Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT
Chapter Three: Research
"There is never enough information to explain the unknown."-unknown
Don was sitting at the family table with seven books on mythology spread out in front of him and his computer running a search on "shape shifters" in every database he could access, which was quite a few.
Yet he'd come up with next to nothing. Splinter had divulged as much information as he knew about them which wasn't much at all. He knew only three main things about them:
They could change into just about anything.
They were extremely dangerous predators
They were highly territorial
With what little information he'd managed to glean from mythology, he'd figured out that shape-shifters were mostly loners, rarely interacting with their own kind. But dominate females often ruled the large territories, with multiple hive-like "drones" patrolling it.
Don frowned as his computer pulled up another page of nearly worthless information about shape-shifters.
"Some stories say that Shape-shifters are poisonous…" Don read aloud.
He jumped as the door to the lair opened and Leo shouted for Don to lock the place down. Don quickly did so and then rushed over as Leo crumpled to the ground.
April grabbed Leo's arm, pressing against the bloody rag.
"She bit him," April stammered, "he kept collapsing on the way here."
Leo was breathing in ragged gasps, whole body shaking, and sweating profusely.
Don felt sick as he remembered what he had just read.
"Help me move him to the infirmary," Don ordered, jumping as Leo started screaming and thrashing.
April jerked back, gasping in fear.
"Don! Help him," April cried out.
Leo twisted from Don's grip, crumpled to the ground and began to seize violently.
Raph, Mike, and Splinter rushed forward, drawn by the sound of the lair locking down and Leo's original shout.
"What happened?" Raph demanded as Don struggled to prevent Leo from slamming his head into the concrete floor.
"The lady came back and attacked them," Don replied, "April said that the lady bit Leo, he's having some sort of reaction."
"Dude isn't not like a werewolf thing right?" Mike sputtered, "he's not going to turn into a freaky shape-shifter dude right?"
"Not from what I've managed to figure out," Don sputtered.
Leo shuddered and went limp as wining gasps tore from his throat.
~Two Hours Later~
Leo was resting, pale and shaky, on the bed in the infirmary as Don ran frantic searches on shape-shifter bites.
April was sitting next to him, a book open in her lap as Don walked in.
"He should be dead," Don whispered.
April looked up in confusion.
"Leo?" she asked.
"He should be dead, according to everything I've found…he should be dead, should've died two hours ago," Don mumbled, he looked almost afraid of the figure in the bed.
"What does that mean?" April whispered.
"That I think we just found Luahk," Don mumbled.
April blanched, startled.
"Leo?" April sputtered.
Don moved forward and placed a hand on Leo's forehead, removed Leo's mask and started to open one of Leo's eyes.
April stopped him.
"What are you going to do if his eyes are violet Don? Will he still be your brother?" April hissed, suddenly more aggressive than she had ever been.
Don trembled slightly.
"What if Leo is just tough? What if you're over reacting?" April demanded.
Don pulled away and looped Leo's mask around the pole on the headrest of the bed.
Leo stirred, eye fluttering softly.
They were golden-brown.
"Everything I found said that if they lived past an hour of being bitten…then they were a shifter themselves…but there were rare cases of normal people living past that time…but they usually died anyway less than two hours after being bitten…it's been three," Don mumbled, sinking into a slouch in the chair beside April.
"Unless Leo is a shifter April, he'll die," Don mumbled.
"How many sources have told you this?" April asked.
Don paused.
"One actually," Don mumbled.
"Find another source that says the same then you can be sure. Generally two sources saying the same thing is a strong indicator of truth," April instructed.
Don nodded, took a deep breath and turned before walking back out of the room.
~Luahk's point of view~
Ever since she had made contact...the flood of memories…the onslaught of emotions…the pain in his skull, he was remembering…everything.
A/N: The Plot deepens, MUHAHAHA. Please Review.