Happy Easter! Christus Resurrexit! (Which means, Christ is Risen!) Here is an Easter present for you. :D
CHAPTER SEVEN
The next several hours passed as a blur for Donatello. The car Raph ordered came, brought Donnie to a new hotel in the heart of New York-the lockdown had been lifted soon after Don and Raph had talked on the phone-and left. Donnie, who had been plotting the entire trip in the backseat of the car, ate some food he had brought with him and snuck out of the hotel into Foot headquarters. Even though Raph hadn't seemed to want him to put the plan in motion right away, Donnie couldn't go to sleep in an empty hotel room without first doing something to get his brothers back.
It wasn't like he wanted to get caught right away. Donnie only wanted to find out where his brothers were, and to print out the plans to Bishop's building.
In retrospect, it probably wasn't a good idea to rush into things so quickly. And apparently, he didn't think things through well enough.
For instance, he didn't realize that a key part of his plan involved entering a building full of dangerous enemies. Enemies that included Karai, for example.
"Tell me again," Karai said, with deadly concentration, "Why were you caught in the security room messing with the printer?"
Donnie sighed, gazing down at the handcuffs on his wrists and feet.
"I already told you," he replied, "It was out of paper."
"You were perhaps adding some device to it, to sabotage the building?"
"No," said Donnie, "I was only putting in some more paper."
"Come now, Donatello." Karai said, "Did you not come here to destroy this building?"
"No," said Donnie, "I came to print out a piece of paper!"
"Mistress Karai," said the voice of a Foot soldier near the door, "The Turtle appears to speak the truth. We found no evidence of sabotage in the printer, but we did find that he canceled a recent print job."
"Interesting," Karai responded, "Donatello, what were you printing?"
"I only came for information to find my brothers." Donnie said.
"I see," said Karai, raising her eyebrow, "You do not know where they are?"
Donnie gave her a 'look.'
"I know where they are," he said, looking back down to his handcuffs again, "But not the rooms where they are being held."
"And what would you give me for this information?" Karai asked.
"How do I know you have it?" Donnie responded, looking up at her sharply.
Karai smiled, a one-sided smile. "I have my spies within Agent Bishop's stronghold," she responded, "I knew they were captured before the city was locked down. My men know where two of your brothers are, but not the third. What will you give me for the knowledge of their whereabouts?"
Donnie paused, trying to reason through what was going on. Unless it was common knowledge that Raphael was being held separately from Leo and Mikey, she was probably telling the truth.
He thought quickly. What could he give Karai that wouldn't come back to hurt him and his family?
"How do I know you will let me go?" Donnie asked.
"What use are you to me here?" Karai responded, "If you are anything like your brother Leonardo, you will keep your promises. If I let you go, you will return."
Hm. If Karai was so willing to let him go, then she definitely wanted him to retrieve something for her. She must have something particular in mind.
"What do you want, Karai?" he asked bluntly.
Way to go, Donatello, he told himself. That was very subtle.
"You and your brothers are in possession of a certain, famous sword." Karai began.
Donnie immediately knew where this was going. And he knew exactly which sword she meant.
"You can have it," he said, hoping Leo wouldn't be too mad at him. It was a small price to pay, after all, "On three conditions."
Karai said nothing, but Donnie knew she was listening.
"The first condition," said Donatello, "Is that you tell me everything you know about where my brothers are. Room number, floor plans, security, everything."
"Done." said Karai, "Continue."
"The second condition is that you let me use the printer." Donnie said.
He wasn't stupid enough to rely completely on the information the Foot gave him. Printing out the blueprints Raph sent him, which included the floor plans and security, would ensure that the information was accurate.
"Granted," Karai said, "And the third condition?"
Donnie smiled.
"No one is never to know of this encounter. I was never here."
"I understand," said Karai, "You do not want Bishop to know that you have returned. Very well, I accept all of your conditions. Release the Turtle," she told the ninja behind her, "I will give you the information in return for the sword. Remember your bargain; do not fail to retrieve your brothers or you will be breaking a promise."
"Understood," said Donatello, watching as the ninja untied him.
"Now," said Karai, "My men will retrieve the information you desire. While you wait, I will show you to the printer."
It was a very awkward twenty minutes later that Donatello finally left Foot headquarters, with Karai all but waving at his departure. When he was nearly out of sight, Donnie looked back at her. She was still there watching him leave, hands on her hips, as he left with a nice portfolio containing a copy of almost everything the Foot had on Bishop's headquarters.
Karai must have really wanted that ancient sword.
Suddenly Donnie stopped on the next roof, almost exactly half-way to the hotel.
"Shell," he said, realization hitting him in the face, "Did I really just sneak into Foot headquarters to print out a piece of paper?"
Back in the hotel room, Donatello paced the floor. Blueprints and information littered the bed, while strategies littered the trashcan. He knew that the only way he could afford to get into the building was by using a non-Don strategy, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what to do. It wasn't enough to say that he should do what Raph would do, because he had no idea how to safely burst through the front door without drawing Bishop's attention.
Donnie sighed, then resumed his thought process.
"I'd like to talk to Raph," he said aloud, "But he's probably asleep right now, and I can't call him anyway because he isn't calling from his shellcell. I'd go to Sensei, but I'm positive Bishop has rigged the sewers with alarms by now."
He frowned, hoping Sensei was alright. He was probably fine, but he hoped he wasn't too worried about his sons.
"But what am I going to do?" he asked himself, "I know I'm infiltrating Bishop's building. I just don't know where and when. Maybe when I get Leo and Mikey, they'll know where Raph is. And how he's been able to do all those things he's been doing."
Donnie shook his head, trying to momentarily evacuate the thought from his mind. It was driving him crazy how Raph had been able to know what was going on. How he kept calling Don with the caller-ID saying Raphael, even though Donnie had no idea what number he was calling from. How-
"Alright, focus," he said, shaking the thoughts from his head, "Bishop would be on the trail again soon. The man is an expert-his name is Bishop, he's got a chess piece for his last name. So it will have to be soon, before he realizes I'm not up at the Farmhouse."
Donnie paused, his hand on his chin.
Although he hated not going in with a plan, he realized that the only way he could successfully infiltrate the building was to be unpredictable. And the best way to do that was to make decisions without thinking about them. Just like Raphael. So his strategy, then, was to be unpredictable. Of course, Donnie completely forgot about the many times when that strategy had failed for his red-masked brother.
"So," said Donnie aloud to himself, "Here is my first act of unpredictability: I'm going in tonight."
It seemed reasonable. Go in while he had the advantage. He had the blueprints, and as of the latest news report Bishop was still looking for him up north somewhere. Of course, he would not have the guidance of his brother Raphael, who was probably asleep in a cell somewhere. But Raph had advised him to act Raph-like, so how could he argue when Donnie performed the classic go-in-as-soon-as-possible routine?
At least, this was how Donatello justified it. He smiled, gathered the information he needed, and was out the window as soon as he turned off the lights.
It did not take long for him to reach Bishop's place. There was a structurally weak window on the second floor, so that was going to be his mode of entry. He carefully jumped to it from the next building, made certain he was not seen, proceeded to test the window, stopped to make certain he was not seen, proceeded to break the window-
Something small landed in the wall, a few centimeters away from hitting his arm. Donnie took one look at it and let go of his grip on the building, falling to the ground as the small device exploded and the window was obliterated.
Alert, Donnie crouched down on the ground as he faced his attacker. The enemy stepped out of the shadows unafraid, no weapon in hand.
Donnie gasped.
It was the exo-suit. Shell, this was bad.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with Bishop," Donnie commented.
The man in the armor chose not to respond, instead raising his arm. Before Donnie could react, two more exploding devices were lodged in the wall behind him, both just barely missing his head. Quickly, Donnie moved. He dodged the blast radius, partly because the man in exo-suit tackled him to the ground. The two rolled, and Don caught a glimpse of something shining before his eyes. He moved his head fast enough to witness a sword driving itself into the ground next to him.
With a cry Donnie pushed back against on the suit. He wasn't going down without a fight.
The guy in the suit chose to get up off the ground, possibly because this fight was all too easy for him and he wanted more of a challenge. Donnie jumped up as well, and finally had time to grab his bo staff from his back.
Instantly, the man in the suit attacked with a punch. Donnie only just stopped him with the staff when the exo-suit attacked again, this time by throwing daggers. Barely dodging the daggers at such close proximity to their source, Donatello attempted to punch the suit in the face.
"Ouch!" he shouted, nearly dropping his staff as he clutched the injured hand. He wasn't going to try that again.
As if in amusement at Don's reaction, the suit didn't bother to hit Donnie while he briefly shook his arm. As soon as Donnie realized that the enemy was waiting for him he resumed a defensive stance. That was the moment the suit chose to punch Donatello in the gut, sending him several feet in the air and five feet backwards.
The wind was blown out of him, but Donnie was relatively unharmed. He stood up, although not as quickly as he would have done so a few minutes prior.
The two circled one another, searching for a weakness. Being a mechanical engineer, Donnie knew what he was looking for. The suit was strong, so he would be unable to win a battle based on strength. It was also protected, made from what appeared to be Utrom technology. Apparently it was powered by a method of perpetual energy flow. Still, it must have a weakness.
He smiled when he found it.
As if that smile was a signal, the suit attacked. But that was just what Donatello had hoped would occur.
With a few wide swipes of his staff, he disrupted the energy flow throughout the suit by tampering with the flow of the biomechanical neurons. He tapped the legs first, then the arms, and finally the head. Effectively, he blinded the suit.
It would only last for a few minutes, if he was lucky. His brothers' rescue would have to wait.
Donnie turned to leave, when he realized something. Bishop had sent the exo-suit out after him. That meant that, as soon as the thing rebooted, Bishop would be notified of his presence. And that, in turn, meant that he would have no further opportunity to enter the building. The entire operation could be permanently compromised, because Bishop would be waiting for him.
He quickly glanced at the cyborg, which was still frozen in place. He then turned towards the building.
"Shell," he said to himself, "I just had to come here without first talking to Raph, didn't I?"
With seemingly no other reasonable choice in sight, Don made a decision that was against every fiber of his strategical being. He knew where two of his brothers were. If he could safely get them out of there, then together the three of them could come back to find Raph-hopefully before Bishop realized that his brother had been helping him out. He just had to rescue the others before the exo-suit regained power.
And so he ran up the wall and entered the building, using the gaping hole where the window had once stood as his entrance. What Donnie did not notice was that as soon as he entered the building, the fingers on the suit's left hand twitched.
And inside the building, as Donnie avoided the security traps and neared the cell reported to contain his brothers, he suddenly realized that all of the chaos outside, which included an obliterated window, had somehow failed to set off any of the building's alarms.
That wasn't like Bishop. The window should have sent off every alarm known to be in existence.
Was it only a coincidence, or could he be heading into a trap?
In a clearing in the middle of the woods, somewhere just slightly north of Casey's Grandmother's Farmhouse, half a dozen people were setting up camp. At least, that was what they should have been doing. In reality, they were all listening.
"Talk to me," Bishop said into his cell phone, fury evident in the tone of his voice, "About a minute ago several perimeter alarms at the main base went off, followed by a few building security alarms. I want information."
The man and the woman closest to Bishop looked at one another. No one was able to hear what was being said on the other end of the phone, but whenever Bishop spoke that way to anyone it meant only two things: 'trouble' and 'demotion.' A few people started secretly making bets on which one it would be. Loser had to eat what they brought for dinner.
"Are you certain?" Bishop asked, his voice skeptical, "That equipment is not faulty. And for so many to go off at once is unprecedented."
One of the lackeys rolled her eyes, while the other smiled mischievously. Someone was in big trouble. And also stupid, since everyone knew that in front of Bishop you couldn't get away with blaming the equipment for the person's mistake.
Now all that was needed to complete this classic scenario was for Bishop to say…
"Very well," said Bishop, "Continue with your work."
He hung up the phone.
Bishop's people looked at each other. What had just happened? Someone had actually escaped the wrath of Bishop?
"Shall we return home, sir?" someone asked his superior, hoping the answer would tell them whether the person Bishop had called was actually in trouble.
"No," Bishop said, "Before we left I programmed the exo-suit to guard the building perimeter, so our presence there is unnecessary. It is more important that we continue our search for Donatello here. If we do not pick up his trail within the next few days, it might take years to find him."
"With all due respect, sir, out of curiosity, why did we leave the suit behind?" someone asked, "We all know it can track the last turtle better than any of us."
Bishop picked up his sunglasses and positioned them on his face.
"It was better suited there," he responded, allowing a small smile to snake his features.