-Four Months Later-
The Zootants scaled the side of an apartment building. Then they grabbed hold of the fire escape to make their way up to one of the windows. Once there, they managed to open the window and climbed inside.
"Hey, guys!" Casey welcomed the Zootants as they successfully managed to squeeze Paolo in through the window. "Glad you could make it."
"Glad to be here, Case'," Mikey said. "Here, we brought you a little something." He held out a large brown paper bag to his friend.
Casey reached into the bag and pulled out an expensive-looking bottle of wine. "Whoa. Where'd you get this?"
Paolo explained, "You know that warehouse robbery we stopped a week ago? Turns out the owner was pretty big in the winery game. He offered a bottle to us for our intervention."
"We figured it'd be okay to share a bottle since April's feeling better." Artemisia shrugged.
As if on cue, April came into the dining room, holding the newest member of the family. The chubby baby had stubbly red hair and bright blue eyes; he looked at the Zootants with interest. April greeted tiredly, "Hey. I couldn't put Cody down for a nap, so I guess he's joining us for dinner."
"Aw. Hey, little dude," Mikey said in a soft voice, squatting down slightly to be at eye level with the baby. It took a few tries, but Cody had gotten used to having the Zootants in his life. He let out a little squeal as he reached out to his Uncle Mikey.
April smirked and gave him to the turtle to hold. "I'm surprised how quickly he's gotten used to you guys."
Artemisia sighed, "It's better than him bawling his eyes out every time he sees us."
Sirani patted Michelangelo's leg to get his attention. "Can I hold him after you, Mikey?"
Mikey smirked. "Of course you can." After a few seconds, he passed the baby down to Sirani. Cody almost immediately reaches out and pats Sirani's face.
"Hey, Cody." The red panda smiled and held him gently. Being the smallest (and fluffiest) member of the team, Cody took a liking to her first before he opened up to any of the other Zootants. Now, Cody giggled and cuddled into Sirani as if she were a teddy bear.
"He's really taken a liking to you," Paolo commented with a smile.
"I know, right?" Sirani smiled. "I'm like his honorary aunt~" After a few minutes of holding Cody, Sirani gave him back to April.
April said, "I'm gonna try and put Cody to bed again. Be right back."
She took Cody back to his room and placed him in his crib. A few seconds later, Casey came into the room to join her. He stood with her by the crib, putting his arm around her and looking down at their baby boy.
Cody was already starting to drift off, and April asked Casey softly, "Do you think we made the right decision? Bringing Cody into a world of mutants and regular threats to our lives?"
"At first, I didn't think so. But then I got a good look at him." Casey looked down at his son's face. "And if I could go back and knock you up again, I wouldn't hesitate."
April blushed and giggled. "Honey, not in front of our kid~"
Casey put his arms around April's waist and kissed her on the cheek. "Too late~"
April pecked Casey on the lips and grabbed his arms. "Well, we still have guests, honey~" Then, she pulled him back into the dining room of their apartment.
-Meanwhile, at T.C.R.I.-
Outside of the facility containing the afflicted mutants, two security guards sat in a control booth by the front gate. Both were dressed in body armor and had guns strapped to their hips. They each held a small cup of coffee, bathing in the dim glow of the overhead fluorescent lighting.
"So, yeah. I tried talking to management, but they won't skimp out for a new coffee maker," the older guard commented.
"No kidding? Didn't they already make cutbacks?" the younger guard asked.
"That's what I said. But nah, we're stuck drinking coffee that tastes like rusty metal," the older guard sighed.
The younger guard shook his head and glanced out of the window, taking note of the pair of headlights getting closer and closer to the entrance.
The older guard also noticed. So he stepped out of the booth and into the open air. "Huh. I didn't think we were expecting anyo-" The older guard was cut off as his younger coworker hit him across the head with the handle of his pistol. He fell to the ground unconscious.
The younger guard pulled the unconscious man into the booth. Then he pressed a button on the control panel and opened the gate for the approaching trucks. The first truck stopped in front of the gate as it opened. The truck's window opened to reveal the driver wearing a black and purple ski-mask.
"I thought you were told to kill the guard," the driver recalled.
"He's got kids, man," the guard argued.
The driver sighed as he shook his head in disbelief. "Fine. Get ready to bounce."
The trucks drove into the facility's courtyard, each one making a U-turn. The back doors of each truck opened, a group of similarly-dressed men and women exited each vehicle, armed with assault rifles. They stormed the facility, multiple purple-clad mercenaries facing down lab employees and ordering them to get on their knees.
Eventually, they made their way past multiple chambers containing the afflicted mutants. A few of the mercenaries looked around for a specific chamber, some stopping to look at the mutants inside. The main group of mercenaries reached chamber #158, and saw a large porcupine-like creature stand up inside.
Just then, a voice speaks up over the earpieces worn by the mercenaries. "This is electrics. We've got access to the grid."
"Do it," the head mercenary ordered.
With that, every chamber door opened, allowing each mutant to roam free. However, a few of the mutants were taken by the small army using advanced animal-control poles. The porcupine creature stood before her army, her metal quills twitching as she breathed.
"We came just as you requested, Mistress Karai," the head mercenary greeted, taking a knee in front of his master.
The porcupine creature took a deep breath, her hands clenching into clawed fists. "You will address me… as Shredder," she ordered in a deep and grizzled tone.
-Soon, at the Jones's apartment-
As everyone sat down to eat dinner, April got an alert on her phone. She looked at it and sighs in frustration. "Crap. Guys, I think this is for you." She showed them the alert on her phone, which read: MUTANT BREAKOUT AT T.C.R.I.
Artemisia already got up to leave after she read it, making sure her Sais were on her person.
Sirani pouted as she watched the other Zootants get up. "Do we have to leave now? We were gonna have a nice dinner..."
"We'll keep it heated up until you get back," Casey assured them. "Now go. Hurry."
"Come on!" Mikey said before heading out of the apartment window.
As they traveled to T.C.R.I. on foot, Artemisia said to Sirani, "Think of it this way: when we're done at T.C.R.I., it'll be a victory dinner, okay?"
The red panda smiled and nodded.
They soon arrived at the T.C.R.I. building, finding numerous police officers and other emergency services at the scene. Being quite famous by this point, the Zootants began to look around the crime scene, staring at the damage caused in such a short amount of time.
Artemisia looked at Michelangelo after looking over the damage. She asked him, "Do you think we'll be able to find the source of all this damage? Something… or someone had to be the one at the start of all this."
"Possibly." Then Mikey noticed a nearby police officer. "Excuse me, officer. Has there been any leads on who could have been behind this?"
"Nothing concrete, but a few witnesses said that the intruders could have been part of a gang. They were all described wearing purple masks," he answered.
Mikey and the Zootants frowned at the sound of this. Paolo guessed, "Foot Clan?"
"Foot Clan." Mikey nodded.
"Why would the Foot Clan break into T.C.R.I. right now?" Sirani asked, paw on her chin.
As the Zootants wondered why, Artemisia thought back to when the mutants were first created: when the bombs of mutagen Karai made went off. Karai also went missing that day… It didn't take long for the fox to put everything together. She came up to the same police officer and asked, "Do you have a list of every mutant that escaped?"
"Hold on…" The officer made a gesture to a nearby scientist who works at the facility. They had a brief discussion with the officer, which ended with them handing over a clipboard.
The officer then handed it over to Artemisia, allowing the Zootants to examine the list. The fox skimmed through the list until she came to a mutant that looked vaguely familiar to her. "There. Who does that look like to you, Mikey?" She showed the turtle the attached photo, and he realized that the spikes on its back looked very familiar, like a certain archnemesis's weapon.
"Karai," Mikey muttered. "So she DID survive."
"We should've known," Artemisia sighed. "The Foot Clan's been quiet ever since she went 'missing,' and I bet they knew she was here. They probably waited to do this so they could avoid suspicion."
"The only thing worse than the Foot Clan's power is their patience. We need to regroup. Figure out their next move."
"Probably to get revenge on us," Sirani assumed. "They'd blame us for what happened to Karai, even though we didn't mean for her to become a mutant."
"Still, I didn't think there were many left after our last encounter with her," Pablo recalled.
"You'd be surprised by how many are hiding in the woodwork," Mikey commented.
"I guess one of them had to be at T.C.R.I.," Artemisia said. "We just gotta figure out who..."
Working with the police and the T.C.R.I. employees, the Zootants managed to identify the Foot Clan member who infiltrated the lab.
"Ben Morris," Mikey read. "Started working here not long after Karai's last attack. According to records, his mother was one of the victims caught in the M-Bomb at the mall."
"Wait...if Karai is the reason his mother was mutated, why would he work for her?" Paolo asked.
"Maybe he got impatient," Artemisia figured. "It's been almost two years since Karai set off the M-bomb, and T.C.R.I. hasn't made any progress on curing anyone. Maybe Karai convinced him if she created the bomb, then she could also reverse its effects."
"He's probably not the only one," Sirani added, "but he's our only lead right now."
"We need to track him down ASAP," Mikey stated.
"His address is right here," Artemisia pointed to his form. "What are we waiting for?"
The Zootants raced to Ben Morris's home, wondering if he'd be there, or even if someone would show up. They arrived on the rooftop, having both the stairwell entrance and the fire escape to descend.
Michelangelo instructed the others, "We'll corner him. Two of us go inside and knock on the front door, and the other two watch out from the fire escape."
"I think Paolo and I should go inside," Artemisia suggested. "Don't want this big guy getting stuck in a window."
Sirani snickered, "He can barely fit through a regular door."
"Can we just go?" Paolo asked, slightly sick of the size jokes. "We'll see you down below."
"See ya," Sirani bid.
She and Michelangelo climbed the fire escape while Artemisia and Paolo headed inside the building from the front door. They made their way down the corridors, acting nonchalant to any residents who may have been out in the halls. They eventually made it to the front door of the suspect's apartment. Artemisia knocked on the door, knowing it was the polite thing to do.
Meanwhile, Sirani and Mikey watched from Ben's window for any signs of activity. From Sirani and Mikey's view, they saw the lights inside the apartment turn on. A silhouette slowly made its way towards the door.
As they heard locks turning, both Artemisia and Paolo prepared to draw their weapons. Then the door opened, revealing a… short old woman on the other side. She straightened out her glasses and squinted as she looked up at the fox and gorilla.
"Oh! Hello," she greeted in a sweet and welcoming tone.
"Um...h-hi there," Paolo answered, loosening his grip on his hockey stick.
Artemisia blushed in embarrassment and quickly tucked her Sais away. "Um, hello. We're looking for a Ben Morris. Does he live here, ma'am?"
"Are you sure this is the right address?" Sirani whispered to Michelangelo.
"Are you friends with my grandson?" she asked, still in a sweet tone.
"Um...yes?" Paolo answered, unsure.
"Oh, well why didn't you say so? Come in." The old lady took Paolo's large hand and brought him through the tight doorway.
Paolo looked to Artemisia as if to say Help me! Artemisia snickered and shook her head as she came inside.
Sirani asked Mikey, "Should we go in, or wait for Ben?"
"Um, I… honestly have no idea what to do in this situation," Mikey responded.
The two found themselves waiting for a short while as Paolo and Artemisia were sat down and given tea by the elderly Mrs. Morris.
"I hope it's not too hot for you, dears," she said before taking a small sip from her cup.
"It's...very nice, Mrs. Morris," Paolo said. "We were wondering if… we could ask some questions about your grandson."
"Oh. Is he in trouble?" Mrs. Morris asked.
"Well, sorta." Artemisia cringed, worried she wouldn't say it delicately enough to Ben's grandmother. "We think your grandson is... part of the wrong crowd."
"Oh. I could've seen that coming from a mile away," Mrs. Morris sighed. "My boy hasn't been himself for a while."
The fox asked, "Maybe, If he comes home, we could talk to him?"
"Oh. He hasn't been home in days, dear. He told me he was staying with some friends."
"Do you know where any of his 'friends' live?"
"He didn't mention them. Although, before he moved out, he did start smelling very...fishy."
"Like, suspicious?" Paolo asked.
Mrs. Morris explained, "No, like FISHY. As if he'd dunked himself in the ocean."
Mikey whispered to Sirani, "Somewhere near the docks. We have a lead."
Sirani pouted. "But the docks are pretty big, and the way Mrs. Morris talks, it sounds like it's really close to the sea."
Despite Sirani's doubts, Artemisia and Paolo bid Mrs. Morris goodbye and the four Zootants all traveled to the docks.