Remember. [TMNT 2012]

Prologue

I become conscious again. My eyes are heavy with sleep and I can't open them. A piercing headache eagerly makes its presence known. My fingertips are throbbing. Even my knees are raw and seem a bit wet, possibly from the blood. All of my muscles feel weak and strained; like I've been thrown onto pavement more than once.

   Something cold wraps itself around my arm. It's snakelike but too wide and flat to actually be one. I feel the object increase in pressure every second until I think my arm might explode. I start to wriggle away from it, but it hurts too much to move, so I give up. Then the pressure releases and whatever panics me is gone.

   "The one which you wish to analyze has obtained what you call a 'stable blood pressure'." The voice that speaks is monotone and echoes unnaturally.

   "Good. Go get me the serum," a rather high but muffled voice replies.

   I manage to open my eyes halfway. I spot a man with dark skin, dark hair, and a white lab coat. His back is to me, so I can't see his face. The second person, who I assume is the one ordered to get a 'serum', is blue and silver. He walks away so stiffly that he doesn't even look human. In fact, he looks like a walking factory machine. A blue factory machine.

   I shake my head a little, but the man still looks the same. This must be a dream, I think to myself. But before I can study him any longer, he's gone.

   Suddenly, I realize why I can't move; I am attached to a large dentist chair. Straps pin my arms and legs to the seat. I attempt to get out of it, but it's no use. I'm stuck.

   "Decided to wake up, have you?"

   I gasp, startled, and look in the direction of the sound. My eyes connect with the face of a new man who I didn't notice before. The expression in his green eyes is cold and bitter, like stepping out of a pool in mid-winter. His greasy, dark brunette hair and tan complexion are oddly familiar, but I can't put my finger on why.

   "Who are you?" My throat is dry and it hurts to speak. I try to clear it, but it just makes the feeling worse.

   "Who am I?" The man laughs coldly. "I am nobody. My assistant is the one you should be concerned about. Dr. Stockman, are you quite finished with that serum?" he asks as he looks over his shoulder.

   "Yes, sir, it's ready!" Stockman's voice quivers slightly as his hands clumsily grasp a vile. His gait is sluggish and unconfident, but his furrowed eyebrows show determination. His brown eyes have much intelligence hidden in their depths, but not the good kind of knowledge.

   The unnamed man with dark hair steps aside to let Stockman clean my arm with a wet wipe. I try to dodge the white cloth, but my arms are clasped too tightly to the chair. Stockman finishes and starts fiddling with a tray of different probe items, making my stomach churn with nerves.

   "What are you going to do to me?" My voice is scarcely a whisper, giving away how horrified I am.

   Stockman acts as if he isn't allowed to reply. Instead, the nameless man booms throughout the blinding room with a demonic smirk upon his lips.

   "You, my dear, are about to become a test subject of my latest creation: the Recollection Serum." He puffs his chest out slightly and a prideful expression coats his face.

   Alarm courses through me. Just the name of it sounds painful.

   "What does it do?" I manage to speak again.

   The man seems pleased with my question, but his shadowy nature is too dark to reveal much. "If my hypothesis is correct, it should make the Shredder very powerful. Quite literally, everyone will fear him."

   Shredder? That's not an inviting name. Nor is Stockman, but that sounds more stupid than threatening.

   How did I even get here? I wrack my brain to remember something, anything. Faces of my mom and brother flicker through my memory. I had just gotten home from school. Some strange men had broken into our apartment somehow. My family and I tried to escape them, but the men were fast; like ninjas. In the end, we got kidnapped.

   But who would order such an attack? And why? We aren't bad people; we're just a regular, everyday family. None of it makes sense.

   More importantly, where are my mom and brother? The question jerks me out of my thoughts.

   "Where's my family?" I ask the men with more malice than I intend.

   Stockman barely spares me a glance. He's too focused on all of the electronics in front of him. "That's none of your business, little girl."

   I feel a prick of annoyance. "I'm not little! I'm seventeen!" I snap.

   The scientist ignores me and continues typing things that I don't understand. The other man with the dark hair just gazes at me with a haunting expression. I'm getting tired of these guys.

   The blue man that I saw earlier appears in the room. As he comes closer, I see that he isn't really a man at all.  Wires are rigged all through his body.  Screws and plastic parts cover him, but that's not what bothers me the most.

   The horrifying part is the pink brain lodged in his stomach.  It has a pair of eyes and a nasty-looking mouth.  Its face seems to be relaxed with sleep, but that doesn't make it any less disturbing.  It's gooey and lumpy, like something right out of my nightmares.

   I feel like I'm going to vomit.

   He stiffly returns to Stockman's side and hands him a test tube with a purple substance in it. I watch with a lump in my throat as Stockman mixes part of the new liquid with the stuff already in the needle. He squeezes the end of it and the disgusting substance drips out of the needle tip.

   Suddenly, I feel even sicker.

   Panic starts to rise in me as Stockman moves the purple needle toward my arm. I struggle against the strains on my limbs. "Get that away from me!" I gasp.

   Stockman puts his free hand on my victimized arm. "Now, now, just hold still. This will all be over soon..." His voice offers no form of comfort.

   "No, no, no!" I scream. "Don't do it! Get it away from me! Get it-"

   My cry is cut short as a pain surges through my arm. It fills my whole body with a nasty, fiery feeling. The last thing I see is Stockman's cold smirk.

   Then everything goes black.