Chapter 01: Mutating Mittens

Mittens tiptoed over to the window and with a smooth jump landed on the window bench. She stretched her slender body and extended her sharp claws while doing so. Over the last six months the former small kitten had turned into a beautiful cat, still a young cat, sure, a teenager in human terms, but nothing was reminiscent of the cute, a bit clumsy kitten she had been half a year ago.

Mittens yawned and looked out of the window. It was getting dark, but still not time for dinner, so she had some time left. She looked down into the side street and spotted two teenage boys, hanging around there. She knew those boys, and they were always up to play with Mittens.

A loud meow escaped Mittens' mouth and seconds later her owner marched up to her.

"What is it, Mittens?" the young man asked while stroking the head of his cat. The young cat closed her eyes for a moment and purred loudly before looking out of the window again and meowing once more.

"Wanna go out and play?" her owner asked. Mittens meowed again.

"I'll take that as a yes," he chuckled and opened the window.

Mittens jumped out of the window and onto the fire escape which she now was climbing down. Moments later she reached the side street.

Meowing loudly she marched over to the two teenagers.

"Hey there, Mittens!" one of the boys greeted her and the other patted her head for a second.

Mittens answered with loud purring and rubbing up against the boys' legs.

The boys were talking about school, their favorite cartoons and comics when another teenage boy came running down the side street.

"Guys, guys!" he called out. "I gotta show you something!"

He came to a halt in front of the boys and put down his backpack.

The other two looked at him with an asking look in their eyes.

"What is it?" one of them asked.

"Check this out!" the boy with the backpack said as he opened it and pulled out a canister with a glowing liquid in it.

"Whoa…," the two other boys uttered.

"What on earth is that?" one of them asked.

"No idea," the boy with the backpack answered. "I found it in abandoned warehouse. Pretty cool, huh?"

Mittens looked at the canister. She liked the colors of the glowing liquid. It looked quite interesting, and it made such a nice sound when the canister was moved a bit. She wanted to play with it, she wanted to touch it with her little paws.

She stared at the canister and jumped up to touch it.

"No, Mittens!" the boy said, holding the canister a bit higher. "That's no toy!"

Mittens' eyes were still glued to the canister, her muscles tightened as she hunkered down, and then jumped for it.

She tried to sink her claws into the canister, but slid, and instead her claws sank down into the boys' hand.

"Ouch!" the boy cried out and tried to shake the young cat off. While doing so he let go of the canister. Mittens couldn't hold on any longer, and moments later she and the canister were sent flying to the ground. The canister broke and the liquid was spilled all over the young cat. She hissed and ran away.

"Now that's just great! Not only is the canister broken, Mittens' owner is going to hate us now because he has to bath her," one of the boys announced.

"Knowing him I guess he will make us bath her," the second boys said.

"That is if he finds out it was us," the third boy said.

The other boys looked at him, blinking a few times.

"Do you want to bath Mittens? You know how she is!"

"You have a point. Let's go!"

And the next second the boys were running out of the side street.

Mittens on the other hand had crouched down next to a waste container. Something was terribly wrong. Her whole body was aching, and as she tried to climb under the waste container, she somehow couldn't make it. She didn't know what was going on. She had climbed under that container this morning because she had spotted a mouse there, but now she didn't fit in. What was wrong?

Maybe her owner knew what to do. Besides, it was time for dinner anyway. And with that she set off for home.

"Mittens! Mittens!" the young man cried for his cat, leaning out of the open window. Where was she? It was time for dinner, and Mittens never was late for that.

Moments later a shadowy figure landed on the fire escape. The silhouette was that of a woman, but when the figure stepped into the light the young man's jaw dropped and his eyes widened in horror. There was a creature standing in front of him, its body covered in black fur with some white marks, its cat-like eyes shimmered in green and yellow, and its tail swished from one side to the other.

"What are you?" he cried out.

The creature looked at him and frowned, its mouth moved.

"Me…meow…Mi…Mittens…meow…me…Mittens…me," it said.

The man screamed and drew back. "Get away from me!"

"Me…Mittens," the creature said again, but the man just screamed again, and when the creature tried to climb through the open window, the man grasped a vase and threw it at the creature.

"Vicious mutant! Get away from me!" he cried out.

The vase hit the window bench and broke into pieces, one of the shards hitting the creature's face. The creature hissed, moved back and climbed up the fire escape and disappeared into the darkness.

Mittens landed on a rooftop later that night. She cowered down, her mind racing. What had happened back there? Her owner who normally was so kind had thrown a vase at her, calling her a vicious mutant. Something was terribly wrong.

She looked down her body. It looked so different from her normal appearance. She looked at her paws that now looked like hands, each hand with four fingers. She tensed the fingers on her right hand and her claws extended. At least they were still there. She looked around on the rooftop and spotted a puddle of rain water. She crawled over to it and hunkered over it. She looked at her reflection in the water. Was that really her face? It looked so much more human-like. Plus there was long black hair framing it. Her eyes still looked like those of a cat. She opened her mouth and saw her fangs were still there. So she wasn't completely defenseless. She had her claws and fangs. She could defend herself if she had to.

Her fingers touched the collar she was still wearing – the collar her owner had given her, red with a golden heart-shaped pendant. She tipped the pendant with one finger. There was her name engraved on it – Mittens. That was her. She was Mittens. She always would be Mittens.

The cat-mutant stood up, lowering her eyes one more time on her reflection in the water – a reflection that seemed to belong to someone else. But it was her. She knew it. It might feel wrong, but there was nothing to be done about it right now.

Or was there? She remembered something that had happened months ago when that green turtle-mutant had found her on that rooftop and had wanted to bring her back to her owner. But her owner had freaked out. Her owner had been afraid, and as a good cat she had known immediately what to do. She had attacked that mutant, fought him with all her strength, but being a little kitten that hadn't been much. He had shaken her off easily.

Her owner had been afraid of that mutant like he had been afraid of her today. Her owner must be thinking all mutants were evil. But she wasn't evil. She was still his cat. She just had to show him that she was different. Maybe if she could capture that mutant he had been so afraid of and bringing him to her owner as a gift like she did when she managed to capture a small mouse or a butterfly, he would understand. He had never freaked out when she had brought him a gift. Yes, bringing this mutant as a gift would make him understand. He would understand and see her as his pet cat again. He would welcome her back home again. She just had to capture that mutant first.

She took a few steps, then looked down her body again. Something felt wrong. Not only her new body, something seemed to be missing. She frowned. And then it hit her. She was naked! Yes, her body was still covered with fur, but now that her body was so much like a human's – she even had breasts, for cat's sake! – she felt naked for the first time in her life. She growled silently. Who would ever have thought a cat could feel naked? But on second thought, she was no normal cat any longer.

She scanned her surroundings and spotted clotheslines on a nearby rooftop. She jumped over to that rooftop and grabbed a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. She slipped into the T-shirt. It was tight, bringing out her breasts, but she somehow liked that. Then she used her claws to make a hole in the back of the shorts for her tail, then put them on. Yes, the shorts were tight as well, but it suited her. She was sure about that one. For the first time that night she smiled. Not a cat-like smile by blinking her eyes, no, a human-like smile. The corners of her mouth lifted. It felt strange and good at the same time.

Then she looked around. She had to find that turtle-mutant. As fast as possible.

Luckily for Mittens, the four brothers were on their evening patrol. And they weren't that far away at the moment.

Leo had just stopped his team on nearby roof-top and scanned their surroundings.

"It has been too quiet the last weeks," he said with a frown.

"Yeah, we didn't get into any fights," Raph confirmed with a sigh. "This is getting boring."

The moment he said that someone attacked Mikey from behind, pushing him to the ground.

"You were saying?" the youngest turtle asked, drawing his nunchucks.

"Alright!" Raph announced cheerfully before he kicked whoever had attacked Mikey into the stomach, sending him or her to the ground.

That someone hissed loudly, but now exposed to the light the four brothers saw a humanoid cat now getting back on her feet.

"Another mutant?" Donnie asked.

"Wow, that was pretty lame for a brainiac, Donnie," Mikey answered. "Even I could have told you that this is another mutant."

"Haha, very funny!" his older brother replied.

Then they attacked this cat-mutant. All she did to fight them back was some major clawing and biting, but she focused on Mikey all the time, lunging at him whenever she could. So Donnie was able to hit her over the head with his bo, thus knocking her out.

The mutant was lying face down on the ground.

Mikey moved closer.

"Mikey, be careful!" Leo warned.

"Why should I be?" Mikey asked. "She's out cold."

And with that he grabbed the mutant by the shoulders and turned her on her back. He looked over her, suddenly catching a glimpse of the golden pendant on her collar. He reached for it, reading what was engraved on it.

"Mittens?!" he cried out.

When Mittens woke up she felt dizzy. Her vision was blurry when she opened her eyes but she forced them to stay open. And finally her vision became clear. She was in a room, lying on a bed. She sat up.

"Oh, look!" a voice said and she could hear someone approaching. She hissed.

"Hey, no need to get angry!" Mikey said as he came to stand next to the bed. "I just want to talk to you!"

The cat-mutant hissed again. "Me…you!"

"Meow?" Mikey said, scratching his head.

"No, you!"

"Okay."

Mittens cowered down, lunging at him, but Mikey jumped to the side, so Mittens landed on the floor.

"Where am I?" she asked while she turned around and lunged at Mikey again who again dodged her attack.

"In my room," the green mutant answered. "And now stop this! I don't want to hurt you!"

Mittens attacked him once more, but her attack was useless again.

"Please stop it, Mittens," Mikey said again. "If you keep this up, my brothers will be here in no time, and they don't have a problem with hurting you."

Mittens bared her teeth, but then jumped on the bed and sat down.

"Why am I here?" she asked.

"I couldn't leave you back there," Mikey answered. "You were unconscious and totally defenseless. Heck, you can't even defend yourself properly when you're awake!"

This earned him another hiss from Mittens.

"Sorry," he said, grinning insecurely. "But it's true."

Mittens lowered her eyes and sighed. "I know."

"What happened to you anyway? Last time I saw you, you were some cute little kitten."

"And I was a beautiful young cat this morning," Mittens said. "But then I got showered with this mysterious glowing ooze, and next thing I know I looked like this. I went back home, but my owner freaked out."

"I remember that one." Mikey nodded. He then looked Mittens in the eye. "Why did you attack us, me in particular?"

"Because I have to show my owner that I'm still his little cat. He likes it when I bring gifts, and when I bring him you he will recognize me and take me back. He is so afraid of you because he thinks you are evil, so if I can show him that I am not evil by bringing you to him, I can be his cat again."

"You really think so?"

Mittens nodded.

"And do you think I'm evil as well?"

"Not anymore. Besides you could have left me stranded. But my owner thinks you are. And I am his cat."

Mittens thought of her owner, of her home. She teared up.

Mikey sat down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You really miss him, huh?"

Mittens nodded, the tears running down her cheeks.

"Well then, bring me to your owner."

Mittens' eyes widened in surprise. "Why would you do that?"

Mikey stood up, pointing at his chest with his thumb. "'Cause I'm a cat-loving dude, and I don't want any cat to be sad. And it looks like this includes cat-mutants as well!" He gave Mittens a broad grin.

Later that night they were back on the rooftops. They had just sneaked out, but it appeared that although Mittens was really bad at fighting, she was a natural when it came to sneaking. Due to her inner – and outer – cat, Mikey presumed. And he knew his brothers would never understand what he intended to do, so it was best to not let them find out.

They were standing on a rooftop, looking down to the apartment building where Mittens' owner lived.

Mittens' ears twitched.

"What is it?" Mikey asked, but then he could hear it, too.

It was Mittens' owner, calling her name.

"He's looking for me!" Mittens cried out. "He's missing me!"

And with that she was about to jump to the fire escape, but Mikey stopped her.

"Mittens, I got an idea," he said. "It maybe work, but I'm not sure. Wanna give it a try?"

Mittens looked at him surprised, but then nodded.

"Mittens!" the young man called out into the night. "Mittens?"

He sighed. It was unusual for his cat to be gone so long. He hoped this strange creature hadn't grabbed her.

"Sir," a voice said from below, and when the young man looked down, he could see someone climbing up the fire escape.

"I got your cat," this someone said, but no matter how hard the young man tried he couldn't quite spot who this was. Whoever it was, he preferred to stay in the shadows.

"Well then," he said as this man – the voice belonged to a young man, he was sure – finally had reached his level, but still stayed in the shadows, "where is she?"

"She looks a bit different now, but you will see that it is her. Just look at her white markings and her collar, will you please?"

The young man looked a bit, no, very surprised, but nodded in agreement. And the next thing he saw was another figure jumping down on the fire escape on his level, but this figure stepped into the light.

The young man's eyes widened in fear and he gasped. That was this mutant that had shown up here earlier tonight.

But this time he did as this other guy had told him. He eyed the mutant, looked at its fur color, the markings and finally at the collar, and yes, this was definitely the color his Mittens had been wearing.

"Mittens?" he asked disbelievingly. "Is that really you?"

The cat-mutant nodded, tears dwelling in her eyes.

"What happened?" her owner asked.

"I got showered with some strange ooze, and then I looked like this."

"Oh, my poor cat!"

Mittens looked at her owner, blinking a few times. And then it hit her! He had called her his cat! She was his cat.

And without further hesitation she hugged him, rubbing her cheek against his and purring loudly.

The young man was surprised, but hugged her back, stroking her head gently.

When Mittens finally let go of him, he looked at her concerned.

"What should I do with you now?" he asked.

"I…I am your cat," Mittens answered. "I have to stay with you."

Her owner frowned, and then shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mittens, but that's impossible. You are no cat, you are a mutant. You can't stay here. It's too dangerous! Some government-dude or a mad scientist will show up to take you away. And I don't want to know what they would do to you."

"I can take care of her," Mikey said, now stepping into the light.

"You…you are that green mutant!" the young man cried out.

"I am. And being a mutant, I know how to help Mittens."

The young man looked from Mikey to Mittens, then back to Mikey. "I guess you're right."

"But…but…," Mittens stammered.

Her owner paced his hands on her shoulders. "He is right, Mittens. Go with him." He gently stroked her head once more. "Be a good cat, will you?"

Mittens nodded and rubbed her head against his stroking hand, and when her owner took his hand away, Mikey grabbed her hand, drawing her away from the window.

"I will miss you, Mittens," the young man said.

Mittens looked at him one more time, a sad meow escaping her mouth. And then she and Mikey climbed down the fire escape.

Moments later they were back in the sewers. Mittens was following Mikey, but she was slowing down and finally came to a halt. When Mikey realized that he stopped as well and turned around to look at her.

"He sent me away," Mittens said, tears running down her cheeks. "What do I do now?"

"What you do now? I will tell you what you do now!" Mikey said. "First you cheer up, because there are so many exciting things about to happen. You will meet my friends, we will find you a nice place to live – not too far away from our lair, of course. I promised to take care of you. And then we have to make this the best time of your life." He grinned encouragingly at the cat-mutant.

"You in?" he asked and reached out his hand for her to shake it.

Mittens looked at him for a few seconds, then her sad face turned into a smile, her eyes sparkled. She bent forward and rubbed her cheek on Mikey's hand and started to purr.

"I'd take that as a yes," Mikey said with a smile.