Disclaimer: See chapter 1.

Chapter 5

Here we go again.

The sound of gunfire causes us to stop and hide, Don pulls the truck into a small lobby area of an old office block and Adrian and Sam climb out to investigate. Raph moves from the front of the truck to back, towards me and Leo, who looks exhausted.

"Mike, stay with Leo and don't let him off of this truck unless we really need to move" he orders quietly and I notice Leo stiffen. That upset him and I knew that an argument was bound to start.

"Hey, I'm right here Raph and I'm not an invalid so don't start treating me like one" Leo replied shortly, I think he's getting a little frustrated at all of the attention and being treated like a wounded old man. Don has turned and is now leaning one arm over the back of the driver's seat, a warning look gazing my way, I return the look with equal concern, Leo and Raph were going argue.

"Okay, so you're not an invalid, so how about I treat you like a child because you're acting like one" Raph retorted, putting his hands on his hips to affirm his point. Leo stood in the confined space of the truck so that he and Raph were at eye level.

"I am not! Incase you haven't noticed Raph, we're still some distance from the community and I don't want anyone jeopardizing their chances of making it back by having them needlessly fuss over me" Leo growled.

Raph didn't get a chance to reply as Sam and Adrian returned, Sam stood at the rear of the truck with her shotgun ready as Adrian approached Raph and Leo. Their timing couldn't have been any better.

"We've got Scavengers about two blocks from here, they seem to be fighting another group that we couldn't identify" Adrian said as he glanced between my two steaming brothers.

Raph crossed his arms over his chest and inhaled deeply, "How many?" he exhaled.

"Scavengers number about seven, whoever is attacking them number at least twenty five" Adrian responded and Raph nodded.

"Well then, lets leave them to it shall we?" Raph moved away and headed towards the front of the truck, back to his seated position next to Don.

"No" Leo said. Raph stopped and turned to him.

"No?" Raph mimicked, crossing his arms again and glaring at Leo.

"No. We are not leaving them to it. I want to know what is going on, I want to know why the community is being targeted and why the Phoenix are being so friendly to us and those Scavengers out there know the answers, besides that their outnumbered" Leo replied.

"Outnumbered? Their Scavengers Leo, what do we care about a bunch of lowlifes that have gone out of their way to upset some faction and brought this attack on themselves, they don't deserve our help" Don spat angrily, he doesn't care much for the Scavengers even now, as far as he was concerned they were all better off dead.

Leo moved slowly over to Don and rested his hand onto his shoulder, Don sighed and looked away from Leo, unable to meet his gaze. Leo let out a breath then spoke quietly to him, "Look, I know what you think of these people but you can't ask me to change who I am. The community was built by us, by who we are, we have morals Don and I'm not about to change mine because of the flag that they are flying"

Don sighed and stood from his seat, then he stared at Leo, "Don't get me wrong Leo, I hate them. If I could rid this city of them tomorrow, I would. I've never forgiven them for what they did to me, what they took from me,"

"No one's asking you to forgive them Don," Raph added.

"Good. Cause I won't." Don spat quickly, then he breathed slowly and closed his eyes, trying to ease the anger welling up inside of him, "They better have some useful information about what's happening around here"

We watched from above at the battle raging below us, the seven Scavengers were pinned down behind the wreckage of a truck and the corner of an alley, their attackers were firing wildly at them, within minutes of our arrival one of the Scavengers was cut down, a series of bullets shooting right through him and impacting into the wall some way behind him, his cry only fuelled the enemy further, they roared in victory at the kill. Another Scavenger launched himself into the fray, unconcerned that the bullets would soon hit him as well.

Raph whispered the plan to us, although whispering was hardly necessary, no one would have heard us over the gunfire below. Don, Sam and Adrian moved quickly away, they had the job of reducing the numbers of the unknown faction. Leo, Raph and I had the job of helping the Scavengers hold up against the barrage.

The brave Scavenger who valiantly dived into the center of the battlefield was crawling ever closer to the enemy, a bullet lodged into his upper right thigh leaving a trail of blood along the ground. He managed to make it to a small pit that gave him some protection against the bullets but not by much. He pulled a grenade from his belt and pulled the pin with his teeth then launched it over his shoulder and into the front line of the enemy, it exploded and bodies flew from their makeshift bunkers into the air and landed heavily on the ground. Their bodies were bloodied and broken with shrapnel and the force of the impact.

As we neared the Scavengers, some of the enemy had managed to gain a closer front and we ran straight into them, Leo didn't hesitate as he pulled his katana, he was going to prove to Raph that he was okay.

I instinctively ducked as a metal pipe flew past my head, still crouched I brought my leg out and took my opponents feet out from under him, he hit the ground hard. Before he could recover from the impact I brought a chuck to the side of his head, knocking him out cold.

Raph's war cry made me glance his way and I watched as he cut two opponents with his sai, one across the neck causing blood to pour from the wound profusely as he fell down dead. The other had a sai impaled in the side of his throat, Raph ripped it out and allowed the guy to fall to the floor. Raph wasn't playing around, he wanted this over quickly.

Another attacker comes at me but I've seen him already, he yells as he runs furiously at me and I move quickly to the side, as he tries to slow himself down I grab him by the scruff of the neck and use his momentum to force him into the wall head first, I hear a crack on impact and I know I've broken his nose but he won't notice it until he wakes up.

I search around madly for Leo and find that I can't see him, Raph's noticed too and gives me a fearful look, ours bodies are turning quickly in circles trying to see him but he is nowhere to be found. Panic rushes through me until I here a yell as one of our attackers flies past me, from the look of his injuries he was run through with a katana. We run quickly in the direction of more yells and find Leo fending off against five attackers whose markings are unknown to us, they are neither Phoenix or Scavenger, nor any other of the smaller factions in this city.

Their markings may not tell us anything but they are still attacking my brother so that makes them enemies. I don't know who jumped in first, me or Raph but at the sight of Leo's 'calvery' they wasted no time in beating a retreat. Then the realization hits me.

This is a trap.

The three of us have no need for words as we race away towards Don and the others, bounding over the debris, rubble and fallen bodies, I only hope that the others are safe.

When we arrive at the side of the battlefield that the twenty five mutants were, we found more dead bodies, some were bullet ridden, a shotgun introducing them to their maker. Then I stopped dead in my tracks. Sam was kneeling on the ground with Adrian's head resting in her lap, he's been shot and Don is nowhere in sight. Leo reached Adrian first and took him from a shaken Sam, Raph took her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet, she fell into him and shook even more. Leo held Adrian tight as if holding him that close would keep him from slipping away but I knew what I had to do.

After tending to Adrian's injuries and making a futile search for Don we were now back in the truck with Raph at the wheel. As we finally made it home we felt no joy at our return.

Don was missing in action and what makes it worse is that we have no way of knowing which faction has him. One thing for sure is that when we find out, there's going to be hell to pay.

Author's note: I am so sorry that this chapter has taken so long to rear it's ugly little head and I'm also sorry that it is so short. I am having a case of writers block across the board at the moment. A good thing about this chapter though is that I'll get to hear some speculation from you, the readers as to what has happened to Don and where you think this story is going, at least I hope so anyway!! So please be kind and leave a review! This story is made from all those lovely reviews!

A big thank you to...... takes deep breath....... Lioness-Goddess, hazlov2004, Jingeling, spootycup, Vampy, aliveinthedarkness, Pretender Fanatic, In The Clouds, ConnArtist, Rev and dp03kf for taking the time to read and review. Thanks guys! :)