A/N: I hope i didn't leave you guys hanging around too long. Eh! Sorry, I took my son to the zoo yesterday. I heard way too many lame monkey puns while I was there!
"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" Leo eyed the teenage version of himself.
"Yes." He nodded firmly. "You're all still weak from what happened and we need to eliminate the threat. We will go and take out the computer controlling the Foot. That will at least buy you some time to recover."
Shinta frowned. "Do you need me to show you where the warehouse is again?"
Young Leo shook his head. "No, I remember."
"I'm still not comfortable with this idea. We don't know how many Foot he may have recruited in the last day." Leo folded his arms. He didn't like sending their younger selves into battle without some idea of what they were up against.
Young Raph slapped a hand on the table. "We need to attack before he's able to rebuild his forces." Beside him the older Raph nodded in agreement.
"It's risky." Leo still protested. "If something happens to you four…"
Young Raph groaned, looking up at his older self. "Your Leo is just as stubborn as mine."
"Nope." Raph quipped. "Mine's a lot worse. He's old, crotchety, and set in his ways."
Mikey and Kaz snickered, while Donnie rolled his eyes. Leo glared. "Can it, Raphael. My point still stands. Besides you're one to talk about being grumpy."
Young Leo rubbed his chin in thought. "Maybe we don't have to engage anyone. We can set some explosives on the outside of the building, near where the large console was. We could simply blow it up from a distance."
Donnie nodded. "It would have to be a surgical strike. We need to keep the body count down."
"Yeah, those dudes may look like Foot, but they're really innocent guys being brain-washed." Mikey reminded them.
The two Donatellos exchanged a look, before the younger one spoke. "We can make it surgical, no problem."
"What about that doctor dude?" Young Mikey asked between bites of pizza. "He'll probably be standing next to it."
Kaz growled, his fist balling on the table. "He deserves whatever he gets. The world would be better off without him."
Young Mikey stared wide-eyed at the amount of anger that passed his future son's features. "But Donnie just said-"
Kaz stood suddenly, his chair scrapping a bit on the floor. Fury flared behind his blue eyes. "He ain't innocent."
"Kazzey…" Mikey put a hand on his arm. He knew the hatred he felt for Lanius. He'd felt the same towards Kassic. Kaz pulled away and stomped off. Mikey sighed and glanced at Ona, who was chatting with Star.
She frowned as she watched her spouse leave the dojo. "Kazzey, wait." She hurried after him out the door.
Young Raph blinked in confusion. "What was that?"
Mikey sighed. "They have history."
"He's got a right to want that slime-ball dead after what he did to Ona." Yoshi half snarled. "And what he tried to do to Star."
Don sighed, pushing back from the table. "I'll go get the equipment you'll need." As he passed Mikey, he squeezed his shoulder. "I'll check on him, Mike."
Mikey nodded. "Thanks, bro."
K-three shot his father-in-law a look. "Could you let Mira know the foods here while you're up there?"
Don gave a small nod and headed upstairs where he paused on the second floor to check on Kaz. But his nephew was already surrounded by his mother and wife. Kala stroked his arm and Ona whispered softly in his ear while squeezing his other arm. Don sighed. He knew how Kaz felt. Even he had experienced that burning hatred over his time. It was only due to Sarah's soft soothing and constant reminder that she was safe that he had slowly released it. But Kaz was still young and that desire for revenge still raged through him. But Don knew the only person that could smoother that flame was his wife. And Ona had done a swell job of that so far.
He leaned in the doorway. "You okay, Kaz?"
Kaz's hands balled and un-balled. His voice was heavy when he spoke. "Yeah." He pulled Ona against him, clenching his eyes shut and breathing deeply. When he opened them again they were a deep cool blue. "I just wish I'd killed that bastard to begin with, then none of this would be happening."
Don didn't bother to ask if he meant Kyoudai or Lanius, instead he sighed. "We all have things we wish we could changes." His mind filled with an image of first Zenfered and then Eznic. He growled softly. "And people we wished we'd killed sooner. But what's happened has happened and hatred can be a self-destructing force. Right now we need to focus on keeping our family safe. Revenge will simply have to wait."
Kaz gave a small nod, closing his eyes again. Donatello turned and headed up the stairwell again. He paused beside his bedroom door, where Sarah and Mira were sitting on their bed with Katsu sprawled out asleep between them. His wife frowned at him and he knew she was trying to analyze the emotions tumbling around inside him. "It's okay, Kaz just had a breakdown. He's still mad at Lanius."
Mira frowned. "He should be! The guy nearly killed him!"
Sarah held Donnie's gaze as she rose and crossed the room to him. "He's not angry about what Lanius did to him, Mira. He's angry about what Lanius did to Ona."
He gazed down at her taking one of her small hands in his. "I know how he feels."
She was unfazed by the tendrils of anger that still clung to his heart. "We've been over this."
"I know." He kissed her brow. "But it doesn't get rid of the guilt." He attempted a weak smile as he turned his gaze back to Mira. "There's pizza downstairs, if you're hungry."
Mira gave a small nod. "Let me put Katsu to bed first. He's worn out."
Sarah gave a small chuckle. "He should be. He's been running circles up here the past two hours."
Donnie chuckled as well. "On that note, I've got some things to get from the lab."
Sarah squeezed his hand. "Would you like some help?"
He smiled at her, giving a small nod. He didn't really need it, but he knew she needed to be close to him right now, so he accepted the offer. She followed him into the lab where he began to gather all the things his younger self would need to make a precision blast. After gathering the detonator and controller for the remote discharge, he unlocked the box that held the small amount of plastic explosive he'd managed to horde in the past year. He handed the controller and detonator to his wife and pulled out the small lump of C4. He didn't like to keep much of the stuff at home, so although he had more it was stashed in a safe place in the sewers. A small amount would be all that was needed for this attack. He felt Sarah's worry ripple through him, but only momentarily. She knew about the C4, it wasn't like he was able to hide it from her. He gave her a small momentary smile. "You know it's not dangerous in this form."
"Of course, but it doesn't make me any less nervous."
He chuckled softly. "Well, they'll be getting rid of it for us. That will make you feel better, right?"
She frowned, shaking her head. "Not really." She took a deep breath. "I know you don't want to hear it, but that is you and your brothers down there. And if anything were to happen to them…"
He sighed. "Listen, we might have been a little more reckless at that age, but I still knew how to handle this stuff."
Sarah acquiesced but that didn't completely erase her worry. She finally gave him a small smirk. "You were also pretty cute at that age."
He grinned. "Oh, yeah?"
Her smirk grew as she leaned up to peck his cheek. "Yeah, it's too bad I missed out on it."
He gave small chuckle before following her out of the lab. He paused as he reached the door, his gaze falling on an object covered in dust. Maybe that could buy us some time as well. He picked up the toaster-sized machine and followed his wife downstairs.
The younger set of brothers were already geared up by the time they returned to the dojo. Don set the machine on the table and turned to the younger Don. "Here. You know what do with it." The younger turtle nodded.
Sarah handed him the controller and detonator as well. He smiled at her. "Thanks."
Her jaw trembled just a bit. "Please, be careful." She stepped quickly back to the older Don, wrapping her arms around him and clenching her eyes closed against the fear. His arm automatically went around her. The two turtles exchanged a solemn look.
"We will." Young Leo promised. "Come on guys. The faster we get this over the sooner we can get home."
"Yeah, Master Splinter is probably way worried by now." Young Mikey agreed as the four trotted out the back door.
Their father's name caused an ache in Leo's heart. He looked down at Shinta. His son had told him of his encounter with Splinter on the other side of the portal and that he'd given him the tools to destroy the demon. It was probably the only reason he'd been able to sleep a few hours during the day. The knowledge of such powerful items in their possession had released a great deal of the burden he'd been under. Leave it to Father to save us, even after his death.
"Hey, who ate all the pizza?" Mira appeared in the doorway of the kitchen.
Everyone turned to look at her. Raph snorted. "Ask the two bottomless pits. Well, three, if you count the one that just left." He jabbed a thumb at the back door.
"No way." Mikey protested. "We made sure to leave you enough."
Mira put her hands on her hips and K-three stifled a snicker at what he knew was coming. "You call two slices enough?"
"There was at least a half a pizza in there." Mikey protested again.
"Maybe there was but I saw," Yoshi paused trying to think of the right words, "the other Mikey go in there a little while ago."
Mira rolled her eyes and Sarah couldn't suppress the little chuckle. She released Donnie to go to her daughter. "Come on, sweetie. I'll make you anything you want." The two quickly disappeared off into the kitchen.
"So, what's with this thing?" Shinta pointed at the machine on the table.
"It's a scrambler or at least it used to be." Don flipped open the top, causing a small dust storm.
Leo's interest was piqued. "A scrambler?" He and Jamie moved closer to see.
"Well, it was before the lair got destroyed." Don sighed. "I salvaged it, but I haven't had time to see if it was damaged or not." He took a moment to examine the innards of the box as everyone else moved closer as well. He finally gave a small nod. "It looks mostly intact. I can have it up and running in a few minutes."
"The question is, will it scramble those Foot or not?" Raph asked.
Don frowned. "That I'm not so sure of. I'm certain it will give us a bit of an advantage, but for how long I don't know. Lanius' transmitters could eventually work their way around this thing. It is kind of old. I made it back before we met Ona. Plus, it's range is small."
Leo frowned. "Define small."
"We're looking at a diameter of six hundred feet max. That's less than a block."
Leo's frown intensified. "That won't give us much warning. Can you widen its range?"
Don examined the device again, though it was clear there were dozens of calculations being made inside his head. "I can by increasing the power flow. But you have to know, I didn't build this thing with that in mind. It'll likely burn out within a few minutes."
"It might be long enough though." Leo patted his brother's shoulder. "Good thinking, Don."
The genius pulled out a few tools from his belt. "It should only take a few minutes."
Suddenly an alarm went off. Leo rushed to a panel on the wall, swiping at the touch screen to locate the source. A three-dimensional diagram of the new home floated by as he located the disturbance. He frowned and shut off the alarm. "It's on the roof. One of the sensors was tripped."
"Just one?" Mikey asked. The roof was covered in at least a dozen sensors that had to be shut off within seconds by the person entering the roof door, otherwise the alarm sounded.
Raph flopped into a chair. "Probably just another pigeon."
"Still somebody should check it out, just to be sure." K-three pointed out.
"I'll go." Shinta moved from the far side of the table while everyone stared at him. He was still in the best condition compared to the rest of his family. He'd rather they rested.
Leonardo blinked at him like he was crazy. "What! No way! You-"
"Uncle Raph just said it's probably just some pigeons. They have been trying to get in the greenhouse." Shinta said calmly.
Raph made a face of disgust. "Things are like damned cockroaches with wings."
Leo shot his brother a quick look. "It might be, but you don't need to be going anywhere without us."
Shinta cocked his head to the side, a small smirk growing. "Wasn't I the one that saved your shells last night."
Mikey chuckled. "He's got you there, Leo."
Leo shot him a dirty look before dragging a hand down his face. "Fine, just take your weapons. And come right back."
Shinta just shook his head as he claimed his katana from the weapons rack. He shot his father a quick smile as he passed him. "Okay, I promise to come right back."
As soon as he'd left the room, Leo shot Raph another look. The hothead huffed. "Yoshi, go with 'im."
Yoshi'd already taken down his spare set of tekko-kagi and tucked them in his belt. Star watched him with a touch of worry. He grinned at her. "Don't worry, there ain't a pigeon in New York that can take me on." She released something between a snort and snicker.
Cat put an arm around Star's shoulders. "Don't worry about us either. I think I smell cookies."
Yoshi chuckled as he headed out the door. "If they're chocolate chip, save me some!"
The trip up the stairs put a strain on his injured leg, but he didn't mind. He caught with his cousin on the first landing where Kaz was talking to him. He frowned at the older turtle. Ona was still hovering behind him a few paces. "How you doin', bro?"
Kaz folded his arms, a distant look in his eyes. "Fine. They gone already?"
"Yeah."
"Why was the alarm going off?" Kaz looked between the two with concern.
"It's just one of the sensors on the roof." Shinta explained. "I'm going to check it out."
Kaz's blue eyes darted to Yoshi. "I'm goin' with 'im." Yoshi quickly assured him.
Shinta groaned. "Really?"
"Yep, really. Now, let's get this over with. I ain't missin' out on Aunt Sarah's cookies, because we're up here chasin' birds." He gave the younger turtle a playful nudge forward and Shinta let out yet another groan before heading up the stairs again. Yoshi glanced at Kaz as he started up after him. "I got this."
Shinta frowned. After all he'd done to prove himself in the past few days, now he was being babysat again. It was enough to grate on his nerves. It's just a stupid pigeon! But as they crossed the fifth floor to the shorter steps that led to the roof, that thought felt less and less accurate. He stopped just inside the roof's door. His body was tingling, his skin crawling. Something didn't feel right. Instinctively, his hand went to the hilt of one of his katana.
"What are you doin', kid?" He looked down to find Yoshi scowling at him. "You think the pigeons are gonna be packin' or somethin'?"
Shinta faltered. He glanced from the door to his large cousin. "N-No, but…"
"If you go out there and slice up a bunch of 'em, I ain't cleanin' up that mess." When Shinta still did not move to open the door, Yoshi gave another huff and pushed past him to open it himself.
"Wait! Something doesn't feel right, Yoshi." Shinta started to reach for him. But he'd already opened it. As soon as Yoshi's foot touched the roof, he cried out as he was flung clear across the roof to slam into the air conditioner. Shinta's heart jumped as he saw him disappear from view. "Yoshi! No!" He flung open the door, pulling both katana at the same time. A fierce snarl ripped its way out of his throat as he took in the sight before him.
"I've been waiting on you, witch's spawn."
A/N: voice over: "Please stand by. The author is currently hiding from angry mob."
Review! -smooches-
