Master Splinter emerged from his room the following morning to discover that both of the girls were on their couch today. They must have had a rough night dealing with Baxter Stockman since both April and Holly were still in their jeans and tanks from the previous night. Splinter moved quietly to the kitchen and start the coffee that he knew would be needed by more than just Raphael today.
Holly woke up to the smell of fresh coffee, she looked around through groggy eyes and realized she had fallen asleep at the turtles' lair. She sat up and dug through her bag for her glasses.
"Oh, hello Master." Holly said through a yawn. "How did you know we'd need coffee today?"
Master Splinter just chuckled, "You must have been exhausted to sleep in the same jeans you had on yesterday."
Holly looked down at herself. "I suppose your right, how was your night?"
The old rat looked at her carefully, "I had rather an interesting conversation with Raphael yesterday that got me thinking about my old life."
"Hopefully they were happy memories." Holly said innocently as she poured herself some coffee.
"They were for the most part yes." He smiled slightly, "They were of my family."
Holly was about to take a sip of her coffee, but stop before it touched her lips. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know." She stuttered.
"It is alright, it's not something I would expect my boys to tell you." He waved it off, clearly, there was another point to this story. "I lost my family because I was stubborn, I let my own pride get between myself and them." He paused for a moment watching her reaction.
"And the conversation you had with Raph made you think about this?" Holly asked, putting one and one together. They had been talking about love and relationships.
Master Splinter remained silent, he was watching her over the top of his tea. Holly just sat still for a moment, deciding how to phrase her next sentence.
"We both know he is unbelievably stubborn. But, I know he is more caring and sensitive than he would ever be willing to admit." She looked at the old rat who just smiled back at her.
"Apparently he is quite comfortable too." April said walking into the kitchen. "Good morning Master Splinter."
"Good morning Miss O'Neil." Splinter said.
"What are you talking about?" Holly watched April walking over to the coffee with a big smirk on her face.
"You totally fell asleep against him last night." April laughed as Holly choked on her drink. "Yeah, I was awake just long enough to see it happen."
"Oh god." Holly buried her face in her hands, then sat up straight again, maybe there was hope. "Did he at least push me off, or get up?"
"Nope." April smiled and sipped on her coffee.
"Why did you tell me that? What if he thinks I meant to do that?" Holly's head was back in her hands.
"Meant to do what?" Leo asked from the archway.
"Sleep on Raph." April said before Holly could deny anything.
"Oh that." He said like it wasn't a big deal. "I thought you looked cute."
"I'm going to kill you guys for this." Holly groaned, turning red in the face. "So everyone knows about this? I was the only one who woke up thinking everything was normal?"
"Oh yeah." Leo said smugly. "Just wait until Mikey gets up, he's going to have a field day."
The three teens laughed together, even Splinter chuckled quietly with them. Holly was so embarrassed, but she had to admit that it was pretty funny. If it would have been April and Donnie she would be giving them just as much grief.
"Hey everyone." Mikey walked in yawning rubbing his eyes. "What's for breakfast?" Mikey stopped when he saw Holly, a smile grew across his face. "How did you sleep?" He emphasized the "You" to make sure she knew what he was asking. Holly just smiled, she wasn't going to take the bait.
Donnie and Raph walked into the kitchen together, they were having what looked like a serious conversation. The little group was still laughing when they rounded the corner.
"What's so funny?" Raph asked, he looked around everyone and noticed that Holly was red in the face and avoiding his gaze.
"Everyone seems to find it hilarious that I fell asleep on you last night." Holly admitted. "I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable, I didn't mean to." she finally looked at him, she was beet red in the face and was clearly just as uncomfortable as he was.
"Oh, um, that. It's no big deal, don't worry about it." He waved his hand and walked past everyone to the coffee pot. He stood facing the counter with his back to everyone. The conversation turned to Aprils' aunt and what she was going to tell her about last night, but Raph wasn't paying attention. His heart was racing and his eyes were wide. Why did they have to tell her about last night? He was perfectly happy pretending he hadn't enjoyed it. Even if everyone else knew he did, Holly hadn't known.
A ringing phone caused a lull in the conversation, Holly jumped up when she recognized the tone as hers. She ran into the other room to answer the call, so Raph decided to ask the others some questions.
"What did you tell her for?" He hissed at them.
"Calm down dude," Mikey said around a mouthful of food. He swallowed it before he continued. "She was totally cool about it."
"Yeah, she even cracked a couple of jokes herself." Leo added.
"I wouldn't worry Raph," April said, "She was banging here head against the table earlier." She had a huge grin on her face, and everyone else was laughing again.
"You all suck." He grabbed his coffee and walked out of the kitchen, he was stomping across the living area towards his room when he saw Holly sitting on the sofa with her head down. He looked back towards the kitchen to make sure the others were preoccupied, then back over to Holly.
"Hey, are you alright?" he walked over to her and stood just behind her.
"Yeah, Everything's fine." She replied, but her voice was monotone and distant.
"Yeah, I completely believe you." He said sarcastically. He checked over his shoulder one more time, then decided she might like some privacy. "Come on, let's go." He grabbed her hand and dragged her off towards the training room.
"Hey!" She protested, but she let herself be dragged off anyway.
Once they were in the training room and Raph had closed the door behind them, he turned to look at her in the face. She was looking at the floor, and she was holding herself like she was cold.
"What is wrong?" He stood with his free hand on his hip, the other still held his mug of coffee.
"That was my mom on the phone. She's got to go to Europe now for a month." Holly spoke quietly. Her eyes never left the floor.
"I thought she was supposed to be home tomorrow?" Raph was confused, Holly had been happy her mom was coming home. Why would she change her mind so suddenly?
"She got an urgent call from the Paris office, she had to leave immediately." Holly sounded bitter. The tone didn't suit her usual bubbly personality.
"Couldn't she send someone else to take care of it? How urgent could a fashion emergency be?" Raph asked.
"I don't know, but she had to go herself." Holly looked up at him, a couple of tears were rolling silently down her cheeks.
"Have you told her that you want her to stay?" Raph asked, his usual harsh demeanor was softening slightly.
"Once, but she played the guilt card so I never tried again." Raph gave her a questioning look. "She broke down and accused me of trying to hold her back from her dreams."
"That's terrible, how could she say that?" Raph was horrified, how anyone could say that to their family? Holly just shrugged and looked worse than ever. "You want me to smack some sense into her?" He gave her a grin, she let out the smallest snort of amusement.
"I think she'd scream and pass out before you got a chance." She replied. Raph was happy to see she was sounding more and more like herself.
"I think anyone who wouldn't want to spend all of their time with you is crazy." Raph realized what he had just said about a second after it had slipped out. But she just smiled sadly at him.
"I just wish, once, she would stay home. Do you realize I spend more time alone than I do with her?"
Raph didn't have a response for her, what could he say? Instead, he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You're always welcome here, you know that?"
Holly studied him carefully, he was being so nice, it was almost weird, and he really did mean that she was welcome in their home. She and never really been accepted by anyone before, she had always been an oddball at school she hadn't stuck around anywhere long enough to make real friends for the last few years. It was almost too much, she nearly broke down again. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder.
Raph jumped when Holly sprang at him, he stiffened for a moment then relaxed and wrapped an arm around her waist. He felt her shoulders shaking against him, and she sobbed softly into his neck. He tightened his grip around her protectively. She calmed down and took a deep shuddering breath, she pulled back slightly and wiped her face with one hand. The other one did not leave his shoulder.
"Thanks Raph." She said softly, and placed a kiss gently on his cheek.
"No problem." He said slightly stunned. She turned to go back out to the living area and let her hand drag across his plastron as she went. He stood rooted to the spot, completely unable to process what had happened.
Once she was gone, he finally relaxed and let out a little sigh of contentment.
"Very smooth, I don't think you have to worry about whether or not she likes you anymore." Master Splinter emerged from the adjoining room.
"Master," Raph span around, sloshing coffee around almost spilling it. "How long we're you standing there?"
"I wasn't standing here, I could hear you from my room." Splinter said with a smile. "You acted honorably my son, and you made her very happy."
"I just told her the truth." Raph shrugged.
"And that was exactly what she needed to hear." Master Splinter turned and walked back into his room.
Raph looked at the coffee in his hand, he was going to have to go back to the kitchen for a fresh cup as this one had gone cold. He huffed dramatically before stalking back out into the living area.
Everyone was sitting around doing their own thing, April and Donnie had their heads together looking at something on Aprils' laptop. Mikey was nodding along to his music and reading a comic at the same time, and Leo was watching reruns of his favorite TV show. Raph walked past everyone and straight into the kitchen on his hunt for coffee.
Holly was also in the kitchen, she was washing her face in the sink and she had set her glasses on the table. Raph decided to just let her be, she had just been through some rough stuff and if she needed comforting she would let him know. He poured himself some coffee and turned to lean against the counter.
"I'm alright now." Holly said without looking up.
"I just came here for coffee." He replied, lifting his mug at her as if she didn't believe him . She was peeking at him from under her arm.
"That may be the case, but you don't have to stay." She pulled the binder out of her hair and let it fall over her shoulders.
"The company is better in here." He grinned as he drank his coffee. Holly smiled back and shook her head at him.
Donnie and April were huddled together in the corner, they were looking up random stuff on the Internet and talking quietly together. They seemed to be the only ones who had noticed that Holly and Raph had been gone for a while now. They had assumed Raph had gone to his room, but when they saw Holly leave the training room followed a few moments later by Raph, they started getting suspicious.
"Do you think something is going on there?" Donnie asked in a hushed voice.
"Oh yeah," April nodded enthusiastically. "I'd bet my allowance on it."
Donatello bit his lip, he was dying to know something. "Do you think it could work for them?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't it?" April frowned at him.
"Well, technically, we're not even the same species. I know that we're all part human, but we're mostly turtle, and it's not like they could go out on dates, she couldn't introduce him to her family." He couldn't stop himself, he had been holding onto the doubts for so long now, and although he tried to stay hopeful it was proving more and more difficult.
"Would you relax, geese? None of that matters, love always finds a way." April sighed happily to herself, she really was a hopeless romantic at heart. Besides, who didn't like to see their friends happy?
Donnie wasn't convinced, but he had to admit, it was nice to hear that someone else felt the same as he did. Now if he could just get her to see him the same way he saw her. Sitting this close to April was a rare thing, and he was savoring every minute. He could feel the heat from her body warming his cool green skin, and he could smell her hair. It smelled like her shampoo and some of her natural scent was hidden in there too. Sometimes he wished he was as bold as Raph, he always seemed to do or say whatever he wanted without fear. Clearly, he was getting further with Holly in the few short months they had known each other than he had with April.
Donatello sneaked a quick glance at April, she was back to watching the Internet videos they had been laughing at a moment ago. She might be able to brush off their conversation, but he couldn't. It was different from her point of view, she was human. Donnie needed a second opinion. He stood up hastily and passed the laptop off to April.
"Hey! Where are you going?" She frowned at the back of his head.
"Just to the kitchen." He said over his shoulder. Donnie marched past his brothers into the kitchen, Holly and Raph were talking and laughing together. A wave of jealousy passed through his body, but he let it go immediately. It wasn't their fault that he was shy. "Hey Holly, could I talk to you for a moment?"
"Of course, is everything alright? She asked worriedly.
"I just need your opinion on something." Donnie replied, "Could you give us a moment?" He turned to Raph, Donnie didn't really want his brother in on this discussion.
"What's the big deal? I'm smart too you know?" Raph scowled.
"This is April-related, isn't it?" Holly asked, Donnie nodded. "Why don't we go to your lab? You can tell the others that we're looking over one of your projects."
"Hey! Don't I get an opinion on the subject?" Raph protested.
Donnie and Holly looked over their shoulders at him. Holly flicked her gaze to Donnie, "That's up to you."
"No." Donnie said with a frown, and Holly shrugged at Raph apologetically. They left him scowling in the kitchen with his fresh mug of coffee.
Holly leaned against one of Donnies work benches once they were safely behind his barn door. Donnie started fidgeting, but Holly just waited patiently for him to ask his question. "Well, April and I were talking about... Uhh." He faltered
"You were talking about me and Raph." She filled in for him with a knowing head shake.
"Yeah," He scratched the back of his head. "Well, April seem to think that there wouldn't be any problems in a relationship between one of us and a normal human."
Holly took a breath, why did everyone want to talk about this today? "I mean, any relationship takes work, they're not easy, regardless of who's involved. People have to decide if all the good times together outweigh the bad, and if they do then maybe it's worth fighting for."
"I suppose so." Donnie said thoughtfully. "But don't you think circumstances change when it does come down to the fact that we're not the same?"
"It does make things harder, yes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. There's nothing worse than not knowing what could have been." She watched Donnie thinking, she almost felt bad for him. Clearly, he had been worrying about this for a while and was wrestling with himself trying to make a decision.
Donnie sat heavily on his stool, "My biggest fear is what would happen if things didn't work out? I would rather have April as my friend than lose her over something like this."
"That is the risk you take when dating your friends." Holly agreed.
"Well, your not being particularly helpful." Donnie retorted dryly.
Holly chuckled, "I don't know how much help I can be? I have never had any dating experience myself, and the only example I had set for me was my parents terrible marriage. Maybe you should consider talking to Raph about this too?"
"Raph? What would he know?" Donnie said incredulously.
"As much as any of us. We're all in the same boat here, and he might have a different point of view." Holly shrugged.
Donnie thought about it and had to concede the point. "I guess none of us has a clue what were doing."
"Pretty much." Holly admitted. "My mom does always like to tell me that the teenage years are some of the hardest."
"It sure feels like it." Donnie agreed.
"Come on, we should go back out to the others before we're missed." Holly pulled him up off his seat and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "I think you're working yourself up too much over all this."
"Oh, more than likely." Donnie admitted with a grim smile.
They reemerged into the living area mostly unnoticed. Raph was nowhere to be seen, but Mikey was now sitting with April, and they were laughing at some videos on the internet.
"Where did you guys go?" April asked innocently, "You have to see this video, it's hilarious."
"Oh, I just needed some help with one of my projects." Donnie said quickly. He glanced at Holly who gave him an 'I told you so' look.
"Did you get it all figured out?" April asked.
"Not really, but a second opinion was nice." Donnie smiled at April, he sat himself down beside her and she pulled up the video she wanted to show him.
Holly decided that she really needed some time to herself, so she made some excuses to head home. April tried to convince her to stay, but she managed to wriggle out with the excuse that she didn't have any clean clothes and really needed a shower. Once she was on her way though, she sent April a long text message, letting her know what was really going on. April was concerned for her friend, but Holly assured her that Raph had been very sweet to her and that she just needed a little space.
April was thrilled that Raph had been the one to help cheer Holly back up. Eventually she had managed to pry the whole story out of Holly, and it sounded like they might have actually had a real breakthrough in their relationship.
However, as happy as she was for her friends, she couldn't help but wonder what was happening with her and Donnie. Holly had asked what was going on between them a while ago, but she hadn't brought it up since. To be honest she couldn't even answer the question herself. She knew Donnie had a crush on her, that much was obvious, and she knew she felt closer to him than she did the others. But did that count as love? She was only sixteen, her aunt kept telling her she was too young to know what love was, maybe she was right.
Later that afternoon, April walked through the door to her aunts house and called out to see if anyone was home.
"In here dear." Came a reply. "How was your weekend?"
"It was good, we watched some old movies." April dumped her bag of clothes on the floor.
"Sounds like fun, are you hungry?" Aprils' aunt asked.
"Yeah, I could eat."
"OK, well go get cleaned up and I'll make you some dinner."
April threw her dirty clothes into the laundry room and rushed upstairs to shower. Once she was in fresh clothes, she ran downstairs and ate the wonderful homecooked meal Carol made for her.
"Can I ask you a question?" April said suddenly.
"Of course you can, what's up?" Aprils aunt chuckled slightly.
"How can you tell if you like someone as more than just a friend?" April spoke quietly and talked to her plate, she pushed her last bite around her plate nervously.
"What's brought this on? Have you met a boy? Oh, come on spill it!" Her aunt was giddy, bouncing slightly as she scooted closer to her only niece.
April sighed, "Well, there is a guy, but I don't really know if I like him that way or not."
"Does he like you?"
"Yeah, he's shy though, so he hasn't actually made a move." April smiled slightly thinking about all the times Donnie had stumbled over his words or been embarrassed by his brothers because of this.
"Well, do you like spending time with him?" Aprils' aunt asked. April nodded. "Do you think about him when you're not together?" Again, April nodded. "Is he kind and does he look out for you?"
"You have no idea." April said with a big smile.
"One last question, do you feel happy when you're with him and thinking about him?" Aprils' aunt had a grin on her face now too, she could see that April liked this boy even if she couldn't see it herself.
April didn't answer, she didn't need to.
The two women sat around talking about boys for a while, April asked her aunt about her first boyfriend and they laughed when her aunt told her how long it had taken the boy to ask her out. April and Carol painted their nails and ate ice cream while watching some chick flicks until the sun went down, April decided she should probably head upstairs, she had had a long weekend and should probably get one decent nights' sleep. She bade her aunt goodnight just in case she decided to go to bed before April and headed upstairs to her room.
Once there, she threw herself on her bed, it was nice to lay on her own bed for a change, two nights on the turtle boys couch was starting to hurt her back. She rolled over and grabbed her phone out of her bag, checking to see if anyone had messaged her. She had one message from Leo's phone, but it was signed by Donnie. She opened the message, it was just asking if she got home in one piece? She quickly typed a response since she had been home for hours now. She smiled to herself again knowing that he was worried about her.
Her phone buzzed in her hand and she opened the new message, it was Donnie again, "Good, I was just about to start worrying" there was a little smiley emoji at the end of the message and April laughed. She decided she would give him a quick call, she didn't really like texting unless she was somewhere quiet, like at school or the movies. She pulled up his number and connected the call.
"Hello?" His voice came through and April smiled again, she had been doing that a lot today.
"Hey, I just thought I'd call you so you know I really am home, why are you using Leo's phone?" April asked.
"I haven't seen mine in a couple of days. I tried calling it, but the battery must be dead." He replied.
"That sucks, I hope you find it." She sighed to herself before asking, "How's it going?"
"Oh fine, I'm just sitting in the lab."
"What are you working on?" she asked curiously. He was always working on something.
"I'm drawing up designs for a van." He sounded excited.
"You'll have to show me later." there was a slight pause, April thought Donnie had put down the phone.
"Really?" He sounded surprised.
"Yeah! I think it's great you're always designing and building stuff." She laughed down the phone at him.
On the other end of the line, Donnie blushed. He wasn't used to people actually caring about what he was doing. Mikey always wanted to touch and break his things, and Raph just didn't care unless it was something he could use to break bad guys bones. Leo was always encouraging but he never really asked what he was doing, he was more interested in the final results.
"I'd be more than happy to show you." Both teens smiled into their phones, "Oh hey! Did you hear what happened today between Raph and Holly?" April said excitedly.
"No, what happened?" Donnie asked. April filled him in on all the juicy details she had gotten from Holly earlier that day. "He was in an unusually good mood today."
"Oh? Did he go easy on you in training?" She asked
"No." Donnie grumbled, "But he was much less irritable after training. He even let Mikey borrow one of his comic books."
"Wow, that's quite the improvement." April said sarcastically.
"You laugh, but it really is." Donnie said. They both chuckled into the phone, and it lulled into a brief silence.
"I guess I had better let you go for now, I should get some sleep." April said.
"Alright, well I'm glad you made it home safe."
"Thanks for looking out for me, goodnight."
"I'll always be there for you." Donnie said without thinking. "I mean, you know because it's dangerous out there." He giggled nervously.
"I know." She smiled again, he was so cute when he was nervous. "Goodnight Donnie."
"Goodnight April." The two teens hung up on each other and both sighed to themselves. April threw herself down on her bed, and grabbed a book she had been reading off her nightstand.
Donatello put his brothers' phone down and face-palmed himself, he could be an idiot sometimes. He looked back at his designs on the table, they were nearly finished then he could start building. He stood from his table and walked out into the living space and gave Leo back his phone.
"I have no idea where mine is, I'll just have to make a new one." Donnie admitted, and returned to his lab to start working on his replacement.
The next month passed by without much activity on the surface. The Turtles had been keeping an eye on the Purple Dragons and the Fortune cookie factory most nights, sometimes the girls would join them if they were staying the night since they were on their summer vacation. Other times they would stay at the lair, or they would all hang out at Holly's apartment until April had to go home.
April and Holly came over for training almost every day, and even if they did not have a session planned, they would hang out and socialize for a few hours.
One evening when April and Holly had gone home for the night, Leo, Mikey and Raph, were waiting on Donnie to go out for the night.
"We've been waiting for like an hour, what have you been doing?" Raph said impatiently.
"Working, not that you would know anything about that." Donnie said back tartly. Raph glared at him and took a breath to argue back.
"Chill out you two, we have more important things to do." Leo stepped between his two brothers and scowled at them. They needed to get topside, the cool air and wide open spaces would take the edge off everyone. They had been cooped up for far too long together.
As the four boys climbed up to the rooftops, the warm summer air whipped their mask tails around. They ran and leaped across the city skyline, heading back to the fortune cookie factory once more. They caught sight of a few of the thugs walking the streets clearly looking for something to steal.
The turtles followed them silently from high above, the goons shoved each other around laughing loudly. They stopped for a moment to terrorize some poor old man, but they moved on soon enough that Leo decided it was unnecessary to intervene. After a few more moments of shoving and laughing obnoxiously, the group made their way to their destination.
The four turtle ninjas crouched silently above the factory, a whole platoon of gang members were congregated outside the factory doors. The boys looked at each other worriedly, something was going on here.
"Let's go in for a closer look." Leo whispered. The others nodded. They crept around the buildings, not drawing attention to themselves. They made their way over to the skylight and cracked it open, Leo and Donnie slid through the crack and lowered themselves carefully to a girder. Inside were more Purple Dragon members. Baxter Stockmans image was being projected onto a large screen on one side of the factory. Apparently they were having a meeting of some kind, but he was walking around the city somewhere and was unable to attend in person.
"Alright everyone, can you hear me?" Stockman said, although no one payed him any attention. "Hello?"
"Shut your traps or I'll shut them for you." A gruff voice boomed out over the rabble and silence fell immediately. "You had all better stop messing around, I'm getting tired of all the failures."
"Great," Leo whispered. "Dog Pound is involved here too." Donatello had a look on his face that matched Leo's thoughts exactly.
"Even though those wretched turtles destroyed my Mousers," Stockmans face contorted with rage, "All hope is not lost. I recovered a computer chip that is far more advanced that anything available in mainstream society today."
"Uh oh." Was all Donnie could say. Leo shot him a warning look, and Donnie could only grimace in reply. It was his chip from his cell phone.
"I have examined the chip and think I can start manufacturing my own version this week." Stockman paused expecting some kind of recognition for his work, when none came he continued his little speech. "Thanks to the turtles interference I should be able to make my next generation of Mousers far more sophisticated, even smart enough to learn while they are hunting." He giggled to himself, if this worked he would be able to sell the designs to a pest control company for billions.
"I don't care about your stupid hobby," Bellowed the gigantic dog man. "You should be focusing on finding and destroying the turtles." Dog Pound balled his enormous fists. "All of you should be looking for them."
The gang members all shrank back, they were starting to regret choosing a life of crime. They either got beat up by the turtles, or they would get annihilated by the mutant who had declared himself their boss. Either way, they were going to get hurt.
"Get out there and find those wretched turtles, I don't care how you do it." Dog pound growled at the group. The Purple Dragons rushed around, bumping into each other trying to grab their gear for tonight's crime spree.
Leo had heard enough, he and Donatello climbed back up to the roof to meet their brothers. Mikey and Raph were keeping an eye on the gang members as they fanned out from the factory. They saw dozens of them traveling in groups of three or four moving in every direction.
"This is bad, we can't let them do this." Mikey said once Leo and Donnie were back.
"We may not have a choice, they're looking for us on Dog Pounds orders." Leo quickly filled in the others on what had just happened. Mikey looked worried, Raph looked mad.
"That makes this worse, people are going to suffer because of us." Raph hated this. Innocent people might get hurt, and though they could try to help, they couldn't help everyone.
"What do you suggest we do? We can't stop them all Raph." Leo sympathized, he didn't like this any more than his brother, but what could they do?
"We have to try." Mikey said softly.
Leo looked at his siblings' expressions, they ranged from Mikey who looked down-right depressed to Raph whose green eyes burned with determination. Donnie just stood with his shoulders hunched with a guilty look on his face. Leo put an arm around his shoulders, "Alright, we'll split up and take out as many Purple Dragons as we can. If you can avoid a fight that would be best, and be careful."
Raph cracked his knuckles, "Lets do this." The turtle boys all sprang up and dashed off to take care of business.
Holly had been doing her laundry since she arrived home. She hadn't done it in ages since she had been spending so much time in the Lair, but she was running out of clean clothes that she actually liked to wear and had left everyone a little earlier than usual so she could get at least some of it done. She had been sitting in the buildings laundry room for the last ten minutes now waiting for the dryer to finish its cycle. She hated doing laundry, there was only one laundry room in the building and it was in the basement. With how much her mother paid for this place, you would think it would have in-unit laundry.
The dryer beeped and Holly looked up from her book, "Finally." She grabbed the last load out of the drum and stuffed it into the basket at her feet. She made sure she had her keys, then left the laundry room and walked over to the elevator. She jabbed the up button and waited.
As the elevator started moving up, it stopped on the ground floor to let someone on, probably one of the other tenants. Holly knew most of the people in the building, granted there were only about eight apartments on each floor, but since she only saw them in the elevators she was surprised she knew as many as she did. The doors opened, and a tall, skinny African American man stepped on followed closely by a trim Asian man in sunglasses. Holly resisted the urge to gasp and simply stepped to the side of the elevator to make room for them.
Holly was having a hard time keeping her cool. Baxter Stockman had just stepped onto the elevator with one of the Purple Dragon gang members. She knew that he had no idea who she was, but if she couldn't keep a straight face they would know something was going on.
The gang member was staring at Holly with an ugly sneer on his face, she wished she had put on a sweater. Instead, she hoisted the basket up a little higher and turned slightly so she was facing away from him.
"Leave the poor girl alone Fong." Stockman said without even looking at her, "We have more important things to think about."
The elevator came to a slow halt on Stockman's floor and the two men exited the small metal box, as the Asian man left he looked back at her over the top of his glasses and winked at her. Hollys' face contorted in disgust, this guy must be at least ten years older than she was. The doors closed again and the elevator rose up one more floor. Holly opened her door and threw her laundry into the apartment, after grabbing a sweater she dashed over to the stairs and ran down them two at a time.
She peeked out of the stairwell to make sure no one was on the landing and crept out to listen at Stockmans' door. She stayed crouched by the wall just in case they could see a shadow under the door. She could only just hear their conversation, so she pressed her ear as close to the door as she dared.
"I have one here, it should work." Stockmans muffled voice came through the wooden door.
"Where do you want us to drop it?" Fong replied.
"Any sewer access, it will keep searching until it either finds those turtles or the battery runs low. It will keep track of all areas it has searched, recharge itself then start searching again where it left off." Stockman sounded giddy, he clapped his hands together excitedly.
Holly heard one set of footsteps fade away as someone walked deeper into the apartment. Holly couldn't hear any conversation anymore, she scooted a fraction of an inch closer trying to listen, but it was no use, she would have to wait for them to come back into a room closer to the door.
A short while later, Holly could hear the muffled conversation again. Apparently, Stockman had finished doing whatever he had been and was conversing with this Fong character again. She couldn't make out what was being said, there were some shuffling sounds and lots of mumbling, but nothing coherent.
"Drop it back to the factory." Stockmans' voice was suddenly clear and both men were walking towards the door, Holly scrambled back to the stairwell. It was a good job she only had socks on, shoes would have been too noisy.
Just as the fire escape door was closing, Fong walked out of Stockmans' apartment carrying a duffel bag containing the Mouser unit. His eyes darted around checking the hallway, he started at the stair-well door for a moment, he could have sworn it moved. After a moment, he decided it was probably nothing, and turned back to face his employer. "Catch 'ya later."
Holly sprinted up the stairs two at a time. If that thug chose to use the stairs he might still catch her, but she made it back to her apartment without hearing anyone open the door on the lower level. She snatched up her phone and shot a message to Leo telling him what she had just witnessed.
Leonardo was currently following a group of Purple Dragon members by rooftop, they had been walking for about twenty minutes and it seemed like they were just going in circles. He was getting tired of this, he almost just wanted to hop down and scare them a bit just to make sure they didn't try anything. He was just looking for the best place to really freak them out when his T-phone beeped. It was a text from Holly, apparently Stockman had picked up the Mouser unit from his apartment and was going release it into the sewer.
He frowned at his phone and sent her a quick reply, he really didn't see how that was a big deal, it was just one Mouser after all. A response came immediately, Stockman was going to make it intelligent. If they lost it in the sewers they wouldn't find it until it found them. Leo sighed, they had better destroy it now while it was still top side. He sent her another message asking where it was now. She gave him the street numbers, he forwarded it to everyone else before he set off with a quick explanation of what was going on.
Raph had just finished scaring the pants off of some of the gang members who were beating up the blind sushi chef for protection money again. He didn't like it when people picked on others who were weaker or smaller than they were, so he decided to show them what it was like to be on the receiving end of a beating. He helped the old man back to his feet. "I really hope they learn not to come back this time."
"So do I. Thank you, I owe you a dinner." Mr Murakami said.
"I'm going to take you up on that. Stay out of trouble, OK?" Raph shook the old mans' hand. He left the restaurant and climbed back up to the roofs. Once there, he heard a beep from his phone. It was from Leo. Apparently, Holly had found out some information on Stockman and was now keeping an eye on the last Mouser unit that needed destroying. Raph couldn't repress a smile, she was determined to help them any way she could.
Since there weren't any more Purple Dragon goons to beat up, Raph decided he would head over and meet up with Leo. If he was lucky, there would still be people there to punch. He raced across the skyline to the intersection Leo had texted him, and once he drew closer he saw Leo crouching behind a billboard a few buildings over.
"So, how's it going?" He asked his big brother once he was behind him.
"Holly has been following him and letting me know where he's going." Leo informed him.
"Well, let her know she can go home now. We can take it from here." Raph peered over the ledge, sure enough there she was, following Fong from a distance. She kept dipping behind walls, stoops, and anything that provided cover.
"I will, I just want to see what she's capable of." Leo stated.
"What? She's not ready for this." Raph spluttered.
"I'll tell her to back off in a minute, this is a good learning experience for her." Leo waved his brother off, Raph really needed to chill out.
"Learning experience, she's only been training for a like a week. She shouldn't have to do our job because you want to see if she's capable of." Raph was furious, they had been training for 15 years and they still made mistakes. Neither of the girls were ready to actually take on any of their enemies.
"Calm down, I'll tell her we're here now." Leo rolled his eyes. He knew there was more to this than just experience, but he didn't feel like arguing right now. He pulled out his phone and sent Holly a message letting her know she could go home if she wanted. They watched as she ducked behind some stone stairs to check her message, she looked up looking for them, and when she spotted them she smiled and gave a little wave.
Leo gave her a thumbs up, while Raph just glared at the back of his brothers blue bandanna with his arms crossed. Holly checked around the corner to make sure the creepy gang member wasn't looking back behind him, he would definitely recognize her and if they figured out she was working with the turtles, she wouldn't be able to go home. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she stood up and ran across the street. Aprils' house was much closer than hers' was, she would stay there until they heard from the boys then take a cab home.
Raph watched her go, then turned back to his big brother. "If you want to see what they can do, watch them in the training room. Don't expect them to risk themselves for us." Raph turned his attention back to Fong and followed him from above. Leo was stunned, Raph challenged his authority all the time, but this time he actually felt like he had done something wrong.
They followed Fong a little further until he was in a more secluded area of the city. Once he was just off the main streets, Leo landed a short distance in front of Fong, cutting off his path through the alley. "Do you just want to give up now?" He drew his swords slowly. "Or are we going to do this the hard way."
Fong turned to go back the way he had come, only to discover that his way was blocked again, this time by Raph, who wiggled his fingers smugly. He didn't try to run though, he had an ace up his sleeve. "You freaks won't get me this time." He pulled out his cell phone and pressed a button.
The wall next to Leo and Raph exploded outwards, a huge furry fist was protruding out of a hole that crumbled away to reveal a seven-foot tall, very angry looking Dog Pound.
"Knock, knock." he said melodramatically.
"Oh great." Raph said sarcastically, "This was so much easier than it should have been."
Dog Pound roared and charged the turtle teens, who jumped backwards in opposite directions. Leo launched himself back at the beast before him, he ducked under a massive forearm and went to slash at Dog pounds back. Unfortunately, another massive arm came around and caught Leo's arm mid-swipe. He was lifted bodily and flung at the opposite wall, he managed to twist his body so he would hit the wall with his feet first.
Raph moved in behind his big brother, he ducked as Leo flew over his head and as Dog Pounds arm followed through, he popped up and kicked him in the ribs. Dog Pound stumbled but didn't go down. He just swung in Raphs direction and growled. Leo and Raph stood next to each other facing down the big beast.
"So what's the plan oh' courageous leader?" Raph asked.
"We need to get Fong, we don't have time for this." Leo looked around, Fong was nowhere to be found. "Did you see which way he went?"
"No, I was a little preoccupied." Raph replied. Dog Pound charged at them again, this time swinging for both turtles. Raph went high and Leo went low swiping out his legs, the two of them managed to send the slobbering monster head-first into a dumpster.
"Let's get out of here" Leo shook his head, "if we can get up to the roof we might still be able to catch Fong." The two teens launched themselves up the nearest building before Dog Pound could get back to his feet. They searched the nearby alleys, but there was no sign of him.
"Let's head over to the factory, he might be heading that way. We're going to need Donnie and Mikey to take down Dog Pound" Leo said, Raph nodded and they raced to catch up with Fong.
April was walking home with her arms laden with bags, Carol had sent her out to pick up some take-out for their dinner as she couldn't be bothered to cook. She was about four blocks away when a group of men dressed in black came out of one of the alleys up ahead of her. They were busy punching each other in the arm to really notice her, however, one of them nudged the others, and matching grins spread along their faces.
April tried to ignore them, but they blocked her way. "Excuse me." She said looking at each of them closely in case she had to pick them out of a lineup later. They just snickered and refused to yield.
"Empty your pockets girly." One of the men said, cracking his knuckles.
"I don't have any money you know." She lowered her bags to the floor slowly and fished out her phone and the little change she had from her jean shorts. She held it out for the goons to see. "This is all I have."
"Well take it, and your dinner too." Two of the creeps grabbed her belongings, while the other two jerks shoved her to the ground. They all laughed and carried on past her.
"You really shouldn't pick on helpless girls you know." April recognized that voice, it was enough to put a smile on her face.
"Yeah, they're our favorite people to save." another voice piped up from the dark alley beside the little group of men.
"Oh yeah and what are you gonna' do about it." Asked one of the more stupid gang members.
Two of the turtle boys hopped out of the shadows, one was tall and lanky, the other shorter with a speckled face. Both wore matching grins as they stood facing the group of Purple dragon members.
"Hey it's the turtles!" The same idiot yelled, "Quick, someone call the boss."
"Don't bother," Another, more seasoned gang member replied. "Trust me, let's just get out of here."
"Ah ah ah, drop her stuff." Mikey waggled one finger at them.
None of the gang members moved, they just stared the two green teens down in silence, they didn't want to go back to the hide out empty-handed, the boss would be pissed. Instead, they gripped onto her phone and bags tighter.
"Alright, we'll do this the hard way." Donatello said. He thrust the end of his Bo staff into the gut of one the biggest, stupidest looking one. Mikey popped up and onto the shoulders of a stunned purple dragon member, he was even more stunned when one end of Mikey's nun chuck clocked him in the head. As the big oaf fell, Mikey jumped and dove over another gang member and took him out by the legs with a quick side swipe.
The last guy was smarter than the rest, he tried running down the street clutching the cellphone and pocket change he had taken from the red-headed girl. Donnie and Mikey looked at each other with a smirk, Mikey flicked the extending chain out and hooked the escaping man around the legs. Mikey dragged the man back by the ankles, and he and Donnie just looked down on him while he tried to cower pitifully on the floor.
"Here, here, just take it. It's not worth it." He covered his head with his hands, just in case the mutants decided to hurt him some more.
Donnie just snatched Aprils' phone out of the trembling mans' hand, "Just get out of here." All four of the men scrambled to get away from the turtles.
April chuckled from behind Donnie, "That was perfect timing."
"Here you go, I hope it didn't get busted in the struggle." Donnie said handing April her phone.
"It's no big deal, it's just a phone." April frowned slightly, "What are you guys doing here?"
"Making sure the locals are safe." Donnie winked at her.
"Well, thanks. I had better get home though, I'll see you guys...Holly?" April saw the other girl come dashing down the street towards her. She looked a little ruffled and she was wearing pajama pants. "Is everything OK?"
"Yeah, its fine. Leo and Raph are, hopefully, destroying a Mouser unit." Holly said.
"How do you know that?" April bent down to pick up the bag of take-out.
"Stockman and Fong got on the elevator with me so I figured I'd make sure they weren't up to anything. Oh, and I was hoping I could hang with you for a while, your place is closer than mine." Holly gave a cheeky smile.
"Yeah that's fine, here you can carry this." April handed Holly the bag
"Where did Leo and Raph say they were heading?" Donnie asked
"They were following Fong last I saw them, they're probably heading back to the factory since that's where it seemed like he was heading." Holly informed them.
"Aright, we'll head that way now." Donnie said, "All of us will stop by later to let you know what happens."
"Later girls." Mikey said. Donnie just waved before they took off after their big brothers.
"Come on, my aunt will be worried if I don't get home soon." The girls started walking, luckily they were only a few blocks away from Aprils' house.
Donatello and Michelangelo made their way across the city, the factory wasn't that far from where they had bumped into April so it only took a few minutes to get there. However, when they did arrive there was no sign of Leo or Raph.
"Maybe they're just not here yet." Mikey offered as he peeked over the ledge at the factory. Most of the Purple Dragon members were no longer there, the few they had managed to stop had probably gone home with their pride battered and bruised.
"Weren't they supposed to be following Fong?" Donnie reminded himself.
"Yeah, why?" Mikey asked.
"Isn't that him?" Donnie pointed down to a man who had just come around the corner at the end of the ally. He was carrying a big duffel bag and kept checking behind himself nervously.
"Let's go." Mikey said and launched himself over the ledge to the street below. Donnie sighed but followed him down.
The unsuspecting Fong jumped when the two ninja turtles landed in front of him. He clutched the duffel bag closer since now he was on his own. "Back off weirdos." He yelled, sounding much braver than he felt.
"Weirdos? You should check a mirror sometime." Mikey replied, laughing at his own snappy comeback.
Donnie rolled his eyes at his little brother, he could be a moron sometimes. "Just had over the bag and we won't have to hurt you."
"No way! The other two didn't get it and neither will you." Fong bolted for the factory door. Donnie and Mikey rushed after him. They burst through the door onto the pitch-black factory floor, Fong was nowhere to be seen. The two teens blinked, trying to get their eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness, they exchanged a glance and set off into the factory together.
Leo and Raph had managed to get back to the factory without running into Dog Pound again, they hadn't managed to catch up to Fong though, so they assumed he must be inside already. They climbed back into the factory using the same skylight they had been the last two times they were here, hopefully, the Purple Dragons wouldn't realize this was how they were getting in, or they might try and weld the windows shut.
It was almost completely black inside the factory, the only light came from the mandatory exit signs, and the dull grey light coming in through the grubby windows of the skylight. Leo could see multiple figures moving on the lower floor, one of them had to be Fong and hopefully, the others were Donnie and Mikey.
Donatello knew he had to find the light controls, he moved through the maze of conveyor belts and heavy machinery looking for a control panel. He heard Mikey stub his toe on something, he was cursing and was hopping around bumping into things making a whole lot of noise. So much for a stealthy approach.
Raph had made his way over to the railing of the upper level of the factory, he could see the shadow of something moving below him. He knew it wasn't Mikey, he was on the other side of the room bumping into boxes and chains. It was providing a great distraction. He silently moved until he was directly above the person and launched himself at them.
"Get off me!" Fong yelled.
"Got you now, you think you're so smart, don't you?" Raph clung to the squirming man, he was still a little annoyed at the fact that he had gotten the better of them earlier.
"You'll pay for this." Fong fought as best as he could, but he was scrawny compared to the creature who held him. There was no way he could overpower Raph.
"Quit whining, now where did you put the Mouser?" Leo dropped down next to his brother and poked Fong sharply in the shoulder.
"You won't find it, and I won't tell." Fong said bravely.
"Stop being so melodramatic, and Donnie could we get some lights in here?" Leo looked around trying to spy his intelligent brother through the darkness.
"I'm working on it." Donnie's voice came back from Leo's left. Leo shook his head into the darkness, this was getting silly.
A huge crashing noise came from above the boys' heads, the skylight had been ripped out completely and a huge hulking figure had jumped down into the factory. The city lights poured into the grubby factory throwing highlights onto all the metal surfaces. Dog pound dropped down between Raph and Leo swinging wildly in the half-light, Raph had to let go of Fong to brace for the huge forearm that was rushing towards his abdomen. He flew across the factory and smashed into the far wall. Raph slid down the wall with a groan, rubbing his head when he got to the bottom.
"The lights, Donnie the lights!" Leo yelled ducking under Dog Pounds other arm.
Donatello searched frantically for the switch on the control panels in front of him. His fingers finally closed around something that felt like a light switch, so he flipped it up. Fluorescent bulbs flickered on in hanging fixtures, they glowed softly as they warmed up, steadily getting brighter with each passing moment.
Mikey and Leo were dodging and weaving keeping Dog Pound busy, they danced just out of reach so that the mutant dog had to keep swinging wildly while chasing them around the floor. Donnie spied Fong crawling beneath one of the conveyor belts trying to look inconspicuous. Donnie grabbed the pathetic man by the lapels and hoisted him out from under the belt.
"I'm only going to ask once, where is the bag?" Donnie glared at Fong, he was getting tired of these games. Fong just pointed at a row of lockers lining one wall of the factory with a trembling finger. Donatello dragged the scrawny twig over to the lockers and raised an eyebrow at him. Mikey flew through the air behind them, wailing and flailing all the way.
Fong opened one of the lockers and pulled out the black duffle bag. Donnie snatched it away and opened it up, the shiny exoskeleton of the Mouser glinted from out of the black fabric.
"I got it guys," Donnie yelled to his brothers with a smile. His face fell when he saw the mess his brothers were in, they were getting swatted like flies. "You guys, let's go."
Leo turned to see Donnie holding the bag with the robot in it. He and the other two turtles broke away from Dog pound and dashed back up to the destroyed skylight. Dog pound didn't follow them, he just looked around for Fong who was still cowering on the floor. He shot the sniveling man a disgusted look, he hated how pathetic these men were.
After making a few false turns, in case they were being followed, the turtle boys started to make their way over to Aprils apartment. Donnie had the Mouser on his back as they made their way over the rooftops, and was surprised to see the girls already waiting for them on top of Aprils place.
"Hey did you guys get it?" April asked eagerly.
"You had better believe it." Donnie said happily. April gave Donnie an unexpected hug which he returned willingly. When she let go of him she high-fived Mikey and the other two turtles in turn.
"You guys are awesome." She laughed as Mikey flexed both his muscled and his ego.
"Nice work," Holly heard a voice at her side. Raph had slid in just behind her and was speaking quietly.
"Thanks." She replied. "It was lucky I was in the elevator when I was."
"Yeah, but didn't you have time to change before you ran out of the house?" Raph pointed at her pajama pants, he just now noticed they had a popular children's cartoon character all over them.
"Shut up." she punched him in the arm, "And no, I didn't. If I would have changed I would have lost that creepy Fong dude." She folded her arms and leaned to one side.
"We had probably better go, we need to destroy that thing before we can go home." Leo said.
"What? You can't do that. Think of what we could learn from this thing." Donnie protested.
"Like what?" Raph asked, "How good Stockman is at soldering?"
"Oh, nice burn." Raph and Holly fist-bumped.
"No. But I can use it to see exactly where he is getting his components from and then I can use that information to keep tabs on if he's building more robots." Donnie looked smug.
"I don't know dude," Mikey looked skeptical, "The regular Mousers were bad enough, imagine how bad a super Mouser will be."
"It's fine, this one doesn't even have a chip in it. It can't function fully without one." Donnie was determined, he knew he could gain valuable information in the mouser unit.
"But it can still function?" Leo asked.
"It can turn on, but without the processing chip it can't do anything."
"Are you sure Donnie?" April asked, she wanted to believe him.
"I'll take it apart as I study it, it will be just as destroyed as if we smashed it, but we could learn something about our enemy at the same time." He was getting desperate, and there was a hint of it in his tone.
Leo sighed, Donnie was giving him the same puppy dog look Mikey always used, although it wasn't quite as well-practiced. "Alright, but you make sure it's out of commission, or I'll let Raph have it."
"Deal." Donnie was ecstatic.
The turtle boys bade the girls a good night, and made sure they were safely back in Aprils' bedroom before turning to head home themselves. Once there Donnie unloaded the Mouser onto one of his many work-benches and immediately started making notes and taking measurements of the little robot in front of him. After many hours of work, he started getting sleepy and so decided to continue his work in the morning.