I woke up to the sound of complete silent. Which was new, considering that we had so many Turtles in the lair now. But I got out of bed, something I barely used, and made it quickly before either Leo or Sensei snapped on me later.

Walking out of my room, there was still silence. I walked toward Mikey’s room. Cracking the door open, I noticed him and Mikito still sleeping. Sighing, I came in and kicked Mikey, who was on the ground, and poked Mikito repeatedly until she responded.

“Whaaaaat?” she groaned, covering her head with the blankets.

“We gotta check on Naomi and Raph,” I replied. “And why is Mikey on the floor?”

“Because I pushed him off,” Mikito giggled, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Her mask was off, strangely enough. None of us really take our masks off, even for sleeping most of the time, but her and Mikey seemed to be the only two to take their masks off at night.

Mikey was still on the ground and I sighed, kicking his shell again. “Mikey, come on. There’s pizza waiting.”

“Pizza!” Mikey’s blue eyes shot open, standing up quickly. Even for added measure, he sniffed the air, only pausing. “But I don’t smell any…”

“It was a ruse, Mikey,” Mikito said rather wisely, tugging on her mask ends to put it on.

“Awww,” Mikey shrugged his shoulders. He turned to me, “So why wake us up?”

“Because of the egg?” I tried to explain. He still seemed lost, so I continued, “Leo? Sophie? Naomi or Raph?”

“Oh, yeah,” Mikey shrugged, grinning that grin of his. I sighed and shook my head, leaving the room.

I waited in the hallway. All I heard in their room, with the door closed, was laughing and giggling, hardly any talking at all. Leaning against the wall, I started to doze off when the door opened and Mikey sprang out, wielding a nun chuck playfully.

Mikito followed him, grabbing his other nun chuck and they were swinging them around, playing a sword game. I had to duck out of the way to avoid being hit.

“Okay, really?!” I exclaimed. They paused and looked at me, blinking in complete confusion. I sighed and said, “Wasp egg?”

“Oh, yeah,” Mikito smiled innocently, giving the nun chuck she had to Mikey. He took he and smiled, putting both of them up in their pockets on the side of his shell.

“Can we check on them now?” I asked, gesturing to the main room and my lab.

Mikey nodded and we walked in. Nobody was in the main room, or kitchen, or dojo even, which meant Splinter went out again with everyone. With all these Turtles in the lair, it was a loud house, but with half of them gone, it seemed normal again.

“So, if they were going for the egg…” Mikey started.

“They would be in the lab,” Mikito finished, smiling.

We walked over to the door and peered in. I saw Raph, Leo, and Sophie watching the egg. Naomi wasn’t in sight, which I assumed was a bad thing. When Naomi wasn’t around, she was always doing something that she shouldn’t be in my opinion.

But Mikito noticed the others and gulped, “That’s not good, is it…?”

“No…!” I said as they all drew their weapons, their backs still turned. Trying to sound causal, I asked a little louder to them, “Hey, guys, what’cha doing…?”

Beside me, Mikey whispered, “They’ve gone all Leo, who’s not Leo, on us…!”

Beside Mikey, Mikito squeaked and gasped, pointing to Raph’s arm, “He got bit!”

“Leo must’ve bit him…!” I answered.

That’s when Naomi jumped down from nowhere and hissed at us. The others turned and growled. Naomi’s teeth were coated in green slimy stuff that I knew weren’t good.

“Or it might’ve been Naomi,” I gulped, backing out of the doorway.

“Guys,” Mikey tried. “Snap out it, dudes!”

Sophie, Leo, and Raph all blinked, their eyes completely black. I couldn’t tell if Naomi blinked or not because her masked matched her eyes. But I could here her growling. Then they all lunged at us.

Mikey, Mikito, and I all backed out, slamming the lab doors closed. Mikito pulled a nun chuck out of Mikey’s pocket and handed it to him. He took it and made it into his longer chain and tied it around the handles.

We all leaned back on the door, panting. That’s when I remembered the garage door, so I turned to the two beside me, “Mikey, Mikito! The garage door!”

“On it!” Mikey said quickly, taking Mikito’s hand and running to the side.

I waited patiently. There were three pairs of pounding on the door, so I was starting to wonder where the fourth pair was. Then they stopped altogether. I gulped. The garage door must’ve not been working! It did that from time to time. As I sat, I heard a loud cry in the tunnels, and I looked up. They didn’t get bitten, did they?! But I heard the garage door slam shut and Mikey coming back with a sullen expression.

I stood up, “Where’s Mikito?!”

“Naomi knew that the garage door was open. She was waiting by it and then jumped at us when we came up. Mikito threw herself at her to let me close the door,” Mikey whined. “Mikito got bit…”

“I’m sorry, Mikey…” I said softly, hugging him. “But we’ll figure out how to bring her back.”

“How?”

“To start with, we have to figure out what kind of wasp this is…” I thought, my train of thought going straight to the egg. Leo got stung, so he must’ve bit Sophie. Sophie or Leo might’ve bit Naomi, and Naomi, Sophie, or Leo (although I’m positive Naomi did it), might’ve bitten Raph… “Well start searching. Come on.”

We went to the kitchen and I grabbed my laptop, setting it on the island and searching up “wasps”. A lot of different websites and things popped up, yes, so I reduced my searching to “dangerous wasps”. Still a lot of searches, but I clicked on a dictionary with different kind of wasps.

Scrolling down the different kinds, one caught my attention. I clicked it. “Here,” I said, knowing it was the wasp we were looking for. “The parasitic wasp. It infects animals with a virus that brainwashes them that makes them protect their eggs.”

“Is that the kind of wasp that stung Leo?” Mikey asked, looking concerned. The five in the lab banged on the door, growling out.

“The mutant version. Meaning he bit Sophie, passed the virus to her, and so on… Whoever gets bit gets the virus,” I explained.

“So,” Mikey began, turning back to me from staring at the kitchen entry, “when the egg hatches, will everyone go back to normal? I can’t stand being scared of Mikito…”

“She’s like you, so I wouldn’t want to be either if I were you…” I commented. He looked at me worried. But I continued with his first question, scrolling down the screen on the wasps’ information. “But they won’t go back to normal… not exactly. Watch what happens.”

Scrolling down was a series of pictures with a caterpillar and a wasp egg. At first, it was just the bug and the wasp. Then the egg had the wasp hatching out of it, coming up to the caterpillar. Slowly, it started gnawing on the flesh of the bug, soon starting to eat the poor watcher.

“It’s eating him!” Mikey exclaimed, holding his head. “It’s eating him! Gyaaaah!” He plummeted to the ground, shaking. One blue eye looked at me and he whimpered, “What’re we gonna do? I can’t let that wasp eat our family!”

“Well,” I thought quickly, looking away, resting my thumb on my chin. “I can try and create some kind of antibody, but I’ll need an example of the egg to do it.”

“But they’re all in there! Waiting for us!” Mikey snapped. His voice changed when we heard harder pounding. We screamed and hugged each other, looking at the door before pulling apart, hearing the lab door slam open.

I should’ve known Naomi would be able to find a way to get the garage door open, or untie Mikey’s Kuragama chain… Why don’t we knock her out once in a while? Raph wouldn’t mind that bad, would he?

The curtains to the kitchen ruffled and we looked over as Naomi and Mikito ran in, their teeth and mouths dripping green goop that wasn’t saliva. Behind them, Sophie, Leo, and Raph walked in steadily.

“Oh no!” I gasped as they leaped at us.

Mikey was quick and started throwing things at him. He started for the laptop, but I snatched it back. We’ll need that! He threw pots, pans, anything he could grab at them. Naomi caught most and dropped them, advancing on us.

“Get back!” Mikey cried, still throwing. I eventually got behind him. “Get away!”

“Even to Mikito you’re saying that!” I shouted over him.

Mikito hissed and jumped up in the island, making us scream and fall on our shells. Her once brown and happy eyes were completely black and evil. Demon’s eyes is what I thought of.

So I grabbed Mikey’s shell and threw him toward the entrance as Mikito pounced where he was just laying. I got up quickly as Naomi jumped from the other side of the island. His feet slammed on cold concrete. I was running from Leo and Sophie now.

We ran out into the main room, near the water entry way. The others followed like rabid animals would. Stupidly, I turned around. Leo jumped at me and I threw my hands up, blocking his bites. Sophie had jumped up too far and slammed into a wall, knocking herself out.

“We have to get to the egg,” I said loudly to Mikey between the snaps of Leo’s teeth biting air. “It could be the only cure!”

I looked over at Mikey. Raph had Mikey’s shell and threw him away. Mikey skidded on his back. I watched in shock as Raph jumped at Mikey, hissing. Behind them, I could see Naomi. Her black eyes watching our every move before she disappeared in the shadows like she would do any other time. Thinking quick, Mikey raised his nun chucks and Raph bit down on the chain itself, growling and snarling like a dog before Mikey kicked up as his abdomen, pushing him over his head.

Seeing Mikey’s move, I decided to try it, but Leo held fast, both of us rolling along the lair floor, me not knowing who won until we finally hit something. I turned around to try and get away, but Leo twisted my ankle and reached for me, teeth and virus ready when a chain came up and wrapped his arms tight to his body. If it weren’t for the situation we were in now, I would’ve laughed at Leo’s face alone. The chain jerked him back and Mikey held him fast, making sure he wouldn’t get away.

I came up to help Mikey. Leo was on the ground, struggling pitifully. Less than a normal Leo would. I held his head down, thinking it would help.

Looking up, Mikey called out, “Raph? Sophie? Mikito?”

“Why not Naomi?” I asked.

“Because she somehow left…” Mikey said, looking at me. “You saw it too, right? Like she had sanity left.”

“But you also saw her eyes,” I pointed out. “She’s like Leo.”

Beneath us, Leo growled, turning to glare at us. The water splashed and a door slammed. Raph had climbed out of the water and Sophie had entered a room. Hopefully hers and Leo’s.

“Where’d they go…?” Mikey asked.

“Stay here with him,” I said, getting up and running to the lab. Looking inside, I turned toward the bean bag chair the egg was on. But it was gone. Gritting my teeth, I came back to Mikey. “He took the egg… He’s out there somewhere… waiting.”

“You mean,” Mikey gulped. “He could be there?!” he turned to the training dummy, “Or there?!” he faced the pinball machine. “Or there?!” he faced toward the main room again. “Or even--” I got tired of him and slapped him. He paused a second before glaring at me. “Ow.”

“Calm down, then!” I said quickly. “We’ll barricade ourselves in my lab.”

“But what about Leo?” he asked, turning to our evil blue-masked leader.

Looking up, I thought about it. Why not just bring him with us? He could be useful. Maybe tell us where the egg was at, or even his own blood could help! I nodded at Mikey and we heaved Leo toward the lab. When we got inside completely, I went to get some boards, nails, and two hammers. Giving one hammer and a handful of nails, I propped a board up and we started hammering.

After a few boards, Leo started moving again. I paid no heed and continued hammering, knowing Mikey had tied him down, and he was pretty much unable to move or do much.

But while I was boarding up the lab, I felt somewhat regretful. Leo, Raph, Sophie, Mikito, and Naomi were out there, waiting for the egg to hatch. They might’ve known that the wasp hatchlings would eat them, or they didn’t, and was just watching them. I could tell Mikey was worried about Mikito because his eyes were a bit hurt. It surprised me how much he actually cared for her. I was worried about my brothers, and a little for Naomi and Sophie.

Although Raph had Naomi, I still had feelings for her… All the guys did, as far as I could tell. Leo wasn’t as sure with it because we all knew he liked Sophie, but it was noticeable. Mikey probably didn’t like her because his blue eyes were stuck to Mikito twenty-four- seven… I personally just liked Naomi for her brains and wits. Quick to react, and with her mind reading, it just made everything better. Yes, I know I liked April as well, but Naomi had a type of magnet to her…

And because of the increase attention, Raph had started noticing and got more protective whenever we brought her name up. He was worse with me because I didn’t have anyone. Nobody but April, but everyone knew I would never have a shot with her…

“Donatello?” my name brought me out of my thinking process. My mind. I paused in the hammering and looked over as Leo continued on saying, “Michelangelo?” Mikey and I turned to face him and he looked up, “What happened?”

“You went crazy bro,” Mikey said, twirling his fingers near his temples. “The others took the egg, and disappeared!”

“I’m alright now,” Leo looked down. At first it seemed to be in relief, but then he looked up, his eyes black again. “You can let me go, now, Mikey. Let me go, and we’ll search for the others together.”

Mikey leaned down, ready to untie Leo, but I cried out, holding him back, “Mikey, don’t! Look at his eyes.”

We looked at them and they were black. Naomi’s bandana black… Leo growled and lunged at us, but we jumped away, “It is useless to resist! Soon the egg will burst! And the hatchling will feed on us all!”

So they did know that the hatchling would eat them. As Leo turned, I slapped him against the door. I grabbed a syringe quickly and said, “Sorry to bust your possessed bubble, Leo.” I crouched down to his level. “I may not have the egg, but a sample of your blood should be able to help me create a cure.”

And as I stuck the needle into Leo’s neck, drawing out his blood, Mikey cried out, pointing to me, “Bite! You’ve been bitten!”

I paused and tried to look at my neck. “Oh no… That means… I’m infected too…”

Behind me, Mikey whined, knowing he was the only one left who hadn’t been bitten.