THE CITY BENEATH

Chapter 2

Robin and the escorts (that sounds like a band name, doesn’t it?) lead me through a maze of tunnels. Robin is walking on my right, with one escort in front of, and the other behind, me. My sense of direction isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, so there’s no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going…and that also sounds like a quote from some old kid’s movie. I can’t even think straight, now…my past is murky, my present is uncertain, and right now my future looks bleak. Why in God’s name did I come down here?

We pass other people in the tunnels—here a tall man in street clothes, there someone in a red uniform. (One of Raphael’s minions?) Down that tunnel on our right is a group of teenagers laughing it up, and walking past us is an older woman who might have been a corporate type on the surface. The underground is alive—alive with activity, alive with undergrounders, alive with a kind of spirit I’m only now beginning to understand. There’s a quiet optimism here beneath the streets. Too bad all I’m going to see is a cell in Holding…

Finally, the tunnels suddenly open up on what looks like an abandoned subway station, complete with an abandoned train to go with it. The rest of the station is in total disarray, with no apparent logic behind what is put where. The security detail stops so suddenly that I end up walking right into the guy in front of me. He looks over his shoulder and gives me an evil eyeful, but says nothing. Robin, meanwhile, is looking at the windows of the train, and, after catching a look at something inside it, brings her hand up to her ear yet again.

"All call from the lair, Robin in the lair with security risk, commencing audience with Leo for Holding evaluation. Raphael, your presence is requested in the lair effective immediately. Donatello and Michaelangelo, please check the lair at your next convenience. End all call."

She looks at me from behind her mirrored shades, and I honestly have no idea what her emotional state is right now. This girl is trouble, I’m thinking—and she’s going to be my escort? This whole business is giving me the creeps. Robin just looks at me, with no emotion showing, and finally nods her head.

"OK, J.D., showtime. Leo’s in the train, and he’s waiting to see you. Don’t be sarcastic, be yourself, and be honest. Address him as ‘my lord.’ You’re on your own now. Go in, and good luck. I’ll be waiting right outside once you’re done." With that, she steps over to the door of the train, pulls it open, and wordlessly motions me in. I can feel the security team’s eyes all over my back as I step into the train. Dear God…I’m scared now.

I walk into the train, and look for Leonardo. I don’t see him. I take a few more slow steps into the car, looking all around for this turtle. I can’t see him, despite the car being fully lit. For no reason, I say, "Hello? Anyone here?"

Suddenly, there’s a sword being held up against the front of my neck by someone behind me that I can’t see. I hear a voice saying, "Don’t move."

I do as I’m told, natch.

The sword doesn’t move (much), but the holder of it does. I can feel him moving around to my right, keeping the sword way too close to my neck. Finally, I see green skin—a blue mask—a brownish-yellow shell—and I know it’s Leonardo. He continues to move around me slowly, his sword staying within six inches of my neck the whole time. Finally, when he’s standing right in front of me and looking me dead in the eye, he sheathes his sword in a scabbard on his back.

I’m too scared to say anything right now, but Leonardo apparently doesn’t feel much like talking. He brings his eyes slowly up my body from my toes to the top of my head, with a very un-welcoming look on his face. Finally, he looks me in the eye again. I have to look away: his eyes are dark and harsh, and I can tell he doesn’t like me. Finally, he speaks.

"So you’re the tyro Robin brought down here." It wasn’t a question.

I simply nod, my eyes looking straight down.

"Look at me."

"I can’t."

"You do realize I can put you in Holding for up to a year, right?" He keeps both eyes on me, and doesn’t even seem to blink.

Again, I nod—what else is there to do?

"I can’t hear your head shake. Look at me, and answer me aloud. Are you a surface spy?"

"No." I say it with a bit more force than perhaps I should. I’m still looking down.

Leonardo puts his fingertips on my chin and slowly brings my head up so that our eyes meet yet again. He doesn’t look so hostile this time, and I do my best to maintain eye contact. And his skin—it feels both rough and smooth at the same time, if that makes any sense. It’s like very fine grit sandpaper or something similar to that.

"For one thing, it’s ‘my lord’ to you. Now, then. If you’re not a surface spy, then why is it that when Robin got you down to the underground, she was attacked by a soldier from the New York Renegades? Not just any soldier, either. This guy had more implants than any we’ve seen before, but none of our sensors picked him up. Apparently the Renegades are developing some kind of stealth technology, and they decided to field-test it on Robin not long after you got down to the underground. I’m putting two and two together on this, tyro, and I’m getting a very convenient four. I think you’re the one who tipped off this Renegade using some kind of surface technology we can’t detect. Prove me wrong." All the while, he continues holding my chin and looking straight into my eyes.

"I don’t know who the Renegades are, for one thing, my lord." (It feels really weird saying that to a talking reptile, believe me…you should try it sometime.) "Look, my lord…my mom just threw me out of the house today, I’ve got nowhere to go, no one who knows I’m here, no one I can even call. Please…I don’t know anything about these Renegades, and you can run any test on me you want, but I swear I don’t know anything…" All the while, I’m looking him dead in the eye, and despite my state of near panic, my eyes aren’t wavering. Leo’s still holding my chin, and I’m getting used to the feel of his skin.

Leonardo leans back a bit, cocks his head to one side, and purses what lips he has. "Tell you what, tyro. I’ll have Donatello run a scan on you for implants, and if you pass that, then no time in Holding. But if anything suspicious turns up—and I do mean anything—you’re going to Holding before night falls, and I’ll have to decide on how long you stay there. I want to believe you’re telling the truth, since Holding is getting kind of full right now. But this Underground wouldn’t survive unless I kept a tight lid on security down here. I have to be suspicious of everyone that comes down here from the surface. So it’s nothing personal, got it?"

"Got it, my lord."

"Good." He lets go of my chin. "Now tell me why you’re here."

"The short version is that my alcoholic mother threw me out of the house this morning, and threatened to kill me. I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I went to Times Square, met Robin, and the rest I guess you know."

"You have a father?" He was still looking at me very intently; I thought he was looking right through me. Just call me J.D. Saran Wrap…

"He left for Florida when I was still in diapers."

"Any brothers or sisters?"

"None."

"When’s your birthday?"

"December 12, 1998."

He pauses, seeming to consider what to ask next. "Your mom ever hurt you?"

"All the time, my lord. She’d use anything she could to beat me. She loved breaking her empty liquor bottles and cutting me with the pieces. Nothing I ever did was right to her. I came home from school with a straight A report card once, and she accused me of forging the thing. She was the worst mother God ever gave a guy, if you ask me--"

"Hold on one second." He keys his throat mike. "Raph? Leo. Are you near the lair?…OK, we’ll need you soon, so don’t go anywhere…Robin’s tyro, remember?…All right, I’ll finish interviewing him first and then you can talk to him. But send him over to Don’s lab after you’re done with your evaluation, because we need to scan him for implants…A Renegade, although I doubt that slightly…All right, then stay there. I’ll be done in a few minutes. Leo out."

He lowers his hand. "OK, tyro, here’s what happens. You’ll talk with Raphael once we’re through here. Raph will then take you up to the lab where you’ll be scanned. From there it’s either TIQ or Holding, depending on if you pass or not."

"TIQ?"

"Tyro Intake Quarters. That’s where we put the tyros we trust. Basically, it means you’re almost a full undergrounder." I’m trying to make some sense of his expression the whole time, but can’t. "You’ll need an escort everywhere you go for at least a few months, and right now I’m thinking three is a nice round number. It’ll probably take you that long to learn your way around anyway, so grin and bear it. By the way…any past drug involvement?"

"By me?"

"Yes."

"Never. No booze, no smokes, no weed, nothing, my lord. I swear. I mean, I saw what it did to my mom, and I knew I’d better not go near the stuff."

He nods definitively, and I sense my time with him is drawing to a close. "Do you have any questions for me?"

"You don’t trust me, do you, my lord?"

He cocks his head to his left, and gives me a half-smile. "Not really. But I don’t trust half the surface population that comes down here. After the Renegades started their war with us, everyone down here started distrusting the surface people. So it’s nothing personal if you get the cold shoulder until you’re a full undergrounder."

"Who are the Renegades?"

He sighs, and I can tell I’ve hit a nerve. He doesn’t get excited, though—just answers the quesiton. "The Renegades are a group of surface people who apparently made it their mission to destroy the underground. They got the name Renegades after they rebelled against an older enemy of ours called the Foot clan. The Foot were led by a guy named Oroku Saki, who called himself The Shredder. Everyone down here knows about the Renegades. You can talk to Robin about this. I’m sure she’d explain it more colorfully than I could." A look of irony flashes across his face, then disappears.

"What should I say when Raphael talks to me?"

Leonardo purses his lips again, lowers his brow, and turns his head to one side. My guess is he doesn’t like Raphael. Another sore spot—God, I’m making a really good first impression on the turtle that can lock me up for a year…

Leonardo sighs. "Tell him the full story behind what your mother did to you. Your father left you, you said?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Tell him that, too. Basically, tell him anything you want him to know about where you are so he can help set you up with some of our help groups. There are a lot of people down here who have similar situations to what you’re in, so we get them all together to assist each other. Raph’s the one who oversees all of that. Just be careful—he’s got a quick temper, and he really knows how to hurt people."

"Is there anything I shouldn’t say to him?"

Leonardo thinks this over for a moment. "Don’t give him the impression you’re scared of him. Beyond that, you should be OK. Raph likes to schmooze a bit with tyros—he wants them on his side, so to speak. And he thinks I don’t know about it, so don’t enlighten him. Understood?"

"Yes, my lord."

"All right, I have to go check on some security checkpoints near where you and Robin came in. In all fairness to you, the sensors near that checkpoint might have failed, and that might be the reason we didn’t pick up the Renegade. But don’t get your hopes up--even if the sensors did fail, you’re still not off the hook with me, understood? Because the fact still remains that you and Robin came down here and were almost immediately attacked. So we’re still going to scan you and put you in Holding if you fail the scan. Got all that?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Good. I hope our paths cross again under better circumstances."

He slides open the train doors, and then, he’s gone.

I take a seat on one of the benches of the car and put my head between my knees. This is way too much for me to handle.

I’m still sitting like that when the doors of the train open again, and I hear someone walking in. Whoever it is walks over to me and stands over me, saying nothing. Finally, I open my eyes and look up.

It’s Raphael, live and in the flesh.

"You the tyro Robin and Leo both told me about?"

"Yes, my lord."

His eyes dart to the upper corners of his eyes for the briefest of moments. "Hey, around me, you can relax a bit for now. Leo probably had you groveling at his feet before he was through with you, right?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Drop the ‘my lord’ crap and just call me Raphael, gottit? This isn’t exactly formal enough for me to want my tail kissed every sentence. Not to rant at ya, but hey, I got a whole city’s worth of people who think I’m a god. Couple-a years ago, I’d have gotten an ego and a half if thousands of people started calling me ‘my lord.’ But when everyone’s saying it to me, day after day after day…" A distant look crosses his face and he loosely crosses his arms.

"What’s wrong?"

"Ah, nothin’." He uncrosses his arms and shifts his weight slightly. "Just had to deal with one of my minions who was just a walkin’ definition of obsequious. She hadn’t been introduced to any of us turtles before, and she’d actually grown up down here. Her parents moved down here after the computers quit, and had her two years later. Trouble is, both her parents got killed by the Renegades soon after she was born. She got raised by one of my factions, but they never let her really meet me until today. She was scared to death, y’know? So out came the ‘my lord’ business, and she said she’d die for me and all that horse puckey, yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah, to the point where I almost had to reach for the Xanax bottle. But enough about me…what’s your story, man?"

"Well, I’m Jonathan Dixon, but everyone calls me J.D. My mom threw me out of the house this morning and here I am."

"Tell me more. Why’d she throw you out?"

"Who knows?" I sigh. "She’s a lush, that’s why. Never met a bottle of Absolut she didn’t like to shotgun. Her favorite activity was breaking the bottles and cutting me with the pieces. She almost got my wrists a couple of times."

"Ever call the police, J.D.?"

"She said she’d kill me in my sleep if ever I did that. And I didn’t want to spend my teenage years in a halfway house, so it was grin and bear it. It’s been like that since I was a baby."

He shakes his head. "She better not cross my path, that’s for sure. Where’s your old man?"

"Florida. He left before the computers crashed."

"Why didn’t he come back?"

"Said he didn’t want to come home every night to a woman whose real husband was the bottle, or so he tells me."

"Why didn’t you move in with your dad?"

"Because my mom told him that if I ever left, she’d kill dad and me both."

"Nice lady. Hope she burns in hell for what she did to ya." He sits down on the bench just to my right and puts his arm around my shoulder. "J.D., I got a lot of people your age down here that come from broken homes. I’ll hook you up with ‘em and you can start talking with people who know where you’re at. Sound cool?"

By way of answer, I put my right hand on top of his left shoulder. (Which is a bit tricky to do when his shell’s getting in the way, but it’s doable.) His skin isn’t smooth, but then it’s not 20-grit rough, either. "It sounds great."

He nods. "Cool. You’ll fit right in down here. Robin just happens to be in your section, and she’s already your escort, so once we get you in TIQ, you and she can trade war stories. That is, if she ever feels like talking. She’s not one to talk about her past. But she might if you yak at her just right. Anyway…Leo said you needed to go up to the lab for an implant scan if memory serves…"

"That’s right."

"I’ll walk ya up there, since I need to see Don for a second anyway. You’ll like Robin, you’ll like the underground, and I hope you’ll like me. Up for some more walkin’?"

"Do I have much choice?"

"Eh, not really. But blame Leo, not me—he’s the security freak around here. But that’s what he’s there for, so." He stands up, and I follow suit. "Let’s go, J.D."

Raphael walks to the door of the train and slides the doors open. Robin is standing right outside, leaning up against the wall of the lair almost exactly like she was leaning up against the wall of the subway station. She’s looking at the ceiling, arms folded across her chest, and when she sees Raph and me exit the train, she comes back down to a standing position.

"How’d Leo treat you, J.D.?" were the first words out of her mouth.

"Not good. Think he likes me less than my mom, for—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, time out, J.D." It was Raph speaking. "Any—broad--that can throw her own son out on the streets of New York in the middle of January is somebody I wouldn’t want to have bossin’ me around. You sayin’ you like Leo ‘bout as much as you like your mom? ‘Cuz let me tell ya somethin’, he’s good. He’s just got a nasty habit-a likin’ to show everyone who’s boss. Wasn’t always like that, but since he took over the underground after Splinter…" His voice trails off, he looks down, and to my surprise, he looks like he’s about to cry.

Robin pipes up. "It wasn’t your fault, Raph, there was nothing you could have done. Quit doing this to yourself, OK?"

I have half a mind to ask who this Splinter is, but decide I don’t want to get on Raph’s bad side.

"It was my fault, Robin. Everything that happened that night happened because I disobeyed my sensei. If I’d stayed here, instead of…he’d still be…" And with that, he leans his head on her shoulder and covers the back of his head with his hands. Robin brings her hands up to his shoulders and looks down at him, her eyes hidden behind her shades. No one else is in the lair right now, so I guess Raph’s little outburst won’t become public knowledge. And after hearing Leo warn me about how short-tempered Raph can be, it’s a bit disconcerting to see him crying his eyes out. Where’s the tough guy I was told about?

"Raph, quit it…you’re making one hell of an impression on J.D. here…"

Raphael gets the hint, and slowly composes himself. Whoever this sensei named Splinter was, I don’t know, but I can already guess a few things. One: Raphael loved him immensely. Two: Whoever this Splinter was, he’s dead now. (If he weren’t, then why would Raph be so upset at this?) Three: Raph was somehow directly responsible for the death of his sensei. Four: all of this happened very recently. Five: this is probably a factor in why everyone’s so jumpy about security. I could be wrong, but that’s what I’m thinking right now.

"We gotta lead J.D. up to Don’s lab, Raph. You gonna just stand here blubbering all day?"

"Yeah, whatever. Come on, J.D., we’re going to see Donny. And if you breathe one word of what’s happened here, I’ll personally see to it that your bones are rearranged. Got that?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Don’t you forget it, either. Now we gotta get to the lab."