When the plane thunked down on a private airstrip outside of the Foot Clan headquarters, I knew something was wrong. I'd known something was wrong about halfway into the flight. Maybe it was the way Morales had been acting, maybe it was how creepy her crew had been, or maybe it was just some sixth sense, but whatever the reason was, I was up to my neck in trouble now, and I sure as shell didn't know how to get out of it.

I'd watched Morales out of the corner of my eye most of the trip to New York. She'd seemed normal, quiet, but normal. Her hair was in the same bun she'd been wearing since I met her and she was still in her regulation TMNT uniform, but now there was something different about her. Her eyes were a little harder, and her grip on the yoke was unnecessarily tight.

I didn't know anything about her, but she'd somehow gone from TMNT agent to traitor. She'd turned on an organization dedicated to protecting the innocent, in order to work for a man who made a living exploiting those weaker than himself. I wondered what she'd been telling the Shredder. Had she told him about the mission to infiltrate his organization? Had she given up the agents that were already part of the Foot?

I couldn't imagine why she would bring me here, though. What could the Shredder possibly want with me? I was nothing special. My brothers and I were part of TMNT, sure, but aside from our last mission and a couple of run-ins here in the city, we'd never had anything to do with the Foot. We couldn't have possibly been annoying enough to get the big boss's attention.

That did leave one possibility, though… After what had happened weeks ago, with me and Don ending up in Dr. Morris's lab, I guess there could be one more reason the Shredder would want me. Dr. Morris wanted us, to revive our parents. Leo said he must want something from them; men like Dr. Morris didn't do anything out of the goodness of their hearts. Maybe the Shredder had caught on to that, too. Maybe he wanted my bone marrow, too. With my luck, he'd crack my bones open and suck it out with a straw, instead of the nice way with the anesthetic. That was, if I stayed around to let him.

When the plane had nearly slowed to a stop, I threw the door open and leapt out onto the runway. I landed hard on the balls of my feet and rolled before springing up and taking off. I heard Morales laughing at me. "There's nowhere to go, Michelangelo!" she called. "There's nowhere to run!"

Like I was going to take the word of some TMNT traitor. I made a beeline for the fence, figuring I could scale it and get lost in some side streets. I flew over the grass, feeling it crunch under my feet, dry as the summer heat. I jumped for the fence just as I caught sight of the high voltage sign. I managed to lurch far enough off balance to land on my side just inches before the fence. I rolled back and contemplated my next move.

There were people streaming from the Foot building, and all of them seemed to be heading my way. I got up and took off in the opposite direction. I may not be able to get over the fence, but at least I wasn't making it easy for them.

I slammed my fist into the wall, and then, for good measure, I did it again.

"Raphael."

I considered throwing one more punch in there, but didn't want to bust my knuckles. Not again any way.

"Raphael."

The last time had been bad. I'd lost my temper and tried to put my fist through a cinderblock wall.

"Raphael."

I gave up the pretense. There were only so many times even I could punch a wall, before I had to face facts. I turned around and met Splinter's eyes. His gaze was hard, expecting better from me. His eyes softened, though, when I looked away. He was taking this as hard as we were, if not harder.

I took a seat, across from Don and next to Leo. The four of us were on a jet bound for New York. As soon as Leo had gotten a hold of Agent Splinter, a lot of things had happened at once. Splinter, of course, was just glad the three of us were all right. We'd told him about Dr. Morris, and he, in turn, had sent a team down to the mansion to collect them. The team would arrest them and put a stop to all the crazy experiments.

Splinter had been surprised to hear about Dr. Morris. He hadn't pegged him as the mastermind behind the whole fiasco. Surprising Splinter was practically impossible. We could hardly get away with anything growing up. Splinter always seemed to know when we were up to something.

I didn't think things could get much better after hearing that, but then Splinter had said he was sending down a private jet to collect us, and it would be here within an hour. He hung up without giving us a chance to ask about Mikey, but no news was good news, right?

Yeah. Right. As soon as we got on the plane, Splinter sat us down and filled us in. Mikey had escaped Morris, only to end up on a ship manned by Foot goons. Not just any goons, either, but goons led by a former TMNT team leader, Martina Morales. As far as anyone could tell, Morales and her team had been having success with their mission, infiltrating the Foot. She'd gotten her agents in without a hitch. That's when things had gone south, though. She'd taken out two of her own team and sold out the agents that had joined the Foot. The entirety of team Sentry was missing and presumed dead. The bodies had yet to be recovered, but it was probably a safe bet that five agents had been killed.

She was good, though; all TMNT agents were. She'd picked the perfect moment to defect to the other side. As her team was deep undercover, she only made contact with TMNT every three months. Her last progress report had come back clean. She was getting agents in, gathering information, keeping track of her team. No one had suspected a thing. And that might be what cost us our baby brother.

Those guys, the ones that Fields had been keeping in her bathroom, they had been part of Morales' new team. They'd been attempting to hijack the airstrip so that they could get Mikey to New York, and the Shredder, quickly. They hadn't counted on Fields, though, and it was lucky for us that they were so full of themselves. We wouldn't have any leads on Mikey without them. They'd turned on their new boss in a hurry. None of them were interested in serving more jail time than they had to. So now we knew where he was, and the only thing left was to figure out how to get him back.

I couldn't believe we were going through this again. It seemed like just yesterday Casey and I were helping rescue Mike and Don from TCRI. Now we had to try to get Mikey out of the Foot building. It was so nerve wracking, and I was barely doing anything. All I had to do was guide the guys through the building. We had a set of blueprints, and an informant had told us which floor Mikey would be held on. It should be an in and out job, no problems.

Casey and I were in a van across the street. He was my self-proclaimed bodyguard, and even though I gave him a hard time about it, I appreciated his company.

"Can you hear me, Leo?" I asked, speaking into my headset.

"Loud and clear, April. We're all set on our end."

"Okay," I typed a few commands into the display and brought up the front doors. "I can get you in the front doors, but you'll have to move quickly. I can set off an internal alarm and draw security away from the doors. You'll want to head down the hallway, take the first right, and then get on the elevator."

"You got it, April. Just give us the signal."

I set off the alarm and got the guys through the front entryway. So far so good. "Ok, this elevator only goes up to the fifteenth floor. Get off and get into the air vent, which you should be able to access as soon as you step off the elevator."

"The air vent?" I could hear Raph complaining in the background. "How the shell does she expect us to get around in the air vents?"

"Shut up, Raph," that was definitely Donny.

There were brief sounds of a scuffle, before I could hear Leo again. "We're in the air vents. What next?"

I typed in a few more commands and brought up the next part of the blueprints. "From there, this is what you need to do…" I settled back into my chair and dug in for the night. Casey sat next to me, a hand on my shoulder or arm. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I was imagining. I could do this.