Chapter 17

Scattered

Hurrying through the building, Splinter, the girls and the turtles tried to avoid the Foot ninja and keep their presence hidden. Even though the enemy was in disarray from Tyroth's distraction and the lack of communication, there were still a lot of ninja in the mutants' path, some were avoided and some were eliminated.

"How far do you think we have gotten?" Monalisa asked quietly after they had sneaked past a small group of ninja.

"Hard to tell." said Donatello. "No more than halfway at the most. I was hoping that we would have found a security central by now, so we could have used it to find Jennie and her parents."

"We must not give up, we will find them." said Splinter.

"Nobody's giving up on this, sensei, and we all know it." said Raphael.

"Yeah!" said Michelangelo. "But I wonder how Big T is doing."

There was quite some commotion in the dojo after the explosion. The ninja's training session was cut short because of it and many wondered what was going on. While they all wanted to the cause of the explosion, and some had left to find out, there were a handful that claimed that if it was something serious, Arashi or someone else would have alerted them. While they couldn't really argue with that argument, not all agreed.

During the discussion, two of the ninja that had left earlier, ran in through the doors in an awful hurry and closed the doors behind them. Panting, they leaned their backs against the doors, and the other ninja in the dojo saw that the two had some blood splattered on their uniforms.

"What's going on? What happened to you?" asked one ninja.

"He's… he's here..." one answered in between his breaths.

"He? Who are you talking about?"

"The… Dragon!"

The mere mentioning of the powerful mutant caused everyone in the dojo to tense up, and they began to talk nervously among each other. Was the dragon really in their headquarters? How had he gotten in? Why wasn't there any alarm about him?

"The dragon? Are you sure?" asked a ninja that didn't seem convinced of what the two had told them. They both nodded, still trying to catch their breaths.

Suddenly, a large sword pierced the chest of one of the two ninja, having cut straight through the door behind him. The other ninja threw himself away from the door when he saw what happened to his comrade, and every other ninja recoiled in fear and began to back away from the door.

The sword was withdrawn and the dead ninja slid to the floor, leaving a trail of blood on the door. No one moved a muscle as it was dead silent. Then, the doors were kicked in, breaking off the hinges, and the dragon mutant walked in, blood still dripping from his sword. Setting his eyes on the ninja, he growled loudly as his body got covered in a red light.

"Draw your weapons, cretins, and face me like true warriors!" Tyroth snarled, getting into a battle stance.

The ninja were at a loss, they had expected the dragon to outright slaughter them where they stood, but instead, he challenged them, giving them a chance to defend themselves, but what chance would they stand against the strongest mutant in existence?

Still, one of the roughly thirty ninja, drew his katana and, with cautious steps, walked towards the dragon. Once within striking distance, he stopped and looked at Tyroth, who hadn't moved from the spot. Gulping and shaking, the ninja raised his sword and attacked.

Tyroth parried the attack with his sword, but the ninja continued to attack with increasing courage. After a couple more parried attacks, Tyroth responded with an attack of his own, separating the man's chest from his waist.

"Anyone else?" the dragon asked with a dark voice, while the remaining ninja saw their comrade bleed to death, if he wasn't dead already.

They were scared, all of them, but a few were more angry than afraid, angry that their friend had been killed. They drew their weapons and charged. Seeing this handful of ninja, made the rest realize that the only way for them to leave the dojo alive, was to fight, and fight they would.

With every ninja charging at him, Tyroth tightened his grip and steeled himself.

'You have made your choice…' he thought, eyes glowing intensely red. '...and that choice… is death!'

Swatting aside one ninja and cutting down another, Tyroth charged into the bulk of the enemies, roaring as the massacre began in full.

Meanwhile, the infiltration team rushed down an empty hallway, their senses on high alert to avoid enemy ninja. Reaching another hallway that crossed the one they were in, they stopped for a few moments to get their bearings.

"Okay, now where to?" said Leonardo.

"Not sure, either way works, I suppose." said Donatello.

"We could flip a coin," said Michelangelo. "but there's three ways to go, and… I'm all out of change."

"We go left." said Splinter, pointing his cane at the hallway to their left.

"You think that's the right way?" asked Sephie.

"My instincts says so, and a warrior does wise to listen to his instincts."

"Works for me. Let's go!" said Raphael, and he and the others started down their new path. But before they had gotten very far, a thick metal door closed and sealed of the rest of the hallway. The mutants barely managed to throw themselves out of the way, avoiding getting cut in half by the fast closing door. However, not all could dodge in the same direction. Raphael and Monalisa were now caught behind the door, back from whence they came.

"Shell!" Raphael cussed when he saw that they had been separated.

On the other side, the rest had noticed that they were a few reptiles short. Shortly after, they could hear Raphael on the other side of the door, a bit muffled but still enough to make out what he was saying.

"Hey guys! Can you hear me?"

"We're here, Raph, and we're okay. How about you?" said Leonardo.

"We're fine, Leo." said Monalisa. "But what's up with this door?"

"Most likely some form of containment system. Since they ain't sure of what's going on, they must have decided to seal off everything." said Donatello.

"Can you open it?" Monalisa asked.

"Um… not from this side. Is there any control panel on your side?"

"Not that I can see." said Raphael. "Guess we have to double back and take another way. Shell!"

"Doesn't look any better. I really don't like this, but we got no choice." said Leonardo.

"We're just gonna leave them?" said Sephie.

"Don't worry, Sephie, we'll be fine. I promise." said Monalisa.

"If we just can find a security central, it should be easy to undo this. But we have to hurry, I don't know how much longer the jammer will work." said Donatello.

"Then we have no time to loose. Stay safe, my children, and watch each others backs." said Splinter.

"We will, master, you all stay safe too." said Raphael.

With Raphael and Monalisa on their way back, the rest of the mutants pressed onward. Little did anyone know, that things would get even worse before it would get any better.

Reaching the crossroads again, the couple was just about to choose where to go, when a voice spoke to them from their left.

"So, you are the cause of our lack and of communications. I should have known."

Turning around, Raphael and Monalisa saw five Foot ninja led by the Foot's head scientist.

"Arden!" Monalisa half snarled, half yelled.

"Good to see you too, Monalisa. I must say that I was quite surprised when our scouts reported that you were alive and at good health at that. We were certain that my hybrids had killed you. But evidently, you are as difficult to kill as I am, thanks to the improved healing serum I made from your dragon friend's DNA."

"You sick fuck! You had no right to use Tyroth like that!" Raphael snapped. "I should rip that ugly head of yours clean off your shoulders!"

"Always the aggressive one, Raphael, but I have to wonder, why are you here?" said Arden.

"Wouldn't you want to know." Monalisa spat.

"Defiant as always, my dear. But unless you're here to assassinate lord Arashi, there is only one thing you could be after, the dragons family."

"I thought that you had gotten as low as you possibly could, but I was wrong. Going after Tyroth's family, you are a dishonourable fiend!"

"If words are the best you can muster, then you will not stand a chance." Arden taunted.

"Shut up and die, you freak!" Raphael shouted and lunged at Arden.

Two ninja intercepted the turtle, their swords clashing with Raphael's sai. Catching one of the katana with his sai, Raphael wrestled the weapon out of the ninja's hand and stabbed him in the chest with the other sai. Ducking under the other ninja's blade, the turtle jabbed both his sai into the man's stomach.

Scoffing at the failure of his men, Arden reached into the pocket of his labcoat. Clutching a glass flask in his hand, he threw it at the mutants, shattering it against the wall, the liquid staining the wall as it turned into thick vapours.

Monalisa and Raphael started to cough as they got the gas in their lungs and they began to feel strange.

"A little something I've been working on." Arden said. "My head-on-a-stick serum, bound to a very volatile substance, essentially turning it into a gas variant of the serum, specifically tailored to only affect mutant reptiles."

Monalisa looked at the scarred man with fear in her eyes, and fell to the floor. Seeing that, Raphael hurried over to his mate and, kneeling by her side, he too collapsed.

"Since you mutants are so annoyingly good at dodging even the syringes that I fire at you, using gas will avoid that problem. And I must say that I'm pleased with this first test." Arden then turned to the remaining ninja. "Let's take these two to Arashi, if they are here, then so are the rest and they won't be able to do anything as long as we have these two as hostages."

"You damned coward! Are you truly incapable of fighting honourable?!" Raphael growled.

"Save your strength, reptile. My serum will last for several hours, and when you will be able to move again, you will be safely locked up in the dungeons, or strapped to my table in your case, whore."

"No! No! Not that! Please!" Monalisa cried.

While Tyroth is slaughtering a room full of Foot ninja, the others got separated and now Monalisa and Raphael have been captured by Arden, giving the Foot even more hostages.

How will the team solve this problem? Stay tuned, things will only get more intense from here.