Chapter 14-Found At Last!
After leaving the quarry altogether, the turtle brothers had finally returned to the church via the same route they had taken towards the lake.
Once they had reached the gate blocking the front door, Leo slotted the key into the indentation and watched with his brothers as the key moved mechanically to match the church symbol before the gate was lowered, allowing the trio to get into the church.
"Finally, we can go in!" Raph exclaimed.
"Yes, but don't let your guards down yet; Mikey might not be the only one inside there…" Leo warned.
Raph and Donnie nodded before they all entered the church through the door. However, to their surprise, it was completely empty and quiet when they looked around on the ground floor.
"Mikey…!? Are you in here…!? We're here to bring you back home!" Leo suddenly called out, making Raph and Donnie jump, but he got no response.
"Careful, Leo! It's like you said; it may be empty now, but we don't know for sure if there's anyone hiding in here!" Donnie hissed firmly.
"Yeah, and besides, Mikey might not hear us cos he might be unconscious or somethin'…!" Raph pointed out.
"Don't say stuff like that, Raph! Mikey is definitely in here, and he's going to be fine when we find him!" Leo snapped, denying Raph's words.
"I know, I know, I'm just sayin'…!" Raph replied defensively.
"Guys! Can we please just focus on finding Mikey, as well as a way to get up to the upper floor!?" Donnie jumped in firmly, now starting to get annoyed.
Leo and Raph were startled by Donnie's outburst before they lowered their heads in shame and guilt.
"Yeah, you're right, Don…I'm sorry…" Leo apologised first.
"Me too…" Raph said next.
"It's fine, guys…Now, let's keep searching…" Donnie replied before he and his brothers continued their search around the room for a way up to the next floor up.
After over 5 minutes went by, however, the turtle brothers did not find a single trace of Mikey anywhere, and they all decided to regroup to report and exchange their findings.
"Did you find anything?" Leo asked.
"Nothin'…He's not here…!" Raph answered in anger and disappointment.
"Maybe not on this floor, but he could be above us on the next floor up…" Donnie thought aloud.
"Yeah, but there's no way up there; we've looked everywhere, and there aren't any signs of stairs or ladders at all…!" Raph told him in frustration.
"Raph's right, but we're not giving up yet…! Let's look around again and find one…" Leo countered before he and his brothers searched the floor one more time.
When he looked around the top centre of the room, Leo spotted something that looked like a puzzle.
"Hey, Donnie…What do you think this is?" Leo called his purple-banded brother over since he was more of an expert on mechanical devices than he was.
"It looks like some kind of light-projecting mechanism…" Donnie observed when he looked at it himself.
When he looked at where the lights were shining, Donnie saw a large round-shaped window with unusual light shapes resembling mosaic pieces.
"Hmm…I think this mechanism might be the key to the upper floor…" Donnie speculated.
"How do ya know dat?" Raph questioned.
"Well, remember how we noticed that there's no stairway or ladder leading up there? It's a strong possibility that this mechanism is hiding it, and the only way to reveal it is to solve the puzzle itself…" Donnie pointed out.
"That's a good point, Donnie…! Great deduction!" Leo complimented proudly.
"Ok…So, what do we need ta do ta solve dis thing?" Raph questioned, unsure of what to do next.
"We need to position the light shapes into the correct places; it should align with the symbol in the middle…" Donnie instructed before he noticed something off about the mechanism.
"Oh, but it looks like one of the dials is missing…" He told his brothers.
"Ya mean dis? I found it earlier, but didn't know what it was for…" Raph questioned as he took out a blue-coloured dial from his pouch bag and showed it to the others.
"Yes, that's it! We can use it, now…!" Donnie cried out in relief.
Raph passed the dial to Donnie who slotted it into place. The turtle brothers then each chose a dial and started turning them to get the coloured lights aligned around the symbol.
It took a while for them to complete it, with Raph almost losing control of his temper due to how confusing it was, but they managed to do it eventually. They then heard something being raised up on the left side of the room, and they noticed that the metal fence they saw earlier was no longer there and had revealed a ladder leading up to the next floor up.
"Ok, we've solved the puzzle…Let's head upstairs…" Leo told his brothers before they all hurried over to the ladder and climbed up towards the upper floor.
/
Upstairs…
As soon as the turtle brothers reached the top, they had spotted a door up ahead and slowly opened it before entering the room.
"Mikey? Are you in here?" Leo called out quietly in case an enemy was in the room.
Then, after a few tense seconds went by…
"W-Who's there…?"
The scared but familiar voice of their youngest brother was heard over at the far corner of the room.
The turtle brothers walked further into the room before they had spotted Mikey who was still blindfolded and had his hands tied up behind his shell, just like in the photographs from earlier.
"Mikey!" "Hey, bro, it's us!" They called out as they got closer to him.
"B-bros? N-No…you're lying…!" Mikey denied in a slight panic, surprising the three older brothers.
"It's true, little brother…! Here, let me get that blindfold off for you…" Leo assured before he slowly walked closer to Mikey and reached out to try and grab the blindfold.
"N-No, get away from me! I won't fall for it again!" Mikey cried out as he backed himself up against a wall and curled up into a ball.
"Woah, woah! Easy, Mikey…! We're not gonna hurt ya…!" Raph reassured a bit loudly.
"Everybody, calm down…" Donnie commanded firmly but softly, now not liking how scared his little brother looked, before he knelt down in front of him and spoke.
"Mikey, I'm gonna reach over to you and untie your hands, and then I'm gonna untie your blindfold, ok? Stay still for me…"
Mikey did what Donnie told him to do and stayed still before he felt hands gently untying the rope from his hands, and then the same was done with the blindfold's knot behind his head. It wasn't until a minute later that he felt the fabric come off of his face.
"Ok, now open your eyes slowly…" Donnie then instructed softly.
And Mikey did just that. He slowly opened his eyes and waited a minute to allow his vision to cleared up before he looked up at the first person in front of him.
"D-Donnie…? I-Is it really you!?" Mikey croaked.
"Of course it's me, little brother…! Leo and Raph are here too…!" Donnie answered with a gentle smile.
As soon as he looked at each of his older brothers, Mikey became tearful and dove towards Donnie and engulfed him in a hug, which the purple-banded turtle greatly accepted since he had missed his little brother very much since his disappearance.
"Y-You're real…You really are real…!" Mikey cried.
"That's right, Mikey…What made you think that we weren't?" Donnie replied softly as he gently patted Mikey's shell.
"I-I kept having these dreams…Y-You were all here with me one minute, and then you turned into monsters and attacked me the next…I-I thought I was awake each time, but they just kept happening over and over again…" Mikey explained shakily in a scared tone after releasing Donnie from the hug.
"Did they drug you with something?" Donnie asked in a serious tone.
"I-I don't know…I was out cold until I arrived here, so I don't remember what happened…" Mikey answered, shaking his head in confusion.
Hearing this, Donnie checked over Mikey's body for anything that could indicate the cause of his hallucinogenic-like dream. When his eyes reached Mikey's neck, he froze; on the left side of his little brother's neck was a small bruise with a tiny spot in the middle, which were signs indicating that he was injected with something.
"Mikey, I think they shot something into your neck whilst you were unconscious…That could be the cause of your dreams…" Donnie told his little brother gently.
"W-What…!? T-They stuck a needle in me!?" Mikey questioned in shock and horror whilst unconsciously placing a hand over the bruise on his neck.
"Those creeps…!" Raph growled furiously with a clenched fist.
"I-I can't believe this…H-How do I know that all of this is really real…!? I-I could still be dreaming for all I know!" Mikey stammered in a panic.
"Don't worry, Mikey; we're definitely real, and we've come to take you back home…" Leo assured, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder.
"Y-You didn't have to, though…" Mikey suddenly said, both shocking and surprising his older brothers.
"Hey, of course we had to, Mikey; you're our little brother, and we don't want anything bad to happen to you…!" Donnie countered sincerely.
"B-But you want nothing to do with me! Why rescue me if that's the case!?" Mikey snapped before he swiftly stood up and stormed out of the room.
"Mikey, wait!" Leo called out before he hurried after him.
"Well, dat went well…" Raph said sarcastically.
"Raph, not now!" Donnie hissed before he and Raph rushed out of the room to try and catch up with Leo and Mikey.
"Mikey, you can't just run off and-"
"W-What is that over there…?" Mikey interrupted Leo as he pointed at something outside the window.
The older turtles followed Mikey's line of sight and saw for themselves what was approaching the church; a large group of hostile villagers with weapons and fire torches in their hands.
Suddenly, Leo and Mikey grunted in pain when they heard sharp ringing in their ears before a creepy male voice followed shortly after.
'Pursue them…' It was the cloaked man, who appeared in Leo and Mikey's heads.
"Leo!?" "Mikey!?" Raph and Donnie called out in concern when they saw their brothers in pain.
'The lost lambs are escaping…' The cloaked man spoke again as he appeared in Leo and Mikey's heads again.
The mob outside instantly diverted towards the church as if they were following the cloaked man's orders.
'Deliver unto them…salvation…' The cloaked man ordered before he vanished.
Both Leo and Mikey gasped after their pain and the ringing had stopped, and then they looked at each other with stunned and confused expressions on their faces.
"Are you both ok!?" "What happened!?" Raph and Donnie questioned worriedly as they checked them over.
But before the oldest and youngest brothers could answer them, the mob burst through the church door and started looking around for the turtle brothers, who instantly stayed out of sight above them.
"W-What do we do…!?" Mikey hissed anxiously whilst fighting to keep himself from having a panic attack.
"The first thing we need to do is to stay calm, Mikey…and you need to stay close to us at all times until we get out of here, ok?" Leo told Mikey firmly but softly whilst looking at him straight in the eyes.
"…Y-Yeah, ok…" Mikey stuttered with a nod.
"Alright, let's get da shell outta here…" Raph said impatiently.
"Let's go this way; we can't go back the way we came up with the mob downstairs…" Donnie suggested, pointing towards the left side.
With their minds made up, the turtle brothers quietly walked towards the left side of the floor whilst keeping low to avoid detection. When they reached their destination, they spotted a ladder that had been tucked up from the top, making it hard for anyone to climb up it.
"Mikey, can you get the ladder for us?" Leo requested.
"Y-Yeah…" Mikey answered before he was given a boost by Raph to get to the top of the ladder.
A moment later, the ladder was dropped, and the older turtle brothers instantly climbed up it to meet back with Mikey.
"What do we do? There's no way out of here…!" Mikey questioned fearfully.
"We're ninjas, Mikey; there's always a way out…" Leo reminded calmly.
The turtle brothers looked around the room, and the only exit they could find was the window. It was a narrow in size, so they had to jump out of it one at a time, despite Mikey's reluctance.
/
Outside...
Shortly after escaping the building, the weather had changed from clear skies to a downpour of rain. Leo turned on his communicator to contact and update April.
"April, we've found Mikey; we've just left the church with him…" He told her.
"Oh, that's great! Is he ok!?" April responded in relief.
"Yeah, he's fine; a bit shaken up, but he's holding up ok…" Leo assured her.
"Understood, Leo. I'll send Casey in the Turtle Copter to come and picked you all up as soon as possible! I'll send you the co-ordinates for a suitable meeting point on your shell cells. Make your way there, and make sure you all stay safe, especially Mikey…" April replied in a serious tone.
"Got it…" Leo said in understanding.
"Hurry, though; the weather is getting worse. April out…" April told him before she ended the call.
"Alright, let's head over to the meeting point and wait for Casey to pick us up…" Leo said to his brothers before he looked at Mikey and spoke.
"Stay close to us at all times, Mikey; we'll protect you…"
"O-Ok…I know you will…" Mikey replied after feeling reassured, despite feeling a bit scared still.
"Good…Let's move out…" Leo commanded with a nod before he and his younger brothers left the church and started making tracks towards the meeting point, with Mikey close to their side.