30 seconds earlier...
Police sirens can be heard. "I have risen from the ashes!" The Shredder exclaimed as Raph and Mikey banged on the door trying to get it to open.
"Trapped like rats. No offense, sensei. " Mikey commented
Splinter nodded in understanding. He looked at Leo as Yuuki supported his head in her lap "Leo's in really bad shape. We have to get him out of here." Donnie explained as he glanced at Leo
"Working on it!" Raph replied as he tried to bust open the door with his sai
April got up and started to push a box out of the way "What are doing?" Casey asked her
"I remember when we first moved in, there was a hole in the wall where a cooling unit was moved." Raph helped her push the box to reveal a small vent "There! "
Raph pries it open with his sai. April crawled through, followed by Yuuki "That's it, everybody book!"
Casey jumps out while the others carried Leo outside. Everyone runs getting away from the building "Move! Move! Move!" The place explodes. Everyone watched as the building was completely engulfed in flames. April cried as she saw the destruction of her shop and Casey hugged her.
"Forgive me Miss O'Niel but we must leave the past behind, for now. If we are to have a future. Leonardo Is badly injured and needs a safe place to heal." Splinter replied
" What about the lair? " Mikey suggested
"Shredder has an whole army down in the sewers remember? And we're in no shape to fight." Donnie reminded him
"Hey, we don't run from nobody." Raph retorted as he punched his hands. Splinter places his hand on Raph's shoulder "And yet we must."
April sniffed as tears ran down her face "But where?" She asked. Casey gets an idea.
"Fellas i know just the place."
Casey drove down an empty road as it poured down snow. It was everywhere covering everything even the trees.
"You're gonna to love my grandma's old farmhouse. Me and my cousin Sid used to play there all the time when we were kids. " April didn't answer him as she looked down, worried.
"April?"
" ...how do you think Leo's holding up? "
In the back of the truck, so no one could see them, the turtles, Yuuki and Splinter are covered in blankets.
Mikey shivered "Man, it sucks being cold blooded."
"Is he going to make it sensei?" Donnie asked beside Splinter
"Only time will tell." He answered as he tucked Leo in. Yuuki saw saw Leo still shivering and gave up her blanket covering him up with it. Splinter looks at her concerned "Are you sure that you're warm?"
Yuuki answered " I'm fine. I have my jacket. Besides Leo is more important than me right now."
They arrive at the farmhouse. "This is it! Just like I remembered!" April stares at the house.
"Ah, isn't it great?" Casey asked as a board falls from one of the windows. The place was completely worn down, dilapidated. "Great, does not even begin to describe this place."
Inside they carried Leo and placed him on the couch covering him up with a blanket. "Alright, so it needs fixing up. The place for a little fun down since grandma passed away." April tries to clean up the fireplace only to have soot come dropping down in front of her. She and Yuuki coughed as the dust stirred in the air.
"When was that, the late jurassic? "Mikey asked
"Dude, you live in a sewer." Casey retorted
Everyone heard Leo let out a groan "Leo?" Donnie asked
Back at the foot headquarters, Hun reported to Saki who paced around in doubt. "The foot's back in business, profits are up, why aren't we celebrating, Master?"
"Where are the bodies?!" Saki asked in response
"We burned that building to the ground. I think we can safely assume that -"
"We can assume nothing!" Saki angrily knocks over a torch stand " My enemies assumed that they had destroyed me, and yet it cost them dearly." He clenched his fists "I can ill afford to make the same mistake. I require evidence of their demise."
"Scientific proof, perhaps? "
The two then to see Stockman rolling up in a wheelchair. He had a patched eye, a broken neck and robot hand as punishment from his failures "I did not send for you stockman."
" That was your first mistake." Stockman replied arrogantly
Hun growls at him getting ready to fight but Saki stops him.
"Your arrogance is exceeded only by your inability to learn from your...punishments. What do you want?"
"A simple exchange of goods and services." Stockman pulls out an device "I can provide you the most sophisticated DNA analysis of Miss O'Niel 's destroyed shop. You'll know beyond the shadow of a doubt if the turtles and Yuuki survived or not."
" And in exchange? " Saki asked
Stockman wheels up to the metal body in the display case "Full access to this fascinating artifact you fished from the East River. A brief glimpse of it's technological secrets allowed me to create the Foot Tech ninjas. Imagine what I might do were I given complete access to it? A win -win proposition, I'd say."
Saki walked up to him, now intrigued "Provide me with the proof that the accursed turtles and Yoshi's daughter are no more, and you shall be so rewarded. Fail me and your next punishment will be your final punishment."
Back at the farmhouse, everyone stared at Leo. Raph punches a wall in anger
"Why won't he wake up?!"
"Healing takes time and Leonardo Is recovering from more than just physical wounds. His spirit has been grievously injured." Splinter replied
"You think he can hear us?" Donnie asked, curiously
"Perhaps."
Donnie kneeled beside Leo "Hey, Leo. It's me Don. Listen, you're going to pull through this. I know you are. You have to. I mean, you know what kind of trouble we'd get in without you. Like remember that time I built that remote control car?"
A car drives down the side of a tunnel. A younger Donnie controlled it with his makeshift controller. A younger Leo was watching. "Check out the turning radius on this thing Leo!" Donnie replied but the car swerved too hard and landed into the sewer water "Aww."
"Remind me to never let you behind the wheel of a REAL car." Leo replied as Donnie handed him the remote "Hang on, I'll get it."
"There was all kinds of debris clogging up the tunnel, and the sewers were overflowing from the heavy rain we had. But I wasn't paying attention to that. I just wanted my car back."
Donnie tries to fish his car out with a stick but he falls into the water "Woah!"
"Donnie!" Leo shouts and he chased after him. Donnie lands into an dead end as it began to overflow with water. He sticks his head out of the water "I'm stuck!" He tried to get his leg from the debris "I can't get my leg free. Leo!"
The water begins to rise, and he screamed "Leo!" Donnie is caught underwater and he tried to get his leg out, to no avail. Leo steps on some sticks sticking out of the wall before diving in. He pulls the debris off of Donnie's leg, freeing him and dragging him to the tunnel. He pulls Donnie up and they both collapsed on their shells panting heavily.
"What, you didn't get the car?" Donnie asked
Leo turned his head looking at him with disbelief.
"You really came through for me that day Leo. You always do. And I know you will again."
Raph hmphs. "Looks like you've got him hanging on your every word, Don." He pointed out. Leo turns his head and mumbles "Hey, I think he heard you Raphie!" Casey exclaimed
"Maybe talking to him does help." April replied
"It is said that a voice of a loved one can guide a lost spirit back to it's home."
Mikey steps up "Mind if I take a crack at it?" He asked, Splinter gestured him. He leans down to Leo "Listen, bro. Just...like concentrate on my voice. Come on Leo. You know how bogus you get when you set your mind on something. Like remember the time, you were trying to prefect your katas? "
Leo practices as a younger Mikey walks by him, listening to music. Leo remained frozen
"Hey Leo. You seen my gameguy anywhere?" Leo gives no response and Mikey turns his head. He saves his hand in Leo's face. Leo doesn't blink "Hellooo? Anyone home?"
"Nothing in the world was going to break your concentration, but that wasn't going to stop me from trying."
Mikey sticks his tongue out at him, nothing. Mikey makes an irritated look.
"You know how I hate to be ignored."
Mikey blows up a balloon and takes a needle and pops it in front of Leo's face, he didn't even twitch. Mikey whines in annoyance then places a pair of fake glasses on Leo's face. He snickered and held up a mirror No reaction. He takes them off.
Mikey juggles two onions before throwing them into his mouth, chewing them. He leaned in and burped right in Leo's face with onion breath. Mikey smirked wiggling his eyebrows
"So then I decided, if I could make you laugh, maybe I should make you say "ow."
Mikey twirled his nunchucks raising one to Leo's head, but Leo grabs it and sweep kicks him. He tackles him down pinning Mikey with his own nunchuck. He chuckles sheepishly
"Was I disturbing you?"
"Leo, when you put your mind to something, you're unstoppable. So how about using that famous focus of yours to come back to us?"
"Ha! If you ask me Leo's not coming back because he's afraid!" Raph retorted and crossed his arms
"No one asked you!" Mikey replied pointing his finger at him
"You know he's got his butt whooped and now he's too chicken to come back and face it!" Raph pushed past him and placed his hands on his hips
"That's enough, Raph!" Donnie shouted
"Well I say, who needs ya!? It's not like we can go on without you playing fearless leader." Tears appeared in his eyes as he tried to hold them in.
" Raph... " Yuuki replied softly. She looked at him surprised when she saw him crying. He was never the type of person to actually cry in front of everyone.
"Back in the day, I always figured that I would be top turtle. I was the strongest, bravest. Remember the time I brought you to that closed off section in the sewers?"
A younger Raph and Leo appeared in from of a boarded up closed off section of a tunnel. Raph started to pull off the planks.
"We're playing follow the leader."
" Raph, you can't go in there. " Leo protested
"Hey, it's my turn. You're supposed to follow my lead."
" But, Splinter says -"
"Splinta says, Splinta says! When are you gonna to think for yourself? That's what a real leader does? Now, catch me if you can!" Raph runs inside of the tunnel. Leo jumped over the planks chasing after him.
"Wahoo!" Raph used a board that was floating in the sewer water and surfed down the tunnel. Leo copied him. Raph quickly came to a stop when he came to dead end junction. He looks around confused "Dead end? " He scratched his head.
"Must have taken a wrong turn?" Raph hears something beneath him in the water, he looks down "Uh, Leo?"
Suddenly, a large albino crocodile bursts out of the water. Raph runs away screaming as it charged after him. The crocodile chases after him and Leo pushes Raph out of the way.
"Come on let's jet!" He jumps over the croc's tail
"No way! This walking handbag's intruding on OUR turf!" Raph protested
"You're the intruder shell for brains! Now let's get out of here!" Leo replied and he gestured Raph to follow him
"Hey, I'm the leader this turn remember?" Raph replied as he punches his hands together. He jumps on top of the crocodile and started throwing punches to it's head. Leo shrugs and crossed his arms "Fine, handle it your way."
Raph starts to wrestle with the crocodile. He struggles as the croc shakes trying to get him off "May I offer a strategy tip?" Leo suggested, holding up a finger
" NO!" Raph exclaimed as he struggled with his fight with the crocodile "I got him on the ropes! He's right where I want 'em!" Leo backs away as the crocodile throws Raph off and he hits the wall. He runs his head and looks up to see the croc's jaws coming towards him. "Alright, that's it." Leo declared and he jumps on top of the crocodile. He presses a spot on its neck. It falls down fast asleep.
"What'd you do? What'd you do?" Raph asked in anticipation. Leo wipes his head and chuckled.
" Pressure points." He answered as he helped Raph up.
"Alligator pressure points?"
"A little trick Master Splinter taught me. Come on He won't sleep forever. How about another game of follow the leader, as in back home?" Leo runs off and Raph follows behind him
"Lead the way."
"I don't even know why I told you that story. I-I guess you just...I mean what I'm trying to say is." Raph covered the side of his head with his hand. Splinter walks up to him.
"Your brother hears you, Raphael. He understands."
Raph tears and he walks away looking out the window, in distress.
Back in New York a couple of mouser robots searched the burnt remains of April's shop. "Nothing. I've run every search pattern, every type of analysis, but there's no conclusive evidence that anyone, human or turtle perished in this blaze. I-I...can't to back to the Shredder with nothing, I, huh?"
A mouser walked up to Stockman, holding up a dirty red cloth in its mouth, wagging its tail. Stockman takes it and inspected "Hmm." He laughs "If I can't find any evidence." He bites down on the cloth and punctures two eye holes with his robotic hand "Then I'll just have to make some evidence."
Leo begins to sweat and Splinter stood next to him, wiping his forehead "Leonardo, my son. You must gather all of your strength and confront your fear just as you did many years ago."
Everyone looked at the rat puzzled "Come on sensei. Leo's never been afraid of nothing in his life." Raph replied
"Not true my son. Do you recall, Leonardo, our earlier days?"
Splinter drags a bag of items "We were scavenging for food and supplies." Leo gathered something out of the sewer water and pulled it out.
"Come on my son. There are more useful items to be found on the other levels." Splinter starts to climb a ladder and Leo slings his bag over his shoulder. He looks up questionably and gulps then starts to climb up.
"These tunnels stretched for miles in all directions. To avoid losing your way, you must observe your surroundings carefully." Splinter tells him but Leo wasn't listening. He paused for a moment then looks down at the bottom. Leo eyes widen and he grips the sides ladder tightly with his hands
"Come along Leonardo we are nearly at the top." Splinter calls out to him and Leo shakes in his tracks not moving an inch
" I...can't. "
"Leonardo, you must."
Leo struggles as he climbed and he drops the bag and it falls into the dark void below, to the bottom.
Leo quickly shuts his eyes "No! No!" He cries out in fear. Splinter picks him up and puts Leo on his back and climbed up the ladder.
"It was then I realized that you have an irrational and paralyzing fear of heights. In the weeks that followed, I worked closely to help you overcome your fear."
Leo practices on posts. Later, he is blindfolded and practiced on much higher ones.
"Focusing on the way of balance. Gradually building your confidence."
"Now my son. Remove your blindfold." Splinter tells him. Leo stops and takes off his blindfold. He gasps as he looks down to see himself very high up. He wobbles and fell backwards as he lost his balance landing into a hammock.
"I was beginning to wonder if you would ever to conquer the dark imaginings of your mind." Splinter shakes his head.
"But I was unwilling to give up."
Splinter and Leo crawls through a vent until they reach an drainage junction. Leo looks down in fear. Splinter grabs a pipe and begins to climb up "We must continue on Leonardo."
"Y -You go ahead Master Splinter! I'll go around the long way." Leo replied nervously
"That could take hours my son." The pipe that Splinter was climbing begins to creak
" Th-That's okay, I could use the exercise." Leo dismisses. The pipe falls along with Splinter. "Master Splinter!"
Splinter's robe is caught on the edge of the pipe and it begins to rip "On no!"
"Master Splinter!" Leo called out to him. He jumps on to the pipe and started climbing up. As he reached the top, he clings to the pipe and looks down. He gasps and quickly shuts his eyes "Don't look down. Don't look down." Leo tells himself as he crawled over to Splinter. He reached out to him "Grab on!" Splinter takes his hand and Leo pulls him up and they crawled back but the pipe was beginning to break "We'll never make it back in time!
"Then we must forge ahead my son." Splinter pulls out an grappling hook and throws it across, to an opening. He picks up Leo and they swing across to the tunnel. Leo looks up at him confused, curious as to why the rat hadn't used it "But you could have saved yourself at anytime."
"And you would be still consumed in your fear. By focusing on the task at hand, you were able to clear your mind of all distractions."
"Do so again. Ignore the fear my son. Let your spirit heal." Splinter finishes. He looks at Yuuki and gestures her to come closer
Her eyes widen in shock "W-What? Me!?" Splinter nods
Yuuki looks down sadly "I wasn't around when you guys were little. I have no memories that I can share." She replied
"You two share a bond that you will never know." Splinter commented
"Just try Yuuki." Mikey replied
Yuuki eat down next to Leo on the floor. She leaned in closer to him so that only he could hear her "Leo, can you hear me? It's Yuuki. You do not want to leave your brothers, leaderless. Trust me, they are a mess without you. I've always admired how you never give up you always had an answer for anything. You always found a way. You never gave up. Even when I did, you being as stubborn as you are didn't. You gave me hope." She begins to tear up and she tries to wipe them away "That is why you've got to fight Leo. Fight your way back to us. Fight your way back to me. We need you...I need you...I-I..."
"I love you." Yuuki softly whispered
She looks to see Leo motionless, not responding.
"Is he?" Mikey asked
"No fear..." Leo softly mutters out. Everyone looks at him with wide eyes waiting in anticipation. He slowly opens his eyes and looks at them. They cheered out loud and April immediately hugs Casey, overjoyed. She realizes what she was doing "Uh, sorry."
" Oh, right." She replied, embarrassed
Leo turns to look at Yuuki who was smiling in relief. He reached out and cupped her face softly "I didn't make you cry did I?"
Yuuki shook her head taking his hand "No, I'm just glad to see you're alright."
"We thought that you were gone bro." Raph replied
" I-I...was. But, you brought me back. All of you. Including you Yuuki." Leo answered hoarsely then smiled
"You have fought your way back son. You have done well." Splinter replied to him and Leo smiles "Thank you, sensei."
"The danger is past. Now we must let him rest." Everyone started to walk away
"Hey Leo. If you need anything, I will be right outside." Raph called out to him
As Yuuki got up getting ready to leave, a hand reached out and weakly grabbed her wrist "Can Y-You stay?"
Yuuki sat down next to the couch and eventually she fell asleep laying on top of the blankets on Leo. Leo woke up from his rest to see her. He stared at her silently, lost in his thoughts, thinking, as he remembered something she had said
(Nah, it must've been my imagination...)
He must be out of it more than he thought.
At the Foot Headquarters, Saki was looking over the evidence that Stockman had brought for him "This is your conclusive proof? "
"That is merely a souvenir of your victory. Consider it a gift." Stockman holds up the "This is my conclusive proof. Telltale traces of mutated DNA, or in layman's terms..."
" Turtle." Saki finishes for him
"Someone's been doing his homework. No doubt one as intelligent as you would recognize that sheer amount of DNA evidence recovered can only lead to one conclusion. "
"The turtles and Yoshi's daughter perished in the blaze." Saki confirms
"So that's what you look like when you are pleased. I've always wondered." Stockman wheels away to the case "Now, about my reward? "
"I'll have a team of four scientists deliver it to your lab in the morning. Now if you excuse me I have other pressing matters to attend to." Saki walks away leaving Stockman, alone, in the room.
" Of course Master." Stockman answered just as he had left.
"Fool you let your guard down the moment you believed your enemies vanquished. Soon the technological secrets locked within this artifact will give me power beyond reckoning. And that's when Baxter Stockman stops taking punishment and starts dishing out." He lets out evil laugh as he wheeled around.
Saki entered a dark room until he flipped on a light switch. A small light out up the center of of revealing two people who had bags covered on their heads. They struggled with their bindings as a ninja reported to him
"Master we've brought them just as you have ordered."
Saki nodded and the ninja pulled the bags off of their heads and left the room, leaving them alone with Saki
" Let us go! What do you want with us?! Why are we here?!" The man replied
"WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU I SWEAR I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY!" The woman growled and she spatted out at Saki
Saki smirked evilly then leaned in closer their faces
"Welcome to my Headquarters, Michael and Sarah Winters."