Chapter 2: Experiment Gone Rogue
In which we find out Mona's fate. Woo boy this chapter turned out far longer than I expected.
"He's late."
"I noticed,Raph."
"I knew I should have stayed behind to help him clean the lair. He probably gave up and started goofing off."
The three brothers waited not-so-patiently for Michelangelo in April's apartment. They unanimously agreed that since Mikey somehow managed to avoid chores for two months, Leo would give him the honor of cleaning the whole lair. Then, he was supposed to meet them at April's after he was done, but their brother was currently an hour late.
"Somebody call his shell cell." Raphael complained, "Why are we still waitin' around for him?"
Leo did just that and dialed for Michelangelo.
-o-
As New York bustled below, the youngest turtle hopped from rooftop to rooftop, leaping and flipping and cartwheeling just because he knew he could.
After being cooped up in the lair by himself doing nothing but chores, Mikey felt like he had more than earned some serious playtime. Never mind the two months where he had somehow managed to avoid doing any work at all…
Mikey did gymnastics movements on a fire escape that would stun even the most talented of human acrobats. The wind rushed past as he sprinted down the dark alleyways, causing his bright bandana to flow behind him. With no difficulty at all, he practically scaled the buildings. One would think he was showing off or perhaps putting on a performance if Michelangelo wasn't effortlessly slinking into the shadows. On a good day, his natural athleticism shined, and he could likely go toe-to-toe with even Leonardo without putting in much energy. Unfortunately, his raw talent rarely made up for how much he slacked on training.
He continued to treat New York like one large jungle-gym until he heard his shell cell ring. Michelangelo finally stopped on a rooftop to answer it.
"Mikey, where are you?" An irritated Leo on the other end greeted him, "You were supposed to meet us here an hour ago."
Oops, had it actually been that long? The youngest turtle wasn't really known for managing his time well. He smiled sheepishly at his brother. "Sorry, dudes. I was just getting some fresh air."
"Yeah, well, playtime's over," Raphael replied aggressively in the background, "now get your shell down before I—"
A car door slammed, distracting Mikey from hearing the rest of Raph's threat. Curious, he walked to the edge and leaned over the building. It was probably nothing, but none of the brothers, not even the goofball Michelangelo, was willing to take any chances.
A man in a labcoat hopped out of his van. He was tall, but lanky with stringy brown hair. Certainly not the most attractive human Michelangelo had ever seen, not that the turtle entirely understood the concept of human beauty. Rather than focus on the man's looks, Mikey instead observed how suspicious he seemed.
The man slid the backdoor of his van open, taking caution not to make any noise when it clicked into place. He made a conspicuous effort to stop and look around, making certain that nobody was nearby to see what he was doing… whatever he was doing. Something bothered Mikey. Instinct told him to keep an eye on this character, at least until he could prove he wasn't up to anything illegal.
"Guys," he whispered into his shell cell, "major creep alert on Eastman Street. I need to keep an eye on him. I'll call you if there's any trouble. Probably nothing. I'll be at April's as soon as I'm done checkin' up on this guy."
Before Leo (or Raph) could argue, Mikey hung up and continued spying on the man, who had propped open the back door of the building after he surveyed the alley one last time. Someone this cautious was up to something, no exceptions. Once he stepped inside the building, Michelangelo jumped down, careful not to make a peep. He kneeled by the dumpster, blending in seamlessly with the shadows. He tried to look for some kind of label on the building, but found nothing.
Ok, mister sneaky science man, what exactly are you up to?
Maybe he had been reading too many comic books. Maybe he was too used to being a weirdness magnet of unparalleled proportions. But Michelangelo was too stubborn to chalk it up to paranoia.
And when the man stepped out of the door, Mikey's breath halted. At a closer range, he recognized him. This wasn't just any sneaky science man. This was Dr. Phineas Filch, the famed genetics researcher, creeping around in a dark alley like a common gang member.
Now, Michelangelo knew almost nothing of Dr. Filch's work, but he'd certainly heard Donatello gush over the man's discoveries. He recognized him from the brief time he'd seen the doctor on the news, when he quit some big secret government company to start his own lab in New York. Despite the fact that he no longer worked for a shady corporate organization, Dr. Filch's work was still quite private, and he only released data when he was absolutely sure it was perfect and groundbreaking.
Man, Donnie would geek out so hard right now. Michelangelo, however, focused on something entirely different. Dr. Filch rolled out a cart with what looked like a body wrapped in a sheet. Either whatever was under that sheet just so happened to look like a human form, or Mikey's suspicions were correct and this brainiac was up to something incredibly shady.
And suddenly, he saw it.
If Michelangelo had blinked, he would have missed it. The tip of a long, green tail poked out from under the cover just before Dr. Filch had rolled it over into his van. He surveyed the area one last time, but still failed to notice Mikey. Someone was in too much of a rush.
When he rolled the cart back inside, Mikey took his opportunity and hurried over to the van, sliding open the other back door. If he could just grab what was under that sheet and get the shell out of there, he would be home free.
He uncovered the face of the other creature, and swore his heart stopped beating for a split second at what he saw.
With her green skin and combination of reptilian (amphibious, perhaps?) and mammalian features, this creature, this female, was unmistakably a mutant. Michelangelo, shocked to see another mutant— a girl mutant—wasted too much time staring in awe. Dr. Filch's footsteps interrupted, and it was far too late to drag her away. Besides, she was probably too heavy.
Panicking slightly, Mikey scrambled out of the van. He tried to sync up shutting the van door with Dr. Filch shutting the laboratory door to remain unnoticed. Then, he ran around to the back and silently made his way to the roof of the van. If the doctor was going to take this mutant somewhere, then he was going to take Michelangelo with him, whether he liked it or not.
-o-
"He… he hung up."
"I noticed, Leo." Raph mocked, "So call him back!"
"He said there was someone suspicious that he was gonna check out. I trust him on this one. Michelangelo knows what he's doing." Leo knew that he and his brothers had taken out enough goons to where one questionable guy in an alleyway should be no trouble for his brother. Instead of treating him like a child, Leo wanted to have faith that their youngest brother could take care of it… for now.
Raph, however, grew more irritated and impatient. "You're tellin' me we're gonna sit around and wait even longer for Mikey to show up because he sees one shady lookin' dude in a dark New York alley? Big surprise. He's probably just gonna go goof off some more! Call him back and tell him to get his tail over here before I kick it."
"Raph, I have to give Mikey the benefit of the doubt. If he says he saw someone suspicious and he wants to take care of it, I'm going to take his word that he saw someone suspicious and he's going to take care of it. Understood?"
Raphael growled in response. He flopped on April's couch. "Ten minutes. If he's not here in ten minutes I'm calling him back myself."
Leonardo and Donatello sighed. They could only hope at this point that Mikey was capable of taking out a lone troublemaker.
-o-
When Dr. Filch finally stopped driving, he parked by an abandoned warehouse.
Big surprise. Mikey thought. The bad guys always wanna do their dirty work in dark, empty warehouses.
But to his surprise, the warehouse wasn't empty. A small group of Foot ninja stepped out. Mikey suppressed an exasperated groan. Not these guys again… One of them, presumably the leader of that particular group, stepped forward.
"You have proof?" he asked.
"Of course." Dr. Filch replied with confidence. As he opened the van, Mikey slunk down awkwardly, terrified that he would be prematurely seen. "She's right here."
The 'leader' made a hand motion, and another Foot soldier stepped forward with a cart. Unlike the one Dr. Filch used, this one had straps used to tie people down, and that certainly wasn't a good sign. They pulled the sheet off of the girl and lifted her onto the cart.
"She mutated almost immediately," Dr. Filch added, "and there's absolutely nothing wrong with her… well, besides being a hideous humanoid salamander, of course. Biologically, everything is functioning just as well, if not better than before."
"We shall see about that." The leader declared as they rolled her inside the warehouse.
Dr. Filch suddenly objected. "Now, hold on there. Your leader promised me that if I delivered—"
"Our leader promised you nothing." The head ninja snapped. "You were merely instructed to bring your mutant here so that we could run a few tests. If your creature here isn't just for show, then the Foot clan will uphold their end of the bargain. If it's defective, then we are to dispose of it… and you." He gripped the handle of his katana and unsheathed it to prove his point.
That was it. Michelangelo couldn't listen to anymore without intervening. Besides, he counted barely a dozen Foot ninjas. He could take these guys out no problem. "I'm afraid,
he stated, standing up on the van, "I can't let you dudes do that."
He jumped down, kicking the ninja on cart duty square in the chest. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
"What in the world?!" Dr. Filch, stunned to see another mutant, stepped backward as the Foot swarmed Michelangelo.
"Move the creature inside!" The leader instructed one of them. "We will take care of this one."
Mikey fought off at least six ninjas while trying to keep his eye on the girl mutant. Luckily, he could tell they had not been prepared for one of their enemy to interrupt their plans, and there weren't many of them around to fend him off. With ease, he moved swiftly at them, knocking each of them down with no more than one or two punches.
As the Foot ninja before him groaned in pain on the hard cement, Mikey taunted them with his words, "Aw, is that it, guys? I didn't even have to bust out my nunchaku!" He leaped over the bodies and hurried to the building.
Inside, he saw three other Foot soldiers moving the girl from her cart to a dissection table. The leader noticed him right away. Before Michelangelo could rush over and pound the snot out of them, he pulled out his katana and held it at the mutant girl's throat.
"Don't step any closer. I have no qualms with killing this girl. And you wouldn't want any harm to come to her, would you?" The leader specifically humanized his victim to deter Michelangelo from risking her death.
It worked. The turtle stopped in his tracks.
"That's a good turtle. Now, why don't you drop those weapons, and we can work something out?"
Michelangelo had no intention of bargaining with this man, but he did as he was told, anyway, removing his nunchaku from his belt and throwing them to the floor. Head Ninja motioned to the other two, who rushed over and held Mikey's arms behind his back.
"Where did she come from? Why do you need her? What are you planning on doing to her?"
"That's not exactly any of your business, is it?" Head Ninja put away his katana and paced over. "If you turtles would quit sticking your noses where they don't belong, we wouldn't have nearly as much animosity toward you. But, unfortunately, you do stick your ugly noses where they don't belong, and that's where we have trouble. You've thwarted our efforts for far too long. Now, we've decided to fight fire with fire." He finally stopped, barely a foot in front of Michelangelo. "And with the help of that pathetic, bumbling Dr. Filch, we're going to destroy you turtles once and for all!"
He quickly raised his katana, but he didn't count on Michelangelo being faster. In one swift movement, the turtle grabbed the wrist of the ninja to his left, swinging him into the leader and knocking them both out of his way. Then, before the goon to his right could react, Mikey hit him with a solid uppercut to the jaw that knocked him down. He sprinted over to the table and picked up the girl mutant.
"I'm gonna get you outta here, I promise." He reassured her unconscious body.
But as he ran to the exit, Head Ninja, though hurt and slightly groggy, threw a carefully aimed ninja star at Michelangelo's calf.
He went down in an undignified crash, sending the girl flying. She hit the floor with a hard 'thunk' and even rolled a few times.
And sleeping beauty finally awoke.
Mona Lisa had a pounding headache. She groaned in pain and clutched at her forehead, wincing at just how much it freaking hurt. It felt as though someone opened her brain, put rocks inside, and took a bat to her face just before vigorously shaking her. She'd never had a migraine like this.
"We made a deal, turtle!" Head Ninja shouted. "And now the girl's gonna die!"
What? Die? Who was that? Before Mona could even blink she saw a strange masked man pull out a ninja star and throw it in her direction. It should have hit her square between the eyes and killed her, but something else knocked her back to the ground instead. Mikey had jumped on top of the girl to cover her, and the ninja star landed on his shell. Mona looked up at the face of her savior.
And screamed.
It was high and shrill and undignified, but Mona couldn't have cared less. She screamed in the face of the man—no, the turtle—who saved her.
"Hey um, if you could, like, not shriek at me like a banshee that would be awesome. I'll explain everything once I take care of these Foot ninja." Truth be told, Mikey had more questions for her than she had for him, but first he had to get her out of there alive.
I'm dreaming. Mona thought in a panic. I'm obviously dreaming. But if she was still asleep, then why did she have such a pounding headache?
One of the ninja stood up and prepared to attack Mikey again, but the leader stopped him. "This creature's not worth it. If that idiot scientist is telling the truth and he's perfected the formula then he can do it again. And this time, he can do it in the safety of Foot headquarters. Retreat."
They ran for the exit. Just before leaving, Head Ninja pulled out a small black sphere and threw it to the ground. It exploded in a cloud of heavy smoke and left a trail of fire blocking the only exit.
"That," Mikey noted, playing the role of Captain Obvious, "might be a problem."
"What's… what's happening? Where are we? Who are you? Who were those people and what did they want?" Mona Lisa fired off questions so fast that Michelangelo couldn't keep up with her. Honestly, though, he had too many other things on his mind.
"Ok, I would completely understand if you wanted to have a personal meltdown. However, I'd appreciate it if you'd look past the weirdness of this situation for five minutes so that we can get out of here alive." Mikey told her.
Surprisingly, the girl smiled at him. "Yes, of course. Obviously, this is a dream. I knew I should have bought another can of Pumped! energy. I must have fallen asleep doing homework or something, so I'm just going to do whatever you say until I wake up from this insanely bizarre dream, which should be any minute."
Michelangelo didn't have the heart to tell her that this was, in fact, real life. He also would have preferred she stay calm. So he kept her in the dark.
Just then, Mikey's shell cell rang. Raphael greeted him with a barrage of insults and threats from the other end.
"I really can't talk right now, bro! I'm in a burning warehouse, so if you dudes could get down here and help us, that would be awesome."
"Wait, what?!" Raph's tone immediately switched to concern.
"Hurry up and get down here so that you can save my shell!"
"Look out!"
While Mikey had been occupied screaming at Raphael to send help, the fire spread dangerously fast. The walls, boarded up over the years with cheap wooden planks, had caught fire more quickly than expected. One beam dangling from the ceiling began to fall just after the fire engulfed it. It headed straight for Michelangelo.
Mona sprang into action as quickly as her new legs would allow. She ran toward Mikey and gave him a good solid push that easily knocked the turtle off of his feet. Instead of hitting Mikey's head, the plank caught Mona Lisa's calf and began burning the flesh on her leg.
She fell over on top of Michelangelo just before she felt the initial sting. Her flesh bubbled and turned black and then the excruciating pain finally began to radiate throughout her entire body.
Pain? But… this was a dream. There was no possible way she should be feeling pain…
Unless… unless she really was trapped in a burning warehouse with a giant turtle stuck in the body of some kind of lizard and on the verge of meeting Death.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to be back in her apartment, sleeping safe and sound under the covers of her own bed. Too shocked to scream, Mona reacted by going completely silent and unresponsive.
"Aw, shell," Mikey did everything not to panic. He cringed at the site of her bubbling leg. "C'mon, we gotta go." When Mona sat practically comatose, but with eyes open, Michelangelo scooped her up and ran to the other side of the warehouse.
After gently setting her down, the turtle went to work, tearing away furiously at old planks. He could feel splinters working their way under the skin on his hands, but he didn't care. Splinters were absolute paradise compared to burning to death in a shady warehouse. If he made it out of this alive, he wouldn't even whine when one of his brothers would have to prick the skin and pluck them out of his hands.
Smoke rose rapidly. At this rate, it was far more of a concern than the actual fire. Almost immediately, it began to nauseate the turtle. Mikey held his breath as he finally tore out an opening. He lifted Mona Lisa and put her through first. As a thick black cloud took over the warehouse, he finally managed to pull himself through the hole and out of the warehouse. Again, he picked up Mona and ran from the fire.
When he heard the screech of tires, Mikey stopped. He made his way to the other side of the warehouse to find his brothers jumping out of the turtle van and rushing up to the fire.
"Guys!" he screamed, but the sudden strain on his vocal chords caused him to cough and sputter. Even a short time in the smoke had its effect.
Raphael, despite his earlier irritation with his little brother, sprinted over to him first. "Mikey! Are you alright, bro?"
"Yeah," he coughed out, "just had to, you know, do my thing and save this damsel." He help Mona up to show Raph, whose expression instantly shifted to surprise.
"C'mon," Raphael replied, "we'll talk at April's like we were supposed to do an hour ago."
They made their way to the van, gently placing the still unresponsive Mona Lisa inside. Donatello made Leo drive so that he could check Michelangelo for wounds. Raphael stared at the mutant girl, but asked no questions, choosing not to pry until they were safe and sound.
"So…" Michelangelo joked on the way to April's, "can I keep her?"