Author Note:

A few people have asked, so I'll clarify that yup, Leo totally did choose a blue colored mask specifically because that's the color his brothers had picked out for him. I went back and edited that particular scene to make it a little more obvious.

And, to be honest, I'll admit that I haven't been very consistent with the characters heights. In the beginning, I had Leo acting more like the Disney Tarzan, low and crouched. That being said, the boy's come a long way from staring suspiciously at his brothers while hiding in a pond, hasn't he? Anyways, I imagine that right now, Leo is the tallest, but not by too much. Maybe half a head over Raph? And Donnie is not far behind. Mikey's the shortest, but he's only fifteen. Mostly I just imagine that only because it makes for cuter cuddles.

Now, get ready for a chapter with mostly inquisitive brothers and sadly little plot, because I kept trying to remind them that their dad's in danger and trying to press that there should be urgency and tension as they have to go rescue him, and they were all like, 'yeah, yeah, but *starry eyes* brotherly connections were finally made! So... many... questions!'

Chapter 22: Incredibly Dangerous

Alarms were blaring, sirens flashed, splashing pulses of brilliantly colored lights against walls and trees. There were more than a few tense guards patrolling the EPF headquarter grounds, walking across cement paths that wound through the open snow-covered yard with hands tightly on their guns, but, for the most part, most of the attention seemed to be focused outwards, offensive and towards the city, and not inward, defensive and towards their own building itself.

Just the way I hoped it would be.

My brothers and I were just outside the compound, hidden in an alley, and I glanced around an outer wall surrounding the compound. There were a few guards down the road, standing by the main entrance to the EPF building, but they should be fairly easy to avoid. Turning towards my brothers, I nodded in the opposite direction, towards a side door set into the tall concrete wall topped in barbed wire, and we all quickly moved like one shadow towards it. Once there, Donnie immediately stepped forward to peel off the electronic panel and started pulling out small tools to rearrange the wires inside, while Mikey leapt up into the branches of a tree and Raph crouched by a car on the ground, both scanning the streets in both directions and automatically taking sentry duty.

I watched them, feeling fond warmness and an unfamiliar sense of brotherly pride welling up in my chest.

They were amazing.

I knew that they were skilled, they had to be if the adventures Mikey had told me about were even remotely true, but so far I had only seen them training or wrestling in play. I had been a little worried about this stretch of the plan, this was going to be an extremely dangerous rescue, one that would probably test even my skills to their very limits. I briefly considered sending them with Irma and trying to make a solo attempt of this mission by myself, except I already knew what my brothers would have had to say about that. Raph in particular might've had some colorful choice words for me.

I had the feeling that my days of solo adventuring were now behind me, whether I wanted it or not.

But any worries I held about whether they'd be able to keep up were unfounded. My brothers, all three of them, moved with practiced ease, fluid and silent, and the confident certainty in their body language left no doubt in my mind as to their readiness. My brothers were ninjas, they were highly skilled, and, on the doorstep of the enemies who had betrayed us and stolen our father, they were eagerly on the hunt.

Apparently, though, I wasn't the only one who was a little concerned.

"So... uh... Leo?" Raph asked, risking a quick glance over his shoulder. He gestured towards the katanas on my shell. "You actually got any practice using those?"

It was a fair question to ask of the brother he just learned could even talk a short while ago. "Yes, I'm quite proficient with them, don't worry." I nodded. "I actually owned a pair for years, though not nearly as nice as these." I reached up to feel the wrapped hilts, taking comfort in the feeling of the familiar weight on my shell once more. "I think those bounty hunters took them after they tranq'ed me, probably hoping to sell them, I guess."

Raph's face darkened, and he turned back to watch the street once more. "You want 'em back?" he asked almost too casually. "Because after this is all done, we can go and get them back."

"And commit acts that open the clan up to litigation for unlawful assault in the process, no doubt." Donnie muttered, still in the middle of rewiring the panel. I noticed his shoulders had hunched up slightly at the mention of the bounty hunters.

"Hey." Raph raised a hand, still watching the street. "They break my brother's shell, I break their face. It's only fair."

"Don't worry, it's okay. Like I said, these are much better." I stepped forward and gently brushed Donnie's back with a hand.

He paused and looked up at me, hints of guilt still evident on his face.

I gave him a reassuring smile, and he blinked, then exhaled, relaxing under my touch. He gave a slight nod and a small smile in return, then turned back to the electronic lock.

"Those are just spare blades, Leo." There was a soft click, and the door unlocked with no alarms going off. Donnie stood up and stepped back from the panel, looking satisfied at a job well done, dusting off his hands before glancing at me. "Once this is done, we have some heirloom katanas you can look over for future use, if those are indeed your weapon of choice."

"I don't really need anything too fancy. These are honestly just fine." I moved over to gently crack open the door, peeking through it to the courtyard beyond, making sure no patrols could spot us, before gesturing that the coast was clear.

"You're a Hamato, and our big brother." Donnie answered firmly, putting away the fine tools he had used in a beltpouch as he followed. "You deserve more then just mediocre, basic steel blades."

I remembered seeing some of the more elaborate sets of swords hanging reverently on the walls and on display in the Hamato compound, expertly forged and perfectly balanced, and I almost salivated at the thought that I might actually be able to touch, much less own, a pair as magnificent as some of those. But I merely nodded as if I were just agreeing to humor him.

This next part required the utmost stealth, so no more was said as we moved as one across the grounds like four wisps of wind, not even the crunch of snow under our feet as we stealthily dashed next to some shrubbery, then slipping up to the large, cool, smooth stones of the very building itself.

And not a single soul in the building was aware that the Hamatos had arrived.

"Hey, Leo, can I ask you a question?" Mikey asked as we pressed close against the wall of the EPF headquarters, obviously feeling we were safe enough in our position to resume our chat.

"Of course you can, Mikey." I agreed with his assessment absently, glancing up the looming skyscraper above us as we crept along the perimeter.

"Are you a magic turtle?"

I paused mid-step and looked at him, eyeridge raised. "Uh... no, Mikey. I'm not a magic turtle." I blinked, baffled by the question. "I'm a normal turtle."

At that, my three brothers looked at me, eyebrows raised.

"Oh, you know what I mean, guys." I scoffed, rolling my eyes, resuming sneaking against the wall stealthily.

Mikey looked skeptical as he scooted against the wall right behind me. "Dad said that you came to him in his dreams and carried him back on your shell, and that's how he woke up. How'd you do that if you're not a magic turtle?"

Oh. Uh, Master Yoshi remembered all that? I glanced back again, and noticed that Raph and Donnie were now watching me with suddenly peaked interest as well.

"Ah... well..." I cleared my throat, turning back to the path in front of us. "That was actually a long shot I thought I might try. It wasn't magic, but a meditation technique, accessible to anybody willing to learn to meditate properly." I shrugged, trying to act casual. The middle of a rescue mission wasn't the place to distract them with my whole life history, the details could wait. "Frankly, I'm surprised it worked as well as it did."

"You meditated?" Donnie sounded skeptical. "You brought Dad out of a twelve year long coma by just sitting quietly with your legs crossed and your eyes closed?"

"There's more to it then just that. Meditation is an extremely powerful tool in a ninja's arsenal. It helps one find their center and focus one's ki." I frowned, annoyed on their behalf. "I take it that Bradford neglected that part of your ninjistu education." I was certain that if Master Yoshi had be their teacher, they would have learned how to properly meditate.

"I... see." Donnie didn't sound convinced, but then he apparently decided, like a good supportive brother, that he would humor my hobbies, as delusional as he thought they were. He nodded patronizingly. "Well then, Leo, you'll definitely have to show us sometime. It'll be... neat."

Oh, he had *no* idea what they were in for. My brothers were Hamatos, and they deserved every bit of their heritage that was due to them. I had already decided that I would just have to help my brothers catch up on everything that their incompetent teacher had neglected.

At least, until Master Yoshi regained enough strength to teach them himself, that is.

The sound of radio chatter and men talking quietly up ahead caught our attention, and only a minute later, a patrol of six EPF troopers rounded the corner. Heavily clad in black tactical armor with closed faced helmets, they strode down the path in perfect formation, gloved hands ready on their guns and obviously alert.

They continued walking down the path, muttering quietly to one another, and then turned and disappeared around the other side of building, continuing to faithfully patrol on their rounds, leaving an empty, deserted courtyard behind them, nothing but snow covered grass and a shoveled off cement sidewalk.

After a moment, Raph dropped down from the stone window ledge, narrowed his eyes at the corner where the troopers had disappeared, and then signaled the all clear.

Crouched up in a tree, I turned to raise an eyeridge at Mikey, who was once more clinging to my shell. He beamed back at me happily. I gave an amused shake of my head and lightly leapt down from the tree.

Donnie released his grip on the wall where he had been pressed into the shadows and landed lightly, taking off and putting away his clawed Shukos into a pouch on his belt. "We can't stay out here like this. We need to find a way in, and fast." Donnie glanced up at the building.

I noticed a promising looking panel of metal set into the wall, and walked over to stand underneath it, studying it.

"All of the entrances are guarded, though." Mikey frowned, flopping over my shoulder. "We... whoa!"

Mikey clung to my shell, startled, as I leapt up to grab a ledge in the wall and pull myself up to cling to the wall a few feet up. My tongue stuck out slightly as I fished a small knife from my belt, and then Raph gave a startled grunt as he lunged forward and caught the falling metal grate I had just pried from the wall before it could clang against the cement ground.

"My brothers?" I clung to the wall above them, grinning next to a square, dark tunnel leading into the building. "Let me introduce you to the wonder known as the Ventilation System."

"Huh." Mikey leaned over my shell to peer into the darkness. "Cool."

"So this is why those rookies were having a heart attack." Raph mused as we crawled through the dusty metal tunnels of the air ducts embedded in the walls of the EPF headquarters.

Below us, patrols were thankfully scarce, most of the troops already deployed, though red strobe lights flashed, and mechanical voices reminded everybody at timed intervals that this was not a drill.

I glanced back to look at him questioningly.

He gave me an amused look. "About a week ago, four of the apprentices basically threw themselves at our feet, pleading for mercy and scared shitless. Apparently the brats had been crawling into the vents and sneaking peeks into the woman's locker room, but then they saw a rather stern and lengthy lecture on the wall of the vent, and they were convinced they had been caught." He shrugged. "We gave them to Angel for punishment, if you're curious as to their fate."

"Oh!" Donnie brushed aside a cobweb as he moved. "That's right. I've been drawing up plans to tweak the security of our own ventilation system based on that incident, but I haven't had a Oh my Tesla Coils." Donnie finally connected the dots that Raph had noticed already, and he froze mid crawl as his head shot up, reddish eyes wide behind his purple mask. He looked at me in utter disbelief. "Leo, that was you that left that message?!"

I looked a little sheepish. "Um, yeah. I snuck out. A lot."

"Dude, no wonder we couldn't find you at times! You weren't even in the Sanctuary!" Mikey looked amused as he didn't stop even when Donnie blocked his path, crawling over his stopped and stunned purple brother in the cramped metal tunnels to keep going. "And here I though maybe you were half ghost or something. I spent hours looking for you!"

"But... when?! How?!" Donnie grunted indignantly and made a face as Mikey accidentally kneed him in the cheek, then, once the youngest was clear and in front of him, straightening out his ponytail and mask as he still processed this bit of information. "That was supposed to be a secure room!"

I scoffed. "Donnie, I was outside in an alleyway standing by a dumpster and intensely debating my future course of action before the first night passed."

"You were outside?!" If anything, Donnie's voice squeaked even higher at that.

Raph was quiet for a second, then looked at me. "But you came back, though."

"Yeah..." I paused, then exhaled and continued the trek through the cramped metal passageway. "You guys confused the heck out of me." I pondered that statement, then amended with a shrug, "You still do, actually. But now I've sort of resigned myself to that fact of life."

We hit a dead end, and I frowned. From what information we had gathered so far, Dun and Bishop were holding Master Yoshi up in the executive office. On the top floor. Fifty six stories up.

I looked at my brothers, and they seemed to come to the same realization. The vents had gotten us firmly inside, but it was going to take hours to get up there through this maze at this rate.

Then there was a 'ding', and we all froze and crouched low as, through the slats of the metal grates, we could see four black clad EPF officers stepping out of a nearby elevator.

A few minutes and four unconscious guards stuffed into a bathroom stall later, all four of us stood patiently in the elevator as gentle piano music played alongside the steady beeps as we passed each floor on our way up.

I eyed the shiny black glass lens staring ominously at us where it was embedded in the ceiling nervously. "You're sure that..."

"Yes, Leo, I'm sure I completely disabled the security cameras in here." Donnie sighed, flipping over the security key cards we had nicked from the troopers and examining them closely. "And the three of us are wearing scrambler devices, my own invention of course, which when activated, interferes with security systems, among other things." He glanced at me. "I'll have to make you a set as well and show you how to use it."

"Ah. Thank you." That sounded extremely useful. Mollified, I went back to rocking on my feet in time to the soft elevator music. I had to admit, this was much easier then climbing all the way up through narrow shafts and tunnels in the ceilings and walls.

Mikey leaned against my shell and threw his arms over my shoulders again, peering at me hopefully and apparently trying to memorize every scale on my face. "So, more questions then?"

I eyed the numbers counting up on the digital display above the door, and glanced at the giant panel of buttons displaying a depressingly high number of floors left to go to get to the top. "It looks like we have plenty of time, so sure."

"I got one." Raph's green eyes met mine, and obviously he had been musing over something that confused him. "After Dad woke up, you disappeared." he studied me, looking for some sign of an answer. "We never saw even a glimpse of you yesterday."

"Oh, yeah. Did you crawl out in a vent then as well?' Mikey blinked, and reached over to brush a hand over my snout, exploring it curiously. "Why were you gone for so long? You had us super worried!"

I exhaled slowly, then looked up to him. "I left." I confessed.

"Left?" Donnie looked confused.

"You were going to run away." Raph's voice went flat.

"I was waiting for a train to sneak on." I admitted wearily. "I was planning on going to Ecuador, or somewhere similar."

Mikey froze in his curious exploration, and his head shot up to look up at me, a little panicked. "Leo? Why? Didn't you want to meet Dad, bro? He wanted to meet you!" He paused, and bit his lip, sliding off my shell and wilting a little. "Was... was it something that we did?"

"No!" I hurriedly turned to reassure him in a panic. "I wanted to stay! I wanted to be your brother! I wanted to meet..." I trailed off, trying to get my voice back under control.

"But?" Donnie reached over to put a hand on my shoulder, his eyes searching for an explanation.

I bit my lip, then looked up at the ceiling.

"Leo?" Donnie looked concerned at the expression on my face.

"Agent Bishop is up there." I quietly explained, then turned to look at them gravely, the familiar fear tightening my chest again. "He wants me, and he'll do anything to get to me." I was quiet for a second, then softly added. "And if he thought that you three were in his way..." I involuntarily closed my eyes and shuddered. I exhaled, and hesitantly looked up at my brothers, silently pleading with them to understand.

They were quiet for a second.

"Leo, just why does Bishop want you?" Donnie's voice was low and dangerous.

I shrugged and admitted. "I'm not exactly sure." I lowered my head and swallowed hard. "And I don't really want to find out. The last time I saw him, I was tied down to an examination table, about to be vivisected."

"Vivi-what?" Mikey hesitantly asked.

Donnie's hands were clenched, and head was lowered, leaving his eyes hidden in shadows as he spoke. "Vivisection. Basically dissection, except the specimen is still alive during the procedure."

"Oh." Mikey's face darkened uncharacteristically for only a second, then he quietly moved back over and hugged me tightly. Then he cleared his throat and innocently asked, "So in other words, we're looking for the guy who's soon going to be sporting one of Raph's sai through his face?"

I paused and looked at him.

He shrugged innocently. "What? I'd offer to do it, but dude, you don't even WANT to know how messy nunchucks going through a skull can be."

I blinked, then chuckled, rubbing the back of my head. "I have to admit, you won't hear me complaining too much if something like that happened."

I felt Raph's hand on my shoulder. I turned to look at him, then was taken a little by surprise when one of his hands moved around the back of my head, and he squished his forehead firmly against mine in an almost possessive embrace. His eyes were closed and he was almost trembling with anger. "He ain't going to have you, Leo." he growled. "The damned EPF ain't touching you ever again. I swear."

"We'd take them apart if they tried." Donnie's face was dark as he agreed, moving in the join the protective embrace, then he added in what could almost be a casual tone, except for how clipped his words were, "We might do it anyways."

"Dun and Bishop aren't going to know what hit them." Mikey gave a wolfish smile. "You don't mess with this family."

I was quiet as I looked down at them, and I suddenly realized something.

My brothers were dangerous. Incredibly so.

Well, for that matter, so was I.

I squeezed my brothers tightly, reveling in their embrace, and when I opened my eyes, they had turned deadly white. Confidence restored, I gave my brothers a crooked, dangerous grin. "Let's go save our father."

A small throaty noise caught my attention, and I glanced over at Mikey questioningly.

"The Batman Eyes." he whispered, looking up at me gleefully,

Author Note:

Next up, it's the big boss fight!