"Will you move over?" Cris snipped at me.

"Where?" I snipped back. "There isn't any more room!"

"Good lord, we haven't even left yet." Raph said from the outside of the van.

Leo looked his large special turtle ops team over, probably the most undisciplined, rowdy, noisy, unstealthy, squabbly spec ops team out there. "This isn't going to work. There is no way we are all going to fit in here." He turned to Mikey. "Let's go get that old trailor, some of us are going to have to ride in that."

We immediately started arguing over who was going to ride in that piece of shit. Caitlin and Marina just looked at us like we were all nuts.

"I'm not riding in it. I don't fit." Raph said.

"That thing gives me clausmictobia." Casey said

"You scared of Santa Claus?" Cris asked him laughing. "I don't want to ride in it. Make Leo ride in it."

"He's driving you moron." I told her.

"I'll drive!" Came from Mikey as he and Leo brought the trailer around.

"Shut up Mikey." We all told him.

"Enough!" Leo snapped. He looked us over. "Vicky, Marina and Mikey. In the trailer."

"Why me?" I asked him.

He gave me a level look. "Because, you and Marina, since she assures me she is at fighting capacity, are better suited for it. Caitlin can't fight and Cris isn't as strong as you two are and if I put Casey in there someone is going to be tempted to throw him out. Mikey is going with you because he is the smallest one of us to fit in there. If something goes wrong at least I know you can defend yourselves."

"I'm not that strong." I mumbled to him.

"Tell that to the chair, dear one." He smiled. "It's completely unusable. Your getting stronger and you don't even notice it. Soon your training is going to have to pick up to accommodate for that."

"Now that's a cheery thought." I sighed.

'And of course there is this advantage. Perfect time to train it.'

"Fine, I'll ride in the stupid trailer." I heard Cris snickering and I flipped her the bird as I made my way to where Mikey had finished hooking it up. "Looks like we are riding back here with you, funny boy." I told him.

Marina came up quietly behind me. It seemed like she was actually nervous about something, but she climbed into the trailer without saying a word. Mikey and I followed her in and Raph tied the tarp down over us. Well this was going to be a fun trip. We all sat leaning against the side as Leo lurched the thing into motion and we bounced along. Yup, a real fun ride.

For awhile we rode in silence until Mikey started throwing little pieces of garbage out from under the tarp at other vehicles. "Will you stop that?" I snapped at him. "Are you trying to get us in trouble?"

He just shrugged. "I'm bored."

"What a fascinating reason to get the cops called on us."

"Oh, I didn't think about that."

"Sometimes I wonder if you do think."

"Only when I have to. It makes my head hurt."

I couldn't hold back the laugh. He was such a nut. Marina was watching us thoughtfully as we kept exchanging jokes and quips. I was trying to keep him entertained so he wouldn't get into trouble again by harassing passing motorists. After a while she finally spoke up and what she had to say stunned me for a moment. "I'm sorry. I fully understand if you hate me but I just wanted you to know that I truly regret my actions the first time we met."

Mikey and I looked at each other in stunned shock for a moment. "I don't hate you." Mikey told her. "I never did. Was a little shocked that a pretty face could be so sneaky, but I didn't hate you."

"Oh, and I can't be sneaky?" I teased him.

"No. You just go right up and hit folks." He grinned at me then turned back to Marina. "Raph and Leo were the ones that were wanting to rip you apart to find out if your heart was as cold as it seemed."

"Mikey!" I would have slapped him if he were sitting closer.

"Well it's true." He grinned.

"I'm surprised they let me live." She said quietly. "And let me help."

He looked at her a moment, his eyes studying her. "You still don't fully understand do you?"

"Understand what?"

"They wouldn't have, if Donnie didn't vouch for you. They trust his instincts more than their own eyes. If Donnie says your trust worthy, they will believe him. Just like they believed me when I said the same thing about Caitlin."

"If I remember right though it took awhile for it to sink in." I smiled. "They weren't to thrilled about her either at first."

She dropped her head down to her knees. "I still don't understand. Why did he fight so hard for me? I did nothing to deserve it."

"Because it's who he is." Mikey told her. "He fixes things. He saw something in you that was broken and he wanted to make it better."

She narrowed her yes at him. "Are you telling me that he just saw me as something to fix?"

He just kept his calm gaze. "There are more ways than one to fix something. And I think you know that. He wouldn't go through all of that effort if there wasn't something in you worth saving. He saw it when the rest of us, including you, wouldn't or couldn't. You are obviously worth it to him."

She looked back at him, and her eyes filled with tears.

'Maybe there is some hope for Mikey after all'

'I never doubted him. You and your brothers seriously take him for granted.'

'Actually we don't. He's more valuable to this family than he knows.'

'Maybe you should tell him.'

'And watch his ego flare? I don't think so.'

I just smiled slightly.

By now Marina had gotten control of herself and after a few moments she looked at me. "So, what's the story with you?" She asked. "Bishop had told me you wouldn't be a problem with my enhanced abilities if I ran into you."

I regarded her a moment. Well if she was going to work with us, she had a right to know I guess. "That's because something happened that he didn't know about. Let's just say thanks to dear Mikey here, and Donnie's quick thinking, I survived an unfortunate accident."

Mikey winked at Marina. "She's got my blood in her and it gave her super turtle powers." He grinned.

"Super turtle? Do I look like a turtle to you?"

"Hey, I keep hoping. It would be kinda cool if you woke one day looking like a girl version of us."

"I'll pass thank you."

"Don't you fear you could turn though?" Marina asked me.

I sighed, I had thought about that, more than a few times. "If it happens then it happens. Donnie monitors me on a regular basis and seems to think it won't go that far. But he has told me I will change slightly and probably live longer. But as for full blown turtle mutation, he doesn't see it happening." I smiled at her. "Besides, if it hadn't happened I wouldn't have the twins."

After that the conversation included her. She seemed to grow more comfortable talking to us as we made the effort to know each other better. I knew she wouldn't tell me everything about her, but she was at least trying. I found that under that hard exterior I saw when we first met was a confused person who had been blinded by the lies of a master serpent. In a way she seemed very fragile to me despite her hard shell.

She was a lot like Raph. Except he just has a hard showing his inner softie. He knew it was there, we knew it was there he just had to dig deep to find it sometimes. It was just easier to rant and rave like a dipshit for him than to actually admit that something touched him deeply. With Marina she had driven it away so she could fulfil her mission that Bishop had set her out to do. Now she was finding out that she wasn't even meant to survive the damn tests so she had built this armour for nothing and was trying to find that inner piece she had thrown away. I wasn't sure I could help her find it but I was fairly sure someone else had already taken up that task.

I could feel the trailer start to slow down and finally it stopped altogether and shortly after Raph had untied the tarp. "We're here." He told us as he helped us out. "It's over that ridge." He pointed across the landscape to a hilly spot about a mile and a half away.

Leo came walking over to us. "Marina, do you know anything about this place?"

She shook her head. "I didn't even know-" she stopped as her eyes widened.

Leo looked at her with a little concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just..."

"They are here." Caitlin told us as she joined us. "I feel them too." She frowned slightly. "Something feels...off." Marina nodded her head in agreement.

"What do you mean by 'off'?" Raph asked them.

"One of them is normal, the other three just feel, off. There isn't anyway to explain it." Caitlin told him.

Why was I getting that 'shit isn't going to go as planned' feeling? Leo was also looking in the direction of the compound through eyes narrowed in thought. "I know this doesn't need to be said, but be careful in there." He looked around at us. "I mean it, no out of hand antics in there."

Mikey put on a grossly exaggerated innocent face. "How dare you suggest anything like that. Us goofing around...pfft."

I gave Leo an amused look. "You really didn't expect him to take this serious did you?" Leo rolled his eyes.

Mikey however took on a sterner tone. "Don't ever think I don't take this serious." He told us. "Trust me, I'm taking this very serious. And you'll see that if any of those asswipes get in my way." Raph walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder, but said nothing.

Leo gave him a small smile. "I know." Then he turned and led the way to the compound. We didn't move to fast, it was still daylight out but the sun was starting to go down. We wanted that darkness, it was our ally. We reached the ridge but held back just before crossing it instead we dropped down to our stomaches and crawled over the top to look over the complex.

"What the fuck is this shit..." Raph muttered.

"Holy crap, Leo how are we going to get in there?" I asked him stunned. This was by far the most secured facility I've seen. He didn't just have a fucking fence he had a god damned wall, a twenty foot high fucking wall and even from here I could see the flicker of electricity coming from the strands of wire on top of it. Towers were placed evenly along the wall and I was going to assume that there might be some sharpshooters in there. Guards out the ass and the place was huge. Like really huge. Hangers and garages were all over the place along with a large main building.

"I think I should have stayed home for this one." Casey mumbled.

"Oh quit your griping." Raph told him. "You know you would have came anyway if we knew about this before hand."

"Yeah, I probably would have."

"I think we found his main base in this area." Leo muttered. "And by all the activity down there, he's got something going on." He pointed to one of the garages where there was a lot of activity.

"Still don't help us to get in there." Raph told him.

Leo sighed in frustration. "I don't know Raph. I don't see how we can get in there. Everything I come up with we would have to be crazy to try."

"Well, what's wrong about a plan so crazy it gets us in?" Mikey grinned. "I'm good at those."

Leo looked at him. "I must be crazy for even considering this." He muttered. "What do you suggest?"

Mikey gave him one of those grins and my heart dropped. Somehow I knew we would all get in, but were going to kill him when we get out...if we got out.