.
When Leo Met Mona
Chapter 11: Here Be Monsters
It had been six days since Mona Lisa's disappearance. Six days without any sign, any clues. The Dumpster Killer had been their only lead and with him now in custody, there was no other avenue to search. The longer she went missing, the less likely it was that she would be found alive. They all knew this as fact, but no one dared speak it out loud. Especially in front of Leonardo.
He was already unraveling fast enough. During the day, he continued to comb camera footage until Splinter told him to get rest, in which he holed up in his room and obsessively listened to the sixteen voice messages left on his phone. Which, of course, riled him up even more until the sun went down. Then he would go out hunting, even though there was no trail to follow.
He would prowl around the city, a new part every night. He would skulk through the shadows at ground level and then climb the buildings. He stalked the rooftops like a tiger in a cage, pacing up and down as he eyed New York. There, in the open air of the city, he was truly caged. He was strong, fast, deadly, but impotent in his anger. There was no one to turn his rage upon. There was only the pacing, the hunting, and the frustration.
His brothers always went with him. They followed, kept an eye on him, stayed close. They eyed each other as he paced, wondering if this was the night Leonardo would finally crack. He didn't eat, he didn't sleep. He had to have a breaking point. He was the only one who hadn't mourned her; hadn't accepted that she probably wasn't coming back home. It was time to make him talk about facing his loss.
With a heavy sigh, Raphael knew it had to be him. He pushed off from where he leaned against a water tower and started what felt like a very long walk toward his brother. Leonardo didn't notice his approach. He continued to stare at the city, twitching, daring it to make a move.
"Come on, baby," he muttered. "I just need one little sign. All you have to do is show me where you are and I'll be there. I'll come get you."
"Leo," Raphael said softly. "Come on, you gotta call it."
His brother didn't answer as he shook his foot in agitation.
"Leo." He spoke more sternly as Raphael slapped a hand on his shoulder.
Leonardo jumped at the contact. "What?" he demanded.
"You can't keep doing this to yourself. You gotta sleep, you gotta eat; you know, take care of yourself. You gotta accept that there's nothing else we can do. Maybe she's gone."
He expected Leonardo to get mad, but instead, he only snorted. "You don't know her like I do. If you think whoever has her beat her, you're an idiot. She's out there, waiting for her chance and she expects me to meet her half way. I'm not going to let her down."
Raphael stared at him, mouth open and expression both angry and baffled. What was he supposed to say to that response?
Before he could figure it out, Leonardo's phone rang. Both turtles stared at the device as the other two brothers came forward to hear what the phone call was about.
Leonardo looked at the phone's caller ID before putting it to his ear. "April?"
"Leo!" April's voice was excited, urgent. "Listen, I watched the footage again, the video of Mona Lisa leaving her job. Something about that place just didn't sit right with me, but I couldn't put my finger on it. So I watched the video again. And right at the end, right before it cuts off, you can see her pulling out her phone. But we all know that she didn't call or text any one of us at 5:07 that day."
"You're saying she called someone else?" Leonardo asked.
April huffed in frustration. "No. I know for a fact the only other person on her phone besides all of us is her boss and there's no reason to contact him when you're just leaving work. So I checked my phone log again. Mona texted me at 5:08 the day before she went missing."
It was too much information. Leonardo was struggling to follow. "Meaning...?"
"They lied to me. When I went to her work, they showed me footage from the wrong day, but they doctored it to look like it came from the day she disappeared. Not only that, but I didn't have to wait long to see that footage. Meaning it had already been doctored before I got there. They were expecting to be asked about her and already had it ready."
That was all Leonardo needed to know. He still had enough discipline to say "Thanks, April" before hanging up on her and taking off across the rooftops. Mona's workplace was several blocks away, but not too far that they couldn't run there.
As fast as he had left his brothers behind, they caught up to him, flanking him on either side as they ran in formation.
"Leo, that building has a security system," Donatello called to him. "No crashing in shell-first this time. We're already on Chief Vincent's shit list. If SWAT gets called, they may open fire this time."
Leonardo didn't say anything, but he gave a slight nod in his brother's direction. He had been fraying at the ends for days. But all it took was a clear path and his brothers at his side and he was back together. They had no idea what was waiting for them in that building. He would rather his team at his side, keeping him together, than descending into chaos on his own.
The turtles reached an industrial section of the city where the buildings were separated by large parking lots. Far too spread out to jump between buildings. They were forced to street level, to risk running out into the open parking lots. Leonardo didn't care. He made a half-hearted attempt to avoid street lights, but otherwise made a straight bee-line for the building. His brothers remained hot on his heels as they ran.
"Uh, bros?" Michelangelo's breathy voice called at his right. "What's that?"
Leonardo didn't know what he was talking about and he didn't slow down.
"Bros, there's something on the building. THERE'S SOMETHING ON THE BUILDING!"
Because the whole building had been dark, Leonardo hadn't noticed it at first. But now that his attention was drawn to it, he saw the broken window three stories up and the dark, massive...thing squirming out of it.
"What the fuck is that?" Raphael demanded, his voice an octave higher than his usual.
From atop the building, something else just as big screamed at the sky. It was a primordial, unnatural scream that sent the pack of giant turtles skidding to a stop. The sound of shattering glass at street level caught their attention just in time to see...something running at them. Something much bigger than themselves, tearing up the space between them as it raced on all fours.
For four turtles who were used to being the biggest creatures in the city, this thing coming at them was hard to process. Raphael was the first to react as he grabbed both Donatello and Leonardo and dove with them out of the way. The thing, whatever it was, didn't stop as it raced like a bat out of hell through the parking lot and into the night.
The turtles remained crouched and frozen in its wake, feeling like prey. But the thing never came back for them, despite having claws strong enough to leave marks in the concrete.
"And we're going toward the building?" Michelangelo said in a strained voice.
Leonardo got to his feet. "I have to. You don't, Mikey. None of you do."
"You're not going in alone," Donatello said with determination. "I'm with you."
Leonardo didn't wait for the others to decide as he started off again. By the time he reached the gaping hole that used to be the front doors, all of his brothers were with him. The building was pitch dark inside, not a single light on.
They each pulled out flashlights and Leonardo shined his into the building. There wasn't a light on anywhere. He stopped to listen, but didn't hear a thing. Nothing human-sized or otherwise seemed to be in movement. The entire place was trashed. Desks and other equipment thrown from their original stations to make room for a very large body that plowed right through everything.
"Dudes, we're in the set of a horror movie," Michelangelo whispered fiercely from the back. "If we go in, at least one of us is going to die. Someone always dies."
"No one's going to die, Mikey," Leonardo said with finality. "I won't allow it."
And with that, he stepped inside. Glass cracked under his weight as he eased inside. They followed the trail of destruction past the lobby and through a door that was barely hanging on its hinges. There, the chaos diverged. The door to the stairwell had been forced open, which explained the creatures from the upper floors. And there was another back room where something had pushed its way out.
"Shit, Leo." Raphael's flashlight discovered trails of smeared blood going up to the higher levels.
Leonardo didn't say anything, merely frowned. He led the way to the back room. And there, at the back of the building, they found their first glow of light from within. The trail led them to another doorway that exposed concrete stairs. Instead of going up, these lead down below ground level. At the bottom of the stairs was yet another door torn off its hinges. This one had a padlock meant to be open with a security key.
It was past that door where the lights had been left on and the true horror scene began. Beneath the bland, rectangular office building was a massive compound. A giant, open space much bigger than the foundation above it. And on either side of the walkway were massive containment units. Made of steel and plexiglass, it looked like a secret underground zoo.
Except, whatever was held here was gone. All the cells were broken, mangled, empty. But there were bodies; human bodies. Or, at least pieces of them. Blood and limbs were scattered about, the lower torso of one lay right in front of them, entrails sprawled out. The turtles were silent as they skirted around the carnage. Three cells down, they encountered their first non-human body.
It looked like a cross between a monitor lizard and an alligator, but was nearly the length of a bus from nose to tail. It lay dead with its stomach shredded and its throat torn out. The smell of bile and blood now stung their senses. Raphael wrinkled his nose while Donatello cover his with an arm.
"Holy shit," Michelangelo hissed.
"It...it's a mutant," Donatello breathed.
Leonardo stared at it for a long time, not moving.
"You okay?" Raphael nudged.
The frown etched itself deeper on his face and Leonardo pressed on. Ahead were more bodies of more humans and more lizard-like reptiles. Stepping in blood was unavoidable. Everything here was broken, shattered, ripped apart. Nothing moved, nothing breathed. At his back, Leonardo felt Michelangelo crowd his shell, as if they were going through a haunted house, waiting for the jump scares.
More bodies, more blood. More dead mutants. All was still. Then a very audible shift and human groan.
"Someone's alive!" Michelangelo rushed forward to a pile of stations and monitors that had been pushed up against the wall.
The turtles carefully removed the rubble of desks and computers. A bleeding, moaning man was found at the bottom. He looked to be in his fifties, dressed in a nice suit. His pant leg was mangled and soaked in blood, but being tossed under the equipment had probably saved his life. The man was out of it at first, but as the turtles removed him, the fog lifted.
He stared at the four giant turtles standing over him. "You're not from this lab," he said in an airy voice.
The brothers looked at each other.
"You made these creatures here," Leonardo surmised. "The assistant—the woman who answers the phone at the front—was she here when all of this happened?"
The man still seemed a little stunned. "Why would you ask about her?"
"She's been missing for six days."
He shook his head. "She ruined everything. It's her fault. She did this."
"She let the mutants out?" Donatello asked.
The man seemed to have a sudden moment of clarity. "She was so beautiful. My perfection. My Mona Lisa."
At the sound of her name, Leonardo's patience came to an end. He grabbed the front of the man's shirt, shaking him. "Focus. I need you to tell me about her. Was she here? Is she still alive?"
The man blinked at him, looked like he was going to give an answer, but then changed his thought. "I don't think you understand what we were doing here. We were creating perfect beings. Like how someone made you. They knew just as I did that humankind is flawed and it's time for the next step in evolution. That's why you came, isn't it? You heard the call of your own kind."
Leonardo made a sound of disgust. This guy's eggs were too scrambled. Maybe he had a concussion.
"That's Victor Falco," Donatello said as he scrolled through his phone. "I've got his picture right here. He owns the company. He's Mona Lisa's boss."
"Good," Leonardo growled. "Then I know we're talking to the right person."
No longer gentle, he picked up the human with one arm. Falco cried out in pain as he and his mangled leg were dragged across the floor and thrown into a chair at the only computer station that remained in tact. Then, Leonardo was on him, grabbing his chin, forcing him to look at the turtle right in his electric blue eyes.
"Alright asshole. I need you to focus. Where is Mona Lisa?"
The man giggled at him. Giggled. Either he was scared out of his mind or this guy had cracked. "You still don't understand," he said with a wild gleam in his eye. "I told you, she did this. She could have been a part of my perfection and she destroyed it all. She was the first."
The man's gaze drifted off and Leonardo jerked his chin again to keep his attention. "The first of what?"
"The first human subject. I had been exposing her to small doses of the mutagen for weeks. Helping her body adapt to it so she would survive the mutation."
Leonardo couldn't breathe. His veins felt like ice.
"You sick son of a bitch!" Raphael bellowed behind him. "You mutated her?! Is she one of those...those things out there?"
He rushed the human, but Leonardo put out an arm to stop him. He was both horrified and surprisingly calm. As if he were somehow disassociated from the situation. It hadn't touched his emotions yet. They were suspended on another plane, waiting to crash upon him; wreck him to full devastation. But not yet.
"Leo, what are you doing?" Raphael growled. "What if she's one of the bodies in here? What if one of the other mutants got to her?"
Leonardo held up his hand for silence. He was right on the precipice of crashing. He had to hold it together for a few more seconds.
"Why her?" he asked in a dry voice. "Why did you pick her?"
Falco still seemed out of it. He seemed almost delighted to talk to the turtles. To have their perfection in his destroyed laboratory. "She was a perfect candidate. No social media presence, no online followers. She wasn't social, didn't go out. Just kept to herself. Didn't mention any friends. She told me she had no family—"
Faster than the eye could see, Leonardo's sword was out and he slammed the blade deep into Falco's thigh. He screamed, half in surprise, half in pain.
"SHE HAS A FAMILY!" he roared in the human's face.
Falco's cries were cut off as both realization and fear covered his face for the first time. He looked at the group of mutants with new eyes.
Leonardo slowly pulled out his other sword. "Tell me where she is right now or I swear to you, the next blade is going in your eye."
"Okay! Wait, wait! I didn't lie to you! She did this! She did all of it! When we tried to put another mutant in her pen—"
"You put another mutant in with her?" Leonardo growled, blade dangerously close to the human's face.
Falco winced, shutting one eye. "She went absolutely insane on the other mutant. She killed him, and then she got out. She started killing them all. All my beautiful creations gone."
Leonardo was shaking. He was trying to keep it together. Trying not to imagine what had happened here without him. He was losing it.
"Where is she now?" he hissed through clenched teeth.
Falco was sweating by now and visibly pale. "I don't know! I swear to God, I have no idea! Some of them escaped the building. I think she was one of them."
Rage didn't even begin to describe it. It was a desperate, heart-wrenching anger that rampaged through Leonardo's insides. This wrong could never be fully avenged. There wasn't enough blood to atone for this, though Mona Lisa herself had giving it her best shot.
The blade of the first sword plunged deeper into Falco's leg, but he cut off the scream as the second sword went to his neck.
"I made her a promise," Leonardo said in a low, deathly dangerous tone. "I promised if anyone hurt her, I would finish whatever she left behind."
Raphael and Michelangelo looked at each other, wide-eyed.
"Leo, don't kill him," Donatello cut in. "We need him to help her. Leo."
Leonardo hadn't moved. He looked positively murderous that he had been told to stop. Donatello gave Raphael a look and the largest brother grabbed Leonardo by the shoulders.
"C'mere, Leo. Take a breath."
With a growl deep in his throat, Leonardo yanked the sword out of Falco's thigh and he screamed as fresh blood poured out. Donatello took his place, grabbing the man's throat and forcing him to look at him.
"Tell me you have some kind of antidote or retro-mutagen. Anything to reverse the process." When Flaco hesitated, he added. "The second you stop being useful, my brother's going to kill you in whatever way he sees fit, so you better start talking."
"T-there was never meant to be a way to reverse it. But there is a second stage to the mutation. Stage One was to mutate the animal. Stage Two was to introduce human intelligence so the creatures could learn. In theory, it would both change their bodies—shrinking them to a more manageable size—and increase their brain function. Pull them out of their feral states. But we haven't tested it yet. We were still collecting data on the Stage One mutations."
"Do you have the mutagen here?"
"Yes, I can get it for you. There are plenty of doses." Falco looked over at one of the dead mutants. "We had made enough for all of them."
Donatello pulled away. Michelangelo kept an eye on the human while the other three reconvened.
Leonardo looked like he still wasn't doing well. His sanity was hanging by a thread. "Donnie, what do we do?" he asked with soft desperation.
"We don't have any option but to trust this guy."
"Why do we have to trust him?" Raphael said. "Can't you make your own mutagen instead? Something that would change Mona back?"
"I'm flattered at your faith in my abilities, but I'm a tech geek that dabbles in chemistry on the side. It would take me at least a good couple weeks to bring myself up to speed on their research and THEN I would need additional weeks to put together a retro-mutagen that would only work in theory. And, by the way, all of this is theory. There aren't any text books or places I can go to research. It's all trial and error.
"We all saw how these mutants acted outside. One of them might have been Mona Lisa. If she's of the same size and ferocity as the others, we would have very little chance of keeping her safe somewhere until on the very slim chance I could figure out how to reverse it. But, if this current mutagen works like it's supposed to, we may at least get a Mona Lisa of sound mind. Someone who will cooperate while we try to help her. Leo?"
The color drained from Leonardo's face right before Donatello's eyes. Their leader in blue suddenly turned and spewed out what little contents were in his stomach. Then he continued to dry heave a few more times.
"Damn, Leo!" Michelangelo called to him. "You okay, bro?"
Raphael both wanted to roll his eyes, but also felt terribly for his brother. If this was someone he was in love with, he didn't know what he would do. But something had to be done and someone had to take charge.
"Okay, so here's what we're going to do."
"No." Leonardo cut him off. He turned around, eyes hard, wiping the bile from his mouth. "This is what we're going to do. We take it. All of it. The mutagen, the research. Every single bit of data about this project. It's ours now. Donnie, can you do it? Can you make sure we take everything?"
He blinked. "I'll give it my best shot."
Leonardo looked to Michelangelo. "Get this piece of shit out of here. Leave him in the parking lot. Then you and Raph sweep this whole building. If there is any other human alive in this place, get them out."
"And what are you going to do?" Raphael asked.
Leonardo sheathed his swords. "I'm going to burn this place to the ground."
"What?"
"Leo, what if there's something we need?" Donatello asked.
His sharp glare cut through his brother like a knife. "I said make sure to take everything. Then this place goes. Mona tore this place up. And when she starts something, I finish it. Is that understood?"
Donatello look a beat. Then said in a soft, but strong voice. "Yeah, Leo. I understand."
.
When the police arrived, the building was ablaze in full force. Victor Falco was still bleeding and shaking in the parking lot. He was in shock and nothing he said made sense. The turtles, all packed to the gills with mutagen, paperwork, and laptops, were already on the move. They had to go hunting.
Everything was loaded into the van. Donatello sat in the back, one of the several laptops they found sitting on his thighs as he combed through files. Michelangelo drove while Leonardo sat in the front seat, eyes out at the city. It was full dark out, but how hard could it be to locate mutants of this size?
"Go to whatever is the nearest body of water," Donatello called from the back. "A river or a marsh. Whatever's around. That's probably where we'll find them."
"Why do you think that?" Raphael asked from the middle seat.
"I'm looking at a comprehensive list of all the DNA they had on file for the mutation process. It's all reptiles. Various species of lizards, alligators, turtles. They're all going to be drawn to anything that resembles their nature habitat."
"You mean we might run into other mutant turtles?" Michelangelo asked. "Woah, it hope it won't be awkward."
"How will we know which one is Mona Lisa?" Leonardo asked. "What..." He swallowed, trying to find the right words. "What will she look like?"
"It's going to be a minute," Donatello called back. "Every bit of information they had was kept digital only and all of it's encrypted. I'm gaining access as fast as I can. Oh wait! I think I just found the subject files. Yes! I've got a list of each subject and what kind of DNA each was fused with. This place didn't just use one animal. They were designing new species on a molecular level by splicing strands of various reptile codes with each other and then injecting it into various animals. No two mutants received the same mixture. Their scientific method is absolute chaos."
"Donnie! Mona Lisa!" Leonardo called with irritation.
"I'm looking!" the response came back with the same irritation. "They didn't just put her name on the file. They all have case numbers."
"And how many case numbers are there?" Raphael asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted the answer.
Donatello paused to count. "Looks like seventeen."
"And how many dead mutants do you think we left in that building?"
"Not sure. Maybe eight or nine?"
"That leaves a lot more than the three we saw on our way in."
Donatello didn't respond as he kept clicking away. "Oh! I think I found it! Subject species: human female. Let's see...the DNA they fused her with... Looks like a little bit of Italian wall lizard, a little bit of the green salamander, and a lot of..." He paused and looked up. "Komodo dragon."
"Jesus," Raphael whispered.
"Dudes! We've got water." Michelangelo said as he pointed to the large drainage canal on the passenger side.
Leonardo rolled down his window and Michelangelo slammed on the brakes when they heard a very unnatural, feral scream from somewhere in the darkness.
Donatello swore in the back as the sounds of all the equipment they stole flew around. "Careful! If this stuff breaks, that's all there is!"
"Leave it," Leonardo said as he opened his door. "We only need the mutagen right now."
He moved around and opened up the back doors. The other turtles gathered around as Donatello pulled out the bag with the mutagen. They looked like giant EpiPens and worked much in the same way. If they were to be used on one of the creatures, one would have to get up close and personal.
"Everyone take a few," Leonardo ordered. "We dose every mutant we find. We don't hurt them if we can help it. They're the victims. Keep an eye out for Mona Lisa."
"I still don't understand how we'll know which one is her," Raphael grumbled. "She might look like a big lizard—they all looked like big lizards."
"That's why we're dosing every mutant we can find. We're helping everyone."
As the brothers geared up to search the canal, Raphael put a hand on Leonardo's shoulder. "Hey, how are you holding up? And give me a straight answer. Don't you lie to me."
Leonardo closed his eyes, looking agitated. He sucked in a long breath and then let it out before opening them again. "I'm holding on. As long as there's still something I can do, I can keep it together. When we get her back home, you can ask me again."
Raphael squeezed his shoulder. "Okay, bro. I've got you. We've all got you."
He nodded. "I know. Thank you."
In the dark of the night, four flashlights flicked on and wandered the area around the canal. Across the water, bright outside lights flared and the base of heavy music floated over.
"Sounds like a bumping party," Michelangelo said.
"Hopefully that noise doesn't call any mutants over," Raphael countered.
"I've got tracks," Donatello called. "Holy...a whole lot of tracks."
The others joined him. Thick clawed feet had left deep imprints into the mud. More than one type of giant foot had trailed by here.
"It's like they all followed the same scent of the water."
"Good call, Donnie," Leonardo said. He followed the tracks to the bank and shined his light over the water. The canal was wide and deep. The dark water could have easily fit all manner of giant reptile mutants within.
"I ain't going in there," Raphael said. "Yeah, we're turtles, but going in that water is suicide. And you sure as hell better not be thinking of going in there either, Leo."
Leonardo continued to frown at the water. What other choice was there? He was about to formulate a speech to get his brothers to agree with him when a pair of massive jaws surged out of the canal with a deep, guttural growl. Leonardo stumbled back, dropping his flashlight as the jaws snapped at him. Michelangelo yanked him out of the way while Donatello darted in and shocked the mouth with his tech bo. The mutant jerked back at the attack and disappeared back into the water.
"Donnie!" Leonardo barked. "We lost it!"
"That was an alligator mutant," his brother shot back. "That wasn't her. And I think she would rather we kept you in one piece."
"Bros, I can still see it," Michelangelo said. "That thing's booking it down the canal."
He shined his light and there was a very distinctive V-shaped ripple in the water jetting away from them.
"Go!" Leonardo ordered and his team took off in pursuit.
The alligator mutant was gaining ground faster than they could move, but ahead was the beginning of the canal. They reached it just in time to see the tail end of the mutant wriggle up into a giant drainage pipe. A pipe of which had been gated off, but something else had already forced itself through it before the alligator had ever gotten there.
"Fucking shit!" Raphael swore, nearly slamming his flashlight on the ground. "They're in the sewers! Of course they're in the fucking sewers where we live. Why wouldn't they be?"
"No, this is good, right? Home court advantage?" Michelangelo offered.
Leonardo felt that hot, sticky panic rising up in him. Every time he thought he was getting somewhere, the yard line was moved further back. But he had to keep going. In his mind, there was no other option but continue forward. He climbed through the broken gate and into the impossibly dark drainage tunnel.
.
As mutant turtles well knew, there were miles and miles of sewer tunnels beneath New York City. Drainage systems, old subway stations. Layers and layers of bygone eras that were built on top of one another. Even those who had lived their entire lives down there didn't know all the tunnels by heart, and there were still plenty of places that had yet to be explored. So looking for other mutants, even mutants of the massive variety, was like a needle in a haystack.
As minutes ticked into hours, Leonardo was loosing faith. They hadn't found anything and it was now nearly 4 AM. By now, he was shaking as if he hadn't eaten all day. The adrenaline cut through him constantly, picking up his heart, making his mind race, and there was nothing he could do to quell it. This felt like failure. The longer these creatures were allowed to roam, the greater chance they would find places to hide and disappear forever. He appreciated that his brothers stuck with him. None of them complained that he was still looking. None of them had yet to suggest that they give it up for the night and he was so grateful to them. Eventually they would, and he was loathe to hear it, but maybe they would be right.
He wasn't good enough. He couldn't protect anybody.
"Leo," Michelangelo hissed. "Leo, Leo!"
"What?" he nearly snapped. He wasn't yet ready to be told that it was over. He wanted just a little more time.
The smallest brother looked stiff, eyes wide. "Don't freak out guys, but I think something's been following us. For a while."
The brothers all turned, shining their lights back in the direction they came. Waiting. Something beyond the lights let out a deep exhale. The sound of heavy claws on concrete. Then, eyes were reflected in the darkness. The sound of careful sniffing. Then a narrow, green snout came close enough to be illuminated.
A long, thick, lizard-like creature slithered closer. Its tongue dipped out to taste the air as it bobbed its head back and forth, trying to duck away from the light blinding it.
"Aw, this one's really calm," Michelangelo said. "Do you think it's because...she knows us? Is this her?"
Leonardo felt like crying. Is this what she was now? Had he allowed humans to turn her into this creature? He had failed her so completely. He was ashamed that she had to look upon him, even in this form. But he stepped forward, motioning for his brothers to lower their lights.
"Mona Lisa," he called. "Is that...you?"
The lizard mutant towered over him, the breadth of the shoulders nearly taking up the whole tunnel. It tipped its head at him. The tongue came out again to taste the air. Leonardo kept his eyes on the mutant while subtly motioning with one hand.
"Donnie," he whispered, "Get the mutagen. Do it slowly."
To his side, Donatello pulled one of the large tubes from his bag and popped off the cap. Flashlight off, he took two steps forward.
The mutant attacked. No growls, no warning. Donatello was in its mouth faster than one could blink and the mutant pushed itself past the other turtles, claws out, and down into the tunnels. Donatello's screams of horror echoed out into the darkness.
The three brothers took off after it, crying Donatello's name. No, they couldn't lose him, too. His screams were terrifying. The thought of losing him was even worse. They ran blind, they ran desperate, trying to keep up.
Suddenly, the tunnel opened up into a wide, open space. A circular nexus with several tunnels leading in all different directions, the ceiling impossibly high above them. And in the middle was the lizard mutant, hunched and trying to get a struggling Donatello to fit it its mouth. Said ninja turtle was fighting back for his life, but there was already blood dripping from the creature's jaws.
"Donnie!" Raphael screamed. "We're coming!"
"Wait!" Leonardo called desperately. "Don't hurt her!"
"Fuck that, Leo! I'm sorry, but Donnie comes first! If I have to kill her to save him, then so be it!"
"Raph!"
Raphael lunged, sais out as if they were claws. The mutant screamed as the blades dug into its back flank, but it would not put down its prey. Instead it turned, whipping its tail around, nearly catching the ninjas as it fled.
"We can't let it leave!" Raphael said. "Mikey! Go!"
They both pounced on the creature. Raphael stabbed it again. Michelangelo tried to climb up to get to Donatello, but was thrown off as the mutant shook its head. It bit down harder and Donatello screamed once more as there was an audible crunch of a cracking shell. Leonardo was frozen, shaking. Trembling like a newborn kitten as he watched his brothers fight for the life of one of their own as the one he loved tried to kill them. It was a horrible, hellish nightmare and he felt so helpless. So afraid.
A heavy, high-pitched scream echoed through the chamber. So powerful it hurt the turtles' ears. A second lizard mutant darted out from one of the other tunnels and hit the first one with all the power of a freight train. Brain-rattling screams of rage filled the catacombs as the two massive bodies threw themselves at each other. They shattered the wall, blocking one of the other tunnels. It was hard to keep a flashlight trained on them as they wrestled each other.
This second contender was worse than the first; growling, screaming, biting, clawing. The first lizard was refusing to give up its meal, but the second one went after the catch with single-minded determination. The three remaining brothers were horrified. They couldn't keep up, they couldn't be a part of this fight. It was too big, too fast. Too much snapping at each others' faces, fighting over a single piece of meat.
With a wet sound of tearing flesh, the first lizard let out a death whine as its throat was ripped open. It fell, its back legs twitching. The second creature immediately darted in at the head, biting and ripping. There was no sound from Donatello.
Michelangelo stumbled over to Leonardo who was still frozen in place. The smallest brother's eyes were wet, his mask damp.
"Leo, do something! What do we do?"
To the side, Raphael got up from where he had been thrown. His thigh had been cut, but he was getting up to go again when the victor of the fight turned around.
Far more calmly than it had entered, it slowly limped toward them, a body hanging limply in its mouth. Then, it gently set Donatello down before his brothers.
"Donnie!" Raphael rushed to him, hands all over him as he tried to assess the damage.
Donatello groaned in pain. He had several puncture wounds along the exposed flesh of his side and a gaping hole in his thigh. Blood visibly pumped out of the wound with each heart beat at an alarming rate.
"Get a tourniquet," Donatello said through gritted teeth. "Stop the bleeding."
As Raphael and Michelangelo both rushed to pull out the first aid kit and tend to his wounds, Leonardo remained stalk still, staring owlishly at the mutant. Before, it had come in ferocious and enraged. Now it sat hunched like a beaten dog. Covered in claw and bite wounds from many fights, mouth dripping with blood, it shivered as if it had been left out in the rain. And it seemed so, so tired.
As Leonardo's flashlight inspected the creature, the light landed on its chest. There was an old scar healed into the flesh.
"Ramona," he rasped, then his eyes watered. "I'm so sorry."
She lowered her head and touched just the tip of her nose to his plastron. He threw himself at her face and wrapping his arms around her snout. He felt her jerk slightly back in shock, but then allowed his touch.
"Leo!" Michelangelo called. "That her?"
"It's her," he rasped with a tight voice, still not letting go.
"'Course it's her," Raphael said with gruff humor. "Doesn't show up for us, but shows up when Donnie calls."
"Dude, she saved his life," Michelangelo whispered.
Donatello looked weak and in pain, but still managed to give a relieved smile.
Mona gently tried to remove herself from Leonardo's grip and he allowed it.
"Listen," he said. "We're going to get you out of here. We have this—"
He was cut off as she saw something over him and growled. The sound was deep, rumbling. Leonardo could feel the vibrations from where he stood as he turned around. Another mutant was skulking in one of the tunnels. Its eyes reflected off the glow of the flashlights before its bulk slithered further into their open space. Mona bared her blade like teeth at it, arching up like a cat. She moved in front of the turtles, blocking them from the danger.
But the other mutant was far more interested in the dead body in the corner and began eating it.
"They must all be starving," Donatello said with a wince. "I don't know what they were feeding them at the lab, but from the lack of anything we found there, I would assume it wasn't much."
Raphael quickly tied up the last of his wounds. "Let's get out of here before that thing looks for a second course and hope we don't run into any more hungry mouths."
"No worries, Raph," Michelangelo said. "We've got a bodyguard now."
He motioned to Mona, but she wasn't paying attention. She was glancing all over the large open space for...something. Then she suddenly grabbed Michelangelo with her mouth. Instead of any scream of pain, he only gave a startled yelp. She carried him over to the wall and stretched up on her hind legs. There was another tunnel about two stories up. Much smaller. Too small for giant mutant lizards to fit through. She set the smallest turtle brother on the lip of the tunnel and then used her snout to push him inside for good measure.
Then she came back for the next one.
"Don't you dare pick me up," Raphael warned. "Don't you—"
She snatched him up and popped him in the small tunnel as well. As he turned back to glare at her, she stuck out her tongue like she just tasted something terrible. He stuck is tongue out back at her and she almost seemed amused before she dropped back down.
Next, she crouched over Donatello, eyeballing him from several angles, trying to figure out how to pick him up without hurting him. She eventually settled for gripping him on his non-wounded side, but he still groaned in pain as she lifted him off the ground. Far more gently she moved to the tunnel. Raphael and Michelangelo were there to help Donatello inside.
She went back for Leonardo, but when she tried to grab him, he stepped back.
"No, I'm not going. You don't fit and I'm not leaving you."
Not taking no for an answer, she tried to grab him again and again, but he kept himself out of reach. She growled at him, low in her throat. Then immediately crouched when the other lizard mutant growled back, but kept eating. Though she was more occupied with trying to get them to safety, though she had been in many fights and clearly won them all, Leonardo could tell she was scared. How was he supposed to go without her?
While she was watching the other predator, he touched her face. "Mona, I have something. It's a mutagen that's supposed to advance your mutation to the next phase. It's supposed to reduce your size. If you take it, maybe you can fit."
She glanced at the feeding predator then down at the tube Leonardo held. Deftly, she slapped it out of his hand with one claw and grabbed him by the shell with her mouth.
"HEY!" He struggled and kicked as she trotted over to the tunnel.
But Leonardo wasn't done. As she lifted him up, he pulled another tube from his pocket, popped the cap, and stabbed the needle into her neck. She didn't even wince as she popped him into the tunnel and then gave his shell a solid shove with her snout, sending him stumbling forward a few feet. Then, with a snort, she dropped out of sight.
Leonardo spun around and peered out. "Nothing's happening! It didn't work!"
Raphael joined him and looked down. "Okay so what should we do then? We gotta get Donnie out of here, he's about to pass out. We can't fight giant mutants and keep him safe at the same time."
"You and Mikey take Donnie home. I'm going to back to—"
A gagging noise sounded from below. Mona's mutant form began heaving, spewing up little else but fluids from her empty stomach. Then her whole body convulsed and she screamed. That same scream they heard the first time. That horrible, ear-splitting scream as she fell over, shaking as if she was having a seizure. Then her body arched back, eyes wide as she screamed again.
Leonardo jumped back down to ground level as the other lizard mutant stared at the screaming female. It grabbed what was left of its meal and dragged it into one of the tunnels. Leonardo didn't even notice as he ran up to Mona's writhing body. She was thrashing everywhere, clawing at the ground in pain. Her tail could have cracked his shell if he didn't watch it.
"Baby, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I thought it would help you! I don't..." His words died in his throat as he watched helplessly. He didn't even have Donatello to explain to him what was going on. Would this mutagen kill her? Had he killed her?
But then he noticed it. She was getting smaller. Her body was changing. And her screams sounded less animalistic and more human. The change came faster. Shrinking her, rearranging her bones and joints. Her claws shortened to fingers, her limbs elongated, her torso and hips regained a more familiar shape. Then, it was over and a new form lay on the ground, panting and covered in sweat.
Leonardo knelt next to her shivering form. She was smaller now, smaller than him. More humanoid, though her skin was still green and thicker than a human's. Her long tail remained and somehow—he had missed it before—she had retained her thick head of hair through all her transformations.
He brushed the damp strands from her face and she weakly opened her eyes. "Leo..."
It was amazing to hear her voice, even if it was hoarse and dry from screaming. "Yeah, it's me. I'm here. I found you."
A fat tear rolled down her face. It had changed. She didn't look the same anymore. "Am I dying?"
He trembled. "No, baby, no. You're going to be okay." He hoped. God, he hoped she was going to be okay. "I'm going to get you out of here."
She gave him just the weakest of smiles, but her body didn't move. Maybe she couldn't. When he gathered her up in his arms, she let out the softest, most heart-wrenching cry of pain. He closed his eyes so his own tears wouldn't spill.
"I'm so sorry, I need to pick you up."
Her breathing was labored. "Do it," she panted. "Just get me home."
He set his jaw and stood. Her felt her stiffen in his arms, but she didn't make a sound. Approaching the tunnel, Raphael let down a rope. Leonardo wrapped it around his right hand. It would have been easy to climb up with two, but he didn't think Mona had the strength to hold onto him on her own.
"Baby, I need you to hold on. As tight as you can, okay?"
She weakly put her arms around his neck. It was so very little and he could tell she was trying so hard. He held her tight with his left arm.
"Pull fast," he called to Raphael and grit his teeth as the rope cut into the meat of his hand. Less than five seconds and his brothers had him up to the tunnel. His hand was burning, but he would live.
"Holy shit, look at her," Michelangelo hissed.
Raphael just stared, jaw slack.
Leonardo brushed past him. "Get Donnie and let's get out of here."
.
April clomped through the sewers toward the lair, phone to her ear. It was only a little after 6 AM and she was already getting chewed out by the chief of police.
"No, I don't know where they are Chief Vincent," she huffed. "I've tried calling them. They're not picking up."
"They better pick up. They just burned a building full of bodies and...I don't even know what the hell we found in there. I need some Goddamn answers!"
"Well they live in the sewers. It's not exactly a place that gets good reception."
Any place near the lair had fine reception thanks to Donatello, but the chief didn't need to know that.
"And while I have you on the phone," Vincent continued. "Tell me how the hell they're even bigger than the last time I saw them. How big are they going to get?"
April tried not to sigh audibly on the phone. "I mean, they were teenagers when they took out the Technodrome. So yeah, they'd probably get a little bigger since they're now in their 20's."
Silence on the other line as April stepped into the lair. No one around, which was normal. No one would be up at this hour other than Leo and he would be in the dojo.
"Are you telling me," Vincent's stern voice said, "that I sent literal children to fight an alien war machine?"
As she spoke, the turtles entered the lair and April's eyes widened as a bloody Donatello was carried in.
"Sorry Chief, you're breaking up. I'll call you back later." April promptly ended the call and turned off her phone. "Oh my God, what happened? Donnie? Is he okay?"
"Dad! Donnie's hurt!" Michelangelo bellowed into the lair as he and Raphael carried the injured brother between them.
"He's lost a lot of blood," Raphael told her.
April cradled the wounded turtle's head in her hands. His skin was dry, face pale, eyes glassy. "Donnie? Hey. Hey, Sweetie, can you hear me? Look at me."
He opened his eyes weakly, but he was clearly out of it.
"Donatello?" Splinter's authoritive voice called as he came into the room. "Get him to the extra room, now!"
Donatello made a slight sound of pain—which hurt April in her heart to hear—as he was carried off. The extra room held one bed and a lot of various storage. It was used as both a guest room and a recovery room when any of them were hurt. April had used the bed a few times herself when she was too tired to make the trek back home.
She followed them in as Donatello was set on the bed. Splinter pulled out a pair of scissors from the bedside drawer and began cutting the blood-soaked pants off his son. April helped take off his gear. When she glanced back at the doorway, she noticed Leonardo for the first time. And the body he held in his arms. Long limbs, green skin. A tail?
"What?" April said dumbly, her brain scrambling to make sense of what she was looking at. "Who? What? Who? Is that...Mona Lisa?"
The body in his arms was completely unconscious. Splinter motioned for him to set her on the bed and Leonardo gently lay her down next to his brother. She was completely naked and April moved to get a blanket to cover her.
"Is she going to be okay?" April asked.
"I think so," Leonardo said gravely. "She's just been through a lot."
"What happened?"
"Leonardo," Splinter interrupted. "Come sit here. Your brother needs blood."
He frowned. "Can't one of the others do it?"
"No. It will be you. Sit."
A chair had been pulled up next to Donatello and Leonardo sat with a bit of attitude, arm out. Splinter took his time threading a needle into the latter's vein and then connecting it to the former. Leonardo continued to pout as Splinter put a blanket over him. He looked like he wanted to argue that he didn't need to be covered, but a look from his sensei kept him quiet.
"Michelangelo, Raphael, I would like a word with you," Splinter then ordered.
April made sure Mona was covered and warm and then followed them out. She wanted to hear whatever they were going to talk about.
Raphael was still hyped up, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as if he would be asked to get back in the ring. His leg was also bleeding, but he didn't seem to notice. "What's the plan, Sensei? What are we doing?"
"The plan," Splinter said calmly, "is that all of us are going to stand out here and talk in calm, quiet tones until Leonardo falls asleep. His task is finished and he needs to finally rest."
Raphael looked at the doorway and frowned. "We're not finished, not by a long shot."
"What even happened to you guys?" April asked. "Chief Vincent called and gave me a tongue-trashing. Said you burned a building?"
The two remaining brothers began to fill them in on all they experienced.
"Holy shit," April hissed more than once and was instantly silenced by Splinter.
They discussed the horrific events of the night in low, even tones and when the story was over, Splinter quietly padded over to the extra room to check on his other sons. When he peered inside, he smiled. Donatello and Mona Lisa were dead asleep in the bed. And Leonardo had dosed off in his chair as he kept watch over them.