Forever and Always

Mountain Ride

"Sacks is airborne!" Leo shouted. Donnie typed fervently on his wristcom.

"Flight time to Manhattan, nineteen minutes!"

"Get us out of here, Donnie!" The scientist lowered his goggles, scanning the trucks. His visor then swept to a solider.

"Oh my gosh!, They have guns!" Emily giggled at Don's panicked voice.

"Get down!" The turtles huddled around the humans, when the men started shooting. This time, actual bullets. Emily's eyes widened when she looked behind Leo to see the bullets ricocheting off the shells and back at the soldiers. Leo laughed. "Ha!, Are you guys okay?"

"We're bulletproof."

"Sweet." Leo looked at Vern, who was cowering behind April. "Can you drive that truck?"

"Yeah."

"We're on Raph. Ready?" Raph ran out backwards, grabbing a soldier's gun. The others ran around him, following his lead. "Everybody in the truck!, We gotta go, go, go!" Emily jumped into the back after the others, while April and Vern piled into the front. Raph ran forward, banging on the window.

"Drive!"

"I'm on it!" The truck rumbled to life.

"Come on, come on!"

"Ah that's all I need. A backseat driving, talking turtle." Emily rolled her eyes, shouting through the window.

"Just, shut up and drive, Vernon!" Vern winced at the use of his full name. Raph snickered. He rested a hand on Emily's shoulder.

"Thanks."

"I had to deal with the guy for years. You learn how to show him up." Raph smiled, squeezing Emily's shoulder before letting go. Turns out, he should have continued holding her.

A jolt to the left side of the truck sent them flying. Emily crashed into Raph's plastron, gripping him for dear life. He wrapped his arms around her, protecting her as canisters of nitrogen. He grunted in pain as one cracked the tip of his shell. Leo wasn't as lucky. He was hit full on the face by the canisters, throwing him out of the truck.

"Leo, move!, Move!" Leo rolled over onto his plastron, getting out of the way of the first set of tires. He then rolled again out of the way of the rest of them. He stood up, staring down the slope. He started to run, just as the Humvees chasing them ran over the snow bank. Leo jumped, curling into a ball, grunting when his carapace hit the windshield.

Emily breathed a sigh of relief, when she saw him using his katana to get him out of the way of the cars. The chase continued down the entire mountainside. Eventually, everyone was thrown out of the truck. Thankfully, Mikey was able to catch Emily as she was thrown out. Grabbing on to him, she tried to shield her face from the snow.

"What's our ETA!?" She yelled over the snow at Donnie.

"Shredder's copter twenty miles outside of New York City airspace!" Raph rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for the traffic update, Donnie. You doing sports and weather next?"

"If you're going to be nasty about it, then I guess you don't want to know there's a five-hundred foot drop in fifty-three seconds!"

"Are you saying there's-" Leo jumped up.

"A cliff!" He sheathed his katana that he somehow managed to hold onto while unconscious. "We gotta get April out of there!, Raph!, Heads up!" Leo climbed up onto the trailer, using Raph as a stepping stool.

"Don't forget that old guy!" Leo lifted a hand briefly, letting Mikey know he heard him. He dropped down on the passenger side of the track.

"Hi"

"Leo!"

"Change of plans." He looked up at the sound of a weapon powering up. "Oh come on." Leo ducked, but the cable still attached to his plastron, anchoring. Leo grabbed April, pulling her to him. "Hold on to me!" He jumped through the cab, snatching up Vern along the way.

They landed in the snow. Maneuvering through the white powder, he managed to wrench the cable from the car. Unfortunately, he now had no way of stopping. On top of that, the cliff was coming up very quickly.

"Mikey!, Grab the cable!" He tossed Emily to Raph, who caught her with ease. The youngest turtle scrabbled through the snow, searching for it.

"I got it!, I got it!" Emily looked up to see the others barely out of range of the truck's swinging trailer. "Hold on!, hold on!" Mikey tripped over a rock, losing his grip. Emily's heart caught in her throat as Leo and the others went over the edge.

"No!, Oh no no no no no!" Mikey bowed his head. "Poor Leo, April, and that other guy. They were so young. So beautiful." Raph slid by.

"They ain't dead, numbnuts."

"Oh. Right on." Emily sighed in relief as she jumped off Raph's plastron, running over to the edge. Leo was holding onto April with one hand, the anchor the other.

"I hope you got a parachute under that shell!" Don looked over the edge with Emily.

"Hey guys!, It's the maintenance hatch!, Our ticket home!"

"A little help please!" Raph grabbed Leo's hand, hauling him and the humans up.

"Guys, we gotta hustle!, Shredder's over New York City!"

"Then let's go."