Hello readers! We're actually getting close to the end of this story. I tried to finish everything in this one chapter, but it was taking too long, and I was getting impatient! So there will be just one more chapter after this one, and there may be an epilogue. :D
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Internally, Donnie gulped. The arrival of his brothers had interrupted phase two of the plan.
"Stay back," Leo said to Mikey and Don. He then brandished his sword at Bishop.
"Where is Raphael? Where is our brother?" Leo challenged.
Bishop chuckled, and motioned for his men to surround the roof. Don was watching very carefully, and saw that Bishop ever so slyly looked towards the exosuit. Inside, Raphael was waiting patiently, waiting for Donnie's signal. That is, if Donnie could bring about the proper conditions to continue their plan.
"Why don't you ask Donatello?" Bishop suggested as his men took up their positions, "I'm sure he knows by now where your brother is."
"Is this true, Don?" Leo asked, not daring to turn around to look at his brother.
"Yes," said Donnie calmly, "I know where Raph is."
"Then let's go get him," Mikey said, twirling his nunchucks.
"But it's not so easy as that, is it, Michelangelo?" Bishop asked, "After all, I have the upper hand. Pay attention, Donatello. I've done my research, you see. Guard," he said, turning to Raphael, "Revival order alpha-beta-31229."
Bishop turned to Donatello, and gave him a deadly grin.
"Guard, capture the prisoners and bring them to the holding cell."
Donatello gulped as Raphael obediently moved towards them. Mikey and Leo both instantly went into defensive modes. Donnie immediately reached for his open shellcell.
"It's okay, Donnie. I've got it under control. I'm only pretendin'." Raph grinned, his voice coming in very quietly through his open shellcell.
Donnie released the breath he had been holding, and decided to join in on the charade. He grabbed his bo staff and held it out in front of him, as if ready for battle.
"Alright, here's the plan," Leo said, "I'll take the guard, while you two tangle with Bishop and his men."
"Right," said Mikey, "Leave Bishop to us. Are you sure you don't want to switch?"
Bishop chuckled, and signaled Raphael to stop. The turtle obediently stopped.
"You might as well surrender," Bishop said, "It would be less painful. I finally have all the turtles, and I don't want any of you damaged in the fight."
"You don't have us yet," Mikey said, brandishing his weapons.
"Have it your way," said Bishop. He turned to Raphael, "Secure them. I want them unconscious, but alive."
Raphael once moved towards the turtles, and raised his right arm.
"Bishop, wait!" Donatello said.
A million thoughts were running through Donnie's head, but they all centered on one topic: he had to distract Bishop, and get the plan back on track.
"Halt," Bishop said, stopping Raphael, "If you are going to tell them where your brother is, Donatello, make it quick. Or I might just do it myself."
"What?" Leo asked, confused, "Donnie, is Raph in trouble?"
"Bishop," said Donnie, choosing to ignore Leo, "I suggest you take a closer look at your funds. And, um, I wanted to thank you for your, uh, most generous gift."
He judged that Raphael would understand his hint.
"What?" Bishop asked, confused. Then his brow furrowed, and he became angry. "You didn't," he said, glancing back at Raphael, "You couldn't do that!" He glared back at Donatello, and then controlled himself.
"It was a good attempt, Donatello," he said, "But I have my exosuit back. Under my control."
"Sir!" Someone cried, running up to Bishop, a laptop in his hands, "We have an emergency!"
"What is it?" Bishop asked.
"The funds, the grants for our projects…" the aide cried out shakily, "They've all disappeared!"
"The cyber-hacker," Bishop said, glaring at Donatello, "I don't know how you did it, Donatello, but you won't get away with it." He turned to the man next to him, "Wherever they went, I want you to take them back immediately."
"I'm afraid that's impossible, sir," said another of Bishop's men, one who had been standing at the left corner of the roof as he waited for the signal to attack the turtles, "The money is gone."
Raphael chuckled through the shellcell, but only Donatello heard it.
"Where did it go?" Bishop asked, angrily.
"It a-appears, Sir, that it w-went to the city orphanage," said the man with the laptop.
Bishop growled. There was no way he was getting it back now, even if he claimed that the money was only sent due to a computer glitch. Sure, the entire city would laud him, and he would probably be given an award or two for his generosity, maybe a park named after him…but he had lost all the money. Bishop fumed, and closed his eyes to aid in regaining control of himself.
"Donatello, this is your doing," Bishop said, opening his eyes and turning back to the turtle.
But the turtle wasn't there.
"Donnie?" Mikey asked, surprised, "Where'd you go?"
"Raph, which way?" Donnie asked, speaking into his shellcell.
"Left in three hundred feet, then take the next right."
"Got it," Donnie said, replacing his shellcell and continuing to crawl.
Phase two of the plan had faltered, but it hadn't completely failed. That part of the plan had been for Raphael to distract Bishop and his men long enough to allow Donnie to escape through the vents of the roof into the building. The arrival of their brothers had unsettled that plan, especially after Raph turned on the roof lights and compromised the darkness, exposing them to Bishop earlier than they had hoped. Bishop, who had been ticked off with Donnie's phone call earlier, now had time to regain his composure. And their brothers, who had no idea what the plan was and who didn't know that Raph was in the suit, could hardly be expected to distract Bishop along with Raph. Actually, that had been the original plan-Raph, Leo and Mikey would distract Bishop and the entire staff of the building together. But when Donnie and Raph couldn't find Leo and Mikey in time they had been forced to alter things.
Donnie's little idea to use Bishop's funds, however, was just the thing to distract not only Bishop, but also his goons long enough for Donnie to sneak into the building. And now, Leo and Mikey were unknowingly taking Raph's place in distracting Bishop and his goons.
Phase three had now begun.
"Wow," Donnie said as he crawled through the dusty vents, "This reminds me of how this whole thing started. Only this time I'm going into the building, not escaping from it."
"You better hurry, Donnie," Raph said, "The fightin' just started. Bishop sent me away to find you, so I'm missing the action, but I took out a couple of guys 'accidently' on my way out. Last I saw, Mikey was handling the rest of Bishop's men pretty well, but I'm not sure how long Leo can handle fighting Bishop alone."
"When are you going to switch sides?" Donnie asked, taking the left turn and then an immediate right.
"Not yet. Bishop thinks he regained control, so I'm gonna use this to my advantage while I can. I'm heading around the building now. Take a left, and you should be there."
Donnie kicked open the vent cover and dropped silently into the room. It was empty.
"Right," he said to himself, looking at his surroundings. "I'm in the control room. It's empty."
"Yeah, everyone's either on the roof or out o' the building," Raph said.
Donnie yanked his bo staff off of his back, and knocked the smoke detector into pieces before he began hitting things.
"I hate to do this to technology," he said, "But it has to be done!"
When all of the computers and monitors had holes in them and smoke was starting to fill the room, Donnie kicked down the door and took to the hallway.
"Raph, which way?" he asked.
"First door on the left," Raph said, "I'm coming in through the garage."
"Raph, don't come in," Donnie said, "Hang around for a while, then get the others off the roof."
Donnie took the left, and then slid to a stop at the first door on the left.
"Raph, this is a janitor's closet," he said.
"Just open it, alright?" Raph said.
Donnie broke down the locked door, then facepalmed.
"Seriously, Raph?" He said, "We're running out of time, and you're worried about these?"
Inside the closet, on the third shelf from the top and next to some cleaning supplies, were Raph's sais.
"Just get them, alright?" Raph said.
"Fine," said Donnie, slipping the sais into his belt, "There's no time to argue. Which way now?"
There was a long pause.
"Raph?" Donnie asked, "Are you still there?"
There was another pause. Donnie looked at his shellcell, but it was still transmitting.
"Raphael!" he called out.
"I'm still here," Raph said, sounding short of breath, "The door is two hundred feet down on the right."
Donnie raced down the hallway and kicked down the door.
"Found it," he said, entering a room filled with wires, "Alright now, time for some damage!"
Once more, he took his bo staff and hit everything that could be broken. This time, there was no accompanying smoke-and there shouldn't be. These were all only used in case there was a power overload.
"Alright, now that the fail-safe's are gone, there's only one more stop to make," Donnie said, "Which way, Raph?"
"Keep going down the hallway, it should be right there." Raph said, "Just don't start until I get there, alright?"
"Raph, we have to hurry! Our brothers are fighting up there," Donnie said as he ran, "Just get them off the roof and wait for me nearby."
"Don, I know this was your idea 'n' all, but this isn't really safe…"
"I was going to do this alone back when you were supposed to be the one fighting Bishop," Donnie said, breaking down the door to the room he wanted, "So don't worry about me."
"Yeah, well, that was before I realized just how dangerous this was." Raph said.
"Raph, we don't have time for this," Donnie said.
He entered the room, and noticed almost at once the glowing power source. It was obviously Utrom tech.
"I'm here," he said.
"Donnie, wait! I'm almost there," Raph said.
"We don't have time to wait," said Donnie, bracing himself.
He held up his bo staff, then changed his mind and placed it back on his back. Instead, he pulled out Raph's sais from his belt.
"Donatello," Raph said through the shellcell, sounding oddly enough like an angry Leonardo, "Don't."
"This is the only way to stop Bishop," Donnie said, "He can always get more funds, but without this he can't make any more exosuits."
Donnie held up the sais to the glowing light. "Bishop will never be able to do this to anyone again," he said.
"Donnie, don't be stupid," Raph said.
Donnie laughed. "Don't worry, Raphie. I'll be careful."
With that, he closed his shellcell, hanging up on Raph.
Before his brother could call him again, Donnie thrust both sais into the glowing Utrom power source and broke the glass. The overload began almost immediately.
Taking out the sais from the power source, Donnie raced for the door.
The room exploded.
Swords clashed, weapons clanged.
"Where is Raphael?" Leo challenged as he fought Bishop.
"As if I would tell you now," Bishop said, "But don't worry, you'll find out where he is soon enough. You might even join him, if you're fit enough."
Leo growled, and thrust his sword further. Bishop only just missed being hit by it, and instead gave Leo a kick that sent him half-way across the roof.
"You know Leo," said Mikey, dodging the blow of his opponent as he gave his brother a hand and helped him up, "I've been thinking. Where would Donnie go when he disappeared? You know what I think? I think he's gone to rescue Raph without us."
"Yes Mikey," Leo grunted, twisting in midair to avoid Mikey's opponent. He had already come to the same conclusion almost as soon as Donnie had disappeared, but he wasn't going to tell Mikey that.
"I hope they get here soon," said Mikey, knocking the man down, "I don't know how much more of this I can take!"
"If that guard doesn't 'retrieve' Donnie first," Leo said, racing across the roof back to Bishop.
"Huh?" Mikey asked.
Suddenly, loud sirens went off on the roof.
"What's that?" Leo asked, surprised, as he continued to fight.
Bishop growled. "The building is under attack! Everyone, evacuate the premises," he commanded his men.
"Under attack?" Mikey asked, looking up at the sky as Bishop's people left the roof, dragging their unconscious behind them, "There's nothing out there!"
"It's the proximity alert," the agent Mikey was fighting helpfully supplied, "Could be a missile heading our way. We just don't see it yet."
"In that case, let's get out of here!" Leo said, jumping to the next roof.
Bishop followed him, and within minutes, the roof to Bishop's headquarters was completely empty.
"Anyone see the missile yet?" Mikey asked, looking up at the sky.
That was when the building exploded.
Donatello opened his eyes, but had a hard time concentrating. There was something wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it. His hands were shaking, and his ears were ringing. Actually, his entire body was shaking. The room seemed to be both hot and cold.
"Breath, Donatello," he whispered to himself, and forced his eyes to look up.
He was curled up under the warped remains of some type of heavy metal. The room beyond the metal looked strange and unshapen, with shades of orange traveling up and down what he assumed were the walls. His ears were still ringing. Donnie looked down at his shaking hands, and registered that they were holding two weapons. Raph's sais. He couldn't remember why he had them. They shook and they shook, but no matter how much he looked at them, they just kept shaking in his hands, and he couldn't let go. He couldn't stop shaking, and his ears wouldn't stop ringing.
Suddenly the metal laying over him creaked and groaned, and lifted off of him. It fell to a crash a few feet away, and someone grabbed him securely by the shoulders. An arm reached for his shellcell and flipped it open, and at that moment, the ringing stopped.
"Don. Donnie, can you hear me? Are you okay?" Raph asked through the shellcell as the person shook Donnie.
Donnie looked at the shellcell, confused.
"Shell, you're not going inta shock on me, are you?" Raph's voice said.
"Raph?" Donnie asked, turning to look at his brother, still wearing the exosuit, "That you?"
"Yeah," said Raph, his voice coming from the shellcell, "You alright?"
"I-I think so," Donnie said. The shock had somewhat worn off after the first several minutes-he was a ninja after all, and he was trained to recover from the unexpected. He looked around the room, and silently commended himself on his choice of metal that he had used as a blast barrier.
"We'd better get out of here," he said finally, "That fire looks dangerous."
Raph stood up and helped Donnie to his feet.
"Shell Donnie, don't you ever do that to me again," he said as he let his brother lean on him while they walked.
"Sorry," said Donnie, as he coughed in the dust of the aftermath.
"You know I only found you 'cause of that shellcell," Raph said, "Next time answer the phone, alright?"
"How did you find me so fast?" asked Donnie.
"Easy. Aside from the loudly ringing shellcell, I was already down the hallway when ya made the explosion happen."
"Wait, you were in the building?" Donnie asked, "Then how did you…oh, the suit. Right."
"Yeah," said Raph, helping his brother out the door, "I got knocked against a wall or three, but it didn't even hurt. And I even got everyone to leave the roof before the explosion. Look, we gotta walk faster. Accordin' to the suit's computer, this part of the building is gonna cave in any minute now."
"Right," said Donnie, walking faster than he thought he was capable of.
"I'm takin' ya back to the hotel," Raph said.
"Not yet," said Donnie, "Phase four."
"Ya sure?"
"Yeah," said Donnie, smiling, "I'm sure."
"Alright then," said Raph, smirking underneath his mask, "Let's go."