I Won't Let Go!

Wheelchair Donnie

Leo's P.O.V
The sound of my phone ringing interrupts my morning mediation.
I groan in annoyance and I grab my phone off of my nightstand. April is calling me.
Every morning I like to meditate in my bedroom before I go out and search the sewers for Raph, and most mornings it goes uninterrupted. But not today, I guess.
"What's up?" I ask.
"Leo," April says. I can hear so many mixed emotions in her voice. I can hear her sympathy, guilt, and fear. "Do you guys need anything this week? Casey and I are planning on going shopping after school."
April and Casey both stopped coming around after the big fight with Shredder, but I don't blame them. I saw the horror on both of their faces the moment they saw the kind of condition my brothers and I were in after it. The horrified look grew even more when we told them the story. Reality must've slapped the both of them in the face and they realized the dangers of being a ninja. They're still nice enough to help us out now and then, which I really appreciate. April calls weekly and asks if we need any new medical supplies or any groceries, then she and Casey drop them off. I feel bad about it sometimes, considering that we don't have any money to I can pay them back.
"Yeah, if you don't mind, we are low on Asprin."
"Do you need anything else? Groceries or anything?"
"No, we're good." No one eats around here anymore anyways.
"Okay, we'll stop by later.
"Thank you April, we really appreciate."
"I'm happy to help, Leo. You know that. I have to go though, class starts soon. See you later."
Before I even have a chance to say bye to her, I hear the phones get disconnected.
I sigh and I blow out my few candles. I set them on top of my shelf and I head out of my room. There's no point in trying to meditate now. I was deep in consideration but I lost it now.
It's eight a.m, I'm sure Donnie is awake by now, if he even went to bed at all.
I walk into the living room, searching for life. So far, it's quiet. Normally if Mikey's awake, he's sitting up eating breakfast and watching some stupid show. And I know Splinter is isolated in his bedroom, probably meditating like I was.
I walk up to Donnie's lab, the door is open just enough for him to fit his wheelchair through.
To my surprise, Donnie and Mikey are both sitting in the lab. They both also have a cup of coffee in their hands, now that's not surprising.
"Good morning," I knock on the door.
"Morning, Leo," Donnie answers, not even bothering to glance up from...whatever it is that he's doing.
"There's more coffee in the kitchen if you want some," Mikey says as I walk up to them.
"What...?" I trail off when I see the mess Donnie has on his desk. He has a map of the city sprawled out next to him, and it's covered in green and red lines and circles. He has his laptop open to some article and he has both his and Mikey's phone on his desk. One is playing the morning news, and the other one has a crime scene photo open.
"I think I made a breakthrough!" I can hear the pride in Donnie's voice as he yells.
"What?" A sliver of hope that I didn't know I had left just exploded inside of me. "About Raph?"
"Yeah," Donnie responds and he scribbles on the map a little bit more. I look up to Mikey, hoping he will tell me what's going on.
"We've been working on this all night," Mikey says. That's no help, I still don't know what is going on. The more I look at the map and all of Don's scribbles, the more confused I get.
"Just give me two more minutes," Donnie says. His tongue is sticking out, that's how I know he's thinking hard. I can practically hear the wheels in his mind turning as his eyes bounce between the map and the article on his computer.
For the last five months, someone has been fighting crime after dark. He's taking down drug dealers, and gangs, and he's stopping robberies. And they never ever take the criminals to the police station, which is weird. The criminals are always found at the scene.
The news calls him the Night Guard. As soon as I heard the first story about him, I knew exactly who this Night Guard was.
There's no doubt in my mind that it's Raph. This is exactly the kind of thing he would do. I knew he wouldn't be able to just hide out for the rest of his life, I knew he would get restless at some point.
Donnie and Mikey are a little wary about the idea of the Night Guard being Raph. All witnesses, and even the criminals, described the Night Guard the same way. And none of their descriptions say anything about the Night Guard being a turtle.
I look over at Donnie's whiteboard, he has it covered in notes. There's a section that's dedicated to the Night Guard's appearance.
A big, black trench coat.
A bandana covers his neck, mouth, and nose.
A black mask over his eyes.
Black shoes.
Black gloves.
Black beanie.
Short.
You can't tell me that doesn't sound like Raph-
"GOT IT!" Donnie shouts, causing me and Mikey to both jump. When Donnie figures out something big, he gets excited like this.
"What did you find out?"
"So you know how the Night Guard has no pattern to where he is?"
"Yeah?" I glance down at the table I look at Mikey. He's leaning against the counter behind Donnie, just drinking his coffee.
I hate that I'm the last of us to know what's going on. I'm the leader, if anything I should know first.
"Look." Donnie points to his map of scribbles.
"Donnie," I sigh. "I have no idea what I'm looking at. Explain, please." I put my hands on the table and I lean over the map. "In English," I add. Sometimes Donnie gets really technical and I don't understand what he's trying to tell me.
"The red circles are where the Night Guard has stopped some kind of crime. Uh..." Donnie trails off then he takes one of his markers and points it on the map. "For example, he stopped a robbery at this gas station." Donnie drags his marker across the map. "And over here, he took down a drug dealer."
"Okay, what's the point of this?"
"The green," Donnie points to a big green circle. "The green represents us, this is the lair." I nod along. So far it's making sense but I still don't know why he did this.
"Notice anything?" Mikey says and he sets his coffee down on the counter and he walks up behind Donnie.
I scan the map, carefully studying the marking Donnie has made. I notice that he has the Shredder's lair, the Kraang's lair, and our normal patrol routes marked in green. The red and green paths never cross.
"The Night Guard is staying far from our normal territory," Donnie chimes in. "I was so focused on trying to find a pattern, I missed this. There's no pattern of where he is, but there's s pattern of where he's not."
"You're right..." I study the map more. "The Night Guard has avoided these places on purpose."
"Mhm," Mikey hums. I can hear the sleepiness in his hum.
I know none of us have been sleeping well lately, but hopefully, this helps us get some rest.
"Great work guys-"
"It gets better," Mikey interrupts.
A smile grows in Donnie's face. "I think I narrowed down three locations where he may be tonight. It's a slim chance...but it's better than nothing."
This is the closest we've gotten to finding Raph in the eight months we've been looking for him.
"So we know that he's never in the same spot twice. So far he's been here," Donnie points at the map. "Here, and here." Those are about three blocks apart on the West Side. "There's a drug gang that has been causing a lot of commotion over here." Donnie drags his marker from the West side of the map to the East. "This is my best guess."
"That's an underground club, right? It's in the basement of the Shanghai Restaurant, right?" There's been a lot of commotion coming from that club. There's been speculations about a drug gang that's works from there. They created some kind of new drug. A hybrid of Molly and something else. They named this drug "Stone". It's incredibly dangerous and has taken four lives already, but people are still buying it.
"Yeah," Donnie confirms. "With all the Stone that is allegedly being dealt there, that's our best bet."
"If he doesn't show up there, our other guesses would be here, and here. Mikey leans over Donnie and points to the map. "The Hamilton INN and the North Garden Apartments," I say to myself and I take a mental note.
Mikey slides out a yellow notepad that was hidden under some news articles about the Night Guard Donnie that has cut out. "The hotel is a known spot for drug dealers, and there's been an issue with people stealing cars from the apartment garages."
"Great work guys, is there anything else I should know?"
"We're trying to find his hideout, but that's a lot harder." Mikey goes and leans against the counter again. He grabs his coffee and drinks a big gulp that I can hear from across the table.
"There's an abandoned pizza parlor here," Donnie grabs a black sharpie and makes a mark on the map. "An old trailer park here," another mark. "And an old warehouse here."
All the places Donnie mentioned are in the center of the city, besides the trailer park. That's just outside the city but it's close enough.
"I also talked to Leatherhead last night," Mikey adds. "But they have no updates on Raph. They said the Kraang and the Foot have still been quiet."
With our condition we haven't been able to deal with the Kraang or Foot. The Mighty Mutanables took on that responsibility. But it worries me that they have both been so quiet. I'm afraid that the Kraang and Shredder are plotting something. Maybe they are even working together.
"Okay," I sigh and I look down at the map. "I'll check out the club tonight."
Considering Donnie's already in his wheelchair and their lack of sleep I think I'll be going solo.
"April called, she and Casey are bringing us more Aspirin later."
"Thank God," Mikey groans. "My ribs are killing me."
"I'm going to go talk to Splinter and then search the sewers. You guys get some rest."