Future of Mutation

Confuzzled

"Wait wait!! Okay uhmmm— Okay I got a name! Cacticus!!" Mikey exclaimed happily, Donnie having sat Ardel down on his desk to run a few test on him in the lab.

Leo flicked Mikey in the back of the head, Mikey yelping and rubbing his head in pain. "Ow!! What the heck?!!" Leo raised a brow and sighed. "We have bigger issues than trying to figure out a kids nickname Mikey."

"This is an Odd case of mutation.." Donnie commented, tilting his head as he inspected the fourteen year old, Ardel being very uncomfortable.

"How DD?" Carmen asked, frowning a bit. "Well, mutation with the normal mutagen mutates you with what you last touched, but this kind of mutation seems to me a mix of plant, reptile, and his original human DNA..."

"Is that bad..?"

"Kinda. It could mean we're dealing with a new mutagen."

"You CAN'T be serious!" Raphael said, huffing in annoyance. "I mean it's been twenty years, who in the world would want to experiment with mutagen again?"

"I'm not sure...but I might have to take a blood sample from you kid. Are you okay with that?" Donnie asked, Ardel shaking his head quickly and finally speaking his mind about this situation.

"It can't be that bad! Sure my hands are kinda messed up but that's easy to hide...r-right..?" Donnie looking back at the others, each looking a bit uncomfortable about the question. Donnie sighed, then began to look around before finding a mirror- or something like that- and holding it up to Ardel. The boy stared at himself in pure fear.

He now had scales covering a large portion of his olive skin, and cactus spikes poking out of his hair like horns and his back looked like, well, something you would see in a sci-fi...and he hadn't even noticed that he now had a tail, almost as long as him.

"...oh god- that's doing a big uh oh for my confidence.."Ardel said, poking at his spikes. "Just be glad you had some." Donnie said, a small smile on his face. And that earned himself a light smack to the back of his head from Mikey and a "we talked about this Donnie." Donnie then began to draw some blood from the boy, poking a butterfly needle into his skin and letting it set for a minute, nothing coming out.

"Sooooo...How are you all related? And why are you in the sewers? And what in the world are you guys?!!"

The turtles, and Carmen, all looked at each other, before Carmen finally spoke up, and finally answered his questions.

"Twenty years ago, maybe more, my mom met these turtles. Her mom was an alien, while her dad was human. Her dad was captured by her moms own kind and got tied into all this mess. A guy named shredder, a mean dude had something called mutagen, that could transform anyone into crazy things. After he was defeated by these guys, the mutagen was wiped out, and no one for years has been mutated..."

"Uuuuntil now. Meaning something- or someone- is trying to continue Shredders work." Leo said quietly, Donnie nodding at the explaination.

"That still doesn't explain how you guys are related." Ardel said, a frown on his face. "Well, my mom was pretty much a daughter to grandpa Splinter, so these guys are pretty much my uncles!" Explained Carmen, pushing some curly hair from her face.

"..I have..so many questions.."Ardel said, looking down in confusion.

"Well, your about to have another."

Ardel quickly looked up and saw something horrifying coming out of him and through the small tube that was inside his vein. His blood was coming out pink and black, almost like the goo from the store, and dripping into the small vile Donnie was holding.

"..That isn't good."

"AM I GONNA DIE?!?"

"What?! No! Of course not!...hopefully-" Donnie said, tapping on the pink fluid in the vial and sighing."I'm gonna work on this. I would probably go home and try to explain what's going on."

Ardel paused, and realized...

"..I..I don't know my home.."

The turtles, and Carmen, got a worried look, Carmen grabbing Ardels shoulders and lightly shaking him. "Ardel don't joke like that! You gotta remember-!"

Ardel quickly panicked and shoved her away, covering his head as once more pain course through his body.

Donnie frowned a bit and came to a conclusion. "Seems like the mutagen in his veins corrupted his memory." He then looked at his niece, "Carmen, do you know where he lives?"

"No, he never really told me where he lived..something about his mom being paranoid and stressed." Donnie thought for a moment and nodded, patting Carmen's head with a smile. "Alright, call your mom and see if he can stay with you, since we don't really have any room here for him." Even though that was false, Donnie still felt bad for making a kid with no memory sleep on a couch.

Carmen brightened up and nodded, pulling out her phone and calling her mother, and getting happy news, after explaining what happened of course.

"Slumber party!!"

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Ardel was greeted by Carmen's mother happily, as if nothing was wrong with him, and if he wasn't in so much pain, he would have even considered giving her a hug.

"Hey Ardel! It's been a while huh?" April said, pushing some red hair from her face. "Kasey is out working, so sorry you two won't be able to play Mario kart."

"..Who are you? I'm sorry but I don't really.." Carmen frowned and explained his issue with her mother, April frowning as well."Oh..well that's alright! I'm sure Donnie will get you fixed up in no time! But for now, how about you go get yourself a snack from the kitchen? I bet you two are hungry after that long walk and all this news."

Ardel quickly nodded, Carmen laughing and leading him into the kitchen, where Ardel quickly began to eat everything in sight. Carmen stared at him as he tore apart some cookies, as if he hadn't eaten in weeks..

"..Huh, maybe your mutation caused so much hunger..but hell i'm not DD.." And with that, she also started to eat her favorite snacks.

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Back at the lair, Donnie was still looking at the blood sample in confusion, taking notes blindly. His three brothers watched, they know that when he takes notes without looking, something has REALLY caught his interest. So, Raph scooted a little closer to the genius.

"What do you see Don?" The other sighed, "three different cells along with a fourth that looks like it is the actual mutagen that seems to have taken the form of a blood cell. By all means, I think that it took the place of a fourth genome in order to keep the mutation stable enough to keep from implosion." He leaned back away from the microscope, "however, if that were the case. But, with the fact that the mutation didn't alter his genome as much as ours did, the mutagen must have been dormant until it came into contact with something else."

He rolled his chair over to his computer and began typing at a speed none of them have seen in years. Not since... "So, you're saying we have another case like April then?" Raph asked, seeming to be the only one out of the other three to completely understand what was said. Donnie nodded, "yeah. Either his mom or his dad was already combined with this-this-" "ARDOMUTAGEN!"

All eyes flicked to the youngest, confusion written on their faces. He lightly smiled, "what? It needs a name, so why not name it after the boy?" Donnie seemed even more confused, "how did you know his name is Ardel?" Mikey lightly smirked, "because I'm the one who taught her how to make friends. Duh. But, how did you know his name was Ardel?"

He shrugged his shoulders and went back to typing, "she needed some advice to help out a friend." This stumped the other two and Ralph asked, "why didn't she come to us then?" He froze before continuing typing, "n-not that kind of advice."