Chapter 15

"Found"

Mikey looked back at the car seat in the back of the van. "How did we get stuck with the minivan?"

"What's wrong with the minivan?" Casey asked as he turned the steering wheel following the GPS's instructions.

"You gotta be kidding me, man." Mikey grimaced. "What bad asses do you know of that do anything cool in a minivan?"

Casey though about that for a long moment then shrugged. "Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

"Hm." Mikey considered that for a moment. Then feeling he was at risk of possibly loosing this debate threw in a curve ball. "You realize your wife is riding in a hell cat with Raphael."

Casey narrowed his eyes at Mikey. "What is that supposed to mean? And he is in to Arayah… what the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Mikey crossed his arms over his chest and sulked. "I means we got the shit ride, dude."

"It is not a shit ride." Casey defended.

Mikey reached forward and turned on the radio. Little rubber duck came sounding through the speakers, earning Casey an 'I told you so' look.

"Ya alright you win." Casey conceded turning the radio off as he pulled into the alley Leo had told them to meet him in. The head lights lit up the glowering face of Raphael. "This is going to be a long night."

"Yep." Mikey frowned, as he watched Raph storm up to van. "Maybe you should lock the door."

"Going by the look he is giving us I think he would just rip the door off." Casey turned off the van, took a deep breath and stepped out.

"What the fuck took you two so long?!" Raph shouted.

"Dude, we were riding in a minivan." Mikey explained.

"And they were probably not driving like bats out of freaking hell!" April chastised Raph. "I'm surprised we got here alive."

Raph rolled his eyes. Even though he did max out the hell cat's speedometer every chance he got. "You're breathing ain't you?"

April considered kicking Raph in the shin, but decided kicking an already angry bear of a turtle wasn't the best idea.

"Hey."

Everyone in the alley looked up at Leo, who was perched on the edge of a fire escape half way up the north facing building.

"Quiet. We're ninjas remember? Now come on." Leo ordered than ninjaed his way back up the fire escape.

Raphael led the way. The others hurrying up the fire escape behind him.

Once his feet hit the smooth metal of the roof he rushed to Donatello's side and snatched a pair of binoculars out of his brother's hands. "Where is she? Have you seen her?"

"No." Don choked as he pulled at the binocular strap that was still around his neck.

Letting the binoculars drop Raph sighed as he squatted down next to Don, and looked out at the building across the street. "It's a bank?"

"You sure you have the right location, Don?" Mikey asked.

Don licked his lips as he put his binoculars back up to his eyes. "I was confused at first too. So, I double checked the GPS history and this is the location the vehicle always comes back to. I've been watching and…" Don got up and walked to the other side of Raphael and pointed to a large ramped entrance into the side of the building. "There is a parking garage under the building."

"There are parking garages all over the city." Raph pointed out.

"Not that have government vehicles coming in and out." Don looked back down at the garage entrance. "It's perfect. The people that run the bank drive black vehicles of a similar make and model of the government ones. They look the same at first glance. Most wouldn't even notice the license plates if they weren't looking."

"You think they are holding Arayah in a bank?" April asked.

Don smiled. "Under."

"April and Casey get the vehicles turned around and ready to go." Leo ordered then turned to his brother. "Ready to get her out of there?"

"And take a few of those bastards down in the process." Raph grinned as he drew his sai.

"Let's move." With Leo leading the way the four silently made their way into the shadows of the garage.

*scene change*

Arayah pushed the food on her plate around. She wasn't going to eat it. Never mind that it was spongey, flavorless, and a strange color that she was sure would be the same when it would inevitably come back up, she was pretty sure it was drugged. As it had been every day since she had been brought here. She had to keep her head strait if she was going to get out of here. She needed a plan, but where the hell was she going to hide the food?

Quickly she stuffed as much of the food into her mouth as she could. Filling her cheeks much like a chipmunk, making sure the camera that watched her room saw her place each bite in her mouth. Then setting the tray down on the floor, she slowly stood. Careful not to swallow any of the tasteless food she stumbled to the bed and fell face down onto the mattress spitting out the food between the mattress and the wall. Groaning she rolled until she came to the edge of the bed then slid to the floor in heap, as she had done so many times before.

It was what they were waiting for. A sign that fast acting drug had started to take its effect. The armed guards came into her room and lifted her.

Arayah didn't fight back, didn't struggle. She swayed her head side to side in a dizzy fashion. She fought the urge to punch Bishop in the throat and nock that creepy ass grin off his face as he watched the guards lay her on the cold mettle table.

They didn't bother strapping her down; the drug had been so effective in rendering her delirious and unable to struggle in the past.

The lab tech lifted Arayah's gown.

Still she blinked against the light and swayed her head as if ill, taking in the room as she acted. The guards stood by the door with their rifles across their chests. The lab tech next to Arayah's legs, and Bishop by her shoulders watching a blank monitor. Beside him a tray of surgical tools.

A cold gel was squirted on to lower belly and an ultrasound transducer probe was pressed against her skin.

"They are both viable." The lab tech's surprised voice caught Arayah's attention.

Arayah turned her head to the monitor, her eye's widening at the two little fluttering hearts that were located in the vicinity of her whom. She was shocked. Having a clear head for the first time since she had been brought here it all suddenly sunk in. They had used her to carry hybrids! She was pregnant!

"We will remove the clone hybrid for study. It is easier to replace." Bishop instructed the lab tech.

Adrenalin filled urgency overwhelmed Arayah pushing her into action. With speed and intention Arayah reached for the tray grabbing a scalpel and stabbing it into Bishop's leg pulling a satisfyingly surprised yelp from the man. With a quick snap of her leg she brought her knee into the gut of the lab tech knocking him to the ground. She then followed up her stabbing of Bishop's leg by slamming her hand into the end of the scalpel forcing it deep into his leg then brought her knee up into his nose. Both breaking its bones and knocking Bishop back into the counter. Using the momentum of her attack she rolled to the ground ducking the tranquilizer darts that now flew past her into the side of the lab tech, who had been attempting to right himself, as well as into Bishop's chest.

Arayah sat covering her head with her hands till the noise of the guns stopped. Smiling, she watched as Bishop sank to the floor, consciousness eluding him.

"Shit." One of the guards said as he realized that his living made in the military would come to an abrupt halt when Bishop wakes.

Arayah put her hands on the edge of the mettle slab then taking a deep breath pushed it with all her might. The table slammed into the guards fallowed by Arayah wielding a furious jumping snap kick into the ace of one man and elbow followed by a knee into the head of the other. Both men slumped forward.

Quickly Arayah pushed back the table and started to pull the uniform off the smaller of the two guards. She knew there wasn't much time. She needed to move fast.

*scene change*

Four mutant turtles crouched behind a car watching the elevator.

"You think that an elevator is the entrance to a secret government base?" Leo asked Don.

"What were you expecting?" Don asked. "It goes up and down and to anyone going to the bank it looks like an elevator that goes to a bank."

"Which is exactly what this is, an elevator that goes to a fucking bank." Raph griped in a whisper. He felt like they were wasting time searching for something that wasn't here in places it couldn't possibly be.

"Down." Mike whispered. And everyone quietly ducked and watched a man hurry across the concrete floor toward the elevator.

Don looked at his watch. "A little early still for them to be opening the bank."

"Let's check it out." Leo said.

Four mutant turtles silently made their way across the parking garage as a suited man stepped into an elevator.

As the doors began to close Mikey, being the fastest of the brothers, quickened his pace then at the last second flipped out his nunchucku stopping the door from closing completely.

The man inside the elevator was surprised to see two green three fingered hands slip through the cracked open doors. Then he was shocked to see the face of a large turtle smile at him as the doors were pushed open.

Mikey casually stepped in. "We're going down. Which way you goin'?"

The man didn't get a chance to answer as his jaw was met by a fist and knocked into the wall where he slid to the floor unconscious.

"Now what, fearless leader?" Raph turned as Leo and Don entered the elevator.

Leo shrugged. "This is your rescue mission."

Raph grumbled and looked around the elevator then not sure what else to do, pushed a button.

The elevator doors closed the rest of the way and the elevator started to move up. The doors opened to a locked metal gate.

"Oh look a bank." Mike teased.

"Great, we're wasting time and giving Mikey stupid shit to say." Raph complained.

"Just take a breath, Raph." Leonardo put a hand on his brother's shoulder.

It was immediately shrugged off. Raph tried to turn his back on Leo but it just brought him to face the wall of the elevator. So, begrudgingly he turned a full circle, and let out the breath he had taken. "Now what?"

Everyone looked to Leo who looked to Don, except Mikey. Mikey was looking at the man that was lying unconscious on the floor.

Don frowned as he examined the elevator buttons. There were only thee. One for the main floor of the bank the other for the two levels in the garage. "Maybe there is another way down." He speculated.

"Maybe he knows." Mikey pointed to the man on the floor.

"He's not exactly going to do much talking, right now Mikey." Leo alluded to the fact that the man was unconscious.

"Let's wake him up." Mikey shrugged.

Leo sighed wishing it was that easy, but people didn't usually just wake up from getting knocked out by Raph's right hook.

Suddenly the elevator began to move again. This time down.

"Did you figure something out, Don?" Leo asked.

"Nope." Don said as he quickly stood up. "We should hide."

"Dude, we're in an elevator." Mikey pointed out. "Where should we hide?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "We're ninjas."

When the doors opened a man in a guard uniform stepped into the elevator. Grumbling about early mornings and late nights he started pushing buttons. A small compartment opened up to reveal a retinal scanner, which the man looked into before the elevator began to move down again.

Four mutant turtles, pining themselves to the elevator ceiling like ninjas can, grinned at each other over the unconscious agent they were trying not to drop on the guard bellow…yet.

*scene change*

Arayah hurried down the maze of white halls and white rooms. She was trying not to look out of place. But everything she had on was too big. The pants and shirt were baggy and her feet slid around in the shoes that were four sizes too big. Her breath fogged up the visor on the helmet she had acquired from one of the rooms. It seemed the only thing that fit her was the AR she held in her hands, acquired from the same room as the helmet.

She slowed her pace as she passed some lab techs in the hall then went back to trying to find some stairs or a door that led outside. This was taking forever and she knew it was only a matter of time before… Meep meep!

An alarm blared and Red lights started flashing on the ceiling.

"Shit." Arayah whispered as she tried to figure out which way to go. There was no point in back tracking so she ran forward turning down another white hall. The soldiers that flowed into it from the surrounding rooms caused Arayah to make an abrupt 180 and start high tailing it in the opposite direction, losing her oversized stolen shoes in the process.

The soldiers caught up to her but, to her surprise, didn't stop her. Matter of fact they ran with her. Unknowingly ushering her into the stairwell she had been looking for. Not wanting to pull unwanted attention, and since up seemed to be a better direction than in circles, Arayah stayed in the middle of the formation.

They rounded around a bend in the stairs past a second level then up to a third.

"Disturbance is in the sector A." The leader of the group announced. "Contain the threat."

With instructions given the soldiers stormed through the door. Arayah was hit with a body the moment she stepped though.

It was like stepping into a war zone. Gun fire thundered through the hall making Arayah's ears ring. The alarm blared and the red flashing lights where all there was to see by.

Not wanting to know what was going on just wanting out, Arayah let go of her acquired AR and squirmed out from under the body that had been thrown into her. The moment her feet found the ground, however, a long staff made solid contact with the backs of her knees sending her down on her back hard. She looked up and watched her helmet go skittering across the floor stopping at the feet of a monstrous shadowy figure that was slamming his fists into the face of some poor soldier.

It took two flashes of the red light for her brain to put together what she saw, and she had never been so relieved in all her life. "Raph!"

The figure stopped his pummeling fists and trying to pinpoint the woman that called his name while simultaneously trying to avoid being shot anywhere vital. Bullets made dull thunks as the embedded themselves into his shell while he ducked down.

"Raph, what are you doing?" Leo demanded as he swung he blades to redirect some of the bullets.

"I heard…" Raph started.

"Raph!" Arayah called again as she pushed herself to her feet and threw herself into Raphael's solid arms. It wasn't the softest landing but Arayah didn't care.

"Arayah?" Raph looked down at her. His expression showing his confusion at finding her in the hall among the soldiers.

"Get me the hell outa here!"

Deciding he would get an explanation later, he nodded. "Get back to the elevator!" Raph shouted as he pushed Arayah behind himself and started to push forward.

Leo gave Raph a surprised look before processing Arayah's presence, the action earning him a grazed shoulder for losing his focus. Thankfully Michelangelo was there to knock a few better aimed bullets out of their intended path.

"Don!" Leo got the last brother's attention. "Let's go."

Glad to get the hell out of there, Don followed his brothers.

Raph lowered his shoulder, so the flying bullets would glance off or imbed themselves into the edge and side of his shell as he rampaged forward into the solders.

Donatello took up the rear spinning his bo in an attempt to save their shells from more of the led projectiles, though their shells were thick they could only take so much and Arayah didn't have the protection they did.

Mikey pushed the elevator button repeatedly.

"That doesn't make it move faster." Arayah informed.

"I don't care." Mikey replied as the doors opened.

Mike leapt for the cover of the elevator walls, Raph shoved Arayah in before ducking in himself, followed by Leo who pulled Don in as the doors closed.

The five of them leaned against the walls and took much needed breaths.

"You son of a bitch!" Arayah swung at Raph hitting him hard in the shoulder. It was his fault all this had happened and she wasn't happy about it.

Raph jumped at her sudden outburst. "What the hell?"

"What the hell? What the hell? Are you fucking serious?"

Arayah was evidently pissed and Raph couldn't imagine why. "I just saved your ass." an earlier question came to mind then. "Why were you in the hall?"

"Why was I… I was escaping. What were you doing?" Arayah flailed her arms in her agitation.

"I just said I was saving your ass." Raph crossed his arms. "Are you seriously complaining?"

Arayah glared at Raph for a moment then looked at his bleeding and bruised brothers. Sighing Arayah leaned her head back against the wall. "Sorry. How are you doing Donatello?"

Don winced as he shifted. "Better than the last time we met… I guess."

Arayah nodded as she swallowed down the dryness in her throat.

With a jolt and groan the elevator came to a sudden stop.

"Damn." Leo frowned. "Start climbing boys… and Arayah."

There were universal groans from the sore and wary but they quickly made their way to the top of the elevator anyway.

Arayah was just glad she had had the foresight to steal pants. The walls of the elevator shaft were not kind to her bare feet however, and after she hissed from stubbing her toe for the fourth time she was suddenly lifted by Raph and slung on to his back.

She gasped in response but otherwise didn't complain. With as angry as she was with him for… everything. She was glad he was here now helping her out of the mess he had put her in, and for that she wrapped herself around his shell as she had when he had taken her to the Woolworth building.

"Catch a ride." Leo called up to his brothers as the elevator started to climb the shaft again.

The five stepped on to the elevator as is came up to them.

"Wait here." Leo instructed Arayah.

"Not a chance." Arayah was not about to be left alone in this place again not even for a second.

Leo frowned.

Mikey chuckled. "What are you going to do with two of them, Leo?" He was referring to the stubborn defiant streak both Arayah and Raph seemed to share.

Leo looked to Raph who shrugged. "She's tougher than she looks."

Seeing he wasn't going to get any support on the matter Leo rolled his eyes. "I'm first."

The elevator came to a stop. Don opened the hatch and Leo jumped in to crowded elevator.

He took out four of the twelve men, that had squished into the elevator, with his landing. Using he shell as a battering ram Leonardo slammed two more of the men into the wall.

Mike jumped down next bringing his nunchucku down on the rising guns of two more of the men. He then snapped his chucks up into their foreheads before He and Leo each landed a snapping side kick into the stomachs of one of the last two standing soldiers. Don leapt down making sure he landed on one of the men Mike had hit before he could right himself. Then dropped the end of his bo down on the top of the second man's head.

Arayah had to admit she was impressed. The three had the elevator cleared before the doors opened.

Raph offered her his hand. "Run for the alley across the street."

Arayah nodded, took his hand, and let him help her drop down. As soon as her feet hit the floor she was running. Leo and Mike were ahead of her. She could hear Don and Raph's foot steps behind her. She didn't stop when Leo, without slowing, hit the man in the suit that stepped out from beside his car or when she saw Mike hit the man a second time sending the man to the ground. Even with her bare feet stinging from slapping against the pavement she didn't slow down. Not for the car that screeched to a halt and honked at her, the sound of Don's shell scraping against the metal of the hood as he slid across it like Boe Duke, not for the confused cussing of the man who's car had now been damaged, or the fleshy sound of Raph's fist hitting him just to shut him up. She didn't stop till she had slid into the seat of her conveniently positioned and running hell cat.

Raph jumped into the seat next to her. "Follow the minivan." He instructed.

With screeching tires the three vehicles skidded onto the street, split up and disappeared onto the traffic of the New York early morning.