Song: Let It Burn - Red

By the time we get back to the lair Donatello has mentally recovered from his injuries, but not physically. He leans heavily on Leonardo and Michelangelo as we step into Lucy's house. Raphael and I help the two turtles lower Donatello into a chair and take steps back to examine him.

    Donatello's burns look worse in the light. His arm is covered in a dark char color and his plastron isn't much better off. His russet eyes are glazed in pain as he covers his wound with one of his hands. He looks terrible.

    Michelangelo wraps a bandage around Donatello's arm injury and puts some ice on it. "There you go, buddy. Good as new!" he says cheerfully. "Can I get you anything else? Some water? Pizza?" He whips out a DVD from behind his back and his eyes widen persuasively. "Crognard the Barbarian?!"

    Donatello doesn't seem annoyed with his young brother for once. "No thanks, Mikey. I'm good," he answers as he leans back into his chair. "I just wish I could have been more useful. I was the reason they got away. I should have been quicker."

    Leonardo stands beside Donatello and pats his good shoulder gently. "It's not your fault, Don. They were tougher to beat than normal," he sympathizes.

    "It was so hard that it's almost like Shredder was still there," Michelangelo sighs glumly as his shoulders droop.

    I feel my stomach twist at his words. Michelangelo has a point, but I'm not about to admit it. The Shredder is gone and there is no way he's coming back.

   "Did anyone catch a glimpse of what was in the crate, by chance?" Donatello questions as he hunches over. His expectant gaze trails over the four of us, but we just shrug.

   "Not really," Leonardo answers, obviously disappointed. "All I know is that it was a really small crate. Almost like some kind of wooden box."

    "And it smelled like pine trees!" Michelangelo puts in with a proud smile, as if the information will help us save New York.

    "No designs or symbols on the crate?" Donatello presses on curiously, the concern spreading further across his face.

    I exchange a glance with Raphael and shake my head. "It was just a crate, dude," I say to the insistent purple turtle.

    Donatello slouches down in his chair. You can practically see the gears turning in his head. After a long silence, he seems to give up on remembering anything about the crate himself.

    "I don't know what they're collecting then," the intelligent turtle sighs in defeat. "It could be anything from guns to Christmas decorations."

    "No offense, Don, but I don't think Tiger Claw would be sneaking Christmas thingamabobs into New York," Michelangelo comments, and then adds in a quieter voice to Raphael, "And you say I'm the dumb one."

    This earns earning an indignant expression from the Donatello. "I'm just clarifying our lack of knowledge about the stolen shipment," the purple-clad turtle grumbles as he covers his face with his hand. The pain he is in must be making him irritable, because he is not acting like himself.

    Leonardo straightens up and focuses on me. "Well, the best thing we can do now is double patrols. I'll take patrols out to the pier more often to make sure that we catch them next time," he announces in his usual, authoritative voice.

    "Why don't we just find their home and take them out there?" I suggest with a scowl. "We can end this whole charade right now!"

    "There's two things wrong with that plan," Leonardo begins with a small shake of his head. "First, Donatello is wounded from just fighting three of them. If we go straight into their home where there's even more of them, there's a high chance that we won't walk out at all. Second, we don't know where they're staying at."

    "They live at the Shredder's lair!" Michelangelo squeals as he bounces around on his heels. "Duh! Everyone knows that!"

    Leonardo ignores the orange-clad turtle. "Anyway, it's a terrible plan," he tells me bluntly. "We can't do that with so little manpower."

    "The Mutanimals might want to help," I insist. I have a bad feeling about letting Tiger Claw carry on with his plans. I want to finish it before they can get any closer to their goal. I can't watch the city fall to the hands of morons... again.

    "They have their own lives to worry about." Leonardo exhales deeply. "We don't need to bother them about this, especially since it's not an immediate threat. Besides, they won't thank us for leading them into a battle completely unprepared." The leader turns to face Donatello. "You need to rest. No staying up and trying to find a cure tonight. That's not going to heal your burns."

    Donatello shoos his eldest brother away. "Yeah, I know," he replies as he lets out a yawn.

    Leonardo gives him a small smile before heading out of the room with Raphael on his heels. Michelangelo follows him, but he turns back around at the door and holds up his DVD.

    "Remember, dude," Michelangelo speaks with a splitting grin. "If you change your mind about needing Crognard, I'm your turtle!"

    "Come on, Mikey," Raphael's muffled voice sounds from outside the room. A green hand reaches in and drags Michelangelo out of the room against his will. Then Donatello and I are alone.

    I should have left Donatello to his massive thoughts, but I'm not done discussing Tiger Claw yet. "I'll do my own patrols every night," I inform him. "That way we're twice as likely to mop the scum off the streets!"

    "Mmhmm, sounds great," Donatello mumbles with virtually no interest. His brown gaze is locked on the ground as he strokes his chin like a beard.

    I pull up another chair and sit across from the distracted turtle. "What's up?" I question eagerly. Surely thoughts as deep as his have a point to them. Maybe he's come up with a solution!

    However, I am disappointed. "I'm just trying to figure out the pattern of their pier visits," Donatello explains without looking at me. "They said that they were going to come back once more. I wish I knew when that was, because that might be the only chance we have to stop them for good."

    I shrug. "All I know is that I saw them down there on Halloween and tonight."

    Suddenly, Donatello's eyes lit up. "That's it!" Then he jumps up and speeds over to his laptop.

    I follow him, confused. "Uh, what?" I ask, not bothering to pretend I know what he's talking about.

    Donatello launches into his theory as he types away on his keyboard. "You said you saw them on Halloween, which is the last day of October. Then you saw them again tonight, on the last day of November!" His eyes are glowing with unmistakably joy.

    I scratch the side of my head and wrinkle my eyebrows. "I still don't get it," I admit.

    "Since we know what days their shipments arrive, we can track what they picked up," Donatello goes on impatiently. The screen of the laptop reflects off his face, making him appear blue instead of green. "If I can hack into the shipment documents, I should be able to- There!" he exclaims and moves to the side so I cam see the results of his search.

    It's nothing extravagant to me. All I see are a bunch of numbers and letters jumbled up together. The list seems to go on for hundreds of pages.

    "Oh no," Donatello's sudden change of tone worries me. His expression shifts to panic and he shoves his face closer to the screen, as if he doesn't believe what he is looking at.

    "What?" I demand immediately. When he stays silent, I shove him and say, "Donnie!"

    "Explosives," Donatello gasps.

    I just stare at him blankly. Did the laser fry his brain?

    "That's what the shipment code is for!" Donatello is practically shouting, his russet eyes betraying his fear. "Tiger Claw stole a nuclear chemical. They're going to create a bomb!"

    I stare at Donatello in astonishment. A nuclear bomb? I know that Tiger Claw is planning for something evil, but I never expected something that demonic. Doesn't he know that he could wipe out the entire planet with something like that and take himself down with it?

    Donatello doesn't wait for my mind to comprehend his hypothesis. "We have to tell Leo," he says as he hurries for the hallway, his wounds seeming to not bother him anymore. I rush after him, my mind still spinning with horror.

    "Leo!" Donatello shouts as he bursts into the blue-clad turtle's bedroom. The leader sits bolt upright, drowsily rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

    "What's wrong?" Leonardo grumbles as he dangles his legs off the bed.

    Donatello proceeds to tell the blue-clad turtle about the nuclear chemical. When he finishes, Leonardo is wide-eyed and alert as he tries to figure out what to do.

    "We need to get that chemical back!" I insist briskly, hoping Leonardo will agree with me. My idea doesn't seem to work that well, however.

    "But how?" Donatello inquires pointedly. "We still don't have enough manpower to defend ourselves against them."

    I flex my shoulders. "If we sneak inside, we don't have to get into another fight. We can just grab the junk and get out without even facing Tiger Claw. We won't get caught," I add stubbornly as Leonardo shakes his head.

    "You don't know that for certain," Leonardo finally steps in, having recovered from his rude awakening. "Since Tiger Claw is still around Fishface and Rahzar, I can guarantee that they put him in charge. That probably means Tiger Claw took over all of Shredder's henchmen, so he has some of the best trackers in New York. There's no way we could sneak into their hideout and steal a chemical or two without them noticing. And on another note, we don't even know where their lair is."

    "We're just going to have to wait until we come across them again," Donatello breaks in. "If we catch them on the street, we can follow them and find out where their hideout is. Once we do that, then we can decide what to do about the explosives."

    "Fine," I mumble, but then I straighten up at a thought. "I say we set the bombs off right under their noses. That'll be an epic form of revenge," I state with a smirk.

    "And potentially take out half the city? I don't think so," Donatello snorts and shakes his head.

    I frown at my friend. He must have caught on to the fact that I just want to watch something blow up.

    "Let's just find their hideout first, alright?" Leonardo interjects to prevent a fight from breaking out. He turns his blue eyes on me expectantly. "Keep your eyes open and contact me the moment you spot Tiger Claw or his henchmen."

    "Right." I am temporarily satisfied with that. At least I have some way of helping.

    I just hope we won't be too late.