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Chapter 7And I find myself here again. The building loomed up before me, huge and intimidating.
The sky shone purple, pink and gold in the dusk. I glanced over at my friends. They stood, like
me, gazing at the Facility. After a moment, Leonardo gave a signal and Donatello silently moved
forward to take point. I fell in behind him, Raphael after me. I kept my fear suppressed with
anger; Thoughts of Jackson and what he did to us. We continued noiselessly to the side of the
building. I caught sight of the pond were it all started nine years ago. I was so young, just a kid.
We all stopped near the wall and glanced around. I told them that the room I had trained
in had a skylight. Leo decided that it would be the best penetration point. I knew no one else used
the room, and that it was not monitored by cameras, so we definitely wouldn’t be see right away.
Don tossed his grappling hook up and over, yanked the rope several times, then started up. The
rest of us followed suite. Mike used a small tool to unlock and pry open the skylight. Leo poked
his head in, scanning the room. After a moment he stood and nodded to Don; the hook attached
to the sill with a faint *Clink*. This time Raph went first, alone. He dropped the last few feet and
landed without a sound. I watched his tense form as he surveyed the scene. His slight relaxation
said it was all clear. I threw my leg over the edge, got a good grip, and started down the rope. I
felt Raphael’s hands on my waist as I reached to bottom. Releasing the rope, I let him lower me
to the floor, then turned to him and smiled. Don came next, then Mike, and finally Leo.
I looked around, a loneliness for Tachi rising in me. Leo’s hand on my shoulder brought me
back to the task at hand. I took point leading them through the compound. Most of the guards
would be at dinner, so they posed little threat. Not that I was concerned. Most of the guards
were lazy and out of shape. They were not allowed to carry guns; most only had clubs, but a few
had begun to carry tazers, since they, generally, didn’t kill. I was sure that any of them would run
at the sight of US coming, though.
The room we entered from was ground floor, so I lead them to the stairs. We could easily
climb to the fourth floor, where the offices and monitoring rooms were, since the stairwells had no
cameras--the elevators did. Once to the top, I pointed Don toward the end of the hall to the
security station, where all of the cameras and alarms were controlled. He and Mike slipped in;
there was a brief and muffled struggle. After a few moments, Mikey shot a thumbs-ups , signaling
Don had figured out how to shut it all down. Now we were free to go into any room without fear of
being taped.
Leonardo, Raphael and I approached Zachary’s door. I held up my hand, then peered in
through the glass window on the door. I could see the Doc’s slightly balding head and the back of
his wheeled desk chair. He appeared to be looking out the window. The knob turned silently in my
hand, the well-maintained hinges did not make a sound. I reached over and flicked the light switch
to an off position. The room was dark except for the last few moments of daylight that shone in
through the window, and the light from the hallway behind me. Zachary spun around in his chair,
but froze at the sight before him.
“Give it to me.” I kept my voice low, my blade in a relaxed, but ready position.
“M-Mona Lisa?” Zachary gaped. “My God, I thought you were gone! Escaped!”
“Give it to me.” I repeated, more deliberately.
“What? What are you talking about?”
My stare bore down on him as I raised my sword a little higher, the sign for Leo and Raph
to appear. “You KNOW what I’m talking about. Don’t make me tell you again.”
Zachary’s jaw dropped at the sight of the Turtles’ silhouette. “What the hell. . .? Mona
Lisa, what’s going on? I--”
Swiftly, I leapt to the top of his desk, grabbed his shirt with my right hand and pulled him
to his feet, his face inches from mine, “I don’t want to kill you, but I will if I have to. Wendy’s
wand. Give it to me!” I brought my blade to his neck, “Now.”
Zachary’s eyes were huge with fear. He was so close I could see the sweat glisten on his
brow. He tried to regain his composure, “I don’t know w-what you’re talking about.”
“Oh?” With a flick of my wrist, my sword grazed the left side of his neck, creating a small,
stinging cut. Zachary cried out in pain and surprise. “Tell me,” I growled.
“I-I don’t remember.” His voice trembled. Raph and Leo had approached and were
standing behind me, no doubt looking mean and intimidating.
“’Don’t remember’? Well, let me refresh you.” I landed another cut just under the first one.
Zachary screamed again, and began blubbering that he was sorry and didn’t want to die. I shook
my head, “Don’t humiliate yourself like this, Doc. Just tell me where it is.”
Zachary’s face was slick with sweat and tears. Two trails of blood trickled down his neck,
staining his stiff white collar pink. He peered at my face, looked at the Turtles behind me, then
lowered his eyes to the floor, “Top drawer of my desk,” he muttered.
Giving the Doctor a good shove back into his chair, I climbed down as the Turtles came
around to loom over him. “These guys are going to make sure you don’t try and stop me from
doing what I’m gonna do here. Don’t worry, some one will find you eventually.”
Leo and Raph pulled out a rope and some duct tape. “Just hold still, Doc.” Leo began
wrapping the rope around Zachary’s middle and the chair.
Zachary looked up at them with huge eyes, “Who are you?”
Raphael pulled a length of duct tape out with a ripping sound, drawing Zachary’s attention.
“Just some guys helping out a fellow mutant.” He stared at him as Raph pressed the tape across
Doc’s mouth.
While the guys took care of Zachary, I pulled open the top drawer and looked inside.
Shining a dim, dark blue, the wand barely glowed. I hoped it still shone at all because Wendy still
lived. I grasped the handle and held it up. Almost immediately, the crystal shimmered and turned
deep red; the brightness intensified as I peered into the stone. “She knows I’m here!” I whispered
to Raph who was standing beside me, gazing at the wand. I slipped my sword into it’s place on my
belt and grabbed the shaft with both hands. “I’m coming, Wendy.”
Glancing back at Zachary, I noted the Turtles did a good job. Bound to his chair, which
was tethered to the desk so he wouldn’t roll away, and mouth kept silent by duct tape, he wasn’t
going anywhere. With that thought in my mind, the three of us headed out. Don and Mike met us
in the hall.
“Everything’s under control.” Don moved up beside me. “All monitoring systems are down:
cameras, alarms, mics, the works.”
“Great job, Donnie,” I patted his shoulder.
“Wow!” Mike’s eyes focused on the glowing object in my hand. “Is that the wand?”
“Yep. This is it.”
“Awesome! How’s it work?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know, but Wendy does.”
Leo held up his hand, “Then lead the way.”
Raph and Mike drug the guard out of sight after I slipped the card key from his belt. I
hurriedly scanned the card, *Swish-click* the door unlocked. Grasping the knob with my sweaty
hand, I turned it and pushed the door open. It was very dark inside. I pulled the wand from my
belt and held it up. The crystal shone pale yellow, lighting the way to a lamp. The Turtles crowded
in behind me, blinking in the sudden light. I looked at the bed and gasped, “She’s not here!!”
After a moment of silence, Leo spoke quietly, “She could be dead already.”
“NO!” I shook my head angrily, “If she were dead, the wand would go out! I KNOW it!”
“Then where is she?”
Suddenly, it hit me: “JACKSON!!” We ran, with me in the lead, toward Jackson’s lab. I
skidded to a halt in front of the doors, used the card key, and rushed in. lying on a table, tubes
and wires sticking out of her, was Wendy. “Oh God,” I breathed, moving to my friend. She was
unconscious, but alive. I felt my anger grow as I glanced at the closed door of Jackson’s office.
Gently, I lay the wand at Wendy’s side, making sure it touched her, then turned to the Turtles,
drawing my sword, “Stay with her.”
“But. . .” Raph started.
“No. I want to face him alone.”
Raphael hesitated, then slowly reached down and pulled out one of his sais, shifted his grip,
and handed it to me hilt first. I accepted it, smiled at him, then strode over to the door. I gently
turned the door handle, so he wouldn’t hear me, but found it locked. So, I decided to try the
unsubtle approach: Using all my pinned up anger, I kicked the door with a howl. It gave with
surprising ease. As I entered, I heard Raph mumble to himself, “That’s my girl.”
Jackson sat stunned at his desk. His eyes focused on me and widened, “You!”
“You.”
“I knew you’d be back for your little friend!” I heard a buzz and glanced back through the
doorway to see Jackson’s interns rush into the lab.
“They look like hell,” I commented. “Guess I beat them up worse that I thought.” The
Turtles must have been out of sight, for the punks gave no sign of seeing them. Once they were
past Wendy, the guys were on them. It took about ten seconds for the Turtles to take the interns
out. “My back-up,” I told the shocked Jackson. Suddenly, his hand whipped out toward the
phone. In a swift, fluid motion, I plunged Raphael’s sai straight down with a growl. Jackson’s
screams bounced around the small room as he stared, wide-eyed at the weapon passing through
his hand and the desk, pinning him. “Now we can talk, “ I said over his wails, but then brought my
sword point to his throat, “Shut up or I’ll kill you now.” His cries changed to whimpers almost
immediately. “Good boy,” I lowered my blade. “So, Zachary thinks I escaped. Is that what you
told him?” Jackson pressed his lips together and defiantly met my gaze. Again my blade rose to
his neck. “I’ll get it out of you one way or another.”
My sword and expression must have cured his silent treatment, “Of course that’s what I
told him! He’s stupid enough to believe me, the fool.”
“What exactly did you say?”
“What difference does it make?”
“I love a good story,” I pressed cold steel to his throat.
Jackson gave a pathetic, whimpering sigh, “I told him my interns were transporting you
back from a workout session; you suddenly became violent, turned on them, and ran out the front
doors.”
“What about alarms?”
“He gives you more credit than you deserve,” Jackson snarled, “so, I told him you must
have disarmed them yourself. Since you intelligence scores are ‘off the charts’ the idiot bought it.”
I considered what Jackson had told me so far, deciding he wasn’t lying, then changed my
route of questioning: “Did you kill Calla?”
A sickly version of the wicked grin spread on his face, “That result was unintentional, just a
pleasant surprise. I discovered one of the viruses that seemed to have no effect caused a kidney
infection that proved fatal.”
I was barely able to control my self: I so wanted to rip that smirk from his face, but I kept
outwardly calm. “What about all those other Creations?” His brow furrowed. “In the chambers,
sub-basement level. You kill them, too?”
He continued to stare at me for a moment, the recoiled back as if slapped, “How did you
know about that?”
I put both hands on his desk and leaned in so we were face to face, “I have my ways.
Besides, I’m asking the questions: Did you kill them?”
Jackson kept eye contact for a moment, then dropped his gaze, “Not all of them. Some
just didn’t take the mutation well. There were so many different formulas for mutagen, we had no
way of knowing how their bodies would react.”
Again I paused to consider his answer, then asked, “What about me? Tell me what you’ve
learned about my ability to resist your attempts at making me sick.”
Jackson shook his head, “Telling you everything I learned could take hours. . .”
“Then give me the abridged version.”
After a pause, to gather his thoughts I guessed, Jackson began, “You may not be
a “Work of Art,” but I can’t deny that you are an amazing being.” I continued to stare at him,
unresponsive, so he kept talking. “Your immune system is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered.
It withstand every disease so completely and efficiently that it’s unreal.”
“But what about the Memory Serum? That seemed to work pretty well,” I interrupted.
“Ah, but it didn’t.” Jackson’s lips were pulled back in a grimace of pain as wiped his free hand
across his brow. “It just took a while for your system to figure out how to beat it. The serum
should have caused permenent memory loss. Your’s returned in a matter of days. Your immune
system just needed to adapt to a syntheitic ‘virus’.”
There was a brief silence, then I said quitely, “Ok, go on.”
Jackson heaved a slightly shaky sigh then continued: “I haven’t yet figured out why, but I
believe the development of your advanced immune system has something to do with the formula we
used to mutate you, something in your blood, in your DNA, SOMEthing reacted with the mutagen,
giving you this immune system that keeps you completely healthy. We never had the same
reaction again, thus, the name you were given. The same reaction seemed to have increased your
mind’s capacity--your memory, learning ability and speed, and hormonal controls were effected. As
your body changed, so did your brain.
“As for your body, we expected the female-human characteristics that you have now, but we
did not expect the muscle development you’ve undergone. We believe it’s partially due to the
release of certain hormones as you used your muscles, because the changes in them began after
you started your training. The mutated hormones caused you to become incredibly strong,
compared to the average human female of your weight and age. In addition, your strength is
increased when you are under stress, and adrenaline is released into your blood. We can only
assume that it has been affected by the mutation as well.” He attempted a weak grin that lasted
only seconds, “Kinda like Super-mutant, aren’t you? They never created anything like you here, and
probably never will. You’re a freak, an impressive, amazing freak, but a freak none the less.”
He slumped in his chair, shoulders drooping, looking tired and defeated. I regarded him
for a moment, absorbing everything he just told me, then reached out, and yanked the sai out of
the desk with a grunt. Jackson shrieked and clutched his wounded hand to his body. I leaned in
again, this time putting the point of the bloody sai to his throat. “I should kill you for what you’ve
done. For all the lives you’ve destroyed. For all the pain you caused my friends.”
He stared into my eyes, “You can’t kill me. You don’t have the guts. You’re too ‘Honor
bound’.”
The sai wavered. Hope shone in his eyes. His body relaxed slightly. I let my right hand
holding the sai drop and stood straight. Jackson grinned. I looked at him for a moment, then
bared my teeth and swiftly thrust my sword forward. Eyes bulging and mouth agape, Jackson
looked down at the blade running through his middle. Slowly, I pulled my weapon from his body,
and waited for his eyes to return to mine. “This is about Honor,” I spat. Jackson’s gaze stayed
locked on me as the light in them went out; his breathing was shallow and raspy. Then, between
one breath and the next, he was gone.
I wiped the blood from both weapons on Jackson’s clothes, then slowly made my out of the
office. Standing just outside the doorway, I looked at the Turtles. They stared back expectantly. I
shrugged, “It’s done.” Suddenly, the shock of what just happened hit me, and my legs felt as
though they would no longer support my body. Raphael rushed forward and pulled me to him. I
let his embrace comfort me, welcoming his strong arms. “I-I killed him,” my voice was shaky. “He
didn’t think I would, but I did.” Raph held me close as I talked, nearly wept.
“You did the right thing,” came a weak voice from behind Leo.
We all turned to the sound. Sitting up on the table, looking thin and tired, clutching a
glowing wand, was Wendy. She had pulled the tubes and wires from her body. I cried her name
and rushed to her. “Are you ok?”
She took my hand and gently squeezed. “I am now. Thank you.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Mike shifted his weight nervously. “This place gives me the
creeps.”
“No.” I gazed at each of them. “I still have work to do. Will you help me?”
Raphael approached me, lay a hand on my shoulder, and smiled, “Just tell us what to do.”
“Hey guys! Come here quick! We made the news!” Mikey’s voice drifted to the kitchen
from the living room.
A newswoman named April--who was a friend of the Turtles--was in the middle of her
report: “The building, which is thought to have been abandoned, was once the research facility
know as T.G.R.I. The fire of unknown origin started late last night. Damage reports estimate the
building is a total loss.”
“Good-bye, Facility,” Wendy spoke quietly from my side. I put an arm around her
shoulders and pulled her close.
“Are you sure we did the right thing?” Don asked from his workshop door.
I thought for a moment. “Yes, I am.”
“What about Zachary?”
“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about him. He’d have to start over from scratch.
Besides, I think his probably too scared of us to try anything now.”
Leo nodded, “I agree,” he smiled at me, “We did the right thing.”
“Yeah. We even made sure all the interns and guards were out.” Raph spoke up.
Don’s brow furrowed, “What if THEY try and start something?”
Wendy snorted. “What THOSE guys? They were hardly There for Their brain power.
They were mostly Med.-school drop-outs and NYPD rejects. Anderson was the brains behind the
whole outfit. Then Zachary after him. With a little help from Jackson, They ran the place.”
“That’s why there were so few Creations at a time. They could only keep up with so many
at once,” I said, then added, “I’m just glad we were able to destroy the evidence of what went on
There so completely.”
Don leaned against the doorjamb, “They were fully prepared to get rid of anything
incriminating. Those terrible chambers were equipped with content distruct mechanisms.”
“What do you think happened, Donnie?” Mike turned his attention away from the TV.
“If I understand the program correctly, then once activated, the mechanism releases a
chemical into the chambers; something corrosive enough to dissolve the bodies completely.”
“How vile!” Leo grimaced.
I shrugged, “They don’t feel it. They’re dead.”
“Yeah,” Wendy looked up at Leo, “Hopefully now they can rest in peace.”
“I can’t help feeling bad about Jackson,” I sighed.
A stern gaze from Wendy fell upon me, “Don’t. He got what he deserved.”
“I guess.”
Raph turned to me, “How did you know that Zachary would be the one with Wendy’s wand,
and not Jackson?”
I gave him a sideways grin, “After nine years, I’d come to know Them all pretty well. Well
enough to know that if Jackson had been the one to find it, he would have HAD to gloat about it;
hold it over out head because there would be nothing we could do about it. That’s the way he
was--cocky, and cruel. Zachary was the only other person. Even if it had be a guard or intern who
found it, the wand would have ended up in Zachary’s possession eventually.”
Raph grabbed me in a headlock and gave me a nouggie, “You so smart!” I squealed in
protest as Wendy laughed at the antics. She stopped suddenly, as if something had just hit her.
“Mona Lisa, what about Tachi? Do you think he knows what happened?”
I paused for a moment, thinking, probing deeply for something I didn’t know or understand
yet felt was there, then smiled, “Yeah, I think he does.”
Suddenly, the lair door swung open, and the newswoman, April, entered, followed by Casey.
They were both carrying thin boxes. “Anybody order some pizza?!”
Wendy and I cocked our heads, then looked at each other, puzzled. “Pizza?”
“You DON’T KNOW PIZZA!?!?” Mike practically screamed.
“We’ve got a lot to teach you, “Raph hugged me affectionately.
I squeezed him back, and grinned, “We’ve got a lot of time to learn.”The End
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