Leo looked at Donnie in disbelief. "There is no other way?"

"No Leo. She is having an unexpected side effect to the injections and will die if I don't get in there and get what I need from Bishop. Stockman doesn't have all the information on this new formula, just what he managed to swipe from Bishop. It was Stockman's original plan but Bishop is the one who perfected it. Well supposedly anyway." He had Caitlin hooked up to a whole bunch of machines and honestly she really didn't look good. This was far from 'perfection'. Her skin had taken a more greenish tint to it since Mikey brought her in here a few hours ago. Even her hair was changing, taking on a more scaly appearance than actual hair. He lifted an eyelid and hissed under his breath. I was close enough to see her green eyes were starting to darken. "Damn these crazy scientists." He spat under his breath. "If we don't do something soon everything in her will shut down. Her body can't take the serum anymore and it's turning everything reptilian. Even her internal organs are growing scales. I can't fight it if I don't know what was even used."

Mikey was standing next to me holding one of her now green hands in his own. His face looking as stunned as ours. "No, Donnie..."

"I've given her something to slow the process but it's only temporary. It's all I can do."

Leo looked at all of us gathered. "You know what this means right?"

"We are heading right for the one who wants us." Donnie told him.

"We don't even know where his current base is."

Frantically Mikey was looking around to the faces of his brothers, his eyes pleading. "I don't care, I'll go and spring his trap. I'll stroll across town and let them find me if I have too. I'm not going to just let her die."

"Nor will I." Leo looked at his younger brother, then his eyes narrowed in thought as he met mine. "Mikey you just gave me an idea. We are going, but are going as a family." He turned to Raph. "Call Casey and April. The rest of you get ready to go. As soon as Casey and April get here we are leaving."

What in the world did the love of my life have planned this time? I could only wonder as I went out the portal to round up a babysitter. It was Jim's turn tonight and I sure hoped he wouldn't mind. My family understood that I went out with them and after Mom bucked at the idea at first she had come up with the idea of them rotating babysitter watches in case of something like this came up. Figured if she couldn't beat them, join them I guess. I was grateful for the idea however because in cases like this it seemed we all would be needed.

.

.

This was not what I had thought he would do! I'm going to kill him! "Right!" Cris practically screamed at Casey and he turned the wheel accordingly and we made the turn, cutting off another car as it came across the intersection. We had already lost sight of the large van in the city traffic and now were operating blindly on trackers. Still we had to keep up!

"Go faster Casey!" I pleaded with him.

"I'm trying damn it!"

"Straight from here. See if you can gain some kind of ground before we loose them again." Cris said.

"What did I just say? Do any of you three listen to me?"

"Not if we can help it." Cris mumbled.

I know I wasn't. Slightly stunned that they actually went through with this, my mind went back to the conversation I had with Leo earlier.

"Your going to do WHAT?" I finally found my voice after he explained the plan.

"You heard me."

"Leo, no. There has to be another way!"

"Maybe, but there isn't time to figure it out." He looked into my stunned eyes. "It will be fine."

"No it won't! I can't do this...I'm not ready..." My voice was about to break. I was so scared.

"Vicky, stop." He pulled me into his arms and I clung to him tightly as the others watched quietly. "You can do this. They believe in you." He pulled his head back and kissed me softly. "I believe in you."

"Leo..."

"You can do this." His hand caressed my cheek as he looked into my eyes. "Cris, April and Casey already trust you. Try and trust yourself."

I gripped him as tight as I could. "I love you." I whispered to him.

"I love you too." He held me for a few moments, then kissed my hair. He lifted my left hand and ran his thumb gently over the ring he placed there over a year ago. "I'll always be there for you, remember?"

I nodded and he kissed me one last time. "Let's move." He told his brothers and they were gone.

We had then spent the next couple of hours trailing them as they went from one old Bishop hideout to another. Until finally Marina showed up, with more than enough reinforcements to make what happened next justifiable. Didn't mean I liked this idea though.

"Shit! Left!"

Casey turned the wheel again, trying to keep up with the black van that now held the turtle portion of my family in it. They had deliberately let themselves get caught to lead us to Bishop's hide out. And we somehow had to bust them out. April was studying Donnie's pack that he intentionally left behind. He knew we might need it to get in and April was the best one out of all of us to use the silly thing. I know I wasn't tech inclined, I could barely fire up my computer. At least he gave her a crash course on how to use it.

For the upteenth time since this crap started I gripped the hilt of one of Leo's swords that he had dropped in surrender. Those hand guards I had specially made for him our first Christmas together kept catching my eye. I knew why he dropped them, he didn't want to loose them to Bishop. He actually chunked them as far away as he could, which was pretty damn far. I would get them back to him, I would... I sighed and laid them gently down next to the other dropped weapons. Pushing the images of them being shoved into the van out of my mind. I had to watch from a safe distance as they were herded up like cattle and restrained for transport. God that had hurt so much to watch. I wasn't ready for this, I just wasn't...

April looked at me as Cris was still yelling directions to Casey. "Leo's right Vicky. We do have faith in you and see in you the same strength that he has. He was right on the money putting you in charge, your the only one of us that can handle it."

"I'm not doing to good with it right now." I told her. "I'm so scared I'll screw up."

She laid a reassuring hand on my shoulder but didn't say anything else.

"Stop!" Cris screeched and Casey slammed on the brakes sending April and I rolling to the front. "Not like that you idiot!"

"Well don't scream it like that then!"

Oh lord, we weren't even out of the van yet and they were already arguing. "Knock it off!" I snapped at them. The next question I directed at Cris. "Where are they?"

"Two blocks up, building on the right."

"Time to get out and walk then. Casey find a place to hide the van."

"Really? I was just going to leave it out here on the street and let everyone see us."

"Don't start with me."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"Don't whatever me either."

"Oh for cryin out loud...I should have went with the guys..." He mumbled. "To many PMS hormones in here."

"Just park the damn thing." I sighed and he did in a back alley.

We got out and armed ourselves with their weapons and gear. "Damn Donnie," Casey grumped as he strapped on the heavy pack "how do you manage doing any of those fancy flips with this damn thing?"

"I would assume it has to do with years of training." I answered for the missing turtle as I strapped on Casey's bag. Then I slid Leo's katanas into it, followed by Donnie's bo staff. Cris had Raph's sai tucked into her belt and Mikey's 'chucks were in her cargo pants pocket then she slung her bow and quiver over her shoulder. April had Donnie's wrist device strapped to her arm. Casey would carry the pack but she would be the one working the tech, was a good thing they weren't attached by wires or those two would have to walk side by side. I looked over my bumbling bounty of baboons. "Are we ready?" Three nods came my way. I silently looked of in the distance a moment, collecting my thoughts and my fingers spinning my ring on my finger, then took a deep breath. "Come on."

After locking the van up so good only Donnie could unlock it, extra motivation for us to get them out, we made our way to to the building by following the night darkened allies. I looked in despair at the place after we finally laid eyes on it. Ten foot high fence, with barbed wire on the top of course, guards and cameras. "Shit." I whispered. This was apparently a main base for Bishop with this kind of security. Think Vicky, think. You've been out with them enough, you've seen various ways they get into buildings like this, you should be able to find a way in. Just concentrate and think...

Fuck me, looking over the building I felt despair and frustration kick in overdrive. I leaned against the wall, clearly overwhelmed with the situation. I can't do this. I can't...

'Yes, you can.' I felt something familiar at that moment and a calm washed over me, clearing my head. 'Believe.' Leo...was that, Leo? How in the hell? Leo... I took a deep breath and looked at the faces of my friends who looked back at me with concern. 'You can.' Then the feeling was gone. One more time I looked around the building, this time calmer and with a clear mind and I saw something. "Casey, look." I pointed to part of the building that was near the fence. "That looks like our best bet if we can get up there. The cameras don't cover that part very well it seems. Might be why they have those guards posted there."

"If they look up we'll be out in the open." He said.

"Then we will have to make sure they are looking somewhere else."

He had a thoughtful look on his face. "We need a distraction." I nodded in agreement.

"Isn't that a bit obvious?" Cris spoke up. "I mean Bishop will be expecting something like that. He does know about us after all."

"Then we need something that won't cause suspicion." I told her. "First let's get into position." We walked back into the ally and took that ally back around to stay out of sight and followed it until we reached the next building over. "This should be the right building. Let's find a way up." Of course this one wouldn't have a fire escape, but there was a tree...god damn trees, I hate trees. Why did it have to be a tree? Why was there even a tree here? Fuck it, up the tree I went. Once at the level I needed I didn't even hesitate as I rushed out on the branch and launched myself to the building, barely catching the rim of the roof. Aw jeeez, I really needed to go on a diet. I struggled to get my fat ass up as Casey came rolling in overhead. HE makes it, but I can't, fuck my luck... He came over to help me up. "Thanks bud." I told him.

For once he didn't make his usual wise cracks. "Any time."

"I can't jump that!" April complained.

"Not sure I can either." Cris said.

Without a word Casey pulled a rope out of his bag that was strapped to my back. Then lowered it down to our not so monkey inclined friends. Cris wrapped it around her waist and tied it off. We pulled her up as she walked up the wall, damn she needed to go on a diet too...shit... With a final heave we got her up and sent the rope back down to April and repeated the process.

Casey was about to put the rope back up. "Keep it out. We're going to need it here in a minute." I told him as I crossed the roof with the others not far behind. After reaching the far end we crouched down as low as we could.

"Now what?" Cris muttered.

I carefully looked over the rim. We were directly across from the section of the building we had targeted earlier. Now what to do about those two guards under us? We could make it across but not without them spotting us. We would have to fire a line with the grappling hook and crawl over. Hanging upside down trying to cross a rope with two rifles pointed at my ass was not what I wanted to do tonight. Bottom line...they had to go. I just had to figure out how to do it without being obvious about it.

As we watched the guards below us I couldn't help but notice they were bickering. Over a ball game apparently and it wasn't just a little squabble either. They almost came to blows over it before they backed off, insulting each other's sports intelligence while doing so. Oh they were going to make this easy for me. I had a nasty grin on my face as I looked at Cris. If these two got this bad by themselves...what would happen if we egged them on? This was going to be fun...

Looking around the roof I found some broken pieces of concrete laying around from the normal weather wear and tear of the elements on the parapet. Still with that same evil grin I handed them to Cris, she had the best arm out of all of us. "What am I supposed to do with this?" She whispered to me.

"Oh, come on. You know you've always wanted to try this." I told her quietly as I fished out the grappling hook from Casey's bag, then tossed it to him.

"Try what?" Casey muttered as he tied the hook off on the rope.

It took a second for it to click in Cris' head, then she too grinned. "Just be ready with that hook." She told him and set herself for the throw. By now the two guards were walking away from each other and she let the stone fly, nailing the one on the left square on the back of the head. Predictably he turned and started yelling the what the fucks to his buddy who of course denied everything before they turned away from each other again. Cris let number two fly and nailed him again. Again he told the other to knock it off and got the reply that he was nuts. There was a shouting match but nothing more, yet. Cris let fly a third time and this time the guard ran screaming across the distance to his unfortunate coworker and barreled into him and they went rolling across the pavement.

Trying not to laugh Casey let the hook fly and it settled in on the first throw, then he tied it off to a piece of the wall. With the two guards trying their damnedest to give each other black eyes we quickly scurried across the rope to the other building. Casey then yanked the rope up hard and it slipped free of the open ended pillar he had tied it on and quickly rolled it in. The two friends were now trying to knock teeth out, if they succeeded or not I don't know because we moved on, trying not to laugh our asses off.