Mikey was trying to hear what was going on in the training room. April had dragged the boys out to the living room to give Raph a chance to apologize to Holly, but he really wanted to see Raph get his butt handed to him.
"Michelangelo, your brother is dealing with a delicate situation. You should respect his privacy." Splinter said over a steaming cup of tea.
"I know, but I really want to see him squirm." he pouted and sat cross-legged on the floor outside the training room door.
"I feel really bad you guys." April looked around at the three turtles and their master, "Do your think she'll be mad at me?"
"I wouldn't worry too much, Holly's not the kind of person to stay angry." Donnie said, trying to sound reassuring.
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better." April snapped, voice dripping with sarcasm. Donnie gave her a grimace
"I would be more worried if I were Raph," Leo said, "He's the one who is constantly pushing her buttons." He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
"Why did we leave those two alone again?" April asked.
Mikey laughed to himself and was about to try eaves-dropping again when the door slid open and Holly almost tripped over the turtle in orange. Raph grabbed the back of her belt and pulled it just before she fell onto his baby brother. She felt the tug on her jeans, which pulled her back upright, and further back the other way. Her reactions made her grab for the frame of the door, but she ended up being supported by one of Raphs arms.
"Nice catch." She said as he popped her upright again.
"Don't mention it." He said giving her a grin. He then gave Mikey a suspicious glare.
"Holly." April jumped up and ran to her best friend. "Are you ok? Are you mad at me?"
"No, not at all." Holly said giving the other girl a hug. "I was just being stupid."
April hugged Holly again, but this time Mikey jumped up and grabbed the two girls squishing them in a bone-crushing embrace. "I'm so glad we're all friends again!" he yelled.
"Ok, ok." Holly managed to croak out. Mikey let go and she, and April, sucked down huge lungs full of air.
Once everyone was happily seated in the living room, they filled Holly in on what they had discovered. Including that the Purple Pragons were working for someone named Stockman, and that they were stealing computer parts from anywhere they could get them.
"Stockman? That sounds so far familiar." Holly said, brows knitted together in thought.
"Well, we think it's a guy named Baxter Stockman." Said Donnie, "He is well known for his unbelievable contribution to the robotics community. Last I heard he was trying to create some kind of intelligent robot interface, it was supposed to be super classified so there's not much information available."
"No, I mean that I know that name." She shook her head trying to force her brain to remember. "This is going to drive me nuts, I hate when I can remember things."
Raph was sitting on the couch next to Holly with Spike, his pet regular tutrle, on his shoulder. He had a couple of lettuce leafs to feed his little buddy sitting on a paper towel in between himself and the girl in the spectacles. "If you don't think about it, you'll remember." He said waggling one of the vegetable pieces in front of her. She snatched it from him and offered it to spike.
"He is cute." She said, gently rubbing the little turtle's head as he munched on his dinner.
"He's not cute! He's manly." Raph said swatting her hand away.
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that." She chuckled.
"If this Stockman guy is supposed to be so smart, why would he be stealing computer parts?" Leo asked the group.
"Maybe he ran just ran out of spare parts?" Mikey offered.
"Don't be ridiculous Mikey." Donnie scoffed, "He makes his own parts, he's not going to run out."
"Not unless he needs a lot of computer parts exceptionally quickly." Master Splinter chimed in.
Everyone was silent, Master Splinter was probably right. It's not like Stockman had a whole factory at his disposal. He probably had to buy his materials just like everybody else.
"I suppose if he was the only one who knew exactly what he needed to do, it would be much simpler and cheaper to steal the components rather than make them." Donnie shrugged.
"But what could he be making that requires that many components?" Holly added.
Everyone was silent again. The only one who could even take a guess would be Donatello, but he didn't seem to have any idea either. The little group sat around for a while not really talking or doing much. Mikey had gotten bored and was playing a video game on one of his hand-held devices, while April had pulled a magazine out of her backpack. Leo and Donnie had moved into the kitchen and were still discussing the Purple Dragon issue from earlier. Raph had grabbed one of his comics and was clearly wrapped up in the action. Holly had taken to feeding spike, who was now in her lap. She had grabbed him a chunk of cucumber and was holding it steady so the little turtle could eat as much as he wanted.
She was watching him slowly chomp down on another juicy section, she smiled softly as spike started to get feisty. Well, as feisty as a normal, non-mutated, turtle can get. She placed him on the couch and let him stretch his legs, making sure he didn't fall off the edge.
Raph looked over the top of his comic at Holly, she was smiling down at spike and was letting him run around on the couch. He watched her gently nudge spike away from the edge of the couch if he ever strayed too close, he couldn't help but smile behind his comic. She was so caring.
April had thrown her magazine aside, for now, she was now sitting behind Mikey watching him play his game. "No, not like that. You have to jump, then attack." April was trying to help him beat one of the bosses.
"I play this all day long, I think I know what I'm doing." He replied, he stuck his tongue out at her over his shoulder, only to hear the typical "game over" sound come from the small speakers.
"Awe man." He dropped his chin to his chest. "You distracted me." He turned to April.
"Why don't you play an old side scroller that you can play together?" Holly asked.
"What's that?" asked Mikey.
"You don't have any side-scrolling games? They're the best." April said enthusiastically.
"I have an old console at home, I'll dig it out tonight and bring it over with all my old games tomorrow." Holly offered.
"Really?" Mikey shuffled over to her on his knees with the biggest smile on his face. He looked like one of those creepy Japanese cartoons where the characters' facial features were way too big for their face.
"Yes, but only if you stop making that face." she scooted away from him slightly and bumped into Raph. She looked at the older turtle brother and grabbed his arm, "What's wrong with him?"
"You just told him you're going to bring him new video games. What did you expect?" Raph raised his non-existent eye brow at her.
Holly looked back at Mikey, his grin was even bigger and it was creeping her out. "I'm not kidding, cut that out!" she hopped up and jumped over the back of the couch.
Mikey vaulted the couch and practically tackled Holly, he grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her into the air, he spun around squishing her and making her nauseous at the same time. He span around so fast that her glasses were thrown half way across the room. Luckily enough, Leo and Donnie had emerged from the kitchen, and Leo's ninja reflexes caught her glasses before they hit the floor and shattered.
"Mikey put her down." Leo yelled.
Mikey pouted, but placed Holly gently back on solid ground. Unfortunately, he had spun her so fast that she instantly dropped to her knees and grasped her head to try and stop it from spinning.
"I think I'm going to hurl." She said. Leo walked over to her and gave her back glasses.
"Are you alright?" Leo asked.
"Yup, just leave me here for a minute and I'll be fine." She kept her eyes shut. Leo glared at Mikey, his brother really could be an idiot sometimes.
Raph smacked Mikey on the back of the head with a rolled-up comic book, while Donnie and April just chuckled form the other side of the room.
After a few moments, Holly looked up and took a nice deep breath, "Ok I feel better, but I think it's about time I head home." She checked her watch, "Oh crap."
"What's up?"
"I was supposed to be home half an hour ago. If moms there she'll kill me." she jumped up, a little too quickly and swayed slightly.
"You won't make it home for another hour yet if you're walking." April said.
"I'll just call a cab or something." She gathered up her belongings and stuffed them back into her ruined bag, after waving a quick goodbye to everyone she raced out of the lair and back up to the street.
"I'm uh, I'm just going to make sure she gets in a cab safely. I'll be right back." Raph ran out of the lair after Holy.
The others waited until they knew Raph wouldn't hear them, and Leo, Donnie, and April burst into laughter. Mikey just sat on the floor, looking lost.
"What?" He said to the others. They just looked at him.
"It's funny watching him try and keep up the tough-guy routine." April said, trying to keep a straight face. "I feel bad for laughing since it is kind of sweet, but this is Raph we're talking about."
"He's almost as bad as someone else I know." Leo said giving Donnie a sly wink. Donatello blushed.
"Wait a second?" Mikey said slowly. "Does Raph like Holly?"
Leo, Donnie, and April all looked at each other, and they burst into laughter again.
"Well, anyway, what's our next mover to find Stockman?" April asked. Still chuckling slightly.
"Unfortunately we really don't have a good lead to follow. I guess the best thing we can do is try and follow some purple dragon goons until they lead us to him." Leo shrugged.
"We can at least start at the fortune cookie factory. We know the purple dragons use that as their base of operations, and we know they're using that wear-house to store the stolen goods." April added, "Plus, Holly and I can keep an eye out for them during the day."
"It's too dangerous for you guys to be following them around, next time you find them just call us." Leo told her.
April frowned. "You guys can't go out during the day or you'll get caught. So that only leaves the two of us."
"You have only been training for a few weeks, and Holly hasn't had any training at all! What would you do if they caught you?" Donnie said.
"We'll be careful." April said as if it were no big deal. "And it's not like I'm going to try fighting them, I know I can't do that."
"I just don't like it." Leo finalized.
"I don't know why you both aren't just training with us." Mikey said. "I mean, we need you guys and I don't want to see you get hurt, so you may as well learn to defend yourself."
"You bring up a good point, my son." Splinter had appeared by his door, apparently, he had heard their little heated debate.
"Well, it's true. They're probably going to get into some kind of trouble sooner or later." Mikey stood up tall, he held his shoulders back and was determined to prove his point.
"Perhaps I should help you two to be better prepared. We are dealing with some dangerous people after all." Master Splinter stroked his whiskers as he made his way to the kitchen. He returned a moment later with another steaming mug. "I shall meditate on this issue for now. I suggest you all get some rest, it is getting late."
"He's right, it's no use getting worked up right now." Leo stretched up and then flopped down onto the couch.
April was excited, she had only had a few sessions with splinter but they had already saved her neck on more than one occasion. She had been trying to help the turtles whenever she could, finding any information and pointing them in the right direction when she was able. It would be easier if she didn't have to do it alone.
Raph had to sprint to catch up with Holly. It didn't take long though, he heard her drop all her belongings and groan in frustration just ahead. He rounded a corner of the sewers and there she was, crouching to pick up books, pens and pencils, and other miscellaneous stuff.
"Smooth." He said, leaning against the wall crossing his arms.
"You're such a big help." She kept grabbing her belongings off the floor. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and waved it around trying to get a signal. She was going to try calling home to see if her mom was there, and if she was, apologize for being late. "Gah, this thing is junk." she stuffed it back in her pocket.
Holly stood up, clutching her things tightly trying not to drop them again. She set off without warning, causing Raph to have to jog to catch her again. "What are you doing?" She asked him.
"What? I can't make sure you're ok?" He replied, almost sounding hurt.
"Ok, I didn't mean it like that." She said, "I know my way back to the surface by now, and I am perfectly capable of calling a cab." She looked over at him, his face was stoic. She remained silent for a moment but decided to move the conversation onward. "So, I should thank you again. What you said earlier, it was nice." she tried to sound aloof, but she knew that what he had said had moved her.
"Don't mention it." He looked at her for just a second. "I'm serious, I don't want to lose my reputation."
She chuckled, "Oh god. You and your rep." She shook her head at him. She shifted the belongings in her arms to get at her phone again, she managed to wiggle it out and checked the signal strength. She had two bars.
"Yes!" She quickly punched in her home number and waited for an answer. Nothing, it just kept ringing and went to voice mail. She didn't bother leaving a message, if her mom wasn't home by now she probably wasn't going to be at all. Holy would bet that there would be a post-it stuck to the fridge letting her know where her mother would be that night. Holly let out a big sigh, half out of relief, and half out of disappointment.
"So, ma's not home again, is she?" Raph asked her. She just shook her head and set off toward the surface again. Raph wanted to reach out to her, he could see the hurt in the way she held herself. He couldn't even imagine how she must feel. "You know, if you really want, you could stay with us. I mean, if you don't want to go home to an empty house." He stumbled over the words, silently cursing himself.
"I would really like that, but I should go home tonight. It's been a long day." She smiled gently at him. A nervous silence fell between the two teens as they continued walking across the damp bricks.
Raphs mind was racing, why had he asked that? It was stupid, she wouldn't want to stay in the sewer, it wasn't a place for a teenage girl to be. But she had said she would like to, she didn't have anyone at home to keep her company, or make her laugh.
They reached the access to the street and Raph climbed up first, carrying her broken bag since she wouldn't be able to herself. He shrank into the shadows and stayed close while she hailed a cab down. One pulled up and the driver rolled down his window, asking if she had money to pay the fare. After she pulled out a couple of bills he agreed to give her a ride. Raphael watched as Holly grabbed her bag off the floor and climbed into the back seat, she looked back at him as she closed the door and smiled as they pulled away.
April was almost asleep on the couch in the lair by the time Raph made it back. Donnie was reading and Mikey was rummaging through the fridge. Leo was watching the television quietly, so as not to disturb either Donnie or April.
"Is she planning on staying the night?" Raph pointed at April.
"Apparently." replied Donnie.
"I told my aunt I might stay out tonight, I called her a little while ago to let her know I am going to." She didn't even open her eyes and her breathing was getting deeper.
"And you have no problem being in the sewer?" Raph asked hesitantly, recalling the conversation he had just had.
"No." She breathed.
Raph dropped into an empty chair and sighed. He was exhausted, it really had been a long day.
About twenty-five minutes later, the turtles' phones, and Aprils, went off at once. April fished hers out of her pocket without looking and cracked one eye open as she read the text message she had received. She sat upright, eyes widening as she read it again.
"Did you guys just get a message from Holly?" Mikey stuck his head around the pillar with a piece of pizza hanging out of his mouth.
The group nodded. "I found Stockman" Was all the message said.
