Out of My Shell

Chapter 10: Bloodlust and Wooden Spoons

Chapter 10 Bloodlust and Wooden Spoons

ChickaChickaChickaChickaChickaChickaChicka
It was such an awful noise. They could literately feel it in their skin, grating through their temples. But still all they could do was stand there, watching numbly as everything they loved and cared about was shredded to pieces right in front of them.
Leo's comics...
Mikey's game counsel...
Even the Kraang's invasion hadn't caused this much damage.
A hot anger shot down through Raph's knuckles, clenching around his sai, but what could he do? What could either of them do? Trying to fight all of these things at once was a fool's errand.
But they had to do something.
"....Now what?" Raph growled darkly.
Donatello's eyes fixed out into the plague. Then they hardened with a determination that wasn't there before and he got to work, strategically rummaging through his bucket of things. He measured, poured, mixed and muttered, his mind dancing fluidly through equations and calculations.
"What are ya doin'?"
"I didn't bring all this stuff with us for nothing," he replied coolly.
Then Raph heard a small chirping sound and the clitter-clattering of little chainsaw feet on the floor. One of the little creatures had stalked over and paused in front of him like a predator in wait.
It seemed to be studying him; its little chainsaw raised and cocked curiously to the side.
Raph wrinkled his nose.
If Leo were here, he'd probably think it was cute.
It finally occurred to Raph then what exactly it was about these things that bothered him so much.
They were just a little bit too much like cockroaches for his liking.
The creature curved two of its spindly legs slowly up towards him and Raph decided then and there it needed to die. His eyes set and he raised his sai to strike when the tiny blade whirred suddenly to life, scurrying away in a different direction.
Raph's eyes widened, realizing the direction it had gone. "Don—!"
Crunch.
He had barely gotten his name out before the bug was crushed dead beneath the weight of his brother's staff. Donnie had barely seemed to give it a second glance as though he had known it had been there all along, continuing his task without missing a beat.
"Have you picked up on any unusual points of infrared energy within the lair?"
Raph blinked. "Ifra- what?"
"...Infrared energy?" he asked again.
Raph stared unamused, waiting patiently for his brother to stop speaking Nerd. It wasn't exactly a language he was fluent in.
Donnie looked up, raising an eyebrow and tapped his forehead. "The goggles? ...The ones I specifically set to detect infrared energy waves...?"
"..."
Donnie rolled his eyes impatiently. "Thermal energy!"
"See, that's the kind of English that would've been useful in the first place." Raph adjusted the contraption on his head and turned the lens a quarter to the left, the same way Donnie had done and he took a look around the room.
"Woah!" He had to admit, it all looked wicked awesome, like the whole lair was tie-dyed and set to psychedelic negative.
"Okay, how does their heat signature look?" Donnie asked. "Are we talkin' reds and yellows or really dark colors?"
"Uhh both. The chainsaws 're really bright and the rest are kinda in-between darkish colors," he observed. "The legs are dark too."
Donnie looked down at the bug he had squished, processing it all in his head. "...And you said these things just came off of Mutadroid?"
"Yeah..."
Donnie mulled that over and then got up, pressing himself cheek to cheek against Raphael, adjusting the lens so he could take a peek himself.
The heat signature was indeed just as Raph had described. And he turned and gaped at him.
"...Do you realize what this means?!"
"No, but I'm pretty sure you're about to tell me..."
"It means that Mutadroid is so advanced he can regenerate entire cybernetic organisms that just... fall off its body! And by its own free will! For all we know these... chainbugs could be collecting data for it! They're both living and robot..."
The new information pooled into his mind and Raph took a look around the room with new light.
Suddenly the random movements didn't look so random anymore and he took an uncomfortable step back.
"Well, that's not creepy at all."
"It's completely horrifying, actually," Donnie replied matter-of-factly, his attention back into his concoction. He filled one of his test tubes and raised it high up to the light. He gave it a little shake, squinting hard at the small fizzling reaction within.
"Can ya get rid of 'em?"
"Well, we'll see, I... OW!" Donnie suddenly recoiled and winced, staring at the tip of his finger, a small droplet of blood welling up to the top.
"What happened?"
"I.... must have cut myself on the.... lid..." His voice trailed off.
Suddenly everything stopped. The room stopped. The chattering stopped. It was as if the whole world froze on its axis just to stare at them.
Raph could hear his own breath over white noise. And the little chainsaw bugs suddenly had eyes. They lit up red in the dark, spreading across the entire room until it was nothing but a thousand tiny glowing eyes.
Each one of them were locked on the prick of Donnie's finger.
Then they moved. It was uniform, calm, collected, dangerous, the chattering slowly wrecking the silence, rising once more until it screeched in their ears.
Donnie immediately jumped back to work, hastening to finish before they reached them.
But they were moving quick.
"Donnie.... work faster...!" Raph barked nervously above the noise as they moved closer and closer, crowding them in.
"I'm trying!" Donnie promised. But his hands just couldn't seem to move fast enough and Donnie wasn't one who worked well under pressure.
Raph gripped his sai in his hands as they pooled into their space, zeroing in fast on Donnie. Raph jumped to his aid, doing his best to push a few back, if only to buy time as Donnie continued to work. A few of the bugs found their way up his sai, scurrying up the side of Raph's arm. Raph jumped back, violently trying to shake them off.
"Donnie... I officially say we forget about your plan and torch the place!" he yelled.
"We can't do that! Leo's in there somewhere!" His mind was so busy caught up in finishing his creation, he had spared no attention to the chainbugs or their daunting approach. Chainsaws whirred and raised high, dangerously close, ready to burrow right into his skin.
Raph saw it only just in the nick of time and he dove over, yanking Donnie back by the collar of his shell, just as he put the last touch on his chemical weapon.
"HA!" He threw his makeshift grenade into the buzzing sea, watching it shatter as it hit the floor. Noxious-looking yellow gas billowed from the floor, and the little creatures screamed in agony, suddenly struggling to move. Finally the effort was too much and they stopped moving altogether.
Donnie grinned victoriously. "I did it!" he cheered.
And then he heard a small crackling sound. It was faint at first, somewhere among the frozen chainsaws but it soon spread.
Their legs began to move. One by one until all of them seemed to shed away the chemical's spell. The blades buzzed and whirred again back to life. And those tiny metal legs stalked towards them once more.
"...Or not...." Donnie gulped. Then he realized he had left his bucked behind and dove back to get it. Raph grabbed him again, violently yanking him back just as the parasites stormed his bucket, ravaging it through from the inside.
"We've gotta get outta here!" Raph told him.
Donnie stood there, in a moment of numb shock and Raph grew frustrated.
"Let's...... GO! Come on!!" He dragged him away, down the stairwell, through the damp subway tracks, sprinting as fast as they could go. And their enemies followed suit.
"So what's the plan now?!"
Raph glanced back behind at the rush of red eyes and humming blades, that terrible noise grating into the space.
"I still say we torch the place!" Raph looked around the brick tunnels, trying to find that some kind of sub-tunnel that would lead them out, or at the very least one that would hide them and throw their enemies off course.
Finally he found the one he was looking for and quickly pulled Donnie inside with him, deep into the shadows of the open drainpipe.
The bugs hissed and screamed as they whizzed by and Donnie did not want to linger there long. He pulled them onwards towards the sewer system, stale water now sloshing at their feet.
Donnie paused for a moment, his eyes lingering over the rippling puddles and his mind hatched a plan.
"Water," he muttered. "Raph, remember when the Squirrelenoids attacked and Mikey flushed them down the septic tanks?"
"Yeah...?" Raph thought about it carefully, trying to follow Donnie's train of thought.
Then he grinned.
Donnie grinned back, knowing he understood.
Raph spun his sai in his hands. "Let's drown 'em," he growled.
And then the echoing down the tunnel grew louder. They turned their eyes down the south side of the tunnel to see their little house guests had finally caught up to them. The two immediately turned tail, racing in the direction of the nearest main drains.
"This had BETTER WORK!"
--
--
"HYAA!" Leo's kiai bellowed through the room as he sprang forth fearlessly into the fray.
The blades hummed so close he could feel their whisper on his skin, but his mind was focused. He moved with the danger, his breath even; blue eyes sharp as steel.
Every move, duck and dodge had to be precise.
His enemy was getting stronger, smarter, more agile by the second and was probably still mutating. There was no doubt that the ooze dribbling down its jaw had to be mutagen. If he didn't think of a solid plan of attack and soon, he was going to be carved out of his shell faster than he could blink.
But what could he do? No matter how many strikes he made, Mutadroid just regenerated. More tentacles... more blades... It was a never ending cycle.
He could really use Donnie's help right now. He'd be able to think of a plan... use his scientific know-how to turn the odds in his favor....
He toyed with the idea of retreat to go find him, but that was too risky.
Darkness was its element. It was better that he had Mutadroid here in his sights. He would just have to think of something by himself.
The creature raised high over him, curving its long serrated claws almost proudly towards him, a gesture Leo wasn't quite sure he understood until he saw patches of its skin began to move, as though thousands of tiny termites crawled beneath the surface.
The little chainsaw bugs skittered down from its body, twisting around in neat little rows down to the floor. Leo leapt to higher ground, watching as they spilled across the floor, soon spreading throughout the entire lair.
What would Donnie do? Or Sensei?
....He needed a way lure them out of the lair, as far away from their home as possible.
He needed bait.
No sooner had the thought entered his mind when the chainsaw bugs suddenly froze, almost as if they were broken and then suddenly they were retreating to the opposite end of the lair.
Leo was baffled, wondering what had just occurred, but he didn't have time to dwell on it long. Mutadroid opened its giant jaw, letting out another strange mechanical hisssssssss.
Its eyes darted over him, as though memorizing, calculating something. And then they locked hard on him, cold and ready to rip him apart.
Leo's mind did a quick, desperate inventory of his surroundings, trying to conjure a strategy.
Mutadroid took a step closer, the noise of the chainsaws blurring until they all sounded like a million angry rattlesnakes.
What were giant mutated chainsaw monsters attracted to? Wood?
They did have some wooden spoons in the kitchen...
It was just as good an idea as any. Leo turned on his shell, racing into the kitchen and Mutadroid chased after. He grabbed Mikey's container of wooden spoons and pulled them out, thrusting them in the direction of his enemy, his other hand hovering over his sword.
"You want them?" he shook them tauntingly in his hand. "Do you like these spoons?"
Suddenly the strange serrated hand lunged forth, snatching the spoons from Leo's hand. He threw them into his jaws, crushing them into a mess before spitting the splinters nastily back into Leo's face. Leo blocked the mess best he could before Mutadroid struck.
He fell back hard into the wall as another shot was thrown, but this time Leo dodged, spinning to his feet. When it struck a third time, Leo was ready, catching the metal claws tight in his swords pushing back with all his strength.
And then from behind him, the tentacles slithered out with a teasing hiss, doubled in numbers and Leo's eyes widened, trapped in weapon-lock. His strength was already matched. His wound was pulling and his back was against the wall....
Suddenly a long chain wrapped around the tentacle arms to trap them. And there was Mikey, standing on the other side of the counter, pulling the chain tight. "I've gotchya, Bro!" He promised. "BOOYAKASHA!!" He yanked hard and dealt the fiercest kick he could muster, sending Mutadroid crashing hard into their cabinets.
Leo caught his breath, holding his pained arm and he winced. "Nice timing!"
Mikey looked at the near shredded wood on floor and then returned the compliment with the most hateful glare Leo had ever seen him give.
"...What?"
"You fed it MY SPOONS?!?! Why would you do that?!"
"I was trying to distract it..."
"With my SPOONS?!?! Those were my GOOD SPOONS, LEO!"
Then Metaldroid rose up from the floor, its eyes set on Michelangelo.
Without looking or thinking, Mikey executed a combo with his chucks, triple hitting it in the face so it crashed to the floor. "I'm not finished," he growled.
Leo's eyes widened and Mikey knelt down, gingerly picking up what was left of one of his spoons, cradling it in his arms. His bright heartbroken blue eyes blazed back to his and he raised the damage to Leo's face.
"His name was Jeffrey. Do you know what he did, Leo? He made CAKE!"
Mutadroid rose up from the floor again, and Mikey shot his arm back, smashing him back into the floor and he continued laying into his brother. "How are we going to make cake now?! HUH?!" He hugged the splintered ex-spoon to his chest like a child. "He was so young..."
Enraged for being ignored, Mutadroid towered over them menacingly, seeming somehow even bigger than before. Its strange red-pink eyes opened wide and it roared, tentacles buzzing like angry hornets above them.
Their eyes widened. "Um," Mikey swallowed, cowering back nervously into Leo as it came close.
"DO NOT HARM MY SONS!" A strong, familiar voice boomed through the entire room, drawing its attention away as Master Splinter glared at the strange mechanical beast from across the room.
"SENSEI!" Leo and Mikey cheered in relief.
But it did not seem to heed his warning, turning back to Leo and Mikey, its jaw open as though to devour them and the rat leapt over, kicking him with a force that nearly broke their refrigerator.
"Mourn your spoons AFTER you have defeated your enemy!" he growled in frustration. Then he looked about him, searching for his other two sons. "Where are your brothers?"
"No clue," Mikey answered, "but I think we have our own problems..." He pointed behind his father's back.
From Mutadroid's body, a thousand of the bugs scurried their way off of his body and now took to spreading over the entire room. The mutant lifted its head up from the floor, towering over the three, its tentacles buzzed menacingly around its head, angry and ready to strike.
Master Splinter looked at his two injured sons, who stood ready to fight, Leonardo with one sword and an injured arms and he motioned them to wait. He leaped up to attack himself, nimbly dodging each one of the blades with an awesome speed. Then he rolled through the grabbing limbs and struck the creature hard with his cane, sending kick after kick, swift and true. The tentacles followed him and he began to run from one tentacle to another, as though they were stairs and kicked high off the ground and into the wall. He kept moving, confusing the tentacles and as they gave chase, and they began to tangle in themselves until Metaldroid was a mess of tied up limbs.
Master Splinter looked back. "Let us finish this!" he announced. "For our home!"
The two boys gladly obliged, joining their father for a last finishing kick.
Mutadroid seemed hardly a threat now, rolling on the floor in a helpless heap to floor, making a strange assortment of popping and clicking sounds that Leo instantly recognized as being sounds of the Kraang.
Then to Mikey's horror, the creature grew began to rearrange itself on the floor, growing four strange metal legs and darting in circles across the floor.
"Hey get back here!" Mikey called and the three hurried to catch up to it.
--
--
Faster. They had to go faster. The bugs were filling the hall. Every second there were more and they much quicker than Raph or Donnie had anticipated. They had to keep running. No matter how much their muscles screamed or their lungs ached there was no faltering, no time to gasp for air.
There were chainsaws whirring and skittering right on their heels. One step behind meant a cut open foot. They seemed impossible to outrun but they refused to give up. The main drain wasn't too far away now.
"There!" Donnie pointed to one of the tunnels and they turned left, the bugs still following suit. "Keep running!"
Raph tried to focus his mind as Leo often told him to do when he felt a creeping sensation up his leg and saw three of them were climbing up his shell like ants and he let out an uncharacteristic yelp of terror. Donnie fell slightly back, carefully trying to beating them back with his staff, accidently hitting Raph in the process.
"OW!"
"Sorry!" He focused again on running, as a creeping feeling made its way up his shoulder.
He stared right in the face of a round blade, perched on his collar with a threatening whir. Donnie let out a blood curdling shriek. Raph snapped over to his brother's shoulder and he reacted, throwing a punch, right into the blade.
"AAAUGH!" It split right between his knuckles and he yanked his hand back, biting the pain back, as he clenched his fist against his chest.
"Are you alright?!"
"'M FINE!" he lied just a little too loud, trying to keep his ground and hide just how utterly painful that had been.
They ran harder, faster, finally gaining some ground against their enemies. But they had to find it soon. As fit as they were as ninjas, they couldn't keep up running like this much longer.
"This way. We're almost there," Donnie tugged him westward down the tunnel and true to his word there stood the main drain in all its glory.
It smelled of stale water, metal and mold. The old wheel guarded the center drain lock, fixed high at the top of a short staircase. Droplets spattered on the water-worn floors, the pale light streaming overhead them from a modest sidewalk drain on the above city curb.
They only had time to pause a moment before that eerie screaming caught up to them again.
"We have to hurry!" Donnie said and he ran quickly to the giant wheel as the bugs began to pour contagiously into the room. Raph turned to face them head-on at the door, trying to beat a few off to buy a little time while Donnie opened the hatch.
The giant wheel felt cold and unkind, stubborn with mildew and rust. He pushed with all strength in his body to turn it left but it wouldn't budge, not even an inch.
"I can't open it!" he called.
"Try harder!"
"HnnnnnNNGH!" His voice strained as hard he did, pushing it with all of his weight but it just no use. "Raph I can't do it! It's stuck!"
Raph gritted his teeth, letting out a battle cry as he succeeded in skewering several of the bugs at once violently with his sai. Then he throwing one of the smoke-bombs from his belt, hauling shell up the staircase.
But the smoke-bomb only worked on so many and as Raph mounted the stairs, they caught up to him. His next step came down right on one of the chainsaws blade, sawing right into the center of his foot.
Raph yelled in pain but he didn't stop, staggering up to the vault, his blood-soaked footprints following behind. He grabbed hold of the wheel and cranked it, both he and Donnie together with all the strength they could muster.
"Come....... On....... We can.... DO THIS!"
And with a great reluctant groan, it turned a millimeter to the left.
--
--
A metal limb aimed right for Leo's throat and he ducked, rolling skillfully to his feet, back-flipping to avoid three bladed strikes to his shell, then he turned, facing them with his blades.
"WAKA-TAKA-WATOOTWAHHH!" Mikey's ridiculous battle-cry confused it as he leapt to one of the ceiling beams and he threw his kusarigama chain around its tentacle arms, tugging them tight.
The metal monster glared and yanked the chain back hard, dragging Michelangelo with him, falling screaming towards the mess of blades below.
Master Splinter dove in for the sake of his son, grabbing hold of him and rolling him safely out of harm's way, but it came at a price. He immediately winced, grasping his shoulder, realizing he had been cut in his left shoulder. But Sensei was strong. There was no time to dwell on the pain and when another blade came spinning fast for their heads he grabbed hold of the arms, fluidly striking and throwing them to the floor.
TINK... TINK... TINK! Leo's katana raised above his head as it struck. He was now completely on defense, waiting for his chance to strike. Those unkind spinning edges locked against his, the metal grating and whining against his. Leo gritted his teeth and pushed back, slicing every one of those tentacles to the floor.
And Metaldroid regenerated again.
"How are we supposed to take it down? A-AAAAAGH!" Suddenly one of the metal claws wrapped around his skull and throat, throwing him harshly into the wall. Leo kicked and sputtered, desperately reaching for his father. "S-SENSEI!"
Mikey's eyes widened. "LEO!" He moved to help him but he couldn't even take a step. He was completely surrounded, back to back with his father, a thousand blades whirring in their ears. Mikey looked for any kind of opening, but there was none and that fear settled in his shell.
"What do we do now?!"
The whirring picked up speed, edging dangerously close to his skin.
Mikey's voice curdled in his throat so tight he couldn't breathe.
This was the end...
ShhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The sound rushed through the halls, echoing and bouncing off of everything, growing louder and louder, until it made the whole place rumble.
Mutadroid even paused, its strange eyes scanning for the source of the sound.
And from in its sharp clutches, Leonardo could feel the ground begin to shake, then the walls... a breath of cool air passed through their skin.
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Eyes panned over in wait and from around the corner a wall of water came tumbling through the subway station, crashing through brick and steel, rushing right towards them. They barely had time to blink before the force seized the room, hurling them all into the unforgiving waves.
Master Splinter quickly held fast to one of the ceiling beams as they passed by, trying to pull himself out of the way of the raging current.
Leonardo was pulled under, thrown around like a ragdoll until he found a passing ceiling pipe to grab onto, but he could barely hang on. He fought against the waves, his lungs burning in his shell for air. Finally he found the surface, hungrily gulped the sweet air back into his lungs.
"HELLLP!!!" Mikey's scream shot out above the noise. "HELP! LEO!" He reached out desperately for his brother, thrashing to keep himself above the undertow but Mutadroid's arms had squeezed tight around his brother's throat, grabbing his arms before yanking him back under water.
"MIKEY!"
Master Splinter's eyes set. Without hesitation he jumped back into the water after his son.
"SENSEI!" Leo winced in pain and stared into the giant whirlpool, realizing the current was probably carrying them away. Leonardo got up and immediately raced alongside the water from the structure beams, trying to keep track of where they were.
Sensei could save Mikey. He knew he could, but he should be right on standby in case they needed his help. He had to be ready.
The water pooled off into a waterfall and he leaped alongside, sliding down the sewer pipes above, but he couldn't find them.
It had been too long since they had come up for air.
He was starting to fear the worst.