"Come on! We have to get out of here!"

Leo tied his bright blue bandana tightly over his eyes before storming out of the warehouse and into the network of dirt roadways, not even seeming to care if anyone saw a giant anthropomorphic turtle walking around in broad daylight. His three astounded younger brothers didn't move an inch as if their feet were rooted to the ground. They heard their brother's order, but their entire bodies were frozen in dead silence. A silence so thick that it trapped their words right on the edge of their tongues. Even Raph didn't have the guts to say a word. Donnie's mind was running like a computer, searching for any possible explanation but with no result. Mikey was to terrified to even let go of Raph, but the silence was threatening to choke him.

"Donnie?" Mikey breathed timidly, making Donnie jump a little because it was the first word that anyone of them said in several minutes. "What's happened to Leo?"

Donnie wanted to give him a reasonable explanation, but he also didn't want to lie to him. Especially him.

"You don't know, do you?"

The scientific turtle sighed and shook his head. "No Mikey. I don't."

"But you have an answer for anything."

"I'm sorry Mikey, but I'm completely clueless on this one."

This made Mikey gasp. "Then...if you don't know what's wrong with Leo, then how are we going to help him?!

Raph still didn't say anything, but was suddenly interested in the ground as if he would find some answer scrawled in the dirt. Donnie thought very hard and started to pace with his hand on his chin. "Well, whatever is going on with him, I don't think it's Leo himself that's allowing him to act this way. Something else was involved."

"What are you thinkin Don?" Mikey inquired.

"Did you see how anxious he was? Since when is Leo this anxious?"

"That'd be right before…." Mikey abruptly stopped.

"Before he faced Shredder and was….cut down" Raph finished in a low voice, still staring at the ground. "I should have confronted him about it when I had the chance."

"It's no good pointing fingers right now Raph. We need to figure this out."

"We need to find him first. In fact, what are we doing here?" Raph cut in and sheathing his sais. "We know where he's going. Come on. If we hurry, we can still catch him," breaking into a run in the direction Leo had gone. And Donnie and Mikey followed him.

Raph took the lead as they took to the trees. If they were going to find Leo, their best advantage to find him without being spotted was to take the higher ground. They ran for nearly twenty minutes and still no sign of Leo. The sun was already starting to set when April's little white farmhouse came into view.

Right as they emerged into the clearing around the farmhouse, Raph stopped them. All was completely quiet. Even the noisy clucking chickens in the coop had been silenced. No sound of the TV or anything else.

Peeking inside the windows, the lights were on, but there were papers littering the floor and a few stray pieces of frozen pizza lying on the kitchen counter. And there seemed to be no one home. The chairs in the dining room were turned over. One of them cut in half straight down the middle. Incisions and cuts covered the wall.

"Guys why are we doing this? We live here," Mikey whispered.

"Because from the looks of it, Leo's been here already and who knows what he's done to Casey and April. Honestly Mikey? Do have at least half a brain inside that pighead of yours?"

"Come on," Mikey placed his hand on the knob, "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Mikey don't!" The door came open, and Mikey's head vanished inside of his shell right as black blur whizzed right past his head and stuck fast into the pillar on the porch. It was April's tessen.

"April?!" Donnie called, rushing past Mikey.

"Donnie?!"

"April. It's us."

The redheaded teenager came out from behind the door by the stairs and embraced Donnie, followed by Casey who was armed to the teeth with fall of his gear and every kind of hockey stick he had. There was a long raw scratch over his right cheek.

"Guys, where you been?"

"Are you guys okay?"

"We're cool. Have you seen Leo?"

"We were hoping you've seen him? What happened here?"

"It was Leo. He just busted in, yelling to us about Shredder coming for all of us. When we told him that everything was fine, he started to get angry. Then he began to yell at someone. But we couldn't see anything. He started get coated with bruises and cuts, mostly from running around the house and getting knocked around as if he was fighting someone. But there was no one else there."

"We tried everything to get him to calm the heck down, but he didn't seem to hear anything that," said Casey, "Your bro has completely lost it."

"I-I even tried to reach him, but he couldn't hold still long enough for me to get anywhere near him. We hid in the other room until you guys came. Sorry about that Mikey."

"No problem. It's cool."

"Maybe if we could get him to hold still long enough, you can try to reach him."

"But we don't even know where he is,"Raph said.

"We may have not have very good T-phone reception, the trackers on them are fully operational, even if the phones are turned off."

"Great. Now let's go!"

His steps didn't waver from the path as he ran aimlessly through the woods, slashing branches, bushes, or anything that stood in his way, not caring about the cuts that were all over his body and the pain in his leg that hurt like shell. He pushed away all of those thoughts. The only one visible was the immense hatred for the voice that continued to haunt and drive him on. Every other sense and view was sealed behind a wall of pitch black. From time to time he heard other voices that cried out to him that he recognized to be his brothers, but pushed them aside as well. Only to bring back the memory of their ice-cold bodies lying on the gravel roof top covered with blood-stained white snow. Dead at the hands of a nonhuman cold-blooded murderer.

His thoughts were empty, but not his mind. Every sore muscle was still toned and functional, even though they were hurt. He leapt the fence with ease knowing exactly where to find his enemy.

"Shredder!?" Leo screamed at the top of his lungs. He headed into the building Metal Sector XP37 with his katanas clenched in his hands. His two best friends and the only ones he trusted in this fight.

"Shredder, come out coward!" he reiterated, climbing his way down the basement stairs and into the darkness. "Have I proved to be such a worthy adversary that you would not dare face!?"

He was answered by a stunning blow to the head that sent him back on his feet and into the wall behind him. He rubbed the back of his head, but ducked in time for a blade to just nick the tip of his bandana tails and he slid through Shredder's legs, blades out. But his swords didn't even touch him. Shredder flipped back and slammed his fist into Leo's hurt leg. Leo screamed and he was hurled through the air by his arm before he was rammed face first into the concrete floor. Twisting out of his grip, he flipped back onto his feet.

"Your persistence and skill are admirable, but they will not save you now. Your followers. Your human allies. They can't save you."

At once he vanished behind a pile of rubble. Leo chased after him, but didn't see him.

"Why couldn't they see you?"

"I assumed that your brilliant brother has told you about cloaking devices."

"I'm familiar with all of your filthy tricks Shredder."

Shredder struck hard at Leo's shoulder. Leo blocked, but Shredder was way too fast! He dodged and quickly took the opportunity to cut him as Leo attempted to stick a blow at his head.

Both of Leo's katanas fell from his hands. One skidded across the floor while the other hissed through the air and stuck fast into the wall.

Leo wobbled on his hurt leg, only to be struck down again by a kick in the center of his chest.

"I won't let you win. Not this time!"

"The locator has stopped up ahead," Donnie told the others, briefly checking his tracker every few minutes as they all ran on the dirt road."It's the same building that he said he saw Shredder."

"What do we do when we find him?" Casey asked.

"We try to find out what's going on with him and put him in his right mind again," Apri answered.

"Try?! We're going to try?!" Raph growled.

"Yes."

"You got any better ideas Raph?" Raph went quiet. "That's what I thought."

"I don't see him." They looked behind all the crates, but suddenly stopped at the sound of Leo's voice.

"Guys! Down here!" Mikey called, and they ran down the stairs in single file. Coming round a corner, there was Leo flipping around without his swords. As if some strange invisible force was throwing punches at him.

Mikey gave a completely confused look."Uh? Donnie? Explanation?"

"SHREDDER!" Leo hollered, turning in their direction. All of them gasped, mostly because of all of the wounds all over him. "You need to get out of here! Shredder-"

"Is not here Leo." Donnie said as calmly as possible and slowly walking towards his flustered older brother.

"He is here! And he's real! You think I did this to myself?!" he exclaimed, gesturing to all of cuts.

"Dude, Shredder and his goons are miles away from here."

"No, he tracked us here! And he's cloaking himself. That's why you guys couldn't see him."

"I did a complete inspection of the Party Wagon and there were no trackers anywhere on it."

"And we're the only ones here Leo." Raph protested, "If he was here, we would have known."

"Leo don't you see? There is no tracker. There is no Shredder here," April interjected.

Leo suddenly balled his hands into fists and glared angrily at the four of them. He moved slowly in their direction. "You don't believe me, do you? We're supposed to be a team. We're supposed to trust each other. If you can't trust me…I can't trust you." He stepped forward and grabbed Casey by the collar of his sweatshirt, holding a fist in the air.

"Shredder needs to pay for his actions! And I'll silence anyone you gets in my way!" He let the fist fly and Casey closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact.

That punch never came. A horrible sound of metal hitting bone rang in their ears. Casey stared wide-eyed as Leo's grip loosened and his whole body when limp as he fell. He grabbed the blue-clad turtle's arms right before he hit the floor and laid him gently on the ground.

Raph tightly closed his eyes as stray tear ran down his cheek and his sai clattered to the floor. "I'm really sorry about this bro."