I own nothing, but the mother character.

Donnie's POV

I "am" worried for Leo and Mom, but I also feel an explosion of satisfaction going off inside me. We did it! I'm leading the most beautiful girl I've ever seen to safety after saving her from the dangerous and obviously tenacious Kraang!

April (what a pretty name, and aren't I glad I have the recall to remember the way her dad referred to her) is walking behind me. I can no longer hear nor see any sign of the Kraang. So, I'm going to hesitantly call "mission rescue the amazing April" a success, for now.

I just have to get her to SP6. SP6 is, sadly, just a simple acronym for Safe Place 6. Mom though it sounded appropriately mysterious and impressive without the other letters to confuse enemies while being simple enough Mikey wouldn't forget what it meant. She was probably right about that latter part.

SP6 is just one of the many designated places I designed and built in these sewers, with some help from mom's hands and supplies she gets from the surface for our family's use. It's connected, by my inner sewer communication system, to the lair. We can go there when we're injured or being followed and call for back up without having to reach or lead strangers all the way home. Mom … probably doesn't want April to know about the lair, yet …

Raph and Mikey should meet us there with April's dad soon, which should make April happy. Leo, Mom, and Master Splinter could meet us all there soon. I … try not to think about what it might mean if they don't. I'd like to hold on to these positive feelings filling me a few to several minutes longer. Mom alone is an incredible fighter, and Leo's the second best of my brothers in the dojo. (Oh well, I'm better than anyone else on earth in the lab, I bet!) It's really the Kraang I should feel sorry for. I hope.

I take a fairly direct route there. April is still breathing heavy. She slips a few times too in wetter areas. I hold her up and steady. I'm used to these sewers.

Mom and Master Splinter won't be happy if they find out I'm not trying to hide SP6's location from her or the way to get to it, but maybe they won't find out. Besides, April's mind might be spinning too much to be memorizing the route now even if she's trying, and it's "not" the lair. It's just SP6.

I stop in front of a wheel in a wall that was once used to release stored water. Now, I turn it, and a nearby wall slides aside revealing a hidden chamber of impressive, if not excessive, size. It's big enough for me, my brothers, and my parents in a pinch, an emergency pinch of course. We can even all fit sleeping on the floor, though I don't recommend it. We've had drills. They were not always pretty.

LED lamps illuminate the floor with a bluish light. I wince remembering how unnatural light coming from below looks. I draw April in after me. I feel a little better at how she almost steps on my heels. I turn, smile, and try to reassure her. "I know this might all seem a little creepy, but I promise you're safe. There's no reason to be alarmed. This room is well-ventilated, and stocked even in the event of a siege, but 'I' took care to put measures in place to keep intruders and pests out."

Small electric shocks in the vents actually that can only be turned off by pressing buttons in a certain order in keypads just in front of their triggers. So far, nonmutated rats haven't figured the system out. Mostly only mom and I use them when we check and change out their energy supplies.

April looks around with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. Then she tucks a hair behind her ear. Awww … That's so adorable. I almost don't realize she's talking in time to register what she's saying. "Is … is there anything to drink?"

I nearly slap myself. Of course, she must be dehydrated after all that abnormally intense exercise for her! I kneel down in front of a bench built into the back wall, lift its lid/seat, and pull out a cannister of water. I turn and smile up at her. "Is water, okay?"

She nods with a small smile of her own. (success) "Yeah."

I hold the metal thermos out. "Here you go."

She twists its cap off in two motions, throws her head back, and begins to chug its contents. I hold up a hand feeling panic begin to barely change my heart and breathing rates. "Uh, careful you don't want to ..."

As if to prove my point (I hate being right sometimes) April begins chocking. I wince. I wish I was confident enough to pat her on the back, hard, a few times, but I'm really not. I have only known her for minutes after all. Eventually, she recovers. She even gets enough breath back to ask. "Who are you?" She looks up at me with those blue eyes of hers ...

I grin and lean on my bo staff as I answer. For once, I'm glad my weapon's a big stick so I can pull this off. "Donatello, after the famous renaissance artist, a fellow genius by the way, but you can call me Donnie." I give her a big grin.

She stares back at me. "And the others?"

I open my mouth, but the door slides aside and Raph, Mikey, and Mr. O'Neil enter. April runs forward and wraps her arms around her fellow human being while shouting "Dad!" I actually feel a twinge of jealousy!

Mikey bounds past them and tries to twirl his nunchuku in the room. I frown at him. I have to be the one to say this, because I'm in charge now. "Mikey, don't twirl those in here. It's too cramped!"

Mikey stops and opens his mouth while looking at me. Then he closes his mouth again and looks around. "Dude, where's Leo?"

I look around while trying to think of a reply and notice Raph glaring right at me. Correction. I try to think of the very best reply. "He … chose … to go back and aid mom in finishing off our enemies."

Mr. O'Neil lets go of April and steps back from her a little as he looks at me. "Your mother's not back yet?"

April looks up at her father. "Dad, what's going on? Who were or 'what' were those things?"

"They were Kraang, duddette." Mikey answers while twirling his nunchuku again. I glare at him, but his eyes are closed. So, he doesn't see me, and continues. "They tried to kill us all, when we were turtle tots." Suddenly, one of his chucks hits a cabinet built into the wall. He lets it fall back limply to his side along with the other. Then he looks back at me, chuckles, and whips his hands and weapons behind his shell.

April is staring at "him" now. "They tried to kill you, before tonight?" Then her brows furrow. "Wait … tur-what?"

I bite my bottom lip trying to think of another reply. Then the door doesn't just slide aside. It reverberates with a slam.

We all jump and turn to the figure in the doorway. A thin veil hangs down from the hood of a long, maroon kimono. The overall effect seems scary to "me." Of course, I might also be scared "due" to my familiarity with the figure. The veil might actually be "helping" Mr. and April O'Neil be less scared, though, they probably don't know it. (Mom's idea to hide dad's mutant-rat nose from any humans or cameras he might encounter in the sewers beyond the lair. Now he looks more like the phantom of the sewers the few times he goes out into them.) My brothers and I flinch, and lean back as his all too familiar voice comes from behind it. "What! Happened?!"

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes