Chapter 7

Complications

Monalisa stretched her aching muscles after the intense training period she and her adoptive brothers had just been through. Unfortunately for the turtles, they were in far worse shape than Monalisa after the training.

"Man, that was rough…" Michelangelo complained, panting as he was sprawled out on the floor.

"No kidding… master Splinter really pressed us hard today… harder than normal…" said Leonardo, as he leaned against the wall, barely able to stand on his own.

"Come on, guys. It wasn't that bad." said Monalisa.

"Easy for you to say, babe… you're not even short on breath…" said Raphael. "Why is that?"

"I guess I'm just in better shape than you guys. It was hard at first, I'll give it that, but after the first hour, it got easier."

"You did seem just as exhausted as us at that point, even more for a couple of minutes, but then you must have found your second wind." said Donatello.

"Sounds plausible, but I bet I will feel it all in the days to come." she said, stretching a bit more.

But Monalisa knew she wouldn't feel any muscle soreness, not any more, thanks to her DNA being infused with Zerg DNA now. She already had received a powerful boost to her already strong healing ability, placing her in the same class as the dragon-mutant Tyroth, but she also gained a portion of the Zergs' adaptability.

While the training had been harder than normal, being subjected to it for the first hour caused her body to mutate and adapt to that kind of stress, which happened during the few minutes that Donatello noticed her having a harder time, but in reality, that was her body changing, which was very painful but she did her best not to show it. Something that she would normally have gradually grown stronger and adapted to over the course of several weeks, possibly even months, she had now reached in just an hour. She loved that new power, and she was curious to what else she could achieve.

"Let's take a thirty minute breather, then we head out on patrol." said Leonardo.

"For real?!" Michelangelo exclaimed. "But I'm totally tired."

"We still have to patrol the city, Mikey. We are crime fighters after all."

"I'm gonna complain to the union." Michelangelo complained, only to hear Splinter clear his throat behind them. "Um… the union say you're right, Fearless. We leave in thirty."

"It's a miracle what you can achieve with the right motivation." Raphael chuckled.


Meanwhile, down in the hive cluster, the drones and zerglings were busy, but rather than exploring the new cave, they had been tasked with enlarging the tunnel that connected to it, both in height and in width. Monalisa wanted the tunnel to be twelve feet tall and twenty feet wide, so her Zerg had a lot of work ahead of them, but they didn't complain, they never did.

As much as Monalisa would have wanted to explore the strange lights at the far end of the new cavern, she would want to do that herself at a later time. If there were anyone living there, they would hopefully be less frightened by a humanoid, but disguised lizard, than by any of the Zerg, should they be discovered.

It was just the question of when she would be able to do said exploration. And for the time being, she ordered her Zerg to not engage whoever lived there unless their lives were threatened, and only with minimal force. Best not to make more enemies than she could handle.

But that decision could just come back to bite her, for four humanoid figures were making their way towards the entrance to the tunnel, armed with long rods with metal-wire snares at the end. They wore black armour with grey chests and pads on their elbows and knees, goggle-masks with red glass, and rough boots and gloves.

"Them critters came through here, dug straight through tha' bedrock." one of them said.

"And the boss wants us to capture one of them? I don't like this." said a second one.

"It's either this, or tell the boss you're chicken, and you know what he does with chickens." said a third.

"Let's just get this over with." said the fourth, and they slowly and carefully made their way into the tunnel.


Topside, the mutants were jumping across the rooftops before coming to a rest on one in the north parts of town. The turtles were glad for the short break, still being a bit tired from their training, but Monalisa wasn't, she was in just as good shape as before they had left, but she didn't let that show.

"Calm night tonight, wouldn't you say?" she said as she sat on the edge, looking out across town.

"Sure is, but we took out a lot of fools yesterday, so that might be the reason." said Raphael, sitting down next to Monalisa and putting his arm around her.

"Well, I for one am totally fine with a calm night. Especially after that training today." said Michelangelo. "No Foot, no Venomous Five, no Purple Dragons, and no small fries. Just a calm and cool night out."

"I'm ready to agree with you, Mikey." said Donatello. "Though, I would personally have preferred to stay back in my lab and keep working on my projects."

"Have you made any progress on those things we found?" Leonardo asked.

"Sadly, no. I've hit a wall with it all, well, not with the robotic finger actually, I think I can still learn a lot from it, but I don't think I can learn more about what they used to be."

"That's a shame, but I guess it can't be helped." said Monalisa, though on the inside she smiled, feeling more secure from her family. "Maybe we should get going, we still got more ground to cover tonight."

As the five mutants readied themselves to continue their nightly patrol, Leonardo sensed that something was off.

"What's up, Leo?" Raphael asked when he noticed his brother scanning the surroundings.

"I don't think we're alone."

Almost on queue, two dozen Foot ninja revealed themselves on the neighbouring rooftops, their weapons drawn.

"Man… why can't we ever get the drop on them for a change?!" Michelangelo complained, he and the others drawing their weapons.

"We can always drop them dead!" said Raphael.

A fierce battle ensued, blades clashing as the mortal enemies began fighting. But that wasn't the only engagement at that time.


Down in the underground, the four men had made their way through half of the tunnel, and had seen more of the Zerg in the distance, but hadn't been spotted themselves just yet. Hunkering down, they waited for a chance to make their move, and then get out of there as fast as possible.

A lone zergling came walking towards them, sniffing the air as it had caught their scent and moved to investigate the new presence. As it spotted the men, it stopped and growled at them, then slowly taking a few steps towards them.

"NOW!" one of the men shouted once the zergling was close enough, and all four of them leaped towards the zergling, taking it by surprise as they tried to get the snares around it. The first one missed as the zergling darted to the side, but the second caught one of its dorsal claw-arms, restraining the zergling's movements enough for two other snares to latch on around the head, followed shortly by the forth and last snare around the last dorsal limb.

"Okay! Let's get it back to the boss! And hurry, before more show up!"

The zergling struggled and pulled against the metallic snares, but couldn't pull free from its restraints, and with the orders not to engage unless a life-threatening event happened, it didn't know what to do, and could only reluctantly follow the four men as they led it away from its kin.


Up on the rooftops, the mutants had managed to take out most of the ninja, but a few were still standing and fighting, one of which had just been disarmed by Monalisa, and had to rely on a kunai for weapon. But as the two were fighting, Monalisa was alerted to the event in the tunnel, and thus was distracted for a split second, the lack of focus allowing her foe to jab his kunai into her side.

The sharp pain was enough to snap Monalisa back into the fight, and she quickly retaliated by punching him in the face, causing him to stagger backwards a bit and pulling out the kunai. Clutching her wound, Monalisa quickly kicked her foe in the chest, knocking him backwards and into a wall.

'Shit! Heal! Heal!' Monalisa thought, holding her wound and hoping it would heal before the other noticed it.

But the ninja wasn't down yet, and quickly got back into the fight, though he didn't get very far, for Raphael had dashed up behind him and struck him in the back of the head with the handle of a sai, knocking him out.

"You okay, babe?!" he asked worried, seeing the blood on Monalisa's hand and side.

"I'll be fine, hun. It's only a shallow cut, it just bled a lot, but it will heal. Is there anyone left?"

"Doesn't seem like it." said Leonardo, looking around and seeing that all Foot ninja lay on the ground unconscious. "Is everyone okay?"

"Mona got cut!" said Raphael.

"It's nothing serious, I'll be fine."

"I would still want to check that all the same." said Donatello.

"Then how about we get out of here and back home?" said Michelangelo. "Before more Foot fools show up."

The mutants quickly made their way across a few more rooftops before going down to street-level and then into the sewers. They took it a little slower than normal, because of Monalisa's injury, though it had already healed by the time they started moving.

On their way back, Monalisa focused on the zergling, trying to see what it saw, but was met with darkness and the smell of cloth. The men had placed a cloth-bag over its head in an attempt to pacify it, and it didn't know what to do. Monalisa was however more curious than worried, so she ordered the zergling to play along until further notice, so she could learn more about these men and their intentions. And as they were walking back to the lair, Monalisa tired to focus on the zergling's other senses to figure out where they were taking it, but that proved slightly more difficult than she thought.

She had in fact been so focused on that, that she barely noticed when they got home, or when Donatello checked her now healed wound, she just responded half-heartedly whenever he asked how she was feeling. Walking out of the medical room, she continued to try and figure out where the zergling was being taken, but she couldn't interpret the smells that it was picking up, she wasn't used to that sensitive sense of smell, but she thought that she smelled metal, plastic and more humans.

"Mummy!" Pandora called out as the little mutant hurried over to her mother, partially breaking Monalisa out of her focused mental state. "Can you play with me? Pretty please?"

"Not now." she responded bluntly.

"But, mummy-"

"I said not now!" Monalisa snapped, glaring at Pandora and making her take a step back.

"M-mummy?" Pandora stammered, tears forming in her eyes. Her mother had never yelled at her before.

That's when Monalisa realised that she had made a mistake, so she quickly sent a mental order to the zergling to play along until further notice, before completely pushing away everything that had with the Zerg to do. Her daughter was the most important thing in the world to her, and she was doing everything to protect her.

"I'm so sorry, Pandora!" she said quickly, kneeling and picking up her daughter, holding her close. "I didn't mean to yell. It's not your fault, little geisha, Mommy is just very, very tired right now."

"Why?" Pandora asked, a few tears rolling down her cheeks.

"We've trained really hard today, and I was hurt while we were on patrol."

"Hurt? Someone hurt you, Mummy?"

"They did, Pandora. Those bad people that I've told you a little about. It's healed now, and I'm alright, but I'm still very tired."

"I'm sorry, Mummy. I didn't know."

"It's not your fault, my precious." Monalisa said, using her thumb to wipe away the tears. "How about we watch a movie together? That way I can rest a little, and then we can play together."

"Okay, Mummy."

But while Monalisa tried to patch things up with Pandora, other events were in motion, which she was completely unaware of.


The captured zergling was being led farther and father away from the hive cluster by the four men, their nooses holding it secured and the clothe over its head obstructing its vision. It could easily have escaped its restraints, but since it had been ordered to play along, it would do just that.

"We brought you the creature, boss." it heard one of the men say.

"Excellent." another male voice said, this one being on the darker side. "Such an interesting being, I have never seen its like before. But why is its head covered?"

"It seems to calm it, boss." said another of the men that had caught the zergling. "It kept struggling until we covered its eyes. Might be best to keep it like that."

"That you say, huh?" said the leader. "Well, it won't be an issue for long. Take it to my lab, I'll have it dissected shortly."

With that, the zergling was again led somewhere, knowing fully well what awaited it, but it would not disobey its orders.

Zerglings aren't the most intelligent creatures, that actually goes for almost all of the different Zerg strains, but regardless of what strain, or how powerful their brains were, they all had the same dogma.

My life for the Swarm.


In the Foot HQ, doctor William Arden was in his laboratory, continuously working on his various serums. With the Foot's true leader, Shredder, back in charge, Arden was determined to not disappoint his master, so he was always looking for ways to improve his creations, the Venomous Five especially.

He was however interrupted as a Foot ninja entered the lab and bowed before the scientist.

"Doctor Arden, sir."

"What do you want?" Arden asked, frowning at the distraction, the large scar on the left side of his face wrinkling around his eye. "Speak quickly."

"Hai, sir. Our patrol encountered the turtle and their lizard whore earlier. And while we were defeated, we suffered no casualties."

"That is why you disturbed me? Such a report should be delivered to Arashi, not me!"

"With all due respect, sir, there is more." the ninja said, trying not to shake in fear of the angered doctor, knowing fully well what happens to those who he deem useless.

"During the fight, I was able to stab the lizard in her side."

"Did you now?" Arden said, now being more interested. "And what was her fate?"

"Unknown, sir. I was knocked out before I could see more of the fight, but there was little to no blood on the site, so I believe that she will survive the wound. However…" the ninja brought out a kunai, most of the blade covered in almost dried blood. "I still have the blade that I stabbed her with, her blood is still on it."

"Ah, now that is reports that I want to receive. I can always use more of her DNA. Give it to me, and then leave. I have work to do."

"Hai, sir."

With the kunai now in his hand, Arden took a swab of it to analyse, wanting to be certain that the ninja was telling the truth. Granted, the DNA from any of the freaks would be useful in some way or another, but he wouldn't allow the ninja to lie to him.

But once the computer had analysed the DNA, Arden was surprised over what he found.

"What? This cannot be right." he said, double checking it against his records on Monalisa's DNA. "It is Monalisa's DNA, that much is certain, but it's still different. This sample has a six point four percent difference from her old DNA that I got, but that can't be correct.

Humans only have a less than two percent difference to their DNA from that of chimpanzees. If this is correct, then Monalisa isn't even the same species any longer, but why? Is she still mutating? Or has something else happened her?"

Taking yet another look at the two sets of Monalisa's DNA displayed by each other on the screen, it was clear that there was more to it than meets the eyes.

"I must investigate this further. Whatever has happened to her might be of use to us." he said, making preparations to analyse the new sample in greater detail.

That was a whole lot of things happening almost all at the same time, with not just one, but two factions having discovered the Zerg. Although, Arden doesn't know what he got yet, but knowing him, he will figure something out eventually.

Monalisa actually snapped at little Pandora! That's not normal! Seems like her personality has started to change more than she might have thought. Might not be long before the rest notice that something is really wrong.