This time, the spar ended with Akila pinned to the ground by Raph. But he was secretly exhausted; she'd really put up a good fight. He stood up and offered her his hand. Akila hesitantly took it and let him pull her to her feet again.

"Woah, are you a ninja too?!" Mikey asked in excitement.

Akila laughed and shook her head. "No way," she responded.

Leo was completely awe struck. He couldn't help but admire her aloud, "you were amazing just now! You must have had some kind of training?"

Akila blushed at the compliment. "No, I just watched you guys for a while," she explained with a shrug, "it wasn't that hard."

Now Splinter spoke. "Akila, I would like to talk to you...alone, " he said. At the word 'alone', the turtles left the room.

Alika was nervous; had she done something wrong? "I-I'm telling the truth, I've never had any training before, I just learned from watching today," she insisted confidently.

"And I believe you," Splinter replied, "that is why I wanted to speak with you. Akila, you may have a special gift when it comes to memory." There was a pause before he went on. "..I would like to train you as a kunoichi if you choose to accept my offer."

Akila was stunned, and yet, she was beyond excited. "I'd love to," she breathed. So much had happened in the past 24 hours. Thoughts of school and home had faded quickly from her mind, becoming meaningless background noise in her head.

Master Splinter smiled as approved, "good. Then I will see you here tomorrow morning with my sons."

Akila nodded and left the training room. She was excited. She hadn't felt excitement in so long, but now that she did, it was, well, exciting. She raced to the living room to find the turtles all talking on the couches. "Hey, what'd Master Splinter want?" Mikey asked.

Akila smiled proudly and held her head high. Another feeling that felt almost foreign to her; pride. "He wants to train me to be a kunoichi."

"That's great!" Leo congratulated her.

"Does that mean you'll be training with us?" Mikey asked.

Akila nodded quickly. But Donnie seemed a little more skeptical than his brothers. "Akila, if you've never trained before, and you're that good just from watching us, you may have some kind of special genetic inheritance," he stated. "Would you mind if it took a DNA sample?"

It was an odd question. Donnie must be really sciencey, Akila thought to herself. But what harm could come from it? "Sure, I guess," she agreed. So Donnie got up and led her to his lab, not wanting to waste any time. He had a suspicion that this was no ordinary girl. After all, there is one thing everyone else seemed to be forgetting: Akila had been targeted by the kraang that one night. Why would they be after some random teenager girl?

• • •

It had been a couple of weeks since Akila first began staying staying in the sewers with her new friends. Now, the turtles were out on night patrol. Akila had stayed behind this night to practice training on her own. The brother were about to go back underground for the night before Donnie stopped them. "Guys, wait a sec," he called.

The others stood in the alley, waiting for their brother to speak. "I wanted to talk to you guys about Akila, " he started hesitantly, "As you know, I ran those tests on her when she first started staying with us."

"Yes?" Leo urged Donnie to continue.

Donnie sighed stressfully before speaking again. "Well, as I looked through her DNA strands, I found traces of...other DNA," Donnie explained, his eyebrows drawn in seriousness.

"What do ya mean, 'other DNA'?" Raph asked suspiciously.

Donnie went on, "w-well, I found the exact DNA build up of a feline in there, first off, and some type of reptile, and something aquatic...and thats just the tip of the iceberg."

Mikey blinked a few times before questioning, "sooo, is she..a mutant?"

"I don't think so," Donnie replied and shook his head, "I mean, I didn't find any mutagen in her blood, just all of those animal species." He paused for a minute, holding his chin as he thought. "Honestly, it's incredible that she's even alive. Her DNA might be a patchwork of sorts, but somehow, she's lived her entire life as a normal human girl."

"Ah, I got it!" Mikey remarked energetically, "someone tried to make a mutant without the mutagen!"

Raph and Leo both groaned and rolled their eyes. But Donnie's eyes widened as he thought about it. "...That's actually...probably right."

Mikey smiled proudly and boasted, "yeah, I'm kind of a genius."

"Hey, genius, your hair's on fire," Raph stated bluntly.

Mikey yelped and started patting his head repeatedly until he remembered that he didn't have hair. He frowned and glared at Raph, who chuckled.

"But who would do that?" Leo asked.

"Well, it could've been the kraang, but they already have their mutagen; why would they need a new one?" Donnie replied, ruling the kraang out as a suspect.

"And the only other people who know about mutagen are Shedder and the Foot Clan," Raph observed.

There was a tense silence before Leo spoke up. "We can figure it out tomorrow," he decided, gazing toward the rising sun, "right now, we need to get back to tell Akila and Splinter." And with that, they all jumped down into the sewer and made their way to the lair.

• • •

Akila had just finished practicing by herself when the turtles arrived. They walked over to where she sat tiredly on a couch and sat all around her. Leo made sure he got the seat right next to her.

"What's up?" Akila asked with a curious look on her face. Donnie spoke carefully, telling her about her DNA. Akila looked stunned and almost like she didn't believe him.

"So...I'm a mutant?" She asked in a scared voice as Donnie finished his story.

"Not exactly," Donnie corrected, "whoever did this to you obviously failed to copy the mutagen that the kraang have, so no. The technical term for you would be more like, uh, genetic hybrid."

That didnt make Akila didn't feel any better. Leo shot a look at Donnie as if to say, 'way to go'. But he knew she had to be told sooner or later. "But none of that matters; you're still you, right?" He asked Akila, placing a comforting hand between her shoulder blades on her back.

Akila smiled a little; Leo was right, this didn't have to change her. "Yeah, I guess so...but still, you think Shredder did this?"

"It's highly likely. I mean, think about it. Shredder probably tried to immitate the mutagen to make his own mutant army," Donnie put his opinion out.

Then Akila frowned, her eyebrows drawing in. "Wait," she argued, "but what if he didn't fail?" The others looked at her in confusion. "What if Shredder didn't want to make a mutant? What if he wanted a mutant who still looked human?

Donnie began to assure her that that wasn't the case, but he had to admit that it was a big possibility. "Well if that's so," Raph said, "at least you got away before he could finish whatever he was doing."

But Akila didn't feel any better. In fact, she felt worse as a new question entered her mind. How did she not remember this happening?