JEM

He was dragging his step as he neared home. Finding his rogue sister was a bust. She wasn't answering his texts and he couldn't ignore his parent's calls any longer. When he'd checked with them, none of their cousins had seen her, so that sucked. After his stomach started hurting he opted to head home, maybe she was back by now. Of course, if that were the case then his parents probably would've stopped calling. Unless they were calling to say they found her and find out where he was? Ugh.

Heaving a sigh, he rounded the last turn and there on a bus bench right outside their building was a raccoon mutant holding a familiar shaped human-looking little sister. He sniffed the air, the copper rising above the grease, oil, gas fumes, and fried food. Senses alert he sprang forward. "Is she okay?" he yelled.

The raccoon mutant's head lifted, but his eyes searched dead air, his ears perking toward Jem but clearly not knowing where to look. Then Jem saw them. Cataract eyes. Blind eyes. Jem followed the mutant's face, noticed a knot above his eye. His gaze drifted down to his sister, blood seeping out from somewhere, her body goose-fleshed and shivering. "What happened to her?"

"Mind yer own business," the raccoon hissed.

Jem knelt beside them, reached out and rubbed Scout's arm. "She is my business, man. She's my sister."

"Jem?" the raccoon asked, still staring into space, his furry arms wrapped around Scout.

"Yeah," Jem answered, already working Scout free of the raccoon's grasp. Pulling his sister to his chest, he felt something warm and wet coating his fingers. Knew the smell. Didn't even have to look. Jem frowned. "Tell me, if she can't hear you and you can't see her how do you even know her?"

The raccoon stood. "You'll have to ask her that. Keep her warm, it'll help the muscle cramps and get her to drink water, nothing else. That'll flush it out of her system the fastest. Get her through the worst of it." The mutant staggered down the sidewalk.

"Wait, what's your name? What's wrong with her? What happened?" Jem debated going after the guy but the steady flow of heat trickling over his fingers changed his mind. He glanced toward the apartment entrance. Well this was going to suck all kinds of pizza balls.

MIKEY

Mikey wrapped the afghan tightly around Scout as he held her close, bundled up with her on the couch.

He rested her head in his chest while he hummed. The vibration of it had always comforted her before and he didn't know what else he could do. At the very least, her sleep seemed less fitful.

Donnie had just left, looking dead on his feet. He'd been there the better part of the night, stitching up and bandaging Scout's shoulder and giving her a whole baggie of clear liquid via IV tube. Before he'd gone, he'd taken a blood sample, muttering something about analysis and detox. If he'd heard Mikey's 'thank you' he hadn't acknowledged it.

They'd tried calling mom too, but she was out on clinic and tended not to bring her phone to avoid being pestered by overprotective kiddos. That or to drive Leo nuts. Both totally legit reasons.

He should probs be upset about that or how this whole evening had gone, but for the moment he was just grateful to have Scout back. Later, he'd be mad. Maybe even Splinter-Leo mad. Times ten. But for now, it was all relief.

What a night.

~Hours Ago~

Mikey landed on the roof and slipped in through the building-top access to his apartment. He'd been running frantic laps around the city, haphazardly looking for his daughter since Denim had called him from work to let him know she was missing.

Woody had his back and covered for him as he'd done for years. The human bud he'd always been seeking in his youth and had eventually been lucky enough to find.

And so, between frantic calls to Scout and Jem, unanswered, and to every relative he could think of, he'd jumped from building to building at random. Then, ten minutes ago, Blue Jeans had called him back. The kids were home.

As the adrenaline faded, he stumbled into their apartment, regretting getting up so early that morning.

His exhaustion burned away in a fresh spike of adrenaline as he entered the living room.

Jem had Scout on the couch, a bloody towel pressed to her shoulder, as he tried unsuccessfully to feed her a bottle of water.

Denim paced frantically, in full freak-out mode. Her eyes locked onto him. "I called Phoenix and she's not answering, but Don's on his way. She's so out of it and no one knows what happened..."

He wrapped her in a hug and she sagged against him. Rubbing calming circles into her back, he turned to Jem. "Hey J-ster, why don't you take your mom into the kitchen and fix her up with some of that fancy Leorai tea."

His son managed a broken but relieved smile, small as it was. "You know they hate it when you call them that, right?"

"Of course. Go on, now. I've got this." Mikey gently released Denim and crouched next to the couch, where Jem reluctantly handed Scout over.

Jem took Denim's hand, pulling her towards the kitchen, and Mikey lifted Scout up and carried her to the bathroom.

She sat, barely lucid, on the seat of the toilet, as he peeled off her bloody shirt and cleaned what was obviously a knife wound with hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol. A sadly familiar task from his own youth. One his kids weren't supposed to ever worry about. They'd fought so hard to give them a safer world.

Not knowing what else to do, he nattered on about anything he could think of as he worked. Funny customers at the parlor, new ideas for recipes, his top ten funniest commercials of all time, whatever popped into his head, it all came straight out his mouth.

He stopped midsentence when she looked up at him with dull eyes, totally lacking in her natural vitality. "Dad?" It came out it a slurry version of her adorable little accent, which he called Scoutish.

Looking at her in this moment, he was shocked to realize he barely recognized her. Gone was the fierce little girl in pig tails, queen of the playground and the absolute best prankster he'd ever trained. The girl in front of him now was high, or low, and definitely not on life and getting stabbed by someone he'd totes track down and have a word with later.

He didn't know her anymore. Not any of them. Alli, tragic and starving herself. Jem all hard work and health. Scout miserable and not sober. When had that happened?

He loved kids. Loved his kids. Playing and hanging out with them was one of the best parts of life. But things got busy and as they got older, they'd pulled away. He'd let them. He should've held on tighter. Then maybe the girl in front of him would be more his Cub Scout than a stranger.

"Dad?"

Calling to him again broke through his reverie.

"I'm here, Cubs. You're gonna be alright now." He leaned his forehead to hers and started to cry.

~Present~

Jem snored in the Lazy Boy next to the couch and Denim sat asleep, tucked against his shell. The worst was over and everything was ok again.

Then his phone, on the end table, buzzed.

Reluctant to wake his resting girls, he reached out with his leg and swiped across the screen with his toe to open Yuuta's message.

Alli didn't come home last night. Not sure where she is.

SHEN

Shen lay on her back, staring at the sky from the roof of her apartment building. Though there weren't any clouds, no stars were visible thanks to New York's ever-present light pollution. The price paid by a city that never slept. The world appeared capped by a vaguely-illuminated, slate lid.

"Cassiopeia."

Beside her, Nik scanned the sky, eventually choosing a spot to point at. "There."

"Draco."

He looked around thoughtfully and pointed again. "There."

She gave him a sidelong glance. "How do I know you aren't just screwing with me?"

He shrugged. "You don't."

Her furry, caramel-colored ears twitched in irritation. Sometimes she hated the way her canid features gave her away, despite her best attempts to suppress the instincts. "Are you screwing with me?"

His smile scrunched up the freckles that dusted his cheeks and crinkled the corners of his eyes, opaque, milky white where his irises and pupils should have been. "Not this time."

Her ears twitched again. Traitors. "So how are you finding them?"

He turned back to the sky, rubbing his hair, cut so short it almost looked like carrot-colored stubble and a different surge of annoyance flicked her ears.

If she could've, she would've grown her hair long like in the few surviving photos of the grandmother she'd been named after. The best she could manage was a shaggy, dark brown mop of fur that barely reached the nape of her neck. Fixing it to resemble normal hair had been one of the biggest projects of her adolescence. She had a few go-to styles that did the trick, but still felt very limited.

That Nik could grow his hair out as long as he wanted, even if it did tend to curl and poof out if he didn't keep up on it, and intentionally chose not to, had always irked her. But he insisted that since reflections had no energy signature for him to 'see' or whatever it was he did in place of sight, it was only practical to go as low maintenance as possible.

"Remember when we were up at the farm and my dad taught us all the constellations?"

She followed his gaze upward. "Yeah. The stars are actually visible there."

"I just remember the patterns that have names and find those patterns again."

She turned to look at him again. "Pattern?"

He nodded. "All of it is. From everything out there. The cosmos. It's pretty cool."

She huffed out a breath. "All I see is a lot of nothing."

"Too bad for you."

She couldn't decide whether he meant that sincerely or sarcastically and eventually gave up. "Ursa Major."

He scanned the sky again. "There. Does it look anything like uncle Arcos to you?"

"I can't see it." She reminded him.

"From what you remember when you could?"

She cocked her head to the side as she thought about it. "No, not really. It just looked like a bunch of sparkly dots that could be connected into the rough shape if a bear if you're really determined to see one."

"That's disappointing." He frowned, then pushed to his feet.

She raised herself up on one elbow. "Calling it a night already? It's not even dawn yet."

His shoulders slumped. "I've got a bio test tomorrow, or today now, and dad will flip his shit if I fail this one."

She scrunched up her snout. "That sucks. Good luck."

"There's not enough luck in the universe." He responded with a sigh.

He was on his way to the fire escape when she saw that he'd left his dark-lensed glasses where he'd been sitting.

"Don't forget these." She threw them to him and he plucked them out of the air.

"Right. Can't see a thing without 'em." He put them on. "Or with them. They still haven't cured me."

She rolled her eyes. "Since most real blind people need glasses you need them to blend in. You know how my dad is when it comes to keeping our family secrets. Besides, you'll weird people out if you don't act like you can't see."

He snorted. "Got to accommodate everyone made uncomfortable by my existence."

"Really?" She gestured to her body, covered in tawny fur. "At least people feel obligated to pretend that they aren't freaked out by you."

He wrinkled his nose. "I think I'd prefer honesty."

She flopped down onto her back. "Because what you need is more detention to make things better at school."

"At least it would give dad something else to bitch about besides my grades. Night."

"You mean morning." She tilted her head up to look at him, but he was already swinging down to the street.

NIK

Nik hit the pavement below the fire escape, absorbing the shock of the landing with his legs. He briefly considered putting his glasses on before stuffing them in his pocket. If he wore them, then he'd have to use the stupid cane too, or he'd just look like some weirdo poser wearing sunglasses at night.

It'd be ok to go without for a little while. If he understood correctly, it was dark out and normal people couldn't see very well without light. He merely had to avoid looking at them and no one would notice.

His dad had tried making him contacts to disguise his strange eyes years ago. Unfortunately, it turned out that while he could use his eyes just fine, he used them differently than everyone else, seeing things they couldn't and failing to see things they could, always looking in the wrong places. It had placed him squarely in the uncanny valley and freaked everyone out, so no pretending to be a sighted person for him.

Which sucked because he could see, after a fashion. Most people's eyes interpreted light. His read pure energy. While he couldn't see different colors, shading or texture, he could determine the nature of things and how it all interacted or remained inert. His sight got him through just fine and he would argue worked better than light-seers. But he still had to hide it because the world was dumb.

Rounding the corner to his parent's apartment building, he noticed the configuration of signatures that uniquely constituted his father's car, with his father's essence seated within. His dad was the shape of tired. It was a perfect opportunity to sneak in without getting lectured.

So, he walked up to the car and opened the driver side door. "Dad."

His father groaned mid-snore and his aura shifted to bleary wakefulness. "Nik? What are you doing up? It's a school night."

"I know. Come on. Let's get you upstairs." He lifted his dad's arm over his shoulders and helped him out of the car, an awkward maneuver considering his father was still almost a foot taller than him.

There was still time to get his height. He had his fingers crossed for taking after his old man, at least in that respect. They differed in so many other ways, they ought to have that in common.

"My bag..." His father started, but Nik was already on it, turning around to reach behind the driver seat with his free hand and grab the swirl of 'not car' positioned there.

"Got it." He shut the door with his foot.

"I'll be fine," his dad yawned. "You need to rest up. Got a big day."

"I'm not the one who's too old to be pulling all-nighters." He replied as he helped his semi-awake father up the steps.

His dad's energy took on the hue of humor and he chuckled. "Never too old to forgo sleep. Where were you anyway? It's late and... unsafe."

There was more there than his dad was saying. "Night unsafe? For anyone in our family? Please."

His father's energy twisted and constricted. "I'm not joking, Nik."

Definitely more going on than was being said. "Mom would have known if anything was wrong with me. I was with Shen."

His father relaxed. "Good. She did very well when she took bio. With her help, I'm sure you'll have this one."

He didn't have the heart to correct his dad, and fumbled for the keys in lieu of responding. A difficult enough task while supporting his father and holding his dad's messenger bag.

Before he could unlock the apartment door, it opened.

His mother stood on the other side, energy so raw and bright, it hurt to look at for extended periods. Her joy flared at the sight of them and she pulled them both into a hug. "Donnie, Nik, welcome home."

SHEN

Shen scaled down the side of the apartment building with her shuko spikes, taking the time to appreciate how odd they were as a family. Oddness that had nothing to do with mutation. Normal people didn't practice urban free climbing. She'd learned to do it before she was old enough to attend school.

Slipping through the open window into her dark room, she tucked her spikes into the pocket of her hooded, fleece jacket. Eyes adjusting to the more complete darkness of her room, she about jumped out of her skin with a loud shriek, upon seeing her mother lurking in her computer chair.

"Very stealthy, Shen." Her mother smirked, green, serpentine eyes luminous in the limited light.

"Shit! I mean crap. Mom, what are you doing?" Shen clutched her chest, willing her heart rate down.

Her mother raised her eyebrows. "Saving you from another lecture."

Shen stilled, listening for any sign that her yelp had caught her father's attention. When none was forthcoming, though she couldn't imagine how, she released a breath of relief.

Turning back to her mom, she huffed. "Why do I need to be saved?"

Her mother laughed. "He very nearly checked on you, but I told him I'd handle it. Imagine the fuss he'd kick up, if he found you missing, even if it was just to sneak up to the roof to hang out with Nik."

Her brow furrowed. "How did you...?"

"If you want to have a private life in this family, you're going to have train harder at your stealth." Her mother stood, moving fluidly like she was being poured up out of the seat.

Shen sighed. Yes, her family was very odd. "Not that I'm not grateful or anything, but why aren't you turning me in?"

Her mom shrugged. "Having once been the teenage daughter of a control freak, I understand how important a little rebellion is to maintaining sanity. So, I'm not gonna sweat the small stuff."

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Sofu wasn't that bad."

Her mom's expression flickered dark for an instant before clearing, easy manner now seeming a bit forced. "You'd be surprised. He was such a softie on his grandkids, you'd never know how strict he really was."

Shen wrinkled her snout. "Not that dad ever got in trouble, I'm sure."

Her mom laughed, genuine good mood returning. "You have no idea."

Skeptical, she raised her eyebrows at her mom as she plopped onto her bed. "Captain Rules, in trouble? What would've made him step out of line?"

Her mother's grin turned mischievous. "Me. Anyway, you can repay the favor by taking over teaching my yoga class after school today. I've got to work on the budget."

Shen pouted. "Why would he be randomly checking on me in the middle of the night anyway?"

Her mom's smile slipped. "Scout was missing. She's home now. High and stabbed, but home. Your dad's out right now, looking into it."

Shen's eyes widened and she jumped to her feet. "What? Is she going to be ok?"

Her mother shook her head. "I don't know. But, fair warning, better brace yourself now because hurricane overprotective-Leo is on its way."

Shen flopped back on her bed with a groan. That was just freaking great. Once she knew Scout was going to be fine, she was going to pound her.