He made his way through the sewers, checking every dark shadow along the way and flinching at every noise. He rubbed his bare arms, feeling the cold chill like never before. Just before he had entered a manhole, he had thrown away his sweater, wondering if Brief had placed a tracker on it, and decided that the risk was too great to trust.
Because that escape was way too short, he thought.
And now he was almost at the lair. The thought put a slight bounce in his step and he soon made it inside.
The first thing that got to him was the silence. Before, it would get quiet, but that was like time had frozen everything but Mikey. He gulped as he walked along the rooms, seeing nobody.
"Leo?" he decided to call out. "Raphie? Donatello!"
Someone groaned in the living room and Mikey rushed to the sound. "Leon!" he shouted happily, throwing himself against his brother.
His brother moaned again and rasped, "Hey, Mikey. I'm glad you are okay."
Michelangelo pulled away. "What happened to you? And where are the other two?"
"In the lab," his brother responded. He shifted, looking away. "I am sorry, Mikey."
"For what?"
"For not believing you. You were right. That man is going to use you, and is going to hurt us to make sure he has your attention." Leo sighed, looking at his brother. "How did you realize we were fighting him? Obviously you are not scratched."
"Blame Raph," he said ruefully. "I got to the alley, but when you guys did not come, I went back. By the time I found you guys, you and Dee were out and only Raph was okay. Long story short, he told me to leave, I would not, he created a portal with your sword, and I ended up in Brief's office. He found me and I escaped."
"What?" Leo's eyes were wide. "Did he touch you?"
"No."
He relaxed again. "Then he would not have been able to put a tracker on you."
"No, but I did find my orange sweater. The one I lost a month ago."
"You are always losing your things, Mikey, that I cannot keep track of them all. Where did you find it?"
"In Brief's office. But I threw it away before I got here, just in case he did something to it. I think he recently found it, though."
"Who is Brief?" Leo asked, laying down on the couch again.
"That man. That's what he told me to call him." Mikey sighed and grabbed Leon's hand. "Bro, I don't want you guys to get hurt. And this man is dangerous. What should I do?"
Leo smiled slightly. "Nothing. Just stay away from him and never listen to him."
"But you guys are getting hurt!" he protested. "Because of me."
"Mikey, we want you out of this. We will try to find a way to defeat him. Today . . . we were not ready for him. But next time, we will be."
"Yeah, even with our special weapons we were no match for him," he mumbled. "He looks like a human, but is a hundred times stronger than one. And does he even use any weapons? Actually, those bladed ones," he said, remembering last night.
"I do not know, but they seem to give him super strength, like Raph's Tonfas," Leon said thoughtfully. "Maybe, if we can get a hold of his weapons, we can defeat him?"
"That is worth a try," Donnie said, limping out of the lab, catching their attention. "At this rate, I am willing to try anything."
"But how are we going to reach them?" Raphie asked, following his slightly younger brother. A lot of red slashes decorated his body, but he seemed not to notice them.
Watching all of them, Mikey took a breath. "Me."
"What?" Leo asked, freezing. "Wait, what did you say?"
"I said, me. He wants me. Maybe--"
"No!" Leo, Raph, and Donnie said at the same time, making Mikey shrink.
"Out of the question," Leon continued. "As leader of the Mad Dogs, I deny."
"Mikey, we love you too much to do something like that," Dee said, walking over. "We would never give you up just to achieve a goal."
Michelangelo stood up. "But you would not be giving me up! You would be using me until he was close enough to nab his weapons. I consent," he added, pleading with his brothers. "What other way is there? Besides, if you guys loved me too much to give me.uo, why did you leave me alone the night of the robbery with the crates?"
The brothers shifted. "That is not important," Donnie said. But we are not doing it THAT way. We will find something out soon enough. Just hang tight and let us do the work."
Everybody became silent. The stillness unsettled Mikey who started to shift around. He opened his mouth to say something, when Leo beat him to it.
"Raph?"
"Yes?" his oldest brother asked.
"You are never touching my swords again." He sat up and stretched his arms.
"But--why?"
"Because you sent Mikey right into the guy's hands," he answered, touching his weapons lightly. "Mikey was able to get out somehow, no thanks to you."
Raph sat back with a guilty face. "Oh, sorry. I didn't . . ."
Mikey got up and walked to him. Spreading his arms, he leaned into his brother. "No worries, big bro," he said into his chest. "Here I am, just fine. Besides, I learned more of what Brief wants me for, and what he will do."
"You did?" Donnie asked, leaning in. "What did he say?"
"Well, I read it from a file, actually," he said, turning to him.
"Yes, yes, that is beside the point." He waved a hand in the air, like he was batting away Mikey's last words.
Everyone's gaze turned to him, and he backed away from Raph, looking at the floor. Taking a deep breath, he said, "There is an army up in space. It's a fleet of thousands. They are skilled warriors, and know how to fight well, but they have to be warriors in order to survive up there. They go from planet to planet, taking worlds. But the ships that they fly on are old, and they themselves do not know how to fix them, or to make another one for that matter. And so for years they have been searching for a planet with intelligence." He looked at everyone with wide eyes. "And they found Earth."
As his brothers looked at each other, he continued. "Brief is the chief of those warriors. But unlike any of them, he has the ability to create a certain type of portal that only a few can go through easily. Others die. And I am one of those few that can make it through," he told them. "He does not have anybody under his leadership that can go through the portals he makes, so he had to look elsewhere."
He paused. "Brief had to look for years. He had been on this earth also for years, but he never knew about us until almost a week ago." Glancing at Donnie, he said, "And he figured us out from the time I tested Dee's new invention. You guys are all fine because you are made mostly the same, but because I was made differently, I clashed with it. The second time I went on, Brief was able to hack into the machine and show me what he wanted me to see: me working for him to help save you all."
Raph growled, Leon's fists tightened, and Donnie glared at the floor. "I should never have made it," Dee mumbled. "I am sorry."
Leo sighed. "Well, he might have noticed us sooner or later anyway, based on how Mikey is."
The turtle in orange watched his two older brothers exchange smiles in surprise, but he grinned.
"So how do we fend him off?" Raphael asked, breaking the connection between the two lanky turtles. Leo shrugged as an answer.
"So, if he is a mighty warrior, then it is not going to be his weapons that give him power," Donnie said. "We will need to use his strength against him."
"And his army?" Mikey asked. "What about all those guys floating over there?"
"One thing at a time, bro," Leo said. "First, the immediate proble--aaa!" His sentence was cut off by him screaming out and clutching his chest. "Donnie!"
Donatello was there in an instant. "Heartbeat fast," he muttered. "Sweat, his skin is burning!" he exclaimed after touching him. "Raph, carry him to the lab please."
Mikey watched helplessly, feeling a sinking feeling in his chest as the oldest carried his brother in blue through the door of the lab, with Donnie inspecting Leo the entire time.
"Ahhh!"
Mikey shut his eyes as another one of his brothers cried out. "No, no, no!" he phanted, quivering. "Please no! I can't!"
He raced to the lab and groaned at the sight he saw. "Raph! What is happening!" he asked the only brother still standing up. Leo lay on the bed already, moaning repeatedly and moving around, and Donnie was no better, half on the floor, and half supported by Raph.
His brother grimaced at him. "He must have done more than we thought," he said, placing Donnie on the bed too, then he turned. "Mikey, please, don't go to Brief, or whatever his name was. Not for us, not for yourself, do you hear me?"
Mikey blinked and took a step back. "But, you guys are hurt--"
"NEVER, Mikey, never!" He flinched at the volume and Raph sighed. "I just need you to understand. Please, Mikey. We will make it through this somehow."
Michelangelo looked back at his brothers on the bed. "I'm not weak. I can do this, whatever I need to do."
"No arguing! That man is dangerous. All three of us are stronger than you and look at us. Somehow, you are not touched yet, but he could do the same to you as he did to us just as easily. Please, promise me that you will not go to him."
Raph's eyes were wide and pleading as he looked at the youngest. Suddenly, he groaned, holding his chest, but he held himself up and continued to look at Mikey.
Mikey's strength deserted him as he looked at his brothers, all of whom were fighting back pain of some sort and he slowly nodded. Finally receiving the confirmation he wanted, Raph let himself sink to the floor. Mikey watched him, once again feeling useless and he had to shut his eyes tightly to stop the tears.
Walking out of the room, he said to the air, "I'll help you guys somehow. I will. Just count on it."
-----
Well, again I made three chapters in one day! I am so on a roll! Once again, please leave a like, comment as much as you want, and I really would appreciate help on finding a book name for Raph! I hope you all are more healthy than Mikey's poor brothers right now!
And does anybody else write this fast too? I guess I was super into it, but I started writing Stronger on the 15th of July. Literally five days ago, and I have ten chapters. Woo! Two chapters a day! Although today is the second time that I wrote three chapters in one. And, yeah, they are pretty short, but if I were to make it longer, there would be a lot more unnecessary chapters in it. Even though these are short, I feel like they say everything needed. Right? Well anyway, I hope to have around fifteen chapters, but the way it is going, I might have a little more than that. Not sure I will reach twenty chapters, but we will see. :)
But, um, hey again. I changed the story description a little because I felt like it was a little off. Nothing huge changed, but if you want to see what the true story is about, I fixed it. Sorry it was messed up in the first place, but the first time I wrote it, it sounded horrible, and i tried to make it better, but overshot it. So anyway, description changed. Over and out!