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)

16. Chapter 16

Stacey drove Splinter and the Turtles back into the city. Since it was the middle of the day though, they hung the sheets up in the windows, and parked the van completely blocking the sidewalk to let them out. April opened the side door and Splinter and the Turtles dipped into the sewers before they were seen.
"Hey! Move it lady, this is the sidewalk!" Some jerk shouted at them and smacked the side of the van.

"We'll move when were done here!" Holly shouted back leaning out of the window to block whatever of the guys might be exposed.

The jerk flipped her his middle finger, but carried on his way. Holly checked over her shoulder, but the manhole cover was back in place.
"Alright, I'll drop you off at home April, then I need to get home." Stacey said and put the van into gear.
"What about the rental?" Holly asked.

"I'll pay the late fee and drop it off tomorrow." Stacey said and pulled away from the curb.

When they arrived at the O'Neil home, April hauled her backpack out of the van and waved goodbye to her friend, before running upstairs to her aunt.

"Hey! How was your trip?" Carol asked when April came through the door.
"Awesome! It was so beautiful." April answered and dropped her bag and gave her aunt a hug. "How has the city been?"
"I mean, its still being rebuilt and the crime has been crazy. I'm glad you got to get away for a couple days to be honest."

"Has there been any information about the space ship?" April asked. She grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl on the kitchen counted and took a bite out of it.

"Well, yeah actually. They sent a dive team down to look for it and they can't find it." Carol frowned, April almost choked on her apple.

"What do you mean, 'they can't find it'? Its a massive ball." April said.

"I don't know. Unless it moved or has some sort of invisibility power?" Carol said with a shrug.
"That's not good." April made a mental note to call everyone as soon as possible. "Anything else, any news about dad?"
"Not really. The press has been trying to dig into where the aliens came from, but they have no real ideas." Carol said.

April grabbed her bag of stuff and threw all the clothes into the wash before going upstairs. She opened up her laptop and pulled up all the news sites she could. They were indeed all reporting that the Technodrome had disappeared. Most of the repairs to the city were well underway, the roads that had been destroyed were being repaved, and the majority of the debris from the fallen craft had been collected, no doubt by the military. One of the more obscure news sources was reporting that the recycling plant had been destroyed and rebuilt already. Most of the other sources, along with a lot of scathing comments from social media, were accusing this media group of being completely out of their minds. April called Donnie and Holly on conference to see if they too were already looking at what was going on.

They both answered their phones, Donnie a little more enthusiastically than was really necessary. "Hey, are you guys checking out the news by chance?"

"Not yet," Holly answered, "Why, is something going on?"

"Sort of, the Technodrome is missing, and the recycling plant has miraculously been rebuilt in a week." April summarized for them

"Whoa, whoa," Donnie interrupted, "What do you mean 'missing'?"

"The military sent a dive team into the Hudson and nothing was there." April clarified.

"Hmm," they could practically hear Donnie scratching his chin through the phone, "We'll it either really did move, or its cloaked."
"Is there a way we can know for sure?" Holly asked.

"Without going down there personally? No."

"Why can't we go down there personally?" Holly asked after a pause.

"I bet we could, actually." Donnie agreed. "We have the underwater entrance. I just need to make sure it goes out into the river somewhere, and I'm sure we could."

"What about the recycling center? Why would the Krang rebuild that?" April asked them.

"That one I am not so sure on." Donnie admitted. "There could be more going on there than we initially thought."

"You guys never really did get a chance to investigate." April said a little guiltily. It wasn't her fault that she got kidnapped, but the timing was unfortunate.

"We'll have to go back there." Donnie said.

"Go back where?" They could just hear Leonardo ask in the background.

"Hold on." Donnie said into the phone.
The girls waited for a moment, they could hear movement, light chatter, then Donnie.

"OK, you're on speaker." He said, "I was saying to April and Holly that we should go back to the recycling plant to see why it was rebuilt so fast."

"Who rebuilt it?" Raph asked.

"Presumably the Krang." Donnie answered.

"Why would they do that?" Leo asked.

"That's exactly the question." April said.

"It was completely demolished when the Technodrome launched, or at least we are assuming that, right?" Holly asked. Technically they had not seen it get destroyed.

"There's no way it wasn't." Raph said.

"Yeah, that building wasn't that big, and the Technodrome was huge." Mikey added.
There was another pause in the conversation.

"What if we've been focusing on the wrong building?" Holly asked.

"What do you mean?" April asked.

"That's certainly a possibility," Donnie agreed

"Someone please explain." Leo said slightly irritated.

"Chances are that the recycling plant was just an entrance to the Technodrome, What every they want to hide is probably next door." Holly said. "When they launched the ship, I bet it left some kind of access point vulnerable."

"That is where the bulk of their security was." Donnie remembered.

"Aside from TCRI." Leo reminded them.
"The tower is a whole other mystery." April said.
"We need to figure out what is going on in there." Donnie agreed.

"Why don't we just go back there?" Mikey asked them all.

"To the Tower?" April asked.

"Yeah," Mikey said. "We got in once, We can totally do it again."
Another lapse in the conversation as everyone considered it.
"Let's do it." Leo said. "We'll go as soon as its dark."
"I'm coming this time." April said.

"No way!" Donnie yelled.

"If my dad is there, I am going to find him." April said. "I'm going."

"I'm not getting left behind this time either." Holly agreed.

This time both Raph and Donnie began protesting at the same time.

"Absolutely not."

"Are you out of your mind?"

"We can't risk you guys getting hurt, or caught."

"There is no way we're going to let you come."
"Let us come?" Holly said catching that particular phrase.

"I don't think you understand," April said, sounding a little dangerous, "We're going, with or without you."
"Guys, they've shown they're capable enough to help." Leo said, knowing there was no point arguing.

This time, Raph and Donnie directed their arguments at their brother.
"They've barely had any training."

"We can't guarantee their safety."
"If they're determined to go regardless, would you rather them go in with us, or on their own?" Leo shouted over them.

Raph and Donnie both stopped arguing, Raph glared at his big brother, while Donnie had the decency to look slightly ashamed of his behavior.

"Come one guys. Remember, they did beat us during training the other day." Mikey said trying to ease their worry.
"We were going easy on them." Raph snapped.

"If that's true, then you need to stop doing that." Holly said over the speaker, "How are we ever going to get good enough to actually help you if you won't even give us the chance?"
"She's not wrong, my sons." Splinter said, he had come out into the living room to see what all the shouting was about. "We are going to need allies to take on all our enemies, and you owe it to them to help them be the best they can."
"Thank you." Holly said exasperatedly.

"I think you all may need a moment to calm your minds before someone says something they do not mean." Splinter said, hearing how worked up everyone was getting.
"Whatever." Raph said and stormed off angrily.

"I'll be over later." Holly said, and hung up without saying good bye
"I do need to finish up some stuff here, but I'll come over as soon as I can." April said a little more diplomatically. "See you soon."

Leonardo let out a breath they didn't realize he had holding. "That could have gone better."

"If Raph and Donnie weren't so overly protective." Mikey shot at Donatello, since he was the only one there.

"They shouldn't have to fight our battles for us." Donnie shot back.

"But it is not just our battle," Splinter said correcting his son, "April is involved, the Krang have used her and her family to assist them in their plot."

"What about Holly, she has no skin in this fight." Donnie tried to argue.
"She has chosen to get involved because of her love for her friends." Splinter said, "which is as noble as any other reason." He turned and left his son to reflect on this information.

Donatello did understand, but he didn't have to like it.

April and Holly did turn up at the lair a couple of hours later. April had cooled off after the heated argument, but Holly was still pissed. April was conversing at least nicely with Leo and Mickey, although she was giving Donnie a bit of a cold shoulder. Holly on the other hand only spoke if it was completely necessary. She had arrived and basically dropped her bag on the floor and busied herself prepping for that evening. Both the girls had brought a change of clothes, darker form fitting outfits that provided the greatest range of motion while, hopefully allowing them to use the shadows if need be.
Holly had ditched her glasses for the night, and was presently wrapping her hands and wrists in tape to help stabilize her joints. Raph came out of the training room and they locked eyes for a moment. The others looked between the two of them, the tension unbearable, but Holly just went back to taping up her hands without saying a word.

"OK." Leonardo said to no one in particular.
"Are we going to talk strategy, or is everyone just going to ignore each other until we actually go?" Mikey asked the group as a whole.

"We're going to go in on one of the upper levels again." Leo said, "There was little security, and its where that weird control room was."

"What then?" April asked.

"Then we're going to figure out what exactly they're doing in there?" Leo continued. "We'll do whatever we can to cause as much damage as possible, without hurting any civilians."

"That's not much of a plan." Raph said moodily.

"Then it has more chance of succeeding with more of us there." Holy shot back at him.

Raph narrowed his eyes without turning around to look at her.

"Also," Leo continued tentatively, "Donnie, do you have something that can disable them as much as possible."

"I sure do!" Donnie said and hurried off into his lab.
"Great. April, Holly, can you guys do your best to stay close by to at least one of us?" Leo said.

"You worry about the Krang, we will make sure we're close by." April reassured him.

"It would be better, if you weren't there." Raph muttered just loud enough for them to hear.

"Maybe it be better if you stayed back this time?" Holly said, immediately furious.

"You guys wouldn't last ten minutes without us in there." Raph wheeled on her.

"Well apparently, you wont take the time to make sure we could last ten minutes." Holly retorted hotly.

"We have 16 years of training to our names." Raph said. "You can't possibly expect to gain that much experience in less than a year."

"I'm not saying we could, but we might be further along if you hadn't tried to coddle us." Holly shouted and pointed accusingly at him.

"You're being unreasonable." Raph shouted back. The other were staring wide eyed at their argument.

"I'm being unreasonable?" Holly's eye was practically twitching now. "Are you kidding me? I have intentionally sat out of every one of your missions, unless I was dragged into it, literally, kicking and screaming."

"Oh, give me a break." Raph scoffed.

"The only time I have actively been involved is when I was grabbed off the street and was beaten up by that thug, Fong."

"Exactly, you got beat. What else matters?" Raph said.

"Uh oh." Mikey said watching Holly's face drain of color.
"I'm going to ignore that comment." Holly said, her tone shifting to something much more frosty. "I have spent every waking hour either training, doing mind numbing surveillance, or translating massive amounts of Krang data for you. Everything I do, is for you." Raphs' face had changed from anger and a mixture of shame and fear. The others could barely breath watching the exchange, even April was amazed and she sheer force Holly was exuding. "How dare you stand there and tell me that everything I have done 'doesn't matter'. Luckily for you, I know you think you're trying to protect me, but if you haven't figured out that I want to be able to protect you too, you're completely delusional." Holly stood breathing heavily, apparently having said everything she wanted to. Before he could say anything, she shook her head and walked off in the direction of the training room. She didn't slam open the doors, like Raph would if he stormed off, she just slid open the door, stepped through and gently closed it again.
"Dude," Mikey said into the silence.
"She's not wrong." April said. "The whole point of us training is to be able to protect ourselves from the people who are after you."

"Well, and to keep you safe from the Krang." Donnie added nervously.

"Yeah, I got it." Raph said morosely. He followed Holly to the training room, not even caring how his brothers were going to make fun of him later.

"I'm sorry." Donatello said to April as they watched Raph go. "I understand why you were mad when we said you couldn't come"

"Thank you." April said, and took his hand. "I know you're worried about me too."

"Do you think she's going to kill him?" Mikey asked as Raph went into the training room.

"No... At least I really hope not." Leo said.
"You want to listen at the door?" Mikey asked cheekily.

"No. Well, yes, but were not going to." He scolded Mikey who was already trying to sneak over to listen in.

Holly slid the door shut behind her and took a deep breath to try and calm down. She walked into the middle of the room and lay on her back, feet flat on the floor and covered her eyes with one arm and tried to get her blood pressure down. She took another slow, deep breath and felt a little of the tension in her shoulders loosen.
"Holly." Raph came into the room after her. She didn't reply, she just took another deep breath trying to keep her cool. "I aah, I'm sorry, OK?" Again he got no response. "I know you have been working hard to get better in a fight, I was there for most of it."
"Yeah, you were." She said, but did not move.
"You did manage to catch Leo off guard too." He admitted.

"Yup." She agreed. "What I don't get though," She uncovered her eyes but looked at the ceiling, "Is why you keep picking the same fight over and over?"
"Yeah, that wasn't my best move." He admitted. He walked over to her and lay down the opposite way to her so their heads were right next to each other.
"Especially after we had such a nice weekend." Holly reminded him.

"I'm not the smartest. Definitely the most handsome, but not the smartest." He tried some humor to test the waters. She did murmur some sort of acknowledgment, but he wasn't sure if it was positive or not. "Listen, I'm not great at all this, but I just need you to know that I just... I can't..." He struggled for the words. "I don't know what I would do if you got hurt because of us."

"Technically, I already have." Holly said.

"Yeah, and I don't want it to happen again."

"You can't stop that from happening." Holly said and turned her head to look at him. "The Krang, and the Foot, have already proved that they're willing to do just about anything to get at you guys. They have come to April and mines' houses."

"I know." Raph said miserably.

"All I can do now, is keep trying to get better, and you have to trust me that I am going to do what I can to avoid those situations where I could get hurt. Who knows, maybe I'll save your shell one of these days?"

"I wouldn't be surprised." Raph said honestly.

She smiled at him this time, then went back to looking at the ceiling. "I meant what I said to April. Everything I told her is how I feel about you."

"Am I off the hook then?" Raph asked hopefully.

"I'm still pretty annoyed, but I'll get over it." Holly said at the ceiling.
"I probably deserve worse than that." Raph said.

"Yeah, you were being a real jerk." Holly said, but turned her head and kissed him on the cheek. "You want to just stay here for a while?"

"Yeah, they're going to roast me for this one." Raph said

"Yup, I love being an only child sometimes." She smiled to herself and he let out a low chuckle.

"Do you think she'll dump him?" Mikey asked the others as they sat waiting for something to happen.

"She was really mad at him." Leo said, "Remind me not to get on her bad side."

"You know what they say, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'." Donnie said.

"Who says that?" Mikey asked.

"Its a very famous quote, so everyone." Donnie said mystified at Mikeys' obliviousness.

"She won't do that." April said, knowing that Holly wouldn't let one fight ruin anything.

"What if she did though?" Mikey continued. "Do you think he would cry?"
"Have you ever seen him cry? He'd probably just break everything." Leo said annoyed that he was probably correct.

"I'd start with the TV." Raph said from behind them all. Holly was with him, and they looked like they had at least calmed down.

"Don't break the TV!" Mikey yelled and hugged the widescreen tightly as if Raph were about to jump on it any moment.

"Is everything OK?" Leo asked suddenly concerned.

"It will be," Holly reassured him. "Why don't we go over some potential scenarios and make sure we're all on the same page?"

When the sun set, The turtles, April, and Holly loaded into the Shell-raiser and headed towards the TCRI tower. They tucked the converted subway car into a nice quiet alley way and climbed their way up to the closest rooftop to the building. Like the last time, they used Donnies' grappling hooks to zip-line to the other building. This time however, Raph and Leo crossed over first and the girls were going to cross after them.
April and Holly stood on the edge of the building, wrists through a strap that was their only safety nets from the seven story drop they were about to swing over.

"Are you guys ready?" Donnie asked after making sure everything was secure.

"Yeah," Holly swallowed down a sarcastic comment as the wind blew her hair around her face.

"Lets do this!" April said and pushed off the roof.
"She seems excited." Holly said. She blew out a breath before following April across the street.
Raph caught her before she slammed into the side of the TCRI tower. "Thanks."

"No problem." Raph said and helped her to get unhooked from the zip line.

Mikey and Donnie followed them over before they all made their way into the building.
"OK, guys." Leo said, "Lets try to stay out of conflict until we're ready."

Leo led the way through the building. There was not a whole lot of Krang left in the building, and the ones they did encounter were easy enough to avoid.

"Alright, where do we start?" April whispered to Leo after they had been through a few of the hallways.

"I'm not really sure." Leo Admitted

"Is there a computer terminal nearby?" Holly asked.

"Yeah, they have them all over the place." Donnie said and started checking rooms.

They found a terminal room that had a couple of Krang droids at the controls, but they were facing away from the door, so they decided to take them out. Leo and Raph charged in and took down the droids before they even knew what had hit them, and Donnie and Holly immediately started to check through the system for any clues as to where Kirby could be.

"OK," Donnie said and started typing. "lets see what we can find."

Holly stood beside him at the other terminal and started selecting options from the Krang library.
"You guys can really read that?" April asked.
"Do you understand how many terabytes of data we sorted trough?" Holly asked, she shook her head and looked at Donnie, "We're so underappreciated."

"I know!" Donnie agreed, "Ah! I have the actual Krang schematics of the building." He started reading down the list of floors. "Control room, genetic testing floors, droid production floor, specimen floor?" He looked at Holly who pulled a face that said she didn't want to know what they kept in there. "Mutagen floor. That one we need to destroy." Donnie said.

"How much mutagen are we talking about?" Leo asked.

Holly's fingers flew over her terminal and she found some security feeds that showed some of the floors, "Oh my god. That's a lot of mutagen." The image showed an entire floor dedicate to storing mutagen. There were enormous storage tanks lining one wall that all looked full of the bright green slime. Along with a dispensing machine that filled the smaller canisters that were shelved floor to ceiling as far as the image showed.

"That's probably not all of it either." Donnie said.

"How can you be so sure?" Leo asked.
"There is no way they would store it all in one place." Holly agreed.

"Where else would it be?" Raph asked.
"The military base, right next to the Technodrome." Donnie said and shook his head.

"How are they moving it then?" April asked. "It would take a lot of trips if they just drove it to and from."

"No idea." Holly admitted. "What else is listed on the directory?"

Donnie went back to his diagram, "Well, there's weapons storage in a few places," He pointed out some locations, "I think this says, doorways?"

Holly checked the location and tried to find some security footage to corroborate his theory. "That doesn't make sense." The image showed a hallway that had weird triangular light fixtures on the walls, but there were no doors that anyone could see.

"What else? Anything that looks like holding cells?" Leo asked and both Holly and Donnie continued reading through the rest of the labels.

Mikey, who was already bored watching the others reading, so he was the only one paying attention to the images that Holly had pulled up. "Guys." He said as Krang started appearing on the screen. One of the lighting fixtures opened up and created a triangular purple opening in the wall. Mikey watched as the Krang walked through the opening. "Guys!" He shouted to get their attention.

"What Mikey?" Raph answered and they all turned to see what was going on.

"Where are they going?"

"Portals." Donnie said suddenly. "Its not doorway, its portals."

"Portals to where?" April asked.

"Lets see if we can't find out." Holly said and started selecting options off the view screen. She flicked through security feed after security feed, but nothing seemed to be the other side of the portal. As she clicked by, she passes an image with people milling around a room.

"Wait, go back!" April said. Holly clicked back a couple of feeds, and there on the screen was a small group of adults, some in lab coats, some sitting with their heads in their hands. One tall, balding, red-headed man was pacing along one wall. "Dad!"

"Where is that?" Leo asked, and Holly and Donnie cross referenced the image with the schematics.

"Looks like they're about twelve floors below us." Donnie said.

"Lets go." April said and bolted for the door.

"Slowdown Rambo." Raph said, and grabbed her around the waist. "You're not just going to charge down there without us."

"Says the guy who usually goes in all fists a-blazing." April scoffed irritably.

"OK, left out of this room, second right to the stairs." Donnie started reading out the directions to himself so he could remember them better.

"Whats the easiest way to get them out of here?" Leo asked, and Holly started looking for an exit.
She sighed and shook her head, "It's not going to be easy. The ground floor is heavily guarded and I don't think we can get them all out the way we got in."

"Probably not." Leo agreed

"What about the portals?" Mikey asked.

"We don't know where they go." Holly protested. "They could go anywhere, another state, another galaxy."

"We go there first, If there's no way out, then we head to street level." Leo said.

"We still need to do something about the mutagen." Holly reminded them. "Even if we can't get all of it, that is just that much less they can use."

"We have to split up." Leo said, with a sigh.

"Split up?" Raph protested. "Absolutely not."

"We don't have much of a choice." Leo said, "Regardless of what we do, we're going to draw attention from the Krang. We need to do as much damage as possible, as fast as possible."

"We also need someone who can read this stuff on each team." Donnie said, "I will go with April and Mikey to get her Dad, its up to you guys to take care of the computer system and mutagen."
"How exactly do you propose we do that?" Holly asked.

"Whit this." Donnie said and produced a little vial of silvery liquid.

"What is it?" Holly asked taking the three inch long glass tube between her thumb and finger.

"This is a little substance I made that can neutralize the genetic altering capabilities of the mutagen at the cellular level." Donnie said smugly.

"How?" Holly asked absolutely stunned.

"It analyzes the chemical makeup of the mutagen and rearranges the molecules to make it into harmless goo." Donnie crowed.

Holly's eyes went wide, "Donnie you are a genius."

"Thank you." He said and gave a little bow. "I don't have a whole lot though, and it is only in beta." He produced a few more vials from a pouch on his belt. "So if it does work, its probably only enough to deal with the larger vats. You'll have to dump one tube into each container, and it should be just enough to neutralize that much mutagen."

"I could literally kiss you right now." Holly said, and carefully placed the vials in her pocket.

"Are you done gushing over that stuff, or what?" Raph asked impatiently. "Lets go."

They left the room and agreed to maintain contact if things started going badly. Holly slipped a Bluetooth head set over one ear, "One of the benefits of having external ears." She shrugged, while April placed one on her ear also. April was eager to get to her dad. It had been over a year since he had originally been taken, and she was anxious to get him out of this place. She, Donnie, and Mikey made their way to the southern stairwell. They needed to go down a dozen floors to get to the holding cells, and then there was the problem of getting everyone out.

"Hold up." Mikey said as they reached the door that lead to the holding floor. He opened it a crack and peeked out to check if the coast was clear.

There were a number of Krang milling around in an antechamber with a few guards stationed between the hi-tech cells. There were small windows that allowed people to see who was in the cells, but from their location on a landing behind a door, it was impossible to tell where Kirby was.

"OK, we're going to do the heavy lifting here." Donnie said softly to April as they peered out of the door. "You try to find a way to get those cells open and start leading everyone to the portal room."

"Got it," April responded. "Up four floors, right?"

"You got it!" Donnie said encouragingly.

"Alright, lets do this." April said, and let Mikey and Donnie burst into the room a few seconds before she did to pull the Krang away from the cells.

Leo, Raph, and Holly were climbing the north west stairs trying to get up to the mutagen room. They were assuming that they could stay undetected for longer if they delayed going to the main control room. Leo lead the way, followed at Raph's insistence, by Holly. The mutagen room was only a couple of floors above where they had all been, but there was no guarantee that it was empty.

"Just to point out a possibility, they could have their tanks wired up with sensors." Holly whispered nervously as they climbed the stairs. "So we could very quickly be engaged."

"It'll be fine." Leo said.
"I'm sure." Holly said, "I'm just trying to think of any possibilities so we can have the upper hand."
"Holly, you need to breath." Leo said over his shoulder and forced her to take two deep breaths with him.

"I'm sorry. I'm nervous." She admitted.

"That's fine, but we really need to be quiet." Leo continued up the stairs.

Holly mentally scolded herself. She had been the one to insist that she could help, and they hadn't even seen anyone yet and she was screwing up. She bit her tongue to stop herself from babbling again and continued after Leo.

When they got to the floor the mutagen was on, Leo peered out into the hallway and signaled that they should keep moving. The crept along the hall until they came to a large double door that opened out to the storage room. The room was a lot bigger than it had looked on the monitor. The larger tanks were easily fifteen feet tall, and the shelves that the rest of the mutagen was on filled the twenty foot high room to the ceiling.
"Well, that's not ideal." Holly said once Raph and Leo had checked that the room was clear. She strode over to the closest tank to take a look at the mechanics. The tanks had piping coming out of the bottom that ran along to a dispensing unit where some empty canisters were waiting to be filled. She walked between two of the tanks and peered behind them, then she tried to climb up as high as she could to see the tops.

"Whats the problem?" Raph asked, "Dump the silver stuff in there and lets go."

"I can't." Holly said, "There is no external access to these tanks."

"How are they filled then?" Leo asked looking around as if the answer would appear magically.

"I don't know, but give me a few minutes." She hopped down and jogged over to the dispensing machine. It had a control panel on it that she started manipulating deftly. Leo and Raph looked around awkwardly, not really sure what was going on.
"Hmm, where ever this stuff comes from, it travels through the whole building to get here. There are pipes coming from deep under the tower all the way up here." Holly said.
"Fantastic, now what?" Raph asked irritably.

"We might not be able to neutralize the mutagen, but we can still do some damage to the system. This machine is the only one here that can get the mutagen out of the tanks and into the canisters. If they can't get it out, they can't use it." Holly shrugged.

"So I get to smash stuff," Raph said with a grin.

"The Krang will one hundred percent be alerted to us though." She said.

"We knew that was going to happen though," Leo replied, and turning to his brother, "We make sure this thing needs replacing, not just fixing."

"I'll get out of the way." Holly said and backed away from the console.
Raphael wound up ready to drive his sai into the machine when a blaring alarm wailed out through out the building.

Donatello and Michelangelo burst through the doorway and immediately started to take down the Krang droids. Catching them unaware had given them the upper hand, but the Krang were fast to react and were firing off purple laser blasts at the two turtles who led them away from the door as bait. April gave them a moment before sneaking through the door after them and rushing over to the closest cell. She peered through the little window on tip toes, but the first one was empty. She ran to the next one, but it too was empty. As she started for the third one, a paid of Krang rounded the corner at the end of one hallway and stopped dead in their tracks. April unfolded her tessen and threw it a moment too late, just before the fan blade cut off the head of one of the Krang droids, it had already pressed an alarm button on the wall next to it.

"Dang it." April fumed, but she rushed the other Krang droid, sliding past it on her knees until she could get her tessen back. She used it to block the laser bursts and slice through the droids arms. The Krang stumbled backwards slightly, and looked at the nubs that were its arms. April raised an eyebrow smugly at it before it turned and tried to get away, but April decapitated the robot with one last strike from her fan.

"April?" A muffled voice said from one of the windows.

"Dad!" April shouted, and rushed over to the door.

"What are you doing here?" Kirby asked his daughter.

"I'm here to get you, and everyone else, out of here." She looked around to see if she could see any door controls. The panel to her left obviously opened the door, but there were no symbols that she could see to indicate what the buttons did. "Shoot, hold on everyone. I'm going to get some help."

April ran in the direction Donnie and Mikey had gone, they were only a couple of hallways away, but they were being louder than was really necessary to draw any Krang they could away from April. "I've found them, but I can't get the doors."
"On it!" Donnie shouted and knocked the Krang he was facing down, before driving the hidden blade in his bo staff into the face of the droid. He rushed back to the cell, April and Mikey in toe fighting off any remaining Krang that were left in the area. He skidded over to the control panel and ripped the face plate off the wall.

"April, get away from that thing!" Kirby shouted through the door.

"Dad, He's a friend." April said, much to Donnie's dismay. Although now probably wasn't the best time to bring up the fact that they had been making out just yesterday.

"Nice to meet you Mr. O'Neil. I'll have you out of there in no time."

"Sooner, rather than later, would be preferable." Kirby said through the window.

Another group of Krang droids appeared from around the far end of the hallway. Mikey and April held them back so that Donnie could continue working on getting the door open.

Leo and Raph made quick work of mangling the machine, within a few seconds it was reduced to wires, tubes, and bolts. As soon as they were done, they ran from the room expecting company at any moment. Before they did leave through, Holly doubled back quickly and grabbed 2 canisters of the mutagen for Donnie. She took off her outer shirt and quickly fashioned a bag for them. She threw it over her head before running to catch up to the others. As she rounded a corner, the Turtles were already engaged with a squad of the Krang.
"Where did you go?" Raph yelled at her.

"Is now really the time?" Holly ducked and rolled to avoid the laser blasts that were whizzing past her. She drew out a collapsible baton from her pocket and extended it as she ran, Holly slid and swiped at the legs of one of the Droids. It went down with a clang, and Raph finished the job by stabbing it through the face.

"Lets go. Holly, try to find out where the others are before we trash this place." Leo said, and Holly gave a short nod of understanding before they entered the control room.

Leo and Raph charged into the central room drawing most of the attention away from Holly. There was still a couple of Krang at the console. They were distracted by the Turtles though, so Holly was able to dispatch of them with a blow to the head with her steel baton. Once they were taken care of, she immediately started tapping the control screen to pull up some useful information. She found the security footage again, and saw that Donnie was kneeling by one of the cell doors trying to get it open. She flicked through the screens to see if she could find anything that might help when she found a destination list. She flicked the video feed over to the portal room and selected a few of the destinations on the list. A few of the Portals opened up, bright purple triangles materializing in the wall. Another matching portal opened in the wall to the right of her console and she smiled to herself knowing she had translated it correctly.

"Guys! I have an exit for you." Holly said touching the headset in her ear.

April was startled to hear Holly's voice in her head, until she remembered they had an open line going.

"You scared me." April said, "What did you say about an exit?"

"The portal room has an exit to the outside." Holly said excitedly. "There's also one that'll bring you up here so Donnie and Mikey can come help us while you get your dad out."

"Nice work!" April said beaming. "Holly has found our way out."
"Fantastic, and if I'm not mistaken..." Donnie trailed off, the door that held April's dad whooshed open.

"Is anyone else being held here?" Donnie asked, wanting to make sure they saved everyone.

"No its just us." Kirby said, indicating the half-dozen terrified looking people behind him.

"We're going to get you all out of here." Donnie reassured them as best he could. "Just maybe, don't tell anyone about it."

"A little help here guys!" Mikey shouted, he was still fighting off a hand full of Krang.
"I'll get them out." April said, "Meet me in the portal room as soon as you can."

Holly watched as April started back out into the stairwell.

"We're going up?" Asked one of the other scientists anxiously as April started climbing the stairs.

"Trust me, I can get you out of here." April said.

Holly was already skimming through some of the other systems when one of the Krang came up behind her and jammed a cattle prod into the small of her back. The pain was so intense she could hardly breath, and when the Krang removed the prongs she crumpled forward onto the console. Hitting numerous buttons as she tried to stand up again.

"Holy fuck." She said breathlessly. Glancing over her shoulder, She saw the Krang pull back, ready to shock her again. She spun to the side, narrowly avoiding another jolt.

"Holly? Are you OK?" April asked over her headset.

"One moment please." Holly responded. She snatched up her baton and used it to swat away the cattle prod as it was thrust at her for the third time. She spun along the length of the Krangs arm and jammed the heavy handled end of her weapon into the exposed pink brain in the droids abdomen. It shrieked at her. "Yeah, not so nice being hit in the tender spot is it?" She whacked it again, and the Krang back peddled flailing madly. Holly wretched the cattle prod free from the droids grip, and shocked the Krang back. The droid collapsed, and the alien scuttled away. Holly directed a kick in its direction, but it scurried out of her reach too quickly. "Yeah, you better run."
"Holly, we're at the portals, which one gets them out of here?" April's voice cut through Holly's adrenaline rush.

"Right," she quickly looked over the portals that were open and luckily remembered which ones would take them outside as more Krang were coming into the room. "The one that takes them outside is the third portal on the left. The one that brings you up here is the last one on the right."

Holly soon found herself being forced back from the desk by a barrage of laser fire. Holly used the baton and the cattle prod to deflect the bursts, but she needed to find cover as they were approaching quickly.

April turned to her dad, "This one will get you guys out. I have to stay and help my friends." All the other scientists immediate ran through the portal. But Kirby was reluctant to leave his daughter in the Krang lair.

"I'm not going without you. These Krang are monsters."

"I know they are, but my friends and I are trying to make sure they can't hurt anyone else." April said, desperate for her dad to understand. "I promise, we'll be right behind you."
Mikey and Donnie appeared in the portal room a little out of breath, "We should go, there are more Krang on the way up here." Mikey said.

"Last portal on the right." April said and nodded as they rushed past her to try and aid their brother.
"April, go with your dad." Holly said through her head set.

"What about you guys?" April asked.

"We'll manage. Like you said, we'll be right behind you." Holly reassured her.

April bit her lip unsure what to do, "OK, but be careful." April took her dads hand, "Lets get out of here." They walked through the portal and out into one of the many small parks dotted around Manhattan.

Donnie and Mikey emerged in the control room to see Leo and Raph separated from Holly. They had been pinned back against the far wall, while Holly was closer to the wall they had just come through.
"Thanks for joining us." Holly commented as they immediately leapt between her and the approaching Krang.

"Looks like we arrived just in time!" Mikey said happily and immediately sprang into action to help his brothers.

"Did you destroy the mutagen?" Donnie asked Holly as they fought side by side to get back to the console.

"No, but we did some damage to limit how much they can actually use." Holly admitted. "Although if we can blow this place sky high, it might take the mutagen with it."

"I didn't bring any explosives with me." Donnie said, a little concerned that Holly might have.

"You shouldn't need it. The portals in this place have to be powered by something, and if they can be overloaded they should take it our one floor at a time."

"If we do that, we won't have much time to get out ourselves." Donnie said.

"Hey, I'm just making suggestions." Holly said and casually electrocuted another Krang.

"Geeze, you're far too enthusiastic with that." Donnie said.

"They started it." Holly retorted hotly/

"What's the status Donnie? Are Kirby and the other out?" Leo asked as he and the others finally battled their way back over to the console.
"Yes, and April went with them." Holly answered for him.

"She did?" Donnie asked.

"Yes, She hasn't seen her dad in a year, he wasn't going to let her stay without him, and he would just slow us all down." Holly said.

"You're probably right." Donnie admitted, but he was a little disappointed that she hadn't even told him she was going.

"You can be sad about it later." Holly said, uncharacteristically candid. "But I am pretty wired after getting zapped with this thing, so lets blow this place to high hell, and get out of here."

"You got shocked by that?" Raph asked.

"Yeah, it hurt like a bitch and I'm still not happy with you, so forgive me if I am lacking in sympathy right now." Holly said, clearly high strung.

"We can blow this place up though?" Leo caught on to her previous sentence.

"Theoretically." Donnie said, "But it wouldn't give us a whole lot of time to get out."
Leo thought for a brief moment. "Do it. Whatever it takes to stop the Krang from invading again."

Donnie shrugged and headed over to the console. He began typing furiously on the control pad, closing down the Portals that Holly had opened so that he could control where the explosions were. As he powered on certain portals, he increased the energy flow to them disengaging the automatic shutdown. He selected a few of the portals on the lower levels of the building, making sure that none of them opened up anywhere civilians might be nearby.

"OK, all we need to do is lock the controls and get out of here." He said.

"Allow me," Holly said, and slammed the cattle prod down hard into the control module. It lodged deep in the mechanics of the terminal and immediately began sparking and smoking. "That should do it."

"Time to go!" Leo said, and he and Mikey led the charge back out of the building.

Donatello grabbed Holly's hand and dragged her after him as she was busy shouting obscenities at anything that was still moving. "This it your fault you know." He yelled at Raph as the crashed into the stairwell, explosions already ringing out from lower levels.
"Yeah, OK, I get it. Don't piss off Holly again." He yelled back and launched a Krang over the railing and down the empty space in the middle of the stair well.

"I'm more annoyed at getting electrocuted." Holly said defensively. But the anger had worn off now that they were running out of an exploding building. "Lets just get out of here."

Leonardo bust back out onto the floor where they had come into the building, their zip lines were still securely fastened to the lettering of the TCRI Tower. This time however, they didn't have time to climb carefully back out of the windows. The explosions were shaking the glass and they needed to get out right now. Raph threw he sai at the window and they pierced the glass like a hot knife through butter. One well placed kick and the glass shattered completely.

"Jump!" Leo shouted and they all launched themselves out of the broken window onto the ropes. Raph had scooped up Holly and was holding her tight to him around the waist when Leo cut the lines and they all dropped until the rope went taught and they swung across the street.
"Wait, wait!" Holly yelled and quickly took her make shift bag off her back, just in case the canisters broke inside of it. The all slammed into the other building feet first. Holly had wrapped one arm tightly around Raphs shoulders, but the other she let swing slightly to try and absorb some of the impact.

"What is that?" Raph asked when Holly let out a sigh of relief after giving the bag a little shake to make sure it wasn't leaking.

"A present for Donnie." She said, and they all gave her a very strange look. The confusion didn't last long however, as one last explosion rocked the TCRI Tower. They all turned to see the top couple of floors of the tower collapse in on its self. Holly immediately burst into laughter and hugged Raph tightly.

"You're terrifying, you know that?" Raph said, but he had a smile on his face that was just for her.

"Lets get out of here, before the fire department show up." Leo said. They climbed up to the rooftops and got in contact with April again before heading back to the lair.

Leonardo drove the Shell-Raiser to April and picked her and her dad up from the random park they had ended up in. When the door opened, Holly stood there to try and help ease some of Kirbys' nerves about the guys.

"Hi Mr. O'Neil. Its nice to finally meet you!" She hopped down and held out her hand to him. He shook it tentatively.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" He asked, his eyes drifted back into the vehicle before him and they noticeably widened as he caught sight of the Turtles. "What is going on?"

"This is Holly," April placed a hand gently on her dads elbow, "and she has been my friend since I moved into her school."

"What about them? I think I've seen them before?" Kirby said indicating at the turtles over Holly's shoulder.

"You have," April said happily, "Donnie here saved me when I got pushed out of that helicopter when you were taken. Do you remember?"

"And Leonardo saw you when you were being held by the Foot." Holly reminded him.

"Oh, god. That's right." Kirby said, rubbing his head with a hand. "It's all been so traumatic, I can't remember what is real and what was a nightmare."

"It's alright dad, Lets just get you home." April said and she and Holly gently persuaded him into the Shell-Raiser.

When they got to Carols apartment, Holly agreed to stay with April for a while to help get her dad settled.

"You guys head home. I'll catch up later." She said, "Here, be careful with this." She handed over her shirt that was still wrapped up like a bad to Donatello.

"Oh yeah, what is this?" He said and opened it up. Two canisters of glowing mutagen cast illuminated his already green face. "You took this?!" He exclaimed, "What if it had broken and gotten on you?"

Holly shrugged, "I was very worried about that, but you're going to need it if you're going to get your serum working properly."

"Are you crazy?" Raph yelled at her. "If I would have known you had that..."

"Hey, I saw an opportunity, and I took it. If I never have to touch that stuff again, it will be too soon." She argued back, "But right now is not the time, you can be mad at me later." She nodded in April and Kirby's direction.
"She's right." Leo pipped up from the drivers seat, "Call Raph when you're on your way, he can meet up with you and you can argue before you get back to the lair."

"Deal." Holly said, and waved them off before running after April and Kirby. Kirby had one arm around his daughters shoulders as he climbed the stairs to Carols apartment, so Holly ran ahead and opened all the doors for them.
"Carol!" Holly shouted as she opened the door to the apartment. She flicked on the lights and took Kirby's other arm and they shuffled through the hallway.

"What do you think you're doing?" Carols voice came from her room irritably, "Do you know what time it is?" She opened her bedroom door in her bath robe clearly having been fast asleep. She saw her brother however, and all anger melted away from her round face to be replaced with pure shock. "Kirby? Oh my god." She rushed over and hugged her brother. "Where have you been? How did you get here?"

"We, uh, broke him out." April said not really sure how to tell Carol the truth.
"You two?" Carol asked skeptically. "Let me guess, were your other 'friends' involved again?"

"You know about them?" Kirby asked hoping he had imagined all the strange creatures he had seen in the TCRI tower.

"She knows of them." Holly quickly amended before too many questions could be asked.

"I don't think I can stay in this city much longer, something is going on. You know the news was trying to claim that the giant ship that destroyed a bunch of stuff was just a weather balloon?"

"They launched their ship?" Kirby asked, stunned.

"Yeah," April said gently, "They tried to abduct all the people in the city."
"I knew something was going on. They had taken about half the other people away for testing,we never saw them again. Then they moved most of their people out of the tower, there were just a few left to keep us alive." Kirby said, he had begun to shake slightly as he talked.

"Oh my, come sit down." Carol said, and guided Kirby to the couch, she dug out a blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders.

"I'll give you guys a minute and make some tea." Holly said and left them all to sit together as a family.

"Dad, you don't have to talk about it right now. Just try to relax." April held her dads hand until he calmed down a little.

"Here I am talking about myself. How have you been?" Kirby asked his daughter.

"Dad, I am fine! I've had Aunt Carol, and Holly." She said.

"Hmm," Carol eyeballed her niece, noticing the lie by omission. "We should call the police, let them know you're here."
"NO!" April and Kirby both shouted at the same time.

"Uuh, no. They're going to ask questions that I wont be able to answer." Kirby said, knowing full well that no one was going to believe his story, and if they did, they would probably have him shipped off to a military facility to be examined and questioned for the next ten years.

"It's not like you can just walk back into your old job though. People are going to ask where you were this last year." Carol said.

"That can all wait though," Holly reappeared with a tray of tea and some sandwiches. "Right now, you're free, you need to eat something and get some rest."

"That's probably a good idea. Carol, you don't mind us both staying for a few nights, until I can get something more permanent sorted out?" Kirby asked.

"Of course not. You can stay as long as you need. You can have my room for a little while. I'll sleep on the pull out sofa in the office." Carol stood up and left to find her spare set of sheets.

"Is there anything else I can do to help right now?" Holly asked as April poured Kirby a cup of tea.

"No I don't think so." April stood and hugged her friend, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Holly beamed at her friend. "I'll let the guys know you'll probably be MIA for a couple of days."

"Yeah, I need to make sure my dad's OK." April said.

Holly looked at Kirby who was thoroughly shell shocked. "He's probably going to need some therapy."

April sighed, "Probably."

"I'll give my mom a call too, maybe he just needs to talk to another adult about all this too. Mom might not have been through exactly the same experience, but she might be able to help." Holly said realizing that her mom might also need someone to talk to.

"That's a great idea! We'll give it a few days though." April said, and they hugged again.

"OK, I'll leave you guys in peace. Goodbye Mr. O'Neil, try to get some sleep." Holly said and placed a hand on Kirby's shoulder. He looked distant, and fearful, she tried to give him an encouraging smile before she stood and left the O'Neil family in peace.

April and Carol sat with Kirby while he slowly ate half of one of the sandwiches and drank one cup of the tea. They then guided him into the bedroom and helped him take off his shoes and tucked him into bed.

"Whatever has happened to him, has changed him." Carol said sadly. "Its going to take a lot of time for him to recover from this." April nodded, and a little gasp of emotion bubbled out of her. "Oh honey," Carol put her arms around her niece and let her cry out all the fear and loneliness she had been holding back for so many months.

Holly called Raph as she left Aprils apartment. He answered almost immediately and she smiled to herself. "What? Were you staring at your phone waiting for me to call?" She asked him.

"No!" Raph protested.
"Yes," Came three bored sounding conformations.

"Where are you?" He asked irritably, clearly his brothers had been winding him up again.

"I'm just leaving Aprils, are you going to come have another shouting match with me?" Holly asked him and began walking in the direction on the lair.

"No, but I gotta get away from these idiots." He said. In the background Holly could hear Leo, Mikey, and Donnie all protesting their innocence and his bullheadedness over one another.

She laughed at them, "You're all as bad as each other." This time, all four of them began protesting at the suggestion that Raphael was not the antagonist withing their family. She laughed even harder at them, "Sorry I even suggested it. Just come find me."

Once the call had been disconnected, Holly searched for the closest building she could actually climb up to the roof on her own. There was a dumpster in a nearby alley way that she could push under a fire escape. She climbed up to the roof, and began to make her way in the direction of the Lair.
It didn't take Raphael long to find her. She had gotten to a gap that was too wide for her to cross alone and she was sat on the edge of the roof top swinging her legs out over the side.

"What? You can't make this jump?" He yelled at her from the other side of the gap.

"No. Unlike you, I don't have super powers." She shouted back.

"You think I have super powers?" He asked after he launched himself across to her.

"Well, you absolutely have more strength than any humans I know." She said standing up, "Granted, I haven't exactly done any research to see if you guys scale compared to a normal Turtle."

"You could always test Spike?" He said as he picked her up. He leapt back across the gap between the buildings with little more exertion than when he just had to get himself across.

"I'm not going to use him for any experiments, he's family." She scolded him, "But how much more difficult was that? While you were carrying me?"

"Not much. You don't weight that much." He shrugged.

"I'm one hundred and thirty-five pounds. That's not an insignificant amount." She protested. He shrugged again not having an answer for her.

They slowly made their way back to the lair, Raph glad to be away from his brothers teasing for a stretch. Holly was starving after all the excitement of the night so they decided to stop in to see Mr. Murakami to make sure he was doing alright after all the commotion. The Sushi shop had sustained some damage during the Krang Invasion, but nothing that had put him out of business. They chatted and waited for their food, and Holly was sure to leave him an extra large tip since they had bothered him so late in the night.

When they returned to the Lair, Mikey was the first one to greet them.

"You brought food?!" He asked excitedly.

"I was hungry, I figured you all would be too." Holly said and happily unloaded some of the bags into Mikeys' arms.

"Mikey's always hungry." Leo said from the couch. "But thank you for bring us something anyway."

"'Ish is aweshome." Mikey said around a mouthful of dumpling.

"Go get Donnie before you eat everything." Raph said and smacked Mikeys hand away from the rest of the dumplings.

They ate their meal as a group, and Holly was happy to chatter away with Splinter about how they managed to free all the people and Aprils dad. She was so ecstatic to have been included, even after the others had finished eating and cleaned away their bowls she had barely eaten anything.

"I thought you were starving?" Leo asked once Holly finally took a breath.

"I was, I am." She replied but looking around saw that she was the only one still eating. "Oh, I guess I am just still riding the high of being involved."

"Don't apologize, you were awesome, and you should be proud of yourself." Donnie said.

Holly blushed at the praise, she dug into her food which had gone cold at this point, but she was hungry enough still that it didn't matter.

"How was Kirby when you left?" Leo asked.

Holly covered her mouth with her hand, "Not great, but you can hardly blame him."

"I suspect the mental tole his imprisonment took is going to be greater than the physical." Splinter hypothesized.

"He probably has PTSD and will need therapy." Holly said worried for her friend. "Chances are that he is going to be very clingy to his family for a while."
"What makes you say that?" Donnie said a curious tone entering his voice.

Holly paused, a forkful of food half way to her mouth. The others were all looking at her curiously. "Oh, um, personal experience," She answered vaguely. "It's not the happiest story, so I tend to save it for more melancholy times."

They all dropped it, and let her eat. Leo and Mikey filled splinter in on any details that she had missed about their adventure that evening. By the time the had cleared everything away and relaxed as a group for a while, it was very late.
"How can you possibly be tired?" Holly asked as the turtles started yawning and drifting off to their respective rooms.

"Its nearly four o'clock," Leonardo said checking the clock. "and we all worked hard to free Kirby."

"Yeah, a real warrior knows when to rest." Mikey said.

Holly frowned at him. "I thought you were the party animal?"

"There's a time for partying, and a time for sleep; and now is sleepy time." Mikey said and poked his tongue out at her.

She returned the gesture, but smiled and bade him goodnight.

"You can come and hang out with me." Raph said, "I need to make sure Spike is OK, so I'll be up for a while yet."
"OooOOOooo," Leo, Mikey, and Donnie all teased their brother.

"Yeah, Yeah. You're all just jealous." Raph said with a hint of a smile. He allowed Holly to go ahead of him and shut the door behind himself.

"I wish he weren't quite so accurate." Donnie said thinking of April.

"Don't worry Donnie, he'll mess it all up soon enough." Leo said jokingly.

"I dunno'," Mikey chimed in, "he's like, being a nicer person. I think he really likes her?"

"You know we can hear you, right?" Raphs' angry voice came through his door, followed by a bark of Holly's laughter.

The others laughed and all turned in themselves.

Holly sat on the end of his bed and crossed her legs. Spike was in his glass terrarium, but was trying to climb the walls to get to Raph.

"Alright buddy, I missed you too." Raph said and picked up his pet.

"Didn't you see him earlier?" Holly asked. There had been a few hours between them getting back from the cabin and she and April showing up.

"Yeah, but I only got to change his water and throw a couple of fresh snacks in for him." Raph said and sat on his bed opposite her. He plopped Spike down between them and Spike started walking around stretching his legs. Holly scratched him on the head, and he started making his was over to her.
"He likes you." Raph said, and Spike began to climb over her leg.

"I like him too, he's got quite the personality." She said as Spike toppled into her lap, she picked him up gently and set him back on his feet to continue his exploration.

They said for a while, feeding Spike lettuce scraps that Raph brought in from the kitchen. When Holly finally did start to show signs of getting tired, Raph picked Spike up and put him back in his glass container.

"I'll go sleep on the couch, you've earned a good nights sleep." Raph said and started towards his door.

"I don't want to take your bed," Holly said, and he turned around to see she was pink in the cheeks, "I'd much rather share it."

Raph blinked at her, "You want to what?"

"Its been an emotional day, I was hoping I could stay with you tonight." Holly said, "But, if you're not comfortable with that, I can understand."

"No! No, its fine." Raph protested a little more enthusiastically than he meant to. "There's not going to be a ton of space though."

"I'm sure we'll manage." Holly said with a grin. She took off her outer shirt and set it off to the side of the room, her tank top rode up a little.

Raph turned away, and began removing his pads and wraps. Holly climbed into his bed first, and squeezed over as far as she could so that he could climb in too. After a little shuffling, Raph put his arm around her shoulders and she rested her head on his plastron. She let out a little giggle, as she realized her legs were about a foot further down the bed than his were.

"What?" He asked.
"I think I may be too long for your bed." She wiggled her toes at him.

"That sounds like a you problem." he said, but kicked the covers a little further down the bed for her. He turned off his light and they lay quietly in the dark for a time. Holly could feel his heart beating against her cheek and Raph felt her shoulders relaxing under his touch.

"Next time we'll have to sleep in my bed." She said absently

"Next time?" He asked and looked at her, but her eyes were closed and her breathing was getting deeper.

"Mm-hm," She confirmed for him.

Some time later, Holly was rudely woken up by her phone ringing. She didn't open her eyes, but fumbled around behind herself until she found it on the side table.

"Hello?" She answered softly.

"Hi honey, did I wake you up?" Stacey was on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, last night was a late one." She confirmed.

"I won't keep you then, I just wanted to let you know I will be flying out later today and I love you."

"Who is it?" Raph asked groggily.

"Mom." Holly answered him,

"Oh, Raph is there?" Stacey said a little grin in her voice. "Tell him I say 'Hi'."

"I will, have a safe flight and I love you too."
"I'll be back in a few days, but I'll text you all this in case you forget." Stacey shook her head to herself.

"I won't forget." Holly protested weakly, but she was already falling asleep again,

"Yeah, OK. Take care of my girl Raphael, or you'll have to answer to me."
"Mmm 'kay" Raph said blearily.

Stacey ended the call, and Holly dropped her phone back on to the side table.

"You can stay here with me until she gets back." Raph said and pulled Holly closer.

"Sounds good to me." Holly said, she threw one of her legs over his and snuggled back into his shoulder.

They slept late together. Leonardo had snuck a peek into Raphs room to find out where they were, but closed the door again when he saw them both still sleeping. Neither Mikey or Donnie seemed to notice that one of them wasn't out on the couches, so he didn't bring it up. Splinter however flicked his eyes around the room, noticed the missing teen, and raised an eyebrow at his oldest son. They shared a knowing smile, before Splinter went back to his own room.

"I wonder what April is doing?" Donnie asked absently as he drew up some more design plans.

"Probably looking after her dad." Leo replied. "He was pretty shaken yesterday."

"Wouldn't you be? If you had been a captive of the Krang for a year?" Mikey asked them both.

"They wouldn't be able to keep us captive." Leo scoffed smugly.

"No, but Kirby is only human." Mikey pointed out. "He's not smart like Donnie, or super slick, like yours truly." He gestured at himself.

"That's actually a good point, except you're not 'slick'" Donnie said and smiled to himself.

"Slicker than you." Mikey replied wittily.

Donnie frowned, affronted.

"You started it." Leo shrugged at Donnie.

"What are we going to do today?" Mikey asked dancing around the room.

"Well, once Raph wakes up, we should do some training." Leo said.

"Where is he?" Donnie asked looking around, "Wait, where is Holly?"

"Ahh," Leo said wide eyed, realizing too late that he should have kept his mouth shut.

"Where are they?" Mikey asked, a sadistic smile crossing his face.

Leo didn't say anything, he just looked between his brothers wide eyed as they both began grinning deviously at each other.

"Oh, this is gold." Mikey said and scrambled as fast as he could over to Raphs door. Donnie was right behind him and had to shush Mikey who was giggling uncontrollably as they pressed the sides of their heads to the door.

"Do you hear anything?" Donnie whispered.

"Guys, get out of there." Leo hissed at them.

"No, maybe they're still sleeping." Mikey whispered back, ignoring Leo.

"How could he possibly sleep? His girlfriend is in his bed with him." Donnie hissed incredulously.

"I dunno," Mikey shrugged.

"I barely slept when I was in the same room as April." Donnie complained miserably.

"Wait, wait! I think I hear something" Mikey hissed, and both he and Donnie leaned into the door to try to hear anything.

"I hear movement, but not much else." Donnie agreed.

"No, I heard someone speak." Mikey said.

"And you couldn't tell who it was?" Donnie asked scathingly.

"No they were whispering." Mikey said as if it were obvious.

"Pretty sure I could tell if it was Raph or Holly, even if they were whispering." Donnie replied tartly.

The door swung open fast on them, and they both fell face first through the gap and landed in a heap on the floor.

"Are you pervs quite done spying?" Holly said from above them. Raph stood behind her, arms crossed and smiling nastily at his brothers. "Or are we going to have a problem here?"

Mikey and Donnie both smiled guiltily up at her. "We weren't spying." Mikey said.

"Technically, we were just... eavesdropping." Donnie admitted.

"Regardless of what you were doing," Holly said, eyebrow raised at Donnie who should know better. "How would you like it if we listened in on you and April?"

"Yep, that's totally fair." Donnie immediately apologized.

"I would spy on them too." Mikey admitted unapologetically.

"You know, I believe that, so I'm not going to hold it against you." Holly smiled down at Mikey, "But I don't think he's going to be as forgiving." She indicated at Raph behind her with a thumb, and stepped over the two so she could get out of the way.

"Oh no." Mikey said and backpedaled out of Raphs room as fast as he could.

"This is going to hurt." Donnie said, and he tried to pull Mikey back so that there was someone between himself and Raph.

"Oh, yeah!" Raph concurred, and launched himself at his brother. They all tumbled and wrestled around the room, limbs flailing in a desperate attempt to escape.

"Ow!" Mikeys voice came through.

"Not the face!" Donnie shrieked as the pile of Turtles rolled past Holly and Leo in the kitchen.

"So, how'd you sleep?" Leo asked.

"Fine, thank you." Holly answered, setting the coffee on to brew. "Although, mom called earlier and she's probably already on a plain to Europe. So that kind of sucks."
"Why is she always jetting off like that?" Leo asked.

"She's a fashion designer," Holly said unenthusiastically, "there's always some disaster or other going on with either the clothes, or the models, or god knows what. Personally, I don't get it, I have never really been into clothes and makeup and all that stuff. It's too much work."

"Don't you have a closet full of dresses and stuff?" Leo asked, remembering Holly's room.

"Yeah," Holly replied a little sheepishly. "My mom used to make me model for her in local shows when she was first starting out. Most of them don't fit anymore, but she won't let me get rid of any of it so it hangs in my closet."

"So what are you going to do until your mom gets back? You are welcome to stay here if you like, although I can't imagine sharing Raph's bed is all that comfortable." Leo remarked. The ball of limbs rolled by them again.

"Well, I was actually going to go see April in a bit. To make sure Kirby is OK and see if they need anything." Holly said. "After that I may go home for some peace." They both looked at the wrestling match that was going on. Raph had Donnie pinned to the floor while he wrestled with a struggling Mikey. "That's probably enough for them, don't you think?" She asked Raph.

"Almost." He replied and two simultaneous 'Owwws' came from the floor, and he let his brothers go.

"How do you do that?" Leo asked Holly and shook his head.

She scoffed, and poured herself and Raph coffee, "Please, if you can't figure that one out, you really are sheltered." She handed a mug to Raph before turning to see Mikey and Donnie still laying on the floor slightly dazed, "So, what did we learn?"

"No to eavesdrop." Donnie moaned,

"Good, and you?" She directed at Mikey.

"To be sneakier." He groaned.
"Close enough." Holly said, and she and Raph clinked their mugs together satisfied.

April had barely slept after they had dropped her and her father off the previous night. She had been convinced that the Krang were going to bust into the place and take him away again at any second. The only way she had gotten any rest was to sleep on the couch so she could listen to him mumbling to himself in his sleep. Apparently he too, was worried about the Krang coming back for him. When Holly called and asked if April wanted some company, she was all too happy to have someone else to take her mind off things for a while.

Carol was still pushing for Kirby to go to the police. Although she could only argue that point to April as Kirby was still sleeping fitfully by the afternoon.

Holly arrived with a bag full of groceries for April and her family. She had picked up a pre-cooked chicken, some mashed potatoes and baked veggies, along with a few snacks and drinks to make sure that they had a quick, hot dinner so that no one had to cook. April immediately began eating the potatoes right from the container as Carol carved the chicken.

"Would you at least put it on a plate?" Carol asked as April pulled a huge spoonful of potatoes out of the Styrofoam cup.

"Sorry," April said through a mouthful, and grabbed a plate.

"Did you guys get any sleep last night?" Holly asked them, they both seemed irritable.
"A little." Replied Carol.

"Not really." said April. "Evert time I closed my eyes I would dream the Krang was coming to get us."
"I can imagine." Holly agreed, "But, you know that if you really needed some peace of mind, they guys would come and keep an eye on you?"

"I know, but I'm not going to ask them to do that." April said, "We should be fine for a while."

"What do you mean, 'should be'?" Carol asked, concerned suddenly.

"Well, their ship is trashed, and now so is their other base, so hopefully they'll be too worried about rebuilding to come after us." April said.

"What do you mean by that?!" Carol asked, more concerned.

April and Holly shared a grimace that they has spoken a little too freely around Carol. She still wasn't completely convinced of all the stories April was telling her, especially since she had been lying about a lot of things over the last few months.

"I am sure that you're all going to be just fine." Holly tried to reassure them both.

Carol made a noise that suggested she didn't believe a word either of them was saying, but dropped it for now. There was still things she didn't fully understand, and pushing the issue would only push the girls to tell her less.

"What about you and the guys, did you have a nice evening after you dropped us off?" April asked.

"Yes." Holly said, trying to sound indifferent. Her pinkening cheeks gave her away though.
"Ooh! Go on, what happened?" April asked, glad of the distraction.

"Nothing really. We ate some food, filled splinter in on everything. You know, the usual." Holly's pitch began increasing uncontrollably.

April laughed at Holly, "You know if you don't tell me, D will?"

"Fine, Raph and I slept together." Holly sped through the sentence.
"You what?" April almost choked on her mashed potatoes.

"Not like that!" Holly's eyes went wide as she realized what she had said. "We shared a bed. We shared his bed."

The teens giggled as April tried to get as many details out of Holly as she could. It felt like a month since they been up at the cabin, even though it had only been a few hours in reality. April was glad her dad was back, but he was not the same man she had lost a year ago. Carol just shook her head, she remembered what it was like being a teenager. Holly helped Carol to plate up some food for Kirby before putting away the leftovers.

April knocked on Kirby's door, "Dad?" There was no answer, so she opened the door a crack. "Dad, are you awake?"

"Just about." Kirby's voice came back to her.
"Are you hungry? Holly brought over some food for us all."

"Sure, I could eat." He said sounding better. April entered the room and sat on the end of the bed. Kirby was sat up in one of his old t-shirts that Carol had boxed up in her office. His eyes were softer than they had been last night, and some of the tension seemed to be out of his shoulders. He took the plate from her and took a small bite of the chicken.

"Are you alright?" April asked hopefully.

"I am a little better today. Yesterday was incredibly stressful, and I am still trying to process everything that happened." He took another small bite and chewed it slowly.

"Understandable." April said.

"I don't think we can stay here much longer though." Kirby said looking sadly at his daughter.

"Of course not. Aunt Carol should get her home to herself again." April agreed happily.

"No, I mean in New York." Kirby corrected her quickly. Aprils face dropped. "This city is overrun with the Krang and they're not going to stop coming after us."

"We can't leave!" April protested loudly. "That's just letting them win."
"It's not letting them win. Not getting caught again, stops them from winning." Kirby said.

"All it would do is slow them down." April stood angrily from the bed. "Fighting back is how we stop them from winning."

"April, you and your friends can't stop them on your own. The military is the one's who need to take care of this." Kirby tried to reason with his daughter.

"The military didn't stop the Technodrome, the military didn't break you out of TCRI Tower. Me and my friends did that." April was shouting now. "We've been the only ones doing anything about all of this."

"I'm not saying you haven't done amazing things. But I cannot risk your safety, or my own, over this any longer." Kirby replied wearily.

"I'm not going anywhere. The only people who can help us are here, and no one is going to understand what we have been through better than them." April pleaded.

"Nothing has to happen right now," Kirby said gently, "But this is something you should start planning for."
April bit her tongue and she turned and ran out of the room. She burst back out into the main room of the apartment and walked straight past Holly and Carol who were in the kitchen doing the dishes together.
"April?" Carol asked. But she didn't slow down.

"April, wait!" Holly called after her. She hastily dried her hands and went after her friend, "I'll keep an eye on her!" She shouted back at Carol as she raced to catch up to April who had bolted from the apartment.

"Be careful." Carol said into the empty apartment, more for her own peace of mind.

April stormed into the street breathing heavily. She wasn't going anywhere. Just because her dad was scared didn't mean she was. She stood in the cold evening air, her breath misting out in front of her.

"April, whats going on?" Holly asked catching up.

"My dad wants to move us out of the city. He seems to think that we'll be safer somewhere else." April said angrily.

"OK?" Holly replied, her brain trying to process this information. "Did he say what exactly his plan is?"

"No," admitted April, "Just that I should start preparing for it."

"Well, he is probably pretty scared right now." Holly tried to calm her friend down, "He has been held captive for a year, and you broke in with a group of mutant turtles to rescue him. He is going to need some time to come to terms with it, and its not like he can do anything right now. He'll have to get a job, and line up somewhere to live. All that takes time, and chances are you can convince him that you would be just as safe, and much happier, here."

April shook her head, "I don't know, Its just so unfair. I have been taking care of myself for the last year and he suddenly decides that I can't do that anymore."
Holly frowned at her friend, "I seriously doubt that's where his motivation is coming from."

"He still thinks I'm a little kid." April shouted indignantly.

"Well, maybe if you stopped acting like one, he'd stop treating you like one." Holly snapped back loosing her cool.

"Excuse me?" April asked furiously.

"Look. Your dad, literally just got home from being gone for a year, and you're throwing a tantrum at the mere suggestion that he wants to leave." Holly stood her ground, "My mom talked about moving for a month after she was kidnapped, but we're still here. How can you not give your dad the benefit of the doubt that he will take your wants into consideration?"

"I don't have to take this, you're supposed to be my friend!" April said.

"Friends don't just agree with each other blindly. Real friends tell each other when they're acting like a brat." Holly said, April turned on her heel and stormed off. "I could tell you what you're really being?" Holly muttered to herself and headed home.

April hadn't grabbed a coat before leaving her aunts house, and the temperature was dropping with as the sun sank behind the buildings of the New York city skyline. She shivered and headed for the closest man hole cover. Being underground would at least protect her from the wind, and Donnie would certainly hear her grievances without calling her names. April pulled up Donnies' number on her phone.
"Hello?" He answered almost immediately.
"You won't believe what Holly just said to me." April launched into her story.

At the lair, Donnie was in his lab when April called. He was lying on his bed in his room for once relaxing after their training exercises. He had been browsing the web when Aprils call came through. He had been ecstatic to see her name and custom image come up on his phone, but once she started talking, his pleasure had all but evaporated. April and Holly had just had an argument, and she was looking for some validation for her fury.

"What happened? Start from the beginning." Donnie said, and ran over to his door, he ripped it open and frantically searched for Raph. Donnie muted himself, so April wouldn't hear him. "Raph!"

Raphael was playing the pinball machine on the other side of the room, he turned at the sound of his name and saw Donnie frantically waving at him to come over. "What?" He shouted

"Just, get over here." Donnie hissed, and Raph rolled his eyes and walked lazily over to his brother.
"What?" He repeated.

"April and Holly had a fight." Donnie said.

"So?" Raph replied, hearing Aprils voice coming from the phone in Donnies' hand.

"So? What do Ido?" Donnie asked frantically.

"I don't really care." Raph said annoyance on his face. "What ever happened, happened between them. Let them figure it out."

"April wants me to agree with her, should I?" Donnie hissed.

"Why are you asking me? I don't want to be involved." Raph said callously.

"What if Holly calls you?" Donnie asked.

"I'll tell her the same thing I just told you." Raph said and he turned and walked away, irritated that he had been pulled this far into the drama already.

"Are you listening to me?" Aprils voice cut through Donatello's thoughts.

He quickly unmuted himself, "Yes, of course. It's all just a lot to take in." He lied, and went back into his own room.

Raph went back to the pinball machine, after he played a couple more rounds, and he was sure Donnie wasn't lurking around anywhere. He shot Holly a quick text. 'Heard about the fight. You OK?'

Three little dancing balls appeared in his chat window. 'Yeah, It'll be fine.' was Holly's response. The tree balls reappeared. 'I had a feeling she would drag Donnie into this.'

'He is her little puppy dog.' Raph sent back with a chuckle.

'She's just mad at the situation. Don't worry about it.' Holly replied.

'I am here if you need me' Raph sent.

"Ooh, are you texting with Holly? I see those doe-eyes you're making at your phone." Mikey said sliding up to the side of the pinball machine.

"I'll show you my fists if you don't quit it." Raph threatened, but he let Mikey get away with a few jibes at his expense as he played another round of Pinball.