Episode 6: Doomsday Dealings – Part 1

Eyes closed.

Breath in and then breath out.

Listen to the water roll over the stones, changing them – reshaping them.

Even that which first appears solid can be molded.

Change is constant.

Master Hamato's words rang in his ears perfectly, as if they were being spoken to him again. Ethan had spent hours out here under the shade of the tree. The water bubbled and rippled, a tone for his meditation sessions. He had spent so long out here that he was beginning to feel the change of the season from summer heat into the deep of autumn. The first week of not being able to go outside in the day was horrible – but now he was getting used to it. Meditation was becoming more accessible to him. He was beginning to understand more about who he was when he had woken up that first fateful day in the alleyway several years ago.

Even better – the odd dreams that he was living with his siblings about the strange alien tech in Washington Square was beginning to disappear. Now he sat meditating once again, but progression seemed to have slowed. He was okay with that. Patience – as Master Hamato reminded him – was crucial to the art of ninja.

He breathed in deeply again, sitting Indian style under the tree, hands in his lap. It was significantly more difficult for him to focus when he knew that his siblings would soon return with take out from Murakami's.

Maybe I need a break from that memory. Ethan thought, sliding his tail behind him absentmindedly against the grass. I could try to figure out that weird Japan one. He had determined that the vision he had seen when Karai had managed to poison him had to take place in Japan. But did that mean he had been to Japan before? I'm going to find out.

Or – at least he was going to find out.

But Karai derailed all of those thoughts – as she usually did.

Snap!

At the sound of a nearby twig, his eyes snapped open and he twisted out of the way just in time to dodge a sudden strike from Jess, her fist hitting the ground instead. She recovered just as quickly as he had jumped and her leg came flying towards his head. He used his forearm to block and then with a grin, slid forward, sweeping his leg to throw her to the ground.

It failed.

Jess jumped pushing her hands against his shoulders to flip over his head. She landed on one of her knees, stumbling for only a moment, but she was up and ready to block several of Ethan's quick jabs. Jess slammed her elbow down at his head, but Ethan swooped out of the way, sliding his padded, bare feet against the grass until he could feel the sand of the nearby river on them. Jumping and using his arms as momentum, he did a single flip through the air, landing on the opposite bank, putting the river between him and Jess. She brushed her hair out of her face cockily, letting it slide behind her ear. Ethan imitated her with the tails of his white bandanna. It had become as familiar to him as his fur. He only took the bandanna off for bed.

Jess shook her head, but she was still smiling. She jumped and Ethan cartwheeled out of the way and with a slam of finality, they crossed forearms, hands balled into fists.

"Not bad!" Jess complimented.

The two let their hands fall, and still grinning, they bowed honorably to one another.

She straightened her back and rubbed one of her shoulders. "Although you have an unfair advantage with the whole mutant thing."

"Don't be jealous."Ethan teased back.

Kaela smiled from the doorway that she was standing by, a grocery bag bundled up in her fist, filled with Japanese take out. Ethan felt his mouth watering and quickly strode over to her. "Geez!" Ethan said, "This looks so good!"

Kaela pulled out several Styrofoam boxes and handed them to him. "Chicken Katsu, your favorite." She said with a smile. "You guys were really good by the way!"

"Thanks." Ethan said sitting back down by the river and pulling his box open, accidentally punching holes with his nails into the box. Okay, maybe I'm not totally used to this body yet. Ethan admitted to himself.

Jess grabbed her own box and popped it open – revealing a load of pizza gyouza. As they ate quietly, Ethan noticed that Kaela hadn't come to sit next to them like she usually did when they all ate together. He turned slowly to see that she was still standing by the door, fiddling with the grocery bag. "Are you not hungry?" Ethan asked.

Kaela looked up, "Oh, yeah!" She said with a smile and she slowly sat down.

Ethan swallowed and watched Kaela, his chopsticks pinched between his fingers, scratched up on the sides from his claws. "What's up?" Ethan asked.

Kaela looked up, "Hm?" she asked, pulling open her own box.

"Oh," Jess said, swallowing several bites of pizza gyouza at once, "Kaela has been spending a ton of her spare time studying up on April."

"April O'Neil?" Ethan asked, thinking of the red haired girl that had tutored him on occasion last year before the Kraang invasion. He then turned back to Kaela, "Why?"

"Oh yeah . . ." Kaela said slowly, "We didn't tell you."

Ethan scowled, "Geez, you stop coming to school and suddenly not even your own siblings remember you in their inner circle." He said it half sarcastically.

Kaela patted Ethan on the head, "Your new face is adorable when it scowls." She said.

Ethan glared. After a light chuckle, Kaela explained. "When the school was attacked by Hun and the Purple Dragons, we went into Mrs. Campbell's office."

"I still can't believe she was a Kraang robot." Jess quickly interjected.

Kaela continued, "There was a file on her desk that showed tons of pictures of April and information on the Kraang as well. I think she might have been somehow involved with them. Mrs. Campbell obviously wasn't happy that Jess and I saw that stuff."

"Yeah, you definitely didn't tell me about any of this." Ethan agreed.

"Well, now you know!" Kaela replied.

Ethan raised an eyebrow, putting a little bit more of his food into his mouth. It was already starting to get cold. "And . . . ?" He asked. "Jess said you have been studying about it. Have you found anything?"

"Yeah, actually. I did some digging and found April's dad's phone number and address!"

"Creeper much?" Jess asked.

Kaela ignored the comment. "And since I know you are going to ask, I already tried calling him a few times and didn't get an answer."

Ethan nodded with satisfaction and then turned back to his food for a few moments and continued to chomp down into it, his mind continually caught up in the new information. What did April have to do with anything? At least from what he was hearing – she didn't seem to be on the Kraang's side. "Well, that's a new angle." He said finally, finishing his meal and putting down the box. "I say we go over to his house and ask him."

"Really?" Kaela said. "That sounds . . . adventurous."

"I like it!" Jess said. "Let's take some action!"

Ethan stood and stretched, smiling. "Master Hamato says we don't have training for another couple hours, so let's go over there right now!"

The two didn't have a word of complaint, but stood immediately. Then, just as they walked out into the alley and before Ethan stepped over the genkan, Jess turned to him. "Wait." She said. "It's still day light! You can't walk around like that!"

Ethan sighed. "Sure I can." He reached in and grabbed the big burly coat he had found and the old hat that looked like it came from a mafia movie and put them on, along with a pair of boots. "I'll just hide underneath this."

Kaela chuckled and Jess sighed and shook her head, slapping her hand to her forehead. "I'm not even going to ask you where you found those." The three then made their way out to the street and Kaela took out a slip of paper where she had written the address. They walked carefully down the street and Ethan made sure to keep his tail tucked down so as to not draw any unwanted attention. The shade of the hat felt safe to him and he made sure to keep his eyes down. People didn't seem to notice as they walked about their daily life, not even giving a glance in his direction. And besides, most people in New York were used to weird things being seen on the streets at this point. It had become relatively normal.

"How much farther?" Ethan asked, his feet felt hot in the boots and his tail was getting tired, being forced not to move. These issues were new to him. The tail was by far the hardest part. He had spent all afternoon before his meditation session cutting large holes in the back of his pants. It was awful.

Kaela squinted down at her slip of paper and then pointed to a nearby apartment building. "It should be on the fourth floor of that building, I think." She said. The building was old, the brick had long since blackened. Rusty stairwells led up and down it's sides in a maze. Each had a tiny balcony on it's side, fit with a window that looked out onto it and likely opened to allow one to step out onto the fire escape from the balcony if needed.

"Let's hurry." Ethan muttered. The sun was beating down on him and the fur was like a blanket over the top of him. Kaela and Jess walked a little quicker and eventually they got to the main doors. Although the building was old, the glass doors looked like they had just been recently polished and inside, the tiled floor gleamed from the light of chandeliers, looking recently waxed. They walked inside, the doors closing quietly behind them, the sound of a buzzing air conditioner echoing in the entryway.

Nodding quietly towards the elevator, the three stepped over to the large metal doors and Jess quickly punched the up button. The doors swung open and they filed in, Ethan lowering his head to his booted feet so that a family that walked by the elevator wouldn't see him. The doors shut and up they went to the fourth floor. The elevator squeaked from the outside of the elevator so slightly that Ethan wasn't sure if Jess and Kaela had heard it.

Ding!

The doors swung open to admit them into a long hallway, doors lining each of the sides. Kaela muttered under her breath as they walked down the hallway. She would glance up on occasion at the numbers on the doors that likely were once a fake gold, but now the sheen had peeled away. She came to a halt when she reached number 409. "Well, here we are." Trepidation had appeared in her voice.

"I got this." Jess reached out and rapped her knuckles several times on the door.

What was I thinking? Ethan thought. Mr. O'Neil can't see me! He'll freak out! Ethan knew that he ignored this fact on purpose to get out of the house, but now that he as standing in front of the door, he knew that it had been a mistake. "I'll wait out here." Ethan said, slinking out of the way of the door and Kaela and Jess turned to him with expressions that said 'seriously?' but they didn't get a chance to vocalize their feelings as the door swung open.

A man stood there. He had worry wrinkles on his forehead that led into a bald top, red hair like April's growing from the sides of his head. He looked at them with concern, a leather jacket covered his frail looking shoulders and it was clear that there was something fearful in his eyes. "Can I help you?" He asked politely, but Ethan could hear strain in it.

"Hi, you must be Mr. O'Neil?" Kaela asked politely, extending her hand.

"Yes." He reached out and took her hand firmly for only a few moments and then he turned his head down the hallway to Ethan.

It was too late for Ethan to hide his face underneath the hat.

Mr. O'Neil's eyes widened for only a second, but surprisingly, he didn't freak out at all. He didn't take his eyes off of Ethan and said, "Are you friends with the turtles?"

Jess rolled her eyes and exhaled loudly. "We get asked that a lot." she explained when Mr. O'Neil looked back at her, clearly shocked by her reaction.

"Can we come in, Mr. O'Neil?"

"Please," He said, "Call me Kirby." He opened the door wider and motioned them to come inside. They piled in, Ethan on their heels and he looked nervously at Kirby before the man closed the door behind them. He locked it hastily and when he turned to see Ethan's suspicious expression he said, "You can never be too careful. The Kraang could be anywhere."

"That's actually what we wanted to talk to you about, Mr – I mean, Kirby." Kaela said, correcting herself quickly and smiling sweetly at him.

"Oh." Kirby didn't seem to know how to take that and finally he motioned to the couch behind them that faced a small coffee table and a large window that had the drapes drawn over them so nobody could look inside. He then took one of the chairs next to the coffee table. Ethan still couldn't believe that Kirby wasn't scared of him – or even remotely interested in him for that matter. Then again if Kirby knew the Kraang, that could definitely account for his accustomed feelings to weirdness.

"So, first," Kaela said, "We are classmates of April. We are here to help and wanted to figure out where she was and if she is okay."

"I don't know where she is." Kirby admitted, the shadows growing under his eyes as he leaned forward, head bowed down to the floor, deep in thought. "One night she was going to bed like she always does and the next morning she was gone – like she was never here." Kaela, Ethan and Jess exchanged worried glances at one another. Kirby looked up and continued, a seriousness casting his face into deeper shadows, "Last time she went missing, it was when the Kraang first invaded earth with the Technodrome."

"Is that the big orb thing that came out of the sky a while back?" Jess asked.

Ethan could remember that – they had only just started training with Master Hamato when that happened. It had been their first exposure to the Kraang. And boy – what an exposure it was. The sky had ripped open over the TCRI building and a colossal orb had appeared from the sky.

"Yes," Kirby replied, "They wanted to use her to power the Technodrome and terriform earth into another Dimension X – the place that they come from. I worry that the Kraang may have taken her again. I filed a police report, but they are no help. I searched the sewers every day for hours to find the turtles, but they aren't home either. So, I've been searching and listening in on the Kraang to see if they have her – but every time, I almost get caught and I hear nothing of her or the turtles."

"Weird." Ethan muttered. "So, these turtles, we don't know them – but we do know we are on the same side. We are trying to stop the Kraang as well." He continued, leaning in and taking off his hat to let his ears pop back up. "What can you tell us about the turtles?"

Kirby slowly stood up and then walked out of the room, turning the corner into the kitchen.

"Uh . . ." Jess muttered, but a few seconds later he returned and placed a photograph on the coffee table. Intrigued, the three leaned in over it. The picture was of April. Her usual red locks were pulled back in a tight ponytail, her bangs nearly over her eyes. She was sporting a yellow t-shirt and standing next to her was none other than Casey Jones. He was wearing his usual dirtied jacket, the hood around his neck – a cheesy and slightly toothless grin on his face, a black bandanna around his forehead. The ones next to them was what Ethan was most interested in. Four turtle mutants. They looked about their age and were wearing almost exactly similar belts as they did – even more shocking, they each had a colored bandanna like the one Ethan was currently wearing.

One with a blue bandanna stood near the back, a smile on his face, two katana blade handles protruding over the top of his shell, clearly strapped to him. The second was wearing an orange mask. He had a more boyish face and had his fingers up, making bunny ears behind April. The third was wearing a red mask and had his huge arms folded over his chest, a smirk on his face. The last stood next to April, one arm around her shoulder. He wore a purple bandanna and had a grin that showed off a gap in his tooth. "Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael." Kirby said, pointing to them in turn. "They are ninja's that work under Master Splinter. Sorry, I don't have a picture of him."

"Is he a rat?" Ethan asked.

Kirby nodded eagerly, as if Ethan were onto something, but Ethan knew little more than that. "Yes!" Kirby said. "They have a house down in the sewers and have always been there to help April fight the Kraang. Now . . . it's like they've all disappeared."

Ethan almost wanted to smile. At last they were getting answers.

Hamato Yoshi, their own Master's son was Splinter who had been somehow transformed into a rat, and he was training other mutants – these turtles – who were clearly messing with the Kraang and Shredder. They were Hamato Clan, and that meant that these turtles, wherever they were, were family.

"Thank you." Ethan said.

"Have you heard anything about the Kraang then? Any leads we could go off to find these turtles and your daughter?" Jess asked, looking up eagerly, a fire in her eyes that Ethan was familiar with.

"Well," Kirby said hesitantly, "I haven't heard much – but earlier this morning, they were talking about some big deal they were going to be making at the east docks with someone. They didn't mention who."

"Did they say a time?" Ethan asked hurriedly.

"Midnight." Kirby supplied.

"Perfect." Ethan stood back up. "I think that's all we needed." Kaela and Jess looked like they were going to disagree, but Ethan wasn't going to let them be late to their training session with Master Hamato, not to mention, they had the lead that they needed. He then turned back to Kirby. "We will do what we can to find the Turtles and your daughter."

"Casey too." Jess added at the end, quietly.

"Thank you." Kirby said. He sounded exhausted – but relieved that finally someone was going to help him. Ethan couldn't even imagine waking up and having Jess, Kaela or Maser Hamato not be there anymore. He shook that unpleasant idea from his mind and then he placed the hat back on his head. His feet felt like furnaces and his tail felt like it was going to snap off. Kirby stood up and strode over to the door, opening it to let them back out into the hallway. "Let me know if you find anything – please . . ." He said desperately. "I don't know what I would do if April—." He choked on his words and sounded unable to get anything out and finally he closed his mouth.

Kaela patted his shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry Kirby. We will find them."

He smiled weakly and then slowly closed the door, leaving the three alone in the hallway again. Ethan turned to the others with a smile, "Kinda feels nice to be one step ahead of the Kraang for once." he said. "I'd like a little payback."

"Heck yes." Jess said pumping her fist into the air. "At midnight, we're taking the Kraang down!"