Author Note 1: This chapter is light on plot advancement, mostly because I needed to set the tone for the next (Don-centric) chapter where the action's gonna speed up rather a lot ;) And about updates: they won't be coming as fast as this from now on as I should be studying for stupid exams next month and have so far done, uh... oh yeah, sod all! But I dare say I'll still manage maybe one a week, or that's the plan anyway. Apologies for any spelling/ grammar errors, feel free to point them out (I have corrected those pointed out to me in the last chapter too). For some reason, I can spellcheck every document except this one – go figure.

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"Damn it Don!" Raph glared at his brothers beseeching expression and sighed. "We don't have the van tonight and there's no way I'm lugging that back to the lair. What do we need a washing machine for? We don't wear clothes!"

"I could use the parts..."

"So take the parts out and put them in the bag!"

"I don't know what I need until I'm making it."

"The washing machine will still be here tomorrow night."

"It might not be."

"So there'll be others! I mean it Don, I'm not carrying it."

"Fine," said Donnie, in a bit of a huff, walking away to search for more parts while Raph went back to his thoughts. There had been plenty on the net about the dimensions of nunchucks and he was beginning to think they might actually be able to pull it off. Mikey would have his new weapons and then...

And then what? We go to Foot headquarters and knock on the door?

It was Leo who came up with the plans, Leo who had worked out how to bust Mikey out, Leo who always knew what the best course of action was. Raph didn't know where to begin. His idea of a plan was to walk in and start fighting. But Leo didn't seem to be thinking of any way to handle the Foot and the lack of action was making him irritable.

Patience wasn't his thing. He could understand Leo's reasoning – they had needed to find a new home, Mikey needed time to heal, they had to spend time preparing for the inevitable confrontation – but that didn't mean he had to like it. And he certainly didn't like the way Leo seemed to think the Foot should be the ones to come to them. Choosing the site and time of a battle was to begin with the advantage, that was what Saki had always taught them.

A distant sound startled him out of his brooding. Lowering his hand to his belt and his sun and moon daggers, he headed to where the noise seemed to originate from.

Nothing there.

Getting jumpy he thought, annoyed at himself. Probably nothing more than a rat.

Thinking of rats made him think of Splinter. Back at Foot headquarters, the old rat seemed to know how to fight. Maybe they should ask him for some pointers. If his Master Yoshi was as good a ninja as Splinter claimed, maybe he could help them learn some new moves, something that would let them take the Foot by surprise.

But trusting the rat made Raph uncomfortable. True, he had helped them and Leo and Mikey seemed to trust him, but what did they really know about him? Not much. He seemed on the level but Raph had trusted the Foot and Oruku Saki and where had that got them? Fighting for their lives while their so-called family tried to kill them, that was where.

The sound of footsteps made him look up. Donnie returning. Maybe the Brainiac had got all the stuff he needed and they could go back to the lair, then he could get to examining the set of weights he had found, almost new, evidently someones aborted attempt to get into shape...

It wasn't Donnie.

Raph narrowed his eyes as he recognised the man stepping out of the shadows. Dragon Face. Second in command of the Purple Dragons, the one always vying to be top dog, steal the coveted leadership role from Hun. It would take something pretty special for whomever was controlling the Foot following Saki's demise to remove control of the gang from Hun and give it to Dragon Face.

Something like the capture of Clan traitors.

Raphael grabbed his sun and moon daggers and spun them menacingly. "You do not want to do this Dragon Face. You can't take me alone."

"I'm not alone."

Behind him, Raph sensed rather than heard the other Dragons approach and cursed inwardly. He was supposed to be keeping an eye out but he hadn't heard any engines approaching and had been too wrapped up in his own thoughts to be genuinely alert. How had they known they would be there?

"Good thing Two-Ton saw you heading in here," said Dragon Face, answering one of Raph's unspoken questions. "I thought you were supposed to be ninja."

"Enough of a ninja to kick your sorry asses," growed Raph, waiting for them to make a move and wondering where the hell Donnie had got to. Had he wandered too far away to hear or was he just so engrossed in his techno-geek-whatever that he wasn't paying attention?

There was always the third option – that the Dragons had taken care of Donnie already and Raph had failed to hear. No, that didn't seem likely. Don wouldn't have gone down without a fight and he couldn't have failed to hear that.

Dragon Face stepped forward. "Take him down."

The Dragons weren't trained ninja, few of them with even rudimentary martial arts abilities. What they did have was street fighting skills, no scruples and a desire to prove themselves.

Raphael smiled grimly as he raised his weapons, no time to plan his strategy, letting instinct take over. You picked the wrong day to mess with me Dragons – I am NOT in a good mood.

He blocked a pipe aimed at his face with his daggers, a low leg sweep knocking the guy over and moving him out of the way of a wild swing of a chain. Whipping around, he slahed at the chain-weilders hand, cutting deep into the flesh, sending blood drops flying as he swung the daggers back, leaping into the air and kicking out to the sides to strike another two members of the gang and knock them down.

But he had lost the elements of speed and surprise and the numbers were swiftly becoming a problem. Two-Ton might have spied them entering the junkyard, but he didn't doubt it was Dragon Face who had summoned so many of the Dragons to the spot in hopes of an ambush. On top of that, he had never fought the Dragons before, or any kind of street fighter. Hell, he had been on the same side as the Dragons more times than he could count. He instinctively expected them to fight in the martial arts style that anyone he had fought or sparred with in the past did and when they didn't, it caught him more off-guard than he liked to admit to himself.

He took down another Dragon with a solid punch to the jaw when someone behind him got in a lucky shot with a pipe, the force of the blow causing him to stumble to the side. He was outnumbered and there was no room for him to manouvre, the closer they got, the less able he was to mount an effective defence. He leapt up again, roundhouse kick sending a couple more Dragons to the ground, but he knew this wasn't going to last for long. There were too many of them and the ones he hadn't injured sufficiently were getting back to their feet with murder in their eyes, determined to gain retribution for their wounds and those ot their fellow gang members who weren't so lucky.

A sun and moon dagger sliced through the clothes and flesh of a Dragon trying to hit Raph with his fist, causing him to howl and retreat, holding his wounded arm – but before Raph could capitalise, a lucky shot knocked the weapon from his hand, leaving him with only one dagger to fight the gang. A second later a chain caught him a glancing blow across the back of the head, opening a cut and causing him to see stars. Snarling, Raph let his anger take over, lashing out without concern of how much damage he might do, focused on nothing more than the fight...

There was a sound behind him, metal striking metal. Turning, he saw Don with his nagitana raised, the blade deflecting a blow from a pipe that would have otherwise landed on Raph's head and might well have caused some serious damage, if not death.

"Watch your back Raph!"

"Isn't that what you're for Brainiac?"

Don shoved with the nagitana, sending the Dragon stumbling backward and a moment later a double phoenix punch sent him down for good. The other Dragons had clearly not been expecting there to be two of them, hesitating slightly.

Dragon Face snarled. "You didn't say there were two of them!"

"I only saw one!" yelled back Two-Ton.

"Just get 'em!"

It didn't surprise Raph when Dragon Face hung back as the other Dragons jumped back into the fray. But there were less of them now and with Don to watch his back, Raph was more able to focus his attacks instead of being forced to defend himself from all sides. Minutes later, the few Dragons still standing were forced to flee before they too fell victim to the two turtles, leaving their fallen friends behind.

"Let's get out of here Raph," said Don, heading to the spot where he had ditched his bag containing his finds. "Before they decide to call in the Foot."

"Let them call the Foot," growled Raph, retrieving his dropped dagger and spinning it around. "I'm just gettin warmed up."

"We can't afford to fight any more tonight," Don reminded him. "We need to get back and we need to do it now, before the Foot do show up and they decide to follow us instead of fighting."

Raphael nodded, his displeasure with this plan showing clearly on his face. The Purple Dragons. In all his thoughts of where retribution might come from, he had forgotten to take the Dragons into account and yet it made sense that they'd be just as eager for payback as the Foot. They had all been under Saki's employ. And it was a personal thing between them and him. He had never been a memeber of the Dragons but he had joined them on some of their late-night activities, drank beers with them at their various headquarters, hung out with them. They may have links with the Foot but they were also a street gang, an entity unto themselves and when Raph ran out on the Foot, he also betrayed the Dragons, a crime punishable by whatever method they saw fit.

"Sewers?" asked Don as they exited the junkyard, sticking to the shadows.

"We can't exactly take the rooftops around here," said Raph, glaring at the darkened streets without another building around for several hundred yards. There was however a manhole cover just outside the junkyard and he raised the lid, allowing Don to climb down before following, replacing the lid behind him and hoping that no one had seen their method of escape. He had seen no sign of movement in the shadows around the junyard and it would be hard for anyone to hide in the meagre cover, much less a Dragon untrained in the art of invisibility.

Once in the sewer they continued evasive action, taking a route that led in the wrong direction to the lair, staying in the shadows, taking the darkest, most difficult tunnels. Only when it was certain that no one was following did Don break the silence.

"Where did the Dragons come from?"

"Sounds like Two-Ton spotted one of us goin into the junkyard," said Raph irritably. "Called Dragon Face, set up an ambush. Or tried to."

"So the Dragons know we're not with the Foot?"

"Hun probably told 'em. Hell, the bastard probably put a price on our heads. Leo killin Shredder, we're probably worth a whole lot and the Dragons would just love to collect."

"And I thought the Dragons were friends of yours."

Raph snorted in contempt. "Hardly. Beside, I couldn't still hang out with the Dragons after leaving the Foot. They'll be after all of us."

"And you in particular?"

"Thanks for reminding me."

"You're bleeding."

"Got a hit from a chain. Just a scratch."

There was silence for a few minutes more, then Raph sighed. "Don, do you know where we're goin?"

"Uh... I brought a map."

"Good thing, because I'm lost."

"These sewers are like a maze," agreed Don, taking out the map and studying it. "OK, we went west outside the junkyard, then headed north-west when we got to the intersection and then we got to that blocked off tunnel and... oh hell. Want to take a peek out of a manhole, find out where we are?"

"Sure," said Raph, spotting a ladder and climbing up to the manhole. "Uh, I can see Vinnie's Pizza across the street."

"And that makes us almost six miles from the lair," said Don resignedly.

Raph let the lid drop and jumped back into the sewers. "Great. Just great. The old 'turtle luck' running true to form. We have to carry all this junk another six miles?"

"We had to make sure we lost the Dragons. Beside, you were the one insisted on bringing the weights."

"I'm the one carrying them!"

There was silence as Don referred to the map and plotted the shortest route through the sewers back to the lair, indicating to a tunnel and heading in that direction. Raph followed, knowing it was only a matter of time before his brother decided to ask something else...

"Who would have given Hun permission to let the Dragons attack us?"

Bingo.

"With the Shredder dead, the Foot should be wanting to take charge of killing us themselves," continued Donnie. "It doesn't make sense for the Dragons to be able to attack us. And if Karai took over the Foot, there's no way she'd let Hun put a price on us for the Dragons to collect."

"Maybe Karai doesn't know," said Raph. "Hun and Karai were never exactly on good terms. But more likely, they were hoping to force our hand. If Karai is in charge, she has to know that the Dragons couldn't take us down. The Dragons comin after us every chance they get – she'll be hopin to make us come out of hidin."

Don nodded. "Sounds like Karai. She has to be taking this personally."

"Wouldn't you?"

"It had nothing to do with her."

Raphael laughed without humour. "She won't see it like that. Not that she cares too much about what we do, but I bet it's eatin her that Leo was the one killed Saki."

"She won't stop until she finds us," agreed Don gloomily.

The pair walked on in silence, occasionally checking to make sure they weren't followed, but it seemed that they had made their getaway before it occurred to the Dragons to call for backup. As they approached the lair, Donnie glanced around the sewer tunnels to determine what the best type of alarm and surveillance system might be.

Leo glanced up sharply as the pair entered. "What took you so long? What happened to your head Raph?"

"Fight," said Raph shortly.

"Please tell me you didn't run into the Foot," said Leo.

"Purple Dragons," Don said. "Ambushed us in the junkyard."

"Oh great," growled Leo, not trying to hide the sarcasm in his tone. "Now they know we've been going there, probably alert the Foot and they'll have someone watching the place!"

"So? It's not the only junkyard in New York," Raph snapped back. "We don't even need half of this stuff!"

"Unless you want food and entertainment," replied Leo.

Don sighed as he recognised the beginnings of another argument. "Look, we can go to another junkyard easily enough. All I have to do is hotwire a car or something and..."

"No."

The three turned as Splinter approached. None of them had even realised he was in the room.

"Donatello, you are no longer a Foot ninja. To steal is to think as one."

"Well, it's kinda hard to erase twelve years of thinking," said Don defensively.

"And who are you to tell us what to do," growled Raph.

Splinter opened his mouth to reply but Leo beat him to it. "He's right guys. If we're really leaving the Foot behind, we can't keep acting like them."

"So where do we get some wheels from Fearless Leader?" Raph scowled. "Since you're the one who seems all fired up about us having all the comforts of headquarters."

"We can come up with something," said Don, trying to placate his hot-tempered brother. "Maybe we can fix up a junker – we're both pretty good with engines."

"Maybe," said Raphael, not especally cheered by this suggestion. "I'm going to put these weights away."

"Let me check out your head first," said Don.

Grumbling under his breath, Raph let himself be examined and his wound cleaned up before heading off to his room. On the way, he had to pass Mikey's room and realised he hadn't seen his brother around when he and Leo were getting ready to argue. He might be more cheerful, but there was still a long way to go before a recovery.

But Raph had a plan to help.

While searching the junkyard, they had come across several things that might be used to make the nunchucks they had planned for their brother. April had let them print off several internet pages relating to the weapons and Raph had called Casey while they were above the antiques shop, eliciting promises for blowtorch and sandpaper the following night. Whether or not they could pull it off was up to debate, it would certainly take some time no matter what. And Raph had something else in the meantime.

"Hey Mikey, you awake?"

"Yeah."

Raph wandered into the chamber Mikey called his room. The usually enthusiastic turtle hadn't done much to turn it into his own space, merely left a pile of blankets on the floor and some comics and books in a corner. Of course, Mikey hadn't been in there long and had yet to go anywhere he might find something to personalise his room. But it still didn't look like a place Mikey might be happy.

"Found ya a present."

Mikey had been lying on the blamkets flipping through a Justice Force comic, but the mention of a present caught his attention. He looked up, more curious than hopeful.

"It's nothing much," said Raph, opening the bag with his weights in and pulling out the gadget he'd located. "Thought ya might like it."

Mikey sat up and took the game from Raph. It was a promotional toy from some burger bar or other, the type that comes free with the childs meal, but less forgettable than most. A couple of months previously, a new video game had come onto the market and had a cartoon based on it released. The burger bar had given away promotional electronic games to coincide with the event, simple enough to understand but complicated to master.

"Thanks Raph!" Mikey turned the game on and Raph suppressed a frown, knowing the electronic bleeping of the game would drive him insane in about five seconds flat.

"How're the injuries Mike?"

Turning the game off temporarily, Mikey sighed. "They're better! Don's just paranoid."

Raph eyed Mikey's face uncertainly. The old scars had been intersected with fresh cuts, healing but still evident. There were other slashes on his body and bruises that should have faded before but had been too severe. Mikey looked better than he had when they first left the Foot but he was a long way from 'all better'.

Noticing the look, Mikey scowled. "Oh, I guess you wanna keep me hidden away down here too?"

"No one wants to keep you hidden away Mikey – we just wanna make sure you're OK before ya go splashing through the sewers."

For a moment, Mikey looked as if he might start yelling in a way that usually only Raph was capable of – and then his anger deflated suddenly.

"I know you're only trying to look out for me but I don't deserve the concern and I don't need the pity. I just... I don't like being down here."

"What, the lair?"

"The lair's fine. It's the sewers. There's no day or night down here. No people. Nothing except a lot of dirty water and us. I miss – I mean, I miss being above ground."

But Mikey's eyes shifted as he made his last statement, staring instead at the wall, making Raphael suspect he wasn't telling the whole truth.

Author Note 2: Admit it, ya thought it was the Garbageman!