Raph growled to himself, wishing he was able to shape shift into human form. The police were not believing Mikey's act, and they had agreed – courtesy of Don's logical speaking – that Raph would be a little too aggressive for the job.
"Come on, come on, come on," Raph muttered to himself, watching from the shadows to the side of the doorway. He was engulfed in a trench coat, as was Donnie to his right.
"Alright, sir, we'll ask Mr. Jackson if he knows you," the police man finally said. "What was your name again?"
"Hamato Michelangelo," Mikey answered happily. "Can you hurry, please? I'd like to speak to my cousin about the rumors about being "engaged"."
"Keep your hat on, sir, we'll ask Mr. Jackson right now. Please have a seat."
Mikey gave Raph a "thumbs up" when his back was to the cop and sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair.
Presently, the cop came back in with a puzzled expression. "Mr. Jackson said he'd see you," he said to Mikey. "And your brothers."
Raph and Donnie joined him as he followed the cop through the metal detector and into the jail. They had left their weapons and shruiken behind.
"In here, sir, Mr. Jackson and his family are waiting." The cop opened a door and let them through, closing it.
"Cousin!" Mr. Jackson greeted warmly, hugging Mikey. "So glad you could make it."
Raph noticed the cameras in the room and kept his coat on, clapping Mr. Jackson over the shoulder. In that gesture, he slipped the neatly written note from Donnie about how they stood. Mr. Jackson hid it deftly in his pocket.
Then Mrs. Jackson, Beth, and Lincoln stood up, greeting their "cousins".
"Where's Leo?" Beth whispered to Raph as she hugged him. He winced; she looked up at him.
"Um… Not here," Don supplied quietly. "He's being held by the Shredder, Oroku Saki."
"What?" she whisper-screamed.
Raph quickly put his hand over her mouth. Mikey was chatting with Mr. Jackson in hopes that the men at the camera booth would concentrate on them.
"He's fine… Physically. Mentally he's probably pissed, but hey, we're talking about Leo here," Raph said softly. "We had to check on you first."
"Wait a minute. Did you guys escape from the zoo?"
"Yeah, and we've bunked at the lair. If you guys get set free, come there. Do not go home; the Foot are watching your place probably, and as soon as they figure out we're not hiding in the zoo, they'll double the watch on your house, figuring we'd go there instead of the lair."
"Alright," Beth whispered. "Mom and Dad will be questioned, but we're gonna hold to the lie that they didn't know anything. Only Lincoln and I did. He's excused because they think I talked him into it, and I probably could have. Really, I'm the only one who'll be here for a while, but I'm being transferred to the mental institute in a few days."
"Why?" Don asked, stunned.
"Um… It probably wasn't the brightest idea to announce Leo and my engagement. The cops think I'm crazy. Sorry."
"Can't you just kinda say that we had threatened you or something? Told you that unless you defended us, we'd hurt your family?"
"It might work. They'd believe it. But then they'd think you're cruel. You're not," Beth added lamely. She sighed and leaned into Raph. "What's up with Leo?"
Raph glanced at Don, who hesitated as well. Beth looked up at him. "What's wrong?" she repeated, with a steely edge to her voice.
"Don't go nuts, Beth, but Leo ain't Leo anymore," Raph said quietly, holding his hand over her mouth in case she decided to shout or scream.
"Explain," she merely said icily. Raph winced. If she ever got out of here, Saki had better watch his back. She looked ready to kill.
"Well… How to put this. Basically, Bishop's messed with Leo's brain and now Bishop controls him through neural interfacing and transmitting. Leo's incapable of rational thought…again," Don clarified. "He can't break free unless I mess with the wiring in his new shell again."
"Um… What's Saki up to?" she asked.
"Probably training him to become Karai's right-hand turtle. Or Saki's left-hand general. Or just to send him out after the rest of us. I don't really know," Don admitted.
"Time's up!" a cop yelled through the door. Beth backed away from Raph and shot him a glance.
"Return my fiancé," she merely whispered. "Please. We'll help however we can."
Mr. Jackson nodded and sat down again as the door clanged open, revealing the same pushy cop that Mikey had convinced to let the Jacksons decide if they could be allowed to visit.
Mikey and Don preceded Raph out, and all three trooped down blocks randomly to lose any pursuers. They soon ascended to the roofs, leaping in the falling dusk towards their home.
When they got to the warehouse, Don punched in the complicated code to call up the elevator, and they piled in with sighs of released tension. Raph shrugged his trench coat off, as did Don, but Mikey kept his on for a moment longer, lost in thought. Raphael hit him over the head gently to wake their younger brother up before the joker would take his coat off with a tired grin.
"So, now what?" Don asked.
"Now we save Leo," Raph ordered. "Get your battle suits on. I think we've got spares in Leo's room."
The door opened and the three ninjas jogged quickly to Leo's room. Mikey pushed his futon away, opened the hole in the floor, and took out the spare battle suits. Don donned his and ran into his lab to get some big bombs, smoke screens, and a few other gadgets. Raph stocked up on weapons, while Mikey grabbed one of the old needle-shooting guns from the mutant bug outbreak. Don had created this for Leo to use. No one thought they might have to use it on their leader.
Strapping the thing to his back, Mikey rejoined his brothers in the kitchen. Don forced them to eat, in case they had to hide out for a while. They'd need the energy anyway. Mikey found the food strangely tasteless, and he ate only because Don forced him to with threats of pizza deprivation when everything got back to normal.
"Let's go," Raph growled when he had finished the high-energy shake Don had made for him. Mikey jumped up, running for the elevator and keying in the code. Donatello and Raphael joined him, ready to save their big brother.
When they came to Saki's building, after jumping from roof to roof directly to the largest skyscraper, Don halted and listened to Raph growl impatiently.
"Here's the plan," Don said quietly. "We hit hard and fast. We get Leo out of there – stunned, if possible." Mikey glanced at him and then pulled out the tranquilizer gun. "We can't chance Bishop gaining control while we're getting out. I can stun him if you want, Mikey."
"No, I'll do it. If what you say is true, he'll be less wary of me," Mikey sighed.
"Alright. Raph, you need to find Bishop and grab that remote. I hate to split up the team, but we can't leave Bishop any way to track or control Leo. Mikey, I'll stay with you. If I need to re-wire some stuff immediately – if there's a proximity bomb or something in his shell I'll need to disable it. We're not here for revenge on Saki, so unless he's in your way, stay out of his. We can't jeopardize this mission."
"Alright, enough talking," Raph grumbled, spreading his wings. "See you back at the lair. Be careful," he added quietly. Then he flapped his wings and was gone, soaring in the night towards the building across from them.
Don and Mikey descended to ground level, knowing that Saki kept his Foot headquarters and bunks in the top half of the building and Leo was in the lower half.
They managed to make it inside unseen, but Don wasn't hoping for much past that.
Meanwhile, Raph was sneaking in through an open window, heading for the smell of Bishop he'd long since memorized.
This'll be fun, he thought evilly, sneaking into another lab that had a lot of Bishop smell.
His target was inside, but so was someone else.
Shell, Raph thought to himself angrily. He stepped towards Bishop loudly.
Leo turned. Bishop smiled.
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" He smiled at the angry look on Raph's face and turned his gaze to Leo. "Well, what are you waiting for? Attack!"
And Leo did.