Sorry about delaying this. I kinda got distracted by the sequel story I'm working on. Sorry, my bad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Chapter 23

April leans over a map of the city, a red marker at the ready. "Okay, we searched the Shredder's building and every other place the Foot have been encountered." she said as she circled a spot on the map. "We've scoured every sewer tunnel, back street and dark alley in the city. Only one area left."

Don sighed. "The worst part is, we don't even know if Master Splinter is still..." he trails off, putting away his bo staff.

Mari knew where he was going with that and she didn't like it. "Don't even say it." she said quickly.

"I-I don't even want to think about that." Mikey said while twirling his nunchuks around.

Leo walks up to them. "Until we learn otherwise, he's alive and awaiting our rescue." he spoke up while sheathing his swords.

Raph continued his assault on the punching bag. He takes his sais out, twirls them and slices open the bag, releasing the sand that was inside it. "I'm done coming home empty handed. We find Splinter, tonight."

"Did you really have to take it out on the punching bag?" Elisa rolled her eyes.

The turtles and April split up to search the city again. Mikey took the sewer slider to search the sewers, Raph is searching on the streets with his shell cycle, Elisa was asked to stay with him on her own shell cycle. Just in case he gets himself into trouble. Donnie hand glides over the city buildings, using his night vision goggles to see below him. April searches through the junkyard in the battle shell. It struggles and sputters as it tries to move forward. Mari takes her search to the docks on foot, avoiding all the dock workers as they went about their business. Leo was also on foot on the other side of town. He perched himslef on an awning just as his shell cell started ringing.

"Please tell me someone found something." he said once he answered.

"Nada from the sewers." Mikey said.

"Nothing on rooves either." Don answered.

"Nothing at the docks." Mari chimed in.

"Or downtown." Elisa added.

"Or the junkyard." April said. "Lots of rats, but none of them ours."

"Man, where is he?" Raph asked angrily.

"Keep it cool, Raph." Leo ordered. "We'll find him."

Raph skids to a stop and spots some goon. He walks up to a car, opens the door, pulls the driver out and hops in the driver seat before speeding off. "Hey! That's my car!" the driver yelled after him.

"Buddy, have you picked the wrong night." an already agitated Raph sped off after the goon.

He quickly caught up to him and the goon could see him in the rearview mirror. He swerved into into trash cans and other hazards in an attempt to trip him up and lose him, but it was quite easy for Raph to avoid it all. The driver knocked over one of the gas tanks at a gas station which immediately exploded from the leaking gas. That wasn't an issue for Raph, he just popped a quick wheelie and drove right through those flames.

Leo sees his brother giving chase as he lands on the sidewalk. "Oh great." he muttered.

The goon is still driving through all the garbage he can see and Raph dodges all of it. "It would have to be garbage day." he veered off to the left and drove through the boarded up door of an abandoned building and drove up the stairs.

The goon looked behind him, seeing that no one was there. He thought he was in the clear until Raph drove out of the second floor window. His shell cycle landed on the hood of the car and he stuck both of his sais into the hood causing it to smoke and swerve. It eventually stopped when it crashed into some garbage.

An angry Raph pulled the goon out of the car by the collar of his shirt. "You feel like taking what don't belong to you punk, huh?" he threatened to knock him out, but luckily his brothers and sisters had caught up with him.

"Let him go, Raph." Leo ordered.

He looked over to his siblings and put the goon down. "Beat it."

The scared goon scurried away before anything else could happen. "Raphael, this doesn't help anything." Leo said.

"Helps more than you think." he pulled his helmet off his head and threw it to the ground, breaking the face shield.

"I mean, he did stop a guy that hijacked a car." Mari said.

"Yeah, but by the looks of it. It's not going to be running for a while." Elisa stated honestly while pulling off her own helmet.

"Trying to think positively here."

"My bad."

"Gotta admit, the dude knows how to blow off steam." Mikey said.

"Maybe, but if we're going to find Master Splinter, we have to keep a lid on it." Leo mentioned.

"Well, prowling around ain't cutting it anymore Leo. We need something to go on." Raph pointed out.

"What about the Guardians?" Don suddenly brought up. "If you think about it, right after Splinter disappeared, they disappeared."

"Yeah, hey, they could've taken him easy." Mikey answered.

"Somehow we need to hook up with one of those guys." Raph said.

"It's worth a shot." Elisa added.

Leo thought for a second. "Raph, it looks like we might have something to go on."

Headlights and the sound of a sputtering engine caused them to turn and see the Battle Shell coming their way. April pulled up and opened the door. "Sorry, after your patch job on this rig, even my grandma's tractor handles better." sirens could be heard in the distance. "Come on guys, cops are combing the neighborhood."

They all clambered into the Battle Shell. "Maybe I should drive." Don suggested.

"Or me, that works too." Elisa offered.

April turned them both down. "Nah, I think I'm getting the hang of it."

The two of them got in and she took off knocking Donnie into the window as the Battle Shell sputtered down the road.

One of the guardians stood out on the rooftops overlooking the city. Looking up, he saw that the light on the front of Shredder's tower was blinking. Slightly disturbed, he contacted the coucil using his watch. "Guardian, what is so urgent?" one of them asked.

"The symbol upon the Shredder's building has been reactivated."

"Yet you have reported the Shredder destroyed." another one said.

"He has decieved us before." the Guardian said, knowingly.

"Investigate."

The guardian snuck his way into the tower and saw the silhouette of the Shredder standing at the far end of the room. "The Shredder, alive? He's alive." the guardian took his sword out and jumped in to cut him down. Which he did with little difficulty. It turned out that the Shredder was nothing more than a dummy filled with sand with kick me sign taped to the front of it. "What?"

Mikey snickered behind him which made the guardian pretty defensive. He swung his sword toward the laugh and stopped dangerously close to Mikey. "Whoa, wait, wait, wait!" he says with hands raised.

His brothers and sisters hopped down from the rafters. "Easy, we're not here to fight."

"You lay a trap for me than be prepared to fight."

"Our bad. Now, um, you suppose you can, maybe...?" Mikey asked pointing at the sword.

"We're looking for answers that's all." Don added.

"Look elsewhere."

"Cool, elsewhere, it is. Now how about you put that sword elsewhere?" Mikey discreetly dropped a tracking device on the sword and pushed it away from him.

"We already have looked elsewhere." Mari said.

"And we found nothing." Elisa added.

"Our master's missing and we intend to find him." Raph said.

The guardian looked at all of them and sheathed his sword. "I cannot help you." he said as he walked away.

"You once called us our ally, if you are then at least tell us if he's okay." Leo said.

The guardian hesitated. "I... cannot say." using a smoke bomb, he then disappears.

"Yeah, they definitely have him." Mari suspected.

"I was thinking the same thing." Leo turned to the youngest turtle. "Mikey?"

"One turtle tracker duly planted." he answered with a wink.

The turtles began their mission of following the guardian through the city. Using the tracking device, they could see that he was moving erratically. "He's still on foot. Passing forth and D."

The guardian hopped off a rooftop and landed on a fire escape before hopping back down to street level. The turtle siblings found him just as he rounded a corner. "Come on." Don said.

The guardian turns into an alley way and speeds on through while the siblings just barely kept up. "Man, this guy's fast. He's already made it to twelfth."

They look in an alleyway. "This way." Leo says as they run through.

The guardian hides himself so he can make sure that no one is following him. Once he thought he was in the clear, he kept moving. The turles came out of a different alleyway and continued their tracking. Following him to the alleyway he disappeared in. Don, Mikey, Elisa took up one side while Leo, Raph, and Mari took up the other. Leo took a peek around the corner and realized that there was no one there. "He's not here."

"It appears his signal disappeared right across the street." Don pointed at the building at the other end of the alleyway.

"It's just an office building." Leo mentioned.

"So was Shredder's and that place nearly took us out." Raph added.

"You got a point there." Elisa said.

"But why would he go in there?" Don asked.

"To have his taxes done." Mikey joked. Apprently, only Mari found that funny as she giggled lightly.

Don pulled a small shell shaped object out of his duffel bag. "Let's find out for sure."

Later, inside the seemingly plain office building. A security guard sat at the front desk overlooking the security camera footage, when he heard a knock on the glass door in front of him. Getting up to investigate, he opened the door and noticed that no one was there. Not realizing the small shell shaped device wheel itself right past him. As the security guard went to go sit back down at his desk, the device sprouted an antennae, a camera and four little legs.

Across the street, the turtles and April huddled up as Don controlled the camera with a joystick. He pointed in the direction of side door. "Now, let's see what's behind door number one." before he could approach, the security guard moved his chair, bumping into the camera and causing it to spin out of control.

"Whoa, I'm getting carsick." Mikey said as he watched the footage continue to spin.

"If you're gonna puke, puke in the back." Mari said as he stepped away from him.

Once Don was finally able to get control, the camera landed on the lit up sign behind the security guard. A sign that was immediately recognizable by Don and Elisa.

"No freakin way!" Elisa exclaimed.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed this." Don said.

"I don't get it." Raph said.

"Techno Cosmic Reseach Institute." Don said.

"So?" Leo questions.

"Yeah?" Raph says.

"Huh?" Mikey asked.

"What?" Mari added.

Elisa rolled her eyes as her siblings really couldn't figure out what they were trying to say. "Just say the first letter in each word."

"What? TCRI? Sorry, it's not ringing any... bells." Mikey said as it clicked in.

"TCRI. That's the... the..."

"The... the..." Mikey continued to stammer.

"What?" April finally said. "Tell me."

"TCRI was printed on the canister of ooze that mutated us into what we are." Leo explained.

"The secret to our origin could very well lie within the walls of that building." Don said as they all looked to the seemingly regular office building.

Don took control of the camera again. "Okay, let's snoop around." as he was looking around, his siblings and April crowded around him. "Um, you guys are sucking the oxygen right out of my personal space here."

They all said sorry and backed away, only to crowd him again when he focused on the screen. The little camera tottered down the hall and up to a door that read security. "Jackpot! The security control room. The brains to their security system."

"Can you look under that door and see what we're up against?" Leo asked.

"I think so." Don moved the camera under the door, unfortunately, as soon as he did, he saw footsteps heading right toward it.

"Uh-oh." Don said.

The person opened the door, hitting the turtle camera out of the way and making it spin out of control again. Once it stopped, it was immediately crushed by the wheel of a cart. Leaving the turtles and April with nothing, but a fuzzy screen.

"Well, now what?" April asked.

"Master Splinter might be in there, answers we've been looking for our whole lives might be in there, so that means we're going in there."

They made their way back to the lair to come up with a plan. They had their multiple TVs set up to show the different angles of the building. "Now, what exactly have we found out about TCRI? April?"

April was on her laptop looking up all the information she could find. "Okay, TCRI is a highly successful new technologies company that's been around for the past twenty five years. and whose head corporate liason is a Mr. Mortu."

The blueprints popped up on the screen. "These are the blueprints. Submitted to the city planner's office when the building was constructed."

"Looks as boring on the inside as it does on the out." Mikey comments as he repels himself upside down with the harness he's hooked to.

"Here's some of what our cam shell recorded before it became roadkill." the footage pops up. "Surveillance cameras cover the perimeter and the roof all laced with alarm sensors."

"So what we need is someone smart, capable and techno savvy enough to get in, find the alarm cut off and... cut it off." Leo explained.

"Me!" Mikey exclaimed as he repelled down next to his brother.

"No. April." Leo pointed to the red haired woman.

"Me?" April said, surprised.

"Who else would it be?" Elisa said.

"You'll sneak in past the guard, enter the security control room, and deactivate the cameras and alarms."

"Okaaay." she said unsure.

"Here's a schematic of some basic security panels you're likely to find inside." Don said as he handed her a device.

"Once the alarms are off, you'll contact us on the shell cell and we'll gain access through the roof ventilation system." Leo explained.

"Makes... total sense."

"After we're in, you'll reset the alarm and surveillance cameras and sneak back outside, unnoticed." Don finished explaing what she would need to do.

"It all rests on your shoulders girl. No pressure." Mikey said as he drops down near April this time.

"I don't think that's helping." Mari told her younger brother.

"Uh-huh, that's all good. There's just a teeny, tiny detail of that plan missing. There's a guard sitting right there." she said, pointing out the obvious.

"We'll be employing an old ninja trick. The art of distraction." Leo pointed toward the elevator.

It opened up revealing Casey, looking like he was ready to fight someone. "Somebody call for a distraction?"

April sighed. "My life is in the hands of a lunatic."

Elisa gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Yeah, I wish you luck."

Mikey suddenly spins out of control and gets tangled up in the ropes of harness. "How the shell did you manage to do that?" Mari asked.

"I don't know, but does somebody wanna help me out here?" Mikey asked.

With their plans set, the group made their way back to the TCRI building. April, now dressed in forrmal wear headed to the front door. She opened the door and moved in as if she was a professional. "You can definitely do it April." Don encouraged the through the earpiece in her ear.

She waltzed up to the front desk and the guard greeted her. "May I help you?"

"Yes, I'm Doctor Vander Pepper of TMNT University. I'm here to see Mr. Mortu." she said.

"Mr. Mortu doesn't take appointments."

"Listen, I've come a long way for this meeting at his request. So either get him on the phone or I'm gone." she said in the best professional boss act that she could muster.

The guard picked up the phone and began to call for Mr. Mortu. "Dr. Vander Pepper?" Mikey asked through the earpiece.

Right on cue, Casey walked in with a toaster in hand. "I wanna see the boss man, right now!"

"Remember Casey, just distract him long enough for April to slip in and slip out." Leo reminded.

"Yeah, don't screw this up bonehead." Raph added.

"If anyone's gonna screw this up, it'll be you freak face!" Casey yelled... blatantly through his earpiece. He realized what he had done and looked back at the front desk.

"Moron." Raph added for good measure as the sisters could be heard giggling in the background.

The guard, completely unfazed just said. "Yes."

April stepped back as Casey walked up to the desk. "I got a complaint about one of your products!"

"TCRI doesn't manufacture toasters, sir." the guard explained.

April took that opportunity to step away. "Oh yeah," he flipped the toaster over. "Says it right here!" he pointed emphatically to the piece of paper on the bottom.

"That says RITC... in crayon, sir."

"Now I wanna see the head geek or I'm gonna take this place apart!" Casey yelled. He immediately pulled his baseball bat out and began wailing on the toaster. The guard pushed a button signaling another guard to come rushing through the doors. "Give me a toaster or give me death!" he tackled both of the guards to the ground and winked at April.

She quickly ran through the double doors before anyone saw her. She found the security room and walked inside. She shut the door behind her. "Whoa." she said, amazed at her surroundings. It was filled with some advanced, high tech. Most of which she has never seen before. "Impressive." she pulled out the tech tab that Donnie gave her and scrolled through the schematics. "Okay, I'm looking for the splitter from the main junction box which should look like..." she looked around. "Absolutely nothing here."

Outside, Leo shot an arrow tied to rope at the building, scaring pidgeons in the process. From there, it was a perilous tightrope walk over the busy streets. "Guys, this isn't going to work."

"What's the problem, April?"

"I don't recognize the technology. Nothing makes sense in here." she said. "I can't turn off the roof alarms or the cameras."

"Uh, anybody got a plan B?" Mikey asked.

"April, we'll handle the camera, just get the alarm turned off anyway you can." Don said.

April continued to take a look around. "Whatever. Don't come whining to me if we all get captured and tortured and stuff." she put away the tech tab and walked up to the giant, glowing tube in the middle of the room.

"We believe in you, April." Mari said.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's see. A floor plan would be nice." she touched the it and some strange lettering popped up. It began glowing bright and a holographic image of the outside of the building appeared in front of her. All sides of the building were lit up. "Cool!" she exclaimed. "Now, how do I turn off the roof sensors." she pondered.

The lit up roof suddenly shut off. "Roof sensors, off." said a computerized voice.

"Guys, you're good to go."

In the main lobby, Casey was still wreaking havoc on the two security guards. One of them threw a chair at him which Casey swung at with his bat, shattering the chair. He laughed triumphantly right before one of the guards grabbed his bat. The other guard stood behind the desk as the other two fought over the wooden weapon. She looked down at the screens and noticed a pigeon in front of it. "What?"

In front of said camera was Don using a pigeon puppet to block the view. "Hurry with that picture."

Leo was a little ways off with a polaroid camera, taking a picture of the scenery that the camera was facing. "Got it." Leo said when the picture fully developed. He attached the picture to the camera.

Back inside, the guard was still staring at the screen, confused. The "pigeon" flew off and the guard could only stare.

Out on the roof, Don was putting away the items he just used. "I don't know what bothers me more." Mikey stated. "That this thing actuall works or that Don carries around a pigeon puppet."

"Pigeon puppet aside, you really shouldn't question a good thing here." Elisa stated.

"Yeah, but still, it's a puppet... of a pigeon."

Casey bat swinging had not slowed down. He chased one of the guards around the lobby. The guard moved around a glass statue, which Casey smashed to pieces as the guard dodged out of the way.

On the roof turtles gathered around the ventilation shaft. Raph kicked the shaft open and looked inside. "Hey, it's a fake. It doesn't go nowhere. What kind of people would put a fake vent on a roof."

"The kind who want this place to look normal." Don said.

"Well, there goes that idea." Mari sighed, annoyed.

"So, now what?" Mikey asked.

"We cut through a window." Leo said.

The turtles had to scale down the side of the building. They picked a random window and Don pulled a glass cutter out of his bag, placed it on the glass and pressed a button. The little device's blade popped out and began spinning around, cutting nothing. "Diamond edged blades and they're not even scratching the surface." he ran a hand over the smooth surface. "This is no ordinary window glass."

"This place is getting more suspicious the more we explore it." Elisa said.

"We better think of something cause who knows how long that bat happy idiot in the lobby can keep it up." Raph warned.

"Ah, I'm sure he'll be fine. Dude's got a lot of energy." Mari mentioned. Everyone agreed as they climbed back up.

Back in the lobby, Casey was now standing on the desk, beating and breaking the screens. "What kinda customer service is this? I simply refuse to be treated this way!" he swung at both of the guards, forcing them to back away a little bit. "Attica! Attica!"

The guards had decided that they had had enough this bat crazed lunatic. They at each other and their eyes glowed for a second which Casey didn't notice. One of them pulled an item out of his pocket and pressed a button. All of the shutters on the doors and windows closed. That caught Casey's attention.

Distracted, the other guard grabbed his bat and easily kicked the desk out from under his feet making Casey fall to the floor with a grunt. She then snapped the thick bat as if it was a twig. "Uh, fellas. I got a newsflash for ya. Things are not what they seem in here."

"Well, you're not wrong there." Mari's voice came through the earpiece.

"No, I mean, it's getting really weird in here." he said, getting a little bit panicky.

"Just keep 'em busy, Casey." Raph hissed, not knowing that his friend was actually fearing for his life at that moment. "How tough can a couple of guards be?"

Both of the guards pulled out stun batons and the voltage on them looked very high. "I think I'm about to find out."

"April, the roof and windows are a no go."

"You want another way in? No problem, this thing's a piece of cake." she walked around "Okay, find me an entrance point."

A window on the side began blinking. "Exhaust cover, currently active." the robotic voice stated.

"Here we go. There's some kind of exhaust opening on the west side, ninth floor." April announced.

"We'll check it out, thanks." Leo said.

They scaled their way over to the spot that April mentioned. "There's nothing here." Raph mentioned.

"This is the spot right?" Mari asked.

"Most definitely." Elisa answered.

"Hold on. You hear that? Air's coming out." Leo said as he waved his hand over the window. "You can feel it too."

Don followed suit. "Amazing. Maybe it's some kind of hologram."

"Yeah, finally. A way in." Mikey said, as he stuck his hand in. His hand vanished behind the hologram.

"Mikey, wait!" Don called out to him.

"Wait!" Leo said at the same time.

Not listening to the warnings of his brothers, he stuck his whole top half of his body though. "Whoa!" he saw what looked to an empty hallway. "Hm?" That is, until, a massive ball of energy formed and headed straight for him. Mikey let out his girlish shriek before popping his head back out of the holographic window. The sudden momentum caused him to lose his grip that he had on the wall.

"Mikey!" Don called out.

Mikey fell onto Donatello and they both began falling to the street below them while the other four siblings looked on in horror.