Jessica walked across the tarmac, nodding at familiar faces, not really knowing most of them by name or on a personal level. Well, besides the ones limited to her adopted family, all the bots and her cousins and sister. But other than that, maybe one or two other people really knew her, because that's all she trusted. And for good freaking reason.

"Jessica." Lennox was coming in on her fast, that panicked vibe still radiating off of him. She raised a brow and stared at him. What was wrong with him?

"Lennox, what is going on? Why are you calling all panicked like?" Jessica was getting more and more irritated by the minute.

"Look, it's not my place to say. Just follow me." Lennox ordered. It was getting to the point where Jessica was starting to believe he was purposely trying to irritate her now.

"You control the operations known as N.E.S.T. Why wouldn't you be able to tell me, one of your soldiers, whom you are sending on said mission? What's going on? Am I going in on this mission blind?" She raised a brow challengingly. Lennox gave her a flat look as they walked on, for some reason they were heading towards the rec room.

"First off, wouldn't be the first time you have gone into something blind, you and your squad are called suicide squad after all." And no, not like DC, though that movie looks pretty sweet honestly. It's just they tended to go on the missions that most N.E.S.T soldiers would generally shy away from, but hey, it paid well.

"Second of all, have you been watching the news or any TV for the past 5-10 minutes? Specifically the news?" Lennox asked, turning to her.

"If I wanted to watch a bunch of half truths and bull shit I would turn on super jail." Jessica huffed, that show, was on pcp, straight up. "What the hell is the problem? Oh for the love of god Lennox, just tell me!"

"Just keep following me." Lennox urged instead.

Jessica stopped in her tracks, that's it, she is going straight for her theory. "It's about the turtle recruits isn't it?" Jessica gave him an accusing glare.

"Kind of, come on, they really need to hurry out of here." Jessica didn't like that answer, she didn't want to get involved at all in that mess. She is about to spell that out to him!

The two N.E.S.T personnel walked in, sure enough, two ninja turtles. They weren't the full grown ones, these ones looked like teens, around her age maybe. Jess sighed, why the hell did they need her? They didn't look too thrilled to see her either, so they probably don't know anything about her. The angry gray masked teen looked very, very pissed. If Jess wasn't so irritated herself, she would have laughed at the irony here.

"Will! I don't have time for this! I need to go home!" Man, what was it with everyone freaking out today? The poor female turtle looked like she was about to cry, yeah, Jessica was oh so totally lost right now.

"Calm down a minute Ty." Will seemed a little more calm now, probably because him and the turtles being panicky and Jess being crabby was a bad mix. Way to take a step up Lennox.

"Calm?! That's my father out there!" His hand was wildly waving at the T.V. screen. By the looks of it it had been doing that a lot. Jessica tried not to roll her eyes. These guys were supposed to be this awesome fighting team? Shit...they couldn't even keep their composure.

All of a sudden another one come barging into the room, nearly running her over if she wasn't quick enough to get out of the way. Sure the turtle was easily seven foot, easily, but for the love of god... These guys were supposed to be ninjas too? Respect the little people!

"Ty!" He hollered.

"I know!" The gray masked one replied. Ty as he was called apparently.

Finally Jessica wandered over and took a look at the T.V. The news was on, and as much as she hated the media, she watched. And what she saw was dragons steal things out of warehouses and even trains.

"So, these turtles come in limited dragon addition, huh?" She flatly asked Lennox.

"They've been that way. You really haven't been reading the reports, have you?" Lennox countered, he knew she was calm enough to snip at her.

"Sorry, was attending my own shit storm" She retorted right back.

"Touché, real quick, Jessica? This is Ty, Lavi, and Thane. Guys? This is Jessica, she can help you." Lennox promised. Jessica composed herself a little bit, she was going to need loads of patience with this currently panicky turtle family.

"Alright, I'm following you guys." Jess offered. The biggest one looked her up and down, the fact he was unimpressed clear on his face. And here we freaking go...

"And who the fuck are you exactly?" Pretty sure Will just introduced them shell for brains.

His brother or whoever he was to him was looking at her the same way, eyes narrowed. "How in the hell can she help? She take lessons in dragon wrangling? I've had enough, I'm going home. Now."

That's it, little disrespectful- "You turtles have been hanging around humans too long, not even the good ones either. Automatically assuming based on appearance, but hey, keep at it, I'm sure it'll get you far." She said her statement with a cool expression. She wasn't used to such disrespect, especially from recruits. They were just being little asses. She was so freaking tempted to just walk away. She looked at her boss with irritated expression herself, he looked at her with a firm look, silently ordering her to get over it.

Much the Jessica's surprise, the girl seemed to be calm enough to really put some thought together looking at the young woman intently. She placed a hand on her relative's, Jess was assuming, arm and stared a hole into the front liner.

"You know us, but we know nothing of you. Yet will here, someone my father trusts very much, seems to think you can help. I ask straight up… Can you?" Jessica forced her anger away again, they weren't used to stuff like this, she had to remember that.

"Yes. I can, my name is Jessica Usagi. The plan is to get more details on what happened, then I will wrangle up my girls, organize a mission and we can take off. Won't take more than a day." She promised.

Ty wasn't taking her retort in the best way, he was shaking but refused to slap the female turtle's hand off of him. His relative watched her again for a long while, Jess just stayed still and waited, watching back calmly.

"Take her to see mom. She's the only one who knows what's going on." Huh, well lookie there. Finally a break through with these guys.

"Are you nuts?! We don't even know her, and you want me to take her to the lair?" Ok, maybe not. Deep breaths Jessica, felt like she was taking 2 steps forward, then ten more back with this stubborn group.

"That's going to go over really well with our fathers." The biggest one, Thane? Think it was Thane, responded.

Lavi looked as frustrated as Jessica felt, ok, probably more, but the young turtle girl pointed at the screen. It showed a dragon that had orange trim running around, seemingly set on a task. "As if they have a say in the damn matter! And we aren't even sure where our mothers are! No one has been answering the damn lair phone! Something could have happened to them too!"

Thane winced at that, but stayed silent. Huh, so Lavi had a temper, and Jessica was about to meet her mother, this was going to be good. So much sarcasm there. Maybe she got the temper from her father? Jessica doesn't know why, but she seriously doubted that.

Ty finally took a deep breath, probably coming to his senses and making himself calm down too.

"Come with me. We need to ground bridge to New York." Jessica trailed him, giving a quick nod at Lennox before he left her line of sight, and the turtles led them to the control room where the ground bridge on this base was stationed.

"Kyle? I need a small bridge home." Ty asked.

"The planned rooftop?" He asked in return. Ty just nodded and Kyle opened one so Ty, Thane and Jessica could step through, they were on one of the many rooftops of the city.

She followed the teens down a ladder, keeping a low profile and not doing anything fancy. Did she feel kind of bad for hiding secrets? Yes. But she wasn't going to be hanging out with this group for very long. They were just from two different worlds that wouldn't fit in harmony. Hence, she didn't have a reason to reveal anything about herself for the time being.

She watched the twitchy teen. Man...he was starting to make her stress out for him. He needed to calm down, this attitude was no good if they wanted to accomplish anything. She stopped him, but kept her tone calm, she needed to have a little sensitivity to them in this kind of situation. "You need to cool it, if you are so uncomfortable bringing me down to your liar, bring your mother up here and we will figure something out. I was sent here to help you, not to send you into a more stressed out and pissy mood." Jessica urged.

"You don't understand. That is more than just my father out there. He's merged with a spirit that gives him that dragon form, against the wishes of some very powerful individuals. The spirits were able to outwit them so that he could stay on this world with my uncles." He began to explain, continuing their decent towards the ground. "But if they see what is happening now they will come back and try to banish our fathers to the spirit realm. In light of that...you coming into our home is actually nothing compared to that problem. And this isn't the place to discuss it. Mother would never come out here to have a very lengthy conversation with my cousin and I out in the open like this."

Jessica all but rolled her eyes, but not at the young turtle, at the situation. For many, many reason. He just confirmed her theory on what was going on. Indirectly, but he did nonetheless

Thane gave a grunt in agreement as the turtles led the young woman on down the fire escape. She kept up and humored them on being faster.

"Father trusts Will, and he trusts you. And I'm going to trust in them. I assume you are allied with the bots in some way. A few of them already know where we live so it's no big reveal. This way." Ty lead the way, waiting for Jessica at the bottom.

"Yes, I am a N.E.S.T soldier. My cousins, sister and I tend to work with the bots a lot." Jessica was just about done with this whole situation already. But she had to confirm what was running through her head get a little closure before running headfirst into this bull shit. Some other thoughts swam around in her head but she pushed those to the side for now.

"So, your fathers pissed off some gods huh?" She asked calmly. Yeah, that didn't sit so well with Ty, he looked up at her with a hint of anger. She probably could have asked that in a better way, but fuck it, too late now. It was out there with that tone.

"No, they didn't." She could tell he was trying to keep his temper in check. "The gods offered them something to save this planet and everything on it, and in return they wanted our fathers to leave this world after doing that. They were willing to give everything they loved up just so we could all have a chance to live on." Jessica nodded it at that. And also gave an internal scream, she didn't want to deal with gods.

"Shitty ass reward, but they were going to follow through with it anyway." Thane responded from down below her where they both waited for her to finish descending the fire escape.

"The spirits didn't think that was fair and intervened. Our fathers had nothing to do with the god shitfit that happened after that. All they did was what they always do: Fight for those who can't fight on their own." Ty dropped into the sewer after opening the manhole cover. Thane looked at her with an eyeridge raised, she silently raised one as well, a nonverbal: "is there a problem?"

"And who told you they were gods anyway? Back at base you didn't have a fucking clue what happened." Jessica was getting real irritated with his underestimating her. But calmed herself, he wasn't the first, and he wont be the last person. He'll see eventually.

Besides, she was a 5'4 little girl around their age. She would probably assume too under the conditions they were under when they themselves haven't had the experiences she has. She knew better than to underestimate someone. And that was because of several bad experiences, most in which she wasn't even underestimating her opponent! She was kind of glad they were in that oblivion, because that means they are staying strong and haven't had a situation bad enough to make them paranoid like her.

"Had a hunch. Was praying to god I was wrong." She looked up at the sky, almost looking angry, before she hopped in to go down the ladder. Thane closed the cover after everyone started to make their descent down the ladder, it should probably smell horrible down here, but Jessica has smelled much worse. The shit storm she was getting into though, oh her sister and cousins were going to be pretty pissed when she got back with this intel.

.

.

We wandered into our home, and found it once again empty. Over two days now... And still nothing... I was honestly wondering how much more of this I could take. The worry was eating me alive, slowly tearing me apart from the inside out. Where were they... I didn't know, and I also didn't know anymore where to look. I sat on the couch and tiredly rubbed my eyes, and the tears that formed in them away.

Caitlin and Marina had wandered back into the lab, their usual pattern by now, as Cris meandered on towards the kitchen. I knew she was going to make us something to eat, and I also knew none of us would really feel like eating it.

The silence in our home was what hurt the most. Everything here reminded us of them, but they themselves could not be found. They had built this home, and now I was wondering if they would ever come back to it. I couldn't take it anymore. I had to turn the TV on to drown out the silence. And when I did I regretted it instantly. I rose slowly back to my feet as I saw Raph's dragon form attach to a train car, and smoothly lifted it up before he flew off with it, that of course caused the train to derail. And the headline on the screen of "Dragon menace" really wasn't helping. "No!" I screamed at the box that just prattled on. "God please, no!"

Of course my outburst drew the others back into the living area, and they stared in shock and disbelief, as I was, at what we were watching. I wasn't the only one crying now as we watched our husbands do the one thing they never would do. Cause harm.

"Mom?" The quiet question came from a familiar voice from behind me. I saw my son, and the son of the blue banded dragon that was now flashing across the screen, walking quickly towards me. I tried not to cry when I saw him...and I failed. His arms wrapped around me to try and comfort me as I began to sob against his chest. I automatically knew why he was here.

Thane came in next, quickly moving towards Cris.

"Mom...what happaned?" Ty asked, trying to get me to calm down enough to talk to him.

"I don't know!" I wailed even harder.

I cried a few moments, with Ty still trying to calm me down before someone else made their presence known. "Ma'am?" I looked up from Ty's chest to see a young woman with brown hair and bluish green eyes walk towards me, one I didn't know. "My name is Jessica. I was sent by William Lennox to help you. Is there any leads at all? Anything found at the scene? Anything will help." She then waited patiently for me to get my act together.

I sniffled as I looked unsure up at Ty. "It's ok Mom." He quietly reassured me.

"How much does she know?" I finally calmed down enough to ask as I wiped my eyes.

My son just shrugged. "More I think than she lets on. She acts all normal...but she's either psychic or she can see in the dark better than most humans. She just went through the motions of me guiding her through the tunnels."

Jessica stuck her thumb in her pockets and looked away from Ty. Almost like she just got a taste of something she wasn't expecting. I'm guessing my son hit on something she wasn't expecting him to figure out.

"Will sent her?" I asked him quietly and he answered with a nod.

I gave her a long, probing stare as I sized her up. She wasn't very tall, even Ari was taller, but she held herself with that air of confidence of someone who had been through some shit. A lot of it. Hard to believe from someone who looked as young as she did. Heck, she looked like she was Ty's age of early twenties. "There has to be a reason why Will chose you... He wouldn't just send anyone..." I told Jessica in a quiet voice before I let out a very shaky sigh. I was still on the verge of losing my composure. "Because not just anyone can handle them now... I'm not sure what to tell you. All I know is we went out for a run two nights ago and we stopped for a little bit. Caitlin wanted to look at something. They waited on the roof of the building nearby for us to finish. Then a few minutes later they were just...gone... The bond closed and Marina and Cait lost all feeling for them. The only thing we found were their weapons along with Donnie's pack and other gadgets." I pointed to the very large pile of very sharp shit placed neatly in the corner. "Then I see...that..." My hand waved wildly at the tv screen.

The look she gave was a critical one, almost like she didn't want to be here and couldn't believe after two days that's all that we had to go on. And she obviously wasn't happy about it. "You didn't find anything else? They were just kidnapped? From what I have heard. No one has ever been able to sneak up on them let alone catch them so easily. If you can't provide any more information," She shrugged "it all good. My girls and I can go off of what you already told me. We've worked with less. But any bit of information helps."

Thane had went over to the weapons by that point, and he shot her a nasty glare. For some reason I had the feeling they didn't get off to a good start themselves. I know she was starting to rub me the wrong way. "Hey...go easy on them! It's not the first time one of us has been swiped, but it is the first time they just upped and disappeared without a-...hey...what's this?" His gaze went curiously towards his hand and what ever he was holding in it.

"What's what?" Ty was now walking over to join him.

"This?" He holds up a very small fragment of what looked like a crystal. "It was stuck in Uncle Mikey's 'chuck chain."

Jessica walked over to him and checked it out. I knew I wasn't supposed to hear the "fuck" that slipped out quietly, but I did. So did the rest of us. "Don't tell anyone about that. It will hinder progress dramatically. I'm going to head back and discuss things with Lennox. Then we will head out to find them."

She began to make her way to the door, only to find that way blocked by a very angry Cris who glared at her through narrowed eyes. "What is it." She wasn't really asking. "Don't be playing these mysterious games with us or I'll beat the answers out of you!"

Marina also walked over to them, her eyes very cool. Which meant she was mad too. "And we are going with you."

The boys exchanged a quick, rueful glance at that.

"You should have known that was coming." Thane told Ty.

"I did. Just not so sure she expected it though."

Jessica was eyeing Cris, then took in a deep breath before she slowly released it. I was getting the vibe that we were slightly annoying her. Well...tough shit. "That substance is something that could force us to abort the whole mission. And without my squad and I to help you guys out. Your options are slim to zero chance of being able to get them back. And as for the rest of you. I advise you to stay home or settle down at a base for several reasons. You could be sucked into a shit storm you have yet to face with the direction this bull shit is going." The look she gave us told us that she really hoped we would do just that.

I blew that notion right out of the water. "The hell we will!" My foot impacted into the poor coffee table, which was then sent flying across the room to crash into the wall where it broke apart and fell to the floor.

"There goes the furniture..." Ty mumbled under his breath.

"Fine!" I spun back at Jessica, my eyes blazing. "You don't want us to go with you? We'll go out our damn selves and look for them! I'm not just going to sit here and have some stranger tell me I should just sit on my ass and do nothing!" I kicked the end table next and it followed the same path as the coffee table, and had the same results.

Cris raised an accusing brow at Jessica. "Now look what you did."

"Lady..." Marina began in her quiet, cool, Imma 'bout to kick your ass voice. "You don't know half the shitstorms we've seen. We never backed down from any of them, we refuse to do so now."

"You might as well just give that reasoning up." Thane quietly told Jessica, eyeballing all of us. "They mean it. If they don't go with you they will tear the whole country apart looking for them on their own."

She bit her lip, hard, before taking a few more breaths to calm own. "Because leading five stubborn ass girls wasn't bad enough." She grumbled before sending me a very cool glare. "Fine. Just realize. If they hurt you, they will never be the same." Then she turned it towards Marina, who matched it. "And things can always get worse. Just when you think you've seen it all. Feel like life can't get any harder or scarier. You jinx yourself, and pay for it in the end. But hell, if you want to help your mates. Who am I to stop you. I can only warn you." Again she turned towards the exit.

And again she was stopped. This time by the couch pillow Caitlin, of all people, threw at her. "That doesn't mean we just give up on them and let strangers just waltz all over them! Will sent you to help, did he not?" Her blazing green eyes narrowed. "Help means just that, you help us, not tell us what we should or shouldn't do!"

Thane was looking at Caitlin in shock. "Yup...she's worried. Not often she flips her lid like that when there's no patient involved.

Whatever was about to be said next was cut off by Ty's shrill whistle. "All of you knock it off! How is this bickering going to help anything!" This time he was the one taking a deep breath to calm down. We all seemed to be doing a lot of that... "Look, Jessica, I understand your concern. But you don't understand how this family works. We would never leave one of our own in trouble. Our moms could no more sit this out than our fathers would if the roles were reversed. Especially my mom. She's got a connection with Father that goes deeper than you understand right now. Who knows, it may be that connection that may be able to help...if we can find them. If we do this, we do this together. It's how we've always done it."

"Which is why I'm letting them come with my team. This is going to be a long mission." Jessica grumbled. Cris made a sneering nose wrinkle at her and mimicked her as Jessica got onto her comm. I was assuming it was her comm anyway. I really hoped she didn't have a habit of talking to imaginary folks. "Bre? Tell everyone to gear up and get ready, when I get back. I am going over what I learned with Lennox then we'll be heading out. And uh, we have some new team members. Yes... I know. Dude! I know! I told them. Yup. Well..." She looked over at the destroyed furniture. "They aren't exactly civilians... Yes. Alright, see you when I get back. Have everything ready please. Thanks." She lowered her hand and sighed. "Vacation time is over." Her gaze went to Ty. "Meet you back on base." This time when she left, she was allowed to go unmolested.

I was still glaring at the door she disappeared through as Ty walked over to me. "Come on Mom. Grab what you need. You'll all come back to the base with us and we'll figure this out...ok? Just calm down and let's try and piece this together."

My eyes began to water all over again at his calm tone. "Do you have any idea how much you sound like him right now..."

He gave me a small smile in return. "It's only natural...he is my father after all. Some of him is bound to rub off on me."

"I'm not sure I like her." Cris grumbled. "Vacation time pfft... The guys can't even enjoy their damn retirement."

"Just get your crap and let's go." I sighed at her.

Cris grumbled some more under her breath as she did that. Ty calmly walked over and started to gather the guy's things.

"What are you doing?" Thane asked him.

"I have a feeling they are going to want these when they are finally found. And want to put them to use."

"You look like a walking armory."

"Well then here," Ty pushed some of the equipment into Thane's arms "you carry some then we can both look stupid."

Thane gave him a flat look, then he followed his mother's lead and grumbled to himself as he was loaded up like a pack mule. It didn't take us long after that to make our own way to the surface. And Ty held my hand the entire way. I held onto that hand for dear life. He was all I had of Leo at the moment to take comfort in.