Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN.
Thank you.

Also, as I was planning out this next chapter, I realized that I made my chapter take place at the beginning of June…and Mikey went to the Halloween parade. We're just going to pretend that it's normal for a random Halloween parade to be held in the streets of N.Y. in the beginning of the summer xD

Chapter #30

*Still June 5th, 2015*
*Still in the sewers right after Donnie just gains information about Shredder being broken out of prison*

As soon as Leo heard the name, he instantly thought of Sam. He looked at her with concern and was shocked at how much his and her expressions differed. While he looked worried at how she would react, she looked determined and confident.
"Sam? You up for this?" he asked gently.
Sam smirked as she looked in his direction. "We took him down…twice" she said with raised brows, momentarily forgetting that the guys had fought Shredder before she had even met them, "so this time will be the bonus round. Where do you need me?"
"Eyes in the sky" Leo said with a confident smile as he and the rest of his brothers were now getting pumped up.
Sam nodded her head and then looked at Donnie. "Drone?"
"Already on it" Donnie replied as he was rummaging through the belongings in the pack on his back. He then pulled out a small drone where the legs were already folded so that it was easier to carry around. He handed this and the controller to Sam.
"Use this to check out anything up ahead or coming from behind, that way we can focus on Shredder. If the Foot already begin attacking then it's no point in you hiding, then you can come back and join us. But for now find one of your usual hiding spots and stay low."
"In this case high" she teased, since her spot would be up on a hill so she had accurate visual access to the highway they would be traveling on.
"Whatever" he said playfully.
"Alright, everyone keep in touch and we're on the move. Sam that means make sure you can easily hear and reach your turtle com!" Leo said as the four turtles dashed off in one direction.
"Yeah yeah I know!" Sam groaned out loud.
She quickly pulled a solid black t-shirt over top the one she was wearing and without ever actually stripping she switched shirts (times like these were the only times she ever actually changed her clothes quickly). She then pulled on a solid black beanie and put on a solid black surgical mask. She used to use wigs and contacts to help mask her identity as well, but she had donated her wigs to those who had lost their hair to human trials from being forced into the Foot clan, and for whatever reason, ever since the mutagen that saved her life had fused with her body, contacts just irritated the hell out of her eyes. Because of all of this, Sam just did the best to wear solid colors that didn't reveal anything about her personality and what her interests or beliefs were while also doing the best to cover her body as best as she could so that the only thing that was revealed about herself was that she was a white woman with brown hair and brown eyes. Once she had done all of this within a couple of minutes, Sam then dashed off down the tunnels of the sewers in the direction that she needed to go to reach her hiding spot.

*About 5 minutes later*

Sam had reached her spot up on top of the hill. This particular spot was high up and back enough that the street lights missed it, so the majority of the hill was brightened up towards the bottom, but at the top it was rather dark, so wearing black clothes up here made it even easier to blend in and hide away from spying eyes. She then crouched down and removed the drone from her trusty backpack, her most favorite bag, and quickly set it up and started flying it up and down the highway to try and get a good look at what was happening. Just a few seconds later she heard a familiar voice call out to her.
"Sam, can you hear me?"
Sam grabbed the round walkie talkie, aka the turtle com, from her pocket and made sure to respond as soon as possible. "Yeah Leo I'm here."
"We're in the truck now and we're heading out" Leo added.
Sam then heard 'whoa', 'dude', 'what?', 'are you kidding me?' coming from Raph and Mikey from what sounded to be further back, so she assumed those two were seated towards the back of the truck and that Leo was in the passenger seat, and she already knew that Donnie would be sitting in the driver's seat.
"Heh" Sam smirked, "Sounds like the guys in the back like your creation Dorkatello" the girl said in a proud but still playful tone towards her incredibly intelligent friend.
"Yeah but I'm telling you it'll be even better once it's finally done. There's a lot of tweaking still required."
"Well no better time than the present" Leo said.
"Yeah but see all these wires are still bunched up here. There's no organization to any of it! There's red wires and yellow wires-"
"Donnie…" Leo attempted to intervene.
"-and as you can see the spot-welding's not done yet and the seats don't recline when-"
"Donnie!"
"Leo hit the red switch up top" Sam stated through her turtle com, assuming that Donnie wasn't paying attention to the moving vehicle based on the worry she heard in Leo's voice.
"What red switch?"
"Red…oh!" Donnie said.
Sam assumed that he finally flipped the switch and that all was okay since Leo had finally stopped announcing his brother's name.

"Alright, Shredder's convoy is 7.2 miles East Northeast. Punch it. Sam, keep us updated as best as you can" Leo ordered.
"On it."
Sam got out her tablet that she used as her main GPS system and then continued to use the remote control for the drone, which had a small screen on it to observe what was being picked up by the camera, so that she could continue to watch where the transport van was located and where it was heading to next. She also got out her hacking phone so that she could hack into nearby street cameras and check around to see if anything suspicious was happening nearby and on the way towards the police van. Within a matter of minutes she was able to locate the van and continued to the track what street they were on and could update the turtles if anything unexpected happened.

At this point the main conversations being held in the truck were the brothers asking Donnie questions about different gadgets and other pieces of tech that were on display, so Sam decided that for now she could put her turtle com down and that it didn't need to stay on permanently. She laid the small device down on the ground and went back to focusing on the other devices in her hands: the remote control for the drone, the phone used for hacking the street cameras, and the tablet with the GPS system.
As Sam followed through with her part of the plan, her mind simultaneously reflected on what had become of the Foot clan within the past almost year since the majority of the New York branch had fallen since September 2nd of 2014. Now that Shredder was locked up, Karai had been known to be taking charge and was leading both any dedicated and completely brainwashed and lost NY soldiers along with the many soldiers who had come from the Japanese branch. She had called in for a few more soldiers from the home branch to assist her, and according to intel from April and others from the NYFS organization, these soldiers were more than happy to assist Karai in rebuilding their Master Shredder's empire. This group then forced gangs like the Purple Dragons to do their dirty work for them, which Hun still helped greatly in that department, and then (in hopes of impressing her sensei) Karai decided to try a new tactic in recruiting brains for their clan. Instead of using force and intimidation, she would trick the gullible scientists by leading them to engulf themselves in their pride of their work as motivation to work for the Foot clan and would then use accounts set up by Sachs to fund them and provide them with needed tech to complete their work for the clan. This is where Baxter Stockman came in. No matter how successful he was and how many awards he had claimed for his accomplishments in so many different departments, because of how he was raised by his parents he never thought that he was as good as his brother, so when he was asked to come work for the Foot clan he took that as an honor. He knew people would try to get him to leave (since this was similar to the situation that scientists like Jordon Perry were put into when they thought it was an honor to work for Eric Sachs) so he did his best to hide this information from the rest of the world and let Karai and other Foot clan members sneak into his laboratory, like on nights like tonight, so that they could work together on various projects.
They still had a long way to go, but Karai was fighting her hardest to rebuild the fallen clan, and Sam was hoping that tonight they would squash those attempts before they grew into anything more than simply that, attempts.

Just then, Sam saw some sketchy looking motorcyclists driving down a side street and then turn onto an exit leading towards the highway. She then checked back to the drone's screen and saw that the exit she had just seen would quickly lead to the section of the highway where the police van was currently located.
"Donnie what's your location?"
"Passing through Eastman and Laird Street now, why?"
Sam quickly moved the screen around on her tablet.
"Take Manor Street coming up in a couple minutes. It'll be a tight road but it'll get you to your location quicker. I suspect we already have company coming up."
"Alright, keep us posted Sam" Leo stated.
Sam nodded to herself as she continued to maintain the three devices in front of her. She then saw the sketchy cyclists take another exit and a chill went down her spine when she saw them drive through a grassy area and back onto the highway, giving them about a five minute time gap before they would hit the police van. Sam started rapidly packing up her belongings and drew the drone back over to her, all while communicating to the turtles through the turtle com.
"Five minutes."
"What?"
Within one breath Sam somehow announced that "Five minutes is all you have cause the sketchy dudes took an exit off the highway and then illegally cut through to another section of the highway rather than taking the long and full way through and now they're close to the police van and-"
"Whoa Sam breath" Raph announced from further back.
"Are they all still on route 33?" Donnie asked.
"Yes, that was the last place I saw them and I'm sure they won't get much further. I'm heading there now."
"Sam!" Leo called out in a stern tone.
"Leo those guys are going to get hurt if one of us doesn't get there in a matter of minutes and I'm not going to sit back and just watch it happen" Sam said as she finished collapsing the drone and packing it away in her backpack.
She heard a sigh come through the other line before she finally heard Leo say "fine, but be careful and stay in the shadows as best as you can and for as long as you can. Don't make any serious moves without us there."
"Got it. Meet you guys there."

Sam then turned off the turtle com and hooked it into its spot on her backpack strap. Her eyes went blue and black as she used her wind powers to help boost herself over towards where she needed to be. Using her wind powers she was able to shoot huge gusts of wind from her palms (sometimes she could shoot gusts from her whole body or other select parts, but she didn't know how to control these actions just yet) and had now gained enough control that she could use this power to fly around like Iron Man. As awesome as this was, she had no idea if there were any limits as to how much or how long she could use any of these powers, so she tried to only use them in dire situations, and she deemed this situation as extremely important since innocent lives were at risk once those Foot soldiers caught up with those police cars. The highway was surrounded by a wall on both sides of the road, so luckily she could use her powers without being seen. Once she reached her destination she launched herself over the wall, but she was just a second too late. Just as she reached the top of the wall she saw the black cyclists drive by and place what seemed to be orange colored oval devices on each of the black police cars as they then zoomed away.

"Oh shit…" was all Sam was able to even process through her mind as she saw the orange lights switch to red as the three cars in the back jumped up from the explosions underneath of them. Huge flames burst from under the cars as each of the three flipped onto their sides or tops. Before Sam could even move and react to go tend to the wounded officers, the remaining three cop cars that had been driving in front of the larger police van now faced the same fate as they were launched upwards from their explosions and then violently tumbled forward, only this time the situation was even worse because the police van was going so fast that it couldn't easily be stopped, and unintentionally it collided with two of the attacked cars.
Sam took a few seconds to compose herself. She hadn't seen anyone terribly injured since her days in the clan, so quickly she needed to mentally prepare herself for what she might see. She began to clench her fists together as her thoughts switched from what she was afraid to see to what she needed to do, and finally she opened her eyes and once the coast was clear she darted out and carefully tried removing officers from their vehicles. At moments like these she was grateful that the mutagen had positively blended with her body and aided her strength, because her natural muscle alone would not have been able to help her move these officers with the muscular builds they had. She made sure to watch their necks, since her making careless moves could easily break their spines if any damage had been caused to the area. She also tried to watch out for any serious lacerations since accidentally pushing or pulling those could also cause some serious damage. Luckily none of the officers had been impaled with anything, but each of them had some serious cuts on their heads.

Just then Sam sensed something coming up quick and looked up to see Donnie and Leo sitting in the front seats of their truck. Sam nodded to them as they quickly drove by. Good, the turtles were closing in on the attack up ahead. Once Sam had then removed all the officers from their cars, she then pushed all the cars so that they were in a further down spot and blocking anyone from driving down that road any further. She then made sure to carefully maneuver the beings so that they were in a medically supported position on their sides so that they if they threw up or even if blood was in their system it wouldn't build up and make them drown just from laying on their backs. Shen finished her work by bandaging up any visible and serious cuts. As she did this, Sam wondered if this should have been her first move in case there were any officers who had serious enough wounds where they could bleed out, but her panicked thoughts were interrupted by someone shouting to her: "hey you!"
She held onto the belongings that she had been packing up and now slowly turned around to see that one of the officers who had been lying on the ground was now conscious and aiming his gun towards her.
"Okay dude, my hands are up, and all I've done is help protect your men."
"You're dressed in black just like them, I don't trust you-"
"Hold up" a voice groaned.
Sam and the officer turned to see that another younger officer had awoken and was now carefully sitting up on the ground. "State your code" he demanded.
"SAP3 sir" Sam responded.
The man's eyes widened a bit as he then looked up at her. "You're free to go."
"Thank you sir, I was never here." Sam then turned around and once again her eyes changed colors as she dashed off in the direction that the car chase was heading towards. She wasn't sure exactly who that officer was, but there were connections everywhere and obviously he knew of her code name, so hopefully she was safe for now.

As Sam ran at the highest speed her legs could carry her, she noticed things in the road that gave her an idea of how the fight had gone so far. The first thing she noticed was that there were a bunch of manhole covers lying about in the road, so she assumed that one of the many new launchers that had been installed had officially been tested out. A smile grew on her face under her surgical mask as she ran by some smashed up vehicles that she assumed were used by the Foot (they must have gotten on using a different exit since she had never seen them on any of her devices earlier on) but this expression quickly turned into one of slight irritation as she ran under a small bridge and saw what she assumed were smashed and broken up pieces of the giant nunchuks that were a recent addition built from Donnie. Oh well, he had a million other things he wanted to fix up, both for the truck and in general, so it would be a decently long while before Mikey got to use those again.

Sam was now close enough that she had the turtle's truck in her sights, but just as she was catching up she saw the motorcycles that were way farther ahead now turn around and start driving back towards the turtles. She saw a few of the soldiers reach behind their backs and she soon recognized the orange lights that appeared as their hands returned in front of them. She didn't have time to warm the guys since she was now reaching into her side pouches and was throwing shuriken stars with the best aim she could give them as the speed she was throwing them. She had hit the arms of most of the soldiers, resulting in either the bombs dropping or exploding far enough away that it didn't affect the truck, but there was one star that missed and that soldier was able to place his bomb near the front of the truck. Sam grew furious as she saw the truck jump upwards as the bomb went off and blue flames surrounded the wheels. Seconds after the truck had been hit, multiple soldiers on bikes then began speeding on their way back towards where she was running.
"Now it's my turn to have some fun" Sam thought as she glared at the oncoming cyclists while simultaneously reaching for her tonfa in the side pockets of her backpack. She gripped the handles and extended the weapon as the first motorcyclist came by with a katana in hand. She used her weapon to block the soldier from harming her as he swung towards her head. A few more soldiers came by and all four were swinging their blades at Sam, but her moves were quicker. As one soldier drove by, Sam used her right tonfa to block the man's blade and angled her body in a way so that as she took a step forward it also allowed her to swing her left arm around and use that tonfa to hook around his neck as she then pulled through with that moving force to knock the man off his bike. The man rolled backwards but then quickly got to his feet. He revealed that he was wearing a type of tekko and Sam was able to sense that this battle was now leading towards hand to hand combat. The man charged at Sam and the two began sparring. The man started jabbing at Sam, but by spinning the handle of her tonfa, she was able to block the blades from the man's tekko each time he jabbed. Sam kept backing up as she blocked attacks so that as the man charged forward he would continue to do so at a constant and ongoing speed, and this is what threw him off guard when Sam then quickly swiveled so that her right foot stayed planted but her body then turned so that for a split second her back was towards the man, her right tonfa spinning the entire time, and then as the man continued moving forward for that split second of time, Sam then stopped the tonfa once he was about to pass her as she then jabbed the forehead of the right tonfa into his side. Sam then swung her right elbow forward and up and then straight back so that it connected with the man's chin and then right after, with her right foot still planted in its same spot, she then swung her body to the right with her foot planted as she brought her knee up and kneed the man in the stomach, and as he stumbled back, Sam then spun and leaped up so that as she came back down she landed a final kick to the man's forehead, knocking him unconscious as he now lay on the road.

In the midst of this fight, Sam had forgotten that there were three additional soldiers chasing after her not long ago. Her questions were solved as she looked up at Raph who at some point must have come barreling out of the truck and was now knocking soldiers over left and right. She assumed that the soldiers had turned around and were more focused on defeating him as he barreled through the multiple other soldiers in front of them, but now it was their turn to meet their maker. Sam smirked as she dashed to the side and started gunning for the truck as she watched Raph roll forward and bounce back up off the ground from his shell and swing his arms outwards as they slammed two soldiers off their bikes and onto the ground. She then turned her head as she ran to see Raph leap back up onto the final bike and smash his head onto that of the bikers as the soldier went flying off his motorcycle. Sam turned back around and leaped up into the truck and got over to the side in seconds just before Raphael had ridden the motorcycle up and then jumped off of it and into the truck himself.
He stood up and brushed off his soldiers. "Anything else I can do for ya?" he asked in a playfully cocky tone, resulting in chuckles from Mikey.
Raph then turned towards the girl who was now removing herself from the wall. "Nice of you to finally join us" he said raising his brows with a smirk.
"My invitation got lost in the mail" she said with a taunting voice and expression.
"How are the officers?" Leo asked as he turned around in his seat.
"I didn't sense any serious external injuries. Hopefully they're all okay" Sam replied with a sincere smile.

Just then, a helicopter flew over top of their truck. Sam stepped forward so that she was standing behind and between where Leo and Donnie were seated. Now that she was up close she could see that there were still a few motorcycles driving behind the police van and that there were two soldiers who were on top the van who were using some type of saw to cut into the top of the van. Just then the helicopter flew over them and was now hovering over top of the police van. Using long chained cables, a large round piece was lowered from the helicopter and was then placed onto the top of the police van by the two soldiers.
"What is that thing?" Leo asked as his face scrunched up.
"It's a big ass magnet" Donnie replied with wide eyes.
Maybe this cussing thing was becoming a new thing for Donnie since it seemed like it was happening more often than ever before as of late, though Sam would lie if she said she didn't like it.
The magnet then pulled upwards, and it pulled the van along with it as the back side raised into the air. Finally it pulled the top cut section from the van off and the vehicle slammed back down onto the ground. A separate cable was then lowered into the back of this open section as the soldiers on the sides leaped down onto the bikes of the trailing soldiers, and seconds after they left the scene, Shredder was being pulled up and out of the van.
"He's getting away!" Donnie shouted.
Sam thought quickly. "No he's not, Leo press the red sword button!"
Leo checked quickly and figured out which button to press as he slammed his fist down onto the large red button. This led to a mechanical bar appearing in front of their truck which then launched a katana blade up towards the cable, slicing into it so that Shredder fell straight down. He wasn't able to catch his balance and bounced off the back of the truck, just grabbing onto the back in time so that he didn't come crashing down onto the road.
"Donnie did you ever finish adding the net gun? Because I think now might be a good time to test it out" Sam stated.
Just after she said this, Shredder pulled himself up and was now standing on top of the police van, and seconds after that a man went flying out the passenger door and was rolling down the road.
"Okay now I really think it's a good time to test it out" Sam said.
"Alright Mikey," Donnie started, "remember that game I set up for you? This machine will be set up the same way."
"Hehe, awesome" Mikey said with an excited smile.
"Okay, it's all you Mikey!" Donnie said as he turned and nodded towards his younger brother to signal that now was the time.
"Time to shine" Mikey said as he sat in place and rubbed his hands together.
Donnie pulled back a yellow lever and Mikey's chair was lifted upwards…only to make him bash his head into the ceiling over and over again as he said 'ow' each time.
"I'm sorry! It's stuck!" Donnie called out.
Sam nudged Don's shoulder. "Pull it all the way back and then forward, remember?"
Donnie pulled the lever all the way back until he heard a click and then pushed it forward. "Ah there it is" he said with a content smile, ignoring that his brother just hit head on the ceiling like four times in a row.
Apparently Mikey had forgotten this as well as his seat was launched into the air and was now riding on top of the truck, the wind whipping past him as the sped along the highway in trying to get closer to the police van.
"Whoaaaa this is awesome!" Mikey shouted while throwing his fist in the air.
Sam couldn't help but look up and smile at him through the opening in the ceiling. This was a dire situation, and yet somehow this dork knew how to calm himself (in the sense of not being overly worried and stressed that is) in even the most serious of situations.
"Lock on you idiot!" Raph bellowed from the back of the truck.
"Oh, right!" Mikey said as he now went into focus mode and looked through the eye piece of the device to try and lock in on where Shredder was.
"Mikey! Make sure you aim for where he's going to jump and NOT ON SHREDDER HIMSELF!" Donnie shouted for his younger brother to hear.
"Right! Got it!"
"Alright Donnie, you got to get Mikey closer" Leo stated.
Without hesitation, Donnie pulled back a switch that launched the truck forward and at incredible speed, which also lead to Leo and Donnie being thrown backwards into their seats, Raph being thrown against the back of the truck, and then Sam being thrown back and sliding down the back aisle some. Once Raph was able to get ahold of his footing, he stepped forward and helped Sam stand back up.
"You good?" he asked.
"My butt hurts" she said as she rubbed her lower backside. Nothing was seriously hurt, but she had landed pretty hard on her bottom.
Raph pursed his lips. "Great, good to know" he said as he nudged her.
"I'm fine, thanks red" she said with a laugh. Messing with Raph was just to fun, especially since he still teased her with almost every free moment that he had, or at least it seemed that way.
"Guys, Shredder looks like he's about to jump" Donnie announced, not realizing that whenever he got nervous he was leaning so far forward that he was leaning over and past the steering wheel.
"One shot it all you got" Leo announced. Shredder then took a few steps and leaped to his left. "TAKE THE SHOT MIKEY!"

Mikey took one final look through the eye piece and then pressed the button as a net shot through the tube and launched right towards where Shredder was jumping. The net should have caught him, but missed due to a huge blue light appearing and sucking Shredder into it just before the net could reach. The light swallowed up Shredder and disappeared, and the net dropped down to the ground. Donnie brought the truck to a halt, everyone inside just sitting there with their jaws dropped. Raph had moved his way up so that he was crouched between Leo and Donnie, Sam was standing right behind Raph, and Mikey's seat was brought back inside so that now he was sitting in the middle of the inside of the truck. Each of the five just sat there in silence until Leo finally voiced what each of them was thinking.
"Where'd he go?" He then turned back towards Sam, wondering if any of her past Foot activity could explain what it was they all had just seen, but Sam just shook her head in response.
"Of the short time that I worked for the Foot, I never saw anything like that. D, please tell me you somehow got footage of that."
Donnie nodded his head, still facing forward in shock. "My shoulder cam is always running and should have picked up everything. We need to get back to the lair quick. Someone call April so that we can update her and see if she read anything about this in those emails of Stockman's."
"Oh! I'll do it!" Mikey shouted as he shot his hand in the air like he was asking a teacher to call on him.
"I'll do it" Raph growled as he turned back to glare at his brother.
Mikey pouted, but accepted.

Donnie then quickly drove around to pick up any loose materials he could find (the manhole covers, the katana, the net) and then quickly took an exit that would lead back to the secret passage they had exited the sewers from earlier on.
In the meantime, Sam went back to where Mikey was sitting to nerd out about the new devices he had tested out.
"Still the best sharp shooter in New York" she said as she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed.
"Yeah right, I missed the shot" Mikey said as he leaned forward, his face cupped in his hands which were now resting on his crouched up knees.
"Only because 'who the hell knows what' appeared and swallowed Shredder whole, I wish for good. None of us expected that, so no one could have avoided it. Without that randomness then you totally would have trapped Shredder dude."
Mikey started to smile at this comment and began to cheer up. "Well, I did max out each of my previous high scores whenever I tested out the demos" he said in a playfully cocky tone.
"That's because your skills are dope man!"
"Hell yeah! No one tops M.C. Mikey!" he shouted as he pulled his friend in for daps and a bro hug.
"Sorry April, I can't hear you over the dorks in the back" Rah groaned out loud from his spot up front behind and between Donnie and Leo.
Sam squinted her eyes at him as she cupped her mouth and shouted "Whoa Raph what's up with these pics of April on your phone!" Of course this was made up, Sam had no idea what was on anyone's phone but Mikey's, but it lead Raph to do what she hoped he would.
In his instant anger (and embarrassment even though there were no pictures of April on his phone) Raph threw his shell cell towards Sam rather violently. Sam had planned this however and caught the device, and then kindly handed it to Michelangelo. "And this is for you" she said in sweet voice, knowing that Mikey gushing to April and miserably failing at flirting would piss Raph off even more.
"April! Heyyyy angel cakes, how'd your mission go today? Tell me allllllll about it!" he started as he walked further towards the back of the truck with the phone.
"Hey Sam" Raph called from the front.
"Hmmmm?" she hummed, her chin in her right hand and her left arm crossed against her stomach, making the expression just to mess with the angered turtle even more.
"You should take me out to dinner."
"Why so?"
"I'd like to eat before you fuck me" he announced in an irritated manner.
"Huh, I didn't take you for that type of guy" she said, tilting her head to the side.
"What?"
"I thought you'd just cut to the chase."
"What is wrong with you two?" Leo asked, trying to remember how the conversation lead to this.
"Years of being lied to and not knowing the truth and then that affecting me in a variety of ways" Sam stated, nodding her head at her nonchalant response.
"Heh, yet you throw out lies like saying I have pictures that don't exist on my phone" he said, jabbing his finger into the girl's forehead as he stood up to walk past her.
"I gave her food for thought…hey, there's your dinner" she said, squinting her eyes up at him.
"Pshh, you couldn't handle me" he said in attempts to mess with her…and yet Sam was fighting her damned best not to laugh.
"Why are you laughing?" he asked, pausing his steps from walking towards the back of the truck.
Sam rapidly shook her head. "I'm not."
"Yeah you are."
"Nope."
"Sam!"
"Oh go beat up your brother already" she said, waving the turtle away. She would never admit it, but seeing Raph in a sexual sense just made her laugh. It wasn't just him, comments like this from any of the three older brothers would have her reacting this way. It wasn't that they didn't have sex appeal (she'd be a liar if she said there weren't traits about all four of them as individuals that she actually found quite attractive) but the older three never flirted or anything, so hearing them talk sexually or anything close was so out of character that it was rather comical to her.
"Heh, with pleasure." Raph cracked his knuckles and made his way towards the back of the truck.

Around this time, Donnie was now entering the secret passage way and the group was entering the sewers. The truck was parked and before anyone could say anything, Donnie was already rushing over towards his collage of computer screens right outside his lab and was hooking up wires and devices and clicking away on his keyboard.
Around the same time, April was now just arriving herself and entering from where the living room was. Mikey, of course, was the first to greet her with a hug and a smile, rushing over to her like he had forgotten about everything else that had just happened. April had grown accustomed to this greeting and accepted it whole heartedly each time, not wanting to hurt the turtle's feelings. She knew that he knew that no relationship would ever occur between the two, but she also knew that Mikey was still the flirt that he was and still loved the woman as family, so she knew the hugs were friendly and harmless.
Raph had now walked over to join these two. "Soooo, I don't know what you heard earlier-"
"Oh, you mean about the pictures?" April said, teasing the now embarrassed 6'5 turtle standing in front of her as she smirked up at him.
"Uhhh that was just Sam being an idiot again" Raph said, rubbing the back of his head.
April nodded her head for Raph to look behind him, and as he did so he saw Sam who had been walking now pause in place and shoot him a 'wtf' type expression.
"Well that's what you get when you screw me over" he said, pointing at Sam with his brows furrowed.
Sam then paused. "…screw me over…fuck me over…ohhhh take me to dinner before you fuck me over HA now I get it, that's funny" she said as she pointed at him and continued to walk so that she was now standing next to Leo who was also standing behind Donnie.
"I heard that through the phone to" April said, hiding her smile behind her hand as she pretended to be itching under her nose.
"That one is her fault! She pisses me off and then I say oddly comfortable insults and shit."
"The pictures are your fault though" Mikey teased.
"There are no pictures!" Raph shot back, glaring at his brother.
"Of April at least" Mikey smirked with a devilish grin.
"Oh? So who is on your phone then?" April chimed in, bearing a similar expression to Michelangelo's.
"Uhhhh no one. Just knitting ideas for the Hashi" Raph said with a slight blush.
"Scarlet. Johansson." Mikey said, moving his hands in front of his face and then outwards, like he was seeing through something. And then of course this lead to more playful arguments between the two as April continued to laugh at them both.

Sam watched this and smiled off from afar. At this point in her friendship she was used to being the second best. If she and Mikey were hanging out then he would usually sprint over to April whenever she entered the room and he would start bombarding her with a million different questions before April could even say hello. If Mikey had already been talking to April, then Sam would purposefully enter the lair through an entrance where she wouldn't be seen and would go talk to another one of the brothers first and would talk to Mikey later, that way he could continue talking to April without doing anything to accidentally show that he was upset that the conversation had to end. He had let this slip once and Sam mentally never forgot it, and honestly it made her feel like shit for a variety of reasons, so she made sure to follow this routine each time so that she would never have to experience that again. She would never admit this to Mikey though because she knew it would upset him, so this was all a secret that she kept to herself. She knew that Mikey flirted (or attempted to do so in his ways) with April all the time, but he had heart to heart conversations and nerded out with Sam, so it didn't bother her that Mikey always wanted to gain attention from April. Plus she knew that April was gorgeous, so any man would obviously want to talk to the gorgeous older woman compared to the nerdy tomboy who wore form fitting comfy clothes 24/7 and who did things like secretly hold burping contests with her best friend when no one else was around. That and Sam had now grown a lot closer to other male figures in her life ever since she learned of her brothers past with the Foot. Now that she knew the truth, she was able to hang out with so many friends that she had lost touch with, unknowingly because of their own personal reasons for being forced into the Foot clan. Now that all of that was over, she was able to rekindle and even start new friendships, including her bond with Kris from years ago. All in all, she was used to seeing Mikey wanting to be close to April, but she also accepted this and understood this, and this was part of the reason as to why she was now standing closer to Leo and Donnie. Sam also cared about April very much and vice versa, but for Mikey's sake, Sam kept her distance from the older woman when her friend was surrounding her.

While Sam was letting these thoughts swirl around in her mind, Leo was playing the protective older brother towards Sam as the two stood back some and watched as Donnie went to town on finding good quality video footage of what they all saw earlier on the highway.
"Were you seen?" Leo asked calmly.
"Seen I was, in trouble I'm not."
Leo quickly turned towards her. "What does that mean?"
"So one of the unconscious soldiers woke up and got all freaked out since I was dressed in black, even though I was helping keep his men safe from harm, but another soldier woke up and asked for my code name."
"Code name?" Leo asked, scrunching his face in confusion.
"Yeah. Rebel soldiers had code names we used to communicate with each other. Mine was SAP3. Jay's was JAP5. I said my code and the dude told me to go. I'm not sure if I ever actually met him or not, but the police might know some of the codes from some of the top fighters. Honestly I'm not sure how he knew exactly, but when I stated my code name he acted like he recognized it personally. Either way, I'm sure he explained to the older officer about the significance of the code and I'll be fine" Sam said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"*sigh* Sam you need to be a lot more careful" Leo huffed.
"What are you talking about? I just said the officer let me off the hook."
"And what if he didn't? What if he didn't know you personally, or he didn't have any info given to him from the NYFS? You could have been in big trouble getting caught like that."
Sam pursed her lips together. "Yeah, I guess so. I'll be more careful from now on, okay?" she said with a small apologetic smile.
"How are you feeling?" Leo asked in a serious yet softer voice.
Sam shot him a muddled look. "What do you mean? Like if I got hurt during the chase?"
"Well that to, but more so about…" he paused as his eyes were now aimed at the ground to the side. Sam had an idea she knew what Leo was talking about, and the pause was because he felt defeated and that this was his fault.
"Leo, are you worried about me because Shredder may be free now?"
Leo closed his eyes and then opened them as he looked back up at the girl next to him. "I just don't want you to feel like you're being forced into any of this."
"Dude what are you talking about?" Sam said, taken aback with a confused smile. "Why wouldn't I want updates about this?"
"Sam, he tortured you, and in more ways than one. I don't want you helping us if it's going to hurt you anymore than what he's already done to you" Leo said in a forcefully strict tone. It sounded like she was being ridiculed, but this was how Leo showed protection towards others.
Sam softened her expression some. "I spent years cowering in fear and being afraid of this guy, but for once I actually felt the will to fight back against him. As long as I'm with you guys, I still feel that want to fight back, and by working together we can try to get ahead of him. Working as a team is what will keep me strong, pushing me away and making me watch by myself from the sidelines, that's what will lead me to panic and lose myself again."
Leo sighed and went to speak, but was cut off by Donatello.
"Then you need to listen to us and work with us as a team. No sneaky business, got it?" he said, pausing his typing so that he could turn his head to face her.
"No sneaky business, I promise" Sam said with a genuine smile.
"So what do we know so far?" April asked as she walked over with Raph and Mikey so that now everyone was basically standing around Donnie. Leo was now standing next to Donnie on his right, Raph was standing behind them, April was standing to Donnie's left, and Mikey was standing to April's left. Sam just kind of hung in the back since she was the shortest and couldn't see anything at the moment.
"The only thing I know so is that he just disappeared after he took the jump" Donnie stated.
"So, he just vanished?" April questioned.
"I'm trying to run the video from my shoulder cam through an electrostatic filter so that we might be able to see what happened to Shredder."
"Come on, show me something buddy" Leo said softly, trying to motivate his brainy brother.
Donnie then pulled up the video of Shredder making the jump and paused it as Shredder was being grabbed by something within the blue light.
"Look! Right there!" Donnie announced as he pointed towards the image. "Sam come here!"
Sam had gone back and was laying down on the raised round area in between where Donnie's monitors and the living room were. She couldn't see overtop all her taller friends, so she had decided to just hang back and relax until she had been called just now. She maneuvered herself so that she didn't touch any of the burning candles along the ledges of the raised area as she got down and then walked over towards the monitors. Mikey had been kind enough to step to the side so that Sam was now standing on April's left with Mikey right behind the two women.
"None of this rings a bell at all?" Donnie asked, taking a few seconds to look over at his friend after asking the question, though the shocked and questioning look on the girl's face was all the answer he truly needed.
"I've never seen anything like this" she said lightly as she slowly shook her head. "Any idea what this even is?"
Donnie was now looking back at the screen as he tried to analyze what he saw as best he could.
"It appears to be some kind of residue from a teleportation event."
"Yeah teleportation even residue man, it's the worst" Mikey stated, a grin on his face. Sam then mimicked the expression as she lightly nudged him, signaling that now wasn't the best time for such jokes, regardless of how funny they were to her.
"Does that type of technology even exist?" Raph asked rather sternly.
"Baxter Stockman has been working on this type of tech for years" Donnie replied with a shrug.
April then turned towards Donnie, a determined look in her eyes. "All of that stuff that I pulled off of Baxter's iPad, it was full of information about Shredder and the Foot clan like it was a virtual playbook. Baxter has to have a backup somewhere and I bet it's on the mainframe of TCRI."
April then took a step back as if she was about to start pacing as she thought of what to do, but just as fast it seemed that she had already thought up a plan in her head.
"Donnie, I need something. What do you got?"
At this point all the others were watching Donnie (except for Mikey, who had now taken a few steps back and was now swinging his nunchuks to keep him occupied as he had lost concentration during the conversation) as he rummaged around through a box he had picked up off his desk.
"I know exactly what you need…" he said as he continued to look through the box. He then pulled out a rather thick flash drive as a smile and wave of confidence swarmed over him as he handed the device to April. "Totally plug and play."
"Perfect" the woman replied as she took the flash drive from the brainy turtle, "I'll go check it out." April then began to walk away towards the further exit near the kitchen.
"We'll go with and operate support" Leo added as he turned to follow April. Donnie and Raph instinctively did the same, and Mikey followed once Sam nudged him and he realized that everyone else was about to leave the room.

"Wait" April said, coming to a halt and turning to face the group behind her. As she faced them, Leo was on her right with Donnie next to him, then Raph, and then Mikey on her far left. Sam had already taken a few extra steps and out of curiosity as to what was about to be said, she turned around and was now standing on April's left (in front of Raph and Mikey) as her body faced the turtles while her face was looking at the woman next to her. Sam then opened her mouth a bit as she sighed and tilted her head to the side some as she realized what April was about to say.
"Sun's coming up," the older woman said, "you can't go outside, you'll be seen."
The two women then watched as the four turtles displayed similar reactions to what Sam just had.
Leo, attempting to react as mature as possible even though he was extremely frustrated at this current moment, tried not to roll his eyes (failing at trying not to) as he looked up towards his left, trying his best to hide from April how frustrated he was at this comment. It wasn't her fault that they couldn't be seen, so he didn't want to upset her, though his expression made it clear how annoyed he truly was. He was also extremely frustrated with the fact that they wouldn't have to worry about not being able to go up onto the surface at this moment if he had just lead his team to capturing Shredder like he should have, as he now began to mentally blame himself for putting his family and April in this overall situation.
Donnie just pursed his lips and nodded before slightly turning his head to the side, succeeding in concealing how frustrated he was. He quickly tried to process a way that they could all go up to the surface together and try to gain information on locating and capturing Shredder, but each thought lead to the same conclusions of his family being discovered and getting in trouble in multiple deadly ways, hence why he turned away in order to prevent April from seeing his troubled and defeated expression from her comment.
Raph and Mikey on the other hand made it known how upset they were after hearing this comment. Mikey rolled his eyes quietly as he then looked off in the distance to his right, whereas Raph sighed out loud and he rolled his eyes and looked off in the same direction.

April pursed her lips as she looked at the four teens in front of her. She so badly wished there was something she could do where she could protect them and allow them to continue on with their hunt for Shredder, but sadly any solution to these thoughts were completely out of her control. She formed a small smile as she tried to gently motivate them.
"Don't worry, it'll be 6p.m. and starting to get dark before you know it. I'll get as much information as I can and then we can work together and catch Shredder and figure out what's going on with Stockman. Just hang tight, okay?"
To make their friend feel better, all four turtles looked at her and nodded with a small smile.
"Go kick ass" Raph said with a genuine smile, all his brothers and Sam nodding with the same expression.
"Contact us immediately if you need anything" Donnie reassured.
"Will do" April replied, turning back to make her leave.
"Stay hidden and stay safe" Leo then called after her.
"Like always" April said, lifting her hand up for a wave as her back was to the group as she walked away.
"We have snacks in case you get hungry angel cakes!" Mikey called out to the woman. For this April had to pause and turn towards the group as she couldn't conceal her laughing smile. Finally, before anyone else could speak, she exited the lair.

Once the group could sense she was gone, the four turtles went back to displaying their distressed mannerisms.
Sam hated seeing her family like this and tried her best to cheer them up.
"Guys, you know that Shredder can't really do anything within a day right? I'm sure Donnie can calculate the odds that he could only possibly do so much when he just got escaped from prison with barely anything of a clan to go back to."
"It's a solid 50/50" Donnie mumbled.
"Well, then that just means that within the time you have, you should get amped up and get ready to take him down. While he's…wherever the heck he even is, I'm sure he'll be planning his next move, but we're all going to be ten steps ahead of him. You guys got this" Sam said, giving two thumbs up to the group with a serious expression on her face.
While all four of the guys appreciated her enthusiasm, they were still slightly bothered with the fact that they couldn't all act on finding Stockman and Shredder while they had the upper hand at this very moment. Because of this, each one decided to follow through with Sam's statement and do something that would help keep their minds focused.
With a small smile, Raph patted the girl's shoulder as he walked past her and towards the circular opening near the dojo that held various weights and other exercise equipment.
Leo did the exact same thing as he walked past Sam and back towards his room in the corner of the lair near the kitchen so that he could go meditate in peace.
Donnie then took a step forward. "I'll be working on the truck if you need me" he said with a nod before turning to his left and then down the small steps towards the truck.
Sam then looked over at Mikey who was staring off into space, lost in his thoughts. She then stood next to him and looked off in the same direction.
"What are we looking at?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders.
Mikey sighed. "Just thinking."
Sam rested her head on his shoulder. "Sorry about tonight."
"What do you mean?"
"What happened at the arena, since it would be such a big deal getting caught. And then not being allowed to join in the parade, and then hearing that you can't go after Shredder now. It upsets me too."
Mikey then formed a small smile as he turned his head towards the smaller one leaning on his shoulder.
"Ehhh it's no big deal. With you around, I know we'll eventually find a better spot, and you'll help us kick Shredder's ass when the time comes. And the parade was one of the most awesome experiences of my life, but it was missing something, so it wasn't perfect anyway."
Sam then took a step to the side so that she could look at her friend and see his face. "What was is missing?"
"A best friend to share the moment with" he said facing her with a big smile on his face.
Now that she sensed her friend was feeling better, this also meant it was time to tease.
"Ohhhh, to have A BEST FRIEND, so no one specific huh? That's cool, I get it" she said with her hands up as she went to walk away.
"Oh shut up!" Mikey exclaimed as he threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in, resulting in laughs and smiles from the girl, "gosh you're so emotional" he said in a mocking tone. "Wanna go play videogames Donnie set up so that I can practice my aim and shooting skills?"
"Lead the way" Sam said, gesturing her arm outwards for her friend to take the lead.
And with that, the two went on their way so that they could prepare and keep themselves alert and focused for when the time would come for them to act on chasing after Shredder later that night.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
So I'd like to announce now that sadly I have never actually been to New York, so I honestly made up street names.

Also I was watching the film and I love scenes where you really have to listen carefully to truly hear everything that is being said. I needed earphones on my laptop to be able to hear what Donnie is saying about the wires and the seats and I found it hilarious, but it was interesting because I had never heard any of that when I watched it on the television because it always sounded so muffled, so for the longest time I thought it was literally nothing but mumbles and I was shocked when I realized that if you listen closely you can actually hear what he's saying while he's tinkering around as the truck is moving.

Also I'm really sorry with how slow these updates are, and then how short the chapters are as they come along with the updates. I really hoped to have had a lot more content up by now, but life doesn't always allow things to go the way you want them to. But I hope that to anyone who is still reading that you're still enjoying what you've read so far and that you're still interested in joining me for the ride that these characters will continue on with. And to those who have left feedback in any way, (views, comments, etc.) thank you all so very much for the support

Before I forget, I'd also like to write something short in memory of Jonghyun of Shinee. Although I don't know a whole lot about Shinee, I've generally heard a lot about them in the k-pop community. I also learned something interesting through a memorial video made about him. The first ever k-pop video I ever saw was of a special stage where multiple men from different SM boy groups (Super Junior, 2AM, 2PM, Shinee, and maybe more) dressed up as the members of SNSD and sang and danced to GEE back when it was first coming out. I knew the names of everyone in the video eventually later on in life, but there were only a few where I had actually listened to them and their groups. In a memorial video for Jonghyun there was a scene from this video, meaning that I was recently reminded that Jonghyun was in the very video that lead me to become a k-pop fan. I just found that to be so incredible that someone lead me onto such an incredible journey into the k-pop world, which has then changed my life in so many positive ways, and every day he had no idea that he had done something so inspirational. And this is just one side story, this man touched people's lives every day and has incredible amounts of loving and dedicated fans. As I said before, sadly I don't know a whole lot about Shinee just yet, but this group was on a huge list I have of groups that I eventually wanted to learn about (i.e. right now I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the group EXO) and it makes me so sad to know that I was too late in learning about this group and meeting this singer. As a general k-pop fan I believe that times like these should open everyone's eyes and make the realize that we should all be supporting each other and that people need to stop posting such hateful comments. All the time I read about posts that bash celebrities over such trivial and ridiculous things and it hurts to read about things like this.

Jonghyun, I wish I could have learned and gotten to know you so much more before you passed, but I hope you are resting peacefully now. You will never be forgotten, and forever more people will continue to learn about you and think back to you, including myself. Rest peacefully now 3