I want to thank Amonraphionex for help with this chapter!
The Sting from a Dead Hornet
I can hear Stockman breathing, his breaths and short and sharp. I don't want to open my eyes, I don't want to be here anymore. The sound of the blade hitting the wood was enough to kill myself right here. But I must. I have to open my eyes.
When I do open my eyes, the first thing I see is Stockman looking at me, face branded with fear and shock. I'd never thought I'd see Stockman like this, the cocky one man show had finally seen the light. I look at the guillotine and my heart melts with agony, I see Leo's headless body. Arms limp, foot twitched. His dismembered head lay beneath him, eyes and mouth open.
I lost it, I cried out in complete misery. I launch myself at Leo, but Stockman wraps his arms around me and holds me back.
"Michelangelo, you can't do this to yourself" He says.
"LEO!" I scream.
He pulls me away from Leo, Leo moves farther and farther away from me. And before I know it, he throws me though another door. I land on the ground hard, look up and see him close the door.
"You son of a BITCH" I jump up and smash my fist into his jaw. He hits the wall and slides down the door. I look at Stockman, then catch my bearings. My brothers dead, and I killed him. Anger fills my body. I look at Stockman and see a look of complete horror on his face, looking at something behind me.
I turn around and see one of the foot creature things. Usually I'd be peeing myself in fear, but I'm filled with so much anger and hatred toward myself that I feel nothing when I see it. Anger blinds me, I clench my fist and slam it into the foot things head. It falls to the ground, screeching and flailing. I grab both of its ankles and slam it up against the wall.
I expected it to be heavier, but it feels like a bag full of cotton balls. I pick it up again and smash it up against the wall. Then again. Then again. While doing this, I am screaming at the top of my lungs, thinking of nothing but the thought of me killing my brother.
Soon the thing stops flailing around and I drop his ankles, he falls to the ground, limp. I hear Stockman breathing. Man does he have loud breathing. I turn around and face him, seeing him hold his jaw in pain. Then I feel nothing, my legs go numb and I fall sideways. I hear Stockman call my name, but I pass out before I could respond.
….
I don't remember much while passed out, small fragments catch my attention. Like seeing Stockman above me, trying to best to carry my.
"Leo" I say softly.
"Michelangelo?" Stockman calls quickly, sets me down and looks at me, "Michelangelo? Stay with me!" He shouts, but then I close my eyes.
The next time I open my eyes, I see Stockman running from something. He turns around and yelps, then runs faster, carrying me.
"Michelangelo I could really use your help here!" He shouts.
He has a gash running across his cheek, blood dripping from the edge. He doesn't notice me this time, but my heart hammers as I catch a glimpse of what was behind.
That fucking guy. And his little girl.
Then I fall back into darkness.
The next time I woke up, I woke up for good. I quickly sat up in shock, looking around franticly. I see Stockman sitting in a chair, feet propped up on a table, snoring. It's a wonder how he could sleep like this. Or in this.
I slid my feet off of the table and held my head in pain. That's when I noticed the bandages on my hands. And that's when it all crashed down on me.
"Mikey it's ok…Let go"
"I'm sorry Leo" I say softly, holding my head in my palm.
"Oh good"
My head snaps up, "You're awake" Stockman stood up and walked toward me.
"How are you feeling?" He asked.
"Fine...what happened?"
"You fainted, I had to drag you to here" He says, checking my bandages.
"You dragged me here?"
"Of course I did, not so useless after all huh?" He continues, "And! I also wrapped up your hand"
"Wow" I say, staring at the floor.
The silence crept on us.
"Why are you doing this?" I ask.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean…we hate each other…I don't like you, you don't like me…why do you stay?"
He sighs, looking at the wall, "Truthfully…I don't know…I mean don't take this the wrong way but…I was going to make a move while your back was turned…he moved his hand into his pocket, took it out and threw the small knife on the counter.
I stared at it, not knowing how to react, "Why didn't you"
"Because…I had mixed feelings when you came back and saved me…but then after…you know"
Pain strikes my heart.
"I knew I couldn't leave…even if I did try and kill you once before…but that was then…and now…we need to get out of here"
I couldn't help but smile, in other words he is saying that he needs my help to get out of here.
"There's another door" He says softly.
"What?"
"Another door…splashed with black pain…there's another at the end of the hall"
I groan, "I can't keep doing this man" I say, nodding my head.
"What do you mean?"
"The last door, I killed my brother…Who knows what's on the other side of this one" I explain.
"Or who"
I glance at him, then sighed. "I can't do this"
Stockman grunts, "But you have to"
I look up at him, sigh, then jump off of the table.
"Let's get this over with" I say, then walk out of the room. Just like he said, there's a door at the end of the hallway, splashed with black paint. Fear strikes my heart, my brothers could be in there. I cautiously walked toward the door, Stockman's following close by.
I take the key out of my belt and ready it for another turn.
I stop at the door, closing my eyes, praying to god that Don or Raph aren't in there.
I slide the key into the hole, turn, and slowly push the door open. No wires or anything that I could see, so I swing it open the rest of the way.
It's dark.
Really dark.
I can't see what's ahead of me, Stockman walks in and stand next to me. "What is this?" He asks.
"No clue" I reply.
I don't risk walking any farther, "Maybe" I say softly.
I turn around and grab the door, "Are you sure that's a good idea?" Stockman asks.
"Only one way to find out" I slam the door shut. It's dark for two seconds, then a light shines down on a cylinder in the middle of the room. I squint and look inside, but I don't see anything right away. Then another light shines right near me. Two ropes, one red, the other blue.
I study them, wondering what they could be for.
Then the last light shines onto the wall. Me and Stockman glare at it and notice the large words written on the wall.
WILL YOU FORGIVE AND FORGET RED-FREEDOM
OR
WILL YOU FINALLY TAKE REVENGE BLUE-DEATH
"What is this?" I ask, "Saw?"
Then the cylinder spins, revealing a man inside. A man that has struck fear into me for a long time.
"Oh god" Stockman says softly.
Oroku Saki stared at me and Stockman with shock, I stared at him with hate. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, The Shredder, trapped in some kind of cylinder, in front of me, apparently his life is in my hands.
"Stockman? Turtle?" He says.
"Well…would you look at this sudden…turn of events" I say grimly. Look back up at the words, "Looks whose life is in my hands now" I grin.
Oroku frowned and looked at me, "You won't do it…You don't have the guts" He mocks.
"Oh…do I?" I snap, grabbing onto the blue rope.
"Wait" Stockman says.
I look sideways at him, feeling a twinge of anger toward him, "What?" I barked.
"Look" He pointed.
I looked and saw a piece of paper nailed to the wall with the writing. I unhanded the blue rope and walked up to it, tearing it from the wall and reading the small printed words.
When face with a life or death situation, you realize that you're worst enemy, might just save your life.
"What does it mean" Stockman asks.
I throw the paper to the ground, "Don't know" walk up to the rope and grabbed it, "Don't care"
"Wait! Turtle!" Oroku shouted, "Think about what you're doing!"
"I am thinking…but all I could think about is the way you've treated me and my brothers all these years…treating us like we were fucking worthless…Thinking that you could walk all over us…beating the shit out of us" I shouted.
"Turtle…have mercy!" He pleaded. I broke.
"WHERE WAS OUR MERCY?" I screamed, "WHERE WAS OUR MERCY WHEN WE WERE BLEEDING AND DYING IN FRONT OF YOU!"
He looked at me with shock, "Fuck mercy"
I grabbed the blue rope, "and Fuck you!"
I pulled it down.
Flames engulfed the cylinder, burying Oroku in a wave of flames. And I sat there and watched. Watched as out arch nemesis burned.
"Jesus" Stockman mumbled under his breath.
I managed to tare my eyes away from the glory and see the last light shine on a wall, revealing a door.
"Let's go" I muttered sternly. Then walked toward the door.
I opened the door and stepped out, Stockman followed and I slammed the door shut, continuing on down the next hallway.
Nothing was said, we walked in silence until we saw another door with black paint.
"Another one so soon?" Stockman asked.
I groaned and walked toward it, noticing something wasn't right.
I stopped at the door and examined the lock, it didn't have a key hole. But instead, a hand scanner on the wall near it.
"What the hell?" Stockman said.
I placed my hand on the machine and it scanned, then came up negative.
"Try yours" I command.
He does and it comes up negative.
"Something's got to give" I claimed.
Stockman stared at the machine, studying its features. "This looks oddly familiar" He adds.
"What do you mean doc?"
Then the color leaves his face, "Oh shit" He says softly.
"What?" I ask more sternly.
"…We messed up…bad" He said.
A large and powerful roar sounded through the hallways. Me and Stockman jerked out head down the hallway when he felt as large footsteps shook the entire building. Something was coming, and it was big.
"Oh god no! No no no no!" Stockman panics, then started slamming against the door, trying to open it.
"What are you not telling me?" I demand.
"We screwed up Michelangelo! We screwed up bad!" He shouts.
"HOW!"
"You weren't supposed to kill Oroku!" He shouts finally.
A time bomb went off in my chest, "What do you mean?"
The footsteps got louder.
"This machine…it was in the foot headquarters! Shredders hand print opens it!" He says.
I freeze, stricken with shock and horror.
"That's what the card was trying to tell us! To forgive you're enemies to save your own life!" He explains.
It makes sense, what have I done.
Stockman still tries to tare the door down, but it's not getting anywhere. I look left to right and see another door, upon trying to open it, I find out its locked.
"Shit" I mutter. I noticed something on the ground. A rock.
I don't see any other way. So I pick up the rock and start slamming it down on the door knob. It bent unnaturally at first, but after a couple more hits, it fell off completely.
I dropped the rock, stepped back and kicked the door down. It fell with a thud and I grabbed Stockman and rushed through it. We ran for a couple minutes before we found an open door. Ran inside and hid from whatever was out there.
After about twenty minutes of sitting in the dark, the footsteps stopped and we were alone once again. "It should be safe to leave" I claim.
Slowly standing up, I peeked my head outside, seeing that we were alone. I walked out and Stockman followed. "I hate all this hallway walking crap" He growls.
"You and I both pal"
We press on down the new hallway, when we came across an intersection, we both gawked at the confusing sight.
A door at the end of the hallway.
Splashed with silver paint.
"What the?" Stockman says.
"Silver?" I say.
We both look at each other, then casually walk toward the silver door. When we walked up to it, I tried to unlock it with my key, but it didn't work. I sighed, thinking about how to open the door. "Hold on!" Stockman says, then runs down the hallway and turns the corner.
"Stockman!" I shout.
"I have an idea!" He shouts.
An uneasy feeling travels into my stomach, could there be a different key for this door. And if there is. Who could it belong to?
Stockman returns and runs back toward me, he stops and kneels in front of the lock, "What are you doing?" I ask.
"I found two paper clips in that room we hid in, and now I'm picking the lock" He says with pride.
" Can you do it?" I ask.
Before he could answer, the door clicked and unlocked. He smiled and tucked the paper clips into his pocket. "After you"
I grunt, grab the door knob and push the door open.
Something above the door clicks and releases. Then out of nowhere, a gunshot rang through the room. I jumped back in fear, not expecting the large noise.
It took me a minute to process everything, looked at the sting that broke from the door, down to the machine that held a pistol. Then I saw the person sitting in the chair.
I didn't notice it right away, the first thing that I noticed was the green skin and the shell. My heart dropped. But when I looked up at the face, my brain melted upon seeing the orange mask turtle sitting in the chair, bullet hole on the side of his face.