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 #33

*Late night June 6th into the early morning of June 7th, Saturday into Sunday*

It was about 10:20p.m. when Leo and Donnie had finished talking and both had returned to the rooms they had originally left. Sam traveled back through the hallway in the sewers and returned through the entry way right by the living room. She walked over to the couch the exact same time Mikey did. They both turned and sighed as they plopped down and slumped into the cushions.
Mikey dully turned his head so that he could look at Sam. "What happened to you?"
Sam moved in the same way. "I heard the same conversation that you did" she mumbled.
Mikey was a bit confused. He knew why he was upset about what Leo had said in regards to not needing the purple ooze to become human and the fact that he had done so without asking him, but how did that affect Sam?
"Why does that make you upset?"
Sam furrowed her brow and turned her head so she was staring straight at Mikey. "What?"
"You heard what Leo said about the ooze, right?"
Sam nodded her head. "Yeah, that you guys can't try to become human for a little while."
Mikey's eyes went wide. "A little while? I want to mutate and be human forever man" Mikey said firmly.
Sam displayed a confused expression. "Why? What's fun in that? I never would have met you guys if you were normal human beings-"
"Yeah but you don't know that" Mikey said a bit forcefully. He wasn't rude in the way he spoke, but his tone became a lot more serious. "If we were human then maybe we could have met you years ago. Maybe we could have even met your family and became friends with them."
Sam was stunned. "I never knew you felt that way. I know you wanted to go on the surface and all, but I never knew you wanted to change your entire life like that, or that you had thought that much into it."
Mikey leaned back into the couch and tilted his head so that he was looking up at the ceiling as he spoke. "I've always wondered what it would be like to live life up top. I don't regret how my life has been though. I've had a great life for 16 years, but…I just want to add to it, you know? There's so much still out there and I'll never get to experience any of it" he said glumly.
Sam looked away and stared forward towards the t.v. as she also slumped back into the couch. She had to look away somewhere, she couldn't stand to see her best friend so hurt.
"I wish there was something I could do to help you out…" she muttered.
Mikey picked up on this instantly and now felt the exact same way. He couldn't stand to hear the sorrow in his friend's voice, and ever since he saw her cry a year ago during her sibling's anniversary, he had vowed he would do his best to keep her happy and safe. Thinking of this, he realized that his words were depressing her and he decided to try and switch the conversation around.
"Sam, you already do a lot for us, and for me."
Sam continued to look forward as she sat silently.
A smile formed on the turtles face. "Sam, who helped me build the rec rooms with stuff that I had never used before like go karts and trampolines and rock climbing walls?"
"….me."
"And who helped sneak me in to awesome places like the movies, the mall, and laser tag?"
"…I did" Sam replied in a more firm tone.
"And who is the only one who supports me at times like when I wanted to go up to the surface during the Halloween parade?"
"I am" Sam said with a confident nod as she finally turned to face her friend.
"Exactly! You already do a lot to make like more exciting."
Sam smiled at her friend, appreciating his kind words.
Mikey then realized that Sam had never answered his original question.
"Hey, you still never told me why you were so upset when you heard Leo say that we couldn't try to become human" he said, squinting his eyes at her in curiosity.
Sam quickly looked away as a light but still noticeable blush came across her cheeks, which shocked the heck out of her.
"What the hell? I don't want him to know all that I want to experience with him and his brothers, too mushy, but why I am getting so embarrassed about this?"
"Sammmm?" Mikey questioned, leaning forward to peak around at her since she had turned her head the other way. That's when he noticed the light red in her cheeks.
"Hey are you okay? Your face looks kind of red" he said with a slight hint of concern in his voice.
Sam thought of a white lie to use to hide her true thoughts. She whipped back around and spoke in a 'matter of fact' tone.
"I just got concerned when I saw you react the way you did."
This wasn't a lie. In fact, she was extremely upset when she saw the sorrow filled expression on Mikey's face after he heard Leo speak, but this was not the true reason as to why she was blushing. But Mikey would never know this truth.
"Huh, now I'm keeping secrets. What is happening to me?" she thought to herself. Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Mikey displaying a beaming smile.
"Dawwwww were you worried about me?" he teased.
"Psh, me? Never" Sam said as she crossed her arms and looked away.
"You care about me" Mikey said, poking his friend in the shoulder.
Sam opened one eye and peeked back over her shoulder at him. "Do I know you?"
"Your hair does" Mikey said with a devilish grin, and before Sam could process what this meant, he was already ruffling her hair, again.
"No! I'll have to brush it again!" Sam said, literally twisting to swat his arm away and then rolling backwards off the couch and onto her feet.
"Say you know me" Mikey said, slowly standing up from his spot on the couch.
"Never" Sam said, a devilish grin of her own forming on her face.
"Say ittttt." Mikey looked like he was about to pounce.
"I. DON'T. KNOW. YOU" Sam said as she then went to dash out of the lair and into the sewers. Sam was quick, but Mikey had been quicker this time and extended his nunchuks so that the one side became a chain sickle (though he withdrew the blade to keep his friend safe) and launched it towards her in time for it to swing around her and pull her back. As Sam was forced into Mikey's arms, he wrapped his arms around her and held her so that she faced away from him. He knew that she had the mutagen based strength to break free with ease, but she would never do this because it could harm her friend. This meant that with just her strength alone, she was trapped, and he was free to mess her hair up as long as he pleased.
"Alright tomboy. You hate make-up, but you love keeping your hair as straight as you can get it. Talk now, or the strands will fly" he said in a menacing voice, but in a playful way of course.
Sam laughed her ass off the entire time as she tried to wriggle out of his grip, but again, her normal muscle was nothing compared to Michelangelo's. After a couple minutes of trying and having a hand mess up her hair, she finally admitted defeat.
"Alright! I know you!" she laughed.
"Who am I?"
"Mikey."
"What am I?"
"Picky."
"Wrong."
"Greedy."
"Sammmmmm."
"I was supposed to admit I knew you, not label you!"
"Last chance!"
"You're my best friend and you're like my brother."
Mikey let go of the girl, who quickly started running her hand through her messy hair.
"Gosh Sam. We're cool and all, but I think you're getting way too attached to me. I mean I barely even know you, but I'm like you're brother? Like this is too much" Mikey said, his hands up as he backed away like a celebrity trying to walk away from the press.
Sam glared at him with a smile. "You better get back over here and fix this" she demanded.
Mikey didn't even have to ask for her brush as he reached for her bag on the side of the couch and within seconds pulled out the brush she used every day.
Mikey sat on one end of the couch while Sam sat criss-cross in front of him.

About five minutes into Mikey brushing the girl's hair (something he had become good at over the past year, that and helping her paint her nails) Sam heard her phone go off.
"I got it" Mikey said as he paused the brushing and reached into the bag and handed Sam her phone. This way she wouldn't have to move while he continued to 'work his magic', Mikey's words of course.
Sam looked at the caller I.D. and then answered the phone. "April. What's up?"
"Hey, is everything okay back at the lair?"
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Sam questioned.
"I called Donnie a few minutes ago to send him updates and he still hasn't answered his shell cell. What does that mean?"
Sam pursed her lips together as she answered. "Uhh, let's just say there was a verbal…incident that happened. Nothing major, but I think it might have put Donnie in a bit of a funk."
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, all will be fine. I think he just needed some space for a little while. I'll update you when I see you in person again. But I can relay the updates to him now if that's okay."
"Thanks Sam. So Casey contacted Jade and found out that the full canister of the ooze is being held at police headquarters. So at least we know that it's safe for now. He also learned through a few other sources that a team of Foot soldiers was getting their gear together and was about to move soon."
"*sigh* well that's just awesome."
"Heh, I feel the same way. We're heading back now so that we can all discuss things further. And Sam-"
"Don't worry I'm heading in to check up on him now. Talk to you soon April."
"Thanks Sam. See you soon."

Sam hung up the phone and stood up from the couch.
"I'm going to go talk to Donnie for a little bit."
Mikey signaled the 'o.k.' symbol and reached for the remote after putting the brush back into the bag.
"He's in his room" he called over to Sam who had started walking towards the lab.
She froze and listened carefully as she realized that there were no sounds coming from inside the lab and then turned towards the right side of the lair where Donnie's room would be.
"Bingo!" Mikey called out.
Sam turned to thank him and then walked across the lair towards Donnie's room.
"Wow, I guess Donnie's not the only one in a funk. I never realized he had left the lab. What's scarier is that Mikey sensed something that I didn't! Either I'm losing my focus due to emotions again or Mikey is getting better at picking up on small details."
As Sam was walking past the kitchen, Leo also happened to exit his room at the same time. The two were about to cross paths, so Sam shot him a quick small smile and then continued on, hoping he wouldn't say anything in concern of her quick and somewhat suspicious expression. Leo did slow his steps for a couple seconds, but he continued to look forward and decided that that girl was fine, so he continued to walk over towards the raised pipe in the central part of the lair so that he could train. Sam was just grateful that he hadn't stopped her. She would always love and support Leo like he was her own brother and also since he was the leader of all the turtles, but she really didn't want to talk to him right now, and if she was being brutally honest, she didn't even really want to look at him right now. She still needed to let her own emotions and mindset simmer down some or else she would accidentally talk sassy to him even if she didn't mean to do so and would end up making things worse.

Once Sam reached her destination she knocked on the door to Donnie's room and heard a mumbled "it's open."
She slowly opened the door and poked her head inside to see Donnie fidgeting with a small device that could be used as a scanner at his gaming space, which was basically a large and cushioned cut out section of the wall that formed a huge circle for him to lay in.
"Hey, you okay?" she asked as she walked in and took a seat in the swivel chair at the desk in his room.
He continued to look at the scanner he was messing with as he spoke. "I'll be fine."
Sam pursed her lips together. "I guess you're still hurting from Leo's words to huh" she said as she stood up and adjusted her position so that she was sitting on the now turned around chair so that she could lay her arms across the top.
This caught Donnie's attention as he quickly looked up at her and frowned.
"You were spying on us?"
Sam paused. "No…I was spying on Mikey…who was spying on you two."
Donnie groaned. "What is wrong with you two? Don't you know anything about privacy?"
"Of course I do. That's why I knocked on your door before entering."
Donnie sighed. "So what exactly did you hear?"
"You adjusted the purple ooze so that it could turn you human, permanently apparently, and you got super excited and Leo shot it down within seconds."
A confused expression covered the turtles face. "Why do you sound upset with us permanently becoming human? It would be such an incredible discovery in biology and other sciences!"
Sam's face blushed a tad bit again. "It just wouldn't be the same."
"That's the point though! So much would change!" Donnie said, slightly raising his voice as he now sat up on his curved seat.
"But…I met you guys because you look and live like this…"
Donnie stared at Sam eye to eye. "I understand that, but with your intelligence, I'm sure we still would have met somehow. If I went to school then we'd probably end up in a lot of the same after school groups. And then as an adult, if I had the chance to be human and work with real scientists, who knows what we could come up with together. I mean yeah I can accomplish a lot on my own, but with a team, who knows what we could do! And that's just me! Who knows what all of us could accomplish if we lived normal lives like everyone else. My inventions and my discoveries with my team of different scientists in different fields could create so many things that could change life as we know it. Wouldn't you want that for me? For all of us?"
Sam was a bit taken aback by how much thought Donatello had put into such a situation that until an hour or so ago would never have seemed possible.
Her face told Donnie that she was sad, but also that she understood what he wanted and why.
"Of course I want that for you, and I know you would do incredible things for this world. I also want you to be human at times so that I can show you more of what the world has to offer. But…I don't want you guys to change forever. More so temporarily. Plus if you were human then I wouldn't be able to hang out with you in some of the ways that I do."
"Sam, you do realize that YOU are a human and even before the mutagen you were fighting bad guys and sneaking into buildings and running across rooftops, right?" Donnie said, smiling for the first time in over an hour.
Sam paused, soaking in her friend's words. "Well I guess that one is true. I don't know, I just wouldn't want it to be a permanent thing. I can't find the words to explain why I feel that way, but I know I just do. Sorry if that's rude or anything" she said, looking down towards the ground.
Donnie chuckled. "Sam, there's nothing wrong with you not wanting us to change because you don't want to lose us."
The girl quickly turned her head back to look at the turtle in front of her. "Wait, what?"
"You're afraid that if we become human we're going to end up talking to a bunch of other people and you think we won't have time for you, right?"
Sam's eyes went wide. "I wasn't thinking that, but now I am."
"That would never happen smarts. We're not going anywhere, but I do understand why you would only want us to be human on temporary occasions. *sigh* but even if I could do that, Leo would still shoot it down in mere seconds again."

Sam saw the turtle lean back into his curved seat with a glum expression again, but now she was too caught up in her own thoughts to sense anything else.
Had she been afraid they wouldn't talk to her? Was that thought hiding in the back of her mind the entire time and she hadn't even realized it? She knew she didn't want them to be humans forever if they had the chance to become human at all, but she wasn't able to explain why she had felt this way. Was this really the reason why? She knew that the other night when Mikey went to join the Halloween parade that she had come to terms knowing that if he wanted to talk to other people that she would be okay if he left her alone since he was a naturally social person, but was she really okay with that? Did she really fear that all of the turtles would leave her in the dust if they had the chance to meet new people? Would she be okay if they all acted this way? If these thoughts were hiding in the back of her mind, then what else was lurking in her subconscious that she didn't even realize was there?!
"Sam?"
Sam looked up to see Donnie staring at her as he continued to lean back in his curved seat.
"What's up?"
"…you okay?"
Sam stared blankly at him. "Yeah I'm fine, why?"
"I just asked you a question twice and you just sat there."
"…Oh…well third times a charm."
Donnie shook his head with a smile. "I asked if checking in was the only reason you came in here."
"Oh no! That was reason number one. Reason number two is that April sent me some updates."
His brow rose. "Oh, what did she say?"
"She said that the ooze is being held at police headquarters and that Casey talked to some personal contacts who said that the Foot soldiers are getting ready to make their move."
Donnie nodded his head. "That's good that the mutagen is being held there, but I have a bad feeling about the Foot soldiers. Shredder is up to something, and-"
Just then, Mikey had slowly opened the door, and after no one told him to get out, he quickly rushed into the room and shut the door behind him.
Donnie and Sam sent him questioning looks, ones that were not exactly happy either.
"What did you do this time?" Sam asked.
Mikey began poking his fingers together. "I…MAYYYYY have told Raph what I heard Leo and Donnie talking about earlier, hehe" he said timidly.
Donnie's eyes went wide. "Are you serious? WHY?! He's going to lose his shit-"
"HEY LEO! POP QUIZ!"
"*Sigh* again, why?" Donnie groaned.
Mikey looked down at the ground in guilt. "I just needed someone to talk to about it you know? I mean, this is serious stuff and Leo totally just kicked us to the curb like we're not important and like our word means nothing…"
Sam swung her arm so that her hand was motioning back and forth towards her and Mikey.
"Hello! Hi! That's what I'm for! We literally talked about it not that long ago! I'm the one you go to so that you don't have to tell Raph about serious shit that will make him explode!"
Donnie squinted his eyes at the pair. "What do you guys talk about so that Raph doesn't have to know about it?"
"Not the point! You!" Sam said, looking back and pointing at Mikey, "why would you talk to him after we both just talked about this? You know that without telling him important info in a very calm and specific way will set him off."
"Because I wasn't done talking about it yet and then you went to go talk to Donnie."
"Well that doesn't make me feel bad" Donnie said in a low voice.
Mikey rolled his eyes and waved his brother away. "Dude that's not what I meant and you know it! Of course I wanted her to check up on you, but like, the thoughts were still fresh in my mind, you know? Like I wasn't DONE talking about it, and everyone knows that you and Leo are good at giving advice and boosting people's confidence, but it's me and Raph who help cheer people up because we're the emotional ones, even though Raph will never admit that himself."
Sam and Donnie looked at each other and nodded. They knew that was a fair argument. As rough and tough as Raph was, he could be just as sensitive as Mikey. Oddly it was one of the biggest traits the two had in common.
"I guess I can accept that reasoning" Sam said with a smile as she put her hands behind her head.
"I still want to know what you two have been hiding that you share only amongst yourselves" Donnie said with a questioning grin.
Just then, his scanner went off. Donnie quickly typed in some codes on the device and tracked that the break in happened at the Museum of Natural History.
"Shredder, and he probably has his soldiers and the new mutants…we have to tell them" Donnie said as he began to rush towards the door.
Sam and Mikey followed him, and all three heard the continuing argument between the oldest two as they slowly (because they wanted to see the argument go down) made their way across the kitchen.

For now, Raph's voice was low as he spoke while standing alongside Leo, who attempted to keep himself calm by facing away from his brother and continuing his training session.
"If there's even a chance that ooze could make us human-"
"We're turtles, whether you like it or not" Leo said in a bitter tone.
Raph's lower voice then got higher.
"It's not about what I like. It's about what people are willing to accept."
"True acceptance comes from within."
Raph rolled his eyes, and as he now also spoke with large hand gestures, his voice continued to rise.
"Don't give me that fortune cookie muck! You should consult with us before you decide to do something like that!"
It could be seen that Leo was losing his temper as much as Raph was, especially since the two didn't realize that they had an audience of three watching them as they stood still on the other side of the room.
Leo stopped his workout and stood up straight as he faced his brother.
"I consulted Donnie, and we decided that there's nothing-"
"And what about Mikey? We don't get a vote?!"
Raph shoved Leo after making his comment, and this is what officially pushed him over the edge.
"THERE'S ONLY ONE VOTE THAT COUNTS IN THIS FAMILY! Mine."

Leo continued to glare at his brother in a way that signaled that this battle was over and that his word was final. Raph just stood there in stunned silence as he glared back at his older brother. Donnie and Mikey stood there in shock since they couldn't believe that Leo could say such a thing. They knew he was the leader and their oldest brother, but this was going pretty far, even for him, and they wondered what had gotten into him to make him act the way he had been lately. Because of all this, no one noticed that Sam had spun around. She had no idea why, but for the first time she could sense something building inside of her and she knew her uncontrollable emotion was coming. Her eyes shone blue, but because she was now facing away from everyone, nobody knew that this was happening to her. She clenched her fists together and shut her eyes tight, fighting her best to calm herself down without bringing attention to herself while also hiding what was happening to her from the rest of the brothers, afraid that this reaction would somehow make things worse.

"Leo, an alarm just tripped at the Hayden planetarium. We have to get up town" Donnie informed, cutting off the painful silence.
Sam turned her just a small bit, her eyes still blue (which everyone had yet to notice) as she peeked at Leo. To her disbelief, his head was actually turned to the side, almost as if he realized how harsh he had just been and like he regretted saying what he did to his brother. But she wasn't sure if he truly felt this way based on how he reacted right after.
Leo jumped off the raised pipe and walked between Mikey and Donnie.
"Gear up Donnie." He then lightly shoved Mikey as he walked by the two youngest. "Sam, you stay here, since the other night proved that you can't follow code either. Same goes for you two."
Sam said nothing and instead continued to look away in a stance so that none of the brothers could see her face.
Raph, fuming, leapt off the pipe while Mikey and Donnie both stood there with their arms up as a way to say 'are you serious?'.
"YOU'RE BENCHING ME?!" Raph exclaimed.
"Call it what you want!" Leo shouted back as he then stated to jog out of the lair through the exit by the truck.
"What did I do?!" Mikey exclaimed, a pained expression displayed on his face.
"Sorry guys" Donnie said with a shrug and an apologetic look before he also took off in a quickened jog to catch up with his oldest brother.
If there wasn't a serious incident taking place than the three might have fought back some, but they knew that the city could be in danger depending on what just happened at the planetarium, so for now they all followed the orders they were given.

"Well that went well" Mikey pouted.
"The nerve this guy has, big timing us! He may be fine with the status quo, but that doesn't mean we can't make our own decisions!" Raph bellowed as he stormed off towards the other side of the lair.
Mikey was about to follow, but now that all the commotion had died down, he realized that Sam had yet to say a word, or even move for that matter.
"Sam?" Mikey said in a low voice. He slowly walked around so that he could see his friends face, and for the first time he realized that her eyes had turned blue. Her eyes were closed, but the light still shone in a dim light.
"Sam!" Mikey said as he gently put his hands on his friend's shoulders.
Sam opened her eyes, her fists still clenched.
"What happened?" Raph asked, quickly making his way back over towards the other two.
"An enemy is attacking" Sam stated bluntly in a monotone voice.
The two boys just looked at each other.
"What do you mean by that?" Raph asked gently.
"Someone is bringing chaos into your family. I must end him before he hurts all of you."
Raph rolled his eyes. "There's no enemy. Leo was just being a prick."
"He hurt you."
Raph paused and thought of what to say next. "Yes, but I'm okay. See? My body is intact. No injuries."
Sam tilted her head, though she was still looking at Mikey and not at Raph. "No injuries?"
"Nope! Not a single one."
The color faded from Sam's eyes and her hands were now calm.
"I'm pissed at your brother" she said as she looked back and forth at the two turtles in front of her.
Mikey released her arms and sighed. "We're not happy with him either."
"Well we're going to show him that we can make our own decisions" Raph grunted.
Sam nodded. "If you mean retrieving the purple ooze on our own, then I agree. Leo is leader, but you're not his minions, and he's not thinking straight."
"Yeah!...so what's happening?" Mikey asked in confusion.
Raph looked at Sam with a bit of shock. "Wait, you're going to help us?"
Sam rapidly nodded her head. "The ooze is being held at police headquarters. The police are no match for the Foot, or else the clan would have disbanded years ago. If we don't act fast then Shredder will get it back and mutate more humans into mutants. I'm pretty sure he just took a team of soldiers and his new mutants with him to do who knows what at the museum, so now is the best time to get the ooze back. We have to stop him, and if Leo won't work with us, then we'll make a plan on our own. You guys are capable of doing that, and he should have more faith in you to do so."
Raph's brow rose in surprise to the girl's words. "I'm used to you playing the protective sister, not the delinquent teenage runaway" Raph said with a smirk.
Sam rolled her eyes. "This was me all the time after certain events in my life. Just be glad I'm on your side."
Raph just shook his head. "Alright, let's start working on a plan.

Sam nodded and the two went back to the eatery to sit down and discuss what would happen in order for them to secure the ooze and protect it from the Foot…while Mikey was clueless and just followed along, wondering what it was they were all doing.