Adaptable III:
"Donnie!"
Raph burst into his brother's lab without preamble, just as he had been asked not to a thousand times before. Some things were not inclined to change. Donnie and April were facing the cot, which was strange because he had no idea April was even coming over tonight and because Donnie was supposed to be sitting in front of his computer, working some magic to help Mona. The both spun around at the sound of his voice. Donnie raised his hands calmingly, which consistently made Raph angrier.
"It's done and her new phone is on the desk, but we've got…"
"Thanks and we have another problem." As he cut Donnie off, Mona stuck the card into Donnie's hand and he watched as his brother fumbled to keep from dropping it.
"Wuh?"
It was always nice to leave the genius at a loss for words, though not as nice as when it happened to Mikey, an even rarer occurrence, but he was still too on edge from the encounter to bask in the moment.
"Someone…approached us after the mission." Mona scoffed at his choice of words and she was right, but he didn't feel like admitting to Donnie that they'd been toyed with.
"A Woman…looked human, but was impossibly fast."
"Raph just because…"
"No Donnie, I mean that she literally moved faster than should have been humanly possible. Like if I hadn't caught a slight blur of motion, I would have thought that she was teleporting." The brought a frown as he managed to convince his brother that this wasn't just wounded pride.
"Apparently, she's been watching for a while." He pretended not to hear as Mona muttered "creepy."
"She knows about you and Mikey too and was trying to recruit us for something, though she wouldn't say what. Just left that card and said to call if we wanted to stop playing around with lowlife nobodies." Donnie nodded thoughtfully.
"Ok, I'll look into it when I get the chance, but if she's smart, it will probably be a burner phone paid in cash, so the best I might be able to get is a location if it's on."
"It's a start and…Donnie who is that?"
He finally noticed the human man, shirtless in torn, ragged jeans, sitting on the cot beyond April and Donnie with his head in his hands.
"I'll explain in a minute. Could ask Sensei and Mikey to come in?"
"Uh, sure."
His mind reeled at the shock of having yet another new stranger in their secret lair. What part of secret did nobody seem to understand? Well it sounded like they were all going to get the explanation together for some reason. Although that reason was probably so there would be someone to hold him back when this sunk in and he tried to throttle his brother. He climbed the stairs to the dojo.
"Mikey, Donnie wants…are you making Kraang balloon animals?" Mikey looked up from the tangle of pink balloon he was working on, sitting on the floor surrounded by half a dozen inflatable alien brain creatures.
"Do I even want to know?"
"It's for my routine. Cowabunga Carl has to fight off the alien invaders with the help of the kiddies."
"Seriously?"
"Little kids are violent dude. It helps if they have something to hit other than me. Besides, who doesn't like squishing Kraang?"
"You know there are a lot of people still traumatized by the invasion right?"
"That was forever ago. We can totally laugh about it now. Besides, everybody likes squishing Kraang. Come on try it. You know you want to." With a sigh, he stomped the nearest balloon Kraang with a satisfying pop. Ok that was a little fun.
"See. Told ya. Oh and no eating the taffy apple pizzas in the fridge. They're for work tomorrow."
Though his mouth watered a bit at the mention of it, he refused to show it. Mikey was some kind of culinary enigma. He remembered the day his brother had them sample his new potential work recipes, unable to decide which one was better.
There was the taffy apple pizza that tasted like someone had baked caramel apples into a pie and the anchovy and sour cream pizza with the corn chip crust, which he suspected would have been inedible even if Mikey had used unexpired ingredients. They'd all choked down the obligatory bite of the latter before washing their mouths out and devouring the former.
He wasn't sure what was more disturbing, that Mikey thought they were equally good or that he polished off the stale fish pizza all by himself. The world must somehow taste different to Mikey. There was no other explanation. Not even Master Splinter with his less discerning rodent palate had been able to tolerate that one.
"Well, if you were already making them, you should have made extra for the family." Mikey grinned.
"Of course I did. Just wanted to hear you ask." He held his arms open for a hug and Raph just scowled at him.
"We have a guest in the lab that Donnie wants everyone to meet."
"Oooh new friends!" Mikey dashed past him in a green and orange blur.
"Ok then, I'll get Sensei." He crossed the dojo, suppressing the temptation to pop more Kraang as he went and knocked on the door to his father's room.
"Enter." He slid it open, stepped in and knelt in the familiar student position that he'd used all his life.
"What is it my son?"
"Donnie's brought a stranger home and wants everyone in the lab." Although Sensei said nothing, Raph could tell by the way his ears flattened back that his father was not pleased with this development.
"Then let us go see what your brother has to say to justify his actions."
"Hai Sensei."
He heard his father sigh in annoyance at the balloon littered dojo, but that wasn't topping the priority list right now. Raph was sure Mikey would be hearing about it later. And it would be his own fault, as usual. He should have known that the dojo was not the appropriate place for making crafts. But then again, Mikey had never really been strong on judgement.
Even now, he could see Mona running interference as Mikey tried to get past her to the new guy who hadn't looked like he was in the mood for Mikey level enthusiasm, assuming anyone ever was. Raph had barely stepped in when he heard his father call out in that commanding tone of voice that all of them knew better than to defy. Well at least defy openly anyway.
"Donatello! Explain yourself." His brother snapped to attention and immediately began to stutter and stumble over his words.
"Uh, you see, it's, um…" April saved him.
"I told Donnie to bring him home."
"April?" The implication of the first time she'd brought Irma, or who she'd thought to be Irma, to the lair hung uncomfortably in the air, but April was stubborn and undeterred.
"We checked and he is, or was, normal human with no connections to any of our enemies. He's been the best friend of Irma's new boyfriend Keno for years. His name is Carter."
"And he is in our home because?"
"He was going to get discovered if we left him at his apartment. It's a miracle, no one else found him already. We made sure he had no idea where he was going when we brought him, so our secret is safe. And I promised Irma we'd help him." At that last her face fell and Raph knew that something had gone wrong with that part of the plan. Donnie cleared his throat, having now apparently composed himself.
"He accidentally stumbled across a Kraang lab, working on Miwa's condition back when they were allied with the Shredder. His condition is similar to hers. I…I don't think I can reverse it." An outburst behind Donnie and April drew everyone's attention.
"Well that's just freakin' fantastic! What am I supposed to do now?!" As he spoke, Carter nearly double in size, sprouted yellow scales and shoulder spikes. Everyone involuntarily backed up a step or two as Donnie proceeded to explain.
"His transformations are kind of keyed to his emotions right now."
"Woah." April ignored Mikey as she placed a calming hand on Carter's forearm.
"Easy now." He sat back down, his shoulders slumping as his anger dissipated into depression.
"Easy for you to say." She smiled.
"If it helps, I'm not entirely human either."
"Somehow no, that isn't comforting at all."
"I got it!" They all turned to Mikey and Raph groaned. Nothing good could come of this.
"The Enforcer." To Raph's surprise, Donnie beat him to the punch, smacking Mikey upside the head.
"You are not giving Carter a monster name!"
"But dude, look at him. It's perfect."
"Mikey!" His youngest brother quieted as he, Donnie Mona and April yelled at him in unison. April turned back to Carter.
"With some practice, you can probably learn to control it and will be able to pass for human whenever you want. I know that it's not what you wanted, but it's something." He took a deep, calming breath that they all suspected was more April's influence than he knew.
"You really think that's possible?"
"I know it is because you're not the only one like this. And Miwa, the girl with a mutation similar to yours, will be back in a few weeks and I'm sure she'll be happy to help you." Raph snorted, earning himself glares from most to the people in the room. He glared back, unwilling to apologize for being honest.
"But until you have it under control, you may want to lie low. I know you won't get your tuition back now, but you'll probably have to drop your classes for this semester unless you can arrange some kind of alternative with your instructors that doesn't require you to be present. We'll all help any way we can. I promise." Carter nodded numbly as he absorbed all of this, his form slowly reverting to its human shape.
"I can't go back to my apartment. What if someone sees me?" Master Splinter sighed.
"We have some spare rooms available at the moment. You may remain with us until you have your abilities under control." Carter managed a halfhearted smile.
"Thank you…?" April jumped back in, abruptly realizing that he only knew her and Donnie.
"That's Master Splinter. The red turtle is Raph and the orange turtle is Mikey. They're Donnie's brothers. And she's Mona Lisa."
"Sister?"
"Girlfriend." Raph wrapped an arm around Mona's shoulders and pulled her in towards him as he spoke. Then Shadow suddenly burst into the lab.
"Guys, we have a problem!"