They arrived without incident. T'mana had fallen asleep during the drive, though it was only twenty minutes. Everyone helped to get T'mana settled and once she was medicated and sleeping, they went to making their own rooms. Sandra owned a very large estate very similar to the Olde English homes that housed several family generations and their servants. While this was a secondary home, it was still fully furnished and staffed. As a result, Sandra had plenty of space and T'mana and her mother pretty much had their own living quarters within the residence. It had two full baths, three bedrooms and a shared suite room that served as a living room. This only took up a small portion of the second floor of the estate home.

O'Rourke informed Ms. Grey about the situation with Lyde's assistance. They all agreed that for the moment, it was best to keep the Callahans out of it for now. It could only bring stress which would slow down T'mana's recovery. No doubt this was why Leo wanted T'mana removed. Ms. Grey had wondered about that since he had seemed so firm earlier in the day to keep her there. Sandra also provided Lyde and O'Rourke a room so they could rest for their mission tomorrow. Lyde and O'Rourke talked and worked out an entry plan to make it seem nonchalant. Finally, they did go to sleep, mentally preparing for tomorrow.

Noon the next day, O'Rourke and Lyde parked and walked a little ways to the sewer entry. There was more traffic today, pedestrian and car. So when they finally climbed down the ladder, they found a very irritated, pacing red banded turtle. Leo was leaning against the wall. At the sounds of their clanking footsteps, Raph whipped around. Lyde flinched, expecting some biting remark or insult. Instead, Raph's eyes took in her form and O'Rourke's, who was still climbing down and seemed to be slightly relieved, though still thoroughly aggravated. O'Rourke jumped down the last few rungs and turned, blank faced as usual.

"Traffic." She said simply. Leo nodded.

"It's earlier in the day. That's expected." He agreed. Raph remained silent. This actually disturbed Lyde. Why wasn't he yelling and making snarky comments about how nice it was they decided to finally join them? He just stood there and seemed to be focusing on his breathing with his hands on his hips, or shell in his case and his jaw seemed to be in permanent clench.

O'Rourke nodded in agreement and Lyde stood there silently, unsure what to do now. Raph slowly closed his eyes, breathed and then opened them.

"What's the plan?" He asked with a forced calm. O'Rourke began to speak and he cut her off. "I want to hear it from her." He pointed at Lyde. "I know you can handle yourself, GI Jane." He looked at Lyde again and waited. She cleared her throat nervously and outlined what she and O'Rourke had gone over the night before. His intent attention unnerved her, but he nodded every now and again to show he understood. Or maybe that he agreed. She wasn't sure. She fell silent at the conclusion. "Now repeat it." He commanded without any hint of humor.

"What?" Lyde said. "Why?"

"Repeat it." He said again. O'Rourke turned to her.

"It happens in the army all the time when cadets go out their first time. The drill sergeant wants to make sure they've memorized it thoroughly." Lyde's jaw clenched this time.

"I'm not a cadet."

"Clearly, or you'd be halfway done repeatin' it by now." Raph snarled in a low voice. "Repeat it." Lyde sighed and did as she was told. At the conclusion, Raph nodded, seeming satisfied. "I'll follow on the rooftops to get a good vantage point. Gimme your cell phones." O'Rourke raised an eyebrow.

"Purpose?" She asked.

"I'll get your numbers so if I see somethin', I can warn you. I could scream my head off, but you wouldn't hear me up on the roof." O'Rourke nodded and handed hers over. Lyde reluctantly did the same. "I'll send a text most likely. Try to keep a poker face when you read it." They handed their cells over as he programmed his number into theirs and vice versa.

"You sure you want to do this?" Leo questioned. "You don't have to. I just want to be very clear on that."

"I'm sure." Lyde answered, not allowing O'Rourke to respond. "I can do this." Raph made a face.

"It's not about whether you can do it or not. This is about them. You understand? Even the best fighter in the whole world can get hit by a sucker punch. They just need to get lucky." He stared at her for a moment. "Do you understand?" He demanded.

"Yes." His eyes searched hers and seemed to find them lacking.

"You need to leave your ego at the door and be honest with us. How much of a chance do they have of gettin' a lucky punch?"

"I think it's low." Lyde answered. "The ninjas down here only saw me; that's not enough to locate a person. They need a name or an employer or something concrete. So they won't be scoping out the place because they have no idea that I can get in there. Let alone knowing about the device that I'm going in there for. The people we'll run into know me as a loyal employee and I won't be doing anything to draw attention to myself. They would need more than just a lucky shot. It would need to be a Hail Mary pass." Raph stared her down again, but this time she seemed to get his approval. He turned to O'Rourke.

"You agree?" O'Rourke nodded. "Then I guess that's it." He shrugged. "Up you go. I'll trail you on the roofs."

"Good luck." Leo said. They all nodded. O'Rourke began to climb and Lyde got in line to follow. Just as she gripped the ladder and was about to step up, Raph grabbed her shoulder firmly, though not roughly.

"Don't do anythin' stupid." The words themselves would have flared Lyde's temper, but he said them so softly and in such an uncharacteristically concerned way, that all she could do was nod somberly and proceed up the ladder, wondering what had happened to the angry turtle and if she had misjudged him somehow.

She, of course, had no way of knowing that Don had mentioned to Raphael that Lyde had asked Don to go instead. This gave Raph a lot to ponder. At first he had been pissed. Who did she think she was, telling him what he could and couldn't do? Going behind his back to Don like that? But then he remembered that he often came across as an antagonistic prick. Lyde probably thought he would hassle her during the whole mission. And that was no good. If she was worried about Raph picking on her, that meant she was not thinking about the mission. Most people were not strong enough to handle Raph's personality. Something he usually prided himself on. But in this instance, it was counterproductive. Rather than pull out, since Raph couldn't step away from a fight, he had decided to rein it in and make sure Lyde felt it.

Both girls walked steadily on the sidewalk towards their goal. They didn't mind walking and it allowed Raphael to keep up with them. They could catch him every now and again if they looked hard, but mostly he was invisible. Because of his changed behavior, Lyde was less nervous than she had been. She had believed, perhaps unfairly, that he wanted to tag along to watch her fail and fall on her face so he could rub her nose in it. But now he seemed concerned that the mission go well and he had even made the comment that someone else could botch it, not her. She felt…stronger with him backing her. They walked for about an hour…the drive would have been much faster. But they arrived safely and without incident at the place Lyde had called the 'locker'. It was actually a fortress-like building that was a hollow square. The square portion was the building and inside was a sort of outside training range. They reached the outside security and Raphael was on a lower building so he could hear the exchange.

"Lyde…long time no see, sweetheart." The security check guard said, smiling. Lyde blushed and returned the smile.

"Well, I always try to come on your shift when I do, Larry." She giggled. The man smugly adjusted his hat.

"The highlight of my day, sweetness." He drawled. He nodded them back. "Be sure to say goodbye on your way out so I can end it on a good note." Lyde waved coquettishly as O'Rourke followed her. Raph rolled his eyes, but figured this was how the game was played. He did some fancy jumping until he was on the actual roof of the building so he could monitor the inside range and the building exits.

Several anxious minutes passed when the girls were in the building and he wondered if that was normal. He had been told they would need to cross the range, but he didn't think to ask how long passing through the building could take. They could be getting dragged off and injected with tranquilizers without him even knowing it. Seconds after this thought, he saw them both emerge into the range and take separate paths as was part of the plan. Inwardly, he chastised himself for panicking and being ridiculous. Even more deeply inwardly, he was relieved.

He kept his eyes on Lyde, knowing that O'Rourke could fight and handle herself. Lyde stopped to talk to some men who had waved at her and she chatted a bit. She laughed and touched their shoulders easily. After a few moments, they waved and parted. Lyde continued to the other end of the range and disappeared into the building again. O'Rourke had maneuvered into position ahead of her outside the door, but she started and turned around as if being called. She glanced up as if trying to see him, then also disappeared into the building. This was not part of the plan and Raph's senses spiked. His eyes quickly surveyed the range and kept darting back to the doorway, waiting for O'Rourke to exit and let him know that everything was back to plan, but she didn't. He was startled by the buzzing of his phone and the arrival of a new text from Lyde.

'we r ok. we got it. w8 1 min.' He sighed, but kept his phone out and waited.


Lyde was stuck talking to a former boss who was reliving the glory days when they were protecting against hackers during the Y2K scare. Lyde had still been in high school when she was brought on to assist and had blown him away with her expertise and professional attitude. He had called in O'Rourke because he had worked with her before as well and wanted to reminisce and share stories, while he drank his coffee. Lyde excused herself for a moment to text Raph. She knew he would worry when O'Rourke deviated from the plan.

The device was small; it was in her purse wrapped in a special material that would deter metal detectors. It had been easy to hack into the safe it was sealed in because she helped design the security protocol for the locking mechanism. Several minutes passed and she had dropped a few hints that she needed to leave, and he good-naturedly said he understood and then started another story. O'Rourke pretended to get a call and excused herself. But Lyde's phone really did beep morse code S.O.S., her alert for a text. She looked at it. It was from Raph and her blood ran cold.

'Doc here now. Get out! Use bkwy.'

"I'm sorry." Lyde said, calmly with a bit of annoyance. "My friend. I have to go. I need to pick her up now." She shook hands and texted O'Rourke as she walked the back way. What the hell was Stockman doing here? Did he have military backing? That would explain how he had access to so much fulminated mercury, but it was still astounding. Her heart was pounding and she said a small prayer begging to get her out of this alive and with all her friends safe. She mentally checked herself as she realized she had referred to Raphael as a friend, but didn't have time to dwell on it.

She skirted around some desk personnel and saw Stockman with a small entourage walking through the range towards the section she was just at. He was speaking to two men on either side of him as he strode quickly; he was deep in conversation. She made sure her back was to him and began to wander towards the front now that the back way was blocked. She looked across the way and saw that O'Rourke had encountered the same problem and had been unable to exit out the back, so they both made their way through the building towards the front exit. Suddenly, the alarm was blaring and every soldier in the range halted and began to run towards their station. Lyde took advantage of the chaos and ran with everyone else.

She cursed herself for her stupidity. Now, knowing what she knew, she believed that Stockman was the genius behind the device to begin with. He would want to make sure he could deactivate his stash of explosives if his own life were in danger. Now that the explosives were placed, he wanted his toy to make sure he wasn't blown to pieces while rigging a detonation device. So the device was noticed as missing immediately.

She saw O'Rourke go ahead of her on the left side. She was better at dodging and quicker on her feet. Lyde felt like she was making very little progress, all the people she had to dodge. O'Rourke did a quick spurt to the right and started running interference for Lyde, clearing her path. Lyde was able to pick up the pace. Suddenly, O'Rourke was grabbed and slammed into the wall. She recovered and swung her arm into the soldier's neck. Lyde didn't understand why the soldier had done it. He hissed something that sounded like 'freak lover', and Lyde realized he must moonlight as a Foot ninja. Lyde was getting ready to pull out her baton, she had kept it in her purse, but O'Rourke shook her head almost imperceptibly. Her eyes looked up. The Foot soldier took it to mean she was looking for divine intervention. But Lyde understood that O'Rourke was reminding her of their mission by looking to Raph and that she had the device. The mission could still succeed. Lyde hated herself, but knew that realistically she would only draw attention and then be overwhelmed by the flood of soldiers looking to attack. She made it to the front and ran into the security guard Larry.

"What the hell is going on?" He asked, shakily. Looking to Lyde and taking in her appearance.

"A detonator's missing!" She lied on the spot. "Please…open the gate, Larry!" Her voice was shrill. He did and she bolted through it. "Run!" She shouted back to him, to give her lie truth. He did, but he didn't follow her.

According to plan B, the plan they weren't supposed to need, they were to make it to the nearest alley so Raphael could get them on the roof. Lyde did and took a moment to catch her breath. Her hands were shaking and she wanted to scream.

O'Rourke! She had left O'Rourke! What would Stockman do to her? And it was her fault! She leaned against the fire escape to catch her breath, but it was coming out in gulping hitches. She was borderline dry sobbing. It was akin to a panic attack. She felt something on her shoulder and she wheeled around, and saw Raphael hanging off the fire escape with his hand out to her.

"C'mon!" He whisper shouted. It wasn't angry, but authoritative. She obeyed immediately and he helped her up to the roof using the fire escape. She was fast, lighter than he was. "Hold up!" He called as they came close to the end of the first roof. But she didn't stop, she couldn't lose her inertia, so she jumped and flew over the gap, landing with plenty of space on the other side. The shock of it shuddered up her legs all the way to her jaw and back of her skull. Raph landed lightly beside her. "Bend your knees." He said and crouched to indicate what he meant. Lyde nodded, breathless and felt something whiz by her. "Time to go!" He yelled and grabbed her by the arm and they started running. Another thing whizzed by and struck the wall to her left.

"They're shooting at us!" Lyde realized.

"Keep runnin'!" He commanded and she did. She made the next jump and hopped into a full run again to gain speed, but heard a grunt behind her. Raph stumbled into his jump and she knew he was going to fall short. She halted and turned back. She ran full speed and threw herself towards the edge with her hand out. She felt the roof's surface scrape against her belly as she slid, but she kept her hand extended. He was reaching for the roof ledge and she managed to wrap her fingers around his wrist. She tightened instinctively. His weight dropped and gave a sudden forceful tug on her arm. She heard a 'pop' and cried out in sharp pain, but didn't let go. Raph was swinging with the arc of his weight, but he could tell he was getting lower. He was dragging Lyde down. Meanwhile, bullets were still being fired, but either their shooters were too far away or their aim was terrible, because another did not find its mark.

"Let go!" He called to her. She looked stricken. But the time had passed. He was swinging with force over to the fire escape and so he gripped it. He felt the swing pull her over the edge as the burden of weight switched over to him. Lyde fell and he gripped her hand tightly. Once again, the weight of gravity snapped through Lyde's arm and she felt like it would rip from her body. She grunted involuntarily at the shock and pressure of her own weight dragging her down. She stared up and saw Raphael holding himself on the outside of the fire escape and his other hand holding her. She watched with wonder as he lifted her with one arm, a raging cry growing with the struggle through his throat, and he pulled her onto the fire escape platform.

Their pursuers were catching up, so they didn't have time to catch their breath. She climbed up as Raph followed onto the fire escape to join her on the roof. Once again, bullets were flying through the air and getting closer to their intended targets, but they had the fire of fear pushing their muscles to the next rooftop and the next and the next. The bullets thinned and then stopped. They were faster than their hunters and were several rooftops ahead.

"Turn!" Raph ordered and Lyde looked to see where he was going and followed him. He took them through a weave of roofs and after fifteen minutes, they had lost the people chasing them. But Raph wouldn't let her stop to catch her breath. "Later." He said and he led her down into an alley back to the ground. He lifted a manhole cover and nodded to it. She dropped down, sliding down the ladder. Raph followed, covered it again and dropped down next to her. He pointed down a tunnel and they began to jog. They ran for about ten minutes, but Lyde couldn't go anymore. She came to a dead stop and leaned against the dank sewer wall, not caring how disgusting it was. Raph stopped and turned, his brow creased.

"You hurt?" He puffed, his chest rising and falling heavily with exertion. Lyde gasped for breath and it transitioned quickly into sobs. Raph shifted, uncomfortable but also concerned. "Where're you hurt?" He asked.

"O'Rourke." She answered. "I left her. I just left her…" Her voice kept quaking and breaking

"We have to keep movin'." Raph snapped, rougher than he meant to. "C'mon." He jerked her good shoulder to motivate her.

"What will he do to her?" She choked. "It'll be my fault…whatever he does…I left her." Raph stopped dragging her and grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and shook her once hard. Pain flared at her left shoulder, but she managed to ignore it as Raph commandeered her attention.

"Listen up! We're not gonna give'im time to do anythin'. The faster we get to the lair, the faster we can launch our counter offense. So let's go!" He jerked her arm again and he found that she not only followed him, but was now running ahead of him. He grinned. He had found the right motivation.

As they ran, Raph called ahead to give his brothers the mission status. They could start brainstorming and be more prepared when he and Lyde got there. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the lair. Their muscles and lungs were burning. Raph managed to get Lyde over to the couch and they both dropped down onto it, breathing deeply. His three brothers quickly surrounded them.

"Raph!" Don gasped.

"What?" He managed between breaths.

"You're bleeding!"

"Oh…right." Raph looked down and saw the bullet wound in his forearm. It had clipped him and took a chunk of his arm with it, but nothing horrendously damaging. Just enough to skew his balance when jumping. Don had rushed to the lab and got a kit that he came out with. Raph held out his arm without prompting and let his brother clean and bandage the wound.

"Talk." Leo said. "We need details." Raph recounted what he knew and explained that he saw O'Rourke get taken.

"How?" Mikey asked. "You've all seen her in action. She's fast."

"It's because of me." Lyde said. "She ran ahead of me, to help clear a path because I couldn't fight my way through the crowd once the alarm went off." Mikey frowned.

"That doesn't explain it, though."Mikey observed. Lyde frowned thinking back.

"One of the soldiers just attacked her. I think he was one of the ninja we were fighting!" She exclaimed in remembrance. "He recognized her. But he hadn't seen me yet." She fell silent for a moment. "I wanted to help her…" Leo shook his head.

"That would have just got you both caught. You were outnumbered. All you had was your anonymity." He deflected. "How do you know it was one of the Foot ninja?"

"He…said something. I couldn't quite hear it…" She shifted uncomfortably.

"What did he say?" Leo prompted. Mikey thought he understood.

"Lyde, you didn't say it. He did. We won't get mad. What did he say?" The orange banded turtle tried to assure her.

"I think…it sounded like…freak lover." She mumbled. A thundering silence fell and Lyde felt the oppression of it worse than any of them.

"Okay…" Raph began. "So now what?"

"We get her back." Mikey directed, annoyed that he had to say so.

"Yeah, I know that, knucklehead. I meant 'how'?"

"You know him better than I do." Lyde said. "Where is he likely to take her? Back to the lab? Where he had T'mana and Leo?"

"I'm not sure." Leo said. "Raph, did you see anything other than O'Rourke being cornered? Was she publically apprehended, or do you think the Foot brought her directly to Stockman?"

"I couldn't stay long, but I saw him take her towards Stockman." He admitted. "Whether anyone else saw them for sure, I can't say."

"I'm guessing 'no'." Mikey clenched his fists. "He would have informed the Foot how to handle catching any of us." Leo nodded.

"I tend to agree. That would be his preferred outcome. He'll want to use her as bait."

"No." Lyde said. "He won't. You're forgetting the mercury. He's still positioned to take you out with that. He can handle O'Rourke separately."

"I'm not so sure." Don spoke up. He was wrapping Raph's arm and spooling the cloth. "I think his ultimate goal is to study us. Blowing us to molecules would destroy that. The mercury has to be there for another motive. He must feel that the sewer is a good location for a reason, but I can't think why. Leo, where did you find that area on the map?" Leo went into Don's lab and grabbed the laptop. He pulled it up and showed it to Don.

"Wait...I think you need to pop her arm back in." Raph was looking at Lyde sideways. He noted the way she was cradling her arm and remembered it had been yanked a few times. Lyde looked doe eyed over at him, fear clouding them. Don stood and moved to her side.

"Did you dislocate your arm?" He asked.

"I…don't know."

"She did. I'm pretty sure it popped when I fell, and then it pulled even more when she did."

"Fell?" Don asked, taking Lyde's arm gently in his hands.

"Later." Raph said. "Just pop it back in." Don positioned himself, but his shoulder wound was too fresh and Raph was injured too.

"I can't. Leo or Mikey, can you get this? I don't want to pull my stitches." Mikey grinned.

"Then you'd lose your souvenir from your hero." He joked as he stepped up to Lyde. Don blushed and muttered something about Mikey needing to shut up. Mikey dropped his eyes down to her. "This is gonna hurt. I'm gonna take your arm and pull it, like, really hard so it slides back into the socket, okay, dudette?" No, this was not okay. Lyde's mind was screaming that she was fine and she didn't need any help. But her arm hung strangely and it hurt with any movement, so she knew she was wrong.

"Okay." She mumbled. Mikey took her arm and crouched with his legs braced against the couch.

"I'm gonna count to three and then pull, okay?" Lyde nodded. "One!" He yanked really hard and she felt Don hold her to the couch. White pain flashed behind her eyes and she barked out a growl.

"What the frick happened to two and three!" She snarled. Mikey chuckled.

"You would have fought it. It went easier this way, trust me. I totally know what I'm talking about. I've dislocated mine, like, two times." Leo, behind Mikey, held up four fingers using two hands and shook his head. Lyde couldn't help but smile despite her sudden anger.

"Try to move your arm now." Don commanded softly. She lifted it and bent it at the elbow. "Good. Now wiggle your fingers." She did. "Good. Need some aspirin?"

"Please?" Don smiled kindly and left to go get her some. Raph nodded his approval.

"Not bad, pint size." Lyde blinked at this compliment, unsure what to make of this new Raphael. Don brought her a glass with three tablets of aspirin. He turned back to Leo.

"Where did you find that spot on the map?" Don resumed, not having forgotten where their conversation had been going.

"Here." He pointed.

"Do we know what's on the surface at that spot? I mean, there might be another target." Don finished with Raph's arm and turned the laptop toward him. Trying to do a search. He started to shake his head after a moment. "I can't get at it. It's encrypted."

"What are you looking for?" Lyde asked. She was starting to feel warm and antsy. She wanted to do something.

"Well, I pulled up the regular city plans, but it just shows that there's a retention above where the mercury is situated. I was trying to see if there were any government files I could…" Don blushed. Lyde held out her hands.

"Can I check? I'm hacker prevention so I know a lot of the tricks…" Don handed her the laptop and she began to type furiously. Raph watched as the screen changed every three seconds as her fingers flew across the keyboard. A lot of the screens said 'access denied' but some of the screens seemed to involve her entering lines of code. Her reaction was instantaneous. "Frick." She mumbled to herself. Raph found himself leaning over, curious. Her eyes were glued to the screen. "No dice…" She began typing in a very long line of code that involved several minutes. "Let's take a different approach…" She kept typing. "You got a flash drive? I don't want to save what I'm doing to your hard drive." Don was up and bringing her one within seconds. She put the flash drive in and began to type in a strange patternless rhythm.

"You're pulling satellite coordinates?" Don asked, looking at her screen. As she typed, data was appearing on her screen. She nodded. "But they'll know you're tapping and trace it." He warned. "No. I'm on a pulsating frequency band. They'll think it's standard sub space interference. It won't last long enough to draw attention. They'll probably think it's from a solar flare." Don nodded, somewhat impressed.

"True, but what about the data you're downloading? They can't see you tapping, but they can see you pulling."

"No." She said, shaking her head. "This tapping" she indicated her fingers. "is simulating the same interference type. Once the transmission is done, it won't read back as anything on their reports. I'm sending the sound back on the same carrier wave that I'm pulling from. Like driving a tractor over dirt to cover footprints on a farm. The tractor's expected, they won't inspect the imprints it's leaving." She kept tapping with her left hand and with her right she clicked and did some more tapping and closed out the screen. Then she cut the power. She handed Don the flash drive. "Read that on another computer for now. I'm going to wipe this one first."

"What exactly are we lookin' for with Sat coordinates?" Raph asked.

"She was trying to see if a military satellite was monitoring the area with the retention. It might indicate that there's something else going on there." Don said. Lyde nodded in agreement as she pulled up the laptop and began typing lightening fast again. Don left and went to the desktop computer in the lab. Lyde typed for several minutes more and then stopped abruptly, having finished her task. She closed the laptop and set it on the coffee table.

Without the distraction of hacking, Lyde's throbbing arm reminded her of what happened and how it was all her fault. What had Raph said? That this wasn't a game and she shouldn't try to be a hero? Well, no problem there. She was definitely no hero. Letting your friend get taken by an experimenting monster was as about un-hero like as someone could get. She stood abruptly, feeling rather nauseated.

"Bathroom." She blurted. Leo looked at her, startled, and then pointed to a room off in the corner. She darted towards it, marveling for a second that they had a bathroom underground, and she closed the door behind her. She immediately knelt in front of the commode just in time to retch part of her breakfast into the porcelain bowl. She heaved for several minutes, her stomach clenching and unclenching in painful spasms. She was sure there was nothing left, but it didn't seem to stop her. Bile and acid burned her throat and finally, her stomach just shivered and shut down. She sat down and leaned against the wall, not confident that it was, in fact, over just yet. After a moment, there was a knock.

"Just a minute." She murmured, but made no move to get up. The door opened, Raph stepped in and then closed the door behind him. Her eyes widened. "What if I was…you know?"

"You weren't."

"You don't know that!" He rolled his eyes.

"I could tell you were sittin' on the ground. If you were…you know, you'd have some explainin' to do. 'Sides, I could hear you yakkin'." He shrugged, crouched down and handed her a plastic cup of water. She stared at it a moment as if she didn't understand what it was, but then she took it, swished it and spat into the toilet bowl. She blushed and didn't meet his eyes. Without a word, he leaned over, flushed the contents and resumed his original position. She took another tentative sip.

"Hail Mary Pass." He said, shaking his head. Lyde said nothing and kept staring into the cup of water she was holding. "You and O'Rourke had never seen him there before." Raph continued. "So this is a new development. There was no way you coulda known and there was no reason to stake it out first. If there had been anythin' glarin' like that, me 'n Leo never woulda let you two in there. It's just Murphy's fuckin' law. Anythin' that can get fucked up, will." He waited a moment. "So, you done pukin'?"

At the word 'puke', Lyde leaned over to the toilet bowl, dropping the cup letting it spill on the floor and promptly began to vomit up the water she had just consumed. "Uggh. Guess not." Raph grimaced. Her stomach seemed to remember some long lost contents and continued on its purge. Raph pulled her hair back. "How much did you eat today? Jeez!" Lyde moaned and a few tears fell from her eyes. She wasn't crying, but her tear ducts seem to have been activated from the pain in her stomach. She took a shaky breath that turned into a gurgled groan as she realized she was beyond humiliated. Why did he have to come into the bathroom? Couldn't she vomit in peace?

"Okay…that's gotta be it. I mean, a little thing like you can only hold so much." He tried to joke. But she didn't move. Her stomach shuddered again and she continued for several more minutes. She felt his hand touch her forehead and was momentarily relieved by how cool it felt and surprisingly soft, but it was interrupted as more came back up.

"Shit!" Raph whisper shouted. Great…he was mad. Well, she didn't ask him to watch her puke. And she just wanted it to stop. It's not like she was enjoying this humiliating experience. "Don!" He shouted. She felt him rub her back suddenly; it calmed her a little and at the same time grounded her. Her body felt like ice, but where his hand rubbed created comforting heat. "Okay, take it easy." He said. His voice sounded anxious and unusually kind. She could hear that he didn't know what to do and had a moment of pity for him. Then her blurry eyes focused, she vomited once more and she saw something that made her panic. Red. There was a lot of red in her purge. She shook and moaned.

"What?" Don asked, not opening the door.

"Get in here!" He opened the door and was politely averting his eyes until he saw the position they were in. His brow furrowed. Raph was rubbing her back awkwardly and Lyde vomited again. Don looked away as a courtesy. "Don!" Raph shouted to get his attention. Don turned to Raph and Raph mouthed the word 'blood' nodding to Lyde. Immediately, Don walked over to look at the bowl and was stricken.

"Fever." Raph said, quietly. In response, Don felt her forehead and it was on fire.

"But she was fine a few moments ago. No hint of fever…" He was puzzled. "I don't understand…" He left in a rush. Lyde had started to quake a little. It wasn't from the regurgitation; he thought she might be crying.

"Don's on it." He said gruffly. "He knows his shit."

"That bastard." She cursed as another bout struck her.

"No, Don's gonna help you." Raph didn't know how to respond to her insult. It was so unlike her. Not that he knew her well, or anything. But she didn't seem to strike out when someone was helping her. "See, he's back already." Don had knelt down.

"Lyde, I know you can't control it, but try to be as still as you can, okay? I'm going to take some blood and see what I can find out." The blood was getting darker in her vomit and this was extremely worrying to the purple banded turtle. He took the blood as Raph tried to hold her arm steady while she continued to be wracked with shudders.

"He did it." She managed to spit. "Must have…put something on …the device…poison…virus." Each punctuated with a purge.

"You have the device?" Don asked.

"Purse." She moaned. Don leapt up and went to his lab. He grabbed gloves and walked out to pick up her purse.

"Lyde is very ill." Don informed. "She thinks Stockman put something on the device." Leo jumped up.

"How ill?" Don shook his head darkly.

"She gonna be okay?" Mikey asked, worried.

"Her fever is dangerously high and she's vomiting violently. She's starting to vomit her stomach lining and the blood that feeds into it." He left, knowing that they would follow. "Since we haven't exhibited any symptoms, I can only assume that you have to touch the device or that our genetic makeup is not human enough to be affected." He bagged the device. It was small, black and about the size of a flat river stone that you could skip five or six times across the surface of a lake.

"Then whatever it is, Stockman must have a cure or vaccine. He'd want to be able to get the device and use it whenever he wanted." Don nodded in response.

"He's really got us, Leo. And he knows it. He's got O'Rourke and he knows that whoever took the device is down." Don slammed the lab table. "We don't have the equipment or personnel to figure this out fast enough to help her. At the rate she's going, she'll be dead before nightfall. I may not even be able to even see results until tomorrow because I don't know what I'm looking for!" They were both silent a moment, Don had his hand on his head in despair.

"She can die from puking?" Mikey asked.

"It's rare, but it does happen, Mikey. Too much acid and no nutrition. It's not a pleasant way to go. But there may also be something else going on that we don't know about."

"What about Ms. Grey. Isn't she like a super rich doc?" Mikey didn't have to say another word. Don had his shell cell in his hand and was dialing.

Twenty minutes later Ms. Grey was in the lair, grim faced as Don began to relay the information to her. They were both walking towards the bathroom. Raph and Lyde were still in there. Lyde was now quite pale. The skin around her eyes was purplish and so were her lips. She had gone limp. She was still conscious, but seemed to be so weak she could no longer hold herself up. Raph had an arm wrapped around her at her ribs to support her and he held her pressed against his plastron and the toilet. His other hand was on her forehead to keep her head back. This allowed her to continue to vomit without obstructing her throat. It was a mock embrace that disturbed all onlookers.

"Oh my god." Ms. Grey murmured, clearly haunted. She moved forward, but Don grabbed her arm.

"We don't know how she contracted it yet, Ms. Grey. You have to keep your distance." She nodded.

"Where is it?" She asked sharply. Don led her to the lab and held up a sealed clear bag. He also held up a stoppered test tube with blood.

"I took her blood. Can you please see what you can find? She doesn't have much time."

"I have a private lab. You're coming." Ms. Grey commanded. Don hesitated. "You're coming." She repeated and he nodded. He left the room to inform Leo.

"We'll all go." He turned to Ms. Grey. "You have your SUV again today?" She nodded. "We'll all come. In case she takes a turn for the worst."

"Of course. We'll need constant updates on her condition." Ms. Grey walked near the bathroom. She felt the expected tug on her arm and she allowed herself to be halted. Don, of course, didn't want her getting too close. "Lyde…dear? You're going to come with us now, okay? We're going to do everything we can."

Raph looked up and then back at the limp Lyde. He stood, pulling her up by his arm around her rib cage and swept her legs up easily with his other arm. Then he shifted her so her head was over his shoulder. She was like a cooked noodle, flopping with his movements. In the past few minutes, her vomiting seemed to slow and her weakness seemed to worsen. But he didn't want her to choke because he held her on her back. Instead, he held her as he would an infant against his shoulder. Don came forward, and placed a blanket on him so his shell wouldn't scrape her chin. Raph attempted to be mindful of where he held her. Trying not to take accidental liberties in her state. But it was proving difficult. Because of the way he needed to hold her to prevent her from choking, he had to brace her weight with one hand on her behind. He muttered some apology that he wasn't sure she could hear, but put his other hand on her back.

They moved quickly and the car ride was an anxious one. The vomiting hadn't stopped, but it had seemed to become less explosive. It just dribbled out now. Raph was completely out of his depth. He didn't know how to help sick people and he didn't know how to make people feel better. So he just patted her back, hoping she found it reassuring, but it made him feel ridiculous and useless. He kept talking, letting her know what was happening since she couldn't see because she was facing backwards. He told her she was doing good and that it wouldn't last too much longer. He lied to her. He felt royally pissed because she had saved his life and he couldn't do the same. This was an enemy he couldn't fight. Unseen, attacking her from within. She had clutched his hand in the bathroom, so he knew that she was grateful for his presence, which surprised him. He didn't want to ditch her now when the least he could do is be there. He tried to listen to Don and Ms. Grey, see if he could make heads or tails of what they were saying, but he wasn't smart enough to follow, so he continued to pat Lyde's back.

They arrived at the estate and Ms. Grey briskly walked them upstairs to a room. She pointed and Raph carried Lyde in and propped her on the bed in the room. He grabbed the garbage can and sat down next to her, ready to move her head if she needed to purge again.

Leo and Mikey followed Don and Ms. Grey up two more flights of stairs. They walked into a huge laboratory that took up the entire top floor. Don was absolutely stunned.

"This is for your hobby?" He asked.

"Yes. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well." She explained. She didn't halt her step to answer his question. She went over to several pieces of equipment. "The only reason I work is so I can afford to do what I do in here." She placed the test tube in a centrifuge and began to turn on several pieces of machinery.

"Don," Leo said. "I'll leave you to it. Mikey," Leo shifted and cracked his knuckles. Something he never did. "Can you let T'mana know what's going on? I'm going to stay with Raph." Mikey's eyes betrayed shock, but he nodded.

"T'mana's on the second floor in the west wing." Ms. Grey informed. Mikey took a breath and left.

Leo went to check on them. He could hear Raph rumbling to Lyde. He didn't know what he was saying, but he could see that his brother was disturbed. Honestly, Leo was surprised that Raph hadn't bugged out and left her to take Stockman on singlehandedly. It suggested to Leo that, at the moment, Lyde was more important to him. If Lyde died, and that seemed more and more likely, Leo didn't know how to handle his brother or her friends. He had seen bad times before. Times when it had seemed hopeless and that life would never be happy again. But he had managed along. Just as soon as he allowed himself to care again, everything was falling apart. He truly didn't know how he could save everyone this time. Stockman had finally won.