Eventually, the conversations died. It had gotten late, later than Leo had wanted to stay out, and everyone was getting pretty tired.
"April and I are going to start heading back," Carrie says. The two girls stood and stretched.
"I think we should call it a night as well," Leo says.
"We should totally try to hang out here as much as possible," Mikey comments, rejoining his brothers.
Donnie nods. "I'll have to come back and study this place. I'm sure Noah has tons of notes on how he was able to create such a sustainable environment. I'll have to read back through everything we found at the apartment."
Raph rolls his eyes. "You are such a nerd."
"Well, what am I supposed to do?! The science that has to have gone into this place is astounding!"
"Sometimes you just need to stop talking. You're the only one that cares," Raph says.
Donnie frowns. "Because no one else has the same amount of appreciation for science as I do."
April smiles. "It's okay. I'm sure whatever you find will be interesting, Donnie."
The team left the garden, smiling and talking once again. The turtles split from the two girls and made their way up to the rooftops. They would be rejoined once again at the manhole cover they had come from.
"Well, dudes," Mikey starts, "I'd say that was a well-deserved break."
Leo nods. "Don't get too comfortable. Master Splinter's training isn't over and we still have to come up with specifics for our plan."
The brothers jump from rooftop to rooftop, constantly peering over the sides to make sure April and Carrie were well on their way.
"Oh yeah! I kinda forgot about that," Mikey says.
"We're not surprised," Raph comments.
The turtles continued on their journey back to their lair. They followed the route they had taken to get to the garden. It was an easy path and hardly took any time at all. The proximity of the garden to the lair was convenient. Everyone appreciated convenience once in a while.
But that's all it was: once in a while. The peace the turtles collectively felt was cut short as a figure dropped in front of them. One-by-one more dark figures surrounded them.
Mikey frowns. "Come on!"
"Did you guys really think you'd be able to run around out here with no confrontation?" Karai laughs. "Especially with the whole 'Carrie' situation you boys have gotten yourselves into?"
"Well, we almost made it," Raph mutters.
"Almost." Karai steps toward the mutant brothers. "Here's the deal. This situation we're dealing with right now, it's bigger than our little family quarrel."
"What situation?" Leo asks.
"The Carrie one. The one I mentioned two seconds ago. The one-"
"Alright. I get it." Leo shakes his head. "Then what do you want?"
"I want to make a deal."
"Does Shredder know what you're doing?" Donnie inquires.
"Master Shredder's primary goal is to kill you four and Hamato Yoshi... well, was his primary goal. Ever since he found out Carrie and Noah live here, the Foot have been searching for the power Noah created that Carrie possesses."
"Get to the point," Raph snarls.
"Don't worry. Your little family is still important, Raphael." Karai smiles. "I propose a trade."
"What on earth do you have that we could possibly want?" Donnie questions.
"Time, privacy, safety... at least for a little while."
Leo rolls his eyes. "And what? We just hand Carrie over to you?"
"Exactly."
"You can't be serious," Leo scoffs.
"Our Foot soldiers in Japan are getting Noah to work but it's slow. If we had Carrie, it would take the heat off of you guys."
"Again. You can't be serious."
"Just think about it a little harder. I'm not saying you sit back and just let Shredder win. All it does is give you guys time and space to figure out how you are ever going to defeat us."
"This is the dumbest 'trade' I've ever heard of," Donnie mutters.
"You four are running out of time. Noah is breaking and we will eventually have that power. It's inevitable." Karai smirks. "This deal just helps speed it along. Besides, it's better for both of them. We have no intention of hurting or killing Carrie. If we had her, Noah's torture could stop."
The three brothers turned to their leader. There is no way they could ever accept this offer. It was too ridiculous. The turtles had the advantage. Carrie would have accepted this deal in a heartbeat. But Leo knew Karai had revealed too much. The progress Shredder made with Noah was slow. Time was on their side anyway and the plan they had just begun to unravel in the lair hours before could prove to be more effective than this horrible trade.
"No," Leo says.
"It was worth a shot." Karai shrugs. "We'll just have to do this the hard way."
The turtles ready their weapons. None of them were worried. They had battled and beaten Karai and her Foot-bots plenty of times.
April and Carrie had just turned the corner into the alleyway they were supposed to meet the brothers at. They thought nothing of the turtles not being there the first couple of minutes. But as more time went by, the two girls became worried. Walking alone through the gloomy streets of New York City was terrifying and dangerous, not to mention waiting in a dark alleyway. They hadn't worried about their safety as they had known the turtles were watching over them. But it was apparent they may not have been and the thought of that scared both April and Carrie.
"Maybe they went down without us," Carrie mentions.
April shakes her head. "They wouldn't do that. Leo, at the very least, would wait for us."
"Then where are they? I thought they were ninjas? Shouldn't they be here by now?"
April frowns. Carrie was certainly right. They should be, but they weren't. That could only mean trouble.
April's training had not only increased her physical endurance but also enhanced her senses. She knew they were alone in the alleyway but she also picked up on quiet noises that were a little out of the ordinary. There were grunts and groans and, although very faint, they must have been close by.
"You hide down here," April says, lifting the manhole cover for Carrie.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go search for them. You stay down there and wait for us."
"I'm coming with you."
April shakes her head. "You can't. It's too dangerous. And even if it wasn't, I still have to go up there," April says, pointing to the rooftop.
Carrie sighs and nods. April left her friend to search for the others. Although Carrie felt she should head down the sewers, she also felt as though she couldn't. She feared many things, like heights and falling. But she feared loneliness even more. What if they didn't make it back? Even though Carrie feared climbing to higher heights, at least she wouldn't be alone and would know where everyone else was.
The more she got in her head, the more she wished to go help her friend. She knew it was stupid but she couldn't stop herself. Carrie bottled up her fear of heights and started climbing her way to the top. It wasn't an awful experience. The fire escape stairs made it easy and natural. That feeling only lasted a short while and as soon as she reached the top her legs fell weak with nerves. Carrie could hardly stand.
She was quick to notice the turtles and April on the other end of the rooftop. The sight of them relieved her, but also noticed they weren't alone. They were struggling in battle.
"What are you doing here, April?!" Donnie yells, fighting off Foot Bots.
"Helping you guys!" She yells back.
The four brothers all wanted to ask where Carrie was and if she was safe, but they knew better (even Mikey). If Karai knew Carrie had been around, she would stop at nothing to go find her. It didn't help that turtles didn't know where she currently was and couldn't risk her safety.
"You could make this so much easier for her, you know," Karai says as she clashes her blade against Leo's. "Her father could return to New York. She wouldn't have to hide."
"You'd be using her for evil," Leo growls, pushing Karai away.
Karai smiles and shrugs. "Eh." She charged at him, sweeping his legs out from under him. Leonardo fell onto his back, groaning. He rolled onto his side, attempting to hoist himself back up. But he froze when he saw Carrie climb up the side of the building.
Karai rolled the turtle onto his back and slammed her foot down on his chest. A sinister smile crossed her lips. "What are you looking at?"
She slowly shifted her head to look over at whatever had caught Leo's eye. Karai locked eyes with Carrie. It only took a couple of moments before Karai left Leonardo and sprinted towards her new target. Immediately Leo stumbled onto his feet and ran after Karai.
Carrie was quick to turn around and descend the stairs. She mumbled to herself under her breath as she ran down as quickly as she could.
"This was a bad idea," Carrie whispers to herself repeatedly. She beat herself up in her head. What a stupid idea this was. How could she not control herself? How could she have thought this was a better idea?
Before Karai leaped off the building in pursuit of Carrie, she stopped herself abruptly at the edge. She turned around as Leo approached her and threw a smoke bomb in his face. He choked on the smoke, falling back and onto his knees. His eyes turned red and his vision blurred. Leo's eyes watered. His eyes, nose, and throat stung. The turtle hunched over, coughing and choking. He managed to catch some ounce of breath and crawled over to the side of the building. Carrie couldn't have made it far but Karai could have. Through his blurry vision, he could tell both of them were gone.
Leo dangled his head and one arm off the side of the building. He squinted his eyes closed and sighed. He was angry with himself. Everything happened so fast. He saw her for a moment, only a moment, and now Carrie was gone. Failure lingered heavily in his chest, heavier than the smoke in his lungs and eyes.
The rest of the team picked off the remaining Foot Bots. The brothers and April ran over to Leo, pulling him away from the edge.
"What happened?!" Raph yells. "What was that all about?!"
The leader sighs. "She's gone," he says, his voice raspy and scratchy.
"No kidding, she ran off the edge. Karai completely left her little army."
"Not her," Leo mumbles. He sits up, rubbing his eyes. "Carrie."
April shakes her head. "She was going to wait for us in the sewers. How would Karai know?"
"Because Carrie came up here."
"But I told her-"
"I saw her," Leo snaps. The leader stands on his feet. He takes in a deep breath and exhales slowly. "I'm sorry, April."
She shrugs. "Doesn't matter now. We have to find her."
Mikey smiles. "Looks like we're going to Shredder's lair."
"What about Leo?" Donnie questions.
"I'm fine," Leo says. "We don't have time to wait around."
"You can hardly see straight."
"I can see fine enough."
"Alright. Then lead us."
Leonardo stood and took a step forward. He stumbled over his own feet. His brothers caught him before he fell completely forward and off the building.
"Just proved my point," Donnie comments.
"We don't have time for this," Leo mutters. "We have to go now."
"There's no way you'll be able to make it."
"It doesn't matter. I'll figure it out."
Donnie shakes his head. "We need to get you back to the lair and get you fixed up before we rush into anything."
"We don't have time."
"We do," Raph says. "Karai told us if we handed Carrie over, we'd have time."
"You trust her?" Leo questions.
Raph frowns. "Of course not but it's the best we got."
"We should only need a couple of hours," Donnie points out. "It'll give you time to recover and we can come up with a new plan."
"I don't need to recover. We can't waste time coming up with a plan now. We need to get Carrie away from Shredder."
"You're starting to sound like me," Raph says.
"Karai said they didn't want to hurt or kill Carrie. Shredder needs her." Donnie paces in front of the group. "They'll most likely use her as a way to motivate Noah to comply and speed up the process."
"Exactly. We don't have time."
"We do. I can't imagine how complex this formula is. Even if it has already been done before, I could only imagine it would still take Noah months to complete it. I'd say we have a good couple of days before he gets anywhere significant, assuming he works faster once he finds out Carrie has been captured."
"How can you know this for sure?" Leo asks.
"I don't," the scientist responds. "We all know that this power Noah created is bad. We found nothing in his previous research on it. I think it's safe to say he destroyed any trace of it. I can't know for certain how much time we have before Noah makes any breakthroughs, but I know we have at least a couple of hours."
Leo places his hands on his knees. He sighs. "Fine."