"Okay, so what exactly is your plan?" Spider-man asked, incredibly confused.

"Information only. Who the Kraang are, what their purpose is, and what that stuff is in the canister," Leo replied. My big brother had his game face on, "I want to minimize contact with the Kraang. We're going straight onto their turf and I'd rather not get into a fight with an army of them. Stealth only."

"You stealthy enough to keep up with a ninja?" Raph asked, a brow raised over his red mask.

Spider-man chuckled nervously, shrugging his shoulders, "Uh. I'm not sure? I've never had a chance to compare?"

"Nows your chance," Leo said. He made a whipped motion with his wrist. Donnie had made climbing gear as a last-minute project after we scoped out the Kraang base the night before. It's been two days since Sensei pulled us aside to tell us about the canister and we've got nothing but questions. We needed to infiltrate the Kraang base and that required another night hanging around Spider-man.

The scaling of the wall was easy and didn't require much effort. Spider-man led us over to an air-duct system that took us right inside the building. Did we really need two days to scope this place out? The guards outside of the complex didn't move around too much and it didn't seem there was a lot of security. These guys didn't seem very prepared for any kind of attack but perhaps they didn't think they had to. Who knew about the Kraang?

Raph kicked a grate in the air duct. There were two passing Kraang guards who didn't even know what hit them. Raph and Leo took advantage of the surprise attack and easily took them out. Spider-man looked up to me after hopping out. I was the last one.

"I'll catch you, Jade!" He offered kindly, his arms outstretched above him. I found the gesture annoying.

"Raph," I said, "Can you push him out of my way?"

Raph happily did so. Even covered with a mask, I could tell Spider-man expression was a bit taken back, "I just wanted to help. It's a bit of a drop."

It was but it was nothing outrageous. I swung down from the air duct and landed on my feet, "I can manage just fine. I'm a big girl."

Spider-man put his hands up in a defeated gesture.

I took a moment to study my surroundings. Everything was… clean. The walls were shiny, brand-new. Black pipes lined the edges of the ceiling. On the walls, were crevices and lines that went in no particular direction made of glass. Behind the glass, was some kind of purple liquid. It reminded me of the contents of a lava lamp.

"Wow!" Donnie gasped. His hand was touching the wall, moving side to side like a windshield wiper, "I've never seen anything like this. They're using a metal alloy that I don't even recognize."

Raph bumped shoulders with the purple-banded turtle, "Gosh! A metal alloy even you don't know about. It really boggles the mind," The sarcasm could be suffocating.

Don made a face, slightly irritated, "You wanna talk metallurgy with me? Bring it."

"I don't, and-"

Leo interrupted the oncoming argument, "Guys! What part of being in an enemy lair do you not understand?"

Spider-man was closest to me. He shielded his mouth with a hand and muttered, "Are your brothers always like this?"

I matched his voice level, "Annoying and always starting dumb arguments? Yes. You get used to it."

"Tell that to Einstein over here," Raph peered at Donnie with lazy eyes.

"I was just saying that-"

"Guys? We got company!" Mikey shouted. He pointed down the hallway where we had attracted a large group of… Kraang? They stood tall with the framework of a man but skin like glass, exposing metal limbs and muscle. Where the stomach should be, was a little pink face. Face? Was I seeing this right? The eyes and mouth were closed but I could clearly see a face.

"Alien robots?" Donnie questioned, eyes squinting at the Kraang ahead of us.

"Alien robots, huh? Where have I heard that one before? Oh ya!" Mikey spun to him, finger pointed accusingly, "I've been saying it for days!"

The blasters pointed in our direction were fired. I got caught almost immediately between Mikey and three Kraang. I was having a hard time concentrating. I couldn't get over the fact that we were fighting robots. Crazy, right? Of all the things weird to happen in our lives, the alien robots was the one throwing me off my game. Plus, I still found it weird we were allied with another vigilante. A well-known one, mind me. He was all over the news. What if being around him got us in trouble? Caught on the media?

I took a swift hit to the gut and I was knocked down. I could have taken a second hit to the temple but the Kraang that stood above me was webbed to the wall. It struggled but couldn't seem to free itself from the sticky fibers.

"You okay?" Spider-Man held a hand out to me, which I rejected.

"I had it handled," I got myself up, brushing it off like it was no more than a slight push. My gut was throbbing but I held myself together.

"Ya, as you almost get hit a second time. It's okay to admit you need help sometimes."

I raised a brow. Was this guy for real? "Are you going to walk me through the twelve-step process too?"

Even under his mask, I could tell he was grinning, "Admitting you need help is the first step if you're ever interested."

Behind him, there was one Kraang. Instead of saying anything, I waited. However, Spider-Man seemed to know the hit was coming and moved out of the way, ducking, while I instead, took the punch to the shoulder.

"Ow!" I yelled, unsheathing a wakizashi and slicing the robots head. It fell down to the metal floor with a heavy clang. I rubbed my shoulder tenderly.

"You always let them throw the first punch?" Spider-Man stood, looking from the decapitated Kraang to me. I sheathed my weapon.

"No," I eyed him, "I actually was waiting for him to hit you. How'd you know it was right behind you?"

I was a bit surprised that he laughed at my honesty, "I could feel it… Ah, I gained a near precognitive ability to sense danger when I got my powers. Know when every hit is coming. Just like how you're tensing up right now to punch me in the arm or something."

I really wanted to punch him. Not once, but twice, "That's just unfair."

He laughed again, "Don't worry. I'm not invincible. We'll be even eventually."

Behind us, Leo had sliced the last Kraang with his katana. It fell to the ground and ceased to move. Donnie peered over it, the rest of us following, looking closer at the strange robots. However, none of us stood close for long. The pink thing in the gut of the robot moved and pried itself out of the metal it was contained it. Six little pink legs poked out of it, like a spider. IT also had two giant green eyes, almost glowing. It glared at us all, opening it mouth and revealing rows upon rows of tiny sharp teeth.

It hissed angrily.

We all screamed like girls.

Mikey was the one who got over it first and hit the pink thing with the handle of his nunchuck. Without even beating a second after it had been knocked out, Mikey picked it up by the legs, waving it in front of all of our faces, "See? See! It's a brain thing! I told you! I told you! But did any of you listen? No! Cause all of you, except for Spider-Man, think I'm some kind of bonehead!"

"I mean, I said robots, but nothing about brains," Spider-Man started until I cut him off.

"Don't engage," I matched Mikey's irritated gaze.

The pink brain thing suddenly woke up and hissed again, writhing around and biting Mikey's hand. My brother flinched but all those intimidating rows of teeth must have looked worse than they felt. Mikey stood, frowning, waving his arm to throw the pink brain off. It finally let go, flying into the wall… right onto a code pad. Alarms blared and purple lights flashed along the hallways.

Everyone turned to the orange-banded turtle. Mikey made a face. He knew what he did, "I was right about the brain thing. You gotta give me that at least."

He had a point.

"So we gonna get out of here?" I asked, peering in all directions for incoming Kraang.

Donnie looked upwards, toward the ceilings. He pointed with his staff at black wiring that was tangled together, heading down a longer hallway to our right, "I think those are power conduits."

"Oh! That's really interesting!" Raph said unenthusiastically, "Thanks for sharing, Don!"

The genius turtle rolled his eyes, "The conduits are converging that way which means-"

"That whatever is happening in that direction needs a lot of power," Spider-Man said thoughtfully, "Those cables are heavy duty."

Donnie nodded in relief, "Someone who can read my mind!"

"So what?" Raph asked incredibly, "Power for what?

Another eye roll form Donatello, "I don't know, Meathead. But wherever the conduits are leading is probably important!"

Leo was already heading off in that direction, knowing we would follow. Donnie was three steps behind. Mikey twirled in front of Raphs face, smirking, "You just got spanked."

I heard a smack and a pained Ouch!

I wondered how long it would be until we ran into more Kraang. The alarm had been going off for at least thirty seconds now and no one had come running yet. Was the alarm only in our vicinity or did the entire complex have an alert going off right now. Had to say it was starting to get pretty annoying though. Donnie eventually took lead. The conduits on the ceiling were becoming hard to follow when intertwined with hundreds of other wires and cables. The purple-banded turtle seemed to know exactly what to look for, as I would expect he would, right to a double door that slid open right in our presence.

The room beyond the doors was, dare I say, glorious. The ceilings were high above the ground, stories high with several balcony levels. On all sides were tall cylindrical tubes, with hardly a foot between, all around the perimeter. Every single one of the tubes held a specific creature. Mammals, birds, insects, all floating in some kind of weird cryopreservation. Tubes attached all the animals, assuming to keep them alive in their coma-like state. In the middle of the room, was a massive tube, a container filled with the oozing liquid we had found in the canister. The mysterious batch of ingredients and chemicals that made my brothers what they are today, was sitting in front of us. Enough to fill an Olympic sized pool, plus more.

"Whoa," Was the only word that came out of Raph's mouth, accompanied by an open jaw.

"Uh, anyone else feel like they stepped right into a horror movie?" Spider-Man asked, inspecting the nearest creature to him in preservation. A cat.

"Well, we can confirm what Sensei told us," Donatello said, he placed his hand on the glass tube of liquid ooze, "The Kraang are somehow responsible for our mutation."

"After all these years," Leo muttered, "What else are they doing? To these animals?"

"Not all of them are animals, dude," Mikey said. He had ventured to the second level where more of the weird water cryo tubes were. Spider-Man, my brothers, with the exception of Donnie, met him up there. He was pointing to one of the tubes.

"What is it?" I asked. Donnie was busy messing with the computer in front of the pool of ooze.

"It's a dude," Mikey shouted back to me, leaning over the balcony, his head still turned over his shoulder, "Like, an actual dude."

"They have some human test subjects here too," Spider-Man clarified, "But what for?"

"To… test on?" Mikey asked, shrugging his shoulders.

I turned to Don. His fingers were typing fast on the weird keyboard in front of him, pictures on the holographic screen along with complex analysis investigations and observations but it was all in a strange language. My brother shook his head in frustration, "Until I can crack the language code, I have no idea how to interpret any of this."

"Can you download any of the files?" I asked.

"Of what?" Spider-Man swung down to us.

"Everything that's going on in this place," Don nodded to the screen with the never-ending data, "Who they are. What they're doing. What they're planning. What they've accomplished and what they've failed. They might be alien robots but I gotta hand it to them, it looks like they do extensive research and document everything. They're scientists."

"And you said that the Kraang are responsible for your mutation? You never mentioned that when you were telling me your backstory?"

I bit the inside of my cheek, "The puzzle pieces didn't get put together until a couple nights ago. Our father showed us a canister that was just like the one we took from the Kraang. That ooze is what made them into who they are."

There was a moment of silence that followed. It was short. Spider-Man crossed his arms, chin down, "So you guys have a history that you didn't even know about."

"Uh, Jade?" Donnie said suddenly, his voice a bit of a wreck. It scared me. I looked at him, seeing what his eyes were plastered to on the screen.

It was me. Or at least, what I'd looked like as a child. The image was clear, almost like it was a mugshot. My hair was ratty, hanging on both sides of my face like wet string. My frown was deep, my lip popping out as if I was about to cry.

"Is that you?" Spider-Man asked.

I ignored his question. It would answer itself. I turned back to my brother, "So Shredder, Baxter Stockman, and the Kraang now have something to do with me too? But for what?"

Donnie shook his head, typing, "I don't know. I can't read any of your files. Yours specifically have codes. They're hiding whatever research they have on you."

"I don't remember any of that green ooze in the facilities I was kept in. There was never a torture that included injections?"

Donnie matched my eye level, steady yet clearly as distressed with the discovery as me, "That you remember."

I made a face and pointed at the massive building-sized tube of ooze in front of us, "I feel like I would remember that."

"You were a child! There are things your mind may not want you to remember, Jade! You didn't remember Stockman until that news report we saw about his mousers!"

"Hold on," Spider-Man stopped us, "Back up a second. Facility? Tortured? You were tortured as a kid?"

I nodded impatiently, "Yes and no offense, but I don't really wanna talk about that with you."

Spider-Man seemed to want to argue but the look he received from my brother stopped him quickly. He shook his head anyway and I thought that for a second, he was going to try anyway. He didn't. Instead, he exhaled and asked, "You said Baxter Stockman?"

"Know him?" I asked.

He nodded, "How could I not? He's a genius. Robotics. Physics. Microbiology. But he's a nut. Always rambling about bigger and better things for greater purposes but never saying who these purposes were for. He made weapon plans for people, who? I don't know but I have a feeling you have the answer to that."

"The Foot and Purple Dragons, most likely," Donnie stopped typing and looked over his shoulder to the masked vigilante, "How do you know Baxter so well?"

"He worked with my boss, Otto Octavius, for a short time a couple years back. They worked well for a time and then Stockman began to get flaky. Never showed up, always working on alternative projects. Octavius told him to hit the road."

This did spark my brother's interest, "Your boss is Otto Octavius? What's he like? His work is incredible! Especially his robotics work on those advanced interfaced prosthetics he had developed for-"

"Okay, nerds," I stopped them both. They could geek out later, "Not the time. We should get those files and get out of here. Those alarms outside are still going off and so far, we seem to be doing okay but we probably should-"

"Mikey!" Leo and Raph shouted from above. The youngest turtle had clearly done something wrong given the tone of the two eldest turtles.

I flinched at the water that fell from the balcony to the level below, splashing the ground in front of me. I managed not to get wet but it didn't stop the glare I threw up there. My glare didn't last long though.

There was a large gasp, like someone who hadn't been breathing for a long time.

"What's going on?" I asked. Spider-Man immediately flicked his hand and webbed himself up to the second floor.

"Uh, that guy we found up here ain't sleeping no more," Raph answered my question.

Spider-Man looked back down to Donatello and I, "He freed the guy from containment. He's still alive."