The Maad Doctor [The Maad Series #1]

|34| The Truth Will Set You Free.

Barbie, Pipi, Gigi, and Old Man Booty stayed behind to repair the airship after the battle with Edge. Don, Bones, Stella, and Sky went after The Maad Doctor.

Apart from The Founding Families' castle, the rest of Virtue City burned. Smoke filled the air while corpses littered the ground. It was like a sick, adult version of Sin City Dumpsite.

Don saw the back of the giant robot. It was staring at something below it. As they neared the castle, a piano's music became louder. They entered the open gate and saw three groups of corpses forming an arrow, directing them where to go.

Guards dressed in blue suits and white bow ties stood on each side. They held rayguns while blood covered their clothes and faces. It was easy to tell the blood didn't belong to them. The guards watched the group pass between them.

Don and the others arrived at the wedding venue and realized The Maad Doctor was the one playing the piano. Neither he nor the giant robot behind him looked acknowledged them. The two looked lost in the music. The decapitated heads of the Founding Families' leaders were on top of the piano.

Lady Camilla knelt beside The Maad Doctor, her face stained with blood. Don glanced at Stella and noticed she had clenched her hands. When she tried to go to her mother, Ono held her arm in front of her. Stella stopped.

"You shouldn't have come here, Stella," Lady Camilla said. "He used me to lure you in."

"I don't care. For once, let me save you, Mother," Stella said.

The Maad Doctor stopped playing the piano and turned to the group. "Welcome, everyone." He spread his arms as if he was about to hug them. "Apologies for the mess," he referred to the corpses. "I had to make a statement." He pressed his hands together as though he was about to pray and said, "Thank you for bringing Sky and Don... and Stella too. Sadly, there won't be a reward for bringing the fugitives. Lady Camilla wasn't planning on paying; that's why she hired Edge to capture them."

He got up from the bench and stood beside Lady Camilla. "Seeing as there's no reward, I suggest you leave now." He aimed his revolver at Ono. "But leave Stella behind."

Ono smiled. "We didn't come here for the reward. We came here for a fight."

The Maad Doctor grinned then pulled out another revolver tucked in his waistband. "That's what I wanted to hear."

o-o-o-o

Pipi couldn't get the thought of Don and Gigi looking alike out of his head. It bothered him ever since Jojo pointed it out. "Could it just be the hair color?"

"What?" Barbie asked, covered in oil and grease after returning from the engine room. She had informed Pipi she couldn't enter the engine room as there was too much smoke in there. Old Man Booty said he could get rid of the smoke, and now they were waiting for him to finish.

"Gigi and Don look alike," Pipi said. "Pipi can't help but think..."

"What if she's his mother?"

"Yes."

"Only way to know is to ask her." Barbie pointed at Gigi, who sat at the end of the control room. She was staring at the dark energy around her arms, regenerating her wrists. It wouldn't be long before she had hands again.

"Gigi," he called. The woman looked at him. "Why do you look like Don?" He didn't know how else to phrase the question. Asking her outright if she was his mother seemed rude. Don had said he grew up in an orphanage. And if Gigi was his mother, then she had abandoned him when he was a child.

"Donatello is my son," she said with a smile. Then it faded, and a frown took over. "Sadly, he will destroy the world someday."

Pipi knew it. They looked too similar not to be related. "He already has," Pipi said, referring to the situation they were in. "Wait, Don stands for Donatello?"