Part 1: The Fire

Chapter 1: Patrol and a Villain

The late summer night was crisp and cold and the city seemed peaceful. Although New York had been through many trials and struggles over the last few years, a few heroes in the shadow always managed to pull the city through. The city had been somewhat quiet since the defeat of the Shredder, the brothers were finding less and less crime to fight.

A bottle tumbled along the pavement on a path as the wind plotted its path. Above the calm city four figures outlined by moonlight loomed, protective watchmen of the world below.

"Alright ninja we've done well tonight" Leo smiled as from his place overlooking the city turning back to give his three brothers a reassuring smile. Things had been difficult after Splitter's death. The young leader had to step in more ways than he had ever imagined. As the oldest brother, a bit of a mother hen, he had often been teased about being like a second parent, but he had never considered that he would ever have to actually play the role of father or sensei to his brothers. Their fathers' shoes were impossible to fill and the role of Sensie weighed heavily on his shoulders. As brothers they had carried each other through Splinters passing. The burden of the leader grew heavy as he also took on the responsibilities of Sensei as well. But over a year later, Leonardo had grown in many ways. He had found balance in both roles.

"This plasma converter will work wonders at transforming the way energy is transferred! Just imagine the possibilities.." Donnie rambed to himself as he dug through his bag of finds from their trip to the junkyard for a rare battery Donnie needed for the weapons in the party wagon.

"I can't believe I found the limited edition of my comics..'Bugs vs. tortoises II Memories forgotten'" Mikey Squealed.

Leo smiled, yes he thought to himself tonight was a success.

"And you found the battery you needed too, right Don?"

"Yes..along with several other useful tools and scapts. I would definitely chock this night up as a success."

"Finally" Raph growled, taking his sias out to twirl.

Leo smiled feeling as though he and his younger brother were on the same page.

"And the night is still young. We haven't been on patrol as a whole team in nearly a month now. I'd say we're long overdue." With how slow things were; they hadn't needed to patrol as a group for a while now and Leo thoroughly missed it. Usually small teams were efficient enough. More often than not though, Leo usually ended up patrolling the city by himself.

"Actually Leo, my time would be much better spent repairing the party wagon."

Leo shook his head "fine, in that case Raph, Mikey I'd say we should head over and patrol the Shredder's old neighborhood make sure things are still dormant and that no 'would-be-dictator street gang' has taken residency."

"Can't" Raph shrugged. "Already made plans with Casey, been helping him with his game. He's got a chance to try out for the hockey team this coming season."

"Mikey?"

"Dude, Bugs vs. Toroses II, yo in prime condition!"

Leo let out a sigh. His brothers waited, he knew that they respected him enough as Leader to follow his orders. They might not be too happy about it but they wouldn't fight it either if he asked them to come along. But with things as slow as they were, he didn't actually need them to come along, it would be more because he missed them than actually needing a full team for patrol. He could make the run by himself.

"I'm not going to order you to come along with me, though I do miss patrolling with you guys. But as your leader, I will order that, Raph, you need to check in before sunrise I know for you and Casey hockey practice usually leads to 'busting heads'. Donnie, keep a fire distinguisher nearby and I'm going to make both you and Mikey take a break when I get home."

"Will do fearless" Raph smiled before taking off toward the hockey rink.

"Oh I can't wait to see what this baby can do!" Donnie exclaimed, grabbing his bag and heading toward the roof access. "Bye Leo" Donnie called over his shoulder.

"Comics here I come" Mikey squealed jumping into the alley with a "booyakasha" followed by a "see you later bro."

Leo shook his head a fond smile on his face before he turned to race soundlessly across the rooftops of New York.

This was..odd. Something was up. After finding the Shredder's headquarters in the same state as always, he had moved along to other stomping grounds. The EPF had evacuated TCRI months ago and the once menacing building had been transformed into a regular office building. From the looks of it, nothing had changed, it had remained ordinary, insignificant and overall harmless. It was when passing by Baxter Stockman's old hideout that things became suspicious.

From the looks of it Stockman was back, the once again human scientist seemed to have managed to gather what was left of New York's mutagen supply for one last crazy shananigan. But what that was specifically, Leo had no clue.

Stockman sat hunched in front of his computer, his brow creased as he ran the numbers, before pushing back and sliding across the floor in his wheely chair to adjust the calculations for his mutagen supply. Unlike his large container of mutagen that had taken up residence in his lair in the past, Stockman only had a small gun that held the last of the mutagen left over from the Krangg invasion. The main event of the lair was a large electronic grid on the far wall that buzzed with power seeming to electrify the entire warehouse.

Leo crept along the rafters assessing the situation. Stockman seemed to be alone, he couldn't detect anyone else nearby and the only weapon Stockman seemed to have was the mutagen gun and the electronic grid thing. Leo frowned mentally assessing the situation.

..he needed to call Donnie.

He could easily take Stockman down but he had no idea of what Stockman was working and no clue of where to look. Science was Donetello's department. Even if he found a clue about Stockman's plan, chances were that he'd walk obliviously right past it.

Leo watched as Stockman maneuvered about below muttering quietly to himself about 'energy currents' and 'stabilized supply', while watching for any sign of a plan or agenda Leo listened as Donnie's ringtone went on and on. Heaving a sigh, Leo hung up. For a moment he just stared down at his green three fingered hand that held the shell shaped phone. Leo started at the device, at the top of the screen his brother's full name: Dontello was written above a picture of a figure from the space heroes show, that stood as his genius brother's ID picture. He listened to the automated message as the phone blinked a few times informing him that he had reached Don's voice message. He sighed in resolve though he couldn't dismiss the sting of slight irritation and disappointment. Putting the phone away, he turned his attention back to the figure below him.

If his little brother wasn't answering he was too involved in whatever he was doing to answer anytime in the near future and leaving a phone log of several missed calls would only alarm the genius.

Suddenly the panel below jumped to light as Stockman connected a cord that ran from the gun into the electric wall. Not wanting to wait for Stockman's agenda to develop any farther, Leo dropped from his perch in the rafters to land right before Stockman sending a well prepared roundhouse kick that sent the gun flying.

"Turtles? Here!"

"What are you up to, Stockboy?"

"It's Stockman! Baxter Stockman!"

"Who are you working for? the Neofoot? Tiger Claw?" Leo asked as a leg sweep unbalanced Stockman but before he could speak Leo grabbed him by the collar, blade at his throat.

"I..I'm not working for anyone" Stockman stuttered hands in the air. "I'm free from the ties of the foot. I work for myself and myself alone now, thank you very much! Baxter stockman is under no-one's heel any longer. I am the controller of my own destiny! I have turned over a new leaf."

"If you've truly turned over a new leaf, what is all this?" Leo tilted his head gesturing to the electric panel and mutagen gun.

"I have lived in oppression long enough, it is time to stand up and take what is rightfully mine, to put those who have wronged me in place, to.."

"Revenge and vendetta will only lead to a life of pain and suffering Baxter" Leo let out a sigh, meeting the scientist's gaze. "If you truly want to turn over a new leaf. Truly want to start over, then you have to let the past go. You said you were in control of your own destiny. But what is that destiny? A life of crime? Where you manipulate, and cause harm to others as you claim others have done to you? Do you really want such a legacy? Shredder made himself a monster. Both on inside and outside. Do you want to paint yourself the same way?" Baxter grew quiet. Leo let out a sigh. What was he doing? Now wasn't the time for a lecture. It's not like Baxter would listen anyway...

Leo was knocked off his feat suddenly as the electronic wall behind them burst into flames, electricity sprouting from the vast paneling in waves.

"My work!" Stockman exclaimed.

"What's happening?"

"The panels are unstable, I was just adjusting the machine to handle the amount of power and energy the mutagen gun harnessed when you attacked me. I hadn't finished preparing the system and it appears it has overloaded."

The building seemed to creak and crane under the strain of the raw power coursing from the panels up the wall in electric flames that seemed to eat even through the metal. It was like a mutated form of energy and fire!

Running to what he assumed to be the main control panel, Leo stared down uselessly at the buttons.

"Help me disable this before it kills us both!"

Jumping to work by his side for the first time, Baxter started working through his emergency controls trying to shut off the panel's source of power. The warehouse was fully engulfed in flames now. Pushing the emergency button on his T-phone, Leo worked to fight back the flames as he stood trying to guard the scientist as he fought to get the panels back under control.

A buzzing of to his right could just barely be heard over the crackling of the flames as the electric fire demolished the building; turning Leo felt fear grip his heart as his eyes landed on the forgotten mutagen gun now buzzing and shaking.

"Look out!" Leo pushed Baxter to the ground as he jumped out of the way, but a second too late as pain coursed through his head before sending him into darkness.

"LEO!" Mikey screamed, jumping out of the Battle shell and racing toward the burning building.

Donetello felt his heart momentarily stop as he started up at the beast of a fire eating away at Stockmans old lab. When the emergency alarm went off, he saw that he had missed a call from his older brother just minutes before Leo had pushed the emergency alarm. Minutes before this…

Glass shattered as electric fire coursed through the building, its hungry arms reaching out the windows for something else to consume.

"Don" the genius turned to see Raph and Casey jogging up looking as frazzled and terrified as he felt. "Where's Leo? Is he okay?! What's going on?"

"I don't know Raph" Donnie felt the words stick in his throat. "We just got here."

"I don't see Leo anywhere Dee" Mikey was on the verge of panic. "I checked the front and side alleyways."

Don shook his head, "his signal indicates he's.." he's in there. His brothers picked up on the direction of his unfinished sentence, their eyes growing wide.

"We need to get in there!" Raph yelled rushing toward the building. "Leo!"

Donnie ran after his brother as Cassey, April and Mikey rushed after Raph. The building gave a sudden groan.

"Raph look out!" Pure terror coursed through Donnie. Surging forward he knocked his older brother to the ground just as the building across the street gave way, crumpling to the ground.

Donnie watched from where he lay protectively over his older brother as the walls gave way and the flames seemed to reach out in evil delight as the building holding his oldest brother collapsed to nothing but a rumble of stone and flame.

No No NOO! The world blurred around him as his tears blurred his vision, he could only distantly hear Raph's guttural scream of pure anguish and despair that mirrored his own tormenting emotions.

"LEONARDO!"

"LEO NO! LEO!" Mikey's heartbroken scream seemed miles away as Donnie watched the fire destroy Baxter Stockman's old building.

It was just supposed to be a simple patrol... An everyday simple patrol... Leo ran them by himself all the time...Crime had been so slow..he hadn't even thought...he was so involved in his project...he didn't have his phone near him...he didn't hear his brother's call...he didn't even see he'd missed a call until that alarm...how many minutes?...if he'd just answered his phone... he have prevented this?...he'd been so wrapped up in his invention..did he even say goodbye to his brother?..when he went on patrol..what were his last words to his brother..before..before..his last words..

Donnie knew he was going into shock but he just couldn't care.

His brother was probably dead!

He heard the sirens off in the distance. Logically in the back of his mind, he knew they needed to leave. He knew they couldn't be spotted. Knew they wouldn't be able to search through the burning ruble even if no one was around anyway...but he just couldn't get himself to move, to speak, to do anything. All he could do was stare. Stare at the flames that were lashing away at the heap of a building. A building his brother was in.

"We need to leave" April's voice seemed to pull him back into himself. He couldn't deal with this right now, he'd go crazy. He needed to get his brothers home. Whatever did this could still be out there. And they couldn't be here when the authorities arrived. He needed to get Mikey and Raph back to the sewers.

"But we can't leave!" Raph yelled, gesturing drastically to the burning building. "Leo could still be in there!"

"Raph.." April's voice broke.

"I'm not leaving my brother!"

"There's nothing we can do right now Raph" Donnie's voice seemed hollow, automatic like he was relying on some sort of autopilot. "The fire is too out of control, we wouldn't even be able to get close. The cops will be all over this place in minutes. We need to regroup, get back to the lair...maybe..Leo got out..before.." tears burned Donnie's brown eyes.

April's hand on his shoulder was the grounding force the genius needed to pull him into emergency planning mode. Pulling himself onto his feet Donnie grabbed a sobbing babbling Mikey and started heading toward the battle shell. Raph reluctantly followed with April and Casey. Driving away from the fire felt wrong. But the genius knew they didn't have a choice. But he also knew that he and his brothers would not stop looking until they found Leo. Dead or alive.