A/N: Hey, everybody! I really hope some of you are still enjoying this story. No one reviewed the last chapter at all and I can't help wondering if everyone is losing interest. If so, I won't bother posting the rest, but if you really do like the story, please drop me a review and tell me what you think so I know someone out there likes it and wants me to continue. At any rate, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 9:

Mikey sat with his cheek resting on one hand while his finger traced the dents, scratches, and doodles left on the desktop by generations of bored students. Someone had carved a rude word into the wood of the desk with a pen, and someone else, presumably a teacher, had tried to scrub it out, but Mikey could still read it. He sighed and glanced out the window.

The school day was almost over, and so far, it had been a series of unforgettable experiences. It had taken him several classes to discover what was expected of him. He hadn't realized school had so many rules! After getting in trouble several times throughout the morning, he learned that he was supposed to sit still in his desk instead of jumping on top of it to get a better view out the window, and that he must raise his hand if he wished to speak, rather than talking loudly to anyone who would listen about completely irrelevant topics. He had also found out that not every person in the school was interested in telling him their names, and that the middle of a social studies lesson was not the appropriate time to demonstrate a new kata he was inventing.

By midday, every teacher in the school knew the name of their boisterous visitor, and had, most likely, given him a reprimand. Poor April was continually trying to hide her embarrassment and make excuses for him.

Despite these unfortunate setbacks, however, Mikey was having a wonderful time. In gym class he had easily breezed into first place completing the obstacle course the students had to run. He was able to show off some of his painting skills in art class, though the teacher had been very confused when he said the turtle he had painted was his brother, Leo. At lunch he was thrilled when his new friends Justin and Ryan had invited him to sit with them, though they may have regretted this when he stood on the table to demonstrate to the room his alphabet burping abilities. He'd gotten as far as M before he had been pulled down and made to behave. Chemistry was something Mikey had been somewhat apprehensive about, but thankfully they had a substitute that day and they ended up just watching a movie while half the students took the opportunity to take an afternoon nap.

Now, however, it was the last period and he was stuck in April's trigonometry class, listening to the teacher drone on. It was like sitting through one of Donnie's rambling speeches for forty-five minutes, without being allowed to interrupt him. Mikey sighed again and tried to focus on sitting still, a task in which his restless arms and legs refused to cooperate. Math had always been his worst subject. Despite his father's best efforts and Donnie's attempts at tutoring, Mikey had never progressed beyond multiplying and dividing fractions. The teacher continued to talk, and he might as well have been speaking Greek for all Mikey understood.

Mikey glanced over at April, sitting in the desk next to his. He kept catching her staring at him, which puzzled Mikey. For the first time, April was the one giving him strange looks, while everyone else treated him normally. He supposed she would just need time to get used to the idea of him being human.

At last, the large bottle of root beer Mikey had drunk at lunch obligingly gave him an excuse to leave the room. He shot his hand into the air. The teacher stopped in mid-sentence and seemed surprised to see Mikey's hand.

"Yes, um, Michelangelo?" he said.

"Can I go use the bathroom?"

The teacher sighed. He had clearly been hoping for a question relevant to the topic. "Yes, you may, but hurry back."

Mikey was already on his feet. "Thanks, dude! Uh, I mean, sir!" He flashed a grin at the unamused teacher as he bounded out of the room.

Mikey took his time in the bathroom, having no desire to return to trigonometry. He spent a few minutes making faces in the mirror. It still amused him to see that human boy looking back at him out of the glass. When he finally opened the door to step back into the hallway, he yelped in surprise. He found himself face to face with the blank stare of a Kraang bot in disguise.

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Donatello watched eagerly as the mutated cells transformed before his very eyes. At last! This was the answer! "Guys!" he called, jumping up from behind his microscope and running to the door of the lab. "Guys! I figured it out!"

His excited shouts were met with a silence unusual for the lair at this time of day. Donnie remembered that none of his brothers were at home, and Splinter was in his room, meditating. Too excited to wait until they returned, Donnie pulled out his T-phone and scanned his short contacts list, selecting Leo's name. He paused as Leo's picture popped up and the familiar green turtle face smiled up at him. In a moment of morbidity he wondered if he would ever see that face again. He shook away that thought and punched the call button.

A few seconds later, Leo's voice came through the phone. "Hey, Donnie! What's up?"

"Leo!" cried Donnie, his excitement apparent in his bubbly voice. "I figured out what the Blue Goo does!"

"Really? That's great, Donnie! You can tell us all about it in person in a few minutes. Raph and I are on our way home."

"Oh, did you discover the Kraang facility?" asked Donnie hopefully.

"No, not yet. We've checked five of the eight locations, and turned up with nothing. It took us ages to sneak into the last place we checked, which was the basement of that office building, and all we found was some cleaning supplies and an angry janitor."

"Sorry, Leo. I was pretty sure some of those places would be total dead ends, but I had to include them all, just to be safe."

"Yeah, I get it, but Raph and I need a break now. We haven't eaten since breakfast and we're starving. We're coming back to the lair for a late lunch, then we can all go out together after Mikey gets back from school. We're nearly home, so we'll see you in about twenty minutes."

"OK, see you then."

Donnie pocketed his T-phone and picked up his laptop. It would be just as easy to finish typing up his findings in the kitchen as in the lab, and Leo's mention of food had reminded his growling stomach that he, too, had missed lunch. Setting his computer on the kitchen table, he put a large pot on the stove to boil for ramen and went back to entering his data.

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Mikey took a tentative step back from the Kraang droid blocking his way out of the bathroom.

"You are one of the ones who were known as the turtles. The ones who were known as the turtles must be captured by Kraang for the experiment which is known as Experiment Five, which will be conducted by Kraang."

Mikey caught a glimpse of a tracking device before the robot pocketed it, and noticed a strange new weapon in its other hand. It was a short metal rod, about a foot long. Half the length of it crackled with pink energy, and Mikey was quite sure he did not wish to discover what this weapon could do. Instinctively, he put his hands to his hips, only to remember he had left his nunchaku at home. As the Kraang began to advance toward him, wielding the glowing baton in his direction, Mikey quickly appraised the situation. He was an unarmed teenage ninja against an alien robot wielding an unknown weapon. The odds were against him, but he wasn't about to go down without a fight.

"Nah! You have to catch me first!" taunted Mikey as he raced back toward the toilets.

The Kraang followed, as expected, and Mikey ducked into one of the cubicles. Leaping onto the toilet, he reached up and grasped the upper edge of the partition. He then pulled himself up to perch above the head of the droid who had just opened the cubicle door in pursuit of him.

Releasing his battle cry, Mikey hurled himself at the Kraang, landing forcefully on the droid's head. Had he still been a turtle, he would have been able to crash down on the robot with the full weight of his shelled body and crush it to the ground. As it was, he knew he was far too lightweight for that, so instead he used its head as a springboard to launch himself beyond the droid, in the direction of the door. However, his graceful leap was cut short mid-arc as the fast moving robot grabbed his ankle, causing him to fall full length on the floor, slamming his cheek hard into the tile.

Refusing to let the pain distract him, Michelangelo leaped instantly to his feet and continued his escape, barreling into the hallway. There he paused momentarily, glancing in both directions down the the corridor, taking in the numerous closed doors on either side. He could not take refuge in a classroom, for that would endanger the other students. His only option was to get outside.

This thought flashed through his brain in a fraction of a second, but that was all the time the Kraang needed to catch up to him. Before Mikey could head for the exit, he felt a touch of cold metal at the back of his neck, followed by instant flashes of pain surging through his whole body like liquid fire. The pain consumed his mind. Burning. Searing. White hot pain. Letting loose a scream, he fell to the ground, mercifully breaking his connection to the weapon. His mind cleared as he gasped for breath. What was that? He had never felt pain like that before, not even during the recent horrific mutation. It had lasted only a couple of seconds, but had left him momentarily stunned, crouching on his hands and knees trying to catch his breath, which had undoubtedly been the Kraang's intention.

In the instant before Mikey had time to regain his feet, the robot grabbed his left wrist, holding it tightly in its metal grip. Mikey growled and struggled to free himself, but in vain. Several kicks to the robot's legs and torso produced no results beyond bruising a few of Mikey's favorite toes.

Giving Mikey's arm a frightful tug, the robot caused the boy to lose his footing and began dragging him down the hallway by his wrist, painfully twisting it in the process. Mikey cried out and tried to brace himself against the floor in an effort to hinder the droid's progress, but his shoes kept slipping on the smooth tile and he continued to be helplessly dragged away.

Struggle as he might, the boy was no match for the strength of the alien robot. He needed backup. With his free hand, Michelangelo felt in his pocket for his T-phone. He drew it out, but before he could punch the panic button, the Kraang saw what he was doing and knocked the phone out of his hand with a sharp kick. Mikey yelped and shook his bruised fingers as the T-phone skidded away across the floor, far beyond his reach.

The young ninja tried once again to wrench his hand free, but his efforts only resulted in shots of pain running down his arm from his sprained wrist. He couldn't believe it! He was losing to a Kraang! One single Kraang! As he looked up at the droid's merciless stare he wasn't sure which emotion was strongest in his chest – fear or humiliation. In an attempt to mask both behind his frustrated rage, he shot the Kraang droid an angry glare. "Let me go!" he shouted, though he knew the order would not be obeyed.

The robot spoke in its usual monotone voice. "The one who was known as one of the turtles has been captured by Kraang and will be taken by Kraang to the facility which is used by Kraang to perform the experiments which are the experiments of Kraang. The one who was known as one of the turtles must offer no resistance, or the one who was known as one of the turtles will be punished." Upon completing this long-winded threat, the robot held up the metal rod to illustrate its intentions.

Mikey, who had tuned out most of the Kraang's run-on sentences, understood all too well what was meant by this gesture. Humiliation was forgotten. Fear was clawing at him, threatening to consume him as he looked at that weapon. There was one thing Mikey knew for sure. He did not want to come into contact with that horrifying stick again! Desperate to escape, he pulled and strained against the vice grip on his wrist, but it did not slacken in the slightest degree. In response to the boy's pointless attempts to struggle, the droid raised his crackling baton. Mikey's freckled face grimaced in anticipation of pain, but it never came.

At that moment, the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. An instantaneous flood of students surged out of the classrooms, surrounding the startled alien robot and its prey. It took the teenagers all of five seconds to notice the abduction taking place before them, and most stopped and stared in fear or stunned silence. A couple of girls screamed, and several students raced back into classrooms to fetch teachers.

"Mikey!" cried a familiar voice, and the boy recognized his red-headed friend elbowing her way to the front of the crowd.

"Stay back, April!" Mikey called in a commanding voice. He knew how dangerous this Kraang could be with its new weapon, and he did not want her getting hurt. April paused, her blue eyes flicking between him and the Kraang bot, unsure what to do.

During this commotion, the Kraang droid turned its head this way and that in a confused manner, as it realized that all of its paths to exits had been suddenly blocked by the crowd of students. Mikey took advantage of the robot's momentary distraction and sent a powerful kick into the hand that was holding the pain-producing weapon. Taken by surprise, the alien droid lost its grip on the baton and the weapon went flying, bounced off a wall, and slid along the floor before the feet of a group of students.

One boy reached down to pick it up, but Mikey, still caught in the unrelenting grasp of the robot, called out frantically, "Don't touch that! It's dangerous!" The student pulled his hand back immediately, and looked in confusion at the boy being restrained by the creepy-looking stranger.

Suddenly, several teachers pushed their way through the mass of students, and came face to face with the man they were unaware was an alien in disguise. All they saw was a strange man forcefully abducting one of their students.

"Unhand that boy immediately!" demanded one brave woman at the front of the group. Several of the male teachers looked ready to physically force the man to let Mikey go, if it came to that. A siren was heard, not far away. Someone had called the police.

Mikey held his breath, wondering what the Kraang would do. It scanned the room, taking in the hundreds of people, the sounds of approaching law enforcement, and its lost weapon, far out of reach. Then, to Mikey's surprise, the droid dropped him, turned, and ran, purposefully and methodically, out of the building, knocking down several teachers and students who did not get out of its path in time.

Stunned, Mikey sat on the floor where he had fallen, rubbing his sore wrist and watching the alien robot disappear, a few of the braver teachers chasing after it. An instant later, he was receiving a hug from April and being helped to his feet by the woman who had confronted the Kraang bot.

"What happened?" the woman was asking him. "Do you know that man?"

Mikey opened his mouth to say that it wasn't a man at all, but an alien brain in a robot body who was trying to capture him for a mutation experiment, but then remembered the first time he had encountered the Kraang and the reactions of his brothers when he had tried to tell them about it. Instead, he shook his head and said, "No! The dude just jumped me when I was coming out of the bathroom!"

Mikey wanted to get home right away and tell his brothers about his experience, but the concerned teacher, seeing the nasty bruise on his cheek where he had struck the bathroom floor, insisted on taking him to see the school nurse first. April gave him an understanding look as he was led away down the hall.

Unknown to Michelangelo, his would-be abductor managed to escape the police and returned unhindered to its headquarters, where it made the following report:

"Kraang has located one of the the ones who were known as the turtles, but Kraang was not successful in capturing that one for the experiments of Kraang. It is necessary that Kraang have several Kraang units of backup when Kraang attempts again to capture any of the ones who were known as the turtles."

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Donatello heard voices entering the lair, followed by his two older brothers bursting into the kitchen. Despite their failed mission and lack of food, they looked to be in good spirits.

"Hey, Donnie," Raph greeted, moving directly to the pot of ramen bubbling deliciously on the stove.

Donnie waited patiently until his brothers had poured themselves large bowls of steaming noodles before attempting to capture their full attention. As Leo sat down beside him and picked up a pair of chopsticks, their usual choice of utensil, Donnie said excitedly, "OK, guys, so I finally figured out exactly what this synthesized mutagen does!"

"Alright, Donnie," interrupted Raph, "but please! Keep it in English this time."

The scientist gave his brother an exasperated look, but plowed ahead, attempting to keep his vocabulary level to a minimum. "OK, OK. So, I figured out that this Blue Goo completes mutations!"

"What do you mean?" asked Leo. After several frustrated moments of fumbling with the chopsticks in his fingers, he tossed them aside in favor of a spoon.

"Well, you know how the regular mutagen, the green stuff we'd all been exposed to originally, combines the DNA of an animal or human with the DNA of whatever creature it had last been in contact with? It then creates a hybrid of the two creatures – in our case, humanoid turtles."

Raph and Leo both nodded, showing they understood.

"Well," continued Donnie excitedly. "The blue mutagen causes the second set of DNA to totally take over, completing the mutation, transforming the animal or human entirely into the new creature. For us, that meant completing the process of turning us from ordinary turtles into humans." Donnie was grinning with the excitement of his discovery.

"So. . ." said Leo slowly, getting his head around this new information. "If Master Splinter were to be exposed to the Blue Goo, he would become – "

" – an ordinary rat," finished Raphael.

"Exactly!" stated Donnie, not noticing the negative connotations of Raph's statement in his joy over his discovery.

"One more reason not to bring any to the lair," mumbled Raph.

"So," said Leo, "What happens if an ordinary person, a non-mutant, is hit with the Goo?"

"As far as I can tell, nothing," answered Donnie, clicking away on his laptop. "According to my experiments, the synthesized mutagen requires a secondary string of DNA to latch on to in order to cause the mutation process."

"Then I wonder what the Kraang's plan could be for this stuff," pondered Leonardo.

There was a few minutes of silence, punctuated only by the slurping of noodles, as the three boys considered this. When no obvious solution was forthcoming, Leo turned back to Donnie.

"So, Donnie," he began, a serious tone in his voice. "Raph and I had a discussion while we were out, and we have agreed that, if we get some of the Blue Goo tonight, we will be willing to use it to remain human, if that's what you and Mikey really want."

Surprised, Donnie glanced questioningly at Raph, who gazed steadily back at him and nodded, a solemn expression on his face.

"Wow, really?" asked Donnie, hardly believing it. "Gosh, that really means a lot, you guys. And I'm sure Mikey will be thrilled to hear it, too."

As if on cue, the sound of their youngest brother's voice echoed through the lair. "Hey, guys! I'm ho-o-ome!"

A second later, he burst through the kitchen partition, followed by a frazzled looking April, whose presence caused Donnie's cheeks to flush pink.

"Hey, Donnie," she greeted, her voice sounding tired. "Is it OK if I use your laptop to finish my history essay?"

"Sure," he said awkwardly, shoving it towards her.

Mikey was already talking a mile a minute about his exciting day. "Dudes, you totally should have come to school with us today! It was awesome! We had pizza for lunch in the cafeteria. They only let you have two pieces, but this one girl didn't want hers, so I got to eat it, and I totally made some friends! Their names are Justin and Ryan and they love skateboarding, too, and want to see the tricks I invented, so I'm meeting them at the skate park tomorrow afternoon, which is going to be epic, and hey, is that ramen? I'm starving!"

The fast talking ninja was already holding the ladle and a bowl before he realized his brothers were all staring at him. "What?" he asked.

"What happened to you?" asked Raph, taking in the large purple bruise under Mikey's eye, and his sprained wrist, neatly bandaged by the school nurse. "Did you get into a fight?"

Mikey followed his brother's gaze and held up his injured hand. "Ah, no, dudes, I was totally nearly captured by the Kraang!"

"What?!" His brothers leapt instantly to their feet.

"You didn't think that was important enough to include when you were telling us about your day?" asked Leo, incredulous.

"I was getting to it, bro. I mean, come on, we get attacked by the Kraang almost every day. It's not exactly new. But this was the first time in my life I made a friend!"

Leo was slightly confused by the reasoning behind Mikey's priorities, but he set it aside and calmly asked his brother to elaborate his story. Mikey then recounted with relish his encounter with the Kraang, with April adding in a few details.

When he finished, Leo patted him on the shoulder. "I'm glad you're OK, Mikey, but this means we have to be more careful when we go topside. We must put an end to the Kraang's plot tonight!"

The three brothers quickly brought Michelangelo up to speed on what they had learned about the Blue Goo, and what Raph and Leo had accomplished (or not accomplished) during the day.

"We have three locations left to try," said Leo. "We need to find the Kraang, discover what they're trying to do with the Goo, and stop them!"

"And steal some of the Goo for ourselves!" added Mikey with a grin.

Leo nodded. "Well, if you're all ready, then let's go!"

He moved quickly toward the kitchen doorway followed eagerly by Raph and Mikey. Donatello, however, hesitated.

"Um, guys," he said, rather nervously, glancing at April, who was immersed in her homework and didn't see him blushing, "I, uh, have a couple things to do here first, so I'll catch up with you?"

He cast a pleading look in Mikey's direction, hoping his intuitive brother would understand. Mikey glanced at April and then winked at Donnie. "Sure thing, bro! Call us when you're on your way!"

Leo and Raph looked slightly confused, but Mikey ushered them quickly out of the kitchen. When they had jumped the turnstiles and were safely out of earshot of the lair, Leo turned to Mikey. "What was that about? Why isn't he coming?"

Raph, who had noticed Donnie's nervous glance at April, said with a scowl, "Please tell me he's not going to do what I think he's going to do."

Mikey just grinned at him. "Come on, bros," he said, pushing them forward. "He'll catch up to us."

A/N: OK, we're nearing the climax now, so things are about to start getting exciting! Let me know if you want me to keep going with this.