This was our first patrol in… Jesus, a long time. Other than the obvious fact that we'd been in hiding for months, I could tell I'd fallen a little out of shape based on the fact that I wasn't able to run for as long as I used to. At least I wasn't alone, all the boys were struggling. Leonardo, though healed, seemed to be struggling the most. He tried not to show it but out sprints across the rooftops were short in a way to keep track of his breath. None of us complained, not even Raph. Our team needed extra conditioning. Perhaps it was a good thing we couldn't find the Shredder.

Hours passed. We put a stop to a few pettier crimes but nothing too out of hand. There was no sign of any Foot clan members, or even Purple Dragons. It was a slow night.

"Alright," Leo finally stopped us after another few minutes of running, "I think it's about time we called it a night."

"I thought you'd never say that," Mikey yawned, "I'm so tired."

"Maybe if you'd gotten some sleep after patrol last night, you'd have a little more energy," I nudged my brother playfully, trying to keep him awake. Poor guy had droopy eyes for the last hour.

"I haven't seen my comic collection in forever! I was dying to read them all again!"

"Cause that's important," Raph muttered.

"All sixty thousand issues?" I asked, ignoring my older brother's comment.

"Um, I have two hundred and seventeen actually. Sixty thousand is so many!"

"It may as well be sixty thousand. You didn't get a wink of sleep and look, you're paying for it!" I gestured to his large yawn.

"You know what he's going to do when we get back?" Donnie asked.

"Read some more," We said together.

"There is no faith," Mikey put on his best pout and looked up to the stars like he was trying to pray for more reliable siblings.

"We're on Bleaker St," Leo stated firmly, veering the conversation, "We can use the sewer in the next alley."

We followed, jumping from the roof, to the fire exit landings, to the cement below.

"On the bright side," Mikey said, "It was kind of night have a really really easy and slow night. You know?"

Tires screeched and doors slammed just around the corner. I eyed my brother, "You were saying?"

The orange-banded turtle rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward grin, "I mean, still easy, right?"

Raph had already moved away from the sewer cover Leo had lifted and peaked around the corner of the alleyway.

"What is it?" Leo whispered, slowly dropping the metal man hole cover.

"Oh," Raph laughed, "Mikey, you're gonna be up a lil'while longer."

Mikey kicked the cement, wincing when he realized that the action stubbed his toe. I giggled to myself and joined the rest of my brothers at the end of the alleyway. What Raph wanted us to see was what kind of looking like a robbery of a secondhand electronic store across the street. The thugs were what threw me off though. They didn't look like your typical theives.

"Why are they wearing suits?" Donnie asked quietly.

"Maybe they're not bad guys?" Mikey suggested, "Maybe they like, own that place and forgot something?"

We watched as one of the men went directly to the front window and broke it with his elbow. Dude barely put any effort into it. He didn't flinch either.

"Mmm," I hummed to Mikey's remark, "Do store owners usually break into their own store?"

"No. No, I suppose they don't," Mikey mumbled.

"Alright," Leo reached for a katana, "There's five of them and five of us. Let's make this quick so we can go home for the night."

Agreed. We picked our individual opponents and what should have been an easy fight turned into a rather difficult one. At least I thought it was. My guy had abs made of freakin' steel or something. His bones must had been made of the strongest metal on earth. Every hit I made, seemed to hurt me more than it hurt him. I learned real fast not to hit with my knuckles. I was already sure after the one punch I threw to the head, I had broken one of them at least.

I flicked my hand in pain, "Is anyone else having an issue with these guys or is it just me?"

Behind me, Raph grunted, "My guy won't go down!"

A shriek and Donnie was holding his beak like he'd been punched, "They seem a little strong to you? I've never had a Foot ninja hit me and feel like I got hit with a cosmic meteor."

I step back as my guy jumped. His punch missed me and went straight for the cement. When his fist made contact, the cement literally broke. The concrete literally cracked under the mans knuckles. Not even my brothers could put enough force into a punch like that, not without breaking bones. I looked at his face with shock, certainly I was in shock. I froze, looking at his… now that I see it, completely vacant face. No emotion in the slightest. I backed away, glancing at the other men my brothers were fighting. None of them were angry, or scared, or anything. Any thug we fought was at least a bit drawn off by my brothers. They were giant turtles. These guys made no expression that suggested they'd never seen such a thing.

And now that I was watching them. They all looked alike. I wondered if these guys were all brothers too or something. They all looked exactly the same.

I heard a crash. Mikey had thrown directly into the broken window of the store. The dude that was in combat with Raph had managed to get him to the ground long enough for him to get inside the electronics store and pick up a… something. I honestly wasn't sure what it was. It was a big white orb. Never seen anything like it before. The man ran back to the van. As he did, the rest of the men ditched the battle and hopped into the back of the van as well before zipping off.

"Come on!" Leo yelled, "They're getting away!"

We sprinted but as the fumes from the tailgate of the van spewed, I could tell we weren't going to be catching up. It was the effort that counted at least.

"You jabbed me with your sword, Leo!" Raph shouted, running side by side the eldest, "Ain't you supposed to aware of your surroundin's?"

"Ya, you should! Maybe you watch where I'm stabbing next time and stay out of the way!"

"Stop it!" I said, "We're losing it!"

We rounded the corner, the van was gone. I almost contemplated going to the rooftops but by the time we could get up there, the van would be streets away. No point in chasing after it now.

"Way to go guys," Donnie eyed the two brothers, "Maybe if you two wouldn't argue for thirty seconds, we could have caught up!"

Neither brother commented, only shared glares. I sighed. Typical, "We lost Mikey,"

Leo started walking back to where the fight occured. Huffing. He was clearly annoyed, "Then let's go find him and head home."

"You notice that all of them looked exactly the same?" I asked, mostly geared toward Donnie who was typically even more perceptive than I was. Which in this case, I was right. He nodded.

"Yep. I did notice that," He readjusted his purple eyemask, "That was interesting to say in the least. They were incredibly strong too. Like, inhumanly strong."

"Mine punched the ground and cracked the cement. Dude didn't even flinch!" I shook my head, "And I think I cracked one of my knuckles punching him in the face."

"I ain't never seen a man lift me over his head and throw me," Raph commented, rather thoughtfully for once, "They didn't look very strong."

"So… mutant humans?" Leo asked.

"Don't… say something Mikey would say," I replied, giving my brother an almost pained expression. Leo nodded, agreeing.

"So, where is Mikey?" Raph asked once we returned to the electronic store. No sign of the turtle anywhere. We did hear a yell though, but not a scared, help me yell. It sounded like the kind of yell Mikey would deliver after watching a scary movie. Maybe an alleycat jumped him again. One of our last patrols before the whole Shredder showdown, one jumped out at him as we were returning into the sewer after our nightly patrol. Mikey really had the girliest scream.

"Sounds like he's a block that way," Leo pointed.

"I wonder what that thing was they stole," Donnie commented, peering into the electronics store. He suddenly gasped, "Is that the next-generation cadmium processor with quantum encryption?"

"I don't know Donatello!," Raph asked, neutrual toned, "Is it?"

Donnie squinted, then grinned widely, "It is!"

"Why would something like that be in a dumpy place like this?" I asked, "Aren't those pretty new and expensive?"

"Owner probably stole it," Raph shrugged like it was no big deal, "We're kind of in the ghetto part of town, rememba?"

That was probably true. Nothing we could do about it. We'd come across a couple cases like that in the past. Thugs stealing expensive items to resell. Unfortunately, a lot of the thugs were just poor folk. They ways of the city never ceased to surprise me.

Instead of us finding Mikey, Mikey found us. He was huffing. His eyes were wide, frantically waving his arms. Poor guy looked like he was jumped by four or five alley cats.

"Guys! Guys! You're never going to believe this!" Mikey stopped in front of us, almost out of breath, "The guy! He-he… had a brain!"

I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. Based on his expression, it didn't look like he was making something up but that was a really dumb comment for even him to say. Perhaps the lack of sleep was catching up, "I don't say this often but Mikey, I believe you."

The three eldest brothers whipped their eyes down to me, "You do?" They all asked collectivly.

I nodded, "Sure. We all have brains."

Clarity. The eldest three were amused. Leo turned back to Mikey, "We all have brains," He repeated.

Donnie rubbed his face, "Uh, not all of us."

Mikey's jaw dropped like he couldn't grasp why we weren't jumping to our heels at his… I'm not sure what the word is… lunacy? "In our chests?"

"No Mikey," Leo said, "Not in our chests."

Mikey's arms dropped. The fear was gone and was replaced with frustration. His voice raised, "You're not listening to me!"

I had to say, when something spooked Michelangelo, he had a hard time describing what he was scared of. Granted, he had a hard time describing anything to be perfectly coherent. But I really didn't follow along with this one. A brain? In the guy's chest? Sounded a lot like one of the comics he would read which again, reinstated my "Mikey is tired" theory.

Leo smacked the side of Mikey's head. Not something uncommon but Mikey did stop hyperventalting for a moment. His eyes turned to slits, "Did you just slap me?"

"I was calming you down."

"Why would that calm me down?" Mikey's voice rose again.

"I think you're delusional," Donnie said.

A heavy sigh. Mikey stepped away, gesturing for us to follow, "Okay, just come here. I'm telling you, the weird guy was a robot and he had a freaky, weird alien brian thing in his chest. You gotta believe me!"

We followed. I was a little curious to see what this was about.

"I'm not sure we do," Raph muttered.

"Oh yeah?" Mikey asked, rounding the corner of the alley, "Well, you'll change your tune when you see that he's…"

The alleyway was empty. There wasn't even a trash bin or anything. Nothing. Alright, so Mikey was seeing things now. Delusional, as Donnie had put it.

"Gone?"

I'm not sure any of us knew what to say. So we left, heading home as we should have a while ago. I wondered about those guys. I knew we were all curious. They were unlike any opponent we'd faced before. And why did they steal that weird-looking white orb thing? I asked Donnie what he thought it was but for once, the turtle actually shrugged his shoulders.