So I realized in he last chapter Buttercup didn't tell Mikey her own real name and also since this story is mostly for the purpose of raising awareness about the Bot Farms Buttercup is not going to become a love interest to anyone despite her Dad constantly worrying about her hanging around a bun ch of teenage boys
Mikey rubbed the back of his head, since this was the first time he had ever met a Mutant Animal with hooves he never thought about the possible difficulties they might have because of that...Mikey sighed...He was sure Donny probably would have thought of that!
"Listen…" Mikey stopped when he realized he still didn't know the Mutant Sow's real name "...Uh...What's your real name? I still only know you as Demon Hunter…"
"Oh! Sorry!" Buttercup realized she had let herself be distracted by the Mutant Turtle's big muscles she completely forgot to introduce herself "My name is Buttercup."
"Whoa!" Mikey exclaimed "You're named after the Powerpuff Girl?"
"More like I was named after the flower…" Buttercup said "...I'm sixteen years old that was a while before the cartoon came out."
"Oh...Yeah…" Mikey blushed getting more and more embarrassed about how stupid he was probably looking in front of this girl mutant...Even if she wasn't a Turtle the fact remained she was the first girl mutant animal he had ever met. "...We're actually pretty close in age I'm nineteen."
"So you're a legal adult in human terms." Buttercup said
"Yeah…" Mikey said "...Like that means anything...Anyway...How about this...I'll go down first so if you fall while going down the ladder I'll be able to catch you!"
Buttercup took a deep breath and looked down the manhole...It didn't look THAT far down.
"All right…" She sighed
So Mikey went down the manhole first and told her "Come on down the sewer water's great!"
"That's not helpful!" Buttercup called back down as she took another deep breath and lowered her trotter-foot on the first rung of the ladder, her hoof as expected did not feel stead of the rung...But she quickly realized there was a narrow tunnel around the ladder so they helped her feel more secure as she tightly gripped the ladder rungs with her hands her hooves gingerly stepping down each ladder rung she thought about how much easier this would probably be if only she were a mountain goat instead!
So she made it down the ladder without falling.
"See!" Mikey exclaimed "That wasn't that hard!"
"Yeah but it still stinks down here…" Buttercup said pinching her nose
Mikey led Buttercup to the lair as they made their way Buttercup felt incredibly creeped out by the underground world of the sewers, it reminded her of what she was a little Mutant Piglet and she developed the typical human fear of the dark because her new human-like mind made shadows look like monsters to her! And the darkness of sewer pathways not taken gave her flashbacks laying in her bed at night thinking an open closet was the home of something giant and carnivorous!
When the finally entered 'The Lair' which Mikey explained was an old reservoir station suddenly the lights turned on and Mikey realized he had been caught by both Master Splinter and his brothers!
"Michelangelo…" Splinter was beginning to say however Don quickly saw the person Mikey brought with him wasn't human
"Holy Shell!" Don exclaimed his eyes filled with an excitement that kind of made Buttercup more than a bit nervous "Another mutant! A...A...Female mutant!"
"Whoa!" Raph exclaimed when he realized what that meant "Where the shell did you find her Mikey?"
"Guys! Guys!" Leo quickly acting the voice of reason "Let's all be gentlemen here! Let's not treat her like a science experiment OR a potential groupie!"
So Buttercup explained she began her life as a lab animal and her mutation was an accident the scientists weren't expecting the blue goo they had injected her with to turn her into a humanoid intelligent pig!
Raph looked very irritated hearing about this kind of treatment...Muttering under his breath about people in lab coats Don quickly came to their defense "They took responsibility and treated her like a person when they saw she became intelligent!"
"Yeah…" Buttercup sighed "Dr. Fleischer was the one who adopted me but I'm on pretty good terms with most of the scientists."
"But OK…" Don said "..What about this 'blue goo' or mutagen they injected you with in the first place? What was it? Did they ever tell you where it came from?"
"I asked…" Buttercup said "...Dad said they found it oozing from a cave wall and it was like no known substance they had ever encountered...After what happened to me they sure as heck weren't going to run further tests and risk creating even more mutant children."
The Turtles and Splinter looked at each other...This all sounded rather ominous…
So I went for maximum irony with the name of the scientist who adopted Buttercup as Fleshier is a German/Yiddish word for 'Butcher' and we'll get back to the main plot of war against the spammers soon