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'Thoughts and names'
Dreams, flashbacks, memories
With the beginning of December and the approaching winter, the end of all hope was fast approaching as well. A month of training had been enough for Donatello to get used to his new, more flexible body. Most of the physical pain was gone, but there were still nights when he would wake up and curl up in the sheets, gritting his teeth. It was annoying that those stupid people had chosen not to buy painkillers and morphine, but they had the never ending supplies of sedatives and muscle relaxants. Morisaki was doing it on purpose, Donatello knew it perfectly well.
The reptile hated his own curious nature more and more, because with every training and rehabilitation time he felt some kind of fascination about his new abilities, and it helped him in a way with better understanding how an organism closer to a human being worked compared to his former body. That interest in anatomy didn't give the turtle satisfaction, but the mutant did a mental facepalm every time the word 'fascinating' crossed his mind.
To add to that, the shorter chains had returned, felt heavier and harder to break. They shortened when anyone from the medical team visited, and also when Kasumi and Kyoko were present. If he started to think like those lowlifes, it made sense. After having mutilated him and thrown into long rehabilitation classes, they had actually improved him in many ways after all, so they had a good reason to fear him.
The clock reminded him constantly that almost three months had passed since his loved ones had seen him, and almost two months since his incapacitation. He had no idea how his brothers and Splinter dealt with his 'death', and all attempts to contact them in the astral plane had been unsuccessful.
Donatello often wondered why that was so. He had had no problem making contact with Splinter when he had been a prisoner of the Triceratons, had been kept out of orbit, and Splinter had been meditating on Earth, so the distance hadn't mattered after all.
The turtle had two theories, and both terrified him. According to the first one, his family had believed in his death, so they had cut themselves off from him so well that he was unable to reach them. The second theory was that it was he who had created a blockage in his mind that now made him unable to contact any of his family members.
But where had that blockage come from? Was it trauma having caused it? Maybe it had been a fleeting hope, maybe he himself didn't believe that he would succeed? Or maybe he was afraid of making contact, because he felt he had become a disgrace? His father and Leonardo valued honor very strongly and had often criticized Donatello's behavior, wiping their mouths with that word.
Whatever the reason, it effectively blocked the reptile from getting in touch with his family. The mutant wanted so much to calm and reassure them that he was alive, but on the other hand, he would have only added more worries about his miserable condition.
Escape was not an option, he had found it to his cost too many times. Resisting didn't work, it only made his situation worse. Did that mean he should give up? It would be dishonorable, his brothers would never give up. But did he have any other option? Every night he had created new scenarios in his mind, backed up by new little information, and yet he had failed to come up with an effective strategy other than surrender.
According to the data, the project he had become a part of didn't envision his death in the final stage. It was a huge risk, but if he allowed this project to end without further fighting, perhaps he would get a chance, some minor gap, an oversight, and use it to escape. The chances were slim, for Morisaki's plan had gone without any gaps so far, but it was the only strategy that had any percent chance of success, so it was worth the risk.
"Hello, Donatello."
The mutant almost jumped up on the bed. He had been so engrossed in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed Russell and Kuroba entering the room. Great, now to the pain and the loss of dignity he could add the lose of his ninja senses.
"Hahahah, sorry, we didn't mean to scare you!" the Canadian roared with laughter.
"Amazing, you can laugh while being a psycho," the turtle murmured, rolling his eyes. Risk being risk, but teasing these two had become a tradition.
"You have a very weird way of saying the word 'psychiatrist', but let it be," the brown-haired replied.
"Haven't your task in the project ended like, I don't know, a week ago?" The mutant twisted his snout, staring at both men suspiciously.
"Our role is important at every stage of the project," Russell assured.
"Or at least until the doctors are done with manipulating your body," Kuroba added.
Russell muttered something in the Japanese's ear quietly enough that the reptile didn't even catch which language the man used. However, their behavior, facial expressions, and body language indicated that he wasn't to receive that information.
"You can stop taking me for an idiot." Donatello shrugged. "I know perfectly well that this isn't the end of the surgeries. To be honest, it's not hard to figure out what this crazy project of yours is for and how it will end."
"Well..." Kuroba began to look up at the walls.
"Dr. Morisaki asked us not to tell you about the next steps, as he will do it himself very soon."
"If 'very soon' is to look anything like 'another time', then you can stick it up you know what." The mutant crossed his arms over his chest.
"Don't sulk, Donatello. You will probably find out today."
"Better pray it would be so," the patient hissed. "For your information, this knowledge will improve my emotional state greatly. Because, you know, me the patient, you the experts in happiness in brain, and so on..."
"We'll see what we can do about it," the Japanese said slowly, exchanging glances with the Canadian. "We'll leave you alone for now."
"Your afternoon training session begins in less than an hour."
"You are able to bend more, it's just a bridge position," Morisaki muttered, almost growling.
"So what? Indeed, that position is nothing difficult, but it's another matter when you order me to stay in it forever," he snapped back, staring at his own elbows, which were trembling more and more.
It was incredible how quickly his new body had gotten used to the new abilities. Equally incredible was how much the physicians demanded of him while also loading him with muscle relaxants so he wouldn't try to escape. Expecting the great strength and miracles of him seemed to be an enormous stupidity, but that wasn't the first time Donatello had such a feeling.
"Let him be," a short, dark-haired man standing in the corner of the room said, watching every move of the mutant. "The nearly hour-lasting bridge position certainly helped the muscles stretch and gain more flexibility."
The turtle rolled his eyes and lay completely on the floor, hands on his abdomen. He deserved a rest and had no intention of agreeing to the next exercise without a break. He kept observing the two humans out of the corner of his eye.
"Next exercise: forward bends with stiff straightened legs," Morisaki announced. "I want your back not to become round, and your head to tuck between your legs during this exercise."
"And I want you to be quiet at last," Donatello muttered softly to himself. "And who's that guy?" he said out loud, nodding at the short man.
"This is Dr. Bowline, your physical therapist. He collaborates with Professor Yuiragi who is absent today due to reasons you don't need to know about."
Donatello snorted like a horse, twisting his muzzle, but didn't speak for the rest of the training.
It was only when he was back in his room on the bed, and Mr. Bowline had disappeared somewhere in the corridor outside, that he dared to open his mouth. "Once you've changed me into a rubber gum, what are your next plans?" The mutant folded his arms. "What is the next phase of the project?"
Morisaki muttered something to himself and started pacing the room, hands clasped behind his back. The man thought intensely, letting the patient understand that he wasn't sure if it would be a wise move to reveal the secrets of the reptile's future to him. The young ninja realized that he still hadn't gained the Japanese's full trust, but he couldn't understand why the man was so eager to keep his plans a secret. Donatello was at a stage where, even after learning the truth, not much would change. What would learning the truth do for him? He was expecting something horrible anyway, so new information wouldn't change his intention to remain "a good little turtle". New data wouldn't awaken any energy in him, making him want to escape, so it all made no sense.
"I had a long talk with Dr. Russell last evening," Morisaki started, standing beside the bed. "I heard you'd been having very interesting conversations lately."
"Interesting conversation and Russell. I can see a certain variance," the mutant replied, not hiding his satisfaction with the mean tease.
"Anyways, Dr. Russell and Kuroba learned a lot about you. Honestly, I must admit that was it not for them, I'd refuse to give you such sensitive information without a shade of doubt just now." The man leaned over the reptile, clasping his hands in front of himself. "However, in order to get the best results in the ending phase, I have to take care of your psychological comfort, and since this is the only way for your stubborn brain to stop pestering us with questions, I am forced to lift a little more than just the veil of secrecy."
The teenager rolled his eyes. Of course, Morisaki made a big drama because he had to do something he didn't want to. Donatello had a growing feeling that most of the adults here had mentality of five-year-olds.
"I'm waiting for explanations then," the turtle said in a weirdly sweet voice. "However, before you begin, oh great leader of psychos, I feel a great need to inform you that my knowledge of your mother tongue is good enough for me to know what the word ryū means."
The man straightened up with a mocking smirk and slipped his hands into his coat pockets. "I assume you connected the word ryū with my daughter's fascination and and the name of the project, so you already know what awaits you at the end of the whole project?"
"You want to use the mutagen to turn me into a dragon, to bring the non-existent legendary creature that Kyoko is so interested in to life." The reptile twisted his snout as if in disgust. "For the joy of a barely rational child, without thinking, without any doubts, just like that, you decided to catch, incapacitate and inflict pain on a creature that did nothing to you."
"You won't tell me that you didn't expect these from the men of science?"
A silence filled the room. Morisaki poured water into his glass smugly and drank slowly, shrugging. Donatello sat there with a sudden blankness in mind. This situation disturbed him greatly, as his mind was almost always full of spinning thoughts.
"But there are details you don't know exist," the Japanese continued. "Or rather, no one put you on the right track so that you could deduce the rest."
"How exactly you want to turn me into the dragon." It wasn't a question, but a statement. "Thanks to the surgeries you got rid of my shell, but you won't be able to do the rest the same way."
"You are so clever, Donatello. You will surely figure it out yourself. Think," Morisaki tapped his temple with his finger, "about how you gained a new spine, ribs or sternum. Remember the role of your ooze inn our project."
"You were tinkering with mutagen."
"We only changed its properties to suit our needs."
"So you could have used mutagen to create new medications," Donatello began slowly, rising slightly on the bed. "You could have revolutionized the medical market, gained fame by producing drugs for rare and incurable diseases, changed the world for the better. And you missed such a chance because you daughter told you she wanted an exotic pet?!"
"I'll repeat myself, because you seem to not have understood." Morisaki stood up and pushed the stool aside. "As a scientist, and that's what you called yourself during our first conversations, you should know that the success in achieving your goals is the only thing that matters in science. There's no place for thinking about the suffering of beings like you."
With these words, the man left Donatello for the rest of the day.
Since Donatello had finally learned the whole truth about the project in which he'd been participating against his will, the mutant was unable to sleep peacefully. The days passed monotonously, routinely again. The turtle was more absorbed in his own thoughts and often silenced the voices of those around him inside his head. Morisaki's words haunted him. He was barely able to notice that Russell's and Kuroba's visits had become less frequent, and when either or both of them came into his room, the conversations weren't intense and took the form of a routine as well.
According to the clock, Christmas was approaching. Hadn't it been for the device, Donatello was quite sure he would have lost track of time at an alarmingly rapid pace. Every day of his life was the same: waking up, breakfast, talking to Russell, and if he wasn't there, there was always someone around, dinner, training, talking to Morisaki, supper, and after supper either waiting for sleep or visits.
He had always considered himself a man, well, a mutant of science. He had believed that science was the answer to everything and that everything could be achieved with its help. At the same time, he had a big heart and was a pacifist, unable to even kill a little bug when his brother Raphael had asked him to do so. When he and his brothers had fought criminals, he'd been the only one who had tried to neutralize his enemies, at the same time doing everything to cause as little harm as possible. Everything he had done was to serve good, help and improve the world. He had been using science to save.
Of course, he wasn't stupid and he knew how many innocent creatures, including humans, had lost their lives or suffered great damage to their health in the name of science, the so-called grater good. He didn't question the fact that so much suffering had allowed science to develop. But he had never wanted to participate directly in such atrocious methods, much less as the suffering one. Could this have been a punishment for recognizing scientific experiments that had been successful at the cost of health or lives of millions?
In all this confusion, the reptile remembered that he had accidentally revealed his brothers' names to Morisaki. The psychopathic doctor hadn't raised that issue yet, but Donatello was sure the man would use this knowledge against him. This made the turtle even more convinced that he no longer had many reasons to try to escape.
The mutant sighed loudly and looked at the clock again. The second week of December, every year at that time, along with his brothers and friends, he had prepared for the holidays and put himself in a Christmas mood. Every day, the same songs from The Roches' Christmas album had been playing on his small radio in his lab. Now he was surrounded by deafening silence and blinding whiteness for days.
"You shouldn't be here."
Staring at the dark ceiling, Donatello was breathing loudly, focusing on the words.
"I'm sure you have some family, friends... And if not, you definitely created some kind of for yourself. I'd like to know..."
"You shouldn't be here," he replied without taking his eyes from the ceiling. "In this room at this hour. Does he even know you come to visit me?"
"Akutarō is too busy with his work to pay attention to me." Kasumi looked down. "At least he still remembers about his own daughter..."
"It's such a shame he does it that way."
The woman stared at Donatello's huge hand. The boy could easily grab her face and crush her head with that hand, and yet he was completely at the mercy of her husband.
Kasumi frowned and put both her hands on his. "I want to do something to make you feel better so much," she murmured. "Unfortunately, I'm not a part of this project, and I'm certainly not an authority for my husband. I always thought of him as a caring and loving father to our Kyoko, but I was wrong. It's a shame that something like this had to happen so that I could see through it all..."
"I think that even if you saw his dark side earlier, there wasn't much you could do." Donatello finally looked at the Japanese. "People like him are almost unstoppable."
"I'd love to let you out, but... They'd know right away it was me, and I'd be in trouble, not to mention Kyo-chan..."
"Then don't even think of doing it," he replied firmly. "Focus on your relationship with your family before irreversible changes occur. No offense, but it may be too late for your husband."
"I wish it was different..."
"Hey, focus on Kyoko. She's so small and knows so little about the world. Take advantage of that and spend time with her, enough time to make you more important to her than her father seems to be."
Once again, silence filled the room. The turtle allowed the woman to touch his hand, his arm, actually he saw no problem with her touching him. Apart from Kyoko, Kasumi was the only one to touch him like that, full of tenderness, gentleness. The brunette looked at her own hands, and the turtle studied her face, slightly shielded by hair. She looked like a real mother looking after her offspring. She must have had the same expression on her face when she put her daughter to sleep.
He hadn't celebrated Christmas. The days from December 24th to 26th had passed quietly for him, as they had been different from the routine. As always, someone had brought him breakfast, dinner and supper at appropriate hours, and Midori had visited him after dinner, but only to check his parameters. During Professor Yuiragi's visits Donatello had tried to have a longer conversation with her, to learn something, but the woman had only frowned with a forced smile and apologized for her lack of time for him.
It should be pointed out that during these three days the reptile had received incredibly good food, both traditional Japanese and foreign dishes. He didn't know why that had been happening, and he tried not to think too much about it. After all, almost all the motives of the people holding him here made no sense to him, so he didn't waste his energy contemplating these trifles.
He couldn't have predicted the hell that awaited him just after the second day of Christmas.
Eika was running late with his breakfast that day, and Donatello knew from experience that it meant trouble. Trouble for him, fun for the pseudoscientists. A full stomach didn't interfere with rehabilitation, so Morisaki had planned the next major step for the day.
So when the latches squeezed his wrists and ankles with such a strength they almost broke his bones, and the chains shortened, effectively securing the mutant to the bed, the turtle felt cold sweat all over his body. Dr. Morisaki entered the room, accompanied by Dr. Mayers and a man he hadn't met before. The stranger was tall and broad-shouldered, with dark hair and thick facial hair, but he looked well-groomed. A metal briefcase hung from his right hand, and it immediately caught the reptile's attention.
"Hello, Donatello." Morisaki clasped his hands behind his back. "Now that we have no more secrets, let me introduce you to someone whose name has already been mentioned in your presence." The man pointed at the stranger. "This is Professor Harrison from our lab. He was responsible for testing and modifying the ooze."
"Wasn't he a doctor?" the turtle asked uncertainly.
"Ah, he was, was a habilitated doctor, but yes. Now he holds the title of a professor, and that is partly thanks to you."
"How glad I am that I was able to participate in this," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "What's in the suitcase?" he asked in a fake sweet voice, not hiding his frustration.
"You'll find out in a moment."
Morisaki nodded to his companions, giving them free hand to get their equipment ready. Only now did Donatello notice that Dr. Mayers had brought his laptop with him. The blond man started it up on on the left side of the patient, staring at the screen with a bored look. Meanwhile, on his right side, Professor Harrison put the briefcase on the table and opened it. The teenager saw a series of different syringes, quite big in size, each filled with a colored liquid.
"Is that-?"
"Ooze," Dr. Mayers replied shortly.
"Not the same we took from your body, of course," Morisaki interrupted quickly. "You can see Professor Harrison's work of science here."
The mutant swallowed loudly. The time to say goodbye to his turtle body for good had come. He directed a slightly frightened glance at the professor, hoping that it would awake some mercy in him. Unfortunately, the man glared at him as if he was a criminal condemned for some horrific crimes, then went back to tinkering with syringes.
Donatello understood that waiting for the unknown was the only option left. He looked a little sheepishly around the room. "Professor Yuiragi won't come?" he asked.
"Unfortunately, she's still busy with something else, but we won't need her. She gave us the necessary tips for this procedure."
"What about your niece?"
"She can't be with us now. She still has to go to school every now and then after all."
Every now and then. It must have been a joke, but Donatello didn't have time to think about Aigo.
"Tokugawa, send me Shino here," Morisaki said loudly.
Tokugawa's name was also known to the turtle, it was a security guard who watched the room through cameras. But it was the first time he heard Shino's name. Who could it be? Another creep from this messed up group?
As if on cue, a short Japanese man with glasses entered the room. He looked young, he was definitely not older than Kuroba, maybe they were peers. Morisaki turned to face him, and the two spoke in low voices for a moment. After a short conversation, Shino moved to Mayers without a word.
"This is Shino Soku, our IT specialist. He'll come in handy at the phase of the project that starts now." That said, Morisaki nodded at Harrison, who took one of the syringes with a very long and thick needle in his hand.
The professor stood over Donatello, leaning slightly forward, and looked at Mayers and Shino.
"Which sample are you going to use?" the blond muttered, stepping aside a bit to make room for Shino.
"SAS-12," Harrison announced calmly. He sounded professional.
Shino started typing some letters or numbers, Donatello couldn't tell because he couldn't see the screen or the keyboard from his position. Everything indicated that the men had to cooperate somehow to achieve the intended goal. But the teenager had no idea what the mutagen in the test tube had to do with Mayers' laptop.
Though it was the most interesting thing on this day and he would have liked to think about it, he wasn't given the time for that as Mayers nodded to Harrison, who brought the needle close to Donatello's face. "Wait!" he shouted in panic, pressing his head into the pillow.
"What now?" Morisaki snapped.
"What are you going to do?!"
"We're proceeding to modifying the shape and size of your body, starting with the head. We have to inject the ooze into your bones. If I didn't mention it before, I'm telling you now. Now do not fidget or you may lose your eye by accident."
Professor Harrison pointed the needle at the reptile's forehead, between his eyes, but slightly above them. Inserting it through the skin didn't cause a lot of pain, although the unusual place to do so made Donatello very stressed. As the tip of the needle touched his skull, the turtle inhaled rapidly, feeling his entire body tremble.
He thought he was about to holler in pain as the needle stuck into his frontal bone. But something stopped him from doing so. He couldn't tell what exactly, but only a soft or medium-loud gasps of pain came from his parted lips. Tears ran down his cheeks, his hands clenched into fists, his tail curled up.
When the professor pushed his thumb down and the modified mutagen began pouring into his tissues, much worse pain spread around his head. Then Donatello screamed once, but incredibly loud, and the sound lasted a good few seconds. After that there was only sobbing, and Harrison took the needle out of the turtle's head. He held a small gauze swab in the place of the injection with his thumb.
Donatello felt the mutagen circling over his head, reaching every corner of his skull, muscles and skin, but not going beyond the area. The liquid felt very warm, and its temperature kept rising until it became barely bearable and Donatello began to cry like a baby.
Of course, no one was listening to him. Mayers and Shino were still bending over the laptop, Mayers reading some notes, apparently instructing the young IT specialist. Shino nodded his head every now and then, using the touch computer mouse and occasionally typing some passwords quickly.
Then something crunched, effectively interrupting the reptile's crying for a few seconds. Horrified by the sound he had heard best of them all, he shut up for a moment despite the pain and listened. The men watched him closely, except for Shino. The Japanese did something on the laptop again and a wave of loud crunches spread over Donatello's skull.
More screams of pain filled the room. Each crunch created a new intense pain focus. The cranial sutures were cracking in front, on back and sides, everywhere. Something odd was happening. He felt as if earthworms were crawling between his skull and skin. The bones were changing their shape, especially his facial skeleton ones.
The muscles and skin were changing as well, but at a slower pace, which made them stretch to the limit, only increasing the suffering.
When his snout seemed to lengthen, the teenager couldn't stand it and passed out.
In that state, he had heard voices, many voices, some he knew from his past, some had tormented him at night. Their sound had varied, some had been clear, others as if they had come from behind a wall or under water. If he had had the strength to think, he would have realized that the voices of the past had only been dreams, and the rest of them had signified someone's presence in the white room.
It had been just like that. Donatello hadn't opened his eyes for a long time, his body hadn't taken the effect of the modified mutagen that Morisaki had ordered to inject into his head well. The turtle had had no sense of time, obviously, as he had been in a coma-like state.
However, the day when he woke up came.
It was early afternoon when his consciousness fully returned. Without opening his eyes, he tried to activate his thinking, which turned out to be extremely difficult. He felt a funny tingling on his skull and skin of his head. It wasn't pain, but the feeling was just as uncomfortable. He felt more pain in his neck, and he couldn't understand why.
His head was tilted to the side, maybe that was why. His nostrils were once again filled with tubes giving him some extra oxygen. So there must had been problems with the functioning of his respiratory system, or they had simply been afraid that the mutant would have ended up dying just to anger them.
Finally he dared to open his eyes a little. He was greeted by the sight of the medical equipment that was always on his left side. So the turned head theory was correct. Very carefully he tried to turn his head, but the pain in his neck was too bad for that. With a soft hiss, he stopped moving his head, but focused his eyes on something weird right in front of his face.
It was green, exactly the same shade as his skin, and was right under his eyes. He raised his hand that was no longer bound to the bed and touched that thing uncertainly, then anxiously found out it was his snout. But he had never been able to just see it like that before because it had been too short. Now it was longer and slender, slightly tapered at the tip where his nostrils were, but ended with something like a claw curved slightly downwards.
With a little bit of curiosity, he slowly ran his hand along his new snout until he reached his temple. There his fingers met strange appendages, and his hand jumped away. He didn't expect such a change in that place. When he examined the area more closely, he tried to visualize the appearance of the new head. Slender, oblong, with long appendages protruding from the sides and top of his head, pointing backwards.
It still didn't explain the pain in his neck that was so bad.
"You're funny."
Donatello almost jumped up on the bed again. That young girlish voice sounded familiar. So grunting, so bored, with a hint of contempt. Aigo.
"You finally woke up, my uncle was getting worried," she continued. "Someone will be here in probably a few minutes."
"Why does my neck hurt?" he asked, pointing his finger at that part of his body in case the girl didn't understand him.
"Ooze," she said in a funny way. She also wanted her message to be clear. "Your neck is longer," she added in broken English.
"Why are you here?"
"My uncle told me to watch you. He has been speculating for a couple of days now that you would wake up."
The mutant didn't understand everything, but he did understand the first part. He sighed loudly, too tired to start crying again, even though he really wanted to. On the other hand, he would feel uncomfortable to act like a child in front of the girl.
He was saved from further reluctant conversation by Midori, who slipped quietly into the room. When Aigo saw her, she got up from the stool, greeted her with a stiff bow, then left the room.
Professor Yuiragi sat on the stool and cleared her throat to let him know she was there. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you during the procedure," she began with an apology, placing her hand on his. "Unfortunately, I also have a second job and I haven't been able to accompany you for the last few weeks."
"I'd have felt better if you had been here when that Harrison guy came," Donatello whispered, trying to hide the fact that he was starting to cry again.
"I know, Donatello," the woman sighed. "But I'll be present for the next procedures, I promise. Now, I'd like to take a look at your head, if you let me."
"My neck hurts pretty badly."
"I'm not surprised. While you were in a coma, they performed another procedure on you." Professor Yuiragi leaned over the patient and began gently examining the new appendages with her fingers.
"Why?!"
"Dr. Mayers and I told them it was a bad idea, but the rest of them were too stubborn. Dr. Morisaki wants to finish this part of the project before July starts. Unfortunately, your body didn't respond well to the first procedure."
"I noticed that much."
"Plus, the needle went a little too deep and they nearly damaged your brain, which is why you lay unconscious for so long."
"Wait." The reptile gritted his teeth and turned his head a little so that he could see his interlocutor out of the corner of his eye. "How long 'so long' means?"
"Longer than they'd like..."
"What day is today, Midori?" he almost growled.
"March 3rd." The woman pulled away and scratched her neck, embarrassed.
"I was in a coma for over two months?!"
"Don't be mad, Donatello. Despite your bad condition, they decided to do one more procedure, they focused on your neck. It was because of that procedure that you had trouble breathing and lay unconscious longer than we thought you would."
The mutant sighed heavily. He didn't want to scare Midori or alienate her, but once again it turned out that they still held some secrets and Morisaki was playing with him.
"I didn't mean to snap at you..."
"It's nothing. The pain in your neck should pass in a few days."
"How many more procedures are awaiting me?"
"I'm not sure and I have a dilemma which option would be better for you. More modifications at a time and the risk of another coma, or one procedure at a time and long waiting for your condition to improve before starting another. No one will give you time for rehabilitation this time, sweetie."
"Do you know when they are planning their next procedure?"
Professor Yuiragi shook her head.
The pain in his neck hadn't gone away despite a week had passed, but it had stopped to be bothersome and the turtle was able to move his neck and ignore the discomfort. After the procedures changing his head and neck, his bed had had to be replaced with a larger one. The pillow had been slightly raised and leaned against the wall to make it more comfortable.
For a week, people had walked in, checked if there hadn't been any complications and if the new structures allowed normal functioning. During that time, they had x-rayed him twice with everything they had.
During supper, he tried to make contact with Eika and, surprisingly, succeeded. "Excuse me," he began hesitantly. When the woman turned her big eyes on him, he continued. "Do you know when they're going to do...?" He lost his words, so he pointed casually at his new snout. "Do the changes?" he added.
Eika tilted her head slightly, then shook it slowly. "Unfortunately, I do not know," she muttered.
He didn't get an answer to that question until two days later, during Russell's and Kuroba's visit. Both men had talked with him extensively the day after he had woken up to get his mental health checked. On other days, they had come one by one ot not at all, and only for a few minutes.
"The physical pain is going away, that's good news," Russell muttered as he aggressively wrote something down in his notebook. "The psychological pain is another matter."
"You stupid, I was mutilated again. How many times do we have to bring this up?" Donatello slapped his hands lightly on his blanket. "Believe me when I say that repeating that I feel unwell no longer works at this stage."
"Then what can we do to get better results? And of course, letting you go or stopping the procedures is not an option."
"You were supposed to get morphine for me," the mutant growled softly.
"Our efforts on that have been unsuccessful," Kuroba said, covering his mouth with a folder. "I've tried to negotiate with Dr. Morisaki, but according to Professor Harrison, giving you morphine could interfere with the ooze, and the results may not be satisfactory."
"Of course..." The reptile rolled his eyes. "So maybe at least you know when the next torture will take place?"
"If you mean another dose of ooze, probably tomorrow," Russell replied without taking his eyes off his notebook.
Later in the evening he cursed himself for asking the question. He couldn't sleep knowing that the next day would bring him a lot of suffering again. In such state, he would have easily set the new Guinness World Record for the most repetitions of 'Shut up, brain,' in one hour.
"I can't do it a second time," he whispered to himself, feeling hot tears streaming down his cheeks. "The pain, it was so excruciating, it was as if I had split into atoms and then each of them flew off in a different direction."
The only thing left for him was self-pity, since he couldn't escape, couldn't get morphine, couldn't communicate with his family. Once again, he was in a terrible depressive state, he wanted to cry, he wanted to hug someone, he wanted to die. But at the same time he wanted to laugh hysterically, he wanted to ask questions, he wanted to know Harrison's secret, thanks to which they had managed to change the shape of his skull. He wanted to find out how the modified mutagen worked, and what Mayers' laptop and IT specialist Shino had to do with it all.
There were so many things he wanted that night, so he shouldn't be surprised that he didn't sleep at all. All night his heart was pounding like a jackhammer, he could feel and hear its beating very precisely. He could hear the rumble in his ears, he felt hot and cold, he felt stuffiness and a wonderful lightness of the air at the same time.
He was afraid. Afraid of pain, suffering and further phases. He was afraid of losing his consciousness again, he was afraid of a failure. He was afraid of death, which he wanted more than once that night.
When the time came, Morisaki and Harrison entered his room. They were accompanied by Shino and Mayers' laptop, this time without Mayers. Behind them, Midori appeared, just as she had promised. One meeting of their gazes was enough, and Donatello sighed in weird relief. Her presence wouldn't reduce the suffering after all, it wouldn't ease the pain, and yet he felt so much better. Well, Midori was an animal medical specialist, which meant that the further modifications shouldn't result in any complications.
Professor Harrison sat down on his right side again and opened his metal briefcase while Shino sat comfortably on the patient's left side and started the laptop up. Professor Yuiragi quickly joined him.
Donatello couldn't help but ask the question. He licked his lips, staring at the device. "How exactly is your mutagen connected to the laptop?"
Morisaki smirked and approached Shino and Midori. For a moment he watched what the younger Japanese was doing. "Thanks to a special program, we're able to control the ooze activity after it's injected," he replied.
"How?" The mutant frowned, not understanding.
"It's the microscopic technology contained in the modified substance," Midori spoke up. "The program controls the technology, so we have full control over what shape and orientation your bones, muscles and skin are supposed to achieve."
The teenager twisted his face, absorbed in thought. Then Dr. Mayers, accompanied by Aigo, entered the room. Great, that girl was here again. Donatello disliked Morisaki's niece for some reason, but he couldn't say why.
However, he quickly understood their presence. Professor Harrison handed them the syringes, and gave one to Morisaki. Four huge syringes, used at the same time? Were they planning to kill him or what? The reptile panicked again.
"Calm down, Donatello," Midori said softly. "Everything is fine."
He swallowed hard as he watched the people around him. Each of the humans with the syringe stood at one of his limbs, placing the needle about the middle of the limb. It was immediately clear what they wanted to do.
He experienced a kind of déjà vu when the syringes punctured the bones and released the substance. The same warmth enveloped all four limbs. The turtle began to feel the pain, and he glanced anxiously at Midori and Shino.
"The substances used?" the IT specialist muttered.
"Four doses of HAL-7," Harrison answered. "#1 to the right arm, #2 to the right leg, #3 to the left leg, and #4 to the left arm."
Shino nodded slightly, and Midori leaned closer to the screen. The woman began to instruct the IT specialist, and Donatello felt the effects seconds later.
The fact that he fainted from the pain again didn't need to be told.
This time, when he woke up, he still felt quite severe pain in his limbs, but not severe enough to make him pass out again. Of course, moving the limbs was out of question, so he concentrated on moving his head and eyes. His gaze immediately fell on the clock. March 13th, which was the day of the procedure. But that meant they had damaged his nerves, since the pain was tolerable, right?
"Donatello-kun?"
The turtle took his eyes off the digital clock and shifted a confused gaze to Kuroba.
The man seemed as surprised as he was for a moment. He scratched his head with his pen, narrowing his eyes. "I have good news, Donatello-kun," he said after a short thought.
"And I have more questions," the patient growled, barely audibly.
"Don't hesitate to ask."
"Why did I wake up?"
"The answer to that question combines perfectly with my good news." Joyful, Akira turned a few pages in his folder. "I've got some reports from the last 24 hours here. One of them, signed with a few names, including mine, says about the delivery of several stronger painkillers. Unfortunately, Dr. Morisaki doesn't allow the use of morphine, but I managed to come to terms with him. I mean, if it weren't for Professor Yuiragi to interfere in our conversation, you would probably wake up in a month."
"So you got me something for pain," the teenager admitted with a hint of admiration.
"No need to thank us. Medications won't take the pain away, but they'll keep it at a bearable level. Of course, we're ordered to stop giving you them after three or four days, but by then your original pain should have dropped to a similar level to what it is now, or maybe even lower."
How many times had Donatello rolled his eyes now? It was hard to count. They wanted his suffering, or at least Morisaki wanted it. And maybe Russell. Yes, William Russell must have secretly dreamed of his suffering, if only to tease him.
"So, since we're already talking," he said in a reluctant tone. "You'll make me very happy by telling me what the next procedure will be about and when it will take place."
Akira tapped the pen on his chin. There was a twinkle in his eyes. He was going to tell Donatello about the next procedures.
SFW-59 had perhaps been the worst substance so far. Not only had it burned, stung, hurt, and everything that had happened to the turtle's body during the previous procedures, but the change was very extensive and healed poorly.
Donatello hadn't passed out that time, but he had to admit that this one time he really would have liked not to know what had been happening to his body after the injection of the modified mutagen into his shoulder blades. The procedure had taken place the day before, byt the new part of the body hadn't fully developed until evening. Shino and Midori had spent most of the day with him, manipulating the warm liquid to create a completely new body part.
He had to lie on his front again. His limbs tingled unpleasantly, but at least the worst pain had been gone by the time they had started creating his wings. He had never thought they would have succeeded. It made no sense, it couldn't have been possible with the methods at their disposal. And yet, two massive appendages, a maximum of 300 cm long, lay curled along his back and legs, or rather hind legs, and they hurt tremendously. If he could have looked at himself in the mirror, he would have said that he looked like something to feel sorry for. He felt like a battered animal, and he became one in some way.
From time to time he gazed curiously at the wings, fascinated by the thin but strong skin covering the bones. Thanks to his long neck, he had no problem observing the entire room. So he easily turned his dragon head towards the door when he heard it open.
"Kasumi."
The woman gave him a sad smile, still standing in the threshold. She didn't want to come in, or she couldn't. A moment later he realized what was going on. The Japanese woman looked sideways at the corridor, waved her hand slightly, and little Kyoko clung to her like a leech. They both went inside and Kasumi closed the door behind them.
"Ryū!" the girl shouted almost immediately.
"Remember, sweetheart, you are not allowed to touch his wings," the woman warned, pointing her index finger upward.
The little one just nodded and yanked her mom forward until they reached the bed. Kasumi sent Donatello an apologetic expression. He sighed loudly, exhaling a powerful blast of air through his nostrils. Kyoko's hair fell back and she laughed. The reptile brought his snout closer to her so that she could touch it and there would be some peace. He knew she wanted to touch him, and his head was the least painful part of his body right now.
Kyoko laughed and he looked up at her mother. Kasumi sat down on the stool. "Akutarō wanted me to bring her here," she confessed shortly. She looked as if she blamed herself for the whole situation. "Don't worry, it's only for a moment."
The mutant didn't want to scare the girl away, so he blinked slowly only once. It was enough.
June started, and Donatello still complained about the pain in his wings and his tail as well. The substances used on him, VAT-33 and BAF-114, were the last to modify his body. After all the procedures had been done, he was in a dead end, because he didn't know what would be next. Since he had begun to gain strength in new muscles, especially the wings and the new, very long tail, few people wanted to be in the same room with him. But the best scareman turned out to be a new ability he had gained from being forced to drink and inhale the substance BAF-114. This mutagen had given him the ability to breathe fire.
It was another unknown, he had no idea how they could have done it, but he didn't complain. Of course, they had their ways to manage him. His limbs were still chained, and there was an automatic muzzle that clasped his snout shut when someone entered.
This didn't change the fact that Donatello was no longer a turtle and yet another phase of the project had been completed. Everyone had taken a huge risk in the second phase. Donatello had risked his life by succumbing to Morisaki. The scientists had risked a failure of the project by not allowing him to rest. Kasumi had risked a lot of private matters.
Only the person who risks is fully free.
So what awaited him in the third phase?