Well, it's been a while! I hope you all forgive me. I got caught up between work and...work. And also work. A special thank-you to anyone still following this story!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Beyond deadly traps set by Bishop, including a cleverly disguised acidic puddle, and past several unassuming sewer rats the Lair had finally been reached; and it was empty.

"He's not here? Where is he?" Donnie asked, searching every nook and cranny.

"How should I know?" Raph said, his voice coming through the shellcell sounding slightly annoyed, "All I know is that he ain't here. The suit would know. All that's here are a few spiderwebs and some creepy things in Mikey's room."

"Well if Sensei isn't here," Donnie said, "Then where is he?"

"Beats me," said Raph, sitting on the couch, "But I know he's safe. Bishop would have used him ta threaten me if he were caught."

"Okay, that sounds right," said Donnie, thinking, "So let's just assume that Sensei is somewhere safe."

"Good," said Raph, crossing his arms, "Then weren't you gonna do something about this thing stuck to my chest?"

"Oh, right!" Donnie said, "Let's get to my lab. How much time do you have?"

"Thirty minutes and seventeen seconds," Raph said.

"Perfect!" Donnie said, "I'll get my notes and we'll start the hack. This just might work."

"Might?"

"Just get to the lab already, Raphael!"

Bishop paced within the small aisle of the airplane. Something was happening, something just beyond his grasp. Raphael had managed to let his brothers escape through a loophole in the suit, that much was certain. The new program he was installing within the suit was supposed to prevent against further loopholes. But then there came the intelligence report. The matter it suggested was something unheard of, and he had first passed over it as an error within the system.

But there was no error in that system. There couldn't be; it was impossible.

And if what that report insinuated was correct, Bishop was in a lot of trouble.

He needed to get to Raphael fast.

Bishop growled. He could hardly afford to wait for the plane to reach its destination.

In the dark of the night, two sets of eyes watched a certain building within the city. They were both being careful to stick to the shadows; their mission meant nothing if they were caught by wandering eyes.

"I've only got two minutes, Donnie." Raphael said.

"Alright, target in sight." Donatello said, eyeing the building, "You in position, Raph?"

"Yeah," Raphael said over the phone.

"On my mark, disable the building's alarms," Donnie said, "Mark!"

"Done." Raph said, "Next?"

"Get inside and find the item," Donnie said, "I'm coming in through the roof."

"Gotcha. Hurry, Donnie. We don't have much time."

Donnie crawled over the roof and slyly entered the building. He felt really bad about sneaking around, but he knew that would take too much of their precious time to ask permission.

It took him about a minute to get into the building, but he knew that Raphael was busy using the time to find what they were looking for.

"Raph," he said, spotting the suited Raphael as soon as he landed, "Did you find it yet?"

"What, this?" Raphael asked nonchalantly, handing him a futuristic-looking tool.

"Awesome!" Donnie said, taking the strange tool and placing it against the suit, "Now all I have to do is turn this the other way, insert it in your suit, reverse the polarity, perform minute calculations and…done."

"That's it?" Raph asked.

"Not quite," Donnie said, rubbing the back of his neck, "I just stopped the upgrade from being uploaded, and bypassed Bishop's password to give you administrator privileges. You're no longer under his control, but it will take some time for me to open the suit. It's made with Utrom tech, so it should take a little longer to completely open."

"Alright, alright, I get it," Raph said, "Let's get back to the lair so you can open up this tin can. It's too bad you couldn't do this back there, ya know."

"I wish I could have," Donnie said, jumping upwards and leaping against the walls to jump out the roof. "But I couldn't finish the hack without the use of that tool."

"I gotta admit Don," Raph said, landing next to his brother, "That was our easiest forced entry into the TCRI building yet."

"Yeah, we should have had Bishop put you in that suit the last time we needed to get in," Donnie teased.

His brother gave him a playful punch.

"Hey! That hurt," Donnie said, smiling as he rubbed his arm, "Did you put the tool back?"

"No," said Raph, waving it in the air, "Are ya sure we can't bring it back tomorrow?"

"Raph," Donnie said warningly.

"Fine, fine," Raphael said, sounding bored, "I'll go put it back. Geesh, Don! Think the Utroms will forgive us for borrowing it?"

"Leo, wait up!" Mikey whispered, sneaking after his brother in the dark, "Where are we going?"

Leo stopped at waited impatiently for his brother to catch up before responding.

"We're going to the lair to find Don," Leo said.

"We can't do that! Bishop set traps there, remember? You and Donnie were just talking about that, right? How Bishop is looking all over for us?" Mikey asked.

"Then…we're going to April's," Leo said, "Bishop doesn't know about her, and that's probably where we'll find Don. And if not, she might know where to look for him!"

"That sounds right," Mikey said, "But let's be super careful, okay? I really don't feel like getting captured by Bishop again."

"Then think how Don will feel if he gets captured," Leo said, "Remember, that robot guard is still out there. It's our duty to find out where Donnie is before the guard does, or worse-before Bishop does."

There was nothing Mikey could say to add to that conversation, so both turtles moved on in silence. Within minutes they reached April's place. Leo opened the window, and entered after Mikey.

But the entire room was dark-too dark.

Mikey slowly stepped forward as the window shut behind Leo, placing them both in total darkness.

Something came at Mikey in the dark, the only sign of it being the slight swoosh of air as it came forward. Leo pushed his brother aside to counter the blow with his bare hands.

Instantly Mikey and Leo braced themselves for battle. Something came at them from the left, flew over them and tripped Leo on the right. Leo jumped back to his feet and countered as best as he could, keeping his back to Mikey so that he wouldn't hit his brother by mistake. Mikey was doing the same to him, and both were straining to hear the attacks. It could have only been one ninja, or a whole battalion of ninjas, but clearly they were fighting very experienced enemies. It was very difficult for either of them to land a single blow.

Suddenly someone hit Mikey in the chest.

"Oof," he said involuntarily, doubling over.

"Wait!" April called, "Mikey, is that you?"

The light in the room turned on, and Leo found himself looking into the eyes of his Sensei and Master, who looked just as surprised as himself, and whose cane was inches away from Leo's head.

"My sons," said Master Splinter, relaxing his cane and looking very relieved, "You are safe!"

"Sensei!" Mikey said.

"Are you alright?" Leo asked, gasping for breath.

"I am fine, my sons," Splinter said, "But where are your brothers, Raphael and Donatello?"