FicWad

Chapter Seventeen: Outbreak

In the heart of Area Fifty One, in the laboratory provided to him by Agent Bishop, Doctor Baxter Stockman concluded putting the finishing touches on his latest project set on him by the shady government agent. Bishop stepped out of the shadows, as he watched Stockman work as quickly as possible, but also take care to not botch this assignment.

“It’s finished,” concluded Stockman in a pleased voice, as he stepped back, to show Bishop the finished work, a clone body that was an exact duplication of Agent Bishop, an empty shell just waiting for Bishop to transfer his memories into. Bishop nodded as the skin on his forehead began to swell up, forcing Bishop to push it back down. “And not a moment too soon I may add.”

Bishop just regarded Stockman with a calm nod.

“Now, I’ve enhanced your strength, speed, and durability, so while this may not be your first clone body, it may very well be your best,” explained Stockman.

“Yes, very good Doctor Stockman, I cannot allow my work to be stalled due to death,” commented Bishop as he removed his jacket, before he laid himself down on the operating table beside the clone body. “If this body is as good as you say it is, we are one further step for my goal to create an army of super soldiers to protect the citizens of Earth and another step away from you having a new human body of your own.”

“Very good,” said Stockman who was pleased that soon enough, he would be able to live life inside a body made of flesh and bone, not being confined to a robotic shell. He made sure Bishop and his new clone body both were completely secured, the last thing Stockman needed was this experiment to be a failure, as he would be deprived of having a brand new body of his own. “Preparing for neural transference process and oh by the way, Agent Bishop, this will hurt.”

Stockman pulled the switch, causing currents of electricity to flow through, repeating the process. As Bishop’s consciousness was swept into the clone body, the skin of his original body began to melt, the bones reduced to dust as Bishop’s memories began to leak into the clone body. As they were, Bishop recalled the exact time where he was inspired to begin the Earth Protection Force, to fight all those who threatened the security of Earth.

It was the Battle of New Orleans, in 1815. A younger John Bishop was separated from the rest of his fellow soldiers when he saw a flash of grey light in the distance. Stepping forward a few paces, Bishop shielded his eyes and suddenly, much to his discomfort, he found himself sucked up off the ground, directly into a spaceship hovering several hundred feet above the ground. Bishop was dizzied and passed out before he reached the ship.

Bishop’s eyes flickered open and he saw grey, bug eyed aliens, standing over him, with a variety of complex tools that very unfamiliar to him. One of the aliens growled, as they worked on Bishop, who groaned in agony, as the aliens rendered him unconscious to continue their work on them.

Some time later, Bishop found himself on the battlefield, a bit shaken from his meeting from the aliens. Following the sound of explosions in the distance, Bishop stepped forward to rejoin the battle, a bit put out by what happened, but there would be plenty of time to register what he saw later on.

And indeed there was. Ever since that moment in time, Bishop had put his whole life to prepare for future attacks of the alien menace. Despite what the bureaucrats in DC would want people to think, aliens were a very real and constant threat to the security of the people of both the United States of America, along with the rest of the world. Bishop had taken steps, using alien technology he required to make sure he did not die, as all would be lost, and also strengthened his abilities to best fight off the menace that plagued the world. The war may have been never ending but Bishop’s crusade also was the same.

In the alleyway of New York, Don was digging through the trash, as Mikey, Raph, Leo, Harry, Ginny, and Hailey watched, keeping an eye out for anyone. Ever since Harry’s confrontation against Karai a few days ago, there was an ongoing eerie presence on the air, as several times, Harry, along with his friends and family, had just narrowly avoided brushes with the sinister forces of the Foot.

“Don, hurry it up, I have a bad feeling about this,” remarked Mikey but Don just looked at with narrowed eyes.

“Look, I need to find a new transmitter device, but if you think you can dig through the garbage any faster than I can, be my guest Mikey, otherwise…” stated Don but Leo shushed them both, as he looked out.

“Everyone disappear,” muttered Leo, and the group hid in the shadows, holding their breath, as from high above, a group of Foot Ninjas leapt from rooftop to rooftop, in search for their enemies. A few tense seconds felt like many minutes, as Hailey, Ginny, Harry, Leo, Don, Raph, and Mikey quickly walked from their hiding places, when they were certain that the Foot Ninjas had completely cleared the area.

“The third time they’ve been through tonight, in the last hour almost,” remarked Hailey in an irritated voice.

“You know this stinks about as much as the garbage, I don’t know why you didn’t finish off Karai when you had the chance Harry,” stated Raph.

“Now, Harry had his reasons, I’m sure they will all work out for the best,” said Ginny and Harry nodded by the side.

“Karai was a victim of her own rage, directed towards us, for the role that was played in Saki’s demise,” commented Harry.

“Kind of like you were a victim of your own rage,” said Hailey and Harry just nodded.

“Still, we’re hiding in the shadows, when the Foot is hunting us, we should be the ones hunting them, bring the fight to them this time, don’t wait for them to come to us, remember, last time, they nearly wiped us all out,” remarked Raph in a stubborn voice.

“Raph, in time we can deal with the Foot, but not right now, we don’t know exactly how many of them are or exactly what the rebuilt Foot Headquarters is like, their security measures and everything else, so going against them right now might not be the best course of action right now,” argued Leo. “When it’s time to deal with them, we will but right now, we’ll let them think that we’re on the run from there.”

Raph just grumbled in response, it was obvious that the hot headed terrapin did not like being on the defensive. Reaching deep into the dumpster, Don pulled out a dusty looking transmitter.

“Found it, looks like I need to patch it up a bit, but it should work well given a little work,” commented Don, holding up the transmitter for the others to properly see.

“Okay, let’s go,” prompted Leo and the group made their way to the sewers, to make their way back to the new lair, to continue the refurnishing process to make it fit for habitation.

Elsewhere a van pulled near a manhole, stopping several feet beside it. Exiting, two utility workers mad their way towards the manhole, one of them looking around rather nervous.

“Telling you, going into the sewer at night is a bit unnerving, you know what I mean, after all the stories that there are about what might be done there,” commented one of the utility workers but his partner just looked at him with a shrug, as he began to pry open the manhole.

“Yeah, I’ve heard, never really seen anything weird, at least for a sewer,” replied the second utility worker, in a dismissive tone of voice, as he moved to the truck, getting his tools out. “Don’t worry too much, all those stories, I bet there just exaggerated.”

“I know, but you heard about the giant crocodiles that lurk down there,” said the first utility worker. “Not to mention rumors of giant, man eating turtles, all sorts of weird stuff down there, freaky man, I don’t know how anyone could go down there.”

“Just let me go down there, you can hand me tools and keep an eye out for anything strange,” said the second utility worker with a shrug, as he climbed down the sewers, the first utility worker breathed in relief, as he stood by, awaiting more confirmation from his co-worker. “Okay, hand down my splicing kit, it looks like I’ll be needing it.”

The first utility worker walked towards the van, taking as much time as he needed, as he removed the splicing kit from the back of the van. He froze as he heard the screams of his co-worker from below.

Quickly, the utility worker dropped the splicing kit and ran towards the manhole, looking down with widened eyes, as his partner was gone. He blinked, swearing that he saw a shadow of something that resembled a giant cockroach, but when he looked more closely, the imposing, mysterious figure had vanished. The utility worker backed off, to report the disappearance of his partner, not wanting to go any further in the sewer, just in case whatever got to his co-worker got him.

In the sewers, the group walked towards the junkyard to search for a few more items that Don felt was necessary to get everything going. As they traveled down the tunnels, several shadows, with glowing red eyes looked out in the distance. The shadows, shaped like giant insects, watched as the group walked by, stalking them, marking them for prey.

“So all I’m saying is that maybe we should not be all that hasty with the sleeping arrangements in the new lair,” commented Mikey but Raph just looked at him, with a calculating expression.

“I know what the problem is with you Mikey, you’re just upset because you get the smallest room,” said Raph.

“Yeah, but I mean seriously, how much room does Leo need to be boring, why don’t we switch,” said Mikey hopefully.

“Don’t think of it as small Mikey, think of it as a chance to become more efficient as how you manage your living space,” said Harry but this did not seem to pacify Mikey one bit, as the terrapin kicked a can down the sewer tunnel in frustration, as they moved closer, the exit to the manhole right across from the junkyard was just a few steps away.

“Yes I know, but I just miss my old room, it was the way I wanted it, years of comic books down the drain, reduced to cinders thanks to the Foot,” said Mikey in a despondent voice, as he kicked the can into a tunnel off to the side, as they advanced further towards the junkyard.

Little did they know, that a large claw reached towards the can and latched onto it with its claws. In an instant, the can was violently crushed into nothingness.

Back in the laboratory, Bishop’s new body was just finishing coming to its senses. Bishop flexed his fingers, looking over the body, he was impressed beyond belief, Stockman had done an excellent job.

“Nothing seems to be the matter Doctor Stockman, I’m impressed,” commented Bishop as he rose to his feet to step forward.

“Good then, I’ll just be getting to work on my new body,” said Stockman, as he stepped towards the side but on the video screen, an incoming communication came through, the frantic face of one of Bishop’s commandos.

“Doctor Stockman, another situation has occurred in New York,” reported the commando and Stockman winced as Bishop slowly turned to him, with narrowed eyes, before he turned to the commando on the screen.

“What do you mean by a situation?” demanded Bishop, as he readjusted his glasses and the commando quickly began his report, not wanting to raise the ire of Bishop.

“Agent Bishop, a strange creature has been sighted, just outside of the sewers, we just managed to contain it, a picture is coming up on the video link right now,” reported the commando and an image of what appeared to be a giant hybrid of several different kinds of insects, with glowing red eyes. “We’ve never seen anything like that, this is the third such creature that we had to deal with in the city.”

“Stockman, do you have a theory?” inquired Bishop coldly and Stockman racked his mind, before going through a logical and quite grim explanation.

“When I created the faux aliens for the invasion you staged, they were destroyed, leaving the genetic accelerant on the city streets, I had a team of commandos dispose of it into the sewers, thinking that would be the end of the problem,” remarked Stockman quickly. “If my theory is correct, it seems as if the material used to create the faux aliens has combined with waste in the sewage, creating some kind of mutagen. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life and…”

“You mean I released this….this…plague onto the city,” commented Bishop horrified as the ramifications of what would happen to him if this got out. “My entire life’s work, destroyed because of one simple error, no that’s not going to happen, I’ve worked too long and too hard for this to stop me.”

Bishop rounded upon Stockman, looking very intense as the good Doctor used his robotic shell to move backwards.

“Stockman, it was on your orders that my men disposed of the genetic material into the sewer, so it will be your job to fix this mess and it will be your job to stop this plague from spreading any further,” ordered Bishop. “And believe me, something like this will spread and spread throughout the city at a rate that you could not even imagine. We need to stop it before it becomes worse. The reported cases will only increase and it is only a matter of time before these creatures are seen widespread.”

“Of course Agent Bishop…right away,” said Stockman, who knew there was no room for argument, as Bishop stopped him for leaving for the moment. “Anything else?”

“Yes Stockman, you have to clean this up, the fate of the entire Earth Protection Force rests on your ability to do so,” remarked Bishop. “Not to mention the ability of you to ever enjoy a new body once again, so take some men and get to New York, time is running out, both for me and all of humanity. Eliminate all traces of the plague no matter what it takes.”

Quickly and promptly, Stockman left, leaving Bishop alone in the lab with his own thoughts. Stockman had to succeed, too much as on the line and if certain people caught any hint that Bishop had anything to do with it, they would use the information against them to shut down his operations for good.

Back in the sewers, Harry, Ginny, Hailey, Raph, Mikey, Don, and Leo had nearly completed their journey to the tunnel leading to the junkyard but the can that Mikey had kicked out of the distance earlier, had flew back into the distance, completely crushed beyond recognition. In an instant, Don spun around and aimed a flashlight towards the ceiling, revealing several deformed mutant insects, with claws and fangs, with drool dripping down, hanging above from them. In an instant, the genetic rejects dropped down and stalked the group, before they began to engage the group in battle.

Hailey just narrowly avoided a quick attack, as Ginny helped Harry knock one of the mutant insects backwards. Another one of the insects rushed forward and clanged his claw against Leo’s katana, pushing him back, but Leo pushed him back for the attack, slicing his katana, backing the insect off. The insect sprung up, jaws pointed down towards Leo’s head, but Don quickly smacked it out of the way with his Bo Staff, as he sprung up, before helping Mikey fight off some more of the insects, as Raph stepped back, avoiding the claws of his adversary, before landing on his feet. The mutant would not be denied as he rushed forward towards Raph, but Raph stabbed the insect with the Sai, backing it off slightly.

“What are those things?” asked Ginny, as she managed to knock one of the things off of Harry, who had him pinned to the ground, allowing Harry to get back to his feet, and help Ginny fight off another pair of insects.

“Ticks,” breathed Harry and the group looked at him weirdly, but having gotten a close look at them, Don nodded in agreement.

“Harry’s right, they’re ticks, giant mutant ticks, sort of, deformed a little bit,” remarked Don, as he knocked one of the mutants backwards, causing him to smash against the wall.

“Which explains why they keep going for the top of our scalps,” breathed Hailey, as she armed a crossbow, before she shot an arrow high above their heads, causing rubble to drop down and the ticks to back off, but only for a moment, as several more burst forward, moving back towards the attack, as the battle continued to rage on, as it seemed like there more ticks yet coming.

“We need to run, now, get out of here, until we know exactly what we’re up against!” yelled Leo, and the others, even Raph who was a bit unnerved at the presence towards these giant ticks due to a slight phobia he had for insects, agreed, before they ran for the nearest exit. The ticks began to follow, but Harry quickly created a wall of solid ice right on the doorway, sealing it shut. From the other side, the ticks smashed against it, but they were unable to break through on the first impacts.

“That will only hold them for a couple minutes, we need to keep moving,” stated Harry and they nodded, before they moved down the tunnels, eyes peeled for any more mutant insect surprises that might be awaiting them as they continued their journey.

Back in the lab in Arena Fifty One, Bishop had patched into a video link, in direct contact with Stockman, as he lead a group of commandos down the sewer tunnels, having arrived there just seconds ago by helicopter. The commandos were equipped with flame throwers and Stockman looked around.

“Agent Bishop, we’re in the sewers and keeping an eye out for any odd, peculiar specimens,” commented Stockman in an uneasy voice but Bishop just regarded him with a cold nod.

“Report back and keep on the move, everything must be eliminated, no trace should remain,” stated Bishop, and the holographic image of Stockman’s head nodded uneasily, as they heard signs of movement down the tunnels.

“Everyone, move, detain whatever’s down there,” stated one of the commandos and they moved down the tunnel towards the signs of the disturbance, leaving Stockman alone. Despite being in a robotic shell, the mad scientist still was a bit uneasy, especially with the sounds around them and he could have sworn he saw shadows moving in the distance down the way.

“Wait up, don’t leave without me,” said Stockman fearfully, as he made his way down the tunnel to join the commandos, as they continued their hunt down the tunnel.

Meanwhile, in another section of the sewers, the group of the Turtles, Hailey, Ginny, and Harry had all managed to ditch the giant deformed mutant ticks, breathing rather heavily.

“Okay, that was close, way too close for my liking,” said Hailey as she looked around.

“No, kidding, it would have be giant bugs of all things,” added Raph in a moody tone of voice. “At least we lost them.”

At that second, Mikey attempted to step forward, but he found his arm caught. He attempted to wrench it free, but unfortunately, it was still stuck on a sticky white silky substance.

“We might have lost them, but I think I’ve caught something,” said Mikey in a panicked voice, as he attempted to pull his arm free, but it remained immobile, as the others gasped, as it appeared to be a giant spider web. “I’m stuck, I can’t move…”

Leo sighed before he rushed forward, in an attempt to slice his brother free but found his katana stuck in the web as well. He attempted to pull free, but was stuck as well. Harry and Ginny moved forward, before they used cutting spells to free both Leo’s katana and Mikey’s arm from the web. They staggered back.

“Thanks,” said Mikey but his eyes widened in absolute horror when he saw what was coming at them from above the web. It was a giant spider, with metal claws, glowing red eyes, and very visible fangs. They stepped back, as the spider moved towards them, but Harry deflected it back into the wall with a banishing charm. The spider was relentless, as it moved forward to the attack. Needless to say, it made Aragog and his family in the Forbidden Forest look like cute little spiders. The spider moved in for the attack but Raph dodged around and kicked it backwards. Harry, Ginny, and Hailey hit simultaneous banishing charms, causing it to fly into the wall with a sickening crack. The spider burst open and splattered its insides all over the corridor.

“Okay, this looks familiar,” remarked Don as he bent down, to look at the goop that the spider had splattered.

“Yeah, no kidding, it resembles that stuff that those aliens spilled, the ones that Bishop created,” said Raph. “You don’t think, that Bishop’s been experimenting again, have you.”

“It’s something more,” said Harry, as he looked down to examine the white goop. “Something tells me that Bishop’s not the one behind this, not entirely at least.”

“Harry’s got a point, why would Bishop want to do something like this, and set these things loose in the sewer, it’s just counterproductive this what he says his goals are,” said Leo and the others nodded in agreement, before several more shadows appeared in the sewers.

“Oh no, we have more company,” gasped Mikey in horror as they slowly backed off, ready for a fight and saw a quartet of giant mutant cockroaches appear in the tunnel, glowing red eyes and looking rather menacing.

“Look!” shouted Ginny, pointing towards one of the cockroaches, who appeared to have a human growing out of the top of its head. The cockroaches moved forward to the attack, with Ginny just moving out of the way of a vicious assault. Harry struggled to get over to help her, but found himself engaging one of the roaches in battle. The Turtles and Hailey also were having their own problems battling the roaches, as they were relentless, not letting up the attacks one bit at all. Leo swung his katana but it only served to anger the roaches, as it knocked Leo backwards into the wall.

“Everyone hang tight,” said Harry, as he kicked the roach off of him, before a loud bang echoed throughout the corridor and a net tied around the roach. The roach gave an anguished groan, but was unable to break free of the magically reinforced net.

Ginny dodged out of the way, before she aimed her wand, but the roach knocked it out of her hand. Quickly, Hailey managed to blast the roach in the back, causing him to turn around and advance on her. This allowed Ginny to aim her wand. Another loud bang and the roach was wrapped up in a net. The roach dropped to the ground, falling down the instant that it was wrapped up.

“Guys, lure them to me or Harry, we can take care of them!” shouted Ginny, and the others nodded, as Mikey was knocked to the ground but Don sprung forward using his Bo Staff, propelling himself feet first into the side of the roach. The roach staggered, before it took a swipe at Don, but Leo moved forward and backed the roach off, allowing Harry to wrap it up in a magically reinforced net. The roach struggled but found itself unable to move as it dropped to the ground.

“Now, we need to deal with him and we should be home free,” said Hailey, as she pointed out the odd looking roach with the human sticking out of the top of it. Raph quickly attempted to attack but the roach quickly avoided the attack. From the side, a net was shot at the roach but the roach caught it, before ripping it to shreds.

“Splicing kit!” grunted the giant roach, taking the entire group aback.

“It spoke, it’s intelligent!” exclaimed Don in a surprised voice, which caused Raph to roll his eyes slightly at his brother.

“Oh c’mon, Mikey talks and we don’t call him intelligent,” said Raph.

“Be that as it may, it displayed some level of sentience, so maybe if we can talk to it, we might be able to reason with it,” suggested Don, but needless to say, this suggestion did not go down too well with the rest of the group.

“Talk to it, TALK TO IT!” cried Mikey incredulously. “Don, it’s a giant mutant cockroach with a human growing out of its skull. What are we supposed to talk to it about, current events?”

“Talking, doubt it’s going to be up for talking honestly,” commented Ginny darkly, as the roach moved on the attack, causing the group to scatter. Another attempt by Harry to contain it was unsuccessful, as the roach moved forward, knocking the Boy-Who-Lived backwards into the wall. Ginny rushed forward but she was also knocked backwards. Leo attempted to engage it with his katanas but the roach managed to fight it off, its sentience making it a tougher adversary to put down then the other three mutants of its kind were.

Mikey rushed forward, swinging his nunchucks, but the roach blasted several deadly looking razor sharp tentacles at him. Thankfully for him, Mikey managed to avoid the attack, but staggered and second attack was only just avoided when Don had pushed his brother out of the way. Unfortunately, one of the tentacles pierced Don right in the leg, causing him to drop to the ground. Quickly, a loud magical explosion backed the creature off slightly.

“Are you okay Don?” asked Leo as he bent down to check Don, who pulled himself up, blood dripping down to the ground.

“Fine, just a tiny scratch, that’s all,” grunted Don, as the cockroach made its way forward, walking towards the sewers. Raph stepped forward to go after it, but Don grabbed his arm to stop him from leaving. “Let him go Raph, there’s nothing that really came be done by going at it.”

“Besides, something else is coming right now,” informed Harry. “I would suggest we get back to the lair to regroup, before we try and go after anything else.”

“Just a second Harry, let me get some of the substance that the spider spilled, to analyze, because something’s a bit off with all of this,” commented Don and quickly, he removed a vial from his duffel bag, and quickly siphoned the substance inside, before the group moved their way back towards the lair, but not before a group of Earth Protection Force workers walked down to investigate the mess more thoroughly.

Back at the lair, Don examined the goop underneath a microscope, as the others looked on from behind him, awaiting to find out what Don had found.

“Very strange, odd indeed,” muttered Don under his breath, as he looked over. “It appears that there are living cells within this substance and it looks like they’re…evolving.”

“Great, we had trouble fighting bugs, what’s going to happen when something more dangerous gets infected with this stuff,” grumbled Raph.

“And there’s a chance that it will only get worse, it’s a plague, an outbreak that will sweep the entire city, unless someone stops it,” replied Don.

“We’ll stop it,” said Harry, who knew now that he would have to postpone his attempts to locate the other two Horcruxes and eventually go after Voldemort for the time being. He could not, under any good conscious, leave the city exposed to this plague and not do his part to stop it. It was his home after all.

Don rose to his feet and reached up into the corner, where a security camera had been rigged. With a quick click of the button, Don activated the camera.

“There, now I think we’ll all sleep easier tonight, given that we’ll be able to see if one of those things sneak inside the lair or not,” said Don. “The door’s reinforced, but still, I don’t want to take any chances.”

Harry yawned, as he turned to Hailey and Ginny.

“Best be getting home right now, take the long way, since the Foot is still guarding the other direction,” said Harry and the others agreed. “Good night all, I suspect I’ll be saying you all before too long.”

The others wished the trio good night, as they made their way to the lair, back to the Potter Residence, ready to also defend themselves just in case anything else came out to attack them.

“Contain and destroy them all,” said the leader of the commandos, as the ticks were backed off, before they were incinerated by the flames. They gave inhumane groans as both the ticks and any material they spilled were eliminated.

“Status report Stockman,” demanded Bishop.

“A group of giant ticks and another group of giant roaches have been eliminated right now, we’re going one more sweep of this sector, to make sure that we did not pass anything over,” reported Stockman.

“Doctor Stockman, sir, you need to see this, we’ve never seen anything like this,” stated one of the commandos and Stockman looked over, seeing the giant roach that appeared to have a human sticking out of the top of it.

“Agent Bishop, you’re seeing this, right?” asked Stockman.

“Yes, I am, do not destroy this one, but rather take steps to contain it, return it to the lab, it may be worthy of study,” commented Bishop coolly. “Especially considering if I’m interpreting the research you sent back to me correctly, the worst of the outbreak is yet to come.”

“Contain it, but do not destroy it, Agent Bishop requires a whole specimen, as there is much work to be done,” ordered Stockman and the commandos moved it, weapons drawn, the roach attempting to fight out, but eventually succumbing to overwhelming odds.