Castoff
part 12
Leo was near enough to Don to hear what Raph said. Leaning close to his brother's shoulder, Leo told Raph, "We're on our way. Keep your mic open so we can track you."
"Whatever ya' do, stay off of West 35th," Raph said.
"What's on West 35th?" Don asked.
Tapping his arm, Leo said, "Questions later, let's move."
He glanced at Casey who shook his head. "Take off. I need to call the crime scene guys to come down here and process the spot where we found blood. I don't want Guerra to come back and start destroying evidence."
"I'm staying too," April said. "I want to know what they find."
The pair of turtles ran back to where they'd left the truck. This time Donatello drove, expertly traversing the city streets far faster than was prudent. Leo kept watch for police cruisers, not wanting to get tangled up with law enforcement.
Once they were moving along at a fast clip, Leo used the truck's intercom to connect with Raph again.
"Okay Raph, tell me what's happened," Leo said.
"We caught up to some Foot goons and followed them to a restaurant," Raph said. "No, we didn't 'engage the enemy'. We stayed back and watched 'em raid the place just like ya' said."
"What's the problem then?" Leo asked, frowning.
"Mikey was driving, that's the problem," Raph said.
"It wasn't my fault," Mikey protested in the background.
"Shut up," Raph barked at him. "He parked the van right out in the open in front of a pizza joint. We were going back to it so we could stay on the Foot's trail, but they found the van first. Some of them headed off with the food, but there's a whole squad of 'em staking out our ride."
"I take it the pizza place is on West 35th?" Leo asked.
"Yeah, it is," Raph answered. "We can't move without giving ourselves away. We could just leave the van parked there, but then we lose the chance to find out where these guys have been hiding."
"Hang tight until we get there," Leo said. "We won't be long."
"Hurry it up. If I have to listen to any more of Mikey's stupid ideas, I'm gonna lose it," Raph said.
Don took that literally and stomped on the gas pedal. With Raphael, one never knew.
They found their brothers waiting for them in the shadows of a large water tower. Don had parked the truck far from their location, since it too would be recognized by the Foot.
"Ya' sure we can't put a beat down on some of them?" Raph asked as his brothers approached. "We could follow the ones who scurry off."
"They wouldn't go back to Karai," Leo said, dismissing the suggestion. "Have any of them been near the van?"
"Couple of them went down to take a look, then they went into hiding," Raph said. With a snort, he added, "They're bad at it. Spotted them inside of a minute."
"How many?" Leo asked.
"Eight," Mikey answered. "It's not my fault they found the van. Could have happened to anyone."
"Yeah, only it happened to you," Raph retorted.
"How about we focus on how to get the Foot to lead us back to their home base?" Leo asked.
"If they have nothing to watch, they'll leave," Don suggested.
"I hope ya' ain't planning on blowing it up," Raph said, glaring at him.
"No, I was thinking about having it impounded," Don said, looking at Leo.
"Call Casey," Leo said.
When Don reached their friend, he switched the call to Leo's comm unit.
"Casey, Don's going to send you the location of the van," Leo said. "Can you get someone to drive you to it in a patrol car? You'll need to be in uniform. Give it the once over like it's been parked illegally, then get in and drive away. Make sure you aren't followed."
"Yeah, okay," Casey said. "Give me a bit. I've got the crime scene guys going over the grounds here. I'll leave them to it and get one of my buddies to give me a lift."
"We'll keep an eye out for you," Leo said before signing off.
"It's going to be daylight soon," Don reminded them.
"Did either of you see Bebop and Rocksteady?" Leo asked.
"No, only Foot soldiers," Mikey said.
"I say we grab one of the Foot when they all start to leave and smack him around until he talks," Raph said.
"I've got a better idea," Don said, taking out his pea shooter. "Show me where a couple of them are hiding."
No one bothered to question what he was up to since they knew he'd tell them once it was done. Leading the way, Raph took them across to another rooftop and pointed to a darkened areaway on the street below.
Flipping his telescopic lenses down over his eyes, Don located the Foot soldier. From his belt Don extracted a small round object, its surface covered in hair like burs. After loading it into the barrel of his pea shooter, Don placed the weapon to his lips. Taking careful aim, Don expelled a hard puff of air, sending the 'pea' flying.
The object hit the Foot soldier's pant leg and stuck. It went completely unnoticed by the man.
"What was that?" Leo finally asked.
"Tracking device," Don said. "I've been working on them. This seemed like a good chance to try them out."
"Ya' got more of them?" Raph asked. "'Cause we should tag a few of those goons just in case one of your gizmos don't work."
"Bite your tongue," Don said with a grin.
"Guys, let's avoid being seen," Leo said, "or heard."
By the time Don had planted trackers on three more of the Foot soldiers, a police patrol car had arrived. Crouching in their hiding places, they watched as Casey stepped out of the passenger side of the car. He put on his hat, tugging it down low over his eyes, before moving across the street to where the Turtle Van was parked.
Because Casey was part of their 'team', he'd been given a set of keys to both the van and the garbage truck. After walking around the vehicle and making a show of looking through the driver's side window, Casey climbed into the van and used his key to start the ignition.
When he pulled away from the curb the patrol car moved into place behind him. The turtles watched as the two vehicles drove a couple of blocks before turning onto 9th Avenue.
There was no sign that they were being pursued, but only moments after the van disappeared, the Foot soldiers scattered.
"Now what?" Mikey asked.
"Follow them," Raph said.
"We can't." Don pulled up a holographic image of a small section of the neighborhood they were in. It showed four separate blinking dots, each vanishing as they floated off the screen.
"What's going on? Ain't your trackers working?" Raph asked.
"They're working just fine," Don said. "The GPS satellite I'm piggybacking off of has to be accessed from my computers in the lair. My wrist device has limitations."
"It's too near daylight anyway," Leo said. "We should find out where Casey's taken the van and retrieve it."
After ensuring themselves that there were no more Foot minions in the area, the brothers ran back to where the garbage truck was parked. Don had just started the engine when they received a call from Casey.
"Here's where I'm leaving the van," Casey said, giving them a location. "I'm catching a ride back to Garvey Park with my buddy. April's still there keeping an eye on things. The case detectives were showing up as I was leaving and they'd be real happy to keep stuff to themselves."
"Thanks, Casey," Leo said.
"Soon as I get a free minute, I'll catch up with you guys so you can tell me what you found out," Casey said. "By then I hope I'll have some news for you too."
They found where Casey had parked the van and Raph took over as its driver. Since the sun would soon be rising and there wasn't anything else they could do, the turtles headed for home.
The first thing Donatello did upon arriving at the lair was to check on Shilo. The infant turtle was sound asleep in his bassinet.
"He gave me no trouble at all," Master Splinter said. "Shilo seems to enjoy the sounds of my televised dramas. They soothed him to sleep."
"More like bored him to sleep," Raph muttered under his breath.
Don rolled the bassinet over to his computer station and then sat down to fire up his tracking systems. Raph and Mikey made their way to the kitchen to fix themselves a snack as Master Splinter turned off the television and went to bed.
Leo stood behind Don, his arms crossed as he watched four tiny blips appear on a map of the city. "That the guys you tagged?"
"Yes," Don answered. "They haven't converged on a single location yet. They may sleep during the day too and have all gone home. Wherever Karai is hiding with Bebop and Rocksteady, it's probably not large enough to house the entire Foot army."
"What there is left of them," Leo said. "Speaking of sleep, make sure that you get some, okay?"
"Sure, Leo," Don said, eyes glued to his computer screen.
Shaking his head, Leo moved over to the bassinet and leaned down to watch Shilo sleep. The baby gurgled and shifted, turning his head in Leo's direction before settling down again. That brought a smile to Leo's face and he had to resist the urge to caress Shilo's bald dome.
One by one the brothers went to bed, all except Don. Murmuring to himself, he continued working at his computers, barely acknowledging Leo's final admonition that he should rest.
Hours later Raphael woke, sat up to stretch, and then hopped out of bed. Glancing around, he saw that he was the only one in the bedroom.
Going down to the kitchen, Raph grabbed the milk from the refrigerator and chugged it straight from the carton. Finishing it off, he crushed the carton and tossed it into the garbage can before trying to locate the rest of his family.
He didn't see Leo, Mikey, or Master Splinter anywhere, but Don was still at his computer station. Shilo lay atop a cushion which was sitting on Don's lap, his little head supported by the back of Don's wrist. The baby was greedily sucking on a bottle, which Don kept upright by bracing it with his cheek since both of his hands were on the computer keyboard.
Raph chuckled. It figured that Don would find a way to care for the baby and work at the same time. Leaving the kitchen, Raph walked over to his brother and asked, "Where is everybody?"
"Leo and Master Splinter left to see if they could locate the gun Guerra tossed into the storm drain," Don said. "Casey's meeting them there so he can 'find' the gun. Mikey's started on the body repairs to the car Casey brought over."
"Did you get any sleep?" Raph asked, eyeing his brother suspiciously.
"Wasn't tired," Don replied, tapping away on his keyboard.
Shilo pulled away from the bottle and started wriggling, a clear sign that he was finished eating.
"Here, give him to me," Raph said. "He probably needs to burp and you ain't as good at that as I am."
Don set the nearly empty bottle aside and handed Shilo to his brother. He also gave Raph the towel that was on the desk next to him.
"Watch how hard you thump him or you'll have half that bottle on your arm," Don warned.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever mom," Raph said in a teasing tone as he turned Shilo plastron down on his forearm.
"I wish you guys would stop calling me that," Don muttered.
After several firm thumps on his carapace, Shilo burped loudly. Grinning, Raph said, "That's right little buddy, we got this."
Placing Shilo against his chest, Raph cleaned the saliva from his arm and then draped the towel on his shoulder. Shifting Shilo into a more comfortable position, Raph glanced down at his brother.
Donatello had passed out on the desk, his glasses now slightly askew. Rolling his eyes, Raph slid the glasses off of Don's face and set them nearby so that his brother could find them quickly.
Turning his head so he could look at Shilo's face, Raph saw that the baby was watching him intently. "Guess it's just you and me kid. Whatcha' wanna do with your favorite uncle, huh?"
Shilo cooed, almost as if to answer the question. Smiling broadly, Raph said, "Okay then, how about a tour of the lair? Don't think anyone's bothered to formally introduce ya' to your home."
Raph began walking from room to room, keeping up a running commentary as he went. While he talked, Shilo responded with encouraging noises, from coos to gurgles to small warbling sounds.
Before long though, Shilo began to grunt. The noise was odd enough for Raph to shift the baby from his shoulder to his arms, cradling Shilo as he looked at him.
Shilo's little face was scrunched up and for a second, Raph thought he was in pain. Then a second later the smell hit him.
"Oh yuck!" Raph exclaimed, his own nose crinkling in distaste. His initial impulse was to look to Don, but his brother was still out of it. If Raph woke him, he knew Don wouldn't go back to sleep again.
"Okay, okay, I got this," Raph mumbled, gathering the items he needed from the bassinet and carrying them to the kitchen so as not to disturb Donatello.
After spreading a towel on one of the tables, he lay Shilo down on it and set a clean diaper and wipes next to him.
"How hard can this be?" Raph asked himself. "Suck it up, Raph. It's just a bad smell. You've lived with worse. Hold your breath."
While he was working up the courage to dive into his task, Shilo's lower lip began to quiver.
"No~o," Raph pleaded, keeping his voice down. "No, no, no baby. Don't cry. Don't wake your momma. Uncle Raph's gonna fix you right up."
The impending storm of an unhappy baby's wails got Raph moving. He swiftly stripped off Shilo's pajama bottoms. Taking a deep breath and holding it, Raph unfastened the dirty diaper.
Remembering what Don had said about spraying, Raph held the diaper just above Shilo's penis. He immediately felt urine pelting the inside of the diaper and waited until it stopped before removing the soiled diaper completely.
Raph set a world's record in rolling that diaper into a compact ball and tossing it towards the garage. Turning his head, he exhaled and then filled his lungs, holding his breath again as he cleaned Shilo's bottom.
Once that was done, Raph placed a clean diaper on the baby turtle and slipped the pajamas back onto him.
"Ha! I knew you could do it!"
Turning his head, Raph saw Mikey perched on the ladder that led up from the tide pool. Somehow his brother had snuck over to watch him without alerting Raph to his presence.
"Thanks for your help," Raph said in a sarcastic tone.
"I found something called a 'Diaper Genie' in the boxes of stuff April dropped off and put the dirty diaper in it," Mikey said. "That's helping. Besides, it was way past your turn to change a diaper."
"Don't know what all the fuss was about," Raph said, cradling Shilo once again. "It wasn't that big a deal."
"You were the only one fussing about it," Mikey said.
"What else have you been up to?" Raph asked.
"I was supposed to be hammering out some of the dents in the new car," Mikey said. "I got sidetracked when I saw those boxes in the back of the truck. I unloaded all of them and unpacked a few. 'Some assembly required' is stamped on a whole lot of them."
"Let's call Vern and get him to do it," Raph said with a grin.
They were quiet for a moment as Raph rocked Shilo in his arms, watching as the baby turtle's eyes slowly closed.
"Raph, I've been wondering something," Mikey said. "How come you didn't jump the Foot last night? You never held back before."
His brother seemed to think about that question as he gazed at Shilo. Then he asked, "What made ya' suddenly stop and buy a teddy bear yesterday?"
Mikey appeared puzzled at the change in topic. "I did it for Shilo."
"There's the answer to your question," Raph said. "My first instinct was to go to pound town on the Foot, then I had this thought that word would get back to Karai. What if she had her guys go into the tunnels looking for us the way they did before? While I don't give a crap when it's about me, I suddenly had this vision of them finding Shilo down here and . . . ."
As Raph trailed off, he gave Mikey a look that the younger turtle understood completely.
"I guess from now on we're gonna think of Shilo before we do anything," Mikey said. "Is that what it means to be responsible?"
"'Fraid so little brother," Raph said. He kissed Shilo's head. "Wouldn't turn back time even if I could though."
The sound of voices speaking in low tones turned their attention to the lair's main entrance. Master Splinter and Leo appeared a moment later and stopped when they saw Raph and Mikey.
"How'd it go?" Raph asked.
"We found the gun," Leo said.
TBC….