Welcome to the Lair...

April was about three minutes away from entering the lair and the turtles didn't know how to explain to one of their closest friends that they just happened to come across four witches in central park.

                                "Girls you gotta hi-…" Leo said as he turned around but then saw that the girls were nowhere to be seen, "Well they disappear faster than pizza in front of Mikey."

            Just then April walked in, "Hey guys, did you hear about what's happening in central park? It's all over the news."

            She goes to the living room and grabs the remote, pausing for a moment to look at the pot with the red spice concoction in it.

                                "Were you guys trying to cook or something?" April asked, gesturing at the pot.

                                "Umm, it's one of Donnie's experiments." Leo said a bit nervously.

            April shrugged her shoulders and then clicked the TV on to the news. A bird's eye view of central park, partially engulfed in flames, popped up on the screen.

            Firefighters were scrambling to put out the flames as the news broadcaster then said, "This mysterious fire just happened to appear out of nowhere as some witnesses say. We now go to Mei Ling in the field who is talking to Detective Cross right now about the investigation."

                                "I'm here with New York's finest detective Ms. Scarlet Cross." The camera switched from the pale Chinese reporter to a lady with long fiery red hair, cerulean blue eyes, light skin tone, and wore a black biker jacket, blue jeans, and a white tank top, "Detective Cross, what are your thoughts on this fire?"

            The lady known as Detective Cross slowly turned towards the reporter and eyed her up and down then said, "I can tell you right now that this fire isn't natural."

            Just then the TV turned off, "What happened?" asked a very confused April.

            She reached for the remote only to find that it wasn't there anymore.

                                "Hey where did the remote go?" asked April.

            Donnie's eyes widened as he saw the remote floating away behind April, so he rushed over to her and tried to distract her.

                                "You know April, too much TV is not good for you." He said as he tried to lead her away from the floating remote.

            April broke away from Donnie and said, "Donnie, central park is on fire and no one knows how it started, for all we know some sort of new monster is out there and we have to- OWww…"

            April held the back of her head to find out that the remote to the TV had just hit her. She turned around to see Vicky standing there looking angry as heck.

                                "YOU THINK I'M A MONSTER!!" Vicky shouted furiously. 

                                "Who the heck are you?" April asked, "How did you get in here?"

                                "Umm, you see about that…" Donnie started to say nervously.

                                "It's a funny story." Leo said, finishing his brother's sentence.

            Raph rolled his eyes and let out a heavy sigh then walked over to April and said, "April, this is Vicky, Vicky this is April."

                                "Pleasure to meet you." April said as she held out her hand for Vicky to shake.

            Vicky eyed her up and down then smirked and grabbed April's outstretched hand with a firm grip, shook it politely and said, "The feeling is mutual."

            When April tried to finish the handshake, Vicky's grip tightened and then it felt like April was holding on to hot metal. She looked down at her hand and Vicky's hand was starting to glow like red hot iron. April started to slowly fall to the floor with her hand still in Vicky's grip.

                                "THAT IS ENOUGH VICTORIA!!"

            Vicky quickly released April's hand and backed off. She looked in the direction where she heard the voice that shouted her name and saw a giant rat in a kimono staring straight at her.

                                "H-how do you know my name?" Vicky asked, her voice trembling a bit.

            They were locked in what seemed like a staring contest until April asked while holding her burnt hand, "What the hell are you?"

            Vicky turned around and gave April an angry look, "Do you really wanna know?"

            She slowly started to walk towards April as she summoned a fireball in her hand. Just then the temperature in the lair dropped dramatically and a blast of ice cold air froze the fireball making it fall to the ground, shattering into pieces.

                                "Stop it Vicky!" Liz said in a firm voice with a hand outstretched.

                            "Who put you in charge, Liz?" Vicky asked, literally steaming with rage.

                                "You know exactly who did." Liz said through gritted teeth.

            Donnie leaned over and whispered to Raph, "Where have we heard this before?"

         Vicky muttered under her breath and stormed off to a nearby wall, leaned up against it and crossed her arms. Liz walked over to April and she scooted back with fear in her eyes.

                "It's ok I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to look at your hand." Liz said in a calming voice.

April showed her the burnt hand nervously and Liz examined it touching it gingerly.

                "Hmm, looks like you have second degree burns." Liz said thoughtfully, then turned towards Vicky and said, "You just had to burn her didn't you."

                "It's her fault for calling us monsters." Vicky said casually, "Besides, you heard her say that she wanted to hunt us down didn't you?"

April looked at Vicky with wide eyes, "So it was you who started the fire."

                "Hey that was an accident!" Vicky exclaimed a bit flustered.

                "Now is not the place or the time to discuss this Vicky." Liz said with a demeanor that means she has dealt with this kinda situation before and Vicky let out a huff and crossed her arms again and looked away, "Gwen, come here please."

Just then, Gwen materialized besides Donnie which startled him a bit.

                "Wha-… Wher-… H-how did you just do that?" Donnie stuttered.

                "It's a simple cloaking spell that all witches learn as fledglings." Gwen said with a small smile, "It's to protect us from witch hunters."

                "Gwen, her hand is blistering badly so if you can save the flirting for later?" Liz quipped with a raised eyebrow.

Gwen blushed at Liz's jab, but gave an apologetic smile to Donnie then hurried over to Liz and April. She carefully turned April's hand over and looked at her palm. The skin was starting to blister and she appeared to be in severe pain.

            Gwen held her hand lightly over April's palm then started to chant, "Exaudi orationem meam, terra et levare dolorem curare filiam tuam."

             A green light started to glow from Gwen's hand as she was chanting. The skin on April's hand started to heal quickly and in a few minutes it was as if it had never happened. April looked at her hand in awe.

                "That should do it. Oh and a word of advice, I'd keep my distance from her if I were you." She said nodding in Vicky's direction, "Don't get me wrong, she's a nice girl and all but she's a bit wary of newcomers and has a bit of a temper."

                "Can I come out now?"

                "Who said that?" asked April as she looked around for the owner of the voice.

Liz and Gwen let out a heavy sigh, while Vicky groaned and said, "Go ahead Ana come on out."

A gust of wind blew around the lair and then out of nowhere there was a loud thud followed by Mikey yelping, "Owww… what the-…?"

Everyone turned around to see Mikey lying flat on his stomach with a very happy Ana sitting on his back.

                "Whoopsie… missed my mark." She said laughing nervously while rubbing the back of her head, "My bad… I mean sorry… oopsie?"

Liz shook her head then said, "It's alright Ana, now can you please get off the poor turtle."

                "MIKEY! THE NAME IS MIKEY!" He shouted as Ana got off his back, "I'm not just some nameless nobody."

Ana helped Mikey up off the floor and said, "I apologize for my sister's rudeness. They don't know you like I do."

                "So, how is it that you know so much about us?" Leo asked suspiciously.

                "Umm… well… you see in our world…" she started to say but was stopped by Vicky clamping her hand over her mouth.

                "Don't listen to her, she is just a bit confused from falling on your brother." Vicky said.

Leo stepped forward and said, "If you want us to help you we need to know how you knew about us."

Liz stood up and faced Leo, "Let's just say that you're very popular in our world."

Just then April's phone started to ring. She quickly took her phone out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID. It was Casey, she had to answer it otherwise he would get worried.

                "I'm sorry guys, I gotta go now." April said as she rushed to get out of the lair while she called out over her shoulder, "Thanks for healing my hand."

As the turtles watched April leave the lair, Leo let out a sigh of relief.

[At least with April gone now, things will be somewhat easier to sort out.] Leo thought to himself.

                                "Hey Rat!" Vicky shouted as she made her way towards Master Splinter, "I want an explanation as to how you knew my name."

            Splinter just smiled gently and said, "Your name was brought to me on the breath of the winds."

                                "Don't give me that fortune cookie mumbo jumbo." She said, getting a bit annoyed now, "Tell me the truth."

                                "Umm, Vicky?" Liz said as she put a hand on Vicky's shoulder, "I think he already told you how he knew your name and you're just not listening… as per usual."

                                "What the Frell are you talking about? I listened and he gave me no useful information on how he knew my name." Vicky said half confused and half pissed.

            Liz let out a heavy sigh then said, "Gwen, can you break it down enough for Vicky to understand?"

            Gwen nodded then said, "Like any good problem, in order to solve it we must first break it down. The first part being 'Your name was brought to me,' must mean that someone had to have told him your name but who and how? The how part is explained when he says 'on the breath'. That meant that someone had to have whispered your name to him, but the key to this someone's identity is in the last three words."

            Everyone then turned and looked at Ana who was now hiding behind the couch.

                                "Why is everyone looking at me?" Ana said nervously.

                                "Why are you hiding behind the couch?" Vicky asked.

                                "For precautionary measures." said Ana as she sunk further behind the couch.

            That's when things got interesting. Vicky summoned a fireball and was about to throw it at Ana when she just suddenly jumped up from behind the couch and threw a blast of wind at Vicky as a counter attack. Unfortunately for her, Vicky saw the attack coming, dismissed the fireball in her hand, and dodged the attack. Double bad luck for Liz is that when Vicky dodged the blast of air, she didn't have to dodge much because since Ana isn't very good at controlling her powers yet, she missed Vicky by three feet and instead hit Liz… who then flew and hit Leo… and then crashed into the weapons rack behind them.

                                "THAT IS ENOUGH!" shouted Master splinter with a commanding tone. "You four are sisters, yet you act as if you are sworn enemies."

            The four girls looked at each other then looked down in shame. Even Liz, who was being helped up off the ground after being blasted with Ana's wind, felt that how they behaved was wrong.

                                "Hey you alright?" Leo asked.

            Liz smiled lightly and said, "I should be asking you that question. After all it was the reckless behavior of my sisters that got you into this mess."

                                "Although it was you who took action when Vicky had a fireball aimed at April, and also helped her when her hand was injured." Leo said, trying to lift her spirits.

                Liz smiled softly at Leo, looked at his icy blue eyes and thought, [Those eyes… they seem so familiar. Where have I seen them before?]

                                "Hey, you there?" Leo asked, snapping his fingers which snapped Liz back to reality.

                                "Oh uh, yeah I was just thinking that's all." She said blushing slightly then started to walk towards Master Splinter, "Sir, no words can express how awful I feel for how disrespectful me and my sisters have been towards you and your home. I would ask for forgiveness but I fear that my sister… no, I don't deserve your forgiveness for I couldn't keep the situation under control like a good big sister should."

            At this point in Liz's plea to Splinter, her head hung low and tears were streaming down her cheek. Then something happened that even the turtles didn't see coming. Master Splinter walked up to Liz and wrapped her in a gentle yet secure, father-like hug.

                                "It is alright my child." He said softly then held her at arm's length, "For now, you and your sisters will stay here with us. That is, until we can help you find a way home."

                                "T-thank you Sir." Liz managed to say as she tried to wipe away the tears from her eyes.

            Splinter chuckled slightly as he said, "My dear, call me Splinter."

            Leo stepped forward and said, "Sensei, if it's alright with you, we would like to give our rooms to the girls to sleep in and we can bunk in the dojo for the time being."

                                "A very noble gesture Leonardo." Splinter said, "Very well, take the girls to their new rooms. It has been an exciting day for us all and I think we all deserve some rest."

                                "Yes Sensei." Leo said as he gave a quick bow then turned to Liz and said, "If you and your sisters would please follow me."