A/N: Thanks to lightan117 and Wonderwomanbatmanfan for reviewing the last chapter. Yes, the talk is a terrible thing. Especially when you get the rat version. Remember to keep reviewing and tell up what you think!

Too Little, Too Late

"Well?" Piper stood behind Donny, who had been scanning the network for the last hour. Mikey was busy trying to pick up all the broken pieces that had once been their furniture. When Raph found out that Hun had taken Li, he had gone berserk, tossing chairs and smashing tables. It had taken the three of them and Master Splinter to calm him down. He blamed himself for leaving April's apartment, Hun must have attacked right after he left. He was mad at everyone. He was mad at Hun for taking Li. He was mad at Leo for delaying the rescue. He was mad at Li for leaving, and he was mad at himself for letting this happen to her.

"There doesn't appear to be any extra security or traps set up around the building. It looks about as legit as a kidnapping can be."

"So what are we waitin' for?" Raph cracked his knuckles, he wanted to go now. Leo put a hand on his shoulder.

"We can't mess this up, we don't know what they'll do to her." Raph closed his eyes. Yeah, he'd thought about that too. He looked over at Piper.

"April and Casey are on their way over, just in case." After Casey had regained consciousness, April had called the turtles again, and they decided it would be safer for everyone to be in one place. It certainly made Leo feel better, having three fighters that could look after Piper while he was gone.

"Right. Good luck." She hugged Leo, and he held on a little longer than necessary, aware that it could be her in Hun's clutches instead of Li.

"Don't do anything stupid." He whispered in her ear.

"Darn and here I was all set to go rescue Li myself, by charging head first into a room with a mutated gang leader."

"Raph's already got that idea." He held her tighter as she laughed. He loved that sound, and he loved it even more every time he was the one that made her laugh.

"Bring my friend home." He nodded and kissed her quickly before strapping on his katanas and facing his brothers.

"There may not be any visible traps, but we have to stay on our guard. Hun and Bishop must be working together, so he may be there waiting for us too. We get in, get Li, and get out. Got it? We don't have any time for payback now." He aimed the last part at Raphael. His face was stony but he didn't say anything.

"Alright, let's go."

Li groaned as she regained consciousness to a pounding headache. She blinked at the light directly above her and tried to turn away from it, only to find she couldn't move her arms and legs. She craned her head forward to see that she had been strapped to a metal table, metal cuffs over her wrists and ankles. Not to mention, the room she was in was freezing, and her jacket was gone, leaving her only in her thin white shirt and jeans.

"So you're awake." She turned her head at the voice to see a man in a black suit appear out of the shadows.

"Bishop." He stepped forward into the light.

"Yes. And you are Liara Currant, age twenty one, junior at Black Mountain University, aspiring to go into the field of wildlife conservation. You have a brother in high school, one cat, and work at a diner selling food on roller skates." She rolled her eyes.

"Anyone with computer skills could figure that out. What of it?" He leaned in closer towards her.

"That, my dear, is only the tip of the iceberg. I know everything about you from school records, medical files, your awards and trips abroad, your phases, interests, problems…." He let himself drift off. Li merely shrugged.

"I have nothing to hide." Bishop laughed.

"Everyone has something to hide. But I diverge from the topic. How are you feeling dear? I can give you something for that headache of yours." Her eyes widened slightly. 'He's good.' Her head had been killing her.

"You're not going to get Mikey back. They're going to save me and then kick your ass."

"I might be worried about that, if those turtles of yours were going to the right location."

"What are you talking about?"

"The turtles are currently racing towards a trap I engineered. You see my dear, I'm going to win. I have successfully completed my serum, created my army, and I'll soon have the turtle's dead bodies to dissect. And to top it all off, I have a new text subject, so graciously provided to me by you. So you see Liara Currant, I win." Not really having anything lucrative to say, yet unwilling to give up hope, Li resorted to using a well known quote.

"It ain't over till it's over."

"This isn't right!" Donny smacked another purple dragon with the end of his bo staff and continued to address his brothers as they fought through the throng. Hun had been waiting for them all right, with about thirty purple dragons.

"She's not here! It was all a trap!" Raph snarled and viciously pounded a man's nose in, blood spurting everywhere.

"So help me, if you did anything to her, I'll---" But Hun laughed.

"You'll what little turtle? Your pretty girlfriend is safer than any of you, and don't worry, once you're dead I promise to take good care of her." Raph yelled and lunged at him, swiping his sai and managing to draw a line of blood from Hun's green face. He roared.

"Enough! Finish this!" At that moment the doors to St. Mark's burst open and the turtles froze. It was unmistakable, each of these creatures had once been human. Four huge mutated forms stood in the doorway, blocking the street lights. One looked like a mix between a dog and a human, but much more distorted. Its teeth were too big for its mouth, which it couldn't close, and its hind legs were bent with the effort of standing upright. Next to it stood a grey-skinned rhinoceros, the only difference was its eyes and the fact that it stood upright and was wearing ragged red shorts. The third mutant was a cross between a warthog and a punk, the jaw had grown and extended forward, with two large tusks protruding from it. The last human mutant could have once passed for a very pretty young girl. Now she was an angry up-right walking bear with three inch claws, the only thing that remained the same were a pair of blue eyes, which were distinctly human.

"No, they were farther than I thought." Donny stood frozen, while Bishop's successful mutations stood before them.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get them!" Their programming kicked in and they all zeroed in on the turtles.

"Operation: Retrieve turtles." The mutants moved forward, the dog mutant taking the lead. He zeroed in on Mikey and leapt at him with his teeth bared. Mikey did a back flip, kicking the mutant in the jaw, sending it reeling backwards. He landed on his feet and charged.

Donatello had his hands full fending off the human-bear. She was trying to use her teeth and claws, which were so sharp they left marks on his bo staff. Not to mention her brute strength was astounding for her height. She tried to swipe his neck, which he blocked with his staff. He was about to butt her with it when Leo flew into him from the side. He had been facing the rhinoceros, when he went to all fours and sent Leo flying across the room. Raph was having similar luck, the warthog was physically stronger than he was, not to mention surprisingly quick. Bishop had outdone himself with these guys.

The warthog kicked Raph across the room, hitting the opposite wall. The warthog grabbed his neck and pinned him against the wall. Leo charged at him with his katana, right before Leo was about to slice off his arm the warthog let go of Raph, his mask falling from his face as he slid to the ground.

"We're not going to win this." Leo threw a smoke bomb and, grabbing his brother, he vanished. Once they were safely back inside the battle shell and heading home, Raph exploded at his brother, punching him in the face.

"What da shell was that, Leo?" Leo rubbed his sore jaw.

"We weren't going to win Raph. It was dangerous for us to stay there."

"He has Li! And we just left her!"

"Wake up Raph, Li wasn't there. Bishop's probably got her somewhere else, and if we had stayed any longer he would have gotten one of us." Raphael let out a frustrated groan and punched the computer monitor on wall of the battle shell.

"Hey! Now I have to fix that."

"Sorry Don." Raph sat down, looking utterly defeated. He had failed. He had failed protecting Li, just as he had failed protecting Mikey. He had failed her and now she was in serious danger.

Piper leapt up from her seat next to April when the garage door opened and the battle shell drove in. The turtles piled out, all looking worse for wear, but Li was not among them. She went and hugged Leo and he sighed.

"It was a trap, she wasn't there. He sent out some of his mutants to try to capture us." Casey punched his hand.

"Damn that Hun! If I was there I coulda---" But April put a hand on his arm when she saw the turtles faces. Raph simply stormed past everyone and slammed the door to his room. They soon heard him hitting his wall.

"We better find her soon." Piper looked at the remaining turtles and said simply.

"You will." Leo gave her a small smile.

"We will, but first we need to figure out how to fight Bishop's mutants."

"Already ahead of you on that one bro."

"Donny?" Donny pulled a small vial from his bag.

"I took the liberty of taking a few blood samples."

"Donatello, you're a genius!" Piper squealed and raced over to Donny.

"I don't mean to brag, but yeah."

"This is perfect, I'll go set up the lab!" Mikey stared at the pair, confused about Piper's sudden excitement.

"Uh, somebody want to tell me what those two are talking about?"

"It means now that we have actually DNA samples from viable samples to work with, we can derive a cure and stop Bishop's plan."

"Oh!" Donatello sat down at his computer and clicked a few keys.

"Okay, these are possible locations that they could have Li, I have been hacking into Bishop's network and all of these buildings are on the same system. Piper, if you could put those on slides, I'll be right with you." She took the samples into the lab and he scanned through the network. "I'm going to hack into their camera footage; anyone who brought in a girl is bound to show up on here." He began going through security camera footage from the buildings. Meanwhile, Leo went to find his missing brother.

"Raph?"

"What do you want Leo?" Raph didn't pause in his assault against the punching bag.

"Everything's going to be fine Raph." Raph spun and glared daggers at his brother.

"Fine Leo? Fine!? What if Bishop mutated 'er? What if Hun gets his mitts on 'er? What if she's already dead? Is everything going ta be fine then?"

"That's not going to happen Raph. Don and Piper are already working on a cure."

"Oh great I have to trust a cure your stupid girlfriend comes up with." Leo shoved Raph.

"Don't talk about her that way! She's at least doing something. What are you doing Raph? Punching a dummy in the dark and blaming everyone else for your failure?" To Leo's surprise, Raph went limp.

"I know. It's just….I'm….scared. I know I barely know her but….I just can't let her get hurt. I have ta save her!" Leo put a hand on his shoulder.

"I know. We'll find her, I promise."

"We better bro, we better."

Li had been trying to break out of her bonds with little luck. Her wrists were raw and she felt her blood drip down the cuffs. She relaxed, panting. Nothing was working! It was okay, all she had to do was stay calm, and Raph would save her. And the others too, she reminded herself. She sighed, there was only a dim light on across the room from her, and she forced herself not to cry. She didn't even get a chance to tell him how she felt, they never had a chance. But she wanted one, with him. She swore to herself she'd get out of this, one way or another.

The light grew brighter and for one brief instant she thought this was it. Hun entered the room, looking just as mutated as he did the last time she saw him. He had a sinister grin on his face and she felt a shudder go down her spine.

"Hello kitten, how are you feeling? Good I hope, not too uncomfortable?"

"Screw you."

"Oh the kitten's got her claws out. I know something you might be interested in." Li wasn't going to fall for this. He just wanted a reaction out of her. "It has to do with your freak." She struggled to stay quiet as he leaned in close to her. "Don't you want to know?" She bit her tongue. "Fine I'll tell you anyway…I killed him."

"Bull shit." She spat.

"Really? Then how'd I get this?" He held up a piece of red fabric for Li to see. It was Raph's mask.

"No."

"It's true. He's dead and no one's coming to save you kitten. You better get used to being in a cage." He dropped Raph's mask in her hand and left her alone. Li felt tears well up in her eyes, and fall down her cheeks. Now she would never get a chance to tell him how she felt.

Donatello was hunched over his microscope examining a slide, Piper was next to him, studying another tissue sample, and Mikey had surprisingly volunteered to look through the security footage and try to find a clue that could lead them to Li. Everyone in the room was silent, an unusual thing for Piper and Mikey, who believed everything was better with background noise. Each of them felt responsible for Li's current predicament. Piper was beating herself up for pushing Li and continuingly bugging her about being with Raph. She should have known to just drop it and keep her big mouth shut. If she had then they could be hanging out and pal-ing around with Mikey right now, instead she was examining mutated DNA hoping that the same fate won't befall Li's DNA.

Michelangelo on the other hand was cursing the entire course of events that had taken place over the past month. He hated himself for letting the girls get involved, he should have just left them alone in the ally, as soon as they spotted him he should have just left. He should have left their apartment in the middle of the night, and tried to find his own way home, but he didn't. He let them get involved and now Li was in a situation he was very familiar with, and had hoped no one else would ever have to experience. She was Bishop's prisoner, and this was his fault. It would have been better if he never met them. They could still be living a happy normal life.

He wasn't stupid, he knew what helping him meant, and what the girls had lost by it. They had lost the ability to ever have a normal life, and being wanted criminals meant they wouldn't be able to return to college, or get jobs, or even have people look at them the same again. He should have explained the risks to them, but he was so desperate for a safe haven that he let them get involved. He told himself he'd make it up, by protecting them, but once again he failed. Well he wouldn't fail again, he was going to find his sister and bring her home.

Several hours later saw Donny suiting up the battle shell with new artillery while Raph paced. Donny and Piper managed to formulate a serum they thought would counteract the mutagen, though to be sure, Piper was going to run a final test while the guys saved Li. Just in case they needed to use it on her. Piper lined up six vials of serum and adjusted her borrowed goggles. Hopefully, the only people to receive these doses would be the mutants already turned. Donny meanwhile, had located Li, and they were about to go after her to wage another assault.

"Hurry up!" Donny stood up.

"It's ready." Leo bowed to Master Splinter.

"We'll be back Master, Donny has located where they are holding Li." Splinter nodded.

"Be safe my sons." Piper wrapped her arms around Leo.

"Be careful." He returned the hug, kissing her passionately.

"I will." Mikey thought about making a crude remark, but his sense of humor was suffering from the situation. They jumped into the battle shell and took off, leaving Piper to perfect the serum. April and Casey ran into the room.

"Did they leave? Damn." April shook her head.

"You're staying here!" She pulled Casey to sit down at the table, Splinter following. Piper sighed and headed back into the lab.

"Good luck."

"Are you sure this is the place Don?" The turtles were on the roof of a building, looking down at an old gas station. They had parked the battle shell in an ally several blocks away and had made the last leg of their journey on foot.

"Positive. All the transmissions converge on this point."

"So you're saying they're keeping her in a gas station?" Donny shook his head.

"No, below it. Come on."

"How are we going to get in?"

"Like this." Donatello jumped down from the roof of the building and landed on a truck that was about to enter the gas station, his brothers following suit. Once the truck entered the building it began to descend, the turtles jumping off the truck and pushing open the top of the elevator, climbing out. They leapt from shadow to shadow, and eventually they all noticed the same thing.

"Nobody is stopping us." They stopped.

"This is a trap."

"Who cares, we gotta get Li now!" Leo nodded.

"We'll have to risk it." Donny took out his PDA with Li's signal.

"Straight ahead." They were quiet, not knowing what to expect. Had Bishop done something to her? Were they too late? Piper was working out the kinks of the cure in case, but would it work? They gathered around the door, silent. Leo looked at Raph, who nodded. He kicked the door in.

It was empty.

"Where is she?"

"She has to be somewhere. Keep looking." They fanned out and started searching each room.

"Where's Bishop keeping her?" Donny felt along the walls.

"Wait guys, there's something here." He pulled out a small laser from his belt and went over a small latch. A small pop was heard and a door frame appeared. "She's in here." Raph steeled himself as Donny fiddled with the latch, silently opening the door. They tensed, and Leo took the lead. The room was pitch black, until they heard a click. A small light flickered on next to a metal table, where a familiar form lay.

"Li." Raph breathed, starting forward. Her hands and feet were cuffed to the table, her wrists raw and bleeding. Her skin, usually pale, was white, like she was….he lifted a trembling hand to her cheek, to feel warmth beneath his hand. He released a breath he didn't know he was holding; she was alive. Her long hair was splayed over the table, and the t-shirt and jeans she had been wearing was ripped. The anger inside of him was overwhelming, more than he had ever felt. The sound of clapping broke him from his thoughts.

"Congratulations Raphael, you found her." Bishop emerged from the shadows, mocking the young turtle. "I must say she was more interesting than some of my other test subjects." The turtles drew their weapons, Raph standing over Li protectively.

"She wasn't even frightened, though she did scream, it was quite lovely really. Hun was particularly pleased with the sound. I wonder what the other one's screams will sound like?" Leo's grip on his katanas tightened as Bishop directed the last part to him. He didn't have time to ponder it as Raph rushed forward, enraged. Mikey and Donny backed him as they began dueling with Bishop, who seemed to be enjoying himself greatly. Leo was about to join them when the opposite doors burst open, Hun appearing in the room with the other mutants.

"Awww, have they found my kitten? Too bad, and I was so looking forward to playing with her again." Raph changed targets, and Leo joined him. Mikey and Donny were easily deterred by Bishop, who disappeared through another doorway, while all four brothers faced Hun and the mutants.

"You're gonna regret ever laying a hand on her!" Raph fought with an intensity his brothers had never seen in him before, as he laid into Hun with his sais, drawing blood. He sent him to the ground, but didn't let up. He kept hitting him, until the dog mutant hit him from the side. Mikey was trying to cover him, but the rhino mutant had just finished throwing Donny across the room, almost hitting Li on her table, and turned toward Mikey.

"Shell, guys, we need to get out of here!"

"Not again, not this time! I'm not leaving without her!" Raph sidestepped the bear mutant and sliced her with his sias.

"You should listen to your brother Raphael. You should forget the girl and save yourselves." Raph snarled and attacked Bishop, who had just reappeared.

"Not gonna happen Bishop. I'm gonna kick your ass and save hers." He spun in the air and kicked Bishop in the face. He stumbled backwards and hit the table Li was on. He wiped the blood from his lip and smirked.

"Too late." He pulled a syringe gun from his jacket; stabbing Li in the neck and injecting the contents into her body.