When Raph and Mikey made it to where she was, she wasn't there anymore.
"But she was... right there." Raph pointed at the ground. Donnie knelt down next to the spot, put his hand down, and pulled it right back up.
"Yes, It's cold alright." Donnie stood. "Lets check topside. Maybe she went there." The three ran to the sewer exit, Donnie stopped at the top. "I almost forgot!" He ran back into his room, grabbing a device off his workbench. He caught back up with the others. "This is a gadget I invented that will search for the conditions I want it to scan for. In this case, cold." He opened a panel on the top of the little device and input a code. A little antenna came out of the top and began blinking. Their search began.
They ran around a bit, trying to follow Donnie, who was zipping around this way and that. Finally, Raph got sick of it.
"Come on Donnie! What are you doing?"
"Sorry Raph! But it's kinda cold out here, so it's hard to get a good signal." He stood for a moment, raising the tracker in the air, trying to get a signal. He sighed. "Gah, I lost it. C'mon, lets try to find it." They started to follow, but Raph heard something and stopped.
"Guys wait!" They turned his way. "I hear something. Follow me!" Raph ran in the opposite direction. They followed, trying to figure out where he was going.
"Uh, Raph.. we're not looking for something... We're looking for... oh, there she is." From a distance, on a high building, Kanyae stood, Facing the moon, singing a graceful melody of long, mournful notes.
They jumped on the building, but the Kanyae they remember wasn't there. She had sprouted a full white tail, fuzzy wolf ears at the top of her head, her hair turned white, and spiked out like sharp, silvery blades. Her skin sparkled silver, as though her body was covered in shimmering fibers. Her neck was fuzzy, and her nails her thick, black, and curved.
"...K...Kanyae?" She stopped singing, and her ear twitched slightly. She turned around, small slightly curved canines coming through her mouth. Her eyes glowed a piercing yellow, and her nose was dyed black. She smiled, showing her slightly sharper back row of teeth.
"Guys! Sorry if I worried you..."
"What happened?" Mikey marveled at her new appearance.
"I... Don't know actually. After Mikey knocked me out, I just woke up here."
"I think he means... you're a..."
"A wolf? I know! It's so odd. But you know what?" She grabbed her big fluffy tail. "It's actually pretty awesome! I love wolves, and now I am one." She released her tail, and waved it back and and forth excitedly. "When I woke up, I ran around. Then I saw the moon, so I decided to sing, like the wolves do! Don't you think it's beautiful Raph?" He continued to stare, mouth agape.
"It's great. And... Goodness! You're just.." He replied. Donnie blinked a few times.
"What? You act like you've never seen a mutant before." Kanyae chuckled.
"Never like this..."
"Well, we should get you back... wait... If you're like this now... Then what about the other girls..." They all glanced at each other, and Donnie grabbed his T-phone. "Leo? Yeah! I need you to check on the girls for me! Are you with them?"
Leo Was confused. "Uh, No... Uh, Ok.. OKAY DONNIE! Sheesh! I'll check! Why anyway? Hello? Hello? Sheesh." Leo put his t-phone away. "What's with that guy anyway? He walked into the dojo, and was surprised by the rise of the temperature. He saw a figure resting on the lowest limb of the tree, with something long and furry dangling over the side swaying.
"L-Ladida?"
By the sound of her name she turned over to look at him, stretching her body over the branch. Leo stood mesmerised. Her skin had turned completely white, like porcelain, with soft orange ears perking out of her long, dangling hair, which had also turned a bright orange, with low lights of red and brown. She looked at him with questioning eyes that practically glowed red.
"Can I help you with something?" She said softly, with a melodic tone in her voice.
"I see why Donnie was freaking out now.." He said taking a few more steps toward her.
Before he could get closer to the tree she slipped off and landed on the ground, one leg tucked under her and her right one stretched to the side. She rose slowly. Her long, fuzzy tail swayed slightly behind her. A deeper orange than her ears with traces of white and brown, and a nice pure white tip. Even her hands that rested on her hips had changed. Leo stared at the tips of her fingers that had seemed to be dyed black, as if she had been working with ink.
"You're a fox." Leo stated.
"I guess so." She chuckled.
"I'm surprised you're not freaking out."
"I did a little at first." She replied, combing her new hair with her black fingers. "But then I just loved it, and wanted to try it out."
Just then Leo's T-phone rang. "It's Donnie. They went to look for Kanyae. I'm going to tell him what happened." Ladida nodded. "What's the deal Donnie? I found Ladida… yeah! A fox!... A wolf? She was doing WHAT?.. Yeah… I'll find her." Leo pocketed his t-phone and looked down at Ladida.
"The other guys found Kanyae, and you're here, but where is Thessa?"
Ladida smirked at his question, white canine teeth poked out from behind her top lip. She crossed her arms and Leo looked at her.
"Do you know where Thessa is?"
She leaned against the tree, putting her foot up behind her. "Maybe," She said.
"Ladida, where is she?"
She leaned forward slightly toward him and whispered, "Look up."
"Thessa?" He said. She didn't stir. "Thessa?" He called again, louder. No response. "THESSA!" He yelled. The loudness startled her, and sent her flying off an upper branch of the tree, twisting around, landing on the floor on her feet in a crouching position. She looked up and stretched.
"..Are you okay Thessa?" Leo asked quietly. She yawned, arching her back, and digging her long nails into the rug. "What did they do to you?" he whispered.
"What do you mean? How did I even get up there?" She ran her fingers through her long black hair, that had once been blonde. "I'm not sure how I got up here. I just woke up here... Wait... Something's off..." She looked down at her hands. "Ah! my hands!" Thessa's nails were long and curved, and her skin shimmered. A long black tail twitched behind her, waving around nervously. The tip of her tail moved past her eye, catching her peripheral vision. "Aah! What is that?!"
"I think the kraang really messed you guys up." Leo said.
"Wait… say something again. "
"Gosh you look different."
"My ears!" She felt up to her ears, no longer on the sides of her head, but now protruding from the top; cats ears. She dashed to the bathroom. Leo's t-phone rang. He looked down at it. Donnie was calling again. Thessa screamed from the bathroom, shocked by her own appearance. "Leo, Did you find them?"
"Yup... They're both... Mutated...ish."
"Okay. We'll be there in a moment. Kanyae explained a lot."
Thessa yelled in the background. "What did they do to me?!"
"Okay Donnie. See ya." Leo put the phone back in his belt pocket and looked back up at Thessa. Leo led her into the lab where Donnie wanted to examine them.
The turtles came in with Kanyae and sat in Donnie's lab, soon after joined by Ladida, and they all got situated. It was silent for a moment or two. Ladida took a deep breath, and spoke.
"You see, On the first day, That we can remember anyways... We were in those crates. it was closterfobic, smelly, and honestly, only one of the worst experiences there. Anyway, thank God it opened only a few moments after I awoke, and we were in some containment unit with a clear force field-wall, showing us all the other experiments below us. Lucky for the Kraang droids they had the force field, because Kanyae may not have been mutated yet, but she was acting like a wild animal."
"Hey!" Kanyae said, slightly insulted.
"It's true!" Ladida jokingly poked her friend's arm.
She quickly forgot and Ladida continued on. "They started tests the next day, starting with what we learned to call the 'Electric ball room'. They repeated this every day, twice a day. Which we hated. They continued that along with tons of needles every day, like, not just a few needles, probably over thirty every day. One caught our eye though. it was one of the biggest doses we ever took, and it was also the only one with a noticeable side effect. which was severe drowsiness. Like, really bad. I'm pretty sure we lost two days of our life after that. But that didn't stop them from continuing to give us a billion shots."
"I thought you said it was only thirty!" Mikey said, shocked. Ladida sighed.
"It's a figure of speech buddy."
"Oh. I don't get it."
Ladida giggled, and shrugged. "I think thats about it. That's all we know."
"But that doesn't explain how your mutation didn't run out of control." Leo stared intently at Ladida.
"Yeah... Do you remember anything else about the mutation?" Donnie asked. But all three girls shook their heads.
"No... Those piles of nuts and bolts probably did it while we were asleep." Thessa crossed her arms. Donnie stood.
"Then thats where I come in." He flipped his laptop opened and searched once more through the girls' files.
"You hacked into our Kraang files? Cause that's not weird at all..." Ladida backed away.
Donnie blushed. "Uh, Nononono, It's not like that, uh, I was just..."
Ladida laughed. "Haha! I'm totally kidding Donnie. That's actually really clever of you to do." Donnie laughed along, and turned his gaze back on the computer. He didn't really notice, but his heart did flutter.
They all talked a bit while Donnie, Ladida, and Leo searched through the files. But they were disappointed.
"Bah.. There was nothing there that shed any light. Just a bunch of jargon and numbers. But does the word 'Vaulter' Sound familiar?" The girls exchanged glances, and shook their heads. "Darn. Ah well, time for plan B." Donnie walked over to his counter, and pulled out a certain scanner.
"What's that? A squirt gun?" Kanyae chuckled at the sight of the plastic device.
"Nooooo..." Donnie plugged the device into his laptop. "It's a... sort of like a mini x-ray machine." He walked up to Ladida, And she backed away.
"It's uh... safe right?" She asked. Donnie smiled.
"Totally safe. Tested it on Mikey!"
"It was SO weird! I mean, like, I could actually see my skeleton!" Mikey shivered. "Creepy…"
"So if I could just scan you, I might be able to figure out more of what happened, and why you didn't mutate until now."
The girls looked at eachother, then back at Donnie.
"I'll go first, I guess." Ladida volunteered. Donnie waved the gadget up, down, and around Ladida's body. He repeated with the others.
He went back to his laptop and began to type rapidly. After about five minutes of typing and waiting, his mouth dropped.
"What? What's wrong?!" Thessa pushed her way over to the laptop and gasped. "Is... Is that?" Everyone ran to the laptop, where a surprising image met their eyes.
In all three of their bodies, lied a small chip placed in their chests. But that wasn't all, connecting to the chip were tons of tiny, little wires spreading through their bodies a little ways. but definitely taking a lot of space in the chest cavity.
Donnie zoomed in and sighed. "Shocking, but nothing to worry about actually."
"Nothing to worry about? There's a bunch of wires inside my chest!" Kanyae panted loudly.
"Yes, but this is exactly what kept your mutation under control, and it corresponds with your body anyway.. Sooo, It's like the wires aren't really there."
"But they are there. Can't you do anything about it?" Ladida pleaded.
"No, I'm no surgeon. Plus, even if I could, it could probably do a lot of damage and the mutation would go bonkers." The three looked down. "...Look girls. I'm already working on a retro-mutagen, and I'm getting close to getting it right. The moment I do, I will fix you. You will be normal again."
"We believe that, but will our memory return? Will we ever find our true lives? I mean, We don't even know if we live in New York! We could live in some other country! I just wish I knew where I belong. Because it certainly isn't here!"
"Wait Ladida!" Donnie tried to call her back, but she left the room and Thessa sat him back down.
"She gets like this sometimes. She just needs a moment by herself." Leo sighed.
"I just feel like I have a hand in your guys' misery."
"What misery? We just don't know a lot is all! Look. It just may take her a little while to get used to... THIS." Kanyae waved her arms around the room. "It's a lot to take in at the moment sooo... Considering it's ten at night, I'm going to get ready for bed." Right before Kanyae left, She rubbed her eyes and moaned.
"What's up Kanyae?" Donnie returned to his feet.
"Oh, my eyes have just been crazy itchy since this morning."
Thessa piped up. "Yeah, me too!" Donnie suddenly remembered the redness.
"Oh yeah! I think the itch and redness is a side effect to some of the tests the kraang did on you. I could make some eye drops to cure it if you'd like."
Thessa gave Donnie a weird look. "Uh, I don't think any of us really want itchy eyes." Donnie chuckled and got out his Chemistry set. His eyes returned on the two girls.
"Could you uh, go check on Ladida? She might need some of this too." Kanyae and Thessa nodded and ran out of the room. All was quiet once more, until Donnie noticed shattered glass all over the floor.
"MIKEY!"
"Ladida? Are you alright?"
"Can you guys go one second without following me around?"
"Sorry..."
Ladida sighed. "I just don't get it. Why, why?! Why can't we remember anything?!"
"...Because the Kraang wanted us to not have any place to run away to. It makes sense, doesn't it? Not knowing where we live, who our families are, Makes us wonder if we have any of those." Kanyae sat next to Ladida, followed by Thessa.
"Well, it feels more like a form of torture, if you ask me."
"You said it. So Donnie is making us some eye drops for the itchiness. You wanna come get some?" Thessa put her arm around Ladida.
"Are you kidding? It feels like I've been asked a billion questions and been messed around with all this Kraang stuff all day! I just want to sleep." Ladida laid her head down on the small pillow and continuously scratched her eye. Kanyae rolled her over.
"C'mon. It's a little drop in each eye and it'll feel great once it's over. Then we can sleep without anything hanging over our heads."
"Besides everything..."
"Stop being depressed. We'll figure out what's in the past later, lets just, try to figure out everything about our living-mates before anything else." Ladida sat up.
"Huuu, alright. Only because you're right, It's hard to focus on anything when you're focused on everything."
"...What?" They all laughed as they walked together towards the lab.