A/N: Who ever said that Donny was going to rescue them? Who ever said that they were going to be rescued? Muwahahaha!
Rene – Dr Quease is actually from NT:TNM. He was in a number of episodes and on one occasion he even cloned all five of the turtles. Also, if you remember from the Glass Prison, Dr Quease was the one who was assigned to study Raphael's remains. I've got a bio about him on my webpage (go to miscellaneous, then next mutation for beginners ;)
In The Clouds – Yes, Donny would have an Australian accent by now ^_^
Mica – With Venus and her eggs, you know how a child is genetically half of both of it's parents? Well what Venus can sense is the father's half of the child's genetic structure. Sort of like what they say on CSI where a criminal will leave a part of himself at the crime scene. Well, part of the father's chi energy is left in the child, and Venus can sense the other person chi inside herself… if what I just wrote makes any sense whatsoever 0_o Just nod. ^_^
The ulna is one of the bones in your forearm. There are two bones in your lower arm, the radius and the ulna. The radius is on the thumb side while the ulna is on the pinky side (I think… unless it's the other way around). The ulna is the one that breaks more often. Why Raph said that about Don is that Raph doesn't think much of him. All his life he's heard about Don this and Don that, and he's just starting to get angry at everything 'cause his parents think of him so highly even though Donatello hasn't done anything; Raph has lost his faith in Don. Also, even if Raph's ghost did work the control panel, the turtles would still be stuck in the enclosure outside. They'd still need the keys for the staff door. Remember that in the Glass Prison, the pond is deep enough for Mike to tread water.
Um… I think that's everything… Now on with the fic!
Chapter 23: The Plan.
"Diana, you're okay!" Venus exclaimed when Diana and Raphael returned to their glass cell towards the end of the day. The little girl grinned and nodded before accepting a long hug from her mother.
"Did Dr Aquel take care of you okay?" Leo questioned his daughter lightly. Diana smiled once again.
"We, we played a game," Diana replied with a grin.
"A game!?" Leo repeated with concern, yet he covered his worried tone of voice with a false sense of enthusiasm. Diana nodded happily.
"And, and I got, I got food," Diana tried to explain. Leonardo raised an eye-ridge.
"She tried to train her Dad," Raphael told Leo properly. Everyone was silent for the next few seconds afterwards.
"What did Aquel make her do?" Venus asked Raphael quietly.
"Just a number of simple things, like lift up your arms, hop on one foot. Things like that," Raphael summarised not knowing how the others would react. Leo, Venus and Mike fell silent once again.
"So she didn't hurt her or anything?" Leo asked, wanting to make sure. Raph shook his head. Leo sighed. He definitely didn't like the fact that Diana was being trained just like Silver was, yet he couldn't tell the child not to obey the scientists' wishes either. Sure he disliked the thought that Diana was going to be trained and disrespected, yet when Dr Aquel could be a major key in getting out of captivity, Leo didn't exactly want to ruin those plans by telling his daughter to not listen to her. In fact, if anything, he wanted Dr Aquel to know each and every one of them better. The turtle frowned nonetheless and sighed once again, showing his distaste and confusion for the situation they were in.
"You angry?" Raph asked. Leo simply grunted and looked away. He locked eyes with Silver before turning his gaze towards the floor.
'Silver was right,' Leo thought sadly. 'They are going to start with Diana,' Leo sighed. Dr Aquel suddenly entered the outside room. Leo immediately glared at her, but his eyes began to soften when he saw the large pizza she was carrying. The female scientist opened the thick cardboard box and placed the long awaited meal into the food tray piece by piece. With a smile towards Diana, she slid the tray into the cell, allowing the turtles to get their hands on it.
"Why do we deserve this wonderful privilege?" Mike asked curiously with a lighthearted attitude as he immediately moved in for a slice of scrumptious pizza.
"Cause it's my birthday!" Diana answered whilst jumping up and down in excitement.
"Dr Aquel asked her if she wanted anything special and Diana told her to bring pizza," Raphael explained to them fully.
"Nice," Mike agreed with the girl's decision before tucking into the highly anticipated pizza slice. He groaned with ecstasy as he chewed causing Venus and Leo to roll their eyes at his melodramatics. "Man, I never knew how much I missed you," Mike said to the gnawed pizza slice before biting into it again.
"We have to get out of here soon," Leo said worriedly as he reached for a slice.
"Hey, I'm not complaining right now," Mike said right before he bit into his pizza again.
*****
Next day at the zoo.
Dr Quease scrolled down the computer screen while expertly reading Diana's DNA code. He stopped at a certain place, stared at the monitor, then scribbled something down on his jumbled notebook. This definitely wasn't the first time he'd studied the turtles. In fact, he was most likely one of the first scientists to learn of their existence considering that he used to be an old enemy of theirs when he had joined forces with their main adversary, Dragon Lord. Although that was a very long time ago, he was fascinated by their mutation back then, and he was still fascinated with them now.
"How's it coming along?" Dr Yesmal asked Dr Quease as he quietly entered the research room.
"Interesting…" Dr Quease murmured to himself, ignoring Dr Yesmal for the time being.
"What is?" Dr Yesmal urged.
"Well… in humans, usually it's almost impossible to tell whether or not they are allergic to bee stings as the trait is not found in the genes and solely relies on the individual. However, with these turtles, there seems to be an inefficiency or a negative mutation found in the genetic code which prohibits or affects the reaction to produce antibodies for the allergen, which in this case is the bee sting," Dr Quease explained as he scribbled down a few more notes.
"So can this be carried on to other generations?" Dr Yesmal asked.
"Yes, it seems to act like an inherited disease. Leonardo has it also," Dr Quease confirmed. Dr Yesmal gave him a weird and confused look.
"Leonardo?"
"Oh… The um… Alpha, blue male," Dr Quease corrected himself while clearing his throat. Dr Yesmal wasn't convinced.
"Why did you call him Leonardo?" Dr Yesmal asked suspiciously.
"Well… uh, you know. After Leonardo Da Vinci. I name all my specimens after famous scientists. It's just a thing that I do. I think it suits him, 'cause he's the leader and he's the one who comes up with all the plans…" Dr Quease covered up and rambled on. Dr Yesmal simply nodded his head and dropped the subject. "I found something else that is worrying," Dr Quease suddenly said, getting Dr Yesmal's immediate attention.
"What?" he asked.
"Ve… The aqua female is heterozygous for the gene that carries albinism. The preadolescent red male and the white female are also heterozygous, so if you plan to breed the red and the white later on, then there's a twenty-five percent chance the resulting offspring is an albino," Dr Quease summarised scientifically, almost falling into the trap of calling Venus by her real name. Dr Yesmal sighed and pondered the possible implications that could occur in the future.
"I was wondering… We've always had a job position available ever since Dr Welner was fired, and I think that you'd be really valuable to our team here at the zoo. Would you like to work here and research more about these mutations?" Dr Yesmal offered.
"I'd be honoured to," Dr Quease answered almost instantly. Yesmal smiled.
"Good. Follow me. I'll show you around," Dr Yesmal offered. Quease nodded his head and followed his new coworker into the glass prison room. Yesmal stopped beside the metal control panel and began to explain to him the basic functions of the electronic device, yet Dr Quease was more fascinated with the frozen expressions of fear and confusion he was receiving from the three adult turtles in the cell.
*****
"What's he doing here?" Mike asked, both shocked and angry at the sudden sight of Dr Quease.
"I don't know," Venus murmured, beginning to get worried as she started to remember the last time she saw the white-haired scientist.
"Yesmal said that he was coming so that he could do some gen…genetic research," Raphael told the others what he heard the other day.
"We have to get out of here soon," Leo said for the umpteenth time during the last twenty-four hours.
"Why? Is Dr Quease bad?" Raphael asked the question that Dr Aquel had failed to answer the previous day.
"He used to be an enemy of ours," Venus started to fill him in.
"Dr Quease was kidnapped by Dragon Lord and was forced to work with him. Sometimes he was alright, but other times… He's a different type of scientist. He likes to dissect things while Yesmal and Aquel prefer to simply observe. When it comes down to it, no matter how hard he tries to convince you, you just can't trust him," Leonardo explained slowly in a generalised fashion. Leo looked to Raphael and saw the boy give a nod, showing that he accepted everything that he'd just been told. Diana shuddered.
"He, he looks scary," Diana said with her naïvely prejudiced perspective.
"He stinks too," Michelangelo followed up. Venus chuckled in agreement.
To no ones surprise, the steel doors behind them opened. With little reluctance, the five turtles left the cramped glass jail cell and headed out into the morning sunshine. Completely determined, Leonardo made a beeline for Silver. "We need a new plan to get out of here," Leo said simplicity and directness. Silver was taken aback for a moment by his straight forward attitude, but he quickly covered his shock up with a pleased expression.
"So what do you have in mind, Greenie?" Silver asked in a weary tone. Leonardo stared blankly at the ape before deciding to sit down on the grass. Mike, Venus and even Silver sat down also in order to form a communal circle. "What's with the sudden urgency? Has it got something to do with the new scientist?" Silver pondered and probed for answers.
"His name is Dr Quease. He's an old enemy of ours. He cloned us, tried to dissect us and even attempted to feed us to Dragon Lord," Mike started to explain.
"Who?" Silver asked, quickly becoming horribly confused.
"Dragon Lord. He was the leader of a dragon clan that had been trapped in a magical mirror by Venus' Master's ancestors who-"
"Oookay. Just stop right there," Silver said while rolling his eyes. "Are there any other weirdo enemies of yours that you haven't told me about?" Silver asked, not showing his slight curiosity. The three turtles fell silent for a brief few seconds.
"There were a couple of vampires that we fought but-"
"Oookay. Listen. I don't really care about your past mythological enemies that you supposedly fought. I just want to know the things that are relevant to me. So does this Dr Quease guy pose a threat to me or not?" Silver interrupted Michelangelo so he could get a simple answer and not a long and rather bizarre story. The three turtle frowned at the ape's rudeness.
"Well… to put it simply, I don't want to be a captured specimen of Dr Quease and I don't think you would like to be one either," Leonardo said plainly, starting to loose his patience with the silvery furred primate.
"Alright, so what do you have in mind?" Silver asked, bringing the conversation full circle. The three adult turtles fell silent once again.
"Halloween's next week," Mike said more to himself than to anyone else. Leo's eye-ridge furrowed as he pondered over that fact.
"Halloween… Sneaking around New York be much easier if we choose to escape that night," Leo told the group.
"How so?" Silver asked, not seeing the logic behind the turtle's words. Leo looked around and saw Dr Aquel observing them from the top-viewing platform. All of a sudden, everything he was thinking about in his mind clicked together to form a scheme. Not wanting his plan to be heard, the group gathered around even closer while he whispered his thoughts. After a few minutes of hushed debating and refining, the plan was finalised. They were going to escape on Halloween. That was that. If they waited any longer, then Venus might lay her eggs, causing massive problems for any escape attempt. It had to be soon. It had to be Halloween.
The group broke apart once everything was discussed and also to stop any growing suspicions from Dr Aquel who was still watching. Venus and Leo walked off hand in hand, Mike headed over to Diana and Raphael to join in their game though he was most likely also going to relay what had just been discussed, while Silver trudged to another part of the enclosure entirely in order to return to his antisocial isolated life.
"I'm worried," Venus told Leo.
"Everything will work out this time. This plan is safer than the last. It should work," Leo said, more to convince himself rather than her.
"It's not that. I mean… is it really going to be worth it in the long run?" Venus asked quietly. She noticed Leo's confused expression and sighed. "Leo… as much as I hate to admit it, these scientists are actually doing good for our species. They're widening the gene pool. They're going to make sure that our species will survive…" Venus spoke her thoughts with a sad tone.
"But Venus… You know that it's only going to be a matter of time before they start experimenting on Diana and Raphael. Diana's the only other female so…" Leo trailed off after finding it incredibly difficult and disturbing to continue. "…I know what you mean though…" Leo added so softly that Venus almost didn't hear it.
"If we leave, then our species will pretty much be doomed…" Venus reasoned.
"But if we stay, our lifestyle and livelihood of being a ninja will eventually become nonexistent," Leo summarised correctly. The two turtles fell silent for a moment. They both looked over to Mike, Raphael and Diana who were talking near the pond.
"I'm just worried about our future, that's all," Venus said remorsefully.
"Well… We've done our part. The future of our species now in Raph and Diana's hands. In the end it's going to be their decision on what to do. And that's all we can ask of them," Leo said grimly. "But… it's not fair for them to be trapped here… and it's not fair for Silver," Leo added.
"It scares me when I look at him sometimes… To think that one day maybe we'll be in the same predicament he's in… I'd hate to be the last of my kind," Venus said quietly so Silver couldn't possibly overhear. Leonardo nodded slowly in agreement.
"But we're luckier than him. We've got a chance of survival… I know what you mean though… We'd definitely survive if we stay, but at what cost? I don't want to see you and Diana be used like guinea pigs. You don't want that existence, do you?" Leo asked her.
"No," Venus said firmly. "We should leave," Venus confirmed her decision after realising that Leo was right. If they stayed, their species would survive yet the decisions would be completely up to the scientists, and that's what scared her to no end. Although deciding to escape was a really bad move when taking into account all of the future genetic implications, the ultimate decision would rest on the two children, and not in the hands of humans.
*****
Later that night.
Dr Quease sat at his computer to see if he could find any other genetic problems in Raphael's DNA. He yawned as he scrolled down the screen, unable to find anything significant. Beginning to get bored, Dr Quease inserted a floppy disk that contained information about the boy's father. When the disk was booted up, the scientist searched through the deceased turtle's recorded DNA code to try and see if there were any defects that could have been passed on to his son.
Dr Quease wrapped the coat around his shoulders tighter when a cold chill was felt in the room. He stopped scrolling when he came to a certain section of the encoded words. Grabbing a pen, he removed his eyes from the screen so he could jot down a few quick notes onto his cluttered pad. When he looked back to the screen, he saw him; Raphael. Dr Quease froze as he stared at the reflection of the dead turtle in the computer screen. Partly scared, he turned around anyway only to find that no one, or no turtle was behind him. Shuddering, he turned back to the computer screen only to find that the turtle's presence was gone and had been replaced by a faint reflection of himself and the room.
Dr Quease almost laughed out loud at himself for getting so scared over something so silly. Shaking his head at his wild imagination, Dr Quease continued his research. Yet as he worked on, he couldn't forget the sight he had just encountered. Raphael looked angry…
*****
A few days later at the zoo; the 29th of October.
Raphael grinned as Dr Aquel started to take the plaster off around his arm. After a couple of minutes of difficulty, for the first time in weeks Raphael could finally see for himself how his arm had healed. Although the muscles had partly withered, all that he could see were the five stitches that closed the wound where the bone had once poked through. After a thorough inspection and a smile, Dr Aquel removed the stitches with a pair of simple scissors.
"There," she said as she snipped the last strand. "That should be about it. You know, you healed really fast and nicely," Dr Aquel complemented the boy. Raph just gave her a simple smile. "Are you feeling alright now?" Dr Aquel asked Diana who was also brought into the operating theater so she could start being immunised against bee stings. The female scientist decided to tend to both turtles at the same time to lessen the stress that could be experienced by either one of them; hoping that one would calm the other. The little girl nodded in response.
"My, my throat hurts," Diana said quietly before heaving out a few coughs.
"Well that's to be expected. It may be really uncomfortable now, but the more we do this, the less painful it's going to be and the less the chance your going to be affected by a bee in the future," Dr Aquel tried to explain to the girl simply. Diana simply pouted and nodded her head even though she didn't understand everything. "But don't worry. You're not alone. We might have to immunise your dad for bee sting later on," Dr Aquel added. Raph was about to ask why when he was interrupted. Raphael, Diana and Dr Aquel turned their heads towards the door as Dr Quease entered. "What are you doing here?" Dr Aquel asked.
"I'm going to inject tracking devices into the youngsters. It hasn't been done yet," Dr Quease said with an arrogant tone.
"But Dr Yesmal and I discussed this and we decided that it wasn't necessary. It was needed for the adults, but not for these two," Dr Aquel defended.
"Well, Dr Yesmal's changed his mind," Dr Quease rebutted.
"But these two turtles are under my control right now and I'm not going to let you do this. You're going to disturb them and stress them out," Dr Aquel argued, thinking of Raph and Diana's well being.
"Well excuse me, but my job contract states that I can overrule your decisions as you are a lower rank than me," Dr Quease said smartly.
"What!?" Dr Aquel said with a shocked and annoyed tone.
"Take it up with Dr Yesmal, not me. I'm just doing my job," Dr Quease informed her. With swift and unforgiving strides, he moved over to Diana's bedside and pulled out a needle. She squirmed in fright when he roughly held her upper arm. Diana tried to pull away, but that only succeeded in Dr Quease holding on to her even tighter.
"Hey! Let her go!" Raphael yelled angrily when Diana started to cry. With a quick jab, Dr Quease completed the injection and Diana now had a tracking device implanted in her arm.
"Stop this! You're hurting them!" Dr Aquel argued.
"Will you just let me get this over with already?" Dr Quease said more as a command than a question. Dr Aquel gave him a glare and helped Dr Quease in keeping Raphael still long enough to receive his injection. Although she hated his unorthodox approaches, she knew that if she disobeyed her superior she'd soon find herself without a job.