Ch.10: The Pains To Conquer

"Ah" said Casey " it feels good to be back in the big city. Don't you agree babe? Those island natives were pretty tough,"

"Well, maybe they wouldn't have gotten so angry if you hadn't broken one of their scared statues on their shrine" said April " Honestly Casey, I don't know what to do with you. I can't take you anywhere without major damage, and with what happened a few months ago, things have gotten a bit nuts,"

"Nuts for Raph you mean" said Casey, looking at the Nightwatcher statue as they passed by " but I get what you're saying. It's hard to settle down when crimes still out there. I can still hardly believe Shredder is back. The Foot are bound to make a move, but when?"

His question suddenly seemed to be answered by the sounds of fighting in an alley nearby.

"You had to ask," said April, and they ran towards the sound.

When arriving at the source of the noise, both Casey and April gasped in surprise when they spotted the familiar form of a sleek Ninjara as she countered the punches from a couple of Purple Dragon punks, who had cornered her when she rested in the alley.

" Ninjara!" called out April stunned, as the fox slammed one thug into a wall. Ninjara quickly turned and smiled when she saw friends.

The Purple Dragon thug ripped himself from Ninjara's grasp, and escaped with his partner who drug himself off the street. Ninjara didn't mind the villains flight, although Casey was sorely tempted to chase after them, only to be paused by April's touch to his shoulder.

"So what are you doing here?" asked Casey, focusing on Ninjara "Come for a little vacation?"

"I'm afraid these are serious matters" said Ninjara " A relic from my home has been stolen, and your enemies seek to destroy with its power. We must warn the turtles on what Shredder has planned, before it is to late."

Meanwhile, back at Baxter Stockman's apartment, the African American found himself in a precarious situation being surrounded by a trio of unknown mutants, who wanted answers he was sure he couldn't provide.

"This life just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Stockman thought to himself.

"What do you want?" he asked out loud.

Leatherhead stepped out in front, and stared down at him.

"Do you recognize me?" he asked.

"Should I?" said Stockman.

"My name is Dr. Chaplin," said Leatherhead.

"Chaplin?" said Stockman surprised "No, it couldn't be! That day in TCRI, the container exploded, you were buried in some sort of substance,"

"Mutagen" said Donatello " The ooze causes a change in the genetic makeup, transforming creatures into whatever last life form they touched."

"Since I had been working with gators" said Leatherhead, twisting his claws " I guess this is my fate."

"We need you to tell us everything about TCRI" said Leonardo, looking at Stockman "What are their secrets? What do they plan to do with the mutagen?"

"I don't know" said Stockman " After the accident I ran and hid, unofficially resigned from TCRI and tried to recreate the experiments I was working on in their lab. I eventually found another employer who was interested in my skills, Oroku Saki, and have been with him ever since."

"Shredder" said Leo, growling the villain's name " What's he up to?"

"Like he would tell me?" Stockman bluffed "He's not chatty with anyone, although there was this one guy who came to speak with him,"

"Who?" asked Leatherhead.

"Our old boss I'm afraid" stated Stockman "General Traag. He and Saki have agreed to merge operations."

"Uh oh" said Donatello, and immediately looked towards his blue-masked brother " this could be bad Leo. If Shredder and TCRI are now working together as one, who knows what they could be up to?"

"Raph and Mikey are still at TCRI!" Leo noted with alarm " We have to go warn them, and fast!"

At TCRI, after waiting minutes for Raphael to return, Mikey had gotten bored just standing around in the lobby, and asked the secretary if he could explore just a few levels of the place. Although reluctant at first, the pretty lady soon fell for his charisma, and he left immediately for his own, personal tour.

"Wow" said Mikey, passing by a couple impressive-looking machines " I bet Donnie would love to be around this place."

The TCRI complex was based on what looked like a sci-fi movie, with millions of gadgets and gizmos that mankind could ever hope to bring to reality. Walking out into another hall, Mikey was a just about to turn the corner when he heard footsteps pounding from ahead.

Worried that it might be Raph and Traag coming back down from their tour, and not wanting to see Traag's expression when he noticed that Turtle Titan had followed them, Mikey quickly turned around and slipped into the last room he had passed by, breathing a huge sigh of relief.

When the sounds of footsteps were out of range, Mikey debated for a minute if he should go back down to the lobby when something interesting caught his eye. Through a small, glass window he could see two men lying tied to stretchers, struggling to get free.

Standing near them, stone-faced that looked like he belonged with TCRI held up a syringe, and injected it into one of the men's exposed arms. The man infected streamed and writhed in pain, transforming right before Michelangelo's eyes.

Horns grew, and skin changed to grey and rough. What had once been an ordinary man was now a lumbering rhino.

Mikey quickly backed away in fear, and his bad turtle vibes started going off the charts! TCRI was a monstrosity! He had to find Raph and get out of there fast, or else they both signature experiments for a mad scientist's game.

Raphael barely paid attention to the techno babble as General Traag carried on in his conversation about TCRI.

"This is stuff Donnie is interested in, not me," thought Raphael as Traag led him through the rooms.

While walking, Raph kept his eyes peeled for any clues that something shady was going on. The elevator had let them out on the tenth floor, and they have been steadily going upward ever since.

"Where is he leading me?" thought Raph under his Nightwatcher mask.

"Finally" said Traag, tapping numbers into a keypad to open a steel door " I think you'll be most impressed with this room."

When the door opened, Raphael found himself staring at the same top secret room Stockman and Chaplin had discovered before they caused the mutagen spill. The glass tube had been repaired, and new mutagen lay slowly boiling up inside of it.

"This should finally answer your mystery Nightwatcher" said Traag " For years this substance has been of value to our organization for many years, mutating everything in our favor."

"Like the monster?" growled Raph.

"Of course" said Traag " Lord Krang is always looking for new servants to aid him. After all, this why I came to this dimension for."

"This dimension?" said Raph " Just who are you anyway Traag?"

"Let me show you," said Traag, pushing a button on a control panel nearby.

A piece of the floor suddenly lifted up and slid away revealing a swirling portal glowing underneath. Raphael had to step away fast to prevent himself from falling in.

"The portal used to be a two way to this world" said Traag " but due to circumstances on the other side, it's a one way chute, and you Nightwatcher are scheduled for a trip."

With that said, General Traag revealed his stone form, and attacked Raphael swiftly before the turtle could react. With one punch and low sweep later, Raphael was sent plummeting into the dark abyss, unknown to what horrors could be waiting on the other side.