Chapter Text
It had been 6 months, 3 weeks, and 7 days since the disappearance of TCRI. Not like anyone was counting anyways, besides the 4 mutant hero's of New York city — of course — and their two human friends, Vivian and April. Vivian hated TCRI, it left a bad taste on her tongue.
A REALLY really bad taste. And today was the 5 year mark of Xavier Rockwell's disappearance. Her father. He worked at TCRI as a head scientist, busy all day long — she wondered how exhausting it probably was — but he always made time to hug his little girl before he was off to work. One day he hugged her tight, ruffling her curls with his signature warm smile and then he was off to the lab.
He never returned.
Despite her desperate attempt to find him, putting missing posters on every inch of New York, asking everyone who knew him, and—
Riiiiingg
The bell interrupted her train of thought, snapping her out of the rabbit hole she was starting to get lost in. Students hurriedly rushed out, usually Vivian would too. Ms. Reid was a devil in disguise. Next to her, Mikey nudged her, giving her a little grin.
"If you can sit through my improv shows — which are boring to Raph, apparently. Surely history isn't THAT boring, Viv. C'mon lunch is starting, I don't wanna be stuck in the lunch line." Mikey teased.
He teased, picking up his notebook and heading over to turn in his paper. Vivian blinked a few times, looking down at the half-finished notes she was jotting down at the start of class.
Crud, the paper.
She quickly found her bearings. "Mike..don't listen to Raph, as much as the truth hurts, they're..tolerable."
Vivian joked with a smile, quickly writing down her name and placing in the turn-in basket, following Mikey down the crowded halls to the cafeteria.
Vivian wasn't one to get distracted in class —let alone space out — but she couldn't shake the slight memory of her dad, and the way her throat got dry thinking about TCRI. Maybe lunch would cheer her up? Her stomach growled at the thought of food. Hopefully it would.
Vivian scanned the tables, finally spotting April sitting down with Raph. She already felt a little better seeing their faces.
"Hey guys! Where's Donnie?
Vivian asked, taking a seat next to April. April was her bestest friend, hell, her ride or die. They met when Vivian moved from California to New York, settling in the janky apartment next to hers. Since then, they've done everything together. It was always them against the world, like when the puke girl stuff surrounded the school halls or when they stayed up late to edit the April Tonight stuff.
"He texted me somethin' about coding club..? He hasn't talked to us ONCE today."
April sighed, taking a bite of the cheap high-school cafeteria food. Vivian looked down at her own tray, grimacing at the stale bun and dry patty. Begrudgingly she shrugged her shoulder and took a bite, at least she wouldn't be starving later.
"Yeah— Donnie went total nerd on us to go work on computers. He seriously needs to pick up a sport, I get second-hand embarrassment sometimes.."
Raph snickered, biting into the sandwich his dad packed. Lucky. Well, guess she wouldn't be doing homework with Donnie today. She could really use his ridiculously smart brain for the history notes she would have to catch up on later.
"Whatever, I'll try and chase him down later. Oh— any of you pay attention in Ms. Reed's class? I missed some notes, I almost fell asleep..I just hope she didn't notice."
Vivian grinned nervously, fixing the dark curls framing her face, brushing the behind her ears. Raph shrugged, setting his sandwich down with a sigh.
"That lady is a beast, I swear, if you look at her wrong? Detention. I'm surprised she didn't crash out on you for almost falling asleep."
Him and April laughed, the laughter contagious. A minute or so passed when Leo and Mikey joined them, finding their usual spots around the table. Their conversations sprouted into different topics — grades, and dreading upcoming fitness tests — hell, even Raph. Who the hell likes doing the pacer test?
April's eyes lit up for a moment in the middle of a conversation about the embarrassing time when Leo missed a hurdel during track and ended up with a giant bruise on the side of his face. His face burned as he grumbled about how it wasn't funny and he just had an off day.
"Hey guys, I was looking on some reddit forms yesterday and someone was asking if anyone else saw some shady figures around the old TCRI lab? They thought it was you guys but the shadows didn't really like like turtles.."
April hummed, lazily gesturing to the 3 turtles, whom all looked at eachother with confusion.
"Uh, no? None of us ever went back to the lab, the last time was there when we got..uh, milked."
Leo answered, rubbing the back of his neck with a nervous glance at his brothers. Mikey turned his attention back to April, leaning his elbows on the table like he was interrogating her.
"Figures? What, like skin walkers? Like the videos on tiktok with that one really creepy audio??"
He asked, dramatically shuddering. Raph rolled his eyes, shoving Mikey to the side.
"Why were they near TCRI in the first place?—"
Leo tried to speak up, fidgeting with his soggy fry. Raph quickly blurted out before Leo could start rambling about a possible secret mission.
"—Isn't it all boarded up or something? I haven't seen any people drive by it, surprisingly."
Raph asked, taking another bite, a little more aggressive then the last. Vivian almsot choked on the painfully dry burger, figures near TCRI? She felt a little irked at the fact that April didn't tell her. Oh well, maybe she was just waiting to tell all of them.
"Well, It was linked to some..urbex exploring account? The guy probably was just trying to find an opportunity to explore the building, it's been silent for..jeez..six months now? The guy said he got spooked at the figures and dipped."
April added, pulling out her phone to go find the reddit post. Mikey crossed his arms, shaking his head.
"Not it! Not goin' no way I am, are you guys seriously forgetting we got milked!? I haven't been able to look at milk the same since."
He shrieked, turning his head in feigned disgust. Raph half-nodded, half-shrugged.
"For once I'm siding with him. Mikeys' right, besides, we already confirmed TCRI is done, right?" Raph asked.
Raph gave Vivian and April a look, his brow raised. Leo looked a little lost in thought, forgetting about the fry he was messing with earlier.
"Every leads you guys gave us were dead ends, every single one. Guys, we've been looking for ages. Just accept it — we beat those idiot's butts and saved the world." He added.
Raph smirked, putting his hands behind his head like some highschool jock, which, he kinda was. Vivian rolled her eyes, looking off to the clock. Lunch was almost over, she swore they just all sat down. Whatever.
"Well— maybe we're just missing something? Raph, they were a multi-million dollar company, you guys didn't even have a head on fight with them! They just..uh, vanished." Vivian said, chewing the dry burger.
Vivian messed with her sleeve, watching Raph's smirk form into an annoyed frown, crossing his arms. Leo looked back up — he had that determined honcho batman expression — Vivian could practically sense his brothers groan internally.
"We should go check it out, just in case. I mean Vivian's has a good point— we never saw them after the..well thing. So they could've just..ran away?.." Leo spoke. Vivian knew it was a confident facade.
His nervousness was evident as he itched the freckle on his muzzle. Vivian nodded, nudging Leo in the side with a small smile. He quickly smiled back before his attention settled back to the soggy fry. Raph scoffed, Mikey copied his annoyed gesture.
"Y'know what? By all means, Mr leader. Go ahead but I'm not goin' Don't go complaining if you guys don't find anything or get murked by those 'sightings'..cause m' not buying it." Raph persisted.
He put quotations around sightings, before going back to wolfing down his food. For a little while the table stayed silent until Mikey awkwardly cracked a joke and everyone started dogging on him. What a dork.
Leo fiddled with the combonation lock, finally popping open his locker after a few trial and errors. He stuffed away his notebooks and grabbed his phone. He always kept his phone in his locker..for some reason. He claimed he just wanted to follow the rules. Even though almost everyone always had their phones out during class despite the school's no phone policy.
"Hey Leo!"
A voice rung out, startling him as he closed hislocker to see Vivian leaning against a nearby one.
"Oh, hey Viv. You still coming over for game night?"
Leo asked, slinging the backpack — which was definitely not made for mutant turtles — awkwardly over his shoulder.
"Actually, I was thinking about lunch. Me and April were talking during PE, she showed me the reddit post and I think we should go explore the lab." Vivian said, biting the inside if her cheek.
Leo looked a little lost for words for a moment, he quickly recovered and rubbed the side of his neck.
"Are you sure—? I mean, none of my brothers wanna come..what if something happens? Also, y'know that place definitely isn't safe, Viv, it should be that goes." He spoke, and as always, putting his friends safety first.
Leo proded Vivian's shoulder with his finger, shaking his head — of course. Vivian frowned, smacking away his finger playfully.
"Leo, I literally helped you guys during the superfly thing, I think I could take on the TCRI building. Well, uh, unless it's a Casper situation, then I'm dipping."
Vivian mockingly proded her finger at his — ridiculous — white and blue stripped polo. He uneasily tugged at his backpack straps, muttering a small 'fair point' under his breath.
"Okay, well..is April coming?"
He asked. Vivian shook her head, sighing.
"No, I tried convincing her but she kept talking about how she had to finish an essay or something. Side note..seriously man you gotta find some better fashion, maybe ask Mikey for help."
She snickered, watching his face get a little red with embarrassment before he begrudgingly followed her to the crowded exit of the school.
"Fine. What do we need to break in?" Leo asked, begrudgingly sighing.
Vivian smirked as she got him to agree, giving herself a pat in the back internally. "Dunno, you're literally the ninja in this situation, shouldn't you be the one who knows about this kinda stuff?" She asks, laughing while Leo's shoulders slumped in embarrassment.
Vivian rummaged around the sewer, eventually finding a flashlight and a few batteries.
"Hey Leo, where didja put the backpack?"
She yelled across the room, watching Leo's head pop out from his room holding a few snacks bars.
"It's uh, on the table! I left some water bottles next to it."
Vivian hummed, stuffing everything into the backpack, snacking on some crackers Splinter gave her. Donnie and Mikey lounged on the couch nearby, bantering as they played fortnite. Donnie cranes his head over the couch for a second, raising a brow as he pushed his glasses a little higher on his snout.
"Raph caught me up on what you guys were talking about earlier. You guys are serious about going to the lab? I mean I WOULD come, but I'm not really feeling it after my last adventure with an abandoned lab."
He replied sheepishly, turning back to the TV. Leo shushed him, hoping his dad wouldn't hear. Vivian shrugged lightly, making a mental note of all the stuff they had packed in the bag so far.
Flashlight and batteries? Check.
Food and water? Check.
Crowbar from her uncles workshop? Check.
That should be enough, right?
Vivian zipped up her coat and wrapped the turquoise scarf tight around her neck. Leo fixed his collard shirt, tightening the mask around his face.
8:09 blinked on the clock on Leo's bedside.
"We should go, Splinter might get worried if we come back late.."
Leo sighed, putting on his sneakers while Vivian checked to see if her phone was fully charged yet.
"Right, yeah. My car is parked in the alleyway next to the bodega. You made sure we had everything right, Leo?" Vivian asked.
He nodded, standing up and grabbing the backpack laying on his bed.
"yup, checked it twice, got your phone?"
He gestured over to the crumbled paper where he jotted down their supplies, adding little check to them.
Vivian nodded back, smiling with the little dimple on the left side of her face.
"mhm, it's charged. April wanted me to record if I found something useful."
The two walked past the living room, sharing goodbyes with the rest of Leo's brothers.
"Don't get murked or something." Raph said blankly.
He focusing on his phone as he lazily ate chips. Leo rolled his eyes, huffing. Donnie ended saying something about their dad but Vivian wasn't paying attention until Leo ran into his dad, crud, speaking of Splinter.
"I hope the fair is fun you two! Make sure you apply sunscreen every hour. Oh! Hydrate too, very important."
Splinter said sweetly, patting his son's shoulder. Right, they told Splinter they were going to the fair — he would've freaked if they told him the truth — Leo mumbled something about it was dark out and they wouldn't need it, earning a pinch on the cheek from his rat dad.
'Uh, yeah! Thanks Mr. Splinter. Don't worry, we'll apply sunscreen." Vivian barged into the conversation.
She grinned nervously, hastily tugging Leo along with a quick goodbye. Once outside, crossing the street Vivian fished out her keys from her pocket and the two got in her car. It was a small white Toyota that used to be her mom's before she gave it to Vivian. The engine rolled to life, faintly humming.
"Ready?"
Vivian asked, turning to Leo before she backed out of the alleyway. Leo swallowed, nodding with a nervous grin.
"Ready, let's just hope it isn't something bad."
Vivian rolled her eyes, nudging him with her elbow. What a party pooper, what was he so worried about? Actually, Vivian coukd feel a sudden lump at her stomach thinking about it a little too hard..but she internally shook the dread away, replacing it with a little facade to keep Leo a little less paranoid.
"Relax, Leo, we're just gonna check out the area. If we find something you're brothers arw a phone call away." Vivian reassured him, holding her phone to further prove her point.
"sorry, sorry…let's do this." Leo corrected himself, sounding a little more confident.
Vivian gave him a proud nod, pulling into reverse making sure she didn't knock over the garbage can before taking them down the little short cut in 43rd Ave.
It's just a quick little patrol, right?