Chapter 22
Aftermath
"… and that about sums it up." said April. After Tyroth and Jennifer had left to help the rest of the gang, she and Casey had explained who they were, what the Foot really was and that their friends were mutants. They did however not mention anything about the mutants' pasts, that was something that they themselves should tell.
"My God. This is almost too much to take in." said Erica. "And there are more like Raymond?"
"Not exactly, I mean, there are more mutants, but he's the only one that's a dragon mutant." said Casey.
"I would still like to know what happened to him. We were told that he was murdered by some nut-job that had gotten his hands on explosives." said Richard.
"And he wasn't the only one, his girlfriend, Elisabeth, was also a victim. Poor girl, she was so sweet and full of life." Erica said with a sad voice.
"I'm sure he'll explain everything once we all get to safety." said April, placing a comforting hand on Erica's shoulder.
Suddenly, Casey's phone buzzed. He checked the display and saw the name 'Raph'.
"Yeah?" he answered. "Okay, see you soon, Raph. They're on their way, should be here any minute."
Sure enough, a few minutes later, there was a knock on the rear doors. Checking to be sure, April then opened the door and the nine mutants got into the Battleshell, almost filling it to capacity. Casey started the truck and began the trip back to the garage.
"Everyone alright?" April asked.
"We are fine, miss O'Neil." said Splinter as he sat down. Richard and Erica looked at the mutants, despite that they had been told about them, it was still hard to fathom it all.
"And you must be Tyroth's parents." said the old rat, looking at the couple and smiling. "You can be proud of your son, he is truly an honourable warrior and a loyal friend."
"Oh, well, thank you, I suppose." said Erica, not quite sure how to react.
"I take it everything went well." said Casey from the front.
"Sure did!" said Michelangelo. "We saved everyone, and the Foot got some serious repairs ahead of them!"
"But it wasn't without costs." said Sephie, looking at Jennifer, who ran her clawed fingers over her scaly cheek, feeling the texture of her reptile features.
"When we get back to the lair, I'd like to run some test on your blood, Jennie. If that's okay with you." said Donatello.
"Tests? I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime, but if you think you can help me, then okay."
"Not much further, guys, then you'll be home." said Casey as he turned in on another street.
Meanwhile, back at the Foot's headquarters, in Arden's lab, Arden had just injected both himself and Arashi with healing serum to repair the damage from the battle.
"Your experiment was a complete failure!" Arashi snapped, furious about how everything had gone out of control.
"I assure you, master, had I known that the dragon would find a way to undo the imprinting, I would have taken actions against it. I will admit that I made a mistake with the gas, but I will learn from this and improve the procedures. I will not fail." said Arden, squirming slightly.
"See that you don't, we can't afford failures, not against the dragon. His powers are even stronger than before, now he might even be a threat to the Shredder himself. The dragon must be eliminated."
"I agree, the dragon will still be useful, even if he's dead. But luckily, my lab is still in one piece and we can continue our work without delay, using what we've learned from this battle. I've even got a few ideas for the future." Arden said with a smirk, picking up a book from the desk, the tile read 'Dangerous Reptiles'.
"As long as you don't forget our main goal, doctor, to locate our master's frozen prison, and free him from it."
"I assure you, we will find him. And in the meantime, the freaks will soon learn that I always have one final card to play." he said, looking at a syringe on the lab table, filled with a clear green liquid.
The mutants and humans had arrived at the lair and Donatello had barely gotten inside the doors before he started preparing the tests for Jennifer's blood. While he did that, Monalisa and April went to the kitchen and prepared drinks for everyone, they needed something to help calm their nerves.
Gathering in the TV-area, Splinter started explaining who they were, by telling Erica and Richard the story of his and the turtles' past and how it intertwined with the Foot. The only one that wasn't there, was Donatello, who after obtaining the blood-sample, stayed and worked on it in his lab.
After Splinter was done, Monalisa continued with a quick version of how she mutated and later joined the turtles, but she left out some of the more horrible details as they were still unpleasant to think about, and she didn't want to upset Tyroth's parents any more than necessary.
Then it was Tyroth's turn, and he told not only how he and Sephie mutated, but also the origin of the well, as well as that of Mutopia. Richard and Erica were pleasantly surprised that Elisabeth had survived, and even more so when they were told that Sephie was Elisabeth, resulting in a heartfelt reunion.
"Wow, just wow." said Richard. "I could never even have imagined something like this. Aliens, robots, magic, dragons, demons, gods, do you have any idea of how crazy all of this sounds?"
"If you think it sounds crazy, think about how it is like to live it. It ain't no walk in the park." said Michelangelo.
"I'll take your word for it. But, what happens to us now?" said Erica.
"Now that the Foot know of you, you will be in danger, but we'll figure something out." said Leonardo.
"Once we get back to Chicago, I'll have a word with Hugh, he might be able to help. Some form of witness protection program or the like. Either way, we will fix this." said Tyroth.
"In the meantime, you could stay with us in Mutopia, we got rooms to spare." said Sephie.
"Or here with us, if that's okay with you." said Leonardo.
"We have a room that you could use otherwise. Just need to clean it a bit first." said April.
While the rest continued their discussion, Monalisa approached Jennifer and asked her to follow. She was led to Monalisa and Raphael's room, and once they were inside, Monalisa closed and locked the door.
"What's going on?" Jennifer asked nervously.
"It's nothing to worry about, I just thought that you'd like to change out of that uniform, they ain't very comfortable. I'll even lend you some clothes, I'm sure that there's something that will fit."
"Thank you, Mona."
While Monalisa started looking through her clothes, Jennifer began undressing and Monalisa couldn't help but sneak a peek at the mixed human and reptilian features. She felt for Jennifer, what she had been through was almost as bad as what had happened to Monalisa herself when she mutated, if not even worse. A piece of Monalisa's mind wondered is she had looked like that as some point during her mutation.
About half an hour later, Jennifer walked out of the room, dressed in the clothes that Monalisa had borrowed her, a grey sweater and a dark blue skirt that reached past her knees. She had enjoyed trying out some clothes, it was fun and calming, she also got some time to think about her situation and talk about it with Monalisa.
While she had been away, her parents had gone to sleep, exhausted from the past days and in dire need of proper rest, and had been allowed to use the guest-room that Tyroth and Sephie used. The rest of the people, human and mutant alike, had dispersed and were all over the lair.
As much as she wanted to check on her brother, there was one other thing that she needed to do first. Walking over to Donatello's lab, she found the brainy turtle still working on her blood-sample.
"Donnie?"
"Hm? Oh, Jennie. I didn't hear you, was too absorbed in my work."
"It's okay. How is it going by the way, any luck?"
"A bit, yeah. Now, I'm not saying that I'll be able to normal, not yet anyway, but I think I'm on the right track. It will take some time to get a definitive result, but I've got a good feeling about it."
"That's great news! How much time are we talking about?"
"At least a month, most likely more."
"Guess I'll have to do something about my looks then. It's gonna take a lot of make-up to cover my face, and I need to shorten my nail, erh… claws, but then I can wear clothes to hide the rest, like with long-sleeved sweaters and gloves. We have that at work, so they shouldn't suspect anything."
"You seem to handle this surprisingly well."
"I have had some time to think… especially when I was trapped in my own body… and you can't just sit around and feel sorry for yourself, it won't get you anywhere. Tyroth used to tell me that before his 'death', and Mona said the same thing just recently. Besides, the only friends I have in Chicago are those in Mutopia, know some people at work but that's about it, so my social life won't suffer that much, even if I get a new identity."
"Still, if you insist on keeping up appearance, be careful so you don't get caught. You can't really blame the scales on a skin-condition."
"I know, and I'll be very careful, I promise. But, Donnie, do you think that it would be possible to keep at least some of the strength and healing ability I got now, when I'm human again? 'Cause that would be a great help if the Foot try to come after me again."
"I don't know, maybe, but I'm not promising anything. For the time being, I'll focus on restoring you to human form."
"What about the others? Can you do the same for them? I know that you, your brothers and Splinter weren't human before, but what about Mona, Sephie and Tyroth?"
"Well, unlike you, they are much more mutated, so that would be a lot harder, but that's not all. You were engineered to be this way, while Mona was exposed to a mixture of reptile venom and toxic waste. Tyroth and Sephie, on the other hand, were transformed by magic and are technically not mutants in the traditional sense. So even if this works on you, there's no guarantee that it will even affect them the slightest."
"I see. I just hoped that they could get the same chance as me."
"I understand. If I could make Mona human again and reunite her with her family, I would do so if she wanted me to. We would all be sad if she left us, but at the same time, at least I would be happy for her sake, and I'm sure the others would as well. Regardless, I doubt that I'll be able to turn anyone but you back to human form. Maybe someone somewhere someday can do it, but not me, not with this equipment anyway."
"Okay, well, I think I should leave you alone so you can continue. Maybe I should take a nap, I'm quite tired and I have a headache as well. See you around."
"Happy dreams, Jennie."
Leaving the lab, Jennifer made her way to the TV-area, which was empty at the moment, and lay down on the couch. She had barely laid her head on the armrest when she felt very tired, more so than she expected. Maybe it was because she could finally relax that made her feel so tired, but she didn't really care, she just wanted to sleep for a while.
Jennifer awoke an unknown amount of time later and stretched a bit before sitting up, letting a yawn escape.
"Slept well?" she heard a voice ask. Rubbing her eyes, she saw Tyroth standing beside the couch.
"Not so bad, but it could have been better. I'm feeling stiff and sore all over and this headache doesn't want to go away."
"I'm sorry to hear that. But no nightmares then?"
"No, I've already had a lot of them while I was trapped in the real nightmare. Maybe I just was too tired to actually dream. What time is it by the way?"
"Half past six in the evening, you've slept almost a whole day."
"Really? No wonder that I'm sore then, sleeping for that long on a couch. Where is everyone? Still asleep?"
"Oh, they're up and about, doing some sparring over in the dojo. April and Casey went back to their home shortly after you fell asleep. Mom and Dad are around here as well, I think Mom is in the kitchen, having a cup of coffee, and Dad is over in the dojo, being impressed by the others' fighting skills. I'm going back there soon, so why don't you head over to the kitchen and grab something to eat, you look like you need it."
"I feel like I need it too. And I think I'll stay with Mom for a while, keeping her company."
Tyroth nodded with a smile before helping Jennifer up. The siblings then parted as Tyroth went back to the dojo and Jennifer to the kitchen. When she entered the kitchen, she saw her mother sitting at the table with a cup of coffee, just like Tyroth had guessed.
Erica noticed Jennifer entering the kitchen and looked up from her cup with a smile, but it was clear that it was a pained smile. Seeing the mutant features on her daughter was a painful reminder of the horrors they had been through.
"Hey, Mom."
"Hi, sweetie. How are you feeling?"
"All things considered, it could have been worse. How about you?"
"The same I guess. I don't think it's really sunk in yet, it is an awful lot to take in."
"Yeah, I know, I felt the same way then they told me." said Jennifer as she opened the fridge and looked for something to eat. A few minutes later, she had made herself a bowl of cereal and yoghurt.
"How long have you known about this?" Erica asked.
"Little more than a year or so, I ran into Tyroth shortly after I had moved to New York. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you and Dad, but I promised that I would keep it a secret. Tyroth was afraid that it would reopen old wounds, or that someone would find out about us, like now."
"I'm not blaming you, or your brother, I'm just trying to understand what has happened. By the way, I saw you talk with the turtle with the purple mask for quite a while yesterday. What was his name? Donald?"
"Donatello, or Donnie for short, I had a hard time remembering who was who at first too. But he actually had some good news. He's working on a cure for me, so that I can become human again."
Those news were gold worth for Erica, who felt a jolt of joy and relief when she heard it.
"That's wonderful news!"
"Yeah, but-" Jennifer stopped when she suddenly felt very dizzy and her legs nearly buckled under her. Placing the bowl by the sink, she held on to the edge to keep her balance.
"Are you alright?" Erica asked, worried about her daughter.
"I-I don't feel too good. The headache is getting worse and… and… Mom…"
Jennifer lost her grip and fell to the floor unconscious.
"Jennifer!" Erica cried out and hurried over to her daughter. She tried to wake her, but she didn't respond.
"Jennifer! Wake up! Someone help!"
And you thought that it was all over, well, you were wrong. Why has Jennifer fainted, and what will happen? Find out in the next and FINAL chapter of A Sister's Plight.
And, yes, I am evil leaving you all hanging like this.