"I can't believe you are going to drag us on a round trip across the country." I mumbled as I settled down into my seat for a long nap.

"I have my reasons dear one." Leo smiled back at me.

"They better be good for me to put up with little drummer boy back there." I replied.

"Hah ha." Ty dryly said.

We had already been on the road for a couple of hours now, a fraction of the time we were going to actually be on the road. At least we were heading to the closest one first, but it was still over in D.C. We were going to be on the road for a bit. The others were spread out in a long convoy on the road, along with a few of Will's men. Kyle and Cindy among them, to the delight of my twins.

There was the sound of a horn honking and suddenly we were passed by some cars, who were obviously showing off. Bee zoomed by, with a happily grinning Mikey and Ari inside and a moment later Sides zipped past us with Cris and Amy and Sunny, surprisingly, carrying Thane.

-Too slow oldtimer!- Sides cackled over the comm to Hide.

"Will you knock it off! We aren't out here to race!"

Bee just honked his horn again and picked up speed.

"Sunny, I think he's saying that just because he knows he can't keep up."

"Don't call me that fragger!"

Then they too sped off, but not before Sides blew smoke from his exhaust all over Hide.

"That's it!" Buckles snapped into place as the seatbelts slipped over us, then he broke the convoy line and took off after the now rapidly fleeing trio, with Sides' laughing still coming over the comm line.

"Oh no..." Leo groaned as he gripped the oh shit bar.

Ty and Lavi didn't hear him, they were already laughing with almost child like glee as Hide quickly closed the gap.

-Hey! Looks like the ancient bucket of bolts wants to play after all!-

"I'll show you ancient!" Hide caught up to him enough to ram into Sides, who just kept laughing as he fishtailed for a little bit.

"And here I was thinking this trip was going to be boring." I chuckled at Leo's exasperated look.

-We don't do boring Vic! You should know that by now.-

-A'ight. Settle down.- Jazz's amused tone actually kinda took away from the stern words of the order. -Don' need tha cops comin' out ta say hi.-

-Like they are something to worry about.- Sides snipped back.

-Sideswipe,- came Prime's stern warning -that is enough. We do not need to draw attention to ourselves.-

The response to that was a disappointed sigh before the sportsters fell back into line, but not before Hide gave Sides another bump.

Truthfully though, the bots did manage to make the trip bearable. Not great, but bearable. Little acts like that, along with all of the crazy banter, did make the time seem to fly by a lot faster. so when we stopped after a couple of day s of traveling, the mood was still light. Even if the bots still couldn't get into the town.

Time the turtles waited on the edge of town with the bots while we made our way farther in. This was going to be a bit more trickier, if we got caught with the goods, things might be a bit harder to get out of. Really didn't think "Sorry, mystical mind invaders are making us do this." was going to fly. But what other option did we have. We didn't even know what we were really looking for, and it's hard to set up a sale, that could take weeks to go through anyway, when you didn't even know what to bid on.

This one was a lot more nicer, and larger, than the little podunk town one we had been too a few days prior. We all took careful notes of the security guards and numerous cameras, but our secret weapon was already on it. On the camera part at least.

"Let me know when you find it." Donnie's voice came over the headset I was wearing. "I'll take care of the cameras. The guards are all up to you though."

"Thanks a lot." I muttered back at him.

"No problem."

We spent at least an hour in the place, wandering and browsing. I actually looked at alot of stuff here. It would have maybe been nice to spend more time among the artifacts that actually did instill some awe and wonder in me. I've always been one interested in the curiosities in life. Regret that I had come here for something completely different than wanting to immerse myself in history, science and just all around coolness of what our world had to offer, over took me a bit as we walked along.

Half of the place had been covered before we even entered the Asian section. Everything you could imagine from those countries was on display here. Ancient weapons and armour stood next to literature and art. Over and over we stopped, looked and shook our heads as the item in front of us didn't seem to be what we needed, then we moved on to the next. I can't tell you how many times we did that.

"This is getting tedious." Cris mumbled as we again abandoned an artifact to go down the line.

"You're telling me." Marina sighed. "Not the way I really wanted to-" she suddenly cut off what she was saying.

"Not wanting to what?" Cris asked her, then stopped and stared as she got a good look at her.

It was Caitlin all over again, and I started trembling a little as Marina's eyes glazed over and she stiffly walked on, passing numerous objects.

"Donnie..." I chocked into the headset.

"Yes?"

"You might want to start working on those cameras... It's happening again."

"On it."

"Is it Cait again?" Mikey's worried voice stepped over Donnie's. "I knew I shouldn't have let her go!"

There was the sound of a well placed smack and he was quiet again after that.

"Come on Casey." Amy grabbed his arm and moved away with him. "We'll go set up a distraction."

"Good. I love distractions."

The rest of us were following Marina as she zombied across the place. She finally came to a stop in front of a terracotta statue. It wasn't very large and again the craftsmanship on it wasn't anything special besides it having endured time. It was a simple replica of a man standing watch on a cliff face, with a bo staff in his hand. The whole thing was so old and had been exposed to who knows what, and all of that gave it an unusual purple hue. In the lines that had been carved to resemble the ragged cliff edge, once again hidden well enough it took me a moment to find it, was another mask. Again my hands started to shake as Marina's hands slowly stretched out in front of her, even as Cris and Cait looked around nervously, hoping to all hell that no one was watching. Thank god no one was. Thank something anyway.

She just stood there, her eyes unseeing as she seemed to wait for something, her hands extended. Then, as the first sounds of a large commotion happened somewhere behind us, the statue glowed a faint purple before a piece of it seemed to move and slam into the pedestal it was sitting on, the momentum of that flipping it right into Marina's waiting palms.

"Tell me that didn't just happen..." Cris' eyes were wide as she stared at it.

I just nodded dumbly, just in as much shock as the first time as I stood gaping as Marina came back around, blinking her eyes in confusion, then her eyes went to the statue in her palms. Those hands shook a moment as her eyes grew wide before she quickly composed herself and tucked it away.

"Let's get out of here!" Cris hissed under her breath.

With curt nods, and Dennis politely shouldering anyone out of the way who didn't move quick enough on their own, we did just that. We were almost running by the time we came barging out the front door, but no one stopped us. That too was a bit weird, it was almost as if no one even noticed us on the way out. I didn't dwell on it, because not long after Casey and Amy came out just as quick as we did.

Once that happened, we didn't even try to hide it anymore, we hauled ass. Very quickly. Marina even vaulted over a curbside food vendor because it was in her way. Didn't care, nope, not at all. We just wanted to get as far away as we quickly could at that point.

We just rounded a corner when our chariots appeared, screeching to a stop in front of us and doors flinging open and turtles yanking us inside. It was by pure luck that Marina ended up in Hide with Leo, the twins and I.

"What did you find?" Came the question before Hide could even really clear the area.

Marina pulled out the statue, that somehow survived all of that in one piece, and showed it to Leo.

His eyes looked it over thoughtfully, trying to piece this together on how it fit with the painting that Caitlin still held onto. But the only thing we could figure out that had any connection was the hidden references to his brothers, that made his eyes go wide a bit again. I could tell he was creeped out, and I didn't need the bond to feel it. Just the simple fact that the obvious connections to Donnie and Mikey were hidden inside of artifacts that were, at least, hundreds of years old was enough to keep shaking his normally rock solid foundation in what he thought he knew of themselves.

"Again, more questions when there should be answers..." He sighed as he shook his head. "When we stop next have Donnie look it over, though I doubt he'll find anything unusual about it."

"Just like the painting." I added and he nodded.

"None of it makes sense." Marina sighed as she looked at the statue in her hands. "And, I really hate to admit this...but it's starting to scare me."

The twins were quite as they listened, but even they had that slight wild eyed look on their faces. And I wasn't even going to deny that the same feelings were running through Leo's head, as well as mine. We just didn't understand and with that lack of understanding we didn't know what was happening. Therefore we didn't know what to do to prepare for it.

"What was it like?" I asked Marina. None of us really had asked Caitlin, mainly because she was still very badly shaken about what had happened and Mikey furiously protected her over those discussions. Between her reaction and his protectiveness, you really couldn't get a clear answer out of her. Marina seemed a bit more sturdy, though not by much.

Her blue eyes looked out the window a few moments before she spoke again to answer. "I'm not sure I can describe it. It was definitely something taking over, but it didn't feel malevolent in any way. Whatever it was seemed very concerned about not hurting me as it gently pushed my mind aside to take control. Then, it was as if it was reaching out to something, calling it to them. When the feeling left, I woke up with the statue in my hands."

"Any idea who, or what, it could have been?" Leo asked her.

Marina shook her head. "I have no clue Leo. I've never felt that presence before."

"Reptile, you and your family managed to get yourselves pulled into a decent mess this time." Hide said quietly.

"And I don't even know why." Leo replied just as quietly. "And, for some reason, it's that why that is worrying me the most."