It had been three days since Lianna's birthday, making it New Year's Eve. Everyone, including Sensei, were bounding across the roofs, heading closer to where the ball would be dropped. Lianna had always wanted to see that live, but of course, living as far away as she had, the opportunity to do so had never been available. Now here she was, with her second family, bounding through the night to do just that. "We must be careful, my family." Sensei said as they approached the area they had decided on, "This is a well broadcasted event. Any slip up could show the world we exist."
"Hai Sensei." Everyone replied. Karai had even managed to slip away from Shredder, so the whole family was there. They had a great view of the ball from their location, Lianna even got a family photo with it in the background. April had tried to get her dad to come, but he insisted he preferred watching it on the TV, so she was a little down at first, but Mikey soon had her laughing along with the rest of them. Soon the countdown began and they all joined in with the crowd below once it reached ten.
"Happy New Year!" They all shouted as they started hugging each other, no one but Lianna noticing as Donnie and April shared a kiss. She snapped a photo of them, but just sent it to them since it was their moment, not hers. They soon left the building top and started heading back to the turtles home where they were all going to spend the rest of the night watching movies and eating popcorn, or at least until they fell asleep. Mikey kept babbling on about how cool it was and how they had to do it again next year.
Suddenly April collapsed, holding her head. "April!" Donnie exclaimed, kneeling down beside her. She looked up at him, as the pain in her head subsided and she said, "The Kraang are here Donnie! Like nearby here, here. I can hear their thoughts. They were able to get a doorway opened to here again and they are meeting with Shredder to get some… new human DNA." Karai hearing this said, "I must head to Shredder's then, I will let you know what I find out when I do." And with that she went running off across the roofs, as Leo thought, "Be careful Karai."
"Do you think it's my parents Shredder is planning on giving over to them?" Lianna asked, a bit of fear sliding into her voice. "I won't lie to you and say most likely not, Lianna." Sensei replied, "Because more than likely it is them, after all what other humans would he turn over to the Kraang?" Mikey gave Lianna a side hug to comfort her as Mattie reached for Raph's hand. He squeezed it without thinking as he stated, "We will get them back this time Lianna and Mattie."
"Which way are they April?" Leo asked. Casey and Donnie helped her up as she answered, "I think the next building over, it's a little hard to tell for sure with all the noise from the New Year's celebration." The group made their way quickly over to the next building, entering through a door on the roof. Following April's directions, they were surprised when she stopped suddenly, almost causing a pile up of turtles, humans and rat.
She whispered so softly those in the back of the group almost didn't catch it as she said, "The Kraang are right through that door. I think Shredder is in there as well, but I'm not sure." Leo and Donnie slid up next to the door, putting an ear to the door. Seconds later they nodded at each other and as one they kicked in the door. Leo dashed through the door first, followed closely by the rest of the group, barely blocking a strike from Shredder headed towards the humans with a blindfold over their heads. Splinter kicked Shredder, sending him flying backwards even further away from the humans, as April, Casey and the cousins rushed to their sides to free them.
Lifting the masks, Lianna saw her parents face and tears filled her bluish green eyes. Were these really them this time or was it just another trap for the turtles? "Lianna!" Skye said, pulling her daughter into a hug. Then she looked around what is going on? Who are these people? And are those a giant rat and some turtles?!" Her reaction was so genuine, that Lianna hoped it was her mom even more, because if Shredder had become this good at making them seem real… she didn't even want to think about it.
"I'll answer that in a second, Donnie can I borrow you for a minute or at least that device you made?" Lianna shouted across the room to the purple masked turtle. "Catch!" He yelled, as he pushed off a Foot Bot and tossed a device her way before taking on another. Catching the gadget, she held it up to her confused mother and followed it all the way down, before doing the same to her father. The results came up as both of them being humans.
Lianna and Mattie tackled them with hugs before pulling back and saying, "We need to get you out of here, than I promise we will do our best to answer your questions." Casey took the front, while April brought up the rear as they made their way out of the building, leaving the turtles and Splinter to fight the Kraang and Foot Clan. The cousins supported the two adults, whose limbs were still a bit numb from being tied up.
"My apartment is closest to here, let's head there." April said. Casey nodded from where he was in front, and once they made it to the streets took an indirect, though quick, path to her apartment in case they were followed. Mattie texted Raph and let him know where to meet them when they could. Once they arrived safely there, April's dad helped make Lianna's parents comfortable. Holding a warming cup of coffee in his hands, Matt said "Thank you all for rescuing us, but I too want to know just who or what rescued us."
So everyone, including April's dad, took turns telling them about Splinter and his sons, how they had taken in the girls to protect them, and how they had been helping them look for Matt and Skye ever since they had been first been taken. They told about their adventures with them, about their holidays together, how they had become like family to them. By this time Splinter and the turtles had reached the apartment, though they waited on the roof in case they weren't wanted in there. They listened to the girls talk about them and it warmed their hearts to know that they were just as special to them as the girls were to them.
Lianna text Mikey, saying "Where are you guys? My parents want to meet you." Mikey informed her they would be right there, entering the apartment mere seconds later. After introductions and greetings were exchanged, Skye stepped towards Master Splinter and said, "Thank you for taking care of my girls, for keeping them safe from the Shredder." "Why did the Shredder kidnap you?" Leo asked.
Matt sighed and said, "I have been trying to uncover the truth about him for years. See me and some of my fellow fencing academy owners had heard rumors about him enlisting people from martial arts academies in secret. He put a friend of ours out of business because he refused to let him come to his martial arts academy. I volunteered to get a job working for him in the hopes I could either uncover something to prove he was doing something wrong, or I could get close to him to find something out about him."
"When the offer for us to move came suddenly we were a bit suspicious, but we knew we had to do it if we ever wanted to get closer to the source of information." Skye supplied, before Matt continued, "I don't know if he wanted me to find out or not, but I discovered a file linking him to his use of Mutagen, which I had no idea what that was. That's when they came and took me. The only reason we aren't dead yet is because of two things, one he thought I had some sort of information that I didn't, and two he wanted to find out who else was wanting to know about him."
"He knew that if anything happened to us, or if we disappeared those that we were working with would get suspicious. He made fake versions of us when we refused to make phone calls, that looked and sounded like us, which he used to let the others think we were going into deep cover for a few months." Skye added.
"We met them, he tried to trick us into taking them to where the turtles live." Mattie answered, "Lianna figured them out when the one that looked like Uncle Matt made the mistake of saying he found it in a way that required too much computer knowledge." Skye laughed and said, "Yes Matt does have trouble with those things, doesn't he. Shredder must have left the file out to be found, because it was right on the desktop."
"So what are we going to do now?" Lianna asked. Matt sighed and said, "I don't know. Who is going to believe that we were kidnapped by him? And how would we explain how we got away. I doubt you guys would want us telling them that four mutant turtles and a rat rescued along with my daughter, niece and two of their friends. Not that they would believe us if we did." "Not that we aren't grateful to be free." Skye felt compelled to say, "Thank you all for that." "Yes thanks." Matt said with a smile.
Donnie had been tapping a finger against his chin and said suddenly, "If that file still exists, I could remote access it, copy it and give it to you to give to the authorities." "Donnie you're a genius!" April exclaimed. He blushed at that and stuttered, "Oh, it's ah, nothing April." Lianna smiled, they were just too cute together. Splinter nodded and said, "Let's go get to work my sons." Turning to Lianna's parent and said, "If you want to stay with us until this is over, you are most welcome to."
Lianna's parents accepted his offer, not wanting to chance being taken by Shredder, though they almost second guessed themselves as they were blindfolded and smells of a sewer filled their nostrils. But once they got to the lair and their blindfolds were removed, they found it was really quite comfortable and you couldn't really smell the sewer in it. In fact the most common smell was some kind of incense.
XXX
A few days later, it was Mattie's birthday and because of all that was going on she forgot what day it was. So Lianna was able to pull a surprise party on her cousin. She and her parents had taken her with them when they went to look at their house as well as get some clean clothes. They were surprised no one had broken in, until Lianna noticed some security cameras that could only have been made by Donnie. They must have kept watch over their home for them.
When they returned, having just entered the lair, the others all jumped out of their hiding spots, shocking Mattie until she remembered what day it was. She laughed and said, "Thanks you guys, I can't believe you remembered what with everything that has been going on!" "How could we forget your birthday?" Raph said, giving her a light punch on her shoulder before handing her present from them all. It was some new paints and canvas, which she couldn't wait to use. Lianna took a photo and added it next to the two from the night they had found her parents.
One had been taken right before they had left April's apartment while the last one was a shot with what she considered her complete family. Raph took Mattie into the next room while the others were distracted by cake and Lianna's photo albums, Mikey insisting on showing her parents his favorite photos, which was to say all of them. "Here." He said, shoving a small gift at her, embarrassed to show that he cared.
Mattie gave him an odd look before opening it, inside was a sai pendant attached to a chain. "Oh Raph I love it!" Mattie exclaimed before standing on tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. Suddenly shy because of her impulsive action she said softly, "Will you help me put it on?" Raph, still stunned from the kiss, took a moment before he motioned her to turn around. She did so, lifting her hair so he could put the necklace around her neck.
Once it was on, she turned back to him and said, "I will cherish it forever." Looking him in the eyes, they both felt the magnetism, and started to lean in for a real kiss, when a beeping noise startled them apart. Donnie shouted and said, "Hey the program finally broke through all of the firewalls!" as he ran towards his lab. Moments later he exited, a big grin on his face as he said, "I got the file!" Everyone let out a shout of celebration, except for Mattie and Raph, who were both wondering when their relationship had changed over from one of friendship to something more.
*sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I got stuck where April sensed the Kraang and had to take a short break from the story to help me get over it. As you can see I finally sat down and was able to get passed it. I wanted to finish all of my currently running stories before Christmas as my Christmas gift to my readers. Hope you enjoy this chapter and the Epilogue!