Alternate Allure

CHAPTER 29: DUALITY [Part III]

Everyone climbs in silence, until Mikey breaks it.

He hums softly at first—just a few familiar notes. Then louder, with flair.

Donnie groans beneath MC. "Are you... humming the Olympics theme?"

Mikey, several feet above, grins down. "It seemed appropriate!"

"Pipe down, you two" Raph grumbles, crawling a bit ahead.

He reaches one of the many elevator doors lining the shaft and leans close, prying it open with a grunt. A second later, he yelps, slamming the doors shut with a metallic clang and throwing himself backward.

"....I gotta wash my eyes"

"What?" MC wipes the sweat off their brow. "What did you see?"

"Kraang. Naked. Half-dressed. Putting their human suits on like coats"

"Okay, I kinda wish I hadn't asked"

Then the security alarm starts blaring throughout the building. The lights in the shaft flicker red.

"That's bad" Donnie mutters.

Mikey pumps a fist. "All right!"

Leo turns on him, baffled. "What?!"

"Finally, someone set off an alarm, and it wasn't me!"

"Don't jinx it" MC snaps as the sound of blaster fire erupts above you all.

Red bolts streak down from an overhead catwalk. The Kraang descend like spiders, their limbs clanking as they fire. MC dodges a bolt that grazes the wall beside their head, heart hammering.

"GET MOVING!" Leo barks, pushing off from the wall and launching himself upward. Everyone follows instantly, grabbing the elevator cable and swinging up just as another round of lasers lights up the shaft.

A Kraangdroid starts blasting down at MC from an open door. They dodge one shot, narrowly avoid another, and reach up to grab a support pipe. Mikey's quick to react, tangling the robot with his nunchucks and yanking it hard, making the Kraang to fall down the elevator shaft.

"Darn it. I forgot to say 'See you next Fall' " Mikey sighs in disappointment. "Next elevator shaft fight"

Raph quickly points down: the elevator is rising, with a few Kraang on the roof, who immediately fire. Without a second thought, the team drops down, landing right on top of the robots. MC lands next to Donnie, who blasts a Kraang with his staff's tazer end. Leo leaps from above and crashes down on another, knocking it into a sparking mess. The last droid turns to shoot—only for Raph to body-slam it straight off the platform, giving an end to the Kraang menace.

Leo huffs. "Okay. Let's get inside, where it's safe"

He pries open the elevator roof hatch, only to come face-to-face with more Kraang.

"Ugh. I need to stop saying stuff like that!"

He tosses a smoke bomb before they can fire. Thick gray clouds fill the space as they all dive in, slicing through shadows and circuitry. Eventually, silence falls, and the air clears.

Raph leans against the wall, breathing hard. "Can we please just ride this thing to the top now?"

Donnie steps over a sparking Kraang body and presses the panel next to the elevator controls.

Nothing.

"We can't. It's locked by a retinal scanner"

MC sighs, wiping a smudge off their cheek. "Of course it is"

"I'm on it" Raph grabs a half-busted Kraang head and presses its face to the scanner.

A female robotic voice—Campbell's—chimes from the speaker:

<<That which is known as access is granted to Kraang>>

The elevator cables groan, and the platform keeps going upward, carried by the still-functioning system, towards the 40th floor.

"Hey, this is so much easier!" Mikey pumps a fist.

"Yeah" Raph huffs. "Finally a chance to catch our breath"

But, something itches at the back of MC's mind. That tuning fork sound starts buzzing behind their eyes.

Something's wrong.

The doors open, and a thick green cloud immediately begins pouring in.

"What—?" MC steps back instinctively.

The moment the turtles inhale, they start coughing violently. Leo doubles over. Donnie collapses to one knee, gasping. Mikey tries to shout something, but it's swallowed by a choked breath. Raph stumbles back against the wall, his face going pale.

"Poisoned... gas...!" Leo wheezes.

"Guys!" MC's eyes start to sting, the gas biting at their lungs like acid. Their vision blurs at the edges, and breathing hurts—like inhaling smoke—but they stay on their feet.

Donnie's eyes flutter open briefly. "G-get... out...!"

"No! No way, I'm not leaving—"

Leo drops to the floor. Donnie follows, then Mikey and Raph. One by one, they fall, unconscious, limbs limp and twitching from the toxin.

MC drops to their knees, shaking Donnie's shoulders. His skin is pale beneath his mask.

"Come on, Donnie, wake up!"

Before they can say something else, the hiss of hydraulics makes them turn. Six Kraang emerge from the mist like monsters from a nightmare. One of them points at MC.

"The human known as MC must be retrieved"

They rush 'em, six of them in unison. MC quickly stumbles to their feet, ducking under the first, sweep another's legs out with a spinning kick. They grab the blaster from the floor and fire twice—two droids go down. Pain explodes in MC's ribs as one catches them with the butt of a rifle. They grunt, but twist and throw an elbow into its chest. Another lashes out—MC catches its wrist, twist, flip it to the ground. Bit by bit, MC's breath comes sharp and thin, the gas clawing deeper now, burning through their chest like acid.

As they stagger back, breathing growing tired, a sharp pain bursts from MC's side. Their body seizes. Muscles lock. A scream slips through clenched teeth as electricity surges through MC's body, a Kraang being the one that jabbed an electric rod into their ribs.

Darkness folds over 'em like a blanket.

The last thing they hear is one of the Kraang saying:

"The subject known as MC has been what is known as subdued by Kraang. Prepare containment chamber which is where the subject MC will be contained"

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Happy late Valentines!

I'll try to give a double update, since I'm late ahahaha