Slash's Revenge

Chapter 36 - Going Backwards

*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

*Author's Notes: At long last, here's the latest chapter of 'Slash's Revenge.' I'm really hoping you all like this one. It's a bit on the dramatic side.

Thank you all so much for reading.

CJ

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Chapter 36 – Going Backwards

Ever since Donnie's abduction and consequent rescue, getting up for morning practice had been put on hold for the sake of getting what little shuteye they could. They were all exhausted from their seemingly endless searching, and eventually, caring for Donatello. But now that Donnie's physical wounds were on the mend, the need to watch over him twenty-four-seven was no longer required. They could finally catch up on some much-needed sleep, but for some reason, the turtle in blue found himself staring up at the ceiling, wide awake, despite the early hour.

Something felt off.

Not wrong necessarily, but off.

It burned in the pit of Leonardo's gut, like a bad case of indigestion.

He just couldn't shake the feeling, no matter how hard he tried to go back to sleep.

Letting out a quiet growl of frustration, Leo pushed himself up out of bed to his feet. His body protested how fast he got up, cracking and popping in several different places, but after a while, everything slipped into proper alignment. Leo quickly made his way out of his room to discover that both of his two youngest brothers' doors were open. This got his senses reeling and his head started to fill with dozens of worst-case scenarios. Something he tended to do as the leader.

For obvious reasons, he ran inside Donatello's room first only to find no one there. The bed was a disheveled mess, which wasn't like Donatello at all. More like...

Mikey!

Perhaps Donnie had wandered into Mikey's room sometime in the middle of the night...

That had to be it.

Senses now on overload, Leo sprinted towards his youngest sibling's room and rushed inside.

It was empty as well.

In a state of panic, Leo was about to call out for Sensei when he heard a noise coming from what sounded like the kitchen.

It was too quiet to be Mikey, but too loud to be Master Splinter. Leo would've assumed it was Raph if not for the sound of the hotheaded turtle softly snoring from inside his room. April had gone home for the night, so that led Leo to one alarming conclusion:

An intruder.

An intruder who very well may have done something to his missing brothers.

Slash!

Sneaking back inside his room, Leo scooped up his katanas as fast as turtley possible and held them at ready as he slowly crept towards the kitchen. With his heart thumping wildly inside his chest, he edged along the lair walls until he was standing next to the curtain that kept him from seeing who was inside.

There was definitely someone on the other side of the wall of fabric. He could hear the shuffling of feet and a clicking sound.

Leonardo tightened his grip around the hilts of his katanas and sucked in a deep breath just before bursting through the curtain, weapons drawn. He let out a battle cry and was about to start swinging his swords when he realized that his two baby brothers looked as though they both were going jump right out of their skins.