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Chapter 6
Secret Origins
Part 1
Alex woke up feeling like she had the first time she had been teleported from the TCRI building. She groaned as she sat back up after the feeling went away and she clutched her head. That hadn't helped at all with how she was feeling. However, she was able to hear and see again. She was a little shocked to find herself dressed in an orange astronaut outfit with a helmet over her head. She stood up and pulled the helmet off her head, letting her long red hair flow down to her back.
"How the heck did we get back here?" she asked, looking around the transporting room they had been in three weeks before in the TCRI building. She looked next to her to see Professor Honeycutt, Leo, Raph, Donny and Mikey looking around and at her when she spoke.
"Are you okay?" Donny asked. "You passed out."
She stared at him for a moment before remembering what had happened. "I'm fine," she lied. She was still in plenty of pain, but now that they were back, they had to focus on getting out of there with Splinter. She could tell them when they were safe and sound in the sewers…That sounded pleasant. "I was just tired, but thanks for your concern."
"Not this place again," Raph complained.
"We're home!" Mikey yelled. "Yahoo! We made it!" He bent down and started to kiss the floor. Alex gagged. Who knows what's been on that Teleportal floor? Then she noticed something weird.
"Why does Mikey have a tail?" There was a moving tail in the suit he was wearing. It was actually moving too.
"We'll explain later," Leo told Alex.
Then more blue light, like the one that had originally teleported them away from Earth, teleported some Federation and Triceraton soldiers into the room. "What the heck?" Alex asked. "How much did I miss while I was out? Remind me not to pass out again!"
"Don't worry," Donny said. "We'd rather have you conscious here with us."
"Head's up guys," Leo warned. "Looks like we brought back some tag-a-longs."
Guns were aimed at all partied. Seeing as Alex didn't have a gun and her weapons were on the inside of her suit – which she still didn't know how she got in – she jumped off of the Teleportal and out onto the floor to take cover. She was better out of the way in that situation.
"Rule number one," Raph said, taking out the weapons that were outside of his suit. "Never pick up hitch hikers."
"No!" a man said. It was the man with the white hair that had tried to stop the process from happening in the first place before they left before. "Remain stationary." He walked out from the hallways leading into the room. "Stay calm. We will return you to native continuity." His instructions weren't listened too. Someone, Alex didn't see who, had shot at the man, almost hitting him in the head.
"What is this madness?" one of the Triceratons said. "Where are the rest of our worriers?" He looked around his strange environment. "The Fugitoid! Seize it!"
"I thought we were over this," Alex stated annoyed.
"Oh dear," Honeycutt muttered.
"Fire!" one of the soldiers yelled. They got into formation and started to shoot at the Triceratons who started to shoot back at them.
"Take cover!" Leo instructed. The ninja jumped away into safer areas.
"Already ahead of you," Alex muttered. She was taking cover over where the man was. He was supposed to be their enemy, but at the moment, they were all just trying to avoid getting shot and trying to get the others out.
"A welcome home party. You shouldn't have," Mikey said, jumping away from the cross fire. The tail of his suit got shot and fell off. He bent down and picked it up while he said, "No I mean it, you shouldn't have."
"Deploy stasis beam!" the man yelled at some of the aliens flying around.
One by one, the foreigners were shot with the stasis beam and frozen. Seeing this, Alex got into a defensive position instantly. The man looked at her through his glasses, showing expressions between worry, protectiveness and curiosity. That caught the girl's attention. She put her sword away and straightened out of her defensive position earning herself a small smile from the man that had managed to get them back home.
"My sons stop!" Alex heard an older, very familiar voice yell at them. Alex turned her attention to the doorway where two Guardians walked in with Master Splinter right behind them, looking as healthy as ever. Alex couldn't help but sigh in relief.
"Master Splinter?" Don asked.
"They are not our enemy," he declared.
"Master Splinter!" they all yelled, running over to him and engulfing him in a giant hug.
"My sons, it is good to see you too," he muttered, getting rather squished. "Uh, please! My spine!"
Alex walked over to them as they let the old rat go. He noticed the girl and nodded his head to her, letting her know he was glad to see safe and sound her too. She bowed slightly and then stood up straight, waiting for him to continue on to inform them about why they weren't their enemy and why they had taken him in the first place.
"I want you to meet some friends," he said, turning to the two Guardians behind him. Gesturing to them he continued saying, "I believe you have met the Guardians. It was they who found me after the battle with the Shredder and brought me here to these benevolent beings who saved my life. This is my good friend, Mr. Mortu. Mortu, these are my sons and Alex."
Yup, Alex thought. Still stuck just being Alex and an add on to introductions.
Leo stepped forward and bowed saying, "Uh, thank you for saving our sensei." Everyone in their group including Alex bowed to him to show their respect and gratitude. "But who are they? What are they?" Leo asked to his master.
"They call themselves Utrom and their story is inextricably interwoven with our own," Splinter told them. "The ooze that originally mutated us all was a bi-product of their experiments with this transmit devise."
"So the chemical makeup of the ooze is caused by the inter-dimensional shift of non-essential sub atomic particle," Donny said.
"Pretty much," Alex said as she walked up next to him. "Couldn't have put it any better myself, dude."
"But! Where were we transported? How did we wind up back here? And what- Ow!" He yelled the last part because Raph had hit Mikey on the back of the head for freaking out. Alex couldn't help but laugh.
"All will be explained," Mortu told them. "First, there's some business to take care of. Beam these intruders to their coordinates."
"Yes sir!" the aliens at the controls said.
In an instant, the Federation soldiers and the Triceraton warriors were sent back it where they had last been. It was kind of cool and weird to see how it actually looked to be beamed like that. Alex was just glad it wasn't her that time getting transported. It wasn't a pleasant thing to feel and she really didn't want to do it again anytime soon…or ever really.
"Master Splinter," Leo said. "This is Dr. Honeycutt."
"I must apologize for my present condition," Honeycutt said. "This mechanical body was…" He continued to tell his whole story to Splinter and to the rest of the aliens and their guards. Alex kind of tuned it all out, seeing as she had already heard it once before. She was just fascinated with the mechanical machinery of the whole Transmit machine.
She did tune back in when she heard Splinter talking. "I see my sons have gotten into their usual amount of trouble in the eight hours they've been gone. And of course they had to drag Alex into all of that."
That's how it always is, Alex thought. Wait! Eight hours?
"Eight hours?" Leo asked astonished.
"We were gone three weeks," Raph added.
"Perhaps I can explain," Mortu said. "The exigencies of inter-dimensional travel affect not only the basic laws of dimensional space, but the fluidity of temporal mechanics as well."
Alex shrugged. "Makes sense."
"That is so cool!" Don exclaimed.
"Yeah," Mikey said, causing Alex to look over at him. "If it made any sense at all!" Alex just laughed at them.
"What the heck is going on here?" Raph asked.
"My friends," Mortu said. "Let there be no more secrets between us." Mortu moved his tie and started to pull open the front of his shirt. Alex blushed at first, thinking he was a man and that he was stripping, but then she saw that he too was an Utrom inside a robot. Her friends gasped as she just rolled her eyes. She should've seen that one coming. "Follow me," he instructed. "We shall begin at the beginning."
Alex followed behind Raph as they all left the room and followed Mr. Mortu to another room with more fascinating technology. However, unlike before when she was paying attention to the technological part of it all, she was more spaced out. She couldn't get anything to catch her attention, like she really wanted it to. Her head was starting to spin and she was starting to feel pain once more. She knew her eyes were starting to turn red and she wasn't comfortable with that.
They entered into a chamber with five pods in the middle next to a large control panel. Wait, five? Alex asked herself. Including Master Splinter, there are six of us. One of us will have to stay behind if it's what I think it is. Aw man, that would've been so cool too!
"I've seen this movie," Mikey said, causing Alex to groan. "We're uh, not going to have anything burst out of our chest, are we?"
"Dear Lord I hope not," Alex muttered. "I'm kind of fond of keeping myself intact, if you know what I mean."
"This is the oracle pod chamber," Mortu declared, raising his arms up to show his point. "Where our race assumes its highest state of communion. Where many minds enter to oneness by sharing life experience. Inside these pods you will be able to share the story of our lives."
"You know, I can't think of one science fiction movie where a pod has been a good thing," Mikey said.
"I guess this isn't a science fiction movie then, Mikey," Alex stated.
"All will be explained," Mortu said. "Please, enter the pods."
"We're got one problem," Donny stated.
"What? Like we're never going to come back out again?" Mikey asked. "Or our brains will be sucked out through our ears?"
"No," Alex stated. "There aren't enough pods."
"I'll happily stay behind," Mikey said, raising his hand.
"No Mikey," Alex said, pushing him over. "You go. I have a headache anyways."
They all got into pods other than Alex. The chambers closed, but Alex could still see inside of them just as something that looked like a helmet came done from the top and landed on the respected…err, turtle and rat.
"Prepare yourself to become one with the sacred memories of the Utrom," Mortu said, setting the machines to go. Once the machine was on, Mortu turned to Alex and said, "Now, why don't we get you all better?"
"Excuse me?" she asked, rather confused.
"I can tell you have been affected by Utrom control ray," he said. "It was originally an experiment to help control inmates in prison, but was disbanded when people started to sell them in the black market."
"Wait, so you know what's happening to me and can fix it?" Alex asked. "Does that mean you can fix anyone who's been affected by it too?"
"The ray wares off after about a month, month and a half in human time, but yes, we can reverse the affects."
I…I can get my brothers back? And I don't have to give myself over to do it? Alex thought. This day just keeps getting better and better. First we get to come home and now I get this news? This is fantastic!
"Please, sit," he instructed.
Alex did as instructed, but instantly shot up when Mortu started to strap her down to the metal slab she had been sitting on. "What are those for?" she asked.
"I assure you they are necessary," Mortu started to explain. "While under it is being reversed, you slip into unconsciousness. In order for it to work properly, the – for last of better words – other self must take control. That is why you are restrained. You will not be able to do any damage that way."
Alex stood there for a moment, silently taking in what the alien was saying. "So, you're saying that in order to get rid of the part that wants to take over, I have to embrace it and let it?"
"In a matter of speaking, yes," Mortu replied. "I assure you we will not let anything happen to you nor let you do anything that you would regret." He raised the strap once more and moved towards the girl. "It will only be a short time that the "other self" will have control. After that, you are completely unconscious."
Alex took in an unsteady breath, unsure of what to do. She didn't completely trust the alien, however, seeing as they saved Splinter and he trusted them, she assumed that she could as well. At least, she was hoping that was the case. She wasn't completely fond of the fact that they would be shooting her with another ray. She had become very weary of such things after what happened the first time.
"This way is much safer than letting it pass with time. Letting it go naturally is risky. The affects could take over at any time, rendering you unstable and a liability. You could do things you would regret." Like how she snapped at Mikey and April, she assumed. "This way will leave you in slight pain, but it will reverse it all at once. You won't have any more attacks."
"None at all?" she asked.
"None at all," he repeated with a kind and reassuring smile forming on his pink, slightly brainy looking being.
Once more, Alex took in a breath before laying back down on the slab. Mortu put the restraints around her waist, chest, arms, wrists, legs and feet. It was very uncomfortable, but she wanted them to be as tight as they could go without cutting off her circulation. She wanted no chance of her getting out of them while she was under the full control of the ray.
Mortu walked over to the ray and started to set it up. Once he was ready, he looked at the girl and said, "I assume that your friends will be awake before you will."
"Can we not tell them back getting affected by the ray?" she asked.
He looked confused, but nodded his head. "I am not completely comfortable with lying to them, but if that is what you wish, that shall be done. It is not my place to tell them. What is it you wish to tell them?"
Alex hadn't completely thought that out. She had no idea what to tell the guys. "If I may intrude," Honeycutt said, interrupting the girl's thoughts, "I have a suggestion."
"Please, Doctor, speak your mind," Alex said, wiggling slightly in the restraints subconsciously.
"I can inform that that while off world, you were infected by a disease from D'Hoonnib that they are curing," Honeycutt suggested. "But may I ask why you want to keep this from them? They just seem like they would want to help."
Alex sighed before saying, "It's complicated. I love the guys. They're like family. And I don't want to risk anything coming between that. That's why I don't want them to know about this. I don't want that trust to go away. I was able to control this, barely. We have bigger things to worry about then having to constantly be concerned with if I'm trustworthy or not. I can't be any more of a burden on anyone. Not anymore."
"I understand, Alexandra," Honeycutt said.
"That sounds like a plan to me," Alex said. "Thank you, Doctor, for understanding."
"All right," Mortu said, breaking up the other conversation taking place. "The ray is all set. Are you ready, Alexandra?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," she muttered.
Alex almost didn't catch the machine turn on and shoot a purple beam at her, but she did, barely before squeezing her eyes tight. Her jaw clenched, eyes shut with tears spilling down her increasingly pale face, Alex was overcome with a familiar feeling that she wished she had never experienced. It was the same feeling that she had experienced when she had first been shot with the Shredder's ray.
A shrilling, blood curdling scream escaped her lips as she slipped into unconsciousness.
o0o
Instead of falling into black, pained nothingness, Alex appeared to be floating in a space. She could see that it resembled a sky with a faint mist that reminded her of fog or even thin clouds. She felt nothing. She saw nothing else. She was just there, floating in one placed. Alex didn't know what to think or how to feel. She just….was.
o0o
Alex's eyes glazed over red, just as they had been doing for the past month or so. She trashed and growled. Her snarls sounding more animalistic than anything she could've ever created if she was in her normal state of mind. Her actions were more violent than anything she'd ever think about doing.
"The affects of the ray you have created are surely impressive," Honeycutt told Mortu. "And very scary to think about."
"Yes, I will admit it isn't something I am proud that our people created. In the wrong hands, it could do great harm," Mortu admitted. "It tortures the subject, breaking them mentally and physically. It takes their morals and makes them go against them. It makes them want to cause harm, despite how good natured they could be."
"And Alexandra had been fighting this on her own?" Honeycutt asked. "The poor child." Suddenly, Mikey's started to beep. Honeycutt looked at the machine to check his stats. "Michelangelo is going critical. You must pull them out of the virtual reality system."
The "other self" of Alex went back to normal. Her green eyes closed as she went into complete unconsciousness. Neither of the other two noticed though, as they were more concerned with Mikey at the moment as his stats went to critical.
Mortu, who was already at the machines working his robotic hands on the buttons, said, "I'm trying. The system is locked up. The controls aren't responding."
"Oh, how could go so horribly wrong?" Honeycutt asked, trying to help.
Neither of them noticed the "spider" Stockman crawl over to the resting Alex. He activated the comm. like with his Master and said, "Master, they are reversing the rays affect of Alex. Would you like me to change the switch?...Of course, Master." He began to work once more.
o0o
The scene around Alex changed not to long after she "appeared" in the "sky." It didn't change very much, but somehow, she managed to stand on what looked to be a cloud, though she knew that really wasn't possible because clouds weren't solid. However, seeing as she was unconscious, and this wasn't really reality, she shoved logic aside and went along with it.
"Alex?" she heard a voice behind her say.
She quickly turned around, instantly recognizing the voice as it entered her ears. "Marcus?" she asked. When she turned around, she was met with his gaze.
o0o
Stockman was just about to turn on the machine when he got a message on his comm. link. "But I'm almost done…All right, all right. I'm going." The little spider walked away, continuing on with his business.
o0o
Her brother, Marcus, stood several feet away from her in what he used to wear on a regular basis. His orange shirt hung loosely over his shoulders and chest while she could just make out his blue jeans over the mist of the cloud. He looked like his usual self, before everything that happened to them. She missed seeing him like that.
The young girl ran to her brother and almost knocked him over by the force of her hug. She held him tight while he did the same. She had no intentions of letting go. No, it had been far too long. She needed him there with her and she wasn't going to let him slip away again. However, Marcus pushed her away slightly, holder her shoulders and frantically looking at her.
"Alex, what are you doing here?" Marcus asked frantically. "No, no, you shouldn't be here."
"Marcus, what are you talking about?" she asked.
"This is what we tried to prevent from happening," Nathan's voice said from behind her.
She turned once more, just like she had with Marcus to see Nathan and Zack standing where she had been standing before. She let go of what she still had of her eldest brother and ran for the other two, grabbing a hold of both of them at once and holding them tightly. Nathan hugged her tightly for about as long as Marcus, had, maybe shorter, but he was never one to really show his emotions. However, when he let go, Zack pulled her to him and kept his arm around her shoulder, as if he was afraid she'd disappear on them.
"Prevent what?" Alex asked.
"From getting into the Shredder's control," Zack answered.
"The Shredder's dead," Alex replied. However, that didn't get reply from anyone. "He is dead, isn't he? Leo cut off his head."
"No, Alex," Marcus said. "He's not dead and we're still under his control. And now you are too."
"No, you're wrong," Alex said, "at least about being under his control. This very moment I'm getting the affects reversed. Mortu said so."
"Mortu?" Nathan asked. "As in the Utrom, Mortu?"
"Yes," Alex said. "How do you know about him?"
"The Shredder, he's after them," Marcus said.
Before Alex had a chance to ask why, Zack said, "You see, he used to be this really bad criminal where they were from and they captured him. However, he escaped when they were transporting him on their ship and crashed on Earth thousands of years ago. They've been in hiding ever since and he's been looking for them."
"But, if was where they're from…." Alex started to say. "Shredder's an Utrom?"
"Yes," Nathan said.
Alex almost fell over, but Zack's hold on her prevented her from doing so. "Careful there," he muttered, steadying his little sister. "Take a deep breath. You're okay."
"I'm okay," she said, repeating what her brother said. "I'm okay."
"So, if you're getting the affects reversed, how are you here?" Marcus asked.
"I'm not sure," Alex answered, looking around that the "sky" again. "I'm not even sure where here is."
"We're in-between consciousness," Nathan said.
"I'm sorry, what?" she asked.
"As our bodies are in control of the Shredder, our minds are sent here," Zack said. "We're aware of what our bodies are doing, but we can't do anything about it. So, we're just stuck here."
"However, when we're in battle, we're back in our bodies, but still unable to control it. We're just there to be able to "see" what's going on. Shredder is tort-"
"Torturing you. Mentally breaking you by making you go against your morals, making your mind weaker and easier to control," Alex finished for Marcus.
"Exactly," Marcus said.
"So I'm not in control of my body," Alex said. "That's why I'm here, as the affects reverse?"
"I think so," Marcus replied.
"How long have you been here?" she asked.
"A while," Zack said.
"Too long," Nathan said. "I feel so useless here, so not in control."
"It won't last though," Alex said. "The affects of the ray ware off after about a month and a half on their own. You should go back to normal again soon enough, right?"
"The last time we were hit with the ray it was the same night you were," Marcus said. "We have weeks before that'll happen and even before that, we'll get re-hit with it. That's what he did before."
"We'll stop him," Alex declared. "I'll get you guys back before you know it. I promise, if it's the last thing I do."
"Alex," Marcus sighed.
"No," she insisted. "I'm going to get what's left of my family back!"
Oo0o
"They've done it!" Mortu exclaimed. "They've activated the internal fail safe. But how?"
As they all jumped out of the pods, Leo said, "Well, you helped us. No you, you, but you. It's kind of a long story."
"Where's Alex?" Raph asked, rubbing her head.
"Well, I don't care how you got out," Honeycutt said. "What matters is that you're safe and sound." He helped Splinter out of the pods and added, "Alexandra is over there. She came down with a D'hoonibian disease and they are treating it."
"Will she be okay?" Leo asked.
"Of course," Mortu stated. "Still, I can't understand how the oracle pods malfunctioned."
"Oh, but I do," a deep, dark voice said from behind them.
They all turned to look at the all too familiar voice. The Shredder, Hun, the Elites and some Foot Ninja stood at the entrance of the room.
"The Shredder! No, it can't be," Leo gasped, astonished. "I finished you off myself! You can't be alive!"
The Shredder just laughed. "You merely severed my head from my body. A courtesy I will be glad to extend to you all. For none of you are leaving here alive!"
o0o
"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep, Alex," Nathan said.
"You know I never do that, Nathan," she replied. "I am going to get you three back." Alex paused for a second as something dawned on her. The three of them… "There are four of you in the Elites. You guys are three. Who's the fourth?"
Her three brothers looked at one another, hesitant and unsure what to tell the girl. That got her curious and a little scared to know. Was it someone she knew? Were they dangerous? Was it better for her not to know. No, she thought. I have to find out. If people are in danger, then it's better to know. Even if it is someone I know and care about, I can't let innocent people get hurt because of them.
Her three brothers continued to look at one another. However, Alex started to noticed that they were disappearing. They said that when they fought, they left the between world back to their bodies as witnesses. That had to be where they were going, but she couldn't let them leave before she found out who the fourth Elite member was. Who knew when the next time she'd be able to find that out was?
"No!" she yelled out as they disappeared.
"Lex," a voice from behind her said.
When she turned around, nobody was there. They were gone, just like her brothers, but there was no mistaking that voice. She couldn't believe her ears, but she knew she wasn't hearing things. She knew who the fourth member was. She didn't like the thought of it, but she couldn't deny it.
Alex muttered to herself, completely alone, "No…."
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