Another story created by the Terrapin Tarts Round Robin team: KameTerra, Winnychan, and DeeMG!
"This is bad."
"What? This is AWESOME!"
"No," Leonardo countered. He lowered his binoculars and gave Mike a stern frown. "Tactically, it's very bad. Will you look at the length of that line? Not to mention the florescent lights, the roaming patrols of security guards..."
"Who knew so many people would show up, even in this weather?" Michelangelo leaned forward off of the rooftop to get a better view, his striped scarf flapping in the wind. Leo grabbed it and yanked him backwards roughly.
"Are you TRYING to get us killed? Tell me again what I am doing out here with you in the dead of night during a snowstorm, risking our lives...?"
"Midnight is not exactly the dead of night, Leo. What are you, seventeen going on total geezer?"
"You can poke fun at me all you like. I only came along to make sure you didn't get yourself caught, and - I'm sorry, Mike. But I'm not seeing a good way to do this. Your winter disguise is not going to stand up to that kind of scrutiny. And judging by the trench coats and gamer geek t-shirts, every kid in that crowd is going to be carrying a smart phone. We'll be on YouTube before the night is over."
"Sweet! I always wanted to go viral."
"That's it. Back to the van. We're going home."
Michelangelo's eyes widened. "What? No!"
"Maybe we can try again tomorrow, when there isn't a three-ring circus taking place outside of Best Buy."
"They'll be sold out tomorrow! Until the next shipment arrives. It'll be the same thing all over town! Maybe as long as a week!"
"Time enough for Casey and April to get back from vacation."
"But... but the world is breaking up! For the next two days, the evil dragon Deathwing is tearing through Azeroth, burninating the countryside!" Mike grabbed Leonardo by his arms and gave his brother a desperate shake. "I did the dishes for HOW many weeks? We are NOT leaving without my game, Leo!"
"Wait! What was that?" Leo broke out of Mike's grip and moved to the other side of the roof, peering at the back of the building. His eyes darkened. "Something's fishy about this."
"I'll say," Mike grumbled. "That kid was, like, ten. I bet he never washed a dish in his life."
Leo ignored him and crouched down low, squinting at the fire escape. "Mike. I think there's a body on the fire escape."
He didn't get an answer. Glancing back, he...didn't see Michelangelo anywhere at all.
"Damn," he muttered, racing back to his original lookout spot. Yes, there was his brother, making a beeline for the bubbling stream of people waiting to buy a game. Leo shook his head in disbelief. "I should leave you here, just to teach you a lesson."
He didn't do it, of course. He watched just long enough to determine that Michelangelo was actually getting in the end of the line, and that the viciously cold weather and blowing snow was enough - momentarily - to keep the humans' curious eyes off of him, and then he ran back to look over the edge of the building at the fire escape again.
It was so hard to see through the snow, and the gloom at the back of the building didn't help matters. Leo peered into the shadows, frowning. It certainly looked like a body, lying on the harsh metal platform about fifteen feet down from the roof. But it might be something else - an old blanket, a pile of trash, even just a trick of the light. "Damn," he said again. He listened carefully for any sounds coming from the front of the building, sounds that might indicate that Mike was in trouble. There was no way he'd be able to hear anything through the wind, though. Leonardo bit his lip, thinking, and studied the shape down below. His hands moved over the heavy coat, feeling the faint outlines of the pouches on his belt, as he considered his options. Climbing claws, and I could be down there and back before Mike's even moved two feet in that line, he decided.
He swung into action.
It took him longer to shed the clumsy disguise of slacks, coat, scarf, and especially the much-loathed shoes, than it did to slip on the climbing claws and begin making his way down the side of the building. The wind whistled around him, not reduced at all by the bulk of the building he clung to. Leo felt for tiny places to brace his toes as he shifted his weight and his balance from hand to hand, uncomfortably aware that he was still six stories off the ground.
Finally, his feet touched frozen metal, and he dropped onto the platform as silently as speed would allow. Before his hands even left the wall, Leonardo was swinging his head around, looking for the dark shape that had seemed so much like a body from up above, even as he hoped he was wrong.
Unfortunately, he was right. It was a body.
Leo drew a sword, the oiled blade slipping free with barely a sound. The person was face down, but even so Leo could tell it was a man, and he approached cautiously, senses strained to the utmost.
The man was dressed warmly in all black.
Yeah…so probably not up here for the view. Dammit.
He couldn't tell if the guy was alive or not, and just to be safe, he held his blade at ready as he prodded the body with one foot.
No movement. No sound.
Leo eased out a breath, sending a column of vapor into the air, and bent to roll the guy over. Instantly, he knew the man was beyond help. Brown eyes stared fixedly back at him, and the dark shine on his abdomen was apparent in spite of the dark clothing. A stab wound, if Leo had to guess. But where was his attacker? And what was he doing on the fire escape?
Easing back slightly until he was hidden more deeply in the shadow of the building, he studied his surroundings closely, looking for a clue. Crouching low, he peered down through the grate of the fire escape, and on the landing below he saw what he was looking for. Though the wind had kept most of the fire escape clear of snow, it was heavy enough and wet enough to stick in some places, and a fluffy piled had accumulated on one side of the platform, directly below the victim. Blood had dripped down through the grate and darkened some of the snow, but that wasn't what drew his focus. There was also the scuff of a boot. On top of the blood.
Someone else had gone down, after this man started to bleed.
Leonardo gave the body a final glance, looking for some other clue. His clothes were not Foot Clan regalia, or any sort of uniform. He might have been a victim, nothing more, but something about the black close-fitting clothes tickled his intuition, something stealthy and professional about them. You could climb fire escapes in the snow and blend into either shadows or crowds in clothes like that.
He tore his gaze away from the body and began to descend the building, still using his Shuko spikes rather than the fire escape in an effort to conceal his own tracks as much as to preserve those left behind by the murderer. The body had still been warm enough to melt the snowflakes dropping onto his skin. The killer might not have gone far.
Abruptly, the tracks ended. Leo had expected them to continue to the ground at least, and had been moving quickly. It startled him to discover virgin snow three stories down from the body. He wound up back-tracking to discover that they did not continue down the next set of rungs but stopped at a half-open window.
He slipped onto the fire escape and approached the window cautiously, hugging the wall and walking only where the overhang kept the snow away. He tentatively peeked in and started to survey the inside of a dark room. As his gaze adjusted to the low light, he realized that there was a man hugging the wall just inside.
The man was looking directly back at him.
Leonardo was so startled to lock with someone's gaze that he whipped back out of sight and drew both blades from their hilts. He stood panting for a moment until his brain caught up with him. As soon as he had seen Leo, the man - Leo had thought maybe he was pointing a gun, but his last image had been of the shadowy figure lifting a finger to his lips.
He forced himself to look again, and sure enough. "Nobody."
The vigilante raised his finger to his lips again, and beckoned with the other hand. Get in here, was a clear demand...and the only thing clear at the moment. Leonardo eased his way inside, careful to not even jostle the window.
It should have been a relief to get inside, out of the cold and the wind. It wasn't, though - Nobody radiated tension. As soon as the turtle was inside, he turned his head toward the door on the other side of the room, and slid along the wall to get a better angle to hear whatever was going on in the hall outside. Leonardo followed as closely as he dared with bare blades in his hands and no real understanding of what was going on.
There were voices in the hall outside. At least two, and possibly three voices, speaking low and quickly in a mix of Japanese, English, and some other language that Leo couldn't place.
He sheathed one blade carefully and stepped up in front of Nobody, ears straining to pick some meaning out of the tangle of language.
"...crazy gamers...can't believe they something...all night!"
"I know! It's like a disease, these something something..."
"How long before we have to get back downstairs?"
Incredulous, Leo eased forward to get a good look out the door. Three Best Buy employees sat outside on a narrow walkway, passing a cigarette back and forth while they looked down through the railing onto the sales floor below. Judging by their conversation, and the sad appearance of their bright blue shirts, Leonardo guessed that they had been there for a while. He turned back to Nobody with a questioning look.
The vigilante shook his head tightly, his eyes flicking up and over the heads of the smokers in a way that carried meaning.
Leonardo turned back to squint out the door, to see what Nobody might be looking at. He didn't see anything at all, not even a flicker of movement -
- and then everything went black.