.

Only Human

III.

"I'd really wish you'd consider staying where it's safe!"

"Save your breath, Donnie! I'm already down here, so deal with it!"

He groaned as he reached back for his bō. They began running in the direction of the alarms, the warning sounds getting louder and louder as they got closer. April ran as fast as she could knowing full well that Donnie wouldn't run off ahead of her even if she decided to do a light jog.

"What if Irma's still down here? She's never been this involved before!" April pointed out before they flew into the blaring alarms and were no longer able to hear each other.

"She'll be fine!" Came Donnie's short response. His T-phone rang, the tone hardly recognizable as the alarms entered their heads. He snatched it from his belt and answered quickly, "Leo, we're almost there!"

"The Kraang are here, Donnie! There's at least a hundred of them here and—," he broke off and Donnie was able to hear the sharp sound of a katana blade crashing with a metal robot, "And a lot of them headed straight toward your lab!"

"My lab!?" Donnie screamed but was only able to hear the low rumble his throat made. He knew he shouldn't be on the phone when they were less than a minute away from the fight. Without even bothering to hang up, he attached the phone back to his belt. Looking quickly over his shoulder to see that April wasn't far behind, he made a quick decision to speed up at the last moment to make a surprise entrance. As soon as he spotted the turnstiles, he sprinted to their location then brought his staff down to the cement floor. He used it as leverage and hurled himself right over the turnstiles, his foot coming in hard contact with an unsuspecting Kraang robot head. Twirling his bō around his head to get his momentum going, he jumped into the fight and was able to take down five Kraang robots at once.

"'Bout time you decided to join the fight, Don!" Raph yelled, his sais currently holding a gun that was aimed at the ceiling.

"I came as quick as I could!" he snapped back, his bō blocking an attack from behind him.

"They didn't even have the courtesy to act like pizza delivery guys when they got here!" Mikey yelled from a different corner of the lair, his nunchucks swinging at his sides effortlessly.

"Let it go, Mikey!" Raph argued, finally able to send the gun into the air to disarm the Kraang.

"Donnie!" Leo called from the living room where he stood in front of a destroyed TV, "Sensei's in your lab fighting off the Kraang that made a beeline to it! Do we have something they want?!"

The first thing he thought of was the retromutagen. But what would the Kraang want with that? Mutagen had no effect on them, so unless one of Shredder's guys somehow took control of—

But then he suddenly remembered: the nomarugen! Was it at all possible that they somehow discovered his top secret experiment? The secret he hadn't told a single soul!? Impossible!

But if they know…

If they've been trying to turn themselves human for ages and he single-handedly created something—or at least was close to discovering something—that could be useful to them—

"Guys!" All four turtles turned towards April's voice. She was backed into a corner standing in front of Irma who was crouched down in fear. April's tessen was out and ready, but there were at least ten Kraang ready to pounce on her at once.

"Don't you know it's not nice to hit girls!" Casey yelled as he skated over to the corner and began knocking out a couple Kraang at a time with his hockey stick.

"Really, Casey? You just had to use that line?!" April glared at the boy despite him helping her out. A momentary rage whirled within her as she tossed her tessen with all her strength into the head of one of her enemies.

"Well, I mean, it's not like you see any girl Kraang running around here!" Casey said in his defense.

"Dude, do you think they'd still have the same voice?" Mikey asked with genuine curiosity as he jumped from spot to spot to avoid bullets.

Out of the corner of her eyes, April saw Donnie run into his lab. She was sure that Sensei and Donnie could handle whatever amount of Kraang were in there, but they would still be highly outnumbered. There were four guys fighting in the main entrance, so she figured she could lend a hand in the lab.

But before she could make a run for it, a cold hand was wrapped around her neck and she was being lifted from the ground. In panic, she dropped her weapon as her hand clutched the strong robot hand, his fingers trying to pry between the hand and her neck.

Luckily, Raph's sai was in the circuitry of the Kraang before she could have any dooming thoughts.

"Saved by Raph again," April commented dryly but with a small grin to show her thanks.

"Hey, at least I don't expect anything in return!"

April shook her head before making another attempt to run toward the lab. The turtles and Casey were kicking some major Kraang butt and robot bodies littered the lair like a battle zone.

She jumped up the steps that led to her destination. She was just about to run into the lab when Donnie, suddenly and very unexpectedly, stepped in front of her and blocked her from entering.

She screamed involuntarily from surprise, "Donnie! Did they find what they were looking for?"

"No, but we need to get you out of here. It isn't safe for you." His voice was oddly dry and it struck an uncomfortable fear in her heart.

"What are you talking about? We've almost got—," she was cut off when Donnie picked her up and tossed her onto his shoulder. She gasped as he hands gripped the top lip of his shell even though she felt his arms wrap around her knees.

"Donnie, what are you doing?!" Leo yelled as he took down another Kraang.

"They want April; it was a trap!" Donnie called back. The air seemed to escape April as Donnie ran and jumped over the turnstiles and led her into the tunnels again where the alarms were still deafening.

"Couldn't you have at least turned the alarms off?!" April screamed as loud as she could but doubted Donnie could hear her. She looked up to follow the trail they were leaving behind and hoped the other guys were able to finish off the rest by themselves.

To her surprise, Donnie chose the first manhole exit to climb out of, despite it being near a fairly busy street. He knew that and warned her about it millions of times!

She had to admit, however, it was nice to get away from the deafening alarms. And it was a miracle that no one was around when they surfaced, yet still, Donnie made a beeline for the closest dark alley.

April was waiting for him to put her down, but when she waited a few seconds and nothing happened, she cleared her throat, "Uh…do you mind setting me down now?"

Without a word, he unwrapped his arm from her knees so she was able to slide down his plastron. Her hands slid from his shoulders and down his plastron as well, causing a blush to burn her face. Shyly, she looked up at him to see how he reacted to the moment, but to her surprise, he was looking blankly down the dark alley.

Quickly, she brought her hands to herself as she cleared her throat, "Now, do you want to tell me what that sudden escape was all about? I mean, we practically had all of them beat! A few more minutes and there would have been none left! Was it really necessary to—."

She stopped short when his eyes suddenly met hers. There was something different about them but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"I had to protect you. Isn't it my job to protect you?"

April narrowed her eyes, "That's a strange question, Donnie."

"It's what my mind wanted to do," he added before taking a step toward her.

"U-um…" Without truly considering it, she took a step back and felt the cool brick of a building against her. She watched with wide eyes as Donnie closed the gap between them and pressed his lips to hers. It was so unexpected that her mind couldn't process what was going on and it made her heart cry because despite wanting something like this to happen, the moment seemed completely off.

So against her confused judgment, she brought her hands up to his shoulders and pushed him back firmly, "Donnie…" she breathed heavily, "What…where did that come from…?"

And why does he seem so calm right now…?

"I protected you, so it seemed right."

April blinked several times. She realized her hands were becoming sweaty where they sat on his shoulders, so moved them to the back of his neck. It was then she felt something metallic that pricked her finger.

"Ow! Donnie, what's…" she grabbed ahold of the metal object and felt it unlatch from Donnie's skin. Instantly, Donnie blinked rapidly and April saw familiarity return to him. She looked at the thing between her fingers and saw that it was a small spider-like device.

Donnie's hand cradled his head as if he had a massive migraine.

"What the hell is this?!" April asked in panic, holding the device in front of Donnie's face.

Squinting, his eyes still full of confusion as he tried to piece together the last few moments, he took the device from April to get a better look at it, "It looks like the mind control device we found on your father before…"

April's eyes widened, "Oh God, that means—."

Before she could truly comprehend the danger they landed themselves in, a white van turned into the alley with at least six other vans parked on the street in front. Five Kraang exited the van with taser guns pointed right at them.

"Donnie, do something!" April yelled before a quick shock went through her and everything went black.

And then there was light. Bright, blinding light. It made her want to reclose her eyes and just go back to sleep. But she knew she couldn't. She had to fight back.

April moaned in discomfort as she tried to sit up. She was fairly surprised she wasn't strapped down to the white table she was laying on. She felt a prick on both of her arms when she tried to move, however, and saw that she had IVs in both her arms.

She was in all white again; the same outfit the Kraang put her in the last time she was captured. It creeped her out knowing that they undressed her and put her in these clothes when she was unconscious. Of course, they seemed to be asexual aliens and probably had no interest in taking notice to her body, but still…

Looking around the room, she was more surprised that there were no Kraang keeping an eye on her. She was literally all alone. And for some reason, this made her panic more. Everything was bright white save for the bags of blood they drained from her arms. But the blotches of red in contrast with all the white only flooded her with more anxiety.

And more importantly…where was Donnie? Did he manage to escape?

With a weak hand, she slowly reached toward one IV and, holding her breath, she yanked the needle out of her arm. She hissed in pain, knowing full well that she was going to have very visible bruising. Trying not to dwell on it, she yanked the other needle out as well. She had to force her legs off the table as they didn't seem to want to move on their own.

April looked down at her legs dangling over the side. She knew her legs wouldn't be able to support her yet. But she couldn't just sit there!

She pounded her fists onto her thighs and was glad she was at least able to feel the pressure. Biting her lip, she slid herself off the table and felt nothing but air as her legs collapsed beneath her.

"I wouldn't mind being saved right about now, Raph…" she mumbled in an attempt to encourage herself. She tried crawling by pulling herself with her arms, but the dull ache from the needles prevented her from doing it.

"Ugh…" she laid her head down on the cold floor to try to come up with a plan. She heard a low humming coming from beneath her. It sounded like some sort of engine. Were they even still on Earth?

The thought of not being on Earth anymore unnerved her enough to find the strength to lift herself from the floor. Her whole body felt unstable but she would have to make do. She had to find Donnie. And if he wasn't on the Kraang ship somewhere, she had to find out how to get in touch with him. If she couldn't…the Kraang may have successfully won in getting what they were after.

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Okay, first off, I want to apologize for the very long delay! I moved from Michigan to Texas last month so there was a lot going on. I had to get used to my new schedule and whatnot...but I've been thinking about this story nonstop and knew I had to find the time to write. I was suffering from writer's block a bit, but...I went to go see the TMNT movie (twice) and it was able to help me overcome some of what was blocking me, I think. Though, to be honest, the movie gave me more inspiration for my other TMNT story, "Renaissance." I created that story back in June as well, but when the movie talked about Project Renaissance, I coudn't help but see some similarities and wanted to make it more than just a oneshot.

Anyway, I'll try to have chapter 4 up a lot quicker than this one took! As always, thank you all for the encouraging reviews!

-Enula