2012

Chapter 1

"I'm home!" I called, plopping my bag by the table.

As it did every day, my voice called my brothers into the kitchen immediately.

"Hey, Raph! Can you catch?" I asked, tossing him a magazine.

I then pulled out a book I had gotten from the library. The book was titled "How To Speak Basic Japanese." I slid the book across the table to Leo.

"Did you get it for me? Did you? Please say you did." Donnie begged.

I pulled a Grade 11 level math book and some Grade 12 level science notes and handed them to him.

"Thanks, sis!" He grinned.

I noticed Mikey's expectant smile from the corner of my eye and pulled my homework from my bag.

"Hey, Donnie, can you help me with this?" I called.

I noticed the smile turn into a disappointed frown really quick.

"Oh, I'm just kidding, Mikey. Of course, I got you something." I assured him, reaching into my bag and pulling out a new video game.

Mikey's eyes lit up like a pair of bright lights.

"Plants vs. Zombies 4! Thanks, Ming! You're the best!" He hugged me and tramped off to the TV to play his new game.

Every Friday, I bring presents home for my brother. They can't go to school, I'm forced to go to school, so I figured, what the heck. They're happy, I'm happy, we're all happy.

My oldest brother, Leo, loves following traditions. That includes learning Japanese. My big brother, Raph, for some weird reason, is hooked on those magazines. My little brother, Donnie, is super smart, and way beyond my mental intelligence. And my baby brother, Mikey, my best friend, is a video game fanatic.

The thing is, though, no matter how much I try to convince them otherwise, they want to go above ground and be "normal".

I've told them how the world works. How disgusting and horrible "normal" really is. They don't listen to me.

Anyway, it was a week or so later, and I was walking home from school. I had accidentally spilled Hydrochloric acid in science class and had therefore gotten detention. So it was now pretty dark outside.

The street was dark and foreboding, and I didn't feel safe at all.

I grabbed my phone and called Leo. It was a survival technique I had learned. If something didn't feel right, I called Leo and kept him on the phone just in case.

"Hello?"

"Leo. Hi. I'm on my way home. I'm passing by the Elementary School. Something doesn't feel right." I was so thankful that he had answered his phone.

"Want us there?" He asked.

"No, not yet. I just want to talk to you. Just in case." I told him.

"Yeah, okay. Sure."

"Thanks, bro." I breathed a sigh of relief. I always felt better when I at least heard my brother's voice when something didn't feel right.

"No problem. I'm gonna put you on speaker phone with the others, too, okay?"

"Yes. Please do." I urged. The more brothers, the better I would feel.

I could hear Raph in the background already, asking who Leo was talking to. Leo answered, and I could hear the others gathering around.

"Hey, it's Ming! Hey, Ming!" Mikey called.

"Hi, Mikey." I laughed, as the knots in my stomach loosened.

"Where are you? You're late." Raphael demanded.

"I know, Raph. I'm at the corner between Main Street and 22nd. You know, past where the Elementary School is?" I replied.

"Guys, come on. I'm tracking you from my lab. Something doesn't feel right." Donnie sounded pretty worried. I could hear a flurry of movement, meaning the other were following Donnie.

I suddenly noticed a big black van coming down the street. Something about the van tightened the knots up again.

"Guys. Guys, there's a van here. It's black. I don't like the looks of it. It's making me really uneasy." I told them.

"It's okay. Just keep walking. I got a tracker on your jacket." Donnie replied.

I would have normally asked why Donnie had put a tracker on my coat, but at this point, I was thankful he had. If that van slowed down, I was going to start running, and there were no promises whether or not I would go straight home.

The van slowed to my speed. I moved out of arm's reach of the curb.

The window of the van rolled down.

"Leo? Leo, you're still there, right?" I asked, petrified of the van.

"yeah. Yeah, we're still here. Why? What's up?" He asked.

I cast a glance at the men in suits that sat in the van.

"Young lady, you will come with Kraang in the vehicle known as the van Kraang is driving." The man in the passenger seat spoke in a robotic, monotonous voice of broken English. The man in the driver's seat looked just like him.

This guy was setting off tons of red flags. I started to run, trying to tell the guys what was going on as I did.

The van caught up easily. The man in the passenger seat leapt out of it in front of me, as the van was moving.

I stopped and turned to run the other way.

"Guys, help! I don't think I can outrun them!" I gasped.

I tripped over a huge stick on the sidewalk, somehow not dropping my phone.

I had skinned my knee and it was bleeding, but that was the least of my worries.

"Guys, help me!" I begged them.

"Hang tight, Ming, we'll be right there." Donnie assured.

"Don't hang up, okay?" Leo told me.

"Yeah." I tried to stand up and start running again, but the man grabbed my wrist, causing me to drop my phone. The screen cracked as it landed on the pavement.

I struggled as much as I could, screaming as the man pulled me towards the van.

"Leo! Leo, HELP ME! Help me! Please, don't let him take me! Leo! HELP ME!" I screamed, as the man forced me into the van, where two more men sat. Men who looked exactly like the driver.

"NO!" I shouted as the two other men held me still while the first guy closed the van doors.

I wrenched my arms from their grip and slammed my fist against the closed doors, which had no windows.

One of the men then spoke. And a chill went down my spine as I realized he had the exact same weird monotonous broken English as the first one did.

"The one known as the prisoner will be still, or Kraang and Kraang will be forced to do that which is known as, knock her out."

They're robots. I realized. I remembered my brothers telling me about robot aliens not long ago, around two or three days after their first encounter with the topside.

I hoped my brothers would be able to find me. I didn't know what these guys wanted with me, but I was absolutely terrified of them. They could do anything they wanted to me. I was powerless to do anything about it.

I clenched my hand into a fist, launching a huge assault on the door of the van, doing anything I could to get away.

The men grabbed me again, roughly. I struggled against them.

"Hold the one which is known as our prisoner still. Be still." The Kraang droned.

"No. Please. Please let me go, please, I'll do anything." I begged, even though I knew I wasn't getting through to them.

I struggled more until finally, I felt a prick in my arm. Looking, I saw one of the Kraang insert a needle into my arm, a needle that had a blue liquid in it. He pushed the top of the needle, forcing the liquid into my bloodstream.

I suddenly felt dizzy, and really sick. This was bad. Last time I checked the survival handbook, unknown liquids injected into your bloodstream are not exactly a good thing.

I staggered and fell to my knees. The last thing I heard before falling unconscious was the van slow down, and another loud engine nearby, along with a loud, "Booyakasha!"