"Holy chalupa, Dr. Rockwell got BUFF!" Mikey shouted, slinking backwards slowly, his brothers moving back at a matched pace.

"Uh, Michael, I have a feeling that is not Dr. Rockwell." Donnie whispered.

"And you would be correct." A voice stated, and from behind the giant chimp mutant, a Foot soldier stepped out. His clothing was a slightly darker grey, much closer to black, and the mask over his head did not don large red eye coverings. The headpiece also lacked the familiar red fabric that held the Foot symbol. Rather, this soldier wore red fabric around his waist, which donned an intricate Foot Clan crest, starting with a metallic white background criss-crossed with a thick, red "X", and a foreground flashing a stylized black foot. Mikey instantly recognized the outfit as the symbol of a Squadron X member, though which one, he couldn't be sure with the mask.

"His name was Austin. Sweet guy. Couldn't say no when I asked him to step forward for the betterment of the Foot Clan." The Squadron X member continued. "Now, he's a weapon I value more than my own yari." Ah, yes, Mikey had failed to notice the metal spear strapped to the soldier's back."

"Where are the other Squadron X members? Or are you so low on the totem pole that they voted you to get sliced up?" Leonardo pressed. Mikey's guess was he was just buying them more time before they had to fight this beast of a mutant. 

The soldier laughed, nonchalantly taking off his headpiece to reveal a chiseled face with an ochre complexion, broad nose, and dark brown, coiled hair cut short on the top and fading to nothing near his neck. "So sorry, I never got to officially introduce myself like so many of my friends. I'm Charleston. Myself and five other members of Squadron X were assigned to lead the new dojos, which I'm guessing you've heard wind of, since your here." He teased with a smile, his dark eyes void of emotion. "The other four, I'm not sure where they went. They were obviously not skilled enough in Master Shredder's eyes to play a significant role in the Foot Clan."

"Where are you keeping Shelby?" Mikey demanded.

Charleston chuckled. "Truly, the question of the hour. Maybe if Austin fails to dispatch you cleanly, I'll whisper it to you as you lay dying."

With that, the chimp jumped forward, its back arching as its bulging fists swung back in preparation to land a killer strike. The turtles scrambled out of the way as the fists came crashing down onto the floor, denting the hardwood under the carpet and causing large pieces and splinters to shoot up out of the floor. Mikey recovered as quickly as he could, deciding that his role in this fight would be to subdue this mutant as much as he could while his brothers played offense. He switched out his kusarigama blade and threw the nunchucks out in to the wall opposite of him, where the blade swiftly buried itself in the drywall. 

The close quarters allowed Mikey very little time to prepare himself for the trap to be sprung as the chimp stepped forward after Raphael, who was retreating to safety after landing a hit to the mutant's knee. The chimp stumbled, though not as fully as Mikey wanted- the chimp caught himself rather quickly, and as Mikey attempted to wrap his second nunchuck chain around the chimp's legs, the chimp was already anticipating and swatting at Mikey, causing him to have to abandon his original plan.

"He's smarter than he looks!" Mikey stated in despair, desperately trying to gather to his nunchucks in the madness. 

"That's because this mutant likely has the same mind control serum that they used on Shelby and the scorpion mutant!" Donnie shouted back as he landed a hit against the chimp's side, only to be smacked against the wall hard enough to go straight through to the room on the other side. 

"And I'd bet money that our new friend Charleston is controlling it!" Leonardo concurred. 

Charleston. Mikey's gaze swept the room to find the Squadron X member standing off to the side, surrounded by the other 12 Foot Clan soldiers, their weapons already at the ready. Mikey gripped his nunchucks tighter in his right hand as he used his left hand to grab a smoke bomb from his belt and chunked at the Foot. One of the soldiers sliced in down with a katana but that only caused the smoke bomb to detonate before it hit the floor, quickly filling the vicinity with smoke. His brothers continued fighting the mutant chimp behind him, smoke billowing towards them slow as Mikey slinked into the dark mass. 

He moved as quickly as he could while still being able to tap into the world around him, feeling the vibrations of the Foot soldiers on the floor. He swung out his nunchunks and started swinging it into a guess-ta-mate as to where the Foot soldiers were. Every time it made contact, and though Mikey could not see where or who he was hitting, he was confident that he was dealing heavy blows. 

The smoke cleared slightly with every passing second and soon he could just barely see the movement of their shadows. They had spread out in search of Mikey, leaving Charleston unguarded. But Mikey also couldn't tell which one was Charleston. He grabbed out the handful of ninja stars he kept in his belt with both hands and threw all 6 out into the chaos, hitting four targets and causing them to collapse with the pain of a ninja star burying itself deep into their bodies. 

That's the chimpanzee mutant faltered, and Mikey turned just in time to watch as the giant stopped mid-fight, which face going flat and his muscles instantly relaxing, his fists lowering to the ground. "Way to go, Mikey!" Raph cheered as Leo was able to deliver a skewering blow into the chimp's chest. When he pulled at the blade, blood began spurting and pooling onto the floor, but the chimp mutant gave no reaction. While the mutant was too dangerous to be kept alive and what Leonardo did was necessary, Mikey and his brothers still watched in horror as the mutant stood completely still as it bled out onto the floor, as lifeless as it breathed as it was in death, collapsing to the floor with a powerful thud. 

"Austin's down, Austin's down!" A voice shouted with urgency as the Foot Clan scrambled to gather themselves. 

"Fall back!" Leo yelled. Mikey's heart continued to pound hard against the restraints of his chest as he and his brothers hastily made their way to the roof access. His brain felt almost as foggy as the floor below as they burst out into the fresh night air. A fight that has to end that way would leave anyone uneasy, and Michelangelo was no exception. But those feelings of both guilt and relief of not finding Shelby yet re-emerged as they scrambled to the van parked across the street. And then, of course, there was the dread that they were not able to find any information on Shelby. To their delight, the van was already running and ready to take off as soon as the turtles' entered. 

"Okay, party people, let's get this show on the road before they catch a glimpse of the plates!" Raph shouted. Without hesitation, Monica shifted the gears and took off into the street, soon blending in perfectly with New Jersey traffic.

The turtles collapsed with exhaustion, their chests rising and falling rapidly. Casey leaned against the wall of the van with them, eyeing them with a smile. "Sooooo, how'd it go?"

"Not well, it got a bit messy in there." Leo admitted, sheathing his katanas, which were still stained with blood.  

"And we didn't even get the information we came for." Donnie muttered, hanging his head in defeat. "And now the Foot Clan know that we've tracked their locations outside of New York."

Casey snickered to himself, causing all four brothers too look at him with surprise and disgust. "I'm sure you guys put on a pretty good show upstairs to allow us to get this." Casey paused as he pulled out Monica's shining hard drive.

Donnie's eyes widened. "You... you got it?"

"Hell yeah, we did." Casey smiled.

"You guys causing chaos on the upper floors was the perfect distraction, nobody even noticed us in the control room. I was able to download everything- and I mean everything- on that drive." Monica stated from the front seat. 

Casey placed the hard drive in Donnie palm, who's eyes were as wide of saucers as he gently lifted the drive up to his face. "It's so beautiful, I could cry."

"Easy there, D." Raph stated, patting his shoulder, though he was smiling too. 

Mikey was looking at hard drive as if it was the last slice of pepperoni-peanut butter-pickle pizza. There was a chance that everything they needed to get Shelby back was on that flashdrive.  He was vaguely aware of the bumps and sways of the van driving back to New York, but Mikey's mind had entered a world of its own. It was no secret that since the Foot Clan got ahold of Shelby brain, Michelangelo had not felt like his normal self. Very quickly after Shelby Bradford had come into his life, Mikey felt this connection to her. At first, he thought it was just some kind of weird fate connection, as she was Dogpound's daughter and therefore it was destiny that they work together to bring him down. But slowly she became a rock in his life to which he was tethered- not in a bad way. More like in the way that he ventures out and gets rocked to and fro by unexpected kicks and punches, some even thrown by those closest to him. But after being battered and bruised, he can always trace the tether back to something solid and steady, and that was Shelby. He had gotten so used to her being this strong presence in his life that without her, he felt like he was no longer anchored to the world around him.

"Mikey?" Mikey blinked, his eyes focusing on Raph,  who was bent down so that they were eye level. "You good, brother?"

Mikey hesitated. Raph was not usually someone who had much sympathy when Mikey confided him. But Raph took the hesitance with no bitterness, opting to instead grasp Mikey's shoulder and give him a reassuring squeeze. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. Its almost over."

~~~~~

"Alright, Donnie, let's get to it." Leonardo stated, standing in the center of the living room as Donnie approached them with his laptop. Master Splinter sat in the center of the couch, with Raph and Mikey flanking him on either side. Casey and April leaned forward with anticipation next to Raphael, and Monica sat at attention next to Michelangelo. 

"Okay, well, first, I can now tell you exactly who is where in this new network of Bradford dojos. The Shredder is residing in Washington D.C. with Karai. Tiger Claw is leading the Bradford dojo in Philly, Xever in Baltimore, and Dogpound in Boston. All of them have been injected with an alpha version of the mind control serum and they've been controlling the mutants running rampant in the cities. The rest of the dojos are being led by a handful of Squadron Beta-X members. Charleston was in Newark, which is accurate to the data. Brianna Stockman is in Bridgeport, Tyler Bradford is in Providence, Nick Carr is in Manchester, River Miley is in Burlington, and Christian Irvine is in Virginia Beach."

"Shelby's other brother is not leading a dojo?" Leo asked.

"No, because Aiden's sole responsibility is controlling Shelby and training to use her as a weapon." Donnie stated. "And Mikey was right- surprisingly. Shelby and Aiden are both residing in the Bridgeport location with Bianca."

"Okay, well, knowing her location was the first step." April stated hopefully. "Was there... chemical formulas for the serums?"

"Yes, there was." Donnie nodded. "The alpha serum, the beta serum, the formula for the mutagen used to mutate Shelby, a memory erase serum, there's even the beginning of a brilliant retromutagen on here." Donnie explained. "And the notes are so organized, I have to give the credit to Brenna instead of Praxton Flyguy." 

"And that means you can cure Shelby, right?" Mikey demanded earnestly.

"With this information, I might even be able to turn Shelby human again, if that's what she wanted." Donatello stated.

"How much time do you need to make the antidote?" Leo questioned. 

"72 hours, tops."

Leo nodded. "Make it 48."