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)

14. Chapter 14

Holly left the lair at close to six thirty the next morning. She needed to be at the school to find out what was going on, and what Carol was going to do or say about the incident. She left a note for the others to let them know where she was, and brewed enough coffee and tea to keep everyone happy for the morning.

April woke much later than she intended. She could hear the rest of the guys bustling in the kitchen eating breakfast and chatting. Donatello was sat with a large mug of coffee looking groggy.

"Have you slept yet?" April asked Donnie as she sat next to him on one of the stools.

"No, Holly was up quite late with me working on more of the files but she fell asleep eventually. Something must have annoyed her to stay up as late as she did?" Everyone eyed Raph, who just pretended not to notice.

"Well, at least she got some sleep." April said. "Whats the plan for today?"

"We should all probably do some training this morning." Leo announced "Donnie maybe you should get some sleep."

"I can take a couple hour cat nap and be ready to go." Donnie yawned.

"I would really like to run home to grab some stuff." April admitted.

"No way," Leo and Donnie said together.
"You can't go home alone. What if the Krang find you?" Donnie said.

"How about I make sure my aunt is home and she can give me a ride back here?" April suggested.

"No". Came the same response.

"I need clothes, guys. Among other things." April said.

"You'll have to send a list to Holly, she can pick it up for you on her way back." Leo said, before turning away to clean up after himself.

"This blows." She sulked.

"Welcome to our world." Mikey said, and April felt a stab of guilt in her gut.

April spent the rest of the morning working on her classwork, she had her book bag and a computer that she could submit her classwork on while Donnie slept. She had tried to text Holly to find out what was going on at the school, but had not gotten any responses from her yet.

April then decided to walk around the lair to alleviate her boredom. Mikey had a set of headphones on and was dancing away by himself. Raphael was halfheartedly throwing punches at one of the punching bags that hung in corners of the lair. Leonardo was taking full advantage of having the TV to himself to watch his favorite show in peace.

"How did you guys stay sane down here for so long?" April wondered aloud.

"Some of us didn't." Raph replied, pointing at Mikey.

"I'm being serious." April said.

"So am I" Raph looked at her. April rolled her eyes at him.

"Its a little different for us." Leo said without turning away from his show. "We grew up down here, and have only been allowed to the surface for a little over a year."
"I miss the sun." April said.

"The other day when we helped you at the school was the first time we've ever seen the sun." Leo said.

"Gees, OK! I get it" April gave up. "I won't complain anymore."

"You could always get in an extra hour or two of training," Leo offered hopefully, dragging his gaze away from his show to see her reaction.

"Sure, It'll kill some time anyway." April stood and Leo immediately shut off Space Adventurer to join her.

Holly got back to the lair later in the afternoon with bags of stuff weighing her down. She had stopped off at Carols place to grab a couple of changes of clothes for April, along with some other things she had requested. Her own bag full of school work, and a few bags of groceries for the guys.

She struggled to get it all through the turn-styles, "Little help!" She yelled into the lair as one of the bags ripped open, spilling the contents all over the floor. "Great."

"Why didn't you call us to come help you?" April asked as she and Donnie appeared to help her grab the bags.

"I don't know, I wasn't thinking." Holly said, she blew a strand of hair out of her eyes that had escaped her loose bun. "Its been a rough day." She admitted as she deposited all the stuff she had on the floor.

"How come?" April asked, a frown wrinkling her brow.

"When I got to the school Carol was there making trouble for the assistant principal, she had a couple of actual police officers with her and as soon as she saw me she called me over and I had to spend the whole day going over all the details with the cops and the school." Holly dumped a bag of groceries on the kitchen table. "Oh and I barely slept last night and didn't get to eat lunch so I am not in the best mood." She snatched up an apple and bit viciously into it.

"You remembered not to mention us, right?" Leo asked, completely misreading Holly's temper.

She glared at him, "No Leo, I told them all about you and where to find you. Gah!" She took another angry bite of apple, snatched up a sandwich she had brought and stomped off to find somewhere to have a minute of peace.

"Yikes, lets give her a few moments." April offered. She began putting away the food Holly had brought.

"I think she's been working too much." Donnie said, "She got through a lot of the files last night."

April bit her lip, guiltily. "Yeah, I should be more involved with that."
"No, you don't have to worry about it. I can do it all!" Donnie blurted out

"Neither of you can do it alone" April said, "and you shouldn't have to."

"We do rely on you guys an awful lot for this sort of thing." Leo admitted.

"Its fine for me! I enjoy doing it" Donnie tried to pacify Leo and Aprils guilt.

"Yeah, but we have the free time." Leo said, "You two don't." He looked at April who shrugged.

"You guys are always putting our issues before your own, even before your own safely." Donnie said quietly, as though he had been wanting to say it for a while now.

April looked up into his big brown eyes, "Of course we do! We love you guys, and we want to help you out as much as we can."

"You shouldn't have to do that either, we can take care of ourselves." Leo said.

"I know that," April said with a laugh, "but you guys are our best friends. We're not going to let you take care of yourselves."

"Maybe we all need to be a bit more conscious of everyone's needs." Donnie said with a little single shoulder shrug.

"That sounds very wise my son." Splinter said as he came into the kitchen. He beamed at his kids as he saw how much they were growing as people. "You are correct to recognize that you all make sacrifices for each other, that is part of having friends and family that you care about."

"And right now you're sacrificing your quiet space so Holly can blow off some steam." Leo noted as music could be heard coming from the training room.

"Exactly," Splinter acknowledged, "Plus I have seen her skill with a bow, I don't want to get on the wrong side of that." Donnie and Leo groaned.

April laughed, "Did you just make a joke?"

"I can be quite humorous when it pleases me." Splinter smiled to himself. "Would you please put on the kettle, I believe some soothing tea will be needed soon."

Mikey and Raph soon joined the others in the kitchen, they were both getting hungry and had come in search of some dinner. Splinter heated up some broth and rice noodles that Holly had brought earlier into a easy ramen. He added some onion, sliced ham, and chopped up some cabbage and mushroom for the kids to add as they pleased.

"It has been quite a while since I cooked anything," He admitted to them, "I hope it tastes alright."

No one answered properly, they were all slurping down the noodles and mumbling their approval to form actual words. "I still got it." He said to himself, then ate a little more delicately than the teens.

"Should I go get Holly?" Leo asked through a mouthful of mushroom. "It'll go cold."

"I'll go, I should probably apologize for my aunt anyway." April said and set aside her bowl.

April hurried across the lair on her tiptoes and slid open the door to the training room. She peeked her head in to see Holly laying on her back in the middle of the room with her phone next to her playing some pop hit through the speaker. "Holly?" April called softly. She walked into the room to see Holly was breathing gently and her eyes were closed. "Are you asleep?" April sat on the floor next to her friend and gently shook her shoulder.

Holly groaned, "Wha- time's it?" She didn't even open her eyes.

"I don't know, but there is some warm food in the kitchen if you want it?" April said hoping it could tempt Holly.

Holly opened one eye a crack. "I hope I didn't mess anything up."

April frowned, "Like what?"

"At the school," Holly kneaded her eyes with her knuckles, "I don't know if I kept the story straight. Or if they even believed me about anything I said."

"Oh," April nodded slowly, "Was my aunt going crazy?"

"Yeah." Holly said, "I told her you were safe, but she kept asking if you were at my apartment. I didn't want to lie to her so I just kept trying to deflect."

"She hasn't tried calling me yet." April said, suddenly feeling worried about her aunt. "Isn't your mom supposed to be home soon?"

"Her flight lands this evening, but it will take her a while to get back to the apartment. Customs is a bitch." Holly held a hand out to April who helped her to sit up.

"I'll try to call my aunt to see what is going on, and we can go back to your apartment if it makes you feel less guilty."

"Its not you I'm worried about." Holly admitted. "The cops wanted to go over and over the details, they weren't interrogating me or anything, but I cant remember everything I said and I'm worried I messed up. It was really stressful."

"You should have asked for a lawyer." April said half jokingly.

"Carol and the assistant principal were there the whole time, even the superintendent showed up to make sure that the police were behaving appropriately." Holly sighed, "it was a long day."

"Come on, come get something warm to eat, and you can have another nap while I make some calls." April jumped up and dragged Holly to her feet. "I'm sure everything is fine."

Once everyone had eaten and Holly was dozing on the couch, April called her aunt. The phone rang a couple of times before Carol answered it. "April where are you?"

"What do you mean? I'm with Holly." April said slightly taken aback.

"Then why wouldn't she answer me when I asked her if you were at her house?" Carol was clearly stressed out too.

"Alright, I'll tell you. I wasn't at her house today, I was hanging out with some mutual friends who could keep an eye on me, and she didn't want to lie to you about that."

"Who are these friends? Are they the same ones you study with? Why weren't they at school?" Carol was quite frustrated with her niece.

"Yes its the same friends, and they don't go to my school, they're home schooled." Leo and Raph were listening closely to the conversation, they was almost impressed with her ability to fudge the truth on the spot.
"April, I am not comfortable with all of this. I don't know how I can keep you safe if I don't know what is going on." Carol sounded exasperated.

"Its really complicated." Was all April could say as she looked at her friends.

"Whatever is going on, its getting really serious. The people who took your father are now coming after you at school.

"I know." April felt ashamed that she had to keep her aunt in the dark.

"The cops have no idea what is going on, they knew of the missing peoples cases on the scientists, but no one seemed to know who was working on the cases." Carol was starting to sniff between sentences.

"Do you want me to come home?" April asked.

"I don't know what to do anymore." Carol finally admitted to her niece. "I don't know if you're safe here, or at school. I don't know if they're ever going to find Kirby."

"Why don't I get a lift home, we can just hang out and you'll know where I am and what I'm doing. I think its just been a lot for you today." April heard Carol blow her nose through the phone.

"I think I would like that. How is Holly, she seemed pretty stressed out too?" Carol took a deep breath.
"She is feeling about the same as you are." April looked over at Holly who was curled up on the couch under a fleece blanket.

"I know, she looked a little frazzled by the end of the day." Carol sounded calmer again. "Do you want me to come and get you from your mutual friends house?"

"No, I'll have them drive me home. But it'll be just after dark, their dad doesn't get home until then." April added hurriedly.

"OK, be safe. I love you". Carol said

"I will, I promise." April said.

"Is everything OK?" Donnie asked as April sighed to herself.

"I think my aunt is a bit shaken up. I think all the drama of dad going missing, and all the attacks on people we know is getting to her." April took another deep breath and leaned back in the chair. "Can you blame her though?"

"Probably not, the various groups in the city do seem to be getting more active." He agreed.

"We need to get into that ship and shut it down." Leo added.

"How? That thing is buried under a military base, or did you forget?" Mikey interjected.

"There will be a way, there's always a way." Leo said, trying to sound cool.

"Yeah, April and Holly found the way. Through the recycling plant." Raph said sarcastically.

"I know that" Leo replied irritably.

"Then why use the corny lines?" Raph snapped back accusingly. Leo took a breath to respond, but Holly mumbled something in her sleep and rolled over, cutting their argument short.

"We should head there tonight," Donnie whispered, "we can drop you guys off on the way."

"If Holly wakes up. I can let her mom know that she's be here if she doesn't though." April offered.

"You don't need to do that. I can do that." Raph spluttered out.

"You would call Holly's mom?" April looked disbelievingly at him, "and actually talk to her?"

"Yeah, no big deal." He shrugged nonchalantly, but the nervous darting of his green eyes gave him away.

"Do it then." April called his bluff. "Call her now."

"What?" All the bravado left his entire being. The others all turned on him with smug smiles, they rarely got to watch Raph squirm, so this would be thoroughly enjoyable.

"Call her." April pulled out her phone and held it out to Raph. "Unless you're scared."

"I'm not scared of anything," Raph puffed up his chest defensively. But he didn't move to take the phone.

"Then you wont mind if I pull up Stacey's number in my phone then?" April started tapping buttons on her phone.

"Nope." He said. Mikey was snickering now, just waiting for Raph to crack.

"Should I video call her?" April asked the group with a sudden flash of malicious ingenuity.

"Oh my gosh, yes please." Donnie smiled at the thought.

"That wasn't part of the deal!" Raph hissed. He checked over his shoulder at Holly to see if she was awake yet.

"Oh, she can't help you now." April said wickedly and pressed the call button. The phone rang in the silence of the lair. Raph held his breath while the others watched him sweat.

Mercifully, Stacey didn't answer. But a few minutes later a message came through. I'll call you in a while, still trying to get back home from the airport.

"You got lucky." April said, and Raph almost collapsed with relief. Leo and Mikey laughed, but clapped their brother on the shell to let him know they felt for him. "Why does Stacey freak you out, anyway?"

"She doesn't!" Raph protested, but April and Donnie both gave him a skeptical look. "I'm worried she wont like me." April and Donnie raised their eyebrows at him. Raphs eye twitched irritably, "Fine, I'm worried she wont approve of me dating Holly." His sentence trailed into a mumble and he looked at Aprils feet to avoid eye contact.

"Aw, dude," Mikey said and gave his brother a hug. "You've got nothing to worry about." Raph did not reciprocate the affection, but he also didn't push his baby brother away.

"Yeah, you're not so bad once you get past all the sulking and shouting." April confirmed.

"Gee, thanks." Raph said with notable sarcasm.

"Is that why you want to talk to her? To try and get in her good books?" Donnie grinned knowingly at Raph, who in turn rolled his eyes and shook himself loose of Mikey, who had not let him go yet.

"I don't know, can you have an actual conversation with people?" Leo asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raph asked hotly.

"I mean like right now. You're already mad at me for asking a valid question." Leo replied condescendingly.

"I'm only mad at you, because you can be a grade 'A' jerk." Raph hissed back.
"Guys, perhaps we should focus on getting ready for tonight." Donnie offered before things escalated any further.

Raph took a deep breath through his nose and cracked his neck, "That sounds great, I'm going to go pack some gear before Stacey calls us back." He turned on his heel and stomped off, obviously still fuming.

"Why do you have to do that?" Donnie asked Leo exasperatedly.

"What?" Leonardo asked with open palms. "It's the truth."

"Yeah, but you don't always have to point it out." Mikey said disapprovingly. He turned and powered up a games console, making sure to turn the volume down so he didn't disturb Holly, and plopped down to a racing game. Donnie and April walked off towards the lab to see what else the guys might be able to use to get into the craft, leaving Leo alone who was feeling a little sheepish at his petty stab at Raph's ego.

An hour passed, and Raph had calmed down enough to make his way back out to sit by Holly and watch Mikey play his game. He hadn't really found anything he needed to bring, that was usually Donnie's department, but he did have an extra utility belt with some extra suriken, and a few of the smoke bombs that Donnie had made ages ago.

He hovered in the open area between the kitchen and the sofas, not really sure where he wanted to be when Mikey spoke up, "You know, Leo can be a real jerk sometimes."

Raph didn't say anything, but went and sat on the couch near Holly.

"I know you're not the most talkative, but you still know how to communicate what you need to, when you need to." Mikey continued without looking away from his game. "You just need a little more practice at saying it out loud."

Raph smiled at the back of Mikeys head. "Its not so easy for me."

"I know," Mikey glanced over his shoulder to see if he needed to dodge anything, just in case. "Thanks, Mikey." Raph said gruffly. Mikey just turned back to his game.

April stuck her head out of the Lob and hissed for Raph. When he turned, she was waving her phone at him. "Do you want to take this?" She offered him. "You don't have to, if you don't want to."

Raph paled a little, but sucked in a breath and stood up. April answered the call as he was coming over to her and handed the phone to him with a "Here's Raph". She nodded at him encouragingly before turning back into the Lab to give him some space.

"Hello?" He started uncertainly.

"Well hi!" Stacey said sounding genuinely thrilled. Raphs anxiety immediately skyrocketed. "How are you guys doing? How's Holly?" She continued.

"Good, Good." Raph gulped, but his throat was dry. "She's good."

"Good, thank you for letting her stay with you while I was gone. I felt much better about leaving knowing she would be safe with you guys."

"Its not a problem." Raph croaked.

"Is she around? How come she didn't call me?" Stacey sounded a little downcast.

"She's asleep." Raph replied, she paused waiting for him to continue. "She's been working really hard helping us."

Stacey sighed, "She always does. Has she been up all hours researching something or other?"

"Something like that." Raph admitted. There was no reply, and Raph was worried the call had dropped.

Finally, Stacey spoke again. "At least she has you guys to remind her to have fun every now and then." It was Raphs turn to remain silent. Its not like they had that much time for fun these days. "Well," Stacey concluded, "Let her sleep. Have her call me when she's awake and if its tomorrow, that's just fine."

"OK."

"Take care of her for me?"

"I will." Raph said.

"It was nice to talk to you." Stacey said with feeling.

"Yeah," Raph felt so awkward.

"I'll see you soon, Bye."

"Bye." Raph said and hung up. He was overwhelmed with how nerve racking that had been. Had he even said anything really worthwhile? He made his way over to the lab to give April back her phone. She almost fell through the door when he opened it.

"So, how did it go?" She asked trying to look innocent. It wasn't working.

"Uhh, I don't know." Raph said handing her phone back.

"Well, you spoke to her right? That's a start!" April was already texting someone as sneakily as she could. He suspected it was Stacey, but didn't have the energy to be annoyed. He was trying to remember what he had said.

"I guess."

"I'm sure you did fine" April said, "Besides, Stacey is like, the nicest adult I've ever met. You'd have to do something pretty spectacular to get on her bad side."
Raph frowned, not liking the insinuations. He turned and went back to the couch where Holly was still out cold. He gathered her up in his arms and took her to his room. He scribbled a note letting her know where they were, and that she needed to call her mom, before going back out to Mikey. Donnie and April were there now too, they had packed the Shell-raiser with Donnie's gadgets and were just waiting for nightfall, and Leo, to set off.

The turtles were crouched behind a billboard on a roof top across from the recycling plant. Donatello was rummaging through his bag of goodies that may help them inside the Technodrome, while the others watched the streets to see who was around. They had dropped April off at her house and left once she waved out of her window to assure them that she was inside and safe, and made the drive to the outskirts of the city.
The streets were unusually quiet. They hadn't encountered many other vehicles in this area as they drove, which was highly unusual for New York.

"Something doesn't feel right." Leo announced after they had been watching the area for a while. "It's never this quiet, even all the way out here."

"Maybe its just a coincidence?" Mikey asked hopefully. "Is there, like, a national don't drive day, or something?"

"If only." Donnie said, as he grabbed a set of goggles and a customized mini drone. He launched it and flew around the perimeter of the buildings. With a flick of a switch, the camera feed clicked over to infrared, and started hunting for patrols of guards. "Hmm" he muttered to himself.

"What do you see?" Leo asked.

"Not much. Just a few guards on the outer doors." Donnie pulled off the goggles and gave his brothers a worried look, "I don't like it."

Leo sighed, "Neither do I. But something is going on, and we need to find out what." He looked directly at Donnie, "For Aprils sake."
Zip-lining over to the plant was the easy part, but getting inside was proving tougher. There were no widows accesses to allow the guys into the building. Not that they were worried about the few guards there were, but they wanted to stay undetected for as long as possible. Missing guards was always a dead giveaway that something was up. But after going over the exterior thoroughly, they were left with little option.
Leo chose the access that was furthest away from the others. There was a door that lead into the plant with only one Krang droid guarding it. He launched himself down and plunged his Katana all the way through the torso of the Droid. Disabling it in one strike. The Krang creature inside, tried to scuttle away, but Mikey cracked it between its eyes with his nun chuck and knocked it out before it could scurry away to alert anyone else. He gingerly picked it up, and trapped it in a garbage can. "Ewww" he whispered to himself and let a shudder creep over his skin.

They snuck in the door and crept around piles of old boxes, peeking out into the middle of an empty room. Donnie donned his goggles again and flicked another switch on the headset. He could now see the exterior of the Technodrome. He scanned the rest of the area, just to make sure that there was no other Krang Droids around, but they were clear. He ran to the side of the giant dome, the other skidded to his side to keep look out while he worked.

"Whoa, this is surreal." Mikey commented, watching Donnie plug his hand held into thin air. The others hissed at him to be quiet. He rapped on the outside of the dome, sending a reverberation of sound through the empty warehouse.

"Would you quit it? I'm trying to concentrate." Donnie said without removing his goggles. Raph slapped Mikey's hand for good measure before a pneumatic hiss rang around the room, and a doorway into the Technodrome stood open before them.

Leonardo took a couple of tentative steps inside the enormous ball that opened up before them. He signaled silently to his brothers, eyes open, stick together. The others nodded their understanding and moved to take a step into the vast sphere, when Donnie's phone went off.

April sat at her aunts little dinner table with open boxes of take out in front of her. Unfortunately, her appetite had completely disappeared when Carol had started asking all the questions she had been dreading for the last year.

"I am responsible for your safety while your father is missing." Carol was repeating herself. "How can I do that if I don't know what is going on in your life?"

"Its complicated." April offered with a grimace of guilt.

"You know something about Kirby's disappearance, something that the cops don't know. Why won't you tell them?"

"They wouldn't believe me." April said.

"Can you tell me?" Carol pleaded.

"He was taken by aliens." April said flatly, she knew what Carol was about to say,

"Now you're just being ridiculous." Carol said exasperatedly.

"And that's exactly what the police will say." April muttered, all her suspicions confirmed.

Carol sighed, "April, I know you're growing up. You're in that awkward stage where you're not a kid, but you're not an adult either. How can I trust you when you don't seem to trust me?"

Before April could answer, a knock came from the front door, Carol got up to answer it and April could hear muffled talk as she pushed her broccoli around her plate with a fork.

Carols voice changed and became more audible from the door, "No you can't come in. Who are you?"

"Aunt Carol?" April stood and cautiously poked her head out into the hallway of the apartment.
"There is the one that is called April O'Neil." Said a Krang droid from the door. The weird looking female droid was also there, and she pushed past Carol into the apartment.

"Hey!" Carol shouted as she was shoved backwards into her own home. "Get out of my house!" She grabbed the first thing she could to use as a weapon. She swung it at the man now crossing her threshold, but he didn't even flinch as the umbrella snapped in half over his back. "What the hell?"

April was grabbed by the female droid who lifted her bodily off the floor and held her at arms length.

No matter how much she struggled, April could not break free of the robots grip. "Let me go!" She shouted, knowing full well that it was no use reasoning with them.

The droid dragged April kicking and thrashing from the apartment. Carol was yelling useless threats at the Krang, who simply shoved her out of the way as they left. She tried to grab onto the Krang, but they pointed their laser gun at her chest.

"You will stop attempting to stop Krang from completing their mission."

"Like hell I will." Carol shouted at him and kicked him in the shin. The man didn't even flinch. Carol was starting to panic. "I'll call the police!"

"Call Holly!" April shouted at Carol as she was being forced out onto the street and stuffed into a van. "I promise she can help."

Holly was having a lovely dream about being on a beach in Florida with April and the turtles. They were playing volleyball, eating burgers and hot dogs off a grill, and just being teenagers for one blissful minute. Unfortunately, her dream was very rudely interrupted by her phone buzzing in her pocket. She groaned, and rolled over to fish it out of her pocket. She realized as she was doing this, that she was no longer on the couch in the lair. She was in Raphs room. She sat up as she checked the called ID. Carol was calling her, and it was nearly midnight already.

"Hello?" She answered and peered around. Her glasses we set on the side table next to a stack of comics that Raph was currently reading. Beneath her glasses was a note.

"Holly! Some weird people just took April and for some reason she told me to call you." Carol was speaking very quickly, and there was a frantic edge to her voice.

"What did they look like?" Holly sat in Raphs bed and rubbed her eyes to try and clear some of the sleep deprivation out of her brain..

"I don't know, It was a man and a woman and they had a big gun." Carol sobbed to herself.

"Did the guy look like the most generic white dude you've ever seen? Black suit, black hair, with a big silver gun?" Holly stood, and snatched up the note reading it as she left the room to see if anyone was around.

"Yes! How do you know that?" Carol was breathless.

"Its the Krang again. The same guys who came after us at the school."

"I need to know what is happening Holly." Carol said dangerously. Holly felt herself shrink slightly, but knew that she didn't have time to explain things right now. Nor how much of it she could, or should, explain.

"I will try to explain it to you later," Holly said. "Right now, you should call the police, and I will make my own calls to some people who I know can help."

"I am not going to let it go this time." Carol said, and hung up the phone and Holly was left standing in the lair trying comprehend everything that had happened.

She didn't waste any more time, she pulled Donatello's number up in her phone as she ran to the training room to grab her bow.

Donnie's eyes went wide as he snatched his phone out of its pocket. He nearly dropped it a few times before he saw who was calling. "It's Holly" he whispered at his brothers.

"She should still be sleeping." Raph hissed irritably as Donnie answered the phone as quietly as possible.

"Holly? We're in the middle of something here." he whispered into the speaker.

"Yeah? Well I just got a call from Carol. The Krang have just abducted April from her apartment." It was quiet enough that all the turtles heard her.

"What!" Donatello yelled, forgetting where he was.

"I'm heading out right now to try and catch up, but they're heading one of two places." Holly was running, they could hear her footsteps reverberating off of the underground tunnels through the speakers.

"We can't just leave! We're in the middle of a mission." Leonardo objected.

"Are you serious?" Raph pipped up.

"April is in danger, and I am not going to hope that they bring her here." Donatello said more forcefully than he meant to.

"Someone should stay close to the plant in case she does turn up there." Holly said between panting breaths.

"What are we supposed to do if they don't bring her here?" Mikey asked anxiously.

"We'll figure it out, We need to find her first." Leo admitted.

"I'll try to find her by TCRI," Holly said. She had finally reached the surface and had reached her van. She threw her bow and a set of arrows on the passengers seat. "I'm going to call my mom too, she's closer and might be able to help." She didn't wait for a reply and hung up.

"I'm going there too." Donnie said, and before he got the OK from his brothers, he was gone.

"Raph, Mikey, you stay here. Get out of sight, we'll call if we find anything." Leo barker, and chased after Donnie.

"Great, more waiting around" Mikey groaned, and he and Raph made for somewhere more discrete.

Holly was driving as fast as she felt comfortable through the streets. Her phone was paired to the Bluetooth in the van and her mom's line was ringing though the speakers.

"C'mon, C'mon" she muttered to the call, as she swerved around a delivery truck.

"Hello?" Stacey's groggy voice came through the crackly speakers.

"Mom, I need your help." Holly was wide awake again now. She could feel her heart racing as she tried to think of what she needed to do.

"Whats the matter?" Stacey sounded more alert and there was shuffling sounds coming through the call.

"April has been taken by the Krang, we need to find her so the guys can rescue her."

"What do you need me to do?" Stacey asked. Without hesitation.

"I just need you to get to the TCRI building and see if any suspicions vehicles drive up."

"What about Carol? Is she alright?" Stacey, snatched up her car keys and slid into a set of shoes before heading for her car.

"Uhh, not really." Holly answered "Move people!" She shouted at a particularly slow moving car.

"Are... Are you driving?" Stacey asked her daughter.

"Yes, but that is not important right now. I'm going to add Donatello to the call and we'll be able to cover more ground together." Holly waited until she was at a red light to add Donnie to the call. He answered almost immediately

"Did you find her?" He almost shouted at them.

"No, but mom is going to help us too."
"Hello" Came Stacey's voice.

"Hi Mrs. McCallister," Donnie said, "Where are you guys right now? We should coordinate our efforts." Donnie started typing as Holly told him what streets she was passing, and Stacey got herself connected to her car.
"OK," Donnie announced as he pulled up a map of the areas they were in. "If the Krang take April from her house to TCRI, the most direct route would be going up 10th until they hit Broadway. If they're coming to the ship, it would be easier to get on the highway."

"If we take the highway, they should pass right by us if they're coming this way." Leo said from the drivers seat.

"Are you all there?" Holly asked

"Whats this about a ship?" Stacey asked.

"No, we left Raph and Mikey in case we miss her on the road." Leo answered.

"The ship is the Krangs space ship." Donnie clarified for Stacey.

"Oh,"

"Where do you want us to go Donnie?" Holly asked now that she was closer to Aprils apartment.

Donnie took the lead, directing Holly and Stacey to take certain streets that would be the most likely routs for the Krang to go. They all stayed on the call together, letting Donnie take charge so that they could cover the most ground possible. Holly drove between Aprils apartment and TCRI without seeing anything suspicious. Stacey on the other hand, was driving towards Donnie and Leo, and had found one vehicle that looked out of place. She had been relaying the directions this truck was going and it seemed to be going in the right direction.

"Can you get next to them and see what the driver looks like?" Donnie asked.

"That doesn't seem very safe." Stacey protested. She was at least a dozen car lengths behind them, but they were on a single lane road in New York. The streets were always busy, no matter what time of night it was.

"Please, If you can catch a look at them and confirm what they look like, we'll know if its them." Donnie was getting frantic.

They heard Stacey sigh through the microphone and the engine of her small car rev up. Donnie held his breath as he waited for her to tell him if it was the Krang.

"I can't just stare at these people as I go by." Stacey complained.

"Flip them the bird, this is New York after all." Holly said half jokingly.

"I wouldn't dream of it, and if I catch you making such vulgar gestures I will not let you drive until you're Thirty." Stacey was flustered. "OK, I'm coming up along side them now."

The sounds of sensible driving could be heard through the line. Stacey accelerated and pulled along side the van, she glanced over, "The driver and passenger look like twins."

"Creepy, unblinking, plastic hair having twins?" Holly clarified quickly.

"Yeah," Said Stacey, unable to look away. A horn blared through the call, followed by the squealing of breaks and some muffled obscenities.

"Mom!?" Holly yelled.

"I'm fine," Stacey said, "A truck was coming the other way so I had to swerve to avoid being hit."

"Oh my gosh, don't do that!" Holly said.

"Are you still behind them?" Leo asked, getting back to the task at hand.

"Yes, although they're much further ahead of me now." Stacey confirmed.

"Stay on them mom, I'm going to head that way too." Holly said.

"Once we catch sight of them, you can head back home," Leo offered,

"I don't think so. I'm not letting you deal with this on your own," Stacey said indignantly.

"I wonder where Holly gets it from?" Donnie said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Came two identical responses through the call.
"You guys stay connected, I'll call Raph and let him and Mikey know whats going on. I can pick them up if they go anywhere other than the base." Holly hung up.

"Alright, you just tell us where you're going. We'll try to cut them off." Donnie said, and Stacey hung back from the van and gave directions.

April was being thrown around in the back of the van every time the Krang took a corner. She had been shoved into the back of the vehicle and was surprised to find the interior significantly more technologically sophisticated that the exterior would have her assume. The walls were a smooth shiny silver metal, punctuated with the Krangs signature purple lighting. She had tried to find any purchase on the material that she could hold onto, but it didn't have a single crease that she could even get a nail under. Even the back door didn't seem to have a seam. Occasionally a little window would open up that would allow one of the Krang to peek back at her from the front cab, and she would shout at them to take it easy, not that they even listened to her.

After what felt like an hour, April was finally starting to get her feet under her, when the van slammed on its breaks and she was thrown to the front of her little box. The little window opened, she rubbed her head and started to complain, when she saw what had caused the prompt end to their journey. They were held up in traffic caused by a tipped over box truck who's contents were strewn all over the street. There wasn't as much traffic at this time of night, but there were still a few people getting out of their cars to yell at the commotion.

The Krang looked at each other, before choosing to turn off down a one way street to their left. They had not closed the little window, so April watched at they ran into another issue, that forced them to turn right this time. She smiled to herself. This had "Donatello" written all over it.

Donnie had been plotting all the likely routes the Krang could take to get to the plant, and as soon as Stacey had told them they were heading onto the Madison Avenue bridge, Donne had a plan. They were going to force the Krang to come to them. He had directed Leo to drive past a box truck that was making deliveries, they had grappled onto it as they passed and dragged it into the road, and tipped it over. They then proceeded to place a few more obstructions, that should force the Krang into a dead end.

Holly was on her way to meet Raph and Mikey already, and Stacey was still tailing the van from a safe distance, confirming the route they were taking.
"You're sure this is going to work?" Leo asked Donnie once they had set the last road block.

"It should," Donnie replied, "hopefully we get this all taken care of long before the others get here."

"And if we don't?" Leo asked.

"Then we go onto plan B." Donnie said without looking too long at his brother.

"What exactly is plan B?" Stacey asked over the line.

"Still working on that" Donnie whispered more to himself than anyone in particular.

"Loop Holly back in on this call, she should also be on the road in case this goes pear shaped." Stacey said, "If we all know what is going on, we can coordinate much more effectively."

"That's true." Donnie admitted, and added Holly, Raph, and Mikey into the conference call. "Hey, are you all there."
"Yes," Came a short reply from Holly.

"We're here Donnie, Whats going on?" Raph asked.

Donnie filled them in very briefly as Stacey continued to tell them where April was.

"I'm still on my way to the Recycling plant" Holly said sounding stressed, "I still need to get back to you guys."
"We'll start heading that way across the rooftops, just let us know where you are coming from. Lets go Mikey"

"Finally!" Mikey chimed in, and the sounds of the two of them running became a constant back ground noise over the call.

"They're coming past the Medical center now." Stacey announced.

"Good, provided they are following the fastest path, they should be nearly here." Donnie said.

Sure enough, the Krang were following the path laid out for them by Donnie and Leo, and before too long they could see the van coming towards them.

"OK, lets try and get this over with quickly so we can get back to disabling that ship." Leo said, with an annoyed tone.

"Oh, I'm sure April did this intentionally to disrupt your plans" Holly snapped back, having no patients left for Leo's sulking. "She's probably having the time of her life right now!"

"I didn't mean that." Leo hissed, defensively.

"Holly, be nice." Stacey warned her daughter, "but, perhaps there are more important things to be focused on right now".

"Ha ha, you got told off!" Mikey sang through the line to Leo's absolute shame.

"Alright, they've stopped, Lets go Leo." Donnie said, and he immediately melted into the shadows to try and get behind the Krang Van.

Raphael and Michelangelo were racing across the rooftops as fast as they could manage, but it was still nearly 20 miles back to the other end of Manhattan. Raph had to stop and chuckle to himself when Holly was scolding Leo, and he almost lost it all together when Stacey agreed, and Mikey was making fun of him. Sometimes Leonardo needed knocking down a peg or two when he got all high-and-mighty about his grand schemes.

"Holly, where are you?" He asked into the group call. There was a pause as Holly checked the street signs she was passing. When she told them where she was, he had to look up the area on his T-phone. Thank god for GPS maps. "Mikey and I are by the rail yard. Can you get here from where you are?"

"Yeah, I'm only about 5 minutes away" Holly said.

"Finally, I'm sick of being left behind" Mikey complained.

Holly pulled over near the rail yard and hopped out of the van to look for Raph and Mikey. They were perched on top of one of the nearby buildings and they waved her around a corner to a more secluded area. They dropped down to street level and Holly slid out of the van to meet them.

"Took you long enough," Mikey said half jokingly.

"Don't start, or I'll make you walk." Holly said kneading the bridge of her nose.

"Are you doing alright?" Raph said completely circumventing Mikey's idiocy.

"I'll be fine," Holly answered with an automatic lie, "Right now we need to worry about April."

"April will be fine." Mikey said, "Donnie won't let anything happen to her."

"So whats the plan?" Raph asked the group collectively. "It'll take us a while to get to where Donnie and Leo are."

"Was there any activity at the plant?" Donnie asked over the vans speakers.

"Not when we left." Mikey shrugged.

"Then swing back by it quickly, just to make sure that nothing is going down there." Leo said. "Then head this way."

"Alright, it wont take us long to get back there." Holly said, "We'll let you know if anything looks weird."

"Shotgun!" Mikey yelled, and launched himself into the front of the van.

"Yeah, right" Raph replied, and they proceeded to shove each other until finally Raph won the passenger seat.

"Jerk," Mikey muttered as Holly fired up the van. But he soon busied himself digging through the stuff in the back that he lost interest in the front seat.

Donnie and Leo watched as the van pulled into the alley way, they dropped down behind the van to block off its retreat.

"Let April go, now" Donatello yelled at the van.

No one responded, not that he expected them too. But the doors opened and two Krang droids stepped down, guns immediately shooting off laser blasts as the exited the vehicle.
Leo leapt to the left, while Donne moved right. Both of them ducked and dove their way towards the Krang. Leo sliced through the droid with one swift slice, while Donnie sunk the hidden blade of his Bo staff deep into the chest of his droid.

"Huh, that was easier that I thought it would be." Leo said as he kicked the droid to roll over.

"Don't jinx it." Donnie said as he climbed into the van. April was peering through the little window, and beamed when she saw him.

"Donnie!" She exclaimed with real relief in her voice. "Get me out of here."

"I will," He assured her. But as he looked around, he noticed that this van was much more than just a mass produced transit van. "Just, let me figure this out." What would usually be the dashboard was a Krang control panel. Donnie tried a couple of the buttons, one of them closed the little window that April could see out of, while the other turned on the wiper blades.

Stacey's car pulled up at the end of the block, she got out of her car, but stayed far enough away just in case anything else was going to happen. "Are you guys doing alright? Do you need any help?"

"No thanks Mrs. M." Leo yelled back, "You don't have to stay if you don't want to."

"No way, I am not leaving until I know you're all safe." She replied, but she did stay behind her car. This was more excitement that she really felt comfortable with.

Leonardo was at the back door, trying to jam his katana into any seam to bust open the door, but he couldn't find a single scratch in the back much less a seam. "How do we get into this thing?"

"I'm not sure yet. It seems to be a specially build transportation unit." Donnie tried a few more buttons to no avail. "Maybe it needs Krang tech to operate it fully." He hopped out of the cab to retrieve one of the droids heads. He hopped back in and sat behind the steering wheel carefully positioning the head roughly where a Krang Droid would be if it were in one piece. A scanner beeped to life from the visor and took a reading of the droid. An affirming tone played and a heads up display showed on the inside of the wind shield. "Ah Hah!" Exclaimed Donnie happily.

April tapped on the glass, "Could you please hurry up?"

"Working on it," He replied as nicely as he could. He scowled at the HUD, "If this is the security settings, then this should unlock the door." He selected an setting on the screen with the little D-pad on the steering wheel. Instead a matching pair of turret guns appeared on the back corner of the van. It took a couple of pot shots at Leo, who had to duck for cover, before Donnie retracted them.

"Whoops," Donnie said, and leaned out of the van to apologize to his brother. "My bad."

"Just, try to pick the right thing this time." Leo said irritably. He turned back to Stacey, who waved sheepishly at him. He waved awkwardly back.

Donnie turned back to the screen. He muttered to himself the whole time as he thought through the control screens.
His t-phone rang, and he answered it while still navigating through all the option screens that were in the system. "Are you guys on your way?"

Raph, Mikey, and Holly parked next to a building that they could climb to get a better look at the recycling plant and military base. They had climbed up to the rooftops and had a set of binoculars out that they were sharing.

"There is movement" Holly said, and pointed towards the base so that Raph and Mikey could see. "But what is going on is impossible to tell."

"People going into a building, but are they Krang or Foot?" Raph asked.

"Either? Both?" Holly shrugged.

"Well they're not coming this way at least." Mikey chimed in happily as he got a turn to see what was going on.

"True. It doesn't seem like, whoever they are, are planning a mass mobilization." Holly said, "Lets get out of here. With any luck April will be back home before first light."
The teens turned and began climbing back down to the van, when there was a sudden shaking that rattled the fire escape they were on. Holly clung to the ladder that threatened to throw her off the side of the building. Everything settled back down after a few seconds.

"What the hell was that?" She asked and pushed her glasses back up her nose.

"You felt it too? I though I imagined it" Mikey said from above her on the ladder.

They fell silent as the tremble started to rattle some of the small stones on the ground around them. Holly looked between the Turtles, worry spreading over her features.

"We gotta get out of here." Raph said, and dropped the last 15 feet to the ground Mikey launched himself down to the street bouncing between the buildings to slow his descent, but Holly was still 2 stories up and would break her legs if she tried it. "Jump, I'll catch you." Raph said and held his arms out to her.

Holly took one steadying breath before pushing off the ladder. She fell fast, and squeezed her eyes shut against the rush of wind. Raph caught her and swung himself around to help offset some of the impact, and to propel her towards the van.

Mikey was waving them in from the back "Lets go already!"

Holly floored the van as Mikey and Raph were both shouting at her to "Go!".

As they raced as fast as they could away, the recycling plant crumbled in a cloud of dust behind them, and a huge silver dome was rising out of the ground.

"Um, guys," Mikey said, "Its gaining on us!"

The Technodrome was slicing a huge gouge in the earth as it rose slowly into the air. The road parted as easily as water as the Technodrome moved towards them.

"Can this thing go any faster?" Raph asked as the wave of concrete started pelting the back of the van.

"Not really!" Shouted Holly as the back end of the vehicle started lifting. She swerved the van violently to the left down a wider street, just as the Technodrome lifted fully out of the earth, the van lifted onto two wheels as the road finally stopped chasing them, and she cranked the wheel hard to the right to get them back on all four tires. The van fishtailed to a screeching halt as Holly slammed on the breaks. They all sat breathing heavily for a second.

"Nice driving" Raph said and patted Holly's shoulder encouragingly. He turned around to check on his brother "Mikey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm alright" Mikey said, he was upside down smashed into the corner behind the drivers seat, but he was in one piece.

"We need to catch up to that thing," Holly said a little shakily.

"Where do you think its going?" Asked Mikey.

"My money is on where ever April is." Holly replied, She pulled up Donatello's number and slammed the van into gear before the line had even begun ringing.

"Are you guys on your way?" Donnie asked without so much as a 'Hello'.

"Yes, but so is the Technodrome," Holly said without hesitation.
"What?" Donnie asked, and had to stop what he was doing to properly comprehend what she had just said.

"The Technodrome, dude!" Mikey burst out. "Its flying towards you guys right now!"

"It took off?" Donnie said, "Leo! Head to the roof top!" He shouted out the window. "If that thing is in the air, that means the Krang are making their move." Guilt flooded through his system. If they had gone into the Technodrome earlier, they could have stopped them already. But no, he had to be the Hero for April.

"Whats going on?" Leo asked as he jogged up to the window of the van.

"The Technodrome is on its way here, now. I need you to keep an eye out for it, tell me how long we have." Donnie was expecting his brother to freak out, and drop an 'I told you so'. But Leo simply looked at April, then over to Stacey.

"Get her out of there, as fast as you can." He nodded at April. "I'm get Mrs, McCallister to leave, then go top side." He didn't even wait for conformation of his directions. Leo sprinted to Stacey not worrying if someone else was on the street.

"Whats going on?" Stacey asked worry written on her face.

"You need to go home now, Its about to get very dangerous on the streets." Leo told her.

"I can't leave you all here." Stacey looked up the alley to the van where April was still trapped. "You're just kids."

"We can handle ourselves. Just, please go, you'll be safer inside." Leo didn't have time to argue with her, he hurled himself up the side of the closest building and over the lip out of sight.

Stacey stood rooted to the spot with indecision. She couldn't leave, but she knew she would just get in the way if she stayed. The night was nearly spent, and people were starting to emerge from their homes to start their days. She couldn't run and hide while everyone else was in danger. Stacey made up her mind, she ran out into the road yelling at the top of her lungs that people needed to leave the area.

Leonardo had covered a few blocks before he stopped to scourer the northern horizon. A good 5 minutes passed before he saw what he was looking for. Peeking thought the Sky scrapers of Midtown, a huge ball was floating towards them. It didn't look like much yet, but it had 10 miles to cover before it was on top of them.

Holly was busy trying to keep up with the Technodrome to worry too much about anyone else on the streets. She let Raph and Mikey talk to Donnie and Leo, although they also helped to keep an eye on the Technodrome as she lost sight of it while swerving around the other motorists. More than one person honked their horns at her, but she ignored them and continued to weave between the other vehicles. Once they had crossed the bridge back into Manhattan, it was easier to follow the flying behemoth, even as the traffic got heavier as more and more people were waking up.
"What are they doing?" Donnie's voice came through the speakers.

"Still just heading in your direction." Raph said, as he grabbed onto the handle to stop himself from sliding across the bench seat as Holly swerved around a truck that was pulling onto the road.

"Ouch!" Mikey said from the back, there were less things for him to hang onto back there.

"Pretty soon all of New York is going to be up and about watching a giant Soccer ball fly around Midtown." Donnie Commented. "We should have stopped it while it was still underground."

"Don't let Leo hear you say that." Raph muttered.

"Whats their game plan, anyway?" Donnie muttered, "What possible purpose could they have for launching an attack in broad daylight?"

As soon as the words had left his mouth, a series of doors opened around the exterior of the ball, and a swarm of smaller drones spread out into the sky.

"Oh shit." Holly said, she looked at Raph, and back at Mikey to make sure they were seeing the same thing.

"What? Whats happening?" Donnie asked.

"The Technodrome just had babies." Mikey answered for them.

"Donnie you have to get April out of that van, now." Leo's voice came over the speakers. They could hear footfalls coming through the line, but they had no way of knowing if they were running to, or from Donatello and April.

Raph, Mikey, Holly, and Leo all watched as the smaller spheres spread out over the city. They then started swooping down to street level, scooping up anyone who was unfortunate enough to be on the street.

"Oh my god, they're going full 'abduction scenario' on us." Holly watched in horror as the people started to realize what was happening. Too many people were still stopping to look at what was going on, not realizing that they were about to be picked up by an invading alien force. The screams broke through the shock, and soon there was pandemonium. The people who had made it to their cars were now trying to drive as fast as possible away from the danger. But the commotion just brought more people out onto the streets.

"How much longer until you guys are here?" Donnie asked, panic rising in his voice.

"Seven minutes, but the Technodrome is ahead of us." Raph answered.

"We need to try to help these people." Holly cried as a woman and a man were sucked up into one of the pods.

"How exactly are we going to do that?" Raph asked.

"Take the wheel." Holly said, she let go of the steering wheel and reached back behind her seat for her bow.

"Are you crazy!" Raph yelled at her, as he leaned over her to make sure they didn't crash.

"Here, put your foot on the pedal." Holly climbed back out of the way, so Raph could slide into the drivers seat.

"What are you doing?" Raph took over completely.

"I'm going to do what I can." Holly said. "Mikey, grab my legs, and do not let me fall."

"Rodger!" Mikey said happily. She then climbed into the passenger seat and rolled down the window. She then maneuvered herself so she was sitting on the door with her torso out of the window. Mikey wrapped one arm around her waist, and used his hidden chain to anchor himself to the chair.

"Would you get back in here?" Raph shouted at her.

But Holly didn't listen. She nocked an arrow and took aim at one of the pods that was attempting to scoop up some people. She let fly, and the arrow sunk deep into the shell of the sphere. There was a crackle of electricity and the ball lost control and fell to the ground cutting up the concrete as it skidded to a stop.

"Awesome!" Mikey yelled.
"What was that?" Leos voice came through the speaker. He could see the plume of smoke that rose from the sphere after the EMP had fried it.

"Donnie made them." Holly shouted over the wind roar "All that alien tech and its no match for an electromagnetic pulse."

"Can it take down the full sized one?" Raph asked.

"No, I wasn't even sure it would work on the transport pods, but I had to try."

"I swear, if you let her fall, I'll kill you." Raph shouted at Mikey as Holly let fly with another arrow.

Leonardo could see where the others were from the trail of smoke they left behind. The Technodrome has finally stopped moving, and was hovering menacingly above the city as the pods collected the people off the street. There was a pod heading towards where April and Donnie were, he kept pace with it until it dropped low enough that he could fling himself at it and sink his swords hilt deep into the craft. He used his momentum to carry himself across the top of the pod, carving a huge gouge out of the ship. He didn't look back to see the sphere short out and crash to the street in a smoking heap, as he was busy watching more pods change course towards April.

"Donnie, did you get April out of that van yet?" Leo asked into his headset.

"Almost." Came Donnie's reply, but it didn't sound certain.

"You're running out of time." Leo said before launching himself at another pod that was descending to his height. The pod opened up, and a half a dozen tentacles snaked out to grab some people who were leaning out of their window to see what was happening. He sliced through the silvery appendages, which had been wrapped around some poor guys waist and was trying to drag him out of his apartment and sunk his other sword into the top of the craft.

"Get away from the windows!" Leo called back to the guy as he rode the pod across the street to another rooftop. The stunned man just nodded as he sat shocked in his kitchen. He leapt off the pod and raced along the rooftops to follow the other pods that were heading to Donnie.

Donnie was struggling with this Krang tech. It was not as straight forward as the stuff they usually came across. He had to wire in his t-phone to the dash as there was no port that he could plug into. He had to try to navigate all the controls through the tiny screen on his phone, and there were a lot of them. He had managed to open the little window so that April didn't have to yell at him through it anymore, but it was not big enough for her to squeeze through. He had managed to find some interesting information, but had consciously ignored it to keep hunting for the 'open the door' button.
When Leo's warning came through his phone, he decided to take a less sophisticated attempt to open the back compartment of the van.

"Don't worry April. I will get you out of there." Donnie reassured her.

"Oh take your time." April said sarcastically.

"I'm going to try to cut through the back panel with the Krang's own weapon. You may want to stay as far away from the back as you can." Donnie said. Not really sure how powerful the turret gun was going to be.

April nodded and disappeared from the hatch. Donatello called up the other turret gun that Leo had not destroyed and pulled it off of its mount. He popped of a control panel and slowly cranked up the power as he fired laser bursts at the van. After a few minutes of trying, there was a noticeable hole in the door.

"Are you doing OK?" Donnie called to April.

"I'm fine, just keep going" April responded shortly.
Donnie carefully cut peroration holes in one side of the van, making sure he didn't send a shot through the door at April. A bead of sweat rolled down his face, he knew he didn't have much time left, but finally there was enough material missing that he felt he could knock in the section he had cut out.
"Watch out April." He called out, and side kicked the van. The section he had cut, fell heavily into the interior of the van, and he stuck his head inside to make sure April was alright.

"Thank goodness." She said, and took his hand as he helped her climb out into the street. "Took you long enough" she smiled at him playfully.

He smiled back at her and scratched his head.

Aprils smile suddenly fell, "Behind you." She shouted.

Donnie didn't have time to turn around before something smashed into his shell sending him flying twenty yards into the dead end behind April. He slammed hard into the wall, and crumpled into a groaning heap at the foot of the wall. "Donnie!" April shouted, but she was grabbed around the middle and lifted off the floor into one of the smaller pods that Leo hadn't managed to destroy.

Raph was doing his best to drive smoothly, but these damn flying pods were everywhere and they were scooping people up by the dozen. Holly was still hanging out of the window. She had managed to take a few more of the pods out, but there were so many that it felt like they weren't even making a dent in the number that was out there. They heard Leo's voice over the Bluetooth, and then the conversation between Donnie and April. But things took a bad turn when April shouted and then the line went dead.

"Donnie?" Raph asked.

"His line is dead." Leo responded, "Where are you guys?" He was running at full speed towards his brother and the sound of his pounding feet was beating through the speakers.

"We'll be there" Raph said, and reached over to pull Holly back into the van. She was listening though, and nodded at him to floor it as she carefully climbed back into the van.

"Is Donnie OK?" Mikey asked, worry written all over his face.

"He will be" Holly said reassuringly, and gave Mikey's hand a squeeze as she sat on his lap in the passenger seat.

The engine roared and Raph drifted the van around the next corner so as not to loose any time.
"Look, there's Leo." Mikey said and pointed up at the roof top. He was hacking his way through another of the pods that was trying to swoop down to a couple on the street. "We must be close."

The tires screeched as they rounded the last corner, Stacey's car was still blocking the entrance to the alley, but she was nowhere to be seen. As they looked around for her, a transport pod flew out of the alley way and started back towards the Technodrome. They could see April inside banging against a transparent pane.

"April!" Holly shouted.

"Quick, shoot it down!" Mikey yelled.

Holly hopped out of her Van, bow in hand, but it was pointless. The pod was climbing into the sky much too fast for her to be able to safely try to bring it down. "I can't, April might get seriously hurt."

"Don't worry about it, we know where she's going this time." Leo said as he dropped down next to Holly. "Right now we need to find Donnie and regroup".

The all ran into the alley, and saw Stacey crouched down next to Donnie. He was conscious, which was good, but he was not on his feet just yet.

"Mom?" Holly shouted surprised, "What are you still doing here?"

"I was trying to get people off the street when those... things started swiping people up." She gestured at the sky where the pods we're still soaring by. "I saw one coming down here so I ran after it just in time to watch Donnie get thrown into the wall."

"Is he OK?" Mikey asked and knelt besides his brother to help him up.

"I'm alright," Donnie answered for himself. He took the hand Mikey offered and let himself be pulled to his feet, "I'll just be feeling that for a few days."

"What are we waiting for?" Raph asked the group, "Lets go after April."

"We will," Leo announced, "but first, we're going into enemy territory blind. We have to work together on this." He looked specifically at Donatello, who dropped his gaze to the grubby alley. "We also have two tasks here, we need to shut that thing down."

"Raph and I can do that," Donnie said. "You and Mikey should find April."

"Alright. Holly, you'll have to sit this one out." Leo said, expecting some push back.

But Holly just nodded, she was exhausted and knew she would be a liability. "We'll do what we can from the ground, and we'll keep close in case you need a swift exit."

"Perfect, just try not to get yourself captured by one of those things." Leo added.

"Don't worry about us," Stacey said and threw an arm around Holly, "we can take care of our selves."
"That's what I'm worried about." Leo said, Holly gave a snort of amusement.

"How exactly are we supposed to get in there?" Mikey asked, waving his hand at the floating space ship.

"We'll hitch a ride." Leo said, as another pod whirred overhead, "Lets go, we need to take care of this before anyone gets hurt."

"Be careful." Stacey yelled as the four turtles climbed up the side of the building. Holly and Stacey watched as they disappeared over the lip of the roof. "After this is over, we're all going on vacation."

"Sounds good, mom." Holly took a deep breath, "C'mon, you can drive."

"Of course I'm driving, you don't have a license."

The Turtles raced across the rooftops as the sun peeked between the gray morning clouds. The pods were still swooping down occasionally to pick up anyone on the streets, and as one passed them on its way back to the Technodrome, they jumped on its blind side to carry them into the sky. The pods were only big enough to carry two turtles each, Leo and Donnie jumped on the first pod while Raph and Mikey were left to find their own ride.

"Lets go Mikey," Raph yelled as he launched himself off the roof they were on. He sank a sai into the shell of the pod to help him hang on.

Mikey, who was a half a beat behind his brother, leapt onto the spherical surface, and began sliding off it. He let out a little yell as he tried to find purchase on the smooth metal. Raph ended up having to grab onto his arm and haul him up to safety.

"Be careful, we cant afford any screw ups this time." Leo yelled across to them. The wind whipped past them as the pods sped up towards the Technodrome. It loomed high over the city and the air got noticeably colder as the climbed towards it.

"Brrr," Mikey shivered, "I'm going to freeze my shell of up here."

"Just hold on a bit longer," Leo replied.

They soared through an opening in the side of the Technodrome, rows of pods were already there with scared looking people in them.
"What are we going to do about them?" Donnie asked.

"I haven't figured that out yet." Leo admitted. "But, if we find a way out for them, we find a way out for ourselves too."

The pod Leo and Donnie was on, slowed suddenly, and went to dock into an empty space. They jumped down onto a gantry before the pod backed into the slot with a hiss. Raph and Mikey had to leap off and roll as they were still going full speed, but they both made it down to their brothers unscathed.
"Lets see if we can find some schematics of this place before we split up." Leo said, "Then you two," he looked at Donnie and Raph, "do whatever you can to get this thing out of commission. If you can find some sort of escape route too, that would be great."

"We will need to find the control room, It will likely be heavily guarded." Donnie said to Raph.

"Don't worry, I will make sure nothing gets at you while your shutting this thing down." Raph said, not even putting on his macho persona.

"Lets go, before we're noticed." Donnie, Mikey, and Raph nodded, and the group took off deeper into the Technodrome.

As they went, they encountered very little as far as Krang went. There were no sentries patrolling the corridors, and as they went they heard no hurried footsteps coming to meet them.

"I don't like this." Mikey whispered to the others, "I've seen this in 'The Mighty Alien Rampage', episode 9."

"This isn't a comic book Mikey." Leo snapped back.

"I'm telling you, something big is ahead of us." Mikey whispered skeptically.

"Oh, here." Donnie said suddenly, and skidded to a halt. "a terminal."

"Its a wall, dude." Mikey said.

"No, look here." He tapped a few seemingly normal wall panels, and a holographic screen popped up with a bunch of Krang symbols on it.

"That doesn't help much if we can't read it." Raph said snarkily.

Donatello rolled his eyes, "Do you know how many Krang documents Holly and I have translated?"

"No." Raph admitted, "but it can't be enough to be able to read it fluently."
"I don't need to read it fluently." He pulled out his t-phone and plugged it into an outlet that was behind a sliding panel on the wall. "This can read it for us." He gave Raph a smug look before looking over the holo-screen symbols and matching them to the ones on his phone screen. "This should be the overall menu," He tapped a button. "This should be a ships log." He scrolled down through the list of information. "And this should show us were the crew are." The screen changed to a map of the inside of the Technodrome in 3D. There were little dots clustered in one of the lower level room, along with a few scattered here and there through out the rest of the structure. There was also a few dots around a central room with one big dot in the middle. "That must be where April is. They need her for whatever it is they're planning."

"Alright Mikey, Lets go." Leo snapped a picture of the map, just in case they took a wrong turn, and the two of them left Donnie and Raph to their task.

April groaned as she woke up. She had been knocked unconscious by some kind of gas after she was picked up by that pod. She couldn't remember anything after the pod had flung Donatello across they ally way and sealed her up within its self. She tried to rub her head, but something prevented her arm from moving more than about an inch. She looked down and noticed large metal bands holding her to a table. She started to panic a little and glanced around the rest of the room to see where she was. The room she was in was almost completely dark. There was some kind of light shining down on her, but she couldn't see the source. It was almost interesting until she saw what else was in the room. Above her was a nasty looking machine suspended from somewhere above her in the dark, that had a foot long needle pointed at her head. It was only a few inches away from her face, and although nothing was happening at the moment, she didn't like to think what it would be used for. April tried to look around her but she couldn't see more that a few feet in any direction. April tried to wriggle in her bonds.

"It's no use, you won't get away from me." A voice said from just outside the sphere of light she was in. "I'm afraid no one is going to save you this time".

"What do you want with me?" April asked, still struggling.

"We need you. You're specially designed to help us to terraform this disgusting rock into our new home." The voice answered.

"What do you mean, 'specially designed'?" April continued.

"You are a human hybrid. We can use you to connect with the beings of this planet. You can command them to line up nicely to get mutated, so that we don't have to go chasing you all down" The voice was moving closer to her now, there were shadowy movements in the corners of Aprils vision.
"I wouldn't help you, even if I could." April snarled.

"Oh, but you don't have a choice." The voice was amused now, "We don't need to force you to do anything. This device will amplify your brain waves sending out a signal to all living things, they will all become our slaves as we reshape the entire universe from this planet."

"Are you crazy? Do you really think that the military hasn't already mobilized to stop you?" April scoffed.

"I'm not worried about them. Like I said everyone will do as we say. They'll be begging us to give them orders." A massive Krang emerged from the darkness. Aprils eyes went wide, and her mouth hung open in a silent scream. "What? Nothing to say?"

April regained control of herself, and this time, she really did scream.

Stacey and Holly drove under the Technodrome trying to help anyone they could. The issue was that there were still a good few transportation pods flying around, and New York was full of people.

"Would you get out of the road!" Stacey yelled out of the window as a couple of people ran out to see what was going on. "Can't you see that everyone else is running away?"

"Mom, can you not swerve quite so violently while I'm out here?" Holly said as she clung on for dear life to the top of the car. She was once again, hanging out of the vehicle window while trying to keep an eye on the turtles as they rode the pods up into the Technodrome. She wanted to make sure that none of the other pods tried to dislodge them as they ascended, but luckily the pods didn't seem to care that they were carrying stowaways, and just continued to gather anyone off the street who was unfortunate enough to be spotted.

"Good, they made it." Holly sighed to herself as she slid back into the interior of the car.

"What do we do now?" Stacey asked, pulling the car back over to give them both a moment of calm.

"Whatever we can from down here." Holly said. She rubbed her face feeling the exhaustion taking hold again.

"Is this what you've been doing all these months?" Stacey said and a worried frown creased her brow.

"What? Trying to stop an alien invasion? Pretty much." Holly said with a shrug.

"And, Splinter was it? He's completely fine with letting his boys fighting all this on their own?" Stacey's frown changed from concern to something all together more hostile.

"Uhh, I mean, they're not completely alone." Holly admitted, sensing danger.

"Oh yes how could I forget. He thinks that you and April are perfect candidates to help his own four teenagers." Stacey said bitterly.

"I mean, they're not usual teenagers." Holly tried to defend Splinter. "They are mutants, with super human abilities. Its not like they're just four random people off the street."

"Even so." Stacey continued. "They are still just kids, you all are. You all deserve to have as close to normal lives as possible."

"They're perfectly fine the way they are!" Holly shouted back. "They may not have conventional lives, but they have a life. Splinter loves them, and he trusts them, and us, to do what is best. I knew that I would get in the way in there," she swung her arm up at the giant ball above them, "which is why I stayed behind, but they can do this. Splinter would never have let them go if he didn't think they could."

Stacey contemplated, a deep wrinkle still set between her eyes. "I don't know, Holly. This is all so... big." she finished lamely.

"I know." Holly sat back in the chair after her tirade. "It is, but they're important to me," Holly blushed slightly, "I want to be involved because they're my friends."

Stacey leaned over and embraced her daughter. "When did you grow up so much?" Holly didn't answer she didn't really have an answer to give. "So," Stacey sniffed away her proud tears and changed the subject before she actually cried "Donatello seems to be keen on April."

"Keen?" Holly grimaced at her moms ancient slang.

"And Raphael always seems to make excuses to stay near you."

"Oh god, I am not getting into this with you now." Holly rubber her face again. "Can we drive again please? We should try to help anyone left of the streets."

"Alright, where to?" Stacey started the car again, and they continued to follow the space ship through the city.

Leonardo and Michelangelo were making their way towards the main chamber as swiftly as they could. They had evaded into a few patrols, but mostly their route had been empty. They used what little cover there was to stay out of sight, but truly there hadn't been many eyes to spot them anyway.

"Somethings going on here, and I don't like it." Leo announced quietly as they peered around another corner.
"Yeah, where is everyone?" Mikey agreed.

"I'm not sure. Lets keep moving, we can worry about it once we find April." They crossed another deserted hallway before emerging onto a catwalk that overlooked a huge control room. Inside were dozens of Krang flying around in their little chairs controlling goodness knows what.

"Eww, gross" Mikey whispered.

"This must be the main control room." Leo whispered back. He pulled out his phone and opened up his images to look at the map. "This must be where we are," He pointed at the screen.

"How much further do we have to go?" Mikey asked.

"Not far," Leo admitted, "Lets go get April, Donnie will have to figure out how to help the others."

They crept away from the view below them and started to head towards a ramp that would take them up to the central room they had seen on the plans.

There were a few guards posted around the entrances of the room they wanted to get into. Leonardo signaled silently to Mikey that they needed to take out some of the guards without making too much noise. Mikey nodded, and pointed at him self and then at the guard on the right. Leo acknowledged and they darted out and around the two guards and took them down with a slice and a well placed hidden blade. They dragged the Krang drones out of sight and stashed them in an alcove to try and buy themselves more time.

Before they had much time to decide what to do next, a scream ripped through the halls.

"April." Mikey said in a whisper, he looked at Leo for some kind of reassurance, but none came.

"I think so," Leo replied. "We have to be smart about this, try to stay out of sight until we know we can get her out of whatever is going on in there." Mikey nodded again, worry wrinkling his usually smooth face.

The pressed themselves against the wall, hearing muffled conversation coming through from the other side. Leo opened the door a crack, the darkness was deep and the bright light from the hallway didn't penetrate that far into the large room. Nothing happened, so Leo nodded at Mikey again, and led the way into the room. Mikey followed. Their eyes were so used to the bright halls of the Technodrome were almost useless in this room, but as they moved further along the wall, April came into view from seemingly out of nowhere. Leo realized they were in a double walled circular room, they couldn't see April from the door as there was another wall blocking their view. But now that they had moved around the outer circle, the inner wall had an opening in it to reveal the central room.

April was strapped to some kind of operating table struggling against bonds that held her down. She looked scared, and was talking to someone, or something that the Turtles couldn't see. They were about to rush out to her to cut her loose when something huge caught Leo's eye. Something was moving in circles around April just outside of the light that shone down from above, but since they were in the shadows also, Leo could make out some of the details. He pulled Mikey back behind the inner wall and waited to see what was going on. A huge Krang in an large exoskeleton was crawling around the room speaking English to April. Mikey silently screamed and starting freaking out pointing at the giant Krang as if Leo hadn't seen it.

"I'll go in and distract that thing, you get April." Leo whispered to Mikey.

"What do I do after that?" Mikey asked.

"Get her out of here, try to get to Raph and Donnie."

Mikey just bobbed his head once as conformation. He looked scared, but determined.

"Give me about 10 seconds." Leo said before dipping around the corner and colliding with the Giant Krang.

"Where did you come from?" the giant Krang yelled, as Leo purposefully made a show of swinging his swords around. He clattered against the metal exoskeleton of Krang and drew the tips of his blades across the floor as he ran out of the room on the opposite of where he came in.
"I'm just here to ruin your day." He said as he ducked one of the tentacles that Krang sent after him. "Is that all you got?"

The Krang roared in annoyance and started to follow Leo away from April.

Mikey rushed over to April, who almost said his name in relief. He silenced her with a finger to his lips before popping out his hidden blade and prying up the bindings that held her in place.

April slid off the table, her legs were a little wobbly still from whatever gas they had used to knock her out, so Mikey wrapped one of her arms around his shoulder and slipped his arm around her waist. They retreated as fast as they could back out of the dark room and into the corridor outside.

"Oh thank god you're here." April said with real relief. "Get me out of here."

"We will, We're going to go find Donnie and Raph." Mikey said, "Hop on my back, it will be faster this way."

"What about Leo?" April said, looking back at the doorway they had just come through.

"He's a big Turtle, he can take care of himself." Mikey answered, but he didn't feel as confident as he was trying to sound. He picked April up and started back in the direction he and Leo had earlier.

Donnie and Raph were a few floors below Leonardo and Mikey. They were crouched outside of the control rooms entrance waiting for the most opportune time to gain access.

"I can take these guys," Raph hissed as he counted up how many Krang there were in the room, "they're just floating brains, they don't even have their bodies right now."

"I'm sure you'd like to try, I'm sure we don't have long here and I need to figure out how to release those pods, and figure out how to ground this thing." Donnie reminded him.

"What do you need then?" Raph asked, a little impatiently.

"I don't know, Time really." Donnie admitted.

"What do you need, that I can actually help with?" Raph asked again.

Donatello thought for a moment, then his eyes widened as he got an idea. "Give me your phone."
Raph didn't ask for an explication, they were wasting time already, so he handed over his phone. Donnie did some quick scrolling and tapping before making a call on Raphs phone to Holly. There was a little heart emoji at the end of her name, and Donnie couldn't resist giving Raph a smug grin before he put the call on speaker. Raph looked away with a scowl, a tinge of red just touching his cheeks.

"Hello?" Came Holly's voice, curiosity peaked at the unexpected call.

"Hey, its Donnie. I need your help."

"OK, shoot." Holly said, wondering what on earth she could do from in her moms car.

"I am going to connect Raphs phone to a control panel and I need you to try to find the release command for the transport pods."

Holly was silent for a moment. "OK, and how exactly am I supposed to be able to do that?"

"I'll fix Raphs phone to be capable of screen sharing. You should be able access the console through the phone on your end." Donnie said with complete confidence.

"I can certainly try, but I don't know how helpful I can be." Holly sounded skeptical.

"You are as capable of reading this as I am, I know you can do it. Besides, I need to work on a bigger issue." Donnie said. He looked at Raph who was poised, waiting to get into the fray.

"OK," Holly said with apprehension, "I will do my best."

"Alright Raph, Lets go." Donnie said, he had a little connector cable plugged into the port on Raphs phone, he would have to get Holly plugged in first, then he could focus on breaking as much stuff as possible within the Krang system.

Raph burst through the door and promptly began swinging at anything and everything possible. Krang hovercraft were spinning wildly around the room as he trashed as many of them as possible as fast as possible. Chances were that some kind of reinforcements would be on the way, so the sooner these pests were dealt with the better.

Donatello followed Raphs path of destruction over to one of the lower control panels. He hunted around it for a few moments before slotting the other end of the cord into an outlet. He tapped a couple of buttons on the phones screen, before Holly said, "I have control."

"Awesome. Just try to send the pods with people in it back out to the city." Donnie said. He started tapping away on the touch panel console to find as many other systems as he could to stop the Technodrome.

The screen of Raphs phone was swiping, enlarging and selecting options seemingly on its own. Holly was doing her best with her touch screen phone, but it was tricky to make out some of the symbols on the little screen.

Stacey had pulled over in an alley beneath the Technodrome to see what Holly was doing. "You can read that?" She asked, in amazement.

"Sort of," Holly said as she shook her head and backed out of the menu she was in. "I have translated enough of it with Donnie to be able to recognize certain patterns in their written language."

"That's amazing." Stacey admitted.

Donatello was tapping away as Raph crashed into a Krang that attempting to creep up behind him. "Its hard to concentrate when you're right behind me." Donnie complained.

"Do you want to take care of all these guys?" Raph asked.

"Do you think you can read all this Krang text and safely decide which systems to trash so that we don't crash into the city and kill ourselves along with everyone on board of this thing?" Donnie shouted, getting more than a little annoyed. He was so underappreciated.

He pulled up a few more menu screens on the display and finally saw something that could help.

"Propulsion systems!" He said excitedly. He tapped a few more icons, and decided this was a good place to start. First he told the system to move the Technodrome away from the city. Over the Hudson River would do for a start.

"Whoa, whoa, where are you going?" Holly asked.

"I'm on it. You worry about what you have to do," Stacey's voice came through the speaker.

"I'm getting us out over the river so if I have to dump this thing I can do it where it will do the least amount of damage." Donnie said.

He pulled up another system and started to pull apart the coding. He found what seemed to be the fuel storage system. What ever it was they used to propel their ships had an emergency purge system that sealed off the area and ignited all the fuel within it at once. There were four fuel cells in the Technodrome, so he detonated 3 of them. Hoping the last one would be enough to keep them airborne until they could get out.

The force of the explosions could be felt throughout the ship, and everything shook for a couple of moments as the remainder of the impact dissipated.
The remaining Krang abandoned trying to subdue Raph and pretty much scattered.

"Well, that seems to have done something." Donnie mused to himself.

"Where are they going?" Raph asked.

"Guys!" Mikey's voice carried over to them.

Raph and Donnie turned to see Mikey carrying April towards them. She looked scared, and tired, but she was alert and her eyes were bright.

"April!" Donatello yelled, and rushed over to them, completely abandoning the console.
"I'm fine, but please say you have a plan to get us out of here." April said, as Mikey placed her gingerly on the ground. Her legs were still no cooperating completely, but she had more strength back than she had earlier.

"Working on it." Donnie said.

"Where's Leo?" Raph asked, looking around.
Mikey drew a breath to answer when the catwalk glass above them shattered, Leonardo and the giant Krang were plummeting down to the floor of the control room. Raph didn't hesitate, he sprung up to help his brother deal with this new threat, Michelangelo was only a half a beat behind him.

Donatello placed himself between April and the Krang. "Has that thing been here the whole time?" He asked.

"I expect so." April replied, gripping Donnie's arm for support. "Let just get out of here." she was almost pleading with him at this point.

"We will, but we have to make sure they can't power this thing any more." He picked April up and ran back to the console where Holly was yelling at them through the speaker in Raphs phone.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!" She shouted.

"Sorry, there's a lot going on here." He started tapping on the control board again.

"That thing is smoking and you're drifting to the right. You need to get out of there before it goes into the river." Holly was frantic.

"Did you find the controls for the pods?" Donnie asked, keying up the last fuel cell getting ready to blow it up.

"I think so." She scrolled down on her side, and Raphs screen did the same. "I think this is the emergency pod release, but dont know if its going to dump them all at once, or in waves."

"That will have to do. I'm going to blow the last fuel cell and then we'll have to move." He looked around at his brothers who were bouncing all over the place to avoid the Krangs tentacles which were flailing in every direction.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" April asked.

"Just, hold on tight, I have a feeling this will be cutting things close." Donnie said. He activated the emergency purge and threw April onto his back. "Give us a couple of minutes then release the pods." Donnie said to Holly.

"You had better be on one of them." Holly threatened.

"We will." Donnie said. He turned to the others and shouted at them, "Its time to go!"

Leo and Raph nodded quickly, then both of them propelled themselves as fast as they could at the Krang. They struck it simultaneously and it went flying back into a power conduit. Something connected and the Krang was immobilized for a few moments, just long enough for them to sprint away.

The turtles and April back tracked through the Technodrome, but soon the Krang was crashing through the walls to catch up. "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE KRANG PRIME!"

"Doesn't this thing ever give up?" Raph yelled, he had to tumble to the side to avoid the metal arm as it crashed through the floor where he had just been.

They all darted and dipped to avoid everything that was coming at them. Krang Prime was practically ripping the Technodrome apart trying to stop them. Mikey let out little yells as he did his best to dodge chunks of flying debris.

"Mikey, give me your chain." Leo shouted to his baby brother.

Mikey didn't wait to be told again, he threw his weapon to Leo, who spun the hidden hook blade around and threw it at Krang Prime. It caught on one of the arms and he spun and dove until he had captured all the arms in the chain. He then pulled back as hard as he could, Krang Prime crashed to the floor, but was still struggling towards April with immense effort.

"Go!" He shouted at his brothers. But they all stopped.

"We're not leaving with out you." Raph shouted back.

"There's no time," Donnie said sadly, as he looked back at Leo. "We have to go."

Donnie and Mikey put an arm each on Raphs shoulders and pulled him away. He yielded and the three of them ran on.
Leo struggled against Krang Prime who wailed loudly as the ship shuddered around them. A panel shook its self loose off the wall to expose some structural components. One of the beams looked strong enough to hold back Krang Prime. He slowly reeled in the massive monster and tied it as tightly as he could with the chain he got from Mikey. Krang Prime had one appendage that was not completely bound and it swung it lamely at Leonardo as he slipped by.

"This isn't over." Krang Prime said as Leo tried to leave. "We can survive for hundreds of years, all you have done is delayed the inevitable."

"The Earth won't go down without a fight." Leo said over his shoulder as he Ran to catch up with his brothers.

Donatello and Mikey were already waiting inside one of the pods with April. Raph was pacing just outside the pod waiting for Leo. They were tempted to call Holly to make sure she was going to hit the emergency release for the pods, but Donnie didn't want to accidentally drop her connection just for a call. Just as they we're starting to worry. The Pods in the front of the storage tunnels began moving. The pods that had people in them were still sealed, but any that were empty began sliding closed down the line.

"Raph, get in." Donnie said.

"Not yet, Leo could be right behind us." Raph said.

Donnie's phone rang and Holly was on the other end of the line. "Please tell me you're in one of the Pods?" Holly sounded stressed out.

"We are, but Leo's not here yet." Another Row of the pods released.

"He had better hurry, you guys just went into the river." Holly said, she was running again and they could hear her breath coming in sharp gasps as she sprinted to wherever she was going.

"How long until we completely submerge?" Donnie asked, He looked at Raph then off down the hallway to see if there was any sign of Leo.

"I'm not sure, Its sinking fairly quickly. There must be some water getting in somewhere." Holly said.

"We're not going to leave Leo, are we?" Mikey asked.

"We might have to." Donnie said, "But we won't if we don't have to."

There was only one row of pods left to go before the one they were in was going to seal up and leave. Raph groaned audibly. He was just about to go back when they saw Leo round the end of the hallway.

"Oh thank god." Donnie sighed, "Raph get in here."

Raphael obliged, but was immediately waving his brother on to get in the pod. Leo was sprinting, as fast as he could. He had made it a few paces before the corridor exploded behind him. Krang Prime had broken loose and was chasing him towards the pods.

Mikey, Donnie and April let out a yell of surprise. Then they all started shouting. Raphael was just about to leap back out of the pod when the pneumatics slammed the pod cover shut.

"LEO!" Raph shouted as he slammed into the clear dome.
The pod sped away from Leo and within moments it was engulfed by the murky green water of the Hudson.

They all stood in silence as the light grew stronger. They broke the surface of the river and the cover of the pod reopened.

"Leonardo." Raphael said weakly. April buried her face into Donatello's shoulder while he and Mikey just stood stunned looking out over the water.
The other pods were all bobbing along beside them, but the people inside were too scared to worry about a few weird looking people in the pod next to them.

"Guys!" Holly's voice drifted over to them from a small boat that was coming their way. She and Stacey pulled up next to them in a small fishing boat. "Where's Leo?" Holly asked, she looked at the others one at a time.

"He didn't make it." Raph said bitterly.

"Oh my gosh," Stacey clasper her hands to her mouth.

Holly's lip wobbled, but she stood straighter, "Come on, lets get out of here, then we can deal with all of this." She reached across the gap, and she and Donnie helped April into the boat.

"What are we going to do without Leo?" Mikey asked sounding much more innocent than he ever had.

"You can't get rid of me that easily." A voice said from the other side of the boat. Raph sprang over the railing, as Holly dashed to the other side of the boat too. Leo was swimming towards them and climbed up the side of the boat. "We are still turtles, after all."

Mikey launched himself at his big brother and crashed into him, nearly toppling him back into the water. "I thought you were dead, dude!" He said and hugged his brother much too tightly.

"You jerk," Holly punched Leo in the arm, harder than she really planned to, "You scared the crap out of me." She then too, enveloped him in a hug.

Donnie helped April to get settled before he joined his brothers.

"You guys should probably hide. There's a lot more boats on their way out here to pick up the other people." Stacey said from the wheel.

"How did you guys get a boat?" Donnie asked as they did as she suggested. The turtles ducked down in the back of the little boat and found a piece of tarp they could cover them selves up with.

"I had to offer the owner all the cash I had on me to let me borrow it for a half an hour." Stacey replied, "I told him it would be back in its slip and he didn't have to be any the wiser as to what the hell was going on out there."

"That was a good idea. This is going to be all over the news tonight." Leo admitted.

"Let just get you all home for now, we can worry about what happens next after we all get some sleep." Stacey said, she was after all still in her pajamas and slippers.

They got back to the boat slip and hurried to Stacey's car. It was a tight squeeze, but everyone managed to pile into the little car. Stacey drove them back to the alley way where both the Shell-raiser and Holly's van were waiting. The Turtles ducked into the alley way and began climbing into their vehicle.

Leo turned back to April and Holly who were standing back with Stacey, "Are you coming?"

They looked at each other, then at Stacey.

"Oh go on. It'll be nice to have some peace and quite after all this excitement." Stacey said.

"Thanks mom, you're the best."

"Just call me later so I know you're all safe." Stacey said, she then pulled away and left the teens to take care of themselves.

The Turtles, April, and Holly arrived back at the Lair and collectively collapsed on the couches. Splinter had waited up for them to get back and audibly sighed when they all arrived.

"I see things did not go as planned last night." He commented.

"Not exactly, but we managed to sink the Technodrome in the Hudson River." Leo told their father.

"I saw, they we're live casting the broadcast." Splinter came and sat with them, "Are you all alright?"

They all gave a general assurance that they were at least breathing, although Leo decided to give a full account of what happened from start to finish. By the time he was done, Splinters brow was wrinkled with concern.

"You acted like a very wise leader today, but I am so thankful that you made it back." Splinter admitted. "I hope you never have to make another decision between yourself and your family again".

"Me too." Leo said. He looked back at his brothers and found that everyone else had fallen asleep. Donatello had an arm around Aprils shoulders. Mikey was passed out on his back across a bean bag while Holly was face down on the couch her arms crossed under her head. Raphael had scooted himself a little further away from the others and had a frown on his face and his arms folded against his chest, but he was breathing deeply

"I don't think Raphael was too happy with what I did." Leo said.

"I will talk to him later, for now, you should also get some rest." Splinter said. He stood to go to find his own bed. "I am very proud of you all."