And When I Know

Mikey drove as fast as he could to April's location. In any other circumstance, he would have enjoyed himself a lot. It wasn't often that he got to drive the Shellraiser–for some reason Donnie didn't trust him not to hit things.

Not that Donnie was wrong, per se. Hitting things was fun. But Mikey was perfectly capable of not doing it if the situation required it.

And the situation required it. There were more cars and people in the streets during the day, and he had to be careful not to attract unwanted attention. He was managing pretty successfully so far; Leo would have been proud of him.

Master Splinter hadn't been too keen on letting Mikey out during the day, but he had understood that it was an emergency. His trust was a weighted blanket around Mikey's shoulders, both warm and heavy.

Mikey had debated taking his brothers' weapons with him too, just in case April had found one or two or even three of them, but he had decided against it. He would be more nimble and adaptable with just his good old nunchucks.

He still had his brothers' masks tied around his arm, of course. He always kept them, except when he was showering because he was afraid that the clean water and soap would destroy the last remnants of his brothers' scents.

A kid crossed the street without looking and Mikey would have hit him if his reflexes hadn't been sharpened by years of ninja training. As it was, he managed to describe a semi-circle around him and only hit a single trash can in the process. He glanced at the rear view mirror. The kid looked surprised and retrospectively frightened. Mikey shook his head. Didn't he have a big brother to watch over him and make sure he didn't get hurt?

Maybe not. Maybe he was on his own.

The thought made Mikey want to turn back, stop and hug the kid, but it would slow him down and he couldn't afford that. Not to mention that he was a mutant turtle and not all humans took kindly to that.

He was arriving close to April's location. It was a complex of several buildings as far as Mikey could see, and the entrance was closed by a barrier. He thought about going right through it, Raph-style, but he didn't want to get April into trouble. He parked the Shellraiser in a nearby alleyway and took to the rooftops, sending April a text to let her know he was here.

Mikey found a building higher than the complex and climbed at its top to have an overview of the place. The buildings below him formed a rectangle with a vast inner courtyard. Mikey could see people walking from one building to the other.

What really held his attention, though, was the parterre lawn where stones shaped the letters Cody Laboratories.

Mikey's heart beat faster as nightmare scenarios ran through his head. Had his brothers been captured? Were they experimented upon?

But surely April wouldn't have asked him to come see this if his brothers were in danger. He knew the kunoichi well enough to be certain that she would have jumped to their rescue.

His T-Phone rang and he picked up.

"Mikey? I'm out. Where are you?"

"On the top of the tallest building." Mikey looked for April and saw her shape, far below. "I'm right above you."

The shape that was April raised her head. Mikey was way too far to see her expression, but he could have sworn that she looked resigned.

"I'm coming."

A few minutes later, April was crouching next to Mikey. She looked tired–but then, she spent a fair amount of her nights looking for Mikey's brothers.

Mikey was so anxious that he barely let her catch her breath. "April, what did you find?"

"Like I told you, I'm not sure." April's gaze was fixed on the complex below. "We were visiting one of the labs, talking to the scientists–it's helpful for our job orientation."

Something occurred to Mikey, and he interrupted her. "Isn't Casey with you? I thought you were in the same classes."

April sighed. "He missed school. He said that he had no intention of becoming a scientist and that he needed to sleep."

Mikey tilted his head. "Honestly, you look like you need sleep too."

April dismissed the remark with a wave of her hand. "Later. Are you listening or not?"

Mikey nodded sheepishly.

April looked satisfied and went on. "We were going through the corridors when I heard… or I thought I heard… something. Then the people talking disappeared in a restricted area and I couldn't follow them to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating."

"What?" Mikey leaned forwards. "What did you hear?"

April bit her lip. "It's crazy, so I don't want to influence you. You'll have to come inside this building and see for yourself."

"April," Mikey complained. The suspense was killing him.

But April was already pointing at one of the buildings. "Here. You want to enter this building. It's on the fourth floor. I'll go there so you can track me on your T-Phone, and text you when I'll be at the entrance of the restricted area. Then you'll be on your own."

"Don't you want to come with me?" Mikey asked.

April shook her head. "I've had enough trouble coming here. I can't leave any longer or they will start getting suspicious. There is only so much time you can spend in the bathroom before responsible adults start worrying."

Mikey frowned. "April, you're not in a bathroom. You're on a rooftop." He really hoped that April wasn't losing her mind. He needed her.

"That's the excuse I used," April explained. "Luckily it's that time of the month, so the teacher wasn't too surprised when I asked to go again only twenty minutes after our last pause."

Mikey wasn't sure that he understood, but he vaguely remembered Donnie explaining gross things about human girls and uterus and be extra nice to April guys once, and Mikey had decided to forget the details immediately. Plus he was always nice to April, he didn't need the reminder.

"Use the air ducts, and stay hidden," April said. She suddenly hugged Mikey. "Be careful, and tell me at once if you find anything, okay?"

"Understood," Mikey said. He has zoned out for a few seconds, so he really hoped that she hadn't mentioned anything important.

April didn't ask him to repeat the plan like Leo would have done, so surely there was nothing more complicated than that. Get in, follow April, and investigate the restricted area.

Piece of pizza.

The air ducts were just as little comfortable as any air ducts Mikey had ever been in. He wasn't too bothered by it; they were still better than many a sewer pipe he had visited. For a start, they didn't leave any sticky substance on his shell when he brushed the walls.

Mikey was doing his best not to make any noise, and as he had been trained for that specific purpose, he was very efficient. Still, his progress was slower than he would have liked. Even when an extremity of the air duct opened in a room and he could glance inside, he wasn't seeing anything more interesting than desks and computers and flow charts, sometimes with humans talking in low voices or scribbling notes. Maybe Donnie would have been interested, but Mikey only wanted to yawn.

He regretted the absence of his brothers more than ever. He wanted to complain to Raph right now, make sure to let his brother know that he was bored, maybe even annoy him a little so Raph would react and things would get funny for a few seconds until Leo glared at them both.

The red dot on Mikey's T-Phone stopped, and April texted him.

I can't go further. The access to this part of the laboratory is restricted. Let me know when you're in, and mind the animals.

Mikey blinked. Animals? What animals? Had April mentioned animals before?

He didn't dare to ask her for clarification in order to avoid stressing April more than she already was. At the next intersection, he chose the air duct that seemed to go towards the restricted area April had mentioned and crawled forwards.

He smelled his change of environment before he heard it. The noises of human conversations and footsteps were replaced by scents of birds and rats, and Mikey took the first opportunity to glance inside the room.

Adrenaline coursed through his body when he saw the animals behind bars.

He took his T-Phone and texted. April, they've got animals locked here!

I told you this department studies animal communication, April answered a few excruciating seconds later. They prize themselves in taking great care of all animals involved in the program. Do they look mistreated to you?

Mikey tried to answer the question. The cages were spacious, the food and water looked good, and the animals were clean and relaxed. They didn't look especially happy, but they didn't look abused either.

But a cage was a cage, and Mikey fully intended to remedy that later on. Once April wouldn't be in the building anymore, nothing that would happen–like a massive escape of all non-human life forms–could be linked back to her.

Mikey had half a mind to leave the air duct and enter the room to get a better look when he heard footsteps approaching. He retreated deeper inside the air duct, not making a sound, and controlled his breathing.

A nearby door opened, and the footsteps became louder.

"The results are promising," a voice said. "We can start the next phase."

A cage was opened, and birds chirped.

"You did very well," a second voice said, his tone kind and soothing. "You can rest now."

Mikey froze. This voice… He would have recognized it anywhere. It spoke of family and love, of a childhood spent in the sewers, of flow charts and crazy experiments and explosions, of laughter and company and teamwork.

Of brotherhood.

Donnie, Mikey thought. Donnie, what are you doing in here?

But the answer could wait. Right now, Mikey had to rescue his brother from this place. Clearly April had been wrong and it wasn't a respectful laboratory if it kidnapped mutant turtles to study them without saying a word to anyone, and especially not to their worried sick family.

Throwing caution to the wind, Mikey advanced once more to take a look inside the room.

There were two humans in lab coats, their back turned to Mikey as they watched inside a cage. One of them had his arms crossed while the other was stroking a dove's head. Mikey hesitated to knock them out on the spot, but it might be better to locate Donnie first. Was he inside a cage that Mikey hadn't seen yet? Mikey let the upper part of his body hang out of the air duct and looked all around.

Donnie was nowhere to be seen. Mikey retreated inside his hiding place before the humans could spot him, frowning.

He hadn't dreamed. Or had he? But then April would have dreamed too. She said she had heard something. Why couldn't she just say that she had heard Donnie? It would have been so much easier.

"I'll see you in the lab," the first human said.

If he had turned around, he might have seen the white slits of Mikey's eyes standing out from the shadows and signed up for a bump on his head, but he didn't.

"Alright," the second human answered as the first left the room.

And Mikey gaped.

His voice… This voice he knew by heart, loved so much, needed like he needed to breathe and eat pizza, this voice was coming from the human.

Donnie had become a human.