It was raining. Cold, heavy raindrops were splashing on their bodies as they jumped, from rooftop to rooftop. From time to time, a flash of lightning would break through the darkness, followed by a roar of thunder.

It's always raining. Always storming when something terrible happened. Why was that? Was it because some almighty being wanted to show the relatives that it felt with them? Or was it because all light and happiness left…when Donatello left?

Leonardo bit his lower lip and held back his tears. He couldn't think like that. Donatello only disappeared about an hour ago. They could still find him. He had to be in the city. Where else would he be? He'd probably hid himself in a dark alley. Cold. Alone. Blaming himself.

That thought broke the leader's heart and he sped up. They had to find him. They would find him.

…right?

"He ain't nowhere 'round here, Leo!"

He stopped, watched as Raphael came to stand in front of him, hands on his knees and panting. Leonardo balled his hands to fists.

"He has to be. We've searched the entire city for him." He started to shake as he thought of Donatello, scared and hurt and all alone. "In his state…"

Raphael nodded in understanding. He ran his hand over his face, thinking.

"Maybe Mike's got somethin'." The leader nodded and grabbed for his ShellCell.

"Michelangelo? Mikey, it's Leo. Did you find anything?" There was silence for some moments.

"Couple of Purple Dragons and some straying cats, but no Donny." Sniffle.

The two eldest tensed. Raph was shaking with anger.

"Dat…dat ain't possible! We've scoped the whole city, every corner, every junkyard, every fuckin' INCH! Where else could Donny be but here?! When I find the asshole who did this to him, I'm gonna ram my fuckin' foot up their fuckin' ASS!"

The red banded turtle rammed his fist into the hard concrete of the rooftop and screamed. Leonardo was unsure if it was because of the pain or his desperation. Suddenly an idea struck Leo. Of course! Why didn't he think of that sooner! It was so damn obvious!

"We have another choice."

Raphael lifted his head at his elder brother's voice. Tears were burning in his eyes and Leonardo did his best to ignore them.

Mikey spoke up: "What do you mean, Leo?"

Said turtle lifted his ShellCell so both his brothers could hear him better.

"April. We'll ask her to track Donny's ShellCell down. And if that doesn't work…" Leo bit his lip. He couldn't continue.

There was silence between the three brothers. Leonardo pulled Raphael up, patted his shell, but the hothead pushed him away, growling.

Again, it was Mikey on the other end of the line who broke the silence.

"I sent April a text message. Let's go home!"

"Anything?"

Leonardo had been pacing around the room for about ten minutes, but stopped, now standing next to their human friend. Raphael was torturing his punching bag and Michelangelo was sitting on the couch, a comic book in his hands. But they all doubted that he was reading. Master Splinter sat next to him, his shaking paws clutching a cup of tea. It was already cold.

April was furiously typing on the computer, while running some program or whatever. Leo didn't know and he didn't care. All he cared about were results.

The redhead shook her head. Dried tears were shining on her white cheeks.

"No matter what I do, I can't seem to find a signal. It's like he disappeared from the face of the earth."

That thoughtless comment made Leo think about the Triceratons. He shuddered and hoped there was more.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" "I'm afraid if this program fails…"

She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. Something inside Leo seemed to break.

"There may be another way, Miss O'Neil."

Thy typing stopped. All eyes were fixed on the elderly rat on the couch. He had sat his tea aside and rested his paws on his knees. His shaking was barely noticeable, but Leo did nonetheless. A lump formed in his throat, seeing his father like this.

Master Splinter spoke up: "After Leonardo got ambushed by The Shredder's Elite-"

They all held their breaths for a second. "Donatello came to me. With three small, technological devices in his hand.

"What might this be, my son?" "They're tracking devices. You know? Like our ShellCells. But unlike them, this baby here is a lot more sensitive and of course, not as easy to lose. For I…"

The rat's genius son suddenly stopped and sheepishly scratched his head. Master Splinter was curious.

"Continue, Donatello. I would like to hear your idea."

The teenager nodded. "Well, technically, the ShellCells are very unhandy, for imagine our belts get loose and they fall out or someone snatches them from us. So I figured, why not use something we hardly, if ever, take off? And well…Master, I planned to put these in my brothers' bandanas."

Master Splinter said nothing but nodded to his son to continue.

"Because, well…wh-when Leo got ambushed…" The sensitive turtle was now shaking. "I…we should've known. I should've known! I'm the techno turtle, the one who builds all our devices and vehicles and keeps annoying everybody with the security systems! I should've been able to help him, but instead I fai-!" "Donatello."

The genius looked up. Tears were sparkling in his eyes. The elderly rat tilted his head in sympathy and took Donny's hands in his. He knew it would be useless to tell the young turtle that he has not failed Leonardo. In this case, they were very similar. They would hold on to their alleged mistakes and blame themselves, no matter what one would tell them.

So Master Splinter simply told you second youngest: "I think this is a very good idea my son. I honestly do." Donatello's innocent face lightened up immediately and he hugged his Master, who gladly returned the embrace.

"Thank you so much, Master!" "Do not thank me, Donatello. Be proud of yourself for this amazing invention. But-"

The ninjutsu master let go of the purple clad turtle, eyeing him curiously.

"Why is there only three devices?"

The genius blinked, looking at the technical items in his hand.

"Oh! I didn't even notice!"

"Donny as we know 'em."

Raph had walked over to his tale telling father and smiled, wiping his hand over his eyes. His brothers were also at the edge of tears. April was already letting them run. Master Splinter also absently wiped away a few tears as he continued: "Yes. Donatello would always hold his brothers' safety over his own. And when I asked him to please also build one of these devices for himself he answered:

"When I get to it, Sensei. Leo's ShellCell is broken and I need to make the ShellCycle faster for Raph."."

This made all of them chuckle.

Splinter took a deep breath. This was the only glimpse of hope they had that moment. Maybe at all.

"Do you think that it would be possible to track down Donatello's bandana, Miss O'Neil?"