New Friends and Old Enemies - Edited

by EuroAmerican

The turtle boys are saving the day once again with help from their old friend April O'Neil, but a blunder on the boy's part introduces them to a new friend. This gives the purple dragon members another target to try a figure out where the turtles' lair is. Rated for violence, mild language, and some romance. (Naturally, I don't own any of the TMNT characters)

11. Chapter 11

The turtles had crossed most of the Manhattan skyline before they found what they were looking for. The clock tower in question had been more difficult to find than they had suspected. Mostly because New York was full of old churches and towers, and Stockman hadn't bothered telling Donnie exactly which one it was. But, they persevered, and luck had them in the right place at the right time to see some of the gang members chatting with some strange men wearing black ninja gear.

Leo silently signaled to the other that they were going in after the goons, and Ralph and Donnie nodded in unison. Mikey acknowledged the order a few seconds later, which was better than he normally managed.

The turtle boys slipped noiselessly into the building using a window and started to search for some information. In a secluded section of the floor they were on, they ran into a server room, which Donnie immediately began to hack to see exactly what they were dealing with.

He plugged one end of his phone into a USB port and began scanning the system for any thing that looked suspicious. "Alright, we've got minimal security on most of the floors, except there's electronically locking doors in the basement, and... Whoa, a ton of top of the line systems on the top floor."

"That's fascinating, but where are they holding Holly's mother?" Leo said, feeling slightly impatient.

"I'm not sure. Let me check for security cameras." Donnie tapped a few buttons on his phone. "We may not be able to see much, but we might just be able to see enough." He pulled up one image after another on the tiny screen of his phone, and peered closely at each one before disregarding it as useless and moving on to the next.

"Wait, what's that?" Leo asked over his brothers shoulder.

They all grouped close together to peer at the little screen. It showed a long dimly lit room with a raised dais at one end. The platform was cloaked in shadows, but enough of it was illuminated to show a hard looking chair placed at the center of it. More of the black clad men were kneeling, looking up at the chair, and right at the front of the group was Dog Pound and Baxter Stockman.

"I don't know, but it looks like they're praying, or something." Donnie said.

"Or bowing down to their master." Leo concluded.

"What?" Raph exclaimed.

"I'm not positive, but I think there's more going on here than meets the eye." Leo frowned at the wall. "Dog Pound and Stockman aren't smart enough to be running the show, so we have to assume that they're answering to someone else."

"That's all well and good, but we can deal with that later." Raph interjected.

"Right." Donnie said, and clicked onto the next images. "There. That's got to be her." He pointed at a cell block that had a well dressed woman crouched in a corner of one of the cells.

"Where is that?" Leo said.

Donatello cross referenced the cameras serial number with the security systems log to pin point exactly where it was, and within a minute, he had a floor number and cardinal direction the camera was facing. "Piece of cake." He announced triumphantly. "It's just a shame April's not here to see it." He muttered.

"I'm sure you'll tell her all about it later." Mikey said, poking Donnie in the cheek while grinning maniacally.

"Shut up." Donnie swatted at his younger brother.

"Quit it, both of you." Leo hissed. "We have to go."

Donnie disconnected his phone from the hardware and lead the way back out of the server room. They moved silently down the hallways, creeping between the shadows to stay in as much cover as possible. Thin moon beams crept into the building from the few windows that were on that floor, illuminating the empty office space in a dull blue-gray light.

The didn't encounter any one until the got closer to the row of elevators. There were two guards sitting on office chairs, both of whom were Purple Dragon members. They were acting like children; rolling across the linoleum, crashing into one another, and laughing their heads off.

Leo and Raph swept between the office desks in complete silence, and each knocked one of the guards unconscious without making a sound. They then stashed their limp bodies behind a giant potted fern.

Donnie and Mikey followed them and pried open one of the doors to the elevator shaft.

"Ladies first." Mikey said with a smirk, and gave Raph a little bow.

"Go stuff yourself." Raph said, he gave his brother a swift thwack to the arm, before launching himself down the dark hole.

The Turtles climbed down past the lowest labeled level to a sub-basement that had been renovated to be used as a holding cell. The harsh fluorescent lights That shone through the bars of the make shift cells cast hard shadows across the bare brick walls. All but one of the cells were empty. Huddled in the corner of her cell, covered in dirt from the unwashed floor, was Holly's mom.

They turtle boys crept out into the holding room, searching for signs of a guard but there was no one in there except the woman in the cell. Leo motioned for Donnie to sweep the room for electronic monitoring systems, especially the security cameras they had used to locate her in the first place. Donatello snuck along the wall and plugged in his phone to the back of the camera. His fingers flew over the buttons and within a few moments he gave his brothers a thumbs up and a big cheesy grin.

"I have the security system running a loop of the last minute of images. It should fool them long enough for us to get out of here."

"Lets get her out of there, I don't want to get caught here." Leo said softly.

They hurried over to the cell, and let Donnie start working on unlocking the door.

"Mrs. McCallister?" Leo said.

The women lifter her chin to look at who had spoken her name. She wore a soft gray suit with matching shoes, but they were smudged with grim and blood. Her hair was the same deep brown as her daughter's, and it was falling out of a severe bun that was pinned to her head, but her face was sharper and her features more pointed. "I already told the other one, I don't know anything." She scrambled back against the cell wall looking terrified.

"What? No, we're here to get you out." Donnie said. Through the bars.

"Just stay away from me. I don't know where my daughter is, and I wouldn't tell you even if I did." Her face was tear streaked, and her voice shook, but Holly's mother had the same determined fire in her eyes that her daughter did.

"We know where she is." Mikey blurted out. "She practically been living with us for the last few weeks."

"Mikey." Raph snapped. "Would you cram a sock in it?"

"She's what'?" All of the excitement of the day finally caught up to Holly's mother, she slid down the last section of wall and lay sprawled across the floor in her expensive designer suit.

"I'm glad that she's not as strong as Holly." Raph said with a sigh. "I don't think she would have cooperated with us."

"Yeah, imagine her reaction if she found out you were dating her daughter." Mikey said with a chuckle.

Raph scowled at the wall as his brothers laughed at his expense. After a few more seconds, Donnie had the cell door open and Leo hauled the limp woman over his shoulder. "Lets get out of here."

"Gladly." Raph said, and he lead the way back over to the elevator banks and started climbing back up to an above ground level of the building.

"Hey." Mikey started as they climbed ever higher. "Does this seem too easy to you guys?"

"Oh, don't say that." Donnie groaned.

"Why not?" Mikey asked, his big blue eyes searched his brothers face innocently.

One of the elevator doors was ripped out of its rails and it's mangled form crashed down the shaft towards the Turtles. A shower of sparks rained down on them as they scrambled frantically to get out of the way.

Leo leaped from one support beam to another just as the door bounced noisily off the wall where he had just been. The limp form of Mrs. McCallister slipped off his shoulder and he had to swing her back up into his arms before she plummeted after the steel door. "I need you guys to help me out here." He yelled at his brothers.

"You keep climbing, we'll deal with whatever they send at us." Raph yelled down to his brother.

Dog Pound stuck his massive head into the elevator shaft and roared down at them, he grabbed Mikey by the foot as he tried to leap clear and dragged him bodily through the door.

"Mikey!" The three turtles yelled in unison.

Raph didn't wait for the order, he threw himself through the opening after Mikey and proceeded to punch and kick anything that got in his way.

Donnie and Leo just looked at each other and nodded, Leo would get Holly's mom out of harms was, and would come back if need be. He would just have to trust his brothers to take care of themselves. He watched his last brother disappear into the swirling storm of shouting and mayhem before continuing to climb to an empty floor.

Raphael was furious. He didn't care how many of these freakishly dressed weirdos he had to punch, no one man handled his little brother like that. Mikey had been thrown clear across the office block and had crashed into the far wall, they had him pinned in a corner now, but he was still on his feet, which was a good sign. The happy-go-lucky turtle was currently keeping the ninja at bay with the hidden chain he had, and was swinging it in great circles to keep them away.

Donnie fell in beside Raph. "Lets make this quick." Raph nodded, and the two of them dashed in opposite directions at Dog Pound who stood smirking at them.

Raph roared and leapt high into the air aiming a punch at Dog Pounds head. The giant beast swatted at him, but Raph swung himself around Bradford's arm and let the momentum carry a well aimed heel into the massive mutts jaw.

Donnie skirted along the floor, dipping in and out of the other guys who were surrounding his brothers. He exchanged blows with a couple of them, and he noticed that they were trained in the martial arts, and their form was surprisingly similar to that which they had been instructed in. "Who are these guys?" He muttered.

"I don't care who they are." Raph yelled as he continued attacking Bradford.

"Its not like your going to be around long enough to find out anyway." Dog Pound yelled back, and clawed at Raph with his bone covered talons. Raph leapt backwards, but he was just a little bit slow and he staggered as Dog Pound left three scratches in his plastron, and one clean cut across his face. Raph snarled at Dog Pound whom was laughing at his discomfort, and threw himself back at the over sized mutt and toppled the both of them over onto a group of the ninja.

Donnie used the distraction as his opportunity to dislodge his baby brother from the corner. He swirled his staff around and around as he made his way across the room, knocking back all the advancing enemies until he had carved a path through to Mikey.

"They're tougher than the Purple Dragons." Mikey commented as he clocked one of the ninja in the head.

"It would seem so." Donnie agreed. "There far too disciplined to be common street thugs, I think we're dealing with a criminal organization."

"We don't have time to figure that out right now." Raph grunted between dodging around Dog Pounds swinging arms. "We have what want, so let's go."

"Yes, of course." Donatello gripped his Bo staff and turned to his little brother. "Up and over?" He asked.

"You know it." Mikey yelled happily and stepped between Donnie hands. He was then flung bodily over the gathering ninja, to collide with Dog Pound and Raph. They all went spilling over again, but this time Mikey was ready and wrapped his chains around Bradford's limbs, he and Raph managed to hog tie the pooch before he could get back to his feet.

Donnie twisted his Bo staff through his hands to smack a couple of approaching ninja in the gut and head respectively, he then pole vaulted himself over the remaining enemies to join up with his brothers.

Raphael wrapped the chains securely around a near by pillar to make sure Bradford couldn't get loose, while Mikey grabbed a fire extinguisher and lobbed it into the center of the room, he threw a few shuriken at it with a 'Booyakasha!" And plunged the whole room into haze of white powder.

Leonardo could hear the clatter of fighting below him but he knew he needed to keep moving for now. Carrying an Unconscious person up an elevator shaft was not easy. He was so worried he might drop Holly's mom he wasn't paying attention to much else. As he reached the door they had propped open, a dozen hands grabbed him and the woman he was carrying and dragged him bodily into the open space. He was thrown over some cubicles and crashed into the partitions. He stood to see half a dozed men dressed in black shinobi shōzoku, only they also had bug-eye goggles covering the rest of their faces. One of the ninja had Hollys' mother thrown over his shoulder now.

"Take her back to the holding cell," said one of the men. "We'll deal with him".

The other guy nodded, and took off running towards a door.

"Give her back!" Yelled Leo and tried to go after Holly's mother. But the others jumped in the way. Without waiting, they all lunged at Leo. He had to fight harder than he ever had before. These guys were well trained, and fast. He was used to fighting his 3 brothers at once, but this was too much. Getting desperate, he swung both his katana is a large arch to get them to back off. "Why are you after us anyway?" He shouted at them.

They didn't answer, not that he had expected them too. Another wave of attacks came at him, but this time he was a little more prepared. Leo launched himself directly at one attacker and ducked under the guys arm, he hooked the ninjas leg and rolled him over the top of his shell and threw him at another guy who was coming from the other direction. The next unfortunate lackey tried a round-house kick, but Leo caught his foot and pushed him backward out of the way. He launched himself through the gap he had made and ran for the door the other guy had ran out of carrying Holly's mom. The few ninja still standing were hot on his heels though, so he tipped over water coolers, tables, anything that might slow them down.

Leonardo crashed through another door that was a tall stairwell, the sounds of his brothers drifted up along with Roaring from Dog Pound. He leaped the handrails to try to catch up to the other guy, and had to roll down half a flight of stairs as three shuriken whizzed over his head and embedded themselves in the wall. Another black-clad ninja was flying at him, he ducked and the unfortunate person collided with the concrete wall. He crumpled to the floor and did not get up again. Another ninja was soon after him though, and this time he collided with Leo. They both crashed through a door, and rolled out into the middle of another vast open room. This one had tables set up in various little pods with random bits of tech sprawled across them. Men and women screamed and ran for cover as Leo and a few of the other ninja rolled across the floor, trashing work benches, sending parts flying all over. Leo found his feet and dispatched a couple of his adversaries with sharp blows to the solar plexus. The crumpled to the floor gasping and retching.

"Look out!" someone yelled from behind him. Leo spun around and narrowly avoided getting smacked around the head with a metal pipe. He shoved the guy while he was following through, and knocked him out with a chop to the side of his neck.

The room was quite, glass tinkled on the floor and the whole group of people were silent. Leo looked around, some of the group were wearing lab coats, others had protective gear on, but they all wore chains on their ankles and wrists.

"Um, are you guys OK?" Asked Leo awkwardly.

"Help us!" A woman pleaded

"Please, I have a family!" shouted another. Suddenly they were all begging to be saved.

Leo spun around, all the people were the missing scientists. He started slicing through the chains letting as many people free as he could. Soon, a balding red-headed man came up, Leo paused for just a second, "Mr. O'Neil?" he asked before something hit the back of his head and he collapsed.

Raph, Mikey and Donnie were all covered in powder from the fire extinguisher, but they had gotten away from Dogpound and the other Ninja. They climbed up a couple of floors before dipping out into another level. If these people knew what floor they had come down from, there would be a welcome waiting for them. Better to find some cover for a minute and regroup. They heard a lot of commotion, running footsteps and orders being given, but for the moment they were safe.

Mikey was the first one to speak, "Now what do we do?"

"We need to find Leo." Donnie said. He massaged his forehead briefly willing his brain to come up with a plan.

"How are we gonna' do that, exactly?" Raph asked.

"I don't know yet." Donnie looked around "See if you can find a computer or a security camera for me".

As they looked around, Mikey poked his head out into one of the stairwells. He heard a single set of footsteps coming down the stairs and looked up to see one of the ninja guys coming down with Holly's mom over his shoulder.

"Guys," he hissed, he pointed at the stairs when his brothers looked over, and Donatello and Raphael rushed to his side. They saw the guy and nodded to each other. They were going to question this bozo.

Donnie counted down on his fingers, three, two, one, and they all launched themselves at the loan soldier. Mikey grabbed Holly's mom and gently carried her back into the room they had come out of, while Donnie and Raph wrestled the ninja into submission.

"Alright punk," Raph pulled the guys mask off to reveal an angry Japanese man, "what the hell is going on here?"

"I'm not telling you" the man shot back defiantly, and spat on the floor at Raphs feet.

"Bad idea" Raph responded and went to punch the guy.

Donnie caught his arm before it connected "Hold on a second." He pushed Raph back and away from their hostage, he turned back to the man kneeling on the floor, "Who are you?"

The man straitened his back, "We are the Foot Clan, we are many, and we serve only our master".

"Who is your master?"Asked Donnie again.

"That's none of your business." The man yelled back.

"Can I knock him out now? Please?" Raph asked. He was over all these games.

"Guys, she's waking up!" Mikey yelled from a little further back.

Holly's mom was indeed coming around. She groaned and held her head as Mikey helped her into a seated position. "Take it easy" he said to her.

"Whats going on? Where am I?" She asked groggily.

"Just take it easy for a minute" Donnie said to her. "You were kidnapped from your home, can you remember anything that happened after?"

"Not really. Who are you?" She asked looking at each of them in turn.

"Well..." Donnie trailed off,

"We're friends, that's all you need to worry about" Raph said with his arms folded across his front.

"I don't know you" Snapped Holly's mom, "for all I know you're in league with that big dog guy and the creepy little weirdo, or the pointy guy."

"Do you want to get out of here, or not?" Raph Snapped back.

"Calm down," Donnie held up his hands. "We're not here to hurt anyone. Do you know whats going on here"

"No, all I know is one minute I'm at home, the next I was being questioned about my daughter and her friends". She looked worried, and scared.

There was a snap from behind them, and they all turned to see the ninja guy sprinting back up the stairs.
"He's getting away!" Mikey yelled.
"Let him, we need to get her out of here." Donnie gestured in Mrs. McCallisters direction.

"Why me? Do you know where my daughter is?" Mrs McCallister eyed the turtles suspiciously. She stood and was much taller than her daughter even without the heels on.

The brothers looked between themselves... there was no mistaking where Holly got her intelligence from.

Leonardo's head was pounding. He couldn't remember what had happened, but he did remember seeing Aprils dad. Had he been here the whole time? Stockman and whoever he was working for had been the ones to take the scientists. He groaned, and tried to open his eyes. All he could make out were fuzzy shapes, but he blinked a few times and things started to be clearer.

He was in the room with the raised dais, and the nasty looking chair. His arms were bound behind him and he was lying at the back of the room. Baxter Stockman was at the other end of the room, sniveling to someone in the shadows. The rest of the room was empty aside from a dozen or so of the ninjas who lined the walls like statues.

"I don't care, "came a voice that was deep and gravely "get them back to work."

"But some of them escaped!" Stockman replied "Its going to take even longer to get it working now."

"You're making excuses, get out of my sight." Roared the voice.

Stockman hurried as fast as his scrawny legs could carry him out of the door past Leo. "This is all your fault" He hissed as he saw Leos' groggy eyes watching him.

"Ahh, our intruder is awake, bring him to me." Leonardo was hoisted upright by two identical goons and dragged to the base of the raised platform. He was then deposited on his knees before a large someone sat in the throne before him. The ninja stepped back a couple of paces, but remained close at his shoulders. "Why are you constantly getting in my employees way?" asked the voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Leo replied. He tried squinting through the darkness to make out any features of the man he was speaking to.

"Don't play dumb with me. Any time my street thugs are retrieving anything I need, you and your colleagues prevent them from accomplishing their goals." The man sat in the chair leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

"Maybe if they didn't rough up old men, and steal from innocent people we could leave them be." Leo glared at the shadowy figure. "What do you need all the stuff for anyway?"

"I am the one asking the questions here. You're all very skilled fighters, how did you learn this?" The shadow man stood up and picked up Leonardo's katana from down next to his seat. "These are well crafted, I have only ever seen a few weapons made this well."

Leo was getting worried, why was this guy asking so many question about his family and his weapons? What did he know about the blades he wielded? "I don't have to tell you anything".

"That's very true, but I have other means of getting the information out of you." The shadow man stepped down in front of Leo and slashed at him with his own weapon. Leo gasped and closed his eyes.

Raph, Mikey and Donnie we're avoiding as many questions as they could while they escorted Holly's mom through the massive building. They had been climbing stairs trying to find a level that had windows and was empty of other people.

"Who are you and why are you helping me?" She asked in a hushed voice.

"Uhh, we can't tell you that." Donnie replied, as he checked around a corner for bad guys.

"OK, then what does this have to do with me?"
"We can't tell you that either."

"Then what can you tell me?"She demanded

"I'm Michelangelo!" Said Mikey happily.

"Michelangelo, Like the artist?" Mrs. McCallister asked surprised.

"The who?" Replied Mikey.

"I'm Donatello, that's Raphael." Donnie said pointing to himself and his brother in turn.

"Alright. Well, I'm Stacey" She said, "Although don't take it personally if I don't invite you over to my home after this."

"Awe, but your apartments awesome!" Mikey blurted out.

"Mikey!" Both Donnie and Raph yelled at the same time.

Luckily Stacey didn't have time to respond as just at that moment Baxter Stockman rounded the corner in front of them he was muttering to himself and didn't notice the little group he was about to walk into. "Stupid mutant ruining my plans, I hope he gets squashed."

"What did you just say?" Raph demanded of Stockman, he drew his sai and stomped toward the sniveling scientist.

Stockman jumped "You again! Why can't you just leave it alone?"

"I'm not going to ask you again, what were you saying about our brother?" Raph had Stockman by the lapels and was leering over him menacingly.

Stockman shriveled, "Don't hurt me!"

"Then start talking" Raph shoved the dulled point of his said at Stockmans Jaw

"Alright, Alright. He's on the top floor being held by the Shredder."

"Who's the Shredder?" Asked Donnie.

"He runs the Foot Clan and is working with some weird guys to get that mutagen distributed around the world. I just help contain the stuff and make Robots." Stockman was sniveling now. Raph growled at him. "I swear that's all I know."

"Tie him up, we need to get to Leo." Donnie was taking charge as his mind was racing. There was a lot more organizations involved in this that he thought, and it sounded like Leo was in trouble.

"What about me?" Stacey piped up. "Please, I just want to go home."

"Do you want me to take her?" Mikey asked

"Absolutely not," Raph snapped "you can't keep your mouth shut."

"I will take her, you two get to Leo and get him out of here" Donnie turned to Stockman who was now sat with his hands tied securely to a pipe. "Tell me how to get to the top floor"

"I'm not saying anything else, I'm already going to get a beating for this" he gestured at his hands.

"You can tell me and maybe we'll leave you with a way out. Or you can not, I we will leave you like this." Donnie offered sternly.

Stockman eyed the tallest turtle with suspicion, and after a brief pause, he sighed. "The other stairwell leads right up to the top floor, your brother is tied up right by the door."

"Thank you." Said Donnie, and he held up one of his sharp shuriken for Baxter to see, but then dropped it six feet away, just out of reach.

"Oh, c'mon man!" Stockman tried to use his foot to get the blade.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to get it" Donnie said, and turned away from the struggling man.
"Get Leo and get out. I'll go back to the security room and see what I can do for you, then I'll get Stacey outside." Donnie was worried.

"We'll get him, don't worry." Raph cracked his neck, it was time to get serious.

Leonardo was breathing heavily, he was certain that he was going to be cut down by this mysterious man, but instead he had cut the ropes holding his arms behind his back. He eyed the man cautiously, "What are you doing?"

"I will figure out who taught you to fight before I kill you."

The man threw Leo's swords at his feet, and he bent to retrieve them. "Then I will kill your colleagues so you cannot interfere in my business again." The man lowered his stance and spread his arms out to the side, Leo could see twin blades slide out of each gauntlet and before they had fully extended the massive man launched himself across the room. Leo rolled out of the way, and immediately had to block his face from being sliced open. Whoever this guy was he hit like a truck. Leo ducked under another swipe and tried to kick the guys ribs. They were protected by the guys armor and it didn't seem to slow the guy down.
Leo hopped back out of range and thrust himself forward between the mans arms to try to pierce the chest plate. But the man rotated out of the way and drove his elbow into Leo's shell, slamming him into the floor.

"Your form is well known to me, although you lack the resolve to be any real threat." He kicked Leonardo in the ribs and sent the turtle spinning across the room. He landed on his shell with a thud. The man launched himself high into the air, getting ready to drive his blades into Leo's chest. "You will die here a disgrace to your master!" Leos eyes widened.

"NOT TODAY!" Raphael screamed and careened into the man mid flight. The force sent them both flying, although the big man landed on his feet with out issue, and threw Raph back towards his Brother. He stumbled, but remained upright too. Raph glowered at Shredder with pure loathing. "You don't touch him."

"You are all pathetic and I will crush you."

"Leo was on his feet again, "Perfect timing, wheres Donnie?"

"He's fine," Raph replied not taking his eyes off the massive man who was already advancing on them again.

Shredder roared and lunged, Leo and Raph also yelled out and the three of them swung at each other ferociously. Mikey had extended out his chain and was rushing around to the other side of the Shredder, trying to catch him unaware. He flung the chain trying to catch a foot, but Shredder saw it coming, he caught the chain and hurled Mikey over his shoulder. Mikey flew at his brother, but Raph hopped over him and he skidded to a stop at the other end of the hall.

Donnie and Stacey were hugging the walls trying to go undetected to a security room. If they could cause enough confusion, maybe they could all slip our without taking too much damage. Stacey had ditched her shoes as they were making too much noise, and was tip-toeing along behind the tallest turtle.

Donnie was very concerned about his family. How on earth were they going to get out of here? As they were creeping along a corridor, they can across a door that looked promising. He peeked in the little window to see a security booth with only one guard sitting at the desk. He motioned to Stacey to wait where she was, and opened the door as quietly as he could. The guard heard the door and turned around, just in time to see Donnie swinging his Bo Staff at his head. The guard slumped over on the floor, and Stacey joined him in the room.

"OK, lets see what we're working with." Donnie cracked his knuckles and stated typing on the keyboard before him. He could see a number of the monitors were displaying various cameras from around the building. There were alarm system, sprinkler systems, and lighting controls he had access to, along with schematics of all available exits. One of the displays switched to a different camera, and Donnie saw his brothers getting their shells kicked by the guy that Stockman had called the Shredder. He was viscous and was not slowing down despite being out numbered. "This is bad." He muttered to himself.

"Who is that guy?" Stacey asked pointing at the Shredder.

"I don't know really, but if he can beat up all three of my brothers, he is bad news." Donnie started pulling up information.

"You're siblings?" Stacey asked with a note of concern in her voice.

"Yeah," Donnie scalded himself mentally and he was worried Mikey would give away too much. He saw that the top floor had a roof access that the others could get out of, if they were able to get away from this maniac. He just needed to provide them with a distraction. He pulled up all the systems for that floor on his monitor and saw that he could control the lights, and sprinklers from here. There were also emergency lighting that he could illuminate to show his brothers where to go.

He pulled up a command panel and quickly typed in some basic commands. It would be able to do all three at once which would hopefully give the others enough of a window to get out. He pressed enter and checked the monitor. The dim lights that were on plunged the room into almost total darkness, the only lights that could be seen were the city lights that bled into the room through the high windows. The sprinkler system started pouring and a strip of emergency lighting led towards the exit. Donnie just hoped that the others would know what it meant.

Before they left. Donnie looked for the closest exit he could get Stacey to. There was a window exit a couple of floors down that they could use as it was just across from another building that he could jump to. "Alright, time to go."

"Wait, what about your brothers?" Stacey questioned looking back at the dark monitor.

"I trust them, they'll get out." He was worried, but there was nothing more he could do.

Stacey nodded and the unlikely pair left the room and sprinted to the exit.

Mikey was freaking out. This Shredder character was absolutely overrunning him and his big brothers. He felt completely useless and didn't see how they were going to get out of this one. Just as he was loosing hope, the lights went out. He yelled out in surprise and was rewarded with a mouthful of stale sprinkler water.

"Donnie" Raph said out loud. He knew that this was his brothers doing, and looked around for a sign. On the floor was a thin illuminated strip of lighting, and he and Leo grabbed their baby brother and hauled him away as water poured all around them.

Shredder was distracted just for the briefest second. The lights and sprinklers had startled him as he now couldn't see or hear the three nuisances. When he looked back they were gone. He searched the area, but couldn't see anything. His one blind eye made it difficult to see through the haze of the water and the dimness. He roared in frustration and stalked out to find something to take out his rage.

Donnie and Stacey were waiting outside on a building south of the tower. They had made it out without running into anyone else and were waiting for the others to join them.

"I should call the police." Stacey said. "Tell them what is going on in there and get them all arrested"

"Chances are they have a crooked cop working with them," Donnie said, grateful for something to distract his thoughts. "There's no way that they could operate such a large enterprise without someone to keep the heat off of them."

"How?" Stacey asked dumbfounded "In this day and age, how is it possible that they're so deep underground? Surely the FBI, or CIA has files on these guys?"

"I don't know, but they don't know about us either though, so Its not that surprising." Donnie was scratching his chin.

"Seriously, who are you? I feel like I've been through enough today" Stacey sounded exhausted.

Donnie sighed, "The mutagen that Stockman mentioned..." Stacey nodded, "we were made by that. So was the big dog guy." Donnie turned to plead with her, "now please, I can't tell you anything else."

A few moments later. Mikey, Leo, and Raph appeared over the lip of the building Donnie was on. He let out a sigh of relief and ran to his brothers. "Thank goodness. I was so worried"

"We got your message." Leo also let out a sigh. "You saved our bacon."

"I can't believe what is going on in there." Donnie said, "Something very serious is going on and we may need to find out what it is."

"Later, we need to get out of here and get back to Splinter." Leo decided.

"What about her?" Mikey asked.

"I won't say a word, I swear" Stacey held up her hands in submission.

"We're not going to hurt you" Leo said softly, "You should go home and let the police know that you're safe. Although, if you could not mention us, that would be great"

"I won't." Stacey assured them.

Mrs. McCallister did call the police to get a ride home. Despite Donnies' worry about a crooked cop, they picked her up and took her to the station for a statement. While she was waiting she tried to get someone to find her daughter, but they didn't have any information. They said a girl had been at the scene initially that fit the description Stacey gave them, but she had not been seen since. Once Stacey got home, an officer stayed in the lobby to keep guard since Bud had been taken to the hospital for observation. She went to her apartment, and stepped around the broken glass she had dropped and crawled into the shower. She tried to call her daughter again and this time, Holly answered.

Splinter was busying himself making another pot of tea for himself and the young women. None of them had really spoken after they had changed and gotten all their injuries tended to. Holly had been wringing her hands non-stop. Tearing up the tissues she kept grabbing to dab the tears out of her eyes, while April was glued to her phone looking for any breaking news articles for information. Usually, when he was waiting for his boys to come home he would meditate in his room. He decided it might be worth a try, it would at least give them something to work on while they waited.

He carried the pot out and started walking towards the training room, "Would you please follow me."

April and Holly looked at each other, then over to Splinter. "Do we need to bring anything?" Asked April.

"Only your cups if you would like some more tea."

"Can you walk?" Holly asked April.

"Lets find out." April stood and took a couple of wobbly steps on her ankle. "Can I just hold your arm?"

Holly grabbed hers and Aprils cup on one hand, and held her arm out for her friend. They slowly hobbled over to the training room, where Splinter had laid out three cushions in a little circle. The pot of tea was in the middle and his own cup steamed away by one of his knees.

"We're going to try a little meditation to help clear your minds" Splinter had his eyes closed and his hands were resting gently on his knees. "Take a cushion and get comfortable."

Holly helped April down to one of the seats and got her arranged so her tea was within reach before she settled on her knees on the other.

"Alright, we are going to try to focus on our breathing to distract ourselves from all the negative thoughts that are trying to invade out minds." Splinter casually reached down and picked up his mug without opening his eyes. "I understand it will be difficult, you are both worried and have had an emotional couple of days, but this is the perfect time to try and learn how to block out as much of the clutter as possible".

April shifted around trying to keep her ankle comfortable, "Is this what you do, when you're waiting for the boys to come home?"

"This, or I like to catch up on my stories." Splinter smiled.

"Really? Soap operas?" Holly scoffed.

"We all have our guilty pleasures." Splinter shrugged. The girls exchanged an amused look, but didn't say anything. "Now, if you would take a deep breath in through the nose. Feel the air fill your lungs and let it out through your mouth."

Holly closed her eyes and rolled her neck to loosen some of the tension. She could feel how tense she was, as she rotated through the circle, she could feel the muscles stretching all down her back, and along her shoulder. Without prompting, she took another deep breath.

"Feel better?" Splinter asked.

"A little, actually." Holly admitted.

They all sat quietly focusing on their own breath. Occasionally, Splinter would speak up to remind them to breath deeply, or to try to keep them from drifting too far into their own heads. Every once in a while, someone would take a sip of tea, or adjust their seating position. April was struggling to stay comfortable though. Her ankle still ached, and she couldn't cross her legs properly as it would put pressure on it and make it ache even more. She really did try to clear her mind, but she couldn't keep her thoughts off of Donatello and the others. Eventually, she gave up. She rolled onto one knee and stumbled up to her feet.

"Do you need some help?" Holly asked starting to get up.

"No, I just need to stretch my legs." She hobbled out of the training room and into the kitchen. She sat on one of the stools to catch her breath and stretched out her ankle a little. She stood again and grabbed a glass of water and sipped at it while she checked her phone for texts. It had been a few of hours since she and Holly had gotten back underground, she was hoping that there would be some news by now.

April settled herself back on the couch, meditation wasn't for her. She popped on some late night TV that she didn't have to pay attention to while she waited for someone to contact her.

A couple more hours passed and April was still waiting. Splinter and Holly were still in the training room and none of the Turtles had reached out. April was chewing on her nails when the boys finally trudged into the Lair.
"You're back!" She yelled and tried to stand, she immediately fell sideways onto the couch "We were so worried." Donnie raced over and helped her upright. She gave him an enormous hug before hobbling over to the others.

There was a commotion in the corner as Holly threw open the training room door, she stood in the frame for just a moment, before sprinting at Raph and launching herself at him. She tackled him with the sheer force of her relief and let out a little sob.

Master Splinter followed more slowly and was visibly relieved to see his sons home. Thy looked a little banged up, but nothing too serious he hoped.

"Are you guys alright? Did you find her?" April asked as Holly let go of Raph and he helped her onto the couch.

"We found her," Leo said "and a whole lot more."

"Where is she?" Holly said through the sleeve of her robe. She was rubbing her face trying to wipe away the last of her tears.

"She was picked up by a police officer who probably took her to the station," Leo answered, "I would bet they'll take her home after they talk to her."

Holly let out a shaky sigh and put her face in her hands. "Thank you all, so much" Her voice broke and a few more tears leaked from the corner of her bloodshot eyes.

"There's more though. April, your father was there too?" Leo directed the comment at the girl and everyone turned to see her expression. Leo had already told his brothers about what had happened to him while they were in the tower, but they had all agreed that it would be better to tell April in person what they had seen.

The color drained from her cheeks, "My dad was there too? Did you save him?" She sounded hopeful and Leonardo felt terrible that he had to let her down.

"I'm so sorry, someone knocked me out before I could".
April visibly deflated, "It's alright. I'm sure you did everything you could". She was disappointed that they had finally found her father but hadn't been able to rescue him.

"I swear, I tried." Leo offered her, feeling like a failure.

Everyone was silent for a moment, even though they had managed to get Holly's mom out safely, somehow the whole mission felt like a bust. Leonardo probably had a nasty concussion, Raphael was still sporting scratch marks all over his face and torso, while Donatello and Michelangelo still had the fire extinguisher residue in various smudges all over.

"Why don't we get you all cleaned up, and we can discuss what you saw, and learned further." Splinter offered.

While Donnie and Mikey washed the powder off of themselves.

Holly was applying iodine to the scratched on Raphs plastron. Raph sucked air in through his teeth as she tended the scratch on his face "Ouch! That hurts."

"Don't be such a baby." Holly scolded him, but her heart wasn't in it. She was pleased the turtles were home, and relieved that her mom was safe, but worried for April. The guys had seen her father. This was the first news of him since he had gone missing.

Splinter had grabbed a bag of ice for Leo's head while April was still resting her foot. She was staring off absently and being unusually quiet.

"Hey, are you alright?" Holly sat next to April and looked for some indication of what was going through her friends head.

"I'm not really sure" April replied honestly.

Holly leaned over and gave her a hug. What could she say? Once everyone was back together, Leonardo, assisted by Donatello, shared everything that had happened over the last six hours. When they got to talking about the organized ninja outfit, Splinter suddenly became very interested. "What was the name of this group?" He asked seriously.

"The Foot Clan," Leonardo replied, "but they're run by a guy they call..."

"The Shredder." Finished Splinter softly.

"You know those guys!?" Mikey yelled.

"He was the reason I came to Manhattan in the first place." Splinter said absentmindedly. He was connecting pieces of this puzzle together and it was not painting a pretty picture. "I will explain later, please continue."

"Oh...Kay," Leo said dubiously, "So, Stockman claims that this 'Shredder" is working with some other guys to distribute the Mutagen. They're using the Purple Dragon gang to commit the petty crimes they need to get supplies or transport, but the big stuff is all done behind closed doors".

Holly was listening intently; "Wait a minute, there are three organizations, all working together? Who are the third guys?"

"That we don't know. All Stockman said was that they were 'weird'" Donnie answered.

"If Stockman is dealing with thie mutagen then why have they got other scientists held hostage doing research?" Holly didn't like where this was going. Organized criminals working with genetic experimentation, this was beginning to sound like weapons dealing. Weapons of the biological kind.

"Again, we don't know for sure." Donnie was getting that ominous feeling again. There was a lot more going on here than they could possibly know.

Holly rubbed her temples with her finger tips. This was an awful lot for a bunch of teenagers to be dealing with. Most kids their ages we worried about pimples, or who they were going to homecoming with. Not criminal organizations and secret laboratories. "I'll be right back." Holly got up and walked into the kitchen. She splashed some cold water on her face and checked the time. It was well past sun-up by now. They had all been awake all night and the strain of sickening worry and lack of sleep was beginning to take its toll. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, making her jump. It was her mother calling, and she answered it without hesitation.

"Mom?" She gripped the phone tightly.

"Holly," there was relief in Stacey's' voice. "Where are you? Are you safe?"

"Yes mom, I'm safe. I'm with April." She paused for a moment, worrying. "Are you alright?"

"I just got home, the police had some questions about what happened to me. Are you coming home?'

"Yes, of course I am." Holly was shocked she wasn't demanding she get home immediately. "I'll grab a cab as soon as possible".

"Good." Stacey also paused. "I think we need to talk."

"Sure mom, whatever you want." Holly was really freaking out now. "I'll see you soon, OK?"

"See you soon." Stacey hung up.

Holly stared at her phone, this was not going to be good. She returned to the rest of the group and let them know she would need to leave. "April, do you want to catch a lift home?"

"Yeah, I probably should" She said. "I'll need help though."

Donatello stood. "I'll carry you to the surface. It's the least I can do."

"Let me round up our things, and we'll go." Holly hurried around the lair grabbing the few things she and April had brought the night before. It wasn't much, so soon they were bidding the others a solemn farewell. They all promised to stay in contact as much as they could as no one knew when they would be seeing each other again. Once Donnie, Holly and April were gone. Splinter stood.

"Leonardo, please join me for a moment in the training room."

"Yes, father." Leo responded and the two of them left.

Once the door was closed, Mikey piped up, "Well, this has been a bummer."

Raph couldn't even muster the energy for a snarky reply.

Splinter faced his son with a stern look on his face. "I wanted to tell you that in light of your recent discoveries, we are going to have to begin more advanced training for you and your brothers."

"Whats going on father? What do you know?" Leo was curious.

"I am not quite ready to disclose everything, but if the Shredder is involved, there are some things you are going to need to know." Splinter turned to go to his own room. "I am glad you are all home."

"So am I father." Leo exited back out to the living area to see Mikey and Raph sat quietly on the couch. He walked over and sat between them. "You guys alright?"

"Of course," Raph said dismissively. "I saved your ass though".

"Yeah, you sure did" Leo smiled to himself. He knew his brother was scared for him, but this was as close as he could manager to admitting it.

"Well, I'm not!" Mikey yelled. "We were getting creamed by the Shredder guy. If Donnie hadn't caused a distraction, who knows where we'd be right now? Probably six feet under."

"I know Mikey, but that is why we all have to lookout for each other, and trust each other." Leo stood and patted his youngest brother on the shoulder.

Mikey grabbed Leo around the waist and hugged him tight "I just don't know what I'd do with out you guys!"

"Mikey!" Leo cried out as he was almost knocked off his feet.

"You asked for this" Raph gestured at their brother.

"I love you too, Raph" Mikey released Leo and tried to latch onto the grouchy one.
"Don't even think about it!" Raph tried to run, but was tackled around the knees by Mikey, who promptly tried to give him a hug.

Donatello dropped April and Holly off just out of sight of the street. He couldn't go any further as the sun was out fully for the day. But he bade them farewell and made sure they got in the cab before he turned back.

April and Holly's' ride home was very quiet. The cab dropped April off first, and Holly helped her up the stairs to her apartment before continuing on alone.

Holly was dreading what was going to happen when she got there. Her hair was still messy with flakes of blood and her clothes were covered in ash and dirt from the Factory. She had intentionally not changed back into them so she could try to hide the evidence, but how was she going to explain the beautiful robe she had on, or anything else for that matter.

When she got to her apartment, there was still a police officer in the lobby. The officer asked Holly who she was before she was allowed upstairs and when she finally did let her pass, Holly heard the officer call in a report on her radio.

The door was locked, so Holly let herself in with her keys "Hello? Mom?" She called out tentatively. There were hurried footsteps and Holly saw her mother swish out of her room in a long elegant bathrobe, her hair was still ever so damp and she looked exhausted.

"Holly!" Stacey threw her arms around her daughter and pulled her into a tight hug, Holly gripped her mother back just as tight.

When Stacey finally drew back, she looked her daughter over to see if she was hurt, "Where were you? I was so worried when they said you weren't home!"

"Mom, you were kidnapped... I was at school when it happened," Holly was shocked. "I couldn't stay here when I heard what happened, I needed help!"

"The police were already here, why didn't you go to them?" Stacey had tears dripping off her chin.

"I was scared!" Holly also had tears running along her cheeks. She hadn't thought she had any left. "I went to..." She faltered "Aprils."

"Liar." Stacey pulled Holly in for another hug, "What is going on with you lately? The men who took me were asking about you and your friends. Is April in a gang? Is she the reason you're in trouble?"

"No, God no." Holly actually laughed at her. "That's ridiculous, even for you."

"Then what is it?" Stacey was pleading for some answers, but what could she say. Her mother wouldn't believe the truth, and chances are she would have her daughter committed for a mental evaluation.

"I can't tell you everything." Holly looked at her toes, she would not betray her friends trust, but she couldn't lie to her mother either. "I have made some friends who are in trouble. But they also don't know why they're being targeted" She hastily added when her mother blanched. "April knows them too, she has known them for months. They were the ones who saved her when her father was taken."

"Your new friends saved April too?" Stacey's mind was racing. She knew that Aprils father was missing, but she didn't know that April had been in danger too.

"Yes, they're so kind and considerate, but they are..." Holly was searching for the word "misunderstood." She winced, this was as close as she was going to get to telling her mom anything.

Stacey sighed. She knew her daughter too well. "I don't know, how can I possibly trust you when you are keeping things from me?"

"I'm sorry." Holly's voice cracked as a new wave of dismay crashed down over her.

"Come here." Stacey pulled her daughter to the couch and they sat and held each other for a while until Holly's tears subsided and became little harsh gasps. "First things first, we are moving out of this place. The amount I pay and the security was worthless."

"No please, I don't want to move again". Holly begged.

"I can't stay here." Stacey looked around. Someone had done their best to clean up, but there was still a slight stain on her floor from where she had dropped her wine.

"Mom, please! We can get a stronger deadbolt and cameras, plus you can have you lawyer contact the HOA and threaten to sue them over the security." Holly was getting desperate. "Just leave Bud out of it. He doesn't get paid enough to take the blame for this"

Stacey thought about it, she had dragged her daughter to 3 different cities in the last 2 years already. "We'll start with new locks and cameras. But I'm not promising anything." Holly just nodded. Stacey frowned suddenly at her daughter and held her arms out, "What are you wearing?"

"Oh, this was a present. Do you like it?"

"Its beautiful." Stacey's keen eye for design was impressed. It was the first thing her daughter had worn that really suited her. "Was this from your new friends? Are they Japanese?"

"Their dad is." Holly said happy to change the subject.

"Their dad... Huh." Stacey was sharper than her daughter gave her credit for. "You look like you want a bath. Go get cleaned up, I'll tell the school you're not coming in today."

"OK mom." Holly turned to leave, but rushed back over to hug her mom again. "I'm so glad you're safe. I love you."

"I love you too, honey. Now I'm going to call a locksmith." Stacey stood and went to her phone. As she heard Holly running a bath, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She looked into her own blue eyes and wondered if she was being crazy. If her daughter really were friends with those, things, that had saved her... It would explain why they came to help her in the first place. The tall one had admitted that they were all brothers, and they were trained in some form of eastern martial arts. If their father, came from Japan and taught them the traditional arts, he would have known about traditional garments too. There was no denying the coincidence.

While Stacey called and organized for a locksmith to come over within the hour, she walked into her home office and started sketching up some designs that had crept into her head. She styled them on the beautiful garment her daughter came home in.

Holly was so happy to be in a warm bath. She had soaked in it for a good 30 minutes before she scrubbed her hair and skin clean of all the dust and blood that had been caked in. She drained, and rinsed the tub, before refilling it with fresh hot water and settled in to let her head rest. She hoped that she had been as honest as she could while still keeping Splinter and the guy's secret. She snatched up her phone and sent a text to Raph telling him that she was home and what she had told her mother.

I mean, that should be good he responded.

I'm surprised you're still awake!

I wanted to make sure you were OK

I'll be OK. Are you guys OK? It sounded like you

were in trouble for a minute there.

Mikey was freaking out.

Oh No! You had better have been nice to him!

He tired to HUG ME!

I hug you all the time!

Yeah, but I like you

I mean, like a friend

I like Mikey too, but not like you.

Mikey's my brother!

Holly laughed out loud.

:D I get it, go to sleep already... And I like you too.

Holly felt better. She hoped that her mom wouldn't move them again, but she was glad that she was home and safe. She got out of the tub, and got dressed in her coziest pajamas. She made some food for both herself and her mom, and they ate while the locksmith replaced the deadbolt with a heavy duty version and secure it in place with three inch screws. He gave them all sorts of information about what else they could do to secure their home, and Stacey asked him to send her some additional information that she could take to their Home Owners Association to get better security for the whole building. She thanked him and got a referral for an electrician who could install some cameras and alarms, then closed and locked their door behind him. They then put on a movie, and snuggled up under a blanket on the couch, before the title screen had finished Holly was out cold. Stacey held her teenage daughter and was thanking whoever was watching that they were both safe.

The turtles slept late into the evening after all the excitement of the previous night. No one had slept well, and everyone was stressing out about all the information that had obtained. Something sinister was going on and it would probably affect more than just the few people they knew. Leonardo was trying to forgive himself for failing April and her father, but he was finding it difficult to let go of his self criticism. Michelangelo had reasonably settled down, but was still anxious about how close they had come to loosing. Donatello was in reasonable decent spirits, he was more pragmatic than the others and was focusing on what they needed to do next. Raphael resorted to his usual stony-faced routine. He would never admit to anyone how terrified he had been when his brother was nearly turned into a shish kebab. He barely slept, and when he did the scene played over and over in his mind.

Their father was somewhere in the middle of all of this. He was certainly worried. Very few people aside form himself knew how dangerous Oroku Saki was. But he also knew that his boys could learn to defeat him, they just needed more training and a better understanding of what they were facing. He rummaged in his little shoe box of personal possessions for a single picture he had carried with him for years. It was just about the only thing he had to remind him of his life before moving to America, a picture of his wife and daughter. He was hoping that April and Holly might come by that evening, but understood that they too may be struggling emotionally and would need the comfort of their family.

He made his way to the kitchen to make tea and patiently waited for his family to join him.

"There are some areas of my past that I didn't think you needed to know about, but it has become obvious that this is no longer true." Splinter carefully studied each of his sons faces for their emotions. "I know each of you is still reeling from your experiences yesterday, but I think that some history will help you to understand your enemies enough to be more prepared for them in future."

He launched into his story, leaving very little out. Splinter told them about his past life as a man growing up in Japan. His relationship with Oroku, and their rivalry as boys. Their disagreements over their teachings. Their mutual love interest and how that interest had turned to bitterness once Tang Shen had made her decision. How she and Splinter had married and had a child , and how, consumed by jealousy Oroku had set fire to their home and had taken the life of the woman, and their daughter. The more detail he gave, the more exaggerated his sons expressions became. He passed around the only picture he had of him old life.

"You had a wife and daughter?" Donnie asked softly, staring at the faded photo, "I'm so sorry."

"I was so angry for so long," Splinter admitted, "It's why I came here in the first place, to face Oroku again. I heard there was a group in New York causing major issued headed up by a man who had come from our province in Japan. A man who studied under our school. I suspected it was Oroku, who now went by the pseudonym 'Shredder' but I wasn't 100% certain, I am now though." Everyone was stunned. The turtles knew that their father had been a man before the mutagen had changed him, but they had no idea about his past life.

"Once my physical form was changed and I had you four to look after, seeking out Oroku seemed pointless. I had joy in my life again, and was no longer controlled by bitterness and hatred." Splinter smiled at his family. "You saved me from the darkness."

"We are pretty great" Mikey said happily.

"So, now you know the truth." Splinter took back his picture and moved to put it back in his pocket.

"We may know more about the clan and Shredder himself, but we are going to need to get serious with our training if we're going to stand a chance against him." Leo knew all too well what almost happened to him. The others nodded their agreement.

April had slept through most of the morning. She had gotten home and told her aunt that Holly's mom had been found and that the she had been taken by the same people that had her father. Carol was elated to know her brother was still alive, but didn't tell April that she had been worried he might not be. They were both hoping for some update from the police who had been working the missing persons case, but April knew it wouldn't be coming. The police weren't the ones who had found her dad and she couldn't tell her aunt who had. Surprisingly however, there was a news report on that evening that covered a police raid on the building the turtles had been at. The news anchor stated that the NYPD SWAT team had gone into the building after a local woman had been kidnapped and found safe near by. With her statement the police had obtained a warrant and had raided the location, only to find that the people responsible had abandoned the location and there were no clues as to where they had gone. A reward for information had been posted, but April would be amazed if anyone had anything to tell. Unfortunately, this also meant that her father was gone again and as of now they were no closer to finding him than they had been yesterday,

Te next few days were spent in relative isolation for everyone. Holly's mother was reluctant to even let her go to school, let alone go out with friends. April had made it over to the Lair, and she had been informed of the stricter training schedule that the Turtles were going to have to adhere to, but her ankle was still tender so she couldn't participate and usually ended up baking or doing homework while the other worked. The following weekend however, Holly finally convinced her mother to let her go to Aprils, and the turtles agreed to meet them there since it was summer and the nights wouldn't get as cold.

Stacey drove her daughter to her friends house. She usually wouldn't drive in the city, but she was much more cautious that she had been in the past. "Don't go anywhere, and call me when you want to come home."

"I won't, and I will" Holly called back. "Are you going to be OK?"

"Oh, I'm not staying there alone until the guy comes to fit the new door" Stacey said, "If you're staying here, I'm going to go to one of my friends places."

"Be safe mom, I love you."

"I love you too."

Once upstairs, April was delighted to have her friend back. "I missed you!" She squeezed her friend tight and beamed at her. "Are you guys doing OK?" April guided Holly into the living room and they sat down for a while with Carol.

"We're OK. Mom is still worried that those guys will come back, but she is getting all new security on our apartment, and she is threatening the Homeowners Board that if they don't fix the rest of the buildings security she will sue them." Holly shook her head, but so long as they didn't move again, she didn't care what her mother threatened.

"I don't blame her," said Carol, "If I payed that much I would expect the doorman to be more capable of dealing with intruders."

"It wasn't his fault. They surprised him during the day when the doors are unlocked." Holly was sad for Bud, he was in a fair amount of trouble and she didn't want him to loose his job. "He can't be expected to deal with dangerous people, he doesn't have any training!"

"That's true I suppose" Carol was won over.

April and Holly moved themselves up to Aprils room, they talked about the news report that had been on, and wondered how the Foot and Shredder had managed to pack up and move so quickly.

"There has to be a mole" Holly said with certainty.

"Donnie thinks the same." April said sadly.

"Just because they have more information doesn't mean we wont catch up." Holly offered with a smile.

"What if we don't though" April hugged her knees. She had been keeping this to herself for a few days now, "He's been gone for so long already, I miss him."

Holly scooted over and wrapped an arm around Aprils shoulders "Weren't you the one telling me to trust the guys a few days ago? They will find him"

April sobbed softly, after a few minutes she said "I know. We have once now, we can do it again."

"In all honesty, I wasn't sure how far I could trust anyone. But I would trust Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey with my life. I know they will do everything and anything they can to help."

April nodded, "That's how I feel about them too. They've never not tried to help.'

"It's why they keep getting into trouble. Stopping those Purple Dragon thugs from stealing from innocent people is why this all started in the first place." Holly chuckled. Her face then dropped as she had a thought. "Holy shit, I've had a great idea". April was confused. "We bug a shipment!" April was still confused.
When night fell, and Carol was safely tucked up in her own bed. April and Holly climbed up the fire escape to the roof of the building. The night was warm and still so they both had just put on short and tank-tops. Holly had her Hair up in a bun, while April had opted to let hers loose for once. It hung down to her shoulders in auburn waves that suited her much better than when it was up.

The turtles didn't leave them waiting for too long.

"Glad to see you!" Leo said and hugged the girls.

"Did you miss me?" Mikey said at the same time.

"Of course" April replied with a chuckle, and grabbed the youngest brother tightly.

"How's your ankle?" Raph asked April and motioned at the injury.

"Much better, it wasn't much fun to climb the ladder, but otherwise its doing great!" April rotated it around to show them.

Once all the pleasantries were over with. The group moved on to more serious topics. Leo lead the discussion by recounting all the Splinter had told him and the others to the girls.

"And you didn't tell me any of this before, why?" April shouted. She was immediately shushed by the others.

"I wanted to tell you together, mostly so I only had to do it once." Leo shrugged.

"Jerk." April sulked.

"That's some pretty heavy stuff." Holly said, "I'm not surprised he kept it to himself. Are you sure he's OK with us knowing?"

"I think so, its pretty important information and you guys are the only people who can help us on the surface."

This did little to ease Holly's discomfort. This all felt a little too personal to be casually discussing.

"We saw the News report" Donnie offered to change the subject. "We'll find your dad again April, I promise."

April gave him a small smile, "I know you will."
"Speaking of, I've had an Idea of how we can find them again!" Holly said brightly. The others looked at her expectantly. "We just need to bug their next delivery and they'll take us to them!"

Donatello frowned, "How will we know where they'll hit next?"

Holly was hoping that he would have at least been more excited, "We know the Purple Dragons have been looking for any and all electronic supplies... We can find a warehouse they haven't hit and put trackers in the supplies."

Donnie considered it, "It could work. We would need very small tracking units though, and they would have to be well hidden. Stockman could find them."

Holly shook her head, "It won't matter, so long as the hired help doesn't discover it, we'll already know where they are. And hopefully by the time Stockman actually gets his hands on the equipment it will be far too late."

Donnie smiled, "Its not a bad plan." They both looked at the others for their input.

"How can we be certain that the Purple Dragons will take the trackers?" Leo asked "What if the supplies get picked up by an actual delivery person?"

"I'm not saying the plan is perfect. If we can at least get the trackers into items they're more likely to take, that will give us better odds." Holly shrugged, it wasn't perfect, but it would give them more information. They had ran in blind last time and nearly been blown up. She didn't want to risk it a second time. She started pacing, "If we could a camera also we could get visual conformation that they are actually holding the missing people in the same place that the supplies are going, and potentially see who the mysterious third party is." She stopped pacing when she realized everyone was looking at her like she was crazy. Everyone except Donnie, who finally looked excited.

"You are as bad as him." Mikey pointed at Donnie, who glared back at his little brother.

Holly sighed, "Listen, I am still a bit freaked out after the fortune cookie factory, and what you all faced in the tower. I don't want you to rush in unprepared. Neither of us do." She gestured at April, who nodded her agreement, "We need to be smarter that they are, as well as stronger, so while you all get stronger. I will help you the best way I know."

"This is supposed to be my briefing" Leo said jokingly,

"This involves all of us now," Holly shrugged "I am never going to be as good a fighter as you guys, but I will still help the best was I know how."

"I fell like we should clap or something" Mikey whispered to the group.

"Don't be ridiculous" Holly replied.

April was significantly happier than she had been. Her friends were doing everything they could in order to help her get her father back. She was determined to do her part and train as hard as she could in order to be of help. Holly was right, they all needed to work together using the best abilities they had. A fire had been lit in her chest, and she would not wallow in her fear any more.

"I need all you help to train more." April said. "Holly, can you show me what you know about the katana if I can't get to Splinter for training?

"Of course" Holly smiled, she was so glad April had her spirit back.

April nodded, she felt ready to go now.

The rest of the evening was mostly spent listening to Donnie and Holly talk about how they could implement their plan. Leonardo would occasionally ask a question, and Mikey would chime in with a witty comment. But they would have to orchestrate most of the initial work. Donnie was going to start working on designs for a small transmitter that could easily be hidden, or ignored from nosy eyes. If he could manage it, he would try to add a camera, or something that could give them additional information. Holly would get supplies for now, anything Donnie needed to make a prototype. Once they had a design, the two of them could build a few devices in case they were needed. They would share design information digitally through a secured file sharing service so that they could both work on it together, even if Holly was at home. While they were doing this, the others could search the web for whatever information they could about thefts and what was being stolen to try and figure out a pattern to the stuff going missing and who else had the same merch.

It was late when they wrapped up their conversations. Holly gave each turtle a hug in turn, and lingered slightly when she held Raph. Just enough to let him know she cared, but not enough so that the others could give him grief about it. She climbed down the side of the building easily. April on the other hand needed help. Naturally, Donatello practically sprinted to her when she asked.

"I just don't trust my ankle on this ladder." She smiled and hugged Leo, Raph and Mikey and let Donatello lift her easily into his arms.

He deposited her into her bedroom and got his own hug before leaving again.

Holly and April were far too excited to sleep. They lay in bed together with a lamp on talking of all the things they wanted to do. How it would be nice to take a vacation once Aprils dad was back. Where they could possibly go and take the Turtles and Splinter with them. How they could possibly convince Mrs McCallister to let Holly out so she could go to the Lair to train and work on the trackers.

It took Donnie and Holly only a couple of weeks to finalize their designs for a tracker. There were plenty of pre-made components that they could utilize, but they were hoping for something smaller than those that were commercially available. The two had spent many late nights on a video call going over plans and drawings. Holly had been ordering parts and supplies from a delivery service, or going to a small model shop that had soldering tools available much cheaper that what was online. Plus, she liked talking to the shop owner, he had lots of experience with electronics and was happy to teach her whatever she wasn't able to grasp on her own. Anytime her mom had come into her room unannounced, Holly had to mute her speakers so that nothing gave away who she was talking to. She had told her mom she was working on a project with other students at the school. Stacey had heard her daughter talking with a male voice through the door and wouldn't stop asking questions; What was his name? Was he cute? After a while, Holly had switched to headphones to keep her mother out of it.

Both of the girls had been able to go over to the lair a couple of times a week to train with Splinter and to hang out. April was improving quickly, she had kept her promise to herself and trained almost every day either alone, or on the roof of her apartment with Holly. She could feel herself getting stronger, and was gaining a little more confidence in her abilities. She had soon caught up to Holly in the basics and they were practicing against each other almost daily.

Once Donatello had finalized the plans for the tracker, he and holly presented their work to the others over the table in the kitchen.

"That's it?" Raph said unimpressed. "That's what you guys have been working on?"

Holly scowled at him "Next time you can do all the hard work" She muttered something along the lines of "ungrateful" but no one heard much more of it.

"Its more sophisticated than it looks," Donnie said, so used to Raphs comments that he mentally blocked them out, "It looks like an old phone, but has better hardware. I added a much more sensitive camera and microphone to it and installed a tracking unit the will give us live updates as it moves. But to most people its just an old phone that's 10 years out of date"

"And how are we going to make sure its picked up by the right people?" Leo asked, he was getting to the heart of their problems. None of the gang members had been seen, or even accused of doing anything since they had been forced to move their operation. "Its going to be hard to follow someone we can't find"

"Yes, that is a problem" Holly admitted. She had hopes something would have pointed them in the right direction by not. She rubbed her forehead with the heels of her hands. "Its very suspicious that there has been nothing credited to them."

"They can't have gone completely dark. They're too stupid to know when to hide out". April said with a scoff.

"Could the be getting better at committing crime?" Leo postulated

"No way" Said Raph, April and Mikey together.

"What if they're going across state lines to get stuff? Like to Jersey?" Mikey offered.

"No, it would still be on the news if they were suspected." April said, she had been scanning the news apps on her phone every night before she went to bed for any indication as to where they could be.

"Do you know if they rough up the local shops for protection money? Like the Sushi place?" Holly piped up.

"Possibly." Shrugged Donnie. "You would have thought we'd have bumped into someone if they were though".

"I can go ask Mr. Murakami later tonight" Raph said.

"Actually, I can go there on my way home. I'll get dinner for mom and I, and talk to him at the same time." Holly tapped her finger on the table, "We should give him a tracker, her might be able to slip it to them if they try to rob him."

"If we can avoid using civilians, I would prefer not to." Leo said.

"That's fair." Holly conceded the point, she liked the old chef too and would hate for something to happen because of her, "We should have him call one of us if they show up at the very least."

Leonardo thought on it for a moment, "That should be fine."

"I'll text you what he says once I'm home" She shrugged again, "I have to go now though, mom is still not cool with me being out after dark". She waved goodbye and jogged out of the Lair.

"I'll walk with you" Raph said hurriedly, and sprang after her.
The others all glanced at each other and smiled. It was just too weird seeing Raph all mushy like this.

"So, what will we do if we can't find them?" April asked.

"I don't know," Donnie answered honestly, "go back to the drawing board I guess"

Raph caught up with Holly a little ways down one of the tunnels. She was bouncing along happily, her hair swinging as she went. "Hey." he started a little awkwardly, "You know we appreciate your help with all this, right?"

"I know, but seriously, next time you can burn yourself on the soldering Iron" She continued on without breaking her pace.

"Alright, I get it. I'm sorry."

"You should be" she said, but he saw the corners of her mouth twitch, so he knew he wasn't really in any trouble.

"Listen, I would really like to hang out more with you." He scratched his neck, "You know, like just the two of us."

"You mean, like, a date?" she stopped briefly pleasantly surprised.

"No!" He shouted a little too loudly. She raised her eyebrows at him "I mean, whatever. You guys have been really busy lately and I really liked it when we got sushi last time, and I want to do that again"

"So, a date?" She repeated.

"Call it whatever, look, do you want to or not?" He was getting frustrated.

"I'd love to," She smiled at him, then suddenly her smile faded ,"but it may have to wait a little longer, my mom is still pretty rattled about what happened and she's still being a bit overly protective."

"I'd wait forever"

Holly smiled and turned her head away trying to hide how pleased she was that he had said that. She took his hand in hers and stepped towards him, but just as she lifted her gaze to his something caught her eye from the shadows over his right shoulder. She frowned and cocked her head to the side. "What the hell is that?"

A little red light was shining out of the darkness, it bobbled slightly, before the lights caught a glint of polished metal jaws.

Raphael shoved Holly to the side and drew his Sai. He threw it end over end and it drove deep into the side of a shiny new Mouser unit. It squirmed and screeched at them both before wiggling free and turning on them again. The Sai clattered to the ground.

Raph put himself between the Mouser and Holly, "Where did that thing come from?" The little bipedal robot dove again, Raph launched himself over it and stabbed down into the tunnel floor. He scooped up his other weapon and pinned the Mouser down with a knee.

"Stockman must have been building it, but where did he get the parts?" She was angry, how could Stockman have made this new Mouser in such a short amount of time. She and Donatello had only been able to make one full tracker and some of the components for additional units.

"I don't know, but we have to get this thing out of here" Raph moved to rip out the wiring he had exposed, but the little critter began chirping out loudly in protest. "Shut up." He said, and silenced the racket with a swift stab through the infrared eye lens. Raph smiled cockily at Holly, but they both went straight faced when a scuttling sound could be heard echoing through the tunnels. Holly held her breath as her frown turned into wide eyed panic as she figured out what the noise was. She turned to see innumerable red lights down one of the darker tunnels coming towards them.

"We have to go!" She said hurriedly, and grabbed Raph by the arm and began sprinting away from the growing sound of hundreds of metal claws thundering towards them.

Raph, now catching up on what was going on, he soon was dragging her along by the hand "We need to get back to the others!" Raph Shouted over the sound of their own pounding feet.

"No we can't!" Holly houted. "We need to lead them away, then get help!"

"How are we gonna do that?" Raph yelled as he dodged a set of metal teeth that was aimed at his head.

"Call them" Holly shouted over the sound of hundreds of feet pounding behind them.

Raph nodded. They needed to find somewhere they could go and get out of harms way to be able to call for help. They couldn't lead the Mousers back to the lair, but Raph had a good idea where they could go. Hopefully, they didn't get over run before they got there.

Leonardo and April were using their phones to dig through any information they could to start putting their plan into action. Donatello had brought a few of his tools and components to continue working on the trackers while Mikey just stayed out of the way. April was surprised when her phone rang and it was Holly.

April frowned as she answered, "Hello?"

"Stockman has released new Mousers into the tunnels, we're at the water treatment center and we need help!"

"What!?" April said, and immediately put her friend on speaker.

"I literally don't know how much clearer I can be!" Holly yelled. There was a lot of background noise on the line

"Just, say it again so the others can hear," April looked worriedly at Donnie and the others.

Holly activated her camera and pointed it at the floor beneath her and on various flat surfaces all around, "Are you seeing this? There are at least fifty Mousers trying to get to Raph and I, and we are running out of places to climb to. Please, for the love of God, hurry."
They could hear Raph in the background shouting obscenities at the advancing droids.

"We'll be there soon, just try to stay calm."

Holly turned the camera on herself, she was clinging to a water pipe that was twenty feet off the floor; unfortunately the Mousers were learning that if they launched themselves off one of the many stair cases that wound through the facility that they could get much closer to her. "Raph says people don't usually come down here, but if someone does, they're going to get hurt. These things are much more advanced that the last generation."

"We gotta go higher" Raph said and the camera jiggled in her hands.
"Just hurry." Holly cut the call off.

"Mikey, grab some rope. Donnie, get anything that may help against those things. April, grab any weapon you feel most comfortable with. It will take us 10 minutes to get there on foot." Leo leapt immediately into "Fearless leader" mode. He ran and grabbed his Katana, and one extra for Holly if he could get it to her. Within two minutes they were on the way. The lower levels of the water treatment facility was mostly deserted even during the day, but occasionally if there was an issue, a city worker would have to come down to check on the pipes and tanks. Sometimes they would have to replace entire sections of piping and would be down there for a couple of days. Hopefully, there was no scheduled maintenance on the books for today. April had grabbed a spare Bo staff and had it strapped to her back.

Holly and Raph we're not having a great time. They had hauled themselves up to a very precarious height in hopes that they could stay out of reach of the Mousers until the others arrived. Stockman had clearly been making some design upgrades since the last batch. These new units had articulated claws that could grab onto things, and smarter AI as they were starting to learn from each other as they failed.

Raph had shoved Holly up onto a vertical pipe that had a bracket she could stand on, while he clung to another pipe with one arm and slashed at anything that got too close with the other. They had been climbing higher and higher, but the Mousers were getting closer. They had already scaled one of the water tanks near by and were hurling themselves at the pair from the left side. While another group had been climbing one of the gigantic processing tanks staircases and were leaping from the right. They had already had to abandon the lower pipe that they could both sit on as now the bots had figured out they could reach that one from the same set of stairs.

"Where do we go from here?" Holly asked, feeling her calves getting weaker from only having an inch or so of standing room.

"I don't know," Raph looked around for options. "We could try for that upper walkway and make another run for it"

"I can't jump that far, and I doubt you could carrying me" Holly remarked as she struggled to see what he was pointing at. A scraping noise caught her attention as one of the Mousers tried to chomp onto the bottom L curve of the pipe she was on. It left little groves in the metal as it slid down and fell to the ground below. It hopped right back up, and made straight for the stairs again to have another go.

"We might not have much of a choice here soon." Raph said, and pointed down. The Mousers were forming a pyramid to help them climb higher. One of the ones on top leapt and caught the bottom of Holly's sneaker, it didn't manage to get any purchase, and fell back on the others causing the pyramid to collapse. They were soon working on it again though.

"Shit," Holly muttered as she tried to look for anything that might help them. "What about there, can you reach that flat platform?"

"Yeah, come here I'll give you a boost" Raph said and wedged his foot into the pipe so she could use him as a step. She hauled her self up higher. Once she was above him, he used his hand as another step for her to reach up. "Can you reach it?"

"Almost," She grunted with the effort of stretching her fingers up.

Raph took his eyes off of the Mousers just for a second to see where she was when one of the units sank its teeth into his Leg. "Argh!" He yelled and his spasmed involuntarily.

Holly gasped as she was suddenly falling, the sensation was very peculiar. Her eyes were wide and she knew her mouth was open but she couldn't scream. She fell away from the pipes and flailed her arms helplessly trying to hold on to anything. Suddenly, she was upside down and had excruciating pain in her ankle. She saw her hair swishing in front of her and her glasses fell off her face and were promptly crushed in the jaws of one of the robots. Suddenly her voice came back, and she screamed.

Raph had grabbed onto Holly's ankle as she had fallen past him. He had kicked off the little bastard who had bitten him and grabbed her with his free hand. "I got you!" He yelled, but her weight dragged him down the pipe a little. She dangled below him helplessly and he couldn't pull her back up without literally throwing her somewhere, but there was no where to go.

The Mousers saw an opportunity, and started jumping up and snapping at Holly. Their pyramid wouldn't need to be anywhere near as tall now and they could get her. One of the top most units leapt, Holly screamed again and shielded her face with her arms.

A sword came swishing through the air and sliced through the Mouser cutting it clean in two. It sunk into the big container about 18 inches below Holly's head. Leonardo, Donatello, April, and Michelangelo had arrived and not a second too late.

"Its about time!" Holly yelled slightly hysterically. She grasped the sword handle and tugged it free. She began slicing at anything that got within arms reach.

Raph grunted as she wiggled in his grasp, "Quit that, I'm gonna drop you!"

A good chuck of the Mousers gave up trying to get to Holly and Raph now, there were easier targets to get at. Once enough of them had been drawn away, Raph lowered Holly and himself down to a safer position.

Michelangelo gave his signature cry, before swinging his way through any of the Mousers that got too close. Donatello and Leonardo, likewise yelled out and attacked anything and everything that got in the way. April stayed a little behind, swinging at anything that got past the three in front of her.

"This is impossible," Donatello said between swinging his staff around himself. "How did Stockman build this many Mousers so fast?"

"He has to have a factory," Holly surmised, "and help." She swung a little more ferociously than she really needed to and sliced a Mousers head off its body.

"But where is he getting the tech? He hasn't been stealing it." Donnie said.

"Can this wait until later?" Raph said, as he leapt out of the way of two Mousers who collided with each other.

April batted a Mouser out of the air as it was aiming for Donatello's arm, "How do we beat these things?"

"They're much smarter than the last ones, they must share information via a network." Holly said, not having a plan, but having information.

"They have a hive mind?" Donnie said, sounding impressed.

"You can fan-boy later," said Leo. "What do we do now?" He sliced through two Mousers and dodged a third before cutting it up as it went past him.

"I could hack try to hack one" Donnie said "if one of them gets infected it should spread to the rest of them."

"How long will that take?"

"Anywhere from a few minutes to a few months." Donnie said with a grimace.

"That's not very helpful!" Leo yelled back, as he flipped off a wall and ran through a couple more Mousers.

"Go for it Donnie," April said encouragingly, "I'll cover you."

"I'll need one that's still semi-operational."

"Here ya go," Raph had ripped the lower jaw off of one and threw it at his brother. "Watch the claws though."

Donnie got to work. He pinned the machine down so it couldn't use its talons and pried open the siding. This this was serious tech, much more sophisticated than he had ever seen. There was a strange set of circuitry that didn't look like anything that was available on the market currently, he poked at the components and frowned.

April stood behind him with her bo staff ready, she and Holly were sticking closer together now that they had been able to get back to floor level. Holly was clearly mad, she was venting all her frustration on the Mousers and even though Leo, Mikey and Raph were doing the bulk of the work, any time something got too close, Holly was more than happy to swing at it. "Remind me never to make you angry." April said as Holly cleaved another unit it half.

"I am so stupid" Holly said through gritted teeth.

"What? No you're not!" April protested.

"We've spent so long trying to come up with a way of finding those jerks and they managed to find us first!" She swung at another Mouser, but this one dodger her. April thrust her staff at the mouse and drove it back into the frenzy of Mikey and his nun chucks.

"So? We don't have the same resources they do." April was surprised to hear Holly sounding so defeated.

"Exactly!" Holly yelled "How are we supposed to do anything against these guys? We're six teenagers, four of whom can't go out during the day."

April was stunned. "I don't know, but so long as we're doing something that's all that matters."

"Ah-hah!" Exclaimed Donnie suddenly, "He didn't even encrypt the base code, what a moron." Donnie was tapping away furiously on his T-phone's keyboard, tongue poking out of the side of his mouth comically.

"See!" April said, "Donnie is a genius, I know he can do this!"

Holly just swung at another Mouser, this time taking off a leg. It fell over and wobbled pathetically on its side, chomping at the air.

Mikeys' hidden chain scythe caught a Mouser and dragged it back away from Donnie and the girls. He was perfectly oblivious to their discussion and was happily smacking everything away from them.

"I think I have it," Donnie said. "I have reversed the order of operations in this unit. Provided its still connected, it'll send the updated code to all the others and they'll go back to where they came from and start destroying their facilities"

One after another, the Mousers stopped attacking, they all stood motionless for a moment before scurrying off back down the tunnels. Donatello picked up one that looked mostly unharmed and slipped a tracker chip into a body panel.

"What did you do to them?" Mikey asked.

"Told them to go home." Donnie smiled smugly. "And I encrypted my code, so Stockman will have a hard time reprogramming these ones."

"Nice one!" Shouted Mikey and high-three'd his brother.

"I slipped on of our trackers into a Mouser too, so we'll be able to locate them!" Donnie said excitedly to Holly. He had heard the girls conversation, but hadn't wanted to get in the middle of it while he was working.

"Great." said Holly dejectedly. She turned away, and started back out of the water treatment facility.

"Whats her problem?" Mikey asked obliviously.

"Don't worry about it, she just needs a minute." April said, and watched her friend go.

"Lets get this hidden quickly, and we'll go after her." Leo said, and kicked a Mouser units head.

The Turtles and April quickly gathered up the big chunks of mouser remains and stashed them in a dark corner of the tunnels. It wouldn't do anyone any good if a maintenance worker found all this debris and decided to investigate.

April and the others ran to try and catch up with Holly, she was still inside the tunnels, but the sounds of the city we're audible where they were. "Are you alright?" April Asked.

"No," Holly responded, but she sounded a little more level headed than she had earlier, "My previous comments are still valid."

"What comments?" Asked Mikey, still oblivious.

"How are we supposed to take on Stockman, and this Shredder guy, and whoever else is involved?" She took a deep breath, and looked at her friends.

"Who else is going to stop them?"Leo asked with a shrug. "You said it yourself, no one would believe you if you told them the truth."

Holly let out a bitter bark of laughter.

"We don't have a choice in this." Leo continued. "This all has something to do with us and what happened to us. But you do have a choice." Everyone was silent. "You can walk away from this. From us, and go on with a normal life."
Raphael was brooding in the background, he stood with his back to the wall and his arms crossed over his chest. His heart was hammering inside his shell.

"How could I possibly do that to you guys?" Holly said,

"Then whats the problem?" Mikey asked, "We can handle those jerks no problem, we need you to help understand Donnie when he goes on one of his nerd tangents!"

"Yeah, and I need you to help keep me from exploding from all the secrets we have to keep." April said.

"I know," Holly sighed, "I just get overwhelmed with the enormity of it sometimes."

"You get overwhelmed? How do you think we feel? We didn't get to eat anything but algae and worms for 15 years, then we found Pizza!" Mikey drooled at the memory of his first encounter with a pizza.

April laughed, and Holly found she felt better and laughed too.

"I think I just need to go home for now." Holly said, she handed over the sword she was still carrying.

"You we're pretty effective with this today, you should be proud." Leo smiled and stashed it with his own swords.

"I was just angry," Holly said, then added as a confession, "and scared."

"I'm not surprised," April said, giving her friend a hug. "I get scared too you know."

"Lets go, I'm going to need to order some new glasses."

The girls gave Mikey, Leo and Donnie a quick hug, except April gave Donnie a little kiss on the cheek. Raph hadn't moved so Holly assumed he didn't want to participate in the PDA's so she just waved a little awkwardly at him. He nodded in return and skulked off towards his home. Holly snorted, but turned to leave herself.

On their way home, Holly stopped in at an Optometrist and ordered herself some glasses. It was going to take a week for delivery so she would just have to wear her contacts and come up with some excuse for her mom, if she even noticed.

Holly left April at her apartment and got a cab the rest of the way home. April was pleased to see her Aunt cooking dinner, after all the excitement, she was famished.

"How was school and study session?" Carol asked as she stirred the bolognese that was in a pan.

"Fine, Holly broke her glasses though." April picked up a cookie off the plate on the counter.

"That's a shame, those things are not cheap" Carol slapped her nieces hand, "not until after dinner."

"Yeah, she ordered some new ones already." April dished herself up some pasta out of a pan and ladled on the sauce. "Can I spend the night with her this weekend?"

"I don't see why not, provided all your school work is done."

"Thanks!" April and her aunt sat and watched TV together while they ate. They then did the dishes together before April went up to her room to do some homework. She also pulled out her phone and texted Donatello.

Have you found out where Stockman is yet?

Not Yet, but the Mousers haven't stopped moving!

Was his reply.

Let me know as soon as you find anything!

I will

April set her phone aside for now. She grabbed a couple of textbooks out of her bag, her notebook and a pen, and got to work on her History report that she needed get finished. A few hours passed by, April had texted Donnie a few times, mostly to just see what he was up to, or to distract herself from a particularly boring part of her book. She didn't understand how Holly got so excited about History. It was all date memorization as far as she could tell. Holly seemed to enjoy most of the classes they were in. April just couldn't care all that much. She set aside her project after only managing to get through a few pages of reading. She picked up her phone again,

Have you found Stockman now?

Sort of, the Mouser has been making circles on the map, so I guess they're at their home base!

Where are they?

Circling around the inside of an old military base.

Military base? That may explain why how they have gotten parts.

I expect so. Do you want to tell Holly?

I think you should, she might like to hear it from a fellow nerd!

Yeah, she seemed pretty bummed when she left.

She'll be fine. What are you up to?

They texted back and fourth for almost an hour before April though she probably should go to bed, she knew that their next steps were going to be difficult, and she wanted to be well rested so she could be helpful this time.

Holly managed to get back to her apartment, although, she had needed to lean in a little closer than usual to see the new electronic key pad on her door. Her mom had decided to add another new lock to their door, although she thought it was overkill. Stacey was home almost all the time now, so Holly shouted her hello's as she ran into her room to try and avoid any questions about her missing glasses.

"How was your day, dear?" Stacey asked not looking up from her drawing table.

"It was OK." Holly replied as she darted into her room. She left the door open and flopped onto her bed with a sigh.

"Just OK?" came Stacey's voice from the living room, "Anything I can help with?"

"Not unless you have an arsenal of surveillance equipment stashed around here" Holly muttered to herself. But she then said louder, "Not really, it was just a long day."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Stacey was walking towards her door.

"Not really mom, the project I've been working on didn't work out how I had hoped. That's all" Holly said into her comforter.

"That can happen sometimes," Holly felt her mother sit on the edge of her bed, "Sometimes you try your hardest and things still don't work out. But its not a failure if you learn something from it."

"When did you get all philosophical?" Holly lifted her head off her bed, but kept her face turned away.

"Dear, you didn't get your brains from your father." Stacey patted her daughter on the calf. "Try not to dwell on it for too long. Besides, if it means you get to keep working with that young man you've been on the phone with so much, it doesn't seem all bad."
Holly laughed, "Um, its not like that. That 'young man' is interested in April. We're all working on the project together".

"Oooh" Stacey loved a bit of romance gossip, "Does she like him back?"

"Yes mom, they're pretty much dating" Holly shook her head, even though she couldn't see the look on her mothers face, she could certainly imagine it.

"And what about you? Anyone you're interested in... Wait, you're not upset because April is taken, are you?"

"No mom, I am not in love with April." Holly rolled her eyes.

"I just wanted to check." Stacey shrugged "Being a teenager can be complicated." Stacey stood up from the bed and started to leave Holly's room "It wouldn't matter to me. Just so you know."

Holly snorted, "I know."
Stacey went back to her drawings and Holly was finally able to roll over. She grabbed some clothes and went to take a shower.

Later, Holly got a text from Donatello, letting her know that the tracker had worked and that the Mousers were at a military base on the outskirts of the city.

She thanked him for the information, and decided to start doing some basic digging into the place. When she finally went to bed, she was still worried, but had renewed her determination to help her friends.