Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Fiction ❯ Bad Places ❯ 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Part 9

Through the sewers, through the streets, running as if he wasn't allowed to stop, Leonardo made his way to the docks. Of everything he'd done, seeing that look in Mike's eyes hurt the most. They all believed he was insane, traumatized, hateful. Splinter had frozen when he saw the poison. His hurt turned to anger. After years, a lifetime of protecting them, they all thought he would hurt them? Kill them? He leaped onto a closed dumpster and up to a fire escape, forcing himself to stop at the roof and catch his breath.

Burned. Every bridge was burned now. He frowned. No, there was still April and Casey, but after seeing the massacre and then with what his brothers would tell them, they would be gone, too. He stepped across the roof and leaned on the ledge, looking down at the street where the light colored everything gold. Free. No brothers to protect, to defend, to live for. No more fighting them to get them to practice, to train, to take just a little of that weight off of his back. No more answering to Master Splinter.

No more Mario Kart with Mike. No more play fighting with Raph. He couldn't serve as an extra pair of hands for Donatello, wouldn't be asked to help move the heaviest equipment. No more chess with Splinter. He winced. His books and sketches were still in the lair. No matter. He reached into the back of his belt and pulled out a polaroid. He doubted they'd noticed it was gone yet. Just before leaving, he'd nabbed it from its frame.

Startled from his game, Mike looked up at the camera while Raphael took the second controller to victory, yelling as he passed the finish line. Behind them, Splinter meditated near the bridge and Donatello attacked one of his latest machines with a screwdriver. Since Leo'd taken the picture, he wasn't in it.

He slipped the picture back. The night wasn't half over yet and so much had happened. He took a deep breath and leaped off the ledge, landing on the light post and leaping to the pavement. All alone, he ran through the dark, his own breathing loud in his ears. After a few minutes he came to the warehouse, a dilapidated building set on a dock. The ocean lapped against the concrete barriers.

Three months ago he met Felix on the roof, both of them lured by the strange lights and sounds, though for different reasons. Tonight he met him there again, crouching behind a security camera. Felix saw him approach and nodded, but stayed quiet. His knife was still clipped to his belt but instead he unholstered a large semi-automatic. Leonardo drew one sword. Once again there was no light but they moved just the same. A slash sent the security camera flying as they ran for skylight, and an explosion sent the shattering glass raining down into the building. A grenade, Leo figured.

He went through the skylight first, avoiding the sharp edges and free falling several feet before he caught one of the metal rafters and making his way into the darkness. Behind him, he heard Felix do the same. There was a startled yell beneath them and the hum of machinery. A moment later, he reached the wall and the large crates stacked like a pyramid. He came down quickly, drawing his other sword as soon as he hit the floor.

Light filled the warehouse like a trapped sun and burned his eyes. Somewhere over his own scream he heard Felix cry out and he fell to one knee. The entire world turned white. Even as he scrambled to cover his eyes, he heard the laughter start.

"I thought you'd be back. Come to play the game again? Come to run my maze?"

"Keep talking," Leo whispered, standing straight. Louder, he answered. "Come to kill you." He heard the electric whine of Stockman's chair as he wheeled somewhere to his left.

"Of course." Stockman lowered the lights back to normal and wheeled back to the large computer screen against the wall. The damage was done, and he doubted either of them could see anymore. Didn't make them any less dangerous, though, and he watched them reorient themselves, focusing on his movements as he tapped in a sequence on his computer. "You should know you two were the first to complete the game. No one's even made it to the fifth level besides you."

"No one's survived the fourth level, you mean," Felix said. He blindly put aside the gun and took out the knife, heading towards his enemy's voice.

"Well..." Stockman glanced back at the screen. Several dots appeared in a maze of halls, all of them black but one. One white dot occasionally moved from room to room. "Not quite. The female specimen is surviving, but I don't think she'll make it past this level."

"What?" Leo blinked hard, trying to force his sight to return. All he could make out where white blurs on a white background. "She's alive?"

"Did you think she was dead?" Stockman's voice was genuinely surprised and he picked up a clipboard, flipping the pages over. "This is what happens when you can't communicate with your subjects, just one mistake after another. I was so sure it was a psychological survival regression. Since you're here, I'd better ask what effects you've felt since esca--"

Loud bursts interrupted him, following by thick black smoke that crawled across the floor and filled the warehouse. Leonardo tossed all of them, chocking the air and evening the playing field. He sensed Felix running past him and heard the clang of metal striking metal, the knife coming up against all of Stockman's cybernetic parts and searching for flesh and bone.

The blindness was slowly wearing off but not fast enough. He slipped out a handful of shuriken and focused on the sources of light he could make out. When he found one, he hurled the shards of metal into the air. A satisfying crash later, the warehouse turned a little darker. The next target was easier, and now the darkness rushed back in.

He still couldn't see well but without light to hamper him, the pain went away and the shapes came back. He tightened his grip on his swords and headed through the smoke for the fight. Careful to avoid Felix, he slashed low to the ground, aiming for the motors running the chair. Instead of meeting metal, a bolt of electricity ran up the sword through his arm, sending him stumbling back even as he brought his other sword to bear, this time gritting his teeth through the jolt. Something sputtered and ground to a halt, and the electricity pulsing through the sword suddenly stopped.

"Finally!" Felix yelled, now slashing freely.

"Don't celebrate yet," Stockman growled, hard pressed to maneuver his chair out of range. Out of sight, his hand flew across a keypad built into the chair. "I sent you there once..."

As he struggled to find his target, let alone hit him, Leo briefly wondered if there was a way to rescue Chanta, somehow draw her out of the game without letting anything else loose. Donatello could probably figure out the controls. Maybe he'd even wait long enough for him to explain before attacking him.

The smoke started to clear at the same time the blurs became Stockman and Felix. With a triumphant yell he dove forward, sending his sword straight towards Stockman's heart, plunging through the layers of wiring and circuit cards--

And then another flash, smaller but still too bright, blinded him again. His eyes couldn't take the second strike and he turned away, collapsing as he pressed his hands to his face. For a moment he was sure his eyes were bleeding, but it was only the blood of his earlier kills dampening his hands.

"Leo!"

"Dude, it's Stockman!"

Leonardo almost laughed. "How the hell do you keep finding me?" he whispered. He felt one of them put their hands on his shoulders and he drew away as if burned, swiping blindly with his sword. Instantly his brother backed up out of range. He scrambled to his feet and blinked rapidly. The blurs dispelled faster this time, and a green blur with a red streak across the face stood in front of him.

"How many times do I have to fight you?" he hissed. Behind his brother, Mike stood guard over Felix as Donatello fended Stockman off.

"Until you come home," Raph said.

"I'm never going back," Leo said, backing away from his brother's outstretched hand. "I finish this fight and that's it. I will never see you again."

"Like hell," Raph said. "We'll finish this fight and then I'm taking you home if I have to drag--"

Stockman's yell stole their attention. With a final entry of a code, he activated one of the many machines in the warehouse. Two electrodes pointing at each other in the middle of the building lit with blue crackling energy, heating so that they glowed white. A familiar tingle shot through Leonardo's body and he staggered, suddenly dizzy. Finally, here it came, too strong to fight, and he willingly surrendered to the sensation of being pulled in all directions.

Suddenly Raphael's arms were around him again, steadying him, and he couldn't push him away without raising his swords. "Let me go," he said, desperately trying to get out of his grip.

"Never."

"You don't understand," Leo yelled, but too late. The light went away, the electrode's hum faded and Donatello's surprised cry disappeared, replaced by the skittering of claws nearby and the distant howls of strange creatures.

Raphael stepped back and looked around. He imagined they must be in a small room, but he couldn't see anything. As his eyes adjusted, dilating as far as possible, he could make out a faint glow from the floor, like luminescent webs. He bent to examine them but stopped as his brother spoke.

"Don't touch them," Leo whispered. "They burn. And they go dark if touched."

"Where are we?" Raph asked, already knowing.

"In the game." Leonardo put one of his swords in its sheath and readjusted his grip on the other. "How well can you see?"

"Not too good. I can barely see you."

"That'll change." He walked to the door he could see and listened for anything outside, then slowly opened it a crack. All clear. He pushed it open and turned back to his brother. "Follow me. Felix must be close by."

"Wait," Raph said, touching his shoulder. "How did we get here? Where are we?"

"I don't know, and I don't know," Leo said. "It's just the game. Kill anything that isn't one of us. Stay quiet. Keep close. At the end of the last level is something like what sent us here. It'll take us back."

"What do you mean, level?"

Leo sighed impatiently but forced himself to continue. "I don't know what level we're on yet. As you go, you might find a staircase. We keep going up until we hit the roof."

"Wait a second--"

"That's all I know," Leo snapped. "Now keep up. I'm not carrying you."

"Oh, can it already," Raphael growled. "All this attitude 'cause you got tired of being in charge? And you say I'm selfish--"

"Selfish...?" Leo put one hand around his throat and pushed him against the wall, holding him there. "I've spent the last fifteen years carrying you three so you could have your own lives. Fifteen years of nothing but training and practice and trying to get you three to practice so I didn't have to babysit you in a fight. In charge? I was nothing but your slave!"

Raphael grabbed his brother's wrist and tightened his grip, easily throwing him off. In a straight fight, his sibling was nowhere near as strong as he once was. "You could've said something, anything."

Leo stood still for several seconds, silent. The scrape of claws was still far away. "I did," he whispered.

"What?" Raphael blinked. "When? I don't...remember..."

"Not to you." Leo closed his eyes and let the memory play itself out again. It was easy, he'd recalled it many times. "It is the responsibility of the eldest," he said, "to sacrifice for the family. I know it is hard, but you must bear up under the weight. I am entrusting your brothers' safety to you."

Raph didn't have to ask who said that. He lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It doesn't matter anymore." He took a deep breath and checked the hall again. Still empty. "Now let's find Felix and start our run."

Silent, Raphael followed.

*

Inside Stockman's lab, Donatello looked wildly around the warehouse, but his brothers and Felix were gone. The electrodes dimmed and shut off, and behind him, four new white dots appeared on the screen. He turned and saw them, paired off in adjoining rooms. "What the heck?" He brought his staff up against Stockman's head, forcing him to meet his gaze. "What did you do? Where are they?"

"My very own pocket dimension," Stockman said, his voice raspy and faint. Circuits sparked inside the gashes in his cybernetics. "Where my mousers failed, my breeders will succeed."

"What?" Donatello watched as Stockman's head lolled forward and his eyes lost their focus. When he didn't hear any breathing, he leaned closer and put his hand on the man's throat. No pulse. Unnerved, he drew back but glanced at the wound in his chest area. Despite the depth, the cut to the actual skin was relatively minor. He shouldn't have died from that alone. He sighed and looked back at the computer.

"What did you mean?" He picked up the clipboard and flipped the pages back. Schematics and theories on the collapsibility of space stood side by side with detailed analysis of bioluminescence and genetic extraction. And then he found the sketches of Stockman's breeders.

Completely albino, meant to thrive in darkness, they were built like crosses between humans and raptors. Humanoid, their hands were made of three talons each several inches long. Their feet held two talons; their mouths took up two thirds of their eyeless faces, gaping maws filled with teeth. Muscular, they looked as strong as they were fast.

The next page held a smaller creature, four legged, its body a simple mass of muscle with a mouth in the center. The way Stockman had drawn it, Donatello figured it could use its claws to grip the wall and ceiling, able to run in all directions without worrying about gravity. Were all of these creatures built only to feed and kill? No wonder Leo hardly ate anymore.

The computer beeped and he looked up. His eyes widened and the clipboard slipped out of his hands. He'd thought the black dots marked the dead subjects, but now more black ones started to appear and move en masse towards the white dots, filling the halls and rushing closer like a flood.

TBC...