"Alright, team, we're keeping the same game plan as last time. April, Monica, and Casey will make their way through the dojo from the ground up, and then the rest of us will start from the roof and make our way down." Leonardo stated as they stood around the party wagon. It had been less than 24 hours since their attempted invasion of the now abandoned Foot Clan Headquarters, and the adrenaline was still fresh among the group. 

Donnie stepped forward while holding out his hand, which contained 3 homemade hard drives. "Here, I was able to throw these together last minute. Leo, April, and Monica, these are for you in case the groups are separated when we come across the control room. If Shelby isn't at the Newark location, these will play a detrimental role in telling us where she is." 

"I see Donnie didn't take well to resting up before we moved out again." Raph commented as April, Leo, and Monica stepped forward to take their hard drives.

"No, I didn't, there's too much work to do." Donnie stated with a deadpan voice. "When you guys plug these into the system, I want you to download as much as you can. We're not only looking for Shelby's current location, but the chemical composition of the new mind control serum. That's going to make it much easier for me to create an antidote for her. Otherwise, it's going to be a very long process." 

Mikey stood in the background, his foot tapping the ground with an impatient cadence as he stared at the floor. He was only half listening to the conversation taking place, though most of the words bounced off his brain like a staticy signal. His stomach was somersaulting like a gymnast at the idea of rescuing Shelby during this mission, both with anticipation and guilt. With every ounce of his being, he longed for the Newark location to be where Shelby was being kept, though he still felt in his heart that she was in Bridgeport. At the same time, he was terrified of having to face her again, especially when they didn't yet have a way to break her out of the mind serum's control. And if the result of their first fight with her told him anything, its that another, more prolonged fight with her would be very ugly. 

For a brief second, the memory of her wolf form leaning forward with a snarl on her lips flashed across his vision, and he stiffened and shivered, before jumping as a hand fell onto his shoulder. "Gah!" He yelled, his hands flying up in defense. Standing next to him, hands now up in the air to show her lack of threatening intention, was Monica. "Sorry, should have announced myself."

Mikey's eyes narrowed as he slowly returned to a normal posture. "What do you want?"

Monica lips turned downwards into a deeper frown. "You're still upset with me."

"No duh." Mikey muttered, crossing his arms and turning away from her.

Monica sighed. "Well, I just came to wish you luck. And to let you know that everything will turn out exactly how it's meant to in the end."

"That's not necessarily comforting." Casey muttered from a few feet away, no doubt eavesdropping as Raph, Leo, and Donnie climbed into the back of the party wagon, while April made her way over to the passenger's seat. "More like... ominous."

"Well, what I mean is, while I obviously can't predict how everything's going to play out, I have faith that in the end, everything will fall into place as it's meant to. Maybe even if we don't see it that way at first." Monica explained.

"Nope, different words but same creepy vibe." Casey stated before walking away to join the others in the back of the van.

Mikey glanced at Monica, letting out a frustrated huff. "I get you're trying to make me feel better in your own way, but the only thing that will make me feel better is Shelby being here at the lair, safe with us." With that, Mikey followed Casey without letting Monica get another word in. 

Mikey shut the door behind him and seconds later, Monica climbed into the driver's seat. Nobody said anything more for a quite a while except for the quiet murmurs of Monica and April going back and forth about directions. Donnie was preoccupied with whatever software he had pulled up on his tPhone, and Casey was on his phone as well, though with much less intention. Leo was mediating and Raph's head was slightly leaned forward, his eyes closed, probably deep in thought, but doubtfully joining Leo in his mediation. 

Suddenly, Casey shifted and cleared his thought. "'Where one goes down, two more take its place. Monsters are taking over the streets and the government seems helpless to stop it.'" Casey read from an article on his phone.  

"Which location is that report on?" Leo, who's eyes were now open and glancing at Casey,  asked.

Casey scrolled. "Maryland. It looks like the military's fighting real hard in D.C. and Baltimore but the Foot are just cranking out mutants to replace the ones they kill."

"Have they figured out where the mutants are coming from?" Raph asked.

"If they have, they didn't make it public." Casey stated.

Mikey thought he might have to try to block out the talking for the rest of the ride, but luckily for him the ride fell silent again. 

~~~~~

"Alright, everyone knows the drill." Leo stated as they exited the van. "Monica and April, you have your hard drives?" 

"Yes." April nodded.

"Of course." Monica stated.

"Perfect. Good luck, you three." He stated as April, Casey, and Monica started down the sidewalk, towards where Google Maps said the Bradford dojo was located.

"You guys, too. Stay safe." April whispered as they took off, their hands placed over their hidden weapons as they made their way towards the building.

With that, Leo looked to his brothers and nodded. All three returned the gesture before they ascended the building next to them via stairwell to the gravel roof top. Grappling hooks in hand, they shot the wires across the street synchronously, waited for a moment when they thought they were the safest from pedestrian eyes, and then they flew across the night sky, their silhouettes only visible as they passed briefly over the waxing gibbous moon. They landed lightly on the paneled roof, holding on tightly to the grappling hook wires in order to not slip off before they got their barings. Slowly, they retracted the wires and made their way to the rooftop access. Michelangelo could practically feel his heartbeat in his throat as Leo jumped down into the Bradford dojo, then Donnie and himself, with Raph taking the rear. 

As soon as he felt his feet touch the ground, Mikey rolled to the side and into the shadow casted by a plant in the hallway. Leo and Donnie had managed to make it into the doorway of a dark room. When Raph dropped down, he opted to make the same move Mikey had, rolling behind his little brother as all four turtles stared warily with white eyes at the other end of the hallway as four Foot soldiers exited the elevator, their heads swiveling to and fro.

"Alarm went off, eh? Place seems empty to me." One Foot member stated with possibly the funniest accent Mikey had ever heard in his life.

"Can it, Matt. Who else would infiltrate our dojo from the roof other than the Hamato Clan?" The leading Foot member stated.

"Yeah, moron." One of the others muttered.

"Uh, what about the government?" The fourth member asked.

"Um, pretty sure if the government caught wind, they would just come bursting through the door." The name calling member stated.

"All of you, shut the fuck up." The leader growled. Mikey swallowed, suddenly glad that none of his brothers talked to him like that. As the other three settled, Mikey suddenly noticed how stiff the leader was standing as he slowly surveyed the hall. "... they're here."

He pulled out a single odachi while the other three pulled out a pair of nunchucks, a bō staff, and naginata. Slowly, Mikey unsheathed his nunchucks, tucking the free ends into his underarms as he felt Raph unsheath his sais. Slowly, the group approached, their weapons at the ready. Mikey wished more than anything that Leo was in front of him instead of behind him so he could know for sure what the next move should be, though Mikey was sure that it was between two options: wait for them to come closer and hope they maintain the element of surprise, or jump out now to try and catch them off-guard rather than risk being found.

Mikey was sweating as he waited in silence, but none of his brothers moved, so he stayed put. He swore Raph had stopped breathing behind him, and soon Mikey was holding his breath as well. Five feet away. Four. Three. Mikey felt Raph stiffen behind him, and he instantly knew it was time to take action. Raph was not waiting for Leo's orders and Mikey was certainly not going to leave Raph to fend for himself, even for an second. 

Because he was prepared, as soon as Raph leapt out at the leader, Mikey jumped over the plant and aimed a hard kick straight at the naginata holder. The soldier did manage to block the brunt of the kick with his weapon but this allowed Mikey to simply kick the naginata out of his hands. Leo and Donnie had now joined the fight, taking on that bō staff holder and the nunchuck holder, respectively. The naginata holder tried to scramble for his weapon, but Mikey simply threw his nunchucks and wrapped the chain around the Foot soldier's legs before yanking and tieing the soldier legs together like a rogue bull. The Foot soldier landed hard against the floor, and as Mikey began yanking his opponent towards him, he reached up to his ear and started screaming, "CODE RED, CODE RED!"

"Mikey, he has an earpiece!" Donnie shouted as he gracefully dodged his opponent's nunchucks before whipping his bō staff into the Foot soldier's gut, causing him to double over with an agonized moan.

Mikey's heart skipped a beat as he nixed pulling the Foot soldier towards him and instead bounded forward to meet him. Before the Foot soldier could shout anymore, Mikey landed the end of his nunchucks against his temple, effectively knocking him out, but the damage was already done. 

"Alright, team, reinforcements will be here any minute." Leonardo stated as his opponent finally fell. Donatello and Raphael had finished up their skirmishes as well. 

"Ha! If the reinforcements coming are just as bad as these guys, we'll take down the whole dojo in no time." Raph laughed as he spun his sai in his hand. 

"We still have the main mission to execute. Start sweeping the rooms to see if we can locate a computer." Leonardo instructed. The four of them split up to cover ground more quickly. This floor seemed to hold just dojos. At least, that was Mikey's observation, as the doors were few and far apart, allowing for adequate fighting space in each room. 

"Just dojos." Donnie confirmed as they met back up in the hallway. 

"Same here." Leo stated, and Mikey nodded, signalling that he had found the same. 

Just then, Raph came running out of a room near the elevator. He was waving the others away frantically. "GO! GO! MOVE!" 

Without question, the others followed his instructions and booked it to the back of the hallway. Not even five seconds later, a loud BOOM erupted from the room Raph had exited, before smoke began billowing out from underneath the door.

"What was that?" Leo demanded.

"A weapons closet. Don't worry, I took care of it." Raphael smiled.

"With what? A grenade?!" Leo inquired in disbelief.

"Uh, well I don't know if it qualifies as a grenade, but it's definitely an explosive." Raph shrugged.

"Why do you have those?!"

"I always do, just in case."

"Where do you get them?!"

"Donnie's lab."

"Hey!" Donnie protested. Any argument he planned on subjecting Raph to was cut off by the ding of the elevator. The door opened and at least 7 Foot soldiers spilled out, weapons at the ready. 

Raph laughed as he and the others took their starting stances. "Alright, let's make this quick so we can get to the floor below us."

Then, the door to the stairs opened, where 4 more Foot soldiers ran out, flanking what appeared to be a giant chimpanzee, whose cranium brushed the ceiling as it moseyed forward on its knuckles and back legs, its striking yellow eyes trained on the turtles as it flashed its fangs and let out an ear splitting shriek. 

"Oh." Raph stated, his eyes wide as he took a small step back. "That's a problem."