Note: Despite similar situations and characters, this chapter has nothing to do with the most recent TMNT movie and is purely of my own design. It does not fit in with any TMNT story lines, I just liked the characters they used and their personalities.
Holy cow, I was fast! I was going so fast that I missed the corner and slammed into the adjacent wall with full force. I felt something in my shoulder pop and a searing pain shot up my arm. Dislocated shoulder? Oh, well. I turned and ran, pacing myself this time. I peered into each room as I passed, seeing more than any human could. I saw everything perfectly, each minute detail. It was incredible and overwhelming at the same time. Finally I found what I was looking for: the security room. Three men were sitting in chairs in front of a wall of high-tech computers showing security footage from around the building. I scanned the footage quickly, looking for what was causing all the trouble. Then I saw it, or them, I guess. In the middle of the cargo bay (which was apparently downstairs) was a giant turtle in a ninja mask fighting at least seven men at one time. The containment cells (this floor) had two of the turtles in glass cages. They were unconscious and slumped against the sides of their cells. The last turtle was nowhere to be seen. I leaned into the doorway to get a better view of one of the screens and my shadow fell across one of the seated men. He looked up quickly, saw my reflection in a computer with a blank screen, and shouted in surprise. I froze, unsure of what to do. The man who had spotted me reached under the desk and brought out a gun, which was pointed at my head.
He fired.
I ducked.
He missed.
I ran.
I ran and ran and ran, faster that humanly possible. Through hallways, up stairs, around corners, I ran. At one point I tripped over the lab coat and hurdled to the floor. My head made a loud thunk noise when it collided with the tile and I saw stars. I lay there for a moment, heart racing, not thinking clearly. 'Why are those men trying to kill me? What were the giant turtles doing here? Why do I have wings, again? I am I a mutant now, like the Turtles? Who even am I? I…I can't...I can't remember my own name! I…I… my head hurts…"
So I lay there, curled into a ball, lying on a hard tile floor, sobbing, too afraid to move or do anything. I felt a warm trickle of something wet drip through my hair and onto the floor. Blood, probably. I didn't really care, until I heard the voices. Deep, gruff voices. Mean voices. Mean voices coming from mean men. I got up and ran, leaving a small puddle of my own blood where my head had been a moment before.
"There she is! Get her! She can't leave this place alive! I SAID MOVE!" A voice echoed off the walls and down the hallway to my ears. There were at least five of the mean men chasing me. Why were they chasing me? I almost ran straight into a set of heavy double doors, but stopped myself just in time. They were locked from the inside, much to my dismay. I spun around frantically, looking for another way in, but I had run into a dead-end hallway. I banged on the doors, hoping against hope that they would open, but they didn't. I threw my body against it over and over again, but the door refused to budge. This was it: the end. The men were going to catch me and kill me and there was nothing I could do about it.
The doors opened.
I had no sooner stepped into the room when the doors swung shut behind me. The door bolted itself shut within seconds, leaving me completely alone in this strange room. A faint electronic buzz filled the air and was accompanied by some light beeping. I was too exhausted to look around at the moment, so I sunk onto the floor and caught my breath, letting the cool air envelope me. After several minutes I decided to look around. The room wasn't empty, as I had previously thought. It looked eerily similar to the room where I was mutated: Blindingly white tile floors, stainless steel tables, lots of computers everywhere, wires trailing around the floor like snakes, a single window on the far wall overlooking a depressing-looking courtyard. I couldn't hear any commotion from the other side of the double doors, so I assumed I was safe for the moment. Some instinct told me to scout out the place before I moved. I glanced up at the ceiling, focusing on the corners and sure enough I found a security camera on my left. I was just out of its line of vision, luckily, so I inched along the floor until I was directly underneath it. Once I reached the camera I stood up. The camera was still a good four feet above my head (I was only 5' 3"), but I could read the buttons on the side clearly. One read on, another said off, forward, backward, and the last one read freeze. I assumed they put that last button there for when the police were going over camera footage and wanted to study a certain frame, but right now that button was made just for me. Using opposing forces, I shimmied up the corner of the wall where the two walls met, pressed the freeze button, and dropped silently to the ground. Now, whatever the security guards had been watching thirty seconds ago was all they would ever see until I pressed the play button again. The same image was frozen on the screen, but nobody else knew that but me.
I followed the beeping noise, feeling proud of myself for fooling the guards. It led me to a series of four computers, each hooked up to…
Containment cells…
They were the same containment cells I had seen in the security room screens a few minutes ago. My eyes traveled from the computers to the actual cells, and sure enough, there were the two turtles I had seen on the screen. They were massive! Even when they weren't standing, I could tell they were at least a foot and a half taller than me. They were heavily muscled, covered in green scales, and surprisingly human. I approached one of the cells carefully, my bare feet making no noise on the tile as I walked. The turtle in this cage had a dirty blue mask on. His chest rose and fell steadily as he slept, a strangely calming motion. I walked over to the other cell, which held an orange-clad turtle. He looked younger than the other one, but was still just as intimidating. He shifted onto his side, mumbling in his sleep like a child. I smiled, remembering my own family, specifically my little brother. He used to do the same thing… but they were gone now. I knew deep down that I could never return to my family, not after my mutation. I put my hand on the glass and rested my forehead beside it, fighting back tears.
"You're not alone, you know" a weak voice whispered. I jumped, my head turning to the cell beside me. The blue-clad turtle was watching me carefully, studying me. Only then did I realize he hadn't been sleeping before.
"Who are you?" I asked
"A friend." he answered simply. I laughed bitterly.
"I have no friends. Not after what they've done to me."
"What happened?" he spoke slowly, thinking about every phrase before he spoke. I felt like I was a puzzle he was trying desperately to figure out. It reminded me of how Mr. Sacs had looked at me this morning and I got defensive, refusing to be hurt like that again.
"Why should I tell you? Are you going to laugh and jeer at me like the nurse did? Do you want to hook me up to a machine and literally take my life away, replace it with something else? Is that what you want? Why am I even talking to you?!" I was screaming at this point.
To my surprise, he laughed softly at my reaction. "Laugh at you?" he asked "I'm the freak here, not you. Do you really think I would laugh? No. I asked because I am genuinely curious. You are not the first to be wounded by Sacs, and I fear you will not be the last. Why are you talking to me, do you ask? Because I am willing to listen."
