"Raph! Raph!" Michelangelo calls. He sighs heavily. "I don't know, D. You think he got lost? Maybe he got eaten by a rabid squirrel."

Diaval grips his bow tighter. "Those exist?"

"I do not think that, no," Donatello replies curtly, ignoring Diaval. He exhales, the sound rumbling in his throat and showing his frustration. "I'm just freaking because Casey and April went off on their own. Alone."

"They aren't alone, dude," Michelangelo laughs. "Desti-bear is with them."

"I know...but—" The purple-masked turtle turns around to face his younger brother and reluctant ally. "What happens when two teenagers who like each other go out into the woods alone?"

They ponder the question. Diaval blinks a few times, fiddling with his ponytail as he makes a low humming noise. Michelangelo swivels in place, his flashlight beam falling on two squirrels about to kiss. The fluffy rodents look his way and he screams.

"AAH! They get eaten by squirrels!" he exclaims as he grips his flashlight to his chest, casting light over his freckled face.

Diaval purses his lips. "They...get lost?"

Michelangelo gasps. "Oh! Dude! That's it! They didn't bring a compass!"

"D'you think Destiny could sniff 'em back home?" Diaval wonders.

Donatello lets out a long, whining sound, then gives his companions an incredulous look. They stare back at him, confused to say the least. He throws his hands up, the lantern in his grip rattling, and turns back around.

"You know what? Forget I said anything."

They keep walking, skirting around a large clump of trees and aiming their lights at every angle, but they still find nothing. Then, Donatello gasps as he catches sight of a shed sitting in a clearing. The wooden walls are covered in moss and the hinges on the old door are rusted. Whenever a wind blows, the door creaks as it swings open and shut, back and forth.

"Hello," Donatello mumbles. "What's this?"

"Let's check it out," Michelangelo says, taking a step forward. He stops to pat his brother on the shoulder. "You first."

"Mhm," Diaval agrees, eyeing the house warily.

Donatello leads the trio to the door and reaches his hand out, pushing it open. His lantern beam swings around the room, casting eerie shadows over the walls and floors. The only light already in the shed is that of four small candles.

"Hello?" he calls.

Nothing. They move in, Donatello catching sight of a table at the farthest end. He goes closer as Michelangelo and Diaval stay behind. The intelligent turtle stares down at the table, where candle surround Leonardo's bottle of medicine. Donatello ponders this.

Something grabs his shoulder and he lets out a high-pitched yelp before Michelangelo's hand clamps over his mouth. Donatello's russet eyes dart to the side, where Diaval has his bow armed and aimed at the floor. Michelangelo points to a teeming green mass huddled on the ground and gulps. Donatello readies his bō staff.

"Uh, hello?" Michelangelo squeaks, hiding behind his tall brother.

The thing looks up, growling, and the turtles scream as it gets up and moves towards them. Hardly hesitating, Michelangelo snatches Diaval and books it from the shed with Donatello in the lead, both turtles still screaming while Diaval stares straight ahead in mild terror. The boys get outside and the creature bursts forth from the door, but is quickly halted by a harness of vines that serve to stop the strange plant creature's advance.

Diaval aims an arrow at the creature and prepares to release as it looks up, revealing a pair of glassy white eyes surrounded by a familiar red mask. Donatello gasps and lunges forwards, shoving Diaval's arm down before he can shoot and earning a short noise of surprise.

"Don't!" he exclaims. His gaze flickers to the plant thing again. "I...I think it's Raph."

"He's all leafy and weird-looking," Michelangelo says, leaning away from the shed as his bright eyes fall on his brother. "Like a salad!"

"Ew," Diaval agrees as his nose wrinkles.

"Something must have infected him," Donatello mutters, his face scrunching with concentration.

Michelangelo shrieks as he's yanked into the air, making the remaining males spin around. The orange-masked turtle dangles upside down from the nearest tree, vines clinging to his ankles and starting to surround his body.

"Aah! Holy chalup—" He starts to struggle more as the vines surround his mouth, muffling his scream.

"Hold on! I'll cut you down," Donatello calls, attempting to be as calming as possible even when Michelangelo won't stop making his panicked noises.

Diaval adjusts his bow and lifts it, shutting one eye as he aims for the vines wrapped around Michelangelo's ankles. The younger turtle sees what he's about to do and starts thrashing, his bright eyes aimed at behind his companions with urgency.

"What're you..." Diaval mutters.

"Mikey, you need to calm down!" Donatello pleads as he readies his bō. "We'll get—"

"BEHIND YOU!" Michelangelo shrieks as he yanks his head back from the vine gag around his mouth.

When they obey his cry, they do it just in time for Donatello to be smacked into a tree trunk by a giant green fist. He lands with a thud, his head spinning.

Diaval shoots into the darkness, his vision getting more and more blurred as a hulking figure stalks closer. An arrow slices through the air and there's a gurgling scream of pain from the creature, but it's no victory. A second after, Diaval's arms are pinned down by vines and he's dragged into the air the same way Michelangelo was before.

Donatello blinks rapidly, shaking his head as he tries to regain his sense of direction amongst the noise. He looks up and a pitchfork lodges itself in the trunk next to his head, pinning his mask tails down. He screams.

"Donnie!" Michelangelo yells.

The hulking, leafy figure keeps coming, shoving the dangling turtle aside and making him swing like a pendulum directly into Diaval's dangling body. The two grunt when they smack against one another.

The purple-masked turtle desperately tries to yank the pitchfork out of the trunk, unable to get away, but then the creature reaches him and stops. Donatello stops his struggle and stares up into the glowing eyes of the creature, up at a face masked by an old sack and a green, mossy body covered by overalls. There's a pregnant pause, then the creature lunges.

----------

A scream pierces the air, ringing in the trees and sending shivers down the spines of anyone listening. Those people happen to be April, Casey, and Destiny, and as soon as they hear it they stop walking. April turns around and looks back the way they came as Destiny's ears swivel around.

"That's Donnie!" April exclaims. "Come on!"

The three of them break into a sprint in the direction of the scream, somewhat backtracking as they do. Destiny's wild eyes flicker to the surroundings, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling as she nearly skids to a stop.

"April...where's Casey?" she asks.

The redhead spins around, searching for the boy, but he's nowhere to be seen. "Casey? Casey! This isn't funny," she calls.

A scream from nearby makes the two girls turn to face it again. What they see is stuff of a botanist's horror movie. A giant, man-like, green-skinned, overall wearing monster holds Casey pinned against a tree, one giant hand around his face.

"Let me go!" he demands, shoving at the creature's beefy forearm.

Destiny snatches up the nearest hockey stick and tosses it to April. April rushes the monster with a mighty scream, swinging the weapon up into the face of the creature and causing the sack it's wearing over its grotesque head to fly off. The stick splinters to bits as Casey scrambles away, the monster making gurgling noises of pain.

April grabs her tessen and sends it sailing towards it, but the weapon simply lodges in the freak's vegetation-covered head. It rumbles deep in its throat as it pulls the fan out and throws it away, spilling goop that looks like birthday cake vomit.

"Oh no," April whispers.

Vines explode from the creature, surrounding April and sending her to the ground with a grunt. Destiny lets out a howling battle cry as she leaps at the creature, uchigatana flashing, but she's promptly smacked aside by an arm that smells of pond scum.

"GOONGALA!" Casey whoops as he attacks the monster with his baseball bat.

Destiny gets to her feet and rushes to April, cutting the redhead loose from the vines holding her captive and helping her up.

Casey's eyes widen in fear as the creep takes hold of his bat, keeping him firmly in place with little effort. Before either of the girls can move to help, the bat splinters to pieces and the remnants scatter across the forest floor.

"Aw man!" Casey groans.

The beast flings him into a tree, his mask flying one way and his body the other. Casey collapses into a heap, unmoving. The monster moves towards Casey and his fallen hockey mask.

Destiny's eyes flicker to the side and she catches the the glint of April's tessen laying in the dirt. The wolf girl smacks April's arm, pointing at the weapon when April looks her way and making the redhead's eyes widen.

"I'll hold him off. Go!"

April dashes towards her weapon as Destiny turns to face the creature, now wearing Casey's hockey mask. She growls, sheathing her uchigatana and morphing into a wolf. She leaps at it, but vines surround her legs and pull her down before she can make a scratch. Her powerful jaws clamp on to the creepers, tearing them apart before she launches herself back into the fight.

The monster smacks her aside again, another deep rumble emitting from its throat as it watches the wolf roll and bounce away from the force of the blow. April's tessen slices across its face before sailing back into April's awaiting hand, her face dead serious.

The monster faces the less powerful adversary, earning a few more slices from the tessen, but it never slows down. April's chest heaves with effort as she races at the behemoth, but it swings its arm out and smacks her. She sails into the air and hits a tree, slumping into an unconscious heap right next to where Destiny is getting back up.

The creep's glowing eyes fall on the giant wolf. Destiny's hackles raise, her breaths ragged and her muscles aching. She knows she's at a disadvantage. She knows that the odds aren't on her side. She's never liked odds.

The creature starts towards her. Her snarling mouth softens for a split second as she remembers the farmhouse. Her heart pounds even harder.

She spins around and dashes through the trees, paws pounding and fur whipping. She can hear the monster's heavy footfalls coming after her. The trees blur around her as she attempts to maneuver her large frame through the tight spaces, and even when she stumbles, she gets back up and pushes herself further.

----------

Leonardo groans, panting heavily as he holds his side and kneels on the ground, one hand wrapped around his katana. He looks up at the tree standing before him, tall and strong. He envies that tree. Its roots are firmly in place, it doesn't feel pain when it gets pushed.

The blue-masked turtle purses his lips with determination. "Get on your feet, Leo," he tells himself. "Stop whining and get...up."

He pushes himself to his feet slowly with the help of his katanas, but shooting pain goes up his arm as soon as he releases it and he gasps. He grips his sore muscles, fingers trembling and teeth gritted.

The crunching of foliage coming from the forest reaches him and he turns to face the dark trees, his maskless face confused. It sounds like something large going at a panicked sprint, certainly not his family returning from finding Raphael.

"Huh?" he mumbles.

Destiny appears from the trees. She shudders once, returning to her human form as she collapses to her knees, her palms scraping the earth. She's sweaty and out of breath, her face so flooded with terror that Leonardo is sure that he can see the whites of her eyes rather clearly.

"Des?" Leonardo calls.

She looks up at him, stumbling as she pushes herself back to her feet. She opens her mouth as she starts towards him, trying to say something, but a vine appears from the dark trees and surrounds her torso. She's pulled to the ground with a sharp tug and Leonardo's eyes widen as she hits the ground.

"Leo!" she screams as the vines tighten, becoming more plentiful as they curl over every curve of her body. "Help!"

"Destiny!" he shouts, breaking into a desperate limp towards her.

"LEO!" she wails once more before the vines rip her back into the darkness.

Her shouts cease, their echo the only sign that they were ever there in the first place.

Leonardo falls to his knees at the tree line, his heart thumping in his chest as he stares at the spot where Destiny disappeared. He covers his face with his hands and forces himself to take breaths even though it hurts, his mind just trying to make sense of this madness.