Raph." Donnie again tried to explain. "We weren't trying…."
"That is enough." Splinter placed his hand on Raph. "We need to get to Leonardo…and pray they have not harmed him or the eggs."
"I put a tracer on Chaplin's cell phone." Donnie told them. "He's at Falco's laboratory and we should be there in twenty minutes."
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"Aaaauuuuggghhh!" Leo cried out as another contraction hit him hard. "Please, you can't take my babies!" He pleaded to Falco, still attempting to get himself out of his bindings. Sweat poured down his face and body with every minute that past by. He watched as Karai and the large mutant known as Tiger Claw brought in two incubators while Chaplin brought a table with surgical equipment into the room and was placed beside Leo's bed.
"What are those?" Leo asked horrified. "Why do you need those?"
"They are for the last egg that comes out." Falco told him with an evil smile. He placed his hand on Leo's swollen belly and hummed. "Possibly another thirty minutes, maybe a little longer." He noted as his hands moved down along Leo's plastron. He then placed a hand on Leo's cheek. "Don't worry." He told him almost seductively. "You will get to see all your eggs before I dispose of you."
Leo shook the hand off and growled. "You are gonna regret even laying one finger on me let alone my eggs!" He threatened.
Falco laughed and put his hand back on Leo's face. He grabbed his chin in between his fingers and brought his face within inches of Leo's. "If you think your family and friends are going to rescue you, think again." He sneered as he hovered above Leo. "We'll be long gone before they realize where you are, and you….will be dead."
Leo bared his fangs and before Falco could remove his hand, Leo managed to grab his hand in between his teeth and bit hard causing the human to scream. Angered by the assault, Falco backhanded Leo and then turned away from him. He walked over to a counter, opened a drawer and took out some bandages. After he was done cleaning and bandaging his hand, he tuned back to Leo. "On second thought, I'll keep you alive long enough so you can watch me slice into the first one." He sneered at him. "Then I'll slice into you." He turned and walked out the door.
"Not smart Leo." Karai told him. She leaned back with a smirk. Looking as though she was thoroughly enjoying the turtle's pain. "But maybe he'll let me dispose of you the way you disposed of my father." She pushed herself off the wall and walked over to him.
"I never got to say goodbye to my father because of you." She spoke with a harsh whisper. "But watching you suffer like this….makes up for it."
Leo watched her go back to the wall and lean against it once again. "At least he cared about you." He told her. "At least you weren't brought into this world because a parent only wanted you for research." He bit back a scream as another contraction hit him. He breath deeply and laid his head against the pillow and panted hard. "At least he was proud of you and gave you a heritage…and his name." Silent tears fell down his cheeks while Karai turned away from him.
