Fourth Capture – Leonardo
Leo strode back and forth across the small room; eight steps up, eight steps back. Mikey was overdue and not by a little. According to their plans, the orange banded turtle should have met up with Leo over an hour ago.
His search of the tunnels lying to the west had yielded nothing. No Raph, no Donny, and none of Bishop's men. He'd seen footprints, all recently made, but that was the extent of his findings.
As Leo paced he berated himself. He should never have used the same patrol route for so many nights; their search patterns should have remained randomized so that neither Bishop nor any of their enemies could predict where they'd be. The very second that he felt their location had been compromised, he should have ordered his brothers back into the sewers.
If he had followed the instructions he'd give to Mikey, Leo would be halfway home by now. He would certainly have expected Mikey to adhere to those orders and been furious if his brother hadn't.
Leo had already removed the useless headset but on the off chance their communications might once more be online, he pulled his shell cell from his belt. When he tried to reach Mikey he received the same infuriating static, so one by one he called his father, Casey, and then April, hoping that someone, anyone, would answer.
The only response Leo received with each attempt was static and he finally accepted that communications were definitely out. Taking a deep breath, Leo decided to break his own rules and exited the room, turning east so that he could track Mikey.
Leo's decision was contrary to his battle tactics training; there were only one or two situations in which one purposely walked into a potential ambush, and this was neither of those. It was just that Leo had a feeling that minutes would make a difference now. He hadn't listened to his gut earlier and he wasn't going to make that mistake again.
Although it was dark in the tunnels, Leo had no problem seeing through eyes that had grown up with a limited amount of light. It did not take him long to find the tracks that Bishop's men made in the dirt and silt that covered the sewer floors.
To his dismay Leo noted that those footprints didn't merely go in one direction. The tracks had been stepped on at least two and often three times as the clones backtracked, retracing their steps as they searched the tunnels.
In amongst the prints he spotted Mikey's. They were lighter and harder to find because of his ninja training, but they too had other footprints on top of them. Mikey had passed through the tunnel in search of his brothers, no doubt seeing that Bishop's men had already been there and thinking that the tunnel was clear.
The extra sets of prints showed Leo that there was a very good possibility that Mikey had run right into a patrol.
Continuing to track Mikey's prints, Leo stayed alert, determined not to be caught unawares. At one point the sound of approaching steps made him meld into a shadowed wall just before a group of clones passed him, their flashlights nearly exposing his location.
Leo eventually found the place where Mikey had cautiously stalked something and by trailing along in Mikey's footsteps, Leo saw the scene of his brother's big fight.
Squatting just beyond the perimeter of scuffed earth and mud, Leo studied the markers in front of him. Tire tracks from a small four-wheeled vehicle showed that it had entered this wider section of tunnel and then turned around and gone out again.
The depth of the tracks told him that the vehicle was heavier in the front and his mind immediately pictured a maintenance cart, the kind used by the tunnel crews that he and his brothers often dodged. From the number of prints on the ground and the make of the shoes, Leo knew the no city worker had been driving that cart.
A plastic zip tie lay on the ground near where the cart had been parked. The tie had been severed by something fairly sharp and as his eyes roamed the ground, Leo noticed it was the only one inside the tunnel.
The area near the cut tie was a wealth of information. Leo could see the outline of a form in the dirt and from the size and shape knew that it was Raphael's. Near the outline were distinctive two-toed footprints, side by side, which Leo presumed were Mikey's. The positioning told him that Mikey had cut the tie from Raph's wrists while squatting, not kneeling, a good indication that the youngest was probably not injured.
Neither was there any sign of blood near the spot where his brothers had been, although there was plenty of it elsewhere. The ground had been literally showered with sprays of cast off blood, along with white flecks that Leo recognized as brain matter. Only one brother wielded a weapon that could do that kind of damage to a skull and that was Mikey.
So it appeared that Mikey had come upon Bishop's men as they were attempting to place what was no doubt a graphically protesting Raph into the cart for transportation. Mikey had charged in and succeeded in felling the clones, after which he'd rescued Raph.
Other than the zip tie, some shattered pieces of plastic and dark glass, there was nothing else in the tunnel. Bishop's people had done a thorough job of cleaning up behind themselves.
Leo stood up and approached the tire marks, walking along beside them to the point where they turned around and started back the way they'd come. Frowning, he noted that the depth of the marks did not change, which should have been the case if Mikey had rendered some of Bishop's clones incapable of walking on their own.
Images of the last clone Bishop had created flashed through Leo's mind as he turned and followed the cart's tracks. That clone had been self-healing and Leo was very concerned that these new clones had the same built in advantage. He hoped that his brothers realized that.
Along the ground in the tunnel that the cart had driven through were both Mikey and Raph's prints, each very distinctive in the pattern of scarring on the bottom of their feet. The cart had come through behind them; something Leo could tell from the fact that the cart had partially obliterated the two-toed prints in some places.
Leo soon found the spot where Mikey and Raph had split up. Stopping to stare at their footprints, Leo tried to reason through why they hadn't stayed together. The only thing that could come to mind had to do with Donatello; so far there had been no clues to the genius' whereabouts. The cut net Mikey had found earlier seemed to point at Raph and Don having escaped together, but Raph had been caught alone.
Eyes narrowed, Leo reasoned out a scenario that seemed to fit the clues he had. Bishop's men had somehow grabbed Donatello and Raph had gotten the genius away from them. They had retreated into the tunnels which were usually a safe sanctuary, but had been followed.
Despite the number of clones that Bishop had sent in after them, Raph and Don should have been able to elude them. The only thing that would have caused them any problems was if Don had been incapacitated in some way.
An injured Don, one who couldn't travel, would have narrowed Raph's options. Knowing Raphael, Leo figured that he had somehow hidden Don, placing him in a location where Bishop's men hopefully couldn't find him.
That done, Raph had set about luring the clones away from Don's hiding spot. It was not unheard of for Raph to sacrifice himself for a brother; it was that quality that both aggravated Leo and simultaneously filled him with pride.
Raph hadn't been able to elude the clones and been captured. It was while they were trying to load Raph into the cart to presumably take him to Bishop that Mikey had stumbled upon them.
Mikey had managed to overcome some fairly large odds to get to Raph and set him free. Leo guessed that Mikey's style of continuous movement combined with the size of the tunnel and the number of adversaries had worked in the young turtle's favor.
Together, Raph and Mikey had started back towards the electrical room where Mikey had agreed to meet Leo. Their splitting up hadn't been Mikey's idea, Leo could tell from the way Mikey's prints had started to follow Raph's and then stopped.
Raph had gone to get Donatello. It was the only thing that explained his voluntarily separating from one of his brothers while knowing they were in an extremely dangerous situation. If another brother hadn't had a greater need for his protection, Raph wouldn't have left Mikey alone.
That left Leo in a quandary; which of his brothers should he follow? His sense that one of them was in severe trouble had only intensified and he knew he had to choose wisely.
Both had gone in directions that showed signs of having been passed through by clones as well. However, Raph's prints were on top of the shoe prints left by the clones and nothing had marred the impressions his brother had left behind.
On the other hand, Mikey's prints were nearly obliterated by the cart's tire tracks and the shoes worn by Bishop's men. Either they had noticed his footprints and had chosen to follow him, or their choice of routes was coincidental.
It didn't matter which of those two it was, in any of those situations Mikey was in trouble. Leo chose to follow Mikey.
When Leo spotted Mikey's nunchaku lying on the ground his mind wanted to shout 'I was right' but he was far from elated by that fact. The dirt that made up the tunnel floor in this area was churned up, obviously the result of a massive struggle.
Leo could see where Mikey had been held down and where someone had squatted next to him. He could almost feel his kid brother's terror just before Mikey was rendered unconscious; Leo could see where his toes had twitched through a spasm.
Against the wall lay a used syringe and Leo lifted it, sniffing lightly at the barrel. Whatever they'd used, it wasn't any of the deadly liquids that Leo had become familiar with. They undoubtedly wanted the turtles alive.
The cart had come to a stop near where Mikey had lain. When it had begun moving again, the back end was much heavier.
Without another thought, Leo jammed the nunchucks into his belt and then jogged alongside the tracks. He focused on following them and remaining vigilant, not wanting to be caught off guard. Bishop had to know that the other turtles would attempt to find Mikey; in fact Leo wouldn't be surprised to learn that leaving such an easily traced trail was a part of Bishop's overall plans.
Leo estimated that he'd been running for about three miles when a solid brick wall rose up in front of him. Coming to an abrupt halt, Leo studied the bricks, noting that the cart tracks and footprints appeared to go right through it.
Just as Leo was about to put a hand on the bricks to see if he could move a section of the wall, something red flashed in the corner of his eye. Stepping back quickly, Leo looked up and saw a cylindrical object, about two inches long and no more than a half inch in diameter.
Reaching down, Leo picked up a handful of dirt and tossed it in the air. The small dust cloud he created illuminated a crisscrossed set of red lights that blocked access to the wall.
Leo also noticed that some of the smaller pebbles that were mixed into the dirt went through the bricks, rather than bouncing off of them.
Drawing one of his katanas, Leo walked to within an inch of the red lights. With a steady hand, he slid the katana through an opening in the grid pattern and into the wall. When it passed through the bricks, Leo noticed that they shimmered for a moment, like the ripple effect of a pebble hitting water.
The wall itself was an optical illusion, Leo realized as he sheathed his weapon. Unfortunately the red lights were not; they were no doubt attached to a silent alarm that would notify Bishop of intruders.
Backing up a few steps, Leo briefly wondered if there was another grouping of lights set in a different pattern on the opposite side. He thought no further on the matter as he darted forward, leaping directly between two of the lights and through the mirage beyond them.
Leo tucked and rolled as he landed on the other side of the fake wall. His swords were in his hands even before he gained his feet.
No one was in sight as he looked around. Glancing up into the corners of the ceiling above the 'wall' he'd come through, Leo saw that there were no laser security systems inside the room. Bishop's security team apparently trusted that one set of alarms was enough.
Leo found himself in a garage of sorts. Along two walls were maintenance carts, all plugged into electrical outlets. Fresh mud clung to the tires of one of them and when Leo touched the back of his hand to its hood, he found that it was still warm.
Bits of dirt and mud had fallen onto the floor when the cart had been driven into the garage and continued on through an opening in the farthest wall. The cart had obviously not immediately been parked upon its return; no doubt it had been used to deliver its turtle payload.
The corridor into which the cart had traveled was dimly lit. Leo eyed it warily as he slid one katana back into place, retaining his hold on the other. Staying to one side, he stepped into the corridor.
With his carapace partially turned to the wall, Leo cautiously slipped down the corridor, following the faint trail of dried mud left behind by the cart. The floor was plain concrete; the walls brick and mortar. This wasn't the sort of facility that Leo was used to seeing Bishop operate from; it looked as though it had been hastily and recently erected.
Above him were various colored pipes which Leo assumed supplied water and electricity to the facility. Fluorescent tube lighting inside rectangular fixtures which hung from the ceiling supplied the illumination, although only half of them were actually on.
After Leo was about twenty feet in, other corridors began to intersect with the one he was in. They all had the same bunker type look to them; sparse, dark, and without color save for the coded pipes overhead. There were doors, few and far between, dotted along the walls. None of them were marked and when Leo carefully opened one, he saw a small room, empty save for a table and four chairs.
Leo paused at one intersection, turning his head to listen. The faint murmur of running water caught his hearing, the sound of the sewers one he knew well. Somewhere down that corridor was a way into the sewer system and Leo filed that information away for later use.
The splotches of dried mud extended onward and Leo continued to follow it. With no idea as to the size of Bishop's new facility, Leo had to stick with the best clue he had for locating his brother.
A door somewhere ahead of him slammed and then Leo heard voices coming in his direction. Leaping quickly, Leo grabbed onto the thick wire holding a light fixture in place and swung on top of it.
Flattening himself, Leo watched a half dozen men pass below him. All six were completely identical, from the top of their well-groomed hair to the tips of their polished shoes. Each of them was the spitting image of Bishop, including the same trademark dark glasses.
Once they were out of sight, Leo dropped from his perch, landing soundlessly. Backtracking the clones, Leo reached the door he presumed they'd come through and pressed the side of his head against it. When he didn't hear anything, he tried the door handle and found it to be unlocked.
Opening the door just a crack, Leo peeked inside. The room beyond was as dimly lit as the corridor and completely silent. Taking a quick look behind him, Leo edged past the door frame and crept into the room.
The first thing that struck him was the enormity of the space. Everything outside of the room was small and unpolished, but not in this room. The ceilings soared overhead and the interior was wide enough to park a passenger jet.
Beneath his feet were floors that gleamed with polished brilliance, so bright Leo could almost see himself in them. What caught his attention though, were the occupants of the room.
Leo sucked in a breath as he looked all around him. Standing completely still were hundreds of Bishop's clones, lined up in rows as far as the eye could see. Attached to each of them, just behind their ears, were wires that hung down from a large glowing device hooked into the ceiling.
It gave Leo a strange feeling along his spine not to be able to see their eyes. He was so tempted to take the dark glasses off of one of the clones that his hand actually lifted before he decided that would be a bad idea. He did not want to do anything that might wake this particular army.
As he walked past the lines of sleeping clones, Leo began to notice a brighter light coming from somewhere ahead of him. When he reached the spot, he saw that the light was spilling through a transom above another door.
Once more he listened for sounds of habitation and then ventured inside when he heard nothing. This room was smaller than the other and much more brightly lit. There were no clones inside, but it did contain the paraphernalia associated with a well-funded laboratory.
About five steps further inside Leo discovered that it contained his brother Michelangelo as well.
Mikey was suspended in a large rectangular container filled with some kind of liquid. His eyes were closed, his body motionless, and Leo couldn't even tell if he was still breathing.
Drawing his second katana, Leo leaped forward, unconcerned about traps or alarms. Slicing downwards at a diagonal from the top, Leo sheared off a section of the container, releasing enough of the liquid to uncover Mikey's head.
As Mikey's chin dipped down to his chest, Leo's katana flashed once more, breaking away a huge chunk of glass along with the rest of the control panel at the top of the container. A pattern of cracks and lines crawled down the remainder of the glass walls and Leo used the grip on one katana to smash his way through.
The water rushed out as the glass shattered and Leo quickly caught Mikey's falling body. Gently laying him on the floor, Leo turned Mikey's head to the side and straddled him, placing the heel of one hand on top of the other before pressing his hands in the center of Mikey's torso.
Leo swiftly administered five firm upward thrusts, using more strength than he would have with a human due to his brother's plastron. A foul smelling liquid rushed out of Mikey's mouth and Leo stopped his Heimlich maneuver in order to lean down and listen for the sounds of Mikey's breathing.
He heard a faint rasping and pressed a finger to Mikey's pulse point. For a second he felt nothing and forced himself to be calm. Just then a faint beat greeted his finger and Leo sat back, repeating the Heimlich and forcing more liquid out of Mikey's lungs.
Diving forward again, Leo covered Mikey's nostrils as he tipped his brother's head back. Placing his mouth over Mikey's, Leo breathed into his brother, watching Mikey's chest as he did so. Mikey's chest rose and fell as Leo sent his breathe into his brother's airways.
Suddenly Mikey's legs jerked and Leo jumped back. A hard cough racked Mikey's body and Leo scrambled off of him, rolling Mikey onto his side as the younger turtle began to hack up fluids.
"Mikey! Mikey!" Leo called. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
The last of the fluid left Mikey's lungs but he was still coughing. After a couple of minutes he rolled onto his carapace and stared up into Leo's concerned face.
"It's nothing a new comic book wouldn't fix," Mikey said with a weak grin.
"I'll buy you two," Leo told him with relief, grasping his brother's offered hand and pulling Mikey to his feet.
"We aren't gonna find them in here," Mikey said, swaying slightly as he tried to get his equilibrium back.
Leo steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. "Was it Bishop?"
Mikey looked up quickly. "Dude, it was totally Bishop. He said he needs our insides for his scientists. That nasty smelling stuff he stuck me in is some kind of preservative."
Yanking Mikey's nunchucks from his belt, Leo handed his brother's weapons over as he said, "Let's mess up that plan."
Smiling widely, Mikey spun his weapons, watching as Leo snatched his katanas off of the floor and marched over to one of the other three containment units. Before Leo had even finished slicing it into tiny shards of metal and glass, Mikey had smashed his way through the remaining two.
Breathing deeply, Mikey shoved his nunchucks into his belt. "That felt good."
"You'll feel better once we're home and you're dry," Leo said, leading the way to the exit.
When they stepped out into the cavernous outer room, Mikey's head swiveled, his eyes huge. "Whoa. I guess Bishop really is planning on marrying himself."
"I saw some of them when I was coming in to get you," Leo said, his katanas at the ready. "They even sound like him."
"They don't fight like him though," Mikey said confidently. "They're good and all, and they heal up just like that last freakish thing he created, but all you have to do to beat these guys is break their glasses. Raph said Donny figured that out."
"He told you that before he went back to get Don?" Leo asked.
"Yeah, he . . . hey, how'd you know . . . oh right, you tracked us," Mikey said. "Nevermind. Raph said they wanted Don first and they knocked him out after they grabbed him. Raph got Don away from them and had to stash him someplace safe. He apparently got himself caught on purpose so they wouldn't find Donny. That's not exactly how Raph tells it, but you know him. I had a pair of those glasses and I gave them to Raph to give to Don, 'cause I figure if Bishop wanted our smart bro' first it's because he knows Don can mess up his creations."
Mikey waved a hand toward the clones and added, "Though I don't know why we should worry since they're so easy to beat."
"If they were that easy, then how did the three of you manage to get caught?" Leo asked, listening to both his brother and paying attention to the noises around them.
Wrinkling his beak, Mikey said, "They swarmed us, dude. There were just too many . . . . "
He stopped in mid-sentence and glanced at Leo, who nodded without looking back.
"They don't need to be completely unbeatable," Leo said, "there just needs to be a lot of them. Bishop's primary concern is an alien invasion. He could take the time to create a perfect soldier and have a couple of them, or he could build thousands, even millions, of the not so perfect kind. He doesn't have to feed them or take care of them while they're on standby; he just builds warehouses like these to store them all over the world and then he waits."
"But why grab us?" Mikey asked.
"Exactly for the reason he told you," Leo answered. "With his enormous but flawed army in place, he has the time to turn his attention back to making the super soldier he wants so badly. These are the ground troops; the super soldiers are his elite forces."
"Very astute, Leonardo."
Bishop's voice rang out from somewhere overhead and the brothers spun around, looking up to see Bishop standing on a platform almost three stories above them.
"You need to leave us alone, Bishop!" Leo shouted at him.
"What I need is to see what's inside your shell," Bishop said. "I'm also rather fascinated by Donatello's mind, so I'll probably explore his brain while I'm at it. Too bad you've destroyed my containment chambers; I'll just have to hold you the old fashioned way until I build more."
Leo and Mikey were backing away as Bishop talked, making their way to the door and freedom.
"Going someplace?" Bishop asked, lifting his hands to his temples.
A crackling sound suddenly emanated from all around them and as the pair of turtles watched, the wires that were hooked into the clones began to snap loose. Once the wires had freed them, the clones started to turn.
Moving in tandem, Leo and Mikey sprang for the exit. Leo didn't bother to find out if it was locked or not, with a sweep of his weapon he cleaved the handle in two. The door swung on its hinges and Mikey yanked it open.
They could hear the heavy pounding of hundreds of running feet coming up behind them as the pair dashed down the corridor.
"I hope the way you came in is close!" Mikey exclaimed.
"Too far," Leo said. Then he remembered the sound of moving water he'd heard earlier. "Come on, this way."
Finding the intersecting passage quickly, Leo made a sharp turn and Mikey stayed on his heels. They ran another twenty feet before the concrete floor began to slope downwards and the sound of rushing water grew louder.
Almost before they knew it, the brothers had plunged thigh deep into the muddy water of a storm drainage tunnel. Wading deeper, they battled the strong flow as it swept past; noticing that one side of the tunnel was blocked by a heavy metal grate.
"That way!" Leo yelled, turning towards the open side of the tunnel.
"At least it's washing that other stuff off of me," Mikey said as the water rose as high as his rib cage.
A splash behind them made Leo turn his head. Barreling towards them were countless numbers of Bishop's clones.
Mikey heard them too and his nunchucks were out, spinning overhead. Leo faced the clones, his katanas at the ready as he continued to move backwards.
As one of the clones dived towards him, Leo swept down with his sword, slicing both the dark glasses and the man's face in half. The body slammed into the water and his fellows stepped on him as they rushed at Leo.
Directly behind them the wall rumbled and then another metal grate began to slide down from the ceiling. Leo had less than a second to assess their situation and quickly dropped one of his swords as he placed a hand to Mikey's chest and shoved with all his strength.
The hard push sent Mikey flying backwards just as the grate slid into place. Gurgling and choking on the water he'd swallowed, Mikey found his footing and jumped up to see Leo's carapace against the grate as his brother slashed and punched the clones that were swarming him.
"Leo!" Mikey shouted, grabbing the metal bars and yanking on them.
"Go Mikey!" Leo yelled. "Get out of here! Get Master Splinter!"
"No! No, Leo No!" Mikey screamed, slamming his nunchucks against the head of a clone that had grabbed his brother's arm.
Before he could do anything else, Leo disappeared under a mass of clones, his body splashing into the water. A clone grabbed the edge of Mikey's carapace through the bars and Mikey jerked away from him, falling back into the water once more.
When he clawed his way to the surface, he saw about twenty clones dragging Leo's still form up the embankment. Spaced out along the front of the grate and staring at Mikey were another dozen clones. The sound of the grate beginning to move again made Mikey turn and run, vowing that he'd return with his entire family to get Leo away from Bishop.
Dripping and coughing, Leo was hauled before Bishop, who stood in the corridor smiling at his captive. Leo's swords were gone, presumably under the water somewhere and completely out of reach.
"Strip him," Bishop ordered.
The clones flung Leo to the ground and then held him as they pulled his pads, belt, and mask from him. Once his body was unclothed, Bishop stepped up next to him.
Gasping for air, Leo glared up at Bishop. "My family is going to make you regret this," Leo told him.
"I sincerely doubt it," Bishop said. "But as I told Michelangelo earlier, I welcome their attempts. In fact, I'm counting on it. Put him in the 'room'."
This last was to his clones, who pulled a struggling Leo to his feet and propelled him into a small room further along the corridor. Once inside, they shoved him against a wall and forced his right arm above his head.
Leo felt something circle his wrist and looked up. One of the clones snapped an elaborate buckle on a thick leather band to his wrist. The band was on the end of a leather strap which was in turn attached to the wall by a fat metal ring.
When they stepped away from him, Leo yanked hard on the strap and found that it didn't give even a little. Reaching up with his free hand, he tried removing the band from his wrist, but no matter how he tried to tug or force it open, it was immovable.
The door slammed behind the clones as they left the room and then a large screen on the opposite wall flickered to life. Mounted on the ceiling above it was a camera, its lens pointed directly at Leo.
Bishop's face came into view on the screen. "When you get tired you can lean against the wall. I'd offer you a chair but I'm not that nice. I know your brothers will want to know you're all right, so I'm putting this show on all of the screens throughout my compound and even on a few that I've strategically placed in the sewer tunnels. As I told my clones, where there's one turtle, there are others. They are spreading out to look for them. You won't be in there by yourself for long."
Even if Leo had wanted to respond he didn't get the chance. Bishop disappeared from the viewing screen and a live picture of Leo took his place.
Leo scowled at himself and hoped his family wouldn't fall into another of Bishop's traps.
TBC….