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“Is it okay if you lock up tonight? Carol’s been exhausted all week with the kid; the little menace has been bouncing off the walls.” Kirby put on his jacket and gathered his things as his friend scribbled down a few more data points.
“Of course. I’m probably going to stay a bit later anyway.”
“Tell Carol to take it easy and give all the hard stuff to you.” Baxter cracked a teasing smile as he also prepared to head out for the night.
Kirby chuckled, “Happy wife, happy life I suppose. Have a good night, Yoshi. Baxter.” He nodded to both of them as he left the lab.
Yoshi waved to his fellow intern as Baxter carefully watched Kirby retreat down the hallway. As soon as he was long out of earshot, Baxter leaned playfully on the lab table Yoshi was attentively working on. “Such a try-hard, aren’t we Hamato?”
Yoshi rolled his eyes and scoffed, “This internship was a blessing, Stockman. I left everything I knew in Japan just for a chance to work for TCRI. I’m going to make the most of it.”
Baxter chuckled sheepishly, “Yeah, I suppose so. But if you work yourself too hard, you’re going to be far too exhausted to keep up with me for that pro-mo-tion.” He emphasized each syllable dramatically, grinning with confidence.
Yoshi shrugged, a coy smile creeping its way to his lips. “Better to be exhausted than slack off at any given opportunity.”
Rolling his eyes, Baxter finally started to leave. “Have a good night, Hamato.”
“Good night, Stockman.”
The two waved goodbye to one another, and soon Yoshi was left alone in TCRI’s lab, the fluorescent hum of the lights his only company. However, it wasn’t long before Yoshi heard a familiar rustling. He turned to the source, beaming. “There you are, Splinter. Right on schedule.”
The lab rat, who had been hiding nearby among some of the lab equipment, excitedly bounded up to Yoshi. As Yoshi gave Splinter a gentle scratch on the chin, he paused in concern. Usually Splinter was happy and affectionate; now, the rat’s beady red eyes pooled with worry.
“What’s wrong, nezumi?”
Splinter immediately hopped off the table and started dashing toward the lab door, left slightly ajar by Baxter. Stumbling out of his chair, Yoshi quickly followed before he could lose sight of his companion. “Hey, slow down! I’ve been sitting hunched at this desk for hours.” Splinter’s pace slowed slightly, but was still incredibly hasty. They reached a hall lined with offices belonging to full-time TCRI employees, Yoshi panting as he finally caught up. Paws pressed against one of the doors, Splinter’s head gestured toward the sliver of light slicing between the door and its frame. Muffled voices became more distinct as Yoshi approached the door.
“…newest shipment. The research from the human interns has saved us significant time and resources.”
“Hopefully Ch’rell will not send his little brat to oversee our operations after all.”
“Cheers to that.”
The scrape of a chair and footsteps approaching the door sent Yoshi into the shadow of a nearby vending machine by instinct, Splinter scampering up to a familiar perch on his shoulder. As the two of them sat silently, the rhythmic sound of walking became clearer; it sounded a little too rhythmic—robotic, even. Peeking his head around the vending machine, Yoshi spotted two figures retreating down the hall toward the elevator: presumably the employees he overheard. He listened intently as they continued their conversation, unable to help himself from noticing that their silhouettes seemed a little…off.
“We will need to make the best of it, since it will be several Earth years before we acquire a substantial supply again. The test subject is going to be extracted tomorrow, yes?”
“What, the rat? Yes, that will be done tomorrow before the humans arrive.” Yoshi felt Splinter's claws dig into his shoulder in fear. He patted his friend’s head reassuringly, the rest of his body tense. Motionless. Silent.
“Perfect. We will have the mutagen brought up to the lab for mass-production. Soon, this dimension will be ours for the taking.”
“Careful,” the other warned, “It will be Ch’rell’s for the taking.”
The elevator dinged before the doors slid open, the two figures stepping inside. “Whatever, I do not care who is in charge. As long as this pathetic mudball belongs to the Utrom, I am satisfied.” As the elevator doors began to close, the employees turned around and faced back down the hallway. Like the shutter to a camera, they closed on an image that would burn in Yoshi’s memory for the rest of his life.
The figures did not belong to human beings as one would expect, but shiny robot endoskeletons. That was unsettling enough, but the robots themselves weren’t particularly remarkable; the real gut-wrenching sight lay at the being’s stomachs. Instead of more shiny metal, veiny and fleshy pink faces looked out from their abdomens, with 8 bright green eyes and sharp, toothy grins. Yoshi stumbled back in shock as Splinter scampered down his arm into the palm of his hand. “Is this what you were trying to warn me about?”
Splinter nodded, a piercing stare stabbing back into Yoshi’s eyes as if to ask “what are you going to do about it?”
Yoshi sighed, “We can’t let squishy spider people disguising themselves with sophisticated robot bodies take over our home, can we? Follow me, I have a plan.” He placed Splinter on his shoulder once more and dashed gracefully and silently to the stairwell.
The mutagen was stored near the lab; however, if a new shipment had just arrived, it would still be in the basement garage. If they were lucky, it would still be in the truck’s tank. Instead of slowly and meticulously making his way down the stairs, Yoshi jumped from railing to railing down the center of the stairwell to quicken his descent. Splinter’s genetic advantages gave the rat no trouble maintaining the perch on his shoulder. Landing softly at the plateau of the basement floor, Yoshi slunk effortlessly through the garage toward his target, which he spotted completely unattended. Was he too late? Once close enough to the truck with the bold, overbearing letters “TCRI” printed on its side, Yoshi knocked on the tank, hearing no resounding echo. Still full. Good. Yoshi knew exactly what needed to be done. Using a precise strike to unlock the driver’s door, Yoshi swung his way up into the leather seat. Splinter had carefully opened the glove box and found the keys tucked away under some paperwork.
“Thanks, nezumi.” Yoshi patted Splinter on the head before starting the truck. In the still silence of the night, the deep rumble echoed throughout the garage; if security was doing their job, they’d know something was up. Considering the tight ship TCRI ran, Yoshi would be in trouble if he didn’t get out of here now. He didn’t have much driving experience and had never driven a semi truck before, but he didn’t have time to worry about that now. Quickly turning the wheel in the direction he needed, Yoshi floored the gas pedal to escape the garage as quickly as possible. Not even bothering to scan his ID when the yellow bar began lowering in front of the garage’s exit, Yoshi braced himself as the truck accelerated, shattering the flimsy barrier.
Once on the road, Yoshi pondered where exactly to go. The police? They wouldn’t understand him stealing such a valuable substance from a high-profile company because of something they’d probably write off as a late-night hallucination. Drive into the ocean? Out of the question, the damage the ooze would cause to the ecosystem would be irreversible and catastrophic. The only thing Yoshi could do now was simply drive: out of the city, as far away from TCRI and those creatures as possible. As if reading his mind, Splinter climbed up into Yoshi’s lab coat, snuggling in the space between the coat and his shirt, ready for the long drive. As long as he had a friend with him, Yoshi would be able to do what he needed to keep humanity safe.
Friends... Yoshi wished in that moment that he could go back in time and warn Kirby and Baxter of the dangers of their employer, that they were helping in the conquest of their planet—no, their entire dimension. He would return to tell them as soon as this supply of mutagen was far out of TCRI’s hands, but for now he had to get far out of the city.
It happened in the blink of an eye. A blare of a horn, the sound of swerving before a massive impact. Sudden stillness and the smell of smoke, the crackle of a growing fire. Splinter trembling under Yoshi’s shirt. Warm liquid dripping down Yoshi’s neck. Blood? Yoshi pushed himself up off the steaming asphalt, reaching with his other hand to the warmth on his neck before checking the stain it left on his fingers. Not blood: something worse. A viscous, glowing green substance he had grown intimately familiar with throughout his internship. This time, however, he was no longer protected. Yoshi’s heart began to race, not sure if it was a result of the mutagen already taking effect or merely his panic. Looking around, Yoshi saw nearly all of the mutagen had spilled out of the tank onto the dirty pavement, rendering it unusable by TCRI. Yoshi sighed in relief, one positive in this drastic situation.
His shock still wearing off, Yoshi finally focused on the vehicle that collided with him. Another, smaller truck, the side peeled open from scraping against the TCRI truck, filled with cages of animals, trembling in fear, their trip to the pet store violently interrupted. Some were motionless. A few had fallen from the truck and into the puddles of ooze below. They wandered curiously through the substance, not knowing it would drastically and permanently change them. As Yoshi observed the creatures, his ears picked up on a faint dripping. Turning toward the sound, he noticed a trail of gasoline making its way toward the puddles of mutagen. The fire, which previously was confined to the truck of pets, caught on the gasoline trail. In the many tests Yoshi and the other interns at TCRI ran on the ooze, they discovered it was highly explosive. Once that fire reached the mutagen, this whole intersection would go up in smoke. Frantically looking for a place to run, Yoshi spotted a nearby manhole cover, completely untouched by the accident.
Yoshi began making a break for it before hesitating. Those poor animals… There was no way he could possibly save them all. He got a good look at the four masses swimming through the mutagen; baby turtles, he could now see. Before he could debate what to do any longer, Yoshi scooped up the creatures in his arms and dashed for the manhole cover. He tucked the innocent creatures under his arm, cradling Splinter with that hand and lifting the cover with the other. Wincing at the smell, he began to climb down the squeaky ladder, quickly yet gently. Once landing in the sewers, Yoshi sprinted down the foul corridor with one thought in his mind: Get as far away from the explosion as possible. After a few moments, the world around them shook and a muffled roar echoed throughout the underground tunnels.
Then, silence.