Mutants Misplaced
Chapter 45
The Trial Part 2
"We meet again, Leonardo." the voice said sinisterly, as its owner appeared out of the dark in front of the turtle. An Asian man in his twenties with a bowl haircut, dressed in a black ninja uniform adorned with the symbol of the Foot clan.
"Mashimi?! How is it possible?" Leo exclaimed, drawing his swords.
"Heh, you thought that you and the Ancient One could banish me forever, how wrong you both were. I will never disappear, for as long as you live, so will I." Mashimi said and faded away.
"What is it you want?" Leo asked, looking around, but wasn't able to find the ninja again.
"What I've always wanted." Mashimi's voice echoed in the dark void. "To make you suffer!" he said as he suddenly appeared behind Leo, making the turtle spin around in shock.
"Are you proud of your actions? Of how you put your family in danger once again? It was your decision to visit your freaks to friends in Chicago, resulting in you all being trapped here. You ordered them to take shelter in the old mine, almost killing Mona in the process. When Sephie became a vampire, you wanted her dead!"
"That's not true!" Leo snapped, but Mashimi simply vanished again. A part of the darkness parted, showing a scene that Leo remembered. Raphael and Monalisa were sitting together under a tree at night, kissing each other. Nearby, he could see himself at that time, his face twisted by anguish and sadness and tears in his eyes. It was the night he had planned to confess his love for Mona, but Raph approached her first and won her heart. It devastated Leo that night.
"You desired Monalisa, you craved her, but your own brother stole her from you, and yet you were not man enough to take her back, instead you almost killed Raphael, like a coward. Your actions drove your family apart, put your 'father' on death's doorstep and got the rest captured by Arashi."
The image shifted, showing Raph after Leo had cut him across his face and shoulder, Splinter laying almost lifeless in the lair, and his brothers and Mona tortured and experimented upon by the Foot.
"Enough of this, you're nothing but a figment of my imagination." Leo snapped.
"Oh no, Leonardo." Mashimi said as he reappeared and the image vanished. "I am very much real, and on this day, I will triumph!"
The ninja drew his own pair of katana, black as the darkest night with a red glow, and attacked Leo. Leo fought back valiantly, parrying, blocking and countering all of Mashimi's attacks, but while he managed that, Leo couldn't defend himself against his enemy's words. And they cut deep.
"You are a disgrace, Leonardo! You will bring your family dishonour and death! The woman you love will die, killed by your own hands! And so will your brothers!"
"Shut up!"
"You can not deny the truth! Because of you, friends will turn into enemies, couples will be broken as their love becomes hate and families will shatter!"
"Never! I fell to your tricks once, Mashimi, but never again!" Leo said as they crossed blades.
"Tricks? It was the truth and you know it! You will be the death of everyone you hold dear, just because you can not stomach that someone else has something you desire. Raphael has the heart of Monalisa, whose love you crave! Then there is her lookalike, Sephie, the mate of the dragon, also take from you before you could even make a move!"
"Leave them out of this! I have no such feelings for Sephie! She is a friend and trusted ally!"
"Is that what you truly believe, or is it just what you tell yourself until Tyroth is out of the way? So that you can comfort her and claim her heart instead of Monalisa's? Or maybe she's just a stepping stone for you to use to reach that which you truly desire."
"SHUT UP!"
Furious, Leo lashed out with his swords, but that was just what Mashimi wanted. Dodging the attack, he kicked Leo in the stomach and knocked his weapons out of his hands while he was stunned. Using the handle of his katana, Mashimi struck Leo on the head and felled the brave turtle to the floor. Standing triumphantly over Leo, Mashimi raised his blades.
"Pathetic. And to think that that rat sensei made you the leader, trusted you to protect your family and friends." he said as Leo forced himself onto all four. "Well, this end now. You will die here, slowly and painfully... and all alone!"
As he was about to deliver the killing blow, his blades came to a halt when Leo caught both his hands in a strong grip.
"No. I am not alone, and I never will be!" Leo said, looking up at Mashimi with his eyes filled with determination. "My family, my friends, they are always with me, in my heart, no matter how far apart we may be. They will always be there for me, lending me their strength. Our bond goes beyond your dark lies and trickery, beyond your understanding. It's taken me some time to fully understand the meaning of family, but now I know. We share each other's pain, anger and tears, but we also share our love, laughter and light. As long as I got their light in my heart, you will never prevail!"
With a mighty twist, Leo snapped one of Mashimi's arms, making him drop the katana as he cried out in pain. Quickly grabbing the weapon, Leo drove it into Mashimi's chest.
"Begone! Return to the dark abyss that spawned you and never return! I am done with you!"
As if it was nothing but a bad dream, Mashimi and the darkness dissipated, leaving Leo standing all alone in an empty room. Two doors opened, the one he had entered through, and one leading to the right, going deeper into the ruins. Shortly after, his family and friends entered the room, accompanied by the artificial wisp.
"Are you okay, Leo?" Mona asked, seeing how fatigued he looked, then they saw that his sword lay a couple of meters away. "What happened to you?"
"I… I had to face my own darkness, it was taxing, but I managed to vanquish it."
"You're sure that your okay, bro?" Raph asked, offering to support his brother.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." he said smiling, knowing that his loved ones would always be at his side. "But I think I'll rather not take the next challenge unless necessary."
"Take your time, Leo. We can rest a while." said Tyroth.
Leaving the room, the group sat down in the next hallway, letting Leo recover from his ordeal. The nightmares he had had of those troubled times would never leave his memory, but a small part of him felt like he now had finally banished that darkness, maybe even for good.
Once Leo felt that he had rested enough, and the others agreed with him, they resumed their trek through the ruins. At the end of the hallway, there was another door that lead to a room that was ten meters long and barely twice as wide as the hallway. At the end of the room, was a smaller room with a door at the end. As they entered the long part of the room, the door closed itself behind them, just like in the previous room, and the wisp halted them to speak.
"I have specific instructions for this challenge." it began. "Since you are many, specific restrictions will dictate who will be allowed to attempt this challenge. They state that only the youngest in a group may attempt this challenge. And please do not lie, any attempt at deception will be punished with death."
The group looked worried, since they knew who the youngest of them was. Their eyes all fell on poor Michelangelo, who swallowed hard and was sweating.
"We're toast..." Raph said, hanging his head low.
"You're telling me?!" said Mikey, more anxious than he could ever remember.
"Please step inside the smaller room when you are ready. The rest must remain here." said the wisp.
"Don't worry, Mikey, I know you can do this." said Mona, placing her hand on Mikey's shoulder to comfort her adoptive little brother.
"Just stay calm and concentrated, and you'll be fine, no matter what you face." said Donnie.
"You do no that 'calm' and 'concentrated' are total opposite of what Mikey is." said Raph, but Leo gave him a stern look.
"That is not helping, Raph. We have to trust Mikey."
"Please step inside the smaller room when you are ready." the wisp repeated.
Mikey sighed and did as asked of him, they wouldn't be able to move forward if he didn't, and they couldn't turn back either. Entering the small room, he saw the door at the end and a panel to his left with sixteen square buttons in a square formation.
Wondering what he had to do, his thoughts were interrupted when a stone wall slammed down behind him, covered in a barrier and trapping him in the room. His panic increased when the wall opposite of the panel started moving, very slowly making it's way towards him.
"What the shell!?"
At the same time in the main room, right after Mikey got trapped, the rest of the group found themselves in the same situation. The two long walls had started moving towards the middle, and at a faster pace than the wall with Mikey, though they didn't know that.
With nowhere to go, they tried to push back against the wall, but even with Tyroth's strength, the best they could do was to slow them down. And to make matters worse, both walls were encased in a magic barrier, so they couldn't even damage them.
"What's the meaning of this?!" Leo asked the wisp demandingly.
"It is part of the challenge, if your comrade can not complete it, you will all be crushed." it said calmly.
"You double-crossing little piece of shit!" Raph yelled. "You wanted us to fall into this trap!"
"I want nothing, I was created to guide people like you, but I am forbidden to intervene in any way other than what I have done so far, thus I was not allowed to tell you about the current event."
"Someone better think of something fast, we can't stop these things!" said Tyroth as he was slowly pushed back by the wall, leaving marks on the floor after trying to get a grip with his clawed feet.
"I don't think we can do anything at all, this is Mikey's challenge. He has to finish it if we are to get out of this." said Donnie.
"Someone! Help!" they could here Mikey's muffled voice from inside the small room. "The wall's gonna crush me!"
Hearing his brother's cry for help, Donnie hurried to the closed opening.
"Mikey! Can you hear me?"
"Don?! Help me! I don't want to become a turtle pancake!"
"Stay calm. Is there anything in there that is out of the ordinary? That you can use?"
"Some kind of panel with buttons!"
"Okay, then that must be the puzzle. I'm guessing that you have to find the right button, or even button combination to stop the walls from crushing us and opening the doors."
"Wait, you're in the same mess?!"
"Concentrate, Mikey! We're counting on you. See if any of the buttons look different or something."
"If we die here, Mikey, I'm going to kill you!" Raph shouted. "A second time!"
With no other choice, Mikey had to ignore the moving wall behind him and focus on the task given to him. Nervously looking at the panel, he couldn't make heads or tails of it, and decided to simply try one of the buttons. But as he pressed it, something sharp and pointed hit him in the shoulder, making him cry out in pain.
"Mikey?! What happened?" Donnie asked, terrified that something worse had happened.
"Ngh… I pressed one of the buttons… and I got shot by a bloody crossbow bolt or something!" he said, holding his bleeding wound, with the bolt still in it. "Came out a hole in the wall, I think."
"Secondary traps, of course they would make it as hard as possible. Mikey, you have to think very careful before you try again!"
Mikey didn't like the sound of that. The wall behind him was getting closer by the second, and he was sure that it was the same for the others, they didn't have much time left.
'Shit, why did this have to happen to me?' he thought. 'I'm not smart enough to solve this, unlike Donnie, he'd have figured this out faster than I can eat a slice of pizza. But I have to, or everyone will die! But how? How? How?!'
Out in the main room, the two walls were now so close that the team had their backs against one while pushing against the other, and the wall kept moving closer. They couldn't hold out much longer. Then, all of a sudden, the walls stopped and a moment later, they moved back to their original position.
"Mikey must have solved the puzzle." Donnie said panting, tired after trying to stop the walls.
"That's my little brother. I knew he could do it." said Mona with a proud smile.
Once the walls stopped moving again, the wall sealing off the smaller room was lifted up again. But, that which awaited them inside, shook them to the core. Mikey lay motionless on the floor, his chest, stomach and upper arms almost filled with crossbow bolts, and blood slowly seeped through his wounds.
"MIKEY!"
Oh no! Not Mikey! Please be alright! Check in next time to learn his fate.
Also, most the events that Mashimi spoke of happened in Bloodrayne666's story 'A Warrior's Journey', which I consider cannon, just so you know. Either way, you should check out her stories as well, they are very much worth to read.