I don't own TMNT or UY or The Who.

Updating before I go to class when I should be getting ready 8D

Xxxxx

The tunnel me and Mike had entered took a long time before it eventually opened up to what could only be described, with sickening irony, as some kind of sewer system. Talk about fancy. Bishop had his own damn private sewer system in this rat-maze! Somehow that just fits in with my whole idea of the man. Big, overly complicated and so damn arrogant.

It wasn't like our sewers though. These weren't large tunnels you could stand up and run around in. The tunnel we'd swam through to get here hadn't been very big, but it was ok since you don't exactly stand when you swim. But once the water level dropped to nothing but a few inches we've had to crawl on our hands and knees to get inside the building. I don't care if I grew up in the New York sewers or not; crawling around in filth is not my idea of a fun time. The first grate I find I'm opening and getting out of this muck.

Seems I wasn't the only one bothered by it either.

"How much longer till we can get outta this?" I heard Mikey whine behind me.

I couldn't turn around to look at him so I merely spoke to my front. "Keep your voice down ya goob! We get outta here when we get outta here!"

He made a complaining noise but said nothing else, following behind me closely.

'At least he's being annoying again.' I thought to myself, keeping eyes focused ahead of me for any traces of light or something.

The tunnel was dark, and wet. I could barely see anything in front of me apart from the vanishing point where the slightly dark blackness joined to form completely dark blackness. Now and then the side walls of the tunnel had drainage holes cut into them, allowing pipes from all over the base to empty everything they had into this drain. It made me nervous. It all emptied into the river which, despite the city's best efforts, is still being treated like New York's own personal dumping ground. You could pump anything you wanted into there and it'd just disappear cause there's so much filth in there already it just gets masked by it all. But it's not my non-existent inner-hippy who was worried. These pipes that led into our tunnel came from all over the base, and since it was all waste who knows what could be flooding into the shallow water we were crawling through. Biological waste, oil, chemicals, hell why not acid?! Any number of this shit could suddenly come gurgling out of a hole in the wall all over us.

I sped up my pace a little with a suppressed grumble.

"Hey woah! Not so fast!" Mikey complained behind me and I heard him speed up too.

"Relax Mike." I said irritably.

He made a noise. "Just... don't run away from me ok?"

I slowed, causing him to bump into me as I tried to turn towards him as best I could. "Does it look like there's anywhere for me ta go?! Jeez, what's gotten into ya?!"

There was a pause. I couldn't see his face so I had no idea what he was thinking in response.

"I don't..." He stuttered. "..I don't... like being here ok? This place gives me the creeps."

I groaned and started to move again. "That makes two of us. Just keep up."

"No." He said and I heard him follow after me. He sounded almost anxious. "No it's not just that."

"Then what is it?" I asked as I kept going. I tried to take some of the edge out of my voice, reminding myself that this was Mikey, who was still mad at me and had been shutting people out for days now, talking to me.

"It's just..." He hesitated. "It's just this whole thing was freaking me out to begin with ya know? Coming here I mean. I know we didn't have a choice and stuff, but I can't help feeling jumpy about it." He gave a nervous swallow. "And now we're crawling around in the dark."

I felt my face pull slightly at this. How do I respond to that? He was obviously feeling skittish about this whole thing, but what do I do? Last time I tried to be comforting it didn't exactly work very well. I gave my head a slight shake.

"Don't tell me you're scared of the dark Mikey!" I said teasingly, trying to pretend it was no big deal.

I heard him grumble. "That's not what I meant."

"Sounded like it to me." I said, grinning to myself.

"Yeah well I didn't." He said irritably, I could almost hear the pout.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." I said, rolling my eyes.

"No really! I didn't mean it like that." Mikey insisted. "It's just, I really don't wanna see that guy again Raphie! There's something freaky about him and.. I don't like it."

"Oh yeah?" I said, turning to try and face him again slightly. "Whadd'ya mean?"

Mikey hesitated. "It's... ..he just...."

I felt myself lurch forward as I put my hand forward again only to find no ground to plant it on.

"Waoh!" I tried to catch my balance as the soft but sudden wind hit my face, signalling the deep drop our tunnel had opened up to. I was half aware of dim light from above hitting my eyes, but my focus was kept on trying not to hurtle forward out of the passage and down into the sudden blackness.

"Watch it!" I felt hands grab my belt and physically yank me backwards, away from the sudden drop and back into the dark tunnel.

I scrambled backwards, sending a slight spray of, let's just call it water, into the air.

I crawled as far back as I could before bumping into Mikey, blocking me from going further. I was breathing heavily, badly shaken.

"Dude. Eyes to the front." Mikey said, I could hear the slight tremble in his voice.

I swallowed and calmed my breathing. "Yeah." I said. "Right."

I got off him and crawled forward again, carefully curling my hands around the edge of the drop before leaning my head out, looking around.

The tunnel opened up to a sheer drop. The light was too poor to see how far down it went, but the cold air that brushed my face told me it was more than a few feet. I could hear water somewhere far below us trickling downwards, just as the water in the tunnel we were in was dripping into the darkness itself. I turned to look upwards instead. Above us I could vaguely see a dull, reddish light flood down the well, or whatever it was. It faded by the time it reached where we were, but there was enough of it at the top for me to get a better idea of what we were facing. The top of this hole had a grate covering it. The first 2 or 3 feet of the hole's walls were made of smooth cement, but after that it merely became bedrock. I guess they didn't see the point of making the whole thing sleek when they built this joint. It was a little too far to try and figure out what lay above the grate, but I thought I could make out a ceiling of some kind, a man-made one. I couldn't tell where the red-light was coming from but it was pretty obvious it wasn't from anywhere down here.

I turned to look over my shoulder at Mikey.

"Good news and bad news bro. Good news is we got us a way outta this slime-hole. Bad news is we're probably gonna break our necks doing so."

He gave a drawn out groan. "Great."

I nodded. "Mmhmm. Good ta see the ol' turtle luck is still goin' strong as ever."

"So what do we do?" He asked.

I growled lightly, turning myself over and feeling along the rock around the top of the tunnel mouth for a hold. "Whadd'ya think?"

I felt around until I was sure I could grip the rock-face and not slip before I looked for a second hold. Once I was sure I was secure I hauled myself out of the tunnel, standing with my feet in it but supporting myself with my hands. I then tensed my arms and pulled myself up, finding a foot hold before I started the climb towards the grate slowly and carefully.

Somewhere below me I heard Mikey make a noise. "You're kidding right?!"

"Yeah. Ha ha very funny. Now move your ass." I replied, not stopping.

He groaned. "Ok, but if we die then it's your fault."

It was not the easiest climb we'd ever done. My hands were still wet from crawling around that damn tunnel and here and there the rock would feel slick and slimy from whatever liquid drained down the walls into the blackness. I heard Mikey whimper to himself somewhere below me.

"Don't look down doofus! Just watch me!" I snapped at him. I sounded angry, but that wasn't how I felt, really. I just did not want him to freak out and fall.

My tone of voice seemed to work though as he was quiet the rest of the way.

After what felt like an unnecessarily drawn out climb I could reach out and curl my hands around the holes in the grate, pulling myself away from the rock wall and hanging there like I was on a jungle gym or something. I could finally look down at Mikey again and was relieved to see he wasn't far behind. I waited as he made the rest of the climb before he reached out and gripped the grate himself, hanging next to me. He gave a very long, shaking exhale.

"Ya know those people who do this kinda stuff for fun?" He said with a trembling voice.

"Yeah?" I said, only half listening as I looked around the grate to see how we could push it open.

"Yeah. They're outta their puny minds." Mikey said.

"No kiddin'." I agreed, spotting where the grate had been screwed and inspecting it closer.

"Hey c'mere." I nodded towards him, beckoning him closer.

"What's up?" He swung a little closer to look over my shoulder.

I nodded towards the screw. "If we undo that we can move this thing and get inside. Get one of my sai and see if you can loosen it."

"Huh? Why me?" He blinked at me.

I rolled my eyes. "'Cause your hands are smaller than mine shrimp boy. Now do it! My arms are gettin' tired."

He nodded, letting go of the grate with one hand and pulling one of my sai out of my belt.

"You drop it and I'll break your head." I threatened.

He pulled a face and nodded. I blinked slightly at this response. Jeez, I wasn't being serious. No need for him to look at me like that.

He reach up and wormed his hand between two of the grate's bars so that he could turn the sai and loosen the screws holding it in place. It took a few minutes before he got both screws on one side and, turning around, both screws on the other side. He then replaced my sai in my belt before we moved to opposite sides of the grate, digging our hands under it and against the edge of the hole before we lifted the grate up and pushed it aside with a very loud, ear splitting scrape. I winced. So much for the silent entrance.

Once the hole was big enough to fit through I used my hands to pull myself up and out of the dark hole in one movement, quickly pulling free my sai and looking around. Not that I expected any-one to be there. We'd been making so much noise that if any-one was around they'd have iced us long ago. Still, you never know.

The room was deserted though and I put them away again. It looked like some kind of storage room or basement or something. The floors were plain and concrete as were the walls. Pipes and wires lined the walls and ceiling before disappearing into the floor again. There were several large maintenance units against the walls with warning signs plastered all over them, as well as switches, levers and crude buttons, not doubt controlling the power or heat or something. The grate was in the middle of the room and didn't seem to serve much purpose other than give people access to the hole we'd crawled out of if they needed to for whatever reason. The red light which was the only thing keeping the room from being completely dark was mounted against one of the walls, a small cage around the light-bulb. The light caused everything in the room to have this eerie, crimson colour to it. Now I like red, but there's such a thing as overkill.

I turned to help Mikey out of the hole, putting the grate back in place before I stood up, shaking my hands to try and get blood flowing into my fingers again.

"Guess we're walkin' from here." I said, turning to look at Mikey.

He nodded, looking around the room with a nervous expression. I frowned at him lightly as I rubbed my knuckles.

"Whazza matter?" I asked.

He shook his head, turning to look at me. "Nothing."

I made a slight noise at this, drawing my sai again. "It's better than crawlin' around a cold hole in the ground. Just remember that."

I tried to make it sound like words of comfort, but somehow it didn't come out that way.

Mikey merely nodded, as I turned to head for the only door in the room. I pulled out my shell-cell and removed my headset, putting it on before contacting Leo.

"Leo, we're in." I said.

I was met by nothing but silence. I frowned, stopping and putting a hand to the ear-piece.

"Yo Leo, you there?" I asked, a little louder.

Again there was no reply. I felt myself tense up a little.

"Donny. Can ya hear me?"

"Can you feel me near you?" Mikey piped up, still looking around the room.

I growled and turned to face him irritably. "This ain't time for jokes Mikey! I can't get Leo or Don to answer on this thing!"

He turned to look at me and frowned back. He pulled out his own shell-cell and selected a number before putting it to his ear-spot. He waited a few moments before his eyes widened slightly and he turned back to me. "I'm not getting anything either."

I gritted my teeth. "Tch! Dammit that's all we need!"

Mikey put his phone away again. "Maybe... maybe they're busy?" he said.

"Yeah, or maybe they had a little run in with-!" I shut myself up when I saw the expression on Mikey's face.

I grumbled and sunk a little in place, removing my headset. "Nevermind. Look forget I said anythin'. Maybe we're just too deep underground for a signal or somethin'"

Mikey nodded but I could see his expression become more and more worried.

I shook my head at him. "Look, they're fine ok? I know it."

"How do you know it?" He asked tightly.

"I just know." I replied, turning back to the door. "Now C'mon. We need ta move."

The door led out into a dark hallway, lit only the bare minimum amount to stop it from being pitch black. We were definitely in the more janitorial section of the base. That may be kinda freaky if you've watched enough horror movies but in our case it was a good thing. It meant no-one had heard the racket we made as we climbed out the hole in the ground. We made our way down it, weapons in hand as we tried to make rhyme or reason out of where we were going.

I didn't like not being able to talk to Don. Yeah I was worried if he and the others were ok, of course, but it also meant me and Mikey were left running blind without any idea of where we were going or what we were heading towards. Now it really did feel like a horror movie, and for once we weren't the monsters lurking in the dark.

Mikey stuck rather closer to me than he needed to. It felt kinda uncomfortable but I didn't push him away. He was really freaked out by all this. Normally I'd tell him to stop being such a pussy and man-up, but I could see this had more to it than just being afraid of the dark. He wasn't happy about being in this building. I wasn't sure why exactly. I mean I had my suspicions, but I couldn't figure out if it was because he was afraid of running into Bishop, or this Tibalt guy or if he was worried about Leo, Donny and Usagi. Whatever his reasons it wasn't really like him to get this twitchy about breaking into a place like this. Oh sure Mikey could freak out and be a baby when he wanted to, but usually he'd do so more vocally, complaining and voicing his fears out loud. Not follow me around this closely like a little kid. I didn't like it. His nervousness was contagious and I started feeling more edgy myself. So far this mission wasn't going too good.

We went through another doorway some time later and I was relieved to find it opened to a more well-lit passage. Making sure no-one was around, I dragged Mikey out of the darkness and down the hall, keeping my eyes peeled for any-one who might try to get the jump on us.

"Try and find anything that looks like the door to a lab or something'." I whispered to him.

He nodded, looking around shakily. For some reason he didn't seem to feel better now we were out of the dark. If anything he seemed even more jumpy.

We kept going, making sure to avoid the people we started seeing around the place. It was tricky but we seemed to manage ok. So far we'd only seen guards wandering around, but after a while we spotted two guys wearing white coats and carrying touch pads, talking to each other about stuff I'm sure Don could've explained to us. They'd been the first geeky looking guys we'd seen so far. I motioned to Mikey and we followed after them, looking to see where they were going.

We kept our distance as we followed them down the hallway, making sure to stay out of sight. Eventually they reached a pair of double doors, pushed them open and went inside. We waited a few moments before we went over to the doors ourselves, putting our heads against it to listen to what could be inside.

I could hear voices speaking to each other as well as the hum of machinery, other than that it was hard to tell exactly what was in there. I turned to look at Mikey.

"Well, we ain't gonna find anythin' stayin' out here."

He swallowed and gave a reluctant nod. "I.. I guess not."

I couldn't stop myself from giving him a worried expression. I wanted to say something to cheer him up, but this was really not the time. I pulled a slight face at him as I gripped my sai tightly. "At the very least we can 'politely ask' one of 'em where the portal thing is."

Mikey made a slight noise. "Leo said.. we shouldn't get into a fight if we can help it."

I nodded. "Yeah. But we have no idea where we're suppose ta go. So right now I don' think we can help it."

Mikey pulled a face but nodded, getting his nun-chucks into a spin.

I gave him a nod, readying myself before delivering a swift kick to the doors, throwing them open before running inside, Mikey following close behind me.

---

The doors swung open, hit the inside wall of the room them slammed back shut behind us. I stood with my sai poised, ready to unleash some serious hurt on these pencil-necked dorks. At least, that's what I had been expecting to find. Pencil-necked dorks. What I had not been expecting were 2 pencil-necked dorks, and 3 very armed guards. They all turned to stare at me and my little bro when we burst into the room. The two scientist dweebs we had followed were still standing next to each other, facing some or other large machine on the other side of a waist high-railing as they looked over their shoulders to gape at us. One of the guards was standing beside them while the second and third were standing next to a control panel of some kind. They all seemed in a state of shock and didn't react immediately.

I drew in my breath as I saw one of the guards move his hand to his holster and start to draw his gun. I threw out a hand, hard, hitting Mikey in the side and knocking him over as I threw myself to the floor as well. I flung my sai in mid-fall, hoping my aim was as good as I always bragged it was.

The gun went off and I could half imagine feeling the heat from the bullet as it passed mere inches above my head. I felt a slight snap to my mask as the thing pierced straight through the material of one of my bandanna tails before burying itself in the doors behind me. I heard the man who had fired cry out as my sai hit its mark.

I heard orders being yelled as I leap to my feet again, my remaining sai at the ready. I saw a blur next to me as Mikey got up and launched himself forward as well. I aimed for the guard nearest to me, shooting out with my sai to try and catch the gun and rip it away from him. He dodged the thrust and threw out a kick which landed painfully against my plastron around my gut. If it wasn't for the hard bone protecting the area I would've been winded. I regained myself and flipped the sai in my hand to slice at the man instead. He was a big guy. Not in a chubby kinda way, I mean in a 'I go to the gym every night' kinda way. I heard gunfire behind me and quickly flipped out of the line of fire. I didn't know if it was me the second guy was shooting at but I had no time to figure it out.

I kept my attention on my opponent as he raised his own gun again, aiming at me. I snarled and threw myself forward, going into a slide before jabbing forward with my hand, burying the tip of my weapon into his calf-muscle. He gave a loud cry and dropped to one knee, his gun falling from his hands as he gripped the wound.

I flipped myself back onto my feet and barely spotted one of the scientists try and slam a chair against me. I jumped out of the way, not having expected them to get involved in the fight. Turns out they weren't trying to, they just wanted to clear the way before they made for the door, both of them sprinting from the room. I saw one of them yelling into a communicator as he went, looking back over his shoulder at us.

A hard blow landed against my side, partially knocking me down. I spun around to see the large guard standing over me, his hands balled into fists as he drew one back for a second hit. I threw out my feet, catching him around his wounded leg and twisting it, throwing him off balance. He gave a loud yell as he fell over, slamming hard against the floor.

I scrambled, searching for my dropped sai when I heard a much more familiar voice give a sharp cry. My head snapped up in sudden panic as I tried to see where it had come from.

"Mikey!!" I called out before I could stop myself.

I couldn't spot him, and before I had proper time to look around I felt strong arms throw themselves around me and drag me backwards before a leg wrapped around one of mine, pinning it to the ground.

I squirmed in the tight grip, trying to break free with a furious growl. The guard's hold around me only tightened so that I started finding it hard to fill my lungs properly.

"Get offa me ya giant gorilla!!" I yelled angrily, trying to lash out with my hands at the larger man gripping me from behind.

I felt his hold twist and move, one of his hands latching hard around my skull while the second arm wrapped tightly around my throat, fingers digging into the back of my shoulder.

Oh shit! I knew this hold!

I tried to struggle out of his grip again, reaching up and digging my fingers into his arms although I couldn't move much without endangering myself. I felt his hold tighten around my head and shoulder as the man started twisting his hands in opposite directions, hard. He was trying to snap my neck.

I gave another loud cry, partly in anger, partly because of the slowly growing pain I could feel running from my clavicle all the way up the tendons of my throat to behind where my ears were located.

No no no! I'm not going down like this! Not with a big ape twisting my head off like a ketchup bottle!

There was a very loud noise that pierced through the pain and I felt the hands stop their twist. I heard the man make a confused noise. I blinked and turned to see where the noise had come from myself. It took a few moments before my brain identified it as having been a loud whistle.

I saw the guard I had struck with my sai lying motionless on the floor. A few feet from him lay the second guard, also unmoving. Behind him I saw Mikey standing stonily. I raised my gaze up along his figure. What was he doing?! Wasn't he gonna help me outta this mess?!

My eyes came to a stop on his face and froze. I felt the blood drain away from my cheeks.

Mikey was standing with his back straight, turned only slightly towards us. I saw one pair of chucks in one of his hands, the second pair tucked in his belt. He had an arm raised out towards us, a guard's gun gripped firmly in his hand, a finger curled around the trigger. He glared at the man who was pinning me to his chest. He lowered his head slightly as his frown deepened, keeping his gaze focused on us.

He looked like something from a gangster movie. A common executioner. A common thug. A murderer. His eyes were cold and hateful. I saw him tighten his grip on the firearm.

I struggled wildly. "Mikey No!! Not like this!!"

He acted like he didn't hear me, tensing himself.

I heard the man holding me take in a breath.

"Mikey DON'T DO IT!!" I screamed.

The gun went off.

Xxxxx

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