The Lost Son

Leatherhead

NOTES: THE FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT TO THEIR ORIGINAL OWNERS

Chapter 4: Leatherhead

Donatello got back up and looks at his intensive family and sighed: "It was my fault; I tried to take a sample of his blood but rather than backing off, I just tried to go through with it and scared him accidentally"

"I told ya all this was a bad idea!" Raphael angrily complained.

"Shut up Raph!" Leo groaned, having quite enough of Raphael's complaining. "We don't need your complaining every five seconds"

"Boys!" Splinter scolds them both before he hushes them and gently strokes the young turtle's head.

Donatello took the chance to take a blood sample from the syringe before Splinter felt the young turtle in his arms whimpering and snarling as he gently hushes the sleeping subject and cradles him gently.

"I hate to think what those crooks at the Earth Protection Force did to him" Leo sighed in pity for the young turtle.

"His reaction reminded me of someone, someone who was once captured by the Earth Protection Force" Donatello points out.

"Ya not referring to Leatherhead, ain't ya bro?" Raphael quizzed.

"Yes I am; which also gives me an idea" Donatello replied.

"So you want to invite Leatherhead to the lair and see if he knows anything about our baby brother?" Leonardo suggested.

"It would be a big help from him if he does know and besides, if anyone can help us with Michelangelo, I would gladly welcome it" Donatello nodded.

"Then it's settled, you boys find Leatherhead and bring him here" Splinter lays down the plan.

"Yes sensei" The boys bowed before Splinter and left the lab.

"Are ya gonna be fine with him, pops?" Raph asked, poking his head out of the door.

"I will be alright, Raphael" Splinter reassures him until Raphael sighed and followed his brothers.

Splinter covers a blanket and places a pillow on the unconscious turtle's head and starts to hum a lullaby in his native Japanese tongue to soothe the turtle in his sleep.

Meanwhile in what appeared to be once an underground subway station, now abandoned for years, was the home of a great mutated crocodile by the name of Leatherhead.

Once originally an exotic pet who got flushed down to the Sewer, somehow ending up being exposed to the same mutagen that would eventually change the Turtles, Leatherhead became a massive, humanoid crocodile. With intelligence mirroring that of Donatello's, he was eventually captured by Bishop and the Earth Protection Force and was used as a guinea pig for genetic experiments in the secret lab - an event that inflicted Leatherhead with severe emotional wounds.

After the turtles saved him from Bishop and letting him reside in the abandoned underground subway station to protect him from Bishop and helping control his feral stages from the damages he was inflicted by Bishop, Leatherhead was a true friend to the turtles and will do anything to help them out in need as of right now is exactly what the turtles seek for.

Entering the abandoned subway station, Donatello and the others looks around for Leatherhead and calls out his name before they heard a deep voice echoing the place:

"Donatello? Is that you?"

"Yes Leatherhead, It's just me with my brothers" Donnie called out.

Soon Leatherhead appeared from the shadows, wearing a lab coat that fits him as he smiles at his friends: "Welcome my good friends, it's been a long while"