Disclaimer: TMNT belongs to its rightful owners. In a nutshell: Not mine. Some spoilers for all three seasons of TMNT 2012.

坊主憎けりゃ袈裟まで憎い – He who hates the priest also hates his stole

Winter is almost near New York City, and it showed in steel gray slips of clouds and biting cold, steady drafts.

But there are places even colder than the city streets preparing for snow, and with far less cheery air.

In one of the tallest buildings of the bustling city, on a plain yet imposing metal throne on the highest floor overlooking the midnight skyline, sat Oroku Saki in his full Shredder regalia glory.

He sat with his fingers interlocked in front of his face, eyes closed with tense lines in deep concentration. One would have called it meditation, if it was more about finding tranquility and less about pulling dark memories to fuel simmering anger.

"I'm sorry, Saki. You have been a good friend to me, but I will always love Yoshi. "

A hum of steel tearing through flesh. Crimson sprays the air from the worst possible source. "Tang Shen!"

"Well done, Karai. You have made me proud to call you my daughter."

"She was never yours!"

"I am not. Your. DAUGHTER!"

The sound of breaking metal and a high pitched scream of terror. "KARAI! NO!"

From where his daughter once stood, a vicious three headed mutant snake took her place.

"Forgive me, Karai. We shall find Splinter, and we shall have our revenge. Together."

"Master Shredder, I regret to inform you that Karai's plan had failed. The turtles and Hamato Yoshi have escaped and Karai is…gone."

Mismatched eyes shot open, burning with the fire that never truly died even after fifteen years and for the millionth time, cursed the name of Hamato Yoshi in his head.

That miserable rat. Everything is his fault! If Hamato Yoshi did not exist, Tang Shen would have been his, Karai would still be human and by his side, and those blasted turtles would not be showing up virtually everywhere and ruining his plans.

Because of that rat, after merely days of getting his daughter back, Karai is once again missing (Not dead. He refused to think of that alternative) and he was no better off in his war with the Hamatos than when he first started.

But why?

Saki was the one with the million dollar company, he was the one with the talented henchmen, hundreds of disposable pawns, the resources and an alliance with the Kraang! Splinter only had four (mostly) competent ninjas to his name. So why was Saki always losing?

The turtles. Saki thought bitterly, uncrossing his fingers to grasp the armrests of his throne.

They were everything Hamato Yoshi had against him, but oh were they formidable. Individually, they were flawed and could never hold against him in combat. But as a team, they have defied all odds and won over countless adversaries, even against all of the Foot clan.

If only they weren't so dedicated to their rodent of a master, Saki would have wanted them as his allies.

He once had the opportunity when Baxter Stockman implanted one of his brain worms into the sai wielding turtle, Raphael he believed? The turtle had a temper to match Saki's own thirst for vengeance and would have made an excellent soldier had his brother not succeeded in breaking the brain worm's control.

But the brief experience gave Saki a glimpse of what could have been, and it was quite interesting.

So, while his other henchmen focused on working with the Kraang and searching once again for Karai, Baxter Stockman was under orders to continuously improve the brain worms despite them being already rather effective, even by Saki's standards. While there had been some minor progress, such as the worm's improved grip on the victim's brain and a marginally improved mind control serum, Saki knew he wanted more.

If only he and Stockman could figure out what that was…

"Uh, Master Shredder, sir?" Saki tilted his head to see the wobbling form of Anton Zeck before him.

"What?"

"Eh, mister Badger Stophand sir said he did something real good with those worm brains and said he wanted to show you, sir?" Zeck said, fidgeting with his hands as if he was having an itch.

Deplorable, Saki thought. But though the pig mutant irritated him to no end, he and the more reliable but still as air-headed Ivan Steranko had their uses.

Saki hummed before standing up. "Very well. But this have better be good."

Baxter Stockman was proud to say that he was a true scientist and inventor at heart. Be it robotics, physics or chemistry, he loved to tinker, assemble, formulate and modify everything he could get his hands on. That had not change under the service of the Shredder, though he had to admit, the constant threat on his life hanging over his head gave additional motivation.

Not that it was needed, in this instance. His mind control serum and the brain worms were some of the best inventions he had ever come up with. His mousers have a special place in his heart, sure, but the brain worms opened so many possibilities that it was Stockman's pleasure to spend his time on coming up with ways to improve them.

Mainly on how to make the mind controlling effects as close to permanent as he can get.

The first batch had worked but they were too easy to shake off. He had seen the security footage of its test run on their captured mutanimals, and was disappointed to see how the worms were quickly spat out. He was however able to theorize that a subject's traits (like hot-headedness) could be used to weaken the worms' hold and thus worked on adding to the worms the ability to tailor the victim's personality to their master's liking.

It had taken some time and a little bit of mutagen but Stockman had done it. The second batch, which was used on Karai, was a resounding success and she was nearly back to the Karai the Foot Clan used to know (transformation to a snake mutant aside). Master Shredder himself said he was largely pleased by the results.

But the experiments to improve the serum never really stopped as Stockman delved into another possibility for improvement. Getting the formula to work was the most challenging experiment he had ever done in his life, riddled with high jinks, missing data and unexpected reactions.

That was near half a year ago. And safe to say, after those months of hard work and many human Foot "volunteers" later, Stockman was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel…

"Baxter Stockman." The curt voice of his master thrummed with power from behind him.

The fly mutant's mandibles stretched in what could have been a smirk as he turned to bow. "Mazzzter Ssshredder."

The armored man merely inclined his head. "I heard that you have news for me about the brain worms?"

"I have indeeeed, bzzz." Stockman said, handing a folder to the Shredder. "It took moonthzz to get it riiight, but the newesssst brain wormzzz are ready, Mazzzter. I even tezzzzted them myzzelf to see it their new…effectzzz are working."

Shredder kept his eyes on the folder as he read the contents of the fly's report. "And how did your tests fare?"

"Exxxxemplaryyy. Sssshall I demonzzztrate, bzz?" Stockman's smirk widened when he saw something akin to the same make its way to Shredder's eyes.

For this demonstration, Stockman had Steranko and Zeck kidnap a random family who the duo reported were on their way out of the state line. A pity that that trip would be their last together, but some sacrifices are needed in the name of science, Stockman thought as he implanted the new brain worm in the father's ear.

Soon, the lab was filled with bloodcurdling screams, maniacal laughter and the walls painted with bright red streaks. The Shredder's face was impassive as ever, but for someone who had been with the diabolical ninja for as long as Stockman, it was easy to tell that the Shredder was pleased.

The rare words of praise showed it. "Well done, Stockman. I must admit I was skeptical of how your new changes to the brain worms could benefit me, but your results proved me otherwise. Very useful indeed."

"Of courzzze, Mazzzter Ssshredder."

The Shredder turned away from the spectacle before them, that of a man holding a knife dripping red, eyes alight and endlessly roaring like a caged animal, as he viciously stabbed the three still bodies surrounding him.

"Have the new brain worms ready by tomorrow. Within the week, you will have new subjects to test these worms on." The fly did not need to see that the Shredder was smiling underneath his helmet. "And I have just the perfect four in mind."

Yo! Again!

The idea came to me while browsing through the TMNT fanfic archive. I'm a huge, HUGE Mikey fan, and my dream fanfic is one wherein he'll be the star for once because, while TMNT 2012 is a good cartoon, my little orange never really stood out there (at least, not the way I would have liked him to.)

But since there's not much out there to satisfy my craving, I decided to try making my own. Right in time for NaNoWriMo too! So what do you guys think?

I'll be writing as much as I can of this fic but I might not be able to update as often until the end of NaNoWriMo, when I expect the work to be almost complete if not already. Consider this a dry run to see how this baby will go. If you enjoyed it, kindly leave some feedback. Writers thrive on the love!

Additional thanks to: DoodleDumble for her inspiring work Mikey's Escape From New York. If you're a Mikey fan, I highly recommend her fanfic collection. You won't be disappointed.