Leo felt dread pooling in his belly — he had felt it ever since he had received Donatello's frantic call, saying that the Purple Dragons were attacking April's home. It grew stronger with every passing second, until he could barely stand to sit still, every nerve in his body screaming at him to do something.
The Sewer Slider roared under him as it darted through the sewers, moving as fast as Raphael was able to drive it without crashing. Leo knew rationally that the vehicle was a fast way to travel — faster than the Battle Shell, since it didn't need to stop for lights or traffic — but it still felt painfully slow when all he wanted to do was get there.
"Hang a right at the next junction," Mikey called out, a handmade map flapping in his hands.
Raph did as he was told, and Leo had to grip the frame of the Slider to keep from flying sideways. He dug his heels into the seat, and watched as tunnels and pipes flew by on every side,
"How much further is it?" he asked, leaning forward.
"We're almost there," Mikey said, pointing at one of the little marks on the map. "April's place is one of the landmarks Don put on this map. Okay, Raph, another right at the next—whoa!"
The Slider swerved to the right, nearly climbing up the wall as it turned.
"Closer… closer… I think we're there!" Mikey yelped.
The Slider braked hard enough that Leo nearly smacked his head against Raph's seat. Normally he would have chastised his brother for his reckless driving, but right now he wasn't willing to waste the time — and besides, Raph had gotten them there as quickly as it was possible to go. As the Slider settled down to the ground, Leo leaped out and headed for the nearest manhole cover, for once not caring whether anyone was there to see him emerge from the sewer. This was too important.
As he lifted the cover, he found himself staring at the front of the Battle Shell — they had arrived almost perfectly at their destination. He flung the cover aside, leaped out into the street and swiftly made his way to the side door of April's shop.
The door had almost been ripped in half, with chunks of splintered wood scattered all around. Leo charged through it with barely a pause, and swiftly took in the interior of the antique shop — the smashed dishes, the overturned furniture, the front windows shattered. Someone had gone through and upended the place, just for the fun of it.
No sign of Don. No sign of April. No sign of the Purple Dragons.
His heart was pounding as he made his way up the stairs, his katanas clutched in his hands. He couldn't hear a sound from up there, but that didn't necessarily mean no one was there. Don and April could be hurt. They could be hiding. They could be… no, he wouldn't even imagine that. He gritted his teeth and shook the intrusive thoughts from his head.
The first thing he noticed about the living room as he stepped inside was the faint yellowish haze that hung around the floor, like an oddly-colored fog. He felt a faint burning in his throat as he moved through the room, peering around the furniture for some sign of his brother or April. The living room and kitchen had also been ransacked, with furniture overturned and the windows smashed open.
Then he stepped on something — something long and thin that rolled under his foot. A bo staff.
Leo's heart sank into his stomach. That meant that something had happened to Don — he never would have left without his weapon if he could have helped it. Seizing the bo, he charged into April's bedroom and looked around wildly. If April had been in here, she hadn't gone without a fight — a lamp had been smashed and a small bedside table dragged away from the wall. But there was no sign of her either.
Footsteps behind him. Leo whirled around, ready to attack, only to find Raph and Mikey standing there. "Mikey, check the other apartment — see if there's any sign of Don or April there," Leo said, clinging to the last chance that they weren't gone.
Thankfully Mikey wasn't in a mood for jokes, and simply did as he was told. Raph's eyes narrowed to slits as he looked at the bo in Leo's hand, and a familiar snarl came over his face.
"Where's Donnie?" he said, his sai spinning up into his hands.
"He's not here. Neither is April," Leo said, his fingers clenching around the wooden staff. "They're alive — they've got to be, or the Dragons would have left them here."
"They better be, or I'm gonna find out how many holes I can poke in them before—"
"Nobody in the other apartment," Mikey interrupted, rushing into the room. He wrinkled his nose as he came in, waving a hand in front of his face. "Okay, which one of you did that? And just how much bleach did you drink before you did it?"
Leo frowned, his eyes scanning over the hazy floor for some clue about what was going on. Then a glint of metal caught his eye, and he swiftly made his way into the kitchen, poking aside a fallen pan in order to see what was lying behind it. A small cylindrical metal object, a loose lever dangling from its top — a grenade of some kind, though clearly it wasn't about to explode, given how long since it had been thrown. He prodded it with the bo, and a puff of yellowish gas seeped out.
"A gas grenade," Leo said grimly. "That must have been how they got the better of Donnie."
"There's another one over here," Mikey called, brandishing another grenade. "Man, they really let rip in here. This place stinks."
Raph growled loudly, his hands shaking as he clutched at his sai. "Purple Dragons," he muttered. "They've gone too far this time, takin' Donnie. I'm going straight out there and—"
"No, Raph," Leo said quickly, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We have to figure out the Purple Dragon hideouts nearest to here, and start systematically going through them to find Don and April. And if we can, we can try to track Don's Shell Cell."
"You know how to do that?" Mikey said dubiously.
"No, but… I've seen Donnie do it," Leo said hesitantly. "If that doesn't work, we'll simply tear through the Purple Dragons until we find them and bring them home."
"What if they were caught for the Shredder?" Mikey said, suddenly and uncharacteristically sober.
That thought had been rattling around in the back of Leo's head, unacknowledged and unwanted. He hadn't wanted to think about it, because that was the scenario in which rescue was the least likely — and in which Donnie was most likely to die before they had a chance to save him. "If — if this had been the Shredder's operation, he would have sent Foot ninja and not the Purple Dragons," he said slowly, grasping at what little hope he could find.
Before either brother could respond, the far-off sound of sirens sounded. Raph stiffened, and gripped his sai harder, as if expecting to have to fight the police. The sirens grew louder with every passing second, and Leo turned towards the broken windows, having the unnerving feeling that they were soon going to be overwhelmed by the authorities if they didn't leave immediately.
"I think that means it's time for us to go," Mikey said.
Leo grimaced, and swiped the Battle Shell keys from April's table. "Raph, you take the Sewer Slider home. I'll take the Battle Shell."
"Then do we kick some Purple Dragon butt?" Raph snarled.
"Yes," Leo said grimly. "That's exactly what we do."