Frankenstein Wannabe

Mikey sighed. Again.

"I'm so bored!" he whined to no one, for no one was in his room.

It had been several weeks since their return from the Utrom home world- from their return from almost certain death. Michelangelo still had a hard time wrapping his mind and memory around that entire incident. No matter how many times the Utroms, and then Donatello, had explained the theory of the stasis bubble to him, he still kept coming back to the same question:

"Yeah, but- how did they get us off that ship when it was exploding all over the place like that?"

Don had finally given up in almost blood-boiling frustration.

"Because the Utroms were smarter than Shredder," Raph had finally said, and Mike suddenly understood.

"Ohhh!" he had nodded, and been happy.

But sometimes it did still nag at him, mainly because he was so bored!

His legs were healing slowly. Don's arm and Raph's ribs had also been broken, but the skills and technology of the Utroms had aided them in healing quickly.

Mikey's legs, however, had been pretty messed up, and in spite of the reassurances of the Utrom doctors as well as Mr. Mortu and Master Splinter, Mike was concerned that he was still bedridden with both legs in casts, while even Leo was back at training. He was worried that he'd never walk again, to tell the truth, but he knew better than to say that aloud to any one, not even Sensei.

But he knew, deep down, that he was only truly worried because he was so bored.

"I'm bored!" he whined again to no one.

He didn't expect an answer, which was just as well, as he didn't get one.

He searched the reading material that April had brought over, once his supply of comics failed to entertain him anymore, and he sighed a third time- this time in disbelief. She had left him all these books that simply screamed "Chick reading!"

"Wuthering Heights? How Green Was My Valley? Black Beauty?" he remembered reading the titles with distaste as she had first handed them to him. "Pride and Prejudice? Romeo and Juliet? Hey, what's this- Lethal Seduction-"

Where upon April, blushing furiously, had snatched that particular book away from Mikey so quickly he received a paper cut.

There was no way in hell he was reading all this old-fashioned romance crap, no matter how bored to death he was. Then one title caught his attention- Frankenstein.

"Oh, it's the original," she had explained, when he'd first asked about it, remembering the old movie that had scared him as a turtle tot but now was so funny it was hard to believe it had given him nightmares. "The book not the same as the movie." And he could believe it. The first paragraph alone had him scratching his head:

"I am by birth a Genevese; and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic. My ancestors had been for many years counsellors and syndics; and my father had filled several public situations with honour and reputation. He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public business. He passed his younger days perpetually occupied by the affairs of his country; a variety of circumstances had prevented his marrying early, nor was it until the decline of life that he became a husband and the father of a family."

He'd tried to read further, determined to conquer this challenge that April had presented him with, but the style of writing was so old-fashioned, so wordy, so- so- unfamiliar, that he had given up after the first few chapters.

But now, he was bored! His games were boring, his comics were boring, his life was boring. The guys were training, even Leo, though his right arm still gave him trouble. And they were actually having run-ins with Purple Dragons and some recalcitrant Foot ninja- seems a "fake Shredder" was challenging Karai's authority. But his brothers had sided with Karai, and she was not only now in control of all operations, but had declared a permanent truce with his family.

But there were still the Dragons, and others out there- especially Bishop-

Mikey shuddered at the sudden thought of that person. He had never imagined, even after all the horror movies he'd watched over and over and over and over and over again, that such a person could exist in real life; a person bent on creating a race of mutated "super soldiers"- creating Life as it were- like Frankenstein-

Frankenstein- yeah.

So Mike gave up to boredom, picked up the book, and began to determinedly struggle his way through it. Anything was better than thinking about Bishop!

In the dojo, Master Splinter, his fur mostly back now (though the guys could see the odd thin spot here and there, but out of kindness they never mentioned it to their Sensei- he was rather touchy on the subject of his appearance in that respect) was finishing up the day's practice with his three mobile students. As the meditation for the day concluded, he commended them all on the work they've done since their return.

"My sons, you have all done well, in spite of the injuries you sustained at the hands of our old enemy," he said yet again. "And your recovery seems complete. Do not, however, push yourselves too hard, for injuries such as yours' are easily aggravated by overwork."

Raph and Leo kept their faces void of all emotion, but they knew the words were directed at them. As soon as they'd been allowed to restart training, they'd done so with one goal in mind: Bishop.

Raph had been perfecting his throwing skills- trying to hit the target with his sai from impossible angles, without telegraphing his moves- that had been the most dangerous, for in recent days Leo had been the target. Armed with both katana and ready to deflect the thrown sai, Leo had managed to anticipate Raph's moves, but it was getting harder to do so- which filled them both with a sense of accomplishment.

"If I can get so that even Bishop don't see it comin', it'll be a great help," Raph grinned at Leo. "But I think you should start wearin' the protective gear- or else I should start throwin' those shortened bokken you made for me."

Leo shook his head.

"I know that you're going to attack me, so I'm not worried. You're getting hard to predict, so that means Bishop will be caught unawares- he just has to be! He can't be superhuman."

They both would say this over and over, in spite of that image of Bishop hanging from the hook; that sound of his threat as he somehow got off of it, and quickly made his way up that ladder, trailing blood.

Thinking of that made them both smile suddenly in a mutual memory- Don had been belatedly livid that he hadn't thought to get a sample of Bishop's blood for analysis- "I so want to see what his DNA has been up to," he'd complained, kicking himself mentally for not taking the opportunity to get a scientific edge on their enemy.

Then it was Leo's turn- fencing with Raph was always the best, for Raph knew how to fight dirty, and Leo needed to be able to successfully handle this. Bishop, as they knew to their chagrin, did not play fair.

Splinter, observing this latest extra training session, wondered again at their determination, now that Shredder was no more. He watched for several minutes without comment, and then made a decision.

"My sons," he said, as they took a break from the practice- Leo had successfully disarmed Raph though Raph had used a particularly dirty trick that took Splinter's breath away.

They looked at their father, and Splinter for a brief second thought he saw guilt on their faces; but he must have been mistaken, for they both attended him at once, as if nothing were out of the ordinary. "My sons, please tell me honestly. Why do you two train in this manner? You have done so since before we were drawn into the business with Shredder. Now that you are healed, you are at it again. Please tell me what is in your hearts."

They knew this time was coming. They fully expected that they would have to tell their father something. They had agreed ahead of time what the answer was to be. So, they finally told him- what they dared to tell him, that is.

"Sensei, we need to be ready for Bishop," Leo said sincerely if not entirely honestly. "He is skilled, and we need to be more so."

Splinter nodded slowly; having fought against this man himself, he knew that Bishop was a master of fighting skills. Splinter had been the only one of them to be able to confront him one-on-one. Both times, Bishop had one way or the other escaped, and the fight had never been finished. Splinter knew that he was a formidable opponent.

"We know that he will not give up on us," Raph continued his part- mostly, again, the honest truth- they just withheld a part of it, that's all. "He's a nut job, and he swore he'd pay us back. We want to be able to stop that."

Again, Splinter nodded. He, too, remembered those words of Bishop the night his sons had come for him in that laboratory of horrendous evil; he, too, remembered the joy in Bishop's voice when he'd ordered his men to kill everyone regardless, that night at the Shredder's.

"You are right, my sons," he finally sighed. "You are right, both of you. I only wish your brothers were up to the extra training as well. Yes, you must both continue this extra practice. But my sons, be mindful of your injuries- and your motives."

And with that, he left them to wonder if he'd guessed their plans.

Meanwhile...

Bishop had weathered the storm of controversy over his organization's mission. It still amazed him that, after the attack of the Triceratons, along with the war that was being fought by them with another group called the Federation, that the majority of the human race seemed reluctant to realize the dangerous threat facing them from these alien life forms!

"We are sweating blood to protect them, and they want to hold house warming parties for them," he growled to his second-in-command.

It hadn't helped matters that now another alien government had made contact with the Earth- the United States, to be exact, as well as Japan, as there had been some concern to address the right authorities- regarding the return of two humans to the planet; two humans who had some how been involved in a plot to overthrow this same planet's government through violent revolution.

Bishop, in spite of everything that had taken place at Saki's, was still amazed to learn that Karai and this Dr. Chaplin had been involved in such a scheme.

He had been even more embarrassed to learn that Oroku Saki himself had actually been one of these "Utrom" as they are called- he thought he'd known everything about this being.

"Oh, well, a minor flaw that I do not intend to repeat," he had tried to shrug it off, but it still rankled his soul that he'd dropped the ball on this one.

Bishop was also counting his blessings. Those cursed mutated freaks, the Turtles, and their equally cursed yet highly desired for his DNA Rat Master had destroyed years of work and research- had deprived him of his prototype, his Slayer- and he had been rather despondent over the loss.

And then, miracle of miracles, in the midst of all the grilling he was undergoing over this fiasco with what went down in New York City, his prototype had been discovered by a salvage crew- the only thing left of his underground clone lab- floating undisturbed and undiscovered in the East River, still tightly sealed in the container of bio-suspension fluid!

It had been a relatively simple task to revive his creation, to start training it for a special mission, one that would give him what he needed to fulfill his goal and grant him revenge at the same time: the destruction of those cursed Turtles and the recapture of the mutant rat Splinter!