A.N: Looks like Friday updates work great! Here I am in a timely manner with the update!

Ericaphoenix16: No problem. It's great to be back to writing this story.

I don't own TMNT

(Translation)

CHAPTER 21

The feeling of spring was finally being felt throughout the desolated city. Even though there were no humans to enjoy it and the Kraang didn't really much care, the few mutants hiding around were more than relieved. Food would be easier to find, the nights would be less cold, and for some, there would be more freedom. That some being Fillien. A whole month after the fight with Tiger Claw, Fillien's wing had healed enough so that she walked around without her wing wrapped in a cast. Which meant it was finally time to test her healed wing.

"All right," Rockwell said as he and Fillien stood in the middle of the warehouse. "Spread those wings and let's see how the bones feel." Fillien stood up and spread her wings out to the side, expanding them the farthest they can go. Then she lifted them up over her head, the bottom facing forward to give her a look as if she were wearing a crown of feathers. "Now flap them gently."

Fillien did so, her left wing working fine. Her right wing moved a bit slower. Rockwell asked if it was hurting to which Fillien replied, "Sore, yes. I can kind of feel tingling sensation around where it broke. But no pain."

"So it's healed, but now we need to strengthen it again."

Kurtzman's annoyed voice cut through the lesson. "… stupid piece of… metal…"

The two mutants looked to Kurtzman who was sitting on the table set up with the computers. He was hunched over listening to a police scanner with a whole bunch of wires sticking out of the back. Those wires were connected to other machines such as radios and receivers to give the police scanner a boost in receiving signals. One wire was connected to a large headphone he had on.

When Kurtzman looked up once, he noticed the three mutants staring at him. He dropped his annoyed look and said, "Sorry, fellas."

Rockwell and Fillien looked at each other sadly before giving their best smiles so that Rockwell said, "Don't worry about it. You've been doing your best to get that infernal machine working. Even I've been stumped on getting it to intercept Kraang transmissions. It's not easy with the lack of Kraang tech we have stolen."

Fillien said, "You should take a break."

Kurtzman nodded, acknowledging their forgiveness and offer before saying, "I won't be much help with the flying lesson. The best I can do is get… as Rockwell says…. This infernal machine working." He went back to listening in on the scanner.

Rockwell then instructed Fillien to start hopping from one floor to the next. Using the railings as places to land. Fillien did well her first jump to the second floor, only needing to flap a couple of times before perching on the metal bar of the railing. She tried to jump across to the other side but had a little trouble keeping herself in the air. Her right wing already feeling weak.

She managed to get to the railing but only her upper body making it over the other side. She hung there like a rag doll, embarrassed, with her wings hanging limply behind her with her back feet. Then she forced herself to hoist her feet onto the bar. As the cat balanced herself and turned around to face below, Pete walked out into the open and said, "Looks like someone's got to have some flying lessons again." he finished with a smirk.

Feeling flustered that she couldn't get a handle on her weak wing, the catgirl perched low with her shoulders moving up and down. "I can crush you by flying down and sitting on top of you, you know I can!" She hissed with a playful smirk herself.

Pete raised his winged hands up and said nervously, "All right, all right. I pushed some buttons, sorry." Then he cleared his throat and said more confidently, "What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to relearn things, you just have to go back to some basic steps just to strengthen your wing. Remember branching. Everyone's done it at some point. Nothing to be ashamed of."

Fillien nodded, remembering how she and Pete first met. She has been recently mutated and she spotted him flying. Hopping from one place to the next was all she could do before she asked him to be her flying teacher. Branching was the term. Fillien spread her wings, took a big leap and glided back to the railing across, landing with ease. The catgirl smiled. Maybe it was a step down, but going back to the start shouldn't be so bad. Fillien turned around again to look down at Pete and Rockwell. "Thanks, Pete."

"Nothing to it. Can't let my best student get down in the dumps."

"I was your only student."

"Sure, fine, but I did teach you good."

"This… can't be true…" came a gasp.

The three mutants looked to Kurtzman. Leatherhead and Slash, who were on the second floor playing poker on a makeshift table, left their game and walked to the railing. Everyone noticed the human seemed to try and hear better by hunching over and getting closer to the police scanner. Then he stood up so fast he chair fell back, his face pale with shock.

"Kurtzman?" Slash asked worriedly. Fillien glided down from the metal railing and without problems landed right next to Kurtzman.

The older man pulled off his headphones and quickly said, "I just intercepted an important transmission between the Kraang. They found some humans hiding somewhere." Everyone was on full alert. Pete's ear for rumors had caught word that some humans had survived being mutated to Kraang creatures and had gone into hiding. But since they were hiding, no one really knew for sure. But now it seemed the rumor was true and came with some horrible news. "They didn't say much of the details," Kurtzman continued, "But a convoy is being driven down 3rd Avenue towards Chinatown. Hurry now and you might be able to stop them before they go any further—"

Slash was already grabbing his weapon as Leatherhead jumped down and joined the others. Fillien said, "Take care of yourselves."

"As always," Pete chirped.

Slash soon was down on the bottom floor and throwing open the garage door. "All right, Mutanimals. We've got civilians to save."

Fillien and Kurtzman watched them leave with nervous looks but relief at the same time. Kurtzman picked up his chair and sighed, "Wow, I can't believe it…." He slumped down on the chair and said, "More humans… and I managed to hear the transmission in time." He put a hand on the makeshift police scanner. "Usually this thing too is primitive compared to Kraang tech to catch any of their frequencies."

Fillien sat down flapped her wings up and down to test them while she asked, "Well you've been using that algorithm on your computer to pick out patterns. It's not like you can rely on it all the time. It wasn't going to tell you about this one convoy."

"Yes…." Kurtzman began now sounding skeptical. Soon he began typing something up on the computer. Annoyed by the amount of clicking, Fillien went to the garage door to close it since Slash left it open during their rush out. When she got to the entrance she was about to hop up and pull the door down when she heard Kurtzman yell, "Great Scott! It's a trap!"

"What?" Fillien asked a she turned her head around and her tail was up straight.

Kurtzman banged his fist on the police scanner and said in anger, "I knew I shouldn't have trusted this stupid machine for the one moment it worked to get a huge lead."

Fillien turned herself to face Kurtzman fully as she asked, "What are you talking about?"

"You're right. The algorithm wouldn't have picked up the human convoy because it doesn't work like that. When they find prisoners, be it mutant or not, they would take them individually. They never wait for a full transport." Fillien realized what he was getting at and without another thougth she bolted out of the warehouse. Kurtzman yelled out for her to stop but she didn't listen. Her feet kept her going forward, heading west.

)))))))))))))))) 3rd Avenue (((((((((((((

Slash smashed his mace through the last of the army of Kraang before looking up to check on his fellow teammates. They had all made in time to stop the convoy. It was a military cargo truck meant to carry passengers in the back were a tented cabin was placed. The driver being a military man mind controlled by the Kraang.

Other military men had been on the top of the truck now lay unconscious around the vehicle. The Kraang patrol that had marched alongside the convoy was now destroyed. The Kraang creatures squealed and left their silver robot bodies. For some reason, they headed towards a vacant business building on the left side of the street.

"All right gang, let's get these humans out of there," Slash said.

"Huzzah, can't wait for the amount of screaming to follow," Rockwell cheered sarcastically.

Pete patted him on the back and said, "Hey, maybe because we saved them, they won't yell."

Leatherhead shook his head as he walked with Slash to the back of the van where there was a tarp covering the entrance to the cabin. With all their back to the business building behind them, they didn't notice the glass windows had been removed. Hidden in the shadows of the several different floors of the building were Kraang droids in their protective blue covering holding blaster ready to fire.

)))))))))))))))) East Village Streets ((((((((((((((

Fillien had run for a few minutes before she got to the street right before 3rd Avenue. That's where she noticed Kraang creatures running out from around the corner of Third Avenue and head into the business building nearby using a back door. Why were they going there, unless… Fillien picked up the pace.

The Mutanimals were most likely on the other side of the building. By the time she got there to warn them the Kraang inside would already be springing their trap. So how to get their attention? Fillien aimed for the back door. She broke through head first before sliding into a hallway. Immediately she found a fire alarm and doing her best with a pawed hand, she pulled the lever. Lights flash and alarms blared all throughout the building.

)))))))))))))))) 3rd Avenue (((((((((((((

The Mutanimals stopped what they were doing and looked up to the business building seeing the silhouettes of Kraang as the fire alarm cast light on them. Slash stepped away from the back of the truck to see what was going on. He did so in time to avoid getting hit by sudden blaster fire coming from inside the cabin. Noticing how close he was to getting shot, Slash yelled, "It's a trap, retreat!" The Mutanimals ran as Kraang droids in their protective layer form jumped out of the back of the truck.

They were too late in pulling out heir blasters to aim at the Mutanimals because the mutants by then had turned a corner into an ally. As the team ran past the business building that had its alarm set off, the door in the back opened. Fillien jumped out and soon began to run alongside them. "Fillien!" Pete yelled as he flew overhead.

"What are you doing here?" Slash yelled.

"It was the fastest way to get your attention," Fillien yelled between pants. Soon Kraang came pouring out the back door and started shooting at the team. "Unfortunately, I got their attention as well and they chased me out the building."

"Better chased then getting blasted to bits," Rockwell yelled but with a smile.

"And we got a head start," Slash said. He was right. They only had to run their fastest down a couple of streets, cutting corners and jumping over buildings, to lose the Kraang. They made it to the warehouse safely, Leatherhead slamming the large metal door closed before he and the others recuperated. Kurtzman went to each and one of them, checking to make sure they weren't hurt. "You guys ok?"

"Yeah," Slash answered as he gained his breath by laying back against a cement pillar.

Kurtzman rubbed the back of his neck as he went up to the table and looked down at the police scanner. "I'm sorry, team. I should have known it was a trap the minute I got those signals. They wanted that message to be broadcasted on all frequencies to get you all out in the open. They'd never let anything as big a humans get out of Kraang communication. This machine was a waste of time and I almost cost me some good friends."

Rockwell, having recovered, went over to the table and hoisted himself up to sit on. "It wasn't a bad idea, Kurtzman. We just need the right parts. Besides, the trap was their idea."

"Yes," Leatherhead agreed as he sat down. "The Kraang knew we couldn't pass up the opportunity to save people no matter how unbelievable it seemed to be."

"Not we, me," Kurtzman said as he turned to face everyone but laid back against the table with his arms crossed. "The Kraang have seen you all out there fighting them but they've never thought once to trap you all until now using the human rumor as an exploit. They must have found out I'm working with you guys." He paused for a moment, letting the idea sink in with the others before saying, "I may have put us in more danger."

From her spot of blankets were she had gone to sit and rest, Fillien shook her head. "No, no, no I'm not going through this bullshit again." Hearing her swear made everyone stare in disbelief. "I've seen where blaming oneself goes," the catgirl began as she stood up. Her wings that had sagged to the side in exhaustion suddenly went and folded tightly in place. "And trust me it's not a place you want to take yourself, Kurtzman, believe me."

It got real quiet after that. No one made a sound. Kurtzman pondered on Fillien's words, seeing how adamant she was at getting him to think twice about what he was saying. She had really seen some stuff.

That's when Slash added, "We're not going to let you take the blame for something that you couldn't stop. The Kraang came up with this plan. They're the culprits here." The others agreed right away.

Kurtzman smiled. "Thanks, guys." He nodded towards Fillien in gratitude which she took with a curt nod in return. Then Kurtzman said, "So, the Kraang haven't found our location but now we're a much bigger threat. Slash, what do you think?"

As the human man began to disassemble the police scanner, Slash stood up straight and said, "We'll have to be more careful, at least check our surroundings twice, even three times. We got to make sure we see the attack on all sides. Which means we're going to need another set of eyes out there."

Everyone looked to Fillien who had stood in the middle of the room. She looked around as she saw all eyes on her. "Me?" She asked nervously. "Out in the field as Mutanimal?"

"After tonight, you proved that even flightless you can still help others," Leatherhead said.

"That would definitely be a good way to get some branching in to strengthen that wing," Pete added.

Rockwell said, "Agreed but don't push it too much. Just be where you can be."

Fillien was a bit worried at first. Tonight she just operated out of instinct. What if she messed up on a mission by holding them all back. But then she realized that maybe they were right. If she could help by doing what she did best, it would be enough. And more importantly, she could also keep an eye out for Karai. "Boys, consider me officially one of the Mutanimals."

A.N: Yep, officially one of the Mutanimals. And since Kurtzman has been discovered to be behind the crew, it seems like their hideout will be discovered next? Sounds familiar right? Yes! Because we are getting close to Return to New York. But first, I think we'll need a special point of view next chapter to fill in what's been going on beyond the city. Teasing so you all better be here next Friday hahah. I'm KikaKatTIOI, peace out!