The wet hair and dreamy faces on my female family members quickly clued me in on the fact that I wasn't the only one who had enjoyed the wonderful bathing facilities. Just like it told me that I was pretty much the one who was not really worried about wet hair at the moment. Well...my crap was longer than theirs. Do you know how long it takes thick, waist length hair to dry sometimes?

We had all gathered in a large conference room, again both suited for bots and us puny fleshies. There were a few bots scattered around the room as well as Will, Epps, Sally and Tony. Take off about seventeen years and you had a scenario that looked a lot like the last time we helped the bots out.

All of the parents felt at ease in the environment, the teens looked a bit uncomfortable right before their first war meeting. Dennis and Amy were just as relaxed as we were, probably because they remembered the bots better overall and felt more comfortable. Casey was just as relaxed as Raph, minus the feet on the table. April, who had decided to come along this time and bunked with my daughters and nieces while Casey bunked with the boys, just sat and quietly watched.

Ty was fidgeting nervously next to me as he sat, playing with the hilt of a kunai. "What's wrong?"

"I dunno Mom. I just feel like I'm not sure what we can add to this. Should we even be here? This seems like so much more than just a simple run out the door to go stop Hun... I feel out of place."

"Titian," Leo spoke up from right behind us where he was leaning against the wall "if it's one thing we all have learned is to never expect what might come out of these meetings. You never know where the solution to any given problem may come from. Even from the inexperienced."

"All right." Raph said as he leaned back in his chair and plopped his feet on the table and folding his hands behind his head. "You wanna fill us in now on why we are all here?"

"Got trouble brewing." Blaster grinned at him.

"No shit? Really? And here I thought we were only here to pick daisies... What's got your circuits in a bunch this time?"

"Do they even bunch?" Mikey asked curiously. "And is it like getting a wedgie?"

"Do you mind?" Leo said, already exasperated.

"Sorry..." Mikey mumbled.

"Well, long story short...," Blaster started "we are stuck."

"That tells us a lot." Raph rolled his eyes.

"Stuck with what?" Leo asked.

Instead of answering the lights dimmed in the room and a large viewscreen came down from the ceiling. Man they had some cool ass gadgets... They didn't have this crap the last time we worked with them.

It lit up with a whole buncha red dots scattered all over the place on a world map.

"What's that supposed to be?" Raph grumbled "A page out of Mikey's connect the dots book?"

"Hey... I like my connect the dots book..."

A glare from Leo shut them both up again.

"Is it always like this?" Ty whispered to me.

"Usually." I sighed back and he chuckled a little.

"The dots represent Con activity in the last earth year or so." Blaster was saying.

"Seems like they were busy." Donnie noted.

"They always are." Then the map changed and the dots were more concentrated in Asia. "This has been the last two months or so of their recorded activity."

Raph snorted. "What? They suddenly get a hunkering for chinese food?"

Dante had been watching the map intently, then narrowed his eyes. "Can you switch back to the other map?"

Blaster looked at him, seeming a little stunned that one of the teens had spoken up before looking at Leo, who nodded.

"Sure thing."

The old map came up and Dante got out of his chair and walked closer to it, carefully looking it over. His eyes wandered over it a long while, taking in every detail meticulously. "I'm not sure," he said finally "but doesn't it seem that even though they are spread out all over the globe, they still look concentrated in some areas?" He pointed to a spot in Europe. "Like London, Berlin and Paris." Then he moved to the American side. "Kansas City, Boston, Chicago," Again he moved, to the Asian section this time "Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Taipei just to name a few."

Blaster blinked, well the robot equivalent to it, then looked at Jazz. "How come you didn't notice that?"

"Ah waz busy tryin' tah keep Hide from blowin' shit up." Came the quick amused retort.

Hide snorted.

"I believe we have become complacent." Prime answered. "More concerned with the amount of sightings that where they were localised failed to gain our attention."

"So," Will said as he crossed his arms "I guess the next question is... What are they looking for?"

"That depends." Ari said. "What do those cities have in common?"

"Besides tourist traps?" Epps asked.

This time it was Ari who was looking thoughtful. Then her eyes widened. "Wouldn't it have to be Asian related since they are all concentrated now in Asia?"

Donnie quickly pulled out his own gadgets and did his thing for a few minutes, then looked up. "Museums. They all have decent displays of Asian artifacts in them."

"It...makes sense." Leo said after he thought it over. "But there are some museums that they seem to not have gone near."

"Like New York, Washington D.C. and a few others I could name."

"Wouldn't they at least try and gather all of the information then?" Ty broke in hesitantly. "I mean, it would be the smart thing to do. Research everything you can in everyplace you can before you go out into the field to look for it."

Now more than one Bot was looking a little hesitant. "Tha' might be cuz' somethin' kept 'em away." Jazz said softly.

"Like what?" Raph asked, still leaning back in his chair with his feet on the table. "You?"

"Not quite." Blaster said. Then changed the image again on the screen. "Honestly, this is the reason we called you in. Jazz found this picture about four months ago. Outside of a museum in San Francisco during a Con sighting in the area. We tried to go investigate, but couldn't. Something wouldn't let us get close enough to do so. Thought this was something more in your line of expertise anyway considering the unusual form of it. It's the only picture we have."

By then half the turtles in the room didn't hear him. Raph had toppled backwards out of his chair onto the floor, Donnie had stood half up out of his, Mikey's green face paled and Leo pushed himself off of the wall, his eyes wide and hands shaking as he walked closer to the screen. The emotional turmoil I felt from him was way more intense than what he let show on the outside.

My eyes had also grown very wide at what I saw. It was fuzzy and more than a little out of focus because of the glow that seemed to come from it, but the elder members of my family immediately knew what it was. Or should I say who.

Leo's hand reached out, seeming to want to touch the picture as he tried to get himself under control. "Father..."

"Father!?" Jazz, Hide and Blaster asked together.

Raph was still trying to pick himself up off of the floor as Leo stopped by the picture, his eyes still wide as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

My own voice was trembling as I tried to explain to my mechanical friends. "His name is Splinter." Came out in a hoarse whisper. "He was created the same way they were, but was already into adulthood while they were still infants. Splinter raised them, trained them. So yes...he is their Father."

"But he also died over twenty years ago." Cris added in her own shaky voice.

"A ghost?" Hide scoffed. "What's next? Cybertronian zombies?"

"Do not discount the possibility old friend." Prime said as he also looked thoughtfully at the picture, and at the turtles who couldn't seem to pull themselves together. "Even as old and wise we are, there are still things that we even can not explain."

Mikey had by now stumbled over to Leo. "Why...why didn't he let us know? Why didn't he come see us?" Mikey's voice was close to tears as he stood there. "He hasn't come to see us in so long Leo. I don't even feel him in the lair anymore."

"I don't know little brother... I don't...know..."

"Come again?" Jazz said. Apparently they were all confused. Which was understandable, we've never really discussed this with them.

"It's like he never really left." Marina, the most composed out of us but not by much, told him. "They could still feel him every so often, even seen him a few times. But he's been quiet for a very long time now."

The bots just looked at each other like we were crazy. "Oooookay then..." Blaster mumbled.

"Is...that really grandfather?" Ty asked as he looked at the picture, wonder in his eyes.

"It seems to be Ty." I replied.

The room was quite after that for a long while as the guys slowly got their composure back.

Finally, with a deep shaky breath, Leo turned away from the screen. "Have there been other...similar issues with you trying to investigate Con sightings?"

"Ah few tahms." Jazz admitted.

"Where was the closest?"

Jazz pointed to a spot south of our current position. "Sahprizin'ly, this small 'ne here."

Donnie was looking at them curiously. "When you say you can't go there...what exactly do you mean?"

"It's like hitting a brick wall about half a mile outside of the given town." Hide rumbled. "But nothing can detect what is causing it."

"Probably why we never caught on to the museum connection." Blaster mused, we were more concerned about the phenomena and the location itself rather than what's at that location."

"Interesting, and it just affects the bots?"

"No." Sally replied, with a slight frown. "I tried to go in too...and couldn't."

"But normal civilians can come and go as they please." Will added. "It's friggin' creepy."

Ari leaned back into her chair "Maybe...it's because whatever it is, is trying to protect something. And since it seems to know the Cons are involved...it wants to protect the city as well as whatever it's hiding."

Leo and Donnie's eyes met. "It would be something he'd do Leo." Donnie said quietly. "No matter how important, he would never let innocents get hurt. He's spent years beating that into our heads."

"Are you sure it is even him?"

"No...but how can we be if he won't show himself to us?"

"Then there is only one way to be sure."

"We are going on a roadtrip, aren't we?" Raph asked as Mikey looked on with sad eyes.

"You got a better idea?" Leo asked him back. "He's protecting something, I know he is. And it might not hurt to find out what it is."

"I'm going with you." April suddenly spoke up where she and Casey had been quietly sitting.

"You don't have to do that." Leo told her.

"I know I don't, but if you want a thorough search of the place, I think I may know how to do it without breaking the law and risk getting caught trying to break into the section where they store the stuff not on display."

"And how is that?"

She gave him a smile. "What good would my position of news editor be if I didn't pursue stories that sometimes focus on interesting things? I don't know about you, but I know a few folks who would like some kind of report on Asian artifacts." Then she looked at the humans in my family. "And it wouldn't hurt to have a news crew handy."

Leo's eyeridge shot up at her impish look. "Never underestimate the power of the press." She added with a grin.

"Fine..." Leo gave in with a sigh.