Chapter 3

Moaning pierced the silence, reaching his ears. For a moment he wondered if someone was nearby, suffering as he was. To his horror, he realized it was his own as the sound again pierced the silence, rumbling in his throat and ending in a whine he was glad no one could hear. Swallowing, he pushed out a breath to calm the feeling of dizziness swimming through his head. Licking dry lips, he tasted crusted blood as he tried to remember just what had happened. Scant thoughts of a fight flitted through his hazy mind. Shaking his head to clear it, he pushed it aside for the moment and forced himself to open his eyes.

The ground stared up at him, teasing him from more than a dozen feet below his head. Upside down, he jerked without thought, trying to get himself down as panic tried to rise to the surface. He couldn't figure how he gotten himself up here. If he had even done this to himself to begin with… The fight with the Foot slowly came to his mind, fighting alongside his brother until he lost consciousness.

"Leo…" he breathed, worry for what might have happened to his brother filling his mind.

Craning his neck, he looked around himself to take stock of the situation. His right ankle was trapped within a couple lines of clothes lines that stretched from one building to another. His left foot was free, dangling behind him, his arms reaching for a ground he couldn't reach.

"Just great…" he muttered. "They had to leave me up here. Why not just finish it?" Not that he wasn't grateful to still be alive, but what was the use of hanging him up like this? Did they think this was some kind of joke?

"Hey look, the freak's waking up!" one voice shouted excitedly, quickly shushed by another.

"You want the cops showing up? Or the Foot to come back? They probably didn't just leave him in the store for a reason. Now go get the others!"

Raph's gaze flickered to the far end of the alley below him where a couple Purple Dragons stood staring at him before one of them rushed off to presumably get back up. His brow furrowed in confusion. The Foot had just left him? They weren't the ones to leave him upside down high above an alley? He groaned. He was never going to live this one down, not if Mikey had anything to say about it. Thinking of the rest of his family, he knew they had to be concerned. Hell, the sky looked light blue as if the sun was beginning to rise in the next hour. Even he would be concerned, in his own way, if any of his brothers hadn't been home yet. Despite this, he was still loathe to call them why still handing in mid air. Scowling, he reached upward, fingers trying to reach for the clothes line wrapped around his ankle. The sudden change in position had the blood rushing out of his head, leaving him dizzier than before, pain curling through his side and leg from the earlier fight. Fingers brushing the wire, he fell back, swinging from the amount of movement, blood rushing back into his head.

"Well that was a great idea…" he muttered to himself as he swung back and forth. He couldn't even grasp the line long enough to undo it, let alone stay bent upward long enough without feeling like he was going to lose anything still left in his stomach. Bracing himself, he made another attempt, fingers curling under the wire as he tried to loosen its tight hold on his ankle before falling back into a hanging position once more with the same result as the first time. As much as it pained him to admit it, he would need a little help on his one whether it stung his pride or not. Reaching for his shell cell, he was alarmed to find it missing from his belt.

"Looking for this?" the lone Purple Dragon called up to him. "A dumb freak doesn't need this to get down. Don't even know how ya know how ta use it," the man in black dreadlocks goaded the hanging turtle.

Red coloring his vision, he squirmed, reaching for the man so far below him, if he would even call the punk a man at all. He caught a glimpse of the rest of the Purple Dragons he and his brother had fought filling the alley, his stomach dropping more if it could. This was not going to be good. "Yer going to have to do better than that if you're hoping to break me," he threatened with an underlying growl.

"Oh we will ya freak," the group's leader laughed up at him, standing directly below him. "We will."

"I'll show ya freak!" Raph lunched for the punk, arms flailing as he swung back and forth, ankle still secure to the clothes line.

"Ya know, it's not nice to tease Mr. Raphie," a voice called out from the far end of the alley, followed quickly by a throwing star imbedding itself into the ground at the Dragon's feet.

"You might lose a few fingers," another voice warned, stepping out of the shadows with the other figure behind him.

Raph breathed out a faint laugh. If he wasn't upside down with all the blood rushing to his head, he might have been offended by his brother's use of his childish nickname. As it was, he was a little more than happy to see them.

The fight between his brothers and the dragons broke out quickly, the two turtles slowly separating from each other. Three came at Donatello with swinging chains. "Left Don, duck to the left!" he called out, itching to be a part of the fight below him. Don moved in the indicated direction, before swiping two out of three off of their feet with a swing of his bo. Raph's gaze switched over to Mikey who was faring pretty well, blocking incoming bats and ducking under chains. His fingers twitched as Mikey turned into a round house kick, chucks swinging around as he landed, though his brother didn't see the taller Dragon sneaking up behind him. "Mikey! Behind you!" he warned.

Mikey swung around, dodging the incoming knife as Don jumped in from the side, knocking away the knife and tripping him to the ground. A hard tap from one of Mikey's chucks had the last Dragon unconscious on the ground. "Thanks for the heads up dude. Of course, that's about all you can do up there," he laughed, sliding his chucks into his belt.

"Yeah, yeah, just get me down from here," Raph grumped.

"But that's a good look for you bro. Your face is about as red as your mask!"

"Mikey when I get down from here, yer going to wish you hadn't said that."

Mikey's nervous gulp was audible all the way up to where Raph hung. "Can't we just leave him up there?"

Don sighed and shook his head. "No Mikey. We're going to get him down from there."

"How's that? I don't think he wants to go splat on the pavement."

"We'll go up and cut one side free. Therefore you'll be able to flip up and catch the side of the other building," Don called the plan up to Raph.

"Sounds good enough for me." Frankly, all he wanted to do was get down and lie down. He braced himself as his brothers quickly scrambled up one of the buildings, stopping where one side of the line was tied securely to the brickwork.

"Ready Raph?"

"Just do it," he called back, ready to flip himself. The line was quickly cut through with a shuriken, letting him swing over to the other building. He jerked himself upright to grasp the line like he had done earlier, except this time he held on for a moment before reaching for the window sill of the building as he slammed into it, biting down on a groan, muscles shaking as his fingers held. Heart pounding, he pushed himself up the two feet to the rooftop and collapsed in pain and exhaustion, breathing heavily in attempt to catch his breath. The blood that still covered his body was dry except for his side which trembled from the exertion of the flip he had just done to make it up to safety. It slowly leaked blood, but wasn't anything he was worried about. Don was here, everything would be alright.

"Nice work Raph, you'll make one heck of a gymnast one day," Mikey commented with a chuckle as he and Don joined Raph on the roof.

"Not funny goofball," Raph groaned, feeling as if he could just lay there for hours. He barely opened tired eyes as he felt his brother checking his wounds.

"Nothing broken, some blood loss and your side is still leaking, but doesn't look life threatening. How many fingers am I hold up?" he asked holding up a couple of fingers in front of his brother's face.

"Two braniac," he answered with a shake of his head as he managed to sit up, biting back a grimace. Looking up at the brightening sky, he glanced back to his brothers before realizing they were still one short. "Where's Leo?"

Mikey rubbed the back of his neck, refusing to meet Raph's eyes. "We uh… were kind of hoping he was with you…"

"What happened?" Don asked softly, fussing over his brother's side with what he had in his carry-on bag, gauze quickly sealing the wound.

Raph glanced up at the brightening sky, knowing they were running out of time and could soon be easily spotted, a voice somewhat like Leo's confirming that in his head. "We found some Purple Dragons, slipped in the shop, and got jumped by the Foot," he quickly summarized. Gauze in place, he slowly made it to his feet, looking over the side of the building, hoping that the shop was nearby, that he hadn't been dragged off too far by the Dragons. "Don't know what happened after I blacked out," he admitted softly, albeit a bit painfully just thinking on the situation he had just gotten out of. "Just woke up dangling." His eyes slowly scanned the buildings as he took a few steps closer to the edge of the building until he pointed to one standing out in the quiet light of the barely rising sun. "That's the one."

Don peered over the edge, Mikey right beside the two of them. "We already checked it before we found you," Don answered faintly, voice thick with worry. "It looked broken into… There's nothing there though. A few spots of blood, evidence of a fight. Just… no bodies."

"Then… where is he?" Mikey asked no one in particular, concern and worry flooding his voice.

"I don't know, but we'll find him," Raph promised, clenching his fists tightly in determination. "Let's search the surrounding alleys and head home. As much as I hate it, we won't do Leo any good getting spotted."

Don nodded and led the trio down to street level in silence. By the look in his eyes, Raph could see the worry for two brothers, one missing and one injured. For the most part he was just very sore, but he knew Don was itching to patch him up better. Even a shower called out to him, but the need to find Leo filled his mind. What if his brother was out here lying lifeless in an alley?

As the sun finally pushed itself over the horizon, the three turtles had to admit defeat. The surrounding alleys held nothing of interest. No Foot, no Dragons, no Leo. With a heavy heart, Raphael walked with his brothers, leaning against Don from sheer exhaustion and pain as they made their way home one turtle short.

"We'll find you Leo, I promise," Raph whispered softly to himself. As soon as the night blanketed the city, he would be out searching again, wounds or no wounds. He would not leave his brother alone and behind.

A/N: Sorry for such a long delay. Only excuse is college, but never meant for the wait to be so long. Hopefully the chapter was still enjoyable. Reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated, flames will be torched and handed over to Raphael for an untimely death. Good news is, the next chapter is nearly complete and shall be posted next Friday. :)