Hyper Reality

Chapter 3

Wrong. Something is wrong.

He can feel it. The shift in the air, a pulse of wind . . . a stab in the back of his mind telling him that chaos is close. Looks like Light isn't going to make it in time. He has to find the Shard before things get out of control . . . if they haven't already.

"Where are you going, young man?" the authoritative voice rang out as he failed to sneak out.

"Just . . . wanted to go to the store, Mom," the boy's excuse was pathetic, he knew.

"Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow. It's late, and I don't like you walking around on the streets after dark."

"But, Mom—"

"No buts, you can go tomorrow."

And that was that. He may have once been a great warrior, a Guardian of one of the seven Shards of Light, but here, he was nothing more than a high school boy who had a math test next week. In this life, Mom was the boss and what she says goes.

Looks like the search has been put off until tomorrow. I pray that nothing too bad will happen . . . who am I kidding, this is the Shard. I'm so screwed.

Oo-oO

"Geez," Raphael said getting his first good look at the mess in Donnie's lab. "That Shock Rock really did a number on this place."

"All my equipment," Donnie groaned. There were burn marks over various surfaces where the Shock Rock had been set up. The resulting storm caused vials, papers and projects to be flung around the room.

"Come on," Leo sighed, "let's get the clean up over with."

"Mu-mu-mu . . . ta-ta-ta . . . gen-gen-gen."

"Uh guys," Mikey said nervously, drawing his brothers' attention. He was standing over by Donnie's trophy shelf, inspecting something that had fallen. "Heh. Funny thing, but . . . the Creep's jar is, uh, sorta broken."

"That's not funny Mikey," Donnie scolded, still ticked about his earlier Creep joke in the Railroad Bunker.

"Dude, I'm not joking this time," he picked up the jar in question with a pair of tongs and held it up for his brothers to see before delivering the more frightening news, "And it's empty."

"Mu-mu-mu . . . ta-ta-ta . . . gen-gen-gen."

"Oh, come on!" Raph growled as he recognized the hoarse whispering taunt. He drew his weapons and stood defensively in the middle of the room. The others followed his lead, positioning themselves back to back in a circle, searching the shadowed areas of the lab for any sign of their enemy.

"How is it back?" Leo asked, shifting his stance, "I though he was gone for good after we drained all the mutagen from him back at the farm house."

"Actually, even though it was just some goo in a jar, it was still sort of alive. Just in some sort of resting state," Donnie explained. "But the Rock was giving off psychic waves, and the storm it created must have woken it up."

"Well that's just great," Raph said. "Now where is—"

Raphael didn't finish as a vine shot down from the ceiling and curled around his face, acting as a gag. More vines followed, wrapping around his arms and torso before lifting him up off the ground. He kicked and squirmed in protest and managed to lose his grip on his weapons and they clattered to the ground.

"Above!" Leo yelled as he saw his brother being lifted away.

"Raph!" Mikey yelled. Unwinding his kusarigama, he flung the chain, catching Raph's ankle and stopping his ascent while Donnie launched Leo high enough to reach Raph. With swinging blades, Leo cut through the vines holding Raphael and they both came crashing to the ground. The newly severed vines squirmed and wiggled without purpose as they lost their grip on their captive before growing still. A white residue leaked out of the cut appendages, forming puddles that looked suspiciously like barf.