TMNT ETC...

Searching (two)

It was around four a.m., give or take a bunch of minutes, when Leo and Mikey finally came home. They had ghosted as many Foot activities as they could, but nothing seemed on the scale of a missing father.

At one point Karai was spotted, but Mike was very surprised to find that Leo wasn't interested in speaking to her at all- after all, he'd gone against Sensei's judgment before where she was concerned- but for some reason tonight, Leo was far from interested in talking with this daughter of their old enemy.

So they had spent the night roaming around, ghosting as many as they dared- and it had finally occurred to them that the Foot was not the easy answer.

They came home, tired, depressed, temporarily defeated, to find April asleep on the couch. Someone had tucked a blanket around her, and her head was half-buried into the pillow. She softly snored, and Leo and Mikey shared a brief laugh.

Then Mikey wordlessly grabbed a few slices of bread and went to bed. Leo opted to stay up and wait for Raph.

He noticed that Splinter's bedroom door was open, and without thinking entered to find his brother on their father's bed, asleep, but with a few tears still leaking from his eyes.

"Don?" Leo whispered kindly, a hand on his brother's arm. After a minute, Donatello opened his eyes, confused for a moment- and then he realized where he was and what he was supposed to have been doing. He sat up quickly.

"Damn! I fell asleep!" and he tried to bolt up and get back to work- but his brother held him firmly, so he couldn't rise from the floor.

"Don! It's okay," Leo reassured his brother. "I should have left you sleep, you need the rest."

Don, focusing on Leo, suddenly felt the overwhelming emotions of his earlier experience. A fear that had been slowly growing in his anxiety finally burst forth.

"Oh, Leo!" he sobbed suddenly, surprising his older brother. "I dreamed he hugged me! I dreamed he spoke to me! I was so sure he'd come home! What if he's dead? What if- what if what I felt was-?"

But Leo had already swept this younger brother into his arms and held him as tightly as he could, protecting him from this "what if" as fiercely as if it were a physical enemy.

Raph and Casey dragged in around five a.m. Nothing more could be done. The two of them made their way to the kitchen, where they proceeded to eat Raph's dinner from the night before- cold, congealed, but filling to two hungry warriors.

"Any luck?" April, coming in from the living room, kissed Casey on the cheek and started a fresh pot of coffee.

"Not with Master Splinter," Casey told her. "But we may have found out a reason why Hun and the Dragons have been hasslin' the homeless."

And Raph produced the photo for April's scrutiny.

"What do you think it means?" she asked, as both of them stifled yawns while trying to eat.

"I dunno," Raph grunted. "I'm guessin' that whoever Hun is workin for- and let's face it, he's sure not lookin' for a long-lost friend- is hidin' out among the homeless. Or at least, they think he is."

Leo came in with a red-eyed Don, and they joined them at the table.

"We had no luck," Leo answered their unasked question. "What about you?"

Raph repeated his news about Hun's activities, while Leo and Don looked at the badge.

"I wonder why he's hiding?" Don mused, staring at the picture. "I wonder who is after him?"

"Too bad you couldn't get someone to talk," Leo said, and Raph and Casey laughed.

"Kinda hard to question people when they're doin' the two-minute mile to get away from ya," Casey told them. "I don't know what's up, but the quality of Dragons workin' for Hun has dropped severely."

"Well, it's a cinch he ain't lookin' for this guy for his own benefit," Raph pointed out again. "Unless he needs a plastic surgeon. Casey managed to break Hun's nose. Between the two of us, Hun is gonna be a whole new person."

Leo sighed, suddenly tired. He wanted to take a nap, but they needed to keep looking. Raph guessed his thoughts.

"Leo, we'd better all take a few hours to rest, or none of us'll be any good to Splinter."

"I've had my nap," Don managed a smile. "And April is up- we'll go over to Leatherhead's and get back to work. You guys get some sleep."

Leo nodded, suppressing a sudden yawn.

"Wake us up in about three hours. If you find something out, wake us up at once!"

Leatherhead and Hun had gone through the window at Shredder's secret launch site. They had fallen quite a distance, and miraculously survived.

How that happened no one, with the possible exception of Professor Honeycutt, knew. Leatherhead had refused to explain his survival other than to remind them that he was "thick skinned." But survive he had.

When they'd gotten back from the Utrom home-world, Don had immediately set out to L.H.'s place to see if he was back- and had found him injured but alive.

Somehow he had survived the fall; somehow he had managed to escape that silo before the rocket blast could fry him to a crisp. So had Hun, for that matter. Somehow he'd managed to make it back to his home, to treat his injuries, and to go on with his work.

But he refused to give the details, and no one could pry it out of him. Even Michelangelo, when his legs were still encased in casts, couldn't get the story whenever Leatherhead had visited him to cheer him up. Every "What happened?" was answered with "I escaped."

Don and April, with the I.D. badge and their laptops, entered L.H.'s lair to find him and the Professor acting cheerful.

"Ah! Greetings!" Honeycutt beamed- well, sounded as if he beamed. After all, his robot face was sadly lacking any ability to register emotion. "We believe that we've salvaged that video that Agent Bishop showed to Master Splinter."

"The one explaining the agency he works for?" Don was excited. Splinter had told them all he had remembered of that, but Don was excited to be able to see it first hand. "Sweet!"

"We've also finished our own analysis of the blood sample," Leatherhead informed them as they all moved to L.H.'s work area and started plugging in their laptops. "Your conclusions were correct. He's somehow manipulated his own D.N.A., but we're unsure of how this has benefitted him. But we have a hunch."

And without further explanation, Leatherhead hit a button on his computer, and April and Don got a look at the program that Bishop had touted to Splinter.

When it got to the part about President Grant signing the order creating this task-force, April and Don both gasped. Leatherhead paused the show, and they studied the picture carefully.

"Oh, my God!" April gasped softly. "That's- that's Bishop! That's Bishop standing next to President Grant!"

"He's found a way to prolong his life?" Don was almost disbelieving. "He's found- immortality?"

"I doubt that he is immortal," Professor Honeycutt said. "But he certainly has managed to extend his life- and his apparent youth as well. I'm not sure how- the tests are inconclusive, but somehow he has found a way to do this."

"Can you imagine the implications?" Don breathed. "Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone could live forever?"

"Not forever," Honeycutt reaffirmed. "I'm positive that there is no alien technology to do such a thing. The Utroms are the longest-lived peoples that I have met, but theirs is a natural process. Even they die in time. No one lives for ever, Donatello. Not even me." And he gave a sort of laugh.

"Still- Bishop told Sensei that he was creating a new species of human," Don said. "If he can prolong his own life, imagine what he will do if he succeeds with his cloning project- if he can ever get it going again."

Leatherhead, meanwhile, was looking at the badge that April had laid down on the table. His face was frozen in terrified recognition. Don, turning to address him, noticed at once.

"Where... where did you get this?" L.H. managed to ask.

"Raph and Casey took it off some Purple Dragons," Don explained. "They were searching for this guy. You know him?"

Leatherhead was visibly struggling to keep his temper. He was also struggling to keep from panicking.

"Yes- yes, he is one- one of the scientists working for Bishop," he barely whispered, and horror came into his eyes with the memory of his time with that soulless madman. "He was one of the ones who assisted Bishop in his experiments on me..."

The memory threatened to take him over. They could see his eyes beginning to change, to grow reptilian. Don placed April behind him, watching Leatherhead's every move, while Professor Honeycutt placed a calming hand on the crocodile's arm.

"My friend, you are safe from them. My friend, you are safe," he said soothingly- and L.H. immediately calmed down; his breathing slowed, and his eyes turned back, showing intelligence instead of animal anger.

"Thank-you, my friend," Leatherhead said to the Professor. "It's just that- I still can't forget the horrible things they did to me. This man was Bishop's assistant- one of several. I don't remember seeing him when he first captured you. I didn't care. By that time, Bishop was doing the main work himself. I think he was keeping his assistants in the dark to the true extent of his- 'project'."

April and Don exchanged looks at this bit of news. So Hun was looking for someone who had worked for Bishop.

"Hun and his goons are looking for this guy," April said. "He must have left Bishop."

"If he left Bishop, I would imagine it wasn't with his permission. He knows too much, even if he doesn't know the extent of Bishop's work. I wonder if Bishop has recruited the Dragons to help him find him," Don said. "But that doesn't make sense. Bishop has his own men to do that kind of work."

"Unless he doesn't want it to appear that it's he who is looking," April pointed out. "Bishop's been busy putting out the fires that keep burning his butt over that whole Shredder rocket thing, you know. I don't imagine that he wants the national spotlight on him again."

"Perhaps someone else is after this man's knowledge," Leatherhead speculated. "Perhaps there is another group who, for unknown reasons, are after information. As you said, Bishop's group- indeed, his name, was well-publicised after the rocket took off. This- man- must be in hiding- if he is hiding among the homeless, then his life must be in great danger indeed."

"Another mystery," Don said, rubbing his eyes and thinking of all he'd learned.

"At any rate, it appears that Bishop's group is responsible for Master Splinter's disappearance," Honeycutt pointed out.

"Unless there is another group," April reminded them. "After all, as Raph said, Hun has no reason to be looking for this guy. He may be working for some other group."

But somehow, Don was not convinced. It was looking more and more like Bishop to him.