Chapter 37

I breathed out heavily as Elena chased after me relentlessly. For the most part I was able to stay away from her, but we connected rather forcefully a few times here and there. I patched through to Leo and Mikey to check on him, and was relieved to hear he was more rattled than injured.

"Donnie, any updates yet?" I grunted as I heaved a dumpster in her path. Damn, when was she going to start tiring out?

"I'm almost finished with the device and then I can head out to intercept," his voice crackled over the radio. "Leo, you and Mikey need to get off the rooftops soon. Sounds like there's been enough calls to the NYPD that they're sending out a helicopter. Your fight in the road didn't help the situation either."

"Well what the hell did you expect me to do? Let her rip Mikey in half?" I grunted as Elena got my legs out from underneath me. I quickly rolled over to my back and latched onto her arms just in time to prevent her from gouging me. She snapped her jaws angrily, but before he could take a chunk out of my arms I yelled as I got my feet between me and her and kicked as hard as I could, "Get offa me!"

I felt slightly bad as I saw her body crash against the alley wall, but I knew deep down that she'd be fine. She landed on her feet as I got up and stood there, studying me like I was some sort of prey.

"This would go better for all of us if you would just snap outta it! C'mon Elena!" She gave a small pause and panted momentarily, but kept me in her gaze.

I held my hands up to show I was no threat to her, "It's me, doll. It's Raph. Brad…that asshole's got your head screwed up right now by implanting something in you, and we're trying to fix it."

Her head cocked to the side at the mention of my name, and I saw her claws slowly start to retract back into her paws.

"That's it…you know you can fight this babe, I know you can beat him." I hesitantly took a few slow steps towards her, hoping that I could snap her out of whatever trance she was stuck in. Her eyes were still black, but I could swear I saw some gray flash through.

I got within a couple feet of her, so close that I could almost reach out and touch her, when the thunderous sound of a helicopter passed overhead in a surveillance sweep. The distraction broke any chance of her coming out of her fog as she hissed at the contraption above. She swung her paw and hit me straight in the plastron, sending me flying backwards into the brick.

You know…I was really getting sick of getting thrown around. I prepared for the onslaught of teeth and claws that had a pattern of happening, but when I realized it hadn't I looked around and noticed she was at the end of the alley turning a corner.

"Fuck! God dammit!" I yelled as I jumped up and took off after her.

"What? Raph, what's going on?" Leo's voice buzzed over the walkie talkie. "Oh wait…nevermind."

"Damn, she's running like Raph asked her to marry him," Mikey painfully laughed.

"I swear to God Mikey if she didn't break your shell I'm going to when I see y-"

"Cut it out guys," Leo interrupted, "Donnie, you got eyes on her? We can't go back up to track her. The sun's almost up."

"One second," the sound of furious typing echoed through my ears, "Yeah, looks like she's on St. Nicholas going north. If you three split up you may be able to herd her towards Highbridge Park. There's plenty of cover and trees that we could make this work."

Distance running was definitely not a thing I was good at, and I could feel my sides lighting on fire. Of course that could also be from getting pulverized repeatedly, but whatever.

"Guys, we have another problem. She just flipped a police car about…Ok, she's about three blocks ahead of you Raph. Keep going that way. Leo, you and Mikey need to turn right and head towards there."

"Roger that, Donnie. What are we looking for?"

The sound of gunshots echoed throughout the alley I was running down and I instantly felt sick to my stomach. I screamed out, "What was that?!"

Donnie seemed rushed, "Oh man, they're taking shots at her. Raph, turn right at the next block and you'll be able to see her. She's thrown a few cars onto the sidewalk. Thankfully no civilians are in the area, but I can't tell the status of the officers. They're calling in reinforcements."

I felt an extra wind show up out of nowhere and I pushed as hard as I could to head that way. Sure enough as soon as I whirled around the corner I could see smoke rising up from one of the overturned cars. I knew there was nothing I could do for any of the officers, but help was on the way; they'd be way more equipped to deal with any injuries.

I'm way more equipped to deal with the larger and furrier threat at hand.

There were a few police officers that took cover behind the doors to their squad cars and taking pot shots at Elena. She was angry at the cars and jumping from one to another and smashing anything heavy onto them. She had already flipped a couple, but I feared just exactly what else she would do to them.

She yelled in pain as a stray bullet struck her in the thigh. Reaching over she grabbed a bench and ripped it from its foundation, tossing it towards the officers.

"Stop, don't hurt them!" I yelled out, catching her attention, though not stopping my pursuit. She grimaced again as her arm got hit and turned to bolt down the next alley. I didn't even bother to look at see what kind of reactions may have come from the officers, but I figured they were stunned enough at me since the gunshots stopped. Only a few had seen us up close and personal during the Kraang invasion, so we still kept our distance afterwards.

"Donnie's she's on the move again," I called over the radio. Turning a corner I met up once again with Leo and Mikey and the three of us chased after her.

"I'm working on it, almost done now. Her path has become rather erratic, but that's probably due to the helicopter above," the exasperation began to wear in his voice, "Just a few more tweaks."

"If she keeps going like this she's likely to kill someone before Donnie can even get here," Leo's tone took a serious note. "We may have to think of alternate plans here to stop her."

"Leo, what the fuck are you trying to get at?" I growled out. Had we not been in hot pursuit I'd have punched his ass back to last Tuesday for even thinking what I think he was thinking. The other two must've had the same thoughts because both Mikey and Donnie shrieked in unison.

The bullet in her leg must be affecting her, since she was running slower and we were actually able to keep eyes on her, but she had lost a decent amount of blood in the process.

"You know what I'm saying Raph, and I know you three are going to fight me on this, but we have to think about what's best for the city," Leo said harshly. "I don't want to do it as much as you all, but we don't know what Brad may have planned for her. She can pretty much take all four of us on at once. And I know Elena would NOT want to be his puppet, especially if it means he's using her to hurt others."

"But Leo, that's why we have a genius on our side. Donnie's making something that will fix her," Mikey argued, "He's just gotta speed it up!"

"For the thousandth time, I said I'M WORKING ON IT!" we all cringed as we heard Don scream over the channel.

"Leo, brother, I get what you're saying, but I'm not gonna let that happen," I spat out. "I'm going to fight to get her back, to my last dying breath if I have to, but she's not going to hurt anyone else." I sped up, trying to catch up to her. Truthfully, I could feel myself getting tired, but if it meant her life was on the line I would run until my body collapsed.

All of a sudden I heard my phone start chirping from my belt. Who the fuck was calling me at a time like this? Confused, I grabbed it out, "Yeah?"

"Raph? It's Anya," Elena's sister's angry voice rang through the speakerphone, "What in the hell is going on right now?"

"What are you talking about? Nothing's going on," I lied through my teeth.

"Like hell nothing's going on! I'm looking at footage on the TV of Elena attacking some police officers and you chasing her." Her voice sounded just like E when she was pissed off. "So answer me. Just what in the fuck is going on with my sister?"

I made some crackling sounds into the phone's mic, "What? Sorry, I'm getting horrible reception right now, I'll have to call you back." I turned my phone off as she flew into a tirade and knew I'd be getting my ass chewed later on. I'll get her back for ya, Anya. I'll get her back for all of us.

I heard a small cheer over the radio just as soon as I clicked Anya off, "Guys, I've got it and heading to the truck now. She's still heading in the general direction of the park, so see if you three can corral her somewhere in the woods where we can hide from any police patrols."

"Sure," Mikey joked, "We'll just ask if she wants to go eat out of a pic-a-nic basket!"

I rolled my eyes at his lame joke. I was just totally ready for this to be over with and get our shit back to normal.

"So how do we herd someone who doesn't want to be herded and can beat our asses?" I looked over at Leo for any bright ideas; he was the one who usually came up with them. I could tell the three of us were all getting tired from running full speed for this long, but we had to hold on just a bit longer.

"We can't go to the rooftops with that helicopter scanning the area," he piped in after a moment's thought. "Raph, you stay on her tail right here. Mikey, you got some speed left?" My youngest brother nodded. "Ok, so you go left, and I go right. We'll speed up to block her on either side and try to steer her towards the park."

They broke off from our little group and quickly sped up to be in the alleys on either side of the one we were running in. Thankfully this part of the city was pretty straightforward when it came to the building layout.

"I see ya Mikey," Leo reported. "So Donnie, what are we supposed to do once we get her there?"

"There are some back roads towards the north end of the park, so that's where I'm going to park the truck. I'm going to have to get close to her in order to get this thing to work, so uh…I'm hoping none of us get scratched?"

Ugh with the lame jokes from the B squad lately. "Ok," I could hear Leo, "We're coming up on the park now, so we'll see you in a few minutes. Mikey, Raph, you ready?"

I could see E glance over her shoulder to see if she still had pursuers. Yeah, I was ready.

Digging deep down I pushed hard to catch up to get within a few feet of her. Even from this distance I could hear her breathing was a lot heavier and labored, though I didn't know if that was from her getting tired or getting shot a couple of times.

The ears on top of her head twitched to all sides and I realized she knew exactly where all three of us were. I could see the treeline just on the other side of the street we were coming up on, and I think she thought she may be able to lose us in the undergrowth. She bounded over the street and used the fence that bordered the area as a springboard into the trees.

Fortunately the woods were sparse enough that the three of us were able to follow closely enough on the ground below; I truthfully didn't think most of those trees could even hold my weight, and I wasn't built to swing around like a damn monkey.

"Keep eyes on her guys," Leo ordered, "She's fast and probably thinks she can lose us in here."

"Not a friggin chance," I grunted as I jumped over a bush.

"I see you guys on my monitor," Donnie patched in, "keep going in that same direction and I hopefully have something that can help slow her down."

"You heard the turtle," I said as I kept her in my eyesight, "Let's start closing this in." From my peripherals I could see Mikey and Leo start moving closer to E, effectively boxing her in.

I could hear nerd boy mutter softly through the coms, "Just a little more…just a little-"

Above us I heard an angry snarl as Elena made to jump to a different tree, but got tangled in a seemingly invisible netting of sort. Her limbs flailed as her body couldn't finish the jump and she fell hard to the ground. Donnie popped out from a nearby bush and blocked off the only exit path she had.

The three of us stopped and surrounded E; thank God we could finally stop with the fucking running. My sides felt like they were on fire, but I kept an open stance and prepared for anything she could do. The others did the same, and both me and Leo kept our weapons stashed. We didn't want to hurt her, but at least Mikey's and Donnie's weapons were on the less-lethal list of things we could use.

Within moments the remains of the netting fluttered to the ground and we were now surrounding a very pissed off bear, weasel, whatever the hell she was. She dropped to all fours and growled deeply; the hairs on her back raised up enough that we could see the ridge through her clothes.

She didn't wait for us to respond and lashed out quickly at Donnie; he must've been the lucky target since he was the one who blocked her exit now. He jabbed his bo at her neck and used the other end to sweep underneath and knock her legs out. The three of us wasted no time and jumped on her, dodging flailing claws. I grabbed her from behind and held under her neck with my arm to keep it still and prevent her from biting one of us again. Leo helped with her arms while Mikey went after her legs again.

Her struggling roar delved into a scream and it struck to my very core. I really hope we weren't hurting her.

She flexed again to try and break free, but was a lot weaker after our brisk jog and bullet holes. Donnie ran up in between me and Leo and shoved this weird looking device directly onto the back of her neck and pushed a button. Prongs emerged from the sides of the metal box and dug into her skin, fastening it to her.

"Um, you guys may want to back up!" he yelled as he himself stood back a few paces. I let Leo and Mikey get away first before I let go, not wanting to chance it backfiring and her escaping again.

The moment I released my grip Elena reached up and tried to rip the device from her neck. Not even a split second later the loud whir revved up before a huge arc of electricity flashed on the back of her head.

Elena's body instantly dropped to the ground smoking, "Donnie! What the fuck was that?!"

I ran over to her and had to jump back as a small discharge jumped over to me when I touched her. Jesus that fucking hurt. Her body was limp and not moving, smoke curling up from her neck and extremities. I reached down to her face and realized I didn't hear anything.

"Donnie, she's not breathing!"

Donatello knelt down next to me and pulled her face to his ear, his expression fell when he realized I was right. He placed his ear down onto her chest and I saw him get even more serious. Without wasting another moment he straightened up and began doing chest compressions after telling me to move back. Mikey and Leo both looked distraught, but stood up and backed away a couple steps to give the three of us some room. He counted quietly to himself as he did reps on her chest before giving her mouth to mouth, attempting to get her heart starting again.

I grabbed her limp hand and held it to my lap, stroking her fur. "What exactly did that thing do to her?"

Donnie must've kept counting in his head as he talked in between compressing her chest and giving mouth to mouth, "I had to energize it enough to overcome that electrical device in her neck, but I also had to compensate for any regenerative capabilities her genes could provide that might shield it somehow." He paused to breathe more air into her lungs, "I knew this could be a possibility, but I also didn't factor in any injuries she may have gotten along the way."

I tightened my grip on her hand and couldn't prevent myself from shouting at him, "You knew it could do this to her?"

"What else would you have me do?" he stopped to yell back at me. "Would you rather her continue on her rampage and end up killing someone…to be used as a killing machine? How do you think she would feel if she knew everything that's happened?"

A small flinch in my hand drew my attention as I saw Elena's gray eyes flutter back open with tears escaping the sides. Without any hesitation I yanked her up from the ground and wrapped my arms protectively around her, thanking the gods that she was awake. She weakly flailed her limbs at the sudden jarring but then sank into me.

"E…doll, thank god you're ok," I said quietly, holding her head gently against me. I could feel her body start to tremble and I worriedly pulled back. Everything on her seemed to be trembling, and I looked over at Donnie, hoping for some sort of explanation.

"Here, it could be a byproduct of all the trauma she's sustained. I did just try to Young Frankenstein her," he said as he helped me readjust how she was sitting, "Help me lean her against this tree so I can examine and see what else is going on."

Elena weakly put her hand up in the air and waved him away. "Thanks Donnie," she croaked out, "for everything. I'll be ok though. I just need a minute…"

"We'll give you as much as you need babe," I shifted over to kneel next to her. She reached down and grabbed my hand before bringing it up to plant a small kiss on my knuckles. She instantly hissed at the motion and held her upper arm.

"Ouch ouch ouch, I think I still have a bullet in there," she groaned as she pulled up the fabric of the sleeve that covered her arm. Donnie reached over and inspected the wound.

"Looks like your healing powers may have already started working on this; I don't see an entry point, though I see the faint lines of a possible scar." He looked at the other side of the arm and realized there was no exit point.

"Your leg's wound was a through and through, but this one needs to come out." His eyes became dark as a realization hit him, "If your last encounter with a sedative was any indication, I don't think any sort of numbing agent is going to work."

A grim look washed over E's face as she understood what he was insinuating, "Well, let's get it over with. I already feel like I got hit by lightning, what more could make it feel worse?"

Donnie fetched the small med kit he carried around everywhere with him and quickly disinfected the small blade it carried, hesitating as he held it above her arm.

"I'll be as fast as I can, I swear," he apologized. I felt her clench down on my hand as he sliced open the freshly healed skin and muscle before using a pair of forceps to dig down and grab onto the metal bullet.

She exhaled loudly as he said he got it out and stretched out the sore arm. Leo shifted uncomfortably from behind me and crossed his arms over his chest. "Elena," he said quietly, "you knew you got shot in the arm. Does that mean you saw everything that happened?"

I saw her eyes drop in shame and got angry that he'd bring that up right this second, "Leo, can't you see she's been through enough shit for one day?"

"It would be useful to know how the device worked on her awareness; if it was purely a-" nerd boy began but stopped as he saw my death glare. "Ooooooor we could wait until another time."

He handed Elena a canister of water which she gratefully accepted and took a few sips from. "No, it's ok," she replied quietly, "I saw everything. Everything. It was like a screen of red fell over my eyes and I saw it as it all happened, but couldn't do anything to stop my body from reacting. Every guard I mangled, every kunai that sank into those scientists' chests, even…" A panicked look came across her face, "Oh no, is Splinter ok?"

"Yeah, he's fine," I reassured her. "He's a tough old bastard, so don't worry about him."

She nodded her acknowledgement, "What about those police officers from earlier? Are they ok?" Donnie fiddled around on his wrist computer and pulled up some information.

"Looks like one is in critical condition, but most of the others weren't seriously harmed," he frowned and then looked up towards the sky as we could barely see helicopter pass overhead. "They still have the search team out hunting for this supposed escaped zoo animal, so it might be wise if we move locations soon."

"Good," she muttered with a slight edge to her voice, "Because I know where I'm going next. I know where he's at."