Dr. Doom sat in his castle. It had taken him longer to abolish the charges against him than he deemed necessary, but now that he had no more distractions, he was finally able to begin looking into the mysterious malfunctions that plagued his castle during his last attempt at destroying the Fantastic Four.
"Miss Von Bardas." He beckoned.
"Yes, my lord?" she answered.
"Have you gone through the security footage yet?"
"Yes, my lord. Several abnormalities were discovered. I have set the footage aside for you."
"Excellent. Now leave me." Doom ordered.
The female robot left the room and Doom began viewing the footage. It showed a green creature leaping down from above and luring two doombots away from the dungeon entrance. Doom's eyes narrowed. He moved onto the next footage, this one of the Fantastic Four's escape. Doom noticed that the cells' power had been cut. He went into the system records and brought up the cell control panel log from that night. It indicated that someone had tempered with the controls. He returned to the video and zoomed in to view the panel. He silently regretted not lighting the area better. He searched the videos further, in hopes to find a better look at the trespasser. He paused the footage at the moment he and the Fantastic Four had their final battle for that day, but that's not what he was focused on. Up in the ceiling beams was the same green creature as before with three others like him, as well as the vigilante known as Mystery.
"Hmmm. Curious." Doom mumbled to himself, "Those creatures seem familiar." Doom thought for a moment, "Of course! The same creature was with the Thing's niece when I caught her snooping around my lab." Doom stood and walked down a small set of steps in front of his throne. "Miss Grimm must have returned for her family," Doom continued, "And brought these creatures with her." He was walking towards the room's entrance, but paused. "Strange that these creatures were seen with both Miss Grimm and the vigilante." He said, before emitting a low, menacing laugh, "I believe I know your secret, child. I'll find a way to exploit it later." And with that, Doom walked out to continue his business.
...
Kaitlyn finished her homework early and decided to hang out with the turtles before they went out on patrol. She quickly packed her costume and headed off to ask her Uncle.
"I finished my homework. Is it okay if I go out and hang with some friends?" she asked upon entering the kitchen.
"Oh." Ben responded, "I was just about to come ask if you wanted to watch the game with me."
"Uh, well …" Kaitlyn began.
"Maybe your friends would like to join us?" Ben offered.
"They can't." Kaitlyn told him quickly, "They, uh, need to … do something … at their house … and I promised to help if I got my homework done."
Ben's shoulders sank, "Alright. Have fun then."
"Thanks, Uncle Ben." Kaitlyn said, jogging towards the elevator, "I will."
"Remember your curfew." Ben called after her.
"Yes, Uncle Ben." She entered the elevator and the doors closed after her. Ben let out a sigh.
"What's wrong?" Susan asked, entering the kitchen.
"I don't know. I just …" Ben began, trailing off for a moment, "I remember mine and Kit Kat's relationship being better than this."
"How so?" Susan prompted, "What changed?"
"She could tell me anything, would tell me anything. And she loved hangin' out with me." Ben told Susan, "Now she's keeping secrets from me; doesn't want her friends to come here. She's probably too embarrassed of me to introduce me to her friends."
"Ben." Susan began to console him.
"Not to mention she's sneaking out, getting lower grades and won't tell me what's wrong." Ben continued, "I could help. I mean, if she needs a tutor, I can ask stretch, but other than that …" He paused, "I should'a known it was too good to last."
"Ben, Kaitlyn thinks the world of you." Susan told him.
"She used to, Suzie." Ben replied, "Now I'm not so sure she thinks of me at all."
...
Kaitlyn took an elevator down to the turtles' lair.
"Hey guys!" She called out, "I'm early."
"I'd say." Don responded from his lab, "We won't be going on patrol for at least an hour."
"I know. I finished my homework early and thought I'd-"
"Stop by to see Raph?" Don finished.
"Not just, mister mind reader." She told him, "I came to hang out with all of you."
Donnie gave her a teasing smile, "Well, I remember Mikey was trying to rally together a video game tournament, but nobody went for it."
"Then that's exactly what we'll do."
"What?"
"Time to take a break." Kaitlyn said, pulling Donnie away from his computer. She whistled to call out the other turtle brothers. Raph was the first to emerge.
"Hey, Kit Kat." He greeted her, putting his arm around her waist.
Leo and Mikey came out to join them.
"Hey. You're early." Leo stated.
"Yeah, and I think, before patrol, we should have a video game tournament." Kaitlyn announced. Mikey gave a small cheer. He and Kaitlyn walked over to the television set and the remaining three brothers followed.
"Game on!" Mikey cried, grabbing a controller.
...
The teens played for an hour, with Mikey taking the victory.
"In your face, Raph!" Mikey taunted.
"Whatever." Raph replied.
"I see why nobody wanted to do the tournament." Kaitlyn whispered to Raph as Mikey continued his victory dance.
"Time for patrol." Leo interrupted, already waiting by the elevator, "Let's go."
The others joined him, and together they went topside.
They leapt over rooftops, keeping a watchful eye on the street below. It started off as a quiet night, with only a few easy-to-stop muggings. But soon things picked up as they saw Hun and the Purple Dragons doing some dirty business.
"What's lard butt up to this time?" Raph asked.
"Looks like the usual." Leo replied, "Weapons deal."
"Which means the usual drill for us." Don added.
"Destroy and conquer?" Mikey asked with a playful smile.
"More like destroy and subdue, Mikey." Mystery corrected him, "As in, destroy all weapons and subdue all bad guys."
"Sounds like a party." Raph said. Mystery smiled.
"Everyone clear on the plan?" Leo asked. The others nodded. "Then let's move out."
They unsheathed their weapons and leapt off the roof.
