The entered the lair at the same time Leo was leaving, almost running directly into him. He looked furious.

"Where have you been?" He demanded, looking at each one of them in turn. Both Mikey and Gracie shriveled in his fierce gaze. Raph rolled his eyes, gritting his teeth in annoyance.

"Away from you, obviously." He said, still angry at his older brother from their fight in the dojo. Leo let out a frustrated breath. He turned to Mikey, knowing that trying talk with Raph was like trying to get away going down a dead-end road.

"Where were you?" He asked, his voice low with annoyance. Mikey cowered lower, nervously avoiding the terrifying eyes of an agitated Leonardo.

"Chillax, bro. We just went out, and there were some foot in the sewers, so we-"

"What?!" Leo demanded. Raph glared at Mikey, who could never keep his mouth shut. Mikey hastily tried to stammer out some kind of an excuse.

"Uh, I mean, we- I- Grace-"

Gracie stepped forward, interrupting Mikey. "It was my fault, Leo. I snuck out to find Raph. Neither of them knew about it. Mikey was just trying to help." Leo's glare became soft as Gracie stepped forward to defend his brothers, for once since her time with them speaking out.

"Okay, okay." He said, calming himself. He went on in a slow, controlled voice. "What I want to know: what was Mikey talking about? Are there really foot in the sewers?"

Gracie looked down, nodding solemnly. "Yes." She admitted.

Leo drew back, anxiety coming into his face, he struggled to remain calm. "This isn't good." He said, looking back at Gracie. "Do you know what they wanted?" he asked. Gracie looked back up at Leo, becoming shy of his intense questioning.

"They, they wanted me, I think."

"What?!" He said, alarmed. He looked down both sides of the tunnel. "You can't be out here, then!" He cried. Gracie could do nothing as he next grabbed her waist and threw her over his shoulder. Her squeak of surprise and fright was the only noise any of the four said as he ran into the lair at a speed seeming much faster than what Gracie and Raphael had been going earlier. Mikey and Raph stood still for a moment, as if registering what had just taken place. Suddenly, Mikey burst out laughing, thinking of the expression on Gracie's face when she had been hijacked. Raph just shook his head as he headed in, growling under his breath.

Leo dislodged a frightened Grace from his shell and put her down on the couch, the force of her landing stealing her breath, though he made sure not to hurt her. She stared at him, too surprised to speak. He look at her with an apologetic expression, seeming about to say something, but at that moment Raphael and Michelangelo entered the room, interrupting him. Mikey sat down next to a shaken-up Grace, still giggling. Raphael was not so amused.

"What do you think you're doing?" Raph yelled, his green eyes ablaze. Mikey stopped giggling.

"She can't be out there if the Foot are after her!" Leo said, his eyes shining with similar fury.

"That doesn't mean you get to throw her around!" Raph shouted,gesturing at the wide-eyed female turtle watching them both silently. "Besides, we took care of the stupid bots, anyway!" Leo looked at Gracie again, his features becoming apologetic again. He took a deep breath. He forced himself to be calm, trying his best to speak softly. He looked at Raphael again, his face placid but his hands in tight fists.

"But are you sure you completely defeated every single one of them?" He asked. Raph stopped, silencing his snarky comeback as he thought back to when he and Mikey had fought the gang of Foot bots. He did not remember making sure they were all completely destroyed. He looked down, scowling at the floor.

"I dunno." He mumbled, disliking being proven wrong by his bossy older brother. Leo eyes widened as he took in a sharp, hissing breath through his teeth. He turned away for a brief moment, unable to contain himself. He clenched and unclenched his hands desperately, then he shook his head suddenly and turned back to Raphael.

"You see, Raph. That was exactly one of the things I was trying to tell you earlier, If you would ever pay attention!" Leo said. Raph looked up at him, his eyes narrow slits.

"Are we really going back to this?" He growled, his voice so low it made Gracie shiver.

"Yeah, Raph. Because if it wasn't for you we wouldn't be in this mess! Maybe if you would learn to listen-"

"Maybe if you would learn to stop expecting everyone to be exactly like you, Fearless!" Raph interrupted, yelling in Leo's face.

Leo had had enough. He launched at Raphael, his fist planting firmly on Raph's already injured cheek. Raph reeled back, stunned. Once he gained his footing, both mentally and physically, he retaliated just as fiercely. In an instant, they were brawling across the living room. Mikey jumped up and ran to them. He attempted to separate the hostile pair, but just ended up causing more confusion. Gracie watched in silence. She stared, wide-eyed, at the mess she had created.

The Raphael Gracie had met earlier on the rooftops was gone now. Well, not gone, but hiding. She wondered why he chose not to show his soft side more often. Instead, he crouched over Leonardo, trying to land a good hit. And there was Leo, usually so calm and wise. Gracie had never seen him as anything but the turtle that always knew what to do, the one that was always in control of the situation. Now he was on the ground, holding his arms crossed over his face as Raphael pounded at him. Gracie had never seen him this way. Even after being with them for only a short time, Gracie could tell this was unusual for him. His concern for his family had pushed him to this. His concern for her, she realized. She was touched momentarily, looking down at him. He now had Raphael in a headlock. Raph struggled, trying to kick his older brother away from him. Unfortunately, most of his hits struck Mikey, who was trying desperately to separate his older brothers. Dear, sweet Mikey. His usually happy, shining face now held a stressed look. He winced as Raph's blind rage resulted in a solid wack to his face.

"Psst!" Gracie looked away from the spastic trio, seeing Donatello silently beckoning her from the doorway of his lab. She looked once more to the six pairs of flailing limbs before her. They weren't paying any attention to her. She got up slowly and snuck over to Don. He motioned for her to go into the lab, and followed behind her as she obeyed. He shut the door behind them, silencing the noise from outside. Grace turned to Donnie.

"Are they okay?"

Donnie nodded with a shrug. "Don't worry about them. Once you've lived with them as long as I have, you get used to it." Gracie nodded slowly, her hairless brows drawn together in concern. He gave her a contrite look, hating seeing her sad expression. "They're just worried about you, Grace." He assured her softly, trying to make her feel better. She sighed.

"Is it that bad?" She asked him, looking up into his commiserating brown eyes. They stared back at her, full of compassion.

"Don't worry." He said for the second time. Gracie thought he was avoiding the question, and she was right. Donnie, in seeing how miserable she already was, knew it would be better not to worry her. Truly, he himself was very perturbed over the current situation. If Leo was right, if the foot had gotten away, that would mean that they would know that Gracie was with them, and that they were in the sewers. It would be simple for him to send armies of soldiers into the sewers and to discover their home. He tremendously hoped that Raph and Mikey had taken care of them completely, because, if not, they were all in danger.

Gracie saw the concerned look on Donnie's face. She suddenly became morose, looking down again as unexpected and unwanted tears began to come to her eyes.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly. "I feel like this is all my fault."

Don pulled himself out of his thoughts. He looked at the creature before him, slightly shocked. He found it hard to believe that Grace, the shy, beautiful turtle girl standing in front of him with her sea foam green head, speckled with darker green freckles, bowed in shame, could think that way. He put a hand on her smooth shoulder, the contact making him tingle.

"Grace. None of this is your fault. You didn't want this to happen any more than we did." She looked up into his soft brown eyes, trying to hold back the moisture in the corners of her eyes. His heart felt as though it could burst into millions of tiny pieces as he stared into the sorrow of her eyes, seeing her care for him and his family. Seeing her despairing look, he decided that she might want to be left alone. "I'm going to go see how they're doing. You can just stay in here until it's less hectic out there." He said. She nodded silently.

He turned away. He opened the door, allowing in a burst of noise -they were still yelling- and, with one last glance from Donatello that he wished could have meant so much more, he slipped out, closing the door and leaving Gracie to the silence. She immediately sat and curled herself into a tight ball. She found herself crying silently. Everything seemed to be going wrong lately. Her life was in ruins, and now she seemed to be unintentionally causing the same fate for theirs as well.

Once her tears ceased to fall, she uncurled, feeling only slightly foolish. She looked around for the first time, never have had been in the lab before. It was actually quite amazing. There was a table full of vials with all sorts of liquids inside of them. She walked up to them, leaning down and peering into them, wondering what they could be used for. To the side of them was an open journal, full of all sorts of crazy looking notes an equations too complex for Gracie to even begin to comprehend. Donnie's writing was pretty neat, aside from places that seemed as though he had hastily scribbled something down, as though afraid of forgetting them. She smiled at what seemed like Donnie's small, mindless doodles around the edges of his work. She continued walking around, examining all of his small trinkets and amazing machines.

She came across a robot that came up to the middle of her thigh. It looked like the guys, Mikey, especially. It was shaped like a miniature turtle man, it wore all of the ninja gear that the guys wore, including an orange mask. She knelt down, staring into its lifeless blue eyes. She tapped its forehead lightly with the tip of her finger. There was a clang as she struck the metal, and other than that nothing happened. Then, its eyes suddenly light up, making Gracie jump back with surprise, landing on her butt with an ungraceful 'thud'. The robot raised an arm, as if in a wave.

"I am Metalhead!" Donnie's programmed voice boomed out from it. It's eyes stared at Gracie, shining dull blue light throughout the room. She nervously moved back toward the robot claiming to be called Metalhead, unsure of what he (she assumed it was a 'he') was going to do next. Metalhead suddenly whirled his head around in a full circle twice, then he fixed his eyes on Grace again. His arm remained upright, his eyes flickering on and off. Gracie guessed that he was not working properly. She stepped towards him, searching with her eyes for something to turn the machine off. His upraised arm suddenly snapped down at her movement. She stopped.

"Halt!" Metalhead commanded, Donnie's voice coming out of the small robot turtle so loud that it hurt Gracie's ears. She didn't move as the robot's head swirled around again, and his arm snapped back up, then down again. Then up once more, then back down. It continued in this fashion, as though Metalhead were karate chopping something over and over again. "Halt! I am Metalhead!- Halt!- Halt! I am- Halt! I am M-m-Metalhead!" He repeated, stuck between the two messages like a broken record player.

Finally, he suddenly stopped. Then, just as suddenly, his head turned upward, his flickering eyes staring endlessly into Gracie's own.

"Scanning." He announced. Gracie flinched as a blue light projected from his eyes onto her, starting at the top of her head and slowly traveling down her body. Once he was finished, he stood still for a moment. Gracie remained still as a statue. There was silence.

"Scanning complete." He chirped. Suddenly, his eyes flashed red. "Enemy detected." He declared. Gracie gulped as a siren started blaring out of the robot. Suddenly the robot sprang at her, and with a gasp she ducked just in time to dodge receiving a robot to the face. It flew over her, landing with large boom and then turning back towards her quickly. Her heart thudded wildly as she watched for the robot's next move.

Suddenly, Metalhead blasted himself into the air, a rocket on each foot holding him up. Gracie's eyes grew huge as he rushed towards her. She jumped out of the way, dashing towards the exit. She was grateful for her speed and reflexes keeping her safe for the time being. But then she heard a series of clicks coming from behind her. She turned to see what had caused the noise, and with a numbing feeling of horror, she saw that some sort of missile had sprung out of the robot, ready to be launched.

She threw herself to the side, smashing her body to the ground just as the missile whistled by her head, sailing past her and crashing into one of Donnie's lab tables and sending it up in flames. A searing hot blast smashed into Gracie, sending her flying into a wall as if she were weightless. There was a sickening crack as she struck the wall, then fell to the ground. There was a sharp pain in her right calf. She struggled to keep her eyes open, her head was swimming and her whole body was burning with pain. She couldn't think as through her blurry vision, she saw Metalhead flying towards her again. She couldn't move to defend herself as he came closer. Her hearing had gone to static due to the deafening noise the explosion had caused.

Suddenly, she heard something that sounded like some kind of distorted yell. It sounded like someone had shouted her name.

Donnie? She though hazily as her head suddenly seemed much to heavy for her to hold up. Her limp body fell to the side, knocking her head into the hard floor and casting her into unconsciousness.

"Master Shredder, one of our drones have returned to us, they claim to have found the girl." Rahzar announced, ignoring the cocky smile Fishface was giving him as he gloated about being right about predicting the location of the girl. The Shredder leaned forward, looking between his two henchmen.

"Where have they put her?" He rumbled. Fishface's smirk fell. Rahzar and Fishface both looked from the Shredder nervously, then to each other. Rahzar said nothing, looking at Fishface expectantly, who, in turn, glared back. They fought this battle of the eyes until Shredder pounded his fist into the arm of his throne, causing a loud boom to echo throughout the entire room. Rahzar and Fishface jumped with fright.

"Er...Master..." Fishface began in his slithery voice. He shrunk in his master's overpowering glare, but continued. "The robots, they could not retrieve the g-girl." He took a huge gulp. "She is with the turtles." He said. Both him and Rahzar trembled with fear as the Shredder seemed to fly to his feet.

"WHAT?!" He demanded, his furious yell booming off the walls of the room. Rahzar whimpered. Fishface felt much like doing the same. They both said nothing, preparing for the worst. "You two have failed me for the last time!" He yelled, his eyes gleaming with anger.

"But, Master Shredder..." Fishface nervously began. The Shredder glared at him, silent for a moment, as if daring him to go on. Fish face raised a shaking finger. "We did recover some information that may help us." He said sheepishly.

"What is it?" The Shredder snarled at them. Fishface straightened up courageously.

"The girl, she is, indeed, mutated. She has turned into a fifth one of those disgusting turtles." He said.

"And this is helping us, how?" The Shredder grumbled menacingly. Fishface cleared his throat.

"If the mutation is fresh, this means that the girl is still likely to be very weak." Fishface said, knowing this fact from his own painful experience with mutation. The Shredder eyed Fishface, considering what he was saying. He sat back down.

"Is this all?" The Shredder asked.

"There is one more thing." Fishface said, by now resuming his smug manner. The Shredder waited. "The turtles and the girl were found in the sewers. I believe this is where they have been hiding from us this entire time." Shredder seemed slightly surprised, making Fishface look even more arrogant. Rahzar and Fishface waited as the Shredder thought to himself.

Finally, he looked down at them. "Bring me Karai." He said. Rahzar immediately turned and began walking out of the room. Fishface stayed, gazing around the room smugly as he waited for Rahzar, his now surely lower rank, to return. The Shredder was not thinking the same thing.

"Do not stand there feeling high and mighty. You are still a miserable worm who has failed his mission. Now go! Get out of my sight!" He bellowed. Fishface nearly jumped from his skin. He quickly left the room as fast as his robotic legs could carry him, once again resembling the coward he truly was.

Karai entered the room moments later, without the company of Rahzar or Fishface.

"You needed me, Father?"She asked, standing before him.

"Karai, send as many of our troops as you possibly can into the sewers." He ordered. She looked confused.

"The sewers?" She asked.

"I have reason to believe that is where the turtles are hiding." He said. "All five of them." Karai nodded, a perplexed look on her face.

"Yes, father. But, five turtles? Do you mean to say that the girl is-"

"Yes." He interrupted, tiring of her questioning. "She is one of them. I want all of them found, and brought to me. Including Hamato Yoshi." He commanded.

"Yes, father." She said. She turned to go.

"And Karai." He continued. She looked back at him.

"Yes, father?"

He gripped the end of his throne. "You have failed me far too many times now. This mission is your last, and only chance. Fail me again, and I'll have you know that I am not afraid to remove you from your position in the Foot Clan."

Karai looked back at her feet, her back to The Shredder. She nodded once, knowing her options.

"Yes, Master Shredder."

And the drama goes on! I hope you guys liked reading this chapter, please review and tell me what you think! I love to know that you like my story, it makes my day! I know I've said before that I would respond to reviews and I'm really sorry I haven't been doing that lately. I'm not going to respond all the time, but because I feel bad for telling you I would, I promise I will answer every single review for this chapter, so go ahead and ask me all kinds of questions, give me ideas, criticism, whatever. I will respond the best I can! Thanks for reading!