"This is the place."

Raphael looked back at Donatello as he parked his bike amidst the cover of bushes. "Yeah, I know the address, Donnie. Who do ya think drove us here?" Without waiting for a resentful reply from his brother, Raphael quickly jumped off the shell cycle and ran towards a mesh of trees to the side of the large apartment complex. He could hear Leonardo and Michelangelo drive up somewhere behind him.

As Leonardo cut the engines, his hushed but urgent voice called out, "Raph, what are you doing? Get back here!" Without sparing him a glance, Raphael responded, "She lives on the third floor. You expect to have the doorman show us in?" Leonardo surprised him with an incredibly high jump, cutting him off at a tree bough just as the confrontational turtle got up there. Grabbing his brother's shoulders, Leonardo rationalized, "We don't even know what's going on. Cool down and let Donnie talk."

Pulling away from Leonardo and careful to maintain his balance, Raphael harshly muttered, "I might not be the leader or the genius 'a the group, but I know that when a friend's in trouble, you don't stop to ask questions." Withdrawing his sais and only subconsciously threatening Leonardo with them, he added, "I promised her that whoever tries to mess with her's got a date with these. Don't wanna keep nobody waitin'."

"That's the thing," Donatello blurted out, trying to quickly dissuade Raphael from any more rash action. "The only thing messing with her is her own DNA. Unless you're planning on using some latent science skills to cut out the bad genes, those aren't going to be of any use, Raph!"

"Whoa, whoa," Michelangelo piped up. "DNA? Genes? What you trying to say, Donnie?" Before Donatello could explain, Raphael darkly growled, "Whatever it is, don't." With Leonardo too preoccupied with Donatello's explanation, Raphael managed to silently scramble up the trees in his search for Allison's apartment.

"April told me she got a call from Allison's number," Donatello elucidated. "It didn't sound anything like Allison, but it mentioned us and said that it needed more medicine. It then sounded like it was choked off before the connection dropped. Given what we know, there's only one conclusion I can draw."

"A relapse of the outbreak," Leonardo stated, a severe expression on his face.

"Dudes, not cool, not cool!" Michelangelo exclaimed, alarmed. "We came all this way to visit a crazy, turtle-hungry version of Splinter? No way, I'm outta here!" He tried to dart off, but Donatello grabbed his arm. "You're not going anywhere, Mr. Battle Nexus Champion." Leonardo stood his ground. "He's right. Allison is our friend. We can't just abandon her."

"Yeah, easy for you to say," Michelangelo shot back, unappeased. "The only reason she didn't eat me last time was because she could still catch the scent of her friend's baby on me. Quick, bring me a baby! A whole score of babies! And however many a score is, add ten more to that!" Leonardo was not amused, if that had been Michelangelo's aim. "Mikey, get serious! Give me one good reason why we shouldn't help Allison."

Seeming to reach for something, anything, to say, Michelangelo finally uttered, "Uh… well… we don't know which apartment's hers! Yeah, that's it! We can't risk sneaking into the wrong window! Not very ninja-like."

"Hey, knucklehead," Raphael's voice whispered from somewhere above them. "I'm guessin' it's the only one on the third floor where the lights are all off 'n the blinds are down. Just one of 'em hypothesis things."

The other three turtles looked at one another for a moment, as though contemplating their next move. Without a word, Leonardo continued up the tree, after his brother's voice. Donatello and Michelangelo looked at one another. "After you, darling tech-head brother of mine," Michelangelo said sweetly. With a lighthearted suspicion in his words, Donatello pushed Michelangelo towards the tree as he asked, "What, and risk you running off on us? I'm the smart one, remember?"

Crouching besides his brother in the tree shadowed by the overhead clouds, Leonardo asked, "Any way to get in?" Standing, Raphael answered, "There's always a way to get in. I'm just lookin' for a way to look in, first." Spotting a window with slightly crooked blinds, Raphael leapt for that ledge. Leonardo was left staring after his brother, marveling over the fact that he seemed to show a sign of thinking rather than rushing forwards.

Trying not to cast any conspicuous shadows within the apartment (and also hoping to avoid a three-story fall), Raphael peered into the space between the slats of the Venetian blinds. The dim room that he was looking into appeared to be the living room, and he could make out the kitchen further within. Upon closer inspection, he could see another door that he imagined must have led to the bedroom. Woulda thought someone in showbiz could afford a better dump, he thought sarcastically as he recognized the sofas as Allison's.

Now if I know this kid, he continued to muse, examining the window, she wouldn't be dumb enough to ask for our help and not leave some way in. It looked to him as though the window was unlatched from the inside, so he tested this theory and pulled the windowpane up. It slid open easily.

Silently lifting up the blinds with his sai, Raphael slinked into the apartment. He held the blinds away for his brothers to jump in after him, one-by-one. "Keep your eyes peeled," Leonardo advised them in a thin whisper. "For what?" Michelangelo asked, his fear getting the better of him. Going furthest into the dark apartment, Raphael muttered back, "For a five-foot-six rat, that's what."

A sudden stillness overcame them as a creaking sound, inaudible perhaps to normal ears but loud as thunder to their trained ninja senses, came from one side. Raphael slowly turned to meet the sound. Had the door leading to the other room been slightly ajar, or had it been closed? Whatever the case, it was the only place any noise could have stemmed from. Taking out his sais once again, Raphael charged for the door, heedless of Leonardo's grabs to pull him back.

He crashed into the next room, the door slamming against the wall. Looking about, he saw an unmade bed, clothes strewn across the floor, and a haphazard mess that must have once been a workspace. He caught sight of something moving, but saw that it was only a tank with some kind of animal in it. A pet turtle? I oughta smack her for keepin' a turtle for a pet.

A moan came from behind him and he turned swiftly on his heels. His brothers stopped at the doorway, noticing something he hadn't. When he had rushed at the door, he pushed it against a figure standing behind it. That figure was now on the ground, looking dazed. "Nice going, Jean Claude van Raph," Michelangelo smirked.

Donatello switched on a light switch. The creature on the floor twitched and shielded its eyes, letting out a pained cry. Leonardo quickly turned the light off. "No point," he told Donatello. "We can see just as well as she can. Bright lights will only scramble her senses even more." Even with only a few seconds of light, the four turtles recognized the cringing mutated rat with sleek black fur. Leonardo crouched warily in front of it and gently murmured, "Allison… we're here. We're going to take care of you."

"You might not wanna get that close to her, bro," Michelangelo warned, staying behind in the living room. "If she's gone nutzoid and is still contagious, the last thing we need is a monster Leo running around L.A." Leonardo merely shook his head at him, still looking down with concern at the being that was once Allison. "No, Mikey. Somehow, I don't think that's the case."

The three turtles watched as Leonardo carefully reached out for the creature, who they all realized was now sobbing. Feeling the turtle's touch, a dark, clawed paw reached out and covered Leonardo's hand. Michelangelo took a sharp intake of breath, almost certain that the other paw was going to go for his brother's throat. He almost passed out when the rat quickly sat up and threw herself at Leonardo.

Donatello was surprised as well. He backed away as Leonardo nearly fell onto his shell, getting his bo ready in case it was needed. He felt his tension slip away to pity as he discovered that Allison was only embracing Leonardo, grateful to see him.

"Leonardo," she said in a strained voice. "Thank God. I… I heard voices, and when I peaked out to look, someone came running towards me. I thought that a bunch of scientists found me and were taking me away. I panic so easily now, it's so… so…." Leonardo put his arms around her, whispering words of comfort. After grasping what Allison had just said, Michelangelo looked up at Raphael. "Smooth move, Raph. We're lucky she didn't try to throw herself out the window."

Raphael paid no attention to Michelangelo's comment. Instead, he sat on the ground, looking at Allison carefully. Noticing the movement, Allison looked up at him. "Raphael!" She parted from Leonardo and moved towards the latter turtle. He wondered over how different she looked in her mutated form this time; how in control she appeared now in contrast to the base, vicious animal she had been before. Whatever had happened, it was nothing like what occurred during their last meeting. As he silently pulled her into an embrace, she scolded, "You scared the crap out of me!"

"I know," he responded quietly.

"Do that to me again, and I'll kill you!"

"I know."

"You jerk."

"Idiot."

Allison pulled away from him, looking up at Raphael. Even in the darkness, he could make out her large brown eyes, and wondered if she was smiling at him. "We need answers." He hadn't realized that he had spoken those words out loud until she edged away from him, looking down. He glanced over his shoulder, not wanting to look at his brothers. "And judgin' by the mess you got around here, I'm bettin' that we ain't gonna like them answers."

"That's the thing," Allison told them as Donatello and Michelangelo joined them on the floor. "I don't have any answers. I've been feeling a bit out of it for the past few days, mostly just cramps and other things that I blamed on work stress. Then weird things started happening, like me getting out of the shower and noticing that my legs look like I haven't shaved them, even though I did just a few minutes before. While I'm brushing my hair, I accidentally scratch my face and realize that my nails are twice as long as I remember them. Then I looked in the mirror a few hours ago and realize that I'm turning back into… into this. You don't know how terrified I was. I ran to call April just twenty minutes ago when I started changing and the pain was so bad that I was scared that she thought I was just some prank caller. …How did you guys get here so fast?"

Her words came out in a quick jumble, but the turtles understood her plainly. Donatello replied, "Eh… would you believe that we just happened to be in the neighborhood when we got April's call?" Michelangelo told her, "You don't ever gotta worry about April not relaying a message, bud. She's been through enough freaky happenings to know that nothing's ever a prank call."

"Yeah," Raphael threw in. "When you're caught in the middle of an invasion of triceratops and see your friends whisked away into an adventure by a ditzy timestress, ya kinda get used to weird things poppin' up."

Never one to stray away too far from the matter at hand, Leonardo asked, "Have you eaten anything strange or done anything outside of your normal routine that might've triggered a relapse?" Allison shook her head. "Not that I know of. I mean, my life hasn't had much of a routine at all since I've met you guys, but I haven't been bitten by any radioactive spiders or come into contact with an alien crystal, so I can't think of anything in particular that would cause this."

"Hmm," Donatello pondered. "This might have something to do with the fact that you were given such a weak dose of the cure in comparison to what we had given Robert to fully cure him." At the mention of the person who had initially come in contact with the virus and thus contaminated Allison, Michelangelo remarked, "Hey! Robert! Is he-?"

Allison quickly nodded. "Before I even started changing, I called him and made sure he was okay. He still doesn't remember anything about his transformation, so he would've brought up anything strange that's been going on."

Donatello nodded, as though this fact answered everything. "If it's only happened to you, then it must be the weaker dosage. And since you couldn't see who we were when we first came in, I'm betting that your senses aren't as sharp as they were when you first mutated. My guess is that the contagion factor has been eliminated as well. If that's the case, this might only be an external physical change and not one as drastic as the one that came over you the last time. All that remains is to find the active chemical of the cure and mix up a new batch."

They all thought about the fatal flaw in Donatello's solution, but none of them gave voice to it. "That's great, bro," Michelangelo finally brought up. "But like, where are we gonna find it? That chemical came from Area 51, and thanks to Bishop and his cronies, it doesn't exist anymore."

"That's easily enough taken care of," Donatello replied. "Though it's hard for average, run-of-the-mill citizens to get their hands on, it was by no means rare. Allison, do you know of any laboratories or large science universities nearby?" Allison blinked at the question. "Donatello, I'm a writer. Unless we're Asimov or Hubbard, we tend to stay far, far away from the realms of science."

"Is your computer hooked up to the Internet?"

"Yeah."

Jumping to his feet, Donatello said, "I'll do a search for any scientific bases around the neighborhood, then." He went over to the desk in the bedroom and turned on the computer as Raphael said, "Yeah? Then what? Ya think you can just waltz in there and ask to borrow some chemicals to cure a mutation? …'specially one that ain't yours?"

"Yo Raph, cool it, bro," Michelangelo told him. "Donnie's a ninja. No one will know he's there." Leonardo agreed, but not without some degree of caution. "I don't think this is something that Donnie should do alone, and I don't recommend Allison leave the apartment until we're sure that her mutation isn't going to suddenly affect her mind. I'll go with him. Mike and Raph, you stay here and watch over Allison. Make sure that you call us at the slightest sign of trouble."

As the others began to disperse and leave him and Allison sitting on the floor, Raphael remarked, "I think we could save a lot of grief if we just lock her in the bathroom now, with her hands tied behind her back." Standing, Allison sarcastically replied, "Thank you, Raphael. I can just smell the amity seeping from your very pores." With an exaggerated sniff towards Raphael, Michelangelo commented, "Ohh, is that what that smell's called?"

With a solid push at Michelangelo, Raphael stood and asked of the others, "Okay, tell me why there are three of us and I'm the one to always get stuck with him." With a sigh, Allison looked at Michelangelo and asked, "I take it the two of you still don't get along, huh?" As she went over to her bed and turned on the lamp by her nightstand, Michelangelo innocently claimed that he didn't know what she was talking about. "I wuv my baby bwother, and he wuvs me. Isn't that wight, Raphy-baby?"

Raphael lunged at Michelangelo, yelling about which one of them was actually the youngest. Seeing Allison flinch, Leonardo and Donatello looked at one another. "On second thought," Donatello mentioned, "maybe Raph should come with me instead. I'll need his, er, … I'll need him. Yeah." For some reason, Leonardo felt inclined to agree.

Grateful to be rid of Michelangelo for a short while, Raphael nodded and put his weapons away. "Right. So, where we goin'?" Donatello told him that he found a genetics lab about half an hour away, probably less with the way Raphael drives the shell cycle. He nodded again and looked at Allison. "We'll be back in about an hour. Sit tight."

The look on his friend's face struck him. In the darkness, he hadn't been able to see Allison's face, so imagined the best. Now, with a small lamp on, Raphael could see that no amount of fur and no facial alterations could hide the sadness and panic from her countenance. "Hurry back, guys." She said the words to both of them as Donatello stood from the computer, but her eyes never left Raphael's.

"We will, kid," he assured her quietly. "We will."