Ch.7: Anger's Desire
Dr. Chaplin couldn't help but feel the rage boiling up in his blood. His life as a respected scientist had been turned to dust, mutated into this living nightmare. He could never return home to hold his wife and children in his arms. He couldn't walk out and face the public without scaring half of the citizenry to death.
Forever he would be hunted by those who created him, and made him a beast. Forever he live the rage burning in his soul. These two now that he held in claws were nothing more goons in his eyes. Goons for an enemy he didn't see fit to live.
Opening his jaws wide, Dr. Chaplin pulled two helpless creatures closer and closer to his waiting maw. However before their death could be permanently sealed, a sharp point suddenly dug its way into his back making him cry out in pain. This was soon followed by a whack to the head, forcing him to release his prey back on the floor.
Growling in anger, Dr. Chaplin focused his yellow reptilian eyes on a new figure that caught his focus. Its shape was similar to the other two creatures he had grabbed, except that this creature was wearing red and had a pair of sharp sais in his hands. One of the deadly blades tips was coated with blood, obviously being the one that stabbed his back.
"Okay gruesome!" said Raphael " Step away from my brothers, and you won't get hurt!"
"Ironic choice of words for a hired gun," growled Dr. Chaplin " You fools will never take me back to TCRI,"
" So you're that little experiment of theirs that got out of control" stated Raph " Ironic then. Let's say we get this fight started,"
"After you," stated Dr. Chaplin, and then he and Raph clashed.
Claws and sais met with each other at full force when the two opposing sides met. Raph grunted with extreme effort, pushing back against Dr. Chaplin's gator strength, but the scientist's mutated form was to powerful to face head on, and eventually the red-banded turtle got pushed back.
"Alright" thought Raph " try this on!"
Willing his feet to move with lightning speed, Raphael charged towards the large reptile and leaped around the gator to strike a few blows to the back. Dr. Chaplin screamed in pain from the blows then, eyes narrowed, he struck out at Raphael with his heavily armored tail.
Raphael saw the appendage swinging towards him almost to late, and rolled out of the way only to be met by Dr. Chaplin's fist. The force of the punch sent him brutally sailing down the tunnel, losing grip on his sais along the way. Landing hard against a brick wall, Raphael struggled back to stand, feeling blood ooze out from his right arm, no doubt cut by the huge crash.
"Uh" grunted Raph, clutching over the bleeding cut " that's gonna leave a mark,"
"This ends now!" growled Dr. Chaplin, charging at Raphael again.
"Whatever you say pal," said Raphael, reaching into his belt to draw out the smoke pellets.
As Dr. Chaplin surged closer, Raphael threw one of the smoke pellets onto the ground and was instantly surrounded by a billowing cloud of black smoke. Undeterred, Dr. Chaplin tore his way through the smoke and striked, clawing nothing but empty air.
"Hey Leatherhead!" Raphael called, making the gator turn around " Catch!"
With that said, three little smoke pellets soared through the air, landing in the gator's surprised maw. Smoke exploding inside of him, Dr. Chaplin danced around in painful confusion as Raphael delivered a sharp kick to chest, making him land on the floor.
"That's over," said Raphael, turning back so he could go check on his brothers. But Dr. Chaplin wasn't fully defeated yet.
Eyes glowing with rage, the alligator slowly rose up behind Raphael, claws out and ready to maul the unexpecting turtle before he got to far away. However, before he could even consent to initiating this ambush, fate had different plans.
"Yah!" cried out Leonardo, knocking Dr. Chaplin away from Raphael.
The gator landed hard on the ground, releasing out a small growl before blacking out completely. Leonardo breathed heavily, and collapsed on his knees from the blow he delivered. He was still a little exhausted from the previous battle. Raphael grinned.
"Always have to show off don't you Leo?" said Raph.
"Heh" laughed Leo " I guess. Thanks for the hand,"
"Likewise" said Raph, helping his brother up " Is Donnie alright?"
"I'm fine" said Donnie, using his bo staff to keep him upright " To bad me and Leo didn't get a chance to fix the third alarm, or else we couldn't have made it for this rescue,"
"Glad you show confidence Donnie," Raphael joked.
"Raph" said Leo, looking towards his brother "What were you doing here anyway? Weren't you and Mikey out for patrol?"
"Yeah" said Raph " We only got home a few minutes ago. I went looking for guys to tell you about Leatherhead here. Apparently he's an escaped product from TCRI, and the Nightwatcher was asked to bring him home,"
"Hmm" wondered Don " This is a rather curious situation then. Maybe we should take this 'Leatherhead' as Raph calls him back home to the lair to learn more,"
"Are you out of your mind Don?" said Leo " Don't you remember what he did?"
"He's intelligent Leo" said Don, looking serious " and he's a mutant that obviously needs our help. I know that it may not be the safest choice to rely on, but…I just feel that its right,"
Leonardo stood quiet, looking over at Donatello, his mind reflecting back to the thoughts he had earlier about the pressure he had put on his brainiac brother by making him a leader in his place. Nearly half the time, a leader's most reliable source was his own instincts, and though it may not always be in your reason to favor those instincts, they usually proved to be right.
"Okay Brainiac" said Raph, walking over to Leatherhead, and gripping hard onto the gator's left arm " Hey Leo, give me a big hand getting this lug back to the lair. Donnie, go find my sais in this sludge and bring them home. We'll have this gator secured so you can poke around when ya get back,"
With that said, Leo and Raph dragged the massive beast all the way towards their sewer home, while Don went searching for the sais. Inside his mind, Leo was worried.
"Master Splinter isn't going to be happy about this,"
Meanwhile, back on the surface of New York, sneaking through the ducts of Shredder's Foot facility, a crafty Ninjara shifted her golden frame slyly through the metal shafts, following the trail of the devious Alopex with which she had hitched a ride all the way from Japan.
Soon after getting off of the plane, Ninjara trailed Alopex all the way over to the Foot HQ, and knowing better than sneak through the front door, chose the air duct so that she could continue to chase her prey in silence. Although the walls of the metal obscured Alopex from her view, years of training had developed Ninjara's senses to follow her targets trail no matter the source of blindness.
Crawling up to a little window in the right of the duct she had just turned into, Ninjara peered through the grate to see Alopex standing just in front of the Shredder and Karai, the Cursed Charm still hanging from her neck.
"A work of art is it not?" bragged Alopex, looking smug.
"Are you sure it will perform?" asked Karai.
"Of course I am" said Alopex, feigning hurt " Master Karai if I thought you couldn't use this power, I would never go to the trouble to steal it from my former clan. Masakodo was a great hero in his day, bringing peace between warring clans, and training many others in the way of the samurai. All who sought to follow did it with passion burning in their souls,"
"However" she continued " one day, for some unknown reason, Masakodo suddenly went rouge and fell from being the most respected warrior in Japan to the most feared. This Cursed Charm as my clan calls it was found after Masakodo was stopped and sieging years of torment against Japan, and is said to hold evil inside. An evil that may one day, free Masakodo from his prison in time,"
"Prison in time?" questioned Karai.
"A fairytale ending nothing more" said Alopex, then turned to Shredder " I trust you are pleased Master?"
"Yes" said Shredder " I am familiar with the Masakodo legend as well. If your Cursed Charm's powers are true to their worth they may have some use for my plans, and my warrior,"
"Ah yes" said Alopex, with a grin " and how is your warrior?"
Before Shredder could answer, Ninjara received a nasty surprise as she was suddenly spat out of the ventilation duct, landing in the middle of a stunned Shredder, Alopex, and Karai. She had no idea what had just occurred, or what unnatural force could have suddenly pushed her from her hiding place, but there was only one thing that was for sure right now. She had been caught.
Back at the lair, grunting and breathing heavy after their long hall to drag a ten ton alligator all the way home to their lair, Leonardo and Raphael were full blown exhausted, and were hardly ready to answer any questions when Donnie returned with Raph's sais, and Splinter and Mikey discovered the new guest to the lair.
"Boys!" said Splinter sternly, looking towards Leo, Don, and Raph in turn " Care to explain?"
As delicately as they could, Leo and Don began explaining what they had been doing in the tunnels until the alligator showed up and Raph came to their rescue. Raphael then explained that he thought this creature was the same one he and Mikey had been informed about when they went out on their 'special' patrol, and told that it was Donnie's idea to bring the newly named 'Leatherhead' back to the lair.
Splinter stood fingering his chin, taking this all in at silence, while Mikey practically burst open with excitement.
"Leatherhead!" he shouted " That's a cool name bro! Sensei, can we keep him? Please!"
"He's not a pet Mikey," said Donatello, as Leo and Raph both sighed. "He's an intelligent being. We need to know more about him, and why this Traag person wants the Nightwatcher and…ahem…Turtle Titan to bring him back,"
"You think this guy had been tested?" said Raph, not totally a query in itself.
"Maybe" said Don " and if he was, whose to say what horrors could lie in TCRI?"
"Darkness is my home" grumbled Slash's voice echoing off the walls of a shadowed room " I am just a slave to my master, craving the destruction of his enemies. They do not deserve to live. They aren't strong enough and will die. That is my pledge, my purpose. Shredder's will bounds me,"