"Diaval, how bad is it?"

Diaval shakes his head and crosses his arms over his chest. Destiny stands in front of him, her eyebrows furrowed. The other turtles, Casey, April, and Splinter have situated themselves in the pizza place, engaged in their own activities so as to give Diaval what little bit of privacy that they can.

"Diaval," Destiny repeats. "You wouldn't let Splinter touch anywhere but your face and arms. You could have internal bleeding."

Donatello lifts his hand slightly, gaining the attention of both teens. "It's true," he says. "And if that doesn't get checked, you could die."

Diaval blinks once. He glances back up at Destiny, then lets out a slow breath. He lifts himself up just enough for Destiny to reach down and inch his shirt up and over his head, his stance unmoving the entire time. Destiny gasps upon seeing purplish-black bruises mottled with green lining his ribs, and she lowers herself to her knees and lifts the boy's arm up to get a better look. He winces at the movement and she utters a hasty apology.

"Donnie?" Destiny whispers. Diaval tugs away from her grip and his face pales, making Destiny apply gentle pressure to his arm. "He won't touch you, he just needs to help me figure out what's wrong."

Diaval says nothing. Donatello kneels next to Destiny, watching and directing her to prod certain places for him, and he eventually backs off and rises to his feet. Destiny lowers Diaval's arm and the boy curls into himself, wrapping his arms around his torso and aiming his attention to the floor.

"Good news, none of your ribs are broken," Donatello says. "Bad news, they're cracked and bruised and the only thing that you can do to heal is to rest. Mikey?" The orange-masked turtle perks up, pausing his TV show as his brother turns to him. "Can you see if we've got any ice packs in the kitchen? We need to bring down the swelling."

"Right on, bro," he says.

Donatello notices Diaval's hunched position and his eyes widen, his head shaking to and fro rapidly. "No, no, no, don't do that," he scolds, earning a confused look from the boy. Donatello reaches to touch him, stops when Diaval shies away, and he again turns to Destiny. His expression is a mix of helplessness and annoyance. "Des, I need you to handle this."

"Okay," she whispers. She leans up to the turtle, cupping her hand around her mouth. "What is he not supposed to do?"

He tilts his mouth to her wolf ear. "He needs to breathe normally, so constricting his chest like that is bad. He needs to rest and cough occasionally to clear his lungs of mucus."

"If he doesn't?"

"Then he risks getting a chest infection."

"Fair enough. Carry on."

"He should hold a pillow to his chest when he does cough so there's support. Rest is good but he needs to walk around sometimes and take ten slow, deep breaths every hour to help clear the lungs, and...he should try to sleep more upright. You got all that?"

Destiny frowns slightly, backs up, then nods. "I've got the gist of it."

"Yo! I got ice packs!" Michelangelo calls as he returns, a large ice pack hoisted into the air like a trophy.

Destiny snatches it with a quick thank you. She moves to Diaval's side and murmurs to him under her breath, easing his arms away from his torso and aligning the ice packs against his ribs despite his cringing at the coolness.

Leonardo clears his throat. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get going on the meeting," he states.

"Alright, I got things to do and bad guys to mess up." Raphael clenches his hand into a fist, setting aside his magazines.

Donatello retrieves his laptop and sets it up on the counter. April, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Casey gather around as Leonardo kickstarts their planning meeting. Splinter stands back, observing but not speaking.

"Karai's still out there," Leonardo says. "The last thing she said to me at the docks last night was the word 'comet'."

"So, what's that supposed to mean? A giant comet's coming? The earth's doomed?" Casey asks, resting his hands behind his head.

"It feels like it could be a location. Maybe where she's hiding out," April suggests.

"Donnie's found three locations with the word 'comet' in them. D?" Leonardo arches an eye-ridge as his pupils swivel to his brother. Diaval also perks to attention, but quickly realizes that Leonardo isn't talking to him.

"We've got Comet Cleaners on Bleecker Street here," Donatello says, pointing to a spot on his computer screen. He scrolls along the map and continues pointing to the spots as he says them. "Earth vs. the Comet Creeps is playing at the Argosy Theatre here, and then we've got the Coney Comet roller coaster on Coney Island here." He lifts his head towards his family, looking pensive. "So one of these places could be her lair, theoretically."

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! Can I check out the Comet roller coaster? Please?" Michelangelo begs, giving Leonardo puppy eyes. "Come on, Leo, hook a turtle up!"

Leonardo gently pushes his little brother behind him, seemingly ignoring his pleas. "Donnie and April, you take Comet Cleaners. Raph and Casey, you take the movie theatre," he says. Casey's mouth falls open, his eyebrows furrowing, and Donatello's mouth spreads into a smug grin. Leonardo glances at Michelangelo, heaving a sigh. "Me, Destiny, and Mikey will check out Coney Island."

"Oh yeah, boy! Thanks Leo." Michelangelo flashes two thumbs up signs and bounces in place.

Destiny's head snaps up. "You want me coming along?" she asks, her ears swivelling. Diaval tenses and his hand brushes her arm, trembling noticeably, and her ears flatten against her hair when she looks back at him.

Leonardo crosses his arms over his plastron. "Yes. Do you have an issue with that?"

She opens her mouth, but surprisingly, Diaval speaks first. "M going," he mumbles. He tries to sit up, a low, pained breath leaving him as he presses the ice pack against his ribs again. "Wanna find Karai."

"That isn't a good idea for either of you," Splinter cuts in. "Destiny, you have been poisoned and hurt and have hardly given yourself time to rest. Diaval, you aren't any better. Both of you need to slow down."

Diaval shakes his head, trying to stand. "No. Need to find her. N-Need to—"

"Diaval...Splinter's right," Destiny says, putting her arm out in front of him to halt his advance. She doesn't look at all happy about admitting to that as she sighs. "We have to leave the mission to them, just for today."

He stares her straight in the eyes. His head tilts to the side. "Please?"

Destiny's lips part, then close again. She turns to Master Splinter, her tail swinging weakly as she widens her eyes and pouts out her lip, ears tugging back. Raphael mumbles something to April about "rubbing off on each other" and she stifles a snort of laughter. Splinter arches an eyebrow, stroking his goatee as he ponders.

"Des and Diaval can come with us!" Michelangelo blurts out. He grins. "If things go bad, they can retreat while Leo and I protect them. It'll be awesome!" When everyone exchanges glances, he adds, "Plus, come on, I bet you guys have never been to Coney Island."

Both Destiny and Diaval nod to confirm that that is indeed the case. Splinter exhales and nods.

"Fine, but both of you are going to rest afterwards," he says.

Destiny grins and her tail wags so hard that it accidentally smacks Diaval in the arm a few times. Diaval grunts out something that sounds like a thank you, but that's all he does to show his gratitude.

Donatello turns to three jars of orange mutagenic liquid waiting on the table behind his laptop. He screws spray nozzles on top of the jars before tossing one to each group.

"I have just enough retro-mutagen brewed for three doses," he explains. "Each team gets one. It'll be weeks before I finish more."

"So in other words, don't waste it," Raphael clarifies. "Gotcha."

"Karai's condition is unique," Donatello continues. "We've only ever seen this kind of mutant with Destiny. There's no guarantee this will even work on Karai."

"And you can't test it out on Des because why?" April asks.

Destiny crosses her arms over her chest as her ears flatten. Donatello frowns and answers for her. "Honestly, I was thinking of asking, but considering that it took me this long to even create the retro-mutagen, it was too late to change any of it or take Karai's condition into account."

"Can you stop calling it a condition, please? You're making me feel...weird," Destiny requests.

"Oops, sorry Des."

Leonardo eyes the retro-mutagen, giving an assertive nod. "Come on, let's get this done," he orders. He points to Destiny, then down at Diaval. "Des, you're on Diaval-watch."

Diaval glowers at the sound of that, but softens when Destiny turns to him. She keeps her hands hovering near him as he gets to his feet, ready for the highly probable chance that he trips and falls. He sets the ice pack aside and retrieves his shirt and cloak, dressing as quickly as he can before both him and Destiny follow Leonardo and Michelangelo from the lair.

----------

Two long strips of purple laser wire appear in the dark sky. A tall, skinny shape whizzes by on the strips, a throaty hum leaving his mouth. He touches down on a rooftop and straightens up. The moon lights up his mutant features, like his pig snout and tusks. He adjusts his purple visor as rumbling sounds below him.

There's a loud yell as a giant horn breaks through the door of the maintenance shed on the building. A giant rhinoceros bursts through with the door still hanging on his horn like an oversized ornament.

"Man, Steranko, you are one ugly, horn-headed, Jurassic-looking fool," the warthog comments.

The man that was once Steranko grunts, taking the door off of his horn. "I am rhinoceros." He rips the door off of his horn and chucks it like a frisbee. There's a crack and a distant shriek. The rhino turns to his pig friend. "Listen, Comrade Zeck, forget Karai. We must destroy turtles instead...for what they did to me. I mean, us!"

"You're right, big S," Zeck agrees. "If they hadn't interfered at the docks, none of this would have happened." He turns and leaps downs to face his partner, eyes narrowing behind his visor. "I say we comb those turtles' wigs back, flip it, and comb the wig back again!"

"I say we splits up, track them down and sqwoosh them where they stands," Steranko suggests.

"Shoot, my piggy nose is better than a bloodhound's," Zeck says.

He starts snorting a little, his scrunched pig nose twitching as he searches the air. He leaps off the building with Steranko watching. Purple lasers reappear from Zeck's boots as he zips away into the night, squealing with laughter.

----------

Donatello and April leave the Comet Cleaners building. He holds the door open for her as she leaves, letting it fall shut after him as they head down the street.

"No sign of Karai. The place is completely abandoned," Donatello remarks.

"Alright, one location down," April says, sounding relieved, and she digs her phone from her back pocket. "I'll call Leo. Maybe his group had better luck."

She dials and puts the phone to her ear. It trills twice before a sharp pain shoots through her head. She groans and touches her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut.

"April?" Donatello asks, reaching a hand out to her.

"Someone...someone is watching us," she whispers as her eyelids peel back open.

He readies his bō staff while she get her tessen out. The two search the area, sticking close to one another the entire time.

"Hmm, I don't see any—" Donatello starts.

A punch lands on the back of his head, making him collapse heavily on the pavement. He jumps to his feet only to be knocked down again. A familiar voice laughs as the turtle gets back up, going back to shell with April.

"Old what's-his-name, the fly guy! Baxter Bughead? He fixed my invisibility tech," the voice says. "Wow to the wow to the wow to the wee—"

April smacks a spot in the air with her tessen. There's a yelp and the mutated Anton Zeck comes into view as his invisibility suit shuts off.

"Oh man. How'd you find me?" he pouts.

"'Cause you don't shut up!" April snaps. She directs her next words over her shoulder. "Who is this guy, Donnie?"

"He was a thief named Zeck," Donatello answers, spinning his bō staff once. His expression slackens as he lifts one eye-ridge. "Looks like he got a little mutated."

The teens cut the conversation short and launch into battle. The giant warthog reacts to their advance in a much faster manner than they expected.

"Yeow! Eee-ye-hee!" Zeck whoops as he starts firing off weird white bits of what looks like webbing from the belt around his hips.

One of the globs hits April and sticks her to a nearby wall in a cocoon of webbing. She grunts and struggles, her lip curling and her nose wrinkling, and Donatello can't stop to help her since he's still occupied by Zeck.

"Ugh! Is this glue?" she asks.

"You think you can take me? Huh? I will drop you like an ex-girlfriend," Zeck teases relentlessly as Donatello spins and jabs at the elusive thief.

"Your skills are weak, pig head!" the purple-masked turtle retorts, releasing the blade at the end of his weapon, effortlessly converting bō staff into naginata.

As he spins and goes for another jab, Zeck hops away and starts shooting lasers. In the neon hailstorm, one manages to nail Donatello in the plastron and the turtle collapses, his weapon clattering away.

"Donnie!" April shouts, struggling further against her gluey prison.

Zeck leans over and grips Donatello's face, squishing his cheeks as he turns it to and fro, checking the turtle's vital signs. He releases him and looks back at April.

"No worries. My hip lasers were set to stun," he assures the girl, shrugging nonchalantly. "We need you guys alive to bait your turtle bros and your little wolf lady."

She grunts and strains against her bindings, but it's no use. Zeck looks back at Donatello, noticing the jar of retro-mutagen laying on the ground near the unconscious turtle's head. He stoops and grabs it.

"Hmm, what's this?" he asks, looking it over, and again his eyes drift to Donatello. His t-phone has escaped his belt, revealing the map marked with the other destinations on their separate missions. Zeck calls Steranko without a second thought. "I got some sweet news, baby Ivan. Not only did I catch a turtle, I know exactly where the other freaks are going." He snatches up the phone, peering over his visor. "Check out the Argosy Theater on Houston. Me and my new homies are going to Coney Island."

A grin stretches his piggy face. He grabs April, still tied up, and chucks her into the back of his van.

"Hey! Who do you think you are?" she demands.

He ignores her and throws Donatello in. The purple-masked turtle lets out a groan of pain as he lands, still pretty much unconscious. Zeck shuts the doors as April screams.

"Let us out! Help!"

Her pleas fall on deaf ears.