I encourage you to read MIRACLES, DETINY and FATE, in that order before reading this. Unless you're just a Donnie fan and love you some DonnieFic! So here it is. The fourth and final story in this TMNT Love Collection. But I hope you've noticed that these stories are so much more than our favorite turtles finding love. It really does all come together here. Your words of encouragement and critique are very important to me. I am uploading the first three chapters now. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it!
I DO OWN my OCs... there are a few.
I DO NOT OWN TMNT, but I love them forever!
And now... PHENOMENON
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The first thing I remember is the pain; throbbing pain emerging from behind my eyes, pooling at the back of my head and dripping down over my neck and shoulders. I breathe into it; endure it, allowing my splayed thoughts to gather. I don't open my eyes, though I can sense darkness. I then hear a low hum beyond the walls around me, a mechanical murmur generating from somewhere. I feel the cold, hard surface under my chin and knees and fingertips. I inhale deeply and slowly, realizing I no longer smell the still, subterranean dampness of the Lair. I feel the faint circulation of dry, sterile air waft over my pebbly skin. The pain, temperature, sound and smell culminate in my growing consciousness. I stiffen slightly, now fully aware that I am not where I am supposed to be. I don't move. Someone may be watching. This leads me to ask myself, how did I get here?
The second thing I remember is that there had been men in the Lair. There'd been three men that entered. They were armed and geared up and, I suppose, looking for us. And Leo was there. We'd split up and hid and I'd waited for his signal to jump out and fight. And then there was a bright light.
I can barely hide my awakened state as I jerk my shoulders. I gasp; my head throbs. The next thing I remember is Leonardo. Despite the pain I open my eyes. They bulge in the darkness of this strange room as I recall what happened next.
Once Leo and I had separated and hid, I could easily monitor the three Lair intruders' movements from my second-story perch. The men quietly spread through our home, searching for us. I looked around and tracked Leo's heat signature near the entrance of the dojo. My muscles tensed when one of the men's lights almost flashed over Leo's arm. The stocky man guarded the front door, the tall man headed for the living room area, and the short man headed toward the dojo. I saw Leo nod slightly, signaling to me that it was time to strike when suddenly a bright light filled the whole area. I turned off my goggles, trying to adjust to the blinding beam seeming to shoot out of my brother's hand. I saw Leo kick the short man through the thin paper of the dojo doors. The bright light followed him.
"The scepter." I whispered. Shaking myself free from the growing knot in my stomach, I leapt over the railing and knocked the tall man to the floor with a swift swing of my Bo and kicked his weapon away. I lunged at the stocky man, keeping him from entering the dojo by locking his hands and neck with my wooden staff. I twisted him back and slammed him against a wall. He rolled to his knees and leveled his gun, aiming at me, but an impossible torrent of wind pushed around us. He fell over in the mess of papers and debris and I dove, trying to make it to the dojo, to Leo as fast as I could. Three things I saw turned by blood cold as I crawled through the threshold of the dojo doors: the short man sprawled on the ground, impaled through the chest by one of our old practicing spears, his shaking hands pointing a gun at my brother, and my brother, not being able to let go of the magical staff. Wind and blue lightning turned the scene into chaos as Leo's form got sucked into the glowing scepter while three gunshots were fired.
In the millisecond of blackness time stopped, the bullets stopped. I thought I screamed my brother's name but I'm not sure. Then the bright light returned and another being descended from the scepter. There was a loud boom of thunder then complete blackness. I heard the short man stop breathing. I reactivated my goggles and looked around. The person standing in my brother's place cried out. I saw him drop the scepter and cling to the bullet wounds in his chest. It did not register at the time, but I also heard the scepter crash to the ground, glass breaking and sand spilling. The man dropped to the ground soon after. He was wailing and gasping for air. I scrambled over to him, pulling at his collar.
"Who are you?" I whispered. "Who are you!" I demanded in Japanese.
The man's mouth squirmed. He was going into shock from the displacement and the wounds and, of course, being interrogated in pitch blackness. But I didn't care. I needed answers and fast. I needed to know where my brother was taken. I jerked at his collar once more. "What is your name?!"
"H-Haruto…" he exhaled and died.
I shook him. I shook him again. "No…" Tears quickly welled up in my goggles. The magic scepter was shattered and the man who replaced my brother was dead. "Leo… Leo…" I let Haruto's body lie flat beside me. I believe I would have stayed there mourning my sudden loss for longer than I should have, if I hadn't heard the clicking of a gun.
"Don't move!" A gruff voice ordered from behind me.
I didn't hesitate as I sprinted to my right and threw myself through the thin, fiber wall of the dojo. If I could make it across the room I could escape through the secret passage under Master Splinter's bed. Both, the stocky man and tall man, were calling out to me but I did not take heed. I just needed to make it past the steps, just flip over the staircase and …
That is when something sunk into the back of my neck. The hot liquid sped through my veins and I fell over the bottom step. My nerves beat in pain, my focus was fogging up. I pulled off my goggles and bandana trying to release the pressure and preserve my sight. Another sting flashed over my shoulders. I hit the concrete hard, becoming totally incapacitated.
The last thing I remember was the stocky man praising the tall man on his marksmanship. Then everything went black.
…
Recalling these events make me feel like my body is sinking into the cold floor I now find myself upon. Did all this happen a day ago, a week? It doesn't matter. Only one thing matters to me now. I curl up on my side. And though crying makes my headache worse I can't stop the tears from falling. I can't stop mouthing my brother's name. Even I couldn't have dreamt up this kind of horror, so it all must be true. I had seen my oldest brother get whisked away to 'God knows when and where', never to return. The scepter is broken and the man… Haruto… who dropped in his place is dead. How was I going to explain this to my family? Would I ever get the chance to? This isn't fair. Just when things were coming together in our lives, this had to happen! We were going to leave the underground life for good. We were going to be happy, no longer surviving, but actually living! We were going to be happy but now…
I don't know what these people want and I don't care.
I'm becoming much too sore to stay awake in this position. I guess it's time to dispel the façade for whoever may be watching. I slowly lift my hand over my face and wiped the wetness away. I pushed myself back across the floor until my shell taps against a solid wall. I achingly lean up against it. I exhale and blink, allowing my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I have to get a hold of myself. If I am to survive this, unpleasant situation, I have to think smart. I must! I WILL see my family again! I will save my mourning and my troubled feelings when I have my family again.
Ok brain; let's go over the things I know. Checking the status of my physical body, I am neither injured nor restrained. But I am totally naked and unarmed. My bandana, pads, belt and Bo are gone. Aside from the receding pain in my head, I am fine. I am definitely being held in some sort of secured facility. Looking around I see… I see a small sliver of light coming from under, what I assume to be, a door. Above, and to the right of the door, in the corner, there is a tiny another thin line of light pulsing along the wall. Judging by the light from outside the door, the position of the blinking line and where I am sitting on the floor, I surmise that I am in a nine foot cubed room, windowless and unfurnished…and I am being monitored. So, who is monitoring me? There were three men sent to our Lair. They didn't seem like they were connected to the Foot and they were too organized to be Purple Dragons. Those enemies have been vanquished almost a decade ago. I remember the stocky one had a radio and was taking orders from a 'Sir'. They must have known about us, or at least, known about something odd living in the sewer. But why did they show up then?
Ok brain; let's go over what I don't know. I don't know the day or the hour. I do not know how far from home I am. And I do not know what my captors know about me. It may be best not to give them anymore information about myself than I have to. I'm not sure if they know I can speak or reason, unless they were monitoring my actions in the Lair as well. I'll hide my intellect for now. I need them to assume as much as possible so I can have some kind of upper hand… This could be a brilliant strategy or a foolish waste of time. All I have are assumptions at this point. At least I didn't wake up on an operating table. I think it's safe to say that is my most reoccurring fear; to be captured and strapped to some crazy doctor's shell-separating machine. I have to keep reminding myself that not everyone who discovers me and my mutant brothers wants to dissect us. I hope this is the case right now.
I assume since I have been physically alert for little more than five minutes my captors are making plans to intercept me. Would the same men who attacked the Lair storm in and shoot sleeping darts at me? Would an ominous voice greet me through some unseen speaker? Would a television screen light up on a wall, revealing the 'Sir' of this operation? I hope something happens soon, or my thoughts will make me start pacing and I don't want 'them' seeing me ponder.
Just then two white squares light up on the far wall, about three feet from the floor and a foot apart from each other. The screen on the left reveals a dark silhouette of a person's head and shoulders. The screen on the right remains blank.
"G-log 030313, Tau specimen, codename Kashikoi Kame, Session 1, Initial Communication, recoding." They say. The voice is distorted. I have no idea the age or gender of the person. This seems very top secret. And really corny to me. To be truthful, I tend to lean toward cynicism so I don't succumb to the fear I actually feel. I wait for them to continue. "Good Day. My name is Dr. G. Do you understand me?"
I don't respond.
"Watashi wa Dr. G. desu." They say in Japanese. Their inflections are way off. My gut feeling is that they chose to speak in Japanese because I did so in the Lair when trying to get information from the dying Haruto. Oh, well, they know I can speak.
But I'm not responding just yet.
"The sooner you cooperate the sooner we can move on Kashikoi Kame."
Smart Turtle? Really? That's their codename for me? How original. I roll my eyes and the person on screen snickers. Crap.
"Did I say something ridiculous? I know you can understand me. Although I am obscured from you I can see every twitch of your face very well. Again, if you cooperate and tell me what I need to know then things can progress much faster."
It's a stale mate.
The silhouette onscreen turns their head to the side and nods. I hear a small voice say 'Yes Sir.' "Very well, Kame. I can sense that you don't mind taking the long road. Already, I have found something I like about you. You are not so easily deterred… Let us try to chat again tomorrow."
Both screens go dim and I am once again alone. I think it's pretty damn rude to ask me questions when my 'host' won't even reveal themselves. All I have is a name, Dr. G… hardly a name at all. And someone called them 'Sir.' Could he be the same one who ordered the ambush of the Lair? I sigh and stretch my feet out across the cool floor.
I hear pistons exert and the door, I correctly assumed it to be, rises and disappears into the ceiling. The light from outside floods my small chamber and I squint my eyes. I grow tense against the wall, waiting for someone to come to the door. I wait another minute and my eyes adjust to the light. I look out from where I'm sitting and see a white wall. I sit there another five minutes and no one comes inside. I try to keep my emotions neutral. Showing boredom or impatience in my face or demeanor could give my captors the hint of me thinking and waiting. I have to act, well, dumb and animalistic, for now.
I cautiously creep toward the door on my knuckles and haunches. With my shoulders hunched over I set the ridge of my nose out of the door and sniff the air. Of course I don't sense anything new, just trying to play the part. I stretch out into the light of the hallway and look left, nothing but a wall. I'm at the end of the hall. I look right and see down a long corridor. In the ceiling there are small round lights tucked in every three feet or so. I suppress my tendency to shrug and purse my lips. I head down the hall.
The walls, ceiling and floor are stark white. The only other attribute is a continuous silver strip where the wall meets the ceiling. There are tiny white lights in the strip, I suppose, some type of hi-tech video surveillance. A small hiss catches my attention and I look back to see the door to my cell slide down and close, disappearing in to the wall seamlessly. As I continue down the hall I realize I could be walking past many doors, but I can't see them.
I slowly amble along, going left, right, up and down, in no particular order and, I'm getting the hint, to no particular destination. I'm putting together a mental map and it comes to my attention that I am somehow going in circles. I come to another corner and stop. I sit a minute and begin to chew on my thumb nail. I bite it off and spit it to the floor, then continue walking. Taking a right, I go up some stairs, weave through the hall, winding through in a serpentine pattern, go down and flight of stairs turn left and so on. The halls are still white and brightly lit and the strip of surveillance tape keeps trailing the wall. Fifteen minutes later I see the tiny pale-olive chip of my discarded fingernail lying on the floor. I knew my theory was correct. I almost hesitated but moved past, trying to show I had not noticed my captors' little game.
I walk down the hall and come to an open door. There are two doors beside each other inside the room. The door I come in closes behind me. A screen in between the doors light up with a simple math problem: 1+2. The door on the left has a 4 appear on it, the door on the right has a 3.
I can't believe this.
I have three options. Play Dr. G.'s game and successfully pass all tests, play dumb and fail miserably enough to where they let me go, or I can talk to them now and avoid this debasement of my intelligence…
I hobble over to the door with the '3'. It opens and I go inside. The next set of doors test reads '2x2' I choose the door with a '4' and walk through. The next set of doors serves me with a pattern test, the kind found on children's CATexams. Slowly the doors become more difficult, but nothing I can't handle. Soon I get to divide fractions, solve for X… I haven't seen the 'Pythagorean theorem' since I was eight. After about ten doors the questions finally get more challenging. I'm surprised at how diverse the questions are, nothing pertaining to one subject or another. I come to the twentieth door and I'm actually enjoying myself. I'm wondering what would happen if I choose the wrong door. I walk in and find myself standing with three doors in front of me. The question reads 'Who do you save?' Door one: a child, door two: the woman you love, door three: your brother.
A morality question… a question of sacrifice… is this just to torture me? I guess the real question is why do I choose one over the other? I immediately want to save my brother, given my most recent loss. I'd do anything to get him back. But that choice is a biased one. I'm saving him so I and my family don't lose him. But maybe my choice would be different if I did have someone in my life to love. I know this question would be harder for Raph or Mikey. If I had a woman I love, would I choose them over a brother? That would be the most selfish choice. I think the right choice would be to save the child. The choice is pretty nondescript; do I know the child, is it my child? I don't think so. I should save the child because they represent hope for the future, not just so that I can feel better personally. Yes. I will save the child. I walk up to the first door. But I just can't go through. It's the wrong answer. The question was 'who do you save?' not 'who should you save?' I head to the third door and walk through. The door closes and I am in pitch black.
The lights come up and I'm in a white hallway again, a door to my left is opening. I peek inside. I think I am correct in assuming this is my original cell. My sense of direction is somewhat reliable. I crouch, not wanting to go inside. It's still dark in there. A light turns on in the room, showing a straw mat on the floor and a bowl of water and a saucer of food. Once the light comes to full luminosity the hallway lights go out completely. Not wanting to be in the darkness, I step inside and the door immediately slides down behind me.
What in the hell was the point of all this? I try really hard not to look peeved about being treated like a rat in a maze as I scoot over and inspect the food given me; water of course, and a plate of raw kale, a sliced, red tomato, celery sticks and… three large water beetles. I can't help to give my imaginary audience the 'side-eye'. My brothers and I had not had to live off of insects since our pre-mutated years. I'm guessing. Maybe if we didn't come from a pet shop, our diet would be similar to what is spread before me now. Just noticing my hunger, I still decide it best to not just leave the beetles uneaten. I bow my head and palm a celery stick. The fresh, fragrant crunch takes the staleness out of my mouth and I suddenly feel ten times better. I leave the rest of the celery, scoop up the kale and tomato and partake in the corner, away from the dead bugs. I'm not a fan of the bitter leaves but they have more nutritional value than the celery… the tomato is delicious. I hurriedly finish my portion. I pick up the bowl and down the cool water.
The lights dim and I stretch out on the straw mat. It's itchy but better than the hard floor. Not realizing how exhausted I am I swiftly fall asleep.
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A/N: What do you think so far? What has Donnie gotten himself into? A lot... a whole lot. REVIEW AND READ ON PLEASE! Ty