Once they were back in the sewer system leading to the water plant in Central Park, Leo slowed down again, though his rigid bearing radiated irritation and disapproval, and still discouraged any casual talk. Raphael wasn't inclined to conversation either, as he spent most of the journey glaring daggers at Leo's shell.

That didn't stop Mikey from dropping back to walk beside Don, and he quietly slipped a nondescript black cell phone out of his belt and into Don's hand. Don blinked and eyed it for a moment, then looked back at Mikey with one brow ridge raised in silent question. Mikey just shrugged and grinned, then made a 'yoink!' motion with one hand. He'd managed to grab the phone from one of the thugs during the chaos, figuring that maybe Don would be able to do something with it.

Don eyed the cell phone again, a thoughtful expression on his face, then slipped it into his belt and gave Mikey an approving smile. Mikey beamed in return before bounding ahead to catch up with Leo as they came up to the hidden door into the water plant. He smoothly slipped past just in time to beat Leo to the door and opened it with a flourish, then bowed and swept his arm forward, gesturing for the others to enter first. "Gentlemen, after you…!"

Leo gave Mikey an exasperated look as he passed him, while Raph just ignored him and stormed through the doorway in Leo's wake, radiating aggravation. Mikey stuck his tongue out at Raph's back, which prompted a snort of laughter from Don. He stifled it behind one hand, disguising it as a cough, and lightly smacked Mikey's shoulder as he passed. Mikey just grinned and entered the Lair as well, pulling the door securely closed behind him.

Inside the Lair, Splinter had risen from his worn old armchair to greet them. "Welcome home, my sons," he said, his hands folded on top of his walking stick. "And how did your night go?"

"Thank you, Master Splinter," Leonardo replied with a bow, which the others echoed behind him. "It was a… rather productive night." Raph snorted but said nothing, and Leo shot him a quick glare before smoothing his expression back out as he looked back to Splinter.

Splinter didn't miss the tension radiating between Leonardo and Raphael, but he made no mention of it, content to let his sons work things out amongst themselves. If they wanted or needed his input, they would ask him for it. He merely nodded, his expression serene. "That is good to hear, and it is a relief to see you all still unharmed."

"It's a relief to be unharmed!" Mikey interjected cheekily, grinning from beside Don.

"Not to mention it's a relief not to have to patch any of you up," Don added dryly even as he reached back and lightly smacked Mikey upside the head. Mikey didn't bother trying to duck and just winced with a theatrical little yelp, then snickered.

Splinter resisted the urge to roll his eyes and sigh at his sons' antics. "Do not stay up too late," he merely said instead. "Since there were no injuries, we will have training first thing in the morning. Goodnight, my sons." He turned and headed for his room, his walking stick tapping against the floor, and allowed himself a small smile as the turtles chorused their goodnights behind him and Mikey groaned about early morning training.

Almost as soon as the door to Splinter's room had closed behind the old rat, Leonardo spun around to face Raphael, his brow furrowed in exasperated irritation. "You and I need to talk, Raph," he said with forced calm as he moved a little further away from Splinter's room.

"Oh really?" Raph's hackles immediately went up, and he planted his hands on his hips and glared at Leo, not budging from where he was. "About what exactly, fearless leader?"

Don and Mikey exchanged resigned, rueful glances. "Fight?" Mikey murmured quietly.

"Fight," Don agreed with a roll of his eyes.

"Lab?"

"Lab." The two began edging around the bristling pair, then slipped off into Don's lab, leaving Leo and Raph to their argument.

Meanwhile, Leo had narrowed his eyes and glared unblinkingly at his red-banded brother. "What were you thinking, charging in like that?" Leo hissed at Raph, careful to keep his voice low despite his irritation. "I specifically told you to hold your position!"

"I was thinkin' that we shouldn't let those Purple Dragon jerks get away with a whole damn lot of alien weaponry, that's what I was thinkin'!" Raph growled back, matching Leo's glare with one of his own. "Just 'cause you're too overly cautious for your own good doesn't mean I'm gonna sit 'round on my shell an' let those punks drive off with all that heat!"

"I wasn't being 'overly cautious', Raphael, I was thinking ahead!" Leo retorted, making a short, sharp gesture with one hand. "Something that seems to escape you on a constant basis! We could've followed them, found out exactly where they were taking those guns, maybe even discovered where they're stockpiling the bulk of their weaponry!"

"An' what woulda happened if we hadn't been able to keep up with 'em, or find out where they were goin'?" Raph countered sharply. "We woulda had an entire shipment of alien guns in the Dragons' hands, an' the next time we saw those guns I'm pretty damn sure they wouldn't be safely stacked in crates!"

"You need to stop worrying so much about the immediate and start considering the bigger picture!" Leo countered, his voice exasperated. "Yes, your actions prevented that lot of guns getting out on the street, but it also prevented us from finding the Dragon's main stockpile of weapons! We could've used this opportunity to do a lot more damage to the Dragons than just getting rid of one batch of weapons!"

As they continued arguing, Don and Mikey had settled down inside the cluttered room that Don had claimed and set up as his workshop and lab. Tables and benches lined the walls, some bearing various computer towers and monitors, others covered with gadgets and trinkets in various states of completion, along with tools and blueprints and notebooks. A couple of overloaded bookcases were against one wall beside a makeshift cot draped with a faded purple blanket, and more tools and equipment hung from racks on the walls above the benches.

Don slid into his chair and rolled over to his main computer desk, plugged the phone that Mikey had given him into one of his many computers, and began working his tech wizardry on it. As he worked, Mikey perched on the edge of the desk, careful to not jostle any of the multitude of gadgets and tools and parts scattered haphazardly over the desk's surface, and watched with curiosity. The sounds of the argument outside the lab drifted through the half-open door, and after a few moments of listening to it, Mikey rolled his eyes. "Think Splinter's gonna jump in to break that up at some point?" he asked Don dryly, gesturing towards the door and the two turtles beyond it.

Don shook his head, most of his attention still focused on what he was doing. "Doubt it," he replied absently. "He's already gone to bed, and at least they're being kinda quiet about it this time. Besides, you know what Splinter's said - we must learn to solve our conflicts ourselves, without his interference."

Mikey sighed and pulled one leg up to prop his heel against the table edge so he could rest his chin on his knee, his arms wrapped around his shin. "Well, I just hope they can figure that out sooner rather than later. This whole 'arguing each other to a standstill' every time they disagree over something is getting seriously old. Heck, even them just agreeing to disagree would be an improvement."

Don let out a quiet hum of agreement, then frowned at the phone. "Huh."

"Huh?" Mikey echoed, peering at the phone as well before looking over his shoulder at the multitude of monitors displaying the results of Don's efforts. "Is that a good 'huh' or a bad 'huh'?"

"Not sure yet. This thing's got some pretty sophisticated security on it," Don replied thoughtfully, tapping at his keyboard. "Nothing I can't get through, of course, but it'll take a bit more effort, and it's not exactly the sort of security I'd be expecting on a regular gang member's phone."

"Oooh, is it like super secret military security?" Mikey asked eagerly. "Maybe they really are some kinda elite military unit gone rogue!"

Don chuckled and shook his head slightly, though his fingers never stopped dancing across his keyboard. "I'm starting to suspect that Raph is right and that you really have been reading too many comics."

Mikey let out a huff of denial and waved one hand dismissively before wrapping it back around his shin again. "Not at all! I don't get that kinda thing from comics, anyway." He grinned at Don. "Now if he'd said I'd been watching too many action movies lately, then that'd be a whole different matter!"

Don took a moment to roll his eyes before looking back at his screens. "Right, of course," he deadpanned. "Because it's so important to be accurate with that kind of thing."

"Well, it is!" Mikey said with firm conviction.

He was interrupted from saying any more by Don suddenly leaning back in his chair with a triumphant "Hah!", his hands flying up into the air in a gesture of victory before returning to his keyboard. "Cracked the security. Now let's see exactly what all that fancy code was hiding…" He resumed typing furiously, the tip of his tongue sticking out slightly from the corner of his mouth and a look of intense concentration on his face.

As he worked, Mikey alternated between watching him and listening to the argument still going on outside Don's lab. As far as he could hear, Leo and Raph were just arguing themselves in circles, neither one willing to compromise. Especially since they both had valid points.

Don suddenly sat back in his chair again, drawing Mikey's attention back to him, but instead of another exclamation of victory he merely said, "Uh oh."

"Uh oh? I don't like 'uh oh'. That phrase is never a good phrase to hear," Mikey commented, looking back at Don with a wary expression. "Dare I ask?"

Don rearranged a few of the windows on his monitors and adjusted a few more things, then gestured to the screens with one hand. "Take a look, see if you can figure it out."

Mikey eyed Don dubiously for a moment, then shifted around on the edge of the desk so he could see all the monitors. He quickly scanned over their contents, blinked, then went back and read everything more thoroughly, comprehension slowly dawning on his face. "... Oh. Oh." He looked back to Don, his brows furrowed apprehensively. "Does this all mean what I think it does?"

Don just nodded, and Mikey grimaced. "Right. Good ol' turtle luck strikes again. Yikes. Dibs on not telling Leo and Raph the bad news, then."

"Gee, thanks Mikey," Don said blandly with a little shake of his head, then hauled himself out of his chair. "I suppose we should tell them sooner rather than later, get it over with at least."

"And finally break up their argument," Mikey added.

Don blinked at him in surprise. "What, they're still going?" Mikey just rolled his eyes and gestured towards the door, indicating the ongoing debate that could still be heard outside. and Don sighed again and pinched at the area between his eyes. "All right, let's go."

He led the way out of his lab, and Mikey slipped off his perch on Don's desk and followed him out. Once they were both through the doors though, Mikey bounded ahead, barrelling towards his arguing brothers who were, at this point, standing almost nose-to-nose as they snarled at each other. Leo's arms were folded across his chest, and Raph's hands were clenched into fists at his sides, his shoulders tense. At least they were still keeping their voices relatively low so as not to disturb Splinter, but the tension between them was almost palpable.

Mikey bounded up to them, unbothered by the way they pretty much ignored him in favour of continuing to snap at each other. "Terribly sorry to interrupt the lively debate you seem to have going here!" he interrupted without shame or remorse, cutting Leo off mid-spiel. "But I have good news and bad news!"

Leo and Raph both turned their heads towards him and gave him identical irritated glares, but Mikey continued undeterred. "The good news is… Donnie and I have found out just who that gang selling the weapons were!"

That pulled them both up short, and they backed away from each other, temporarily distracted from their ire, and shifted to face Don and Mikey fully. "You did?" Leo asked. "How?"

Mikey beamed at them. "I managed to lift a phone from one of the gang members when they were all distracted, and our resident genius worked his technological voodoo on it!"

Raph let out an impatient huff. "Never mind how you did it and just tell us who they are!"

Mikey paused dramatically for a moment before replying. "That's the bad news."

Leo frowned and Raph let out an irritated little growl. "So get on with it and tell us already!"

Don cleared his throat and stepped forwards, absently drumming his fingertips together in front of him. "Well, I cracked the security on the phone Mikey snagged - which was far too sophisticated for any regular gang member to have, by the way - and got into its stored memory and contacts and everything, and did a bit of data digging and call tracing and-" He cut himself off as he saw both Leo and Raph give him impatient glares. "And long story short, I believe we have just seriously messed up an undercover police unit's attempts to bust the Purple Dragons."

That revelation was met with stunned silence for a moment as Leo and Raph absorbed the news, then Leo just slapped one hand over his eyes and grimaced. "Ah, shell."

Raph blinked at Don before frowning disbelievingly. "You gotta be kiddin'. You sure 'bout this?"

Don gestured back towards his workshop. "You can have a look yourselves, if you like."

"No, no, that won't be necessary, we believe you," Leo interrupted with a resigned sigh, dropping his hand from his face. "Shell, we really messed up this time."

"No kidding," Don commented wryly, then shrugged and gave Leo a lopsided little smile. "But it's not like we really had any way to know beforehand. When was the last time we actually encountered the good old New York Police Department doing much of anything?"

"And hey, look on the bright side!" Mikey chirped up. "At least we didn't actually kill anybody, right? So we don't have to worry about being labelled cop killers! And I was almost right with my idea about them being some kinda military unit!"

"Mikey…!" Raph growled warningly, and Mikey quickly ducked back behind Don with a theatrical little 'eep!'. Raph glared in his direction for a moment longer, then turned back to Leo, their argument mostly forgotten in the light of this new information. "So… what now, fearless leader?"

Leo sighed, his brow still furrowed in thought. "Well… it's not like we can really own up or apologise for the whole mess, as much as I'd like to. We must've set them back weeks, if not months of work. Not to mention what we did to those weapons. I'd like to do something to make it up to them, but I'm not sure what, yet. We can't even really send in any anonymous tips, not ones that they'd be able to follow up on without knowing just who the information's from." He began pacing restlessly, his hands clasped behind his back.

Don let out a contemplative hum, rubbing at his chin with one hand. "Hold that thought, Leo," he commented. "I think I just might have a few ideas about that. But I'm gonna need some time to see what I can work out. In the meantime, we might as well get some sleep, otherwise training later is going to be all kinds of painful."

Leo stopped his pacing to look back at Don, his expression suggesting that he was about to protest not doing something right now to fix the mess they'd made. But before he could say anything, Raph clapped his hand down on Leo's shoulder. "Relax, bro," he said. "Brainiac's right, there's not much we can do right now. Get some sleep, okay? You can start stressing out about it again after training."

Leo let out a soft huff. "I do not 'stress out'," he grumbled half-heartedly, then sighed again and relaxed, his shoulders slumping slightly. "But you have a point. We'll sleep on it and hopefully be able to look at things a little more clearly later."

"And by 'we'll sleep on it' you mean all of us, yeah?" Mikey spoke up with a little grin, draping one arm over Don's shoulders. "Including mister 'coffee's just as good as sleep' here, right?"

Don let out an inarticulate little noise of protest, his hands flailing slightly, but Leo levelled a flat stare at him. "Yes, including Don," he stated firmly. "You've been pulling a few too many all-nighters lately, Donnie. You could use the rest, and whatever you've got in mind will keep well enough until after training tomorrow. All right?"

Don hesitated for a moment, then surrendered with a sheepish smile. "All right, all right," he agreed with resigned amusement. "I don't want you guys locking me out of my workshop and losing the key again."

"Hey, that was one time…!" Mikey protested even as he began steering Don towards the hallway leading to their bedrooms. "And we didn't lose the key, we merely… temporarily misplaced it!"

"You dropped it down between the couch cushions, where it got absorbed into some kind of killer sludgebunny," Don deadpanned.

"Like I said, temporarily misplaced it! We found it again… eventually… didn't we?"

"It took you two weeks, and by then it was a moot point. I had to borrow bolt cutters from Casey to get back into my workshop." The two continued bickering comfortably until they reached their bedrooms, where they separated with a few final words before disappearing through their respective doorways.

"Goofballs," Raph snorted dryly with a little shake of his head, then raised a brow ridge at Leo when he noticed the blue-banded turtle standing still and frowning thoughtfully off into space. "Yo, fearless leader," Raph said, lightly slapping his hand against Leo's shell. "Bed, remember?"

Leo twitched and blinked at the slap, then nodded. "Right, right. Sorry, just got a little lost in thought there," he admitted.

Raph eyed him narrowly for a moment. "You better not be doin' that whole blamin' yourself for everything goin' wrong thing again," he said blandly. "'Cause if you are, I'm gonna hafta smack you."

Leo let out a quiet little huff of wry amusement and shook his head. "No, not this time, don't worry," he reassured Raph as he started for his bedroom. "If anything, we're pretty much all to blame for this one," he added dryly. "So if you smack me, then I get to smack you. And we can both smack Mikey."

"Damn straight," Raph agreed with a crooked little grin. "Glad you see it that way." They reached their own bedrooms, and Raph hesitated for a moment before his doorway. "Hey, Leo?"

Leo paused and looked back at him, one brow ridge raised curiously. "Yeah?"

Raph gnawed at his lip for a moment before continuing. "Look, about earlier…"

Leo shook his head and lightly punched Raph's shoulder. "Forget it," he said quietly. "We all messed up this one. Don't worry, okay?"

Raph nodded, some of the tension easing out of his shoulders. "Right." He suddenly flashed Leo a quick grin. "I look forward to wipin' the floor with you in training later."

"In your dreams," Leo shot back with a little grin of his own. "Night, Raph."

"Night, Leo." With that, the two disappeared into their respective bedrooms to get what sleep they could.