"Huh? Wh… uh… hello?"
"Casey, it's April." Casey blinked the sleep out of his eyes and sat up in his easy chair. "April? Jeez, what's the big idea? It's nearly one in the mornin'-" His complaint was abruptly cut off by an unexpected question from April. "How much money do you have on your credit card?"
Completely flabbergasted by the late call and the strange question, Casey grabbed the remote control and shut off the television he had fallen asleep to. "Credit card? I dunno. Maybe a little less than a thousand? I only use it when I go Christmas sh-"
"I'll be at your place in ten minutes. Pack a bag."
At this, Casey stood and ran a hand through his hair. April, inviting herself over in the middle of the night? "A bit last-minute for a romantic getaway, ain't it?" Casey asked only somewhat sarcastically.
From the sound of it, April was already in her car and driving towards his apartment. Trying to keep her voice level, she stated, "There's a red eye to LA with two seats left on it, leaving in less than an hour. This isn't the time to fool around, Casey Jones."
"Whoa, whoa," Casey breathed out, pacing about his living room as he tried to understand her. "Red eye?" April explained that a red eye is the last flight out, and Casey interrupted her. "Yeah, yeah, I know what it is. The question is, why are we takin' a red eye to LA? Do ya miss the guys already or somethin'?"
"Are you packing a bag?" Judging by the sound of her voice, Casey thought it was in his best interest to go to his closet and get his duffel bag as he answered in the affirmative. "Pack some leather gloves," April went on. "Work gloves. A pair for me too, if you've got them. Rope too, so we could use it as a restraint if we need to."
She was about to go on when Casey finally jumped in. "Okay, hold on, let's back track a sec, okay? Leather gloves in August? Ropes for restraint? C'mon, April, what the heck is goin' on?" April paused for a moment, seeming somewhat irritated by Casey's question, but decided that it was best that he not be left in the dark.
"I got a call from Allison Grayson over an hour ago. It didn't sound like her, though, and she kept saying that she needed the turtles and more medicine. I called Donnie about this and he seemed to agree with me that this means that she might've mutated back into a rat again. I asked him to call me back once they figure out what's up, and I haven't heard anything from him."
Taking all of this in, Casey suggested, "Maybe he just forgot. Or maybe they haven't gotten there yet. Or maybe-" Yet again, April cut him off in her anxiousness. "Casey, quit it with your stupid 'maybes!' The way Raph drives, at least two of them would have made it to her place in all of this time. Once they found out nothing was wrong, Donnie would've called me. And if I call him, he'll try to convince me that he doesn't need our help."
"Maybe he don't."
There was a long moment of silence, and it was during this quiet that Casey realized he must have said something stupid. "Ever heard of a thing called women's intuition?" April asked at length. Casey leaned on the doorframe to his bedroom and tried not to groan. "You telling me you're gonna drag me across the country just because you got a 'bad feelin' about this?'"
"Look Casey," April said, obviously getting fed up, "you remember the way Donnie and the others talked about how dangerous Allison was in her transformation. Sharp reflexes, high jumps, and strong enough to toss Mikey across the room. If that happened again, and she's able to smell the turtles approaching from way off, how sure can we be that all of the guys are okay? This is Bishop's virus, and it might even have been a trap, for all we know. I'd rather be safe than sorry, and if anything is going on, I know I can't handle it all myself and don't want to let on to Splinter that there might be any trouble. But if you'd rather sleep while watching the Mets, then let me know and I'll take the next exit straight to JFK."
Casey listened to April's monologue, knowing that there was no way she was going to back down. "For your information," he told her, "it was the Yankees." April groaned, frustrated, and Casey tried not to chuckle over the phone. So April was watching out for her friends. Nothing wrong about that. Besides, a quick trip to California, though not all too great for his credit card, would be fantastic for him. Especially if April decided to scout for dangerous mutants by a beach. In a bikini.
"Alright already," he nearly laughed. "Come and get me."
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An engine suddenly came to life in the darkness.
Leonardo and Michelangelo looked up. Donatello had been tinkering with Allison's car for about twenty minutes, and the grin that emerged as he sat in the driver's seat with the engine revving told them that he had finally been successful. "It's about time, bro," Michelangelo commented, standing up from the ground and brushing off his legs. "The ants and mosquitoes were just about to get a lot more green in their diets."
"I still say we should call April or Casey," Leonardo said as he followed Michelangelo to the car. "April's computer resources could come in pretty handy, and even Casey's temper would be able to square off the fact that Raph's missing."
Donatello shook his head as his brothers piled into the car. "I told you already, it's better off that they don't know. April would only worry, and Casey would be blinded with revenge if he knew that Raph was hurt. Besides, it would take them five hours to get here, at least. By then, we'll either have this thing fixed… or it might be too late."
As Donatello started driving, all of the turtles tried not to think of what was meant by "too late." Raphael being abducted was bad enough; they didn't want anything worse to happen to him, especially since they all felt partially guilty for it. Donatello for not being able to protect him at the labs, Leonardo for not being more aggressive when Raphael was being taken away, and Michelangelo for not succeeding to get to his brother just before getting shot. In the back of their minds, they worried for Allison as well, but this was a different sort of worry. In Allison's case, they risk losing an innocent person due to her mere involvement with them, whereas losing Raphael would be losing one of their own. Both appropriate reasons for guilt, and both occurring simultaneously. In the preliminary silence, Leonardo could suddenly see why Donatello refused to get more people involved.
"If we drive up this road that I saw you and Allison arrive from," Donatello said, getting the car turned around, "then maybe we'll pass by the AJB labs and the two of you can grab the shell cycle me and Raph left there. If that's the case, I'll stay at the labs and see what else I can find around there, since there's a good chance that Bishop's men moved out once they were discovered. You guys go back to Allison's and bring the second shell cycle back to pick me up, and we'll go on from there."
"No," Leonardo said resolutely from the passenger seat. "There's no way that I'm letting us get separated again. I'll grab the shell cycle and follow the car back to Allison's place. If we need anything other than what we've got on us, I'm sure that Allison's got a well-stocked arsenal, even if they are all movie props."
"Arsenal?" Donatello blinked. "Allison?" Michelangelo nodded behind him, leaning in from the backseat. "For sure, bro. Where do you think she got the phlegmatic mercury from?" Sparing Michelangelo a wry glance through the rearview mirror, Donatello corrected, "That's 'mercuric fulminate,' Mikey."
Turning back to Leonardo, Donatello continued, "Okay, fine. If she's got anything else in her apartment that we can use, we'll bring it along. Depending on how far away Bishop's men take her and Raph, we might have to use the helicopter anyway. Searching her place will give us some time to get a steady blip and I'll be able to do an Internet search to see what kind of things we can expect from this new base."
"The same thing we can always expect," Leonardo declared. "The unexpected."
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Allison started as she heard a door slide open.
Part of her surprise stemmed from the very fact that she had managed to doze off. What time was it? The sun had barely set when she and the turtles went to rescue Raphael… could more than a few hours have passed?
A quick movement in front of her caught her eye, and Allison realized that Raphael was shaking his head firmly. Hopefully, this meant that the drugs were wearing off. Allison hoped that this was true all the more when she saw Bishop come into view, a syringe in each hand.
"Ah, you're both awake," Bishop observed, standing in between the two of them and shifting his focus between each mutant. "Good. I was afraid you'd be unconscious for this part." Allison's first instinct was to fight against her bonds once again and yell at him, but she decided against it for a number of reasons. One, this man might just be her only chance of regaining her normal human body. Any effort to antagonize him might just condemn her to the form of a rat for the rest of her life. And secondly, her survival tactics hadn't changed. She still thought it best to never let the bad guy know that you're as strong as you really are. If she could only catch him with his guard down….
Raphael, of course, was not hindered by the hope of salvation through Bishop, nor did he ever let his opponents think him weak… even if he was. "Yeah, I bet you already fixed up some popcorn for this, haven't ya, dirtbag?"
Bishop ignored him, focusing his attention on Allison for a moment. "You are aware, of course, Miss Grayson, that certain security measures will have to be taken after you're injected with the serum?" Being a writer, Allison knew that the term "security measures" never meant good things when coming from one of the bad guys. "What do you mean?"
"Confidentiality," Bishop stated blankly. "You don't honestly expect us to simply let you walk out of here and risk you spreading some horrific lies about my organization, do you?" Allison clenched her fists, trying to maintain the anger that was brewing in both her and Raphael. "Lies?" Allison asked incredulously. "You kidnapped my friend and knocked me unconscious! I'm strapped down to a table in God-knows-where and-"
"Precisely," Bishop continued, as though she hadn't spoken at all. "So if you must lie, it should at least be to my benefit, hm?" Allison blinked up at him. At first confused, she became terrified when she grew aware of the presence of two other people coming in behind Bishop. Both men were dressed in lab coats. One had yet another syringe in his hand.
Having seen far too many science fiction movies than she should have, Allison knew right away what Bishop's intentions were. "You're going to brainwash me," she breathed, glaring at Bishop as her claws continued to discreetly work the leather straps. "What, wipe my memory? Subliminal messaging to believe that the turtles are evil and you're my strutting hero? Make me forget about my mutation entirely?"
"Maybe he'll make ya forget you were ever human."
Allison turned her eyes over to Raphael, disdainfully aware of the fact that Bishop kept his eyes trained on her. "Maybe he'll make ya think that you were born a rat, and his scientific genius turned ya into a human," Raphael continued, his voice still somewhat clouded. "Then he could gain your blind loyalty, the way Karai follows the Shredder around because she thinks that he has something to do with who she is inside. Or maybe he'll keep ya as a rat, as some kinda constant in his little experiments. A little pet that he could prod whenever he needs to come up with a new thesis, no different from that turtle you've got in your tank in your room." He paused for only a brief moment before accusingly adding, "That's what he's got planned for me, anyway."
Allison's mouth began to hang open as Bishop's focus shifted over to Raphael. Little pet turtle? What he's got planned for Raphael? Her eyes followed the two syringes in Bishop's hands. Two of them. One presumably for her… and the other for Raphael. Raphael was his test subject. Good God, what had she done?
"You?" Bishop asked Raphael with a satisfied smirk. "Don't flatter yourself. After all of the trouble you and your fellow miscreants put me through, the first thing I'll do to you is relish the feel of your shell crushing underneath my heel." He was approaching Raphael slowly as he spoke, leaving Allison with his back. He stopped directly in front of the turtle as he lowered his voice. "The second thing I'll do is scrape up whatever's left of you and flush it down into the sewer, in hopes that that teacher of yours may one day come across them and know exactly what happened."
The visual images brought forth by Bishop's words sickened Allison. "You bastard!" She then made a fatal mistake. Swiftly lunging forward, she broke through her severed wrist restraints, clawed away the rest of the straps, and stumbled for Bishop, showing that she was indeed stronger than he had thought. The two men in lab coats darted for her, but they were clumsy and inattentive.
As she dove for Bishop, he suddenly whirled around. Though he didn't seem worried, he was certainly caught unaware and was forced to rely on bare instinct. He brought his right hand up and managed to stab Allison in the chest with one of the syringes, injecting her with the serum.
She jolted to a stop in front of him, using her momentum to shove him away, succeeding in knocking him to the ground. She was only a few inches away from Raphael, who gaped at her with concern. "Allison," she could hear him call, not seeing that his hands were trying to stretch out to her against their restraints. "Allison, you okay?"
Yanking the needle out of her skin, Allison was shocked. She could already feel something changing inside of her. Was it supposed to happen this quickly? She ended up losing her balance and crashing against Raphael. As she slid down to the floor, she could hear Bishop's voice, though his words became difficult for her to discern.
"The little fool," Bishop sneered as he stood and looked at the rat slinking to the ground. "She doesn't know what she's just gotten herself into." He moved behind the creature and grabbed a fistful of her fur just behind her neck. He turned and meant to tell the two medical personnel that were standing stupidly behind him to go and prepare the room he had set aside for her, but he realized the girl wasn't moving as he jerked her backwards.
Turning to look, Bishop saw that Raphael had managed to grab hold of the girl's wrists, and they were holding onto each other as though for dear life. "You're not gonna get her, Bishop," Raphael growled. "I swear it." Raising an eyebrow, Bishop asked, "Oh? And I suppose you plan on stopping me?"
The girl suddenly leaned back in towards Raphael, whispering something to the turtle as her hands slowly dropped to his feet. With a final vicious jerk, Bishop finally managed to send the girl sprawling ahead of him, near the two men who seemed too afraid to move. "Hold her down," he ordered. "She's going to undergo some… discomfort."
No sooner had the words left his mouth that the rat begin to squirm on the ground, her pained vocalizations proving that it was more than just some "discomfort." The two medical personnel scrambled to grab an arm each as Allison began to change, her fur beginning to slowly drip off her body.
"Well," Bishop said, adjusting his glasses on the ridge of his nose. "I suppose I've settled my side of the bargain." He turned back to the turtle, a sort of sadistic amusement in his eyes as he held up the remaining syringe. "Time for you to go back to the way Nature intended."
"I couldn't agree more."
Grateful that Allison had managed to tear a good way through his straps before Bishop had managed to pull her away, Raphael wrenched himself free and sucker punched Bishop in the jaw. Bishop was thrown off-target just long enough for Raphael to pull himself completely free of the table.
Despite the blinding pain she felt, Allison didn't want to end up tied onto another slab as her brain was being reprogrammed. While she still had the sharp teeth, she managed to bite one of her captors in the arm. As he screamed, Allison repressed the urge to vomit as the hot blood flowed into her mouth. She felt the strange sensation of her teeth actually dulling down to their normal shape, so she knew she had to be quick.
Not a moment after Raphael was able to walk on his own two legs, Bishop threw himself at the turtle, hoping to get another shot with the injection as he had unintentionally done with Allison. Not liking the image of bits of his shell being embedded into the bottom of Bishop's shoe, Raphael was even quicker on his feet than usual. Expecting Bishop's reinforcements at every turn, he somersaulted backwards. The wasted energy in his missed tackle caused Bishop to stumble, allowing Raphael to get in a kick to the man's chest. He didn't expect this to actually slow Bishop down at all, and he was disappointed to see that his expectations were met.
Allison managed to yank her right side free of the bitten man in the lab coat. These two were obviously not meant for fighting, and she hoped to get past them before the real fighters stormed in. Throwing her free hand towards the man clinging to her left arm, Allison hoped that her claws were strong enough to tear through his flesh. Luckily enough, they were. She had never been more grateful for having a strong stomach than she was when she realized that she had just stuck her nails through this man's jugular.
Bishop swung a fist at Raphael, catching him just off the shoulder as the turtle dodged. Raphael tried not to stumble, but his senses were still scrambled from the drugs or whatever had been done to him to subdue him. He flipped on the ground, doing a quick visual search for Allison. He was surprised to see that she had managed to triumph over her would-be captives and was trembling on all fours. Knowing that they needed to make a break for it, Raphael sped to Allison and lifted her up over his shoulder.
"C'mon kid," he grunted, continuously moving towards the door. "Playtime's over." He could feel her grip onto his shell and noted that her entire body was clenched with pain. Trying to push away his sympathy until he could get them somewhere somewhat safe, Raphael continued to make his way for the door. He was thankful that he only needed to push a button to get it to swish open.
Hoping that his instincts would lead him somewhere better than here, Raphael plunged blindly ahead. His hopes disappeared immediately when he felt a sudden sting on his left shoulder. Though he kept running, he staggered and risked a look behind him. Bishop was lowering a strange-looking gun and staring after the escaping mutant pair with a sense of victory. Reaching behind him, Raphael felt for what had been driven into his shoulder and pulled it out.
Though half of it still remained in the syringe, Raphael realized that he had just been shot with the "cure."