Along Came Some Turtles

by The Legendary Dragon Reaper

Post Spectacular Spider Man season 2. Peter's life is more or less falling apart at the seems, but meeting some new friends, who just so happen to be mutant turtles armed with ninja weapons, might just be what he needs to turn things around. And a good thing too, given the new threats that are lurking in the shadows. Crossover/ continuation of Spectacular Spider man with TMNT 2012.

20. Villain's Vendetta, Hero's Resolve

(Villain's Vendetta, Hero's Resolve)

Spectacular Webhead 11: Yep, I had a feeling I was going to make a lot of people happy with that one. The fight between Shredder and Daredevil was something I definitely enjoyed doing for this one. Yep, along with knowing Spider-Man's identity, Karai met April a bit earlier than she did in canon, so you'll see how that pans out here.

Gamelover41592: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. I think it's safe to say this one was pretty drama heavy, but it was kind of unavoidable. Gwen and Harry breaking up was inevitable too, so you'll see how that pans out soon enough. But yeah, there are a fair bit of consequences going around from recent events. I did consider having Peter and the Turtles be separated for awhile, but given what's coming for them, I don't think they can afford to let their squabbles get in the way of getting the job done. Overall, I'm glad to see you enjoyed it.

Dimasmagin4: The anime openings are just for fun. I don't think they're that big of a deal.

Moheart7: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. A lot of tension can do that to characters.

Guest: Oh trust me, I'm not going to object when you say that. Harry totally brought this on himself, but his father did influence him a lot, so keep that in mind. Plus I'm not one of those guys who just wants to write him off as rotten to the core. That would be too easy. His arc is just getting started.

Althea Sirius: Yeah, that was a bit of a downer with the ending, but considering what direction it was heading, I figured it was unavoidable. I will be addressing his actions and Karai's response this chapter, so wait and see how that pans out.

Guest: Yeah believe me, that sort of situation has to be handled carefully. It also played a good part in why Peter made the decision that he did. We'll see how it plays out now.

EDsonic: Yeah I know they had planned for Spider-Man to get a Spider-Mobile, but I thought that the Spider Cycle would probably work better for him. As for Spider Communicators, I more or less covered that when I gave him the Spider Cell.

Guest: Oh believe me, I've been thinking a lot about that. Granted I think it's too soon for this story, but he'll get some upgrades in due time.

TheIrishMan1999: Yeah, this was a difficult decision for Peter to make. Shredder is a horrible human being without a doubt, but Peter couldn't bring himself to go behind Karai's back after he made a deal with her. I didn't really have much of a problem with Karai's redemption arc, but I can see why you'd be upset. Don't worry, I'm going to do my best with her. You're right though, there are plenty of people who would agree that Peter did the right thing, even if it did strain his relationship with the Turtles. Aunt May advising Karai would be a good idea, and I've got a few ideas for how to incorporate that, but it will be awhile. But yeah, Raphael is more or less on his own in regards to being mad at Peter over his decision, but it will take him a while to swallow his pride and let it go.

Pikachu345: I figured it only made sense for Daredevil to mention his history with the Punisher at some point, and what better way than to stop someone else from going down that path. But yeah, if I could see any of the Turtles taking an interest in the Punisher, it would be Raph. They did mention his whole Nightwatcher thing once, so I'll see if I can make that work.

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The incident at the docks had yielded… unexpected results.

"Answer me creature." Shredder held up the captured Kraang in one hand, unflinching at its screeching and flailing "Why were you hunting the Turtles?"

"You're not gonna get much out of it like that." Karai gestured to the damaged Kraangdroid lying next to her on the floor "These things don't talk much outside of their little houses."

"Very well." so Shredder forced the Kraang into the droid body "Answer me creature."

There was a pause as the Kraang took control of the droid and activated it, and only then did it finally speak "K-Kraang is lacking the knowledge to answer the questions that the one known as Shredder is asking of Kraang."

"...Do they all speak like this?"

"As far as I can tell." Karai gave a shrug "It's a pain, trust me I know. Kind of fun to screw with them though."

"Even if Kraang is possessing the knowledge, the one known as Shredder will never be getting that knowledge from Kraang."

"And there's also that. You didn't have any other plans for today did you?"

"I believe a change of tactics would be appropriate here."

"You're going for the blades? Didn't they get broken by Daredevil?" Karai received her answer in the form of Shredder holding out a hand to her, to which she gave him her tanto "Asked and answered."

"Now then…" Shredder held the blade directly over the Kraang's face, scaring it into silence for a moment "Answer my question. Why were you hunting the Turtles?"

"...The ones known as the Turtles and the one known as Spider-Man are protecting that which is known as the lifeform that is needed by Kraang. The one that is known as April O'Neil."

"And who is this April O'Neil?"

"She is the one known as the one. She is known as the link which is missing in the plan which is the plan of Kraang."

"I see."

'April O'Neil huh?' Karai frowned in thought for a moment, until it dawned on her 'That's the redhead Parker was with the other day. So she has ties to the Turtles too. Not gonna lie, didn't see that coming. So this April O'Neil is at the center of everything."

"Then perhaps we can use her to draw the Turtles out of hiding. Karai, I want you to find this girl and bring her to me."

"...Understood father. I'll gather whatever information I can and then go track the girl down myself." Karai bowed to him and took her leave of the room 'Sorry Parker. I may not be using your identity as leverage against you, but the Foot is still at war with the Turtles, and you being involved isn't going to change that.'

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(the scene opens up to Peter Parker as Spiderman standing on top of one of the buildings in New York. The scene shifts to the same scene as before but now it shows the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo standing next to Spiderman. Spiderman turns to the audience as he raises his right arm before he shoots out his web from his wrist towards another direction off-screen and begins to web-sling as the TMNT begin to follow him as the title of the fanfic: Along Came Some Turtles appeared.)

Whoa Whoa Whoa...

(The next scene shows Peter Parker standing alone on top of a building, but then he looks back to see the Turtles standing behind him, and he smiles. The scene then transitions to the five of them spending time with their friends and family, all of them having a good time with each other)

Daijoubu ore ga nanman kai mo sakende yaru

Kimi no ashita ga subete kagayaite iru to shinjiteru

(The next scene shows a past events involving Spiderman's origins (getting bitten by the spider and losing his Uncle Ben) and the TMNT origins (them and Splinter getting mutated, along with flashes of their training to become ninjas) as well with all the important details for each one shown and how they come to be who they are now.)

Yume wo kanaete subete no hito ni kasanariau kyoutsuuten

Akirame nakattatte koto soredake sa maken nayo

(The next scene shows the rooftops of New York city as Spiderman and the TMNT were having a stand off towards the Foot Clan ninjas and mutants. They all stood there in silence as the heroes charged forwards to face their foes)

Mukaikaze ni nagasare kujike sou na toki wa

Kono te nigire TRY TO TAKE A CHANCE mou

Kimi wa hitori nanka ja naize?

(the next scene shows the villains Spiderman and the TMNT have dealt with over the years as the Shredder takes the top of this pyramid of villains.)

Motto motto mae e mae e kimi no ashita yume akiramenaide (Whoa Whoa Whoa)

Sou naite nai de susume MY WAY ima (Whoa Whoa Whoa)

Kimi o terashiten da hikari (Whoa Whoa Whoa)

Akirame nanka zenbu sutete tsuyosa to hikikae ni mata kizutsuite (Whoa Whoa Whoa)

(The next scene shows the heroes fighting their respective villains with Spiderman handling The Rhino, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and Venom while the TMNT dealing with Stockman-Fly, Bebop, Rocksteady, Tiger Claw, and the Shredder.)

Demo kimi no massugu na hitomi ni wa

Ima mieru daro hikari

(The next scene shows the heroes looking battered and defeated but they begin to rise back up as Raphael stood up with a roar as Spiderman shot some webbing towards the screen.)

Whoa Whoa Whoa...

(The final scene shows a still image of Spider Man and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ready to face off against their villains once again)

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Another day came, and the sun was shining brightly over the skies above New York City, though the mood was rather somber. At least for one that is.

'And here I thought things were going my way for once.' Peter found himself brooding as he made his way down the sidewalk, staring at his Spider Cell in his hand 'It's been a few days since everything that happened at the Docks, and I haven't talked to the Turtles once since then. They haven't reached out to me either, not that I can really blame them all things considered. I know I couldn't let them kill Shredder, not with Karai knowing my identity and being able to target all of the people I care about… But I did kind of betray them now that I think about it. This whole feud with the Foot Clan is about them, not me. I just kind of got caught in the middle of it. Now for all I know, the next fight with Shredder could lead to people getting hurt, or worse. I couldn't let them do it, I know that… but I still feel crappy about it. But what do I-' he was cut off when he suddenly ran into something, or someone I should say.

"Hey watch where you're going you little-" the figure, actually Flash, whipped around with a fist aimed, only to stop when he noticed it was Peter "Oh, it's just you Pu- Parker."

'I thought that wall of meat felt kind of familiar. Perfect, just freaking perfect. Look Flash I'm not in the mood for the whole "locker knocker" thing right now, okay?"

"What makes you think I'm gonna-" Flash cut himself short when he noticed the dry look Peter was giving him, and he let out a groan "Fine, fair point, but believe it or not I really wasn't going to do anything."

"You're right, I don't believe that. Wasn't I your favorite punching bag or something?"

"You really think-"

"We just went over this."

"Fine, fine. Look I know you and Hobie are kind of friends these days, and I figured that if he's cool with you, I should try to be too." the look Peter was giving him persisted "And I might have promised Sha Shan that I'd back off from the smaller, weaker, nerdier, scrawnier guys around the school. Like you."

"Doing it for the girl, that makes more sense. At least it's one migraine I won't have to deal with today.' Peter breathed a small sigh, then looked down to see what Flash was holding: a plastic box with a flower inside of it "What's up with the corsage?"

"This thing? Getting ready to take Sha-Shan to the Fall Formal."

"That again? Wait, isn't it like months from now?"

"It's in a week and a half."

"...Oh god, seriously?

"Let me guess, no date again?" Flash suddenly gave a smirk "So you up for putting on a bet, same stakes as last year?"

"You mean the loser dressing up as a cheerleader for Halloween? Yeah you know what, I think I'm gonna pass on that."

"What, afraid to go through with it?"

"More like mortified at the thought of seeing you in a mini skirt again. If anything that was just torture for me." Peter breathed a sigh as he slumped down onto a nearby bench "Besides, prep for the dance has been the absolute last thing on my mind. Especially given all the crap I've had going on."

"...You know even if I wanted to screw with you, the fact that you're not even fighting back makes it a lot less fun." Flash sat down next to him "Start talking Parker, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Well because you asked so nicely…" Peter paused, then let out a long sigh "Fine, here's the short version. I don't know if you've heard but I kind of made a few new friends over summer vacation."

"Dude everybody knows, there are even a bunch of people who think you're in a cult."

"Seriously? You know what, gonna put a pin in that one for later. Anyway, I had a fight with them a few days ago and now we're not on speaking terms. Well I got into a screaming match with one of them, I didn't stick around long enough for it to happen with the others."

"What about?"

"Okay to make a long story short, we got into a pretty big disagreement about something they were planning to do. On the one hand, if they went through with it then it would probably help a lot of people in the grand scheme of things. But on the other hand, doing it in the way that they were planning to was gonna mean betraying someone that was working really hard to earn our trust. It just didn't feel right, so I… kind of sabotaged it, told her what was going on. Now she hates them and for all I know they might hate me now, and I just… I don't know, I'm wondering if I made the right call."

"Doesn't sound like there was anything to think about?" Flash gave a shrug, causing Peter's gaze to snap towards him "You stood up for yourself like a real man."

"Wait, what?"

"Even if you knew your buddies were gonna be pissed at you, you did what you thought was the right thing. Frankly the way I see it, that takes some guts."

"Are you serious?"

"Totally. It's like back in February when I spilled about Osborn juicing and causing our team to get disqualified from the championship. Sure the other guys on the team were pissed as hell at me for a while, and frankly a few of them still are, but I stand by the decision. Stuff like that is pretty much pointless if you can't do it the right way."

"...Huh. Never thought you'd be the voice of reason." Peter blinked for a moment, then gave a small smile "I guess it shouldn't be that much of a surprise though, considering I'm talking to a guy that was always able to see when his friends are trying to help. Thanks for the talk."

"Just remember it's the same rule as before, don't mention it to anyone. Got it?"

"It ain't going on my resume."

"Good enough for me." Flash stood and grabbed his corsage, then turned back to Peter "You know as far as the dance goes, you got a better chance of snagging a date than you think, and I ain't just talking about Watson either."

"What are you talking about?"

"You mean you haven't heard?"

"If this is your way of trying to get in another Surfin Bird joke-"

"Do I look like a Family Guy character to you? But seriously, you haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"About the she-geek- I mean Stacy. She and Osborn broke up a few days ago."

"...Wait, seriously?!" Peter whipped around and stared at Flash with wide eyes "When the hell did that happen?"

"A few days back, Hobie told me about it. He didn't mention any details or anything, so you'd have to get the details from him or them."

"Huh. Good to know." Peter's smile widened a fair bit… but it just as quickly fell 'Yeah, that should be a good thing, but… Can it be? Thanks for the news update Flash. Listen I've gotta get going, I'll uh… see you in school." and so he took off without another word 'Gwen and Harry broke up… That means she and I can be… But can I? Should I? So many of my enemies have tried to hurt her for one reason or another, one of them actually knowing who I am. The whole thing with Karai proved to me that there's always a chance of my identity being exposed, and if it happens again, or when… I don't think I can risk it… not with Gwen…'

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Nightfall came, and one could cut through the tension in the air with a knife.

'Great, another sleepless night…' Peter found himself tossing and turning on his bed, then he took a look over at the clock on his nightstand 'Yep, pretty sure that whatever the hell is up there isn't gonna want me to get any sleep tonight. At least it gives me some time to think about everything… like the Turtles, keeping up with being Spider-Man… or Gwen.' he cast a glance over at where a picture of Gwen stood on his dresser, and his face fell 'Part of me wants to think I can have it all, or if I have to give it all up… My partnership with the Turtles is pretty much screwed, being Spider-Man is about as fun as it ever was, and Gwen… At this point she's been caught in the crossfire too many times for my liking, can I really risk a relationship with her knowing that it might put her in the line of fire all over again?' he let out a groan and buried his face in his pillow, only for his attention to be drawn by his bedroom window being flung open by a strong gust of wind, prompting him to get up and close it, though he paused as he took a glance out into the night sky "I… I don't think I can do it."

"I would advise you not to give up so easily, young one."

Peter whipped around at the sound of a new voice and found a new figure sitting in the chair at his desk "What the-"

"Please don't be alarmed." the figure, a beautiful woman with long black hair, a white blouse and long black pants, stood and held up a hand to Peter "Please don't be alarmed young one. I never meant to startle you."

"Yeah you say that, then some random woman I've never seen before pops up in my bedroom out of nowhere. I've got a few ideas of where I've seen this kind of thing before, but I'd rather not say them out loud."

"Thank you for that. But there is a reason why I appeared before you tonight Mr Parker. Or do you prefer I call you… Spider-Man?" that was enough to make Peter tense up.

"...What do you want?"

"As I said, there's a reason why I appeared before you Peter." the woman motioned for him to sit down on the bed, which went unacknowledged.

"You know who I am, but you still haven't told me who you are."

"Ah yes, perhaps I should start with that." the woman gave him a gentle smile "But as I do, I also wish to thank you for the way you've stood by my husband and his sons."

"Um… what?" Peter was left frozen in place.

"Come now, surely my Yoshi has told you about me."

"Your Yoshi?" Peter was left in a stupor for a moment, until he finally regained his voice "You mean… are you… Tang Shen?"

"That I am." the woman, now identified as Tang Shen, smiled a little bit wider as she reached a hand out to Peter, only for him to pull away "You do not need to fear me."

"Yeah sorry if I'm a little bit skeptical, but you being here when you're… you know, dead, would mean that this is either a dream or a sign that I've finally lost it."

"Neither of those are true. What you see of me now is myself, having attained a higher spiritual plane of existence." Shen took a look out the window and into the night sky "As we pass into death, we merge with the whole of life. We become one in all of nature, in all the universe. Even with those we leave behind. Especially those really."

"So… you can just appear as a ghost in front of people whenever you want?"

"Not at random. Death, like life, is very complicated. I cannot explain how it works, but I know that I can only appear when one truly needs me. That is why I came here now."

"Because of me? But I never even met you."

"No, but you are important to my husband and to his children, and therefore you are important to me as well."

"Uh huh. Assuming I believe that, I don't think it really applies to me. Not anymore at least. Not after the other night."

"Yes, I know about that all too well." Shen took one of Peter's hands in hers and squeezed it for reassurance "You should know that Yoshi, or Splinter as you know him, doesn't blame you for your decision that night, nor do any of his kappa children."

"Kappa?"

"Turtles."

"Ah. what makes you so sure?"

"Because even if I'm unable to interfere, I've been watching over them this entire time. Also, I believe Yoshi told you once that there is no right or wrong, only choices. You made the decision you thought was best, and the Kappa understand that."

"Even Raphael? The guy pretty much exploded at me for it."

"His anger remains now, but it will fade with time, and it will not take away from the fact that the five of you have a strong sense of camaraderie with you."

"Yeah not to be that guy, but I think you'll get it if I'm skeptical." Peter let out a heavy sigh as he slumped back down onto his bed "Even if it wasn't for that, I've got plenty of other stuff keeping me up at night, with or without you showing up in my bedroom."

"I take it this is the matter of your love, and your responsibility, and the way that they tie in to each other… and perhaps contradict each other?"

"That's one way of putting it." Peter glanced over at her "I have this girl, Gwen. She's been one of my closest friends for years, and… apparently she's been in love with me since then, assuming she still is. The only problem is that I didn't start realizing how I felt about her until a little less than a year ago, then I started dating someone else, she started dating someone else, and now both of us are finally free and I should be running over to her place to take her in my arms so we can make out like rabid monkeys… but I can't."

"Why not? Aside from the… unique way you phrased that."

"Because of this." he pulled out his Spider-Man mask "Ever since I became Spider-Man and a bunch of my enemies started running around, Gwen has been caught in the line of fire way too many times for my liking. There was the time with Electro, then the Lizard, then when Venom learned my secret identity and tried to kill her just to spite me. Then when she and everyone else were put in danger by the Sinister Six making a comeback, and later when she got kidnapped by the Master Planner."

"Tell me, how many of those incidents were actually due to your identity?"

"Only the one with Venom, but that doesn't make a difference. The point is that my enemies put her in danger, and if I do start dating her then that's gonna triple, I just know it. At this point, I can't help but think that the only way to make sure she stays safe is… if I stay away from her, and the two of us just go our separate ways."

"Even if only one of your enemies actually knows who you are?"

"That's as it is now, but recently someone working for the Shredder figured out who I am, and it made me realize how easily the others would be able to figure it out too. Venom did, so why not more? What makes it worse is that he used to be my friend, we were even like brothers back then, and he ends up becoming one of my worst enemies. Then there's the whole thing with Harry. He said back then that Gwen was the only thing stopping him from going back on the Green, so for all I know he could be turning himself into the next Green Goblin right now and flying here to kill me. Then me and my friend end up fighting to the death, and it ends with Gwen getting caught in the crossfire. How can I put her at risk knowing that could happen so easily?" Peter broke off from his little tirade and took a few breaths, then looked up at Shen "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go off like that."

"No need to apologize, I understand better than you believe. I also understand just what leads you to this mindset."

"You do?"

"I do." Shen pulled Peter into a tight hug "What you wish is for yourself and either of your friends to become like Yoshi and Saki, or Splinter and the Shredder as you know them. But even moreso, you wish to prevent your beloved from meeting the same fate as me."

"...When you put it like that, yeah more or less." Peter slowly freed himself from Shen's embrace as he sat back down on the bed "Honestly I've thought over the outcome of every scenario, be it giving up the mask, telling Gwen that I can't be with her, and just breaking it off with the Turtles altogether. All of these suck in one way or another and, I… I just don't know what to do."

"I understand Peter. Believe me, I do. But these situations… they are more complicated than one would see at a first glance. I would know."

"You would?"

"Absolutely." Shen sat down on the bed next to Peter "Tell me, how much did Yoshi tell you of how the feud between him and Saki began?"

"He told me about how the two of them were like brothers, then they met you, you started dating Yoshi, Saki got jealous and tried to kill him in a fit of rage, they fought to the death and you got caught in the crossfire."
"I see." Shen frowned slightly.

"What, that is how it happened isn't it?"

"That is the… short version of the story yes, but evidently Yoshi has not told you the entire tale of what led to that night. While Saki was slowly becoming consumed by his own jealousy and hatred, Yoshi had his own doubts. This was not long after Miwa that these doubts began to reach their pinnacle. I wanted to leave Japan and visit America, such as this beautiful city. Yoshi on the other hand, I felt that he was too dedicated to ninjutsu to raise a family. Looking back, I did little to help him with these doubts. I had believed firmly that ninjas had no more place in the modern world. Evidently, the presence of Yoshi's Kappa children has proven me wrong. Not long after we had an argument about this, I was confronted by Saki. of course I never doubted whatever feelings he held for me were genuine, and I cared for him a great deal as well. He offered to be there for myself and Miwa, and take us to America, give us the life that I wanted, and what I had thought to be best for her. As ashamed as I am to have doubted Yoshi, I was… contemplating his offer. But the next day, four kappa appeared before me."

"Wait, as in legit kappa?"

"Yes, bearing great resemblance to Yoshi's kappa children. I know not why they bear such great resemblance, but I could see they meant no harm, and so I chose to take them to my home and give them a kappa's favorite meal: cucumbers."

"Huh. Not what I would've guessed, but okay."

"They told me that Saki was evil, that I couldn't leave Yoshi, or else the world itself would be at stake."

"Seriously? How could they-?"

"I know very little about what they were referring to. I still thought that Yoshi was too dedicated to his clan and ninjutsu to raise a family. I knew not who I would choose, only that I wished to do what was best for my daughter. But the kappas told me to follow my heart, because I knew who the better man would be. And deep down, I knew they were right. I went to see Yoshi at the dojo that night, where we apologized and reaffirmed our love for each other." Shen gave a fond smile, but then her face fell as she continued "Unfortunately, that was when Saki revealed himself to us and challenged Yoshi to a fight to the death. At Yoshi's insistence, I took Miwa and left as they began their battle. Eventually I turned back to see the dojo engulfed in flames and beginning to collapse on itself… and so I made my choice. I placed Miwa down outside and rushed back into the dojo to help Yoshi. I managed to get inside and tried to plead with them to stop… but this was only when Saki was moving to finish Yoshi, and his blow struck me instead." she took a breath as she finished her story "That was what led to the current situation, how do people I cared for dearly became bitter enemies. But it also shows how complex these types of situations can be."

"...Wow." Peter broke the silence after a few moments passed "That… definitely puts stuff in a new light. How come Splinter never mentioned this part to me?"

"Perhaps it was out of shame, or it was too painful for him. Do not blame him for this. Of course I never considered Yoshi's dilemma to be choosing between his family or the clan, so much as to raise Miwa as part of the Hamato clan or abroad as I desired, but still."

"Look, I get why you're telling me this, because these kinds of situations are more complicated than just grudges and all that. I get it, I do, but I already knew that. Venom is made up of a guy that used to be my oldest friend until an evil alien symbiote got ahold of him, and it turned out he resented me for years even if he never showed it. Then there's Harry, assuming he does turn into a Goblin like his dad. He started taking Globulin Green because he wanted to prove himself to his dad, and now he blames me, or Spider-Man anyway, for his dad's death. Those are both pretty complex in their own right aren't they?"

"Perhaps. However, the purpose of my story was to show you that these matters are not so black and white, as many people believe. And also that those who fail to understand history shall be doomed to repeat it. Saki had his own demons that he gave into, which set him on his path full of hatred. Your friend Eddie had his own demons as well, and whatever happened between him and yourself did little more than bring them to the surface. Whether or not that happens with Harry as well remains to be seen, but that does not mean that you and they shall follow the exact same path as Yoshi and Saki, or that this Gwen will meet the same fate as me."

"Maybe, but…" Peter held his head in his hands "But even if we aren't the exact same, how do I know that Harry won't become a Goblin, or that Venom won't try to target Gwen or anyone else I care about again?"

"In all honesty, you don't know any of that for certain. However, you don't know the opposite to be true either. It can happen either way. The outcome of any event or conflict is a mystery, but I do know one thing that isn't. We get to choose our own fates, for good or ill, and what we do with that fate is up to us, not history or something else predetermined. Even though I may not be able to be with Yoshi physically, I watched over him for all of these years, and I have kept watch over you as well. You are not him Peter, and you will not repeat his history if you do not wish to do so. Of course there are similarities between you, but more than a few differences as well. He never was quite as intelligent as you have proven yourself to be. You do have his heart though, and for all of his ferocity in battle and dedication to ninjutsu, there are few people I know of that care as deeply about others as Yoshi does, except for his kappa children. And you." she reached out and cupped Peter's face with one hand, gently caressing his cheek "I've told you all that I can to try and reassure you, but I leave you with this last piece of advice: If you wish to ensure that you do not repeat Splinter's mistakes, then there is one thing you must do above all else: Take care of those that love you. Of course, whether or not you do that is entirely your choice." and with that, the spirit of Tang Shen disappeared, leaving Peter alone in his room.

'Take care of the people who love me huh?' Peter laid back down on his bed and glanced over at the clock '3:15. The people I love are already asleep, like I probably would be if I was a normal person. But I'm not normal. I've got the power, the responsibility and all that. And if what Tang Shen told me is any indication, I gotta make sure I take care of the people I care about. Not just my aunt or my hopefully future girlfriend… but my partners too.' so with that thought in mind, he reached over for his cell phone and dialed a number.

"...Hello?"

"Leo."

"Peter?"

"Yeah, it's me. Hey."

"Hey. What time is it?"

"A little bit after 4."

"Splinter is gonna have us up for training at 5. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah yeah, I just couldn't sleep is all. I would've called Mikey, but I figured he'd be in the middle of his late night pizza run."

"He is. What's up?"

"Okay here's the thing. I've been doing a lot of thinking… about what happened at the docks I mean. I kind of blew up at you guys and well, I just-"

"Don't apologize. I think we've all said or done a few things we regret from that night. But you had to make a call and you did. Splinter did say that there really isn't right or wrong, you just have to make a call and hope it's not a mistake, and I think that applies to this situation too."

"Oh. So… we're cool then?"

"Yeah, we're cool. And listen, none of the others blame you for it either."

"Even Raphael?"

"...I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one."

"Figures." Peter breathed a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair "Hey listen, tell Splinter and the others that… I'm not gonna be able to make it for training today."

"Something wrong?"

"No no, it's just… there's something I have to take care of. Personal stuff."

"Oh. Okay. Yeah sure, I'll let them know."

"Great, thanks. But call me if anything serious happens."

"Got it. Bye."

"Later." and then Peter hung up and tucked away his phone, then glanced out the window 'I don't know what it says about my mindset when I'm expecting something to explode or for someone to scream on cue by this point. But here's hoping the world can shut up long enough for me to go and see Gwen in the morning and work through things.'

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A few hours went by, and the sun was shining brightly over the skies above New York.

'And here we are again.' Peter sat at the table in the kitchen staring at his cell phone as it sat in front of him "I don't know what it says about me when I wind up staring at my phone twice in the same day before the sun's all the way."

"I think it says plenty about what you need to do."

Peter whipped around and found Aunt May standing next to him "Aunt May, it's never gonna stop freaking me out how you do that."

"I've had a lifetime of watching you to hone the practice, dear." May let out a chuckle, but then she turned serious as she slid into the seat next to him "But I also know that what you need is to be honest about how you feel, both with yourself and with certain other people."

"Believe me, I've been doing a lot of that lately. I was just about to make a move in that regard too, so…" with a deep breath, Peter picked up his phone and dialed a number "Hey Gwen. Yeah it's me. Listen, I think we need to talk. About a lot of stuff. Uh huh. Yeah I'm free now. Okay great, I'll be right there. See you in a few." and then he hung up and turned his attention back over to May "As much as I loathe the thought of missing any of your cooking…"

"Go on, do what you have to do." May gave a small smile and kissed him on the forehead "So long as you do get something in your stomach soon enough. I won't have you going hungry when you have something so important going on."

"I'll keep that in mind. See you later." Peter gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, grabbed his phone and took off out the kitchen door without another word.

'And there he goes.' May let out a small sigh as she watched Peter leave, then glanced over at a picture hanging on the wall 'Oh Ben, if only you could see him now…'

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Meanwhile, with the other protagonists…

"Seriously, again with this?" Raph looked up from where he was feeding Spike and glanced over to see Leo and Mikey watching Space Heroes "Get some variety for crying out loud."

"Or maybe you could try understanding great television. At least Peter gets it." Leo grumbled, only to be met with Raph glaring at him "Look I get you're still mad at Peter, but he's still our friend and ally. Stewing over what happened isn't gonna change anything, and we've still got work to do with the Kraang, Shredder and everyone else, so to put it as you would, get over it already."

"...Whatever." Raph's scowl deepend as he turned back to feeding Spike.

"Good enough for me."

"So… any of you guys talk to Pete since that whole thing at the docks?" asked Mikey.

"He called me last night and we talked a little bit. He told me he wasn't gonna be showing up today, something about having to take care of personal matters."

"Wait, he called and you didn't tell me? What the shell dude?"

"You were in the middle of your 4:00 pizza run."

"...Oh. Aw man."

"Yeah."

"Hey guys." this was when Donnie poked his head out of his lab "Guess what April and I have been up to." he was met with silence "That's right, analyzing sewage."

"Who says you don't know how to show a girl a good time?" Raph commented dryly.

"That was the original intention, but there's been a change of plans. We found something you guys need to see." he ushered them into his lab and over to his desk, where he and April showed them a beaker full of blue-colored liquid "April and I started this by going through some files on the Kraang storage device, and we found out that they're using a special process to turn Earth's water into Kraang water."

"Really?"

"They've already started the process." April told them "We managed to find a low concentration of Kraang chemicals in the sewage."

"And I take it that's a bad thing?"

"Let me put it this way. Watch what happens when I dip this slice of Mikey's shrimp and sardine pizza into pure Kraang water." Donnie picked up the slice of pizza in question and dunked it into the beaker, causing it to completely dissolve in a matter of seconds.

"My precious!" Mikey let out a hiss as he tried to reach for the pizza slice, albeit to no avail, and he settled for glaring at Donnie "How do you sleep at night?"

"Right now there's only a small amount in the water supply, but the concentration is increasing, and you all know what that means right?"

"Every slice of pizza in New York will be destroyed?!"

"Along with anyone who uses water." April told him dryly "But you know, keep priorities in order and the like."

"I don't wanna live in a world without pizza!" Mikey snatched away a pizza box… which just so happened to have the beaker of Kraang water on top of it, causing it to fall and spill its contents all over April's arm "Oh crap!"

"Mikey!" April shut her eyes as she braced for the inevitable… but it never came, and she was left as confused as the others "What the-?"

"...Was something supposed to happen?"

"That's amazing, it's as if you're immune to the acidic properties… We're gonna have to look into that." Donnie was met with the sound of beeping coming from his computer "But it's gonna have to wait. Looks like the scanners located the Kraang facility they're using to transform the water supply. We've gotta stop it and fast."

"Sounds like we've got a mission then." Leo noted "Let's get our gear and get moving. You in on this one April?"

"Oh believe me, that sounds like a blast." April gave a shrug as she picked up her bag "But unfortunately it's on the bottom of the East River, and equally unfortunately I have an essay due for one of my classes. Besides, I wouldn't say no to some actual human food for once."

"Pizza's human food." Mikey pointed out.

"Not the way you eat it."

"Wait, you mean you're going topside?" Donnie climbed over his desk to her, falling flat on his face as he did so "You have your T-phone with you right?"

"Donnie you don't have to worry about me, I'm gonna be just fine." and so April took her leave of the Lair, though she cast a nervous glance at her arm as she did so 'Assuming that the Kraang water doesn't have some kind of delayed reaction with me.'

"Alright, so we're heading to the bottom of the East River."

"Which raises the question." Leo glanced over at the others "How exactly are we supposed to get out there?"

"No need to worry about that guys, I've been working on something that just so happens to be pretty awesome in its own right."

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Meanwhile, with the main protagonist…

'Good thing Donnie and I decided to install the cloaking function.' Peter dismounted the Spider Cycle and pressed a button on his Spider Cell, causing the cycle to disappear from view 'Now that the secret identity is taken care of for the moment, time to face the music. Or in this case, coming clean with the girl of my dreams.' so he made his way out of the alley and up to the front door of a certain house, and with a deep breath he rang the doorbell… and it was only after he did a thought occurred to him 'Oh crap, should I have brought flowers or something? Maybe I have enough time to run to a florist or something before-'

It was in the middle of his mental ranting that the door opened, revealing Gwen standing before him, and she gave a small shy smile "Hey Pete."

"Gwen. Hi. How's it going?"

"It's been… a lot lately, to put it nicely. Thanks for coming."

"Sure, I figured… it was about time for us to talk. About a lot of things." Peter let out a nervous chuckle as he followed Gwen inside and sat down on the couch in the living room next to her, and that was when he noticed one or two things, mostly the dark rings under her eyes, which were red and puffy themselves "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"No you're not. Gwen, I know I'm pretty much the worst person when it comes to stuff like this, but I can at least tell when you're upset about something. Or at least I like to think so." he took a breath, and then just got it out in the open "I know about you and Harry breaking up."

"Oh… you heard about that."

"Yeah. So tell me the truth. Are you okay?"

"...No. No I'm not." tears began streaming down Gwen's face again as she wrapped her arms tightly around Peter and buried her face in the crook of his neck, leaving him to rub her back and try to comfort her.

"It's gonna be alright Gwen, really." Peter paused, then looked down at her "It was a bad one though, wasn't it?"

"It was… worse than I thought it would be. I… I knew it had to happen, but… that doesn't make it hurt any less."

"Yeah, I… know what that's like."

"Oh…" Gwen released herself from Peter's hold and slowly looked up at him as she wiped away some of her tears "If this is what it felt like after what happened at the funeral, then I-"

"Please stop apologizing, I've heard enough of that from anyone to last a lifetime." Peter placed a hand gently over hers "If it's any consolation though, I've learned that the pain… well I could say it goes away but I'd be lying through my teeth. It does help to keep busy though, and god only knows I've been doing a lot of that lately."

"You're… not wrong about that. But believe me, I've done more than enough thinking about Harry over the last few days, so I could use a new topic. And that's kind of why I agreed to see you today." Gwen moved away from Peter a bit and took a breath "There's something that I've been keeping from you for a while now."

"What is it? Oh god you're not dying or anything are you?"

"No."

"Pregnant?"

"No!"

"Sorry sorry, it's just the way you said it-"

"Why don't we put a pin in that for now." Gwen held up a hand to shut him up "Anyway, it's something I kind of overheard and saw that I wasn't meant to."

"What do you mean?"

"Well a few months ago, not long after the beginning of the school year… and when I was still dating Harry, and we weren't really on speaking terms."

"Yeah?"

"Anyway I was pretty upset, so my dad took me up to the cemetery in Harlem… so we could visit my mom's grave."

"Okay."

"And I saw… someone else, two people actually, show up in front of another grave."

"Uh huh… Can you be a little more specific?"

"Okay…" Gwen took a breath, and she put it all out in the open "I saw Spider-Man show up with some turtle guy carrying two swords, and then I saw Spider-Man take off his mask… and under it was your face. I know that you're Spider-Man."

"...Oh." Peter's expression was akin to deer being caught in headlights "That's uh… definitely a lot more specific."

"Well, it is kinda what you asked for."

"Yeah, be careful what you wish for I guess." Peter looked around the room for a moment, then turned back to Gwen "You mind if I use your bathroom for a sec?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Great, thanks." so Peter quickly made his way out of the room without another word.

'...Well that was awkward.' Gwen leaned back on her couch as she let out a long sigh, only to pick up her cell phone once it started ringing "Hello? Hey MJ. Yeah he's here right now, and we're just getting everything out. Well I just told him that I know about his… second job, and by the looks of it-" she was cut off by the sound of loud screaming coming from the bathroom "He's taking it about as well as we expected."

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Meanwhile, the Turtles were making their way through the East River to the Kraang facility using Donnie's latest invention, the Turtle Sub. The only downside was that it had to be powered by Kinetic energy, forcing the Turtles to pedal on stationary bikes until it finished charging, which took awhile. Unfortunately for them, after that issue was taken care of, they came across another: a large monster brought from Dimension X that the Kraang were using to guard their facility. Fortunately though, they were able to easily outsmart it and snuck their way into the facility undetected.

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Meanwhile, with the unknowing target…

'Oh thank god, finally some food that Mikey hasn't tampered with.' April breathed a sigh of relief as she made her way towards a certain noodle shop in Chinatown, only to be taken by surprise at the sight of a certain machine set up outside of the building "Okay, this is definitely new. What is this thing?"

"Huh, I didn't expect to see one of these things in New York."

April froze at the sound of a familiar voice, then whipped around to find Karai standing next to her "Karai!"

"Calm down red, I'm not here to start anything." Karai was met with a hard look filled with skepticism "What, you're that surprised I wouldn't be here to start a fight?"

"Considering the last time I saw you was when you were blackmailing Peter?"

"I only did that to get his attention, to get him to hear me out on my offer to help him and the others fight the Kraang." Karai gave a shrug, but then her gaze hardened "And frankly after what happened at the docks, right now he's the only one of them I don't wanna skewer."

"Uh huh."

"I'm serious, he's the only one of them that didn't try to stab me in the back."

"Okay?" April relaxed her stance slightly, but kept her gaze hard "So what are you doing here then?"

"I had some business to take care of for Shredder, but I figured I'd grab some lunch before I got to that, and one of my coworkers told me about this place. I'm talking about Hobie in case that wasn't obvious."

"Yeah no, I got that."

"I'm serious, I'm not here to start anything. Not yet at least."

"Okay then." April paused, then looked over at the machine "So you know what this thing is supposed to be?"

"Yeah they had these back in Tokyo, at least at restaurants where the chef is blind. You put in a coin for whatever food you want, then a tile comes out and you give it to the chef."

"Oh. Huh. So how much?"

"Just any coin."

"Okay then." so April put a coin into the slot, pressed a certain button and pulled a tile out of the slot at the bottom "So… thanks I guess."

"Whatever." she glanced at the tile "I didn't know they had pizza at a place like this."

"Those are for pizza gyoza, basically dumplings stuffed with pizza ingredients. The chef here actually invented them for the Turtles."

"Huh. Cool. Ah screw it, I think I'll give them a shot." so Karai stuck in a coin and pulled out a tile of her own "Time to see if these live up to the hype. Lead the way Red."

'And time to see if I can get through this with my life.' so April braced herself as she made her way inside the restaurant "Hi Murakami-san."

"April-chan, a pleasure as always." Murakami gave a smile from where he stood at his place behind the counter "How are you?"

"I've been worse all things considered. If more or less scared out of my mind.' April placed the tile down in front of Murakami, allowing him to pick it up.

"Ah, so you've come for the pizza gyoza."

"Hai, chou oishi."

"Well there's a surprise." Karai glanced over at April with a raised eyebrow "I didn't think you'd be able to speak Japanese."

"I picked up a few things from… you know."

"Ah. Okay, that makes sense."

"Yeah." there was a brief pause between them, before April spoke again "You know Peter has his house under a ton of surveillance."

"Say what?"

"Yeah he's got the Prowler and Daredevil watching his home all the time, so if you wanna go after him you're gonna have to go through them." April was left panting slightly after that little outburst, only to notice Karai staring blankly at her.

"...Wow."

"What?"

"You really suck at making small talk don't you?"

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Meanwhile, with the awkward meeting…

"Okay, so… that happened I guess." Gwen looked over to see Peter slowly making his way back out to her living room "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm okay." Peter paused as he sat back down on the couch next to her "Or, I'm done screaming anyway, so close enough."

"Good, that's… good."

"Yeah." another pause, and then Peter glanced over at her "So… you know?"

"Yeah, I know you're Spider-Man."

"Which leads us to kind of an important question… What did you think about it when you found out?"

"Honestly, I was having a really hard time wrapping my head around it. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. You disappearing every time something big happened or one of those supervillains showed up and Spider-Man showing up once you were gone, you being the one to take pictures of Spider-Man… it was way too coincidental, and I was kicking myself for awhile for not realizing it sooner."

"Ah. So that night at the cemetery, when I met your dad…"

"I was hiding behind one of the gravestones. Only my dad knew I was there."

"Right. So, what else did you think?"

"A lot of things really. I was mad at you for not telling me, mad at myself for not figuring it out sooner… and feeling like a jerk for all the times I got mad at you for your disappearing acts or when you didn't show up to something. Especially after hearing how you… chose to start being a hero in the first place." that was enough to make Peter cringe at the memories "So now that I have that out in the open, the first thing I want to say is… I'm sorry. For not doing more to help you, for making it harder for you than it needed to be."

"Gwen, you have nothing to be sorry about. I knew what I was getting into when I chose not to tell you or anyone about it."

"I guess, but… Okay, now that I've said my piece, it's time for me to ask a few questions of my own. For starters, when did you get the powers, and how?"

"Right, I should've known that was gonna be coming at some point." Peter took a breath, and he began his story "Okay, you remember that trip we took to ESU during sophomore year?"

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Meanwhile, with the lunch meeting…

"Well in any case, I knew this was coming." Karai took a long sip of her water, then breathed a sigh as she turned to April "I never told Shredder or anyone else about Peter's… second job, so to speak."

"You…" April was left taken aback by this, and whatever anger she felt subsided, at least for the moment "You didn't?"

"No, and I don't intend to." Karai then popped one of the pizza gyozas into her mouth "Huh, you know these things are actually really good."

"Yeah, no denying that Mr Murakami is a master of his craft. But getting back to the elephant in the room?"

"Right, right. You remember why I approached Parker in the first place, right?"

"Because you wanted an alliance with him and the Turtles to take down the Kraang."

"Yep. It didn't pan out in the end." Karai's gaze hardened with anger "Because the Turtles chose to stab me in the back. I genuinely offered to help them, and they betrayed me. But Spider-Man didn't. He was the only one who actually stuck to the deal."

"So… you're not telling anyone about Peter because you feel like you owe him?"

"Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not keeping his secret just out of the kindness of my heart or anything like that. But I was trained in the ways of a kunoichi, both in terms of skill and in terms of principle and honor. Parker risked ruining his relationship with the Turtles to keep his word to me… so I'm bound by honor to keep his secret, whether I like it or not. That's really all there is to it."

"Oh… okay then." April paused, then breathed a small sigh of relief "Peter's probably going to be really relieved to hear that. It's kind of relieving for me too."

"How do you figure?"

"Well when I first saw you here, I thought you were gonna try and slice my head off for some reason. But it is good to know that I'm not in any danger."

"Yeah…" Karai finished her last pizza gyoza, then glanced over at April "See here's the thing about that…"

"Oh crap."

"I'm not going after anyone because of their connection to Spider-Man, again with being bound by honor and all that. Those connected to the Turtles however, that's another story."

"...Yeah you know what, I think I'm gonna go." April tried to bolt out of the restaurant, only to be stopped by Karai grabbing her by the arm 'Well it was worth a shot.'

"You get points for effort Red, not much else. Anyway I was thinking you'd come with me, my father would love to meet you." and then she pulled her close and grabbed her by the shoulder, until…

"Woah!" Murakami suddenly spilled a bowl of soup on Karai's face, allowing April to break free and run out of the restaurant "Oh, I am so sorry!"

"Get out of my way already!" Karai shoved past him and moved to chase after April, but stopped and glanced back at him "Hey, aren't you the old guy who bitch slapped a Purple Dragons with just a cutting board?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Huh. Respect." and then she took off, only to find April running away a fair distance ahead of her 'She's fast, I'll give her that Not gonna be fast enough though.'

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The Turtles made their way through the underwater facility and prepared to attack a group of Kraangdroids… only to end up alerting them to their presence when April called Donnie on his T-phone, forcing them to go on the evasive. Upon hearing that Karai was after her, Donnie opted to leave the base and go help her, but the Turtles had to prioritize the mission first. So there was little more Donnie could do than tell her to stay calm… and run for her life.

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Meanwhile, with the main protagonist…

"Okay, I think that about covers it." Peter leaned back as he finally finished recounting his entire story to Gwen from start to finish "That's pretty much the life of the spectacular Spider-Man up until now. Though it hasn't really been spectacular about ½ of the time."

Gwen sat next to him in a stunned silence for a moment, until she finally managed to regain her voice "My god…"

"Yeah I know, it's a lot to take in. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, and I learned that part the hard way that involves its fair share of sacrifices and… painful compromises, if you wanna sugar coat it hard enough to give you cavities." Peter breathed a heavy sigh "Not like I've really helped a good number of those matters either, like with Electro or Molten Man, or any of the big ones like Venom or Green Goblin. Every time I just make things worse."

That was all Gwen needed to hear before she made her move, and she wrapped her arms firmly around Peter and pulled him into a tight hug "Peter, those weren't your fault. None of the things that happened are your fault."

"I used to tell myself that about a lot of things, never really worked so I pretty much gave up on that after a while. Like with my Uncle Ben." he flinched at the painful memories "I try to make sure that stuff like that doesn't happen to anyone else. Doesn't always work."

Gwen stayed silent for another moment, merely tightening her hold on him, until she pulled away enough so she could look him in the eye "Why didn't you ever tell me about this? Or your Aunt May?"

"Part of me wants to say that it was because I didn't want you to worry, and that is true… Just not as much as other reasons." Peter's face fell further "I never told my Aunt May about this because of… what else I'd have to tell her."

"What do you mean?"

"About my Uncle Ben. Telling her about being Spider-Man means I'd have to tell her… about why I chose to in the first place… about how I let him die."

"Peter that-"

"Don't bother Gwen, whenever I try to tell myself that it never works. I can't bring myself to face her and tell her that. I just can't."

There was a brief pause, until Gwen broached another topic "Why did you never tell me about this? I could've helped you. I've actually been trying to since I found out."

"And a lot of things are starting to make sense with that info in mind." Peter took a breath "But in regards to why I didn't tell you, I think your dad put it best during one of his Criminology lectures a while back. If my identity as Spider-Man got revealed, everyone I cared about would be in constant danger. My run-ins with Venom have been more than enough proof of that. As he put it, a man who wears a mask doesn't have something to hide… but something to protect. Or in my case, someone. A lot of someones actually. It's also played a pretty big part in why I didn't come and talk to you before now."

"What… What do you mean?"

"Like I told you before, I kept you in the dark about my secret because I wanted to keep you out of danger. Your track record pretty much speaks for itself. I thought that if we started dating, the danger would be taken to the extreme, and eventually… I might end up losing you because of one of my enemies. I thought that the only way to keep you safe… was to stay away from you, and just… give up my happiness for the sake of keeping you safe."

"...Did you ever think I thought of that myself?" Gwen's answer took Peter by surprise "I am the daughter of an NYPD captain Peter, I'm pretty used to these kinds of things by now. My dad and I had one of these talks awhile ago too, back when he first became a captain. Sure the danger is there because of my connection to him, but him staying away isn't going to just get rid of it like a magic reset button."

"But-" Peter was cut off by Gwen holding one finger in front of his face.

"I get what you're saying Peter, really I do. I get why you don't think we should be together, and I get why you think you have to push me away to protect me. But can't you love me enough to let me make my own decisions?" that took Peter by surprise, and Gwen's expression softened as she let on "I know there are going to be risks, but I've faced plenty of them already. And if there are more risks and dangers to come, then I would rather face them by your side, and help you through them. When you have something so serious going on like being a hero, you can't just push away everyone you care about. The people who love you are those people for a good reason, and they're here to help you get through those hardships. I've always been one of those people for you Peter, and I want to be that for you now. You just have to let me."

Peter didn't speak for a moment, and before he did speak again, he gently took Gwen's hand in his and cupped her face with his other hand "You know since I became Spider-Man, it's been one hell of a rough ride, both physically and emotionally. And I'd say it gets easier with time, but to be brutally honest, it doesn't. But one other thing I know Gwen, is that I didn't realize how much it meant to me to have you by my side… until I came so close to losing you. It was only during that time that I realized… how much I love you." that was enough to earn a small gasp from Gwen, as well as a few tears brimming in her eyes "And honestly, I can't think of anything to make this whole situation better for me than to have you by my side. If you want to."

"Peter… I never stopped wanting to." Gwen closed her eyes as she freed her hand from Peter's grip and wrapped her arms around his neck as she leaned in.

Peter didn't waste a second as he closed his eyes, wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned in… and at long last, their lips finally connected. At that moment, all finally seemed right with the world… until the sound of a cell phone ringing forced them to break apart, and he let out a loud groan "You've gotta be freaking kidding me, why did they have to call me now?"

"How do you know it's yours?"

"Because it's always mine." Peter promptly pulled out his Spider Cell and answered it "Okay for real guys, now is the worst possible- Donnie slow down, I can't understand you." his annoyance quickly evaporated as his gaze hardened "Where is she now? Okay, I'm on my way. Tell her to hang tight" and then he hung up and turned back to Gwen "So listen, I know this is probably the worst way to start things off for us but-"

"But you have to deal with an emergency." Gwen guessed, and she gave Peter's hand a quick squeeze of reassurance "The city needs Spider-Man more than I need you. Go ahead, I'll be here waiting for you." and she gave him a quick kiss on the lips for encouragement "And call that a bit of extra insurance to come back soon."

"...I get the thought process, but that makes me want to leave even less." Peter was quickly met with the Look, and so he relented and began taking off his clothes, revealing his costume under his outfit "I'll be back soon, I swear."

"I don't doubt you." Gwen gave him a small smile as she watched him finish changing and then make his way out the back door 'I won't ever doubt you again Peter.'

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As the Turtles continued their fight against the Kraang, Donnie wanted to call off the mission and go help April, only for the others to point out that she would be poisoned along with everyone else if the Kraang were allowed to continue. Thinking quickly, Donnie managed to grab one of the Kraang's laser guns, short out its power supply and leave it by the chemical tanks to make the place go up in an explosion… which would happen in about a minute and a half once the process had started. That wouldn't have been so much of a problem if the alien sea monster hadn't burst into the facility and tried to eat them. Fortunately, Mikey was able to defeat the beast in a surprising rodeo-style move, allowing him and the others to get back to the Turtle Sub right before the base exploded, and they started to leave… until they noticed the sea monster was still alive and coming towards them. Donnie then tried to turn on the engines to get them away from the monster, only for them to break off, forcing them to peddle to move the sub, only for the sea monster to catch up to them and grab hold on of the sub… only for it to latch onto the sub and start making a series of moaning noises, much to the disgust and horror of its occupants. In response to this, Leo released a depth charge on the sea monster to get it to let go, freeing the sub and prompting them to get the hell out of there, leaving a heartbroken sea monster behind.

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Meanwhile, with the hunted…

"Crap, crap, crap!" having commandeered a pizza guy's scooter, April was still trying to get Karai off her trail, only for a shuriken to suddenly embed herself in the scooter right in front of her, and she looked over to see Karai following her across the rooftops, prompting her to veer into an alley nearby.

"Never go down the alleyways, doesn't anyone watch movies?" Karai let out a snort as she leapt down the nearby fire escape and into the alley, only to find the scooter abandoned 'So that's her game then.'

"Gotcha!" April tried to attack Karai from behind with her helmet, only for her to miss.

"Yeah word to the wise Red, sneak attacks don't work if you yell them out loud. You do have guts though, I'll give you that, so let's see if I can pound that out of you."

"You can try, but I'm not gonna go down that easily." April quickly dropped into a stance and pulled out her fan.

"So you're using a tessen. Interesting choice, both beautiful and unassuming, but also incredibly powerful. That is, if it's in the right hands."

"Come and find out!" April charged at Karai with her tessen in hand, only to be outmaneuvered with ease and thrown to the ground and her tessen tossed aside, but she quickly picked herself up and charged at Karai, though her attacks were dodged with ease until she managed to land a solid kick to the jaw 'Yes!'

"Huh." Karai wiped the blood from her lip and shot April a smirk "Not too shabby."

"Glad you enjoyed it."

"I did, and now it's my turn." so Karai dropped into a stance and braced herself as April made a charge, and landed a solid roundhouse kick to her stomach hard enough to send her tumbling back a short distance, and then Karai went on to bombard her with a fierce barrage of physical attacks until April hit the ground with a thud.

"D-Dammit…" April spat out some blood as she pulled herself back to her feet and tried to attack Karai with whatever strength she had left, only for Karai to strike her in the stomach and throw her to the ground, though she slowly picked herself back up and got into a stance "I can't just… give up… I won't…"

"You're resilient if nothing else, but that's all you've really got going for you." Karai dealt her another kick to the chest that sent her crashing to the ground out on the sidewalk, though she kept up with her onslaught and kicked her back to the ground as she tried to get up "What the hell is it that makes you so special? You're the center of an insane alien conspiracy, protected by mutants and a controversial superhero, and trained by a great ninja master. So why?"

"I don't know, okay?!" April tried to attack Karai from behind by grabbing her by the head, the two of them taking their struggle to a nearby subway entrance "I'm flunking trig, my only real friends are mutants or vigilantes that people either love or hate, my dad got kidnapped by aliens and…" she tried to catch Karai in an armlock, only to get thrown to the ground "And I lost my mother!"

"Wh-What?" that was enough to catch Karai off guard to the point where she loosened her grip slightly "You lost your mother?"

"Yeah, when… I was only about 6." April turned her head slightly and noticed something 'She loosened her grip… What was it Splinter said during training? Get my opponent off balance in any way I can…' so with that in mind, April swift grabbed Karai by the collar of her jacket and kicked her down into the subway entrance, sending her tumbling down the flight of stars and giving April the chance to run 'Not bad for a nobody. I guess I didn't need any backup from the others after all-'

"Eat your heart out Akira!" this was when the Spider Cycle burst onto the scene and screeched to a halt Akira-style, and then Spider-Man leapt off with his web shooters readied "Hands where I can see them or I'm shoving my webs up your- Okay, where are the bad guys?"

"You can check down that flight of stairs." April jerked a thumb towards the subway entrance, only to wince from the pain "Okay, everything hurts. Ow."

"Easy slugger, take a breather. Guess I wasn't really needed huh?"

"I don't think I'd say that. I could use a right back to the Lair. You know, hopefully before she gets back up here, because frankly I don't think I have another one of those in me."

"Way ahead of you." Spider-Man slung April's arm over his shoulder and gently set her down on the back of his Spider Cycle, and then the sound of a cell phone got their attention "Not mine this time. For once."

"Yeah, I've got a pretty good idea of who it is." April breathed a sigh as she pulled her T-phone out of her pocket "Hey Donnie."

"April! Oh thank the great god above you're okay! Did you guys hear that?! My sweet princess is alive! Did I mute that?"

"Let's agree that you did."

"You got it. Anyway, where are you right now?"

"I'm in Chinatown, Spidey just picked me up. Don't worry, we'll be at the Lair soon." and then she hung up.

"It hurts to listen to him sometimes." Spider-Man grumbled "I can practically feel the other guys face palming right now."

"At least I know he means well, even if he is kind of… you know." April paused, then glanced over at Spider-Man as the two of them took off on the Spider Cycle "So… are you and the guys okay after what happened at the Docks?"

"As far as I can tell at least, yeah. Except for Raph anyway, but I'll deal with that when the time comes. Speaking of which, remind me to make a note of this for later. Someone I want to bring to the Lair when the time is right."

"Someone?"

"Yep, someone I want to meet the guys and Splinter."

"Are you sure that's gonna be okay?"

"Might as well be, she's already met Mikey."

"Really?" April stared at Spider-Man's back, and then it dawned on her "Wait, you mean-"

"Uh huh-"

"As in-"

"Uh huh."

"So you and her-"

"Oh yeah."

"...Well it's about freaking time."

"Took the words right out of my mouth. Anyway I wanna bring her with us. And get my pants, I kind of left them on her floor. So yeah, great way to kick that off."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later, at the Lair…

"So I thought back to what Splinter said this morning." once everyone had finally reunited at the Lair, April recounted her battle with Karai to the others "And once I saw her guard was down, I flipped her down the subway steps and bolted. Lucky for me it was around then Peter showed up and gave me a ride."

"That was awesome!" Donnie and the others were left pretty much in awe at the story "Way to kick some serious shell!"

"I know, I honestly didn't think I had it in me."

"Impressive April, excellent work." Splinter gave a nod of approval "You used your training very well, and you fulfilled the most important goal of the ninja: to come home alive."

"Thank you sensei, I owe it to you." April bowed to him in respect "But it looks like I can take pretty good care of myself after all."

"Yes. And no."

"See I told you guys- Wait, come again?"

"Karai may have failed this time, and your efforts are commendable. However, if the Shredder wants you, then he will stop at nothing to get you. And with the Kraang being after you as well, the wisest decision would be for you to remain here in the sewers with us."

"What?!"

"Yeah hold up with the angry objection for a second." Peter promptly strapped on one of his web shooters and fired a single shot at Donnie, webbing his mouth shut before he had the chance to say anything, earning a series of looks from the others "It's for his own good. His history pretty much speaks for itself when it comes to stuff like this." he received a thumbs up from Donnie "I rest my case. And you're welcome."

"But I can't stay down here! I mean what am I gonna do about school, my friends, my entire life up there?" April could do little more than sit down and bury her head in her knees.

"April listen." Leo took a step towards her "I know you don't like this, but Master Splinter isn't wrong about this. We can't be there to protect you 24/7, and Shredder and the Kraang won't stop at anything to get their hands on you. Until we manage to stop them, this is the only place we can guarantee you'd be safe."

"So then, once we do stop them, I can get back to having a normal life?"

"Once we stop them you can leave the sewers. Any chance of having a normal life went out the window awhile ago." Peter told her dryly, earning a series of looks "What? I'm speaking from personal experience."

"You do have a point though." April glanced over at the others, her eyes burning with a new level of determination "If that's what it takes for me to get my life back, then I only have one question: When do we start?"

A/N:

Well this is it people, this is one of the big ones. Granted this story seems to have had a lot of those so far, but this one is probably my personal favorite. Peter and Gwen have finally become a couple, for real this time! And what makes it better is that it's not going to be ruined by either of them getting killed, at least not in any real or permanent way. You'll see what I mean by that in due time.

While he may not have seen a lot of action, Peter did have a lot of emotional turmoil to deal with in this chapter, and I did it in a rather… unique way by having him communicate with the spirit of Tang Shen. I figured if Splinter could do that in canon after he died, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for someone else to do the same. And yeah, in case it wasn't obvious, I made a series of comparisons between the whole Splinter/Shredder/Tang Shen triangle, and the one between Peter, Gwen and Harry. The more I thought about it, the more I noticed the similarities were there, so I decided to expand on it a bit.

On another note, Peter and the Turtles are back on good terms, with Raphael being the exception. I know it might seem like a bit of a copout or short lived, but when you take into consideration what's right around the corner (ie the season finale), they can't afford to let themselves be divided at a time like this.