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Chapter 3 : Portal

“Try again.”

“Leo, we’ve already tried twenty times, you think one more—“

“Try. Again.”

Raph growled, and dialed Donatello’s shell cell. Twenty calls, he’d counted, and there’d been no answer. Don’s lack of response had them sprinting through the sewers, while Splinter kept watch on the news, at home. If any reports of those helicopters became public, they needed to know, but more importantly, they needed to find their brother. Whatever those copters were doing, whatever they were searching for, the likelihood was slim that they would bypass a giant mutated turtle on their way, and there was no telling what state Donnie was in at this point. The remaining three couldn’t think of many circumstances under which he wouldn’t answer their calls.

They splashed along the dark path, moonlight sweeping over their shells in striped patches as they moved, and their breath echoing through the wet concrete tunnels. They had nearly reached the junkyard, with only a block remaining, when the hollow ringing from Raph’s shell cell stopped, replaced by the static of a connected line.

“He answered.” Raph came to a halt, his feet sliding a bit on the wet stone beneath the water. He stared at the cell in astonishment, before putting the device to his ear. “Donnie. Donnie!” Leo and Mikey splashed to a stop as they turned to look at him expectantly, Mikey holding his breath in anticipation of his brother’s call. He watched Raph’s face, wondering why the turtle only looked perplexed… and then angry. “Donnie, pick up! Yo! Say somethin’!”

A voice came through the shell cell, but it wasn’t Don’s. “Who the hell do you all think you are!” the gravelly voice shouted, “What kinda prank is this? You got no idea what I’m gonna do to—“ There was a sudden loud BANG, “--kshhhhh….!” The sound faded to static, and the call ended. A moment of bewildered silence passed, and the only prevalent noise around the three turtles was the slow dripping of water that condensed on the ceiling and fell to the stagnant stream at their feet. A rumbling growl escaped Raph’s throat, and he shoved through Mikey and Leo, clenching the shell cell in his hand as he charged down the sewer tunnel.

“We gotta move!” He yelled to the other two, who weren’t far behind him.

The junkyard was quiet, and still, save for the three shellbacks leaping over the security fence, one by one. They each landed softly, not making a sound, and moved quickly through the lot, with Leo in the lead. He glanced back and forth along the moonlit aisles of scrap metal, and turned to his brothers with a look of determination. “Split up. Mikey, you take the west end, Raph, head down the middle. I’ll meet you guys on the other side.” He moved to break, and Mikey’s eyes widened, slightly panicked and watching Leo.

“West, where’s west?”

Leo gave Mikey an impatient glance, and pointed to the other end of the junkyard. “Go!”

Mikey nodded quickly and obediently, and took off at a run, while his brothers disappeared behind the heaps of appliances and vehicles behind him. He kept low, and edged around the rusted obstacle course cautiously, unsure about what he might find around the next corner. Places like these tended to breed sentient robots, and obese megalomaniacal garbage men. Mikey couldn’t spell “megalomaniacal”, but he knew it was best to be careful. After all, Donnie had run into some kind of trouble out here.

At least, they thought Don was still here. For all they knew, a gang fight could have distracted him on his way home… maybe he’d tried to help, and been outnumbered. Or maybe something happened here at the junkyard, and the fight moved off of the property… maybe he just dropped his shell cell, a passerby found it, and Donnie was just fine. Maybe… maybe it had something to do with the helicopters.

“C’mon, Don Boy, where are you?” Mikey shook his head, whispering to himself. He paused behind the rear fender of a car that was nothing more than a rusted frame, resting his hand on the corroded metal as he looked out over the back corner of the lot. The moonlight dulled everything to a hazy shade of cool gray, surreal and colorless. His eyes scanned the area, over the dark, twisted piles of junk, and the flat, sandy dirt road that wound between them. His gaze finally fell on an impression in the sand only a few feet ahead that made him smile. Mutant turtle footprints were rather unmistakable. Mikey straightened up, and moved swiftly across the aisle to follow them.

He hadn’t gone very far before he saw a dark form lying still on the ground, and he frowned in concern as he moved closer. Squinting, he could make out four legs, and a snout... it was one of the guard dogs that usually patrolled the junkyard. “Huh.” He remarked quietly, as he spotted the second dog, in the same state as the first, sprawled across the dirt, unmoving. He frowned. “Poor Bowser. …Whoa.” There was the security guard, collapsed and motionless on the ground, and beside him, Donatello.

Mikey rushed to Donnie’s side. Don was kneeling on the ground, his eyes open, but he was as still as the junkyard itself. Mike’s kneepad skidded across the sand as he dropped down next to Don, coming face to face with him. “Donnie! Wow, am I glad we…” Mikey trailed off, searching Donnie’s face for recognition. Donnie simply stared down at the silver globe he held in his hands, unblinking. His breathing was slow and quiet. Mikey examined the situation for only a moment, before the nighttime calm of the junkyard was broken by the rhythmic thumping of helicopter blades through the air over their heads. He looked up quickly, while Donatello remained unresponsive, unaffected by his surroundings. “Okay, time to skedaddle, bro! You got that?” He hopped back to his feet, and out of the corner of his eye saw something dart across the dirt path in front of him. It was some kind of small, skinny, black figure. He would have mistaken it for a person, if its movements weren’t so reptilian, but it was gone in an instant, and Mikey was only left with the eerie impression that he had just seen a junk-monster. “What the…?” Raph’s voice came from his left, startling him.

“You found ‘im!” Raph rushed through the darkness, followed closely by Leo. “Donnie?”

It took Mikey a moment to pull himself away from the thought of the creature he was mostly sure he’d just seen, turning his attention back to his catatonic brother with a worried expression. “He- he’s not moving! I dunno, I just…” Mikey shook his head, and looked to Donatello imploringly. “Green light, dude, c’mon!”

Leo looked over the silver orb in Don’s hands, and the spikes that prevented him from letting go of it, and his brow furrowed. He and Raph had barely registered their confusion, when the sound of the helicopters grew louder, and their concern for Donatello paled in comparison to their need for safety.

“They’re here! I don’t know what they’re looking for, but they’re looking for it here!” Leo exclaimed, glancing up to the sky as the choppers hovered, bright spotlights sweeping over the lot. He looked back to the others. “We need to leave, now!” He slid past Raph, stepping over the body of the security guard, noticing Don’s shell cell lying next to the man. He picked up the cell, pausing only momentarily to note the guard’s dull, lifeless stare. Leo took in a breath, and tossed the phone to Raph, who caught it with a swipe of his hand, and proceeded to lift Don by his arms, pulling him up with a grunt.

“Mikey, gimme a hand, would ya?”

Mike nodded, and grabbed Don’s legs, frowning.

“You sure you don’t wanna walk, Donnie?” Don didn’t respond, and Mikey nodded, conceding. “Okay.”

Raph was watching the sky with narrowed eyes as the searchlights moved nearer. “Less talk, more walk, Mikey.” He warned. The roar of a truck engine brought his attention to their intended escape route. A large, black armored vehicle now blocked the sewer entrance, and its heavy door slid open with a metallic bang. The turtles stopped in their tracks, as men in black special ops gear climbed out of the truck on the other side of the fence.

“No way!” Mike yelled. So much was happening that they didn’t have an explanation for, and it was all happening at once. If they could only have a moment to think… but then again, Don was the one to think about things, and he was inexplicably out of the picture. They needed to help him, and to do that, they needed to lose the copters and the special ops team. Leo looked between the searchlights closing in on their position, and the troops blocking the exit.

“Find somewhere to hide.” He ordered, and motioned for Mikey to keep moving.

“What about dat guy?” Raph followed, jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the security guard.

“I don’t think he’s alive.” Leo said plainly. Mikey grimaced.

While Mikey and Leo struggled with carrying Donatello, distracted by the chaos around them, the black creature slithered into view again, wedging its way between metal pipes and wire, scrambling past them across the piles of junk, seemingly running from the commotion.

“There it is again!” Mike yelled.

It definitely had two arms, and two legs, though it used all four limbs to assist in its writhing gait. It bumped into a dented hubcap, sending the object clattering loudly down the scrap heap, rolling to a stop at Raph’s feet.

“There what is again?” Raph kicked the hubcap out of his way, raising his voice to speak above the wind that whipped around them, caused by the low-flying copters. He spotted the creature, and expressed veritable horror, pulling his sais from his belt with lightning reflexes. “What da hell is dat!” The creature jerked sideways in response, and changed direction.

“What are you— Ahh!“ Leo let out a yelp as the figure bolted past him, knocking him off balance, and sending the turtle and his plum-clad brother tumbling against the side of an old washing machine. The fall threw Mikey into a stack of wooden palettes, but he kept his eyes on the odd creature, watching it dodge a piece of falling scrap, and escape into an open chest freezer, slithering over the edge and into the box like a desert creature escaping the heat of the sun. Mike’s eyes widened as a dim flash of white light followed the escape, making the edges of the freezer glow for a moment. Mike then looked curiously to the softly glowing globe in Don’s hands, ignoring Leo’s struggling form beneath his fallen brother.

“What was that?” Leo pushed Don’s shell forward, holding him steady, and checking over him to make sure he was all right. Donatello remained as unresponsive as before, oblivious to the fall.

“Don’t ask me, but we got bigger problems.” Raph pushed a table lamp aside, and grabbed Leo by the arm, yanking him out of the scrap. Leo took a step back, but kept close to Donnie, one hand on his shell, as he looked up to the sky again… the helicopters were right on top of them, hovering ominously. It was only a matter of seconds before the searchlights hit them. The wind from their circling, whooping blades tossed the ends of their bandanas into the air. At the other end of the lot, the tech-clad soldiers jogged nearer, their gear and guns jingling and clinking as they spread out across the junkyard.

“We’re surrounded.” Leo stated, reaching for one of his katanas with his free hand as he took in the situation.

“They don’t know we’re here yet!” Mikey pushed himself back up, and pointed optimistically to the chest freezer. “In there!” Leo’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t have time to question… he helped to pick Don up again, and the three of them heaved their brother into the chest freezer, lowering him slowly to set him down gently… If anything, it was a temporary hiding spot. Leo leaned forward to make sure Don was okay inside. To his surprise, he saw nothing but empty space.

The chest freezer didn’t have a bottom, nor did it end at the dirt floor of the junkyard. It went down, deep, into… somewhere else. Somewhere they couldn’t see. Wherever that was, Don was there now, and after what he’d seen, Mikey was convinced this was a better route than capture, no matter how unknown. He only hoped that Raph and Leo were on the same page. The brothers shared a brief glance, before all three jumped into the empty freezer. They were gone, and the blindingly bright searchlight that fell across the area overpowered the dim, white glow at the edges of the appliance.