A/N: Okay, like I said, I've gone back and changed a lot. So in this chapter, I've also ADDED an extra scene, so that in the next chapter, it makes sense, AND it's funnier!

I OWN NOTHING!

Enjoy!

Chapter 19: A Solution

Beneath the surface, the air within the walls of the hideout was heavy with silence. The three remaining turtles were now sat around the main area with bleak eyes and worn out expressions as they hung their heads low. April sat with her father, now fully clothed in her normal attire (though now it was slightly ripped) as she rested her head sadly on her crossed arms with her knees drawn into her. Kirby put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, though he knew it did little to ease the hurt that she and the three brothers felt.

Karai stood with her back against a wall, her arms crossed over her armored chest as she glowered down at the ground. Her golden eyes looked up from the floor to glance up at the turtles sat around her. Leonardo was sat on the couch next to Donatello, his chin resting heavily in his hands. His blue eyes met Karai's concerned ones for a moment, and he looked back down again in desolation, unable to face her any longer.

Donatello had his face buried in his large hands in shame – he refused to make eye contact with anyone, not even April. Raphael was sat back to shell with Casey on the floor. He had Spike in his lap, and his emerald eyes were glaring at the floor. Casey was no different, his gloved hands clenching the mask in his hands tightly as he stared numbly down at it.

Master Splinter, Dr. Falco and Keno entered the room in that moment. Splinter looked upon the distraught forms of his three remaining sons, his ears drooping as behind his back, his clawed hands tensed. Leonardo had already informed them what had happened to Michelangelo, and of course, he too was very worried. Even after the events of their first battle with the Shredder, when Michelangelo had proven himself strong enough to protect both himself and his older brothers, inside they were all still overprotective of their baby brother, as was Splinter with his youngest son. And it made the situation no less worse with the fact that his kidnapers were a pair of insane and exceedingly powerful mutants, mutants that not even the four of them combined could defeat on their own.

There was no telling what they would do to his poor child.

Raph broke the silence by growling loudly as he set Spike down on the floor, stood up, and kicked at an empty pizza box, sending it skidding across the room. "I can't believe we let that flea bag beat us and take Mikey! I'm gonna kill him!" he snarled, pounding his fist into his palm angrily.

"Easy, Raph," Leo warned, finally lifting his head up from his hands as he stilled his younger brother with a solid stare. "We're going to get Mikey back, whatever it takes. But we need a better plan this time. Obviously, Shredder had thought well ahead of us…" he cast his eyes down again. "He had us all conned from the very start…"

Shaking his head Donnie sighed loudly and stood up, his hand clawing into his head in agitation as he paced the floor back and forth. "I just don't understand! The retro mutagen should have worked! It should have turned Fishface back into a human gain, not…make him start belching!" he seethed, throwing his hands into the air in defeat.

Raising a brow, Dr. Falco blinked in surprise at Donnie's outburst and he stepped towards him, putting a hand on his shoulder and putting an end to his pacing as he turned to the older human. "Wait, did you say the retro mutagen made him start burping?" Falco asked.

Donnie winced slightly at the question, his shoulders hunching uncomfortably. "Um…yes? Yeah, it sounds pretty bad, huh?" he admitted.

However instead of becoming angry, Dr. Falco put a finger to his chin as his brow creased in concern. "This is bad…Carbon Dioxide is essential to the retro-mutagenic process," he alleged. "The burping is probably retarding the reaction."

His eyes going wide in realization, Donnie let out a sharp gasp before he slapped a hand against his forehead. "Oh, duh! How did I miss that?!" he exclaimed. "The reintroduction of CO could act as a catalyst to speed up the process!"

"Carbon Dioxide? Where are we gonna find a ready supply of that?" Karai asked. "Unless someone wants to go out and rob another lab for the stuff?"

At that, April finally lifted her head. Beside her, Kirby watched as her eyes lit up suddenly and she stood up. "Wait…we won't have to rob a lab," she said faintly as she cast her eyes over to what was once the emergency cupboard of the old station. A smile slowly grew across her face. "Guys, I think I have a solution!" she announced hopefully as she quickly darted over to the exit. She rummaged around for a moment whilst the others looked at her in curiosity. What was she looking for? The turtles had gone through that old cupboard when they had first moved in, and there was nothing but some old useless junk that not even Donnie could use.

"Ah ha!" she exclaimed as she held up what she was looking for. Donnie and Falco gaped at her in utter shock at what she presented as if it were the Holy Grail itself.

"A Fire Extinguisher?" Keno probed, raising a brow.

Donnie ran over to her and immediately wrapped his arms around her small frame, easily lifting her off the ground as he held her close in a tight embrace. "Genius! Pure genius!" he cried, beaming brighter than the sun. "You are so cool!" He quickly but gently released her as she laughed and handed him the extinguisher; she could tell that he was happy enough in that moment to kiss her, but he was too distracted (and too bashful) by her discovery to do so.

"This perfect! All we have to do is spray some of this good stuff into Fishface's mouth, and the retro mutagen should then take effect!" Donnie cheered.

Standing up, Leo, Raph and Karai shared a skeptical glance, before the eldest turtle turned back to the purple clad genius. "Are you sure, Donnie? Remember what…who's at stake here." Leo asked, his tone serious.

His earlier excitement gone, Donnie turned to his older brother and nodded firmly, his expression resolute. "I'm certain, Leonardo. The retro-mutagen might not have worked before, but if it's still present in his system, adding this to the mix should change him back. And it's not just Mikey. The whole city could be at stake here…"

Leo nodded back once, now having full confidence in his younger brothers' judgment. "Alright, I think I have a plan," he said, turning to the others in the room. "We can use Donnie's T-phone to track down where they took Mikey, and we'll go from there. Karai, Keno, Casey and April, you guys should stay here with Mr. O'Neil and Falco, and let your injuries heal up. It's up to us now to save Mikey."

Everyone nodded in understanding, including Keno. He knew now that this was something that the turtles alone had to accomplish. But there was still one thing that he could do, and that was to wish them luck.

With that, Leo turned back to his younger brothers, who waited for their leader's commands. "Let's move!" he announced, and without further delay, the three turtles made a break for the mouth of the hideout, with Donnie's T-Phone held out in front of him.

"Good luck, you guys," April whispered after them as her father held her close, praying to whoever was listening that they brought Mikey home safely.

As Raph and Donnie ran ahead of him, Leo was suddenly stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Master Splinter, his face remained stoic, but Leo could clearly see the tension in his eyes, and could feel it in the hand that held his shoulder. "…Bring you brother home, my son." He said.

Leonardo steeled his expression and nodded firmly. "I will, father," he answered, and once the hand released his shoulder, he bowed once and then ran towards the exit to join his brothers.

Out on the docks on the outskirts of the city, a large, abandoned laboratory stood hidden by the many old boats that sat on the frozen water's edge. The lab had once been used by the late 'mad scientist' known as Baxter Stockman, but after his involvement with the Foot Clan, it had since been restricted and forgotten about since his arrest, and had not been used since. The space inside the lab was massive, due to the fact that the lab's equipment had been cleared out long ago, along with all of Baxter's research. Now however, it was occupied by the two mutants, Dogpound and Fishface, and a colossal tank of glowing mutagen that the Kraang had collected for them. The lack of electric lighting gave the mutagen an eerie glow as it sat in the center of the open spaced room.

As they stood in front of the glowing tank in silence, Fishface shattered it as he let out another belch. Dogpound growled and rolled his eyes as his nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell. Being a giant dog had its advantages, but the sense of smell wasn't one of them in particular. "Oh for the love of…will you stop that burping, you mermaid on legs?!" he snarled, shoving Fishface harshly.

Stumbling, Fishface hissed up at him through his fangs. "Hey! Don't think I would have done so if I could have already?!" he snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whatever that blasted turtle put inside me is making me do this!"

Dogpound only growled again. "Well, it doesn't matter, it'll wear off eventually. We just have to wait for the turtles to arrive, so then we can be rid of them once and for all. And the sooner that happens, the sooner Master Shredder will fulfill his promise to us. I can be human again...I detest this clumsy body..."

Ignoring the canine's mumbled moaning, Fishface cast a glance behind him. "What do we do about him?" he asked.

Dogpound turned and followed Fishface's gaze. Their mutant hostage, Michelangelo, lay unconscious on the floor, his hands bound tightly with thick ropes behind his back. His head lay in a small pool of blood where Fishface had hit him to knock him out, and he hadn't moved from that spot since. Dogpound smirked coldly as he turned back to his shorter, scaly companion. "Well…we still don't know what the mutagen does to a mutant. When his brothers arrive, why don't we hold a little…demonstration for them?" he chuckled.

Fishface grinned wickedly in response. "Yes. A brilliant idea."

"I'll go out there and keep watch for when the other turtles arrive. You keep an eye on this little squirt and the mutagen." Dogpound ordered.

Fishface nodded and watched as Dogpound left for the exit. He glanced back at the still form of Michelangelo. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, so he turned back to the glowing tank of mutagen, his brows knitting together in thought as he stared at the glowing substance curiously. "Hmmm…I wonder…if the mutagen turns a human into a mutant…then what if it could turn a mutant back to a human? After all, those Kraang aliens did say that it was unpredictable…" he wondered to himself aloud.

He was tired of his fish body; he wasn't even able to breathe on land without the water apparatus the Kraang had given him, or even walk without the pair of robotic legs. When he had asked Shredder for more power, he hadn't thought the Kraang would have been stupid enough to mutate him into a fish of all things. Of course, being a mutant had indeed increased his strength, but he longed to be a man again. He wanted to live as a man, to love as a man. Not as a fish! And yet, he had to wonder; did Shredder even know how to change them back? What if the mutagen only mutated them again? Or worse, what if it melted them? He shuddered to think about that.

Just what truly was the Secret of the Ooze?

Unheeded by the humans below, three shadowy figures raced across the rooftops over head with untraceable speed, the whites of their eyes being the only distinguishable feature besides their hard-shelled backs that seemed to gleam in the moonlight above. Snow clouds began to gather in the skies as the air became colder, but the three mutant terrapins paid it no mind as they hurried onwards, their destination the only thing that mattered in that moment.

Looking down at the glowing screen of his T-Phone, Donatello's eyes narrowed. "We're getting close, guys!" he called out to his brothers in front of him. "It's at the edge of the docks, just on the other side. It looks like that old lab that apparently belonged to Baxter Stockman" He looked up from the phone and at his oldest brother. "I trust that you have a plan to get in there, right?"

Leading his younger brothers at the front of the pack, Leonardo nodded. "Here's the plan," he announced, "we get inside the building, find Mikey, turn Fishface back to normal, and get out again. Avoid contact with Dogpound at all costs."

"Aw man," Raphael sighed, "and I really wanted to kick his furry –"

"Not now, Raph. Donnie, are we almost there?"

Ignoring Raph, Donnie looked back down at the phone. His eyes suddenly widened as he stared at the screen in worry. The screen showed a map of the city, and where an orange, blinking light had been once before, there was nothing.

That wasn't good.

"Um, guys?" he squeaked, earning their attention as they skidded to a stop. Donnie gulped as he turned the phone towards them and pointed at the screen. "Mikey's signal is gone."

Worry starting to settle in, Leo and Raph shared a look. "Gone? What do you mean 'gone'?!" Raph barked angrily.

"That's just it! His T-Phones' signal is gone!" he clarified, "But don't worry, I'm sure they might have just smashed his phone. Either that, or it's just a bug that I can fix later."

Letting out a breath of relief that he hadn't realized he'd been holding, Leo nodded. "Okay. We still know where they're holding him, so let's not waste any more time," he said, and they took off once more, leaping over buildings and water towers without pause. Dawn was coming fast, and the three turtles had little time left before either the sun came up, or the two mutants holding their baby brother captive got bored.

They finally reached their destination as they landed at the docks, shivering now as the air got even colder. The lab was built near the very edge of the docks, but the boats and buildings practically hid it from view. A long wooden bridge led out into the sea near the entrance, and the three turtles quickly but silently ran underneath the bridge (with a little protest from Raph due to the mud and wet sand squelching beneath their feet) and they scaled the building using the metal ladder built at the side of the building. Once they were on the roof, Donnie immediately grabbed Leo and Raph by their shoulders to stop them going any further. "We can't sneak in," he elaborated as they sent him questioning gazes. "There are security cameras everywhere."

"I thought you said this place was abandoned," Raph snapped in a harsh whisper.

Donnie looked at him flatly. "Oh, well, forgive me Raphael, for I had no inclination of the fact that Dogpound and Fishface would actually have the brains to fix that!"

"Shut up, both of you!" Leo hissed. "Focus, fellas. We need to find a way to take out those cameras."

Huffing to himself, Donnie put a finger against his chin. "Well, I think I could use my T-Phone to hack into the security system by –"

"Hang on a sec, guys," Raph interrupted, "I got this!"

Donnie and Leo watched as Raph suddenly pulled out something from behind his back, and held it out in before them. Befuddled beyond belief, they blinked once in unison as they stared at it.

"…Raph," Leo began slowly. "…where did you get that pigeon?"

Michelangelo was finally stirring as he weakly opened his eyes. The world around him was a blurry haze of florescent blue. He let out a soft groan. "Uggh…my head…where am I?" he thought, though his head was throbbing painfully. He tried to bring his hand to his aching head, but found he couldn't. Panic began to slowly set in as he realized he was tied up, and lying on a cold flat surface. His vision finally began to clear, and he found that he was in some sort of large room. It looked like what was left of an old lab.

He then spotted Fishface standing in front of a large tank, filled to the brim with mutagen.

His eyes went wide as he gulped. "That better not be for me…" he thought. "No, wait…I bet they're gonna use me as bait for the guys! I'm so stupid! I've gotta find a way to get outta here!"

Forcing himself to keep calm and silent lest Fishface came back and knocked him out again, Mikey looked down to his belt to see that his nunchaku were both gone. Of course they'd disarm him first; it was rule number one of kidnapping somebody. He then looked around him for any other means of freeing himself. He whimpered silently when he found nothing.

"Great. Now what?"

His ankles were free, but he would get nowhere if Fishface heard him get up and try to run, and he couldn't fight back if his hands were…

A thought suddenly clicked. He'd found a solution, but it wasn't a very pleasant one. He remembered a trick that his Sensei had showed them a little while back, two years before he'd finally allowed them to venture to the surface for the first time. It was an old trick that a ninja would sometimes use when he was unable to find a sharp object to unbind himself with. It was a bit extreme, and even now it made his skin crawl just thinking about it, but if he wanted to get out of there alive, sacrifices had to be made. But if he was going to do it, he had to somehow get Fishface away from here long enough for him to get free.

He spotted an empty canister of mutagen near his foot. That could work. Gathering some power into his leg, he kicked the canister away as hard as he could to the wall on the other side of the lab, and it smashed as it hit the wall full force. The crash was loud enough to snap Fishface out of his thoughts as he looked sharply to his left. "What was that?" he said aloud, and he went off to investigate, leaving Mikey on his own.

Mikey needed to act fast. Pushing away the nausea, he quickly struggled to sit up on his knees, and he took in several breaths. "Okay, Mikey, you can do this. No big deal. It'll take two seconds," he reassured himself. He took in a deep breath, and then he silently began to count.

"Three...two...one..."

Before he could talk himself out of it, he bent forwards and began to bring his bound hands over his head. He stretched and strained his arms forward as much as he could, not stopping even as he heard his bones start to crack.

Almost there, almost there…

He bit back a furious scream of agony when his shoulders came right out of their sockets with a sickening pop. His arms then came over his head and fell limp onto his lap. He bit his tongue, holding back another scream as he forced his shoulders back into place by slamming them both against the wall behind him.

And he thought breaking them was painful. Well, at least he'd accomplished phase one. Now to move on to phase two; find something sharp enough to cut the ropes.

Shaking off the burning pain in his shoulders, he shakily got his feet, stumbling slightly due to his head injury, and he scanned the area for his weapons, which he really hoped they hadn't thrown away, or he'd really be in trouble. But to his relief, he found them next to an empty barrel of oil, and he slowly and stumbled over to them. He smiled as he picked them up. "I missed you babies," he said, and he quickly flipped out the kusarigama blade. He hastily cut the ropes that bound his wrists together, and shook some feeling back into them once the ropes fell away.

"Alright! I did it!" he cheered quietly. Now all he had to do was escape this old lab, and call his brothers. He reached into his belt in search for his T-Phone…only to realize with quiet wince that it wasn't there.

He kept as calm as he could as he scanned the area, looking around for his only means of communication, when he spotted the shattered remains of it at the very bottom of the oil barrel. His face fell as he stared at the destroyed device which sparked with electricity.

"Well, that's just brilliant…" he deadpanned. How was he going to warn them now?

"Hey! How did you escape?!"

Gasping, Mikey spun around to find Fishface, having discovered the distraction, running towards him with his large fangs bared. Mikey yelped as he leapt in the air to avoid the mutant's attack, flying over the other mutants' head and landing behind him on shaky legs. Fishface whirled around and hissed at him, and the younger turtle squeaked in alarm. "Easy, there, fishy! No need to get testy!" Mikey said, backing away from the angry fish.

It was then that Dogpound charged in, hearing all the noise from outside. "Xever, what is – Hey!" he barked.

"Oh crud..." Mikey whimpered. He knew he had no chance of taking them both out on his own, and his head injury only hindered him further. "Uh, listen, I don't like you, and you don't like me, so why don't you just let me go and I'll get outta your fur!" he bargained sheepishly as he itched his way towards the exit.

Dogpound blocked his path by slamming his fist into the ground beside him, and the tremor that it created caused Mikey to topple onto his backside. "I'd rather you stay," he growled. "Xever, watch out for the other turtles, I'm gonna catch this little runt myself!"

Mikey gulped again as he looked up at the canine that towered above him. He was so going to be toast.

Without warning, Dogpound charged for Mikey, who'd only had time to scramble back to his feet as the dog swiped his claws at him several times. He only narrowly missed his mark by inches as Mikey quickly dodged his incoming fists. Narrowing his eyes, Mikey whipped out his kusarigama chain and launched it at the support beams above. He hauled himself upwards just as Dogpound slammed his fist in the spot where he had last been. He struggled to find his balance on the wooden beams as his head pounded sorely.

"Ugh, banging headache, dude," he mumbled, bringing a hand to his pulsing temples. He wasn't going to last long with the injury, and he needed to get out of there before his brothers came back for him; if they were caught too, then they'd all be thrown into that tank of mutagen. He had to shake it off and escape by himself, otherwise he wouldn't be getting out of here at all.

Just then, Dogpound leapt up onto the beams, roaring at Mikey. What the shell? How could those beams even support his weight?!

"Easy D-Pound!" Mikey cried, taking out his nunchaku and spinning it.

Dogpound ignored him, and instead leapt towards him. "You're not getting away!" he barked.

"Booyakasha!" Mikey yelled as he whipped out his nunchaku and smacked it hard several times across the dog's face, dazing him enough to leap over him onto another wooden board. Before Dogpound could reach him again, he sprung off of it like a diving board and cartwheeled in midair, landing on a weaker support beam and nearly losing his balance. "Whoa!" he cried, waving his arms about frantically as he steadied himself. He looked down, and his eyes grew wide. He was directly above the tank. One misstep and he would have tumbled straight into it. "Phew! That was a close one…"

However, as he looked up again, his heart stopped in his chest as he watched Dogpound gather power into his muscles as he prepared himself to leap after him.

"Dogpound, DON'T!" Mikey cried. They were right above the tank. If he were to jump now, the board wouldn't hold them both.

His pleas went unheard as Dogpound leapt from the wooden board with a roar. Mikey was barely able to jump out of the way in time before his solid bulk hit the beam. Predictably, the wooden board could not hold the mutant dog's weight as it broke upon contact with his large fist. He realized his terrible mistake too late, and as he fell, he grabbed onto Mikey's foot in desperation.

Mikey yelped as he grabbed onto a plank of wood. The two helplessly dangled over the tank of mutagen, with Mikey straining to retain his grip on the splintered wood whilst holding up Dogpound's immense weight as well as his own. This guy was seriously heavy, and he was surprised at how his leg hadn't already ripped off.

"Aw crud!" Mikey grunted as his hold on the plank started to slip, and he looked down at the larger mutant still clinging onto his foot for dear life. The younger turtle found himself taken aback as he saw a twinge of fear in the canines' blood hued eyes.

Mikey found himself torn. Even though he didn't like him, Mikey knew he couldn't bring himself to let him fall. Bad guy or not, he was still a living being and a fellow mutant like himself after all. And Splinter had always told them to value all life, no matter what the circumstances. Besides, not even Raphael would have it in him to let somebody die like this.

"Hang on, D-Pound!" he called down to him. "I'll get us up! I got this! I think…"

However, to both their dismay, Mikey's hold to slipped further. Dogpound's weight was dragging them down, and despite his efforts, he couldn't hang on any longer. Mikey cried out in fear as the plank began to snap.

"NO!"

With a final loud, dreaded crack, the wooden plank snapped in half.

Michelangelo screamed as he and Dogpound fell from the ceiling, and down toward the tank of mutagen. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as he fell to his fate, memories of his life and his family flashing before his very eyes, before he squeezed them shut for what he feared would be the last time.

This was it.

He was going to die.

And his brothers would never even know...