It must have been about an hour later that a rather tall and broad Foot member entered the room in which Mike and I were contained.
The conversation between Michaelangelo and I had petered out over time, lapsing to quiet anxiety and mild boredom and so when the Foot member entered we just curiously watched his approach. I knew as I watched him enter that I was hoping he carried food.
My hopes were dashed as, glaring into our cells, the young man grabbed the keys off the desk where they had been left by the scientist and after looking at the details on the clipboard fastened to the gap of wall between where Mikey and I were contained, he headed for my cell.
�Don�t try anything turtle.� hissed the black clad Foot member, unlocking the door. �I can easily kill you, and don�t think I won�t.� He turned and fetched a full syringe from the numerous on the tray. As he did this, I watched Kitty sneak out of my cage and rush out of the door. I was sad to see her go, but at least she had managed to escape. The Foot member turned back to me.
�Night-night time for a while, turtle.� he sneered, sticking the injection needle in my arm. I knew that it would be pointless to try and object to this. I watched the room start to go fuzzy in the same sort of way as the alley had when I was captured. As my eyelids started to droop, I felt myself lifted and carried from the room. The last thing I saw was Michaelangelo looking at me like a kicked puppy from between the bars of his cage. That sight would haunt me for a very long time.
I drifted slowly back into consciousness, a feeling that I had started to become accustomed to.
However, this time I was laying on a slightly hard wooden bed covered by a single blanket with the tatters of a pillow under my head. Carefully pulling myself into a sitting position, I was glad to find that no part of my body was bound.
Glancing round at the small room I was now contained in, images of the cells in prisons, like the ones I had seen on TV, popped into my head. This room was undoubtedly more spacious than my last place of capture. It was as if I had been promoted from a captured animal to a captured human. There was a toilet and small sink in one corner of the room and a dilapidated table by the door.
Spotting a plate on the table, I was reminded of my hunger. I hadn�t eaten since I was in the sewer before I was captured and goodness knows how long ago that had been. I rolled off the bed and limped over to discover a few pieces of thinly buttered bread and a rather old apple on the plate.
I started to eat while I tested the door with my other hand. I wasn�t surprised to find it was locked.
The light in the room came from a single light bulb which was swinging on its wire by the cold drought blowing through the bars covering a window.
Taking the plate and food with me, I moved to look between the bars into the outside world. The view I had was of some sort of court yard which had a few scattered teenagers sparring with each other.
I sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, taking the weight of my complaining ankle. Still eating, I leant to examine the bruised areas.
After careful prodding I finally decided that my ankle was just twisted and should be fine if I just rested it.
I lay back on the bed, my hunger now partially satisfied by the meager food. I heard the gentle patter of April rain begin on the concrete area I had seen. I watched as some of the rain blew through the bars and started to form a puddle in the middle of the room.
Shivering slightly, I pulled the blanket around me and after curling into a little ball, I drifted off to sleep.
Ten days of boredom passed. I had food brought to me twice a day and I spent most of my time either sleeping, or watching the outside world. My ankle had healed and I exercised as much as possible in the small amount of space to make sure that I remained in as good condition as my conditions would allow.
I practiced the meditation skills, which I had been taught by Splinter, as much a possible. So far I had only succeeded in finding some sort of inner peace and not communication with another mind, but still I practiced in the hope that I would get perfect. As it were, I was disturbed halfway through one such practice by the arrival of some sort of scientist in my room.
I jumped to my feet and wondered if I would be able to take this person out and escape. Unfortunately my delusions were shattered by two rather sturdy Foot members. One took each of my arms and I was forced to stand still and uncomplaining while the scientist stuck yet another needle in me, except this time he put nothing into me and instead removed some of my blood. Having done this, he smiled at me and glancing warily at the Foot members, walked out.
I was then released as the remaining company in the room departed. The scientists smile disturbed me slightly. It wasn�t that it was insincere or anything, it was just that all the enemies I had met so far had been anything but smiley.
I shook my head and moved to lay on the bed as I decided not to worry. The sun was setting and soon a Foot member would probably deliver some food to me. Until then I decided to close my eyes for a bit.
The next excitement came to me just four short days after the taking of the blood. I was grabbed and escorted from my prison to a clean white lab where I was instructed to lay on a white, hygienic bed. The whole hygiene of the place made me more conscious of the lack of hygiene I had for myself. I tried to wash everyday, but it was difficult with only a small cold tap and no soap, towel, sponge or flannel.
The same scientist that had taken my blood walked in.
�Lay back and just relax.� he said, smiling yet again at me. However I really didn�t have much of a choice than to do what he said as my shoulders were pushed down by my escorts.
�Hey!� I exclaimed, more out of surprise than any discomfort. The smiley scientist looked up from one of his machines.
�Be careful with her. Anyway, you can leave now. She won�t be going anywhere.� he dismissed. The Foot members exchanged glances before leaving. I wasn�t upset to see them go.
After placing a couple more pillows under my head to raise me up a bit and make me more comfortable, the scientist moved across to a computer and stared typing. He then paused to look at some experiments in some test tubes before smiling again and moving back to the keyboard. He paused and turned towards me.
�Could I have your name?� he asked. Something about the way he was treating me had gained my trust and I barely paused before my reply.
�Andrea.�
�Well Andrea, I have to admit that I have never worked with someone of your species before. So this is a learning experience for both of us.�
I said nothing. There was nothing to say! I then wondered what the scientist was planning to do to me.
�My name is Doctor Wood.� he continued, still typing away. �Now, I�ll take your weight and height later. But first, if you�ll excuse me, how old are you?�
�16.� I replied.
�Good, good...� Dr. Wood said, keying that new data. Having done this he walked across to stand next to me.
�I�m just going do a couple of small tests.� he explained, putting his fingers next to the side of my neck and looking at his watch. I flinched ever-so-slightly at his touch. Dr. Wood saw me twitch and gave me another of his relaxing smiles.
Having got the information he wanted, he then quickly entered that into his computer before returning to my side and taking my blood pressure with the use of his equipment. Yet again my details were entered onto the computer. I began to get more and more curious as to what all these tests were for.
Next Dr. Wood measured my height and weight as he had said he would. I was exactly the same height as when I had last been measured at the orphanage. However my weight had increased slightly. I put this down to the shell that I now carried around on my back.
Motioning me to climb back onto the bed, Dr. Wood pulled his chair over and sat down next to me.
�Now, Andrea, lets have a little talk and see if we can�t get to know each other a little better.� he said, shifting his weight in the chair so he could get more comfortable. �I�m sure you�re a little confused at the moment and I�m here to help sort out any problems and make sure everything goes smoothly.�
�Uh huh.� I replied, still wondering what he was talking about.
�If you have any questions or queries, don�t hesitate to ask me.� he offered. �But I�m sure that you already have a pretty fair idea of what it going on.�
�Actually I have no-idea at all.� I answered. That caught the Dr. Wood by surprise.
�Oh? Well I told someone to tell you as soon as you were put into your new, uh, containment.�
I was starting to get a little annoyed by my lack of knowledge about myself.
�Tell me what?�
�In order to create their own mutant turtles, AMRC first tried to create a chemical that would mutate humans to turtles. Failing to successfully do that, they decided to capture one or more of the existing male mutant turtles and use the sperm to fertilize a normal human female and use another chemical to speed the growth of the child once it was born.�
As I listened to this, I began to get more and more worried as I wondered what all this had to do with me. Dr. Wood continued to talk.
�Then you were captured and it was discovered that there was a female mutant turtle. So they impregnated you instead.�
If my jaw could have dropped out of my mouth and through the floor it would have.
�S, so, I, I, I�m...� I stammered.
�You�re pregnant.�