Rykardo got done preparing himself for his mission and he headed out to New York to find the four turtles. Rykardo walked out of his room with his gear on and his two katanas in their sheathes and he headed out to find Leo and the others. 'This is it, don't grow attached to them or you'll never become a full member of the Footclan Rykardo, the turtles are your enemies not Master Shredder' Rykardo thought. He headed outside of the base and headed out to look for the turtles.

~Meanwhile with the turtles~

Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey are out on patrol in New York and jumped across rooftops and continued running for a few more minutes before they decided to take a break. All of them were panting in exhaustion except for Leo who sensed that something was wrong and continued patrolling his instincts telling him to go investigate. 'I've got a weird feeling that someone's here' Leo thought. He continued heading to where his instincts were telling him to go until he saw something that made his heart scream in surprise.

Leo could see another mutant turtle running around on the rooftop and from the looks of it he looked a lot like him too. 'Oh my gosh another turtle? What's he doing out here all by himself? Where did he come from?' Leo wondered. He approached the black masked turtle feeling his curiosity overcome him and followed the stranger until he was close enough to get his attention.

"Hey, who are you?" Leo asked.

The strange turtle immediately halted and turned around looking at Leo. Leo almost felt shocked to see that the new turtle sorta looks like him except for how he has a bit of green in his eyes and Leo couldn't help but feel some kind of connection to him.

"Who are you?" The turtle asked in Leo's voice, returning the question.

"I'm Leonardo." Leo answered.

"Rykardo." The turtle replied.

~Back to Rykardo's POV~

'Finally I've found him, but where are the other three?' Rykardo wondered.

"Are you new here?" Leo asked.

"I guess you could say that, I have been avoiding everyone but I never knew that there were other mutants around here." Rykardo replied trying to come up with his best lie.

"Well don't worry, I don't plan to hurt you, but, have you always been alone up here?" Leo questioned.

"Uh... I've been hiding around so much that I've kinda gotten used to it." Rykardo lied. 'Jeez this guy is almost acting weird, I sure hope he doesn't suspect anything' He thought.

"How'd you get that?" Leo asked pointing at Rykardo's shoulder.

Rykardo followed his gaze seeing a scar on his shoulder from training with Karai one time but he tried to figure out another lie so that Leo wouldn't be so suspicious.

"Got attacked by... Some people." Rykardo replied starting to grow nervous. 'How many questions does this guy ask?!' He wondered in irritation of Leo being so noisy.

"Well it's not safe up here at this time of night, why don't you come with me and meet my brothers? I'm sure they'll be excited to meet another mutant turtle here." Leo offered.

"Sure." Rykardo replied pretending to be a bit shy. Although he did feel like a nervous wreck.

Rykardo followed Leo across the rooftops until they approached Raph, Donnie and Mikey who were sitting around on the rooftop and Raph immediately got up as soon as he saw Leo and Rykardo coming over. 'The turtles are dangerous Rykardo, do not mess up your mission' Shredder's warning ringed inside Rykardo's head and he tried hard to fight the urge to just attack the turtles while he still could but something inside him was telling him that Shredder's wrong about them.

"Leo there you are, jeez you need to stop... Who's this?" Raph asked as he looked at Rykardo in mid sentence.

"This is Rykardo, I found him wondering around the city and he's told me that he's been alone the whole time." Leo replied.

"No way! Another turtle? How awesome!" Mikey exclaimed in excitement.

Mikey tried to stand up but he slipped and fell flat on his shell the sight making Raph and Donnie look a little annoyed with him. 'I wonder how many bad guys that one could actually take out' Rykardo thought.

"It's getting late, we should head back to the lair." Leo said.

With that all five turtles headed to the lair while Rykardo followed from behind. 'This mission is going to be really long' Rykardo thought. But he still felt that weird connection to Leo like something was telling him something but he couldn't quite hear it clearly like his heart was speaking to him, but Rykardo ignored it refusing to let his guard down at any costs in case Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey ever suspect something about him. And Rykardo refused to let his mission fail, but getting the turtles to trust him seemed a bit hard.

~Time skip~

Rykardo and the turtles came down to the lair and Rykardo had his fingers on his nose pinching the bridge of it feeling disgusted by the smelly sewers that they had to walk through. 'How can those guys stand it? Man I'm definitely gonna despatch these guys the first chance I get!' Rykardo thought. When the turtles entered the lair, a giant humanoid mutant rat wearing a red robe came out of some room and approached the turtles and Leo and his brothers looked a bit nervous as the rat looked over at Rykardo in curiosity.

"My sons, who is this new turtle?" The rat asked in a calm voice.

"This is Rykardo, Splinter, the guys and I found him wondering around New York during patrol tonight." Leo answered.

"I see, and how long have you been alone Rykardo?" Splinter asked him.

"Uh... I've lost count over the years, but honestly I never knew there were other mutants around because I've always avoided everyone." Rykardo lied.

"I see, well you are welcomed to stay here as long as you'd like Rykardo, and if you need anything just let us know." Splinter replied.

"Thanks." Rykardo replied with a slight nod.

With that Splinter walked back in the room he exited. 'So if that was Hamato Yoshi than that means he's been mutated too' Rykardo thought.

"There's an extra room up there by the kitchen, you can sleep in there." Leo said to him.

"Thanks Leo." Rykardo replied wearing a fake smile.

Rykardo then headed to the room and opened the door seeing a mattress on the floor and there were already blankets and pillows on it. 'Man it's like those guys were expecting me to come here, but I still have to keep my guard up, I'm here to spy on them not be friends' Rykardo thought. He locked the door after closing it and lied down on the mattress falling asleep minutes later after thinking of what he's going to do next.

~Time skip~

The next day came and Rykardo woke up to loud shouting and screaming of someone like they got into a fight. 'The heck is going on?!' Rykardo thought in irritation of being woken up. He got out of his bed and unlocked the door coming out of the bedroom seeing Raph chasing Mikey around while Leo had his hand on his head like he was feeling annoyed by his brothers fighting.

"Dude chill out it was just a prank!" Mikey yelled to Raph.

"You know better than to stick a cockroach underneath my pillow! I almost had a heart attack you idiot!" Raph yelled back before throwing one of the pillows on the couch at him.

Mikey quickly dodged it before Raph tried to tackle him to the floor but Mikey threw down something from his hand and disappeared as soon as purple smoke exploded from it. 'Did he seriously prank Raph with a bug?' Rykardo wondered.

"Mikey get back here!" Raph yelled looking around for his brother.

"Raph knock it off I thought you said you were over cockroaches a year ago!" Leo said sternly.

"I am!" Raph lied.

"Didn't look like it." Leo replied crossing his arms.

Raph growled in anger before he pouted on the couch and the sight of that made Rykardo chuckle a little and Raph heard him before he stood back up immediately glaring at him.

"And what are you laughing at?" Raph questioned.

"Nothing." Rykardo replied clearing his throat.

Raph sneered at him before he stormed off inside his room slamming the door shut. Leo sighed before he sat on the couch and Rykardo raised an eyebrow at him feeling curious what was bugging him.

"Something wrong Leo?" Rykardo asked while sitting next to him.

"Raph is always going off on Mikey like that, I just want him to stop because he only makes things worse and could get in trouble by Splinter." Leo replied.

Rykardo looked at Leo's neck seeing a slight cut on there and felt curious to what caused it.

"Did Raph cut you?" Rykardo asked.

"Yeah he did, I was trying to get Raph to calm down when he tackled Mikey before but he took out one of his sais and cut me so that he could continue hitting Mikey but Mikey managed to escape from Raph while he was busy with me." Leo replied.

"Why not tell Splinter about Raph getting mad?" Rykardo questioned.

"Splinter usually suspends Raph from going up to the surface for patrol with us but Raph always yells at me after his punishment is over." Leo told him.

Rykardo's heart clenched a little from hearing that, it was like Raph is constantly bullying Leo like how Karai used to bully Rykardo and Rykardo felt a little sorry for Leo. 'Just focus on the mission' Rykardo told himself.

"Has he always been like this?" Rykardo asked.

"Sometimes he threatens me but there's only a few times were he didn't hurt me." Leo replied.

Leo then stood up from the couch and headed inside his room a slight sniffle being heard from him. Rykardo watched as Leo left and looked down at the floor having second thoughts about hating them in the first place. Shredder had always made it sound like Leo and his brothers are heartless monsters but the way Leo was being treated by Raph put memories in Rykardo's head reminding him of how Karai bullied him. Rykardo shook the thought away and headed back inside the bedroom to get his gear on.

~Time skip~

A few boring hours passed by and Rykardo was out on patrol with Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey. The five turtles jumped over rooftops and continued going running as fast as the wind and Rykardo shivered a little while beginning to slow down a little but he kept going as fast as he could hoping that the cold will leave him on its own.

"How can you guys stand it out here? Do you do this every single night?" Rykardo asked.

"It never really bothered us in the first place, you'll get used to it eventually." Leo replied.

"I'd like to think he might not because he must've been inside most of the time in wherever he lived." Raph retorted.

"And what's that supposed to mean?!" Rykardo questioned angrily while glaring over at him.

"Shhh!" Leo shushed before Raph could reply.

All five turtles halted and Leo was looking around like he could hear something and Rykardo looked around with him wondering what he heard. 'I don't get it, why did Leo halt so quickly?' Rykardo wondered. He then sensed someone behind them and turned around seeing some robot with reddish pink eyes and it held some gun in its hands and more of them appeared all of the robots ready to shoot them.

"G-guys." Rykardo stuttered in fright of the strange looking robot.

Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey all turned around and they immediately took out their weapons while glaring at the robots and they all went in battle stances and Rykardo did the same thing trying to fight back his fear of the creepy robots with brain things in their bellies. 'This is definitely not going to make my mission any easier' Rykardo thought.

(Hey sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out because first, I was really busy and second, took a short break from writing because it took me two days to do the first chapter but this story is still worth it and going to continue. See you in the next chapter! 😊🐢💚❤🐢💚💙🐢💚💜🐢💚💛🐢💚♠)