Raphael had long ago shed his hooded sweatshirt, but refused to stay below deck despite Greg's concerns. The red-masked turtle wasn't in a compliant mood, and they hadn't seen enough "traffic" out on the open sea to give him any reason for concern. The scenery gave him some distraction from the urgency of their mission at first, but it didn't last very long.
Raphael threw a glance over his shoulder at Brandon steering the boat. Greg was at his side with the scanner, and Becky had never been far from either of them. Brandon had been handing over control of the vessel to the young woman every now and then. Raphael had noticed, but hadn't bothered to ask why yet. He had a feeling there was probably an ulterior motive for it.
His orange-masked brother had been uncharacteristically quiet, sitting near the front end of the boat by himself, and Sayuri was below deck, attempting to obtain a satellite link off one of the laptops.
Raphael got to his feet and ambled slowly over to his brother. "Whatcha doin'?"
"Waiting."
"You ignoring everybody on purpose?" Raphael asked evenly. "Looks like your girl is learning how to drive this thing. Bet she'd still like your company."
Michelangelo shook his head. "It feels a little weird with everyone else cut off from their girls, Raph. It's awkward. Why should I enjoy her with everything else going on?"
"Uh...because she's here, knucklehead." Raphael grinned at him, but Mike's expression didn't break.
"Did Heff say how much further it is?"
"Why don't you get off your shell, and we can ask him together?" Raphael suggested.
The three humans were under the shaded control deck, and it looked like there was a "lesson" currently in progress. Rather than interrupting Brandon and Rebecca, the turtles went straight to Greg.
"Where are we at, big man?" Raphael asked.
"Iriomote is only a few miles off, and Donny's signal puts him on the west coast. We've got a good handle on his bearings, you guys - we're going to get there."
"Any clue what Sayuri's working on downstairs?"
Greg chuckled at Raphael's reference to her location. "Not exactly, no. I don't think she's had any luck getting an internet signal, even with Donny's equipment."
Michelangelo smirked suddenly. "I guess she'd better wait for the genius himself then. He'll probably have it working in about two minutes."
Greg nodded his agreement. "Are you two holding up okay?"
Raphael noticed that Greg's gaze fixed on Michelangelo with that question.
"I'm fine, Heff, just anxious. I won't be able to relax until I see Donny with my own eyes," Mike replied.
"It won't be much longer." Greg glanced back down at the scanner, as if to reassure himself too.
From the position that the turtles took in the front of the boat, they were the first to see the curiously-shaped harbor in the distance. The red-masked turtle had a difficult time not pacing as Brandon guided the boat closer to shore. There didn't appear to be a readily accessible dock, but that wasn't important to Raphael.
"Just put your anchor down or whatever. We'll go get him, and bring him back to the boat. You comin', Heff?" Raphael called over his shoulder.
Greg had taken a couple of minutes to change, and was finishing loading a bag. "Do you mind going first and testing the depth? I want to make sure we can keep our equipment out of the ocean."
Raphael nodded and jumped over the side of the vessel, landing in waist-deep water. "No prob, Heff. Hand the bag to me, and you two ladies can jump on in. The water's fine."
Michelangelo didn't do the cannonball Raphael half-expected, but the orange-masked turtle still made a bigger splash than he had. His brother shivered a little upon surfacing.
"Donny's right - little too cold for Mikey to likey."
Raphael chuckled as he used his free hand to dunk his brother's head under the water. Michelangelo bolted back up with a sputter, and looked like he was about to make a lunge for Raphael.
"Uh-uh, Mikey. I got the precious cargo, remember?"
"That's not fair!"
"Well let's go find Donny, and you can cry about it to him."
They easily walked through the shallows onto the beach, and Greg dug back into the bag to retrieve the scanner. The man swiveled in his stance, as he mentally interpreted what the coordinates were telling him.
"My guess is, he's probably holed up in that smaller patch of trees. It looks like decent cover, and it would still keep him closer to the water."
Raphael started heading for it without another word from Greg, and Michelangelo strode along beside him, with the wisdom not to try and outrun him again. The thought of being seen by anyone else in broad daylight wasn't even registering in Raphael's mind right now - he was just intent on finding his lost brother.
The turtles waited a few seconds for Greg to catch up before they entered the shaded portion of the trees, but then Raphael moved forward swiftly.
"Donny?" he called. "You in here, bro?"
The faintest of rustles got his attention, and the red-masked turtle whirled around to see a young man in the brush. Alarm at being seen only lasted for half a beat, before Raphael fell into a defensive crouch with both sai.
"You come outta there!" Raphael ordered. "Right now! Where's my brother?"
The teenager appeared to be frozen, but didn't seem shocked by the sight of him, confirming that he'd already seen Donatello.
"You take me to my brother or I'll-"
"Raph!" Donatello's voice rang out from behind him. "Easy! It's okay - he's a friend."
Raphael lowered his weapons, but didn't immediately put them away. He'd barely turned on heel in the time it took Michelangelo to bound toward the purple-masked turtle. Donatello threw both hands up to cut off his younger brother's trademark bear hug.
"Careful, Mike, please. I've got at least a couple bad ribs."
Raphael saw Donatello shudder as Michelangelo threw both arms around his shoulders instead. The orange-masked turtle hung on to him for several seconds before allowing Raphael access to Donny. The red-masked turtle held Donatello at arm's length for a minute to get a good look at him, and read both intense weariness and relief in his chocolate brown eyes.
"You said they didn't hurt you, Donny."
"I'm fine, Raph. If my ribs hadn't been sensitive already, they probably wouldn't have even cracked. Only one guy kicked me right off the bat, and then they didn't touch me again."
Raphael still felt like he was hiding something, but he was so happy to see him in one piece that he didn't bother to challenge him about the abrasions that were clearly fresh. At least not yet. Raphael embraced his brother carefully, and then held out an arm to let Greg in.
The man was pale and looked a little shaky all of a sudden. "I'm sorry, Donny - I'm sorry I got you into this."
The purple-masked turtle shook his head. "This wasn't your fault, Heff. Thanks for helping them find me - I knew you could figure a way around the scanner. Are the others close?"
"They're on the boat," Michelangelo replied, but he wasn't looking at Donny. His attention had been drawn to something else beyond him, and Donatello glanced in that direction too.
"Come on out, everyone; they will not hurt you. They are my family," Don called.
Raphael forced himself into a relaxed stance as all four figures emerged, in varying stages of amazement, fear, and disappointment. Donatello beckoned to the younger boys, and put a hand on each of their shoulders.
"This is Shunshi, and Toshio. They're the ones who found me last night." Then Donatello motioned to the teenagers. "This is Hisui, and Kouhei." Donatello paused to give the humans a reassuring look. "These are my brothers, Raphael and Michelangelo, and my friend Greg."
None of the strangers seemed in a big hurry to move, and Raphael tried to make himself appear even less threatening.
They wouldn't speak English, bonehead. Raphael cleared his throat, and tried addressing them again. "Thank you for helping our brother."
That earned him a small smile from the girl at least.
"It was an honor. We are grateful we had the opportunity," she intoned softly.
Raphael noticed the boy on Donatello's right side was focusing extremely hard on the ground, and looked like he was on the verge of tears. Donatello appeared to see it too.
"Shunshi..." Donny said quietly.
"No, you have to go, right? Then go. We have wasted enough of the day as it is. Come on, Toshio," he ordered his friend.
As the two boys dashed off through the trees, Hisui took a step toward Donatello.
"I am sorry. He builds up things very quickly, and then is disappointed when they do not live up to his dreams. It is not your fault," the young woman told him.
Donatello hung his head for a few seconds. "I wish there was something we could do right now, but..." He trailed off, and cast a glance at Greg. "Have any of you got your phones?"
Greg dug into the bag, and pulled out his own device.
"Heff, I'll make you a new one when we get home, okay?"
The man shrugged. "Sure, Donny. It was yours to begin with."
Donatello handed the cell-phone over to the girl. "Our numbers are programmed in here, and I will reset the codes for you before we take off. It is already configured to use with a satellite."
"I do not understand. Why would you give me this?"
"Because I want to help, we just...I do not know how to yet," Donny stammered. "We have to focus on getting our other brother back, and it is going to be very dangerous. Please, do not lose heart for Shunshi. There is a way to get both of you away from her, and we will find it."
Hisui stared at him silently for a few moments, before embracing him hesitantly. "You do not have to feel responsible for us."
"Just remember what I said, and hang on to that phone," Donatello told her firmly.
Raphael hovered closely to Donatello as they waded back through the water out toward the boat, trying to read his brother's expression.
"What's with the kid?" he finally asked.
Donatello met his gaze with a grimace. "He wanted to come with me. Well, he wanted to keep me first, before it was established that I wasn't a pet."
"Don't they have some kinda family, Donny?"
"The dad's American, and he's been gone for about eight years. Mom is a lifetime alcoholic who never completely grew up, and her flavor of the month 'boyfriends' get their kicks torturing the kids." The words spilled out of Donatello's mouth so fast that Raphael hardly understood them. "You should have seen what Hisui put herself through, just to get the current boyfriend to lend her his phone."
Raphael didn't say anything for several seconds. "I'm sorry we couldn't do anything right this minute, Genius."
"Don't apologize, Raph. I gave her that phone for a reason, so we can get back in contact. I intend to follow through with this," he finished determinedly.
Raphael nodded. "I wanna hear more about them, and everything else. You're gonna have to start at the beginning, and you'd better not leave anything out."
