Race. [TMNT 2012]

18. The Mutation Situation; Raphael

I watch, paralyzed with fear, as the green goo absorbs into Michelangelo's skin. He lets out screams of agony until the mutagen subsides. In his place appears regular box turtle, no larger than my fist.

"Mikey!" I gasp and run over to him. The little turtle doesn't respond; he just simply looks around as if he doesn't have a care in the world.

"Mikey, no," Elizabetta whispers, her green eyes filled with more pain than ever. She stares at the little, absolutely horrified with what has happened to him. Another friend has slipped away.

   "Oh, little brother," I mumble, picking up the nunchucks beside him. "Why do you have to be such a knucklehead?"

   "What happened to him?!" April asks, her blue eyes wide with shock.

   "It appears he got mutated into a regular turtle," Donatello answers, his eyes examining Michelangelo. He taps his chin thoughtfully.

   "Well, how do we fix him?!" I demand. We can't leave our brother like this!

   "I don't know, Raph," Donatello admits. "I left my retro-mutagen back at our hideout," he explains. "We would have to go back there to fix him."

   "Then let's go!" I growl. I put Michelangelo's weapons in my own sash and scoop up the mute turtle.

   "Wait," Donatello says as he glances over the papers on a desk. "I want to get a closer look at what's going on here before-"

   "MIKEY WAS MUTATED!" I shout in the purple-clad turtle's face. "He comes first! Not the stupid Kraang tech!"

   "But if-" Donatello starts to argue, but he flinches away when I interrupt.

   "No buts!" I snarl. "Turtles first!"

   Suddenly, the door bursts open, and several people with Kraang laser guns pile in. "Hands in the air!" One of the men orders sharply.

   "Nice going, Raph!" Donatello snaps with a nasty look at me. "Your obnoxious yelling got us caught!"

   My face is hot with anger. "Well, maybe if you had focused on Mikey rather than some idiotic mission, then I wouldn't have yelled!" I shoot back viciously.

   "It's not idiotic! It could be the difference between life and worldly destruction!" Donatello defends himself hotly.

   The man breaks into our argument. "I said, hands in the-"

   He never gets to finish. The window behind us shatters, sending glass flying all around. Slash and Leatherhead are suddenly standing in the room with dangerous expressions upon their faces.  Their muscles bulge with the urge to fight.

   "Fire!" says a voice from the group of people.

   Lasers begin shooting all over the room. Around me, my companions dodge the dangerous lights, only just getting out of the way in time. Bodies roll and fly through the air to get to safety. Only one person isn't attempting to get out of the way at all: Charlotte.

   The dark-haired teenager looks lost, having been separated from Lucy among all the action.  She tries to back away from the chaos, but she hits a wall.  A laser beam only just misses her head and she yelps in surprise.

   I leap and duck passed many lasers to get to her. I finally reach her side and grab her with my free hand, Michelangelo clinging desperately onto my other. He looks so frail as a regular turtle. It bothers me a lot more than it should.

   A few feet away, Donatello, April, and Elizabetta are defending Lucy with their lives.  They move around smoothly, guarding her skin from the lasers while the blonde stands petrified.  At least she's safe, however.

   I glance at Leonardo. He is barely trying to avoid the beams at all. Casey is the one who keeps pulling him out of harm's way.

   Grateful for his help, I decide I should save Charlotte for him, however much I want to just leave her there. I ignore her pitiful protests as I leap out the window and into the safety of the outdoors.

   Charlotte screams in terror on the way down. "What are you doing, you idiot?!" she chokes out.

   My feet touch the ground within a matter of seconds. Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt. I only have to question it vaguely, before I realize it's a result of the recent torture I put through. I wonder if I will ever have feeling in my feet again as I run down the road, seeking protection in the quickly-fleeting shadows.

   I come to a stop around the corner, gasping for breath. Charlotte worms her way free from my arms and brushes her top down, glaring coldly at me.

   "You could have killed me, you know!" she snaps at me.

   I feel the beginning flames of rage igniting themselves inside my heart. Once again, I helped her, and she is being ungrateful.

   "If you're gonna be like this, I wish I had killed you!" I retort.

   "You know, I really hate you!" Charlotte goes on as if I hadn't responded. "You do all of these unnecessarily awful things, and then you expect me to be happy about it!"

   I place little Michelangelo on my shoulder so I won't crush him with my anger. "Awful things? You've hated me the minute I unmutated you! You should be thankful I changed you back from that hideous, disgusting beast!" I shout.

   "Maybe I didn't want to be changed back!" Charlotte yells furiously, her brown eyes blazing. "Maybe I liked being a mutant!"

   "Yeah, right!" I snarl. "You're just saying that so I'll feel bad."

   "No, I'm not!" Charlotte insists irritably. "You obviously enjoy being a mutant, or you would have changed yourself back a long time ago. Am I not allowed to enjoy it, too?!"

   For once, I don't have a comeback. I just narrow my eyes threateningly.

   "Maybe if you stopped thinking of yourself, you'd have realized why I can't stand you by now!" The teenage girl's rage is fanning out as well, though her tone is still scathing.

   Maybe she's right. I should have asked if she wanted to be turned back before I injected her. I shouldn't have assumed anything.

   But I refuse to apologize to her. Just because I messed up does not give her the right to be such a diva all the time. She needs to learn to accept what happened and move on.

   "Well, I hate you, too," I growl back, unable to come up with a real reply.

   Charlotte just crosses her arms as if she couldn't care less.

   Lucy's arrival interrupts our argument. She looks a bit shaken from the fight, but she still carries a concerned expression in her eyes. "What happened?" she asks gently.

   "Nothing," Charlotte and I reply simultaneously.

   Lucy blinks uncertainly. "Ok then," she says, clearly hurt that we aren't giving anything away.  But the arrival of her happy dog distracts her, and she turns away to give Lilac some attention.

   Leonardo, Donatello, Casey, Slash, Leatherhead, April, and Elizabetta walk up. "We should head back to the hideout. The sun is starting to rise," Donatello says.

I give Charlotte one last dirty look, before following our companions.