TMNT 2003 S1: Four Turtles More

by Fanficteller

Fifteen years have passed since the accident. Now, eight turtles, six brothers and two sisters, born as mutants in the sewers and trained as ninjas by a rat, are forced to leave their destroyed underground home and take the first step into a surface world where they face many adventures and meet new friends and foes, until they meet their toughest opponent ever, The Shredder.

70. The Girl and the Turtle, Part 3, Part 7

Guest: Well, so far what I've listened to those, those appear to me to be a songless soundtracks and music videos.

Frostbound Reverie: I'm glad that you have enjoyed my work so far.

Guest: Sorry, but I am not quite familiar with these games and not too keen to the anime except in some cases.

Guest: If I got time then maybe, but at least Writing Avenger 2016 created his own absolutely amazing TMNT: Turtle Power fanfic.

CT311998: Yes. "Michelangelo's on the move!" was definitely TMNT 2012 refence, while Louie's "It's Dandelion-Mowing Time!" during his battle with Mr. Nosy, L.J. Alcatraz, Gabriel and Marcus was actually, heavily and completely inspired by the Forest Battle of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen rather than Power Rangers.

AmiahArts: I'm glad that you have enjoyed my work so far.

Girl Anime Club: You'll see where Kevin has gone since the ending of the second part of this trilogy.

animegamefanatic: Yes. Louie did gave Dandelion a chance after defeating him in the fair battle, only for that creep to pull on a dirty trick on him after he was out of the harm's way. But in the end, karma will follow every villain afterwards and strike when they least expect it, even in Dandelion's case. And as for Wendy and the remaining children's housing problem, as well as Louie, Dom, Angel, Ellie, and Master Splinter, you'll find it all out in here.

Guest: Oh! Alright, now I understand. Well, so far I don't have actual plans of making a separate prequel Ninja Tribunal Series from the main series.

---

=Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003=
=The Girl and the Turtle Part 3, Part 7=

After being thrown off the rooftop of the hotel by Louie and Angel, landing on the plank with Dimitri, Mr. Lasse and Japanese-American minion, snapping it in half, and then falling the rest of the way down before landing into the garbage bin, Dandelion moaned in pain as he pulled himself up and out of the bin. His fine suit was both torn and stained and covered with dirt and all kinds of trash from the bin and his clean haircut was in a horrible mess.

However, his mind was still bent on revenge against Louie and Angel for what they have done to him.

"Accursed freak and that little brat!" Dandelion growled as he walked up to one of his men lying dead next to the bin - after having been kicked out of the fourth floor's window earlier - and picked up his dropped handgun and checked if it was still full, before he began to make his way towards the front door of the hotel to finish what he had started.

"I'll make them pay! I'LL MAKE THEM ALL PAY! Nobody makes a fool out of William Dandelion!" the man growled murderously.

However, before the villain could enter into the hotel, there were the sounds of the police cars' sirens before a whole flock of police cars drove into the hotel yard, their lights flashing bright blue and red.

Seeing them, Dandelion's murderous rage on his face vanished instantly and turned into a shocked and even horrified look.

"No. No. No, nononononononononono! Not the cops! Not now! Not now!" Dandelion panicked, before he realized that he was holding the potential evidence against him, the handgun, in his hand, and quickly proceeded to get rid of it by throwing it into the bush next to the bin.

The lead police car stopped right in front of it, before the Elder officer and the Rookie officer - the same police duo to whom the turtles had months ago returned the money stolen by the Purple Dragons - stepped out of the car, followed by the chief of police himself.

The three officers then walked in front of their car, facing Dandelion, with the chief standing in the middle, Elder officer in his right and the Rookie officer in his left.

"Oh! Chief? Good evening if I may so kindly wish to you." Dandelion greeted him, trying to play it smoothly to get away from this situation with all the criminal activity he had done of late. "I didn't expect us to see each other again so soon. To what do I owe this honor?"

"Say the pretty talk to somebody who actually cares about them, Dandelion." the chief said gruffly, cutting him off. "And stay right where you are, for you happen to be under arrest again."

Dandelion gapped at him, taken aback by his words. "Me? Under arrest? Again? For what?"

"Well, what do you think? Counterfeiting of money, of course." the chief explained.

"About that one again?" Dandelion asked with disbelief and then denial. "But that case has already been investigated, and no evidence has ever been found! You have no evidence whatsoever against me for counterfeiting money. And such of accusations are absolutely outrageous rubbish!"

"Well..." the chief said with the shrug. "At least we have an eyewitness." he countered.

Dandelion blinked his eyes in surprise. "The eyewitness?" he repeated in confusion.

The chief signaled to the Elder officer, who nodded and walked up to the car's backseat's door, opening it to let somebody to get out of the car.

To Dandelion's surprise, he recognized the eyewitness who had weeks prior tried and failed to testify against him after having witnesses the vad of counterfeited money in his possessions... and whom he had tried to dispose off as the way to get him off his back shortly after he was released from pretrial detention.

It was Kevin!

"YOU!" Dandelion exclaimed with the look of utter shock and appalled that Kevin was still alive, despite having been told that the boy was dealt with and dumped in the bottom of the East-River.

"Never expected to see me again, did you?" Kevin asked with the glare.

"Kevin told us at the station that you tried to murder him by dumbing him in the East-River right after you were released from prison." the chief said, glaring at the gangster boss.

Dandelion was about to say something in denial of this, but the chief cut him off.

"And then Kevin told us that he had been to your family's mansion looking for evidence to support the counterfeiting charges. And even though I don't approve of him breaking in to your property, I was willing to look this one through of my fingers after he gave me these pictures he had taken from there." the chief said.

Then the chief took out some pictures and shoved them to Dandelion, who was once again appalled when he recognized the interior of the room from the pictures, which was exactly like the secret counterfeiting room in his mansion, which location and access were supposed to be top secret and only accessible to him and his top guys.

His head was starting to fill up with the questions, not just that how Kevin had managed to escape his arranged death, but also that how he had managed to infiltrate in his mansion unnoticed and how he had managed to find that particular room.

But when he attempted to claim that the pictures were fake, the chief cut him off again.

"Along with this bag with the logo of your laundry company on it, which was full of counterfeit money, worthy of millions of dirty dollars." the chief continued, as he held up the empty bag with Dandelion's own laundry company's logo imprinted on its side, which Kevin had taken with him from Dandelions' mansion during of his escape.

The chief then heard some noise behind Dandelion's back and looked over his shoulder to see what it was, until he took the satisfied look. "And the whole plot is getting even more interesting, because I see that you have been associated with Mr. Lasse, the well-known counterfeiter who has been on the wanted list for a long time, Mr. Dandelion. Who would've known?"

Looking over his shoulder, Dandelion realized that by this point his cousin Dimitri, his Japanese-American minion and Mr. Lasse had already pulled themselves out of the garbage bin, although from Dandelion's perspective at exactly the wrong time, for the mere presence of Mr. Lassen in particular was enough to confirm the charges against him of counterfeiting money.

"Uh, oh." Mr. Lasse gulped nervously upon realizing the police's presence here and the fact that he'd been seen.

Dandelion too was starting to sweat all over upon seeing that his chances of getting free away from this situation with everything he had done were rapidly depleting.

"And as a treat at the bottom, we've been getting reports of a disruption that's been disturbing the locals in this part of town. Something about a gunfight right inside this abandoned hotel, the top of which I find suspiciously on fire!" the chief exclaimed.

Dandelion looked up at the abandoned hotel, the top of which was in the flames from the fourth floor upwards.

"You mind to explain yourself about that matter too, Mr. Dandelion?" the chief asked.

Dandelion then let out a soft gasp out of his mouth as a sudden realization hit him.

Since the police might not have known that he was indeed involved in both the gunfight inside the hotel and the fire - although they seemed to suspect him of them nonetheless - he saw this as an opportunity, a slim one but worth of try to shift the blame onto some certain thorns on his side as a posthumous revenge against them even if he did end up getting arrested for the crimes the police already knew of him being involved.

With that in mind, Dandelion turned to the cops with urgency on his face.

"I have nothing to do with any of that, chief, but I may have an idea of whom are behind of all of this! The criminals, the real criminals behind of all of this, both in the firefight and the arson, are still trapped in the hotel with no way to escape! If you hurry, you might still catch up with them!" Dandelion urged them as he pointed up at the burning hotel.

"Them? Them who?" the chief questioned, raising an eyebrow at the gangster boss.

"Well, them! The giant turtles and the rat!" Dandelion revealed.

The chief and the officers were completely taken aback upon hearing Dandelion urgently accusing some people called as "the giant turtles and the rat" for both the gunfight and the arson in the abandoned hotel.

"Excuse me, what?" the chief said with the raised eyebrow. "What are you talking about? What "giant turtles and the rat"?"

"Eight bipedal, talking, giant turtles plus one giant rat." Dandelion explained. "And I ain't talking about some punks in the turtle- and the rat-costumes but about the real beings!"

The chief and the officers exchanged the perplexed looks with one another, now really confused and not understanding what Dandelion was talking about.

However, while the police officers didn't know what Dandelion was talking about, Kevin put two and two together and realized that Dandelion was likely talking about Louie and Angel - well, mostly about Louie - and while shamelessly trying to pin whatever crime he might have yet committed aside of counterfeiting just to get away with everything he had done.

Deciding to cover up the turtle in black, Kevin gave Dandelion a frowning look with the raised eyebrow, pretenting to not believing such of story.

"And does the chief of police have any reason to believe such of wild story, Dandelion?" Kevin questioned. "You don't even have a proof that there even is such of things as giant turtles and the rat."

"But it's true!" Dandelion argued. "And that's not all! They even kidnapped the bunch of children for no reason and even planned to kill them with the most gruesome ways you couldn't possibly imagine. They killed two of them already and are even now going to leave the rest of them to burn alive in there! And they almost killed me too! Look at me!" Dandelion said, showing them the cuts in his chest and the stump of his missing hand. "Be quick and you can still save them and capture those monsters!"

"That's quite a story, Mr. Dandelion." the chief commented, though he didn't not sound very convincing. "But how do you know anything about that? And what's your business to be here in the first place?"

Just before Dandelion was about to say yet another excuse to that, Kevin felt his phone ringing in his pocket and dug it out to check out that who was calling to him at this hour. He was momentarily confused when it read "unknown number", before he answered to it nonetheless and oput it on his ear.

"Kevin..." Kevin answered, and was taken aback when he instantly recognized the voice of the caller from the other end of the line.

Kevin briefly looked at the people around him, both Dandelion, the chief and the officer, before he acted like it was a normal call in order not to arouse suspicion.

"You got something for me? Really? Do tell. A-ha... A-ha... A-ha. He didn't? Really? Oh, that's awful! What do you mean? That too? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I heard 'im. A-ha... A-ha... A-ha. Okay. Okay, I'll tell the chief." Kevin spoke. "Okay, I'll keep the call on."

Kevin then lifted the phone from his ear, without ending the call, and turned to the chief.

"Uhh, chief?" Kevin said, getting both the chief's, his officers' and Dandelion's attentions. "A colleague of mine on the other end of the call, who has also been following Dandelion's movements in addition to me, would like to report more of Dandelion's crimes committed exclusively during these two days."

"What crimes?" chief asked, being all ears, while Dandelion stared at the boy in stunned silence.

"Yesterday night, Dandelion has committed two kinds of kidnappings. One is the my colleague's girlfriend and her grandmother, and the two is a bunch of children, friends of his, in an attempt to blackmail my colleague into cooperation... or more likely a death trap. Dandelion also already killed two of those children, with the plastic bombs strapped on them, as part of the ultimatum for my colleague in the Central Park. And he also tried to murder my colleague's girlfriend, her grandmother, and the rest of the children, right here in the abandoned hotel, and then to burn it down to cover up his tracks from the law... which he apparently has already done." Kevin listed. "My colleague has informed, however, that the prisoners are safe, and that they have left a boxful of evidence to prove against Dandelion for these crimes outside the station's doors."

"Have they now?" the chief said as he turned back to Dandelion, with the utter disgust towards this man wrapped over his face.

"THAT'S THEM!" Dandelion practically screamed in desperation and rage, pointing an accusing finger at Kevin. "THAT'S THEM! THOSE "COLLEAGUES" OF YOURS ARE THEM! THEY'RE NOT THE HUMANS! THEY'RE THOSE GIANT TURTLES AND THE RAT! THEY ARE REAL, I KNOW IT! ONLY THEY CAN KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING ABOUT THAT! YOU'RE PLAYING INTO THEIR HANDS, BOY! I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THEM! I KNOW YOU'RE IN LEAGUE WITH THOSE FREAKS! THEY'RE USING YOU IN THEIR ATTEMPT TO PUT ME AWAY FOR GOOD!"

"And here we go again with the crazy talk about some giant turtles and the rat." Kevin said dismissively. "He's getting even more delusional, don't you think, chief?"

"More than even I'd like to admit." the chief agreed with the shake of his head.

"DON'T YOU SEE, YOU IDIOTS! THOSE GIANT TURTLES AND THE RAT ARE REAL! I'VE SEEN THEM MYSELF TWICE ALREADY! WITH MY VERY OWN EYES! THAT'S THEM BEHIND OF THAT BOY'S CALL FROM HIS SO-CALLED COLLEAGUES! THIS IS ALL THEIR DOING! THEY'RE BEHIND OF ALL OF THIS! ALL OF THIS IS BECAUSE OF THEM BLOWING MY DEAR FAMILY'S MANSION TO THE KINGDOM COME!" Dandelion screamed.

"And here I thought Kevin said it was the result of your irresponsible misuse of fireworks... after one of the stray rockets hit in the secret arsenal hidden under your mansion." the chief countered. "And he also brought us a list of the weapons found in your arsenal, for the possession of which we have not found any kind of legal permission."

Dandelion gaped at both the chief and Kevin in shock and at a loss for words.

"William Dandelion, this time I'm going to, and I will, put you away for good." the chief said triumphantly, before he turned to his officers. "Seize him."

Elder and Rookie officer then moved forwards towards Dandelion and seized him by his arms before putting him in the handcuffs, while the other officers went to pick up Mr. Lasse, Dimitri and Japanese-American minion, putting them into the irons as well.

"NO! NO! NO! YOU... YOU CAN'T... YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! I AM WILLIAM DANDELION! I AM WILLIAM DANDELION! GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF ME, YOU PETTY LITTLE MEN!" Dandelion demanded, struggling against the Elder and Rookie officers' hold as they escorted him towards the car. "THIS IS NOT ON ME! THIS IS NOT ON ME, I TELL YOU, CHIEF! IT WAS THOSE TURTLES AND THE RAT! THOSE TURTLES AND THE RAT, DAMN YOU! THE ONE CALLED LORENZO! THIS IS ALL ON HIM! HE DID THIS TO ME! HE DID THIS TO ME! HE BROUGHT ME TO RUIN! HE BROUGHT MY FAMILY'S FAME, MY FAMILY'S COMPANY, MY FAMILY'S HOUSE, MY EVERYTHING TO RUIN! YOU MUST APPREHEND HIM TOO! HE'S STILL UP HERE! I'F I'M GOING DOWN, I'M GOING TO TAKE THAT GREEN FREAK DOWN WITH ME! DO YOU HEAR ME!"

"Calm yourself, Mr. Dandelion. All this crazed talk about some giant turtles and rats won't help you out of this. But keep ranting aloud and making a tantrum like that, you might get a one-way-ticket into some asylum." the chief cautioned.

"BUT I AM NOT CRAZY! I AM NOT CRAZY! I AM MENTALLY PERFECTLY FINE OR ARE YOU TOTALLY BLIND, CHIEF! I KNOW WHAT I SAW UP THERE! THERE ARE BUNCH OF GIANT TALKING TURTLES AND THE RAT WHO DID THIS TO ME! THIS CITY'S CRAWLING WITH THE HIDEOUS FREAKS LIKE THEM, HIDING IN THE SHADOWS, CONCEALING THEIR FACES IN FEAR OF THE PUBLIC, HUNTING DOWN US HONEST CRIMINALS LIKE THE WOLVES PREYING ON SHEEPS! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME, THERE REALLY IS A GIANT TALKING TURTLES AND THE RAT! DO YOU HEAR ME, YOU BLIND IMBECILES! YOU IGNORANT IDIOTS!"

As Dandelion kept throwing a childish tantrum while being taken away, the maddened gangster boss craned his neck up to look up at the burning hotel, thinking and believing Louie peering down at him in the taunting triumph.

"MR. LORENZO! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! YOU MAY HAVE WON THIS ROUND BUT THIS ISN'T OVER! YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME YET! I WILL BE BACK! I WILL RETURN! I WILL BE BACK ON THE STREET AGAIN! AND WHEN THAT TIME COMES, THIS CITY AIN'T GONNA BE BIG ENOUGH FOR BOTH OF US! I SHALL HUNT YOU DOWN, AND I'LL NEVER STOP TILL I FIND YOU! AND WHEN I DO, I'M GOING TO DESTROY YOU, AND ALL THOSE YOU CARE ABOUT! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WITHOUT MERCY! BWA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HAA! BWA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HAA!" Dandelion's laughed maniacally as he was forced into the police car.

Kevin, after watching Dandelion's maniacal and crazed tantrum, shook his head in disbelief. "Whatta lunatic." the boy said.

"Tell me about it/Tell me about it." said the voice both from his phone and from behind his back.

Turning around, Kevin stared at the corner of the burning hotel, and noticed Louie and Angel peeking around the corner at him with the proud smiles on their faces, with the turtle in black holding up his Shell-cell.

After closing the call and putting his Shell-cell away, Louie, as well as Angel, gave Kevin a thumps-up to both congratulate him for the good job to bring Dandelion in the justice as well as thanking him for covering up his and his family's existence from the police.

Smiling back at them, Kevin gave both of them a thumps up to thank them for helping him in busting Dandelion, before the boy waved his hand at them in goodbye - to which both Louie and Angel returned in kind - and turned to leave the scene with the police.

After Kevin had gone, Louie and Angel turned away from the corner and went deeper into the alley to avoid being seen by the cops.

And in the alley, they met the rest of the turtles - with Dom's wounded arm being bandaged and put on the sling by Arcee - Master Splinter, Casey, Ellie, Wendy and the remaining children, Jake, Conrad, Laura, Minnie, Angie, Jessica, Buck, Oliver, Tito and Dino, as well as Flow and Mike the rat, all of them safely outside of the burning building.

"Well, guys, that's it then." Louie said in triumph as he rejoined his family. "Dandelion is busted! We won't be seeing him again any time soon."

"YEEEEAAAAHHHH!" the children cheered in victory and joy, Jake, Conrad, Buck and Oliver were jumping up in the air, throwing their fists up, while Minni and Jessica were hugging each other and Laura and Angie were holding from each others hands and dancing around, with Tito and Dino giving high-fives to each other, while Wendy looked at them with the relieved smile.

Even Flow let out a celebrating bark out of his muzzle, while Mike the rat squeaked with happiness from Angie's shoulder-

"ALRIGHT! TURTLES/CASEY RULE!" the turtles, save for Louie, and Casey cheered as they high-threed - high-fived in Casey's case - each other at these news, with Master Splinter smiling at his sons and daughters.

Louie and Angel turned to each other, smiling to one another, before the purple-haired girl threw herself into the turtle in black's arms and wrapped her arms around his throat, giving him a rather tight and squeezing hug, even if Louie did not seemed to mind about it and wrapped his own arms around her, hugging her back.

Ellie then walked towards her granddaughter and Louie, giving the two of them a happy smile, until she was standing right next to them.

Seeing her, Louie and Angel broke their hug, before the latter ran up into her frandmother's awaiting arms, before Ellie took her grandmother into a loving hug.

Afterwards, Ellie turned to Louie, walking up to him, before the old lady put her hands gently on the turtle in black's shoulder and gave her a sweet smile.

"Thank you, Lorenzo, dear." she told with her voice full of gratitude. "Thank you for saving us. Me and Angel, and the kids."

"Thank you for saving my little ones." Wendy called from behind the children, smiling gratefully at the turtle in black.

"Thank you for saving us, Uncle Louie." Jake, Conrad, Laura, Minnie, Angie, Jessica, Buck, Oliver, Tito and Dino said with one voice before they all mobbed around of Louie and held their hands out to him.

Louie reached out his own hands and shook them with two of the children at the time, first with Jake and Laura, then Conrad and Minnie, then Angie and Buck, then Jessica and Oliver and finally Tito and Dino, just before Flow pushed her way past the kinds, jumped on Louie and licked his face in gratitude.

However, from the corner of his eye, Louie noticed that his brothers and sisters, as well as Casey and even Master Splinter, were all giving him stern looks for taking all the glory of rescuing his friends from Dandelion and his mobsters with their help for himself, although Louie strongly doubted that Master Splinter would even care about the credit of a good deed done.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. You shouldn't be thanking just me, guys." Louie said, waving his hands at Ellie, Angel, Wendy and the kids.

"Let's just say it wasn't just me who saved you all today. For without the guys here..." Louie began, gesturing towards his family. "And by guys, I also mean our bonehead, Casey Jones..." Louie added, earning a glare from Casey for what he'd just called him. "I don't think I could have done it alone. They saved you all just as much as I did."

Ellie, Wendy and the children nodded their heads to him, before they turned to Louie's family and Casey to give them their gratitudes as well.

"Thank you for coming for us, Master Splinter." Ellie said gratefully as she stood in front of Master Splinter and held her hand out to him, which the old rat master accepted before they shook them with the smiles. "We all owe your son, and your whole family a lot. I can't thank you enough."

"You're all welcome, Miss Bridge." Master Splinter said back. "And I believe that you, your granddaughter and all of these children being safe and sound, and our happiness over it, is enough of the thanks from you."

"Excuse me, Sir?" Angie said as she came over to Master Splinter and Ellie, getting the two's attention, while Mike sat on her shoulder and eyed Splinter curiously. "My name is Angela or Angie. Are you Louie's dad? A big rat called by the name Master Splinter?"

"Yes. I am Lorenzo father and master." Splinter confirmed, smiling down at the little girl.

"Uncle Louie has told us a lot about you." Angie told him with the sweet smile of her own. "He has said that you're the best dad and master the one could ask. Maybe you should drop by every now and then so that we can get to know you a little better."

Moved by what Louie has said about him, as well as by Angie's invitation to come by often, made Master Splinter chuckle lightly before he put his hand on Angie's shoulder.

"I'd like to, Angela. I'd like to " Splinter said.

Mike then left from Angie's shoulder and ran up along Master Splinter's arm, before the small rodent positioned himself on Master Splinter's shoulder, squeaking excitedly at the old rat master after discovering that he was his kind, albeit abnormal one.

"Mike! Come down from there!" Angie said before offering Splinter an apologetic look. "Sorry about my pet. He often likes to hang out with the other rats when he's not with me."

"It's alright, Angela. I don't mind. And In fact..." Splinter said as he gently petted the top of Mike's head with his hand. "I'm actually delighted to see that you have a rat as a pet. It reminds me warmly of the times when I too used to be and ordinary pet rat for a certain human who was so dear to me until I lost him." he said, referring to his late master Hamato Yoshi."

Each of the children, save for Angie, went to apparently their favorite turtles of Louie's family.

Laura was the first one to go to Leo to thank him for saving her earlier, with the turtle in blue kneeling down before her before he scooped her up from the ground in his arms, making Laura to let out a surprised yelp, before she afterwards threw her arms around of Leo's neck and gave the fearless leader a grateful hug.

Raph knelt down next to Oliver and Buck and shared a good laughter with them, mostly because he had seen how fiercely and stubbornly the two had taken on Dandelion's minions and given them a severe beatdown, and even now the two were impressing the turtle in red with their tough-guy like attitudes, prompting the three of them fist-bump each other.

After Mary had knelt down to meet someone's gratitude, Flow immediately pounced on her and attacked the turtle in turquoise by licking her face in gratitude. Not that kind of the gratitude what Mary had initially expected - well, from the kids anyway - but Flow licking her at least made her chuckle, before she returned to it by petting flow and scratching her from behind the ear.

Donnie knelt down as Conrad walked up to him, for the two had found a particular fondness of each other, even if Conrad's nerdie look hid the fact that he was more into Mikey's passion of skateboarding. The two made the fist-bump with each other before Conrad literally threw himself into the turtle in purple, giving him a hug. Donnie was initially surprised by this, but he eventually hugged Conrad back.

Dom, while watching his busted arm, carefully knelt down as Jessica ran up to him, with the little girl smiling so sweetly at her to which the turtle in white returned to with his own warm smile as well. She attempted to hug him, but Dom held Jessica gently back with his good hand in her chest, to Jessica's confusion. However, it soon turned into a delightful surprise when Dom placed on her head her earlier dropped aviator pilot hat, which the turtle in white had somehow managed to rescue from the flames. Moved by having her hat back, Jessica threw herself into Dom, hugging her tightly as a gratitude for returning her her hat, with the turtle in white wrapping his good arm around the little girl to hug her back.

Mikey, kneeling down in front of Jake, held out his hand for the overweight kid, who accepted it with pleasure, and the two shook their hands as if the two were already the best friends in the world, though the two were quick to have just one thing in their minds.

"When it's time to eat? I'm starving." the two thought together.

While Angie was talking with Master Splinter, Arcee campe up from behind her and surprised the little girl by suddenly picking her up from the ground and putting her to sit pickybag over her neck. After recovering from her surprise, Angie let out an ammused laughter as she took a support from Arcee's head, while the turtle in pink made sure that she wouldn't fall off her neck by holding her still with her hands, while both Master Splinter and Ellie smiled at the two.

And finally, as Casey rested his hockey stick over his shoulders while watching as most of the kids interacted with the turtles - but none of them with him, which annoyed him a little - he was surprised when the left end of his hockey stick was suddenly pulled downward. Looking down, he saw that one of the twins, Tito, had jumped up and gotten a hold of Casey's hockey stick and was now hanging from it with his hands like in a climbing frame. And then, looking to his right, Casey saw Dino trying to get a hold from the other end of Casey's stick by jumping towards it, but Tito's weight had pulled the stick too high that Dino couldn't reach it. Shrugging at this, Casey knelt low enough for Dino to grab the other end of his stick before he stood up again, lifting Dino off the ground. The twins were now laughing as they playfully dangled from the both ends of Casey's hockey stick, with Casey, while wearing a smile, rolled his eyes at the twins' goofiness.(1)

Louie smiled happily to see his family and his friends getting along well with each other, before Angel walked up to him. The two glanced warmly at each other, before the purple-haired girl and the turtle in black wrapped their arms around of each other, with Angel even leaning her head against Louie's shoulder while they kept looking at Louie's family's and his friends' interraction with each other.

But after a moment, despite the happiness over Dandelion's defeat and the kids, Wendy and the Bridges being safe and sound, Louie's smile faded away from his lips instantly and he looked down with a rather blue look on his face, as if something had remained to bother him from inside.

The sudden crashing sound above of them, however, snapped all of them out of their doings or thoughts and they all looked up, seeing that about half of the burning top of the hotel had suddenly collapsed into the lower levels of the building. And whilst this was not enough, though, to cause the whole building to instantly collapse, it did left it in the highly unstable state that it could collapse completely at any moment.

"We better get out of here, before it completely collapses on us." Leo suggested.

"Especially when this place will soon be swarming with authorities." Mary agreed.

"But... what are we supposed to do now? Where are we even supposed to go now? That was our only home." Jessica spoke up with the soft but sadness-filled voice.

Catching up what Jessica had just said, Wendy, Jake, Conrad, Laura, Minnie, Angie, Buck, Oliver, Tito and Dino looked sadly up at the burning hotel, which had been their little family's long-time home for years before and after meeting Louie. And now, thanks to Dandelion's actions, it was now in flames and by the dawn nothing would be left of it except a huge pile of ash and charred wood, thus leaving them all homeless with nothing left of their old lives in here.

Wendy let out a saddened sigh out of his mouth, as a few tears began to run down her cheeks as she watched the hotel burning.

Jake, Conrad and Laura looked down in deep sadness, prompting Buck to wrap his arm comfortingly around of Laura, while Oliver kicked the nearby can away in frustration. Minnie and Jessica shed the depressed tears and let out the soft sobs, until they were pulled into a hug by Angie- after Arcee had lowered her down to the ground - while Flow whimbered at the sight of the youngest girls being so miserable, prompting the collie to nuzzle them with her head and lick their faces in an effort to comfort them, while Tito and Dino looked at the building's flames with the devastated looks on their faces.

Seeing the looks on the twins' faces, Casey felt the immediate sympathy for the boys - and pretty much for all of them - because he himself had gone through the exactly the same loss in his childhood a long time ago. With that in mind, the vigilante man knelt down next to the twins and put his hands gently on their shoulders, earning their attentions.

"So sorry for your loss, guys. Believe me, I have been through what you're going through right now." Casey said sympathically.

"Yeah." Raph agreed with the nod. "And so we have."

"Definitely." Arcee agreed as well, as she knelt down next to Angie, Minnie and Jessica, making the three girls to look at the turtle in pink. "We've all been there before. We know way too well what it feels like to loose the place you've grown to call home your whole life." she told them, recalling the time when Stockman's Mousers had trashed their first Lair, their childhood home for fifteen years, a several months ago.

"Well, look at the bright sight. Just like the last time, the culprit got what he asked for." Mikey joked in an attempt to lift the mood, though it did little to help with the situation, except to annoy his siblings.

"Michelangelo!" Splinter said sternly, before hitting the turtle in orange in the head with his stick.

"Ow! Hey! I was just saying." Mikey defended, while rubbing his head with his hand.

"But Jessica is right." Wendy said as she turned to everybody. "Where are we supposed to live now?"

"How about some orphanage?" Dom suggested almost immediately. "You know? In an orphanage you would have shelter, food, warmth, shower, clean clothes, healthcare, a new friends..."

"NOT IN ORPHANAGE!" Jake, Conrad, Laura, Minnie, Jessica, Angie, Buck, Oliver, Tito and Dino unanimously refused, causing the turtle in white to be taken aback.

"Hey! I only suggested that because I thought, no, I believe, that it is for your own good." Dom said in his own defense.

"And we appreciate for thinking what you believe is good for us, Mr... Domenico, wasn't it?" Wendy said, while asking for confirmation if she had got Dom's name right, which the turtle in white did with the nod.

"Yes. We really do appreciate the offer. But we were all originally from an orphanage whose desperate owner had ran afoul with the shady dealers who began greedily to extort from her an unfairly increased sum of money, thrice from the sum she had originally borrowed from them, and when she couldn't pay the amount they demanded, the orphanage along with nearly everybody inside was burned to the ground." Wendy explained.

The turtles, Splinter, Casey, and Ellie stared at Wendy in shocked silence of her story, unable to believe that this wasn't the first time when she and these children had been tried to murder, and their home being burned down.

"It's true, guys." Louie confirmed, making everybody turn to him.

"Wendy and the kids have quite a lot of bad memories of orphanages, especially ones that are run by the money borrowed from shady people who can turn on you whenever they want to." the turtle in black explained. "And besides, I don't think they would be happy to go live in even a safer orphanage in this town, because that means that in time they could be separated from each other through adoption. You see, they've lived together for so long since the fire at their former orphanage that they have come to view each other as a family, bound together with an unbreakable bond, which could affect them pretty negatively if their family is forcibly broken up."

The turtles took all of this in, and after a moment of thought, Mary was the first one to speak up, while nodding her head.

"Then let's not break their family apart with the orphanage." the turtle in turquoise said firmly. "But they at least need a better and much safer place to stay where they can never again be threatened by any danger."

This time it was Donnie's turn to give it a moment of thought, before he finally snapped his fingers and turned to the others.

"Actually... I think there just might be the perfect place where our newest friends can stay as long as they wish." the turtle in purple said with the smirk.

###

Meanwhile, shortly before dawn, at the Garbageman's old island, two of the homeless people who had been previously kidnapped from the town by the Garbageman, Wayne and Michael, were sitting by themselves around the bonfire with the few other homeless - one of whom was reading a dirty and torn newspaper, the other one eating a can food and the third one playing with the guitar a soft and entertaining tones - on guard duty at the only accessible beach of the island.

"*Yawn!* Typical for us to get the first watch duty before the dawn, don't you think?" Wayne told his friend after letting out a tired yawn.

"Yep. I wonder if the professor Garey ever reconsiders of replacing with someone else who is keen to earlier watch duty." Michael said as he was adjusting the fire.

"Have you ever even pondered to ask him for that?" Wayne asked him.

"Nope. I haven't." Michael said, shaking his head.

Wayne let out a bored sigh and, taking support from his knee with his right elbow, rested his head on his hand. "Why couldn't the Garbageman kidnap some other people who are a morning people than us? Have you thought about that?"

"Nope. No idea." Michael said.

Wayne then turned to look towards the city as the first rays of the sunrise beginning to rise from behind its tall buildings, but as he kept looking at the sunrise and the city in his thoughts, Wayne began to hear the slowly but certainly increasing sound of a motorboat's engine.

"Can you hear that, Michael?" Wayne asked from his friend, surprised and confused by the voice.

"Yep. Probably some morning people doing some early fishing in the river. What about it?" Michael asked.

Without answering, Wayne stood up from his seat to look more closely at the waterline, catching Michael's and his fellow homeless' attentions, before he managed to see a single boat rapidly approaching the shore of the island.

"No. That's not the fishermen. Someone is approaching the island and fast!" Wayne said to his fellow homeless.

Wayne then turned to his fellow homeless, the one who was reading the newspaper, who also had a flare gun resting on his belt.

"Gimme the flare gun! Let's alert everyone on the island!" Wayne insisted. "Better be safe than sorry!"

The homeless man immediately gave Wayne the flare gun, which Wayne proceeded to raise above his head and fire a shot in the air.

When the shot of the flare gun flew in the air, nearly all the homeless people living on the island turned towards it, including Professor Garey who was at the moment giving his new theoretical lecture on the old platform of the Garbageman to the gathered audience of the homeless people.

"Good heavens! Someone is approaching the island!" Professor Garey gasped worriedly.

A little later, Professor Garey and a large number of the homeless people - including Ernie, Phil, Crystal and Jack, Ann and a little Olivia - gathered to the beach cautiously and many of them armed with all kinds of melee weapons they had picked from the piles of trash in case they were about to be attacked.

As the boat came closer, this time with slower pace, Professor Garey hand-signaled Michael and Wayne and the three other homeless people to aim the spotlights on the platforms of two or three cars out in the water and at the approaching boat.

Professor Garey then raised the megaphone in front of his mouth to address the intruders personally.

"Who goes there?! Friend or foe?!" Professor Garey questioned. " If it's the friend, identify yourselves. If it's the foe, I request you to turn around and leave our island!"

This was followed by the brief moment of silence, until the faint voice called from the river.

"Professor!"

Professor Garey blinked his eyes in surprise after hearing someone calling for him directly from the approaching boat, for he could've sworn that he found the voice familiar, but he just needed to be sure.

"Who's there?!" Professor Garey called again.

"Professor Garey! It's just me! It's just us!" the voice called again, just a bit closer and clear this time.

When the boat came under the spotlights beams and revealed its passengers, starting from the first one that was standing in the bow of the boat, waving his hand at them, Professor Garey was the first to immediately recognize who they were, much to his joy.

"Donatello!" he gasped with the smile on his lips. "And the turtles! They're back!"

Indeed, it was the turtles that occupied the boat, along with Master Splinter, Casey, Angel, Ellie, Wendy, Jake, Conrad, Laura, Minnie, Angie, Jessica, Buck, Oliver, Tito, Dino, Flow and Mike the rat.

Professor Garey then signaled the spotlights to be turned off, which they did, just when the turtles' boat hit the breach.

Donnie was the first one to hop off the boat, followed by Louie, Mary and Raph, but while the turtles in purple and walked off to greet the professor, the turtles in black and red remained behind to pull together the boat - and a pretty heavy boat with full of people - further out of the water into the beach.

"Greetings, Donatello. And you too, Marietta dear. It is the pleasure to have you and you little green family as guest in our island." Professor Garey said, welcoming Donnie and Mary with open arms.

"Hello, Professor Garey. It is good to see you too after some while." Donnie said, as he and Garey shook each others hands in greeting, before the professor shook his hands with Mary as well.

"How yopu have been since our last visit?" Mary asked, remembering that they haven't paid any visit at the island since defeating the Garbageman and rescuing the homeless.

"We've been very fine here, Marietta. The Garbageman's former reformed business has been keeping us both fed and well ever since his defeat in your hands, even though, as you just saw, we've been on the alert in case he might return to his island." Professor Garey told her.

"Well, judging by your happiness here, he hasn't been seen around, hasn't he?" Mary asked.

"No." Professor Garey confirmed, shaking his head. "And I'd prefer to keep it that way."

"MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY!" Olivia's voice called from behind the professor's back, catching Mary's attention.

The turtle in turquoise turned towards the voice and the big smile spread on her lips when she saw Olivia running from her parents towards her with the biggest excitement wrapped over her face, with her arms spread wide and Mary the turtle-doll flapping in her left hand as she ran.

"MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY! MARY!" Olivia's cried again.

"OLIVIA!" Mary exclaimed, before she briefly turned back to Donnie and the Professor. "'xcuse me." she said to them before walking/running towards Olivia.

"Hey, hey, hey! Olivia!" Mary said as she crouched down and spread her own arms wide, waiting for Olivia to come to her.

"MARY!" Olivia exclaimed one more time before she literally threw herself into Mary and wrapped her arms around of the turtle in turquoise's neck, hugging her.

Mary then wrapped her own arms around the little girl, hugging her back, before she scooped her up from the ground.

"Where have you been, Mary?" Olivia asked as she broke from the hug and glared Mary with the annoyed frown. "You promised that you and the others would visit us more often. It's been weeks since the last time."

"Well..." Mary began with the shrug. "Me and the guys have been a little occupied these last quite busy weeks. But, here we are now." the turtle in tuquoise said with the teasing sing-song voice, making Olivia to giggle.

Olivia's parents, Jack and Ann, then walked up to the two, receiving the turtle in tuquoise with the welcoming open arms. Mary shook her hands with Jack while sisterly put her hand over Ann's left shoulder and Ann responded to it in kind.

Letting Mary have a moment with Olivia and her parents, Professor Garey turned back to Donnie. "So, Donatello. To what do I owe this honor?"

"Well, if you don't mind, professor..." Donnie said, before the turtle in purple stepped aside and gestured towards the boat. "Me and my family brought with us a few new faces for you and the others to see... as well as some newcomers."

"Newcomers?" Professor Garey said in mild confusion and looked at the boat.

The rest of the turtles, along with Master Splinter and Casey, after Louie and Raph had gotten the boat dragged off the water, were helping the other passengers off the boat. Casey helped Angel, and after him both Tito and Dino off the boat while Master Splinter held out his hand for Ellie to help her off the boat, which she accepted. Oliver and Buck, being the oldest of the children, jumped off the boat themselves, while Leo helped Laura off the boat, Mikey helped Conrad and Jake off the boat, Arcee helped Jessica off the boat, Louie helped Angie with Mike the rat and Wendy off the boat, and Raph helped both Wendy and Flow off the boat. Dom, unfortunately, was unable to help due to his injured arm.

Once the group was disembarked, they all began to walk towards Donnie and Professor Garey, as well as Mary, Olivia, Jack and Ann, who had joined Donnie's and the professor's side to receive the newcomers.

The children looked around, feeling rather nervous of their new surroundings and the new people, both adults and children, looking at them from all over. Some of them even backed away the closer they got the Professor Garey. Even Flow was acting a bit restlessly.

"Don't be scared, kids." Louie assured them soothingly, sensing their nervousness. "These are good people. And Professor Garey is an old friend of ours."

"Will he surely accept us in here?" Wendy asked, worrying that the great number of the people around of them would mean that these people cannot afford to have a few more mouths to feed, hence the reason why they wouldn't potentially be accepted here and being sent away.

"Professor Garey ain't that kind of people who'd turn away those people who're in need." Arcee assured her.

"And after all, all these people here didn't originally come here by their own choice. They were forcibly brought here." Dom added.

This information caught Wendy off guard. "What?" she asked.

"Long story, though." Dom said dismissively, not seeing a necessary to fill Wendy or the children about this island's dark origins.

The group then stopped in front of Donnie, Mary, Professor Garey and Olivia's family.

"Who are they?" Olivia asked from Mary as she looked at the strange children in front of them.

"Olivia, today you're gonna have a lots of new friends." Mary told her. "For they are going to stay here."

"Really?" Olivia asked the turtle in turquoise excitedly, which Mary confirmed with the nod of her head.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" Professor said as he adressed the group of children in front of him with the warm and welcoming manner.

Donnie glanced at Louie. "Louie?" he said, asking his brother to make some proper introducions between his friends and the Professor Garey.

Louie nodded and stepped forward towards the Professor Garey, who held out his hand towards the elder man to shake hands, which the Professor accepted gladly.

"Professor Garey? You don't mind if I ask you a small favor?" Louie asked, before he moved out of the way to show him Wendy and the children. "These are my friends, ever since my childhood, and they're their own family, and they'relike my secondbfamily. And they've been through a lot of hardships of late, mainly because of me."

Louie then introduced Wendy, Jake, Conrad, Laura, Minnie, Angie, Jessica, Buck, Oliver, Tito, Dino, Flow and even Mike the rat to Professor Garey and Olivia's family. But unlike that night when he had introduced them to Angel while describing their individual traits with positive, joyful and slightly joking manner, the introductions were done with rather solemnly and the descriptions were both joyless and relatively short, if even that.

Louie then gave the Professor Garey a quick and shortly detailed explanation about Wendy and the children's past origins and tragedy, as well as the first meeting between him and them when he was a child and how he had kept visiting them and helped them in secrecy from his family for a few years. Then he told Garey about him meddling with Dandelion's affairs for several weeks that had put him on the death warrant and made Wendy and the children targets of the Dandelions, who had used them as the leverages to get to him through the children, even killing one of them in the process to provoke him to come to rescue them. Louie finished his tale by telling Garey how his attempt to rescue Wendy and the children had resulted the abandoned hotel where they had made the residence was burned to the ground by Dandelions, along with everything they had, thus leaving them both homeless and with nowhere to go... except here, the Garbageman's old island, hopefully.

"So, can Wendy and the children stay live in here, professor, if it is okay to you?" Louie asked hopefully.

"Say no more, Lorenzo." Professor Garey said, adjusting his coat, before he turned to Wendy and the children. "Greetings, Wendy, and greetings to you too, little ones. I am Professor Gregory but call me Garey. I extend my deepest condolences for what you have lost and gone through. And for that, I welcome you to live in my island as long as you wish. It's people are my family, and you are my family too."

Wendy and the children gasped at the Professor's words, which left all of them very overjoyed that they were allowed to stay on this island and given a new home.

"THANK YOU, SIR." the children said with one voice.

Wendy then walked to Professor Garey and shook hands with him. "Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. My gratitude knows no bounds."

"The pleasure is all mine, ma'am." Professor Garey said simply.

Mary then put Olivia down and the little girl immediately walked up to the new children, and the very first one she met was, of course, Minnie.

"Hi. I'm Olivia. Welcome to this island." Olivia greeted her.

"Hi, Olivia. My name is Minnie." Minnie greeted her in kind.

Flow then walked up from behind of Minnie and towards Olivia, sniffing curiously her face a bit before the collie gave the little girl a greeting lick across the face, making Olivia to giggle happily before she wrapped her arms around of Flow's neck and gave her a hug.

More homeless children of all ages, both boys and girls, who had been previously kidnapped by the Garbageman and taken to the island, stepped forward to meet the new children. And Jake, Conrad, Laura, Angie, Jessica, Buck, Oliver, Tito, Dino, Flow and Mike were quick to find a new friends matching to themselves.

Jake found immediately a new friend from the overweight girlw who had the chubby cheeks as he had, and with whom he shared a great fondness of foot and eating.

Conrad met another African-American boy, who apparently shared Conrad's passion with skateboarding, that he immediately gave him one of the skateboards he was carrying with him to Conrad as a welcome gift, before the boy challenged Conrad into the skating raze.

Laura met a girl who gave her a welcome gift of a flower she had skillfully made from the trash she had found from the island. And even though it wasn't a real flower at all, Laura still thought it looked good.

To Minnie, Olivia gave as a welcome gift and the token of their newly developed friendship a seedy but mostly fixed turtle doll she'd managed to found from the piles of refuse all over the island, and someone, likely Olivia's mother, had added to the top of the doll's head some hair, which was tied together by the pinky bow tie. Minnie delightfully accepted the gift and took it from Olivia before giving it a hug.

Angie, with mike the rat standing on her shoulder, met the brown- and curly-haired and very polite boy, who too had a pretty big female rat pet that was sitting on his shoulder.

Jessica met another girl who shared her passion for the airplanes, except that instead of the simple toy planes, she had the radio controlled planes. She kindly invited her to fly the airplane with her and even allowed Jessica to try first, while teaching her how to control the airplane.

Buck, who was carrying with him a few wooden swords, the only things he had managed to save from the fire of the abandoned hotel, was sharing the swords with some other homeless children as a presents, of which they were very excited to play with.

Oliver met with the guitar attractive girl who was the same age as he was and they bonded with each other almost instantly due to the similiarities they shared: The girl was wearing the pot over her head, just like Oliver wore the saucepan on top of his own head.

Tito and Dino then met the twins, both girls, who, like Tito and Dino, looked very much similar to each other, and whenever one of them spoke, the other repeated her words almost immediately.

Meanwhile, many other children gathered around Flow to say "hi" to the collie while they hugged her, scratched her behind the ear, under the chin or on the sides, patted her on the head and stroked her back.

The turtles, Master Splinter, Casey Jones, Angel, Ellie, Wendy and Professor Garey looked on with happiness as the children were getting along with each other, until Professor Garey turned his gaze to Master Splinter, Casey, Angel and Ellie.

"So, these must be the "new faces" you mentioned to me, Donatello." Professor Garey said as he began walking towards them, with Donnie and Mary walking by his side.

At first, Professor Garey walked up to Master Splinter as Donnie spoke up. "Professor Garey? This is our master and our father, Master Splinter." the turtle in purple introduced before he turned to Master Splinter. "Mastert Splinter? This is our friend of whom we've talked about. Professor Gregory, "Garey" in short."

"Master Splinter. It is a pleasure to meet Donatello's and his brothers' and sisters' father at last." Professor Garey said as he held his hand out for Master Splinter, who accepted it and shook hands with him. "In theory, we all owe the debt of gratitude to your sons and daughters for what they have done for me and my people here."

"It is an honor to meet you too, Grogery-san." Master Splinter said as he let go of Garey's hand and gave him a small bow in respect. "And yes. I've heard what my children have done for you and your family. And I am proud of their good deed." he said, earning a happy smiles from his children.

"Professor?" Raph called as he walked up to Casey and put his hand over the vigilante's left shoulder, while Professor Garey turned to him and Casey. "Meet our pal, Casey Jones. "He's a huge benefit in the battle but a total nutjob when outside of the fight."

"Look who's talking, shell-for-brains." Casey shot back, elbowing Raph in the chest.

"Greetings, Mr. Jones." Professor Garey said and shook hands with Casey as well. "Any friend of the turtles is the friend of ours as well."

"Thanks, Professor." Casey said, before the vigilante waved his hand in front of his face, though he tried not to sound rude. "No offense of anything but this place really stinks. How you can even live with this reek?"

"Pretty much the same way how we have gotten used to live with the reek of the sewers." Mary said with her arms crossed over her chest and the knowing smirk on his lips.

"It might not smell like a paradise, but it still smells like home to us." Mikey added in.

Next, Professor Garey turned to Angel and Ellie. "And what's your name, ma'am?" he asked politely while holding out his hand for her.

Angel accepted it and shook hands with the Professor. "My name is Angel, Angel Bridge, and this is my grandmother." she said, gesturing to Ellie after letting go of Professor's hand.

Professor Garey then turned to Ellie and shook hands with her too.

"Ellie Bridge." she said, introducing herself.

"We are acquaintances of Casey and friends of the turtles as well, having met them through Casey, of course." Angel said, briefly explaining to the professor the circumstances in which she first met the turtles and how much their and Casey's intervention had influenced not only her life but also her choices between right and wrong. "And thanks to the efforts of Casey and the turtles, I've managed to stay on the right path ever since."

"It appears that in theory," Garey started, impressed by Angel's story, before he glanced at the turtles with the knowing look on his face. "Wherever our dear green friends go, they carry the aura of strong influence of righteousness with them."

"Well..." Arcee said, rubbing the back of her neck bashfully of Garey's words. "I believe that all the credit for that goes for Master Splinter for influencing us with the way of Bushido."

Professor Garey nodded before he walked back up to Wendy. "Come along, my dear. Let's show you and the children a little around of your new home."

Wendy nodded in agreement before she turned to her children. "Come along, little ones. We're about to go to the tour of our new home." she told them as she allowed the Professor to take her away from the beach.

The children cheered with excitment to explore the island and began to move after the Professor and Wendy, along with their new friends, Flow, and Olivia's family.

"WENDY! WAIT! HOLD A MINUTE!" Leo's voice called.

The professor Garey and Wendy then stopped and turned around, and so did the children, and they saw Leo walking towards them with fast but solemn pace, while carrying a small wooden box in his arms, stopping in front of Garey and Wendy, before he turtle in blue held it towards the latter.

Wendy looked down at the box offered to her by Leo in confusion, before she looked up to him with the raised eyebrow.

"Edward." Leo said solemnly, revealing that the box contained whatever was left of Edward after he was killed in the explosion.

Wendy let out the gasp by this revelation, taken aback by this.

"We thought he should be buried here so he could be home too." Leo explained.

Wendy then solemnly took the box from Leo into her own hands, carrying and even caressing it like a baby. Wendy began to shed the tears for the tragic and heartbreaking loss of one of her children, but also the happiness that his remains were returned to the care of his family so they could bury him in their - and Edward's as well - new home.

Wendy then looked up at Leo, as Master Splinter walked up to next of his eldest son, while Donnie, Mary, Raph, Mikey, Arcee, Louie and Dom, along with Casey, Angel and Ellie, gathered behind of them.

"Thank you. Thank you to you all for bringing Edward back home, as well as everything else you have done for us. We owe all of you a great deal of gratitude." Wendy said to them with the soft voice, as she lightly sobbed and clutched even tightly to the box.

Master Splinter bowed his head to Wendy, while the turtles simultaneously punched their fists into their palms (all except Dom, who couldn't do that with his injured hand) and bowed to Wendy in respect. Even Angel, mimicking the turtles, especially Louie, punched her own fist into her palm and bowed as well, while both Casey and Ellie nodded their heads.

###

A little later, in the bottom of the pit that used to be the Garbageman's slave camp and empire, a large group of homeless people - along with the turtles, Master Splinter, Casey, and Bridges - had gathered around an open spot in the corner of the pit, where two homeless guys were digging a hole in the center of the circular opening in the middle of the crowd.

Once they were finished, the two guys emerged up from the hole and joined Professor Garey, Wendy, who was still holding the box containing Edward's remains, and her children and Flow standing at the edge of the hole.

"Today, my friends, we have gathered here to lay one of the newest members of our family, a young boy named Edward, who died tragically last night, murdered in a most despicable manner that I will not describe to you, to rest in here, in his family's new home and also "his" eternal home, in peace." Professor Garey announced to the crowd, who remained solemnly silent.

Professor Garey then turned to Weny and kindly gestured her to proceed.

Nodding her head, Wendy, still clutching to the box with Edward's remains, jumped down into the hole and carefully placed the box to rest in the middle of the bottom.

But before she climbed out of the hole, Wendy placed Edward's pirate hat, his flintlock toy pistol and pirate sword toy - one of the few items that had been rescued from the fire of their former home at the abandoned hotel - to rest on top of the box.

"Goodbye, dear Edward. You were such of sweet boy." Wendy said with the shaking voice, barely able to hold back her grief, before she climbed out of the pit.

One by one, her children too paid their tribute to their fallen friend by placing their own personal possessions to stand/rest around of the box.

Jake put next to the box his empty cookie jar which he had managed to save from the fire... and eaten the remaining coockies.

Despite his quick fondness of his new skateboard that his new friend had given to him, Conrad decided put it next to the box, claiming that he can always get the new one.

Laura took her precious daisy she had always kept behind her left ear and, with the heavy sigh as she gave the last look at the flower, placed it sadly on the box.

Minnie took the pink bow tie off her new turtle doll's hair, along with her own red hair bow tie from her hair, and put them to rest on the box as well.

Angie didn't have any personal possessions of her own to give as a tribute save for Mike the rat. But instead of him, she put there the toy rat she'd found from the island.

Jessica, with the heavy heart and rather reluctantly yet solemnly and for Edward, took her precious aviator pilot hat from her head and put it in the hole.

Buck put there one of the remaining wooden swords he still had with him, and the one he still had happened to be his very own wooden sword.

Oliver took his saucepan off his head, gave it one last and longing look as well, before he put it down in the hole along woth the other items.

And finally, Tito and Dino put both their wooden rifle-like slingshots there.

"Goodbye, Edward." the children said somberly after putting their possessions into the grave.

As the same guys who had dug the grave began shoveling the soil back into the grave to bury the box, Edward's remains and the tributes of Weny and the children, Angel looked around and noticed to her great surprise that Louie was nowhere to be seen after he had been almost the first one to leave his own tribute - which was one of his treasured Butterfly Swords - at the bottom of Edward's grave before he had completely disappeared from sight without anyone's notice, not even by his own family.

However, after a moment of searching for the turtle in black with her eyes, Angel eventually found Louie, who was walking up the boardwalk that led through the mountains of trash up the edge of the pit and to the same ledge where the turtles has months ago defeated the Garbageman.

Looking around her, Angel made sure than nobody was watching, before she began to sneak away as quietly as she could without being seen by anyone. It helped her greatly that everybody's attention was in the funeral.

And once Angel was far enough from the funeral site, And once Angel was far enough from the funeral site without fear of being seen by anyone, she turned around and made the dash after Louie, first climbing up to the platform the Garbageman had previously given the speech to his slaves and then ran to the boardwalk and up to the edge of the pit.

However, despite the fact that she had tried to sneak away as silently and unnoticed as possible, Master Splinter had nevertheless managed to detect her sneaking - for even her soft footsteps could not escape his keen ears - but he pretended of not having noticed it until Angel was far enough to notice that she'd been detected.

Master Splinter then turned around and looked up at the young purple-haired girl as she was running up the broadwalk after Louie, before the old rat master gently nudged Ellie's arm to get her attention.

And when Ellie turned to Master Splinter, he motioned his head toward the boardwalk, signaling Ellie to look up. And when she did, she saw her granddaughter there heading to the edge of the pit.

Both Ellie and Master Splinter then turned to look at each other, and nodded, for both of them had the same thought in their minds.

###

After the long climb up to the edge of the pit and the ledge that opened the view to the town, Angel found Louie there, leaning with his left shoulder to the wall next to him while looking silently to the city... or was apparently looking to the city, for his head was hanging loosely from his shoulders.

"Louie?" Angel asked and walked slowly towards him.

Louie, however, didn't look back at her but kept silently looking at the city, as if he was in deep of his own thoughts.

"Are you okay, Louie?" Angel asked softly, as she stopped walking just behind of the turtle in black's shell-back.

Louie let out the sigh. "No. No I'm not, Angel-cake." he said uncharacteristically solemnly.

Angel walked partially around him until she was standing right next to him and saw the turtle in black's face clearly. His gaze was lowered to the ground and he wore a rather blue look over his face..

Angel has noticed that Louis had been strangely quiet, even looking quite depressed all morning, ever since they left the burning hotel behind, as if some heavy thought weighed on his mind that he couldn't get rid of.

"What is it, Louie?" Angel asked and walked right in front of him, but Louie didn't say anything to her, only looked away from her.

Then a one thought that could explain why Louie was so blue visited in Angel's mind. "You're blaming yourself for what happened to Edward, aren't you?" she asked, without even realizing it before the words had left her mouth.

"Well, what do you think?" Louie said rather curtly.

"Louie, you can't blame yourself for that." Angel said. "It wasn't your fault even. It's all Dandelion's fault. He was the one who killed him. You weren't even there when it happened. You didn't know."

"Dandelion may have killed him, but it was still pretty much my fault that Edward died." Louie argued, fighting the urge to turn his shell to Angel.

"What even makes you to think like that?" Angel protested. "Why do you even think that it's even your fault?"

"Because my interference in his affairs was what turned Dandelion's attention to me, ever since the night I saved you and Ellie's lives in that alley." Louie told her, lifting up his head and looking into Angel's eyes.

"Yes. You saved me and Grandma from those punks when they were about to kidnap us after finding out I was no longer the recruit of the Purple Dragons." Angel shrugged like that didn't even matter. "How does that make you to be the one to be blamed for all of this mess?"

"Well, as you saw then and much later after that, Johannes, Marcus and Helga were there and even then they worked for Dandelion through Mr. Nosy. Most likely those three told him everything about me, and so did L.J. Alcatraz, who also worked for Dandelion, after the concert we were at. And then Mr. Nosy delivered the news to Dandelion's ears." Louie explained. "And that's where their witch hunt on me started. They've been shadowing us both the whole time and finding out where I live, where you and Ellie live, and where Wendy and the kids lived, buying their time for the right moment to strike to us."

"But they came after two of us first after we left Wendy and the children." Angel said, recalling the framed attempt of robbery of the money transport car.

"Yes. Yes they did, and what happened?" Louie asked. "We humiliated Dandelion and blowed up his mansion and the whole property to the kingdom come. That was what pushed Dandelion over the edge. That's what made him to intensify his witch hunt on me. And that's why... he came after you and Ellie... after Wendy and the kids... to get to me and me alone."

This time Angel didn't say anything, allowing Louie to continue his ranting.

"He used Edward and Conrad as the messengers, and heck, even as the kamikaze-guys rigged with the explosives in order to hurt my family, succeeding in it with Edward! He kidnapped you and Ellie and used you as the bait to lure me into the Central Park to give myself up in exchange your safety, only to reveal to me that the hostages weren't you but Wendy and some random guy they were going to murder in cold-blood once I was in his clutches. And he was even going to kill you, Ellie and the children in that hotel if I didn't arrive there in time to surrender myself to him, which I had no idea since the message he left for me in your home never said anything about that, and I wasn't even there in the Lair when Edward and Conrad delivered Dandelion's message to my family!"

Louie then got in Angel's face as he kept ranting. "So I was the one who caused this whole mess! I'm the one who got Dandelion and his crime empire to come after us! I'm the reason why Edward died!" he said with the extreme self-loathing.

"Maybe none of this wouldn't have happened... maybe Edward would've never died... maybe I wouldn't have put you, your Grandma, my family, Wendy and the children and everybody in the harm's way if I... if I... if I hadn't..." he kept saying, but couldn't finish his own sentence, for he knew it would be too hurtful not just to Angel if she heard it, but also to his own conscience.

However, Angel, with the hurt look over her face as if she already knew what he was going to say, finished his sentence for him.

"If you hadn't saved me and Grandma that night at all." she said lowly.

Realizing that Angel had said what he himself was unable to say, Louie let out a deep sigh and let his head hung down from his shoulder as he closed his eyes and shook his head.

The two of then stayed silent for a moment, before Louie spoke up again.

"They were right. They were all right. Right about this from the beginning." the turtle in black said, sounding rather miserable that he had made himself to say those words.

Angel blinked his eyes in confusion. "What? What are you saying?"

"Master Splinter... Ellie... Dom... they were all right about this." Louie admitted, defeated, and begrudgingly sure of what he needed to do next, even if he didn't like it at all. "This isn't working, Angel-cake. This isn't working."

"What?!" Angel gasped. "What isn't working?"

"Us." Louie told her as he reluctantly turned back to her. "This thing between of us, it's not going to work."

"What are you even trying to say?!" Angel said, pressing the turtle in black to explain.

"Master Splinter and Ellie thought that it might be better if we stop from seeing each other, maybe ever again, for then I won't put you or our families or anyone else as close to us as a family into the needless danger l,ike I just did in these past few weeks." Louie said miserably as he turned away from Angel and leaned again against the wall. "And I've been thinking that, as much as I don't like it, that maybe that would be the best if we don't see each other... ever again."

Angel let out the gasp, as if she had been just stabbed in her heart.

"Why are you saying that?!" Angel said, or actually yelled, screaming both in anger and sadness, as the tears were threatening to shed from her eyes. "Why are you even agreeing with that?!"

"Because I care about you, Angel!" Louie said, turning back to her.

Angel didn't say anything, except kept staring at him as the tears began to ran down her cheeks.

"I care about you Angel, way more than I'm telling myself! I care about you more than anything else, besides my family!" Louie repeated. "And I care about your safety, now even more than before after I nearly lost you to Dandelion's sick walking-the-plank game! That's the sole reason we can't be together anymore! I'm the daredevil of my family! I keep throwing myself into the dangerous situations, even those of the life-threatening, with the little regard for my own personal safety! But I can't do that same to you: Dragging you into the life-threatening situations and both needlessly and foolishly endangering your life because of my own fun!"

Louie then looked away again. "I can't let anything bad happen to you! I'd never forgive myself if something very bad happens to you under my watch and I was unable to protect you and prevent that from happening!"

Louie then let out another heavy sigh and looked away from Angel miserably. "Maybe Dom did the right thing to rat us out to Master Splinter and Ellie. Maybe he did it for the right reasons compared to my own selfish reasons. I was too blinded by my anger and my own desires to even realize that myself. Maybe..."

However, he never managed to finish his sentence when Angel, having had enough with this, angrily stormed to Louie and...

"SLAP!"

"OWW!" Louie moaned from the sharp pain he felt in his left cheek.

It didn't take long for Louie to realize that Angel had angrily slapped him on the cheek... and the blow was pretty hard that it would definitely leave there a palm-shaped bruise, as if Angel hadn't spared anything to it to shut him up.

But instead of leaving him there alone and storming away from the ledge in anger and sorrow like many former girlfriends would do after finding out something so heartbreaking from their former boyfriends - such as the secret affairs or confessions about their intents to break up - Angel remained by his side, but the anger didn't leave her tear-filled eyes or from his shaking voice.

"LORENZO! NOW YOU LISTEN TO ME!" she began harshly, pointing her finger in middle of Louie's chest so hard that the turtle in black was, in fact, afraid of her outbursts that he didn't dare not to listen to her.

"WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST NIGHT, WAS NOT YOUR FAULT!" she said. "REPEAT WITH ME! "WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST NIGHT WAS NOT YOUR FAULT"! REPEAT IT TO ME! SAY IT! SAY IT!" she demanded.

"But Angel..." Louie was about to say buit was harshly cut off.

"SAY IT, DAMNIT!" she demanded even more harshly, forcing Louie to cooperate.

""What happened the last night was not my fault"!" Louie repeated with the low voice.

"AGAIN!" Angel demanded. "LOUDER!"

""WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST NIGHT WAS NOT YOUR FAULT"!" Louie repeated even louder.

"WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST NIGHT WAS NOT YOUR FAULT! WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST NIGHT WAS NOT YOUR FAULT! What happened the last night was not my fault! What happened the last night was not my fault!" Louie's voice echoed across the river before fading away.

"Good!" Angel said with satisfaction, though she was still angry that she put her hands on her hips. "And you want to know why?!"

Louie, as the answer to Angel's question, shook his head.

"Because you didn't know." Angel answered.

"Huh?!" Louie gasped with the dumbfounded look on his face, while he stared confused at Angel with the raised eyebrow.

"You didn't know that Johannes, Marcus and Helga were working for Dandelion. You didn't know that L.J. Alcatraz was also worked for Dandelion, neither did I. You didn't know they would tell you about Dandelion and that what he would do once he finds out about you. You didn't know that they would shadow us to find out our locations. You didn't know that the things would go down like this from the beginning. You didn't know that they would use me, Grandma, Wendy and the children against you." Angel said to him, lowering her voice a little.

"And besides, Dandelion was trying to attack you from two fronts, three fronts actually, from Central Park, from your own Lair, and from Wendy's and the children's hotel. He knew that you couldn't be in all three places at the same time but that didn't matter to him. All of them had the same goal, to both get you off guard and to torment you emotionally with the loss of a friend or a family member and your inability to help them before he goes after you directly and personally." Angel told him.

"Trust me, Louie, he told us himself that he didn't consider us important even as a hostages, more like a sheep for the slaughter after he was done with us, while all that time he just wanted to get his hands on you." she said.

"That doesn't quite make me feel any better, Angel-cake." Louie complained.

"But that doesn't make you a responsible of Edward's death, let alone to the whole mess, because you weren't there to save him, but about half of your family was and they saved Conrad from the same fate, while you were at the Central Park with the other half of your family and Casey to save Wendy's life and you did. And then you saved my life after I fell off the plank, and you and your family then saved both my grandma and the rest of the children." Angel countered. "You saved us all and we're all alive, and that's what should matter right now."

Angel kept the break, allowing Louie to take all of this in. The turtle in black turned away from her again as he pondered over her words.

"Well, maybe, but I still brought you FIRST in the harm's way, especially when we went after that fake robbery of the money transport truck, and that led to we getting caught, and they threatened to drown you in the bottom of the river and later even execute us in Dandelion's property." Louie reminded, before he let out another sigh. "I really shouldn't have taken you with me that night. I just should've taken you back to your home safe. I shouldn't have taken you into such of dangerous situation."

"Again, Louie..." Angel said. "Even that wasn't your fault. You never knew that it was a trap all along. And besides, even if you'd even considered of taking me to safety first before going after that truck, which you never did, I wouldn't have stayed behind anyway. I would've gone with you, as dangerous as it is, because it would've been my own choice, and my choice alone. And you want to know why?"

When Louie didn't look back at her, Angel reached out her right hand and cupped the turtle in black's left cheek before she gently turned his head towards her, so that Louie's gaze met Angel's. Now, both Angel and Louie were face-to-face with each other, eyes locked with each other, as Angel cupped Louie's other cheek with her left hand.

"Because I care about you, Louie." Angel said, now with sincere and way more softer voice. "I care about you, way more than I'm telling myself. I care about you more than anything else, besides my family. And I care about your safety, now even more than before after Dandelion put us both though with his sick game. That's the sole reason why I want to be with you. Let's just say that I'm the daredevil of my family too, for I keep throwing myself into dangerous situations with the little regard for my own safety. And I would do it again for you. I would throw myself into any life-threatening situation for you, over and over again, no matter how needless or foolish it might be, because I don't want you to get hurt, and I don't want to lose you."

Louie chuckled at this a bit. "Are you copying my own words, Angel-cake?" Louie asked with the shake of his head.

"No. I'm being sincere here, Lover-boy." Angel said, giving the turtle in black a raised-eyebrow look while smiling at him fondly.

Louie and Angel stared at each other for a long time in silence, literally lost to each others' eyes. The turtle in black was deeply moved by Angel's devotion to his safety just like he was to hers, even though he had just expressed his belief that he would keep her safer if they never saw each other again, so that he wouldn't have to constantly drag her into dangerous situations.

And while the two kept looking at each other, both of them began to have that same tingling feeling inside of them like they had felt that night after L.J. Alcatraz's concert, which made their cheeks blush a bit.

However, this time neither of them did say another word about it, nor turned away from each other, nor pushed each other away or broke their eye-contact.

And then, without either of them even realizing what they were doing, Angel cupped her hands to Louie's cheeks and the turtle in black did the very same thing with Angel's cheeks, before the two pulled each other closer and pressed their foreheads together affectionally... and they stayed like this for a moment until...

"Ahem!" someone cleared his throat all of the sudden.

This unexpected voice snapped both Louie and Angel out of it and they instantly pulled away from eachg other, before they turned towards the voice.

And there, at the boardway leading down to the bottom of the pit, stood Master Splinter, Ellie and even Dom, all of them looking at the two with the unreadable expressions.

"How long you guys have all been in there?" Louie asked from them, a bit annoyed that they had come to ruin the perfect moment between him and Angel.

"Pretty long enough, Louie." Dom told him. "And just right in time to hear everything what you just said."

"Hmph!" Louie growled, crossing his arms over his chest and shooting at his brother an annoyed scowl... expecting his brother to take all the pride of everything what he heard coming from his mouth.

"We see that you have finally learned your lesson, haven't you, Lorenzo? After everything you and Lorenzo have been through." Master Splinter said, getting his son's attention.

Unlike with Dom, Louie turned to Master Splinter and Ellie humbly. "Well, I... yes, Master Splinter. I have." the turtle in black said with the nod.

Angel walked up to Louie's side and rested her left hand to his shoulder while giving Louie a worried look, fearing that the turtle she liked so much would actually and humbly submit to his master and father's demands that they would never meet each other again like this just because of her safety.

Louie looked down at her, though his face was wrapped over by determination and assurance rather than by worry and sadness like hers.

"But Sensei, even if I've learned my lesson... I really can't let go of Angel." Louie said, as he reached out his left hand for Angel's right, and she took Louie's hand into her own, with them interlocking their fingers. "I just... can't. I care about her too much."

"Neither can I." Angel confirmed with the shake of her head while tightening her hold of Louie's hand like afraid to let go of it. "I neither can let go of Louie, Master Splinter."

Both Master Splinter and Ellie exchanged glances with each other, somewhat taken aback by the two's devotions to each other even after everything that had happened because of their affair. Even Dom looked completely dumbfounded by this.

"Angel dear, are you really sure about that?" Ellie asked from her granddaughter. "Even after everything you've gone through."

"Including all the possible dangers Lorenzo's life as a ninja would bring upon you and your family, young miss Bridge?" Master Splinter asked strictly.

"Yes." Angel said without hesitation or the second thought. "And I'm not afraid. I feel a lot of safer with Louie by my side."

Master Splinter and Ellie exchanged another glances with each other, but this time they were pondering over Louie's and Angel's loyalty and devotion to one another and their unwillingness to be separated from each other again.

After a moment of deliberation, they apparently came to a mutual decision that they were absolutely certain Louie and Angel would both like.

"Apparently there is no point in trying to keep you two apart." Master Splinter said, stroking his goatee. "Very well, you two have both mine and Miss Bridge's blessing."

Louie and Angel let such of loud gasps that their hearts nearly jumped out of their chests, leaving them both surprised and overjoyed of these news. Even Dom was surprised by this down to the core, though not as overjoyed.

"WHAT?!" the turtles in black, white and Ange let out.

"SERIOUSLY?! YOU REALLY MEAN IT, SENSEI?!" Louie asked from Master Splinter excitedly, out loud and unable to get the hold of himself.

"GRANDMA?! REALLY?! I CAN STILL BE WITH HIM?!" Angel asked from her grandmother equally enthusiastically.

Both Master Splinter and Ellie nodded their heads to confirm it to their respective children.

"YYYYYEEEEESSSS!" both Louie and Angel let out from the top of their longs, which echoed across of the river and all the way to the town.

"YEAH! HA HA HA HAA, HA HAA!" the two cheered, hopping up and throwing their fists up in the air in celebration like enthusiastic children.

And then Angel did something very unexpected. When Louie wasn't looking because of his own excitement, Angel turned to him and caught Louie by surprise by grabbing from the turtle in black's cheeks with both hands, turning him to face her before she pulled him closer to her face and then gave him a really big and passionate KISS on the lips.

Dom, Master Splinter and Ellie were left quite surprised by this.

"MMMMWWWWAAAAHHHH!" Angel let out as she pulled apart with Louie, who stared at Angel in complete shock of what Angel had done.

It didn't take long for her own actions to dawn on Angel as well, which caused her eyes to go wider than saucers and her own cheeks to blush furiously.

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" Angel repeated, feeling rather embarrassed, before she turned away from Louie, sheepishly rubbing her arm.

Chuckling nervously at himself, with his own cheeks blushing darker tone of green as well, Louie turned to Dom, Master Splinter and Ellie and shrugged at them.

While Dom was the only one who didn't know what to feel about this, Master Splinter and Ellie let out a light laughters at Louie's and Angel's embarrassment for what had just occurred with them.

"However, our decision is on the one condition of course." Ellie said after she stopped laughing and turned to Louie. "Lorenzo dear, even if I'm not your grandmother, I ask you to seriously consider both mine and Splinter's simplest request, that you won't drag my Angel anymore into the dangerous situations. Is that clear."

"Well, that won't happen ever again. Not at least from me, Ellie." Louie assured her.

"And what is that supposed to mean, bro?" Dom said, demanding an explonation from his brother.

"That, my dear bro, that from this day forward Angel won't go even near of any dangerous or even life-threatening situations if it is up to me." Louie explained while Angel looked at him quite knowingly as to what he meant. "No. From now on, Angel will decide freely herself will she follow me to the danger or not, and I'll respect her decision, whatever it is."

"And I think Louie will already know what my answer will be the next time when we embark another such of adventures such as this, eh Lover-boy?" Angel said.

"Oh, I think I do already, Angel." Louie laughed as he wrapped his arm over Angel's shoulder.

The turtle in white stared at the two baffled when the realization of Louie's words actually dawned to him. "Oh, make the turtle-soup out of me! Loophole! Of course he had to find the loophole in the agreement." he said, annoyed, as he turned to Master Splinter and Ellie.

"Oh, sure he did, Domenico dear. Oh, dear." Ellie sighed as he put her left hand's fingers onto her temple.

"Ugh! My son." Master Splinter groaned, facepalming himself for him and Ellie having overlooked something like this which Louie somehow had noticed before them.

Louie and Angel laughed at themselves, with the latter wrapping her own arm around of turtle in black before the two began to turn towards the edge, but not before Louie turned towards Dom once more.

"Oh! By the way! Dom! I almost forgot!" Louie said, catching the turtle in white's attention. "Now that everything is fine again and everyone got what they wanted in the end, I think I can forgive you somewhat for ratting me and Angel out that night."

"Oh? Is that your so-called "forgiveness" for getting what you wanted while I didn't get what I wanted." the turtle in white questioned suspiciously. "And what I wanted was that you learned your lesson of selfishly taking Angel unnecessarily in the danger's way."

"Nah! Not about that, Dom." Louie said with the wave of his hand.

"But technically, my dear brother, you got what you wanted, after all." the turtle in black argued back casually. "I learned my lesson, alright, and I won't take Angel anymore in danger's way myself. She only decides for that herself from now on."

"Yes, I do." Angel confirmed with the nod.

Dom put his healthy hand on his hip and gave them both an unconvinced look.

"But the real reason why I even bother to forgive you is that I am glad that YOU are alright, that it was just your shoulder that got hit from that shot back there rather than your head." Louie clarified.

With that, Louie and Angel turned away from Dom, Master Splinter and Ellie and walked up to the edge to view the last moments of the sunrise as the sun had already rose over the buildings of the town, with Angel resting her head on Louie's shoulder.

They stood there in that position for a moment in well-earned silence, until Angel broke the silence first.

"You know what, Louie? I really can't wait for our next big adventure together, wherever it takes us." Angel said, looking up at him hopefully.(2)

"Well, Angel-cake, knowing us turtles, I have the feeling that our next big adventure might just be around the next corner sooner than we think." Louie told her.(2)

With that, the two resumed their viewing of the sunrise, while looking forward that the future might bring for them.

THE END

---

TRIVIA

1) = Tito and Dino hanging from both ends from Casey's hockey stick is to reference to the scene from the Prince of Egypt's musical sequence where Moses allows two children to hang from the both ends of his staff.

2) = Reference to the "Notes of Underground". I'm glad I've finally managed to complete my original three-part The Girl and the Turtle saga, and I can finally go back to the original course of the series until the next original episode.