Three times Leo saved his brothers from mind control and one time they saved him...
Chapter 4, part one, Leo
Authors Note: WOW! Thanks for all the support you guys! :) Also, this chapter starts a few weeks after the last one.
Raph was worried, correction, they were all worried. Leo had left for a run when he usually did, around 4 am, but usually he got back before any of them woke up, so around 7. It was now 10 and he still wasn't home. Raph and Mikey were standing behind Donnie, who was tracking the location of Leo's shell cell.
"Well that can't be right." Donnie said in confusion.
"What is it?" Mikey asked.
"It's not moving, hasn't moved for hours. It's just in some random place, I don't recognize the address. I'll look it up." Donnie said, he typed and then hummed, "It's by the docks, but he might've just dropped it-"
"Dropped what?" Leo asked, appearing behind them suddenly. They all screamed.
"Leo! What the shell man? Where have you been?" Raph asked angrily.
"Well I went out for my usual run but I dropped my T-Phone somewhere along the way and I went around my whole route again to see if I could find it but I couldn't." Leo explained, he leaned in and noticed the map on Donnie's computer, "How the heck did it get there?"
"You didn't run around the docks?" Donnie asked.
"No." Leo shook his head.
"Hmm..." Donnie said and rapidly typed something into the computer and let out a sigh of realization, "That's an eco-station were they process garbage, I bet you dropped it into a dumpster while you were jumping over an alley and it got taken there." Donnie told them.
Leo shook his head and smiled slightly, "Ah, well sorry Don."
"Oh that's okay, I have a few extra anyways cause I figured Mikey would break one." Donnie said, reaching into a drawer and pulling out another T-Phone exactly the same as his old one. He handed it to Leo.
"Thanks." He walked off to his room.
Mikey was about to leave when Raph blocked him, "Mikey, wait." Raph whispered, Donnie swiveled in his chair to face Raph, "Leo was lying."
"What, dude are you serious? Leo is the worst liar." Mikey said loudly, Raph covered his mouth quickly and looked around.
"Did you see how happy he looked when Donnie said that he must've dropped it while jumping over an alleyway? Leo was using our trust in Donnie to know everything against us." Raph whispered.
Donnie shook his head slightly, "I was with you at the beginning but now you're just sounding like a conspiracy theorist."
"Wait you were with me in the beginning?" Raph asked.
"Yeah, I mean," Donnie rubbed his forehead, "Have any of our T-Phones ever fallen off our belts?" Donnie asked and Mikey shook his head, "Not even in the middle of an intense fight would those things fall out." Donnie stated and Raph was nodding, "Also, usually his run loop takes about three hours, so how is it possible that he ran through it two times in five hours. That's too fast, even for him." Donnie said.
"Exactly," Raph said, and then seemed to contemplate something, "I think tomorrow I'm gonna follow him." He declared.
"Raph, that won't work, remember when he told us someone was watching us right before I got hit with that dart? I didn't see or feel anything." Mikey said, "He'll sense you or whatever, in like, one second."
Raph looked contemplative once more, "Donnie, can you set it up so that overnight the tracker on the T-Phone is recording where he's going?"
"Yeah, I think I could do that." Donnie said.
"Guy's, time for training!" Leo yelled from the dojo.
They all shared a nod and went to go train.
In the past few weeks Leo had been kicking their shells at training, and Master Splinter has no idea where this had come from. Leonardo had always practiced more than his brothers, but now he was taking it to the extreme. Waking up at 4 in the morning for a three hour run, then coming home, training with his brothers, then he eats and then he trains on his own, then he meditates, then he eats, they they patrol, then he sleeps and repeats. This was obviously not healthy, but he seemed so much faster than usual, perhaps that was what he was doing in the early morning.
Splinter's eldest son had been quite unlike himself of late, talking back to Splinter, or completely ignoring him, this was especially true whenever Splinter tried to bring up whatever was obviously weighing on his mind.
"Leonardo." Splinter said, Leo was going through some kata's in the dojo.
Leo's eye twitched slightly, as if he was annoyed by Splinter's presence, "Yes Master Splinter?" He answered.
"How was your run this morning?" He asked, but he said it in a tone that made Leo know that wasn't the real question, so Leo side eyed him an raised an eyebrow and Splinter sighed and continued, "Your brothers were worried about you." He stated, "I was as well." Leo continued to look at him with an unreadable stone face. "I believe I know what you are up to," Splinter started, and Leo's face cracked with an expression of surprise, "And while I do not condone it... I can... appreciate that you do this for them, to try to keep them safe. All that I ask is," Splinter then leaned in and whispered something in Leo's ear, he then pulled away from Leo an said, "I am very proud of you my son."
Now, Mikey, who was absolutely not eavesdropping on Leo and Splinter's conversation up to that point quickly gathered Raph and Don in Donnie's lab. Mikey recounted what he heard to them, both Raph and Donnie listened with avid attentions and when he was finished they were stunned.
"So he is up to something!" Raph said, "I knew it!"
"But the question is what are we going to do about it?" Donnie asked, "If Master Splinter doesn't want him to stop whatever he's going, they why would we?"
"Because, we're a team, and whatever it is he's up to, we should be out there helping him." Raph said. Mikey and Donnie nodded firmly.
The next morning...
Raph was a bit angry... a bit may be an understatement. Splinter told Leo to fight blindfolded during sparring that morning, and he still managed to beat Raph! Something has gotten into Leo that has lit a spark in him, he was fighting differently, as much as none of them wanted to acknowledge it, Leo was fighting really similarly to the Shredder.
After training was over, Mikey, Donnie and Raph quickly made their way to Donnie's lab. Donnie quickly pulled up a map, and then in red was the route Leo had run that early morning. It was all over the place, and so to make it simpler, Donnie made it so that when Leo had been moving there were thin red lines and when he was in the same spot for a while there was a dot. There two dots on the map, Donnie looked up the location of one of the dots and nothing of significance came up, but when Donnie looked up the second one, they were all surprised.
At least five news articles came up, most of them with a title along the lines of 'Mysterious Man Disrupts Supply Chain of Illegal Chemical Imports'. Donnie clicked on one of the articles and read it:
"Mysterious Man Disrupts Supply Chain of Illegal Chemical Imports
Early this morning an unnamed group of illegal chemical importers were tipped to the police. There was enough evidence that all apprehended suspects will surely be convicted, however, police are still looking for a piece of key evidence. The suspects say that there are paper copies of all their suppliers and clients, but they claim that someone broke in and stole these documents a mere hour before the police arrived."
Donnie read the small excerpt to Raph and Mikey, who were looking with wide eyes.
"So he's been tracking importers of illegal chemicals?" Mikey asked, "That's... kind of lame."
"No, you guys don't understand, not any chemical, one, one specific chemical." Donnie said, "I recognize the name, I found it in Mikey's bloodstream after he was shot with the mind control serum, I think it's an ingredient, an important ingredient."
"So he's trying to stop the Shredder from making more?" Raph asked.
"I think so." Donnie said...
To be continued...