Chapter 2

The Search

Splinter had been happily surprised when his students had returned with Tyroth and Sephie in tow. They were always a welcomed sight for the old rat, and it warmed his heart that his children had gained such good friends, especially Monalisa, who seemed to be very happy when she was with Sephie.

Of course, being a lone girl in a home with four boys wasn't the easiest thing in the world, so whenever Sephie and Tyroth visited, Monalisa and Sephie would get together for girl stuff.

After sharing some stories over dinner, the young mutants spent the remainder of the day playing video-games, before going to bed.

The next day, instead of sparring or practising their moves, Splinter had them arrange an obstacle course, with the purpose of training their speed and agility.

Running the course, dodging swinging tires and boards while jumping over planks, Sephie was determined to beat Monalisa's record. Reaching the end, she rang the bell and panted.

"So… how did I do?" she asked.

"Not bad, love." Tyroth said, checking the stopwatch. "Thirty eight point three, less than two seconds slower than Mona."

"Aw, I was sure that I at least would match it."

"It's still a good time, and faster than the boys." said Monalisa. "I've been doing these kind of things since I was adopted by the turtles, it's only natural that I'm a bit better."

"Keep practising and you might claim the title of fastest lizard, love." Tyroth encouraged.

"Alright, big guy, now it's your turn." said Raphael.

Tyroth took one look at the various obstacles and shook his head.

"I'll pass."

"What, you're scared?" Michelangelo teased.

"No."

"Oh yeah? Then show us what you're made of." said Raph with a cocky smile, crossing his arms.

Tyroth looked at the course again and thought about it for a moment.

"Alright then, how about a little bet, loudmouths. If I can't make it to the bell and ring it in thirty seconds or less, I'll do all the chores here for the rest of our stay. But if I win, you two will do all the chores. Deal?" the dragon said, extending his hand.

"Deal!" Raphael said without a doubt, taking Tyroth's hand and shaking it.

"Oh boy! No chores for us!" Michelangelo chimed.

As Tyroth got into position, the others were a bit confused by his actions.

"What is he thinking?" Monalisa said. "Not even I have cleared the course that fast."

"He may be fast for someone his size, but this doesn't seem possible." said Donatello.

"And… Go!" Raphael shouted.

Tyroth started running, but to everyone's surprise, he didn't enter the course, instead, he dashed alongside it all the way to the bell at the end.

"I counted twenty five seconds. How much was it?" he asked as he rang the bell.

"Uhm… twenty two point four." said Leonardo.

"You cheated!" Raphael yelled.

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did! You were supposed to run the obstacle course, not run past it!"

"I never said that. I said that I could reach the bell in less than thirty seconds, not once did I claim that I would take the course."

"He's right, you know. This would hold in court." said Donatello.

Raphael groaned in annoyance that they were right, and Michelangelo paled when he thought about how much chores they would have to do.

"Ah shell! This stinks!"

"That's what you get. But you can relax, I won't hold you to it." said Tyroth. Michelangelo sighed in relief. "I knew that the only way to get through the course, would be to break anything in my path, so I chose another way. Sometimes you have to think outside the box."

"Well put, Tyroth." said Splinter. "Even though that is not what this exercise is about, it is still something we should all take to heart. So now that we are finished for today, please clean up here."


"I can't believe that you tricked us." Raphael complained as they disassembled the obstacle course.

"As I said, that's what you get. If you still think that it was unfair, we could always settle it with a sparring match. That is, if you think that you can beat me."

"Oh, I'll beat you one of these days!"

"Should we separate them?" asked Donatello.

"I don't see why. Tyroth won't hurt Raph, and Raph can't hurt Tyroth seriously unless he really tries." said Sephie.

"And if things start to get out of hand, I'm sure that we girls can keep the boys calm." said Monalisa. "And you know how Raph can be."

"All too well, Mona. All too well." said Leonardo.


Arashi walked into Arden's lab, eager, almost impatient, to see if the doctor had produced any results yet.

"How goes the search, doctor?" the leader of the Foot asked.

"Slowly I'm afraid, my lord. The sequences I extracted from Monalisa's DNA were very… generic for a lack of better words. Since we started searching various databases, we've gotten several hundred thousands of potential matches. It will take time to filter through them all."

"We got time to wait, William. She'll be at your mercy soon enough. But what of the dragon's DNA? Any luck?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. I thought that he would have been a more difficult task, but as luck would have it, it might even be less difficult than hacking the databases. You see, he has a very special genetic marker that is unique to humans from the northern parts of Scandinavia and the north-east most parts of Russia. That alone limited the number to only a few hundred. My assistant's are currently-"

"Master! I think we have a match." said a nurse with blonde hair in a loose ponytail.

"How convenient." Arden said with a smirk. "Report."

"His name is Raymond Ottosen," the nurse explained. "he moved from north Sweden with his family to Charleston, Illinois, at the age of ten. Has records with the police for getting into fights to defend someone else. Moved to Chicago a few years ago and was murdered by a man that has been confirmed to have been one of Overlord's minions.

Roughly one year later, Overlord is supposedly killed in a factory explosion, and only a month later, the dragon is encountered here in New York. There have been several cases of criminals, including people working for Overlord, that have been taken down by mysterious vigilantes."

"Just like the turtles do here." Arashi mused. "And the dragon helps them."

"Yes, and since they never found the body, he could very well have mutated instead." said the blonde nurse.

"The ninja have reported that the dragon arrives from roughly the same direction as Chicago. We may very well have found what we're looking for. Do you have any other connections?" Arashi asked.

"Yes, master. Raymond has a younger sister, Jennifer Ottosen. Two months before the dragon was encountered, she moved here to New York, only to move again a few months later, this time to Chicago."

"Moving to Chicago after we've met the dragon. That doesn't seem like a coincident to me." said Arden.

"I agree. If nothing else, it would seem like she might even know of her brother's fate." said Arashi.

"But, master… We're not certain that this is the correct person. We still need to examine the rest." said a nurse with messy black hair, hanging like rat tails.

"He is, however, the best match so far. Everything adds up. The time, his dislike for criminals, the location." the blond nurse interjected, shooting a quick glare at the other nurse.

Arashi thought for a while, both nurses had valid points.

"Continue working with the remaining files." he said. "If this is not the correct one, we need to find the one that is. But in the meantime..." Arashi turned to Arden. "Prepare to make a house call."

"As you wish, my lord."

It seems like the Foot are unusually effective this time around. With them having discovered Jennifer, things are not looking good.

What will happen? Find out in the next chapter.