TMNT
Mutant Kunoichi
A girl from our world is somehow transported to the TMNT world, where she is subjected to becoming a mutant not in body, but in spirit. Protected by the turtles, and hunted by Foot Clan, will she find protection or even love?
CHAPTER THREE
The Escape
As the pain subsided, it was replaced by a dull, gentle thud – my heart. Had it stopped beating during the process? Maybe…
But, the absence of pain was enlightening…as was the new senses I discovered I had acquired during my trial.
I could hear…so much. I must've been in a city – New York? – because I could hear cars and trucks on the street below, mingled with far away voices that seemed to be murmuring. I could hear music from a nearby apartment building, and even a dog barking a few blocks away. I could also hear what was going on inside the building I was in…which seemed to me like a lab room of sorts, because I could smell chemicals and floor polish and the cold metal of the gurney I was lying on. A lab. I didn't like that at all.
I could feel the strong leather straps that bound me to my prison but, on the other hand, from the feel of things…the straps were loose.
Very loose.
Loose enough for me to break, with the newfound power I could feel pulsating through my veins, now that I had become aware of it.
Sweat and tears were still glistening on my forehead and face, and I longed to wipe the moisture away. My right hand clenched, forming a fist. Strength seemed to come from every single part of me, even muscles I had never used before. I had never been terribly athletic…or strong…or even fast…
But now I sat up in a swift, bold movement, the leather straps breaking as easily as rice paper as my body made a bid for freedom.
I opened my eyes, and was surprised by how clear everything seemed. No more long-distance glasses for me, which was good because they hadn't come with me to this new…dimension. Heck, I was lucky to still have my jewelry, pink silk nightgown and underwear on. Very lucky.
Once I was sitting upright, I was able to get a good look around me, and I was suddenly filled with a low sense of fear.
I'd recently watched the movie The Secret Of NIMH. The place I was in now reminded me of the place Nicodemus and the other rats (and some mice) had been in – a lab room, a test room for guinea pigs.
Only now…I was the human guinea pig.
That ticked me off.
I looked at everything, and something caught my attention across the room. I was up in about a second, and crossing the room carefully, my bare feet making no sound on the polished metal floor.
Once I was close enough, I could almost feel the bright green liquid that was bubbling in those vials.
Mutagen.
Six vials of the stuff, gleaming in the overhead lights. The very sight of it reminded me of my ordeal, and I had to wonder why this was happening to me…and how?
A piece of paper on a clipboard caught my eye – it was sitting on the table next to the vials. I took a look at it.
Test Subject 215.
Gender: Male (Onmitsu)
Age: 13
Weight: 98 pounds
Height: 5'8" ½
Status: Deceased
Test Subject 216.
Gender: Male (Onmitsu)
Age: 12
Weight: 97.0 pounds
Height: 5'4" ¾
Status: Deceased
Test Subject 217.
Gender: Female (Kunoichi)
Age: 15
Weight: 94.7 pounds
Height: 4'11" ¾
Status: Alive
That last one…she was me. But…they'd gotten it wrong…I wasn't fifteen, I was twenty-one, thank you very much. I'd been driving for five years, and drinking for four (which is legal where I'm from) and yet…
I caught sight of myself in the reflective glass of a mirror (what was a mirror doing there?).
No way… I thought, unable to believe my eyes. I even LOOK younger... I craned my neck up slightly, to see my throat. There gleamed a white scar, which had paled to pink over the years, but now...I had gotten that scar when I was fifteen, and it looked just as fresh as it had the day I'd been discharged from the hospital. Incredible…I'm actually a teenager again…but…how? (Peter Pan, eat your heart out).
I didn't have time to think about that, because I was distracted by the clipboard again.
So, I thought, flicking through the papers. I was test subject number two-one-seven, and all the others before me have died…because they were male? Or maybe they were really teenagers, and couldn't survive it? Or maybe…
My hands were shaking by now, as I dropped the clipboard to the floor. How DARE they…how could they inject that stuff into humans! Do they not know how much it hurts…?
"CAW CAW!"
I just about jumped out of my skin, as a call that was unmistakably a crow's sounded from by my feet. And, that was when I realized what was beneath the table. I dropped to my knees, to peer at the cage. The first thing I noticed were two identical IV's, filled to the brim with the same green, almost glowing liquid that had changed me.
The occupants of the cage were both birds. One was large, a black crow, with a wicked sharp beak and deep, insightful dark eyes. The other was smaller, a white dove with a pink heart on its chest. A small coo escaped from her small yellow beak, and her blue eyes were doleful.
There was a big, heavy padlock on both of the cages.
"They're dealing with birds too?" My voice came out almost like a song, melodic and quiet. Another side-effect of the injection, no doubt. I liked that. "Oh God, this is so not legal. What kind of sickos would work in a place like this?" As I spoke, my right hand came up, and grasped the padlock firmly between my shaking fingers. With a high-pitched keening sound the lock broke, tearing free of the latch and clattering to the floor.
I wrenched the cage open, unable to believe that I'd just broken a lock with my bare hand, and both birds took flight, beating their wings which carried them up onto a window sill that was above the gurney I'd been strapped to.
The crow turned back to look at me with an inquisitive: "Caw?" And I could've sworn she was asking me if I was coming.
"In a minute," I assured them both, straightening up and glancing from them to the window and back to the vials of mutagen. "Just as soon as I…"
Suddenly, I heard footsteps, and I cursed myself for not noticing them before, but it was too late and the metal door to the room I was in slid open with a mechanic whine.
A man, dressed in black pants and a white lab coat stood there, a clipboard in his hand and a needle containing a clear liquid this time in the other. I recognized him as one of the men who had been present for my first injection, and disliked him instantly. Now I knew how Max and her flock felt.
The man and I stared at each other for a full five seconds, before he said: "Don't even think about…"
"Okay, I won't!" I said quickly, reaching out with both hands to grab at the vials. I misjudged a little – I left one behind, and I thought I heard one or two smash to the floor, but the other three I had, as I turned and sprinted across the lab room towards the gurney. The window…it's my only hope!
Why didn't the man follow me? Easy – he was too busy fending off the crow and the dove who had once been captives like I had, and were now repaying me for their freedom by defending me as I made my escape. They lashed out with their talons, and pecked with their beaks. They were great.
I, meanwhile, was trying to remember what I'd seen on every single action movie I'd ever watched, as I leapt effortlessly up onto the gurney, before pushing myself up, towards the window. It came naturally at me.
Protect your face. My sub-conscious reminded me at the last second, and so I did.
I smashed through the window, feeling slivers of glass cut into my forearms, which shielded my face as I leapt out into the night.
Unfortunately, the odds were against me, and this was not the ground floor. More like the two hundredth floor, which I discovered as I began to fall. I didn't know what to do – what could I do? Oh, if only I was a ninja, like Naruto – I bet he never has to fall to his death. He can practically fly. Heck, even Sailor Moon and her posse can jump twenty feet into the air and land fine, no sweat.
But me…
"Is this how it ends?" I whispered. "I escape from a crazy lab, only to fall to my death?"
It was no surprise that I passed out.
No One's P.O.V:
Leonardo was standing on the building closest to the lab when it happened. A figure suddenly came flying out the window, clearly intent on getting away. The problem was, whoever it was had seemingly not counted on being so high up, and Leonardo knew without a doubt that they were in trouble.
Well, no problem – that was what he was here for.
Leonardo ran across the rooftop, and jumped over the edge, intent on meeting the figure in mid-air and catching them – both of which he did.
This close up, he could see that it was a girl, wearing a pink dress and carrying something. Two of those items she dropped, because she had passed out, and they fell into the darkness as Leonardo returned to the rooftop, the girl held in his arms.
She was feather light, almost weightless in the warrior's arms, and he carried her a few more rooftops over before finally daring to stop and take a better look at her.
As a light rain began to fall over New York, Leonardo was speechless.
The girl, whoever she was, rested in his arms, her breathing deep and even, so Leonardo knew that she was okay. Rain dripped onto her face, onto her soft hair and her very even pink lips. A necklace with a Yin-Yang design on it hung from her neck, and the black chord sported five beads in very symbolic colours, at least to Leonardo. The girl was wearing a pink watch, three sets of gold earrings in each ear, and a serene, almost angelic expression as she slept. What Leonardo had mistaken for a pink dress was actually a pink nightgown, and…
The rain was making it go see-through.
"Oh, shell." Leonardo muttured.