Donnie was able to find the location of the testing facility Shredder was using to run test on mutants in the information he collected on his flash drive. The four Turtles managed to break in undetected and landed in a lab. Leo looked around and immediately covered Mikey’s eyes.
“Hey,” Mikey whispered. “What’s your deal Leo?”
“You don’t need to see this, Mikey,” Leo answered. “I don’t want to have to deal with the nightmares.”
“Oh,” Mikey breathed, his breath puffing out visibly in the cold of the room.
“I wish someone had covered my eyes,” Donnie whimpered as he shivered.
Raph looked around the lab to see a dissected, mutated turtle on one of the exam tables. “Me too,” he managed to choke out. “Looks like Shredder wanted to see how we tick.”
“We need to see if there are any still alive,” Donnie whispered and started to move.
Leo guided Mikey, with his hand still covering the smallest Turtle’s eyes.
“This guy’s not alive,” Raph mumbled as the passed the open corpse. He looked up to see several jars filled with parts, “How many did he do this to?”
Donnie shook his head as he fought back tears, “Hard to tell.”
“We need to keep moving,” Leo ordered. “We can be caught or we’ll be next.”
“I can’t see anything,” Mikey sobbed, “but I want to go home now.”
“We have to be sure that there aren’t any others,” Donnie insisted. “We can’t leave them to this.” He pointed, “That looks like holding pens.”
“Okay,” Leo whispered, “go check.”
Donnie swallowed hard and left the others to explore the wall of cages. He searched each to find them all empty with the exception of one. Donnie’s heart sank when he saw the mutated turtle cowering in the back of the cage.
“Oh the horrors you must have seen,” he pulled out a lock pick and made quick work opening the door. “Come on,” he soothed. “I’m here to free you.”
The red eyes of the frightened turtle darted around as it pulled further back into the cage. Donnie sighed and reached in for it. The traumatized creature panicked.
“I know you’re scared,” Donnie grunted, “but we don’t have time for this.” He grabbed the little turtle and pulled it out. “I’m gonna take you somewhere safe.”
He threw the turtle over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and ran back over to his brothers. The turtle over his shoulder gasped at the horrors around them. It reached out to the turtle on the exam table and cried out.
“You have to be quiet,” Donnie hissed. “There was only one survivor,” he announced when he rejoined his brothers.
“How are we going to stop him from getting more?” Raph pointed out.
“Sadly we can,” Leo answered. “Let’s just hope that he has found his answers and won’t be running any more experiments.”
“Can we go now?” Mikey pleaded.
“Yes,” Donnie whispered.
“Okay, Mikey, I want you to keep your eyes closed and get on my back,” Leo instructed removing his hand from Mikey’s eyes and dropping to his knees.
Mikey nodded and felt his way up on to Leo’s carapace, “At least I get a piggyback ride out of this.”
Raph rolled his eyes, “Let’s just get out of here.”
The Turtles manage to climb back out the window they entered through. They ran down the street to hide in a nearby ally. Raph looked at his brothers, “Did that seem too easy to any of you?”
“You have a good point,” Leo looked at Donnie. “Check him for a tracker.”
Nodding, Donnie placed the small turtle on the ground. It cowered in front of him and looked like it wanted to bolt. It stood about the same height as Mikey but was more slender. Donnie searched inside its carapace and plastron as far as he could. “I don’t see any scars that would suggest an implant,” he stood looking down at it then got an idea and bent back down.
“He’s cute,” Mikey smiled. “Maybe we could name him… uh….”
“Can’t think of any painters can you, Mikey?” Raph teased.
“No,” Mikey looked disappointed.
“Um guys,” Donnie stood. “We should stop calling our new turtle friend a ‘he’.”
“How do you know?” Leo asked.
“Well I checked her tail for a tracker and… we will leave it at that,” Donnie blushed a little.
“Oh,” Mikey perked up, “Maybe we can name her after a painting like Mona Lisa!” He scrunched his face while he thought. “Um…”
“Still can’t think of anything can you?” Raph crossed his arms over his plastron.
“No,” Mikey sighed. “Donnie can name her.”
“Um,” Donnie thought. “Venus De Milo,” he offered.
“Okay that’s fine. She’s named,” Leo snapped. “Is it safe to take her home?”
“I think so,” Donnie answered nodding his head.
“Well we’re going to have to wait on that,” Mikey stated.
“Why?” Raph asked.
“Because it’s not going to be as easy as you thought!” Mikey pointed. “Foot!!”
Leo drew his sword, “Donnie, Protect Venus. The rest of you attack.”
Mikey, Leo and Raph charged the Foot ninja led by Karai. “You’ve stolen my pet,” she rushed Leo. “My father needs it to find out how best to defeat you.”
“Hasn’t your father learned enough from the ones he’s already killed?” Leo blocked her attack.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Karai smiled. “Now he just does it for sport.”
“We won’t let you have her,” Leo kicked her away.
“Her?” Karai snorted. “So add her to the lizard girl Doctor Rice created, you just need two more mutant freak girls and the four of you are set.”
“Mona is not a freak,” Raph snarled.
“I think I know who nabbed up girl number one,” Karai laughed. “Who’s gonna get girl number two? You guys should really be thinking my father. Well, that is if you can keep me from taking this one back.”
“Oh we will,” Raph said as he knocked a Foot soldier to the ground. “And we’ll make Shredder pay for the other turtles.”
The three Turtles made short work of Karai’s soldiers while Donnie stayed back to protect Venus. Karai grunted in frustration and made her escape and the Turtles headed back down into the sewers.
Back at the lair Splinter looked down at Venus while stroking his beard, “I can already see the problems that are going come with her being here.”
“What do you mean?” Mikey asked with a blank look on his face.
“I’ve already got my girl,” Raph was sitting on the sofa and draped an arm around Mona’s shoulders. “So you don’t have to worry about me. Leo and Don are hung up on humans so that leaves Mikey.”
“Leaves me for what?” Mikey looked a Raph.
Raph sighed, “Or not.”
“She can stay in with Mona Lisa,” Splinter sighed. “The poor child, to be subjected to such horrors as you have described. I am grateful that Leonardo covered Michelangelo’s eyes.”
“Yeah, about that,” Mikey breathed. “I peeked when Leo was giving me a piggyback ride.”
“You can sleep next to me, Mikey,” Donatello groaned.
“Thank you,” Mikey mumbled.
