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.

Chapter #31

*June 6th, 2015*
*Later into the next day after April has left. The lair around the afternoon.*

The guys liked to spend some time by themselves, especially when they were in a bit of a rough mood, but what truly and officially cheered them up was when they were all hanging out together. All families have their moments where they wanted to be surrounded by their loved ones and then other moments where they just wanted some down time alone, and the turtles family was the exact same way. After April had left it was about 3a.m. The sun wouldn't be coming up until a couple hours later, but the turtles knew that there was a good chance they wouldn't be back home by that time and that many people throughout the city would be waking up to head to work around 5a.m. or even earlier depending on what their hours were for their jobs, so leaving at 3 in the morning was still a pretty risky move. At that time everyone had gone off to do their own thing. Everyone had lasted until about 5a.m. By that time, Leo had decided to end his meditation and had fallen asleep since he was already in his room, Raph had been exercising and then eventually went back to his room to shower and then collapsed onto his bed where he fell asleep, Donnie had eventually reached his limit since he had gotten even less sleep the night before and so after working on the truck for a couple of hours he decided to head into his lab as he also collapsed onto the bed he had within his work space, and after Mikey and Sam had been testing out some video games, the two decided to relax some and took some new comic books up to where the hammocks were located in the upper large circular opening near the dojo and the two camped out there until they both eventually fell asleep in their own individual hammocks. Raph was the first one to wake up around 8a.m. later that morning. 3 hours felt like plenty of sleep for him, so once he woke up he headed to the kitchen with one of his sports magazines as he read about basketball stats from that season. Leo woke up about an hour later, and the two oldest were ridiculously excited to try and play pranks on the two that were sound asleep up in the hammocks. They would have woken Donnie, but they knew that he barely EVER got any sleep EVER because he was always sow wrapped up with his projects, so they thought it was more important to let him get this needed sleep. Leo and Raph then silently went into Mikey's room where they knew he had a crap ton of packs of mini balloons and filled them with water, and around 9:30a.m. the two oldest brothers set it up so that they were able to launch about 50 water balloons at the two that were sleeping…and then this lead to an all-out war as Mikey then rushed to his room and provided himself and Sam with toilet paper cannons (aka leaf blowers with toilet paper in them that Sam had prepared forever ago because she was freaking amazing and was the best teammate for prank wars, words by Michelangelo himself). By 9:40a.m. Donnie had woken up and secretly took pictures of the events as they continued to unfold because it was just too hilarious for him not to create evidence of these events and then find a way to use them to his advantage at some point down the road. Of course he was attacked once Sam spotted him, and a few minutes later the group thought they heard Master Splinter stirring and quickly realized that if they didn't clean up their mess that they'd be screwed. Sensei was all about having fun, but he was not a fan of ridiculously large messes. Knowing this, the group got to work and by 10a.m. the lair looked the same as before the prank war had begun. The group then decided to have breakfast since they were all wide awake by this time anyway and hung out with each other for the next hour. By 11a.m. the group was sort of hanging out with each other, but also wandering around and doing their own thing at the same time.

Donnie and Raph were both in a mood where they didn't feel like doing much and would rather be around others rather than isolating themselves, so they both hung around and talked to the others in the room. Raph had found an old wiffle bat and Donnie threw the balls from the kitchen as Raph tried to see how high he could hit them from across the room since the ceiling above was incredibly high up. Mikey was now antsy and needed to move around, so he found one of Donnie's drones and set it to a mode where it would follow him around and nudge him as a way of 'attacking' him. Sam was still a little groggy from being woken up by being bombarded by water balloons and then rushing into a prank war moments after, so she just hung back by herself and sat where the chairs were.
It was then 11:15a.m. when Donnie had stood up from where he was sitting along the edge of the eatery so that he could walk over to the fridge and get a Japanese juice box and in the process had spotted Sam writing on one of the duller colored chairs in the kitchen behind him.
Donnie chuckled as he lifted his foot and lightly nudged the girl as he walked by her.
"Stop writing on all of our chairs. That's the second one you've detailed so far" he said with a smile as he walked over and then opened up the fridge.
Sam looked over at him with a comical expression. "Says the guy who has literally written all along the walls of his bedroom."
"Hey! Those writings are for science!" Donnie playfully exclaimed as he shut the fridge and walked back over towards where the girl was sitting on the floor in front of her kitchen chair.
"Well I'm experimenting with these writings to see if they can prevent boredom" Sam stated as she looked up at him with a mocking smile.
Donnie read over her writing and the creatively drawn squiggles around it. "Guest, sit here."
"It's a personal matter, very touchy subject. It goes back to a time in my life when I didn't know that a chair was a place to sit" she said as she looked up at him.
"Very original, tons of details" Donnie replied, lightly ruffing the girls hair as he walked by and took a seat.
"Great, that's just fantastic" Raph grumbled as he paced back and forth on the walkway across from the eatery, just as Mikey had zoomed by and was playing around as the drone was still chasing after him.
"You guys paint graffiti on the walls all the time, learn to share!" Sam jokingly barked at him.
"Not that" Raph mumbled as he rolled his eyes, but staying alert enough to hit the ball that Donnie threw at him as it soared up towards the pipes above.
"Then what's your malfunction now?" Sam asked as she stood up and walked across the small bridge over the water below.
"My issue is that every second we're down here, Shredder becomes more powerful, and Mikey gets more annoying."
"Hey I heard that!" Mikey called out as he knocked the drone away from him and then zoomed under a pipe and into the other room.
"Oh come on Raph!" Donnie exclaimed, getting comfy in his seat, "we're training!" Donnie then through another wiffle ball at Raph, who then sent it flying high in the air once again. "Well, sort of."
"Oh! Donnie I have an idea!" Sam exclaimed as she walked over and pushed Rah over towards the side, messing with these guys was just too fun. "Throw me the ball, but not yet, but you'll know when to throw the ball, okay?"
"Uhhhh-"
"With crap instructions like that, not even a genius like Donnie can follow along" Raph said, rolling his eyes.
"You're just jealous because you know I'm going to do something amazing, as always" she said as she rubbed her knuckle against her shirt.
"Whatever." Raph took a seat along the open chairs in the aisle way.
"Mikey! Watch this, you'll regret it if you don't" Sam called out to him.
Mikey then kicked the drone in a way that turned it off and then sat along one of the pipes that was higher up in the air. He shot his friend two thumbs up to signal that he was ready and paying attention.
"Ready Donnie?" Sam asked as she now faced her friend from over the bridge.
"I'm going to give it a shot."
"Kame" Sam cupped her hands together in front of her, "Hame" she kept her hands together as she pulled her arms back against her left side, Donnie had quickly understood what was happening and now threw the ball, "HA!" Sam threw her arms forward while her hands were still cupped together and her eyes shone blue for a couple seconds as she used her wind powers to launch the ball way up into the ceiling.
"Whooo that was amazing!" Mikey shouted as he rocketed his way back down to the ground and stood next to his best friend.
"Who has two thumbs and makes waiting around super fun? It's meeee!" Sam said throwing her arms up into the air.
"As amazing as that was" Raph started in a mocking tone, hiding the fact that he actually thought that was really cool, "it's not what we should be doing right now. Shredder is free and doing who knows what and we're playing around down here!" he bellowed.
"Don't worry Raph, Shredder can only do so much in a day with the small leftovers of his clan. He will piddle around trying to get things done, but he won't get very far because as soon as the suns goes down, it's turtle time" Donnie said right before taking another sip of his juice box.

Sam walked over to the fridge, got a juice box for her and for Donnie (knowing he would want another one once he finished the one he had) and then walked back over to the table where she plopped down in a chair next to Donnie. She smiled as she handed him the extra juice box and chuckled as the turtle looked like a child receiving candy as he excitedly took the drink.
Sam sensed movement from across the room and turned her head to see Splinter leaving his new room and join his oldest son who was sitting by himself in the living room.
"Hey, is Sensei enjoying the new living arrangements?" Sam asked, looking back at Donnie. Raph was now occupied with kicking a soccer ball he found at Mikey, who was 'training' by dodging the ball as he zoomed around high up in the air on his skateboard.
"Oh he loves it. He has plenty more space now, and because of that he's finding more things he can collect, just like he did at the old lair" Donnie replied.
Sam chuckled as she shook her head. "I still can't believe you stayed up all night for like, how many days was it again?"
"4 nights and 3 full days" he replied with pride.
"I can't believe you spent 3 full days testing all the walls all throughout the lair." Sam then leaned back in her chair, joining her friend in kicking her legs up and resting them on the rail in front of her, since the eatery was raised up above where the water from the water slide was.
"Well ever since you and Mikey found that enormous space that you guys decked out about a year ago, I kept wondering what else was hiding down here."
"I mean hey, the search was obviously worth it. You found a new and more spacious bedroom for you, and then that lead to you creating a better bedroom for your dad, and now Jay and I have our own mini bedroom and same for April. Is Leo still okay with sharing his side of the lair?"
Throughout his search, Donnie had found an open space that was close by to Leo's room, and then on the wall perpendicular to that room there was another small space that stretched out and reached over towards where the water slide was. This smaller space had become a spare bedroom that visitors like Jay and Brenda were allowed to use, and Splinter's old bedroom within the raised pipe had also become a spare bedroom that was usually occupied by April when she visited. In order for all these new changes to be made and to work out, it meant that Leo had to allow Donnie to occupy the bedroom that was right next to his, meaning that he was no longer separated by all three of his younger brothers anymore.
"Nah, Leo doesn't mind. More than anything he would have made the change because it would mean better sleeping arrangements for Sensei, but he also told me that he didn't mind as much because it was me who would be sleeping in the room next to him. He wouldn't have been as okay if he had to have Raph or Mikey nearby. He knows that I'm as tidy as he is, so he didn't see it as a big deal. That and he and I usually don't butt heads as much. I mean we ALL annoy each other at times, but he and I don't argue as much as we do with others in our family. "
"Heh, I still just find it funny how these spaces have been right under your noses and you guys never knew about them."
"Well there was a lot going on before you came along. I mean now it's been almost 2 full years since our first encounter with Shredder, so we've all had a lot more time to wander around and explore what is around our home, but back when you met us we had just finished up with moving things around."
Sam nodded her head. "That's right. You guys said that Shredder attacked in August of 13, and I was allowed in the lair in…May of 14 I believe. So that only gave you about 8 to 9 months to find a new home."
"And scavenge for anything that we could move from the old lair to the new one, and make sure that we had a reliable power source, and to make sure we could get running water, AND set up security measures so that no one could track us."
"So basically you had a million things to do, and your brothers just moved furniture?" Sam asked with a teasing smile.
"Because I had a million things I didn't move or lift a thing" Donnie laughed.
"Huh, so because of the short amount of time and because of how busy you were, you had no idea that there were extra spaces all throughout where your new home was located. But it was my discovery, meaning it was me coming along and joining the group that lead you to the idea to look for even more open space in your new lair. I guess you can just add that to the list of reasons why you love me! Haha, am I right?" Sam joked as she kept nudging her friend in the side.
"Ehhhh" Donnie shrugged, "you're alright."
"Dude, just admit you love me and that I'm the greatest thing ever" Sam said in a serious tone, though still teasing her friend.
"Cocky much?"
"Hehe, you said 'much'" Sam giggled, her hands covering her mouth.
"Oh grow up" Donnie groaned with a smile as he leaned his foot over and kicked the girl's legs down and off the rail in front of them.
Sam leaned forward and placed her hands on her knees. "You know I can totally kick your ass now right? My mutagen overpowers yours!"
"No balls" Donnie said to provoke his friend, tilting his head forward and looking over his glasses at her.
Sam nodded her head as she spoke. "Well I'd hope not, I'm kind of a girl."
Donnie let out a quick laugh before pursing his lips together and looking away, not being able to prevent himself from laughing at his friend's childish comments.
"Regardless, you still won't do it" he said, sitting with his hands on his knees, copying the way his friend was sitting.
Sam sensed this and tilted her head forward so that if she wore glasses then she would be looking over them the same way Donnie was looking over his.
"You're right, I'm to kind to kick your ass, so I'll use you for target practice instead."
Just then, Sam lunged to the side and snatched 5 of the wiffle balls that were still in a pile that had been next to Donnie from when he was throwing them to Raph earlier on, and started chasing after the tallest turtle who had already leapt over the rail and was running across the lair.
Donnie had first run backwards and then towards his right so that he was now rushing towards the circular openings that lead into the dojo. Sam fired a wiffle ball towards him at an incredible speed, her eyes lighting up as she activated her powers when throwing the balls. Donnie was quicker though as he leaped and swung himself upwards into the higher opening, and as his feet touched the concrete of the upper level opening, he jumped to the side just in time to dodge another ball that was thrown at him. As Sam started running over towards the circular openings, Donnie flipped over her, dodging the third ball thrown at him. He then darted towards where his lab was while Sam dashed over to the kitchen and then leaped over the rail so that she was now standing in the middle of the room on the raised pipe. She had gotten to her position just a split second before Donnie had gotten to his, so she launched a ball at him, just missing her target by a split second side step he took at the last second. Sam jumped down and was getting ready to aim as Donnie sprinted around the room. He paused for a moment and was lightly bouncing on his feet, trying to calculate which route was the best to take and when he should take it.

A devilish grin grew on his face as he finally began to make his move. He ran so that it looked like he was going to run straight across the lair on the further side, but instead of leaping over the raised pipe to continue his run towards the other side of the room, he slid and literally entered the pipe through the small entry way that lead down and underneath the space. Sam would have come close to a solid hit if Donnie had run across the lair and over the raised pipe like she had predicted, but she had not thought of him actually entering the pipe, and because of this miscalculation, she had already thrown the ball and it went sailing across the room…and into the living room…where it would have almost hit the back of Leo's head if it weren't for Splinter catching the ball with his tail.
Sam was frozen solid as she just stood there with Splinter and Leo both looking at her from the living room with questioning looks on their faces. Sam knew that she had to say something or else…well honestly she had no idea what would result from this situation, but she felt that it would be worse if she just continued to stand there and do nothing.
She slowly started to walk over towards where the other two were sitting, rubbing her hand behind her head as she did so.
"Heyyyy guys. Sorry, I've just been trying to get Leo's attention for hours now and I ran out of ideas in how to do so, hehehe…heh."
"Ah, so beaming a ball towards the back of my head was the solution to your problems. I'll make sure to remember that in the future" Leo stated with a small grin on his face.
Splinter smiled and stood up. "Well Samantha, if whatever you need to say to my son is of such importance, I will leave you two to discuss this matter."
Sam's eyes went wide a bit. "Pshh, you don't need to do that Sensei" she said as she waved her hand in front of her.
"Oh no I insist" Splinter said with a grin. "It's probably time I go check on my other sons to make sure they are not destroying anything now anyways" the old rat teased as he exited the living room area and made his way across the lair towards the kitchen where the others were now all sitting.
As soon as he knew that Leo and Sam couldn't see his face, Splinter couldn't help himself from forming a large smile on his face. It always amused him how there were times where his sons seemed really down in the dumps for various reasons, but somehow Sam's words and actions would quickly start to cheer them up. The whole time Splinter had been talking to Leo he continued to display a defeated and dismayed expression, but once Sam came over acting silly, Leo was already grinning because of the girl's antics. He wondered whether it was because Sam was able to provide a woman's perspective and if this had anything to do with it, or if being a fellow teenager helped her in being able to communicate and understand the boys better than he could as their father, or if her comical tomboy ways allowed them all to feel more comfortable around her than those who were more mature like himself and April, the reasons were endless. Overall, Splinter was just happy that there was another person that could help cheer his sons up in ways that he couldn't, and as their father he would always be forever grateful for that.

Once the two were alone, Sam sat down on the couch while Leo continued to sit in the round chair that was placed next to the couch. Sam quickly noticed that once Splinter had left the room, Leo's expression switched back to a depressed and defeated look.
"Okay, what are you so pissed off about now?"
He raised his eyes at her. "Starting with a question, that's odd. You know, since you're the one who's been trying to get my attention for hours now."
"Yes, and for hours I've been trying to ask you what's making you so upset" Sam said as she crossed her arms.
"Just reflecting on what happened on the highway." Leo looked off in the distance, the image of Shredder making his leap and escaping through the portal haunting his memory as it continued to play on rewind in his mind.
Sam's expression switched to a sympathetic one. She made sure to speak gently as she talked to him. "Leo, you guys are the most skilled ninjas and overall the most skilled fighters I've ever met. When you four work together, you can do anything. And you literally have done some of the most amazing things I've ever seen. You defeated Shredder twice now, and I know that you're going to stop him again."
"And what if we don't? What if what happened tonight continues to happen and we aren't able to stop him? What if I'm not able to lead the team and they realize that they can't depend on me?" Leo said, a strict tone mixed with a panicked one revealing itself in his speech.
Sam shot him a quizzical look. "Leo, who are you trying to fool by talking like that? That doesn't sound like you at all. You're one of the most confident people I have ever met, so where is all this doubt coming from?"
"*sigh* I just don't want to mess things up. Whenever others are in danger I usually begin to panic, and it's worse if it's my family that's in danger. I'm usually good at masking my worry, but knowing that Shredder got away from us so easily is just…giving me this feeling that something terrible is about to happen. Just prepping myself for the worst I guess-"
"Well stop" Sam said, slightly raising her voice. "The only thing that's going to fail your family is you giving up on yourself like this and losing your focus. If you do everything in your power to protect them, then they'll have your back as well, and when you're all working together like that then you guys are able to kick major ass, I've seen in firsthand. You need to stop doubting your leadership and abilities because of one thing that literally no one could control happened. If the random portal had not appeared then Shredder would be back behind bars right now. No one could have predicted what happened, and right now you have the chance to calm your mind and prepare for what's to come so that you guys can be ten steps ahead of Shredder and what little remains of his clan" Sam said, lifting her fists in front of her in a confident congratulatory way.
This mini speech did knock some sense into Leo, and he found it ironic how some parts of what Sam had said matched up with what Splinter had just said minutes before she appeared.
"Thanks for reality check Sam. Maybe I'll call the guys together for a quick training session so that we can be on our feet and ready for whatever new tricks Shredder has waiting for us."
"Now that sounds like Leo!" Sam stated as she pat her friend on the shoulder.
"Hey, speaking of failing your family" Leo said as he pulled out his shell cell, "aren't you supposed to be somewhere helping your family right now?" he asked, playfully raising a brow at her and smiling.
Sam's response was one of utter confusion. "I have no idea what you're talking about dude."
"It's 12p.m. Sam."
"So you can read a digital clock, I'm very proud of you Leo, well done" she teased.
Leo rolled his eyes. "What important family event is coming up in a few more weeks Sam?" he asked with a groan.
"I'm assuming you mean the wedding and OH MY GOD I HAVE A REHEARSAL BRUNCH I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ATTENDING SOON!"
Sam leaped off the couch and sprinted out of the lair. "Thanks Leo! I owe you one!"
Leo shook his head as he chuckled to himself. It would always amuse him how Sam had her moments where she was as quick and witty as Donnie, yet she had just as many moments where she was a bit ditzy just like Mikey. It was definitely always an interesting time when Sam was around. Leo then stood up and stretched, preparing himself for the backlash he was about to receive as he told his brothers that it was time to get off their lazy butts and that now was the time to actually train and prepare themselves for what might come next from Stockman and Shredder.

So I've done the best I can to analyze the layout of the lair from Out of the Shadows because in my story I wanted the lair to mimic what is seen from the film because that's where my story is taking place, right before and now currently during the scenes of the film. Since this is a fanfiction story, my layout is different in multiple ways, but there are more similarities than differences in my story. One of the most noticeable differences is the bedroom layout. There are open spaces between the living room and Donnie's lab in the film and since these areas are never given a specific purpose, I took advantage of this and used the middle opening as a pathway that lead to actual bedrooms for Mikey and Raph, and the opening on the right of this right by Donnie's lab, I turned this into a bedroom for Donnie (now for Splinter since I moved Donnie's bedroom). What I find hilarious is that I did this originally because I could only figure out where Leo's bedroom was after watching bonus features and doing the best to watch scenes of the film on You Tube. I now FINALLY set up the film and have access to it through iTunes (I've had the code to do so for what seems like forever now) and as I watch different scenes AND look back to bonus features, I now realize that literally all four of their beds are in the top corner of the lair near the kitchen area. Like I was mind blown by this. I've seen this movie god knows how many times, and I literally just learned that all their beds are basically all right next to each other. I feel silly for just realizing this, but at the same time the film doesn't do the best job at making specific parts of the lair's layout known…then again I'm also that weird nerd that would analyze every aspect of their home. Like I LOVE to go in depth and go behind the scenes of films and I nerd out ten times more when it's a film that I really enjoy. But I have to have everything down to the tiniest detail because I'm that person where everything has to make sense and everything has to be perfect. Hopefully the oddly specific details that I include help set the scene as you read through the story and hopefully it helps you easily picture where everything is and should be.

Hope you guys are enjoying the story, and criticisms and words of advice are always appreciated