Chapter 12-A Terrifying Key Hunt
3 hours later…
Unknown…
Leo didn't know where he was, but he knew that there was nothing but darkness and silence around him. Then, he sensed a sinister presence nearby by.
"Sacrificial lamb, you will receive our most sacred body. It begins now…" An eerily male voice was heard before a cloaked figure started walking towards Leo.
"When day breaks, you too will join our covenant. To share in my holy blessing…forever…" He then said before he reached out a hand and tentacles suddenly crawled out of his sleeve towards the blue-banded turtle.
Seconds later, Leo suddenly felt something painfully crawling within his arms before he felt his entire body convulsing as if it was being invaded and attacked by an unknown creature.
This made him roar out in agony before a bright light flashed in front of him.
/
The real world…
"Gasp!" Leo gasped as he woke up and quickly sat up, but a dizzy spell kicked in and made him hold his head to steady himself.
"Leo!?" He heard the familiar gruff voice of his red-banded brother on his left side.
"Mmm…W-Wha…?" Leo slurred as he turned his head towards the voice and saw Raph looking at him and waving at someone to come over.
"Leo! Thank shell you're awake…!" Donnie's voice cried out as he appeared in front of Leo and engulfed him in a gentle hug.
"Welcome back from Dreamland, bro…!" Raph said with a smirk, placing a hand on Leo's shoulder.
"M-My brothers…W-What happened…?" Leo stuttered after accepting Donnie's hug.
"You don't remember? You passed out in the boat after coughing up blood earlier…!" Donnie told him worriedly, releasing him from the hug.
"R-Really!?" Leo exclaimed in shock.
"Yeah, ya scared da shell out of us, bro! Ya were out cold fer three hours straight…!" Raph said in a slightly scared tone.
Leo was stunned; he had no idea that his sudden attack on the boat had caused him to be unconscious for so long and scared his brothers out of their shells. He then looked around when he noticed that he was no longer in the boat, and he was instead inside some type of wood-built shelter.
"Where are we, anyway?" He questioned.
"We're in an old boat house. It was the same mystery entrance that you spotted on the lake earlier…We immediately got you out of the boat and made you as comfortable as possible here until you woke up…" Donnie answered.
"Well, I feel ok now…I don't know what happened back on that boat, I just suddenly felt dizzy as well as an intense pain in my chest before I blacked out…" Leo explained, holding his head with one hand due to his memory being a bit hazy.
"It is strange, though; I gave you a thorough health check after we took shelter here, and I couldn't find anything wrong with you…not even symptoms of ailments such as Bronchitis were present, despite coughing up blood being one of them…" Donnie thought aloud in confusion.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The conversation was unexpectedly interrupted when Donnie's communicator started beeping. The purple-banded turtle immediately answered it.
"Donnie! For crying out loud, it's been three hours since you told me about Leo! Is he ok!? Has he woke up, yet!?" April instantly spoke in an almost hysterical tone.
"Hey, hey, calm down, April…! Leo's fine; he just woke up a minute ago…" Donnie assured, despite feeling slightly sheepish in the inside.
"Oh, thank goodness…Is he well enough to talk?" April exclaimed.
"Hi, April, I'm ok…Sorry for worrying you, it won't happen again…" Leo said reassuringly after he quickly turned on his own communicator to connect with April's.
"I'm so glad to hear you're alright, Leo…Donnie told me during an update that you suddenly collapsed and became unconscious for some unknown reason…" April explained after breathing a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, I'm not sure what happened either…but I'm ok to continue on with the mission, now…" Leo agreed.
"Alright, just don't push yourself too hard…Anyway, what's your status on finding your way into the church?" April replied.
"We're still lookin' fer whatever 'key' we need…So far, it's takin' us on a crazy treasure hunt…" Raph answered in annoyance, joining in the conversation.
"Copy that. And again, Leo, I'm glad you're ok…April out…" April replied before ending the call.
"Are you sure you're up for continuing on, Leo? If you need a few more minutes-"
"I'm fine, Donnie, a lot better than I was before…Besides, we don't have any spare time for a rest because Mikey is still waiting for us, and there's still a chance that he might be transferred elsewhere before we get to him…" Leo turned Donnie down firmly but reassuringly.
"You have a point…But still, remember to take a break if you feel unwell again at any time during the mission…" Donnie told him firmly but softly.
"I will, I promise…" Leo replied.
"Ok, now dat Fearless is awake and feelin' better, let's get a move on and find dat key, so dat we can get back ta dat church…!" Raph pressed.
Leo and Donnie agreed. After helping Leo stand back up, the turtle brothers left the safety of the boat house through a back door, and they were now in a small forest where the day had turned to night.
"Wow, it's gotten really dark now…" Donnie said in surprise.
"Yeah, which means we're running out of time…Let's hurry and find that key, but keep a look-out for any signs of danger…" Leo replied firmly.
"Right!" Raph and Donnie said in unison before the trio turned on their torches and began their walk through the forest with their weapons in hand.
During their walk, the turtle brothers heard chanting in the distance. It sounded more eery in the darkness, and it was hard for the trio to tell where it was coming from due to the forest's density.
"Is that chanting we're hearing?" Leo questioned curiously.
"Yeah, and I don't like it…I wonder what it's for?" Donnie answered nervously.
"Nothin' good, I'm guessin'…" Raph guessed suspiciously.
They continued walking down the path they were on. During that time, the chanting was getting louder, meaning that the trio was on the right track. A few minutes later, they came to a rocky entryway and spotted a shadowy figure in the torchlight ahead of them.
Suddenly, the head of the shadow changed and a tentacle-like shape whipping around in its place!
"What the shell…!?" Leo cried out as he and his brothers looked on in horror.
Then, the shadow disappeared and the real figure walked towards the turtle brothers. This allowed the trio to see what it really was; the body was still human, but the head was now replaced by a long tentacle with a curved blade on the end.
"Oh, dis just keeps gettin' better and better…!" Raph growled as he aimed his shotgun at the mutated hostile.
The turtle brothers tried to aim and land a hit on the mutated figure, but the tentacle was too quick and kept trying to slash them to ribbons with its blade.
"Aim for its head!" Leo commanded whilst reloading his gun.
The turtle brothers took aim at the hostile's head and started shooting. It wasn't until the fifth shot that the head exploded, and the hostile's body had collapsed to the ground. The turtle brothers just stood and stared quietly at their fallen enemy whilst trying to calm their racing hearts down.
"What da shell was dat all about!?" Raph questioned, finally breaking the silence.
"I think these people have been infected with something, making them turn into…w-whatever we just fought a moment ago…" Donnie theorised grimly.
"Wait, ya don't think dat Mikey's been-"
"No…There's no way that Mikey's become one of them…We won't allow that to happen!" Leo interrupted Raph firmly when the red-banded turtle started to fear for the worst.
"Well, let's keep movin' and stop dat from happenin'!" Raph pressed.
Leo and Donnie didn't have to be told twice. They and Raph continued on with their walk until they came by an entrance leading into a cave. Despite feeling cautious, the trio pressed on and entered the cave, and it wasn't long until they had reached a large dimly-lit space before spotting two hand-shaped statues and a stone pedestal standing in the middle of them.
"What is dis place? Some kinda shrine…?" Raph questioned.
"Looks like it…I wonder what for, though…" Donnie speculated.
As they continued, Leo spotted something on the cave wall behind the pedestal before his eyes widened; it was a drawn symbol that featured a light-beaming circle with two pairs of arms crossing each other on the left and right sides.
"Hey, look! It's the same mark we saw at the church…!" Leo identified.
Raph and Donnie approached him and saw for themselves that he was right, and then Donnie noticed something on the top of the pedestal that looked familiar.
"This…That's it! This is the 'key' we need to get into the church!" Donnie told his brothers.
"Well, dat's great and all, but how da we get it out? Those hands are keepin' it stuck there!" Raph pointed out.
"There must be a puzzle of some sorts that we need to solve here in order for the hands to release it, and I think these large hands are the clues needed to help us do so…" Donnie explained, pointing at the large hands.
"What could they be for, though?" Leo questioned as he looked at the stone hands curiously.
"They each look like something needs to be placed in their palms to release the seal…I suggest we continue exploring and see if we can find them…" Donnie theorised.
The older turtles agreed before they and Donnie resumed their exploration, but then they stopped when they had spotted a larger drawing on the next wall.
"Hey, doesn't that look like a lake to you guys?" Leo questioned.
"Yes, it is! And, look; it's got two locations marked on it…One on the south side, and one on the north-east side…!" Donnie answered as he pointed at the marked areas on the map.
"Then they must be where the two items for the hands are being kept!" Leo concluded in realisation.
"Well, let's hurry up and go check 'em out!" Raph pressed impatiently.
After taking a snapshot of the map and seeing another pathway through the cave, the turtle brothers hastily walked through it until they had reached an exit and reached a small dock with a boat waiting for them.
"Back on a boat again…" Raph mumbled with a sigh before he and his brothers boarded the boat, started the motor, and took off.
"Which way should we go first?" Leo questioned.
"According to the map, the nearest location out of the two is the one to the south, just literally a small boat ride away from here…" Donnie directed as he read the map on his shell cell, pointing towards the left.
"Alright, we'll go there first…" Leo replied before he looked over at Raph.
"You ok with handling the motor, Raph?" He questioned.
"Yep, I'm good…" Raph answered with a nod before he steered the boat to the left, and the boat then travelled onwards.
/
5 minutes later…
The turtle brothers arrived at their first destination to find the unknown item for the hand statues.
However, as soon as they had left the boat and started walking through the cave tunnel, it didn't take long before they were noticed by a few hostiles carrying axes.
"Take cover!" Leo commanded as he dove and hid behind a rock with his brothers following his lead.
They prepared their firearms and peeked their heads up to assess where their enemies were standing, and then they took aim and fired at them whilst dodging their thrown weapons. They eventually managed to take out two of the hostiles, but the last one did not go down. Instead, his head burst and transform into a mangled mutant with three bladed tentacles.
"Ugh, I knew it…" Raph said in disgust.
"Watch out for its tentacles!" Donnie warned.
While they were keeping a distance from the mutated hostile, Leo switched his handgun for his handheld machine gun and started firing non-stop at the hostile's head until it exploded, killing it instantly.
"These goons are in here, too!?" Raph questioned in shock.
"They must have caught wind on what we're up to…we'll need to be careful from here on out…" Leo told his brothers.
They moved further on into the cave until they had reached a stone statue of what looked to be a humanoid demon. They then discovered that the statue's head was not fully attached to the body, so Donnie decided to remove it carefully without trying to drop it in the process.
"Dis is what we need…? A stone head?" Raph questioned in confusion.
"I guess so…It looks like it's made from the same stone material as the large hands back at the shrine…" Donnie answered before he and his brothers noticed that the statue's neck began to pour out blood.
"Ugh, now dat's just plain wrong…" Raph said in a grimace.
"Ok, that's one item down, one more to go…Let's head to the second location…" Leo told his brothers before they all rushed back to where the boat was docked.
A soon as they had all boarded the boat, the turtle brothers had set sail once again.
/
10 minutes later…
After sailing across the lake, the turtle brothers had reached the second location which a bit smaller than the first one. They ventured forward and were surprised to see another statue within a mile from where they were standing. They hurried over to it, and Raph carefully removed its head, causing blood to pour out from the neck like it did with the first statue.
"Well, dat was easier than expected…!" Raph said in surprise.
"Yeah, we got the second head without any problems…" Donnie agreed, a bit more surprised than Raph was.
"Excellent…Now we have what we need to release and retrieve the church's gate key…!" Leo exclaimed calmly before he and his brothers hurried back to the boat, boarded it, and set sail back to the main shrine.
/
15 minutes later…
The turtle brothers had arrived back to where the key shrine was. They approached the hand statues and readied the heads; Raph stood in front of the left hand whilst holding the first head, and Donnie stood in front of the right hand whilst holding the second. Leo, meanwhile, stood in front of the middle shrine and readied himself to grab the gate key.
"Ok, ready…set…go!" Leo said to his brothers, both of whom immediately placed the heads on the hands' palms.
Seconds after doing so, the small hands around the key started to move to the side, releasing their restraints on the key as a result. Leo immediately grabbed the key and took it off of the shrine.
"Yes!" "We've got the gate key…!" "Finally!" The trio cheered with sighs of relief before Leo turned on his communicator to call April.
"April, it's Leo. We've found the key to the church!" Leo announced.
"Well done, guys! Now, go and get Mikey; he's been waiting for too long now…" April replied in a serious tone.
"Right, there's no time to chat. We're heading over there now. Leo out…" Leo said in understanding before ending the call.
"Alright, guys…Let's get back to the boat and return to the church…" He then told his brothers in his leader voice.
Raph and Donnie nodded firmly before they all headed back to their original boat and made their way to return to the church. This time, with the gate key in their possession.