16. An Unfortunate Series of F*ckups
Donnie marveled at their surroundings. He stood atop one of the planets in the solar system display, "Wow. The American Museum of Natural History. I've always wanted to come here."
Ibis glided down to the floor, landing almost gracefully, "I've never been a museum fan, myself. But this is pretty impressive, I've got to admit."
"Hey, quit screwing around, you two," Leo ordered, no humor in his voice. "Thirty seconds til the cops are at the door."
Donnie hopped down from the planet and turned on his scanner. The bright light blinded Leo, causing him to bump into Ibis.
"Hey, watch the toes, Fearless," she grabbed his arm to steady him.
"Sorry."
"Booyah," Donnie exclaimed, walking up to a display.
"'Space Debris'?" Ibis read, giving an incredulous laugh. "People really will put anything from space in a museum. For all we know, it could be a giant piece of alien sh-"
"Ibis," Leo snapped.
She looked at him, "What?"
Leo turned back to Donnie, "What'd you find?"
"Shredder and his mutants were definitely here. And I'm detecting traces of neutronium!"
"Sounds exciting," Ibis replied, a sarcastic half smile on her face.
"It's the critical ingredient required for creating a controlled black hole. Which is the only thing capable of rupturing the space-time continuum!" He turned to both of them, "And you know what that means!"
Ibis's blank expression spoke for itself.
Leo turned his head, false patience in his tone, "No. We don't, Donnie."
"It means Shredder may not be as nuts as I thought," Donnie answered.
"Oh, no, he's nuts. That's not up for debate," Ibis quipped, crossing her arms over her chest.
"From the data I just collected, I'm surmising that whatever was inside this thing may help Shredder open that portal to another dimension," Donnie finished.
"See?" Ibis gestured to the space debris, "That's fucking nuts!"
"What I wanna know is, if a portal's gonna open up," Leo began, "what's coming through from the other side?"
...
April and Casey sat at the table across from Mikey, who was happily digging into the pizza they brought. Raphael and Ardyn had formulated a plan, and needed operatives on the ground. Enter the humans.
"So, you want to break into police headquarters," April clarified dubiously.
"Think of it more like a stealthy and clean retrieval mission," Ardyn supplied, flicking her tail. "No one gets hurt. Get in, get the goods, get out."
"Donnie said he needs more of the ooze to track Bebop and Rocksteady," Raphael began. "And you said the cops woulda logged it into Evidence Control by now."
"Okay, and Leo is good with this plan?" April pressed, arms crossed.
"Actually I'm takin charge on this one," Raphael answered, only slightly suspiciously.
April gave him a look.
"Ain't that right, Mikey?"
"Right," Mikey's eyes were wide an guilty, and his voice was unsteady.
Ardyn rolled her eyes, handing Raphael the blueprints, "Leo's got his hands full uptown. We're getting a jumpstart for Donnie. Divide and conquer."
April still didn't look convinced.
"Look," Raphael laid the blueprints out on the table, swatting away a few crushed soda cans. "Mikey and I can take the elevator shafts and vents. We need you two to stay on the ground."
"I'll clear your way through the system," Ardyn added.
"Wait, wait," Casey interrupted. "I can't just walk into Police Headquarters."
Raphael sighed, irritated, "What, are you chicken?"
"Raph-"
"Hey!" Casey stood, "Who you callin' chicken, turtle?"
"Look, do you want to find Bebop and Rocksteady, or not?"
Casey's jaw locked. April and Ardyn shared a glance. Mikey shoved four stacked pieces of pizza into his mouth.
"So we're breaking into Police Headquarters," Casey stated, flopping down in his seat.
Ardyn rolled her eyes. "Alright, we've got one last thing. We need a distraction to place the chip that will give me access to their database."
"Only plan I got so far might be a tad less than appetizing," Raphael added.
He turned to Mikey.
He stiffened when he noticed all eyes were now on him. His sauce-covered face blanked, "Are we going somewhere?"
...
The ride back to the lair was quiet. Donnie knew better than to say anything, and Ibis was waiting. Leo could feel it. Her stare on him was too warm, too direct, to be anything but purposeful. She wanted to put in her two cents about the ooze situation. He did his best to ignore her for the first half of the journey, but it was starting to break him down. He knew she'd likely have good input. She was familiar with hard decisions. He just wasn't sure he was ready to hear another opinion yet.
"Stop looking at me like that."
Ibis raised a brow, "Like what?"
"Like a disappointed parent."
Ibis cracked a smile, looking away from him. "I'm not your mother, Fearless."
"But you are disappointed," he finished.
Ibis took a breath, sorting her thoughts into concise words, "Not just in you."
"Gee, thanks."
Ibis nudged him with her wing, "I know you only wanted to protect them. I can't fault you for that."
"But...?" he looked to her, knowing it was coming.
"I don't think you handled it right," Ibis admitted. "But nobody's perfect, Blue. Not even you."
"What would you've done?" he asked defensively. "Let them know about the ooze? Become human? Then what?"
"The ooze is locked up in Police custody by now. They'd have to break into Headquarters to even think about it."
Leo sighed.
"Now it's forbidden fruit," Ibis continued, adjusting her grip on the subway. "They'll want it more than ever. And they're home. Bored. Things aren't going to be better when we get back."
"If you're trying to give me a pep talk, it's not working," he snapped.
"I'm not giving you a pep talk," Ibis returned, unfazed. "I'm trying to delicately tell you that you're a dumbass."
"Why can't they just take orders?" Leo breathed, ignoring her last comment. "Don't they realize how much harder they make it?"
"You're their leader, not their king," Ibis countered. "If you want them to listen to you, you need them to respect you. They won't do that if they can't trust you."
Leo sighed.
Ibis put a hand on his shoulder. "You're heart's in the right place, Blue. I know it, and so do they."
He turned to look at her, seeing her reassuring smile. He managed a semi-irritated "How do you know so much?"
She pulled her hand away to lean on it again, "I'm older than you."
"By three years," he reminded her.
"And don't you forget it," she teased.
That pulled a small, semi-unwilling smile to his lips. Ibis looked back to Donnie and gave a nod. He smiled in return.
...
With the addition of Vern to the team, the plan was going unnervingly smoothly. Arrogant as he was, he had some charisma. It didn't ease the knot of guilt in Ardyn's gut, however. She watched on the cameras as 'The Falcon' walked in and immediately received smiles and declarations of happiness from the front-desk workers. She rolled her eyes.
"Alright, you ham, just do your job," she muttered to herself.
"Heh heh, ham," Mikey's voice came over the comms.
"Shh!" Raph snapped.
April and Casey walked in behind Vern a few moments later, hats low to cover their faces.
"Birds are in the nest," Ardyn announced.
"Tweet tweet," Mikey chirped. "Ow!"
"Save the slapping for when we're not committing a series of felonies, please," Ardyn retorted.
The monitor popped up with a new window, "Oh, I'm in!"
She tried her best to remember her training. Computers weren't really her thing, but she'd done her best to be useful without having to get her hands dirty. Now she felt like she was doing both, but this was a risk she was willing to take. She cleared April and Casey in the system and watched them pass through the security check.
"It's all you, boys."
"It's go time," Mikey replied enthusiastically.
Ardyn watched the cameras for hints of their presence as they made their way up the building. She guided them to an officer in the locker rooms for a pass, and watched intently to make sure the cameras couldn't catch them. Moments later, Mikey slipped the pass through the vent to April.
Ardyn clicked ahead to make sure the way was clear, but when she pulled up the hall they were about to enter, her stomach dropped.
"Oh no."
"What's up, Shortie?"
"Raph, you have to-"
Foot ninjas filed through the open door. April and Casey froze in place.
"Raph, can you hear me? Get out of there!"
...
Ibis flinched when her comms connected. Leo and Donnie did the same.
"Hey, Ardyn," Donnie greeted.
"Mayday! Mayday!"
"Whoa, what?!" Leo held his ear, half in pain and half to block out the sound of the subway.
"Foot attack at Police Headquarters!"
"What are they doing there?" Ibis asked.
"They're stealing the ooze! Raph and Mikey need backup!"
"They're what?!" Ibis shouted.
"Tell them to hang tight, we're on the move," Leo ordered, hopping onto the train heading the opposite way. Ibis and Donnie followed.
...
Ibis crawled through the vents, guided by Ardyn. This was not good. The place had been ransacked. Foot Ninjas were scattering out into the night, leaving busted windows and wounded officers in their wake. What were they supposed to do? There were people and cameras everywhere. Any help they could provide would expose them.
She ended up right over Raphael and Mikey. They were on the ground, in full view. In Raphael's hand was the canister of purple ooze.
Ibis sucked in a breath, "Ardy, are you seeing this?"
"You have to get them out of there!" Ardyn begged.
"You-"
Leo came through the broken front window, his expression livid. His cold stare landed on Raphael, then on the canister in his hand. "Raph, what are you doing with that?"
Ibis watched as several officers surrounded them, drawing their firearms.
"Freeze!"
"Don't move!"
Raphael's eyes widened in fear as he put up his hands, "No, no, no, no!"
"Don't move! We will shoot!"
"Get down on the ground!"
Mikey put his hands up beside Raphael, starting to panic, "Wait, we're the good guys!"
"Get on the ground!"
Ibis watched as Raphael and Mikey knelt down, the barrels of fifteen guns following their every move. Leo and Donnie stood near the broken window, arms out and eyes darting around the room.
"Ibis, do something!" Ardyn hissed over the comms.
"What are those things?"
"Ibis!"
"They're monsters."
Ibis gripped the pipe above her, the heat of her rage turning it to soft putty in her hand.
Monster!
Murderer!
The echoes of her past buzzed in her mind like a kicked nest of hornets. The words that had been so ignorantly thrown at her so long ago. When she had saved those people, and they had screamed about her to the authorities. The scars she bore so they didn't have to. The blood she lost so they could keep theirs... and they still only saw a monster.
Now it was happening before her eyes.
"They're monsters!"
Mikey's broken voice barely reached her ears, "We're not monsters."
"Ibis, do something!"
Her skin was burning. The metal of the ruined vent below her was starting to give. She let it.
The ceiling caved in as she fell through, smoke coating her skin as she singed the insulation that touched her. She spread her wings wide, letting the bullets pepper her heated stone skin. They felt like tiny beestings, flattening against her and falling to the messy floor.
"Move!" she growled.
They didn't need to be told twice, but the looks on their faces at the sight of her only served to stoke her inner fire. She followed them out, the smoke on her skin providing cover as they darted into the night.
...
Ardyn sat guiltily before Master Splinter. He was furious. The police scanner was going wild. They were in deep now. She hugged herself, unable to meet the old Sensei's gaze.
Leo stomped into the lair moments later, the rest of the team on his tail.
"It is all over the police scanner," Master Splinter scolded. "They are hunting you! What happened up there?"
"Tell him, Raph," Leo snapped, turning back to his brother pointedly. "Tell him how you broke rank and got us all exposed." He pulled out the canister of ooze and showed it to their father, "And for the most selfish reason."
"The Foot were gonna get their hands on it!" Raphael defended.
"You didn't know that!" Leo countered.
"Stealing from Police Headquarters," Donnie began, shaking his head in disbelief. "There was no scenario where you wouldn't get caught!"
"Well, maybe if you hadn't lied to your own flesh and blood-" Raphael growled.
"Oh, what, like the way you lied to April?" Leo countered, pointing at him. "Now she's taking the fall for your mess."
Raphael rolled his shoulders, unable to argue. He met Ibis's gaze, but she turned away. He turned and left the room.
Mikey sat down against the platform, eyes glassy as he spoke to his father. "You shoulda seen the looks on their faces. They weren't just scared, there was...there was actual hate."
"It will be alright, my son," Master Splinter comforted. "People fear what they do not understand." His gaze came up to meet Ibis's as he stood to go. She gave him a nod to say she would be alright.
Mikey didn't get up from his spot. He wiped a tear from his face, breaking Ibis's heart a little more. She walked over and knelt in front of him, putting a hand on his knee.
He looked up at her.
She gave him a smile before sitting beside him. "You know they're wrong, right?"
He turned his glassy eyes forward at the hands he rested on his knees.
"I know what monsters look like," she continued. "I've seen a lot of them."
"What do they look like?" he asked, his voice still soft.
"Let's see, here," she grabbed one of his hands, eyeing it. Her hands were warm around his, and she was careful not to catch her claws on him. "Nope, not like this."
He pinched his brows as she turned his arm over and continued to analyze him, "Nope, nothing here." She put her hand out for his other one, and he gave it to her. She repeated the process, "Hm-mm. Nothing here either." Her hand slid up his arm and he retracted it with a snort, as she had found a ticklish spot.
She rolled to her knees and took his face in her hands, wiping his tears carefully with her thumbs. "Nope. Monsters don't look like this. You're too cute to be a monster."
He cracked a smile, "Nah, me?"
She squished his cheeks, "Yes, you. Look at this face! These cheeks! There's no way something as cute as you could be monstrous."
He let out a few low giggles, putting his hands up on her wrists, "Promise?"
Ibis's mouth was pulled up on one side as she nodded, "Cross my heart."
He released her arms and leaned forward. She wrapped her arms and wings around him, holding as tight as she could. "Besides, nobody gives hugs as good as yours."
He laughed into her shoulder. "You're not one either, Birdie."
Ibis's smile faltered for a second.
"Even with the claws, and the teeth," he continued, still holding onto her. "You're a hero, just like us."
Ibis pressed her lips into a thin line to keep the tears from coming out, "I love you, Sunshine."
"I love you too, Birdie."