TMNT meets Hellboy bloodbath epidemic

Chapter 3 The hunt begins

I apologize this is so late ladies and gentlemen. Something happened with it and I had to start over almost from scratch. It took maybe a year but here it is folks the third chapter of bloodbath! :D Also in case any of you are getting confused, when I say something is in a character's POV (point of view) I mean it is told from that character's angle, I know I have the whole story in third person but it is from that character's corner. Thanks so much for the kind words everyone, it really helps. :D

~Abe's POV~

Abe examined the closest carcass, which was that of a young man in the twenties range with dark brown hair, and then moved on to the other two confirming that all three shared the same neck wound. Two small puncture marks on the side near the jugular. A chill went down his spine; to the regular police this would not mean much as it was not a large wound that could have been from a large needle to drain the blood but even a needle would have let blood escape which would then have to be wiped away smearing it or leaving chemical residue from any cleaning agent. There was nothing like that here this was clean as a whistle; whatever happened here happened fast. Abe looked around the ally; not a trace of blood to be found anywhere, though, the dirt further in showed signs of a brief struggle. Abe got in closer to examine the dirt better and put his hands out to feel what story it could tell him. Instantly foggy visions and vague emotions flooded his mind; the men had cornered who they believed to be yet other defenseless woman by herself in the back of the ally. The woman refused to turn and face them so the leader pushed her against the wall. The next instant the leader was dead on the ground and the other two were trying to fend off something they could barely see; it was all over within two seconds. And the woman dragged the three bodies closer to the exit then moved like a bullet from a gun. Abe withdrew his hand and returned to the rest of the group.

"Yes, this is definitely up our ally…so to speak. From what I could gather this was a bait/ambush attack, the attacker lured the victims in by acting helpless then struck hard." Abe explained to the rest of the assembled group.

"Greaaaat, just we need." Liz muttered irritably.

Professor Broom, however, was deeply troubled and became lost in thought of what this could entail. He tried to form a picture of who or what they could be up against with this new development. Leo, in turn, had some questions regarding the perpetrator "So did whatever do this…appear human?"

"Well, at least human enough to trick the victims" Abe replied noting from the evidence because he was not able to actually see the event in greater detail.

A siren wailed in the distance drawing the undivided attention of the group. A few moments passed as everyone tried to discern the direction they were moving in. The sirens steadily grew in volume and pitch so the group silently moved into the shadows and away from the crime scene. Everyone trudged in silence to the BPRD's waiting helicopter several blocks away. The turtle creatures kept to the shadows from the rising sun. As the agents began to board, final farewells were bid along with promises to return once more was uncovered and a plan was in place. The turtles nodded and promised they would keep a look out and get in touch with the BPRD if anything new turned up. In order to do this they got a new custom made walky talky. As the sun began to peak over the smaller buildings the helicopter took off for New Mexico and the three turtles retreated back into the shadows of the sewer.

~Don's POV~

Several days after that first run in, the time past with no new leads. Even the attacks seemed to have stopped. Don decided to look at the first reported incident and look for any other major accidents around that time that might help in establishing a new scope in what they could be dealing with. In an extensive search of events in the last six months only two notable candidates presented themselves; an attack along the East River involving two victims identified as engineers and an unknown number of assailants. It was being classified as an unsolved robbery/murder which seemed to have been pushed under the rug due either to lack of evidence or as a cover up and an explosive accident in a state of the art medical lab down town also not well explained. The medical lab incident struck Don's fancy more as that would be the perfect place to have such a rare strain of bacteria as the one he had found on the bodies of the victims. The details of the accident were also shrouded in obscurity for reasons not well established in any of the news articles. With this new info, it was time to start digging deeper using whatever they could. Additional research yielded that the lab had the acronym MCT and had been specialized in infectious diseases such as MRSA, Lyme disease and antibiotic resistant Tuberculosis. Attached to the articles were a couple pictures of the lab both before and after the accident. This definitely caught his attention and he considered calling the BPRD up to tell them about this new lead but decided against it. What if it turned out to be nothing, he felt compelled to dig deeper before involving the super-secret government agency that specialized in the paranormal occurrences. After thinking but not coming up with any satisfactory answers to where to look next Don decided to consult his father on how to approach this problem from a new angle. Getting up and stretching his muscles to restore them from the long hours of sitting, staring at his computer trying to find answers. Don walked out and found Master Splinter in his room meditating and didn't have the heart to disturb him so Don opted instead to take a quick snack break. Mikey was in the kitchen starting to make dinner as Don poured himself a cup of his beloved dark coffee and put some leftover Chinese takeout in the microwave and waited for a minute.

Mikey had noticed that Don was spending a lot of time in his lab the last few days. Mikey knew what he was doing but still…he had not spent this much time on one thing since he quit his IT job. Mikey decided to ask if he was making any progress and turned to him saying "So how is the big search for our vampire going".

Releasing a long pent up groan, rubbing the throbbing knot in his neck Don replied "well so far, I have found something of interest that may help explain where the bizarre bacteria strain came from but nothing can be proven yet until we are able to check out the site for ourselves. I don't know how long it is going to take to get everybody ready for that".

Don sighed and retrieved the food from the microwave and began to eat much to Mikey's annoyance. "You know dinner is going to be ready here in a bit right dude?"

"And my stomach has room for that too" don replied with a small chuckle.

Mikey went back to getting the food ready and Don thought about how they could find something relating to the alley murders in the destroyed infection lab.

~Hellboy's POV~

The frogs had been a false alarm and he still wasn't sure if he was completely happy about this or not. When the chopper had finally gotten back to New Mexico, Hellboy Had been able to take a shower and go back to bed for a quick nap then onto the mission they had lined up that day which happened to be a trip to the Bahama islands to investigate an old map that had been left by the conquistadors to mark their progress as well as specific events in their journey. For their trouble they had gotten stuck in an underground labyrinth of both natural and manmade tunnels to fight the giant octopus shark hybrid, known to the locals as the Lusca, for a golden talisman that had been stolen from the natives. They had not even been allowed to stay for very long either before they were flown back to New Mexico. The rest of the day was spent training and discussing different tactics for situations that may be encountered in the future. Then finally everything quieted down and Hellboy was able to go back to his room and spend some time with his cats. After several minutes, however, he was called out again to the main communications and computer room as the whole room buzzed back and forth about new information that had been recovered that could offer a new lead on the attacks in New York. They all seemed to have taken place in small sheltered alleys on the lower east side in a rudimentary circle pattern and when the center of this circle was located they had an area to begin their investigation.

"I also want to check the recent police reports and classified files for any additional information on these attacks. The public story is that these are simple disease outbreaks but we need to find out if the police secretly suspect anything" Professor Broom announced to the entire room as follow up research for more information.

A flurry of typing and buzzing filled the room for the next twenty minutes while every NYPD file that might possibly be connected to the occurrences was hacked and opened. After this period of time one of the head IT personnel gave the final verdict. "We checked everything in the private computer files that could possibly point to the attacks and nothing came up that would raise any red flags sir. "

This irritated Hellboy who was already growing impatient by the minute. Abe decided to through in his two cents regarding the mystery. "Well then if everyone really believes it is an outbreak then perhaps we should check the hospitals and morgues in that area for additional information."

Professor Broom nodded in thoughtful approval. "That would be a good idea. The turtle identified a peculiar bacteria on the bodies of those affected that he described as being closely related to Tuberculosis from what you told me. Is that correct?"

Abe nodded "it is".

"Then that is what we focus our search on; unusual bacteria and bizarre symptoms of blood loss in all the intensive care units and funeral homes in that area." Professor Broom declared to the room in general.

After this the frantic buzzing and typing resumed for a good forty five minutes. Countless reports and records were scanned for anything that might be relevant to their situation. Some of the operators would have each other double read some of the text to verify or dismiss the article they were looking at. Others checked the medical examination testing results of some particularly nasty cases to find any connections. Abe took interest in some of the literature and helped pick out bits that could prove helpful in the investigation. Professor Broom and Hellboy stayed in the background and let the others work. Once every imaginable avenue had been explored, the head IT agent once again came forward with the results. "There have not been many notable occurrences in any of the medical centers around the lower east side but a few funeral homes have come across cases where the subject had bled out for unknown causes. Again it is being classified as an unusual disease and foul play is not suspected."

Professor Broom nodded his head at the conclusion "Thank you" and turned away.

Hellboy turned with him in part because he could tell how anxious the professor was now. Yes, whatever this thing was, it was not attacking in great numbers as to not cause a huge disturbance making the cover up that much easier and even seemed to prefer thugs over regular citizens but this also meant that this thing was cunning, intelligent and most likely going to be a royal pain in the ass to find. What needed to be done immediately was to get in touch with the turtle brothers and organize the investigation. Hellboy walked back with the professor in silence; anticipating what the next step would be in this case. After getting into Professor Broom's private office, Hellboy picked up his walky talky and placed it on the desk. "Do you think we should call them now sir?"

Professor Broom thought hard about it for a moment then looked at his adoptive son and nodded. Hellboy nodded back, dialed the number and waited for someone to pick up. The line rang for a few seconds but presently the line was picked up by the intellectual turtle who had explained the situation with the disease in the first place. "Hello?"

"Hay we found something that might help track this thing down. We're going to come up once we have everything ready. Where do you want to meet up?"

Hellboy waited as the turtle asked the others the question and a discussion was started and finished for about a minute until a resolution was reached. "We can meet in the same ally you found the last three victims in. We have found a lead of our own as well" The turtle, whose name Hellboy could not remember off the bat, replied.

"Alright see you in a bit." Hellboy grunted then hung up.

The flight out to New York took longer than Hellboy wanted but once they finally touched the team mobilized, taking the gear and supplies packed for the hunt and distributing it to every member than setting off to the ally. All four turtles were waiting for them and silently slunk behind an adjoining ally and then into a large, deserted warehouse to discuss the plan of attack. Professor Broom allowed the turtle named Don to share what he found first. "Well I tried looking for some event that had happened before the disease started spreading and it turns out there was a catastrophic accident in a medical research lab named Medical Chemicals and Technologies or MCT they were working with some serious stuff including antibiotic resistant Tuberculosis. If you look at this you might find something interesting."

Abe took the piece of paper that Don had handed him and scanned down before passing it onto Professor Broom, who read it a little more carefully before also passing it around for everybody to see. When it got to Hellboy, he noticed that there were parts of the paper that had been highlighted. Reading just those parts Hellboy gathered that the place was doing a lot of work being done on alternative treatments for drug resistant strains of disease, had been funded by the World Health Organization nine years ago but had been under investigation for misuse of supplies and illegal experimentation just prior to the accident. Looking further down on the paper Hellboy read that a cause for explosion had been attributed to faulty wiring and a gas leak, though the evidence for this was circumstantial. Passing the paper on to the next person Hellboy turned his attention to Abe who had finished telling what they had found in the pattern of the attacks and had taken out a map to show the turtles their point. The turtle with the blue facemask and swords frown and took the sheet. Hellboy got closer to listen to the debriefing.

~Leo's POV~

Leo looked at the map closely then showed it to his brothers "see anything strange about this guys?"

The three other turtles looked at it and Don's mouth fell open "oh my gosh, that's near the lab!"

"That is what I was thinking; it kind of looks like it might be the old, crumbly office building. You know the one the city tried to tear down but kept running into trouble so they had to sell it to a private contractor that never did anything" Leo said taking another look at the map.

"Yeah I remember that too. The news reports were tryin to figure out why nothin was happening" Raph recalled as he stared back in thought.

Mikey's face was screwed up with concentration until the others were done then whispered "do…do you think these could be connected.