I do not own anything, but my OC in this chapter. Please do not sue, but just read and enjoy, I make no money from it.

Mayu Point of View

My eyebrows rise while my gaze follows the girl walking toward Donnie's lab: the human girl. My heartbeat seems to slow, but maybe it's actually sped up and my awareness of it is just intensifying. My mind grows fuzzy seeking to understand what is happening here though it should already know. I remember the events that brought us here. I remember the attempted kidnapping, the fighting, capture, interrogation, and torture. So, I know why April and her father are here. But it's so strange.

I never thought I'd let another human down here. Even when we took our sons to see the Winters … once … Splinter and I took them to the Winters' basement. We did not bring the Winters here. We let our sons enter their home but kept the location of ours a secret even from the Winters. This was a one-human only abode. Now, we are three humans and five mutants. And one of the new humans hates the other causing that other great pain.

I turn to see a father hunched, staring at the floor before he dares lift his head just enough to watch his daughter through mostly closed eyes. His fists are clenched at his sides. His face is twisted and wrinkled in pain. Then I turn and watch the girl stomp through the doorway without a backward glance at the man. Last night, from the shadows, I saw April and her father walking and smiling at each other in the streetlights before the Kraang showed up. Then I saw them huddling and shaking together in the shadows together after the Kraang tried to capture them.

I hear a sigh beside me. I glance down at my Donnie. My genius boy stares after April his eyes wide and unblinking, body tense, and with longing dripping from his pores. I sigh, but don't let it make a sound. I also resist the urge to shake my head. But I do let myself close my eyes. Ships full of trouble just keep sailing out of that horizon for us …

I open my eyes and turn them to meet Splinter's gaze. He looks back into mine. We say nothing. We say everything. The corners of his mouth are turned down. His eyes are wide and moister than usual though not yet close to overflowing. He is not surprised. He is sad. This is serious, but easily explained.

We could have a private Pow-wow in the dojo, but I prefer to go straight to the source. I turn and grin at Michelangelo, who is staring at the door the girl disappeared through too. His shoulders are hunched, eyes wide and wet to the point of dripping, and his lip is pouting out. I smile at him. Then I tilt my head to look cute. He likes it when I act cute with him. It's like we are on the same side then, and we might be here. "Mikey, why don't you make pancakes for us and our guest?"

My Mikey's back straightens. The corners of his mouth curl up showing dimples and his lips themselves open to show all his teeth and tongue. His arms rise above his head with clenched fists. "Oh yeah! The pancake-nator is back!" He backflips and then runs over to the kitchen.

I look to Leo and smile lowering my voice as his dark blue eyes lock on mine. "Make sure he uses the ingredients in our cookbook and nothing else."

"On it." Leo smiles, nods, and turns before following his brother to the kitchen.

I look to Raphael. "Why don't you and your dad go see how Spike is doing?"

Raph's eyes widen. "Oh, yeah. I haven't checked on him since we first got back last night."

He turns and takes off. Splinter strides after him with those long, smooth, soundless rotations of his legs. He pauses to drop a hand on Kirby O'Neil's shoulder while turning his gaze on the man. Dr. O'Neil looks back up at him. Splinter gives a graceful, short nod before looking back to his path and continuing after our hot-headed son. I watch him disappear into the hallway connecting our sons and my rooms. I like to give those two as much alone time as possible. Raph's anger dissipates when he has no need to fight for his father's attention.

I turn back to see Donnie still staring at the entrance to his lab. I nod to him. "Let's go tend to April O'Neil."

His head jerks up and eyes widen a moment as he locks gazes with me, but then he nods and takes a step. I begin walking at his side just a split-second after he begins. As we walk away, I turn my gaze back over my shoulder to Kirby O'Neil and wave my arm wordlessly for him to follow us. It would not do for Donnie and I to examine his daughter without her guardian watching us do so.

He bites his lip, but then begins to follow about three steps behind. He stops before stepping over the threshold, but April is right across from him. She's perched on the edge of the crowded worktable. Donnie always leaves that particular spot clear so it can serve as an examination area for any injured family members. It gets very good light from both an overhead lamp hanging from the ceiling and another sitting in a corner of the lab pointed at it, which I turn on now. Donnie turns on the overhead one. He's taller than me. I sigh a little louder this time.

I remember how when I was the main medic of the family, though Splinter's skills were never to be disrespected either, the spot next to the kitchen sink was where all our scratches, burns, and bruises were treated. Then Donnie's knowledge of macro and microbiology as well as chemistry expanded well beyond us both. He may not be licensed, but he read every word of every medical journal I've brought him and looks up more online. He's also studied all our cells, skin, blood, and hair under his microscopes. I imagine he knows more about the effects if not the mechanisms of mutations caused by the Kraang than anyone besides the Kraang themselves. But maybe, just maybe we can close that gap soon.

I stand over April O'Neil and stare down at her before sighing. "First thing first, does your head hurt?"

Without looking up from the toes of her shoes, she murmurs "no."

I nod. "Take a deep breath for me."

Still staring at her shoes, she sucks in a breath. It puffs out her cheeks as she holds it. I smile. "Now release it."

She does slowly. The air ruffles her red bangs. My smile grows wider at the girl. She's cute. If Donnie were human and things far less complicated, I might like having her for a daughter-in-law. "Did that hurt?"

"No." Then she pauses, and her brows furrow a bit. She lifts her shoulders in a mild shrug. "Just a little in the sinuses."

I nodded. "Probably from the crying."

She glares and drums her fingertips on the tabletop. Ah. She's mad that I discerned that. Donnie comes over wearing a stethoscope. "Can you breathe again while I listen?"

She nods and when he applies the stethoscope over her shirt, she sucks in another breath holds it a moment, and then releases without being told. He stares at the ceiling while bending in toward her like it will help things. I roll my eyes. He moves the stethoscope and says without looking down from the ceiling and after only barely moving further in, "And again."

April gives him a slight glare he doesn't notice being so intent on listening and staring at the ceiling, but she complies. He grins and takes the stethoscope off. "That's great! All clear. And it didn't hurt? Your ribcage I mean." He's grinning right into her face now. She shakes her head no.

If she's comfortable enough for him to be so close to her … "May I examine your head?"

She hesitates, but nods. I move in and beginning with the crest press my hands slightly through the hair to feel around the skull moving my hands downward as I become satisfied. No shifting plates, no winces from her (showing I have not touched a sensitive area), and no foreign objects somehow embedded without pain. I put my finger under her chin and tilt her face upward into the light. Her pupils narrow and eyes squint. I examine her pale skin for bruises. I find none on the face or neck, but when she rolls up the sleeves of her shirt for me that changes.

Donnie glares. I hear her father suck in a breath behind me. I narrow my own eyes. I think those up on her biceps and on the shoulders are from the Kraang. They seem to be five-fingered. When she takes her outer shirt off and I pull up the sleeves on the white t-shirt underneath it, we find more of these on her shoulders. The ones around her wrist are light, but the finger marks are thicker and fewer. By Donnie's bowed head and widening eyes that look away I come to think they're from him.

"You were trying to pull her after you?"

He taps all his fingers together in a rhythm while looking away. April comes to his defense. "I couldn't run fast enough. I'd never run so fast before." She turns her gaze to Donnie and her voice takes on an almost awed tone. "You guys are all so fast."

Donnie looks up and her and gives a slight smile with moist eyes. I raise the brows over mine. Uh-oh.

Then April looks to me with a light in her eyes. Double-uh-oh. "Can you teach 'me' to be that fast?"

I raise my eyebrows. "Let's look at your legs first." I do examine most of them with both males watching us, but in the end, I send even doctor Donnie out and close the door on her medically certified father. Then I give her a more thorough examination. I notice by her fast, large, sweeping movements at my request she's not shy of my gaze anymore. Other than the bruises on her arms and shoulder from Kraang trying to pull or push her somewhere and Donnie's from dragging her along in escape, only her knees are discolored. She says she fell on them once while running away. None of the bruises on her limbs are extremely deep or tender though. I don't think even the kraang were trying to harm her, which makes sense. I think they wanted a specimen in good condition. Well … I don't think they can have her now. All of us are highly invested and highly trained who guard her, except her father.

I give April O'Neil one final sweeping gaze as she puts her overshirt back on. She's not even shaking from low-blood-sugar though she hasn't eaten in probably over twelve hours. I'm impressed. After her shirt is back on, she asks me, "Can I start training now?"

I raise my eyebrows again. "To do what?"

She shrugs. "Be like all of you."

I look up at her put my hands on my hips and meet her gaze. "Why?"

She frowns at me. "To rescue my mom."

I begin to shake my head. "I think you'd have to be better than all of us put together to get by us and endanger the whole population of earth to go after your mother yourself. That will take years, decades even if you manage it at all."

She folds her arms and glares at me. "Well, I'm not leaving her with them any longer than I have too!"

I raise my chin and hold back a smile. "We have to make the Kraang unable or unwilling to carry out their plan to mutate the earth. That's priority #1. Priority #2 is 'don't die or let your teammates die.' That one applies to all of us. Priority number #3 is rescuing your mom."

April's brows fly upward and the corners of her mouth go back in a near sneer as her voice rises. "Rescuing her is number 3?!"

I raise my eyebrows again and keep my voice level. "It's pretty hard to rescue someone when you are dead or other members of the team you train and work with are dead."

April slumps and looks down at the floor as her mouth closes and its corners turn down. I continue. "But I think we would all die to protect anyone, including you, from what they plan to do to everyone on earth. What they did to Splinter alone was very painful for him."

April raises her gaze and doesn't say a thing, but her eyes are wet and soft. She swallows a bit.

I nod then. "But it would be good for you to know something of self-defense. Follow me."

What do you think?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes