Raph drew a deep, steadying breath as he, Leo, and Donnie made their way to the lab.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Leo asked softly.

"I'm not afraid of a stupid dead Kraang."

"I didn't say you were."

"Raph, don't be too hard on yourself," Donnie said. "It's actually to our benefit that it happened this way – I wouldn't have been able to conduct a proper autopsy otherwise."

Leo glanced at Raph and smirked. "Yeah, that's not a morbid and creepifying perspective at all."

Donnie stopped walking. "You guys accuse me of making up words, and then you actually make up words."

They had paused in the living room, and Mikey looked at them over the back of the couch. "Yeah, Leo. Even I know that 'perspective' isn't a word."

"No, Mikey, I meant 'creepifying'!"

Mikey grinned a little too broadly. "No, pretty sure that's a word, dude. I creepify, you creepify, he, she, it creepifies…I thought you were smart, Donnie!"

Raph and Leo shared a furtive wink. Donnie might have thought that Mikey was being stupid – and generally, he would be right – but they knew that in this case, Mikey was fully aware of what he was doing.

"I'm pretty sure Mikey's right," Leo said, more loudly than strictly necessary. "Today I creepify, yesterday I creepified, in the past I have creepified…"

"In the future I will creepify…" Raph supplemented. In spite of everything, this kind of thing was always fun. It would only take a few more button pushes before Donnie lost his cool.

"And currently," Mikey said, holding up a finger, "I am creepifying."

"Yeah, you are creepifying, Mikey," Donnie snapped, rolling his eyes.

"See, even Donnie agrees it's a word!"

"Yeah, it's regularly conjugated and everything," Leo said.

Donnie glared. "Oh, shut up, Leo. You wouldn't even know what 'conjugated' means if it wasn't for me!"

"Nah…I'm pretty sure Splinter taught us all of that stuff."

"Yeah…and it's pretty obvious what it means," Mikey said. "I mean, you're gatherin' all the words into one place."

"Conjugated, Mikey!" Donnie howled. "Not congregated!"

"And now he's makin' up words again." Mikey grinned knowingly at Raph and Leo.

Donnie looked like a kettle about to start whistling. "I am not!"

Leo and Mikey burst out laughing. Leo laughed so hard that he had to cling to Raph for support; his hysterics were so contagious that Raph couldn't resist joining in. Mikey's laughter was punctuated by him pounding his fists on the back of the couch.

"Oh, I see what this is," Donnie growled.

"Mikey – Mikey," Leo wheezed between spasms of laughter. "We don't give you – don't give you nearly enough – enough credit."

"Ow…ow…my stomach! Can't stop – laughin'…" Tears were streaming down Mikey's face.

At that moment, Casey leapt over the turnstiles. "Hey, dudes, what's so funny?"

Leo and Mikey redoubled their mirth; Leo was reduced to soundless wheezes and Mikey positively howled. At this point, their reactions were so much more hilarious than the original joke that Raph, whose own stomach had started to cramp up, couldn't stop laughing long enough to respond to Casey.

"Okay, I'm guessin' that whatever it was, it was at Donnie's expense." Casey flipped up his mask and grinned widely. "Sorry I missed it."

Scowling, Donnie stomped to the lab.

"Dude – " Mikey panted, his voice shrill. "He – it's just too – too easy…"

After a few more moments, Leo finally started breathing normally again. "Ahem." He wiped a stray tear out of his eye. "I guess we should probably go help him, Raph."

Raph's merriment died immediately upon remembering their task. "I don't know if I want to be around an angry Donnie with a scalpel." He was trying to cover up his discomfort with another joke – after all, since when was he ever afraid of anything?

When Leo and Mikey had one more round of hysterical laughter, Raph was unable to join them. The fact that he was even asking himself that question was an indication that he was afraid, in some small way. Not of the Kraang, perhaps, but of acknowledging what had truly happened. Would they learn that the Kraang's agony was even worse than Raph already suspected?

"Okay, that's enough," Leo said. "Let's go help Donnie with the autopsy."

"You guys are dissecting the Kraang now?" Casey said, his eyebrows raised. "Wicked nasty, dude! I got done with hockey practice just in time! Can I help too?"

Leo blinked in disbelief. "Wow, and I thought Donnie was morbid."

"Probably ought to sit this out, Casey," Raph said, folding his arms. Donnie, April, and Casey in the same room was bad enough before he found out about April's stupid crush on him.

"Nyah...I'll be fine. My best grades this whole semester were for dissecting a frog in biology. Plus, I was the only guy in my class who managed not to barf when we watched a video of a baby pig being dissected."

"They were cutting up a pig? That's so cruel!" Mikey said.

"Um, it was dead."

"How could anybody ever cut up a pig, though? That's terrible!"

"You…do know what pepperoni is made of, right?"

"Pure magic?"

Casey drew a lip into his mouth. "Erm…yeah. So can I help?"

"I don't see why not," Leo said.

"I wanna help too!" Mikey leapt off the couch.

Casey walked over to Mikey and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "No offense dude, but you probably don't have the stomach for it."

"I'm not gonna watch – I'm gonna be there for moral support."

"Whatever, Mikey. You can come too. Let's just get in there before Donnie blows a gasket." Leo motioned toward the lab and they all headed there.

"You mean blows another one," Casey commented.

Shut up, Casey, Raph thought as they filed into the lab. Just keep your big, stupid, arrogant mouth shut, and maybe this won't be the single most awkward situation of my life.

Donnie sat at his computer, squinting as if he were analyzing data. "You're right – that doesn't make much sense at all."

Behind him, April had her arms braced on the back of his chair as she looked over his shoulder. "I know, right?" She looked over at the others as they walked in. "Wow, Donnie, do we really need four more people to do this autopsy?"

Donnie jerked his head away from the computer screen and glared at them. "No, we just need one. Raph, you stay here. The rest of you get out."

Raph's stomach went cold. He'd wanted to be present for the autopsy, not actually assist in doing it. And being alone in the lab with Donnie and April? "Why me?"

"Because of all of you guys, I'm the least mad at you right now."

"What did I do?" Casey asked.

"Come on, Donnie," Leo said, "we were just giving you a hard time. We all want to be here for this."

"Want is a bit of a strong word," Raph grumbled.

Donnie sighed. "Fine. But only one of you can help. The rest of you, stay out of the way."

"So, what doesn't make sense?" Leo gestured toward the computer screen.

"Oh. April was going over the results again to see if there was anything we might have missed, but there wasn't. We've analyzed the toxin upside down and backward, and we can't figure out how it works. I mean, most toxins destroy metabolic functions on a cellular basis…but as far as I can tell, this stuff shouldn't actually harm any living thing."

"A toxin that's not toxic?" Casey scratched his head. "But you saw what it did to that Kraang."

"Yeah, that's the thing – obviously, it's lethal. I'm wondering if the substance is like this so it won't show up as a cause of death in forensic analysis."

"That doesn't make sense either, Donnie," April said. "Why would the Kraang care about human police forensics?"

"I don't know. Well, let's get this started. Mikey, Casey, you stand over there; Leo, you get scrubbed up."

"Um, actually, Casey is good at dissecting things," Leo said. "Plus, he's got more fingers than me. You know what they say…ten fingers are better than six."

The look on Donnie's face clearly indicated that he disapproved of the idea. "That's not how the saying goes."

"Actually, Casey did get an 'A' on his last bio lab," April said. "And no offense to turtle hands…but Leo has a point about the fingers when it comes to delicate work."

Donnie looked genuinely hurt. "I manage to get by."

"Yeah, but he's not as smart as you. No offense, Leo."

Leo grinned. "Hey, if it gets me out of having to touch dead Kraang innards, none taken."

"Okay then. Leo, Mikey, stand over there." Donnie seemed to be torn between being pleased by April's compliment and still mad at the fact that he was going to have to work with Casey. "Raph, April, would you go get the Kraang from the kitchen? Casey, come with me to get scrubbed up. I even have some gloves to fit your fancy five-fingered hands."

"I can get the Kraang myself," Raph said quickly.

"Oh, because you don't need help from a girl?" April asked, planting an accusing finger on his chest. She kept on walking past him.

Biting back rage or embarrassment – at this point, he wasn't sure which – Raph followed after her.

"So, what's your deal today, Raph?" April said, once they were out of the lab.

Heat blossomed on Raph's cheeks. "I'm sorry I said that earlier. I didn't mean that girls are – not as good as guys."

April paused and looked at him with a half-smile. "Wow, are you actually apologizing?"

Raph glared at the floor. "Yeah."

"Apology accepted. But what's really bothering you? You've been acting weird since I got here. Is it because of the Kraang?"

Raph was caught in an instant of panic. If he said no, she'd ask what it was. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay. Well, I'm here if you need me. Even if I am just a girl."

As they resumed their journey to the kitchen, with April walking in front of him, Raph tried his hardest not to look at the inviting scenery. It made him angry. Before today, he never would have given a second thought to April's appearance – she was his friend, practically his sister. Did she really think he was hot? Did she really, honestly think that he wasn't a hideous, ugly freak, that he was somebody worthy of being her boyfriend at some point? That she thought he was as attractive as he was beginning to realize she was?

No. No way. April is off limits.

As they walked into the kitchen, Raph wondered if maybe those limits were self-imposed, too.

"Huh. The freezer is open," April said. "That's really weird. Where's Ice Cream Kitty?"

Raph slapped a palm to his forehead. "Oh, no…Mikey must not have latched the doors right…again. Last time she got out, she got into the fridge and messed everything up. I swear, if she eats my blueberry yogurt again…" He snatched the refrigerator door handle and yanked it open.

"Squeeeeeeee!"

The interior of the refrigerator was covered in ice cream splatters; hissing, spitting, and growling, Ice Cream Kitty was locked in mortal combat with a flailing, squealing, angry, very much alive Kraang.

Once the door was open, the Kraang launched itself out of the fridge and headed straight for April. She put up her hands instinctively to protect itself, and it latched onto her fingers, biting so fiercely that it drew blood.

April's scream echoed through the lair for the second time that day.

With a shout, Raph punched the Kraang; it let go and scuttled out of the kitchen. "April – are you okay?"

April clutched at her bloodied hand. "I think I'm going to need stitches…we've got to catch that thing! If it escapes…"

Without further hesitation, Raph ran out of the kitchen. Everyone else had run out of the lab, looking concerned. Raph didn't pay any attention to them. He had to find and stop that Kraang…

There. A pink blur of motion to his right. The little bugger was already about to slip into the waterways. Once it got in, they would probably lose it, and it would take their coordinates back to TCRI. They wouldn't be safe.

April wouldn't be safe.

The world slowed down. Raph knew what he had to do. It was absolutely necessary. Unavoidable. The only clear and right moral choice. His hands flew to the sai strapped to his belt.

As if he wasn't the one doing it, he watched his sai fly straight and true, watched as the spire disappeared into the vulnerable squishy pink flesh of his enemy. The Kraang stopped dead in its tracks; a pool of neon purple blood collected around it.

Raph's heart was pounding as the world sped up again. He was hardly aware of the noise that everyone else was making. His rage so frequently dictated him, the desire for justice so firmly ingrained in him, that he was shocked by his own horror. He had killed something. He had killed something. On purpose. He never once imagined that he would feel this way afterward – the fact that it had been the only right thing to do didn't make it any better.

A hand clapped him on the shoulder. "Nice shot, dude," Casey said.

Raph swallowed. "Yeah. Nice shot."