Hello again! Thank you all so much for the reviews, favs and follows. Even for just reading this! This author meant for this chapter to be finished sooner, but a certain paper delayed everything just a little. Warning: papers might possibly delay the next chapter as well. I seriously need a break from them. But on the bright side, habemus papam! That's Latin for 'We have a Pope!' So exciting! At school, classes were pretty much cancelled so that we could watch the papal announcement on Wednesday. Alright now, back to the story. Enjoy!
CHAPTER FOUR
It was too cold for turtles.
Leo hugged his legs tightly, trying to glean some warmth from them as well as from the wall he was leaning against. His legs, head, torso and left shoulder were cold. His right shoulder was hot, however. Mikey was asleep against that shoulder, snoring loudly and possibly drooling a little. Heh.
Leo exhaled slowly, half-heartedly examining the cloud of white that came from his mouth.
He knew that Donnie had somehow made it to safety, for now. Bishop had interrupted their night several times, giving them additional information as well as halting what little sleep they had somehow obtained. He had made it clear that the city was locked down about half an hour after Donnie had escaped, but within the first ten minutes the cars and trucks of all vehicles leaving the city began to be searched-just as a precaution, of course. There was no way Donnie could have gotten out of the city in time, but for some inexplicable reason his entire trail had been lost.
Leo was very proud.
Yet, there they were, waiting for Donnie in their prison cell. Mikey and Leo knew he would be there with them sooner or later, and when that happened, they would probably be rejoined with Raph as well. There was only so long Donnie could hide in the city, especially since the odds were highly against the fact that he had gotten out. Even the Hudson was being watched, Bishop said, and since he had no reason to lie to them about that Leo knew that there was no way for Don to escape via the water.
Maybe it would take a few days. Most likely it would be sooner than that. But when Donnie was captured, Bishop wouldn't hold back any longer. As soon as he had the full set-as he himself put it-whatever plan he had for them would be put into action. Even Mikey knew that.
Hopefully Donnie would last long enough to at least get some help. Maybe he could avoid Bishop entirely and live out his life alone, but safe. Hopefully he wouldn't be stupid enough to try to rescue them. Leo was worried about him, and about Raph as well. They hadn't seen their hot-headed brother once since they had been captured, but they didn't doubt that Bishop had him. If Donnie could at least last this first night, then maybe, just maybe, one of the turtles would survive…
The door opened, and Bishop walked into the cell. Only this time he wasn't alone. There were two of his lackeys behind him, and standing next to him was some kind of humanoid robot.
Mikey startled awake at the sound of the door, and was on his feet before he knew where he was.
"Who's there?" Mikey asked, seeing Bishop's robot while still half-asleep, "Mutant Robot Men? From the planet Trixnoth!"
"Mikey, stand down," said Leo calmly, getting up on his feet as well.
"Good morning," Bishop scowled, gesturing for the robot to stand by the door. The other two lackeys took up their positions behind Bishop, "I trust you slept well?"
"Come to give us our brothers, Bishop?" Leo asked, standing in a defensive position. The stance was pointless and he knew it, but he wasn't about to just give in, even if he was a prisoner.
"Hardly." Bishop seemed disinterested in his own information, "I've come to introduce you to your new guard. And to inform you that Donatello has managed to elude the initial search. The mayor is only going to let me keep the city on lockdown for two more days, so if you would like to lessen the pain of your shared torments you will tell me right now where he might be hiding."
Leo and Mikey looked at one another.
"And why should we do that?" Mikey asked.
Bishop smiled.
"You are all going suffer anyway," he said, "Especially Donatello, once he is found. If you tell me right now where to find him, I give you my word that you all shall have a minimal amount of pain before death."
The turtles looked at one another again, in a silent conference.
"Besides," Bishop added, "Donatello is very predictable. He may have the brain of a genius, but we already have him figured out. He won't be able to resist hacking into our website, or using his computer know-how to discover where you are. He has to use technology, and lucky for us, we have a tight eye on everything technological. One hack and we will know exactly where he is. So if you want him to suffer as little as possible when he is caught, you will tell me now where to find him."
"Never in a million years, Bishop," said Leo firmly.
Bishop shrugged. "Suit yourselves," he said, "But just so you know, I have men combing the city as we speak. Especially the sewers. And even if they do not find Donatello, there is another friend of yours down there. Now they presently have orders not to harm the rat, but you see, those orders could very easily be forgotten by my men. I would advise you to rethink your answer, Leonardo."
With that, Bishop turned around to exit the cell. The lackey's behind him stepped out of the room to allow him to exit. The robot, however, didn't move.
"If you will excuse me, I have other matters to attend to." Bishop said.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Mikey said.
Bishop turned around, looking visibly annoyed. Leo once more glared at his brother, but Mikey pretended not to notice.
"What's with the robot guy?" Mikey asked, gesturing.
Bishop smiled.
"Oh. That." He said, smiling, "I thought I made that clear. This will be your new guard until your brother is retrieved. A cyborg, a human being situated inside my high-tech exo-suit. The perfect combination of man and machine, and very fitting, if I do say so myself. After all, it was because of this suit that you became my sudden guests."
"That's an exo-suit? Cool! It looks like something from my comic books," said Mikey, accidentally pulling at his chains as he tried to get a closer look, "Hey, wait a second! If it's your suit, why aren't you the one wearing it?"
Bishop looked at him directly, sunglasses obscuring his eyes from view. His eyebrow indicated that he thought the question was very unintelligent.
"One of my men is wearing it for me," he said, then smiled wryly, "The suit would only slow me down."
He turned again to leave the room.
"Wait, Bishop!" said Leo, "We're contained. You can unite us with Raphael now."
Bishop continued walking.
"Wait!" said Leo, "Where are you keeping our brother? What have you done to him?"
But Bishop, without turning back once, left the room locking the door behind him.
Despite his chains, Mikey tried to step closer to the new guard to examine him. But the cyborg moved, turning to look towards Mikey. The face, which was entirely hidden by the suit, appeared to stare back at him.
Mikey gulped, and took a step back.
Ugggh. Morning already?
Ow. Sore. Ugh.
Must have been some major fight. What had they been doing last night? Purple Dragons? Foot Ninjas? The days all seemed to blend together sometimes. They were just so predictable.
Wait, was that light streaming through the window? He didn't have a window, he lived in the sewers. So where was he?
Donnie sat up in the bed and rubbed the back of his head. He was in his room at the farmhouse. Casey's farmhouse. Huh. Now if he could only remember why they had come there. Hmm…why couldn't he remember? Oh shell, it would come back to him alright, right after coffee.
Hmm, coffee. Mikey probably had a pot going for him by now. He wondered if Mikey was going to wake up Raph soon, the house didn't seem right when it was so quiet.
Donnie slid out of bed and groggily made his way downstairs. The kitchen light was off; he was up before Mikey. Weird, that was a first. Hm, Leo hadn't started the fire in the living room yet. He must be out training with Sensei. Maybe they took Mikey with them, it would explain why the house was so quiet.
Donnie proceeded to make the coffee, and eased himself into a chair at the table. Wait, it was already half past nine? Shell, he had slept in! Everyone else must have had breakfast already. Well, at least he wasn't officially in trouble until Sensei got back.
Good, the coffee was ready. He groggily poured the stuff into a mug, which he gingerly blew on to cool it off before he then proceeded to gulp it down, not even bothering to add milk and sugar.
He set the mug down, and glanced around the kitchen.
And then it hit him like a load of bricks that he was the only turtle at the farmhouse.
"Shell," he said out loud, "It isn't true. That was all a bad dream, right? Come on guys, come out! Leo! Raph? Mikey!"
No answer.
His memory of the night before suddenly came back. How he had a panic attack, how Raph eventually calmed him down, that he had ditched the bus for an abandoned trailer, which he had driven to the farmhouse…why he had left New York…
Like a bullet, Donnie raced to the television and turned it on. The main headline on the news concerned the lockdown of New York City…he switched it off again.
"Drats," he said, sitting on the couch, "I remember now. I drove all the way here last night in an abandoned highway vehicle."
Donnie took a deep breath, and reached for his shellcell.
"No, I won't contact Raph until he calls me first," he said, replacing the cell, "I don't want to risk calling him while he is captured by Bishop. But I can start coming up with a plan to rescue my brothers…"
Hm. If he could utilize some of tools in the barn…And the computer in the guest room that only Casey ever actually used…
The cell rang.
"Hello?" said Don, answering it.
"Just checking in on ya," said Raph, "You're laying low, right?"
"For now," said Donnie, "I'm thinking of how best to come up with a plan to rescue our brothers. And you."
"Donnie, this is Bishop we're talking about," said Raph, "Ya gotta be careful."
"I know, and I am," said Donnie, "Listen, I was hoping you could give me some information."
"About what?"
"About what on earth is going on," said Donnie, "How did you know to warn me to move away from the car and the building?"
"Listen, we don't got time for this," said Raph, "Just follow my lead, alright? Stay out of trouble."
Donny sighed. His inquisitive brain threatening to burst, but first things first. His brothers needed to be rescued.
He took his coffee mug, refilled it and headed over to the small computer in the back bedroom. It was an insanely old box-like contraption that accessed internet through a cable rather than wifi, but it worked, and right now that was all that mattered.
"Alright," Don said, sitting down at the computer, "Do you still have access to that computer you were telling me about?"
"Yeah."
"Good. If it's safe for you, can you use it to find where Mikey and Leo are being held?" Donnie asked.
"No," said Raph, "But I know where they are now. They're in Bishop's building. Um, I don't know exactly where they are on the map. There are places the computer won't let me see. Needs a password."
"Alright," said Don, his mind whirring as he turned on the computer in front of him, "Don't worry about that. I can find the information myself if I hack into Bishop's mainframe."
"That won't be for a while, Donny," said Raph, "Ya can't get back into the city yet. Bishop is still looking for ya."
"Listen Raph, I'm not just going to sit here in the empty farmhouse all day," said Donnie, starting to type, "The place gets cold, remember?"
"Did you try turning on the heater?"
"Quit it, Raph! Alright. If you're computer is hooked up to Bishop's headquarters, and I think it is, can you find the blueprints to the building?"
"Probably. Hang on a sec…Okay, you're in luck! I got the plans for ya."
Donnie shook his head in disbelief. How fast was Raph's computer?
"What do you want me to do with the blueprints? Email them to ya?"
"Perfect," said Donnie, typing on his computer, "Then I can pull them up and utilize them at once."
"Huh? Why would you be using them now?"
"Because I'm currently hacking into his system," Donnie said, smiling as binary code flashed across the screen before him.
"You're what?" Raph asked, sounding concerned, "Shell, Don!"
"Calm down, I can work a computer remember? It's easier for me to find this information than for you," said Donnie, "Although the blueprints will seriously help. Shouldn't take too long to find Leo and Mikey now."
"Donnie, you don't understand," said Raph, "Bishop is expecting ya to do that."
"What are you talking about?" asked Donnie.
"Did you already hack into his stuff?"
"Yeah," said Donnie, "I'm doing it now."
Raphael groaned.
"Listen," he said, "you can't just go hacking into Bishop's place! What the shell were you thinking?!"
"Why not?" Donnie asked defensively, "It's something I'm perfectly good at."
"Yeah, too perfectly," said Raph, "You're always thinking about computers and gizmos. You're a regular genius when it comes to that stuff, ya know that? But guess what. Bishop knows it too. In fact, only one person would hack into Bishop's stuff right now, and that person is you."
Donnie stopped typing, and simply stared at the screen.
"You just ran into a trap," said Raph, "He's probably on his way there right now, Don. Tracking your internet or somethin'."
Donnie paused. "Oh no," he said.
"Donnie," said Raph, "Get outta there. Now."