Chapter 26-More Puzzles
The turtle brothers reached the top of the staircase and took a look around in case there were any hidden enemies nearby.
"Hey, dudes! Look at that statue up ahead…!" Mikey alerted his brothers as he pointed at the statue further up ahead.
The older brothers gathered near Mikey and saw for themselves what he was looking at; it was a large stone statue of a body that resembled a lion's, but it looked as if it was supposed to have three heads and there were none.
"Dat's weird; its heads are missin'…What is it, anyway?" Raph pointed out.
"Judging by the three missing heads, it looks like a Chimera…" Donnie guessed.
"A Chimera?" Mikey questioned, not sure of what a Chimera was.
"Yes…It's a mythical creature that has more than one head and body part of a different animal…" Donnie explained.
"I think you're right, Don…Look, I've found this symbol on the wall that looks exactly like the statue, but with heads on it…" Leo agreed as he showed his brothers a picture-like symbol on the wall nearby.
"So, we need to look for the heads of…a lion, a goat, and a snake…?" Mikey questioned with a raised eyebrow as he inspected the animals' heads on the image with his older brothers.
"That's right, and we'll need to find them in order for us to keep moving forward…" Donnie answered.
"Then let's go search for them, and we can start by going through that door on the left…" Leo replied seriously.
The younger turtles nodded before they followed Leo as he walked towards the left-sided door, opened it, and entered through it. Shortly after doing so, the turtle brothers discovered that they were in a dining hall.
"Huh, a dining hall…" Leo said curiously.
"Do ya think they were expectin' us fer dinner?" Raph questioned with a hint of sarcasm.
"Doubt it…Besides, there's no way I'm eating the food here; last I checked, their cooking's terrible…" Donnie answered with a grimace.
"Agreed…" Mikey replied before he noticed something on the far side of the room.
"Hey, dudes, look! There's a statue of two snakes behind this cage…!" He alerted as he pointed at the caged statue. The three older brothers gathered next to Mikey and saw it for themselves.
"Good find, Mikey; one of the snakes' heads is definitely the one we need for the chimera statue…!" Donnie praised.
"Yeah, but how da we get to it?" Raph questioned.
"I think the clue to opening the cage is hidden in the dining hall itself…Let's look around some more…" Leo suggested.
The younger brothers agreed, and they all started their search around the dining hall for anything that could help them open the cage. It was then that Donnie spotted two large paintings further down the room, and they each featured a person sitting by the table with different cutlery and crockery arrangements.
"Hey, guys! I think these paintings are the clues we need…!" Donnie alerted his brothers.
"Ok, so how da we do dis?" Raph questioned.
"We need two of us to sit on the seats where the table settings are the same as the ones in the paintings…" Donnie instructed.
"Alright…Donnie, would you and Mikey like to do that?" Leo asked.
"Sure…" "Yeah…" Donnie and Mikey answered in compliance.
"Ok, then we'll let you solve this puzzle, whilst Raph and I will keep watch…" Leo replied.
Donnie and Mikey nodded before the purple-banded turtle told Mikey to sit on the seat with an empty wine glass and a professionally folded napkin on the plate in front of him on the first table, whilst Donnie himself sat on the seat with a bottle of wine and a small loaf of bread in front of him on the second table. Once they were in position, the younger duo pressed the service bells before they and their older brothers heard a noise further down the room a moment later.
"Bros, look!" Mikey alerted his brothers when he saw that the bars of the cage were lowered.
"Looks like we've figured out!" Donnie observed as he and Mikey stood up from their seats.
"Well done, you two…!" Leo praised proudly.
The turtle brothers rushed towards the statue and removed the gold-coloured snake head.
"Alright! We've got the snake's head!" Mikey cheered.
"Excellent, let's get it to the chimera statue…" Leo replied.
With the snake's head in their possession, the turtle brothers left the dining hall and made their way back to the chimera statue. Once there, Donnie carefully placed and fitted the snake's head onto the top slot.
"Hey, it fits like a glove…!" Mikey complimented.
"One head down, two more to go…" Donnie said with a smile.
"Alright, let's look for the next one; we should check the rooms upstairs…" Leo replied as he looked towards the staircase next to him.
The younger turtle brothers nodded before they followed Leo up the second flight of stairs on the left hand side first and entered through another door.
Once they were inside, they saw that they were on the upper floor of a large gallery room, and they also saw a long walkway leading towards a large statue up ahead.
"Dat must be where da next animal head is…!" Raph speculated.
"Alright, let's go get it, but tread carefully; I don't think we're alone in here…" Leo said with caution in his tone.
Leo was right; just as the turtle brothers were halfway across the walkway, a couple of infected worshippers appeared at one of the balconies and pulled a lever down. This made the walkway go down slowly.
"Uh, bros…!?" Mikey called out anxiously.
"Oh, shell…I knew it!" Leo exclaimed with a sigh.
"We're definitely sandwiched alright…!" Raph said whilst readying himself for another fight.
Just then, a masked man in a red-coloured cloak appeared on one of the balconies above the turtles and began waving a red lantern whilst chanting an incantation, causing some of the hostiles to mutate.
"Ngh! Not this again…!" Leo grunted in pain when he began to feel dizzy with a bad headache.
"Urgh, w-what the…" Mikey groaned when he too suddenly started to feel unwell.
"Leo! Mikey!" Donnie cried out as he helped to steady them both before he saw some of the hostiles coming towards him and his brothers.
"Get away from 'em!" Raph shouted before shooting down two of the mutated hostiles with his shotgun.
Both Raph and Donnie did everything they could to fight off the incoming hostiles. However, the difficult part was not taking out the hostiles, it was protecting and keeping an eye on their ailing oldest and youngest brothers. Leo was able to take out an incoming ball and chain-wielding hostile with his machinegun, but he suddenly collapsed again when the red-cloaked man started chanting and waving the red lantern once more.
"Urgh…I-I don't feel so…" Leo mumbled as he struggled to fight the dizziness.
"M-Make it stop…!" Mikey begged in discomfort.
"We're on it, bros!" Raph told the duo before he and Donnie hurried up the ladder and confronted the red-cloaked man on the balcony. Donnie used his crossbow to shoot an arrow at the red-cloaked man's stomach, stunning him, and then Raph used his shotgun to shoot him down and stop him from chanting the eery incantation and waving the red lantern. Once that was done, Donnie spotted a lever ahead of him and pulled the handle back, and then he watched as the walkway was lifted back up, much to his relief.
Within seconds after the red-cloaked man was defeated, Leo and Mikey breathed out in relief when they had noticed that the pain and dizziness had stopped.
"Finally…" Leo said, feeling much better, before he resumed in taking out the rest of the hostiles.
After coming around himself, Mikey took out a light grenade from his belt and threw it at the last remaining mutated hostiles since their weakness was intensely bright lighting.
"Are you both ok?" Donnie asked in concern as soon as he and Raph were back at Leo and Mikey's side.
"Yeah, I'm fine…" Leo answered reassuringly.
"How are ya feelin' now, Mikey?" Raph questioned softly.
"Better…but what was that?" Mikey answered whilst getting his bearings.
"It's the red light in the lantern, Mikey; it causes some kind of strange effect on those who are infected with the Plaga when combined with a specific incantation…" Donnie explained.
"Oh…Well, I really don't wanna go through that again; it really hurt like shell to a point where I felt like I wanna be sick…" Mikey replied, feeling uncomfortable and scared at the same time.
"Hopefully, it won't happen again, little brother, because I feel the same way…Come on, let's go get that second head…" Leo agreed before he and his brothers made their way back up to the start of the walkway.
They all walked across the walkway again and, this time, had managed to reach the statue. It was there that they had finally identified the golden-coloured head of the animal.
"It's the goat's head!" Mikey identified first before he removed it from the statue.
"Alright, back to the chimera statue again…" Leo replied before everyone hastily left the gallery room.
Once they were back at the chimera statue, Mikey was instructed to place and fit the golden goat's head on the middle slot.
"Ok, that's two heads fitted…!" Mikey said happily.
"We're still missing a head though; the lion's head…" Donnie reminded.
"That's right…Let's go and check the upper room on the right side of the stairs…" Leo told his brothers before they all made their way up the stairs on the right hand side and entered through a door.
Once they had entered the room, the turtle brothers found themselves surrounded by a handful of suits of armour standing by the walls in eery silence.
"Wow! Look at all this knight armour…!" Mikey exclaimed with glittering eyes.
"Don't touch any of them, Mikey; we can't say for sure that they're harmless…" Leo warned.
"Ah, come on, Leo…They're just empty tin cans, they're not gonna do anythin' ta us…!" Raph countered.
"Anyway, let's continue on and find the lion's head…" Donnie jumped in firmly to avoid a quarrel from occurring.
After calming themselves down, the turtle brothers moved on further into the next part of the room. It was there that they had spotted a statue down below with the gold-coloured lion's head on it.
"There's the lion's head!" Mikey cried out.
"Yeah, but I've got a horrible feeling that this is too easy for us…" Donnie warned.
"I'm with ya on dat, bro; my danger senses are tinglin'…" Raph agreed with narrowed eyes.
"Ok, here's what we're gonna do; me, Raph, and Donnie will go down there and retrieve the lion's head…Mikey, you stay up here, just in case anything happens…" Leo explained his plan.
"Uh, ok…Be careful, dudes…" Mikey replied, despite his reluctance to staying behind.
After nodding to say that they would be careful, the three older brothers jumped down to the lower level and removed the lion's head from the statue. Suddenly, the suits of armour nearby began to move and advance towards them!
"Bros! The suits of armour are moving!" Mikey alerted his brothers fearfully.
"Huh!? How da shell's dat possible!?" Raph questioned in shock and disbelief.
"They're being controlled by parasites!" Donnie pointed out when he noticed some slithering tentacles wiggling out of the gaps.
"Then, let's hurry and take them out! Mikey, stay up there!" Leo commanded as he readied his gun.
"A-Alright…!" Mikey replied anxiously.
The older turtle brothers went straight to work with their attempt to take out the parasitic knights, but when they shot at them with their firearms, they saw that the armour was too strong and had no holes or dents in them.
"Stupid armour! I can't put a bullet in 'em!" Raph complained.
"But they're not fully covered, though; the parasites' bodies are partly exposed through the gap between the helmet and the upper body armour!" Donnie pointed out when he noticed the parasites' bodies peeking out of the gaps.
Now knowing what they needed to do, Leo made the first move and quickly kicked the helmet off the armoured knight in front of him, exposing the parasite fully, and then he stood aside to allow Raph to take the parasite out using his shotgun.
However, as soon as they took out the first lot of armoured knights, another group started moving and advancing towards the turtle brothers.
"What!? Oh, come on…! Enough of dis!" Raph groaned in annoyance.
"There's just too many of them!" Donnie cried out before dodging another sword attack.
"Heads up, dudes!"
The trio suddenly heard Mikey shout out a warning to them, and then…
Crash! Woosh!
Something smashed in front of the incoming armoured knight and blue-coloured flames coated the floor around it. Seconds later, the metal puppet stopped moving as if it was being frozen in ice.
"Wha-? It stopped movin'…?" Raph observed in confusion before he watched as the knight started moving again, but he quickly took it out with his shotgun before it could attack him.
"Bros! It's the flame; they don't like the blue flame!" Mikey told his older brothers from above them.
"Then whatever it is you're doing, Mikey, keep doing it!" Leo commanded.
Mikey nodded firmly before he grabbed another lantern and threw it at another incoming armoured knight, stopping it from moving instantly.
"Ha! Take that!" Mikey shouted with a smirk.
"Now! Strike it while it's frozen!" Leo ordered before he charged towards the knight and kicked its helmet off to expose the parasite. Donnie then shot it down with his handgun.
When he saw one more pair of parasitic knights charging towards his older brothers, Mikey grabbed two more lanterns and threw them in front of them, making them freeze in place.
"Get 'em, bros!" He commanded.
With another advantage given to them, the three older brothers took out the last remaining enemies with the same tactics as before. Then, they all stood still in silence for a moment whilst panting and regaining their breaths before realising that there were no more armoured enemies.
"You did it, bros!" Mikey cheered.
"Finally, no more knights…" Donnie breathed out in relief.
"Ha! Nighty-night, Knights…!" Raph said with a smirk of victory.
"Ok, Mikey, you can come down now…!" Leo told his youngest brother.
Mikey nodded before he crouched near the edge and jumped down to the lower level to join his older brothers, who all gathered nearby as he jumped to make sure that he landed safely.
"Thanks for the help, by the way, Mikey…!" Leo said shortly after.
"Yeah! Who would've thought that these parasites had a disliking to the blue fire…! This shows us that they really do have weaknesses…!" Donnie agreed in amazement.
"Well, to be honest, I thought that the fire was just going to melt the armour down…I never knew that they'd freeze when they touched it until now…" Mikey explained honestly.
"Either way, ya did good, bro…!" Raph praised, giving his youngest brother a soft noogie on the head and making him giggle.
The other turtle brothers laughed before they all moved towards a large pair of knights with swords blocking the doorway in between them.
"I think we can get out this way if we pull these levers at the same time…" Donnie speculated as he pointed at the levers on each statue.
Leo and Raph immediately took a lever each and pulled them down, and everyone watched as the swords raised up to open the way for them to leave the room.
After leaving the armoury through another door, the turtle brothers hurried back to the chimera statue. Leo then placed and inserted the lion's head on the bottom slot, completing the whole statue. Seconds after adding the last animal head, the turtle brothers heard and saw a door opening nearby.
"Alright! We can finally get outta here!" Raph cheered.
But the turtle brothers' relief did not last long; shortly after opening the door, they heard more doors open around them and the sounds of footsteps coming towards them, meaning that they got company on the way.
"Bros, the stairs!" Mikey alerted fearfully when he saw the hostiles appear first.
"Stay back, Mikey!" Leo commanded.
Then, out of nowhere, one of the hostiles pulled a lever and caused bars to rise all around the older turtle brothers, shocking them and Mikey since the youngest turtle was inches away from them and did not get imprisoned with them.
"Shell, we're trapped!" Donnie exclaimed before watching as Raph tried but failed to break the bars.
"Bros!" Mikey cried out before he gasped when more henchmen appeared and charged towards him.
"Mikey, run! Now!" Leo ordered firmly as soon as he saw the henchmen coming.
"B-But-"
"We'll be okay, just go!" Leo pressed, cutting his brother off.
Mikey didn't want to leave his imprisoned brothers, but he had no choice; he looked at them one more time before he took off running towards the newly opened door just as the infected henchmen were about to catch up to him.
"Oh, no! Mikey's on his own with those monsters!" Donnie remembered in horror.
"Don't worry, Donnie; he'll be fine…" Leo assured.
"How da ya know dat!? He hasn't-"
"Trust me, Raph; if we believe in him, he will come back to us safely…" Leo told Raph wisely, cutting his sentence off, before he started praying in his mind for Mikey's safe return.