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Mikey stared suspiciously at the cake in front of him. "What is that?"
Dr Devine's lips curled up in a smile. "Well, Michelangelo - that is your name, isn't it? You're going to eat this cake for me."
"No. Let me see my brothers, and then I'll eat the cake." He folded his arms, glaring at her. He hadn't seen his brother for several hours, not since they'd been captured.
"Let me put it this way: You eat the cake, and then your brothers get to eat. You don't, they don't." Her eyes were as sharp as knives. "Understand me?"
"You mean...they have cake, too?"
She shook her head. "I mean, they will starve if you don't."
He picked up the cake and ate it. It tasted horrible, but Mikey made himself finish it anyway. He'd eaten worse.
A few hours later, he was given a bowl of salad. It wasn't pizza, but it was still food and he would never turn down food. Except...
...it made him feel sick. It felt heavy in his gut, and he lay for hours on the hard and cold floor of his prison, curled up with one arm around his stomach.
He wanted his brothers.
Every day after that, Dr Devine would bring him a cake and tell him that if he didn't eat it, his brothers would go for two days without food. Every day, Mikey would eat the cake because he didn't want Leo, Raph and Donnie to go hungry.
It was on the second day that he noticed he wasn't getting hungry, which was strange because he was always hungry. He just didn't want to eat and he would ignore the food when the scientists gave him some.
When he saw Dr Devine's smile, he knew that was the result she wanted.
He kept looking for a way out. He hoped his brothers would come and find him, but they never did.
On the seventh day, he realised he'd lost a little bit of weight.
On the eighth, there was no cake. Instead, Dr Devine called him over, a needle in her hand. He didn't want to, but he loved his brothers and he didn't want this scientist to hurt them, so he went to her and allowed her to inject his arm with whatever was inside.
"That serum I just gave you is specially modified," she said with a pleasant smile.
"What does it do?" he asked.
"Let's just say you won't want to go anywhere near your brothers. For their sake."
He'd never been more terrified in his life. "You mean...they'll die?"
She clicked her fingers at a nearby assistant. "Dump him somewhere in New York."
He ate very little, and always regretted it afterwards. He hid in back alleys and slept curled up amid rubbish.
More than once, he heard his brothers calling for him.
"Mikey!"
"Mikey, where are you?"
"Please, Mikey! Answer us!"
He cried silently, his heart breaking, but he didn't go to them. He couldn't.
"Michelangelo!"
He opened his eyes to see a huge, familiar shape looming over him.
"My friend! You are safe!" Leatherhead reached down and scooped Mikey up, holding him carefully and crouching over him to shelter him from the rain. "What has happened to you? You are thin and pale. Come, we must tell your brothers..."
"NO!" Mikey cried. "We can't! This creepy scientist lady captured us and she told me to eat this cake or my brothers wouldn't get to eat anything and it made me not hungry and then she injected me with something and said that if I went near them again they'd die!"
At first, Leatherhead was silent; then he let out a low, deep growl that Mikey had only ever heard directed at the Kraang.
"I am not leaving you here by yourself. We will see if Dr Rockwell is able to help you - and then, I want to know everything about this scientist."
"Come on, dude." Jason nudged an open pizza box towards Mikey. "You love this one!"
Mikey shook his head. "'M not hungry, dude."
"I wouldn't recommend eating greasy, heavy food after a long period of not eating," Dr Rockwell said, studying Mikey carefully through what looked like a pair of thick, dark goggles. "Hold out your arm, please, Michelangelo, so I can take a sample of your blood. The best things for you to eat will be simple things like toast, bananas and broth, but you mustn't eat too quickly. Now, where are those petrie dishes?"
Mikey watched miserably as the doctor placed a few drops of his blood into a petrie dish and looked at it through a microscope. Behind him, Leatherhead and Slash seemed to be talking about something.
Hours passed before Dr Rockwell finally said: "Whatever substance was in those cakes was intended as an appetite suppressant. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be taken in small doses and this woman deliberately gave you far too much; had you been human, it would have killed you."
Mikey almost retched. Two growls echoed in the background.
"What about that other thing she gave me? Can you cure it?"
"Well, that's the thing. I have been scanning you and I've studied your blood intensely, and I've seen nothing unusual."
What?
"But she said! She said she gave me something that would kill my brothers!"
Dr Rockwell shook his head. "She was lying, Michelangelo. I tested your blood against a serum I specifically designed to locate dangerous and harmful substances, and there is nothing. I suspect she wanted to psychologically torture you, or to see the effect such an announcement would have on you - or to weaken the bond you have with your brothers."
She was lying. She was lying.
"So I can go home?" His voice shook.
Leatherhead placed a hand on top of Mikey's head. "Yes, my friend. Slash has already called Raphael."
Jason made him ramen in a light broth. Mikey ate a few strands and had a few sips of the broth, but when it became too much he had to stop.
"Where is he? Is he OK?"
Mikey tried to get up, but his head suddenly started swimming and he had to sit down again.
Three green figures burst into the room, rain dripping from them, and the next moment they were hugging him tightly and the whole world seemed to fall away.