Love Never Lost

Pulverizer Returns: Part 4/Parasitica: Part 1

Brooke's POV:

Me: "The entire warehouse is rigged with plastic explosives."

The Foot leaves us behind and shuts us in as Pulverizer tries to attack us.

Leo: "We're trapped! We need to get out now!"

Donnie: "But what about him?"

Pulverizer stalks towards us. The guys throw our weapons at him, but they pass through him as acid ejects from where they went through.

Mikey: "He just ate our weapons!"

Donnie: "Pulverizer, it's us! The Turtles & Brooke. Timothy!"

Pulverizer stops as he finally seems to recognize us.

Me: "That's right, Timothy. It's us."

Pulverizer turns to see his reflection in a mirror. Then, he turns to us with an angry look and takes a swing at us.

Leo: "We still gotta get out of here. Let's go!"

Donnie: "Not without Timothy."

Mikey: "And how do you suppose we get that blob out of here?"

Me: "I got an idea. Raph, get the stealth cycle. Mikey, get Timothy's attention."

Leo: "It better take less than 10 seconds."

Mikey directs Pulverizer's attention, Raph revs up the engine, and Leo stands with Donnie atop the container that once held the mutagen.

Donnie: "Mikey, lead him over here. Leo, get ready to jump. Now!"

Mikey leads Pulverizer to stand under the container while Leo jumps to let it fall over him.

Me: "Raph, go!"

Raph drives the cycle to knock the container in the air, Donnie & Mikey leap to cover it with a trash can lid, and we all fall into the trees as the explosives go off.

{Time skip}

We take Timothy home with us, and Splinter looks him over.

Splinter: "Do you think Timothy is happy with his new state of being?"

Leo: "Seems that way. He wanted to be a mutant, and he got his wish."

Raph: "Donnie, we're letting you keep him, but you gotta stash him in your lab so I don't have to look at him."

Donnie: "I promise, Timothy. One day, I'll turn you back."

I walk off to my and Raph's room for a minute to think things over. As soon as I get in there, I start to break down at the notion that I let Splinter and Timothy down. He was my responsibility, and I couldn't save him. I save myself and the Turtles almost every day. Why did this have to be any different? Why did I have to put fighting the Foot over keeping Timothy away from that mutagen?

Why am I even a part of this team if I can't save the life of someone who idolizes our work? Or at least he used to. Now, he's stuck in a metal prison, and we have no idea how to reverse the effects. Suddenly, a pair of arms wrap around me, and I let them out of exhaustion from everything in my mind.

Raph: "This was not your fault. We should've listened to you & Donnie and gotten him out of there. We're all responsible in a way. You did what you could and had to do, and that's all we ever need you to do. You are not a failure. Splinter is not disappointed in you, and neither are we."

He kisses my forehead, and we stay like that for a while before walking out to join the others. While I appreciate their efforts to keep my spirits up, I make it my mission to improve wherever & however I can so I can keep my family safe. One way or another, I will honor my promise to Splinter.

{Time skip}

We're on another hunt for the Kraang in the Shellraiser, Mikey spinning around in his chair out of boredom.

Mikey: *sighs* "Another day, another Kraang hunt."

He then approaches Raph & me from behind.

Mikey: "Fire the weapons!"

Raph: "I don't think so."

Mikey: "See, that's your problem. If I was in charge of weapons, I'd be firing at things all the time. That mailbox, blam. That newsstand, boom. That port-a-potty, splat."

Me: "That's too many casualties, Mikey. We don't need to draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves."

Leo: "Which is why you're on navigation. Now, tell me where to go."

Mikey: "Uh, you should turn right-"

Leo does so.

Mikey: "Three blocks ago."

We park in an abandoned alleyway and walk towards a building nearby.

Donnie: "This must be the hidden Kraang lab."

Raph: "Let's trash the place!"

Leo: "Hold on, Raph. This is a recon mission. We go in there, find out what the Kraang are up to, and then trash the place."

Raph: "Fine. Wake me when we get to the trashing part."

We walk in to find that the building has already been ransacked.

Raph: "Oh, man. Someone beat us to it."

Leo: "It looks like one of their mutagen experiments got away from them."

Donnie: "Seems they were doing experiments on arthropods. Weird."

Donnie opens one of the cabinets to investigate.

Donnie: "Hey, this equipment's still good. Ooh, nice centrifuge."

Raph: "Babe, if I ever get that excited about a centrifuge, just put me out of my misery."

Me: *chuckles* "Consider it done."

Mikey: "Hey, Donnie, how big do you think one of those arthropods might be?"

Donnie: "Well, a bee is about 4 millimeters, and wasp would be about 6."

Mikey: "Then what the heck is that?"

We all look to the ceiling to see a giant, mutated wasp looking right at us. First, a cockroach, now a wasp. Is the universe out to get me or something?!

TO BE CONTINUED