Part 1

Leo took a deep breath as he squared his shoulders. His brothers were waiting for him by the entrance to the Lair, however, there was one thing he had to do first before they left, something he had been putting off until the last minute. 

Lifting his knuckles, he rapped them against the wooden frame of Splinter’s door, waiting with bated breath until he heard the rat call for him to enter. He didn’t look behind him but could feel his brothers watching him as he slid the door open, slipping in through the opening before closing it once more. 

“You are going to the surface again?” Splinter questioned. 

Leo nodded his head. 

“Hai, Sensei,” he said, keeping his eyes focused straight ahead of him, not looking at their father as the rat stood, his cane hitting the floor with each step forward. 

“Avoid the streets, stay away from populated areas,” Splinter said, the warning identical to the one he gave every time Leo and the others left the lair. It was a warning none of them, not even Raph, dared to ignore, because no matter what harm would befall them from human hands, Splinter’s wrath would be far greater. 

“Hai, Sensei,” Leo said again. “We should be a few hours. Donnie located another Kraang facility that seems to still be operational. We’re simply going to make sure it’s shut down, and that they aren’t trying to infiltrate this world again.” 

Splinter narrowed his eyes and Leo continued looking on straight ahead. Finally the rat nodded and turned his back to Leo once more. 

“You are dismissed.” 

Holding back a sigh of relief, Leo bowed to Splinter, before turning and leaving the room. He joined his brothers at the entrance, none of them saying a word as they left. 

Leo, however, did notice Mikey looking back, almost worriedly, until Splinter’s door was fully out of sight. 

“What did he say?” Mikey asked, looking to Leo. 

“The usual,” Leo stated. “Stay away from humans, don’t be seen.” 

“Like we don’t know that already,” Raph huffed, his hand fisted on the sai in his belt. “Ya think he’d give us a bit more slack, we ain’t kids anymore!” 

“Raph,” Leo warned, glancing behind him. 

“What? He ain’t gonna hear us,” Raph scoffed. 

“You don’t know that,” Leo hissed. 

“I have a map to the building,” Donnie interrupted, getting their focus back on why they were even leaving the lair that evening. 

Leo nodded. “Right, Don, you take the lead then. We’ll follow,” he instructed. 

The trek through the sewers was quiet after that. The three turtles followed their purple-clad brother as he led them to the manhole cover closest to the building they were aiming for. 

Raph was up the ladder first; being the strongest, he could easily lift the manhole cover up and out of the way without making much noise at all. Lifting his head up and looking around, Raph motioned that the coast was clear before climbing up the rest of the way. 

His brothers were quick to follow. Leo went next, Donnie followed with the map, leaving Mikey to take up the rear. The smaller turtle climbed out, his hands going to grip his nunchucks as soon as he was free of the hole. 

The building didn’t look like much, covered in boards, bits of it looking as if they were falling off. The whole feel of it screamed ‘condemned’, however, that seemed to be what the Kraang did to blend in; they disguised their bases as old buildings, unwanted or unappealing places, and any human who dared wander into one simply became part of their latest experiments. 

“There should be a secret entrance,” Donnie said, walking over to a solid looking wall, looking it over, brow furrowed. 

“Looks like a wall ta me, Don.” Raph chuckled. “Ya sure that egg-head of yours ain’t cracked?” 

“Cracked or not, my brain clearly gets more oxygen than yours,” Donnie quipped back, ignoring Raph’s responding growl, Donnie pressing his hand against the wall, grinning when it fazed right through it. 

“That’s still massively creepy when things do that.” Mikey shuddered. 

“You’re just a scaredy-cat,” Raph teased. 

“If you had any sense you’d be scared too, bro,” Mikey shot back, and he was running through the wall after Donnie before Raph could come back with a retort, or perhaps just a punch to the head. 

“That little...!” Raph growled. 

“Leave it, Raph, let’s just go and get this done so we can get home,” Leo said, indicating for Raph to go in ahead of him. 

Raph narrowed his eyes at the blue-banded turtle. “Why ya in such a hurry ta get home?”

“Because the less time we’re away from home, the less time there is to make mistakes that we’ll be punished for,” Leo reminded him. 

“And if ya didn’t report every damn little thing that happened ta Splinter, we wouldn’t have ta worry about that, now would we?” Raph growled. 

“You know that’s not how it works, Raph. Now please, let’s just get this over with?” Leo requested; the last thing he wanted to do was see any of his brothers have to face Splinter that night, as the rat had already seemed to be in a mood. 

Without another word, Raph followed his other two brothers; Leo took the rear this time. Looking around to make sure no one had seen them, he slipped through the entrance. 

---------x

They had been wandering through the facility for what felt like hours already, however, in reality, Mikey knew it could have only been less than ten minutes. The orange-banded turtle simply didn’t like the feel of the place, his hands gripping his nunchucks, despite the fact they hadn’t run across anything that could be considered armed and dangerous. 

Looking behind him, Mikey frowned when all he saw was the empty hallway they had just walked down. 

“Is it just me, or is this place like, super creepy?” Mikey questioned, turning his attention back toward his brothers, who were all a few paces ahead of him. 

“About as creepy as any other Kraang facility,” Raph stated, looking around them as well, his face pulled into a frown. “About as boring as one too.” 

“That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything here,” Leo warned, moving up ahead of his brothers to come to a stop near a corner. He looked around, checking the hallway ahead. 

“See anything?” Raph questioned, coming to stand next to Leo and having a look for himself. 

“No, there’s nothing,” Leo stated. “But I think this is where we have to split up,” he said, turning to look at Raph and then the others. 

“Split up? What for?” Raph demanded, not looking happy about that idea. 

“Because the hallway splits off here, and it looks like the power room might be in that direction, and the labs are usually closer to the top floor,” Leo explained. 

“Like I said, why we gotta split up?” Raph crossed his arms over his plastron. 

Leo sighed wishing Raph didn’t have to make everything a challenge. 

“I need some information from the lab,” Donnie stated, and Raph’s shoulders relaxed a little bit. 

It frustrated Leo how easily Raph listened to Donnie sometimes, didn’t question his reasoning behind things. He tried not to let it bother him, at least not while they were outside the lair; he could address his jealousy issues later, in the privacy of his own room. 

Leo’s thoughts were interrupted when Mikey suddenly jumped, waving his hand in the air. 

“I call dibs on Raph!” Mikey said, wrapping his arms around one of Raph’s effectively latching onto him. 

“Wha-Hey!” Raph tugged his arm away, using his free hand to press on Mikey’s face, holding him back when the younger turtle tried to grab onto him again. “Who said I wanna go with ya? Maybe I wanna go on my own!” Raph growled. 

“No, you wanna go with me, cause I’m fun,” Mikey grinned, pulling Raph’s hand away from his face and grinning at his brother. 

“You’re not going off on your own,” Leo stated. 

“No one asked you, fearless,” Raph snapped, narrowing his eyes at the blue-banded turtle. 

“Raph, stop being ridiculous.” Donnie rolled his eyes, once again stepping between his siblings, stopping another potential fight before it had a chance to get started. 

Leo felt that ugly jealousy rise in him again when Raph turned his full attention onto Donnie, listening to their genius brother as he made his own suggestion. 

“I think one team should head to the power room,” Donnie explained. “Our main goal is to deactivate this facility at its source. The other team needs to bring back samples and computer data from the lab. At the very least we should try and figure out what this facility was being used for.” 

“Why would that matter if we’re gonna shut it down anyway?” Raph questioned, shoving Mikey half-heartedly to the side when the younger turtle managed to grab his arm again. 

“Because Donnie needs a new toy to play with,” Mikey offered with a laugh. 

Leo sighed. “We need to make sure the Kraang aren’t still here using these places, it’s our job to shut them down before innocent people get hurt,” he explained, using what his brothers would call his leader voice. He locked eyes with Raph. “Donnie and I will go to the lab, see what we can find on their computers. Raph, you and Mikey are in charge of the power room,” he ordered. 

Raph glared at Leo, and had his mouth open to make some kind of snide remark, when Mikey poked him in the side. 

“Mikey,” Leo snapped as Raph raised his hand to smack Mikey’s head, clearly getting irritated with the younger turtle. 

“Hmm?” Mikey looked curiously at their leader. 

“Try not to get too distracted,” Leo stated, smiling when Mikey fixed him with a pout. 

“Hey…” 

Raph gave Mikey another shove, putting some distance between them. He gave Leo one more glare, looking as if he were debating on saying anything more to the leader in blue, before deciding against it. 

“Let’s just get this over with,” Raph said turning his back to Leo, gesturing Mikey to follow him. “If this ends up bein’ a waste of time, I’m gonna be so annoyed.” 

Leo watched the two younger turtles walk down the opposite hall, before turning and leading Donnie in the other direction. 

“Do you think it’s a good idea to let them go together today?” Donnie questioned. “Mikey is really trying to push Raph’s buttons, more than usual, I mean.” 

Leo shook his head. “We don’t have much choice in the matter; we need to find out what the Kraang were doing here.” He gave a worried look over his shoulder, back toward his younger siblings. “Mikey is too distractible, and Raph is too irritable right now. If the Kraang are here, I don’t think either of them would be reliable to watch your back while you get the information from the computers,” he explained. 

Leo looked back in the direction they were walking, wincing and doing his best to ignore Mikey’s shout of “Tag! You’re it!” that echoed down the abandoned hallways. 

-----------x

Raph kept his fists clenched at his side, trying, and failing, to ignore Mikey’s numerous attempts at starting a game of tag. His little pest of a brother kept running up to him, tagging his arm, shoulder, head, and this time the twerp had the audacity to hit his ass. 

“Tag!” Mikey laughed as he smacked Raph’s ass as he ran by, his fingers catching his brother’s tail before he darted out of the way. 

“Mikey! I ain’t playin’ tag with ya!” Raph shouted, growling as he dashed down the hallway after the younger turtle, telling himself he wasn’t really giving into Mikey’s taunts; he just knew that if he didn’t keep up with him, the orange-clad turtle would get into serious trouble. 

“If you’re not playin’ then why are you chasin’, bro?” Mikey called back, laughing again as he darted around a corner. 

Raph growled. “We’re going the same way, you dork!” he snapped but didn’t speed up, knowing Mikey couldn’t get far, even if he was faster than any of them. 

He reached the corner Mikey had vanished around, frowning when he didn’t hear his brother’s laughter anymore. 

“Mikey?” he called out, hands going to his sai as he rounded the corner, expecting to find that Mikey had in fact run into trouble. 

“Boo!” Mikey shouted, jumping right in Raph’s line of sight, he swung his sai on reflex, and only Mikey’s quick reflexes saved him from being run through. 

“Ya little shit!” Raph shouted. “Don’t do that! Do ya realize what could’a happened?” Raph snapped, glaring daggers at Mikey as the orange-banded turtle darted down the hall. 

“Dude! You should have seen your face! It was so priceless! Oh, what I wouldn’t have given to have a camera!” Mikey laughed, leaning against a wall, one hand clutching his stomach. 

Raph turned his head away, cheeks flushed in anger and irritation. He fixated on a spot on the wall, counting to ten to try and calm himself before he really did cause Mikey serious bodily harm. 

“Sometimes, I seriously hate you,” Raph said. 

“Nah, you totally-” Mikey’s sentence was cut off by a sudden crash and scream. 

Raph’s head whipped around just in time to see his brother vanish through a trap door in the floor. 

“Mikey!” Raph darted forward, kneeling to look down into the hole. 

“Watch that first step, dude,” Mikey called back up. 

Raph winced when he saw his brother had fallen at least two floors He looked around the hallway, trying to see if he could locate what had set the trap off in the first place; he didn’t see any lasers or switches. 

“Must’ve been weight-sensitive, ‘r somethin’.” he sighed, looking back down at Mikey. “Ya okay down there? Break anythin’?” 

“Uh… Depends on what you mean by broken,” Mikey called back up, looking at where his leg was trapped under the trap door that had fallen down with him, in his attempt to grab onto it and stop his fall. “Don’t think I can climb back up there,” he admitted. 

“Perfect,” Raph grumbled, standing up and looking around, trying and find something he could use to either get down there himself, or else haul his brother back up. 

There was another crash and a pained groan from Mikey and Raph was back at the hole immediately. 

“What the hell are ya doin’ down there, man?” Raph asked, leaning further over, squinting his eyes to try and see what could have made that noise. 

“My leg is trapped under the stupid door!” Mikey called back up. “I’m trying to move it, but it’s super heavy dude,” 

Raph growled in frustration, his brow furrowed as he studied the situation. 

“Shit. Just… just hang on!” Raph called down to Mikey, sitting back up again as he weighed his options. There wasn’t anything up here that would help him get down there, and it was only a two-floor drop; he’d done further from buildings before, if he just had something to grab onto. 

Leaning back over the hole, this time hanging his head under and looking around to see if there were any wires or ropes on the ceiling he could grab onto. He saw one not too far away and nodded to himself. 

“Alright, Mike, I’m comin’ ta get ya,” Raph said. “Just sit tight!” 

“Oh, sure, like I was gonna go do something else.” Mikey rolled his eyes. 

Raph ignored him, focusing instead on getting down there. He swung himself over the edge; hanging on, he swung his feet, trying to give himself enough momentum to grab the cord, intending to use that to slow his descent. 

He swung back and forth, finally letting go of the ledge. 

He flipped into the air and grabbed the cord, his hands closed around it, and then he was falling, much faster than intended. Tightening his grip on the cord, he felt his arm jerk suddenly as he came to an abrupt halt. The sudden stop pulled at his arm painfully and he let go of the rope, letting out a short cry of pain as he fell, shell first, onto the door that was pinning Mikey’s leg. 

Mikey’s echoed scream told Raph that things were definitely not going the way they should be. 

Raph wasn’t sure how long he lay on the floor, breathing through the pain as it went from sharp to a dull throb. 

“Okay,” he breathed out, “that prolly wasn’t my best landin’.” 

“I’d give it a three-point-two,” Mikey hissed out, rubbing at his leg that had just been bent in a painful direction from Raph’s landing. “Now get me outta here.” 

“Quiet. You’re lucky I’m not just leavin’ ya here,” Raph said, pulling himself to his feet and making his way over to Mikey. He inspected where his brother’s leg was trapped and the angle it was bent at. 

Mikey didn’t respond, which for Raph was a good indication of how much pain the smaller turtle was in. Without another word, he knelt down and grabbed the metal door. He tried lifting it but, feeling the sharp pain in his arm again, he dropped the door back onto Mikey. 

“Aaaugh, damn it!” he cried out, grabbing his arm and holding it tightly. He knew he had done some damage, he had just been naively optimistic that it hadn’t been that bad. 

Mikey fell back onto his shell, eyes clenched shut, teeth biting into his knuckle to stop himself from screaming. His breathing was erratic, and Raph felt a pang of guilt for hurting his brother more. 

“Shit, dude,” Mikey said when he was sure he could speak again. “That kinda hurt,” he said, leaning forward as much as he could to try and push the door off himself instead of lifting it. 

Mikey really wanted to get free on his own, but if this took much longer they were going to be forced to call Leo or Donnie. However, they both also knew that if they did that, there was going to be a lecture for the two of them once Leo heard what happened. Things were already going to be bad enough when they got home and Splinter found out how two of his sons had gotten injured. 

“Hang on, lemme just…” Raph was starting to look nervous, using his good arm to grab the metal door this time. “I’m gonna lift it, and ya just slide your leg out fast” he instructed. 

Mikey nodded, leaning forward to help Raph lift too. 

“On three,” the red-banded turtle said. 

The two of them locked eyes and Mikey waited for Raph to count. On three, Raph pulled, and Mikey pushed. 

Pulling his leg free quickly, Mikey let go of the door, inspecting the damage; his leg was already bruised and swollen, a large gash along the side of it where he must have caught something sharp. 

“Shit, shit, shit, this is totally not good,” Mikey said, removing the wrapping from his hands and started to bind his leg as best he could.

“No kiddin’” Raph replied, though there was no real punch behind it. Taking a look at Mikey’s injuries, the red-banded turtle let out a sigh. “Think you can stand?” he asked. 

“I’m gonna have to if we want to get our job done,” Mikey said. Finishing with his leg, he looked up when Raph offered him a hand. 

Using his good arm, Raph grabbed Mikey’s, hauling him to his feet, wrapping his arm quickly around Mikey’s waist when he thought the younger turtle might tip over.  

“Let’s hope we don’t gotta fight tonight,” he said. 

“You mean let’s hope this place is really abandoned,” Mikey said. 

“That’s what I said.” Raph rolled his eyes, looking around for a way out, when he spotted a door not too far from where they were. “Lean on me, we’re gonna have t’ find Leo and Donnie, get ya home ASAP,” Raph said. 

“I’m totally fine, dude, I dunno what you’re talking about,” Mikey said, though he did lean on Raph as they made their way over to the door. “Seriously though, I’m fine, we should at least find that power room, set it to explode or something.” 

“Yeah.” Raph looked Mikey over. “Yeah, good idea,” he agreed, leading Mikey to the door. 

He never liked seeing any of his brothers hurt, it always made him feel guilty, as if he could have prevented it somehow. This was made a hundred times worse when he was the cause of their pain and or injury. Or in the case of Mikey’s leg, made it worse than it would have otherwise been. 

He knew Donnie was going to have to have a proper look at Mikey’s leg once they got out of there, and a sharp pain in his arm reminded Raph that he’d need that looked at too. However, for now, Mikey was right; the least they could do was get the mission done and prove that, even injured, they weren't entirely incompetant. 

“We’re gonna have ta find our way back upstairs,” Raph said, looking around, knowing it was unlikely that the Kraang of all people would have an ‘exit this way’ sign. 

“Maybe there’s an elevator or something,” Mikey suggested. 

“Even a fucking set of stairs would be nice,” Raph said. 

Mikey shook his head. “Dunno if I can do stairs with this leg, bro, at least not fast enough to outrun an explosion,” Mikey reminded him. 

“Shit.” Raph stopped and leaned Mikey against a wall for a moment, looking around, trying to get his bearings. “Okay, you wait here a sec, I’m gonna go on ahead, make sure there ain’t no more traps,” he said. 

“Oh, sure, I see how it is,” Mikey said teasingly. “I’m just the baggage now, haul me around, drop me wherever, not like I have feelings,” Mikey rambled on.

Raph shook his head. “Stop being stupid,” he snapped. 

“Not gonna happen.” Mikey grinned at him. 

“I’ll be right back,” Raph said and was gone, hurrying down the hall, being careful. He didn’t think there would be any more trap floors, falling two floors down, but with the Kraang, you never knew. 

Raph went down the hallway, trying one door after another, finding, unsurprisingly, that most of them were sealed. 

“Where the fuck is a Kraang head when ya need one,” he grumbled to himself. 

He went to where the hallway split off, looking one way then another. Shrugging he pointed between the two. 

“Eeny meeny miny moe,” he whispered under his breath, choosing a direction and started trying those doors until he finally found one that was open. “Finally!” he huffed, hurrying back to where he had left Mikey. 

“Found our way outta here,” he said. 

“Oh good, more walking,” Mikey said, lifting his arms to be helped off the floor. 

Raph hauled him up, supporting Mikey back to the door he had found. 

“That doesn’t look like an elevator, bro,” Mikey said flatly as he hobbled through the doorway with help from his red-banded brother. 

“It was the only door that was open, so quit your bitchin’,” Raph said, looking around properly once they were in the room. “There’s a computer over there, I’m gonna see if I can find a map of this place,” Raph said, letting go of Mikey and making sure his brother could stand properly before hurrying over to the console. “Alright, now, where’s the on switch…” Raph sighed. 

Mikey watched his brother for a moment, deciding he could make himself productive and find something to use as a cane or crutch. Limping around the room, Mikey looked in the corners first, thinking that there might be a mop or a broom. 

“You know, that’s one thing that always confused me about the Kraang,” Mikey said as he continued looking. “Every place we’ve ever been has always been so clean.” 

“Your point?” Raph questioned, having found the power button. 

“So, why haven’t we ever found a broom cupboard?” Mikey questioned. 

“They probably got robots ta do that shit for them,” Raph said dismissively. 

“What? Like a kraang roomba?” Mikey suggested. 

“Yeah, sure.” Raph was typing away on the computer trying to find something that resembled a map, a difficult thing for him to achieve as he wasn’t overly fond of computers. “Where the fuck is Donnie when ya need him!” Raph punched the console. 

“Not breaking computers,” Mikey replied, finding a button next to another door. “Oh, I think I found that broom cupboard!” he called out, hitting the button and watching the door slide open to reveal another smaller room inside. The lights flicked on, lighting up a large tank built into the floor. 

“Uh… okay, not a broom cupboard,” Mikey said, going into the room. “Raph! Come look at this, there’s like, some kind of black and green goop here!” he called out, kneeling on the floor to get a closer look at the substance. 

“Don’t touch anything!” was Raph’s reply as a moment later he came into the room Mikey had found. 

“It kinda looks like, I dunno, tar, mixed with mutagen.” Mikey frowned, watching bubbles appear on the surface. 

“Looks like the kraang left somethin’ cookin’,” Raph said, coming to stand next to Mikey, staring at it as one of the bubbles came to the surface and popped. “Well, whatever it is, we should prolly get rid of it. Who knows what they were tryin’ ta use it for.” 

“Think Donnie will want some?” Mikey asked, his hands on the edge of the tank as he looked at it. 

Raph rolled his eyes, squatting down to get a better look at the liquid. “What could he possibly want with black mutagen?” Raph questioned. 

“I dunno, dude, he could use it for a cool lava lamp or something,” Mikey suggested with a grin. 

“What Donnie don’t know won’t hurt his feelings. We don’t even got a way to transport it,” Raph pointed out.

Mikey sighed nodding his head in agreement. 

“True,” he said. “Did you find that map?” 

“Nah, if we can’t find our way outta here soon, we’ll just call Don and have them haul us up outta that hole,” Raph said, shifting to stand up. “Let’s try a few more doors, and if we don’t find the power room, we’ll call in for help,” he said. 

“Okay,” Mikey said, reaching up and grabbing onto Raph’s belt to help haul himself up. 

This would have been a wise idea, had Raph been fully standing himself; however, as it was, the unexpected tug on his belt had Raph pitching backwards, his eyes widening as he felt himself falling, pulling Mikey down with him. 

They both tumbled straight into the black and green liquid, instantly sinking fast. Raph kicked out with his legs, his head quickly breaking the surface of the thick liquid before he sank too far, gasping as he pulled in a lung full of air. 

“Mikey?” he called out, turning his head one way then the other. “Mikey! You still with me, bro?!” 

Raph’s worry was growing by the second when he didn’t see his little brother at all. He was just thinking he would have to dive for him, and hope he found him in the large tank when something brushed his foot. 

“Mikey!” Raph called, diving and wrapping his good arm around his brother, hauling him to the surface with him. 

“Oh that shit’s nasty!” Mikey complained, sputtering as he spat out what little he had swallowed. 

Raph said nothing, getting the two of them to the ledge. He made sure Mikey got up and out first, then with his brother’s help, got out as well. Mikey was still coughing, shaking his head. 

“So-sorry, dude,” Mikey said, looking at Raph, who was more worried about checking himself over. He patted at his face, arms, plastron, everything felt like it was still in place, and no weird growths were spouting out anywhere. 

Seemingly satisfied that he was fine, Raph finally turned a heated glare onto Mikey. 

“Ya should be more careful next time! That stuff coulda melted our skin off for all we knew!” he snapped. 

Mikey winced and ducked his head. “I said I was sorry…” he mumbled. 

“Sorry wouldn’t have fixed it if that stuff had an extra arm growin’ outta my head,” Raph growled, wiping away some of the stuff that was still on his face. 

“True, but then you would have had an extra hand to throttle me with,” Mikey pointed out, shifting to stand up, avoiding using Raph as leverage this time. “But, no harm done, right?

“Right,” Raph reluctantly agreed. 

“Let’s go find that power room and get outta here,” Mikey suggested. 

Raph pushed himself to his feet as well, nodding his head. “Fine with me.” 

He kept a slow pace for Mikey’s sake as he made his way to the door on the opposite side of the room. 

“Sooner we leave this craphole, the better.” 

“Look at the bright side,” Mikey offered. “This place isn’t as boring as you thought it would be.” 

“Mikey,” Raph growled out warningly. 

-----------x

Leo remained close to Donnie as his brother worked to get whatever information he could off the Kraang computers, however, they had already been there too long in Leo’s opinion. Even if they hadn’t run into any Kraang there, Leo felt like they were pushing their luck by staying so long. 

“Wrap it up, Don,” Leo ordered, scanning the area, his mind drifting to their other two brothers, who were somewhere on the lower levels of the building. He hadn’t heard from them and he was beginning to wonder if letting them go off on their own had been such a good idea. 

“How much longer, Donnie?” Leo asked, looking behind him at the purple-banded turtle. 

“Almost done…” Donnie stated, watching the screen intently. 

Leo sighed and turned his attention back to the room. He was finding this whole thing a bit to easy, though he assumed that was because he was still far too used to these places crawling with Kraang, and the fact that he hadn’t seen any, or any traps, or heard any alarms was unnerving. Of course, turtle luck at it’s best, no sooner had he thought that did the entire room light up with red flashing lights, and a loud siren started buzzing in the distance. 

“Time’s up, Don!” Leo said, pulling his second sword from its sheath. 

“It’s almost…” Donnie trailed off, as Leo turned to look at him. “Got it! Let’s go!” 

He grabbed the thumb drive he had been using, putting it in the pocket of his belt before grabbing his bo staff, which had been set aside while he worked. 

Leo was already heading quickly toward the door, keeping an eye out for any self-defence system droids. Donnie was right on his heels. 

Once they had made it down the hallway to the stairwell, Leo put one of his katana away. Pulling his phone out, he dialled Mikey. He didn’t give his little brother time to say anything when he heard the line click on. 

“Where are you two?” Leo demanded. 

“On our way, Bro!” was Mikey’s reply. “We’re pretty sure we’ve managed to rig the power room to blow, but… uh, yeah, we managed to trip the alarm in the meantime. Raph and I found a quick way out, thought a window, so uh… yeah, gonna hang up now, cause this is seriously gonna hurt,” Mikey said and the line went dead. 

Leo stared at his phone, a frown on his face as he glanced over toward Donnie. 

“We need a way out, fast, Mikey and Raph rigged the power room, so at best we’ve got a minute to get out of here.” 

Donnie nodded, quickly pulling up the blueprints he had of the building. He scanned the area where they were. 

“We’re on the fourth floor, there should be a chute for discarded kranngdroid parts.” He looked around where they were and nodded to himself. “We have to backtrack, but it’s not far,” he said, turning and heading out of the stairwell again. 

Leo nodded and followed his brother. He hated escapes like this, especially when they were escaping from empty, nearly harmless buildings. He knew he was going to have to have another talk with Mikey and Raph about team communication when they got home, and hope Splinter didn’t find out about this mishap. 

“Here!” Donnie called out. 

Leo sped up to join his brother at the chute. 

“It’s a long way down. It would be nice if we had something to slow our descent a little, as I’m sure landing on droid parts, or even an empty dumpster isn’t going to be pleasant,” Donnie said. 

Leo nodded in agreement, handing Donnie one of his swords. “Use that to slow yourself down,” he said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s less likely to break than your staff.” 

Donnie nodded his head in agreement. 

Watching as Donnie went in first and slid out of sight, Leo waited a moment, making sure his brother would be a fair distance away, and there was no risk of him landing on Donnie’s head. Only then did Leo follow. 

As he slid down the chute, Leo waited until he could see light before sticking his katana into the side. He winced as his arm was jerked painfully, but thankfully it felt like nothing more than perhaps a pulled muscle. Using his sword, and padded knees he slowed himself down more, the sound of metal scraping against metal echoed around them, and then the chute was gone and they were free falling the last five feet into a pile of broken droids. 

Leo landed next to Donnie with an ‘oof’, watching as Donnie rolled himself off the pile and down onto solid ground. 

“We gotta keep moving!” he said urgently. 

Leo was already moving to follow him before Donnie had finished speaking, the two of them making a mad dash down the alleyway, and away from the building. Neither of them knew how powerful the explosion was going to be, and they put as much distance as they could between them and the building. 

Climbing up onto the nearest rooftop, they kept running, jumping between one building and the next, Leo now scanning the area, looking for their two missing siblings, hoping they were smart enough to be doing the same. 

The explosion shook the buildings around them, and even a fair few blocks away, Leo could feel the heat from the flames as various kraang experiments went up in flames. Knowing they were safe for a few minutes, the two of them came to a stop to get their bearings. 

Donnie handed Leo’s sword back to him, pulling out his phone. 

“We should find where Mikey and Raph got to,” he said, even though he hadn’t needed to as Leo had been thinking the exact same thing. 

“Don?” Raph’s voice came over the phone, a mixture of excitement and relief in his voice. “Ya made it out!” 

“Yeah, we made it out,” Donnie answered, and that was enough to tell Leo that at least Raph knew how close a call that had needlessly been. 

“Say, Mikey had a little accident with some metal, so he’s not in the best a shape right now, could ya maybe come pick us up? We’re on the south end of the building,” Raph requested and Donnie’s expression fell. 

“They need us to pick them up,” Donnie told Leo when the blue-banded turtle gave him a questioning look. “Yeah, we’ll be right there, Raph, just sit tight,” Donnie said and hung up the phone. He looked at Leo again. “Mikey’s hurt,” he answered the unasked question. 

“Let’s hope it’s nothing serious,” Leo said.

Donnie nodded in agreement. 

An air of apprehension settled over them as they set off to find Raph and Mikey, having to take the long way around the fire, and avoid being seen by any humans that were coming to put out the flames. 

Landing on the roof Leo looked around, easily spotting his brothers sat together, hidden by the shadows of the air vent. Even from this distance, Leo could see how pale Mikey looked. 

“Yo, some explosion, huh?” Raph questioned, shifting to stand up and greet his brothers.

“What happened?” Leo demanded, his eyes fixed on the orange-banded turtle, who seemed barely conscious. 

“He fell down some crazy big trapdoor,” Raph explained. “Got his leg stuck under it somehow, so I went down ta help him and think I pulled my arm outta joint or somethin’ cause it hurts like crazy,” he said the last part quietly. 

Leo stood there quietly, looking at Raph now as Donnie went to check on their fallen brother.  

Leo was at war with himself; he wanted to scold Raph for his reckless behavior, but everything he had to say would be wasting valuable time they could be using to get Mikey home, and then he was also worried about Raph’s arm, another thing he wanted to deal with and fix. So he didn’t say anything, just stared at Raph, waiting to see if his brother would tell him more. Raph, however, just lowered his head and turned away slightly. It was a stance Raph took when he knew he’d seriously fucked up. Leo decided to leave it at that for now, turning instead to look at Donnie, who was knelt in front of Mikey. 

“Don, how is he?” the blue-banded turtle asked. 

“I couldn’t lift him any more,” Raph stated. “I got him as far as I could, then ya called and…” Raph trailed off as Leo wasn’t even looking at him anymore. 

“He’s lost a lot of blood, he’s got severe bruising, and this gash on his leg would account for the blood loss. He’s going to need stitches,” Donnie said. “We need to get him home.” 

“That’s what I was tryin’ ta say, I couldn’t carry him further, I was gonna try and get him home but…” 

“No more excuses, Raph,” Leo told him sharply, his brother snapping his mouth shut. Leo stepped forward, kneeling in front of Mikey. “Hey,” he said. 

Mikey blinked slowly at Leo, giving him a lop-sided smile. “I really messed up, bro,” he said. 

“Yeah, sounds like both you and Raph messed up,” Leo said softly. “I’m going to carry you on my back. Think you can hang on while we get you home?” he questioned. 

Mikey shrugged. “Don’t got much choice,” he said, watching as Leo turned around, shell to Mikey now and looked towards Don. “Help him onto my back,” he ordered. 

Raph moved to help Don lift Mikey, but stopped when Leo fixed him with a stern look. 

“Not you,” Leo snapped. “You try and lift him, you’re going to hurt yourself more too,” he explained, knowing it sounded far more like he was trying to tell Raph that he’d done enough damage already. 

Donnie ignored his two older brothers, focusing on helping Mikey get onto Leo’s back, wincing when Mikey cried out as his leg was jarred. 

“Oh shell, my head feels all wobbly,” Mikey complained as he wrapped his arms around Leo’s shoulders. 

Leo turned his head slightly, a worried expression on his face as he looked towards Donnie. 

“How much blood do you think he’s lost?” he asked. 

“Enough to be worrying.” Donnie frowned. “We may need to perform a transfusion when we get back to the lair, as long as we can do that, and stop the bleeding, he should be okay.” 

“We wrapped his leg really tight,” Raph offered. 

“Which certainly has helped, but we still need to get him home,” Donnie said, making sure Mikey was steady as Leo stood up. At this angle, Donnie was able to examine Mikey’s leg again quickly, satisfied that it was in fact wrapped tight enough to stop any more serious bleeding. 

Getting down the building was slow progress, as Leo didn’t want to hurt Mikey more, or risk dropping him, and getting him down into the sewers themselves was a tricky affair as well, however, between Leo and Donnie they managed it. 

Raph stood back feeling helpless and guilty that he had let Mikey get so hurt, and there was nothing he could do to help fix it right now. 

Leo thankfully was holding his tongue from chewing Raph out, even though he wanted to demand an answer to why they hadn’t called, why he and Donnie had found out after the fact that Mikey was severely hurt, because right now was not the time for that particular argument. Because all of them knew that as soon as they got home, Leo was going to have to report to Splinter; that fact alone settled over all of them like an icy blanket of dread as they could only guess and speculate what their punishments would be. 

TBC