Greg awoke to an irritatingly familiar sensation in his wrists and shoulders. From the painful way his arms were being wrenched, he already knew that it was worthless to struggle. He opened his eyes laboriously, regretting the headache he was definitely going to have in the morning.
Greg looked around the dimly lit room, searching for bad guys. He didn't see anyone immediately, but when he rolled his neck to the left, he caught sight of Kelley restrained beside him, his wrists interwoven with a pipe by a length of chain. He cursed, and his boss looked his direction.
"You all right, Heffernan?"
"Yep," he replied with annoyance.
"No one mentioned this part in the playbook," Kelley said.
"Welcome to the club," Greg said. "Where are they? They didn't just leave us here, did they?"
"Oh no, I've heard a couple of people outside the door; not that we can do anything about them. I don't think they found Sayuri or Tim. There was a ton of activity coming from one of their radios, but it was all in Japanese. I don't know what they were saying."
"That's the fun part of dealing with a gang like this one. Some of them can threaten you in two languages."
"I don't understand why they didn't kill us," Kelley said softly.
Greg would have shrugged, if his shoulders were in a position to do so. "If they recognized me, I'm probably too valuable to kill outright. I have Shitenno connections," he said impishly.
"But they shot at all of you by the docks."
"The turtles were there too. The only reason they would want us alive is if they think they can gain some advantage over the guys by using us."
"Has that ever worked?"
"Well…kind of. I mean, the whole reason Stolle and Lilah set James and I up in Dayton was because they wanted to get to the guys. They caught us…the turtles chased us, and most of them got caught too."
"Who's Lilah?"
"I think that story can wait for another day."
"So this is typical for you?" Kelley asked.
"I wouldn't say that you can get used to something like this, no."
"You don't seem very concerned."
"Naturally. I woke up alive, and the guys are still out there. No point in getting upset unless I wake up next to some gate leading to the afterlife."
"You are so much stranger than I gave you credit for."
"You don't know the half of it."
"I don't think I want to."
Greg heard the squeal of the door, but the room didn't get any brighter as someone entered. The figure called to another in Japanese, and then strode toward them. He maintained an emotionless exterior as the Asian man stared at him long and hard. Then he noticed that their warden had a phone in his hand.
The warrior spoke to someone with a note of deference, nodding as he kept his eyes fixed on Greg. The gibberish persisted for a couple of minutes, and then the man gave him a strange smile as he hung up the phone.
"There were others with you," the man intoned almost perfectly. "How many are here?"
"Others?" Greg asked innocently. "I don't know what you mean."
"If you choose to be difficult, I guarantee you will regret it." The warrior reached up to tap the chain covering his right wrist. "Your sensor is still in place underneath. You did not enjoy the current, did you?" He held up small device that Greg had seen before. "It is wireless, so I don't need to be anywhere near you to activate it. The effects are powerful, but short-lived. That means I can get away with using it for several minutes at a time."
Greg gazed back at the man as if unconcerned, and didn't say anything in response. The individual turned his head to include Kelley. "And you? Have you nothing to say either?"
Kelley made eye contact with Greg quickly, and then calmly focused on the man in front of them. "There wasn't anyone else with us. You got who you were looking for."
"You lie!" the warrior spat angrily. "The men saw more than two figures—"
"It was dark. They were mistaken," Kelley interrupted.
"You are fools, both of you," the man proclaimed. "We will find the others, and you will suffer far greater things before the night is finished." He spun around and stalked out of the room.
Greg let out a quiet breath when he'd gone. "Sensors," he said. "The charge must be connected to them somehow. If we could get them off—"
"If we could get them off, that would mean we could get loose," Kelley said wryly. "He didn't follow through with his threat though, and I figured he would."
"He's a peon," Greg said knowingly. "He hasn't been given the green light to torture anyone, so all he can do is hold onto us until Takashi says differently."
"Do you think that was Takashi on the phone?"
"I couldn't tell you that, Sir. It was probably him or Yukiko." Greg fell silent again at the thought of the guys over at the ghostscraper. I hope things are going better for them than they are for us. Still, it wasn't a complete loss. Sayuri and Tim are out there, and it isn't over yet. We're alive, so there's a chance that things can be turned around. I'm not accepting the inevitable unless we have no choice in the matter.
He felt Kelley's gaze and met the man's eyes again.
"Do you think the turtles are doing all right with the Akiudo?" Kelley asked.
"Sure they are," he said confidently. "We're the lame ones who had to go and get caught," Greg cracked.
Kelley shook his head. "Someone will come after us, won't they?"
"Director, in this family we don't leave anyone behind. I don't know how we'll get out of this, but I'd put my money on survival if I was you."
Michelangelo was thoroughly sick of fighting in the hallway with very little space to spread out the way he wanted to. He'd just finished fending off the advance of a sword-wielding warrior who could have used a few years of lessons from Leonardo, when he had a split-second to check on Katherine.
In the semi-darkness of the hall the woman was a little difficult to pick out, as her shadow tended to blend in with the other figures that were trying so hard to bring them down. A distinctly feminine cry caught his attention, and he jerked to the left to see a man performing a chokehold on Katherine against the wall.
Mike sprung from the ground to rush to her defense, but Kat reacted before he got there. In the flash of an eye she weaved her arm under and over her attacker's biceps to break his grip, and brought her knee up with a snapping motion to collide with the man's chin. Atta-girl, Kat.
The orange-masked turtle heard someone else bearing down on him while his attention was diverted, and he backpedaled into a wall to avoid the collision. Mike had no further room to maneuver as the warrior thrust his fist toward his face, but he reacted by instantly bringing up both forearms to block the punch, and then surged into the man's personal space. Mike drove the warrior backwards with the brunt force of his shoulder, and used a hard right to finish his enemy off while he was still in mid-air
Michelangelo shortly noticed that there was a lull in the number of bodies attacking them, and looked around in the hope of escaping the restrictive hall. When he located his oldest brother, it was clear he wasn't the only one thinking that way. He saw Leonardo bounce off the opposite wall and decimate the door across from him with a shuddering front kick.
"Move, guys!" he heard Leonardo shout, and grinned as the blue-masked turtle flew into the room.
Mike made sure that Katherine was behind him, and then noticed Raphael charging up the center of the hallway. He could hear the sound of more pounding feet coming from the exit door. Sounds like the second wave is arriving. Better get a good spot while we can!
Mike dashed into the room, laying a hand on both nunchucks in anticipation. He cast a swift glance down the line of his brothers and Kat, and then spun around to face the door. Let them come; we're ready for 'em.
He grinned as the first couple of men entered the room, despite the warning laid down by Raphael's war cry. Why anyone would want to mess with that is beyond me. The larger part of the force was directly behind them, and a warrior immediately honed in on Mike with a round-house kick.
The orange-masked turtle chuckled as he turned to the side and rolled into the man's leg, catching him by the ankle. He brought his other elbow down in a fracturing blow to his opponent's knee, and let him crumble beneath him.
"Pleasure doing business with you," he chortled. "Who's next?"
He smiled when the next man's hands slipped across his frame, as if he was trying to grapple with the turtle. "Oh, you wanna wrestle, huh? I should warn you - I've had a little practice."
Mike took a step to meet the warrior and shoved the man's right shoulder away from him, while he yanked his left arm toward him. He bent his knees and rapidly rotated the man into position so he could kick his hips out from underneath him. He waved at his attacker as he groaned from the floor.
"If you're up for a rematch, let me know!"
Mike picked up the sound of Katherine's yell to his left, and he turned his head in time to see the woman lead off with a jab and reverse punch combination that looked awfully familiar. Neither lightning fast strike laid into the warrior she was facing, but Mike knew from training with Brandon what her real goal was.
He couldn't help smirking as Kat took the small step back that he'd been expecting. She delivered a rotating kick with her left leg to his chest, while the man was still geared toward protecting his face from her. I see where Bran is picking up some of his moves…or vice versa.
The room was getting more crowded, and Michelangelo found the necessity to focus. His grin wasn't shaken as he was finally surrounded, and withdrew his weapons in a seamless motion. "C'mon in, guys, there's plenty of room for you," he taunted. "All of you combined ought to be able to take care of one turtle without too much trouble."
He watched for the moment that the circle tightened up around him, extending both nunchucks over his shoulders. When their position was perfect, he led off with a helicopter spin of his weapons that connected with four men in a single pass.
Mike chuckled with satisfaction, "Wasn't so hard, was it?"
He used his nunchucks to their full advantage in the battle now, switching between downward and upward spins to confuse his combatants, and to surprise another who actually thought it was possible to sneak up behind him while he was busy.
Mike laid into the men harder as minutes passed, and some of his mirth fled. As he whipped someone's head back with a swinging blow from the handle of a nunchuck, he was drawn by quick movement across the room. When he took a second look, he realized that Leonardo was bolting for the door.
Michelangelo veered out of an attacker's path to follow his brother partway to figure out what he was doing. Another fist tried to cut him off, and Mike shook his head as he feinted to one side, caught the man by the arm, and flung him several feet over his shoulder.
"Leo!" he yelled after his brother.
The blue-masked turtle didn't stop, and Mike glanced past him this time to see Takashi standing in the doorframe.
"I have to deal with this!" Leonardo called back, dodging out of the fray.
Shell, Leo, kick his tail for all of us.