TMNT: OSTEK: Return of the Kraang Chapter 7

(note: Language warning)

Leo looked at Kala’s brother, "Know a safe place nearby?" he asked.

"Th-the Kraang are pissed," Dask managed.

"And so are we. Now do you know a safe place?" Leo asked.

"How many of you are there? Take Kala... Take Kala and your brother and go. Don’t worry... about us." Dask coughed.

Raph was carrying Kala while Donnie was still over Mikey. Leo bent down and helped Dask to his feet.
He was bleeding in several places.
"There’s an abandoned... an abandoned warehouse three miles...north." Dask’s powers were drained. He was starting to black out.

"Just you three?" Leo asked as he scanned the room.

"My brother..." Dask said weakly.

"By the door?" Leo asked.

Dask nodded. Trying to stay awake.

Leo jumped over fallen Kraang to get to Zak, when he got there they boy was passed out lying on his side. Leo scooped the red headed Neutrino up in his arms. The alarms were sounding, more Kraang were on their way. Leo picked up Dask and slung him on his back, "Hold on tight," he told Dask, "RAPH, DONNIE FALL BACK, START UP THE VAN!” Leo sent out the order to his brothers. Then Leo started to head back to the Shell Raiser.

“I’ve got Mikey, but Leo, he doesn’t look good..." Donnie took up the rear.

Leo could only nod due to carrying the two brothers.
"Kala don't look so good either," Raph added, laying her on the padded seats gently.

"No I mean…" Donnie said, setting Mikey down in the Shellraiser. "I don’t know... something just feels really wrong. He’s lighter than usual..."

"We can take a better look when we get out of here." Leo said, taking the wheel.

Leo backed out of the wreckage and passed the swarm of Kraang and headed north.

Luckily, not too many stray Kraang followed them out, those who did, got some hot man hole covers to the face and called it a day. The warehouses were large and remote. Raph and Leo managed to force open one of the units and Donnie got the lights working. It was very hot and muggy, but it would have to do.




"Donnie what can we do to help?" Leo said looking at the four unconscious ones.

"Raph, check Kala over, make sure she’s in one piece, I didn’t like the look of that table they had her on. Leo check the blue one's wounds, they looked pretty deep. 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with the little one, he doesn’t seem to have any physical injuries, but it may be more than that. I’m going to figure out what the hell is wrong with Mikey," Donnie ordered, getting his medical supplies out of the Shell Raiser.

Everyone spent time checking over the others.

"Kala's in once piece." Raph announced.

"Anything unusual?" Donnie asked holding his stethoscope to Mikey's plastron.

"Not that I can tell," he said, "but I ain't you."

"I’ll check them all later, just be weary for anything dangerous looking. She's probably been given sedative. Just wait, it’ll wear off."

“This one's cuts are worse than they look," Leo said, "I have cleaned them and wrapped them he should be fine too. The smaller one, I can't figure out what is wrong with him.”

Donnie nodded. "Alright. I’ll check him out... "

"How's Mikey?" Leo asked.

"Don’t look too closely you might scare yourself," Donnie sighed. "He's still alive...somehow."

"What do you mean?" Leo said getting scared.

"He’s... it’s like he’s... decaying..."

"Can you stop it?" Leo asked.

"I...I don’t think it’s gotten worse, but whatever they did to him... it’s like dropping Alka-Seltzer in water. Look at his shell. It’s crumbling..." Donnie explained. He touched Mikey’s skin and it crumbled a little away.

Leo placed a hand on Mikey's cheek.

"Careful." Donnie warned.

"Donnie….I-we can't lose Mikey…." Leo said sadly.

"I...I don’t know what to do, Leo... I’ve never seen anything like this... there’s nothing in my medical journals...“ Donnie was trying hard not to freak out. His own breathing was uneven.

Leo placed a hand on Donnie's shoulder, we will figure this out."

Kala stirred in Raph's arms. "Koala?" Raph said gently. She moaned, her eyes fluttering. She reached her hand out weakly. Raph held onto it, "I got you kid."

"R-Raph...?" Her voice was raspy. She was still out of it. "W-wha` happened...?" She coughed dryly.

"Dunno kid," Raph said searching for a bottle of water. Donnie handed him one. "Thanks," Raph said. She coughed several times, her whole body jerking. "You need to rest," Raph said. She took the water, trying to drink, but she started coughing again and stopped.

"Nice easy sips," Raph said.

"Kala," Donnie sat beside them. "I know you’re tired, but you have to remember. Do you know what they did to you? Or to Mikey?" he asked.

Kala held onto Raph. "Th-they were... they were trying to mutate me..."

"We got you in time," Donnie said. She nodded, weakly. "What about Mikey?" Donnie hoped she knew.

"They... th-" She started coughing again.

"Deep breaths," Leo said.

She tried to breathe. "Dask said they were deg-" she coughed "degenerated him..."

"That’s impossible," Donnie gasped.

Kala tried to answer but her head was spinning. She felt like she was going to vomit.

"Did she say degenerating him?" Leo gasped,

“let it out, Kala," Raph said as she started to cough again.

"D-Dask can heal him..." Kala said, her grip on Raph's hand was weakening. She closed her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Leo asked.

She didn’t respond. She was too weak.

"Donnie, Kala….is she really going to be okay?" Raph asked.

"I'm not sure Raph. Her vitals seem normal for the most part. I can’t tell for sure without proper supplies... We’ll just have to get her home and hope for the best." Donnie sighed.

"What about Mikey?" Leo asked, "We can't even touch him."

"Yeah, Touching him would be a bad idea," Donnie agreed.
Dask moaned pulling himself to his feet.

"Dask, I presume," Leo said, Kala had told them about her brothers before. "What do you suggest?"

Dask looked down at his brother and nudged him with his foot. "Zak, get up." He growled, ignoring Leo.

Zak did not move. Dask lifted him and leaned him in a sitting position against the wall. To the turtles it just looked like Zak sat up on his own. Dask grit his teeth and looked  around. "Where’s Kala?"

"Right here," Raph said walking over with Kala.

Dask brushed her bangs behind her ears, they were still rounded. He sighed. "Thank god... You’re the mutants who have been taking care of her aren’t you?"

"Yeah we are," Leo said, "are you her brothers?"

"That’s right," he nodded. "I’m Dask and sleeping beauty over there is my little brother Zak."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Leonardo. The one holding Kala is Raphael, and that’s Donatello," he said gesturing to his purple banded brother, "and you have sort of meet Michelangelo."

"Yeah, sort of." He looked down at the crumbling turtle. "I thought you cats were in New York. How’d you get all the way to the Lone Star State?"

"We followed the Kraang to get Mikey and Kala back.

"Then you can take them back," Dask said.

"Kala too?" Leo said, "I thought you'd want you sister."

"It’s too dangerous for her to stay here. The Kraang won’t stop until they have her in their arsenal. She needs to get as far away from here as possible."

"I understand," Leo said, "I would love to take her back with us, but Mikey we can't move him."

"Oh, that’s not a problem. When Zak comes to we can fix him." Dask said, “though it may take a while.”

"That’s impossible!" Donnie said. "He’s lost physical body mass. There’s no way to get that back."

Dask smiled a little. "No way for you maybe."

"What do you mean?" Raph asked.

"You've probably noticed, my brother and I aren’t human. Not anymore. The Kraang gave us more than just good looks."

Raph scoffed, "so what you have healing powers?"
"Something like that," Dask nodded. "I need my brother to help me do it though. Even then we might not have enough power to revert him completely back to normal, but he will survive."

"So what can you do for him?" Leo asked.

"We can get his body and organs back in working order, but he might not be as strong as before. Muscle tissues a little tricky...He might have some memory loss..."

Leo closed his eyes, "memory loss? Muscle weakness?" They just got Mikey back mentally, he was doing great this was going to be a setback for him.

"It’s the best we can do... The Kraang were very determined to take him out."

Leo sighed, "do what you can, please."

Dask nodded "Kala... he means a lot to her."

"Kala means a lot to him," Leo said.

"D…ask?" Zak called out his voice was still rather weak.

"There you are, brother." He helped Zak to his feet, "how're you feeling?"

"Still can't see…."

"What?! Really?" Dask grit his teeth

"Yeah…" Zak said numbly. "There are three more turtles here….Mikey's brothers…."

"That’s right. They helped us. We escaped," Dask explained.

"Yeah I know"

"You need to rest. You’re still too weak..." Dask sighed.

"I'm fine," Zak said.

"We need to fix Mikey and get them out of here."

"Are you sure you can?"

"Yeah," Zak lied

"Zak..." Dask was worried.




"I'm fine. Mikey's not, the longer we wait the worse he gets. He's getting weaker, Dask."

"Alright. But if you go out on me, were done." He said sharply.

"Whatever."

The brothers sat by Mikey's side, each placing a hand down on his plastron. Donnie watched in awe as the cracks in his shell started to fill in, his skin became less pale and shriveled. his breathing started reverting back to normal.

Zak's eyes were tightly closed trying to fight the feeling of passing out. Dask tried to use as much of his powers as possible, to rely less on Zak. Hopefully if they did it in one powerful serge rather than slowly over a period of hours it would take less out of his brother.

"Don't need to go easy on me jerk," Zak snapped sensing what his brother was doing.

"Shut up and focus, idiot," Dask snapped at his brother.

"Stop worrying about me and focus, idiot," Zak snapped back.

"Shhh." Dask shushed him. He placed his other hand down on Mikey. He was starting to look normal again. Donnie was confounded. He’d never seen anything like this before. Mikey's fingers twitched. Zak stayed quiet. Doing his best to concentrate on Mikey. "He’s had a cerebral accident," Dask whispered to him. "Looks like trauma induced seizures."

"Yeah, it runs deep," Zak said sensing it.

"Not anymore." Dask said.

"Mikey won't have seizures anymore?" Leo asked.

"He's cold blooded," Dask said. "Can we fix that?" He didn’t hear Leo.

"I don't know," Zak said. "That's a tough one"

Dask bit his lip. "I think we'd need mutagen, and a blood sample."

"We need to let him rest anyway," Zak said, "I can feel it, it's taking a toll on him, the healing."

"It's taking a toll on you, numbskull. I can finish up." Dask said

"Fine," Zak moaned. Zak lifted his hand off of Mikey. When he did Dask jerked a little, but he didn’t stop. He was almost finished.

Zak sat down against the wall, removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Dask pulled away with a jerk. Mikey's chest rose and fell. He looked healthy again. It was a miracle. Donnie couldn’t believe his eyes. Dask was breathing heavily. He had never healed someone this quickly before, he was putting forth a lot of energy.
"Dask? Are you okay?" Leo asked.

"We'll be fine..." He breathed. "Just running on empty here."

"And your brother too?" Leo was worried for the two brothers. Zak was waving his hand in front of his face. He looked down at Zak. "We've exhausted our powers. We need a special type of mutagen to get it back up to speed. The only place we could get it is from the Kraang. But something tells me they’re not going to hand it over so easily."

"I see, thanks for helping Mikey," Leo said.

"It's the least we could do." He nodded and looked over at Kala.

"How do you think Kala is faring?" Leo asked.

"It’s hard to say... Zak, can you look her over?" Dask nudged his brother.

"Yeah," Zak said, he walked slowly forward swaying on his feet.

Dask helped him. He took Zak's hand and laid it on their sister's forehead.

Zak willing accepted the help, "I don't know what they injected her with, but it's not deadly, but she does have small traces of mutagen in her system, but not enough to mutate her or even give her powers."

"Can I see her?" Dask put an arm out.

"She's your sister," Raph said.

"But you care for her a great deal, almost like a daughter," Zak said.

"How can you do that?" Raph asked.

"Don’t read him Zak, you’re wasting energy."

"Don't tell me who I can and cannot read". Zak was getting annoyed.

Dask shot him a glance and sat down against the wall, holding Kala in his arms.  He held her close. Dask could feel the scars that ran up her back. He smoothed them down using his powers to heal her.

"Shut up Dask," Zak snapped, "I can feel that look."

“Just focus on getting your eyes back, genius," he snapped

"Read?" Donnie looked up. "As in read minds?"

"Yeah I can read minds," Zak said sitting down next to his siblings.
"The mutagen..." Donnie said to Leo. "It must’ve been double infused. Like an amped up version of Doctor Falco's. Instead of morphing them physically it alters their minds, giving them these super human abilities."

Dask looked up. "Doctor Falco? You know Doctor Falco? How is that possible?"

"He's an enemy of ours," Leo said, “called himself the ‘Rat King.’”

"Was an enemy." Donnie corrected, "Until he disappeared when the Kraang did in 2023."

Dask looked down. "He was the scientist that created the mutagen that made us like this. It wasn’t perfected. When they used it on Zak it messed up his vision. As soon as Falco perfected his serum the Kraang disposed of him. Zak can usually make out what’s going on, but he can’t see details, only shapes and colors. Since the fight yesterday he hasn’t been able to see at all... We need another dosage. Without the mutagen we will die."

"He's blind?" Leo said, "Can’t you heal him?"

"Wait you need the mutagen crap to live?" Raph said.

Dask nodded to Raph, "I’ve tried to heal him, but it’s too complex. The toll it takes on the both of us is too much to bear. Without the mutagen our power depletes and will start taking energy from our bodies, until were completely used up. We’ve tried escaping. Each time we end up back with the Kraang."

"I see," said Leo, "what can we expect with Mikey? Will he be…."

"No, Mikey's fine. The mutagen they used on him was different. He shouldn’t have any undesired side effect. ... I’m a little concerned about Kala though... They seem to have managed to put traces of the chemical in her system. Zak says there’s nothing to worry about, but I’d keep an eye on her..."

"His muscles?" Leo asked, "We will keep an eye on Kala."

"It’s hard to say," Dask sighed. "I’ve never tried to repair that much missing tissue. I’ve replicated the missing cells and reattached them, but there’s no way to know if it worked or not until he wakes up."

"So if it's not healed then….he could be crippled?" Donnie asked.