Shadow Mutation (Book Seven)

Chapter 31: Getting Some Answers

Zilla's shadowy body seems to ripple, like endlessly dropping coins into a fountain, restarting the circle of ripples with each one. She floats, ripples, and watches as the Hamato clan gathers in the lair living area. She longs to disappear, to run away again, but the time has come to stop running.

Sarina has some colour back in her cheeks, seemingly recovered from her near-death experience. Still, Zilla overheard her telling Donatello that she wanted to work on her rocket boots and their stabilizers. "Maybe we can invest in making a proper flight suit for me," she said.

She's resilient, if anything, Zilla thinks. Her attention wanders to Destiny, thinking of her giant black wolf form. She looked like a shadow beast in that stairwell. Zilla briefly imagined what Wallace would do with a creature like that.

"Should we get on with it?" Leonardo asks. He stands in front of the TV in the centre of the main pit. "Shadow, or...Zilla? Thank you for coming." She bobs her head. Leonardo clasps his hands together as he takes a breath. "Feel free to take the floor then, whenever you're ready."

He steps aside and takes a seat next to Destiny. Zilla floats down to take his position, looking over them as she takes a long, deep breath. Here it goes.

"I met Wallace, the Necromancer, shortly after I was mutated. This was five years ago," she starts. "I was afraid and barely managing my new form and I ended up hiding in his storage locker. He found me there..."

"I can help you."

Zilla peered out at him from behind the wooden crates. He seemed normal enough, his hand outstretched towards her. How could he help? She didn't even know what she was.

"I..." He cleared his throat. "I was a scientist at Mutacorp. Have you heard of them?" She shook her head. "They specialize in medicines. Cures." He smiled softly. "Did...did an ooze hit you?"

She spoke in a tiny, scared voice, "Yes."

"That stuff that hit you? It's called mutagen. I studied it at Mutacorp. If you could help me with my research, I'll repay you by creating an antidote."

She trusted him. She was just a little girl and she trusted him.

"We figured out that I was able to purify mutagen, recreating a less potent version of the mutagen that mutated me," she continues. "It created Beast Mode and others like her, but they were unstable. Violent."

Wallace was always bringing in more taxidermy. He explained that it was a hobby of his, something his parents nudged him away from in favour of a more stable job in the sciences. He purchased most of them for his personal collection. The rest were ones that he did himself.

"Again and again, Wallace had to destroy his creations," she says. "When one of his beasts attacked him one night, it shaded him. I realized that I could heal him."

She remembers reaching out her hands, unsure of what to do as blood flowed between his fingers, skin purpling from the wound. She felt the wound call to her, like whatever was inside it was just another part of her, and she could draw it out.

"He survived, but he was forever changed," she says. "He became obsessed with my healing abilities and his caution faded the more and more failures he encountered. He kept the beasts he created. He stopped giving them the mutagen doses that kept them docile, trying to cling to whatever mutagen he had left. I could hear them as they went insane."

Zilla notices Destiny's ears flatten, her claws scratching against her forearm nervously. Zilla's eyes narrow. "You heard them too, didn't you, Destiny?" she asks.

Destiny's eyes widen, but she nods as the others look at her. "Just the wolf. Their thoughts were...scattered, jumbled. It was like their mind was broken."