Try not to panic, but yes, a rare update to the story that never ends. TMNT belong to Mirage. They were created by Peter Laird whom I've never met and Kevin Eastman whom I've met a few times. Dr. Baker, Agent Grant, and a few other ocs are mine, and I've met me a lot.

Clarigate

Escape would not be easy, but it was possible.

Splinter, even as he pretended to politely listen once again to the vengeance-filled soliloquy that Karai was delivering to her "helpless" captive, knew that he could escape and put much distance between himself and this place before the alarm would be sounded. Indeed, if needs be, he could make it to the closest portal and slip into the Nexus, though he preferred not to make use of that noble place as simply refuge.

"I begged Leonardo! I would have gone down on my knees had there been a chance!" she continued yet again. "And now HE will be the one to beg! He will crawl on his belly like the worm he is, crying for your safe return! But it will do him no good!"

Splinter did his best not to yawn. He kept the respectful yet cold look of attention on his face even as he turned over in his mind his options.

The guards were predictable, even under Karai's tutelage. It had not taken the Master long to learn the routine. They were arrogant, and with the arrogance came carelessness. He had managed to lift the keys from one earlier. When it was discovered that the keys were missing, the rat and his cell had been roughly yet thoroughly searched, only to find that the missing keys were lying on the floor of the corridor ("Careless fool! It is good that you dropped them outside the cell, or Mistress Karai would have BOTH our heads!").

And as the one guard berated the other, Splinter had easily retrieved his keys...

Yes, it would not be easy, but escaping would be possible.

The problem was, he had no idea where Dr. Baker was. And his sense of honor held him there as if chained, until he could ascertain the location of the hapless scientist.

"... and soon, your evil son will be in my grasp!" she was winding down- finally, thought Splinter, with one of those inward sighs usually reserved for when Donatello was finishing up some long-winded and technically filled response to one of Splinter's simple questions- "I will crush him! I will crush you all!"

She glared in triumph at the nezumi, reveling yet again in her power over these mutants.

But the rat merely looked as he had since they had first captured him; unmoved, unafraid...

Unconcerned.

Splinter could see the anger building in her; he did not doubt that she would enter the cell herself to attack him, with many of her Foot to back her up and prevent his escape.

"Where is Dr. Baker?" he asked, and this simple inquiry was enough to distract her.

"He is no concern of yours any longer," she sniffed. "You would do well to be worried about yourself!"

"Nevertheless, I am honor-bound to protect him," he said. "What is he to you? He is hunted by others. What have the Foot to do with this man?"

"It is none of your concern!" she snapped, irritated by this turn in the conversation. "You are in no position to worry about others!"

"Why is the Foot is working for Bishop's organization?" Splinter asked. "Bishop was as much Shredder's enemy as my clan. I wonder what he would think of this situation. Why have you decided to hire out-"

"We are not for HIRE!" she screamed, and if it were not for the fact that she was dressed for a business meeting, she would have drawn her blade and relieved this captive of his mocking head. "You will pay for such slander with your life!"

Splinter shook his head, bemused.

"It seems that the list of things I will pay for with my life keeps growing," he said, sinking down to a sitting position on the floor and preparing to meditate. "I hope that I am capable of covering such a vast debt." He closed his eyes, as if dismissing her.

For a brief moment she teetered on total loss of control.

Then, from the depths of her burning anger, a familiar chiding voice sounded in her memory.

"If you lose control, you lose power! Never forget this lesson!"

Shredder stood over a 14-year old and angry Karai, who had failed in her training- again- because she had been goaded into losing her temper. That had been happening more and more, and Saki, alien though he was, knew that his daughter was acting like many humans her age.

But HE would put a stop to it, or know the reason why.

Karai's fury shut down as effectively as if a switch had been flipped. She gazed at the rat coolly, though the hatred was still there, smoldering in those eyes...

The she abruptly turned on her heel and left Splinter to his solitary meditation- with orders to double the guard, and to make sure that no harm came to him- "For he is MINE to destroy!"

Splinter, once the echo of her high heels faded to nothingness, allowed himself a slight chuckle.

Yes- not easy, but definitely possible.

Leo refrained from hitting Mikey again. It wasn't easy, but he managed to keep from doing it.

As they returned to the garage, both were silent and grim. But Leo had this unaccustomed "anger" towards his younger brother, and it was threatening to burst out again.

When he had found him, he had listened to Mike's frantic insistence that they had to save Victor from Hun and his Purple Dragons, and no amount of talk could convince him that "Victor is DEAD!"

Then the frantic call from Don had alerted them to the fact that Splinter was now in the hands of Karai, and Leo had had to use a LOT of self-discipline to keep himself from tearing over to that memorial library and launching a one-turtle war!

But he had managed to contain himself even as he ordered his brothers at home to prepare, all the while loading Raph's bike into the back of the Battle Shell.

Then Mike had suggested that perhaps Victor could be saved at the same time as Splinter-

POW!

Mike had not been prepared, and he hit the wall, stunned and bleeding from the mouth.

Leo, also stunned, immediately helped him up and checked the damage- just a split lip, nothing broken, thank goodness- and yet he still had such anger!

"I'm the kind of son that follows Sensei's rule about NOT drawing blood on brothers!" he sharply replied, knocking Leo's supporting hand away from his arm with surprising power, and those had been the last words spoken by either turtle as they made their way through the growing storm back home.

Raph and Don, gathered around Don's huge bank of computer screens with Professor Honeycutt and Leatherhead, could see there was trouble. But they didn't have time for brotherly drama.

"The bug is still in place," Don said as the two joined them. "The conversations have been mostly about Karai's uncertain temper. But I suspect that a few of the higher-up fellows suspect the plant."

"They haven't found it?" Leo asked.

"Not yet. I'm certain they suspect it, though. Only the lowly Foot use that bathroom- until a half-hour ago, that is," Don smiled. "The one called Tanaka was in there with that little Stockman wannabe. The conversation was scripted."

And Don nearly smiled at the memory of hearing Chaplin speaking as if he were reading something- and the sound of a page turning had only confirmed his suspicions.

"And I'm certain that he's trying to locate the bug, but so far he's not been able to find it with his own toys. And if he manages to actually stumble across it, he's gonna get quite a surprise."

"Look, let's just get over there and kick some ass and bring back Splinter!" Raph finally said. He was geared up and ready to go- he'd been geared up and ready to go since Don had received the call.

"You mean just walk right up there and turn ourselves over to her?" Don countered. Over the initial panic of this turn of events, he calmly went over in his mind a list of things that would come in handy. Of course they would go rescue Splinter, but not with a full-out assault.

"I mean, let's get MOVIN'!" Raph snapped. "We've wasted enough time! If we coulda left as soon as the Professor here had called, she wouldn't be prepared! Why give her more time to get ready?"

"Raph, she's been ready since our return from the Utrom home world," Leo said flatly. All that "cooperation" they'd experienced so long ago- all that backing her up in retaining control of the Foot- well, he'd never claimed to be as wise as Sensei.

"Then how are we gonna handle this?" Raph said. "We gotta rescue him!"

"If I know Sensei, he's already forming his own plan of escape," Don put in. "It's going to look bad if we go in there, get caught, and he has to rescue us."

"It's going to look worse when Leo challenges Karai," Mike finally put in. The coldness of his tone wasn't lost on Raph and Don. But the turtle in question kept his temper.

"She's expecting us to attack," Leo needlessly pointed out. "We have to strike fast, hard, and with a single-minded goal. Get in, get out. It's not about Karai."

"What of Dr. Baker?" Leatherhead finally asked. "Are we going to try to retrieve him as well?"

"I'm betting that by now he's in the hands of his old organization," Don said grimly.

"We have no time to worry about him- or anyone else," Leo sharply added, as if he thought that Mike would bring up his obsessive belief that Victor was alive and a prisoner of the Purple Dragons. "We get Sensei without waging a war, and then we worry about the rest."

"It is obvious that she will have Master Splinter imprisoned below ground," Honeycut said, pointing to one of the large screens where he had pulled up the blueprints for the library that he had located via the internet. "These rooms are supposed to be for reclamation and storage, but considering the building materials that are listed as part of the project, I can guarantee they are rather sturdy cells instead."

"There are a few places that she would naturally expect us to enter through," Don added, indicating several sections of sewer that had openings within easy reach of the building in question. "She will have reinforced the underground parking garage as well, if she remembers how we took Shredder's old place. I would suggest we enter here."

And he pointed.

"Her private suite?"

Leo had not realized he'd spoken. Why he felt such heat in his face he had no idea.

"She has a private elevator that runs directly to the rooms below ground," Don pointed out. "It also, however, stops on the training level, though I doubt anyone there has access to her apartments. I suspect that it's key-operated. At any rate, it'd be the best place to enter from. She won't expect that."

"Until that elevator starts movin'," Raph said. "And then her and the entire Foot Clan will fill the underground section in no time."

"She's expecting an attack from the lower levels," Leo said almost with certainty. "We give her what she expects. Don, you and Raph-"

"And me!" Honeycutt eagerly and forcefully insisted. Leo would have argued, but there was no time.

"And Honeycutt," he grudgingly agreed, "- will enter through her apartments. Straight to the basement, don't waste time. Nothing fancy, Raph, just plain and simple. Mike and I- and Leatherhead," he added as the giant Crocodile prepared to volunteer, "will create enough of an attack from three different directions to draw them away from the vicinity."

"And Karai? Do you think she'll be with them?" Don asked. Or rather, do you hope she'll be with them?

Leo didn't respond, except to say, "let's get moving."

Grant stood in Karai's office, gazing with impassive interest at the dejected figure of Baker. The two guards were hardly needed, it seemed. But Grant was not going to give this man the chance to escape. Her own agents were present, ready to take the scientist back to HQ.

"I do not know how to thank you," Grant said to the woman seated behind the desk.

"Do not worry," came the reply. "I will be making a few suggestions on the subject at the appropriate times."

The word "times" was not lost on Grant. It appeared that the leader of the Foot envisioned a LONG list of "thank-yous".

Grant would deal with that later. Right now, she was just that much closer to bringing Bishop back from the dead.

More or less.

"It's not going to work, you know," the figure slumped helplessly said softly. "Too much degeneration. You can't regenerate the brain. Even if you can, it has lost any sense of self."

He raised his head and locked eyes with Grant.

"No conscious thought remains. It will not be Bishop."

Grant seemed unusually unconcerned.

"I will worry about that detail, Dr. Baker. You will just concern yourself with the basics."

Karai watched, hardly interested. It seemed rather profane to her, to try to resurrect the dead. But then, she had her own obsessions; far be it from her to concern herself with the unnatural obsessions of others.

"It won't work!" Baker shouted at the top of his voice! "You don't have a chance in HELL of reviving John Bishop!"

"Maybe this will help," a new voice interrupted.

It did not surprise Karai that Hun was able to enter unannounced. But she made mental note to have a brief word with Tanaka afterwards.

"Congrats on the score, imouto," Hun smirked as he seated himself with a familiarity that irritated the Foot leader more than his calling her "little sister". "I gather you got everything you wanted, eh Agent Grant?"

"It won't work, it won't work, it won't work," the prisoner repeated under his breath, like a mantra. Perhaps if he said it enough, this nightmare would finally break, he would awaken in his own bed, safe and sound.

"I must thank you as well," Grant said, "for introducing me to your associate here. She has managed to deliver what you could not."

Hun didn't let the dig at his failure bother him in the least.

"True. My organization spent countless months searching, but we weren't able to catch him for you," he admitted, still wearing the slight smirk of one who had a secret. "But I think that my boys and I have found something else that might be of great use to you in your- project."

And at that moment, four of his toughest fighters, surrounded by eight of Karai's ninja, carried in a heavy object on a stretcher.

At least, it appeared to be a stretcher, except for the bodyshaped cage surrounding the massive figure hidden under the sheet. Hun got up and pulled the cover from the unconscious figure. Grant stared at the face, at first puzzled- and then a growing recognition began to show itself in her eyes.

Karai rose from her desk, curious, while Baker wondered what other poor soul had been tracked down by this cold-blooded woman.

And then he got a look at the face.

"The Prototype!"

Grant, some doubt still lingering within her, sighed with satisfaction at the pronouncement of Dr. Baker. It WAS the Prototype!

"How did you find it? Where?" Grant became animated, almost joyful. "How is this possible? The Prototype was destroyed by Bishop. I have the video log that showed him activating the fail-safe! Yet it's alive! Its brain has regenerated!"

The whys and wherefores were quickly replaced by the plans that suddenly came to her.

With the Prototype, regenerating Bishop would be that much easier! Coupled with her own secret surprise, a secret that she had kept from everyone, including the doubting Dr. Baxter Stockman...

She sharply turned to Baker with such a look of determination and naked ambition that he shrank back in fear.

"We have work to do, Doctor," she said, and without further comment she led the way from Karai's office to her waiting car.