To say Casey Jones was pissed was an understatement. He was infuriated.

Sure he had helped stop Shredder and his goons from taking control of the Auman Plant that Hun had showed to Shredder, but he did next to nothing in the fight that had taken place there. Whilst his turtle friends took on the other mutants and Shredder, Casey felt like he had drawn the short straw while battling Hun. Sure the Asian man had skills, but he didn't seem as dangerous as Saki, Tiger Claw, Rahzar, or even Fishface. He had celebrated his win with his reptilian friends with his usual toothy grin, but it just didn't feel the same. It felt a lot like when the turtles had gone to Dimension X and saved New York City, along with probably the whole world, while he played backseat sidekick. The thought made him want to hit someone. So that's what he was currently doing.

New York City had never been the safest, but after the invasion Casey couldn't tell if it was worse or miraculously better. He was leaning towards the worse.

His current battle was against the normal group of Purple Dragons, without their skilled leader. The fight wasn't strenuous on Casey, and that made his anger rise. With a swift uppercut of his adored hockey stick, Casey wiped out Fong and watched with a smoldering glare as the dragons fell in a heap.

"You guys are pathetic." He grumbled, hitting a puck at them for good measure. To his annoyance, he missed and hit a trash can instead.

"Oh come on!" He yelled, stomping over to the trash can. "Why can't I be good at anything?"
With a final shout, he shoved the full can over, scaring a stray cat that jumped onto his head and tipped him over as it bounded off. Casey landed on the ground hard and threw down his hockey stick. Fortunately, it didn't break on its impact.

Casey looked over his shoulder only to find that the Purple Dragons had ran off during his little tantrum, and with another grumble, Casey put his head into his hands. The agitated teen let out a sharp breath and stayed sitting in the alley. He ignored the faint rumbling of traffic echoing off the dark buildings and the small squeaks of rats digging around in a nearby dumpster. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!" He grumbled to himself.

He didn't know how long he had been sitting there alone. The cool breeze that early hadn't affected him was now starting to bother the teen, and he knew that if April were here, she would be scolding him for going to catch a cold. But even the thought of the pretty redhead didn't cheer him up. Casey continued to dwell in his thoughts, ignoring his surroundings.

"Hey there Kyōjin."

Casey jumped, almost ready to stand and whack the person who had snuck up on him, but the familiar nickname calmed him slightly.

With a small lift of his hand in greeting, though he didn't turn around and look up at where the voice had come from. Only the small "thump" behind him alerted Casey that his turtle friend had landed behind him.

"Hey Leo." He said in greeting.

Casey could almost feel the frown on Leo's face. "Leo? No Blue tonight?" He shook his head slightly.

Leo quietly sat beside him, though Casey didn't meet his gaze. "Is something bothering you?" Casey replied with a small shrug of his shoulders.

Now Leo knew something was wrong. "You're never this quiet Casey. So I know there is something bothering you. Care to elaborate?"

Casey didn't respond.

With a small sigh, Leo tapped his chin. "Well it looks like you were just doing your vigilante stuff. Probably fighting off a group of guys robbing a place, so maybe the Purple Dragons?" Casey didn't respond except for a small shiver from the cool night air. "Hm, so I'm thinking you beat whoever it was since you seem pretty normal except for the zero talking. You don't look like you got beat up either. The only thing is that you seem pretty tense for some reason." Leo looked at Casey expectantly, but was given no response. The turtle sighed in exasperation. "Okay, so I'm pretty sure that's what happened. And now that I look at it, your mask has a couple scratches. Cat scratches I'm thinking."

Casey finally glanced up at him and furrowed his brows. "What?"

Leo shrugged, giving him a small smile. "Hey when your little bro is a cat fanatic, you become pretty good at knowing if a scratch is a cat scratch." His ocean blue eyes drifted to Casey's abandoned hockey stick and his frown returned. Gently, the blue-clad turtle reached out for the stick and picked it up. He held it up to examine it, noticing Casey's watching gaze. Leo flashed him another smile. "Now there has to be something wrong if your favorite piece of wood is laying around like trash."

Casey turned his eyes back to the ground. Leo frowned again. He never was all that great at lightening someone's mood. "Alright Case, what's bothering you?"

The human teen narrowed his eyes a bit. "Why does something have to be wrong?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "Well I did just mention a few things as to why something would be bothering you. You can't exactly say nothing's wrong."

"Well I can and I am." Casey huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Leo let out a small laugh. "Gee Case, you don't need to pout."

Casey gave an indignant squawk. "Hey. I am not pouting!"

"Sure Casey. And I'm a flying purple pig." The turtle scoffed at him. His eyes softened a bit. "But seriously Casey, what's bothering you?"

The human teen said nothing. He tried to blot out the sympathetic blue eyes watching him and focused on a small ant crawling on the ground.

Seeing that Casey wasn't going to confess anytime soon, Leo slightly leaned against the vigilante. "Y'know Casey, I think I know what you might be going through." He turned his head a bit to see the human's expression. Seeing nothing, the turtle continued. "Back at the farmhouse, a few days after I woke up and we got rid of that plant monster, I realized something. Sure I had freed you guys and we all stopped it, but I felt odd. I didn't think anything of it for awhile, and just worried about getting my leg all healed up. It was when I saw the five you training that I realized what it was. I felt useless."

Casey glanced up at that. "What do you mean?"

Leo shrugged. "Well I guess I was pretty used to leading the team and making sure my brothers were safe y'know? And then basically I had no idea where we were and what we were supposed do to. Those few days I just couldn't figure it all out. I knew that you were all training for when we went back to New York City, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I couldn't walk without a crutch. I couldn't go out and tell you all what to do. I couldn't do anything."

Casey frowned. "C'mon Blue. You were injured!"

Leo gave him a small smile. "Yeah, I know. But I wasn't used to it. None of us were I think. Even growing up me and my brothers had never been hurt to the extent where we couldn't walk right." The smile left the turtle's face. "I felt useless. I felt like no matter what I did, it didn't compare to what the rest of you were doing. All the five of you needed really was a plan to save NYC, but me? I needed months just to sit in a bathtub unconscious and leave the rest of you to wonder whether I would live or not. I needed help getting up and down the stairs those first couple of days after I woke up. I needed you guys to do pretty much everything for me because I was too useless to do it myself." He scoffed, bitterness dripping off his words.

"Don't talk like that!" Casey exclaimed, surprising both himself and the turtle beside him. He quieted his voice a bit. "C'mon Leo, you know that it wasn't your fault. None of those injuries were."

The turtle shrugged slightly. "So what? I still had to deal with them. I still made the rest of you guys deal with me."

Casey glared at him. "We didn't deal with you Leo. We helped you because we wanted to. Just because you weren't at your best at the leader of the pack doesn't mean you were useless. I mean who stopped that Chimaeron thing? Who found whatever spirit mumbo jumbo in the forest? Who made all the joy in the world come back to his brothers when he finally woke up?"

Leo glanced at him. "I didn't know you were so motivational Jones."

The human teen lightly punched him. "Shut up Blue. You know that it's true."

The two sat in silence for a bit, not focusing on each other. Leo finally broke the silence. "Do you see what I mean know Casey?"

Casey looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

Leo gave him a small smile. "I know that you're still bothered about the whole being left out of the Invasion thing."

The vigilante weakly shrugged. "Yeah but what do I have to complain about? I wasn't needed..."

"Of course you were." Leo scoffed, surprising Casey. "We would never have even gotten back to the city without you."

"But-"

"I mean who rammed through the gate to get back into the city? Who helped stop those Dream Beavers back from killing us? Who found out about Shredder's plan to use mind control?"

Casey opened his mouth to argue, but the words left him. What could he say? He might not have been the greatest hero, but Leo did have a point.

He gave a small smile to the turtle. "Thanks Leo."

Leo returned the smile. "No problem Case."

The two returned to silence. But now they focused on each other, and Leo moved closer to the human. "It's kind of cold out here." He simply said.

Casey let his usual grin return, and reached out to grab his hockey stick. "Hey Blue? Want to warm up by pummeling some bad guys?"

Leo gave him an equally cheeky smile. "I thought you'd never ask Kyōjin."