TMNT: the unexpected friendship
Chapter 11: Venturing into the Deep
"Agh I can't take it anymore!" Todd said almost ripping his curly brown hair out of his scalp. He got many shushes from the other people in the library and everyone around him secretly laughed.
"My brain's pretty fried too." Cabby said throwing her book closed and pushing it away from her. She tried untangling her blonde curls to no avail as they poofed out more.
"I wish Arielle was here, why couldn't she be in our class?" Mitch complained.
"Because she's too smart and is taking Astrophysics for 'fun'." Cabby retorted as she joking pushed up invisible glasses.
"Sometimes it's annoying how smart she is." Todd said sighing as he too decided enough was enough and give up on the painful topic of AP chemistry.
"Yeah tell me about it." Bianca said rolling her eyes as she slipped her own pair of glasses off her nose. She hated having to wear glasses for reading, it always made things hard when looking up at other people; her eyesight would go all funky. She looked up at her friends and it started happening again, it's like they were behind the static on a television set. She slipped her glasses of and put them in her case, but her eyesight didn't change. Then her head throbbed uncontrollably, like someone was using her head for a battering ram. "Oh, god…"
"Bi, what's wrong?" Cabby asked as she quickly caught Bianca before she fell off her chair from the pain. Bianca was shaking in her friend's arms violently. She tried to play it off and hold her stomach instead, to make it less suspicious.
"You okay, you're really pale." Mitch said getting up and swinging around the table to get a look at his friend.
"Yeah, I think I'm having a bad reaction to James' cooking."
"You let him cook! Bi, what were you thinking?" Cabby yelled almost before she realized she was still in a library.
"Yeah didn't he almost blow up the school for failing the cooking class?" Todd asked. Bianca remembered the awkward meeting she had to attend to when she was younger about James misbehaving in school. It wasn't his fault, he would say, the oven was malfunctioning, he would say.
"Yeah, but I thought he got better and he was being so nice, I couldn't say no…but now I needa take a trip to the loo." Bianca got up hastily and unwrapped herself from Cabby's grip and ran straight for the bathroom on the opposite side of the library. "I'll be back!" She called over her shoulder, another round of shushes echoed through the library and Bianca rolled her eyes, but she almost fell into a bookshelf doing so.
"Bi!" Came another voice that tried calling out for her, but she ignored it and kept pushing herself harder to keep moving.
"Don't wait up!" She called back, not caring. She bolted through the swinging doors to the bathroom and quickly got into a stall and sat down with the seat cover down. She breathed in deeply and tried squeezing her eyes shut and holding her head. Nothing was working. "Gah, I haven't felt this much pain since Donny…oh no, Donny's messing those crystals again isn't he? Doesn't he know curiosity killed the cat? Or in this case will kill me?" She sighed as she strained to reach into her one shoulder bag she never took off her shoulders and dug through it 'til she grabbed a familiar circular device. She speed dialed Donny on her Shell Cell and waited as it rung. "C'mon Donny…pick up…damn it!" she said when it went to voicemail. Donny's usually immediate when it comes to answering his phone. Not knowing what else to do with her head trying to implode on itself, she reached for her other phone and speed dialed Cabby.
"Hey Cabs, I'm gonna go home, I just hurled, so could you just take my notes home with you and then give them to me Monday?"
"You sure? We have the test Tuesday." She asked worriedly.
"I know, but I really don't want to go back over there, I'm not stable, so I'm gonna take a taxi home." Bianca explained as she slowly moved her way out of the bathroom and towards the front door.
"You sure you don't need anyone? Not even someone to hold the waste bin?" Cabby joked as she laughed lightly, hoping it would help Bianca feel emotionally better.
"Positive, besides, you needa study, you still don't get moles." Bianca joked back as she switched from holding her phone from one hand to the other.
"Moles shouldn't be units they should be fuzzy blind creatures!" Cabby whispered yelled, but still Bianca could pick up shushes coming from the background and she laughed lightly.
"I know, now get back studying."
"Yes ma'am. Feel better."
"Yeah I hope so."
"Where you wanna go, little miss?"
"Eastmond and Lair, please."
"Alrighty then, don't know why'd you be going down there but if ya say so."
"My friend lives round there." She said excusing the strange destination. The drive simply nodded and turned up the tunes, which Bianca was thankful for since she was able to focus on the music to help distract herself from the throbbing in her temples.
"Here ya go, lass!" She dug through her wallet and paid the man as she got out of the taxi.
"Thank you!" he honked back as an answer and he sped off. Turning around, Bianca headed slowly for an all too familiar abandoned warehouse. She stopped before reaching it and turned down the street to reach a manhole. Checking to see if there were any cars coming, she quickly popped the lid up and slid herself down into the sewers. She closed the lid above her and ventured down into the dark. not knowing what else to do, she switched on her phone and used it as a light to guide her. She found herself at the dead end of the tunnel and switched the pipe in the opposite direction, twisted the circular handle on the side and punched in the password on the keypad that popped up. The wall parted ways to reveal the marvelous lair.
"Home sweet sewer." Bianca joked to herself as he headache finally subsided, ironically, Bianca thought after making it all the way down here.
"My sons?" Came an elderly voice. She turned her attention to the sliding wooden doors and saw Master Splinter appear out of his room. He looked towards the opening wall and saw Bianca and perked up a little in curiosity.
"Nope, sorry to disappoint Master Splinter, it's just me." She said as she pushed another button on the wall and closed the large wall behind her.
"Ah, I'm sorry to say but my sons are not here, there was a disturbance in the lair and that rang through all the sewers and they went to go investigate."
"Is it The Foot?" She growled.
"I don't think so."
"That's good at least, well I was gonna ask Donny something, but seeing as there's nothing else I can do…I'm gonna go help."
"Not so fast."
"Aw, c'mon sensei, you've been training me for so long now. I'm definitely prepared to handle myself in extreme situations!"
"I know that."
"And another thing—wait what? You agree?"
"I was gonna say you should finally be given a weapon to arm yourself in case of danger."
"For real? That's awesome, but…I don't know what's best suited for me."
"I think I do though…"
"Huh?" She tilted her head in confusion as she started to notice him turn away and walk to the dojo. She quickened her pace to catch up with him and waited as he moved a panel out of the way to reveal weapons lining the walls. She was amazed at the unique weapons, some she's never seen before.
"These are called Tonfa Blades." Came his calm voice as it interrupted her thoughts. She looked at him and saw two steel tonfas in his paws. He pulled the end of it a little to reveal a blade, something that usually isn't there.
"Whoa…wait a minute, I've practiced with tonfas before, but never were they blades in them." She said as she unsheathed one tonfa that was now hanging from her side and she examined the blade. It looked like it the metal had been folded a lot because of how clean and sharp it looks.
"I think out of all the weapons you have practiced with, the tonfa best suited you, and I thought since this was going to be a dangerous journey for you and my sons, that I should bestow you with my Master Yoshi's weapons."
"These were, Master Yoshi's?"
"Yes, though they were not his first choice weapons, he cared for them nonetheless. I believe he would agree that you are ready to use them."
"This is such an honor sensei, thank you."
"Now go, protect yourselves, use them wisely, and keep an eye on my sons, for they are going to need all the help they can get."
"I will, with my life." "Ow, sensei, what was that for?"
"That was for poor choice of words. You will all come back."
"Sensei…" She sighed as she smiled at him warmly. Quickly, she bent down to hug him and mumbled, "I'm sorry, we'll be back soon, I hope."
"Me too, my child." He said patting her on the back. "Good luck." She bowed to him once she stepped away and headed out the lair again. She used a tracker she picked up off of Donny's desk and started using it to search for them through their shell cells. It took her a while until it finally picked up one and she followed it while running through the gross water.
"They should be around…" She looked around and when the beeping just turned into a single sound she turned her side and saw a huge gaping hole in the side of the sewers, one that didn't belong there. "Here…great, into a dark ominous hole that doesn't look the least bit natural, hooray." Unfortunately, in her mind, she started crawling through the weird hole, the rocks underneath her felt like plastic and it made it hard to climb. Once reaching the other side she realized she was leveled with the ground and got off her knees and hands. "Why'd I want to help them again, I could've safely gone home and waited, stupid curiosity, stupid worry."
"These support beams should've given out years ago. I suggest we all be very, very quiet." Came a voice that Bianca was too happy to hear. She ran up to them once she saw here in the distance and once she was close enough she said,
"Hi yah."
"Gah!" they all jumped and readied their weapons as they each turned around. It frightened her a lot.
"Wh-What!"
"Shhhh!" Leo said as he put a finger to his beak.
"God, what are ya doin down here?" Raph barked as he approached her.
"Splinter told me what was up, and I wanted to check in with Donny on something."
"Can't it wait?" He complained.
"Nope because it's about those crystals you found in the lair."
"These?" Donny inquired as he brought them out of his bag.
"Yeah," She groaned a little. "I heard them, and remember that headache I got last time, I got it again." She continued rubbing her temple a little.
"You're still reacting to it? Even from so far away?" He mused as he glanced between the crystals in his hands and Bianca. He decided it would best to separate them, and Bianca immediately looked and seemed to have felt better.
"Yeah," She cringed as she held back the falling to the floor bit, wanting to be strong for them. "But no one else seemed to hear it. I was in the library with friends when it happened. I couldn't think of what else that headache could've come from but from those…things."
"Well we're here to find out about them, we think we triggered something."
"Really? Like what?"
"Like awakened a really big scary monster!" Mikey squeaked as he trembled in place.
"Uh, monsters don't exist…but mutants do, so maybe it's friendly but hates the noise like I do." Bianca tried assuring the squeamish turtle. "What is this place anyway?" Bianca asked looking around.
"A series of network tunnels from the early 1900s, left abandoned."
"Yeah, I don't need to be a geologist to see that this is a very unstable environment. Are you sure we should be venturing this far?"
"We?" Came Leo's voice from behind her, she turned around slightly.
"Uh, yeah, we."
"No way, nah-uh, you're heading back right now."
"Oh yeah, you and what army?"
"Us." Everyone said in unison.
"Aw c'mon guys I can take care of myself."
"We don't know what's down here, and you're not prepared or anything."
"Who said I wasn't prepared?" She asked cheekily as she tapped her side and revealed the weapons hanging there. The turtles gawked for a second before trying to look serious again. We'll be fine. It's probably just some scared thing that got trapped in the sewers. Maybe its family."
"Ew, I hope not. Not the way it melted through the cement." Mikey complained.
"Wait, you didn't drill that or nothing?" Bianca asked a little disgusted that she was crawling through a hole made by something's spit.
"Nope, the chemical composition of the rock was destabilized by something." Donny summarized.
"Wowzah, well then, you'll definitely need a woman's touch, maybe it'll see I'm friendly."
"Or see you as dinner." Raph frowned.
"Don't joke." She hissed at him.
"Let's just keep moving, we don't have time to waste." Donny stated.
"Good. Anyone found the creature's tracks?" Bianca mused.
"Guys?" Leo mused as he looked down and pointed his flashlight.
"Nope, nothing, let's go home." Mikey said as he chose to ignore the obvious footprints in the ground; definitely not human.
"Don't be such a chicken Mikey, relax a little, I thought you out of everyone would have a sense of adventure in a situation like this?" Bianca asked.
"No way, I've watched way too many monster movies to know when I'm not supposed to intervene." Mikey said as he continued to shake. Shake so much that he couldn't keep his hand with the light still so she took it from his grasp, the light was giving her a headache with the constant moving around.
"You know TV will just rot your brain, right?" She countered.
"Nah, it's gonna save my butt while I'm out here."
"Whatever."
"Shhhh, everyone be still." Leo said as the cavern started moving slightly. Everyone stopped and awaited for the movement to pass. But the silence was broken when Mikey began to inhale a little, and that only meant one thing, they were all gonna die under a million tons of rocks because of a stupid single sneeze.
"Not. A. Sound. Got it?" Raph said quickly covering his mouth before he could finish sneezing. Bianca released a sigh she didn't realize she was holding in.
"I got it." Mikey said nasally as he held his beak to no sneeze again. Small rocks started falling and Mikey was removing some dust that fell on his shoulder and then he sneezed really loud, causing everyone to freeze.
"Mikey fer cryin' out loud!" Raph complained as he stormed over towards his orange clad brother. "Next time bring an antihistamine."
"Hey, how am I supposed to stop a—a, grotesque and frankly quite horrifying monster!" Mikey screamed.
"Whoa!" Everyone gasped as they stepped back to make some distance between them and the giant boulder monster that was three times their size and five times their mass, in total.
"Okay, now I'm afraid." Bianca shuddered.
"Wish you went home now, don't cha?" Raph said like the smart ass he was.
"Yeah, kinda!" She squeaked. The monstrous abomination in front of them roared and the whole place started to fall apart. "We gotta book it!" she called as she sped past the rest of the guys towards the way they were headed, they were right on the backs of her heels. The tunnel finally caved in and the flashlights they've once carried went out, well besides the one in Bianca's hands.
"This just keeps getting betta and betta." Raph complained as he dusted himself off, completely coated in dirt and dust like everyone else.
"Just a sec." Donny then rubbed the two crystals together to create a light source, though that caused Bianca to cringe as the noise affected her but quickly dulled down to just a small pain, like she got hit in the temple.
"Ya think that thing survived?"
"Know your monsters Raph, it can melt rock!" Mikey yelled.
"Oh yeah, maybe I forgot about that because I was trying not to get buried under in a collapsing subway tunnel!" Raph shouted.
"Everybody calm down!" Leo said, regaining his composure. "Let's keep, moving."
"I second that." Bianca chimed in. "I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is."
"No, not you too!" Raph growled as he slapped his forehead.
"Huh?" Bianca asked as she gave him a perplexed look.
"Don't start with the movie quotes…" He groaned.
"Was it? I was being totally serious."
"Oh, well, ugh, whatever." He sighed as he threw his hands up in defeat and started to lead the way farther into the chasm. They make it to the edge, where they were still following footsteps when they looked down cautiously and looked to see if they could see the bottom. The crystals weren't emanating enough light for it to be clear.
"So, who wants to take the first steps into the ominous dark beyond? Anyone?" Bianca asked as she quickly stepped away from the ledge. The little bit of heights she was afraid of started to kick in suddenly and she had to sit down to control her shaking. Donny pulled out a rope and tied it onto a jagged rock and let the rest hang down. He was the first to go down and everyone else followed, though Bianca was last, taking it very slowly.
"Ugh, I'm beat." Don said once he made it to the bottom, he collapsed onto the side of the cliff and took in deep breaths.
"Yeah, my backaches have a backache." Mikey complained as he collapsed onto his knees.
"Let's make camp." Leo suggested.
"Oh thank god!" Bianca said jumping down off the rope and falling onto Mikey's back in exhaustion.
"You up for first watch?" Raph perked up at the suggestion and spun his sais excitedly.
"You know me. Here Bi, you can take my matt while I stay up."
"Aw, you're such a gentleman, thank you." she said taking it from him graciously and patting his head affectionately. He shoved her off laughing, causing her to laugh too and she sets up camp and lies down. Don then sets up the crystals to keep glowing while everyone sleeps so Raph has some light. Too bad the flashlight ran outta battery. Bianca sighed and tried to sleep besides the constant pain that was bouncing around in her head.
After a few hours though, she couldn't take it, no matter what she couldn't the pain to leave her head, not enough to make her fall asleep. She tossed and turned until she heard a grunt come from Raph's general direction. She turned towards him and guessed he almost fell asleep while on the job. She sat up and turned to him.
"I can take over for you if you want…"
"Ya still up?" He asked surprised as he glanced at her sleepily.
"I can't sleep while those weird crystals still stay touching."
"Right, sorry about this…"
"Hey, it's okay, maybe while we're down here we'll figure out what they are and why they're so annoying."
"Maybe…" He yawned.
"Hit the hay." Bianca said getting off of Raph's matt so he could take it back. "Rest your lil head and I'll stay up by the makeshift fire."
"Yell if ya see anything, kay?"
"Trust me, I'll be a stereotypical horror film girl."
"Hardy, har, har."
"Just go to sleep."
"G'night." he said with another yawn and almost immediately after his head touched the matt he was snoring away. Now Bianca knew she wouldn't be going to sleep anyway due to that now. she sighed though and stared at the crystal fire as she thought about why they caused her such grief. It was surprising after all the months that Donny had been observing the crystals that he hadn't discovered anything new. Her focus was taken off the crystals when she heard a low moan come from Mikey. She watched as his face started to scrunch up and he turned over to the other side.
"Mikey's having some messed up dream…" Bianca sighed as she saw his facial features cringe at whatever he was seeing, as he began to squirm, something was forming from underneath his matt. She gasped as it reminded her a whole lot of the darkness that was chasing her in her mind. "Get away from him…" Bianca growled as she swiped up the crystals, avoiding the pain, and shining them over Mikey, casting the shadows away. Once they were gone and they didn't seem to be coming back, she sighed, and then she registered the pain in her hands. She quickly dropped the crystals and she groaned as they made that ear splitting sound she hated so much. "Why was that around him…" She asked once the noise had calmed down. Before she could situate herself back into her lookout spot, she felt the earth start to shake from underneath her. "Ah great, a good indicator would be because they're here…" She sighed as she looked up and saw dark figures approaching the area. "Alright y'all, get up! Everybody get UP!" She screamed as Raph jolted awake and Donny and Leo were beginning to stir.
"NO…No…" Mikey mumbled, still trapped in his dream world.
"Mikey rise and shine!" Raph barked. "Everybody up, we're under attack! Our friend is back." once everyone was up on their feet, Bianca signaled where the enemy was and they saw a giant red monster, different from the one before, pushing over a very large looming boulder.
"So, running would be good, right?" Mikey asked timidly as the monster succeeded in pushing the boulder off the edge, now hurtling towards the group.
"RUN!" Leo screamed as everyone sprinted in the opposite direction.
"Man, don't you hate when this happens?" Mikey said as he continued running faster than most of the group away from the oncoming threat.
"When else does this happen?" Bianca asked frantically in between much needed breaths of air.
"Uh, hello, in every classic movie, like Indiana Jones." Mikey said. They suddenly saw a clearing up ahead and continued there until they halted abruptly and stared in shock.
"Ah great, the bridge is out!" Raph exasperated.
"Now what do we do?" Mikey whined. Raph unhooked the grappling hook from his belt and swung it above his head, getting ready to aim. The boulder wasn't showing any signs of slowing down.
"Hurry up Raph!" Leo ordered.
"Is this safe?" Bianca asked timidly as she finally grabbed onto to the rope once it was secured onto the other side.
"No, but what other choice do we have?" Donny sighed. Bianca was afraid that was going to be her answer. She swallowed as her throat felt like closing up from panic but she continued to tell herself to breath.
"Cowabunga!" Mikey cried as the hurried off the ledge and swung to the other side.
"Ah!" Bianca yelled as she held on for dear life, she could feel her hands burning and cutting open from the rope. Once they were dangling off the ledge of the other side, they watched as the boulder fell down into the river.
"Mikey I told you, no more cowabunga." Raph complained as he began to slowly make his way up the rope, but it was starting to slip from it's place around the jagged rock. "It's slipping!"
"Now what?"
"Crack the whip. On my signal."
"Say WHAT? What does that mean?" Bianca screamed.
"We're gonna launch ourselves up there." Donny said.
"Can that actually work?"
"…One, two…THREE!" Raph counted down as he launched himself as well as his brothers and Bianca off the wall and they all let go of the rope as they flipped in the air, perfectly sticking their landings onto the other side of the cavern. Bianca flailed in the air as she landed roughly on the ground and continued to roll for a few feet. When she finally stopped she gasped as the wind was knocked out of her. Her body was now completely covered in scrapes and she held back unwanted tears that pricked at her eyes.
"I like a little excitement first thing in the morning." Mikey said, feeling proud of himself. He did so as he looked down the ledge at the flowing river below them.
"You okay kid?" Raph asked helping Bianca up.
"Yeah, peachy. And 'nough with the kid stuff."
"How are we gonna get back now with those things playing bowling for turtles?"
"Look at this!" Donny called as he walked forward to find two metal doors forcibly left open and hanging off their hinges. Inside was a funky looking lab. "Not to make things worse, but you'll notice that the door was forced open, from the inside. Something was trying to get out."
"Oh that doesn't make things worse, it makes things horrifying!" Mikey panicked.
"Shhhh." Bi said shushing him, worried that making more noise would disturb the unbalanced rock around them, or worse, the monsters would hear them and they would get closing to finding them again.
"Anyone got a clue as to what this place is?" Raph asked.
"You want a wild guess?" Mikey suggested.
"No."
"I'm seeing devices related to: physiology, biology, genome analysis…my guess is, this is a genetics lab." Donny explained as he said what he was seeing.
"Was." Bianca corrected as she stepped on a piece of broken glass.
"They seemed to have been experimenting with mutation."
"Oooo-weeeee-ooooo." He stepped back nervously and accidentally tripped an alarm system set up around the center of the room. He gasped.
"Mikey!" Everyone groaned. A new set of metal doors sealed off the exit.
"Okay, so there's no leaving now, what do we do?" the machine in the center of the room started spazzing out and glowing a bright blue and a circular stream of light started shooting up towards the ceiling, and then expanding. Raph touched it and couldn't phase through it and he lost his sais in the action.
"Over there!" Donny pointed towards the center of the room.
"What the shell is that?"
"Looks like some kind of force field."
"Huh?" Bianca asked worriedly, it kept growing and soon they would be up against the wall. "What now?"
"Something's telling me: do not touch." Mikey stated.
"Gee, ya think?" Raph asked sarcastically.
"Agh!" Donny said tripping over something on the ground.
"Don, you okay?" Leo asked. Bi rushed over to help him up.
"It looks like this force field only affects living tissue."
"Too bad that's exactly what we're made out of." Raph complained.
"Donny, what do we do?" Leo asked.
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking."
"Well, think faster, or else we're all gonna be a whole lot thinner."
"The crystal, it's somehow powering all this." Donny mused as he continued to think, then he looked like a light bulb turned up upstairs as he brightened. "Raph! Your sais can go through the field. Aim for the crystal!" just as it was getting unbearable to breath, Raph's sais struck the machine the crystal was sitting on and it short circuited. The beam suddenly lifted up and disappeared and everyone fell to their knees in exhaustion. The doors reopened.
"Whoa! A close one."
"And that's the end of that." Raph sighed as he went to retrieve his sais. One of the machines activated once Donny started tampering it a bit.
"It's only the beginning, look at this." He mused. "It's the sign of The Foot."
"Every time we hit trouble, The Foot's symbol's stamped right on it. What is it this time?"
"Let's find out." Leo suggested as Donny went over to playing with the machine's controls again.
"These look like archived video logs. I'll see if I can access them." Donny continued to type at the keypad until the image on the screen changed to when the lab was a bustling and lively laboratory. A man dressed in protective gear explained in the video about the need for studying mutations and using human tests subject, it took several months to perfect the experiments and they seemed to be instable.
"That poor guy…" Leo grimaced as the man on the screen continued. He showed clips of the creatures obeying commands such as fetching evidence of life underground, which they thought they found but it turned out to be not what the Shredder ordered and the group was shut down and ordered to destroy the monsters. It seemed though the monsters were more intelligent than they led on and they escaped and destroyed the lab and the camera went fuzzy and turned off.
"This is starting to get really weird." Mikey said as he shook in place.
"Starting?" Raph argued.
"Yeah, it's been pretty weird since the first steps into the abandoned subway tunnels." Bianca agreed with Raph as she painfully kept her eyes glued to the screen.
"Maybe there are some things man was never meant to tamper with." Mikey repeated what the man said. "That's the one line in the monster movie you don't want to hear." Real growls were heard from the background.
"Gah!" Everyone hollers as the room starts to shake violently and a roar blasts through everyone's ears.
"Please tell me that was just the recorder malfunctioning." Bianca prayed.
"Nope…I'm afraid that was the real thing…" Donny struggled to say, as he too was coming to terms with the oncoming threat.
"So, there's always one guy in the monster movie who freaks out because he can't take the pressure. And I'm going to do an impression of him right now, and it goes something like this: Get me outta here!" Mikey said running towards the door.
"Not that I'd ever agree with him but, he's gotta point." Raph piped up.
"Agreed. Fun's over, let's go." Leo announced.
"Smartest thing anyone's said all day." Bianca smiled as they all headed out of the crazy lab. Donny lead the way with the crystals, but it didn't take long until the walls began to shake. Acid starting dripping from the wall and appeared a blue creature, it's mouth dripping with the same green acid, followed by a red crab looking monster and the oversized boulder with massive arms from before.
"Guys, this isn't the end of the movie…is it?" Mikey squeaked. They started backing into the room slowly.
"This better not be the end…" Bianca added as she trembled in fear, they were massive, even the blue guy who was fairly humanized was still six feet tall. Speaking of which, said monster spewed out a row of acid and melted the floor, just a few feet away from Bianca's feet. "Now that's just gross…" She said with her hand flying to cover her nose and mouth. The fumes coming off the acid were nasty.
"Okay dat's it." Raph said getting pumped up as he twirled his sais.
"Okay, you guys take the three on the left." Mikey said coming up with a plan of action.
"There are only three." Raph corrected with suspicion rising in his voice.
"There's one for each of you, and I'll be the odd turtle out chilling with Bianca in the corner."
"You're telling me…" Raph said rolling his eyes. Everyone began to fight, though Mikey tried staying out of it, completely freaked out, and Bianca was trying to figure out a way to fight them, she needed something as a leverage, since she didn't have the physical strength part. She had to dodge though a few times as the guys started throwing the guys around, and vise versa. She would occasionally help them out and try and deal blows to the monsters but it usually didn't have too much on an effect, but she kept trying using her tonfas.
"Whoa!" Don and Raph mused as they saw the big rock monster eat his way through the ceiling. He left a trail as he moved farther from them and towards,
"Mikey!" Raph yelled as he sprang into action and tackled Mikey out of the way, narrowly missing where the monster landed. "Watch your back, odd ball."
"You just called me odd, didn't you?" Mikey retorted. Mikey didn't seem to notice when Raph got tackled, he still looked deep in thought. "I'm not odd. I'm eccentric." Suddenly Donny came flying over and slamming into Mikey. "Raph thinks I'm odd." He stated as he helped Donatello up.
"You're just being sensitive." He chided as he went back to his fight.
"Sensitive? If there's one thing I hate, is when people call me sensitive!" Mikey remarked.
"What's wrong with being sensitive? It's a wanted trait by most women in men." Bianca mused as she was currently blocking off one of the arms from the boulder man.
"But it's so girly…" He complained.
"'Cuse me?" She mused as she finally pushed the arm away and Raph tackled it to the ground.
"Poor choice of words…" Raph strained to say as he kept the beast down and Bianca began to swipe at its legs as it groaned. It threw Raph off his chest towards Mikey again and Bianca got kicked back, but thankfully she was using her tonfas to block the blow, so she wasn't physically too damaged, though her arms ached from the impact and strain.
"Hey, I know these monsters are vicious abominations, but guys, we are not holding our own out there." Mikey said as he courageously whacked rubble flying his way with his chucks. "Now let's dig deep!" A phone rings and everyone stops in place, including the monsters. Everyone looks around for the source and all eyes land on Bianca.
"Gr…" The three monsters turn their attention off of the turtles, quickly swiping them out of the way to get near Bianca.
"Great, they don't like technology now?" Bianca groaned as she started to step back slowly.
"You have phone service down here?" Donny asked.
"That's far from the point!"
"Decline it!" Leo ordered.
"I'm trying!" She said trying to get it out of her pocket but while she was distracted she got shoved into the wall opposite of her by the red creature. "Oof! Oh shit!" She groaned rubbing her back gingerly.
"Language!" Came a voice from Bianca's side.
"Cabby?" Bianca exclaimed. She saw the red creature still stalking towards her and she got up quickly and swiped at its arms and then thankfully Mikey intervened and kicked the monster to the side where he could deal with it. while she gained her breath she looked down still hearing a voice on the other end of the line. Slid her phone out of her pocket and placed it to her ear timidly. "Uh, hello?"
"Did you even check the caller ID?" Cabby complained.
"Uh, nope, sorry, been a little busy." Bianca thought as she slipped the phone back into her back pocket.
"Hang up!" Leo barked from his fight with the blue monster.
"Shhhh!"
"Who's that?" Cabby asked curiously.
"My brother, he thinks I'm too loud, I've been trying to kill a spider and failing and he said I should hang up to get the," She kicked the boulder man away by trying to trip him, which only got it on its knees but she swiped at it and it groaned, she continued by saying, "job done!"
"Wait no you need to hear this!"
"Are you sure I can't just call you back?" Bianca asked frantically. "I will now that I know I can."
"No ya won't!" Raph argued.
"What?"
"The service in my room has been acting up, my stupid phone plan's service sucks at higher altitudes. Also I'm watching a movie, The Cave actually, so that's what you're probably hearing in the background. Surround sound, heh, heh."
"Don't secretly brag about your penthouse Bi."
"Sorry, but I actually mean it."
"Whatever: news wise, Connor came when you left." Bianca stopped mid swing and looked at her phone with wide eyes. She turned around and slipped the phone back to her face, off speakerphone.
"He was there?" She gasped. "Did he bring the she-witch?"
"No surprisingly, makes sense though since she's not in our AP class."
"True, aw man…" Bianca groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose. She really missed seeing Connor, they've been best friends since diapers. They used to live in the same building. "I could've actually been his friend today. Stupid day."
"Yeah I know Bi I'm sorry, he seemed concerned bout you when I explained why you left."
"He did…wait, you told him I barfed?" She panicked as she grabbed her hair.
"No I said you were weren't feeling well and headed home."
"Phew." She breathed.
"Yeah, but Mitch and Todd told him you puked." Cabby added sheepishly.
"I'm going, to kill them!"
"I kicked them from under the table when they said it if that helps."
"Aw, you're too sweet, you so get it."
"Hey it was rude, and also hey I used to be friends with Connor too before the whole split."
"Yeah but he was my first friend."
"I know, I'm sorry. Maybe it can work out."
"No it won't." She mentioned hopelessly as she was totally neglecting the fight going on behind her. "He's dating Stacy and she wants to rip my head off whenever she sees me, I can almost picture her putting her fingers off and trying to do it from a distance."
"She probably does."
"Bianca! Here, now!" Leo yelled.
"Oh, shit okay really, REALLY gotta go, sorry! James awaits."
"Okay bye! Tell your hunky brother I said hi."
"Ugh! He's not hunky! Stop calling him that!" She groaned at the gross thought her best friend thought her brother was "hunky" he was a dork in her eyes.
"I can't believe you answered that!" He scrutinized.
"I was trying to hang up but I got thrown into A WALL!"
"Oh."
"Yeah. Sorry I couldn't control what my phone did when I hit the wall, roughly I might add. Can we get back to the fight please before we're their dinner?"
"You will take no more of us!" The blue monster seethed. Bianca was surprised to hear it, he, talk; she was suddenly extremely fascinated as she exchanged a look with Leo quickly before commenting,
"Boy, are you confused." Bianca mused.
"We're not here to take anybody!" Leo argued, while the two were dodging shots of acid from the monster, it hit the pods of liquid that were now eroding due to the vile substance and started to rock back and forth, ready to fall onto the monster as he cowered in fear. "Look out!" Leo called out as he shoved the monster out of the way. "Why have you attacked us?" Leo asked as he tried getting up off the ground, but he was picked up by the larger red monster and thrown across the room, he then collided with Mikey and they fell on top of each other.
"Ya know something Mikey?" Leo thought aloud. "They're thinking we're somebody else."
"Aw man, that's just great, we're getting our shells waxed when it's all someone else's fight?" Mikey complained.
"We've come in peace! We don't want to fight."
"Because you fear us, you want to use us and torture us again!" The blue creature accused Bianca of.
"Again?" Bianca questioned. "Hey look I'm not-" But she was thrown against the wall again. "Ugh, can that not happen anymore…?"
"I don't think they're willin' to listen ta ya." Raph said helping her up again.
"You make a solid case…"
"Then I vote we get the shell outta here." Donny piped up joining his brothers.
"Run away?" Raph remarked like the phrase was foreign to him. "That ain't my style." He argued.
"Call it a tactical retreat. Let's move." Leo countered as he helped Mike off the ground and retreated with Donny and Bianca.
"We're leaving." Don said pressing a button on the wall with his staff and the doors slid open. The monsters were recovering and were stalking towards Raph, the only one left in the room.
"Tactical retreat? I can live with dat." Raph said slipping his sais onto his belt and catching up with the rest.
"Then let's bolt." Bianca yelled as she threw a rock towards the button Don used to open the doors to then close them again, trapping the monsters at least momentarily in the lab as they managed to distance themselves. They headed out of the lab and down a pathway that led to human constructed tunnels. Once they got through one hallway though, they were met with the only exit being a closed door. Donny tried opening it but it was busted.
"It's sealed tight!"
"That's the last thing I would've liked to have heard!" Bianca panicked.
"Somebody gonna answer that?" Mikey joked but in a terrified tone. Door's knocked down, red guy comes in. boulder guy digs hole out of ground appears behind them.
"No!" Ordered the blue monsters as he held back his sharp fisted friend.
"Say the word, bro." Raph said readying his weapons.
"Easy guys, it's okay." Leo chided.
"Who are you?" the blue man asks sniffing Leonardo.
"Not who you think we are."
"Then why do you carry those?" He pointed to Donny's bag and he slowly took out the crystals that gave off a small hum that caused the monsters to get angry and loom closer, also giving Bianca a headache.
"Whoa wait a minute!" Leo tried reasoning, wanting to calm down the mutated experiments. "We found these crystals in a cavern we're staying in, that's all."
"What business is it of yours anyway?" Raph growled.
"Those crystals are the embodiment of evil." The blue mutant argued.
"Yeah you're telling me." Bianca sighed as her headache subsided and she crossed her arms to keep steady.
"Why have you come here?"
"Cuz one of you ogres when sniffing around our place looking for trouble!" Mikey barked. "So we're here to-"
"To just, look for some answers, that's all." Donny said carefully choosing his words, hopefully making the monsters forget their anger towards Mikey.
"I'm Leonardo." Leo thought it'd be best to introduce themselves to seem less of a threat. "These are my brothers: Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo." Mikey shuddered slightly as he hid a little more behind his brothers. "And this is our friend, Bianca."
"We were drawn to your habitat when your crystals were activated."
"Gee, wonder who could've done that?" Donny asked sarcastically, accusing Mikey with his glare.
"Their energy is a sign of danger to us, so we considered you dangerous." Explained the blue creature again. "Though we usually sense them coming from deeper below."
"Below? You mean there are more of these crystals down there?" Donny asked, his mind racing at a hundred miles a minute. "We just want to find out where they came from, that's all, and maybe-"
"No, it is a forbidden place!" The blue mutant barked. "Something evil dwells there amidst the crystals. There are some things man was never meant to tamper with." Donny quickly cut off Mikey before he was about to go on another rant. "He is an odd one."
"Huh, you guys have a sense of humor, that's good." Bianca laughed lightly.
"We have only little left that we can remember from our humanity." Quarry said bitterly.
"I'm so sorry…" She said quietly as she touched the mutant's hand lightly. She was expecting him to retract his hand but he grasped Bianca's hand and began examining it curiously.
"Where did you get this?" He asked looking from her palm to her face.
"My…hand?"
"No, the light that emanates off of you, it's familiar…have you been here before?"
"Uh, nope, I would remember wandering down into the Earth's crust."
"Hm…"
"What is it that you see?" She asked curiously as she then took her hand back and looked at it herself.
"That you are somehow connected to this…"
"I-I am?"
"I am unaware of how, but the light is similar to the darkness that lurks in the forbidden areas."
"That, doesn't make much sense…"
"It's like," Quarry started to struggle a bit with his speech. "The light and darkness spawned from the same thing but act differently."
"Okay. That make a little more sense…you can't have light without dark I guess…wonder why I have this light though…"
"Maybe the lab might contain answers. We should head back there anyway, it's not safe to wander far from it."
"At least you guys can survive out here and know what's out here, we don't."
"You will see soon enough. Come."
"I don't trust these guys…" Mikey whispered.
"Why?" Raph asked regrettably.
"Try the fact that they're monsters."
"Yeah well to some other people: so are we." Donny added in sadly.
"I can't believe The Shredder had you genetically altered to diggers, just to search down here for some, enemy." Leo mused as he walked alongside the blue mutant.
"Yes, and he did so without remorse. We were forced against our will to do his bidding." Quarry said bitterly.
"He just, snatched you at random? From where?"
"From the streets, our offices, our homes. Anywhere a shadow can conceal a Foot soldier. We don't know why we were chosen."
"What's, your name?"
"I am Quarry of Tunnel Squad 3. The others are Stone Biter and Razor Fist."
"No, not what The Foot called you, your real name."
"Sy-Sy, agh. My memory is ugh, the experiments performed on us had stripped us of who we are."
"Yes, we saw the video log entries."
"Well you don't havta worry about Shredder. We've given him his due." Raph said proudly as he punched his fist into his palm.
"That's what he gets for messing with the ninja turtles!" Mikey chimed in.
"But that doesn't mean he's out for the count, his clan may not be as active, but he still awaits to make a move." Bianca mused.
"Not really helping…" Donny mentioned silently. A blaring noise went off in the lab. The blue mutant went over to the control pad and examined the source of the noise and gasped,
"Oh no…the others, they've tripped an alarm in the east delta tunnel. Hurry! We must activate the energy shield."
"Yeah I don't know if that's gonna work…" Bianca mumbled but kept it more to herself, hoping she would be wrong.
"No, no!"
"Don't do a 'no, no'. I hate 'no, no's." Mikey panicked once again.
"It's no good! The shield will not activate, we have no power, no force field. And they're headed this way."
"Uh yeah, we kinda met your force field." Raph mused sheepishly.
"And then Raph kinda broke it." Mikey added.
"What, is out there?" Leo asked.
"The others."
"Other what?"
"Test subjects, like us. They endlessly prowl the tunnels."
"Why do you have to keep them out?" Donny asked next.
"Because they attack us, they're violent, uncontrollable! Their minds have deteriorated."
"From the genetic mutation?"
"Yes."
"But then what about you three?" Leo asked.
"Madness looms in our future as well." Quarry explained as he tried working on the machines again once he ripped open a few panels. "The crystal is completely burned out! It's hopeless." Everyone prepped himself or herself as they took out their weapons, but Quarry nodded in sadness. "Weapons will do no good. Without the force field, we won't stand a chance against them. They'll be on us in minutes!"
"You know, you're kinda freaking me out here! Are you always such a naysayer?" Mikey complained.
"Huh? Is that what the crystals are? Power sources?" Donny inquired.
"Yes, but that was our only one. And when we found it in the catacombs, we paid dearly for it."
"Well, what about one of ours?" Leo asked as he dug through the bag to bring one out.
"They're too small, they would not last."
"It only has to last until they give up and move on." "C'mon!"
"There is no spark!"
"For some reason it just won't power up!" "Maybe the connection between the conduit zones was charred."
"Or, maybe you got the thing upside down."
"It's not upside down, Mikey." Donny shooed Mikey away and he went to go help Raph, Stone Biter, and Razor Fist to barricade the doors. "Okay, let's try it again!" When he tried jumpstarting the machine, it still didn't work, not knowing what else to do, he let curiosity take over and he flipped the crystal upside down and, "It's working!" The group looked back at Donny as the machine started up and the column of light appeared again and expanded, this time allowing the turtles, Bianca and the mutants to stay under the light and not be harmed. The other mutants appeared, a lot more mutated looking than Quarry, Stone Biter, and Razor Fist. They tried desperately to break through the force field but continued to fail.
"Don't think I didn't see that Donny, I knew it was upside down." Mikey cooed as he rubbed his "genius" in Donny's face.
"Who would've known Mikey had it in him to make such an executive decision?" Bianca joked. She just loved teasing the poor orange clad turtle.
"I take offense to that!"
"You should."
"It's overloading!" Quarry hollers as all attention's turned to the machine, as everyone starts praying for the machine to continue to hold off the out of control mutants who were trying to get to them.
"That doesn't sound good…" Bianca said as the machine was starting to shut down slowly.
"They're leaving…" Quarry breathed as attention was yet again drawn towards the door, the monsters were dispersing. The machine finally shut off completely. "But tomorrow they'll be back, they always come back."
"Then you better have a bigger crystal." Leo stated.
"We will not survive another journey to the forbidden zone."
"What makes the place so, forbidden?" Mikey asked.
"I don't think I wanna know…" Bianca murmured, worried what the answer would be.
"The ancient catacombs stretch for miles…we were forced to explore it, many of us never returned."
"Uh, maybe they got lost?" Mikey suggested.
"They were taken by a ghostly entity! There is never any sign of a struggle, they're just, gone."
"Ghosts, now we're definitely in a horror film." Bianca sighed. She was happier to hear ghost than some Godzilla monster.
"Look, I understand why you don't want to go down there, but there aren't a lot of options. You need another crystal, and fast." Leo said sternly.
"And since, uh, we're the ones who kinda fried your security system…we'll go with cha, right guys?" Raph asked turning to his comrades.
"Absolutely." Leo agreed.
"We're there." Don said.
"Why not? Not like we have any way of finding an exit." Bianca shrugged.
"Uh, you know, the corner hardware store has a sale on generators that would really get this force field humming, so I'll just go up top and clip the coupon and then oof-" Mikey didn't have more time to complain as he got swiftly dragged out the door by Raph. Everyone followed behind Donny as he light the way with their remaining crystal, thankfully giving less of a headache to Bianca than when there were two.
"Okay, let's keep our wits about us…" Leo instructed as the continued on.
"Don't worry Mikey, you can share my wits." Raph joked.
"Oh, so now I'm witless? Must be the reason why I'm the only one bothered by the fact that we're heading into a place that even monsters are afraid of!"
"Would you quit it on the whole monster business? They're human, they've just been altered, you don't need to constantly remind them of that!" Bianca argued.
"Well excuse me but looks can be deceiving."
"Have you looked in a mirror lately?" Bianca sighed, not seeing the point in trying to pick a fight with a bonehead like him. "Why don't you just freaking trust them already? They're harmless."
"I don't know if you caught the little moment when Quarry said that they're going to go insane soon!"
"It doesn't mean now, they still have some grasp of their human lives." She spat as she carried on ahead of them to walk with Stone Biter and Razor Fist. They started approaching a large area with a slide type pathway made of stone. Bianca was nervous about going down it that she backed up into Razor Fist. She turned around and mumbled a timid sorry as she continued to look downwards. She suddenly was lifted up by her collar and placed on Razor Fist's back.
"Th-thank you…" She stuttered to say, though she was sincere.
"You're…" He strained to say. the whole time Razor Fist and Stone Biter haven't attempted talking like Quarry was. Bianca suddenly realized that maybe these two are farther along the going 'insane' part than she's realized. "Welcome…" He finally said. At least the emotional part was still there. Suddenly she felt yelling from below her when Razor Fist started scaling the walls. Bianca timidly looked down and saw the guys falling down the pathway, like Bianca assumed she would have done if Razor Fist didn't help her out.
"Short cut? In what mutated imagination could that be considered a-" Mikey started before cut off.
"Sorry, we forgot you can't scale rock." Quarry said excusing his actions as he, Stone Biter and Razor Fist continued down cautiously.
"Let's try to avoid that mistake in the future, okay?" Raph moaned as he dusted himself off and removed himself from the pile that he and his brothers made on the ground.
"Lucky you, you got to take the Razor Fist Express." Mikey complained as Razor Fist lifted his claw and Bianca gripped onto it to be helped down.
"Yup." She smiled cheekily at Mikey and then at Razor Fist, and as far as she could tell, Razor Fist seemed to appreciate it.
"Woo, who cut the cheese?"
"You're smelling a sulfur pool, Mikey." Don explained.
"Coming from a turtle that grew up in the sewers, trust me when I say that this place stinks!"
"Aren't the fumes from the sulfur toxic to inhale?" Bianca asked warily staring at the yellow liquid in the center of the area.
"We should be okay, as long as we don't stick around for too long."
"We must keep moving." Quarry said, taking the lead of the group and using stepping-stones to make it through the pool. "The others wander down here, this is their territory." He said cautiously as everyone soon followed his lead. Suddenly a bubble popped out of the sulfur pool and Leo stared at it curiously, until it popped into a deformed fish mutant and suddenly Quarry's tongue wrapped its way around the fish and he ate it with a loud crunch.
"Ew…" Leo mused.
"We've learned to live off the land, before it lives off of us." Quarry said.
"Uh, seems reasonable enough…eat or get eaten right?" Bianca laughed nervously as she kept going.
"Leo, are you okay?" Donny asked as Leo gasped after stepping out of sight. Everyone looked out and saw that the mutants were starting to scale the wall sideways while there was only a little bit of a ledge for the rest of them to use to follow suit.
"That was a little too close for comfort, what your footing guys." Leo warned. Bianca again felt very nervous as she looked down and got suddenly very afraid.
"Ah!" She said as she felt another tug on the back of her shirt. She was once again placed on Razor's shoulder. She smiled and shook her head side to side. "Razor Fist, you don't have to carry me if you don't want to, I can try climbing up."
"No, need…too, young." He said as he continued to climb.
"I'm not that young, I'm almost seventeen." She countered with a laugh.
"That's…sister's…" He said seriously, trying to grasp onto the memory popping into his head.
"You have a sister? Who's my age?" He merely grunted, trying not to strain his mind too much. "I bet she misses you very much…if you want, if we get outta here, I can find her, send her a message?"
"No!" He roared suddenly stopping mid climb to turn back to Bianca. She shut up immediately and held her breath. "No…too painful…don't want…sadness…"
"Okay…" Bianca mumbled as she continued the rest of her time on his shoulder silent.
"This is it…" Quarry said once they made it to a secluded part of the cavern where there was a cliff looming over a whirlpool.
"Wow…" Leo gasped as he looked at the sight. Quarry, Razor Fist with Bianca still, and Stone Biter went down easily and without hesitation. Leo, Donny, and Raph also followed that lead. Mikey waited behind timidly,
"Okay, this seems like a good idea. Follow the monsters into a swirling vortex of doom, nothing wrong with this picture." Mikey then did a cannonball down the whirl pool, though he didn't know he would end up at the top of a waterfall and he stated spazzing on his way down. He sprouted out of the water and saw crystals sticking out at the end of the waterfall, "Current's too strong! I don't wanna be skewered!" but before he could come in contact with the spikes, Stone Biter caught Mikey by his head with his mouth and placed him on the ground by Stone Biter's feet.
"Stone Biter let go of his head." Quarry said after a moment when Stone Biter still didn't let go. He unclenched his jaw and Mikey was free to say,
"Do that again and I'll let you know what turtles really taste like!"
"Nice comeback, I bet he's quaking in his boots…" He laughed. Bianca was glad to hear that they still understood humor, something else to keep them going, kep them remembering who they are.
"How far away are we from the crystals?" Leo asked.
"They're here in the catacombs, but from this point on, we must keep very quiet."
"Hey, recognize these carvings?" Donny mused as they came upon a new entrance with teal and brown/yellow stones.
"Whoa, these are just like the carvings in the lair." Mikey awed.
"Yeah, same interior decorator." Raph grumbled.
"I wonder what they glyphs mean…" Bianca mused as she continued to stare on them a minute longer, before realizing she was lagging behind the group.
"Good, this crystal will do, we need not journey farther into this evil place." Quarry said relieved as he was about to pluck the crystal off the wall a shrill scream came from a little ways behind them from Mikey,
"Ah, wait up! Guys, guys, GUYS!" When he ran up everyone thought he would stop but he kept running past them when he said, "We've got monsters, right behind me!"
"Everyone, let's get to cover!" Leo said as he, his brothers, and Bianca followed Mikey's lead, farther into the tunnel and away from the creepy monsters.
"NO, that way leads to-"
"No choice, let's go!" Leo said cutting off Quarry's frantic warning, having no other choice Quarry and his mutant friends followed.
"Stand back!" Donny said when they approached a sealed off door that was unbreakable. "C'mon, c'mon…oh, never mind." Donny said when he realized the crystal wasn't reacting with the door to let them in.
"Battle ready boys." Leo said as he unsheathed his weapons along with everyone else.
"You know I wonder…" Donny pondered before doing what he did before back in the lab: flipping it. "Ha!" He said triumphantly. As the door slid open he called, "Hey, it worked!"
"Way ta go-" Bianca was about to congratulate him when something was heading straight for him, "Donny!" No one could stop her as she started rushing towards Donny and tackling him out of the way of whatever was approaching them.
"Wha-" Donny asked but stopped when Bianca came in contact with him. he fell to the floor as Bianca was wrapped in something and then disappeared.
"Bianca!" Leo yelled to the empty space where Bianca was.
"She's gone!" Mikey called.
"Guys—!" Bianca called out but stopped as she observed her surroundings. "Huh?" She found herself in a weird bubble. Suddenly there was another flash and another figure appeared, "Razor Fist?" She asked, she tried banging on the glass to see if he could hear her, but suddenly the bubble she was in was filling up with freezing cold water, and fast. "NO!" Bianca tried floating to the top but it completely filled the bubble and she soon lost consciousness as she felt her body freeze over.