"Few minutes out," I announced, bringing Raphael back to the present. Instantly, he was leaning forward from the backseat and staring anxiously through the front windshield at our approaching target.

"What's the game plan?" I asked.

"What's the layout?"

I did a double take. "What?"

"The layout," Raph repeated stiffly.

I scoffed. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Because you're the driver," he said as if that was justification enough.

"Okay, we're not doing this right now," I declared. "We need to focus. The Shredder is allied with that Sacks guy, right?"

He nodded. "Eric Sacks."

"And he's super rich and I think he owns some sort of mansion or estate around here. It would make the most sense that they go there so I'd assume the 'layout' is something like a huge ass house with a courtyard, maybe a big ass garage, I dunno. But it'll be big, probably with a gate and a bunch of Foot soldiers everywhere," I glanced at him. "That good enough?"

He sighed through his nose. "No, but I'll work with it."

"Okay, and just so we can save ourselves some time, don't try to stop me from following you when we get there, because I'm going in no matter what."

Raph said nothing in reply, just radiated tense waves of anxiety. We came around a bend and there was a huge, stone mansion surrounded by full, green trees and a stone fence and electric gate. Two helicopters sat in the centre of the massive front yard, one looked like a two-passenger and the other significantly larger. Immediately, an idea came to mind.

"Ram the gate," Raphael ordered gruffly.

"Not with this little car," I retorted, searching for an alternate entrance.

He exploded. "Why not!?"

I clenched my hand around the wheel and exploded back. "Because that gate is fuckin solid, dumbass! We'll total this car and not even make it through the damn thing. We need a different entrance."

"Well do you see one!?" He demanded. I slammed my foot on the gas pedal, causing the car to lurch forward and throw Raphael backwards a little.

"Yes!" I snapped. "There's another road wrapping around the other side through the trees. So shut up."

"It better not be a dead end," he grumbled. I gritted my teeth and veered away from the Sacks estate front gate. I adjusted my grip on the wheel while slowing my speed to turn left onto a winding road that would hopefully lead to a back entrance of sorts. After rounding the second curve in the road, a wooden gate came into view.

"Ram it," Raph said, but I'd already came to that decision myself and had floored the gas pedal.

"Yeah, I know," I mumbled, my heart rate picking up as we neared the gate.

Please don't die, please don't die—

Despite bracing myself and wearing a seatbelt, I still lurched forward when we made contact with the gate and tore through the wood slats. Immediately, I heard gunfire and instinctively ducked. Bullets pattered against the car and shattered the windshield.

"Ten o'clock!" Raph shouted. Blindly, heart racing, I wrenched the wheel around to what I estimated was ten o'clock. The moment I heard something crash against the bumper and roll across the hood, I slammed on the brakes. Blood thundered through my ears and I lifted my head hesitantly to look through the windshield that was no longer present, but there was no more gunfire to cower from.

"Did I hit them?" I breathed.

"Sure did." Raphael threw open the back door and jumped out, looking around wildly. Right, I climbed out of the car as well, trying to catch my bearings. Keep it together Raiya. You got this.

"I can get us a different ride," I said, realizing that even if uncle Tom's car wasn't damaged, all four brothers would never fit inside. I looked at Raphael. "If you aren't out by then I'll come find you."

He nodded, jaw clenched. "We will be. Just don't get yourself killed."

"You too," I said, locking my gaze with his. Raph exhaled and watched me with sad, green eyes before spinning and rushing off. I watched him crash through a wooden door and disappear into the building before I turned and scanned the courtyard for a quick route to the front yard. I drew a kunai from my belt and ran inside a hall that extended from the side of the mansion. Keeping low, I crept inside and peered around a shelf of labelled boxes and miscellaneous items.

It looked like a deserted storage area, and a door sat on the other side of the hall a few feet away. I rushed over, the kunai still gripped firmly in my left hand. I kicked the door open and it instantly hit something that yelled and cursed in surprise, then swung back toward me. I kicked the door open again to hit the guy and rushed outside, sinking my kunai into the shoulder of a Footclan soldier, then slammed the door into him for a third time and rammed my fist into his nose. He was still standing unsteadily on his feet, so I spun on my left foot and lifted my other to kick him in the face. He dropped to the concrete pathway and I leaned down to take my kunai from his shoulder before rushing past his body to the front yard.

Damn, that was pretty smooth, I thought appreciatively to myself. I stopped when I reached the front, surveying the empty grounds. Flourishing green trees lined the wall and two identical flower beds sat on either side of the yard. A concrete strip led from the front gate up to the front door and had two helicopters sitting in the middle of it.

If the guys don't catch him Sacks and Shredder are probably gonna try to escape in one of these. I have to get that big one before it's too late. Glancing around the yard once more, I found that a trio of armed Foot soldiers was rushing out the front door, and with them was a man carrying a large, metal case. He looked familiar, and I assumed he was Eric Sacks. But Shredder in his beastly samurai armour was nowhere to be seen.

The soldiers formed a tight group around Sacks as they made their way toward the helicopters. Worried that they might take the one that would fit the brothers, I bolted into the open and whipped a kunai at one of the soldiers' thighs as I ran. He dropped to the ground and the others whirled around with guns lifted. Guns, not tranquillizers.

Shit. I managed to throw another kunai that embedded itself in the muzzle of one gun before Sacks yelled at them to "leave her!" And they spun and hurried into the closest helicopter, which, luckily, happened to be the two-passenger one. I reached the other helicopter and tried the cockpit door, but it was locked.

"Shit," I muttered, racking my brain for the best solution. The other copter's propellors quickly picked up their rotation pace and were soon lifting off the ground. Hair whipped wildly about my face as I grabbed a kunai from my belt and slammed it into the keyhole of the copter door, and I wished more than ever that I had a hair tie with me. The helicopter lifted quickly into the air now, and I scrambled into the cockpit to escape the intense winds from the propellors.

You're going too goddamn slow, Raiya, I scolded myself as I slammed the door closed and began firing up the helicopter, thanking whoever granted me the luck that this aircraft happened to be turbine powered and thus didn't require a key to start. They're probably waiting on you, hurry it up. I tried to slow my breathing as I realized this was the first time I'd ever solo piloted and that it was totally illegal. With the propellors finally at a high enough rotational speed, I began lifting it into the air as fast as I could, having no concern for safety regulations or checks or anything except the brothers might need me and I wasn't there. With a pounding pulse, I flew over the mansion to the backyard where we'd crashed through the gate and I'd left Raph but there was nobody there.

I hovered and I waited but nobody was coming out of the building.

Nobody is coming, why is nobody coming!? Where the hell are they!?

And I hovered and I waited but nobody came.

So I quickly and unsteadily landed the helicopter and I rushed inside in search of my friends.

AN: I know nothing about helicopters or flying in general (I haven't even been on an airplane before) so pls correct me if anything here is wrong lol I tried looking up what kind of helicopters need keys for the ignition or whatever and the best I could find was a Q&A on some website lmao

I'm trying my best to give Raiya her own important role in all of this so she isn't just tagging along with the brothers and being an April-replacement 😬

ANYWAYS thank you everyone for 4k reads!! We're so close to 500 votes so pls make sure you vote! 😁