Hi, and sorry for the rather long wait. Had a nasty writers block, and some personal issues that will continue to consume time for me for a long time, but anyway, on with the show.
In the last chapter, our heroes managed to infiltrate the base were Sephie was being held captive. After rescuing her, they learned the horrific truth about the zomborgs and they must make a decision.
I own only my OCs and the plot.
Chapter 17
Decisive Actions
"Then we all agree," said Leo "Overlord must be stopped. Permanently."
"And while we're at it, we might as well raze this place to the ground!" said Raph.
"I have to agree with you on that, Raph." Donnie commented "Though I'm normally against violence, this place is nothing more than a nightmare factory, filled with abominations. It must be destroyed, together with its contents."
"So... how do we do that?" Mikey asked.
"Explosions work pretty darn well, if you ask me." said Tyroth.
"If they're making those zomborgs here, there must be something that would work. Gas, fuel or even machinery that we might be able to overload." said Sephie.
"Then all we need to do, is to find out what this place holds for us." said Mona "The surveillance system might be of use for that."
"Already on it, sis." said Donnie as he once again started to work his magic on the computers, quickly deleting the entry of Overlord and checking every camera in the entire building. The majority of the building was focused on manufacturing the armor and several other components to the zomborgs, and was patrolled by a few dozen Foot-ninja. As Sephie had suggested, the factory equipment could cause a lot of damage if sabotaged correctly. Adjacent to the main hall were several storage rooms containing the various metals and electronics needed. One of the rooms however contained the zomborgs, who stood in rows of five with four in each.
"That complicates things." said Donnie. "If we start anything in the hall, they'll be on us in no time."
"Why not let Tyroth deal with them?" asked Raph "He did take care of the last three we fought."
"Sure, I will deal with twenty killing-machines all alone, while the rest of you fight the ninja. No thanks. I might be hard to kill but I'm not invincible. Two or three, I can handle on my own, but twenty? At least one of them is gonna hit me with one of those energy weapons, and let me tell you, the hurt."
"We can't fight them and the Foot at the same time." said Leo "We must find a way to even the odds."
"It's a good thing that I packed a few things that might help." said Donnie as he opened his bag and pulled out a strange looking shuriken.
"Hey, I remember those!" said Mikey, grabbing the shuriken "We used these against those invisible Foot-ninja when we attacked Shredders base the first time. Ah, the memories."
"Don't get nostalgic on us now, Mikey." said Raph.
"I've been tinkering with these during the last weeks, and I've managed to increase their power. It may not be strong enough to take down a zomborg, but I'm positive that it will stun them long enough for us to finish the job. Thought about it after Sephie fried one with her electrical arrows. Also apart from the weaker armor at the joints, the lenses in their palms seems to be a weak spot, especially if hit when they're charging the blaster."
"Okay, that gives us a fighting chance, but they still outnumber us six to one. We need a strategy to go with the weapons." said Leo.
"Maybe if we could get them to split up, we could take them a few at a time." said Mona.
"Divide and conquer. Sound like a good plan to me." Tyroth commented.
"Then we have to make them separate, but how?" Sephie asked.
"If we can get to the main computer, I'll see if I can't get them moving." said Donnie pulling out a laptop ans USB from his bag. "I have, with some help from Hacker, created a few viruses. One will delete as much data as possible, I've dubbed it 'Raph', and the other will cause several malfunctions in all manner of equipment connected to the network, I call that one 'Mikey'."
"Hey!" Mikey protested.
"So when 'Mikey' starts causing trouble, they will most likely investigate, splitting up to cover the most ground." said Leo "If the zomborgs follow suit, we should be able to take them out. And if we spread out, they will have a harder time to find out how many there is once we start attacking."
Leo paused for a while, thinking about how to divide the group the best.
"Okay, Mikey, you're with me. Sephie, you're with Donnie. And Raph, you're with Mona. Tyroth, you think you can manage on your own?"
"Yes."
"Then let's find the main computer." said Mona.
Donnie, Raph, Mona and Sephie teamed up as they walked through the corridors to the command-center, avoiding or neutralizing any Foot-members on the way. They took great care in being stealthy around the room where the personnel that were off duty resided. The way to the command-center was fairly straightforward, even though it seemed to go through the entire building.
Eventually they arrived at the last corner, where they stopped. Mona pressed herself against the wall, using one of her fans as a mirror to look around the corner. She saw the reflection of two Foot-ninja guarding the door, about five meters from the corner. Using hand-signs to explain the situation, Mona stepped away from the corner, allowing Sephie to take her place. After checking the corridor with her own dagger, Sephie drew her bow and two ordinary arrows. Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breathes as she listened for the two men. Quickly she turned around the corner and released the arrows. The two ninja barely had time to notice Sephie before their throats were pierced by the arrows and they fell dead to the floor.
Donnie hurried over to the door ans started working his magic on the terminal, it didn't take very long before the door was unlocked and he opened it for his friends. Raph and Mona rushed in and attacked the two closest of the six ninja. Sephie and Donnie followed the two lovers into the room, bow in hand.
Raph punched his foe in the stomach, following up with an elbow in the back of the neck, when the man bent forward in pain, and ending the fight by stabbing him in the back with the sais.
Mona kicked her opponent on the side of his left knee, causing him to loose his balance. Whipping him across his chest with her tail, he fell backwards onto a chair. Mona quickly cut his throat with her fans, ending his life.
Sephie had her sight set on the ninja in the back of the room, rapidly shooting the three in quick succession, fatally wounding or killing them as the arrows embedded themselves in their chests.
The last ninja turned to the console to trigger the alarm, but a quick swipe of Donnie's staff knocked the man of his feet, hitting himself unconscious as he landed on the floor head first.
Raph and Mona went over the shot men and eased the suffering of the two that still lived, even though they most likely didn't deserve any pity or mercy. Meanwhile Sephie closed the door and Donnie started working on the main computer.
"We're in luck!" he said "Everything in this building, aside from one room, gets its power from the same generators, which is controlled from this computer. So once I upload 'Mikey', power will fluctuate almost everywhere. And it seems that all of their research-data, and I use the term reluctantly, is stored in this network, none of the logs indicate that it has been sent somewhere or copied, aside from when you copied it, Mona. My other virus will make short work of this."
It didn't take very long before the memory banks had been completely wiped by the 'Raph'-virus, after Donnie had uploaded it. He then started uploading the 'Mikey'-virus.
"Okay, in about two minutes every piece of machinery will go haywire, it will last for five, maybe ten minutes, so we'll have to make the most of it." said Donnie as the four mutants left the room.
Meanwhile, Leo, Mikey and Tyroth observed the ninja from the shadows as they patrolled the hall. All of the sudden, the lights started to turn on and off at random and the machines acted up. The ninja were surprised by the large scale malfunctions and tried to contact the command-center, but as nobody responded they realized that something wasn't quite right.
"It must be the turtles! They must be here to rescue the lizard." said one.
"Get the others, the turtles mustn't succeed." said another one as most of the ninja started searching for the intruders. Two ninja ran over to one of the rooms and opened the doors by hand, releasing the zomborgs within. They were activated and joined the Foot-ninja in the search-parties.
A group of two ninja and one zomborg walked along the rows of machines, when a large red fist struck out from the side, hitting the first ninja on the cheek so hard that he was thrown into the second ninja. Both collided with the large machine the other side. The zomborg prepared to attack the intruder, but was unable to defend itself as a large dragon-like figure dashed out from the side with a sword in hand. The lights flickered, the blade was swung, a metallic clang could be heard when the armored head of the zomborg hit the concrete floor, followed by another larger clang of the body.
Another search-party investigated one of the northern corners, a swishing sound quickly closed in on them. Small pointed objects struck the two zomborgs, a crackling noise filled the surrounding air as electricity shot through the metal bodies. The two ninja instantly turned to the shocked zomborgs, but they were stopped by the impacts of hard cylindrical objects to the back of their heads. A green figure leaped through the air, landing between the zomborgs, delivering several slashes to the necks and following up with a strong kick, separating the head from the body of one. The same figure that knocked out the ninja, also delivered a kick to the other zomborg, replicating the results.
A lone zomborg detected a small beeping from one of the press brakes that folded the steel for the armor. The press wasn't supposed to beep. It approached the press and located the source of the beeping, a small device attached to the front of the still active machine. Just before it picked up the device, a silver tipped arrow struck the back and large amounts of electricity overloaded the circuits. A whack of a staff pushed the zomborg into the press headfirst. The press complained slightly as it crushed the the head of the unsuspecting zomborg.
"What was that?" asked a ninja upon hearing the distant sound of metal encased bone and flesh being crushed. The group consisting of three ninja and one zomborg started walking towards the general direction of the sound, however, they didn't get very far before they were ambushed. Leaping out of the shadows of the machinery, a female humanoid lizard cut down one of the ninja with bladed fans and quickly moving to the next, elegantly like if she was dancing. The second ninja had no time to admire the graceful movements, as the sharp weapons she wielded cut his throat, ending his life. Raising its arm, the zomborg readied its blaster to fire at the lizard lady, but it detected other movement from the right side. A second mutant lunged at the zomborg, with two dagger like weapons drawn that impaled the visor and the brain behind, effectively killing it. The last ninja stood now alone, with his katana drawn, shocked by how easy the rest of his group had been eliminated. A swift kick to the head from the lizard lady caught the man off guard and knocked him out cold.
As sudden as the problems had started, all machines calmed down and the lights returned to their regular continuous shine. The remaining Foot-ninja and zomborgs gathered at the center of the hall to report. After a while, it became apparent that some of the groups would not return. A quick headcount, indicated that seven of the twenty-five ninja were missing, as were five of the twenty zomborgs.
An explosion interrupted the ninja and one of the zomborgs fell to the floor with a smoldering stump for a head. Looking around to find the source of the attack, the ninja were met by a charging group of mutants. The zomborgs opened fire at the group, caring little if any for the unfortunate ninja that happened to be in the line of fire. Three Foot-ninja died from friendly fire, but the mutants only flickered and disappeared.
"Holograms?" said one ninja. The damaged remains of some sort of projector lied on the floor, confirming the thought of holograms. "We have been tricked, be on your guard!" the ninja shouted. That warning proved to be a good choice, as several shurikens were thrown from every direction. The alert ninja deftly dodged them but the heavy zomborgs did not. While the semi-mechanical men were struggling against the electrical surges from the shurikens, a large winged figure leaped into the air and landed in the middle of the stunned group. Swinging his sword a full revolution, Tyroth caused massive damage as the blade severed the heads of several zomborgs and cut deep gashes in the torsos of even more. All in all, a total of eight zomborgs fell, slightly more than half of the ones that remained.
The rest of the mutants then attacked from all around, most of them focusing on the ninja while Leo and Raph moved to help Tyroth with the remaining zomborgs. The two brothers worked together very effectively, when Leo distracted a foe, Raph moved in and killed it and whenever Raph got the attention of someone, Leo made quick work of them. Together with Tyroth, it didn't take long before all but one of the zomborgs lied on the floor.
Meanwhile, the others tangled with the ninja. Donnie and Mikey, who had blunt weapons, focused on incapacitating their foes by disarming or hitting their weak spots. Mona and Sephie nearly danced through the hostile ninja, cutting them down with daggers and fans. Even though the Foot-ninja were prepared for an attack, they didn't stand much of chance against the mutants who almost ferociously guarded each others backs.
Tyroth delivered an overhead slash at the final zomborg, almost cutting it in half.
"That's the last of them." he said pulling out his sword from its victim.
"Good, then we can get to work at blowing this place up." said Leo.
"About time." said Mona "This place gives me the creeps."
"Well, I'm so sorry that you feel that way, mutant." said a disembodied voice.
"Overlord!" snarled Tyroth.
"It's coming from the internal loudspeakers." said Donnie.
"Surprised that I'm alive, Tyroth? You and Sephie ruined everything for me back in the days, and now you're back doing it all over again. Not only that but you've found allies, mutant ones at that, but as you might have guessed, so have I."
"The Foot." said Leo.
"You are so right, my mutated terrapin. I approached mister Izo with a business proposal. I get the resources I need to rebuild what I've lost and in return I help him eradicate the five mutants that have plagued him for quite some time."
"But how did you survive? Your entire factory went up in flames, with you in it." asked Sephie.
"I barely did. Luckily, I had a few loyal scientists that salvaged my charred body and rebuilt it with cybernetics. It took a few weeks, but here I am, large as life and just as malicious. And now, it's time for you to pay for all the suffering that I had to endure because of you."
"Suffering?!" yelled Tyroth "You know nothing about suffering! You have made several thousands suffer only so that you could make a profit or rise among the other crimelords!" His sudden outburst surprised his fellow mutants, but they understood his anger.
"And what did I ever do to you? You and your lizard friend attacked my operations first."
"Remember the assassin you sent after a few kids a year ago? The one that decided that it was a good idea to lob a grenade at them in the sewers of Chicago. He failed. We survived. Do you have any idea how much pain and suffering our families had to endure when they were told that we were murdered?! How much we had to endure ourselves because we may never be able to meet them again?!"
"You were those kids? How is that possible?"
"It doesn't matter. Enough of this. Show yourself!"
"Very well, I shall."
A pair of large doors, leading to the only room that had its own generators, started to open at the other side of the hall. The seven mutants turned to the doors and stood ready to counter whatever came from within.
"It is rather ironic, how I made you what you are today, into my nemesis. And how you have made me what I am today." said Overlord from within the dark room, still as if he spoke through loudspeakers. "You made me into your executioner."
Out into the light stepped a five meter tall version of the zomborgs, but heavily armed. Each shoulder carried a rocket-pod, a large chain-gun was attached to the left arm while the right arm had a futuristic looking cannon with a red prism that could be sighted in the barrel.
An evil laughter was heard from the large cyborg as the mutants gasped in horror of the enemy before them.
Not much to say at this point, I'm almost done with this fic. Don't miss the next and final chapter of Mutant Vigilantes, or you'll miss the best showdown I have ever written.