Hi, after all those one shots and poems, I finally decided to do a new chapter for this story. I was having some writer's block, but I finally got inspired to do it, thanks to an online fan manga/comic for the TMNT.

I found it in someone's bio (yes, I read your bio's people! How else am I going to see what stories you have done, or even read stories that you liked) and the coolest thing about it was that I found a link to this comic and was very hooked on the storyline, but it is unfinished (cries). If you guys are interested, I'll put up a link to this on my bio, so you can also partake in the wonder's of this site.

Yeah, I can hear you all telling me to shut up and get on with my story, so without further ado…

Chapter 6

The Replacement-'And It Unfolds'

"Raph?"

Donatello's face was blurred; all that he could make out was a mere shadow with an outline. He could tell it was his brother because the purple band across his forehead was a dead giveaway…

Dead.

He didn't know what had happened to him; last thing he remembered was blacking out and Leon coming to…

Raph sat up ramrod straight, fear engulfing his every muscle, but upon inspection he realized he was still alive. Relief was again replaced by uncertainty as he looked at the area around himself. It wasn't the lair, sunlight doesn't penetrate the dark sewers, so what in the world…?

"We're in Leon's place." Donatello answered the unspoken question that his brother was forming. Raph looked at him, sometimes he wondered if there was some kind of strange psychic connection between his brothers, or maybe it was simply the experience of living with someone for so long. Either way, this one hell of a place Leon got himself. He saw that the décor was simple and minimalistic, with Japanese touches here and there like a statue or a kanji painting. It gave an image of a rich businessman wearing an expensive suit talking on a cell phone to one whom had no idea who lived here. In fact Raph still couldn't believe that Leon lived here…

"You got to be kidding me, who would let an ass like Leon live here? Unless the human was unfazed by the fact he was a giant talking turtle."

Don just looked at him, "Leon owns this penthouse, I believe he owns this whole building, there are no humans living here as far as I know."

Raph felt his jaw drop, guess that explains a lot, like the attitude that he had.

Don smiled at his brother's bewilderment, "In case you wanted to know, you did suffer a concussion after all. Lucky for you it was a short coma, just one night, guess your hard head benefited you after all." He allowed himself to chuckle at that, remembering fondly all the times Leo told Raph he was too stubborn, it was a pun on the word, and seeing the frown on Raph's face, he got the meaning of it too.

"Where is Mikey and Master Splinter?" he asked his quiet brother, Don shook his head.

"They are in a separate room, recuperating from their wounds, they lost a lot of blood, but not enough to lose total consciousness. I think they are sleeping and-hey where are you going?" He asked his short-tempered brother, as Raph had already thrown back the covers and was proceeding to walk out of the room.

"I'm going to check on them, what else? Besides, we need to get out of this place, I know we aint welcomed here, so if they can move, we're leaving."

"But-" Don began but just a glare from Raph was enough to shut his beak. Don sighed, and got up to follow his brother, when his brother wanted to do something, there was no stopping him.

They went into what appears to be the main area of the penthouse, and it was filled with gadgets only a true nerd like Donny can appreciate. The top of the line stereo and DVD player, the surround sound speakers, automatic fireplace, an intercom system. These are things he and his brothers always dreamed about, but knew they never could have, and here Leon got it all, since when did a turtle get so damn lucky?

In there they found Mikey and Splinter lounging on the sofa, apparently they had been awake for some time, and both looked well despite the bandages on their body.

"Hey dude! You're up! Why don't you sit down and have some tea with us? The cook here is excellent! Leon is one lucky turtle!" Mikey exclaimed upon seeing his brothers come into the living room, which was just as nice, if not nicer, than the bedroom they came out of. Raph heard his brother, but he was actually looking at Master Splinter. It seemed the wise rat has taken an interest in a picture that was placed on a side table next to him. He was staring at it with such intensity; he didn't quite acknowledge his two sons entering the room. Unfortunately for Raph though, Don spoke up first.

"Sensei? What's the matter?" the ever observant turtle asked, Splinter looked up, surprised, then put the picture down on the table.

"Nothing important, my son. Ah, Raphael, I see that you are better this morning, or should I say afternoon?"

"You're lookin good too, Sensei…wait, is it afternoon already? Don gave me the impression that it was the morning."

"Hey, don't blame your lame guesses on me, I never told you it was morning." Don informed his hothead brother indignantly.

"It doesn't matter, If you and Mikey are okay, than I'd like to leave here, we might be outstayin' our welcome." Raph informed his master, but Splinter just stared at his son.

"You don't quite know whether or not we need to leave, Leon has been quite generous to us."

"Exactly why I want to leave, for some strange reason, I don't trust this place." It was true, he had a feeling that Leon was trying to hide something, whatever it is, and it could not be good.

Splinter held his gaze for a little while longer, then nodded, "Fine, we shall leave now."

Mikey's face fell, "Awww, but Sensei, my pizza-"

He fell quiet as the master held up his paw, "We should do as your brother wishes, he may be onto something. I feel the same thing, although I do not quite know what it is."

Mike whimpered slightly, but got up to follow his Master. Raph was satisfied that he managed to convince his sensei, but now had to figure out which door was a exit to outside, and most importantly, how the shell do you open them?

It was his hope that Donatello could figure this out…

"What do you mean it wasn't there anymore?"

"It just wasn't, Takada-san, I swear, it seemed to have put itself back together. I-I can't understand this myself." A worker in a lab coat told a very angry Leon. It was apparent that the turtle creature that attacked the turtles in the lair was gone-no blood, no skin, nothing. Just…gone. Leon couldn't believe it.

It was dead, beyond dead even.

How could that be?

No one knew the location of that lair except himself and the other turtles, and the rat too, of course.

He thought it was crazy to think that the turtle-thing just put itself back together and just walk out like that. It was too impossible, yet it struck him as possible at the same time. A true monster in every sense of the word.

The worker was cowering under the looming presence of Leon. He was in a lab, underneath the penthouse building. The whole purpose of this building is not to have a place to live in, but to research and experiment on the very thing that his father had been trying to find out. But they were no closer to getting it right, and now someone had beaten him to the punch. He had his personal scientists analyze the blood that was on the tissue, and they had concluded that the creature had almost the same kind of DNA that Leon has.

Almost is the word, apparently there was something else in there too. A chemical alteration and Leon only knew of one thing that can do that, it had changed him, and he was pretty sure it changed the family he met too.

He almost had the formula figured out, it was almost perfect, almost right. There were just a couple of glitches in it, but once those were smoothed out, he was done. It would become a miracle drug to the people, and it would be worth millions of dollars.

Then maybe, he would finally be a respected member of his family.

But the fact that he got competition was worrying him, and the fact that this competition tried to kill him; yes, him, he just happened to not be in the lair at that time and Splinter got it instead, was even more troublesome than anything else.

He actually cared a lot about Splinter and his sons, although he doesn't show it. It was weird really, to actually care about people that you barely met, but here he was living proof of that. Why else would he get that strange sense of foreboding to go after the turtles, or even that same feeling about Master Splinter?

Even stranger was that he felt he had seen, known, Splinter at some point in his life, he just can't place where…

A static noise coming from a nearby giant screen interrupted his thoughts. He turned to face it, and was surprised to see the face of a longtime enemy of his family: Agent Bishop.

Bishop's face looked smug as he stared down at Leon. Leon's own face was set, no emotion was going to extrude from him whatsoever.

"I've been watching you, Leon, ever since you came back. Are you surprised to find more creatures like yourself? You thought you were the only one, didn't you?"

Leon kept his expression nonchalant; he wasn't going to let Bishop get the best of him.

Bishop was still talking, "Well, now you can really be unique, because after tonight, you will be the only one left…"

A sound of male screaming was all it took for Leon to drop his guard, "No, how can that be…?"

Bishop laughed maniacally, "Next time, keep your stray lambs in one place."

And with that, the screen went blank.

A/N: I'm sorry that took forever, I had two chapters' to write. One is for the Teen Titans story 'Shellshocked' (hosted by my friend, Daedric Athena, by the way. If you take this to mean that I want you guys to read it…well, I do.) This chapter could have gone better for me, but I did the best I could. I was thinking of rewriting what I got so far…I'm still deciding whether or not I should….