Song: Hymn For The Missing - Red

Elizabetta lays unconscious on the ground, her zombant form still possessing her body. Her eyelids twitch and her nose wriggles involuntarily. Her chest rises and falls in a shallow manner, while her hands and feet tense up. It looks as if the serum has triggered some kind of reaction inside her.

    Time picks up speed again as a zombant forces its weight against me. I stumble backwards and only just regain my stature in time to stop it from coming forward. I dodge a set of sharp teeth by shifting my shoulder to the side, barely escaping unscathed.

    About that time, Michelangelo gets distracted by Elizabetta's condition. His grip on the zombant herd slackens as he looks back over his shoulder. His blue eyes are contaminated with eagerness as he awaits her return to her human form. Of course, the commotion only puts him in danger.

    "Mikey, watch it!" I shout as claws fly by his skull. Leonardo and I swipe our weapons at the same time and reflect the blow, but only just. The stray zombant disappears into its ranks once again and continues its push for freedom, which we are hardly preventing.

    "Idiot," Raphael snarls at Michelangelo from my other side, unable to take his emerald eyes off his sparring enemies.

    Michelangelo is immune to all of this. "Is it working?" he asks, his voice cracking worriedly. He can't seem to take his eyes off our motionless zombant friend.

    April and Lucy stand beside each other with equal concern in their gazes as they watch Elizabetta. The redhead crosses her arms with a dark expression, while Lucy's administering hand quivers fearfully. Neither of them look prepared for what happens next.

    Elizabetta slowly opens her eyes. Her form hasn't shifted and her eyes are still black pits of nothing. The weak way she holds her head up proves that her mind is still not her own.

    "No, Lizzy..." Leonardo mumbles softly, his eyes betraying the pain he feels in his heart.

    Donatello stares blankly as he realizes what is happening. He takes a step back and shakes his head as Elizabetta releases a low groan. A deep sigh overtakes him.

    Suddenly, the zombant hoard surges against my team and I. "Hey!" I snarl at the ugly creatures as I stumble back a few inches. I regain my hold on the enemies, but not quick enough to stop them from advancing. They almost have us closed in.

    April rushes over and jumps into the action with her tessen out. She reflects blow after blow; though even with her help, it is impossible to keep the herd back. We're exhausted, and they're only getting started.

    "We can't hold these freaks back much longer!" I yell above the disgusting growls and curdles.

    "We need to get outta here," Raphael agrees with a more aggressive tone as he smacks some claws away from his face.

    Leonardo has another plan, however. "Hold your ground," he commands as he shoves a katana into the mass. He expects it to help us, but it only makes matters worse by allowing the zombants to surge again.

    "Grr," I mutter as my hockey stick nearly bends from the pressure it's under. I have all my weight against the herd, yet it's still not good enough. We're going to get destroyed.

    Elizabetta lets out another menacing sound. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of her rising off the ground with a dangerous gleam in her gaze. Her long claws sparkle in the half-light as they move closer to Donatello.

    "It failed," Donatello says in disbelief. "I can't believe it didn't work. All of that calculations and research... So much of my time was invested in this very moment, and it failed."

    Leonardo's blue eyes reveal his disappoint, but Michelangelo appears to have lost his mind. His ice-blue eyes are wide in horror. His mouth is slightly agape and his whole body is shivering, yet it's not cold down here.

    "We have to go!" April speaks up.

    "What about Lizzy?" Leonardo asks with a shaky, non-leaderlike tone.

    "She's not human, so we have to leave her here," Raphael states, as if it isn't obvious. When Leonardo doesn't look convinced, Raphael continues. "What? You know that's what we gotta do! We put the zombants down here to hide them from the New Yorkers. We can't just change our minds and take one back up there!"

    Leonardo's eyes blaze for a moment, and then the fire quickly dies. He doesn't look happy, but a single nod of agreement is enough to acknowledge his red-clad brother.

    Just then, Michelangelo desperately lurches towards Elizabetta. He darts across the tunnel to her with a cry of, "We can't leave her!"

    "Hey!" I complain as the zombants seize the weakness. They gain more ground as Leonardo, Raphael, April and I lose our grips on the creatures. We don't have a choice but to start retreating.

    Elizabetta advances towards Michelangelo, but Donatello pulls the younger turtle out of the way just in time. His bo-staff slaps Elizabetta's claws away and leaves her momentarily stunned.

    Michelangelo continues to fight to reach her, however. "She's my best friend!" he calls out in a fragile tone. "We gotta save her! We have to! Please!"

    His feeble cries entice the zombants to him. They seem to feed off his disconcertment. If he keeps this up, we'll be cut off from the ladder and get stuck down here for good. And I'd rather not get turned into a sewer-loving freak- no offense to the turtles.

    I glance at Leonardo. He isn't looking at Michelangelo or Elizabetta, but his expression tells me that it's haunting his thoughts. This isn't the time to stew over it, though.

    "We can't hold them back anymore," I tell Leonardo as I whack a zombant over the head. Gooey stuff spurts out of its ear, but it doesn't stop attacking me. It keeps fighting with the same amount of malice, if not more. How strong are these things?

    Leonardo glances at me for a split second, then gives out a much-needed command. "Retreat!"

    As one, my team and I release the wall of zombants and rush towards the others. Our feet barely skirt the ground as we fly away from the enemies and to the escape route: a tiny ladder.

    "Go, Lucy!" Raphael yells at the blonde, who is still quivering from injecting Elizabetta. Raphael effortlessly scoops her up and hoists her up the ladder to safety. He follows hot on her heels.

    I nudge April to the ladder. "I'll be right behind ya, Red," I promise.

    She looks faintly annoyed at my protectiveness, but a swift glance at the zombants wipes it away. She jumps onto the ladder and climbs after Raphael and Lucy.

    As I grab onto a bar, I risk a look over my shoulder. Donatello and Leonardo are struggling to pull Michelangelo back as he flails around. Elizabetta creeps closer, her weakened condition causing her to be much slower than usual. Still she looks as ferocious as ever, an obvious clue that we can't do anything more to help her.

    "We have to save her!" Michelangelo screams as the zombants start to close in on the trio. The air is growing warm from the smelly body heat. "She's my best friend!"

    Leonardo and Donatello ignore their youngest brother as they drag him to the ladder. With a little help from myself, the three of us succeed in shoving the turtle out onto the surface. The remainder of us skitter out just before the zombants close the gap and throw their claws at us.

    As I gaze down into the manhole, I see that Elizabetta is amidst the herd while they gnash at the air. Their horrendous bodies form a large mass of hatred and hunger- the very emotions that this city lives on. The zombants may be unusual in appearance, but a little bit of them lives inside all of us.

    I shut the manhole cover so I don't have to look at them anymore.

    Raphael is the first to break the short silence. "Why didn't it work?!" he demands as he hovers protectively around Lucy, his green gaze shifting to Donatello.

    "I don't know," Donatello admits, clearly distracted by his own thoughts. "It was experimental, but I was certain it would transform her. I don't understand what went wrong."

    Leonardo steps forward and places a hand on his taller brother's shoulder. A pang of hurt lingers in his sapphire eyes, but he seems to realize it was too good to be true. "Don't beat yourself up, Don. It's my fault. I shouldn't have rushed you to finish the serum. I just. . . I just wanted Lizzy back." He ends his reassurance with a self-doubting statement, which causes his gaze to fall into despair.

    Still, Leonardo is taking it much better than another turtle. A few feet away, Michelangelo is sobbing to himself with his head buried between his knees. His posture is frail and weak, while his shattered nerves give him the shakes. A once-giddy soul has been ripped in half, lost to the darkness of bitter sorrow.

    None of us know how to react. We simply stare like starstruck deer as our best friend sinks into a deep depression. His cries of agony act as a barrier between us and him, preventing us from consoling him. Well, all except one of us.

    Lucy pulls away from Raphael and rushes over to Michelangelo. She engulfs him into one of her tiny hugs, her arms barely making it around his chest. It takes a moment, but Michelangelo falls into her embrace and sobs even harder, his face hidden in her white sweater.

    A familiar robot sound tickles my ear. I spin around to see a set of five Footbots have materialized from the shadows. They stand tall with their beady, mechanical eyes glaring dangerously. They don't have their weapons out, but that can change in a split-second.

    "Not this again," April mutters as she takes up a position beside me, her tessen dancing between her fingers.

    Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael all jump into position behind me with their muscles flexed. I narrow my eyes to examine my enemies. They don't have a leader with them, so they should be easy to take down.

    I smirk. "You're going down, metal freaks!" I shout as I whip a golf club out of my backpack.

    Just then, the Footbots back off and turn-tail. They race down the road and disappear into the night before I can even blink.

    All my teammates exchange confused glances. Minus my best friend, who looks ready to burst into laughter.

    "Wow, Casey. Looks like you scared the shells off 'em," Raphael remarks sarcastically.

    As much as I want to take the glory for that, I know it isn't the truth. "I told you that the Foot are acting weird!" I exclaim as I face Leonardo. "It's like they've gone rogue or something. They do that when Tigerclaw needs a distraction from- oh no." I pause as a thought smacks me in the face. "Tigerclaw and his goons might be down at the docks! We've gotta go stop them!"

    I expect everyone to jump on the prospect of knocking some heads in, but I merely get unenthusiastic frowns instead.

    "I think we should head back to Lucy's," Leonardo counteracts with a concerned look at Michelangelo. "We've got to heal before we do anything else."

    Utter shock grips me. Are they giving up? "We can't just let Tigerclaw get away with this!" I protest.

    "Is there any evidence that Tigerclaw and his henchmen are down at the docks right now?" Donatello inquires with a tilt of his head, his bandana tails dangling with curiosity.

    I furrow my thick eyebrows. "Those crazy Footbots should be enough to tell ya that something weird is going on! You can't just ignore it!"

    "We aren't ignoring anything if there isn't any proof," Donatello points out in a matter-of-fact tone.

    "But-" My argument is interrupted by April.

    "They're right, Casey," the redhead says. "The Footbots don't signal anything. Maybe they're searching for something."

    "All the more reason to check the docks!" I insist.

    "All the more reason to recover before we check," April responds calmly with a bat of her long eyelashes. "We've been through a lot. Tigerclaw can't conjure up a deadly plan within a few hours. It takes planning, so we can afford to take a little break. Besides, there's no guarantee that he's even there."

    I grit my teeth, but there's nothing more I can say on the matter. With Michelangelo's sobs still making music in the background, there's no convincing his brothers of anything. If I want to get this done, I'll have to go by myself.

    "Fine!" I snap as I turn my back on them and dart away. "Casey Jones will figure this out alone!"