Episode 11: The Mutagen of Revenge – Part 3
Ethan and Kaela crouched on the roof near Shredder's lair and looked down on the peaked, Gothic building. Somewhere inside, Jess was trapped. Sam, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found – and time had run out. Ethan turned to Kaela, "I'm going to be totally honest here," he said, "I have no plan at all."
"Me neither." Kaela replied forlornly.
"Kaela," Ethan said, looking down at the glassy roof, "I've never felt more lost in my life. I don't know what I'm doing and everything I felt comfortable with is gone. I don't even . . ." He choked on his words, trying to understand his own feelings, "Sometimes I feel like I'm not even me anymore. And now it's cost us Jess."
Kaela shook her head and nudged Ethan's shoulder with her own. "You're still learning. Be patient." She said. "This has nothing to do with your skill level as a leader. Jess being captured has nothing to do with your leadership skill."
Not feeling so sure, Ethan gazed down at the ground and wished that things made more sense. "Let's save Jess." he said slowly. "Then I can worry about me." Kaela nodded affirmatively and then turned back to the building. Kaela followed Ethan's lead as he moved slowly down the fire-escape, keeping himself deep into the shadows of the building near the bricks. The cool air smelt like the rain that had recently fallen on the streets, and the sidewalks were more bare than usual. Ethan had noticed that few people came down this way.
Geez, I wonder why.
He reached the asphalt and crouched down low. There were several Footbots at the front doors. He nodded to Kaela who pulled the long sapphire colored ribbon out from her side belt and looked at Ethan for confirmation.
"Get em." Ethan said quietly.
Kaela burst from the shadows and spun. The ribbon flew through the air and slammed into one near the shoulder, electricity bursting from its limb. The second turned and with a digital squeal, it ran forward, its bug-like eyes glowing red, a short dagger in its hand. Kaela backed into the shadows again and Ethan traded her places, throwing his naginata out with a quick stroke and impaling the robot ninja. It whined as its red eyes slowly dimmed out and its limbs went still. With another quick thrash of his weapon, his body slid off the blade and landed in a puddle on the road. "Let's move."
Ethan and Kaela ran to the front door and tugged, the doors opening with a loud creak, the thick wood swinging to allow them in. The hallway they had seen in a previous infiltration mission looked the same. It was still empty and without security. That was starting to look very suspicious. Burning torches hung from the nearby pillars, lighting the pathway to a pair of stairs on the other end. Ethan knew that to the right of that stairwell was another one that led down to the lab of the huge, ugly fly.
Kaela's gaze went down the hallway, but her whisper was directed at Ethan. "I don't know how I feel about this hallway being empty." she said, "With as much resource as Shredder's got, this has to be a trap."
"Undoubtedly, yeah." Ethan replied. "But we don't have much of a choice. This is our sister we're talking about." He stepped over the threshold and Kaela closed the door behind them. They immediately took to the lofty, long shadows cast by the flames in the far corners and inched their way down the wall, trying to make themselves as slow and precise as possible. One noise and they would have a whole zoo's worth of enemies between them and Jess.
Horrifying images followed Ethan's footsteps. Thoughts of Shredder killing Jess like he did Master Hamato broke through his mind at the sound of the crackling fire in the torches that wrapped around the pillars to his left. The hallway was long, but after a few moments, they were standing by the lab staircase. Ethan desperately hoped that they didn't have the Kraang's dracodroid this time. That thing had been a nightmare.
Literally.
Yet, when they reached the landing that circled the lab, Ethan was surprised to find it totally –
"Empty?" Kaela asked quietly.
The green mutagen vat appeared to be filling with liquid. Across the way, Ethan could see a metal table, restraints on the edges like cement barricades. But it too lay empty. Cages on either side were filled with random animals, but other than that, there didn't seem to be even a hint of life here.
"Someone's here." Ethan said, twitching his nose.
"Well, well."
Kaela and Ethan spun to see Tigerclaw on the other side of the large circular banister. He had his usual grin on his face, but his weapons were not drawn. "I hate this guy." Kaela moaned, "Why can't Shredder send the fish guy or something."
"If you are looking for your friend," Tigerclaw was ignoring Kaela's comments, "Then I would come this way."
"Shurikans." Ethan said under his breath.
At the same time, Kaela and Ethan snatched the tiny bits of pointed metal from their belts and flung them towards the cat, but he had already vanished into a black doorway behind him and vanished with his throaty laugh.
The two stood on the other side and looked at one another nervously. Danget! We don't have a choice. Ethan thought to himself, clenching his fist, his black nails digging into the pads on his hands. Finally he tightened the white bandanna around his face and then motioned for them to go. Both sprinted across the circular way and down into the darkness.
A staircase led down so far that it vanished into the darkness, making it impossible to see the end. "Slowly." Ethan said and they began to walk, one step at a time. They went so far that when Ethan turned back, he could not see where they started either and immediately a feeling of claustrophobia sunk into his fur.
Eventually, orange light began to appear and two large, barred gates opened wide to admit them. Ethan prepared his naginata for an immediate strike. This new basement room was circular with huge Japanese styled statues. If Ethan was right their grinning mouths, huge muscled bodies, and red eyes tipped off the vague idea of the oni – Japanese demons. Flaming torches were hung on the walls behind the demon statues that were so tall, their heads touched the lofty ceiling.
Weapons were stabbed into the monstrous statues heads like deadly, pointed crowns. The silence was replaced with deep, booming, menacing laughter and, rising from some sort of pit in the ground, Shredder appeared.
Ethan immediately realized the crap that they were in.
Shredder turned to face them, his cape already gone to reveal the sharpened, glimmering blades on his shoulders. "So, you came just as I thought you would. You Hamato whelps are so foolish – willing to go straight into the den of the enemy to save one of your own."
"Give us back our Sister!" Kaela spun her ribbon in her hand.
"Very well." Shredder replied.
Ethan and Kaela stood in shocked silence as the gates behind him clanged open. A shadow was stirring in the dark there and Shredder motioned with his gloved and studded hand to Ethan and Kaela. "Come greet your siblings, Jessica."
A figure walked out from the shadows and walked from behind Shredder until they were standing right next to him. Ethan's jaw dropped open and Kaela put her hand to her mouth in horror, her eyes wide.
A fox stood in front of them. White fur ran down her arms and legs and across her angled, pointed face. Her eyes were a golden color. A bandanna wrapped around her head and below her ears like a line of pine trees amid a snowy peak. She wore the same leather belts around her waist and up her chest. In both of her hands was the usual wicked pointed kama. Although she looked incredibly different, and the light in her eyes seemed dimmed, Ethan could tell – it was their sister Jess.
"What did you do to her." Ethan whispered under his breath, gripping his naginata.
"Your sister is now a part of my mutant army." Shredder laughed again, the sound echoing across the demon statues and he slowly knelt on the ground, a barrier of flames bursting around him like a wall, the strange elevator like contraption that he was on sunk into the ground a few inches. "Now, let us see what my new servant can do. Jessica, destroy your siblings."
Jess burst forward with new agility and form, her kama's coming up to slash into Ethan's face. Kaela jumped back. "JESS! STOP!"
Ethan swung his naginata and slammed it into the kama's dodging the attack, but Jess had moved in quicker than their training and slammed her head into his own. A second later, she slashed upward and Ethan felt blood fleck onto his face and pain sink into his bones from his forearm.
Now Ethan knew he had been right. Karai was controlled by Shredder in the same way his own sister was now. Kaela's ribbon snatched Jess' wrist before she could come down again with another slash. "Jess! What are you doing?" Kaela wrenched with all her might and threw Jess onto her stomach, but she flipped back up, her eyes blank, her expression unreadable as she twisted her hand out of the ribbon's hold and jumped towards Kaela, slamming her foot into Kaela's side.
Ethan turned to strike, but realizing he had his pointed end, flipped his weapon to the other side. By then, it was too late. Jess slammed Kaela to the ground and then spun, kicking Ethan's pole out of her way and swiped with both of her kama's at his chest. He dodged, stepping backward, but felt the wind on his face. "There's nothing you can say, Ethan." Jess snapped, moving in closer, relentlessly attacking with vigor and intensity that Ethan had never seen her give before.
Ethan skipped out of the way of another attack and heard Shredder laugh as he tried to recover.
How do I fight her? I can't hurt her!
He flipped out of the way of another attack.
Duck.
Step backward.
Jump out of the way.
With each strike, Jess was moving in closer, pinning him to the gate that they had entered this room from, but was now closed.
Kaela slowly straightened with a groan and burst forward. "Time to try out some close range!" She flung the ribbon back to her and snatched the bolt out of the air, grasping it at the end with her hand like a dagger.
A kama's pointed end scraped a long line against the wall that Ethan now had his back to, his tail flicking behind him at the sudden lack of space. Jess raised her kama for another attack but then Kaela appeared right behind her and jammed the bolt into her back.
Jess yelled and turned to swipe.
Kaela yelped and brought her ribbon up to dodge. The blade of the kama slid down the silk and slipped away, throwing Jess off and throwing her to the ground, her bushy white tail flicking into the air. "IT WORKED!" Kaela yelled triumphantly.
She barely got the words out when Jess did a full circle kick from the ground, knocking Kaela off her feet and throwing Ethan back into the wall. Jess flung herself forward onto Kaela who coughed at her sudden weight and lifted her kama.
"Finish the job." Shredder barked from the other side of the huge weapons room.
"Jess!" Ethan shouted, straightening himself and grabbing his naginata from the ground where it had fallen. "Why are you taking orders from the person who killed our Master?"
Jess hesitated, her blade still high in the air. Kaela looked up at her, eyes filled with terror, her fingers inching towards the silk ribbon that lay curled about like a snake next to her. A flash of clarity had appeared in her eyes. "Remember, Jess!" Kaela said quietly, "Remember Master Hamato."
"Remember our father." Ethan added.
Jess' hand was trembling on the wooden shaft of her weapon as she looked down at Kaela, her face screwed up in concentration, her eyes seemingly fading in and out of clarity, as if she was about to fall unconscious. "Don't let Shredder mess up our family anymore." Ethan let his weapon drop to his side.
Suddenly, Jess screamed. Her voice echoed through the weapons room and Ethan pulled his naginata up again to attack, but Jess lifted her body up and with all of her might threw a handful of shurikans at Shredder.
He moved quickly, standing and bringing his gauntlets up to his face. The throwing stars bounced against the metal and scattered across the floor. "What is this?" He yelled. "STOCKMAN!"
Jess doubled over and Kaela ducked out of the way. For a moment it looked like she was dry heaving and then, a second later she made a sound like she had vomited and Ethan winced. But rather than bile on the floor, a large green and black worm writhed. "EW EW EW!" Kaela screamed. "That is so gross!" She scrambled away and Ethan jumped forward and with a single bound of his staff, the worm gave a final scream and splattered across the ground.
"Ugh." Jess tried to get to her feet and Kaela leaned down to help her up as she wiped her mouth from spit and slime. "That was awful." She croaked. "That wasn't just a bad dream was it?" Jess slowly looked up with her new fox face and met Shredder's gaze who had turned to them. "No, it wasn't." She groaned.
Shredder's eyes narrowed. "Once I have finished you all, then I will make Stockman pay for his oversight in this experiment." he said and the blades on his gauntlet shot out, glimmering in the light of the fire around him. He took a step forward and then the ground shook.
The whole building moved as if it had been struck by an earthquake and from behind, the gates they had entered shattered off their hinges, smoke and fire in their wake. Ethan nearly fell to the floor and Kaela tightened her grip around Jess' shaky shoulders. Shredder hollered in anger as he was enveloped in smoke.
A figure burst through the smoke, carrying a three section staff at the ready.
It was Sam.
"SAM!" Ethan exclaimed. "I am so glad to see you!"
The ninja smiled and pulled the cloth away from his face with a smile. "I got your message just in time." he said. His eyes then met Jess and his face fell, "Wow, they really did a number on you didn't they?" Jess groaned in reply. Sam turned to the others as the smoke began to distill. "No time to waste! Let's move."
Ethan could hear Shredder's feet coming towards them, so, getting a little help from Sam, together they raced to the stairs. Their feet pounded together, but Jess was heavy and slowed them down. Shredder yelled, "Don't let them escape!" up the stairs after them. Ethan snatched several shurikans from his belt as he half carried, half dragged Jess up the stairs with Kaela. As soon as a figure appeared around the corner, Ethan hurled them with all his might past Sam who was taking the lead. They didn't meet their mark as the figure slipped away and Sam's three-sectioned-staff was out in a blaze, spinning to clear the way out into the lab.
"This way!"
Sam motioned them around the lab and back up another set of stairs.
Jess was starting to get some sentience and picked up the pace, her arms still around Kaela and Ethan's shoulders, but now her feet were moving with them. "I thought you said bombs were pathetic for a ninja!" Kaela shouted up to Sam as they made it to the entry hall.
"It seemed like the cool thing to say at the time." He said, running down the hallway.
They didn't get to the main doors as suddenly a shadow appeared – Karai.
"Where do you think your going?" She ran forward and slashed at Sam, but he managed to block with the chains of his staff and then, flipping it around his back, slammed one of the poles into her side. She grunted and flipped onto her hands and then back to her feet to recuperate, but by then they had already passed her.
Sam jumped and kicked the doors with all his strength and they slammed open.
"I don't think so!" Karai threw a shurikan and it hit Sam in the shoulder. He grimaced and slammed the doors behind him.
"Are you okay?" Ethan asked Sam.
He nodded and grunted as he tugged the shurikan from his shoulder, blood staining his black and he let it fall to the ground. "We better get you guys back to your home." Sam said. They walked out onto the street.
It was raining again.
Jess let go of Kaela and Ethan's shoulders and leaned against the wall with her hand. It was so odd to see Jess this way and Ethan began to understand what it must have been like for his siblings to see him changed. "Jess, how are you feeling?" Kaela asked.
"I . . . I don't know." Ethan could see that she was getting emotional and out of respect he cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away. The water matted his and her fur in the rain. Sam put his cloth back over his mouth and stood in silence, looking at his ninja, two toed boots.
"Let's go home." Kaela said quietly, "You'll feel better with food in you."
Ethan turned to Sam who had put his hood up over his head to shelter himself more from the rain. "Come eat with us." Ethan requested, motioning to the manhole nearby that Kaela was already beginning to pick up. Jess' head was bowed under the rain, the green tails of her bandanna drenched. She sniffed loudly.
Sam shook his head, "I think I'm getting pretty close to figuring out where Splinter is." He said. "I have a lead that I want to look into. But, some other time would be nice." he smiled at them.
Ethan wasn't sure if that was really the truth, or if he just didn't want to be around the awkward situation anymore, but Ethan didn't push it and patted Sam on the shoulder. "Thank you." He said quietly, "For saving us."
Giving a short bow, Sam turned and ran into the darkness of the streets and the pouring rain and vanished around the corner, his face illuminated by the LED lights of the New York streets for a moment. The manhole budged out of the way and Ethan put his hand on Jess' shoulder. "C'mon Jess." he said.
She moved slowly and Ethan helped her down into the manhole. Kaela slowly descended after her and looked up at Ethan. "Y'know, I think your fur is water repellent." she said, lightening the mood a bit, her long brown hair drenched over her face in limp tendrils.
Ethan nodded, "It makes the rain not so bad, but showering is the worst."
Kaela smiled and then went down into the manhole. Ethan followed after and shut the manhole behind him, plunging them into semi-darkness. Ethan followed Jess and Kaela for once and he watched Jess' tail slide back and forth in the darkness. She would likely be able to see better than ever before. Ethan couldn't help but feel a little thankful that he wasn't the only mutant. He wouldn't have to spend all the time in the lair alone while they went to school.
"Hey, Jess." Ethan piped up. She paused and looked back at him with her new forlorn, white face. "You don't have to go to school anymore."
Jess's mouth turned into a small, but honest smile.