Song: Find Our Way - Being As An Ocean

I walk out into the main room the next morning, surprised at the sight. Donatello, Michelangelo, Elizabetta, and Edmund are already seated. Leonardo stands in front of them with his head held high. He must have already informed them of what we discussed last night.

   "Good to see you've finally woken up, sleepy-head," the blue-clad turtle greets me teasingly.

   I just grumble in reply. Normally, I would whip his shell for saying something like that. But today, I'm just glad he isn't being a pain.  Settling down beside Michelangelo, I listen as my eldest brother start speaking again.

   "Donnie, how's the research on Lizzy's father coming along?"

   Donatello looks troubled.  "I've looked all over the internet, but nothing helpful turned up. Every address I found that he might be located at was fake," he responds as he removes the white bandages from Michelangelo's arm. His expert eyes darts over the wound. "This has scabbed over quite well, Mikey," he comments happily. "You'll be better in no time."

   "Yeah, I better be," Michelangelo says, wrinkling his nose. "It's too gross to look at. It's even more disgusting than shellacne!"

   "You're more disgusting than shellacne," I sneer, earning an indignant glare from my little brother.

   "Can you run by me again why you think my father is involved in all of this?" Elizabetta speaks up for the first time. She looks distraught. It must be hard having your father as a suspect for something so disastrous. I certainly wouldn't enjoy the feeling if I was her.

   "Yeah, I don't think I get it, either," Edmund sighs. "I understand that the Kraang are dangerous, and that them having access to the earth could mean our untimely doom. But why would they want help from a normal guy? I mean, don't you think they could get on just fine by themselves? They have enough technical knowledge for it."

   "That thought crossed my mind as well," Donatello says as he wraps a fresh bandage around Michelangelo's wound. "I think that the Kraang needed an ally on earth. If they were ever cut off from our dimension by us turtles for example, they would need someone ready to help them return. Your father, if he is who I assume he is, happens to be said ally. He could have built the portal himself and placed it where no one would suspect: in the rubble of the TCRI building."

   "Right," Elizabetta replies, though she still sounds confused. "But how is it that my dagger is the key to the portal?"

   "Your father must have wanted to use something he always had on hand as the key," Leonardo suggests with a shrug. "He could have easily made a copy. You just happened to have the original dagger that could open the portal, too."

   Elizabetta nods, slowly understanding. "Alright, I get that part. Wait," she suddenly says, her eyes lighting up with a realization. "My mom is the one that gave me his dagger. Why would she have it if he always had it with him?"

   "I think that's more of a personal question," Donatello states. "Only she would know the answer to that. All I know is that you have a second key that he's probably forgotten all about."

   "We need to find my mom, then," Elizabetta decides, while my purple-clad brother nods in agreement.

   "Soon," the techy-turtle adds.  "But not now.  We need more information first. Like, for instance, where she's at."

   All of us look at Edmund, who shrugs guiltily.  "After she got mutated or whatever, the Foot took her away.  I don't know where she is.  Sorry."

   Elizabetta look faintly disappointed, but she quickly shrugs it off.  "We'll find her eventually," she says, though she doesn't sound too certain.

   "So, how does all of this tie in with Bebop and Rocksteady and that radar?" I question. I follow most of what they're saying, and I'm hoping it all comes to a point soon. I hate talking about techno-junk.

   "Good question, Raph," Donatello praises with a nod at me, as if he is speaking to a student. "See, the Dimension X portal transmits a lot of power at a high frequency. Enough of a frequency to stall earthly transmitters, such as cell phone signals, FM radios, or even-"

   "-Weather radars," I finish, finally coming to terms with his scientific speech.

   "Exactly," Donatello praises again. "After realizing this, I got back on the weather radar to see if I could find out what kind of frequency that portal was giving off. Sure enough, the same type of phenomenon that is around Bebop and Rocksteady is over the TCRI mess as well. The signal is weaker there, however. I suspect that being underground hinders it somehow."

   Michelangelo breaks into the intense discussion. "Do you think the Kraang have really high-def video games?!" he questions loudly. "Do you think they'd let me borrow some?"

   I whack him on the back of the head to shut up him.

   "Don," Leonardo suddenly says, his eyes full of alarm. "If the portal and the area Stockman's companions are guarding are giving off the same signals, do you think-?"

   "That Stockman has something of the Kraang's and he is using it in some corrupt and iniquitous way?" Donatello asks. "Yes, Leo. I do."

   "We have to stop him!" Elizabetta blurts out, jumping to her feet.

   "Whoa there," Leonardo tries to subdue her impulsiveness. "We can't break in there right now."

   "Why not?" Elizabetta complains.

   "Yeah, why not?!" I press, a bit more aggressively as I pound my fists together.

   Leonardo shoots me a warning glance. "Because first of all, it's daylight. And second, we don't have enough strength to take Bebop and Rocksteady down. Mikey's arm is still injured, and Lizzy hasn't trained enough to take them on."

   "Besides," Donatello steps in to Leonardo's aid. "Shredder doesn't have the unknown object in a concealed location, so it must not be that important right now. We should spend what precious time we have left finding out more of what it is. Otherwise, we are going in completely unprepared."

   Leonardo nods. "Like Master Splinter says: 'What you know is dangerous to your enemies. What you-"

   "-Think you know is dangerous to you," I finish impatiently.  "Yeah, yeah.  We know."

   Leonardo pursed his lips at me before speaking again.  "All of this is starting to fit together now.  But we need to be sure that we aren't misinterpreting it."

   "There's no way we can be wrong about this," Donatello replies in a cheerful tone.  "It's obvious."

   "A little too obvious," Elizabetta mutters under her breath.  Her misgivings instantly give me some of my own, but I don't dare voice them.  Instead, I look expectantly at Leonardo.

   "What's our next move?" I ask.

   Leonardo looks a bit lost at first.  His gaze trails over all of us until it stops on Elizabetta.  As they make eye contact, she speaks up.

   "The disappearances in my hometown still haven't been solved," she says, almost as if she had forgotten about them. "It might not have anything to do with the Kraang, but I have a gut feeling it will help us with this situation."

   Leonardo glances Donatello, whom nods. "I think it's worth investigating," the purple-clad turtle agrees.  When no one argues, the blue clad turtle announces, "We'll leave at sunset."

   "What about Master Splinter, dudes?" Michelangelo asks skeptically.  "I don't think he'd want us leaving the city.  It's scary out there!"

   Leonardo seems prepared for something like this.  "Master Splinter would want us to help our friend," he reminds the orange-clad turtle.  "That's why he trained us in Ninjutsu in the first place.  He won't mind."

   Reluctant murmurs of agreement follow his speech.  I look back from Leonardo, to Donatello. They both have thoughtful expressions on.

   Leonardo's fades almost instantly, however. "Well, that's decided then. In the mean time, I think we'd better get ourselves into shape."

   "Yes!" I shout triumphantly, pumping a fist into the air. "Training!"  The thought of whipping some tails gets me excited.

   Elizabetta bounces on her heels. "Finally!" she gasps ecstatically.

   Her reaction catches my attention. "You're gonna train, too?" I have to hide the scoff in my voice. No way is Leonardo going to... Oh, crud. Of course he is.

   "Got a problem with that?" Elizabetta asks, raising an eyebrow at me. She's gutsy, I have to give her that.

   "No," I answer. "Just as long as you don't mind getting creamed."

   Elizabetta's lips form into a smirk. "We'll see who gets creamed," she sniffs, before walking towards the dojo.

   I glance at Leonardo, whose eyes are lit up with pleasant surprise at the teenage girl's remarks.

   I can sorta see why he likes her.