A particularly rough bump in the road succeeded in startling Raphael awake. He jerked his head upright off the seat, and instantly felt someone's fingers trying to guide him back down.

"It's okay Raph," He heard his youngest brother's voice. "Take it slow."

"Don't take it at all." Luke spoke up after the him, unbuckling from his seat-belt so that he could get over to the two of them.

Raphael turned slightly in the direction of the doctor's voice, and searched him out in the semi-darkness. "What happened?" He murmured. "How long have I been here?"

"Well, we were trying to escape, and you decided to take a nap. Your timing could have been a little better." Michelangelo couldn't resist giving him a small grin.

Raphael gave him a slightly dark look, but then released a shaky breath. "Are we all here, is everyone okay?"

Luke nodded as he bent closer to the turtle, and flashed his pen-light near his eyes. "Everything will be alright. Can you open your eyes any wider for me?"

The pupils were still dilated, and slightly slow to respond to his light. Raphael wasn't too out of it to notice how Luke's shoulders stiffened considerably. "What Doc?" He had the presence of mind to ask.

"You haven't been experiencing any gaps, have you?" Luke asked, without bothering to answer the question. "Trouble remembering things from the last few days?"

"Now that you mention it, I've got no clue where I've been." The turtle answered sarcastically.

"Raph." Leonardo called out reproachfully. "Lose the attitude, huh? He's here to help you."

The red-banded turtle sighed softly. "Sorry Doc. No gaps, no forgetting. Just a bunch of hurt."

"You've got a bad concussion. I'm not trying to get on your nerves here with this stuff, I'm just concerned because of your past experiences." Luke replied honestly.

"I'll let you know if I forget anything important." Raphael cracked a smile for him, and then shifted a little stiffly on the seat. "Have we heard anything from Tim? Is he behind us?"

"No, but I have heard from Kat. She's assured me she's taking care of things, whatever that actually means." Luke replied.

"How's Donnie?" The red-banded turtle asked next.

His now once more blue-masked brother glanced at Donatello with a mixture of fondness and relief, who was still lying against his shoulder.

"He's kind of dead to the world." Leonardo chuckled. "But I'm sure he's better off that way."

"I hate it say it, but I'm probably going to be forced to wake his shell up every couple of hours." Luke grumbled with a little frustration. "He was manifesting like he could have a concussion too, though it could just be symptoms of the exhaustion. Either way, I need to make sure he's waking up properly."

"He's gonna be okay, isn't he Doc?" Michelangelo asked. "He's just tired?"

"Tired and hurt Mike. I want to take every precaution, you know I don't like leaving things to chance."

The orange-masked turtle settled back against the seat with an inward groan. The simple joy of finding his brothers was being slowly replaced by lingering anxiety for them, as well as for Greg, and what on earth was going on with Timothy. Raphael's eyes suddenly locked with his from his position lying on the seat, as if the turtle sensed Michelangelo tensing.

"Mikey, it's Don." Raphael said pointedly. "He's gonna be okay, you have to know that."

"Do you have any idea what I had to do?" Michelangelo wavered slightly. "Back at the Technology Center, when we got into trouble?"

Raphael started to shake his head on an impulse, but thought better of it. "The only thing I remember about that place was sitting outside, and falling for their ridiculous trap like the idiot shell-head that I am." Raphael muttered in return.

"I had to leave him." Mike said quietly. "He got stunned, and I couldn't help him. I could barely help myself."

"You saved his life tonight." Raphael said as firmly as he could. "Shell, you probably saved all of us by getting out of there when you did."

"He's right Mike, you know we couldn't have found them without Donatello's technology." Luke added. "You did the right thing."

Michelangelo shook his head in serious irritation. "Explain something to me, 'cause I just don't get it. I can bail on my brother, and you tell me it's the right thing. But what about you guys? Why's it okay for you to sacrifice yourselves, like Tim just did back there? We're supposed to turn tail and run, while one of you tries to take the wrap for everything?"

"Mike, everything's going to be alright. I know Kat is moving quickly to help him." Luke tried to keep his own tone very calm, to convey the same sense to the turtle.

"She shouldn't HAVE to!" Michelangelo exploded. "Don't you get what I'm saying at all? This isn't the first time one of you have been threatened because of trying to protect us, and it won't be the last!"

"Mikey." Leonardo called out from across the back of the van. "Don't do this, please? I know you're upset, but it's not going to help anything."

The orange-masked turtle shut his mouth with a scowl, and focused an intense stare on the sidewall of the van.

"So this isn't just about Tim." Luke said after an uncomfortable moment of silence, and the turtle shook his head fiercely without looking at him.

"I went along with everything tonight, 'cause there wasn't any way that I could stop you." Michelangelo stated bluntly. "But I didn't agree with any of it. When I think about the ridiculous risk the three of you took going after them, it still makes me feel sick! And on top of that, I managed to put Sarah in danger too." The turtle finished a little more quietly. "It was stupid, and reckless...And the thing with Tim just caps everything off. Times like this, I'm not sure it's really worth it."

Raphael sat up slightly on his elbows, fighting to get a closer glimpse of his youngest brother. "You act like we're the only ones allowed to take risks Mike."

"You wouldn't be saying that if Karina had been the one knocking down that door." Mike said plainly.

"No, I would have hated it, been just as ticked as you." Raphael replied. "But we don't get to control our friends, anymore than they tell us what to do Mikey. We throw ourselves into trouble head-first all the time, and none of them complain about it. We don't have the right to tell 'em to back off either. They're a part of this, that's just the way it is. Whether we like it or not, they'd give their lives for us, just as soon as we'd do it for them. You're gonna have to live with that." The red-masked turtle finished a little haggardly. "Now can you shut your mouth for a few minutes at least? My head's already buzzing as it is."

Michelangelo reached out a little tentatively toward him, gripping his shoulder for an instant. "Yeah...sorry bro." He mumbled under his breath.


When Karina didn't answer her phone, Sarah came down from ICU on foot to find the woman herself. When she walked back into the waiting room, she was startled to see Katherine in the corner, in the midst of a animated discussion with an official looking individual. Sarah made a beeline for where Karina was silently waiting, and grabbed a seat next to her.

"What in the world did I miss?" The woman asked in confusion.

"It's a long story. Kat's just being forced to move on the Air Force faster than she thought she'd have to. It was going to come up anyway, but she had to speed things along to help Tim."

"Tim? Why, what's wrong with him?" Sarah asked cluelessly.

"Oh not much, he just stuck himself right in the center of a couple cops trying to do some investigating out in Xenia."

The elevator chimed, and a familiar red-head barrelled off of it. She looked left and right, then dashed into the waiting room, right past the two waiting women.

"Catch up with you in a second, I have to get something over to Kat!" April said, without stopping for a breath.

Katherine let out a breath of her own when she saw April coming. "General, this is the information that I was referring to." Kat said at once, and held up a hand to stop April from leaving. "Can you get it set up to the right place for us?" She requested of the woman, pointing to the laptop that the Commander had brought at Katherine's direction.

With a bit of a nervous twitch April obeyed, dragging a chair over so she could work right next to the table, and started recalling the information that had been saved in a more helpful location.

"My partner and I unintentionally stumbled onto something, that we weren't even remotely looking for." Katherine continued the conversation that had already been in progress. "We came to Dayton for the express purpose of tracking a dangerous genius of a criminal. But it was all a set-up, right from the start. He wanted us to find him, he made sure that we did."

"What did he want from you?" Meyer had to ask.

"It wasn't really us that he wanted, but someone that's...connected to us." Kat faltered for a moment. "His purpose was to use us as bait to get who he actually needed. In the process of the search, they were able to discover the dirty truth about Lilah Stone, and the Technology Center she was running." Katherine glanced over at April. "Where are we at?"

"I have it up." The woman answered, and the backed off as Katherine reached for the computer.

"Lilah Stone and Isaac Stolle used the contracts you made with them to gain access to your database, and to take advantage of you. They stole your technology, and Stolle was able to recreate it. You'll find several examples of it still intact at the building I told you about in Xenia. This flash drive contains information that was obtained at great risk, and it ended up costing them dearly. It has all of the evidence you could want of tactical plans and stolen designs, all taken from Stone's personal computer at the Center." Katherine explained.

"How did they come by said information?" The General asked her.

Katherine hesitated a couple of seconds. "If you want my help, you're going to have to accept that I can't tell you everything. There are identities that I have to protect, of people who come from many walks of life."

"Including police officers?" The man snorted. "You have to understand how strange this looks."

"I do." She answered. "But he's not there under the authority of his own department, obviously. He was leading a strike team that capitalized on the opportunity that the tornado created, in order to rescue my partner and I. My partner, who is still upstairs in a coma as we speak, because of what these people did to him."

"Whose authority does this Long respond to them? Who sent this team?"

Again, Katherine hesitated. "I can't explain that to you."

The man folded both arms in front of his chest. "So I'm expected to take your word for all of this? I need something real Agent, something tangible. Who do they report to?"

"No one." Katherine replied. "They don't work directly for anyone, and they aren't connected to an organization. They're invisible, or at least they're supposed to be."

"Well one of your men just became very visible Agent. What do you expect me to do about it?"

Katherine detached Donatello's flash drive from the laptop. "I told you that this was acquired at tremendous risk. Government technology, your Bases' specialities fell into the hands of dangerous criminals. Now would you rather that I hand it over to you with no questions asked, and everything stay completely under wraps, or do I need to contact the media about this breach of security? It should make an interesting follow-up story for the continuing coverage of several of the deceased homeless population in Dayton. Men and women who were tested on and killed by the weapon your Base created, that got stolen right out from underneath you. Yes, that would go over well, wouldn't it?"