Reviews and opinions appreciated! Thanks!

I do have a question though. Do you think Mike is too…OOC (Out Of Character)? He's supposed to be more mature but I just wanna make sure I'm not making him WAY TOO mature. Thanks for the help.

I was running as fast as my useless legs would carry me. The morning chill was so cold it was causing the wetness on my cheeks to freeze over and cause even more pain on me. This was unacceptable; I wasn't supposed to be the weak one.

I really wish I had my getup, now. It was so cold out here even at the speed I was running. My adrenaline was pumping, too, but nothing. I felt like I would be a turtle icicle in a matter of minutes.

The sun was really starting to come up now, ruining my shadowy cover. It was a matter of luck getting through that town unseen and now I just needed to get around this stupid ranch.

I dug my heels into the dirt and slammed my back against a large, round hay bale. I could see it, the wilderness beyond the ranch, the highway and my ticket back to the city. I really hoped I was going in the right direction…

Some might ask why the hell I didn't just go around the stupid place, but this was New York, and there are hunters out during these hours. There was no doubt in my mind they would shoot me if they saw me. It was also the long way, and I wasn't up for detours. I wanted to get back to the city as quickly as I could.

As soon as I went to step out of the safety of the hay bale, some stupid animal came close to the end of the fence and I quickly retreated back. I didn't even see the fence, looks electric, and really out of date. It probably wasn't even turned on.

I kept one eye on the horse as I prepared to leap over the fence the first chance I had. The sun was rising faster than I was breathing. I needed to get to the road before it got too light out. My plan then was to walk close to it, a place the hunters wouldn't go. I may be the toughest turtle of my brothers, but I certainly wasn't stupid. No ninja skills would be any good up against mad men with guns and I wasn't taking that risk. The road was my greatest security.

Great, I sounded like Leo now.

I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath. I really didn't need to think about him right now; I didn't want my cheeks to freeze over again. No, I wasn't crying. It was just the morning mist, that's all.

I tried to fight the oncoming thoughts and images of him but I just couldn't. They were coming at me like bullets and I wasn't quick enough to dodge them. I clenched my forehead and growled. I didn't need to be thinking about this right now! I kept telling myself it wasn't my fault but why do I keep thinking it is?! He's the one who thinks all this is a joke! He's the reason I'm running through upstate New York, naked, and freezing my ass off!

I punched the hay bale to relieve a little bit of the tension but it only made me want more. I punched it again and again until finally I picked it up and threw it into the fence. There was a deafening, sizzling sound as the straw or hay, whatever, burnt to a crisp at the touch of the fence. The weight from the bale started to make the wires snap and the horse started to buck like crazy as they flung around him.

I quickly jumped over the fence and tried to calm the stupid animal before it gave away my position.

"Shh! Shutup!" I ran up to it and held my arms out. It kept bucking though, and started to really freak out once it saw me. I almost got knocked in the head a few times by its feet so I finally got so sick of it I lunged forward to try and scare it away. Instead, it dropped down onto the ground in a heap and laid still.

A sizzling snap started to get louder in my ear and I quickly dodged a flinging wire. I ended up falling back onto my shell but I quickly got up and started to run in the direction I needed to go.

"Patriot. What's going on out here?" A man's voice yelled into the distance and I instinctively stopped running. I hoped with every ounce of it I had that it was still dark enough outside for me not to be seen.

I could really feel my adrenaline start to pump once I saw the shotgun in his hands. If he saw me, it was game over.

"Hey…" He yelled. "Get out of my pasture!"

Shit.

I quickly started to run again and I ran even faster once I heard him start to curse to himself. It was too light out; there was no way he couldn't clearly see a 6ft turtle running through his field.

The pain hit me before the sound of a gunshot even registered through my ears. Something cold hit my knee and something else went into my right bicep. I was worried I had gotten hit somewhere else so I quickly fell to the ground to avoid any more bullets...that and my shattered knee gave in. I rolled over onto my shell and looked at my arm. It wasn't too bad but blood was definitely pouring out. My knee…I didn't even want to look at it. I couldn't even feel my right leg.

It took about 2 minutes for the pain to really start setting in. At that point I was moaning in pain once the man approached me in the field.

"I'll be damned." He dropped his shotgun and took a few steps back.

"Come closer and you will be." I growled.

"What…what are you?" He started to gain confidence and stepped closer.

"None of your business! Now can yah get someone to come out here and look at my leg that YOU shot?! I'll be sure to give yah something extra special for that." I threatened him.

He slowly crouched down to the ground and picked up his shotgun.

"What are yah doin?!" Great, so this was how it was ganna end. Leo was ganna find me dead in a field with a million pellets in my head.

Suddenly, he turned his gun around so he had ahold of the barrel end. He raised the butt into the air and that was the last thing I saw before all the pain in my body stopped and my world went dark.

: Donatello's POV:

The ranch was about the same quality as the town itself was. Even though the town was in the distance, it was still obvious these two places were connected.

The pasture was overgrown, there were old, rusted farming machines everywhere along with every type of farming debris you could think of. The barn itself could be dated back to the prehistoric era, seemed like a good place for Raph to hide. Even though we knew a car had been stolen, and it might very well be him, I couldn't rule this place out as a possibility.

"Sorry it's such a mess. Dad kind of let this place go over the years." Prudence said as we approached a white, run down farmhouse. "Huh…that's funny." She was looking to the far end of the pasture which was quite a distance away.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I never noticed there was a hole in the fence."

"I don't see a hole." Mikey said while he squinted his eyes to try and see it.

"Well, once you live here as long as I do, you'll notice the smallest things."

"Yah, no kidding." Mike said to himself.

Prudence told us to wait outside while she ran inside to get her dad. A few moments later, Prudence and a middle-aged looking man came outside.

"Mr. Mason?" I asked while handing him the groceries he reached out to get.

"Thank you for helping my daughter. You can leave now." He said in a low, raspy voice.

"Dad…these men would like to talk to you." Prudence tried desperately to change his mind while taking the bags from Mikey.

"The insurance is paid up." Mr. Mason said.

"We're not the insurance company." Proclaimed Mikey, sounding a bit irritated. "Our brother went missing and we're trying to get any leads we can."

"How would I know where your brother went?" Mr. Mason returned the harsh tone as he put the bags of groceries on the ground. Mikey stood strong, despite being threatened.

"We have a theory." I said in an attempt to save my brother's ass.

"Oh really? A bunch of scientists are yah?"

"Dad…" Prudence said softly.

"No, you stay out of this." He pointed at her. "Are you accusing me of something?" He looked at me again.

"No, of course not. We just think that…"

"Well here's what I think. Either you get off my property, or I'm callin' the cops. If you still don't leave, I'll put lead through your guts." He raised his voice and stepped closer to us.

"Dad, they just wanna help. They wanna try and explain what happened to Patriot, right guys?" Prudence looked at us for confirmation.

"You don't know what happened to my horse!" Mr. Mason put his hands on my chest and pushed my backwards. I fell over onto my shell and pulled my staff out in defense. When he came running at me, I jabbed him in the gut (as soft as I could) so he fell to the ground. In an effort to save a fight, I pulled my hat off and rolled him over onto his back.

"What the –." I heard Prudence proclaim.

"What the bloody hell?" Mr. Mason's eyes went wide and he hesitated before saying his next sentence. "What are you some kind of devil?!"

"No, I'm a turtle. My brother and I here were mutated." I said kindly to him.

"You sure were." He pushed me away from him and got up off the ground. His reaction was different then what I expected. Maybe it was because we just had a fight but he looked angry.

"I know it sounds ridiculous but you have to listen to us." Mikey began. "We're trying to find our other brother and when we heard your horse died we thought he might have come up this way."

"You think your brother killed my horse?" Mr. Mason said in denial. "That beast had a heart attack."

"No, we don't think he killed your horse. We think something spooked it." I said. "Did you see anything strange this morning that would have caused you to fire a gun or anything?"

"I didn't shoot my horse!" Mr. Mason lunged for me again but Prudence jumped in between us before he could reach me.

"Let him talk!" She yelled.

After some deep, heavy breaths, Mr. Mason took a step back and nodded for me to continue.

"Our theory was that maybe you saw our brother, obviously got scared, and shot at him. The gunfire could've easily given an old horse a heart attack." I stated.

Mr. Mason's eyes started to wonder around the ranch. He started to open and clench his fists and wiping sweat from them onto his jeans. He was getting nervous, and that meant he knew something we didn't.

"How many of you are there?" He asked.

"Four." Mike answered.

"I haven't seen your brother, I'm sorry." He quickly said and turned around to walk away.

Prudence sighed heavily and walked over to us.

"I was hoping he could've been more of a help. You didn't tell me you had a missing brother."

"Well, we also didn't tell you we were mutated turtles." Mikey smiled. "I hate to be Mr. Negative here, but is it just me or is he…"

"Lying…I think so." I said while watching Mr. Mason walk into the farmhouse.

"My dad isn't a liar." Prudence said.

"He has every reason to do so. I would be scared too if I saw one of me frolicking through a field." I sighed. "He has to know something."

"Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. Either way, you better leave before he calls the cops." Prudence picked up the bags off the ground and started to walk inside.

"Maybe your face just made him nervous, Donnie. I'm being serious, too. Let's just start looking into that stolen car lead." Mike put his hand on my shoulder and then slowly dragged it off.

"Yah, ok." I slowly turned around to follow him. "What?" I stopped walking.

"Huh?" He looked at me and raised a brow.

"Did you call my name?" I asked him.

"No." He looked at me like I was crazy.

Suddenly, some kind of generator turned on and made it hard to hear.

"I don't hear anything." Mikey said. "You're losing it, bro." He turned back around and started to walk.

Just as I went to leave, I saw Mr. Masons face in the farmhouse window and as much as I wanted to run and ask him more questions, I turned around and walked away.