Never The Same Again Chapter Five
Dec. 9th, 2009 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blkdragonqueenNever The Same Again
Book 1- Perfectly Tarnished
Chapter One: http://blkdragonqueen.livejournal.com/13858.html#cutid1
Chapter Two: http://blkdragonqueen.livejournal.com/15050.html#cutid1
Chapter Three: http://blkdragonqueen.livejournal.com/18583.html#cutid1
Chapter Four: http://blkdragonqueen.livejournal.com/70725.html#cutid1
Chapter Five: Fears of the Unknown
There are many levels of sleep. Currently Hamato Donatello wasn’t experiencing any of them. He was full blown awake. Not just in a state of complete awareness but almost the same as if he had just drank his own special blend of super twice-super-strong-coffee, and the whole pot at that!
The blanket was a bit lumpy under his belly and Don had tried to fluff it multiple times but he didn’t want to admit that the blanket just wasn’t the problem. Groaning, he buried his head in his pillow even as his legs came up behind him and he kicked them slightly because he just couldn’t stay still. He could never stay still when there were questions that still went unanswered.
His mind was still whirling in circles with everything that had happened. From the moment he had opened his eyes to the destroyed lair to running into an older version of his one and only baby brother the questions had just multiplied rapidly without an end. Don knew that until those questions were finally answered he was in for many, many more sleepless nights. The problem was, was that there was no one to give him any answers.
He had wondered in the beginning if everything had been a rather bizarre dream and if he wasn’t really asleep on his desk in his room instead of the comfortable bed he owned. However one rarely sleeps in a dream and Don had completely passed out before. And everything was just too real, way too real for it to be anything but reality. He had pinched himself multiple times and had even reached out and scrapped his finger against one of the broken pieces of metal when they were leaving the former base and the blood that had welled up was far too warm.
‘Then again, the mind is a mysterious place,’ Don thought with a frown. ‘And can make anything seem real.’ However even as he thought this he brought his thumb down the scratch and the irritation didn’t feel like a dream.
‘So let’s look at this logically,’ he told himself as he tried to get what chaotic thoughts he had in order. ‘I wake up in a completely ruined lair. A lair that had been destroyed years ago.’ The image of the ruins that was his once home popped up to the forefront of his mind but Don didn’t feel such a pain of lost that anyone would have expected of him. The lair was gone that was true however they had lost their home once before and it was their childhood home at that. It was always that first lair that popped into Don’s head whenever he thought of home.
The tiny, cramped quarters deep in the sewers. The absolute no privacy that any of them had, the lone closed up room belonging to Splinter himself. It was the one space none of them ever invaded. The rest of the lair however was communal space and it was almost comical how they all lived in such a small space with one another, he and his brothers always tripping over one another. Those were always the best times in Don’s life. When he couldn’t move without finding one of his siblings almost right next to him.
‘Though I can’t argue with the fact that none of them have blown up any of my experiments “accidentally” since receiving my own room,’ he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. ‘Okay, fact two,’ he got himself back on track. ‘I have absolutely no memory of what happened to the lair or how it got that way nor do I have any memory of Shredder’s rise to power. And then there’s the most baffling part of all…’ Don sighed as he looked down at his hands. ‘I’m sixteen. Mike is what? Forty-seven?’ He looked down at his hands again. ‘Forty-seven… God.’
It was so strange to think of his only younger brother now so much older than him. However that brought Don to his finally fact: that he himself was only still sixteen. Sixteen with no memory of what had happened to the lair, his family, and the world in general nor any clue as to what had happened to he himself. These were the same damn questions that he had asked himself when he had first awoken in the lair and later when he had been reunited with Mikey. It was very frustrating for the turtle that was known to have all the answers. Unfortunately it seemed as if no answers would be forthcoming.
With a sigh, Don lifted his head and placed his chin on his folded arms, staring at the walls of the tent blankly. He stared unseeing for a long time before he finally determined that there was no reason to stay in Mikey’s, or rather Mike’s, tent while his brother was on watch. Clambering to his feet he reached the zipper and pulled it down quietly, glancing about. Many of the humans had climbed into their own tents or sleeping bags but there were still a few wandering around, speaking quietly however Don didn’t recognize any of them. Not that it really made such a difference with everything so changed.
Wondering where Mike had gone, Don got his Bo and stuck it in the back of his belt before he clambered out. Looking about the warehouse, he considered the different advantage points a good lookout would have used when he spotted the light in the dilapidated office. Frowning, he headed closer when he saw the shadows of multiple people within the room, one in particular that did not match the others in any way. “Mikey,” he couldn’t help but murmur aloud before he sighed and rolled his eyes.
‘Stop speaking to yourself,’ he chastised himself as he headed towards the other side of the warehouse. It didn’t take much to peek Donatello’s curiosity but he knew, was absolutely certain that they were speaking about him. Perhaps they did know about him, about why he was still so young when everything around him was so old. The urge to know almost overwhelmed him.
Glancing about, he moved to the edge of the room and quickly slipped into the shadows. It wasn’t so much his ninja skills taking over that made him want to get under the cover of darkness as was the need to hide himself in general. There were still way to many unanswered questions in Don’s mind and the looks that most of the people were giving him still made him very uneasy.
The door was closed but the place was so old that there was a small crack in the glass of one of the windows and Don could just make out the voices speaking. Amazingly there were still blinds in place and Don considered that very lucky. Ensuring that he was ducked far enough down that no one would see him should they peek out he moved his Bo down to his side and he did what he did best. He listened.
“-Unsure of his origins or even if he truly is the real Donatello. We must never underestimate the Shredder’s cunning.”
‘That’s Hun’s voice,’ Donatello realized. ‘What is he talking about? But what dose he mean about the Shredder?’
“What? That you think he’s a clone?”
Don’s heart practically froze in his chest at Angel’s words. Was it possible? Was he in fact, just a copy of Donatello? ‘No,’ Don thought frantically. ‘It’ can’t be! There has to be another explanation.’ However even as he thought those words the doubt began to creep into his mind.
A clone would make complete sense to any and everyone. If he was a clone then he was made with the only DNA that they had of Don’s. His sixteen-year-old DNA right before he disappeared. There would have been no way for Shredder to make a clone older than the age of Don from whenever he had left the DNA.
‘But is it true?’ he thought frantically as the different clues flew through his mind as he tried to find some doubt to the theory. However the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. ‘Cloning is… or rather was still very new but with the Utrom technology is it even possible? Could… could I be a … clone?’ The thought was almost too much but the more Don thought, the more he wished he could stop thinking. ‘A clone?’
It was April who was speaking that brought Don out of his troubling thoughts. “I’m sorry to say he’s right. We have to be prepared that he’s not really Donatello.”
“Then what is he? He’s no robot, that’s for damn sure,” Michelangelo bit back, frustration clear in his voice and Don could only shrink in on himself in guilt, his thumb going over his scratch once more. Robots certainly didn’t bleed, at least as far as Don knew. However the doubt had already been planted in his heart and now his mind had gone spiraling out of control. ‘If it really has been thirty years then who knows what the Shredder had been able to create?’ he wondered when Mike’s voice spoke again. “If he’s a clone of my brother he’s still my brother.”
The tightness in Don’s chest loosed somewhat at those words. Mike still believed in him, even after Don had, according to Mike and everyone else, left his family and disappeared for well over three decades. That Mike still believed in him gave him some comfort, even if Mike thought that he was indeed a clone, he still believed in the true Donatello enough to know that it couldn’t be possible for Don to betray them and he was right. Don would never, in a million years, betray his family and friends.
‘But what if I can’t stop myself?’ the thought came unbridled to his mind. ‘If I’m a clone made by the Shredder himself, who’s to say that I can’t be controlled?’ The thought made Don’s stomach turn even as Stockman started speaking.
“The Shredder may be able to take control of him remotely to kill the inner workings of those who would oppose him. Meaning us.”
Don’s heart practically stopped. ‘No,’ he thought horrified. ‘I could never hurt any of them. I could never harm Mikey.’
“Well duh,” Angel drawled making Don almost want to throw up.
“I’m just saying,” the once scientist said dismissively.
“It is a possibility,” a voice Don did not recognized agreed.
“Don’t you think I haven’t thought of that?” Mike’s voice held a sudden edge to it. A bite that Don had only ever heard in Raph’s voice before or on occasions Leo’s when Raph had pushed him too far. To now hear Mike using it was startling, something that shouldn’t have been there ever. “I know that he might be a plant! I know that he may not be the actual original Donatello.”
Don’s eyes widened and a hand came up to his mouth trembling. Mikey was always about instincts when Don was about facts. Mikey was all about the guts and Don was all about the brain. If Mikey thought he may be a clone then it probably was more likely than not. Mikey was always good and seeing the underlining truth where Don always needed proof.
“Oh Mikey,” April said sadly.
“I have already gone over most the scenarios and I think that even if he is a plant-” There was a long pause before Mike continued on. “If he is a clone made by the Shredder then it would only make sense that he’s waiting for the right moment to use him. We have time.”
Don actually nodded his head before he even thought about it, agreeing with Mike’s logic. If it was the truth, if he was a clone then there were still far too many questions about why he was left free to roam around, especially with absolutely no memory of any current events. There was something more going on. The Shredder was calm and collected when it came to his plans and very, very methodical. He would have thought it through from start to finish though from the sound of it, it didn’t seem as if Stockman agreed. With a shake of his head, Don shifted a bit as his one foot started tingling with the onset of numbness from his odd hunched position.
“I doubt it,” Mike answered Stockman, echoing Don’s thoughts unknowingly.
“You would know. You’ve been fighting him nearly all of your life,” the voice Donatello didn’t know spoke again.
There was a very long pause and Don inched closer to the window. Someone released a large sigh. “Why do you think I had him in the far corner?” Michelangelo spoke gruffly and Don’s couldn’t stop his jaw from dropping in shock.
‘What in the world is he speaking of?’ Don thought frantically as he waited to hear what Mike would say next. ‘What is he-?’
“I’m not stupid,” Mike continued angry and frustration his voice once again. “I know that he could possibly be a threat!”
Don’s eyes slammed shut and the constriction in his chest returned. He couldn’t blame them though for their doubts about him. He even had doubts about himself.
“And if he is then believe me,” Mike’s voice was firm and resolved as he spoke. “I will be the first one to take him out before anything happened that could hurt you.”
‘Not if I take myself out first,’ Don thought with a determined nod. Glancing about Don slowly backed up and away from the office. He had to leave. That much was clear. He could not, would not put his family in danger.
It didn’t take him long to find a small side door and to slip out of the building. There were a few young men outside, very well hidden behind old boxes and other cover but they were watching for anyone trying to get into the warehouse, not leaving it. It was an easy thing to move in the shadows and slip away to the next building, then using that one as cover, slip to yet another, getting further and further away from where the rebels were hiding.
‘It’s the best thing,’ Don told himself as quickly left the warehouse district and moved further into the city. ‘There are too many unanswered questions. Too many possibilities.’
Slipping into the shadows, he moved quickly and quietly. He had to get away and truly think things through. He had to find out himself if he was a clone and worse, if he was made with the specific purpose of finding Mikey and the others. If he was a creation then there could only be few reasons behind why he was made, especially by Shredder. However why would the Shredder go to such lengths to clone him and then just let him go? What could he hope to gain from such a feat?
The answer was simple. Either as bait to lure his brothers and the heart of the rebellion out into the open or at least make them slip up somehow or as a trail for the Shredder to follow. After watching April and Angel work however and the way Mike acted as they were leaving the other base Don knew that there was no way that they would slip up. They were too use to what they were doing, too careful about everything because even the smallest mistake would have meant their lives. So the only logical answer had to be the second one. Shredder was hoping to follow him, knowing that Don’s brothers would instantly take him in and bring him to the very heart of the resistance operations.
‘But how would they know where I am unless I had some sort of subliminal messaging in my mind to call them or… something.’ Even to himself it sounded weak. He knew what he himself would have done however to track someone who was very good at disappearing.
“If I’m synthetic, then it could be that there’s something in me, something in my DNA that’s easy for them to follow,” he murmured to himself. “But what?”
Don slowed his steps slightly, looking about and trying to get his bearings. The city was so changed from his memorized maps. The addition of factories and the destruction of multiple buildings, everything looked so foreigner. Don couldn’t even believe that he was in New York.
Shaking his head, he looked about and headed into the shadow of what was once an old pizzeria. He couldn’t help but smile at that as he sat down on the steps in the back and thought. ‘So either there’s something in my blood, some sort of… scent or something that Shredder can track or there’s a much easier answer. I may be bugged.’ Don groaned as he leaned back against the doorframe. ‘Great. Now how do I find out?’
The answer was simple however. He needed to examine himself. He had to look at not only his DNA under a microscope but also find some sort of way to x-ray himself and look for any mechanical device hidden within him. Looking for surgical scars would be useless considering the clone theory. A device could have been implanted in him at any time during the process.
An almost hysterical chuckle came up Don’s thought at the absurdness of it all. Here he was trying to think when the best time to insert a tracking device during the development of a clone was and here he was the possible clone himself. It was almost bizarre. He certainly didn’t feel like a clone but then again, how was he to know what a clone felt?
“Focus Donnie,” he chastised himself. “And stop talking to yourself.”
With a sigh, he stood back up and stretched the kinks out of his back. He had to think things through. He needed answers. The only way was to figure out what he truly was. So he needed equipment but where to get it? He had to find a safe place to conduct his experiments as well but according to Mikey, Shredder had eyes and ears all over the city. It had to be a place no one would even think about.
It was like a light bulb went on over his head as he realized the best place was the last place they would ever think to look, the lair that was already destroyed. Shredder knew that it was in shambles and that had been where Don had been “dumped”, so to speak, so it wasn’t as if the Shredder would expect him to still be there, especially with it in ruins. And according to Mikey, no one ever went there anymore, not him or Raph or Leo so there was no chance that he would run into his two eldest brothers either. The best part of the idea was from what he had seen during his investigation, all of Don’s equipment was still there. It was perfect.
‘Now how in the world do I get back?’ Don wondered curiously as he looked around the unfamiliar landscape. Glancing around, Don began heading down the alleyway, looking at each building as he past until he found one boasting what he was looking form. Quickly scuttling towards the fire escape, he looked around once again before he reached for the first rusted out rung of the ladder.
Ensuring his weight was equally balanced he began to climb up towards the roof. Things always looked better from high up and he could probably get his barring better if he could actually look at the lay out of the streets and compare them to the multiple highway maps he had memorized. ‘And Raph teased me for keeping all those different maps,’ Don chuckled to himself as he flipped himself over the edge and onto the roof. With a sigh, he turned to see where he was.
A gasp escaped him as he finally got his first good look of the city. Half of it lay in ruins. Just completely destroyed. There were buildings missing complete sides to them never mind the forest of gurneys and old framework to the right of him. It looked like some bizarre apocalyptic city from all those end of the world movies that they use to watch on movie night.
He was a good six or seven miles from the center of the city but the scorch marks were clearly visible on the remains of some buildings. The left side of the city that was once the residential area now boasted all those factories Don had spotted when he had first come up from the lair. Now that the sun was rising, the huge plumes of smoke were clearly visible even as they blotted out most of the suns rays.
‘Is this really New York?’ Don thought horrified as he looked around. ‘Can this really be my once home?’
The shock was setting in but Don fought it back down. He didn’t have time to stand there gawking, he had to get to the nearest sewer grate and get back to the lair, or at least the garage where the turtle’s vehicles were housed. With a shake of his head, Don turned away from the altered skyline that was now before him and turned instead to look at the streets. It seemed as most of streets were just as Mikey had said left in ruins with rubble blocking most of them.
However there were still enough landmarks for Don to get his bearings. It was going to take a long time to get back to the lair considering he was all the way on the other side of the city. Though he had to admit that Mikey and April knew what they were doing when they chose a hiding place. They were far enough away from the factories but not far enough that they would be easily tracked.
With a sigh, he started moving, jumping from roof to roof. He had to get closer topside while he could before the sun rose too high in the sky. Just because the Shredder made him didn’t mean that he wasn’t in danger. If anything of Shredder’s, or even any one, had lost their purpose then Shredder wouldn’t hesitate to have them eliminated. And if he really was sent to Mikey and the resistance as a plant then the moment he left their base of operations he had lost his usefulness.
He didn’t want to die however. Even as a clone, the need to live was still very strong with in him. The only reason he would take himself out was if he truly was putting his, or rather Donatello’s, family in danger. But they didn’t know where he was and if the Shredder had placed some sort of tracking device within him then the Utrom would find him soon enough.
Don hoped however that he would be able to figure out what it was that could possibly be leading Shredder to his location before that happened. Then perhaps once he figured it out and managed to neutralized it somehow then perhaps he can go back to April and her resistance and help out the same way that Mikey did. He apparently had thirty years to make up for, even though he wasn’t the true Donatello. He carried Don’s blood, at least he thought he was, and they were still his family.
Gasping, Don hit the floor of the roof as he heard a very familiar sound coming up behind him. Scuttling towards an old shed, Don quickly hid himself as the sound of the helicopters whirling blades got closer. The helicopter had a searchlight turned on and was scanning each and every roof that it flew over.
Cursing under his breath, Don quickly moved around and slipped into the shed before the helicopter finished with the building next to him. Now that he was paying attention Don could hear multiple helicopters and realized that the further into the city he went the louder and closer those helicopters sounded. Clearly they were looking for someone but the question was whom were they searching for? Him or his brothers?
‘If I was marked somehow then what the heck am I doing hiding in a shed?’ Don thought with a shake of his head. ‘But if I’m easy to track then why are they searching different roof tops?’
The noise of the helicopter suddenly right above his head and Don’s breath caught in his throat as he waited. Thought the broken slats of the shed Don could see the search light sweeping across the roof and he pressed himself even further back into the corner of the shed, grateful that the roof was still mostly intact. The helicopter hovered for a long moment, the light moving back and forth as they checked every inch of the roof.
The breath left him in a whoosh when the helicopter suddenly moved on and went to the next roof in line. Sighing in relief, Don leaned back against the rotted wall, gently so as not to go tumbling through it and waited until the helicopter moved further down the line. He sat there for at least ten minutes before he finally clambered back to his feet and dared to peek out at the world beyond.
In those ten minutes however the sun had gotten higher and what sunlight that could make it through the thick smoke and smog had lit up the city in some dark gray haze. “Damn,” he muttered under his breath, the swear word just slipping out of him. “Have to get underground…”
Moving as quickly as he could and trying his best to stick to what shadows there were, Don made his way to the edge of the building and calculated the best way to get down. Glancing around once again his eyes widened as he realized that the sky was almost full of helicopters now. He could count at least twenty of the hovering over the different buildings.
He didn’t even stop to think as he jumped up on the ledge of the roof and jumped. Angling his fall easily enough, he managed to get his feet under him and he propelled off the edge of the building next door and he sprung from side to side before finally landing down on the ground. He quickly fell to his knees and slipped over to the cover the large building next to him, keeping his eyes on the helicopters overhead.
It took a moment when he realized that his foot had started throbbing and with a small hiss he looked down and realized that his foot was bleeding profusely. Glancing back at the center of the ally he frowned as he could just barely make out the reflecting shards of glass on the ground. Sighing, he picked out the few pieces of glass out of his skin and gently placed his foot back on the ground. Wincing he lifted his foot so he was balancing on the ball of his feet and quickly moved to the next alleyway practically on his toes.
Don realized just how much the city had changed as he realized there weren’t even garbage cans anywhere that he could rummage through for an impromptu bandage. If Shredder was pumping the waste of those factories through the sewer system then the chemical contamination would be absolutely horrid. It might be better to remain street level and head back to the building with the Tunneler and take the elevator back down but not if there was a search party practically over his head.
“And dogs,” Don gasped as he could hear the sound of barking and growling somewhere behind him.
Quickly moving towards the edge of the building, he glanced around the corner and stared as he could make out a large group of humans clambering out of multiple vans, dogs barking at their sides excitedly. They were gathering together and going over some sort of maps. Don groaned as he watched them. Clearly they were there for a reason and Don had a sinking feeling that they were there looking for him.
‘I have to have some sort of tracker in me,’ he thought despondently as he watched the humans speaking to one another. ‘How else were they able to find me so quickly?’
Groaning, he slipped back further into the ally and moved towards the back of the building. Ensuring that he was absolutely silent he quickly moved towards the chain link fence that lined the back of the alleyway. Luckily there were sizable gaps in the fence that Don could easily slip through instead of needed to climb over it however that also meant that the humans could follow quite easily as could the dogs.
They might be able to follow him rather easily but Don wasn’t about to let them catch him so quickly. This group of humans was in the same type of uniform as the one’s Don had encountered earlier when he had been reunited with Mikey so they weren’t Shredder’s elite so there was a large probability that they weren’t quite sure where he was exactly. It could be they knew he was just in the general vicinity, unable to pinpoint his location.
If Don could just buy some time, just get some distance between them then maybe he could figure out a way to keep them from tracking him again. He just needed some time, time and a few necessary pieces of equipment. And if he couldn’t, then at least he could lead them further away from April and the rebels.
Scanning the area it didn’t take him long to spot what he had been looking for. A manhole cover! Sighing in relief and hoping that his foot would survive whatever nastiness was down there, he dove for the cover. He didn’t have the strength that Raph always possessed but he managed to get the cover off with little to no fuss and quickly scuttled down the ladder.
The complete darkness in the sewer below gave him momentary pause before he started moving, wincing as the freezing possible not-water collected in the bottom of the sewer sloshed around his ankles, the cuts on the bottom of his feet stinging with each step. Moving quickly Don placed his hand against the wall to keep his bearings as he moved quickly in the darkness.
He had to keep moving, that much was certain. He had to keep moving and he had to find someplace where he could engage in battle and have the upper hand. He had to find a place that was wide enough that he wouldn’t get backed into a corner. He had to find some place in the sewer where he could have multiple exit strategies. He had to find-
“What the shell-?” Don muttered as his hand suddenly came in contact with a strange box hanging on the wall.
The sudden beeping instantly alerted Don to what it was he had stumbled across and he whirled around and bolted towards the other end of the sewer as the beeping got faster. Fear gave him strength as he ran faster than he ever had in his life before the world went bright as the bomb exploded behind him and the force of the blast propelling Don forward and he found himself flying through the air. He winced before he even hit the ground hard, the water-like substance sloshing upward and into his mouth.
Coughing the hideous liquid out of his mouth he clambered up to his knees, shaking his head slightly hoping that the ringing would stop soon. Groaning, he moved to the other side of the sewer and used the wall once again to help himself up. “Why didn’t I think that the sewers would be booby trapped?” he muttered to himself around coughs.
Glancing at where the bomb had exploded he frowned at the few sporadic flames that were still burning on random debris. Hell, there was even a mattress down there. “I had to have hit my head,” Don groaned as he shook his head again and did his best to ignore the fact that there was a mattress burning a few feet from him.
Ensuring that he was able to stand he looked about with the minuscule light to try his best to figure out which direction he should go. The explosion would have defiantly alerted someone to his presence and he had to keep moving. They could find him any-
“There he is!” a voice shouted and Don whirled around stunned to see a body clambering down a ladder from the street.
“Oh shell!” Don gasped as he whirled around and bolted away. He had a good head start on them and he knew the layout of the sewers better than even most city workers, if only the darn water at his ankles weren’t there. It would be easier to hide if the sound wasn’t alerting everyone to his every move. If he could just get to someplace where he could easily ditch them-
Figures suddenly appeared before him and Don slid to a stop, the water splashing upward as he nearly fell forward from his built up momentum. Don gasped and started slowly moving backwards, his hand moving towards his Bo even though the cramped quarters would have made the long weapon difficult to wield in such close combat. That had always been the thing about his weapon of choice. Unlike Mikey’s Nun Chucks, Raph’s Sais or even Leo’s swords, his Bo staff was meant for a more wider battlefield, not cramped sewer tunnels but Don had always made it work somehow.
But he knew that he was outmatched the second he saw what the figures were wearing. The dark, formfitting ensembles that close enough that weren’t easily snagged but loose enough for easy movement. The kind of cloths hand to hand fighters would wear.
They weren’t regular ninja’s before him however; these were Shredder’s hand picked elite. These were the best of the best and no matter how well Splinter trained him, Don knew that he was not the firm fighter his other brothers were. Even if they had been ordered to bring him in alive, he was still in for a world of hurt.
But even by himself, he wasn’t about to go quietly. He was still going to fight against them and he was going to fight as hard as he could. Oh no, he was going to make them work for their prize.
-To Be Continued
Join us next week for chapter Six of Book One of Never The Same Again: Perfectly Tarnished: Underground Battle
