Disclaimer: I have never owned the turtles and most likely never will, sadly. Peter Laird, if you're listening, I'd buy 'em off for all of my fortune of 50 cents.

A/N: Yeah, it's me again. I did submit this story back in...spring, I think it was, but it wasn't very well-written. I've beefed it up, lengthened it, and am actually going to get farther than two chapters. If you haven't read this before, then ignore me. XD

Hey everybody, I'm back! Miss me? I didn't think so. Yeah, you in the back, it touches me, but I think that person next to you is gonna slap you if you don't stop crying out of sheer joy. So I got this idea some time ago after watching the Notes from the Underground episodes. It will have little or no OCs, which is a first for me. No dragons either. I don't think anybody's crying about that though. (cackles) In the timeline, it takes place during the 4th season, after Good Genes. However, it doesn't get to Ninja Tribunal. (crackle snap) This has been a public service announcement.

1.

The rat paused in his scrounging for food and listened intently before scampering out into the sewer tunnel to begin separating another piece of soggy cardboard from the box that had snagged on a pipe sticking out of the brick. As he chewed, it began thinking of the softness this would add to his nest. Perhaps after he had finished harvesting from this part of the tunnels he could find a stray bit of wool or a bedraggled bird feather. Pleasure filled the small animal's frame as he tore off the chunk of material and made his way back to his burrow in a blocked off pipeline. This would make sleeping so much easier…For the past night or so the tunnels had been vibrating fiercely and he had kept hitting his sensitive skull on the unforgiving metal from powerful tremors.

He began shredding the cardboard and, once done, made his way cautiously out of his burrow to take another piece of the box from the tunnel. All that shaking and noise was probably humans and that really didn't concern him. He leaped up to his burrow and deposited the next scrap before going for the box again. Just as he began nibbling, his ears picked up a faint echo nearby. He stiffened and all too suddenly, a green foot slammed down next to him. He darted for the shadows with a startled squeak.

Urgh. He would 'a heard that. The shadow ran through the tunnels as silently as a ghost, looking for a good place to hide himself. As he ran, various holes and pipes appeared and disappeared in his peripheral vision. They were bypassed because of their obvious nature. Hidin' spot…Taking a large, careful step over a puddle, the shadow grimaced to himself. Gotta find one soon…that minute has gotta be up by now.

Finally after what seemed almost a minute, he found an alcove in the wall that was not very easy to see from the tunnels themselves unless one knew where to look. Smirking, he leapt into the shadows and concealed himself, settling his back against the damp bricks in the opposite wall.

Minutes passed. The steady drip drop of a leaky pipe was beginning to annoy him. Occasionally there was a sound but every time he held his breath to avoid possible detection, a rat scampered past. Once it was even a bedraggled cat that looked at him with eerily green eyes. And waiting wasn't help anything. His brothers had probably all been found by now. His pursuer was the master of the game.

He was fighting the urge to run out and go somewhere else to relieve boredom when suddenly a green face popped around the wall. The grin on his face was wide, corny, and toothy.

"Gotcha Raph!"

Raph groaned and face-palmed. Rats. "Geez, Mike, that was probably the longest game of Hide and Seek I ever played. You're off your game today," he quipped, making his way into the tunnels past the Seeker.

His brother kept grinning abrasively, one eye ridge raised. "Aw, I think poor Raphie's just bitter I found him first," he teased, elbowing the hothead in the side.

Raph stopped stretching and stared at him. "You mean ya ain't found Leo or Don yet?" he groaned. Great. If he answered yes, Mikey had actually targeted him first. If no, then he was freakishly fast.

"Nope!" Mikey replied cheerfully, snagging his brother by the bandanna and catching him off-balance in the process. The action elicited a growl akin to that of a rottweiller on a leash out of his brother. He had gone for Raph first. If there was one lesson to be learned about the Game, it was that you don't go for Raph first. "Buuuuuuuut they're still out there somewhere! Come, my trusty sidekick, we must find the evildoers and show them justice!" He struck a comic book pose.

"I'll show you justice," Raph muttered, yanking his bandanna out of Mike's hands before following the skipping turtle down the tunnel.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, Mike, you can stop gloating now." He shifted on his feet.

Mikey grinned widely at him and spread his arms helplessly. "Aw, c'mon Ninja Master Leo, even you have to admit that hiding in those upper level tunnels is obvious!" Leo snorted. "And Donnie?" Mike waved his hand dismissively at the turtle that was currently leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and raising his eye ridge. "Dude, I'm not even gonna comment!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not the one who begged Don in the last game we played not to tell the rest of us he found him and continue on his merry way," Leo jabbed wryly. Raph chuckled darkly and Don coughed to hide his own laughter.

Mike stuck out his tongue. "Hey, I don't see you trying new tactics, Strategy Turtle!" he quipped, fluttering his hands by his face.

Don snorted and smirked, uncrossing his arms. "Alright Mikey, you've had your fun. Let's see how you fare when Raph's 'it'." Mike's cockiness faded visibly and the grin was replaced with an uneasy smile. Raph grinned slyly and made a cutthroat motion with his hand. Payback time. His orange-wearing brother paled and chuckled nervously. Leo hummed the funeral march faintly in a rare display of black humor.

"Um, you sure you don't wanna try being 'it' again, Leo?" Mikey tried to act nonchalant but it was very difficult when facing his red-clad brother, who was grinning like one who had won the lottery. "I mean, Raphie's probably still tired from – "

Raph interrupted. "Oh, I appreciate your 'concern' and all, but don't worry about me, chuckle head," he said, backing up into a position in which he could count. Mike uttered a squeak and grabbed Leo around the arm to partially hide behind him.

Leo grinned and looked down at his chicken-hearted sibling. "Alright guys, same rules apply. One minute to hide, stay within the boundaries. Remember, you make loud noises that all of us, or one of us who's credible in the least, can say we heard – "

"Yeah, and that means no cheating, Mikey," Don said pointedly.

Mike let go of Leo's arm and put his hands on what resembled hips. "Aw come on, Donnie, I wasn't lying! I really did hear Raph scream like a girl that one time!" he said with a pout on his face. Raph signaled him with a hand, and showed him the offenses he was racking up. "Ahhh, um, nevermind," the orange-clad turtle stammered, ducking down.

" - You get clean up in the dojo for a week," Leo finished, rolling his eyes. Mike bounced on his feet nervously, humming the Barney theme song in hopes that Raph would forgo his punishment. "Ready?" Don dropped the relaxed posture. "Go!" Leo and Don started sprinting in opposite directions, leaving Mike to stand there looking at Raph like a deer in the headlights.

"You gonna get going?" Raph asked, a sly grin on his green face. Mike jumped with a squeak and tore off after his other two brothers.

Then Don suddenly found his slack-off sibling running beside him with a nervous smile on his face. "Mikey!" Don whispered in amusement. "You can't hide with me." He tried running faster down the tunnel but Mike kept pace with him in an uncharacteristic display of focus.

He babbled rapidly, eyes wide. "Sure I can! There's gotta be an exception, right? My life's in danger if I hide by myself right? I mean, Raph would hand my shell to me!" Don stopped and shook his head.

"Quit being such a spineless shell-for-brains, Mikey." His brainy brother grinned and poked him in the plastron before disappearing into a dark tunnel.

Mikey's hopes for a long life were dashed in that fatal instant. The betrayal from his normally tame brother…it was too much to handle at such a critical time. Aw, shell, I'm dead. He bolted aimlessly down the tunnel Don had been running before he had made that turn. He almost yelped when a rat scampered nimbly across his path but managed to hold the girly scream at bay with his two hands clapped over his mouth. Several times trash nearly tripped him up in his fleeing from the Beast that pursued him.

Mike didn't know where he was headed but as long as it took him far away from Raph he was good. He made so many turns and jumped into so many pipes he lost sense of any direction. For all he knew he could've been going right back toward his executioner.

His minute was almost up and Mike still hadn't found a hiding spot. "Ohman, ohman, ohman, ohman, ohman, ohman…" he chanted franticly, turning into a large junction of tangled pipes. He jumped for one that stuck out, grabbed it, and flipped on top of it. He glanced around hurriedly before spotting a large pipe near the ceiling. "Phew!" Mikey felt a wave of cool relief flood through him as he shimmied up a large water main and propelled himself toward his savant.

He nearly missed the rim with his fingers but happily caught on to it and pulled himself inside. Deciding for the sake of safety to go further, the orange-wearing turtle crawled through it until he found himself in a large tunnel. Almost three feet of murky water flowed rapidly along it and disappeared over an edge. Mikey dared to indulge his curiosity and looked over.

A swirling whirlpool roared at the bottom. "Duuude…" Mike breathed. "If I'm not careful, that thing could grind me into turtle puree…" But then, so will Raph if he finds me, he gulped. The turtle ran up the tunnel until he found an adjoining passageway and slipped inside. He slid down the wall on his shell until he was sitting comfortably in the inch-deep water. He smirked gleefully and crossed his arms over his plastron. Let's see Raph find me here!

The minutes ticked by and Mike amused himself by counting the number of bricks in the wall opposite him. Fifty-nine, sixty…Oooh! A space with no brick! Bonus two points! the turtle exclaimed inwardly. Sixty-one, sixty-two, sixty-three…cockroach…His lips parted in a triumphant grin. I don't think Raphie's ever gonna find me! It has to have been a half-hour already! Just then a splash echoed through the tunnel. His heart jumped into his mouth. Uh oh…

He didn't have time to think anything else. A shadowy form suddenly leapt from his right and tackled, connecting painfully with him and carrying the both of them out of his hiding place. Mikey released a long, high-pitched squeal of surprise in reply, eyes screwed shut.

"AUGH! Don't eat me! PLEASE don't eat me!" he yelped as his attacker pinned his arms to the wet cement with strong hands.

"Mikey, has anybody ever told you ya make a horrible ninja?" Raph asked smugly. His sibling cracked one eye open. Aw no, he's even worse than a monster! The turtle on top of him lowered his head until he was almost beak to beak with Mike. The orange-wearing turtle quivered, the adrenaline from the ambush still pumping like wildfire through him. "I could see your freak'n hand smears on the pipes."

Michelangelo felt extremely indignant. "Raphie, I almost jumped outta my shell! What'd you do that for?" It was painfully obvious why Raph had jumped him like that but he didn't care. Revenge for what, two or three offenses? So not fair. He tried to wriggle free of the pin his brother had him in but Raph was about as moveable as Leatherhead when sleeping.

The grin never left Raphael's smug face as he withdrew his face. "Do you even need to ask?" he asked. "Besides, you were making so much noise coming up here you deserved it. Heck, you even hummed Splinters lullaby from when we were tykes."

"…Hey. The song is therapeutic." Mikey winced. "Hey Raphie, could you get off me now? You're really heavy."

Raph let his brother up. "Well, besides your trying to lull every rat in the sewer to sleep, I heard weird stuff in the tunnels further down," he grunted, switching subjects.

Mike brushed his arms off. "Like what? Leo and Don converging to make evil plans to smite us all? OW!" He rubbed his skull to ward off the sting from Raph's whap and glared.

"No. More like 'boom's and drilling, smart turtle." Raph crossed his arms.

"Wha-at, so it's a construction crew, big deal."

Raph disappeared through the pipe Mike had used to get into the tunnel in the first place. His voice sounded canned. "You and I both know the city stopped caring about this part of the sewers years ago. There's no need for work down here. Besides that, what construction crew in their right mind uses a drill?" He poked his head out of the hole, frowning. "You coming or what?"

Mike blinked. "What, we're gonna check it out? What about Leo and Don?"

Raph rolled his eyes and vanished.

"Hey Ra-aph, wait up!" Mikey ran after his brother, vanishing through the pipe with a 'woohoo!' which was followed by a smack and 'Ow! Cut out, Raph!'.

Michelangelo followed his brother through the tunnels for a long while, occasionally hearing noises that sounded suspicious. More often than those sounds, though, he heard (and felt) the thud of Raph's hand against his head as he commented on various things.

Suddenly Raph halted at the corner of a tunnel, peeked around, and held up his hand. The red-clad turtle backed up. "Stop. Look over there," he whispered, pointing around the corner. His curiosity piqued, Mikey tiptoed forward and peered around the wall.

It was the tunnel they had first seen Quarry in. Drilling mechanisms had torn the wall where the genetic recombinant had melted the cement. What was odd about it was that two of Bishop's men were standing guard by the entrance. And both had guns. Big guns.

Mikey scratched his head and the two retreated a ways down the tunnel before whispering. "What the shell are Bishop and his cronies doing down here?"

Raph grunted in reply. "I dunno. He wouldn't be lookin' for us. He already got his samples when he stuck us that first time we kicked his tail." The hot head suddenly grabbed Mikey and pulled him into the shadows of a different passage as a group of patrolling men walked by, guns at the ready. His brother nearly yelped in surprise but managed to hold it in until they passed by.

"Geez, you'd think they practically expected us to come and mess with 'em," Mikey said slyly. "And they have those big patrols of goons because the Battle Nexus Champion lives down here!" Raph glared sullenly at his brother.

"What I don't get is why he has that big drill down here…And why he's in Quarry's tunnel."

"Maybe he wants to make some cute little monsters in that Foot lab," Mike sniggered, receiving a well-aimed smack. "Ow!"

"Can it, Mike. It ain't funny," he growled. "Y' saw how much pain that guy on the vid feed went through. And everybody else was losin' their minds."

"Geez Raph, talk about your sense of justice. You should totally be my sidekick." Mike dodged the next swing and razzed his hotheaded brother in reply before getting smack on the arm.

Raph growled and watched another patrol go by. "Will you shut it? You're gonna get us found out!"

"Pffft," the gregarious turtle replied with a roll of his eyes. "Those guys couldn't hear you if you screamed 'Ollie Ollie Oxen free!' right in their ears. I mean, those helmets…thick." Mikey chuckled, apparently liking the idea. Raph sent him a 'don't you dare' look and he subsided with a nervous grin.

"…Well, I'm gonna check it out and see what that psychopath is up to," Raph said determinedly, getting up.

As he went to jump for a pipe in the ceiling, two pairs of hands shot out of the darkness and grabbed the both of them, yanking them back into the tunnel. Mike's initial reaction was a girly scream but one of the hands clapped over his mouth. Raph was caught in a hold he couldn't break free of, his captor holding his arms deftly behind his shell.

A snigger erupted from the one behind Mikey. "Geez, Mike, you sure don't know the meaning of the word 'stealth'," Don chuckled. "We could hear you and Raph from two tunnels down."

Raph growled and Mike sighed in relief. "Dude, I am so tired of being jumped today!" he whimpered as Don let him go.

"Next training exercise, we're upping the stakes," Leo muttered with a hint of amusement in his voice as he released his hotheaded brother. "As it is, you two have dojo duty for the week." Raph and Mike groaned. Don and Leo made their way back to the main tunnel. "Though it looks like we'll have to meddle with Bishop again."

Don rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "The only reason I can think of for Bishop going into Quarry's tunnel is that he wants the tech in the Foot lab down there," he said, pointing with a thick finger to the ground. "But he already has enough alien stuff to outdo Shredder's…so why?"

Mikey elbowed Raph and grinned. "Maybe he knows we've been raiding his lab for vanilla egg cremes," he said slyly. (1) Don and Leo grinned but those smiles faded quickly.

Finally, Don crouched. "I'm gonna go jack one of Bishop's vans to find out what I can," he announced softly. With that (and Mike calling out that it was suicide), Don leapt out into the tunnel.

He ran along the wall until he reached the corner of the passageway and peered around it. Hmmm..two goons. If I knocked them out cold, somebody would be bound to notice…Suddenly a clatter erupted from the opposite end of the tunnel. Don wall-jumped up into a tangle of pipes in the ceiling as a patrol came running by to investigate the noise. The brainy turtle watched them before he grinned. Mikey doing his job.

Don shimmied carefully along the pipes until he was right above Bishop's two henchmen. He debated on whether or not he should try to take them out. He would be one quickly dead turtle if that patrol came back and found their buddies incapacitated. And besides that, all he wanted was information, not a fight. The last thing he and his brothers needed was another tangle with Bishop. Don finally decided against acting offensively and grasped the top of the yawning hole Bishop's drill had bored in the wall. He swung through and immediately after landing shoved himself up against the shadowed rocks.

The brainy turtle stiffened and tried to make himself as unnoticeable as possible when one of the door guards looked in as though he heard something. "What's wrong?" he heard the other ask.

"Ah, I guess it was nothing. Man, I'm so stressed I think I'm just about ready to shoot myself," the first door guard muttered. "I must be hearing things." Don proceeded to thank whatever Man dwelled Upstairs and looked around from his vantage point. There was one of Bishop's black trucks nearby. The hatch door was cracked open just slightly. Perfect!

Don made his way toward the truck, keeping his breath shallow and his movements subtle. When he reached the back hatch, he listened carefully around the drilling noises for any signs of life inside. Clacking was coming from inside. He grimaced. Drat, and that means I'll have to take care of whoever's in there. Oh well. Don lightly grabbed the slightly ajar door and opened it just enough to slip inside.

The dim lighting was perfect. The typist at the keyboard turned but couldn't see him. Muttering, the man went back to his work. Don crept up behind him and pinched a nerve at the base of his neck. He slumped in his chair, arms falling limp. The turtle seized him under the arms and lifted him out of his chair, grunting with the effort. Well, at least the humane society knows Bishop feeds his pets well. Don laid him gently on the floor, then went to the door that opened to the driver's seat.

He cracked it open. Yes, there was a driver. But he could be left in his seat. The turtle reached through the space and grabbed the same nerve as he did the other fellow. The driver's head lolled back. Don propped it up and examined his handy work. Looks normal to me! He shut the door and went back to the computer, taking his staff out of his belt and settling himself in the chair.

He cracked his knuckles. Alright Agent Bishop, let's see just what you're up to…Don read what was on the screen. It was all a bunch of gobbledy gook. The turtle took the mouse and minimized the window, half expecting to see a picture of Bishop's face as the desktop picture. Brainwashing employees as well as being a psychopath, he said to himself with a grin. Disappointingly it was only the logo of the President. Darn.

The turtle surveyed the icons on the screen. There was another button in the taskbar, so he opened that up. Ah, the plot thickens…These pages had the signature logo of the Foot in the top right-hand corner. He could tell that the documents were on the lab deep underground by the numerous mentions of digger mutants. The picture of Sydney in the middle of one page confirmed his suspicions.

He propped his head on one hand and scrolled further down. But why would he have these…that project is long gone. And the technology's screwed because of the last time we ventured down there with Sydney. Don minimized that window and clicked another button on the taskbar. He frowned and narrowed his eyes at the text. Subway tunnels jeopardized? Immediate investigation necessary? When was this written? He checked the date. It was recent. This is weird. The missive was signed by the governor of New York. Why wasn't this publicized? I'm pretty sure the people taking trains would like to know…or maybe there's a reason it was kept secret, he mused.

The man on the floor behind him moaned and Donatello decided he had been there too long. If I could just find a way to copy this information and take it back to the Lair without –

Then he stiffened as a spine-chilling voice came from behind.

"I didn't think you'd be so eager to meddle in my business again after what happened the last time, Donatello."

So that's how the original chapter ended. I'll have the second one up soon too, methinks. (wink) Tell me what you think if you like.

LN