Disclaimer: I don't own the ninja turtles.

Oroku Saki glared at the four Elite standing before him. "You were supposed to simply follow the turtles and observe at this point. None of them were to be injured." Leaning back slightly, the Japanese man continued to stare at his henchmen.

"Do not fail me the next time." He said quietly. "Or the consequences will be dire. Did you at least follow through with your original order?"

The Elite nodded, bowed, and vanished. Saki steepled his fingers and stared out the window. Except for the slight mishap, everything was going smoothly. Good…Saki smirked. Although he had not intended for Leonardo to be so seriously injured so soon, it could easily be worked to his advantage.

Mikey groggily looked up from his bed, squinting in the early morning darkness. He blinked, the Superman clock on his wall read 6:00 a.m.

That's weird, Mikey thought, yawning and putting his head back down. I could have sworn-

Scrape. Scrape.

Mikey sat straight up. That scraping noise was what had woken him up. Throwing back the covers, Mikey listened carefully.

Scrape. Scrape.

There it was again. Mikey yawned again, and stepped out of bed, listening for the scraping sound to come again so he could locate it.

Scrape. Scrape.

The noise sounded like it was coming from the dojo. Starting to feel like he was in a horror movie, Mikey silently moved around into the living room, heading towards the dojo.

Mikey frowned as he came to the door of the dojo, he could see a light on under the crack. That couldn't be right, no one was up yet. The only person who was ever up this early was-

Mikey's eyes widened with realization as he pushed the door open.

Leo stood in the middle of the mat, holding one of his katanas in his good hand. His back was to Mikey, and he didn't notice him.

Mikey felt a sudden pang of…something, sadness maybe, as he watched Leo struggle with the heavy weapon. He could tell he was trying to raise it to a battle position.

Leo could usually hold a katana with one hand with no trouble, but since he had been so thoroughly beaten yesterday, Mikey guessed his strength wasn't where it was supposed to be.

Mikey winced as Leo managed to get it to his middle at least, and then attempt to do a few practice swings.

After watching his brother struggle with the sword for five more seconds, Mikey spoke up. "You shouldn't be up, Leo." He said quietly.

"Nothing happened to my legs, Mike." Leo said just as quietly, turning around to face his brother.

Mikey shook his head. "No, but-"

They both jumped as the lone katana clattered to the floor, having slipped out of Leo's grip. "Leave me alone, Mikey," Leo said softly.

Mike took a step forward. "But, Leo, I-"

"Go away, Mikey."

Mikey was shocked. Leo had never spoken to him so coldly before.

"Fine." Mikey said, almost sadly. "Just don't overwork yourself."

Leo watched the back of Mikey's shell leave, and winced as pain shot up his arm. He must have torn a muscle or something, hanging onto the building. He knew perfectly well that he shouldn't even be up yet, let alone trying to practice. But he had to. He didn't have a choice.

Leo sighed as he picked up the katana once more, this time without trouble, and stared at it. He wouldn't let his brothers get into fights without him, it was too dangerous.

Leo knew if anything serious were to happen to him, either Raph or Don would take over as leader. But he wasn't willing to let that happen just yet. This wasn't serious; this was a minor obstacle he had to overcome, like his fear of heights when he was little. What am I saying? Leo thought. This isn't minor like a phobia that can be fixed…I can't grow back a new hand like a tree!

Giving up practicing for the moment, Leo walked over to the weapons rack, and placed his katana in their place. He smiled when he saw the bo and the sais in their places as well, but with Mikey's nunchucks hanging messily over the edge of the shelf. Shaking his head, Leo moved the 'chucks to their proper place, and left the room.

Don woke with a start and fell out of his bed with a 'thud,' as the alarm clock went off.

"Ugh…" For a minute, Don didn't remember what happened, and then everything came rushing back to him. Quickly pulling on his bandanna, Don stumbled out of his room into the kitchen.

Raph and Mikey were already awake. So were Master Splinter and April, who were sitting at the kitchen table.

"Hey April…" Don felt a blush rising, he hadn't realized April had stayed the night.

"Sorry," April said apologetically. "I just didn't feel safe in my apartment with the Foot so close."

"It is alright, Miss O'Neil," Splinter assured her. "We would prefer you were safe." April nodded, and looked down at her feet.

"Leo still sleeping?" Don asked. He was met with an uncomfortable silence. Raph and Mikey exchanged glances.

Don noticed this and raised an eyeridge.

"Okay, he's not sleeping. Where is he?" Raph looked at the table. Don sighed. "Mikey?"

"We…don't know." Mikey answered finally.

Don, Splinter and April exchanged surprised glances. "You…don't know." Don repeated quietly.

Mikey shook his head. "He was in the dojo this morning, but I left, and I thought he'd be in the kitchen but he wasn't and I mean, Don, it's Leo, and he wasn't in his room…"

Don held up a hand. Whenever Mikey got flustered he would start to babble. "Slow down, Mike. He probably just went down one of the tunnels or something to….to….uh…well, do something." Don sighed and picked up his bo staff. "I'll go look for him."

"Donatello." Splinter spoke up. "If you do happen to find Leonardo, perhaps you could talk to him before he comes back."

Don nodded. "Okay, sensei." Shaking his head, Don left.

"Dude," Mikey said, "Where d'ya think he went? I mean, he was here this morning."

Raph shrugged. "I dunno. But if he starts actin' like me, I'm gonna be scared."

Mike grinned. "Why Raph? Because then you'll have to act like him?"

Raph growled and pounced on Mikey, April and Splinter watching, amused.

"Perhaps you two should get out of the house for a while," Splinter said.

Mike and Raph looked at each other. To them that meant, 'Go topside and have major fun!'

"Okay, sensei." They said in unison, before starting a race through the sewers. "No way, Raph!" Mikey's voice floated back in. "Kiss my protective shell!"

Splinter sighed and looked to April. "Teenagers."

Leo sloshed through the sewers, not really doing much, just thinking. He whipped around taking a defensive stance as he heard footsteps behind him.

"Leo, chill, it's me." Don's voice came around the corner, soon followed by its owner.

Leo dropped the stance and stood staring at his brother. "Well?"

Don blinked. "Well what?"

"Aren't you going to tell me to get back to the lair because I shouldn't be out here?"

Don grinned. "Well, yes, that's what I was going to do. But now that you put it that way, I guess I won't. You look like you're doing okay anyway."

Leo shrugged. "As good as can be expected."

"Aren't you hungry?"

Leo cocked his head. "Huh?"

"I said, aren't you hungry. Leo, the last meal you ate was yesterday at breakfast. That's twenty four hours without eating…I think you need to eat something."

"Is this your way of trying to get me back to the lair?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Leo smiled. "Well it's working. I'm really hungry."

Don looked confused. "Then why didn't you come to the breakfast table?"

Leo shrugged and looked away. Don took this as a sign to shut up. "Well, come on." He said. "Mikey saved some pancakes for you anyway."

Leo nodded, and started to follow him, but stopped suddenly. Don looked back. "What?"

"I could feel it this morning." Leo said quietly.

Don raised an eyeridge. "Your hand?" Leo nodded. Don shrugged. "It's not a big deal Leo, it's called a ghost limb. It happens to a lot of people."

"Yeah, I-" Leo started, but was cut off by the voices of his brothers.

Don looked at him. "Splinter must've kicked them out."

"Hey Leo!" Mikey said cheerfully, coming around the corner, Raph following. They were both breathing hard from playing tag.

"Hey." Leo answered, not really in the mood for talking anymore. Leo looked around. Something seemed wrong, but he couldn't place it. He didn't want to bring it up, Leo knew that Raph would jump all over him for being paranoid.

"So…did ya want some breakfast?" Mikey asked. "'Cause I-" He was interrupted by a large explosion, shaking the tunnels and causing all four turtles to lose their balance.

All four of them curled up and covered their heads by instinct. They waited for twenty minutes before the tunnels stopped shaking and large pieces of debris and concrete stopped falling.

Raphael was the first to look up. Through the dusty air, he could make out the shells of Don and Leo. Standing up slowly so he could be sure nothing was going to fall on him, Raph made his way over to his brothers and lightly tapped on their shells.

Don peeked out from under the crook of his arm, and seeing Raph, stood up slowly as well, Leo following suit. "Where's Mike?" Leo asked, squinting to see through all the dust the explosion had kicked up.

"I dunno." Raph said. "Couldn't find the little oddball."

Don slowly looked around, shoving up large pieces of concrete to make sure his little brother wasn't under them. On second glance, Don noticed a large wall of rock and concrete that had formed from falling debris. He walked over to it and pulled at a good sized rock, using his bo for leverage, until it gave way and fell to the ground.

Don could hear a slight groan coming from the other side. "Mikey? Mike?" He called softly, but apparently Mike had been hit on the head with something, because he wasn't responding. Don cringed as he noticed one of Mikey's legs was twisted in a very odd angle. "He's over here," Don called to his brothers, who immediately stopped their search and came over to the barrier.

"C'mon," Leo said, moving with both his arms to retrieve his katanas from his back, and froze, remembering he only carried one katana now. Putting everything else but getting through the wall out of his mind, Leo drew the katana with his good hand, and began pushing and pulling away at the wall, Don and Raph doing the same soon after.

After about five minutes they had made a good-sized hole, big enough for them to fit through one at a time. Don went first to check on Mikey. "How's it look, Don?" Leo asked.

"Not so good." Don answered. "Looks like he has a minor concussion and a broken leg…or at least a twisted leg."

"Where'd that explosion come from, anyway?" Raph asked. "There haven't been workers down here for ages."

"I don't know," Leo said, "But it sounded like it was coming from the direction of…." Leo paled. "The lair."

Raph's eyes widened. "Splinter."

Leo nodded. "And April…"

Raph made a move to run to the lair, but Leo caught his arm. "We need to help Donnie first."

Raph nodded, although he would rather leave Don with Mike and go and make sure everyone at the lair was alright.

"You know," Don said,unawareof the conversation going on between his two older brothers, being too far away to hear. "I'm surprised that this explosion didn't cause some cracks in the tunnels and…" Don trailed off as he heard the unmistakable sound of water coming his way. A lot of water.

"Spoke too soon."

A/N: Don't look at me like that, I had to put a cliffhanger somewhere!