Chapter 5: Horrifying Surprises
Not much action in this chapter. Mostly just a few "OH SHIT" moments.
Mona Lisa couldn't remember the last time she'd had a proper breakfast. Mostly, she just drank a whole bunch of coffee in the morning. On rare occasions, the girl might've treated herself to a hot pocket, or leftover pizza or something along those lines, but the idea of actually cooking out a whole meal when there was work to be done seemed pointless.
But as she stared at the mouth-watering food in front of her, the fried eggs, the crispy bacon and sausage links, the shredded hash browns and the perfectly golden-brown toast, Mona thought twice, and figured maybe breakfast wasn't so pointless after all.
So much better than leftover Chinese. The girl thought, gently scraping the eggs onto her toast. On top of that, Mona was on her third cup of coffee, and couldn't help but start perking up. She pushed her classes to the back of her mind and tried to concentrate on the meal. If she thought too hard about the possibilities in her future, she might start to cry again, and avoided thinking of college at all costs.
Fortunately, loud chewing and garbling sounds kept Mona from being able to hear her own thoughts very well. "You're the best, April. This is amazing!" Michelangelo kept putting away food like it was nothing. Mona Lisa had never seen anyone eat like that and, frankly, she could have done without the image of a humanoid turtle shoving meat and potatoes in his mouth.
"Ugh, Mikey slow down! At least chew your food! And save some for the rest of us!" Donatello complained, hoarding three eggs before Michelangelo could inhale those, too.
Mikey scoffed. "I can't help it! I'm a growing boy! Besides, I need the nutrition so my body can heal." He pointed to his wrapped up calf before biting into another piece of bacon.
"Right," Raphael stabbed a fork into a sausage link on Michelangelo's plate and promptly scarfed it down before his brother could protest, "Because you've never been injured before, you dope."
"I'm just saying!" Mikey threw his hands up in mock exasperation before pointing over to Mona. "Who had to save the damsel in distress last night? Oh, right, that was me: the brave and mighty Michelangelo!"
"Excuse me, I am not a damsel in distress!" Mona protested. Heh, kidnapped once and all of a sudden you're the designated damsel…
Mikey flashed a good natured smile at her, which might have been more charming if he didn't have flecks of egg stuck between his teeth. "Aw, I was just kidding. It happens to the best of us. I can't even tell you how many times I've had to save Raph's shell." He pointed to his brother.
Raphael let out a low growl. "Mikey, don't even get me started this morning." He bared his teeth like an angry animal, much different from the goofy smile his brother was making.
"What's the matter, Raph? Embarrassed 'cause you've had to be rescued by the delegated goofball so many times? Or did I just catch ya in a bad mood?"
"Mikey, I'm warnin' ya…"
"I mean, not like it's hard or anything to catch you in a bad moo—"
"That's it!" For the second time that morning, Raphael tackled Michelangelo to the ground, and the two rolled around pummeling each other and knocking into furniture galore. Donatello nonchalantly picked up his plate and Mona Lisa's and held them off the table to avoid food spills. With less grace, Mona scrambled to grab her coffee cup so none of the precious liquid could spill out.
Just by watching them, Mona could not tell who was the more skilled fighter. They matched fairly evenly, with Michelangelo having the advantage in speed and reflexes, and Raphael having more brute stamina. She did remember them mentioning something about being ninjas…
"So… exactly how experienced are you guys? In fighting, I mean. You seem like you could knock a human blackbelt flat on the floor without a problem." She noted.
"Well, I don't know about all that." Donatello smiled at the compliment. "But we are all decently skilled when it comes to fighting." Personally, Mona thought the word "decently" was probably the biggest overstatement he could have used. "Our Master Splinter taught us everything we know about ninjutsu. He's even more experienced than we are! To be honest, he can wipe the floor with all of us, no problem." Donatello laughed as he set her plate back down. The brawling brother duo had moved far enough away to where it was safe to eat again.
The rat? He taught them everything they knew? The aging rodent humanoid that was barely four feet tall could take on all four of these insanely tough-looking turtles and win?
As a scientist, Mona Lisa had seen some strange things in laboratories, but this backstory took the cake. At this point, she would have hardly been surprised if Donatello had informed her they could also shoot laser-beams from their eyes, sprout wings, and shoot blue fire from their hands. Never before had she shrugged off this many oddities in her life, and she had a lingering feeling that she was going to have to get used to these oddities, and quickly.
"It's all a little hard to take in, isn't it?" April laughed from the kitchen. She must have caught at least a trace of bewilderment on Mona's face. "I couldn't really believe it the first time I heard it, either. You can't even imagine how much weirder things I've seen since they've shown up!"
"Yeah, we've seen it all!" Michelangelo piped up while still wrestling Raphael. "Aliens, parallel dimensions, sentient robots—hey!" The turtle protested as his brother successfully took advantage of his distraction and pinned him to the floor.
Raph smirked. He had Michelangelo in a strong camel clutch, and the loser couldn't do much else but flail around pointlessly on the floor. Good thing, too. He hated losing to Michelangelo in brawls and training. As much of a sore loser as Raphael was, Michelangelo was an even worse winner. No doubt if he had lost this match, he'd never hear the end of it. Plus there was a lady present, and no way was he ever going to lose with a cute girl watching.
Wait a second. Raph shook his head to dispose of the thought. Girls had nothing to do with his fighting style; he was just more skilled than his brother and that was that.
He stood up. As Mikey also moved to stand, Raph stomped his shell just hard enough to fall back to the floor with an "ooph!" "Heh, hope you learned your lesson, little bro." He finished smugly, sauntering back over to the table. "Excuse my idiot brother." Raphael said to Mona Lisa as he sat down. "He's got no table manners."
Mona smiled coyly at him. "If I recall correctly, you were the one who tackled him to the ground."
"Hey now," The aggressive one defended himself, "I wouldn't have to tackle him to the ground if he would just keep his trap shut and not provoke me."
Donatello raised an eye ridge at him. "And this would have absolutely nothing to do with your raging temper, now would it, Raphael?"
"Hey! Do I have to tackle you, and teach you a lesson, Donnie?"
Donatello shook his head and sipped some more tea. "That won't be necessary, Raph."
Their antics amused Mona. She wasn't used to seeing siblings interact with each other, and it was rather nice to be a part of a family sit-down meal. She smiled in spite of herself, absentmindedly pushing her food around the plate with her fork. Was this what it was like to be part of a family? Part of a large group of friends? For a moment, she reminisced about physics club meetings, which was the closest she came on a weekly basis to interacting socially with like-minded people.
For a moment, she turned her attention to the fire escape to observe Leonardo and Splinter. The eldest brother (which she discerned based on their behavior) seemed particularly close to his father, although Mona could tell they all cherished him highly. At the very least, they had far more respect for him than she ever did for her absentminded aunt who usually wasn't even capable enough to remember to cook dinner.
Donatello's voice snapped her back to reality. "So, I figure tonight we should sneak to where you live so that you can grab extra clothes. You, uh, probably don't want to be wearing those forever." He pointed to her work attire, black slacks and a wrinkled white button-up under a torn black blazer.
Mona Lisa had been wearing this outfit since her mutation, and it no longer fit her. In the past 20 hours, she had grown wider at the shoulders and much, much larger regarding her thighs. She looked back sheepishly, examining the enormous hole in her pants caused by her tail. They were starting to split badly and, despite her new form, Mona still blushed inwardly at the idea of walking around completely naked.
"We should also sneak back into Dr. Filch's laboratory and see if we can find something useful." Donatello continued. "I'm sure he had to have kept at least a few files on hand that will help us figure out what's going on. The sooner we can do that, the sooner we can help you get your life back to normal."
Mona smiled and nodded in agreement. Even if their own enemies were involved, she appreciated that these strangers were going out of their way to help her.
-o-
It was decided after breakfast that only one turtle needed to accompany Mona to her apartment and grab anything that could still fit her. Originally, Donatello had been assigned this task, since he and Mona seemed to get along the best. Leonardo had put himself in charge of leading Michelangelo and Raphael to the laboratory to meet up with Don and Mona later. However, after a tense argument broke out between the stubborn Leo and the hot-tempered Raph just before it was time to leave, Splinter assertively declared that the two needed to split up and cool off.
And that was how Raphael ended up in the girl's room, having to wait irritably while she re-tried on all of her clothes.
They crawled in through the fire escape, taking extra care not to be seen. Mona turned on only her desklamp and closed the blinds before opening all of her drawers and placing everything in her closet on the bed, immediately placing her work blouses on the side. If this one didn't fit, there was no way any other ones would fit. She looked up at Raphael, who was now sitting on the desk chair.
"Uh, hey, can you turn around?"
Raphael went wide-eyed. Normally, clothes meant nothing to him, but the idea that he'd forgot to even turn around was embarrassing. Though he could be infamously insensitive, Raphael Hamato was certainly not a pervert. He almost scrambled to turn around and kept his head down toward the desk.
Now, Mona raised an eyebrow at him. Weirdo. She thought to herself, pulling off her blouse and pants.
Almost nothing in her wardrobe could fit her very well in this body. The best she could choose from were oversized sweaters and a few dresses she owned. As for pants, she was limited to her extensive collection of sweats. At least it was something.
Impatiently, Raph sighed. There was nothing on the desk to occupy his time besides overcomplicated physics notes. Heh, Donnie'll go crazy when finds out this chick's a total nerd girl. He should have pegged it from the way she hyperventilated at the thought of missing class. "Are you done yet?"
"Excuse me, I didn't come with a convenient shell and I'd like to at least have something covering me up." She snapped back.
Raphael rolled his eyes. Why did this girl care so much what she was wearing anyway? Honestly, she was a mutant, now. She could put makeup on and dress herself up in nice clothes but she was still a mutant. It wasn't like she could go waltzing around anymore showing off cute outfits and modeling them for the public.
Girls were weird, and this one was no exception.
"Alright, I'm ready." Mona Lisa finally grumbled when she'd finished. After putting on new clothes and figuring out what still fit, she put everything else back in its rightful place so it wouldn't looked like she had run away just in case the police came searching through.
" It's about ti—" Raphael went speechless for the briefest of moments when he turned around and saw Mona in a black sweater dress with a turtleneck collar. It still fit her, alright, but it hugged her new form much more tightly than he assumed it did on her human body.
Alright, fine the girl was cute, especially by mutant standards. He would even go so far as to say she was sort of… pretty, for a lizard girl. Not that the volatile turtle would ever admit it out loud.
"I didn't take that long." Mona Lisa insisted, crossing her arms.
Any opinion of cuteness vanished from Raph's mind when she reopened her mouth. "Whatever, let's go. They're probably waiting for us at the lab." He turned off the desklamp and moved out the window onto the fire escape.
Mona sighed. Was this guy for real? She'd never met someone with so little patience, and his irritability would rub off on her soon if she didn't perk herself back up. With the slightest huff, she picked up her clothes and followed him out the window.
-o-
Three turtles stood atop the roof of the building which contained much of Filch's laboratory. Leonardo stood at the edge, staring intently down at the city. Donatello and Michelangelo sat behind him, occupying themselves by fiddling with their weapons. Leo had been rather agitated after his fight with Raphael, and neither of the two wanted to mess with him at this time.
"What's taking them so long? He should have been here by now." Leo noted, barely attempting to hide his irritation.
Both chose not to respond. Donatello didn't even point out that Leo wasn't nearly as irritated the previous night when Mikey was late meeting them at April's, and knew he was only being so pissy because Raphael had mouthed off (again). Besides, Mona Lisa was with him, and it was highly unlikely that Raphael was the slower of the two…
"There's no hurry." Donnie finally said. "We're just here to get some information."
"But the quicker they get here, the quicker we can start looking."
"They're right there, dudes!" Michelangelo pointed to the next building over.
Raphael gave himself a running start, and easily hopped over to them. Mona, however, looked a little more nervous and hesitant. She gulped as she looked at the length between the buildings. Were they really expecting her to make that jump? She'd fall to her death instantly!
"C'mon, we ain't got all day!" Raphael yelled over. "Besides, we got things to do, and you've already made it over a few rooftops!"
The other three brothers looked slightly impressed. Never would they have immediately pegged Mona as the athletic type, which she really wasn't.
In their trip there, Mona discovered how much power her legs now held. It was no surprise that her thighs were larger, but it wasn't from fat. The mutation had given her an impressive amount of muscle mass, and she discovered that she could do athletic feats that would have been near-impossible in her human form. She took a deep breath and braced herself, sprinting over to the edge, and leaping at the last possible second.
Mona refused to look down. First of all, it would only make her panic. Secondly, she knew more than enough about physics to know the power from her jump would easily carry her to the other building.
Now, her only problem was landing.
She crash-landed with a loud "oof!" and fell forward, catching herself with her hands and rolling over a few feet. Why, on this out of all nights, did she really choose to wear her nicest sweater dress? The girl stood up and brushed herself off, quickly pulling the dress back down to her knees. On this night, she didn't particularly feel like flashing anyone.
Her burned leg throbbed intensely, but she did her best to show no obvious signs of pain. Later, she could get Donatello to nurse it in private, as he seemed the least likely of the four to call her out for being a wimp. As for now, she especially didn't want to show pain in front of Raphael, who would might or might not have called her a big lizard baby or something. She wanted to prove that she could be as rough-and-tumble as the boys, and certainly would not play the role of designated damsel in distress.
"Are you alright? That was one shell of a landing." Michelangelo joked.
Mona blushed. "Yeah, I'll be fine. As much as I'd hate to start getting used to it, this new mutant body is actually pretty handy."
"Well, still try to be careful." A concerned Leonardo piped up. "Your legs might be more powerful than they were in your human form, but you're still technically injured, and I don't want us to be responsible for hindering your recovery."
"She's fine," Raphael gave her an affectionate slap on the back as he walked by. "You shoulda seen the way she was hoppin' up to fire escapes when she found out she could actually jump."
"It's not surprising." Donatello said. "The ooze is capable of completely changing a person's genetic code, even if you've already been exposed to it. We've, uh… we've had quite a few run-ins with it…" he admitted sheepishly. "Not even I'm really sure what all it can do."
They made their way into the building, with Mona Lisa leading the brothers around the laboratory. She guessed if they were going to find something, the first place to look would be the tenth floor, the genetics lab. During her internship, she'd spent most of her time here, mostly filing reports, but occasionally getting to do important lab work.
Donatello was in charge of picking locks to doors and drawers, while the other three were supposed to check for security cameras. Mona would point them out before they entered the rooms, and Leo, Raph, or Mikey would knock them out so as not to be caught. Actually, Mona sort of enjoyed sneaking around the lab. Never in her life had she been able to indulge in any mischievous activities, and playing ninja was kind of… fun.
Mona Lisa: Secret Mutant Ninja Detective at your service. She thought playfully.
On the other hand, Michelangelo and Raphael became very bored very quickly. After an hour of searching in vain, they complained that the mission was starting to become pointless.
"We're in a thirteen story building owned by a man who's famous for being notoriously private, and we know now he was tampering with stuff he obviously wasn't supposed to be tampering with. Did you guys really think we were going to walk in and clues were going to be nicely laid out for us?" Donatello pointed out.
"I'm just saying what if there's nothing here? What if we search the building inside out and find nothing? It'll just be a huge waste of time. I mean, we could be at home playing video games or something and waiting for the Shredder to make his move." Mikey pointed out.
"If we need to search the building inside and out, then we will search the building inside and out, even if we don't find anything." Leo asserted.
Mikey groaned, but continued to follow them.
"Wait a second!" Something finally hit Mona. "There was only one room none of the interns were ever allowed access to. If Dr. Filch was really hiding something, he would keep it in someplace that only he could enter. Come on, it's in the basement."
Since the elevator was shut off for the night, they all made their way down the stairs, Mona and Donatello in front. Even if she weren't leading, though, they might have eventually found the suspicious room themselves, for the door had a large white sign that read "DO NOT ENTER" in enormous red letters. Donatello kneeled and went to work picking the lock.
He struggled for a few minutes. "This one is a lot harder than the others. Whatever's back here, Dr. Filch obviously wanted to make certain that nobody else saw it."
And when the lock finally clicked and the door opened, everyone could see why.
There were huge tubes filled with translucent green liquid and creatures that obviously weren't naturally made. They slept quietly, floating almost peacefully in the bubbling ooze. Lizards with arms growing out of their stomachs, frogs with human faces, and other mutated monstrosities were curled up inside the tubes. None of them looked alive, but they didn't look quite dead, either.
"Hey, what the shell is that smell?" Mikey complained, waving his hand in front of his face.
They all turned to a table on the left, hidden away in the corner. One of the creatures was strapped down with a leather belt, its abdomen cut neatly open. Medical tools were arranged carefully on the side, cleaned and looking oddly as though they had never been used (which was obviously not the case).
It was all too much. Mona opened her mouth, the shrillest of noises about to escape her throat, when Donatello sprang into action and clamped his hand over the bottom half of her face. "Please," he begged, "don't scream. Whatever you do, you have to promise not to scream."
Hesitantly, she nodded, her head movements almost robotic. Her eyes were still wide with horror as Donnie tentatively pulled his hand away.
"Sick." Raphael spat. "Totally freakin' sick."
"Let's see what we can find and just get out of here." Leo instructed. "I don't wanna be here any longer than we have to."
With extreme caution and reluctance, they all explored the room further to find more clues.
-o—
Night had fallen once more, and it had officially been more than 24 hours since Dr. Filch had gotten any sleep. Once he had re-created the ooze, Taro snatched the vial from him and locked him in his workroom, carrying the stuff out to his master without a word. Filled with anger and confusion, Filch banged on the door for a bit after Taro had left the room, demanding to know why he'd been locked away.
After he bloodied his knuckles pounding on the door, Filch finally gave up and slumped down to the floor in defeat.
Perhaps, he considered in hindsight, it wasn't the wisest decision to make a deal with a supervillain, after all.
A few hours later, Taro reopened the door. By now, Filch had fallen asleep on the floor, and the ninja roughly pushed his foot into the man's ribcage a couple times to awaken him. "Get up. The master has something to show you." Before Filch could fully wake up, the ninja yanked him to his feet by the collar of his lab coat and led him down more hallways.
Filch did his best not to utter an unfriendly string of curses under his breath. Instead, he opted to curse the brat out in his head.
When they reached their destination, Filch noticed the Shredder standing at a lab table with the new creature covered, again, in a large white cloth. Taro locked the doors behind them.
"Well," the Shredder said, making no attempt to hide his mocking shocked tone, "you weren't actually lying. The formula was a success." He turned to the creature, which was now sitting up. It blinked slowly, looking over at the two of them.
The doctor squinted his eyes… wait a minute. A pair of huge brown eyes stared back at him, and there was something… off about this creature. No… something familiar…
He quickly removed his glasses and wiped them with his lab coat. This had to be some sort of trick! A total hoax! There was no way on this earth the mutant on the table could have possibly been…
"Ezra?" the doctor whispered in disbelief, staring in awe at Shredder's new mutant or, rather, his son…