Rise of the Guardians (in training)

by Waruitenshi

The turtles make four quirky human friends who are really mutants with special powers. And as the turtles engage in their adventures, these four humans secretly go about their duties as Guardians in training for the Utroms in their war against the Kraang. Characters & OC's 18 plus instead of 15. Romances, fluff, rivals, action, etc. Rated M to be safe. AU 2012 Series.

26. The Gauntlet

Disclaimer: Ch. 1

Author's Note(s): Okay, so just remember that depending on the episodes, lots of time typically passes between most of them. In one comic I read for "TMNT: New Animated Adventures" Leo took a whole month to plan a particular training contest to prove who was the number one turtle. LoL So they've had a lot of bonding time with Jenny to an extent, as they have with April and some of my other OC's depending on the turtle and the OC. In other words, it may not seem like it, but time does pass in the cartoon and my fic. X3

Remember to leave a nice review to show your love and support, or just wanna say which pairing you love the most in this fic, feel free. Either of these is always appreciated. ^_^

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"The Gauntlet"

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April was walking down the street, minding her own business. Just out and about, when the sound of something swooping down awfully close and a shadow flying over her path caught her attention; putting her on edge and causing her to stop what she was doing on her cell phone to look around.

At first, she thought it was just her imagination, and that maybe she was just being paranoid. But then, it happened again! She yelped and then gave a panicked gasp when something popped up from a rooftop to screech at her.

April took off running; turning the corner sharply and just barely felt the creature whoosh by her. She ran into a bank with a glass front, panting as and feeling her heart was about to burst from her chest with fright, as she spun around to see if whatever it had been was still after her.

There was a pause, and a sense of relief began to wash over April as she sighed. But then she saw the shadow again, and then... BAM! A mutant pigeon hit the glass, making the scream that had been on the verge of wailing out halt at the rather ridiculous display of the beastly thing plastered on the window as it gave a squeaky groan and thwacked on the ground.

She went out to see if it was okay, feeling kind of bad for the mutant bird, but then it popped up, eyed her and took off. As she gazed up at it with a disturbed look on her face and hugged herself, she couldn't help but voice her disconcertion aloud. "My life has gotten really weird..."

And with that, April went back into the bank where she knew she'd be safe and sent a text to Jenny letting her know what had happened; seeing as it was still daylight out and she felt like she needed someone with her that she could trust as that pigeon thing really freaked her out.

Back at the lair, Raph and Leo were sparring, when their tallest brother called them over. "Check it out guys!" Donnie said excitedly as he came into the dojo holding a handful of white things that looked like eggs. "We are about to take our ninjutsu to a whole new level!"

"Cool!" Leo said; using the distraction to foot sweep his red banded bro off his feet, and smirking as the turtle groaned and fell flat on his shell. Donnie spared Raph a look before he continued on to tell them all about his new invention on an old trick.

"Last night, I figured out how to make ninja smoke bombs!" The brainy turtle shouted; being all psyched about it since he and Jenny worked hard on making and perfecting them for a while, and last night Donnie had finally finished the last of the batch on his own; since Jen had to go home.

It took him a while without her there to remind him, but after a few tries, he'd gotten the tiring process just right! He'd have to remember to tell Jen later, Don mused unconsciously to himself in his excitement.

To better show his bros what he was talking about, Donatello tossed one down and POOF! He was gone in a puff of purple-blue and black smoke; only to reappear grinning like a Cheshire cat behind his brothers, who all stared in wide eyed amazement. "Whooooa!" Both brothers gasped in mutual awe.

"Now, to make them, I carefully drill two holes in an eggshell without cracking it, slowly blow out the contents, wait for the inside to dry, then pour in flash powder and seal both holes with wax." Donatello edified expertly; remembering how the redhead had explained it to him and feeling rather proud about it.

"Blah, blah, science blah." Raph mocked coolly as he made a mouth puppet with his hand. "Do it again!" Donnie frowned. "What I'm trying to tell you guys is, they take a looooong time to make, so use them sparingly." He warned; though he may have had Jenny to help him as she had offered to do, it was still a pain to make them.

"I'm makin' breakfast!" Michelangelo called in a singsong way from the kitchen; making Donnie's eyes grow large with alarm. "Who wants omelets?" There was a pause before what the youngest had said fully smacked Don over the head. "Omelets?!" Donnie gasped to himself as he looked at one of his eggs and then recalled where he was keeping... oh no!

"Mikey, don't!" The brainy turtle cried, but it was too late, and a loud poof was heard going off and coughing could be heard as their youngest brother appeared in a puff of colorful smoke in the archway; holding the bowl of egg smoke bombs. "Uh, I think that egg was rotten." A somewhat singed Mikey coughed out.

"Those aren't eggs, Mikey. They're ninja smoke bombs." Donatello reprimanded with his hands on his hips, while Leo laughed so hard he had to grab onto Raph for support. Okay, that MAY have not been the right thing to have said, as they saw Mikey's eyes grow big like an uber happy puppy's.

"Shut up." The bubbly turtle breathed in disbelief as he grinned widely, before grabbing one and poofing up into the tree. "This is the best day of my life!" Mikey said; emphasizing almost each word with a colorful puff of smoke as he ninja'd around the dojo.

"Mikey, stop!" Donnie shrieked in frustration. Man! It'd taken him and Jen HOURS to make all those! Michelangelo paused with a considering look on his face as he leaned coolly against the tree; an egg snuggly between his two fingers, before he tossed it down and popped up behind his tallest and VERY irked sibling to place his hands on the others shoulders.

"I love you, man. Seriously!" Michelangelo praised in that well-meaning way of his; giving Donnie a cheek nuzzle and a brotherly smooch that just ticked off Donnie even more.

"Guys!" Thankfully for Mikey, before Donnie could retaliate, April called from the other room; running toward them in a panic like she'd just seen a scary beast; which technically, she had.

She had hurried along, having practically dragged a blindfolded Jenny with her and leaving the poor redhead to fend for herself near the entrance, and nearly tumbling over the turnstile as the Jen tried to slow down from the way April had been pulling her along like a rag doll, while the redette tugged the bandana down with dizzy anime swirls in her eyes.

"Guys, you'll never believe what happened to me." April exclaimed breathlessly as she slowed down near the turtles. "I think I'm gonna hurl…" Jen muttered in slight irritation as she placed a hand against the pinball machine and leaned against it as Raph went to go see if his fellow Red was alright.

"You okay, Red?" The red banded turtle inquired as he tried not to chuckle at how comical Jenny looked hugging the retro gaming device and groaned in response as she buried her face in her arm.

Between the gingers frantic chatter about being almost attacked by a mutant pigeon that had gone on and ON since meeting up with her at that bank, and how wildly she'd been jerked around by the shorter teen, Jenny felt like a headache might be coming on to make the slight nausea even worse.

Raph gave Jen a consoling pat on the shoulder and shook his head with a small smirk as he turned to see what was going on with the freaked out ginger. "All right, April, calm down. Are you okay?" Donnie asked as he hurried over to comfort the ginger haired angel rather than the redhead.

Though he did note with a slight frown at how quickly Raphael had gone to help Jen, and found it irritated him just a little for some reason. But he tried to shrug that off and tend to April instead. "I am being hunted. By a giant pigeon!" April told them; but to the four turtles it sounded more melodramatic than dead serious and scared.

In fact, Raph actually ended up laughing because he didn't think she was serious. But when his brothers shot him mutual disapproving looks, he stopped and frowned. Thankfully Jen was still recuperating and hadn't much the desire to look up just yet. "I can't be the only one who finds that funny." The red banded ninja more stated than asked bemusedly.

"It's not funny, Raph. There's a creature out there trying to hurt my April." Donatello scolded; telling himself that he was supposed to be upset that April was upset. The ginger shot him a look which made Donnie correct himself, and even Jenny glanced up with a curious brow raised at that.

"Our April... April." Don grinned sheepishly while correcting himself quickly as he gestured to the girl in question; who went back to looking upset. Jenny came over and sat down beside the distraught ginger, if only for moral support.

Besides, she was the only one who actually believed April had been harassed by a pigeon mutant, as frankly, Jen had seen much freakier stuff than that. Besides, April wasn't the type to make up crazy stuff like that. So to her, it seemed plausible enough to investigate.

Needing comfort from a friend, the ginger turned and threw her arms around Jenny's torso and hugged her; catching the redhead by slight surprise as she hesitated for a small second, before she reached up to pat the other on the back with one hand and pet the top of April's head with the other as the big sister figure made small shushing sounds.

The purple turtles jaw dropped at the sight, before steam came off his head as he glowered heatedly at the redhead for being the one April sought comfort from. Jenny gave him an apologetic look and a small shrug; figuring Donnie might just be jealous he wasn't the one getting a hug.

It wasn't like she made April seek her out all the time or that she just gave off that protective sisterly vibe. It just happened, and it wasn't very fair that Donnie blamed her for what April did or didn't do all the time. Or whatever it was that irked the turtle.

"This is serious. I'd better get Splinter." Mikey declared somberly before using a smoke bomb and disappearing. "We don't really need-" Leo began, but in an instant later, as the smoke cleared from where Mikey stood, Master Splinter now resided all awesomely. "Michelangelo said you wanted to see me?" Splinter inquired smoothly.

So, as she sat closely next to Jenny (or too closely in Donatello's opinion), and the turtles and their sensei crowded around her, April told them about what had happened to her earlier with the pigeon. "His talons were razor sharp! He would have torn me to pieces if he hadn't slammed into the glass."

Raphael busted out laughing again, before his brothers, and even Jenny shot him a disapproving look. "Really? Just me?" Raph groaned as he was suddenly smacked upside the head by Splinter's cane.

"Raphael! Clearly April is upset." His father figure chided. "Yeah, dude, that's so insensitive." Mikey chimed in just as chastising, before he turned sweetly to April. "Do you need a tissue?" April thought it was a nice offer, but told him "I think I'm okay."

"I'll get you a tissue." Mikey said; mostly wanting an excuse to use the awesome smoke bombs again and poofing away. Making April gasp and Jenny snicker as Mikey popped up behind the redhead on April's other side.

"We don't have any tissues. Can I make you some soup?" The mischievous turtle asked with a smile as he held up another egg bomb. "Stop it!" Donnie cried in irritation as he stood up and grabbed the egg from his annoying little brother. "Don't worry, April, we won't let anything happen to you." Don assured as he turned back to her.

"Donnie's right. We're gonna set a trap for this pigeon man and make sure he never bothers you again." Leonardo concurred; happy for any chance to go on a mission and be all heroic. That way he'd have something to tell Akira about the next time he went to visit her at the 24/7.

"Well, I know what we can use as bait." Donatello voiced before Mikey cut in. "Bread crumbs!" But Mikey paused and looked thoughtful at the look they shot him. "Pigeons eat bread crumbs." He reasoned; wondering why they were looking at him like he was stupid. He really hated that.

"I meant April." Donnie clarified; hands on his hips. "You're gonna let him eat April?! I thought you liked her!" The youngest turtle shouted in outrage and confusion as he put himself between his brothers and April in a protective manner that Jenny thought was sweet, even though the redette had an idea of what Donnie meant.

"Yeah!" April said as she peered over Mikey's arm; wondering why Donatello was so quick to toss her to the pigeon monster and wondering if it had anything to do with her still having refused to accept his MyFace friend request. Geez! Talk about holding a grudge...

"Don't sweat it. We've got your back." Donnie held up his hands to show he meant no harm as he spoke. "All right, Mighty Mutants, let's do this!" Leo stated all heroically; his voice a little deeper as he struck a pose.

"'Mighty Mutants'? What, 'Dancing Dorks' was already taken?" Raph harped; wondering why their eldest brother had to be such an otaku for that "Space Heroes" show. Leo pouted and Jen covered her mouth to stifle a snicker at the remark. "Wait!" Splinter shouted; halting them as they all made to leave.

"We do not yet know what you are facing. Perhaps you should study your enemy before confronting him." Splinter advised; unfortunately, the only one to even bother considering his advice was Jenny, as assessing the situation and those in it was something she took to heart. "With all due respect, Sensei, it's a pigeon." Leo said more than a tad arrogantly.

"What you know is dangerous to your enemy." Splinter began. "What you think you know is dangerous to you." Jenny finished before she could think better of it; as it was one of the many sagely things that Haruhi-sensei reminded them of often. After all, it was the job of a good mentor.

Splinter regarded the redette in surprise, as Jenny realized her slip and quickly looked away as her cheeks flushed pink and she ran a hand through her hair. The turtles thought it was a bit odd, since hardly any of them ever seemed to follow Splinter's line of thought, much less what he quoted. But the rat master shrugged it off and turned back to his eldest son to continue what he was saying. "I fear you are all becoming overconfident."

"Sensei, in the past few months, we've taken down giant spiders,-" Leonardo began overconfidently. "Wasn't it just one giant spider?" Jenny mused aloud; glancing at Raph curiously and then Leo. "-plant creatures,-" Leo tried to go on and pretend he hadn't heard the human.

"Pretty sure it was just one." Jen stated with certainty as Leo shot her a pouting glare. "-alien robots and an army of ninjas." Leo managed to finish as he tried to ignore the redheads outburst of corrections; shooting her a look to dare her to correct that, but the boffin just gave a shrug and smirked. Figuring she'd let the turtle have that one. Even if it wasn't technically an army by general standards.

"Maybe we're not overconfident. Maybe we're just that good." The blue banded turtle grinned before he and his cocky brothers took off with April. But Jenny hung back a moment as Splinter grumbled at his sons dangerous behavior and gave him an understanding look; seeing as Casey could be much the same way once he set his mind to something.

"I'll try to keep them out of trouble, Splinter-san. I mean, I can't make any promises, but…" Jen placed her hand lightly on the tall mutants shoulder in a gesture of assurance. "I'll try to bring them back in one piece at least..." She offered sympathetically. Splinter's eyes softened as he looked down at the mature behaving redhead, who clearly cared for his sons and gave a curt nod. "Thank you, Jenny."

Jen smiled some and gave him a quick bow, before hurrying off to catch up with April who was waiting just outside to blindfold her and lead her along to a point where they could take it off.

She just hoped she'd be able to keep her promise to Splinter-san. He was kind, and reminded her much of her own sensei, and Jen didn't want to let him down. Or for her turtle friends to get hurt; even that hardheaded purple banded one. Besides, if Donnie ended up hurt or worse, who would she have to mess with?

Meanwhile, back at the villainous headquarters of the Foot clan, barking and snarling could be heard coming from inside, as Shredder's pet Akita Inu, Hachiko wasn't too happy about Chris Bradford trying to pet him.

"It's okay, Hachiko, I'm not gonna hurt you." Chris said in what he thought was a soothing voice, while Xever watched a ways behind with his arms crossed aloofly while hoping to see the idiota (idiot) getting bitten.

Maybe Hachiko would take off one of the spoiled brats fingers. Xever couldn't help smirking sadistically at the thought, which only widened when Bradford cried out in pain as the dog nailed him right on the hand.

"He is not pleased with you." The Shredder told the brutish brunet; spooking the grown man and making both henchmen turn around, as their master stood stoically behind them a he began to walk toward his throne; because let's face it, that's probably how he saw it.

"Nor am I. I entrusted you both with the task of destroying Splinter and his loathsome turtles." He paused to glare disapprovingly down at Bradford, as the henchman bowed his head with the look of a kicked puppy on his face. "I spent years molding you in my image, teaching you my darkest secrets, and you shame me with your incompetence!" Shredder berated brutally.

Xever couldn't help but chuckle, though quickly regretting it when Shredder rounded suddenly on him; his sharp armor making the chilling sound of blades slicing through the air. "You!" The towering man exclaimed just as cuttingly as his armor while he was right up in the surprised Brazilians face before he knew what to do.

"I should have left you to rot in that prison where I found you." His boss stated angrily before turning away, leaving Xever to grimace at having been reminded of he incident and talked down to for it, as Shredder ascended the steps and his henchmen began to try and reason with him to get out of any punishment he might and probably would subject them to.

"The turtles have been lucky so far, but it won't last forever." Bradford tried to defend from where he knelt on the floor. "The next time we meet, I promise you-" Xever began; his tone heated rather than cowering like Bradford's.

"Enough!" Shredder's voice rang out through the large room as he whipped around with eerie elegance and sat down upon his chair. "I am weary of your excuses. I will now destroy the turtles myself!" Shredder told them with fierce and dark certainty.

Elsewhere in the city, in an alley could be found a certain ginger and redhead walking together. "Here I am, walking around in the big city. All alone!" April said loudly as she walked awkwardly down an alleyway; flailing her arms around in a goofy way to try and better attract attention.

"How are you alone, when I'm right here?" Jenny asked with a raised eyebrow as she walked like a normal person beside her friend in her usual disguise, with her bow and an arrow tucked under her jacket; trying not to get smacked by one of the gingers flailing arms and making the shorter teen sweat drop.

April cleared her throat as she thought it better not to answer that. "Heh, um... Oh! I hope no crazy pigeon man sneaks up on me and my friend! That would be the last thing I'd want!" Jenny face palmed and wondered why she gave up hanging out with Danny, Kaia, and Martin for this.

Oh, right... because Marty would just rope them into another session of Mutants and Mazes again. There was only so many times she could play that game and NOT think about charging her game piece and exploding the damn thing.

"What are you doing?" Donnie whispered incredulously as he popped out from behind a dumpster. "You wanted me to be bait. I'm bait." April told him in slight annoyance; having only agreed to this crazy idea because Jenny promised to do it with her.

Jenny snickered; surprised Donatello was actually showing he had a problem with something April did but finding it somewhat refreshing. You'd think with how perfect he acted like the ginger was that he'd continue to keep quiet about it. "Yeah, but I don't think he meant for your acting skills to stink like it, Girly." Jen quipped quietly. The ginger shot her a glaring pout; making her snicker some more.

"Exactly! That's not how bait talks!" Oh good grief! He was agreeing with the redhead again, and against the ginger haired girl he was supposed to have feelings for no less! Why did the universe have to be so cruel?

"How do you know how bait talks?!" April hissed back since they were whispering. "Well I would think he would, considering how many times I've baited him." Jenny played lightly; meaning the type of baiting where you tease someone instead of luring kind.

It was Donnie's turn to glower at Jen; who was at this point, very thankful that looks couldn't literally kill, or else she'd have been nothing but a singe mark on the street years ago when she was still a sassy little kid.

"Oh shut up!" Donnie spat; making Jenny's smirk widen as she stuck out her tongue at him. Don rolled his eyes and then rounded on April before he could think better of it. "And I know bait doesn't talk back."

The turtles popped up from their hiding spots to comically "Oooooo" in unison with Jenny at Donatello's sassy reply, and Jen had to give him credit for being able to sass back April for once.

"Oh, no, you didn't!" Mikey teased cheekily as he hung upside-down from the fire escape and waved his finger, before the three siblings just as quickly ducked back into their hiding places; leaving Donnie to stand there embarrassed and chuckling nervously as April stared daggers at him.

"Heh... Just act natural." Don tried to save as he shuffled off back to hide in the shadows. April gave a sigh of aggravation as Jen offered a consoling pat on her shoulder. "Hey, the sooner we find the pigeon guy, the sooner you can go home and feel safe. 'Kay?" Jenny reasoned, and the ginger gave a sullen nod. "Okay…"

April took a deep breath. "Here I am, acting natural." April began even less enthusiastically as the redhead face palmed again. "Just totally defenseless against any, I don't know, hideous mutant pigeon guy who might happen upon me." She went on.

"I'm starting to think I should've gone to game night after all." Jen sighed under her breath as she and April started walking again. But then, there came a cawing from behind them and a whooshing sound from up above that they pretended to ignore.

And just as it came close, and April turned around and threw up her hands in fright, did Jenny whirl around to unsheathed her collapsible bow with an arrow primed and ready to scare it.

Which worked, as it made the creature slow down and try to back up. Giving Donnie the time he needed to aim and use his new tasing device on the pigeon mutant; zapping it and causing it to fall down to the ground where Leo, Raph and Mikey tackled and held it down after Leo yelled "Now!"

"Okay, okay, uncle! Jeez Louise!" The pigeon man cried as he slapped at the ground with his free winged hand. "And you said I wasn't good bait." April said cheekily to Donnie as Jenny stood beside her with her weapon still poised to dissuade the pigeon man from trying anything.

"Actually, he didn't say you weren't good bait. He just said your bait acting skills sucked." The redhead blurted out matter of factly; thinking that her human friend should at least try and be somewhat accurate.

Donnie sweat dropped at the glare the ginger gave him as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry... Just sayin'." Jen apologized with it being her turn to sweat drop at realizing her mistake.

"Okay, start talking, pigeon man." Leonardo ordered; taking away the unwanted angry attention April was giving Donnie. "I have a name!" The pigeon man squawked. "Yeah, we just don't care what it is." Raphael told him meanly.

"I kinda wanna know." Jenny said curiously as she relaxed the hold on her bow and lowered it slightly. The creature looked somewhat gratefully to her, before glaring at Raph as he turned his head all the way around and then looking up to the redhead he thought seemed nice. "It's Pete!" Pete told them.

"Why were you trying to hurt April, Pete?" Leo asked; all the turtles glaring right back at the creature. But Jenny couldn't help feeling bad for the mutant. "I didn't wanna hurt her. I was just bringing her a message. From her father!" Pete answered with a hurt look on his feathery face. April gasped.

"Let him up!" She told them quickly; wanting to know what message this Pete character had for her. Pete stood up as the turtles rose up off of him and began to tell them his tale.

"We were both guests of the Kraang. They poured some ooze on me and turned me into this!" Pete the pigeon mourned woefully as he pressed his hands to his face and slid them down it.

"Oh, that must have been horrible." The redhead offered sympathetically; knowing that being mutated could be a painful and horrifying process from what she'd seen the Kraang do.

She lowered her bow and arrow now that Pete was obviously not a threat. "Yeah, being turned into a pigeon." April added disgustedly with a shudder; clearly not understanding at all what Jen meant.

"Actually, I started out as a pigeon." Pete informed; feeling a little offended by the ginger. "Told you the bread crumbs would have worked." Mikey told them miffedly, before Pete grabbed him and began to look for the bread crumbs.

"You've got bread crumbs?!" Pete gasped frantically. He ended up hugging the turtle like they would come out if he did. "Um, my father?" April interrupted a tad impatiently while she watched Pete now trying to shake the crumbs from the turtle as he held poor Michelangelo upside down.

"Oh, right!" Pete said and dropped the turtle on his head. Jenny rushed to his side to help Mikey up; rubbing the poor terrapins head where he'd hurt it as Mikey whimpered for extra sympathy.

Whenever he'd get hurt around Jenny, the orange banded prankster couldn't help taking advantage of how nice it was to have someone fuss over him in the sweet, sisterly way that the redhead did. It was nice to be cared about. And like Danny, Jenny treated him a lot better than his brothers did at times.

But Jen was just used to doing that when Casey got hurt; even if she went much easier on the bubbly turtle since he was such a tenderhearted terrapin. He was also fun to pull little pranks with.

And because Jen treated him so well, Mikey tended to exclude the redette from his target list. Though it had a lot to do with the fact that Jenny was really good at retaliating; quite often with stuff that blew up. So Mike learned that it was better to have the explosive enthusiast on his side, than against him.

Pete handed April a phone with a recording on it and hit play as she took it. "Something terrible is about to happen." Spoke the recorded voice of Kirby O'Neal as Jenny began to get a sense of impending doom; which was totally never a good thing, even in the boom happy boffins book.

"I don't know what, but it's extremely important that you get out of the city as soon as you can. Save yourself. Remember, I love you." And the recording for April ended there. "I love you too, Daddy." April uttered sadly, on the verge of tears as she closed her eyes tight and held the phone to her chest, before she abruptly turned to Jenny and lay her head on the taller teens shoulder.

Feeling bad for the girl, Jen put an arm around her and rubbed small circles on her back. "Shhh... It's gonna be alright, April. We'll find him. But you have to stay strong for his sake, okay?" The redhead assured her quietly.

April sniffled a little and nodded as she pulled away and met the others soothing green eyes; glad she had her unofficial big sister with her for support. "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?" Leo asked Pete. "I'm just the messenger." Pete told them with a shrug.

"We have to get you out of the city!" Donnie said worriedly; hoping maybe if April saw how concerned he was for her wellbeing, that she might start to see him as someone to turn to like Jenny. Or in this case, rather than Jenny.

"I'm not going anywhere without my dad!" The ginger angrily told him; a bit outraged and offended that Donatello would even think that she would leave her parent like that after everything.

"But you heard him, something terrible is gonna happen." Donnie tried pleadingly; hoping she would change her mind, and wondering why April almost always gave him some kind of attitude.

Seeing that the two of them were about to get in a fight that would just waste time and hurt feelings unnecessarily, the redette thought it best to put on a happy face and put a stop to it like she was used to doing by now. "Then we'd better hurry!" Jen intervened brightly as she stepped between them when she saw how April looked like she wanted to slap the green off of poor Donnie.

April gave a nod of agreement, but the brainy ninja couldn't take it anymore; mistaking Jenny's attempt to shield him from April's wrath as her just trying to make the tall terrapin look bad.

"You know what, I've had it with you and you're constant interference!" Donnie began fumingly; just plain fed up. "But Donnie-" The redhead tried to reason, but the jealous turtle cut her off crassly.

"Dude, what is your problem? I'm just trying to help! You're acting like you dislike me or something." Jen retorted exasperatedly; beginning to feel a little fed up herself. "That's because I don't!" The purple banded turtle replied; his mouth running away before his mind could catch it.

Everyone except Jenny stood there rather taken aback. "Yeah, well- wait…" Jen paused and blinked; Donnie's words having smacked her right in the face as she stared at him in confusion. "You… don't like me?" It came out quieter and more hurt than Jenny had wanted it to; disliking others seeing how bothered she was by something.

"No! And you know what? We didn't need you now, and we certainly don't need you to help us save April's dad. So why don't you just go home or something, instead of dragging us down like the liability you are!" There was a stunned silence as reddish brown stared into shocked and hurt green.

"Dude, what the shell?! You can't talk to my buddy, Red, like-" Raphael began, but Jenny threw up an arm and gave a slight shake of her head that stopped him from defending her, as she didn't need it.

"Heh, what? No witty come back for that?" Donatello mocked as he crossed his arms over his chest with a mean, victoriously smug little smirk on his face, before it melted away into glower. Those green eyes merely narrowed barely a fraction in response.

"Face it, Jenny. You're just in the way." As Don took out his frustrations in berating her, Jenny's head bowed so that her bangs cast the top half of her face into shadow as her hands clenched into fists; her fingers curling over the bow and arrow in her left hand.

She couldn't believe Donatello could say such things! The redhead had hoped they were friends, and they were beginning to put all of this seemingly pointless hostility Donatello had for her for goodness knows what reason past them.

Okay, so maybe Jen wasn't able to be completely honest with them because her duties as a Guardian in training prevented it, and so even she admitted that she deserved his suspicion, but this? No... Just, no.

After all she'd done to go out of her way to try and be friends with him, and help him with things like figuring out a viable and sensible means of making smoke bombs or whatever it was he was working on, or putting up with his near constant mooning over April, and this is how the purple banded ninja showed his appreciation? Pfft! Well screw that!

The moment Donnie dared to utter that last insult, he ended up recoiling back slightly when those usually benevolent and playful green orbs stared up at him with a mixture of hurt, sadness and a piercing ferocity he hadn't seen there before that made Don instantly regret his outburst.

But afore the turtle could open his mouth again, the big mouthed terrapin received a sound slap across the face that seemed to silence the very night, as everyone stared wide eyed at the flabbergasted turtle.

Then, the redhead turned and marched swiftly right around him, and tossed down one of the smoke bombs she'd helped him create to the ground; vanishing from sight and leaving Donatello to stare flummoxed and remorsefully at the spot where the human had been as he rubbed the sore spot on his cheek where she'd struck him and wondering why he suddenly felt like crap instead of in the right…

"Donnie! What's wrong with you?!" April gasped in horror as she clapped her hands over her mouth. "Yeah, man! What the shell?! She's just tryin' to help, and you go and say THAT to her?!" Raphael shouted in angry disbelief, as he was so ticked, he gave Donnie a good whack upside the back of the head for having hurt his scarlet haired pal.

In Raph's mind, Donnie deserved a good shell kicking, but from the way Jen stopped him from doing so earlier, he knew the boffin would've been even more upset had he done that; which was the only thing saving Donnie's ungrateful shell at the moment. "Raph." Leo chided warningly; making said turtle scowl and huff.

Leonardo would've reprimanded his siblings behavior as well, but as the leader of the group and knowing they had more dire matters to contend with, he thankfully turned back to the pigeon and began talking again. It ebbed the tense silence that fell between them as Jenny stormed off. "Can you tell us where the Kraang are holding him?"

"I can, but it's gonna cost you a lot of bread." Pete told him in a sly way. "We're talking about actual bread, right?" Leo asked a tad uncertainly; wanting to make sure they were on the same page.

The pigeon nodded and cooed. "Yeah. Sourdough!" Pete replied enthusiastically. "Done." Leo agreed; figuring he could ask Jenny (if she was still talking to them after this) to get some later, or maybe use it as an excuse to visit Akira.

What with her working in a restaurant and all, she was bound to have access to bread, right? Though the tension was still there, they now had an objective to complete and so they had to put their heads back in the game.

"Let's roll!" Mikey chirped excitedly before tossing down a smoke bomb in the hopes of lightening the mood. But little did they know, that up above, some Foot ninja had been watching from the shadows.

Meanwhile, at the fish market, Xever was picking out a fish to bring to Akira later for her and her grandfather to prepare for him. This one was a type of snakehead fish. It was a rather ugly looking thing with fangs, reddish purple flesh and big yellow eyes!

Even though his flor bela (beautiful flower) seemed to have an accepting heart and mind when it came to himself and the previous fish he'd brought in, surely even she couldn't resist finding this one to be a hideous creature.

There was just no way, he thought in amusement as he picked it up with his hand to inspect it up close. He'd have to make sure the fish monger wrapped up the head so that the ravenet could have a bit of fun by chasing Akira around with it if it freaked the cute brunette out.

"That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen. Present company excluded." Chris remarked disgustedly; wondering why of all the fish, that Xever chose that one, as the thief tossed it to the merchant selling it. The smooth criminal smirked as he watched the idiota trying to get a grip on the slippery thing.

"So, we have a problem." Bradford began soberly with his hands on his hips as he stood behind his partner in crime. Xever rolled his eyes in exasperation; wondering why the heck Chris had to follow him about like some moping mongrel.

"No, you have a problem." The slim thug chuckled. "We've both failed Master Shredder. Can you live with that shame?" Chris argued; causing Xever's previously light mood to darken as he sighed gruffly.

"If I had the opportunity, I would crush those turtles like bugs!" The riled up roughen growled; his fingers curling into a crushing motion just before Bradford's phone began to ring.

Flipping it open and reading the message one of his minions had sent him, Chris smirked in a way that caught Xever's curiosity. "What is that?" He asked; hoping it wasn't just Shredder wanting to bust their balls again for failing. "Opportunity." The brunet told him with a light yet evil tone, just as the butcher knife the merchant was using came down to chop off the deadly fishes head.

But getting back to the turtles… "Piece of cake." Donnie exclaimed quietly as he managed to get the cover off of a vent where they were on the roof. As tall as he was, he had to stand on Mikey's shell to get it off. Jenny was sadly the only one absent, no thanks to Donnie.

Normally Jen would've gritted her teeth to help make sure April got her dad back, but Donnie had gone to far this time. After all, even someone as tolerant as the redhead did have her limits. Besides, if the Kraang were really up to something then she needed to consult her team and possibly her sensei, as this had to do with the WHOLE freakin' city.

So it wasn't like Jen had much choice in which one she had to choose to protect. The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, or they one as they say. And, in cases such as these, it was a sad truth to bear.

"Let's do this!" April loudly whispered; eager to go and save her dad. "We need you to wait here, April." Leonardo told her as he caught her by the shoulder to keep her back. "Are you crazy? My dad's in there!" The ginger argued.

"Along with who knows how many Kraang! This requires stealth and mobility. Leave it to the pros." The blue banded ninja countered; trying to assure her they could handle it. Heck, even if Jenny was there, he wouldn't have let April come along either. Yet another reason Jen knew it was a waste of time to hang around.

"I can't just do nothing!" April scoffed. "You won't be doing nothing. We need you to lower this rope when we give you the signal." He told her; as it was actually a very important job, as he handed their lifeline out to her.

And maybe, had the redhead been there to tell April they were right in leaving April behind to man the rope and that it was a job that mattered, she might've complied... Oh shell! Who was she kidding? Of course she wouldn't have! It was her dad whose life was at stake after all!

The turtles snuck about the Kraang base as stealthily as one could in a brightly lit white, purple and black base; taking out Kraang droids as they went, until they reached what looked like some kind of control room. "Donnie, hack into the system and see what you can find out about the Kraang's plot. Raph, you're with me. Mikey, you stay with Donnie." Leo ordered firmly.

"Why do I always get stuck with Mikey?" Donnie whined in protest. "Hey...!" Mikey squeaked; very hurt by the sudden insult. "I don't want him. And I'm in charge." Leo argued as he jabbed at his chest with his thumb.

"Hey!" Mikey squeaked again, but as usual, they ignored him and his feelings. Where the heck did this sudden hostility come from? Danny wouldn't have ever said something like THAT to him!

Nor would Jenny. The strong redette would've stuck up for him had she been there; making Michelangelo miss the archers presence even more. "Well, then make Raph take Mikey." Donnie countered.

"Over my dead body." Raphael objected coldly as he crossed his arms. "You know, I'm starting to think nobody wants to be with me!" Michelangelo voiced offendedly. Why didn't his own brothers want him on their team? He was useful… wasn't he?

"Fine, I'll just go off on my own." But when the bubbly ninja went to poof away with a smoke bomb, he accidentally ended up going through the wrong door. "That's a closet." The youngest turtle chuckled embarrassedly.

"Have fun, you two." Raph snarked as he walked out with Leo; who spared Don a smile. "Whoa. Um, huh. What's that button-" Mikey began as he became entranced by all the cool looking lit up things that screamed to be pressed and poked.

"Don't touch anything!" Donnie grabbed his little bros hand and squished it painfully with a small cracking sound; making Mikey grit his teeth to keep from making too much sound, before he chuckled sheepishly at the warning look the other gave him.

Leo and Raph hurried off and managed to find April's dad in a cell, and as Leo agreed with Mr. O'Neil about how stubborn his daughter was, the turtle began work on trying to get him out while Raphael kept watch.

All the while, Donnie was trying to figure out the complicated Kraang controls as Mikey pestered him with his little game of "What's that one do?" and Donnie repeatedly had to answer "I don't know." as he tried to fight off the orange banded pest to keep him from pressing something he shouldn't; causing Don to grow more and more agitated with his antics.

"Oooooo! That's a pretty one!" Mikey suddenly cried with wide eyes of excitement as he tried push it. "Just stop it!" Donnie snapped; fed up with his sibling as he smashed his fists down onto the console, which ironically granted them access to what he was looking for. "Ha, ha, I'm in!" The brainy turtle cheered as Mikey smirked.

"You're welcome." Mike said rather snidely to his sibling; betting Donnie was glad he was around now, before he ended up getting thrown back by the other and landing on his shell with an "Oof!" while Donnie went back to trying to figure out the plan.

"Uh oh...!" Donnie uttered as the schematics for the Kraang's plan popped up on screen. After seeing what the Kraang had in store for the city, Donatello concluded that they needed to find their brothers, and fast!

"Since it's taking Leo forever to pick that lock..." Raph began derisively; recalling how Jenny had told them to open it the first time and wondering why they simply didn't. "I'm working on it!" Leo groused as he worked.

"Maybe you can tell us what the heck's the deal with the Kraang." Raph continued. "They're aliens from another dimension. When they came here, they brought the mutagen with them." Kirby explained helpfully.

"Why? What's the point of turning people into monsters?" Leonardo asked bewilderedly. "The mutagen doesn't work the way they thought it would. Apparently the physical laws of their universe are different from ours." Kirby edified; maybe a little toooooo helpfully...

"So they're grabbing scientists to help them modify the ooze!" The blue banded ninja realized in horrified awe. "Wow, you figured it out! How's that lock coming?!" Raph mocked impatiently as the place rather creeped him out.

"So what do they want the ooze to do?" Leo asked; ignoring his brother. "I wish I knew." Kirby admitted as he bowed his head. "Leo, Raph, they've planted a mutagen bomb downtown!" Donnie told them in a panic as he came running around the corner with Mikey close behind.

"They're gonna use it to disperse ooze over half the city!" He told them, before his mood took a complete 360 when he saw Kirby. "Oh, hi, Mr. O'Neil. You're daughter's really nice." The helpless romantic in a half shell kindly told Kirby; causing the man to make a questioning face.

"Okay, we have to disarm that bomb! If I could just get this stupid door open!" Leo said; dragging Donnie back to reality. "Have you tried this?" Mikey asked as he smashed his hand down on a big button on the wall that he couldn't help thinking looked oddly familiar. "NO!" His brothers screamed in unison; as they knew exactly why that button looked familiar. Mikey chuckled embarrassedly.

"And that's why no one wants to be with you!" Raph scolded as he gave Mikey a jab to the chest; making Mikey feel even more lousy. "Got it!" Leo exclaimed triumphantly as the door opened. "Let's move!" He ordered, just as Kraang droids quickly marched in and the sound of laser fire met their ears.

Leonardo began cooing like a pigeon and weirding out his siblings when they ducked behind some crates to escape the gunfire. "What are you doing?!" Raph asked; thinking his bro had finally cracked. "April, throw the rope!" The red banded ninja yelled up at the opening they'd come in from.

"Dad!" April cried. "April!" Kirby yelled back; as Raph wondered why the heck April hadn't been hanging onto the rope and been ready for them, instead of having to run to get it and wasting precious escape time. Argh! They wouldn't have had this problem if Jenny had stuck around, Raph thought agitatedly.

And as the alien filled robots began to surround them and they began to get overwhelmed, even Donnie couldn't help thinking it would've been good to have someone up above laying down cover fire like the redhead usually did. Oh man... why couldn't he have kept his big mouth shut...?

"Mr. O'Neil, what are you doing?" Leo asked when he saw Kirby grab a Kraang gun that slid his way and began shooting. "Save my daughter. Save the city!" The human told them as he gave them the cover fire they so desperately needed to escape; causing Donatello to feel even worse about having chased Jenny away.

"Daddy, no!" April cried in distress for fear of losing her father yet again as the balding man ran into the fray to take the droids attention off of the turtles. "Go, go!" Leo ordered his brothers; not wanting to leave the man, but not having much of an option if they wanted to live.

"We can't leave him here!" Donnie tried to argue incredulously; he couldn't believe this was happening! This wasn't how it was supposed to go! "We don't have a choice!" Leonardo hissed; clearly upset with Donatello as well for having chased off their favorite archer.

The purple banded brother flinched as the guilt he felt began to roil up and eat away at his insides. And April's crying out "NO!" when the Kraang seized her father and drug him away did absolutely nothing to help.

And when the ginger had to cover her mouth with both hands to keep from screaming as a muffled whimper escaped her, and she turned and threw her arms around Donatello since he was the closest friend available; because Jenny wasn't there to comfort her, the geeky turtle didn't feel like he'd won anything.

As Donnie finally held April in his arms and felt nothing but soul crushing guilt and anguish because this was all his fault, instead of ecstatic that the ginger was finally giving him some attention, Donatello definitely knew that he'd done wrong by Jenny. And that if for no one else's sake but April's, he needed to make things right...

"We'll get him back, April." Donnie told her solemnly as he pushed her away to look at her. "I promise." Oh man... this was all his fault...! The reason April looked so crushed and upset, he could've probably prevented it had he just not let his jealousy get the better of him!

"We gotta go!" Leo said; interrupting them, as they had no time to waste if they were going to stop that bomb in time. However, while they left to go stop the mutagen bomb from going off, a certain scarlet haired Guardian in training was starting to cool off from the foul mood she'd been in.

Knowing that something big and undoubtedly very bad was about to go down in the city, and that it was her duty to try and protect it, Jenny called up Akira and told her what happened.

Their team met up at the Utrom facility, since its temporal displacement allowed for them to have time to discuss what was going on and how they could potentially try to avoid it.

Though Jenny left out the part about what Donatello had said to her since she didn't want her friends to know and react negatively towards the turtle, and merely stated that the turtles told her that they didn't require her assistance, Haruhi could still tell that something was wrong.

The bafflingly beautiful yet understanding brunette saw the redhead as his extended family since Jen and Akira practically grew up together, and after hearing Jen's debriefing, Haru sent the other three away to speak privately with the silently suffering boffin.

"Tell me, child, what troubles you so?" Haruhi asked gently as the redette sat across from him with her hands clenched into fists on her lap. "It's… nothing important." Jenny lied lamely; looking away to the side at nothing in particular.

"I cannot in good conscience, send you out into danger, if your mind is not focused on the task at hand. And so, neither you nor your team will leave until you have told me." The brunette stated firmly. Jenny's head snapped up as she stared at her mentor with wide green eyes. "Bu-but you can't! We have to-!"

"I can, and have. Now, as you have nothing else to do, why don't you regale me with this supposed 'nothing' that seems to have bothered you so much that you could not join your new friends on their mission?" Jen bowed her head; curly bangs hiding the top half of her face as she sat there stubbornly.

"Last I recalled, you were rather determined to reunite the April girl with her father, were you not?" Hazel-green eyes softened when the redheads fingernails dug into the fabric of her pants.

"I… I was, but…" Jen began quietly, but then sighed heavily as her shoulders slumped. "I don't know what to do, Sensei…" The sorrowful student confessed; at a loss for what to do as she was still so mad and hurt by what Donnie had said to her.

Jenny felt the presence of her mentor come and kneel down beside her. A hand came to rest on her shoulder, and gave a gentle squeeze to make her look up with misty green eyes that were fighting to hold back tears.

Haruhi frowned at the sight, as there wasn't much that could upset the usually bold redette like this. The boffin was a charismatic and brave youngling, but like the rest of his students, and pretty much anyone really, Jenny was a sensitive soul underneath it all.

Even though Jennifer acted tough and like nothing bothered her, that tender heart of hers could be easily scarred when she grew to care for someone enough to let them get that close.

And as his student relented and began to tell him about what had happen, it became very clear that that person had been one of the turtles by the name of Donatello. The redhead had mentioned him before, and from what Haruhi could discern by the way Jen had spoken of him, they were becoming friends.

Even though it was a rather strained friendship that seemed to come out of nowhere in Jenny's opinion, since Donnie gave off the impression that he didn't like her, though the redhead had no idea why, Jen confessed that she'd thought the two of them were really starting to hit it off.

And that Donatello could be pretty fun to be around, even if he tended to act like a bipolar jerk when he became distracted by April. But despite that, her fellow tech enthusiast could still be fun to mess with, and Jenny couldn't help liking the purple banded ninja anyway.

After hearing the troubled boffin out, Haruhi muddled it all over silently before offering Jenny some advice. He told his studious student that it didn't matter if Donatello wanted to be friends or not, nor whether or not the turtles wanted her around or if he hated the redette.

Haruhi told her that it didn't even matter if she was friends with the April girl and that the ginger wanted her around and to help save her father. What WAS of import however, was that Jenny wanted to save the girls father and to help her.

Jennifer considered this and though she still felt kinda crummy, she told her sensei that she did still want to help April, as she hoped if anything ever happened to Casey, that someone might try to do the same for her. Though she sincerely hoped nothing bad ever happened to her goofy bro.

And so, with her mental and emotional states sorted out, and her resolve renewed, Jenny was able to think clearly again and thanked her sensei, before she and her teammates were allowed to leave and go seek out the facility where April's father was supposedly being kept.

Using her trick to find the turtles via their cell phones, Jenny pinpointed the location where they had previously been by hacking the GPS on their phones. They laid waste to any droids and Kraang that dared get in their path as they searched for any sign of April's father.

However, they had arrived too late, as the slippery slime balls may have been stupid, but they were very quick when they felt their safety or mission was threatened. And so, the Kraang had taken the man and gone, as Akira and her team couldn't find any signs that he had even been there.

Kaia couldn't even pick up a scent. It was like the sneaky aliens had somehow sanitized the entire place; which wouldn't technically be difficult to do if they had a setup for it like in a decontamination chamber like you'd walk through to go in and out of certain laboratories, Trickshot (Jenny) reasoned irately.

Jen gave an aggravated growl and let loose a short string of choice curse words that made Savage (Kaia) cover Nightwatcher's (Danny's) ears, before hurrying to find the control room to see if maybe they had any information on where they might be moving Mr. O'Neil.

When she activated the monitor and searched to see what the Kraang were plotting, she saw the plan that Donatello had been browsing about the mutagen bomb. Her eyes grew wide as Trickshot called the rest of her team in and explained to them what it was all about, since she took the time to brush up on how to read the Kraang and Utrom language after training.

She wasn't a master at the language, but Jen knew more than Donnie did, because the boffin did had NOT missed a very important detail that the turtle had in terms of just how many mutagen bombs there were hidden in the city.

It seemed there were two mutagen bombs instead of one, as Donatello had assumed since he could not read Kraang; each with a differently altered batch of mutagen so that the Kraang could see what happened to what, and modify it from there.

Luckily, as the Kraang weren't too bright, they liked having all the instructions for stuff they were doing in case they needed to abort a mission or whatever. So the schematics for the bomb and how to disarm it were all there; one just needed to be able to read the language. Or at least enough to figure out which wire to cut.

Having discerned that vital bit of information, Jenny told her team what to do and which wire to cut; showing them the diagram that had a picture to make sure they understood, before they went their separate ways.

Livewire, Nightwatcher, and Savage headed out to take out the bomb that the turtles weren't headed towards, as Jenny had checked to see where they were and told them where the other one was located.

Meanwhile, Trickshot took off toward the Wolf Hotel to meet up with the turtles and defuse the vile Kraang contraption, before Donnie accidentally cut the wrong wire or something; all the while hoping that she'd arrive before it was too late…

The turtles told April to go back to the lair while they headed off as fast as they could, and arrived at the Wolf Hotel in time to see a large mutagen bomb surrounded by Kraang that they had hidden right behind the hotels sign.

"Kraang, in how many time units known as minutes will the device containing the mutagen that will be spread over the place known as New York, be detonated?" Asked a droid; mangling the English language like it was a well practiced hobby.

"Five." The droid below answered, before getting an arrow through his head that had an M80 tied to it to explode the robots head. Raph and his brothers took a page from Jenny's book, since she wasn't there to help, and grabbed themselves some bows and arrows to take out the Kraang creeps sniper style like the redhead usually did for them.

Once they'd gotten enough of them, Leo got all up close and personal with his swords on one of the robots; sending its occupant running away squealing in distress, before the coast was clear. "Okay, Donnie, it's up to you." Leonardo told the other. "Uh oh!" Don muttered as he saw what was underneath of the panel he lifted.

"Uh oh? Donnie, you said you knew how to do this!" Their leader exclaimed in an irked way; not liking the sound of that "Uh oh". "I didn't count on a design this complex, Leo." The brainy turtle protested; it wasn't everyday he had to defuse an alien bomb.

"They're aliens from another dimension. What did you expect? A big round ball with a lit fuse that said bomb?!" The blue banded brother countered irately. Did Donnie seriously think it was going to be so easy?

"No, but this-" Donnie began, before Raph pushed Leo out of the way to mock his brother. "Oh, boy, I sure hope this argument goes on for another four minutes and fifteen seconds." He snarked derisively; getting them back on point as he gave Donnie another smack to the back of the head. Since the redheads hostile dismissal, Raph had been a bit more slap happy; minus the happy...

Donnie was sweating his shell off trying to figure out how to diffuse the darn thing, when Leonardo started backseat driving when he reach for a wire. "Careful!" Donnie shot him a twitchy, angry look.

"Watch out for those wires!" Raphael chimed in; all of them beyond nervous, though not so much as their tallest sibling, who had all the pressure of getting it right or mutating half the city on his shoulders.

Usually on their missions, Jenny was there to keep them off his shell for the most part and even offer advice. And though Donnie hated to admit it, he was starting to miss the archer. "You guys are NOT helping!" Don told them in an effort to shoo them away. "What if we push this button?" Mikey asked curiously as he went to go push it.

Thankfully Raphael grabbed his arm and prevented it. "Don't you think you've pushed enough buttons tonight?" He scolded, while Donnie went back to trying to figure it out. "Donnie, you're gonna have to speed this up." Leo urged impatiently.

"I cannot work with all this pressure!" The purple banded brother screeched as he clutched at his head exasperatedly. A noise caught Leo's attention as he saw something he wished he hadn't. "Um, that might be a problem..." The eldest said, as he got them to look over at the figures standing on the roof with them.

Bradford and Xever stood perched up on the back of the hotel sign; the deranged delinquent smirking while the mental martial artist glowered down at the turtles, who all prepared to fight as they took up their stances and unsheathed their weapons. All except for Donnie of course, since he needed to disarm the bomb still.

The three siblings and the two henchmen charged at one another as they engaged in battle; with Xever quickly taking down Mikey, before Leonardo rushed in and defended his youngest sibling. "You guys picked a really bad time for this!" He told the long legged henchman.

"Oh, sorry for the inconvenience." Xever mocked smoothly as he did a back flip to get away from the blue banded turtle. "When would you prefer to breathe your last breath?" The thief came at Leo again with another kick.

"If that thing goes off, it'll wipe us all out!" Leo tried to reason with the unstable pair of villains. "I'd rather perish with honor than live in shame!" Chris growled as he fought with Raphael.

"Will you hurry up and defuse the bomb?! We're dealing with a couple of nut jobs here!" The red banded turtle shouted as he tried to protect his nerdy brother. "Be quiet!" Donnie yelled back; not in the mood for his brothers impatient and foul tempered lip.

It was really getting to be quite the hellacious fight between the two sides, as Xever took on Raphael, and Bradford singled out Michelangelo as he still had a bone to pick with him; with Leonardo going back and forth to help whichever sibling he could get to.

Chris charged at Mikey like an angry beast and knocked him hard against the cold metal that held up the sign. The orange banded turtle felt the wind get knocked out of him as he was painfully crushed; his nun chucks falling to the ground, before he quickly followed suit.

"Danny's not here to save you now, freak!" Bradford sneered venomously as he raised his sword. Mikey's eyes went wide afore he glared defiantly right back; each of them blaming the other for what happened to their favorite ash-brunet that night and hoping for a chance of avenging Danny's honor.

But just as the brutish brunet was about to bring the blade down on the beaten and defenseless turtle, Michelangelo managed to grab one of his chucks. "I'm not the one that's gonna need saving, jerk." Mikey countered heatedly as he fought back. He managed to fend Bradford off until Leo came to help.

"Down to two wires. Which do I cut?! Black or green?" Donnie fretted disconcertedly as the pressure was starting to get to him. "Go for the green! Ugh!" Mikey shouted before getting hit by Bradford.

"Eh, why not!" Donnie shrugged without much option, as he closed his eyes as he went to cut the opposite wire Mikey told him to. But then he felt a hand upon his quickly guide him down to the right one and press down to clip it.

And as he opened his eyes, Donatello was stunned to see none other than Jenny beside him! Okay, she was all dressed up in her usual covert garb when she went on missions with them, and looking rather pissed off still, but it was still her! "J-Jenny?!" He breathed in disbelief.

But before Don could say anything more to her, Jen took off wordlessly and with purpose to help Raphael. Donatello looked down at the bomb, and saw that it hadn't exploded and was no longer beeping mockingly at him. He sprang up to tell his brothers the good news.

"Guys, guys, Mikey was right about something!" Donnie shouted joyously, before unsheathing his bo staff and leaping into the fray to help his brothers. Wow, Don never thought he would be so happy to see that scarlet haired menace again! Now he really felt the need to apologize for being such a jerk...

Jenny saw Xever going pretty hard after her red banded buddy, and knocked him away as she fought him off with her bow like it was a staff; shouting "GOONGALA!" as she attacked.

Sure, Xever managed to get some hits in and knocked the redette back because Jen hadn't expected him to be so freakishly fast, but she hadn't fought him before so she had to wing it.

And winging it was something Jennifer Jones did pretty well, even if it was a close quarter fight. But with the way the guy moved, Jen didn't have much other choice. Soon the five of them had the two villains back to back, with no place to run and no real room to fight.

"You are worthy adversaries, but this fight is ours. Lay down your weapons." Leonardo told them in his hero voice; holding Bradford at sword point. "Never!" Xever roared defiantly at Leo.

"You don't have a choice. You've lost." The blue banded turtle couldn't help pointing out a tad cockily. "If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!" Chris told them as he suddenly turned his blade and stabbed the giant tank of mutagen they were standing beside.

"NO!" Jen and Donnie screamed at the same time just the instant before the glass broke and mutagen spewed out; carrying the two villains with it, who just didn't seem to have any luck with liquid.

The two of them were washed down screaming from the platform and down onto the rooftop, while the turtles and Jen could do nothing but watch since the two men were covered with mutagen.

Now, had Jenny seen Bradford during the fight, she might have recognized him as Danny's creepy cousin; having seen him around a few times, but never had much interaction with him, since the brunet seemed more interested in Danny.

However, as her priorities had been elsewhere, and unfortunately she hadn't seen him since she was busy keeping Xever at bay and the doofus ended up covered in mutagen. Though upon hearing the voice, Jen couldn't help a passing thought that it sounded a little familiar.

With the crisis now averted, Jen spared Raph a look to ask if he was okay. Raph gave her a subtle nod, before the redhead took off since she was 'no longer needed' and really didn't feel like being around them right now. Well, at least not Donnie anyway.

The purple banded ninja noticed her sneak off and frowned sadly; wishing she would at least stay to celebrate. He needed to apologize to Jen, or at least tell her thanks for having helped them out. Donnie found that it actually pained him to see the helpful boffin taking off like that and knowing it was because of him.

The turtles hopped down once the mutagen had cleared and turned to one another. "So to sum up, we kicked the butts of the Kraang and Shredder's top henchmen while defusing a bomb and saving the city." Leo listed brightly; feeling pretty cocky like the rest of his brothers despite everything else that had taken place.

"Yeah, we're not overconfident." Raph joined in. "We're just that good!" Leo added as he struck a cool pose and winked, before Leo, Mikey and Raph all whooped and hi-fived.

"Your skills are impressive." Called a dark, sinister voice from the shadows that halted the turtles tracks, and made the redhead pause to listen from where she'd gone to hide in the shadows and travel ninja style.

But then, she figured they probably didn't need her help and shook her head; thinking it might be more productive to meet up with her team to see if they'd gotten any leads on April's dad and headed off. Besides, they had their smoke bombs if they got into trouble… right?

The four brothers looked up and saw a formidable looking ninja with silvery armor that was sharp in more ways than just looking awesome; as it had deadly looking blades on most parts of it.

The wicked warrior jumped down from where the full moon gleamed eerily behind him and down onto the ledge of the roof they were on below. "But they will not save you." He told the turtles with deadly certainty; thinking the mysterious person who'd left was long gone.

A pity really, as he'd seen how skillfully the stranger had fought against the likes of Xever and had hoped to have a go at the fighter himself when he was done making soup of the Hamato Yoshi's pet turtles.

"Oh, man. Do you think THAT'S the Shredder?" Donnie breathed somewhat fearfully as the four terrapins were all rather stupefied by the wicked looking warrior before them.

"Well, it's definitely A Shredder." Raph tried to quip, but it just came out sounding meek much to the red banded turtles irritation; as they all got a sort of seriously bad vibe from the guy, who stood up straight and took a few steps toward them.

"There is undoubtedly a fascinating story in how my old nemesis came to teach ninjutsu to four mutant turtles. Perhaps I will let one of you live long enough to tell it." The Shredder mused rather menacingly.

"You're gonna have to catch us first!" Leonardo taunted. "Mikey!" He cued his youngest sibling to toss a smoke bomb. "So long, suckah!" The orange banded turtle shouted mockingly as he tossed down the egg bomb.

However, instead of a coolly colored puff of smoke that appeared for them to vanish from, they heard a wet splat as the bomb turned out to be an ordinary egg... "Oops. All right, that one's on me." Mikey apologized rather abashedly, before the Shredder had had enough of their antics and came at them.

Raph was up first, but the armored warrior was too much for him and the short-tempered turtle ended up getting knocked back into the hotel sign and shocked with electricity, before he dropped down.

"RAPH!" Leo cried before he went to avenge his sibling. Unfortunately he didn't fair much better and ended up losing his swords and getting kicked away from them. "LEO!" Donatello called out in distress; kneeling down to check his brother to make sure he was still alive, before he tried his hand at the fearsome Foot leader.

But the man merely whooped him with his own weapon. And then, the only one left was young Michelangelo; but sadly that fight was the shortest of all. A few well thrown ninja stars were thrown at the villain by Mikey before he rolled over the edge of the roof to distract him, so that Leo and Donnie could make another attempt at attacking the sharply dressed ninja.

Michelangelo used this time to check on Raphael, who was still rather out of it, but smiled when Mikey rolled him over and got up to help his brothers. They were quite literally and metaphorically not even making a dent in this guy, much less that shiny armor. Just what the heck was that stuff made out of?!

Soon, all four ninja turtles were attacking him, with only Mikey having been the one to take the Shredder by surprise; using his nun chucks to suspend the human high up. But this was a bad move on the creative ninjas part, as it pissed off the Shredder and made him slice down part of the sign; which fell and landed on Mikey.

The orange turtles shrill cry of pain frightened his brothers, as they feared the worst when they ran to lift it off of him. The youngest turtles cry was so loud that it had echoed and rang through the night clear as a bell, but far more horrible as it met Jenny's ears.

She hadn't wanted to leave them, so she had been taking her time after the fight started; thinking the turtles could probably handle things from there as she figured it was just another goon, and yet feeling worried that they might need her and not wanting to get too far from them to help.

For you see, because the turtles had chosen to keep what they knew of the Shredder (which wasn't much) from her, Jen had no idea who the guy was or that he was actually a threat to her skilled ninja friends.

It was mostly because their dealings with the Foot clan were rather personal and they didn't think she or April needed to be bothered knowing about it; least their two human friends end up worrying or trying to help and getting hurt.

However, it was also in part to Donnie having manipulated the situation in hopes of somehow preventing Jenny from becoming better friends or whatever with April. Which, the jealous turtle would undoubtedly be regretting later once he figured this out.

But when Jen heard Mikey's scream, it reminded her of the promise she'd made to Splinter to at least try and bring his sons back to him in one piece, and the memory of that set a fire under her resolve, as Jenny placed her feelings aside and hurried back as fast as she could to see what the shell was going on.

The fight between Shredder and the turtles carried on, but no matter how hard they fought, they couldn't seem to gain any ground. In fact, with the way they were scratched, beaten, bruised and just all around worn down from the physical exertion, it didn't take much before Shredder had them all down and Leonardo at his mercy.

The blade of his tekko-kagi on either side of the blue banded turtles throat; shimmering menacingly in the moonlight as he held the turtle up against a wall. "Tell me where Splinter is and I promise your demise will be swift!" The wicked warrior demanded; a third blade slowly sliding out between the two and up towards Leo's face with a taunting metallic screech.

However, the sound of ragged breathing from behind him caused Shredder to turn around to see what it was; his eyes widened in disgusted horror at the hideous creature that flopped wetly toward him. A clawed hand reached out as the creature gasped "Help me!" in a familiar Brazilian voice.

"What is this?!" Oroku Saki asked; clearly taken aback by the mutating beasts before him that were covered in some strange looking ooze. However this short distraction allowed Leo to fall down and for his brothers to quietly come and get him.

"Xever? Bradford?" He inquired uncertainly; wondering just what in the world was going on. Glancing back to find out what the turtle knew, he saw that Leo was gone. "RRRRRAGH!" He bellowed angrily; hurrying to see where they had slithered off to, and seeing them limping away.

The turtles froze in pain and terror as they glanced back to see the man come roaring at them; razor sharp blades poised to strike! But just as he was within a few feet of them, an arrow whistled down at him, and the Shredder had to leap back to avoid it as it landed at his feet.

Looking up from where it landed, his masked face was met with the steel-toed boot of none other than the mysterious archer; using the kick to then push off of him and causing the creep to stumble back, while Jen did a flip in mid air and landed about a foot or so in front of the turtles so that the redhead stood protectively between them and the armored assassin.

The Shredder began to come at his enigmatic new foe, just as Jen raised her hand to toss down a smoke bomb. But within that instant, there was the tiniest moment where their eyes met, and the older ninja froze.

Oroku Saki's eyes widening in a mixture of bewilderment and wonder as he caught sight of the newcomers vibrant green eyes, that seem to glow oh so brightly in the moonlight.

And Saki's mind was immediately reminded of his beloved Haruhi. But in the next instant, Jenny tossed down the smoke bomb and the sight was lost to the lovelorn villain, as the mysterious warrior and the turtles were engulfed by the smoke and vanished into the night!

Leaving Shredder to furiously howl "NOOOOOOOOO!" to the cool night air, as Jenny and the turtles hid silently in the shadows below, before it was safe for the redette to get them down into the sewer.

Having put petty feelings aside as Jen knew they needed her help, Jenny frowned and pulled out a blindfold so that she could carry the worst of them back to the lair; mentally telling herself that the turtles still didn't trust her yet and that they probably had every right to.

But to her great surprise, Raphael reached over and took the folded bandana from her hands and tossed it on the ground. "I don't think you'll be needing that anymore." He assured quietly, as it kinda hurt to talk and they were still trying to be stealthy.

Raph looked to the rest of his brothers with a small smile, which they did their best to return, and they all gave an approving nod of agreement. Even Donnie; which rather left Jen dumbfounded.

Nonetheless, the boffin gave a nod of her own and smiled appreciatively. Jenny put Mikey's arm around her shoulder and they made their way slowly to the lair without another word. To which she was glad, as Jenny didn't feel like speaking just yet.

In the light, Jen felt a tug on her heartstrings to see her terrapin friends so badly injured, and quickly went about fetching the first aid kit from her backpack and setting about tending to their wounds; even if Raph did fuss a bit about being tended to, it was just for show like her brother Casey sometimes did.

When she reached Donatello and knelt down where he was lying on the couch, he went to sit up and talk to her to try and apologize. But the redhead placed a finger to his lips and gave the softest of shushes to silence him and made him lay back down.

Though Donnie wanted to make amends, it was clear by the way Jenny refused to look at him and the focused frown on her face, that she was still very upset and didn't want to talk.

So for now, he stayed silent and still, and moved however Jen needed him to so she could attend to his injuries. Though, Jen couldn't help but find it just the slightest bit odd that Donnie had, as usual, been able to take the hint from her, but he seemed oblivious to any hints April tried to give him to shut up and leave her alone.

April was there helping her; having given the ginger a few lessons in first aid in case the redette couldn't be there to help. And so April was busy tending to Mikey, while Splinter took care of Leonardo as his eldest son reluctantly told their sensei what had happened.

But when they were all done, the turtles and their human friends sat or stood around the lair in a tense silence. So much had gone on and so many emotions and losses had been had, that they were all severely bummed out and no one felt like talking.

Jenny didn't feel like hanging around now that the turtles were safe and taken care of, so she headed for the entrance without a word to wait for April to see the girl home safe as usual.

But as she passed by April who was sitting back by the turnstiles, Jenny placed a hand lightly on the girls shoulder and spared her a deeply apologetic look. April reached up and placed her hand on the others and Jen gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Want me to wait outside to take you home?" Jenny asked so quietly that the ginger almost hadn't heard her.

April paused to consider and then gave a small incline of her head. Jen returned it with one of her own and went out into the abandoned subway line just outside of the lair to lean against the wall where the atmosphere wasn't so heavy but she could still hear if they started talking to wait for her friend.

She knew that right now April shouldn't be alone, and wanted to make sure she got home okay after everything that had happened. Even if this whole thing all started out as just Jenny trying to stay close to April to find out what the Kraang wanted with her, they had ended up becoming good friends like with most of the turtles, and now the redhead felt protective of her like one would a sibling.

"You were all very lucky." Splinter gravely told them when he came back into the room; having watched as the redhead took charge in tending to his sons, and feeling deeply appreciative that Jen had made sure they'd come home alive as she had promised. "Well, I think we define that word differently, Sensei." Raphael remarked bitterly. "Few have ever faced the Shredder and survived!" Splinter

"He was just so fast..." Mikey whispered loudly in disbelief. "It was like he was everywhere at once!" Donnie said in much the same way; having moved to try and sit as close to April as he could without her shooting him an angry look. She was still upset with him for what he'd said to Jenny and couldn't help but blame him for not being able to rescue her dad.

"You were right about us being overconfident, Sensei. There are some things we're just not ready for." Leonardo admitted somberly. "Yeah... if it hadn't been for Red showin' up when she did..." Raphael trailed off forebodingly as they all exchanged mutually apprehensive looks, as none of them wanted to think about the "what if" of that situation if the redhead hadn't shown up when she did…

Splinter looked pensive at this and then placed a hand on Leo's shoulder. "Perhaps. But that no longer matters. It is clear now that the Shredder is a problem that will not go away. So prepare yourselves, my sons." Their sensei told them in a voice that grew more grave by the second.

Splinter's eyes caught Jenny's after she heard him speaking and came to peek around the corner with her arms crossed over her chest; her hood and mask off as she didn't need them in the lair, but her expression shifting to match the gravity of Splinter's tone. "Because as of this moment, we are at war…!"

---

To be continued...

Yep! Jenny and Donnie finally had a bit of a fight it seems. Wonder if he'll ever work up the nerve to apologize? I mean, despite all the jealousy and junk, Donatello was still on surprisingly friendly terms with Jen; hence why he feels bad. He doesn't quite see it that way yet, but he knows he feels bad and needs to apologize, so yeah. LoL You'll just have to wait and see what happens. X3

And as for if Jenny is gonna mention Xever getting mutated to Akira, or anything else, well, you'll have to stay tuned to find out dear readers/reviewers. X3