First Capture - Donatello

"What the hell, Leo? Why are we waiting?" Raph asked, his voice low but the tone no less frustrated because of that.

"Something feels 'off'," Leo responded in a whisper.

"Is that your way of saying your gut's talking ta ya'?" Raph asked.

Leo glanced at him and saw that Raph was sincere. "Yes," Leo answered. "Ignore the things that are visible and tell me your impressions."

Raph frowned but did what Leo asked, closing his eyes so that his other senses would take over.

"I think I know what you're getting at," Raph said after a moment, his eyes still shut. "It looks like we're alone up here as usual, but it doesn't feel that way."

Don and Mikey came over to join them and Raph opened his eyes.

"What's up guys?" Mikey asked. "Why did we stop patrolling?"

"Do you remember how Master Splinter taught us to sense the presence of others?" Leo asked. "How when you walk into an empty room it feels hollow, but when you walk into a room that is occupied by a living being it does not? It doesn't matter if you can't see the other person, your sense of the size of the room changes because now there is a solid, breathing form that is altering the density of the space."

"What are you two talking about?" Don asked.

"Echolocation. Leo thinks something's 'off' out here and my gut agrees," Raph said.

Mikey's head swiveled as he surveyed the surrounding rooftops. "I don't know how you get a 'feeling' from open space, but okay, I'm not gonna argue with your gut. What do you wanna do?"

Leo was silent as he thought about it; his brothers waiting patiently for his decision. Raph was feeling edgy now; the way he felt when he thought someone was watching him.

Don must have begun to feel the same thing because he dug into his bag and pulled out his night vision goggles. Leo delayed his decision while Don carefully searched the darkness, but when Don shook his head, Leo frowned.

"Split up," Leo said finally. "Donny, you go with Raph; Mikey come with me. Keep your com links open and check in at fifteen minute intervals. I think something is brewing and I want to be able to catch it before it gets out of hand. No hero's, no cowboys – we do this as a team."

The four brought out their headsets and once those were firmly in place, they separated into pairs. Fifteen minutes later each pair had covered several city blocks without seeing anything. When they each reported in, Leo told them to widen the pattern and remain vigilante.

Into their third loop, Don and Raph still hadn't seen or heard a thing. There was eight minutes left before they had to check in again, but both of them stopped searching for a moment in order to regroup.

"I don't know about Leo, but I've still got that strange feeling that we're being watched," Raph said, peering down at the street five floors below them.

"Your perceptions are a bit sharper than mine, especially out here," Don said. "I think it's just more quiet than normal and that's what is setting off your radar."

"Yeah maybe," Raph agreed, his brow furrowed as he continued to survey the street.

Don shifted his duffel into a more comfortable position before turning to walk away. "Let's go find Leo and Mikey," he said over his shoulder. "There's no point in patrolling if it's this dead."

Raph lifted a hand and waved Don on. "Go ahead, I'll catch up ta ya' in a second."

"Better do it before Leo sees that we split up," Don said with a laugh.

Without waiting further, Don leaped across to the next building, taking the direct route back to where the brothers had all started the night.

The uneasy feeling refused to leave Raph and he finally shook his head in resignation, leaving the roof's edge. When he looked around he noticed that Don was already gone from sight, so Raph sprinted across the rooftop in order to catch up with his brother.

It was nearly time for Don to touch base with Leo, but he still hadn't seen his oldest or youngest brothers. Slowing down, Don waited for Raph to join him before reporting to Leo that they were together.

A faint swishing sound was the only warning Don had that anything was amiss. Only a lifetime of training that had honed his senses and reflexes to razor sharpness allowed Don to spin aside as something flashed right past his head. As the object flew by, Donatello realized that it was a large net.

The weighted ends of the net clattered as they hit the rooftop and Don slipped the duffel off his shoulder a millisecond later, drawing his bo almost simultaneously.

Coming at him from different directions were a half dozen men, all uniformly clad in black suits and each wearing dark glasses. There were no guns showing, but most of the men carried telescoping batons, already fully extended. His first quick glance told Don that one man also held a Taser, though not the kind that fired projectiles. They were probably concerned that his shell gave them too small a target to aim for.

There was a moment when no one moved and Don had time to wonder how the men could possibly see anything through their glasses. Then his surprise at the ambush gave way to his protective instincts.

"Raph!" Don yelled into his microphone. "Raph! Watch out, it's an ambush!"

Instead of hearing a reply from his brother, Don received nothing but static. Before he could call the name of a different sibling in order to change communication channels, the men leaped at him.

Don jabbed forward with the front end of his staff, catching the man directly in front of him in his chest and then snapped the rear part of the bo up so quickly that it caught the man on his left squarely on the chin.

When the man in front of Don fell back, Don leaped through the space he'd created and away from the press of attackers.

The men moved nearly as swiftly as Don in order to block his escape route, their numbers giving them an advantage as they swept out around him. It was obvious to Don that these particular men had been chosen because of their physical abilities and fighting skills; in fact, both of the men Don had hit were already on their feet again.

To Don's dismay, they closed in on him much faster than he had anticipated. One of the men swung his baton at Don's head and the turtle dipped to the side to avoid the intended blow, countering by using his staff to sweep the man's feet out from under him. The man hit the roof and rolled up onto his shoulders, then over to a standing position, barely slowed by Don's maneuver.

"Leo! Mikey! Can anyone hear me?" Don shouted, but his communication device continued to play static and Don realized this ambush must have been arranged by Agent John Bishop.

Bishop had learned of their patrol route and had chosen tonight to spring his trap. By monitoring their earlier communications, Bishop had found their com channel and then blocked the signal.

Two men darted in from opposite sides and Don whipped his staff around, catching one man on the temple. Dropping into a crouch, Don spun on his toes and slammed the bo into the back of the other man's legs.

Springing up, Don did a backflip to escape a blow from a baton and then lifted his staff to block another strike aimed at his head. The men were pressing in on him, giving him little room to maneuver, and Don used an elbow to drive a man backwards in order to bring his bo up.

Swinging it around, Don struck one man's arm, making him drop his baton and stumble, giving Don room to jump away from the crowd. When another man rushed him, Don thrust his bo directly into the man's forehead, breaking his dark glasses in the process.

As the man fell down, Don caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were bright silver with absolutely no pupil.

Clones. Don immediately understood that they weren't just dressed uniformly, they were also all exactly alike. This was another of Bishop's experiments with cloning a super soldier race. It explained why the men were getting right back up after Don hit them. He also realized that if they were anything like Bishop's first clone, he wasn't going to defeat them alone.

Whirling around with his bo, Don began to fight as hard as he could, striking, jabbing, and hitting the men with his bo staff. He used his feet and knuckles as well; when one of the men got too close, Don resorted to hand to hand techniques to beat him back.

Don had to warn his brothers; that was uppermost in his mind as he fought. Unless they had already been ambushed, he had to find a way to tell them what was happening. The only way to do that was to get away from the clones who were trying to pin him down.

Just as he had that thought, a baton came down on his left arm, the sting of the blow reverberating up his arm and nearly causing him to drop his weapon. Gritting his teeth, Don launched himself directly at one of his attackers, the surprise leap catching the man off guard and sending him to the ground.

Don rolled away from him and started back in the direction of the building where he'd left Raph. He could feel his pursuers right on his heels and skidded to a halt as he turned to swing his bo like a baseball bat, hitting one of the men as he leaped and sending him plowing into two of the others.

Fighting with every bit of the skill he possessed, Don tried to find a window of opportunity to flee. The clones were just too good, too perfect; their attacks too well coordinated for a group of men who didn't have to rely on verbal communication.

Suddenly Don noticed that he wasn't fighting six men anymore, only five. The man whose glasses he'd broken had never gotten back up.

Maybe not so perfect, Don thought with a surge of adrenaline. He twisted beneath a baton blow, catching the weapons force on his shell, and swept around and up with his bo, popping a clone's head to the side. The carefully aimed blow broke the temple piece from the man's glasses and Don could have sworn he saw the clone's silver eyes flash just before he hit the ground.

The action brought a rain of blows down on the purple banded turtle that he was hard pressed to dodge. He could feel welts rising on his skin where the batons hit him, though he blocked a number of them with his staff. They were not giving him breathing space and Don knew it was because Bishop had programmed them to understand the genius turtle's fighting style wasn't as effective when his attackers were so close.

Someone grabbed the ends of his mask and yanked him backwards. Before he could punch his bo into the man's gut, another of them grabbed it. In a tug of war over his staff, Don's head was being pulled back despite the over developed muscles in his neck.

A man darted in while Don was momentarily frozen and jammed the Taser into the turtle's exposed side. The backs of his teeth gnashed together as the electrical current made Don shake and then he twisted away from the prongs, releasing his grip on the bo in order to back fist the man holding the Taser.

Dipping low to the ground, Don flung his head back and slithered out of his mask, losing his headset in the process. Don then dove into a forward roll, smashing into the legs of one of the men as he escaped their circle. When he came up he threw his shuriken, sinking one of the spikes into a clone's arm and a second one catching another's leg. The third shuriken hit the Taser, forcing the man to drop it when it exploded into fiery sparks.

The shuriken bought Don the few seconds he needed to recover from being hit by the Taser. He and his brothers had each practiced enduring an electrical shock from just such a device and had learned to remain upright, but the after effects always left them shaky.

Don watched as the four remaining clones closed in on him. The two he'd struck with the shuriken pulled the spikes from their bodies and tossed them aside as they moved. Don didn't have to see their skin to guess that it was spontaneously sealing shut.

Backing away from them, Don's eyes darted to the left and right, looking for a way to slow them down so that he could escape. He passed one of the clones whose glasses he'd broken and saw that the man lay completely still, his eyes wide open. On each side of his temple was a small prong and Don guessed that the earpieces for their glasses, when attached to the prongs, allowed them to receive and relay signals.

Don's eyes fell on his com unit, smashed to smithereens during the fight, and his heart plummeted. Even if he could get away from the signal jamming their communications he now had no way to reach his brothers.

"Donny!"

The shout pulled Don's head around and he saw Raph on top of the next building over from his. Raph was rushing towards him but he'd only covered half the distance of the rooftop when another group of Bishop's clones jumped out of hiding and attacked him.

"It's Bishop's clones!" Don yelled, trying to warn his brother about what he was facing.

Don's adversaries ignored the battle on the other rooftop, intent on taking down the purple banded turtle. Once more they swarmed him, landing a hard blow for every two that Don was able to counter. He felt a baton hit the back of his legs and another struck his shoulder before he could turn his shell into the swing.

Leaping skyward, Don did a quick split kick that sent two of the clones flying. He could see the glint of Raph's sais as his brother fought the clones that were mobbing him and knew he needed to tell Raph about their weak spot.

"Glasses!" Don shouted, dodging a clone who tried to jump on his back. "Break their glasses!"

"Watch your shell!" Raph yelled back at him, slipping past the knot of clones and moving swiftly towards Don.

Don spun out of the way as two more clones charged him and then he began to sprint towards Raph. He was nearly to the roof's edge when he saw another clone rise up on top of a nearby maintenance shed, a large barreled device pressed against his shoulder. The man aimed it directly at Raphael and Don immediately knew his brother's danger.

"Net!" Don screamed, seeing a puff of smoke from the net launcher a split second later.

His feet left the ground as Don dove directly into the path of the projectile. It hit him full on, wrapping around his body and throwing him violently to the ground.

The momentum sent Don rolling across the rooftop. He could hear Raph bellowing his name and wished that his brother would get away so that he could warn Leo and Mikey.

Don's own desperate situation became apparent as he saw Bishop's humanized clones coming towards him. The net dug into his fingers as he tried to get out. He lashed out, kicked, clawed, and then gasped harshly as the panic began to set in.

The humans were chuckling; talking about him and about how their master would be glad that he'd been caught. Black and red, their fine leather shoes teased him with painful nudging.

A heavy weight settled onto him. Donatello grew silent and still, for just a second.

He looked over his shoulder.

Cold eyes behind dark glasses. A neutral face.

A needle appeared; a huge needle that caused his panic to grow as it came closer.

It sunk into his skin.

Soon enough, everything went dark.

TBC…