Chapter 22
Taken
"Open the door!" Elliott screamed, banging on the beautiful door of the Hamato's house. It was extremely late in the evening, and he knew that the residents were settling in by the television to relax before bed, but he didn't care. He was desperate and he prayed that they would give him the answers he needed.
"Give me a second!" Raph snapped as he, his brothers, and Kerry. He stumbled over the door. "Do you know what time it- Elliot?" Raph blinked. At that Kerry ducked back behind the door, not wanting to be seen.
Elliot was a mess. His hair was messed up, making him look slightly mad. His face was pale except for his cheeks, which were red from running around all night. There were bags under his eyes, and the whites of his eyes were more pink and red than white.
"Elliott? What are you doing here?" Leo asked. "What's wrong?"
"Have," he huffed. "Have any of you seen Alex?" he asked.
"Uhh not since she told us to get the hell out of her life." Raph grumbled.
Elliot turned his back to them, obviously not pleased to hear that. "Shit," he muttered. He ran his hands through his hand, pulling at it. "Shit, shit, shit."
"Ellie?" Kerry's small voice sounded from behind the door and she peeked out to look at him almost as if afraid of him. "What happened?"
"Did you see Alex at school today? At all?" he asked.
Kerry's brows furrowed and she shook her head.
"No?" he asked. "Has anybody seen her yesterday night or today?" he asked.
"We saw her at Franco's about...two days ago?" Don answered him. "She was with two other kids."
"She was?" he asked. "I have no idea who they are."
"Neither did we, Kerry said she's never seen them at school before," Leo said. "Are you implying to us that Alex is missing?
"What is going on here?" a calm and demanding voice asked behind the group.
"Alex is missing." Raph said as he was already on the floor putting his shoes on. "We have to look for her." he said his voice low and if you looked close enough his hands were shaking.
"No, patience is a virtue," Master Splinter said.
"Patience?!" Raph glared. "She's missing! Every second counts."
"You must be calm in times of stress," Splinter told his son. He turned to Elliot and said, "Now, tell us the last you saw Alexandra."
"S-She went for a workout," he told him. "Last night. I mean, that's nothing different. She always does. So I went to bed. And she normally gets up for a run in the morning and leaves for school before I get up. So I didn't think anything of it."
"Yeah, that's right," Leo nodded. "I sometimes see her on my morning runs, but not today."
"Right, but then I got a call from the school saying she wasn't in her classes all day. So I called April to see if she was with her. She hasn't seen her since she worked the other night. And Zack, Marcus and Nathan haven't seen her. She didn't show up for classes at the dojo tonight either."
"So she went missing last night." Don nodded. "We have to start looking now." he said with a nod, bending down to grab his shoes as well, his brothers and Kerry following in suit.
Splinter sighed. "Was she with the Guardians last evening?" he asked, feeling as if he had no other choice but to ask in front of his sons.
"...Guardians?" Kerry looked up at him oddly. "You mean...people from our...their dojo.
"No," Splinter said, staring directly at Elliott. "Was she with the Guardians last night?"
"A-Alex doesn't know anything about the Guardians," Elliott informed him. "She doesn't know anything about my job."
"That is inaccurate," Splinter said. "She has been working for the Guardians for quite some time. It is why I asked her to leave this family, if she did not leave the organization."
"Wait...you asked her to leave the family?" Mikey asked his father. "W-Why would you do that?!" he asked his voice wavering.
"You must understand, my son," he told Mikey, placing a gentle hand on his head, smoothing out his curly hair. "The Guardians bring danger. The line of work threatens all that are associated with it. I had to protect you."
"So?" Raph asked, almost scarily calm. "Why does that matter? She's family! We do things together as a family, dangerous or not! And you basically tossed her out to the slaughter!"
"Being a Guardian was the reason why my wife and daughter died!" Splinter harshly replied. "As why Alexandra and Elliot's parents were killed. I could not risk the Shredder finding us. From finding my sons."
"And Alex respects you too much to do anything other than what you wish," Elliot sighed, nodding his head. "And she wishes to honor our parents by finding the man responsible for our parents death, so she left."
"I made it clear to her that I wanted her with us, rather than having her leave," Splinter stated. "She made her decision."
"Why...why did she tell me I wasn't part of her family then?" Kerry mumbled quietly, off to the side away from everyone.
"Did you tell Alex that you were doing this to protect your family from danger?" Elliott asked Splinter. He received a nod before turning to Kerry. "Knowing Alex, she wanted to protect you too."
"She did a horrible job." Kerry said arms wrapped around herself.
"She did what she could. She knew you'd fight her on it. She needed you to hate her to keep you at a safe distance away from her," Splinter thought.
"That's not her fucking decision!" Kerry screamed,
"But it was partially her decision," Elliott said. "I mean, I would have done the same thing with my family, if I was strong enough. But I couldn't do it. I tried. I mean, I stayed in Japan an extra month after training trying to work my way up to cutting everybody out. But I couldn't do it."
"Did she ever think about how I would feel?! That maybe that was doing more harm than good. S-She has...no idea...no clue what she's done to me." Kerry said salty tears dripping down her cheeks.
"She'd rather have you hate her than for her to be what got you shot in the head, or worse," Elliott said.
"And the Shredder and the Foot specialize in "worse,"" Splinter stated darkly.
"You don't understand, you really don't," Kerry muttered mostly to herself, voice wavering. "I-I...I'm going to look for her." she said finishing tying her shoes as she got up and headed out the door.
"Wait, Kerry," Elliott said. "Since I know Alex is a Guardian now, I know exactly who to call."
"Mortu?" Splinter asked. "Perhaps it would be wise if I were to contact my old friend."
Elliot's phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the ID on the screen. "It's Mortu," he stated. "I'm still on medical leave," he said. "He wouldn't call me unless something went seriously wrong." He stared at the phone with scared eyes. "Oh God," he groaned.
Kerry grabbed onto his sleeve as she looked up at him. "Answer it." she ordered quietly, pressing close to her brother.
Elliott took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He opened the phone and put it on speaker. "Where's Alex, Mortu?" he asked directly, not beating around the bush.
"We are very concerned, my old friend," Splinter said.
"Yoshi?" Mortu asked on the other line. "Elliott, you must really have been concerned if you brought one of our founding members into this matter."
"Of course I would," Elliott said. "My sister is missing! What the hell did you send her on?"
"Perhaps it would be best if you came to the medical ward to discuss this. There are two people I wish for you two speak with."
Mortu watched Elliott storm into the room with Hamato Yoshi behind him, as well as the Hamato children and the honorary O'Neil girl. He had not expected all of them to arrive, but he shouldn't have been surprise, not with how close Alex was with all of them.
The white haired man stood next to two beds, where two young members of the Guardians sat, already bandaged up from their confrontation on their mission. Usagi and Emma were very badly beaten, but not to the extent to where they needed to spend a prolonged period of time in the medical bay. And that was all thanks to Alex.
"Hello, old friend," Mortu greeted Splinter with a bow. "I am sorry our reunion is under such troubling circumstances."
"As do I," Splinter said.
"Your children have grown into fine young men," Mortu complimented.
"That they have," he said. "But please, may we get down to business?"
Raph only glared at the man. "Where is Alex?"
"S-She," Emma said struggling to sit up. "They h-have her." she winced, arm wrapping around her busted ribs.
"Easy," Leo told her. He moved closer, helping her up gently.
"Who does?" Don asked.
"Hun," Usagi informed them, staring intently down at the floor.
"Hun?!" Kerry asked. "You went up against him with only a three man squad?"
"He wasn't supposed to be there," Emma told them. "It was supposed to just be a regular night. Just like any other. There were supposed to just be a group of them in there, including the guy that killed her parents. That was who we were going in for. Just him."
"And information," Usagi said. "We went for that first. Alex insisted."
"You still have a secondary response team waiting at a distance in case an evac is needed!" Kerry said hands clenching.
"The Guardians are spread thin as is," Elliott said, crossing his arms. "We barely have enough members for three man squads."
"Enrollment has severely decreased over the years," Mortu informed Splinter.
"We got sloppy." Emma muttered. "It was going well up until we got onto the lower levels. Alex was at point while Usagi and I stood guard. I-I didn't see him coming." Emma muttered looking down.
"She managed to get the information before she heard the commotion. She came out to help the moment she did," Usagi said.
"But he was just so big," Emma muttered. "And his skin was like iron. I-I should have moved faster, done something more."
"Hey," Leo told her. "You did what you could."
"He's right, Emma," Usagi said. "We both did."
"B-But what about Alex?" Mikey asked.
"We pulled out, retreating to the windows on the east side of the bottom floor. But the building was going into lockdown. Iron walls were dropping. We made it out but...she pushed us ahead to make sure we made it out first. But as soons she slipped under the door, Hun grabbed her ankle and pulled her back in." Emma explained.
"She dropped the flash drive before she got pulled back in though and told us to go," Usagi said. "And then we were locked out."
"What happened after that?" Elliott asked desperately.
"We reported back here to get help," Emma said. "There wasn't anything else we could do. We could barely make it back here on our own."
"So they still have Alex?" Elliott asked. "This whole time and nobody thought to call me!"
"We sent a recovery team after they got back," Mortu explained. "As protocol states. However, the building was empty."
"And you didn't think to call her family after nothing turned up?" Splinter asked.
"We managed to hack into the security system," Mortu said. "We were trying to figure out where they took her."
"What are we waiting for then?" Kerry asked darkly as she crossed her arms. "We need to gather intel, compile and plan." she said.
"Twenty minutes ago I received intel from one of our scouts," Mortu said. "He figured out where they had her."
"Okay, were?" Leo asked him.
"A warehouse in Hell's Kitchen," he stated. "We hacked into their security system. What we found," he sighed, "wasn't pleasant."
"W-What do you mean?" Elliott asked in an extremely small voice.
"As you well know, from experience," Mortu started, "they don't take kindly to finding Guardians infiltrating their business."
"No," he said, shaking his head. "Please don't tell me they're…"
Kerry took her brother's hand tightly. "Elliot...we have to get to her. Now."
"What's going on?" Mikey asked. "What are they doing?"
Mortu sighed, picking up the tablet off of the bed next to Usagi. "Look for yourself," he said.
Leo reached out slowly and took the tablet in his hand, he felt his brother surround him as he opened it up and looked down the surveillance feed. He took a deep breath before pressing play.
The screen was dark for a moment before the picture became clear. They had obviously cleared the image up quite a bit. They could clearly see Alex laying on her side with her feet bound, and her hands tied behind her back. They could clearly see half of her face was bruised, and they had to assume that wasn't her only injury.
Hun was standing across from her, smirking darkly at the redhead. "Now, are you going to tell me what you and your little friends took?" he asked.
"Go to hell, Hun," Alex said. She was still as defiant as ever, but her voice was small and tired sounding.
"Not anytime soon," he said. "I'll be sending you there first."
He reached down and picked the girl up. There was a chain hanging down from the ceiling and with a hook on the end. He hooked it around the bindings on her hands, which were still pulled behind her back and let her hang there, the angle pulling at her muscles in her arms and shoulders. Alex groaned and tried to lean forward to help even herself out and stop the pain, but Hun picked up a hose, blasting water at her.
Alex was hit directly in the face with the water. It forced it's way into her mouth and nose, making her gag and cough. The force from the water also made her swing back slightly, pulling even more on her arms.
"I'm surprised her arms didn't dislocate," Don muttered, his hand covering his mouth. Kerry closed her eyes tightly and hid her face in Elliot's chest.
Hun shut the water off, dropping the hose onto the floor. He turned his head sideways, looking at the girl like many puppies did. However, Hun was far from a puppy. "What did you take?" he demanded again.
"Nothing," she lied with a cough. She was shivering from being soaked to the bone. "We got discovered before we could get anything."
"Liar," he accused. He backhanded her, causing her to swing on the chain. He grabbed her shoulders to steady her as he demanded, "What did you take?"
"Nothing!" she pressed. "We didn't get anything!"
Hun growled, turning away from the girl to an area off camera. "You want to play this game?" he asked. "Fine by me. Master will be happy to have a Guardian as a prisoner."
Hun came back into view, wheeling a cart with what looked like a car battery attached to jumper cables. He stopped in front of her reaching out to her to connect the other side of the jumper cables to the metal bindings around her hands.
"Oh god no..." Raph mumbled eyes wide with horror.
Electricity shot through the metal and into the girl. The water made it ten times worse. Alex screamed out in pain this time, her eyes squeezing shut as tears slipped steadily out and down her cheeks. Hun pulled back, smiling at the girl as she cried and tried to catch her breathe. Before she could compose herself, he did it again.
"What did you take?" he demanded.
"N-N-Nothing," she stammered through the sobs.
"Liar!" he yelled, shocking her again.
And again. And again.
"L-Leo, turn it off." Mikey whimpered a bit. "I-I don't want to see anymore."
Mortu took the tablet and shut it off. "There isn't much else on there. They moved her ten minutes later, but they don't have cameras in the area they took her. If they do, they're not connected to the main system so we don't have any access to them."
"Why in the fucking hell have you not done something!" Raph yelled. "I should beat the ever living shit out of you! She's in pain and you're just sitting around here not even making plans you fucking bastard." Raph said stalking up to Mortu.
"Raphael," Splinter said. "Let the man explain himself."
"Why haven't you done something?" Don asked him.
"We don't have any available field Guardians left," Mortu explained. "That's why I called Elliott. We need help to get her out."
"What do I look like huh?" Kerry asked crossing her arms and stepping up. "A freaking gardener? Send me in." she said seriously.
"Generally we don't allow outsiders to assist, but we're desperate," Mortu said. "All of you can go for all I care. We just need to get Alex out of there. Alive, preferably."
"Alright, I'm in." Kerry said as if that was it. "I'll be getting ready if anyone gives a shit." she grumbled and headed off down the hall were a Guardian stood to take her to get suited up.
"So this is why Alex was acting weird?" Mikey muttered, tears staining his cheeks.
"Guys, she needs us, all of us." Donnie said desperately.
"Right, so we're going in too then?" Leo murmured with a nod.
"Did you ever think otherwise, dumbass." Raph glared. "Of course we're going in."
"Father?" Leo asked.
Splinter sighed. "I had hoped to protect you from this life," he said. "But it seems no matter how hard I try, you are destined to help others. To protect others." He looked at each of his sons. "I could not be more proud of you and your selfless action to help you friend."
"Dad," Leo murmured before he and his brothers bowed. "T-Thank you, Father." he said.
"Now come on, before Kerry runs off on her own." Mikey stated. "It's time for the best hero in the world to make an appearance, the Turtle Titan!"
"So not the time, Michelangelo," Leo scolded.
"It's always hero time." Mikey argued.
"Come on idiot." Don sighed and pulled his younger brother with him to go get suited up.