AHP: Hello all! *Dodges flying projectiles* Sorry the update took so long. Life has been hell to say the least. Since you're here to read the story and not to listen to my complaints I'll just go ahead without further ado!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. T.T

CHAPTER 4: Multiple Perspectives

Raph was about ready to attack something when they finally spotted Leo. To make matters worse he was surrounded by a bunch of humans. Knowing his younger brothers would follow he leapt into the fray, placing himself squarely between his brother and these strangers. He allowed his anger to shine through when he barked his question at them.

When the feral looking man had asked his counter question at their guilty looks Raph found himself inwardly cringing as he remembered what happened such a short time ago in the lair. He knew he had messed up, but he was gonna make it up to Leo if it was the last thing he did. It was with some shock that he heard the exchange between Leo and Don. Leo thought they were gonna leave him to bleed out on the streets? No...just no. When Leo started talking about his presence being a burden his brothers knew what he meant. Leo was going to leave, and he wasn't planning on coming back. Before any of those present could react he had stepped back and disappeared into the shadows. Even as he tried to stop him, Raph knew it was too late.

Realising they were back to square one he started swearing fluently to relieve his feelings. They were so close! They had found him, only to lose him again. Suspicion flooded his mind as that feral man asked him who was oldest. Surprisingly Mikey was the one to answer him, not seeing anything wrong with the question. Raph was understandably angry, and he decided to take his temper out on this stranger who had implied they were at fault when he knew nothing about them...even though he was right.

Donatello pinched the bridge of his snout in frustration as his immediate older brother carried on like a deranged five year old. He understood Raph's anger, but this was not the time! He could tell that some of the members of the other group were understandably exasperated as well. Seeing his opportunity when there was a break in the profanities he spoke quickly.

"As terrible as this was, I'm afraid we have to be going. We have an injured brother to find." He saw the visible effect his words had on Raph.

"Yeah. And if you know what's good for you, you'll stay away!" He saw the humans tense and the woman with red hair brought her hands up to her head. Don felt his movements forcefully stop and saw from his brothers reactions that the same had happened to them. Naturally Raph was the first to react.

"Hey! What the hell'd you do?!" Don and Mikey weren't far behind.

"Release us at once!"

"Dude, what's with the Jedi mind trick?" They saw the grim looks on the human's faces before the man wearing strange glasses answered.

"We saw what your brother did. We can't risk you three also disappearing." Don understood the reasoning, but it didn't make him feel any better.

"You would hold us here and prevent us from finding our brother who is seriously wounded? What kind of people are you?" The same man answered.

"You don't need to find him. We'll do it for you. Storm, Logan, can you two go? You found him twice already so..." As they left he realised what they said.

"Twice? Does that mean you are the reason he was locked in his room with injuries for three days?" His exclamation drew Raph back into his profane vocabulary. They were interrupted by the man again.

"No. From what I heard that was Magneto." Their reaction was simultaneous and identical.

"Who?" Sighing he took his time to explain who Magneto was and what had happened during the first chase.

"As I understand from Storms report Magneto used his ability to knock some rubble into him to stop him running. It caused him to have a nasty fall, but it didn't seem to affect him. Those few moments he was out of sight he disappeared." He could see Raph wasn't happy with the explanation, and Mikey even less, but he analysed what was said and compared it to Leo's state and had to grudgingly admit it made sense. Now if only he could figure out how that woman was keeping them from moving...

Mikey was slowly dying from a panic attack. He knew his brothers were both concerned about Leo, and Mikey knew terrible injuries when he saw them and it wasn't helping. His thoughts had been running on a one track rail. 'Find Leo...Help Leo...Find Leo...Help Leo... Find Leo...Help Leo...Find Leo...Help Leo... Find Leo...Help Leo...Find Leo...Help Leo... Find Leo...Help Leo...Find Leo...Help Leo...' Hearing the explanation for the injuries Leo had only made this mantra come faster. He glared at Don who had withdrawn into his full scientist mode to try and figure out what was keeping them stationary. Why couldn't he hurry up! He didn't bother glancing at Raph who had simply started swearing again.

For the first time in a long while Mikey looked at his brothers and realised they were all missing something vital that Leo always seemed to give them. Leo always had the plans, and he was always calm. Sure Donny had his whole mad scientist calm thing going for him, but when it came down to it that was only when he was fiddling with some techno-doohicky. He and Raph couldn't even pretend that they had any sort of calming behaviour.

Leo was the eldest for a reason. They couldn't say for sure or with any proof who was the oldest, but they had always known the order. It's just the way it was, and as a typical youngest sibling he idolised the eldest to the point of hero worship, even more so than their father. Leo always seemed to keep going. He was like a really small tank.

The first disillusionment he had was when Leo came flying through the window of April's apartment with the Shredder's return. It still hadn't killed the hero worship, especially after considering how long Leo kept fighting against that many foot, elites and Hun included. Even after he was chucked through the window he had still managed to help with the fighting. That was also the first time they all realised how lost they would be without him. It was the first time Mikey also realised their brother was mortal, and it scared him. Sure he could pretend that Leo was so awesome he could be torn into pieces and still find a way to come back, but he knew it wasn't like that. It was the one thing the Shredder had taught them.

Shrugging off his thoughts of the chrome-dome he set his mind to trying to figure out who these people were. He realised that they were observing him and his brothers in the same way he now studied them. It wasn't the creepy 'I wanna dissect you way'. It was more of a 'Who are these guys?' kind of look. It was as if they were just normal people to these people. Now that his curiosity had been roused he couldn't maintain silence for long.

"So who are you guys exactly?" He could see they were surprised at the question, but the dude with the really cool shades came forward slightly. And so while Raph tried to out-swear himself and Don fried his brains on the techno aspect, he would find out who their captors were...

Scott Summers prided himself on being a reasonable individual, but he was also well aware of where the limits to his patience were, and he was rapidly approaching that point. First they scare a potential new student into running away successfully, then they catch said individuals brothers who all appear to be mutants as well. Next he has to listen to Logan being out-sworn by a kid with one of the foulest vocabularies in existence, and now the youngest of the group is playing twenty questions with him.

He had already given their names, designations, spoken about the school and the Professor. Now the kid was just asking ridiculous questions like who made their outfits. It was as he felt the first spasm in his head that they were thankfully interrupted. He could have done with a different distraction though.

Ninja. It was a large group of around forty people all dressed as ninja. He watched wearily as one of them approached and spoke.

"Give us the turtles and we will allow you to leave." He raised an eyebrow. Well that didn't sound too promising.

"And what reason could you possibly have for wanting them?" He was firmly reminded about what the fist turtle...Leonardo...had said about people wanting to dissect them. That same ninja replied.

"Our reasons are our own. We will give you thirty seconds to comply. If you don't, we will be forced to consider you our enemies." At this juncture he heard the one in purple frantically whispering to Jean.

"You have to let us go! We need to be able to fight." Jean obviously felt the urgency of the situation and did as he asked. He saw them all ready their weapons in fighting stances, but he was concerned. They were hopelessly outnumbered. He just hoped their opponents wouldn't be too skilled...

Leo was feeling muscles he didn't even know he had. He hadn't gone too far, but he reminded himself about what he had learned of their tracking methods. He had dragged himself into a place that smelled awful, but at least they wouldn't be able to track him this way. Using the alleys and anywhere dark enough with a foul smelling dumpster he made his way back to where he had left his brothers. He wasn't planning on leaving them in that situation, but he had to shake his pursuers first.

Finally he got to an alley close enough and with great care and difficulty managed to hoist himself onto the closest fire escape near the top of a building that overlooked the area where he had last seen his brothers. He was comfortable knowing he had bought himself some time from those following him, and he was certain they wouldn't have expected him to double back.

He was surprised to see his brothers where he had left them, but he remembered that red-headed woman's ability to stop his movements. They were probably feeling the effects from that same ability. Feeling weary he kept his mind fully focussed and closed off. After all, if she could do that then there were probably other things they could do. He resigned himself to waiting as he realised they were doing the equivalent of chatting when he noticed a fast approaching presence. He quickly hid himself deeper in the shadows making full use of his ability to hide in plain sight. He watched as foot ninja surrounded his brothers and the strangers. He heard the foot address the man who he guessed was the leader of this group and watched as they released his brothers. He sighed in slight relief. At least his brothers could fight now, but if there were that many enemies down there, how many remained waiting in the shadows? They never attacked in full strength. Never. They used numbers to whittle down their opponents strength then went in for the kill.

He saw the ninja surge forward after the strangers...no...teachers...refused to hand over his brothers and he was shocked for a moment at the abilities these strangers displayed. The man was shooting what appeared to be lasers from his eyes and the woman was displaying what Mikey would probably call kick-ass telekinetic powers. He saw the problem immediately though. The man used those goggles to control his ability and he couldn't use too much power or he would collapse the buildings around them or hurt innocent bystanders. The woman could also apparently only focus on so many people at once. Fortunately his brothers hadn't frozen in their shock and were kicking some serious ass in their own regard and he breathed slightly easier. He would only jump in of things turned sour. Otherwise he wouldn't interfere. He doubted he could do much in his present condition, but not much for Leo was still quite a lot compared to other people.

The situation only seemed to improve as the two who were chasing him returned, obviously having given up on following him. As they neared the others they obviously saw the fight and they jumped in to assist their friends. He watched as the other woman...Ororo...proceeded to make mini tornados and strike with lightning, while the man, Logan, seemed to fight more like him and his brothers, only his style was a bit wilder. More like street fighting than ninjutsu, but it was still effective. Especially with his built-in switchblades.

Unfortunately, it seemed the foot had also brought reinforcements. They had Karai and their number seemed to triple. Realising the precarious situation which seemed to have reversed yet again he watched as Karai approached Raph from behind while his attention was elsewhere. He decided it was time for him to intervene. Fortunately it only took him one rebound and he hurtled towards his target. He folded himself so that his shell pointed towards the target and felt a jarring impact as he hit hard enough that he bounced up slightly. Using the momentum he unfolded his limbs and landed on his feet before drawing his swords. Karai groaned from the ground which she had made hard contact with. It had lacked his usual elegance, but at least it was still effective. He noted everyone's surprise, but he ignored it in favour of battling his way through to the centre of his brothers where they had scattered. He didn't waste any time and started issuing instructions.

"Guys, move in close. Tight formation. Use combinations. Limit the number that can approach us each individually by sticking close to the narrow part of the alley!" His brothers immediately drew closer, and he was surprised to see that instead of creating a circle with him, they seemed more inclined to make a circle around him. He saw the other group of strangers approach them as well, and their 'leader' addressed him.

"Mind if we join you?" He nodded his acceptance, focussing the most of his attention on the enemies that managed to make it past his brothers. There were surprisingly few that managed since his brothers were fighting like demons trying to keep them away from their injured leader. He took a moment to observe the newcomers before issuing more instructions. Fortunately he recalled their names from their earlier interactions with both himself and his brothers.

"Ororo, stop using the lightning and focus on keeping tornadoes going on the outer edge of their ranks. Keep them confused and separate their group!" He watched long enough for her to nod her acceptance before continuing.

"Logan, join the circle for the close range enemies. Be careful to keep your distances equally measured. Leaving spaces leaves you vulnerable!" Again he waited for acknowledgment before he continued on, but Logan merely did as he was asked without breaking his routine of slashing at the foot ninja.

"Jean, you and Scott focus on attacking the mid-range and keep watch for any surprise attacks. They tend to use surprise attacks as often as they can get away with." He was instantly relieved when they didn't take offence to his ordering them around, but instead merely did as he instructed. With his instructions he watched as their two groups merged to form a single well functioning team. He watched where he could between fighting to see if any changes needed to be made to their strategy, but was satisfied for the moment. His only concern now was getting them away if the foot had anymore reinforcements waiting. That and he was truly feeling his injuries now. He wasn't really doing much fighting at all since the entire group seemed to have reached a consensus that they would try and keep the enemy away from him. He knew the sheer number of their enemy could very well defeat them no matter how well they were all fighting together. He looked around again and realised his fears had come to pass. The number of ninja surrounding them was positively overwhelming. At some point more reinforcements must have arrived.

Something else was bothering him though. The foot seemed to be more than a little focussed on getting to him with an intensity which he didn't understand. He understood the concept of attacking the weakest link in a group first, but not when that link was clustered tightly inside a group of strong links. He knew what that meant and decided that he would probably be facing a world of hurt by the end of this evening. Especially since Karai had finally managed to lift herself from where he canon-balled her earlier. Making his decision he split his attention between finding escape routes and battling his enemies. Seeing a few options he calculated the fastest route, keeping his injuries in mind. Once that was determined he focussed completely on the ninja that surrounded him. He quickly took out a syringe he had swiped from the medical supplies Don had brought with him and quickly injected himself with the pain-killer inside. He waited for the pain in his body to numb before he made his move.

What happened next would remain a shock to all and a blur to him. He waited for a gap in the surrounding ninja that led to his route and took off with a speed born from nerves and adrenaline. 'Come and get me...'

AHP: Don't forget to let me know what you thought. Please do R&R!