Leo flinched only slightly when the needle pricked the inside of his elbow. Even after so many years of being used to the process topside, it still startled him sometimes. Though today wasn't like the other days, the first few rounds of pricking over the past few years were more important in his opinion than this. Those were to see if he was healthy. Those were to see if he was prone to contracting or spreading certain illnesses. Those were to give him vaccinations. This wouldn't really end up mattering to him, or to his brothers, at least that's what they figured, but they still had the procedure done anyway, it was required. Sure...it was a little interesting and all, figuring out the percentages, but in all honesty, would it matter?
"There we are." The needle was swiftly but elegantly removed and the phlebotomist pressed a small patch of gauze to the area before the band-aid was put over it. Leo flexed his elbow a little then nodded and smiled. "We should have results either tonight or tomorrow night." She told him, sliding the small vial filled with his blood into a plastic bag and sealing it tightly. He was free to go now, and gladly, he did.
On the way out of the hospital his large fingers brushed over the band-aid again and again, like a little ritual to make sure that it was still there. The wind was a little bit stronger than usual today, and his eyes narrowed, trying to block the wind out when he finally turned the corner and the wind was on his side now.
Donnie had gone in yesterday to get his done, and said that he'd received the results but hadn't read them yet, reserving that for the small gathering they were going to have at Little Ninja's later that night to discuss Mikey's crazy big plan for an opening party. Speaking of Mikey, Leo had forgotten to remind him to get his mutation number checked, and he pulled his phone out from his belt, sending a quick text to him that he doubted he would receive. As for Raph, he hated being bothered over those things, nagged by his brothers, but Leo was pretty sure he'd already gone out and gotten it done.
Their "birthday" (which still felt weird to say considering that wasn't exactly what they knew it as) was all on the same date, so the mutation number had to be checked a month after that day. A one trip thing. Once you got the number it wouldn't change unless you decided that a mutagen bath was a good idea. Medical science had gone pretty far actually...that's why the number had become standard procedure.
Though unlike heritage testing, which wasn't required, this test was. It would tell them what percentage of them was human, and what percentage of them wasn't. Which was intriguing, he would admit, but unnecessary. With this new procedure implemented, the government had also placed new procedures over mutants once they had received the number, one that wasn't at all necessary for most of them.
You had to be above 60% to be a part of the better half of the minority. Ridiculously enough, that was the government rule, and he supposed only the humans really understood it. It was like mutants were full blown animals, had no human in them, like dogs in a dog show they had to have a pedigree. He felt sorry for the mutants that were just barely below the mark. Considered lower class. Sure, their rights were the same and all...at least for now that was.
He looked up and saw that he was about to pass his dojo on the way back to his apartment to freshen up. He blinked confusedly and ended up crossing the street towards it instead, a redhead with a pixie cut leaned up against the side of the building with her phone for apparently no reason, though she was glancing in the window every now and again.
If it weren't for his natural instinct to find the behavior suspicious, he wouldn't have done anything, but here he was, now in front of her, and he smiled as genuinely and politely as he could.
"Is there something I can help you with?" He pulled his keys out, evidence that he co-owned the place and she nodded, though looking slightly dissatisfied with him, looking him up and down when she smirked.
"Love the Thomas the Tank Engine band-aid bro." She snickered, and it only took a second for Leo's eyes to meet his elbow and he laughed awkwardly. "Anyway, I was wondering, do you have any adult classes open? My little brother takes two every week and I've been waiting for one of you to come back, saw the sign outside." She nodded to the paper he had taped to the window around the side.
"I'd have to ask my father." He motioned for her to come in as he unlocked the door and let her in. He would still have time to freshen up and relax if he hurried. "Who's your brother? I'd know him."
"Will." She answered absently, inspecting the dojo with a heightened curiosity. Leo laughed a little, pictures of poor and hesitant little William flashing through his eyes and she looked back at him, snickering somewhat too. "Yeah...he practices at home but he's horrible."
Leo frowned slightly, shrugging his shoulders. "He just started...he's improving."
"Uh huh." She teased.
He showed a little smile and tilted his head back and forth in a sort of nod, and she raised both eyebrows in amusement as she waggled her finger at him. "You know what I'm saying, I see it in there."
Suddenly it clicked in Leo's head. This must've been the older sister that picked Will up most days, he had been thinking she looked at least slightly familiar, but in a hazy sort of way. Because she was always behind the tinted windshield of a taxi, that was why. He held out his hand for her to shake and she looked at it curiously.
"Leo." He introduced himself, hooking the dojo keys into the loop in his belt, and rather than shake his hand she slapped it like some sort of high five, which made him give a confused expression back at her.
"Max." She nodded, brushing some stray red hairs out of her eyes, smirking as Splinter appeared from the hall, immediately asking who they were and what they needed. Max answered simply and Splinter took her around back to the office to sign some papers to get her into a few classes. He followed, intrigued by her presence in a strange sort of way.
"I do have several spots open for you Ms. Ainsworth." He held a pen out to her and she gently signed her delicate signature on the line. "How would you like to pay for your classes?"
"Yeesh, uh...can I do cash for now? I just got a new job, apartment and everything. I'm not organized enough to have a credit or debit..."
Splinter nodded. "Where do you work?"
"Customer service...for now. It pays horribly." She cringed and shook her head, muttering a few indistinct other things as she handed the pen back over to her new Sensei. "Thanks."
She turned towards the doorway where Leo was leaned up against the wall and he blinked, embarrassed that he'd been caught eavesdropping if that was what she'd call it. But she didn't seem to mind, instead smiling and patting him on the arm with the back of her hand as she left. The bell above the door jingled as it shut.
Leo, finding no other interest in staying, went back to his own apartment.
The sweet smell of cleanliness soothed him into the small couch in the center of the living area right as his phone went off. His eyes were closed and at first he didn't want to bother, but eventually he pulled it out and his eyes lazily scanned over the message before they widened in surprise and he sat up straighter.
Been a while, Lameonardo.
He blinked, then smiled, letting out a breathy laugh before he sent back a quick reply.
It has. What've you been doing lately?
She didn't reply for several minutes and for a minute he wondered if he sounded desperate to see her. Well, it wasn't quite like that he just...despite it all, the painful memories throbbing in his temples, he may or may not have wanted to meet up in a cafe or something. They'd done it once or twice before. Eventually, the text tone.
Nothing. Was considering lunch tomorrow.
Leo knew what that meant, and he rubbed his shoulder. He could practically hear her voice reading the words blazing on the screen, and his thumbs did a little dance around the keys before he started typing back.
I'm open for lunch. Splinter can come too.
It's fine.
He sighed. Again she was avoiding it, and again he'd have to not tell him. It wasn't really fair to his father, and still he hadn't heard her excuse for why she only insisted on seeing him. Meeting with him. It made practically no sense, she'd seen him a year or two ago, but it was like a switch had been flipped and all of a sudden she didn't want to anymore. He nodded in defeat.
Send.
12:30?
Sure. Usual place. Later.
She was so brief in her messages it almost made him think that she was being just as cold to him as she seemed to have been toward his father but he shook it off as easily as he could.
Later Karai.
Morgan stepped out onto the pavement with her new partner, mostly begrudgingly. She hadn't needed one. She worked mostly solo, but apparently for this case she needed some dumb mutant who didn't know how to apologize to people. Her white Camaro sat a ways away from the building and she led it to him, the smell of the city filled just a bit more with exhaust fumes, fast food, and dry bloody noses.
"We're going to go see someone." She grunted, plopping down into the driver's seat as he flung himself in on the other side, slamming the door shut beside him. She started it up and hit the gas before Raph had even bothered to strap himself in, though he felt like he needed more than that, maybe a rollercoaster restraint or seven. There was no way on Earth she wasn't breaking a speed limit.
"Who taught you how to drive?" He blurted out, struggling to secure himself.
Morgan snorted, "It's New York, newb."
He rolled his eyes, gritting his teeth, trying to keep himself from falling out whenever she sped around a corner. "I'm a native, genius, I know how we drive." He sighed. "Doesn't mean we have to, geez."
She laughed and shook her head. "Whatever. Look, we're going to go see the victim, ask her a couple of questions, you need to stay in the car."
"What? I'm not staying here!"
"You heard me. Remember who attacked her, you could send her into shock." Morgan sighed, pulling up in front of a small apartment building. "I'll be right back, relax, should I put the safe guard on your gun? Bring Daniels in to babysit you?"
Raph glared. "You're real funny."
"I try." She shut the door, keys jingling as she shoved them into her pocket.
The building was rather nice actually, nicer than hers. The carpets were clean and the entire place smelled like heavenly vanilla. She rummaged around in her pocket for the paper from the file that had her floor and room number on it as she started up the staircase around the back.
Raphael seemed so dense. She hadn't needed a partner. If she were going to take a partner, she would've taken...oh, she didn't know, but anyone other than him. She'd been around for longer, had more experience, but Daniels kept bumping him up and up in ranks and all and she couldn't understand why. Maybe he had a good shot with a gun, and maybe he'd completed a couple of cases, but she could do all those things and more.
Mutants were...weird. Honestly, weird. She had been just graduating from high school when the news broke that they were letting those things, the object of four-year-old nightmares, loose on the city so they could be "people" when they weren't. They might act like people, sure, but they were not people. It was a bad idea. 30% of the crime that the department took now was the fault of a mutant, indirectly, or just plain their fault. Mutants in bar fights, and mutants robbing businesses, and mutants doing...this stuff.
She sighed, shaking her head and clearing her thoughts then knocked on the door of the apartment,
"Ms. Abbitts, it's Detective Lewis!" She called, "I have a few questions I need to ask."
All there was, for a few moments was silence until the click of a lock slid behind echoed through the hall. Slowly the door opened, barely a crack, revealing a young looking blonde woman, a bruise on her porcelain cheek. Her golden hair was greasy and disheveled and Morgan looked at the victim with sympathy.
"Hi..." The woman whimpered, opening the door to let the detective in. Morgan stepped inside and saw the entire apartment a mess. "I'm sorry about the mess..."
"No, no it's fine." Morgan smiled, "But...I need to talk to you about...your rapist Ms. Abbitt."
The woman whined and walked to the kitchen. "I told you, I didn't see much...it happened too fast. I hit him...something cracked. I think he stung me with something... He left a little...thing on my dress..."
"Centipede venom. Luckily, we have some things to compare DNA to when we find him...but Ms. Abbitt, we have...quite a few centipede mutants in the city, so we need...your help, is there anything that stuck out? A smell, a sound? Anything?"
"I don't know what you want me to say."
"You're the only living victim Ms. Abbitt." Morgan pushed, "the venom killed the other six. Please, you're the only one who can put the pieces together."
The woman grew silent, back facing her. Morgan's heart grew heavy and she sighed This was the worst part of the job, in her opinion. Forcing the victims to relive the worst moments of their lives. But, she always told herself this, it's for the greater good. It'll give them closure. It got one last dirt bag off the street, so it had to be worth it...right?
"Oranges. He smelled like oranges." Ms. Abbitt whispered almost to the air. Morgan sighed and laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Thank you." The brunette smiled gratefully and walked back outside. Oranges, that was just what they needed. Oranges. Of the 35 centipede mutants in New York, only one worked at a bakery. In that bakery they specialized in marmalade cupcakes! She practically ran into her Camaro and didn't even bother to fasten her seat belt.
"What, it get too intense for you in there?" Raph teased only to be hit in the bicep. Hard. He yelped and rubbed the sore spot as she turned the siren on, on her dashboard.
"Next time, you talk to the victim. I just got us a lead, huge one!" He sent her a dirty look while she floored it. Oh yes, despite it all, today was good.