Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Fiction ❯ Bad Places ❯ 14 ( Chapter 14 )

Part 14

Four ladders lined the shaft. Before she reached the closest one, Chanta whipped off her torn shirt and wrapped it around her hands, protecting her skin from the heat. Felix didn't bother. The metal wasn't too hot to bear. He put the blade of his knife between his teeth and started climbing as fast as he could. Raphael did the same for one sai and started up, followed by Mike, while Leo took the last ladder.

A few scorched bodies hung off of the rungs above them, and if they couldn't climb over them they had to waste time yanking them off and flinging them aside. As Raphael jerked a large screamer out of the way, Mike paused and looked down. The body disappeared into the darkness, and a few seconds later he heard it splash. He glanced at Leo, who'd caught up beside them.

"Blood," Leo answered his look. "The first and second flights must be a small lake."

Mike grimaced and decided not to look down again.

They passed the seventh floor just as the demon on the sixth pulled itself through the blasted doors and into the shaft. It snapped up a screamer's body tossed from above, then made its way up the walls, digging its claws into the metal one foot at a time. Too heavy to move fast, it still climbed quickly simply because it's legs were so big. It roared, but none of them looked down.

Leonardo's hands were starting to tremble, from what he wasn't sure, shock, exhaustion, pain, fear. He didn't think he was scared, but he felt adrenalin coursing through him anyway. He wasn't afraid of death, far from it, but better to die at the hand of an enemy in a real fight, than in a monster's jaws. A few feet above him, Mike and Raph were climbing faster, and another screamer body dropped down, caught in the demon's mouth before it fell far. Another one fell, tossed aside by Felix, and the demon snapped that one up as well. Leo kept moving. If it was distracted by falling food every few minutes, he'd make it.

Farther below, something rumbled. Leonardo nearly missed the next rung when he heard it. After living in this place for months, he recognized things based solely on sound and though he'd never heard that rumble before, it had to be bigger than the demon following them. Much bigger. What kind of monster had mutated down in the lower levels, no longer afraid of the screamers that used to live inside?

Whatever it was, it sent the demon close to him scrambling to get higher, to get away. Leo pushed himself faster, trying to ignore the fatigue sapping the last of his strength. He was the closest one to it, and its teeth were coming close. A few more seconds and it would have him.

Something erupted from beneath them, shaking the walls so bad the ladders rattled and threatened to come loose from their bolts. Leo looked down and saw it coming, like an eel but more teeth than muscle, pure white and covered with blood. It crawled up the walls as quick as light and bit deep into the first demon's side. It screamed in pain and tried to dig its claws into the wall, but the bigger demon just let go of the wall and let its weight drag the first one off into empty space. They plunged into the darkness, and from below came a great thrashing and howling, until all that was left was the sound of bones crunching.

Leo looked back up at his brothers, now at the eighth floor. There was no way they'd reach the top before it came back up for seconds. There was no way all of them would make it. Then again, he didn't have a world to go back to anyway. He drew one sword, listening to the blade slide out of its sheathe. The walls shook as the demon left its kill and made its way back up the walls. Seeing it for the second time, he noticed the huge arms that rippled with every move, saw the eel-like tail that whipped around the ladders for support. Saw the eyes, the only creature he'd seen with eyes in this place. As it came closer, the eyes rolled back so that they were white and it opened its mouth.

Ignoring his brothers' screams, he jumped from the ladder, drawing his second sword in mid-air. While blind, it didn't notice him dodging the bite and driving both swords deep into its back. It threw its head back and screeched, and together they fell into darkness.

Mike stared in horror, watching his brother vanish, and then Raphael leaned down and yanked on his wrist. "Come on! Don't make it for nothing!"

Tears sprang to his eyes as he climbed, one hand over the other, over and over. He couldn't let himself think of anything else, or he'd fall into the darkness after him.

Leo hit the water and sank deeper and deeper with the momentum, the demon writhing above him. Bodies bumped against him. A moment later he realized that it wasn't water but blood, and he drove his swords in deeper. The demon jerked and flailed, able to swim through the thick fluid, and as it came closer to the wall he wrenched his swords free. He floundered in the pool, pushing dead screamers out of his way, expecting sharp teeth to grab him from below at any second. Finally he grabbed the nearest ladder, clumsily holding a sword in each hand as he pulled himself up. He gasped when he broke the surface, but the fatigue was gone. All of his strength was back, at least as much as he was used to now, and he climbed out of the pool as fast as he could.

Its massive head broke the surface, howling in pain, and its claws dug into the wall. Before he realized what he was doing he turned and stuck a sword into its back again. This time it didn't even flinch but kept crawling, bringing him up with it. He sheathed his other sword again and held on as it carried him back up, and as it neared his brothers, he twisted the sword embedded in its back, jerking it sideways. It stumbled vertically, nearing a ladder, and he leaped, relying on faith that he'd catch it.

He missed.

Before he could fall, though, Mike's hand caught his wrist and brought him back. Hoping his brother could handle his weight for just a few more seconds, Leo slashed as hard as he could toward the demon's neck. Instead of taking off its head, the blade lodged in its spine and he couldn't hold on as it fell. His sword was wrenched out of his grip and disappeared.

The loss hurt so much he would have gone after it if Mike hadn't held him prisoner, refusing to let go until he came with them. With a muted curse, he grabbed the ladder and followed after. In another minute, they reached the trapdoor above them and crawled out, falling on the floor for a moment to catch their breath. The sky burned red above them, swirling endlessly with unstable sparks of light flashing at the very edges of the pocket dimension.

"Damn..." Felix said, watching them. Leonardo was still dripping blood, leaving pools on the roof. "I really thought you were dead."

"So did I." Leo pushed himself up and spotted the gate matrix a few feet away. Chanta was already there, pushing the lever that activated the electrodes. With a familiar electric whine, blue lightning raced over them and shot out to a single point, ripping open a hole in space. She stepped through and vanished, and Felix went next.

Mike glanced at his brothers, then stepped through. Raphael took a step forward, then stopped and looked at his brother. "You first," he said, his eyes brooking no argument.

Leo raised his head slightly. "You guessed."

"Pretty obvious after that stunt." Raphael reached into his belt and pulled out something small and flat. When Leo saw it, his eyes went wide and he put one hand on his belt. The photo was gone.

Raphael stared at it, looking at the picture Leo had taken from the lair. "It's a good shot. I never really noticed before, but none of us could have taken this. You got us all and we don't even look crowded." He looked up at him curiously. "How were you gonna see this in the dark?"

"How did you--"

"Slipped out while you were sleeping." Raphael put the photo back in his belt. "You weren't planning on coming back, were you?"

"I can't go back," Leo said. "I fit here better than I do out there. You can't stand having a killer for a brother."

"I..." Raph caught himself. Leo was right in a way. He protected them as best he knew and they condemned him for it. How else could a gang fight end but in blood and death? What did they expect, Leo not to use his swords and just knock everyone unconscious, and hey could you leave them in nice neat rows while you're at it? There was a reason Splinter had sent Leo instead of him or Michelangelo or Donatello. The eldest was supposed to take more damage and keep fighting, protect his family and friends, and if that meant killing... Raphael considered it. Did Splinter really want Leo to fight honorably all the time, even if it meant his death? The death of his brothers? No wonder his brother felt torn in two.

"You're right," Raph said softly. "We've made you live a paradox."

Leo didn't answer.

Raphael took a deep breath and looked back at him. "But I promised Splinter I'd bring you back home."

The only sound was the faint screams of things slowly creeping back into the shaft. Leo shook his head. "I got you here safe. Now I have to go get my sword."

Wasting no words, Raphael attacked. If he could land one hit, just one, but Leo was too fast. Nothing touched him. Raphael took some solace that his brother didn't draw his sword, even if all the poison had to be gone by now, and in return he didn't draw his sais. He simply had to keep on his brother until Leo faltered, stumbled or wore down. Every dodged kick, every sidestepped punch, brought him closer to victory, because from the way Leo was breathing, he couldn't last much longer.

As Leo ducked a kick, crouching low to the ground, he found he didn't have the strength to rise again. He put his hands on the floor to push himself clear, but Raphael's kick caught his side before he could move. Knocked to the ground, he winced as his brother grabbed his wrist and pulled him back up. As much as he struggled, he couldn't loosen Raphael's grip as he was drawn toward the gate. Together they stepped through.

To everyone inside the warehouse, it looked like Raphael was helping his brother through, and Leo's collapsing on the floor only reinforced the lie. He didn't understand. In the pocket dimension, he'd found the strength to go on as long as there was a fight ahead of him. Now the light bore down on him, leaving him almost blind. He relied on Raphael to help him walk away from the gate and find a small crate he could sit on.

Beside him, his human friends sat on their own crates, Felix catching his breath as he lay back, eyes closed, and Chanta staring at the four turtles, especially the one at the computer. April tried not to stare back. Chanta's hair, now obviously blonde, was heavily matted against her head with drying blood, and her face...April suddenly felt self-conscious of her own perfect skin.

Donatello noticed her stare and smiled nervously. "Um...promise you won't tell anyone about us?"

She grinned, and her skin twisted horribly around it. "Sorry, everything's gotta go in the report, but I think I can leave out the mutant turtle part."

"Report?" April asked. "What do you mean?"

"She means," Felix said, not moving, "that she works for Uncle Sam. And that she still hasn't apologized for dragging me in it."

"You wanted to come," she argued.

As Leo slowly caught his breath and felt a little more normal, he noticed that the gate was still open. Raphael stood between him and it, one hand on his shoulder just in case he tried to run for it, but a cold wariness settled in his stomach. Something was wrong. As much as he wanted to know more about the people who'd saved his life and whose lives he'd saved, he quashed his curiosity and interrupted them.

"Why isn't it closing?" he asked.

"It must be manual," Don said, looking back at the computer. "A cut-off command instead of automatically shutting down."

"Well, shut it down," Raph said. He wanted to walk up next to him and help, but he couldn't trust his big brother to stay put. He bent slightly and asked in a whisper, "can you promise not to try anything if I turn my back on you?"

Leo looked up at him with wide eyes, then back at the gate, a ripple of dark red against the light. Hell had never looked so enticing. He stared back at the ground and shook his head once.

"At least you're still honest," Raph said.

A moment later, Raphael was sent flying across the room and crashed into the wall, the crack of bone audible even over the sound of the demon's scales sliding on the floor. None of them had seen it come through, but they heard it howl and they saw its tail come around again, smashing the computer. The lights went dark before red emergency lights came on. Donatello ducked in time and stumbled back with April, both of them in too much shock to do anything else. It looked far different in real life than it had on the small screen. When it reared up to its full height, it towered a good extra eight feet over them. Covered in blood, Leonardo's sword still stuck out of its throat, jammed in too tight to come loose.

Chanta fired a few rounds but her gun soon clicked empty, and she had no more clips. Felix didn't even consider using his knife, not without cramped hallways and two swords to help. Instead they turned and ransacked the crates, looking for something useful. Mike knelt next to Raphael, helping him sit up. His right arm hung limp at his side, broken at least, maybe shattered.

Leonardo winced. The gate was gone, but worse than that, Raphael couldn't take charge. With a weary sigh he stood and drew his sword one last time, looking over his shoulder at Donatello. "Find something to kill it," he ordered, then looked away without wondering if Donatello would.

The demon centered on his voice. Holding his sword down at an angle, obviously tired, he stood between his brothers and death. In the red light, everything was made of blood, the walls, the floor, his family. Everything ran together until there were no morals, no rules, no honor. Just his enemy. He couldn't help a laugh. "Looks like I'll get my sword back after all."

TBC...

Authors Note: I've never written so fast. My eyes feel like they're bleeding as much as that demon.