Chapter 40-Back With Mikey
The older turtle brothers made it back to the sealed door without any setbacks. As soon as Donnie scanned the card on the keypad, the door instantly opened, and he and his older brothers rushed into the room.
It was then that they immediately spotted the bed with a still unconscious Mikey lying on top of it.
"Mikey!" They cried out before they hurried over to his side.
"Oh, no…" Donnie gasped when he saw the condition that Mikey was in.
"Mikey, can you hear us?" Leo called his little brother, but there was no response again from the youngest turtle.
"What's wrong with him!? Why ain't he wakin' up!?" Raph questioned in a panicked tone after cutting Mikey's hands loose from his restraints.
"Mikey's body has weakened because it's struggling to fight the plaga off. He doesn't look well at all…" Donnie diagnosed gravely, placing a hand on Mikey's slightly warm forehead.
"Donnie, quick! The medicine!" Leo commanded urgently.
"Right!" Donnie replied before he took out the injector pen from his belt pouch, placed the end on Mikey's neck, and pushed the button to inject and administer the medicine into his system.
Mikey grunted and flinched weakly before relaxing again, and the older turtles watched as the black veins on Mikey's face and body slowly faded away.
"…It's workin'…" Raph breathed out in relief.
"Yeah, but it's only bided Mikey some time…Like Luis had told us; it will wear off after a short while…" Donnie reminded him in a serious tone.
Leo watched this go on before he noticed a couple of black veins starting to spread down his arm again.
"…Speaking of which-Ngh!" Leo started speaking before he grunted in pain and started to collapse.
"Leo!" Raph and Donnie cried out as they rushed to his side and held him up to keep him from hitting the ground.
"I-I'm ok, you two…Don't worry about me…" Leo assured his brothers, despite the pain and dizziness that he was experiencing.
Raph and Donnie immediately helped Leo sit down on the edge of the bed next to Mikey's legs, and they stood by him to make sure he was ok.
"Donnie, keep an eye on Mikey until he wakes up…" Leo commanded after a moment of silence.
Donnie did as he was told and walked over to the other side of the bed to watch over Mikey, even though he was still worried about Leo's health as well.
"Raph, go and keep watch by the doorway for me…We might still be followed…" Leo then commanded his immediate younger brother, who did what he said and stood by the doorway to keep a look-out for enemies.
"You're gonna be ok, Mikey…" Leo told his sleeping little brother softly as he looked at him before he made himself a bit more comfortable in his sitting position and waited for him to awaken whilst slowly becoming lost in his own thoughts.
/
5 minutes later…
"B-Bros…?"
Leo didn't know how long he was zoned out for, but he was snapped out of it by the croaky but familiar voice of his youngest brother on the bed. He looked over at him to see his eyes half opened.
"Mikey…" Leo breathed out in relief as he held his brother's hand.
"Hey there, little brother…!" Donnie greeted softly, placing a hand on Mikey's head and stroking it gently.
"Shell, bro, ya had us worried when ya wouldn't wake up earlier…!" Raph exclaimed with a relieved smirk as he hurried back over to the bed and placed a hand on Mikey's shoulder.
"S-Sorry…" Mikey stuttered whilst being helped up to a sitting position by Donnie.
"No, we're sorry for being late…" Leo countered whilst still holding Mikey's hand.
"It's fine, dude, you guys got the medicine to me in time…That's what matters, right?" Mikey replied as he looked at his arms in relief when he saw no more black veins marking them.
"Do you think you can stand up?" Donnie asked.
Mikey nodded and was about to get up from the bed when he realised that someone was missing.
"Wait, where's Luis? Shouldn't he be with you by now?" He questioned in confusion.
The three older brothers looked at each other and their faces saddened. What could they say to their little brother? They all knew how badly Mikey reacts to the loss of a life.
"Bros…?" Mikey called out anxiously.
"…He's gone, Mikey…" Leo announced the sad news first.
After letting those words sink in, Mikey's eyes and mouth widened in shock. That wasn't the answer that he had wanted to hear from his oldest brother.
"W-Wha-? What do you mean he's gone!? What happened!?" Mikey questioned hysterically, begging for an answer from his older brothers.
"Hun…Hun happened…He killed Luis after stabbin' him in da back, literally…!" Raph told him truthfully.
"S-Seriously!?" Mikey gasped.
"Yes…There was nothing we could do; the wound was fatal…" Donnie confessed, lowering his head in sadness.
Mikey was now in so much shock that he couldn't speak, and his eyes began to fill with tears of sorrow.
"B-But…I-I never got to thank him…or say goodbye to him…" He stammered tearfully. Donnie immediately gave him a comforting hug.
"Don't worry, bro; we're gonna make sure dat Hun pays fer what he's done…Right, guys?" Raph assured in a gruff but soft tone.
"Definitely…" Leo and Donnie agreed in unison before allowing Mikey a minute to calm down.
"T-To be honest…I didn't know that Hun was the one who took me until he mocked about it in front of me earlier…" Mikey admitted after being quiet for a moment when he was released from the hug by Donnie.
"He did what!?" Raph questioned, now seething with anger.
"I-I remember now…H-He told me that kidnapping me was easy, cos I was the weakest and stupidest one out of us four…a-and he also said that I shouldn't put a lot of hope on you guys saving me, cos you wouldn't care or bother about looking for a useless burden like me and that you'd be happier without me around…" Mikey explained before covering his face with his hands and started sobbing.
Leo, Raph, and Donnie all looked at Mikey in shock and anger; they could not believe that Hun would mentally torture their baby brother by saying such horrific lies about them during his capture. They immediately did their best to comfort him.
"Mikey…Don't let what Hun said get to you, because none of it is true…" Leo told him firmly but softly.
"Right! We would never give up on you, because we love you and you're just as equally important to us in this family as we are…!" Donnie said in agreement as he wrapped an arm around Mikey to give him a sideways hug.
"Ya might be annoyin' and a pain in our shells, but yer not a bad person, bro…!" Raph told him with a sad smirk.
"…D-Do you still want me around, though…?" Mikey questioned fearfully.
"Always, Mikey…! We're your brothers, and that will never change!" Donnie answered reassuringly.
Leo nodded firmly with a hum before he stood up and offered a hand to Mikey before he spoke in a serious tone.
"Come on, little brother, we don't have much time…Let's get rid of these parasites…"
"…Y-Yeah…For Luis…" Mikey added with his face full of determination after he accepted Leo's hand before getting up and leaving the room with his older brothers.
As they left, Leo decided to give Karai a call. His younger brothers were confused as to why he would do that, but they trusted him nonetheless. The communicator beeped a couple of times before Karai finally answered.
"Karai, it's Leonardo. We've discovered that there's a lab where we can remove the parasites from me and Mikey, though I had a hunch that you might already know where it is…" Leo told her.
"…All I know is that the most important facilities to these people are housed in their sanctuary at the top of the mountain…That is where I would look for something like a special lab…"Karai explained flatly after a moment of silence.
"Wow…Karai da encyclopaedia…!" Raph teased.
"Happy to help…Now you owe me, turtles…" Karai replied sarcastically before ending the call.
"Yeesh, still as friendly as ever…" Mikey exclaimed in disbelief and sarcasm.
"Don't worry about her for now, bro, let's keep moving…" Leo told him before he and his younger brothers left the room.
They started making their way over to the metal double doors that the older turtle brothers saw earlier, but they had completely forgotten that the doors were locked.
"Great, now what?" Raph questioned.
Mikey had a look around before he spotted an open gap on the top left above the doors.
"Hey, Raph, can you give me a boost?" Mikey asked.
"Sure thing, bro…!" Raph complied before getting into position when he saw the gap too and understood what his youngest brother was planning to do.
Mikey stepped onto Raph's cupped hands before being lifted up onto the top of the wall. He then took a moment to observe his surroundings before jumping down on the other side.
"We're counting on you, Mikey…" Leo said in a serious but supportive tone.
It didn't take long for Mikey to open the door from the other side by removing the metal bar that was keeping it closed.
"Heh, heh, easy-peasy!" Mikey said proudly as he opened the door for his brothers.
"Nice work, bro…!" Donnie praised with a high-three.
The turtle brothers soon exited the lab area and arrived at a cargo depot, where they had spotted a lift further behind the large gate. When they reached it, however, they discovered that it was locked tight.
"Let's find another way around…" Leo said before he and his brothers went down to the lower level via a ladder on their left side.
As soon as they set their feet on the ground, they heard and saw more infected enemies ahead of them. The area itself was like a maze, so they had to tread carefully.
"Keep low and stay quiet…" Leo hissed his command before he crouched down and started moving forward, with his younger brothers following his lead.
They moved slowly and quietly until they were behind the first hostile, who was wielding an electric rod.
Soon, the turtle brothers had reached a set of metal stairs. They immediately ran up them and opened a door, which lead to a boiler room.
"Man, it's hot in here…" Mikey said whilst wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
The quartet continued through the boiler room until they came across a metal door, but when they opened it and saw the stairs ahead of them, they were suddenly face-to-face with more hostiles that were holding their own individual weapons.
"Seriously!?" Raph questioned heatedly.
"Heads up!" Donnie alerted his brothers when he saw the first hostage about to throw an axe at them.
The turtle brothers dodged the axe before Leo shot the hostile down with his rifle. They then rushed up the stairs to see the remaining three hostiles waiting for them at the top. Knowing that they had no time for a long fight, Leo ordered Raph to throw a grenade at the gang, and they braced themselves as the grenade exploded and eliminated the hostiles.
With the way cleared, the turtle brothers continued their way out of the boiler room until they were now in what looked to be a sewer processing room. When they saw that the only way forward was to walk through a shallow pool of sewage on the left side of the room.
"I know we live in a sewer, but dis place smells even worse…" Raph complained whilst pinching his nose.
"Agreed…" "Yep…" The others replied in agreement before they reached the edge of the rest of the path.
As they found and walked towards the doorway to the next part of the facility, however, a large white creature slivered out of a vent in the wall on the right side of the corridor. It was another Regenerador!
"What the shell is that thing!?" Mikey questioned fearfully since it was his first time seeing the creature.
"Trust me, Mikey; you don't wanna know…" Donnie told him nervously.
Leo went straight into action and took out his rifle with the biosensor scope attached to it before he took aim and shot at the parasites within the Regenerador's body. The creature screamed and exploded, but instead of dying, it suddenly began to regenerate and return to normal. This time, however, it was covered in long thin pine needles from head to toe.
"What!? It changed its form!" Leo alerted in shock.
"Oh, great…! Now it's a porcupine freak!" Raph exclaimed in annoyance.
Just then, the spikey Regenerador pounced at the turtles, all of whom narrowly dodged out of its way.
"Watch out for its spines!" Donnie shouted.
"Ya don't have ta tell us twice, bro!" Raph replied as he reloaded his shotgun.
Using his biosensor scope again, Leo noticed that there was only one parasite in the Regenerador, and it was inside its head. He shot at it and destroyed it, causing the spikey creatures to shriek in pain before its body began to expand.
"Get down!" Leo shouted as he hit the floor, with his younger brothers following his lead.
Just seconds after doing so, the Regenerador's upper body exploded again and hundreds of its spines shot off it in all directions before its lower body collapsed to the ground. The turtle brothers waited for another minute to let the shock wear off before they stood themselves back up.
"Well, that was definitely unexpected…!" Donnie said after a moment of silence.
"Yeah…There might be more of these things lurking about, so let's be careful as we move on…" Leo warned.
The next area they had entered in was a waste disposal room. There was rubbish everywhere and the smell was atrocious, making the turtles' noses wrinkle and cringe in disgust.
"Urgh, this place stinks…!" Mikey complained, covering his nose up with one hand.
"Yeah, and it definitely smells even worse than the sewers under New York…" Donnie agreed in a grimace.
They continued walking until they had found another door, but when they checked it, they saw that it was locked and the power switch used to open it was off.
"Looks like the power's out…" Donnie observed.
"Urgh, dis is gettin' old…!" Raph groaned in annoyance.
"What do we do now, dudes?" Mikey questioned anxiously.
"Let's look for a way to turn it back on and open the door…" Leo answered.
The others agreed before they all walked on a path on the left side, whilst the older three used their flashlights to see what was up ahead, until they came across a large chasm-like gap and a turn wheel positioned on the edge of it. Raph went straight to the wheel and started turning it, causing two parts of a bridge to be raised. However, as soon as the bridge was raised fully and Raph released the wheel, the whole bridge collapsed back down at a fast speed.
"What da-? Da bridge just collapsed!" Raph observed in shock.
"Looks like there's a fault in the wheel's gripping mechanism, possibly due to excessive use…If we're gonna cross, one of us will have to stay behind and keep hold of the wheel, whilst the rest head over to the other side and investigate…" Donnie explained as he assessed the wheel and the collapsed bridge.
"Mikey, do you think you can keep this bridge up until we get back?" Leo asked in a serious but soft tone. Deep down, he didn't want to task his youngest brother into a dangerous position, but there was no other choice since only he, Raph, and Donnie had the weapons needed to stop and defeat any monsters that would come their way.
"Yeah, no problem, Leo…Just be careful, ok, guys?" Mikey answered voluntarily before he grabbed hold of the wheel, turned it until the bridge was back up again, and stayed there.
"We will…" Donnie replied reassuringly.
"We'll be back soon, bro…" Raph told him before he, Donnie, and Leo crossed the bridge to explore the other side.
Once they got there, the older turtle brothers walked whilst still using their flashlights until they had reached a generator room. After a few twists and turns, the older turtle brothers eventually found the power switch, and since Leo was closest to it, he pulled the switch down and turned the power on.
With the task completed, the older trio immediately started making their way back to where Mikey was waiting for them at the bridge. But then…
"Bros, help!"
They heard Mikey cry out in distress, meaning that more bad company had arrived.
"Hang on, Mikey, we're coming!" Donnie called back as he, Leo, and Raph quickly ran their way back towards the bridge.
However, as they were halfway there, a Regenerador crawled out of one of the filthy dump piles and blocked their path with a screech.
"Ugh, seriously!? Not now!" Raph shouted before he readied his shotgun.
"No, Raph! You and Donnie hurry on ahead and help Mikey! I'll take this one!" Leo jumped in whilst preparing his rifle.
"Alright!" "Be careful!" Raph and Donnie replied before they hurried off to help Mikey.
With his brothers gone, Leo refocused his attention on the Regenerador. He aimed his rifle and looked through the biosensor scope to locate the parasites in it body. He fired a bullet for each parasite, causing the creature to shriek in pain before its upper body exploded. However, the creature's body suddenly regenerated and produced sharp spines all over itself, just like the one from earlier.
"Are you kidding me!?" Leo shouted before he dodged out of the Regenerador's way when it tried to attack him.
Using the biosensor scope again, Leo fired his rifle at the parasite in the Regenerador's head.
"Finally…Now, to help Mikey…" Leo breathed before he immediately rushed off to head back to the bridge and catch up with Raph and Donnie to save Mikey.
/
Meanwhile…
Raph and Donnie had managed to return to the now collapsed bridge just as Mikey was being restrained and dragged away by a few hostiles.
"Get off me!" Mikey shouted as he struggled to get free.
"Mikey!" Donnie cried out.
"Let our brother go, ya freaks!" Raph demanded angrily as he took out his Killer7 handgun and started shooting at the hostiles restraining Mikey.
Once they were down, Mikey angrily took the electric rod from one of the deceased hostiles and used it to electrocute and kill the hostile wielding a metal shield since the metal material had caused the electrical current to flow through the shield and into the hostile. Mikey then sidestepped to dodge an incoming attack by a double axe-wielding hostile before using the electric rod to shock him and make him drop his weapons, which the orange-banded turtle quickly picked up and land hits on the hostile's head and neck, killing him.
As soon as all the hostiles were taken out, Mikey dropped his borrowed weapons and panted to calm his anger and fast-beating heart down. He didn't want to kill anyone, but he had to remember that the hostiles were no longer humans and that there was no other choice.
"Whoa…" Raph and Donnie gaped in awe.
"Remind me not ta mess with Mikey when he's cornered…" Raph then told Donnie in a whisper. Donnie nodded as if to say that he would.
Just then, Leo appeared and joined Raph and Donnie who were relieved to see him come back unharmed.
"Hey, dudes, what took you so long?" Mikey questioned in a slightly irked tone, despite smirking confidently at what he had just did, whilst he turned the wheel to get the bridge back up.
"E-Erm…Sorry, Mikey, we got held back a bit…" Donnie explained awkwardly as he, Raph, and Leo hurried across the bridge once it was up.
"Ah, don't worry about it…Come on, let's get outta here; the stink of this place is driving me crazy…" Mikey replied with a wave of dismissal.
The three older brothers couldn't agree more with Mikey, and they all started making their way out of the room until they were back at the door from earlier.
With the power now back on, the turtle brothers were finally able to get the door open and leave the area altogether.