The trail lead them towards a pooling station. However, the actual trip there was quite time consuming due to all the adjunct tunnels to clear, and the fact that Leonardo wouldn't split up the away team. Though Raphael was stealthy, the dart Donatello had pulled from Splinter's foot after establishing he did, indeed, have a heartbeat, was rather foreign. Unlike anything the foot or the purple dragons had been spitting at them lately. Leo didn't want to imagine his brother being turned to stone without someone to land a hay-maker in return.

So they crept, bound in silence. It took over an hour to clear their way to the pooling station. It was a fairly-clear water grotto, which contained a number of underwater passages deeper underground, some even leading to the river. They would come here once in awhile as children, though Splinter's fear of them being swept down some channel made those times few and far between. If their intruder had entered the sewers from here it would impossible to know which underwater entrance they had come from. And from which they had left.

Whatever luck it might be, their visitor was still at the grotto when they came to that last long passage. Though the sewers are traditionally dim, a glow of artificial light faintly lit the bricks. Above the sound of flowing water was the soft grating of metal against metal. Though Leonardo couldn't hear it, he sensed Raphael pulling his sai.

~~~
"I don't know what he took." Donatello had said, turning the little beetle shaped dart over in his hand. "But he was in a damn hurry."

"Well yeah, he just robbed us. And attacked Master Splinter." Michelangelo glowered.

"I mean he may be gone already. If you do find him though, try and bring him back alive. He looks like..." Don trailed off.

"What?" Leo prompted.

"He looks like a nasty little thief." Raph answered. "I'm going to stab him through the neck, see how'e looks then."

"He looks like he has a shell. I thought it was Mike five years ago on the tape."

It did look like Mike. That scrawny mid-growth spurt Mike. Kneeling beside one of the benches Don had brought down a few years ago, he was pulling apart some bread loaf sized apparatus by lantern light. His face wasn't green, but nearly black, with sand colored splotches up and over his head. The rest of his coloring was obscured by a dark jumpsuit. A large pod was parked nearby, with a door open into it. What Donatello would term 'dodads' and 'whatzitts' were strewn on the ground, in addition to a bag of barbecue pretzels Don normally kept guarded in his lab.

Leo and Raph watched for a long time, just outside the ring of light.

The dark turtle was pulling apart pieces of some device encircling a large rock, and fitting them to another device. He ate absent minded fistfuls of pretzels and wiped his hands off on his pants. Leo felt the nudge of Raphael's shoulder against his. He nodded, and stepped forward first, still silent, though his heart was nearly racing.

They were only eight feet away and still unnoticed in the dusky light. Raph stopped beside and just behind Leo and waited for the next silent signal. He didn't recognize any of the whazitts on the ground, any could be a weapon.

"Find what you're looking for?" The turtle spun at the sound of Leo's voice, landing on his shell and scrambling to his feet. His eyes were wide open now, and his mouth gaped at them. Leo stood stock still, so Raph did as well. The turtle spoke something garbled and foreign that sounded like it might be a question. "I'm not sure where you're from, but breaking into our home and attacking our father isn't the best kind of introduction." The turtle began to shake that keyed up adrenalin shake. Leo, with an intense calm, walked to a farther bench and sat, never breaking eye contact. "A good first step in remedying the situation would be to give us the antidote to whatever it was you stuck him with." The turtle, inky terrified eyes locked to Leo, shifted one foot then the other back, toward the open water. He ventured something else strange in his tongue, his voice quavering. "Another would be not to try and run." As though he could understand, the turtle turned and made for the water. Leo tossed his head imperceptibly and Raph was flying. The turtle didn't even make it to the pool's edge before Raph tackled him into the cement floor.

That's when the screaming started. Leo looked around for whomever it was that might be coming in to rescue, but there was nothing in the darkness. The water remained placid. The scrawny turtle screamed and struggled as Raphael bound his hands with the red bandana. Leo picked up the bag of pretzels as Raph hefted the thrashing load over his shoulder.

"Shut up, pipsqueak." Raph growled, punching him in the thigh with his free fist. He didn't quiet down though, and as they began the trek back home Leo had to remove his own mask and use it as a gag, walking in step behind Raphael to tie it up. Matching eyes with the dark turtle he saw a kind of terror he was all too familiar with.