Searching for April O'Neal

Chapter 13: Unstoppable

Unstoppable

"Michelangelo. I've been expecting you."

Mikey didn't..couldn't..respond. He just stared at her, hoping his face didn't give away the intense fear he was feeling.

She looked just like she did in Splinter's picture. It was like she hadn't aged at all, except she had burn scars all over.

The burns covered the left side of her face, but somehow seemed to completely miss her left eye. Her left arm was also burned. Mikey couldn't see her legs, since she was wearing black sweat pants, but he knew that it would probably be burned, too.

He gulped, and then took a shaky breath. "Where's April?" he managed to say without stuttering.

Tang Shen tilted her head back and said, "Right down the hall. Last door on the left." But she didn't move from the center of the hall. Mikey knew that she wouldn't yield; she was waiting for him to attack.

But he couldn't. She would probably kill him. So his next option was to stall, and hope his brothers showed up soon.

"D-don't you have, like, h-henchmen or something t-to do your dirty work?" he inquired.

She smiled. "Why, yes. But I gave them all the day off. Except Hachiro. He was the one to tell you where April was."

Mikey mentally told himself to remember the name Hachiro. "So it's..just you?"

"If your thinking that I'm going to be outmatched when, or if, your brothers show up, don't fret about it. I know how to fight. Better than most, I would say." She smiled again, and a chill went down Mikey's spine. That smile...it reminded him so much of Shredder, even though he'd never really seen Shredder smile.

"G-good to know," Mikey responded.

He opened his mouth, about to ask another question, when Tang Shen beat him to it. "Your stutter, Michelangelo. I didn't hear that on the phone. Is that what happens when you think about Shredder? You stutter?"

Mikey could feel his heart picking up pace. Don't talk about Shredder, he wanted to growl, but he couldn't find his voice.

Tang Shen seemed pretty happy about that. "You're so terrified. I've been told that before Shredder, you were a lively turtle. Joking around all the time. Never shut up. Now, look at you: Speechless. Scared. Broken."

"Sh-shut u-up," Mikey demanded. He wanted to yell in frustration, but he knew that that wouldn't help this situation at all.

"Everyone treats you differently, now, don't they?" Tang Shen continued in a soft, soothing voice. "Like you're fragile. Made of glass. And, really, you are. Except the glass you're made of has already cracked, shattered even. It hurts, doesn't it? Being broken."

Mikey stared at her. He was shaking. Maybe it was because he was completely terrified, or because he was angry. He wasn't sure.

"It must be a nightmare, coming in here. Reliving your painful past. Just to save a friend."

Mikey wanted to tell her to shut up again, but knew it was no good. He just stood at the entrance to the hall, completely paralyzed in fear.

"Tell me, Michelangelo, how afraid are you of Shredder? How afraid have you been these past two years because of him?"

On a scale of 1-10?? 10, was all Mikey could think. But his voice remained gone. He wanted to curl up in a ball and sob. He wanted to scream in fury, and rage, and fear, and hopelessness. But he. Couldn't. Move.

"I'm guessing pretty afraid," Tang Shen answered for him. She stepped forward a few times, and the gap between her and Mikey was only a couple of feet, now. "What if I told you that I could take all that fear away?"

Finally, Mikey spoke up, "Wh-what are y-you talking a-about?"

"Well, you know you destroyed the Kraang. And you also know that Shredder had some of their technology before they were destroyed. When he died, well..I guess I sort of took all that."

Mikey remembered the syringe Tigerclaw had inserted into his body. "I-I don't want t-to do with anything Kr-Kraang."

"But this is going to help you, Michelangelo. You'll be all back to normal. Fear..fear won't even exist in your vocabulary. You'll never stutter. And no one, no one, will ever treat you like a scared little kid again."

Mikey bit his bottom lip. He didn't want to be afraid. He hated being afraid. But could she really do what she said? Or was she bluffing?

As if reading his thoughts, Tang Shen said, "I assure you, Michelangelo, that I am not bluffing. This serum of the Kraang's will take away all your fear."

"Sh-show it to m-me."

Tang Shen's lips parted upward, just for a second, as she sheathed her katana, and then pulled out a syringe from her sweatpants pocket.

Mikey's mind didn't even wonder why she would keep potentially dangerous alien technology in her pocket.

The liquid inside the syringe looked exactly like the one Tigerclaw had injected him with. Same pink liquid.

Mikey slightly shook his head. "Th-that's not going t-to make m-me f-forget m-my f-fear."

"Yes. It does look like that stuff the tiger-man injected into you, doesn't it?"

Mikey's heart practically stopped. He wanted to ask how she knew that, but now his voice was completely shut off.

"How did I know this, you're thinking. Well.." She shrugged. "You probably didn't know this, but Shredder practically recorded your entire time with him. Saved it to a USB drive. What he was going to do with it, who knows." Tang Shen slightly rolled her eyes. "He was crazy."

Mikey wanted to disappear. She saw everything that had happened to him? He started shaking harder.

Tang Shen just smiled. "You see, Michelangelo? This fear..it's what makes you so weak. So fragile. And this serum..trust me..it'll make you unstoppable."

Unstoppable. Unafraid.

He could probably find Ellie if he was like that. But he was honestly too scared to go far from the Lair. The farthest he'd gone was to Jamie's.

He bit down on his lip again.

Unstoppable.

He stared at Tang Shen, eyes wide.

Unstoppable.

"G-give the serum t-to m-me."