Displaced

Chapter 4

Casey waved to his classmates as they all left the Police Academy Campus for the weekend. They had wrapped up another week of training and the weekend was theirs. Casey as looking forward to checking in with the turtles and their small patient. Not to mention seeing if April wanted to get lunch or something together. Maybe he'd even try to get some beers with his fellow recruits.

Yes, sir; Casey was looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Right until he approached his car. There was a red ribbon tied around the handle of his driver side door. Casey idly took a lap of his car; but didn't see anything suspicious. Laughing to himself, he called Raph as he got into the car. Raph didn't pick up. Casey cycled through all the turtles as he drove, without any of them picking up. Growing concerned, he called April.

"Casey! Come to my place immediately!" April called out; the sounds of objects hitting the floor in the background.

"April? What's going on?" Casey felt his hackles rise.

"Casey, the turtles were captured. Raphael …."

In the background a voice called out, "Is that Casey? Tell him to hurry up. And ask if he has any smoke bombs."

Casey took a deep breath, "I'm ten minutes out. Do not let him leave your apartment."

It what felt like a moment, Casey was standing in April's apartment. The two of them were watching the small turtle ransack it for chemicals.

"Raphael, what are you doing?!" Casey demanded.

The small turtle looked up momentarily before returning to his work, "Splinter didn't have all the ingredients for smoke bombs or flash bombs. I'm going to need them."

"For what?!"

"The turtles were captured when they went to the lab! I found the video when I went there to look for them after they activated some sort of dead man switch." Raphael was splitting his attention as he focused on the chemicals and eggshells on the table.

"So, the lab captured them?"

"No, some ninjas. Foot clan. Where's their headquarters here anyway?"

April tried to step in, "Raphael, you're in no condition to storm a ninja stronghold. Your shell…"

"It's a risk I'll have to take. They wouldn't have been in the lab it if weren't for me!"

Casey reached out and grabbed Raphael's arm, forcing him to look at the cop, "Raphael, you are injured, you haven't trained in weeks, and you want to go against the Foot." The Casey grinned, "I'm glad you're including me in this madness, what did you need me for?"

"Casey!" April cried, scandalized.

"Do you have a bike coat I could borrow? Preferably dark in color." Raphael asked, returning to his chemicals, carefully measuring the ingredients.

"You want it for the armor right?" Casey offered.

"Exactly, can't count on my shell at the moment."

"I'll go get it on one condition; you tell me your plan, and I go with you to bust out the turtles."

"That's two conditions. And you're not coming inside with me. I'm going to go in, find the turtles, and leave. This is going to be stealth only."

April and Casey looked at each other surprised. Then Casey scratched his head, "That's …the start of a plan; and honestly not what I was expecting."

Raphael was finishing with the smoke bombs, "I don't exactly have a wealth of options. I can't hack their computers; nor do I have an in with Karai like Leo; or the dumb luck that always see's Mikey through. But I have to get them out of there!"

Casey grinned and rubbed Raphael's head affectionately, "Sit tight, I'll go grab the jacket, and then we're going to refine that plan of yours. I'm a cop, April's a Journalist. I bet we've got connections enough to let you to waltz in the foot's front door and do a dance on their stairs."

Raphael sat tensely in the pile of cloth. Turns out April had a contact who owed her a favor in a laundry company; the same company that just so happened to do business for the Foot. Raphael tried to even his breathing, having retracted into his shell as far as he could go. He was currently stuffed in a laundry bag; having to trust Casey to talk the two of them in.

Something that actually sounded like it was going well. Casey was amiably chatting with the various guards and workers he had to roll the cleaned sheets past. Eventually, they came to a stop in a noisy space.

"We're clear." Casey called.

"Did you check for cameras?" Raphael answered.

"Yeah, we're behind a massive washing machine, there's a vent right above us."

With that reassurance, Raphael crawled out of the bag. He was wearing one of Casey's old motorcycle jackets, with all the reflective fabrics ripped off. In place of those, Raphael has a mix of flash bangs and smoke bombs. His two sai were hooked into his belt. The other things he had on his person was a roll of duct tape and a technical drawing of the sprawling estate stuffed into a cargo pocket on his pants. The location and size of the foot headquarters caught him off guard. Apparently this dimension had more mad scientist and evil business men than his own.

"Here; take this." Casey offered, holding out a small black device with two metal prongs protruding.

"A Taser?" Raphael asked as he took it.

"A Taser I checked out of the police headquarters, and they're expecting it back on Monday; ya hear me?" Casey stated as he emptied out the laundry basket.

Raphael grinned as he slipped the Taser into his other cargo pocket, "Point and click?"

"As a last resort; the screaming will draw everyone in the area." Then Casey turned to face Raphael, "I'll be back tomorrow morning. 24 hours. You get them down here, and I'll get you guys out."

Raphael nodded, and quietly slipped up into the vents. They were spacious industrial vents, easy for him to travel through; and hopefully big enough for the turtles to navigate. He moved quietly, lingering at various vents to listen to the chatter of the lowest peons in the foot. Most of it was useless; until Raphael found the locker room.

"I swear, he almost took my hand off!" A young man complained.

"Be glad you only sprained your elbow; you nearly got your whole arm broken." An older voice answered.

Raphael peered out of the vent; there were a few guards around a central one who was having his arm wrapped. They all had key cards on their waists.

"Why did you stick your arm in there anyway?"

The young guard huffed, embarrassed, "I thought he was dead, it didn't look like he was breathing."

"It's called hibernation; all reptiles do it when it's cold enough."

"But, they aren't fully reptiles, are they?"

"I don't know what they are, but Mistress Karai seems convinced they're important. Guess they're some sort of escaped experiment."

"I'd say let's kill them and get it over with."

The older one swatted at the young guards head, "You really are a fool, they're lab experiments. The geeks have to study them! Karai's orders!"

There was a nervous silence that fell on the group after that. Then the young one twisted up the belt he held in his hand, "Ah, forget it. You almost done?"

Raphael felt a moment of panic. He had to get the key card. He started carefully lifting the vent cover, even as his right hand readied a smoke bomb.

"Almost. There."

The young man stood and tossed his belt into a locker. Smoke abruptly poured out of the locker, engulfing everyone in the smoke could. Curses and yells at the young rookie cried out.

Raphael was quick to drop down, vent cover in hand. but not fast enough to reach the rookie. He had to duck behind a wall of lockers as the fans pulled the smoke away. It was a laughable hiding spot to be sure. All the ninja's had to do was look behind them and he'd be spotted.

"You didn't pull your smoke bombs off your belt?!" The older man asked.

"I thought I had!" The other yelled back, "I'm sure I did!"

"Clearly you didn't. It's a good thing your shifts over, you're a wreck today." The others groused as they moved for the door.

"I…fine, first rounds on me as apology." The rookie slumped as he trailed after them toward the exit.

Raphael darted out to follow, reaching for the key card.

"That's the spirit!" The older ninja was turning back.

Raphael lunged to hide behind another wall of lockers. The older ninja tossed his arm around the younger's shoulders and affectionately shook him, "Don't let today get to you kid. We all have bad days."

Then they two of them turned and continued out of the locker room. As the door closed, Raphael released the breath he was holding. All they had to do was turn the other way and he'd have been seen. Then he held up the key card in his hand with a grin.

It had been a risk worth taking.

Raph blinked blearily at the glass in front of him. It showed him a larger room, connecting to multiple glass tubes, similar to what Raph was in. His brothers each had one; and to their shock, Shredder was safety in one. He looked like a coma patient; connected to multiple tubes and IV drips. The frost had nearly completely covered Raphael's window to the world. His brothers had long ago stopped responding, and the doctor supervising them was just playing solitaire on the lab computer.

Raph blinked slowly; it was getting harder and harder to stay awake. Suddenly the doctor yelped and jumped; swiping at his clothes. Apparently he has spilled his coffee on himself. But the cup had been a good distance away to Raph's eyes. The doctor looked around before taking his pass card and walking out of the area with his spilled coffee in hand. The second the door closed, a dark shape dropped out of the ceiling and crept closer.

"Raph, Raph!" It hissed.

"Hngg?" Raph tried to respond.

"Raph, where's the temperature controls?"

"P-p-pa-pan-pan." Raph tried. His mouth wasn't moving much.

The small form stepped back and looked around. Then he started darting to each of the freezing cells, messing with the panels by the doors, swiping something through them. There was a long pause as the small form stood before the Shredder. The small shape shook himself and reached out for the panel. Then he returned to Raph's window, "I turned the heat up; hopefully it'll be enough for you guys to wake up a bit. I'll be back in a few hours; you won't fit into the vent in here. Don't worry, I've got a plan. Just keep your brothers calm until then."

Then the small form disappeared; back up into the ceiling.

As the heat increased; Raph's brain started to catch up to what was happening. Looks like Raphael had gotten their distress call after all.

Karai was restless. She had felt watched all day, but had found nothing. She had doubled the perimeter guards; but they had found nothing. Still, the feeling persisted. She had checked all the turtles; all four were still present. The rat was unaccounted for; however they had found no evidence of anyone entering the estate.

She returned to the Throne Room, barking out order for her to not be disturbed.

Today's paranoia seemed to be her payment for the recent good fortune. The Shredder was expected to awaken soon; all of his vitals had finally stabilized. However; the Throne Room still was a place she found herself returning to; even as she prepared it to be returned to it's rightful owner. The weapons taken from the turtles was only one of many trophies she had decorated the space with. As she knelt, the feeling of being watched ratcheted up. She whipped around, on her feet and a sword at the ready.

Nothing was there.

She crept forward, eyes darting all over. Every instinct she had was screaming that someone was in there with her. Abruptly, duct tape was slapped across her face from behind. Karai snapped the sword around, aiming where she expected a neck to be. Her sword met nothing, sliding through the air far above her assailant.

A small black clad figure, who apparently had no neck based on where his head was in relation to his shoulders were was standing in front of her. His head was green, and he was wearing a red bandana. Before she could examine him further; the small person tazed her. The duct tape was just enough for her to not properly yell as she dropped to the floor.

Karai blinked as the small ninja applied a tranquilizer to her neck.

Next thing she knew, one of her more senior personnel was shaking her awake, "Mistress Karai!"

"Where are the turtles?!" She demanded, rising to her feet.

"They escaped. Someone broke in and put a bunch of cameras on loop. Then they moved the turtles into one of our delivery semi-trucks and drove out. We have teams tracking and intercepting."

"Was anything else taken?" Karai demanded.

"Their weapons. That's it."

Karai narrowed her eyes. Why did she still feel like she was being watched? Karai strode from the hall, "Place a guard around Master Shredder. I will see to the recovery of the turtles."

Raphael watched as Karai left the hall from where he perched in the rafters. They fell for it, hook line and sinker. Some creative re-use of Donnie's little camera devices; a brick on a semi-truck accelerator, some well placed smoke bombs and voila, a lovely distraction. He quickly returned to where he had stashed the semi-frozen turtles. An old guest room in a far wing of the estate. They had only an hour to kill before Casey would be back in his laundry man disguise.

So long as the Foot kept looking for them outside, they should be able to just wait out that hour and be home free. Raphael dropped into the room from the vent, looking over the still cold turtles.

"Y'er back." Raph grumbled, shivering.

Raphael looked over his titanic counterpart. Raph was recovering slower than his brothers. Donatello would have been able to explain; probably something about Raph being the biggest. This dimensions Donnie was still racked with shivers, and unlikely to offer any theories until his teeth stopped knocking together and his glasses stopped frosting over.

Raphael considered them as he carefully set the bundle of weapons on the ground. They did not look ready to have their weapons back quite yet.

"H-how-w di-did y-y-ou…" Leo started.

"I'm a trained ninja. Just sit tight Leo. I have a plan."

A snorted laugh came from Mikey, "Ra..raph n-never plan-ns."

"Shows what you know. Now just sit quietly. You all need to stop your teeth clattering or you'll give us away." Raphael slipped back out.

All he had to do was double check the path to the laundry room was clear. Heavy footfalls had Raphael scrambling backwards. Two foot soldiers were getting handsie with each other around the corner. They were thankfully too distracted with each other to notice Raphael almost walking up to them.

Raphael rolled his eyes, how was he supposed to get rid of these bozos? If he knocked them out, the foot would know they were still here. If he left them where they were, he wouldn't be able to sneak the team to the laundry room.

Maybe he could get them to leave voluntarily?

He stepped toward the back of the hallway he was in. Then he started tromping forward with loud footfalls, calling out, "Who's back there?!"

He heard the panic of two people reassembling themselves and trying to run away. Raphael followed up with a ,"Hey freeze!" to put some extra spring in their step.

Glancing around the corner, Raphael was pleased to see the two were gone. Job well done. He quickly returned to where he hid the turtles, opening the door.

Only to end up flat on his back with a sword at his neck. Raphael hissed as pressure was put on his damaged shell.

"S-s-sorry." Leo offered, backing off.

"What was that for?" Raphael hissed, sitting up to ease the pain.

"Hear someone yelling." Mikey offered. His nunchakus were in his hands at the ready.

"That was me. Come on, the coast is clear."

Donnie grabbed the still woozy Raph as the five of them quickly made their way down the hall. Raphael lifted the large vent cover and motioned Leo in, "Go to the T and turn right. There's going to be a drop down, take it, then take the left split."

Leo looked at him in a funny way, but crawled into the vent. Raphael sent Donnie and Raph, the two turtles who still seemed the fuzziest next, with Mikey bringing up the rear of the line. Raphael crawled in after them and re-secured the vent. They quickly made their way along to the laundry room.

Casey was already there. He looked up with a relieved grin as Raphael herded the turtles out of the vent, "You got them."

"We're not clear yet. Let's get them loaded up." Raphael asked.

They guided the turtles into the massive laundry bins. Then Raphael got ready to crawl into his own bag, asking, "Casey, the feed…"

"No one's come through. I checked with April before coming in." Casey reassured him. He was covering Leo in blankets. The blue masked turtles had a pensive expression as he glanced between Casey and Raphael, before Casey tossed a final towel over him.

Raphael nodded and slid into the bag. He'd get the tablet back soon enough. After he finished the mission.

April paced in the lair, the tablet perched on the counter. Casey had texted that he had dropped the turtles off at the edge of the city, and they should be on the way to the lair. April had headed down immediately; only to find Splinter restlessly making tea as he waited.

April found herself drifting closer to the aging rat, "Are you okay, Master Splinter?"

The small master turned to her with a sigh, "I will be better once I have seen my sons."

April brightened, "Only a few more minutes, Master Splinter. You were right to send Raphael after them."

Splinter closed his eyes in disappointment. April felt concern rise, "Did…did Raphael do something? Did he hurt you?" Somehow this is the first time it occurred to her that Raphael was a stranger the turtles had brought into their home.

"Not like that, do not fear Ms. O'neil." The old rat turned to face her, "When the alarm rang, I ordered him to stay while I went to get them. He argued that he was better prepared for such a mission. I tried to make a point of how incorrect he was; as I would normally do for my sons."

April felt her eyes go wide; she had seen how fast Splinter could tame his often rambunctious sons. He was not to be underestimated.

Splinter busied his paws with preparing tea, "I will not underestimate Young Raphael again. Not only did he sidestep every one of my strikes, he used a nerve pinch to immobilize me."

April's horror must have shown on her face, since Splinter was quick to clarify, "He was quite alarmed after using it. He actually moved me to my bed; and it did wear off without further incident. However, it concerns me."

April nodded, "Do you think he's dangerous?"

"Absolutely; however I also believe he is an honorable warrior. I am not afraid he will attack me or my sons, if that's what you're asking."

Before April could ask further, they could hear the excited chatter of the turtles coming down the hallway. April could see Splinter's shoulders relax as he heard his children. In seconds the turtles rounded the corner, Mikey excitedly chattering about their escape. April noticed that Raphael was trailing behind them. And he looked quite sheepish as his gaze caught on Splinter.

"My Sons, I am glad to see you safe. What happened?"

Leo stepped forward and bowed before his father, "Master Splinter, we encountered the Foot at the Lab. Unfortunately they had a more potent knock-out gas than expected. We were then taken to their headquarters." Leo looked up with clear concern in his expression, "They've recovered Shredder. He's currently bedridden, but recovering."

"Hmmm." Splinter offered, "Then we must ensure we are ready, should he recover fully. Were you successful at the Lab?"

Donnie sighed, "No, the hard drive…."

"Is right here!" April offered brightly, "I called the lab and told them I had forgotten a hard drive of footage by accident, and they handed it over."

Donnie brightened up, "April for the save. With that I should be able to start planning out a prosthetic for you." He finished looking at Raphael.

Raphael just looked uncomfortable. Splinter called out, "Raphael."

April noticed both Raphael and Raph flinched. Splinter's voice stayed even as he walked closer to the smallest turtle, "Given the threat of Shredder's return, and your clear success rescuing my sons, I would be honored if you would help teach them to improve their skills."

Raphael looked up in surprised. Splinter continued, "I would also appreciate you teaching me that nerve pinch you used earlier. It seems a useful skill for the future."

Raphael's eyes started darting about nervously, "I..I'm not really a master yet…"

"You are relative to us is seems." Splinter set his paw on Raphael's shoulder, "Please consider my request. For now, get some rest, and thank you."

Raphael bowed before retreating with his tablet.

April watched as Splinter turned to his other sons. Leo was the first to talk, disbelief clear in his voice, "You want us to learn from Raphael?!"

"Yes." Splinter replied, stroking his beard.

The turtles all looked at each other. Mikey ventured an opinion next, "Well, he did single handedly storm the Foot."

"With Casey's help apparently." Donnie reminded.

"Still, we'd be frozen like mammoths without him." Raph grumbled.

Splinter looked his sons over. Then shook his head, "Get some tea, let us be sure you have no lingering effects of your capture."

As the turtles entered the kitchen, Splinter took two cups of tea toward the sleeping nooks, likely to check on Raphael. April tuned in excitement to her friends, "So tell me, what happened?"

Leo had a bewildered look as he gazed at his tea, "We underestimated everyone, apparently."

Karai was furious. The turtles had sent the foot chasing after an empty truck while they escaped. It also became clear that the turtles had tampered with the Shredder's progress. She narrowed her eyes at the doctors and scientists working to undo the sabotage.

Then to everyone's surprise, the Shredder's eyes briefly opened. All movement seemed to stop as the room held its breath.

Shredder's eyes blearily crossed the room to land on Karai. He wheezed out, "Karai, bring me Kraang."

Then his eyes slid shut and the doctors flew into motion around him. Karai slipped from the room. She had her orders, now she merely had to follow through.

Thank you for reading. Please comment with any critiques on my writing you have!