Once on a rooftop, Raph allowed the blast of cold wind to wake him up. If he was going to do this, he might as well be alert enough to catch anything out of the ordinary.

"Okay, Donnie," he said with minor irritation into his T-phone. "Where's the nearest dead zone?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it near…."

"Just tell me where to go."

"North. Out of the city."

"Out of the… Donnie!"

"No, Raph, seriously. He might not even be in the city anymore. He's been gone long enough to get out there."

Raph raised an eyebrow before grudgingly heading in the indicated direction. "We're not talking country or anything, right? Just like, you know, suburbia or something like that."

"Something like that."

"Whatever. Just get me there." He hung up and sprinted down the roof with a yawn, giving himself enough momentum to make it to the building across the street.

After two hours, once the skyscrapers seemed to sink into the ground, Raph's T-phone rang, halting his spree. When he picked up, there was only silence. "Um… Donnie?"

"Raph! Thank goodness!"

"Okay… uh… what's wrong?"

"Your signal disappeared. Leo might be close to you."

Raph began glancing around, then paused. "Wait, if I'm in a dead zone, how did you get through?"

"That's the thing – you're not in a dead zone. There's something else blocking the signal. It doesn't jam cell phones, apparently, just tracking signals."

"So why didn't we just call him?"

"I tried that. He didn't answer."

"So, in other words, either he's just chilling somewhere outside the city or he's in trouble."

"I don't think he'd leave the city, Raph."

Raph glanced through the streets below. "Your bad feeling is starting to seem contagious. I'll glance around this area for a little bit. Just make sure you tell me when he comes back. Don't leave me hanging out here."

"No worries."

Leo was fine. He was sure of that. Too much had been going on and he just needed space. They all did. But Donnie's concern was starting to seep through Raph's confidence. After two hours, Leo hadn't moved out of the dead zone – or track-free zone – enough for Donnie to catch his signal. Even if he was upset, he'd be moving, right? Unless he's just sleeping out here, but he wouldn't be so dumb as to leave himself so exposed.

Unless something was wrong.

"Stop it," Raph told himself, ducking his head into his elbows. "We're all just being paranoid."

It wasn't long, though, before he heard a trashcan drop violently some ways away. He turned toward the sound as a jolt of panic spiked through him. Trash cans get knocked over all the time. That didn't mean anything. But it had sounded like someone had run into it. Like in a fight. And it was his only lead right now.

Raph closed his eyes briefly and then tore off after it. "Calm down, calm down, calm down," he chanted to himself as he ran, but there was panic rising up inside him. Something was going down, and he couldn't stop the lightning in his gut that told him Leo was at the center of it. Why hadn't he listened to Donnie earlier?

Sliding to a stop at the edge of a roof overlooking a parking lot, he saw the source of the commotion: Purple Dragons.

Raph exhaled, panting, and covered his eyes. While it was strange to see Purple Dragons so far out here, there's no way they could have Leo.

So do I go down there and stomp some Dragons, or do I let them do their thing and try to find Leo, who I'm sure is fine?

After deciding he might as well watch them for a moment to see what they were doing, he reached for his T-phone to call Donnie. "I found some Purple Dragons," he began.

"What? Way out there?"

"Do you have my signal yet?"

"No. Still silent."

"I see an old rubber factory, I think I'm standing on an abandoned church, and I'm pretty sure the residential district is just over the hill to the east."

"Okay, I know where you are. Do you think they have Leo?"

"No way. I just wanted you to know so we can investigate later."

"Agreed. I'll mark it. Do you want to watch them to see if you can figure anything out?"

"I was planning on it. I could use a good fight about now. But I'm not doing anything if they don't look dangerous."

He hung up, then knelt down. He needed a distraction, anyway. After all, Leo was fine. No use working up a panic.

But panic was all he had when he noticed the long strip of blue dangling from a knot around a Dragon wrist.

The air went from his lungs quicker than if he'd been punched, and he took a step back, trying to find breath. There's no way.

It took only a few seconds for the daze to pass, but his skull still felt padded with disorientation and rage. As he prepared to jump down, he suddenly felt a sliver invade the skin on the back of his neck. Fluidly, he pulled out his sai and spun around to stab whoever was behind him. There was solid contact, but immediately after, his vision twisted and his sai dropped from his hand – he knew because he heard the clatter at his feet. He took a step to the side to balance and tried to see who was there with him.

"Don't worry. You'll be fine when it wears off."

His left hand fumbled for his other sai, but he couldn't find the holster and was suddenly on one knee. "No," he breathed, losing track of the sky before the ground was yanked out from under him. "Leo."