TMNT meets Hellboy bloodbath epidemic. By Blue Rose Kelly

Chapter 1 chance to meet.

~in BPRD headquarters~

Hellboy was not happy, he was not happy at all to be blasted out of bed at three in the morning to hear what new threat was brewing. His fellow operatives knew not to get in his way when he was in a mood as foul as this and kept their distance. Everyone filed silently into the conference room to get the mission details. Tom Manning staggered in late to his own impromptu meeting and started after being splashed in the face with a cup of cold water.

"Alright people several green humanoid creatures have been spotted in the sewer system of New York. There have not been any good firsthand accounts mostly just street punks but this is probably another frog outbreak so everyone keep it together."

A collective groan passed through the room and Hellboy became even more irritated. Fricken frogs, why did it have to be this early in the morning. The rest of the meeting, which everyone had trouble paying attention to, was spent discussing strategies on dealing with the threat ending with Professor Broom adding his usual short and sweet pearl of wisdom. Then it was into the team chopper for the long ride from New Mexico to New York.

~Sewers of New York~

Leonardo had risen for early morning meditation and was headed for the dojo when he noticed Donatello asleep in his lab. He had probably stayed up a majority of the night researching and experimenting with his new emergency project. A bizarre epidemic had erupted in small seemingly isolated patches affecting only the gangs and other criminals of the city. The symptoms of this epidemic were severe occult bleeding and sudden death. The brothers had happened upon several victims of this new disease and after ample begging, reasoning and promising that he would be extra-specially careful; Don had been allowed to take a sample from one of the bodies to study. Leo did not like the idea of his little brother putting himself in such peril but had agreed on the grounds that it would be used to find a preventative medicine before innocent people could fall victim. Stepping carefully into the lab Leo walked over and gently nudged His intelligent brother awake. Don woke with a small start and raised his head gingerly, rubbing the crick in his neck.

"What did you find out?" Leo asked with cautious curiosity seeing the notes on the side of the table.

"Well, I think I've isolated the pathogen responsible for the outbreak. It appears to be a mycobacteria closely related to tuberculosis but I'm having difficulty identifying it, it is either a new species, a new mutation or extremely rare." Don replied picking up the clutter that had accumulated on his desk in the course the investigation.

This made Leo uneasy. He had read and watched reports on television how dangerous tuberculosis could be; it was a chronic illness and had been known as white death in the days before antibiotics, for a reason. He insisted that Don take a thorough shower before doing anything else. Groggily Don complied and slunk into the bathroom. Leo continued to the dojo to find Master Splinter already there. His father looked up and greeted him with a smile and a small bow then went back to his meditative state. Leo bowed in respect before sitting down and allowing his mind to clear. The rest of the morning consisted of breakfast followed by warm-up and morning practice then a family meeting where Don shared what he had learned and Splinter urged his sons to not leave the lair until either they or the humans found a way to bring the epidemic under control. Michelangelo was not happy and asked if he could at least skate around the sewer pipes to which the answer was no out of concern that the pathogen may have gotten into the sewer system already. Splinter also insisted that Don get some sleep before proceeding with his investigation, which he reluctantly agreed to. In the mean time they were to go about their regular business until something could be done. Don went to sleep so he could finish his research, Leo went off to read and Raphael went to his punching bag to take out his frustration. Mikey started to watch TV but was not interested and his mind started to wander to his skateboard and the siren song of the sewer walls. He decided to sneak out for just a little while, just to get it out of his system. He quietly snuck into his room and grabbed his board and slunk out to the tunnels. The thrill of riding was instantaneous and he lost track of everything including time and location, just the rush of freedom and the wind on his body. This state of ecstasy however, was shattered when he heard sloshed footsteps and saw the beams of several flash lights in the tunnel adjacent to the one he now found himself in. It was here and now that he finally realized his surroundings were not familiar. He picked up his board and started to back away as quietly as he could, trying not to panic. Finding a crevice in the wall, he wasted no time concealing himself just as the people walked into the tunnel and past him and then stopped and started to speak.

"This is taking forever; it should not be this hard to find these damn suckers" A deep gruff male voice growled in a way that reminded Mikey of Raph.

"I don't know, this sewer system goes on for miles, they could be anywhere." A calm voice that reminded him of a cross between Leo and Don replied, and then added "I can't sense any frog monsters… but something else has been here, something new."

Mikey gulped and promised himself that if he did get out of this he was never going to sneak out ever again, at least for a while. The people moved around looking for whatever had been there which Mikey felt pretty sure was him and keep very quiet.

"Ok people here's how this is going to work, Red, Blue and Liz you go down that way the rest of you come with me" a third, woman's voice said and the sound of footsteps sloshing through the dirty water away from the remaining three and Mikey.

Thinking fast, he carefully took out his shell cell and looked at the time. It was still nine he had only been gone for twenty minutes if he could just slip by these guys and get home as fast as possible, he may be able to get away with this one. Ok this was good, if the other group leaves too he may just be able to pull this off. However, the remaining group did not go away. They sloshed around beaming their flashlights around every inch of the tunnel while keeping in a triangle formation back to back.

"So what was that other thing you found earlier Blue" another female voice, who Mikey could now assume was Liz asked one of her two remaining companions.

A few moments past and the calm voice spoke up "it was here, very recently; it is more intelligent than the frogs…he's young and does not want to be seen."

"What do you mean young?" Liz asked dubiously.

"I mean youthful; playful in a way" Blue stated with sight amusement.

"That's it, that's all you got?" the deep voice asked with a hint of surprise.

"For now yes…except he's still here." The calm voice added.

Mikey's stomach flipped into a knot just thinking about what they could do to him if he got caught but the voices seemed apprehensive as well as they continued to search. A minute passed and then footsteps splashed through the sewer water toward Mikey's hiding place, Mikey now realized that he had backed himself into a corner where there was no way out. The people were coming closer now as evident. Suddenly a bright glaring light hit Mikey square in the eyes making the orange masked ninja shrink back as much as possible. Shielding his eyes from the oppressive beam, Mikey let out a yelp that he hoped did not accurately divulge how scared he really was at this time.

"Hello there" the calm voice chimed in a curious manner.

Through the blinding light Mikey could barely see the silhouette of a trim man who appeared to have no hair. Soon the two other searchers appeared behind the first. One smaller, about April's size, the other was huge like one of the stone generals they had faced just a month ago and had to duck in order to look in the hole. The first intruder, in an unusual show of mercy, shifted his position and moved the light so that it was not hurting their new find's eyes. Mikey blinked to try to get used to the darkness again. A moment of strained silence passed as both parties took note of each other, as Mikey's sight adjusted he could tell that the one in front was not human; he had striped blue skin, large black eyes and a body tight wet suit. The one right behind appeared to be a young human woman with brown hair. After a while the large one, whom Mikey could now tell had a trench coat, red skin and hard round stubs on his forehead, said in the recognizable gruff tone "well, it ain't a frog."

The female voice said in a weary but light tone "let's be honest, that's probably an improvement."

"W...w...wha?" Mikey tensed, mentally kicking himself for forgetting his nunchakus.

At that moment the group that had left earlier decided to call in to see how things were going. The large one picked up a walky talky and began a conversation with whoever was on the other line "Hay…We found something, that isn't a frog." The character assumed to be Red looked at Mikey as though sizing him up then continued "I don't know some kind of turtle thing."

"Hay!" Mikey said indignantly.

Red smirked slightly "yeah that was him".

This was not what Mikey had expected at all and he certainly didn't know if he should relax just yet. Looking over, the crew in front of him was a strange sight indeed. The fish man in front seemed to notice that he was getting fidgety and tried his best to smooth the situation by backing up a little. Red put his walky talky away, snapping Mikey out of his train of thought. "Ok Kate is on her way, the plan is to stay put till they get here".

Mikey tensed he didn't know who these people were and the past, if not Splinter, had taught him to be leery of people he didn't know well. Blue seemed to sense this as well and put his hand up between him and Mikey.

"It's alright; we're not going to hurt you." Blue said reassuringly. This made Mikey feel a little better but he still felt cornered. He gripped his skateboard harder drawing the trio's attention to the child's toy and Red raised an eye ridge at the juvenile recreational object. Eventually the faint sound of returning footsteps echoed off the walls and Mikey grew tense again racking his brain for a way to escape unscathed and make it home before anyone got suspicious. Seeing the trio's attention drawn to the sound Mikey waited for his chance to escape; seeing them begin to leave he readied himself to make his move. With them temporarily distracted it was now or never. Mikey tore out of the crevice and ran as fast as he could in the other direction. He could hear Red curse behind him and Blue yell for him to come back but now he was out of sight, now he just had to get home.

"Damn it! Shoulda known better" Hellboy hissed under his breath, pulling out his gun and beginning the chase.

"Bring Kate and the others up to speed then try to follow up on the GPS tracker" Abe said hastily to Liz as he too started to run after their new find; leaving Her behind in a stunned haze.

Hellboy had to move faster than he wanted. He could keep up easily when he was in optimum condition but he wasn't and this new creature was not going to give up without a fight. Something Hellboy picked up from this new character was that it knew the sewers well. It did not stumble or mess around, it knew where to turn and duck like the back of its hand. Hellboy knew if he wanted to catch this thing he would have to think of something fast. Stopping for a minute to collaborate with Abe, the two came up with an ambush tactic; where Abe would chase the creature in a loop while Hellboy waited and pounced when the turtle creature came back around. Abe picked up the chase and tried every trick to get the turtle creature to head back to Hellboy like a herd dog, using its panicked state and blocking other escape routes to guild it to the desired location. Meanwhile Hellboy lay in wait for their prey to come within striking distance. A long, tense thirty minutes passed before the footfalls of the creature coming around; waiting till he could see the whites of the eyes then leaping out and pinning their prey to the ground as Abe came up slightly out of breath. The creature shrieked in a way that reminded Hellboy of a little girl. The thing was strong and struggled franticly, trying to push Hellboy off while Hellboy used the better part of his body weight to wrestle the stubborn creature into a state of submission. At this point they heard other footsteps that proved to be Liz, Kate and the others.

Kate was about to demand an explanation when the turtle did something none of them were quite prepared for, it spoke. "Aarrgh get off me. What did I ever do to you!"

The whole company stood frozen for a good minute and a half till Kate finally stammered in a confused tone "It can talk?!"

With that the creature became too exhausted from the effort of pushing Hellboy off that gave up and just slumped against the ground.