Happy New Year's! Happy reading and don't forget to review. Please let me know how you like my first TMNT chapter story, or if there is anything I should clear up.

Chapter 12: Things are Getting Tense!

Michelango followed Splinter outside the lair. Even though he knew his father was upset with him, Mikey knew Splinter would not be able to take on Shredder in his wounded state.

"Please, Master. I know I messed up, but let me make it up to you!"

The old rat did not stop and continued on, despite how his body ached. Mikey wasn't going to give up and blocked Splinter's way.

"I'm serious about this. I know you want me to stay in the lair, but you can't take on Shredder alone. You're too injured."

"I have risked everything to keep you and your brothers safe from him before, Michelangelo. I'm not afraid of sacrificing my life."

Mikey crossed his arms and refused to move out of the way.

"You can tell me no as much as you like, but I'm not letting you do this alone. All this happened because of me, so I need to fix it."

Splinter frowned and shook his head. He knew he would not be able to convince his oldest son to stay behind and live in shame for not keeping a better watch on his younger brothers.

"If you come with me, you must do what I say. If we find your brothers and find Shredder also, I want you to take your brothers and leave me to face Shredder."

"But, Father..."

"That is an order, my son! No matter what, you must avoid combat with the Shredder at all costs. Do you understand?"

Mickey wanted to object to this. It wasn't fair! As much as he wanted to argue with Splinter again, he knew Leo would respect Splinter's wish. It was part of being a responsible leader.

"Yes, sensei," Mikey nodded sadly.

The appearance of Donatello surprised Zuko. His first thought was to assume that Zixx had betrayed him once again and was secretly working with the Turtles. But the Turtle's only focus seemed to be on Zixx, pure hatred in his eyes. When Donatello launched his attack on Zixx, Zuko knew he couldn't stay by and let the Turtle violently beat the bounty hunter. He may hate Zixx more than anyone else he knew, but this Turtle was out of control.

"Stop!" he told the Turtle as he grabbed him from behind. "You may kill him!"

Donatello didn't seem to have cared and knocked Zuko away. Zuko crashed into the wall and soon after he could hear police sirens in the air. He couldn't afford to be caught, the other Triceraton commanders would never him hear the end of it.

When he looked back at the two again, Donatello had Zixx pinned to the floor and Cody had managed to stop Donatello from hurting Zixx any further.

Quickly Zuko left the scene before anyone knew he was gone and ran off as far as he could until he knew he would be safe. He pulled out the orb from his back pocket and was relieved it had not been damaged.

"Then again," he reminded himself. "Brute force can't destroy an orb such as this." As he stared at the shiny object, he couldn't help but believe that Zixx had never lied about one of the Turtles being held captive inside it. It must be true if the Turtles were willing to hunt Zixx down to retrieve it and bring back their lost brother.

As he returned to his ship, a thought made him shiver. The police will question Zixx, no doubt about that. But when the Turtles find out that Zixx doesn't have the orb, they'll come looking for Zuko and demand he hand it over! He didn't want to end up like Zixx.

When Donatello and Cody returned to the penthouse, the others have already heard what had happened based on the news from Constable. Leo glared at Donnie, but the tech turtle was remaining silent.

"So you're not going to say anything about what happened?" he charged.

"Donnie, you put yourself and Cody in danger! You shouldn't have gone after Zixx like that!" Raph yelled.

"And what was I suppose to do?" Donnie finally spoke with a frown. "Let Zixx run off with Mikey like that? Cody and I were doing fine and our plan was going to work!"

"What plan?! All I heard was that you were trying to murder Zixx. That's not exactly helping Mikey."

Donnie turned from his brothers, but growled. "Someone had to do something."

"My sons, that is enough!" Splinter ordered. "What Donatello did was foolish, I agree, but we only know one side to this. I'm sure Donatello had a good reason for going after Zixx."

They were all quiet for a while to calm down, and then Leo spoke again.

"So why did you and Cody go after Zixx?"

"I knew both you and Raph needed some time alone. I spoke with Cody and Serling and we agreed to go after Zixx ourselves."

"You and Master Cody agreed to that," Serling pointed out in annoyance. "I was against the idea in the first place."

"Nonetheless, we both agreed that we were the only ones capable of going after Zixx. We followed Zixx to a bar downtown due to the tracker I had planted on him when he escaped. The plan was to trick Zixx into giving me the orb by using Cody as bait. When Zixx would find out that Cody would be worth much more than a rare orb, we snatch it from him and run off before he can run off with Cody. We knew it was risky, but we both were 98% certain it was going to work. I really wasn't going to attack Zixx the way I did, but after hearing him gloat about tricking Mikey into using the orb, I just couldn't handle it."

Splinter put a hand on his shoulder. "It was brave, Donatello. But you still put yourselves in danger. I suggest that from now on we all discuss our plans with each other before taking rash actions."

The Turtles and Cody agreed quietly with nods.

"But what about the orb?" Raph questioned. "Did Zixx have it?"

Donatello sighed and leaned back in his chair. "He did at first, but by the time the police arrived, Zixx had already traded it. My guess is Zuko has it now."

Raph growled and cracked his knuckles. "If the Triceratons have it, then we have to find them before they take the orb back to their planet. Who knows what they'll do to Mikey."

"Let us not wait around for that to happen," Leo told them. "We're going after Zuko, even if we have to fight an army. We're getting our brother back once and for all."

Splinter smiled proudly. "And we will do it together."