Disclaimer - A great big thanks to Askre and Cynlee, who beta read this chapter. I have included in the story my own way of honoring their efforts, too, with a little bit of a twist, just to keep this story 'legal' with FF. :0)
No, I don't own the turtles, Jack, Will, or Elizabeth. I only own this story. Aside from the action-adventure/tragedy theme, this story is also a mystery as well as supernatural. Unfortunately, Fan Fiction only allows for two choices.
Many thanks to all who read chapter one and who left a comment in the review window.
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Chapter 1 – The Earthquake
"…and, Bryon, as I stand here trying to keep dry and vertical, as Jerry my assistant tries to keep an umbrella over me, we are reminded all too well that in just under two hours Hurricane Asker will make its historic landfall in New York City. For the first time in almost seventy years, The Big Apple will experience a storm that Floridians and other southern coastal states are all too familiar with."
The young woman reporter suddenly cupped her right ear, in which she wore an earpiece radio receiver. As she tried to hear the next question from the newscaster, safely ensconced back in the studio, a shriek of wind drowned out her attempt. Torrents of rain had already soaked most of her clothes, despite her coat and Jerry's attempt to keep her dry with the umbrella, and it seemed any second now both of them would find themselves blown away by the gale. Nevertheless, they held their ground as the newscaster's question finally came through and broadcasted live through the television, "Syn, didn't the meteorologist mention something about a tsunami-like wave associated with this storm?"
Nodding, Syn replied, trying to speak louder over the howling wind, "Yes, Bryon, they're expecting a storm surge. For our viewers' information, a storm surge is a phenomenon that generates huge volumes of water, pushed inland by hurricane force winds swirling around the outer perimeter of the hurricane itself. Meteorologists expect this particular surge to lay claim to coastal areas on Long Island minutes ahead of the main storm and as far inland as Manhattan.. They are expecting swells of twenty-five feet or more, flooding low-lying areas with decimating destruction. The last time New York experienced a hurricane of this magnitude, a similar surge preceded it, having a devastating impact on not just Long Island and the northern coastal areas, but as far north as Rhode Island. As I speak, people there are already preparing for the worst, not wanting a repeat of what happened back in 1938. Nevertheless, Bryon, experts predict record flooding in low-lying areas all along the eastern seaboard, with catastrophic results."
Another blast of wind buffeted her, interrupting the woman's report. Jerry tightened his hold accordingly. With the umbrella still situated, although precariously, over the reporter, she managed to continue, "City officials have declared all subway stations on Manhattan Island non-operational. Citizens are encouraged not to seek shelter there or anywhere below ground, but to find safety at higher elevations. For those living along the coastal areas of Long Island, if you have not evacuated, it is highly suggested that you do. It is worth repeating that severe damage is expected, with estimated destruction to most east-side structures at eighty to one-hundred percent. The Red Cross has set up emergency shelters at local schools. Check the addresses and phone numbers listed on the ticket tape at the bottom of your screen for the one nearest you."
The girl on the screen suddenly lost her composure, ducking reactively and turning her back, as a blast of wind and horizontal rain buffeted her, nearly knocking the girl off her feet. Her coat lost its buttons, exposing her drenched slacks and sweater underneath, as her assistant desperately tried to keep hold of the umbrella. However, the fierce wind was too much. Ripped out of Jerry's hands, the umbrella finally flew away, carried along by the tempest. Now, the man latched onto the reporter to keep her from blowing away, too. Still, the rain continued to batter them and - once again facing the camera - a very wet Syn Lee concluded her report, "As I sign off, the only thing I can do is leave you with a few words of wisdom my grandmother taught me. Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. This is Syn Lee, live at Seventh and Bleecker, New York City, on the cusp of the storm of the century. Back to you, Bryon!"
"Man, can you believe this?" Mike exclaimed as he continued watching the news program. The television station began showing the damage the storm had already created as it traveled northwards along the east coast. "Double hurricanes; is that even possible, Donnie?"
"Not common, no," Don replied as he sat beside his brother, equally enthralled, "But this has been an unusually busy season. To have two storms converge at the same time, the way this one is, and in any location - well, it's pretty rare."
They were currently sitting on the old sofa in the lair, along with Raph and Leo, all four watching the televised news report as it played out on the huge television screen in front of them.
"My sons," a voice proclaimed from behind the quartet of mutant turtles.
Twisting around to face his father, Leonardo asked as his brothers looked on, "Yes, Sensei?"
"We need to make sure that if the sewers flood, we have ample time to leave." Splinter then sighed, pointing to the rapid flow of water under the bridge in the lair, "We are at a disadvantage if the water level rises. Even though we are far from the eastern side of Long Island, hurricanes are the severest of storms. Where we live underground and where the news woman just said that flooding is eminent, much can happen that we are not familiar with."
"Right," Don agreed, now standing up and heading for the lair's entrance.
"Hey, do we all have t'go?" Mike asked, his voice pleading. He really didn't want to go out, not when there was a storm brewing. Besides, he much preferred watching the progress of the hurricane from the comfort of the lair. It was exciting, where they rarely had such an experience. Right now, though, it seemed to be the only thing playing, with every channel showing the progress of the storm. In short, it had mesmerized Michelangelo.
"I believe your brother would appreciate the help," Splinter replied sternly.
"Oh...okay, Sensei," and Mike reluctantly stood up and made his way over to where Don waited at the front door.
Raphael slapped Leo on his carapace, "Well, Fearless, looks like we should all go, never know how bad things might get with this storm and all."
"More to the point, Raph," Leo added, "I wouldn't put it past the Foot to see if we get flooded out!"
"Yeah, that, too," Raphael concurred, cracking his knuckles.
"And, Sensei?" Leo turned to his father, "you might as well call April. If we're not back before things start to get bad here... "
"I understand my son. I have already talked with her."
Leo flashed a small smile and then he and Raphael went over to join Don and Mike. Once the four brothers left the lair, Splinter sighed and softly said, "Be safe, my sons."
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An hour later and along an abandoned part of the sewers…
"Man, look at all the water!" Mike pointed to the culvert in the middle of the tunnel floor. Dark, dirty water raced through the central trough. The culvert was six feet deep in the middle and normally had just a trickle of run-off. They had purposely chosen this part of the system to live in for the fact that it was rarely even two feet deep - even during the deepest part of the rainy season. Plus, Don had found ways to divert any additional flooding to other tunnels. Now, it seemed those tunnels had begun to flood. The resulting runoff lapped up over the lip of the drainage and spilled liberally along the area where they walked, a tell tale sign that this storm wasn't anything close to normal. It was becoming apparently clear to all four brothers that flooding was going to happen, regardless of how 'water tight' they had made their home.
Don shook his head as he evaluated their situation, "This is way too much water for this part of the sewers."
"You think we might have to go topside, then?" Leonardo wondered anxiously. He stopped, ready to turn back and retrieve their father.
As the other three halted their progress, too, Don replied, "Well, let's see what's further ahead. We can never be too careful where it concerns flooding, but if it's just overflow from another source, I might be able to divert it."
Leo nodded, "Good idea," and resumed his march through the tunnels, with Don, Raph and Mike falling in step behind him. He really didn't want to drag his elderly father out into the storm and if there was a way to keep that from happening, he was all for it.
A short while later as they came around a bend in the tunnel, the sewer system forked north to the left, with another tunnel bearing right, towards the east. The north part was newer, built within the past fifty years or so, and it seemed drier, too, than the eastern side. Still, the right passageway was already filling up, and where the tunnel was much older in age and sloped downwards a little, it meant that it was probably more flooded than it looked.
"If this end of the system is already experiencing flooding, then once the hurricane hits land, this entire area will get pretty deep. I dunno," Mike remarked, "I think we should play it safe, head back to the lair, get Splinter, then go on over to April's, just in case."
Don inclined his head towards the east passage, "I think we ought to check things out, first, Mikey. Maybe there's a blockage. That would explain why the water is deeper here. If we can take care of that and divert the flow, then we won't have to leave."
"And if not, Don?" Raph was becoming concerned.
"Simple…we go back to get Splinter and head on over to April's place as planned."
The other three seemed to agree, with Raph uttering his favorite line, "Then, let's do it, 'kay?"
The four brothers made their way into the older sewer passage. With the water too widespread to ignore, they sloshed through for a while, at one point wading thigh-deep as they walked. Fortunately for them, the dim lighting dotting the ceiling every fifteen feet or so helped to light their way. Although skilled enough to work in complete darkness, any illumination was something the turtles appreciated. That is, unless they were patroling for Foot. So far though, there hadn't been any indications that their hated enemy was even in the tunnels.
As they walked further through the sewers, the passageway seemed to rise up a little, forcing the turtles to adjust their footing lest they slip on the slick sludge coating the concrete floor. Soon, they weren't sloshing as much, where the water wasn't as deep, but there was still enough water to run quite readily along the ground as it rushed back towards the lower area they had just waded through. The gurgling and splashing echoed against the concrete walls of the sewer system and, if it weren't for the fact that they were under the streets of New York City, it mimicked the sound of a babbling brook.
"Man, it must really be raining topside," Don pointed, "Look at all the water running down the walls from the ceiling."
Moisture seeped down in rivulets, where the wall met the ceiling. It was obvious the city was experiencing more rain than the culverts and gutters could hold. The overflow had found cracks and openings in the antiquated concrete. The farther in they walked, the worse things became and the sound of water grew louder.
"This doesn't feel right," Raph suddenly turned, "I think we need to go back…"
Just then, the earth rumbled beneath their feet with a sudden, undulating, and heaving jolt, like an angry serpent. Their eyes darted about in concern as the tunnel before them bent and twisted.
"Earthquake!" Don declared excitedly.
"No way, Don!" Mikey's shout was panicked, almost breathlessly, as he grabbed onto Raphael. "I - I thought they only occurred in California!"
"They happen anywhere, Mike, and New York can have them, too!" Don replied, splaying his feet to balance better, "Just not - very often."
As the quake subsided, a loud boom reverberated from within the tunnel. The sound of breaking concrete followed and then - twenty feet up the passage - one side of the sewer wall gave way with a sudden force. Dirt and rock now spilled out into the tunnel like a mini landslide, piling up along the floor and joining the large, crumbled chucks of concrete littering the ground. The lights in the ceiling winked off and then back on again, with all four turtles holding their breath.
Leo was the first to act. He took tentative steps towards the damage. As he approached the area of destruction, he glanced towards the opening in the sewer wall - and nearly shouted, "Hey, guys, there's a cave here!"
"A cave?" Mikey's adventuresome spirit kicked into high gear. Completely forgetting about the earthquake - and the approaching hurricane - he rushed to join his brother in blue. Spying the gapping hole, he smiled wide, "Hey, cool, a cave!"
"Guys, I think we need to get back," Donnie suggested as he looked up at the ceiling, "If the wall is that insecure, then it might mean the ceiling is, too."
Yet, Mike's curiosity was already at an all-time high. He unhooked his personal flashlight from his utility belt and flipped it on, and then directed its beam into the heart of the small cavern. As it illuminated the interior, he suddenly yipped, "Bones, guys, there're skeletons in here!"
"Bones? Someone died in there?" Curiously, Don carefully made his way over to where Mike and Leo stood.
Raphael likewise followed, but kept looking up at the ceiling, mindful that Don was probably right about its instability. Still, he was just as curious about the cave as his brothers were.
Leo had already taken his flashlight and switched it on, adding it to his brother's light. Now, both he and Mikey could discern the cave better.
"Yeah," Leo concurred, "three bodies. And…" as Leonardo stepped towards the mouth of the cave and squinted, trying to determine what it was he was looking at, "Seems they're wearing - costumes of some sort, too."
"Costumes?" Raph snorted, "Come on, Leo, that's ridiculous…" As he activated his own flashlight and trained it on the same pile of debris, he gasped, "Wow, you're - right."
Don stepped towards the opening and added his flashlight to the mix, as well. He gasped when he saw the three skeletons, "Wow, you're not kidding." He noticed that two bodies were leaning up against the left hand side of cave along the rocky surface, while the third lay crumpled a few feet away. Skin still covered much of their bones, however. In fact, the skeletons appeared dried or mummified. Just the same, each body seemed dressed in strange-looking clothing, almost antiquated in design.
Then, something among the skeletons reflected the light, its glint catching Mike's interest. Without thinking, he carefully leaped into the small, newly opened cavern.
"Mike, don't, STOP!" Leo warned, trying to grab at his brother, but it was too late. His orange-banded sibling was too fast and was already inside the cave. "Man…" Grumbling, Leo went in to join him.
Don and Raph didn't hesitate as they followed their blue-banded brother, too.
"Wow, these bones don't look that old," Mike remarked as he bent down to see what had attracted his interest. He \ exclaimed, as he looked closer, "Cool!" Capped onto several of the exposed dentures of the skeleton lying flat on the ground, its lips shrunk back to a garish grin, was gold.
Gold teeth to be exact.
As Michelangelo tried to touch one, Don quickly grabbed his brother's arm, "Don't touch it, Mike!" Don exclaimed, "If these are recent deaths, it could be diseased." As he bent down on one knee to get a better view, training his flashlight on the skeletons, he suddenly exclaimed. "Wow, these aren't recent at all." He looked around the cave and noticed that, except for the jagged opening leading into the sewers, where the wall had collapsed, there wasn't any other way out.
Looking at the skeletons again, Don pointed, "These 'people' died some time ago. Don't know how they managed to get in here, but considering this was probably an airtight environment before the wall gave way, the absence of air would mummify any human remains. From what I can tell, these bodies have been dead for at least a couple hundred years, maybe even more."
"How can you tell, Don-san; you an expert in forensics, now?" Raph sniggered.
"The Internet is a wonderful place to learn things, Raph - you should try it sometime," Don replied dryly and never taking his eyes off the skeletons.
Mike snickered, "Or watch CSI, dude!"
Ignoring his brothers' teasing, Don commented, "And based on how these poor souls are dressed, I would say they died around the eighteenth century, too, maybe even sooner."
As he studied Gold Tooth a little more, Don noticed the skeleton's right arm, the skin dried from mummification. There was a mark there and as Donnie looked closer, he could barely make out the letter 'P'. Then, just above it, was a tattoo. A sparrow - with a rising, or setting sun? That's odd, he thought to himself.
He then noticed a hat lying beside the skeleton's head and so he picked it up. Fingering the three-cornered head-covering and then considering the brand on the arm, again, after a moment, Don finally concluded, "And, I'd say this was a pirate. They liked wearing tricorne hats."
"Tricorne?" Mike looked at the head piece, "You mean…they made hats using three ears of corn?"
Raph snorted with Don chuckling a little, "No, it's just its name, it means three-cornered."
"Oh, okay," Mike shrugged, "but wouldn't it be better if it was made out of corn, though."
"Why's that?" Raph realized he probably shouldn't have asked, but - well - it was Mikey making the comment and he just couldn't resist finding out what nonsense his brother had in mind.
"Then, if they run out of food," Mike grinned, "they can 'eat' their hat! Kinda explains that saying, when someone swears 'I'll eat my hat', when they lose a bet."
"Figured you'd say somethin' like that!" Raph groaned in mock agony.
In either case, Don noticed that the dead pirate seemed to be without any clothing from the waste up, which made the turtle wonder about it. He noticed a cutlass off to one side, with charcoaled bits of burned material stuck to it. Pointing to the artifact, Don explained, "It looks as if he tried to make a torch by wrapping his shirt around his sword. That would explain why he's the only one bare-chested. Ingenious."
Yet, what was most striking was the hair on the misfortunate soul's head. Dark dreadlocks spilled along the floor, with most of it still attached to its owner's skull. Medals and other trinkets seemed woven into the thick, braided hair with one rather grandiose example lying along the left side, and still connected to one of the dead pirate's dreadlocks. "This was definitely a buccaneer!" Don declared.
"A buccaneer? I though you said it was a pirate?" Mike was really confused, now.
"They're one and the same, Mikey," Raph patted his brother's shoulder.
"Oh, cool!"
Don then looked over at the other two skeletons propped up against the wall, and who seemed in the middle of an embrace, "And these two knew each other well, given the affectionate nature of how one is holding the other."
"So, ya tell'n me that pirates were a bit cozy wit each othah, eh?" Raph sniggered, causing Mike to grin, too.
"Well," Don thoughtfully stroked his chin, "they did spend a lot of time at sea without the company of women." He went over to the pair and noticed that both seemed attired in similar clothing as the 'pirate'. One of the deceased rested within the arms of the other, its head resting on its companion's shoulder. Long brown hair hung off the head haphazardly, as if tied back at one point, before decay had broken the tie. However, as he looked closer, he spied a necklace around the throat of the skeleton in question.
"I think this one was a female, a woman." Don declared, "Might have been a captive, or maybe a pirate, too, with the way she's dressed."
Raph snorted, "Female pirates? Com'on, Don, get serious!"
"No, really, there were. Women sometimes found themselves in a similar line of work."
"How do you know this one is a she, though?"
Don reached down and ripped off the necklace from around the neck of the female skeleton, "Aside for the fact her hair is long and appeared to be styled at one point, her necklace is far too feminine for a man to wear." Hanging from the gold chain he had retrieved from around the corpse's neck, they could see a large, bright red ruby, encircled with diamonds, and set in gold. It glittered radiantly in the beam of their flashlights, the gem's blood-red color mesmerizing and beautiful. "Probably something a loved-one gave to her. It seems very sentimental." For safekeeping, Don pocketed the necklace into one of his pouches of his utility belt.
While Raph grumbled under his breath about know-it-all brothers, Leo walked over to the opposite side of the cave. He inspected the rock fall collected there. "Seems that there might have been an opening here, but…" he glanced above him and noticed an obvious indention in the ceiling above, "looks like something caused the rocks in the ceiling to give way and block it." He looked back again and addressed his brothers, "Maybe from one of those rare earthquakes, eh?" He chuckled a little and then, just as Leo turned and walked back to his brothers, the ground beneath them began to rumble and jerk again. It was another earthquake, or aftershock!
"Earthquakes and hurricanes, what's this world comin' to?" Mike whined nervously, trying not to lose his balance.
Raph grabbed onto Mikey to keep them both vertical as Don latched onto Leo, with the same mindset. Now, all four brothers straddled the heaving and bolting ground like cowboys on a bucking horse.
Then, as dust and small rocks dislodged from the ceiling above and rained down on them in a fine, gritty sheet, Leo frantically cried out, "We need to get out, NOW!"
As the foursome stumbled along, fighting their way over the quaking ground towards the sewers, they grabbed onto each other rumba line style. Suddenly, the view of the tunnel just beyond the opening warped. A rushing, growling noise now filled their ears. Worse still, they couldn't move. It felt as if someone or something had caught them in a net. Confused and afraid, all four brothers wondered what in shell was happening.
Then, as the scene in front of them twisted and turned some more, like a reflection in a house of mirrors, they vanished into thin air - and without a trace.