[LN] Raphael is cool but rude, Michelangelo is a party dude...

[othersdestructive]

"Jus' - jus' five more minutes, Master Splinter."

Come on, it'd been a busy night. Couldn't he sleep in just a little bit longer?

Except...except he wasn't in the lair.

As Raph opened his eyes, he realized he wasn't even in the city.

New York was New York and after spending the majority of his life under it, and exploring every facet of it from above after he and his brothers had started exploring at night, it was practically in his blood.

Wherever he was now, it didn't look like New York, it didn't sound like New York - it definitely didn't smell like New York.

And his head felt like it'd been cracked open and...something was rushing in. Something unnameable and shifting. It was making even his memories fuzzy. It was almost like something that wasn't himself was trying to push in and make...something else into himself. For a moment, all he could do was push himself up onto his knees and hunch over, holding his head in his hands.

"Ugh, my head."

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[othersdestructive]

"Before we leave, we need to make sure they don't have any other innocent people in here," Raph said. "This was Lab four. They've got a whole facility. They might have other people like us trapped here and this might be the only chance they ever have of getting out. We need to make sure we're not leaving anyone."

Yes, he was worrying about the people that might need help. (Like a turtle do.)

"But first..."

With a dark expression on his face, he walked over to the table of tools, grabbed the nastiest looking scalpel there and stormed towards the unconscious-but-still-obviously-breathing scientists, his intent very clear.

[captainbuzzkill]

"Is he about to very casually do what I think he's doing?" Dipper asked nervously.

[bestnamer]

"Woah."

Mikey darted forward, hovering behind his brother, knowing better than to actually grab him when he was in a mood like this.

"Woah, Raph, no. C'mon man, they're unconscious."

Killing in the heat of a fight was one thing, but they weren't fighting for their lives anymore.

[othersdestructive]

"Yeah, and they're gonna stay that way. For good."

He was still bleeding slightly from where they'd sawed at his plastron - and still shaking, now that the adrenaline haze was fading and leaving him feeling weaker.

This was one of the closest calls he'd ever had and it'd been made all the more horrifying by the fact they'd been forcing Mikey to watch. That was the part he found most unforgivable.

[bestnamer]

"Dude, not like this! I know they're like, probably the worst people ever, but come on. That doesn't mean you should do something this shady because they suck so bad."

He thought frantically, knowing that he'd sleep safer if these guys were not alive anymore, but still -

"What would Sensei tell us to do right now? Pretty sure it's not this," he pointed out. If he could have thought up what Splinter would have actually said to dissuade Raph, he would have said it, but that kind of wisdom was way beyond his paygrade.

[othersdestructive]

That did the trick. He froze, standing over them, then looked over at the little boy and girl that had helped save them, realizing that he'd be doing something that sick in front of them.

They did not have the expressions of children that wouldn't be upset by that kind of thing. That creepy twin thing was looking more and more like an act.

Clenching the knife in his hand and making a futile gesture with his other clenched fist, he let out a growl that he only barely kept from turning into a frustrated scream. Then kicked one of the scientists - the one that had been about to saw him open - in the side at least hard enough to crack a rib.

After that, he at least gave up on the idea of killing them.

He turned to Nico. "Did any of you manage to get your hands on a map of this place? Or see places that might have been holding cells?"

[spellitonce]

Nico pulled her hand away from her mouth, licking away the drop of blood her chewed hangnail had left behind. Not that she didn't understand the impulse behind this guy's actions, but she hadn't exactly been eager to see three people murdered right in front of her, much less in front of Dipper and Mabel.

"There are emergency escape route maps in the hall," she said. "We can start there. Considering what they were planning on doing here, I doubt there are any rooms in the building that aren't on those maps."

They might need to peel a map off the wall and check off every room as they cleared it though, just to make sure there weren't any somehow mystically warded to make them skip it.

[captainbuzzkill]

Dipper pulled out his book, in case he'd need it for anything, wiping at his nose one last time.

"Mabel, warm up the kitten fists. They'll probably start sending more security guys in the longer we stay here."

[bedazzledmyface]

Mabel banged her hands together, and at once, they were adorable, mewling kittens. Pink kittens.

"Kitten fists are ready to go!" she announced, creepy image fast fading as her hands mewed adorably.

[bestnamer]

Now that was just delightful. Unexpectedly wonderfully delightful, in the middle of this totally awful day.

"Aww! Can I pet 'em?"

[othersdestructive]

"No time for petting the...really creepy kitten hands, Mikey. Let's go."

Still holding onto the knife (because hey, he needed a weapon) Raph charged forward.

They found a map and searched all the major rooms. By now many people had evacuated, and the security teams they found were no match against magic, ninjas, kitten fists, and rainbows.

There was one last room to check that might have been some kind of holding area, but when they forced their way in through the door, they were greeted by the sight of something horrible.

It was a holding area, but not for anything alive. All over were huge vats and tubes of preserved bodies, of beings that had possibly once been sentient. Various magical creatures, some even preserved fully dissected.

Raph's face was filled with disgust and horror as he looked around and when he spotted one particular specimen, he shook his head in abject disbelief.

"They killed a unicorn. Who kills an actual unicorn?!"

[spellitonce]

"Oh my God, shut up!" Nico hissed furiously at him, hastily backing up to block the doors. "Mabel, Dipper, you stay out here and keep an eye out for any other security guards, okay?"

She was not going to be responsible for a couple of twelve-year-olds seeing a dead unicorn. (Raphael was right, though. Who kills a freaking unicorn?!)

"Okay," she said slowly, "We should...We should bring them back with us. They should be...buried, or cremated or something. Not this."

[captainbuzzkill]

"Did he just say they killed a unicorn?" Dipper said to Mabel, eyes wide, making no move at all to go inside the room of what apparently was horrors.

He paused, looking consideringly at the door that Nico had disappeared through.

"You know, it's really sweet how she's trying to be protective and keeping us from seeing mind-crushingly horrible things. Misguided, but sweet."

It sounded like there was some morbid stuff in there but they had been chased by a shapeshifting monster that had taken both their forms and went all Lovecraft with them. And a monster made of candy. And lots of pretty horrifying things in general.

[bedazzledmyface]

Beside him, Mabel was blank-eyed and staring, as if she hadn't heard a word he'd said beyond, "They killed a unicorn?"

She burst into noisy little girl years. Horrific monsters with their faces and zombies were one thing, dead unicorns were another.

[bestnamer]

Beside Raphael, Mikey was also crying. Not sensitive - but - dignified - young - man tears either.

"E-even in death ... he's majestic. "

Mikey grabbed Raph around the neck, the better to sob into his shoulder.

[othersdestructive]

Just like Dipper hugged and comforted his sister in the hall, Raph threw an arm around Mikey to comfort him, too.

"There's no way we can carry all this with us," Raph said. "We should - we should bust all this up and burn the place to the ground. Cremate it here. Might not be the kinda ceremony it - they - deserve, but at least that means they can't be treated like a science experiment anymore."

He let go of Mikey to put his knife down on a table and grabbed a chair, smashing one of the glass tubes.

[spellitonce]

Nico snuffled, wiping her eyes with her finger tips.

"I can make sure everything burns," she said. "I just need to come up with a spell for it."

It didn't take her long to come up with one, it just took her awhile longer to remember the whole thing.

[bestnamer]

"Should we get the not-dead things out first?"

Mikey still remembered the unconscious surgeons.

"Or can you do a spell for that too?"

[othersdestructive]

Raph stayed silent on that as he smashed open more containers, spilling their contents to the floor, largely because deep in his heart of hearts he wanted to leave anyone in this place to burn.

He knew better than to voice it aloud.

[spellitonce]

"Yeah, I can do a spell for that, too," Nico said. "I haven't used 'take out the trash' yet."

She'd been saving that one for a special situation. But people like this, who cut all these creatures -- and people -- apart? They qualified as 'trash'.

"We're going to need to be prepared to get the heck out," she added. "This is going to burn hot and fast and I'd really prefer not to go out in a blaze of my own glory."

[bestnamer]

"Because they're trash! Haha! Nice one."

Mikey looked up from the layout map to point at the next room over.

"There's a fire escape across the hall."

[othersdestructive]

In response to the "take out the trash" thing Raph looked at Mikey and then pointed at Nico.

"I like her."

Then he smashed one last container and moved towards the door so they were ready to go.

"Let's do this."

[spellitonce]

"All right," Nico said, and then raised her voice so Mabel and Dipper could hear. "I'm going to clear the building, and then we need to get out on the fire escape so we can get out of here. Dipper, you have the snow globe?"

She'd given it to him to take care of because, of the three of them who'd originally gone on the rescue mission, he was the one with the least amount of power for offense or defense. If one of them needed to escape or call for back-up, he'd be best for it.

Once again, she brought her hand up to her mouth and worried her hangnail with her teeth. It started to bleed, again, but it also gave up the ghost and finally came off all the way. She'd have to do something else to get blood to burn the place down.

"Take out the trash," she intoned, closing her eyes and willing everyone that wasn't the five of them to be (safely) ejected from the building.

[bestnamer]

"And STAY out, yo," Mikey called after them.

[othersdestructive]

Now that that was done, Raph shouldered open the door to the twins outside, who were already ready to run.

"Light it up!"

This place needed to burn to the ground.