A/N: This is a very Mikey-centered chapter, and I don't know why I made it that way. He is a damned hard character to write correctly (and I don't know how well I succeeded). The rest of the turtle family will get more space from the next chapter, I promise, as will the romantic aspects of this fic (which have been barely even noticable so far).
This time Mona is in big trouble, Mikey makes a new friend (and shows his fascination with buttons) and Kala makes a life-altering decision. Plus, the grand return of Irma (sorry it took me, like, five chapters)
Also I should mention that I'm not planning on any MikeyxKala. I will try to make them the best of friends, though. And I've made some more art for this fic, if anyone's interested. This time it's not just random doodles but an actual scene from one of the previous chapters. Link at my bio as usual!
Disclaimer: I don not own TMNT
Kala's POV
They clearly don't trust her. Kala can't say she blames them, though, and she doesn't feel ounce of faith in them either.
Or does she? Would she risk everything; her life, April, the entire planet, for people, a mutant, that she doesn't even trust? She'd like to say that no, she wouldn't, of course she wouldn't. She'd hold her head high and let them kill her before she gave anything up.
And yet here she is, helping them free their friends. Their mutant friends.
It's that Mikey. The way he spoke to her, the look in his eyes when he talked about April and Mona. He was genuinely worried about them, was prepared to give up his life to help them. She never thought mutants could be self-sacrificing, that they could care about anyone but themselves, not even after Bishop told her the truth.
But then again, she never thought Bishop, a fellow Neutrino, would be able to punish innocent beings so severely.
"I'll get in and turn off the power," she says, but both Mikey and the girl, whose name Kala still doesn't know, stare at her as if she's crazy. She furrows her brows. "What?"
"Do you think we are stupid?" the dark-haired girl says with a slow, cold voice, before glancing at the turtle and rolling her eyes. "Do you think I am stupid? If we let you go you'll run straight back to your boss and rat us out."
Kala puffs her cheeks out and sends the girl a vicious glare. "Listen… whoever you are…"
"Karai."
"Karai. I'm trying to help you here. How am I supposed to do that if you won't let me go back inside? It's not like I can turn off the security with my magical mind." Mikey looks like he's pretty convinced by her argument, but Karai just stares at her with a highly unimpressed look on her face.
"You'll just have to figure something out."
Kala takes a deep breath and glowers up at the bright, cloudy sky, trying not to snap at Karai and keep her mind calm. "Okay, how about this: you," she gestures meekly at the other girl, "will go into the store and pretend to be a customer. You'll have to drop the armour, though, or you'll be dead before the door has even closed behind you." Karai's jaw closes a little tighter, but she doesn't argue, so Kala takes it as an approval and continues her explanation. "Then I'll come in, and if I can just get to the back I should be able to cut the power…"
"And how do you plan on doing that? I'm not letting you out of sight and something tells me they'll notice if I go with you back there." Karai raises an eyebrow and awaits Kala's response.
But Kala doesn't know what to say. She isn't a strategist or a fighter, she's a hacker. She can trick any electronic device there is and she knows how to stay hidden (that was, after all, the way she got into Kraang headquarters and through the portal without getting zapped) but doing it with someone else in tow? She glances at Karai and chews her lower lip, but pain doesn't help her come up with anything. It's obvious: she's stuck.
"How about a smoke bomb?" Mikey pipes up.
Karai send him an incredulous look. "You've got smoke bombs?" she says sceptically.
"Yup." The turtle grins and pats his belt. "Home made."
"Why in the world didn't you use them when I attacked you?"
He opens his mouth, blinks once and stares at Karai with a dumbfounded look before sticking a finger in the air in an all-knowing manner. "That is an excellent question." He nods solemnly, as if contemplating one of the many conundrums of the universe. Karai stares at him for another second, but he doesn't look like he's going to say anything more, so she merely rolls her eyes and turns back to Kala.
"So how about it? Can you work with smoke bombs?"
Kala blinks and tries to process the situation. Although her two captors are obviously not the best of friends, she would never have guessed them to be enemies. Their teamwork was just too good, and they clearly have a common goal, but that remark about the attack curtly stated that this cooperation is a one-time thing.
"Maybe," she says slowly, turning her brain back to planning. "If I fake a fire and you fill the entire store with smoke we should be able to sneak to the back and cut the power before anyone gets suspicious." A smile grows on her lips. "They'll just think it was the fire messing up the wiring." This could actually work.
Karai's eyes are gleaming. "Smoke and fire. I like the sound of that."
Sure you do. Kala huffs. "Let's go then."
She's never liked awkward silences. Seeing Karai vanish into the shop, Kala and Mikey huddle in the back of the alley, both keeping very quiet. They decided to wait for three minutes, just in case anyone watching the security feeds would get suspicious at seeing two girls enter the shop at once, and to give Kala some time to work on her fire cracker.
She isn't much of an engineer, but she has the basic knowledge required to make some sparks and flames. It pains her to take parts from her gun, but it's the only electronic she has on her and this is more important than her weaponry. This is about April.
Besides, she can always break into a highly guarded Kraang facility and steal a new one.
She can practically feel Mikey's breath on her neck while working. The silence combined with his round, staring eyes is making it hard for her to focus. Being this close to a mutant is making her skin crawl, no matter how much she's trying to convince herself that it – he – is friendly. She pokes her little device and some sparks erupt into the air.
"Whoa", Mikey gasps. "That is totally awesome! Could you make my T-phone do that? It'd make Donnie flip!" He furrows his brows. "I'd have to get a new one first, though. The darn thing keeps breaking." He draws a little closer to her with every word, and by the time he's finished he's practically standing on her feet. Kala tries to scoot aside as subtly as possible.
"I don't know what a T-phone is," she says. "And not what a 'Donnie' is either." If he's another mutant she might not want to know. "So no, I probably can't."
"Aw." He pouts, and she can do nothing but stare and wonder how in the world a mutant can look cute. He's like a freaking puppy.
She looks away and tries to concentrate on her tinkering, but then he's suddenly closer again and putting his hands on her shoulders. His breath tickles her ear.
"How does it work?" He's sounding genuinely curious, and when she glances at him she sees that he only has eyes for the device in her hands.
"Well," she says hesitantly. "I'm redirecting the current from the shooting mechanism so parts of the wires grows overheated, and then when I turn it on it'll – stop that!" She flings the sad remains of her gun out-of-the-way when he attempts to reach out and poke it with at large green finger. "You'll set it off!"
He barely even notices her. "So you poke it to make it go boom?" he asks, hanging over her shoulders and trying to reach it.
"What? No, you do not poke it! Do you want to lose a hand?" She feels like face-palming and laughing at the same time. He reminds her of what she was like a couple of years ago, before her brothers taught her what happens if you poke electronics the wrong way. But she was never allowed in the field before she learnt her lesson. Someone should teach this kid too, before he ends up hurting someone, most likely himself. "You push this button here," she says and points, deliberately slowly, at the device's biggest, shiniest button. "Then you wait – I said wait." She puts a hand on his forehead and shoves him aside when he, yet again, tries to reach for it.
"Dudette," he says, looking hurt. "You can't just say 'push this button' and then not let me push it. That's cruel."
"I'm a terribly cruel soul," she states, trying to keep a straight face but failing. Gasping, snorting laughter escapes her and Mikey stares at her, dumbfounded. "I'm sorry," she giggles. "You just… you reminded me of something."
She was about to say 'you remind me of me', when she suddenly realized how odd a thing to say that would be. Bishop would have been aghast. Worse, he'd disown her, but not until after he'd chopped her into small pieces and stuffed those pieces into even smaller jars for further study. It surprises her that this realization makes her angry with him and not with herself for sympathizing with a mutant. It surprises her that she's no longer scared of Mikey but of the man she's supposed to trust.
"We should wait for one more minute," she says, exasperated. "Then I'll go in. When you see the smoke well out, use that as a cover to follow."
He nods, and the hurt look on his face is already gone as his eyes are drawn back towards the device.
"So," he says slowly. "What does this button do?"
Mona Lisa's POV
Mona never has been a fan of needles, but it's not like she has a phobia of them. She's taken her fair chair of vaccinations and blood samples during her sixteen years and it's never been much of a problem. It's tricky to get through life if you feel faint every time you see a needle.
But that horrible, enormous thing they stuck inside her arm to drain her blood… it made her feel cold and sick to her very core.
She is lying on her back, strapped onto a hard metal table so that she can barely move anything but her aching head. The surroundings, accompanied by her loss of blood and concussion, are making her feel dizzy and nauseous. Her dream has always been to work in a lab, figuring out the puzzles of the universe, and the few chances she's had to actually set foot in one has always left her giddy and excited. All the beeping machines, the chemicals, the dozens of computers and scientist in their telltale white lab coats had a way of making her dream seem much more real.
Being in a lab with all that equipment and people focused on her, on the other hand, isn't as exciting.
They hauled her out of her room, shooting Fishface with a tranquilizer dart and barely leaving her enough time to stick the magnet onto the doorframe, before they strapped her down on a gurney and rolled her through long, white corridors with bright lights that made her eyes water. None of them had really looked at her, and they acted as if she was part of their equipment, just a biology sample, and not an actual person. The empty looks in their faces when their eyes flitted over her was unnerving to say the very least. Luckily enough they didn't inject her with anything, like they did with Fishface, but she highly doubted it was out of sympathy. Any foreign chemicals in her system would mess up their tests.
Once they arrived in the lab they moved her to the metal table, strapped her down again and then hovered around her while speaking with each other with murmuring voices. Mona never bothered to open her mouth and talk to them when they started drawing blood from her veins and shine painful lights into her eyes. It was obvious they wouldn't listen, and she had a feeling that if she showed even the slightest sign of resistance, such as telling them to get the hell away from her, they would reconsider their decision not to drug her. And it might be unsettling to be awake while the poked and prodded her, but who knew what they'd do if she wasn't conscious. What if they decided to dissect her?
It's been nearly half an hour, and multiple x-rays and disconcerting needles, when the scientists all suddenly go very quiet a second before they start murmuring with each other, louder this time, and draw towards the door. Mona twists on the table, wondering what's going on, but the straps are effectively holding her down. Has the tranquilizer in Fishface's system finally worn off so that he can get her out of here? But no, that isn't right. If an escaped mutant was roaming the corridors the scientists would panic, not leave the room in a calm and ordered fashion. Besides, there is still one of them in here.
She cranes her neck and sees a man clad in a dark suit cross the room before he vanishes out of sight. She gulps and hears him move about the lab with swift, quiet steps.
She knows that suit.
Hands touch her temples and she flinches, but there is nowhere to go and Bishop doesn't even blink while he fastens the electrodes to her head. He moves away again and she can barely catch the sound of him adjusting the settings on one of the machines.
What if she isn't getting rescued? Maybe Fishface won't get the door open, or he won't wake up from the tranquilizer dart, or he'll just leave her here. Maybe he wasn't even there at all and her confused brain just dreamt him into existence. In that case she'll have no other choice than to get herself out of here on her own, however that might go down. What can a girl do when she locked in a lab and strapped to a table with electrodes attached to her forehead? She gingerly starts to twist her hands to get them out of their straps, but all that achieves is making her wrists ache.
"Mona Lisa Martinez?"
She flinches, stops twisting her hands and glances up at Bishop. He stares back at her, eyes dark and empty and one hand resting on the controls of an ominous looking machine.
"How do you know my name?" Mona asks suspiciously.
"You left quite the trail when you vanished." Bishop starts leafing through a bunch of papers lying on the desk behind him. "We have several police reports, interrogations, feeds from security cameras, witnesses." He holds up the papers as he talks, showing her news paper articles, police reports and pictures of her, both as human and in the state she is now. Mona gulps; she never knew it'd be so easy for someone to figure out her identity.
"So?" she says with what she hopes is a defiant voice. "It's not like it matters who I was before."
"That is very true." Bishop puts the papers back on the desk and returns his hand to the controls. "You are not human anymore, and that is all that matters."
She doesn't know how to respond to that, so she simply stares at him, dumbfounded.
"I want you to tell me how to find the turtles." He sounds completely calm, but Mona stiffens.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Pain surges through her, starting at her temples before rushing down her bones and all the way down to her toes. It's gone after only a second, but it still leaves her gasping and heaving, hair frizzling and mouth dry from the current. So that's what the electrodes were for.
"I would suggest you don't lie to me, miss Martinez," Bishop says coldly. "Just tell me where they are and this will all be over."
Was that supposed to be reassuring? She presses her eyes closed and tries to make her voice firm. She came here with April, the turtles' closest ally, so there is no point in attempting to play oblivious. She'll just have to figure out some convincing lie. To bad she's never been a very good liar. "I was blacked out when they brought me to their home and I couldn't see the way from inside that bike. I really don't know…"
She screams and arcs her back as electricity envelopes her body, a little stronger this time and more than enough to leave her breathless and shivering.
"The docks," she whimpers. "They live down at the docks, in one of the abandoned warehouses, I swear!"
More pain leaves her as a smoking heap on the table, fingers limply clawing at the cold metal. She doesn't know for how long she'll be able to keep this up, but the way her entire body quivers tells her it won't be for long. Hot tears run down her cheeks when she realizes that this man will sooner or later make her betray her friends.
"I know they are hiding somewhere in the sewers," Bishop says. "I told you not to lie to me; it'll only affect yourself."
"They only use the sewers as a way to move about in the city unseen," she sobs, but his hand still moves towards the controls and she starts flailing wildly on the table. "I swear that's where they are!" she screams. "That's where I met them, that's where they hide! Please, you have to believe me!"
And that's when the room goes dark.
Mikey's POV
The shop was filled to the brim with smoke when Mikey entered, screams from people on the street following him inside. He is pretty sure that none of them saw him, being to busy panicking and fleeing from the "burning" building, but it still left him unsettled.
That was nothing compared to how unsettling the rest of this place is. Cool, maybe (there was a hidden door in the back. No matter who built it, that is still cool) but mostly just creepy.
The girl had somehow hacked into the elevator behind the hidden door (Mikey has no idea how she did it when the lights weren't just out, but also covered in smoke) while Karai put her armour back on and Mikey tried not to knock anything over. It didn't go too well.
Now they are standing in silence as the elevator quickly descends into the unknown. The lights inside it flickered on when the doors slid open, but some of the smoke followed them inside and is now making everything look a bit bleary and smudgy. The girl is constantly wringing her hands and Karai is tapping a metal-clad foot on the floor impatiently, making the atmosphere in the tiny room very heavy. Mikey lets out a relieved breath when the doors slide open with a 'ping'.
The two people waiting on the other side don't look as relieved.
It takes Mikey only a moment to process the situation and shoot out of the elevator, nunchucks in hand. The people are down before they even have the time to scream.
"Pfft," he says, spinning his nunchucks and chucking them back in his belt. "Was that supposed to be a challenge?"
"No," the girl says stiffly. "They are just scientist. They were probably on their way to see what's wrong with the security."
"And I took them down," Mikey states proudly. "Take that, science dudes!"
"Would you wipe that smile off you face?" Karai stomps out of the elevator, stepping over and around the fallen people. "You heard what she said: they are scientists, not fighters."
"You're just jealous 'cause I kicked their butts before you could," Mikey teases. Karai huffs in response.
"Whatever."
They drag the two unconscious scientists into the elevator and make sure the doors are securely shut before they take off down one of the white corridors, the girl leading the way. All the lights are out, and the only thing illuminating their path is the eerie, red emergency lighting. All the doors still look very locked, though.
Mikey slides to a stop next to one of them and inspects the array of buttons next to it, fingers hovering above them as he tries to figure out which one is most likely to open the door. The big red one? Nah, too obvious. Maybe he'll have to punch in some kind of code on the numbered ones? Oh, never mind. He spreads his fingers wide and, with a big grin on his face, pulls back his arm to slam his entire palm onto all the buttons at once.
"Mikey!"
He flinches and turns to see Karai stare at him through narrowed eyes. "Were you planning to push those buttons?"
He quickly hides his hands behind his back. "Nope."
She stares at him for another second, and then a slow smile creeps over her face. "Good. There are probably locked up mutants in there who'd come out and eat you."
"Hey!" He frees his hands to be able to point an accusing finger at her. "You were the one who created Justin by pushing Kraang-buttons!"
Karai's face is empty. "What the heck is a Justin?"
"You two!" It takes him a second to identify the hissing voice as the girl, now standing way ahead of them looking annoyed and edgy. "What are you doing? Come on, it's this way. And please, be quiet, and do not push any buttons." She sends Mikey a murderous glare before taking off down the corridor.
"We better do as our little guide says," Karai snorts. Mikey glares after her as she silently creeps after the girl.
"You started it," he grumbles, and Karai's head snaps back at him.
"Oh, I'm sorry, little cry-baby," she sneers. "Would you have preferred opening the door and getting eaten?"
"Quiet!" The girl is looking like a pissed-off demon in the red emergency light as she glowers at Mikey and Karai. "Gosh, the two of you are like a couple of quarrelling siblings. You're going to tell every guard where we are."
"Oh quit your whining," Karai snaps, pushing her way past the girl. "Now where do we go?"
They are lucky enough to get to the first cell without running into anyone, although Mikey can hear distant footsteps somewhere down the corridor every now and then. The girl stops without a word and starts working on the doors lock. Mikey weighs from one foot to the other, staring at her while she works.
"Are you getting in? You are going to get it open, right?" He edges closer and tries to see what she is doing. Karai grabs hold of his bandana tails and yanks him back.
"Get back and let her work," she growls. Mikey is just about to reply when a click is heard.
The door is open.
And then something crashes into it and sends it right into the girl's face.
She yelps and stumbles back, opening the way for a flailing, red-haired figure to more or less falls into the corridor. The figure comes to a stop when it notices Mikey and Karai and stands absolutely still, gasping, shivering and wide-eyed. The red hair settles around it's face.
"April!" Mikey cheers and lunges at her. She groans when he latches onto her, but then her arms are around his shell, hugging him tightly and not letting go. Something in the middle between a laugh and a sob escapes her as she burrows her face into his neck.
"You came! Oh, thank you!"
"Well, isn't this cute," Karai drawls, making April stiffen. "But we have things to do, so if you two don't mind…"
"You!" April releases herself from Mikey, although he tries to keep clinging to her, but leaves one hand on his shoulder. "What are you doing here?" Her voice is cold enough to make Mikey shiver.
"I just don't get you guys."
April grows even more rigid when the girl suddenly speaks up. Mikey glances at their guide and can't help but to wince at her appearance. Her spiky hair is standing in all directions, her nose is oozing blood after it's meeting with the door and the entire right side of her face is already starting to bloom with dark bruises. She doesn't seem to mind the pain all that much, though, and simply regards Mikey and the others with an exhausted expression as she presses one hand onto her nose to stop the blood flow.
"Why do you work together when you are so obviously enemies?"
Mikey and Karai glance at each other and then answer in chorus: "It's complicated." Karai flinches and Mikey grins. "That, was awesome," he adds, much to Karai's obvious dislike. April gives him an incredulous look before turning back to the girl.
"Kala?" she says, sounding sceptical. "What are you… how… why?" The girl – no, Kala, Mikey corrects himself – gives a wry smile.
"Turns out Bishop's been keeping secrets from me," she says evenly, wiping blood from her face and ending up smearing it all over her cheeks. "And I do not like being lied to. Now come on, we have people – eh, mutants – to save." She quickly turns away and hurries down the corridor, but Mikey can swear he saw tears glinting in her eyes.
"Hey." He frees himself from April's hand and hurries after Kala. "Are you okay?" She flinches, and he sees her shoulders tense.
"Yeah," she mumbles. "I'm fine."
He doesn't believe her, but when he tries to reach for her again she jerks aside, gives him a hunted look and hurries away again.
"Fine!" he calls after her, exasperatedly spreading his arms wide. "I'm only trying to help, but do run away if that makes you feel better!"
"I'm not running away," Kala snaps, rubbing ferociously at her eyes. "I'm looking for your friend. Now hurry up!"
"Oh, right." Mikey grins sheepishly. "Mona's still in here somewhere." He doesn't feel as worried as when they first got in. They have barely faced any opponents, Kala can get them passed all locked doors and April is alive and well. Mona is probably locked in a similar room somewhere.
"We shouldn't trust them." April has caught up with him and is glancing from Karai to Kala and back again with narrowed eyes. "Where are the other guys? Are they looking for Mona?"
"Nah, it's just me." Mikey smiles at her shocked face. Before she has the chance to reply, Kala holds up a hand and motions to them to be quiet before she starts working on another door. It takes her only a couple of minutes to get it open.
"This is where the labs are." Her voice is quiet and tense, and she looks like she's rather be at any other place than here.
Doors line the new corridor they have stepped into, but unlike the one that hid April these are all sporting windows that allow you to peek into the room on the other side. Kala is only throwing a quick glance through the windows, looking almost nauseous, but Mikey can't help but stop and press his face to the glass at the very first door. The room on the other side is dark and empty. He disappointedly drags himself after the girls.
They have been on the move for a couple of minutes when Kala suddenly comes to a screeching stop in front of one of the doors, her face turning very, very pale under the blood. "Oh Bishop," she whispers, staring through the glass. "What have you done?"
Mikey does not like the tone of her voice and gulps nervously. Kala's hands are shivering as she picks the lock of the door.
The first thing Mikey notices when it slides open is a strangely burnt smell, followed by a low, barely audible groan. He quickly pushes the hesitating girls aside and rushes into the darkened lab.
"Mikey!" April calls quietly after him. "Be careful!"
But Mikey isn't listening. His eyes are glued to a table standing in the middle of the room, barely visible in the creeping emergency lights in the corridors. On it lays a limp and very still figure, illuminated by the red lights. The sound of its rasping breaths fills the room.
"Mona!" Mikey shrieks, stumbling over his own feet as he rushes to the table. The lizard-girl's head lolls limply to the side and she regards him through blood-shot eyes.
"Mikey?" she mumbles, voice hoarse and raspy. She looks like she's stuck her fingers into an electric outlet; hair standing in all directions and lips dry and cracked.
Behind him Mikey hears April yelling at Kala and Karai scolding them both for not keeping quiet, but he tries to ignore it as he pulls at the restraints holding Mona down. They won't even budge.
"You said she was fine! You said they hadn't done anything to her!" April screams.
"He lied to me!" Kala yells back.
"Stop that before I stab you both," Karai threatens.
"I really did expect more from you, Kala."
Absolute silence settles over the room. Mikey's hands freezes on the restraints around Mona's wrist as he looks up and peers into the dark corner of the room. A quick, strangled sob escapes Mona when a black clad man steps into the red light, his face cast in shadow and eyes gleaming.
"Bishop," Kala whispers.
"And why am I not surprised?" Karai huffs, the sound of her blade being freed reverberating through the room. Bishop doesn't even look at her.
"Trying to free prisoners, cooperating with criminals, cooperating with mutants." The shadow that is Bishop shakes its head slowly, as if Kala is a little child who has disappointed him deeply. He doesn't look all that threatening, though, just standing there. A little hope starts to rise inside of Mikey. Maybe they can take him. There are four of them, after all.
"You better not come any closer," he threatens, flicking his nunchucks out and spinning them through the air. "Unless you think you can handle my hot, nunchuck fury." He grins, flicks his wrist and sends his kusarigama chain straight for Bishop's face. "Take that, uglyface!"
But Bishop isn't there anymore. Mikey's chain hits the far wall with an echoing clang, never even touching the dark-clad man.
"Mikey, watch out!"
He turns just in time to see April leap forward, curl up her arm and send a punch for Bishop, who has somehow managed to circle Mikey and end up behind him. "April!" Mikey shrieks, but Bishop only ducks and pushes her back almost gently.
"I strongly suggest you move back, miss O'Neil," he says coldly. "This isn't your fight."
She staggers back, but comes to a stop when Kala puts a supporting hand on her shoulder. April shrugs her off immediately, glares at her and then aims her furious look at Bishop. "Are you kidding me?" she snarls. "If you hurt my friends you freaking make it my fight!" She steps away from Kala and falls into a defensive stance.
"Get back, newbie." April stumbles when Karai pushes her way past, blade singing through the air and face hidden behind her metal mask. Bishop easily sidesteps and counters with an elbow to her stomach, making Karai fall back onto the floor and clumsily roll back to her feet. "Oh, you'll regret that," she growls. "No one messes with the Foot."
"The Foot what?" Kala echoes.
Mikey catches Karai's eyes and nod.
"Booyakasha!"
They lunge both at once, coming at him from two different angles. He seems taken by surprise for about half a second, then his hand shots out, latches onto one of Mikey's twirling nunchucks and flings the turtle straight into Karai. The two of them fall into a tangled heap on the floor, Mikey losing one of his weapons and aching all over after the meeting with Karai's armour. He's glad he's got his shell.
Bishop isn't giving them a moment's rest but immediately sends a powerful kick for Mikey's unprotected head. The turtle yelps and roll to the side, but the foot still catches his right shoulder and sends him skidding over the floor until he crashes painfully into a bench. Vials and test tubes fall down around him and scrape his skin.
Before him Karai is fighting to stand her ground against the bigger man. She ducking and running and looking like a shadow, and for the first time Mikey fully understands what a skilled kunoichi she is. He wonders if she was holding back during their fight earlier.
But even while using all of her skills she doesn't stand a chance against Bishop. None of her punches or kicks hit home and she's already staggering from her injuries. Mikey gasps when the man grasps her arm and flings her over his shoulder, sending her back first to the floor in front of him. A sickening thud fills the room and Karai groans.
"You leave my enemy alone!" Mikey pushes himself up using the bench, feet crunching painfully against the shattered glass, and charges Bishop with a roar.
He never even manages to touch him. The man jumps, by means of some kind of impossible strength, and then spins in the air, chucking one of his feet painfully into Mikey's cheek. Mikey's head snaps to the side with an unsettling crack, and for a moment the world goes black. He stumbles and waves his arms around and calls out to the others.
"Hey guys? Guys, this isn't good! This plan sucks!" He wants Leo, who would've figured out something better than this. He wants Donnie, who would've known better than to just charge into a guarded lab like this. He even wants Raph, 'cause Raph would have helped him out right now.
Instead his hands helplessly flail through the air, and then something big and heavy smashes into his good shoulder and sends him to the ground. His sight comes back, but all he can see is a spinning room and blood on his green skin.
"Stop!" Kala's voice is high and shrill, but determined enough to make Bishop stop just as he's about to send a fist into Karai's face. The kunoichi staggers back and stares at Kala. She's holding her Kraang gun in both hands, firmly locked on Bishop. The gun is way too big for her, but her bruised and bloody face is set in determination and she's standing her ground. "You know I know how to use this," she says, sounding very stressed out. "So just step back, okay?" Mikey stares at her with gaping mouth.
"I never expected this from you. Betrayal, collaboration with mutants." Bishop's eyes are furious and every word makes Kala cringe as if he'd slapped her. "You might as well hand miss O'Neil over to the Kraang with your very own hands." Behind him April flinches where she's standing next to Mona's table, where she'd been busy trying to pry the other girl's restraints open.
"I can take car of myself," she states, sounding offended, but neither Kala nor Bishop as much as look at her.
"You have misused your authority," Kala quakes, voice quivering. "These mutants don't deserve what you are doing to them, and I won't let you hurt innocent beings. Now hand over the keys to those locks before I shoot you." She nods at Mona's table.
"But," Mikey starts, feeling confusion cloud his brain. "I thought you took that gun apart." All of them, even Bishop, stare at him, and then it dawns on him. "Oh, oh!" He slaps a hand over his face. "You were bluffing! That's really sma… oh." The hand slips down. "Sorry." He grins sheepishly.
"You little idiot," Karai snarls, sending him a lock that might very well kill him.
A buzzing sound fills the room, making them all flinch, and then the lights suddenly flickers on. Mona groans and twists on her table as little lights and visors on the many machines crowding the room come back to life. "No more," she moans. "Please, no more."
"This is over." Bishop steps away from them, walking backwards towards the door. "The guards will be here any minute now." He sends Kala a completely empty look. "It's too bad they got to you. You were promising. I regret what will happen to you now."
Another step closer to the door, and then–
Smack!
Bishop falls face first to the floor, limp like a ragdoll.
"It seems like you're in the need of some help." Fishface lowers the leg he used to kick Bishop in the head and steps into the room, poking the man's unconscious body with a metallic toe and smirking at them. Mikey's jaw drops for what has to be the hundredth time that day.
"Talk about cutting it close," Karai mutters, but there is an obvious look of relief in her eyes as she limps over to Mona and April. "Move back." She gives the redhead a shove and lifts her blade.
"Wait, what are you–" Mikey staggers to his feet and falls back down face first with a scream as pain stabs through his feet. Note to self: do not step barefoot on broken glass. He crawls back up just as Karai brings her blade down on the restraint over Mona's left wrist. It snaps open with a click. "Guys," he calls, calmed now that he knows Karai wasn't after injuring his friend. "I'm hurt over here. Could someone please give a wounded turtle a hand?"
April sends Karai a suspicious look before she walks around her, far around her, and yanks Mikey up. He thankfully puts an arm around her shoulders and she staggers under the extra weight. "Sheesh Mikey," she pants. "You really should cut back on all that pizza."
Mikey smiles at her and looks over at Karai who has just finished freeing Mona. The lizard isn't looking like she'll be going anywhere on her own, though, and Karai quickly grabs her shoulder when she nearly rolls off the table. Mona sways back and forth for a moment, and then locks eyes with Fishface. "You came," she breathes, still sounding hoarse.
"Yeah yeah, ninja honour and all of that crap." He waves it away with a look that says he'll bite the head off anyone who brings it up again.
"Hey, elf girl," Karai calls, not acknowledging the quick conversation in any way. "Get over here and help the lizard."
When no one moves Mikey searches the room until he finds Kala. She has moved back to a corner of the lab and is looking very tiny as she stares at Fishface with wide, terrified eyes. The Kraang gun is clutched tightly in her hands, as if she's refusing to admit that it is useless. "Hey," he says, and she jerks her head to him. "What's wrong?" He doesn't like seeing her like this, not after she worked so hard to help them out.
She looks back to Fishface and he finally notices her staring gaze and glares back. She gulps. "He isn't like you, is he?" she asks Mikey weakly.
"He is pretty much everything you talked about earlier," April cuts in. "So you better keep your distance."
"Yeah," Fishface drawls. "Distance will make you live longer." Kala pales.
"Ey," Karai snaps. "I told you to get over here." Kala hurries over to the two, but keeps to the walls, as far away from Fishface as she can get. Mikey notices how she hesitates before putting her arms around the lizard girl, and how she won't look at her.
Guilt? Or does she still have her issues being around mutants?
"Okay." Karai limps toward the door where Fishface reaches out to her, put she makes a face and pushes his hand aside. "Let's get out of here before those guards show up."
"They are stopped for the moment," Fishface says ruefully. "I took out a whole bunch of them on my way here."
"Then they will know for sure that we're here," April says tightly. "How are we supposed to get out of here when half of you can barely even walk?"
A moment of silence passes the room, and Mikey is suddenly aware of the sound of footsteps and people calling in the distance. There is either a parade coming…
…or the guards are onto them.
"I've got an idea," Kala says.
April's POV
"How do we know this isn't a trick?" April's shoulders are aching, but that doesn't stop her from dragging Mikey along after Kala.
"What could I possibly be winning on tricking you?" Kala sounds bitter. "I've already lost everything, haven't I?"
April refuses to feel sorry for the other girl.
They are in some kind of garage far down in the building, surrounded by so many black vans that there is no point in counting them. Fishface and Karai are busy slicing their tires while Kala tries to hotwire one of them. She's already hacked into the garage door, a tunnel she says will lead them to the surface in a nearby warehouse, and if it wasn't for the lies she's told, April might have been impressed.
But the sight of Mona, now sitting slumped on the Stealth Bike close to the door, is more than enough to make April furious. Her friend was strapped to a table in a lab. There were electrodes attached to her temples! She's lost her black hoodie somewhere along the way, and is now only sporting her green, reptilian skin, just like the turtles, but she doesn't seem to mind all that much. There is a dazed look over her eyes and multiple red marks along her arms, no doubt from needles.
And Kala said she was fine, April thinks bitterly.
The van comes to life with a roar and Kala slams the hood shut. "Right," she says, wiping her hands on her green skirt. "Let's get going."
April helps Mikey over to the Stealth Bike (she can still barely believe that Bishop's men just put it in their garage, as if it was theirs) and sits down in front of him.
"Hey!" Mikey whines. "It's my turn to drive!"
"Do you know how?" April turns back to him with a raised eyebrow.
"I could improvise."
"Now that would be an interesting experience." She smiles, but doesn't give up her seat. "Sorry, bro, but I want to get out of here alive." He pouts but doesn't argue as she puts her hands on the handles.
"I will open the door and you two will drive through first," Kala instructs, pointing at Karai and Fishface as they file into the van. "Then you guys follow and stop on the other side." She waves at April and the others on the bike. "I will get through, close the door and give the lock a meltdown and then we will be on our way." She gives them an exasperated smile and starts walking over to the huge garage door.
"No way. You think we will actually let you come with us?" Kala stops at the sound of April's incredulous voice and turns back to them, fear in her face.
"I can't stay here," she says, spreading her arms wide. "Bishop is going to kill me!"
"April, we can't just leave her," Mikey cuts in. "She helped us save you guys. She betrayed that creepy dude for us."
"And that doesn't come as even a bit suspicious to you? For all we know this is all a big set-up!" She glares at Kala, who immediately recoils. "Bishop disowns her so that we will take pity on her, and then, once we have shown her the lair, she will stab us in the back."
"Oh, yeah," Mikey says. "That does ring some bells."
Kala looks horrified. "I would never do that!"
"I don't care what you do as long as you open that door right now," Karai says, snapping them out of their argument.
"But you can't leave me here!" Kala is starting to look desperate. "There isn't a chance I will get out of here on foot without getting caught, and all the other vehicles in here were just ruined!"
"Why don't we just give her a ride?" a low voice murmurs. It takes April a moment to realize it is Mona. "We can drop her off somewhere along the way."
April doesn't want to give in, but the sound of running footsteps start echoing through the garage, declaring that they are out of time. "Fine," she snaps. "Just open the damn door." Kala nods stiffly and runs over to the door while April kick-starts the bike's engine.
"Hey, you guys!" She flinches at the sound of Karai's voice. The kunoichi is sitting in the van's passenger seat, looking very tiny (they had to find the biggest vehicle around for Fishface to fit at the wheel) and leaning out the still open door. "This doesn't change anything!" she calls. "You betrayed me and I'm still going to get you for it!"
"All we've ever done is self-defence!" April screams back over the sound of revving engines. "It was your family who started all of this!"
"Yeah!" Mikey cheers in. "Ask your daddy what he did to Tang Shen!"
What's visible of Karai's face behind the mask turns a bright red, but she never gets the chance to reply.
"What are you waiting for?" Kala shouts. "Drive!"
The van comes to life with a roar as Fishface steps on the gas and Karai is flung back in her seat. April can hear the kunoichi yell at the mutant as the two of them vanish down the dark tunnel. She quickly follows them before, reluctantly, stopping to wait for Kala on the other side of the door. It only takes the girl a couple of seconds to get the door closed, and only a couple more before yelling is heard on the other side. They got out in the last minute.
They zoom through the tunnel faster than what April thought possible with four people on the bike. Donnie must have worked really hard to make sure it'd be strong enough.
Donnie… She remembers what he looked like when she found him in the back of that van. What if Bishop hurt him so badly he won't ever recover? Is he even alive? A whole new wave of white-hot fury for the man who hade the nerve to say he had only her best in interest washes over her. How could he possibly think it was in her best interest to hurt her friends?
They drop Kala off in a quiet part of town, next to an abandoned building where there is currently no people around. She gets off the Stealth Bike with a confused and sort of dazed look on her face, but she doesn't argue. April can sense that Mikey isn't too happy about how things are unfolding, though. She revs the engine and takes off down the street before he has the chance to protest. When she glances back the girl is still standing on the sidewalk, looking as if she has never seen a city before.
By the time they reach the lair April is close to her breaking point. Every shadow looks like an agent, every movement is a threat. She is practically hyperventilating when they hide the bike in an alley and sneaks down the manhole cover directly above the lair to make sure that none of the newly installed sewer cameras notice them. She has to walk the short but way-to-open distance twice: first with Mikey, who is complaining wildly about his still bleeding feet, and then with Mona, who isn't speaking at all. Her heart is beating rapidly as she finally slips the cover back in place above her.
She's home.
"Mikey? Is that you? Where have you been?" Leo walks into the room, his face set in a worried scowl and his arms crossed over his plastron. The way his jaw drops when he notices his little brother isn't alone is kind of cute. "April?" he breathes. "Mona?"
"Hi Leo." April smiles weakly at him, wanting nothing more than to just lie down on her bed and sleep for ages. But not until she knows Donnie is okay. He goes before everything right now.
"April, I can't believe you're okay!" Leo tackle-hugs her, just like Mikey did earlier, and nearly crushes her. "Guys, get over here! You won't believe this!"
"I'm busy!" a voice calls back. April's heart nearly stops; that was Donnie.
"I don't care!" Leo calls back. "Get over here now!"
April detangles herself from Leo as two other turtles enter the room, one heavily supported on the other and grumbling under his breath. "Donnie!" she cheers. "You're okay!"
The purple masked turtle looks up and the expression of utter shock on his face is nearly identical to the one Leo wore only a minute earlier. "Apr– " he starts, but then he's cut short when she latches onto him.
"I was so worried about you," she says, feeling hot tears stain her cheeks. "Seeing you in that van – I thought you were… you were…" She bites back her words and hugs him closer. She feels a hand on her shoulder as Raph gives it a tight squeeze, and then it's just her and Donnie again.
"I was worried about you to," he says, gasping under her grip but hugging her back nonetheless. "I'm so glad you – oh, ow!"
April stiffens and pushes him back. "Are you hurt? Am I hurting you?"
"No no," he insures. "I'm fine, hugging is fine." He tries to pull her back but she keeps him at an arm's length, taking in all the bandages covering his green skin.
"Oh, Donnie," she breathes. "You poor thing." His cheeks turn a bright pink.
"What happened to her? Mikey, what did they do to her?"
It's Raph's voice, and when turns around she sees him kneeling next to Mona Lisa, looking as if someone clocked him in the head with a baseball bat. Mona has her eyes closed and covers away whenever anyone reaches out to her.
"I don't know," Mikey sighs. "She was like this when we found her."
"Bishop has done something to her." April takes Donnie's hand and starts toward the other four. When he staggers precariously she quickly drapes his arm over her shoulders to stabilize him. "Come on, Don," she urges gently. "You've got patients to care to."
Irma's POV
Being stuck in a closet isn't fun. You might think that there are loads of things you can do when locked in an enclosed space on your own, but really, there isn't. She couldn't even text anyone 'cause that darn Karai had stolen her phone.
Irma sighs and tries to stretch to get the kinks out of her muscles, but there just isn't enough room. She grumbles to herself and sits back down on the floor, having to curl her knees up to her chest to fit properly. This, in all different aspects, sucks.
She doesn't know how long she's been in this dusty, mouldy-smelling closet, and she doesn't know for how long she'll be kept in there. For all she knows, Karai and Fong might have forgotten all about her and will let her starve to death. Irma has always liked clothes, but that doesn't mean she wants to end her life in a closet, especially not if said closet is filled with ugly clothes.
Yep, she thinks, this is what you get for trying to investigate a crime.
The silence in her tomb-to-be is suddenly chattered by a scraping sound. Irma quickly gets to her feet; she knows that sound.
Someone is unlocking the door.
It is dark outside when it swings open, and it takes her a moment to identify her rescuer: it's Fong. "You!" she cheers. "Oh, I knew you wouldn't let me die in here! I can't believe you'd leave your gang just to save me! Oh, that is so sweet!" He looks rather shocked when she steps out of the closet and spreads her arms wide to hug him.
"Shut up." He grabs her arms and pushes them down to her sides. "I'm not leaving anything."
"Oh." Irma pouts disappointedly; part of her thought she had finally found her knight in shining armour. "But then why are you…"
"It's not for you." He give her a disapproving look and lets go of her arms. "A friend of mine is in trouble, and if you help her out I'll let you live."
Irma smiles; it sure is one crappy cover, but that did definitely sound like a reluctant hero coming to her rescue, trying to pretend he's still all tough and bad so she won't see how soft he really is. "Sure," she purrs, batting her eyelashes. "What can I do for you friend?"
He stares at her. "Stop that?"
She frowns. "Stop what?"
"Listen." He sighs and rubs a hand over his face. "Last night my friend Angel got herself mixed up with the turtles, and the Shredder isn't happy about it."
"Again with those turtles," Irma grumbles. This is not the direction she wanted this conversation to take. "What are they, a rivalling gang or something?"
"That doesn't matter." Fong grabs one of her arms again and starts dragging her through the room. "The point is that I pretty much owe Angel my life, and if she comes back here she'll be killed in the most slow, painful and gory way possible." He stops at the far wall and carefully peeks through the door before lugging her into the next room. "I'm the only one of the Dragons who knows where she lives, and the Shredder doesn't know that, but I can't warn her because someone would notice if I just waltzed into her apartment."
"So you pretty much just want me to find her and tell her to stay away?" Irma says.
"That's the deal." They've reached another door, but on the other side of this one isn't a dark room. Daylight washes in over them and nearly blinds Irma. "This is her address. Find her. Today." He presses a small note into her hand and pushes her through the door.
"Wait." She turns back before he has the chance to close it and shoves her foot in between the door and the wall. "Will I ever see you again?"
He glares at her. "For your sake, I hope not. You will not walk out of this place alive a second time." With that he steps on her foot until she removes it and slams the door shut in her face.
A/N: Will Karai find out the truth about her origins? What is Kala going to do with her life? And what in the world happened to Casey and Angel? Tune in next time to find out!
Also please leave a little review and you will make me squeal of happiness and write faster.