Song: Never Say Never - The Fray

I burst into my little brother's room. "What's wrong?!" I ask in alarm.

   The orange-clad turtle is sitting on his bed, a mortified expression on his face. He has his blanket shielding the top of his head, like it will save his life.

   Edmund is already there, a few feet away from the turtle. He beat me into the room. Leonardo, Donatello, and Elizabetta all appear behind me as well, panting.

   "What's going on in here?" Leonardo asks, holding one of his katanas out as he surveys the room.

   "That's what I'm wondering," Edmund says curiously.

   "You look as if you've seen a ghost," Donatello comments as he sits down beside Michelangelo. He gently examines the turtle's injured arm.

   "I-I think I d-did," Michelangelo stammers. His eyes are fixed on one spot in the room. I follow his gaze, but there's nothing there.

   "You think you did what?" I press, walking closer to Michelangelo and pulling the blanket off of his head. Looking closer, I realize he is shivering. "Are you cold or something?"

   "I think I s-saw a phantom," the young turtle stutters.

   "A phantom?" Donatello sighs, shaking his head. He immediately gives up on checking Michelangelo's arm. "He's fine, guys. He's just delusional," he diagnoses, before walking out of the bedroom.

   "I'm serious!" Michelangelo insists, finally recovering from his flabbergasted state. "I saw something! It was big and black, like a shadow! I couldn't even see its face! It was freaky!"

   Leonardo frowns. "You should know better than to wake everyone up over a nightmare, Mikey," he says, the disapproval evident in his voice.

   "It wasn't a dream! It was real!" Michelangelo argues.

   I thump him on the back of the head to make him shut up. "Quit being stupid, you moron. You scared the shells off of us," I snap.

   "But guys!" Michelangelo is whining now. Can't he just let it go?

   "Goodnight, Mikey," Edmund yawns, before walking out of the room. Leonardo and Elizabetta follow, with me dragging behind.

   As we travel to the main room, Edmund heads off to his resting place. I start to head for mine as well, but Elizabetta whispers something to Leonardo and catches my attention.

   Now that I'm more awake, I notice she looked frail. Her face was a pale white and her hands are shaking more violently than Michelangelo was. She looks ready to faint.

   Leonardo nod to her once and goes into the kitchen, the teenage girl following. Intrigued, I head after them.

   "What's going on?" I ask them both, making them spin around, frightened. I have to swallow a laugh at how jumpy they are.

   "Why are you following us?" Leonardo ask peevishly.

   "I asked you first," I point out, feeding off of his irritation. It's about time he stops keeping secrets from the rest of us. We're a team, after all.

   "I just blacked out in my room," Elizabetta answers, oblivious to the blue-clad turtle's aggravation. So that's why she looks weak.

   "Why?" I questioned, taking a seat on the island counter. Does she have some disease I'm not aware of?

   But her response isn't satisfying. "I don't know." Her voice is barely audible.

   I sniff and cross my arms. "Fine, then. Don't tell me. It's not like I deserve to know or anything."

   "Raph, don't," Leonardo warns him, and I can see he is struggling to keep himself under control. He hands Elizabetta a glass of water. "We really don't know what's wrong with her."

   "Can't you ask Donnie?" I suggest with a yawn. I'm too tired to lose my temper at them.

   "He did blood tests on me," Elizabetta says once she downs the liquid. "He didn't find anything. He said it's all inside my head."

   "Doesn't look like that," I state, narrowing my eyes at her.

   To my surprise, she nods. "I know. But it seems to be the only explanation."

   "You probably just need to rest," Leonardo murmurs. He pats her shoulder gently. "It's been a long day."

   "Yeah, you're right." Elizabetta sets the empty glass down in the sink and gives us both a weak smile. "Goodnight," she says, exiting the kitchen.

   "Goodnight," Leonardo calls after her.

   "So," I begin once I know she's gone. "When are you gonna ask her out?"

   Leonardo spins around, his blue eyes wide with shock. "What did you just say?" he gaps at me, his little pink tongue pressed against his bottom teeth in a resisting manner.

   "You heard me," I snort with amusement, grabbing a toothpick and cleaning my teeth with it. "You really think your brothers don't notice the way you look at her?" I pause, deciding to rephrase my question. "You really think Donnie and I don't notice the way you look at her?"

   Leonardo just gives me a puzzled look. I can't figure out if he's playing dumb, or if he genuinely has no idea what he's been doing.

   I laugh, a bit mockingly. "You're so overprotective with her! You defend her more than you defend Mikey; our youngest, most mentally messed up brother. You also took her side in an argument between her and I."

   "So?" Leonardo shrugs.

"So, you never pick sides!" I exclaim in amazement. Why is he making this so difficult? "As a leader, you tell us to get over it altogether. Especially when it's just bickering. But you didn't. Then, you wanted to abandon the whole team just to make sure she stayed safe. You're taking the risk of letting others question your leadership, all for her."

   "No one would question me. They know where my heart is," Leonardo argues stiffly.

   "They knew where your heart was," I correct. "Look, I'm not against you having feelings for Liz-"

   "Who says I do?" Leonardo interrupts, his gaze avoiding mine. He's so unconfident; so shy. It's unlike him. He has no idea that by acting like this, he is proving me right.

   "I do," I shoot back, growing impatient. "But it's ok, because-" I start again, but it's no use.

   "Just because I want to keep Lizzy safe does not mean I like her," Leonardo insists stubbornly, then he gets flustered. "I mean, I do like her. Just not like, like her. I mean, I-"

   "I get it," I interject, rolling my eyes. I jump off the counter. "Fine. Whatever. I just never thought you, our powerful leader that can make a decision while nearly losing his life, would be so naïve. Just make sure that if you do like her, you do something about it before it's too late," I add, walking out of the kitchen.

   As I leave, the last thing I see was a dumbfounded look upon Leonardo's face.

   I stretch out my arms and yawn. I put the conversation with Leonardo aside and head for my room. But I must take a wrong turn along the way, because I find myself in Donatello's laboratory.

   The purple-clad turtle is sitting at his desk. Light from his laptop screen makes his face glow a bright blue color. Every now and then, a clicking sound can be heard as he presses buttons on the keyboard.

   "Geez, brainiac. Do you ever get sick of researching stuff?" I ask, shaking my head. I can't believe he'd rather be on an electronic instead of snoozing.

   "Nope," Donatello replies simply. "And since you're already in here, come look at this."

   I blink, realizing I am about to hear a lecture about something I won't understand. "Uh, I think I hear Mikey calling me," I lie, turning away.

   "Oh, please," Donatello grumbles with a glare. He motions me over with his hand again, and I reluctantly drag myself over.

   "Can't this wait 'til morning?" I complain. Lying in my bed has never sounded so nice.

   "I'm actually not sure it can."

   Donatello's response instantly catches my attention. I lean over his shoulder and peer at the laptop screen. I see a map with a blob of different colors moving across it slowly.

   "What is this?" I finally asks when I can't figure it out.

   "It's a weather radar of New York City. The colors are the rain and how severe it is," Donatello elaborates. He points at a certain spot in the middle of the virtual rain. "But look here. It's a circle with supposedly no rain at all."

   Looking closer, I notice he's right. Among the moving colors, there is a perfect, blank circle. No matter how many colors pass it, it stays clear.

   "That doesn't look normal," I comment.

   Donatello nods. "You got that right. Either the satellite is going out, or some other signal is interfering right there."

   "Wait a minute, Donnie. Zoom in on that spot," I say.

   Donatello does as I tell him to. Where the circle of no color is, I recognize the street name.

   "That's where Bebop and Rocksteady are!" I exclaim.

   Donatello takes in a sharp breath. "That's not good. Didn't you say they were guarding something?"

   I nod, slowly coming to realization of what he means. "If they're the reason for this radar screw-up, then they must have some kind of weird device in that building!"

   Donatello stands up. "Come on. We need to tell Leonardo."

   We head and find the blue-clad turtle, who is still in the kitchen. He is leaned over the island counter, his head down. He appears to be lost in thought.

   "Leo," Donatello says as we approach.

   "Hmm?" Our leader lifts his head. He looks as if he was asleep standing up.

   "We discovered something strange on my laptop," Donatello launches into an explanation immediately, disregarding his strange behavior. He informs the turtle of the weird phenomenon on the weather radar, and what we believe Bebop and Rocksteady are up to.

   Leonardo listens with narrowed eyes. "Well, I don't know why you've told me now," he finally speaks. "We can't do anything about it yet."

   Donatello looks surprised. I slam a fist down on the island.

   "Why not?!" I protest. "We know they're doing something dangerous. We need to stop it now, before it gets worse!"

   "Right, but we aren't sure what it is," Leonardo contradicts me. "We don't know what we're looking for. And anyway, how would we get passed them? You saw what happened last time we tried with only three of us."

   I glance at Donatello. Michelangelo can't go with us; he is still recovering. Reopening his wound could quite literally be a life or death situation. We can't bring Elizabetta, because she's still shaken from passing out. Donatello might irritate April by being overprotective. There is absolutely no way I'm inviting Casey while he's acting like a lunatic.  And Master Splinter...  Well, I really don't want to drag him out of his room over an evil plan that might not even be real.

   I hate it when Leonardo is right.

   "So, we can't do anything until Mikey's arm heals," I snort. "Great. That'll take forever."

   "Have patience, Raph," Leonardo says soothingly. "Anyway, I'd rather figure out who Lizzy's father really is before we do anything else. Donnie, have you found anything yet?"

   "Actually, yes," the purple-clad turtle replies happily. "He's a scientist that works with really rare chemicals. He focuses on things to do with the human mind, which doesn't quite connect with the Kraang's purpose, since they only want to modify the mutagen. If he is working with the Kraang, I don't have a clue why. Unless he's trying to get ahold of better technology than our planet can offer."

   Leonardo looks slightly alarmed. "What will he be able to do with advanced technology?"

   Donatello frowns. "Virtually anything, since no equipment is available to us to stop him. We'd be completely at his mercy," he explains worriedly.

   "We need to stop this before innocent people get hurt," Leonardo decides. "We also need to start training more in case this mess comes down to a real fight. Right now, it's nothing but politics and fantasies. But we've seen how quickly an idea can become a reality."

   "I'll go ahead and try to located Lizzy's father," Donatello calls over his shoulder as he leaves the room. "Maybe I can pinpoint where he is and we can go snoop around."

   I exchange glances with Leonardo. I'm still not happy with how short his temper is with me, but there's nothing I can do.  Maybe if Master Splinter would come out of hiding, he'd be able to fix this.  But until then, Leonardo's going to be as bossy and irrational as he wants to be.

   "I'll meet you in the dojo tomorrow," I say quickly as I head for my room, trying to escape him as soon as possible. "Night."

   "Raph, wait," Leonardo tries to stop me.  I sense a hint of remorse in his voice, but I ignore him.

   I'll listen to him when he actually starts listening to himself.