TMNT with Rae - Book 1

"But that was before you went blind." Leo pointed out. "How well do you test now?"

"I'm /half/ blind, thank you!" Tsu snapped, "Haley got me a mask so I wouldn't have to wear my bandanna or my sunglasses."

Mikey winced, "Leo hit a button," he whispered very quietly to Haley.

Leo frowned deeply. "Half blind or not, you're still not accustom to fighting people beyond small gangs. This is bigger than that."

Cassandra didn't say a word, merely crossed her legs again as she watched Tsuyoi and Leo fight. She could see both points of view. She rolled her neck, casually listening, not letting the tension get to her at all.

"Your fight became ours when we became friends!" Tsu shook her finger at him, "We're supposed to help each other. I can fight just fine. Don't judge my abilities before you've seen what I can do! That night in the alley was only a fraction of my talents."

"Let her be stubborn, Leo. She's not going to let it up. She's too thick headed." Cassandra rolled her eyes, breaking the fight. "If she dies, you don't have to worry. Her blood won't be on your hands."

Leo was a bit taken aback by the bluntness. But then again, Cassandra was a blunt person, he was learning. It wasn't that she was emotionless and detached. He knew that, so he didn't take it too heart, but understood that she was being completely serious.

"My worry is what if Hun gets a hold of you, Tsuyoi? If he can trash Raph I just shudder to think of how he'd crush you," Mikey chewed on hit bottom lip.

"If he catches me then I'm SOL, but I'm not going to let that happen," Tsuyoi shook her head, "He won't lay a finger on me. That's your guys' job."

"It's still really dangerous," Don sighed, "We'll get a little more information and see what happens. What time is the raid supposed to happen, Casey?"

"About midnight," the black haired man nodded.

Cassandra stood up, "I'll tell Raph." She said as she walked away from the room to go where the Hashi was to let Raph know what was going on.

"Man..." Haley frowned. "Will five people be enough for this?"

"I don't tackle the big battles anymore, not since I got Abigail. Otherwise I'd help, too. I sure hope everyone can take care of this," Casey sighed.

"I'll bet Raph'll ask Cassie to come with." Haley told Casey soothingly. "Or she might just go off and find out more information about that raid if she needs to. What time is it right now?"

"Seven. We have plenty of time I think," Casey nodded, "I can be here until eight and then I gotta book it so Buttercup can be put to bed."

"Haley, can I talk to you?" Don motioned to the brunette and got up, heading for his room on the train.

"Huh?" Haley blinked and then stood up. "Am I in trouble?" She randomly asked as she followed Donny into the train. She felt her heart pounding in her chest, a little worried that she might be in trouble. Though she couldn't recall if she did anything wrong.

"No you're not in trouble," Don chuckled. Ruffling through his room Don pulled out the white vest, and then he presented it to Haley, "After I saw the mask you got Tsuyoi I recognized it as a Bird ANBU mask from Naruto, I got the idea to put this together. I ordered the vest and then some Kevlar. I have been working on this at night and there's only padding in the front, so it's light enough for her to move around but she won't get killed from a shot to the chest. What do you think? If you can convince Tsu to back down you can take her back to Fireside to change, since I'm pretty sure she doesn't carry her mask with her."

"I can do that." Haley agreed as she carefully took the clothes that Donny gave her. "She'll enjoy this a lot. I'm sure just giving this to her and telling her to go get ready will be enough to head back." She looked at him. "Thanks for looking out for Tsuyoi."

"I haven't had a chance to finish the arm guards, but this should satisfy her for now until the rest is finished," Don beamed, "A belated birthday present is better than no present, right?"

"Right." She winked. "Tsuyoi!" She called as she rushed out of Donny's room. "Come on, let's go back home for a little bit."

"Wait, what? Why?" Tsuyoi furrowed her brows and noted Haley was trying to hide something behind her back.

"Just...come on. Let's go. We'll meet them nearby the docks. There's no point in fighting with Leo. You're both stubborn mules." Haley said quickly, her breath out in a rush. "We can just leave Cassandra here."

Leo raised an eye ridge at Haley, but recognized what she was trying to hide behind her back. He sighed, but didn't say anything against it. It was best if she did have protection if she was really serious on coming.

~*~

Raph looked up at Cassandra, "She's going isn't she?" was his simple question.

Cassandra nodded. "She wants to prove herself that her blindness didn't take away her ability to take care of herself. Half-blind or no, she doesn't want to admit that she has new limitations."

Abigail looked up at Cassandra and smiled wide, waving, "Hi-hi!"

Raph patted the top of her head and nodded, "Leo hasn't asked Splinter-sensei yet if he would be okay teaching Tsuyoi. I think Splinter was a bit daunted by Ian asking if he'd teach the whole group, but if it's just a few people it'd be better. Would /you/ be interested in learning Ninjutsu at all?" he asked.

"Hello," Cassandra smiled sweetly at Abigail and waved back, giving her a playful wink before turning back to Raph. "Me? A ninja? I never thought of it really. I know karate and judo, but I don't really have a chance to sneak around at night, I'm more of a up-front and personal, unless it's information gathering. Then it's more of a hide-and-wait."

"Having a Tiger around as a ninja would be interesting," Raph winked, "You'd look hot in a ninja suit. Maybe one with a deep V as a good distraction before you tear your enemies apart."

Cassandra laughed, her guard was down more. She was a little less tense and a lot more open. Her arms weren't crossed to tightly against her chest, but lowered more to her stomach and relaxed. "True." She agreed. "Or you'd probably get distracted."

"I would probably be more distracted by you wearing a sexy biker outfit," Raph admitted, "Mikey plays enough Mortal Combat I'm a bit desensitized to that sort of thing. Nah, what you wore on Tsuyoi's birthday was amazing, Tiger," he stood up and hauled Abigail into the air then caught her as she came down, enjoying her screams of delight.

"Uncle Raph make me fly!" Abby told Cass, "It fun! You try!"

"Me try to fly?" Cassandra laughed. "I think that's better suited to you, little Abby. I'm way to heavy."

"You probably would only weight about as much as April, maybe denser from being a Tiger and all that muscle, but still light. I won't do anything you don't want me to, though," Raph shrugged. He shifted Abby to sit on his shoulder, "Maybe next time, Buttercup."

She pouted but shrugged, "Okay."

Cassandra smiled a little. It was a throw away comment, probably something casual...but he sounded sincere. She knew it was stupid, but she trusted that. That he wouldn't do anything unless she wanted him to do it. "Maybe next time." She agreed. "Speaking of...I wanted to apologize to you."

"Hm? Apologize? For what?" Raph blinked at her dumbly.

"For avoiding you." She felt a little jittery. She never apologized for avoiding people. It was just an accepted thing. "I know you didn't know why I reacted the way that I did, and it wasn't fair of me to punish you by avoiding you or make you think that you did something wrong. I mean...if you wanted to touch me, or if you wanted to get my attention, just call my name or ask. Okay?"

"Oh, oh, right," Raph nodded, "Sure. Doesn't help that weird shock made us numb and startled the shell out of you. I'll make sure to ask next time, I promise." He smiled at her, "We good, Tiger?"

"We're good." Cassandra smiled. "Now going back around, Casey said that the heist isn't until midnight. You already know that Tsuyoi's going to go. I don't think Haley will dare try to come."

"What are your plans? I don't have a problem with you going, if you want to. But that's up to you," he shrugged, "Hey, on the earlier topic of the playdate...isn't Daniel half bird? Buttercup here will probably go nuts if he makes her fly."

Cassandra enjoyed the wide-eyed look that Abigail took on. "He might be able to." She grinned. "As long as she holds on really tight." She turned back to Raph. "I don't know. My plan was to see if I could dig up anymore information about the heist. Casey suspects that it'll be weaponry. But you know more about the Purple Dragons and Hun. You know better than I do if I'm going to hinder you or not."

"Just...be very careful. I don't think gathering Intel would hinder us at all," Raph shook his head, "It's what Angel does after all. I can give you her contact number if you want. Shell, if you like her enough I think getting her in your little Informer group would be benificial to you. She's good at what she does. She managed to tell /us/ about the heist, who'll be there, when and where. In spite of the fact they'd recognize her if they spotted her."

Cassandra raised an eyebrow. "I think I might just do that." She agreed. "If she's as good as you say she is, then she's definitely worthwhile in our group." She nodded her head. "You probably should contact her first and let her know that I have her info. That way when I call I don't have to answer fifty questions."

"Hahah, right. Let me go give Buttercup to Mikey to play with next," Raph grinned and gave her a thumbs up before heading out of the room.

~*~

Large, doe brown eyes surveyed the area carefully. Blowing dark royal purple hair out her face, Angel leaned against the wall with her arms folded chewing and popping gum. Her plum-colored crop top showing off a belly ring and the rhinestone buckle with an A on it holding up her ripped black jeans tucked into heavy military-style black combat boots. At least she didn't hold her hair in twin ponytails anymore and it was just down, barely passed her shoulders.

"You must be Angel." Cassandra said as she approached the purple headed girl. She kept her defenses up, just in case Angel decided to test or something as well as keeping her ears open to any strange noises. They were still near the park, which was good. "I'm Cassandra, Raphael probably mentioned me."

Angel took the time to look her over, slowly blowing out a bubble until it popped and then moved off the wall, putting her hands on her hips, "Yeah, he did. Said you were a good person. The guys don't trust easily so...I guess I'll listen to you and help you out," she walked closer very slowly, circling her. It was obvious this woman could probably kick her ass if she wanted to, but she wouldn't drop her guard for anything. "You need information, right? What do you want to know?"

"There's speculation that the shipment might be weapons. If that's true, what kind of weapons are we dealing with?" Cassandra asked, shifting, but not out of nerves. She kept her eye out, and her ears up in case Angel did decide to attack. She kept her stance relaxed and demeanor calm.

"Assault weapons. AK-47s, fast-firing guns, grenades of all sorts - shrapnel, flash-bang," Angel answered promptly and she went back to the wall but didn't lean against it, just folded her arms protectively. Hiding her back and keeping her torso guarded. She wasn't dumb. "There might be armor-piercing, hollow point, and other types of unique ammo," she added, "I'm not sure, the ammo might be in a smaller shipment, more discreet, because that's harder to come by for non-military personnel."

"Heavy armory for a heist." Cassandra frowned as she shifted again. She looked into a different direction as she thought about this. "Do you know what they plan to do with the weapons once they have them? Who'd they use it on for an example?"

"Not a clue, besides the turtles and Casey I'm not sure who their enemies - or allies - are," Angel shrugged, "For taking over New York...or a terrorist attack like with Shredder and the Plague...that's what comes to mind first. It's just theory based off of what's happened so far."

Cassandra sighed as she shifted her weight, this time letting her guard down completely and was thinking. "We'll figure that out after we block the heist from happening. We know it's at the dock. Do you know much about that place? Where would be most advantageous to have a fight?"

Why was she dropping her guard down? That threw Angel off and she shifted, letting her arms fall from her chest and she pulled out the wrapper for her gum. Spitting out the old she put in a new piece before answering, "In, on, and around the storage crates. Shadow and cover. The wooden crates are good enough to hide behind but not to take cover in. The guys have actually fought on the docks before, according to April, but that wasn't against very many people. I think they'll be at least twenty on top of Hun being there. That's five for each turtle...though there might be more than that. There's a /lot/ of people in the Purple Dragon's gang."

"So Tsuyoi was right in thinking about coming along." Cassandra ran her fingers through her hair. "Which means I have to decide whether or not I want to stay on the sidelines myself." She mused aloud. "The reason why I asked about the docks is because I'm thinking that ending this swift and pushing them back is faster than actually taking them all out. Also, this /is/ heavy weaponry. If we can get them to abandon the cargo, all the better for us." She frowned deeper. "Hollow bullets...I think out of everything I heard that worries more more. The armor piercing as well. The grenades and the flashy guns aren't too scary. I know two other gangs who can do worse than that." She smiled at Angel. "You're pretty useful around the guys and since this is new territory for Fireside, I'd like to invite you into the Informers. If you're willing."

"Fireside and the Informers? I've heard whispers about them the last couple years...aren't they involved with Metal Spiders and Lightning Force?" Angel inquired.

"Yes." Cassandra nodded. "They're part of the Infamous Trio."

"Oh is that what it is," Angel nodded, "I like that. I want to be a part of the Metal Spiders but I have no idea how to go about that. I like Racing like Raphael does more than I do blowing stuff up. I tried to talk to Casey since he's a mechanic, but he has higher priorities and he doesn't like the thought of any sort of gang."

"Stick with me kiddo and I can probably get you in." Cassandra said, "Though I think you might have a bit more fun gathering information. You're good at it and you're skilled. Especially when you could easily get caught."

"Raphael mentioned that, did he?" Angel rubbed the back of her neck out of embarrassment but didn't blush, "Anyway, I think we have ourselves a deal. Do you have any other questions or is that all?"

"I think that'll be it." Cassandra smiled. "We'll get in touch again. You'll get to meet the rest of the gang and we'll see how to get Kyle interested in you." She winked at her. "Talk to you soon Angel."

()

The docks were oddly quiet despite that there were Purple Dragons everywhere survaying the area and making sure that there was no one around. They had decided to take refuge up on the cargo, it was easier than to be in the shadows while there was so many on patrol. Luckily Cassandra has casually mentioned that there were going to be on patrol with partners. Though whether that was an educated guess or not, Leo didn't know.

It made this equally hard on them and easy. The faster they knocked out the little guys the better.

"It's a dark green cargo shipment box nearby the water. Be really careful, they chose that spot for a reason. Probably harder to run from. The security on that box isn't heavy, which means that someone probably is expecting this heist. I don't think you're looking at someone stealing weaponry, I think that they ordered this from the black market, but this is all speculation. My curiosity is what they're going to use it for, but your mission is more or less to make sure they don't get it. Once you guys tussle around, the security on watch is going to be alerted and when they see the cargo box open, will put tighter locks on it. I'll let Kyle and Jason know about that shipment box. It might be fun, stealing from a clan that's supposed to have everything."

"We're going to have to do this without being in pairs and meet up surrounding the green box that Cassandra was talking about," Leo finally said after a moment of thinking. "We'll take different sides and knock out people. Try not to alert anyone to anything. Knock them both out without a fuss and we can get to the cargo box. I don't know how many people will be surrounding the box along with Hun, but the faster we take them by surprise the better. They're armed with guns it looks like. Cassandra said that the ammo might be in a different shipment and that there was hollow point bullets. Be careful, because for all we know, they got that shipment prior to this one."

"Right," Raph nodded and he headed off first. Mikey went an entirely different direction, and Don went opposite of him. That left Leo to oversee their progress, and Tsu stayed with him so he could keep an eye on her. Sure enough like Angel said, there were at least fifteen to twenty men. But they had to be careful in case there were definitely more hiding.

Five to each, Cassandra had that pegged, but considering that they were mostly paired up to do the patrol around the docks, that probably meant that there'd be more near the green cargo. "Follow me," he murmured to Tsuyoi as he went from cargo to cargo, keeping an eye out down below and up above in case Hun had grown brains within the last few years and actually sent people up instead of keeping them down below. Seemed that fate was much nicer than that. "We just want to knock them out," he said softly when they approached two who were about to split. "You grab that one that's leaving, I'll take care of this one."

Tsuyoi was silent as she tip-toed over to the person and managed to catch him around the neck and her hand over his mouth. Choking him out she hauled him into the shadows and tied him up with his own buckles and clothes. Then she turned to Leo and gave him a thumbs up since any facial expression as hidden. She remembered when she had met up with them how Leo had stared at her, though she was sure he was taking in the true color of her eyes rather than her ANBU outfit.

Leo had easily knocked out the other person with a good knock to the head. It was fast, simple and it didn't cause a stir. He nodded at her thumbs up, in awe about her eyes. Such a lovely jade green color, her right one slightly milky but not terribly. He had to shake himself from thinking to deeply about it. They picked their way through the cargo maze, being careful until they reached where the green cargo was. His brothers managing to also get there around the same time. There were more people that surrounded the green cargo. Ten at the least. Which meant that they had defeated ten back there. Leo didn't know how they were going to do this. Ten and Hun vs Six of them.

"What's the plan, Leo?" Mikey asked as they all gathered together from their individual tasks.

"There's not a whole lot of room to sneak around, or do you want me to toss my sai and take out the light?" Raph twirled one.

Once the light was out, it would be hasty work and it would be a struggle. They'd be faster at it and swifter, it'd be quick work. If they tried to sneak...it wouldn't work. At the same time they had weaponry. It'd be easy to accidentally get shot, but there was really no other way if they wanted this mission to continue. "They'll scurry the moment that happens," he warned. "They have guns don't forget that. We'll attack, go straight foward. We don't want them near the cargo so as long as we keep pushing back and away and scare them, it should be enough." He turned to Raph. "Hit it."

Taking aim, Raph easily knocked out the light, though of course that meant he had to go find it. Listening for it to land, it was difficult with the shouts of "They're here!" and "Find them!" Then suddenly cold metal brushed his cheek and...his sai was dangling in front of him and Tsuyoi was maneuvering her fingers making it dance. Chuckling he took it and now fully equipped, darted out first to take out any goons he came across.

"Yeah! Time for some fun!" Mikey wooped and ran out sliding and then did a round-house kick.

Leo didn't bother to tell Mikey to stay focused, instead concentrated on the goons before them. Hun was still a massive shadow and he was probably trying to figure out where the commotion was coming from, trying to see the odd shapes in the shadows. He could hear gunfire, and he narrowly dodged a bullet without it gazing him before he tossed the person over his shoulder, and down onto the concrete ground, only to have to put his guard up to block a badly aimed punch. It was going to be quick work as long, but the goal was to keep Hun away from the cargo and to hope that not a lot was taken from it.

There were splashes from the direction Mikey was at and screams from Raph's, and nothing, if anything, other than thick /thwack/s or thuds from Donny's. Tsuyoi noticed Leo tried to stay equally as quiet...though she was a sort of mixture of screams and thuds because some were scared of her mask. A couple shots whizzed passed her head, she grunted as her vest caught a bullet on her bottom right side - where she would have been able to easily avoid it if she could /see/. The dim, little to no light was hard on her, but she kept going. A kick and a punch here and another kick, then she actually sent an air attack forward and there were shouts before splashes.

A gunshot and Mikey shouted, "Whoo! Missed me!"

The weaker of the Purple Dragons seemed to have figured out that there was no way around the mess. They didn't ditch their guns, but they took off fast enough. Leo didn't bother to chase after them, already knowing that they weren't worth going after. The others were stubborn as fucking hell though and what more was that Hun decided that /now/ was a good time to start attacking. Which was the cherry on the top of a mess. He really hoped that Tsuyoi wasn't anywhere /near/ for this fight.

She was and she wasn't...though she had somehow changed places with Mikey, ended up near the edge of the docks while he went and jumped in to fight next to his brother. Like they said it took all four of them to hold against Hun, and Tsu was trying to handle the stubborn flies who kept shooting in Hun's direction hoping to score a shot on a turtle. "None of that!" She shouted and kicked one off the edge. When she turned around to attack another was when she felt her arm get grazed and it took a moment for the fire to light, causing her to cry out and she stumbled back, holding it. Hissing, she jumped and did a round-house, spinning and causing a sort of tornado effect that send her enemies flying in all directions.

That was when flashlights and other shouts started getting closer. Tsuyoi grabbed her bandanna that she had wrapped around her forehead and tied off the injury so it wouldn't bleed and create evidence.

Leo felt a throbbing sensation in his bicep, but he didn't hiss aloud. The white lights got closer and they didn't have a choice. The turtles quickly scaled up the cargo boxes and Tsuyoi had to leap behind them in quick strides. Hun had also ran off, his heavy footsteps thudding. It wouldn't be a surprise to hear about five to ten arrests from the Purple Dragons...and the condition of the shipment box. They didn't speak until they were at the edge of the docks, heading towards the lair when Leo turned to Tsuyoi. "You got hurt." He noticed the bandanna wrapped around her arm. "We'll have Donny look at that when we're back at the Liar."

"We need to get to the Battleshell," Don called, "It's right over here and we can get home faster," he motioned for them to follow him, flipping closed the device on his wrist.

"I'm okay," Tsu tried to protest but before she knew it the five of them were in the truck, Donny and Mikey up front.

"Hey! I'm glad we got this new car last year compared to the first one after helping April. It's got a lot more room," Mikey commented randomly, though he knew Leo was more concerned for Tsu than what he was saying.

"True, but that means more buttons for you to accidentally press." Leo said to Mikey, before falling silent. It was baffling to him that he was able to feel that pain. Or maybe it was phantom pain from where he was nearly hit by a bullet as well, just not gazed

"Ha-ha, touche, but that's Donny's fault!" Mikey grinned.

"Don't blame me for /you're/ request to put rocket boosters in," Donny reached out and smacked his head, or tried to.

Tsuyoi giggled, "Rocket boosters? Really?" They couldn't see her smile but her hand did come up to the mask in a vain attempt to stifle her laughter.

For a brief moment, Leo thought about what her eyes looked like from underneath the mask. Were they lit up with joy and laughter? He mentally shook himself out of that line of thought. He knew that she wore the mask for a reason, and he wasn't about to take it off if she didn't want to.

~*~

When they got back to the liar, the lights were dimmed and the T.V was going at a soft sound. Cassandra was lying on the couch, fast asleep with one of Raph's blankets tucked around her. On the coffee table was a half-full mug of chamomile tea. Leo raised an eye ridge at this, but didn't say anything. Instead he turned to Tsuyoi who walked in behind them. The blood on her bandanna was showing more clearly now. He frowned deeply. "I warned you that you might get hurt," he murmured to Tsuyoi, keeping his voice low so that they wouldn't disturb Cassandra. "But I am glad that you had been there anyway. We did need your help."

Tsuyoi sighed and watched as the other brothers dispersed to do their late-night routines. Mikey stopped to scratch Klunk's chin as the orange tabby was on the arm of the couch. She sighed and rubbed her neck, "You...were right. I...I probably would've gotten injured a lot worse tonight if it wasn't for Donny," she motioned to the pullet stuck in the vest. She probably had a bruise there, "Looks like a kidney shot...and...the sad part is, I /know/ if I had been able to see completely, this wouldn't have happened."

Leo frowned deeply at the vest. "You said that you were a black belt and that you trained with Fireside." He gently reminded her, "So despite not being able to see completely, how do you train?"

"I am...and I do..." Tsu sighed, "I don't train in the dark...when we have training sessions in the factory it's during the day." She saw Don motion for them to come over and while she wasn't looking Raphael had tucked the blankets carefully over Cassandra, too. She carefully unwound the bandanna so Don would be able to get to the injury and she breathed sharply through her nose. She didn't know if it hurt worse now or when she got it.

Leo was thankful that the wound wasn't bad and that there wasn't a bullet to dig out. He didn't bother to ask why Fireside didn't train at night. "Maybe that's something we should consider talking to Ian about, and teaching you guys a little about how to move around. It's not the same as ninjutsu, but...it's something. You might benefit in talking to Master Splinter about training you. Not as a ninja if you don't want it, but to master your senses better."

"Do you think he would agree to train me? Learning ninjutsu feels like the...natural next step in my training," Tsu bit her lip and looked at the cleaning supplies Don had in his hands apprehensively. Sitting down in the offered chair her hand shot out to grab Leo's. She hated getting cleaned up from a wound. The stinging and the pain...bad, bad memories.

"I think that he would as long as you ask. I'll be more than happy to help." Leo responded, taking her hand calmly and squeezing it reassuringly. He hoped that he was taking her mind off of it a little. Maybe if he put on a lighter topic. "Does Cassandra easily fall asleep everywhere? Personally, I would have thought Haley would be the type to find any random place comfortable."

"Not really...I'm actually a bit surprised, and she hasn't stirred at all since we got here. She's a light sleeper - paranoia and because of her job. She is out cold...though that blanket, who's it belong to? Raph?" Tsuyoi asked, looking towards Cass but she still had to dig her teeth into her lip and squeeze Leo's hand as the disinfectant was brushed over the wound, cleaning it up.

Leo glanced over at the Cassandra. She was curled up, her hand gently bringing the edge of the red fluffy blanket closer to her so that she could breathe in the scent. "Yeah." He said after a moment. "That's Raph's alright. I noticed that there was chamomile tea, Master Splinter usually uses that to get Donny to sleep. He also left the T.V on...I wonder if that's helping her sleep." He turned back to Tsuyoi. "What about you? Does it take you a while to sleep comfortably in a new place?"

"Mm...no," Tsu muttered through clenched teeth, then when Donny moved to wipe off the rest of her arm of the blood she breathed deeper and relaxed a little, "That night Haley and I slept over when we first met...I slept pretty soundly. I think it was because I knew nothing would happen to me, with you sleeping next door," she would've smiled sheepishly at him, but as it was she just glanced up and met his eyes briefly before looking away again, "I have insomnia to a point, but it's not severe. I've never been able to stay awake more than...gosh the longest was maybe twenty-six hours straight. I was dragging my feet by twenty-four, though. I don't know how I did it," she laughed softly, "I would've slept for about as long if it wasn't for Haley dragging me out of bed."

Leo was highly amused. "The more I see Haley and Mikey together, the more I see a lot of similarities between the two. Hyperactive, an alarm clock. I'm willing to guess that Haley sleeps like a log and is wide awake faster than anyone else."

"Pretty much, though she does take naps...especially in the summer. She's a sun worshiper and konks out is she's in one of those plastic lounge chairs trying to get her summer tan," Tsu giggled, "I have a terrible time waking up most of the time. I'm not usually fully functional until about an hour after I've woken up. I drink Constant Comment tea, English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast tea instead of coffee. Occasionally I trade it out for a mocha frappacino at Starbucks, though."

"I'm not really much of a fan of black tea, but I do enjoy the green." Leo mused as he watched Donny bandage her before bringing his attention back to her. "Constant Comment. That sounds interesting. I heard of the other two, but not that one."

"It's by Bigelow, a black tea. I only drink black tea in the morning. I've been searching high and low for their black tea pomegranate one," She shook her head and was glad when she was released, "Arigato."

"No problem," Don smiled and got up to put away the supplies.

Back to Leo, Tsuyoi rubbed her arm through the bandage as it throbbed, "I like green tea, too. I have an acai dragon fruit one I use for detoxing, pomegranate green tea, and I also like chamomile. I can't /stand/ chai or oolong."

"Me neither," Leo was a little happy that there were some similarities when it came to tea taste. He didn't like chai, nor oolong. The former to strong and the later seemed to have a nutty taste he couldn't acquire.

Tsuyoi smiled and she took a moment to take off her vest and rolled her shoulder, "Would it...be alright if I stayed the night again here? In the cart next to yours like we did before?" It was far too late to head back to Fireside.

"I was just about to ask you that myself." Leo nodded, "Yeah you can. Do you want me to guide you there again?" He questioned, preparing to hold out his arm so that she could take his elbow.

"You don't have to, but I would like that," Tsu admitted and when he held out his arm for her, she placed a gentle hand on it and let him lead the way.

~*~

Cassandra opened her eyes lazily before sitting up straight like a board, looking at her surroundings for a moment, slowing her quickened breath. She fell asleep in the liar. She closed her eyes sighed, that had to be probably one of the few best nights she had in a very long time. She opened her eyes and noticed that there was a red, fuzzy blanket that was on her lap. She brought it back up to her chest, sniffing at the scent. Soothing, warm…safe.

Safe. Since when did safety ever have a scent? She didn’t know. She worked on folding the blanket so that she could give it back to whoever she borrowed it from. She took in deep breaths as she tried to relax herself again. She didn't know why, but she wasn't...worried that she slept so deep and for so long. Maybe it's because she wasn't in pain or having a wound throb. She wondered if Tsuyoi went home, or if she was still here.

"You're finally awake," a rough, groggy voice piped up followed by a yawn and Raph saw up from where he was on the other couch. Rubbing his eyes he turned towards her, "How'd you sleep, Tiger?"

"I slept really well surprisingly," Cassandra said honestly, a little startled that he was on the other couch. "Did you get kicked out of your room?" She asked, titling her head a little.

"Ah, no, I decided to sleep out here to keep you company, even though you didn't even know I was here," Raph chuckled, "We made quite a bit of noise when we came back but you were out cold. That's my blanket, if you didn't guess," he smirked at her, "I made it myself."

"Did you really?" She blinked, looking back at the blanket that she folded up. Her cheeks staining a bright pink. But when did Raph ever smell like safety and warmth and calming? She didn't recall that..."It's a soft blanket. You must have spent a lot of time on it, did you?"

"I...well, when my brothers and I go to the Hashi for punishment, mine is to knit or crochet. Of course, when I first started it was really embarrassing but...especially now that Don made me my Shellcycle, the dexterity really helps. It improves my sai wielding, too," Raph rubbed the back on his neck.

Cassandra was amused, "I don't know how to knit nor crochet. My mom can though. She does it for the Prayer Committee that she's in." She rolled her eyes fondly. "Tried to get me into it, but I lack the patience and the self-discipline." She touched the blanket again. "Whatever yarn you used, it's really soft and it keeps in heat really well." She looked at Raph. "So what else can do you do that's shocking?"

"Ha, that's for me to know and you to find out," Raph grinned and stood up, "I think it's going to be a few hours still before the others wake up. Tsuyoi's more than likely out cold so you could go curl up with her."

Cassandra shook her head, "I'm wide awake now." She laid back down on the couch, one of her legs dangling off of the couch. "Tsuyoi and I don't sleep together, but she does sleep with Haley. It's safer that way."

"Why?" Raph tilted his head at her, shifting to lay sideways and watched her, "Does she kick in her sleep?" he grinned, "Or are you the kicker?"

She giggled, "No, Haley's the one that tosses and turns." Cassandra shook her head. "No. It's just...I'm not a safe person I guess." She swallowed a little thickly. "Too paranoid for my own good."

"I see, that makes sense," Raph nodded. If how she reacted when he touched her was any indication, she could easily hurt someone if her groggy, sleepy state mistook them for an enemy, "I don't think you're an unsafe person."

Cassandra looked over at Raph, "You don't?" She asked, wondering why. She nearly attacked him when he barely brushed against her. It was kind of surprising to hear him say that and it was relieving. "That's nice of you to think so." She smiled at him. "I don't hear that often."

Raph smiled back before he yawned again, "So...you going to leave and go back to Fireside? Or are you going to chill out here? Either way I'm going back to sleep, I just would like to know what to tell the others."

"I'll leave. I got my shop to tend to and I don't know what time it is." She said as she sat up and stretched, letting her back pop a little. "Tsuyoi can find her way back to Fireside. I hope to see you guys there sometime again." She stood up and headed towards the exit. "Sleep well, Raphael." She teased.

()

It was a few days later and April had covered the news on how the four vigilanties once again took care of a Purple Dragon heist on the docks and even mentioned how it seemed to be a war between them, judging by the illigal weapons recovered. Mikey had somehow managed to find time to spray paint the 'family' symbol on one of the crates, too. Tsuyoi was relieved none of her blood had ended up on the scene.

They were all now in the living room and Splinter had just gone to the kitchen to take the tea they had been drinking to the sink. Tsuyoi fidgeted but Leo gave her an encouraging smile, and she opened and closed her mouth a few times before managing, "Splinter-san? Ian suggesting teaching Fireside ninjutsu back during the meating, have you though about it?"

The rat paused a moment before nodding, "Hai, I remember and I have...but an old rat like myself wouldn't be able to teach so many people anymore."

"What if it was two or three?" she amended.

"Perhaps. I still train my sons and I am used to four different fighting styles," Splinter nodded.

"I know that Raph does the sai and that Leo does the Katana, but what are the other two?" Haley asked, turning to Mikey. "Hip-hop and break dancing?" She teased him.

Cassandra raised an eyebrow. "Samurai Champloo much?" Haley merely waved her hand to tell her to shush while she waited for Mikey to answer.

"Nunchucku and the Bo-staff," Mikey grinned at her.

"Whoa. Tsuyoi definitely is a bo-staff." Haley nodded. "It'll help her loads with the wind current."

"The Bo does help with balance and can reach places the others can't, without entirely having to aim," Donatello agreed, "Behind and around, that sort of thing."

"Haley does tease me when I play with the broomstick in the apartment," Tsu blushed, "You could be nunchucks, Haley, if it wasn't for being so clumsy, but it'd be better than sai or katana. You'd just chop off an arm or stab yourself in the spleen."

"Jeeeeee." Haley frowned at Tsuyoi. "Give me a little credit where it's due." She turned to Cassandra. "You already fight with knives. Why don't you do the whole Electra theme and go with the sai?"

Cassandra bowed her head, shoulders shaking as she laughed at them. "Only for the hotness factor or because I'd be good at it?"

"Both is good." Haley shrugged.

Cassandra shook her head from side to side, "I'll humor you."

Splinter listened to all of this intently, "It makes sense that none of you particularly fit the katana. It is a difficult weapon to learn and Leonardo has had his whole life to master it. The other weapons are much easier and faster. As we have a war on the rise, as much as I hate to admit it, you need to learn quickly. However, I wish to see how you all fair fighting in at least hand to hand before I decide weaponry."

"We have a dojo and the floor is padded," Mikey grinned.

"Is that an invitation?" Tsuyoi giggled.

"Well then, I'm outta luck. Cassie and Tsuyoi are the only ones that know hand to hand combat." Haley winced. "I can try though. Sam and Trevor taught me some moves..."

"You can street fight," Mikey pointed out, "Remember back in the alley? You did really well."

Haley's cheeks burned. "I guess that counts."

"So whose against who?" Cassandra asked. "Tsuyoi might work better with Leo. Since Mikey's unpredictable, he might do well against Haley...but who'll take me on?" She looked at Raph and Donny. "One of you?"

"I'll take you on, and you /actually/ have permission to use your claws, imagine that, Tiger!" Raph teased.

"Which claws my nails or my knives?" She teased back.

"Nails first, then your knives against my sai sounds like a challenge," the burley turtle stood up.

"Then let us move to the dojo. The day is young and we are full of energy," Splinter nodded.

They all stood up and followed Splinter into the dojo. It was a roomy place and Cassandra felt a little more at ease. "It's been a long time since I been in one of these." She murmured, thankful that she had already took off her shoes and socks when she first came in so that she wouldn't have to. She nudged Haley to get her to do the same. "Do we do rock paper scissors to find out who goes or how are we going to determine who fights first?"

"Let the hyper ones go first so the rest of us can concentrate," Raph poked Mikey's cheek and the orange turtle batted him away.

"Sounds good for me." Haley nodded, wincing a little as she took off her shoes. "What's the rules? First blood? Knock out?"

Leo wondered just how brutal the fights at Fireside could get if Haley was asking that.

"No...we never do first blood unless it's Leo and Raph fighting against each other or us. They can get really brutal," Mikey assured her, "Usually we go until we get a tap out or yeild."

"How many times do we have to tap the floor? Three?" Haley questioned, tilting her head. "I've only seen Tsuyoi and Cassandra fight each other and they obey the dojo rules for tapping out, which is tapping three times on the floor."

Cassandra had to admit, it was amusing to listen to the many questions Haley had, but at the same time, it was nice to see that Haley was eager to learn. She was more adaptable than the rest of them. Sometimes, Cassandra couldn't help but to wonder what it'd be like if Haley and Tsuyoi's elements were switched.

"Yeah, tapping three time if you don't want to verbally admit defeat, which is what Raph does," Mikey snickered.

"Okay! I'm ready when you are then." Haley nodded, her cheeks burning at the many questions she had asked. She couldn't help but to feel a little dumb for asking so many, and feeling like all she did was prove that she wasn't worth training. Too much of a beginner and not enough of an expert. She hoped though that she'd be able to redeem herself somehow.

"Those were good questions, as you do not know how we train," Master Splinter told the young wolf, "You and Michelangelo may go first now."

"This is going to be so much fun!" Mikey agreed with a grin and hopped forward into the middle of the dojo.

Tsuyoi shifted her sunglasses and smiled, "Chin up, Haley. Just have fun, you have better results that way."

"You can do it Haley!" Cassandra cheered as Haley approached the middle of the dojo. She held herself together in not clapping so that she didn't look like a fool trying to cheer on her friend.

Mikey got in his usual stance and hopped from foot to foot. He waited until she was ready before he launched himself at her without warning, throwing a kick and when she dodged by ducking he spun around, putting his foot down and snapping out his other one in a fluid motion. The only thing he kept in mind was to not /deliberately/ hit her knee. That would end their fun real quick. No, he wanted this to last.

Haley nearly dodged that one was well. He moved so swift and quick, and practiced! It was hard to believe that he was hyperactive when he was so disciplined in how he fought. She tried to attack back, but she knew that her moves were quite clumsy and not at all as fluid as his. She also knew that her attacks were usually "bail-out-and-get-away" type of maneuvers. 'Wear him down, wear him down,' was what she chanted as she tried her hardest to keep up to his fast pace.

"C'mon!" Mikey whined, "Fight me, girl! This is so Splinter-sensei can see your moves!" he ducked down and tried to throw a punch at her.

It was more to see her tactics, but to see her talents would be nice, Splinter mused, his fingers laced together in front of him as he watched closely. He knew what she was trying to do, and it wouldn't work. Not with his youngest.

Haley dodged the punch, very narrowly and decided to duck down and swipe at him with her legs trying to trip him before coming up and doing the same. She could hear Cassandra cheering at the sidelines, saying something about "don't hold back, that's my girl" which was embarrassing enough. Soccer mom, honestly. But she did have an advantage that no one else did...she watched him carefully as she started to use the earth as help. He may be quick like the wind, but she was more grounded. She could feel the vibrations from the earth up her feet. The ground may be padded, but that helped a lot. It helped her regain focus about movement that he was going to do just from how he'd slam his feet into the earth as well as his own body (not that he slammed his feet, but she could definitely feel the power behind it). The body was apart of the earth more than anything. A small...shake might unbalance him. That was in the rules right? As long as she didn't use it to fight, that would be okay...right?

Mikey was glad when her punch barely scraped his cheek and he managed to roll back and then he was about to jump into a round-house kick when the ground rumbled and he ended up rocking back from the balls of his feet to his heel, "Whoa!"

Haley charged forward when she saw that he was off balance and attempted to knock him off of his feet completely, but he was fast at recovering. She huffed loudly, but decided to make sure that the ground wouldn't stay steady. She decided to try the trick again when she was much more closer to him.

Mikey felt the ground shake again after a while when she tried to punch him. He had stepped backwards to avoid when it happened and as he was already rolling backwards on his heel he had no way to fix his balance. Yelping he fell onto his back when she swiped her feet under him.

The moment he was down, Haley pounced on him and pushed all her weight against him. Sure she was tiny, but she knew that dead weight was hard to fight against and she had the wolf's strength to help as well. "You done?"

Aw, that was cute. She tried so hard. Mikey grinned and wrapped his arms and legs around her and rocked a few times before he managed to flip over and had /her/ pinned beneath him, "Are you?"

"Come on! I had you!" Haley struggled and wiggled underneath him, but unfortunately he was much heavier on her. "Agggghhh, fine! I call uncle! I'm going to get you back when I get better at this!"

"Well, I think we knew that was going to happen." Cassandra laughed, leaning back casually, smiling at the scene. "Nice try Haley girl! You'll get him next time!"

Splinter chuckled and clapped slowly and Mikey got off of Haley, helping her to her feet, "You did well. There is much more you could possibly do with your Earth abilities. Perhaps nunchucku is not your weapon, but I see you using the tonfa. Do you know what those are?"

"Those elbow swords that Talim from Soul Caliber uses?" Haley suggested. "They have a handle and their easy to use kind of of when you're in a fight, because when you do a swipe, you got the blade underneath your arm and you can spin them outwards. They're really good in short range and medium range attacks, but it's not a long range weapon."

"Those are tonfa blades, I'm talking about wooden ones. You have the general concept at least," Michelangelo played that game before and Splinter vaguely remembered what she was talking about, "Would you like that? We do not have any but they are easy to make."

"Really?!" Haley beamed. "I'd like that a lot if that's okay? Oh, but are you alright with teaching it Master Splinter? I thought you only knew four styles..."

"I won't be teaching you. Michelangelo will," Splinter smiled and watched as his youngest son's jaw dropped.

"What?! Really?!" Mikey asked, blue eyes wide.

"I'm getting too old to learn new techniques, but you two are young and spry. You can learn together," Splinter nodded.

"That's really cool! Thank you." Haley smiled and turned to Mikey. "I'll try my best!"

"Who should go next?" Tsu asked Splinter curiously while Haley and Mikey chatted to themselves excitedly.

"You and Leonardo may go next if you wish," Splinter nodded.

"Ready?" Leo asked as he stood up and headed towards the mat, watching Tsuyoi as she followed him onto it. He knew that he had a huge disadvantage since she could use the wind and the very air that he could breathe if she so wanted to. Unfortunately without knowing if her weaknesses were in an upwind situation or a downwind situation, he knew that he'd be playing by ear and even then he could lose. She was a formidable opponent. This wouldn't take long at all.

Tsuyoi motioned to Leo once she was in her stance. Would he take the bait? Or would she have to take the initiative? Either way she knew the easiest thing to do was to repeat an attack she'd done on the docks.

Leo knew better than to take the bait. He also was plenty aware that she was going to use the wind. He didn't know how she gathered her energy, and until he figured out that rhythm he couldn't dodge it, but he knew too well that if she started the fight, she'd use the wind. If he could see where she'd make her aim, then maybe he could roll and get closer to her, and keep doing that until he was up at her face.

Very well. Tsuyoi jumped forward, pushing him back with a jump kick aimed for his face. When she landed she hopped onto her hands and spun herself in a round-house kick. /Creating/ her own wind with her legs she pushed him back further, the gusts filling the whole room but they ended quickly as there was essentially no wind in the dojo. Snapping her legs she launched into a flip and landed in a crouch.

The push back was intense, but without too much wind to guide, he didn't make it to to the wall. Okay so if that was how she was going to play it, he'd be careful. He'd have to keep a good range of medium and short in order to win. He moved back forward to unleash his own attacks, impressed on how she blocked and fought back, keeping up with him. Which, would make sense since he supposed everyone in Fireside had speed.

"Tsuyoi looks like she's having fun," Raph murmured to Cassandra, "Not as excitable as Mikey but it's own kind of playful."

"I do hope you're not holding back, Lionheart," Tsuyoi cooed to the turtle as if to prove Raph's point, twirling to dodge a punch then swung her leg up in a backwards crescent kick.

"Lionheart...I wonder if that's a play on his name, since Leo is lion," Raph mused, chuckling. This was cool just to watch them.

Tsuyoi wasn't able to fully dodge but she was able to deflect it by snapping her arm across his leg and it lessened the blow, though did knock her backwards with a grunt. Then she rolled to the side and swung out her right arm to create a wind gust, and tried to keep him away long enough for her to jump and turn around so she could see more than just his arm or shell. She used to have perfect 180 vision, but now...and it was distorted, darkened by her sunglasses.

The gust of wind didn't even hit him, her aim was a little off. A little more than off. She turned around and Leo knew that her sunglasses were a failure here. He used that to his advantage, starting to do blows that she wouldn't see until either too late or barely enough time. He started to make sure that her other eye was blinded by the light fixture. He kept her busy, kept her disoriented, made sure that her blocks were barely getting in and then...he ended it. He was impressed that the fight had lasted longer than anticipated, but...it was probably a good thing that the dojo didn't have a strong draft for her to use.

"I...what?" Tsuyoi was so confused when he wrapped his arms around her and she was completely unable to move besides kick her feet and he didn't even budge. This was...no...again her blindness was a disadvantage. Gritting her teeth she drooped in his grip and it took a few more seconds for her to pat her thigh three times.

Leo let her go, noticing that her shoulders had slumped and her attitude had changed. He didn't question it, since he knew that Tsuyoi would probably either tell him that it was nothing....or that she didn't want to talk about it in front of his brothers. "You fought well," he murmured, hoping that it'd lift her spirits somewhat.

Haley winced, "Oh...." She murmured so softly that only Mikey heard her. "Poor Tsuyoi..."

"Yeah...I'm glad you think so," her throat was tight. It could've been /better/. /She/ could've been better. Kami, she would've given Leo a run for his money. The fun had been nice while it lasted but as soon as he got in a spot where she couldn't see him it had been all over. She looked up when Splinter clapped his hands again and spoke.

"Very nice, Tsuyoi. It will not take you long at all to learn Ninjutsu, especially with Leonardo's help. You should accompany him when he goes on his patrols, and listen to whatever advice he gives you. I will train you three girls here the basic skills, but anything more involved your respective partners will handle. Donatello, will you teach her the Bo?" Splinter turned to the purple banded turtle.

Don jumped, having been absorbed in the piece of equipment for the lab he had been working on. Thankfully he'd been listening, "I would be honored to teach Tsuyoi, Splinter-sensei. Arigato."

"Perhaps," Splinter added after a moment of observing the woman still in the middle of the dojo, "When you train here, I will have you wear a full bandanna, the one you wear in your hair." If she learned while completely blind, it would boost her confidence and she would have an easier time when she wasn't. Or so he hoped.

Now it was their turn. Cassandra stood up as Leo and Tsuyoi came back to sit. "Looks like it's me against you now." She told Raphael as she tied up her hair with a ponytail holder that Haley let her borrow. Haley always had at least three on her wrist since they broke off easy.

"I'm excited, are you?" Raph grinned. He wished he could just skip right to weapons but that was his impatience talking.

"I'm excited." She smiled as she got in the middle of the mat. She let herself fall into a relaxed fighting stance mentally deciding on which martial art she would go for first and when. She was thankful that she wasn't concentrating hard enough to see how this fight would end. She'd much rather be surprised.

Raphael watched her closely for a moment before he stepped forward feigned like he was going to do a kick and then dropped and rolled forward at her, coming up into a punch. He hoped his attemped to take her off guard worked, but at the same time he hoped she's dodge because the momentum behind his punch would probably break her jaw...and he liked hearing her talk.

She knew that he was going to come forward in a punch, and dodging it wasn't going to be very helpful. She blocked the punching using her forearm moved in for a forward kick and then a shove, not a punch. A punch towrads the chest wouldn't do anything, but a shove was helpful, because she could move for a left-hand punch. A small...way of buying time at least.

"Oh boy, this'll be a while. Anyone want a soda?" Mikey asked with a laugh, "Or popcorn for that matter?"

"Both?" Haley questioned looking at Mikey. "Do you want me to help you?" She was about to get on her knees to stand.

"Sure, no problem," Mikey laughed a little and the two of them left the room.

By now Cass had thrown a few moves and Raph was the one countering, but he got the upper hand by ducking under her, grabbing her waist and flipping her so she landed on her back.

"Should I spread my legs for you?" She asked, unmoving for a moment. It was an offhanded question that had Leo raise an eyeridge at what she was doing. Instead of waiting for an answer though she flipped back onto the balls of her feet feinted a direction before taking the other, but she was more on the defense for now.

BlackRose98: Hey Gadget, are you busy?

"Only spread 'em if ya want to, Tiger," Raph winked at her, "It's a good thing you're wearing pants." he laughed and deflected a punch only to throw his own.

PurpleGadget4: Rose! No, I'm not busy at all. How are you?

BlackRose98: Well, I could be better. I'm sorry for the way I signed out on you last time we talked. Work decided to pile up on my shoulders and I was really stressed. I didn't mean to take it out on you.

"Maybe." Cassandra grinned as she did a sideways kick and moved forward to do another, both of them blocked and then she got nicked with a punch. She was definitely going to have black and yellow arms for a little bit, for sure.

PurpleGadget4: It's okay...do you want to talk about it at all? I'm here for you, Rose. I want you to be able to tell me anything.

Raph went along and they danced across the dojo, punched and kicks, blocks and dodges. Splinter found himself rather impressed and sat down, his hands on the knees of his crossed legs. Some more tea would be nice right now...his nose twitched and he watched as his youngest held a cup for him and four sodas tucked under his arm. Leo and Tsuyoi both took a soda as he passed, and reaching up Splinter gratefully took the tea, "Arigato."

Haley also passed out three small bowls. One for Leo and Tsuyoi to share, one for Donny and the other for Haley and Mikey. The big bowl was going to passed around to have the smaller bowls refilled if needed. She winked at Donny before turning back to the fight, "Man they're still at it?"

BlackRose98: Thanks for worrying about me, but I can handle it for now. How are you doing though? What was happening at the Club that was important? Did someone get hurt?

PurpleGadget4: It was someone's birthday. We wanted to watch them celebrate. How have things been going since we last talked? Anything interesting happen?

"Well /yeah/! That's why we got popcorn! They're both stupidly stubborn and until Raph pins her down or Cass throws some wicked move, they won't yield," Mikey grinned, "It's like this for Leo and Raph too when they fight."

BlackRose98: Wouldn't want that! I usualy like it in the 60s or so. But in NY it gets down to 30 or so. I guess that is a challenge since you can get sick if you get too cold. What's your comfortable temperature?

"I guess the only thing I usually observe is whether or not someone has a bad vibe around them or not." Haley mused. "I'm a lot more trusting than most of the people in Fireside. I mean, besides Matt and Nicky. They're loyal and trusty people too."

PurpleGadget4: 63 to 65 works for me usually, just warm enough my fingers still work for my projects and cool enough I'm not going to sweat by being around my electronics.

"Me too. What I mean though is I watch how people act around each other. If someone's friends or frienemies...or like Andy and Tsu, I could tell they weren't really together, even though they were really sweet together," Mikey explained

"Hmm." Haley hummed. "I don't think I observe that closely. If I do, I don't realize it. I know when someone's emotionally hurting." She lowered her voice, "And Tsuyoi's definitely hurting a lot right now. She wont' say or do anything about it, but I know that when we go home...she'll be a mess."

BlackRose98: Have you invented any cool things lately? You haven't really talked about your projects in a while.

PurpleGadget4: I'm currently creating a laboratory in a firend's basement since it's huge, and I've just been working on making the basic parts. Next month I'll be attempting to put in the electronics. I am going to be heading out with a friend to get supplies, too.

Mikey frowned and lowered his voice, "It bothers her a lot, doesn't it? How long has she been...? I don't know much about the story..."

"Oh...um...Serenity was a friend of ours a long time ago. I think that Donny told you that story. I think it's been...um...two years now?" Haley bit her lip. "I'm awful with time and years and months and things. I used to be really good at keeping track with all that stuff, but...after the experiment, I've noticed that my sense of time really does suck. I barely remember yesterday besides main points or factors."

BlackRose98: That's a good friend you got there if he's willing to let you be a hermit in your basement . I'm glad you're getting out more. I know that you said once before you don't like getting out much. Too crowded and things I think you said. I'm glad you managed to find other people. I don't think I like the idea of you being lonely very much.

PurpleGadget4: I wish there was a chance for us to meet...you said you live in New York but you're really busy with work. I don't feel lonely when I'm talking to you, Rose.

"Oh! Right, Donny did tell us. Sorry...two years, though? She hasn't...had a chance to really get used to it, then. No wonder," Mikey frowned, "It's alright about time, there's no need to stress over it. As long as you don't forget people, eh? That's why you have such awesome friends to help you out."

Back on the mat, Raph and Cassandra were breathing hard but grinning brightly at each other, "We could probably go at this for hours," Raphael snickered as he watched her, preparing to counter her next pounce.

"So how do you want to end this? A draw?" Cassandra asked as she eyed him as she thought about what move to do next. "This was to show off talents, not really to pummel you to the ground."
"I never forget a scent." Haley said proudly. "Never ever. So people, names, and faces are easy to remember. You're right, my friends do help me a lot when I mix up dates and stuff. It gets annoying sometimes though. I'd like to remember things how I used to, but at the same time I'm kind of glad that I don't. I can forgive and forget a lot easier and not really hold a grudge. Takes a loooonnnggg time to get me angry."

BlackRose98: I would love to meet you one day too. Maybe one day when my schedule permits it, we'll be able to arrange something. I don't feel so lonely when I talk to you too.

"A draw sounds fine," Raph smiled and brought his hand to his thigh, waiting for her to do the same so they could tap out together.

"Oh thank Kami, they're done," Mikey snickered, "I understand, Haley. I don't really hold grudges easily, either."

PurpleGadget4: I'd like that Hearing...or, well, reading that she felt the same made Don's heart flutter, and he sent her another text, I gotta go now, but we'll talk soon, right?

They tapped at the same time and Cassandra took down her hair, "That was a good match. I'm going to need a long shower after that."

BlackRose98: You got it. Talk to you later Gadget.
and her name went grey.

Splinter finished his tea and stood up once he set the cup aside, "I am impressed, Cassandra. You fight with passion and determination. I like that a lot in a student. You will also take very little to learn ninjutsu, if that is a wish of yours to learn. Sai would fit you nicely, but if you are comfortable with knifes, perhaps the tanto would fit your style?"

"It would be very simple to get you a set," Tsuyoi agreed, "I can't believe I never thought of that."

"I don't know what that is..." Cassandra admitted. "I'm guessing it's a type of Japanese sword?" She glanced at Tsuyoi before looking at Splinter. "But I would love to learn, if you think I'm a good fit."

"When you see sets of three swords at a store, it's the shortest sword on the top," Tsu explained as she stood.

"Then I'll learn it." Cassandra agreed. "As much as the Sai and myself might be a good mix, I think starting out slow would be better. So a tanto will probably be a good idea."

"Awesome." Haley stretched. "Who'll teach though?"

"As you are used to knives, there is not much to teach, is there?" Splinter hummed, "Are you self taught with your knives or did you learn them from someone?"

"Sammy taught me how to wield knives." Cassandra admitted. "He's my older brother, he used to be an assassin so he had a wide range of weapons. His specialty was gun combat, knives were usually self-defense or specially asked for."

"Tanto are bigger than the ones you have," Tsuyoi pointed out, "They're closer to those badass combat knives he uses. Once I find you a set you can ask him help you balance them, hold and wield them. I'm sure he'd enjoy that, hm?"

"It's been a while since he had to teach any of us anything new, so I'm sure he'll be happy." Cassandra smiled warmly. "I'm sure he can't wait till HQ is old enough to learn how to do some of the things that he can do. Of course, self-defense only."

"You should ask him to go on patrol with you someday, Raph." Haley grinned at the red-bandana turtle. "Sam's wonderful for stalking people and you won't have to worry, he always brings knives to patrol. So you can judge and see for yourself if he's a good teacher or not!"

"Do you know when his next day off is? Or what day he gets off early?" Raph turned to Cass with a tilt of his head, "Watching him at the club, I think that'd be really fun to hang out with your brother."

"He is really easy to talk to," Donny piped up with a smile, "I'm looking forward to really meeting and getting to know Trevor, too."

"Oh, that's a good question. I think tomorrow night is his night off." Cassandra mused, "Considering I'm working that shift."
"Trevor has a thing for static electricity so be careful around him," Haley warned. "He's the type that has that jolt that can numb your whole arm. Cassandra's used to it though, she gets shocked by him a thousand and one times. Usually when he's in a mischievous mood."

"Miranda's completely immune to it," Cassandra pointed out. "So you might not too."

"Well, we got a theory that it's because Miranda is Trevor's life intended. He can hurt her." Haley shrugged. "No one else is immune. Not even Ian nor Lese."

"Well, then, tomorrow could you have Sam meet us at the Park?" Raph grinned, "It's April's day off, too, and she's going to spend time with Buttercup so Casey can have fun with me."

"Sure." Cassandra laughed. "I can do that." She glanced over at Tsuyoi and nodded her head. "Well, we'll get out of your hair now. I need a shower. Do you two want to come home with me?" She asked, turning to Tsuyoi and Haley.

"I'll come." Haley pouted a little as she stretched again, standing up. "Thanks for the fights guys."

"Hai," Tsuyoi answered a bit too quickly and bit her lip a little.

Mikey brought Haley into a hug once he jumped to his feet, careful of her soda, "I'll see you soon!"

Leo wondered why Tsuyoi agreed so quickly, but knew that was a bad question to ask. "I'll see you sometime soon, okay?" He told her gently. "Be safe going home."

"Definitely soon," Haley promised, hugging him tight before going over to the door and waiting for Cassie and Tsuyoi. "Byes!"

"Arigato, Leo. Talk to you soon," she agreed without really looking at him and followed after Cass and Haley. They got out topside and it took a while before her lip started trembling while Haley called the taxi service, "I should've been like you, Cass," she murmured, voice strained.

Cassandra reached out and gripped Tsuyoi's shoulder and brought her close. She wasn't a peppy advice giver like Matt, nor a comfort like Haley, but she had something else in store. "I know." She said gently. "You'll get there again as you train. It's just hard right now because you realized there are things you can't do. That's why Splinter-sensei will make you cover your eyes. Not because of the scars, but because it'll boost your confidence in helping you. Then, you'll be the one to knock Leo's ass to the ground."

Sniffing, Tsuyoi reached up and took off her glasses so she could bury her face in Cass's shoulder, "I hate him so much. This is all his fault. I'll train...and train hard, so I can do much-much worse to him when we find him." For right now though, Hawk would be able to rip her apart worse if he showed up out of the blue, and that scared her. In her stubbornness and inability to accept she was disabled, she had lost time in preparing herself.

Cassandra said nothing. Haley stood far off, knowing to well that Cassandra was probably the one that should handle it. She rubbed her shoulders, and purred softly in her throat, the only ability that she can do while human that proved that she was cat-like at the very least. She kissed Tsuyoi's hair and continued to purr softly while they waited for the taxi, hoping to bring some comfort to her friend. "I know you will."

()

()

It had been a while since he was on patrol. Especially with two other guys. Sam had taken a great liking to Donny, so hanging with Raph and his friend, Casey he thought Cassandra called him, should be interesting as well. The park was calming and hardly anyone was in it since it was nearing sunset. He walked a ways until he saw a man swinging around a hockey stick, talking animatedly with Raphael. "Hey." He said to them, waving his hand so that they didn't get too badly startled.

"You're here!" Casey put his hockey mask up and grinned, waving back, "I've been to Fiery Wave, Raph just told me that's where you work! I haven't been there in /ages/ though!" he swung his arms around, "Are you going to join us on the dark side, Sam?!"

"I've joined the dark side before," Sam was highly amused at Casey's actions. "There's no cookies. How long as it been since you've been at Fiery Wave?"

"I can buy you cookies! What kind do you like?" Casey beamed, "About two years, not too long after April told me she was pregnant. I went there as an 'oh god I need a drink' moment."

"I'd say don't mind his hyper-activeness but considering your wife he's probably quiet," Raph snickered.

"Shut up, we're talking!" Casey whacked Raph across the head.

"Ow!" Raph rubbed the now sore spot.

"He's exactly like my wife, just a little calmer." Sam snorted. "I saw that slap coming a mile away. At least my wife's a little nicer. She slaps me across the arm."

Casey adopted an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice, "She shouldn't be such a girly-man." When Raph suddenly went dead silent and Sam stared at him he blinked at them. "What? ... What?!"

Sam debated mentally, paused and then looked at Casey. "I'm going to guess that Cassie said nothing about Matt and that you said that just to make a joke not knowing anything. So I'm not too insulted, but just so we're clear my wife is a cross-dresser, Casey."

"I..." Casey sucked his lips in and was silent for a moment, "I was just trying to be funny, yeah. I had no idea."

"I thought it was funny, but didn't laugh because I didn't know if you'd be insulted, Sam," Raph rubbed his neck.

"It's cool no problem." Sam shook his head from side to side. "It's really hard to rile me up. That's why Andy and I get along I suppose, that and I kind of keep Matt from picking on him and demanding to cut his hair."

Casey touched his long black hair protectively, paling at the thought, "Some men like their hair long!"

"Yeah but at least you keep yours out of your eyes," Raph rolled his, recalling Andy's shaggy black hair, "Andy looks like he has emo hair though I'm sure that's not quite his intention."

"Cassie says the same thing," Sam laughed. "Don't worry, Matt only ruins people's hair if they don't take care of it. Andy rarely has time to take care of it, being in and out of the hospital. It's horrid. Now when Ian trimmed his hair a little a year back, Matt nearly burst into tears. She liked his small ponytail he sometimes wore. He still has one, but it killed her to get rid of the split ends."

"Ian's a cool guy. I thought it'd be a bit intimidating since he's the leader of Fireside but he's actually more like just a father figure," Raph hummed.

Casey put his mask back down, "Well anyway, guys, I dunno about you but I'm ready to bash some heads in and cookies sound delicious right now."

"After patrol I know of a midnight bakery around here that'll serve cookies." Sam offered. "We can get some after we wander. How far do you guys normally patrol? Our borders is kind of pass Fiery Wave, Haley's apartment, Trevor's apartment, Candy's, and Nicky's place. It kind of makes a big circle, but at the same time we try not to go out too far. So...our borders are small."

"I tend to patrol wherever I feel like, which is usually downtown or in Casey's old 'hood," Raph shrugged, "It doesn't matter to me. My brothers and I don't have a territory, rhyme or reason to how we patrol."

"Then that's fine." Sam smiled. "Lead the way, I'll follow you."

~*~

Casey hooked his hockey stick in the flying strap of the purse that had been stolen, "Woop, what makes you think you can have that, punk?" he smirked and threw the purse up at Raphael hidden in the fire escape and Raph in turn threw it up to Sam so he could give it back to the poor woman who lost it.

"That was a big no-no, buddy," Raph added as he jumped down and twirled his sai while Casey cracked his knuckles.

"I-I know who you are! Stay away from me!" the hooded criminal cried, turning on his heel and attempting to run away.

"Ah, ah, you're not getting away that easy!" Casey laughed, chasing after him with his hockey stick raised.

Sam watched with high interest as Casey caught up the criminal and whacked him across the head. "Concussion if he's knocked out. That blow wasn't hard enough to kill." He turned towards the woman who was onlooking this with fear and amazement in her eyes. "Go on." He cocked his head towards a different way. "Run that direction and turn right, you'll get out of the alleyway and no one's going to attack you while they're all distracted on us." The moment he said that, the woman took off and he walked over towards Raphael, stuffing his hands in his pocket. "It's amazing to me how many petty crimes you have to deal with that the police don't know about. That's our fifth crime this evening." Fifth...and the night was /still/ young.

"There's loads more where that came from. Minor robberies, lots of theft, protecting women on their way home in the dark," Raph ticked off, "I guess you guys deal with a lot bigger stuff?"

"We try not to get too involved with the public." Sam said carefully. "Trevor and Miranda technically are the only ones that deal with this kind of things. It's mainly in our best interest to keep the public at length from us. We do deal, however, with the gangs that sometimes /do/, do the petty thefts and other things."

"Hey man, if ya don' want to be a part of this and think it might jeopardize things for ya, ya don't have ta be here," Raph shrugged.

"This is what we have always done," Casey added once he finished tying up the boy, "The cops always have something to do and no one ever see us or if they do no one believes them."

Sam smiled warmly at Casey before turning towards Raphael to answer him, "Don't worry." He assured him. "I'm not about to back away or back down. It won't jeopardize anything. I know my way around the shadows just like you do." He shrugged. "It's just a new perspective. I think I can appreciate Trevor and Miranda a little more with their jobs and you both."

"Glad we were able to help," Raph chuckled and he went to the fire escape, jumping on it, "Shall we move on?"

Sam nodded and followed Raphael up the fire escape a little more normally than Raphael's flips and climbs. He was strong, but not enough to parkour himself up the damn staircase. He could leave that energy to Nicky and Matt if they wanted to try it. Haley would succeed due to being so damn sporty. "How many crimes do you usually stop on a good night?" Sam decided to ask once they made it to the rooftop.

"Up to thirty if Casey's with me cuz we can work faster, but only twenty or twenty five on my own," Raph shrugged, "I call only fifteen a bad night, and ten is horrid."

"Less crime the better isn't it?" Sam asked curiously as he looked at Raph. "Unless....the crimes were well hidden and they got away."

"More than likely," Raphael agreed, "Things happen. I can't stop it all. What about you? How many crimes do you manage to stop?"

Sam pursed his lips tightly and shook his head from side to side. "We don't stop them." It was blunt, and he knew that it wasn't going to slide well with them. However, he respected their honesty. "If we think that something can be done differently, we do our best to persuade them to go down that path. In the end, we're just accomplices. We inform other gangs and if we don't like the gang that we're working with, we might slip something up to the target, to prepare them for the worst. Of course, we're anonymous and there's plenty of information brokers around if you know where to look. It wouldn't be shocking if the target had their own personal informer." He looked at Raphael. "We do try and keep peace and to not have a gang war, but you know that they sometimes do anyway. All we do is either stop it, if we think that we should go that far, or watch it happen. Most of the time, it's watch it happen. Very rarely do we stop them."

"Cass was telling me about the Informers, but I didn't know that's how you rolled," Raph sighed, rubbing his neck, "Well, I guess as long as we're taking care of the crimes then it doesn't matter."

"What?" Casey turned his head towards the red banded turtle and stared at him, "You're okay with them doing nothing?"

"They're not doing nothing, they're doing something. There's many sides to a sides of dice and they're one, we're another, Casey. Their job has kept things pretty clean so far, hasn't it?" Raph put his hands on his hips.

"Well...yeah..." Casey grumbled, "I guess having too many vigilantes out there would make the cops wonder..."

"Exactly, so they do what they do and we do what we do and life is good," Raph looked at Sam, "Right?"

Sam laughed lightly and he shook his head from side to side. "I can see why Cassie enjoys your company." He turned to Casey. "If it sweetens anything, we do try stop the major crimes from happening." He assured him, "We just can't be obvious about it or we could lose our alliances. Best to pretend that we didn't do anything and keep a stable ground, than to have enemies coming at you from left to right. We'd be surrounded and burned down otherwise. Oh, speaking of burned down....Cass mentioned that you have a little girl. Abigail right? She was telling Daniel about her and now he's all fluffed wanting to meet her. Do you mind at all if there's a playdate at a park or something?"

"Maybe not the park but on one of the days Raph babysits he can take her to...what was it? Fireside?" Casey arched a brow at him.

"Fireside." Sam agreed, grinning. "Wonderful. Just give Cassie a heads up so she can steal him away from Nicky and Ally for a day or steal him away from Ian and Lese."

"I can do that," the large burly turtle agreed, "Anyway, let's get going. We've covered a lot of ground so far but there's always more to do."

"Sam, you have good taste in cookies!" Casey hummed as he chewed on a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie.

"I second that!" Raph grinned as he popped a whole one in his mouth, "This is so delicious."

"These are just store bought." Sam laughed as he took a cookie from the box, not caring which one he picked out. He had tried to persuade them into getting something that they liked as well, but both of them had insisted otherwise. "If you want really good home-baked goods, I know a few bakers in Fireside that wouldn't mind showing off their skills."

"Ha, how can Cass cook?" Raph asked, "What are you siblings like in teh kitchen?"

"I can't cook." Sam shook his head, with a tiny smile. "Matt finds it both endearing and irritating that I'm hopeless in the kitchen. Cass is the mistress of the grill so when we have our Fourth of July cook outs, we put her on there. Trevor is a fantastic baker. Two words of heaven: Apple pie." He hummed at the thought of it.

"Hey, a closet cook," Raph laughed, then crossed his finger over his chest, "I won't tell anyone. Though I can't wait to taste Cass' cooking in the future."

"I won't tell anyone either," Casey nodded and they finally turned down the street towards the abandoned garage near where the manhole to get to the turtle's lair was, "Tonight's been awesome Sam."

Sam laughed and nodded his head, "It was great to hang around you two. If you want me around again for more patrols, I'm more than willing to jump in."

"Awesome, you and I will have to hang out then," Raph beamed.

"Ha, maybe you can keep this guy out of trouble? Since I'm usually so busy now a days being a mechanic and stuff," Casey grinned.

"I can watch his back." Sam grinned. "If I get too tired or he gets too rowdy I can always shove him on you and you can give him Abigail. I know little kids can wear out even the most energetic of people."

"I dunno, I think Raph wears out Abby," Casey laughed.

"Sounds good to me," Raph nodded, "I'm going to head home now, be safe going back to your place," he gave a thumbs up.

Sam merely waved and he turned to Casey. "I'll also head home. You want the rest of the cookies? You can give some to Abby."

"Oh, she'd love that," Casey nodded, reaching for the box while Raphael disappeared, "So what did you think of Raph? You're big bro to the chick he likes, so just figured I'd ask."

Good question. Sam took a moment to reflect upon the evening, sorting out what he thought. There was being protective and being over protective and it was hard to figure out where the lines were. "He's reckless with little sense of danger and he has a good heart and moral." He finally said after a moment. "He has the same mindset as Cassie sometimes, it's freaky. At the same time, there's so many clear distinctions that they're not of the same mindset that its amazing that they can get along. Like with our conversation about what we do and that we increase crime. I can tell that he was more or less defending Cassie than he was defending us. He puts on a lot of trust on Cassie's shoulders, believing that she knows what she's doing and trusting her to keep doing what she thinks is right." He shook his head. "It's incredible."

"Isn't trust a good thing?" Casey smiled, "If there's no trust then that causes a lot of strain on a relationship, though at the same time, one-sided trust can also be bad. I'm just as worried about Cassandra being difficult and hurting Raph unintentionally as I'm sure you're worried about Raph being too reckless and getting Cass in trouble."

Sam smiled, he couldn't deny that Casey had a point on all sides. "I agree." He said slowly. "It's not Cassie getting into trouble that I'm worried about. It's him putting her in a situation that'll hit too close to home. I guess that's the same as getting her into trouble." He didn't know how he was going to assure Casey about his worries. His worries were well-founded. "I can't...promise you anything about Cassie." He told him softly. "I can't promise you that she won't hurt Raphael by accident or unintentionally, but here's what I do know: Cassie will apologize. It might take a few hours, maybe a day if she's really high strung, but...after how well he took her boundary rule with the touching, I'm confident that she'll be comfortable enough to set more if needed or to let him know what was or wasn't okay."

Casey nodded, "That sounds good to me. Well, we best be off then, eh? I'll see you around," he grinned at Sam and clapped him on the shoulder while nibbling on another cookie and left.

()

"I hope I haven't been slowing you down in taking care of crime and your normal patrol," Tsuyoi sighed as she looked out over the city, wearing her ninja mask and outfit. It was around midnight and they had left around nine. They really hadn't been much going on, or maybe Leo was just going slower for her. She really didn't know.

"You're not." Leo assured as he looked over at the city lights. It was always so beautiful to him. The way the different colored lights could look like the stars that were hidden away from light pollution and the way that the air felt against his skin on the high building rooftops. "I don't always go at this pace, but...it's a nice change regardless. I just hope that even though it's been a slow evening that you're not impatient with trying to learn how we work."

"No, not impatient, just...I don't want you to hold back because of me," she shrugged, "If you're fine with it then I won't complain, I only wanted you to know that," she reached her arms above her head and stretched, bowing herself backwards, "What's next? Do you have a plan at all or we just doing whatever?"

"We're going to keep an eye out and see if there's anything amiss." Leo gently reminded. "Once we determine that there is a crime being committed, I tell you the plan of attack if need be and we'll head them off."

"Alright," Tsuyoi hummed to herself, "What's your average? Like, how many crimes can you usually stop in a night?"

"Twenty to fifteen." Leo answered with a lighthearted shrug. "Raph can get a little higher than that since he knows the alleyways and topside a little better than I do and has Casey as backup."

"Oooh, that's a pretty good number. We've only done what...three so far? It's a pretty chilly night so I guess no one wants to be out?" It wasn't like Tsuyoi was part of the informers besides when she used her hawk form to listen in on conversations. So, in all honesty, she didn't know how regular, normal crimes that didn't deal with them worked.

"It's a possibility." Leo said slowly. "Of course another reason entirely is that we're missing them. It happens. There's always a chance that the area that you're patrolling is peaceful while there's another area completely that isn't. Of course we do try and make rounds as far as we can, but...there's nights where it's just bad and you don't catch anything."

"I could always fly around," Tsuyoi offered, "Find something that way and report back to you." She bit her lip under her mask and looked away, "You'd have to put my clothes somewhere of course so I can get to them."

"How far would you fly?" Leo questioned looking at her. "You have to remember that crimes happen /fast/. By the time you see one and report back to me, it could be too late depending on distance." He wasn't trying to bring her down, but have her think rationally. If she had a plan for it, then he was all ears, but at the same time he knew that she didn't really have an idea of how quick things were. "It's a good idea if the distance wasn't too long." He said slowly. "and it was somewhere close, but you'd hear it before you'd see probably."

"You're right, and it's take too much time to get dressed either. I don't know, I'm just throwing out ideas. Let's just roof hop then," she walked closer to the edge.

Leo followed her for a moment, hopping from rooftop to rooftop for a while, trying to assess her. She sounded exasperated. Or maybe she was just tired. He didn't know, and he didn't want to assume anything. "Let's take a break." He offered once they landed again. "and just talk for a while."

"A...break? We've barely started, though," Tsuyoi frowned but since he couldn't see, she just folded her arms over her stomach. Well, if he wanted to talk then they would talk, "So, while we're wandering around looking for crime, why don't you tell me about your past? Isn't there some Shredder guy out there that you fought and you think is back?"

Leo nodded, "We fought him a while back on a rooftop and even though he fell down, we know that he's back. He's a ninja just like us, tricks like faking one's death is pretty easy and natural. Especially for someone like him."

"Really? I couldn't imagine faking my death...there's too many people I care about that I wouldn't want to go through that pain," Tsuyoi hummed, "Speaking of death and such...which one of you four brothers do you think would be the worst to lose?"

Leo took in a sharp breath. That was a hard question. The worst to lose? "Donny." He said after a long moment of silence. It was the hardest thing he had to think of, and painful too. He loved his brothers dearly and he'd miss them all. However, he could see more of an impact if Donny was gone. "Mikey holds us together and keeps us from thinking about the rough stuff, but Donny's the one that sticks. He can mellow out Raph, he can be more patient with Mikey than neither one of us ever could and he's easy to talk to. I can see us falling apart if Donny..." He didn't want to think about it. "Who in Fireside would be the worst to lose on your end?"

"That's tough because there's so many of us and we're so tight knit, we all play our own roles," Tsuyoi frowned, "It was...horrible, losing Serenity, then Fran and Lily...everyone was a mess, but I guess we're all still here. I can think of three people that would have an equal effect."

"Who are those three people if you don't mind me asking?" Leo questioned.

"Andrew..." Tsuyoi bit her lip, "He's the only doctor we go to, because if any other were to get our blood work and see we're different the cat would be out of the bag. There are no other healers or doctors that know and with this war it's slowly becoming apparent that is a bad thing. If we lost Andy then...we'd become even more paranoid than we are and extra careful and...yeah. It'd be a nightmare."

Leo could see that. Having a healer was vital for them, especially one that knew them and their abilities well. If Andrew was gone...Leo shook his head. "That is terrifying." He agreed softly. "Who are the other two?"

"Trevor and Miranda," Tsuyoi winced, "They're both in the NYPD, but in different departments, so only one would get hurt while the other wouldn't. Miranda...if she were to die, then Trevor would probably go insane. She's the only person who can take his electrical abilities and before her he was really shy and always wore gloves. He'd have to resort back to that and he'd only have Harlequin to keep him going. Even Sam and Cassandra wouldn't be able to help him and they'd go down."

Rubbing her neck she walked around the rooftop they'd stopped on, "Trevor....If we lost Trevor Miranda would have an easier time but Cass and Sam would be broken for quite a while. That's their younger brother. It's a whole slew of domino effects with them, because if the Informers can't operate, we don't get knowledge about other gangs and they are a step ahead of us."

Leo could imagine that losing both of them at the same time or worse would be devastating in it's own right as well. He took a breath in and out. He had been a little surprised that it was Trevor and Miranda, but...her explanation for them made sense. He didn't have any words...while he might have picked Donny, he could imagine how awful it would be if their own baby brother died and he didn't wish it. Not on anyone.

"For Serenity, her domino effect chain was longer. It went Nix, Candy, Matt, Sam, then branched between Sam to the siblings and of course there was me." The Japanese woman took a shuddering breath, "Well...um, let's get of a depressing topic. So, is your favorite color blue or is it just a color you wear to distinguish yourself from the others?"

"Blue." Leo was also happy to get off of this train of thought himself. "We picked the colors that is our favorite." He shrugged. "Though it's not hard to tell us apart anymore. I'm sure that even without the bandannas will be singled out easy enough."

"I'd think so, at least if anyone has a perception of color," Tsuyoi unfolded her arms and moved closer to him, reaching out and running her hand over his arm, "Raph's a sort of dark forest green color, you're more of a lighter normal green. Mikey's kind of got a blue tint to him, so he's teal-ish, and Donny's definitely an olive green color."

"Well you do have that, but you also have personality and that we're not all that built like each other." Leo laughed. He was kind of surprised that she was touching him. Her hand was gentle and it felt good against his skin. His skin was probably rough and nothing like she imagined it to be. He didn't voice anything, not wanting to startle her or make her think that the touch wasn't appreciated. "Are you wearing perfume?" He asked after a moment. "You smell good."

"I...um...no," Tsuyoi blushed darkly under her mask, "You must be smelling my body wash, it's the Japanese Cherry Blossoms from Bath and Body Works. I sometimes use the perfume on my everyday clothes but I wouldn't dare on work outfits, that'd be a dead giveaway to enemies."

That would make sense. "It smells wonderful. Probably a good thing its kind of subtle unless you're close by." He agreed to her. "That reminds me, do you have a favorite color? I can't recall if you told me or not."

"I like blue too, but occasionally I wear green," Tsuyoi grinned, "Cass is more of the red person. Funny, we like the turtles with our favorite colors," she winked at him with her blind eye.

Leo's cheeks had a tiny bit of a blush as she flirted with him. "Must be luck or fate." He answered. Before he had a chance to say anything else though, there was a loud scream that shattered the air and immediately brought them back to the present. They didn't have to say anything, but go.

~*~

Trevor was excited. Sure he had to beg his wife to be outlook for him and Donny, but this was the first time ever that he actually got to go dumpster diving. Well, junk-yard diving and being able to use his powers to try and find the hidden treasures. Donny was able to tell him what kind of pieces of equipment that he was looking for and Trevor was able to scope them out. "Now I understand why you wanted me." He laughed as he added another piece of computer to the pile that he had found. Donny would probably go through it later and see if there were parts he could and couldn't use.

"You're a lot of help, oh my gosh," Donny agreed with a laugh as he watched the man hop around from pile to pile almost like his younger brother Mikey, "You /sure/ you haven't done this before? You're a natural, and I'll be able to get that lab running in no time. I'm glad your brother let us borrow his truck again."

"Nope." Trevor beamed as he started looking through another pile to see what he could find. "Cassie's a natural at thrift shopping and dumpster diving. So I might have caught on to her tricks even though I've never seen her in a dumpster. I think Sam sometimes does. I know he went with you last time."

"Yeah, last time was more metal stuff to build though and they weren't really sure what I was looking for. I am certain I'm going to be much more successful this time," Don nodded and slid down a pile to get to a discarded, broken TV, "You sure your wife isn't mad considering this /is/ illegal?"

"I think she finds it more amusing that I'm acting like a little kid than she's upset about it being illegal." Trevor replied. "So long as I don't spread this around to HarelyQ. Otherwise when she grows up, she'd try to do the same thing."

"Right, of course. Don't want the little one to learn bad habits," Donny checked out the TV in his hands, but it was too large to move anywhere so he just flopped it over and started taking it apart for the wiring and parts inside, "So tell me about your family. Miranda and HarleyQ I mean."

Trevor had to think about that one. "HarelyQ has more of her mother's spunk than I ever will be able to handle and when she gets older I fear that she's only going to be more like her mother. Not that it's a bad thing. She'll scare away the boys on her own. Miranda...is a blessing."

"Ha! So you aren't worried about her when she grows up, that's funny. I heard that Miranda's the only one who can handle your electricity? So I guess that means HarleyQ can't," Don glanced up at the other pile where Trevor was trying to reach for something.

Trevor very nearly stumbled at the observation and had to be very careful in backing away and trying again so that he wouldn't accidentally stab himself. "No." He agreed softly. "She can't. I have to be extra careful with her around. I can't let myself get too hyper or excited or I could very easily shock her and kill her since she's so tiny. I was so afraid when she was first born and Miranda pushed her onto me...for a while we thought she could but..." He shook his head. "We learned that she couldn't."

"Ha! So you aren't worried about her when she grows up, that's funny. I heard that Miranda's the only one who can handle your electricity? So I guess that means HarleyQ can't," Don glanced up at the other pile where Trevor was trying to reach for something.

Trevor very nearly stumbled at the observation and had to be very careful in backing away and trying again so that he wouldn't accidentally stab himself. "No." He agreed softly. "She can't. I have to be extra careful with her around. I can't let myself get too hyper or excited or I could very easily shock her and kill her since she's so tiny. I was so afraid when she was first born and Miranda pushed her onto me...for a while we thought she could but..." He shook his head. "We learned that she couldn't."

"Does she have any powers or is it too soon to tell?" Don tilted his head curiously, feeling bad that Trevor had to go through that.

Trevor frowned, "That's the thing, we don't know if it's too soon or too late. We're...one of the very few that have a hybrid child, but everyone's child is different. Hota's pure cat with very small amounts of human in him. He looks human, but he does have issues hiding his tail and ears. Daniel is a hybrid and he's been flying since his wings grown. Granted he can't fly high unless he jumps off the rafters and doesn't have enough stamina to keep up the flight, he did show off that he was a bird quite early."

"Mm, well it seems the Bird DNA is the most common and strongest in your group, and the cat DNA was pure as you said, so I think it's just going to take time. You're electricity, so how does she fair around water? Or does she get statically charged easy?" Don finally pulled free what he wanted from the TV and kicked it off to the side while he put the stuff in his bag, making his way up to Trevor. He was a bit taller, so he managed to reach the thing he'd been trying to get and handed it to him.

"Static is a pretty good guess, but she doesn't hurt neither me nor Miranda. Cassie doesn't notice. No one really does, but if she accidentally shocks Daniel he'd be in tears. Hota's immune or just doesn't notice it like the adults." Trevor commented as he thought about what Donny was saying. "As for water, she's not aqua-phobic like I am. She loves baths. The warmer the better."

"Maybe Hota and Harlequin are meant to be?" Don grinned at Trevor, "I think she might be just like you, just not as powerful. Or maybe she is and just hasn't come into it yet. Is she okay during storms? I heard that those are an issue for you, too. The whole immunity thing might be just between mates for all we know."

Trevor looked a bit horrified, but didn't seem to be too badly disturbed. "Harley is the only one that Hota will talk to. Even Candy and Nix have a very hard time communicating with him, but Hota will talk to Harley. Granted it's broken English and not all that good, but...he opens with her." He bowed his head. "Storms terrify her. Mostly the thunder. She likes the lighting. I on the other hand am awful around storms." He looked at Don and smiled weakly. "If Hota is her lifebond then I'll be happy. I'll be happy because it means she doesn't have to suffer to find him. Not like how we suffered and were tormented. It gives me hope." He looked away. "I wish the other girls have that luck too one day as well as you. I hope that none of you will suffer to find yours."

"That's life I suppose," Donny shrugged and headed towards Sam's truck to dump his bag so he could get more stuff, "I think Leo and Tsuyoi might be, as well as Cass and Raph, Mikey and Haley. I'm not sure if I've met mine yet."

"Tsuyoi needs someone that's level headed." Trevor agreed as he followed Donny to the truck and back to the pile so that they could continue this conversation and he wouldn't have to yell. "From what I heard of Leo, he's a decent man. I'm sure he matches well with her. Cassie on the other hand...I kind of...hope that Raph isn't her lifebond. It's awful for me to say that, especially when I just wished that your brothers and the girls find happiness." He dived back into the pile that he was looking through, climbing up and picking his way through the pile, trying to feel his way for more electrical things that Donny could use if they were still usable.

"Well, elaborate and maybe I can understand," the geeky turtle coaxed and did the same, finding some older TVs but they were too rusty to handle, as they were deeper in the piles and he had to move on, "What do you think about Mikey and Haley?"

"They're the ones that'll give everyone a run for their money. Can you imagine the energy those two have? Haley's an acrobatic daredevil and she's impressionable. Mikey is the one that'll most likely blow up your lab if he's allowed down there because he'll knock something over. Or Haley will. She's so clumsy. I swear it's the dog in her. She has good balance when she's in danger or fighting, but if she's walking in a straight line, she'll more than likely end up with her face into the road."
Trevor laughed as he blew out a puff of air so that his bangs wouldn't get into his face. "Seriously, if they get together, I think Matt will be overwhelmed and it's hard to do that."

Don wasn't stupid, that was a class A avoid the subject tactic, "Mikey's gotten better around my labs since he was a kid, I've punished him worse than the Hashi, but I'll make sure Haley doesn't come down at all," he shrugged, then offhandedly added, "I hope you didn't say what you did as a way to diss my brother, you don't even know the guy. I know he's rough and tough, but he's a nice guy, really. I've seen sides of him he doesn't bring out very often. He's like a big teddy bear," he laughed.

"No, I didn't mean to seem like I was insulting." Trevor looked shocked at that. He should have realized that it would come off like that. He hoped that he could find a way to fix the accusation. "I know I wished for my sister's happiness, but I more or less with that she never finds her one." He knew that saying those words were offensive...and so, so selfish. "She's suffered too much to deal with that kind of thing. All it'll do it open up scars and wounds. I don't want to see my sister in pain. Please tell me you understand just a little!"

"I hope as they spend more time together you'll change your mind, even if I do understand," Don said gently, "I wasn't mad to begin with, I was just trying to get you to say something." He smiled just a little. He knew all sorts of tricks to getting people to talk, living with three men with different triggers, "Sam spent time with Raph the other night, you should ask him what he thinks, hmm? After all, it's the big brother and baby brother looking out for sissy. Sharing concerns and ideas with each other might get you farther. Then again, I'm not sure how your relationship with each other works. I could be wrong."

"We haven't seen each other until the experiment." Trevor said slowly. "it was the first time any of us laid eyes on each other. Sam was taken away to an orphanage, Cassie and I were put into Foster Care and we didn't have a choice." He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed deeply before he decided to say something. "Cassie was so desperate to find us, she threw herself into that hellhole just so that she could get us out...and her volunteer was her downfall." He looked at Donny. "Sam would want her to be happy, he would want her to have her one. Sometimes I want that too, but I know...I know that whoever falls in love with Cassie will have too much to deal with. Her insomnia, her paranoia, her anxiety. The way she keeps a knife close to her. The way sometimes she'll trust you so unconditionally, but then that damn voice would talk to her and whisper to her that she'll suddenly distrust anyone that comes near her, especially if she hasn't slept in five days. She acts so sexual, but if it really happens...I don't know how she'd act, but I'd bet it wouldn't be good. It's not about looking out for each other, it's about keeping her mentally healthy...even though she's not and will never be again." He took a breath in and out slowly. "She'll hurt Raph because of her irrationality when she gets like that. She'll never mean to, and I know she'd apologize profusely....but she'll always have that lingering fear of whether or not he'd get tired of her...if he'd leave her. She'd do everything for that not to happen, and he'd constantly reassure her, but...you tell me. Wouldn't you get tired after a while dealing with someone that's mentally unstable?"

"Maybe, maybe not. I've never been in such a situation, but we all have our own issues. My brothers are used to my insomnia. I've stayed up for a full week one time before I passed out at my desk. Leo's very distrusting, having to always look out for us and he's been betrayed a few times. I mean, he puts faith in people that they're good, but trust is a whole other story. Raph's distrusting, too, but in a different way? Mikey trusts unconditionally, on the flip-side and I just give people equal opportunity..." Don hummed with a sigh, "Raph'll just have to be put through the test now won't he? How long do you give him? A few months? A year?"

Trevor pursed his lips together. How long...would he give? Now that he knew about some of that, he felt a little at ease, but this was his big sister that they were talking about. The fear tickled back in but now it felt as if it was wavering. "A month." He was about to say a week, but...he didn't know why he had so much faith otherwise. "That way if he says goodbye the pain won't be too bad...and she'll recover."

"Alright, fair enough," he nodded and turned to go through some more junk. This night wasn't going so bad.

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