World's Below

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters used in this story.

Chapter Eight:

Making their way into the sewer and to Vincent's home was not without its problems, or difficulties, as there happened to be just enough Foot around the sewers to make the task ten times worse then it would have been under normal circumstances.

Mike and Leo found they had to stop often fighting off anyone foolish enough to get close and then when catching a reprieve they would move off into the tunnels in hopes of throwing off pursuers and spies, while at the same time not attracting attention of any scouts in the area.

"The last thing we need is to lead the Foot right to Vincent's home" Leo grumbled, gritting his teeth at the many delays.

"Maybe they think we are leading them to our home" Mike suggested helpfully.

Leo scowled, "We don't need to do that either Mike" Leo declared, he heaved an exasperated sigh "Stick close don't make a sound and let's try this again." Leo said as he moved off.

XXXX

Raph crossed his arms over his plastron, "I say we go after Karai and her stinkin' Foot soldiers" He announced, not for the first time.

Don rolled his eyes "Raph that's your answer to everything and you can be as irritating as Mikey is when you talk like that."

"Impossible!" Raph shook his head, "No one is as irritating as Mike."

Don gave him a sour look "Don't count on it" he muttered.

Raph gave an indifferent shrug "It works Don" he pointed out bluntly, "I don't see why for just once in our pathetic lives we can't be different and bring the fight to them."

"Water wears down rock by going over and around it" Don answered simply, "Now will you help me look for clues." He asked trying to keep his tone from being too pleading.

Raph grunted, "Depends will you let me blow somethin up?"

Don groaned and hit his forehead with the flat of his palm as he shot a frustrated but scathing glare towards his oblivious red masked brother "If it means you will cooperate and actually help..." Don began.

Raph nodded.

"Fine. But it won't be tonight" Don gave in, then muttered under his breath "getting as bad as Mike and I don't know which is worse."

"Hell I don't care if we are ninja it's not over until there is an explosion ." Raph insisted firmly.

XXXX

Vincent pushed up on his arms, his hair hanging down into his face, he slowly managed to push himself into a sitting position. He gave a slow shake of his head, tossing locks of blond mane everywhere, and revealing glimpses of the small cage that he was now enclosed in.

It was not the first time Vincent had been caged by some one of the outside world, there had been a time, he had become blinded and some one had found him, locking him into a cage of some small apartment or warehouse. Catherine, father, all his friends and family from below and above had searched in vain for him. No matter how he raged he could not break free and his impaired vision would make it difficult to return home even if by some luck he managed to break free. A drug addict and a prostitute who stayed at the place had aided him in his escape. Proving that while the world above had it's dark side it had some rather unlikely angels too.

"A very interesting specimen" came a cold calculating voice from behind him.

Vincent stood and turned to face the speaker snarling and bearing his teeth, allowing a low growl to rumble from his throat.

"High aggressive tendencies, powerful. The blood for it is quite odd there is human DNA in it but there is a large part of it that remains unconfirmed" the speaker droned on, "We are going have to see what makes this animal tick."

Vincent growled louder, all ready not caring for the man in the black three piece suit who stood out of reach, watching him in a predatory way Vincent huffed flashing his sharp teeth, while wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Bishop smirked as if amused, but undaunted by the display "Settle down beast. You are going learn that there is but one law here" Bishop paused, "And it's my law. If you have any intelligence you will obey and not fight it. Not like that poor sap against the wall" Bishop gestured to a far wall, where a large alligator mutant was displayed as a trophy, preserved and stuffed to look like it was alive. Bishop gave a smirk "Your turtle friends sold you out. Just like they sold out him. They don't care about you."

Vincent shook his head in denial "That's not true" he declared. He knew the turtles, he trusted them.

Bishop laughed, "Oh you think so huh? Well, will see if you change your mind about that later on."

XXX

Leo and Mike finally managed to give the slip to the remaining Foot soldiers and back tracked to the section of tunnels that they could use to get around the abyss, a large cavern that dropped miles down, according to Vincent none of their people knew where the bottom was, that they had once tried to use rope to reach the bottom but after adding many lengths of rope it had never touched ground, there was only a thin path around the abyss and many of the tunnel children would dare each other to travel a path along the way.

Once past the abyss they considered themselves on Vincent's home grown and it wasn't far from there to Father's library. The library was just off of Vincent's room, almost every corner of the room was taken up with books, of all shapes, sizes and conditions.

Books filled the numerous shelves lined up and stacked to get as many in as possible, the desks, chairs and floor itself held stacks of books leaving barely room to walk or move between them, the piles were all neat and organized, Father could find any one in a matter of minutes, and his library included the great literary works, Shakespeare, Dickens, Browning, Kipling- and oh Vincent had loved the stories of the little wolf boy Mowgli as a child, and had often pretended to be the wolf boy from the Jungle Book. There was also books on every type of science, flora, fauna, astronomy, medicinal, chemistry and more. There was books on art and the great artists and books of religion. In fact there was probably a book for every interest, need or desire in that room; and father was continually adding more to his collection.

Everyone in the tunnels read and memorized large passages of the books but the true bibliotech was father himself, and Father practically lived in the library, the same way Splinter spent a great deal of his time in meditation- age did have it's rewards- so it was natural to make the library the first stop.

Father heard the soft cough and turned to see the two ninja turtles, bleeding from fresh wounds, and bringing with them a sense of discomfort. Father swallowed quickly, and turned to clear a stack of books off a chair and placing them carefully on another pile before turning and sinking into the cushion, he absently pushed his glasses up on his nose, all ready certain of what news they brought he preferred to hear it sitting down. "There has been some trouble hasn't there?" He inquired cutting right to the chase, "I suppose it involves Vincent as well, and the news isn't good considering how late it is?" he added. His silent rebuke of 'I have been fretting and concerned the later it gets and now my worse fears are true. You have gotten him in trouble, and now what?' rang through his own mind.

The turtles were aware of his thoughts and Mike shifted a bit, humbly hanging his head, he arched an eye ridge in surprise at father's words though and then looked to Leo to take the lead, good as he was with words, Mike knew he had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth and it was wiser to let Leo speak in situations like this.

Leo took a deep breath and took a step forward and bowed low to Father, " Regrettably you are correct on both counts. Our enemy came upon us and we ordered Vincent to leave to get to safety" Leo explained, " I had a feeling that he wanted to stay but he was persuaded in the end to go. Which is just as well the Foot clan's vendetta is with us, not with you or those who live here. They must have taken Vincent while he tried to get back home. They may try to use him as bait for my brothers and I."

Father's eyes narrowed at the news and he hung his head with a wearied, exhausted sigh.

"I promise you father on our honour we will find Vincent and return him to you safely" Leo vowed.

Father nodded silently, realizing that Vincent might need help and his mind whirled with possible plans and strategies to find his son, he was not going leave any stone unturned in the search, Vincent was special, not just to him but to all who lived here. "You might not be able to do this alone" he remarked, doing his best to keep any recriminations from his tone.

It was he, and a handful of others who had first set up this place of refuge and healing. To this day he remained one of the leaders and guiding members of those who lived there, after all most major decisions, except for emergency situations, was voted upon by all.

"We know where the Foot are and your people shouldn't have to deal with them. I'll just have a pleasant talk with the current leader Karai" Leo hastened to assure father.

Mike made a snorting noise from behind Leo and the blue masked turtle shot a venomous look his brother's way.

"What?" Mike demanded spreading his hands wide, "I didn't do anything" he protested his innocence.

"You're not helping" Leo muttered out of the side of his mouth.

Father shot a direct stare at Leo "What if you are wrong and Vincent isn't there, perhaps these Foot" Father seemed stuck on the word as if unable to label a body part as a group of beings, "You can check out your leads and if you are right that's good," he suggested, "But in the meantime it might be wise to keep the lines of communication open to insure that nothing is over looked, just in case your hunch doesn't pay off."

Leo considered father's words, it seemed to him an unnecessary thing to do, after all Vincent had to be locked up by the Foot somewhere, but keeping busy might ease some of the stress and worries that might otherwise show themselves when one was just sitting and fretting over other possible scenarios. Not to mention that it did make sense to utilize every resource that was available to him, giving less chance for a trail to grow cold.

Leo was used to going with the most likely and working his way down, if only because he didn't have a large enough clan to disperse or use to seek out every trail following it to the dead end or gold.

"All right do what you can. We will use everything in our ability to return him." Leo agreed. He cleared his throat a bit " I hope you bear us no ill will due to this though father, really we felt that the Foot would leave Vincent alone it was only after wards I realized I made the mistake I had made."

Father groaned, heaving a sigh as he rubbed his chin. "Honestly a part of me, a very human part of me does want to hold you entirely responsible for this" he confessed, "However Vincent choses to risk his life by going above, no matter how I try to keep him. What is it they say, no one can hold the sand in their hand when it is clenched in a fist? Vincent's love for Catherine pulls him above, it is stronger then any fears, doubts or suspicions of those who would be against him above. He has ended up in some danger due to just his love for her." Father gave a wearied smile, "Let us say that you are partially responsible and there is a chance that Vincent may make it home yet without our assistance; In the off chance that is impossible I would rather be prepared."

XXXX

Don and Raph hurried towards Vincent's home in hopes of catching up with Leo, as they had found some important information. The two moved quickly wasting no time, but slowed down enough so those who worked the perimeters of Vincent's home territory could identify them as friends, and not send an alarm ringing through the pipes of an intruder. As they raced by one check point, Don wondered to himself if he ought to set up those on such duties with cell phones.

Don had helped them rig up a better alarm system but the tunnel dwellers seemed quite content to continue with tapping messages on the ancient pipes. It was a fairly good system actually as it alerted both good and bad news quickly to wide areas of their home. After all a message on the pipe be it flood, intruder, supplies left at, could be understood by most those who lived there, and they could then prepare. While a phone message might not go through well due to inadequate signals under ground or other types of interference, meaning some people might never get the message.

The turtles were now as familiar with these section of tunnels as they were with their own, so they didn't have to slow down for much and reached the library in record time. Don took note that Mary, and Mouse were also sitting in the library, along with Pascal and Winslow. Mouse raised his head to give an accusing stare their way.

"Mouse told you they were trouble" he declared firmly, making a shooing motion with one arm.

"That is of little help to us or Vincent Mouse. They did what they could I'm sure." Mary corrected, kindly.

Leo turned to face his two brothers who were puffing only slightly, he arched his eye ridge silently questioning them.

"Leo this give you an idea who we are really after?" Don inquired holding up the pair of sunglasses.

Leo made a face and almost as instantly it vanished as if it had never been.

Father dismissed it with a shrug "Many people topside wear sunglasses it means nothing."

"Most people don't wear them at night" Raph pointed out.

"Not only that these glasses are designed for night vision" Don stated, "They must have fallen out of someone's pocket" Don added, then he dropped the rest of the information, " Found on a rooftop near some broken tranq darts."

Mary raised her head, "So what exactly does that mean?" she wondered.

Don and Leo stared at each other in silence, communicating, without voicing a word, finally Leo gave a subtle nod.

"It seems that Vincent has not been captured by the enemies who over took us tonight" he admitted, "Instead he is being held by someone who is far more dangerous to us. A man known as Bishop" Leo explained, "He has a tendency for causing trouble to anyone who does not meet his criteria for being a normal human, yet I and my brothers suspect that he isn't fully human either. He also works for the government."

Father's face grew very pale at the news, "Experimenting on people like Vincent and yourself?" he asked.

It was a loaded question and not one that Leo cared to answer, but he had no real choice he would not lie to this man any more then he could lie to his own father.

"It is one way of putting it, though the words torture and abuse seem far more adequate. We have a friend Leatherhead, a mutant gator, who has also suffered at Bishop's hands" Leo acknowledged reluctantly, "Due to that Leatherhead is not always the most stable person to deal with."

Don scowled, "But Leatherhead disappeared a few weeks back Leo. I know we didn't think much of it then as he often goes off on his own, but he isn't normally gone this long" Don stated softly so none of the others could hear his comment.

Mouse gave a firm nod of his head "Trouble! See Mouse is right. Mouse warned you, should have listened" he accused the others.

Raph glowered at the boy "You ain't helping matters kid." He snapped.

The new knowledge of what they were facing, and the trouble Vincent was in slowly sank into everyone gathered within the crowded room.

TBC