AN - sorry about the delay on the update. School sucks and it keeps me a little busy... among other things... :D

Chapter VII

"I waited, Master Shredder, but no one came."
He watched as the man - his master - narrowed his eyes and took a drink of a mysterious substance from the glass before him.

"No?" he questioned suspiciously. Leonardo shook his head, sticking to his lie.

"No one."

"I expected different, Leonardo," Shredder said. "Are you sure?"
Leo nodded.

"Very well," Shredder said. "You may leave."
Leo stood and slowly exited the room he had been led to, ignoring the Foot soldiers that stood around him. He knew he had lied, but he also knew that if he hadn't something much worse would have come from it.

Odd, he thought to himself as he rubbed his five fingers through the hair on his head. I can lie to Master Shredder, but Splinter I could never lie to...
He shook the feeling as he stepped outside into the streets of New York where the sun was slowly setting.

* * * *

"Have you found anything, my sons?" Master Splinter had asked once they had returned with a wounded Raph. "Any news of Leonardo?"

"We met one of Shredder's minions," Donnie replied, letting Raph lean on him. "A new one - I've never seen him before."

"We did see him then, either," Raph said with a grunt. "It was like he was part of the dang shadow."

"I think we should go back tomorrow night," Don voiced. "I want to explore the area of our attack... there was something wrong with the way The Shadow reacted."

"An odd reaction?" Splinter questioned, curious. "What happened?"

"He ran," Mikey replied. "He knew he couldn't win against us."

"That wasn't it, Mikey," Don said. Raph groaned from beside him, holding his bleeding wound.

"Not that I'm complaining," Raph moaned, "but can we talk about this after I lie down or something?"

Don glanced around the corner, remembering what had happened once he and his brother's had returned home.

"Um, I know we had a little fight up there," Mikey said, pointing upward at the rooftop above. "But why do we have to go IN?"

"Quit complaining, Mikey," Raph said.

"I wasn't!" Mikey protested. "I was just curious..."

"Sssh!" Don commanded suddenly, frowning at his arguing brothers. The three of them silently made their way to the back entrance of the tall building their fight had taken place on only the night before. Don tried the door, but it was locked tightly by an electronic device inside. He reached for the brown duffel bag that had been slung around his shoulders and began to dig through it.

"Lemme get this one," Raph said with a grin, taking out his weapons. Don frowned.

"Raph, wait! You could set off an alarm or... " he began, but his brother had already stuck his dagger between the two doors. A buzz came about the door as a few wires sparked and the electrical system began to malfunction. The turtles stood back and watched as the doors came open once the electric lock failed completely.

"Set off what alarm?" Raph said proudly, full of himself. Don sighed as the three quietly slipped into the darkened building, curiously wandering the empty, tiled halls.

"Again I have to ask," Mikey said, looking about the nothingness the building seemed to contain. "Why IN?"

"There had to be some reason the Shadow attacked us here," Don explained in a hushed voice. "I mean, how many people wait on random rooftops for some one to pick a fight with. Plus, he did tell us to leave."

"Yeah," Raph said in half agreement. "But maybe he is just some psycho creep that hangs out on random rooftops and waits to attack people - pretends he has some sort of power."

"Shut up, Raph," Mikey said. Raph glared at him.

"I'll shut you up..."

"Guys, knock it off," Don commanded, rolling his eyes. "Start looking through doors - if the door isn't locked, there's probably nothing there worth looking for."

"And what if it is?" Mikey questioned. Don and Raph looked at him with a questioning, "are you kidding?" look before looking at each other and shaking their heads.

Don went to one door and rattled the handle: it was locked. He grinned to himself as he pulled some tools out from his duffel bag and began to pick the lock. Raph stood behind him, watching carefully and hopefully. Mikey stood at the opposite end of the hall, opening and closing which ever doors he could find.

"Is it me," he began, not bothering to hush his voice, "or did that dude's voice sound really familiar?"

"Sssh!" Raph commanded. "Donnie's workin' here!"
As soon as the words had escaped Raph's mouth, the door squeaked open and Don smiled at himself before stuffing the tools back into his bag and quietly shuffling inside. Raph followed after Don, who was followed shortly by a whining Mikey. It was pitch black inside and it took them a few minuets of fumbling around in the dark in search of a light switch.
Finally, Don found the appropriate switch and the lights flickered on, florescent light beating down in nearly every corner of the large room. The three of them looked around in wonder and amazement, eyeing the gadgets and equipment that lay around. In the center of the room was lye a table that had been propped up in a diagonal fashion while what looked like an electrical gadget - a laser perhaps - pointed directly at it. The thing about this "laser," Don found, was that while it seemed electrical, it also seemed to be some how biologically engineered.

"What the shell is this junk?" Raph questioned, looking around in wonder.

"I... I don't know," Donnie admitted, also quite amazed at their discovery. "But I'll bet you anything this has something to do with the Shadow."

"How's it work?" Mikey questioned, anxious to get to the bottom of the mystery they had stumbled upon. He dashed towards the large "laser" and laid himself down on the table.

"You can't kill me with your silly lasers, number three!!" he yelled in a horribly mangled British accent, pretending to be James Bond.

"Mikey, settle down would you?" Raph asked, although it really wasn't much of a question as much as it was a demand. Mikey shut up for a moment to glare at Raph.

"You're no fun," he pointed out. Donnie watched as the bickering began and sighed, deciding to explore the mysterious "laser" they had found. He looked it over before trying a few buttons, attempting to figure out the machine's purpose. Forgetting fully that Mikey was still on the table, Don flipped a couple of buttons and the machine began to warm up before a greenish light shot straight from the machine and in Mikey's direction.
Don jumped back in surprise, following the light's direction before realizing where it had hit. He glanced at Mikey's face, who's taunting expression had melted into a mix of shock and pain.

"Don!" Raph screamed. "What the shell did you do?!"

"I don't know!" Donnie cried helplessly as he listened to Mikey's sudden screams. "I forgot he was even there!"
Neither of them said anything as Mikey twitched slightly, unable to fully move from pain. They watched for a moment before Raph turned to Don.

"You think it hurts?" he questioned, more rhetorically than anything.

"Oh my..." Don muttered under his breath, watching as Mikey's shell began to disappear and his skin turn a light brown, human color - tan, not green. "What the shell..."
A sudden bright light flashed, causing Raph and Donnie to shield their eyes, turning away so they didn't look directly into it. When the light had died down and all there was left was the dying green light from the machine and the lights from above.
A figure from the table groaned faintly before collapsing to the floor. But it wasn't Mikey's figure: this figure was a person with bleach blond hair and an orange t-shirt, complete with tennis shoes and kaki pants.

"Who's that?" Raph questioned as if Donnie had all the answers in the world.

"I think that's Mikey," he explained, beginning to walk towards the collapsed man.

"Mikey?!" Raph repeated. "But... that's not a turtle!"

"No," Don agreed. "No it's not."