Chapter 08: To the Rescue
Mittens was lying on the cold concrete floor, unable to move. Even the slightest movement hurt so much she had given up on moving completely when she could avoid it.
Dottie – she had decided to name the cheetah "Dottie" after she had realized it was a she – was pacing up and down her cage, making an insecure sound from time to time.
Finally, the big cat stopped at the bars that were closest to Mittens and shoved her paw through as if to poke the cat-mutant what of course was useless since Mittens was lying in the middle of her cage.
But Dottie didn't stop, trying harder and harder to somehow reach Mittens, purring loudly while doing so, until Mittens turned her head really tardily, as if in slow-motion until she finally could set eyes on Dottie. The cheetah still was trying to reach her, pushing her paw inside Mittens' cage as far as possible.
Mittens couldn't help but smile, even if it made her face hurt. With a wince she rolled on her belly and crawled over to the cheetah.
"It's okay, Dottie," she murmured as she reached her new friend. "I am fine." She thought about it. "I mean I could be worse."
She gave a little purr and gently touched Dottie's paw with her hand. The cheetah, seemingly reassured by Mittens' reaction, lied down as close to the mutant as possible, pressing her side against the bars, the cold steel pushing against her soft fur.
Mittens understood and carefully moved her hand into Dottie's cage and let it rest on her back, slowly stroking it.
Dottie closed her eyes and purred loudly.
Mittens gave a little smile. She wasn't sure who was calming whom right now. She thought it was her who was supposed to calm the poor animal, but Dottie's ongoing purr, the warmth of her fur caused a comfortable feeling washing through her veins. Or let's say the most comfortable feeling that was possible right now. It wasn't much, though, but it made her feel better, made the hurting a bit more bearable. And even the slightest help was more than welcome to Mittens, anything that would keep her from having her nightmares, anything that would make her forget how hopeless everything was at the moment.
And without really realizing it, she had started purring herself. And it could be her imagination only, but even the cold concrete floor did feel a bit warmer now.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!" With a frustrated scream Donatello slammed his fists on the table top, missing the keyboard by inches. At least he didn't seem angry enough to break something yet.
April who was about to enter the lab stopped abruptly and flinched. Sure, Donnie had his outbursts from time to time, but that was rather unusual.
The mutant turtle must have felt her presence because he turned his head to face her, moving one hand to the back of his head and looking at her sheepishly.
"Did I scare you?" he asked.
"No," April gave back, the slightly frightened look in her eyes contradicting her words.
"Sorry," Donnie muttered and turned back to his computer.
With a silent sigh April moved closer, and when she stopped to a halt next to him she eyed him up.
The red tint in Donnie's eyes was even more obvious now that the white of his eyes had turned red as well, due to a certain lack of sleep, April guessed.
"Donnie, when was the last time you slept?" the teenage girl asked cautiously.
"Dunno," Donnie answered. "What day is it?"
April sighed. That was what she been worried about. Donnie was so caught up in his work he had lost track of time and his needs.
"It's Thursday," she finally said.
"Oh, okay," Donnie gave back. "Then I guess it was yesterday that sensei insisted that I at least took a nap."
April shook her head slightly.
"Donnie, seriously, you should rest," she said.
"I can't," was his answer. "I have to find Mittens."
"At the cost of your health?!"
Donnie paused for a second, his fingers hovering over the keys.
"At any cost," he said as he continued his work.
April breathed out. She watched him for a few moments, and she could spot a slight difference in his movements. His fingers didn't tap on the keys in that incredible speed they usually did, they were so much slower now, his whole body was hunching in front of the computer.
"Leo called me," April stated.
"Well, isn't that nice of him?" Donnie said without taking his eyes from the computer screen.
"He called me because he is worried about you," April clarified. "They all are. I am, too."
Her last words let Donnie freeze for another moment, but he soon continued his actions.
"Donnie, you need to rest," April tried again.
"Not yet, I'm sorry," Donnie gave back. "I'm sort of stuck. Look here." He pointed at one of the pictures on the computer screen that showed streets and cars. "This is Sonya's limousine and the van leaving the park." He pointed at another pic. "And here you have Sonya's limousine arriving at her villa. So wherever they took Mittens, it's not Sonya's villa. I hacked into several traffic cameras, but I just can't find the van. And it is essential! When we find the van, we..." He stopped mid-sentence, his mouth still open, his fingers resting on the keys.
"We do what?" April asked.
Donnie snapped out of his trance.
"What?" he asked confusedly as he resumed his work.
"You said something about finding Mittens and then stopped mid-sentence," April explained.
"I did?" Donnie asked. "Can't remember."
April clenched her fists, her body tensing.
"Okay, this is it!" she burst out. "YOU. ARE. TAKING. A BREAK!"
Donnie turned around in shock at the sudden increase of volume in her voice.
"But April…"
"No buts!" April gave back. "You are taking a break now or I swear I'm gonna cut off the power!"
Donnie's eyes widened. "But…"
"I said, no buts!" April replied. "And you know I am totally capable of that. And I could always ask Mikey for help to short-circuiting this place!"
Donnie's eyes widened even more until finally he got up in slow-motion.
"Now that's a good boy!" April said with a smile as she placed a hand on Donnie's carapace and shoved him out of the lab.
"And while you're resting, I'll have a look at what you have found out so far," she continued as she paused in the door frame, giving Donnie a gentle push in the direction of his room. "Sometimes it needs a second pair of eyes to make out the obvious."
Without looking back at her Donnie staggered to his room. April breathed a sigh of relief when she heard his door shut close.
"Now that went better than thought," a voice said and April looked to the side where Leo stepped out of his hiding place. "I was afraid we really had to drag him out of his lab and lock him in his room this time."
"Not to forget tying him to his bed or otherwise he would have continued working on his T-phone," Raph added as stepped into the light as well. He thought about it for a moment. "Let me see if I can get a hold on his T-phone, just in case." And with that he went to Donnie's room.
At that moment Mikey jumped to the ground, running after his brother.
"Wait for me!" he called out.
"Silent, you idiot!" came Raph's angry voice. "Donnie's trying to sleep!"
"Oh, yeah, sure!" Mikey gave back, adding a long "Shhhhhhhhhhhhtttttt!" to his words.
April slightly shook her head at that scene. Then she turned to Leo.
"Thanks for calling me, Leo."
"Heh, I know when to call the cavalry," the turtle in blue replied with a shrug as he went over to the TV and turned it on.
April chuckled silently and then got back to the lab.
The door slid open automatically and Sonya entered the room, looking slightly misplaced in her Egyptian attire in this white laboratory with all its technical equipment. It looked like two different periods of time colliding.
She went over to one man who was checking some data written down on a piece of paper.
"Dr. Abbot," Sonya addressed him in a mandatory voice. "Any news?"
The scientist flinched at her voice, finally looking up from his papers, a feared look in his eyes.
"I…I'm sorry," he stuttered.
Sonya threw an angry look at him.
"Mistress!" he called out. "I mean, I'm sorry, Mistress!" He took a deep breath before he continued. "But that doesn't resemble anything I know. That DNA is so…different, I don't know how to work with it. It's not completely human nor is it completely a cat's DNA. It is somehow both, together with some strange DNA-strings I have never seen before."
"I was told, you and your team were the best genetic engineers out there," the woman replied.
"We are!" Abbot gave back. "But we can't do magic."
"Can you or can't you clone her?"
"I'm afraid we can't."
Sonya clenched her fists. "What?!"
"I am sorry!" Abbot cried out. And at the look on Sonya's face he quickly added, "Mistress!"
He moved a step back, before he continued.
"This is no natural mutation, Mistress," he said. "If we knew what caused that mutation, maybe we could do more, but as it is now, we are kind of stuck."
"Well," Sonya said, suddenly calming down. "That is something I can manage."
A devilish grin appeared on her face, and Abbot looked even more frightened now, taking another step back – just in case.
Donnie had been sleeping for five hours straight, and when he finally woke up and looked at the clock on his bedside table, he slapped his hand against his face and gave a frustrated grunt. Had he really been that tired? Five hours! Seriously? How could he rest for five hours when Mittens was still missing?
He jumped out of his bed and rushed to his lab as fast as he could. When he crossed the living room he called to his brothers who were sitting on the bench eating pizza: "Sorry, guys, I'll continue my work right now!"
He was about to enter his lab when the door was opened and April rushed outside, a cheerful look on her face, calling, "Guys! I think I found her! Aaaaaaaaaahhh!" Her words turned into a scream as she bumped Donnie. The mutant was too surprised to jump to the side which he could have easily done under normal circumstances. And he wasn't surprised because of her coming out of his lab but because of what she had said. So when April ran into him, he was easily overbalanced, falling backwards, and moments later he was lying on the ground with April on top of him.
In any other moment he would have enjoyed to be so close to her, but now he was looking at her with questioning eyes. "You did?"
April blinked a few times, still a bit confused about what had just happened.
"Yeah, you found Mittens?" Mikey bridged the distance from the bench to the two of them in one jump, followed close by Leo and Raph.
Leo held out a hand to April which she thankfully accepted and let him drag her to her feet.
"Yes," she replied. "I think I did."
Moments later they were in Donnie's lab where April showed them a map from the city where different places were marked with red dots.
"I tried a different approach than Donnie," she explained. "He couldn't find the van we think they used to take away Mittens on the traffic cameras, so I tried to look for a place where they could actually have brought Mittens. I used Donnie's data on Bastets-sightings and tried to find a place where they are a lot, but which is still somehow remote. I don't think they would bring Mittens to an apartment building. And there were more Bastets-activities at this part of the harbor." She pointed at some red dots. "There is a warehouse there. I checked its owner in the land charge register, and it is owned by Martens Corporated which is the firm of a certain Sonya Martens. Jackpot! Then I hacked into the traffic cameras nearby using Donnie's script – which, by the way, is an amazing script –, and voilà!" She pushed a key on Donnie's laptop and a video appeared on the screen, showing a limousine driving past it, followed by a van. "And to top it, guess whose limousine shows up on the videos to that camera at least once a day since Mittens is gone?" April looked at the brothers with a confident grin.
Donnie, Leo, and Raph returned her look wide-eyed, only Mikey looked rather confused, rubbing his head.
"Uhm…"
Raph smacked him on the arm. "Sonya's, meathead!"
"So Mittens is there?" Mikey burst out, straightening up.
"I guess so," April gave back, and the next thing she knew was that Mikey wrapped his arms around her, twirled her around in a tight hug and nearly hit his brothers with her dangling feet.
"You are the bestest, April!" he cried out. And when he put his human friend back on her feet he quickly placed a peck on her cheek which made Donnie yelp in shock. The purple-clad turtle immediately tried to cover this yelp with a cough. Leo and Raph just rolled their eyes when they heard that.
Mikey didn't notice, he was too busy hugging April once more, and if April had noticed she didn't let on about it.
When Mikey was finally done hugging the red-head, he turned to Leo.
"Are we going to rescue Mittens now?"
His brother nodded gravely. "Let's rescue Mittens."
When the lights were turned on Mittens advanced backwards to the farthest corner of her cage as fast as her hurting body was allowing her to move. And a hiss slipped out of her mouth as her eyes set on Sonya entering the room.
The woman went over to the cat-mutant's cage and knelt down.
Mittens blinked, surprised by Sonya's unusual behavior.
"No need to be afraid," Sonya said. "I just want to talk to you."
Mittens blinked again. This had to be a trap.
"What do you want?" Mittens spat.
Sonya smiled. "Well," she said, "this isn't working. I tried my best, but you don't want to learn."
Mittens uttered a brief laugh. "Yeah, learn."
"And so I thought how about we make a deal?" Sonya continued. "I found a way to get what I want without you. But I need some intel from you. So, you tell me what I need to know, and I will let you go."
Mittens raised a brow. "What do you want to know?"
"Tell me how you became a mutant."
"And if I tell you, you let me go?"
"I promise."
Mittens crawled closer and scanned Sonya's face for something that might reveal that she was lying, but couldn't find anything. Sonya's face looked honest to her. She took a deep breath. And then she told Sonya everything, how her last day as a normal cat had started, how she had met the boys on the street, how she had first seen the canister, and how she had got showered with this glowing ooze. Sonya nodded from time to time as she was listening to Mittens' explanations.
"And this is how I ended up the way I am now," Mittens ended.
"Very well," Sonya said as she got up. She turned on her heel and was about to leave. "See you later."
"Wait!" Mittens stopped her. "You said you will let me go! You liar!"
The young woman stopped immediately, turning back to Mittens, a diabolic grin on her face.
"Oh no, my dear, I didn't lie," she said smugly. "I promised I will let you go, and I will let you go. But I didn't say when I will let you go. So technically, that was no lie."
She turned around again and left the room.
As the door clunked shut, she could hear Mittens' furious shrieking.
Sonya was still smiling as she turned to one of her guards.
"Spread the word on the streets," she commanded. "I am looking for canisters containing some glowing ooze. Money is no object. Nor is anything else."
The guard just bowed his head in obedience.
The young man put a hand over his mouth and yawned. To be on night duty was so boring. His one hand went to his neck, re-adjusting the golden collar, while his other hand tightened the grip on his gun. With a sigh he leaned against the wall of the warehouse, scanning the surrounding buildings for anything suspicious, but there were no movements, so he looked up at the night-sky. Maybe he could see a shooting star and make a wish that his shift would end soon.
The Bastets were about to sustain their position among the other street gangs in New York, and this meant that the nightly attacks on their territory had decreased. So having to guard the warehouse during the night was the most boring thing he could think of. He looked over to the other guys having night duty at the warehouse. They looked just as bored. Maybe he could persuade them to a game of cards later.
He glanced at his watch. Just what he had thought. When nothing was happening, the time seemed to stand still. Yes, this definitely was the most boring night ever.
He yawned again, this time not bothering to put his hand over his mouth.
It was the moment when he heard something.
"Booyakasha!"
And the next thing he knew was something or someone knocking him off his feet.
Most boring night ever… Think again!
Mittens rolled from her belly on her back, but that didn't make the hurting stop.
After Sonya had left, she in her frustration and anger had run against the bars of her cage as if she wanted to break them, although she knew she would never make it. But she had needed to do something. And in all her frustration and anger she just hadn't been able to think of anything else.
At least the anger and frustrating had made her forget her pain.
And she had run against the bars for what had felt like hours. She had ignored Dottie's fearful shrieking and just kept going until the anger faded and her whole body had started hurting again. Her body had been hurting before from sleeping on the cold concrete and not enough space to move during the last days. But now her body was hurting even more. And she felt like she would never be able to move again. She was so exhausted, panting for air, and it even felt like the room was twirling around her.
She wasn't even able to turn her head, when she heard the door open. The lights kept turned off. That was odd. She desperately tried to turn her head when she heard the lock of her cage click and the door was opened.
And then she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her. For a second she thought of trying to fight whoever it was, but then she realized it would pretty much remain at trying, and on second thought she didn't even care. Whatever this guy wanted to do to her, it didn't matter.
It was only when her eyes fell on the arms that she realized that they were green. She turned her head so fast it made her wince, but then she gave a happy meow when realizing who was holding her.
Okay, it wasn't who she had hoped for in the first place, but she was fine with any of the brothers right now.
"Donnie!" she whispered.
The mutant turtle smiled at her. "Yes, it's me."
The brothers had decided that one of them would search the building for Mittens while the others kept the Bastets occupied. They had presumed that Mittens was held captive in the basement, based on what they had seen on the blueprints Donnie and April had been able to get for them. Leo had picked Donnie to get Mittens while he and the other two would deal with the guards. He thought of Donnie as the most appropriate for this job because Leo was sure that Mikey and Raph were too involved with Mikey being Mittens' boyfriend and Raph still feeling guilty for what had happened to her.
Mittens looked at Donnie for a moment when the image of Raph unconsciously hitting the water pictured in her mind's eye. She flinched at it, knowing that she had to say something.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"What for?" Donnie asked with a confused look on his face.
"Raph…" Mittens replied, her voice less than a whisper.
"Raph is fine," Donnie gave back. "You on the other hand aren't. Let's get you out of here."
And with that he picked her up and carried her out of the cage.
"He is?!"
Donnie nodded, receiving a relieved sigh from Mittens, but when he was about to leave the room, the cat-mutant stopped him.
"Wait!" she cried out. "Dottie! We have to take Dottie with us!"
And despite her hurting body she gestured to the other cage.
Donnie looked back over his shoulder, setting eyes on the cheetah that growled insecurely.
"I'm sorry, Mittens!" he gave back. "No time for that!" And then he darted out of the room, ignoring Mittens desperate cry as good as he could although it gave his heart a twinge.
The young man who had been mentally complaining about the boring night struggled to his feet. He still wasn't sure what had hit him. Looking around him he realized the place looked like a battle field. He had no idea how many had attacked them. It felt like there had been hundreds of them, but he knew it had been a lot less. He remembered at least three shadowy figures. But they had gone as fast as they had appeared. Shadows in the night.
He slightly shook his head. He would never complain about a boring night ever again.
Moments later the Shellraiser was making its way back to the lair. Inside it Mikey was kneeling on the floor, holding Mittens in his arms. The cat-mutant was hugging him back as tight as her hurting body allowed her. When Mikey loosened his grip on her a bit, she rested her head on his thighs, but her boyfriend didn't let go of her completely. His arms were still wrapped around her, but a lot slighter now. It seemed like he had to touch to ensure that she was for real.
Mittens smiled at him, gently touching his cheek with her hand.
But there was something she needed to ensure herself of, too. She had seen Raph when the three brothers had joined her and Donnie inside the Shellraiser. Leo had smiled at her when he had run past her who was cowering on the floor, and got into the driver's seat. But Raph had simply marched to his station without even glancing at her. And then Mikey had put her into his arms like he would never let her go.
Sure, she knew now that Raph was alive, but she still couldn't believe it. So she turned her head and looked at the red-clad turtle.
He tried hard to ignore her stare, but when Mittens gave an insecure meow he couldn't ignore her any longer. He squinted his eyes and sighed. He was still feeling so guilty and he didn't want to face her, but he knew he had to at least look at her. It was no time for talking and he was really thankful he could avoid the talk – at least for now. He knew they had to talk sooner or later. But not now.
He turned around, looking at Mittens' relieved face. She reached out for him. He hesitated first, but then took her hand.
"You're alive," Mittens whispered.
"'Course I am," Raph replied. "It would take more than a crazy cat-lady and her tranquilizer to finish me off."
Mittens smiled at him. And without really realizing it, Raph returned her smile.