TMNT does not belong to me. Just Cade, Delaney, & Co. Big thanks to Izazayzay for reviewing!

Okay, I think I'm gonna try to stick to just Cade and Delaney's POVs with bits of Layla and Toby's perspectives sprinkled throughout.

It was the middle of the night and Cade still couldn't sleep. Judging by the light that was on in the Great Room, she guessed that at least one of her uncles couldn't either. No surprise there. She looked over at the bunkbed that Layla and Delaney shared, thinking about waking Laney. But the second oldest turtle kid wasn't in her bottom bunk. She was probably out in the main room working on some project with her dad and twin. The three of them did that frequently.

"Hey, Layla," she whispered. Being a light-sleeper like Uncle Leo, the younger girl woke instantly.

"Huh? Cade, what time is it? Is it time for training?"

Cade shook her head, forgetting for a minute that her cousin couldn't see in the dark. "No. It's midnight."

Layla gave her a disapproving glare that was almost identical to her father's, "Then why wake me up?"

"'Cause Laney's up."

The shapeshifting turtle rolled her eyes, her skin turning black before shifting back to her normal mint green. "That's not a good enough reason."

"Maybe she and Uncle Donnie are working on that fake bomb..." Cade trailed off, trying to appeal to smaller turtle's curiosity. It worked.

"Why didn't you say so before?" Layla slid off the top bunk. Cade chuckled and shook her head while she led the way out.

Laney was in the lab, but Uncle Don and Aaron weren't with her. Toby was. And judging from Delaney's cat eyes and scowl, Toby had just tried to tinker with the off-limits machine. Probably to distract himself. Cade felt sorry for him. She couldn't imagine what it must be like to feel every little emotion that went through everyone's heads. Must be overwhelming. I'm glad that I'm just a cat turtle.

"Toby, both Dad and Uncle Leo told you to leave it alone! Why don't you try listening for once? We don't know anything about it. It could be dangerous."

"Aaron dropped it and nothing happened," Toby pouted.

Cade shook her head. Judging from the small growl that Delaney gave, it looked like she was gonna have to intervene. Since Cade was the oldest of the younger turtles, Uncle Leo had made her the leader. She hated being the boss. In fact, she was still trying to convince her blue-masked uncle to make Delaney the leader instead. Laney would do a much better job than her.

Cade took a few seconds to calm herself, before stepping in. Because of losing Grandpa, everyone was already on edge. Especially herself. She didn't really want a repeat of earlier. No matter how much she wanted to blow up, she couldn't afford to. Her cousins needed her to handle this calmly. Or World War III would break out in the Lair. Again.

"Toby, for all we know, Aaron was lucky. And even if he wasn't, that thing's just a hunk of metal. It's not worth making Uncle Donnie mad." Donatello hardly ever got mad. But on the rare occasion that he did, it was scary. She remembered the time that her purple-masked uncle had flattened her father for accidentally knocking over and breaking a project that he'd been working on for weeks. That had been years ago, but the ferocity of her uncle's anger kept the memory fresh in her mind.

Toby shivered. He remembered too. But then he brightened up, his eyes changing to his dad's blue. He was shutting them out again. Which was okay with Cade. She hated seeing him mope around, no matter how annoying he could get.

"Hey, since we're all up, why don't we play that video game? You know, the one that all four of us can play together?"

Cade and Delaney rolled their eyes while Layla nodded enthusiastically.

The oldest teenager pinched the bridge of her beak, "Fine."

Toby and Layla almost let out a whoop, but were silenced by their older cousins' hands on their mouths.

"But we gotta be quiet," Laney hissed. "Our dads will kill us if they find us up so late."

Toby and Layla nodded then started to bound off in the direction of the couch. Cade shook her head. Oh well. At least they're trying. She met Delaney's eyes and knew that her cousin was thinking the same thing.

And that's when everything changed.

The small block of a mahine on Uncle Donnie's desk lit up. Toby must have managed to play with it some before Laney had caught him. Cade fully expected an explosion, but there was just a flash of bright light.

And the Lair was gone.

Delaney opened her eyes. The bright light was gone. So was the machine. And so was the Lair, in fact. She, Cade, Layla, and Toby were all standing in exactly the same places that they had been when the little machine turned on. But the four of them were the only ones there. Wherever here is.

Toby immediately panicked, moving close to Cade and clinging to her like he always did when he was spooked. Layla also moved closer to her older cousins, but she had both her katanas unsheathed. Since the younger turtles were thirteen, they were a lot more obsessive over their weapons than she and Cade were. They carried those things everywhere.

It was a wonder that the older teenagers even had theirs on them. Cade's sais were in her hands and Delaney found that she was already twirling her bo. But, like the periwinkle masked turtle had noted earlier, they were the only ones in the deserted alleyway. It didn't look like any alley that Delaney had ever seen in New York.

There was the sound of running footsteps and all four teenaged turtles disappeared into the shadows. A guy ran down the alley, panicking when he'd realized that it was a dead end. He turned quickly around, looking for any means of escape. Laney stiffened when the guy's gaze locked onto the fire escape that she'd seen Layla climb up. The mismatch-eyed turtle gripped her bo staff harder, but there was no need. A dark shadow came barreling into the alley, stopping when the guy aimed a gun at it.

The dark shadow was tall and caped. And he had what looked ears on the top of his mask. Delaney stiffened when lightning flashed and she saw the black bat symbol on his chest. No way! Batman was just a comic book character! Cade's favorite superhero. Not a real life person. But the masked vigilante that was currently narrowing shining eyes at the spooked thug was definitely real. And he moved just the like the Batman in Cade's favorite cartoons. Evading all three shots the goon managed to get off before knocking the man flat. Batman crouched over the creep and bound the guys hands. The Dark Knight stood to leave, but froze.

He was looking in the exact direction that Toby had disappeared. Her jokester of a cousin had always had the hardest time staying still. Uncle Leo was constantly getting onto him for that fault. And now that fault was going to get him in big trouble. Much bigger than one of Uncle Leo's lectures.

From what Delaney knew of the Batman, from all the comics she'd read and all the cartoons and movies that she, Aaron, and Cade had watched, was that the closest thing Batman had come to mutants so physically different like them was the Killer Croc, a supervillian. And, in most incarnations, the Croc was more human than the four turtles were.

Batman would immediately think that they were some sort of criminal monsters that belonged to some deranged scientist. He would not hesistate to knock them all into next week.

All Delaney could think of was protecting her younger cousins. Apparently, Cade was thinking the same thing.

'Cause one of the red-masked girl's smoke pellets went off. And both Cade and Delaney moved in sync, aiming not for the Batman, but for the street behind him. Drawing him away from the two thirteen-year-olds.

And, of course, Layla and Toby hadn't realized that that was what the plan was. Both younger turtles came up behind the Batman, Toby's yellow nunchuks whirling and Layla's silvery-blue handled swords once again clutched firmly in her hands. Batman's attention turned to the younger two.

Shell!

"Oh shell you don't!" Cade yelled, throwing herself at Batman just a second after their cousins. Delaney followed suit. Only to be kicked away by Cade as the older turtle slashed at the Batman with one of her sai.

"Get them out of here, Laney!"

But she hesitated, uncertainty flashing in her hazel and blue eyes.

"Now!" Cade roared, trying to pull herself out of the superhero's grip. Cade was strong but Batman was strong too. For a normal human.

Layla, now pale-skinned and white-shelled in fear, pulled on the periwinkle masked turtle's arm and the three of them disappeared into the night. Delaney pressed a button on her shell cell to activate the tracer in Cade's phone. Even though Batman was a good guy, there was no way that they were going to leave their cousin behind for long. Hamatos stuck together. No matter what. And Delaney highly doubted that Bruce Wayne would be able to crack the security systems on Cade's phone. Those had been created by three supergeniuses. There was only one Batman. Thankfully.

As soon as the three of them got a safe distance away both thirteen-year-olds clung to her, shivering violently. Delaney gently pried them off of her before checking herself and them for any bat tracers. She found one on all three of them, just as she'd thought. Quickly, she stuffed all three devices in a trash bag in a dumpster before leading Toby and Layla to a safer spot. No sense in the Batman catching up to them until Cade managed to convince him that they were good guys too.

Delaney almost froze when she realized what she'd just been thinking. Here I am relying on Cade's diplomacy skills. Cade was just as impatient and almost as hotheaded as Uncle Raph in tight spots. We're dead. We are so dead!

Oh, and Batman doesn't belong to me either. :)

Please R&R.