I don't own TMNT or UY.

*insert dramatic music here*

Xxxxx

Aw man! This was just great! What else could go wrong?! I'm such an idiot! Why did I run ahead like that?! I shoulda waited for Raph! Now I was all alone in this creepy place and I only had myself to blame. Jeez what a loser!

Of course I had to make it worse my acting like a total spazz when Raph said we needed to split up! I mean, what did I expect us to do? There was a giant block of metal between us! What, did I expect Raph and me to just wait around till it decided it was gonna move by itself? Oh yeah that would've been a good idea! Sheesh. What was my deal anyway? I've done mission in freaky places by myself before! I've faced all kinds of uglies on my own! This wasn't anything new for me, and yet here I was acting like a 5 year old who'd lost his parents on Coney Island or something! Why was this getting to me so bad?

Because I knew that mad was around here somewhere. That's why. It's like he's become my own personal bogeyman or something. I was expecting at every corner for him to jump out and point at me going 'Haha! You're just a stupid turtle! Go back to your pet store!'. Or something like. Heck I wasn't even sure what I thought he would do to me if I ran into him. I mean I already knew he could easily put me outta commission permanently, but that was nothing new for me. For some reason, there are a lot of people who want to kill us. This dude wasn't the first guy to come close to doing it either. In fact I've had closer calls than the one I had with him. So why was this different? He's already said what he could say to me too. I knew his little stand-up routine as far as who or what I was already. There wasn't much more he could add to his little speech that could make me feel any worse. So why was I so scared? I don't even know.

All I knew was that I really hated being alone in this place. It was confusing, twisted, and claustrophobic. Not to mention in the horror movies its always when the hot teenagers get split up that some-one gets killed. And it was usually the cutest one who died first too! I'm doomed!

I swallowed, looking around as I ran, trying to see if I could figure out if I was still going the right way somehow. I was cracking jokes to myself but, I really was scared. I wish Raph or Leo or Donny were here. Any of them would make me feel better right now.

The hallway I was running down didn't have anything different going for it than the others had. It was long, was lit from above and below and the stupid alarm and robot lady were still talking to themselves and giving me a headache. Every now and then I passed a door, and I would stop, quickly opening it to see if it led to the cells or something that might tell me where to look for them. None of them had, but I kept finding clues that I was on the right track. Not very pleasant clues, but clues nonetheless. One door had led to something like a chemistry lab or something. It was all super clean and had all these complicated instruments, some of which were sharp and made of steel and looked more like knives than anything else to me. I didn't like the smell of the place. It smelled like battery acid and fire-lighters. I moved on. Another door led to something like a store-room full of floating things in glass jars. I quickly closed it and kept going. I didn't bother taking a good look at what the things in jars were exactly or where they came from. 'Jotaro wasn't in there' I told myself. He just wasn't.

The rooms kept getting creepier and I was starting to get a little freaked out. I found one room that made me think of a dentist's office, like I'd seen on TV. But seeing as this building wasn't exactly a health clinic, I knew they were probably doing more than cleaning whatever specimens they had's teeth. I didn't go inside that room. The next room looked like a computer control station or something, but there was this really big glass tube in the middle of it filled with liquid. I thought I saw something floating in it but I quickly shut the door before I got a good look. I didn't wanna see.

I kept going, making sure not to turn down any side passages or hallways, sticking to this main one as the arrow labelled 'specimen containment area' had pointed directly down it and I didn't think they'd keep such an important room at the end of a side passage.

I didn't see any guards or scientists or doctors or anything like that anywhere. There were no people around at all. I didn't like this. It was really creeping me out. Even if I ran across some-one who wanted to kick my butt I'd feel a lot better than to just have this never-endingness of nothing. It felt like I was walking through a shipwreck or something. As if something terrible had happened here. Dammit Raph where are you?! You said you weren't gonna take long!

Then again... I wasn't sure he was gonna find any other passages that led here. He said he was gonna try but the more I thought about it the less sense it made to me that any of them would be open. The one side passage I'd run down couldn't be the only hallway leading to this part of the base, and I mean what would be the point of just using one door to keep a fire contained right? It didn't make sense. No, I had a good hunch that I was pretty much all by myself here and I shouldn't wait for Raph to show up and make me feel better. It was up to me. It's all me baby! I gotta step up and show my stuff! I'm gonna represent here! I'm gonna rejoin the others the conquering hero! Ugh. Why didn't that make me feel better at all? I don't wanna be a hero! Why can't I be the guy who runs away screaming instead? At least I know he usually lives!

I tried to forget about Raph and being alone and focused on moving instead. If I focus on what I'm doing right here and now I don't need to focus on the reality of me being by myself in this giant ghost town of a base.

I opened another door. The room behind it was very dark. There were controls and screens lining every inch of the walls, from floor to ceiling. Every control panel had an extensive amount of buttons and knobs and gizmos on it. There wasn't room to put so much as a coffee mug down. The screens in the room were the only sources of light, casting an abrasive orange glow over everything. They all displayed something different, but none of it made any sense to me. There were lines which were drawing themselves across a grid. Some of the others had a vast amount of numbers flooding upwards along the screen all matrix style. Some of them just kept repeating a sequence of letters over and over while others had this weird, sonar-like graphic that kept changing and shifting. The room was deserted, but the low humming of machines mixed with soft, calm beeps and ticks gave off the impression of people moving and monitoring the various read-outs. Professionally and businesslike. Tbut there was no-one here now, the machines abandoned to continue doing their work dutifully, displaying their information happily and eagerly to no-one.

I shuddered, stepping out of the room and closing the door. I dunno why, but I found the environment haunting, and I didn't like it. I turned and left, heading to see, reluctantly, what the next door lead to.

I walked a long way. The passage had several hallways leading from it on my left, but the wall on my right remained blank and unbroken. A bitter taste was growing in my mouth. Maybe I'd walked too far. Maybe I'd missed it somehow. I felt like I'd passed the door somehow, although I knew I'd checked every single one of them. Maybe the containment cells were at one of the ends of the passages that led out from this main one after all and I'd missed it. This felt too far.

I swallowed, my tongue feeling too thick for my mouth. I felt my pace slowing and my legs get heavy as I felt the urge to turn around. This had to be too far. But my gut told me to keep going. Don't second guess yourself now, stick to your guns and keep going.

But I couldn't keep going non stop like this. I'd be walking forever. I stopped, thinking for a while.

After a few minutes I made a decision; I would wait and see if another door shows up, I'll check it and if there's still no sign of the containment cells I'll turn around and trace my steps back and check the side passages instead. Just going forward pointlessly like this was only wasting time, and I was getting further and further away from Raph.

I really wished the shell cells were working.

I kept walking, feeling better now that I had worked out some kind of plan as to what I was gonna do. I know Raph's got the reputation of being the hot-head guy, but I'm kinda the impulse guy. I don't tend to think much when I do stuff. I go by instinct and make stuff up as I go. But right now a plan was making me feel a lot better than just walking forever and ever.

A door to my right came into sight and I trotted towards it. When I got closer I saw it was actually a double door. I felt my spirits lift a little. That looked promising! None of the other doors I'd passed had been a double set! This looked like something important! Let's hope it was the right place because I didn't wanna turn around and get lost among all these small passages and stuff. I mean I didn't wanna keep walking aimlessly either, but I was scared that if I started taking turns and going around corners in this place where everything looked the same I was gonna get lost.

I came to a stop in front of the doors, taking hold of one of the door-handles. I stopped when I spotted a security panel next to it. I frowned to myself. Oh geez! They're locked! Of course they were! It can never be easy can it?! I growled and kicked the door in frustration. Stupid dumb base with its stupid dumb unneeded creepiness and stupid dumb stupidness!

The door swung open at my kick and I blinked at it. I stared at it wide-eyed for a few moments before I turned to look at the wall panel again. What kind of moron gives a door a fancy lock but then doesn't use it?

'The kind that left in a hurry and didn't bother locking it behind himself again.' a voice in my head said to me. I pulled a face. It didn't matter though. The point was it was open. Lucky me. I took a deep breath, walking forward and pushing it open properly, stepping inside.

The room on the other side of the door was massive, and by massive I really mean massive! It was enormous! You could fit our entire lair and the entire old lair and the old old lair in here and still have enough room for a pool or a half-pipe. The ceiling was high over-head. At least a whole storey higher than the hallway I'd just stepped out from's ceiling. The light was dim and poor, but I thought I could make out wires, coils and pipes running all across it. I felt like I was inside a computer or something, a really old computer mind you, not a fancy slick once. More like the kind they used back in the 80s, all power-cords and black wires. The floor was of some kind of plain, clean steel. It felt cold under my feet. A small stairway lead down from the double doors into the room itself. There was the same soft orange glow in this room as there had been in the oppressive control room I'd passed.

My throat grew tight and dry as I stared, transfixed at the sight in front of me. The entire expanse of the area, every single inch of the vast space, was filled to the brim with long rows of clear glass cylinders. Each one at least 8 feet tall and about 5 feet wide. They all had a control panel wrapped around their base that reached from the floor to just above waist height on me. The controls themselves had small, delicate lights and screens flashing and blinking on them. The orange light of the room came from the tubes themselves which all seemed to have an inner glow to them. There was a very low hum to the room, so soft and so low in tone that I felt more than heard it, rumbling in my chest and under my feet.

I swallowed painfully at my dry throat, my tongue stuck to my palette. It felt like it was made out of sand-paper. I forced myself to turn and take a closer look at one of the large cylinders nearest to me.

The light inside was distorted and looked almost filtered in a way. The view on the other side of the glass was blurred and foggy. There was liquid inside. That wasn't all either. I could trace the vague form of some kind of being inside it. It looked bigger than I was, but I wasn't sure if this was true or if it merely looked that way because whatever liquid was behind the glass was warping the image. I could make out a head, and arms, and legs all curled against itself, like an infant. I looked a little closer, daring to take a few, small steps towards it. At first I thought the creature had tentacles or something, but upon closer inspection I realised there was some kind of tubing leading from the roof of the cylinder to the inert figure inside, like an umbilical.

I swallowed again and stepped back, looking to the rest of the room instead. It was deathly silent. The faint droning of machines was the only real sound apart from my own breathing which almost echoed in the stillness of the air.

I'd found the containment area.

---

It felt like a tomb. I wrapped my arms around myself as I walked hesitantly between the seemingly endless rows of cylindrical holding units. The figures inside of them remained unmoving, oblivious to me being there. I could feel my heart pattering fast and lightly against the inside of my plastron, my breath shallow and even as I forced myself to look into each and every one of the tubes I passed, searching for the small boy I'd come to find.

They held so many different shapes and sizes. Some of them were so much larger and stronger looking than me. Others looked slender and delicate, almost feminine in a way, although I couldn't really tell what they were and didn't think it was really right of me to gawk and find out.

My cheeks stung with the lack of blood and I knew I must've been pale to look at. I felt like I was walking a tightrope or something, and if I made one wrong move something terrible would happen. My nerves felt like violin strings, ready to snap. I could feel myself becoming wound up. Normally I'd be a little fidgety in a place like this, but my emotions were completely shot by this point. It'd been a very long day. I was getting tired while at the same time feeling twitchy and paranoid. It wasn't a good combination. The constant silence didn't do much to calm me down either.

I turned around a corner to start on the next row but jumped so bad I stumbled backwards and fell over at the sight that greeted me. One of the large tubes had been cracked open like an egg. Large, curved sheets of glass lay scattered around as a thick, sticky residue clung to the floor, slowly drying. The smashed cylinder's control panel was dark and grey looking, no lights or read-outs flashing and beeping to themselves. Among the glass and spilled fluid lay a large, bulky figure, completely still and silent. It looked like a cross between a gorilla and a bulldog. It was a dark blackish brown colour. I didn't need to get closer to tell it was dead.

My heart hammered loudly in my chest as I panted. My frightened voice echoing around the room, bouncing my panic right back at me. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my breathing. I wasn't getting enough air and felt dizzy. I needed to calm down.

I slowed my breathing, taking a large lung full of air before I opened my eyes again. The scene that met me hadn't changed in the slightest. I gave a soft, staggering breath as I got to my feet again, my face giving a twitch as I moved forward to pass the stricken creature and continue my search.

I kept my focus on the floor, taking care not to step on any glass while at the same time avoiding the sight of the thing lying dead in the hallway. When I had it behind me I went back to scanning the tubes again, trying to act like nothing had happened although I was aware that my shoulders here trembling.

I don't know how much time went by. Maybe it was an hour, maybe it was a little more. All I knew was it felt like a lifetime. However, the longer I stayed in the room and the less happened, the more I was able to calm down and focus.

I wasn't able to clearly make out the figures inside the tubes, but I was pretty sure I'd be able to identify something looking like a child. The control panel bases of the cylinders were all labelled with numbers, but I couldn't remember what Jotaro's specimen numbed had been.

I kept walking, my eyes tracing the silhouetted figures closely. I concentrated hard, afraid I might miss him.

I didn't have to worry.

There was no mistaking his figure when I found it.

I froze in my tracks turning and facing the cylinder in front of me straight on as I felt myself involuntarily draw in a breath.

I could trace every detail in the murky, orange fluid. The small, juvenile proportions, the thin shoulders, the long legs, the calm, dipped muzzle, the relaxed, flattened ears. There was absolutely no mistake. I was staring at the rabbit child, curled and still, the same long coils running from the cylinder to somewhere against him. He was just as unmoving and silent as all the other creatures in this room, not showing any reaction to me walking around these tubes.

I stepped closer, reaching out and placing my hands against the glass. It was warm.

"Hey little guy..." I said, more to myself than any-one else.

----

I stared up at him for a long time before I dropped my gaze to the control panel in front of me. I felt a frown form on my face as the overly complicated controls and read-outs glowed back at me. I chewed my lip, waving my hand a few inches above the controls tentatively. Oh man! What am I gonna do?

I'd thought it was gonna be a cell, like a jail cell or a cage or something! Not this! I didn't know anything about stuff like this! I needed Donny. Donny would know what to do. He's a genius. He could help me out.

I actually went as far as to pull out my shell cell and try his number, but there was no answer. I whimpered to myself, putting the phone away again as I stared back up at the little boy.

What am I gonna do? If I hit the wrong thing I could end up killing him! He could end up like that big bulky dude a while before! He may be in an aquarium right now but he was still alive. If I pushed one wrong thing I could kill him. I didn't know anything about machines! Why did Raph think I could do this by myself?! Why?!

I gave my head a hard shake. This was no time to panic.

I turned back to the controls. I could feel myself blinking more rapidly than usual. I didn't know anything about machines or computers but... I was the only one here. Raph was blocked off from me and who knows where Leo, Donny and Usagi were. It was up to me. Even if I suck at this I'm the only one who could do anything. I couldn't freeze up. Not after I've gotten this far.

I looked over the controls again, trying to see if I could tell what some of them did. I didn't touch anything, I just inspected and re-inspected and triple inspected the buttons and knobs in front of me. I could kinda figure out one of the screens was showing vital signs and like... brain activity or something like that. Another seemed to measure something or other to do with the fluid.

Well, I wasn't gonna mess with the kid's brain so I decided to focus on the fluid. I found a dial like thing on the controls. It was set to its highest at the moment and was directly under the fluid measurement read-out. I frowned at it, thinking it over long and hard before I reached out and put my hand to it.

I shut my eyes tightly and held my breath.

If any-one's listening up there, please don't make me a killer! I know I was told animals can't commit murder but... damned if I knew what else I would call it if this goes wrong!

I slowly turned the dial the other way.

There was a sudden 'thunk' from the tube and I gave a small squeak, jumping backwards slightly in fright, my eyes wide as I snapped my gaze back to the cylinder.

The thing had begun to hum loudly to itself and I could feel a soft rumble in the floor around it. For a moment I was scared stiff, thinking I'd done something terrible. My brain couldn't even work right for me to imagine what, all I thought was I'd made a mistake and had condemned the boy to death.

However, when I saw the orange hue filling the tube drop slightly and the glass near the top of it become clearer as the fluid inside drained out into somewhere I breathed a little easier, or to put it more accurately, I breathed period.

It took excruciatingly long for it to completely drain away. I was too scared to do anything else while it did so, keeping my eyes focused on the figure behind the glass. He sank with the emptying liquid, not reacting to the change. When the level dropped low enough he came to a rest on the bottom of the tube where he remained, completely still.

I swallowed, breathing through my mouth as I moved closer quickly, putting my hands to the glass again and looking him over frantically. Was he breathing? I couldn't tell.

I bit my lip, looking the glass over hurriedly. I needed to get inside. Fast. Could I risk breaking it now the liquid was drained? No. No it might end up cutting him.

I turned back to the controls, looking them over. I raised my hand to trace over the controls again and was shocked to find I was shaking uncontrollably. I tried to swallow away the excess saliva I could feel in my mouth.

Closer to my left I found a button marked 'raise'. I licked my lips and put a finger to it, pressing it down.

There was a hiss before the glass of the cylinder started to move, raising up and away from the control base and towards the ceiling. I stared after it in shock for a few moments, droplets of orange falling from the still-wet glass.

I tore my attention away from it, moving forward and grabbing hold of the edge of the base, making sure not to step on the controls as I physically hoisted myself up onto what was now a risen platform on which the boy was lying motionlessly.

There wasn't much room, but I was able to get up onto the raised surface and crouch on my knees. I reached out and put my hands on the small body lying inert in front of me. The white fur was completely soaked with whatever he had been suspended in. He was warm to the touch, but that didn't mean anything as the fluid itself had been warm. I put my arms around him and pulled him against me, lying him down on my lap and running my hands over his chest. I took one of his wrists between my fingers and tried to sit myself still so I could feel for a pulse. My own heart was hammering in my throat, making it difficult to breathe. I could feel blood pumping against my eardrums as I stared down at him.

He was bigger than I'd imagined. Not a small, toddler of a boy, but still very much a child. His ears hung limply as his head rested on my leg. His eyes were shut and his face was calm and tranquil. His wrist small wrist hung limply in my shaking hand. I felt my eyes sting.

I shut them tightly, trying to focus on the sensation in my fingers, for some kind of reaction against my skin. For anything. I bit my lip, and held my breath. Listening.

A soft but solid lub dub beat against my fingertips.

I opened my eyes, taking a breathe again a I felt my shoulders sag. I turned my attention to the coil still connected to him. It was attached to his other wrist, like one of those things I've seen in the hospital shows. The end of it disappeared against a small, rectangular patch of skin no bigger than a gram-cracker which had been cleared of fur. I frowned at it for a moment before I lifted my own wrist, undoing the strap I had around there before lying the band down, taking his arm again.

I pressed down on where the puncture was and in one, quick movement, pulled the needle free. Once It was out I wrapped the puncture with my wrist-band to stop the bleeding. I checked him again once I was done, making sure I hadn't hurt him in some way but there'd been no change to him.

I gave a shaky sigh, putting my arms around him again. I found myself curling over him slightly as I drew him close. I'd never felt so relieved in my life. It wasn't even an emotion I could call 'relief' really. It felt like so much more. I'd come all this way. Not just through this base but as a whole. It's felt like the longest journey I'd ever taken towards what had felt like undeniable doom. For so long I saw nothing but a dark, hopeless future ahead of us. I mean, how could any of this have turned out good? How could I have hoped for anything but ruin? One wrong thing had happened after another and they'd just kept piling up more and more until I felt like I was being suffocated. But here I sat now, everything that had happened lying strewn all around me as I sat where I was, clutching the living, breathing boy against my chest.

I felt something run down my face as my shoulders gave a small twitch.

Something twitched back.

I opened my eyes again and eased my grip, turning my gaze downwards. I tried blinking away the water from my eyes.

The boy twitched again, his face tensing for a brief moment. He arched his back slightly before he settled again, his eyes trembling behind his eyelids before he opened them. Large, black-brown irises stared up at me, foggy and unfocused.

I gave a single, watery laugh, staring back down at him.

He blinked at me groggily, opened his eyes fully as his pupils focused... and then gave me a hard, square kick in the jaw.

"KONO YAROU!!" He swore, rather loudly as he twisted himself out of my arms.

"OW!" I put my hands to my face as pain shot through me. I tasted blood and knew he'd made me bite myself as well as nearly broke my jaw for me.

"Baka! Bakemono! Akuma!" He continued to scream insults at me, scrambling to the edge of the small platform, not taking his eyes off me. He gripped the edge of the platform and proceeded to try and clamber backwards while at the same time not breaking his glare.

I turned gaze back to him sharply, letting my face go and crawled after him. "Hey wait! Wait a minute you're gonna-!!"

He slipped and fell backwards, hitting the floor with an audible thump.

I moved quickly, getting down from the risen platform and over the controls. The boy was sitting on the floor gripping his head with a pained expression. He twisted himself to stare at me with large, frightened eyes before he sprung up to make a break for it.

"Woah! No wait a minute!!" I sprung forward, grabbing him and hoisting him off the floor, gripping him tightly against me.

He thrashed wildly in my arms, clawing and scratching at me furiously. I could feel his heartbeat against my chest, it was going a mile a minute.

"Would ya hold on for just one second?!" I said desperately, trying to twist my face away from his hands, afraid for my eyes. "Look I'm not gonna hurt you! I'm here to help!!"

He didn't respond, instead kicked hard at my stomach. It didn't hurt though, my plastron shielded me from the blow. He wasn't responding to me at all, squirming angrily as he tried to free himself.

I was breathing fast and shallow, my mind racing as to what I could do. I couldn't drag the boy all the way back to the shell sub! It was clear that if I so much as loosen my grip he was gonna break free and run away as fast as he could. I was having a hard time keeping a grip on him as it was! He was terrified of me, but nothing I said seemed to trigger any kind of response as he just continued to try and get away.

"Hanase!" He screamed at me to let him go, I saw tears run down his face. "Hanase! Hanase!!"

Something in the back of my mind clicked, and I tried again, only this time I dropped the English.

"(Relax! I'm not going to hurt you!)" I tried desperately, my Japanese was a little rusty.

I got an immediate reaction though as he suddenly stopped his thrashing, freezing as he stared at me with large, fearful eyes. I grabbed the opportunity to try and talk to him.

"(I'm not going to hurt you I promise! I'm here to help.)" I said, locking my eyes on his and giving him a serious stare.

His eyes fluttered for a moment before a dark frown formed on his face and he struggled again. "(Liar!)"

I gave my head a hard shake. "(I'm not lying I swear! I've come to get you out of here! I'm here with my brothers and Miyamoto Usagi! We've come to rescue you!)"

At this he froze completely and took a sharp breath, his pupils contracting. "(Uncle Usagi?)"

I gave a long breath in relief, nodding. "(Yes. He asked us to help rescue yo-)"

"(Where is he?!)" He suddenly grabbed my shoulders, squeezing rather painfully hard as tears shot into his eyes. "(Please! Please where is Usagi?!)"

"(Calm down calm down!)" I softened my expression, trying not to wince at the fingers digging painfully hard into my flesh. "(He's with my oldest brother, probably looking for you somewhere else in this place. I'm going to take you to him alright?)"

I was alarmed when he burst into tears. "(Please! You need to take me to him! Please please please! I.. I need Usagi-san! I... I need... need to be with him!)"

"(I know. I know.)" I spoke gently, trying to stop myself from choking up at seeing him plead like this. "(Don't worry ok? We'll find him and everything will be alright. You're safe now.)"

He gave a loud sob, suddenly shooting forward and throwing his arms around me in a death-grip, burying his face into me. "(Please!... ..Please I.. ..I need Usagi!)"

I changed the position of my hands, hugging him tightly against me. "(It's alright... it's going to be ok Jotaro-kun.. ..You're safe now.. ..I'm gonna take care of you.....)"

He tried to say something else but was unable to as he completely broke down against me, sobbing loudly. I cradled him against me, finding myself instinctively rocking him slightly as I murmured to him, trying to calm him down. He was shaking all over, crying inconsolably as he refused to let me go.

Xxxxx

I cannot speak Japanese (yet!). I wasn't gonna rely on an online translator and annoy the crap out of my readers, so I opted for using the brackets. Using brackets to denote a different language is being spoken is a trick I've seen used in more than one comic series. I know this is prose and not comics but it's my story... so there XD I wasn't able to use the triangle brackets though because FF doesn't support them in a story document.

I think we deserve some hugs all around.