A/N: Yeah I'm VERY late. Again. And yes this chapter is shorter but I figured that shorter now is better than longer later. Hope you enjoy!!

Chapter 10

It was slow going but Virgil could feel himself charging back up although the charge felt strange, foreign. 'Hopefully I'll have enough juice to bust out of here before I die of old age.' He thought bitterly.

Not only was it taking forever, but it required very focused concentration on his part to absorb and, for lack of a better word, store, this unusual electricity. The constant interruptions by the 'ideal mad scientist' Stockman were giving him loads of time to himself. Not.

So when he heard the door open once again he assumed it was time for another wonderful session with the good doctor, but what he saw when he opened his eyes made him leap for joy, literally.

"Batman!!" Virgil was ecstatic, he was finally getting out of this hell hole. But when his super hero friend made no move to enter or answer, Virgil's exuberance rapidly turned into confusion.

"Uh Bats? Rescue usually involves letting the rescuee, in this case me, out of their cage."

Laughter reached Virgil's ears and he though it was Batman, but since he had never heard Batman laugh before he wasn't sure. Suddenly Batman tripped forward into the room and Virgil realized that Batman wasn't the one who laughed, but the black pajama wearing man behind him.

"The look on your face!" He said while trying to regain his composure. "It was priceless!!!! You really thought you were being rescued didn't you?"

Virgil was seething, " At least I don't hafta wear stupid looking pajamas or a mask to hide an ugly mug like yours." He quipped. He knew it was a lame attempt but he didn't care.

The man sobered up real quick from the remark in any case, "Why you little-"

"Knock off this nonsense," his companion chided, "we need to secure the prisoners." He took the lead and led everyone into the room, pulling a struggling Robin along with an iron grip on the kids arm while his companion guided Batman with the tip of his sword with four others flanking the hero.

Both heroes had their hands cuffed behind their backs. Virgil could only watch as the two were led to a circular platform.

"Get on." the one with the sword commanded, giving Robin a not-so-gentle push,

"Hey" Robin complained onto deaf ears as he stumbled up onto the platform.

Batman gave them his infamous stare as he joined his young sidekick. The look said that they would get a serious pounding if he ever got loose. Once both heroes were standing on the platform, Mr. Swordman went over to the controls and pushed a button. A tube identical to Virgil's descended from the ceiling.

"Enclosure is secure." He announced.

"Good. Let's go." Mr. Swordman's companion replied as he turned and started for the door.

"Do we have to?" Mr. Swordman asked sounding like a child, "Come on man," He added dragging his cohort back in front of their newly acquired captives, "bask in the glory of this moment! Batman, The Dark Knight himself is our prisoner. We will go down in the history books for this as the one who finally took out the Caped Crusader and not to mention we at last get to find out who's been hiding behind that mask."

Black Pajama Guy 2 was getting impatient, "One he is the Masters prisoner and any glory goes to him not us, two we have other duties we need to get to and three you are acting as immature and annoying as that orange masked freak." Shaking off the hand from his arm.

Mr. Swordman obviously took great offense at the remark because he was shaking from anger, "I am nothing like that freak of nature!" He roared as he raised his sword to his companion who didn't flinch at the action.

"Fine." He said calmly, "Can we go now? Or do you want to explain to the Master why we were late?"

Mr. Swordman said nothing but lowered his sword and walked out of the room with Black Pajama Guy 2 following, leaving the three hero's alone.

"Am I invisible or something?" Robin asked looking indignant. "I'm a famous hero too! Without me thee is no Dynamic Duo. They didn't nickname me the Boy Wonder for nothing, I can kick some serious criminal butt!!" Robin punctuated the last three words with a kick to the plastic wall of his cell, which resulted in a pained foot so he plopped himself down and sat pouting.

"Done?" Batman asked.

"Yes." Robin answered still sounding sullen.

"Okay, now that the plastic kicking Boy Wonder has had his nice ranting meltdown," Robin sticks his tongue out at Virgil at this, "can you please do your get out of any situation thing so we can get out of here? I mean the faking getting captured so you can find me thing is kinda cool but Pops is gonna kill me for bein' so late."

"Sorry Virgil" Batman said.

"No worries Bats just get me outta here and I'll forgive you for taking so long."

Batman's usual scowl softened the slightest bit but Virgil noticed the difference, "You're not faking are you?"

"Not this time." Batman replied in a tone he rarely used while in his Batman costume but rather used only as his Bruce Wayne persona.

"Oh" Virgil got it. 'Damn these guys must be good f they can keep Batman locked up.' He thought. 'At least Richie is safe."

IIIIIIIIII

"Don, what's happenin'?" Raph half asked half demanded as he helped Mikey over to where he and Gear were.

Donnie sighed knowing his brothers wouldn't stop badgering him until they got some answers and he needed to concentrate on helping Gear.

"About a year ago Richie was taken over by an alien A.I. whose sole purpose was to download a civilizations knowledge, destroying it in the process." Don explained.

"Dude I remember that!" Mikey exclaimed. "The Justice League fought and defeated him, uh Brainiac was his name, but I don't remember anything about mind control."

"I'm sure they had their reasons," Donnie said "But what's more important is that he left a souvenir, an implant that connected him to Richie."

"Why'd he do that?" Raph interrupted.

Donnie was growing more frustrated, "In order to integrate himself into Richie's body he had to use a mechanical component to help to suppress Richie's consciousness so he could take over." Donnie continued before he could be interrupted again, "Against my advise, Richie tapped into that unit to release us, remnants of Brainiac's programming was reinitiated."

"Let me guess, he's tryin' to take over again?" Raph inquired.

"Yes and if he succeeds then the Earth is doomed, so please and shut up so I can stop it!" Donnie felt bad for yelling at his brothers like that but he would have to deal with that later.

Raph and Mikey backed off a little and let Don do his thing both holding onto the hope that their friend would be alright.

Donnie gently gripped his friends shoulders as he spoke, "Richie? Listen to me. You are stronger than he is. You can fight him!"

Donnie felt triumphant when Richie's glowing eyes dimmed back to normal, "Don" Richie said sounding slightly mechanical, "can't…fight much…longer…please…your promise…" Richie pleaded.

"What promise Donnie?" Mike asked

"Doesn't matter" he replied without moving his gaze from Richie, "I don't think I can-"

"One life…not worth billions…" Richie stated "…please…I'm loosing…control…aaahh." Richie grabbed his head. Donnie could see his struggle and even though he didn't like it, he couldn't deny the trueness of his statement.

"…do it…" Richie managed to say just before Don lost his blue eyes behind the yellow glow once again.

"I'm sorry my friend." Donnie said before his hand shot out and found a fatal pressure point. Richie gasped and fell back, unmoving.

Raph and Mikey were stunned and horrified at what they just saw. Their brother had just killed someone. Sure they have all killed before, but, not like this.

Raph recovered quickly, "What the shell Don?! You…you killed 'im!"

"I know that Raph." Donnie snapped back.

"He made you promise to kill him?" Mikey asked.

Donnie nodded, "He didn't want Brainiac taking control again. He knew the next time, Brainiac couldn't be stopped." He replied, low and remorseful.

"But how could you promise something like that?" Mikey asked anger creeping into his voice.

Donnie snapped his eyes to Mikey, "You think I wanted this?" He asked angrily motioning to Richie's stiffening body. "It wasn't supposed to happen this way! I only agreed because I never thought it would happen. Donnie couldn't stop the tears that fell.

"We can sort this out later, but Right now we need that door open. Can you do that Donnie?" Raph asked, gruff but not unkindly.

Donnie sniffed and nodded and without another word went over the door.

Just as on the outside, there was a palm reader panel unlocking mechanism. Without much difficultly Donnie pried off the covering exposing a mess of wires. He started disconnecting and reattaching them in attempts to open the door.

Raph and Mikey let him work and gave him his space, sitting not to far away but staying close in case they were needed.

"How ya doin' bro?" Raph asked his too quiet brother.

"Physically I could do with sleeping for a month but you better call in the National Guard for my mental problems." Raph agave Mikey a weird look so Mikey added, "National Guard? Ya know 'cause it's a disaster in there?"

Raph snorted. Leave to Mikey to joke about his mental state.

It wasn't long before the welcomed whoosh of the door opening came.

Mikey was on his feet and giving his purple masked brother the king of all hugs, already forgetting hoe mad he was at him just a few minutes ago.

"You did it Donnie!" Mikey exclaimed as he hugged his brother.

"But I didn't-" Donnie tried to say but Raph cut him off, pulling Mikey off of him.

"Cut the theatrics Mike we need ta find Leo so we can finish this thing. Unless you wanna hang around?"

"Nope, I'm good." Mikey answered as he stepped across the threshold and into the hallway eagerly.

Raph followed but stopped when he noticed that Donnie wasn't following.

"Don?" Raph called.

"We can't just leave him here." Don stated, just above a whisper.

Logic told him that taking the body would slow them down, risking their chances of getting caught again, but he knew that Donnie was right. So without another thought Raph went over and picked up Richie fireman style and gave his brother a reassuring smile on the way back out. Donnie gave a small smile in return and followed his brother out of the room.

A/N: Reviews give me inspiration. Inspiration gives me ideas. Ideas give me things to write. Me writing gives you chapters sooner ;) Please review!!