Donatello was trying not to panic. Michelangelo had just set her down for 2 minutes whilst they spoke to Leo so she couldn't have covered that much distance in such a short amount of time.. And, surely she would be disorientated after whatever drugs those bozos had given her, yes it made perfect sense that she would be slow and stumbling - besides she had no shoes and no grip - and the sewers were slippery at the best of times. In his head the list of reasons as to why she wouldn't be far way was growing nicely which helped him to calm down a little.
One thing that bothered him though was how come they hadn't heard her move? Yes they were in a sewer, yes there were other noises but he prided himself on having top class hearing and it paid well in a house full of ninja's.
"I still have the tracker, we can locate her with that" he replied calmly.
"Man I didn't even know she'd woken up, I swear she was a dead weight bro like head lolling and everything" He rubbed his forehead
Noticing the obvious worry in his brother's eyes Donatello put a hand on his shoulder so as to offer some reassurance "Don't worry, it's not your fault brother, she had us both fooled" This girl had to have been aware of what was going on, she had to but then... Opening the tracker, he looked down at the signal expecting to see the little dot just a yard or two in front. "What the..?" It was coming from five blocks away. Michelangelo looked too:
"Is that bad?"
Donatello stood routed to the spot and blew out a breath "Yep, it's bad. That is way too far. How did she get that far that fast? She'd been drugged. It's impossible.."
"Oh man, she is fast" Michelangelo was hypnotised by the speed of movement "Jeez, is that even normal?"
"No" Donatello pursed his lips "Dammit"
They had risked so much, lied to their eldest brother, taken an experimental formula and now here they both stood completely empty handed. And to top it off there was an unknown quantity of female something racing around in the sewers.
"Err, how does she know where to go?" Michelangelo still transfixed at the tracker as it moved along the screen.
He may be a genius when it came to most things but Donatello had literally no idea how this was possible which is why he had wanted to get a hold of her so bad.. And now everything she was, and all that she knew was nearly ten blocks away.
Raph would be so pissed. All this time babysitting Leonardo and he didn't even get a result for it.
"We have to get back to the others" began Donatello solemnly, a sick feeling rising in his gut.
"Sorry D" Michelangelo suddenly looked even smaller.
"Hey, don't, okay, it was not your fault. Let's go and rescue our brother from our other brother" He turned to head back to the manhole they had not so long ago headed down "And Mikey, this is not a giving up this is merely a putting on hold". He re-checked the time. They may be a little later than planned but hopefully not so late that Leo would start going on and on about the importance of being punctual.
"Err, Donnie.." began the youngest "How can we go back when we still look like this?"
Donatello froze. Mikey was right. They were still human. He paused, thinking to himself. He hadn't planned for this situation and he really wished he had. He had literally modelled every scenario but this.
"I calculated an hour max and now it's been" He checked the time on his screen "One hour and 21 minutes 52 seconds" he began nervously "This was not supposed to happen"
"I don't mind" announced the youngest "Does this mean we can go to a bar now?"
"No Mikey. No bar. No ladies" Michelangelo looked so disappointed "I'm sorry brother but can you imagine going in there and then changing back?"
His brother screwed up his face "Yeh...okay...everyone would scream...though they may not?"
"They would. Trust me. The only humans who don't are NYPD, April and Vern. The chances of a bar containing just those people is slim to not at all" He checked the time again. "Look, we have less than 10 minutes before Leo will be blowing up the phone so we have little choice.. We are just going to have to face the fall out".
"Leo is going to freak"
"Yes I know"
"He may never let us out again"
"I know that too"
Michelangelo was still hypothesising as they reached the surface but Donatello was no longer listening. He was picturing the angry faces that would be before him in a few minutes. Things just had not gone his way tonight. Mikey had lost his board and Donatello felt like he was losing his mind as his phone started to vibrate. He didn't even have to look to know that it would be Leonardo. They were late and getting later by the minute. When you were no longer a mutant turtle things slowed down a little.
Arriving at the meeting point he could see the large figures as he stepped away from the ladder and in the blink of an eye they disappeared and his phone vibrated again. He answered it.
"Oh hey Leo"
"Donnie. Heads up there are two humans on the rooftop so best make the rendezvous underground and then you can explain why you're both late"
Donatello mouthed the word 'Leo' over to his younger brother who nodded whilst his lips thinned out in a look of uncertainty.
Donatello took a deep breath "Yeh, about that...promise you're not going to get upset?"
He heard a heavy sigh from the other end "Why Donnie? What have you done?" The silence that followed was deafening.
"It's us" the tallest turtles voice cracked a little "I mean, the humans...they're us" Michelangelo's jaw was on the floor. His brother was being so brave about this, there would be no way he would tell Leo. In fact, his preferred step had been not to say anything and just go hang out with the humans. Especially the female ones.
Donatello heard the phone click off, he swallowed nervously and turned to Mikey: "He's a little upset".
"I didn't hear any yelling" reasoned the youngest "Maybe he's down with it".
Leonardo was striding forward at pace over the rooftop towards them with Raphael following behind making cut throat movements across his neck.
"Oops" came a tiny voice to the right "Yep. He's mad".
Steely blue eyes met hazel brown, Leonardo was breathing deeply and his lips were set to an almost grimace. Donatello really wanted to be anywhere but here right now. Being human against the bulk of his brother was more than a little un-nerving.
"What the fuck Donnie?" He spat out the words in disgust "Why? What is... this?" He gestured to the pair of them before turning to Raphael "I'm assuming you knew" It was more statement than question. Raphael put his hands up but said nothing. Donatello swore he saw him smirk.
"Okay you two better start talking" Leonardo's tone of voice told Donatello that he meant business and this time there was no way even Mikey could talk his way out of it "Well?".
"It was all Donnie's idea" blurted out Michelangelo "Sorry D.."
Donatello let go of a breath he hadn't even been aware he was holding "It's okay brother. Mikey's right. It was all my idea"
"Why?!" Leonardo was still glaring at him.
This was the hard part. Where to even begin... They'd lied so much to he didn't even know what the truth was anymore.
"I'm thinking we should head home" suggested Donatello timidly "This could take a while"
"We could call April on the way?" added Michelangelo excitedly.
"And why would we do that?" Leonardo was looking at him now which made the youngest squirm "Oh, let me guess, she knows all about this little plan too. Anyone else?"
"Casey.."
"Great. So you ALL know except me" The eldest was demonstrating a mixture of anger, frustration and hurt "We are going nowhere and calling no-one until you tell me every little detail" Leonardo was pacing now "I just cannot believe you would do this!" He jabbed a finger at Donatello "These two yes, definitely.. but YOU"
"Hey don't bring me into this, I was merely the babysitter" growled Raphael as he folded his arms.
Donatello winced.
Leonardo stopped dead as Michelangelo quickly moved to the side.
"So that's why we swapped, nothing to do with a tracker and bad guys - you wanted to be human so much you got everyone to lie and pulled these two in for the fun of it! I don't even know you!"
Donatello felt like he was drowning. He hated disappointing his brother but at the time he hadn't thought beyond getting this hybrid back to the lab. At that moment his survival mode kicked in and he knew he had to defend himself "Leo it wasn't like that. I lied because I knew what you'd say. I lied because I knew you would put a stop to it and I couldn't stop it because I so wanted to do this for April" his voice trailed off.
"And to be fair" began Michelangelo from behind Raphael "There really was a tracker and bad guys" Raphael smacked him on the head.
"Sacks and her father created something when they created us. They had some sort of set up where they crossed our green mutagen with the purple. I used the same tracker I had with Bebop and Rocksteady and I found it...I found her"
Leonardo opened his mouth but nothing came out so Donatello continued: "April wanted to know it was okay, she felt guilty. We went with an open mind Leo I swear and when we saw it was female and these guys were...well, we had to get her out. We were going to bring her home and help her. The whole human thing was so we could blend in".
"And the explosions?"
"Yeh, that was us, I mean me, that was me but it was TCRI Leo, it was a lab, they were holding her captive and.."
"I don't want to hear it" snapped Leonardo sharply "I want you to phone April" He pointed at Raphael "Get her to the lair now because I want to hear every single word of this from her lips". He pulled Michelangelo out from behind the largest turtle where he'd been trying to hide "You two can stay out here until I say you can come home. And while you're out here you need to seriously think about loyalty and family and who you really are!".
As he left Donatello closed his eyes. He couldn't help but think how disappointed his father would have been. The aged rat had spent all those years enabling them to be an effective team and it had all broken down in one night. He felt sick.
"Well, that went better than expected" began Michelangelo cheerily. Donatello opened his eyes and looked at him: "How did that go better?"
"He could have dragged us back to the lair, thrown us into a painful training regime and then kept us locked up for a month.. I think that went pretty well all things considered"
Donatello face palmed "Seriously Mikey, Leo could still do those things.. I have never seen him this angry before"
"Nah, he's not angry, he's just a little narked because it was a plan he wasn't part of. He'll get over it. He'll speak with April and all will be sweet"
Donatello couldn't help but admire his brother's optimism but as a realist he knew it wouldn't be that easy. Leo was going to make them suffer for a long long time starting with the rooftop abandonment.
At first Michelangelo was excited. He chattered away about all the things they could do to which Donatello would say no they couldn't and then two minutes later it would all begin again. Donatello's head was aching. Four hours later when the sun was rising up over the City Michelangelo had run out of steam, complained that his stomach hurt from hunger and then fallen asleep. It was then that Donatello's phone beeped with a text from Leonardo. He said that they could now come home, finally. He got to his feet and was just about to wake his brother when he spotted something on the other side of roof. He squinted and then nudged Mikey with his foot.
"Wha..? What is it? Is it pizza time yet?" Michelangelo rolled and sat up "Man I am fading away" He clutched his stomach and groaned. Donatello nudged him again. "Hey enough already I'm up"
"What is that?"
"What?" He looked in the direction that Donatello was staring. The rooftop corner was empty "Ain't nothing there bro".
"I swore there was.." he didn't know what to say. Michelangelo slapped him on the shoulder snapping him out of his thoughts.
"You're just seeing stuff out of hunger" exclaimed the now wide awake brother "Let's go feed, I got corndogs and potato chips and some orange crush to wash it all down" Donatello wasn't listening. He felt sure he had just seen the girl. Her clothes looked different but there was no mistaking the long fire-red hair. Grabbing his tracker he scanned for a signal but there was nothing. Not even a flicker. He shook it and tapped the edge. "C'mon bra I'm dying here!" Michelangelo was leaning on the edge of the ladder still clutching his stomach with his tongue hanging out. Donatello shook his head, put the tracker back in it's hold and reluctantly left the rooftop closely watched by a pair of hidden eyes. Eyes that were as green as emeralds but sometimes as black as the night.