San Fransico, One Week ago

"Don't worry Dad, I'll be fine! I'll keep in touch on my way to New York, you and Roll be safe! With Wily in prison, there's nothing to worry about!" That was what Rock had said to Doctor Light and Roll, before departing Light Labs. After of course, dealing with the FBI agents who had come by to discuss what had happened. He'd been on the road for about three hours now, just walking alongside the country highway, at a pace about equal to that of a car moving around sixty miles an hour. In other words, something that would make any human jealous. He wanted to reach New York within a week, but also wanted to see the sights along the way. His plan was to stay over night at various labs along the pre plotted route, people who his creator knew. Once he got to New York, and had a good base of operations set up, he'd be able to beam back and forth without issue. But for now, it was him, the open country road, and some pre uploaded music.

At his current pace, he'd be past the mountains by nightfall, as he'd left around ten am. Well, hopefully, assuming he didn't run into anything or anyone along the way, right? Meanwhile, back in San Fransisco...Roll had finally managed to ask Light why New York. It took him a moment, to explain. "It's rather simple Roll, New York has some of the finest urban robotic scientists in the world, at least in the US. Atop that, someone there should be able to help us figure out what's going on with the red moon. I don't like it Roll, it reminds me of an old superstition about monsters...we live in a new day and age, one free of such fear, but I worry that there may be some truth to the legends."

Light himself didn't know any supernatural beings, but it made him wonder, now and again, ever since the Red Moon, if there was something else going on. He just hoped that Rock wouldn't run into any trouble along the way. He'd have to begin work on the Rush.exe file at some point, as every young boy needs a dog, to be his companion. And Rock was no different, Light just needed time...and resources. Hopefully contacts in New York would be of aid. And if not...he'd do his best regardless.

And on into the day Rock ran, towards an uncertain future...

//not my best, but I decided to try and make something.

Something felt off. Leonardo wasn't sure what it was, but the air felt different as his brothers traversed the rooftops of New York towards the location where Alopex had seen the Foot Clan nights before. Maybe it was just the fact that he was out with his brothers for the first time in recent memory. But this didn't feel like excitement. No, this felt more like apprehension. Like there was something waiting around the corner to jump them.

He shook it out of his mind as they approached their final destination. It was a shabby looking warehouse built over the water. It leaned slightly on stilts poking out of the murky depths of the river. Some of the windows on the sides were broken, their frames dangling on rusted hinges. It looked like it was more likely to fall down on itself than hold a fighting tournament. But Leonardo trusted his adopted sister, even if Raphael was wary of her after her desertion.

"You know what the sad thing is?" Mikey whispered as they climbed onto the roof of the building. "This place's rent is probably more than we'll ever make in our lives."

"Do you even know what rent is?" Raphael shot back at him.

"No, I heard it on TV," Mikey grinned broadly.

"Yea, that's kinda what I figured," Raph chuckled.

Meanwhile, Leo peered through the skylight of the building, looking for any sign of the ninja clan's activities. Unfortunately, all he found was disappointment.

He opened the window and dropped down into the building, surprising the other three turtles.

"Leo what the hell!?" Don called after him, rushing to the opening.

"It's fine," his brother responded. "The place is empty."

He made his way down the meandering catwalks of the warehouse, cross-crossing the steel walkways towards the pier-like floor below. He could see, even from up here, that there had been some sort of fighting. As Leo got closer to the ground level he clearly saw dried blood on the floor, and some of the wooden planks were broken, revealing the water sloshing below the warehouse.

Leo approached, bending down. He ran his fingers over the broken boards. The force to break an old board like this wasn't all that hard. He could see it was from a sloppy strike. Whoever the Foot were recruiting, they weren't the best of the best. At least not yet. Maybe that's what Oroku Saki's plan was. To start a new Foot clan here, move on, and start another one somewhere else. If he did that, he could have eyes an ears everywhere on the planet.

"Looks like Al lied," Raph grumbled, breaking Leo's concentration. "Nothing here but a bunch of junk and gross smelling air."

"She didn't lie, Raphael," Leo waved his hand around. "Look at all the signs we have. Blood, broken boards, and a bunch of scuff marks in a big circle in the dust on the floor. It's just obvious that they weren't gonna stay in the same place for very long. We'll have to keep looking."

"Yea, okay," Raph shrugged. "Or she lied, because she doesn't want to deal with us anymore. She left, and sent us on a wild goose chase."

Raphael had taken Alopex leaving the hardest. Leo knew that. But he also knew Raph's anger masked his hurt more than anything.

"She's her own person, Raph," Leo shook his head. "But she wouldn't lie. Besides, she'll come back to us eventually. You know that."

"No, I don't, Leo," Raph replied through gritted teeth. "And I'm not gonna pretend she will. I did that with Artie, and I ain't gonna do that again."

There it was. Al leaving had triggered feelings about their other sister back into his head. He wasn't mad at Al for leaving. Well, he was, but that was normal for Raph. But most of his angst came from their first loss. The one that still loomed over all of them.

"Don't put that on her, Raph," Leo stood up for their adoptive sister. "That's not fair."

"Yea, well, life ain't fair," Raph pushed Leo away. "Now let's go finish our wild goose chase."

"Splinter would not send us on a wild goose chase!"

"Uh, guys?" Mikey attempted to interrupt.

"Yea, sure, there's no way he could be wrong about the immortal ninja."

"Guys!" Don yelled at the bickering siblings.

The two of them turned to see what the fuss was about. The wall facing away from the river was currently buckling in, before it crumbled. From the other side, dozens of small, robotic drones poured in. Their metal jaws snapped hungrily as they approached the Turtles, who drew their weapons in response.

The four of them jumped into action, slicing, dicing, and smashing the robots in succession. They were like four scythes cutting through a field of wheat. But this wheat fought back. And they were quickly getting backed up towards the river.

"Hey guys...we are Turtles," Donnie reminded them.

"Good point, Don," Leo smiled. "Everyone into the drink!"

The four of them smashed through the back wall and splashed down into the river.

"Oh man," Mikey gagged as they came back to the surface. "I can't believe the humans want to live by the river."

"I can't believe it!" Raph raged. "She sent us into a trap!"

"Come on, Raph," Leo shook his head as he tread water. "Look."

The robots were now taking nose dives off the pier into the water, almost fanatically trying to get to the turtles.

"Fascinating," Don mused as he watched. "It's almost like they're programmed to come after us. But...how?"

The words rattled around in Leo's brain and he considered them. Someone was trying to get the turtles. Someone was coming after his family.

His family.

"Guys," he became stone faced, "if they're tracking us..."

"They might be tracking Splinter!" Mikey realized as well.

It certainly was hard to get used to their new high school. At least Professor Utonium had been able to afford sending the girls to a fairly high-end and non-urban school. They had pretty much everything there you could ever need for a complete education: science labs, swimming pools, ball courts, football fields, huge auditorium and gymnasium, professional track and field areas, and even it's own garden. This place was certainly a step up from their rather modest school back in Townsville, everything was bigger, especially the student population.

The school was gigantic compared to what they had before and between classes there seemed to be a literal flood of students scrambling around. Thankfully the girls had managed to stay together for the most part so at least they had each other most of the time. Of course high school was quite different from middle school, for one thing each girl had to choose their own electives and of course since they were interested in different things they didn't see each other during those periods.

It was strange just being a kid in the crowd, back in Townsville pretty much everyone knew who they were, but here they were just the new kids. Professor Utonium had given them strict orders to try and keep their powers on the down-low. Unfortunately this did mean that a few of the activities were off limits for the Utonium children, such as sports teams. During PE they had to try and seem as normal as possible which was tougher than one might think especially once the adrenaline started to kick in. Since playing to their full ability would just be an unfair advantage to whichever team had them, sports electives were off limits.

So far their favorite teacher had to be their science teacher Ms. Keene. Sure she was no Professor Utonium but as a high school teacher, Ms. Keene knew how to explain things in ways that made it easier to understand. At the moment the three girls were in the school lab being taught by Ms. Keene about Acidic levels, and what makes a liquid an acid or a base. The student groups had been given litmus paper to test the various liquids ranging from tap water to soda and more.

"Alright class first I want you all to test your various liquids using the litmus paper and write down their pH levels, also labeling each liquid as an acid, base, or neutral. Afterward we'll try some experimenting and see how we can change the pH levels of some of our samples."

Lab partners went to work and mostly because the girls had transferred during the school year, they were stuck together. As they went to work the three couldn't help but talk a little.

"Man, I really wish I could play more sports but I suppose it is true competing without doing my best would be pretty lame anyway." Buttercup grumbled as she starting passing out the litmus paper.

"I know how you feel Buttercup but at least we have a lot of other options! What electives did you guys choose?" Blossom asked as she started to test the paper while Bubbles got the paper ready to take notes.

"Well that was easy! As soon as I saw it I instantly signed up for the home economics class! They teach all kinds of useful stuff like cooking and sewing. Once I get the sewing down I can start on my fashion ideas and have all sorts of fun!"

"Man I really had to think about that one, didn't want to take anything useless so I signed up for those guitar lessons and also mechanics! Dad's always tinkering around with stuff and figured it could be pretty cool to try for myself too. So how about you Blossom?"

"Well, after thinking about it I decided to go with the drama classes! Hopefully I'll be able to score a great part and then everyone will know who I am and I'll meet my other half during a romantic scene." Blossom giggled as she started to imagine just a scenario, such as her playing Juliet and and handsome upperclassman talking to her from below, their eyes telling each other how much they were in love.

Buttercup groaned a little while Bubbles just smiled at Blossoms retreat into fantasy land. But Blossom soon came back as they were moving on to the next part of the lab. "I should also look and see if any of the sports teams need a manager, I'll be sure to meet some cute guys that way!"

Buttercup ignored Blossom and looked over at another table, there was a very dolled up red-head who was literally doing nothing in the lab. All she seemed to be doing was giving orders to the other students. Buttercup couldn't help but feel a little ticked that someone was having all the work completely done for them. Before she could say anything though a voice came from beside her.

"Oh her, that's Pricilla Morbucks, but everyone just calls her Princess for obvious reasons." Buttercup turned to see a freckled brunette kid, Mitch Michelson who was also in their group. It had been quite the surprise to meet him again as he had actually gone to the same kindergarten and some of elementary school together with the Powerpuffs back in Townsville. It was actually quite a welcome sight to see someone who knew who and what they were. Unfortunately for him the acne really had hit him quite hard. "By the way I think I think you got some of that acid stuff on your shirt."

"Wait what!?" Buttercup looked down in alarm, and Mitch Michelson's finger went up and flicked her nose.

Mitch laughed as Buttercup rubbed her nose after taking a reflexive step back. "I see you're still the little snot you always were Mitch."

"Heh, and if I'm not mistaken you guys aren't allowed to use your powers whenever you want which means I don't have to worry about payback."

"Also I guess you're still an idiot too since you obviously didn't think that one through." Buttercup grabbed him by the cheek and pulled.

"Ow ow ow ow! Stop it!"

"I don't need to use my powers to get back at you." Buttercup smirked and let go while Mitch quickly nursed his now red cheek.

"Blast it! I was only teasing you ya know, sheesh!"

"Now now you two, let's finish this up before your horsing around gets us in trouble. Let's make sure we work together to make this a great year!" Bubbles interjected while Blossom nodded in agreement.

"Yep, we need to make sure we all get good grades so we don't have to drop any of our electives! 100% here we come!"

Kansas, Four Days Ago

Desolate. That was a way to describe the breadbasket of the nation. Kansas was flat. Incredibly so. Something Rock had observed, as he rode across the state inside of a train. He was traveling with the scientist from the last lab, as they'd suggested this more scenic route, to enjoy the time, rather than constantly run. Rock had to admit, the chair he sat in was comfortable, and the technology in the train car was pretty impressive. He liked the built in TVs, which allowed him to watch the news, but in this case, a science show was on. When food was offered, he considered, then took the offer. While the Professor he was traveling with was at first concerned, Rock assured them it would be fine. He tried it, but found no real taste to it. Perhaps he lacked the needed upgrades, as he consumed the cookie. His core would burn the food up, and avoid any issues.

Eventually though, the train ride came to an end, as they arrived on the other side of Kansas, in the next state. Night had begun to fall, and Rock disembarked, offering the scientist a farewell wave, as the other had to return home. He left the station, meeting up with the next scientist, who was waiting with a car. Confirming her identity with Doctor Light via a phone call back, Rock got into the front seat, and the two drove to the lab, which stood on the edge of town. As the moon started to rise, Rock watched the world around outside, marveling at the sights. (Man...Doctor Light's right, the outside world really is beautiful! I can't wait to see New York City!)

He really couldn't wait to see the next place, and even as he settled in at the lab's sleeping area, preparing to rest, his mind raced with the thoughts of what lay ahead. Machine that he may be, Rock was a child through and through...



Federal Prison was the fate of Doctor Wily for the time being. It seemed it had gone well, he had been transported to prison without a hitch. At least, that was how it seemed. But even as he sat alone in his cell, fuming, he drew on the walls, plotting, and planning. He was angry at losing to Light's little toy soldier, it angered him beyond measure. He wanted revenge, oh yes, he wanted it dearly. One way or another...he'd find a way to make Light's precious "Mega Man" pay for his insolence, and show Light up. It was only a matter of time. To the other prisoners though, he was just a delusional old man, who they left alone due to this, and to the guards, he was harmless. Just another mad man committed to the prison to keep him out of harms way. If only they knew what was to come...Doctor Wily would return, and he would have his revenge...