It was snowflakes that woke him -- the feel of snowflakes across his skin, like butterflies of ice. He shook his head carefully, blinking to clear his eyes. He had no memory of falling asleep; only of being on his feet and --
"April?" he called suddenly, the name coming out in a rush. "April! Are you there?"
Silence. He heard nothing, saw only the snowflakes drifting down, muffling his voice. Now he was calling and she wasn't answering...
Something stirred nearby. He rubbed the fog from his eyes and saw with relief his brothers, gathering around him.
"Leo... you okay?" Raph touched his shoulder gently, then helped him to his feet.
Leonardo flexed experimentally. Nothing felt painful. "Yeah, I think so."
Donnie stepped out, his bo staff drawn, looking about warily. "What is this place?"
"Or, to rephrase; where are we?" Mikey chimed in.
As far as Leonardo could tell, they were sitting beside the remains of a long-gutted building. Ash and char grayed the snow; the place had been destroyed by fire. Odds and ends of furniture and support beams poked out in unexpected places, veiled with a light dusting of fresh snow.
The nearby area was deserted, rendered ghostlike by the charred remains of several adjacent buildings.
"Boy." Michelangelo looked around in dismay. "Somebody really cut loose on the fireworks."
"You're not kidding." Leo toed a loose brick over, thinking rapidly. "Let's spread out and have a look around," he decided. "Try to figure out where we are. Maintain visual, okay? Meet back here in two."
The others nodded and dispersed across the building, keeping within sight of each other as they stepped gingerly over the wreckage in search of clues about their new environment.
It was Raphael who found something first. He called them over to the corner of a low, tumbled-down exterior wall.
"Look," he said when they'd gathered around him, pointing to the snow in front of him. "Footprints. The only ones I've seen aside from ours."
"Technically, Raph, those are bootprints," Mikey remarked, earning a smack on the back of his head.
The tracks were small; those of a child or petite adult. Some were fresh, their snowy rims crisp and clear -- no more than a day old. Others were almost too faint to see. They formed a small, trampled circle behind the wall, faded off across the street, and reappeared near the mouth of a nearby alley.
"The corner must offer some protection from the weather," Donnie commented, crouching for a closer look.
"That's probably why she stood here." Raphael knelt and measured his hand against a few of them. Without exception, they reached from his palm to his second knuckle. "They're all from the same person. Pretty deep, too, for the most part." He gazed thoughtfully across the wreckage, letting his hand dangle from his knee. Besides breaking the wind and offering a good view of the surrounding area, the wall and nearby detritus also made a decent hiding place for someone small enough to curl up and tuck into the corner. "She must have just stood here... just looking around."
"She?" Mikey asked dubiously.
Raphael shrugged. "Call it a hunch."
Donnie nodded agreement. "He's right."
"April?" Leo suggested hopefully. Raph shook his head.
"Just a little too small."
Mikey scratched his head. "So this means... what?"
"That we're not alone?" Donnie said softly, drawing his bo staff.
They followed his gaze. Something was meandering back and forth on the far side of the building, near the spot the turtles had occupied moments ago. It was bigger than a good-sized housecat, and though the falling snow obscured its outlines, its yellow light was clearly visible, zigzagging across the snowy ground.
"It's spotted our tracks," Raphael whispered as his brothers crouched around him.
"Why didn't we see it before?" Mikey complained.
"It's too low to the ground," Leo murmured. "The walls were in the way."
"Oh goodie goo." Mikey used his best Miss Piggy voice, waggling his fingers in a sarcastic display of delight. "So what do we do now?"
X X X
The drone had performed this routine many, many times. Being a drone, it was not capable of realizing this in any meaningful way, and was immune to the boredoms of repetition. Hence, it checked its designated route just as carefully now as on its very first day on patrol.
Ordinary footprints were of no interest to it; there were far too many of those for its programmers to bother about. Besides which, they were unimportant. Those few foolish or desperate enough to enter its territory would pay soon enough. They could not get lucky forever.
These prints, though, were hardwired into its recognition software. It signaled the others, and began tracking immediately.
It did not have far to go. A blocky humanoid flipped into sight and called out.
"Hello? Yoo-hoo! Nasty futuristic robot? Any chance we could talk this over like civilized beings?"
"I know he ain't referring to himself," Raphael muttered, tucked behind the wall between Donnie and Leo.
The voice matched nothing in the drone's clearance files.
Restricted area breach; unauthorized entrance; curfew violation.
"Maybe," the humanoid said hopefully, "in spite of that unpromising statement - maybe you're friendly. Just once," and he waved a finger at no one in general, "we deserve to run into a friendly robot."
The drone compared those words to its recognition codes. Nothing.
Terminate.
"Raphie!" Mikey yelped, skipping sideways. "It doesn't like me!"
"Who can blame it?" Raphael bounced a sai off the charging drone's head, deflecting its rush as it registered the new target. "It probably thinks you insulted its intelligence!"
"Coming through!" Leo took advantage of the split-second opening, blurring into a roll beside the surprised drone and spitting it neatly on one katana. He pinned it to the ground with a flick of his wrist, immobilizing it just long enough for Raph to sai its head off.
"Nice," Leo commented as he rolled to his feet. The drone's remains sparked agreement.
Raph tried not to look pleased. "Ah, they still ain't much good without their heads."
"It does look a little familiar, doesn't it?" Donnie poked at the drone with his bo staff, then knelt and began gingerly sorting through its exposed innards. "Anyone want to venture a guess as to what this is?"
No one had really wanted to mention that. But they'd all noticed it, of course. From the big, oval jaw cavity to the yellow headlight and almost comically chicken-like body design, the drone looked exactly like...
"...A majorly upgraded mouser robot on steroids?" Mikey suggested without much enthusiasm.
"Bingo."
"I don't mind being wrong sometimes, you know."
"Not this time," Donnie assured him, scooping the robot into his duffel bag.
"Nuts."
Raphael was looking about warily. "Anyone want to bet there's more of those on the way?"
"What makes you say that, Raph?" Mikey smiled nervously.
"Oh, I don't know... Bad luck and mouser look-alikes just tend to come in packs."
Leo nodded. "You're probably right."
"Not again," Mikey groaned.
"We should go." Leo scanned the area swiftly. "But where?"
Donnie shouldered his duffel bag and dusted his knees. "Why don't we follow those tracks?" he suggested, pointing to the alley. "Maybe she can tell us something."
"It's as good a lead as any," Leo agreed, and waved them all to follow him. "Watch for street signs. Let's get out of here."
They hopped over blackened lumber and exposed foundation as fast as they could, making good time until a thud signaled that someone had tripped and fallen.
"Ow! Ow! Owowowowow!" Mikey howled. "Somebody put a brick in my way on on purpose!"
"If there was any rational reason for thinking that, I might." Raph helped his little brother to his feet, keeping a hand on his shoulder for balance as Mikey grabbed one foot in obvious pain. "You okay?"
"Oh, I'm just peachy," Mikey griped. "There's nothing like a fractured toe to brighten your day."
"I feel for you, bro." Raph plopped his free hand over his heart. "But we better keep moving all the same."
"Hold up, guys." Donnie, crouched at their feet, unearthed something large and blocky from the ashes. "Recognize this?"
Leo helped him brush some of the grime away. "It's just a busted old clock," he said slowly, his brow furrowing. "Looks familiar, though..."
"April," Donnie said softly. "It's the clock from April's storefront."
Silence fell as the ruins around them suddenly appeared in a much grimmer light.
"But it was just here," Mikey protested. "It couldn't have burned down in just -- three seconds!"
Leo touched the antique clock face gently, then straightened. "Come on, guys. We need to find out what happened here."
Donnie set the clock back down. It was really too heavy to drag along. "And when," he said quietly.