A.N: So, due to other stuff I have to dos still, ACT lessons and study, I still can only update on Sundays. Once it's over I can finally get to summer schedule updates. One more week until new episode….one week

Nightmaster000: hehhe….pigeon man….yeah I like to mix it around.

Ericaphoenix16: He was the only flying mutant who could talk that I could think of. And I feel he needed more screen time

Beawolf's Pen: Yep…Fillien was thinking of Raph because she saw him there so that's why. I mean, I wondered why KArai would let him go if he said no…so why not that.

I don't own TMNT

(Translation)

CHAPTER 24

Fillien had gone over to the hideout to get food, leaving Pete at the alley they were in before. When she came back with his pay, he immediately began to chow down on the bread. Fillien watched him eat every crumb until he gave out a loud burp, signaling he was done. She said, "I can see food really is a predicament for you."

"You make it sound like you live in a luxury."

"No, but food is provided."

"Lucky you." Pete looked up to the building next to them. "Come on and follow me to the roof. We'll begin lessons up there."

"What?" Fillien asked surprised as Pete flew up to the roof. It only took him two flaps of his wings to get him up there. For Fillien it took her about ten flaps until she surrendered to using the fire escape. When she got to the top of the building, Pete looked at her with arms crossed and said, "Let's start with the wings. Extend them." Fillien did so and spread them out. Pete came up to her and then began to walk around, saying. "Hmm. Pigeon wings. This won't be hard to teach you. But it will be hard for you to get around. I may be a pigeon, but even I know the limits of being one. We're noisy flyers. We're not like owls with oil-less wings. Fortunately, scavenging at night made me a sort of silent flyer. I can teach you that but that's a whole 'nother level." He stood in front of Fillien and said, "Maybe that's it! You got to start with what you already know."

"Well, I know how to branch. Jumping from-"

"Place to place. Yeah I know what it means."

"You do? I thought I just made it up."

"It's a universal term birds know. All fledglings learn to branch once their feathers began to grow. That's how my momma began to teach me."

"Your what?"

"My mother. But then after being turned half human, I sort of had to learn again with all this added weight."

"So you're saying you were originally a pigeon before?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. But I was originally human, so how do I know about this?"

"I don't know, maybe when you were mutated, most of the bird DNA went to your brain."

"Oh. Oh no."

"What?"

"I hope I don't begin to have cravings for bread."

"Is that an insult?"

"No."

Pete scowled but then became serious once again. "Ok. So you know how to branch but when you're in the air you won't have the chance of gliding down from a nest. In your case, buildings. We need to work on your power skills." Pete stepped back again and motioned to the space before him. "How about you flap up for me? Show me what you can do." Fillien shuffled her feet again and began to flap her wings fast. She went up a few feet but immediately Pete said, "Hold it!"

Fillien stopped and scoffed as she landed back on her feet. "What? I was flapping."

"The wrong way. You are going too fast. It's all about strength not how many times you can flap until your twenty feet up. You have to have less strokes and more power."

"And how do I do that? I'm not exactly the strongest person around."

Pete noticed the way Fillien sounded when she said that. She looked down on herself. Pete went up to her and said, "I don't really think strength has anything to do with it." Fillien's ears perked up at this. "It's determination. Do this for me when you flap. Feel every muscle and every feather in each stroke."

For the next hour, Pete instructed Fillien on how to fly up and down. Every try there was less flapping but a lot more energy. With all that energy, Fillien was able to go up twenty feet in the air in three strokes. "Good! That's it!" Pete would say.

By midnight, Fillien had gotten pretty good with flying up. But at one point, she flew so high that when she landed….well…she didn't exactly land. "Ow." Fillien said with a groan after face planting into the floor of the roof. Pete came over and helped her to stand up. "Maybe for the last few minutes we should practice on your landing. The trick is to put feet first."

"That's what I do though."

"Yeah, that's with your front feet. But what you don't know is that putting all of your weight from the front first to land makes you keep going. It doesn't make you stop. Using your weight from the back slows you down and keeps you planted to the ground. No weight could move you forward."

"I get it. It's like a bike. When you break the front wheel it makes you flip over easily. But if you break the back one, it doesn't make you flip over."

"I guess that's understandable…to humans." Pete walked over to the edge of the building. Fillien followed him and looked down to the building next to the one they were on. Pete extended his wings and said to Fillien, "Just watch." Jumped off from the edge and without flapping he glided down smoothly on to the next building. He landed perfectly on his feet, and his weight didn't seem to move him forward at all. Pete ruffled his wings and looked back at Fillien who was still on the same roof he was on before. "Ok." He said, "Now you try. Just do what I do and spread your wings out-"

Fillien didn't hear the rest and she just spread her wings and jumped. Her gliding was rough, due to the fact that she was flapping so much. But when she landed, she put her back paws first and then rooted herself with her front. She didn't stumble forward or anything. She made a perfect landing. "Yay! I did it!"

Pete clapped, "That was a good landing. But now, I think you should practice that gliding. And only a few flaps in between, just to keep you up." He motioned for Fillien to follow him to the edge of the building to face another one. "Ok, we'll go down five buildings. We'll jump, glide, land, and stop. Then you can walk over to the edge and do it again until you get to building number five. Just watch my first glide." Pete jumped off the edge and glided down to the next roof. Fillien glided down herself, this time keeping her wings out straight. It was rough to keep them straight the first few jumps. Towards the last few, she managed to glide smoothly across the air and land perfectly at the same time. She looked up at Pete who said, "Good job."

)))))))))) At the Hideout (((((((((

After a two hour patrol with no sign of any turtles, or Leonardo, Karai and her group came back to the hideout for their much needed rest. Karai walked down the entrance hall and was about to make a turn for the dorms when something flew over her head. On instinct she pulled out her Tanto and pointed at whatever was landing next to her. She saw Fillien land by planting her back feet first then her front. Her wings were out straight, showing their immense length. Fillien folded them back to her sides and she turned to look at Karai. "Did you see that? I've been practicing all night since I got back from my lesson."

"You know how to land? Wait! What lesson?"

"I met a mutant bird named Pete. He taught me how to land, flap up to great heights, and glide without any trouble of the wind,"

"All this while I was out on patrol?"

"Well, yeah. He said he would teach me, but I would have to practice on my own sometimes. And I hadn't stopped."

Karai smiled, seeing her accomplice's excitement. "How did you find him?"

"Oh, he was just scavenging around. By the way, we're going to need to get more bread."

Karai blinked. "Why?"

"That's how I pay him."

Now Karai was just confused. A Mutant bird that lives in the streets agreed to teach Fillien how to fly as long as she payed him with….bread. "Let me see what you can do now." Fillien nodded and looked up at the wooden beams overhead. She spread her wings and took one flap. She went up half way in a burst of strength and speed. She flapped one more time and she climbed up onto the wooden beam. Karai's jaw dropped. "Yo-you just flew all that in like less than fifteen seconds."

"I know! I beat my own record by half. And watch this!" Fillien spread her wings and let herself glide down to the floor. Her wings staid perfectly straight and she landed back feet first. She went into a trot and stood in front of Karai. "See, I'm getting better."

"I'm glad you found someone to teach you."

"That's not all. I'm going to see Pete again tomorrow night and he's going to show me how to really fly."

"You're going to see him again?"

"Yeah. Is that a problem?"

Karai didn't want to say it, but she was worried actually. She didn't know who this mutant was and he was a stranger to Fillien for all Karai knew. But if he is teaching something valuable to Fillien that will help her keep up in patrols, maybe Karai shouldn't say anything. "No, actually, it's a good thing you're learning. Better than I could teach you."

"Well you did teach me determination, that's something."

Karai smiled and rubbed the cat girls head. "At least I'm some use."

The next night, when Karai had gone out for patrol Fillien went out to look for Pete. The cat girl went to the rendezvous point which was the same building where Fillien had her first flight lesson yesterday. When Pete got there, she saw her sitting down waiting with a loaf of bread in her mouth. She handed it to him and asked him, "So, what are we learning today."

"Flying forward." For the rest of the week, Pete taught Fillien how to fly from one destination to another. But it wasn't so easy for Fillien to grasp. The first day they tried flying over two buildings, but Fillien ended up falling into alley's underneath. The second day, they went to a secluded area in the park where they thought it would be safer. Instead, she ran into some trees. On the third day Fillien almost had enough. They decided to go back to the buildings where they practiced before but Pete tried another approach. She watched Pete fly back and forth past her and listened to what he was saying, "Bigger flap, less flap. Still air has no shape to use. You have to compensate with your down strokes. Make your wing tips almost meet, and if you can, without stalling."

"You make it sound easy."

Pete landed in front of her and said, "That's because it is. You have to put two and two together. You learned how the less flap and more strength made you go higher." Fillien. "Now it can make you go forwards."

"But I can't curl them enough to stroke."

"Come on, one last try."

"You said that last time."

"That's because I'm not giving up on you."

"I bet you would have thought differently only a week ago."

"Maybe yeah." Pete put a hand on her shoulder, "But I didn't know determination like yours before. I wish had that. Or that could be the problem."

"What?"

"You forgot what you were here for?"

"I know what I came for. To learn to fly."

"But why?"

"Because of….of my friend. I feel left behind…" Fillien had completely forgotten what she was here for. And her determination to fly had waivered. Fillien looked up at the sky and said, "Ok, let's do this." Pete flew up into the air and then glided a bit. Instead of letting himself land on the next building, he made a big flap that made him stay up. He landed two buildings away. Fillien tried to same thing. She ran off the edge of the building and jumped. She glided until she felt herself go down. She tried to flap but it only kept her up a bit. She was going down again. With all her strength, she flapped her wings again, this time shooting higher and forward. "Yes!" She landed on a building she saw coming under her and when she did, she realized she had gone a building ahead of Pete. Fillien looked back and saw Pete cheering. "That's right, cat girl, you got it!" He was right. She remembered her goal, and with determination she was able to fly.

A.N: All this flying makes me hungry *eats a sandwhich* I hope I didn't go too OC with Pete, but he only had so little screen time. I just got his sentiment on how he acted when giving April her father's message. Karai is worried guys, ha….secret softy. Next we get Alien Agenda… new episode. I'm KikaKatTIOI, peace out!