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Bonus Chapter 2: Never Free

      TW: Heavy angst, major character death

       ~Normal POV~

     It was a brisk walk through the Kraang wasteland to get to the camp Leo planned on freeing. A holographic monocle Donnie lent to me showed an indoor security feed as I was hidden in what was left of a tree. 

     Donnie was on the ground, surveying the perimeter while Leo snuck inside. "Three dogs coming up on your left," I muttered quietly and saw Leo lean as flush to a wall as he could. "Clear," I informed and he moved quickly to get further into the camp.

     "Soldiers moving in," I gave another warning and the boy tucked himself into another hiding space. Clearly, the Kraang were fed up with the red-eared slider breaking in and freeing their hostages. The aliens could never have too many soldiers on their side.

     Many of the camps we failed to save were turned into Kraang zombies, and it was almost hard to hurt them. They were people once too, but there was no cure as far as we knew. Even after capturing one and doing multiple experiments and such, we came up empty-handed and had to release the test subject before it could alert the Kraang of our base.

     I could hear Leo's near-silent counting of the Kraang's paces passed him by, lining up with my "Clear." There was a hushed sliding over the comms as a door opened in front of Leo, revealing the families that were huddled up to each other.

     "There are more soldiers on their way. Finish up, Leo," I quickly warned the turtle who was waving the people to stand up and calmly exit the room. "Leo," I spoke again as I saw the Kraang rounding the corner and growing closer to his location.

     The hostages were rushing around another corner, unaware of the trouble that lurked. "Leo, they're closing you in!" I spoke urgently, trying not to raise my voice. Shrill screams echoed from inside the campgrounds and my body tensed.

     "D, we need to get in there," I hopped out of my hiding space, tech staff clutched in one hand. Leo had handled a few Kraang before, but not this many soldiers on his own.

     Within seconds, Donnie was by my side and we burst into the camp, ready to kill. Anything to keep the Hamato alive; If there were Hamato, there was a chance. Our entrance caught the attention of some guards and a couple of dogs.

     I pressed a button on my staff, a sharp blade shooting out the end of it and I took a shaky breath in. Regretfully, I was skilled in fighting with a Naginata. The blade wasn't too effective against the Kraang, but it would have to do. We had to get Leo out safe. . . and the hostages. They were the whole point of this mission, and it's selfish of me to only be thinking about Leo's safety.

     "Leo, let's go!" I shouted as I thrusted the blade forward into one of the dogs that charged at me. My back was pressed against Donnie's shell as we fended off the smaller Kraang that attacked.

     My eyes continued darting between the turtle and the humans he was escorting to safety. His fist was tightly wrapped around his odachi, a red bandana tied to the hilt of it. It was Raph's, Leo held onto it as a way to remember the alligator snapping turtle and as a reminder of who we were fighting for.

     As people began exiting the outer perimeter, an alarm seemed to sound and we were rushed. More soldiers stormed out of the building and I grew more nervous. I raised the staff to block the clawed armor that reached out for me, the alien inside peering at me.

     The Kraang were nothing but cowards, needing to hide inside giant suits of armor to fight us. If we could create some sort of energy source that could shut down the mechs, we would stand a better chance. In order to even try that, we would need to know how they were even powered.