Things had definitely changed around here. All of our fathers were in one way or another out of commision, and we were the ones caring for them. After years of them watching over us, it felt weird. But it also had it's moments.

"Will you stop that!" Thane snapped at his father as he was trying to rewrap the severely bruised and cut face, a face that had severely swollen up.

"Iwl shtop dat ben woo stop bein' swo rup." Came the slurred words.

"Good god." Thane muttered as he carefully replaced the wrappings. "You are such a baby."

"Iwl swow woo aby!" Uncle Raph growled back. "Woo bait till Ah fweel bebber! Knop woo inbo mext weep!"

Mother and Aunt Cris were trying not to laugh. Once you got past needing an english to muffle mouth dictionary, these conversations were quite amusing.

"I am not going to spoon feed you." Ari firmly told her own father nearby as she placed a tray in his lap.

"But my arm hurts." Uncle Mikey moaned.

"Then use the other one. It's not broken."

"But I make a mess when I eat with my left hand!"

"You make a mess when you eat with the right one so I guess it doesn't matter."

"Wiw woo boo shup da blup up!" Uncle Raph muttered. "Ah bop ah fledape."

"Well, that's what you get for trying to stop Shredder's foot with your face." Uncle Mikey grinned at him.

My large Uncle felt well enough to throw a couch pillow at his brother, knocking the tray that was on Uncle Mikey's thighs over, spilling soup everywhere and Uncle Mikey began hopping around as the hot soup spilled down his thighs. Ari just glared at Uncle Raph. "Really? You really had to do that?"

"Swobby."

"Sorry my backside." She mumbled in reply as she began to gather up the tipped over dishes.

I was having my own issues at the moment as I noticed my father standing in the doorway of the lab, with Uncle Donnie yelling at him and waving a crutch around. I sighed as I walked over towards them. "Why are you up?" I flately asked Father who was wobbling in the doorway.

"Because there is too much to do!" He snapped back at me. "I've got all these ninjas to find a place for so they can re-"

"It's been done." I told him. "Ty is over at the barn now talking to Gramps. They are going to throw some makeshift beds together."

He blinked. "Then I have to figure out how to feed all of them if they are going to be staying awh-"

"Casey and Marina are already at the store."

"Not to mention I need to gather supplies because we are going through bandages like-"

"Dante and April just brought in medical supplies a half hour ago and Donatello already helped them unload it all."

He just looked at me as I raised my eyeridge at him. "Well crap..." He muttered. "I guess I really don't have anything to do."

"I told you it's all been taken care of." Uncle Donnie grumped at him. "But did you want to listen? Nooooo..."

Father sighed. "Well, can I at least sit in the chair out here?" He asked meekly.

Uncle Donnie just rolled his eyes and crutched back into the lab. Father took another wobbly step into the living area and I quickly went to him, carefully supporting his good side. "And you fuss at Mother for not wanting to stay in bed." I muttered to him as I carefully guided him to the recliner, then helped him lower himself in it.

He winced a little as he moved wrong as he shifted in it to get comfortable. "Just feel like I shouldn't be lying in there when there is so much going on out here."

Before I could even respond to that, Ty came out of the lab, then caught sight of Father in the recliner. "What are you doing out here?"

"Oh for the love of god..." Father groaned and the whole you should be in bed argument started again.

Father won that one, just because he pulled back out the "I'm the leader of this family and I'll sit out here if I want too!"

Mother's quiet chuckling really didn't help the issue any and he glared at her and she just gave him a slight grin in return. As I did before, I felt the slight rippling as they communicated with each other before he just rolled his eyes and sighed. I looked on a little shocked that I felt that. Ty's expression pretty much mirrored mine as he looked back at me. His expression grew thoughtful as he kept watching me, then he seemed to withdraw into himself a bit. 'Think they were talking about how stubborn we are?' Came his tentative thought.

I looked at him with wide eyes as I heard him clearly. Father's head snapped towards us as he watched us. I didn't even notice, was too busy trying to figure out how he did that. Finally I just looked back at my brother and just...did it. 'Think he doesn't like the fact that he's getting bullied.'

Ty erupted in laughter. 'I heard that.' Came Father's voice next and Ty laughed even harder.

Needless to say, the next few days was busy for us. Our fathers had to heal, the other turtles had to heal and Lotus and her injured ninjas had to heal. Our home was very crowded, but we made due. It was well into the three week mark before they all healed enough to where both Donatellos felt secure enough to start thinking about sending them all home. Uncle Donnie wasn't about to let any of his patients out of his sight until he was sure they all could heal the rest of the way on their own.

Lotus gave a bit of a scare though one evening. She had been pretty mobile and healed surprisingly quickly from her own ordeal and had pretty much taken over the care of her ninjas, devoting all of her time to making sure her lesser healing inclined followers got the care they needed. She was starting to run herself ragged over it actually. There were bags under her eyes and you could tell she was tired. I was also worried by the noises coming from the bathroom that morning as I passed by it, she was obviously getting rid of what she ate for supper last night. Over all, given her run down state right now, it really shouldn't have come as a surprise when she walked into the living area that evening from returning from her nightly routine of making sure her ninjas had everything they needed for the night, and promptly fainted.

It was Dante who made the mad dash to catch her since he was the closest, and even then he had to resort to making a wild dive, sliding across the floor on his shell, and caught her as she fell on top of him.

"Nice save, son." Uncle Donnie told him as he came over.

"Is she alright?" An obviously worried Leonardo came to stand beside me as I carefully lifter her off of Dante.

"I'm sure she is fine." Came the answer even as Uncle Donnie began to run a scan to make sure of that. "Just probably over worked herself is...oh my..." He looked dumbfounded at his scanner.

"What? What is wrong?"

"Is she ok?" Father asked aslo as he moved closer.

"Um...well...depends on what you qualify as...ok..." He grinned suddenly at what he was looking at before he looked up at the anxious Leonardo. "You two sure didn't waste any time did you? At least Vicky and Leo were together a few months before she dropped fatherhood on him."

Leonardo's jaw dropped, his eyes widened, and he just looked stunned at Uncle Donnie. Tears formed in his eyes as he carefully took Lotus from my arms, his own cast not bothering him a bit as he held her gently against him. "A...child..." He said in wonder as he looked down at her.

Father just placed a calm hand on his shoulder as the other turtle struggled to take it in, a soft smile on his face. After that, Lotus got babied tremendously, much to her independant frustration.

It was with sadness that the day finally came to say goodbye. I watched quietly as my ninja friends walked through the portal to their home, speaking to a few who I had actually bonded a little with. After a lengthy goodbye round, and a quite a bit of hugs, the turtles stood in front of the portal, with Leonardo's arm wrapped around Lotus' shoulders. "You sure Hun won't cause you any concern?" He asked us. They had made the offer to stay and hunt him down, but my family declined. They had a world to return too, a world that was now without a Shredder.

"He hasn't beat us yet in sixteen years," Uncle Raph smiled "doubt he will now. We can handle him."

"You've done more than enough." Father added. "Besides, you have something more important to worry about now." He smiled at Lotus, even as his own arm wrapped around Mother in the same way.

"That, I do." He sighed as he looked around at all of us. "The last time I left here, I told you I would always hate you, because I could never live the life you do. I wish I could take those words back, because I now know how wrong they were."

"You just needed time to find it for yourself my friend." Father told him. "I didn't hold it against you then, and I don't hold it against you now."

"Thank you, my friend, and goodbye."

"My pleasure. Farewell, my friend."

Without another word they stepped through the portal...and were gone.

.

.

Denise and her friends were out way later than they had meant to be. She had just gotten promoted and of course they went all out to celebrate. First a nice dinner and, since it was a friday night, they went clubbing right after. They probably should have taken a taxi home because they were so drunk they could barely walk, but they lived nearby and it was a nice night out. They were drunkenly confident that they could make their way home with no problems.

Except for the shoe malfunction. Cindy's heel snapped off as she got it stuck in a grate and she would have fallen over if Denise and Sierra hadn't moved to steady her. "Stupid shoe." Cindy mumbled as they all staggered to try and stay up right. "Teach me to buy the discounted shit."

"No, you silly ass." Sierra giggled as Cindy leaned on her. "That's what you get for wearing heels when you plan to get wasted."

"Are we wasted?" Denise asked as she stumbled off to the side a little bit.

"If we aren't, then we wasted a helluva lot of alcohol." Sierra giggled again.

"Well, I got some more in my apartment." Cindy mumbled. "We can try again at my place, we are going there right?"

"We are now." Denise told her as she stumbled the other way.

"Actually, no you aren't." A man stepped out of the shadows from the alley in front of them, followed by more, a lot more.

"Says who?" Cindy hiccuped. "You better get out of our way or I'll...or I'll...hit you with my other shoe."

"You hear that boys?" The man in front of them flashed an evil grin. "She's going to hit us with her shoe." The evil laughter that came to the ears of the women quickly sobered them up as the first twinges of fear hit. They quickly looked around for a way out of this mess, but found themselves surrounded. THere was nowhere to go.

"What do we do?" Sierra's voice held more than a little fear.

"You are going to please us, that's what." The leader grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her into the alley, quickly slapping a hand over her mouth as she began to struggle and scream. "Then, after we give you a good rough ride, we're going to take your money and anything else you might have that we can take off of your hands."

Denise was struggling hard by now before she was thrown hard against the wall, the thug holding her ripping the front of her dress open. She tried to cover herself with her arms, but they were yanked out of the way and pinned against the wall. "Nice set of jugs you have there." Came the gravelly voice holding her.

Cindy had been thrown to the ground and her dress pulled roughly up and her underwear ripped off by the two tha pinned her down. "Go ahead, keep struggling, I like it rough."

"Please! Don't!" Sierra was crying now as she struggled against the grip of two men, who had lifted her off of the ground after ripping her underwear off, holding her legs open for their leader, who had by now undone his pants. She stared in horrified shock at his member as he brought it out.

"Ima, gonna enjoy this." He leered at her as he lined himself up for the first thrust.

"And I'm going to enjoy this!" Another male's voice snapped before a foot lashed out, knocking him away from her. She caught a quick glimpse of green and grey before it was gone.

For an instant Sierra felt like she was falling as the hands holding her were quickly released, the just as quickly she was caught. "Easy, we got you." A female's voice said as she was gently set down. She turned to look, but they were gone as quickly as they came.

Denise also found herself suddenly released from the wall and slid to the ground, sobbing. She looked in the dark Alley but could only see a flash of blonde hair with pink mixed in with the strands. "Now that's not making a good impression on the womenfolk of this town." A young female's voice came out of the darkness before another guy landed on the ground in front of Denise.

All Cindy could see was the quick flash of movement above her, from both sides. She caught a flash of yellow on one side and a large shadow quickly disappeared back into the darkness on the other side. She was trembling as she sat up and looked around. All of their attackers were laid out in the alley around them and her friends were just as shaken, but other wise unharmed as they tried to pull their ruined dresses back around them.

There was the sound of a blade slicing through something over them and they looked up to see a clothesline with a few blankets on them come slowly fluttering down. "Thank you..." Denise whispered out into the night, grateful to whoever had just stepped in. She quickly moved forward to grab three blankets and passed two of them along to her friends.

"You're welcome." Came a calm voice from the darkness further back, then whoever was there was gone.

The women stumbled their way out of the alley and quickly headed for home. Denise looked back one last time and something pulled her eyes up to the rooftop behind her and she made out five figures against the full moon. She couldn't see them clearly, but knew they were the ones who had just saved her and her friends. She blinked back the tears of relief and when the tears finally cleared, they were gone.

Ty stood on top of another building a short time later, this time the breeze succeeded to flutter his grey mask tails out to the side as he looked over the city below him. His arms once again were crossed as calmly took in the night. Lavi stood next to him, slightly tilted to the side as her eyes also wandered over the streets below. And like her brother's grey ones, her lavender tails twisted in the wind. Ari sat at their feet her blonde braid and pink ties over her shoulder, dangling a leg off of the parapet as she joined her cousins in their silent watch, Thane standing behind her, grim eyes behind his black mask locked onto another group of thugs that were trying to break into a small apartment. Dante's yellow masked face confirmed Ty's suspicion that there was indeed innocents inside of that apartment.

New colors for a new group of silent protectors that roamed the rooftops of New York. Trained by their fathers and working together and armed with their fathers' full blessing, they took on this task, even as their fathers still did. Evil doers of this city beware, for now there were two groups of Ninja Turtles to contend with. And though this group was younger, they would not back down from this task. In fact, they embraced it. It was who they were.

"Let's go." Ty said softly and the five Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pushed off of the roof, the men below not even knowing the fate that was about to fall upon them. And how they would have a shit load of fun doing it.

Author's note: And here ends my tale of the young ones. I hope you all enjoyed the journey I sent you on. And be assured, I am not done with these extraordinary teens, I do want to send them on another adventure. And when the time comes, when evil storms through my head needing to be thwarted, I will again send the teens out to face it. It's who they are afterall...