Chapter 25
Sure enough, Raphael's prediction about his youngest brother was right. Not only did Mikey straight up tackle me to the floor in delight once he had awoken from the couch, which he quickly apologized for after thinking I was still injured, but he waited on me hand and foot asking me every few minutes if I needed anything.
It had been a few hours after waking up in my room when everyone else had begun to stir. Everyone else except for Donnie, who I could hear softly snoozing in his bedroom.
It was that sound that echoed in my ears slightly that caused me to shake my head in an attempt to make it go away. The first few days after my transformation had been complete hell, every sound pounded through my ears; even the sound of a fly's wings reverberated like a helicopter's propeller through my skull. I had just finally began being able to ignore noises and tune them out, though every once in awhile I could still pick up nuances of echoes. That would explain why I could hear a turtle gently sleeping in a room well blocked off by doors and walls, all during Mikey's excited rantings.
The rest of the family and myself were all relaxing in the living room area, Raph's and my plates deposited in the sink for cleaning at a later time and the orange turtle's questions calmed. I had to admit it was wonderful to have real food and drinks for once; all I got in that lab was an oatmeal paste that had nutrients or some crap in it and plain water. Most of the time I didn't even eat it even though I was starving, just because it was that disgusting.
Fortunately, Splinter had woken up shortly after our meal and he began making tea for the both of us. I had curled up on the couch and leaned against Raphael as I sipped the hot liquid, relishing the warm feeling that invaded my stomach as Mikey and Leo bantered back and forth about something I wasn't really paying attention to. I felt a strong arm squeeze me closer to him slightly, and when I looked up I could see him smiling slightly down at me.
"You sure you missed all his idiot talk?" he whispered slightly, nodding his head in the direction of his youngest brother.
A small chuckle escaped my throat as I nestled against him and took a small sip of the soothing tea, "More than anything…"
"So, Elena," Leonardo's voice halted his brother's ramblings and sat down on a recliner near where we sat, "What do you think is next on your list?"
A frown crossed my features as my brain contemplated his question. What was I going to do now?
I could feel Raph get slightly tense beside me, "C'mon Leo, give her some time to-"
"No, no, it's ok," I held my hand up to calm him down, before sitting up and resting my elbows on my knees. "I guess I hadn't really thought about it a whole lot while I was in there. I was in more of a try-not-to-get-myself-killed kind of mode."
Flashes of past tests and injections crossed my mind, and I shook my head to get rid of them. "I guess I need to see what pieces of my old life I have still remaining. Any of you guys know what happened to my family…my apartment?"
I looked around and saw all three turtles look at each other in guilt, but not back at me, "Ok, way to give a girl some enthusiasm y'all. Not everyone at once now..."
"We've been keeping, erm, a continued surveillance on your family since you've been gone," the eldest turtle supplied after a few moments of silence between the three brothers and father.
"A couple of weeks after you went missing a 'body' was found up by the Hudson that looked just like you." I covered my mouth in shock, and swallowed a little bile that had begun to rise up my throat. "Whatever that thing was, it was convincing enough for your family to think you had been mugged and stabbed to death, so as far as they are concerned you're currently buried up at-"
"Woodlawn," I finished quietly. The blue masked brother nodded slowly in agreement. "Yeah, we've got a family mausoleum up there, and when we were little my parents bought us all double plots near it in case we ever got married." I laughed a little at the memory, "I always told them it was morbid to plan ahead like that. Guess they were right."
"I had my sons go to your apartment shortly after your disappearance in order to remove any personal effects that may have exposed our existence to the world," the wise old rat interjected as silence had filled the room. "They have been placed in a box in your room here awaiting your return."
"Thank you, Splinter," I mumbled out quietly as I mulled the information over in my head. Luckily I didn't have many things I was attached to, but I did have a couple photographs I kept with me from when we were all younger…I just never had a reason to think anyone would see them. I'll have to check out this box later after everything had settled down a bit.
"So, for all intents and purposes my family thinks I'm dead and gone?" I could hear my voice quiver slightly, and I felt tears wanting to spring to my eyes, but I blinked them back and sat up straighter. I felt a firm hand settle on my lower back and I smiled gratefully to the turtle beside me.
A small echo of a noise rang through my ears as I heard the fourth turtle begin to wake up in the other room.
"Yes," Leo began to pace slightly in the living room, "Your sister was very vocal in saying that it wasn't you that they found, but your parents were so in grief they didn't believe her…chalking it up to a PTSD episode possibly."
Of course Anya would have raised a stink over the matter. I hoped she didn't put a permanent fracture in the family because of me though…
"So what was it they planted in the river? A clone or something? And how come you guys didn't believe it was me?" All sorts of questions began invading my brain, and I rubbed my forehead in irritation.
"E, we've seen way too many weird things to think the foot would just dump you in the river," the normally rambunctious Mikey was mellow as he leaned up against the wall. "But as for what that fake was, D tried to explain it to us, but you know how he gets."
I chuckled slightly as I nodded my head in agreement. Yeah, I could totally see the scientist inside him fighting to get out and examine something like that. I jerked my thumb back towards the lab, "That's fine, I'll just ask him in a minute once he gets a cup of coffee. He's almost as bad as Raph here when he first wakes up."
I ignored the fake shock from the red masked turtle behind me as a large yawn echoed across the room from the lab. Moments later Donatello staggered through the door and gave a little wave as he shuffled over to the kitchen to get his much needed drink.
"Woah, how did you know he was awake angelcakes?" I saw the familiar inquisitiveness return to the youngest brother as he straightened up a little.
"You guys couldn't hear him? He's totally been shuffling around in his room for a couple minutes before coming out here," I scratched up towards one of the ears on top of my head. "it was kind of irritating to be truthful."
"What's going on in here?" I heard Donnie's voice yawn as he came over to where we all sat.
"It seems Elena has some rather interesting talents as a side effect from her capture," I could hear my adoptive father say as he stroked his beard in contemplation.
"Yeah, I've only noticed a couple of things since I got turned into whatever this is," I indicated the fur and other physical features on me. "Donnie and I were going to do some work in the lab later to see if he could crack the code and maybe even reverse it."
The old rat continued stroking his beard in thought, "Perhaps, but it is also a possibility that your transformation could be permanent, and any attempts at a reversal could put your body at greater risk." He stood slowly and began to make his way over to his room that adjoined the dojo. "Please come see me later so that we may have a private discussion regarding your future." I nodded in approval; I always enjoyed our talks, and if nothing else he might make me feel better about my predicament.
Not even a moment passed before Michelangelo took over his father's chair and looked at me in awe, "So what other things can you do? Can you shoot lasers out of your eyes? Do they feel weird?"
I genuinely laughed at his question, and felt better knowing he was getting back to his former self. "No, Mikey, no lasers, but I know I'm stronger and faster than I used to be. I don't really know what else I can do or what's going on inside, but I was hoping that one over there would be able to solve the case." Donatello waved as he heard us talking about him and began shuffling back towards his lab.
"I guess that's my cue, eh?"
The remaining three brothers decided to go work out in the dojo once the realization that the next few hours would be pretty boring set in. Raph seemed hesitant to leave me for any sort of time, but I assured him I would be ok in his brother's hands, and that I would come get him if anything interesting happened.
Of course I had lied a little, wanting a break away from so many people hovering over me. I had spent the last few months either being by myself or being attacked by swarms, so I was internally conflicted as to what I actually wanted.
Truthfully going back to sleep in my bed for the next couple of days seemed like a great idea.
Once the caffeine hit his system Donatello became more and more like his old self, talking to himself as he flitted back and forth in the lab. He was currently running the sample of my blood into some sort of machine he had hooked up to his computer and analyzing the results.
"Ok, so it looks like the base part of your animal DNA is mainly bear, which would explain why you have the increased strength you do. There are other species also involved here, and I'm actually rather impressed with how they were able to splice everything together in one cohesive unit, but besides the bear you have two other overarching species that make up the bulk of the foreign DNA," his fingers quickly typed over the keyboard as he pulled up pictures of everything that was in me.
He pointed over to a picture of something I'd never really seen, "That right there is a wolverine. I thought originally that your retractable claws would have been feline in nature, but it appears they may have pulled some pieces from this guy instead. That would also compound on your strength and tenacity with the bear genes in a fight. Though with their attitude and aggressiveness I'm surprised they were able to weed that part out."
A small frown crossed my features as I mulled over the info. I had been a lot more irritable lately, but I chalked that up to the horrors the lab put me through. I wonder if the DNA mixed in with mine may be responsible.
A picture of a starfish pulled up after the wolverine, "So what about that? A simple little starfish after both of those two big bads?"
"Yeah, but it totally makes sense," he talked out loud to himself. Seeing my puzzled look brought him back to the current situation. "See, some types of starfish can regenerate. Like literally grow new limbs, and have even grown a whole new starfish from just a limb before. They can also shed their limbs if needed to evade a predator…but, um. Please don't do that in here." He grinned slightly and saw I caught onto the joke.
"Trust me, I'll try not to lose any arms or legs in here anytime soon," I poked him on the shoulder, "so what do you think they were trying to accomplish with this power ranger of a creation? I feel like a platypus to be truthful."
"Well if you were a platypus you'd also have venom you could inject into any predators and…" he stopped as he saw my raised eyebrow, "Oh, you're joking."
"Yeah, but being able to poison someone would be pretty awesome, just sayin," I responded, laughing slightly.
The purple masked turtle sat back in his chair and slightly crossed his arms with a finger extended as he took a breath to talk. Ah yes, it was his lecture pose the brothers and I called it. "It would be envenomation, technically, since they wouldn't be ingesting whatever the toxin would be. See there's a difference between poison and venom and…and I can totally see you don't care." He looked down at how he was positioned and laughed a bit, "Yup, I'm doing it again."
My hands raised in defeat, "Hey, you figured it out this time at least."
"Anyway," he continued as he stood up to stretch, "Whatever they were trying to do with you, what they did make you into is a creature that is built to fight, and to last in a fight. Like some sort of teddy bear tank or something."
He instantly put his hands in the air as I growled low at the comparison, "Hey! Don't hurt me, I was channeling Mikey for a second. You know how he likes to name things."
"Yeah, let's not let him get that one in his head," I shook my own head to rid myself of the building ire, "I'll never live that one down."
He nodded in agreement as he leaned forward to peer into the blood on the microscope slide nearby. I came up behind him and put my hand on his shoulder as I watched the screen above us that showed me what he saw too.
"You know," he said absentmindedly as he peered through the small tube, "I'd love to be able to see the rate of regeneration you have now, but it would involve inflicting new injuries, so of course," he trailed off for a moment, "ethically I couldn't subject you to those kinds of experiments." He screeched loudly which caused me to jerk away, and I felt my claws sheathe themselves back into my fingers.
When I saw him turn around to look at me my eyes went wide with shock as I saw five small puncture wounds on the fleshy part of his shoulder. The dark red blood that began to seep to the surface made a stark contrast to his darker olive green skin.
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" I shrieked as I ran over to the medical carts and grabbed some gauze to put pressure against them. The pricks weren't deep, and thankfully his reaction time probably prevented them from being bigger than they were. As he held the gauze next to his shoulder I went back over to get a bandage and ointment and helped him patch it up.
"Donnie, I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened. I didn't even think about extending them out or anything…" I babbled on as tears pricked to my eyes.
I had hurt one of them. Not even awake for six fucking hours and I had already hurt one of my brothers.
"It's fine, they're not deep or anything. I probably didn't even need a bandage. But, hey, at least now we can see if you can envemonate someone now," a small chuckle escaped his mouth, but quickly stopped as he saw I wasn't following suit.
"It didn't even happen until I mentioned experiments, so maybe it was an instinctual response-" his voice trailed off as he stopped and looked at me critically. I didn't feel comfortable under his gaze and looked down at the floor as I held my forearms close to my body as some sort of protection.
Moments of silence passed before his conclusion shattered the stillness, "he did some horrible things on you, didn't they."
It wasn't even a question; he knew. I couldn't look up at him. I couldn't let him see the pain behind my eyes as I saw some of the flashes from those times and remembered just how much pain I was in. So I did all I could do and slightly nodded my head.
"Hey, c'mere, c'mere, c'mere," his voice gently interrupted my thoughts, and I felt him gently pull me over into a large and comforting hug. I relaxed slightly as his leaner arms pulled me close as I didn't realize I was shaking slightly from the shock of the situation.
"Hey, you don't have to worry about them anymore, you know that right?" he said softly as I nodded my head a little. "You're back and that's all that matters. We'll figure everything else from here on out."
"I swear, if there's a way I can reverse this safely, I'll find it," his gentle voice continued, calming me down. I had a special relationship with each brother, and I always loved how Donnie was always level headed and saw the best in each situation. I pulled back and saw him crack a small smile, "No Stockman has ever got one over on us before."
Even though I knew he was just trying to make me feel better, a slim ray of hope stayed in my head. Donnie was one smart cookie, and if anyone could figure out a seemingly unsolvable case, it would be him.
"Well, I guess you better get cracking then, mister." I sniffled and giggled slightly. "With this coat of fur I can bet money that the summer is going to suck."
"I'm on it," he replied and wheeled himself back over to one of the computer stations. "You can stay here and listen to me be all sciencey if you want, but I know the others are still in the dojo probably sparring with one another if you'd rather join them."
"Nah, I think I'll pass on that for right now," I trailed off as I stood up and stretched my body; even with my prior rest I still felt worn down. The thought of curling up in my bed and drowning out the rest of the world seemed like a great idea.
I walked out of the lab towards my room, welcoming the darkness when I crawled under the covers, curling up into a ball and pulling them up to my chin.
So I was made to be a fighting machine. Thinking back on my time in the gymnasium, and their precautions when it came to their guards it did make a bit of sense. I knew the destruction I could unleash on people, and it was a matter of time before the ticking time bomb exploded and hurt someone I cared for.
I numbly reached down below my bed and smiled when I felt the familiar bottle of vodka that had been stashed there what seemed like years ago. I had brought it down one night for the guys, but forgot to take it out to the common room. Since then I would take a swig now and again for those nights when I couldn't sleep. The bitter liquid burned as it worked its way down my throat to warm my belly, taking the edge off of my nerves.
Look what happened just a few minutes ago. I obviously didn't have any control over my own body, and I'm a danger to everyone here. Was there a way for me to get control over myself? Could that ever happen, or would I need to just squirrel myself away somewhere in a dark hole for the rest of my pathetic life?
Where would I go? How would I survive? I had nothing now. No money, no home, no career, no family…everything I had spent the last two and a half decades working for was gone. I rubbed my forehead in an attempt to rid itself of the growing headache and took another swig.
I just needed to get away. Away from the city, away from people, away from anyone I could hurt before I could hurt them. Maybe I could find a way to live in upstate New York or something. Hell, I was a friggin bear mutant now. Maybe I should just go find a forest or something and try to survive out there on my own.
The weight of the empty bottle fell from my hand as I reached up to rub my tired eyes. No, I was an idiot for thinking I could go all grizzly adams on my own. I'd be dead within a week.
Maybe I should talk to Splinter; he always had way more words of wisdom than my own dad. He might have an idea that could help.
I ignored the rumblings of my inner demons that continued to bubble to the surface and hugged my extra pillow close to me. I just wish this was all a bad dream. Maybe if I wake up I'll be back to normal in my own bed, just like before any of this happened.
I knew, though, that I'd never be that lucky.