Leo was working… Again. Mikey sighed and watched, bored, as Leo took out some wiring and frowned at it. He quickly did something and C.I.B.O.'s panel flashed.
"Come on, I know you're in there," Leo growled. He was currently in the L-SSAMM and making some fine-tuned adjustments on the protection against hacking in the C.I.B.O.
"Yo, Leo, wanna play?" Mikey asked, trying to get the cyborg to do something other than worry about attacking again.
"Not now, Mikey," Leo snapped, glaring at his brother with his one eye. "I've got to get this done. I could have hurt you, bad." Leo's look morphed into one of great guilt and shame as he turned back to his work.
"Leo, bro, I'm fine. We all know – except you – that there was nothing you could do to stop it. You couldn't do anything!"
"Exactly!" Leo nearly shouted, banging a metal fist on the larger cyborg's chest. "I was helpless, alright? I couldn't help you! I was attacking you!"
"No, you weren't," Raph shot back, coming in just at that moment. "The virus that hacked you was. Stop blaming yourself, Fearless Leader. You couldn't have done anything."
"Raph's right," Don added softly, coming and putting a hand on Leo's cold shoulder. "Leo, we've gone over C.I.B.O. a dozen times already. The program you wrote eradicated it. And we've put up firewalls on the electricity, all of our access to the outside. Our firewalls have firewalls!"
"Thanks," Leo muttered sarcastically. "Don, that program hacked Utrom technology in four hours. Stockman isn't that smart. He has to be working with Bishop and a few other brilliant minds to have done that! And that means it could be hiding." Leo turned back to his work but was interrupted when Don sighed and pushed a button on the back of his neck, which Don installed while Leo was recharging just for this purpose. Leonardo's body froze.
"Leo, take a break," Don ordered. "You're just going to run down you battery again. Let's go see Leatherhead and Professor Honeycutt. The professor is very smart; maybe he can help. Plus we haven't visited them. All they know is that you're alive!"
"If you can call this living," Leo murmured, sighing in defeat. "Alright. Unfreeze me. I swear, I'm gonna remove that as soon as I can."
"I put it in for a reason, Leo." Don pushed the button again and Leo re-animated.
"You put it in so you could have control over my metallic body, Don," Leo muttered so only Don could hear.
"Yes," Don admitted softly, putting his hand on Leonardo's shoulder. "But I also did it because I love you, bro, and I don't want to see you blame yourself for what you could not control."
"If I had better firewalls, more of them-"
"We've gone over this," Donnie interrupted harshly. "Now get back into C.I.B.O. and let's go see Leatherhead and Professor Honeycutt."
"Fine." Leo touched the larger version of his body and said his name. The chest opened and L-SSAMM walked in gently. Leo's head rose out of the neck and the battle suit stood up carefully.
Don and Leo left then, with Leo grabbing a few programs to show Professor Honeycutt. They contained data on his cyborg bodies, the organic parts of him still left, and the defense systems they had recently installed plus an overview of the virus and the firewalls it had been able to hack in four hours.
These were slipped into the "pocket" in the hip of the robot as the door opened to the sewer outside. With a thunk! Leo stepped onto the concrete outside. His metal footsteps were easily hearable in the echoing chambers of the sewers.
He grimaced and changed the texture of the soles of his "feet" with the nanobots. His steps were, once again, silent like when he was fully organic.
When they arrived a few minutes later, Leatherhead opened the door to find Don standing, grinning at him, in the doorway.
"Why, hello, Donatello," LH greeted, opening the door further. "Come in, my friend, come in."
"Just a minute, LH. I've brought Leo… But he's a little different, shall we say?" Don winced slightly.
"If I know Leonardo well, he is still himself. Well, where is he?" Leatherhead looked around.
"Right here," Leo answered. Leatherhead gasped slightly at the sound of his canned voice.
"Come, my friend, what has happened? Ah, forgive me my manners. Come in, both of you. Professor Honeycutt will likely want to see you himself." Leo stepped forward into the dim light cast by the inside of the lair shining through the doorway.
"Very surprising," Leatherhead murmured, his eyes traveling up and down the cyborg body. "Enter, though. It is not good manners to stand in the way of friends when they come to one's home."
Leatherhead opened the door even wider and stepped aside. Leo just barely fit through and had to duck his head. He now stood taller than the large mutant crocodile.
"Professor!" Leatherhead called as he walked towards the living room. "Can I offer you anything?" he asked the two "turtles" following him. "Tea? Milk? Coffee?"
"Tea would be excellent right now. Thank you," Leo said.
"I'll just take some water. Not all that thirsty. Thanks, Leatherhead." Don smiled and then turned his head to see Professor Honeycutt coming out of his private lab. His robotic body was a little different; slimmed down some.
"You look good, Professor," Don commented. The robot formerly known as "SAM" looked up and gasped in shock at the sight of Leonardo.
"Oh, my. Oh, my," he repeated, walking forward quickly. "Oh, my, Leonardo, is that you?"
"It's me, Professor. I just got upgraded a bit, kinda like you. Except it wasn't quite a painless."
"A… A cyborg! Incredible. Utroms did this, did they? Well, it warms my main circuit board to see you alive and well, Leonardo, regardless. Tell me everything." He led them to the living room and sat down on the couch. Don took the red armchair, and Leo crouched across from the two seated.
Professor Honeycutt watched, fascinated, as Leo's head sunk and a smaller robot, much slimmer and more turtle-like, walked out of the chest of the larger one.
"Well, that is quite a handy trick," Leatherhead said, coming in with a tray of drinks. He offered the tea to Leo, who accepted gratefully. Don sipped his water as Leatherhead and Professor Honeycutt enjoyed glasses of milk.
"So, tell me what happened," Leatherhead invited, waving at Leo.
"Well, for starters, I'll explain what these two bodies are called and why I have two. As you can see, the larger one, called C.I.B.O. or Cybernetic Intrinsically-Biological Organism, is mainly a walking tank. It takes a tank to mow that down. The armor is very sophisticated. Also, it has a store, called a "barn", of nanobots, which I control through mind-to-machine transmitting. They do the repairs.
"This smaller one is L-SSAMM. Life-Support System And Mobility Machine. It used to just be something I walked around in when the Utroms were repairing or adjusting C.I.B.O. Don helped reinforce it, though, so I can do repairs in it, spar lightly, and use it a little more.
"I recharge this one every day, and C.I.B.O. is recharged every two weeks, about. The batteries are contained in the shells of both."
And so Leo explained his two robotic bodies, their various functions, and then finally the story behind his actually becoming a cyborg. Leatherhead and Professor Honeycutt listened silently, knowing that Leo was blaming himself for something. Both could see it in the way he described the torture, like he was disgusted that he had been giving in to the pain. Then, when he got to the part about being hacked, they knew why he was in such shame.
"That is quite a tale, yes, quite a tale indeed," Professor Honeycutt murmured when Leo was done. "So, you have brought schematics of the virus? Perhaps I can help you scan C.I.B.O. for remnants?"
"That would be awesome," Leo alleged thankfully. He retrieved the disks that contained relevant information and handed them to the robot.
"Very well then, let's get to work."
Leo chuckled and reopened the chest cavity, climbing in and "driving". Leatherhead led them to his testing laboratory and Leo laid down on the thick table. L-SSAMM emerged and they set to work, guided by Leo and Don. Leatherhead exclaimed over the armor and weapons system, and marveled at the nanobots. Professor Honeycutt admitted that it was very high-tech for Earth Utroms.
"Well, I must admit that I am, indeed, "stumped" as your world says," Professor Honeycutt said after a few hours of work. "I must concur with Donatello, Leonardo. The program you wrote must have eradicated it from the system. There is no trace of it except the history that it was here."
"Thanks, Professor," Leo sighed. "I apologize, but L-SSAMM is running low on battery. Please excuse us."
"Of course, Leonardo," Leatherhead smiled. "Go ahead. Greet your brothers for me, please. And Master Splinter, also."
"I will," Leo promised, climbing back into the larger suit and standing up gently, wary of breaking the table. "Have a good night, my friends."
"You, too. And do not blame yourself. Viruses will override anything, and there is nothing you can do about them except forgive and forget. It sounds as thought Michelangelo has done the same. Now you must follow his example."
"Me following Mikey's example," Leo chortled. "Now that's a sight."
"Yes. Fare you both well. Come back soon, if it suits you. It was good to see you again, Leonardo. As always, Donatello, your mind enraptures me." Leatherhead led them to the door as he spoke and ushered them out genially.
"Goodbye, Leatherhead." Leo and Don headed off into the dark sewer tunnels. The door shut gently behind them.
