Chapter 18

-Virus-

Mondo Gecko struggled against his restraints as he found himself lying supine with his arms and legs strapped to a surgical table. To say that his evening didn't go as planned was an understatement, then again, no one planned on being kidnapped.

The Purple Dragons got the jump on him while he was busting out fresh moves on his board, a fact that upset Mondo more than his abduction alone. "You kooks better have a good reason for wrecking my night of epic halfpipe grindage."

"Sure do." A burly young gangster with a purple dragon tattoo encircling his arm came into Mondo's view. Other than his mass, there didn't seem to be anything particularly menacing about the gangster. "I got a question to ask you."

"Whatever," Mondo rolled his eyes, "You didn't have to kidnap me for that."

Nah, just an added bonus of the job." He said, "Where is the Turtles' lair?"

"Get Bent! You're straight up crunk if you think I'm going to tell you that." Said Mondo.

"Why are you protecting them, Jason, ain't they the ones that turned you into a mutant freak?"

Mondo felt himself heat up, he wasn't one to accept insults, especially when thrown at him by random Purple Dragon gangbangers. "I don't know how you know my name but you best let me go before my friends show up. They have mad fighting skills and once they figure out that you kidnapped me, you'll be hella sorry."

"Oh yeah, I have a feeling it'll be too late by then." the gangster retrieved a switchblade from his back pocket, then proceeded to roll the retracted instrument through his fingers from one side to the other. "Why don't you save them the trouble of having to look for me, and just tell me where they are?"

"It's no trouble, in fact, I can think of three of them who'd love to rip your head off just for giving them a funny look." Mondo said, pausing for a beat before adding, "No, four, if you count my human friend."

The gangster released the blade with the flick of his wrist, at which point Mondo's tail began swishing uncontrollably. "I read somewhere that it takes a leopard gecko about sixty-five days to grow its tail back. I wonder if it's the same way with you."

Mondo knew what the gangster was getting at, he honestly didn't know if his tail could grow back and he wasn't in the market to find out either. Still, "Do your worst, I won't narc on my friends even if you chop up my body inch by inch."

The gangster lunged forward and jammed the knife into the table near Mondo's head, "You're lucky the boss needs you alive or else I'd take you up on that offer."

"Oh yeah, well, I'd like to talk to your boss. Tell him, his men don't have the stones to get the job done." Teased Mondo.

"You're pushing it." The gangster reached for his knife but stopped midway, his eyes shifting rapidly beneath his lids, as if processing information. "Guess you'll get to speak to the boss after all."

The air shifted, giving off an electrifying feeling that pulled at Mondo's skin like tiny magnets. Mondo's tail flailed frantically when he became aware of a new presence in the room. "You mutants have a lot of guts." The gangster said, his voice the same yet noticeably different. "We are Evixus." Said the alien, now seeing the world through the gangster's eyes.

"You're that alien everyone warned me about." Mondo said, he'd love to give Evixus a mouth full of chicklets for what he did to the Turtles, or specifically what losing Donatello did to them. "You'd better let my friends' brother go or I'll—"

"You'll what?" Evixus challenged, "You are hardly in the position to make threats, let alone demands." The alien pointed out. "But we grow weary of this conversation. We'll give you one more chance to tell us where the Turtles are before we let our temporary host satiate his curiosity."

"Bit me, creep!" Mondo said.

"Fine. We do not need you to tell us where the lair is when we can simply use you to draw the Turtles out of hiding." Evixus ducked down beneath the horizon of Mondo's view and returned a few moments later with a syringe of yellow liquid in hand. "This virus, we derived from Donatello's Retro-mutagen formula, will strengthen your human brainwaves, thus giving us access to that mind of yours."

"Jaah right." Mondo challenged.

"Allow us to explain." Evixus said. "Before our frequency was shut off, we managed to infect the entire population of New York City with our influence, including you mutants." Evixus shared a look with Mondo. "You think the frequency doesn't work on your kind but if our calculations are correct, and they usually are, the virus will change that." Evixus plunged the needle into Mondo's neck, administering a full dose of the virus.

The virus spread quickly, Mondo could feel every drop as it burned through his veins, changing little parts of his DNA. His entire body felt like an open wound, exposed air; raw and tender. He clenched his fists but even that small action was so sensitive that it managed to wring a small whimper from his lips. Mondo bit his lip, determined to endure the pain no matter what.

"It'll be over soon, Jason," Evixus said, "And once you and the Mutanimals destroy the rest of those Turtles, there will be nothing standing in our way."

Elsewhere.

Slash sat down at the table, across from a stack of student files, thinking, a fresh look at them might turn up a new lead. He picked up the top file and a handwritten letter slipped from its folds. Slash stared at the letter for a long moment, had he headed pleas of the girl who'd written it, she'd still be alive. He retrieved the letter and was taken back a few months in the past, to a time when he'd had the chance to put an end to Evixus' plans before they even became an issue…

Slash returned to the hideout alone, he and the rest of the Mutanimals had just finished closing a massive drug smuggling case in the Bronx. And he was eager to get in a little R&R before the next case inevitably came his way. Unfortunately, on that night particular night, his next case was two seconds of couch time away.

The alert above Rockwell's workstation went off, signaling that someone had placed a letter in the through door drop box. This box had been set up years ago with the sole purpose of allowing anyone to request help. Those who were extremely desperate were inclined to use it, as those who would abuse it were deterred from doing so by promises of dismemberment.

Slash got to his feet and crossed the warehouse in order to check the box. He retrieved the letter and tore it open, the sound resonated, alerting the person outside to his presence.

"Hello? Is someone there?" Slash peered out through a hole in the wall and saw a teenage girl, the crest on her uniform read Springhill Academy.

It's a little late to be out on a school night, don't you think?" Slash asked, trying to keep his voice low and nonthreatening.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late but I heard about this drop box from some guys at my school." She said. "Is it true that you help people?"

"Depends on what it is." Slash answered honestly.

"It's my sister." The girl said. "I think she was kidnapped."

"Did you report it to the police?" Slash inquired.

"Yes, but they don't believe me, neither do my parent, they all think she's gone AWOL again." The girl said.

"Again?" asked Slash, he really didn't have the time or resources to waste on a runaway case. "Look, I'm sure she'll turn up, this isn't really our thing."

"No, please wait!" the girl said. "Look, I know how it sounds, okay. But this time it's different." The girl said. "A few weeks ago she got called into the school office. She told me that the Headmaster was acting really strangely, that he kept asking about her IQ, like it turned him on or something." Slash could hear the cringe in her voice. "I know he did something to her."

"Do you have any proof?" Slash asked, flipping the letter to the back, its only contents, the story the girl had just told him.

"No, but there's a secret room in his office, I'm sure there's something there." The girl said.

"I'm sorry, that's not enough to go on." Slash explained.

"Then. I'll get more proof." The girl said.

…Slash came back from his memory when Casey entered the hideout, and he tucked the letter back into the folder. "Hey kid, you're back early." Noted Slash as Casey ambled toward him, his body was covered in a light sheen of sweat, odd given the cool weather of early February, Slash observed.

"Yeah. Leo called Raph in, something came up at the lair. Raph wouldn't tell me what it was, though." Replied Casey, an unspoken so don't ask tacked on to the end of his sentence.

Slash wasn't going to ask. Plus, he really only had one concern. "How's Raphael?"

"I donno…" Casey shrugged, "He's…Raph… he nearly beat the crap out of some poor security guard at the lot." Casey shifted his weight slightly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Did you discover anything useful from the van?" Slash asked.

"Useful? No." Casey shut his eyes tightly and ran a hand down the expanse face. "But Raph found April's weapon and it seemed to fire him up." Casey squinted his eyes against the light of the warehouse lamps.

"You alright, kid?" Slash asked.

It took a moment for Casey to respond, "Huh? Oh yeah… fine, just a headache." He said. "It's funny, I never used to get them before, and that counts all my battles, on and off the ice." Casey lamented, "But lately, I seem to get one every day."

"Maybe you should sit down." Slash, slowly kicked out the adjacent chair in which Casey gratefully took a seat. "You've been working nonstop since you joined us. I know you want to save your friends, but it's okay to rest."

"I don't need rest." Casey said, eying the file Slash had been looking at and recognized the name on its cover. "I remember her. She was the first one to go missing." Casey's voice strained, "Her little sister came here for help before she was found murdered in her home."

"What did you say?" Slash set his jaw, he was pretty sure he hadn't told a soul about the sister's visit as he was unable to admit that his dismissal of her, directly lead to her death. "How do you about know that?"

"Oh, I must've read it somewhere when I was digging around through the headmaster's office at Springhill." Casey said

Slash watched Casey carefully, as plausible an explanation as that was, something felt off, but before Slash could confront Casey on the issue, a sharp squawk came through on the two-way radio at Slash's belt.

"Hey, Pete. Whadja find?" Slash answered, he'd sent the spy out to collect data on the FBI's investigation of the Springhill explosion. –The entire campus was leveled by a chain reaction set off by a student in a mech suit, as Raphael later explained—

"Nothing." Pete said.

Slash Stood up, his chair scooting loudly along the ground, "What do you mean, nothing?"

"Just what I said." Pete squawked, "I read through all of the classified files I could find and not a single one mentions guns, bombs, or robots; Not so much as a scrap of tech, alien or otherwise was recovered from the scene." Clarified Pete. "As far as the FBI is concerned this was just a freak accent."

"What? How is that possible, Springhill was packed with enough firepower to start a small war?" Slash's two-way cracked beneath the pressure of his fist.

"Yeah well, it would be a dead end if finding nothing wasn't a clue in itself." Pete said. "This means that Evixus has cleaners, and if we can find out who they are…"

"We can question them to see if they know where Evixus' new base of operations is." Slash finished. But, "the cleaners won't be easy to track down." Slash mused.

"It might be easier than you think." Pete said, "I'm standing in front of an apartment complex across from the scene, there's a surveillance camera pointed toward the school grounds, and I'm willing to bet some serious bread, it captured the something." Pete said.

"Nice work, Pete." Praised Slash, Finally, some good news. "Report back when it's done."

"Will do." Pete said.

Slash ended the communication and turned his attention back to Casey, at some point the boy had fallen asleep, with is head down on top of his folded arms. "come on, kid." Slash scooped Casey up with ease and carried him over to the couch where he gently set him down. Slash grabbed a blanket from the corner and tucked Casey in, his earlier suspicions forgotten. "Sleep well, Casey."

Pete made his way around to the back of the apartment complex, following the surveillance camera's single white wire, to a small shed housing the surveillance monitors. Pete looked through the shatter proof window in the center of the door, there was no one inside, but the half-eaten hamburger next to a keyboard told the spy that he didn't have long to complete his mission.

Pete quickly made his way inside and retrieved a thumb drive from his pocket. All he needed were the videos of the past two months. He stuck the thumb drive into the tower and made sort work of finding the old surveillance files. He quickly transferred the necessary files to the drive.

The door flew open.

Startled, Pete stood up and turned around and saw Mondo Gecko standing in the doorway. Pete sighed and let his shoulders fall forward. "oh, Jason, it's just you." Mondo responded by lifting a dart gun into view. He aimed it at Pete and fired, hitting the spy, pointblank in the shoulder.

Pete stumble back a few inches and plucked the offensive dart from his skin, a yellow substance dripped from its tip. "Wh-What did you hit me with?"

"Oh, it's totally rad." Mondo said. "it's going to unlock your true potential."

"What are you talking about?" Pete rubbed his burning shoulder, whatever he was injected with was spreading fast.

"I'm talking about getting rid of those turtles, duh." Mondo replied. "Aren't you tried of being second tier on a second rate team? Don't you think, we Mutanimals deserve to be the number one heroes in this city?"

"We all do our part, Jason." Pete said, placing his hand on the desk behind him in order to steady himself.

"Yeah, right! So, the Turtles took down two baddies, big whoop." Mondo said, tilting his head to the side in order to stay in Pete's view.

"The baddies you are referring to are Kraang and Shredder." Pete doubled over and fell to his knees, placing two hands on the ground in front of him. His hands curling into tight fists.

"Jaah, so? We, bust our butts every night, putting away the rest of New York's criminals." Mondo said. "We are the ones who actually take care of this community." Mondo said. "And its high time we put the Turtle's in their place." Mondo said, Pete barely catching the last of it as he faded into unconsciousness.