"Man, this stuff is incredible."

Such was Michelangelo's remark when he and his brothers examined the collection of props and weaponry in the display case in Allison's living room. "Half of this stuff doubles as something else. I bet she's got a pair of 'chucks that turn into smart bombs or something."

Stepping up besides him and removing a small suede drawstring bag from a shelf, Leonardo commented, "Whatever she's got had better be smart. If the three of us try to storm a military base with just the shell on our backs, it's not going to be much of a fight." He opened the bag and removed one of its contents: a black shuriken. Testing the point, he was disappointed to discover that they were not battle-ready. He kept them with him nonetheless. It was, after all, better than nothing.

"Hang tight, guys," Donatello called from Allison's bedroom. "This computer's running a bit slow, so it's taking me longer to steal the information I need. A few minutes more and I'll have everything but an engraved invitation from Bishop himself."

"I don't doubt it," Leonardo stated, continuing his observations of Allison's weaponry as he took hold of a pair of crimson-handled butterfly knives. "My hunch is that Bishop's hoping we'll drop in on his little party. Raph's not any more of a thorn in his side than we are, so it's likely that he just took the first one of us he could and is almost waiting for us to show up for a rescue."

"If that's the case," Michelangelo spoke up, "then I think you should start cracking on some kind of strategy, o fearless leader." Sheathing the knives and keeping them on his person as well, Leonardo told him, "Hey, it's not that simple. Give me a floor plan, and then I can have a go at giving you a game plan."

"Whoa," Michelangelo gasped, removing a weapon from the display case, "check this out! A mace! This chick's got a mace! Y'think I should take it with us?" Michelangelo attempted to swing the heavy spiked ball on its chain, succeeding only in narrowly missing his brother's head. From Allison's room, Donatello pointed out, "Giving Mikey a mace is like letting Raph drive a busload of children to summer camp."

"Duly noted," Leonardo responded, taking the mace away from his brother and carefully setting it back in its place. "Let's try and keep your weapons simple, Mikey. See if she's got a slingshot."

Michelangelo almost pouted as he asked, "Hey, do I look like Dennis the Menace or something?" Nevertheless, he gave up on the mace and crouched down, looking down at the bottom shelves of the cabinet. These were mostly Allison's small collection of miniatures and dice for role playing. At the thought of possibly never being able to play Dungeons and Dragons with somebody who might just be able to appreciate the finer points of a roguish elf, Michelangelo stood and walked into Allison's bedroom.

"Hey Donnie, mind going a bit slower?" Michelangelo asked sarcastically. "I don't think we gotta rush or anything." Donatello didn't even spare his brother a glance as his fingers flew over the keyboard. "I'm doing my best, Mikey," Donatello answered inattentively. "Allison was never much of a computer person, so she didn't have anything more advanced than basic AOL on this thing. I'm probably doing more things on it than she even knew possible."

Seeing the three-dimensional plans that Donatello was browsing through on the monitor, Michelangelo didn't doubt him. Walking up behind his brother, Michelangelo gazed into the screen in mild awe. "Trippy graphics. Think you can turn it into a computer game?" Printing out several pages, Donatello gave Michelangelo a sideways glance. "If we survive the week, I'll give it a thought."

"Don't say that, Don." Donatello stood to move to the printer and saw that Leonardo was standing at the doorway, mostly shrouded by the shadows. The apartment was still dark, as none of the turtles wanted to risk drawing any kind of attention to themselves. "Raph's gotten himself in some pretty tight fixes over the years, so I'm hoping that that means he's fine. As for us, there's no reason why we shouldn't triumph over Bishop so long as we work together. Master Splinter's been drilling that into our heads our whole lives; let's have a little faith, huh?"

Before his brothers could contemplate these words, Leonardo held out something in his hand to Michelangelo. "Found something I thought you might like." Puzzled, Michelangelo stepped towards Leonardo and took hold of the outstretched item. It looked like a pickaxe with a ball and short chain attached. "It's called a kusarigama," Leonardo explained. "Similar enough to your nunchucks to be familiar, but with the added bonus of a blade."

"Kusariwhatta?" Michelangelo blinked. Looking down at it, he tested the weight of it in his hand. Though it looked bizarre, it wasn't very heavy and seemed to feel natural in his grip. As quickly as he decided most things, Michelangelo decided that he liked it. "Man, you would think Allison was prepping for an attack of evil samurai or something."

Leonardo stepped into the room. He was carrying a small wooden box and placed it on the desk, next to the printer that was spitting out blueprints. "More of that mercuric fulminate, it looks like," he told Donatello. "I figured you'd probably come up with a better use for them than me or Mikey."

Nodding, Donatello took the box and gave Leonardo the numerous sheets of ground plans in exchange. "These are all of the details I could find from the location that the turtle tracer's led me to. It's not a complete guarantee that we'll find Bishop there, but we can almost definitely find someone that we could coerce into giving us that information."

Leonardo took a glance at the plans and sat down at Allison's desk. "About how far away is this?" Donatello replied that it would be a five-hour drive, but their helicopter should get them there in a little over half an hour. Looking back down at the maps and plans, Leonardo asked, "Er… am I reading this right, Donnie?"

Knowing what Leonardo was inquiring about, Donatello glanced up from the box of mercuric fulminate capsules and nodded. "I'm guessing you are, Leo. Seems a bit too coincidental, doesn't it?" Michelangelo, who had been swinging his new weapon about, looked back at his two brothers. "Coincidental? Uh-oh, why do I feel like I'm out of the loop?"

Leonardo slowly shook his head, still looking down at the papers in his hand. "You're not just out of the loop. You're about to be thrown for a loop." Looking up at Michelangelo, Leonardo turned the document over to face the other turtle. "This map is leading us straight to a place called Bishop, California."

Michelangelo was dumfounded. It took him only a moment to catalog this information and let out a startled squeal. "Since when did he get a town named after him!"

"Since the mid-19th century, apparently," was the response from Donatello. "I checked it out, and it all seems perfectly legitimate. It's in one of the largest counties in the country. And the founder, Samuel Bishop, doesn't look like he's related to Agent Bishop. Then again, it has been about seven generations since then, so there's always the off-chance…."

"Hey," Michelangelo suddenly brought up. "How'd you get a tracer on that goon, anyway?" Not letting Donatello answer, he steamrollered on. "Maybe this is Bishop's way of messin' with us. I wouldn't put it past him, you know." Surprised by Michelangelo's pondering, Leonardo agreed. "He has played some sneaky tricks in the past. And if this information is getting to us easily, it might be safe to assume that this is some kind of trap." Michelangelo cringed. "I hate it when you use the t-word. Every time you use the t-word, something always goes-"

"Oh crud," Donatello breathed lowly.

Michelangelo whipped his head over to his other brother. "Crud? Oh crud? Look, unless 'Oh Crud' is the name of the street we need to get to, I don't wanna hear it!" In a softer yet equally worried voice, Leonardo stood and asked what was wrong.

Donatello glanced over at the computer, saying nothing. Finally, he moved past Leonardo and sat down at it, typing away furiously once again. "I had to lower Allison's firewalls to be able to access some of the programs I use at the lair. So for a few minutes, just as I could have been searching for the plans for this new facility… someone could've had open access to everything here."

The turtles blinked at one another in silence. Their immobility was broken when they caught the sound of a helicopter off in the distance. Donatello turned to look in the direction of the open living room window out the bedroom door just as Michelangelo smacked his own forehead. "Zoinks! Here come the bad guys of the episode, right on schedule."

Quickly checking to be sure that the bag of shuriken and the butterfly knives were secure on his person, Leonardo darted to the bedroom door and locked it. "Let's go," he said, heading for the bedroom window. "I doubt they'll come in through the front door, but this window faces an emptier lot."

Donatello grabbed the box of mercuric fulminate and took the blueprints from Leonardo, folding them into his belt as he and Michelangelo followed after their leader. Leonardo opened the window and quickly jumped out onto the ledge, his two brothers in tow. Just as he was about to tell them to make a break for their hidden helicopter some five miles away, a cluster of Bishop's men appeared on the ground, shooting at them.

"Ack!" Michelangelo screamed, thrown slightly off-balance by the new weapon in hand. "Hey, how about we try going through the front door for once?" No sooner had the words left his mouth than they could hear the bedroom door crash open inside the apartment. Being closest to the window, he and Donatello glanced inside as more men began shooting from within. "I'm thinking it might be too late for that, Mikey," Donatello wagered.

"Come on," Leonardo said, trying to appear as undaunted as possible. "The only way to go is down." As Leonardo leapt to the ground and unsheathed his swords, Michelangelo called, "Up's good, too. No one shooting at us from up!" It was at that moment that the wind picked up, causing Michelangelo and Donatello to look above them. The aircraft that they had heard was right on top of them. "Uh," Donatello murmured. "Again, you might want to reevaluate that statement."

Deciding that opening his mouth led to more complications, Michelangelo shut up and jumped down besides Leonardo, putting the new weapon away and withdrawing his nunchucks. "Okay," he said as Donatello joined them on the ground. "But nobody else says the t-word. Got that?"

He never got an answer. Another shot came right for the center of their group, as though purposely trying to get them to scatter. It worked. Michelangelo dove left, Donatello right, and Leonardo leapt straight into the air.

While in the air, Leonardo threw one of his katana at the shooter, causing the laser to backfire. The assailant threw it at the ground as sparks jumped out of his weapon, but he was not quick enough to run away as the gun exploded, sending him and the man closest to him flying through the air. The force of the small explosion sent Leonardo's sword sailing, and it fell into his palm as he landed on the ground, as a trained animal would return to its master.

Rather than falling to the ground, Donatello used his bo as a javelin, sending himself jumping to an attacker who was distracted by the nearby blast. The man managed to look up just as a large green foot connected to his jaw, sending him reeling backwards. Two other men tried to go for Donatello, but he jabbed one hard in the stomach, pivoted and ducked as the other let out a shot, and tripped him with his staff. The man's laser flew out of his hands, and Donatello quickly batted it away. It glowed a dull red before going off near Michelangelo's assailants.

Michelangelo had ducked and rolled to avoid a few shots, then popped up in a jump and used his lightning-fast nunchucks to disarm two of his opponents. Without weapons, they both tried to attack the turtle with their bare fists, but soon enough found that to be a dangerous mistake. Michelangelo grabbed the collars of one of the men and flipped him over his shoulder, causing him to collide with the other unarmed attacker. Before either man could recover, Michelangelo unleashed a dragon kick to the man he had thrown, hitting both of them and sending them flying. Just as two more men tried to get Michelangelo from behind, the gun that Donatello had disengaged went off, sending each of them flying over Michelangelo's head. Looking at them before turning around and realizing what happened, Michelangelo turned to Donatello and flashed him a thumbs-up sign. "Yo, thanks bro!"

"Don't go thanking me yet, Mikey!" Donatello cried out. A few civilians who had gone to their windows at the sound of the explosions headed for shelter as the enormous aircraft began to descend. The three turtles regrouped and looked to the air as the few remaining men also began to back away.

As a door to the strange craft was jerked open, Leonardo gritted his teeth. There is no way I'll let another one of my brothers be taken, he thought resolutely. "Whatever happens, guys," he told the others aloud, "don't let your guard down."

"Wait a second," Donatello suddenly said, shielding his eyes from the wind and looking upwards. "I recognize that thing." Moments after he said those words, a rope ladder was thrown out, the tail end of it landing directly in front of Leonardo. "It's Zanramon's space cruiser," Donatello continued. "I haven't seen it since I hid it after we swiped it from the Triceratons. But how-?"

Donatello didn't need to wonder about it for long. Clinging to the inside of the space cruiser, Casey Jones stuck his head out to yell at them. Though his voice was thrown away by the wind, the turtles gathered that he must have been telling them to hurry up. "Dudes, it's Casey!" Michelangelo called out, always noting the obvious.

Seeing that the craft was an ally of the turtles, Bishop's remaining four men began to shoot at it. "Mikey, take them out!" Leonardo called. Michelangelo was right on it as Leonardo grabbed the rope ladder and pulled it taut. "Don, get up there, quick. Let Casey know about the plan so that we can get going as soon as Mikey and I are clear."

Donatello nodded and jumped on the ladder, scrambling to the top and attempting to ignore the laser blasts and harsh wind. As he got to the top, Casey grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. "Some vacation," Casey commented, with a hint of sarcasm. "I leave you guys alone for a few hours, and you already blowin' stuff up in some chick's backyard and got half 'a LA gawking at you. What would Splinter say?"

Grateful to be safe, Donatello earnestly breathed, "Nice to see you too, Casey." Heading for the cockpit, Donatello sat besides April, who was uncertainly manning the controls. "Don!" April exclaimed. If she hadn't been otherwise occupied with the piloting, she would have hugged him. "Are you okay?" Donatello nodded. "Yeah, we're fine. April, what are you doing here?"

"You didn't call me back," April stated simply, "and Allison's phone call freaked me out more than I let on. Casey and I decided to take a red eye over here, but on the way to the airport, we passed by the dump and remembered that you had hidden this spaceship from the Triceraton invasion there a while back."

"I remembered," Casey interjected, obviously proud of this detail. April rolled her eyes and continued. "We figured it'd get us here faster and cheaper, in case things hadn't gone wrong and we were just going to head back. I came here expecting to see Allison tearing you guys limb-from-limb… so what's with the lasers?"

Grateful that April had a better memory than he did, Donatello took a deep breath and told April and Casey a very abridged version of what had occurred. After his short explanation, April groaned. "Great. I was not expecting to have to break into a military base and go on a complicated rescue mission."

"I was," Casey remarked, mostly to annoy April. He went back to the door just in time to grab hold of Michelangelo's hand and pulled him to safety. "Whew!" Michelangelo gasped. "Do you guys have great timing or what?" Looking past him and down the ladder, Casey's eyes widened as he nearly yelled, "I'm thinkin' it's an 'or what!'"

Confused, Michelangelo whirled around and looked down. Somehow, Leonardo had lost his grip on the ladder and was currently haphazardly hanging in between rungs by his foot. "Leo!" Michelangelo screamed. Startled, Donatello jumped out of his seat to see what the matter was.

It's hard to maintain your calm when you're hanging a few stories off the ground, tethered to a moving space cruiser as semi-conscious gunmen tried to shoot you down. Leonardo did remarkably well. He managed to sit up so that his body was at a perpendicular angle, and reached out for the rung so that he could untangle himself. It was at that point that one of the shots actually made it.

The left side of the three rungs above him were immediately vaporized, forcing Leo to hang limply once more as he had less support than he did only a nanosecond ago. The uneven pull hurt his ankle, and he knew that he would have to work hard to suppress a limp. Grimacing, Leonardo could feel the sweat pouring from his forehead as he saw that Bishop's forces were slowly starting to regain their wits.

Just when he thought he might be forced to cut himself loose before simply falling, Leonardo saw something dangle just above him. Looking down—which was, of course, upwards—he saw that Donatello's bo was being offered to him. Grabbing hold of it, he could see that Michelangelo had Donatello around the ankles as Donatello held out his weapon to Leonardo. Grateful that at least some messages about teamwork seemed to have sunk in, Leonardo was pulled into the safety of the spacecraft.

Panting on the floor as Donatello undid the mess of ropes around his ankle, Leonardo tried to swallow back the sense of panic he had felt. Between the stress from the crime wave in New York and losing Raphael and seeing Michelangelo nearly fried by a taser, the aerospace stunts didn't exactly help the normally-controlled turtle. "Thanks guys," he managed to let out in a thin whisper.

"Leo, are you okay?" Donatello asked. "Your ankle… it looks like a bad case of rope burn. Did you-?" Leonardo immediately shook his head and tried to stand. "No. I'm fine." He tried not to wince as he stood, but couldn't help it. Michelangelo quickly came besides him and supported his brother. "Don't try to pull that stuff," he told Leonardo. "Raph's the pigheaded macho man, and he's been replaced by Casey. You just sit down."

"Yeah," Casey agreed after shutting the door, genuinely concerned for Leonardo. "Rest up for a bit. No point being a pigheaded-" He blinked, then glared at Michelangelo. "Hey!"

"As much as I would like to see how this conversation pans out," April called, "I can't exactly read the fuel gauge on this thing. Where are we going, and how do we get there?" After getting Leonardo to sit in a chair, Donatello hopped back into the seat besides April. Determined not to waste the gift of having a space cruiser on their side now, Donatello took control of the steering.

"We're headed for Bishop," he said lowly.