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When Leo Met Mona
Chapter Ten: The First 48 Hours
Around 9 AM, Michelangelo's phone rang. He blindly pawed at it as he blinked blearily from under the covers. He checked the screen to see who was calling and answered with a lazy smile.
"Hey, Mo. What's up?"
"Hey, Mike." Mona Lisa's chipper voice responded. Obviously she had been awake for a while. "I'm going to drop by the store after work. What kind of candy do you and your brothers like?"
The questions was so abrupt, it took his brain a while to catch up. "Candy?"
"Yeah. What candy do you like?"
"Babe, who are you talking to?" A tired female voice asked from the other side of the bed.
"Just Mona. She's asking about candy."
Kala raised up on her elbows, her short hair adorably disheveled. Eye makeup still on from the night before. "Why is she calling you?"
"Michelangelo, are you not at home?" Mona's voice asked in amusement.
"Guilty," he grinned at the phone. "Stayed over at Kala's place. Aaaalll night."
"Get some, girl! I'm giving you a long-distance high five!"
Kala tugged on his shell. "Stop talking to her. You should be talking to meee," she whined.
"In a second, babe." He turned his attention back to the phone. "So you're coming tonight, right?"
"Of course! Why do you think I'm getting treats? What does Kala like?"
Michelangelo was momentarily distracted as Kala began kissing his neck. "Babe, I'm trying to finish this phone call."
She made a needy noise as her her hands began to wander. His concentration frayed instantly.
"Mikey!" Mona's voice was distant in his ear. "Are you going to help me out or do I have to call Raph?"
Though his body was being distracted by promises of sex from the gorgeous, naked woman in bed with him, his brain still managed a snort. "Good luck getting him to pick up."
Mona's voice sounded hurt. "Why wouldn't he answer my call? Mikey?"
Michelangelo had disconnected. His phone was long forgotten as he rolled a now giggling Kala over on her back and gave her his full attention.
.
At 11:30 AM, Raphael stared at his ringing phone when Mona Lisa's name appeared on the screen. Why the hell was she calling him? He almost didn't pick up. But then he worried it might be something important.
"Uh...yeah?" he asked hesitantly.
"You did pick up!" Mona's voice sounded in triumph. "Mikey said you wouldn't if I called you."
Raphael felt guilt run through him, but would never admit to it. "Now why would I do that?"
"I don't know. Getting a call from me is pretty great."
He snorted out a soft laugh. Truth be told, he has purposefully kept his distance from her. Their rough first meeting, plus the elbow to the face and the nearly piercing her brain. It seemed like the wise thing to do. He would be around so it wasn't obvious, but only engage in moderate amounts, carefully, and letting his other brothers be the one to get closer. That seemed to work most of the time.
But then there were times like this when he was reminded that he enjoyed having conversations with her. Like the time he had visited her at her apartment when she was sick, or when they rolled pizza dough together at the lake house.
"It sure is," he replied smoothly. "What can I do for you?"
There was a pause on the other end. "Wow, for a response that charming, I might have to rethink my request."
His laugh was a little louder that time. "You tryin'a butter me up for something?"
"Ha! Not this time. I just want to know what kind of candy you like."
Now Raphael was confused. "You want to...bring me candy?"
"Hell yeah I want to bring you candy. I'm going on a store run after work. What do you like?"
"Uh...Snickers? Yeah, get me a Snickers. I haven't had one of those in a long time."
"Done. What about your brothers?"
"Just get a big bag of sour gummy worms or something. Donnie, Mike and Splinter will eat them all."
"Okay. What about Leo?"
He snorted. "You don't know what Leo likes?"
"How can I? He always gives me that 'I like whatever you get for me' bullshit."
"He's kinda not wrong. If it's got chocolate on it, Leo will eat it. He's weirdly not picky about that one thing."
"Ah, he's a chocoholic. He's been hiding that from me. Thank you for letting me in on his weakness."
Raphael laughed again. "My pleasure. Any other secrets you need to know, you come to me."
"Will do. Trying to get any answer out of Mikey was a pain in the ass."
"Welcome to my world."
This time, Mona laughed before hanging up.
.
At 3:30 PM, April called Mona Lisa's phone and she picked up on the second ring.
"What's up, Ape?" Mona's cheerful voice answered.
"Hey, just checking in that you're coming tonight," April said. "I know you've already met her and everything."
"No, I'm coming. I don't want to miss her face when she sees the whole family."
"Same, girl. Same," April replied. "And what's this I hear about you trying to replace me as all the boys' favorite? First the lake trip and now you're taking candy orders? Girl, you are trying way too hard."
There was a moment of silence on the other end. "Is this because you want me to bring you something?"
"A Kit Kat and a Cherry Coke. Please and thanks."
"You got it. See you tonight!"
.
At 6 PM, Michelangelo strolled into the lair after having been absent the entire day. At his arm was Kala who stepped in with much more hesitation.
"This is it," Michelangelo said. He did his best to hide the trepidation in his voice. "Home sweet sewer."
"Woah!" She stepped in further and spun around, taking it all in. "This place is crazy! You put all this together way down here?"
As she spoke, Raphael walked into the room and everybody froze. Kala's eyes widened to twice their size. She had been sorely unprepared for the absolute mass of the largest turtle brother.
"Hey!" Raphael barked at them. "You're early! You were supposed to come at six-thirty!"
"I live here," Michelangelo shot back. "I'll come home whenever I want."
Raphael eyed them both up and down, now knowing exactly what his brother had been up to all day. "Clearly."
Michelangelo frowned at him, but pushed on. "Kala, this one is Raph. Don't take it personal that he's rude as hell. He's rude to everyone."
All Kala could do was manage a wave. He was so big. Why did she have it in her brain that all Mikey's brothers would be the same size as him? But then she recalled him saying something about Raphael being the biggest one. She did not believe until she saw it with her own eyes.
While she stared at him, Raphael turned from her and called out to the lair. "Hey, Mikey's girlfriend's here! So like, all our plans are bust, I guess."
"What plans?" came a voice from somewhere in another part of the lair. The voice had a softer tone, but was still male. The owner of the voice did not appear.
"Ugh, you guys are killing me," Michelangelo groaned. He took her by the hand. "C'mon, Kala. Come meet my dad."
She followed obediently to a small alcove where a hunched figure tended to a collection of bonsai plants.
"Sensei, I brought someone to meet you. This is Kala." He patted her on the shoulder, who balked slightly when the figure turned around to reveal rat-like features.
"Hello, my dear. It's nice to finally meet you. Michelangelo has told us so many wonderful things about you. I'm happy you've been able to visit."
Kala just nodded and smiled. Her brain wasn't working. Michelangelo had told her. He told her about his brothers, about his father who was a rat. He told her so many things and she thought she believed him. Yet, whatever she did believe wasn't enough to prepare her for the reality of it all.
And there was suddenly another turtle leaning into her field of vision. This one was only slightly bigger than Michelangelo, his face banded in blue. And his electric blue eyes were absolutely catching.
"Hello," he said with a polite nod. "I'm Leonardo. That's Donatello." He motioned to a turtle so tall, Kala nearly felt like falling over. "We're happy to have you here. Do you need to sit down?"
Kala wasn't quite sure what her face looked like, but a chair sounded like a good idea. She only managed a nod and Michelangelo was at her arm, guiding her to the dinning room table to take a seat. All around her hovered giant turtles and a very large rat. Even sitting, she felt like her world was spinning just a little bit out of control. No, she was not as prepared as she thought she was for this.
Then, a leggy redhead marched in and stopped in her tracks.
"She's already here?" April demanded. "Damnit! I missed it. Mikey! Why did you bring her so early?"
He shrugged helplessly. "She wanted to come early."
Kala's mind began to regain its focus as she stared at the absolutely stunning woman. "Aren't you on the news?" she blurted dumbly.
"Babe, that's April. I told you she's a reporter," Michelangelo whispered.
She knew that. She knew this April he talked about reported the news on TV. But Kala had never really been in the know of local TV celebrities. Who even watched the local news these days? But the face was familiar enough that she knew she had seen this woman on TV before. She just hadn't put the name and the face together before now. She had never thought the turtles knew a woman so absolutely stunning. And Kala hated to admit it, but stunning woman often intimidated her.
"Hey, what's up?" April greeted. And when she didn't get an answer right away she asked "Mona's not here yet?"
Shrugs from the turtles.
"She's going to be the only one who arrives when we agreed to," Raphael said.
"Dude, you're being weird about that," Michelangelo said.
"Oh, Mona Lisa, right?" Kala's voice snapped back together at the name. That was the only person she had actually met before. "Did she ever dye her hair?"
"What do you mean dye her hair?" Leonardo asked.
"You know, because she's a brunette. And girls that look like her have been getting murdered?"
"Yeah, the Dumpster Killer," April nodded. "I told her all about it. Gave her my pepper spray, too. She knows to be careful."
"A lot of girls I know have been going blonde because of him." Kala pulled out her phone and brought up a news feed. "I mean, have you seen the latest victim? This girl disappeared two days ago."
She showed them the picture on her phone. The woman on the screen could have been Mona Lisa's sister. They looked so much alike. The whole aura of the room suddenly went darker and it was all radiating from Leonardo.
"Dude, I'm sure she's fine," Michelangelo said. "She knows how to take care of herself. I'll call her right now if you like. I bet she's on her way."
As if summoned by her mention, Donatello's phone went off. He checked the screen and smiled.
"Speaking of. There she is right now." He thumbed the screen and then put it to his ear. "We were just talking about you."
"Donnie?" came a breathy voice. "I need help. I...I don't know what he did to me."
"Mona?" The urgency in his voice alerted everyone else in the room. "What happened? Where are you?"
The clattering on the other end sounded like she may have tripped and dropped her phone. Then, there were sounds of a struggle. Screaming. The grunt of a male voice. Then the phone went dead.
With the rush of air, Donatello was suddenly no longer in the room. Another blink and Leonardo was gone too, followed by Raphael.
"What...what just happened?" Kala asked to a room that was suddenly three turtles emptier.
Michelangelo waffled next to her, looking torn about leaving.
"Michelangelo!" Splinter barked. "Go!"
And then he disappeared from her side.
Even April needed a moment to recover before she reached for her phone. "Shit. I'm calling Casey."
.
Even running at full speed, Leonardo wasn't sure he could ever catch up to Donatello. But then the taller turtle suddenly stopped and he almost ran into his brother's shell.
"The signal's gone," Donatello said as he typed at the small computer on his wrist.
"You lost her cell signal?" Leonardo asked as Raphael caught up with them.
"No, I mean it's completely gone. There hasn't been any tracking data coming from her phone in at least the last two weeks."
"What? How did you not notice that?" Leonardo demanded.
"I don't stalk her every move, Leo. The tracking app was there only for emergencies."
Leonardo's eye twitched in the dim light of the screen, as did his fists. "So, we have no way of know where she was when she called you."
"I don't even have record of the call. This isn't just a matter of the tracking app being removed. Something else was added to her phone. Something to make all her activity disappear so no one would be able to track her cell, not even the phone company. This guy is highly organized, methodical. He probably picks his victims weeks in advance and waits for the right time to strike."
Leonardo let out a shaky breath, his mind careening off in several directions.
"So what do we do, Donnie?" Raphael demanded.
He shrugged helplessly. "Without a location, I don't know where we go to find her."
"April was calling Casey when I left," Michelangelo said. "I mean, the cops have been looking for this guy for weeks, right? They gotta be close to catching him by now."
Without any other option, they all returned to the lair where April was indeed still on the phone. Kala was still in the chair next to Splinter.
April looked up when the turtles entered. "Oh wait, they just came back for some reason. Hold on." She paused to address the brothers. "I've got Casey on the line. What happened?"
"We can't trace her location. Her phone was tampered with," Donatello said. "I have no way of knowing where she was when she called."
"That's weird. Casey, did you get that?" April put the phone on speaker so the others could hear.
Detective Casey Jones wasn't exactly the best detective in New York. It had taken him quite a while to earn that promotion. But those who knew him said whatever else he lacked he made up for with tenacity. He put more effort into his cases than some officers put into their whole careers. When he was on the hunt, he hunted. And maybe he didn't always catch his man, but he sure gave it his best shot.
But in this case, he wasn't exactly the one to call. "I don't know anything phone tampering with this case. But then again, this one's not one of mine. I haven't been working on it. I just know the basics. I'm not exactly Chief's favorite, so I don't usually get the big media cases."
"But you can still do something, right?" Leonardo pressed.
"What else would you like me to do, Leo? We've already filed the report with the police. I've got officers going to both her apartment and her work. She doesn't have a car, so I can't put out an APB for that and none of you have any idea where she was when she called, right?"
Leonardo just frowned and twitched. His nerves were alive with the urge to act, but he had no direction and no enemy. Just the heavy beating of his chest in panic.
"This Dumpster guy," Raphael spoke up. "Who is he? What's his deal? You guys know who he is?"
"If we knew who he was, he'd be in cuffs right now. The media calls him the Dumpster Killer. This guy's MO is to kidnap women—they've been anywhere between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight. Always brunettes around the same height and build. He holds them someplace where he rapes and tortures them for several days. And when they finally die of their injuries, he leaves the bodies in a dumpster. All the drop spots have been random locations all over the city."
Leonardo fought not to stumble as he suddenly felt overwhelmed and dizzy. This man had Mona Lisa and he had no idea how to find her.
"Wait, wait," April spoke up, putting a hand on Leonardo's arm. "Mona talked to me today. Did she talk to anyone else?"
Raphael and Michelangelo raised their hands. Leonardo stared at both of them. Since when did she randomly call all his brothers?
"What if we retraced her steps?" April continued. "Maybe we could figure out where she was when she was attacked."
"And the previous victim," Donatello added. "Has her body been found yet?" He looked to Kala. "As I understand, that woman has only been missing for two days?"
"Yeah, the killer usually holds them for at least five before dumping them," Casey confirmed.
"Do you know where that victim was when she was taken?"
"Roughly," Casey admitted. "Though we weren't able to find any video footage of the abduction."
"Is there any way I can get a hold of that information?"
"Probably not. This is an active case. Certain things haven't been released to the public. And like I said, it's not my case. I don't have most of this stuff either."
"Well then get it, Casey!" April barked on the phone. "How about you do your fucking job!"
There was a heavy sigh on the other end.
.
Chief Rebecca Vincent stared at her detective as he stood in her office, phone in his hand.
"Let me get this straight. You want me to share classified information from an active case to whoever asks because you think something happened to your friend, Ms. O'Neil? Do you know how many calls we've gotten from people who thought a person they knew was taken by this active killer only to have them show up later?"
"This is different. Donnie heard her being attacked on the phone."
"That doesn't mean she was abducted and it doesn't mean it had anything to do with this case."
"Well what makes you think the other girl had anything to do with this case?" April shot back. "The one that was taken two days ago."
"We don't," Vincent admitted. "Not concrete evidence. But in that case, there was a witness to the abduction. We know she was forced into a car at gunpoint in the middle of the night. So whether or not it was by the same killer, this woman we know for sure was taken against her will. She just so happens to fit the profile of our other victims."
"So does my friend!" April shot back. "Look, you owe my boys a favor. They saved this city. They saved everyone in it, including you. And now they need your help."
A pause on the other line from Vincent. "Are they with you right now?"
"No."
Leonardo wasn't able to stand waiting around any longer. He had already dispatched his brothers. Like the police, two turtles were headed to Mona's work while two went to her apartment to see what they could find.
"But if you don't help them," April continued, "I guarantee you are going to have four very angry turtles rampaging through your city. Leo especially is going to rip this town apart with his bare hands the longer it takes to find her."
Vincent looked to Casey and whispered. "Leo, which one's that?"
"The bossy one," he mouthed back.
"The one with the swords?" she exclaimed. Not that she liked the idea of any of the turtles going on a desperate, angry frenzy through the city. But this wasn't exactly aliens building a giant war machine this time.
"I'm sorry, Ms. O'Neil, I can't have mutant turtles hunting serial killers through the city. The proper protocols need to be followed to make sure any suspects arrested can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I've already sent out officers to look for your friend. I am taking your report seriously and we are doing something about it. But that is the extent of what I can do for you right now. I'll keep in touch if there's any update."
.
Leonardo let himself into Mona Lisa's apartment with the keys she made him. The place was cluttered, as it usually was. Donatello slipped in after him before he locked them both in. The purple-clad turtle wandered around, unsure of what to look for. He was brilliant, but abductions were a little outside his normal wheelhouse, save for a true crime documentary here and there.
The first thing that caught his attention was the sheer volume notes hanging on the fridge. They were an eclectic collection of torn junk mail, post-its, and the backs of receipts. All notes written upon them were in the same flowy scrawl. Leonardo's handwriting. They were all affirmations of love, of encouragement; saying how proud he was of her, how happy she made him. How much he loved her. It made Donatello feel a little guilty to read them. These notes were not meant for him.
"Donnie." He turned when Leonardo called him over. He was inspecting the floor. "I don't see her work clothes. She always comes home to change before going to the lair."
"And you deduced that from lack of clothes on the floor? What if she put her work clothes in the hamper?"
Leonardo just gave his brother a look. He knew his girlfriend's habits.
"Alright," Donatello conceded. "So we'll assume she never made it to her apartment from work. And she takes the train, correct? So she was attacked either from work to the train, or from the station to her apartment."
Leonardo pulled out his phone. Raphael picked up on the second ring. "We don't think she made it home after work. What do you guys see?"
"We're across the street from her work. Cops just pulled away. The place is already locked down. No lights on, no cars in the parking lot. Not even a night guard. There's nothing to find here."
Leonardo wanted to crush the phone in his grip. His instinct was to hunt, fight, protect. And he could do none of those things. After every little inch was a solid wall. He was practically vibrating with a need for action, but there was no clear path ahead.
"What do we do now?" he asked his brother. Helpless, pleading for an answer.
"We try to find her," Donatello responded with certainty. "We know she went to work today. We start from there; looking for security footage, traffic cams, anything that shows us where she went after she left."
Leonardo let out a long breath, he was keeping to together by a thread. He had to remain calm, stay clear-headed. Losing his shit now wouldn't help anything. "Okay, let's start looking."
Donatello looked at the time. Mona Lisa had officially been missing for an hour and a half.
.
Right at 9AM the next morning, April O'Neil breezed into Falco Pharmaceuticals and was immediately stopped by a day guard.
"Ma'am, you can't come in unless you have a pass or an appointment," he informed her.
April huffed. She always hated being told where she couldn't go. "I'm looking for Mona Lisa? She's my friend, she works here."
"She didn't come in today." The guard practically interrupted her with his response.
"Right, she disappeared last night. She's not answering her phone. She came in to work yesterday, right?"
"Yes," the guard replied carefully.
"Do you know what time she left?"
"Around five. The same time she leaves every day."
April didn't appreciate this guy's tight answers. He seemed in a hurry to get her out the door and that tickled her reporter's instincts. "Do you have footage of her leaving?"
The guard frowned. "That is not information I have to give you."
"No, you don't have to give it to me," she agreed. "But do you know who I am?"
"Yes, Ms. O'Neil, I know who you are."
"Then you know I can put this whole place on blast with Twitter even before I send a news crew here to cover why this place is being so shady about stonewalling the investigation of a missing person."
The guard frowned at her for a moment. "Let me talk to my boss."
.
Walking out of the building, April was not happy as she talked to Donatello on her phone. "Yeah Donnie, I saw the footage myself. She left the building. Time stamp was 5:07."
"Did you get a copy?" Donatello's voice replied.
"Not a real copy. They let me record the few seconds of her walking out the door with my phone, but that's all. I can send it to you."
"Yeah, send it to me. I'll take a look."
April hung up the phone and checked her watch. Mona Lisa had been missing now for fifteen hours.
.
An entire day came and went and nothing. All four turtles each sat at a screen in Donatello's lab, going over every piece of footage said turtle was able to hack into. Mona Lisa wasn't on any of them. Nothing from her work location to the train station. Nothing from the station to her apartment around the time she got off work. They did find her that morning going to work. But nothing that evening departing from her job. Other than, of course, the footage of her leaving the building at 5:07.
With that information, logic dictated that she was most likely taken shortly after leaving work. But her call to Donatello had been nearly an hour later. What had she been doing at that time? Where did she go? The only clue was her random calls during the day taking candy orders. Did she deviate from her usual routine to go to a specific store? Donatello had looked up both general and candy stores close to her work—not there was much to go to in that industrial part of town—trying to figure out where she spent that hour. So far, nothing.
Facing the opposite direction of him at a screen of his own, Leonardo sipped at a mug of coffee. He hadn't slept since Mona's disappearance. None of them really had. There was too much footage to look through. The night before, all four brothers had been combing possible areas, looking for extra security cameras they could "borrow" from that might have caught sight of their missing person. During the day, they were forced to remain in the lair and look through video feeds remotely.
But it would be getting dark soon, and they would be free to go out into the city again. Mona had been missing for almost twenty-four hours. And they all knew the longer it took for her to be found, the slimmer her chances of survival. Leonardo tried not to think about it. Tried not to keep glancing at the clock on his computer screen. He was terrible at it, counting the minutes he continued to fail her.
If he couldn't look at the screen, he would glance down at his phone. Only now did he keep it with him at all times in case April or Casey called. That little green icon was still blinking on the phone. Only now did his brain suddenly wonder what it was.
"Donnie, what's this on my phone?" he asked, swiveling his chair around.
Donatello turned to look. "That's your message icon. It says you have...wow, sixteen unchecked voice messages."
Nearby, Raphael shook his head. "You dumbass. You didn't check your phone? Were any of those messages from Mona in the past few days?"
Guilt flooded him. He never thought she would call him. She knew he never had his phone with him. Donatello showed him how to look at his call log. All sixteen of the messages came from Mona Lisa. None of them were from the past few days. They had been peppered over the past six months, sitting there waiting for him to finally get a clue.
Perplexed on why she left him so many messages when she knew he wouldn't get to them in a reasonable time, he left his station and went to his room. Sitting on his bed, he pressed play on the first message. He was unprepared with how the first sound of her voice gave him chills and it made him cold to wonder if this would be the last of her voice he would ever hear.
"Hey Leo, I know you don't answer your phone," her voice said with humor. "But I thought when you do ever get around to this message, it brightens your day. I just wanted you to know I'm thinking about you and how cute you are. You probably think it's dumb."
"I don't," he whispered, his eyes wet.
"But I wanted to let you know that you've been on my mind and I just think you're amazing at everything you do. And...okay, bye!" The ending was awkward and abrupt.
Leonardo moved to the other messages which were much of the same. Like how he liked to leave affirmations on her fridge, Mona left him various messages of love and encouragement over the past months, growing more comfortable in her tone with each message. Some of them were sweet, some were funny, some were a little too private for other ears to hear. All of them devastated him.
.
Another day passed into night. Past the forty-eight hour mark. Splinter began making his sons work in shifts so they would sleep. He couldn't force sleep on them, but they would be confined to their rooms for a few hours to rest. Donatello had since given up on finding any footage of Mona Lisa and turned his focus to the previous victim of the Dumpster Killer. Her name was Rebecca Sharp. She had now been missing for four days and the police were starting to expect her body would show up in the trash soon.
Donatello knew this because he had hacked into the New York PD's computer files. Desperate times called for desperate measures. And he was now combing footage for that victim's abduction. That was what he was doing when he suddenly received a notice on his screen.
"Holy shit," Donatello breathed as he jumped from his chair. "They found him."
"What?" Raphael asked from another station. "What do you mean they found him."
"The identity of the serial killer. They've got a name and address. The police, SWAT, everybody's swarming in on that place right now."
Now Raphael was on his feet. "Shit." He repeated. "Grab Leo and Mikey and let's go."
.
Chief Vincent herself was on the scene as police and SWAT alike surrounded an old rambler-style suburban home. Their suspect, Scott Lindell, had barricaded himself inside the house. Not surprising, he had a tumultuous and messy break up—not to mention a few domestic assault and stalking charges— with an ex that looked a lot like all of his victims. Ex-military with both knowledge in weapons and surveillance tech, he knew the police were coming to his door before they could even knock. And he had let loose with a barrage of fire power, sending all officers scrambling to a safe distance.
Nearby houses were evacuated. SWAT was hiding in any dark corner, even on the roofs of neighboring houses. Vincent was attempting to establish contact, but Scott was not interested. She knew his kind. He would rather die than be carted off in handcuffs. The question was was he going to take any victims he had with him before he either killed himself or attempted suicide by cop?
She never had the opportunity to find out as something big, hulking, and fast came out of the darkness. He raced for the house on foot, past the police barrier, and threw himself shell-first through the front picture window. The sturdy glass shattered as if it were paper thin.
The sound of screaming and manic gun fire sounded from inside as three more large, turtle-shaped figures jumped in through the broken window.
"Is that...were those giant turtles?" one of the officers exclaimed.
Vincent jumped up from her crouched position behind her car and nearly ripped off her headset in her anger. "Goddamnit! Everyone hold your fire!"
.
Scott Lindell hung lump and whimpering in Leonardo's grip. His trigger hand, along with the automatic weapon he had been holding, were a mangled, crushed and bleeding mess is the turtle's fist.
"What... what are you?" the human managed to whisper. "Are you going to kill me?"
"Where is she?" Leonardo growled. "Tell me or I'll start breaking more bones."
"There...there's no one here."
Leonardo looked fit to rip this guy's head off with his bare teeth. Donatello put a hand on his shoulder. "I've got a warm body signature coming from the bedroom."
With a growl, Leonardo tossed Scott at Raphael's chest, hard enough to knock the air out of the human. The blue-clad turtle followed Donatello to the bed room where the former reached under the bed and pulled out a wooden, human-sized box. It was practically a coffin. It was padlocked shut.
Leonardo looked fit to tear the thing open with his bare hands, but Donatello managed to pick the lock quickly before he could lose his patience. Inside was a brunette woman: naked, cut and bruised, burned and beaten. It wasn't Mona Lisa.
She screamed bloody murder when she saw the two turtles hovering over her and hid in the closet. In the same second, SWAT flooded into the house. The four turtles fled out the back, leaving that whole very human, very sad mess behind them. They managed to get several neighborhoods away before Leonardo suddenly collapsed to his knees in someone's backyard.
The brothers turned when they saw their leader fall.
Donatello was instantly at his side. "Leo, are you hurt? Did you get shot?"
The blue-clad turtle didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere, but he was hyperventilating, one hand on his chest.
"Donnie. Something's wrong. I can't breathe."
"Yes you can," he said in soothing tones. "You need to calm down, Leo. You're having a panic attack. Breathe in slow, breathe out slow. Breathe with me."
But Leonardo was not breathing slow. He was fighting for every intake of air through his grit teeth as he clenched his fists in the grass. Raphael and Michelangelo looked at each other. They had never seen him like this. It was almost unnerving to watch. He had never unraveled like this before.
"Leo, calm down, bro," Michelangelo said as he squatted at his brother's side. "It's going to be okay."
"No!" he suddenly barked at them. "I was supposed to keep her safe! That was my one job! It was the only thing I could ever do for her. And I didn't! I couldn't even do that! I'm useless! I'm nothing! I can't...can't do anything!"
His words trailed off as he once again had to gulp for air. All the while, he had not tempered the volume of his words. Dogs were barking. The porch light in the backyard where they stood flickered on, illuminating Leonardo's trembling form. They had to get out of here. The suburbs were no place for a giant mutant turtle.
Leonardo didn't even fight him as Raphael scooped his brother over his shoulder. By the time the home owner let their yapping schnauzer into the yard, the turtles had faded into the darkness.