Episode 5: Mutation Roulette – Part 1

"I cannot wait for school tomorrow!" Kaela was saying as the sun slowly began to go down. Ethan had put on his bandanna an hour ago and sat on the tatami by the door, his feet in the genkan below him, shoes stacked next to him. She brandished the yellow paper they had gotten from class in front of Ethan's face again. "Aren't you excited?" She asked.

"Not as excited as I am about beating things up tonight."

Jess sighed behind him. She was lying flat on her back, ready to go, but her expression was easily read – exhaustion. Ethan had felt it too. But, ever since getting the venom out of his system, he felt like he could fly. He was never going to complain about the flu again. "My legs hurt so bad." Jess whined. "It's awesome getting to finally go do things with our training, but I never realized that jumping from rooftops and sprinting all night would take this much out of me!" She rolled on her side and snatched her kama's from the ground next to her as the night stars began to wink in the sky outside, visible from the window.

"Guys!" Kaela was persistent, her voice sarcastic, "I'm not sure if you know, but tomorrow we get to see one of the world's largest diamonds! In our own gymnasium! How awesome is that?" Ethan knew that Kaela's love for sparkly things was definitely fueling her desire to see the diamond, not their recent school unit on geology. Taking another look at the paper, Ethan could see that she had neglected being excited for the other large array of rocks that the Museum of Geology would be bringing with them. Kaela, seeing no reaction, dropped the paper on Jess' face. "You guys are such party poopers! There is more to life than beating things up."

"Really?" Ethan asked. "I don't think there is." He smiled coyly at her.

"Does you being in love with a psycho path mean that you are going to start acting like her too?" Jess asked curiously.

Ethan turned his smile to her, "Well, sometimes you act like a jerk like Mako, so I'd say you're onto something." His smile morphed into a grin.

"Rude." Jess replied.

"Just make sure you don't start punching kids in the face."

"Speaking of beating things up though," Kaela said, changing the subject back to something important, "Do we have any plans for what we are doing tonight?"

Jess straightened up eagerly, gripping her kama's and standing, stretching her arms into the air, going up on her tip-toes. Ethan considered her question. He had been thinking about it all day, including through his classes. His English homework was going to suffer from that. "I suppose we could search the sewers again. Find the turtles?"

"What about the Kraang?"

Ethan had forgotten about them. Kaela had been pretty adamant about remembering the animals that were still trapped there. "I suppose that wouldn't hurt either. Who knows what they are up to."

"Yes!" Kaela agreed with a smile nodding her head.

"But we aren't going to do anything stupid. Got it? This isn't just about saving animals, this is about making sure the Kraang don't do anything that would cause us issues later." He made eye contact with Kaela and she nodded in agreement.

"We are going to have to run all the way to that warehouse, aren't we?" Jess sighed.

"Not quite." Kaela pulled out from her belt the silver disk and Ethan glared at it, still remembering the horrifying episode that they had recently had with a bunch of nightmarish, huge beavers. She seemed to notice his expression and she quickly explained. "Last time we used this thing, we pressed the button in the middle and it lit up, but when the portal took us to the warehouse, I swear all three of them were glowing."

Ethan straightened up and walked over, placing his fingers on the silver disk and Kaela let it go to let Ethan take a look at it. "So, we should press all three of these things is what you are saying?" Ethan said, flipping it over and over between his fingers skeptically.

"Yup!" Kaela smiled brightly as she tucked her ribbon dart into the belt around her waist.

Ethan placed his thumb solidly on the middle pentagon and it immediately lit up violet, but he did not let the disk go as he had done before and instead, stood there, staring at the light. Catching on, Kaela reached out and pressed the second one and Jess joined in with the third. With a zooming noise, Ethan felt a tug and let it go.

The silver contraption levitated in their dojo for a moment and then with an odd sound that almost resembled bubbling liquid, it extended, shooting out two silver ends to create a large triangular portal that now stood in the middle of their dojo. Ethan looked nervously into the backyard, but Master Hamato hadn't moved from where he was meditating under the big banzai tree. Ethan turned back to the portal. "I guess I'll take a look." he said, trying to embrace his leadership responsibilities. He adjusted the white bandanna around his head quickly and then, gulping, he slowly leaned forward and let his head slide through the pinkish color. The same feeling that his head was being tugged overwhelmed him, but when he opened his eyes, he was looking at a large concrete and terribly familiar warehouse. The green mutagen ooze that filled the giant tank in the middle of the room cast glowing shadows across the floor. The sound of animals filled the air and Ethan could see the cages stacked on top of one another. Nearby Kraang droids were carrying several animals and bolted them with cords to the lab tables that looked just like large slabs of cool metal.

But there was something very new.

The steady hum of motors was sounding along with the annoyed cries of the animals and a long conveyor belt of empty glass containers moved through the air before reaching the vat of mutagenic ooze. It would then descend, fill up and return back up with it's companions. It would then move on over the top of the animal cages and the walkway that made up the second floor before vanishing through a wall to another part of the warehouse.

Wrenching his head back and ignoring the unpleasant feeling, he turned to the other two who helped steady him from the sudden change in scenery. "Good guess." he said to Kaela. "That's the warehouse alright. They are doing something with the mutagen though. They are filling up a whole bunch of canisters with it and it looks like they are about to run some experiments on the animals."

Kaela's face turned to stone and her smile vanished into a solid line. "Then we should go save them."

Ethan was getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach like he had eaten a rock. "Kaela, remember what I said. This is about more than just saving animals. That's not our main goal."

"Right." Kaela said it so quickly that Ethan wasn't sure that she actually had internalized anything he just said.

Jess moved past Ethan and to the portal. "Can we be done talking now?" she asked, "I'm ready for some action!"

"Kay," Ethan said, grabbing his naginata. "Here's the plan. Kaela, as soon as we get in, move to the second floor, but steer clear of the mutagen that is being carted off up there. I want you to take out as many Kraang droids as you can, but try not to get them shooting. That mutagen will fly everywhere." Kaela nodded. "Jess, you and I are going to go around the other way. I think we have some good cover that will get us close to the animal cages. Let's release as many of them as we can. That will give us some chaos and give us time to take out the Kraang." Jess smiled eagerly. "Once we get to that point, we can find a way to sabotage the mutagen that they have. Maybe we could grab some while we are at it for Master Hamato to look at." Ethan suggested.

"Go team Hamato!" Kaela called, pumping her fist into the air.

Without another word, they slipped through the portal and the light from the dojo disappeared until they were plunged into semi-darkness. Only the mutagen, the pink color coming from the Kraang and a single bright yellow light that hung over the three steel slab tables. They had buckled in one of the most adorable creatures Ethan had ever seen. He recognized it from the newspaper clippings of the animal robbery. He had red, poofy fur and a tail like a raccoon, lined in fiery red and black stripes. The flame colored fur tapered away at the neckline and turned black as night. White marks ran along it's eyes and big white whiskers sprouted by it's mouth. Two soft looking pointed ears sat flat against it's head, it's eyes big and sad as it trembled under the restraints. The rare red panda.

The Kraang looked at it for a moment. "Go get that which is known as – the ant – eater." One of the Kraang said to the other. It turned without a word and moved towards the cages. Ethan nodded to Kaela and she glared at the Kraang before turning and running. She was so quiet that Ethan couldn't hear a sound after she vanished around the stairwell, the yellow ends of her bandanna flitting in the wind.

Ethan and Jess went slowly, keeping their bodies low to the ground as they inched over to a nearby pile of old boxes and slipped behind them. "We need to get to that vat as quick as we can, before Kaela starts attacking." Ethan whispered it so quietly that he hoped Jess was looking at his lips to catch what he said. She gave him a thumbs up and Ethan took that as a sign she had heard. They moved as quickly as they dared go, their feet making as little contact with the ground as possible as they circled around the boxes towards the huge glass jar of mutagen. The humming of the gears continued to hide their noise and Ethan looked up to see Kaela's shadow. She was staying far away from the conveyor belt where the recently filled mutagen canisters were slowly making their way across the ceiling and through the doorway.

Praying, Ethan hoped that the Kraang wouldn't shoot as soon as they saw her. He was certain she would be splashed with mutagen, knowing their luck. As they turned slowly and the tub of mutagen became visible again, now only a foot or so away from them, Ethan could hear the red panda whimpering on the table.

Jess made a move to go out from behind the boxes, her kama's glowing green, but Ethan shook his head furiously. "Wait for Kaela." He mouthed. Jess pulled a face at him which Ethan gladly returned.

Slam! Ethan and Jess both looked out from behind the boxes to see that Kaela had wrenched one of the Kraang from his footing with her ribbon and then let him smash back down, his pink eyes flickering out. "Take that, you animal abusing creepers!" Kaela yelled down at him. The brainy center of the Kraang burst from it's robot body and screeched in anger before skirting off into the shadows. The other Kraang had noticed her. "That which is known as – an intruder – is in the place where they should not be." One of them said pointing.

"Destroy the one who should not be in this place – in this place."

"Well, the insult was a little unnecessary." Jess said matter-of-factually. She then burst from behind her hiding spot and slammed both of her weapons into the back of one of the droids which writhed before falling, twitching, to the ground. "I'll get the animals." She called as Ethan spun out from the darkness and slammed another two with poised strikes from his staff.

Kaela's dart moved like a whip as it slammed another Kraang to the ground. The sound of their laser guns firing echoed into the warehouse and Ethan flinched and glanced up at Kaela. She had cried out and somersaulted back towards the stairs as canisters exploded in a shower of glass and the glowing contents splashed across the rails and the floor below. "Kaela, get out of there!" Ethan called.

Two Kraang spun around, their blank, wide, circular, glowing eyes stared at him, their guns pointed and Ethan jumped behind a crate with his hands to move him into a flip as the Kraang-pink lasers blasted holes around him. He pulled two shurikans from his belt and emerging for only a second from his wall of wood, he let them fly. Before either could recover from the sudden attack, Ethan slammed the bottom of his staff on the ground and used it to pole vault himself up over the boxes and slam both his feet into one's head.

The sound of crashing metal sounded and a second later, a pack of house cats came sprinting from behind the vat of mutagen. Ethan turned to see another group of Kraang droids were coming from a door to his left, but they were all pointing in the direction that Ethan knew the animal cages were – and where Jess would be working hard to open more cage doors. He leaned forward, putting force into his movement as he made his way around. The pink lasers were already firing by the time he got there. Jess had taken refuge behind the cages. Several more doors were opened, but dogs, snakes and a group of bear cubs were trembling in their cages, unwilling to go venture into the storm of laser beams.

Ethan hit the ground sliding and cut the legs out from underneath three Kraang droids who smashed into the ground, screaming. Ethan quickly righted himself to dodge the brains that ran out from underneath the metal. "Sick." he muttered as he blocked several beams fired at him with his naginata. They bounced off and shattered several more canisters of mutagen.

With a loud crashing noise, the conveyor belt swayed and for a horrifying moment, Ethan thought it would collapse on them. "That mutagen isn't going anywhere!" Kaela called from above. Somehow she had managed to jam the mutagen. The canisters swung in their place from the sudden halt, but only little drips fell to the ground. Jess used the moment where the Kraang were distracted to slash here way through two more of them, slamming the weight of her body into the final one so that it hit the ground. Ethan stabbed it's head with the end of his naginata, silencing the robot body for good.

"I think we are getting the hang of this!" Jess said happily as she ran to the cage, watching the storm of animals flood out. Kaela ran down the stairs and with a heave, the warehouse doors burst open and the animals flocked into the street.

Ethan hummed under his breath.

"What?" Jess asked.

"I didn't think about finding a way to get the animals back to the zoo." He said. Then, without a response he shrugged and smiled. "Let's get the rest of these things out and we are good to go." Jess turned her attention back to the cages. A few more were left. Ethan took only a single step towards them to go help her when he heard one of the oddest sounds he had ever heard.

It sounded like an electronic enraged gorilla.

He turned around to see that . . . there was an electronic enraged gorilla staring at him.

"What the crap is that?" he breathed, not sure whether to panic or to laugh.

A huge, blue gorilla stood towering from the doorway the Kraang had come from. It roared, pounding it's chest, it's head replaced with a metal pod, colored violet, a Kraang brain sitting in it's center glaring down at him. "I'll take this." he said. Kaela watched the animals flock past her, but obviously had heard the noise and was now trying to make her way back towards them. The monster slammed it's fists to the ground but Ethan and spun out of the way and slammed the end of his weapon into it's side. It bled electrical currents that burst down it's body and across the ground.

Another cage swung open and a flock of multi-colored birds flew into the air, chirping wildly before making their way to the door and the fresh air. Ethan felt himself get slammed backward towards the table, but recovered himself and let a shurikan fly. It stuck into the center of the pod that took the place of the beasts head and short-circuited, the Kraang shrieking as it struggled to escape the exploding gorilla.

It thrashed this way and that as if trying to recover itself. Ethan heard a squeaking noise behind him and Ethan turned to see the red panda was struggling against its metal bands, little fangs appearing from it's mouth as it desperately tried to get away. Moving forward, Ethan grabbed at the metal, feeling the soft fur of the red panda. Throwing his energy into slamming the metal with his blade, onto the bands. With a crack, they burst open and the red panda licked at his hand gratefully before dropping from the metal table and running towards the exit door.

Jess dived out of the way with a cry and Ethan turned to see the pod burst from the body of the gorilla. The blue body slammed to the ground with a crash and the pod flew up into the air and time seemed to slow. The pod slammed into the side of the conveyor belt and several canisters flew off from the rung, plummeting to the ground below.

One was right above him.

He only had just enough time to duck down, his arms reaching out to hide his head, the naginata flying from his hand and dancing across the ground. He could hear Kaela and Jess shriek as the canister slammed into his back. Glass shattered in every which direction and pain erupted from his back, and then his hands, his neck, his shoulders, his waist. He opened his eyes and nearly passed out.

Green covered his skin that burned like fire and Ethan felt himself dizzy as he collapsed to the ground, his skin trembling and moist. He heard his own voice sound a scream as incredible pain sprang from every one of his nerves. His bones felt like they were scraping together, shifting, his flesh drawing back and stretching, boiling.

"Ethan! Ethan!" He could hear Jess near him.

"Get away from me!" He yelled, not wanting any mutagen to touch anyone else.

His focus was vanishing and he felt himself slipping in and out, agony moving through his body, exploring it. He could feel his nails growing, blackening and suddenly the ground was rushing up to meet him.