Many weeks in the lair were had celebrating, dancing, and even singing. Every day I was more and more exhausted. Julie had healed, already wanting to do something with her arm other than hold a microphone to do karaoke or pinball with the boys. Melanie had run out of her simple pranks with the help of Mikey four days in the celebration. Out of all the time celebrating, I think I only had about a day's worth of sleep.

All of us were wanting to get out of the lair for a bit, wanting to see how the city was doing after the attack. The reason we hadn't been up in a while was because we didn't want to be caught in some police search to find extra Kraang. Or be caught anyway with the knowledge people were still on edge, probably looking to the sky and rooftops where we usually hung out. So tonight we were going to head out. Melanie and Naomi were staying behind to catch up on needed sleep. None of us complained really.

With Leo ushering us out, the seven of us headed out. Julie, Sophie and I walked by one another, basically brimming with excitement to be out of the lair for the first time in what seemed like forever. I couple times Sophie and Julie let out squealing laughs that ended quickly when either Leo or Donnie turned to look at them. They would only let out strained giggles after that.

When we found a ladder that was in one of the alleys that lead topside, we went up, boys first. I went before Julie and Sophie. After all of us were on the concrete, hidden from the street lamp, we started climbing up a fire escape, ready to run and jump after being cooped up in the lair for so long.

Reaching that rooftop felt like heaven to me. First time I felt a nice breeze of wind since I left that Kraang escape pod and that was weeks ago. My first reaction to feeling the New York breeze was to stretch, arms high, and a giant grin on my face. "Oooooh it's been too long!" I strained near the end, right before I dropped my arms.

"You are so right," Mikey grinned, spinning in circles before falling on his back. He grunted but sighed directly after. "I missed the night sky."

"I missed being out," Julie cooed. I looked over at her since she was behind me and she was sitting like a cat on the edge of the building. Her tail was hooked down over the edge of the building. She was smiling with her eyes closed without a care in the world. "I don't wanna move for, like, ten minutes. Just let me enjoy being out."

"Oh we will," Leo smiled, sitting on his own air conditioning vent. "But only for a while because I'm sure we're all getting urges to get up and run."

A giggle came from Sophie as she responded, "And see how much damage the people haven't fixed yet."

"Exploring the rubble!" Julie's eyes snapped open with excitement. "Taking souvenirs!"

I looked at the duo, blinking slowly as I sat by Mikey who was leaning against a water tower. I ignored the others, letting them talk about whatever as I slowly leaned against Mikey. My eyes began to close as I enjoyed the comfort of the orange-masked turtle. His only response was to wrap me close, probably understanding my exhaustion. Maybe I should have stayed behind with Naomi and Melanie. I bet they were getting some well-deserved rest.

It didn't take long for the others to realize where Mikey and I were. Before I knew it, Julie was behind us, nuzzling the cheek that wasn't connected to Mikey. My eyes snapped open and  I sat a bit and looked at her. Julie's eyes were wide, pupils huge to where you couldn't see much color, and a white toothy grin was plastered on her face.

"What'cha doing?" she asked, sitting back down like a cat and watching us, her tail swishing back and forth behind her.

"Trying to sleep," I murmured, pushing at her face with a weak hand, showing her I was teasing her. "Why don't you try the same?"

"Because that's no fun," she cackled. She managed to balance on her legs as she grabbed at my hand. The scales on her hands felt cold, like ice or iron since they were rough too. Her attention was on my hand, not bothering to continue speaking. It was a while before she let it go and turned her attention to where Donnie, Sophie, Leo, and Raph were coming up. "Are we leaving?"

A nod from Leo was all that it took from him for Julie to stand and hop a few inches from the ground. I groaned and slowly got up, allowing Mikey to do the same. Everyone pretty much looked at me as I did so.

Leo was the one to respond to my sound, though, "Why don't you head back to the lair and get some sleep? You need it more than the rest of us."

I was going to deny I needed sleep, but my body was saying otherwise. It was especially rough with me just getting up from being half-asleep on Mikey. A long sigh came from me as I nodded, "Yeah, sure... But I am so being on the next topside adventure."

"Wouldn't try it without ya," Sophie promised. "But if anything cool happens tonight, we'll definitely call you."

"Thanks," I smiled. I headed back to the alley we rose from and down the manhole cover we emerged from. My feet practically drug myself back to the lair. My shoulders were slumped and my energy was seeped away. Oh, how I couldn't wait to return home.

When I did return, I went over to the couch and plopped down on it, plastron first. It didn't take long for me to pass out, dreaming of jumping over concreted alleyways and streets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TMNT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mikito, hey! Wake up!" I heard someone shouting. I groggily groaned and started rolling around. "W-Wait!" they called out, but it was too late. I rolled too far over and gravity took over as I reached the end of the couch. I grunted loudly from the impact and didn't move, sighing heavily from the pitiful attempt. Opening my eyes, I looked to see who was saying my name. It was Melanie. She looked well rested. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, still feeling the exhaustion from earlier, however far away earlier was. I didn't think I would ever catch up on the hours I lost the last few weeks.

A yawn came from me as I also stretched, "What's going on?"

"We're gonna be playing dodge ball. Wanna join?" she asked, bright green eyes shining. Her bandana tails almost hung in my face, making me want to put them behind her head.

I yawned again and gave a pitiful sitting stretch, straightening my legs and arms. "What're we playing it with?" I asked.

"The Kraang communication orb."

"Isn't that in Donnie's lab?"

"Mikey took it."

"Without his permission?" I asked, rather stunned but still admiring how Mikey's silly ways can make for the best ninja training.

Melanie nodded and smiled, standing straight now. "We're gonna be starting soon. So you can either head to bed to catch up on more sleep or join us."

"I'll join you. What about Naomi?" I asked as I got up, straightening out my back and yawning. "Will she be joining?"

"Mom? No. She's with Sensei meditating, probably falling asleep." Melanie's last comment made me giggle. Naomi may be a stick in the mud sometimes, but she can sneak a way to make herself a fun little turtle.

"I'm not short!" a shout came from the dojo, making both Melanie and I jump. Our heads turned to the dojo, waiting to see the black-masked turtle. But I guessed that was all she was going to put an input on. I turned back to Melanie and shrugged. The lavender-masked turtle giggled softly and headed to the kitchen where everyone but Naomi and Donnie were at.

When I entered, I saw the Kraang communication orb sitting on the island, Mikey holding it to make sure it wouldn't roll off. I smiled and came up to him, hugging him from behind. He squeaked and smiled at me, holding the silver ball close.

"So this is everyone?" Leo asked, obviously in a joyous mood that Mikey took the orb. When everyone nodded, Leo nodded as well. "Good. So. The game is similar to dodge ball but not quite. Instead, you throw it to someone and, if they catch it, you're both still in. If they attempt to catch it but it misses them, then they're out. But if you throw it beyond their reach, the one who threw it is out," Leo paused there to look at Raph. The red-masked turtle scowled. "So... Any questions?"

"Will we have to be in a specified area?" Sophie asked. "Like stay in an area and not move out of it."

"Yes," the blue-masked turtle responded, pointing at Soph, even winking at her. "We'll set up areas when we go out."

"Where we will be playing this?" Julie asked. Her hands were on the counter as she leaned up against it. "Lair? Tunnels? Topside?"

"Main room. Anything more?" When nobody answered him, Leo nodded and motioned for Mikey and I to get the orb. Mikey snatched it before I could but I didn't mind; he was the one who snatched it after all.

We entered the main room and we each took a section of the room. Mikey was by the pinball machine, Sophie by the dojo door, Leo by the entrance to the tunnels, Raph toward the hallway to the rooms, Melanie managed to get to the top of the wooden chandelier thing, Julie was by the TV, and I was stuck in the middle, covering the couches.

Right before Mikey threw the silver orb at someone, he tossed it once in the air to have it land back in his hand. His blue eyes scanned the room and then tossed it up to Melanie. She caught it and, with one fluid motion, tossed it toward Leo. He caught it, rolled it around the back of his shell then dropped it on his foot. He continued with pushing the orb up and into a large ark toward me. I jumped up and snatched it out of the air and then rolled on the ground when I felt the concrete under me. Without stopping the fluid movement, I stopped the roll with a foot and, now in a kneeling position, I chucked the orb toward Raph. The red-masked Turtle reached for it, but it slipped from his hands and bounced over the concrete, giving off a nice tinging sound.

"Raph's out!" Mikey cackled as he picked up the orb that had rolled over to him. Raph scowled and gave up, turning and stomping past Sophie to the dojo. "And to recovery he goes!"

We all laughed, hearing Raph growl a second later, but we continued the game. A few times, the orb did bounce from a miscalculated throw, but other than that our throws were solid and fluid. The last throw was Sophie's and she had thrown it toward me, but I wasn't paying attention and it bounced off my shell. It made me stumble a bit, but the ball went into the lab before rolling back out.

Leo was heading over to grab it when Donnie emerged from the lab, placing a foot on the silver orb to stop anyone wanting it. "This isn't okay, guys!" he growled. He leaned down and picked the orb up, quickly turning it over to see if it had any scratches or bumps. I wouldn't have been surprised considering that it was bouncing everywhere. "This is a Kraang tech and I need to watch out for it to make sure the Kraang don't come back."

"But we kicked their metal hides into oblivion," Julie huffed, tail flicking. She raised a hand and placed it on the place where she had gotten injured at during the last attack. "I don't think they'll be coming back."

"Don't be so sure," Sensei's voice came from the dojo. Within a few seconds, he popped into view with Naomi and Raph close behind, Raph taking his time with his arms crossed as if disappointed. "This battle is far from over and you have more enemies to worry about. Celebration is over."

His last sentence made my shoulders slump. Celebration over? That wasn't fair! But then.... I could use the sleep...

"But, Sensei," Leo came up closer to him. "We're fine. Nothing's going to go wrong as long as we're alive."

As soon as Naomi heard that, I saw her expression change drastically. She stepped forward and hissed out, "Alive and healthy are two different things! When was the last time you got decent sleep? Any of you?" she turned to look at all of us, blue eyes flashing with anger. When she turned to Leo again, she gave a low glare. "You need to think about what you're doing... Alive is good, yes, but if you're all too tired to actually stop an enemy? How do you think you'll cope?"

"Reminds me of when we saw the Shredder that first time..." I heard Sophie murmur. "Trained nonstop for weeks..."

I found myself gritting my teeth, both at Naomi's and Sophie's statements. They were both true and I wasn't sure how to react. It made me wonder what if someone had jumped on me when I was returning home, separated for a few minutes from the others. Would I have had the energy to fight them off? I looked at the others and they seemed to finally give in to Naomi's statements, their bodies looking tired.

"Fine...." Leo growled. "But--"

"Uhm... Guys?" Donnie interrupted him. Everyone looked over at the silver ball in Donnie's hands. It was going through a wave-like motion with purple dots. It was also making a deep and hollow beeping sound.

The Kraang communication orb was awake. And that meant Kraang.