New York

Present Day

"Rocksteady, Leatherhead, Slash, two of you work on knocking down the walls blocking off the subway system and the other clear out any large debris. Casey, Raph, clear out the smaller ones, Mondo do the little ones," Leo ordered. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a tired looking Rahzar slipping from the sewers into the lair to join the group. The blue masked turtle did not comment on it. "Fishface, Bebop, you're on scavenging duty. April on inventory, help them out. Karai-"

Leo was cut off by a loud sound slicing through the lair. He nearly jumped out of his shell. It was clear the others were spooked by it too.

Rockwell glared and picked up a large book with his telekinesis. He hurled it out of the room. A loud crash was heard in the small room that had become a temporary lab. The sound was gone, everyone stared at Rockwell for a moment.

"Hey, you got it first try!" Rahzar said excitedly. "Good job, doc."

"If that's a habit, you may want to put an end to it," Leo advised. "We're kind of lacking on the resources."

"My apologies," Rockwell said. "But I do not understand Donatello's need to put an obnoxiously loud alarm on everyone of his devices."

"That doesn't mean you can go around smashing his stuff."

"Yeah!" Donnie piped up before darting out of the room to check on his precious machine.

"Don't worry Leo, he's gotten pretty good at only smashing the parts that make noise," April told him good naturedly. Leo raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything more.

"Where does he even get those damn- friggin'- things?" Rahzar questioned with a glance at Rockwell then Leo. He didn't know the rule on language in the lair. They'd never discussed it. "He's got to build them, right?"

April nodded. "It's not like he's putting something useless he found to good use or anything. There's no way he just finds those things laying around."

Donnie walked back into the room with two machines in his hands, one smashed, the other intact. Rahzar shot an impressed look in Rockwell's direction.

"So what's up?" Raph asked. He crossed his arms and shifted his weight, looking bored.

"I don't know yet, I think our spy devices picked something up," Donnie told him.

"How do you know they found something?" Casey asked.

"The alarm went off."

"I know but how do the alarms, like, know when to go off? Aren't they just cameras and mics? How do they know when they see something important?" Casey went on. Donnie just stared at a moment. Casey sighed and waved him off. "Nevermind."

"There are a few days worth of data here," Donnie continued. "It may take awhile to find whatever set of the alarm."

"Why weren't you going over it while it was being collected?" Karai asked.

Donnie gave her the same look that he gave Casey but the kunoichi didn't back down. "I don't have the time. It'd pretty much be like being one of those security guard people sitting in a room with a bunch of screens. And I wouldn't get breaks."

Leo immediately felt a little guilty. "Would you like some help?"

Donnie shook his head. "I should have it covered."

"We're a clan," Leo insisted. "You shouldn't bear all of your responsibilities on your own. I know that you, Rockwell, and April are the resident geniuses but the rest of us are not completely useless. Bebop, Fishface, and Tiger Claw have a lot of high tech gear, they probably know the ropes around it."

Bebop nodded. "Yeah man. I can help you out."

Donnie looked at him doubtfully. "Did you spend 10 years in an incredibly advanced lab in Antarctica?"

"Nah, but I'm from the tech capital of the world," Bebop responded.

"Really?"

"Yup. Silicon Valley. Plus, I was a thief. I know my way 'round a security system."

"Wait, what?" Leo interrupted.

"Don't worry, boss man," Bebop tipped his head in Leo's direction with a grin. "I've been clean for years. For the most part."

Leo blinked but didn't press. He really needed to learn about his clanmates sometime.

"I'd really like your help then," Donnie went on.

"Of course," Bebop said. Donnie began heading back to the makeshift lab, Bebop following behind him. The pig paused in the doorway and glanced back at the group. "Hey fish, tiger, you know anything 'bout 'dis?"

Tiger Claw shook his head. "Outside of jetpack and blaster repairs, I am not so good with technology."

Fishface shook his head too. "I'm lucky I never damaged my breathing unit or I'd be fried fish."

"Alright then," Leo said and looked back to the group. "I guess the rest of us will keep working on fixing up the lair. Karai, replace Bebop and do some scavenging. Rockwell, take April's place and do inventory and try to help out with the scavenging if you can. April, go help Bebop and Donnie. Rahzar…"

"Nice lab you've got going here," Bebop commented, glancing around the old storage room. There was a lousy cot in the corner where Rockwell presumably slept. This was his room after all. Looking around, Bebop understood why the lair was going through so much maintenance.

The equipment was nice though. There was no way they found it after coming to New York, the group from Antarctica definitely brought it with them.

Donnie walked right up to an amped up laptop with a series of monitors hooked up to it. Bebop paused next to him, leaning on the table with his hand on his hip. "So, what're we doin' exactly?"

"We're going through the footage to see if there's anything useful," Donnie told him. He pulled out the chair to the table where the computers sat and sat down.

"That sounds like a lot of work," Bebop said. It really did. There was several days worth of footage to go through and they really had to scrutinize it or they'd miss something. "Maybe we shoulda asked for some more help."

"Then it's a good thing Leo was thinking the same thing," a voice said from the doorway.

"A-April!" Donnie exclaimed. Bebop raised an eyebrow at his sudden change in behavior but didn't say anything.

April dragged the cot over from the corner and over to the table to use as a seat. She cracked her knuckles and sat down. "So how are we going to do this?"

Out in the abandoned subway station, two mutants, Leatherhead and Slash, stood side by side. Slash hit the wall with a solid punch then Leatherhead would do the same, the two alternating blows. Rocksteady stood behind them, ready to pick up any large debris but it seemed that for now Raph, Casey, and Mondo had it covered.

"Why exactly we break wall in this part of subway?" Rocksteady asked. "Subway seem very large. I do not see reason to extend."

Raph held a large piece of yellow painted cement over his shoulder. He set it down and looked to Rocksteady. "So you see how the lair is over there, behind the stairs? The stairs lead to the station then these tunnels lead out into the actual railway."

Rocksteady nodded. "I still do not see point in breaking down wall."

"The station is right next to the lair. The garage and the entrance connect to it," Raph explained. "There's not a whole lot of room in there so we're expanding into the station."

"But why knock down? Tunnels seem plenty big."

"The tunnels lead away from the lair, we don't want to go too far," Raph told him. "We're knocking down this wall to make the station into a larger room then we're going to use the stone to build up a wall to cut it off from the rest of the tunnel and maybe divide it up into some rooms."

"You sure you didn't hurt your brain explaining all that, Raph?" Slash teased between pants and punches. Leatherhead let out a growl as he threw a particularly hard punch.

"Quit your yapping and get back to work!" Casey snapped though he had a light tone showing that he wasn't actually angry at his friend. "Mondo's picking up your slack!"

"Sorry," Raph apologized.

Mondo was pushing a chunk of rock about half the size he was, squealing and grunting with effort. Raph walked over and picked the thing up with ease. Mondo blinked gratefully and exhaled hard. "This is a lot of work. We never did anything like this in Australia."

"Speaking of that, I've been meaning to ask, what was it like there?" Casey asked. Slash bashed his fist into the wall and a piece of grey stone fell from the wall. Casey effortlessly hoisted it up to chest level and carried it away. "Mikey's kinda hard to talk to, Leatherhead doesn't say much, and I never know what Bebop is going on about."

Happy to have a reason to stop working, Mondo sat down beside the pile of broken rocks after setting down a palm sized stone and excitedly began recounting his life down under. "Oh it was great! There weren't any humans in the Outback and we could do whatever we wanted!"

"I mean like where'd you live?" Casey asked. "We lived in the Cove, I know that they had a lab out in Antarctica, and Karai told me that in China they had to move around a lot."

"We used to do that too," Mondo told him. "Move around a lot, I mean. Or at least me and Bebop did. But that was when we lived around the city. Then we stayed in the oasis."

Leatherhead backed away from the wall, signaling to Rocksteady that it was time to switch. The alligator didn't look very tired but he settled down beside Mondo. "You forget that we didn't always live in the oasis, young one. Before Michelangelo and I encountered Bebop and Mondo Gecko, we would move between a few caves."

"How'd you stay warm?" Raph asked as he set down a stone in the pile behind them. The day's pile was building up. Casey and Raph were carrying fallen stones to the pile while they were talking with remarkable speed. "I heard that deserts get cold at night."

"We would leave large, flat stones in the sun after we woke then bring them inside to lay upon during the night," Leatherhead told them.

"Oh, I remember now," Mondo said. "Yeah, we'd stay in the caves at night then play in the Outback during the day. But Leatherhead thought we were annoying so Bebop said we should find a place for Leatherhead to stay so he didn't have to be around us when we were going on adventures and stuff. So we stole this jeep and drove around until we found the oasis!"

"That's nice," Slash murmured as he pounded at the wall.

"It truly was," Leatherhead agreed. "I am fortunate to have very considerate companions."

"Unlike some people," Slash muttered.

"Heard that!"

"You know we're both standing right here, right?"

Slash paused a moment and grinned at the two teenagers and chuckled. "At least you can't get away with the stuff you used to do now."

"That's the one thing I miss about the Cove," Casey huffed.

"Only one?"

"More actually," Casey admitted. Raph frowned. "I do like it here though. It's just different."

"Yeah!" Mondo said. "It's great here! And I got to go see my old house."

Casey nodded. "It was nice to see my family too. Nearly gave me an anxiety attack or some shit like that though."

"Language."

"That reminds me," Casey said, "what's the language policy here? Rahzar seemed kinda freaked over it."

"I don't know. Ask Leo sometime, he's clan leader," Raph said. He looked to Rocksteady. "Do you miss your old place?"

"In China?" Rocksteady questioned.

"You're from China? I thought you were from Russia," Casey said.

"Oh. No, I from Russia. I misunderstand question," Rocksteady said between punches at the subway walls. Leatherhead got to his feet and dragged away a particularly large chunk of debris that fell. Rocksteady tipped his head in thought as he paused for a moment to catch his breath before resuming the beating he was giving to the wall. "I suppose. Russia very good country and I love family but I not be there for long time and I remember it not so good. America new country, clan new family. Clan mean family, yes?"

"I guess," Casey said.

"We were a clan before all of you came along," Raph said. "Now we're like one big clan made up of a bunch of little clans but tied together with a smaller clan."

"I believe that is how clans usually function," Leatherhead told him. "There is one main branch and several others sprouting from it."

"Oh. Okay."

"Like a tree?" Mondo asked.

"Yes, my friend," Leatherhead said. "Like a tree. The turtles are the trunk and each one has a clan of his own and each of those clans are a branch."

"So we're Mikey's branch," Mondo said slowly. "And he connects us to the trunk and the trunk connects us to the other branches? Like Raph and Casey's?"

"Yes," Leatherhead smiled and patted him gently, careful not to knock him over. Leatherhead was huge. Mondo was probably small enough to sit in his hand if he wanted to.

"That's a good way to put it," Raph said.

"That'd make a good picture," Casey said. "If anyone wanted to make it, that'd make a nice wall hanging or something."

"It would," Raph agreed.

"Mikey likes drawing," Mondo said. "Maybe I'll ask him later, if I remember."

"Question about tree," Rocksteady spoke. "In tree, branches separate. But in clan, branches touch."

"What?"

"Fishface and Bebop from separate branches, da?" Rocksteady said. "But they get along very well. Many of our clanmates do. Karai and Casey, April and Leatherhead…"

Raph blinked at Casey who flinched but neither said anything.

"It's just an analogy, man," Slash told him. "No analogy is perfect but it's still a pretty good one."

That night, the clan assembled in the common room upon Leo's orders after Donnie excitedly rattled off some nonsense about something that he, Bebop, and April had found.

Everyone looked pretty tired except for Donnie and Bebop but the latter sat sprawled out on the floor, leaning against the foot of one of the few couches. Mikey sat over him and accidently kicked him a few times, trying to find a comfortable place to put his legs since Bebop was blocking the spot they were supposed to go.

Leo, Tiger Claw, and Donnie stood before the clan. Tiger Claw hung off more to the side, unsure of his place. He felt that the turtle brothers were the leaders of the clan but Leo seemed to treat him as a second in command of sort.

"So what's all this about?" Slash asked from his place next to the couches.

"Yeah, I wanna go to bed," Casey complained. "Try to make this fast."

Donnie ignored him. "So you know how me, Bebop, and April have been going through the footage of the-"

"Yes, we all heard the alarm go off," Raph interrupted.

"Just get to the point," Karai said. "We've all been working all day. Unlike some people."

"Hey! I'd like to see you go through days worth of audio and footage in half a day!" Bebop responded. Karai looked down at him. Bebop gave a small squeal shrank back a bit. His bovine instincts weren't a fan of that serpentine look Karai alway shot at him.

Donnie sighed. "We found out the Foot is going to be having a business operation."

"Really?" Leo asked excitedly. "Where?"

"Down by the docks."

"The docks? Really?"

"Is there something wrong?"

"No," Leo told him. His gaze drifted to Rocksteady. "It's just…"

"Russian mob operate on New York docks," Rocksteady said. "Or at least did when I was child."

"I don't think they're dealing with the Russian mob," Donnie told them. "They didn't really use any names, they kept saying stuff like 'our supplier' and 'the King'. I don't think Russia has a king. I'm sure that the mob is just letting the Foot and this group use the docks as a trading hub."

"Do you still have any of your old connections?" Leo asked Rocksteady.

The sturdy mutant shook his head. "Like other former human clanmates, I do not have old life. I do not think former comrades would believe that I am still alive."

"Or, y'know, a rhino," Casey commented.

"Da. That too."

"That means this is going to be a bit more complicated," Leo said.

"Woah, wait. What's 'this' mean?" Donnie asked. "You're not seriously thinking of attacking them?"

"We're ninjas that's what we do," Leo told him.

"Aw yeah!" Mikey shouted. "We're gonna take out the Foot! Like a ninja do!"

"Wouldn't it be wiser to just plant some more intel gathering devices?" Donnie asked.

"Not only will we have to fight the Foot, we're also dealing with an unknown second party," April pointed out. She glanced at Rahzar then Mondo. "And some of us are still recovering from our last fight with the Foot."

"What?" Rahzar protested. "I'm fine!"

"Me too!" Mondo added. "I can work, can't I? And I got away from those freaky robots."

"Not this again," Raph groaned.

"We kinda lucked out in that first fight," Slash noted. "An entire army of Foot Soldiers, a squad of mutants, and the Shredder. We only won because they completely didn't expect anyone to attack."

"They didn't know of our existence," Rockwell agreed. "And in our most recent encounter, we were fortunate enough to only have fought a small patrol."

"Good points," Leo sighed.

"But we cannot pass up this opportunity," Tiger Claw said. "They are a rival clan on the brink of destruction. We must take them out."

"Yeah," Karai agreed. "It's the Foot Clan. We owe them. Big time."

"They killed our father," Raph pointed out as he looked at Donnie. "How can you not want to take them out?"

"Because I don't want to die too!" Donnie said. "Of course I want to beat them but it's important to be patient."

"Patience is important but timing is even more so," Tiger Claw spoke.

"That doesn't even make any sense," Donnie said.

"Good points," Leo repeated loudly. He thought for a moment. "And we should take them all into account into planning what we're going to do."

"Did you not hear anything I just said?" Donnie questioned.

"I said planning what we're going to do, not plan for battle," Leo told him.

Tiger Claw nodded. "I believe the best course of action is to arrive with the intent of being spectators and to intervene as warriors if the situation permits."

"I guess I can't argue with that," Donnie mumbled.

"We still need a bigger game plan than that," Slash said.

"Which is why we have… Donnie, when's the trade deal?" Leo asked.

"Uh…" Donnie began counting on his three fingered hands. "Tomorrow."

"Which is why we have all night and tomorrow morning to plan," Leo finished. A series of groans sounded. It was going to be a long night.