The next few weeks flew by, and April and Holly spent most of their free time together or with the turtles. They walked home from school together and usually stayed at each other's houses on the weekends. The girls had become close friends and knew most everything about each other, Holly had even let April raid her closet full of unworn clothes and given her half of the stuff her mother kept bringing home.
The season had started changing, the cold spring had turned into a hot and muggy summer. All the people on the streets were being particularly horrible to one another as they tried to continue with their lives through the sweltering heat. April and Holly were walking toward the lair, the sun was starting to go down and the whole city was bathed in a soft orange glow.
"I love summer." Said April with a sigh. "It makes everything so pretty."
Holly nodded, she liked summer too, but her glasses made it hard to appreciate it sometimes. She took them off her face and wiped the sweat off her nose, then ran her hand through her hair, trying to get some relief from the heat. Holly placed her glasses back onto her face and immediately walked into April who had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Hey," she said, grabbing at her glasses so they didn't fall off her face." Why'd you stop?"
April didn't answer, she just pressed a finger to her lips then pointed around the corner into the alley-way they were just about to walk past. Holly looked at her, then poked her head around Aprils'. Being five inches taller than your friend had its benefits.
There in the alley, was a group of guys all dressed in black and purple. They were standing with their backs to a closed door in a little semi-circle, and although their eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses, even Holly could tell that they were keeping a lookout for cops.
Both girls withdrew their heads and looked at each other for a moment.
"I'm assuming you know those guys." Holly said with an overly cheery tone in her voice.
"They're Purple Dragon, and for some reason, they're connected to whatever happened to the turtles."
"Whoa whoa whoa, what?" Holly waved her hands in the air trying to sort things out in her head.
"They've been around a few times when the turtles have been doing some investigating into their past." April rushed through her sentence and instantly had her eyes peeking out around the corner again.
"So what? You're going to stalk them now?" Holly was still confused, she should talk to Donnie about this.
"Yeah, pretty much. I need you to go get the boys while I follow them and find out where they're going." April said nonchalantly.
Holly was staring at the back of her friends' head in utter disbelief. "Oh yeah, that sounds just great."
"I'm serious, get going!" April shoved Holly in the general direction of the lair, then started to creep down the alley to hide behind a dumpster.
Holly stood dumbfounded. She knew the turtles were trained to deal with this kind of situation, she had watched them practice a few times. But April was a different story, they were sixteen for heavens sake. However, without wasting another minute, Holly turned and ran as fast as her feet could carry her.
Leo was pissed. Raph was not doing his drills properly and he was becoming agitated since he wanted to goof off and read comics.
"If you just do it right the first time we wouldn't have to keep doing them." Leo snapped.
"We've been doing them for two hours! I did them right for the first hour and a half, the last half an hour has been pointless!" Raph yelled back.
"No, the last half an hour has been you intentionally being an ass!" Leo stood up and glared at his immediate younger brother. Who in turn, jumped up and stared right back.
"Would you guys cut that out? The sooner we get done the sooner we can hang out with April and Holly." Donnie stepped between them and pushed them apart.
Their little argument was interrupted by a loud crashing sound coming from the vicinity of the lair's entrance. The turtle boys all looked at each other and rushed out to see what was going on. They saw Holly, doubled over breathing quite heavily, clutching onto turn-style for dear life. Her backpack had ripped open and its contents were sprawled across the floor.
"Holy cow, what happened to you?" Mikey asked and grasped her by the elbow so she could regain her balance.
"Thanks... Nearly fell... On my face." Holly managed between breaths.
"Hey, where's April?" asked Donnie growing more concerned by the second.
"She saw some Purple Something guys standing by a door and told me to come to get you." Holly said extremely quickly.
"Ok, so where is she?" Asked Raph.
"She decided to follow them, hence why I sprinted through the sewers to get here."
Leo instantly went into leadership mode. "Ok guys, we need to get to her as soon as possible. Where were you when you saw them?"
"We were walking past the alley that's right next to the pizza shop on 173rd." She looked them over quickly, they all looked so serious. She had to admit, she was worried about April.
"Ok guys, let's go." Leo shouted, and all four of the turtles started for the entryway.
"What can I do?" Holly shouted after them.
Raph stopped for a moment and turned to her. "Just stay here, you could do some cleaning while you're here though."
"Bastard!" Holly stomped her foot and would have thrown something at his head if something had been within reach. He just winked and her and took off after his brothers.
Raph caught up with the others just outside of the lair. They climbed onto the roof of the nearest building and set off in the direction Holly had told them to go. Donnie was beside himself with worry, he didn't know what state they would find April in but he kept envisioning terrible things. They all leapt from building to building as quickly as they could, until finally, they reached the roof-top of the pizza joint. Donatello held his breath and peeked over the side of the building.
"I don't see her." He whispered to the others. He started to panic.
"She can't have gone far, everyone take a direction and fan out." Leo said.
The boys split up keeping an eye out for their friend. Donnie hopped over to the next building and scanned the street and alleys for any sign of her. He stepped around a roof access and looked over the ledge. He saw her crouching on the fire escape watching a group of purple dragons making their way through the scuzzy back streets of the city. He let out a sigh and motioned for his brothers that he had found her.
He silently lowered himself down to the escape and noiselessly climbed lower to sit next to her.
"You guys got here quick." April whispered.
"Apparently Holly sprinted." He replied, "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I saw them guarding a door in the other ally and figured they were up to something, so I followed them." She looked up into his concerned brown eyes. "I'm fine, they haven't seen me." she reassured him.
"Alright. Have they done anything else since then?"
"Not really, one of them came out of the door with a box, and now he's in there," She pointed at the goons guarding another door, "But I don't know why."
"Ok, you and Donnie stay here. Mikey take the building to the left. Raph and I will try getting inside for a closer look." Leonardo and the rest or the turtles has scrambled down to listen to April without making a sound, but now there was work to do. Donnie and April climbed back up to the roof-top, so that if one of the goons were to look up, they wouldn't be out in the open. Mikey had leaped over to another building for additional coverage while Leo and Raph launched themselves across the alley to the building the purple dragons were now occupying.
The two eldest turtle brothers opened one of the sky-lights and dropped down onto one of the metal beams.
"Just put it over there!"
"Alright, gees!"
Leo and Raph looked at each other, they could just see the shapes of a few purple dragon members walking around the warehouse below. There was a crashing sound as one of the muscle heads dropped a stack of boxes. A wave of computer chips skidded across every inch of the warehouse floor.
"You moron! Pick that up!" A tall, skinny Asian guy yelled. "Stockman is going to be pissed if those get broken."
Leo mouthed "Stockman?" at Raph, who just shrugged.
"I know already, it was an accident." A big stocky guy said.
"Yeah? We'll we don't get paid if this shit's broken!" The Asian guy yelled again.
Leo had heard enough, he motioned for Raph to go back up and out. They needed to get some info on this Stockman guy if they were going to find out why he had hired the purple dragons.
They crept back outside and motioned for the others to meet them on the roof of the building they had started on. Once they were gathered together again, Leo quickly briefed them on what they had heard and seen.
"Stockman, as in Baxter Stockman?" Donnie asked.
"I don't know, they never said the first name." Leo said.
"Well if he's after computer chips I wouldn't be surprised if it was him, he is a computer genius." Donnie swooned.
"Yeah, but if he's working with the purple dragons then he's bad news." Mikey reminded him.
"Anyway, let's get back to the lair. I'm sure Hollys' really steaming by now." Raph smirked.
"Oh god, what did you do?" Leo asked.
"Nothing much, I just told her to tidy up while she was waiting." Raph chuckled.
"Dude, not cool." Mikey said.
Holly was fuming, how dare he say a thing like that when April may be in trouble. She already felt useless compared to everyone else, like he needed to pour salt into the wound. She wanted to throw something, preferable at Raph's face, but a wall might just work too.
She cried out in frustration and ran her hand through her hair again.
"You seem agitated, tell me what's wrong." Master Splinter had calmly walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I feel so useless, and Raphael is being a jerk." She looked up into the old rats' eyes, "Sorry."
"It's ok, he enjoys winding you up, but he can be a little insensitive at times." The rat stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"I just..." She started, but really couldn't put it into words.
"It's ok, I understand. Come with me, I seem to recall you saying you were good with a bow."
Holly followed Splinter into the training room, she looked at him and back into the room. Everything looked as it always did, the red floor mats were clean, and the weapon rack was fully stocked with the usual assortment of goodies.
Splinter pulled a wooden bow off the rack and a quiver of arrows. "I always find doing damage to inanimate objects cures pent-up anger." Splinter handed her the bow.
Holly smiled slightly as she remembered the last time she was with her dad, they had gone hunting and she had shot her first deer. Her dad had field-dressed it, and when they got home they had a huge meal and invited all the other families to come over and share their venison. They never wasted any of the deer in their town. It was the only way Holly could hunt, knowing that the animal had not died in vein. In celebration, her dad had bought her a brand new bow which was now safely tucked away in her bedroom.
Master Splinter handed her some targets and instructed her to stand them at one end of the room, he then settled himself on the floor to watch.
Holly took a deep breath calming herself. She drew back an arrow to her cheek, took a breath in, took aim, released the breath, and let the arrow fly.
April and the turtles walked into the lair after dark. April felt kind of bad leaving Holly here but she didn't want to see her friend hurt. They all looked around the living room but didn't see Holly anywhere.
"Do you guys hear that? Or am I imagining things again?" Mikey said. They all stopped and stood perfectly still for a moment, they heard a soft thudding sound coming from the training room. They all looked at each other with confused looks and then hurried off to see what was going on.
They saw Holly standing with her back to them, she had a bow and arrow in her hands. They heard her take a deep inhale as she raised the bow up and drew back the string. Then she exhaled slowly and sudden let the arrow go. It whizzed through the air with a slight whistle and then thunked into one of the four targets set up at the other end of the room.
"Wow, you're a good shot." Leo commented and walked into the room. He saw master splinter sitting peacefully on the other side of the room, watching Holly let off some steam.
"There's no real challenge in here though, there's no wind to account for, and its a stationary target." She didn't even look back at them, just loaded another arrow and took another breath. Whoosh, thunk. They all looked at Raph.
"Don't worry, I'm not mad." Holly said, "Anymore." She added to herself and let another arrow go.
Holly had run out of arrows, so she set the bow down and walked to the far side of the room to retrieve them from the targets. Raph stepped towards her, but turned back and motioned to the others that he wanted them to leave.
Leo and Mikey just shook their heads smirking. It had been a while since anyone had put Raph in his place. Unfortunately for them April grabbed them by the elbow and marched them out of the room. Master Splinter also got up to leave, he hoped that his son had the sense to stay calm. He was a young man once, he knew that there was nothing scarier than an angry woman.
Raph didn't say anything for a moment, he hadn't thought his comment would get her this mad. He just watched her pull back on the bow, take a breath, and then let the arrow go. "I didn't mean anything by that you know."
"I know." She didn't look at him.
Raph felt so awkward, he had never really had to apologize for running his mouth before. He actually felt bad that he may have hurt this girl's feelings. He liked her, she had the same sense of humor that he did, and she was smart. But maybe he had gone too far?
"Do you think I'm useless?" Holly asked suddenly.
"What? No, not at all. Why do you ask?" Raph was frowning at the back of Hollys' head, not really sure where she was going with this.
"We have cell phones, we could have called you about those guys in the ally." Holly said simply.
"Oh." So that's what was up. "You do know that she doesn't think you're useless."
"I do, I'm intelligent enough to realize that she was more interested in my safety. Plus she's my friend, we don't need to compete to prove anything to each other."
"Then what's the big deal?" Raph asked.
Holly sighed, "I just feel like I'm in the way." She turned to face him for the first time. She looked so sad.
"You're totally crazy, you know that?" She frowned at him but didn't interrupt. "It doesn't matter what you can't do, we care about you because of the things you can do. You're smart and funny and one of the best friends we could ask for." He was staring so intensely at her, and he sounded so honest. She couldn't help but smile. "Besides," he added, "I don't even think that Leo is that good of a shot." He pointed at the targets.
She chuckled lightly and gave him a playful shove. "Well, I have been using one of these for the last 10 years. Although, mine is a little more sophisticated." She turned to take another shot but felt his hand grip her arm lightly. He pulled gently until she was facing him completely.
"Are you really alright?" He looked concerned but determined. Without warning, she stepped towards him and put her arms around his neck. He jumped slightly, but eventually wrapped an arm around her waist and patted her back softly.
"Yeah, I'm ok. Thanks Raph." She stepped back away from him and moved back into position to continue shooting the targets. "Oh, but you're not off the hook for the "you should tidy up" comment. I almost took you comics and used them for target practice."
