The Search

It was Michelangelo who finally came up with the solution.

Don had been beating his head against the proverbial wall, trying to determine how they were going to search every one of these stupid Long Falls without climbing all the way to the bottom of each. A task that was guaranteed to waste too much precious time, when Mikey piped up.

"This looks like a job for… the super spy copters!" he declared happily.

Don sighed, but then gave it a second thought. Mikey was right! This was a perfect job for those damn spy copters.

Mikey had wanted a souped up version of those little hover copters in malls for his birthday several years ago, and Don had finally relented and built him one. Of course this one had a gyroscopic stabilizer and proximity sensors to keep Mike from crashing it. Don was tired of always repairing Mike's toys.

But one was never enough with Mikey. Over the next six months, he had begged, pleaded and cajoled until Don gave in and the one had expanded into a small fleet of copters that Mikey piloted all over their home. They were a tremendous nuisance. Especially after Mike added cameras to all of them and started taking blackmail video.

But they would be perfect for this search. Each had lights, a camera, and a tracking device. After the blackmail incident, the tracking device had been installed so Don could programmatically lock them out of certain areas of the house.

They could take the copters to the center point of the search area and release them all in different directions. It wouldn't take long to program them where to go, and they could just fly to the bottom of each fall and check it out.

"Mikey, you're a genius!" Don exclaimed. "Let's head back home. You get the copters, I'll grab my laptop, and we'll set up our own search and rescue opt. just under that alley."

"Awesome!" Mike shouted, pumping his fist in the air. "Last one to the lair…"

"How many times do I have to tell you. Only villains have lairs" Don grumbled.

It had been the work of moments to gather what they needed and only a short time to make it to the alley in question. Mikey was in seventh heaven at finally having the idea that might save the day, and was humming happily to himself while setting up his spy copters in a neat row. He checked each camera carefully, and turned the lights on and off.

Don was tapping away madly at his laptop, programming the coordinates of each Fall they had identified, and uploading them to a copter. With any luck, they would find the girl in the next half hour or so.

Finally all was ready, and Michelangelo stood back and watched with pride as all 20 of his super-spy copters rose from the ground and scattered in all directions down a dozen different tunnels. He hurried over to Don and gazed intently over his shoulder at the monitor, to see what the little copters were picking up.

So far it was just a bunch of empty sewer tunnels. Boring. 10 minutes passed and Mikey was beginning to fidget. So far, they'd seen a whole lot of nothing. At 20 minutes and 30 Long Falls later, Mikey gave up watching the screen and moved to the center of the open space to practice his flips. Mikey hated sitting still, he had enough energy for any three turtles and found that the only way to focus was to constantly burn off the excess.

Not five minutes later, Don let out a horrified gasp, and Mikey stopped his bouncing to run over to the computer. Don double clicked the small frame holding one of the camera feeds and it grew to fill the screen.

Mikey was no innocent, no matter his childlike manner and energy. He had fought beside his brothers for years and dished out pain and injury to those that deserved it with no more thought then he gave to crushing a cockroach. He had seen many battles and their aftermath. He had seen friends and allies injured, even near death, but none of that prepared him for this vision of a tiny girl crushed at the bottom of the Fall.

Counter to what Leo had told them of his vision, she had not just fallen to the bottom. Oh no. Now she was covered with and surrounded by debris of all sorts. As if whoever had assaulted her wanted to make sure the job was finished and had pitched whatever they could find down on top of her until they were sure she was dead.

A large piece of concrete had pinned her legs and another crushed her left arm. A large wooden beam lay across her chest and her head lolled back at a strange angle. There were tear marks all down her face, clear tracks through the dust, and blood had pooled under her head and shoulders. Her right arm remained flung out as if beseeching aid.

Mikey couldn't pull his horrified gaze away from the screen, so Don slowly got out his phone and pressed the 2-way button. He had to clear his throat twice before he could get any words past the lump that settled there.

God! What was this going to do to Leo?

"Guys," he said quietly into the device, "We found her."