Note:
First off, I want to thank you all for your support. This really means a lot to me!
And then I want to thank Line for letting me write about her OC. You are the best, girl!
1.000 thanks and hugs to my beta-reader! What would I do without you? *hugsyou*
I was asked in the reviews if there is a pic of Mittens anywhere. Sorry, not yet. But I asked Line to draw a cover image for this story, and she agreed. Knowing what a busy person she is, this might take a while, but I am more than sure that it will be worth the wait. Her art is awesome!
Speaking of which, check out Line's tumblr and adore her beautiful TMNT-art: Her nickname is cowa-fucking-bunga. You might even find a sketch of Mittens there, but like I said, it is a sketch, no finished picture. (Line would kill me if I haven't told you beforehand. XD )
Chapter 07: Captured
Leo entered the living room and had a look around. Three days had passed with Mittens gone, and what he was seeing now was the same scenario he had been seeing the past three days.
Donnie was in his lab, trying to figure out how to find Mittens, Mikey was pacing up and down in front of the door to Donnie's lab so he would be the first to know when Donnie found something, and Raph was in the back of the living room hitting the training dummy like there was no tomorrow.
Leo himself felt sad about what had happened, too. He still couldn't believe how they had grown so close to Mittens in such a short time, but it was the truth. Mittens was their friend and they couldn't, they wouldn't let her down. But as matters stood right now, he had absolutely no idea how they should find her. But as long as Donnie was working and not coming out of his lab, telling them that Mittens was gone for good, Leo wouldn't give up hope.
He looked from Mikey to Raph and realized how tired they looked. They had the same tired look on their face he had seen while he had been watching into the mirror just a few minutes ago. But he knew that deep down inside them, things were even sadder for both of them. Mikey was afraid something terrible might have happened to his girlfriend, and Raph was blaming himself for Mittens getting kidnapped.
Leo knew he and Donnie weren't taking things lightly, but it was different for them. It wasn't their girlfriend that had been kidnapped and they weren't angry with themselves because they thought what had happened was their fault.
Leo sighed. Yes, he was worried about Mittens, but he was worried about his brothers too. And while there was nothing he could do to save Mittens – at least not right now – he could at least try to help his brothers.
He walked over to Raph.
"Hey, Raph, how are you doing?" he asked as he had reached his brother.
"Marvelous, don't you see?" Raph answered grumpily without stopping hitting and kicking the dummy fiercely.
Leo lowered his eyes for a moment.
"Raph, what happened is not your fault…"
"Wrong! It IS my fault. And you know that as good as I do."
"Raph…"
The red-clad turtle furrowed his brows and immediately stopped hitting the dummy. He grabbed it by the shoulders to keep it from swinging and looked at his brother.
"Look, Leo, I'm not in the mood for one of your speeches right now," Raph said gravely. "Mittens is gone, and we don't even know if she is still…" – he paused for a moment, lowering his eyes – "you know…"
"I heard that!" Mikey cried out and ran over to his brothers. "Leo, please tell me Raph's wrong! Mittens is fine, isn't she, Leo?"
The youngest turtle looked at his oldest brother with fear in his eyes and nervously fumbling around with his fingers.
Leo looked at Mikey. He didn't know what to say.
"Isn't she?!" his brother repeated, this time with more force in his voice.
"Of course, Mikey," Leo replied. He forced a smile and patted Mikey's head. "I'm sure she's fine."
Mikey let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Leo."
The frown on Raph's face grew even deeper at their conversation, and now Raph turned back to the dummy and was about to continue the beating, but Leo placed a hand on his shoulder and held him back.
"What?!" Raph asked in an annoyed voice.
"Let's get out of here, you two," Leo suggested. "We have skipped our patrols for days now. And I think we should resume them."
"But Mittens…" Mikey chipped in, but he was interrupted by Leo.
"Donnie will contact us on our T-phones as soon as he finds something," Leo gave back. "We aren't of any help for Mittens if we sit around here with long faces."
"And of what of kind help are we for Mittens if we go on patrol?" Raph asked.
"We could run into some Bastets," Leo suggested. "Or we might be able to help someone who's in trouble. You gotta admit, anything's better than sitting around here."
Raph thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
"Good." Leo shoved his brothers over to the lair's entry. "Believe me, a change of scenery won't hurt."
He tried hard to give his voice a blitheful ring and was rather pleased with the result. Given how sad he really was, he was doing a great job.
Mittens awoke with a start. She looked around her, her eyes adjusting to the little light that was falling into the room under the closed door that led to the hallway, but even after that she couldn't see much. She was alone. There was nothing she could possibly see except for the bars of her cage and the cage next to hers. But when she had learned something in the past few days, then it was that being alone was a good thing. It meant Sonya wasn't here, it meant Sonya wouldn't activate the electric shock-collar. So Mittens was somehow relieved to find herself alone in a nearly dark room. Sure, she missed the sun, she missed the warmth of the sunlight, but here in her cage, in her dungeon, it was good the way it was.
With a wince Mittens sat up. Being captured in a cage and having to sleep on cold concrete had made her whole body ache. Each and every movement hurt. For a moment Mittens thought about grooming herself to make her feel better, at least a bit. But her fur was so dirty thanks to the dust on the floor, and she thought that grooming would rather annoy her than make her feel better, so she changed her mind. She hated feeling dirty and she couldn't wait to get rid of this dust, but a nice hot shower was no option now. That was another thing she was missing – hot water. She sighed.
The cat-mutant hugged her knees. Yes, she was feeling miserable, not only physically, but mentally as well. Her thoughts drifted back to the dream she had had. She had only dreamed two dreams since she had been imprisoned here.
In the first one she saw Mikey, standing there, smiling at her with his arms wide open, and all she wanted to do was running to him and hug him as tightly as she could. And she was running and running, but she just couldn't reach him. She called out for him, but he was just standing there, waiting. And the harder she tried to get to him, the more he seemed to disappear into darkness, and the moment he disappeared completely, she always woke up.
In the second dream she saw Raph passing out and hitting the surface of the water, his body completely limp. She always saw this in slow motion, and she always woke up when his body had submerged.
She had dreamed the second dream this time. And as always when she thought about it tears appeared in her eyes. She hugged her knees even tighter now, pressing her forehead against her thighs.
She felt a lump building in her throat as she remembered what had happened. Raph was dead, and it was all her fault. She hadn't been able to save him. She had tried her best, but Sonya had broken her word. She could still think of it that way, but it didn't work. Without her, Raph would still be alive.
Tears started running down her cheeks. If she ever got out of here alive, how would she tell his brothers that Raph died because of her? A loud sob escaped her mouth, but when she heard something, she fought back the tears and choked her sobs.
The lights were turned on and the door to the dungeon opened. Mittens took a defensive stance just in case as she watched how three men pulled an unconscious cheetah over to the cage next to hers.
The cat-mutant frowned when she saw the cheetah was wearing a collar just like she did.
"We brought you some company," one of the men said to Mittens with a grin as they placed the cheetah in the middle of the cage.
They closed the other cage and left the room. And then the room went dark again.
Mittens turned her head to look at the cheetah. She could still make out its features in the darkness.
She perked up her ears, checking if she could hear anything from the cheetah's cage. And she was relieved as she noticed its deep breaths. The cheetah was fast asleep, and this somehow gave Mittens a relieved feeling.
Sleep as long as you can, my friend, Mittens thought. Anything's better than being awake here.
Leo, Raph and Mikey were doing one of their rooftop-runs, jumping from roof to roof at an incredible speed. And though Raph would never admit it, he really was feeling better – at least a bit. The fresh air did him good, and it was nice to see the stars again – and something else than the lair. Plus he really enjoyed doing something other than hitting a motionless puppet.
And Mikey seemed to like getting out of the sewers for a change as well. Sure, he wasn't as cheerful as he otherwise would be, but the frown on his forehead and the sad look in his eyes had faded a bit.
Leo smiled at himself when he saw how his brothers' appearances had changed and he mentally patted himself on the shoulder for having come up with this idea.
It was only then when he saw something from the corner of his eye that caught his attention.
He turned his head in that direction, slowing down and then coming to a halt. He carefully walked over to the roof-edge, spotting down cautiously.
"Guys," he called over to his brothers. "This might be interesting."
Mikey was by his side almost immediately, stopping so hastily, he had to flail his arms to gain balance again or otherwise he would have fallen down the roof-edge.
"Is it the Bastet-guys?" he asked. "Are they here?"
He was still flailing his arms when Raph who had closed the gap to his brothers gave him a slight stroke on the plastron with his fist and so stabilizing him.
Mikey's expectant face turned sad again when he saw who was down there. He could see three Kraang-droids. Two of them were carrying a box over to a van while the third was standing guard.
"No, it's just the Kraang," he said with a sigh and turned to leave.
"Mikey, wait," Leo held him back. "The Kraang have been keeping a low profile the last months. I bet they're up to something. We should check this out."
"Alright!" Raph called out and drew his weapons.
"No, wait, we have to…" Leo tried to stop him, but Raph had already jumped down onto the fire escape and the next thing Leo heard was the scrunching of metal.
Leo blew a raspberry.
When he and Mikey arrived at the scene, the last Kraang was betaking himself to flight after Raph had piled one of his sais right through the middle of the robot body's chest. With a gurgling scream the brain-like creature ran for it, as fast as its tentacles were able to carry it.
Leo didn't even try to stop it. There was no sense in that. Without a functioning robot body they wouldn't even understand what this alien was saying.
Leo watched with a frown as the Kraang disappeared in a side street, then turned to his brother.
"Good job, Raph," he said in an annoyed voice.
"Thanks," the mutant turtle gave back with a grin as he tossed the robot body to the ground, placing a foot on his chest to make it easier to get the sai out.
"That was meant to sound sarcastically," Leo said gloomily.
"Oh," his brother answered while he pulled his sai out of the robot. "But thanks anyway."
Leo just shook his head.
"I said we should check this out!" he said angrily.
"And that's what I did," Raph replied.
"No! You smashed them to bits!"
"Uhm, what's the difference?"
"When you check something out, you proceed with caution, and not jump right in!" Leo's voice had reached a certain volume. "And how are we going to find out what they are up to when we can't ask them questions?"
"You wanted to ask them questions?" Raph repeated. "Well, tell me next time beforehand. And don't talk about checking out. Seems we define that word differently."
And with that he walked over to the box two of the Kraang had been carrying before he had attacked, humming some random melody.
Leo just slapped his hand against his forehead. One of those…
Raph lifted the top of the box, looking inside.
Mikey had ran over to him and peeked into the box over his brother's shoulder.
"Orange mutagen!" he called out. "Cool! That's my favorite color."
"Yeah, because we didn't have enough mutagen around here the last few months," Raph said grumpily.
Leo joined his brothers.
"But why is it a different color?" he asked. "Let's take it back to the lair. Maybe Donnie can check it out."
"Yeah, but make sure to tell him what you mean by that," Raph said as he and his brothers shoved the box over to the next manhole cover. "It might be possible he defines that word differently."
Leo just gave a silent growl.
Mittens had no idea how much time had passed, but sometime the cheetah started moving a bit, finally woke up completely and sat up.
She could tell from what she could see in the darkness and from what she could hear that it was afraid. The cheetah was walking around in the cage now, as if to look if there was a hole anywhere through which it could escape, and growling silently while doing so.
Mittens furrowed her brow. She felt sorry for the poor animal.
She turned around and so that she could face the cheetah.
"Hello there, little fella," she said in a low, melodic voice. "Are you afraid? I'm afraid too." She added a purr to her words which made the cheetah stop.
It looked over to her, its tail swinging from side to side.
"You know, there is one thing in this whole dungeon of ours you don't have to be afraid of," Mittens continued. "And this is me."
The cheetah stretched its head into Mittens' direction, sniffing the air, and then cautiously moved closer.
"Now that's a good cheetah," Mittens said, slowly moving her one hand through the bars into the cheetah direction. She held her hand still as the cheetah moved even closer, carefully touching her fingers with his nose.
Mittens smiled, but at that moment the lights went on. The cat-mutant jumped back, looking to the door, and the cheetah fled to the farthest corner of his cage. But other than the cat of prey, Mittens knew what was coming next.
With a devilish grin on her face Sonya entered the room.
"Oh, I see you two have already met," she said nonchalantly. "Do you like my newest capture, Bastet?"
"My name is Mittens!" the cat-mutant hissed.
"No, your name is Bastet!" Sonya gave back. "That's the next thing you'll learn after you learned to address me properly. So who am I?"
Mittens answered with another hiss.
"I'll give you a hint. It starts with an m," Sonya added with a sweet smile.
"Monster!" Mittens spat.
The smile on Sonya's face faded, her hand moving to her armlet.
Mittens held her breath, waiting for the pain to come.
And when Sonya pressed the button and the pain finally choked her, Mittens sunk on her knees with a silent scream.
"How dare she!" Sonya yelled. She was pacing up and down in front of the big window in her hall. "She keeps calling me monster! And she should have learned by now that it is mistress!"
With a silent growl she dropped on her throne. "This is so annoying. Such a stubborn little cat!"
The man kneeling in front of her lifted his head and looked at her.
"Mistress, it has only been a few days."
"But there should be at least a little bit of progress!" the young woman hissed.
"Mistress, this cat is different from all your other cats," the man explained. "She isn't fully a cat, and she isn't fully human. And given the fact that at least some humans can be very stubborn and that cats are naturally stubborn it might take longer to break her spirit."
"She is special, you are right about that," Sonya gave back. "But I want her to obey now!"
"Well, Mistress, why don't you look for another cat-mutant then?"
The young woman raised a brow. "I never thought you were bright, but that was the stupidest thing you've ever said."
"No, Mistress, let me explain," the man said. "What I mean is there aren't any other cat-mutants yet."
Sonya leaned back, pressing her fingertips against each other, a half-smile appearing on her face.
"Tell me more."
Donnie was so caught up in his work he barely noticed how his brothers opened the door and came in.
Leo, Mikey and Raph stood there for a moment, the box with the unusual mutagen in it in front of them, and waited for Donnie to finally turn around, but he kept his eyes glued to the computer screen, tapping away on the keyboard.
"Uhm. Donnie?" Leo finally asked.
"What?" the brainiac gave back flatly without turning around.
"We…uhm…found something you might be interested in."
"If it isn't Mittens, I'm not interested," Donnie responded.
"You sure?" Leo asked. "We found some mutagen, but it's different from the mutagen we know."
Donnie froze for a moment, then slowly turned around to face his brothers. "What was that?"
Mikey opened the box, allowing Donnie to peek inside.
Donnie's eyes fell on the orange glowing canisters and he was up in no time, kneeling down in front of the box and having a closer look.
"What IS that?" he asked.
"Well, if you can't tell us, who could?" Leo replied.
"Yeah, Donnie, you are the smart one, remember?" Mikey added. "Okay, if we need to remind you, maybe you aren't that smart, but still smarter than we are. Well, that's what I guess, but now that I think of it…ouch!"
Raph had cut off his brother by giving him a slap on the back of his head.
Mikey rubbed his head, glaring at his older brother who was looking at Donnie without even giving Mikey a glance.
Mikey pouted, then turned to Donnie as well.
The purple-clad turtle touched one of the canisters. "This looks like a whole new type of mutagen!" he gasped. "I need to analyze it. That…that's just…" He took a deep breath.
"But first things first," he said as he looked at his brothers. "Which makes me think: What is more important right now, finding Mittens or analyzing this new mutagen?"
"Mittens!" his brothers answered quick as a shot.
"Yeah, I know," Donnie said and got up. "I was just fooling around a bit." He laughed insecurely.
His brothers looked at him with their brows raised.
Donnie gave another insecure laugh and got back to his computer.
"Well then, back to work!" he said gleefully as he started tapping away on his keyboard again.
It was 3 a.m. that night when Splinter left his room. He had done this the nights before after he heard what had happened to Mittens. While he was crossing the dojo he could already hear it.
Thud…thud…thud… Raph was again beating the training dummy like he had done the nights before.
Splinter sighed when he heard that. He walked over to the dojo's entrance and watched his son for a while. Raph had this eager look on his face he always had when being angry.
Splinter was sure that Raph had noticed that he was watching him, but the turtle went on without hesitation. The nights before Splinter had just watched for a while and then returned to his room. But he realized now that Raph would again spend the entire night hitting an inanimate object and not getting any sleep. And he was afraid that despite Raph's strength it would affect him that he hadn't slept in days now.
With a determined look on his face he went over to his son.
"Raphael," he addressed him. "It is late. You should get some sleep now."
Raph continued hitting the training dummy. "I can't sleep, Master Splinter."
"Did you try?"
"No."
"Then how do you know?"
Raph sighed slightly. "I just know."
"You really should try to get some sleep," Splinter continued. "What help would you be for your brothers, what help would you be for Mittens if you drive yourself to the ground?"
When he mentioned Mittens, Raph's brow furrowed but he continued in his actions.
Splinter took a deep breath.
"Raphael, I know you think what has happened to Mittens is your fault, but it isn't," he said in a calm voice.
Raph stopped immediately. The dummy, swinging back from the last hit, bumped against his plastron, but he didn't seem to care. He just stood there for a moment, thinking, before he started hitting the poor dummy again.
"It really IS my fault!" he said angrily. "Without me Mittens wouldn't have gotten kidnapped. If I had paid more attention to what was going on in the park, they would never have been able to sneak up on us. But I was…distracted. And if I had realized earlier that they were too many to take care of them all by myself they would never have been able to capture me."
"I feel confident that you did your best," Splinter interposed. "That could have happened to anyone."
"It wouldn't have happened to you," Raph mumbled. Most likely, because you would never make out with Mittens and betray your brother, he added mentally.
"Maybe, maybe not," Splinter said. "What is important is that you did your best."
"But that wasn't good enough."
"Raphael, if we stumble, all we have to do is getting back on our feet," Splinter said. "But you can't get back on your feet if all you do is thinking about how you stumbled over and over again. You have to let it go."
"Mittens counted on me, and I let her down," Raph gave back.
"You did your best, and most of the time this is all we can do, Raphael," Splinter replied. "We can't rise above ourselves all the time. We are only human." He thought about the phrasing for a moment. "Well, mainly, you know," he added with a little smile.
He placed a hand on Raph's shoulder, turning him so that he could face him which enforcedly made Raph stop. The mutant turtle had lowered his eyes, his body was still tense with anger.
"Raphael," Splinter said gently which made his son look up. "Mittens still counts on you. But if you keep this up you won't be able to help her. You would really let her down this time. You haven't let her down before, don't let her down this time, my son."
Raph lowered his eyes again, letting sink in what his sensei had said. He knew he was right. If he kept up his training he would sooner or later break down. And he couldn't help save Mittens in this state. It didn't make him feel better, though. He was still angry with himself. He was still angry that these Bastets had such an easy job of him. And the nagging feeling of having betrayed Mikey did one more thing to make him feel miserably.
But would it make him feel any better if he added extreme tiredness to his recent condition? He mentally shook his head.
And now that he permitted himself to feel something besides anger, he really was feeling tired.
"Have you understood?" Splinter asked.
Raph raised his eyes to meet Splinter's gaze. "Hai, sensei."
"Good." Splinter smiled at his son and took away his hand from Raph's shoulder.
"Good night, Master Splinter," Raph said as he went past the mutant rat on the way to his room.
"Good night, my son," Splinter responded.