Greg came down a couple of hours later, a secretive look accompanying the laptop he was toting under one arm. He met all four of the brothers in the living area, and then turned a curious glance in the direction of the Lab.
"How's Calley doing?" The man asked them.
"Okay," Leonardo allowed. "Trying to get some sleep. Doc says that's going to become a lot harder over the next couple of nights. It's been pretty weird having her around."
"Weird because she's acting funny?" Greg came back.
"She's more afraid of Luke and the girls than she is of us." Donatello commented. "It's almost like...like Leonardo imprinted her last night. It's the only way to describe it." Donatello finished, and then gave the man an appraising look. "You look like you have something up your sleeve there Heff. Do you come bearing information?"
"I do, and it's going to require Leo and Raph's eyes to make any sense of it. Donny, can you give me a hand hooking this thing up to the TV? It'll be a lot easier to watch this on there." Greg requested.
While Donatello moved to get a necessary cable, Michelangelo sat up further on the other end of the couch with interest.
"To watch what Heff?" The orange-banded turtle asked.
"I procured all of the footage from the different security feeds from that club, everything from that Friday night." Greg replied with a triumphant grin, signifying that obtaining said material been a feat in itself.
"How'd you get it?" Leonardo spoke up. "Don't they want like a warrant for stuff like that? Surely they didn't just up and volunteer it."
"No, can't say that they did Leo. You just have to ask for things the right way." The man answered with a chuckle.
"Would that be the right way according to the law, or just the way that gets things done the fastest?" The blue-banded turtle continued.
"He's got the footage Fearless - I think that's enough said." Raphael laughed too. "This could be interesting. I've always wanted to see what kinds of idiots people make of themselves in those places."
Michelangelo popped up from the couch with a cheeky smile of his own, and headed for the kitchen.
"Where ya going Mikey?" Raphael called after him.
"You can't have movie night without snacks." The turtle replied, and disappeared through the door.
Leonardo rolled his dark eyes. "We should be taking this seriously. You're hoping that we can locate some of those men, aren't you?" He directed back at Greg.
The human nodded, as Donatello returned and began the process of linking up the proper media.
"To what do we owe this privileged view?" The purple-banded turtle asked.
"It's not that hard to get people to be cooperative, at least not when so many of them are behind in their permits." Greg smirked. "It didn't take a lot of convincing to walk away with a copy, I'll just put it that way."
"You make it sound like so much fun." Raphael snickered.
"I'm used to letting James handle that part, but I have learned a thing or two from working with her through the years. Do your homework in advance, and you'll always have a plan to fall back on." Greg added.
Donatello made an adjustment with the TV remote, and glanced back over at Greg again. "You can control us from there, right?"
"Yup. Now let me see here...there's probably a good portion that we can skip completely. You guys said that the original targets showed up at the club...uh...a little after 12:30?" Greg clarified.
Leonardo nodded. "But they didn't use the front entrance - they came in from the side."
"Right, so we won't have footage of them arriving, but that doesn't mean we won't eventually find them somewhere on the feed. This is where you two come in, because you're the only ones who saw these first guys. I'll focus on one view at a time, and you speak up if you see anyone that looks remotely familiar." Greg instructed them.
About forty minutes into their viewing, Jenna and Karina arrived home from the surface, having come once more from the hospital. The women stood back for a few moments to stare at the screen that the rest of the room was riveted on.
"Is this like some new reality show that I haven't heard of?" Karina asked of no one in particular.
"No, this is actually about as real as it gets." Mike chuckled from the couch.
"We're working here." Leonardo replied without looking up.
"Yeah, we can see that." Jenna said in a slightly teasing tone, and then rested her fingers purposefully on the back of Donatello's neck.
The purple-banded turtle glanced over his shoulder at her, and then got up from the couch. "How's everything at the hospital Jen?"
"Nothing new to report." She replied more seriously, as Greg paused the footage so that everyone could pay attention to her answer. "I guess it's better than bad news, but I still wish he'd wake up. What about Calley? It all seems quiet right now."
"Doc says that it's the slight calm before the storm." Raphael told her sardonically, as Karina came over by the chair he was sitting in.
The woman cast an appraising glance at the dancing female that Greg had unintentionally paused the screen on.
"So this is work, huh?" She said with a mock challenging tone.
"We're supposed to be locating those idiots who were connected to that group somehow, or the girls they were messing with to begin with. I can't help all these random females that are mixed in. They don't hold a candle to you anyhow." The red-banded turtle stated wisely.
Donatello got to his feet, and came around to the back of the couch to join Jenna, casting an arm lightly around her back.
"You go ahead guys." He told the others.
"You don't need to see this?" Jenna asked him, and he shook his head at her.
"Nah. Mike and I wouldn't know 'em even if we did see them on there."
The pair retreated to their room down the hall, where Jenna took her time to change into her pajamas, stress reading in every muscle of her body.
Donatello sat down mutely on the edge of the bed to wait for her, and then scooted further back as she came to sit down too. The young woman pulled the rubber-band out of her dark hair, and shook it out with a giant sigh. Without saying a single word, she was speaking volumes.
Donatello reached for both her shoulders, kneading fingers carefully over them as she closed light blue eyes wearily. Neither turtle nor woman spoke for several minutes, as he merely tried to work some of the days' tension out of her. Jenna finally turned slightly to face him, and he pulled her closer so that she could relax directly against his plastron.
She sighed somewhat more contentedly now, as he ran a hand lightly over her hair. "There's really no one else like you, d'you know that?" She asked him suddenly.
"I happen to think the same thing about you." He answered softly.
"...Hold up, now freeze it Heff." Leonardo said suddenly. He felt like he was the only one actually staying on track here; Raphael had been distracted ever since Karina had come home.
Greg quickly obliged, pin-pointing the frame in the spot that he'd requested. "You recognize someone Leo?"
The blue-banded turtle got to his feet, squinting a little more closely at the somewhat grainy image on the screen. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's one of them. Would you care to have an opinion Raph?" He said a little shortly to get his brother's attention back where it was supposed to be.
The red-banded turtle looked over guiltily, and then studied the screen for himself. "Oh, yeah. That looks like 'Mr. Ugly' himself." He remarked. "That guy and I had a nice close up."
Greg started the feed back up, brow furrowing when the man escaped his angle. "I'm gonna take a second to switch up my view, see if I can get a cleaner image of him."
"What will you do with it Heff?" Michelangelo asked him.
"Try to identify him, and then track him down." Greg replied. "They're shady characters alright, even if they don't really fit the 'Akiudo' mold. That would actually make them the perfect cohort to aid and abet this type of work. They're just another face in the crowd."
"So you think if we find them, we can find the Akiudo." Leonardo stated obviously.
"That's my hope anyway. It's the best place for us to start...Now there's a good shot of him." Greg commented, freezing the frame again. "I'm going to save that, and you guys keep your eyes open. The more of them that we can locate, the better chance I'll have of being able to connect back to a real person."
Marcus was in the middle of saying goodnight to April at her door, and almost didn't answer his cell-phone when it went off. It was April who pulled away from his grasp first.
"You'd better answer that." She advised him.
Marcus pulled his phone off his belt, and glanced down at the unknown number. His recent phone call from Nicholas had him a little spooked, but that had been to his land-line. None of those morons had ever gained access to his cell number. At least not that he knew of. He flipped the phone open regardless.
"This is Marcus."
"Dr. Sloan?" An unfamiliar voice greeted him. "This is Brandon James, I hope it's alright that I'm calling. We haven't been properly introduced, but my sister passed your card along to me."
"You're Katherine's brother?" Marcus asked at once.
"Yeah, exactly. I've been going through some options in my head, considering a couple of different directions. I thought I'd call you directly, and find out what the deal with this apartment is."
Marcus kept his voice even. He didn't want to sound overly eager or pushy. Katherine had asked for his help in keeping her brother close by, since she knew he wasn't likely to step foot back near the Brownstone anytime soon. "Well, she probably told you that I'm in orthopedics at St. Joseph's, and most of my time is split between the hospital, and my fiance." He mentioned casually. "The room's available if you want it."
"Just like that?"
"You come on a good recommendation. I'm actually off tomorrow, if you want to come see the place."
"Uh...yeah. That would be great."