Disclaimer: Nope, tooooooooo tired to do this...
Okay, yeah, another new book. Eh, don't worry, I can multitask pretty well. Oh, and this is just the prologue, the next one is the actual Chapter 1! ^^;
Well, anyways, enjoy!
Prologue:
It had started out just fine. Well, as fine as it could be after escaping the Shredder's center of operations after being held imprisoned there for a little over a week. Leonardo had disappeared that night. Just up and vanished. His brothers thought nothing of it at first, Leo was known to have to take a breather once and awhile, when the stress of leadership of both the clan and the team got too much after their father's passing, especially if it was after another heated argument with his immediate younger brother, Raphael. That was the first red flag they noticed. There had been no fight, and Leo had seemed fine, cheerful even, the whole day. The second sign was that he was out longer than he should have, even if it was a stress relief run. They knew something was wrong the moment the clock showed 10:00. Leo had been gone for more than thirty minutes.
Yeah, it might not seem like much of anything to any other, but it was everything to Leonardo. One minute, or even one second could mean the difference of life and death for the people he cared about most. He got home fast, so his anxiety would be settled quickly, for Leonardo loved his family more than anything, he couldn't bear to live without them so he didn't stray far and too long for fear that something would happen while he was away. So when Leo didn't return, they knew something wasn't right. So they searched…and they searched, and they searched. It was like he had evaporated into thin air. No evidence to where, or to why he had left, he was there and then just…gone.
They should have realized something wasn't as it seemed when, just over a week later, Leo came stumbling in the lair. But Donatello had given Leo a clean bill of health with the exception of relaxation and medication to help heal the cuts and bruises he had sustained from the physical beatings. But still, they should have at least asked how he had managed to get away, but everyone was just so relieved that he was home and that he was safe that nobody questioned anything, it just came to the assumption that he had escaped himself. They should have known Shredder had something up his sleeve.