Author's Note: What's up, readers? :D How's everyone doing? Well, I guess depending on wherever it is you are, you're all probably still asleep. I know I should've been asleep a good six hours ago. But, because of a little poll I put on Stealthy Stories, I asked the fabulous readers and authors on that site which story they would like for me to update first as a birthday present to YOU! Yep! Yesterday was my birthday, folks! :D And as a special birthday surprise, I decided to let the people on Stealthy Stories decide which story they wanted me to update on the day (or morning after) of my birthday. And lo and behold, this story got picked! :D

Now, I'm not going to lie, because I stayed up pretty much all night writing this chapter, there are some parts that go a little bit fast and seem kind of rushed. That's me running on grogginess, so please forgive me for that and I promise the other chapters won't be like that. I had a teensy bit of trouble with this chapter because I wasn't quite sure how to get it moving along, but I kinda like the turn out that happened. It's quick and to the point and we'll finally be getting to the action in the next chapter! (cackles evilly while rubbing her hands) Mwahahaha!

Ahem. Anyway, let's get on to the thank yous! Like I do with my other fics, I give personally thank yous to all the readers who reviewed for my story. Thank you so very, very much to GirlzRule312, NekoShard, SleepingSeeker, BubblyShell22, k. alex c-well, Mewfem, MissCookiiie, All-things, TheIncredibleDancingBetty, and TheEquestrianidiot 2.0. Thank you guys so much for the fabulous reviews and I hope you enjoy this next chapter. ;D

Also! I'd like to remind every to mosey on over to the new Stealthy Stories sites and read the rules and regulations for the 2013 Fan Fiction Competition! Start getting those nominations ready and give the site a little looksie while you're at it. You'll definitely meet some awesome authors there. :D

Now, without further adieu, here's Chapter 2 of 'Sugar, Spice, and a Splash of Mutagen'!

Enjoy!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"Sugar, Spice, and a Splash of Mutagen"

Chapter 2

Up in Flames

"Alright, what is the method for solving for a tangent?"

Casey Jones bowed his head and hummed in thought, his arms hanging precariously over the hockey stick lying perfectly transverse atop of his shoulders. His eyebrows knit together deliberately, the cogs in his head turning at full speed before his eyes lit up with confidence. Lips tugged in a lopsided smile, he lifted his arm farthest away from April and slammed it down hard on the handle of the hockey stick, watching it twirl in the air before he caught it in his hand and pointed it at no one in particular. "Opposite side over adjacent side."

"Correct." April smiled, laughing amusingly at the enthusiastic fist pump Casey shot through the air.

"Yeah, take that, trig! You just got slapshot by the infamous Casey Jones!" the ruffian crowed, twirling his hockey stick in a showoff manner before placing it atop of his shoulders once more for his arms to hang over.

April merely rolled her eyes at the mini celebratory shout out, brushing her bangs out of her eyes while hugging her trig book close to her chest. "You talk the talk, Jones, but can you walk the walk? Remember, you still have to retain all of this information for Monday's big test."

"We've been studying since Tuesday, Red. I think I can handle one of Vernon's tests now that I actually know what I'm doing. Thanks to my amazing tutor." He bumped his hip lightly against April's, giving her a light, yet still rather supercilious smile while April simply scoffed with amusement and rolled her eyes.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Jones. Don't forget that you still owe me those few times you never showed up for our study sessions."

"Hey, I bought you pizza, didn't I? And that last time doesn't count 'cuz those freaky robot ninjas came and started picking a fight. Man, I wish you woulda been there, Red. Coolest friggin' thing in the universe!"

"Heh, yeah, r-right." She switched her attention to the laces of her shoes, digging through her brain for a topic that would veer the subject off of that crazy night Karai tried to kill her. That is, until the Kraang turned their killer robot against the psycho kunoichi and Donnie managed to come to her rescue just in the nick of time. It was a day she wanted completely strange-free, one where she didn't have to deal with robot ninja battles and having to call the guys to come to her aid. But even a simple lunch with Casey was too much to ask for in her little 'exciting' life of being the target to both an evil clan of ninjas and a mass race of aliens from another planet. Just once she thought she could get through the day scotch free. But of course that didn't happen. Not when she was friends with four mutant turtles and her dad was living life as a giant mutant hybrid bat.

But not for much longer, April thought with a smile, glancing over toward Casey when she realized he had still been rambling on about the infamous ninja battle forged between him and the persistent Footbots, going over the niceties of the fight in great detail while striking his hockey stick in various shots and hooks that any bystander would be impressed by. That's what she liked about the little goofball. He was always very enthusiastic when it came to his wording, making everything sound as though it were the most awesome thing in the universe. Then again, Casey had always told her how life should never be dull. Otherwise, what was the point of living? Not much to look forward to when life never threw anything exciting your way.

Oh, if only he knew.

"So what do you got planned for this weekend? Doing anything exciting, Red?" Casey asked, holding his hockey stick upward so that both of his hands were placed over the handle while he leaned all of his weight forward in a lackadaisical manner.

It took a while for April to answer back, mostly due to the fact that she had to fish for an excuse that would cover up the truth of spending tomorrow morning with the guys while Donnie went over the procedures to turn her dad back to normal. Throughout their entire moments studying together, not once did Casey ever ask about April's family or her personal life. Usually he was more interested in her hobbies and what she liked to do for fun. At the moment, she preferred it that way. Not like Casey needed to know about her personal life anyway. It wasn't like they were dating or anything. No, he was just some guy she was tutoring. That was all. But on the other hand, the paranoid side of her always wondered if he ever thought it strange that she never brought up her family or who her 'really close friends' were that one time he asked how come he never saw her hang out with anybody? Wasn't he curious? Or was he just too afraid to ask?

"Uhm, well, I'm probably going to be spending time with my dad this weekend. We might go visit some close friends he hasn't seen in a while. Nothing really all that exciting." She split her mouth in a rather awkward smile, one that showed too much teeth and looked almost painful to produce. Casey, however, didn't really catch the expression. Either that or he was just being too polite and pretending not to take notice for the sake of April's self-respect. Nonetheless, he straightened himself up from his leaning position and threw his hockey stick over his shoulder, a casual, almost warm smile grazing his lips before he tilted his head to the side, as if pondering in thought.

"Well, uhm, you know that new creepy zombie apocalypse movie just released its midnight showing the other night. Maybe, I dunno, if you and your old man got done visiting friends a little early, maybe you'd like to go … with me?"

April's eyes widened a fraction of inch, the functioning muscles in her body coming to a screeching halt as she processed the words that had just come out of Casey Jones's mouth. Did he just ask her out on a date? No. No, of course not! They were just friends. Still getting to know each other. He wasn't asking her out, he was probably just wondering if she wanted to hang out for the day after the whole study session they just got done with. Yeah. That was probably it. Right?

When she saw that the light smile on Casey's face slowly began to fade into a dejected frown, April immediately opened her mouth to voice her answer, but found herself only sputtering a string of incoherent nonsense. Quelling her thoughts, she took in a relaxing breath, just as Splinter had taught her during their meditative exercises and looked up at Casey, an eager smile playing at her lips as she brushed the bangs that hung over her bright green eyes.

"I-I would love to go, Casey. Thanks. B-But, uhm, y-you know, it all depends on when my dad decides to come home, you know?"

"R-Right. Gotcha," Casey sputtered rather nervously, shoving his free hand in his pocket and taking a step back, feeling as though he needed to something with his feet or hands rather than just stand there awkwardly.

"But, uhm, I-I'll definitely text you and let you know. You know, if it's not too late in the day or evening, I guess."

"Yeah, yeah. Cool. Alright. Sounds like a plan." He smiled brightly, holding a thumbs up while taking a few steps backward, already on his way back home. "So, uhm, I-I'll just wait for your text, okay? Tomorrow night, whenever you're free, sound good?"

"Sounds great!" April smiled, already making her way up the steps of her stoop while watching Casey backpedal down the sidewalk. "I'll text you tomorrow. Good night, Case!"

"Night, Red!" Casey called over, finally turning around only to walk into the bus sign right in front of him, taking a step back and rubbing his nose profusely.

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure April hadn't witnessed that discomfited mishap. However, much to his chagrin, the competitive ice hockey champ noticed that she was covering her mouth while her shoulders shook, a sheer indication that she was laughing while trying to keep it discrete – obviously not doing a very good job of it.

Cheeks flushing a dusty pink, Casey Jones shoved his free hand precariously inside his pocket and took long, quick strides, trying his best to shrug it off while he turned the corner and disappeared from April's view.

Donatello snorted himself awake when he realized he was beginning to nod off again, his vision an indistinct blur as he rubbed the sleepiness out of his tired eyes. Glancing over at the digital clock on his desk, he noticed that the thick red numbers indicated that it was almost seven in the morning, his head a dense fog swirled with the delirium that he had stayed up all night.

Ever since Mikey had implanted the idea of creating an anti-retro mutagen for him and his brothers, the drive and influential motivation had persuaded him to work throughout the wee hours of the night, keeping the purple-banded turtle awake while he tried going over the components and chemical compounds that made up the mutagen's properties. It was a project he knew right away wasn't going to get done over night, the structure of the mutagen's assets too complicated to be compiled and comprehended without having to go over a few tests. He knew the possibilities were there, it was just going to take him a while to find them, going over the way the mutagen's chemical components reacted to different substances and weeding out the ones that worked and the ones that got a negative reaction. After all, if he was going to do this right, he needed every aspect to go perfectly, or else he could kill both himself and his brothers all because of something he overlooked or missed. Fate had given him a chance to be with April as an individual of her own species. He wasn't going to mess that up over something that was disregarded.

No. He was going to do things right. Even if it took him as long as it did to find the retro-mutagen cure.

A soft knock of the door fell on deaf ears as Don went over the notes he had scribbled on his notepad during his first couple of experiments. When he didn't answer whoever was behind the door, the person took that as an invitation to come in anyway and hopped through the entrance with a plate of piping hot pancakes all stacked in a small tower that oozed sticky, sweet syrup.

"Mornin', Donnie! Thought you might be a little hungry. A growing turtle does need his breakfast." Mikey chirruped happily, holding the plate as though it were his greatest creation while waiting for Don to turn around and accept his gastronomic work of art. When the purple-banded ninja didn't make any attempt at moving, Mikey's shoulders sagged in light distress before they immediately perked up and he set the plate on the nearest table, sauntering over to where his brother was sitting and glancing over his shoulder to see what it was he was working on.

"You still trying to find a solution that'll turn us temporarily human?" he asked, resting his elbow on top of the desk before nearly knocking a beaker clear off the table.

Donatello shot a stern glare at his baby brother, turning his attention back to the microscope he had set up to get a better, enhanced view of the cells generating throughout the configuration of the mutagen. Switching the objective lens to scanning power, he examined the slide while adjusting the fine focus, letting out a soft sigh that caught Michelangelo's attention.

"Something this complicated is going to take a while to figure out, Mikey. If it took me a while to find a cure that'll turn Mr. O'Neil and Timothy back to normal, then it's going to take me a while to find a way for the mutagen to reverse our transmuted state without it harming us or completely backfiring. It's a delicate procedure that should be handled with the utmost care."

The orange-banded ninja glanced over his shoulder to see that tubular that had been housing Mutagen Man since he escaped from their lair and went out on a rampage trying to find April. With his beady, disproportioned eyes, the green glob of organs and a mouth stared blankly at Michelangelo, reaching out with his suction-like lips as if trying to press it up against the youngest turtle's plastron.

Feeling his sadness, Mikey touched his hand against the glass and turned back toward his brother, his baby blue eyes sad and almost pleading. "How come you haven't gone through the whole transformation process with Mutagen Man yet? I mean, he's right here. It's not like Mr. O'Neil where you gotta wait until April stops by so we can follow her to her apartment."

"Mutagen is a dangerous matter to be tinkering with, Mike. Even though I found a cure, there're still procedures I have to go through to make sure the transformation goes as smoothly as possible. We don't want any mishaps or accidents happening to either Timothy or Mr. O'Neil."

"Well don't you think you should start doing that now?" Mikey asked, turning his attention back to Mutagen Man with sad eyes. "I mean, you were so confident in finding this cure so that Timothy could get his life back. Don't you think he's gone through enough waiting?"

With a sigh, Don pulled himself away from his microscope and pinched the bridge of his nose before rubbing his index finger and thumb in a small circle around both his eyes. "You're right, Mikey. Timothy deserves to have things go back to normal for him. I promised him that much. Finding a way to turn us human can be put on hold for the time being. Right now, it's not about us."

"Can I help?" Mikey asked eagerly, his eyes shining bright with excitement while Donnie simply looked down at him with tired eyes, unsure of how to go about this situation. After all, it wasn't the first time Mikey had offered to help him with an experiment. In fact, he was in the lab almost as often as he was because his curiosity normally got the better of him. He liked being his special little helper whenever Don had the patience to allow him to be. However, mutagen was a substance that required delicate care and handling, something he didn't quite trust Mikey with yet due to his sporadic behavior and rather short attention span.

"Uhm, how 'bout you supervise me while I get everything ready, alright?" he asked while patting Mikey on the shell, receiving a rather annoyed look coming from his orange-banded brother.

"Ah, c'mon, Don. I'll be really careful, I promise," Mikey pleaded with saddened eyes, glancing over his brother's shoulder before an idea sparked through his head and he took off toward his desk in a mad dash. "Look, I'll even help by putting your other stuff away. Where does this microscope go?"

"Mikey, watch out for that cord that's right next to the—"

But it was too late. Like watching a train wreck in slow motion, Michelangelo had noticed the cord right as his foot hooked underneath it, pulling it with him and yanking it forcefully out of its outlet, causing the plug to slam hard against the floor and knock over a series of beakers. Tilting over the edge, the beakers crashed against the floor and shattered into a series of broken pieces, scattering all over the floor in all different directions. With horrified recognition, Donnie quickly noticed that one of the beakers was full, splattering an unknown liquid substance that leaked far too close to the cords and electrical wires all hooked up to his desktop computer. Before he could run over to push his desk as far away from the substance as possible, it was already too late, the electric currents running through the wires and cords coming in contact with the liquid, igniting a few sparks and flickers until a string of fire erupted right before the two brothers' eyes.

"Oh snap! Oh, man! Donnie! Fire extinguisher!" Mikey cried in a panic, picking himself up while searching the walls of the lab for any source of a fire extinguisher.

"I-It's not here! We took it to the kitchen last time we tried to make breakfast!" Donnie panicked, rummaging through the cluttered tables in his lab for any old towels or washcloths he kept handy for those messy spills. To no avail, he found none while Mikey still stood before the fire in terror, getting down on his hands and knees and blowing on the un-extinguishable flames, only to realize that blowing on them only fed the growing flames.

Screeching with petrified terror, Donnie quickly rushed out of his lab to grab the fire extinguisher, knocking into a nearby table and hearing something toppling over, the clamorous sound of breaking glass reverberating through his eardrums.

Turning around with eyes as wide as dinner plates, Don noticed that whatever he had knocked over was now splattered all across the floor, globs of a thick, gooey substance that was not only all over the floor, but sprayed all across Mikey's plastron and his hands and legs, the orange-banded turtle taken-aback with eminent horror streaked all across his face.

"Ack! Oh, man! Oh … D-Donnie! What the heck is this stuff!?" He cried in terror, rubbing and smearing the foreign goo off his arms, only making it worse by spreading it further and allowing it to scrub and seep into his skin.

"Mikey, stop! You're only going to make it worse," Donnie pointed out, the smoke of the angry flames filtering through the confinements of his lab, making his eyes water and his mouth grow dry.

Becoming aware of his impending surroundings, Donatello realized that the flames had started to grow at an alarming rate, the searing fire licking and clawing its way through the scattered papers and series of equipment all strewn across his lab, growing in size and becoming stronger; powerful.

Covering his hand with his mouth, Donnie quickly reached out with his free hand to grab hold of Mikey, shoving the contents of the mystery liquid coating his brother's body in the back of his mind to be pondered at later. Right now, his main objective was getting out of his lab before they were both encased in flames, a situation he was not about to let happen to him or his baby brother.

Thinking fast, Donnie immediately untied the tails of his bandana and did the same to Mike's, bunching them up and showing his younger brother to place them over his mouth. Nodding at his brother's instructions, Mikey quickly put the bunched up mask over his mouth and squeezed onto Don's hand as tightly as he could, the purple-banded ninja returning the favor before he squinted past the smoke and fire, trying to see the exit that lead out of his lab.

"Donnie! Mikey! Can you hear me?"

Leo? Donnie thought, his eyes widening as he tried to listen for the voice again, his legs moving careful step by careful step forward until one of his large filing cabinets came crashing down, nearly knocking Donatello in the head had he not backed up in time.

"Donatello! Michelangelo!"

"We hear you, Leo!" Don cried out, immediately choking on the harsh smoke as he shoved the bandana back across his mouth, his eyes watery and his vision blurred.

"Just follow the sound of my voice!" Leo instructed, continuously talking while Donnie and Mike followed their brother's words, weaving through the fallen debris and most of the equipment that had been engulfed by the hungry flames.

While it wasn't a long journey out of Donatello's lab into the living room, being surrounded by smoke and fire made it seem as though the expedition were miles long, the flames making it all the more impossible to see where they were going. Listening closely to Leo's voice, the two seemed to get out of their without any problems following suit, the sight of their two older brothers' hands reaching into the lab to pull them into the safety zone of the living room.

Coughing horrifically, Donnie and Mike leaned forward on their knees and sucked in mouthfuls of air, the flames burning temperatures radiating on the backs of their shells before Master Splinter walked up with the fire extinguisher in hand, already turning the handle and dousing the flames as best as he could.

With a comforting hand places on both of their shoulders, Leonardo searched his brother's watery eyes to make sure that they were alright, pulling his hand back when he noticed the sticky goo that coated Mikey's body and parts of Don's arm was now coated on his own palm and fingers. Looking down at the substance, he looked back up at his brothers; waiting for them to compose themselves before he asked what it was that was all over their bodies. Not even thinking of it, Raph checked his own hands and realized that when he had pulled Donnie and Mikey out of the fire that the goo had gotten on him as well, making him grimace with a look of disgust.

"Guys, what the hell is this stuff?" Raph asked, twiddling his fingers and noticing the nasty goo was starting to spread more across his fingers.

"Don't know," Don coughed, wiping the little bits of spittle that hung from his lip, staring at the translucent blue substance that coated different parts of their bodies in varying degrees.

"Y-You don't think it's … mutagen, do you?" Mikey asked with horror-struck terror, causing his brothers' eyes to widen until Donatello glanced down at his arm and shook his head profusely.

"N-No. I-It can't—"

"My sons, look out!"

BOOM! A roaring explosion. A propulsion so strong it sent the four turtles and Master Splinter sailing into the living room, knocking them clear off their feet as the engulfing smoke spread from the lab straight through the Lair, the flames flickering calming and dying down from the enforcement of the explosion.

Ears ringing and head pounding, Master Splinter carefully lifted up his head and groaned miserably, the sheer intensity of whatever had erupted from Donatello's lab radiating straight from his head to his toes, the white hot flames of searing pain shooting across every vein, every ligament inside his aging body. He looked out into the living room, noticing that the television had shattered from the massive explosion, pillows scattered and trash his boys seemed to spread and leave on the floor all distributed in various places. Blinking away the blurriness in his vision, he tried to scout out his sons to make sure they were all right, but the pain that radiated throughout his body was too much to bear and he found himself unable to even move an inch, his head lolling to the side as he took in short, quick breaths.

"M-My sons," Master Splinter moaned, reaching out a hand only to have it fall against the floor, the fogginess in his head only growing thicker as his eyes drifted shut, the darkness taking him away and pulling him into the confinements of his subconscious.