Third Person POV
Kayla sat in the guest room, staring at the picture set as her phone's background while she laid on her bed. A frown caressed her face, her eyes gleaming with sorrow. The picture showed a 5-year-old Kayla with her parents, with her dad holding her four-year-younger sister.
Kayla's thoughts were running wild with memories of her family; her little sister, her mom and dad, and more. But now the Kraang had her family, and Kayla didn't know what had happened to them.
A knock came from the door that jolted Kayla from her thoughts.
"It's Mikey!" a cheerful voice rang out. Kayla quickly brightened her expression and stood up to open the door.
"Hey Mikey," she replied with equal enthusiasm. Mikey grinned.
"Leo said to tell you that we're leaving for the mission soon," the orange-masked turtle informed. Kayla nodded, murmuring her thanks before shutting the door again. Her heart pounded at the thought of returning to Shredder's lair. While her concussion was pretty much gone, the cut on her stomach that she'd received from the Footbots still wasn't completely healed, and she did not want to face those robot soldiers again.
She had to, though. Leo had this whole plan set up, with which people would enter from which side and whatnot. The two things that kept Kayla from hiding and refusing to go were the fact that the turtles amd her friends would be there to help, and that she might find her family at TCRI.
That was her plan. While her friends would be helping the turtles find any more mutagemia the Kraang may have, Kayla would be searching TCRI for her parents and sister, Samantha. Hopefully they were ok and the Kraang hadn't hurt them. That is, if the Kraang even had them. She still didn't know for a fact, but it was worth a try.
Kayla looked at her phone screen again. "I'll get you guys out. I promise."
~•~
"The one known as Test Subject K3 is requested for testing."
The Kraang's monotonous voice reached the ears of a mutant curled up in a ball inside a Kraang cell. TCRI was the home of an entire floor of prison areas, at least where the Kraang inhabited it. Only a few cells were full. In four of the cells were 4 pairs of adults, all looking exhausted and sick of being locked up. Another held a young girl, only 13 years old. She was a mutant, but a unique one indeed.
The Kraang had been eager to create new types of mutagen. The original kind turned the victim into the last thing they touched, like how the turtles had last touched a human, so they became humanoid, or how Snake was touching the grass, and he became a giant weed. The Kraang began testing with mutagen that would only alter part if the body while making other parts stay the same, and at the same time were developing mutagemia.
When tested on mice, the rodents grew dog-like paws while the rest of them stayed the same. The Kraang then decided to test it on humans, and their first victim was this young girl.
The mutagen was technically a variation of mutagemia. It had fox DNA in it that had turned the girl's ears into that of a fox, cause her to grow a tail, and make whiskers appear on her face. The girl's eyes were also altered; they were once a light green color, but now they were yellow, like a fox.
The girl sat in her cell, ears flattened and tail curled up when the Kraang came to retrieve her. She growled at them, the sound almost natural because of her mutation, but the robotized aliens ignored it and yanked her out of the cell and into a testing room.
"Stop! Get your metal hands off of me!" the girl yelled.
"Kraang will not do what is known as 'stop'. Kraang will test Subject Samantha Krier until Kraang sees fit."
A hard object whacked Samantha in the head, causing her to fall limp and unconscious.
~•~
Abby gazed at TCRI, her stomach twisted in knots. She hoped her mutation's ninja-like abilities would keep her away from the Kraang, but she couldn't be too sure.
She kept telling herself it was just a stealth mission, but if she knew one thing it was that the turtles' stealth missions never went as planned.
"Alright. Everyone know the plan?" Leo's voice broke through her thoughts. Abby turned to face the group, nodding along with everyone else. "Good. Raph, Mikey, Kayla, let's move. Everyone else wait for my signal."
The four set off towards the same rooftop entrance as before, scanning the area before Leo flicked his hand towards Donnie. The purple-masked turtle nodded, leading Abby, Kenzie, and Sarah up to the roof as well.
"Drop down on three," Leo ordered. "One, t—guys?"
Everyone had already hopped into the opening, and were inching along the wall. Leo sighed before falling down beside them.
They split off into two groups: Leo, Raph, Abby, and Kayla went one direction while Mikey, Donnie, Sarah, and Kenzie went the other.
When her group-mates weren't looking, Kayla slipped off into a different hallway. She thought she had gotten away unnoticed when a familiar voice rang out in a whisper.
"Kay, where are you going?"
Mikey had crept behind Kayla, following her into the room. Kayla dropped to the floor, and the orange-masked turtle followed.
"I'm looking for my parents and sister. I gotta find them, Mikey," Kayla replied, her eyes meeting his and begging him not to stop her.
The cheery terrapin gave a sympathetic smile. "I'm coming with you."
Kayla grinned in thanks, turning and heading down the hall towards the steps. The duo slunk into the stairwell, creeping down to the next floor.
Without realizing it, they skipped a floor and just went down to the next. As Kayla was about to step out of the stairway, a shout was heard from above. Mikey and Kayla exchanged glances before retracing their steps up the stairs and reaching the overlooked door.
"Stop! Get your metal hands off of me!" a feminine voice was barely heard through the thick door.
Cracking the door open, Kayla glanced at what was on the floor. Rooms that looked like Kraang prison rooms lined the walls, most of which with open doors because no one was kept in them. At the very end of the line of cells were locked doors.
Two Kraang were shoving an unconscious girl into a room, making her brown hair swish around. The Kraang and girl disappeared from sight as the door to the room closed behind them.
"That's her! That's Sam!" Kayla whisper-exclaimed to her orange-masked friend. Mikey's eyes brightened, and together the two of them ran down the hallway. Kayla got a glimpse of people who looked like Sarah's parents in one of the cells, and it made her wonder if her parents were there with her sister or not.
But her main focus was on Samantha. Mikey whipped out his kusarigama, flicking the blade open and slashing at the lock next to the room Samantha had been taken into.
The door opened, allowing Kayla and Mikey to slip in. The two Kraang were there, but Mikey took them out swiftly with a swing of his nunchucks. Kayla spotted her sister laying locked up on a chair that you would find at a dentist.
Mikey stood guard as Kayla struggled to release her sister, but couldn't manage to get the straps off. Mikey glanced around the hallway before turning and helping his friend free her sister.
Kayla frowned as she looked at her younger sibling, spotting the furry ears and tail that had grown out of her. The sad expression changed to a small grin when she noticed that the tips of her sister's ears and tail were the same color as the dyed streaks in her hair. Apparently, mutagen took hair color into effect, and that included dyes.
Soon enough, Kayla's sister was freed, and Mikey was hauling her down the hallway towards the stairs with Kayla close behind. Kayla paused at the cell that held Sarah's parents, and when they recognized her their eyes widened.
"We'll come back to get you, eventually! I promise!" Kayla shouted in the lowest voice she could, hoping they heard her. She saw them nod, giving a sad smile before hurrying after Mikey.
Kayla gazed back at the hallway, getting a glimpse of a Kraang droid turning the corner. She and Mikey slipped into the stairway, creeping back to their friends and making it back to where they'd entered unharmed. Six pairs of eyes turned to them, all of them panicked and afraid.
Leo narrowed his eyes at the girl on Mikey's back, and then looked at Kayla before he snapped at them.
"What the shell were you two thinking?!"