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 #42

*The next day, Monday June 8th, 2015 around 12p.m. in the lair*

After everything the group had endured the day before, the turtles and their human allies had actually gone to bed at a relatively normal time, which was odd compared to what they were used to.

Everyone except for Sam and Mikey had woken up somewhere around 8 to 9a.m. and after a lengthy debate on how the situation should be handled, it was decided that it was too risky for the turtles to go above ground and try to retrieve the three pieces of the portal from Shredder until later that night when the sun began to set once again. They knew ignoring Shredder during the day was risky and would provide him with plenty of time to further whatever it was that he was scheming, but it would be just as risky if they couldn't hide themselves in the daylight, and it was especially worse with the cops still looking for them. Knowing this, each of them decided to lay low and find ways to calm their minds until they could finally continue the battle later that night.

Once Jay had finally called his fiancé and updated her about where he had been and what had happened to Sam and the turtles, she insisted that he take a break from the wedding planning and that certain things she would handle with her female family and friends in order for him to be able to better watch out for Sam, and also because she knew her soon to be husband was probably very on edge based on everything she had just heard.
After being given this time to relax, Jay turned to Raph as a workout buddy. He still made sure to get plenty of exercise and kept his body trained and in shape in case he would need to fight for whatever reason, but he had not had a workout anywhere near as strenuous as when he worked for the Foot. Raph, being the workout-aholic he was, was thrilled to work with Jay and test his limits as the two trained and 'hit the gym' together. Throughout their time together, Splinter had joined the two and pushed them further to test their skills as they now trained under their Sensei's watch.

Leo had scanned for a variety of calming activities for himself to complete. He had cleaned his room (which took about 10 minutes since his room was always clean), he then meditated for a while, he went to the kitchen and cleaned up the dishes from breakfast, he trained with Raph and Jay for some time, and ended by just reading whatever he could find that was new from Donnie's room (after being granted permission to do so of course). So he now just sat on his bed, reading a new Stephen King book in the silence of his room.

Donnie had also searched for activities to keep his mind calm, but of course his activities focused on keeping his mind at work as well. He began by looking through police records to see if he could find out anything about April and Casey after they had been arrested, but not much had been reported about the two, which signaled to him that they had not revealed much, or any, information at all. After finally admitting defeat to learning about what happened to his human friends, he decided that he needed people to distract him or else all he would do is sit in front of his computer until the slightest update came through. Luckily, after asking Sam and Mikey, he joined the duo in playing some videogames. After a while, he felt the need to move around and decided he would spend some time working on the truck. He had not made any repairs to the vehicle after the group had tried to prevent Shredder from breaking out of prison, so he thought now would be a good time to do so.

Mikey and Sam had woken up around 9:45, and seeing how everything else was doing their own thing, they assumed that nothing would be done about retrieving the portal pieces until later that night. Knowing this, they hung out in the kitchen for a while where they made a variety of different flavored pancakes while also looking up trailers for upcoming movies, shows, and video games they had been anticipating to be released. After this, Donnie had asked them if they were interested in playing videogames with him (did he think they would say no?). Once Donnie left the group, the duo decided they wanted to move on to a new activity as well. With all the craziness that had been going on the past couple of days, Sam had forgotten all about a dance competition she had coming up in a few more months, so Mikey laid down some beats on the drum set in his room while Sam tried putting together a routine.

While everyone in the group was relaxing and trying to stay calm, each of them was still extremely worried about April and Casey. They hated that there was no way for them to get in contact with their friends and they hated that all they could do was keep their shell cells and turtles com's close by and pray for the best. However, their worries grew stronger when out of nowhere the ground began to shake around 12 that afternoon.

Leo looked up as he heard the beams throughout the lair begin to vibrate. He stepped out of his room and saw dust begin to fall from the ceiling above. Donnie hadn't heard much because he was polishing part of the truck, but once he saw the dust fall he looked up with a concerned expression as he gazed upon the shaking beams up above. Instantly he turned off the device and dashed towards his lab. Mikey displayed the same expression as he stopped his drumming and stood up from his drum set. He was curious, but also anxious about what was making these pieces of the ceiling come falling down. He turned towards Sam and without having to speak, the two knew from the other's face alone that they needed to go find Donnie. Raph and Jay both froze as they noticed the punching bag begin to shake and swing even though they were standing nowhere near it. As soon as they saw the dust fall from the ceiling, they both rushed off to go find Donnie, hoping he could explain what was going on.

At this point, everyone had now gathered together by the collage of monitors right outside of Donnie's lab.
"What's happening out there Donnie?" Leo asked.
Donnie turned and faced the screens in awe as he stared at the huge gray cloud that was forming, swirling together as it grew larger and larger.
"Oh my gosh," he replied, taking a step closer to the monitor, "Shredder did it. The portal's opening."
Everyone else stepped forward as their faces got closer to the screen as well as they watched the cloud get darker and larger.
"Wait, what's it doi-" Mikey began to ask before he jumped as the cloud sucked itself in and they exploded outwards. Lightning struck all throughout the inside of the cloud as gusts of wind then pushed the cloud outwards and away from a huge blue streak that had formed in the center of the gray space.
"Sam" Donnie called out.
"On it" she replied as she began typing away on one keyboard, while Donnie began typing on another.
The two began logging into systems that would lead them to the metamaterial cameras (some of the many, many types of cameras and devices that the two had placed on the roof of Sam's apartment building, allowing them to observe events such as this) that allowed them to scan the pieces that were now exiting the portal's entrance and flying throughout the sky.
At the same time, Donnie had just gotten a call from April.
"Got it" Jay said, quickly reaching into Donnie's glowing side pocket and answering the phone as he walked away from the screens and into the living room in order to hear the voice on the other side. He knew there wasn't much he could do in this situation, so he thought this was a small way that he could contribute. Right now the brother's needed to focus on whatever it was that was entering their planet's atmosphere.
All four brother's listened as Jay talked to April over the phone in the living room. Everyone was able to make out that April and Casey were no longer being held up thanks to Vern finding a flash drive with footage from the TCRI building of Bebop, Rocksteady, and Shredder who had all been talking about the portal and the purple ooze. However, they all tried their best to continue to listen as Jay then walked into the kitchen and began a new phone conversation with a woman who went by the name of Jade.

"Incredible" Donnie stated, "this alien war ship is coming through the portal piece by piece."
While Sam continued to scan the pieces that were appearing, Donnie then began hacking into the main data core of the ship itself.
Raph and Mikey continued to watch in awe at the huge pieces that flew across the sky as their eyes fluttered from one monitor to the next. Leo had decided to give his brother and sister some space, so he slowly paced back and forth from a bit further back with his arms crossed across his chest.
"The ships designate is the Technodrome, its commanding officer goes by the name of Krang."
Mikey waved his fist at the screen in front of him.
"I don't know that guy, but I hate that guy" he said in a bitter tone. He then realized he was crowding Sam, so he turned and walked back next to Leo.
Sam turned around to face the group, believing there was no more information she could gather about the machine.
"What happens if this ship completes construction?" Sam asked.
"That's the thing," Donnie added severely, "this thing wouldn't just be a ship, it would be a war machine that would end all life here. It would be the end of the world. But, there is something we can do."
All eyes were now on Donatello.
"The atmosphere around the Technodrome would be toxic to anyone with a standard cardiovascular system."
"What are you saying?" Leo questioned.
"What I'm saying is that the five of us, the only ones with mutagen running through our veins and changing our bodies may be the only ones who can get close enough to this machine to shut it down."
"How?" Mikey cut in with an anxious tone, and an equally anxious expression, "we're being hunted. They think we're monsters."
"Yeah," Raph added grimly, "we're gonna need the cops at our backs, not trying to lock us up."
"Unless…" Donnie trailed off as he walked past his brothers and headed towards his room on the opposite side of the lair.
Without a word, the rest of his brothers began to follow. Sam however had other thoughts on her mind. She followed the guys but quickly turned towards her brother who was still on the phone in the kitchen and whispered "Jay, our assistance could be used here."
"I've been on it" he whispered back.
Sam smiled and replied with a quick nod as she then pulled her phone out and began making some calls as well.
Meanwhile, the turtles were now standing outside of Donnie's room as he held the purple glass canister of ooze.

"One sip. We'll stay the same on the inside, but look human on the outside."
Donnie then looked forward at Leo as he then handed him the canister.
All four of them stared at the glass canister as multiple thoughts were running through each of their heads. Each of them were worried about how things could go wrong, how turning human would drastically change each of their lives, and whether these changes would lead to good or to bad consequences.
Splinter then appeared behind them. He had hung back and remained silent since usually his sons could handle these situations on their own, but he could tell by their expressions that they were stuck on what their final decision should be.
He smiled at his children. "Your boyhood is drawing to an end as you now grow into young men. The choice, is yours."
Leo looked over the canister and then back up at his brothers. He knew that ignoring their wishes in order to protect them only did more bad then good, so he decided to let them play a role in their own fate.
At this point, Sam had entered the room and was now standing behind Splinter as she watched the turtle's converse.
Leo looked down at the canister before handing it over to Raph.
"The choice is yours," he said as he looked around at his brothers, "it's your call."
Raph looked over at Mikey and Donnie whose stares signaled that they were giving him the final call. They knew Raph would be the most sensitive to this decision, not only from being a middle brother who saw things from the oldest and youngest perspectives, but also because he had been the most hurt from the argument he had had with Leo from the other night.

Raph looked at Leo and realized that all his older brother wanted was to protect them, so he needed to make a choice that kept them safe afterwards.
He looked at Donnie and believed that the only way he could truly share his intellect with the world would be by introducing himself and displaying what he had learned as himself and not as an average human being.
He looked at Mikey and believed that the only way his youngest brother would be able to comfortably socialize with others was if he was truly himself the entire time and didn't have to worry of the consequences of his true self being revealed.
He then looked over at Sam and realized that the number of humans they had personal contact and trust with had continued growing ever since they met her and April within the past year and that they never needed the entire world, but rather these close personal ties to support them all along.
After thinking over all of this, Raph then turned and launched the canister towards the wall in the living room.
Donnie's mouth dropped slightly due to shock from his brother's choice.
Leo's eyes went wide for the exact same reason.
Mikey was frozen solid, not exactly sure what to think.
Raph sensed all of this and explained his reasoning.
"The only way to truly gain the cops trust is to get them to trust us for who we really are, and not by having them trust whoever we'd be pretending to be with that ooze. Let's prove to them that we're not monsters and that the real us is someone they want to work with" he said with confidence.
Leonardo just stood there and smiled, proud of the maturity in his brothers decision.
Donnie liked the idea of having future scientists want to work with him because of who he was and not just because he was like everyone else, and he nodded his head as he fist bumped his second oldest brother.
Mikey let out a small laugh, enjoying the thought of proving themselves and no longer being viewed as monsters.
"You guys better get in here if you wanna know how I can help with that" Jay called from the kitchen.
The four turtles followed behind their father as they all made their way into the other room in order to hear what their human friend had to say.

Sam on the other hand was frozen solid as she continued to stare in shock at the purple streak running down the far wall. Of course she agreed with everything that Raph had said and she wanted people to love and respect the turtles the same way she had, but at the same time she knew that not everyone in the world would act this way. Heck, there were people who didn't know what the word 'respect' even meant when interacting with other citizens in New York, so of course not everyone would be kind towards the turtles, and this meant that without that mutagen there was still so much that she would never get to do with her green companions.

She would never be able to introduce them to more basic things such as gyms with endless amounts of equipment, or hiking trails that would be a breeze to them yet still so beautiful from the surrounding natural setting. She would never be able to take them to amusement parks or water parks during the summer and hold his hand if the rides made her dizzy. She would never be able to walk with them along the boardwalks or beaches and kick his ass at skeeball or trick him and then dunk him underwater. There would be no competitions to see who in the group could get the highest scores or who would win beach volleyball or beach soccer, or beach anything for that matter. All winter activities were now thrown out the door. She would never be able to participate in snow ball fights, building snowmen, racing on sleds, or even ice skating where she could hold onto him if she fell. She would never be able to go to actual soccer games and cheer along with them and she would never get to go dancing with him outside the lair. She would never get to travel with them and teach them about South Korea while they then taught her about Japan. She would never get to tease and scare the hell out of them at haunted houses while then holding onto him when she actually felt scared herself.

'Wait' she thought as she paused for a moment, 'he?'
"Sam?" Donnie called as he walked back up to where Sam was standing. "You okay?"
'He?!' Sam thought to herself as a blush came across her cheeks. What was she thinking? She had been thinking about things she wanted to do with all he brothers, so how had she kept thinking about stuff with just him? What the hell had just happened?!
She then felt a hand on her forehead and practically jumped away from the sudden touch.
Donnie slowly retracted his hand, but his face displayed how concerned he was.
"Tell me what's on your mind right now" he demanded, assuming this was based on the Krang and the portal, not realizing it was something completely different.
Sam realized how fast she was breathing and realized she needed to calm down. How could she have thought about her friend, about her brother like that?! And she knew for a fact that that particular brother definitely did not feel that same way about her. Had she just thought of all that in the moment? She had never felt those ways before, at least she couldn't recall any previous times where she had.
She then looked up at Donnie and lied as best as she possibly could, knowing that if she didn't say something soon then he was going to start freaking out more than she was now.
Calmly and in a concerned voice she stated "I just hope the cops will end up seeing you guys the same way I do."
Donnie cooled down himself and smiled as he walked closer to her as he placed both his hands on her shoulders.
"It's going to be okay. We're a team, somehow we're going to figure this out. Now come on," he said as he gently pat his friends shoulders and then started heading in the other direction towards the kitchen, "it sounds like your brother knows a way he can help us" he said with a smile.
Sam smiled back at the purple bearing turtle as the two headed towards the kitchen.

Ughhhhhh once again another shorter chapter -_- I'm so sorry. I know my promises probably mean nothing at this point. Of course today was FINALLY the last day of my summer classes…..and I got sick 2 days ago -_- like total sore throat, can barely talk, and any talking I do leads to major headaches. Because of that, instead of adding to this chapter, I'm going to upload it as it is. I'd rather give you guys something after a decent wait rather than continue to make you wait longer. Hopefully I'll be uploading the next chapter relatively soon.

Also, DID YOU ALL HEAR THAT WE'RE GETTING A NEW MOVIE?! I personally will be a bit upset if it's a reboot rather than a sequel, and I will be very upset if it's an all new turtle cast. Like I thought the past four actors nailed their roles and did a fantastic job portraying who the turtles were in both films regardless of the script (even though overall I thought both films were well done in all categories, although there is much I would have changed in the first film). However, I'm excited regardless of what's to come because I am always thrilled to get a new series with my boys in it.

And has there been a release date for the new cartoon series? Because I want to be prepared for that as well and yet I feel like I never hear about a release date. As you can see I'm extremely impatient hehe.

Final comment/question: which of the turtles do you think Sam was thinking about at the end of the chapter? ;) hehehe