Future of Mutation

A New Foe

It had been a solid week since Ardel was mutated, his blood being sucked out of him constantly by Donnie, and his hunger getting worse by the day. Donnie said it had something to do with his plant half, saying he needs sunshine light to help his hunger.

Of course he tried to listen to Donnie, but decided to just open up a manhole and get some light from that instead of going outside during the day.

The sewers, though disgusting and slimy, started to feel like home to the fourteen year old, and he no longer feared the staff infections.

Today, Donnie decided to give Ardel a rest and let him heal up, since his arms and hands where bruised from the butterfly needle constantly being put in his veins. So, Ardel decided to watch Carmen and Mikey skate around, as he sat under the small amount of light one of the many manholes in the sewer offered.

Carmen, at the moment, was trying to not fall off of Mikey's skateboard, since she was only used to normal Skates. "Okay! Now push yourself forward with one of your feet, and keep leaning forward." Mikey explained. Carmen followed his directions, but failed and fell flat onto the cement of the sewer face first.

Ardel gasped quickly and stood up, Mikey helping Carmen up as she laughed. "Oh boy!! That brings back memories-!"

Ardel smiled in relief and sat back down. He admired Carmen, her strength, her constant joy, her self confidence. It was amazing how..well...amazing a person could be.

"Hey Ardel! You wanna try?" Carmen asked, facing towards the fourteen year old with a smile. Ardel froze for a moment and shook his head, raising a hand in dismissal. "Nah, you guys seem to be having fun.."

"Come on Caticus! I bet you'll be great!" Mikey said, encouraging the young boy. "Really, it's fine..."

Carmen sighed a bit and shrugged, letting Mikey take over and skate around, laughing joyfully. Carmen then sat next to Ardel, watching him with a small smile.

"You know, he's almost forty right?..I wouldn't believe it." Ardel raised his brows in shock..wow, that was actually surprising..he hadn't ever seen anyone that age even try to skate. "Wow..he aged well."

"Pft-! Everyone around here does!..other than Raph, his scars give it away." Ardel laughed a bit with Carmen, and sighed after a few moments.

"..You don't think I'll be like this forever..right?" Ardel asked, frowning a bit and looking at his scaled hand. "I..I wish I could say no...but..I'm sure Donnie is getting a breakthrough...soon.."

Ardel nodded before hearing loud and quick footsteps, Leo suddenly coming into view as he skidded to a stop. "Donnie's got something!!"

——————————

"ENGLISH DUDE!!"

"Okay Okay! Let me put it in terms everyone can understand."

Back at the lab, Donnie was currently trying to explain how the new mutagen works, since he had been testing for about a week. And now, he could finally say he knew what it does with confidence.

"So, it looks like the Mutagen inside of Ardel's blood was activated by the normal mutagen that created us. The 'Ardo-Mutagen' (so cleverly named by Mikwy) here in this vile has traces of our original mutagen, or as Mikey would say, our mother mutagen. Now, this mutagen is special in one way..it keeps almost forty percent of the DNA of the host and mixes the other sixty with that the host last touched. But, in this case, it was the last two things he touched.""

Ardel tilted his head a bit, and nodded, kinda getting everything now. "But why is that mutagen in my blood?"

"Well, Someone could have put it in your system a while ago...this looks like it's been dormant for at least six years." Ardel frowned a bit, before Carmen spoke up.