Chapter 6: Baited

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"No… no, you-you've tricked me! You lied about our deal!" Filch screamed.

"I promised you your son in exchange for a formula that could mutate people into superhuman creatures! Is this not your son?!" The Shredder responded with fury, gesturing angrily towards the mutant on the table.

Hesitantly, Filch made his way over to the table. The mutant stared calmly back at him, and when Filch stood before the table he adjusted his glasses one last time. "Is it really you? Are you Ezra Filch?" he asked. His tear ducts were swelling, but Dr. Filch was careful to show no other sign of emotion.

The mutant, who was a cross between a human male and a Komodo dragon, tilted his head and shot him a look of slight confusion. It took a long time for him to speak, but after a long pause he finally said, "Dad?" His voice was rough, as though he had earlier swallowed gravel or glass, but other than that, the mutant seemed completely functional and healthy.

"Oh… oh my…" Filch's legs trembled. He felt as though his knees would buckle under him at any moment. He practically fell onto the mutant, embracing him in a tight hug. "I can't—I can't even begin to tell you how much I've missed you." Tears flowed freely now, and the doctor cried without shame. Sheepishly, mutant Ezra wrapped an arm around his father and hugged him back.

"I missed you, too, Dad."

The Shredder and Taro both shot each other looks of disgust. Taro still wore his Foot Clan ninja mask, but his mutual disgust was nonetheless palpable to his master, who never approved of open displays of sentiment.

"I hate to shatter the moment," the Shredder said without an ounce of sincerity in his voice, "but there is a slight problem."

Both Filch and Ezra turned to look at him, both with looks of faintly irate bewilderment. More problems? Filch thought. This man had been causing him nothing but problems!

"You see, due to the unpredictable nature of the ooze, and due to the, ahem, unusual circumstances of this particular experiment, I'm afraid the DNA composition of Ezra here is not entirely stable. There are two major issues I must warn you about. Firstly, Ezra's heart is weaker than I imagined it would be—"

"He's always had a heart murmur. We've always taken good care of it." Filch interjected.

"Don't interrupt the master when he's speaking to you." Taro spat angrily. He went to make a movement, but a combination of a sharp gesture from the Shredder and a low growl from Ezra caused him to stop.

"As I was saying, this heart condition of your son's has been exaggerated through the process. If left untreated, his heart will eventually give out and your son will die again. Or, if that doesn't happen, there's another possibility. Since his DNA is not entirely stable, his brain chemicals are also abnormal, and he could very well descend into madness. And I'm sure you wouldn't want that to happen—"

"You monster!" Filch interrupted again. "You kept up your end of the bargain, but you've found every possible loophole you could exploit! No more! I won't work for you any longer! I will not allow you to—"

Taro sprang into action as Dr. Filch went on his furious rant, unsheathing his katana. On instinct, Ezra also responded, and jumped up from the table in front of his father, hissing wildly and flexing his new claws. With a single push, he managed to force Taro back. The ninja fumbled, humiliated to be shown up like this in front of his master.

"Taro!" The Shredder screamed, "I can handle this! Your brashness has embarrassed me for the last time. Leave!"

Gritting his teeth, and somehow glaring daggers from underneath his mask, Taro pivoted on his foot and stormed off. As he walked away, Ezra still growled. The Shredder, however, managed to keep his composure impressively intact after everything was said and done.

"There is a way to save your son. But we need to put together a plan to capture the ninja turtles. When we have them, I will have one of my medically experienced ninja surgically replant one of their hearts into your son's body."

"Why did you do this to my son?" Filch asked, suddenly angry again. "Why didn't you just bring him back without all these… all these damn complications?" The Shredder picked up on the fact that Filch was not, in fact, referring to Ezra's heart problems, but his newly mutated state.

"And what difference does it make? You have your son back, regardless of his new form. Besides, the boy was dead and the public knew about it. It's not as though you could have revealed him, anyway. What would you have told the media? 'My son was miraculously brought back to life! Praise science!' What then, Doctor? If you help me finish my business with the turtles, I can make sure both you and your son are located to a faraway place, safe and sound from prying eyes, and with enough resources to live out your lives comfortably. Do we have a deal?"

Ezra looked to his father to see his response. Though Filch looked furious that he was, given the circumstances, being forced to make yet another deal with the Shredder, he gritted his teeth, swallowed his pride, and agreed. "I will help you capture these… turtles. But beyond that, I want nothing more to do with you or your abominable cult."

The Shredder smirked. It was the only thing he needed to hear. If they pulled this off, he would no longer have any use for Phineas Filch or his son.

-o-

After their journey to Dr. Filch's laboratory, the turtles took Mona Lisa back to their lair. She kept her head down and didn't make any conversation. Playing Secret Mutant Ninja Detective suddenly wasn't very much fun anymore. Never in all her life did Mona imagine such atrocities could be happening right under her nose. She was too traumatized to even be impressed by the lair.

None of the boys knew what to say to her. Even the levelheaded Leonardo and the gentle Donatello were at a loss for comforting words. Everyone kept silent in a stunned, unnerving quietness. Michelangelo made no funny quips and Raphael made no sarcastic comments. It wasn't until Donatello informed everyone that he was going to his lab to study the documents and DNA they gathered that someone managed to break the silence. Had they not been so disgusted, they might have stayed to finish their work at Filch's lab. However, the brothers all silently agreed to get Mona Lisa away from that place as soon as possible.

The girl wasn't crying, but everyone could still tell she was at a high level of distress. Leonardo especially could sense she was having an internal struggle and was lost in her thoughts. She sat on the couch as unresponsive as she had been when Mikey rescued her from the Foot clan.

"I'm going to…um, study the evidence for a while. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the lab." Being the first to speak, Donatello declared this carefully, almost hesitantly; somewhat afraid his words would set Mona off.

Suddenly, her head, which had been down since they began driving back, snapped up. Her desolate expression had been replaced with determination in the blink of an eye. "I want to help you. Can I join you?"

Donatello didn't know which was more shocking: the fact that this girl seemingly recovered so quickly from the trauma, or the fact that the idea of a teenage mutant ninja turtle with his own laboratory hardly fazed her. However, he nodded; impressed that she was still determined to do her part in stopping all of this.

"Hey," Raphael piped up, "what're we s'posed to do? Sit on our butts while the geeks get to figure out what's going on? What's the point? We know where they are! I say we storm into Foot headquarters right now and kick some tail!"

Both Mona and Donatello shot him a look of disregard at the word "geeks." Donatello shot back, "No, the geeks are going to use evidence and their brainpower to figure out what's going on, while you three come up with an actual strategy for us to sneak into Foot territory instead of relying on a suicidal frontal assault."

Raph let out a low growl, and slunk away to the kitchen. Unaffected by his attitude, Donatello turned and made his way to the lab while Mona followed.

While she didn't react before, Mona was rather impressed when she actually saw Donatello's laboratory. Most of her life, she had wished for a cozy workspace where she could do experiments and studies without disturbance. With the microscopes, flasks and beakers and vials, microscopes, scattered paperwork, and peculiar machines, Mona would be right at home in a place of this sort. She couldn't help but smile. "Your lab is amazing, Donatello."

He blushed. "Oh it's nothing, just a nice getaway for when things around here get too crazy. Though I supposed I have a bad habit of holing myself up in here for days at a time…"

"I don't blame you. I'd be here forever if I could!"

"Well, when we stop Filch and Shredder from making any more mutants and get you back to normal, you're totally welcome to visit anytime you please." He smiled at her.

Though kind, his words made Mona Lisa remember the circumstances of why she was here. "I would like that. Here," she took the DNA samples from him, "you read the paperwork, and I'll look over these."

Donatello looked impressed. "You sure?"

"Yeah, I worked—well, interned—as a geneticist. Plus, I was helping Filch create this formula. Trust me, when I was in that lab, all I ever did was study DNA samples."

"That's amazing, Mona Lisa. Not even out of college, and yet you were working for one of the most well-known and respected scientists in the state! Color me impressed… and maybe a little envious, too."

Suddenly, the girl grinned. She let out a very quiet, almost unnoticeable giggle before she looked back up at Donatello. "Would you say you're perhaps… green with envy?"

Donatello simply stared back at her and blinked a couple times. Finally, just as Mona was worried she had taken things too far by pointing out his strange appearance, Donatello threw back his head and laughed. "Your puns are almost as awful as Mikey's." he joked.

Mona gave him a slight shove. "Hey, now, don't hate on puns. At least I made you laugh."

They both smiled as they prepared their equipment. Donatello gave a quiet sigh of relief when he realized Mona Lisa didn't seem all too troubled anymore. Although he wouldn't have wished this fate on anyone, he was at least glad that Mona seemed like the sort of person who powered through difficulties with sheer determination and tenacity.

And so, the two went to work.

-o-

April O'Neil entered her apartment around 10 pm immediately flopped into her recliner. She'd been on her feet running errands all day and needed a much-deserved break.

"I guess I should clean…" she mused, "Casey's gonna be back soon." Despite reminding herself which task needed to be accomplished, April continued to lounge in the recliner, even putting her feet up and slouching back. Picking up the remote, she decided she could clean later, and clicked on the television.

At first April flipped routinely through the channels, sorting through mindless sitcoms and reality television shows. Mostly she'd catch a brief flash of bizarrely attractive faces and people interacting with each other in ways that could only be found in a scripted Hollywood setup. Just as she was about to give up and settle for a movie instead, April stopped at the news.

"We are reporting live from downtown where several robberies have taken place—" Shots of broken windows and destroyed shops flashed briefly on the screen. April narrowed her eyes. Her gut told her this news was way worse than it already looked.

"The Foot…" April whispered to herself.

She scrambled up to grab her shell cell.