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)

17. Chapter 17

April had gone to the lair and complained to Donatello after the whole affair, but let them drive her back home later that evening as they were on their way to go and patrol the city. There hadn't been any news of the Purple Dragons, or the Foot clan since the Krang had invaded, but Leonardo didn't want to let them get any chances to get into trouble.

Holly turned back up at the lair alone after spending a night at home and taking care of her laundry from the weekend. She was much happier when she showed back up having gotten to stretch out in her own bed for the first night in a while.

"It was nice to have some time to myself after having to put up will all of you for almost a full week." She said jokingly when the Turtles inquired as to why she was in such a good mood

"Is that why you're so cranky all the time?" Leo said with a smug grin directed at his brother.

"You're hilarious." Raph replied sarcastically.

Holly just shook her head.

"Have you heard from April?" Donnie asked tentatively once the others had picked up their own hobbies.
"No." Holly replied, "But don't worry about whats going on between us. You don't get involved when Raph and I fight." She added with a raised eyebrow.

"That's different. Raph fights with everyone."

"I'm right here you know." Raph said over the top of his comic.

Holly laughed.

"Aren't you worried she's mad at you?" Donnie asked again.

"I'm sure she is." Holly shrugged, "But you don't need to fret about it."

"But..." Donnie tried.

"Seriously, just drop it dude." Raph finally had enough, he stood angrily and, grabbing Holly's hand, dragged her away from Donatello.

"Hey!" Holly protested, but she didn't actually mind Raph intervening for her. He stomped over to the training room and slammed the door shut behind them. "Was that really necessary?"

"You never saw him when we first met April. He will, literally, talk about this forever."
"I don't think it would be 'literally' forever." Holly scoffed, and giggled when she saw his eye twitch.

He sat down heavily, and let his momentum carry him onto his shell. "Trust me, I did you a favor." He closed his eyes and reclined back with both arms behind his head.

She rolled her eyes at him again, but chose to let it go. She picked up one of the training staffs and began to roll it through her hands. She increased the speed a little, and tried a couple of the more complex katas that April had been teaching her.

Raph opened on eye to see what she was doing. "You're getting pretty good." He closed his eye again.

"Thanks, although didn't you say you'd stop going easy on me." Holly reminded him without breaking her form.

"You said you wanted me to quit going easy on you. I never agreed to it." He snorted.

"I mean, I understand. You don't want me to embarrass you, like I did Leo." She said sassily.

"Yeah, right!" He laughed, "I wouldn't have let you get away with such a cheap shot."

"Care to find out?" She asked with a smile.

Raph opened both his eyes this time to see her waiting for him. "Oh, you're on." He kip upped to his feet and walked to face her in the middle of the room.

"I don't want you to go easy on me, although I would still appreciate it if you pulled your punches." Holly admitted to him.

"I won't hurt you," he drew his sai and spun them between his fingers, "but the floor might."

He charged at her, she did swing the staff at him, but he quickly ducked under it and caught one of her ankles in his sai and pulled her leg out from underneath her, he swung her leg high to force her backwards and threw a leg out behind her so she fell backwards. As she went down, he caught her with his free arm and kept her from slamming her head into the floor.

Holly squealed as she was tripped, and scrunched her eyes shut against the imminent pain. But all she felt was Raphs arm around her waist. She opened her eyes to see him smiling smugly down at her.

"You sure you don't want me to go easy on you?" He said as he held her in a dip.

"Alright... Maybe, I do need you to go a little easy on me." Holly admitted. He straightened up and pulled her back up to her feet. "Do you feel better now that you got to show off?"

"Yeah, I do actually." He said, and she shoved him playfully.

April showed up a couple of days later to the lair. She had been trying her best to remain at her Aunts for a long as possible. But, since her dad had barely been awake, and was incredibly twitchy and nervous when he was, she needed a break.

She arrived to find Holly and Raph playing games with Mikey. They had dug out another of her old games and she was showing them all the cheats she knew for this one too.

"Hey." She said as she walked through the entrance.

Holly turned around, "Hi. How's your dad?"

April cleared her throat a little awkwardly, "He's fine. Well, he's not fine really. I haven't heard from you in a couple of days."

"Ah, no. I wasn't sure if you wanted to talk to me, so I just figured I'd give you some space." Holly admitted.

"It's been a tough couple of days. My aunt and I have been trying to keep dad calm and happy, but he's still really rattled" April said and flopped down on the couch by Holly.

"I'm sorry I wasn't around." Holly said and gave April a hug.

"I'm sorry I was being a brat." April mumbled into Holly's shoulder.

"You're both horrible people, we get it." Mikey said from the floor.

"Hey!" April and Holly said together, they both grabbed a pillow each and threw them at him.

"Did I hear April?" Donnie shouted as he skidded out of his lab. His face lit up when he saw her and he rushed over to hug her.

"Did you miss me?" She asked him.

"Oh god, don't get him started." Raph complained, "It's the only thing he's talked about for the last two days!"

"It is not!" Donnie shrieked at him.

He and Raph began shouting at each other which drew Leonardo out of his room. "What are you guys arguing about?" He asked as Raph and Donnie glared at each other. "Some of us are trying to concentrate."

"What are you working on?" Holly asked before either of the boys could start the bickering again.
"I'm trying to figure out what is going on in that military base." He said exasperatedly.

"How?" April asked, "Its not like we have a ton on information about that place."

"I was going over what we do have, and checking the public records." Leo said with a smug grin.

"If you're looking for blueprints, they don't exist online." Donnie said.

"How do you know that?" April frowned.

"Because, they're military plans. They're not kept digitally for the reason that people like me could access them." Donnie replied with a shrug.

"But what about the surrounding area, those should be in the public domain?" Holly said. "We might be able to piece it together from those records."

"Its certainly a possibility." Donnie said scratching his chin. He stood and went to his lab to grab his computer. Holly also pulled hers out of her backpack and began running some standard searches to see what she turned up.

"Well, while you guys do boring stuff, I am going to beat Mikey at a game of Plumber Racing." April said, and joined Mikey on the floor.

"Really?" Mikey asked excitedly. "You want to play?"

"Sure! Leo, Raph, you want to make this interesting?" April asked the others.

Raph shrugged, "Why not? It's not like there's much else to do."

"I could lead a training session?" Leo said enthusiastically.

"No" Mikey and Raph both responded in unison.

A few hours passed in this way. Donnie and Holly comparing maps while the others kept themselves entertained and out of the way as much as possible. Mikey was happy enough to play games, but eventually April and the others got bored. Raph eventually sat himself on Holly's other side and read his comics, while April sat on Donnies other side and looked over at the screens to see how it was all coming.

"Any progress?" She asked.

"Some, but its quite confusing." Holly admitted. "There have been so many changes to that area of the city that its hard to see exactly what is current."

"Hold on," Donnie put his computer on the floor and jogged off to get something out of his lab. He reappeared carrying a sketch pad and a couple of pencils. "Lets see if we can map it out here, it might make more sense on paper."
He started drawing what they knew was there for sure. He started with the outline of the lot the base was on, then added in the recycling plant outline, and the back end of the golf course. He and Holly then dug through the city documents to see what kind of underground infrastructure there was in the area, and mapped out what looked like the most recent information. They noted the nearby rail stations as they could have underground access that they could use, and Donnie added the Bronx River that flowed nearby.

Pretty soon, both April and Raph were helping by reading over some of the maps they found to help point out possible discrepancies between the information.

"Wait a minute." Donnie said suddenly, and scrolled over the golf courses infrastructure designs. "Where does this go?" He pointed at a storm drain that helped pull excess water away from the back holes of the course.

"Not sure." Holly said, and she began to pull up the cities water grid. "The city plans show most of the drains lead out to the river. A couple come back towards the city and dump into the lake by the college."

"Where does it go before it gets to those places though?" Donnie asked with a knowing grin.

"I'm guessing you're both assuming it goes under the base, right?" Raph asked, trying to keep up.

"Pretty much, yeah." Holly nodded. "There's no guarantee that they do, and the military probably secured any accesses years ago. But there is always a chance that something fell into disrepair when they stopped using it."
"There's only one good way to find out." April said and smiled.

"Wait, you're coming with us?" Donnie asked, worried suddenly.

"Yeah, of course I am." April said as if it were not a question.

"Don't you think your dad will expect you home?" Holly asked.

"So what if he does? I'll just tell him I'm with you." April said, and Holly pressed her lips together to stop herself from commenting. "What? It will be true."

"I wasn't planning on going?" Holly protested.

"You weren't?" Raph asked a little crestfallen.

Holly suppressed a little smile at his desire for her to join them, "There might be traps and I didn't want to get in the way."

"But I need you there for emotional support." April pouted.

Holly considered arguing that lying to her dad was only going to cause problems later, but since they had already had one argument about that, she didn't think it was worth it to drag that up again. "Fine, I'll go."

That evening, they all piled into the Shell-Raiser and headed out to the river. The overall temperature in the city had been steadily dropping since they came back from their trip to the cabin. The wind had been stripping the leaves off of the trees and once the sun set fully, the chill crept into the vehicle through the gaps in the doors.
"Can you think about putting heat in this thing?" April asked Donnie as a shiver ran through her body. "If we're going to be driving all over the city this winter I'd much rather do it warm."

"I'll look into it." Donnie promised. "But I can't do anything about it right now."

They drove out of Manhattan and into the Bronx, following the river north west until Donnie told Leo to find somewhere to park. The river banks were heavily wooded and it provided them with a number of places to tuck the Shell-Raiser so it was mostly out of site. The teens ducked out of the van and headed down to the river banks where they followed the shoreline for a few hundred feet until they found one of the storm drain outlets. It had a cage across the opening, but a heavy duty set of bolt cutters had it open in no time.

"Are we going to get in trouble if we're caught for that?" April asked as Donnie and Leo held the grate open for the girls to climb through.

"We're going to be trespassing in city property, and potentially breaking into a very dangerous Krang facility. I think this is the least of our worries right now." Holly said as she squeezed through the gap.
Once everyone was in, Donnie took the lead with the map he had drawn up. They all had either a flashlight, or their phone out to see where they were going as the bottom of the pipe they were in was slick with years of natural deposits brought in by the rain. Holly and April tried to stick to the sides of the pipe to keep their feet as dry as possible, but the guys waded through the inch of water without much concern.

They system was not as straightforward as they had originally hoped. On more than one occasion they found a dead end that was not in the documents they have found, so Donnie made some updates to his map with a pencil he had brought for just this occasion.

Mikey, who had been fairly patient, began complaining of boredom. They had been walking through the dark, damp storm drains for well over an hour now. He and Raph bickered back and fourth which was a nice distraction for Holly, who was feeling less comfortable than she had when this endeavor started.

"Can we take a minute? I need a minute." She blurted out into the darkness and leaned her back against the cold cement wall of the tunnel.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Donnie asked and shined his flashlight on her face.

Holly winced at the bright light in her eyes. "Not exactly. It's more the 'not knowing how to get out' that is causing the issue at the moment."

"Why didn't you say anything before?" April asked feeling guilty, "You've never had an issue in the sewers."

"It didn't look so bad when it was on paper, but we have found more than one tunnel that we didn't know about and I am a little turned around." Holly admitted. "Plus the sewers are much easier to get out of, there are exits all over the place."

"I know where we are, I promise." Donnie told her, "See? I have been keeping track." He showed her the map that he had been making adjustments to the whole time. Holly nodded, but the tightness in her throat didn't let up much.

Donnie started walking again, with April and Leo close behind.

Raphael took Holly's hand and gave it a squeeze as he pulled her back up to an upright position. "Its all good, we're right here."

"Yeah, its not like we can go anywhere." Mikey added happily.

"I know you're trying to help, but could you please not?" Holly said trying to keep calm.

"What?" Mikey asked, and trotted along behind everyone as the group turned back around to continue through the pipes.

They walked around for another twenty minutes before the drain suddenly opened up into a rectangular chamber that had no other tunnels leading off of it. The inch deep water they had been wading though seemed to fill the entire floor of this chamber.

"Well, that was not what I expected." Donnie admitted.

"So, what? This is a dead end?" April asked looking all over the room.

"No, this is a settling tank" Donnie said, "Its basically a deep pool that allows the larger material to settle at the bottom so it doesn't clog up the pipes."

"Where does the water come in from then?" Leo asked.

"Down there." Donnie pointed into the water. "But how far down it goes is another matter."

"Lovely." Holly muttered to herself and held onto Raphs arm a little tighter.

"Why don't Donnie and I go check it out first?" Leo offered.

"Awe, I never get to do anything fun." Mikey complained.

Donnie tucked his map into a waterproof pouch, then he and Leo dropped down into the water. They dove down, out of site of the others. The tank wasn't too deep, but the pipe the fed into the tank was smaller than the one they had come in through. Donnie and Leo swam through the tunnel single file. The pipe had a few divergences that Donnie and Leo had to check, but each one led to another settling tank that would either lead them back out to the river, or on to other sections of the storm drain system. Each time they surfaced, Donnie would quickly jog part of the way down the tunnel until he found some kind of marking, or indication as to what direction this section of the tunnel lead. He would then check it against his map before shaking his head and hopping back into the water. Once he had found some indication that they had found the correct section of tube, he and Leo swam all the way back to the original settling tank and back to the others.

April and Mikey were peering into the tank to see what was in the bottom and who could spot Donnie or Leo first. Holly had retreated back a little ways into the access pipe and was sat on her heels against the wall. Raph stood between her and the others, arms crossed over his plastron and one leg propped up against the wall to give her what little privacy he could. She had her eyes closed and was taking long deep breaths in through her nose, trying to keep the panic at bay. The prospect of submerging into the pool of cold dark water with no way of knowing how far she had to swim was testing the limits of her courage.

"You know, it's kind of funny," Raph said from above her, "Of all the things you've seen, and been through since you met us, this is the thing you're having the hardest time with."

Holly let out a harsh bark of nervous laughter, "Yes, I suppose it does seem ridiculous in the grand scheme of things."

Raph checked to make sure April and Mikey were occupied, "I don't think its ridiculous, we all have the things we're just not OK with."

"You mean, like your fear of cockroaches?" Holly asked and actually looked up at him briefly.
"You know about that!" He hissed at her.

"Yeah, one of the others told me ages ago. I can't remember who at the present moment though." Holly rested her head back against the wall of the pipe, her eyes were still closed.

"If you do remember, please tell me... I'll kill them." Raph said.

"But Cockroaches? You're so much bigger than they are?" Holly asked.

"They have too many legs." Raph pouted, "And I don't like their antenna."

"Hey! They're back." Mikey shouted back to them. Holly pushed herself to her feet, and allowed Raph to take her hand again as they approached the lip of the tank.

"It's not too far, maybe 150 feet to the other side." Donnie said and hauled himself out of the water. "You don't have to do this though." He added looking at Holly.

"Of course not," April added, "No pressure."

"I can't stay here by myself, and I know I won't be able to get out of here alone." Holly bit her lip.

"I won't pretend its not a bit of a squeeze down there," Leo said, "But if you trust us, we can get you through this." Holly nodded, they had more than earned her trust over the course of their friendship. "OK. Donnie will go through first, you'll go right after him."

"You hold on to one end of this," Donnie said and unhooked his bo staff off his back. "I will guide you through. I promise."

"I'll be right behind you." Raph reassured her.

"April, you follow next, Mikey and I will bring up the rear." Leo said.

"Alright, lets do this!" Mikey shouted and dove into the water.

"I must be out of my mind." Holly muttered and peered into the tank. She sat on the edge of the tank and sucked in a breath of air, "Jesus its cold. If I get hypothermia and die from this I am haunting you all." She lowered herself further into the water until she was submerged up to her chin. Her teeth began chattering.
"Are you ready?" Donnie asked after he climbed back into the tank.

"Let's just go before I change my mind." Holly said. She took her glasses off and held them in one hand. She and Donnie swam across the surface until they were almost in the middle. Raph dropped down into the tank next to April, who also lowered herself into the tank so they could all go one after another.

"Take this," Donnie held out the other end of his staff to her, "On three. One, two, three." Donnie and Holly both took a deep breath and dove below the surface. Raph pushed off of the wall of the tank to follow them. April followed Raphs lead and pushed off of the wall to catch up.
Almost as soon as Holly was under the water, she regretted her decision. The water was cold, and she couldn't see anything. Being near sighted was bad enough, but being in a dark waterlogged tunnel, where the only light source was a flashlight held by the person in front of you was a full blown nightmare. She held onto Donnie's staff for dear life and kicked her legs as hard as she could while she could feel her heart beat pounding in her ears.

The underwater caravan swam for nearly a full minute. April could just about make out Raph swimming in front of her. The flashlight she held would illuminate his grubby leg wraps each time they broke the beam of light. She had to admit that now she was under the water, she could understand why Holly was so freaked out. The darkness was oppressive, the pressure of the water squeezed her lungs, and even though she knew they were swimming towards air, it didn't stop her blood pressure creeping up a little once they had gone a few lengths into the pipes.
Donnie and Holly broke the surface at the other end of their swim. Holly, sensing that they were nearing the surface as the water pressure changed, sucked in an eager breath a little too early, and wound up hacking up some water she had inhaled.

"Are you alright?" Donnie asked, and helped her over to a ledge that would take them deeper into the water system.

"Yup." Holly managed to gasp out as the others surfaced behind them. She hauled herself out of the water and lay flat on her back on the brick walk way, "If we can find another way out of here, that would be swell."

"Swell?" Raph said and climbed up on the ledge next to her.
"Shut it." Holly retorted.
"We're not done here yet. We need to keep going." Leo said.

Donnie helped April to climb up out of the water, and both the girls took a moment to wring out as much water as they could from their clothes and hair. Holly shook her glasses off, and put them back on her face, and the group continued into the tunnel.

The section of drain they were in now was obviously much older than what they had just come out from. This section was much larger, with a raised brick walkway running the length of the rectangular tunnel. The roof was much higher in this section also, which made Holly feel much less trapped, although she didn't let go of Raphael's hand just yet.

Donnie was still leading the way, but he stopped when he came to a tunnel that diverted to the left suddenly.
"This is the way we need to go." He said and shone his flashlight at an old plaque on the tunnel wall.

"What makes you say that?" Leo asked from the back of the group. He pushed his way between Raph and Holly, who both made noises of complaint as they were forced to let go of each others hands.

"The sign that says 'Camp Washington Storm Drain' seems like a dead give away." Donnie said smugly.

Leo groaned, "Alright, lets just keep going."

"You're so corny" April said and nudged Donnie with her elbow as she followed Leo.

"Hey, sometimes things literally are spelled out for us." Donnie said, followed by another round of groaning from his brother.

"I had no idea you were so 'punny'." Holly said with a chuckle.

"Oh god, you're both terrible." April said looking back over her shoulder.

They followed this tunnel for a short distance before it started to curve back around to the right and the distant sound of machinery reached them. Leo waved for them to slow down and they all fell silent, creeping forward single file.

They followed Leo until he stopped and stood upright, "Now what, genius?" He asked, and waved at a metal door blocking the way

"Calm down 'O' fearless leader'." Donnie said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I expected something like this." He crouched down next the the door and examined the edges for some kind of weak point. He located a spot that looked identical to every other spot and scratched at it with his thumb nail. "Ah hah." He pulled another waterproof pack out of a pouch and unfurled it with a flourish.
"Oh god, would you just get on with it?" Raph hissed irritably.

"You don't even know what I am doing, so calm your shell." Donnie said, also now irritated.

Holly placed a hand gently on Raphs arm again, "I really need you to stay calm, for me."

"That's not going to happen." Mikey said with a laugh. "Raph doesn't do 'calm'."

Raph ground his teeth, but took a deep breath in through his nose and blew it out between his lips. "I can be calm Mikey." He spoke through his teeth, but Holly appreciated the effort.

Donnie cleared his throat, "If you are all done arguing?" He pressed a few buttons on his hand held device and the door fizzed, smoked, and opened in front of them.

"Awesome!" Mikey said and bounded past Raph and Holly, poking his tongue out at his brother.

Raph glared at Mikey, but let it go for Holly's sake. He gently took her hand again, and they followed everyone else through the doorway.

Once through the door, the atmosphere changed. It went from humid, musty, and cold. To dry, warm, filtered air. Both April and Holly let out a sigh of relief, their damp clothes had begun to feel chilly in the underground tunnels.

"You know the drill, we go quiet unless necessary." Leo whispered, and everyone nodded their understanding.

They wound their way through the facility, finding a few Krang patrols as they went. Leo led the way, with assistance from Donnie who was still keeping track of what direction they were going.
One set of Krang boarded an elevator and the teens watched it descend four floors deeper underground than they already were.

Raph and Leo pried the doors to the elevator shaft oped to get a better idea of how far down the complex went.

"Looks like a good half a dozen floors." Donnie said as he took a look down, he checked up too, just to get a better idea of where exactly they were. "Only a few floors higher than us. That must be what is visible from the surface."

"Where do we go from here?" Leo whispered, feeling far too exposed in their current location.

"I am not sure, a access terminal would help with that though." Donnie said. The group searched the adjacent rooms. Holly, being the only one who really knew what they were looking for, found the terminal first.
"Over here." She waved the others over, and she and Donnie began typing.
"OK, we have maps and cameras." Donnie said and multiple monitors sprang to life above them.

There were plenty of Krang milling around, some in their exoskeletons while others floated around in their hovering transports. One of the cameras was overlooking at least 50 droids that were all standing to attention in some room or other.

"Where is that?" Leo asked, pointing to this image.

Donnie tapped a few touch keys. "That looks like its on the top floor."
"What are they doing?" Mikey asked.

"How would I know that, Mikey?" Donnie retorted. "I have the exact same amount of information that you do."

"I was just asking, bro." Mikey sulked.

"For now, lets figure out what else is going on here. Then we can go check out that." Leo tried to calm everyone down.

Donnie went back to flicking through the security feeds. They saw Krang patrolling through the halls, components levitating off a conveyor belt, slot themselves into other parts, then float back down to another system that moved them on to another place.

"They're building something." Holly said absently as she watched the parts floating around. Some water dripped off a strand of hair and onto the console. "Shoot." She wiped the drop away and accidentally changed the camera to one that was pointed at the entrance to the compound. A couple of motorcycles were rolling up to the facility, and on one of them was Dog pound. The other figure was much smaller, and wore a hood to cover their face.

"Hmm, Looks like we're not the only people here today." Holly said and pointed out the screen to the others.

"Dog Pound? We don't see any sign of anyone for well over a week, and now here they all are, in one place." Raph complained.

"Yeah, that sounds about right for us." Donnie replied cynically.

"Let's get up there and see what they're doing here." Leo said and he led the way up to the top level of the complex.

They carefully made their way through the floor as there were way more Krang on this level. April and Holly had to take extra care not to leave any water marks along the walls from their damp clothes, least they leave any kind of trail that could be followed.

"In here," Leo ushered them all through a door when they heard someone coming from further up the hallway.

"Whoa," Mikey said once they noticed where they had walked into. "I think we know what they're building now."
"Ships." Holly said softly.

"We destroyed their mother ship, but they have a whole fleet here." Donnie said dismayed.

"That's not all they have." April said, looking past the ships. Further down the hangar, there were more canisters of mutagen hung neatly on the wall.
"How much of this stuff do they need?" Raph hissed irritably.

"Well, they want to take over the world, right?" Holly remarked dryly. She hauled herself up into one of the ships to take a look at the controls. "I wonder how straightforward these are to operate?"

"Straightforward enough for what?" Leo asked. But before Holly could answer, footsteps reverberated through the huge space.

"Hide." Leo hissed, and they all scattered. Donnie scooped April up and they dipped behind some barrels that were stacked in a corner. Mikey and Raph dove behind another pile of boxes. While Leo hopped up into the cockpit of the craft and pushed Holly's head down and out of sight.

"Why is Krang offering assistance to the one known as The Shredder?" One of the Krang patrol asked they rounded the corner.

"Because the one known as The Shredder has agreed to help us capture the one known as April O'Neil." The other Krang answered.

April raised her eyebrows slightly at Donatello. He held a hand up to acknowledge the irony.

"How will the one called The Shredder capture the one known as April O'Neil?" the first Krang asked.

"Krang does not have that information to give to Krang." The second Krang responded as they exited the hangar through a side door. The teens waited a few moments before peeking their heads out of their various hiding places.

"If Shredder and the foot are looking for you for the Krang, then what are the Krang giving him in return?" Donnie said.

"Lets find out?" Leo said as he lowered Holly back down to the floor.

"What about all this?" Holly asked, looking around.

"We can come back for this, I want to know what Dog Pound is doing here." Leo said.

They crept along in the same direction the two Krang had gone, keeping close to the walls and being as quiet as possible. They found the room where the Krang and Dog Pound were meeting, but they didn't dare risk trying to get into the room, so they looked to Donnie to see if he had anything he could use to either see, or hear what was going on.

He pulled out a little suction cup attachment from a pouch and plugged it into his phone. He held the other end up to the door and the sounds of the room came out of the little speaker. Donnie adjusted the sound so they all could hear it without alerting anyone to their presence.

"Someone will need to keep an eye out for any more patrols." Leo said, and most of the group immediately turned to Mikey.

"What? You think I can't understand what's going on?" He protested irritably.

"That's not it at all." Leo lied.

"I'll go," Holly offered and she crept to one end of the hallway they were in.

"We still need someone to check the other way Mikey." Leo said.

"Send Raph." Mikey protested, "I'm smart enough to know when I'm being insulted."
"Shh," Donnie hissed at his brothers. Leo looked at Raph, who rolled his eyes but headed the opposite direction to Holly.

"Krang has agreed to provide assistance to the one known as The Shredder, who is providing assistance to the Krang." a tinny voice came through the speaker.

"Yes, yes. Just show us the merchandise." Dog Pounds gruff voice said.

"Krang has created these droids for the one..." A Krang was saying, but Bradford cut him off with a snarl.

"Get to the point!"

"Perhaps a demonstration would be more suitable." The Krang said.

"Karai, why don't you test them out? You are always claiming that you're the second in command." Dog Pound said.

The following few moments provided the remaining turtles and April with very little information. There was some strange chirping noises and the sound of someone fighting. It sounded like whoever Karai was, they were subdued quickly. They all looked at each other concerned.

"Enough." Bradford finally said. "That will certainly do for now."

"I thought they were supposed to follow my orders?" A new voice said with a note of insolence in the tone

"Once Krang has reprogrammed the droids, they will follow whomever orders we have programmed them to follow." a Krang replied.

"Great, why do you get working on that, We'll wait here." Bradford said.

There was a few moment of silence again, "I don't trust them." The new voice spoke up again. Presumably the Krang had left the room and Bradford and Karai were speaking freely.

"We are not here to determine if they're trustworthy. Shredder cut a deal with them, we get these Foot-bots, we give them the red-headed girl who hangs around those reptiles."

"Why aren't they going after her themselves if she's so important?" Karai asked.

"You ask too many questions." Dog Pound snapped.

"You don't ask enough." Karai rebutted.
The pair lapsed into silence for a few more moments.

"Krang has completed the reprogramming." a Krang said, "Krang looks forward to the one known as The Shredder keeping his end of the deal."
"Don't forget, he gets Hamato Yoshi if you find him first." Bradford announced.

"Splinter?" Mikey asked.

"Krang has not forgotten Krangs agreement with the one know..."

"Oh, Shut up!" Bradford yelled. "Lets go."

There was the sound of a lot of feet marching at once, and Leo decided it was time to move. He signaled over for Holly and Raph to join them again.

"Shredder is after Splinter. That's what he gets out of all this." Leo told them.

"What?" Holly said completely stunned.

"We can discuss it later." Leo said. "We need to get out of the open." He led them back to a more secluded area. "Its time to leave, we've pressed our luck tonight."

"But we just got here?" Raph was complaining.

"The plan was to find out where the tunnels led. We've done that, and more." Leo hissed. He did not want to get into a fight with the one person everyone was looking for right in the middle of enemy territory.
"Leo's right, we shouldn't have come this far in here anyway." Donnie agreed with a cautious glance at April.

"Does this mean we're going swimming again?" Holly asked, she let out a little groan of dismay when Leo nodded at her.

The trip back to the Shell-Raiser was much less eventful. Donnie marked up the walls of the drainage pipes as they went so that it would be much easier to get back in if they ever needed to again. Holly was much more calm this time going back through the waterlogged pipes since she knew she had done it before, although she still needed guiding as her vision was so poor underwater.
"Can you guys see as clearly underwater as you can above?" She asked Donnie once they were on the other side of the settling tank.

"Yeah, well, almost as clearly." He replied. "It is a normal part of turtle anatomy."

"That's fascinating, what else can you guys do that we can't?" Holly asked.

"What, you mean besides beating up bad guys and scaling buildings?" Raph asked sarcastically.

"I know there's one thing I can do that you cant." Holly retorted smugly, and she flipped him her middle finger. Leo and April laughed heartily, while Raph and Holly exchanged rude gestures.

"Gees, and we wonder why you two get along so well." Donnie rolled his eyes.

"Well? You still haven't answered my question." Holly said with a chuckle at Mikey trying to figure out how to flip someone off.

"Our eyes have more rods than typical humans so we can see better in dim light." Donnie continued.

"What else?" Holly prompted him, feeling much calmer if her brain was preoccupied.

"Unlike normal turtles, our eyes are placed on the front of our heads, like a humans, so we have better depth perception, and can see further away that any normal turtles. In fact, even the furthest distance any turtle has been proven to be able to see is thirty meters, while we are capable of seeing things from miles away." Donnie rambled on.

The teens walked back out into the open and Holly let out an audible sigh of relief. When the wind picked up though, both she and April shivered as their damp clothes held onto the chill of the night.

"Lets go, I don't want to stay in these soggy shoes any longer than I have to." April said.

Back at the lair, Holly and April hurried off to change into some dry clothes. Their clothes were still damp, so they hung them up anywhere they could to let them dry out. Splinter had made a fresh pot of tea and poured each of the girls a cup to help them warm up.

Holly closed her eyes as her fingers closed around the warm mug and she inhaled the earthy aroma of the tea. "Thank you. This is exactly what I needed."

"Leonardo told me about your swim through the tunnels, and how you overcame your fear to join the others."
Holly opened her eyes and looked around at her friends, "Yeah, I suppose." She lowered her eyes to her cup and felt her cheeks burn.

"You should be proud of yourself." Leo said encouragingly.

"Listen, I just lived through it, and I don't really want to dwell on it at the moment." Holly said into her drink.

Leo talked for the next hour, filling in their father on everything that happened.

Splinter was not surprised that Oroku Saki was looking for him. "His hatred has festered into something all consuming. I fear he will not stop until one of us is dead."

"He cannot be that petty?" Holly exclaimed.

"Saki always did hold onto his grudges, he no doubt blames me for the death of Tang Shen."

"We really need to find them, before they find us." Leo said. "Particularly if they're helping the Krang to find you, April."

"Yeah, I seriously doubt my dad would be thrilled to find out there's another group after me." Her shoulders slumped at the idea. "He'd probably move us back out to that smelly old farm house again."

"We won't let that happen." Donnie announced determinedly.

"What? Dad finding out about the Foot, or moving me to the farm?" April asked him with an amused little smile.

"Well, either really." Donnie said, and April chuckled.

"So how are we going to find the Foot and Shredder?" Raph asked the group, "They took off on bikes and we have no idea where they went."

"It might just be a case of staking out different areas until w find them." Leo said.

"There must be a way to narrow down the search area?" April postulated. "What about that Gymnasium the Purple Dragon took us to?"
"That would be a good place to start." Donnie said.

"What about the fortune cooking factory? That's where the Purple Dragons usually hang out!" Mikey said enthusiastically.

"Mikey, that factory exploded. With us inside it." Raphael said frowning at his baby brother.
"Oh yeah, that was awesome."

"Anyway," Leo said before Raph could start arguing with Mikey, "What other places can we check?"
"Wait a second, why don't we check out Stockmans apartment?" Holly perked up.
"He still lives in your building? I thought he would have been evicted after the Purple Dragons broke in and roughed up your doorman?" Donnie said.

"If they have, they haven't taken his stuff out of his place that I've seen. I'll talk to Bud tomorrow when I see him."

"Tomorrow we'll start staking out places, maybe we can split up and have Donnie take the Shell-Raiser and Holly driving your van to cover as much ground as possible." Leo said.

"Unfortunately, It might be worth handing out around the military base, there's a good chance someone will show back up there too." Holly sighed. They were looking at watching almost the entire city.

"Then we really will need to split up." Leo said. "Mikey, I have a feeling you'll be with me."

"We really need more vehicles." Holly said with a hint of a smile at Leo knowing who was going to want to be with who.

"I've been working on that." Donnie said. "I have a couple of things in process, but I need some parts."

"Lets have a look. Maybe I can stop by the junk yard tomorrow." Holly said.

"Right now?" Donnie asked, a little shocked that she wanted to work on this now, "It's like, two in the morning."

"Yes, but if we're going to split up, we need to be able to get across town as fast as possible." Holly replied.

"You should all take the time to rest, you have done enough for this evening." Splinter said, knowing that it would not stop Donatello or Holly.

"This wont take long, and we really do need to be able to get across town if one of us finds the Foot." Holly protested.

"Just make sure you take time to rest." Splinter smiled gently at the young woman across from him.

"We will. Come on Donnie, the sooner we start, the sooner we can be done." Holly stood up and marched off towards the lab. Donatello stood and began filling her in on what he had been building, and what he thought he was still missing.

The others settled themselves on the couches. April dug out the pillows and blankets from the cupboard and chose a comfy spot to stretch out on, and began scrolling through her phone. Raph and Leo both dug out comic books to read while Mikey loaded up one of his many games.

Holly and Donnie did come back into the living area fairly quickly. They were arguing about something the others did not understand, but they seemed to be enjoying the disagreement rather than getting heated about it.

"Unless you wanted to make them electric? But they you're going to have to worry about their range." Holly was saying as the pair sat down.

"The batteries I would need to power them will be too heavy, completely defeating the point." Donnie retorted.

"You've got them framed in steel! They're already too heavy." Holly laughed.

"Aluminum would be too weak, It needs to be strong enough to withstand a potential blow from one of the Krang vehicles."

"But if they were lighter, the acceleration would be better and you could get away." Holly held out her open palms to mimic a scale. "There are benefits for both options."

Donnie considered her argument. "See what you can find at the junk yard and we'll talk."

The teens stayed up for a little longer, mostly just being together but doing their own thing. Holly pulled out a book she and April were reading for school, while Donnie disappeared back into his lab to work on the designs he and Holly had been discussing. Leo and Mikey eventually migrated towards their own bedrooms, followed soon after by Raph with a little persuading from Holly.

April and Holly laid with their heads together.

"Do you think there is a way to stop the Krang permanently?" April asked into the dim light.

"I don't know." Holly answered honestly. "It certainly feels like there is a lot left to do, and we still don't really know what their plans are."

"I just don't think that moving away is really going to solve the problem." April said.

"No, I don't think that will help either." Holly reached up and put her hand on Aprils arm.

"How do I get my dad to understand that though?" April sighed heavily and held Holly's hand.
"He might never understand, but we can keep trying to help him see the truth, together." Holly touched the top of her head to Aprils. April closed her eyes and nodded her head. "Besides, Donnie would be heart-broken if you left."

April let out a snort of amusement. "I know. I might use that as a last ditch attempt to stop dad from moving us."

"Oh, so the plan is to give him a heart attack to keep him in the hospital so you can't go." Holly said sarcastically.

"He might be OK with it. Your mom is." April protested.

"True." Holly said, and the girls laughed together through their exhaustion.

The next day, April and Holly woke up to the sound of soft conversation in the lairs kitchen. They both sat up groggily on the couch to see Leo and Splinter talking over cups of tea.
"Is it morning already?" April asked rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Hardly, it's almost eleven." Leo said, and Holly sat up much straighter.

"It is? Why didn't you wake us up sooner?" She kicked off the blankets and snatched up her glasses.

"I've only been awake for about an hour." Leo protested.

"Yeah, but I got stuff to do." Holly said and downed a mug of coffee.

"Like what?" April shuffled into the kitchen wrapped in her blanket.

"I need to go to the junk yard before it closes and get all the stuff Donnie needs. Now I only have five hours to do it." Holly quickly wound her hair up in a high pony tail and brushed her teeth.

"Five hours? You need that much time?" April asked.

"I was hoping to spend the whole day there." Holly pulled on her socks and shoes. "Do you want to come?" she asked April.

"No offense, but hanging out at the junk yard is not my idea of fun." April said.

Holly just shrugged, "Suit yourself. Let Donnie know I'll be back later with anything I can find, and tell Raph I love him." She grabbed her bag and started running to the turn-styles. She turned back to the little group, pink in the cheeks with a frown on her face. "Did I say that last bit out loud?"

"Oh, yeah." Leo replied, highly amused. April was chortling into her own mug of coffee.

"I thought so." Holly crinkled up her nose, "Be nice." She added to them before turning back to leave.

"Not a chance." Leo shouted after her, and he and April burst into laughter as Donnie appeared from out of the Lab rubbing his eyes.

"What's with all the shouting?" He asked groggily. April and Leo filled him in, and he too was soon eagerly awaiting Raphs' appearance for the morning.

When Raph finally did wake up, he rolled over to check his phone, and saw a text from Holly. All it said was, 'I'm so sorry for what you're about to experience.' He frowned at his phone before stuffing it into his belt, and wrapping that across his shell.

He gave Spike a scritch on his head and exited his room. As he made his way to the kitchen to get his coffee, Leo, Donnie, and April were all smiling suspiciously at him. "What?" He asked gruffly and narrowed his eyes at them all.

"Nothing." April said, faux innocence oozing off her smug grin. Donnie and Leo began to chortle into their bowls of cereal.

Raphs scowl only deepened. "Whatever is going on, I don't care." He grabbed a couple of lettuce leafs, and his mug and walked back into his room. As soon as he shut the door, he heard the others burst out laughing. He thought about texting Holly and asking her what was going on, but realized that would only prove to the others that he did care, so he decided against it.

Leo, Donnie, and April let Mikey in on the joke once he finally woke up. They were surprised that he didn't slip up and tell Raph what had happened, but they all managed to keep it together until Holly turned back up hours later. By the time she got there Raph was fuming. The others were all in on some joke at his expense, and he was sick of the knowing looks, and hushed snickering behind his back.

Holly called Donnie when she was about to head into the secret underground access to his lab. She had found a whole bunch of stuff he might be able to use and wanted him to help her unload her van.

"Oh, Hi Holly." Donnie answered emphasizing her name and making sure to throw another smug look at Raph.

"Hi?" She answered as a question, "What are you doing to Raphael?"

"Nothing." He said, and another round of giggles and guffaws, could be heard through the line.

"Gah! What is you're problem?" Raph shouted from somewhere further away, and she heard a door slam as he obviously left the room.

"You didn't tell him, did you?" Holly figured out their game very quickly. Another round of laughter could be heard. "He's going to make you suffer for this, you know that?"

"Yeah, but its so worth it." Donnie said breathlessly.

"Hmm. I wouldn't be so sure." Holly said. "Anyway, I'm almost back with all the stuff you were looking for. Plus I grabbed pizza for dinner, since I was starving, but maybe I won't share that with you guys anymore."

"What? Why not?" Mikey shouted into the phone, clearly Donnie had put her on speaker phone.

"Because to be perfectly honest, you're being real jerks right now." She hung up on them, and Leo and Donnie shared a guilty glance, while Mikey was practically sobbing on Aprils Shoulder.

"This is Raph we're talking about here though." Donnie said trying to ease his conscience.

"Yeah, but she does always call him out when he's being a jerk too." Leo said, "Maybe we did take it a little too far."

"Do you really think she won't share the Pizza?" Mikey asked.

"No, but we'll probably have to apologize before we'll get it." April said and patted Mikey on the shell.

Holly arrived to the lab irritable to say the least. She had been working her butt off pulling parts from old motorcycles and cars, she was dirty and hungry, and now she was having to call the others out on their bullshit. She had known they were going to give Raph a hard time about her slip up, but they had instead chosen not to tell him at all and laugh at him behind his back. She slid down out of the drivers seat of the van and sighed heavily to herself. She walked around to the back door and opened it up. Donnie and April walked through the door from the main lair to help her out.
"Hey." April said guiltily. "We're here to help you with all of this." She gestured at the pile of parts in the van.

"Why didn't you just tell him after an hour?" Holly asked without any false civilities.

"Because its Raph," Donnie tried to defend their actions, "and it seemed funnier at the time."

"We're sorry." April jumped in before Donnie could say anything more damming.

"It's not me you need to apologize to." Holly said, and grabbed the stack of Pizza boxes out of the van, she gave them both a disappointed look as she walked past them out into the lair. "Where is he?" Holly asked Leo and Mikey who were sat in the living area.

"In his room." Leo said, and he had the decency to look ashamed.

"Is that pizza for everyone?" Mikey asked.

"We'll see." She replied and walked straight over to Raphs' room. She opened the door without knocking and stepped out of their sight.

Mikey and Leo shared a look, and both of them ran into the lab to find out if Holly had said anything more to either of the others.
"Hey, I brought pizza, but I figured I'd let you decide if the others deserve it." Holly said and set the boxes down on his drum stool.
"They've been acting annoying all day." Raph said grumpily from his bed.

"Its because I told Leo and April to tell you that I loved you." Holly folded her arms across her chest and looked at a spot on his wall, just over his head.

"That's what this has all been about?" He stood up, anger reignited more for Holly's sake than his own.

"Yeah," Holly said wearily.

"I already knew that." Raph said irritably.

"I know, you'd think they would get over it already." Holly shook her head.

"Are you mad at them?" Raph asked, heartily amused.

"Of course I am. Aren't you?" She replied.

"Yeah, but I always am." He looked positively thrilled.

"I don't get why they need to be so relentless? I don't care if they want to mock us openly, then we can fight back." She was getting animated now, "But laughing behind our backs is just rude."

"They are rude." Raph agreed.

"They just being jerks. Unnecessary jerks."

"Big Jerks." Raph almost laughed.

Holly narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"One hundred percent." Raph admitted to her.

Holly blinked at him a few times before she cracked a begrudging smile. "What do you mean 'one hundred percent'?"

"It's nice to see you so feisty." He said, and one of his brows involuntarily twitched.

"'Feisty'" She laughed at his description of her.

"Yeah, It's what I like best about you. You don't take any crap from anyone, especially me." Raph held her gaze.

"I could always let Leo be your verbal sparring partner again? Although I suspect you enjoy arguing with me much more." She said and the corner of her mouth twisted as she suppressed a smile.

"There's other things I enjoy doing with you too." He said without thinking.

Holly laughed heartily at his unintentionally seductive comment, and Raph let out a chuckle after a brief pause as he realized why she was laughing at him.

"So, are we going to share the Pizza with them, or not?" She finally asked him raising her voice just enough that someone would hear her.

"That depends on what kinds you got." He began opening the boxes to find out what she had brought.

"All your guys favorites. Sausage and Jelly beans for Mikey, Tuna PB and J for you, Pepperoni and marshmallows for Donnie, anchovies and hot fudge for Leo." She shouted through the door so that the others knew what they were missing.

"NOOO!" They heard Mikey cry out from the other side of the door.

"I don't know how we're going to eat them all on our own." Raph yelled, and he and Holly began to laugh.

"How long do you think we should make them wait?" Holly asked in a hushed voice.

"Lets give it twenty minutes, just enough for it to go cold." Raph grabbed a slice and threw himself on his bed. He indicated that she should join him.

"I'm not going to sit in your bed, I'm filthy." She protested.

"Suit yourself." He said.

Holly shook her head, and moved the boxes of Pizzas off of the stool and onto the floor. Holly had brought one normal pizza for herself and April so she cracked it open and devoured three slices in quick succession. Raph stared at her as she ate.
"What?" She asked him around a mouthful.

"I don't think I've ever seen you stuff your face like that." He chuckled.

"Hey. I worked really hard today and this is the first thing I've eaten." She selected one more slice of pizza and took a bite out of it determinedly.

"No, its a good look for you." He smirked.

"Har har." She responded lamely.

"I think I see a little muscle definition coming in on your arms from all that work you've been doing." He said.

She flexed for him jokingly, and he let out a bark of laughter. "That's because I'm coming for your 'tough guy' title."

"Oh really, and what do you plan on doing with it?"

"You'll be the first to find out." She cocked on eyebrow at him and gave him a naughty smile.

"Should we knock on his door?" April asked tentatively as she and the others huddled on the couches together. The sounds of laughter had been drifting out of Raphs room, and they had heard Holly intentionally yelling out the pizzas she had brought over to make Mikey regret his part in the teasing.

"To be fair, she's probably pretty mad at us too." Donnie said.

"Why? You guys we're only teasing Raph." April said defensively.

"But we used her to do it." Leo realized, and felt thoroughly ashamed of himself. "She told us something personal and we used it against both of them."
"Oh man, I feel terrible. No wonder she's mad." Donnie agreed.

"I promise, I'll never make fun of Raph again if I can just have that Pizza." Mikey was practically sobbing on the floor.

"I didn't think about how it might make her feel. Am I a terrible friend?" April asked.

"Of course not!" Donnie immediately jumped in.

"Nobody's perfect." Holly said from across the room. Both she and Raph were stood just outside his door. "We all have moments we're not proud of."

"I'm so sorry." April said, this time really meaning it, she hopped up and ran over to her friend.

"Wait, I'm covered in grease." Holly tried to protest, but April grabbed her anyway.

"We're really sorry, to both of you." Leo said. "We didn't think we were doing any harm, but we were wrong." He looked at both of them, Holly looked appreciative of his apology, while Raph looked as unaffected as always.

"I can appreciate a joke when I can be a part of it. I don't care if you make fun of me, so long as we can all laugh together." Holly said with a little sigh, she felt her throat tighten slightly with emotion.

"We didn't mean to make you feel like we were laughing at you." Donnie said.

"Thank you." Holly said and sniffed. April gave her another squeeze.

"I'm sorry too!" Mikey said and shuffled on his knees over to them. He grabbed Holly around her waist and smushed his face into her side. "I'll never make fun of either of you again."
"You don't need to make that promise," Holly reassured him and dropped down to give him a proper hug. "Besides, you'll never keep it."

"Where's my apology?" Raph protested.

"We're sorry Raph." Leo said knowing full well his brother was just milking the situation.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." Donnie said.

Mikey turned to his brother with big wobbly eyes.

"Oh no, stay away from me." Raph shouted at Mikey.

"RAPH!" Mikey yelled and lunged. "I'M SORRY." They both toppled over, Mikey clinging to Raph, wailing the whole time.

"Gees, its OK, just get off me already." Raph tried to push Mikey off by his face, but just ended up covered in tears and boogers.

"You wanted an apology." Holly shrugged. "This is what you get."

Raph wiped his hand on Mikeys arm. "Gross."

"Do you want the pizza now?" Holly asked Mikey.

"Uh-huh." Mikey sniffed.

After the others ate their cold pizza, and Holly had taken her time to get cleaned up and changed. The group sat around the living area with a huge map of New York in front of them. Donnie had found some large sheets of paper and had meticulously drawn out all of Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn.
"I didn't get a chance to draw up Staten Island yet, and I suppose we should consider that the Foot could be hiding out in Jersey City too." Donnie said apologetically.

"What are you talking about? This is fantastic." April said, admiring all the details he had added.

"I have labeled some of the more important buildings already." Donnie pointed out. "Here's TCRI, and here's the tower the Foot were using as a base of operations until recently.

"The military base and recycling center are out here, and here I marked the entrance from the river over here too." He pointed out all of these areas on the map. Everything was color coordinated and all the important landmarks were highlighted.

"Alright, I think the most logical place to start is by the Base, we know the Krang are there, and we have seen Dog Pound and other Foot members there. Hopefully, we might be able to follow someone from there to find out where Shredder and the Foot are hiding out."

"I am still going to see whats going on with Stockmans apartment. Hopefully his stuff is still there, or I can find out where it was taken if he was evicted." Holly said.

"Let me know if you find it, I should add your building to the map since that was Stockman's last known home." Donnie said.

"Is he even still a threat? We haven't heard anything from him or those Purple Dragon morons for a while now." Raph asked.

"The last time we saw him he was working for Dog Pound, and his last round of Mousers were made with Krang tech. He should absolutely still be considered a threat." Donnie said, and Holly nodded along with his explanation.

"Alright, I was just asking." Raph rolled his eyes.

"How are we going to deal with actual surveillance? April and I can help, but we still have to go to school, and we will need to sleep at some point." Holly asked.

"I haven't completely figured all that out yet." Leo scratched his chin, "Donnie, do you have anything we can use?"

"I should be able to get us access to the city traffic cameras. I can link it to the Shell-Raisers monitors while we're out at night too."

"Where are we all going tonight?" April asked cheerily.

The others all shared a concerned look, Holly shook her head. She was not going to be the one to bring up the subject of Kirby this time.

"Don't you want to check in on your dad?" Donnie asked tentatively.

"Of course, I figured we would do that on the way to somewhere." April lied.

Holly's lips tightened as she forced herself not to react.

Holly and Raphael departed the lair for Stockman's place as soon as the sun went down. They left in Holly's van while the others took the Shell-Raiser and headed out to the military base. Leonardo did swing into April neighborhood first though, since she had claimed to want to see how her dad was.
"Just park in the alley, I'll only be a few minutes." April said and dropped onto the sidewalk.

She ran up the stairs to the apartment and announced herself as she opened the door.

"April, nice of you to come home." Carol said disapprovingly from the kitchen.

"I was with Holly." April said innocently, "Her mom is out of town again."

"That poor girl," Carol shook her head, "but you could at least let us know if you're not coming back. Your father tried to go out and look for you, but I told him that you did sometimes just stay with Holly."

"I'm sorry," April decided to try telling the truth for a change, "To be honest, I've been a little overwhelmed with dad being back. He's so petrified that it feels like he's pulling me down into his panic."
Carol turned and wrapped her niece in a hug, "I know. You've become much more independent in the time he was gone, and he has experienced an immense amount of trauma."

"Holly said we should get him some therapy." April said.

"I think she might be right," Carol replied absently, a frown crossing her brow. "Anyway, dinner is ready, and I did make enough for all of us, just in case you turned back up."
"I can't stay," April said, and quickly added, "I told Holly I would help her with her homework."

"So you thought you'd pop home for thirty seconds, then leave again? I don't think so." Carol said, and marched her nice to the table. "Holly will be fine for a couple of hours."
"But..." April tried.

"No, I'm sorry, but you need to be here for your father." Carol stood over her menacingly.

April pouted and pulled up Donnies number while Carol walked over to her bedroom door to get Kirby, "I need to make a quick call then."

"How much longer are we going to have to wait?" Leo asked Donnie, impatiently. April had gone into her home twenty minutes ago and they were still waiting for her.
"She said she'd be back?" Donnie shrugged. A few moments of silence passed before Donnie's phone rang. "April?"

"Hey, my aunt is holding me hostage until dad gets to see me. You'll have to go without me for now." April sounded annoyed.

"Your dad probably wants to see you." Donnie tried to be diplomatic.

"He probably wants to tell me when we're leaving for the farm, tonight." April hissed at him and hung up.

Donnie let out a sigh, and placed his phone back in his pouch.
"Trouble in paradise?" Mikey asked.

"Lets just go." Donnie said, and Leo pulled the Shell-Raiser back onto the street.

"April, where have you been?" Kirby asked as he shuffled into the kitchen. "Carol says I keep missing you."
April glanced at her aunt, who kept her head bent over the pot on the stove. "Yeah, I've been hanging out with Holly while her mom's out of town."

"Good, I'm glad you can keep her company." Kirby said and a small smile played over his face.

"Yeah, I guess." April wasn't sure what else she should say.

They all sat in silence for a few minutes while Carol passed around the food. The sound of cutlery on plates and the gently ticking of the clock on the wall stretched on far longer than April was comfortable with and eventually she couldn't take it anymore.

"So, um..." She started.
"Carol, could you please excuse us for a moment." Kirby asked his sister and pushed away from the table.
"No you stay, I'll go eat in the office." Carol stood and took her plate through to the other side of the apartment.

"She doesn't know about the others, does she?" Kirby asked his daughter in a hushed voice.

"No, even after the Technodrome, she still doesn't really believe me that there are aliens in the city."

"That's probably for the best." Kirby sat and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I know you've been avoiding me."

"What? Don't be ridiculous." April tried her best to sound affronted, but her father just raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh fine."

"Look, I am not going to pretend that I don't still want to leave the city, but I do understand that you have been pretty much self sufficient while I was gone." Kirby sighed heavily, he looked tired and thin. "But we are still not safe."

"I know dad, but we aren't going to be any safer at the farm." April said calmly. "The Turtles are doing everything they can to stop the Krang for good."
"The Turtles." Kirby nodded, "I still can't quite wrap my head around that one."

"Dad, they're my friends. They have done nothing but try to help since I met them." April sat forward in her chair.

"You and Holly, you both are in on it all, aren't you?"

"Yes," April admitted, "and so is Holly's mom. Do you remember? She knows all about them too."

"I had forgotten you mentioned that." Kirby rubbed his chin. "And she doesn't mind her daughter hanging out with them?"

"No, because she took the time to get to know them." April said bluntly. She crossed her arms across her chest and scowled at the table.

Kirby was taken aback by her harsh tone, but he had to concede the point to his daughter. "Alright. When is Holly's mom back in town?"

"I'm not sure, soon I think." April replied, hope gripped her stomach.

Kirby's brown was wrinkled with thought. "Would you ask Holly, and her Mother, if they minded me talking with them, when they're available?"

"Of course." April said.

"I think a conversation with them will be beneficial for me."

"What about therapy?" April asked after a brief pause.

"You want to go to therapy?" Kirby asked.
"No, I mean for you." April corrected him. "You obviously wouldn't be able to talk about everything, but it might help you with your anxiety."
"I don't think..." Kirby started, but then actually thought about it. "Perhaps it would be wise to talk to someone."

April smiled, Kirby almost sounded like himself again.

Leonardo and Donatello had barely spoken since they dropped April off. Mikey had been humming to himself as they drove out to the base, but that was pretty normal behavior for their youngest brother. They arrived in the Bronx, and had set up surveillance on a roof top a couple of blocks away to get a better view of the surrounding area.

Donnie had a beat up old laptop open on his knees, he was tapping away furiously trying to gain access to the areas traffic cameras. Mikey was perfectly happy flying one the drone around in great sweeping circles of the area to see if there was anything interesting going on.

"Have either of you seen anything yet?" Leo asked after an hour of watching the street.

"I saw found a kitty, it was so cute." Mikey said happily. "Then I saw some people on the golf course."
"I meant as far as the Foot clan go?" Leo clarified.
"Oh, then no." Mikey responded, he had burnt through all the batteries that they had brought, so now he had nothing to do.

"What about you Donnie? Any Luck?"

"I got connected to the cameras, but there hasn't been any movement around the area."

"I figured we weren't going to find anything right away, we'll just have to be patient." Leo sighed and went back to looking through a set of binoculars.

Donnie immediately reopened the chat window he had minimized and began typing again. He had been messaging with Holly, trying to get her thoughts on Aprils odd behavior the last couple of days. She had only been responding with short answers, but he supposed that was because she and Raphael were also working on getting into Baxter Stockmans apartment.

He typed out a quick message, Do you think she's behaving weird?

Holly didn't respond immediately, so Donnie flipped between a couple of the cameras to pass the time.

Of course she has. She just got her dad back and he's going though a lot. Was her response.

Aren't you worried about her? He pressed.

Again he had to wait. Not at this exact minute.

He frowned at her message. Either they had found something, or she and Raph were slacking off and abusing their solo mission time for other activities. A wave of jealousy passed over him, but he regained control of himself quickly. Did you guys find anything?

We're still working on it. Holly replied.

Donnie sighed and went back to watching the cameras.

Holly also sighed as she sent Donatello another message, but hers was in frustration that he was texting her about April. The two of them had only just gotten back on each others good side and she really didn't want to get involved if April and Donnie were now fighting.
April just needed a little space, she and her family were readjusting to having Kirby home.
"You alright?" Raph said as he and Holly made their way to the storage facility that Holly's building had moved all of Stockmans stuff to.
Bud had been so thrilled to see Holly that he had kept her talking for much longer than she had hoped for. But he was such a nice man that Holly hadn't wanted to hurt his feelings.

"Yeah, its fine." Holly turned off the sound to her phone and stuffed it back in her pocket. "You wouldn't want to be involved anyway."

He scowled at her, "What makes you think that?"
"Donnie is freaking out because April was short with him." Holly said with a sarcastic grin.

"Oh, yeah you're right, that I don't care about."
"I thought so." Holly rolled her eyes. "I think this is the place."
They had arrived at a warehouse where the property management company that owned Holly's building had supposedly taken all of Stockmans possessions. According to Bud, they had removed everything the previous month as Baxter had stopped paying his rent. Holly and Raph we're hoping that it was still being stored, and that no one had come to claim any of it. By law the property company had to keep it all safe and secure for one year, but they had no way of knowing if it had already been picked up or not.

"This place is a dump." Raph said as they peered through a skylight.

"It does make me wonder what they're using all the rent money they get for." Holly agreed. Just as Raph was going to pry open the window, she held her arm out to stop him. "Wait. There's a sensor on this." She pointed at a little box that sat just inside the sill.

"Then how are we going to get in?" Raph asked impatiently.

Holly looked around, "Unless you have a magnet on you, we'll need to find another way."
They both stood and began looking for an alternative entrance. Being five stories up, Holly let Raph climb down to check some lower windows that may be promising. Raph secured his grappling hook to the ledge and hopped down over the side of the building.

"You sure you don't want to do this?" He looked back up at her and gave her his most obnoxious smug grin.
"What, and take all the fun for myself?" She replied sarcastically.

He rappelled down to the window, Holly watching him go the whole way.
"Do you see a little box?" She asked him.

"No, but there is one slight problem." He said and easily popped the window open with one of his sai.

"What?"

"I won't fit."

Holly blinked down at him, "What do you mean, you 'won't fit'?"

"I mean that I am bigger than this window." He shot her another smug grin, "You on the other hand, probably can make it through."

"I'm sorry, you want me to climb down there?" Holly said incredulously.

"You can either climb down to me, where I can help you. Or, you can do it alone." He grinned up at her.

"Will this hold both of us?" She pointed at the rope.

"It has before."
"Oh god." Holly took a step back from the ledge and wiped her hands on her jeans. "Alright, I'm coming down."

She hoisted herself carefully over the ledge and started climbing down the rope, muttering the whole time about her sanity.
"You talk to yourself a lot, you know that?" He said as she got closer.

"And yet, its still some of the best conversation I get." She shot back at him. "Where do I need to be?"

Raph was grinning uncontrollably, "Keep coming, you're going to have to use me as a step to actually get in there."
She tried to see around herself at the situation. The hinges of the window were on the top of the pane, so she was going to have to slide underneath the glass to gain access to the building. Raphael was going to have to hold the window open and hold both their weight away from the building so she could climb in.
"OK, I'll have to shimmy all the way down so we're almost level." She said.

"I know." Raph said. He braced his feet against the rough brick of the building and wrapped the rope around one arm so he could help Holly.

She tried not to step on him as she went, although she soon realized that he may have planned it out this way. His hand ran up her leg as she lowered herself down to him, and continued over her hip and up her back. Raph wrapped his arm around her waist once she was level with him to give her arms a break.

"See? Was that so hard?" He said.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself a little too much here." Holly narrowed her eyes at him.
"And what if I am?" He shrugged at her.
"We can play later, when we're not thirty feet in the air." She said, and returned her attention to the window. "Help me put the rest of the rope through the window so I have something to climb down with on the other side."

Raph quickly wound part of the rope around his leg so that it would not put all of Holly's weight on the window forcing it closed. "Are you ready?" He shifted her so she was almost sitting in his lap as he pried open the window again. "Go feet first."
Holly nodded, she swung her legs up under the glass and shimmied herself through until all her legs were through. She then twisted herself over so she could use her feet to help grip the rope and guide her further down.
"OK, I think I got this," She said, and carefully lowered herself through the opening. "See you in a minute."

After a few minutes, Raph felt Holly drop off the rope. He unwound his leg, and peeked through the window to see if he could see what she was doing. The interior was dark, but he could see a shadow moving along the floor.
"Psst, down here." Holly's voice floated up to him, and he saw her standing at an open emergency exit below him.

He clambered down and landed next to her, "Nice work."

"Thank you." She gave him a little bow, and he shoved her playfully as he walked past her through the door. "Hey." But she laughed and followed him into the building.

"So where do we start?" Raphael asked her as they saw how packed full of crap the warehouse was.

The following weeks passed in much the same manner. The teens spent most nights watching the base of searching through the storage facility for any indication of the Foot, or the Krang. April and Holly helped to watch the traffic cameras while they were at school, and did go out after dark if they could. They did have a few sightings of Krang droids leaving and arriving at the base and recycling facility, but they often just ended up back at the TCRI tower which was already back under construction.

Kirby had regained some of his emotional strength. He had begun to sleep on a more typical schedule, and had begun talking with a therapist to deal with the emotional trauma of being captive for a year, and soon after began looking for a job.

Stacey had returned from her trip and would invite the turtles over for meals in the evenings before they went out to search the city, so they could tell her anything that they found, and so she could make sure they were being well fed. Michelangelo was particularly thrilled with this arrangement, and would often get any leftovers in a bag to eat later in the evening once he was sufficiently bored of whatever job he was supposed to be doing.

Leonardo was trying to keep everyone motivated but even Holly was getting burnt out of not finding anything.

"Come on you guys. You didn't think it was going to be easy, did you?" Leo was saying to the group one evening they were all hanging out in the lair.

"We haven't seen anything though. Not at the base, not at Bradford's Gym, and not at the storage facility." Raph snapped back.

"No, but the Foot at least is a professional criminal organization. It isn't surprising that they have resources to remain hidden." Leo said.

"Where else could they be that we haven't checked yet?" April asked, trying to turn this pending argument into something productive. "Unless they have left the city all together?"

"I doubt they would leave completely. Even if The Shredder himself is gone, he would leave a presence here to make sure the Krang kept up their end of the bargain."

"Good point." April conceded.

"Its still unusual that the Krang have been so quiet though?" Holly chimed in. "Why have they suddenly stopped trying to break down your door?" She looked at April, but was asking the group as a whole.

"Maybe they're still recovering after we destroyed TCRI?" Mikey said, "We did trash a whole butt-load of their mutagen."

"It's possible." Leo agreed.

"Perhaps you should all use this time to rest, you have been working hard and no doubt something catastrophic will happen any day now." Splinter said from the kitchen.

"We can't take a day off." Leo's voice broke as he protested. "Knowing our luck, the one day we do take off, is the day the Foot shows back up."

"Please, Leo?" Mikey asked, "I don't want to sit on a cold roof tonight."

"The meteorologists did say tonight was going to finally push below freezing." Holly offered, She didn't really want to spend another night out in the cold either.

"Absolutely not!" Leo said. "We're going, and that's final."

Leonardo found himself alone on the rooftops. Once April and Raph had started arguing that they didn't want to go out. Mikey had joined in, and dragged Donnie in to side with them. Holly had given him an apologetic grimace when he had tried to appeal to her, so he had left feeling thoroughly betrayed. When he was finally out thought, the icy wind crept under his skin and left him regretting his decision to come top side.

He had decided to stay closer to home today, deciding to go and check out the Krangs progress on the TCRI tower, rather than make the long drive out to The Bronx alone.

"You're surprisingly difficulty to track down." A female voice said from behind him.

Leo started and spun around, drawing his swords as he went.
"Who's there?" Leo said into the shadows.

"Don't worry. If I'd wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead." A young woman stepped out from under one of the cities many bill boards. She was dressed in protective armor and bore the colors of the Foot clan.

"Thank you, I guess." Leo stammered slightly, but did not lower his weapons.

"What can you tell me about them?" She indicated at the building across from them.

"Shouldn't I ask you that? You're the one's working with them." Leo said.

The girl narrowed her eyes, "How do you know that?"

"I have my ways." Leo said, trying desperately to sound cool.

She looked him up and down slowly. "You're certainly more resourceful than The Shredder realizes."

"Well, that's how I would prefer to keep it." Leo said carefully.

"Is that a threat?" The girl asked hotly, and she adjusted her posture ever so slightly.

"Not necessarily. But if it comes down to my families safety, then yes." Leo said.

"We'll then lets see why everyone is so scared of you." She drew a short sword from her back and lunged at him.

Leonardo was shocked that this girl was brash enough to announce her intent, he was immediately reminded of his brother. She slashed with her blade, but he ducked and rolled out of the way, only to have to block another slash aimed at his face as soon as he turned around. He pushed her away, but she used this momentum to swing her foot around and drive it hard into his plastron, sending him skidding across the rooftop.

He sprang back up to his feet just in time for him to react to her charging him again. He hopped backwards as she swung a leg out, trying to trip him up again. "I see we're not pulling our punches."

"Whats the point in fighting if its not to win?" She responded tartly.

"Now you even sound like Raph." He said, mostly to himself.

She rushed at him again, but this time he was better prepared. They crashed into each other, blades clattering against one another as they swung back and fourth.

Almost as quickly as it had all started, the girl stood back up and sheathed her weapon. "Not bad, I see why Bradford is constantly failing."

Leo stood blinking at her. "Who are you?" He finally asked her.
"Someone who's not completely blinded by my own vendettas." She said. "Shredder is willing to throw in with those weirdo's just to get to you. But I don't trust them at all." She was looking at the TCRI building again. "You and your brothers seem to know more about them than he does, so I figured I would at least talk to you."

"And Shredder is OK with this?" Leo asked her skeptically.

"Not at all, He told me to to engage you at all until he got back." the girl said.

"Got back? So he's gone for now?" Leo's brain was spinning.

"Call that a peace offering." She replied, and turned to walk away. "I'll see you again."

Leonardo was reeling, whoever this girl was, had just given him incredibly important information about her boss. "Wait! What's your name?"

But she was gone.

He stood dumbfounded on the rooftop for a while, trying to take in what had just happened. Once his brain had caught up with with its self, he raced back home as soon as he could.