I don't own TMNT or UY.

Xxxxx

I gotta tell ya, I'm with Usagi on this one. All we've been doing is running around in the dark. Hell you can't even say that! We've been sitting around in the dark! I was so sick of all this planning and pussyfooting around! Even after Donny told us he'd finished his virus this morning, we're still doing nothing but waiting and watching! I mean I'm not an idiot and I know all this stuff was important but it was driving me nuts! What's even worse was that I knew there was really no other way to handle this situation unless we wanted to risk getting some-one killed. Leo knew this, and it seems he and Usagi had patched things up 'cause the rabbit, despite his restlessness, was trying to to follow his example and be patient. 'Course he was having a hard time doing so, but throughout the course of the day whenever he seemed to get overly twitchy Leo was able to calm him down. In short they were best buds again. Wish I knew how the heck they'd managed to work out their issues so easily.

I won't lie, I was relieved. Their weird tension had really started to piss me off. They were both being idiots! But I was glad it was over with and they'd seemed to find some kind of understanding between them. It made me feel better and less edgy myself. Now if only we could stop all this stupid espionage stuff and get to the action.

I was still kinda mad at Mikey too. He shoulda asked me to go with him if he was gonna do something crazy. Yeah I know how that reflects on me, but really I don't mean it like that. If he was feeling jumpy enough to do something instead of sitting around I wish he didn't try to do it by himself. I mean I would've told him it wasn't a good idea and try to talk him out of it but even if I wasn't able to, at least he wouldn't have been alone. Stupid, pudding-brained dink! As soon as he's feeling more like himself again I was gonna kick his ass so bad for scaring me like that!

Once he starts feeling like himself again that is. Maybe it was just 'cause he got his butt kicked around a bit but something didn't seem right with him today. Normally I'd think it was just me being overly-sensitive but I couldn't shake this weird feeling I was getting from him. He just seemed kinda off. He was kinda quiet, for Mikey anyway, and he seemed almost depressed which scared the crap outta me. Mikey's kinda like our 'shit-creek-o-meter'. If he's running around and driving us nuts then we're still ok, but when he starts getting scared and moody you know we're in deep trouble.

This seemed different though. I dunno. Guess I'm just over-protective. I told myself to make sure and not give him a hard time for a while, despite feeling kinda tense. I'll save up that aggravation for when this jackass in the blue suit rears his head again. I got a bone to pick with him.

At least we were outside now, even if we were still doing the annoying info-gathering crap. It kinda gave the illusion that we were doing something physical at least.

I frowned at the building across the street, crouching down on the ledge of the roof we were on. Leo was crouched on my left and Usagi on my right. Usagi didn't really need to be there since I was just acting as Leo's back-up but he wanted to come. Donny was back at the Lair doing his computer stuff with Mikey keeping him company.

Usagi gave a sigh, shifting from a crouch into a sit. "This is most frustrating."

"I heard that." I agreed.

"Take it easy guys. If nothing's happening it just means its working." Leo tried to calm us.

I grumbled but kept quiet, watching the building.

"How's it going Don?" Leo spoke into his headset.

"Can't talk now Leo. Working." I heard the reply come through my own headset as well as my bro's. I rolled my eyes.

"Will he be much longer?" Usagi asked, fingering the hilt of his wakizashi absentmindedly.

I shrugged. "Dunno, but if he's tellin' us ta shut up that's a good sign."

Leo nodded.

Usagi sighed. "If you say so."

He shifted and curled his legs under himself, sitting in the traditional seiza position Master Splinter made us use when we were in training. I have no idea why he'd torture himself sitting like that if he didn't have to.

"Oh! There it goes!" Donny's voice suddenly spoke up in my ear.

Leo blinked. "What's up Don?"

"Bishop's security programs just fried my virus. I've been shut out."

I saw Leo pull a worried face. "Did you manage to get anything?"

I heard Don's voice give a laugh. "Come on Leo! Give me a little credit huh? I managed to grab a lot! I dunno how useful all of it will be, but I managed to get quite a few files with 'specimen' in their titles"

Leo smiled at this, relaxing. "Good job Don! Nothing out of the ordinary over here. Doesn't look like they've discovered your bot."

"Great!" I said, getting up and dusting my hands. "Can we get outta here?!"

Leo thought for a moment. "I think we should recover the turtle-bot first." He said. "But I can do that myself. You two go home and hear what Donny's found."

I gave a low growl at this and shook my head. "Forget it Leo. I ain't leavin' you here alone."

He frowned at me lightly. "I'll be ok Raph. It's no big deal."

I made a noise, crossing my arms. I wasn't sure how to say this without sounding like a complete sap. "Yeah but I still don' like it. I'd rather stick around if ya don't mind. I don' wanna miss out on any possible action." I gave him a toothy grin and rubbed my knuckles against the palm of my other hand meaningfully, hoping to mask my concern. Last thing I needed was to give him the satisfaction of knowing I was worrying about him.

Leo gave me a disapproving look. "There's not gonna be any action. Looking for a fight is the last thing I'm planning to do."

I frowned at him darkly. "Don't mean ya won't find one, and if you get ta beat the crap outta Bishop without me I'm gonna be very ticked off."

"I agree with Raphael-san." Usagi said.

I turned to gawk at the rabbit. I was surprised by the support and by the look on his face, so was Leo.

Usagi met our stares with a serious expression. "I do not know this 'Bishop' Person but I would not feel comfortable leaving you here by yourself Leonardo-san, regardless of how skilled you are."

I had to stop myself from smirking. So I'm not the only one feeling a little paranoid huh? Well, better Usagi saying it out loud than me. Leo'll listen to him.

He blinked at Usagi. "Are you sure?"

Usagi gave a nod. "The information Donatello-san has gathered will still be there when we get back." He eased up and gave Leo a slight smile. "I have waited so long for news, I can wait a short while longer."

I frowned, I didn't like him putting himself out like this for us. I mean he's been going ballistic with worry about his kid, and now here he was, putting off finding out if he was ok just so he could make sure we didn't get into trouble. It didn't seem right. Still, I wasn't gonna be the one to tell him to go home.

Leo looked unhappy about it too, but nodded. "Alright. But then we head straight home."

Usagi nodded. "With haste."

-----

Nothing crazy happened while we waited for Donny to get his little robot outta the building via remote control. Once the thing scurried out the door, Leo dropped down and scooped it up before we high-tailed it outta there. After that we ran all the way home, and I do mean ran. At first we were just making good time but as we got closer, Usagi started speeding up until he was full-out sprinting the rest of the way. At one point Leo told him to slow down so we could keep up which he did for exactly 5 minutes before he broke into a gallop again. Leo didn't bother telling him to cool it a second time and neither did I. I mean how could we blame the guy for wanting to get home so badly? Hell I was getting worked up myself! I had to know if his boy was ok.

The last couple of days I've not exactly been confident about how the kid was doing. I mean I was hoping he was still ok of course, but based on Bishop's track record I wasn't daring to be hopeful. Yeah, I know that's extremely depressing and pessimistic of me but honestly, I just couldn't face the idea of believing the boy was still alive and then have all my hopes crushed into the ground when we find out he isn't. And then of course you gotta add to that how Usagi would react if this turns out to be the truth.

I flinched inwardly at the idea of what he'd do if it turns out the boy was dead. I mean I'm no expert as far as Feudal Japan goes but I'm sure whatever honour, duty or bushido required him to do to himself for losing a kid whose safety was entrusted to him wouldn't be pretty. I shuddered and tried to force the mental images that followed out of my head. I don't care what Leo thinks; no offence to Usagi but the way things are done in his dimension or time period or whatever are highly and severely fuc-

"Still keeping up Raph?!" Leo called, interrupting my thoughts.

I realised I was starting to slow as I was thinking. I sneered and sped up again.

"Just givin' ya a head-start bro!" I retorted.

It didn't take long before we slipped down a man-hole and ran into the lair. We were all three out of breath, but you wouldn't know it to look at Usagi. He looked around the main room expectingly.

"Tadaima!" He called out, pretty much the Japanese equivalent of 'Honey I'm home!'.

I was kinda surprised by this show of familiarity regarding our home but somehow I found it amusing. I didn't think he meant it the way it came across though, he was probably just trying to alert Donny that we were back so he could hear what the brainiac had found out.

A head popped up from the couch and Mikey blinked at us. "Geez. That was fast."

Leo nodded, still panting slightly. "We ran. Where's Donny?"

Mikey pointed in the direction of Don's lab slash study slash I have no idea what to call it exactly. "He's working on those file thingies."

Leo nodded, turning to head the way Mike pointed, giving Usagi a tug on his kimono sleeve. "Come on!"

Usagi nodded and ran after him. Jeez. They were acting like they were 5! I knew how the felt though, I could feel my own heart pounding and it wasn't from the run. I turned to go after them when I slowed, turning back to Mikey.

"You comin' or what?" I asked, frowning at him irritably. For some reason it annoyed me that he wasn't as eager to hear what Don had to say as the rest of us. I can't tell you why though, it just bugged me.

He nodded, getting up and walking over to follow me. My frown deepened as I watched him, starting to walk as well. "What's the matter? You feeling sick?"

He frowned at me and shook his head. "Nu uh."

I grumbled at him, speeding up my pace to join the others. "Then hurry up!"

Walking into Don's work-place I saw Usagi and Leo busy crowding him. Don was busy explaining something to the two of them that sounded kinda technical to me. I came over, ready to beat his over-sized head in if he didn't tell us how the kid was doing instead of talking us to death. I stood myself next to Leo and elbowed him out of the way slightly, but not enough to start a fight. I dunno why. It was just a reflex. He didn't take offence. On the other side, Mikey crouched down next to Usagi, staring at Don't computer screen.

"So what're we lookin' at?" I said, not wanting to miss anything.

"I was just saying how I wasn't able to get my hands on a floor plan." Don said, almost apologetically. "but I've managed to get a good number of files on some of Bishop's specimens. One of them has got to be Jotaro's. I've also got a basic schematic of what sort of security system he's got set up there and, get this, some personal files regarding those in his employment including classified minutes taken at some meetings. I only managed to grab a hand-full of those though before Bishop's Anti-virus booted me out."

I gave him a look. "Ya managed ta get all that but no floor plan? Good job Don."

I knew I was irritating him but I didn't have time to listen to all the technicalities right at this moment. I just wanted to know if Jotaro was ok. Because if he's not. ..I dunno... I dunno 'if he's not'.

Don gave me a slight glare but didn't respond to me directly. "Anyway; while waiting for you guys to get back, I've been trying to sort through these files regarding his specimens to see how he's labelled them. I didn't want to sit here going through each one individually. There's at least over a hundred of them" He opened up a long list of icons and started scrolling through them. "Seems he's got them categorized according to 'date acquired', level of importance and how threatening the specimen itself is. So;" He reached out and started typing something rapidly. "If we assume he's categorized Jotaro under the time Usagi arrived, plus putting the importance level in as 'high' seeing as he kidnapped the boy recently and it's clearly in conjunction to whatever he's working on at the moment, and putting the specimen threat level low because he's a child, it should narrow it down a little."

He hit a few buttons and the row of icons on the list shrunk quite a bit. I frowned as I watched. I didn't bother trying to remember all the details of what Don just said, I just bit my tongue and waited until I saw some results on the screen in front of me.

"Ok. Here we go." Don said. I noticed his knuckles whiten on the mouse and his shoulders tense. "First file."

He double clicked the icon and a sheet that looked almost like some kind of internet profile popped up. It had a serial number at the top followed by some vital-statistics and then a long list of entries kinda like a diary, each of them dated. On the left of the screen was a mug-shot. The creature in the picture glared back at us with large, green orbs for eyes and a wicked sneer.

Don sighed and closed it. "No dice. Next."

He clicked the next icon. Again the profile filled the screen. The face that stared at us was dark and slender, with high cheek bones and thin slits for nostrils. It kinda looked like a snake but with more human features.

Don closed it before opening the next one.

I didn't count how many files we went through, maybe 8 or so. Usagi shifted his weight but said nothing. He had a hand on the ridge of Don's shell and I could see his fingers curling around it painfully tight. If he'd been gripping Donny's shoulder he'd have been hurting him.

I felt for him. The suspense was killing me too.

"Think positive thoughts guys." Don said, opening the next one.

I held my breath slightly.

The same profile sheet opened on the page.

"There!" Usagi said, leaning forward sharply. "That's him!"

I leaned forward myself though not as frantically.

The number at the top of the profile read 224324 and under it there was a list with the boy's weight and height along with some other stuff I wasn't interested in right now. I turned my attention to the mugshot. A small, white face stared back at me. He looked a lot like Usagi, It was very easy to see they were related. He had the same shape to his face, the fur tufted on his cheeks the same way and he had a quiet, defiant expression on his face, glaring at whoever had taken the photo much the same way Usagi had glared at Leo when they had their fight on the roof. His eyes were large and brown, not pink like our friend's. His ears were much much shorter too and untied so they stood upright like a rabbit's ears should in my opinion. He looked young. Maybe 8, perhaps 9.

Donny scrolled down the profile page, speed-reading the dated entries on it as only he can. I tried to swallow but my mouth was dry, waiting to hear what Donny found. Usagi was staring at the screen himself, completely transfixed although I knew he couldn't read the western, English writing. He looked like he wasn't daring to breathe.

"Ok here! Latest entry!" Donny announced. He was talking a little faster than normal.

" 'Research done on samples taken from subject 224324...'" He paused, paling slightly before clearing his throat and carrying on. " '..has... has so far proven highly successful in furthering Project Gateway. No further samples are required at this time as the project is moving on course and according to schedule. Deadline should be reached if things continue as they are. Subject is no longer directly required for further development of the Project.'"

"What does that mean?!" Usagi blurted out. He looked terrified.

"Hold on hold on, there's more!" Donny said. " 'At the time of this entry, subject is still in good health and remains active and lively. Possibility of future usefulness exists. Subject has been ordered to be kept alive and in good condition until such a time arises that he is deemed no longer useful.'"

The entire room seemed to breathe out at the same time.

Donny turned to the rest of his, breaking out into a wide, shining smile. "He's alive!"

We couldn't help but break out into a cheer at this, slapping shells and putting hands on shoulders. I felt as if some-one'd removed a rock from my stomach that'd been sitting there for longer than I can remember. I put an arm around Don's neck and proceeded to knuckle his skull.

"Way ta go ninja-geek!" I praised him.

He laughed and tried to push me off roughly. "Hey! I still need that to think and stuff you know!"

"Usagi."

Leo's voice caught my attention and I turned to look at him and the rabbit. We all went quiet.

Usagi was staring at the profile photo.

"Usagi-san." Leo said again.

Usagi tore his gaze away from the image, turning it to Leo instead. I could see it, the extra moisture welling up that he was fighting hard to keep down.

Leo gave him a warm smile. "He's ok Usagi."

Usagi gave him a heartfelt smile back and merely nodded. He didn't seem to trust himself enough to say anything.

Leo put a hand on his shoulder and I saw him squeeze it slightly. "Don't worry. We're gonna get him back."

Again Usagi merely nodded, turning back to the photo on the screen.

"Thank you... Leonardo..." He said, leaving out the honorific.

Leo smiled.

Xxxxx

I managed to write a very lengthy Chapter 18, so here's an update. Halfway through this chapter I started feeling more comfortable with my writing again. I hope it shows.

Sorry if there are some spelling/grammar errors. I'm still sick and might have missed a few.

Things have been slow for a while. Now we're moving into action territory!