Leo's POV

I had run about eight blocks away from the sardine box when the storm started.

At first it was just a harmless drizzle, but one minute passed, then another and soon enough the "harmless drizzle" turned into a full on downpour. I grimace at the thought of returning to the apartment. Living there for the past couple of weeks hadn't exactly been paradise.

Not that I'm not grateful that April opened up her home to us, but her apartment is a bachelorette pad, not a bed and breakfast, fit for six. We had moved into her place after we returned from the underground city (a very long story I'll go into more detail to never) to find that our home had been overrun by foot ninja. We'd been hiding at April's for about a week, and the crowdedness was really starting to get to me. Everywhere I looked, I saw one of my brothers, or Master Splinter, or April; and it was driving me nuts.

If I had to crash into someone on the way to bathroom, one more time, I was going to stab them. But then again, I guess I can't be too mean. There were upsides. April had very quickly become a good friend of ours and I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't nice getting to see her more often.

I initially kind of felt bad about just intruding on April but she said she didn't mind. Anyone could say that but she actually seemed to enjoy our company. She was either putting on a brave face and doing a very good job of not hurting anybody's feelings or she had found a way to actually tolerate and like us.

She even found a way to be happy around Mikey. She would actually sit back and listen with legit interest while he rambled on about the comic book heroes he adored so much. I told her that she didn't have to put herself through that for his satisfaction but she replied by saying that she actually liked hearing Mikey's stories and found it cute. After that, I didn't say another word about it.

Better her than me. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Whenever Mikey wasn't hogging all of her attention, she would go and geek off with Donnie or chat with Master Splinter or Raph, who despite how much he tried to hide it because he's forbid himself to display emotions, had taken quite a liking to her.

Sometimes when nights were clear enough she would just watch us train with her eyes bugging out and as wide as saucers. I found it kind of cute how interesting she finds ninjas, but at the same time, we've also been told it's annoying when we pop of nowhere at night while she's watching TV and ask her how her day was.

Living there was bittersweet, but often more sweet than bitter. It was also temporary. Once we got the foot out of the way and could head back to the lair we would. Sure I'd miss getting to hang around April more often , but I'd be happy that I could go five seconds without crashing into two other people on the way to the kitchen.

I began to make my way across the rooftop, when I stopped.

Something didn't feel right. You know that feeling you get when you feel like someone is watching you? I've learned not to ignore that feeling as much as I used to. Because, if I ever feel like someone is watching me, someone usually is. And that someone is always trying to kill me.

I scanned the area around me and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, at least not right away. On a rooftop towering above me, I just barely make out a dark, shadowy, figure. "What the…" I didn't get to finish my sentence. I was interrupted by the sound of swords sheathing, on instinct, I grabbed one of my katana and sliced in the direction I'd heard the sound. There was a brief yelp of pain, then a thud. I looked down see a black clad, stranger clutching his shoulder.

Foot ninja.

Don't these people have lives outside of trying to kill us for no apparent reason?

. I unsheathed my other katana and got into my fighting stance. Three more foot ninja jump out and charge at me with full speed. One of them throws a kunai at my head and I duck. When I come back up, he's right in front of me and I smash the end of my hilt into his skull and he falls to the ground with a weak moan. I turn my attention to the other two, who look reluctant to attack; I decide to take advantage roundhouse kick both of them before they have a chance to block. All three are down, but I'm sure that's not the last of them.

I turn on my heel and take off in the opposite direction April's place just as five more land the roof and follow me in pursuit. My plan was simple, try and lose them then call for back up. Kick butt, go home. The End.

That plan, went wrong almost immediately.

I leap of the roof and in midair, I feel something lodge itself in my right calf and my leg erupts in pain as a warm liquid begins to trickle down my leg. Needless, to say, it totally wrecked my landing. When I landed, my right foot twisted under me and I fall flat on my face. Heroic.

I sit up and examine the damage on my calf to find a kunai sticking out it. Blood trickles down from the wound too fast for my comfort. I'm naturally tempted to rip it out, but I resist the urge knowing I'll only make it worse. I only know that from the health seminars Donnie forced us all to sit through after our first encounter with the Foot and Purple Dragons.

I grab my Shell Cell from my pouch and I'm about to dial for Donnie's number. Before I can even process what happened, a ninja star materializes out of now here in the middle of the key pad. It short circuits and the screen goes completely black. It takes me a few seconds to actually make sense of what had just happened and I sit there stunned.

I mean, I always knew that I never had much luck on my side, but I never thought it was this bad. Slowly, I begin to panic. Stranded several blocks from help, with a wounded leg, a twisted ankle and the Foot clan after me.

"Looks like somebody isn't having a very good night." Says a voice from behind me. I whip my head around find Hun standing behind me, grinning maniacally.

I took my swords out of my scabbard and use them to force myself to feet. My leg and ankle scream in protest but, I try to make myself look as neutral as possible. Not that that would have helped much. Even Hun could notice a kunai sticking out of my leg.

I try to shoot him an intimidating look, but apparently fail, because Hun just grins and balls one of his large hands into a fist slams it into his open palm.

"You have no idea what you're up against, freak." He says stepping a little closer to me.

"Well then why don't you quit talking so I find out?"

The corner of his mouth twitches up and he cracks his neck. "I'm gonna enjoy this." He says with a smirk. Then he lets out an ear splitting battle cry, just before charging me. Hun's body, despite weighing in at a whopping quarter of a ton, moves towards me with speed that rivaled the blink of an eye. Before I could I even think about dodging, Hun's large fist slammed into my plastron.

Whoever first said that a turtle's shell is protective was terribly wrong and has obviously never had to withstand a punch from Hun. Even with my plastron "protecting" my inner organs, I still felt every ounce of strength Hun put into that strike in my stomach, my lungs. It felt as if they all flipped around inside of me and traded places with each other. I imagined that this is what it felt like to get hit by a very small car going at full speed.

I bit my tongue to hold back my scream of pain as Hun sent me flying into a brick wall. I fall to the ground in a heap and gasp, desperately trying to reclaim the air that once resided in my lungs. Hun comes over and snatches me off the ground. He rips the kunai out of leg and the blood flow speeds up and starts to leak out of me at the rate of water from a sprinkler.

I slowly got back to my feet and my body screamed in protest; I fell back down my plastron with a pathetic groan. I can feel my body temperature drop as the blood loss begins to take its toll. I didn't dare look to see how much I was losing. I never did like seeing blood. A pretty lame thing for a ninja to be weary of being around, I know but it made me sick to my stomach. The metallic smell that fills your nose, the way you can feel yourself slipping away as your life slowly bleeds away. It's makes me want to vomit.

A few feet away from me, Hun was laughing sadistically.

He stood up and for a moment it looked like he was going to charge at me, but he stopped. He turned his gaze to something behind me. He looked back at me and grinned maniacally again. He bowed and then took a few steps back. I turned around and looked in the same area looking. When I saw the figure, thousands of emotions rushed through me at once. Confusion, anger, fear, hopelessness.

"No…that's impossible! Master Splinter finished you off! We saw you die!" I yelled. Although, I couldn't see his face through his mask, I was sure that the Shredder was smirking at me.

"Looks like you were wrong, turtle." He growled at me. "You may have defeated me once, but this time you will not be so fortunate!" He then charged at me with his arm raised. And the next thing I knew, one of his claws was coming down at me. The blades cut right through my arm and I crumpled. The pain wasn't like anything I'd ever felt before. And the blood…there was so much of it now. It was everywhere I looked. I could feel the muffin I ate for breakfast this morning, slowly making my way back up my throat along with last night's dinner.

My leg was still bleeding, and the two new cuts in my flesh, I was sure I'd be dead in a matter of seconds. I had only seen bleeding like this in bad horror movies, and I certainly had never bled like this before. My right arm goes back and forth between being numb and causing intense pain. I clench my teeth and hiss, refusing to cry out. My vision becomes blurry and my head starts to throb. Every time, I almost manage to get up, I crumple back onto my stomach. Each time I try to stand, the seemingly simple task gets harder and harder. It was like trying to walk up a hill in the middle of a Hurricane.

Shredder chuckles and I hear him take a few steps closer to me. He yanks me off the ground by the tails of my bandanna and throws me into a brick wall. I don't even get a chance to fall to the ground before he's on me again. He spins around and kicks me in the stomach.

When I double-over he swats me backwards and I fall flat on my shell. I cough and spit out a another disturbing amount of blood. I let my hit the concrete and stare up at the sky. Heavy rain pelts my body, causing me to shiver. I try and will myself to stand up, but just thinking about getting my feet hurts. I do it anyway though. I reach out with my un-injured arm and grab hold of the edge roof to pull myself up. My body tells me to get back down but as tempting as that sounds right now, I ignore the urge. My legs wobble, even with me clinging to the roof for support.

I look around the roof for Shredder but don't see him. My vision isn't at its best right now. It's clouded with black dots and starts right now and the rain didn't help much at all.

I push away from the edge of the roof and stagger forward. Each step feels like I'm walking on pins and needles. I hear grim laughter echo around me and I reach back to get my other katana. I almost cry when I don't grab a hilt. I reach for the other scabbard hoping I had just went to the wrong one by accident, but I feel nothing but my own shell.

Injured. Alone. Unarmed. And outnumbered.

I already feel defeated. I don't feel like someone who's trained in the art of ninjitsu all his life. Someone who should know what to in situations like this. I don't feel like someone who goes out every night and fights crime with his brothers like a comic book hero and then go home and laugh about it.

I don't feel like any of that. All my defenses crumple and my courage abandons me. For the first time ever, I feel like a scared, 16 year-old boy in way over my head.

I'm used to always feeling in control of what goes on around me. I used to being able be faced with a challenge and take it down with my brothers by my side with no hassle. It never once occurred to me during those times that's I'm only a kid. From the moment I began my training, I had become a ninja. And later on, I had become a leader. I didn't feel like either of those things right now.

I'm pretty sure at that moment, that I actually do start to cry. But I tell myself it's just the rain pelting my face.

I stagger around the roof some more, keeping an eye for Shredder, not that he would very hard to miss. As if on cue, he appears behind me out of nowhere. I don't even have time to turn around before he makes his move.

He grabs hold of my bandanna again and slams my head into his knee cap. My face suddenly feels like someone just threw a tomato at it. I feel blood splatter everywhere, and the metallic taste of it starts to fill my mouth.

I stumble away and fall onto my knees a few feet away from Shredder.

He laughs darkly as he approaches and hit footsteps are accompanied by the sound of metal dragging across the ground.

"My apologies, turtle. We're you by chance looking for these?" He asks me as if he's genuinely sorry.

I look over and he has a katana in either of his hands. Both of which are mine. The long, sleek blades glisten radiantly as they reflect the moon light. I long to be able to wield them right now and only just now realize how important they are to me and how much I depend on them.

I scoot away until I hit a wall and mutter a curse under my breath in Japanese.

"You should see how pathetic you look right now, turtle. Without your brothers and your Master you are nothing more than a weakling!" He says as he paces back in front in front me. I look above me at the rooftops and notice that more Foot ninjas have crowded on them, and are looking down at us. I fear that they're about to jump down and help Shredder beat the rest of the crap out of me, but they don't move.

They just stand up there and watch, like spectators in a Coliseum and the Shredder is a vicious lion about to finish off the poor soul who was tossed to him as food. I feel something prod my throat and feel blood trickle down it. I turn my attention back to Shredder and find that he has the tipped of my katana, my katana pressed against my throat. Daring me to move.

"It truly is a shame I must do this. You are an excellent fighter, so much potential in you. If only you had stayed by my side. If you had just taken my offer and joined me, you not be in this predicament. I would not be your enemy. But you, you and your brothers and your foolish Master humiliated me!" He says as he lightly puts more pressure on the katana.

"I never asked to be your enemy. I just didn't want anything to do with you anymore! That night on the rooftop with the water tower didn't have to happen. If you only walked away like I did, that never would have happened. You bought it on yourself, and quite frankly; you deserved it."

"Precisely, turtle. You walked away from me. And anyone who does not stand with the me will surely fall before me. By the end of the night the heads of, you, your brothers and your Master will all be my trophies." Shredder says. He puts more pressure on the blade and I wince as it digs deeper into my skin.

"Do what you want to me, but leave my family out of this! You say, this all happened because of me then you take it up with me. And me only. Just…please, leave them alone."

"Oh but, Leonardo I am afraid it is too late for that. But if it an act of kindness you want from me, than so be it." He said grimly.

"Oh really," I say, narrowing my eyes, already knowing I won't like the answer. "And just what may that be?"

I can almost feel the Shredder grinning beneath his mask. "For now, Leonardo, I will spare you. I will spare long enough, so that you may watch you brothers and your father be slaughtered before your very eyes." He hisses, leaning closer to me.

Without another word, he yanks me off the ground by bleeding arm and flings me behind him into the waiting arms of two foot ninjas. They don't make much of an effort to hold me in place. Guess they figured that they don't need to with the state I'm in. I could barely stand on my own, let alone struggle against them.

"Come along, now Leonardo. I have an Antique Shop, I would like to visit."