"Are you kidding? Captain Ryan is a great leader!"
"He'll never beat the leader of the Fantastic Four Food Groups," argued Raph. He looked over when he heard Michelangelo walk past the turnstiles, then went back to his geek war with Leo. "The one and only-" but he cut himself off when he registered what he had seen.
"Mikey?" he said, his voice suddenly flooding with concern. "What happened to you? You look terrible!"
Donnie looked up from the news and Leo from Raph to see that their little brother was, indeed, very pale and gently shaking.
"Are you okay?" Donnie asked.
"You aren't going to believe this."
"You're right," said Raph when Mikey had finished. "I don't believe it."
"I don't know, Raph," Leo said. "It seems a lot more realistic than alien brains in robot bodies, and we all know how that went."
Raph crossed his arms, giving Leo an annoyed, skeptical glare.
"His story checks in," Donnie added, putting his T-phone away. "I've called every buisness in that area, no one's picking up."
"It's worth a look," Leo said as Raph gave a disapproving growl. "And besides, you haven't had much to beat up in a week," he added in a singsong voice, trying to appeal to him.
"Well, that much is true," Raph agreed.
Just a few lights were on in the square when they arrived, and people had started to filter back in.
Have they already started on their next project? Mikey thought. Of course they have, shellbrain, he scolded himself. Why would they wait around when their test was successful? Especially since we might try to stop them because they know someone knows about it now.
Leo stopped ahead of them. "I don't feel anything unusual."
"They've probably already started," he thought aloud. "Moved from the test to the project."
He pointed to the building that he had seen them in, and they slunk in through the window, one by one.
Mikey went to where he had seen them, but he was surprised by what he saw.
The crate that he had knocked over was upright, the light that had been working shattered, and the machine was gone.
"What? It-it was just here!" he claimed, gesturing to the open area.
He looked up to meet Leo's and Raph's disapproving gazes. They both turned and started to walk away.
"But it-it was just here!" he repeated as they disappeared from view.
He turned to Donnie, noticing that he hadn't said anything.
"If what you're saying isn't true, then that gives me no explanation as to why the shops were all closed," he said. "I'm willing to help you poke around for a while longer."
"So, do you know how we're going to find them?" Mikey asked as they walked across the roof.
Donatello pulled the mutagen tracker from underneath his belt.
"After Mr. O'Neil was mind-controlled, I tried to modify this to be able to find any more control devices, but it didn't work well because the devices weren't giving anything off in a radiating pulse that I could zone in on, so there wasn't much I could have it scan for."
"What?" Mikey said.
"It should be able to track the machine you told us about because since he's trying to mind-control more than one person, I should be able to follow the frequencies in the atmosphere that can directly alter human brainwave patterns," Donnie explained.
"Again-what?"
"I can uusee thiiis tooo traack the maachiiine," Donnie said annoyedly, pronouncing the words unnessiscarily slow.
"Oh. Then track away."
After a minute of tampering with the controls, Donnie pointed to the left of him before starting in that direction.
"The tracker's going crazy," Donnie said. "We must be close."
"But D," Mikey said, unable to keep the worry out of his voice, "How are we going to keep ourselves from being controlled?"
"You said you were the only one who noticed the empty square?"
Mikey nodded.
"Maybe we aren't as vunerable since we're mutants," Donnie said. "It was probably designed specifically to alter human brainwave patterns. Besides, you said it only got stronger when you got closer to the centre. When it gets strong, we'll have to remind ourselves what we're here to do."
They walked towards the centre with Donnie leading the way.
Mikey's senses seemed sharper. He was alert, jumping at every small noise other than their footsteps.
"They are a threat to you."
It took him a second to register it. The voice in his head was so subtle that he barely noticed it. It was quiet, almost a whisper, but yet the voice was calming, soothing, as if it belonged to a close friend who posed no danger to you and held no secrets. He stopped to listen again.
"You can't listen to them. They are not your friends. You cannot trust them."
Who? he asked the voice.
And he suddenly knew.
No. They are my friends, he thought, although part of him wanted to listen to the voice.
"They are a threat," the voice said.
No.
"Wouldn't it be easier without any threats?"
I can trust them.
"Kill them."
No! he told the voice, but yet another part of him said, would it be so bad?
Don't listen to it.
He shook his head, trying to clear his mind.
"It's you. Why have you come back?"
It took Mikey a second to realize that the voice that had just spoken was not the one in his head or even his own; it was Donnie's.
Shocked, he looked up to see that his older brother was glaring at him, the expression in his eyes not natural to him.
"I'll stop you," he growled in a cutting, hard voice. "You won't get past me."
