Investigating the Crime

"What the-! You've got to be kidding me, Mikey!" Donnie complained as he tried to wipe the pepperonis and pizza sauce from his eyes, grumbling when it felt slimy against his fingers. At his side was a brown bag of mutagen canisters while in one of his hands was hos mutagen tracer.

The small, paler turtle in front of him smiled sheepishly as he shoved the rest of his remaining pizza slice into his mouth. "Sowry!" Mikey said through a full mouth.

Leo rolled his eyes as he leapt from the edge of the building to the next one, landing on the ledge before slowing his run to a slow walk. "Come on, guys! We need to find more mutagen canisters before there's a chance for something, or someone, else to mutate!"

Raph grunted as he landed on the building with a thudbefore he began to wipe his arm off, having gotten some of Mikey's pizza on him as well. "Leo, can't we go back and take a break? We've been out here all night."

Leo frowned as he turned to his younger, red-banded brother, putting a finger against the younger turtle's plastron. "No! We can't take a break until all of the mutagen containers in this area are found. If we don't, there is only a greater risk of there being someone that could get hurt."

The hot-headed turtle swatted Leo's finger away and glared at him. "All I'm saying is that-," he looked at his T-phone, "it's already 12:00am. We've been out here since it went dark. We can keep searching for more when we have the strength!"

"Please, Leo?" Mikey pleaded, his eyes half-lidded as he leaned against Raph's shoulder with a yawn. "I've already ate five pieces of pizza to keep me awake… I'm so tired…"

Donnie, having landed on the building right after Mikey, had finished brushing himself off of pizza residue and gave Mikey a concerned look as he glanced back and from his mutagen tracer to Mikey. "Mikey, eating doesn't give you energy right away. You're tired because you're digesting, which takes a lot of energy to do since the blood goes to your intestines and-,"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever!" Raph waved his hand at Donnie to silence him, causing the purple-masked turtle to wear an unamused expression as Raph turned back to Leo. "Look, we're all tired and won't be able to keep this up all night. We need to go back to the lair and come back tomorrow night."

Leo was about to object, but in a split second he took the time to observe his brothers' conditions. He came to realize that they were all exhausted now that he was actually paying attention. Mikey was practically asleep on Raph's shoulder, well, at least until Raph shrugged him off and caused him to fall to the ground. Raph's eyes even were dull and not as focused, and Leo knew that Donnie offered such pieces of knowledge when he was under stress, which meant that he was also drained. And now that Leo thought about it, he felt as if his muscles were about to collapse from exhaustion.

He let out a sigh of frustration. He knew that they were all fatigued and worn out, but another voice in the back of his mind aggressively reminded him that there was still mutagen canisters to collect, and that if they didn't there could only be more trouble for New York City. The city was practically depending on the turtles without even knowing of their existence. But he also thought that there wouldn't be any point in collecting the canisters if they couldn't even walk without falling asleep.

"Well…" he pondered hard for a minute, trying to decide between how he felt and what his conscious was telling him. Go back to the lair and wait it out so that they'd have more energy to keep up the search, or continue their hunt for more canisters and risk becoming too drained to continue. Finally he shook his head, mentally slapping himself in guilt of his decision.

"Alright… Let's go home." He saw relief wash across all three of his brothers' faces. Sighing, he watched Raph take the lead as they started back home. As Leo started to follow, he couldn't help but feel as if his stomach began curl in on itself in guilt. He wondered how many people, or animals, that would be affected by the mutagen before the next night.

As the group hopped from rooftop to rooftop towards the direction of the nearest pothole, they came past an area where there was a Japanese restaurant, a building with multiple stores, and a convenience store were all grouped together around the same block. As he was jumping, Donnie's eyes wandered to the convenience store and he suddenly came to a skidding halt, causing his younger brother Mikey to run into his back hard and knocked them both down onto the ground, Mikey lying on top of Donnie's back.

"Mikey!" Donnie cried, glaring at his brother over his shoulder.

Mikey only returned his agitated look. "Don't start that! You were the one who stopped!"

Donnie grumbled at the fact that it was his fault that they were in this situation, but then when Mikey wasn't making any move to get up, the older brother shoved him off of him and got to his feet. It wasn't even five seconds that Mikey was already asleep on the ground again.

"Really?" Donnie rolled his eyes.

Leo then caught up with them. "What's wrong?"

Donnie turned his head to look at the store again, finding it kind of suspicious for a minute. Leo looked to the direction to see what was wrong, but then frowned and looked back at his purple-banded brother. "What is it?"

The brainiac was silent for a minute, feeling something forming in his stomach that resembled wariness. But he shook his head, telling himself that he was only imagining things and looking to his older brother with a tired smile.

"Guess I'm just seeing things… Let's get back to the lair."

Leo nodded as he started off after his other two brothers, leaving Donnie to stand there for a moment as he tried to correct his vision. He squinted his eyes at the store's entrance door, seeing that behind it was a knocked over magazine rack. He may have been seeing it, but maybe it was just the fault of a careless store owner. So, shrugging his shoulders and shaking his sleepy mind, he hurried off to catch up with his brothers as they set off to home.

The Next Afternoon, 6:00 pm…

It was quiet in the lair as the young ninja turtles awaited nightfall. They weren't too fond of having to go on that scavenger hunt all over again, but they were consoled by the thought that they wouldn't be as likely to tire out as easily now that they had a whole day to rest it off. Leo was itching to go as he sat in front of the TV, watching Space Heroes although he wasn't fully focused on the humorous effects of the weaker character being slapped by his 'hero' in the show. He was too worried about what could have happened the previous night after the turtles returned home. Could somebody have become mutated, or an animal perhaps? Was there a monster roaming around the city now, possibly frightening the city dwellers?

"Doooonnniiieee!" Mikey abruptly shouted from his spot in the tire swing above the pool, earbuds in his ears. "Your T-pod isn't working!"

Donnie rolled his eyes from his lab and continued to use a screwdriver to spin the screw into the gadget he was working on. ""Have you checked the batteries?"

"No!" Mikey shouted.

"Then go find some more batteries and see if that works!" the brainiac snapped as he barely kept himself from stabbing the work table in annoyance.

Careful not to get his precious T-pod wet, Mikey hopped over the water and hurried off to Donnie's lab. Once there, he glanced around the room and saw a flashlight on the table across the room from where Donnie sat. Knowing that the flashlight used the same batteries, Mikey quietly tip-toed across the room in order to not disturb his brother. He unscrewed the flashlight and took the batteries out, opening the T-pod and replacing them before throwing the bad batteries into the trash before testing the T-pod out again. Once he heard his favorite upbeat music again, he smiled in relief and content before walking back into the living room to resume his comic reading.

Raph sat on the couch behind Leo, comic book in hand, his legs crossed and his eyes dully focused on the pictures and captions of the comic pages. He glanced from his comic to the blue-banded brother in front of him and arched a mask ridge with a curious curve of his lip.

"Spaced out on the show, Leo?" he cracked, almost chuckling at his own pun.

Leo groaned. "How can I watch TV when all I can think about is what could have happened last night after we came back to the lair?"

Raph, remembering what Leo had lectured them about the night before, rolled his eyes and straightened out his comic book. "Oh, c'mon, Leo. Nothing happened. I guarantee you that all went well after last night."

Leo shot him a disbelieving frown. "Yeah? How would you know that?"

"Because nothing's popped up on the news yet."

"Raph, the news hasn't even been on." Leo retorted.

Unexpectedly an orange-haired human girl rushed into the lair through the train station-like gates at the entrance. "Guys, turn on the news!"

Raph glanced over his shoulder to see April and Casey hurrying to behind the couch. "Well, I guess something must have popped up."

Leo did as told and turned the channel to the news. When the channel was on, there was a male news reporter standing in front of the camera, along with a Chinese-looking man of about thirty or so.

"So what you are saying is that your store was robbed by an animal?" the reporter was asking the store owner.

"Yes, but not just by any animal! I looked at my security cameras and there was a giant squirrel robbing my merchandise!" the Chinese man raised his hands as he spoke.

The reporter stared wide-eyed at the man for a minute, blinking a few times as if he was trying to remember what he was about to ask. But then he shook his head and held the microphone to his mouth. "A… giant squirrel…?"

"Yes, it just starting taking things off shelves and out of the refrigerators! It even took a duffle back and a bandana! And the videos weren't the only proof. There were squirrel tracks all over the store and hair!"

Now all of the turtles were gathered at the living room with April and Casey, along with Splinter who had overheard the loud TV. Raph stared long and hard at the TV with wide eyes, and when Leo turned his gaze to glare at him, he held his hands up in defense.

"Okay, so I was wrong!"

"Looks like a mutant visited the convenience store last night." Donnie contemplated aloud, and then he suddenly snapped his fingers. "Of course! I KNEW that something was up when we passed by that place!"

April arched a brow at him. "You guys knew about the robbery?"

Raph and Mikey looked to Donnie in confusion while Leo merely shrugged. "We were all very tired outside."

"I just thought that I was seeing things." Donnie finished.

"Well, I suggest that when night arrives, you go investigate the crime scene and see if you can track down this 'giant squirrel'. If this is indeed a mutant, it is crucial that we take control of it immediately. There could be trouble for the city if the thief isn't captured quickly." Splinter said to his sons, staring in concern at the TV before looking to the boys for their agreement. They all nodded their heads in understanding before he turned away and disappeared into the dojo, most likely to return to his meditation.

Casey huffed and hung his hockey stick over his shoulders, speaking in a hushed tone. "Giant squirrels… Might as well be giant rats…"

Donnie crossed his arms. "Actually for your information, rats tend to spend their lives in darker places closer to the ground to scavenge for food and possibly on live prey that they sometimes manage to catch. Squirrels tend to live up in high places in nests and forage on a variety of nuts and other vegetation."

Cassie rolled his eyes. "Both are rodents, both are furry. They're the same."

Donnie shot him an unamused frown before turning to Leo, who was clearing his throat to get their attention. "Alright, so the plan is that tonight when it turns dark, we go to that convenience store and investigate the area. Maybe we can figure out where the… um… giant squirrel went."

Later That Day, 10:00 pm…

So the dark of the night came quickly, and as soon as they were given the chance the turtles along with the reluctant Casey Jones were off, leaving April with Splinter for the time being until they either came back with an answer to the investigation or actually found the culprit. The city had become quieter than it usually was during the day, which was an advantage to the group as they leapt from building to building, being sure to keep a watch for humans roaming around during the night. There were many out, but most of them were on their way home or on their nightshifts at work. They were too busy to notice the ghostly-like figures running along the rooftops, the whites of their eyes mostly showing through their masks as they continued to make their way through New York City towards the small convenience store.

"Wait," Leo suddenly came to a halt, holding up a hand to signal to the others behind him. They all knelt at the edge of the rooftop and gazed intently down at the closed-off convenience store. It was dark, police tapes marking the area as a warning to people to not enter. The turtles, with Casey Jones following close behind, jumped down from the building silently and hurried off, being careful to watch out for wandering people who could see them or cops coming to check on the crime scene.

"You think that the cameras are still recording?" Casey asked, not really directing the question to anybody in particular.

But of course as the genius, Donnie was the one to answer. "It's not likely. They took the tapes when the store keeper mentioned that he caught the crook on tape. That means there's no reason in keeping the cameras recording if they caught the crook on tape."

"Well, in that case, let's go." Raph led the way into the store.

Once inside the store, they saw that not much seemed to be out of place, not at all like an animal's doing. In fact, it just looked like someone had come in and grabbed some things off the shelves. The only thing that was out of order in the place was the knocked over magazine rack near the door, which they all assumed that which was used to prop the door open. Donnie then looked down at the ground and frowned, kneeling down as he put his fingers against the white tile floor.

"Hey, guys, check this out." The others turned their attention to the paw prints on the ground. "The store keeper was right. This wasn't any human that did this."

"Or it isn't human anymore." Leo commented stiffly, frowning as he felt his guilt starting to return from the night before. "I knew that we should have kept searching for those canisters last night."

"Look, maybe we can still find him. By the looks of it," Donnie looked to the duffle bags that were for sale, noticing how the footprints led to there as well as some brown hairs that covered the bags, "the culprit will be back, and probably hasn't gone far."

Leo nodded in thought as he frowned at Donnie. "Go check the cams. The store keeper on the news said that he caught this thing on camera. Maybe we can get a better idea of what we're dealing with."

"But the police took the tapes, Leo." Donnie reminded immediately as he remembered about the news mentioning the police taking over the case, making Leo hum in thought.

"Then that means that the police know about the mutant!" Mikey suddenly gasped, accidently crinkling up the bag of chips in his hands. His brothers shot him an incredulous look as they noticed the crumbs all over the young turtle's face, and Mikey smiled guiltily as he hid the bag behind him quickly. "What? I got hungry!"

Leo rolled his eyes and looked to the others. "Come on, we need to get those tapes! If those cops see what that thing is, one of the first places that they'll look is the sewers. We can't let them find the lair!"

Donnie then pulled out a small container with a yellow lid, much like the kind that crime scene investigators used to store small-found items in that might have been tied to the case. "I can collect some of the hair and to take back to my lab. When we get back from the police station I'll see if I can match it to any rodents in the area, you know, to get a better idea of what you're dealing with."

Leo nodded. "Right. Come on, guys!" With that being said, he, Raph, Mikey, and Casey hurried out of the store to get to the nearest police station while Donnie stayed behind for a moment to collect some animal hair before leaving to follow the group. Leo led the way to the police station, hoping that the police hadn't gotten any good leads yet as to where they were having to look for their suspect.

The police station was still active, not with as many officers, but still with enough people to set the turtles and teenage boy on edge. It was quite a large station, too, which meant that there would be many rooms to look for the tapes in.

"Donnie," Leo said quietly as they looked down at the building from the rooftop of a nearby apartment. "You know where those tapes are here?"

Donnie put a finger to his chin and thought for a moment. Then he snapped his fingers. "The lab for the evidence holding should be at the back of the station. It's actually not a real lab, but a place to hold the evidence before it is shipped off to an actual crime lab for testing."

"Great! I say we just need to crawl through the vents and get to that room, get the tapes, and get out before anybody sees us. Anyone object to that plan?" Leo exclaimed as he turned to his companions.

Casey then grinned deviously behind his mask. "I'll make it easier for ya'll! I got some spare firecrackers in my bag."

"Awesome, a diversion! Just what we needed." Leo agreed with a smile.

"Well let's get to it instead of talking about it!" Raph groaned in agitation of the seemingly never-ending conversation, jumping down from the rooftop and landing on the police station roof. The other turtles followed him while Casey hurried off to get his fireworks ready for the distraction. Donnie found a vent entrance in the ceiling, and they all motioned to Casey, who was standing further down the street, to start. Casey had lined up his fireworks, all small rockets, and began lighting them. Once all lit, he scrambled to get to cover and out of sight for when the cops came to investigate the disturbance in the streets.

Not a few seconds later one by one the rockets shot up into the sky, blasting into millions of sparks and loud cracks. Curious of the commotion, people in their homes and apartments came out to see what was going on, as did the police exit the station to see what the racket was. When Donnie concluded that most of the police had left, each turtle one by one entered the vents, closing the opening behind them. Donnie led the way this time through the vent systems, making sure to keep from causing too much noise from their movement against the metal containment.

"Jeez! It's freakin' cold!" Mikey shivered, feeling goosebumps form along his skin.

Leo glared at him over his shoulder. "Shh! We could be right above somebody! We need to be silent."

But just as he finished his sentence, a metal plate under him came loose under his weight and he gasped when it gave out. His hands gripped the metal edge and before the piece of metal that fell under him hit the floor he snatched it up with his feet in air. His eyes widened when he realized that he was hanging in a room where an officer was sitting at his desk, his back turned to him with headphones blaring music, a newspaper in his hands. In front of the officer was a wall of screens with different camera views displayed. Leo sighed in relief, hoisting himself up back into the ceiling and replacing the metal back into the spot it once was.

"That wasn't very silent, Leo!" Raph snorted, grinning evilly at his older brother.

Leo glared at him. "Let's just get back on track!"

"Guys, I think I've found the room!" Donnie called from ahead as quietly as he could, but loud enough for them to hear over their arguing. He hung his head from the ceiling exit, looking for any cameras. He spotted one in the corner of the room right beside his head, and he smiled when an idea came to mind. He took out his T-phone and, aligning it side-by-side with the camera, took a picture of the room before propping the screen of his phone in front of the camera lens.

"Alright, c'mon!" he then jumped down from the ceiling, his brothers behind him. The room wasn't large, but there was a wall full of locked lockers across from the entrance door. Locking the door and making sure it wouldn't budge, Raph nodded to Leo, who then turned to the wall of lockers.

"This must be the place for the evidence?" Leo assumed as Donnie approached his side.

"Yeah," the purple-masked sibling replied as he looked from locker to locker, frowning. "We need to find today's date. There should be an envelope with tapes inside it."

So the group got to work, looking for the locker with the day's date. After a minute or two, Raph motioned for them. When they all gathered around the locker, they saw an orange envelope, and when Donnie picked it up, he looked inside and saw two tapes from two difference cameras from th convenience store.

"This is it. Let's get outta here!" he said urgently, hearing voices from outside the room. Suddenly the knob on the door tried to turn, but the door wouldn't budge.

"Hello? Somebody in there?" an officer asked from outside the door, causing the turtle brothers to gasp. When the officer began to grow suspicious and aggressive, he began to bang on the door and tried to knock it down. They all quickly began to jump up back into the vent, and after Donnie shut the locker quietly and locked it, he followed his brothers into the vent and closed it behind them, tapes in hand. Luckily they got out just as the officer kicked down the door, gun in his hands, but finding that nobody was in the room. After seeing that nothing was disturbed in the room, he frowned as he put his gun back into his holster.

"Must have locked it by accident when I left…" he assumed aloud, resuming his former position back in his seat in the room before he had gone to check out the firework commotion.

The turtles hurried out of the vents of the station and climbed back up the apartment building where Casey was waiting for them.

"Did you get them?" he asked while rolling around on his skates while playing with a hockey puck with his hokey stick.

Leo nodded. "Yeah, let's get back to the lab."

When the group got back to the lair, Donnie took the fur samples and tapes back to his lab immediately to start his tests while the other turtles already began getting things together for going back out to look for canisters. Donnie had told Leo that he could take the mutagen tracer with them while the brainiac stayed behind to conduct his tests.

"You guys ready?" Leo asked urgently, itching to get back out and search for more canisters before there was a chance for something else to become mutated out in the city.

Raph nodded as he cracked his knuckles and straightened his belt. "Yeah, yeah, let's just go."

Mikey groaned. "Do we have to?"

Leo glared at the younger turtle. "Mikey, we have to collect as many as those things as we can before somebody gets hurt! April's father's already a victim here, and many more people will be just like him if we don't do this. This is our fault, so we need to fix it!"

Raph suddenly frowned. "OUR fault?! Excuse me, but I don't think that we were the ones who brought the mutagen canisters here in the first place!"

"But we let them loose in the city!" Leo countered aggressively.

"Guys, quit arguing!" April suddenly snapped, her cheeks flushing in anger and hurt at the mention of her poor mutated father. "Just get going and collect them! We don't have time to wait."

Leo nodded and hurried off, Raph glaring daggers at him while Mikey passed him to follow their leader. Reluctant but also knowing that in the back of their mind that they were indeed partially responsible for the city's mess, he followed the two brothers and Casey out of the lair. April, her arms crossed and tears trying to prick at her eyes, felt her heart ache at the thought of her father having been turned into a mutated bat. But she huffed and shook her head, supposing that training with Splinter would help with coping with the reality of the situation that seemed so much like a nightmare.